3.4 考研真题详解

一、选择用词

1. Shares may not be issued and sold by the corporation for less than their par value therefore it is sometimes advisable not to state any par value at all or state a par value lower than the estimated market price.(对外经贸大学2005研)

【译文】股票不能以低于票面价值发行和出售,因此有时不规定票面价值或所规定的票面价值低于估计的市场价值是非常明智的。

【解析】此句中的advisable意思有“明智的,可取的,适当的”,这里根据文意选取“明智的”。

2. After the prospective local partner and the foreign firm have held initial discussions and if interest is manifested between the two, a letter of intent is usually prepared, either by one of them, or, preferably, by both who jointly sign it.(对外经贸大学2006研)

【译文】预期的地方合作伙伴在与外资公司进行初步讨论后,如双方均有兴趣,通常就会起草一份意向书,意向书要么由一方撰写,要么最好是双方共同签署。

【解析】此句中a letter of intent译作“意向书”,jointly sign译作“共同签署”,这些翻译都符合经济学里的一些术语。

3. If currency appreciation speeds up, that will change.(北京外国语大学2008研)

【译文】如果人民币加速升值,这种情况将会改变。

【解析】当currency与appreciation搭配在一起时,appreciation表示的意思是“增值;升值”。

4. The Articles of Incorporation must state the number of shares and the characteristics of the stock.(对外经贸大学2005研)

【译文】公司条例必须说明公司股份的数量及其特征。

【解析】此句涉及到经济学的知识,share和stock都翻译为“股份”,符合经济学的语体色彩。

二、变换用词

1. The establishment of communication between people belonging to different speech communities has long been an important form of linguistic performance.(北师大2008研)

【译文】长期以来,在隶属于不同语言群体的人们之间建立交流是语言行为的重要形式。

【解析】将名词“establishment”转译为汉语动词“建立”。

2. It has guided policymaking and inspired new national laws.(北京外国语大学2012研)

【译文】它已经成为决策的指南和成为制定国家新法律的灵感所在

【解析】动词guide和inspire活用为名词“……指南”“……的灵感所在”。

3. The emphasis on the readership and the setting, and therefore on naturalness, ease of understanding and an appropriate register, when these factors are appropriate.(北京外国语大学2008研)

【译文】强调读者及写作背景,即强调行文自然流畅,简单易懂,并在满足这两点的前提下保证合适的对应。

【解析】将名词“emphasis”转译为动词“强调”。

4. In that sense, unemployment is countercyclical, meaning that it rises when economic growth is low and vice versa.(北京外国语大学2011研)

【译文】这样来讲,失业是反循环现象,即经济增长缓慢,失业率上升,经济增长迅速,失业率下降。

【解析】原文中的countercyclical是形容词,意为“反周期的”,汉译时被转译为名词。

5. In their quest to lower costs to stay competitive, companies often wield the ax with little or no regard for the well-being of the people involved.(北京外国语大学2009研)

【译文】为减低成本以保持竞争力,公司经常大举裁员却很少顾及受此影响的人们的幸福。

【解析】将形容词“competitive”转译为名词“竞争力”。

6. It is the unanimous view of our committee that America today faces a serious and intensifying challenge with regard to its future competitiveness and standard of living.(北京外国语大学2011研)

【译文】我们委员会一致认为今天的美国,其未来的竞争力和生活水平面临着严峻的挑战。

【解析】将名词“view”转译为动词“认为”。

三、特殊词汇翻译

1. On the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, towering white wind turbines are popping up where only cattle, sheep and herders on horseback once roamed.(北京外国语大学2012研)

【译文】在中国内蒙古的草地上,高耸的白色风力涡轮机如雨后春笋般出现在曾经只有牛、羊和骑马的牧人漫游的地方。

【解析】Inner Mongolia指的是“内蒙古”,采用的是音意合译的方法。

2. If the currency union were a normal fixed exchange rate arrangement, it would collapse, as did the gold standard in the 1930s and the Bretton Woods system in the 1970s.(北京外国语大学2013研)

【译文】如果欧元区这个货币联盟只是一个一般的固定汇率安排机制,那么它注定会瓦解,就像金本位和布雷顿森林体系(Bretton Woods system)分别于上世纪30年代和70年代瓦解那样。

【解析】音译加意译。

3. Under the influence of the Department of ‘Theoretical and Applied Linguistics’ of Karl-Marx University of Leipzig, the word Translation recently made its way into the German language; this word is now often, though not generally used in the German speaking world as an umbrella term for translating and interpreting to denote interlingual communication.(北师大2008研)

【译文】受位于莱比锡的卡尔·马克思大学理论和应用语言学系的影响,“Translation”一词被德语吸收;现在,这个词作为翻译和口译的涵盖性术语被用于德语口语中,来指代语际交流(虽然这种情况并不普遍,但也常常发生)。

【解析】翻译原文中的地名时,采用了音译和意译合译的方法。

4. Because unemployment follows growth with a delay, it is called a lagging indicator of economic activity.(北京外国语大学2011研)

【译文】因此,失业率对经济活动的反应有所延迟,所以失业率也叫做经济活动的滞后指标。

【解析】lagging indicator为经济学的术语,译为“滞后指标”。

5. We acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 5th inst. And regret to learn that you are unable to extend the subject L/C.(北京第二外国语学院2009研)

【译文】本月5日来函敬悉。遗憾得知贵方无法展证。

【解析】本句中L/C为商贸方向的用语,译为“信用证”。

6. Please quote us your lowest price FOB London for walnut.(北京第二外国语学院2008研)

【译文】请提供贵方核报到伦敦的最低离岸价格报价。

【解析】句中price FOB术语在经济学中称为“离岸价格报价”。

7. Because of the lack of cultural toughness-the ability to succeed in an alien culture, they are easily subject to the suffering of what is called “culture shock”.(北京第二外国语学院2007研)

【译文】由于在文化上难以适应,即缺乏在国外陌生环境下生存的能力,他们往往会受到所谓“文化震荡”的冲击。

【解析】此句中“culture shock”为文化用词,译为“文化震荡”。

8. An earlier trade row was settled in 1992 with a bilateral agreement that limited Airbus’s launch aid to 33% of the development costs of a new plane, while indirect support to Boeing (from the Pentagon and NASA) was restricted to 4% of its turnover.(北京林业大学2005研)

【译文】早期的一场贸易口水战于1992年平息,达成了一项双边协议:对空客的启动资助不得超过其新机型开发成本的33%,而美国五角大楼和宇航局对波音的间接补助也限制在销售额的4%以内。

【解析】该句中bilateral agreement译作“双边协议”,the Pentagon译作“美国五角大楼”,NASA译作“宇航局”。

9. To read a text as literature is not to make one’s mind a tabula rasa and approach it without preconceptions; one must bring to it an implicit understanding of the operations of literary discourse which tells one what to look for.(北师大2004研)

【译文】阅读文学文本不是让人满脑子空白,不带任何想法地去读;我们必须对文学文本有一个内在的了解,这种了解能告诉我们从文本中能找到什么。

【解析】tabula rasa意为“空白,白板”,因为在汉语中找不到合适的同义习语可供套用,于是用意译法配合上下文把英语习语的含义表达出来。

10. Schools which are likely to be in the band one group can now heave a sigh of relief—they no longer have to fight tooth and nail for the top spot.(国际关系学院2009研)

【译文】那些应该会列入第一级的学校,从此可以松一口气,它们彼此再也不必为谁第一谁第二而耿耿于怀放心不下。

【解析】此句中fight tooth and nail译作“对……耿耿于怀”,用意译法配合上下文把英语习语的含义表达出来。

11. Thoreau had his own firm sense of that balance: save on the petty in order to spend on the essential.(上海交大2005研)

【译文】关于这种平衡,梭罗有其独到的见解:舍小节,保大节。

【解析】用意译法配合上下文把英语习语的含义表达出来。