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经典英语晨读美文：全球生活质量排名

Venna Named Citywith World's Best Quality of Living

全球生活质量排名：维也纳居首

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质量调查中，维也纳击败苏黎世当选全球生活质量最佳的城市。排行榜的前10位多为欧洲城市所占据。

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。

据美世管理咨询公司介绍，这项调查共有215个城市参评，维也纳在总体生活质量方面得分最高，瑞士的苏黎世屈居第2，这都得益于奥地利政治和社会环境的改善。瑞士的另一个城市日内瓦位居第3，加拿大的温哥华与新西兰的奥克兰并列第40尽管伊拉克首都巴格达的基础设施略有改善，并正采取措施鼓励投资，但在今年的排行中仍处于垫底的位置。跻身排行榜前10位的其他几个城市包括：德国的3大城市——杜塞尔多夫、慕尼黑和法兰克福以及瑞典的伯尔尼和澳大利亚的悉尼. 在“2009全球城市生活质量”排行榜上，排名最靠前的美国城市是位居第29位的檀香山;华盛顿和纽约保持原位，分列第44位和第49位。伦敦名列第38位，该排行榜旨在帮助政府和公司制定外派员工的薪酬。

"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."

美世咨询的高级研究员斯拉金·帕拉卡迪尔在一份声明中说：“由于受目前金融危机的影响，跨国公司希望能重审他们的海外派遣计划，以削减成本。“很多公司计划削减中长期海外派遣计划，并在可能的地方将外派员工的薪酬本地化，不过基于生活标准的困难津贴仍将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.

新加坡在亚洲城市中排名最高，位居第26位，比去年上升了6个榜位，这主要是因为新加坡作为金融中心的地位日趋重要，而且它拥有众多的国际和私立学校。北京也上升了3个榜位，名列第113位，这主要是因为去年8月的奥运会对北京的公共交通设施起到了一定 的改善作用。

经典英语晨读美文：南极大陆

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.

南极洲是地球上最高、最千和最冷的地方。它也是最偏僻的，这就解释了南极洲为什么会成为一片没被污染的环境。人们很难到达那儿，即使到了那里，南极洲也不是个能让人呆得舒适的地方。它被普遍形容为我们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.

南极大陆的山脉覆盖的面积与欧洲的阿尔卑斯山差不多。不过阿尔卑斯山顶积雪的深度仅够滑雪，南极大陆的山脉却被积雪吞噬，深埋在厚达5公里的冰层下。

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.

寒冷的气候使南极冰厚得可以常年维持：它们永不融化。虽然南极洲的光照比赤道多，气温却比它低，因为冰层能将热能反射回天空。因此，地球上的最低温度记录就是出现在1983年7月的南极洲,前苏联科学家在降至摄氏零下89.2度的低温中瑟瑟发抖。

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.

几个世纪以来，欧洲人_直在猜测是否存在南极洲，直到1820年欧洲的探险家“发现”了它，人们才真正确定南极洲的存在。从那以后，人们开始去南极洲探险。1911年，几支探险队为了验证自己的能力便出发去南极洲，希望能成为站在南极极点的先锋。挪威人罗德·阿蒙森和队友抵达了极点。英国人罗伯特。F.斯科特也做到了'不过他和他的队友却在回程中不幸丧生。

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.

曾经遥不可及的南极洲，近来却开始接待寻求刺激的冒险家、有兴趣做实验的科学家和打算开发这片荒原获利的公司。黄金、铀和石油只不过是埋藏在南极冰层下宝贵资源中的几种而已。

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.

虽然南极洲没有土著居民，但每年夏季的几个月里，约有1000人在那儿工作，另外每年还有约12000名游客来此参观。他们到南极来享受没有污染的环境、碧蓝的天空和皓洁的雪原。

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.

如果游客够幸运的话，他(她)还可以加入探险队一睹南极大陆上的其他生物。南太平洋沿岸的动物不介意严寒的气候，它们在南极海域中繁衍生息。企鹅和海豹则在结冰的海岸上繁衍后代，并在冰冷的海水中捕捉磷虾。

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.

不过，南极洲脆弱而复杂的生态系统正受到游客的威胁。人们来这儿寻找冰层下的自然资源，或不经意的留下垃圾，都会对环境造成污染。目前，各国正努力将对南极洲环境的破坏降到最低，以确保地球上的最后—片荒野能永远是一块未受破坏的地方。