基本功一:冠词的应用
冠词的使用在英文中虽然看似作用不大,但实际上对逻辑梳理起着举足轻重的作用,特别是定冠词的使用绝对不能等闲视之。以下为两个冠词应用练习篇章,自己做完后再参阅答案和讲解,体会冠词使用的大致规律,为英汉、汉英翻译打下扎实基础。在讲解部分之后还有两个应用练习篇章供大家进行巩固训练。
冠词应用练习
■练习一
提示:以下空白标号处有些需要填写冠词,有些则不需要填写。
At dinner with 1 friend the other night, I mentioned that I was giving 2 talk this week debunking 3 idea that we need to grow more food on 4 large scale so we can“feed 5 nine billion”— 6 anticipated global population by 2050.
The difference between you and the hungry is not 7 production levels; it’s money. There are no hungry people with money; there isn’t 8 shortage of food, nor is there 9 distribution problem. There is 10 I-don’t-have-the-land-and-resources-to-produce-my-own-food, nor-can-I-afford-to-buy-food problem.
And poverty and 11 resulting hunger aren’t matters of bad luck; they are often 12 result of people buying 13 property of traditional farmers and displacing them, appropriating their water, energy and mineral resources, and even producing cash crops for export while reducing 14 people growing 15 food to menial and hungry laborers on their own land.
Poverty isn’t the only problem, of course. There is also 16 virtually unregulated food system that is geared toward making money rather than feeding people. Look no further than 17 ethanol mandate or high fructose corn syrup for evidence.
If poverty creates hunger, it teams up with 18 food system to create another form of malnourishment: obesity and what’s called “hidden hunger,” 19 lack of micronutrients. If you define “hunger” as malnutrition, and you accept that overweight and obesity are 20 forms of malnutrition as well, then almost half the world is malnourished.
The solution to malnourishment isn’t to produce more food. The solution is to eliminate poverty.
Look at the most agriculturally productive country in the world: the United States. Is there hunger here? Yes, quite a bit. We have the highest percentage of hungry people of any developed nation, 21 rate closer to that of Indonesia than that of Britain.
Is there 22 lack of food? You laugh at that question. It is, as the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler likes to call it, “a food carnival.” It’s just that there’s 23 steep ticket price.
A majority of the world is fed by hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers, some of whom are themselves among the hungry. The rest of the hungry are 24 underpaid or unemployed workers. But boosting 25 yields does nothing for them.
The best method of farming for most people is probably 26 traditional farming boosted by science. The best method of farming for those in 27 highly productive agricultural societies would be 28 farming made more intelligent and less rapacious. That is, 29 kind of farming we can learn from people who still have 30 real relationship with 31 land and are focused on quality rather than yield. The goal should be 32 food that is green, fair, healthy and affordable.
It’s not news that the poor need money and justice. If there’s a bright side here, it’s that it might be easier to make 33 changes required to fix 34 problems created by industrial agriculture than those created by inequality.
There’s plenty of food. Too much of it is going to feed animals, too much of it is being converted to fuel and too much of it is being wasted.
We don’t have to increase yield to address any of those issues; we just have to grow food more smartly than with 35 brute force of industrial methods, and we need to address 36 circumstances of the poor.
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技巧一:中文结构“三步走”
主要是指涉及政府外宣类题材的句子结构划分技巧。所谓“三步走”,具体是指:中文长句中,第一步给出理念、指导方针或原则,第二步具体阐述在这种方针原则的指导下都做了什么或者要做什么,第三步给出结果或者要实现的目标。在具体行文时,可以按照“每一步”信息的多少进行“逐步”切句或者灵活整合。有了“三步走”原则,长句一点都不可怕!这一汉英句式逻辑分析技巧在实操训练中非常实用,也极易掌握!
鉴赏实例 1
■翻译原文
下一步,我们还要立足中国的基本国情,处理好市场与效率、发展与分配的关系,既要抓科学发展,把蛋糕做得更大,也要抓收入分配,把我们的蛋糕分得更好。
■参考译文
Going forward, we will take into full consideration China’s realities. That will mean striking a balance between market and efficiency, and between development and distribution. China will boost its economy so that there is more to share. China will improve income distribution so that the increased economic benefits are shared as widely as possible.
■译文剖析
1. 该段选自中国驻英国大使刘晓明的演讲。从中文来看,整段都由逗号连接,句子看似毫无逻辑链,形散无序,但按照“三步走”的原则技巧认真分析一下,你就会发现,“下一步,我们还要立足中国的基本国情”属于理念、原则或指导方针,“处理好市场与效率、发展与分配的关系”属于要去做什么,“既要抓科学发展,把蛋糕做得更大,也要抓收入分配,把我们的蛋糕分得更好”属于进一步阐述要做的两件事情和想要实现的目标,这样一来,看似无序零散的信息在“三步走”的切分原则下逻辑立显。