2002年教育部全国翻译证书考试试题[中级笔译]
Other new technologies appear to be much more benign, and are consequently subject to little or no regulation. Personal computers and the Internet, for example, promised to create wealth, increase access to information, and foster community among their users. People have had to look hard for downsides to the information revolution. What they have found to date are issues like the so-called “digital divide” (i.e., inequality of access to information technology) and threats to privacy, neither of which qualify as earth-shaking matters of justice or morality. Despite occasional efforts on the part of the world’s more statist societies to try to control the use of information technology, it has blossomed in recent years.
Biotechnology falls somewhere between these extremes. Transgenic crops and human genetic engineering make people far more uneasy than do personal computers or the Internet. But biotechnology also promises important benefits for human health and well-being. When presented with an advance like the ability to cure diabetes, it is hard for people to articulate reasons why their unease with the technology should stand in the way of progress. It is easiest to object to a new biotechnology if its development leads to a botched clinical trial or to a deadly allergic reaction to a genetically modified food. But the real threat of biotechnology lies in the possibilities of human cloning, “designer babies”—eugenic selection for intelligence, sex, and personality—and eventually, the end of the human species as such.
Part 2
Translation from Chinese into English 2 hours
Read the following two passages.
Translate them into English.
Write your answers on this paper.
You may use the additional paper for any rough work but you must copy your answers onto this paper.
Passage 1
引导农民向城市转移
中国有12多亿人口，农民占了9亿多。尽管农村社会在进一步分化，但农村人口却没有减少，反而在增加。据中国社科院调查，与1978年相比，1999年农民增加了800多万人。一份研究报告指出，“没有城市化的发展，农村、的农业和农民的问题也不可能得到有效解决。过去人们常讲，农民问题归根到底是土地问题，这个问题已经基本解决了。现在的农民问题是就业问题。”因此，调整城乡社会结构，加快城市化的步伐，改变城市化严重滞后于工业化的状况，应是当务之急。一些经济学家估计，到2005年，中国农村剩余劳动力将上升至两亿人，这一庞大人口需要城市来吸纳。
转移庞大的农村人口，仅靠大城市显然是远远不够的，因为大城市的就业压力普遍较重。一些专家认为，农村人口转移的出路还是应以小城镇为主。城镇居民的生活支出、的子女的教育投入等都比农民高出许多，城镇提供的就业机会也远比农村多。
Passage 2
中年人的阅读
随着年龄的增长，书会像潮水一样涌来。不能随便歌颂书了，书往往是一些垃圾。清除垃圾很难，但起码可以绕开，绕得越远越好。当然有时候对于某些书的疏离，不只是书本身的问题，而主要是人的问题：作为一个读者，他的心情变了。
让青少年兴奋的书，中老年人不一定看。人一到了中年，心情多多少少变得苍凉了。中年人的情感既结实又朴素，这就影响到书的选择。有阅读能力和阅读习惯的中年人是很多的，他们的知识、的经验和判断力有可能在深层左右着阅读的方向和趣味。中年人更愿意看真实事件和场景的记录，比如重要人物的传记，游历笔记，回忆录和目击记，地理勘察录，探险记等等。在这种阅读中有一些特别的快感，那是因为整个过程始终伴随了这样的提醒：这些文字是真实的。
