03-12年真题

2003年12月英语二级笔译实务试题Section 1: English – Chinese Translation (英译汉)(60 points, 100 minutes)Part A Compulsory Translation (必译题) （30 points）Nowhere to GoFor the latest on the pursuit of the American Dream in Silicon Valley, all you have to do is to talk to someone like ―Nagaraj‖ (who didn‘t want to reveal his real name). He‘s an Indian immigrant who, like many other Indian engineers, came to America recently on an H-1B visa, which allows skilled workers to be employed by one company for as many as six years. But one morning last month, Nagaraj and a half dozen other Indian workers with H-1Bs were called into a conference room in their San Francisco technology-consulting firm and told they were being laid off. The reason: weakening economic conditions in Silicon Valley, ―It was the shock of my lifetime,‖ says Nagaraj.This is not a normal bear-market sob story. According to federal regulation, Nagaraj and his colleagues have two choices. They must either return to India, or find another job in a tight labor market and hope that the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) allow them to transfer their visa to the new company. And the law doesn‘t allow them to earn a pay-check until all the paperwork winds its way through the INS bureaucracy. ―How am I going to survive without any job and without any income?‖ Nagaraj wonders.Until recently, H-1B visas were championed by Silicon Valley companies as the solution to the region‘s shortage of programmers and engineers. First issued by the INS in 1992, they attract skilled workers from other countries, many of whom bring families with them, lay down roots and apply for the more permanent green cards. Through February 2000, more than 81,000 worker held such visas —but with the dot-com crash, many have been getting laid off. That‘s causing mass consternation in U.S. immigrant communities. The INS considers a worker ―out of status‖ when he loses a job, which technically means that he must pack up and go home. But because of the scope of this year‘s layoffs, the U.S. government has recently backpedaled, issuing a confusing series of statements that suggest workers might be able to stay if they qualify for some exceptions and can find a new company to sponsor their visa. But even those loopholes remain nebulous. The result is thousands of immigrants now face dimming career prospects in America, and the possibilities that they will be sent home. ―They are in limbo. It is the greatest form of torture,‖ says Amar Veda of the Silicon Valley-based Immigrants Support Network.The crisis looks especially bad in light of all the heated visa rhetoric by Silicon Valley companies in the past few years. Last fall the industry won a big victory by getting Congress to approve an increase in the annual number of H-1B visas. Now, with technology firms retrenching, demand for such workers is slowing. Valley heavyweights like Intel, Cisco and Hewlett-Packard have all announced thousands of layoffs this year, which include many H-1B workers. The INS reported last month that only 16,000 new H-1B workers came to the United States in February —down from 32,000 in February of last year.Last month, acknowledging the scope of the problem, the INS told H-1B holders ―not to panic,‖ and that there would be a grace period for laid-off workers before they had to leave the United States. INS spokeswomen Eyleen Schmidt promises that more specific guidance will come this month. ―We are aware of the cutbacks,‖ she says. ―We‘re trying to be as generous as we can be within the confines of the existing law.‖Part B Choice of Two Translations (二选一题) （30 points）Topic 1 (选题一)What Is the Force of Gravity?If you throw a ball up, it will come down again. What makes it come down? The ball comes down because it is pulled or attracted towards the Earth. The Earth exerts a force of attraction on all objects. Objects that are nearer to the Earth are attracted to it with a greater force than those that are further away. This force of attraction is known as the force of gravity. The gravitational force acting on an object at the Earth‘s surface is called the weight of the object.All the heavenly bodies in space like the moon, the planets and the stars also exert an attractive force on objects. The bigger and heavier a body is, the greater is its force of gravity. Thus, since the moon is a smaller body than Earth, the force it exerts on an object at its surface is less than that exerted by the Earth on the same object on the Earth‘s surface. In fact, the moon‘s gravitational force is only one-sixth that of the Earth. This means that an object weighing 120 kilograms on Earth will only weigh 20 kilograms on the moon. Therefore on the moon you could lift weights which are six times heavier than the heaviest weight that you can lift on Earth.The Earth‘s gravitational force or pull keeps us and everything else on Earth from floating away to space. To get out into space and travel to the moon or other planets we have to overcome the Earth‘s gravitational pull.Entry into SpaceHow can we overcome the Earth‘s gravitational pull? Scientists have been working on this for a long time. It is only recently that they have been able to build machines powerful enough to get out of the Earth‘s gravitational pull. Such machines are called space rockets. Their great speed and power help them to escape from the Earth‘s gravitational pull and go into space.RocketsThe powerful space rocket works along the same lines as a simple firework rocket. The firework rocket has a cylindrical body and a conical head. The body is packed with gunpowder which is the fuel. It is a mixture of chemicals that will burn rapidly to form hot gases.At the base or foot of the rocket there is an opening or nozzle. A fuse hangs out like a tail from the nozzle. A long stick attached along the body serves to direct the rocket before the fuse is lighted.When the gunpowder burns, hot gases rush out of the nozzle. The hot gases continue to rush out as long as the gunpowder burns. When these gases shoot downwards through the nozzle the rocket is pushed upwards. This is called jet propulsion. The simple experiment, shown in the picture, will help you to understand jet propulsion.Topic 2 （选题二）Basketball DiplomacyCHINA”S TALLEST SOLDIER never really expected to live the American Dream. But Wang Zhizhi, a 7-foot-1 basketball star from the People‘s Liberation Army, is making history as the first Chinese player in the NBA. In his first three weeks in America the 23-year-old rookie has already cashed his first big NBA check, preside over ―Wang Zhizhi Day‖ in San Francisco and become immortalized on his very own trading cards. He‘s even played in five games with his new team, the Dallas Mavericks, scoring 24 points in just 38 minutes. Now the affable Lieutenant Wang is joining the Mavericks on their ride into the NBA playoffs —and he is intent on enjoying every minute. One recent evening Wang slipped into the hot tub behind the house of Mavericks assistant coach Donn Nelson. He leaned back, stretched out and pointed at a plane moving across the star-filled sky. In broken English, he started singing his favorite tune: ―I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky.‖Back in China, the nation‘s other basketball phenom, Yao Ming , can only dream of taking flight. Yao thought he was going to be the first Chinese player in the NBA. The 7-foot-5 Shanghai sensation is more highly touted than Wang:the 20-year-old could be the No.1 overall pick in the June NBA draft. But as the May 13 deadline to enter the draft draws near, Yao is still waiting for a horde of business people and apparatchiks to decide his fate. Last week, as Wang scored 13 points in the Dallas season finale, Yao was wading through a stream of bicycles on a dusty Beijing street.Yao and Wang are more than just freaks of nature in basketball shorts. The twin towers are national treasures, symbols of China‘s growing stature in the world. They‘re also emblematic of the NBA‘s outsize dreams for conquering China. The NBA, struggling at home, sees salvation in the land of 1.3 billion potential hoop fans. China, determined to win the 2008 Olympics and join the World Trade Organization, is eager to make its mark on the world —on its own terms. The two-year struggle to get these young players into the NBA has been a cultural collision —this one far removed from U.S.-China bickering over spy planes and trade liberalization. If it works out, it could be —in basketball parlance —the ultimate give-and-go. ―This is just like Ping-Pong diplomacy,‖says Xia Song, a sport-marketing executive who represents Wang. ―Only with a much bigger ball.‖Two years ago it looked more like a ball and chain. Wang‘s Army bosses were miffed when the Mavericks had the nerve to draft their star back in 1999. Nelson remembers flying to Beijing with the then owner Ross Perot Jr. —son of the eccentric billionaire —to hammer out a deal with the stone-faced communists of the PLA. ―You could hear them thinking: ‗What is this NBA team doing, trying to lay claim to our property?‘‖ Nelson recalls. ―We tried to explain that this was an honor for Wang and for China.‖ There was no deal. Wang grew despondent and lost his edge on court.This year Yao became the anointed one. He eclipsed Wang in scoring and rebounding, and even stole away his coveted MVP award in the Chinese Basketball Association league. It looked as if his Shanghai team —a dynamic semicapitalist club in China‘s most open city —would get its star to the NBA first.Then came the March madness. Wang broke out of his slump to lead the Army team to its sixth consecutive CBA title —scoring 40 in the final game. A day later the PLA scored some points of its own by announcing that Wang was free to go West. What inspired the change of heart? No doubt the Mavericks worked to build trust with Chinese officials (even inviting national- team coach Wang Fei to spend the 1999-2000 season in Dallas). There was also the small matter of Chinese pride. The national team stumbled to a 10th-place finish at the 2000 Olympics, after placing eighth in 1996. Even the most intransigent cadre could see that the team would improve only if it sent its stars overseas to learn from the world‘s best players.Section 2: Chinese-English Translation （汉译英）(40 points, 80 minutes)Part A Compulsory Translation（必译题）（20 points）中华民族历来尊重人的尊严和价值。