科技英语翻译

• 2. We do not think of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as being a great age of discovery in natural history; but they were. • 我们认为从自然史的角度来看，19世纪末，20世 纪初并不是一个重要的时期，然而事实上该时期 是非常重要的。
• 译文1：近来生物多样性是热点问题，主要是由于 濒临灭绝的物种的数量，或者是自然造成的，或 者是因为缺乏空间的人类将其生境破坏了。 • 译文2：近来生物多样性已成为 已成为热点问题，其主要 已成为 原因是越来越多的 越来越多的物种濒临灭绝，这种情况与 这种情况与自 越来越多的 这种情况与 然有关 也与 有关，也与 有关 也与人类因争夺空间而造成物种生境丧 失有关 有关。 有关 • Which translated version is better?
Inversion
• As a translation technique, “inversion” means the change of the word order in a sentence according to the meaning and usage of the language to be translated into. • The change of the word order is often necessary or even inevitable in translation because each language has its own “natural word order” which must be followed.
• Since the days of American astronomer Edwin Hubble, observers have known that all but the nearest galaxies are moving away from us at a rapid rate. • 早在美国天文学家埃德温·哈勃的时代，观测者就已经了 解到，除了距离我们最远的星系，所有的星系都在以很 高的速度离我们而去。
Examples
• 1. Male cigarette smokers have a higher death rate from heart disease than non-smokers males. • 男性吸烟者的心脏病死亡率比不吸烟的高。 • 2. But for patients who have side effects, doctors often can adjust medication to relieve them. • 但是对有副作用的患者，医生常可调整用药 来缓解。
• Amplification is adopted when some words are omitted in the original version, when a pronoun is used in the English sentence, or when the meaning is implied but can be understood in the original language.
Technique 3: Omission (减词法)
• Just opposite to “amplification”, “omission” means leaving some words out in the process of translating English into Chinese. This method is widely adopted because many words which are essential in English are not necessary in Chinese, such as the articles “a” and “the”, and the pronouns like his, her and their, etc.
• My colleagues and I have sought to test these models by looking at distant galaxies and how they have merged over cosmic time. • 通过观察遥远的星系，以及它们在宇宙时间的长河中 融合的方式，我和同事们一直在探索检测这些模式的 方法。
Conversion
Conversion from English adjectives into Chinese verbs
• The two phenomena, inertia and gravitation, seem so different from each other that one can’t help but wonder why these two different ways of measuring mass always give the same answer. • 惯性与重力这两种现象看起来如此不同，人们禁不住 要问为什么两种不同方法所测得的质量总是相同的。
• • • • • • •

Keyhole 锁孔 Keyhole surgery 针孔手术 Family 家庭 the Indo-European family of languages印欧语系 Similarly, one Chinese word can by translated into different English words in different situations. Take the word tu (图) for example. It can be translated into English as figure, diagram, graph, plot, view, pattern, drawing, map, sketch, layout, line, scheme, draft, delineation, image, etc., depending on what kind of tu you are talking about.
More practice
• 1. It has proved extremely difficult to give robots the capabilities that humans take for granted---for example, the abilities to orient themselves with respect to the objects in a room, to respond to sounds and interpret speech, and to grasp objects of varying sizes, textures and fragility. • 现已证明要赋予机器人那些对人类来说再自然不 过的能力（例如根据室内所放物品来调整自己位 置的能力，对声音产生反应，理解话语的能力， 以及抓握不同大小，不同质地和不同强度的物品 的能力）是非常困难的。
• 2. Although a great many individuals made essential contributions to the development of the personal computer, Microsoft BASIC was one of the key catalysts for the software and hardware innovations that made the PC revolution possible. • 虽然很多人都为个人电脑的发展做出了重要贡献， 但微软的BASIC语言是软硬件创新最关键的推动 力之一，掀起了一场个人电脑的革命。
Examples:
• 1. Physicist Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, argues that the nuclear weapons are “uniquely designed for defensive purposes” and that “we need to know what the other side is doing and how to defend against it”. • 氢弹之父，物理学家爱德华﹒泰勒争辩说：核武器是 “专门为防御目的而设计的”，而且“我们需要知道 对方在干什么，以及如何防备。”
More practice
• 1. Collecting parties usually travel light and depend on local inhabitants for information and support, making survey collecting a diversely social experience. • 物种收集人员往往轻装旅行，并依靠当地居民获 得信息和支持，因而对于他们来说，物种收集与 调查的过程变成了一种丰富多彩的社会经历。
Technique 2: Amplification(增词法)
• Although there should be no addition or subtraction in the meanings conveyed from one language to the other in translation, it is often necessary to reveal the meaning hidden in the original versions by adopting the technique of amplification---adding certain words or expressions--to make the translation more accurate and idiomatic. Amplification is also needed to make the logical relations explicit in the translated versions.
Examples
• 原文：Biodiversity is a lively issue these days, mainly because of the number of species that are going extinct, either by natural causes, or because we space-hungry humans are destroying their habitats. • Please translate this paragraph.
科技英语翻译
Technique 1: Watch Out “Pitfalls”
• An English word may have different meanings when it is used in everyday conversations and in scientific papers. This kind of words are just like “pitfalls”, which may mislead you and cause inaccuracy or even errors in your translation. • Crown • 王冠，皇冠 • 树冠 • Solution • 解决方法 • 溶液 • Pig • 猪 • 铸块，铸模