《化学工程与工艺专业英语》课文翻译(3)

It is therefore apparent that, because of its diversity of operations and close links in many areas with other industries, there is no simple definition of the chemical industry. Instead each official body which collects and publishes statistics on manufacturing industry will have its definition as to which operations are classified as the chemical industry. It is important to bear this in mind when comparing statistical information which is derived from several sources.

因此，很明显，由于化学工业经营的种类很多并在很多领域与其它工业有密切的联系，所以不能对它下一个简单的定义。相反的每一个收集和出版制造工业统计数据的官方机构都会对如何届定哪一类操作为化学工业有自己的定义。当比较来自不同途径的统计资料时，记住这点是很重要的。

3. The Need for Chemical Industry

The chemical industry is concerned with converting raw materials, such as crude oil, firstly into chemical intermediates and then into a tremendous variety of other chemicals. These are then used to produce consumer products, which make our lives more comfortable or, in some cases such as pharmaceutical produces, help to maintain our well-being or even life itself. At each stage of these operations value is added to the produce and provided this added exceeds the raw material plus processing costs then a profit will be made on the operation. It is the aim of chemical industry to achieve this.

3．对化学工业的需要

化学工业涉及到原材料的转化，如石油首先转化为化学中间体，然后转化为数量众多的其它化学产品。这些产品再被用来生产消费品，这些消费品可以使我们的生活更为舒适或者作药物维持人类的健康或生命。在生产过程的每一个阶段，都有价值加到产品上面，只要这些附加的价值超过原材料和加工成本之和，这个加工就产生了利润。而这正是化学工业要达到的目的。

It may seem strange in textbook this one to pose the question ―do we need a chemical industry?‖ However trying to answer this question will provide(ⅰ) an indication of the range of the chemical industry‘s activities, (ⅱ) its influence on our lives in everyday terms, and (ⅲ) how great is society‘s need for a chemical industry. Our approach in answering the question will be to consider the industry‘s contribution to meeting and satisfying our major needs. What are these? Clearly food (and drink) and health are paramount. Other which we shall consider in their turn are clothing and (briefly) shelter, leisure and transport.

在这样的一本教科书中提出：“我们需要化学工业吗？”这样一个问题是不是有点奇怪呢？然而，先回答下面几个问题将给我们提供一些信息：（1）化学工业的活动范围，（2）化学工业对我们日常生活的影响，（3）社会对化学工业的需求有多大。在回答这些问题的时候我们的思路将要考虑化学工业在满足和改善我们的主要需求方面所做的贡献。是些什么需求呢？很显然，食物和健康是放在第一位的。其它我们要考虑的按顺序是衣物、住所、休闲和旅行。

(1) Food. The chemical industry makes a major contribution to food production in at least three ways. Firstly, by making available large quantities of artificial fertilizers which are used to replace the elements (mainly nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) which are removed as nutrients by the growing crops during modern intensive farming. Secondly, by manufacturing crop protection chemicals, i.e., pesticides, which markedly reduce the proportion of the crops consumed