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Weather
天氣

by Mike Rayner
作者：邁克·雷納

It's hardly surprising that weather is a favourite topic for so many people around the world - it affects where we choose to live, what we wear, our moods, and perhaps even our national characteristics. A sunny day can relieve the deepest depression, while extreme weather can destroy homes and threaten lives.
對(duì)于世界上許多民族而言，“天氣”是個(gè)總被津津樂道的話題——這一點(diǎn)都不奇怪，天氣影響我們選擇在哪里居住，也影響我們的衣著、情緒，甚至是我們的民族性格。晴朗的天氣有助減輕最嚴(yán)重的抑郁癥，而極端天氣則可能摧毀房屋，危及生命。

The effects of weather
天氣的威力

Palm trees bent double in hurricane force winds, cars stranded in snow drifts, people navigating small boats down flooded city streets – images we are all familiar with from news reports of severe weather spells. But many of the effects of the weather are less newsworthy.
棕櫚樹在颶風(fēng)中攔腰折斷，汽車在積雪中寸步難行，人們駕著小船漂過洪水淹沒的城市街道——我們?cè)谛侣剤?bào)道中早已見慣惡劣天氣的法力。但天氣的許多其他影響并不如此引人注目。

“I’m feeling a bit under the weather” is a common complaint in Britain, especially on Monday mornings, and it seems that weather really can be responsible for moods. Studies have shown that changeable weather can make it hard to concentrate, cloudy skies slow down reflexes, and high humidity with hot, dry winds makes many people irritable and snappy.
“這天氣讓我不太舒坦?！痹谟@是句很常見的抱怨，尤其是在周一早晨?？雌饋硖鞖庹嬗锌赡茏笥胰说男那椤Ｑ芯勘砻?，頻繁變化的天氣狀態(tài)可能使人的精神難以集中，陰天可能降低反應(yīng)速度，而高濕度同時(shí)刮干熱風(fēng)的天氣會(huì)使許多人煩躁易怒。

Some suggest that the weather also leaves its mark on character, giving people from the same region similar temperaments, although it seems that economic, political and social factors are likely to have a much stronger effect than the weather.
有些人還提出，氣候也會(huì)在人們的性格中留下印記，賦予同一地區(qū)的人相似的脾氣。當(dāng)然，在這一方面，經(jīng)濟(jì)、政治、社會(huì)因素的作用可能要比天氣的作用大得多。

What causes changes in the weather?
什么造成了天氣的變化

If you live in a place like Britain, where the weather seems to change daily if not hourly, you could be forgiven for thinking that the weather is random. In fact the weather is controlled by systems which move around areas of the globe. In the UK the weather depends on depressions, often called “l(fā)ows”, and anticyclones, also known as “highs”. These systems start in the Atlantic Ocean, and make their way across the British Isles from the west to the east. Highs bring sunny weather, while lows bring rain and wind.
假如你居住在像英國這樣一個(gè)天氣一日一變——如果不是一小時(shí)一變——的地方，認(rèn)為天氣變化無規(guī)律可循是情有可原的。但事實(shí)上，天氣是由在全球各地間運(yùn)動(dòng)的天氣系統(tǒng)控制的。在英國，天氣取決于低氣壓——通常被稱為“低壓”，以及反氣旋——也被稱為“高壓”。這些天氣系統(tǒng)在大西洋上生成，自西向東穿越不列顛群島。高壓帶來晴朗天氣，低壓帶來風(fēng)雨天氣。

The weather systems in tropical climates are very different from those in mid and high latitudes. Tropical storms develop from depressions, and often build into cyclones, violent storms featuring hurricanes and torrential rain.
熱帶地區(qū)的天氣系統(tǒng)和中高緯度地區(qū)的天氣系統(tǒng)很不相同。熱帶天氣系統(tǒng)由低氣壓發(fā)展而來，常常形成熱帶氣旋、伴隨猛烈風(fēng)暴的颶風(fēng)和特大暴雨。

In modern times, human activity seems to be altering weather patterns. Gases produced by heavy industry change the temperature of the Earth’s surface, and affect cloud formation. Some researchers say that factories in Europe and North America may have been one of the causes of the droughts in Africa in the 1980s.
進(jìn)入現(xiàn)代，人類活動(dòng)似乎也影響著氣候模式。重工業(yè)生產(chǎn)排放的氣體會(huì)改變地表溫度，影響云系形成。一些研究者稱歐洲和北美的工廠可能是導(dǎo)致20世紀(jì)80年代非洲干旱的元兇之一。

Can we predict the weather?
我們能預(yù)測(cè)天氣嗎

The human race has always tried to guess the weather, especially in areas of the world where there are frequent changes. Traditional rhymes point to early attempts to identify weather patterns, popular poems include:
人類一直在嘗試預(yù)測(cè)天氣，特別是在天氣變化頻繁的地區(qū)。傳統(tǒng)歌謠提示了辨識(shí)天氣模式的早期嘗試。流傳較廣的歌謠包括：

Red sky at night, shepherds’ delight; Red sky in the morning, shepherds’warning

Ash leaf before the oak, then we will have a summer soak; Oak leaf before the ash, the summer comes without a splash

Flies will swarm before a storm.

Rain before 7, clear by 11.

Two other popular traditional ways of forecasting the weather used pine cones and seaweed. When the air has a high level of humidity there is a higher chance of rain, when the humidity is low, there is more chance of fine weather. Pine cones and seaweed react to changes in humidity - pines cones open, and seaweed feels dry when the humidity is low, while high humidity has the opposite effect.
另外兩種流行的傳統(tǒng)天氣預(yù)報(bào)方法依靠松果和海岸邊的藻類進(jìn)行?？諝鉂穸雀邥r(shí)，下雨的可能性較大；空氣濕度低時(shí)，下雨的可能性較小。松果和海草對(duì)濕度的變化有反應(yīng)——濕度低時(shí)，松果張開，海藻摸起來干燥，濕度高時(shí)則相反。

While folk wisdom can still provide a guide to help forecast weather, today’s methods of prediction increasingly rely on technology. Satellites, balloons, ships, aircraft and weather centres with sensitive monitoring equipment, send data to computers. The data is then processed, and the weather predicted. However, even this system cannot predict weather for longer than about week.
如今，民間智慧依然為人們預(yù)測(cè)天氣提供幫助和指導(dǎo)，而現(xiàn)代天氣預(yù)報(bào)技術(shù)越來越多地依靠科技。氣象衛(wèi)星、觀測(cè)氣球、輪船、飛機(jī)和裝備有靈敏監(jiān)測(cè)設(shè)備的氣象中心將數(shù)據(jù)傳輸給計(jì)算機(jī)，隨后進(jìn)行數(shù)據(jù)處理和天氣預(yù)測(cè)。然而，即使是這樣先進(jìn)的系統(tǒng)，也無法準(zhǔn)確預(yù)測(cè)大約一周之后的天氣。

【讀后小練習(xí)】

1、詞語加油站：文中關(guān)于天氣和氣候的單詞，你記住了多少呢？不返回看原文，你能想出下面幾個(gè)中文詞語的英文表達(dá)嗎？（有些詞語可能有不止一種英文表達(dá)方式噢）

??? 颶風(fēng)? 熱帶? 濕度? 極端天氣? 干旱? 低壓? 高壓? 傾盆大雨

2、譯筆生花：文章最后一部分“我們能預(yù)測(cè)天氣嗎”為我們介紹了英語中幾句流傳廣泛的天氣諺語，想不想試著翻譯一下呢？看能不能譯得和原文一樣朗朗上口。想想看，中文當(dāng)中有沒有類似的表達(dá)呢？歡迎在討論區(qū)討論交流噢！