Bayer cares about the bees. Or at least that’s what they tell you at the company’s Bee Care Center on its sprawling campus here

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问题    Bayer cares about the bees. Or at least that’s what they tell you at the company’s Bee Care Center on its sprawling campus here at Manheim between Dusseldorf and Cologne. Outside the cozy two-story building that houses the center is a whimsical yellow sculpture of a bee. Inside, the same image is fashioned into paper clips, or printed on napkins and mugs.
   "Bayer is strictly committed to bee health," said Gillian Mansfield, an official at the company’s CropScience Division. She was sitting at the center’s semicircular coffee bar, which has a formidable coffee maker and, if you ask, homegrown Bayer honey. On the surrounding walls are bee facts written in English, like "A bee can fly at roughly 16 miles an hour" or, it takes "nectar from some 2 million flowers to produce a pound of honey". Next year, Bayer will open another Bee Care Center in Raleigh, N.C., and it has not ruled out more in other parts of the world.
   There is, of course, a slight caveat to all this good will. Bayer is one of the major producers of a type of pesticide that the European Union has linked to the large-scale die-offs of honey bee populations in North America and Western Europe. The pesticide was banned this year for use on many flowering crops in Europe that attract honey bees.
   Bayer and a Swiss competitor, Syngenta, have disagreed vociferously with the ban, and are fighting in the European High Court in Luxembourg to overturn it.
   While others point at pesticides, Bayer has funded research that blames Varroa mites for the bee die-off. And the center combines resources from two of the company’s divisions, Bayer CropScience and Bayer Animal Health, to further study the mites.
   "The Varroa is the biggest threat we have." said Manuel Tritschler, 28, a third-generation beekeeper who works for Bayer. "It is easy to see the mites on the bees." he said, holding a test tube with dead mites suspended in liquid. "They suck the bee blood, from the adults and from the larvae, and in this way they transport a lot of different pathogens, virus, bacteria and fungus to the bees." he said.
   There is no disputing that Varroa mites are a problem, but Mr. Muilerman, a chemicals expert, said they could not be seen as the only threat. The Varroa mite "cannot explain the massive die-offs on its own," he said. "We think the bee die-off is a result of exposure to multiple stressors."

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答案 拜耳公司关爱蜜蜂。在公司蜜蜂保健中心不断扩大的园区,至少他们会对你这样说。该中心坐落在杜塞尔多夫(Dusseldorf)和科隆(Cologne)之间的曼海姆(Manheim),设在一座舒适的二层楼里。楼外有一座造型奇特的黄色蜜蜂塑像。楼内可以看到蜜蜂形状的文件别针,印有蜜蜂雕塑图案的餐巾纸和水杯。 “拜耳致力于保护蜜蜂的健康。”拜耳公司作物科学部门的高管吉莲-曼斯菲尔德(Gillian Mansfield)说。此时,她正坐在中心内部半圆形小咖啡厅里。厅里有一台硕大的咖啡机,如有需求,还可以提供拜耳自产的蜂蜜。厅内四周墙上贴着用英文写的蜜蜂小百科,如“蜜蜂一小时大约能飞16英里”,蜜蜂需要“从约二百万朵花中采集花蜜,才能产一磅蜂蜜”。明年,拜耳公司将在美国北卡罗来纳州罗利市(Raleigh,N.C.)再开设一个蜜蜂保健中心,而且不排除在世界其他地方开设多家蜜蜂保健中心。 当然,对拜耳公司的这些善举,外界还是颇有微词。拜耳是一种杀虫剂的主要生产厂商之一,欧盟认为这种杀虫剂与北美和西欧大批蜜蜂相继死亡有关。今年欧洲已禁止对许多吸引蜜蜂的开花作物使用该杀虫剂。 拜耳及其在瑞士的竞争对手先正达公司(Syngenta)强烈反对这一禁令,并在卢森堡欧洲高等法院提起诉讼,试图推翻这一禁令。 在别人指责杀虫剂时,拜耳已经出资研究瓦螨致死蜜蜂的问题。中心对公司所属的两个部门,拜耳作物科学部和拜耳动物保健部的资源进行了整合,以便对螨虫做进一步研究。 “瓦螨是我们最大的威胁。”曼纽尔-崔施乐(Manuel Tritschler)说。28岁的曼纽尔是在拜耳工作的第三代养蜂人。他举着一个试管,管内的液体中悬浮着螨虫的尸体。他说: “很容易看到附着在蜜蜂身上的螨虫。它们吸蜜蜂的血,无论蜜蜂是成虫还是幼虫,然后把各种病原体、病毒、细菌、真菌传染给蜜蜂。” 毫无疑问,瓦螨确实威胁着蜜蜂的生命,不过化学专家穆勒曼(Muilerman)指出瓦螨并非蜜蜂的唯一威胁。他说,仅靠瓦螨“无法解释蜜蜂为什么会大批相继死亡,我们认为蜜蜂相继死亡是多种不良因素共同造成的后果。”

解析    本文的主题是探讨引起蜜蜂种群大规模死亡的诱因。改编后的文字以“拜耳公司关爱蜜蜂”这一定性文字开头,句子短促有力,引发读者关注。随后,文章以描写性文字及形象的实例阐明上述主题,加深读者对拜耳公司的印象。文章第二段继续以引用和实例阐明拜耳公司与蜜蜂的关系。文章第三段笔锋突转,指出大众对拜耳公司的指责,称其生产的杀虫剂引发蜜蜂的大规模死亡。面对这一指控,拜耳公司并未消沉,而是努力通过司法途径和研究为自己辩护。文末报道引用化学研究专家的说法,指出蜜蜂的大批死亡应该是多种因素共同作用的结果。
   文章逻辑严谨,虽为改编文字,但总体过渡自然,浑然一体。从翻译角度而言,译者需着重理解原文脉络和描述性语言,努力使译文自然流畅。
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