翻译笔记

(Ⅰ) About Artificial Languages

There is no doubt that a common language used throughout the world would do much to bring countries closer to each other. Though it is becoming increasingly easy to move from place to place, our inability to communicate with one another gives rise to numerous misunderstandings and makes real contact between people of differing nationalities impossible. Many attempts have been made to overcome this problem and they have all failed. The fear of foreign influence and domination rules out the universal acceptance of any one of the existing major languages. A ware of this difficulty, many linguists have constructed artificial languages which could have no possible political overtones. They have argued that a language of this sort would perform much the same service as Latin did in the Middle Ages.

Although linguists succeeded in making their artificial languages extremely simple so that they would be easy to learn, their efforts inevitably ended in failure. The reason for this is that there is no real incentive to learn an artificial language. There is nothing to guarantee that everybody is willing to make the effort; there is no assurance that the learner will have any adequate return for his toil. When people today undertake to learn a foreign language, they are not interested only in speaking it. Mastery of a language makes available to the learner a great deal of worthwhile literature and many current publications. This is the biggest stumbling-block of all for the artificially-constructed tongue. Having no literature of its own, all it can offer is a limited number of translations which are valueless in themselves. Nor can it acquire any literatur e, for it would have to be used for a great many generations before this could become possible. Moreover, constant use over a long period would bring into being many “national” dialects and the language would thus defeat its own purpose.

(Ⅱ)岳飞治军

岳飞是南宋的爱国将领，精忠报国，名垂青史。他治军严明，有一个小故事可以佐证。

岳飞奉命讨伐农民起义军，路过庐陵郡(1)，寄宿在市内民房里。天亮时，替主人打扫好屋子，还把用过的碗盆洗得干干净净，然后上路。当地太守(2)特地在郊外陈设帷帐，准备为岳飞饯行，但等到部队快要走光了，仍然没有得到接见的通报。太守只得向走在最后的人问将军在哪里，那人回答说：“将军早就和军官们一起走远了。”

岳飞讨伐农民起义军是他历史上的一个污点，但是他的严于治军，却是值得称道的。

（1）郡: prefecture （2）太守: local magistrate

(Ⅰ) Cars and Human Life

From the health point of view we are living in a marvelous age. We are immunized from birth against many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once fatal illnesses can now be cured by modern drugs and surgery. It is almost certain that one day remedies will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased enormously. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible killing of men, women and children on the roads. Man versus the motor-car! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. Thousands of people over the world are killed or horribly mutilated each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen.

It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel, his car becomes the extension his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man’s very qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They swear, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-year olds and utterly selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments and jealousies seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving.

The surprising thing is that society smiles so benignly on the motorist and seems to condone his behavior. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable because of heavy traffic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is desecrated by road networks; and the mass annual death in traffic accidents becomes nothing more than a statistic, to be conveniently forgotten .

It is high time a world code were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are notoriously lax and even the strictest are not strict enough. A code which was universally accepted could only have a dramatically beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some of the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all drivers should be made to take a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21, all vehicles should be put through stringent annual tests for safety. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can impair a person’s driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be m ade much stricter. Maximum and minimum speed limits should be imposed on all roads/

Government should lay down safety specifications for manufactures, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned. These measures may sound inordinately harsh, but surely nothing should be considered as too severe if it results in reducing the annual toll of human life. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor-cars.

(Ⅱ)

叫化鸡

中国菜历史悠久，菜名繁多。叫化鸡就是江苏的一道著名的特色菜。关于这道菜，还有一个有趣的传说。

明朝末年，江苏省常熟县住着一个乞丐。一天，他的一个同伴病倒了。为救朋友的性命，这个乞丐从一户人家偷来一只鸡，打算做给他吃。然而，他穷得连做鸡的锅碗都没有。他急得像热锅上的蚂蚁。

突然，他想到了一个主意。他先把鸡杀了，然后用湿黄泥把它裹起来，最后把它扔进砖灶里烧。过了一会儿，他把鸡拿出来。当他剥去黄泥，不料一股诱人的香味扑鼻而来。鸡的味道好极了！乞丐乐得跳了起来。

从那时起，当地人就用乞丐的方法来烤鸡了。这就是叫化鸡的来历。