学术英语-社科Unit9五单元原文及翻译汇编

Unit 9 Cultural globalization1. Much of the early development of different languages, customs, and other diverse aspects of world cultures resulted from the isolation of groups of people from one another. It is not surprising ,then ,that a degree of cultural amalgamation has occurred as improved transportation and communication have brought people of various societies into ever-frequent contact . Analyzing the blurring of culture differences inevitably includes a great deal about fast food, basketball , rock music, and other such aspects of pop culture , but such analysis dose not trivialize the subject.Instead，a long-standing bottom-up line of political theory argues that the world’s people can build on commonplace interactions and increasing cultural commonalities that engender familiarity with and confidence in one another to create a global civil society that might evolve into a global nation. By the same process, if transnational civil societies develop, then regional and even global schemes of governance could conceivably form and supplement or supplant the territorial state. Scholars who examine the bottom-up progress of transnational integration look for evidence in such factors as the flow of communications and commerce between countries and the spread across borders of what people wear, eat, and do for recreation.不同语言、习惯以及世界文化的其他各个方面的早期发展，源于人类群体之间的隔离。

然而，不断改善的交通和通讯使得不同社会的人们更频繁地联系，一定程度的文化融合随之出现，这并不令人惊讶。

分析文化差异的模糊性，不可避免的包括了大量关于快餐、篮球、摇滚音乐以及流行文化其他相关方面内容，但是这种分析并没有使主题变得简单。

相反，一种长期存在的自下而上的政治理论观点认为，世界人民可以在普遍的交流和逐渐增加的文化共性的基础上存在，文化共性使人们彼此产生熟悉感和信任感，从而建立一个可能发展成全球国家的全球公民社会。

在这个过程中，如果跨国公民社会形成，那么区域的甚至全球的治理方案就有可能形成，并且弥补或者取代领土国家。

研究跨国一体化自下而上进程的学者们，正在国家之间通信和贸易的流通中，在人们吃、穿、娱乐方式的跨境影响中寻找证据。

2. While it is premature to talk of a world culture，and indeed that may never come，there is significant evidence of cultural amalgamation in the world。

The leaders of China once wore ‘Chinese tunic suits ’；now they wear Western-style business suits。

When dressing informally ，people in shanghai，Lagos ，and Mexico City are more apt to wear jeans，T-shirts，and sneakers than their country’s traditional dress.Young people everywhere listen to the same music,with,for example”Disturbia”by Rihanna on the Top-10 charts in many countries in additional to the United States in 2008.And whatever it means to our gastronomic futures ,Big Macs,fries,and milk shakes are consumed around the world.虽然现在谈论世界文化为时尚早，而且它事实上可能永远不会出现，但确实存在世界文化融合的重要证据。

中国的领导人曾经一度穿中山装；现在他们穿西装。

当穿着随意时，在上海，拉各斯，墨西哥城的人们相对于他们国家的传统服饰，更适应穿牛仔裤，T恤，和帆布胶底运动鞋。

各地的年轻人听着相同的音乐，例如蕾哈娜的“Disturbia”2008年出现在许多国家包括美国的十大排行榜上。

同时不论我们的美食烹饪前景如何，巨无霸、薯条和奶昔在世界各地都有消费。

3. Before looking further at the evidence of cultural amalgamation,one caution is in order.You will see that a great deal of what is becoming world culture is Western ,especially American, in its origins.That does not imply that Western culture is superior;its impact is a function of the economic and political of Western Europe and the United State.Nor does the preponderance of Western Europe in the integration process mean that the flow is one way.American culture, for example ,is influenced by many foreign imports,ranging from fajitas and sushi,through soccer,to acupuncture.在更深的探究文化融合的证据之前，我们要先关注一个警示。

你会发现，从起源上说，大量成为世界文化的是西方文化，尤其是美国文化。

这并不是说西方文化更好；它的这种影响是西欧、美国的经济和政治作用的结果。

西欧在文化融合过程中的优势也不意味着文化流动是单向的。

比如，美国文化就受到许多外国进口产品的影响，像墨西哥铁板烧和日本寿司，再到足球和针灸。

Language4. One of the most important aspects of converging culture is English,which is becoming the common language of business,diplomacy,communication,and even culture.President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and many other leaders of countries of international organizations converse in English.Indeed ,a number of them,including UN Secretary-General Ban ki-moon of South Korea ,learned or improved their English while enrolled at U.S. Universities .A bit more slowly ,English is spreading among common citizens around the world .This is evident in differences among various age groups.Among Europeans ,for instance,89%of all school-children now have English instruction.语言文化融合最重要的一个方面是英语，它已经成为了商务、外交、交流、甚至是文化的通用语言。

阿富汗总统哈米德.卡尔扎伊和其他国际机构的国家领导人用英文交流。

实际上，他们中的很多人，像韩国的联合国秘书长潘基文，在被美国大学录取的时候就在学习并不断提升自己的英语。

说的再通俗一点，英语正在全世界的普通人中传播。

很明显不同的年龄段存在着差异，例如，欧洲人中89%的学龄儿童现在有英文课。

5.Modern communications are one factor driving the spread of English. There have been notable advances, such as the ability to search in nearly 100 languages through Google, in making the web more accessible to non-English speakers;but the vast majority of what is available on the Internet has been and remains in English. As the webmaster at one site in Russia comments, ”It is far easier for a Russian …to download the works of Dostoyevsky translated in English to read than it is for him to get [it]in his own languages. ”Business needs also promote the global growth of Enlish. The U.S. status as the world’s economic powerhouse makes it far more common for foreign businesspeople to learn the language of Americans than it is for Americans to learn other language. A report issued by the Japanese government declared that “achieving world-class excellence demands that all Japanese acquire a working knowledge of English”. The use of English will probably continue to expand throughout the world because a majority of people in every region in the world believe their children are more likely to prosper if they learn English .现代化的通讯方式也是推动英语传播的一个重要因素。