预备费：Contingency/escalation. In construction budgets, a government-mandated percentage (5%) must be set aside as a contingency (基本预备费 or 不可预见费); an escalation fund (涨价预备费) is optional.

A bit of detective work required for this one:

色彩默写 = watercolour still life exam

http://www.beiyistar.com/meishujq/146.html
色彩，是美术院校入学考试的重要科目之一。
The most important thing is that this is the name of an exam. You have to say that in English, or the reader won't know.

http://www.0519syedu.com/lady/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=5729
如果用水粉画表现...如果用水彩画表现...
Second, it can be either 水彩 or 水粉画. However, if we look at what 水粉画 means, we get this:
http://baike.baidu.com/view/21933.htm
在国外，并没有水粉画这一独立的画种。一般都将其包括在水彩画的范畴之中，

So 色彩 here means watercolour.

Back to my first link:
http://www.beiyistar.com/meishujq/146.html
近几年考试的形式基本是在静物写生与默写中交替进行。
The exam can be painting from life, or it can be painting from memory.
If we look at the definition of still life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_life
"A still life (plural still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural (food, flowers, plants, rocks, or shells) or man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, and so on)."
And this website as an example:
http://secretsofamodernpainter.blogspot.com/2011/01/4-steps-...

Still life can also be either painting from life or painting from memory.
Hence, the correct term for this kind of painting in English is watercolour still life.

Add the word exam to make clear to the reader what you're talking about, and you have a working translation:
色彩默写 = watercolour still life exam

If you would like me to translate any materials Chinese>English or English>Chinese, please email Steven Chen at Hsi-Shih Translations: thisisthetranslation@gmail.com
如果愿雇我翻译任何英文或者中文文件，请用电子邮件联络西施翻译有限公司： thisisthetranslation@gmail.com 
如果願雇我翻譯任何英文或中文文件，請用電子郵件聯係西施翻譯有限公司：thisisthetranslation@gmail.com 或打電話 886-7-5823454 


鸣鸟对捕食风险的认知可导致出雏数下降

种群生态学和野生动物管理学的传统概念是，肉食动物通过捕食行为直接影响猎物种群数量。虽然捕食者的存在会令猎物产生风险感，但以往的研究并不重视认知风险对猎物种群的影响。为了凸显认知风险对猎物种群数量的影响，我们干预捕食野生歌带鹀的过程，人工地降低肉食动物对歌带鹀的捕食，同时使用肉食动物叫声录音令歌带鹀产生捕食风险认知。本研究的结果发现，在免除其他因素的前提下，认知捕食风险本身可导致全年的出雏数下降40%。根据本文的结果，认知捕食风险作为足于影响野生动物种群的重要因素，在脊椎动物的保护和管理中应备受关注。

Perceived Predation Risk Reduces the Number of Offspring Songbirds Produce per Year

Predator effects on prey demography have traditionally been ascribed solely to direct killing in studies of population ecology and wildlife management. Predators also affect the prey’s perception of predation risk, but this has not been thought to meaningfully affect prey demography. We isolated the effects of perceived predation risk in a free-living population of song sparrows by actively eliminating direct predation and used playbacks of predator calls and sounds to manipulate perceived risk. We found that the perception of predation risk alone reduced the number of offspring produced per year by 40%. Our results suggest that the perception of predation risk is itself powerful enough to affect wildlife population dynamics, and should thus be given greater consideration in vertebrate conservation and management.

Science 9 December 2011: 
Vol. 334 no. 6061 pp. 1398-1401 
DOI: 10.1126/science.1210908

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6061/1398.abstract


Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the journal or the authors of this article. My translation here is given for reference purposes only. It is not intended to infringe the copyright of either the publisher or the author. Please do not repost without referencing the journal. 
免责声明。本人与原文所在的期刊和原文的作者没有任何委托或其他关系。以上译文仅供参考，没有违反出版社或作者版权的意图。如果转载的话，请注明原文来源（即期刊）。 
免責聲明。本人與原文所在的期刊和原文的作者沒有任何委託或者其他關係。以上譯文僅供參考，沒有違反出版社或作者版權的意圖。如果轉載的話，請註明原文來源（即期刊）。

If you would like me to translate any materials Chinese>English or English>Chinese, please email Steven Chen at Hsi-Shih Translations: thisisthetranslation@gmail.com
如果愿雇我翻译任何英文或者中文文件，请用电子邮件联络西施翻译有限公司： thisisthetranslation@gmail.com 
如果願雇我翻譯任何英文或中文文件，請用電子郵件聯係西施翻譯有限公司：thisisthetranslation@gmail.com 或打電話 886-7-5823454 

气体云准备坠入银心超大黑洞

根据周边恒星轨迹测量结果，可基本论定位于银河系银心的致密无线电波源——人马座A*是一个4百万太阳质量的黑洞。除了一些不大不小的X光耀斑和红外耀斑外，人马座A*的辐射亮度并不高，由此推论黑洞目前的吸积速率低下，事件视界区域的辐射效率也低。本文发现一团质量相当于三个地球，高密度的气体云正要坠入人马座A*的吸积区域内。根据我团队的观测，该气体云的轨道应是严重偏心轨道，轨道近心点离黑洞中心仅有大约3100倍事件视界半径距离，且随着轨道衰减，将于2013年遇到事件视界。近三年来，气体云已经受到形体干扰，主要原因可能是黑洞引力引起的潮汐剪切作用，而凭气体云在接下来几年时间中的变动和辐射情况，我们将能进一步了解这个超大黑洞的吸积速率和吞噬外物的过程。预期在气体云经过轨道近心点时，人马座A*的X光辐射量度可能会明显提高，而几年后，如果气体云破碎而碎片坠入吸积中心地带的话，可能会引起巨大的辐射耀斑。

A gas cloud on its way towards the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Centre

• S. Gillessen,
• R. Genzel,
• T. K. Fritz,
• E. Quataert,
• C. Alig,
• A. Burkert,
• J. Cuadra,
• F. Eisenhauer,
• O. Pfuhl,
• K. Dodds-Eden,
• C. F. Gammie
• & T. Ott

Measurements of stellar orbits^1, 2, 3 provide compelling evidence^4, 5 that the compact radio source Sagittarius A* at the Galactic Centre is a black hole four million times the mass of the Sun. With the exception of modest X-ray and infrared flares^6, 7, Sgr A* is surprisingly faint, suggesting that the accretion rate and radiation efficiency near the event horizon are currently very low^3, 8. Here we report the presence of a dense gas cloud approximately three times the mass of Earth that is falling into the accretion zone of Sgr A*. Our observations tightly constrain the cloud’s orbit to be highly eccentric, with an innermost radius of approach of only ~3,100 times the event horizon that will be reached in 2013. Over the past three years the cloud has begun to disrupt, probably mainly through tidal shearing arising from the black hole’s gravitational force. The cloud’s dynamic evolution and radiation in the next few years will probe the properties of the accretion flow and the feeding processes of the supermassive black hole. The kilo-electronvolt X-ray emission of Sgr A* may brighten significantly when the cloud reaches pericentre. There may also be a giant radiation flare several years from now if the cloud breaks up and its fragments feed gas into the central accretion zone.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10652.html

Nature

 

(2011)

 

doi:10.1038/nature10652

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the journal or the authors of this article. My translation here is given for reference purposes only. It is not intended to infringe the copyright of either the publisher or the author. Please do not repost without referencing the journal. 
免责声明。本人与原文所在的期刊和原文的作者没有任何委托或其他关系。以上译文仅供参考，没有违反出版社或作者版权的意图。如果转载的话，请注明原文来源（即期刊）。 
免責聲明。本人與原文所在的期刊和原文的作者沒有任何委託或者其他關係。以上譯文僅供參考，沒有違反出版社或作者版權的意圖。如果轉載的話，請註明原文來源（即期刊）。

 While I was in Shanghai I talked to a friend of mine who said that at the age of 36, he was finding the idea of having a girlfriend difficult, let alone having children.

I launched into my normal rant about how great kids are. I regard it as my job now to evangelise about how having kids is wonderful, because there's a lot of negativity around it: don't get pregnant as a teenager, it changes your life, you have to be ready, etc.

My friend responded saying, yeah, I guess I'm kind of selfish. It's a bit of a pat answer, pretending to be aware of and sorry of a fault in oneself, while not actually intending to change. But it's also wrong.

Those who have kids are not less selfish/more selfless than those who don't. Rather, for me at least, it's been a process of redefinition of what the self is, and where the boundaries of selfishness lie. Getting married and having children has made me into a part of a unit in a way that I wasn't before. When I was young, I felt like I was a part of my family, but I didn't have any way to act on the world outside my family, so it didn't mean much. Now, as an adult, what creating a family means is that I align my interests exactly with those of Ann, Mikey and Darwin, so that to outsiders, we are just a unit. What's good for me is good for us, what's good for Ann is good for me. And actions which I take purely to benefit Ann or Mikey, at the cost of other people, count as selfish actions now.

So what I wanted to say to my friend in Shanghai is that it's not being selfish which stops you getting married. It's a failure of imagination which stops you understanding that you can choose to change how you define yourself. 

 for future expansion.

I've been thinking for a while about something that I'll call "asymmetric tolerance". By this I mean tolerance of a social ill for one group, but not another. I've been aware of three areas where I see this happening.

(1) Rape. When rape is mentioned in the British press, there is an instant and strong reaction from some (online commenters), about the danger to men of being labeled rapists. The asymmetry here is that these commenters are apparently willing to tolerate the ongoing danger of rape to women, but not the danger to men of being unfairly accused.

(2) Positive discrimination. Positive discrimination provokes similarly strong reactions, with suggestions that it results in ethnic minorities getting jobs even if they are not (the best) qualified for them. Obviously, one of the reasons for a positive discrimination policy is that minorities were being excluded, and therefore by definition majority individuals were getting jobs that they were not (the best) qualified for. The existing injustice is tolerated to a far higher degree than the possible corrective injustice imposed by the policy. 

(3) The rise of China. Discourse about the rise of China is universally tinged by fears that China will do X, Y and Z, when X, Y and Z are routine American actions. For example, a recent article wondered if China would be a force for stability in Asia, or would attempt to expand its influence. These two are not mutually exclusive. The risks associated with US influence are tolerated; those associated with Chinese influence are not.

This paper looks like it might have something interesting to say on this topic:  http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a758773330