高级翻译资格考试笔译练习题5

　　It is well that the commonest fruit should be also the best. Of the virtues of the orange I have not room fully to speak. It has properties of health giving, as that it cures influenza and establishes the complexion. It is clean, for whoever handles it on its way to your table, but handles its outer covering, its top coat, which is left in the hall. It is round, and forms an excellent substitute with the young for a cricket ball. The pip can be flicked at your enemies, and quite a small piece of peel makes a slide for an old gentleman.

　　But all this would count nothing had not the orange such delightful qualities of taste. I dare not let myself go upon this subject. I am a slave to its sweetness. I grudge every marriage in that it means a fresh supply of orange blossom, the promise of so much golden fruit cut short. However, the world must go on.

　　With the orange we do live year in and year out. That speaks well for the orange. The fact is that there is an honeaty about the orange which appeals to all of us. If it is going to be bad—for the best of us are bad sometimes—it begins to be bad from the outside, not from the inside. How many a pear which presents a blooming face to the world is rotten at the core. How many an innocent-looking apple is harbouring a worm in the bud. But the orange has no secret faults. Its outside is a mirror of its inside, and if you are quick you can tell the shopman so before he slips it into the bag.

　　参考译文：

　　说来也巧，这种最普通的水果恰恰是最好的水果。论其优点，难尽其详。柑橘有益于健康，比如，可以治疗流感，滋养皮肤。柑橘干净卫生，不管是谁把它端上餐桌，也只触到它的表皮，即它的外衣，吃完以后便被丢在餐厅。柑橘是圆的，孩子们拿它当板球玩是再好不过了。柑橘核可用来弹射你的对手，一小片橘皮也能让一个老者滑个趔趄。

　　但是，如若不是柑橘有甜美可口的味道，上述一切便不足为奇。我真不敢纵谈它的美味，我被柑橘的美味所倾倒。每一个婚礼都使我感到痛惜，它意味着一束鲜橘花—未来金黄色果实的夭折。无奈，人类还得继续繁衍。

　　我们年复一年地吃着柑橘生活，这就证明了柑橘的好处。事实上，是柑橘诚实的品格令我们所有的人羡慕不已。如果它开始变坏的话—即使我们之中最优秀者有时也会变坏—它是从外表而不是从内里开始的。有多少梨子，在向人们展现容光焕发的笑容时，内里已经腐烂。有多少看上去纯洁无暇的苹果，刚刚发芽就已经包藏蛀虫。而柑橘从不隐藏瑕疵。它的外表就是它内心的写照。假如你反应快，不等售货员把坏橘子放进纸袋儿，你就能把它指出来。