又是咱们一起学官方教材的时间啦,上周我们一起学习了二笔实务的内容,还记得“加征关税”怎么表达吗?忘记的小伙伴要回顾上期内容内容哦~~再顺便把上周的笔记好好复习一下。
这周我们要一起学习的内容是三笔实务,先来看看原文:
材料原文
The Indus basin is already one of the most affected by extreme weather events in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region with the most people killed from 1980 to 2015. These risks are likely to worsen because of dam and hydropower projects that are planned or being built. With sustained or increased water flow expected in the rivers until at least 2050, it is unlikely that planned dam projects will be reassessed. Indeed, the variation of water flows will be a boost to those in favour of large water storage projects to stabilise availability over the year. Unfortunately the history of hydropower projects in South Asian and elsewhere has been marked by a lack of regard for environmental safeguards, moreover, in India alone, indigenous communities, accounting for only 8% of the population, have accounted for 40% of those displaced by large dams, primarily because they live in mountainous regions.
材料原文节选自Melting Glaciers Spell More Disaster for China and South Asia。教材中的材料较长,上面是从其中截取的一段,看过这段内容,大家能猜出来这篇文章所在单元的主题是什么了吗?
extreme weather、environmental safeguards等词给了我们小提示,本单元主题是“生态环境”。对CATTI三笔真题熟悉的小伙伴肯定知道,环境保护话题是CATTI考试中的常客了,比如2018年下半年三笔英译汉的材料就是关于南极污染及环保措施的。所以在备考期间,环保主题下的文章应该是小伙伴们重点练习的对象,练习得多了,大家应该也能摸清文本特点了。这类文章一般以实际案例表明环境危机,案例中常常涉及地名,并且辅以数字进一步客观说明情况。相对来说属于难度中等的一类文本。
浏览原文我们可以发现,这段中生词不多,先看解决一下生词和表达吧:
indigenous 本地的;当地的;土生土长的
释义:belonging to a particular place rather than coming to it from somewhere else
例句:Many of the indigenous insects are needed to pollinate the local plants. 需要很多种土生昆虫给当地植物授粉。
在本段中该词以短语形式出现,indigenous communities 意为“原住民社区”。
reassess 重新考虑;再次评价
释义:to think again about sth. to decide if you need to change your opinion of it
例句:I will reassess the situation when I get home. 我回家之后将对情况重新评估一番。
另外文中还出现了几处专有名词及地名:
hydropower projects 水电项目
water flow 水流量
Indus basin 印度河流域
the Hindu Kush Himalayan region 兴都库什—喜马拉雅地区
解决了词汇表达,咱们就着手看看这段文章的翻译吧~先来看第一句话:
The Indus basin is already one of the most affected by extreme weather events in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region with the most people killed from 1980 to 2015.
这个句子还是挺长的哈,而且句末还有一个with引导的伴随状语。小伙伴们试着把这个句子翻译成一句话,有没有觉得产出的译文又啰嗦又不好理解?这个时候我们就该考虑断句译法啦:
把with领导的伴随状语与句子的主谓宾结构进行拆分后翻译成独立的小句。为了避免拆分之后两句之间关联性不强,我们可以增译“其”来加强汉语译文中两小句之间的逻辑衔接。这样一来就可以避免汉语译文句式过长、信息过多、表述繁冗不清的问题。大家自己先翻译,然后比对一下参考译文:
参考译文:
印度河流域是兴都库什—喜马拉雅地区受极端天气事件影响最严重的地区之一,其1980年至2015年间死于极端天气事件的人数也是最多的。
再来看一个句子:
These risks are likely to worsen because of dam and hydropower projects that are planned or being built.
大家先尝试翻译一下,是不是很容易就直译成“这些风险很又可能会……,因为……”。这样的译文看起来中规中矩,和原文句式结构相仿,但是大家需要考虑到汉语和英语的表达习惯不同,一般来说,英语句子的重心在前,而汉语句子的重心在后。
文中的“风险加剧”作为结果显然应作为句子重心,放在译文的后半部分。而且如果直译的话,无法突出worse一词的重要语义地位,并且that引导的定语从句也会相应地遇到安置障碍。
那么该怎么处理呢?建议大家将原因状语从句前置翻译成主语,原句中的定语从句也相应调整位置采取前置翻译,同时根据上下文语义和逻辑将介词短语because of省译,这样一来产出的汉语语句就会句式清晰、言简意赅。小伙伴们快点根据建议自己去翻译一下,然后再看参考译文。
参考译文:
而拟建或在建的大坝和水电项目很有可能会加剧这些风险。
来看最后一个句子吧:
Unfortunately the history of hydropower projects in South Asian and elsewhere has been marked by a lack of regard for environmental safeguards.
此句有点长,而且还有个被动语态,处理起来稍显棘手,看看官方教材是怎么带大家解决这个句子的:
大家跟着教材的思路翻译出了吗?比对一下参考译文吧。
参考译文:
不过遗憾的是,从南亚以及其他地区以往的水电项目来看,它们最明显的特点就是缺少环境保障措施。
总结一下吧,短短一段文字,我们学到了断句译法、汉语和英语不同的表达习惯、调整语序、被动语态的翻译、词性转换。真的是收获满满呀,大家的笔记本又多了不少内容吧。
最后还是我们的作业时间,大家翻译下面这段话,完成之后对照三笔教材第五单元英译汉部分。
The region, which is known as Asia's water tower, is the source of ten major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, Mekong, Yellow River and Yangtze. The Himalayan and Tibetan Plateau is already warming at three times the global average. Since the 1970s, 15% of the ice has gone. The retreat of these glaciers will have an immediate impact on the 240 million people that live in the mountains, many of whom are critically dependent on the water from snow and ice melt. Downstream regions, which are inhabited by 1.9 billion people, will also face problems. One of the most affected basins will be the Indus, which is shared by China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Indus River is most dependent on snow melt and glacier melt, which contribute close to 80% of its water. In comparison, the Ganges and Brahmaputra, known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in China, are mostly dependent on runoff from rainfall. As the glaciers retreat at a sharper pace, the Indus basin will have more water flowing in, but it will be less predictable.
今天的学习就到这儿啦,我们下周再见~