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Civilizations Collapse by Choice Not Chance 文明衰落咎由自取，非偶然

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课文讲解

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Throughout history, societies have risen prospered, and the declined. Sometimes they collapsed so suddenly that it seemed the people must have been helpless to save themselves. But were they really helpless? A new book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, suggests that they were not.

环顾历史，社会都是兴起、发达，然后衰败。有时候，社会崩解得如此突然以致于人们似乎无法自救，但是他们真的无能为力吗?一本新书《崩溃:社会是如何选择成功或失败的》显示他们并非无能为力。

Jared Diamond, the author of Collapse, says there are five major causes of societal collapse: environment damage, response to environment damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, and loss of trade partners. In his book, Diamond profiles four societies: the Easter Islanders, the Anasazi, the Mayans, and the Vikings. In each case, he argues that the people chose to let their worlds collapse.

《崩溃》一书的作者杰拉德戴蒙表示，社会崩解的五大因素是:环境破坏、对环境破坏的反应、气候变迁、具有敌意的邻近社会以及贸易伙伴的消失。戴蒙在他的书里概述四个社会:复活节岛人、阿那萨西族、马雅人与维京人。在每一个例子中，他认为这些民族选择让其社会崩解。

The Vikings are a good example. When they moved to Greenland, they brought with them European culture and diet, in particular the raising of cattle for food. Unfortunately, Greenland is not well-suited for raising cattle. It’s a great place for fishing, but incredibly, there’s no evidence that the Vikings ever made fish a regular part of their diet. Instead, they insisted on living like Europeans, even though their cattle causes soil erosion, deforestation, and a host of other environmental problems.

维京人是个很好的例子。当维京人迁徙至格陵兰岛时，他们也随之带来了欧洲文化和饮食习惯，特别是饲养牲畜作为食物来源。不幸地，格陵兰岛并不是适合饲养牲畜。格陵兰岛很适合渔捞，但是不可置信地，没有证据显示维京人曾经将鱼当作日常饮食。相反地，他们仍坚持过着像欧洲人一般的生活，即使他们的牲畜已造成土壤侵蚀、森林砍伐，及许多其它环境问题。

The choices the Vikings made led to the eventual collapse of their society. You would think that the Vikings would have recognized this, and taken steps to fix the problem, but they didn’t. The sad fact is, as Diamond writes, when people are faced with changing their culture or letting it die, cultures rarely choose to change their way of living.

维京人的选择导致其社会最终崩解。你会以为维京人最后会了解到这些问题然后采取行动来解决问题，但是他们并没有。如同戴蒙在书上写的，令人悲哀的事实是，当人们面临改变文化或是让文化消逝的抉择时，却很少选择改变其生活方式。

Vocabulary

单词发音

collapse [kəˋlæps] v. 崩溃，瓦解

prosper [ˋprɑspɚ] v. 繁荣，昌盛

hostile [ˋhɑst!] adj. 怀敌意的；不友善的

profile [ˋprofaɪl] v. 描（或显）出……的轮廓

evidence [ˋɛvədəns] n. 证据; 迹象

eventual [ɪˋvɛntʃʊəl] adj. 最后的

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单词发音

Anasazi [ˌɑnəˈsɑzi] 阿那萨齐人

Mayan [ˋmɑjən] 马雅人

Viking [ˋvaɪkɪŋ]  维京人

in particular 尤其是

insist on 坚持

even though 即使; 纵然

erosion [ɪˋroʒən] n. 侵蚀；腐蚀

a host of 许多, 一大群

take steps 采取行动

Reading Questions

1.  According to Diamond, which of the following statements can NOT account for social collapse?

A.  Soil pollution makes the land infertile and inappropriate for farming.

B.  Neighboring countries have a hostile attitude toward the society.

C.  International trade between a society and its neighbors becomes increasingly frequent.

D.  Sudden changes in temperature and rainfall happen in the area.

2.  What’s the author’s viewpoint about the collapse of societies in the past?

A.  People could do nothing about it since the collapses took place so quickly.

B.  That the societies were doomed because all societies eventually collapse.

C.  A lot of cultures evaded the problem of becoming extinct by changing their ways of living.

D.  Societal collapses resulted from the fact that people were unwilling to adjust their lifestyle.

3.  What did the Vikings do after moving to Greenland?

A.  They made fishing the main way to earn their living.

B.  They still placed great importance on raising cattle.

C.  They turned their backs on European culture and welcomed the local customs.

D.  They did their best to plant more trees to achieve ecological balance.

evade [ɪˋved] v. 躲避；逃避

turn one’s back on 避开或拒绝接受 to refuse to help or be involved

课文讲解 

According to Jared Diamond, scientist and author of Collapse, societies often fall apart when they cannot, or will not, respond to environmental damage. The Vikings of Greenland, for example, continued to raisecattle for food, even though this was ruining the ecosystem. Howcould they have been so foolish?

根据科学家暨《崩溃》作者杰拉德戴蒙的说法，社会通常在无法或不愿对环境破坏做出回应时而崩解。举例来说，即使会破坏生态系统，格陵兰岛的维京人还是持续饲养牲畜作为食物的来源。他们怎么会这么愚蠢呢?

Diamond answers by showing how it is simple human nature to be shortsighted. In Rwanda in the 1990s, for example, people so overused the farmland that it could no longer support the population. In modern China, deforestation is turning land intouseless desert. Soon, Beijing itself could lie in a vast wasteland.

戴蒙以说明人类天性就是短视近利作为回答。举例来说，在1990年代的卢安达，人们过度利用农地，致使农地无法再供应人口所需。在近代的中国，滥砍滥伐使得土地变成了荒芜的沙漠，很快地，北京可能会变成一片广大荒原。

Diamond could have easily found more examples here in Taiwan. Consider the growing of betel nuts. Most farmers know that betel nut trees have shallow roots that cannot holdsoil. They know that if they plant too many trees on steep mountain slopes, heavy rains can easily bring killerlandslides. And incredibly, they even know that it istheir own communities that will be hurt most. But still, for short-term profit, they take this risk and grow betel nuts.

在台湾，戴蒙可以轻易地就找到更多的例子。以种植槟榔来说，多数的农夫知道槟榔树的根很浅，无法抓住土壤。他们也知道如果在陡峭的山坡地种太多的槟榔树的话，豪雨一定会很容易带来致命的土石流，而且不可思议的是，他们甚至知道受害最深的将会是他们的家园。尽管如此，为了短期利益，他们要冒险种植槟榔。

Is the future hopeless? Diamond doesn’t think so, and in Collapse he highlights societies that have successfully met the challenges of their times. He concludes byurging people to push their governments for stricter environmental laws. For as Diamond argues, we can choose to succeed just we can choose to fail.

未来是毫无希望的吗?戴蒙不这么认为，他在《崩溃》一书中还特别强调出一些成功因应时代挑战的社会。戴蒙以呼吁人们应敦促政府采取更严格的环保法规作为结论，因为像戴蒙所主张的，如同我们可以选择失败，我们也可以选择成功。

－by Ben Andrews & Robert Kelly

Vocabulary

单词发音

vast [væst] adj. 广大的

highlight [ˋhaɪ͵laɪt] v. 使显著，使突出；强调

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单词发音

fall apart 〔组织﹑制度等〕崩溃﹐瓦解 to break apart where its parts are joined

respond [rɪˋspɑnd] v. 作出反应（+to/by/with）]

no longer 不再

betel [ˋbit!] nut 槟榔

short-term [ˋʃɔrtˋtɝm] adj. 短期的

shortsighted [ˋʃɔrtˋsaɪtɪd] adj. 目光短浅的，缺乏远见的

 Answer