Unit4 Conversion and Reversion

KEY TO ASSIGNMENT 3
I. 翻译下列句子，注意运用增词法：
1)Anthrax was not known in the area at the time, or if it was, wasn’t thought to be of any consequence by the local tribes, and went unmentioned.
当时炭疽在那个地区还不为人所知，就算当地的部落里有人听说过这种病，也没有想到它会带来什么后果，因此一直没有人提起过炭疽。

2) A fool and his words are soon parted; a man of genius and his money.
愚人会很快忘记说过的话，智者会很快放弃手中的钱。

3)Duodenal ulcer may appear at any age but occurs most frequently between the ages of 20 and 60 and has a peak incidence in the fourth decade of life.
十二指肠溃疡可发生于任何年龄，但最常见于20至60岁，其中31岁至40岁发病率最高。

4)Although a computer can think in a certain sense, the human brain with its billions of nerve cells was and still is a much more remarkable mechanism than any computer.
虽然计算机在某种意义上也能思想，但是具有几十亿神经细胞的人脑，过去是现在也仍然是比任何计算机都出色得多的机制。

5) A settlement and peace will remain elusive.
解决问题，实现和平，仍然是一件遥不可及的事。

6)In California, hundreds of billions of dollars ride on the success of earthquake prediction.
在加利福尼亚州，地震预测的成功与否关系到千百亿美元的资财的安全。

7) A man spending 12 days on the moon would find on returning to the earth that a good year had passed already.
一个人假如在月球上度过了12天，在返回地球时便会发现已经过了足足一年。

8)It is enough to shatter his complacency.
这足以打破他的自满情绪。

9)The symptoms of SARS are high fever, dry cough, dyspnea and diarrhea.
非典型性肺炎的四大症状是高热，干咳，呼吸困难和腹泻。

10)The action of any anesthetics within the body is due to two factors: its physical property of solubility in fats and water and its chemical characteristic of combining with nerve tissue.
任何麻醉剂在体内的作用都取决于两个因素：一是物理因素，即其在油脂和水中的溶解度；二是化学因素，即其与神经组织结合的能力。

11)Vice President George Bush is looking to President Reagan, a star attraction at today’s Republic national convention, to give some sparkle to his presidential campaign.
布什副总统期望里根总统为其总统竞选活动注入一些活力。

里根是今天开幕的共和党全国代表大会上最引人注目的人物。

12)The government is waging a campaign against waste and extravagance, with the banquet, a mainstay of all function in China, a primary target.
政府正在开展一场反对铺张浪费的运动，目标首先对准中国所有的团体活动的主项：公款宴请。

II. 短文翻译:
In Paris, cocktail parties and buffet dinners in honor of this or that provide an excellent opportunity to make a lot of friends. When strangers meet on such occasions, an Asian tends to present his name card respectfully with both hands before the conversation, which seems to be required by etiquette. However, the French usually are not so ready with such a formality that they will excuse themselves after exchanges of a few words of greetings or even after a rambling chat about everything under the sun. They will offer cards only when they find each other agreeable and hope to further the relationship. And it seems somewhat unnatural for them to do so before getting
into conversation.
在巴黎，名目繁多的酒会、冷餐会是广交朋友的好机会。

在这种场合陌生人相识，如果是亚洲人，他们往往开口之前先毕恭毕敬地用双手把自己的名片递给对方，这好像是不可缺少的礼节。

然而法国人一般却都不大愿意这么做，双方见面寒暄几句，甚至海阔天空地聊一番也就各自走开，只有当双方谈话投机，希望继续交往时，才会主动掏出名片。

二话不说先递名片反倒有些不自然。

Unit 4 Translation Skill—Conversion and Reversion
（转换法与反译法）
一、转换法
英语和汉语分属两个不同的语系，两种语言的词汇、语法以及表达方式等迥然不同。

因此，在英汉翻译过程中，往往不宜拘泥于原文的词类对号入座地逐词对译，否则常常会使译文生硬别扭。

反之，在忠实原文的前提下，根据译语的行文习惯，适当进行词类转换或句子结构的转换，则能使译文通顺达意、自然流畅。

I. 词性的转换
英语多静态，汉语多动态。

有时需根据具体情况，将英语中的名词、介词形容词转换成汉语的动词。

✧Conversion Into Verbs （转换为汉语动词）
1．Nouns Into Verbs （名词/名词结构转化为动词）
1)This causes local environmental nuisance: damage to crops, fields and serious amount of waste left over at work site.
2)An infrared laser system under development promises the ability to monitor up to several hundred pollutants within a radius of 10 km.
3)Correct co-ordination of the various teams is a prerequisite for success in the work site.
2.Prepositions Into Verbs （介词转化为动词）
1)She skimmed over the lawn, up the path, up the steps, across the veranda, and into the porch.
2)She has gained her master’s degree from Harvard’s School of Education and is finally off welfare.
3.Adjectives Into Verbs （形容词转化为动词）
1)Rheumatic and certain infectious diseases are commonly responsible for diseases of the heart valves.
2)Most anesthetics will dissolve in fat readily and some are soluble in water.
3)Such robots are so sophisticated that they are even conscious of temperature change in the surroundings.
II. 句子结构的转换
✧把原文中的一个单词译成汉语的一个分句
1.副词译成汉语的一个分句
1)Incidentally, I hope to get better medical treatment in these countries than I can possibly get here in the
United States.
2)They，not surprisingly, did not respond at all.
2.形容词译成汉语的一个分句
That region was the most identifiable trouble spot.
3.名词译成汉语的一个分句
1) A movie of me leaving that foxhole would look like a shell leaving a rifle.
2)As a secret training base for a revolutionary new plane, it was an excellent site, its remoteness effectively
masking its activity.
✧把原文中的短语译成汉语分句
1)This political disorder found expression in his book. In the absence of any guiding principle, politics becomes a naked struggle for power.
2)Amid mounting social discontent over inflation, the government leaders have used swift police action to drive home the futility of public protest.
二、反译法
英语和汉语中往往均可用肯定形式或否定形式表达同一概念。

英汉翻译时也常常采用正译法，即以肯定译肯定、以否定译否定（也就是用汉语里的“不”、“非”、“无”、“没（有）”、“未”、“否”等译成英语中的no 或not以及一些带有否定词缀的词dis-,un-, in, -less）。

譬如，尽管说话的语气常常不尽相同，但人们既可以说某次考试“相当难”(quite difficult), 也可以说是“不很容易”( not very easy)。

但是，由于英汉表达习惯的巨大差异，正译法有时并非切实可行。

这时，英语中的肯定形式可以甚至必须译成汉语中的否定形式，而英语中的否定形式却适宜译作汉语中的肯定形式，这就是“反译法”，既肯定译成否定，否定译成肯定的翻译方法。

例如，英语中的标志用语”Wet Paint!”译作“湿的油漆！”就不符合汉语表达习惯，而应译成“油漆未干！”
＊I have read your articles, but I expected to meet an older man.
……, 没想到你这么年轻。

✧反译法适用范围很广，它可以应用于动词、形容词、副词、名词、介词、连词、词组、及从句。

1.动词（短语）
1)Bypass operation seems indicated when intestinal obstructive symptoms fail to respond to medical treatment.
2)I unwrapped the hamburger and surveyed the surrounding scenery.
2.副词
1)Time is what we want most, but what many use worst.
2)Lost weight safely and forever.
3)There is little question that the House of Windsor has lost much of its luster since the death of Princess Diana in 1997.
3.形容词
1)The explanation is pretty thin.
2)Etiological factors responsible for this cancer are far from being clear.
3) A judicious North Europe family cultivated friendships both for their own sake and because a large group of people loyal to one another was less vulnerable than a small one.
4.介词（短语）
It will generally be found that the man who are habitually behind time are as habitually behind success.
5.名词
Politeness is not always the sign of wisdom, but the want of it always leaves room for the suspicion of folly.
6.某些固定词组
1)There is no want of opportunities these days.
2)Mental cultivation is nothing else than the satisfactory way in which the mind will function when it is poked up into activity.
3)Nothing illustrates his selfishness more clearly than his behavior to his wife.
Nothing …more than 转换为…more than anything
✧含有否定意义的词汇
英语表示否定意义的方式比汉语丰富得多，下列词汇常常译成汉语的否定：
1.名词：failure, lack, free, far from, omission, absence, ignorance, exclusion, scarcity
2.形容词（短语）missing, ignorant, free from, far from, short of , blind to
3.连词：unless, before, until, than, or, but that, more than
4.介词（短语）but, without, except, beyond, instead of, anything but
✧采取诅咒和感叹的方式表示否定往往语气非常强烈，常用词汇有：devil, the hell, damn, dead
1)I will be damned if I go.
2)I’ll see you dead before that happens！
双重否定
双重否定就是在一个句子中同时使用两个否定词，或者使用一个否定词和一个含有否定意义的词或短语。

双重否定的语言现象在汉语和英语中都存在，如：
* No one who returned from the front failed to express admiration for Doctor Bethune whenever his name was mentioned and none remained unmoved by his spirit.
凡是从前线回来的人，提起白求恩的名字，没有一个不佩服，没有一个不为他的精神所感动。

（毛泽东“纪念白求恩”）
有时译成肯定句更符合汉语的表达习惯，如：
1)Mild edema is not uncommon in normal pregnancy
2)No one who strolls through the Egyptian galleries of a museum can fail to be struck by multitude of divinities who attract attention of all sides.
Assignment 4
I. 运用转换法翻译下列句子：
1)Established in 1960s when federal money flowed, the clinics are now a shadow of their former selves. Patients wait hours while the undermanned and sometimes short-tempered staff struggle to meet the demand.
2)At the Singapore Restaurant, flagship hotel of Singapore International, we have long practiced service that is in the tradition of emperor.
3)Vitamin A protects the body against respiratory infection.
4)The sight and sound of our jet planes filled me with special longing.
5)Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilization of knowledge. This is an art very difficult to impart.
6)In a chapter written for the newly released paperback of his book on Diana, Andrew Morton states that the couple made a friendly agreement between themselves to separate. That pact did not survive stormy sessions with Charles’ parents.
II. 运用反译法翻译下列句子中划线部分：
7)Hemophilia is characterized by failure of the blood to clot.
8)The spleen contains no cell types or structures not represented elsewhere in the body: lymphocytes, reticuloendothilial cells and vascular sinuses.
9)It is imperative to emphasize that no patient with a marked stridor should be submitted to general anesthesia.
10)Antischistosomal treatment should never be instituted without proof of infection by the demonstration of living eggs in excreta or biopsy specimens
11)It’s human nature to want something better.
12)Fever is the most frequent manifestation of infection; however, all infections do not cause fever and all fevers are not secondary to infection.
III. 短文翻译
Most people hold in their hearts a special dread of a hospitalized, medicalized death. Yet about half of all Americans die in hospitals, in a tangle of tubes, surrounded by anxiety-producing technology. They suffer alone in the glare of a comfortless ward, their last hours guided by the training and instincts of highly specialized strangers. No one seems to know when to finally give in to death’s certainty, and relentless procedures rob people of a death with comfort and dignity. Many of those who dread that kind of death think they’re doing something about it by signing living wills or otherwise making their wishes very explicit. But a large-scale study of terminal patients by the Journal of the American Medical Association showed last week just how futile those efforts are. While patients say they want peace, comfort, the sanctity of home and freedom from pain in their last hours, shockingly few of them actually had their wishes honored.。