}  Pollution is the price we pay for an overpopulated, over industrialized planet. When you come to think about it, there are only four ways you can deal with rubbish: dump it, burn it, turn it into something you can use again, attempt to produce less of it. We keep trying all four methods, but the sheer volume of rubbish we produce worldwide threatens to overwhelm us. Rubbish, however, is only part of the problem of polluting our planet. The need to produce ever-increasing quantities of cheap food leads to a different kind of pollution.

}  Overwhelm:

   指很多东西排山倒海那样过来，让你压力很大，无法应对。
A:You are looking a little overwhelmed.
B: No wonder, I got a million things to do and all of them have to be finished in the next twenty minutes.

   A: 你看起来压力很大。

   B：这也难怪，我有很多事情要做。而且20分钟内都要完成。

}  However, there is an even more insidious kind of pollution that particularly affects urban areas and invades our daily lives, and that is noise. Burglar alarms going off at any time of the day or night serve only to annoy passers-by and actually assist burglars to burgle. Car alarms constantly scream at us in the street and are a source of profound irritation.

}  Alarm:

   alarm/alarm clock 可以作为闹钟，闹铃讲。
She never wakes up before her alarm goes off.
她从来都没有在闹钟响之前醒来过。
I was late up studying and I overslept again. I guess I need a louder alarm clock.

   我晚上熬夜，今天又睡过头了。我想我需要一个声音更大点的闹钟。

}  A recent survey of the effects of noise revealed (surprisingly?) that dogs barking incessantly in the night rated the highest form of noise pollution on a scale ranging from 1 to 7. The survey revealed a large number of sources of noise that we really dislike.

}  on a scale ranging from 1 to 7 :

   口语里面都不要这个ranging ，ranging from 1 to 7,从1到7按顺序排列，可以指程度上的大小。
A:How drunk do you think he is, on a scale from 1 to 10.
B:12.

   A: 你觉得他有多醉，从1到10？（有多醉，到哪个程度）

   B: 12. （指醉得不行，烂泥了都）  

}  Industrialized farming methods produce cheap meat products: beef, pork and chicken. The use of pesticides and fertilizers produces cheap grain and vegetables. The price we pay for cheap food may be already too high: Mad Cow Disease (BSE) in cattle, salmonella in chicken and eggs, and wisteria in dairy products. And if you think you’ll abandon meat and become a vegetarian, you have the choice of very expensive organically-grown vegetables or a steady diet of pesticides every time you think you’re eating fresh salads and vegetables, or just having an innocent glass of water!

}  Mad Cow Disease

   疯牛病
Foot and Mouth Disease

   口蹄疫
Bird Flu
禽流感

}  vegetarian pizza

    vegetarian是吃素，不吃荤的人；vegetarian pizza 素的，不含荤的pizza。

}  Lawn mowers whining on a summer’s day, late-night parties in apartment blocks, noisy neighbors, vehicles of al kinds, especially large container trucks thundering through quiet villages, planes and helicopters flying overhead, large radios carried round in public places and played at maximum volume.

}  noisy neighbors :
M:Look,I’m sorry to bother you about this,but could you turn that music down?
W:Sorry,I didn’t realize you could hear it.

   M: 不好意思，你能不能把音乐放小一些？

   W: 对不起，我没有意识到给你造成麻烦了。

}  New technology has also made its own contribution to noise. A lot of people object to mobile phones, especially when they are used in public places like restaurants or on public transport. Loud conversations on mobile phones invade our thoughts or interrupt the pleasure of meeting friends for a quiet chat.

}  Interrupt:

   打扰
Am I interrupting anything?
有时候别人在说话，你打电话过去，为了表示礼貌，可以说这样的话。
You are interrupting my dinner.
你正在吃饭，别人忽然打了一个推销电话，你就可以用这句话。
I’m sorry to call/disturb you at this late/early hour.

   这也是属于比较客气的话。

}  The noise pollution survey revealed a rather surprising and possibly amusing old fashioned source of noise. It turned out to be snoring! Men were found to be the worst offenders. It was revealed that 20% of men in their mid-thirties snore. This figure rises to a staggering 60% of men in their sixties.

}  the worst/the best
What ’s the worst that could happen?
这句话的意思是，我们退一万步来讲，最坏的事是什么/最糟糕的是什么？我有一回和朋友去看医生，因为他的肺刚做过手术三个星期。他想要飞机，就问医生我能不能做飞机，医生说最好再等四个星期。他就问了医生这样一句话，医生回答了一个字“die”。
That may be for the best.

   这句话的意思是，可能那样的是最好的/可能也只有这样了。这句话老外经常说。

}  Against these figures, it was found that only 5% of women snore regularly, while the rest are constantly woken or kept awake by their trumpeting partners. Whatever the source of noise, one thing is certain: silence, it seems, has become a golden memory.

}  Constant  n.(常数)
做名词时，可以表示数学的常数。

}  You don‘t need to fill these silences.
你没必要没话找话。
Can I get a refill please?
这里的refill 是指饮料，酒喝完了，想要别人再给你倒满
write out/fill prescriptions

   医生开处方就是write out prescriptions，拿着处方去拿处方药就是fill prescriptions

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