2021年1月23日发(作者：慎汉公)
英语专业八级翻译练习题

1
．英译汉


（
1
）


Possession for its own sake or in competition with the rest
of the neighborhood would have been Thoreau's idea of the low
levels. The active discipline of heightening one's perception of
what is enduring in nature would have been his idea of the high.
What he saved from the low was time and effort he could spend
on the high. Thoreau certainly disapproved of starvation, but he
would
put
into
feeding
himself
only
as
much
effort
as
would
keep him functioning for more important efforts.
Effort is the gist of it. There is no happiness except as we
take
on
life-engaging
difficulties.
Short
of
the
impossible,
as
Yeats put it, the satisfaction we get from a lifetime depends on
how high we choose our difficulties. Robert Frost was thinking
in
something
like
the
same
terms
when
he
spoke
of

pleasure
of
taking
pains
The
mortal
flaw
in
the
advertised
version of happiness is in the fact that it purports to be effortless.
We
demand
difficulty
even
in
our
games.
We
demand
it
because
without
difficulty
there
can
be
no
game.
A
game
is
a
way of making something hard for the fun of it. The rules of the
game
are
an
arbitrary
imposition
of
difficulty.
When
someone
ruins the fun, he always does so by refusing to play by the rules.
It is easier to win at chess if you are free, at your pleasure, to
change
the
wholly
arbitrary
rules,
but
the
fun
is
in
winning
within the rules. No difficulty, no fun.

梭罗所理解的

低层次

，即为了拥有而去 拥有，或与所
有的邻居明争暗斗而致拥有。他心目中的

高层次

，则是 这
样一种积极的人生戒律，即要使自己对自然界永恒之物的感
悟臻于完美。对于他从低层次上节 省下来的时间和精力，他
可将其致力于对高层次的追求。勿庸置疑，梭罗不赞成忍饥
挨饿，但他 在膳食方面所投入的精力仅果腹而已，只要可确
保他能去从事更为重要的事务，他便别无所求。

殚精竭虑，全力以赴，便是其精髓所在。除非我们愿意
直面那些需要我们全身心投入的艰难困苦 ，否则便不会有幸
福可言。正如叶芝所言，除却某些不可能的情形，我们于人
生中所获取的满足 皆取决于我们在多高的境界中选择我们
所愿意面对的艰难困苦。
当罗伯特
·
弗 罗斯特言及

以苦为乐

时，他内心所思，大体如此。商业广告中所宣扬的那种幸 福
观，其致命的缺陷就在于这样一个事实，即它宣称，一切幸
福皆唾手可得，不费吹灰之力。< br>
即便于游戏之中，我们也需要有艰难困苦。我们之所以
需要它，因为设若没有困难，便 断无游戏可言。游戏即是这
样一种方式，为了享受其中的情趣而人为地使事情变得不那
么轻而易 举。游戏中的种种规则，便是将困难武断地强加于
人。当有人将情趣摧毁殆尽时，他总是因为拒不按游戏 规则
行事而使然。这犹如下棋；如果你随心所欲、心血来潮地去
更改那些全然武断的游戏规则， 这样去赢棋当然会更加容
易。
但下棋的情趣则在于，
应在规则的限定范围内赢取胜利。
一言以蔽之，没有艰难，断无情趣。


（
2
）


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.

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。

孩子需要 家庭，但家庭似乎也需要孩子。作为一种社会
体制，家庭以其特有的方式，至少从原则上说，可在一个变
幻莫测、常常是充满敌意的世界中让人从中获取某种安全、
慰藉、保障，以及价值取向。于大多 数人而言，这样的一个
家庭基础，即使从其表层意义上来讲，也需要不至一个人来
维持其存在， 并使其世代相传，生生不息。


（
3
）


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.

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。



（
4
）


The
Reagan
administration's
most
serious
foreign
policy
problem surfaced near the end of the president's second term. In
1987 Americans learned that the administration had secretly sold
arms to Iran in an attempt to win freedom for American hostages
held
in
Lebanon
by
radical
organizations
controlled
by
Iran's
Khomeini
government.
Investigation
also
revealed
that
funds
from the arms sales had been diverted to the Nicaraguan contras
during a period when Congress had prohibited such military aid.
The
ensuing
Iran-contra
hearings
before
a
joint
House-Senate
committee examined issues of possible illegality
as
well
as
the
broader
question
of
defining
American
foreign
policy
interests
in
the
Middle
East
and
Central
America.
In
a
larger sense, the Iran-contra hearings, like the celebrated Senate
Watergate
hearings
14
years
earlier,
addressed
fundamental
questions
about
the
government's
accountability
to
the
public,
and
the
proper
balance
between
the
executive
and
legislative
branches of government.



里根政府最严重的对外政策问题在总统第二任期行将
结束之际浮出水面。
1987
年，
美国人得知里根政府曾秘密向
伊朗出售武器，试图为那些美国人 质换取人身自由，这些人
质被伊朗霍梅尼政府所控制的激进组织囚禁于黎巴嫩。此
外，调查也披 露，这些武器交易中所得的款项被转移到尼加
拉瓜反政府武装组织的手里，但在这一时期，美国国会早已
禁止此类性质的军事援助。

随后所举行的参众两院联合委员会的有关

伊朗
-
反政府
武装组织事件

听证会审议了有可能存在的非法问题，
以及对
美国在中东和中美洲对外政策利益进行界定这一更为广泛
的问题。从某种较为宽 泛的意义上说，有关

伊朗
-
反政府武
装组织事件

的 听证会，犹如
14
年前著名的参议员水门事件
听证会那样，所涉及到的都是某些根本性 问题，即政府应如
何向公众负责，以及政府行政与立法部门之间如何才能达成
某种恰如其分的平 衡。


（
5
）


Although
the
American
economy
has
transformed
itself
over the years, certain issues have persisted since the early days
of the republic. One is the continuing debate over the proper role
for government in what is basically a marketplace economy. An
economy based on free enterprise is generally characterized by
private
ownership
and
initiative,
with
a
relative
absence
of
government
involvement.
However,
government
intervention
has
been
found
necessary
from
time
to
time
to
ensure
that
economic opportunities are fair and accessible to the people, to
prevent
flagrant
abuses,
to
dampen
inflation
and
to
stimulate
growth.
Ever
since
colonial
times,
the
government
has
been
involved,
to
some
extent,
in
economic
decision-making.
The
federal government, for example, has made huge investments in
infrastructure, and it has provided social welfare programs that
the
private
sector
was
unable
or
unwilling
to
provide.
In
a
myriad
of
ways
and
over
many
decades,
the
government
has
supported and promoted the development of agriculture.

虽然美国经济在过去几年中已实现了转型，但某些问题< br>自美国建国之初以来一直持续至今，依然悬而未决。其中之
一便是围绕着政府在一个基本上属于市 场性质的经济中的
恰当角色所展开的持久争论。以自由企业为基础的经济体
制，其普遍特征便是 私有制和个人创新精神，政府介入应相
对微弱。
然而，
人们发现，
政府的干预 时不时地也是必要的，
以确保经济机会人人均等，能为全部民众所获得，并防范肆
无忌惮的权力 滥用，平抑通货膨胀，刺激经济增长。

自殖
民地时期以来，美国政府或多或少地参与 到经济决策中来。
例如，联邦政府曾在基础设施方面进行过巨额投资，它也提
供了私营业主们没 有能力或不愿意提供的社会福利项目。在