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Yuval Noah Harari is famous for his book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”. We use Google Translate to test the translation into Chinese.

He is a wise man.

On 30 March, Yuval published an article in Finacial Times “The world after coronavirus”

This article was translated into Chinese by many people.

To help you test your English-Chinese translation skills, we put some of the English paragraphs together with Google Translate.

Let’s see if you can translate it better than Google AI.

The left side is English from FT and the right side is from Google translation.


Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive — but we will inhabit a different world.

人类现在正面临全球危机。也许是我们这一代最大的危机。人民和政府在未来几周内做出的决定可能会在未来数年内改变世界。它们不仅将影响我们的医疗保健系统,还将影响我们的经济,政治和文化。我们必须迅速果断地采取行动。我们还应考虑到我们行动的长期后果。在替代方案之间进行选择时,我们不仅要问自己如何克服眼前的威胁,而且还要问问自己,风暴过后我们将居住在什么样的世界上。是的,风暴将过去,人类将生存,我们大多数人仍将活着-但我们将生活在另一个世界中。

In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.

在危机时刻,我们面临两个特别重要的选择。第一个是在极权主义监视与公民赋权之间。第二个问题是民族主义孤立与全球团结之间。

Centralised monitoring and harsh punishments aren’t the only way to make people comply with beneficial guidelines. When people are told the scientific facts, and when people trust public authorities to tell them these facts, citizens can do the right thing even without a Big Brother watching over their shoulders. A self-motivated and well-informed population is usually far more powerful and effective than a policed, ignorant population.

集中监控和严厉惩罚并不是使人们遵守有益准则的唯一方法。当人们被告知科学事实,并且人们信任公共当局告诉他们这些事实时,即使没有“老大哥”的监督,公民也可以做正确的事情。一个有上进心和知识渊博的人群通常比受过训练的无知人群要强大得多。

But to achieve such a level of compliance and co-operation, you need trust. People need to trust science, to trust public authorities, and to trust the media. Over the past few years, irresponsible politicians have deliberately undermined trust in science, in public authorities and in the media. Now these same irresponsible politicians might be tempted to take the high road to authoritarianism, arguing that you just cannot trust the public to do the right thing.

但是要达到这种合规与合作水平,您需要信任。人们需要信任科学,信任公共权威以及信任媒体。在过去的几年中,不负责任的政治家故意破坏了对科学,公共当局和媒体的信任。现在,这些同样不负责任的政治家可能会倾向于走专制主义的道路,认为您就是不信任公众做正确的事。

First and foremost, in order to defeat the virus we need to share information globally. That’s the big advantage of humans over viruses. A coronavirus in China and a coronavirus in the US cannot swap tips about how to infect humans. But China can teach the US many valuable lessons about coronavirus and how to deal with it. What an Italian doctor discovers in Milan in the early morning might well save lives in Tehran by evening. When the UK government hesitates between several policies, it can get advice from the Koreans who have already faced a similar dilemma a month ago. But for this to happen, we need a spirit of global co-operation and trust.

首先,为了战胜病毒,我们需要在全球范围内共享信息。这是人类相对于病毒的最大优势。中国的冠状病毒和美国的冠状病毒不能交换有关如何感染人类的​​提示。但是中国可以向美国传授许多有关冠状病毒及其应对方法的宝贵经验。一位意大利医生在清晨在米兰发现的东西很可能在晚上挽救德黑兰的生命。当英国政府对几项政策犹豫不决时,它可以从一个月前已经面临类似困境的韩国人那里获得建议。但是,要做到这一点,我们需要一种全球合作与信任的精神。

Countries should be willing to share information openly and humbly seek advice, and should be able to trust the data and the insights they receive. We also need a global effort to produce and distribute medical equipment, most notably testing kits and respiratory machines. Instead of every country trying to do it locally and hoarding whatever equipment it can get, a co-ordinated global effort could greatly accelerate production and make sure life-saving equipment is distributed more fairly. Just as countries nationalise key industries during a war, the human war against coronavirus may require us to “humanise” the crucial production lines. A rich country with few coronavirus cases should be willing to send precious equipment to a poorer country with many cases, trusting that if and when it subsequently needs help, other countries will come to its assistance.

各国应该愿意公开地分享信息,并谦虚地寻求建议,并且应该能够信任所收到的数据和见解。我们还需要全球范围内的努力来生产和分销医疗设备,尤其是测试套件和呼吸机。与其每个国家都尝试在本地进行生产并ho积任何设备,不如在全球范围内协调一致地努力,就可以大大加快生产速度,并确保可以更公平地分配救生设备。正如各国在战争中将关键产业国有化一样,人类与冠状病毒的战争可能会要求我们将关键的生产线“人性化”。很少有冠状病毒病例的富裕国家应该愿意向有很多病例的较贫穷国家发送宝贵的设备,并相信如果以后需要帮助的时候,其他国家也会提供帮助。

Unfortunately, at present countries hardly do any of these things. A collective paralysis has gripped the international community. There seem to be no adults in the room. One would have expected to see already weeks ago an emergency meeting of global leaders to come up with a common plan of action. The G7 leaders managed to organise a videoconference only this week, and it did not result in any such plan.

不幸的是,目前各国几乎没有做任何这些事情。国际社会陷入了集体瘫痪。房间里似乎没有大人。人们原本希望在几周前看到全球领导人紧急会议,以制定一项共同的行动计划。七国集团领导人仅在本周组织了一次电视会议,但并未制定任何此类计划。

Humanity needs to make a choice. Will we travel down the route of disunity, or will we adopt the path of global solidarity? If we choose disunity, this will not only prolong the crisis, but will probably result in even worse catastrophes in the future. If we choose global solidarity, it will be a victory not only against the coronavirus, but against all future epidemics and crises that might assail humankind in the 21st century.

人类需要做出选择。我们是走团结的道路,还是走全球团结的道路?如果我们选择不团结,这不仅会延长危机,而且将来可能会导致更严重的灾难。如果我们选择全球团结,这将不仅是对抗冠状病毒的胜利,也是抗击可能在21世纪危害人类的所有未来流行病和危机的胜利。

The Google translation is getting better these days, but there are still mistakes.

Try to see if you can correct the translation.

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