专八考博英语翻译真题汇总(汉译英,英译汉)

我的一个好朋友最近接受了白血病测试。

她对我说，最令人痛苦的折磨就是苦苦等待测试结果的那一周时间。

我朋友说，她可能会学着直面坏结果。

但真正让人煎熬焦虑的是那种茫然的感觉。

孟克(Edvard Munch)的名画《呐喊》哈佛大学心理学家吉尔伯特(Daniel Gilbert)不久前在《纽约时报》(New York Times)的专栏中写道，不知道要发生什么坏事比知道什么坏事要发生的感觉更糟。

我们大多数人之所以会夜不能寐、抽烟发泄，并不是因为道琼斯指数要再跌1000点，而是因为我们不知道道指会不会下跌──不确定的感觉比不确定的事情本身更折磨人。

【英文】
A close friend of mine recently underwent tests for leukemia. The most agonizing part of the ordeal, she said, was the week-long wait for the test results. A bad outcome she could learn to cope with, my friend said. It was the not knowing, the uncertainty, that was so difficult.
'People feel worse when something bad might occur than when something bad will occur,' wrote Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert in a recent New York Times op-ed. 'Most of us aren't losing sleep and sucking down Marlboros because the Dow is going to fall another thousand points, but because we don't know whether it will fall or not ─ and human beings find uncertainty more painful than the things they're uncertain about.'
一艘货轮卸货后在浩瀚的大海上返航时，突然遭遇了可怕的风暴。

水手们惊慌失措，经验丰富的老船长果断地命令水手们立刻打开货舱，往里面灌水。

“船长是不是疯了，往船舱里灌水只会增加船的压力，使船下沉，这不是自寻死路吗？”一个年轻的水手嘟哝着。

【英文】
Homeward bound after unloading its cargo, a ship ran into a violent storm in the middle of a vast ocean. The seamen were thrown into a panic. Without hesitation, the old but seasoned captain ordered water be poured into the hold immediately. "A mad man, isn't he? He is going to bring his own destruction by filling water into the hold and making the ship go down", grumbled a young sailor.
看着船长严厉的脸色，水手们还是照做了。

随着货船里的水位越升越高，随着船一寸一寸地下沉，猛烈的狂风巨浪对船的威胁却一点一点地减少，货轮渐渐平稳了。

【英文】
Noticing the captain's stern look, the sailors reluctantly carried out his order. With the water coming up in the hold and the ship going down inch by inch, the threatening of the violent storm to the ship gradually subsided and the ship started to stablize.
船长望着松了一口气的水手们说：“百万吨的巨轮很少有被打翻的，被打翻的常常是份量轻的小船。

船在负重的时候，是最安全的；空船时，则是最危险的。

”
【英文】
The captain said to the relieved sailors: "A million ton" ship seldom turns over; it's often the small ships that sank easily. It's safest when a ship is with load, and the most dangerous when without."
这就是“压力效应”。

那些得过且过，没有一点压力，做一天和尚撞一天钟的人，像风暴中没有载货的船，往往一场人生的狂风巨浪便会把他们打翻。

【英文】
This is called the "pressure effect". The man who always muddles through in his work will easily be frustrated in a competitive society just like an unloaded ship that will turned over easily in a storm.
雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）昨日公布，公司第二季度收益大增47%，但其股价却大幅下挫，原因是投资者担心波动较大的市场和不断上升的利率，会中止华尔街投行近来利润大增的趋势。

这家华尔街投行表示，公司第二季度收益为10亿美元，合每股收益1.69美元，而上年同期的收益为6.83亿美元，合每股1.13美元。

该公司固定收益产品交易业务业绩强劲，抵消了债券承销收入大幅下降的负面影响。

【英文】
Lehman shares dip in spite of earnings surge
Lehman Brothers yesterday reported a 47 per cent jump in second-quarter earnings but its shares fell sharply amid investor fears that volatile markets and rising interest rates could cut into Wall Street's recent run of blockbuster profits.
The Wall Street bank said it earned $1bn, or $1.69 a share, in the second quarter, up from $683m, or $1.13 a share, a year earlier. Strong fixed-income trading results offset a sharp drop in
debt-underwriting revenue.
突然之间，人人都在谈论不断消失的百万富翁们。

周二，《华尔街日报》有篇文章谈到了美国马里兰州百万富翁越来越少。

现在有消息说，英国的百万富翁人数减少了约一半。

这并不是因为富翁们移民或是避税去了，而是个人财务状况出了问题。

正如过去一年中我所写的，富人们在此次危机中遭受了重创，原因主要是他们的投资和房地产的价值锐减。

正因为如此，百万富翁（特别是富翁中的“贫困户”）的人数骤减。

【英文】
Suddenly everyone is talking about disappearing millionaires.
Tuesday there was The Wall Street Journal talking about the vanishing Maryland millionaires. Now comes word that Britain has lost about half its millionaires.
The reason isn't emigration or tax revolts. It is personal finances.
As I have been writing for the past year, the rich have been hammered by this crisis, largely because of the plunge in the value of their investments and real estate. As
与舞蹈和音乐相伴的歌谣跟口头流传的神话，远在文字出现之前就已大量产生。

中国的文学正是发端于此。

不过歌谣本是人们在生活中随兴而发的东西，上古时代也没有保存和记载它们的手段，因之也就很快湮灭，不留痕迹。

我们只能从一些古籍书中推断它们的存在。

古书中记载了一些据称年代非常久远的歌谣，但是大多出于后人的伪托，能够断定朝代的歌谣要到《诗经》里才能看见。

从这点来看，古代神话对中国文学的影响更为显著。

【英文】
Long before the emergence of the written word, ballads, accompanied by music and dance,and myths, passed around by word of mouth, were widely popular. Chinese literature finds its origins in these traditions. However, ballads were what people improvised out of daily life, and due to lack of means to record and preserve them in ancient times, they quickly disappeared without leaving much of a trace. Today, we can only deduce their existence from ancient books, which recorded some time-honored ballads, though most of these are belived to be derivatives of later generations. Ballads in the Book of Songs are the earliest writings that can be dated. From this point of view, ancient mythology obviously has had a great influence on Chinese literature.
The thirty-second day out of Bombay began inauspiciously. In the morning a sea smashed one of the galley doors. We dashed in through lots of steam and found the cook very wet and indignant with the ship: "She''s getting worse every day. She''s trying to drown me in front of my own stove!" He was very angry. We pacified him, and the carpenter, though washed away twice from there, managed to repair the door. Through that accident our dinner was not ready till late, but it didn''t matter in the end because Knowles, who went to fetch it, got knocked down by a sea and the dinner went over the side. The ship''s captain, looking more hard and thin-lipped than ever, would not notice that the ship, asked to do too much, appeared to lose heart altogether for the first time since we knew her.
【中文】
出孟买湾之后的第32天开始就透着些许的不祥。

清晨，海浪先是将一扇船门砸坏。

我们冒着浓浓的雾气冲了进去，发现厨师浑身湿透，正在对这条船大发牢骚。

"它变得一天比一天不中用了。

它愣是要想法子把我淹死在这炉灶前。

"他显得异常的愤怒。

我们设法让他平静下来，而木工尽管被海水冲走过两次，但还是努力把门修好。

由于发生了这一变故，我们的晚饭直到很晚才弄好，但这一点最终也变得无关紧要，因为前去厨房端饭菜的Knowles被汹涌的波涛掀倒在地，饭菜顺着船舷全都撒入海中。

船长脸上的表情变得愈发严峻，双唇紧咬。

他全然没能意识到，整条船由于被要求去完成许多它力所不能及的任务，打从我们认识它以来，首次出现了力不从心的迹象。

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 overphrase 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 that it is completely unlike that of Europe. Broadly speaking, America and Europe have kept step. At any given moment 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 to precede the word, for frequently the difference between America and Europe (especially England) will be one of degree, sometimes only of a small degree. The amount of divergence is a subtle affair, liable to perplex the Englishman when he looks at America. He is looking at a country which in important senses grew out of his own, which in several ways still resembles his own - and which is yet a foreign country. There are odd overlappings and abrupt unfamiliarities; kinship yields to a sudden alienation, as when we hail a person across the street, only to discover from his blank response that we have mistaken a stranger for a friend.
【中文】
在某种程度上，我赞同我那假想中的英国读者的观点。

美国文学史家或许惯于过分狭隘地看待其本国文坛，误将卓著当作独特。

他们确实会用过多的笔墨来渲染其本国文学，至少，对其次要作家他们肯定会这样做。

此外，美国人确实会走极端，要么咄咄逼人地大肆渲染其文学，要么进行着同样不幸的亦步亦趋式的顶礼膜拜。

但反过来说，英国人自己在其文学鉴赏中也显得有些狭隘愚陋。

此外，在他们并无上乘表现的领域--例如绘画与音乐，他们也会走极端，不是吹嘘他们本国的作品，就是大肆模仿欧洲大陆的作品。

有多少幅英国绘画试图看上去仿佛是在巴黎完成的;但我们又有多少次曾在文章中读到它们真正代表着一种"英国式的传统"呢?
那么，要谈论美国文学，倒并非意欲断言，它与欧洲文学全然大相径庭。

广而言之，美国与欧洲一直同步发展，协调一致。

在任何一个特定的时刻，旅行者在两地均能目睹同一样式的建筑实例，相同款式的服饰，书架上相同的书籍。

在大西洋两岸，思想如同人员与货物往来一样自由交流，尽管有时会略显迟缓。

当我提及美国式的习惯、思想等概念时，我意欲在"美国式的"这一词汇之前加上某种限定，因为欧美(尤其是英美)之间的差异往往只是程度上的差异而已，并且有时候仅仅只是微乎其微的一点程度差异而已。

差异的多寡是件极为微妙的事务，这极容易使一个英国人在审视美国时大惑不解。

他所审视的那个国家，从某些重要的意义上来说，诞生于他自己的国家，并在某些方面仍与他自己的国家相差无几--然而，它却实实在在是一个异邦。

两者间存在着某些古怪的交替重迭，以及令人甚感突兀的陌生感;亲缘关系已让位于一种突如其来的异化与疏远，这种情景仿佛就像我们隔着马路向另一个人打招呼，结果却从这个人漠无表情的反应中发现，我们原来竟然错将生人当成了熟人。

来美国求学的中国学生与其他亚裔学生一样，大多非常刻苦勤奋，周末也往往会抽出一天甚至两天的时间去实验室加班，因而比起美国学生来，成果出得较多。

我的导师是亚裔人，嗜烟好酒，脾气暴躁。

但他十分欣赏亚裔学生勤奋与扎实的基础知识，也特别了解亚裔学生的心理。

因此，在他实验室所招的学生中，除有一名来自德国外，其余5位均是亚裔学生。

他干脆在实验室的门上贴一醒目招牌："本室助研必须每周工作7天，早10时至晚12时，工作时间必须全力以赴。

"这位导师的严格及苛刻是全校有名的，在我所呆的3年半中，共有14位学生被招进他的实验室，最后博士毕业的只剩下5人。

1990年夏天，我不顾别人劝阻，硬着头皮接受了导师的资助，从此开始了艰难的求学旅程。

【英文】
Like students from other Asian countries and regions, most Chinese students who come to pursue further education in the United States work on their studies most diligently and assiduously. Even on weekends, they would frequently spend one day, or even two days, to work overtime in their laboratories. Therefore, compared with their American counterparts, they are more academically fruitful.
My supervisor (advisor / tutor) is of Asian origin who is addicted to alcohols and cigarettes, with a sharp (an irritable) temper. Nevertheless, he highly appreciates the industry and the solid foundational knowledge of Asian students and has a particularly keen insight into the psychology of Asian students. Hence, of all the students recruited by his laboratory, except for one German, the rest five were all from Asia. He even put a striking notice on the door of his lab, which read, "All the research assistants of this laboratory are required to work 7 days a week, from 10 AM to 12 PM. Nothing but work during the working hours." This supervisor is reputed on the entire campus for his severity and harshness. In the course of the 3 and half years that I stayed there, a total of 14 students were recruited into his laboratory and only 5 of them stayed on until they graduated with their Ph. D. degrees.
In the summer of 1990, ignoring the remonstrations (admonishments / dissuasions) from others, I accepted my supervisor''s sponsorship and embarked on the difficult journey of academic pursuit (undertaking further studies in the United States).
Opera is expensive: that much is inevitable. But expensive things are not inevitably the province
of the rich unless we abdicate society''s power of choice. We can choose to make opera, and other expensive forms of culture, accessible to those who cannot individually pay for it. The question is: why should we? Nobody denies the imperatives of food, shelter, defense, health and education. But even in a prehistoric cave, mankind stretched out a hand not just to eat, drink or fight, but also to draw. The impulse towards culture, the desire to express and explore the world through imagination and representation is fundamental. In Europe, this desire has found fulfillment in the masterpieces of our music, art, literature and theatre. These masterpieces are the touchstones for
all our efforts; they are the touchstones for the possibilities to which human thought and imagination may aspire; they carry the most profound messages that can be sent from one human to another.
【中文】
聆听歌剧，无疑昂贵至极。

但是，昂贵的事物并非必定属于富人的范畴，除非我们放弃社会的选择权。

我们可以选择去使歌剧以及其他某些昂贵的文化形式也能为那些不具备个人支付能力的人所享受。

但问题是，我们有必要这么做吗?没人会否认食物、居所、防护、健康与教育的不可或缺性。

但即便是在史前时代的洞穴中，人类伸出手来，早就不单纯是为了吃、喝或搏杀，而且亦进行绘画创作。

人类对于文化的冲动，通过形象思维和再现手段来表现并探索世界的欲望，乃亘古有之。

在欧洲，这一欲望在我们的音乐、艺术、文学和戏剧杰作中寻找到了其实现形式。

这些杰作构成了我们全部努力的试金石。

作为试金石，它们能衡量出人类的思想和想象力所可能企及的程度。

它们携带着最寓意深刻的主题，可在人类彼此间相互传递。

近读报纸，对国内名片和请柬的议论颇多，于是想起客居巴黎时经常见到的法国人手中的名片和请柬，随笔记下来，似乎不无借鉴之处。

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呈递给对方，这好像是不可缺少的礼节。

然而，法国人一般却都不大主动递送名片，双方见面寒喧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勉强。

法国人的名片讲究朴素大方，印制精美，但很少有镶金边儿的，闪光多色的或带香味儿的，名片上的字体纤细秀丽，本人的名字也不过分突出，整张纸片上空白很大，毫无拥挤不堪的感觉。

【英文】
In reading recent newspapers, I have come to find that people in China have become more and more interested in discussing about name cards and invitation letters. This has triggered my reminiscences of the name cards and invitation letters of the French people that I saw when I was residing in Paris. In writing down those random reminiscences, I believe that they might provide some useful information for us to learn from.
In Paris, all the wine parties and buffet receptions held on various occasions provide optimum opportunities to make friends with all varieties of people. When encountering a stranger on such an occasion, an Asian would invariably hand over his name card to the newly-met stranger with full reverence, with both of his hands, even before he starts to converse with the stranger. Such an act seems to have become an indispensable ritual (formality/ etiquette). By contrast, an average Frenchman seldom takes the initiative to (offers to / volunteers to) present his name card. Instead, he would simply walk away after an exchange of routine greetings or even some aimless (random/ casual) chat. Only when both sides become deeply engrossed (engaged / involved) in their conversation and have the intention to make further acquaintance with each other would they offer to give their name cards. It would seem somehow bizarre if a French person offers his name card without saying anything to the stranger in the first place. The French tend to take extraordinary precaution to make their name cards simple yet elegant. Exquisitely designed and printed, their
name cards are seldom golden-framed, or colorfully shiny, or tinted with fragrant smells. The letters as appear on their name cards tend to be diminutive but beautiful, not allowing the name of the card-bearer to be overly prominent/salient. The entire card contains much empty space, imparting no sense of over-crowdedness.
【英文】
Four months before the election day, five men gathered in a small conference room at the Reagan-Bush headquarters and reviewed an oversize calendar that marked the remaining days of the 1984 presidential campaign. It was the last Saturday in June and at ten o’’clock in the morning the rest of the office was practically deserted. Even so, the men kept the door shut and the drapes carefully drawn. The three principals and their two deputies had come from around the country for a critical meeting. Their aim was to devise a strategy that would guarantee Ronald Reagan’’s resounding reelection to a second term in the White House.
It should have been easy. These were battle-tested veterans with long ties to Reagan and even longer ones to the Republican party, men who understood presidential politics as well as any in the country. The backdrop of the campaign was hospitable, with lots of good news to work with: America was at peace, and the nation’’s economy, a key factor in any election, was rebounding vigorously after recession. Furthermore, the campaign itself was lavishly financed, with plenty of money for a topflight staff, travel, and television commercials. And, most important, their candidate was Ronald Reagan, a president of tremendous personal popularity and dazzling communication skills. Reagan has succeeded more than any president since John. F. Kennedy in projecting a broad vision of America -a nation of renewed military strength, individual initiative, and smaller federal government.
【中文】
在离选举日还有四个月的时间，有五个人聚集在里根-布什总部的一个小型会议室里，翻着看一张硕大无比的日历，日历上清晰地标识出了1984年总统竞选剩下的日子。

这是六月份的最后一个星期六的上午10时，整幢办公楼的其他部分几近人去楼空。

即便如此，这几个人仍将大门紧闭，小心翼翼地拉下窗帘。

三个主要人物及其二个副手从美国的不同地方汇聚在一起，召开一个殊为重要的会议。

他们的目标是构思出一种策略，来确保里根能再次当选，在第二任期内再度入主白宫。

要谋求再次当选理应轻而易举。

这是一些久经沙场的退伍老兵，与里根有着千丝万缕的漫长联系，与共和党的联系甚至更为久远。

这些人深谙总统政治，一如他们熟知这个国家中的所有政治事务那样。

竞选的背景十分宜人，可供大做文章的好消息俯拾皆是：美国正置身于太平盛世之中;作为选举的一个关键因素，整个国家的经济在步出萧条期之后正强劲反弹。

此外，竞选本身所筹得的款项更是不计其数。

用于支付一流水平的竞争班子工作人员工资、进
行巡回造势、以及制作播放电视广告的钱款绰绰有余。

最为重要的是，他们所推介的总统候选人是罗纳尔德·里根(Ronald Reagan)，一位风度翩翩，魅力无穷，又极具迷人沟通技巧的执政总统。

与约翰·F·肯尼迪(John F. Kennedy)以来的任何一位历届总统相比，里根更成功地勾勒出了一幅广阔的关于美国未来的前景--美国将成了一个重振军事雄风、民众富于个人进取心、联邦政府更加精简高效的国家。

约翰·施特劳斯的故居在一条大街上，是一座沿街的粉红色的四层楼老公寓房子。

施特劳斯曾住在这座房子二层楼上的两套房间里，于1886年末到1867年初在这里谱写了《蓝色的多瑙河》这支名曲。

那时他已经42岁了，在维也纳音乐界中负有盛名，但只是在这支乐曲问世以后，才奠定了他"圆舞曲之王"的地位。

这座房子距多瑙河不远，步行约半个多小时，当时还是一片大森林，施特劳斯常常穿过森林到河边去散步，现在房屋已鳞次栉比，成为热闹的大街了。

【中文】
The former residence of John Strauss is situated on a big street, inside an old pink-colored
four-story apartment building along the street. Strauss lived in two suites on the second floor of this building in which he composed from the end of 1866 to the beginning of 1867 the famous The Blue Danube Waltz. At that time he was already 42 years old and enjoyed a high reputation within the musical circle of Vienna. However, it was not until the composition of this melody that he became firmly established as the King of Waltz. The house in which he lived was not far away from the Danube River, which was within the reach of half an hour''s walk. At that time, there was a huge forest between the river and his house and Strauss would frequently go through the forest to have a walk by the side of the river. Now the forest has been replaced by rows and rows of densely adjacent houses and buildings, turning the place into noisy streets.
Though fond of many acquaintances, I desire an intimacy only with a few. The Man in Black, whom I have often mentioned, is one whose friendship I could wish to acquire, because he possesses my esteem. His manners, it is true, are tinctured with some strange inconsistencies, and he may be justly termed a humorist in a nation of humorists. Though he is generous even to profusion, he affects to be thought a prodigy of parsimony and prudence; though his conversation be replete with the most sordid and selfish maxims, his heart is dilated with the most unbounded love. I have known him profess himself a man-hater, while his cheek was glowing with compassion; and, while his looks were softened into pity, I have heard him use the language of the most unbounded ill-nature. Some affect humanity and tenderness, others boast of having such dispositions from Nature; but he is the only man I ever knew who seemed ashamed of his natural benevolence. He takes as much pains to hide his feelings, as any hypocrite would to conceal his indifference; but on every unguarded moment the mask drops off, and reveals him to the most superficial observer.
【中文】
尽管我喜欢广交朋友，但我只愿与为数不多的几人成为至交。

我所提及的那位黑衣男士，就是那样一个我希冀与其成为莫逆之交的人，因为他深得我的景仰。

诚然，其行为举止不乏某些怪异的出尔反尔，他全然可被称为幽默家王国中的幽默大师。

虽然他慷慨大方，乃至奢靡无度，但他仍假惺惺地希望人们将其视作节俭与审慎之奇才。

尽管其言谈之中满是污秽和自私的格言，其内心却充盈着最博大无际的爱心。

据我所知，他常宣称自己是人类憎恶者;然而，他的脸庞上却总漾溢着怜悯之情。

虽然其神情会柔化为一片慈悲，我却听到过他使用最为恶劣的言辞，其恶劣程度可谓无以复加。

有些人佯装人道与柔情，也有一些人则夸耀说这样的秉性乃天性使然。

但在我所有认识的人当中，唯有他似乎羞耻于其与生俱有的慈悲之心。

他会竭力掩饰其真情，一如任何一个伪君子会掩饰其冷漠那样。

然则，在每一个毫无防范的瞬间，那戴着的假面具便会脱落下来，使其毕露于哪怕是最为肤浅的观察者。

加拿大的温哥华1986年刚刚度过百岁生日，但城市的发展令世界瞩目。

以港立市，以港兴市，是许多港口城市生存发展的道路。

经过百年开发建设，有着天然不冻良港的温哥华，成为举世闻名的港口城市，同亚洲、大洋洲、欧洲、拉丁美洲均有定期班轮，年货物吞吐量达到8，000万吨，全市就业人口中有三分之一从事贸易与运输行业。

温哥华(Vancouver)的辉煌是温哥华人智慧和勤奋的结晶，其中包括多民族的贡献。

加拿大地广人稀，国土面积比中国还大，人口却不足3000万。

吸收外来移民，是加拿大长期奉行的国策。

可以说，加拿大除了印第安人外，无一不是外来移民，不同的只是时间长短而已。

温哥华则更是世界上屈指可数的多民族城市。

现今180万温哥华居民中，有一半不是在本地出生的，每4个居民中就有一个是亚洲人。

而25万华人对温哥华的经济转型起着决定性的作用。

他们其中有一半是近5年才来到温哥华地区的，使温哥华成为亚洲以外最大的中国人聚居地。

【英文】
In 1986, Vancouver, Canada, just marked its centennial anniversary, but the achievements made by the city in its urban development have already captured worldwide attention. To build up a city and model its economy on the basis of a harbor is the usual practice that port cities resort to for their existence and development. After a century''s construction and development, Vancouver, which boasts of a naturally-formed ice-free harbor, has become an internationally celebrated port city, operating regular ocean liners with Asia, Oceania, Europe and Latin America. Its annual cargo-handling capacity reaches 80 million tons, with one third of the city''s employed population engaged in trade and transportation business.
The glorious achievements of Vancouver is the crystallization (fruition) of the wisdom (intelligence) and the industry of the Vancouver people as a whole, including the contributions made by a diversity of ethnic minorities. Canada is a large country with a small population. Although its territory is bigger than that of China, it only has a population of less than 30 million people. Consequently, to attract and to accept foreign immigrants have become a national policy long observed by Canada. It can be safely asserted that, except for Indians, all Canadian citizens are foreign immigrants, differing only in the length of time they have settled in Canada. Vancouver, in particular, is one of the few most celebrated multi-ethnic cities in the world. At present, among the 1.8 million Vancouver residents, half of them are not native-born and one out
of every four residents is from Asia. The 250,000 Chinese there have played a decisive role in facilitating the transformation of the Vancouver economy. Half of them have come to settle in Vancouver only over the past five years, making Vancouver the largest area outside Asia where the Chinese concentrate.
【英文】
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 of family reasons shares a border with the following category, namely, having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy the wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the number of children on the assumption that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined by its converse: in some societies the failure to bear children (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce.
Beyond all that is the profound significance of children to the very institution of the family itself. To many people, husband and wife alone do not seem a proper family -they need children to enrich the circle, to validate its family character, to gather the redemptive influence of offspring. Children need the family, but the family seems also to need children, as the social institution uniquely available, at least in principle, for 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 and in generational extension.
【中文】
在某些社会中，人们希望拥有孩子是出于所谓的家庭原因：传宗接代，光宗耀祖，博取祖辈的欢心，使那些涉及到整个家族的宗教仪式得以发挥其应有的作用。

此类原因在现代世俗化的社会中似显苍白，但它们在其他地方曾一度构成并确实仍在构成强有力的理由。

此外，有一类家庭原因与下列类别不无共通之处，这便是：生儿育女是为着维系或改善婚姻：能拴住丈夫或者使妻子不致于无所事事;修复婚姻或为婚姻注入新的活力;多子多孙，以为家庭幸福，惟系于此。

这一点更可因其相反情形而得以凸现：在某些社会中，无法生儿育女(或无法生育男孩)于婚姻而言可构成一种威胁，并可作为离婚的一个顺理成章的(或现成的)缘由。

除了所有这一切以外，还有一个原因，那就是后代对于家庭这一体制本身所具有的深远意义。

对许多人来说，夫妇两人尚不足以构成一个真正意义上的家庭--夫妻需要孩子来丰富其两人小天地，赋予该小天地以真正意义上的家庭性质，并从子孙后代身上获取某种回报。