《经济学家》读译参考

《经济学家》读译参考

（147）：信，还是不信？－真有上帝吗？ - �

Is there a God? 上帝是否存在？
To believe or not to believe 信，还是不信？

008-02-09 17:33:00
（译/陈继龙）

May 31st 2007
From The Economist print edition

A writer who believes in science not God; a scientist who believes in both. But why are they that way? Nobody knows
信科学而不信上帝的是一名作家，既信科学又信上帝的却是一名科学家。他们为何有如此反差？无人知晓

SINCE arguments about God have run for thousands of years, it is a little peculiar to ascribe overwhelming importance to the publication of Darwin's “On the Origin of Species” in 1859. Yet the book did have a soul-sapping effect on unsuspecting Christians. In “Father and Son”, a memoir about loss of faith published anonymously in 1907, Edmund Gosse describes how it drove his father, himself an eminent zoologist, to take him to live on top of a cliff, cutting him off from the world in an attempt to protect him from this heretical notion. （1）The plan didn't work. Some spirit of rebellion stirred in the son, sending his mind wandering during marathon[1] prayer sessions, and he broke free in his teenage years. His father, disappointed, stuck with the God of Abraham.
关于上帝的争论既然都已经持续了数千年，那么再对1859年出版的达尔文《物种的起源》大书特书就有点不寻常了。不过，本书的确对不设防的基督教徒灵魂产 生了深刻的影响。在1907年匿名出版、关于信仰迷失的回忆录《父与子》一书中，作者埃德蒙多•戈瑟（Edmund Gosse）讲述了他的父亲（一位知名的动物学家）是如何在此书（《物种的起源》）的驱动下，为了使他免受这一异教观念的影响，领着他住到悬崖之巅，让他 过上与世隔绝的生活的。父亲的计划落空了，儿子内心已经涌动着某种反叛精神，他的思想在漫长的祈祷之中开始彷徨，十多岁的他便冲破了束缚。失望的父亲只好 自己继续坚守着对上帝的忠诚。

（2）Looking at the recent crop of books on God and religion, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that whether people end up like Mr Gosse or like his father depends on whether they have an intrinsic feeling for religion or not. Christopher Hitchens, a polemicist whose tone is that of an erudite straight-talker, does not. Like Mr Gosse, he started non-belief young. Near the beginning of “God is Not Great” he describes his rebellion when confronted with an effusive divinity teacher at school who pointed to the beauty of hedgerows in the English countryside as evidence of His creation. Mr Hitchens has been skewering[2] the syllogistic[3] arguments of the religious in the name of science ever since.
看看最近一连串关于上帝与宗教的书籍，我们难免会得出这样一个结论，那就是人们最终的走向是类似于戈瑟还是类似于其父亲，取决于他们是否“心中有教”。辩论家克里斯托弗•希金斯（Christopher Hitchens）就不然。从他的言语中一听便知他是一个直言不讳的博学之人。像戈瑟一样，他打年轻的时候就不信上帝。他在《上帝并不伟大》（God is Not Great）一书的开头部分写道，他在上学期间遇到一位热情洋溢的神学老师，这位老师认为英国乡村的灌木篱墙美景都是上帝造物的证明，这让他萌生了反叛情绪。从此，希金斯便一直利用科学对信教者的诡辩进行讽刺。

Francis Collins, on the other hand, has it. Like Mr Gosse senior, Mr Collins is a scientist and a Christian. He confronts Darwin daily in his work as head of the human genome project. He writes well about how, as the code on which DNA is written began to reveal itself, his faith and sense of wonder increased. He stood by Bill Clinton (and worked with his speechwriters) when the then American president talked about DNA as “the language in which God wrote creation”. Mr Collins has no time for intelligent design but conceives God to be of the non-interfering sort, a kind of divine CCTV camera. Yet he believes that Jesus was His son and he prays regularly.
弗朗西斯•柯林斯（Francis Collins）则是另一种态度，那就是“心中有上帝”。像老戈瑟一样，柯林斯既是一位科学家，也是一名基督教徒。作为人类基因组计划的负责人，他每天在 工作中都要与“达尔文”打交道。他坦言，随着DNA密码逐渐揭示出来，他对上帝的信仰及对科学的怀疑也与日俱增。美国前总统克林顿曾说DNA是“上帝用来 记录所造之物的语言”，当时与克林顿演说稿撰写人共事的他对此表示支持。柯林斯对智能设计并不感兴趣，但他认为上帝是一种可抗干扰的、神圣的闭路电视摄影 机（CCTV camera）。不过，他相信耶稣就是上帝之子，并按时祷告。

Belief in God and subscription to a religion are not quite the same thing, although both books treat them as if they were. Mr Hitchens makes the untestable case that the world would be better off without religion altogether. Stupid religious people would stop fighting stupid religious wars and a new enlightenment would ensue. The book is entertaining, meandering[4] and at times disingenuous[5]. Nobody ever went to war for atheism, says Mr Hitchens. But atheists tend to find other reasons to kill each other. （3）To the objection that irreligious fascists and communists found plenty of non-religious reasons for murder in the 20th century, Mr Hitchens retorts that these beliefs were types of secularised religion, and as such do not count.
信奉上帝和信仰某一宗教并不完全是一回事，但上述两部作品给人的感觉却似乎恰好相反。希金斯所设想的情形根本难以证实，他说如果没有宗教，世界将更为美 好。愚昧的教徒不会再为宗教而争战，并将继之以一场新的文明运动。该书言语风趣，行文无拘无束，并且不乏狡黠之处。没有人曾为了无神论而诉诸战争，希金斯 如是说。但是，无神论者往往会找到其他理由而相互残杀。有反对意见认为，非宗教性的法西斯主义者之所以在20世纪大开杀戒，都并非宗教的原因。对此，希金 斯反驳道，法西斯主义是一种世俗化了的宗教，而且诸如此类的信仰都不应该算在内。

What is missing from the book is much sense of what a world without religion, or one that had not had religion in it, might look like. Lots of the principles that Mr Hitchens holds dear, like tolerance and justice, are secularised versions of religious ideas. Religious folk often do the right thing for what Mr Hitchens would call the wrong reasons. Taking faith away would in many cases take away the will to do them. That cost is worth considering.
一个再也没有了宗教或者从未有过宗教的世界，将会是怎样的一个世界，本书对此并未提出多少见解。希金斯所坚持的原则许多都是宗教观点的世俗化表现，比如宽 容与公正。在希金斯看来，教徒们的行为是正确的，但其出发点却常常是错误的。在多数情况下，没有了信仰，教徒们就没有了干劲去做正确的事情，由此产生的代 价不可小觑。

（4）Mr Collins argues for what he calls “theistic[6] evolution”, which he reckons is yet to catch on because it has such a terrible name. Though the mechanism of the origin of life is unknown, he says, once evolution was under way no special supernatural intervention was required. As for those parts of the Old Testament that bend the laws of physics, they are symbolic and should be read as such.
柯林斯则坚持“有神进化论（theistic evolution）”，不过他认为这种论点不太可能会被广为认同，因为其名字本身就让人感到不知所措。他说，尽管生命起源的机理尚不清楚，但一旦进化开始，就不需要任何特别的超自然力量的介入。《旧约》中某些内容虽然有违物理定律，但有其象征意义，应当等而视之。

（5）This is a God that would be almost as unfamiliar to Edmund Gosse's father, to John Calvin or the pope as it would to a Roman sacrificing a bull to Mithras. And for all their clarity, Mr Collins's arguments about why he believes in God do little to explain why he is a Christian. To understand that, it is probably enough to look at the Gosse family and conclude that either you get it or you don't.
这样的上帝，不管是在埃德蒙多•戈瑟的父亲、约翰•加尔文（John Calvin）或者教皇看来，还是在用牛祭祀太阳神的罗马人的眼中，几乎同样都是陌生的。柯林斯就自己为何信上帝所提出的论点难以解释自己为何信基督教。想想戈瑟父子，我们可能就不难领会自己到底有没有理解其中的缘由了。

注：John Calvin是法国基督新教加尔文教的创始人。

[QUIZ]
英译汉（请将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：

[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. marathon n. 拖时长久令人难以忍受的事情
2. skewer v.刺穿；串住；讽刺
3. syllogistic adj. 三段论的；演绎性的；诡辩的
4. meandering adj. 漫步的；漫谈的；漫无边际的
5. disingenuous adj. 不真诚的；狡猾的；装作不知道的
6. theistic adj. 有神论的


(146): 冰人无奈归去-珠峰市场前景看好


Mountains and money
雪山？金山！

The Iceman cometh not
冰人无奈归去（译/陈继龙）

May 31st 2007 | EVEREST BASE CAMP, NEPAL
From The Economist print edition

But Everest is still a big market opportunity
不过珠穆朗玛峰的市场潜力仍旧很大

（1）NUDE mountaineering will never catch on[1] in the Himalayas. But it is the sort of thing that happens when climbing Everest ceases to be the exclusive preserve of an elite. Wim Hoff, a Dutchman also known as The Iceman, has had to abandon an attempt to hike up the world's highest mountain nearly naked. But over 50 fully-clothed expeditions are now huddled[2] amid rock and ice at two base camps on either side of the mountain.
光着身子登山永远不会在喜马拉雅山流行，但是当不再只有精英才能攀登珠峰之时，如此登山确实了不起。人称“冰人”（the Iceman）的荷兰人威姆•霍夫（Wim Hoff）原本就打算赤身裸体攀登这座世界最高峰，但最后还是选择了放弃，而在位于山两侧的两个探险队营地上，眼下却仍有50多名穿着严实的探险队员被困于岩石与冰雪之间。

（2）A reliable tally is not yet available, but probably more than 500 people scaled the peak during this year's brief climbing season, which is now concluding—exceeding even last year's bumper crop of around 450.The death of 11 climbers last year appears to have done nothing to put people off.
自今年短暂的登山季节开始以来，到底有多少人攀登珠峰还不得而知，不过至少有500人。就目前来看，这一数字已经超过了去年全年的总人数（大约450人）。去年死了11名登山者，但人们似乎并未因此而却步。

All this activity has created a flourishing micro-economy. “（3）Everything to do with Everest is so expensive, man,” complains Dan Mazur, an expedition leader, as he fingers a $600 oxygen mask. His SummitClimb expedition costs clients $26,450. Some prices are as steep as $60,000. The Nepalese government charges $10,000 a client for a climbing permit. China has lured many climbers to the trickier north face by charging less than half that.
登山运动带来了微观经济的繁荣。探险队队长丹•马祖尔（Dan Mazur）一边用手指拨弄着一只价值600美元的氧气面罩，一边抱怨道：“唉，只要跟珠峰沾上边的，花钱都少不了！”他的登峰 （SummitClimb）探险队要交2万多美元的客户服务费，有的价格则高达6万美元。尼泊尔政府对每个客户（登山者）要收取1万美元的登山许可证费， 而中国的要价则一半还不到，因此吸引了很多登山者前往较难攀登的珠峰北侧。

The tourism does seem to benefit—or at least enrich—the locals. Many Sherpa people, who live to the south of the mountain and worship it as the home of a goddess, send their children to boarding school in Kathmandu, and own second homes there. Villages near the mountain are Nepal's richest. （4）Rare elsewhere, gold teeth are in vogue.
当地人似乎也从旅游业中受了益，至少是更富有了。居住在珠峰南侧的夏尔巴人尊奉珠峰为神女峰，他们很多人都将子女送到加德满都的寄宿学校上学，并在那建立了自己的第二家园。珠峰附近的村庄是尼泊尔最富裕的村庄，别处难得一见的金牙齿在那里十分风行。

“Everyone is looking for a challenge,” says David Tait, a London hedge-fund manager who planned to execute a “double traverse[3]” of the mountain this year.（5）In the event he could only summon the energy to climb right over it once. “Technology makes the mountain more accessible. Personal wealth means more people can afford it,” he says.
伦敦对冲基金经理大卫•泰特（David Tait）说：“所有人都在寻求挑战。”他原计划在今年实施一项“两次横越珠峰”行动，结果他竭尽全力也只横越了一次。“科技让登山变得更为容易，而个人财富的积累意味着更多人能够承担得起登山费用。”他说。

[QUIZ]
英译汉（请将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：

[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. catch on 受欢迎，变得流行
2. huddle v.（使某人或物）聚集在一起，挤在一起
3. traverse v. 横越，横穿，横贯

(145):那时一种气体-元素周期表新发现


(14):


():
Chemistry
化学

It's a gas
那是一种气体（译/陈继龙）

May 3rd 2007
From The Economist print edition

A gaseous metal may just have been discovered
也许才被发现的一种气态金属

IN CHEMISTRY, less is more. The subject's practitioners have a horror of what they call “bucket chemistry”—even if the buckets in question are merely test-tube sized. Finesse comes from the ability to analyse small quantities accurately. And the smallest possible quantity in chemistry is, of course, a single atom.
在化学上，少一点即多一些。从事化学研究的人十分厌恶所谓的“提桶化学（bucket chemistry）”——即使所研究的提桶仅有试管一般大小亦然。能够进行准确微定量分析那才叫本事，而单一的原子无疑就是化学上能够进行最小定量分析的对象了。

Robert Eichler, of the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, and his colleagues have not quite managed that, but they have come close. As they report in this week's Nature, they have characterised the properties of a recently discovered element using two atoms. （1）In doing so, they have shown that the predictions of chemistry's central blueprint, Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table, extend reliably into the realm of heavy, short-lived, radioactive elements that do not exist in nature. They may also have found the first metal that is a gas at room temperature.
瑞士保罗•谢勒研究所（Paul Scherrer Institute）的罗伯特•艾希勒（Robert Eichler）和他的同事们对此虽不十分在行，但已经接近了这个水平。在本周出版的《自然》杂志上，他们报道通过两个原子表征了一种新近发现元素的特性。与此同时，他们指出，按照化学的中心蓝图——季米特里•门捷列夫（Dmitri Mendeleev）元素周期表预测下去，完全可以延伸至自然界不存在、半衰期短的放射性重元素领域。此外，他们还发现了首个在室温下为气态的金属元素。

An electronic shell game
电子层游戏

（2）As generations of chemistry teachers have laboured to convey, the periodic table consists of rows and columns. Adjacent elements in a row differ from one another by a proton in the nucleus and an electron orbiting that nucleus. The periodic table works because the electrons like to organise themselves in concentric shells. Outer shells are bigger than inner ones, but each has a fixed capacity. When a shell is full, the next element in the series starts a new shell, and that marks the beginning of a new row of the table. The larger capacity of outer shells means that the rows get longer, and so more columns appear.
多少年来化学老师潜心教授的是，元素周期表由行与列组成，每一行相邻的两个元素原子核之间相差一个质子及绕核旋转的一个电子。元素周期表之所以可行，是因 为电子往往要在同心电子层中自行排列。外层比内层大，但每层容量均固定不变。当某一层排满电子时，周期表中的下一元素就启用新的一层，此即标志着周期表新 的一行元素的开始。外层容量越大，行就越长，列也就越多。

It is the columns that are the interesting part of the table. Elements in the first column all have one electron in their outermost shell. Those in the second column have two outer electrons, and so on. Only electrons in the outer shell can form chemical bonds, so the elements in each column are chemically similar.
列是周期表中有意思的部分。第一列元素最外电子层内均有一个电子，第二列元素则含有两个电子，依此类推。只有外层内的电子才会形成化学键，因此每一列中各元素化学性质均相似。

What Dr Eichler and his colleagues wanted to find out was whether the pattern would continue to hold good for the monster elements coming out of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. （3）The reason to suspect it might not is that as the shells get bigger, the velocity of the electrons within them increases. At some point they will be travelling so fast that the way they bond will be affected by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, which departs from classical theories at speeds close to that of light.
艾希勒和他的同事们希望弄清的是，这一模式是否也适用于俄罗斯杜伯纳联合核研究所发现的超大元素。有人怀疑可能并不适用，原因在于当电子层增大时，层内电 子运动速度也加快。从某种意义上看，根据爱因斯坦相对论（当达到接近光速的速度时，相对论就背离了经典理论），电子运动速度加快，电子间相互结合的方式就 会受影响。

The object of Dr Eichler's study was element number 112. This was first made in 1996, but has still not received an official name (it goes under the ugly moniker of ununbium). In non-relativistic theory, it should behave like the other members of its column—zinc, cadmium and mercury—and be a metal. But some relativistic calculations suggested it might actually behave like a different element, the inert (and non-metallic) gas, radon.
艾希勒研究的是第112号元素。该元素在1996年首次合成，但至今仍未予正式命名（目前名为ununbium，很难看）。从非相对论意义上来看，它应表 现出同列其它元素——锌、镉和汞——的特性，且应是一种金属。但基于相对论进行的计算表明，它更像一种独特元素、惰性（非金属）气体氡。

Unfortunately for chemists, ununbium can be made only a few atoms at a time (by bombarding plutonium atoms with calcium atoms), and those atoms that are made have a half-life of a mere four seconds. Dr Eichler nevertheless took up the challenge. With the aid of colleagues in Dubna, he managed to get two atoms of ununbium to stick to a sheet of gold. What is more, by using a trick called thermochromatography he was able to measure the energy released when this happened. All that remained was to see whether this energy release more resembled that of gold reacting with mercury or with radon.
遗憾的是，化学家们合成第112号元素时，每次仅能获得很少的几个原子（用钙原子轰击钚原子），而且这些原子的半衰期仅为4秒。但艾希勒迎难而上，在杜伯 纳研究所同行的协助下，成功地将第112号元素的两个原子粘附到一块金片上，同时利用热色谱技术对粘附时释放的能量进行了测定。接下来要弄清的问题就是， 释放的能量是否与金汞或金氡反应时释放的能量相同。

Mendeleev 1: Einstein 0
门捷列夫1:0爱因斯坦

（4）By a convenient fluke, the process that produces ununbium also generates radon, while adding neodymium yields mercury, too, so Dr Eichler's comparisons were to hand. The upshot is that the ununbium/gold reaction resembled that with mercury and not that with radon. However, the interaction energy reveals more than just chemical affinity. It also gives an idea of how volatile an element is, even if only one or two atoms are available.
凑巧的是，合成第112号元素的同时也会产生氡，当加入钕时还会产生汞，这为艾希勒作比较时提供了便利。结果显示，第112号元素与金之间的反应，同金汞反应相近，但不同于金氡反应。这种相互作用能（interaction energy）不仅能表现出化学亲和力的大小，尚可揭示某种元素的挥发性强弱——即便只有一个或两个原子。

（5）Whether an element is a solid, a liquid or a gas depends on how its atoms interact with each other. But how they interact with other substances, such as gold, acts as a proxy for that behaviour. Dr Eichler's previous work has established a graph that describes this proxy. Although he cannot be sure, there is a good chance that if you could make ununbium in large quantities, it would not only be metallic, but would also be a gas at room temperature.
一种元素到底属于固体、液体还是气体，要视其原子之间的相互作用而定，而它们与其它物质（如金）之间的相互作用，可相当于前一相互作用的“代理方式”。艾 希勒在其以前的研究中，已经绘制出表现这种“代理方式”的曲线图。虽然他还不可能有确切结论，但至少找到了一个很好的机会：那就是如果第112号元素得以 大量合成，那么它不仅是金属元素，而且在室温下还会呈现气态。

(142):“贿”气-腐败丑闻困扰阿根廷

Argentina
阿根廷
Gas and graft
“贿”气（译/陈继龙）

May 10th 2007 | BUENOS AIRES
From The Economist print edition

A corruption scandal laps around the government
腐败丑闻困扰阿根廷

CAMPAIGNING for Argentina's presidency in 2003, Néstor Kirchner promised voters that he would “renew the political culture”, cleansing it of corruption. （1）The first three years of his term were free of big scandals. But just six months before a presidential election in which he may seek a second term, his government's reputation for honest dealing is facing its first serious test, as details trickle out[1] about a state-administered pipeline project sullied[2] by front companies[3], fake billing and suspicions of bribes. Investigations have not unearthed any evidence of wrongdoing by government officials, and the sums involved are fairly small. But opponents claim that the rot goes deeper.
2003年，内斯托•基什内尔（Néstor Kirchner）在竞选阿根廷总统时曾向选民许诺，他将“重建政治文化”并清除腐败。任期头三年没发生大的丑闻，可就在距离他谋求连任的总统大选还有6 个月的当口，其政府清正廉洁的名声首度面临严峻考验——有人透露，在一项国营天然气管道工程中，存在政府领导挂名公司参与、虚假帐单以及贪污受贿等诸多问 题。经多次调查，尚未发现任何可以证明政府官员有不正当行为的证据，而且涉嫌金额总数也相当少。不过反对人士声称，腐败问题加重了。

The roots of the scandal lie in Mr Kirchner's energy policy, which relies heavily on price controls. Under Argentina's successful privatisation of its natural-gas industry in 1992, private companies decided where and how much to invest in pipelines. A government regulator authorised tariff increases to pay for the projects.
这桩丑闻根源于基什内尔实行的、严重依赖价格调控的能源政策。1992年，阿根廷天然气产业成功私有化之后，私营企业有权决定管道投资地点和金额。政府监管部门则批准提高关税来为项目提供资金。

（2）When an economic collapse forced a big devaluation of the peso in 2002, the government converted all dollar-denominated tariffs into pesos and froze them. Although the economy is booming again, Mr Kirchner only recently authorised the first tariff increase for residential users in five years. To remedy the resulting shortage, the government has sought to expand a pipeline bringing gas from Bolivia.
2002年阿根廷经济出现崩溃，比索（阿根廷货币）被迫大幅度贬值。当时，政府将关税中所有美元部分均兑换成比索并加以冻结。尽管后来经济再度复苏，但基 什内尔直到最近才在五年内首次批准提高住宅用户关税。为了弥补因此造成的能源短缺，政府已准备扩建从玻利维亚输入天然气的管道。

To pay for this, the government set up a trust fund with loans from Spain's Repsol YPF and Brazil's national development bank, the BNDES. It promised to repay them from a new tax on industrial users of gas. The government then told the pipeline's operator, Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN), to proceed with the expansion and to send the bill to the trust fund.
为了筹集扩建资金，政府将西班牙Repsol YPF石油公司和巴西国家开发银行（BNDES）提供的贷款设为信托基金，并承诺通过对天然气的工业用户增收一项新税来偿还这些贷款。此后它要求管道运营商——TGN（Transportadora de Gas del Norte）公司继续进行扩建，并由信托基金买单。

TGN is controlled by Techint, an Argentine steel- and pipemaker. It organised competitive tenders for the work. Among the winners was Skanska, a Swedish construction company. As the work proceeded, a judge received an anonymous tip-off[4] that Skanska had evaded tax by obtaining receipts for $400,000 of non-existent services bought from Infiniti, a company with no employees.
隶属阿根廷Technit钢铁和管道制造公司的TGN组织投标商对扩建工程进行了竞标，瑞典Skanska建筑公司成为中标者之一。工程在建过程中，一名法官接到一封匿名举报信，信上指称Skanska公司曾通过取得40万美元“子虚乌有的（non-existent）”服务发票的方式进行逃税，而提供这些服务的都是一家名为Infiniti的皮包公司。

（3）Skanska then began its own inquiry. It found that it had paid 23 different companies for services never rendered; that this money was handed back to Skanska, and that over $4m of it was eventually spent on “improper payments”—though it did not specify to whom. Skanska has sacked seven of its managers in Argentina (all of whom were arrested on May 8th) and has paid the tax authority almost $5m.
Skanska公司随后展开了自查，发现其曾为一些“子虚乌有的”服务向23家不同的公司付款，而这笔资金后来又退还给Skanska公司，其中有400多万美元最终用作“不正当报酬”——不过它并未说明到底给了谁。Skanska公司已解雇了其派驻阿根廷的7名经理人员（所有人均于5月8日被捕），并向税务当局交纳了近500万美元。

The government points out that the affair involves private companies and that there is no evidence of officials receiving bribes. But there are grounds for suspicion. During the tender won by Skanska, TGN complained in several letters to the regulator that all the bids for work that it reckoned should cost no more than $3.5m had come in at almost $9m. The regulator, who reports to the planning minister, responded that TGN should pay the excess. (The government now says TGN's estimate was too low.) Second, according to court documents Skanska was instructed to do business with Infiniti by the government agency responsible for the trust fund.
政府指出，此事牵涉到私营企业，但尚无证据表明官员收受了贿赂。不过仍有诸多疑点。在Skanska中标的那次竞标过程中，TGN曾多次写信给监管部门，抱怨它原先估计此次工程投标总额不会超过350万美元，结果却达近900万美元。由计划部长直管的该部门答复表示， TGN应负责支付超出数额。（现在政府表示TGN的估算过低。）再有就是庭审文件认为，Skanska公司与Infiniti的交易，来自于信托基金政府主管部门的授意。

（4）There are fears of a cover-up. Last year there was a fire in the tax office where documents relating to the case were kept. The investigating judge had previously requested police protection for those offices, but the interior ministry declined to provide it. On March 27th three armed men entered the house of Carlos Russo, the journalist who broke the story, and stole papers containing much of his work.
很多人还担心有人故意掩盖事实。去年，存放此案相关文件的税务局发生了一起火灾，而此前负责调查的法官曾要求警方保护好那些办公室，但遭到了内政部的拒绝。3月27日，三名武装男子闯入披露此事的记者卡洛斯•鲁索（Carlos Russo）家中，偷走了许多相关文件资料。

But investigations continue. Tax officials have searched 22 offices of firms from which Skanska obtained fake receipts. It transpires[5] that Infiniti had over 130 clients for its non-existent services. Esteban Bullrich, an opposition congressman, estimates that at least $25m of the $285m cost of the pipeline was corruptly diverted.
不过调查并没有中止。税务官员搜查了为Skanska提供虚假发票的各公司的22个办事处，发现Infiniti“子虚乌有的”服务客户超过130家。反对党议员埃斯特班•布尔里希（Esteban Bullrich）估计，管道工程耗费的2.85亿美元中，至少有2500万美元被挪作他用。

Mr Bullrich and another congressmen have asked the courts to investigate three senior officials at the planning ministry in connection with the case. The minister, Julio de Vido, is Mr Kirchner's closest aide. His ministry has grown swiftly, and now oversees spending of $4.6 billion a year. On taking office Mr Kirchner appointed Mr de Vido's wife to a senior post in the government's internal audit agency.
布尔里希和另一名议员已请求法院对计划部涉案的三名高级官员进行调查。计划部长胡里奥•德•维多（Julio de Vido）是基什内尔总统最亲近的助手，他所领导的计划部发展十分迅速，每年监管的开支现已达46亿美元。基什内尔刚刚就职总统时便任命德•贝多的妻子出任政府内部审计处的一名高官。

The courts are taking a close interest in the ministry's spending. Lavish bus and train subsidies, as well as road tolls, are the subject of some 15 judicial probes. Prosecutors are now scrutinising all public-works projects financed by trust funds similar to the one used for the pipeline.
法院对计划部的开支情况兴趣越来越浓厚。公共汽车和火车补贴以及公路收费过高等问题是15项左右司法调查的重点。检察人员目前正在对所有由信托基金提供资金的公共建设项目进行审查。

（5）Mr Kirchner has often criticised what he sees as the sleaze[6] during the government of Carlos Menem in the 1990s. At the time, Argentines were tolerant of such allegations because the economy was growing strongly. The government must hope they are again in forgiving mood.
基什内尔认为上世纪90年代卡洛斯•梅内姆（Carlos Menem）政府执政期间存在一些“不光彩的事情”，并常常予以抨击。由于适逢经济蓬勃发展，阿根廷民众对他这种指摘并不在意。这回政府必须再一次寄希望于人民“心胸豁达”了。

[QUIZ]
英译汉（请将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：

[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. trickle out 慢慢流出；（消息）逐渐传出
2. sully v. 弄脏，玷污
3. front company 为隐瞒秘密或非法活动而建立的合法公司
4. tip-off n. 密报
5. transpire v. 与it和that从句结合使用; 通常不用于进行时态.（指事情、秘密等）公开, 为人所知
6. sleaze n. 不道德的行为（尤指与性、谎言有关）