2017年成人高考学位英语考试翻译练习（十五）

　　During the nineteenth century, she argues, the concept of the "useful" child who contributed to the family economy gave way gradually to the present day notion of the "useless" child who, though producing no income for, and indeed extremely costly to its parents, is yet considered emotionally "priceless".

　　译文：

　　她认为十九世纪给家庭经济作出贡献的孩子才“有用”的概念慢慢改变了，今天提到那些没有挣取收入的“无用”孩子，甚至还要花销很多，仍然在情感上被认为是无价的。

　　In traditional Chinese family culture, descendants of several generations from the same ancestor lived together and formed a big family system. This kind of autonomous family system was the basic unit of traditional Chinese society. Chinese children follow their father's family name. This is the same as western culture. Nowadays in China it is legally fine for a child to follow either father’s family name or mother's family name. Within each family system, of course people except those who joined this family system through marriage all have the same family name.

　　译文：

　　在传统的中国家庭文化中，同一祖先的几代后裔(descendants)居住在一起，形成一个大家庭。这种自治(autonomous) 家族制度是中国传统社会的基本单位。中国的孩子们跟随他们父亲的姓。这和西方文化是一样的。如今在中国，孩子跟父亲的姓或母亲的姓在法律上都是合法的。除了那些因为结婚加入到家庭中的人以外，人们的姓氏都是一样的。

　　Of course, it would be as dangerous to overreact to history by concluding that the majority must now be wrong about expansion as it would be to reenact the response that greeted the suggestion that the continents had drifted.

　　译文：

　　当然，对历史反应过度以致结论说关于扩张的问题大多数人都错了与重新形成对大陆漂浮建议理论的反应一样，是危险的。将来对于这些关键问题的研究毫无疑问是必要的，然而不应该否定最近研究结论的说服力，在18世纪的英格兰对于一些微不足道和有使用价值的商品和服务的需求，预示了我们今天的世界。

　　While the fact of this consumer revolution is hardly in doubt, three key questions remain: who were the consumers? What were their motives? And what were the effect of the new demand for luxuries?

　　译文：

　　然而这种消费革命的情况还有疑问，三个关键的问题是：消费者是什么人?他们的动机是什么?对于奢侈品的新型需求的效果是什么?

　　Although it has been possible to infer from the goods and services actually produced what manufacturers and servicing trades thought their customers wanted, only a study of relevant personal documents written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what.

　　译文：

　　尽管从生产厂商和服务行业认为他们的顾客需要并实际生产的产品或者提供的服务来推断他是可能的。但只有对实际的消费者填写的个人资料的研究才能清楚地描述顾客的需求。