Translation

Translation

Cixi was utterly fearful of foreigners just as she was extremely arrogant toward her own countrymen. She stopped for a long time in Henan and halted in Baoding for quite a few days before finally arriving in Beijing. It was said that an amusing episode took place during this long and drawn-out journey. When a local official offered a monkey to her as a gift, she was so pleased that she ordered a yellow mandarin jacket to the monkey. Later, she was told that some officials were complaining that people were considered less worthy than a monkey, then she realized that her order had been indeed a litter too whimsical. So she gave another order granting each of the escorting officials a yellow mandarin jacket. Upon the receipt of such an unusual favor, the officials did not know whether they should thank Cixi or rather the monkey for it.

慈禧对外国人万分惧怕，正像她对国人无比傲慢一样。她在河南停留了很长一段时间，到了保定又逗留多日，好不容易才回到北京。据说，在这漫长的旅途中还发生了一件趣事。一位官员送给慈禧一只猴子，她颇为高兴，竟让人给那只猴子穿黄马褂。后来得知有的官员发出了“人不如猴”的感慨，慈禧才发现自己的决定有些荒唐，于是又命令给随行官员每人一件黄马褂。得知如此殊荣之后，大家真不知道该感谢慈禧还是感谢那只猴子。

Mandarin, the official language of China, is suddenly hot in American schools. As China becomes the world’s leading economy in this century, both public and pr ivate schools are scrambling to add Mandarin to their roster of foreign languages or expand Chinese language programs already in place. By some estimates, as many as 50,000 children nationwide are taking Mandarin in school. The device to develop Chinese-language programs has met some difficulties. A shortage of trained, credentialed teachers has made it difficult for some schools to join the race. When schools need to employ teachers, they often recruit them from China, which is hidden trouble for a culture clash.

中国的官方语言普通话在美国的学校中突然热起来。由于中国经济在本世纪的领先地位，美国的公立和私立学校纷纷在外语教学中加入汉语这一科，或将已有的汉语教学项目进行扩展。据统计，在美国的学校中，有5万名孩子在学习汉语。推动汉语项目的发展不是没有遇到困难。由于缺乏受过专业训练、持有证书的教师，一些学校很难加入汉语教学的竞争。当学校聘用教师时，它们通常直接从中国将他们招来，这种方式为文化冲突埋下了隐患。

The word-famous Silk Road is a series of routes that connect the East and the West. The Silk Road extends more than 6,000 kilometers and gets its name from ancient China’s silk trade. The trade on the Silk Road has played a very important role in the development of civilizations in China, South Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It was through the Silk Road that the four great inventions of ancient China—papermaking, gunpowder, compass and printing—had been introduced to other parts of the world. Similarly, China’s silk, tea and porcelain had also been spread all over the world through it. The exchange of material culture is bilateral. Europe, in return, had exported various commodities and plants through the Silk Road, meeting the need of Chinese market.

闻名于世的丝绸之路是一系列连接东西方的路线。丝绸之路延伸6000多公里，得名于古代中国的丝绸贸易。丝绸之路上的贸易在中国、南亚、欧洲和中东文明发展中发挥了重要作用。

正是通过丝绸之路，中国的造纸、火药、指南针、印刷术等四大发明才被引荐到世界各地。同样，中国的丝绸、茶叶和瓷器也传遍全球。物质文化的交流是双向的，欧洲也通过丝绸之路出口各种商品和植物，满足中国市场的需求。

The Silk Road dates back to the second century B.C. when a Chinese envoy Zhang Qian embarked on his business trip to western countries following this trade access linking Asia and Europe. Originating from the present-day Xi’an, the 7,000-kilometer route traversed the Hexi Corridor, the Tarim Basin, the port countries of West Asia, ending at the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. China brought its silk cloth, gunpowder, and papermaking and printing techniques to the West via this road. It, in return, introduced into China Buddhism and Islam as well as grapes, glass, and perfume from the outside world. Because the famous Chin a’s silk reached the West along this road, European scholars came to call it the “Silk Road”.

丝绸之路可以追溯到公元前二世纪，中国使者张骞沿着这条连接亚欧两大洲得到贸易通道出使西域。这条通道源于今日西安，一路穿越河西走廊、塔里木盆地以及西亚的港口城市，醉后抵达地中海的东岸，全程7千公里。中国通过这条通道给西域各国带去了丝绸织物、火药、造纸术和印刷术。同时，也从国外给我们引进了佛教、伊斯兰教，以及葡萄、玻璃、香水等产品。因为著名的中国丝绸是沿着这条通道进入西方国家的，所以欧洲学者将此通道称作“丝绸之路”。

The Chinese garden has become a landscape of unique style after an evolvement for more than 3,000 years. It includes not only the large gardens built as entertainment venues for royal family, but also the private gardens built as secluded retreats for schools, merchants and retired government officials. These gardens have constituted a miniature designed to express the harmonious relationship between man and nature. A typical Chinese garden is surrounded by walls, and in the garden there are ponds, rockwork, trees, flowers and all kinds of buildings linked by winding trails and corridors. Wandering in the gardens, people may feel that a series of well-designed scenery spreads out before us like a landscape scroll.

中国园林是经过三千多年演变而成的独具一格的园林景观。它既包括为皇室成员享乐而建造的大型花园，也包括学者、商人和卸任的政府官员为摆脱嘈杂的外部世界而建造的私家花园。这些花园构成了一种意在表达人与自然之间应有的和谐关系的微缩景观。典型的中国园林四周有围墙，园内有池塘、假山、树木、花草以及各种各样由蜿蜒的小路和走廊连接的建筑。漫步在花园中，人们可以看到一系列精心设计的景观犹如山水画卷一般展现在面前。

Since the ancient times, the Chinese people usually celebrate harvest in the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is similar to the custom of celebrating Thanksgiving in the North America. The tradition of celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival become popular throughout China in the early Tang dynasty. People worship the moon on the lunar August 15th. On this day, under the bright moon, families reunite and enjoy the moon’s beauty. In 2006, Mid-Autumn Festival was listed as one of China’s cultural heritages, and in 2008, it was classified as a public holiday. Mooncakes, as indispensable delicious food of the festival, are gifts that people send to families and friends during the festival and usually eaten on family gatherings. There are characters, like “longevity”, “good fortune” and

“harmony”, on the traditional moon cakes.

中国人自古以来就在中秋节庆祝丰收。这与北美地区庆祝感恩节的习俗十分相似。过中秋节的习俗于唐代早期在中国各地开始流行。中秋节在农历八月十五，是人们拜月的节日，这天夜晚皓月当空，人们合家团聚，共赏明月。2006年，中秋节被列为中国的文化遗产，2008年又被定为公共假日。月饼被视为中秋节不可或缺的美食。人们将月饼作为礼物馈赠亲友或在家庭聚会上享用。传统的月饼上带有“寿”、“福”或“和”等字样。

China’s implementation of an overall opening policy towards the outside world is meant that it opens towards both big and small countries, and both developed and developing countries. China’s overall economic cooperation with developed countries has achieved great progress, particularly in attracting foreign capital, expanding foreign trade and developing science, education and culture. China’s economic and technological cooperation with developing countries has also opened up new vistas. Small and medium-sized joint-venture enterprises and commercial and trade business have mushroomed. While continuing to provide assistance to some small countries, China carries out economic cooperation of mutual benefit in the form of joint-ventures, cooperative production, technological services and compensation trade.

中国实行全面的对外开放的政策是指，它不仅对大国开放，也对小国开放，不仅对发达国家开放，也对发展中国家开放。中国与发达国家的全方位的经济合作取得了很大的进展，尤其突出地体现在吸引外资、扩大对外贸易、发展科学、教育和文化等方面。中国与发展中国家的经济技术合作也开辟了新的广阔的前景，各种中小合资企业和商贸公司如雨后春笋般出现。在继续向一些小国提供援助的同时，中国通过合资经营、合作生产、技术服务和补偿贸易等形式开展互惠互利的经济合作。

The sharp expansion of cities and the shift of a large rural population into cities and towns will make the urban areas unimaginably crowded. The rapid growth of urban population will put heavy pressure on public health, fresh water supply, medical care, food supply, housing, transportation and employment, and also bring about some vicious social problems. In the meantime, the urban and township development will cause more loss of fertile farmland. The ever-increasing serious air and water pollution will damage crops. All these will form more obstacles to the development of agriculture. The increasing shortage of resources on earth is also a major problem that cannot be ignored. It seems that the solution to the problem concerning the extremely rapid growth of population is a difficult and pressing task facing all the people in modern society.

中国城市急剧膨胀，大量农村人口移居城镇，使城市变得拥挤不堪。城市人口的迅速增长，将对公共卫生、淡水供应、医疗保健、食品供应、住房、交通和就业造成极大的压力，并且带来一些恶性社会问题。同时，由于城镇发展，我们失去了肥沃的农田，日益恶化的空气质量和水质的污染使农作物受到伤害。所有这些将使农业发展更加步履维艰。地球资源日益匮乏也是一个不容忽视的问题。看来解决人口激增的问题，是摆在现代人面前的一项艰巨而迫切的任务。

Chopsticks are the main tableware in China. Chinese children start with a spoon but will adapt to

chopsticks when they turn one. As a gift, chopsticks symbolize straightforwardness like their shape. Chinese chopsticks don’t have pointed tips. Most of them a re made of bamboo; of course, you see wooden and plastic one. The westerners eat with knives and forks. Some westerners may be quite good at using chopsticks, but most of them are not. Therefore, when setting a table at which westerners are entertained in China, it is always advisable to place knives and forks alongside the chopsticks.

在中国，筷子是主要的餐具。中国小孩最初是使用汤匙，但在他们一岁的时候就可以适应使用筷子。作为一份礼物，筷子就如他们的外形一样象征着爽直。中国的筷子没有尖尖的顶端，大部分中式筷子是用竹子制成的，当然也可以看到木筷子和塑料筷子。西方人用餐时一般用餐刀、餐叉。有些西方人可能非常会用筷子，但大多数人不会。所以，在中国为西方客人摆餐具时，筷子旁边再摆上刀叉是很明智的做法。

Globalization is a challenge for both developed and developing countries. With the development of globalization, the economic cooperation among countries around the world increases. China has market as big as 1.3 billion people, which will provide substantial impetus to the world economy. China will continue its large-scale infrastructure program, upgrade its industrial equipment and improve agricultural production as well as its processing capability. All the above requires an environment of international cooperation. Expanding economic and trade cooperation and cooperation in other fields are conducive to the development of the world economy.

全球化对于发达国家和发展中国家都是一个挑战。随着全球化的发展，世界各国之间的经济合作不断加强。中国拥有一个13亿人口的大市场，会为拉动世界经济发展提供可观的动力。中国还要大规模开展基础设施建设，提升工业企业的装备水平，还要不断提高农业的生产和加工能力。这些都需要在国际合作的环境中才能实现。各国之间不断扩大的经贸和个领域的合作关系，有助于推动世界经济的发展。