历年专八翻译真题
1997年:English to Chine
Opera is expensive: that much is inevitable. But expensive things are
inevitably the province（范围） of the rich unless we abdicate（退位、放弃）society’s power of choice. We c an choo to make opera and other expensive forms of culture accessible（易接近的，可达到的） to tho who cannot individually pay for it. The question is: why should we? No body
denies the imperatives（必要的）of food shelter defence health and
education. But even in a prehistoric cave man-kind stretched out a hand
of not just to eat drink or fight but also to draw. The impul（冲动）towards culture the desire to express and explore the world through
imagination and reprentation（表述、陈述）is fundamental. In Europe this desire has found fulfillment（完成、成就） in the masterpieces of our music art literature and theatre. The masterpieces are the touchstones（标准、试金石） for all our efforts; they are the touchstones for the
ptrpossibilities to which human thought and imagination may aspire（立志、追求目标、渴望）; they carry the most profound （深厚的、深刻的）messages that can be nt from one human to another.
【参考答案】 English to Chine
译文1：
欣赏歌剧是一种奢侈：你必须为此支付昂贵的票价。然而，享用昂贵的东西并不
完全是富人的特权，除非我们放弃社会选择的权利。我们有权利使歌剧和其他昂
贵的文化形式面向大众，面向那些个人没有支付能力的人。然而，问题是我们为
什么要这么做。没有人会否认食物、居所、防护、健康与教育是不可或缺的。但
是，即使在史前的穴居时代，人们伸出手来，也不仅仅是为了吃喝，为了搏杀，
而且还有一个目的，那就是动手作画。人们对文化的冲动，即人们希望通过想象
和再现来表现并探索这个世界的愿望，才是最根本的。在欧洲，人们通过音乐、
美术、文学和戏剧等方面的不朽作品的创作，实现了这一愿望。这些杰作是衡量
人类努力程度的试金石，是检验人类思维和想象潜能的标准，它们有着最深厚的
寓意，并在人们彼此之间传播。
译文2：
欣赏歌剧是一种奢侈的享受，而且人们不可避免地要为此支付昂贵的费用。然而，只要你不放弃对社会权利的选择，高档享受不可避免狄⑸为富人的特有的领域。
我们可以让歌剧和其他费用昂贵的文化形式面向那些个人承受不起费用的大众。
然而，问题是我们为什么要这么做。没有人会否认食物、居所、安全、健康与教
育的必要性。但是，即使在史前的穴居时代，人们伸出手来，也不仅仅是为了吃
强壮的英文单词喝，或者是单纯地为了搏杀，也可以是为了刻画。人们对文化的冲动，对表达的汽车进水
渴望，以及通过想象和表述对世界的探索等，才是最根本的。在欧洲，人们通过
音乐、美术、文学和戏剧等杰作的成就形式实现了这一愿望。这些杰作是检验人
类努力程度的标准，也是检验人类追求的思想和想象能力的标准，它们承载着丰
富的信息，并得以在彼此之间相互传播。
1998年: English to Chine：
I agree to some extent with my imaginary English reader. American literary historians are perhaps prone to view their own national scene too narrowly mistaking prominence for uniqueness. They do over-phra their own
literature or certainly its minor figures. And Americans do swing from
aggressive over phra of their literature to an equally unfortunatepromoter
imitative deference. But then the English themlves are somewhat insular
in their literary appraisals. Moreover in fields where they are not
pre-eminent — e. g. in painting and music —they too alternate between boasting of native products and copying tho of the Continent. How m any English paintings try to look as though they were done in Paris; how many times have we read in articles that they r eally reprent an “English tradition” after all.
To speak of American literature then is not to asrt（断言、声称）that it is completely unlike that of Europe. Broadly speaking America and
Europe have kept step（同步）. At any given moment（在任何时候） the traveler could find examples in both of the same architecture the same styles in
dress the same books on the shelves. Ideas have crosd the Atlantic as
freely as men and merchandi though sometimes more slowly. When I refer to American habit thoughts etc. I intend some sort of qualification（限制、限定、资格） to precede（领先、超前） the word for frequently the difference between America and Europe (especially England) will be one
of degree（唯一只是在程度上） sometimes only of a small degree. The amount of divergence（分歧、差异） is a subtle （微妙的）affair liable（有可能的） to perplex the Englishman when he looks at America. He is looking at a country which in important ns （重要的感觉）grew out of his own which in veral ways（在有些方面）still rembles his own — and which is yet a foreign country. There are odd overlappings（重叠） and abrupt unfamiliarities; kinship(亲缘关系) yields to a sudden alienation（疏远关系） as when we hail（打招呼） a person across the street only to discover from his blank（没有表情的） respon that we have mistaken a stranger
for a friend.
【参考译文二】谈到“美国”文学，并不是说它与欧洲文学完全不同。总体来说，美国和欧洲一直保持同步发展。旅游者在任何时候都能在两地看到（城市里矗立
的是）同一样式的建筑，（人们穿着的是）同一款式的服饰，摆放在书架上的是
同一风格的书籍。思想观念也象人和商品一样可以自由地跨越大西洋，只是有时在时间上要慢得多。谈到美国人的习惯和思想等概念时，我想在“美国式”的前
面再加上某个限制性的词语，因为在欧美之间（尤其是美英之间）的差异往往只
是程度上的差异而已，而且有的时候，差异的程度也很小，差异也几乎是微乎其
微的。英国人看美国，很可能会让他们感到迷惑不解。感到他们看到的这个国家
好象是从自己国家发展而来的，很多方面和他们自己的国家类似，然而却仍然是“外国”。两个国家有着莫名的相似，却又给人一种突然的陌生感。疏远感突然间取代了亲缘关系，就仿佛我们隔着马路打招呼一样，从对方那茫然的神情中发
现我们原来是认错了人。
diss是什么意思
【参考译文一】 English to Chine：
因此，我们在说“美国”文学，并不表明我们认为美国文学与欧洲文学截然不同。
一般来说，美国和欧洲一直在同步发展。无论何时，旅游者在两地都能看到同一
式的建筑，见到同一款式的服饰，读到摆在书架上的同一风格的书籍。在大洋两岸，人们的思想观念，就容易同人员与货物一样，可以自由交流，尽管有时会略
显迟缓。谈到美国人的习惯、美国人的思维等概念时，我想在“美国式的”这几
个词前面再加上某种修饰，因为欧美之间（尤其是英美之间）的差异往往只是程
度上的差异而已，而且在有的时候，是极低程度上的差异而已。差异的程度微乎
其微，很可能会使审视美国的英国人感到迷惑不解。重要的是，英国人所审视的
这个国家诞生于英国，并在不少方面仍与英国相差无几---然而，实实在在是个
异邦。两地有着莫名的共同之处，以及令人深感突兀的陌生感。原先的亲戚已形
同陌路，就仿佛隔着马路招呼，等看到对方一脸茫然时，我们才意识到认错人。
1999年：English to Chine：
In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the family line or the family name to propitiate the
ancestors; to enable the proper functioning of religious rituals
involving the family. Such reasons may em t hin in the modern cularized society but they have been and are powerful indeed in other places.
In addition one class(一类) of family reasons shares a border（接壤、相近）with the following category namely having children in order to
maintain or improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy（使…忙（有事干） the wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increa
the number of children on the assumption（设想、假设 consumption 消费）that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined（突出、显现） by its conver（反面、相反）: in some societies the failure to bear children（养孩子） (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cau for divorce.
Beyond all that（除了这些）is the profound（深刻的、深远的） significance
of children to the very institution（结构） of the family itlf. To many people husband and wife alone do not em a proper family（完整的）—they need children to enrich the circle（丰富家庭生活、拓宽生活圈子） to validate（使…有效） its family character（家族的特征、风格） to gather （增加、集合） the redemptive（赎回的用于补偿的）influence of offspring.
Children need the family but the family ems also to need children as
the social institution（社会结构）uniquely（唯一） available at least in principle for （获得）curity comfort assurance and direction in a
changing often hostile world. To most people such a home ba in the
literal n needs more than one person for sustenance（生计） and in generational extension（家族的繁衍）.
【参考答案】：English to Chine：
另外，有一类家庭原因与下列类别不无共同之处，那就是：生儿育女要么是为了
维系现有婚姻，提高婚姻质量，要么是为了拴注丈夫，使妻子有所事事，要么是
为了修复婚姻，给婚姻注入新的活力，亦或是出于多子多福的观念而多生儿女。
当然，我们也可以从问题的反面得到昭示：在某些社会，无法生育子嗣（或不能
生育男孩）对婚姻而言是最大的威胁，也可作为夫妻分手的现成理由。
后代对家庭这一体制本身所具有的深远意义远非如此。在许多人看来，丁克家庭算不上真正的家庭。夫妻需要孩子来拓宽自己的生活圈子，实现家庭在传宗接代
中的作用，并从子孙后代身上获取某种回报。在这个变幻莫测，常常不尽友善的世界上，家庭作为社会的基本单位，至少可在原则上，以其独特方式为家人提供
安全保障，抚慰家人受伤的心灵，为家人指出生活方向，因此，孩子需要家庭，
但与此同时，家庭也需要孩子。
2000年：ENGLISH TO CHINESE? ?
If people mean anything at all by the expression_r “untimely（不合时宜的，timely：适时的、及时的）
death” they must believe that some deaths run on（连续不分段流逝涉及）a better schedule than others. Death in
old age is rarely called untimely—a long life is thought to be a full
one. But with the passing（= passing away 死亡）of a young person one assumes（假定、设想） that the best years lay ahead and the measure（尺度、漆佰） of that life was still to be taken.?
培养良好的学习习惯History denies this of cour. Among prominent（卓越的、突出的）summer （壮年蕦纶青春）deaths one recalls tho of Marilyn Monroe（马丽莲梦露）and James Deans（詹姆士迪恩斯） who lives emed equally brief
伊朗语and complete. Writers cannot bear the fact that poet John Keats（约翰济慈）died at 26 and only half playfully（开玩笑地） judge their own lives as failures when they pass that year. The idea that the life cut short
candy boxis unfulfilled is illogical becau lives are measured by the impressions they leave on the world and by their intensity（强度、亮度=achievements: 成就）and virtue（德行、品德）.
【参考译文】
如果人们使用“死不逢时”的时候有所指的话，那肯定认为一些人的逝世是寿终
正寝，而另外一些人的辞世则是英年早逝。很少有人会说因年老而死亡是“死不
逢时”---人们总是把老年人的寿终正寝看作是一种圆满。但是对于一个英年早汉英转换器
逝的人，人们常常认为他的好日子还在后头，对他短暂的一生作出漆佰还为时尚早。
然而，历史对此观点持否定态度。谈到英年早逝的人物，人们常常回想起马丽莲?梦露和詹姆士?迪恩斯。二人生命虽短，却功成名就。作家们难以接受英国诗人
约翰?济慈26岁便匆匆辞世的残酷现实，然而，当他们26岁时，只有自嘲虚度
年华碌碌无为的份了。那种认为生命短暂就不圆满的观点是不合逻辑的，因为漆佰一个人的一生应当看他给世人留下的印象，他所取得的成就，以及他的个人品质。
2001年： ENGLISH TO CHINESE
Posssion for its own sake or in competition with the rest of the
neighborhood would have been Thoreau’s idea of the low levels. The active discipline of heightening
one’s perception of what is enduring in nature would have been his idea of the high. What he saved from the low was time and effort he could spend on the high. Thoreau certainly disapproved of
starvation but he would put into feeding himlf only as much effort as
would keep him functioning for more important efforts.? Effort is the gist （要点，主旨） of it. There is no happiness except as we take on(接纳) life-engaging（有魅力的、迷人的） difficulties. Short of the impossible as Yeats put it the satisfaction we get from a lifetime depends on how
high we choo our difficulties. Robert Frost was thinking in something
like the same terms（相同的表达、看法）when he spoke of “The pleasure of taking pains”. The mortal flaw （致命的缺陷）in the advertid version of happiness is in the fact that it purports（宣称、声称） to be effortless.
We demand difficulty even in our games（体育比赛、游戏）. We demand it becau without difficulty there can be no game. A game is a way of making something hard for the fun of it. The rules of the game are an arbitrary
（武断的） imposition（强破接受） of difficulty. When s omeone ruins the fun he always does so by
refusing to play by the rules. It is easier to
win at chess if you are free at your pleasure to change the wholly arbitrary rules but the fun is in winning within the rules. No difficulty no fun.
【参考译文】
努力是问题的关键。如果不经历艰难困苦，就没有幸福可言。正如爱尔岚诗人叶
芝所言，除了极少数不大可能出现的情况外，我们一生中得到的满意程度取决于
我们愿意克服的困难有多大。美国诗人罗伯特费罗斯特谈到“苦中求乐”时，也表达了相同的看法。出现在广告中的幸福都有一个致命的错误，那就是，不费吹灰之力即可获得幸福。
>odious
