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 synthetic 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 retention 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 stimuli believed to be responsible for secretion 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 attachment 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。