張曉敏

Will Rogers1） once quipped2）， "Buy land. They ain't making more of the stuff." While we may not be making any more land， we are moving it around pretty creatively. Artificial islands abound—some are pretty low-tech， while others are wired digital utopia3）. Here are some of the most beautiful， bizarre， and creative artificial islands that human ingenuity has created.

威爾·羅杰斯曾有妙語：“買土地吧，他們沒法制造出更多的土地?！闭\然，我們也許無法制造出更多土地，但我們可以發(fā)揮創(chuàng)意讓它們四處移動(dòng)。地球上的人工島嶼多不勝數(shù)，有些科技含量較低，而有些則是有線的數(shù)字化烏托邦。以下便是足智多謀的人類創(chuàng)造出的一些最美麗、最奇特和最有創(chuàng)意的人工島。

Kamfers Dam in South Africa is one of only six places in the world where Lesser Flamingos breed. The S-shaped island was constructed in 2006 as a refuge for the birds， which are attracted to the wetland's high concentration of blue-green algae4）.

Today the bird sanctuary is threatened by deteriorating5） water quality and flooding.

南非的卡姆菲斯大壩是世界上僅有的六大火烈鳥棲息地之一。這個(gè)S形的小島建于2006年，這片濕地中高密度的藍(lán)綠藻能夠吸引火烈鳥，被用作火烈鳥的庇護(hù)所。

如今，這個(gè)火烈鳥保護(hù)區(qū)因?yàn)樗|(zhì)惡化和洪水泛濫而遭到威脅。

Peberholm is a bridge/tunnel combo. It is a part of the Oresund Bridge that connects Denmark to Sweden.

The island is off limits to people apart from biologists. Since the busy traffic is safely cordoned off6）， Peberholm has become a home for numerous bird and plant species.

佩博霍爾姆島是橋梁和隧道的連接體，是連接丹麥和瑞典的厄勒海峽大橋的一部分。

這座小島僅對生物學(xué)家開放。由于繁忙的交通被安全地隔離出來，佩博霍爾姆島便成了無數(shù)種鳥和植物的家園。

British Artist Richard Sowa built his own island out of discarded7） plastic bottles on Mexico's Eastern coast.

Sowa attempted to use Kickstarter8） to get funding for his "public art project" of an island paradise of floating tree-covered plastic.

He didn't build this just for the fun of having his own island paradise. He says： "[Floating islands] can be all over the globe， on rivers， lakes， and in protected oceans. They can provide sustainable habitats for plants， animals， and humans， [and can even be made] on dry ground in potential flood areas such as Bangladesh. People's homes， gardens， and lives can actually be saved instead of being washed away by the flood， and if tethered9）， the islands would even be in the same place after the flood subsided10）."

英國藝術(shù)家理查德·索瓦在墨西哥東海岸用廢棄的塑料瓶建造了屬于自己的島嶼。

索瓦試圖通過眾募網(wǎng)站Kickstarter為他的“公共藝術(shù)項(xiàng)目”—— 一座漂浮著的綠樹掩映的塑料天堂島——籌集資金。

索瓦建造這座島并不僅僅是為了享受擁有自己的天堂島這一樂趣，他說：“[浮島]可以建在世界各地的河流、湖泊和海洋保護(hù)區(qū)上。它們能為動(dòng)植物和人類提供可持續(xù)的棲息地，[甚至還能建在]像孟加拉國這樣的潛在洪區(qū)的干燥土地上。人們的房子、花園還有生命實(shí)際上能被它們挽救而不是被洪水沖走，如果用鏈子把這些島拴住，洪水退去后，它們甚至還會(huì)留在原處?！?/p>

Built in 1909， Harbor Island was once the largest artificial island in the world.endprint

The 395 acres was initially built from 24 million cubic yards of earth dredged11） from the Duwamish River. The island is mainly an industrial and port area with train stations and some of Seattle's sports stadiums.

港島建于1909年，曾是世界上最大的人工島。

該島有395英畝，最初是由從杜瓦米西河疏浚出的2400萬立方碼的泥土建造而成。它主要被用作工業(yè)區(qū)和港區(qū)，島上有火車站以及西雅圖的一些運(yùn)動(dòng)場館。

1. Will Rogers： 威爾·羅杰斯（1879～1935），美國著名演員、編劇

2. quip [kw?p] vt. 俏皮地說

3. utopia [ju??t??pi?] n. 烏托邦（理想中最美好的社會(huì)）

4. algae [??ld?i?] n. 【復(fù)】水藻

5. deteriorate [d??t??ri?re?t] v. （使）惡化

6. cordon off： 封鎖；隔離

7. discard [d?s?kɑ?d] vt. 丟棄

8. Kickstarter： 眾募網(wǎng)站，一個(gè)做慈善事業(yè)的網(wǎng)站，致力于支持和激勵(lì)創(chuàng)新性、創(chuàng)造性、創(chuàng)意性的活動(dòng)，讓有創(chuàng)造力的人通過這個(gè)網(wǎng)絡(luò)平臺(tái)面向公眾籌集他們所需要的資金，以便使他們的夢想有可能實(shí)現(xiàn)。

9. tether [?te??（r）] vt. 拴住

10. subside [s?b?sa?d] vi. （尤指洪水的水位）回落

11. dredge [dred?] vt. 疏浚

12. strip [str?p] vt. 拆卸

13. battery [?b?tri] n. 一排（大炮、導(dǎo)彈發(fā)射裝置）

14. pound [pa?nd] vt. 連續(xù)重?fù)?/p>

15. retreat [r??tri?t] n. 隱居處；休閑處

Dubai has the biggest artificial island development in the world， the famous Palm Jumeriah.

This $12 billion construction project began in 2001 when Nakheel， the state-sponsored developers， put 94 million cubic meters of sand and 7 million tons of rock into the Persian Gulf.

The Palm's core includes a monorail and an 8 lane highway. Two fighter jets were stripped12） and sunk right off the artificial coast to create an artificial reef. 28 dolphins have been flown in to populate the Island's Dolphin Bay.

Nakheel still struggles to assure people that the islands aren't sinking.

迪拜擁有世界上最大的人工島開發(fā)項(xiàng)目，即著名的棕櫚島。

這個(gè)耗資120億美元的建筑工程始于2001年，當(dāng)時(shí)，由國家資助的房地產(chǎn)公司納赫勒集團(tuán)將9400萬立方米沙土和700萬噸石塊填入了波斯灣。

棕櫚島的核心區(qū)域包括一條單軌鐵路和一條八車道的高速公路。兩架戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)被拆卸后沿著人造海岸沉入海中以造出人工暗礁。28只海豚已被空運(yùn)過來并放養(yǎng)于此，成為島內(nèi)的海豚灣。

納赫勒集團(tuán)仍在竭力向人們保證棕櫚島不會(huì)下沉。

Hong Kong International Airport opened in July 1998 on the artificial island of Chek Lap Kok.

The southern gateway to Mainland China took six years and $20 billion to build， increasing the land area of Hong Kong by 1 percent. As the third busiest airport in the world， the transportation hub carried more than 53 million passengers in 2011.

香港國際機(jī)場位于人工島赤鱲角，于1998年7月投入使用。

這扇通往中國大陸的南大門耗資200億美元，歷時(shí)六年才建成，使香港的島嶼面積增加了1%。作為世界第三大最繁忙的機(jī)場，這個(gè)中轉(zhuǎn)中心2011年的客流量超過了5300萬人次。

When Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan to Western trade， he parked a few ships in Edo Bay and fired canons into Tokyo—the most populous city on Earth—even then. To protect the city from further attacks， officials built a series of artificial islands in the bay to serve as batteries13） with canons to pound14） American ships.endprint

The military past of the island is now long gone and Odaiba is a retreat15） today with parks， a beach， an amusement park， malls， restaurants， a convention center， television studios， and a fake Statue of Liberty.

當(dāng)海軍準(zhǔn)將馬修·佩里迫使日本向西方貿(mào)易打開大門時(shí)，他將幾艘船停泊在江戶灣，朝著東京市開炮——即使在那個(gè)時(shí)候，東京也是地球上人口最稠密的城市。為了保護(hù)東京免受更進(jìn)一步的攻擊，官員們在江戶灣里建造了一系列人工島，將其當(dāng)作回?fù)裘儡姶?duì)的炮臺(tái)。

這個(gè)小島的軍事往事早已成為過去，現(xiàn)在的御臺(tái)場是一個(gè)休閑的好去處。這里有海灘、游樂園和會(huì)展中心，還有一些公園、商場、餐廳、電視演播室和一座仿造的自由女神像。

The Maldives， a tropical paradise in the Indian Ocean， is mostly a picturesque archipelago16） of sandy beaches and blue waves.

Thilafushi is the exact opposite. It's the world's largest island made primarily of garbage. Just a shallows in 1992， it's now home to all the trash from Malé and the numerous tourist resorts in the Maldives—growing about one square meter per day. Like most of the Maldives， Thilafushi is only 1 meter over sea level. Rising sea levels means that this massive pile of waste could soon be under water.

150 Bangladeshi workers live there， sorting through the waste.

馬爾代夫是印度洋上的熱帶天堂，其大部分地域都是風(fēng)景如畫的群島，有著多沙的沙灘和藍(lán)色的海浪。

提拉夫西垃圾島則恰好相反。它是世界上最大的主要由垃圾形成的島嶼。這個(gè)小島在1992年時(shí)還只是個(gè)淺灘，但現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)是馬累以及馬爾代夫其他眾多旅游景點(diǎn)的垃圾投放點(diǎn)——面積每天增加一平方米。同馬爾代夫的大多數(shù)地方一樣，提拉夫西垃圾島也只高出海平面一米。不斷上升的海平面意味著這巨大的垃圾堆可能用不了多久就會(huì)被海水淹沒。

島上現(xiàn)有150名孟加拉人居住，負(fù)責(zé)對垃圾進(jìn)行分類。endprint