翻譯--增長知識與"中文"能力的有效途徑

以下是紫檀樹最近的"練習"，跟大家分享，也希望朋友們不吝指教囉! 紫檀樹一定會虛心接受，而且感激萬分~~

Source Text (English-Australia)

Sun, Surf, and birth of New economic Modle

陽光、衝浪與一個新經濟模式的誕生

by Peter Hartcher

It is a developed country that enjoyed faster economic growth than the US over the past decade. Yet is also offers universal healthcare and other social welfare benefits that the US does not. Unemployment is similar to America’s, but without the glaring income disparities that characterise US growth. It is a country that seems to have achieved a sweet spot, combining the vigour of American capitalism with the humanity of European welfare, yet suffering the drawbacks of neither. And it manages this while keeping a consistent budget surplus. That country, rolling into its 16th year of uninterrupted growth, is Australia.

        這是一個已開發國家，在過去的十年，經濟成長的速度比美國還快。而且還提供了美國所沒有的全民健保和其他的社會福利。失業率雖然與美國相近，卻沒有像美國經濟成長所特有的貧富懸殊差距。這個國家似乎找到了最佳的發展方式結合 了美國資本主義的活力和歐洲社會福利的人性化，但卻沒有兩者的弊端。在實現這一點的同時，這個國家的財政預算連年保持盈餘。這個正歩入經濟持續成長的第16個年頭的國家，就是澳大利亞。

“In the last decade of the twentieth century, Australia became a model for other OECD countries,” wrote the 30-nation club of rich economies in its latest annual assessment of the country. Australia, which started life as a dump for Britain’s criminal effluent, was such an unlikely candidate to be any sort of economic role model that it should give hope to others. Australia’s economic development in the twentieth century seemed to be arrested at the quarry-and-farm phase. And when the funder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew forecast in the 1980s that Australians were destined to become “the poor white trash of Asia”, he seemed to know what he was talking about. In 1970s, Australian per-capita incomes were the fourth highest in the world. In the 20 years that followed, its ranking fell inexorably. By 1991, Australia was placed 19^th. Other countries surged. Australia stagnated.

    　由三十個富裕國家組成的「富國俱樂部」，對這個國家所做的最新的一份年度評估中指出「在二十世紀的最後十年，澳洲成為經濟合作暨發展組織（OECD，簡稱經合組織）中，其他會員國的典範。」澳洲，最初是英國罪犯流放的地方。過去，人們認為怎麼也輪不到澳洲成為經濟典範，其他國家從不抱任何希望。澳洲在二十世紀的經濟發展，似乎停留在農產礦山的階段。因此當現代新加坡的遞造者--李光耀，在80年代預測澳洲注定要成為『亞洲的窮白人渣滓 (poor white trash)』, 看來，當時他這麼說是有根據的。因為70年代，當時澳洲國民平均所得之高，排名世界第四。可是在那之後的20年間，排名不斷下降。當其他國家經濟起飛之時，澳洲卻停滯不前。到了1991年，澳洲的排名已掉到世界排名第十九位了。

[註]

sweep spot, 原用於體育，指的是最有效的擊球點。

manage this...... 指的是達成美國與歐洲共有的成就，於是添詞 "在實現這一點的同時"，讓意思完整。

quarry-and-farm 譯成　農場礦山。