北京外国语大学2007年硕士研究生入学考试英汉同声传译专业试卷

2007年硕士研究生入学考试英汉同声传译专业试卷

I. 将下列短文译成汉语(25分)

After 28 years of reform, China faces challenges of an unprecedented scale, complexity, and importance. China has already liberalized its markets, opened up to foreign trade and investment, and become a global economic powerhouse. Now its leaders and people must deal with popular dissatisfaction with local government, environmental degradation, scarce natural resources, an underdeveloped financial system, an inadequate health-care system, a restless rural population, urbanization on a massive scale, and increasing social inequality. Most of these problems, of course, have existed throughout the period of reform. What is different now is that the pace of change is accelerating while the ability of the state to manage that change is not keeping pace.

Solving any one of these problems by itself would be a formidable task. And the Chinese government today finds it harder than ever to attract, develop, and retain talent. Graduates from the country’s top universities, who once would have filled government posts, are instead choosing to take jobs in the private sector. Moreover, the structure of the country’s bureaucracy stifles initiative and promotes mediocrity. Worse, many officials, from the village to the central government, are corrupt, eroding the government’s effectiveness and feeding popular discontent.

Of all of China’s challenges, none is more critical — or more daunting — than that of nurturing a new generation of leaders who are skilled, honest, committed to public service, and accountable to the Chinese people as a whole.

II. 将下列文章译成汉语 (50分)

The New Middle East

Just over two centuries since Napoleon’s arrival in Egypt heralded the advent of the modern Middle East — some 80 years after the demise of the Ottoman Empire, 50 years after the end of colonialism, and less than 20 years after the end of the Cold War — the American era in the Middle East, the fourth in the region’s modern history, has ended. Visions of a new, Europe-like region–peaceful, prosperous, democratic–will not be realized. Much more likely is the emergence of a new Middle East that will cause great harm to itself, the United States, and the world.

The modern Middle East was born in the late eighteenth century. For some historians, the signal event was the 1774 signing of the treaty that ended the war between the Ottoman Empire and Russia; a stronger case can be made for the importance of Napoleon’s relatively easy entry into Egypt in 1798, which showed Europeans that the region was ripe for conquest and prompted Arab and Muslim intellectuals to ask — as many continue to do today — why their civilization had fallen so far behind that of Christian Europe. Ottoman decline combined with European penetration into the region gave rise to the “Eastern Question,” regarding how to deal with the effects of the decline of the Ottoman Empire, which various parties have tried to answer to their own advantage ever since.

The first era ended with World War I, the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of the Turkish republic, and the division of the spoils of war among the European victors. What ensued was an age of colonial rule, dominated by France and the United Kingdom. This second era ended some four decades later, after another world war had drained the Europeans of much of their strength, Arab nationalism had risen, and the two superpowers had begun to lock horns. “He who rules the Near East rules the world; and he who has interests in the world is bound to concern himself with the Near East,” wrote a historian, who correctly saw the 1956 Suez crisis as marking the end of the colonial era and the beginning of the Cold War era in the region.

III. 将下列短文译成英语(25分)

中国特色社会主义社会是一个变革的社会，是一个开放的社会，是一个不断发展和完善的社会。改革开放是决定中国命运的重大决策，要贯穿社会主义社会发展的全过程。只有坚持改革开放，才能不断激发亿万人民的积极性和创造性，解放和发展生产力，永葆社会主义的生机与活力。

我们要坚定不移地推进经济体制改革，建立和完善社会主义市场经济体制，贯彻落实科学发展观，促进国民经济持续快速健康发展。同时，要积极推进政治体制改革、文化体制改革和社会管理体制改革，促进社会主义物质文明、政治文明、精神文明与和谐社会建设全面协调发展。

IV. 将下列文章译成英语(50分)

在外国旅行，特别是美国，最不习惯的就是处处要付小费。说是小费，数目对于我这样的中国土鳖来说可不算小，住旅馆，每天早上要在枕头放一两个美元，给打扫房间的大姐;吃饭要把餐费的10%-20%给服务员;甚至连坐出租车也要额外给小费，其实很多出租车司机自己都是老板。我特别不能理解，干吗不直接把价格提高，算小费除了麻烦，而且让人有额外付出的感觉，特别像我这样平时俭省惯了的人，在中国自己嗓子冒烟了都舍不得买瓶矿泉水，到了美国一伸手就得给人付出几美元，还叫“小费”，简直让我心头淌血。

小费大概得算上美国社会最重要的“潜规则”，对于酒店的门童、餐馆的服务员，老板有意会付比较低的工资，小费成了他们主要的收入。我曾经非常困惑，主要依靠被服务对象事后的自觉，太脆弱了，假如有1/3的人不遵守，这个游戏就玩不下去了，拿吃饭来说，假如你坚持不付小费，别人也拿你没办法，大不了下次换个馆子，以免服务员在你比萨饼里吐口水。

请教了很多人这种规则何以能维系下去，几个美国人都说觉得付小费是很自然的事情，压根没考虑过这个问题。不过我听说小费源于18世纪的英国伦敦。那时，当地酒店的餐桌上一般都摆着写有“To Insure Promptness”(保证及时服务)的碗。顾客坐下后，只要将少量的零钱放入碗中，就会得到优先服务，服务的殷勤程度也和小费多少成正比。这一典型的贿赂行为被渐渐发扬光大，而且规范化、制度化，从事先付款，到诚信为本的事后付款，甚至如果你不付得体的小费，会受到道义的谴责――有一次希拉里没给服务员付小费就被媒体批评:那些服务员收入不高，你不付小费他们怎么养家糊口呀?