英语四六级考试改革后,翻译部分由原来的单句汉译英“换装”为段落汉译英,四级翻译段落有140-160个汉字,六级有180-200个汉字。
翻译策略指点:
稳定心态,挖掘考点、有的放矢,增强训练是攻克翻译这座大山的不二法宝。
1. 挖掘考点:
由样题和2012年12月的真题可以看出,翻译题越来越重视中国的历史、文化,也就是越来越接地气。所以,建议考生有意识的积累和背诵一些和中国节日、历史事件、经济和社会发展相关的词汇。关注以反映中国社会为主的一些英文杂志和报纸。例如中国日报及其网站。大家每天看看网站中头条新闻,配合中文新[微博]闻的背景,就可以学到很多表达。推荐一个中国日报网站下面的一个小栏目:language tips,有大量简单实用的双语文章。
2. 实战演练:
【汉译英1】波士顿咨询公司最近做的一项研究显示,到2020年中国将会有2.2亿家庭收入在2万到100万美元的富裕消费者。这些消费者中75%住在“较小城市”。随着网络的发展,较小城市的消费者的一种必然趋势是他们更加依赖社交网络服务上的信息。很多网络顾客都是通过微信、微博和QQ空间分组的。据估计今年中国将会有2.5亿消费者进行网购,位于四线城市的消费者平均每人会花费他们50%或者更高的工资在网购上,这一数据要比一线城市的消费者的花费高。
【参考译文】A recent study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group says there will be 220 million affluent consumers, who are from households earning between $ 20,000 to $ 1 million, in China by 2020, and 75 percent of them will live in “smaller” cities. With the development of the Internet, an inevitable trend among these consumers is they are much more dependent on information from social networking services. Many of the website’s customers are “grouped” by Wechat, Weibo and QQ Zones. It is now estimated that 250 million Chinese consumers will shop online this year and the average shopper in a fourth-tier city in China will spend 50 percent or more of their income on e-commerce than those in top-tier cities。
【汉译英2】聘金是中国传统习俗的一部分。这一习惯在整个中国都很普遍。但是近几年来其标准不断上升,致使大多数家庭都很难达到。高额的聘礼常常“抢劫”了新郎父母必生的积蓄,甚至引起家庭纠纷。此外,许多新婚夫妇被迫举行奢侈的婚礼宴会,在这个过程中,大量债务的累积可能使他们的新婚生活变得辛酸,至少在最初阶段是这样。想想老一辈节俭的婚礼,虽然简简单单,但也幸福美满,没有给他们婚后的生活带来任何负担。
【参考译文】Endowment may be part of Chinese tradition, but the standards have become so high in recent years that a majority of families are finding it difficult to meet them. The high endowment amounts often rob grooms’ parents of their life’s savings and causes family disputes. Besides, many newly married couples are forced to host extravagant wedding ceremonies to keep up with the Joneses and, in the process, run up huge debts that could turn their married life sour, at least in the initial phase. Considering the frugal wedding of many parents, simple but happiness, didn’t have any bearing on their married life。
英语四六级考试改革以后,翻译题型也随之发生了变化。但正所谓“万变不离其宗”,只要抓住了关键的考点,进行有针对性的复习,还是会得到不错的分数的。
v. 抢劫,掠夺