英汉翻译1500.doc

英汉1500字文章翻译姓名： 李燕灵 学号： 0803012322 班级： 08商务C班 Families Pay the Price家庭付出了代价Bob Herbert 鲍勃赫伯特“Its like watching your son playing in traffic, and theres nothing you can do. “- Janet Bellows, mother of a soldier who has been assigned to a second tour in Iraq. “就像看着自己的孩子在车流中玩耍但却束手无策。” 珍妮特贝洛斯，一个第二次被分配给到伊拉克的士兵的母亲说到。Back in the 1960s, when it seemed as if every other draftee in the Army was being sent to Vietnam, I was sent off to Korea, where I was assigned to the intelligence office of an engineer battalion.早在20世纪60年代,似乎当其他被征召入伍的士兵被派去越南时,我被派去了韩国,在那里我被指派到情报办公室的工程师一大队。Twenty years old and half a world away from home, I looked forward to mail call the way junkies craved their next fix. My teenage sister, Sandy, got all of her high school girlfriends to write to me, which led some of the guys in my unit to think I was some kind of Don Juan. I considered it impolite to correct any misconceptions they might have had.二十岁就和家里相隔半个地球远，我期待着用邮件的方式点名了那些恳求得到一次用量的毒品的吸毒者。我年少妹妹桑迪带着所有她高中学校的女朋友写信给我，这导致我们单位的一些球员认为我是个风流荡子。我认为去纠正他们对我可能有的误解是不礼貌的。You could depend on the mail for an emotional lift - most of the time. But there were times when I would open an envelope and read, in the inky handwriting of my mother or father or sister, that a friend of mine, someone I had grown up with or gone to school with, or a new friend I had met in the Army, had been killed in Vietnam. Just like that. Gone. Life over at 18, 19, 20. 大部分时间里你可以依赖的邮件传递得到一种情感的鼓舞。但有好几次当我打开一个信封来读时, 在我母亲或父亲或姐妹漆黑的笔迹里我总是会看到类似的这样的事-和我一起长大或一起上学的朋友,又或者是我在军队里刚认识的新朋友已经丧生在越南。就这样走了，生命停止在18或19或20岁。I can still remember the weird feelings that would come over me in those surreal moments, including the irrational idea that I was somehow responsible for the death. In the twisted logic of grief, I would feel that if I had never opened the envelope, the person would still be alive. I remember being overwhelmed with the desire to reseal the letter in the envelope and bring my dead friend back to life.我还记得那种奇怪的感觉会在那些不真实的时刻里影响着我,包括我不知道如何为死亡负责的不合理想法。在这种悲痛的扭曲之下,我就会觉得如果我从未打开信封,那些人就还会活着的。还记得我会被某种欲望所淹没而相信当我重新打开那封信后让我那死去的朋友会复活过来。This weeks hideous attack in Mosul reminded me of those long ago days. Once again American troops sent on a fools errand are coming home in coffins, or without their right arms or left legs, or paralyzed, or so messed up mentally theyll never be the same. Troops are being shoved two or three times into the furnace of Iraq by astonishingly incompetent leaders who have been unable or unwilling to provide them with the proper training, adequate equipment or even a clearly defined mission.本周发生在摩苏尔的骇人听闻的袭击使我想起那些很久以前的日子。被派去战场却执行了徒劳的任务的美国军队再一次回家了，他们有的是呆在棺材里回来的，有的是缺胳膊少腿的回来的，有的是瘫痪着回来的，或者甚至是精神崩溃着回来的，总之他们不再和以前一样了。士兵们三番两次地被那些极其无能的领导人推向了伊拉克这个火炉，这这些领导人已经无法或者不愿意向他们提供适当的培训,充足的设备或者甚至是分配一个明确的任务。It is a mind-boggling tragedy. And the suffering goes far beyond the men and women targeted by the insurgents. Each death in Iraq blows a hole in a family and sets off concentric circles of grief that touch everyone else who knew and cared for the fallen soldier. If the human stakes were understood well enough by the political leaders of this country, it might make them a little more reluctant to launch foolish, unnecessary and ultimately unwinnable wars.这是一个难以想象的悲剧。而这些遭受这种痛苦的人的人数远远超过了在战争中被击毙之人的人数。每次死在伊拉克的士兵都使他们的家庭不再完整,这使得了解和关心这些失去生命的士兵的人都忍受着同心圆似的悲痛。如果人类的利害关系能够为他们国家的这些政治领导人所很好的理解，这可能会使他们有点更不愿意去发动愚蠢的、不必要的和最终无法取胜的战争。Lisa Hoffman and Annette Rainville of the Scripps Howard News Service have reported, in an extremely moving article, that nearly 900 American children have lost a parent to the war in Iraq. More than 40 fathers died without seeing their babies.斯克里普斯霍华德新闻社的丽莎霍夫曼和安妮特雷恩维尔在一篇非常令人感动的文章里报道说在对伊拉克的战争里将近900名美国儿童失去了一个家长。甚至有40个父亲到死都没见过自己的孩子。The article begins with a description of a deeply sad 4-year-old named Jack Shanaberger, whose father was killed in an ambush in March. Jack told his mother he didnt want to be a father when he grew up. I dont want to be a daddy, he said, because daddies die.这篇文章的开端描述一个名叫杰克莎纳伯格的四岁小男孩，他很伤心因为他的父亲在三月份因遭遇埋伏而死了。杰克告诉他的妈妈说当他长大以后他不想成为一个爸爸。他说：“我不想成为一个爸爸，因为当爸爸会死。”Six female soldiers who died in the war left a total of 10 children. This is a new form of wartime heartbreak for the U.S. 在战争中牺牲的6位女士兵遗留下10个孩子。这是一种新形式的战争令美国人心碎。We have completely lost our way with this fiasco in Iraq. The president seems almost perversely out of touch. The idea of democracy taking hold in what was a place of tyranny and hatred and destruction is such a hopeful moment in the history of the world, he said this week.在伊拉克的惨败使我们完全迷失了方向。总统似乎是断然地失去了联系。他这个星期说：“民主思想一个暴政的地方占有了一席之地，而憎恨和毁灭却发生在世界历史里这个充满希望的时刻。The truth, of course, is that we cant even secure the road to the Baghdad airport, or protect our own troops lining up for lunch inside a military compound. The coming elections are a slapstick version of democracy. International observers wont even go to Iraq to monitor the elections because its too dangerous. Theyll be watching, as if through binoculars, from Jordan.当然，事实是我们甚至都不能保障自己一路上能够安全到达巴格达机场或者是保护我们自己的军队在军方基地去排队买午饭。即将举行的选举是演滑稽戏似的民主。国际观察家甚至不会去伊拉克监督选举,因为太危险了。他们只会从约但河远远地看着,仿佛透过望远镜看着。Nobody has a plan. We dont have enough troops to secure the country, and the Iraqi forces have shown neither the strength nor the will to do it themselves. Election officials are being murdered in the streets. The insurgency is growing in both strength and sophistication. At least three more marines and one soldier were killed yesterday, ensuring the grimmest of holidays for their families and loved ones.没有人有一个计划。我们没有足够的军队来保障国家,而伊拉克部队也已经显示出了他们没有了力量也不愿意自己去打战了。负责选举的官员被残酷地杀害了在街上。暴乱情况愈演愈烈，也越来越复杂。昨天至少有三名海军陆战队员和一名士兵被打死,可以确定的是昨天对于他们的家人和所爱的人来说是最悲伤的假期。One of the things that President Bush might consider while on his current vacation is whether there are any limits to the price our troops should be prepared to pay for his misadventure in Iraq, or whether the suffering and dying will simply go on indefinitely. 有一件事布什总统可能会考虑到，考虑在他度假之时是否要限制我们的军队应当准备的为他在伊拉克可能遭遇不幸而支付的开销，或者考虑是否让苦难和死亡无限期地完全持续下去。Are We There Yet?我们还在那里吗？Americas recovery will be much slower than that from most recessions; but the government can help a bit.这次美国的经济复苏将会比以往的经济衰退后的复苏更为缓慢；但是美国政府还是起到一些作用来帮助经济复苏。“WHITHER goest thou, America?” That question, posed by Jack Kerouac on behalf of the Beat generation half a century ago, is the biggest uncertainty hanging over the world economy. And it reflects the foremost worry for American voters, who go to the polls for the congressional mid-term elections on November 2nd with the countrys unemployment rate stubbornly stuck at nearly one in ten. They should prepare themselves for a long, hard ride.“美利坚，你的路在何方？”半个世纪前，“垮掉的一代”的代表作家杰克凯鲁雅克曾经提出这样的疑问，现在这个问题成为了困扰世界经济的最大的不确定性因素。同时也反应了那些要参加11 月 2 日国会中期选举的美国选民的最大担忧，而此时美国接近于10%的失业率还是居高不下。对此，人们要有所准备，漫漫长路上充满了坎坷。 The most wrenching recession since the 1930s ended a year ago. But the recoverynone too powerful to begin withslowed sharply earlier this year. GDP grew by a feeble 1.6% at an annual pace in the second quarter, and seems to have been stuck somewhere similar since. The housing market slumped after temporary tax incentives to buy a home expired. So few private jobs were being created that unemployment looked more likely to rise than fall. Fears grew over the summer that if this deceleration continued, Americas economy would slip back into recession.自上世纪30年代以来最严重的经济衰退在一年前结束了。但是复苏的起步步伐不够强劲，并且势头在今年早些时候大幅放缓。GDP在第二季度的年增长速度仅仅只有1.6%，并且从那以后似乎就再也没有起色。政府对购买住房给予短期的税收鼓励政策， 但是该政策到期之后房地长市场行情就一路下滑。私营领域几乎没有创造出新的工作岗位，失业率不但没有下降反而有明显上升趋势。整个夏天人们都在担忧着，如果复苏速度继续放缓，美国经济可能再次滑向衰退的深渊里。 Fortunately, those worries now seem exaggerated. Part of the weakness of second-quarter GDP was probably because of a temporary surge in imports from China. The latest statistics, from reasonably good retail sales in August to falling claims for unemployment benefits, point to an economy that, though still weak, is not slumping further. And history suggests that although nascent recoveries often wobble for a quarter or two, they rarely relapse into recession. For now, it is most likely that Americas economy will crawl along with growth at perhaps 2.5%: above stall speed, but far too slow to make much difference to the jobless rate.幸运的是，现在看来这些担心似乎有些被夸大。第二季度GDP的部分疲软原因可能是因为从中国的进口有暂时性的上涨。最新的统计数据表明，从八月份相当好的零售业绩到失业津贴的需求量下降来看，经济虽然还是疲软，但是已经没有了进一步下滑的趋势。而历史告诉我们，虽然初期复苏的脚步可能会在一或两个季度之内摇摆不定，但是很少会再次步入衰退。对于现在而言，最大的可能是美国经济大约会以 2.5%的增长速度缓慢复苏，但是这种速度太过缓慢以至于还无法大幅改变失业率。Why, given that America usually rebounds from recession, are the prospects so bleak? Thats because most past recessions have been caused by tight monetary policy. When policy is loosened, demand rebounds. This recession was the result of a financial crisis. Recoveries after financial crises are normally weak and slow as banking systems are repaired and balance-sheets rebuilt. Typically, this period of debt reduction lasts around seven years, which means America would emerge from it in 2014. By some measures, households are reducing their debt burdens unusually fast, but even optimistic seers do not think the process is much more than half over.若说美国经济通常在衰退后会有反弹，那么为什么这次复苏的前景是如此黯淡呢？原因在于之前发生过的衰退大多数是由紧缩的货币政策造成的。当政策放松时，需求就会反弹。衰退是金融危机造成的结果。金融危机后的复苏通常是疲软且缓慢的，因为银行系统需要修复，资产负债表也需要重建。往往这种债务减持时期会持续7年左右，这就意味着美国至少要到2014 年才能从中抽身。从某种程度上说，美国家庭正在用一些手段来以超常的速度减少债务负担，但是即使是乐观的预知者也不认为债务减持的过程已经超过一半了。 Battling on the bus前行路上的较量Americas biggest problem is that its politicians have yet to acknowledge that the economy is in for such a long, slow haul, let alone prepare for the consequences. A few brave officials are beginning to sound warnings that the jobless rate is likely to “stay high”. But the political debate is more about assigning blame for the recession than about suggesting imaginative ways to give more oomph to the recovery.美国的最大问题在于政治家仍然不得不承认美国经济注定要经受如此漫长的拉锯战， 更不用说为随后的结果做准备了。少数勇敢的官员开始敲响这样的警钟-失业率很可能会“居高不下”。但是政治辩论更多的是关注到底谁来承担衰退的责任，而不是提出富有的创造力的办法来为经济复苏提供更多的动力。Republicans argue that Barack Obamas shift towards “big government” explains the economys weakness, and that high unemployment is proof that fiscal stimulus was a bad idea. In fact, most of the growth in government to date has been temporary and unavoidable; the longer-run growth in government is more modest, and reflects the policies of both Mr. Obama and his predecessor. And the notion that high joblessness “proves” that stimulus failed is simply wrong. The mechanics of a financial bust suggest that without a fiscal boost the recession would have been much worse.共和党人认为巴拉克奥巴马转而走向“大政府”解释为什么经济会疲软，而高失业率证明经济刺激是个坏主意。事实上，现今大多数政府规模的扩大都是暂时性的且不可避免的；长远的政府规模扩大要更加适度并且能够反应奥巴马和他前任总统的政策。而高失业率“证明”经济刺激失败的见解是几完全错的。而根据经济萧条的规律，如果没有财政刺激，经济衰退的情况会更糟。 Democrats have their own class-warfare version of the blame game, in which Wall Streets excesses caused the problem and higher taxes on high-earners are part of the solution. That is why Mr. Obamas legislative priority before the mid-terms is to ensure that the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year for households earning more than $250,000 but are extended for everyone else.民主党人对于责任承担有着他们自己的一套评判标准，他们认为是华尔街的过度胡作非为才导致了现在的问题，而对高收入者征收更高的税只是解决方案的一部分。这就是为什么奥巴马在中期选举前在立法上要优先确保将布什政府制定的减税政策的受益范围要扩大到其他每个人，布什政府的减税政策原先受益的只是收入超过25万美元的家庭，而该政策在今年底就到期。This takes an unnecessary risk with the short-term recovery. Americas experience in 1937 and Japans in 1997 are powerful evidence that ill-timed tax rises can tip weak economies back into recession. Higher taxes at the top, along with the waning of fiscal stimulus and belt-tightening by the states, will make a weak growth rate weaker still. Less noticed is that Mr. Obamas fiscal plan will also worsen the medium-term budget mess, by making tax cuts for the middle class permanent.这对于短期的复苏来说个不必要的风险。美国1937年和日本1997年的经验强有力地证明了不合时宜的增加税收可能使疲软的经济再次进入衰退的阶段。国家的高税收政策加上减弱的财政刺激和政府的紧缩政策将使本已疲软的经济更加无力增长。很少人注意到奥巴马的针对中产阶级的永久性减税的财政计划将会减少中期的预算更加糟糕的可能性。 Ways to overhaul the engine 修复经济发动机的方式In an ideal world America would commit itself now to the medium-term tax reforms and spending cuts needed to get a grip on the budget, while leaving room to keep fiscal policy loose for the moment. But in febrile, partisan Washington that is a pipe-dream. Todays goals can only be more modest: to nurture the weak economy, minimize uncertainty and prepare the ground for tomorrows fiscal debate. To that end, Congress ought to extend all the Bush tax cuts until 2013. Then they should all expireprompting a serious fiscal overhaul, at a time when the economy is stronger.在理想的社会里，美国将会承诺在中期进行税收改革并且减少必须开支来控制预算，同时在此时留有空间保持宽松的财政政策。但是这只不过是华盛顿里的党派头脑发热的空想罢了。先进的目标只有更加保守：给虚弱的经济补充营养，最大程度减小不确定性，并且准备好明天财政辩论的依据。为此国会应该将所有的布什减税政策延期到2013年。然后当所有的减税政策到期-在经济情况好转时再来进行彻底的财政大检查。A broader set of policies could help to work off the hangover faster. One priority is to encourage more write-downs of mortgage debt. Almost a quarter of all Americans with mortgages owe more than their houses are worth. Until that changes the vicious cycle of rising foreclosures and falling prices