【例1】 The history of a tree from the time it starts in the forest until the boards which it yields are used, would form an interesting and, in many instances, an exciting story.
（“×”号表示译文有问题，下同）
×树的历史开始于森林中，直到生产为木板后被使用为止，成为一个有趣且有许多事例的激动人心的故事。
【例2】 There are two regulatory systems which interact. One timing system comes from the evidence of our senses and stomachs, and the periodicity we experience when living in a particular time zone.
×有两个调节系统相互作用。一个定时系统来自于我们的感官和胃的证明，就是当我们生活在一个特定的时区所经历的周期性。
【译文】 人体有两个相互作用的时间调节系统。一个时间调节系统依据感官和胃发出的信息，依据我们生活在某个时区所体验的周期性规律。
寻找对等词语和结构然后将其串接成句的翻译方法，常表现如下：
1、简单语句的译文虽然生硬，但基本可读。如：
【例3】 I can see three different types of composers in musical history, each of whom creates music in a somewhat different fashion.
×我能看到音乐史上有三种不同的作曲家，他们中每一个人以某种不同的方式创作音乐。
【译文】 我发现音乐史上有三类作曲家，他们各自的音乐创作方式有所不同。
2、较复杂语句的译文似通非通，甚至不知所云。如：
【例4】 The traditionalist type of composer begins with a pattern rather than with a theme. The creative act with Palestrina is not the thematic conception so much as the personal treatment of a well-established pattern.
×传统主义型作曲家始于某种格调而非某种主题。帕莱斯特里纳的创作行为不太像对固定格调进行个性化处理的主题概念。
【译文】 传统型作曲家是从形式出发而不是从主题出发进行创作的。帕莱斯特里纳的创作不是主题的构思，而是对固定形式的个性化处理。
3、典型的英语表达形式在汉语无法找到对等形式，翻译无从着手。如：
【例5】 Find yourself. Be yourself. Popularity will come -- with the people who respect you for who you are.
【译文】 发现自我，如实地表现自我，你自然会为人们所喜欢－－为那些尊重你的真正个性的人们所喜欢。
【例6】 Where do you expect Shanghai to be in five years?
【译文】 你预计今后五年上海的发展目标如何？
德国译学教授Wolfram Wilss 在The Science of Translation：Problems & Methods一书中说：
Translation is not simply a matter of seeking other words with similar meaning, but of finding appropriate ways of saying things in another language. Translating is always meaning-based, i.e. it is the transfer of meaning instead of form from the source language to the target language.（翻译不只是在另一种语言中寻找意义相似的其他词语，而是寻找表达事物的适当方式。翻译始终立足于语义，也就是说，是语义从源语到译语的转换，而不是形式。）
这说明了翻译是语义的翻译，不是语言形式的翻译，是运用另一种语言的适当方式来表达一种语言所表达的内容，而不是在另一种语言中寻找与一种语言中含义相似的某些词语或结构。翻译必须跳出原文语言层面的束缚，必须着眼于传达原文的内容和意义。
换句话说，翻译的基本单位应该是语篇，而不是词语结构。根据系统功能语言学家的观点，语言的实际使用单位是语篇这样的言语单位，而不是词语结构这样的语法单位。实际使用的语篇有可能是一个句子、一个句段、一个句群，也有可能是一个词语。翻译作为语言交际的一种形式，其实质是用一种语言的语篇材料代替另一种语言与其意义对等的语篇材料。翻译是运用一种语言把另一种语言所表达的内容和意义准确而完整地重新表达出来的语言活动。
II. 课堂练习（分别用词语和形式对应译法和语义表达译法试译下列句子，并比较翻译中的感觉和译文的效果）：
1. It's more a poem than a picture.
2. He drank himself out of the best lines.
3. He pretends to be as modest as anything.
4. Fire goes wherever it can, but it prefers to follow a draft.
5. The room was easily traced by the noise that was coming from it.
6. Taking care to pitch my voice to politeness, I asked about the next bus to Hattiesburg.
7. If you feel depressed at a social gathering, keep it a secret.
8. The bacteria pneumonia may complicate influenza at both extremes of age.
IV. 课外练习（分别用词语和形式对应译法和语义表达译法试译下列句子，并比较翻译中的感觉和译文的效果）：
1. He wants a lawyer who understands his case, who sympathizes with him and who has been there himself.
2. World-famous for his works he was never personally well known, for throughout his life he avoided publicity.
3. While you are in the act of summoning your energies, focus on a plan. Don't exhaust yourself with fruitless excursions into any and all possibilities.
4. A book may be compared to your neighbor: if it is good, it can not last too long; if bad you can not get rid of it too early.
5. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check -- a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds".
6. A friend is someone who draws out your own best qualities, with whom you sparkle and become more of whatever the friendship draws upon.
7. To petrol we owe the existence of the motor-car, which has replaced the private carriage drawn by the horse. To petrol we owe the possibility of flying.
8. Because of limited insurance coverage, many people will have to look to their own resources -- both emotional and financial -- to care for an infirm or recovering relative at home.
9. During the last six years, 44 of 60 scholarship winners have been the children of foreigners. the talent search, certainly in this decade, is a tribute as much to immigration as to education.
10. The new architectural styles have become powerful image makers overseas. Two stunning arrivals now gracing Hong Kong's crowded skyline -- the privately-owned Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank building and Bank of China's headquarters -- stand as monuments to the rival economic interests, cultures and ideologies that define the city.Unit 2
【例7】 Public opinion plays a vital and healthy role in the political realm.
×公共舆论在政治领域起着生命力的、健康的作用。
【译文】 舆论在政治领域起着极其重要的、有益的作用。
【例8】 I am sure that it would change the situation if you are kind enough to lend support to me.
×我相信如果你有足够的好心支持我的话，它将会改变形势。
【译文】 我相信如果你非常好心能撑我一把的话，情况就不一样了。
【例9】 Jobs and work do much more than most of us realize to provide happiness and contentment.
×职业和工作带来很大的幸福和满足，而我们大多数人并不意识到这一点。
【译文】 职业和工作对于获得幸福和满足起了很大的作用，我们大多数人对此却认识不足。
【例10】 For Nat Nakasa the pledge he was required to sign -- to leave his country and never return proved too much; he committed suicide in New York.
×纳特•纳卡萨不得不发誓离开祖国，不管情况如何永不返家，并自杀于纽约。
【译文】 对纳特•纳卡萨来说，要他签字保证离开祖国永不返回是难以接受的：他在纽约自杀了。
【例11】 In the wake of his mother's death some thirty-six years later, Hemingway turned back to the adventure and tried to write a novel about it.
×在他母亲去世36年之后，海明威又想起了那次历险奇遇，并试图写一部小说。
【译文】 大约36年过后，在他母亲去世后的不久海明威又想起了那次遭遇的险情，并试图就此写一部小说。
外语腔是初学翻译者不知不觉地会在汉语译文中表现出来的一种不当倾向。翻译时所要表达的内容来自外语原文，原文的词语和结构形式随着内容一起进入到我们的大脑，于是原文的语言形式被带入译文，造成了译文的外语腔。
【例12】 The only concession he made to the climate was to wear a white dinner jacket.
×他对气候的唯一让步就是穿了一件白色的短餐衣。
【译文】 气候变化，他仅稍稍作了一点变通，赴宴时穿了件白色的短礼服。
【例13】 If certain animal psychologists are right, a dog adopts his family in a most literal way -- taking it for granted that the family is the band of dogs he belongs to.
×假如某些动物心理学家的分析正确，狗在很大程度上代表着它的家人 － 理所当然这一家也就属于狗帮了。
【译文】 假如有些动物心理学家的分析正确，狗对于他所在家庭的认同是非常实际的－－它理所当然地认为这一家人就是它所归属的一群狗。
现代西方著名翻译理论家Eugene A. Nida 在其理论著述中经常谈到读者反应的问题。他认为，翻译的服务对象是读者，要评判译文质量的优劣，必须看读者对译文的反应如何，同时必须把这种反应与原作读者对原文可能产生的反应进行对比，看两种反应是否基本一致。
III. 课堂练习（努力按照忠实原文和译文流畅两项标准，把下列句子译成汉语）：
1. She couldn't have come at a better time.
2. She has been a widow only six months.
3. I believe the speech was needlessly stubborn.
4. The Macedonian argument has a Greek dimension too.
5. The Englishman feels no less deeply than any other nationality.
6. From a physical standpoint, there ought to be as many colours as there are different wave lengths.
7. But the next century we'll be able to alter our DNA radically, encoding our visions and vanities while concocting new life-forms.
8. As a human being, we should demonstrate our intellectual and moral superiority by respecting others for who they are -- instead of rejecting them for who/what they are not.
I first took up walking as a means of escape. After a busy morning in my office, I found it refreshing to take a stroll at lunchtime, to breathe the fresh air and feel the sun. Another walk in the cold night air was, I discovered, an exhilarating way to unwind.
I'll never forget the feeling I got one winter night as I walked the deserted streets after many grueling hours at the hospital. I suddenly realized that I no longer felt tense or tired. All the worries about my patients' illnesses, as well as my own personal cares, seemed to evaporate as quickly as the smoky vapor of my breath in the frosty night. As I incorporated walking into my schedule, not only were my spirits lifted, but my weight and blood pressure were gradually reduced. I began reviewing the medical literature on walking. From this research, and my clinical observations as a family physician, I found that it is possible to walk your way to better health, a trimmer body and a longer life -- no matter what your age.
Walking -- like swimming, bicycling and running -- is an aerobic exercise which builds the capacity for energy output and physical endurance by increasing the supply of oxygen to skin and muscles. Such exercise may be a primary factor in the prevention of heart and circulatory disease.
As probably the least strenuous, safest aerobic activity, walking is the most acceptable exercise for the greatest number of people. Walking at comfortable speed improves the efficiency of the cardio-respiratory system by stimulating the lungs and heart, but at a more gradual rate than most other forms of exercise. (279 words)Unit 3
II. 英汉翻译原理第二讲：什么是好的译文？（续）
【例14】 There is a mix of confrontation and cooperation between them.
【译文】 他们之间既有对抗，又有合作。
【例15】 He died, and was survived by wife and three children.
【译文】 他死了，撇下了妻子和三个孩子。
【例16】 Law enforcement cannot responsibly stand aloof.
【译文】 司法部门如果对此不闻不问，那就是失职。
【例17】 Evidently he had the first quality of an angler, which is not to measure the pleasure by the catch.
【译文】 他显然具备了垂钓者的首要品质，即以钓为乐，钓多钓少无所谓。
【例18】 Nothing out of its place is good, nothing in its place is bad.
×身外之物无一是善，身内之物无一是恶。
【译文】 凡事不当无一是好，凡事得当无一是坏。
【例19】 Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered and enjoyed every day.
×幸福似甘露，日日可享用。
【译文】 幸福犹如甘露，要天天采集才能日日享用。
忠实原文是指译文与原文实质内容上的一致，而不是形式上的一致。译者由于对原文理解不深，不能透过原文的形式掌握其实质内容，仅见其形，未见其神，这样译出的文字形式上似乎与原文一致了，但与原文的意思却相去甚远。这便是犯了翻译上的形式主义。但是灵活出了格，过分强调译文的流畅，而不受原文意思的约束，闹了独立性，在原文的思想内容之外随意添枝加叶，这种译法称之为自由主义。
【例20】 This was one of the secrets of his great popularity, but it was a popularity which was as unsettled as the waves. It swelled, and bubbled, and foamed for a while, only to recede, and be lost to its former possessor.
×这是他名噪一时的一个秘密，但这种名声如同波涛一样起伏不定：在短暂的时间内如日中天，盛极一时，炙手可热，但转瞬间又烟消云散，终于在原来有些声望的人身上消失了。
【译文】 这是他名噪一时的一个秘密，但这种名声如同波涛一样起伏不定：一时间奔腾高涨，汹涌澎拜，转瞬间又一落千丈，终于在原来享有这种声望的人身上荡然无存。
佳译欣赏：
【例21】 A thief is a thief.
【译文】 贼性难改。
【例22】 There was no snow, the leaves were gone, the grass was dead.
【译文】 天未下雪，但叶落草枯。
【例23】 Human affairs are all subject to changes and disasters.
【译文】 人世间，事不由己，变迁灾祸，难以逆料。
【例24】 It was a day as fresh as grass growing up and clouds going over and butterflies coming down can make it. It was a day compounded from silences of bee and flower and ocean and land, which were not silences at all, but motions, stirs, flutters, risings, fallings, each in its own time and matchless rhythm.
【译文】 绿草萋萋，白云冉冉，彩蝶翩翩，这日子是如此清新；蜜蜂无言，春花不语，海波声歇，大地音寂，这日子是如此安静。然而并非安静，因为万物各以其独特的节奏，或动，或摇，或震，或起，或伏。
III. 课堂练习（努力按照忠实原文和译文流畅两项标准，把下列句子译成汉语，翻译时既要避免拘泥于原文结构的形式主义译法，又要防止偏离原文内容的自由主义译法）：
1. He who idles away the time is nothing but a living death.
2. No greater misfortune befalls a country than to be governed by a tyrant.
3. He had a disconcerting habit of expressing contradictory ideas in rapid succession.
4. The expectation of collision informed British frontier policy in this period.
5. Every day now, the suppression of truth and the organizing of public ignorance shame journalism.
6. I walked to the ticket counter. When the ticket-seller saw me, her otherwise attractive face turned sour, violently so.
7. Accident may put a decisive blunderer in the right, but eternal defeat and miscarriage must attend the man of the best parts, if cursed with indecision.
8. In their rush, these companies have neglected the hardest part of doing business in China: the people part. The result is that many have jeopardized their performance in the long run.
Water problems in the future will become more intense and more complex. Our increasing population will tremendously increase urban wastes, primarily sewage. On the other hand, increasing demands for water will decrease substantially the amount of water available for diluting wastes. Rapidly expanding industries which involve more and more complex chemical processes will produce larger volumes of liquid wastes, and many of these will contain chemicals which are noxious. To feed our rapidly expanding population, agriculture will have to be intensified. This will involve ever-increasing quantities of agricultural chemicals. From this, it is apparent that drastic steps must be taken immediately to develop corrective measures for the pollution problem.
There are two ways by which the pollution problem can be dwindled. The first relates to the treatment of wastes to decrease their pollution hazard. This involves the processing of solid wastes "prior to" disposal and the treatment of liquid wastes, or effluents, to permit the reuse of the water or minimize pollution upon final disposal.
A second approach is to develop an economic use for all or a part of the wastes. Farm manure is spread in fields as a nutrient or organic supplement. Effluents from sewage disposal plants are used in some areas both for irrigation and for the nutrients contained. Effluents from other processing plants may also be used as a supplemental source of water. Many industries, such as meat and poultry processing plants, are currently converting former waste products into marketable byproducts. Other industries are exploring potential economic uses for their waste products. (256 words)Unit 4
【例25】 For some people hope dies slowly.
【译文】 对有些人来说，希望不会轻易破灭。
【例26】 In planning my drive to the airport, I will factor in a cushion: to allow for the unexpected, such as heavy traffic or a flat tire.
【译文】 我在安排开车前往机场时，总会考虑留一点时间，以防路上遇到交通堵塞或者轮胎漏气等意外情况。
【例27】 The blue in his fine eyes seemed to preclude his being a Syrian, but there was an encouraging curve in his nostrils.
【译文】 看他那双蓝眼睛，他似乎不可能是叙利亚人，但看他鼻子的曲线，却又使人觉得他很有可能是的。
【例28】 The pace was comfortable, so I decided to stay where I was.
【译文】 我觉得这种步速跑起来轻松，所以我就决定保持这种速度。
【例29】 He always lives ahead of his salary.
【译文】 他总是不到发薪水的日子就把钱花完了。或：他的薪水总是不够花。
美国语言教学家Wilga M. Rivers 说过理解中要掌握三个层次的意义，即词语意义、语法或结构意义以及社会和文化意义（the three levels of meaning: lexical meaning, structural or grammatical meaning, and social-cultural meaning）。
【例30】 So that's how I became just another kid in school.
【译文】 就这样，我成了学校里一名和其他孩子一样的普通孩子。
【例31】 At first, they were being nice.
【译文】 起初人们只是出于一时的好心。
【例32】 John Major faces severe social and economic problems as well as tough debate over European integration, but his top priority will be to maintain the Tories' long lease on 10 Downing Street.
【译文】 梅杰面临严重的社会和经济问题以及关于欧洲统一的艰苦辩论，但是他的当务之急将是维系保守党的长期执政。
德国译学教授Wolfram Wilss说：
Translating requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic and text-pragmatic comprehension by the translator of the original texts.（翻译过程要求译者在句法、语义、文体和语篇语用各方面对原文的进行理解。）
一、要理解原文语句的内部关系：
【例33】 Go to hell! You report what I have done to the authorities.
×去你的吧！你去向领导汇报我对他们的不敬吧！
【译文】 去你的吧！你去向领导汇报我的所作所为好啦！
【例34】 He ate his savoury, and hurried the maid as she swept the crumbs.
×他一边吃着最后的一道消食小吃，一边催促女佣人赶快打扫碎屑。
【译文】 他吃完最后的一道消食小吃，在女佣人打扫碎屑时，催她快一点。
【例35】 Derek fancies himself as a ladies' man, but he spends too much time admiring himself in the mirror for my liking.
×德里克自以为是讨女人喜欢的人，可是为了讨我喜欢，他却花很多时间在镜子面前自我欣赏。
【译文】 德里克自以为是个讨女人喜欢的人，可是我不喜欢他花那么多的时间在镜子面前自我欣赏。
1. My delegation is not satisfied that the case has yet been made for convening such a broad conference.
×我方代表团对于没有人提出理由说明应召开如此广泛的会议很不满意。
我方代表团认为，还没有人提出充分理由说明应召开如此广泛的会议。（satisfy 说服，使确信）
2. The nationalized industries have been spoon-fed for so long that they don't care whether they give value for money, or make a profit or loss.
×国有工业长期受到优厚待遇， 他们不在乎钱， 也不在乎盈利或亏损。
一些国有行业长期受到优厚待遇，他们不在乎钱花得是不是值得，也不在乎盈利或亏损。
3. I was not quite sure whether they had locked the door; and when I dared move, I got up and went to see. Alas! no jail was ever more secure.
×我不敢肯定他们是不是把门锁上了；等到我敢走动的时候，我站起身来走过去看看。天啊！没有一所监狱更加牢固。
我不敢肯定他们是不是把门锁上了；等到我敢走动的时候，我站起身来走过去看看。天啊！锁得牢牢的好象监狱一般。
4. Very hesitatingly I selected a tube of blue paint, and with infinite precaution made a mark about as big as a bean on the snow-white field.
×我迟疑不决地选了一管蓝色颜料，然后小心翼翼地画了一笔，就像雪白的田野上的一粒蚕豆那么大小。
我迟疑不决地选了一管蓝色颜料，然后非常小心翼翼地在画布雪白的底色上点了豆子般大小的一点。
5. I agree with you that many laws are unjust, but if you make every law a matter of conscience you will end up in jail.
×我同意你的意见，很多法律是不公正的，但如果你都凭良心来制定每项法律的话，你最终就得坐牢。
我同意你的意见，很多法律是不公正的，但如果你对待每项法律都要讲良心的话，你最终就得坐牢。
6. Ring farewell to the century of physics, the one to which we split the atom and turned silicon into computing power,
×向物理世纪告别吧，在这个世纪里，我们分裂了原子，把硅变为计算机的动力。
向物理学的世纪告别吧，在这个世纪里，我们实现了原子的分裂，我们把硅变成了计算能力。
7. The sun sets regularly on the Union Jack these days, but never on the English language.
×现在太阳从英国国旗上有规则地落下，但是英语却不是这种情况。/ 现在英国国旗上照到的阳光日益减少，但英语却不是这种情况。
现在，英国已不再是个“日不落”的国家了，但是英语却还是在广泛地流行使用。（Union Jack英国国旗）
8. I hear the Hindoo teaching his favorite pupil the loves, wars, adages, transmitted safely to this day from poets who wrote three thousand years ago.
×我听见有三千年前的诗人们书写的、完好无损地流传至今的、有印度教士传授给得意门生的、有关爱情故事、战争和格言。
我听见印度人在向他的得意门生传授爱情故事、战争和格言，这些都是由三千年前的诗人所写并完好地流传至今。
IV、课外练习（正确理解下列短文，并将其译成汉语）：
First impressions are often lasting ones. Indeed, if you play your cards right, you can enjoy the benefits of what sociologists call the "halo effect." This means that if you're viewed positively within the critical first few minutes, the person you've met will likely assume everything you do is positive.
How you move and gesture will greatly influence an interviewer's first impression of you. In a landmark study of communications, psychologists discovered that seven percent of any message about our feelings and attitudes comes from the words we use, 38 percent from our voice, and a startling 55 percent from our facial expressions. In fact, when our facial expression or tone of voice conflicts with our words, the listener will typically put more weight on the nonverbal message.
To make your first encounter a positive one, start with a firm handshake. If the interviewer doesn't initiate the gesture, offer your hand first. Whenever you have a choice of seats, select a chair beside his or her desk, as opposed to one across from it. That way there are no barriers between the two of you and the effect is somewhat less confrontational. If you must sit facing the desk, shift your chair slightly as you sit down, or angle your body in the chair so you're not directly in front of your interviewer.
Monitor your body language to make sure you don't seem too desperate for the job, or too eager to please. Keep a Poker face in business situations. Inappropriate smiling is the most common example of a nonverbal behavior that undercuts verbal messages -- making you appear weak and unassertive. Good eye contact is also important. One study found that job applicants who make more eye contact are perceived as more alert, dependable, confident and responsible. (298 words)
二、要理解特殊语言现象的特殊含义：
【例36】 John is now with his parents in New York; it is three years since he was a high school teacher in Washington.
【译文】 约翰现在同父母一起住在纽约；他不在华盛顿当中学教师已有三年了。
【例37】 She didn't attend the meeting because she wanted to.
【译文】 她去开会并不是她自己想去。
【例38】 As a place to live, it left much to be desired. As a secret training base for a new plane, it was an excellent site, its remoteness effectively masking its activity.
【译文】 作为居住之处，这里有许多不足之处。但作为新型飞机的秘密训练基地，却是非常理想的。它地处边陲，人们不易了解其中的活动。
【例39】 The teacher didn't tell her students that in so many words, but obviously something about her attitude convinced them.
×老师没有用很多话把这种情况告诉学生，但她的某种态度显然使学生相信情况的确如此。
【译文】 老师没有把这种情况对学生明说，但她的某种态度显然使学生相信情况的确如此。
【例40】 If I am getting a free ride, how come I am so tired when I go home at the end of a shift?
×如果我是免费乘车的话，我上完一次班回家后怎么会那么累呢？
【译文】 如果我上班偷闲的话，我下班回家怎么会那么累呢？
【例41】 I am sorry I was a little short with you just now. I don't feel myself today.
×如果我刚才陪你的时间短了一些的话，我很抱歉。今天我自己也没有感觉到。
【译文】 刚才对你态度不好，我很抱歉。今天我身体有点不舒服。
三、要结合上下文语境进行理解：
【例42】 The financial implications of this resolution remain to be defined.
【译文】 本决议所涉及的财政问题尚待确定。
本决议对财政工作的意义尚待阐明。
【例43】 The tyrants might array their cruelty, but the people would oppose their bravery.
【译文】 暴君恣意肆虐，人民则奋勇反抗。
【例44】 Managers face a host of new business realities, such as changing patterns of employment that include an explosion of outsourcing and new alliances.
×管理人员面对的是商界前所未有的种种现实，诸如就业的模式不断变化 包括外购。重组等现象的猛增。
【译文】 管理人员面对的是商界前所未有的种种现实，诸如企业用工方式的不断变化 包括大幅度增加外部采办和新建联产单位。
III、课堂练习（正确理解以下各句，并在正确理解的基础上将其译成汉语）：
1. Let it deceive them, then, a little longer; it can not deceive them too much.
2. We shall never get anywhere with all the criticism and fault finding. I believe in the principle "Live and let live".
3. He said that no one could beat him at tennis, but he had to eat his word after losing several games.
4. I had read too many novels and had learned too much at school not to know a good deal about love.
5. In fact, one office-system expert recently said that he had yet to encounter a business work place that was functioning at more than 60 percent efficiency.
6. Nobody with any sense expects to find the whole truth in advertisement any more than he expects a man applying for a job to describe his shortcomings and serious faults.
7. There is probably no better way for a foreigner (or an Englishman) to appreciate the richness and variety of the English language than by studying the various ways in which Shakespeare used it.
8. We are human and human beings are far from perfect. To be human implies that we will make mistakes. But it's more than that we feel human. We now feel entitled.
A new era is upon us. Call it what you will: the service economy, the information age, the knowledge society. It all translates to a fundamental change in the way we work. Already we're partly there. The percentage of people who earn their living by making things has fallen dramatically in the Western World. Today the majority of jobs in America, Europe and Japan (two thirds or more in many of these countries) are in the service industry, and the number is on the rise. More women are in the workforce than ever before. There are more part-time jobs. More people are sell-employed. But the breadth of the economic transformation can't be measured by numbers alone, because it also is giving rise to a radical new way of thinking about the nature of work itself. Long-held notions about jobs and careers, the skills needed to succeed, even the relation between individuals and employers -- all these are being challenged.
We have only to look behind us to get some sense of what may lie ahead. No one looking ahead 20 years possibly could have foreseen the ways in which a single invention, the chip, would transform our world thanks to its applications in personal computers, digital communications and factory robots. Tomorrow's achievements in biotechnology, artificial intelligence or even some still unimagined technology could produce a similar way of dramatic changes. But one thing is certain: information and knowledge will become even more vital, and the people who possess it, whether they work in manufacturing or services, will have the advantage and produce the wealth; computer knowledge will become as basic a requirement as the ability to read and write. The ability to solve problems by applying information instead of performing routine tasks will be valued above all else. If you cast your mind ahead 10 years, information services will be predominant. It will be the way you do your job. (320 words)
四、要通过吃透词语含义进行理解：
【例45】 While many women are comfortable being close and sharing secrets, men often struggle to express their emotions in relationship with other men.
×虽然许多女人对与他人亲密无间，分享秘密感到舒坦，而男人却经常刻求在与其他男人的关系中表达感情。
【译文】 许多女人亲密相处互吐隐秘感到心安理得，而男人要对其他男人表露感情却非易事。
【例46】 On the drunken occasion in question, I was insufferable about liking you, and not liking you. I wish you would forget it.
×在那次大醉时，我老考虑是不是喜欢你，搞得我无法忍受，希望你忘了它。
【译文】 那一次喝得酩酊大醉的时候，我说了喜欢你不喜欢你的一番话，让你受不了，希望你忘了它吧。
【例47】 I felt uncomfortable in the suit I had dredged up to wear.
×穿着那套已经弄干净的衣服，我只觉得浑身不自在。
【译文】 穿着那套费了好大功夫才找出来的衣服，我觉得浑身不自在。
【例48】 The school bully threatened Martin with a thick ear.
×学校的小霸王打了马丁一个耳光以此作为威胁。
【译文】 学校的小霸王扬言要打马丁的耳光。
【例49】 The computer makes possible a marvelous leap in human proficiency; it pulls down the fences around the practical and even the theoretical intelligence.
×计算机将可能使人类熟练掌握技术产生惊人的飞跃，他推倒了理论和实践之间的隔墙。
【译文】 计算机使人类的能力有可能发生巨大的飞跃；它拓展了人类从事实践工作甚至理论工作的智慧。
五、要明确词语的具体指代进行理解：
【例50】 Fifty cases of woolen sweaters were shipped from Shanghai to New York. They were products of the city's first joint venture. Owing to a storm at sea, some of the cargo got stained by seawater. However, the goods duly arrived yesterday.
【译文】 有50箱羊毛衫从上海发往纽约。这些羊毛衫是上海首家合资企业的产品。由于海上遇到风暴，其中一部分遭到海水污损，但这批货物已于昨天按时运抵。
【例51】 "Heaven bless you, my child," said she, embracing Amelia, and scowling the while over the girl's shoulder at Miss Sharp. "Come away, Becky," said Miss Jemima, pulling the young woman away in great alarm.
×她搂着爱米丽亚说：“求老天保佑你，孩子。”一面说，一面从女孩的肩头对夏泼小姐恶狠狠地瞪眼。吉米玛小姐心里害怕，赶快拉着年轻女子出来，口里说：“来吧，贝基。”
【译文】 她搂着爱米丽亚说：“求老天保佑你，孩子。”一面说，一面从爱米丽亚肩头对夏泼小姐恶狠狠地瞪眼。吉米玛小姐心里害怕，赶快拉着夏泼小姐出来，口里说：“走吧，小姐。”
【例52】 I seized the largest brush and fell upon my wretched victim with wild fury.
×我抓起那支最大的画笔，迅猛异常地向我可怜的受害者扑了过去。
【译文】 我抓起那支最大的画笔，势不可挡扑向那全无招架之力的画布。
III、课堂练习（正确理解以下各句，并在正确理解的基础上将其译成汉语）：
1. The investigations were temporarily tabled due to more pressing business.
2. After all, all living creatures live by feeding on something else, whether it be plant or animal, dead or alive.
3. One of the great charms of Lawrence as a companion was that he could never be bored and so could never be boring.
4. A grass eating animal cannot exist without grass, a predator without prey, a plant without certain basic chemicals or certain kinds of soil.
5. If we could consider placing ourselves in other people's shoes, we could teach ourselves how damaging it is to assume anything about anyone.
6. A creative person will almost never follow a set pattern in developing an idea. To do so would tend to structure his thinking and might limit the creation of possible solutions.
7. Next door, a large-than-expected audience of 300 attended the International Conference on Laser Atmospheric Studies, which will be covered separately next month.
8. The quality of attendance, enhanced by an exhibit-admission fee of $50 per day, was widely extolled. The quantity was in doubt, however. All of the 14 exhibitors interviewed questioned the figure of 5,200 given by Fair director G.B. Hovel; the consensus was 2,500 attendees.
One of my favourite moments of the day is among the last -- the last conscious one, anyway. After several attempts at keeping my eyelids from fluttering closed and the book from collapsing onto my chest, I know it really is time to go to sleep. I affectionately place the book on the bed beside me. We sleep together, me and my book, me and those characters, me and my mixed-up dreams.
Reading in bed seems to run in families. The last time my mother babysat for me, I got home to find the house dark except for two small lights. One came from my son's room, where I discovered the eight-year-old holed up under the covers with Goosebumps and a flashlight. At the other end of the house, my mother had already dozed off with her book.
Somewhere in the middle is me, a grown-up version of the girl who used to camp out under covers with Nancy Drew, a foreshadowing of a baby-sitting grandma whose sons will come home to find Mom snoozing contentedly beneath her paperback.
Instead of arranging my books into traditional categories -- fiction and nonfiction, novels and short stories, self-improvement and pleasure -- I divide my bedside reading into books that put you to sleep and those that keep you up. Both have their place. Just last night I picked up a slender but densely written volume of literary criticism for the knockout punch I knew it would deliver. At the other end of the spectrum are the suspense heavy plots that keep you turning pages into the single-digit hours -- crime novels, love stories, comedies of manners, narrators so charming you cannot bear to quit them, worlds so richly drawn you cannot bear to leave. (293 words)