湖北省暨武汉地区第十届外语翻译大赛初赛试题

湖北省暨武汉地区第十届外语翻译大赛初赛试题
英语专业组、英语非专业组
( for English majors and non-English majors)
I.Beneath each of the following sentences, there are four choices marked A, B, C and D.
Choose the one that best completes the sentence. For 5, please choose the one that has the same meaning as the word in quotes. (9×2%=18%)
1.It is no accident that most people find Davis’ book disturbing, for it is___to undermine a
number beliefs they have long___.
A.calculated…cherished
B.intended…denied
C.anxious…misunderstood
D.reputed…anticipated
2.According to one political theorist, a regime that has as its goal absolute___, without any
___ law or principle, has declared war on justice.
A.respectability…codification of
B.supremacy…suppression of
C.autonomy…accountability to
D.fairness…deviation from
3.The reason ___he stole the money is ___he wanted to buy food.
A.why…because
B.that…because
C.\ …that
D.that…that
4.Ben hasn’t eaten.
----Don’t worry. ___him a sandwich.
A.I will make
B.I am going to make
5.The criminal was asked to aid police in their ‘ enquiry’ .
A.interview
B. investigation
C. questions
6.___the U.S. dollar, its value increased by more than 15 percent.
A.About
B. Among
C. Against
D. On
7.Among all societies legal marriage is usually accompanied by some kind of ceremony
that expresses group ____of the union.
A.opinion
B. coercion
C. sanction
D. insistence
8.At first, I found her gravity rather intimidating; but, as I saw more of her, I found that___
was very near the surface.
A.seriousness
B. confidence
C. laughter
D. determination
9.Just as astrology was for centuries ___faith, countering the strength of established
churches, so today believing in astrology is an act of ___ the professional sciences.
A.an individual …rebellion by
B.an accepted…antagonism toward
C. a heretical…support for
D.an underground…defiance against
II.(1) Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions.
(9×2%=18%)
Passage 1
The surprising thing about the War of Independence when you compare it with other wars of liberation is not that the Americans won, but that they did not win more easily. All they had to do to gain independence was to hold what they had. The British, on the contrary, had to reconquer a vast territory in order to win. To get troops in action against the “ rebels” of 1775---83, the British government had to send them by bulky, slow-moving sailing vessels which never took less than four weeks ( and often ten) to cross the Atlantic. Moreover, those who “came three thousand miles and died, to keep the Past upon its throne” had to be armed, clothed, and even partly fed from England, which meant more shipping , more delays, more losses at sea, such expense as had never been known in English history.
1.By using the terms, “War of Independence”and “other wars of liberation”, the author
indicates that he
A.wishes that the British had won.
B.understands the American point of view.
C.is an impartial observer.
D.is careful to use the correct terminology.
2.The author is assuming that the reader
A.has a preconceived bias in favor of the American war effort.
B.has a preconceived bias in favor of the British.
C.is unbiased in viewing the war.
D.is trying to decide which side deserved to win.
3.Which of the following sentences, except for a few emotive words, is a statement of fact?
A.“ The surprising thing…”
B.“ All they had…”
C.“ To get troops…”
D.none of the above.
Passage 2
The seas contain very few animals outwardly as unattractive as the oyster. Misshapen, drab, practically motionless, and devoid of expression, the oyster presents little to stir in the imagination or aesthetic sensibilities. Nevertheless, in its prosaic way, the oyster contributes more to the welfare of man than any other invertebrate of the sea, and its geologic history is long and informative. Kilometer after kilometer of oyster banks and reefs fringe the warmer borders of the continents, furnishing food and raw materials for man. The approximate annual world production of oyster meat approaches 54 million kilograms, and in several countries, especially the United States, France, the Netherlands, Japan, and Australia, oyster fishing is an important industry, Oyster shells are dredged by the thousands of tons from shallow banks and used for construction material and other purposes. A number of mollusks popularly called oysters are not really members of the genus Ostrea; among these are “ pearl oysters”, genus Melagrina. More than 1,000 species of oysters, including fossil and living species are known.
4.The author’s major objective in this paragraph is to emphasize the
A.unattractive appearance of the oyster.
B.importance of the oyster to man.
C.many different species of oysters.
D.Many ways in which oyster shells are used.
5.By stating that the pearl oyster is not really a member of the genus Ostrea, the author is trying
to do all of the following except
A.relate to what the reader already knows.
B.dispel a myth.
C.show that everything that looks like an oyster isn’t one.
D.explain the process of pearl formation.
6.The author seems to be most intrigued with the oyster’s
A.annual production of food for the world.
B.practically motionless position in the sea.
C.geologic history.
D.contrasting bad looks and extreme importance.
Passage 3
Rocks which have solidified directly from molten materials are called igneous rocks. Igneous rocks are commonly referred to as primary rocks because they are the original source of material found in sedimentaries and metamorphics. Igneous rocks compose the greater part of the earth’s crest, but they are generally covered at the surface by a relatively thin layer of sedimentary or metamorphic rocks. Igneous rocks are distinguished by the following characteristics: (1) they contain no fossils; (2) they have no regular arrangement of layers; and (3) they are nearly always made up of crystals.
Sedimentary rocks are composed largely of minute fragments derived from the disintegration of existing rocks and in some instances from the remains of animals. As sediments are transported, individual fragments are sorted according to size. ①Distinct layers of such sediments as gravels, sand, and clay build up, as they are deposited by water and occasionally wind. These sediments vary ion size with the material and the power of the eroding agent. Sedimentary materials are laid down in layers called strata.
When sediments harden into sedimentary rocks, the names applied to them change to indicate the change in physical state. Thus, small stones and gravel cemented together are known as conglomerates; cemented sand becomes sandstone; and hardened clay becomes shale. In addition to these, other sedimentary rocks such as limestone frequently result from the deposition of dissolved material. The ingredient parts are normally precipitated by organic substances, such as shells of clams or hard skeletons of other marine life.
Both igneous and sedimentary rocks may be changed by pressure, heat, solution, or cementing action. ②When individual grains from existing rocks tend to deform and interlock, they are called metamorphic rocks. For example, granite, an igneous, may be metamorphosed into a gneiss or a schist. Limestone, a sedimentary rock, when subjected to heat and pressure may become marble, a metamorphic rock. Shale under pressure becomes slate.
7.Which of the following is a metamorphic rock?
A.Granite
B.Shale
C.Limestone
D.Slate
8.If a rock formation is stratified, we may assume that ___
A.is the result of volcanic action
B.is crystalline in structure
C.was built up over a period of years
D.is metamorphic
9.If a granite quarry, we may expect to find ___
A.strata
B.limestone
C.gravel beds
D.no trace of fossils
(2) Put the two underlined sentences in passage 3 into Chinese: (2×3%=6%)
III. There are two versions for each sentence or each group of sentences . Choose the better one and write your answer at the end of this part. （9×2%=18%）
1. Hardly a year now passes without Shanghai losing its traditional dominance in another field or
product.
A.上海几乎每年都要失去其在一个领域里或一种产品上的传统优势。

B.现在一年又已快过去，但上海在另一领域或产品上并没有失去它固有的优势。

2. This was one of the secrets of his great popularity; but it was a popularity which was as
unsettled as the waves. It swelled, and bubbled, and foamed for a while, only to recede, and be lost to its former possessor.
A.这就是他博得巨大声望的一个秘诀；但是这种声望如同波涛一样起伏不定。

它一时之
间浪涛高涨，随后又潮退水落，终于在原来具有这种声望的人身上荡然无存。

B.这就是他博得巨大声望的一个秘诀；但是这种声望如同波涛一样起伏不定。

它在短暂
的时间内，如日中天，盛极一时，炙手可热，但转瞬之间又烟消云散，终于在原来有此声望的人身上消失了。

3. The work of my first day was typical of many at that time.
A.我第一天的工作情况是当时许多人的工作的一个典型。

B.我第一天的工作情况是我当时工作的典型情况。

4. He maintained that it would be a mistake to hold up progress in the b8ilateral talk over a
matter which involved others.
A．他认为，要想使双方会谈继续取得进展，竟又涉及其他国家，这是错误的。

B. 他认为，为了讨论其他国家问题而举行的这次双边会谈不能取得进展，实在是错误
的。

5. One hundred and eighty years ago the simple and sublime doctrine of equality was preached
and taught and acted upon, but that doctrine had long been lost sight of.
A．一百八十年前，人们鼓吹、传授朴素崇高的平等原则，并身体力行，但那个原则早经忘却了。

B．一百八十年前，朴素崇高的平等原则被人们鼓吹、传授和奉行，但那个原则早经被忘却了。

6.I was feeling far from well, as a heavy cold and sore throat were reinforced by the
consequences of inoculation against typhoid fever.
A.我因患有严重感冒和喉痛，感到很不舒服。

我的病情因为注射了伤寒预防针而加重了。

B.我感到很不舒服。

本来我患有重感冒和喉痛，加上注射了伤寒预防针，病情加重了。

7.So, like a fool, I was just going to speak when he did.
A.于是，不说也罢了，偏偏我傻里傻气地想说点什麽的时候，他却先开口说话了。

B.于是，当他说话的时候，我傻里傻气地也打算要说点什麽。

8.Their language was almost unrestrained by any motives of prudence.
A.他们几乎爱讲什麽就讲什麽，全然不考虑什麽慎重的问题。

B.他们的言论几乎不受任何深思熟虑的动机的约束。

9.Their relations were vinegar, although Mr. A when speaking of Mr. B in his absence was
acidly correct.
A.他们之间的关系挺别扭，虽然A先生在背后谈起B先生时语中带刺但还不失分寸。

B.他们之间的关系挺别扭，虽然A先生在背后谈起B先生时是尖刻而正确的。

IV. Translate the darkened paragraphs in the passages. The first passage is for English majors and the second one is for non-English majors. (40%)
Passage 1
( for English majors)
A hit song of the late 1980s was Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”, with its poignant lyric about a young black girl joyriding with her boyfriend:
City lights lay out before us
And you arm felt nice wrapped ’round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
And I have feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone.
To be someone, be someone-- one of the deep urges of the human heart; perhaps, if we knew how to reckon such things with finality, the deepest of all.
It is a need that becomes more intensely felt-- and also more difficult to satisfy-- as the course of history carried us all further away from the old realities that structured our identities and life experiences for us. As we become possessors of individual selves, we become more free, and in another sense unbearably burdened: each of us has this thing, this life, and society seems to be telling us that we have to determine for ourselves what shape it takes-- create our identities, create our experiences. Be somebody. Be somebody good. Be happy. Be yourself.
In the film The Dead Poets’ Society, the teacher played by Robin Williams takes his students out into a courtyard and tells them to walk around. Don’t just walk like ev erybody else, he tells them: find your own way t walk. Be an individual. And that is one of our society’s main messages, blared at us from all directions. I do not mean to come down too heavily on Dead Poets, which I thought was a rather good movie. It just happens to be a convenient example of a very common piece of programming we all get constantly. I could have easily picked on Frank Sinatra singing “ I did it my way, ” or on any of thousands of other exhortations to be somebody that are expressed in our popular culture.
The more we heed those exhortations, the more we try to conform to our society’s norm and become individuals, the more choices we are required to make. We do not, as I have already pointed out, have the choice about whether or not to make choices. The best you can do if you want to avoid choice making is to live your life within a cult or a fundamentalist
religion or a traditional society and try to persuade yourself you have not chosen that. Yet obviously we do not have complete freedom, either, to choose who to be and how to feel. Life is not an equal opportunity employer. We are all commanded to make our own lives-- but some of us do everything possible to pretend we didn’t hear; others accept the challenge joyfully and then discover th at not all doors are open, or that society doesn’t like the way we walk after all.
The ethos of the personally created life is probably strongest in America, land of the self-made man. It was memorably expressed in The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald’s myt hic novel about Jimmy Gatz, an American Don Quixote who succeeded--at least for a while-- in making a world commensurate with his fantasies. But the drift of cultural change is in the direction of forcing everyone to be free, requiring everyone to create personal identity and experience, however sparse the resources. The struggle to be someone is a global struggle now.
Every morning billions of pairs of eyes open, and billions of societies of mind set forth on the adventures of selfhood. For many, the adventure only rarely rises above the level of a struggle to keep the body alive, but even the most miserable among us also hear the aspirations of the self-- the “ me” craving reassurance that (a) it exists and (b) it is good; the modern “ me” that pursues happiness and believes that whatever happiness it finds will be what it has taken or created and not what has been handed down by fate.
Passage 2
( for non-English majors)
The global warmers
Of all the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide is the most significant. Human activities have increased the amount of atmospheric CO:by about 26 per cent since the Industrial Revolution, mainly through the burning of fossil fuels ( coal, oil and natural gas). The destruction of vast areas of forest, particularly in South America also has an important impact on atmospheric CO:: forests act as natural “ sponges ”which soak up this gas from the atmosphere and fix the carbon in plant matter. If the trees are chopped down and burnt or left to decompose, the carbon is released again as CO:.. Natural fluctuations of the carbon cycle can bring about substantial changes in concentrations of atmospheric CO:., as the Vostok ice-core record indicates; the important question is how the natural sources and sinks ( removal pathways) of CO: will change in the face of man-made ( anthropogenic) inputs.
Although there is roughly two hundred times less methane than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today, its potential role in global warming is significant. Molecule for molecule, CH<has a greater greenhouse warming effect than CO:., as it is a stronger absorber of infrared radiation. Since the Industrial Revolution, the amount of methane in the atmosphere has doubled. A variety of human activities have contributed to this rise, largely connected with agriculture and land management. The cultivation of rice in paddy fields makes the biggest contribution: rice plants produce methane as they grow. Rice production, nearly all of which is practised in Asia, has approximately doubled since 1940. Ruminant animals such as cattle and sheep brew up considerable quantities of methane in their digestive systems, expulsion of which represents the second most important anthropogenic source. Burning of vegetation in tropical forests and savannahs releases methane, while other sources include the fermentation and decay of organic wastes in rubbish tips and landfills and the leakage of natural gas during coal mining and gas drilling and transmission
along pipelines.
But there are substantial natural sources of methane too. Microbial processes in wetlands such as bogs, swamps and tundra produce roughly as much methane as paddy fields now do, while termite communities are thought to emit as much as is produced by burning of vegetation. Biological processes in oceans, lakes and rivers also produce small quantities of methane.
The most important sink for atmospheric methane is its chemical destruction in the atmosphere. The troposphere-- that part of the atmosphere extending from ground level to an altitude of about 10-15 kilometers-- contains significant quantities of reactive hydroxyl ( OH) species. These attack methane to form a variety of products including carbon monoxide and water ( both of which, however, themselves contribute to global warming).
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１、填写报名登记表（姓名、性别、所在学校院系、班级、通讯地址和联系电话），送交初赛答卷（答卷纸自备），并缴纳报名费：（学生）2０元／人，（在职人员）40元／人；
２、本试题第IV.题Passage １英语专业组必做，Passage 2英语非专业组必做；
３、前两届（2001、2002年）大赛三等奖（含三等）以上获奖者，持获奖证书报名，可直接进入决赛名单，但还是必须参加初赛，并缴纳报名费。

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