英语专业历年专八翻译真题及答案

英语专业历年专八翻译真题及答案英语专业历年专八翻译真题及答案 1997年:English to Chinese Opera is expensive: that much is inevitable. But expensive things are inevitably the province(范围) of the rich unless we abdicate(退位、放弃) societys power of choice. We can choose to make opera and other expensive forms of culture, accessible(易接近的，可达到的) 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(冲动) towards culture, the desire to express and explore the world through imagination and representation(表述、陈述)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(标准、试金石) for all our efforts; they are the touchstones for the possibilities to which human thought and imagination may aspire(立志、追求目标、渴望); they carry the most profound (深厚的、深刻的)messages that can be sent from one human to another. 【参考答案】欣赏歌剧是一种奢侈:你必须为此支付昂贵的票价。然而，享用昂贵的东西并不完全是富人的特权，除非我们放弃社会选择的权利。我们有权利使歌剧和其他昂贵的文化形式面向大众，面向那些个人没有支付能力的人。然而，问题是我们为什么要这么做。没有人会否认食物、居所、防护、健康与教育是不可或缺的。但是，即使在史前的穴居时代，人们伸出手来，也不仅仅是为了吃喝，为了搏杀，而且还有一个目的，那就是动手作画。人们对文化的冲动，即人们希望通过想象和再现来表现并探索这个世界的愿望，才是最根本的。在欧洲，人们通过音乐、美术、文学和戏剧等方面的不朽作品的创作，实现了这一愿望。这些杰作是衡量人类努力程度的试金石，是检验人类思维和想象潜能的标准，它们有着最深厚的寓意，并在人们彼此之间传播。 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(断言、声称)that it is completely unlike that of Europe. Broadly speaking, America and Europe have kept step(同步). At any given moment(在任何时候) 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、资格) to precede(领先、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、差异) 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 (重要的感觉)grew out of his own, which in several ways(在有些方面)still resembles his own and which is yet a foreign country. There are odd overlappings(重叠) and abrupt unfamiliarities; kinship(亲缘关系) yields to a sudden alienation(疏远关系), as when we hail(打招呼) a person across the street, only to discover from his blank(没有表情的) response that we have mistaken a stranger for a friend.【参考译文一】因此，我们在说美国文学，并不表明我们认为美国文学与欧洲文学截然不同。一般来说，美国和欧洲一直在同步发展。无论何时，旅游者在两地都能看到同一式的建筑，见到同一款式的服饰，读到摆在书架上的同一风格的书籍。在大洋两岸，人们的思想观念，就容易同人员与货物一样，可以自由交流，尽管有时会略显迟缓。谈到美国人的习惯、美国人的思维等概念时，我想在美国式的这几个词前面再加上某种修饰，因 为欧美之间(尤其是英美之间)的差异往往只是程度上的差异而已，而且在有的时候，是极低程度上的差异而已。差异的程度微乎其微，很可能会使审视美国的英国人感到迷惑不解。重要的是，英国人所审视的这个国家诞生于英国，并在不少方面仍与英国相差无几-然而，实实在在是个异邦。两地有着莫名的共同之处，以及令人深感突兀的陌生感。原先的亲戚已形同陌路，就仿佛隔着马路招呼，等看到对方一脸茫然时，我们才意识到认错人。 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(一类) 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(设想、假设 consumption 消费) that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined(突出、显现) by its converse(反面、相反): in some societies the failure to bear children(养孩子) (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce. Beyond all that(除了这些 )is the profound(深刻的、深远的) significance of children to the very institution(结构) 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(丰富家庭生活、拓宽生活圈子), to validate(使有效) its family character(家族的特征、风格), to gather(增加、集合) the redemptive(赎回的, 用于补偿的)influence of offspring. Children need the family, but the family seems also to need children, as the social institution(社会结构)uniquely(唯一) available, at least in principle, for (获得)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(生计) and in generational extension(家族的繁衍). 【参考答案】 另外，有一类家庭原因与下列类别不无共同之处，那就是:生儿育女要么是为了维系现有婚姻，提高婚姻质量，要么是为了拴住丈夫，使妻子有所事事，要么是为了修复婚姻，给婚姻注入新的活力，亦或是出于多子多福的观念而多生儿女。当然，我们也可以从问题的反面得到昭示:在某些社会，无法生育子嗣(或不能生育男孩)对婚姻而言是最大的威胁，也可作为夫妻分手的现成理由。 后代对家庭这一体制本身所具有的深远意义远非如此。在许多人看来，丁克家庭算不上真正的家庭。夫妻需要孩子来拓宽自己的生活圈子，实现家庭在传宗接代中的作用，并从子孙后代身上获取某种回报。在这个变幻莫测，常常不尽友善的世界上，家庭作为社会的基本单位，至少可在原则上，以其独特方式为家人提供安全保障，抚慰家人受伤的心灵，为家人指出生活方向，因此，孩子需要家庭，但与此同时，家庭也需要孩子。 If people mean anything at all by the expression_r untimely(不合时宜的，timely:适时的、及时的) death, they must believe that some deaths run on(连续, 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、设想) that the best years lay ahead and the measure(尺度、评价) of that life was still to be taken. History denies this, of course. Among prominent(卓越的、突出的)summer(壮年时期, 青春)deaths, one recalls those of Marilyn Monroe(马丽莲梦露 )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(约翰济慈)died at 26, and only half playfully(开玩笑地) 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(强度、亮度=achievements: 成就)and virtue(德行、品德). 【参考译文】 如果人们使用死不逢时的时候有所指的话，那肯定认为一些人的逝世是寿终正寝，而另外一些人的辞世则是英年早逝。很少有人会说因年老 而死亡是死不逢时-人们总是把老年人的寿终正寝看作是一种圆满。但是对于一个英年早逝的人，人们常常认为他的好日子还在后头，对他短暂的一生作出评价还为时尚早。 然而，历史对此观点持否定态度。谈到英年早逝的人物，人们常常回想起马丽莲梦露和詹姆士迪恩斯。二人生命虽短，却功成名就。作家们难以接受英国诗人约翰济慈26岁便匆匆辞世的残酷现实，然而，当他们26岁时，只有自嘲虚度年华碌碌无为的份了。那种认为生命短暂就不圆满的观点是不合逻辑的，因为评价一个人的一生应当看他给世人留下的印象，他所取得的成就，以及他的个人品质。 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(要点，主旨) of it. There is no happiness except as we take on(接纳) 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(相同的表达、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(宣称、声称) to be effortless. We demand difficulty even in our games(体育比赛、游戏). 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(武断的) imposition(强迫接受) 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. 参考译文】 努力是问题的关键。如果不经历艰难困苦，就没有幸福可言。正如爱尔兰诗人叶芝所言，除 了极少数不大可能出现的情况外，我们一生中得到的满意程度取决于我们愿意克服的困难有多大。美国诗人罗伯特费罗斯特谈到苦中求乐时，也表达了相同的看法。出现在广告中的幸福都有一个致命的错误，那就是，不费吹灰之力即可获得幸福。 即使在体育比赛中，我们也需要克服困难。我们需要克服困难，因为没有困难就没有比赛。比赛就是使某件事情变得更加困难，以便难中取乐。制定比赛规则就是故意制造困难。违反竞赛规则也就丧失了比赛乐趣。下棋时，如果不受规则的约束，高兴怎么走就怎么走，你很容易取胜。然而，乐趣源于胜利而又遵守规则。没有困难，也就没有乐趣。 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(伪装) and manipulating(操纵) 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. 胜者不会穷其毕生精力，去拘泥于某个他们所想象的为人之道;相反，他们会保持其真我本色，并且，作为这种追求真我的仁者，他们不会绞尽脑汁装腔作势，维持一种自命不凡的姿态，或去操纵他人。他们深知，在真心关爱和虚情假意之间，在顽固不化和大智若愚之间，在真才实学和装学富五车之间，实质上都存在着天壤之别。成功者无需面具掩藏自我。 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(毁坏、推翻), bound, or awed(敬畏) by them. 成功者们能运用自己的知识进行独立思考。他们能够分清事实，而不会假装他们自己无所不知。他们会倾听他人的想法，评判他人的 言论，最后得出自己的结论。虽然成功者也会钦佩、尊敬他人，但他们不会受他人牵制，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、设想、采取) responsibility for their own lives. 优胜者不会面对困难而显得无助(敢于只面困难)，也不会怨天尤人。相反，他们会努力肩负起自己对待生活的责任。 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(讲述、描述、阐述)a distinctly American trait, future-mindedness(minded:有思想的，着眼未来的): the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future; the freedom to feel unencumbered 【没有阻碍的, 不受妨碍的;cumber(n.)障碍?encumber(v.)阻碍?encumbered有阻碍的?unencumbered没有阻碍的】by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come. As Albert Einstein once said, Life for the American is always becoming(会变成什么样子), never being(现在是什么样子). 【参考答案】詹姆斯?费尼莫?库珀在其经典小说拓荒者中，讲述了主人公，一个土地开发商人，带着他的表妹参观他正在开发承建的一座城市。他说，这是一个熙熙攘攘的大都市，街道宽阔，房屋林立。而他的表妹却环顾四周，大惑不解。她所看见的只是一片树林。她不禁问道:你要给我看的美景在哪，被你改造了的地方又在哪?。开发商没料到他的表妹竟看不到他所讲的一切，惊讶地回答说，哪儿?到处都是啊!虽然这一切还未在大地上建成，但他已经在脑海里建好了，对他来说，这一切都像已经建成竣工了那样真实具体。在这里库珀揭示了美国人的一个典型特点:那就是着眼未来，也就是说，他们能够从未 来的角度看待现在的一切，可以不为过去所羁绊看待现在，在情感上更多地依附于未来的事物。正如阿尔伯特?爱因斯坦曾经说过的那样:对美国人来说，生活总是在发展变化中，从来不会静止不变。 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(边缘) with experience that needs to be sorted out(挑选、选择). 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(喷泉), but the moment( 指the lonely moment) comes when the worlds falls away, and the self emerges again from the deep unconscious(潜意识), bringing back all I have recently experienced to be explored and slowly understood. 【参考答案】只有我在非常疲劳的时候，在我不断工作了很长时间以后，在我倍感空虚，需要充实时候，我才会感到寂寞。而有时候在我结束巡回演讲回家的时候，在讲了很多话后，而且有太多经历需要整理时，我也会感到寂寞。 于是，有那么一会儿，我感到房子又大又空，我都不知道我的自我又到哪里去了。这时，我必须给植物浇水，并挨个瞅瞅，仿佛他们是有生命的精灵一般，这样我才能慢慢找到我的那个自我。 很长一段时间，我看着水浪从喷泉中喷涌而出。但只有当世界在我身边逐渐消失，当我再次从我内心深处的无意识中冒出来时，带给我最近的种种经历，让我探究，让我慢慢领会时，我才会感到寂寞。 当我因为持续工作太久而感觉疲劳空虚，需要充实一 下的时候，我会觉得孤独。有时，我出差做讲座，见很多人，说很多话，回来后脑子里很多东西需要理一理，这时我也会觉得孤独。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，不明确的)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(偏见、成见) when we read, that would be an admirable(绝妙的、极好的) beginning. Do not dictate(口述、发号施令)to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow worker and accomplice(同谋、合作者). If you hang back(迟疑、犹豫不决), and reserve(保留、储备)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(觉察不到的)fineness(优良、出色), from the twist and turn of the first sentences(换行的句子), will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep(沉浸、潜心、专心)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. 【参考译文】 然而很少有人愿意接受书上的告诉我们的东西。我们通常是带着一种不明确的不专一的目的去读书，我们要求小说是真实的，诗歌应该是虚构的，传记应该是奉承人的，历史则应该是能加深我们自己的偏见的。如果我们读书的时候能够屏弃这些成见，那将会是一个绝妙的开端。不要试图对作者发号施令，而是要设身处地把作者的思路，把自己当作作者的合作伙伴。假如你开始就犹豫不决，不愿接受作者观点，甚至对作者观点评头论足，你就是给自己设置障碍，使自己不可能最大限度地利用书本。然而，如果你尽量敞开心扉，那么文章开头就能给你一些暗示，由此一个与众不同的人物形象将跃然呈现于你面前。 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.我能奉献的唯有热血、辛劳、泪水和汗水。我们所面临的将是一场极为残酷的考验，我们面临的将是旷日持久的斗争和苦难。你若问我们的目标是什么,我可以用一个词来概括，那就是胜利。不惜一切代价去夺取胜利，不畏惧一切恐怖去夺取胜利，不论前路再长再苦也要多去胜利，因为没有胜利纠无法生存我们必须意识到， 没有胜利就没有大英帝国，没有胜利就没有大英帝国所象征的一切，没有胜利就没有多少世纪以来强烈的要求和冲动:人类应当向自己的目标迈进。此刻，我的精神振奋，满怀信心地承当起自己的人物。我确信，只要我们大家联合，我们的事业就不会挫败。此时此刻千钧一发之际，我觉得我有权要求各方面的支持。我要呼吁:来吧，让我们群策努力，并肩迈进 2007年选自哈佛大学校长劳伦斯?萨默斯演讲，演说全部内容如下，其中划线部分为考试内容。难度适中。Today, I speak from this podium a final time as your president. As I depart, I want to thank all of you - students, faculty, alumni and staff - with whom I have been privileged to work over these past years. Some of us have had our disagreements, but I know that which unites us transcends that which divides us. 今天，我将以校长的身份，最后一次在这个讲台上演讲。即将离任前，我要感谢诸位学生、教师、校友和员工，而且非常荣幸在过去的5年里能与你们共事。我们中的一些人意见不尽相同，但是，我知道，我们的共识远远超越分歧。 Some things look different to me than they did five years ago. The world that todays Harvards graduates are entering is a profoundly different one than the world administrators entered.在我看来，现在于5年前不同了。今天的哈佛毕业生正在进入的世界和管理人员当年所进入的世界相比已是大相径庭了。 It is a world where opportunities have never been greater for those who know how to teach children to read, or those who know how to distribute financial risk; never greater for those who understand the cell and the pixel; never greater for those who can master, and navigate between, legal codes, faith traditions, computer platforms, political viewpoints.现今世界，机遇对于这些人来说是空前的:他们知道如何教子女阅读;他们知道如何组合投资;他们懂得【计算机科学】基本存储单元和像素概念;他们能掌握各种法典、传统信仰、计算机平台、政治观点并在其中游刃有余。 It is also a world where some are left further and further behind - those who are not educated, those trapped in poverty and violence, those for whom e