中科院英语A速读第二册120翻译修订版.docx

1、中科院英语A速读第二册120翻译修订版英语速读(第二册1-20翻译Passage 1: Quake-proofing a house1. Most houses and commercial structures that were constructed after 1980, when Japans building code had its last revision, are still standing.日本最近一次对其建筑规范进行重大修订是在1980年,之后所建的大部分房屋和商业建筑至今仍完好无损。2. Charles Scawthorn, vice president of EQ

2、E International, a San Francisco firm that specializes in quake-resistant engineering, says that ”This is the real heart of the seismic-hazard problem. ”国际EQE的副总裁,San Francisco 公司的抗震工程师Charles Scawthorn说:“这(改进现在的建筑结构就是地震危害的核心问题。”3. What he saw convinced him that relatively simple precaution could ha

3、ve prevented the most common form of damage: the roofs and upper stories of buildings crashing down onto lower floors.他看到的使他相信那些相对简单的预防措施应该能够防止最常见的毁害:房顶和上层倒塌在下面的地板上。4.In the traditional Japanese house, Scawthorn says, the first floor lacks interior walls that could help support the weight of the sec

4、ond floor, as they would for a Western home;Scawthorn说,传统的日本房屋缺乏用于支撑第二层楼重量的内墙,而西方房屋的内墙则能支撑二层楼的重量。5.Retrofitting buildings to survive another Big One is still rare in Japan, but in the wake of the Kobe tragedy it may catch on.在日本,改造翻新建筑物使其幸免于又一次大地震的做法仍然少见。不过,在神户地震的悲剧后,这种做法也许会更加普遍。Passage 2: The offic

5、ial language1. Not since the first decades of the twentieth century have so many people entered the United States.自二十世纪的前几十年以来,还从来没有这么多人进入美国。2. But they are by no means alone.说西班牙语的这些人并不会因为在美国没有说英语而觉得被孤立起来。3. They argue that immigrants speaking poor English are cut off from the mainstream Americas e

6、conomy, and are thus doomed to depend on the largesse of the state.他们认为那些英语说得糟糕的移民会和主流的美国经济脱钩,而因此注定要靠国家的慷慨救济而生活。4. Opponents of English as an official language say that bilingual education is a more realistic, long-term solution for helping foreign-born Americans assimilate.不赞成将英语作为官方语言的反对者说,双语教育对于帮

7、助外籍美国人融入本土是一种更为现实长效的方案。Passage 3: Hazard1. Gangster movies of the old type often featured menacing threats of a “one-way ride”.从前的黑帮影片通常会有“死路一条”的威胁恐吓。2.The young adult is still relatively free from life-threatening diseases, although no age level is completely immune.尽管任何年龄段的人都不能完全免于患致命疾病,不过相对而言年轻人还

8、是易于避免一些。3. Neither cancer nor heart disease, the two most common physical conditions that threaten life at this age level, are responsible for nearly as many deaths as the motor vehicle accident.无论是癌症还是心脏病,即在这个年龄层最常见的危及生命的两种症状,它们所导致的死亡都远不及机动车事故所造成的死亡人数。4. It may be important to add that the motor ve

9、hicle death rate begins to decline markedly after this peak between ages twenty to twenty-four.也许值得补充的是,在二十到二十四岁之间,机动车事故的死亡率达到峰值,在这年龄段之后,这一死亡率急剧下降。5. A person, in other words, may be accident prone in certain respects and for a certain, limited part of his or her lifespan.换句话说,一个人在某些方面,在人生的某段限定的时间,也

10、许会有易出事故的倾向。6.Whatever the reason behind the number of fatal accidents, it is difficult to overlook the fact that most young-adult deaths involve a lethal intersection of person and machine (and often alcohol as well.无论致命事故数字背后的原因何在,我们都难以忽略一个事实,即机器(通常还有酒精攸关人的生死,而这种关系使得大部分年轻人丧命。Passage 4: Mathethtics1

11、. If we assume that the curriculum was reasonable, and that the new idea was but the next in a series of learnable concepts, the feeling of utter defeat was simply not rational;假设课程合理,新概念只是接下来一系列可以学会的概念中的一个,那么这种彻底的挫败感便毫无道理。2.A common myth about the nature of mathematical ability holds that one eithe

12、r has or does not have a mathematical mind.关于数学学习能力,一个常见的谬论是,一个人要么有数学头脑,要么没有。3. Mathematical imagination and an intuitive grasp of mathematical principles may well be needed to do advanced research, but why should people who can do college-level work in other subjects not be able to do college-level

13、 math as well?对于做高级研究的人来说,具备数学想象力和把握数学规律的直觉是必须的,但是为什么那些能在其他科目做到大学水平的人,却不能做大学水平的数学工作呢?4.Since only a few people are supposed to have this mathematical mind, part of what makes us so passive in the face of our difficulties in learning mathematics is that we suspect all the while we may not be one of “

14、them”, and we spend our time waiting to find out when our nonmathematical minds will be exposed.既然只有少数人有这种数学头脑,我们面对数学难题时如此被动的部分原因就是,我们一直怀疑自己不是“他们”(有数学头脑的人中的一员,我们花时间就是一直在等待我们没有数学思维被暴露的那一天。Passage 5: American drama1. A number of critics and literary historians have remarked that nineteenth-century Ame

15、rican drama is marked not only by its relative lack of quality and integrity when compared with other types of American literature but by its lack of any national originality, any quality other than a superficial interest in “local color” and folklore that can be considered distinctively American.很多

16、评论家和文学历史学家评论说,和美国其它类型的文学艺术相比,19世纪的美国戏剧相对缺乏质量和完整性,不仅如此,它还缺乏民族原创性,只在“本地特色”和民俗上有些肤浅的兴趣,这些“本地特色”和民俗被认为是美国人特有的。2. It seems, in reading the hundreds of surviving plays of the nineteenth century, that the best of them were the work of more or less ingenious children who lived in a world that had done no th

17、inking since 1620.克拉克说,“读了上百篇幸存下来的19世纪的戏剧后,似乎那些最好的戏剧是或多或少的天才儿童的作品,这些儿童生活在一个自从1620年就没有了思想的世界里。”3. This gulf between drama and serious literature continued well into the twentieth century, and was actually not bridged effectively until the period after the First World War.戏剧和严肃文学之间的鸿沟一直持续到二十世纪,实际上直到第一

18、次世界大战以后,它们之间的差异才得到有效的填充/弥补。Passage 6: Rootlessness1. A nation of immigrants, unsurprisingly, celebrates those willing to pick up stakes and move on: 毫不奇怪的是,一个移民国家会推崇(赞美那些敢于冒险和积极进取的人1.2.Hundreds of thousands of informal gathering spots that once nurtured community across the country have disappeared.

19、那些成千上万的曾孕育过全国社区的非正式聚会地点,都消失了。3. In Los Angeles we are hesitant to leave our sheltered home in order to visit friends or to participate in cultural or entertainment events because every such outing involves a major investment of time and nervous strain in driving long distances.在洛杉矶,我们为了拜访朋友或是参加文化或娱乐

20、活动而离开安定的家都会犹豫,因为每次远行都涉及到大量的时间跟精力投入到长途驾驶中。Passage 7: A human Tragedy1. And in the 30 minutes before the crash, the pilots did not conduct an “approach briefing”- especially important because Cali air controllers lost a radar station three years ago,when antigovernment guerrillas knocked it out.在碰撞前的最

21、后30分钟,飞行员没有发出一个“接近短讯”是一个十分重要的的信号,因为卡里航空管制员们在三年前就因反政府游击队的袭击,失去了雷达站。2. American may also confront the backlash airlines face after a catastrophe.在这次大灾难后,美国人在航空上同样也会面临反击。Passage 8: Parkinsonism1. The case with definable diseases are classified as secondary or symptomatic Parkinsonism.那些患有可定义疾病的病例被归为二级或

22、者有症状的帕金森综合症。2.However, the exact mechanism by which selective damage to the substantia nigra occurs is unknown.然而,黑质选择性破坏发生的确切机制还是未知的。Passage 9: Science fiction1. Like sex and a good many other natural phenomena, art must be a little disreputable to be any good, and science fiction writing is nothin

23、g if not an art. But too much ill repute, and the art, like sex, turns sour.正如性以及其他诸多的自然现象一样,艺术就要引起一点点非议才会显得有价值,科幻小说毫无疑问就是一件艺术品。2. The audience I write for is particularly intrigued by the notion that we can think and feel our way into forward times, that we can open the darkly wrapped package of th

24、e future before the allowed Christmas morning.我的读者尤其被这样的一些观念所吸引:我们可以思考和感觉我们通往超前时代的路,以及我们可以在允许打开包裹的圣诞节早晨之前,来提前打开充满未知的包裹。3. It is also a test of the writer, tougher than any other aesthetic test I know, for not only do we go up against a tough-minded audience (in principle, at least but reality itself

25、.它也是对作者的考验,我知道它可能比任何其他艺术的考验更严峻,因为我们不但要与心态严格的读者相左,而且还要违背真实世界本身。Passage 10: High-IQ society1.Articles in a newsletter published by the Los Angeles chapter of the high IQ society Mensa have sparked outrage by appearing to advocate the extermination of the homeless, the mentally retarded, the old and th

26、e infirm.高智商门撒协会洛杉矶分会的时事通讯文章引起人们的愤慨,文章声称应消灭流浪汉,智障人士以及老弱无依者。2. Those people who are so mentally defective that they cannot live in society should, as soon as they are identified as defective, be humanely dispatched.那些人精神上有缺陷,以至于不能生活在这个社会上,所以在他们被鉴定为有缺陷的时候,就应该人道的结束他们的生命。3.In anot her article, attorney

27、and Mensa member Jason Brent contended that Adolf Hitlers greatest offence was not the killing of 6 million Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, but “the fact that his actions prevent a rational discussion of the creation of the master race.”在另一篇文章里,身为律师兼门撒成员的Jason Brent认为希特勒的最大罪行不是他在纳粹大屠杀中杀害了六百万犹太人,而是他的行为阻止

28、了一场关于创造优势种族的理性讨论。Passage 11: The enigmatic “Mona Lisa”1.The theories include speculation that Leonardo may have painted two or more versions of the “Mona Lisa”, or similar portraits of two different models; that the “Mona Lisa” is not a portrait at all, but a composite of several elegant women ideal

29、ized by Leonardo.这些理论包括这样的推断:达芬奇可能画了两个或更多版本的“蒙娜丽莎”;或者是两个不同模特的相似画像;或者“蒙娜丽莎”根本不是一个真实的画像,而是由达芬奇理想化了的一些优雅女人的综合体。2.Additionally, there is a stubborn underground of claimants in Europe and America who firmly believe that their own versions were actually painted by Leonardo.加之,在欧洲和美国有一批顽固的申请者,他们确信自己的版本由达芬奇

30、所画。3.Brought to America in 1797 by William Henry Vernon, and now in a New Jersey bank vault, this portrait shows a younger, more vibrant Lisa-and with background details as perfect as in any Leonardo.这幅画于1797年被威廉亨利弗农带到美国,现被放在新泽西一家银行地下室,这幅画像展现了一个更加年轻,更加生机的丽莎,并且具有其他达芬奇的画一样完美的背景细节。Passage 12: Menial jo

31、bs1. Menial jobs are not, by and large, the starting point of a track system which leads to even better jobs for those who are able and willing to do them.总体来说,杂务工作并不能为那些有能力和意愿去做更高级工作的人开辟职业道路。2. The man appears to treat the job in a cavalier fashion, working and not working as the spirit moves him,

32、as if all that matters is the immediate satisfaction of his present appetites, the surrender to present moods, and the indulgence of whims with no thought for the cost, the consequences, the future.他们对待工作表现出一副无所谓的态度,工作与否随心情而定,仿佛只有满足此刻的欲望,顺应现在的心情和放纵一时兴起的念头才是最重要的,根本不考虑会付出何等的代价,产生什么样的后果,会有着怎样的明天。3. To the middle-class observer, this behavior reflects a “present time orientation” an “inability to defer gratification”.以中产阶级视角看来,这种行为反应出一种及时行乐的人生观,即缺失延迟满足的能力4. It is this “present-time orientation”a