2014年翻译考试辅导精华(7)

　　Bureaucracy

　　1) Most ironic was the image of government that was born of these experiences. 2) As any scholarly treatise on the subject will tell you the great advantage bureaucracy is supposed to offer a complex modern society like ours is efficient rational uniform and courteous treatment for the citizens it deals with. 3) Yet not only did these qualities not come through to the people I talked with it was their very opposites that seemed more characteristic. 4) People of all classes—the rich man dealing with the Internal Revenue Service as will as the poor woman struggling with the welfare department—felt the treatment they had received had been bungled not efficient; unpredictable not rational; discriminatory not uniform; and all too often insensitive rather than courteous. 5) It was as if they had bought a big new car that not only did not run when they wanted it to but periodically revved itself up and drove all around their yards.

　　参考译文

　　这些经给人们的政府形象是最有讽刺意味的。任何一篇论述这个问题的学术论文都会说，对一个像我们这样复杂的现代化社会，官僚机构应当提供的一大优点是在和公民打交道时表现出富有效率，合乎情理，公平一致和文明礼貌的办事方法。但是，和我谈过话的人并没有感觉到这些品质，倒是恰恰相反的情况似乎更具有代表性。各阶层的人，从与税收部门打交道的富人到与福利部门交涉的可怜的妇人，都觉得他们受到的对待是糟糕的，而不是有效的，是捉摸不定的，而不是合情合理的是带有歧视的，而不是公平的，而且经常是冷漠的，而不是礼貌的。就像是买了一辆新的大轿车，不仅要它走的时候不走，面貌而且不时会自行加速，在院子里到处乱跑。