Responsible for 这一短语既可用于人，又可用于物，在句中通常做定语、状语和表语，意思是“对……负责”。例如：He should be responsible for the accident.（他应当对这一事故负责。）Responsible for在科技英语中十分常见，如都译作“对……负责”，有时则会显得十分牵强，因此要加以引申。常见的译法有以下三种：

一、译作“担负……”

1. Electric charges, positive and negative, which are responsible for electrical forces, can wipe one another out.
担负电力的正负电荷是能够相互抵消的。

2. Already responsible for many plastics, fibres and synthetic¹ rubber, petrochemicals will play an important role in tomorrow's demand for new things.
石油化工产品已经担负起制造多种塑料、人造纤维和合成橡胶的任务，在满足未来对新产品的需求方面仍将起到重要的作用。

二、译作“引起”、“是引起……的原因”

这时的be responsible for 相当于bring about的意思。

3. There are probably several factors responsible for water and salt retention² and ascites in hepatic disease.
引起肝病患者水、盐潴留和腹水的原因可能不止一个。

4. The stimuli³ believed to be responsible for secretion⁴ are vagal and humoral.
迷走神经和体液刺激被认为是引起分泌的原因。

5. Streprococci and staphylocci are responsible for a wide variety of infections.
链球菌和葡萄球菌是引起各种感染的原因。

三、译作“由于……才……”

在这类句中，responsible for往往作表语，介词for后面的宾语一般是动作意义的名词。

6. The weather was responsible for the plane's delay.
由于天气关系飞机才误点了。

7. The attachment⁵ of atoms of different kinds to each other is responsible for compounds having characteristic properties different from those of the elements of which they are made.
由于不同种原子的相互结合，化合物才具有与组成该化合物的那些元素不同的特性。