1997-2010年英語專八翻譯真題及答案.doc

1997年:English to ChineseOpera is expensive: that much is inevitable. But expensive things are inevitably the province（范圍） of the rich unless we abdicate（退位、放棄） societys power of choice. We can choose to make opera and other expensive forms of culture, accessible（易接近的，可達(dá)到的） to those who cannot individually pay for it. The question is: why should we? No body denies the imperatives（必要的）of food, shelter, defence, health and education. But even in a prehistoric cave, man-kind stretched out a hand of not just to eat, drink or fight, but also to draw. The impulse（沖動） towards culture, the desire to express and explore the world through imagination and representation（表述、陳述）is fundamental. In Europe, this desire has found fulfillment（完成、成就） in the masterpieces of our music, art, literature and theatre. These masterpieces are the touchstones（標(biāo)準(zhǔn)、試金石） for all our efforts; they are the touchstones for the possibilities to which human thought and imagination may aspire（立志、追求目標(biāo)、渴望）; they carry the most profound （深厚的、深刻的）messages that can be sent from one human to another.欣賞歌劇是一種奢侈：你必須為此支付昂貴的票價。然而，享用昂貴的東西并不完全是富人的特權(quán)，除非我們放棄社會選擇的權(quán)利。我們有權(quán)利使歌劇和其他昂貴的文化形式面向大眾，面向那些個人沒有支付能力的人。然而，問題是我們?yōu)槭裁匆@么做。沒有人會否認(rèn)食物、居所、防護(hù)、健康與教育是不可或缺的。但是，即使在史前的穴居時代，人們伸出手來，也不僅僅是為了吃喝，為了搏殺，而且還有一個目的，那就是動手作畫。人們對文化的沖動，即人們希望通過想象和再現(xiàn)來表現(xiàn)并探索這個世界的愿望，才是最根本的。在歐洲，人們通過音樂、美術(shù)、文學(xué)和戲劇等方面的不朽作品的創(chuàng)作，實現(xiàn)了這一愿望。這些杰作是衡量人類努力程度的試金石，是檢驗人類思維和想象潛能的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，它們有著最深厚的寓意，并在人們彼此之間傳播。1998年: I agree to some extent with my imaginary English reader. American literary historians are perhaps prone to view their own national scene too narrowly, mistaking prominence for uniqueness. They do over-phrase their own literature, or certainly its minor figures. And Americans do swing from aggressive over phrase of their literature to an equally unfortunate, imitative deference. But then, the English themselves are somewhat insular in their literary appraisals. Moreover, in fields where they are not pre-eminent e. g. in painting and music they too alternate between boasting of native products and copying those of the Continent. How many English paintings try to look as though they were done in Paris; how many times have we read in articles that they really represent an “English tradition” after all.To speak of American literature, then, is not to assert（斷言、聲稱）that it is completely unlike that of Europe. Broadly speaking, America and Europe have kept step（同步）. At any given moment（在任何時候） the traveler could find examples in both of the same architecture, the same styles in dress, the same books on the shelves. Ideas have crossed the Atlantic as freely as men and merchandise, though sometimes more slowly. When I refer to American habit, thoughts, etc., I intend some sort of qualification（限制、限定、資格） to precede（領(lǐng)先、超前） the word, for frequently the difference between America and Europe (especially England) will be one of degree（唯一只是在程度上）, sometimes only of a small degree. The amount of divergence（分歧、差異） is a subtle （微妙的）affair, liable（有可能的） to perplex the Englishman when he looks at America. He is looking at a country which in important senses （重要的感覺）grew out of his own, which in several ways still resembles his own and which is yet a foreign country. There are odd overlappings and abrupt unfamiliarities; kinship(親緣關(guān)系) yields to a sudden alienation（疏遠(yuǎn)關(guān)系）, as when we hail（打招呼） a person across the street, only to discover from his blank（沒有表情的） response that we have mistaken a stranger for a friend. 因此，我們在說“美國”文學(xué)，并不表明我們認(rèn)為美國文學(xué)與歐洲文學(xué)截然不同。一般來說，美國和歐洲一直在同步發(fā)展。無論何時，旅游者在兩地都能看到同一式的建筑，見到同一款式的服飾，讀到擺在書架上的同一風(fēng)格的書籍。在大洋兩岸，人們的思想觀念，就容易同人員與貨物一樣，可以自由交流，盡管有時會略顯遲緩。談到美國人的習(xí)慣、美國人的思維等概念時，我想在“美國式的”這幾個詞前面再加上某種修飾，因為歐美之間（尤其是英美之間）的差異往往只是程度上的差異而已，而且在有的時候，是極低程度上的差異而已。差異的程度微乎其微，很可能會使審視美國的英國人感到迷惑不解。重要的是，英國人所審視的這個國家誕生于英國，并在不少方面仍與英國相差無幾-然而，實實在在是個異邦。兩地有著莫名的共同之處，以及令人深感突兀的陌生感。原先的親戚已形同陌路，就仿佛隔著馬路招呼，等看到對方一臉茫然時，我們才意識到認(rèn)錯人。1999年： In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the family line or the family name, to propitiate the ancestors; to enable the proper functioning of religious rituals involving the family. Such reasons may seem thin in the modern, secularized society but they have been and are powerful indeed in other places.In addition, one class(一類) of family reasons shares a border（接壤、相近）with the following category, namely, having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy（使 忙（有事干） the wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the number of children on the assumption（設(shè)想、假設(shè) consumption 消費） that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined（突出、顯現(xiàn)） by its converse（反面、相反）: in some societies the failure to bear children（養(yǎng)孩子） (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce. Beyond all that（除了這些 ）is the profound（深刻的、深遠(yuǎn)的） significance of children to the very institution（結(jié)構(gòu)） of the family itself. To many people, husband and wife alone do not seem a proper family（完整的） they need children to enrich the circle（豐富家庭生活、拓寬生活圈子）, to validate（使有效） its family character（家族的特征、風(fēng)格）, to gather（增加、集合） the redemptive（贖回的, 用于補償?shù)模﹊nfluence of offspring. Children need the family, but the family seems also to need children, as the social institution（社會結(jié)構(gòu)）uniquely（唯一） available, at least in principle, for （獲得）security, comfort, assurance, and direction in a changing, often hostile world. To most people, such a home base, in the literal sense, needs more than one person for sustenance（生計） and in generational extension（家族的繁衍）.【參考答案】 另外，有一類家庭原因與下列類別不無共同之處，那就是：生兒育女要么是為了維系現(xiàn)有婚姻，提高婚姻質(zhì)量，要么是為了拴住丈夫，使妻子有所事事，要么是為了修復(fù)婚姻，給婚姻注入新的活力，亦或是出于多子多福的觀念而多生兒女。當(dāng)然，我們也可以從問題的反面得到昭示：在某些社會，無法生育子嗣（或不能生育男孩）對婚姻而言是最大的威脅，也可作為夫妻分手的現(xiàn)成理由。 后代對家庭這一體制本身所具有的深遠(yuǎn)意義遠(yuǎn)非如此。在許多人看來，丁克家庭算不上真正的家庭。夫妻需要孩子來拓寬自己的生活圈子，實現(xiàn)家庭在傳宗接代中的作用，并從子孫后代身上獲取某種回報。在這個變幻莫測，常常不盡友善的世界上，家庭作為社會的基本單位，至少可在原則上，以其獨特方式為家人提供安全保障，撫慰家人受傷的心靈，為家人指出生活方向，因此，孩子需要家庭，但與此同時，家庭也需要孩子。2000年：If people mean anything at all by the expression_r “untimely（不合時宜的，timely:適時的、及時的） death”, they must believe that some deaths run on（連續(xù), 不分段, 流逝, 涉及）a better schedule than others. Death in old age is rarely called untimelya long life is thought to be a full one. But with the passing（= passing away 死亡）of a young person, one assumes（假定、設(shè)想） that the best years lay ahead and the measure（尺度、評價） of that life was still to be taken. History denies this, of course. Among prominent（卓越的、突出的）summer（壯年時期, 青春）deaths, one recalls those of Marilyn Monroe（馬麗蓮夢露 ）and James Deans（詹姆士迪恩斯）, whose lives seemed equally brief and complete. Writers cannot bear the fact that poet John Keats（約翰濟(jì)慈）died at 26, and only half playfully（開玩笑地） judge their own lives as failures when they pass that year. The idea that the life cut short is unfulfilled is illogical because lives are measured by the impressions they leave on the world and by their intensity（強度、亮度=achievements: 成就）and virtue（德行、品德）.【參考譯文】如果人們使用“死不逢時”的時候有所指的話，那肯定認(rèn)為一些人的逝世是壽終正寢，而另外一些人的辭世則是英年早逝。很少有人會說因年老而死亡是“死不逢時”-人們總是把老年人的壽終正寢看作是一種圓滿。但是對于一個英年早逝的人，人們常常認(rèn)為他的好日子還在后頭，對他短暫的一生作出評價還為時尚早。 然而，歷史對此觀點持否定態(tài)度。談到英年早逝的人物，人們常?；叵肫瘃R麗蓮夢露和詹姆士迪恩斯。二人生命雖短，卻功成名就。作家們難以接受英國詩人約翰濟(jì)慈26歲便匆匆辭世的殘酷現(xiàn)實，然而，當(dāng)他們26歲時，只有自嘲虛度年華碌碌無為的份了。那種認(rèn)為生命短暫就不圓滿的觀點是不合邏輯的，因為評價一個人的一生應(yīng)當(dāng)看他給世人留下的印象，他所取得的成就，以及他的個人品質(zhì)。2001年： Possession for its own sake or in competition with the rest of the neighborhood would have been Thoreaus idea of the low levels. The active discipline of heightening ones perception of what is enduring in nature would have been his idea of the high. What he saved from the low was time and effort he could spend on the high. Thoreau certainly disapproved of starvation, but he would put into feeding himself only as much effort as would keep him functioning for more important efforts. Effort is the gist（要點，主旨） of it. There is no happiness except as we take on(接納) life-engaging（有魅力的、迷人的） difficulties. Short of the impossible, as Yeats put it, the satisfaction we get from a lifetime depends on how high we choose our difficulties. Robert Frost was thinking in something like the same terms（相同的表達(dá)、看法） when he spoke of “The pleasure of taking pains”. The mortal flaw （致命的缺陷）in the advertised version of happiness is in the fact that it purports（宣稱、聲稱） to be effortless. We demand difficulty even in our games（體育比賽、游戲）. We demand it because without difficulty there can be no game. A game is a way of making something hard for the fun of it. The rules of the game are an arbitrary（武斷的） imposition（強迫接受） of difficulty. When someone ruins the fun, he always does so by refusing to play by the rules. It is easier to win at chess if you are free, at your pleasure, to change the wholly arbitrary rules, but the fun is in winning within the rules. No difficulty, no fun.參考譯文】努力是問題的關(guān)鍵。如果不經(jīng)歷艱難困苦，就沒有幸?？裳?。正如愛爾蘭詩人葉芝所言，除了極少數(shù)不大可能出現(xiàn)的情況外，我們一生中得到的滿意程度取決于我們愿意克服的困難有多大。美國詩人羅伯特費羅斯特談到“苦中求樂”時，也表達(dá)了相同的看法。出現(xiàn)在廣告中的幸福都有一個致命的錯誤，那就是，不費吹灰之力即可獲得幸福。 即使在體育比賽中，我們也需要克服困難。我們需要克服困難，因為沒有困難就沒有比賽。比賽就是使某件事情變得更加困難，以便難中取樂。制定比賽規(guī)則就是故意制造困難。違反競賽規(guī)則也就喪失了比賽樂趣。下棋時，如果不受規(guī)則的約束，高興怎么走就怎么走，你很容易取勝。然而，樂趣源于勝利而又遵守規(guī)則。沒有困難，也就沒有樂趣。2002年：The word “winner” and “l(fā)oser” have many meanings. When they refer to a person as a winner, we do not mean one who makes some else lose. To us, a winner is one who responds authentically by being credible, trustworthy, responsive, and genien, both as an individual and as a member of a society. Winners do not decide their lives to a concept of what they imagine they should be; rather, they are themselves and so much do not use their energy putting on a performance, maintaining pretence(偽裝) and manipulating（操縱） others. They are aware that there is a difference between being loving and acting loving, between being stupid and acting stupid, between being knowledgeable and acting knowledgeable. Winners do not need to hide behind a mask. 勝者不會窮其畢生精力，去拘泥于某個他們所想象的為人之道；相反，他們會保持其真我本色，并且，作為這種追求真我的仁者，他們不會絞盡腦汁裝腔作勢，維持一種自命不凡的姿態(tài)，或去操縱他人。他們深知，在真心關(guān)愛和虛情假意之間，在頑固不化和大智若愚之間，在真才實學(xué)和裝學(xué)富五車之間，實質(zhì)上都存在著天壤之別。成功者無需面具掩藏自我。Winners are not afraid of to do their own thinking and to use their own knowledge. They can separate facts from opinions and dont pretend to have all the answers. They listen to others, evaluate what they say, but come to their own conclusions. Although winners can admire and respect other people, they are not totally defined, demolished（毀壞、推翻）, bound, or awed（敬畏） by them. 成功者們能運用自己的知識進(jìn)行獨立思考。他們能夠分清事實，而不會假裝他們自己無所不知。他們會傾聽他人的想法，評判他人的言論，最后得出自己的結(jié)論。雖然成功者也會欽佩、尊敬他人，但他們不會受他人牽制，被他人左右，或被他人打垮。 Winners do not play “helpless”, nor do they play the blaming game. Instead, they assume（假定、設(shè)想、采?。?responsibility for their own lives.優(yōu)勝者不會面對困難而顯得無助（敢于只面困難），也不會怨天尤人。相反，他們會努力肩負(fù)起自己對待生活的責(zé)任。2003年： In his classic novel, “The Pioneers”, James Fenimore Cooper has his hero, a land developer, with his cousin on a tour of the city he is building. He describes the broad streets, rows of houses, a bustling metropolis（大城市，大都市）. But his cousin looks around bewildered（困惑、迷惑）. All she sees is a forest. “Where are the beauties and improvements（改造的地方）which you were to show me?” she asks. Hes astonished she cant see them. “Where! Why everywhere,” he replies. For though they are not yet built on earth, he has built them in his mind, and they are as concrete to him as if they were already constructed and finished. Cooper was illustrating（講述、描述、闡述）a distinctly American trait, future-mindedness（minded:有思想的，著眼未來的）: the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future; the freedom to feel unencumbered 【沒有阻礙的, 不受妨礙的；cumber（n.）障礙encumber（v.）阻礙encumbered有阻礙的unencumbered沒有阻礙的】by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come. As Albert Einstein once said, “Life for the American is always becoming(會變成什么樣子), never being（現(xiàn)在是什么樣子）.”【參考答案】詹姆斯費尼莫庫珀在其經(jīng)典小說拓荒者中，講述了主人公，一個土地開發(fā)商人，帶著他的表妹參觀他正在開發(fā)承建的一座城市。他說，這是一個熙熙攘攘的大都市，街道寬闊，房屋林立。而他的表妹卻環(huán)顧四周，大惑不解。她所看見的只是一片樹林。她不禁問道：“你要給我看的美景在哪，被你改造了的地方又在哪?”。開發(fā)商沒料到他的表妹竟看不到他所講的一切，驚訝地回答說，“哪兒?到處都是啊!”雖然這一切還未在大地上建成，但他已經(jīng)在腦海里建好了，對他來說，這一切都像已經(jīng)建成竣工了那樣真實具體。在這里庫珀揭示了美國人的一個典型特點：那就是著眼未來，也就是說，他們能夠從未來的角度看待現(xiàn)在的一切，可以不為過去所羈絆看待現(xiàn)在，在情感上更多地依附于未來的事物。正如阿爾伯特愛因斯坦曾經(jīng)說過的那樣：“對美國人來說，生活總是在發(fā)展變化中，從來不會靜止不變。”2004年：For me the most interesting thing about a solitary life, and mine has been that for the last twenty years, is that it becomes increasingly rewarding. When I can wake up and watch the sun rise over the ocean, as I do most days, and know that I have an entire day ahead, uninterrupted, in which to write a few pages, take a walk with my dog, read and listen to music, I am flooded with happiness. Im lonely only when I am overtired, when I have worked too long without a break, when from the time being I feel empty and need filling up. And I am lonely sometimes when I come back home after a lecture trip, when I have seen a lot of people and talked a lot, and am full to the brim(邊緣) with experience that needs to be sorted out（挑選、選擇）. Then for a little while the house feels huge and empty, and I wonder where my self（本性、本我）is hiding. It has to be recaptured slowly by watering the plants and perhaps, by looking again at each one（指代 plant植物）as though it were a person.It takes a while, as I watch the surf（水浪）blowing up in fountains（噴泉）, but the moment（ 指the lonely moment） comes when the worlds falls away, and the self emerges again from the deep unconscious（潛意識）, bringing back all I have recently experienced to be explored and slowly understood.【參考答案】只有我在非常疲勞的時候，在我不斷工作了很長時間以后，在我倍感空虛，需要充實時候，我才會感到寂寞。而有時候在我結(jié)束巡回演講回家的時候，在講了很多話后，而且有太多經(jīng)歷需要整理時，我也會感到寂寞。于是，有那么一會兒，我感到房子又大又空，我都不知道我的自我又到哪里去了。這時，我必須給植物澆水，并挨個瞅瞅，仿佛他們是有生命的精靈一般，這樣我才能慢慢找到我的那個自我。很長一段時間，我看著水浪從噴泉中噴涌而出。但只有當(dāng)世界在我身邊逐漸消失，當(dāng)我再次從我內(nèi)心深處的無意識中冒出來時，帶給我最近的種種經(jīng)歷，讓我探究，讓我慢慢領(lǐng)會時，我才會感到寂寞。當(dāng)我因為持續(xù)工作太久而感覺疲勞空虛，需要充實一下的時候，我會覺得孤獨。有時，我出差做講座，見很多人，說很多話，回來后腦子里很多東西需要理一理，這時我也會覺得孤獨。2005年：It is simple enough to say that since books have classes-fiction, biography, poetrywe should separate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us. Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred（模糊的，不明確的）and divided minds（分心）, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish(消除) all such preconceptions（偏見、成見） when we read, that would be an admirable（絕妙的、極好的） beginning. Do not dictate（口述、發(fā)號施令）to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow worker and accomplice（同謀、合作者）. If you hang back（遲疑、猶豫不決）, and reserve（保留、儲備）and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible（覺察不到的）fineness（優(yōu)良、出色）, from the twist and turn of the first sentences（換行的句子）, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep（沉浸、潛心、專心）yourself in this, acquaint（使熟知）yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or attempting to give you, something far more definite.【參考譯文】 然而很少有人愿意接受書上的告訴我們的東西。我們通常是帶著一種不明確的不專一的目的去讀書，我們要求小說是真實的，詩歌應(yīng)該是虛構(gòu)的，傳記應(yīng)該是奉承人的，歷史則應(yīng)該是能加深我們自己的偏見的。如果我們讀書的時候能夠屏棄這些成見，那將會是一個絕妙的開端。不要試圖對作者發(fā)號施令，而是要設(shè)身處地把作者的思路，把自己當(dāng)作作者的合作伙伴。假如你開始就猶豫不決，不愿接受作者觀點，甚至對作者觀點評頭論足，你就是給自己設(shè)置障礙，使自己不可能最大限度地利用書本。然而，如果你盡量敞開心扉，那么文章開頭就能給你一些暗示，由此一個與眾不同的人物形象將躍然呈現(xiàn)于你面前。2006年：I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal ofthe most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering. You ask,what is our aim? I can answer in one word, it is victory. Victory at all costsvictory in spiteof all terrors-victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.Let that be realized, no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that British Empire has stood for , no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall more forward toward his goal. I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, “Come then, let us go forward together with our unitedstrength.我能奉獻(xiàn)的唯有熱血、辛勞、淚水和汗水。我們所面臨的將是一場極為殘酷的考驗，我們面臨的將是曠日持久的斗爭和苦難。你若問我們的目標(biāo)是什么？我可以用一個詞來概括，那就是勝利。不惜一切代價去奪取勝利，不畏懼一切恐怖去奪取勝利，不論前路再長再苦也要多去勝利，因為沒有勝利糾無法生存！我們必須意識到，沒有勝利就沒有大英帝國，沒有勝利就沒有大英帝國所象征的一切，沒有勝利就沒有多少世紀(jì)以來強烈的要求和沖動：人類應(yīng)當(dāng)向自己的目標(biāo)邁進(jìn)。此刻，我的精神振奮，滿懷信心地承當(dāng)起自己的人物。我確信，只要我們大家聯(lián)合，我們的事業(yè)就不會挫敗。此時此刻千鈞一發(fā)之際，我覺得我有權(quán)要求各方面的支持。我要呼吁：“來吧，讓我們?nèi)翰吲?，并肩邁進(jìn)！”2007: Good bye and good luck Scientific and technological advances are enabling us to comprehend the furthest reaches of the cosmos, the most basic constituents of matter, and the miracle of life. At the same time, today, the actions, and inaction, of human beings imperil not only life on the planet, but the very life of the planet.Globalization is making the world smaller, faster and richer. Still, 9/11, avian flu, and Iran remind us that a smaller, fatster world is not necessarily a safer world.Our world is bursting with knowledge - but desperately in need of wisdom. Now, when sound bites are getting shorter, when instant messages crowd out essays, and when individual lives grow more frenzied, college graduates capable of deep reflection are what our world needs.For all these reasons I believed - and I believe even more strongly today - in the unique and irreplaceable mission of universities.科技進(jìn)步正在使我們能夠探索宇宙的邊陲、物質(zhì)最基本的成分及生命的奇跡。與此同時，今天，人類所做的及沒能做到的事情，不僅危害到這個星球上的生命，也危害到該星球的壽命。全球化正在使地球變得愈來愈小、愈來愈快和愈來愈富有。盡管如此，9/11、禽流感及伊朗提醒我們，更小更快的世界決不意味著其更安全。我們正處于一個知識爆炸的世界之中，不過，迫切需要智慧?，F(xiàn)在，在（新聞采訪的）原聲摘要播出變得愈來愈短，即時信息淘汰了雜記文，個人生活變得如癡如狂之際，這個世界還是需要能夠深思的大學(xué)生?？紤]到這些理由，我過去信仰，而今天甚至更加強烈地信仰大學(xué)獨特的、無可取代的使命。2008年： But ,as has been true in many other cases, when they were at last married ,the most ideal of situations was found to have been changed to the most practical . instead of hacing shared their original duties,and as schol boys would say, going halves,they discovered that the cares of life had been doubled.this led to some distressing moments for both our friends;they un