新闻文体的翻译

新闻文体的翻译

Translation of Journalistic Writings

新闻文体是英语中常见的实用文体，是一种书面语体，行文比较正式，语法比较规范。

●用途：报道消息，告知情况。

●内容：政治、经济、军事、外交、科技、文体以及宗教、法律、刑事、家庭等方面。

●类型：时事报道、社会新闻、社论、特写、书评、广告等。

新闻主要是为了满足人类在社会实践活动中沟通信息需要而产生的。

新闻就是广大群众想知道、应该知道而不知道的重要的新鲜的事实、最新消息、新颖的事物、新鲜报道等。

“新”意味着报道及时，在最短的时间内把最近发生的、最新的真实现象、重要的事实介绍给最广泛的公众。

20.1 新闻语言的特点

（Features of Journalistic Language）

20. 1. 1 词汇特点

英语新闻语言在词语表达上力求简洁明晰，语意清新，用词生动，表达客观，常用谚语、成语和典故以及比喻等修辞手段引人注目，耐人寻味。

新闻文体写作忌用夸张的形容词和副词、激情的文句、口语体词汇及俚语。

新闻词语常带有新闻文体的特色，在特定的上下文限制下，具有其特定的涵义。

新闻报导要吸引尽可能多的读者，因此用词又必须力求新奇。

20. 1. 2 句法特点

新闻文体一般常用平素易懂的语句，近于谈话体、口语化的行文语言。

简单句有助于清楚地叙述事件的发生发展过程，可突出显示事件发生发展过程的层次感。

定语、状语、同位语、介词短语、分词短语，以及不定式短语等补加成份以扩展简单句来表示目的、意图及行为结果等。

新闻文体写作多用主动语态。使用主动语态叙事可以使读者产生一种“直接感”，使叙述具有“直言不讳的效果”。

新闻中广泛使用直接引语与间接引语，使用引语的目的是使报道具有“最大限度的客观性”，以增添真实性和生动性。

例1：While the West goes about its business, Russia gains nothing by going off into a corner to sulk. （Time,Feb.16,1993）

【译文】西方各国各行其事，俄罗斯一无所获，只好走到一个角落里生闷气。

例2：Washington says it will only pay its dues to the United Nations if the world body refrains from attacking the U.S. and meets a laundry list of other demands.（Time, April 12,1996）【译文】华盛顿政府说只有联合国不再抨击美国并能满足其他的一些条件，美国政府才会向联合国支付其会费

例3：Y ou cannot miss the pain in these voices as a new generation of unemployed Americans describes the savage realities of today’s job market.（Fortune,March8,1993）

【译文】你不可能察觉不到新一代失业的美国人在描述当今求职市场的残酷情形时的悲伤语调。

20. 2 新闻文体的翻译

(T ranslation of Journalistic Writings)

新闻按地域分有：国际新闻、国内新闻、本地新闻。

按内容分有：科技新闻、政治新闻、财经新闻、法律新闻、军事新闻、文教新闻、体育新闻、娱乐新闻、卫生新闻等。

按事件发生的状态分有：突发性新闻、持续性新闻、周期性新闻。

按事件发生与报道的时间差距分有：事件性新闻和非事件性新闻。

按新闻事实的意义分有：典型新闻、综合新闻、系列新闻。

按传播渠道和信息载体分有：文字新闻、图片新闻、音像新闻等。

按体裁和形式分有：消息报道、快讯、调查报告、特写、社论、评论等。

新闻体裁的多样性决定了新闻翻译要根据不同的内容和体裁选择不同的语言表达手段，做到文体适切。

新闻翻译不可随心所欲，主观臆断，脱离原义；也不可拘泥于原文语言形式，要从原文各个组成部分之间的相互联系去理解原文，才能译好。

新闻文体的翻译主要包括新闻标题的翻译，导语的翻译，新闻报道的翻译，新闻特写的翻译和新闻评论的翻译。

英语新闻标题可以使用完整的句子(包括各类从句、祈使句、疑问句)，也可使用名词、名词短语、单词的首字母、缩略语、介词短语等。谓语动词多使用一般现在时代替过去时; 动词不定时代替将来时。非谓语动词多用动名词、动词不定式、分词等。

20.2.1.1 完整句子作标题

完整句子包括简单句、各类从句、祈使句、疑问句，都可作新闻的标题，翻译时最好译成汉语的词或词语形式，体现标题的特点，而不是一句话，句末不用标点符号。例如：

1. World Eyes Mid-East Peace Talks (eyes=watches, observes)

【译】世界关注中东和平谈判

2. Education brings a better tomorrow

【译】教育改变未来生活

3. China has always been a staunch supporter behind the IOC initiatives

【译】中国一贯坚定地支持国际奥委会各项动议

4. Husband and wife team unlocks new gene secrets

【译】夫妻联手解开新的基因奥秘

5. U.S. analysts find no sign Bin Laden had nuclear arms

【译】美分析人士未发现本·拉登拥有核武器的证据

6. Pioneer colleges face axe 【译】一些实验学院面临砍削

7. Private eyes seek legal recognition 【译】私人侦探寻求法律认可

8. Plane hits Milan skyscraper, terror ruled out

【译】飞机撞上米兰摩天大楼，估计与恐怖袭击无关

9. Andersen Chief quits in effort to rescue firm

(Andersen, the Chief Executive Officer, quits in effort to rescue the firm)【译】安然总裁为挽救公司辞职

20.2.1.2 名词、名词短语、介词短语作标题

标题可以是一个名词、名词的缩略语，或由前置定语或后置定语修饰的名词词组，或也可以是一个介词短语。

翻译时应注意标题中的省略部分，能直译的直译，不能直译的要按照新闻的中心要点进行意译加工。

1.Rein in Profit from Housing sales 【译】严控售房利润

2. Y ear 2000 bug unstoppable for some companies

【译】计算机千年虫问题迫在眉睫

3. Old photos as a reminder of my childhood

【译】老照片唤起了我对童年的回忆

4. Arafat ready for unconditional truce

【译】阿拉法特期待无条件停战会谈

5. A road to the cosmos 【译】通向宇宙之路

6. Protests against war across world 【译】反战抗议遍及全球

7. The boy with the billion-dollar secrets 【译】怀有赚取亿万美元之秘诀的男孩8. Divorce New Y ork style

【译】纽约离婚新样式

20. 2. 1. 3 有非谓语动词的标题

标题中常用动名词(短语)形式作主语，不定式表示将来式，“名词+现在分词(短语)”的结构表示将来或正在进行的动作，“名词+过去分词(短语)”的结构表示被动意义。

1. Six Black countries to hold summit

【译】非洲六国将举行首脑会议

2. Nippon steel to hold down production

【译】日铁将降低产量

3. New efforts to learn about planet Mars

【译】探测火星的新举措

4. Arafat to skip Arab summit, two observers killed

【译】阿拉法特将不参加阿拉伯峰会，两名国际观察员罹难

5. How to price your products and services

【译】如何为你的产品和劳务定价

6. Working for better Sino-US ties

【译】中美两国政府为促进双边关系而努力

7. Traveling under the Channel in the Eurostar Train

【译】乘“欧洲之星”列车穿过海底隧道

8. Japanese rocket launch delayed

【译】日本政府决定推迟火箭发射日期

20.2.1.4 有标点符号… ? “:” “,” “━”的标题

用标点符号把标题中的中心词与修饰说明性词隔开，以突出中心词，或表示同位结构，引起读者注意。

翻译时可灵活处理，英语有此类标点符号的标题，汉译时可用也可不用，英语没有此类标点符号的标题，汉译时也可加上此类符号。

1. The A merican way: friendship

【译】美国人的友谊观

2. Bering ice: no floe flows

【译】白令海峡没有浮冰块流动

3. Reagan?s more-guns-less-butter budget (The New Y ork Times)

【译】里根预算：多一些枪炮，少一点黄油

4. The oceans—man?s last resources

【译】海洋——人类最后的巨大资源

5. Living in A msterdam—the best way to see a city

【译】生活在阿姆斯特丹——城市观光的最佳方式

6. Life Show, A story of plain, passion, dream

【译】人生——一个普通平凡的、充满激情和梦想的故事

7. “The system failed her”

【译】她与这种制度格格不入

8. Is “Globalization” helping or hurting?

【译】全球化：是福还是祸？

课堂互动1：翻译下列新闻标题（参考译文）

1. Cops under fire

【译】警察遭枪击

2. A merican booksellers 【译】美国书店一瞥

3. On the road to Parliament 【译】通向议会的道路

4. Lost survivors

【译】失落的幸存者

5. Ten Ways to Get More Energy 【译】精力充沛十法

6. Confronting New Challenges

【译】面对新挑战

7. What’s New in the Computer World

【译】计算机世界的新产品

8. Inside the Clinton White House

【译】克林顿主政下的白宫内情

9. Help is at hand if illness strikes mid flight

【译】飞行途中生病，帮助就在身边

10. Officers provided security for strips show, police say

【译】警方称有警官为脱衣舞表演提供安全保护

11. Bush says war against terror far from over

【译】布什称反恐战争远未结束

12. Will highland park disappear?

【译】高地公园会消失吗？

13. Helping the homeless to help themselves

【译】帮助无家可归者自强自立

14. Gas prices going up, up, up

【译】煤气价格一涨再涨

15. Best of Times, Worst of Times

【译】美好时代，艰难岁月

20. 2. 2 新闻导语的翻译

新闻导语指新闻报道的开头第一段或前几段，以简练生动的文字表述新闻事件中最重要的内容，读起来有点儿像“内容提要”。

导语决定读者是否能从首句抓住新闻的核心内容，从而判断是否继续阅读。要求一目了然，一眼就能抓到主要新闻事实。

新闻导语的翻译不能仅仅局限于文字和概念的翻译，只有体现出文化的不同，才能跨越文化的差异，达到沟通的目的。

20. 2. 3 新闻报道的翻译

新闻报道涉及社会政治生活、金融商业活动、军事冲突、科技发展、外交斗争、文化体育动态以及宗教、法律、刑事、家庭等等各个方面，因此新闻报道用词范围广，新词语层出不穷。

翻译新闻时应密切注意原语的格调，以“事实”或“消息”为准则，语言以“准确”为核心，避免使用激情的词语除非顺应原文的需要。翻译重内容，不必拘泥于语言形式，译文不宜太俗也不易过雅。

新闻翻译的原则是语言讲求具体、准确、简明、通俗、生动。所谓具体，即何时、何地、何人、何事、为何、如何，常在新闻的开篇很具体地加以交代，具体是真实的反映，是可信性的保证，千万不要漏译。

UK Outlook

There will be a change to cooler weather. Monday will be cloudy with some rain in the North and the West but sunshine and showers elsewhere. As a deep depression moves into northern Scotland on Tuesday rain will spread across all areas with strengthening winds.

During Wednesday and Thursday it will brighter with blustery showers, which could give some sn ow over Scottish mountains. By then it will be noticeably cooler and fresher in all parts of the country. Further rain and strong winds will continue into the weekend. (Sunday Express, October 13, 1991) 【译文】联合王国天气预报

本周内，天气将会变得更加凉爽。星期一，北部和西部地区阴间有雨，其他地区晴，有阵雨。星期二，随着一股较强的低气压进入苏格兰北部，全国各地将普遍降雨，风力渐强。星期三和星期四，天气将更加晴朗，偶有急风阵雨，苏格兰山区可能有阵雪。全国各地将更加清凉。周末，将有雨和大风。（1991年10月13日《星期日快报》）

US Missile Targets Iraqi Radar Site

Washington: A United States Air Force F-16 fighter plane fired a missile at an Iraqi radar site and after the jet was tracked electronically while in the “no-fly”zone over southern Iraq, the Pentagon

said yesterday.

【译文】美导弹击中伊拉克雷达基地

华盛顿消息：昨日，五角大楼宣称：一架美空军F-16战斗机在伊拉克南部禁飞区被电子跟踪后，便向伊一雷达基地发射了一枚导弹。

But the White House, explaining a long delay in announcing the strike, said it was unclear whether Iraqi radar has “locked on”to the plane on Saturday.

A Pentagon spokesman said the F-16 returned safely to its base in Saudi Arabia. It was not immediately known if the Iraqi site was damaged. The spokesman, confirming the strike about 18 hours after it occurred, said an investigation, was under way. Iraq denied any such incident had taken place.

【续】但白宫拖了很久才公布解释这次打击行动的原因：星期六还不清楚伊雷达是否已“锁定”了这架飞机。

五角大楼的一位发言人说，该F-16战斗机已安全返回设在沙特阿拉伯的美军基地，伊雷达站是否被摧毁尚不清楚。该发言人在这次打击行动发生18小时之后证实了此事，并说正在调查。伊拉克却矢口否认此事。

White House press secretary Mr Mike McCurry, travelling in Florida with the US President, said Mr Clinton had been briefed early on Saturday about the incident by a member of the National Security Council staff.

“There are no indications of changes in the status of anti-missile deployment”by Iraq, Mr McCurry said. He referred reporters to the Pentagon for further details.

【续】随同美国总统正在弗罗里达旅行的白宫新闻秘书迈克·麦考利说：星期六上午，一位国家安全委员会工作人员已向克林顿先生简要汇报了此事。

“没有迹象表明伊反导弹部署情况有何变化，”麦考利说。详细情况请记者向五角大楼询查。

The Pentagon spokesman read from a statement that said the F-16 “fired a HA RM (high-speed anti-radiation) missile at a radar site in southern Iraq after the aircraft was illuminated during a routine Southern Watch Mission”.

The incident was first reported by The Washington Times. Only then was it acknowledged by the Pentagon and the White House.

【续】这位五角大楼发言人宣读了一份声明说：这架F-16战斗机“在执行日常的南部警戒任务时遭到雷达跟踪后，才向伊南部一雷达基地发射了一枚高速反雷达哈姆导弹。”

华盛顿时报先报道了这次事件，五角大楼和白宫这才承认。

Mr McCurry denied that the delay was designed to protect Mr Clinton from political fallout just before this week’s presidential election. But he struggled to explain why the incident had no t been announced sooner, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that he had assumed the Pentagon had announced it earlier in the day.

【续】麦考利先生否认推迟公开此事是有意保护克林顿先生不要在本周总统选举之前引起政治纠纷。他竭力解释未早点公开这次事件的原因，并对驻第一空军的记者说，他还以为五角大楼那天早已公开了此事呢！

Asked about the delay, White House chief of staff Mr Leon Panetta said “I think they were waiting to see whether he (the F-16 pilot) was locked on to (by Iraqi radar). They don?t know the answer to that. ”

The missile firing was the first of its kind since September 4, when Iraqi forces confronted US flyers twice as the US jets began their patrols over an expanded no-fly zone for Iraqi aircraft that

Washington unilaterally declared the day before.

【续】当问及此次拖延报道时，白宫参谋长雷恩·潘尼特说：“我想他们是等等看他（F-16战斗机飞行员）当时是否被锁定。他们不知道此事件的原委。”

这是9月4日以来第一次发射导弹。华盛顿前一天单方面宣布扩大了的伊拉克飞机禁飞区，当时美方飞机开始在区内执行巡逻任务，伊拉克军方两次与美方飞机发生冲突。

课堂互动3:翻译下列新闻报道（参考译文）

LEXINGTON, V a. (Reuters) —President Bush warned on Wednesday that the war agains t terroris m was far from over, saying “cells of trained killers”will try to regroup in Afghanistan this spring and that “axis of evil”nations are cultivating ties to terrorist groups.

【译文】布什称反恐战争远未结束

[路透社莱克里顿4月17日电]（记者史迪夫·哈兰德）布什总统四月十七日警告说，美国所进行的反恐战争远未结束，并称今年春季，“训练有素的恐怖分子”将会在阿富汗重新集结，“邪恶轴心”国家也企图与恐怖组织建立联系。

With the war on terroris m overshadowed in recent weeks by Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed, Bush spoke to cadets at the Virginia Military Institute after a U. S. soldier was wounded in Afghanistan by a shot fired from a crowd in the southern city of Kandahar.

Bush said “good progress”has been made in destroying Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network but that as the spring thaw comes in Afghanistan, “we expect cells of trained killers to try to regroup”to try to disrupt efforts to build a lasting peace there.

【续】在弗吉尼亚军事学院发表演讲时布什说，最近几周的巴以流血冲突转移了全球反恐战争的视线。不久前，一位美国士兵在阿富汗南部城市坎大哈被冷枪击伤。

布什说，摧毁奥萨马·本·拉登的“基地”组织已取了“良好的进展”。但是，随着春季的来临，“我们认为，练有素的恐怖分子会企图重新集结”，破坏在阿富汗建立永久和平的努力。

Bush awoke to a headline in The Washington Post that said the United States had concluded bin Laden had escaped the Afghan battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U. S. ground troops to hunt him was the gravest U. S. error in the war against al Qaeda.

【续】布什还提到了《华盛顿邮报》的一条新闻说，美国肯定本·拉登已逃，美军去年底在阿富汗托拉博拉伍战役中未及早动用地面部队，痛失逮捕拉登的良机，这是美军在此战役中最为严重的过错。

At a news conference in Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dis missed the report and said he has never had any conclusive evidence of the whereabouts of bin Laden, whom the United States holds responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed around 3,000 people in New Y ork and Washington.

【续】在华盛顿的一次新闻发布会上，美国防部长拉姆斯菲尔德透露了上述报告，称他从未得到有关本·拉登藏身地的确凿证据。他又说拉登应对9·11事件负责，在纽约和华盛顿，有3 000人在该事件中丧生。

“We?re tough, we?re determined, we?re relent less. We will stay until the mission is done,”Bush said, without mentioning bin Laden by name.

But Bush said it is not enough to defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban, saying true peace in Afghanistan will only come when the battered nation has a stable government, a trained national army, and an education system for boys and girls alike.

【续】“我们将在阿富汗战斗下去，直到完成我们的使命，”布什说，但没有提及本·拉登的名字。

布什说，仅仅摧毁“基地”组织和推翻塔利班政权是不够的。遭受战争破坏的阿富汗

必须有一个稳定的政府、一支训练有素的国家军队和一个能为孩子们提供接受教育的学校体制，才会有真正的和平。

He invoked the name of a famed VMI graduate, George C. Marshall, who was Army chief of staff during World War Two and went on to become secretary of state. He is the namesake of the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild postwar Europe.

“The war against tenor will be long, and as George Marshall so clearly understood, it will not be enough to make the world safer. We must also work to make the world better,”he said.

【续】布什提到了弗吉尼亚军事学院著名的老校友乔治·C·马歇尔。此人曾是二战时期的美军参谋长联席会议主席，战后成为美国国务卿。帮助重建战后欧洲的马歇尔计划就是以他的名字命名的。

“反恐战争是长期的。正如马歇尔所说，使世界更安全是不够的，我们还要使世界变得更加美好，”布什说。

Pointing out U. S. assistance to the governments of the Philippines, Georgia and Y emen, Bush again extended an invitation to any nation “that needs our help will have it”in the war on terrorism and that leaders around the world “must choose, they are with us, or they are with the terrorists.”

【续】提到美国对菲律宾、格鲁吉亚和也门的帮助时，布什再次表示在反恐战争中任何国家“都能得到美国的帮助”。同时，世界各国领导人“必须做出抉择，要么站在我们美国一边，要么与恐怖分子为伍。”

He used the term “axis of evil”in referring to nations feared developing weapons of mass destruction. He coined the term in his Jan. 29 State of the Union to describe Iraq, Iran and North Korea, but has not repeated the phrase often after it elicited a negative reaction from allies like France, Germany, Italy and Britain.

【续】在谈到有些国家可能正在研制大规模杀伤性武器时，布什再次使用了“邪恶轴心”的提法。这个词语是他在1月29日的国情咨文中谈到伊拉克、伊朗和北朝鲜时创造的。但是由于遭到法国、德国、意大利、英国等同盟国的抵制，他再未使用这一提法。

“A small number of outlaw regimes today possess and are developing chemical and biological and nuclear weapons. They’re building missiles to deliver them, and at the same time cultivating ties to terrorist groups,”Bush said.

“In their threat to peace, in their mad ambitions, in their destructive potential and in the repression of their own people, these regimes constitute an axis of evil and the world must confront them,”he said.

【续】“今天，一小撮无法无天的政权拥有或正在研制生化核武器，并且正在制造用来发射这些武器的导弹。与此同时，它们还在与恐怖组织建立联系，”布什说。

“这些政权威胁和平，包藏疯狂的野心，压迫本国人民而且可能会把本国人民引向毁灭，它们形成了一个邪恶轴心。全世界必须应对它们。”

Bush pledged the United States would be deliberate and “we will work with our friends and allies”to confront emerging threats.

“We will fight against terrorist organizations in different ways, with different tactics, in different places,”he said. “And we will fight the threat from weapons of mass destruction in different ways, with different tactics, in different places.”

【续】布什发誓说，美国会殚精竭虑，“与我们的朋友和盟国一道”去面对出现的威胁。

“我们将以不同的方式，用不同的战术和在不同的地方与恐怖组织战斗，并铲除大规模杀伤性武器的威胁。”

20. 2. 4 新闻特写的翻译

新闻特写的一个极其明显的特点就是不需要遵循新闻报道严格的格式规范，不求报道的全面性，但求报道的独特角度。从某一个角度通过“放大”或“再现”的报道手段来深入细致地叙述描写，说明某件事、某个人、某件新闻片断。特写带有一定的主观性，目的是唤起读者的兴趣和共鸣。

特写中的人情味是吸引读者，提高读者阅读兴趣的有力手段。特写可以运用大量的细节和场景描写来营造气氛和情绪基调，让读者仿佛看到、听到或感受到所描绘的情景，并体会得到特写中的幽默与情调。

翻译特写时选词不能刻板，应根据不同的特写文体选不同的措辞，对涉及中西文化差异的词语、典故、习语、比喻等应加解释性的说明。

CocoA BEA CH, FLA: T minus 6 hours, 8 minutes and counting. It was 4:50 a.m., Tuesday, January 28, 1986.

Kennedy Space Center: T minus 2 hours, 27 minutes and counting. At 7:48 a.m. I watched the ritual “Astronaut Workout”. Beside me, a young reporter from teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe’s hometown stared intently as the Challenger’s crew of seven emerged from their quarters, jaunty in their sky-blue flight suits.

地点：佛罗里达州的可可海滩。离发射时间还有6小时8分钟。这时的时间是1986年1月28日星期二凌晨4点50分。

地点：肯尼迪航空中心。离发射时间还有2小时27分钟。早晨7点48分，我观看了“宇航员开拔启程”仪式。我身边站着一位年轻记者，他来自太空教师克里斯塔·麦考利夫的家乡，他聚精会神地望着七位身着天蓝色飞行服的“挑战者号”的机组人员，正轻松自在地从他们的驻地走出来。

“After all these hassles,” he said softly, “I wonder if they’re scared.”I knew each crew member had addressed the danger in his or her own way. Dick Scobee and Mike Smith had survived combat in Vietnam. Ellison Onizuka had been an Air Force test pilot. Ron McNair’s physics doctorate from MIT gave him uncomfortable insights into such subjects as “structural failure.”

】他轻声说，“经过前几次取消飞行的混乱之后，我不知道他们现在感到害怕，还是不害怕。”我知道每一位机组人员都以自己不同的方式处理了“危险”这个问题。迪克·斯科比和麦克·史密斯在越南战争中死里逃生。埃利森·奥尼朱克过去一直是空军试飞员。罗恩·麦克奈尔在麻省理工学院获得了物理学博士学位，专业知识使他不安地洞悉到诸如“结构失灵”这类事情将会带来什么样的后果。

Judy Resnick, like Onizuka, McNair and Commander Scobee, had been in orbit before and accepted the risk that went with travel to the space frontier. Greg Jarvis was an aerospace engineer who understood well that a system as complex as Challenger could fail in catastrophic ways. And Christa McAuliffe faced her flight as she’d faced her life, with her clear eyes open.

】像奥尼朱克，麦克奈尔和机长斯科比一样，朱迪·雷斯尼克以前也曾进人过太空轨道，他们也都知道了太空边际遨游难以避免的种种危险。格雷格·贾维斯是一位宇航工程师，他非常清楚像“挑战者号”这样复杂的系统是有可能会出现悲剧性的事故的。而克里斯塔·麦考利夫则睁着那双晶莹的大眼，就像以前自己对待人生那样对待这次飞行。

T minus 9 minutes and counting. Ignoring the bitter wind and cold, we left the shelter of the press dome for the grandstand. It was almost 11:30 a.m., and the launch was already two hours behind schedule. But at T minus 9 minutes NASA resumed the countdown, seemingly confident that any problem brought on by the frigid night was not “flight critical”.

时间距离发射只有9分钟。我们顶着寒风，迎着严寒，离开新闻记者的圆顶棚屋，来到正

面看台上。这时快到上午11点30分了，航天飞机的发射又比原计划推迟了2小时。然而，就在发射前9分钟，国家航空和宇宙航行局恢复了倒计时程序，他们似乎信心很足，认为寒夜所带来的任何问题，对于“航天飞行都无关紧要”。

As the reporters around me shivered in the icy wind, the count reached T minus 9 seconds, 8...7…

6... main engine start…solid rocket booster ignition…liftoff! Challenger rose into the metallic-blue sky, and, as always at launches, I felt myself riding inside the gracefully blazing spaceship.

当我身旁的记者们在寒风中瑟瑟发抖的时候，倒计时指针已指到9秒，8秒......7秒 (6)

秒……主发动机启动……固体燃料火箭助推器点火……起飞！“挑战者号”飞上碧蓝的天空。就像以往亲临发射场地一样，我仿佛觉得自己坐在拖着美丽的尾焰的航天飞机里。

To my naked eye, the ascent appeared normal. The shuttle had completed its roll maneuver and kept climbing. But then the contrail seemed to shimmer, to blur. I grabbed my binoculars and focused on the distant rocket glare. I saw what appeared to be the right booster rocket separate and peel away, a smoky pinwheel. I looked quickly at the Mission Clock: only 1:17 into the ascent, almost a minute too early for normal separation.

通过我的肉眼来看，升空似乎正常。航天飞机已经完成了翻身动作，正在继续上升。但是就在这时，机尾后拖的白云尾流中好像出现了闪光，尾流变得模糊不清了。我急忙抓起望远镜，把焦距对准遥遥的火箭烈焰。我看到好像是右侧火箭助推器与机体分离后，像一束轮状焰火，冒着浓烟剥落下来。我匆匆望了一眼飞行时钟，飞机升空只有1分17秒，按正常的火箭助推器分离时间，分离动作几乎提早了1分钟。

A radio reporter yelled, “R TLS! R TLS!”—NA SA jargon for an emergency return to launch site. “What’s happening?”a reporter next to me asked. “They’re coming back,”I yelled. I stumbled down the rickety plywood stares. My legs stopped as Steve Nesbitt. The voice of Mission Control in Houston, spoke: “We have a report from the flight-dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded.”

一位广播电台记者高声叫喊着“返回发射场！”“返回发射场！”——这是国家航空和宇宙航行局的行话，意指紧急情况下返回发射场地。“出什么事了？”身边一位记者问道。“他们要回来了。”我大声嚷道，跌跌绊绊地跑下摇摇晃晃的胶合板楼梯，我突然止住脚步，只听到休斯顿航天控制中心史蒂夫·内斯比特沉重地宣布：“据飞行动力官报告，航天飞机爆炸了。”

I looked at the cloud again. It had swollen to a dirty gray sausage. Two big p ieces of the booster rockets were arching on parallel tracks like blinded, runaway horse.

I slumped down on the first seat I could find, unable to move. “We just lost the Challenger,”I mumbled. “May their souls rest in peace.”

】我再次举目望去，只见那片烟云已经扩散开来，形成一片像脏兮兮的灰色香肠的形状。两片巨大的助推火箭残体，正平行着划出两道弧线，像两匹脱缰瞎马，横冲直撞坠落下来。

我一屁股坐在就近的一把椅子上，一步也挪不动了。“我们的…挑战者号?就这样完了。”我喃喃自语，“愿他们的灵魂安息吧。”

“Where are they?”someone asked.

“They’re dead,” I lashed out. I felt fear and sorrow, then disbelief and finally rage…at my own impatience, at all of us who had expected space-shuttle flights —the most complex technological endeavor ever attempted—to be routinely produced as if they were circus acts, not dangerous milestones in our boldest exploration. （Malcolm McConnell）

】“他们上哪儿了？”有人问道。

“他们死了。”我怒声喝道。我感到又恐惧又难过，然后又觉得难以置信，终于变得怒不可遏……我对先前自己的急不可待感到愤怒，对所有的人感到愤怒，是我们这些人曾盼望着航天飞行——人类有史以来所做出的最复杂的科技尝试——如期进行。似乎这些飞行只是些马戏团的杂

耍而已，并不是我们最勇敢的宇宙探索中一座座危险的里程碑。

社会生活新闻特写、人物特写、趣闻特写相对内容较复杂，长句多，因为长句可以蕴涵丰富的信息，表达复杂的逻辑关系，体现优美滑稽的语言特色。翻译这类内容主要包括理解和表达两个方面。

20. 2. 5 新闻评论的翻译

新闻评论是个总称，其种类很多，归纳起来主要有两大类。

●代表新闻媒介发表意见的评论，包括社论、本报评论员文章、短评、编者按、新闻述评等。

●专栏评论、杂志、随笔以及多种形式广播评论、电视评论等。

从形式上，新闻评论有短篇新闻评论和长篇新闻评论。新闻评论结构严谨、布局合理。

新闻文评论的重点在于“评理”和“论理”，按照内在的逻辑规律，合理地安排结构，选好角度，从小处入手，新处入手，巧处入手，使其具有一种能够从道理上说服人的很强的、严密的逻辑性。

新闻评论的表现方式与报道和新闻消息不同，不是单一的叙述，而是叙述与评论相结合，重在评论。

短篇新闻评论容易翻译，对篇幅很长的新闻评论一般采用编译或摘译，摘译原文中的主题句、关键词、重要的观点、论证、论据以及其结论。对摘译出的部分也可进行重新组合，另设标题，但一定要注明原文的标题、作者、出处和时间，不能随意更改。

例1：Plundering the Past

The destruction of the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan began four years ago, when a little-known Taliban commander declared that “not a single pagan idol must remain in the territory of Afghanistan”. The commander’s unit had just driven out the mujahedin—guerrillas led by Ahmed Shah Massoud—from the valley housing the relics, and Taliban tanks began firing on them shortly afterward.

【译文】劫掠历史

对这些已有1 500年历史的巴米扬大佛像的摧毁行动从四年前就开始了，那时，一个默默无闻的塔利班指挥官宣称“在阿富汗的领土上将不容许再有任何异教徒的偶像存在”。当时，那位指挥官的部队刚把马苏德所领导的穆斯林游击队赶出保存着这些佛像的山谷，不久之后，塔利班的坦克就开始向这些佛像开炮。

The cliffside sculptures got a reprieve, however, when Taliban leader Muhammad Omar issued a special edict last year decreeing that the Bamiyan Buddhas were protected and their destruction was prohibited. But on Feb. 26 Mullah Omar issued an edict calling for the destruction of the idols. Why did the secretive leader of the “fighters for Islam”change his mind?

【续】不过，后来这些岩壁上的雕像获得了暂缓殒命的机会，因为塔利班的领袖奥马尔去年发布了一项特别命令来保护这些巴米扬佛像，并禁止任何破坏行动。但是今年2月26日那天，奥马尔却又发布命令，要求部队摧毁这些偶像。为什么这位“伊斯兰战士”组织的秘密领袖会改变主意呢？

The first reason, agree most diplomats who study Afghanistan, is the regime’s persistent desire to achieve international recognition. So far the Taliban has been recognized by only three countries—Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The West, especially the U. S., refuses t o recognize the country’s new rulers until they extradite Osama bin Laden, who is suspected of organizing terror attacks against American targets.

【续】大多数研究阿富汗问题的外交官都认为第一个原因就是这个政权一直希望能够获得国际上的承认。到目前为止，只有巴基斯坦、沙特阿拉伯和阿拉伯联合酋长国这三个国家承认塔

利班政府。而西方国家，尤其是美国，迄今拒绝在对方引渡本·拉登之前承认这个国家的新统治者。本·拉登被怀疑曾组织以美国人民、机构为目标的恐怖攻击行动。

Some three months ago, the United Nations tightened sanctions against the Taliban to pressurize it to stop harboring the international fugitive. For Mullah Omar, who had spared the statues in the hope of improving relations with the West, the increased pressure indicated he had nothing left to lose. His response to the rest of the world: If you want the monuments to survive, then recognize us as we are.

【续】大约三个月前，联合国对塔利班实施了更严厉的制裁，以迫使他们不再庇护国际性通缉犯。此前奥马尔暂缓摧毁佛像的目的是想改善与西方国家的关系，而当国际上的压力越来越大的时候，他觉得反正也不会有什么损失了，于是他对国际社会的回答是：你们还想保留这些纪念物，那就乖乖地承认我们（塔利班政府）好了。

The second reason was a desire to punish the Hazaras. This ethnic group, which considers itself Afghanistan’s oldest and prides itself on its cultural heritage, makes up the majority in the Bamiyan V alley. The Hazaras did no welcome the Taliban, who are mostly Pushtuns, and in February armed units of Hazaras expelled pro-Taliban students from the town of Bamiyan. The town was recaptured after four days of bloody fighting, with the “liberation”accompanied by ethnic violence against the Hazaras.

【续】第二个原因是他想惩罚哈扎拉族人。该族自诩为阿富汗历史最悠久的种族，同时还深为自己的文化传统而自豪。他们在巴米扬山谷地带占了人口的多数。哈扎拉族并不欢迎塔利班政府，因为对方属于普什图族。而在二月份时，哈扎拉族武装团体把亲塔利班的学生赶出了巴米扬城区。但经过四昼夜的血腥战斗之后，塔利班重新“解放”了这个城镇。之后，他们还对哈扎拉族人进行了种族暴力报复行动。

Although it appears to the world that the destruction of the Buddhas is only the beginning of a ruthless war by the Taliban against Afghanistan’s bountiful pre-Islamic culture, in reality the barbaric plundering and destruction of monuments in the war-torn country are nearing their conclusion.

【续】虽然，全世界都以为这次摧毁佛像的行动只是塔利班针对阿富汗前伊斯兰璀璨文化遗产的残酷战争的开始，但事实上这个饱受战乱蹂躏国家针对纪念物的野蛮的劫掠与摧毁行为已经接近尾声。

课堂互动5: 翻译下列新闻评论（参考译文）

US Support for International Family Planning

Family planning saves lives, and it protects the health of wo men and men and children.

Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death and disability for women of reproductive age in developing countries. The statistics are grim: roughly 600 000 women die each year of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. That’s one woman every minute.

【译文】美国支持他国实行计划生育的政策

实行计划生育可以拯救生命，还可以保护男人、妇女和儿童的健康。

孕期和分娩时所发生的并发症是发展中国家育龄妇女死亡与伤残的主要原因。数字是严峻的：每年大约有60万妇女死于孕期和分娩的并发症。也就是说每分钟就有一位妇女因此而死亡。

About 12 million children under 5 years of age die every year. In addition, by the end of 1999, there were nearly 34 million people infected with HIV. More than 2.5 million persons die of AIDS every year. Nearly half of all the new HIV infections are among women, and nearly half are among young people under the age of 25.

【续】每年大约有1200万5岁以下的儿童死亡。到1999年底，近3400万人感染了艾滋病病毒，每年有250多万人死于艾滋病。新的艾滋病病毒感染者近一半是妇女，还有近一半是25

岁以下的年轻人。

Family planning can save the lives of many of the women by making sure that the children are spaced in such a way that the mothers can become healthy again before they have their next child, and also by permitting them to avoid abortion—particularly botched or back-alley abortions, which cost thousands and thousands of lives a year.

【续】计划生育可以拯救很多妇女的生命，通过拉大生孩子的间隔，使妇女在生下一个孩子之前，身体健康得到恢复。同时也可以避免流产，特别是那些不必要的、有危险性的流产。这类流产每年都要夺去成千上万名妇女的生命。

Family planning can also save the lives of many of these 12 million children by helping families space children so that one child can grow before the next one arrives. Parents can thus take better care of their children.

We also know that there is an intimate relation between family planning and the prevention of HIV/AIDS.

【续】此外，计划生育还可能挽救每年1200万死亡儿童中大部分人的生命，它可以使两个孩子的生育间隔不至于过密，大的孩子能更好地成长。父母也可以好好地照顾自己的孩子。

我们知道计划生育与艾滋病防治也有密切的关系。

The United States has provided family planning assistance to developing countries for over 30 years, both through USAID and through the United Nations Population Fund, which is present in over 150 countries. That lifesaving assistance is welcomed by, and critical for, those countries.

【续】通过美国国际开发总署和在150多个国家设有代表处的联合国人口基金会，30年来，美国向很多发展中国家提供了计划生育方面的援助。这种援助拯救人的生命，对这些国家非常重要，因而也受到了欢迎。

A number of U. S. congressmen believe that abortions are morally wrong and that family planning organizations that the U. S. government supports should not perform or advocate abortions. In recent years, these congressmen have successfully worked to draw down U. S. family planning assistance to record low levels and have increasingly placed legal restrictions on the assistance that we do provide.

【续】一些美国国会议员认为从道义上来说流产是错误的，因此受到美国政府支持的计划生育组织不应实行或提倡流产。近年来，这些议员成功地使美国政府对计划生育的援助降至历史最低水平，并不断地对美国提供的援助增加各种法律限制。

President Clinton believes that reduced funding for these organizations will only have the effect of increasing the number of people that have to rely on a abortions. (Tom Madden)

【续】克林顿总统认为，对这些组织减少财政援助的结果只能使更多的人选择流产。

成功的新闻文体的翻译一定要准确、简明、通俗、生动。

●所谓准确就是“靠事实说话”，反应实际事物的本质，这是新闻语言的核心。

●所谓简明，新闻报道要和时间赛跑，时间性极强，而且传媒的容量也有限，因而译文篇幅要短小，语言要简明, 清晰明了。

●所谓通俗，讲求通俗性、大众化，使用通用的语言、常用的词汇，以适应年龄、职业、文化水平等都有差异的各种各样的读者。尽量少用专业术语，对难懂的专业术语要用注解或脚注。

●所谓生动，新闻语言一定要生动形象，富有特色，报道要打动人心。

第二十章综合练习

及参考译文

Washington, December 2 (Xinhua)—President George Bush’s approval rating with A mericans

has fallen below 50 per cent for the first time since he took office, according to a poll released on Saturday by Time magazine. The poll of 500 A mericans conducted on November 26 found Bush’s popularity at 46 per cent. Bush’s rating was as high as 91 per cent in some polls during the

January-February Gulf War but has steadily declined because of the country’s economic recession.

【译文】（新华社华盛顿12月2日电）据星期六《时代》周刊公布的民意测验结果，美国人对布什的赞成率自他就任美国总统以来首次下降至50％以下。11月26日在500美国人中进行了测验，支持者仅占46％。在1—2月海湾战争期间进行的几次民意测验中，布什的赞成率高达91％，但后来由于美国国内经济的衰退而不断下降。

Life on Other Planets (其他行星上的生命)

In 1961, scientists set up gigantic, sensitive apparatus to collect radio from the far reaches of space, hoping to discover in some mathematical pattern indicating that the waves were sent out by other intelligent beings. The first attempt failed; but someday the experiment may succeed.

【译文】1961年，科学家们安装了巨大而灵敏的仪器，接收来自遥远太空的无线电波，希望从中发现某种数学模型。以表明这些电波是由其他智能生物发射的。初次尝试失败了，但是有朝一日这种实验有可能成功。

What reason is there to think that we may actually detect intelligent life in outer space? To begin with, modern theories of the development of stars suggest that almost every star has some sort of family of planets. So any star like our own sun (and there are billions upon billions of such stars in the universe) is likely to have a planet situated at such a distance that it would receive about the same amount of radiation as the earth.

【续】有什么理由认为我们真的会在外层空间探测到智能生命呢？首先，有关恒星演变的现代理论认为，几乎所有的恒星都有某种行星家族。因此，和我们的太阳相似的恒星（宇宙中有数以亿万计的这样的恒星），都可能有一颗行星处在正好可以接收和地球所能接收的大致相等的辐射。

Furthermore, such a planet would probably have the same general composition as our own; so,

al1owing a billion years or two—or three—there would be a very good chance for life to develop, if current theories of the origin of life are correct.

【续】而且，这样一颗行星在组成成份上可能和我们的地球大体相同；那么，经过一、二十亿（乃至三十亿）年之后，如果有关生命起源的当代理论正确的话，这种行星上就很可能会产生生命。

But intelligent life? Life that has reached the stage of being able to send radio waves out into space in a deliberate pattern? Our own planet may have been in existence for five billion years and may have had life on it for two billion, but it is only in the last fifty years that intelligent life capable of sending radio waves into space has lived on earth. From this it might seem that even if there were no technical problems in volved, the chance of receiving signals from any particular earthtype planet would be extremely s mall.

【续】但是，到底有无智能生命呢？是否会有达到以预定的图型能把无线电波发射到太空这样阶段的生命呢？我们自己这颗行星可能已经存在50亿年了，它上面存在生命已经有20亿年了，但是仅仅在最近50年，生活在地球上的智能生物才能够向太空发射无线电波。由此看来，即使没有种种技术问题，从某个类似地球的行星上接收到讯号的机会也是微乎其微的。

This does not mean that intelligent life at our level does not exist somewhere. There is such an unimaginable number of stars that, even at such miserable odds, it seems certain that there are millions of intelligent life forms scattered through space. The only trouble is, none may be within hailing distance of us.

【续】这并不是说在别处就不会存在与我们发展水平相当的智能生命。由于恒星数目多得难以想象，虽然产生生命的可能性极小，似乎可以断定，在太空中仍然分布着数以百万计的智能生命形式。唯一的困难是：没有一种是处在我们可用信号与之联系的范国以内。

Perhaps none ever will be; perhaps the appalling distances that separate us from our fellow denizens of this universe will forever remain too great to be conquered. And yet it is conceivable that someday we may come across one of them or, frighteningly, one of them may come across us. What would they be like, these extraterrestrial creatures?

【续】可能将来也永远不会有；因为把我们跟宇宙的其他居民分开的这段令人畏惧的距离是如此之大，也许永远都无法征服。但是，可以相信，有朝一日，我们可能会遇见他们中的某—类，或者更可怕的是他们中的某一类可能会来找到我们。这些外星生物会是什么样子呢？

Surely, it would seem, there is no way of telling. Here on earth alone, life has developed in many directions. Taking on forms that could scarcely be invented by the wildest imagination if they were not already known to exist.

【续】当然，这似乎是无法预测的。仅仅在地球上，生命就朝向种种方向进化，所呈现的形态，如果不是已被探知，恐怕就是运用最丰富的想象力也难以创造出来。

Who would dream that a mouse could fly if he had never seen a bat? Who would predict blind lizards living in caves, or worms living in the intestines of other creatures? Consider the giraffe, the hummingbird, the V enus’s-flytrap, and see whether you can imagine any limit to the fantasia of life. Then how can anyone predict anything at all about extraterrestrial beings?

【续】如果没有见过蝙蝠，谁能会想到老鼠会飞？谁又料想到没有视力的蜥蜴会穴居在山洞里，蠕虫会寄生在其他动物的肠子里？试想长颈鹿、蜂鸟、红杉、捕蝇草，试看你对生命的幻想曲能否想象出任何限制。既然如此，谁又能对外星生物做出任何预测呢？

Ah, but all these variations and modifications that exist on earth are in some ways only superficial. In the chemist’s test tube, all that splendid diversity boils down to what is, after all, really a dull, flat sameness. Whatever appearance earth creatures may have, they are all made up of the same kinds of complex molecules; with minor variations, they all make use of the same chemical machinery.

【续】然而，地球上存在的所有这些千姿百态，从某些方面来讲都是表面上来看的。在化学家的试管里，这些形态各异令人眼花缭乱的变体，终究都只不过是一些平淡无奇的一模一样的东西。不管地球生物具有什么形态、它们都是由同样的复合分子构成的；它们都是使用相同的化学机制，只是存在着微小的差异。

For all its wonderful differences, life on earth is merely an imaginative variation on a single chemical theme. Life on earthlike planet may prove to be similar. (Isaac Asimov)

【续】因此地球上的生命尽管有种种奇妙的差异，都不过是在单一化学基干上发生的形态的变化。在任何类似地球的行星上，生命也可能证明与此相似。