2009年05月英语四级考试作文
留学前培训
【英译汉必译题】2014年江苏高考分数线
There was, last week, a glimmer of hope in the world food crisis. Expecting a bumper harvest, Ukraine relaxed restrictions on exports. Overnight, global wheat prices fell by 10 percent.
By contrast, traders in Bangkok quote rice prices around $1,000 a ton, up from $460 two months ago.
Such is the volatility of today’s markets. We do not know how high food prices might go, nor how far they could fall. But one thing is certain: We have gone from an era of plenty to one of scarcity. Experts agree that food prices are not likely to return to the levels the world had grown accustomed to any time soon.
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Imagine the situation of tho living on less than $1 a day - the “bottom billion,” the poorest of the world’s poor. Most live in Africa, and many might typically spend two-thirds of their income on food.
In Liberia last week, I heard how people have stopped purchasing imported rice by the bag. Instead, they increasingly buy it by the cup, becau that’s all they can afford.
Traveling though West Africa, I found good reason for optimism. In Burkina Faso, I saw a government working to import drought resistant eds and better manage scarce water supplies, helped by nations like Brazil. In Ivory Coast, we saw a women’s cooperative running a chicken farm t up with UN funds. The project generated income - and food - for villagers in ways that can easily be replicated.
Elwhere, I saw yet another women’s group slowly expanding their local agricultural production, with UN help. Soon they will replace World Food Program rice with their own home-grown produce, sufficient to cover the needs of their school feeding program.
The are home-grown, grass-roots solutions for grass-roots problems -precily the kind of solutions that Africa needs.
【参考译文】
上星期，世界粮食危机出现了一线转机的希望。因预期会获得大丰收，乌克兰放松了出口限制。全球小麦价格一夜间下跌了10%。
然而，曼谷米商每吨大米的报价大约1000美元，而在两个月前，报价是460美元。预计大米价格还会上涨。
这就是目前市场动荡的局面。我们不知道粮食价格将上涨多少，也
不知道将下跌多少。但有一点是肯定的：我们已从富足时代进入了匮乏时代。专家们认为，粮食价格近期内不太可能回落到世界已经习以为常的水平。
即使在欧洲富国和美国，消费者也怨声载道。那么，请想像一下每日所得不足一美元的人的境况，这些人是世界穷人中的最贫穷者，
是“最下层的十亿人”。他们大都生活在非洲，许多人通常用三分之二的收入购买粮食。
上星期，在利比里亚，我听说人们已不再成袋地买进口大米，而更多地是一杯子一杯子地买，因为他们只买得起一杯子米。
第一个任务是向饥民提供粮食。世界粮食计划署在帮助7300万人。但是，要帮助这些人，世界粮食计划署就需要增加75500万美元的资金才能支付它不断增加的费用。各方已经认捐47500万美元。但是，许诺并不能填饱肚子，粮食计划署现在仅有1800万美元的现金。我们有能力处理这一危机。我们拥有有关资源，我们知道应该做什么，我们不仅应将这一危机视为问题，而且应将它视为机会。
外甥英文在走访西非期间，我发现非常有理由感到乐观。在布基纳法索，我看到政府在巴西等国帮助下，努力进口耐旱种子，更好地管理稀缺的水源。
在科特迪瓦，我们参观了一个妇女合作社用联合国资金兴办的养鸡场。该项目为村民提供收入和粮食，很容易推广。在其他地方，我看到另一个妇女团体正在联合国帮助下，缓慢地扩大本地的农业生产。不久，她们将用自己的农产品取代粮食计划署的大米，满足学校供餐方案的需要。
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这些都是因地制宜解决基层问题的基层办法，正是非洲需要的。
【英译汉二选一】
【试题一】
For a decade, metallurgists studying the hulk of the Titanic have argued that the storied ocean liner went down quickly after hitting an iceberg becau the ship's builder ud substandard rivets that popped their heads and let tons of icy awater rush in. More than 1,500 people died.
Now a team of scientists has moved into deeper waters, uncovering evidence in the builder's own archives of a deadly mix of great ambition and u of low-quality iron that doomed the ship, which sank 96 years ago Tuesday.
The scientists found that the ship's builder, Harland and Wolff, in Belfast, struggled for years to obtain adequate supplies of rivets and riveters
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to build the world's three biggest ships at once: the Titanic and two sisters, Olympic and Britannic.
Each required three million rivets, and shortages peaked during Titanic's construction.
"The board was in crisis mode," said Jennifer Hooper McCarty, a member of the team that studied the company's archive and other evidence. "It was constant stress. Every meeting it was, ‘there are problems with the rivets, and we need to hire more people.' "
The team collected other clues from 48 Titanic rivets, using modern tests, computer simulations, comparisons to century-old metals and careful documentation of what engineers and shipbuilders of the era considered state of the art.
The scientists say the troubles began when the colossal plans forced Harland and Wolff to reach beyond its usual suppliers of rivet iron and include smaller forges, as disclod in company and British government papers. Small forges tended to have less skill and experience.
skl>dictatorial Adding to the threat, the company, in buying iron for Titanic's rivets, ordered No. 3 bar, known as "best," not No. 4, known as "best-best," the scientists found. They also discovered that shipbuilders of the day typically ud No. 4 iron for anchors, chains and rivets.
So the liner, who name was meant to be synonymous with opulence, in at least one instance relied on cheap materials.
The scientists argue that better rivets would have probably kept the Titanic afloat long enough for rescuers to have arrived before the icy plunge, saving hundreds of lives.
【汉译英必译题】
“中国制造”模式遭遇发展瓶颈，这种模式必须要改进和提高。一些外国人认为，“中国制造”大约就是质量低下的代名词。不可否认，少数产品的确存在质量问题，让大多数价廉质优的产品代其受罪。
质量是产品的生命线。随着外国市场的夸大，中国企业也意识到质量的重要性。因此一场旨在提高质量，提供优良服务的运动正在兴起。
在传统的制造业中，中国企业通过技术创新和质量管理，为国际市场提供高质量的产品。在新兴的信息产业，中国企业以高科技为师，增强和外国企业的交流与合作，提高产品质量。
近几年来，中国政府通过立法和社会监督保证产品质量，创造全社会重视产品问题的环境。
【汉译英二选一】【试题一】
1996年，一位摄影师在新疆喀纳斯自然保护区无意间拍到一只白熊。自此以后的十年里，白熊藏身于深山之中，再无音讯。直到2003年，人们才再次在该自然区又发现了白熊的踪迹。
在熊的家族里，只有北极熊是白色的。但是，这个庞然大物是如何离开极地寒带，来到这个寒温带的地方呢?难道它是通过通往北极的水路来到此地?这一猜测遭到动物学家的质疑。首先，北极熊不能在温带的树林中生活。其次，……
2006年，一个科学考察队在白熊出没的地区发现了熊冬眠的冬窝儿，还发现了一小团白色的动物毛发。DNA样本鉴定为棕熊的毛发。但是，也有可能，至少那团毛发不属于照片中的白熊。
【汉译英二选一】【试题二】
蓝藻是一种简单的水生植物，它可以在河湖、湿地、树干和温泉自然蔓延生长。当蓝藻细胞达到一定程度时，蓝藻的“密集孽生”会使水体变色、引起泡沫、散发臭气、影响贝类和鱼类的生存，还会使水质大幅度下降。
2007年夏天，富营养物和其他污染导致蓝藻在太湖、巢湖、滇池发生了蓝藻“密集孽生”现象，影响了城市供水及水生产品生长。
“密集孽生”最严重的是太湖东部。太湖是我国第三大淡水湖。这
次“密集孽生”导致周边100多万居民供水问题长达10天之久。为了防止污染，当地环保部门关闭了770家化工厂。
2008年夏天，长期的温暖、干燥气候导致蓝藻在部分地区发生。9月，一艘可以快速、有效地清除蓝藻的船在江苏省投入使用。
2009年11月
【英译汉必译题】这次的三篇文章均出自纽约时报
At first, as he adjusted pumps and checked temperatures, Aaron Boucher looked like any technician in the control room of an electrical plant. Then he rushed to the window and scanned the sky, to check his fuel supply.
Mr. Boucher was battling clouds, timing the operations of his power plant to get the most out of patchy sunshine. It is a skill that may soon be in greater demand, for the world appears to be on the verge of a boom in a little-known but promising type of solar power.
It is not the kind that features shiny panels bolted to the roofs of hous.
This type involves covering acres of dert with mirrors that focus inten sunlight on a fluid, heating it enough to make steam. The steam turns a turbine and generates electricity.
The technology is not new, but it is suddenly in high demand. As prices ri for fossil fuels and worries grow about their contribution to global warming, solar thermal plants are being viewed as a renewable power source with huge potential.
After a decade of no activity, two prototype solar thermal plants were recently opened in the United States, with a capacity that could power veral big hotels, neon included, on the Las Vegas Strip, about 20 miles north of here. Another 10 power plants are in advanced planning in California, Arizona and Nevada.
On sunny afternoons, tho 10 plants would produce as much electricity as three nuclear reactors, but they can be built in as little as two years, compared with a decade or longer for a nuclear plant. Some of the new plants will feature systems that allow them to store heat and generate electricity for hours after sunt.
The plant in Boulder city, Nevada Solar One, us a mirror in the shape of a parabola to focus light onto a black pipe with a heat-transfer fluid inside. The fluid is ud to boil water into steam, which tur
ns a generator that can produce 64 megawatts.
At Nevada Solar One the other day, Mr. Boucher, 30, ran the computerized control room. Dresd in a T-shirt, sneakers and a Boston Red Sox cap worn backwards, he looked a bit like a teenage gamer as he ud a computer mou to manipulate the plant.
He was trying to produce as much electricity as possible while saving heat to tide the plant over as clouds cast episodic shadows on the solar array.“I’ve been fighting it all day,” he said.
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Imperceptibly, in the dusty wind of the high dert, 182,000 mirrors moved from east to west, tracking the sun across the sky.
【英译汉试题1】
This week, this remote Arctic ttlement — which bills itlf as perhaps the northernmost town in the world — is buzzing with excitement and expectation. It is not becau a polar bear was spotted in the adjacent valley last week. (It was deemed well fed, and officials decided to let it lumber on toward the coast instead of shooting it as a matter of public safety.)
