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Venna Named Citywith World's Best Quality of Living

全球生活質(zhì)量排名：維也納居首

Vienna has beaten Zurich to be crowned the place with the best quality of living in an annual survey in which European cities dominated the top 10.

在一年一度的全球城市生活質(zhì)量調(diào)查中，維也納擊敗蘇黎世當(dāng)選全球生活質(zhì)量最佳的城市。排行榜的前10位多為歐洲城市所占據(jù)。

Management consultancy Mercer said Vienna scored the highest for overall quality of living in the 215-city survey after improvements in Austria's political and social environment, knocking the Swiss city of Zurich into second position。Third in the list came another Swiss city, Geneva, followed by Vancouver, Canada, and Auckland, New Zealand, in shared fourth place. Baghdad, Iraq, came last despite slight improvements in its infrastructure and moves to encourage investment. Three German cities made the top 10 Dusseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt with the list rounded out by Bem in Switzerland and Sydney, Australia. The highest U.S. rankang in the 2009 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey was Horiolulu which came 29th while Washington and New York remained in positions 44 and 49 respectively. London came 38th in the list which is designed to help governments and companies formulate intemational packages for their employees。

據(jù)美世管理咨詢公司介紹，這項(xiàng)調(diào)查共有215個(gè)城市參評(píng)，維也納在總體生活質(zhì)量方面得分最高，瑞士的蘇黎世屈居第2，這都得益于奧地利政治和社會(huì)環(huán)境的改善。瑞士的另一個(gè)城市日內(nèi)瓦位居第3，加拿大的溫哥華與新西蘭的奧克蘭并列第40盡管伊拉克首都巴格達(dá)的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施略有改善，并正采取措施鼓勵(lì)投資，但在今年的排行中仍處于墊底的位置。躋身排行榜前10位的其他幾個(gè)城市包括：德國的3大城市——杜塞爾多夫、慕尼黑和法蘭克福以及瑞典的伯爾尼和澳大利亞的悉尼. 在“2009全球城市生活質(zhì)量”排行榜上，排名最靠前的美國城市是位居第29位的檀香山;華盛頓和紐約保持原位，分列第44位和第49位。倫敦名列第38位，該排行榜旨在幫助政府和公司制定外派員工的薪酬。

"As a result of the current financial crisis multinationals are looking to review their intemational assignment policies with a view to cutting costs," said Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer, in a statement."Many companies plan to reduce the number of medium to long term international assignments and localize their expatriate compensahon packages where possible though the hardship allowance, based on quality of living criteria, will remain an essential component of the package."

美世咨詢的高級(jí)研究員斯拉金·帕拉卡迪爾在一份聲明中說：“由于受目前金融危機(jī)的影響，跨國公司希望能重審他們的海外派遣計(jì)劃，以削減成本?！昂芏喙居?jì)劃削減中長期海外派遣計(jì)劃，并在可能的地方將外派員工的薪酬本地化，不過基于生活標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的困難津貼仍將是薪酬中的主要部分。”

Singapore was the topscoring Asian city, coming in 26th which was up six places from a year ago due to its growing importance as a financial center and its wide range of intemational and private schools. Beijing moved up three places to 113, boosted by improvements in public transport facilities from Olympics last August.

新加坡在亞洲城市中排名最高，位居第26位，比去年上升了6個(gè)榜位，這主要是因?yàn)樾录悠伦鳛榻鹑谥行牡牡匚蝗遮呏匾?，而且它擁有眾多的國際和私立學(xué)校。北京也上升了3個(gè)榜位，名列第113位，這主要是因?yàn)槿ツ?月的奧運(yùn)會(huì)對(duì)北京的公共交通設(shè)施起到了一定 的改善作用。

Antarctica is the highest, driest, and coldest place on Earth. It is also the remotest, a fact which accounts for its unspoUed environment. It is difficultforpeople to get there, and not a comfortable place for people to stay once they arrive. It is widely described as the last true wilderness on our planet.

南極洲是地球上最高、最千和最冷的地方。它也是最偏僻的，這就解釋了南極洲為什么會(huì)成為一片沒被污染的環(huán)境。人們很難到達(dá)那兒，即使到了那里，南極洲也不是個(gè)能讓人呆得舒適的地方。它被普遍形容為我們星球上的最后一片真正的荒野。

The Antarctic continent has mountain ranges similar in size to the European Alps. But whereas the Alps' snowcaps are just deep enough for skiing, Antarctic mountains are swallowed up by their caps, and lie buried beneath an ice sheet that is five kilometers thick.

南極大陸的山脈覆蓋的面積與歐洲的阿爾卑斯山差不多。不過阿爾卑斯山頂積雪的深度僅夠滑雪，南極大陸的山脈卻被積雪吞噬，深埋在厚達(dá)5公里的冰層下。

The cold climate is responsible for maintaining the continent's year round ice fields: They never melt. Even though Antarctica receives more sunlight than the equator, the temperatures are lower because the ice sheet reflects the heat back into space. Thus, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was in Antarctica in July, 1983: Soviet scientists shivered through temperatures that fell to minus 89.2 degrees Celsius.

寒冷的氣候使南極冰厚得可以常年維持：它們永不融化。雖然南極洲的光照比赤道多，氣溫卻比它低，因?yàn)楸鶎幽軐崮芊瓷浠靥炜铡Ｒ虼?，地球上的最低溫度記錄就是出現(xiàn)在1983年7月的南極洲,前蘇聯(lián)科學(xué)家在降至攝氏零下89.2度的低溫中瑟瑟發(fā)抖。

For centuries, Europeans wondered about the existence of a South Polar continent, but no one actually knew for certain Antarctica was there until 1820 when European explorers "discovered" it. Since then, men have gone to Antarctica in search of adventure. Testing their abilities, several teams of explorers set out in 1911 to be the first men to stand at the South Pole. Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his men reached the pole; so did Robert F. Scott, an Englishman, but he and his team died on the return trip.

幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以來，歐洲人_直在猜測是否存在南極洲，直到1820年歐洲的探險(xiǎn)家“發(fā)現(xiàn)”了它，人們才真正確定南極洲的存在。從那以后，人們開始去南極洲探險(xiǎn)。1911年，幾支探險(xiǎn)隊(duì)為了驗(yàn)證自己的能力便出發(fā)去南極洲，希望能成為站在南極極點(diǎn)的先鋒。挪威人羅德·阿蒙森和隊(duì)友抵達(dá)了極點(diǎn)。英國人羅伯特。F.斯科特也做到了'不過他和他的隊(duì)友卻在回程中不幸喪生。

Once completely inaccessible, Antarctica has more recently been playing host to adventurers seeking excitement, scientists interested in experimenting, and companies looking to exploit this wild terrain for profit.gold, uranium, and oil are just some of the valuable resources which lie beneath the continent's icy covering.

曾經(jīng)遙不可及的南極洲，近來卻開始接待尋求刺激的冒險(xiǎn)家、有興趣做實(shí)驗(yàn)的科學(xué)家和打算開發(fā)這片荒原獲利的公司。黃金、鈾和石油只不過是埋藏在南極冰層下寶貴資源中的幾種而已。

Though no human population is native to Antarctica, about l,000 people work there in the summer months, and another 12,000 tourists visit every year. They come to enjoy the unspoiled environment, the bright blue skies, and the fresh white snow fields.

雖然南極洲沒有土著居民，但每年夏季的幾個(gè)月里，約有1000人在那兒工作，另外每年還有約12000名游客來此參觀。他們到南極來享受沒有污染的環(huán)境、碧藍(lán)的天空和皓潔的雪原。

If a tourist is lucky enough, he or she can join an expedition to see some of the continent's other residents. Animals along the coast of the Southem Ocean don't mind the cold weather, and thrive in Antaraica's seas. Penguins and seals breed on the icy shores and fish for krill in the cool water.

如果游客夠幸運(yùn)的話，他(她)還可以加入探險(xiǎn)隊(duì)一睹南極大陸上的其他生物。南太平洋沿岸的動(dòng)物不介意嚴(yán)寒的氣候，它們在南極海域中繁衍生息。企鵝和海豹?jiǎng)t在結(jié)冰的海岸上繁衍后代，并在冰冷的海水中捕捉磷蝦。

Yet, Antarctica's fragile and complicated ecosystem is threatened by its human visitors.Damage to the environment occurs as people come looking for resources beneath the ice, or carelessly leave their garbage behind. Currently, countries are working to ensure that the damage to Antarctica's environment is minimized, and that the last wilderness on Earth will remain an unspoiled place.

不過，南極洲脆弱而復(fù)雜的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)正受到游客的威脅。人們來這兒尋找冰層下的自然資源，或不經(jīng)意的留下垃圾，都會(huì)對(duì)環(huán)境造成污染。目前，各國正努力將對(duì)南極洲環(huán)境的破壞降到最低，以確保地球上的最后—片荒野能永遠(yuǎn)是一塊未受破壞的地方。

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