天柱县位于贵州省东部，是川渝黔通两广、江浙的重要门户，素有“黔东第一关”、“中国重晶石之乡”、“贵州高原黄金城”之称。”.

　　Located in eastern Guizhou Province, Tianzhu County, (as) an important gateway to Provinces of Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang from Sichuan Province, Chongqing and Guizhou Province, is known to the world as “the First Pass in Eastern Guizhou”, “the Land of Barite in China” and “the Gold Town on the Guizhou Plateau.”

　　天柱县总面积2201平方公里，辖16个乡镇，326个行政村，总人口41万余人，以侗、苗族为主的少数民族人口占98.3%。是贵州省少数民族比例最多的县份之一。

　　Covering a total area of 2,201 kilometers, Tianzhu County, one of the counties in Guizhou Province with the highest concentration of ethnic minorities with a population of 410,000, predominated by the Dong and the Miao ethnicities, making up 98.3% of the local population, has its jurisdiction over 16 townships and 326 administrative villages.

　　天柱蕴藏着丰富的自然资源。气候温和，土壤肥沃，是贵州重要粮食生产基地，享有“黔东粮仓”的美誉。当地年产烟叶2.6万担(一担=50公斤)，是中国烟叶主产区。这里林业资源丰富，森林面积达185万亩(一亩=1/15公顷)，覆盖率达56%，是贵州十大林业基地县之一。重晶石、黄金、煤等矿产资源也十分丰富。

　　Tianzhu, blessed with abundant natural resources and featured by its moderate climate and fertile soil, serves as a major base of grain production, reputed as “Breadbasket in East Guizhou.” This locality is also a major tobacco leaf producer in China with an annual yield of 26,000 dans (1 dan =50 kilograms). Furthermore, it is favored with rich and vast forests with a total forest area of 1.85 million mus (1 mu=1/15 hectares), covering 56% of the area as one of the top ten largest bases of forest resources in Guizhou. It also abounds in such mineral resources as barite, gold, coal, etc.

　　天柱乘西部大开发的东风，迅速崛起。全县国民经济稳步发展，综合实力日益增长，人民生活水平在不断提高，产业结构调整日趋优化，基础设施建设得以加强，城镇面貌日新月异。“生态环境优美，文化教育优越，综合服务优化，人居条件优良，经济充满活力”的新天柱呈现在世人面前。

　　China’s “Going West” development program has witnessed the rapid rise of Tianzhu County. Remarkable changes have taken place in the county: steady economic growth, ever-growing improvement of the people’s living standards, increasing adjustment and optimization of the industrial structure as well as the infrastructure improvement. Tianzhu is unfolding a new picture of its sound ecological environment, well-developed culture and education, improved comprehensive services, ideal living conditions and dynamic economic growth.

　　【天译时代】

　　Section1

　　For generations, coal has been the lifeblood of this mineral-rich stretch of eastern Utah. Mining families proudly recall all the years they toiled underground. Supply companies line the town streets. Above the road that winds toward the mines, a soot-smudged miner peers out from a billboard with the slogan “Coal = Jobs.”

　　对这个地处犹他州东部、矿产丰富的地区而言，煤炭在过去几代人的眼里一直都是这个地区的生命线/经济命脉。每当回忆起作为矿工在地下采煤的岁月时，每个家庭都会感到无比自豪。大街的煤炭供应公司栉比鳞次/鳞次栉比。在蜿蜒通向矿区的马路上方，可见一处广告牌，上面除了有句“煤炭=工作”的口号，还有位满身烟灰的矿工正凝视着前方。

　　But recently, fear has settled in. The state’s oldest coal-fired power plant, tucked among the canyons near town, is set to close, a result of new, stricter federal pollution regulations.

　　但是最近，人们开始担忧起来。由于新的联邦污染防治法规更加严格，位于县郊(译者注：根据本文倒数第二段该地区实为卡本县，这里的town指的就是卡本县，所以此处译为县郊。)峡谷之中的犹他州历史最久的燃煤电厂即将关闭。

　　As energy companies tack away from coal, toward cleaner, cheaper natural gas, people here have grown increasingly afraid that their community may soon slip away. Dozens of workers at the facility here, the Carbon Power Plant, have learned that they must retire early or seek other jobs. Local trucking and equipment outfits are preparing to take business elsewhere.

　　由于能源公司摒弃煤炭转而发展更加清洁、更加廉价的天然气，这里的人们越来越担心他们的家园可能很快就会悄然消失/不复存在。卡本电厂(Carbon Power Plant)的几十号工人已得知，他们必须提前退休或另谋职业。当地的卡车运输和装备人员正准备到其他地方去发展业务。

　　“There are a lot of people worried,” said Kyle Davis, who has been employed at the plant since he was 18. Mr. Davis, 56, worked his way up from sweeping floors to managing operations at the plant, whose furnaces have been burning since 1954. “I would have liked to be here for another five years,” he said. “I’m too young to retire.”

　　凯尔·戴维斯(Kyle Davis)自18岁起就一直在这家电厂工作，他说：“许多人现在都忧心忡忡。”该公司自1954年成立以来，运转至今，从未间断。现年56岁的戴维斯先生在该公司从清扫工人一路做到负责公司运营的高管职位。他说道：“我本想在公司再干五年的，毕竟现在退休还太年轻。”

　　But Rocky Mountain Power, the utility that operates the plant, has determined that it would be too expensive to retrofit the aging plant to meet new federal standards on mercury emissions. The plant is scheduled to be shut by April 2015.“We had been working for the better part of three years, testing compliance strategies,” said David Eskelsen, a spokesman for the utility. “None of the ones we investigated really would produce the results that would meet the requirements.”

　　但是目前负责运营卡本电厂的落基山电力公司(Rocky Mountain Power)已决定，如果为了达到有关汞排放量的新联邦标准而对该电厂的老旧设备进行翻新改造，代价过高，并不可行。该电厂计划于2015年4月底前关闭。该电厂的发言人大卫·艾斯克森(David Eskelsen)说：“在过去的三年中，我们的时间主要用于检测电厂的各种合规策略。我们的检测发现，任何一种合规策略都无法达到新法规的要求。”

　　For the last several years, coal plants have been shutting down across the country, driven by tougher environmental regulations, flattening electricity demand and a move by utilities toward natural gas. This month, the board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the country’s largest public power utility, voted to shut eight coal-powered plants in Alabama and Kentucky and partly replace them with gas-fired power. Since 2010, more than 150 coal plants have been closed or scheduled for retirement.

　　近几年来，由于环保法规更加严格、电力需求日益疲弱、而公用事业公司又转而供应天然气，全国各地的燃煤电厂纷纷关闭。田纳西河流域管理局是全国最大的公共电力公司。本月，该局董事会投票决定，关闭位于阿拉巴马州和肯塔基州的八家燃煤电厂并将其中一些电厂升级为燃气电厂。自2010年以来，有150多家燃煤电厂已经关闭或即将退役。

　　The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the stricter emissions regulations for the plants will result in billions of dollars in related health savings, and will have a sweeping impact on air quality. In recent weeks, the agency held 11 “listening sessions” around the country in advance of proposing additional rules for carbon dioxide emissions.

　　美国环保署预计，更加严格的排放法规将能节省数十亿美元的医疗开支并将对空气质量产生全面的影响/能明显改善空气质量。最近几周，在提议出台二氧化碳排放补充条例之前，环保署在全国各地举行了11次“听证会”。

　　“Coal plants are the single largest source of dangerous carbon pollution in the United States, and we have ready alternatives like wind and solar to replace them,” said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, which wants to shut all of the nation’s coal plants.

　　塞拉俱乐部发起的“超越煤炭”运动希望关闭全国所有的燃煤电厂。该运动的负责人布鲁斯·尼尔斯(Bruce Nilles)说：“在美国，燃煤电厂是危险的碳排放的最大恶源。我们已有现成的方法比如用风能和太阳能取代燃煤电厂。”

　　For many here, coal jobs are all they know. The industry united the area during hard times, too, especially during the dark days after nine men died in a 2007 mining accident some 35 miles down the highway. Virtually everyone around Price knew the men, six of whom remain entombed in the mountainside. But there is quiet acknowledgment that Carbon County will have to change — if not now, soon.

　　对于这里的很多人来说，他们对煤炭工作再熟悉不多了/绝不陌生。煤炭行业在艰难时期也能将该地区团结起来，尤其是在2007年矿难事件后的黑暗时期。那次矿难发生在沿高速公路往南大约35英里的地方，造成九名矿工遇难。普赖斯(Price)附近的所有人几乎都认识遇难者，其中有六名遇难者至今仍埋葬在山腰处。但是现在每个人的心里都清楚，卡本县(Carbon County)将会发生变化，即便不是现在发生，也很快就会发生变化。

　　Pete Palacios, who worked in the mines for 43 years, has seen coal roar and fade here. Now 86, his eyes grew cloudy as he recalled his first mining job. He was 12, and earned $1 a day. “I’m retired, so I’ll be fine. But these young guys?” Pete Palacios said, his voice trailing off.

　　皮特·帕拉斯奥斯(Pete Palacios)已经86岁高龄，曾在矿山工作43年，见证了煤炭行业的起落兴衰。他12岁时就开始工作，每天可以赚到一美元，回忆起自己第一份采矿工作时，老人的目光中充满了忧愁。他说：“我已经退休了，所以我可以安享晚年。但是这些年轻人今后该怎么办呢?”老人说这番话时声音越来越低沉。

　　Section2

　　天柱县位于贵州省东部，是川渝黔通两广、江浙的重要门户，素有“黔东第一关”、“中国重晶石之乡”、“贵州高原黄金城”之称。

　　Located in the east of Guizhou, Tianzhu County is an important gateway from Sichuan, Chongqing and Guizhou to Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It is known to the world as the “First Pass in Eastern Guizhou”, a “Land of Barite in China” and a “Gold County on the Guizhou Plateau”.

　　天柱县总面积2201平方公里，辖16个乡镇，326个行政村，总人口41万余人，以侗、苗族为主的少数民族人口占98.3%。是贵州省少数民族比例最多的县份之一。

　　With a total area of 2,201 square kilometers, Tianzhu County is composed of 16 townships and 326 administrative villages. Ethnic minorities, predominantly Dong and Miao, constitute 98.3% of the local population of more than 410 thousand. It is one of the counties with the highest concentration of ethnic minorities in Guizhou.

　　天柱蕴藏着丰富的自然资源。气候温和，土壤肥沃，是贵州重要粮食生产基地，享有“黔东粮仓”的美誉。当地年产烟叶2.6万担(一担=50公斤)，是中国烟叶主产区。这里林业资源丰富，森林面积达185万亩(一亩=1/15公顷)，覆盖率达56%，是贵州十大林业基地县之一。重晶石、黄金、煤等矿产资源也十分丰富。

　　Tianzhu boasts abundant natural resources. Endowed with moderate climate and fertile soil, it is a major grain production base in Guizhou and is crowned as the “Breadbasket in East Guizhou”. It isalso a major tobacco leaf producer in China with an annual output of 26 thousand dans (one dan=50 kilograms). Furthermore, the extensive forests in the county cover an area of 1.85 million mus (one mu=1/15 hectare), 56% of the county’s total area. Besides being one of the ten larget county-level bases of forest resources in Guizhou, it also abounds in barite, gold, coal and other mineral resources.

　　天柱乘西部大开发的东风，迅速崛起。全县国民经济稳步发展，综合实力日益增长，人民生活水平在不断提高，产业结构调整日趋优化，基础设施建设得以加强，城镇面貌日新月异。“生态环境优美，文化教育优越，综合服务优化，人居条件优良，经济充满活力”的新天柱呈现在世人面前。

　　Benefiting from the country’s “go west” campaign, Tianzhu County has entered into a fast track of development. Many encouraging changes in comprehensive strengths have taken place in Tianzhu: steady economic growth, improvement of the people’s livelihood, adjustment and optimization of the industrial structure, as well as infrastructure improvement. And today Tianzhu is presenting a new image featuring a sound ecological environment, developed culture and education, improved comprehensive services and habitat conditions, as well as a more vibrant economy to the world.