2018年翻译资格考试英语笔译中级模拟题2篇
第一篇
英译汉
A few weeks back, I asked a 14-year-old friend how she was coping with school.
Referring to stress, she heaved a big sigh and said: "Aiyah, anything bad that can happen has already happened."
Her friends nearby then started pouring out their woes about which subjects they found hard, and so on. Pessimism again, in these all-too-familiar remarks about Singapore''s education system, widely regarded as too results-oriented, and I wonder why I even bothered to ask.
The school system of reaching for A''s underlies the country''s culture, which emphasizes the chase for economic excellence where wealth and status are must-haves.
Such a culture is hard to change.
So when I read of how the new Remaking Singapore Committee had set one of its goals as challenging the traditional roads to success, encouraging Singaporeans to realize alternative careers in the arts, sports, research or as entrepreneurs, I had my doubts about its success in this area, if not coupled with help from parents themselves.
The new Remaking Singapore Committee is a brainchild of the Singaporean Prime Minister, formed to make Singaporeans look beyond the five C''s: cash, condos, clubs, credit cards and cars, to help prepare the nation for the future.
It is good that the government wants to do something about the country''s preoccupation with material success. But it will be a losing battle if the family unit itself is not involved because I believe the committee''s success is rooted in a revamp of an entire culture built from 37 years of independence.
This makeover has to start with the most basic societal unit — the family.
Parents should not drown their children in mantras of I-want-hundred-marks. Tuition lessons are not the be-all and end-all of life. And a score of 70 for a Chinese paper is definitely not the end of life.
If ever I become a parent, I will bring my children camping. I will show them that cooking food in a mess tin over a campfire is fun. I will teach them that there is nothing dirty about lying on a sleeping bag over grass.
In fact, it is educational because Orion is up there in the night sky with all the other bright stars whose shapes and patterns tell something more than a myth. For instance, they give directions to the lost traveler, I will say.
And who knows, my child may become an astronomer years down the road. All because of the nights I spent with him watching the twinkles in the sky.
That''s my point. Parents should teach their children that there''s more to life than studies. Better still if the nation''s leaders echo that idea as well.
This way, when their children aspire to be the next Joscelin Yeo, they won''t feel like they are fighting a losing battle against a society that holds doctors and lawyers in awe.
However, the culture that babysits economic excellence is deeply ingrained and so are the mindsets of many parents. But parents can take the cue from the new Remaking Singapore Committee and be aware of giving their children the right kind of education.
It is now wait-and-see if, say, 10 years down the road, more would choose alternative careers. Hopefully, by then no one would think sportsmen or musicians as making too big a sacrifice in chasing their dreams.
参考译文
几个星期前，我问一个14岁的朋友她如何应对自己的学业。
谈到压力，她深叹一口气说：“哎呀，这儿事要多糟，有多糟。”
随后，她周围的朋友便开始就他们认为那些难学的学科倾诉自己的苦恼。人们普遍认为，新加坡的教育制度过分注重成绩，而这些孩子耳熟能详的言语再次表现了对新加坡教育制度的悲观情绪。我不知道自己为什么还要费心一问。
追求功课得优的学校体制构成了新加坡文化的基础，这一文化重在追求经济上的杰出成就，而这一成就则体现在一定要获得财富和地位。
这种文化是难以改变的。
新成立的改造新加坡委员会已将其目标之一确定为向传统的成功之路发起挑战，鼓励新加坡人去从事其它职业，如艺术、体育、研究或成为企业家。当我获知此情时，我怀疑如果没有家长的配合，这方面的改造可否成功。
成立改造新加坡委员会是新加坡总理的设想，旨在帮助国家准备应付未来，使新加坡人不要只盯着钞票、公寓、俱乐部、信用卡和汽车。
新加坡政府想针对本国物质成功为先的理念采取行动，这是件好事。但如果没有家庭单位的参与，这种行动将会是一场失败之战，因为我认为只有彻底改变独立3 7年来形成的一种整体文化，改造新加坡委员会才能取得成功。
而这种改变必须始于最基本的社会单位——家庭。
家长们不应当使孩子禁锢于“我要得100分”的约束。学科的课程决定不了生活中的成败。一篇中文论文得70分绝不意味着生活无望。
如果有朝一日我成为家长，我要带我的孩子去露营，向他们演示用军用饭盒在篝火上煮饭是_种乐趣，告诉他们躺在草地上的睡袋里一点也不脏。
实际上，这是有教育意义的，因为猎户星座与其它明亮的星星高挂夜空，它们的形态和图案诉说的不仅仅是一个神话。例如，我认为它们可以为迷路的旅行人指引方向。
说不定我的孩子可能会在数年后成为一个天文学家，而这一切则源于我与他一起在夜晚观察空中闪烁的星星。
这就是我的观点。家长应该教育自己的孩子，生活中除了学业外还有更丰富的内容。如果国家领导人也认同那种观点就更好了。
由此，当孩子们渴望成为另一个杨玮玲(JOSCELIN YEO)时，他们就不会感到，在面对一个敬畏医生和律师的社会时，他们要进行一场失败之战。
然而，这种呵护经济成就感的文化根深蒂固，许多家长的思想倾向也是如此。但家长们可以从改造新加坡委员会那里得到启示，意识到要给予自己的孩子正确的教育。
咱们现在拭目以待，也许l0年后，更多的人将选择其它职业。希望到那时，没人会认为运动员或音乐家在追求梦想时做出了太过巨大的牺牲。
第二篇
英译汉
The importance of agriculture cannot be overstated. More than 50 percent of the world''s labor force is employed in agriculture. The distribution in the early 1980s ranged from 67 percent of those employed in Africa to less than 5 percent in North America. In Western Europe, the figure was about 16 percent; in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, about 32 percent; and in Asia, about 68 percent.
Farm size varies widely from region to region. Recently the average for Canadian farms was about 186 ha (about 460 acres) per farm, and for U.S. farms, about 175 ha (about 432 acres). The average size of a single landholding in the Philippines, however, may be somewhat less than 3.6 ha (less than 9 acres), and in Indonesia, a little less than 1.2 ha (less than 3 acres).
Size also depends on the purpose of the farm. Commercial farming, or production for cash, is usually done on large holdings. The plantations of Latin America are large, privately owned estates worked by tenant labor. Single-crop plantations produce tea, rubber, cocoa. Wheat farms are most efficient when they comprise some thousands of hectares and can be worked by teams of people and machines. Australian sheep stations and other livestock farms must be large to provide grazing for thousands of animals.
Individual subsistence farms or small-family mixed-farm operations are decreasing in number in developed countries but are still numerous in the developing countries of Africa and Asia. A "back-to-the-land" movement in the U.S. reversed the decline of small farms in New England and Alaska in the decade from 1970 to 1980.
The conditions that determine what will be raised in an area include climate, water supply, and terrain.
Over the 10,000 years since agriculture began to be developed, peoples everywhere have discovered the food value of wild plants and animals and domesticated and bred them. The most important are cereals such as wheat, rice, barley, corn and rye.
Agricultural income is also derived from non-food crops such as rubber, fiber plants, tobacco, and oilseeds used in synthetic chemical compounds. Money is also derived from raising animals for pelt.
Much of the foreign exchange earned by a country may be derived from a single commodity; for example, Sri Lanka depends on tea, Denmark specializes in dairy products, Australia in wool, and New Zealand and Argentina in meat products. In the U.S., wheat has become a major foreign exchange commodity in recent years.
The importance of an individual country as an exporter of agricultural products depends on many variables. Among them is the possibility that the country is too little developed industrially to produce manufactured goods in sufficient quantity or technical sophistication. Such agricultural exporters include Ghana with cocoa, and Myanmar with rice. On the other hand, an exceptionally well-developed country may produce surpluses not needed by its own population; this has been true of the U.S., Canada, and some of the West European countries.
参考译文
农业的重要性怎样强调都不为过。世界百分之五十以上的劳动力从事农业。二十世纪八十年代初，农业劳动力的比例在非洲高达百分之六十七，在北美洲则不足百分之五，在西欧约为百分之十六，在东欧和苏联约为百分之三十二，在亚洲则约为百分之六十八。
农场规模因地而异，差别很大。直到最近，加拿大农场的规模平均约为186公顷(约合460英亩)，美国农场的规模约为175公顷(约合432英亩)。但在菲律宾，私人农场的规模平均略少于3.6公顷(不足9英亩)，在印度尼西亚则略少于1.2公顷(不足3英亩)。
农场的规模还取决于其用途。大农场通常从事商业耕种，或者说为赚钱而生产。拉丁美洲的大庄园就是大片的私有土地，雇人劳动。单一作物的种植园生产茶叶、橡胶或可可。生产小麦的农场最有效益。它们拥有几千公顷土地，雇佣一群群工人，并使用机器。澳大利亚牧羊场和其它畜牧场的规模一定要大到足以能为成千的牲畜提供充足的饲料。
零散的维持生计的个体农场，或者说混合经营的小规模家庭农场，在发达国家已日渐减少，但在非洲和亚洲的发展中国家里仍大量存在。美国的“返回田地”运动扭转了l970至1980这十年间新英格兰和阿拉斯加小农场衰败的局面。
一个地区究竟生产什么取决于它的气候、供水、地形和其它条件。
自有农业以来的一万多年中，各地的人们发现了野生动植物的食用价值，于是将其加以驯化或栽培，最重要的是谷物，如小麦、稻子、大麦、玉米和黑麦。
农业收入还来自非粮食作物，如橡胶、纤维植物、烟草以及可用于生产化学合成品的油料作物。此外，还可通过饲养动物取其皮毛而获利。
一个国家赚取的外汇，很大一部分可能来自某种单一的商品。例如，斯里兰卡依靠茶叶，丹麦专门经营奶制品，澳大利亚出口羊毛，新西兰和阿根廷则出口肉类制品。在美国，近年来小麦已成为其赚取外汇的主要商品。
一个国家是否以出口农产品为主取决于许多可变因素。其中一个因素就是这个国家的工业可能很不发达，无法生产足够数量和技术先进的工业品。这类农产品出口国包括加纳，出口可可，还有缅甸，出口大米。另一方面，特别发达的国家可能生产过剩，大于本国人的需求，美国、加拿大和一部分西欧国家就是这种情况。
