考研英语翻译练习题及答案
Unit 1
According to the new school of scientists,technology is an overlooked
force
in
expanding
the
horizons
of
scientific
knowledge.(71)Science moves forward,they say,not so much through the insights of great men of genius as because of more ordinary things like improved techniques and tools.(72)“In short”,a leader of the new school contends,“the scientific revolution,as we call it,was largely the improvement and invention and use of a series of instruments that expanded the reach of science in innumerable directions.”
(73)Over the years,tools and technology themselves as a source of fundamental innovation have largely been ignored by historians and philosophers of science. The modern school that hails technology argues that such masters as Galileo,Newton,Maxwell,Einstein,and inventors such as Edison attached great importance to,and derived great benefit from,craft information and technological devices of different kinds that were usable in scientific experiments.
The centerpiece of the argument of a technologies,genius no advocate was an analysis of Galileo’ s role at the start of the scientific revolution. The wisdom of the day was derived from Ptolemy,an astronomer of the second century,whose elaborate system of the sky put Earth at the center of all heavenly motions.(74)Galileo’s greatest glory
was that in 1609 he was the first person to turn the newly invented telescope on the heavens to prove that the planets revolve around the sun rather than around the Earth. But the real hero of the story,according to the new school of scientists,was the long evolution in the improvement of machinery for making eyeglasses.
Federal policy is necessarily involved in the technology vs. genius dispute.(75)Whether the Government should increase the financing of pure science at the expense of technology or vice versa(反之)often depends on the issue of which is seen as the driving force. Unit 2
The standardized educational or psychological tests that are widely used to aid in selecting,classifying,assigning,or promoting students,employees,and military personnel have been the target of recent attacks in books,magazines,the daily press,and even in Congress.(71)The target is wrong,for in attacking the tests,critics divert attention from the fault that lies with ill informed or incompetent users. The tests themselves are merely tools,with characteristics that can be measured with reasonable precision under specified conditions. Whether the results will be valuable,meaningless,or even misleading depends partly upon the tool itself but largely upon the user.
All informed predictions of future performance are based upon some knowledge of relevant past performance: school grades,research
productivity,sales records,or whatever is appropriate.(72)How well the predictions will be validated by later performance depends upon the amount,reliability,and appropriateness of the information used and on the skill and wisdom with which it is interpreted. Anyone who keeps careful score knows that the information available is always incomplete and that the predictions are always subject to error.
Standardized tests should be considered in this context. They provide a quick objective method of getting some kinds of information about what a person learned,the skills he has developed,or the kind of person he is. The information so obtained has,qualitatively,the same advantages and shortcomings as other kinds of information.(73)Whether to use tests,other kinds of information,or both in a particular situation depends,therefore,upon the evidence from experience concerning comparative validity and upon such factors as cost and availability.
(74)In general,the tests work most effectively when the qualities to be measured can be most precisely defined and least effectively when what is to be measured or predicated can not be well defined. Properly used,they provide a rapid means of getting comparable information about many people. Sometimes they identify students whose high potential has not been previously recognized,but there are many things they do not do.(75)For example,they do not compensate for gross social inequality,and thus do not tell how able an underprivileged youngster might have
been had he grown up under more favorable circumstances. Unit 1 翻译题解:
71) Science moves forward, they say, not so much through the insights of great men of genius as because of more ordinary things like improved techniques and tool. 句子分析:
第一、句子可以拆分为三段:
Science moves forward, they say, / not so much through the insights of great men of genius / as because of more ordinary things like improved techniques and tool.
第二、句子主干结构是:
not so much through... as because of... 与其……倒不如…… 因为 not so much... as 是个并列结构,也就是说so和as后面应该两个词的意思应该相同,所以多义介词through的意思应该等于 because of 因为,由于。 第三、词的处理:
the insights of great men of genius是后面带定语的名词短语结构,后置定语的顺序应该在汉语翻译中应该倒过来,即从后往前翻译为:天才伟人的真知灼见。
more ordinary things like improved techniques and tool这是结构是介词like短语做定语修饰中心词
more ordinary things,也是先翻译定语,再翻译中心词:像改进了
的技术和工具等更为普通的东西。
they say插入语,按照汉语习惯,翻译时放在句首。 完整的译文:
71)他们说,科学的发展与其说源于天才伟人的真知灼见,不如说源于改进了的技术和工具等更为普通的东西。
72) In short, a leader of the new school contends, the scientific revolution, as we call it, was largely the improvement and invention and use of a series of instruments that expanded the reach of science in innumerable direction. 句子分析:
第一、句子可以拆分为三段:
In short, a leader of the new school contends, the scientific revolution, as we call it, / was largely the improvement and invention and use of a series of instruments / that expanded the reach of science in innumerable direction.
第二、句子主干结构是:
1)系表结构:the scientific revolution... was largely...
2) that引导的定语从句,先行词是the improvement and invention and use of a series of instruments 第三、词的处理: In short 简而言之
the improvement and invention and use of a series of instruments (词