四六级必读美文系列:如何查看国际航班安全

 　　You can check fares, fees and flight schedules for just about any airline in the world with a few keystrokes or a single phone call. But checking the safety of an international airline is a much more complicated task.

　　如果你想查看世界上任何航空公司的票价、收费以及航班安排，只需点击几下鼠标或者打个电话就行。但是，如果你想知道某个国际航空公司的安全系数，那可要复杂得多。

　　(1) European and US regulators evaluate aviation safety, and the airline industry itself has a world-wide safety-audit¹ program, but it's difficult for travelers to check airline safety when buying tickets. There's no restaurant-inspector's score posted on the airplane door or government crash-test star rating printed on your ticket.

　　欧洲和美国的监管机构都会评估航空公司的安全性，航空业本身也有一套全球安全审查系统，但是，旅客在购买机票的时候很难了解到航空公司的安全性。机舱门口可没有贴着类似餐馆检验机构评分的东西，旅客的机票上也没有印着政府失事概率测试的星级评级。

　　That's unfortunate, since interest in airline safety is high. (2) It's been a bad year for aviation fatalities², with more than 700 people killed in 16 crashes around the world so far in 2009. Many involved little-known airlines---some already on watch lists for safety concerns.

　　这是一个很不幸的事实，因为大众对航空公司安全性的关注度非常高。（2）2009年是航空灾难记录非常糟糕的一年，全球共发生飞机失事事故16起，超过700人死亡。许多事故都与名不见经传的航空公司有关，其中一些因其安全顾虑已经被列入观察名单。

　　"There's no perfect solution at the moment, but it's undoubtedly³ getting better," said Geoff Want, principal adviser⁴ on airline safety at Rio Tinto Group, a global mining company that has its own list of carriers approved for employee travel.

　　矿业公司力拓集团负责航空安全的主管顾问杰夫·华恩特表示，目前还没有完美的解决办法，但是情况无疑正在好转。力拓集团有一份航空公司名单，员工旅行只选择这个名单上航空公司的航班。

　　Government regulators in Europe and the US take different approaches to aviation safety.

　　欧洲和美国的政府监管部门对航空安全则采取了不同的方式。

　　The European Union evaluates airlines and their planes and publishes a "blacklist" of unacceptable carriers, most recently updated just two weeks ago. The EU blacklist is available on the Internet at ec.europa.eu/transport/(click on "Air," then "List of airlines banned within the EU")

　　欧盟会对航空公司及其机队进行评估，并会发布一个不合格的航空公司的"黑名单"，就在两周前刚刚更新过一次。欧盟的黑名单可以通过互联网在ec.europa.eu/transport/上查到（点击“航空”，接着就是“欧盟禁飞的航空公司名单”）。

　　Be prepared, it's long and complex: 233 airlines are completely banned, and eight are allowed to operate under restrictions⁵ and conditions. (3) Though its focus started as an airline-by-airline evaluation⁶, the EU has moved more toward building the blacklist on evaluations⁷ of entire countries -all airlines from 15 countries have a blanket ban from the EU and are among the 233 cited.

　　不过要有心理准备，这个名单很长，也很复杂：共有233家航空公司被完全禁飞，八家航空公司被允许在某些限制和条件下飞行。（3）虽然欧盟的关注点开始是对航空公司逐个进行评估，但是欧盟近来已经更多地通过对整个国家的评估来构建黑名单一→其中有15个国家的所有航空公司收到的都是欧盟的全面禁令，它们也在上述233家航空公司之列。

　　The US Federal Aviation Administration evaluates countries, not carriers. US inspectors⁸ decide if a country's aviation infrastructure⁹ is up to snuff by counting the number of inspectors watching over airlines, assessing air-traffic-control procedures and evaluating funding and legal authority of aviation regulators. The FAA evaluation is based largely on standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations-chartered group. (US airlines are required to meet or exceed international safety standards.)

　　美国航空管理局评估的对象是各个国家、而不是航空公司。美国监管机构通过计算航空业监管机构配备的人员数量、评估航空运输量的控制流程以及航空监管机构的融资和法律权限，来决定一个国家的航空业是否会进入“黑名单”。美国联邦航空管理局的评估大多数基于联合国下属专门机构国际民用航空组织制定的标准（美国航空公司必须达到或者超过国际安全标准）。

　　The FAA says 101 countries have been assessed; 79 have Category 1 status, meaning the US believes the country meets international standards, and 22 fall into Category 2. Category 2 doesn't mean airlines from that country are banned, only that any new service and airline passenger-sharing ties are frozen. That can have economic impact on a country and its airlines, and the threat of a Category 2 downgrade can prompt improvement.

　　美国航空管理局表示，已经对101个国家进行了评估179个国家为一类，表示美国认为这些国家已经达到国际安全标准；22个国家为二类。二类并不表示来自这些国家的航空公司会被禁飞，只是说明任何新服务和航空公司乘客分享关系将被冻结。这会对一个国家及其航空公司产生经济影响，而二类国家会面临降级的威胁，这可以促使航空公司改善其安全性。

　　An FAA spokeswoman says its International Aviation Safety Assessments¹⁰ list, available at www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/iasa. is "one tool a consumer can use to decide on air travel."

　　美国航空管理局一位发言人表示，其国际航空安全评估名单可以在www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/iasa上找到，这是“消费者可以用来决定航空旅行选择的一个工具”。

　　There's surprisingly little overlap¹¹ between the FAA and EU lists. Airlines from Angola, Benin, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Rwanda and Zambia are banned on the EU blacklist, but those countries aren't evaluated at all by the FAA. B0th EU and US regulators share concerns on Congo, Indonesia and Swaziland. The FAA rates Zimbabwe, Israel, the Philippines, Serbia and Montenegro plus several Latin American and Caribbean nations, including Belize, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua, in Category 2, but not the EU.

　　出人意料的是，美国航空管理局和欧盟的名单很少有重合。来自安哥拉、贝宁、哈萨克斯坦、吉尔吉斯、利比亚、加莲、塞拉利昂、苏丹、阿富汗、柬埔寨、卢旺达和赞比亚的航空公司都在欧盟禁飞名单之上，但是这些国家甚至都没有被美国航空管理局评估过。欧盟和美国的监管机构都对刚果、印度尼西亚和史瓦济兰的航空公司表示顾虑。美国航空管理局将赞比亚、以色列、菲律宾、塞尔维亚和黑山，还有几个拉美和加勒比海国家，包括伯利兹、海地、洪都拉斯和尼加拉瓜，列为二类国家，但是欧盟并未对国家有类似的评级。

　　The airline industry has come up with its own list of sorts, and it can be useful to travelers. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the industry's world-wide trade group, began working on a standard auditing¹² regimen nine years ago, and it has evolved into an extensive safety check now required of all airlines to be a member of IATA. Passing the audit became mandatory¹³ for membership earlier this year; 21 airlines didn't and were removed.

　　航空业也有自己林林总总的名单，可能会对旅客有所帮助。航空业的全球行业团体国际航空运输协会(International Air Transport Association，简称IATA)早在9年前就开始着手安全标准审查工作，现在已经演变为一个覆盖范围很大的安全检查体系，凡是IATA的成员航空公司都要遵照执行。今年年初，通过安全标准审查已经是IATA成员的必备条件；有21家没有通过安全标准审查的航空公司已被除名。

　　IATA says 330 airlines around the world have passed its audit. Of those, 230 are IATA members-another 100 airlines wanted to be certified¹⁴ even if not IATA members. (4) US and EU regulators accept IOSA certification to meet requirements that airlines funneling¹⁵ passengers to each other through code-sharing agreements audit each other for safety issues. And a few countries -Egypt is one -require IOSA certifìcation for any airline flying there. The list is available at www.iata.org/iosa.

　　IATA表示，全球有330家航空公司已经通过其安全标准审查。其中230家为IATA成员，另外100家航空公司在即便还不是IATA成员的情况下也希望获得认证。（4）美国和欧盟的监管机构均接受IOSA认证，满足通过代码共享协议互相提供客源的航空公司必须就安全问题互相审查的要求。有少数几个国家——包括埃及，要求任何飞往该国的航空公司均要通过IOSA认证。旅客可以在www.iata.org/iosa找到相关名单。

　　重点解析 Key Phrases/Words

　　1.  keystroke n. 键击，按键

　　2. aviation safety 航空安全

　　3. overlap n. 重叠部分，覆盖物

　　4. code-sharing 班号共用，代码共享

　　【句子解析】

　　1. European and US regulators evaluate aviation safety, and the airline industry itself has a world-wide safety-audit program, but it's difficult tor travelers to check airline safety when buying tickets.

　　本句是分别由and和but连接的三个简单句。最后一句中buying tickets现在分词作状语表示时间，前面可以加when或while.

　　语法重点：分词短语作状语

　　2. It's been a bad year for aviation fatalities, with more than 700 people killed in 16 crashes around the world so far in 2009.

　　本句是一个简单句。其中 with more...in 2009是独立主格结构，对主句进行补充说明，结构为with+名词+过去分词+状语。

　　语法重点：独立主格结构

　　3. Though its focus started as an airline-by-airline evaluation, the EU has moved more toward building the blacklist on evaluations of entire countries-all airlines from 15 countries have a blanket ban行om the EU and are among the 233 cited.

　　本句是一个复合句。主句是the EU...are among the 233 cited，破折号后面的句子是对前面句子的补克说明，其中from 15 countries介词短语作后置定语，修饰airlines。 cited过去分词短语作后置定语，修饰233。Though引导让步状语从句。

　　语法重点：介词短语作定语，过去分词作定语，让步状语从句。

　　4. US and EU regulators accept IOSA certification to meet requirements that airlines funneling passengers to each other through code-sharing agreements audit each other for safety issues.

　　本句是一个复合句。主句是US and EU...meet requirements. that引导同位语从句，解释说明requirements.其中funneling passengers...code-sharing agreement现在分词短语作后置定语修饰airlines.

　　语法重点：同位语从句，分词短语作定语。

1 audit   

v.审计；查帐；核对；旁听

参考例句：

• Each year they audit our accounts and certify them as being true and fair.他们每年对我们进行账务审核，以确保其真实无误。
• As usual,the yearly audit will take place in December.跟往常一样，年度审计将在十二月份进行。

2 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 undoubtedly   

adv.确实地，无疑地

参考例句：

• It is undoubtedly she who has said that.这话明明是她说的。
• He is undoubtedly the pride of China.毫无疑问他是中国的骄傲。

4 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

5 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

6 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

7 evaluations   

估价( evaluation的名词复数 )； 赋值； 估计价值； [医学]诊断

参考例句：

• In fact, our moral evaluations are merely expressions of our desires. 事实上，我们的道德评价只是我们欲望的表达形式。 来自哲学部分
• Properly speaking, however, these evaluations and insights are not within the concept of official notice. 但准确地讲，这些评估和深远见识并未包括在官方通知概念里。

8 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

10 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

11 overlap   

v.重叠，与…交叠；n.重叠

参考例句：

• The overlap between the jacket and the trousers is not good.夹克和裤子重叠的部分不好看。
• Tiles overlap each other.屋瓦相互叠盖。

12 auditing   

n.审计，查账，决算

参考例句：

• Auditing standards are the rules governing how an audit is performed.收支检查标准是规则统治一个稽核如何被运行。
• The auditing services market is dominated by a few large accounting firms.审计服务市场被几家大型会计公司独占了。

13 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

14 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

15 funneling   

[医]成漏斗形：描述膀胱底及膀胱尿道交接区

参考例句：