2013年翻译考试英语笔译初级必备句2

　　The number of the young people in the United States who can’t read is incredible about one in four.

　　大约有1/4的美国青年人没有阅读能力，这简直令人难以置信。

　　The idea of a fish being able to generate electricity strong enough to light small bulbs, even to run an electric motor is almost unbelievable.

　　鱼能发电，其强度能点亮小灯泡，甚至能开动马达，这真令人难以置信。

　　As he lies awake in bed, listening to the sound of those razor sharp drops pounding on the pavement, his mind goes reeling down dark corridors teeming with agonizing flash backs, and a chill from within fills him with dread.

　　他躺在床上，没入睡，听着雨点落在路面上啪啪作响，他思绪万千，恍恍惚惚进入了一条幽暗的通道，回想起许多痛苦的往事，心里一阵冰凉，不禁感到毛骨悚然。

　　People were afraid to leave their houses, for although the police had been ordered to stand by in case of emergency, they were just as confused and helpless as anybody else.

　　尽管警察已接到命令，要做好准备以应付紧急情况，但人们不敢出门，因为警察也和其他人一样不知所措和无能为力。

　　There are several reasons why Kissinger no longer appears to be the magician that the world press had made him out to be an illusion which he failed to discourage because he has been said to have a tendency toward megalomania.

　　全世界报界曾经将基辛格渲染成魔术师一般的人物，而他也没阻止人们制造这种错误的印象，因为据说他有一种自大狂的倾向，现在他不再像这样一种人物了，原因有这么几个。

　　Probably there is not one here who has not in the course of the day and occasion to set in motion a complex train of reasoning of the very same kind, though differing in degree, as that which a scientific man goes through in tracing the causes of natural phenomena.

　　也许在座的每一位每天都有机会进行一连串复杂的思维活动，这些思维活动与科学家在探索自然现象的起因时所经历的尽管程度不同，但类型是一样的。

　　Despite the clear-cut technological advantages, the railroad didn’t become the primary means of transportation for nearly 20 years after the first pioneering American railroads were introduced in the early 1830s.

　　尽管铁路运输在技术上优势明显，但美国铁路在19世纪30年代早期闪亮登场后的近20年中却没有成为首要的交通运输手段。

　　Modern scientific and technical books especially textbooks, requires revision at short intervals if their authors wish to keep pace with new ideas, observations and discoveries.

　　对于现代书籍，特别是教科书来说，要是作者希望自己书中的内容能与新概念，新观察到事实和新发现同步发展的话，那么就应每隔较短的时间将书的内容重新修订一下。