随着经济社会发展和物质消费水平的大幅提高，我国生活垃圾产生量迅速增长，环境隐患日益突出，已经成为新型城镇化发展的制约因素。实施生活垃圾分类（garbage sorting)，可以有效改善城乡环境，促进资源回收利用，提高城镇化质量。
With the rising consumption level due to economic and social progress, China has seen the proliferation of household waste and prominent environmental hazards, posing constraints to new urbanization. The implementation of garbage sorting is effective in bettering urban and rural environment, resource recycling and quality of urbanization.
垃圾分类是处置垃圾的首要环节，是解决垃圾出路问题的一个重要举措。垃圾分类是按照垃圾的不同成分、利用价值以及对环境的影响，根据不同处置方式的要求，分成若干种类进行分类投放，并通过分类收集、分类运输、分类处理，实现垃圾减量化、资源化、无害化。
As the primary part of waste disposal, garbage sorting is an important approach to deciding where wastes go. Waste sorting is defined as categorizing wastes, according to its composition, recycling value and environmental impact. Different disposal methods require classified delivery and then classified collection, transportation and treatment for the purpose of further reduction, resource-based transformation, and harm elimination of wastes.
首先，充分回收利用可回收物，通过分类投放、分类收集，把有用物品，如纸张、塑料、橡胶、玻璃等从垃圾中分离出来利用。如1吨废纸可再生新纸0.8吨，相当于少砍伐树龄为30年的树木20棵。
First, recyclables should be fully reused. Valuable waste, such as paper, plastics, rubber and glass, should be separated for recycling through classified delivery and collection. For every ton of waste paper recycled, 0.8 ton of virgin paper is regenerated, saving twenty 30-year-old trees.
其次，减少垃圾处理量，分类收集便于对不同垃圾进行分类处理。例如果皮转化为有机肥料，其他垃圾则进行卫生填埋或焚烧，可减少填埋量，从而节省宝贵的土地资源，实现社会效益和生态环境的双赢。
Second, the amount of waste disposal should be reduced. Classified collection is useful for classified treatment of different wastes. For example, fruit peels can be transformed into organic fertilizer. This diminishes the volume of wastes disposed of in landfills as they end up with sanitary landfill or incineration, thus saving valuable land resources and achieving both social and ecological benefits.
再者，如果我们不对生活垃圾进行分类，将增加后续处理难度，可造成对空气、水质、土壤的污染，危害人体健康，损害环境。总之，垃圾分类既能提高垃圾利用水平，又能减少垃圾处置量，达到回收可利用资源、降低处置成本、减少土地资源消耗的目标，实现社会、经济、生态三方面的效益。
Last, subsequent treatment will be more difficult without a waste sorting system, causing pollution to air, water and soil, as well as damaging human health and the environment. In conclusion, waste sorting can not only improve waste utilization, but also reduce the amount of waste disposal. It thus achieves the purpose of recycling available resources, reducing disposal costs and land consumption, and it also realizes the social, economic and ecological benefits.
In times of stress, like living through a global pandemic, it is natural to fall back on soothing habits-gardening, playing video games or lighting up a cigarette.
在面对压力时，比如经历一场全球性大流行病，人们很自然地会依赖能够让自己放松的习惯，比如干园艺活、玩电子游戏或吸烟。
But what are the risks, given that the novel coronavirus at the center of the current crisis attacks the lungs? The science is in its early stages, but studies are finding that cigarette smokers are more likely to have severe infections. There is data to show that if you are a smoker, you are more likely to have adverse outcomes from COVID-19, needmechanical ventilation and die than if you are not a smoker. Smoking damages the lung’s defense mechanisms, making is harder to fight off COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.
但新型冠状病毒处于当前这场危机的中心，会攻击人体的肺部，那么这些习惯又会带来什么样的风险？相关科学发展仍处于起步阶段，但是有些研究发现吸烟者更容易出现严重感染。数据显示，与不吸烟的人相比，吸烟者感染新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）后出现不良反应、需要机械通气、甚至死亡的几率更高。吸烟会损害肺部的防御机制，使人体更难抵御新冠肺炎和其他呼吸道疾病。
What does science say? Early data was conflicting. Some reports indicated that smoking was not associated with increased adverse outcomes and that smokers were underrepresented in hospital settings, leading some to claim that smokers might even have immunity to the virus. But specialists dismissed the claim as “really fringe stuff”. One study found that of those who died of COVID-19, 9 percent were current smokers, compared with 4 percent of those that survived. Smoking, for one thing, inhibits blood cells that would otherwise clean and repair damaged lungs.
科学是如何解释的呢？早期数据相互矛盾。一些报告指出，吸烟与不良反应发生率更高无关。此外，吸烟者占住院患者比例很低，有人甚至因此声称，吸烟能让人对新冠病毒免疫，但专家们认为这一说法“纯属无稽之谈”。一项研究发现，死于新冠肺炎的人中，现吸烟者占了9%，而在存活下来的人中，现吸烟者仅占4%，其中一个原因是吸烟会抑制血细胞，而血细胞可以清洁肺部，并修复肺部损伤。
What about e-cigarettes? Less is known about how coronavirus patients who use e- cigarettes products are faring, but several doctors suspect their trajectory will mirror that of cigarette smokers. Smoking e-cigarettes has all the same adverse effects as smoking ordinary cigarettes does. Smoking anything can irritate the lining of your lungs. If you irritate the lining of your lungs, you set yourself up for trouble, because the disease kills people by attacking the lungs.
如果吸的是电子烟呢？目前，尚不清楚使用电子烟产品的冠状病毒患者病情如何，但是有些医生认为，他们的病情发展轨迹将与吸烟者相似。吸普通香烟有的危害，吸电子烟也都有。不管吸什么烟，都会刺激人的肺黏膜。如果刺激自己的肺黏膜，就完全是在“自掘坟墓”，因为新冠肺炎正是通过攻击肺部来“杀人”。
What about second hand smoke? Smokers do not expelmore of a respiratory virus than non-smokers, although they do cough more. The smoke itself doesn't seem to increase the amount of virus that gets in the air. However, to the extent that the virus is carried in tiny aerosol particles that stay in the air, one of the possible means of transmission, the smoke shows where those particles are located. One study showed that people who had been exposed to second hand smoke were more likely to contract tuberculosis and, once they got it, didn't do as well as those who weren't exposed to smoke. In terms of these immune-suppressive effects, as it relates to tuberculosis, second hand smoke has adverse effects.
如果吸的是二手烟呢？虽然吸烟者比非吸烟者咳嗽得更厉害，但是他们咳出的呼吸道病毒并不会更多。另外，香烟烟雾本身似乎并不会增加空气中的病毒量。然而，如果说悬浮在空气中的微小气溶胶颗粒会携带病毒（新冠病毒的潜在传播途径之一），那么香烟烟雾则是以气溶胶形式存在于空气中。一项研究表明，接触二手烟的人更容易感染肺结核，而且一旦感染，他们的情况将不如那些没有接触二手烟的人好。肺结核感染与免疫力有关，二手烟会加重免疫抑制作用。
Each virus has its unique pattern of dispersion, and scientists are starting to get a handle on how the novel coronavirus behaves. This understanding is making it possible to rank the risks of different activities from high to low to trivial.
每种病毒都有其独特的扩散方式，科学家们正开始掌握新冠病毒的传播方式，这使得人们可以将不同活动的风险等级从高到低再到轻微进行排序。
The two drivers of the spread of the disease areclose contact and crowding in closed spaces, as the virus is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets and close contact. It spreads through homeless shelters and nursing homes, where people are crowded in with many others. And it spreads through people’s households. Scientists have found same trends. For example, spending time dining together or being on public transport might increase the risk of spreading or contracting the disease, while going to a market briefly for five minutes or a transient encounter while you walk or run past someone is considered low risk.
驱动新型冠状病毒肺炎传播的两大因素是近距离接触和密闭空间人群聚集，因为新冠病毒的主要传播途径是呼吸道飞沫传播以及接触传染。该病毒在人员密集的场所中传播，如无家可归者收容所和疗养院，还会在家庭中传播。科学家也发现了同样的群聚感染趋势。例如，聚餐或乘坐公共交通工具，可能会增加传播或感染新冠肺炎的风险，但是在市场短暂逗留五分钟，或者在走过或跑过某人的时候与其短暂相遇，这类行为则被认为风险较低。
The studies were all done through contact tracing, which may turn out to be humanity’s greatest strategy for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact tracing can stop chains of transmission, even after a disease is wide spread. Another major benefit is that it offers clues as to how the disease spreads. Each virus has its unique pattern.
这些研究都是通过接触者追踪完成的，这可能会是人类对抗新冠肺炎流行病的最伟大战略。即使某种疾病已经广泛传播，接触者追踪仍然能够阻断病毒传播链。该活动还有另一个重要的作用，即为了解疾病传播机制提供线索。毕竟不同病毒有不同的传播方式。