一天一篇真题记单词（30-1998 阅读TEXT1）
【写在前面】
暑假可以说是备考的黄金时间了，如何利用好这2个月的宝贵时间，全面提升各科实力，想必是诸多考研学子最想知道的事了吧。各种备考方法纷繁复杂，备考资料五花八门，如何不让这个暑假虚度呢，如何学才能更有效率呢。我想有一个方法是大家公认的，那就是做真题。数学，英语，专业课，真题都是最宝贵的资料。一天一篇真题记单词，在推出后受到了大家的认可，当然也有很多不足之处，在上学期出了20期后，暑期版隆重推出，希望能陪伴大家度过一个充实的暑假备战时期。
【真题原文】
Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind's long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the ideal of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascination. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good.
The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn't help that building a big, powerful dam has become a symbol of achievement for nations and people striving to assert themselves. Egypt's leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkey's bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam.
But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left - all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.
And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself.
Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go-ahead to the even more wrong-headed Narmada Dam. And the bank has done this even though its advisors say the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and environmental destruction. The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranteed.
Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the cost and benefits of controlling water can help to resolve these conflicts. Hydroelectric power and flood control and irrigation are possible without building monster dams. But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. It is time that the world learned the lessons of Aswan. You don't need a dam to be saved.
【单词讲解】
1.capture the imagination 引人遐想
2.at the mercy of sb/sth 任由某人/某事物摆布或控制
3.do sb's bidding 服从 bidding 吩咐，命令
4.can't/couldn't help doing sth 不能防止或避免某事物
5.assert oneself 表现出自信而收到注意和尊重
6.silt 淤泥
7.in return for 作为对..的回报
8.reservoir 水库
9.contention 争论
10.stop short of sth/doing sth 不愿超越行动上的某种界限 这里中间插入just,可理解为几乎就...
11.go-ahead 许可 go ahead 进行，发生 注意有无连字符号词性和意思的区别
12.wrong-headed 坚持错误意见或错误办法的
13.hydroelectric 水力发电的
14.the powerless the powerful the+形容词 指代某一类人
【参考译文】
没有什么技术发明像大型水坝这样能抓得住人们的想象力。也许是因为人类长期遭受洪水和干旱的折磨，所以让水听命于人类这个想法特别令人着迷。但有时，令人着迷的东西也会使盲目。几个大型水坝项目对人们的威胁似乎要大于它们的益处。
建造大坝的教训是：大的未必是美的。但这个教训也无法阻止修建高大雄伟的大坝，这是因为那些大坝已成为一个努力展示自我的国家和人民伟大成就的象征。埃及由于修建了阿斯旺大坝而巩固了它在阿拉伯世界的领导地位。土耳其在力图跻身第一世界的努力中也包括了修建阿塔克特大坝。
但是大坝经常起不到预期的作用。以阿斯旺水坝为例，它阻止了尼罗河的洪水，但埃及再也得不到洪水留下的富含养料的淤泥；与此同时，大坝里因为积满了淤泥，几乎已经无法发电了。
不过，控制水的神话还在继续。本周，在欧洲文明的中心地区。斯洛伐克人和匈牙利人就在多瑙河建坝问题发生了争端，差点动用了军队。这个大型工程可能会出现大坝上常见的所有问题，但斯洛伐克正在要求从捷克独立出来，现在需要一个大坝来证明自己的实力。
同时，在印度，世界银行批准一甚至更加执迷不悟的纳尔默达河大坝工程。尽管银行的顾问认为建这座大坝会给平民带来苦难，也会给环境造成破坏。大坝的益处很难保证，但即使有利，也是对那些有权有势的人来说的。
对大坝的影响和治理洪水的成本、利益进行合理、科学的研究有助于解决这些冲突。即使不建大型水坝，水力发电、治理洪水以及灌溉也是可能的。但当你面对神话时很难做到合理或科学。该是我们认真吸取阿斯旺大坝教训的时候了，人们不需要通过大坝来拯救自己。
【作业】
1.学习完单词后自己认真翻译原文，并将原文中红色字体部分句子的译文回帖，认真答题者奖励100HY
2.自己认真总结本篇文章的词组，长难句，可以整理在本子上（推荐），也可以跟帖总结，把每天的帖子当作你的笔记本
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（责编：千叶翎羽）
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