8.1997年英译汉试题及参考译文
Do animals have rights?This is how the question is usually put.It sounds like a useful,ground-clearing way to start.(71)Actually,it isnt,because it assumes that there is an agreed account of human rights,which is something the world does not have.
On one view of rights,to be sure,it necessarily follows that animals have none.72)Some philosophers argue that rights exist only within a social contract,as part of an exchange of duties and entitlements.Therefore,animals cannot have rights.The idea of punishing a tiger that kills somebody is absurd,for exactly the same reason,so is the idea that tigers have ringhts.However,this is only one account,and by no means an uncontested one.It denies rights not only to animals but also to some people—for instance,to infants,the mentally incapable and future generations.In addition,it is unclear what force a contract can have for people who never consented to it:how do you reply to somebody who saysI dont like this contract?
The point is this without agreement on the rights of people,arguing about the rights of animals is fruitless.(73)It leads the discussion to extremes at the outset:it invites you to think that animals should be treated either with the consideration humans extend to other humans,or with no consideration at all.This is a false choice.Better to start with another,more fundamental question:is the way we treat animals a moral issue at all?
Many deny it.(74)Arguing from the view that humans are different from animals in every relevant respect,extremists of this kind think that animals lie outside the area of moral choice.Any regard for the suffering of animals is seen as a mistake—a sentimental displacement of feeling that should properly be directed to other humans.
This view,which holds that torturing a monkey is morally equivalent to chopping wood,may seem bravelylogical.In fact it is simply shallow:the ethical equivalent of learning to crawl—is to weigh others interests against one s own.This in turn requires sympathy and imagination:without which there is no capacity for moral thought.To see an animal in pain is enough,for most,to engage sympathy.(75)When that happens,it is not a mistake:it is mankinds instinct for moral reasoning in action,an instinct that should be encouraged rather than laughed at.
9.1998年英译汉试题及参考译文
They were by far,the largest and most distant objects that scientists had ever detected:a strip of enormous cosmic clouds some 15 billion lightyears from earth.
(71)But even more important,it was the farthest that scientists had been able to look into the past,for what they were seeing were the patterns and structures that existed 15 billion yeays ago.That was just about the moment that the universe was born.What the researchers found was at once both amazing and expected:the US National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Cosmic Background Explorer satellite—Cobe—had discovered landmark evidence that the universe did in fact begin with the primeval explosion that has become known as the Big Bang(the theory that the universe originated in an explosion from a single mass of energy).
(72)The existence of the giant clouds was virtually required for the Big Bang,first put forward in the 1920s,to maintain its reign as the dominant explanation of the cosmos.According to the theory,the universe burst into being as a submicroscopic,unimaginably dense knot of pure energy that flew outward in all directions,emitting radiation as it went,condensing into particles and then into atoms of gas.Over billions of years,the gas was compressed by gravity into galaxies,stars,plants and eventually,even humans.
Cobe is designed to see just the biggest structures,but astronomers would like to see much smaller hot spots as well,the seeds of local objects like clusters and superclusters of galaxies.They shouldnt have long to wait.(73)Astrophysicists working with groundbased detectors at the South Pole and balloonborne instruments are closing in on such structures,and may report their findings soon.
(74)If the small hot spots look as expected,that will be a triumph for yet another scientific idea,a refinement of the Big Bang called the inflationary universe theory.Inflation says that very early on,the universe expanded in size by more than a trillion trillion trillion trillionfold in much less than a second,propelled by a sort of antigravity.(75)Odd though it sounds,cosmic inflation is a scientifically plausible consequence of some respected ideas in elementaryparticle physics,and many astrophysicists have been convinced for the better part of a decade that it is true.
1998年英译汉试题参考译文
离地球大约150亿光年的一块狭长的巨大宇宙云系是科学家在此以前所发现的最大、最遥远的物体。(71)但更为重要的是,这是科学家所能观测到的最遥远的过去的景象,因为他们看到的是150亿年前宇宙云的形状和结构。那大约就是宇宙形成的时候。研究人员发现的宇宙云既令人惊讶,又是人们所期待的,因为美国国家航空航天局的宇宙背景探测者Cobe号卫星已经发现了划时代的证据,证明宇宙确实起源于最早的一次爆炸,即人们一直所称的大爆炸(此理论认为宇宙起源于一大块能量)。
(72)巨大的宇宙云的存在,实际上是使本世纪二十年代首次提出的大爆炸论是以保持其宇宙起源论的主导地位所必不可少的。根据这一理论,宇宙的形成是由一团亚微观的、极其稠密的纯能量团朝四面八方向外发散,随着放出辐射线,浓缩成粒子,然后形成气体原子。数十亿年来,这种气体受引力的压缩形成星系、恒星、行星,并最终甚至产生人类。
Cobe卫星设计的目的就是观察这些最大的物体结构,但宇航员还想看到更为微小的热点,即像星纱中的星团和超星团这样一些局部物体的粒子。看来他们不必长期等待。(73)天体物理学家使用南极陆基探测器及球工仪器,正越来越近地观测这些云系,也许不久会报告他们的观测结果。
(74)假如这些小热点看上去同预计的一致,那就意味着又一科学论说的胜利,这种论说即更完美的大爆炸论,亦称宇宙膨胀说。膨胀说告诉我们,早在很久以前,宇宙的体积在不到一秒钟内被一种反引力驱动而发生了无数倍的膨胀。(75)宇宙膨胀说虽然听似奇特,但它是基本粒子的物理学中一些公认的理论在科学上看来似乎可信的推论。许多天体物理学家七八年来一直确信这一论说是正确的。
注:1.第4句中的at once意为既,又,如:The story is at once amusing and instructive.(这个故事既有趣又有教育意义。)
2.第1段最后一句中的a mass of意为一大块(团,堆)。
3.第3段最后一句中的close in on原意是从四面八方紧压过来。例如:She had a queer feeling that the room was closing in on
her.(她有一种奇特的感觉,仿佛那房间从四面八方把她紧紧围住了。)4.第3段第2句中的should表示推测的意思。
5.(71)题中的look(=see)意为:看见,作及物动词用,其宾语是关系代词that。into the past意为对过去。可见…it was the
farthest that scientists had been able to look into the past…直译为:…它是科学家对过去所能看到的最遥远的东西…。
10.1999年英译汉试题及参考译文
(71)While there are almost as many definitions of history as there are historians,modern practice most closely conforms to one that sees history as the attempt to recreate and explain the significant events of the past.Caught in the web of its own time and place,each generation of historians determines anew what is significant for it in the past.In this search the evidence found is always incomplete and scattered;it is also frequently partial or partisan.The irony of the historians craft is that its practitioners always know that their efforts are but contributions to an unending process.
(72)Interest in historical methods has arisen less through external challenge to the validity of history as an intellectual discipline and more from internal quarrels among historians themselves.While history once revered its affinity to literature and philosophy,the emerging social sciences seemed to afford greater opportunities for asking new questions and providing rewarding approaches to an understanding of the past.Social science methodologies had to be adapted to a discipline governed by the primacy of historical sources rather than the imperatives of the contemporary world.
(73)During this transfer,traditional historical methods were augmented by additional methodologies designed to interpret the new forms of evidence in the historical study.
Methodology is a term that remains inherently ambiguous in the historical profession.
(74)There is no agreement whether methodology refers to the concepts peculiar to historical work in general or to the research techniques appropriate to the various branches of historical inquiry.Historians,especially those so blinded by their research interests that they have been accused oftunnel method,frequently fall victim to thetechnicist fallacy.Also common in the natural sciences,the technicist fallacy mistakenly identifies the discipline as a whole with certain parts of its technical implementation.
(75)It applies equally to traditional historians who view history as only the external and internal criticism of sources.And to social science historians who equate their activity with specific techniques.
11.2000年英译汉试题及参考译文
Governments throughout the world act on the assumption that the welfare of their people depends largely on the economic strength and wealth of the community.(71)Under modern conditions,this requires varying measures of centralized control and hence the help of specialized scientists such as economists and operational research experts. (72)Furthermore,it is obvious that the strength of a countrys economy is directly bound up with the efficiency of its agriculture and industry,and that this in turn rests upon the efforts of scientists and technologists of all kinds. It also means that governments are increasingly compelled to interfere in these sectors in order to step up production and ensure that it is utilized to the best advantage.For example,they may encourage research in various ways,including the setting up of their own research centers;they may alter the structure of education,or interfere in order to reduce the wastage of natural resources or tap resources hitherto unexploited;or they may cooperate directly in the growing number of international projects related to science,economics any industry,In any case,all such interventions are heavily dependent on scientific advice and also scientific and technological manpower of all kinds.
(73)Owing to the remarkable development in masscommunications,people everywhere are feeling new wants and are being exposed to new customs and ideas,while governments are often forced to introduce still further innovations for the reasons given above. At the same time,the normal rate of social change throughout the world is taking place at a vastly accelerated speed compared with the past.For example,(74)in the early in industrialized countries of Europe the process of industrialization—with all the farreaching changes in social patterns that followed—was spread over nearly a century,whereas nowadays a developing nation may undergo the same process in a decade or so. All this has the effect of building up unusual pressures and tensions within the community and consequently presents serious problems for the governments concerned.(75)Additional social stresses may also occur because of the population explosion or problems arising from mass migration movements—themselves made relatively easy nowadays by modern means of transport. As a result of all these factors,governments are becoming increasingly dependent on biologists and social scientists for planning the appropriate programs and putting them into effect.
2000年英译汉试题参考译文
世界各国政府都认为,人民的幸福主要依赖于社会的经济实力和财富。(71)在现代条件下,这需要程度不同的中央控制,从而就需要获得诸如经济学和运筹学等领域专家的协助。(72)再者,显而易见的是一个国家的经济实力与其工农业生产效率密切相关,而效率的提高又有赖于各种科技人员的努力。这就意味着,各国政府得越来越多地干预这些部门以便提高产量并确保产品会得到最好的利用。例如,政府可以用各种方法来鼓励研究,其中包括建立自己的研究中心;政府可以改革教育结构,或以政府干预来减少自然资源的消费量、开发迄今未被利用的资源;或者政府可以在日益增加的与科学、经济学和工业有关的项目中直接进行协作。无论如何,所有这些政府干预主要有赖于科学方面的咨询和各种类型的科技人才。
(73)大众通讯的显著发展使各地的人们不断感到有新的需求,不断接触到新的习俗和思想,由于上述原因,政府常常得推出更多的革新。而同时,全世界的正常的社会变革速度与过去相比大大加快了。(74)在先期实现工业化的欧洲国家中,其工业化进程以及随之而来的各种深刻的社会结构变革,持续了大约一世纪之久,而如今一个发展中国家在10年左右就可能完成这个过程。(75)由于人口的猛增或大量人口流动(现代交通工具使这种流动相对容易)造成的种种问题也会对社会造成新的压力。由于这些因素的结果,政府正越来越多地依靠生物学家和社会科学家来安排适当的规划,并付诸实施。
12.2001年英译汉试题及参考译文
In less than30years time the Star Trek holodeck will be a reality.Direct links between the brains nervous system and a computer will also create full sensory virtual environments,allowing virtual vacations like those in the film Total Recall.
(71)There will be television chat shows hosted by robots,and cars with pollution monitors that will disable them when they offend.(72)Children will play with dolls equipped with personality chips.computers with in-built personalities will be regarded as workmates rather than tools,relaxation will be in front of smell-television,and digital age will have arrived.
According to BT s futurologist,Ian Pearson,these are among the developments scheduled for the first few decades of the new millennium(a period of 1000years),when supercomputers will dramatically accelerate progress in all areas of life.
(73)Pearson has pieced together the work of hundreds of researchers around the world to produce a unique millennium technology calendar that gives the latest dates when we can expect hundreds or key breakthroughs and discoveries to take place.Some of the biggest developments will be in medicine,including an extended life expectancy and dozens of artificial organs coming into use between now and 2040.
Pearson also predicts a breakthrough in computer-human links.By linking directly to our nervous system,computers could pick up what we feel and,hopefully,simulate feeling too so that we can start to develop full sensory environments,rather like the holidays in Total Recall or the Star Trek holodeck,he says.(74)But that,Pearson points out,is only the start of man-machine integration:It will be the beginning of the long process of integration that will ultimately lead to a fully electronic human before the end of the next century.
Through his research,Pearson is able to put dates to most of the breakthroughs that can be predicted.However,there are still no forecasts for when faster-that-light travel will be available,or when human cloning will be perfected,or when time travel will be possible.But he does expect social problems as a result of technological advances.A boom in neighborhood surveillance cameras will,for example,cause problems in2010,while the arrival of synthetic lifelike robots will mean people may not be able to distinguish between their human friends and the droids.(75)And home appliances will also become so smart that controlling and operating them will result in the breakout of a new psychological disorder—kitchen rage.
2001年英译汉试题参考译文
再过不到30年星球旅行太空平台将成为现实。大脑神经系统与计算机的直接连接也将创造出完全传感的实际环境,使得实际的度假和电影全面回顾中的度假一模一样。
(71)届时,将出现由机器人主持的电视谈话节目以及装有污染监控器的汽车,一旦这些汽车排污超标(违规),监控器就会使其停驶。(72)儿童将与装有个性化芯片的玩具娃娃玩耍,具有个性内置的计算机将被视为工作伙伴而不是工具,人们将在气味电视前休闲,这时数字时代就来到了。
根据英国电讯公司的未来学家伊恩·皮尔逊的看法,上述种种科研成就均属新千年的最初几十年内的开发项目之列,届时超级计算机将大大加快人类生活各个领域里的进步。