GCT综合英语第3单元课文翻译.doc

仅做参考 好好学习，天天向上 Unit 3 Population Growth and Industry 人口增长与产业 We have looked at some of the ways in which biological factors affect human population growth. However, although biological laws underlie all the phenomena of population, once societies reach an advanced level of technology and culture it is more meaningful to explain what is happening in terms of sociological, economic and political influences. 我们已经发现有些生物因素会影响人口的增长.虽然如此,生物法规是所有人口现象的基础,一旦社会达到文化和技术的发达水平,从社会、经济和政治影响上面分析发生了哪些变化会更有意义. The study of population statistics in themselves is called “demography”. All advanced countries now collect detailed statistics on births, marriages and deaths, and every few years a census of population is taken. In England these figures are published by the General Register Office in London. World figures for population changes are much more difficult to compile because many underdeveloped countries do not keep complete records. However, a very detailed list of the available statistics is published every year in the United Nations Demographic Yearbook. 对人口统计资料的研究被称为人口统计学.现在,所有的发达国家收集关于出生、婚姻状况和死亡的详细统计数据,每隔几年会进行一次人口普查.在英国.伦敦的登记总办事处会公布这些数据. 在一些不发达国家不会进行完整的记录，因此整个世界人口变化的数据统计更难完成.虽然如此, 每年都会在联合国人口统计年鉴中发布一系列详细的可用统计数据。 From a careful study of these figures, demographers have worked out a description of what they think happened in the history of a modern industrial nation. Throughout most of human history, they believe, man has had a very high death-rate and a high birth-rate. The death-rate may have been due to infanticide, epidemic disease or starvation, but it was typical of traditional tribal and peasant societies. Since it was balanced by large numbers of births, the size of the population remained stable. Modern populations in Africa, and much of South America and Asia, are examples of what may have been universal in the past. In these countries, a very large proportion of the population belongs to an age-group capable of becoming parents. This means that, compared with modern in