大学英语4翻译

Unit 1

If you ask me, taking a second major isn’t good for every undergraduate. In my freshman year as an English major, I took econ omics as my minor. By all odds, I was the most hardworking student in my class. But try as I might to meet the requireme nts of the two different subjects, I still couldn’t do well enough to pass all the exams.Given that the study of economics required a good command of mathematics, I had to spend so much time on math that I neglected my English major.

Failing English Literature and Macro-economics in the second semester sounded the alarm for me. This was the first time I did not pass a course in my life, which had greatly sapped my confidence.Although I was not a man who would easily bow to fate, as the summer break came to a close, I decided to give up economics for fear that I would fail in both subjects. Now that I had only one subject to attend to, everything seemed to be on the right track again.

Unit 2

. It was not until after he had graduated from university and started to work that Zhang Lei became aware of the pleasure of reading. Reflecting on his undergraduate studies, he lamented that he, unlike his classmates who had immersed themselves in various interesting books they were able to lay hands on from the library or bookshop, had only read textbooks, none of which was really worthwhile, or could be read in one sitting. He was deprived of the privilege of gaining access to the writers’ fantastic worlds through the windows their books have opened, so to spe ak.

Now he has become an avid and omnivorous reader. It is as if he wants to make up for those marvelous books he hadn’t had a ch ance to read in his university days. By now, in his spare time, he has read several hundreds of books, including novels, biographies and travel notes. He realizes that books can not only reveal to him the vista of a hopeful future and help him withstand stresses and strains, they can also help him clear up some misconceptions and discover the true meaning of the life.

Unit 3

What you wear seems to dictate the kind of person you are supposed to be. Take primary school and high school students for example. One of the hard and fast rules they have to observe is that they must wear uniforms at school. There is no doubt that school uniforms would not have achieved their currency without a symbolic correlation between the uniformity of clothes and the students’ conformity to some common code of conduct. However, after years of school life, there is always a backlash secretly nursed in the students’ mind against the ubiquitous uniform which suppresses the expression of individuality. To compensate for this loss, students try to hunt for more casual and popular clothes and wear them on weekends. It is not until they start university, however, that they can really enjoy the freedom of dress, an anarchy associated with the cultivation of creativity and the encouragement of the free expression of ideas and talents. But this situation won’t obtain for long. After a relatively short time of liberty, they may experience again the revived pressure of dress code as soon as they become professionals.

Unit 4

When it comes to the effects of the current economic downturn, the decrease of student activities is a good case in point. To enliven campus life, the university is always willing to carve out money for activities organized by student clubs and societies, but such sponsorships have been pared down this year because of huge budget cut. Apparently, student organizations need to weather their own financial crisis if they want to recover from their current state of inactiveness. Some suggest enrolling more club members, on the ground that the consequent increase of membership fees may help them get out of the difficulty.

No doubt, if we have more members paying the annual fee, and if we cut back on our daily expenses, we can spare some money for organizing activities. But the bottom line is that the expenses of these activities are in proportion to the number of participants. I’m afraid this won’t be of much help. To boost student activities and to avoid going into the red, we still need to pool our ideas and come up with some other ways of raising money, in lieu of relying only on university grants and membership fees.

Unit 5

Our presumptions about what ideal husbands or wives are like reveal a lot about our gender expectations as well as our responses to them. If most girls want their fiancés to be tough, capable and reliable, there is no more option left for young men other than to be trained as tough, capable and reliable if they want to win girls’ heart. If they act to the contrary, they will most probably bemoan their bachelor’s status for the rest of their lives. Following the same unwritten rule, if most boys expect their fiancées to be caring, patient and faithful more than anything else, girls are prone to let on that they will become faithful wives and loving mothers even if they are not the type.

Looking into such gender expectations, we may find that they are based on both physiological and social factors. It goes without saying that women are