The ocean covers three quarters of the earth’s surface, produces 90 percent of all its life-supporting oxygen, and is the drivin

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问题     The ocean covers three quarters of the earth’s surface, produces 90 percent of all its life-supporting oxygen, and is the driving force behind the entire weather system. There are over 450 million cubic miles of sea water on the earth; and each cubic mile contains over 150 million tons of minerals.
    So vast and so pervasive is the sea that if the earth’s crust were made level, ocean water would form a blanket over 8,000 feet deep.
    The oceans contribute immeasurably to the earth’s life support system as well as provide an untapped storehouse of food, minerals, energy, and archaeological treasure.
    Advanced atmospheric diving suits permit researchers to descend to depths of 1,500 feet-Yet the ocean’s average depth is greater than 12,000 feet. It is at these depths that remarkable discoveries are being made, discoveries which only a short time ago would have been impossible.
    In that depth, where darkness is absolute and pressure exceeds eight tons per square inch, robotic submersibles have discovered enormous gorges, four times deeper than the Grand Canyon. Here, too, are volcanoes that vastly outnumber those on land. Landslides the size of Rhode Island have been recorded, as well as raging undersea storms that go completely unnoticed on the surface while dramatically rearranging the underwater landscapes.

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答案 海洋占地球表面四分之三。地球上维持生命的氧气,90%产于海洋。海洋也是整个气象系统起潜在作用的推动力。地球上的海水有4亿5千万立方英里.每立方英里含有1亿5千多万吨矿物。 海洋如此广阔浩瀚,如果把地球表层填平,海水就可以形成深8000多英尺的覆盖层。 海洋对地球上的维持生命系统做出了不可估量的贡献,同时又是一座尚未开发的宝库,储有食物、矿物、能源和具有很大考古价值的东西。 先进的常压潜水衣可以使研究人员下沉到1500英尺的深度。但海洋的平均深度超过12000英尺。现在正是在这个深度人们有了惊人的发现,这些发现在不久以前是不可能办到的。 这个深度的海中完全是漆黑一片,每平方英寸的压力超过8吨,自动操纵潜水器在这里发现了巨大的峡谷,比美国科罗拉多大峡谷深3倍。这里火山之多,大大超过陆地上的火山。据记载,这里曾发生过规模大如美国罗得岛大小的山崩。这里还发生过猛烈的海底风暴,这种风暴在海面上一点也觉察不到,但剧烈地改变着海底景观。

解析     本篇节选自The Living Seas(《充满活力的海洋》),对海洋的作用及最新发现做了简要叙述。语言精练,文字通俗易懂,逻辑性强,翻译时涉及“分译法”、“省略法”、“增译法”、“语态变换法”等。
The ocean covers…life-supporting oxygen:翻译此句时,建议适当调整语序,将原文中的宾语“oxygen”译成主语,而将原文中的“ocean”译成宾语。“life-supporting”可译为“维持生命的”。
…is the driving force behind the entire weather system:  “driving force”表示“推动力”。在处理此句时,可以将介词“behind”转换词性,变为动词,译为“起潜在作用”。
blanket:thick covering mass or layer,此处译为“覆盖层”。
immeasurably:译为“不可估量地”、  “无法测算地”。
untapped:指海底资源还有许多尚待开发。
archaeological treasure:  “archaeological”不仅仅指“考古学的”,此处需要采用增译法,译为“在考古学上非常有价值的东西”。
Advanced atmospheric diving suits:  “atmospheric”指“保持恒常的大气压力”。
“Diving suit”指“潜水服”。
remarkable discoveries are being made:可将被动句译成主动句“人们有了惊人的发现”。
robotic submersibles:此处容易死译,即“机器人式的潜水装置”或“潜水的机器人”。译成“自动操纵潜水器”更符合汉语习惯。
the Grand Canyon:指美国亚利桑那州科罗拉多大峡谷。
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