一、先介绍一下考研英语翻译的命题形式:
根据全国硕士研究生统一考试英语考试大纲的规定,考研翻译属于阅读理解的一部分,其命题形式是英译汉,“主要考查学生准确理解概念或结构较复杂的英语文字材料的能力。要求考生阅读一篇约400词的文章,并将其中5个划线部分(约150词)译成汉语,要求译文准确、完整、通顺”。翻译部分的总分值为10分(每题2分),占全部试卷的10%。
下面是2009年考研翻译的实例:
Part C Directions:
Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written carefully on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)
There is a marked difference between the education which every one gets from living with others, and the deliberate educating of the young. In the former case the education is incidental; it is natural and important, but it is not the express reason of the association. (46) It may be said that the measure of the worth of any social institution is its effect in enlarging and improving experience; but this effect is not a part of its original motive. Religious associations began, for example, in the desire to secure the favor of overruling powers and to ward off evil influences; family life in the desire to gratify appetites and secure family perpetuity; systematic labor, for the most part, because of enslavement to others, etc. (47) Only gradually was the by-product of the institution noted, and only more gradually still was this effect considered as a directive factor in the conduct of the institution. Even today, in our industrial life, apart from certain values of industriousness and thrift, the intellectual and emotional reaction of the forms of human association under which the world's work is carried on receives little attention as compared with physical output。
But in dealing with the young, the fact of association itself as an immediate human fact, gains in importance. (48) While it is easy to ignore in our contact with them the effect of our acts upon their disposition, it is not so easy as in dealing with adults. The need of training is too evident; the pressure to accomplish a change in their attitude and habits is too urgent to leave these consequences wholly out of account. (49) Since our chief business with them is to enable them to share in a common life we cannot help considering whether or no we are forming the powers which will secure this ability. If humanity has made some headway in realizing that the ultimate value of every institution is its distinctively human effect we may well believe that this lesson has been learned largely through dealings with the young。
(50) We are thus led to distinguish, within the broad educational process which we have been so far considering, a more formal kind of education—that of direct tuition or schooling. In undeveloped social groups, we find very little formal teaching and training. These groups mainly rely for instilling needed dispositions into the young upon the same sort of association which keeps the adults loyal to their group。
46.可以说,衡量任何社会制度的价值在于它对扩大和改进经验的影响,但是这种影响并不是它最初动机的组成部分。
47.只有逐步才能注意到一种制度的副作用,而要承认这种副作用是执行该制度的一种规定性因素则更加缓慢。
48.在和年轻人交往时,我们容易忽略自己的行为对他们性格的影响,但是在与成人打交道时却并不如此容易。
49.既然我们的主要任务是让年轻人参与共同生活,我们禁不住要考虑是否我们正在形成获得这种能力的力量。
50.因此,我们要在从一直考虑的整个教育过程中辨认出一种比较正规的教育——直接教育或者学校教育。
经过对考研大纲和真题的解读,我们认为考研翻译部分的总体要求应该是“译文准确、完整、通顺”,这与翻译的一般标准“忠实而通顺”是基本一致的。“准确、完整”就是要“忠实”于原文,把原文的内容完整而准确地表达出来,不能对原文做任意的增加或删减。“通顺”,指的是译文的语言要逻辑通顺,符合汉语的语言文字规范,没有明显的“翻译腔”。
总之,要符合“准确、完整、通顺”的考研翻译标准,译文必须在完整而准确表达原文内容的基础上符合汉语的表达规范,没有逻辑错误、语言歧义、晦涩难懂等现象。