广东外语外贸大学2004年研究生入学考试-英语翻译与写作试题

广东外语外贸2004年攻读硕士研究生入学考试 广东外语外贸2004年攻读硕士研究生入学考试 英语写作与翻译 Part One Writing (100) Task 1: Summary Writing (40%) Directions: Read carefully the following passage and summarize its contents in 150 -200 words. Note that you must not copy complete sentences directly from the original Failure to do so would incur deduction of your scores. Passage Plato - who may have understood better what forms the mind of man than do some of our contemporaries who want their children exposed only to "real", people and everyday events—knew what intellectual experiences make for true humanity. He suggested that the future citizens of his ideal republic begin their literary education with the telling of myths, rather than with mere facts or so-called rational teachings. Even Aristotle, master of pure reason, said, "The friend of wisdom is also a friend of myth." Modern thinkers who have studied myths and fairy tales from a philosophical or psychological viewpoint arrive at the same conclusion, regardless of their original persuasion. Mircea Eliade, for one, describes these stories as “models for human behavior [that], by that very fact, give meaning and value to life.” Drawing on anthropological parallels, he and others suggest that myths and fairy tales were derived from, or give symbolic expression to, initiation rites or rites of passage—such as metaphoric death of an old, inadequate self in order to be rebom on a higher plane of existence. He feels that this is why these tales meet a strongly felt need and are carriers of such deep meaning. Other investigators with a depth-psychological orientation emphasize the similarities between the fantastic events in myths and fairy tales and those in adult dreams and daydreams—the fulfillment of wishes, the winning out over all competitors, the destruction of enemies—and conclude that one attraction of this literature is its expression of that which is normally prevented from coming to awareness. There are, of course, very significant differences between fairy tales and dreams. For example, in dreams more often than not the wish fulfillment is disguised, while in fairy tales much of it is openly expressed. To a considerable degree, dreams are the result of inner pressures which have found no relief, of problems which beset a person to which he knows no solution and to which the dream finds none. The fairy tale does the opposite: it projects the relief of all pressures and not only offers ways to solve problems but promises that a “happy” solution will be found. We cannot control what goes on in our dreams. Although our inner censorship influences what we may dream, such control occurs on an unconscious level. The fairy tale, on the other hand, is very much the result of common conscious and unconscious content having been shaped by the conscious mind, not of one particular person, but the consensus of many in regard to what they view as universal human problems, and what they accept as desirable solutions. If all these elements were not present in a fairy tale, it would not be retold by generation after generation. Only if a fairy tale met the conscious and unconscious requirements of many people was it repeatedly retold, listened to with great interest. No dream of a person could arouse such persistent interest unless it was worked into a myth, as was the story of the pharaoh's dream as interpreted by Joseph in the Bible. Task 2: Essay Writing (60%) Directions: In recent years China has witnessed a drastic increase in the annual enrollment of university students. While some hail it as an achievement of historical significance that marks the beginning of popularizing China's education of higher learning, others dismiss it as nothing but an educational "great leap forward" that will do more harm than good to the quality of college education in China. Write an essay of 500 - 600 words unequivocally expressing your stand on this issue. Whatever position you take, make sure to justify your decision. Give a title to your essay. Part Two Translation (50) 1. Translate the following passage into Chinese: (25) The Asking Animal Caught between two eternities—the vanished past and the unknown future—human beings never cease to seek their bearings and sense of direction. We inherit our legacy of the sciences and the arts—the works of the great discoverers and creators, the Columbuses and Leonardos—but we all remain seekers. Man is the asking animal... Western culture has witnessed at least three grand historical epochs of seeking—each with a dominant spirit, enduring spokesmen and distinctive problems. We have gone from "Why?" to the "How?", from the search for purpose to the search for causes. First was the heroic way of prophets and philosophers seeking answers—salvation or truth—from the God above or the reason within each of us. Then came an age of communal seeking, pursuing civilization in the liberal spirit. And most recently there was the age of the social sciences, in which man was ruled by the forces of history. We can draw on all these ways of seeking in our personal search for purpose, to find meaning in the seeking. 2. Translate the following passage into English: (25) 旧梦重温 意大利是我最喜欢的一个欧洲国家。罗马是建在七山之上的城市，拥有大小500座教堂，我几乎都去过了。最大的是圣彼得。梵蒂冈就是在圣彼得教堂附近，是罗马教皇的宫殿，这是一个“国中之国”！我进去看了，只记得门警是瑞士兵士，穿着黄色制服，别的没有印象了。 佛罗伦萨给我留下的，除了美术馆里的雕像和壁画之外，还有一座座府第墙壁上的灯座，每座灯下都有一支拴马的铁环，使聚会或宴会时拴马用的，十分别致！ 一地同志关于这些地方的描写，由于时代和注意点的不同，使我看到了那些地方的许多侧面，也扩大了我的知识。我应该说一地同志这本回忆童年和旅游的散文集子，不但使青少年最好的读物，大人们也应当拿来看看。因为这是一本写情真挚、写景鲜明；流畅、健康、引人向上的散文作品。