通用学术英语翻译集训（四）
（四级班用）
Translation Practices of English for General Academic Purposes 通用学术英语翻译集训（四） （学生版）
广西大学外国语学院大学英语部 （内部资料，仅供本校使用）
通用学术英语翻译集训（四）
英译汉（English-Chinese）
1. 经济类
How does Shanghai compare to Hong Kong right now? There are various ways for assessing a city’s financial clout. One of these, Z/Yen Group’s (Z/Yen集团) Global Financial Centres Index (全球金融中心指数报告) 2013, combined data aggregated from sources including the World Bank, OECD and Economist Intelligence Unit (经济学人智库) with results of original surveys to rank Hong Kong the world’s number three financial center, behind London and New York. Shanghai? Far behind at number 24. In addition to the hard data, the index includes opinions obtained from workers in the global finance industry regarding the quality of a city’s people, business environment, market access, infrastructure and general competitiveness. In the end, Shanghai may very well overtake Hong Kong as China’s premier financial hub, but perhaps not until 2047, the year Hong Kong loses its status as a Special Administrative Region and, possibly, the tax regime (制度), legal system and free flow of information that have underpinned its appeal to the rest of the world. (157 words)
2. 管理类
High salaries aren’t a competitive advantage, at least at first. You get the best people, and you don’t have to pay as much as you should early on because they want the stamp of “Goldman Sachs” (高盛公司). Employees also want to work with other top talent, which helps when it comes to building strong networks. When people are thinking about jobs, it isn’t benefit, flex time, or pay, but how it will position you for the next step of your career. Second, and perhaps more importantly, status and reputation start to become the very reason great people leave places like Goldman Sachs — by design. There’s an increasing tension. These companies are attractive to join because they’re attractive to leave. They effectively make a person’s next career step more valuable, and there’s never a shortage of new grads willing to step in to continue the cycle. For investment banking, this system works quite well. (152 words)
3. 语言类
In many cultures, people avoid using direct words that pertain to （关于）death or dying because it is the subject that everyone fears and is unpleasant to talk about. This gives rise to a number of euphemisms（委婉语）related to the death subject. In the English-speaking world, for example, people do not die, but pass away, or to use an idiomatic expression, they only kick the bucket. An undertaker who perform a funeral service has acquired a more euphemistic term funeral director. There are people who do not even want to mention physical illness and for these people, they never fall sick but feel indisposed（身体欠安）. As long as there is a need to avoid the use of taboo language（禁忌语）, there is a need for the use of euphemistic substitutes. Euphemisms have constituted an indispensable part of speakers’ “polite” vocabulary in their social communication. (146 words)
4. 法律类
Jacoby & Myers was a pioneer in fighting in the 1970s for lawyers’ right to advertise. Today, the firm is trying to win another suit to change the rules of America’s legal industry, which generated revenues of $261 billion in the 12 months to September. If successful, the suit would allow non-lawyer investors to put money in a law firm — first in New York and New Jersey, which Jacoby & Myers has picked as a target, and then probably elsewhere. Currently, law firms, whether a “single shingle（卵石）” or one like Jones Day (the biggest American firm by headcount with more than 2,400 lawyers and 800 partners), may have only one corporate form anywhere except the District of Columbia: a partnership owned only by lawyers. (132 words)
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通用学术英语翻译集训（四） 5. 电子类 One problem contributing to the slow progress in artificial intelligence（人工智能） is that people cannot agree on a definition. More accurately, the definition seems to be changing. What was once revolutionary for a computer is now not so extraordinary.
It is pointed out that the first checker（西洋跳棋）and chess games that computers played were considered to be applications of artificial intelligence at the time. Today, there are inexpensive , pocket-sized machines that can play better than those first ponderous devices, but now they are not considered examples of artificial intelligence.
Computers can imitate thought processes such as those necessary to carry out some complex tasks very logically. But do they have intelligence? Some experts have remarked that a computer is still no more than a mechanized idiot servant, i.e., a dumb machine that exhibits a remarkable skill in a limited area. (152 words)
6. 机械类
With the advent of the computer age, manufacturing has developed a full circle, which seems returning to its original starting point. It began as a totally integrated concept and, with CIM（计算机集成制造）, has once again become one. However, there are major differences in the manufacturing integration of today and that of the past manual era. First, integration in the manual era was fulfilled by human mind, while in modern manufacturing it is achieved by computer. Second, the process in modern manufacturing setting is still specialized and automated. Another way to view the historical development of CIM is by examining the ways in which some of the individual components of CIM have developed over the years. Such components as design, planning, and production have evolved as processes, and evovlements also take place in the tools and equipments used to accomplish the processes. (150 words)
7. 建筑类
A team of architects in Italy have created “transparent cement” that lets light pour into a room so that the walls look like giant windows. The material, called i.light（“我是光”）, has dozens of tiny holes in it which let light through without compromising the structural integrity. Up close, the 2 mm~3 mm gaps make a startling pattern and from certain angles or at a distance appear exactly the same as normal concrete. But on a sunny day inside a building made from the cement, the effect is akin to little more than a light mesh （网眼） on the wall filtering the light coming in. The cement has been formed by bonding special resins （树脂）in a new mix （混合配剂）created by Italian architects from Italcementi（意大利水泥集团）. So far they have only used it for one building, the Italian Pavilion at World Expo in Shanghai, but it has already been suggested that it could save electricity that would otherwise be required for daytime lighting. (160 words)
8. 生物类
The bacteria living inside you are essential to your immune system. For every one of your cells, you have at least ten bacteria and most of them live in your gut. Probiotics （益生菌）are good bacteria, such as Lactobacillus（乳酸菌）and Bifidobacterium（双歧杆菌）that can safely dwell in your digestive tract（消化道）. You’ll now find probiotics listed on the labels of dairy products, drinks, cereals, energy bars, and other foods. Ingredients touted （宣扬）as “prebiotics” （“益生元”）, which claim to be nutrients that feed the good bacteria, are also cropping up in commercially marketed foods. Unfortunately, the direct connection between taking these products and improving immune function has not yet been made. Nor has science shown whether taking probiotics will replenish （重新补充）the good bacteria that get knocked out together with “bad” bacteria when you take antibiotics（抗生素）. However, if you choose to take probiotics in moderation, it probably won’t hurt, and the scientific evidence may ultimately show some benefit. (151 words)
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