杨淑媛

Pollution inside homes and other buildings kills more than 4 million people each year. Many people die as a result of breathing smoke or from cooking over woodpowered or coalpowered stoves2.

住宅和其他建筑物的室内污染每年造成超过四百万人死亡。许多人因吸入浓烟、在烧木头或是燃煤的炉子上烹饪而死亡。

One way to reduce the number of deaths is through cooking equipment3 powered by the sun. Crosby Menzies， a solar power expert in a South African company， described his latest solar cooker called the “Sol4”. “It is four square meters of mirrors， six to eight meters in length. It is quite a large cooker.”

减少死亡人数的一种方法是使用由太阳提供能量的烹饪设备。克罗斯比·孟席斯，是南非一家公司的太阳能专家。他向我们描述了他最新的名为“Sol4”的太阳能灶。他说：“它由四平方米、六至八米长的镜子组成。这是一个很大的炉灶。”

The “Sol4” works by reflecting4 light from the sun off large mirrors. The mirrors direct the light at a cooking pan. Then the light heats the pan with solar energy. Within two minutes， the pan is hot enough to cook sausages and onions. In just four minutes， water can be boiled. That is as fast as cooking with natural gas or electricity.

這种太阳能灶（“Sol4”）通过大镜子反射太阳光来运行。镜子把反射的太阳光聚集到烹饪锅，然后，光传输太阳能给锅加热。不到两分钟，平底锅就能烧热，可以烹饪香肠和洋葱。在短短的四分钟内，水就可以煮开。这与用天然气或电力烹饪一样快。

The cooker is also much “friendlier” than other models because people do not have to stand in the sun to use it. And people can prepare meals without having to collect firewood or spend money on coal. Such individuals5 would be less likely to have breathing illnesses harmful smoke.

这种太阳能灶与其它类型相比更加“友好”，因为人们不必站在太阳下就可以使用它。人们不必收集木柴或花钱买煤炭来做饭。这些人也就不太可能因为吸入有害烟雾而患有呼吸类疾病。

At present， the cooker only works when the sun is shining. But engineers are working on a way to make it work without sunlight.

目前，这种太阳能灶只能在阳光照耀的时候才能工作。但是工程师们正在努力研究，希望它能在没有阳光的时候也能正常工作。

Each cooker costs about $2，000， which is a large amount of money for most Africans. To solve that problem， Crosby Menzies has created a nongovernmental organization6 called Solar Cookers for Africa. It plans to raise money through donations to provide poor people with solar cooking equipment.

每个灶成本约两千美元，这对大多数非洲人来说是一大笔钱。为了解决这个问题，克罗斯比·孟席斯创建了一个名为“非洲太阳能灶”的非政府组织，计划通过捐款来筹集资金，为贫困人口提供太阳能烹饪设备。