Geography
It is often said that Switzerland lies at the heart of Europe. Geographically speaking, that's not quite true. However, the main route linking northern and southern Europe does run through the Alps.
Switzerland borders Germany in the north, Austria and the Principality of Liechtenstein in the east, Italy in the south and France in the west. This means that three important European cultures meet in Switzerland - that of the German-speaking region, the French and the Italian.
地理概况
人们常常称瑞士为"欧洲的心脏"。就地理位置而言，瑞士并非位于欧洲的中心；但连接欧洲南北的主要干线穿越瑞士的阿尔卑斯山。
瑞士北部与德国接壤，东临奥地利和列支顿士登，南临意大利，西临法国。欧洲的三种重要文化在瑞士融合，形成了不同的地区，即德语区、法语区和意大利语区。
Size, regions, population
Switzerland has an area of 41,285 square kilometres (15,940 square miles). The productive area - that is, the area without the lakes, rivers, unproductive vegetation and no vegetation at all - covers 30,753 square km (11,870 square miles)
The Jura, the Plateau and the Alps form the three main geographic regions of the country.
7.4 million people- just over one thousandth (0.1 per cent) of the global population - live in Switzerland.
Switzerland has a high population density, with 234 people per square km (606 per square mile) of the productive area in 2000. In the agglomerations, which cover about 20% of the total surface area, the density is 590 per square km (1528 per square mile).
面积、地区、人口
瑞士国土总面积为41285平方公里，只占全球面积的千分之1.5。可生产地区， 即没有湖泊河流，植被可生产的地区为30753平方公里。
汝拉山区、中部平原及阿尔卑斯地区构成瑞士的三个主要地区。
瑞士人口有七百三十万，只占全球人口总数的千分之一。
瑞士的人口密度较高，可生产地区的人口密度为每平方公里237人。城市聚集的地区约占瑞士总面积的20%，其人口密度为每平方公里590人。
Religious landscape
Membership of Christian churches has shrunk in recent years. In a wideranging poll of Swiss attitudes taken in 2000, only 16% of Swiss people said religion was "very important" to them, far below their families, their jobs, sport or culture. Another survey published the same year showed the number of regular church goers had dropped by 10% in 10 years. Among Catholics, 38.5% said they did not go to church, while among Protestants the figure was 50.7%. Only 71% of the total of those asked said they believed in God at all. The demand for church baptisms, weddings and funerals has fallen sharply in the last 30 years. The 2000 census showed that the Roman Catholic and the mainstream Protestant church (the Reformed-Evangelical) had lost in both absolute terms (the number of members) and in relative terms (their share of the total population.)
On the other hand, the smaller offshoots of these two churches were proportionately the same as before. The free evangelical churches accounted for 2.2% of the populationthe Christian Catholic church made up 0.2%.
The Jewish community also remained more or less unchanged. Recent immigration has brought members of other faiths to Switzerland, in particular Islam and Orthodox Christianity.
Even if the churches are no longer relevant in many people's lives, both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have played a key role in shaping modern Switzerland and the way in which Swiss people see themselves.
宗教分布
近年来，基督教成员的数目明显减少。2000年，宗教态度的大范围投票中：只有16%的瑞士人认为宗教是“非常重要”的；但比起家庭，事业，健身及文化，还是差远了。同年的另一项研究表明：经常去教堂的人数在十年中降了十个百分点。38.5%的天主教徒承认没有去教堂；而不去教堂的新教徒占50.7%。在被调查到的两教教徒中，只有71%的人表示相信上帝。 近三十年来，在教堂做洗礼，举行婚礼丧礼的人数越来越少。 2000年的普查表明：罗马天主教及主要新教(革新的传福音者)，无论是绝对数目(教堂成员人数)，还是相对数目(所占总人口比例)都大幅度地下降。
除了两大教派意外，其它较小的教派比例均衡。自由福音教人数占总人口的2.2%；而基督天主教占0.2%。
此外，犹太教人数基本保持不变。
尽管教会在人们生活中的地位已不太重要，但天主教和新教仍对现代瑞士社会起着塑造作用，影响着瑞士人对自身的态度。
Roman Catholicism
Roman Catholicism tends to be associated with conservatism and the preservation of traditional values, including regional autonomy and commitment to the local community. The strongly Roman Catholic cantons include Uri (more than 90%), Schwyz and both Nidwalden and Obwalden, the Alpine cantons which took the 1291 oath of confederation, regarded as the foundation of modern Switzerland. They joined together at that time to assert their rights to rule themselves in the face of outside powers. Today these are the areas which vote most strongly against any moves they believe could bring Switzerland closer to its neighbours and threaten its neutrality.
The Roman Catholic church in Switzerland is unusual in that the secular authorities in ten Catholic cantons have an important say in the nomination of bishops. This is the result of an agreement between the Pope and the participating cantons in 1828.
After many years in which Protestants were the majority in Switzerland, Roman Catholicism again became the largest religious group around the middle of the 20th century, as a result of immigration from Catholic countries.
罗马天主教
罗马天主教倾向于传统守旧，并让人联想到地区自治和地方信奉。罗马教势力在下面几个州的势力较强：乌里州(超过90%),施维茨州和上下瓦尔登州。这几个州位于阿尔卑斯地区，于1291年宣誓联合，被认为是现代瑞士的雏形。当时的联合是为了抵制外来强权，保护自身权利。今天，一旦提议革新可能使瑞士与邻国接近，损害瑞士中立地位，便会遭到这几个州的强烈反对。
瑞士的罗马天主教堂有其与众不同之处：在10个信奉天主教的州，非宗教政权在主教的提名上有非常中重要的发言权。这是1828年罗马大主教与这些州协调的结果。
多年来，基督教徒一直占大多数。但自二十世纪中叶以来，天主教再次成为瑞士最大的宗教。该现象主要是由大量来自天主教国家的移民引起的。
Protestantism
Switzerland was home to two of the leading figures of the Protestant reformation which swept across Europe in the 16th century, Ulrich Zwingli and Jean Calvin. On the whole it was the better-off rural cantons and the cities which were to develop into Switzerland's industrial centres which adopted the new religion. Geneva in particular became a stronghold of Protestantism, and a haven for refugees - including Calvin himself - fleeing oppression in Catholic countries. These refugees in turn made an important contribution to the city's intellectual and economic life. Protestants valued rationality and hard work, and saw wealth as a reward from God, an ethos which helped lay the foundations of modern Swiss prosperity.
The 1848 constitution which created the federal Swiss state as we know it today, was drawn up by Protestant radicals who saw greater centralisation as essential to develop an industrialised economy. The federal state created a single currency system to replace the different cantonal currencies, and lifted internal trade barriers.
基督新教
16世纪时，基督教改革席卷整个欧洲。改革的两位重要领导人乌尔里希?慈运理(Ulrich Zwingli)和约翰?加尔文(Jean Calvin)都是瑞士人。从总体上看，瑞士较富裕的乡村和工业化城市接受了新教。日内瓦成为基督教的最坚决拥护者，并为受天主教压迫的流亡者，如加尔文，提供避难港。这些流亡者为日内瓦的知识和经济生活做出了巨大贡献。基督教徒重视合理性与辛勤工作，认为健康是上帝的恩赐：这种意识形态为现代瑞士的繁荣奠定了基础。
1848的瑞士宪法确立了今天的联邦政体。当时的宪法是由一名激进派的基督教徒起草的。他认为较高的中央集权是工业化经济发展必不可缺的。联邦政府创建了统一的货币制度，取消了各州不同的货币形式，从而解除了国内贸易的障碍。
Other religions
Switzerland's third biggest religious group is Islam. The 2000 census showed that there are over 300,000 Muslims in the country, slightly more than twice as many as in 1990. Many of these Muslims are refugees or asylum seekers, but the number of Swiss nationals who are Muslims has increased from 7,700 to 36,500 in ten years.
其它宗教
瑞士的第三大宗教是伊斯兰教。2000宗教普查表明，瑞士有三十多万的穆斯林教徒，该数目几乎超出了1990年两倍。大多数穆斯林是来自其它国家的避难者。仅10年的时间，瑞士公民中的穆斯林人数就从7700增加到36500。
The number of Orthodox Christians has also increased as a result of immigration from central and eastern European countries. They total more than 130,000.
大量来自中东欧的移民使得东正教人数增多。其总数已超过13万人。
The number of followers of Judaism has remained stable, with around 17,900.
犹太教的人数也稳定增长，目前大概有17900人。
There are some 21,000 Buddhists following different schools. Just over half the Buddhists are Swiss nationals. The biggest Buddhist temple in Switzerland, Wat Srinagarindravararam, opened in canton Solothurn in 2003. It follows the Theravada school.
There has been a steep rise in the number of people saying they belong to no religion. They now account for just over 11% of the population, against 7.4% in 1990, and 1.1% in 1970.
不同的佛教教派共有大约二万一千教徒，其中一半是瑞士公民。瑞士最大的佛教庙宇泰国僧院(Wat Srinagarindravararams)于2003年在索洛图恩(Solothurn)落成；其次是小乘佛教僧院(Theravada)。
无神论者的数目也急剧上升，目前占总人口的11%以上。1990年时，该比例为7.4%，1970年仅为1.1%。
日内瓦湖【法语称莱蒙湖(Lac Leman)或Lac De Geneve，德语作Genfersee】是欧洲阿尔卑斯山区（阿尔卑斯湖群）最大的湖泊，是世界著名湖泊，因湖水清澈湛蓝而驰名世界。湖滨曾发现史前人类遗址，古罗马时代称勒曼努斯(Lemanus)湖，16世纪改今名，但18世纪末又称莱蒙湖。 日内瓦湖全湖可明显分为两部分∶格朗湖(Lake Grand,东)和珀蒂湖(Lake Petit,西)。有隆河注入，湖域呈新月形，湖身为弓形，湖的凹处朝南。海拔1230英尺，长72公里(45哩)；平均宽8公里(5哩)，最大宽度13.5公里(8.5哩)；平均深80公尺(262呎)，最深点310公尺(1,017呎)。有湖震现象：水面上下波动明显，湖水自此岸至彼岸有节奏地往返动汤。 湖畔和毗邻地域，气候温和，温差变化极小，建有许多游览胜地。湖南是白雪皑皑风光秀丽的山峦，山北广布牧场和葡萄园。日内瓦湖北岸是葡萄酒生产地区。面积581平方公里(224平方哩)，其中347平方公里(134平方哩)属瑞士，234平方公里(90平方哩)属法国。贝尔潟湖 旧译“贝勒湖”。法国地中海沿岸的潟湖。在罗讷河口省。四周为石灰岩低山包围。通福斯湾的谷地有一长约6.5公里的运河。湖长约21公里，宽5—13公里，面积156平方公里。湖滨有果园、橄榄树和盐场。
布尔热湖 法国湖泊。在东南部萨瓦省，南端离尚贝里约10公里。海拔231米。长约17公里，宽约3公里，面积44.6平方公里。最深处145米。北端通罗讷河，有长约4公里的水道相连。
