2014年翻译资格考试笔译综合能力冲刺试题（4）

　　Section 1: English-Chinese Translation(英译汉)(60 point)

　　This section consists of two parts: Part A “Compulsory Translation” and

　　Part B “Optional Translations” which comprises “Topic 1” and “Topic 2”. Translate the passage in Part A and your choice from passage in Part B into Chinese. Write “Compulsory Translation” above your translation of Part A and write “Topic 1” or “Topic 2” above your translation of the passage from Part B. The time for this section is 100 minutes.

　　Part A Compulsory Translation (必译题)(30 points)

　　The first outline of The Ascent of Man was written in July 1969and the last foot of film was shot in December 1972. An undertaking aslarge as this, though wonderfully exhilarating, is not entered lightly. It demands an unflagging intellectual and physical vigour, a total immersion, which I had to be sure that I could sustain with pleasure; for instance, Ihad to put off researches that I had already begun; and I ought to explai-n what moved me to do so.

　　There has been a deep change in the temper of science in the last20 years: the focus of attention has shifted from the physical to the life sciences. As a result, science is drawn more and more to the study of in-dividuality. But the interested spectator is hardly aware yet how far-reaching the effect is in changing the image of man that science moulds. Asa mathematician trained in physics, I too would have been unaware, had not a series of lucky chances taken me into the life sciences in middle age. I owe a debt for the good fortune that carried me into two seminal fields of science in one lifetime; and though I do not know to whom the debt is due, I conceived The Ascent of Man in gratitude to repay it.

　　The invitation to me from the British Broadcasting Corporation was to present the development of science in a series of television programmes to match those of Lord Clark on Civilisation. Television is an admirable medium- for exposition in several ways: powerful and immediate to the eye, able to take the spectator bodily into the places and processes that are described, and conversational enough to make him conscious that what he witnesses are not events but the actions of people. The last of these merits is to my mind the most cogent, and it weighed most with me in agreeing to cast a personal biography of ideas in the form of television essays. The point is that knowledge in general and science in particular does not consist of abstract but of man-made ideas, all the way from its beginnings to its modern and idiosyncratic models. Therefore the underlying concepts that unlock nature must be shown to arise early and in the simplest cultures of man from his basic and specific faculties. And the development of science which joins them in more and more complex conjunctions must be seen to be equally human: discoveries are made by men, not merely by minds, so that they are alive and charged with individuality. If television is not used to make these thoughts concrete, it is wasted.

　　Part B Optional Translations (二选一题)(30 points)

　　Topic 1 (选题一)

　　It’s not that we are afraid of seeing him stumble, of scribbling a mustache over his career. Sure, the nice part of us wants Mike to know we appreciate him, that he still reigns, at least in our memory. The truth, though, is that we don’t want him to come back because even for Michael Jordan, this would be an act of hubris so monumental as to make his trademark confidence twist into conceit. We don’t want him back on the court because no one likes a show-off. The stumbling? That will be fun.

　　But we are nice people, we Americans, with 225 years of optimism at our backs. Days ago when M.J. said he had made a decision about returning to the NBA in September, we got excited. He had said the day before, “I look forward to playing, and hopefully I can get to that point where I can make that decision. It’s O.K., to have some doubt, and it’s O.K. to have some nervousness.” A Time/CNN poll last week has Americans, 2 to 1, saying they would like him on the court ASAP. And only 21 percent thought that if he came back and just completely bombed, it would damage his legend. In fact only 28 percent think athletes should retire at their peak.

　　Sources close to him tell Time that when Jordan first talked about a comeback with the Washington Wizards, the team Jordan co-owns and would play for, some of his trusted advisers privately tried to discourage him. “But they say if they try to stop him, it will only firm up his resolve,” says an NBA source.

　　The problem with Jordan’s return is not only that he can’t possibly live up to the storybook ending he gave up in 1998 — earning his sixth ring with a last-second championship-winning shot. The problem is that the motives for coming back — needing the attention, needing to play even when his 38-year-old body does not — violate the very myth of Jordan, the myth of absolute control. Babe Ruth, the 20th century’s first star, was a gust of fat bravado and drunken talent, while Jordan ended the century by proving the elegance of resolve; Babe’s pointing to the bleachers replaced by the charm of a backpedaling shoulder shrug. Jordan symbolized success by not sullying his brand with his politics, his opinion or superstar personality. To be a Jordan fan was to be a fan of classiness and confidence.

　　To come back when he knows that playing for Wizards won’t get him anywhere near the second round of the play-offs, when he knows that he won’t be the league scoring leader, that’s a loss of control.

　　Jordan does not care what we think. Friends say that he takes articles that tell him not to come back and tacks them all on his refrigerator as inspiration. So why bother writing something telling him not to come back? He is still Michael Jordan.

　　Topic 2 (选题二)

　　Even after I was too grown-up to play that game and too grown-up to tell my mother that I loved her, I still believed I was the best daughter. Didn’t I run all the way up to the terrace to check on the drying mango pickles whenever she asked?

　　As I entered my teens, it seemed that I was becoming an even better, more loving daughter. Didn’t I drop whatever I was doing each afternoon to go to the corner grocery to pick up any spices my mother had run out of?

　　My mother, on the other hand, seemed more and more unloving to me. Some days she positively resembled a witch as she threatened to pack me off to my second uncle’s home in provincial Barddhaman — a fate worse than death to a cool Calcutta girl like me — if my grades didn’t improve. Other days she would sit me down and tell me about “Girls Who Brought Shame to Their Families”. There were apparently, a million ways in which one could do this, and my mother was determined that I should be cautioned against every one of them. On principle, she disapproved of everything I wanted to do, from going to study in America to perming my hair, and her favorite phrase was “over my dead body.” It was clear that I loved her far more than she loved me — that is, if she loved me at all.

　　After I finished graduate school in America and got married, my relationship with my mother improved a great deal. Though occasionally dubious about my choice of a writing career, overall she thought I’d shaped up nicely. I thought the same about her. We established a rhythm: She’d write from India and give me all the gossip and send care packages with my favorite kind of mango pickle; I’d call her from the United States and tell her all the things I’d been up to and send care packages with instant vanilla pudding, for which she’d developed a great fondness. We loved each other equally — or so I believed until my first son, Anand, was born.

　　My son’s birth shook up my neat, organized, in-control adult existence in ways I hadn’t imagined. I went through six weeks of being shrouded in an exhausted fog of postpartum depression. As my husband and I walked our wailing baby up and down through the night, and I seriously contemplated going AWOL, I wondered if I was cut out to be a mother at all. And mother love — what was that all about?

　　Then one morning, as I was changing yet another diaper, Anand grinned up at me with his toothless gums. Hmm, I thought. This little brown scrawny thing is kind of cute after all. Things progressed rapidly from there. Before I knew it, I’d moved the extra bed into the baby’s room and was spending many nights on it, bonding with my son.

　　Section 2: Chinese- English Translation(汉译英)(40 point)

　　This section consists of two parts: Part A “Compulsory Translation” and Part B “Optional Translations” which comprises “Topic 1” and “Topic 2”.Translation the passage in Part A and your choice from passage in Part B into English. Write “Compulsory Translation” above your translation of Part A and write “Topic 1” or “Topic 2” above your translation of the passage from Part B. The time for this section is 80 minutes.

　　Part A Compulsory Translation (必译题)(30 points)

　　奥林匹克运动的生命力和非凡魅力在于在奥林匹克运动中居核心地位的奥林匹克精神。体育的目的在于追求人类身心全面发展，并在此基础上促进社会的发展和进步。现代奥林匹克运动的创始人顾拜旦(Pieere de Coubertin)认为体育是全人类的一项伟大事业。他将奥林匹克运动的目标设定为促进不同国家、不同文化之间的相互理解，从而促进和维护世界和平，推进人类文明。这一理想使奥林匹克运动得以经百年而不衰。作为全世界奥林匹克大家庭成员的一个盛大聚会，奥林匹克运动已经成为促进世界和平、进步与发展的一只重要社会力量。

　　Part B Optional Translations (二选一题)(20 points)

　　Topic 1(选题一)

　　近年来，中国经济保持快速发展，为世界经济发展注入了活力。实践证明了中国在加入世贸组织之前的预言：中国的发展离不开世界，世界的发展需要中国。未来 20 年，在全面建设小康社会的进程中，中国一定会对世界经济的发展和实现全人类的共同进步做出历史性的贡献。为此，中国将继续扩大外贸，大力实施西部大开发战略，进一步改善投资环境，为外商提供更大的商机。同时，中国将引导和支持更多有比较优势的企业对外投资，开展平等互利、形式多样的经济技术合作。中国将进一步加强双边、多边和区域经济合作，实现世界各国各地区的共同发展。

　　Topic 2 (选题二)

　　移动电话正在成为 21 世纪一个主要的技术领域。在几年之内，移动电话将会发展成为多功能的通信工具，除了语音之外，还可以传输和接收视频信号、静止图像、数据和文本。个人通信的新纪元即将到来。

　　在一定程度上多亏了无线网络的发展，电话正在与个人电脑和电视融合起来。不久之后，配有高分辨率显示屏的轻巧手机便可以与卫星连接。人们可以随时随地通话，收发电子邮件或者参加视像电话会议。这种手机也许还会吸收电脑的许多主要功能。移动通信工具有望带来一些互联网所能提供的新服务，如股票交易、购物及预订戏票和飞机票。

　　电信革命已在全球范围内展开。不久之后，用一台装置就可以收到几乎任何形式的电子通信信号。最有可能的是一部三合一手机。在家里它可以用作无绳电话，在路上用作移动电话，在办公室里用作内部通话装置。有些专家甚至认为移动视像电话将超过电视，成为主要的视频信息来源。