话题原文：

　　中国水运历史悠久。早在商朝就有了帆船。隋朝大运河(TheGrand Canal)为南北水运带来了很大便利。明朝时期，郑和七次下西洋，在其中一次航行中，他到达了非洲东海岸。中国河流众多，海岸线长，水运条件优越。长江是最重要的内陆航运(inland shipping)通道，其主流从四川宜宾到海洋，全长超过3000公里。重庆、武汉和南京是长江沿岸的重要港口。中国港口很多，适宜海运，如上海、大连、秦皇岛、天津、青岛、宁波、厦门、广州等。这些港口的航线能通往世界上150多个国家和地区。

　　参考译文：

　　China's water transport has a long history.Early inthe Shang Dynasty,there were sailing boats.TheGrand Canal in the Sui Dynasty provided greatconvenience for south-north water transport.Inthe Ming Dynasty,Zheng He sailed across seas seventimes and reached the east coast of Africa during one of his voyages.China has plenty ofrivers,a long coastline and advantageous water transport conditions.The Yangtze River is themost important inland shipping channel.Its mainstream,from Yibin in Sichuan Province to thesea,has a total length of over 3,000 kilometers.Chongqing,Wuhan and Nanjing are importantports along the river.China has fevorable conditions for maritime transport with manyharbors,such as Shanghai,Dalian,Qinhuangdao,Tianjin,Qingdao,Ningbo,Xiamen,Guangzhou andso on.There are shipping routes from these ports to over 150 countries and regions all over theworld.

　　1.历史悠久:即“有着悠久的历史”，可译为has a longhistory。

　　2.隋朝大运河:即the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty。

　　3.南北水运:可译为south-north water transport。

　　4.郑和七次下西洋:可译为Zheng He sailed across seasseven times。

　　5.河流很多:可译为has plenty of rivers,或has a lot ofrivers,has lots of rivers。plenty of相当于a lot of或lots of,意为“很多的”。

　　6.适宜海运:“适宜”理解为“有着有利的条件”，可译为has fovorable conditions。“海运”即“海上运输”，可译为maritime transport。其中maritime意为“海上的，航海的”。

(责任编辑：田学江)