1986-1990年考研翻译题及参考答案

Translate the following passage into Chinese. Only the underlined sentences are to be translated. (20 points)

People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behaviors are formed. It is not easy to explain why one person is intelligent and another is not, or why one is cooperative and another is competitive.

Social scientists are, of course, extremely interested in these types of questions. (21) They want to explain why we possess certain characteristics and exhibit certain behaviors. There are no clear answers yet, but two distinct schools of thought on the matter have developed. As one might expect, the two approaches are very different from each other. The controversy is often conveniently referred to as “nature vs. nurture. ”

(22) Those who support the “nature” side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are largely determined by biological factors. (23) That our environment has little, if anything, to do with our abilities, characteristics and behavior is central to this theory.

Taken to an extreme, this theory maintains that our behavior is pre-determined to such a great degree that we are almost completely governed by our instincts.

Those who support the “nurture” theory, that is, they advocate education, are often called behaviorists. They claim that our environment is more important than our biologically based instincts in determining how we will act. A behaviorist, B. F. Skinner, sees humans as beings whose behavior is almost completely shaped by their surroundings. (24) The behaviorists maintain that, like machines, humans respond to environmental stimuli as the basis of their behavior.

Let us examine the different explanations about one human characteristic, intelligence, offered by the two theories. (25) Supporters of the “nature” theory insist that we are born with a certain capacity for learning that is biologically determined. Needless to say: They don’t believe that factors in the environment have much influence on what is basically a predetermined characteristic. On the other hand, behaviorists argue that our intelligence levels are the product of our experiences. (26) Behaviorists suggest that the child who is raised in an environment where there are many stimuli which develop his or her capacity for appropriate responses will experience greater intellectual development.

The social and political implications of these two theories are profound. (27) In the United States, blacks often score below whites on standardized intelligence tests. This leads some “nature” proponents to conclude that blacks are biologically inferior to whites. (28) Behaviorists, in contrast, say that differences in scores are due to the fact that blacks are often deprived of many of the educational and other environmental advantages that whites enjoy.(www.yygrammar.com)

Most people think neither of these theories can yet fully explain human behavior.

21. 他们想要说明,为什么我们具有某些性格特征和表现出某些行为。

22. 在这场争论中,赞成天性一方的那些人认为,我们的性格特征和行为模式大多是由生物因素所决定的。

23. 这种理论的核心是,我们的环境同我们的才能、性格特征和行为即使有什么关系的话,也是微不足道的。

24. 行为主义者坚信,人像象机器一样,对环境的刺激作出反应,这是他们行为的基础。

25. 支持天性论的人坚持说,我们生来就具有一定的学习才能,这是由生物因素决定的。

26. 行为主义者认为,如果一个儿童在有许多刺激物的环境里成长,而这些刺激物能够发展其作出适当反应的能力,那么,这个儿童将会有更高的智力发展。

27. 在美国,黑人在标准化智力测试中的成绩常常低于白人。

28. 相反,行为主义者认为,成绩的差异是由于黑人常常被剥夺了白人在教育及其它环境方面所享有的许多有利条件。

 

 

Translate the following passage into Chinese. Only the underlined sentences are to be translated. (20 points)

When Jane Matheson started work at Advanced Electronics Inc. 12 years ago, (21) she laboured over a microscope, hand-welding tiny electronic computers and turned out 18 per hour. Now she tends the computerized machinery that turns out high capacity memory chips at the rate of 2,600 per hour. Production is up, profits are up, her income is up and Mrs. Matheson says the work is far less strain on her eyes.

But the most significant effect of the changes at AEI was felt by the workers who are no longer there. Before the new computerized equipment was introduced, there were 940 workers at the plant. Now there are 121. (22) A plant follow-up survey showed that one year after the layoffs only 38% of the released workers found new employment at the same or better wages. Nearly half finally settled for lower pay and more than 13% are still out of work. The AEI example is only one of hundreds around the country which forge intelligently ahead into the latest technology, but leave the majority of their workers behind.

(23) Its beginnings obscured by unemployment caused by the world economic slow-down, the new technological unemployment may emerge as the great socio-economic challenge of the end of the 20th century. One corporation economist says the growth of “machine job replacement” has been with us since the beginning of the industrial revolution, but never at the pace it is now. The human costs will be astonishing. (24)It’s humiliating to be done out of your job by a machine and there is no way to fight back, but it is the effort to find a new job that really hurts. ” Some workers, like Jane Matheson, are retrained to handle the new equipment, but often a whole new set of skills is required and that means a new, and invariably smaller set of workers. (25) The old workers, trapped by their limited skills, often never regain their old status and employment. Many drift into marginal areas. They feel no pride in their new work. They get badly paid for it and they feel miserable, but still they are luckier than those who never find it.

(26) The social costs go far beyond the welfare and unemployment payments made by the government. Unemployment increases the chances of divorce, child abuse, and alcoholism, a new federal survey shows. Some experts say the problem is only temporary. . . that new technology will eventually create as many jobs as it destroys. (27) But futurologist Hymen Seymour says the astonishing efficiency of the new technology means there will be a simple and direct net reduction in the amount of human labor that needs to be done. “We should treat this as an opportunity to give people more leisure. It may not be easy, but society will have to reach a new unanimity on the division and distribution of labor,” Seymour says. He predicts most people will work only six-hour days and four-day weeks by the end of the century. But the concern of the unemployed is for now. (28) Federally funded training and free back-to-school programs for laid-off workers are under way, but few experts believe they will be able to keep up with the pace of the new technology. For the next few years, for a substantial portion of the workforce, times are going to be very tough indeed.

21. 她吃力地伏在显微镜上干活,手焊体积很小的电子计算机,每小时能焊好18个。

22. 一家工厂的跟踪调查表明,被解雇的工人中一年后只有38%的人找到了与原工资相等或优于原工资的新工作。

23. 虽然它(新技术的采用导致失业上升)一开始被全球性的经济衰退所引起的失业所掩盖,但到20世纪末,新技术所引起的失业问题可能会构成对社会经济的巨大挑战。

24. 被一台机器抢走你的工作是很伤自尊心的,可又没法还击,但真正伤我心的是要费很大的劲去寻找新的工作。

25. 老工人由于处于技术掌握得很有限的困境,往往不能重新获得其原有的地位和就业机会。

26. 要付出的社会代价远远超过政府在福利与失业救济方面的开支。

27. 但是未来学家海曼西摩说,新技术所具有的惊人效率意味着所需要的劳力将出现一个绝对的和直接的净减数。

28. 为失业工人提供的由联邦政府资助的培训计划和免费重返学校学习的计划目前都在实施中,但很少有专家认为这些计划能跟得上新技术的发展步伐。

  

 

Translate the following passage into Chinese. Only the underlined sentences are to be translated. (20 points)

Seated behind the front desk at a New York firm, the receptionist was efficient.

Stylishly dressed, the firm’s newest employee had a pleasant telephone voice and a natural charm that put clients at ease. The company was pleased: (21) Clearly, this was a person who took considerable pride in personal appearance. David King, the receptionist, is unusual, but by no means unique. (22) Just as all truck drivers and construction workers are no longer necessarily men, all secretaries and receptionists are no longer automatically women. The number of men in women-dominated fields is still small and they haven’t attracted the attention that has often followed women advancing into male-dominated fields, but men are moving into more and more jobs that have traditionally been held by women.

Strictly speaking, the phenomenon is not new. For the past several decades, men have been quietly entering fields such as nursing, social work and elementary education. But today no job seems off-limits. Men serve coffee in offices and meals on airplanes. (23) These changes are helping to influence some of the long-standing traditions about the types of work men and women can do -- but they also produce some undeniable problems for the men who are entering those fields formerly dominated by women.

What kinds of men venture into these so-called “women’s fields”? All kinds. (24)I don’t know of any definite answers I’d be comfortable with,” explains Joseph Pleck, Ph. D. , of the Wellesley College Centre for Research on Women.

Sam Ormont, for example, a thirty-year-old nurse at a Boston hospital, went into nursing because the army had trained him as a medical worker. (25) “I found that work very interesting. ” he recalled, “and when I got out of the service it just seemed natural for me to go into something medical. I wasn’t really interested in becoming a doctor. ” Thirty-five-year-old David King, an out-of-work actor, found a job as a receptionist because he was having trouble landing roles in Broadway plays and he needed to pay the rent.

(26) In other words, men enter “female” jobs out of the same consideration for personal interest and economic necessity that motivates anyone looking for work. But similarities often end there. Men in female-dominated jobs are conspicuous. As a group, their work histories differ in most respects from those of their female colleagues, and they are frequently treated differently by the people with whom they are in professional contact.

The question naturally arises: Why are there still approximately ninety-nine female secretaries for every one male? There is also a more serious issue. Most men don’t want to be receptionists, nurses, secretaries or sewing workers. Put simply, these are not generally considered very masculine jobs. (27) To choose such a line of work is to invite ridicule.

“There was kidding in the beginning,” recalls Ormont. “Kids coming from school ask what I am, and when I say ‘A nurse,’ they laugh at me. I just smile and say, ‘You know, there are female doctors, too. ’”

Still, there are encouraging signs. Years ago, male grade school teachers were as rare as male nurses. Today more than one elementary school teacher in six is male.(www.yywords.com)

(28) Can we anticipate a day when secretaries will be an even mix of men and women ― or when the mention of a male nurse will no longer raise eyebrows? It’s probably coming -- but not very soon.

21. 显然,他是个对自己的仪表感到相当自豪的人。

22. 正像卡车司机和建筑工人再没必要都是男的一样,所有秘书和接待员再也不一定都是女的。

23. 这些变化正影响着长期存在的传统观念中关于男女各可以干哪几类工作的看法,但这对于进入原先以妇女为主的那些的男人来说,无疑也带来一些问题。

24. 我还没听说过有任何使我感到满意的确切答案。

25. 他回忆说:我觉得那种工作十分有趣,当我退役时,对我来说,去干某种医务工作,似乎是极其自然的。

26. 换句话说,男人干起了女人干的工作,其动机是同任何找工作干的人一样,既出于个人的兴趣,也出于经济上需要的考虑。

27. 选定这一类工作是会惹人笑话的。

28. 我们是否能预见到这么一天:那时当秘书的男女各占一半或有人提到某个男人当护士时,人们不会再感到吃惊?

  

 

Translate the following passage into Chinese. Only the underlined sentences are to be translated. (20 points)

Have there always been cities? (26) Life without large urban areas may seem inconceivable to us, but actually cities are relatively recent development. Groups with primitive economics still manage without them. The trend, however, is for such groups to disappear, while cities are increasingly becoming the dominant mode of man’s social existence. (27) Historically, city life has always been among the elements which form a civilization. Any high degree of human endeavor and achievement has been closely linked to life in an urban environment. (28) It is virtually impossible to imagine that universities, hospitals, large businesses or even science and technology could have come into being without cities to support them. To most people, cities have traditionally been the areas where there was a concentration of culture as well as of opportunity. (29) In recent years, however, people have begun to become aware that cities are also areas where there is a concentration of problems. What has happened to the modern American city? Actually, the problem is not such a new one. Long before this century started, there had begun a trend toward the concentration of the poor of the American society into the cities. Each great wave of immigration from abroad and from the rural areas made the problem worse. During this century, there has also been the development of large suburban areas surrounding the cities, for the rich prefer to live in these areas. Within the cities, sections may be sharply divided into high and low rent districts, the “right side of town” and the slums.

Of course, everyone wants to do something about this unhappy situation. But there is no agreement as to goals. Neither is there any systematic approach or integrated program. Opinions are as diverse as the people who give them. (30) But one basic difference of opinion concerns the question of whether or not the city as such is to be preserved. Perhaps transportation and the means of communication have really made it possible for there to be an end to the big cities. Of course, there is the problem of persuading people to move out of them of their own free will. (31) And there is also the objection that the city has always been the core from which cultural advancement has radiated. Is this, however, still the case today in the presence of easy transportation and communication? Does culture arise as a result of people living together communally, or is it too the result of decisions made at the level of government and the communications industry?

It is probably true to say that most people prefer to preserve the cities. Some think that the cities could be cleaned up or totally rebuilt. This is easy to say; it would not be so easy to do. (32) To be sure, a great rebuilding project would give jobs to many of those people who need them. Living conditions could not help but improve, at least for a while. But would the problems return after the rebuilding was completed?

Nevertheless, with the majority of the people living in urban areas, the problem of the cities must be solved. (33) From agreement on this general goal, we have, unfortunately, in the past proceeded to disagreement on specific goals, and from there to total inaction. At the basis of much of this inaction is an old-fashioned concept -- the idea human conditions will naturally tend to regulate themselves for the general goal.

26. 对我们来说,生活要是没有广大的城市地区似乎是不可想象的,但实际上城市还是比较按期才发展起来的。

27. 从历史上看,城市生活始终是文明的一个组成部分。

28. 如果没有城市的支持,简直难以想象会有大学,医院,大企业,甚至连科学技术也不会有。

29. 可是,近几年来人们开始意识到城市也是问题集中的地方。

30. 但是,一个最主要的分歧意见是,像目前这样的城市是否还要保存下去。

31. 同时也有人反对说,文化方面的进步,始终是以城市为中心而向外辐射的。

32. 诚然,一个宏伟的重建计划也许能为许多需要工作的人提供就业机会。

33. 遗憾的是,过去我们在总目标方面意见是一致的,但涉及到各个具体目标时,意见就不一致,因而也就根本没有什么行动。

  

 

Translate the following passage into Chinese. Only the underlined sentences are to be translated. (20 points)

It would be interesting to discover how many young people go to university without any clear idea of what they are going to do afterwards. (21) If one considers the enormous variety of courses offered, it is not hard to see how difficult it is for a student to select the course most suited to his interests and abilities. (22) If a student goes to university to acquire a broader perspective of life, to enlarge his ideas and to learn to think for himself, he will undoubtedly benefit. (23) Schools often have too restricting an atmosphere, with its time tables and disciplines, to allow him much time for independent assessment of the work he is asked to do. (24) Most students would, I believe, profit by a year of such exploration of different academic studies, especially those “all rounders” with no particular interest. They should have longer time to decide in what subject they want to take their degrees, so that in later life, they do not look back and say, “I should like to have been an archaeologist. If I hadn’t taken a degree in Modern Languages, I shouldn’t have ended up as an interpreter, but it’s too late now. I couldn’t go back and begin all over again. ”

(25) There is, of course, another side to the question of how to make the best use of one’s time at university. (26) This is the case of the student who excels in a particular branch of learning. (27) He is immediately accepted by the University of his choice, and spends his three or four years becoming a specialist, emerging with a first-class Honour Degree and very little knowledge of what the rest of the world is all about. (28) It therefore becomes more and more important that, if students are not to waste their opportunities, there will have to be much more detailed information about courses and more advice. Only in this way can we be sure that we are not to have, on the one hand, a band of specialists ignorant of anything outside of their own subject, and on the other hand, an ever increasing number of graduates qualified in subjects for which there is little or no demand in the working world. (www.nmet168.com)

21. 如果想一想那些为学生设置的门类繁多的课程,我们就不难发现,对一个学生来说,要选一门符合他的兴趣和能力的课程是多么困难。

22. 如果一个学生进大学是为了想获得一个对生活前景更广泛的认识,为了扩大思想境界和学会独立思考,那么毫无疑问,进大学对他是有好处的。

23. 学校由于受课程表和纪律的约束,气氛往往令人感到过于拘束,使学生没有充分时间对规定要他做的事情有独立的见解。

24. 我认为大多数学生,尤其是那些没有偏重某一门课程的全面发展的学生,经过一年左右的时间对各门不同学科的钻研,将会从中获益。

25. 当然,关于一个人如何最充分地利用上大学的时间,还有另外一个方面。

26. 某一学科中出类拔萃的学生就属于这种情况。

27. 他一毕业马上就被一所他自己选中的大学所接受,再花三、四年时间成为一名专家。结果他以优异的成绩取得荣誉学位,但对外界的一切却几乎一无所知。

28. 所以,如果要学生充分利用他们上大学的机会,就应该为他们提供大量关于课程方面更为详尽的信息和更多的建议。这个问题显得越来越重要了。