北京新東方唐靜：08考研英語翻譯題答案及分析

　　北京國(guó)內(nèi)部 唐靜

　　試題來源和參考答案

　　該試題來源于Mayo W. Hazeltine寫的一篇關(guān)于達(dá)爾文“在現(xiàn)代科學(xué)中的地位”的學(xué)術(shù)評(píng)論。原文長(zhǎng)達(dá)8686個(gè)英語詞。經(jīng)過命題專家的改編之后，成為了一篇經(jīng)典的考研翻譯文章。以下是英語原文和今年翻譯試題原文的簡(jiǎn)單比對(duì)，以及我給的一個(gè)比較合理的譯文。大概用了10分鐘翻譯完，比較馬虎，沒有詳細(xì)斟酌，或許還有一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)瑕疵，請(qǐng)大家參考。

　　in his autobiography. He points out that he always experienced much difficulty in expressing himself clearly and concisely, but he opines (命題專家改寫為believes)that this very difficulty may have had the compensating advantage of forcing him to think long and intently about every sentence, and thus enabling him to detect errors in reasoning and in his own observations,

　　他相信，正是這種困難或許能夠揚(yáng)長(zhǎng)避短，以使他能長(zhǎng)時(shí)間專注的思考每一個(gè)句子；因此，使他能在推理中和自己的觀察中發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的缺點(diǎn)。

　　or in those of others. He disclaimed the possession of any great quickness of apprehension or wit, such as distinguished Huxley. He protested(命題專家改寫為asserts), also, that his power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought was very limited, for which reason he felt certain that he never could have succeeded with metaphysics or(命題專家把這兩個(gè)單詞給刪除了，使試題不超出大綱) mathematics.

　　他還斷言，在深入理解冗長(zhǎng)且完全抽象的觀點(diǎn)上，他的能力受到了局限。有鑒于此，他曾確信自己在數(shù)學(xué)方面本來就不該獲得成功。

　　His memory, too, he described as extensive, but hazy. So poor in one sense was it that he never could remember for more than a few days a single date or a line of poetry. On the other hand, he did not accept as well founded the charge made by some of his critics that, while he was a good observer, he had no power of reasoning.

　　另一方面，批評(píng)家指責(zé)他盡管善于觀察，但無法推理，對(duì)此，他并不接受且認(rèn)為觀點(diǎn)不成立。

　　This, he thought, could not be true, because the "Origin of Species" is one long argument from the beginning to the end, and has convinced many able men. No one, he submits, could have written it without possessing some power of reasoning. He was willing to assert that "I have a fair share of invention, and of common sense or judgment, such as every fairly successful lawyer or doctor must have, but not, I believe, in any higher degree." He adds humbly that perhaps he was "superior to the common run of men in noticing things which easily escape attention, and in observing them carefully."

　　他謙卑地補(bǔ)充道，或許他“和普通人比起來，更能夠注意到那些別人不容易注意到的東西，更能夠?qū)Υ思右栽敿?xì)地觀察”。

　　Writing in the last year of his life, he expressed the opinion that in two or three respects his mind had changed during the preceding twenty or thirty years. Up to the age of thirty or beyond it poetry of many kinds gave him great pleasure. Formerly, too, pictures had given him considerable, and music very great, delight. In 1881, however, he said: "Now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry; I have tried lately to read Shakspeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music. Music generally sets me thinking too energetically of what I have been at work on, instead of giving me pleasure. I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did." Darwin was convinced that the loss of these tastes was not only a loss of happiness, but might possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, (命題專家改寫后截止于此，原文本段落未完)

　　達(dá)爾文認(rèn)為，失去對(duì)音樂和繪畫方面的興趣，不僅失去了幸福，而且還可能損傷智力，甚至可能會(huì)傷害道德。

　　by enfeebling the emotional side of one's nature. So far as he could judge, his mind had become in his later years a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, and that atrophy had taken place in that part of the brain on which the higher aesthetic tastes depend. Curiously enough, however, he retained his relish for novels, and for books on history, biography, and travels.

　　簡(jiǎn)單分析：

　　試題難度和近幾年難度保持一致，較07年難點(diǎn)。

　　所考查的部分單詞和句型結(jié)構(gòu)都是我們?cè)谡n堂上分析過，并且在歷年真題中重復(fù)過多次的。