托福閱讀能力的提升除了需要進行保質保量的持續(xù)真題訓練，更需要盡可能多地進行拓展閱讀，通過對英文素材或雙語素材的精讀積累經典亮眼表達，通過泛讀培養(yǎng)對英文的敏感度和熟練度，提升綜合語感。下面我們來看一篇雙語托福閱讀素材：Atomic power stations that float on the ocean or are anchored beneath it may have advantages over those built on land.
Nuclear energy
Putting to sea
Atomic power stations that float on the ocean or are anchored beneath it may have advantages over those built on land
核能
出海
浮在海面或拴在海底的核電站可能會比陸地上的同類更具優(yōu)勢
AFTER
the events of March 11th 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami led to a meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan, you might be forgiven for concluding that atomic power and seawater don’t mix. Many engineers, though, do not agree. They would like to see more seawater involved, not less. In fact, they have plans to site nuclear power plants in the ocean rather than on land—either floating on the surface or moored beneath it.2011年3月11日，一場地震和海嘯導致日本福島第一核電站的三座核反應堆熔毀。假如你由此得出結論，稱核能和海水不能攪和在一起，那也是情有可原。但許多工程師并不這么想。他們希望摻和進來的海水更多些，而不是更少。實際上，他們已經有各種計劃，在海上而非陸地上建造核電站。這些核電站或是漂浮在海面上，或是停泊在海面下。
At first, this sounds a mad idea. It is not. Land-based power stations are bespoke structures, built by the techniques of civil engineering, in which each is slightly different and teams of specialists come and go according to the phase of the project. Marine stations, by contrast, could be mass-produced in factories using, if not the techniques of the assembly line, then at least those of the shipyard, with crews constantly employed.乍一聽，這太瘋狂了。實則不然。陸上發(fā)電站是倚賴土木工程技術建造的定制結構，每座都略有不同，在工程的不同階段會有各種專家團隊來來往往。海上發(fā)電站則不同，它們可以在工廠里批量建造，使用的即便不是流水線作業(yè)技術，也至少是造船廠的那類技術，而員工是固定的。
That would make power stations at sea cheaper than those on land. Jacopo Buongiorno, a nuclear engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reckons that, when all is done and dusted, electricity from a marine station would cost at least a third less than that from a terrestrial equivalent. It would also make them safer. A reactor anchored on the seabed would never lack emergency cooling, the problem that caused the Fukushima meltdown. Nor would it need to be protected against the risk of terrorists flying an aircraft into it. It would be tsunami-proof, too. Though tsunamis become great and destructive waves when they arrive in shallow water, in the open ocean they are mere ripples. Indeed, were it deep enough (100 metres or so), such a submarine reactor would not even be affected by passing storms.這會讓海上發(fā)電站比陸上發(fā)電站的造價更便宜。麻省理工學院的核電工程師雅各布·布翁焦爾諾(Jacopo Buongiorno)認為，建成后，海上發(fā)電站提供的電力價格將比陸上發(fā)電站便宜至少三分之一。前者也更安全。一座被錨定在海床上的反應堆永遠不缺緊急冷卻，而冷卻系統(tǒng)失靈正是福島核電站反應堆熔毀的原因。它也無需防范恐怖分子會駕著飛機撞過來。它還能防海嘯——雖然海嘯在抵達淺水區(qū)時會變成破壞性的巨浪，但在廣闊的海域它們只是些微的漣漪。實際上，假如在海面下足夠深的地方(100米左右)，這樣的水下反應堆甚至不會受到過路風暴的影響。
Water power
借助海水
All these reasons, observes Jacques Chénais, an engineer at France’s atomic-energy commission, CEA, make underwater nuclear power stations an idea worth investigating. Dr Chénais is head of small reactors at CEA, and has had experience with one well-established type of underwater reactor—that which powers submarines. He and his team are now assisting Naval Group, a French military contractor, to design reactors that will stay put instead of moving around on a boat. The plan is to encase a reactor and an electricity-generating steam turbine in a steel cylinder the length of a football pitch and with a weight of around 12,000 tonnes.法國原子能和替代能源委員會(CEA)的工程師雅克·舍奈(Jacques
Chénais)認為，所有這些好處使得水下核電站成為一個值得探索的創(chuàng)意。舍奈博士在該委員會主管小型核反應堆部門，在為潛水艇供電這類技術成熟的水下反應堆方面頗有經驗。他和團隊目前正輔助法國軍事承包商海軍集團(Naval Group)設計一些反應堆，它們會靜止不動，而不是被裝在船上四處移動。方法是把一個反應堆和一臺發(fā)電的蒸汽渦輪機裝在一個鋼筒里，這個鋼筒有一個足球場那么長，重約1.2萬噸。
The whole system, dubbed Flexblue, would be anchored to the seabed between five and 15km from the coast—far enough for safety in case of an emergency, but near enough to be serviced easily. The electricity generated (up to 250 megawatts, enough for 1m people) would be transmitted ashore by an undersea cable. For refuelling and maintenance unmanageable from a submarine, the cylinder would be floated to the surface with air injected into its ballast tanks. And, when a station came to the end of its useful life, it could be towed to a specialist facility to be dismantled safely, rather than requiring yet another lot of civil engineers to demolish it.這整套名為Flexblue的系統(tǒng)會被固定在距海岸5至15公里處的海底。它離陸地足夠遠，可以確保緊急事故時的安全性，但又足夠近而方便維護。它產生的電力(可多達250兆瓦，夠一百萬人使用)會通過一根海底電纜傳到岸上。遇到在潛艇內無法完成的更換燃料或維修任務，可以往鋼筒的壓載艙注入空氣，讓鋼筒浮到海面上。而當一座發(fā)電站壽終正寢時，可以將它拖到一個專門的設施里安全拆解，而不需要再找一批土木工程師來拆除它。
Naval Group has not, as yet, attracted any customers for its designs. But a slightly less ambitious approach to marine reactors—anchoring them on the surface rather than below it—is about to come to fruition in Russia.The first such, Akademik Lomonosov, is under construction at the Baltic Shipyard, in St Petersburg (see picture). According to Andrey Bukhovtsev of Rosatom, the agency that runs Russia’s civil nuclear programme, it is 96% complete. It will be launched later this year,
towed to Murmansk, and thence transported to Pevek, a port in Russia’s Far East, where it will begin generating power in 2019.海軍集團的這一設計目前尚未吸引到客戶。但一個略微保守些的海上反應堆設計方式即將在俄羅斯見到成效——將它們固定在水面之上而非之下。首個此類反應堆“羅蒙諾索夫院士號”(AkademikLomonosov)正在圣彼得堡的波羅的海造船廠(Baltic Shipyard)內建造(見圖)。據運營俄羅斯民用核能項目的俄羅斯國家原子能公司(Rosatom)的安德雷·布霍夫采夫(Andrey Bukhovtsev)稱，該反應堆已經完成了96%。它將在今年稍晚些時候下水，被拖至摩爾曼斯克，從那里再被運到俄羅斯遠東區(qū)的佩韋克港口，自2019年起開始發(fā)電。
Akademik Lomonosov consists of two 35MW reactors mounted on a barge. The reactors are modified versions of those used to power Taymyr-class icebreakers. As such, they are designed to be able to take quite a battering, so the storms of the Arctic Ocean should not trouble them. To add to their safety, the barge bearing them will be moored, about 200 metres from shore, behind a storm-and-tsunami-resistant breakwater.“羅蒙諾索夫院士號”由裝載在一艘駁船上的兩座35兆瓦反應堆組成。它們是那些用來為泰梅爾(Taymyr)級破冰船供電的反應堆的改版，其設計令它們能夠承受住相當大的撞擊，因而北冰洋上的風暴應該不是問題。為增加安全性，承載它們的駁船會被錨定在一座可抗風暴和海嘯的防波堤的后方，距海岸約200米遠。
Altogether,Akademik Lomonosov will cost $480m to build and install—far less than would have to be spent constructing an equivalent power station on land in such a remote and hostile environment. And, on the presumption that the whole thing will work, plans for a second, similar plant are being laid.建造并安裝“羅蒙諾索夫院士號”總共將花費4.8億美元，遠少于在偏遠陸地上建造一座能抵抗同等惡劣環(huán)境、規(guī)模相當的核電站的費用。人們認為整個項目能夠行得通，已經在規(guī)劃第二座類似的核電站。
Nor is Russia alone in planning floating reactors. China has similar ambitions—though the destinations of the devices concerned are more controversial than those of Russia’s. Specifically, the Chinese government intends, during the 2020s, to build up to 20 floating nuclear plants, with reactors as powerful as 200MW, to supply artificial islands it is building as part of its plan to enforce the country’s claim to much of the South China Sea—a claim disputed by every other country in the
area.俄羅斯也不是唯一一個籌建浮動反應堆的國家。中國也有類似的抱負——不過相關設備的目的地比俄羅斯的更具爭議。具體來說，中國政府計劃在本世紀20年代建造多達20座浮動核電站，反應堆功率可達200兆瓦，為該國正在南海上建造的人工島嶼供電。這些島嶼是中國計劃對南海大部分海域行使主權主張的一部分，雖然這一主張遭到區(qū)域內所有其他國家的反對。
The firms involved in this project intend to tsunami-proof some of their reactors in the same way as the French, by stationing them in water too deep for massive tsunami waves to form. Because they are at the surface,though, that will not save them from storms—and locating them far from shore means the Russian approach of building sheltering breakwaters will not work either. That matters. Typhoons in the South China Sea can whip up waves with an amplitude exceeding 20
metres.參與這一項目的公司計劃也用法國人那種方式來讓部分反應堆防范海嘯，即把它們固定在海水深到無法形成巨大海嘯波的地方。但因為它們是漂浮在水面上，這并不能幫助它們防范風暴。而且把它們建在遠離海岸的地點，還意味著無法使用像俄羅斯那樣建造庇護用的防波堤。這并非無關緊要。南海的臺風掀起的海浪可超過20米。
To withstand such storms, the barges will have anchors that are attached to swivelling “mooring turrets” under their bows. These will cause a barge to behave like a weather vane, always pointing into the wind. Since that is the direction waves come from, it will remain bow-on to those waves, giving it the best chance of riding out any storm that nature cares to throw at it. The barges’ bows will also be built high, in order to cut through waves. This way, claims Mark Tipping of Lloyd’s Register, a British firm that is advising on the plants’ design, they will be able to survive a “10,000-year storm”.
為扛住這樣的風暴，駁船上會有錨系在船頭下方可旋轉的“系泊轉塔”上。這會使得駁船像風向標一般，永遠朝向風吹來的方向。因為這是海浪撲來的方向，所以船會一直正面迎擊海浪，讓它能有最大可能征服大自然掀起的任何風暴。駁船的船頭也會建得很高，有助于它乘風破浪。如此一來，這些核電站將能扛過“萬年一遇的風暴”，英國勞氏船級社(Lloyd’s
Register)的馬克·蒂平(Mark Tipping)說。該組織為這些核電站的設計提供咨詢。
The South China Sea is also a busy area for shipping, so any floating power stations there will need to be able to withstand a direct hit by a heavy-laden cargo vessel travelling at a speed of, say, 20 knots—whether that collision be accidental or the result of hostile action. One way to do this, says Chen Haibo, a naval architect working on the problem at Lloyd’s Register’s Beijing office, is to fit the barges with crumple zones packed with materials such as corrugated steel and wood.南海也是一個繁忙的航運海域，因此任何漂浮在那里的發(fā)電站都需要能承受高負載貨船(比如以20海里的速度行駛)的直接撞擊，無論是因為純粹的事故還是由敵對行為所引發(fā)。在勞氏北京辦事處研究相關問題的造船工程師陳海波說，一個解決辦法是在駁船上設置填充波形鋼板和木頭這類材料的防撞緩沖區(qū)。
Not everyone is delighted with the idea of marine nuclear power. Rashid Alimov, head of energy projects at Greenpeace Russia, an environmental charity, argues that offshore plants could be boarded by pirates or terrorists, be struck by an iceberg or might evade safety rules that are hard to enforce at sea. On July 21st Greenpeace scored a victory when Rosatom said that Akademik Lomonosov’s nuclear fuel would be loaded in an unpopulated area away from St Petersburg.不是所有人都對海上核電站這個主意感到欣喜。環(huán)保慈善組織“綠色和平”俄羅斯分部能源項目主管拉希德·阿利莫夫(Rashid Alimov)表示，海上核電站可能會遭遇海盜或恐怖份子登船，可能被冰山撞擊，也可能會違反難以在海洋上執(zhí)行的安全條例。7月21日，“綠色和平”取得了一項勝利——俄羅斯國家原子能公司稱，將在遠離圣彼得堡的一個無人區(qū)域為“羅蒙諾索夫院士號”裝載核燃料。
That,though, is a pinprick. The future of marine nuclear power stations is more likely to depend on the future of nuclear power itself than on the actions of pressure groups such as Greenpeace. If, as many who worry about the climate-changing potential of fossil-fuel power stations think, uranium has an important part to play in generating electricity over coming decades, then many new nuclear plants will be needed. And if that does turn out to be the case, siting such plants out at sea may well prove a good idea.不過這只是個小波瀾。海上核電站的未來將更多地系于核電站自身的前景，而不是靠“綠色和平”等組織施壓。假如，就像許多擔心化石燃料發(fā)電站會改變氣候的人所預期的那樣，未來幾十年鈾將在發(fā)電中發(fā)揮重要作用，那么就需要興建大量的核電站。果真如此，那么把這類發(fā)電站投放到茫茫大海中很可能是個好主意。
以上就是Atomic power stations that float on the ocean or are anchored beneath it may have advantages over those built on land雙語托福閱讀素材分享的內容，希望各位TOEFLer在備考托福過程中合理利用這些素材，實現托福閱讀和托福寫作雙能力的提升。
