经济学人341:拯救灯塔

 　　IN 1989 Edward Kennedy tried to stop time. The United States Coast Guard was preparing to automate¹ and remove all remaining personnel from the old lighthouse in Boston Harbour. But Kennedy, a liberal senator from a family with deep roots in Boston, sponsored a bill requiring the Boston Light to be permanently² manned. And so it soldiered on for nearly another decade, stubbornly holding to the old ways. Built in 1783, it is one of America’s oldest lighthouses (the oldest was its predecessor³, which the British blew up as they slunk home in June 1776). In 1998 time and Senator Kennedy reached a compromise: the light itself was at last automated⁴, but it remains⁵ the last one with resident Coast Guard keepers.

　　爱德华.肯尼迪试图让时间定格1989年。当时，美国海岸防卫队正准备从波士顿港撤走所有留守人员，实现灯塔全自动化。然而与波士顿有着深厚渊源的自由派参议员肯尼迪，提出了一份议案，要求派人长期驻守灯塔。因此，灯塔由士兵守候了又是近十年光景，这样灯塔顽强地得以维持其原状。兴建于1783年的波士顿灯塔（其前身是美国最古老的灯塔，1776年6月英国人仓惶归国时，将其炸毁）是美国最古老的灯塔之一。经过长期的争取，肯尼迪最终于1998年出台了一项折衷方案：波士顿灯塔最终实现自动化，而且也是全美唯一一座由海岸警卫队驻守的灯塔。

　　The Coast Guard took charge of America’s more than 1,000 lighthouses in 1939, when it absorbed the United States Lighthouse Service. But it has been slowly letting them go. In 2000 the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation⁶ Act allowed the sale or transfer of lighthouses deemed “excess to service requirements” by the Coast Guard to private entities⁷. Since then the federal government has moved 84 lighthouses of the 600 that were left off its books. Most have been transferred to local governments or non-profits, but 28 have been auctioned⁸ off to private individuals.

　　1939年，美国灯塔管理局划归到海岸警卫队。自那以后，海岸警卫队负责管理美国1000多座灯塔。但渐渐地，美国海军看护的灯塔越来越少。2000年《国家历史灯塔保存法案》允许海岸警卫队将那些被认为是“其服务已不再必要”的灯塔出售或转让给私有个体。从此，美国联邦政府出售转让了书中记载的仅存的600座灯塔中的84座。大部分灯塔转交给当地政府或非营利机构，但28座灯塔已被拍卖给个人。

　　The sad truth is that satellite navigation has made many lighthouses surplus to requirements. Shifting commercial trends have done their damage, too. More than 1,500 ships lie wrecked⁹ off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, but today these islands depend far more on tourism than on maritime¹⁰ trade.

　　遗憾的是，现在有了卫星导航技术，好多灯塔根本就用不上了。贸易趋势的转变也让灯塔越来越没有用武之地。北卡罗来纳州外班克斯港有1500多艘触礁的船只残骸，然而今天这些岛屿主要依靠旅游业而不是海上贸易。

　　Still, some fishermen enjoy navigating¹¹ by light rather than satellite. Sometimes they forget to take their navigation systems on board. Bett Padgett, who heads the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, which petitioned the federal government for funds to restore Bodie Island’s once-crumbling lighthouse, warns of solar flares¹² knocking out satellites.

　　然而，有许多渔民仍然喜欢利用灯塔而不是卫星来导航，所以有时候，他们会忘记带导航系统。外班克斯列岛灯塔协会（该协会曾请求联邦政府拨款整修一度年久失修的Bodie灯塔）会长Bett Padgett提醒人们太阳耀斑会让卫星暂时失灵。

　　All that is true, but defending lighthouses as a matter of utility surely misses the point.。 Of course, lighthouses draw tourists, who spend money; one informal study estimated that restoring the Bodie Island lighthouse, which is scheduled to open to visitors for the first time in April 2013, would add $8.7m in total income to the regional economy.But for Ms Padgett, preserving them is a way “to give our children and grandchildren a feel for what happened in this place a hundred or two hundred years ago.” Men built them by hand to stand watch over the sea. Lighthouses remind people that as mariners¹³ battled what Walt Whitman called “the wild unrest, the snowy, curling caps—that inbound urge and urge of waves, Seeking the shores forever,” someone was watching over them, and wishing them safely home.

　　上面说的没错，但从实用性角度为灯塔辩护，显然没有说到关键之处。当然，灯塔吸引了大批来此消费的游客；一项非官方调查预计修整 Bodie灯塔将为当地经济带来总计870万美元的收入，该灯塔预计于2013年4月首次向游客开放。但在Padgett女士看来，保存好灯塔是让“我们子孙感受一两百年来这里变迁”的一种方式。人们建造灯塔来让它们守候大海。灯塔让人们想到，当水手们与沃尔特.惠特曼笔下“那永不宁静的奔腾,那白浪般的滚卷的浪峰----那向陆地急推又急推的浪头“搏斗时，有人在灯塔上眺望，盼望他们安全归来。

1 automate   

v.自动化；使自动化

参考例句：

• Many banks have begun to automate.许多银行已开始采用自动化技术。
• To automate the control process of the lathes has become very easy today.使机床的控制过程自动化现已变得很容易了。

2 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

3 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

4 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

7 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

8 auctioned   

v.拍卖( auction的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It was sad to see all grandmother's lovely things being auctioned off. 眼看着祖母那些可爱的东西全都被拍卖掉，心里真不好受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder. 电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

10 maritime   

adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的

参考例句：

• Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
• The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。

11 navigating   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• These can also be very useful when navigating time-based documents, such as video and audio. 它对于和时间有关的文档非常有用，比如视频和音频文档。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Vehicles slowed to a crawl on city roads, navigating slushy snow. 汽车在市区路上行驶缓慢，穿越泥泞的雪地。 来自互联网

12 flares   

n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开

参考例句：

• The side of a ship flares from the keel to the deck. 船舷从龙骨向甲板外倾。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He's got a fiery temper and flares up at the slightest provocation. 他是火爆性子，一点就着。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 mariners   

海员，水手（mariner的复数形式）

参考例句：

• Mariners were also able to fix their latitude by using an instrument called astrolabe. 海员们还可使用星盘这种仪器确定纬度。
• The ancient mariners traversed the sea. 古代的海员漂洋过海。