2011 年5 月英译汉 Stonehenge, England — The prehistoric monument of Stonehenge stands tall in the British countryside as one of the last remnants of the Neolithic Age. Recently it has also become the latest symbol of another era: the new fiscal austerity. 英国的巨石柱群——史前的巨石柱群遗址高高地矗立在英国郊外，作为新石器时代最后的遗迹之一。最近，它又成为另一个时代的最新标志：新财政紧缩。 Renovations — including a plan to replace the site’s run-down visitors center with one almost five times bigger and to close a busy road that runs along the 5,000-year-old monument — had to be mothballed in June. The British government had suddenly withdrawn ￡10 million, or $16 million, in financing for the project as part of a budget squeeze. 务必在六月份完成翻新，该举措的一项计划是用扩大了近五倍的会场来替代该遗址破旧的游客中心，并且要封闭一条沿着这座五千年之久的遗址伸展着的繁忙街道。为紧缩预算，英国政府要在项目资金上立即撤回 1000 万英镑或者 1600 万美元。 Stonehenge, once a temple with giant stone slabs aligned in a circle to mark the passage of the sun, is among the most prominent victims of the government’s spending cuts. The decision was heavily criticized by local lawmakers, especially because Stonehenge, a Unesco World Heritage site, was part of London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. The shabby visitors center there now is already too small for the 950,000 people who visit Stonehenge each year, let alone the additional onslaught of tourists expected for the Games, the lawmakers say. 巨石柱群曾是一座圣堂，内有巨大的石板围成的一个圈来表示太阳的运行轨迹，它首当其冲成为政府缩减开支的突出对象。当地立法者激烈批判了该项决议，这是因为巨石柱群是联合国教科文组织评定的遗产，是伦敦成功申报举办 2012 年奥运会功不可没的一部分。立法者称，巨石柱群里简陋的游客中心太小了...
