2002年教育部全國翻譯證書考試試題[中級筆譯]
Other new technologies appear to be much more benign, and are consequently subject to little or no regulation. Personal computers and the Internet, for example, promised to create wealth, increase access to information, and foster community among their users. People have had to look hard for downsides to the information revolution. What they have found to date are issues like the so-called “digital divide” (i.e., inequality of access to information technology) and threats to privacy, neither of which qualify as earth-shaking matters of justice or morality. Despite occasional efforts on the part of the world’s more statist societies to try to control the use of information technology, it has blossomed in recent years.
Biotechnology falls somewhere between these extremes. Transgenic crops and human genetic engineering make people far more uneasy than do personal computers or the Internet. But biotechnology also promises important benefits for human health and well-being. When presented with an advance like the ability to cure diabetes, it is hard for people to articulate reasons why their unease with the technology should stand in the way of progress. It is easiest to object to a new biotechnology if its development leads to a botched clinical trial or to a deadly allergic reaction to a genetically modified food. But the real threat of biotechnology lies in the possibilities of human cloning, “designer babies”—eugenic selection for intelligence, sex, and personality—and eventually, the end of the human species as such.
Part 2
Translation from Chinese into English 2 hours
Read the following two passages.
Translate them into English.
Write your answers on this paper.
You may use the additional paper for any rough work but you must copy your answers onto this paper.
Passage 1
引導農民向城市轉移
中國有12多億人口，農民占了9億多。盡管農村社會在進一步分化，但農村人口卻沒有減少，反而在增加。據中國社科院調查，與1978年相比，1999年農民增加了800多萬人。一份研究報告指出，“沒有城市化的發展，農村、的農業和農民的問題也不可能得到有效解決。過去人們常講，農民問題歸根到底是土地問題，這個問題已經基本解決了。現在的農民問題是就業問題。”因此，調整城鄉社會結構，加快城市化的步伐，改變城市化嚴重滯后于工業化的狀況，應是當務之急。一些經濟學家估計，到2005年，中國農村剩余勞動力將上升至兩億人，這一龐大人口需要城市來吸納。
轉移龐大的農村人口，僅靠大城市顯然是遠遠不夠的，因為大城市的就業壓力普遍較重。一些專家認為，農村人口轉移的出路還是應以小城鎮為主。城鎮居民的生活支出、的子女的教育投入等都比農民高出許多，城鎮提供的就業機會也遠比農村多。
Passage 2
中年人的閱讀
隨著年齡的增長，書會像潮水一樣涌來。不能隨便歌頌書了，書往往是一些垃圾。清除垃圾很難，但起碼可以繞開，繞得越遠越好。當然有時候對于某些書的疏離，不只是書本身的問題，而主要是人的問題：作為一個讀者，他的心情變了。
讓青少年興奮的書，中老年人不一定看。人一到了中年，心情多多少少變得蒼涼了。中年人的情感既結實又樸素，這就影響到書的選擇。有閱讀能力和閱讀習慣的中年人是很多的，他們的知識、的經驗和判斷力有可能在深層左右著閱讀的方向和趣味。中年人更愿意看真實事件和場景的記錄，比如重要人物的傳記，游歷筆記，回憶錄和目擊記，地理勘察錄，探險記等等。在這種閱讀中有一些特別的快感，那是因為整個過程始終伴隨了這樣的提醒：這些文字是真實的。
