专八翻译真题(1).docx

【1997 年】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 towards culture, the desire to express and explore the world through imagination and representation is fundamental. In Europe, this desire has found fulfinment in the masterpieces of our music, art, literature and theatre.（物称主语）These masterpieces are the touchstones for all our efforts; they are the touchstones for the possibilities to which human thought and imagination may aspire; they carry the most profound messages that can be sent from one human to another.【1998年】 To speak of American literature, then, is not to assert that it is completely unlike that of Europe. Broadly speaking, America and Europe have kept step. At any given moment the traveler could find examples in both of the same architecture, the same styles in dress, the same books on the shelves.（增词）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 to precede the word, for frequently the difference between America and Europe （especially England） will be one of degree, sometimes only of a small degree. The amount of divergence is a subtle affair, liable to perplex the Englishman when he looks at America. He is looking at e country which in important senses grew out of his own, which in several ways still resembles his own andwhich is yet a foreign country.（定语从句）There are odd overlappings and abrupt unfamiliarities; kinship yields to a sudden alienation, as when we hail a person across the street, only to discover from his blank response that we have mistaken a stranger for a friend.【2000年】 If people mean anything at all by the expression “untimely death” , they must believe that some deaths run on a better schedule than others. Death in old age is rarely called untimelya long life is thought to be a full one.（被动语态）But with the passing of a young person, one assumes that the best years lay ahead and the measure of that life was still to be taken.History denies this, of course. Among prominent summer deaths, one recalls those of Marilyn Monroe and James Deans, whose lives seemed equally brief and complete.（增词定语从句） Writers cannot bear the fact that poet John Keats died at 26, and only half playfully 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 and virtue. （被动语态）2001年】 We demand difficulty even in our games. We demand it because without difficulty there can be no game. A game is a way of making something hard for the fun ofit. The rules of the game are an arbitrary imposition of difficulty （词类转换）. When someone ruins the fun, he always does so by refusing to play by the rules.（意合） 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.（语序）No difficulty, no fun.【2002年】 Winners are not afraid of to do their own thinking and to use their own knowledge. They can separate facts from opinions and don' t 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, bound, or awed by them. （被 动语态）【2003年】 In his classic novel, “The Pioneersv , James Fenimore Cooper has his hero, a land developer, with his cousin on a tour of the city he is building.（词 类转换） He describes the broad streets, rows of houses, a bustling metropolis. But his cousin looks around bewildered. All she sees is a forest. uWhere are the beauties and improvements which you were to show me?” she asks. He' s astonished she can' t see them. aWhere! 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.【2004 年】I' m 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 with experience that needs to be sorted out.Then for a little while the house feels huge and empty,（物称主语）and I wonder where my self is hiding. It has to be recaptured slowly by watering the plants and perhaps, by looking again at each one as though it were a person.（被动语态）【2005年】 It is simple enough to say that since books have classesfiction, biography, poetrywe shouldseparate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us.（语序）Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, 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 all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possiblevalue from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. （物称主语）【2006年】I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the 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 costs, victory in spite of all terrorsvictory, however longand hard the road may be,（介词）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.（被动语态） I take up my task in buoyancy and hope.（介词） 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 united strength.”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.（被动语态） Instead of having shared their original duties, and as school-boys would say, goinghalves, they discovered that the cares of life had been doubled.（被动语态）This led to some distressing moments for both our friends;（物称主语）they understood suddenly that instead of dwelling in heaven they were still upon earth, and had made themselves slaves to new laws and limitations. Instead of being freer and happier than ever before, they had assumed new responsibilities; they had established a new household, and must fulfill in some way or another the obligations of it. They looked back with affection to their engagement; they had been longing to have each other to themselves, apart from the world, but it seemed that they never felt so keenly that they were still units in modern society.【2009年】 We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency - a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here.（同位语从句） But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst - though not all - of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly. However, too many of the world's leaders are still best described in the words of Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler's threat （被动语态）： “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, all powerful to be impotent. /z So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell ofatmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.