2020年11月CATTI 一笔实务真题
英译汉
Master of the Intricacies of the Human Heart
By Michiko K akutani
Oct.10, 2013
选自2013年10月份纽约时报（The New York Times）
Alice Munro, named on Thursday as the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature, once observed:“The complexity of things - the things within things - just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.'
That is also a perfect description of Ms. Munro's quietly radiant short stories - stories that have established her as one of the foremost practitioners of the form. Set largely in small-town and rural Canada and often focused on the lives of girls and women, her tales have the swoop and density of big, intimate novels, mapping the crevices of characters' hearts with cleareyed Chekhovian empathy and wisdom.
Fluent and deceptively artless on the page, these stories are actually amazingly intricate constructions that move back and forth in time, back and forth between reality and memory, opening out, magically, to disclose the long panoramic vistas in these people's lives (the starts, stops and reversals that stand out as hinge moments in their personal histories) and the homely details of their day-to-day routines: the dull coping with “food and mess and houses”that can take up so much of their heroines’time.
Ms. Munro's stories possess an emotional amplitude and a psychological density. Her understanding of the music of domestic life, her ability to simultaneously detail her characters' inner landscapes and their place in a meticulously observed community, and her talent for charting“the progress of love" as it morphs and mutates throughtime these gifts have not only helped Ms. Munro redefine the contours of the contemporary short story, but have also made her one of today's most influential writers.
In short fiction that spans four and a half decades, Ms. Munro has given us prismatic portraits of ordinary people that reveal their intelligence, toughness and capacity to dream, as well as their lies, blind spots and lapses of courage and good will. Such descriptions are delivered not with judgmental accountancy, but with the sort of “unsparing unsentimental love" harbored by a close friend or family member.
Like Ms. Munro, many of the women in these stories grew up in small towns in Canada and, at some point, faced a decision about whether to stay or to leave for the wider world. Their lifetimes often span decades of startling social change from a time and place when tea parties and white gloves were de rigueur to the days of health food stores and stripper bars.
For that matter, Ms. Munro's women often find themselves caught on the margins of shifting cultural mores and pulled between conficting imperative between rootedness and escape, domesticity and freedom, between tending to familial responsibilities or following the urgent promptings of their own hearts.
In story after story, passion is the magnet or the motor that drives women's choices. . Love and sex, and marriage and adultery are often mirrors that reveal a Munro heroine's expectations - her fondest dreams and cruel self-delusions, her sense of independence and need to belong.
Ms. Munro is adept at tracing the many configurations that intimacy can take over the years, showing how it can suffocate a marriage or inject it with a renewed sense of devotion. She shows how sexual ardor can turm into a“tidy pilot flame”and how an impulsive tryst can become a treasured memory, hoarded as a bulwark against the banalities of middle age.
Ilness and death frequently intrude upon these stories, and the reader is constantly reminded of the precariousness oflife - and the role that luck, chance and reckless, spur-of-the-moment choices can play. Some of Ms. Munro's characters embrace change as a liberating force that will lift them out of their humdrum routines, or at least satisfy their avid curiosity about life. Others regard it with fearful dismay, worried that they will lose everything they hold dear - or at least everything familiar.
题目解析
Master of the Intricacies of the Human Heart
此题目八个英文单词，实词首字母大写，虚词小写
intricacy
UK [ˈɪntrɪkəsi]
US [ˈɪntrɪkəsi]
n.
错综复杂的事物(或细节)；错综复杂
复数：intricacies
N-UNCOUNT 复杂精细;错综复杂
Intricacy is the state of being made up of many small parts or details.
N-PLURAL 错综复杂的细节;纷繁复杂之处
The intricacies of something are its complicated details.
固定搭配
the intricacies of sth 要注意这个单词的词性 ，这种搭配是以复数形式出现，另外当这个单词作“复杂性”时是不可数名词
synonym: elaborateness; elaboration; involution
文本解析
Alice Munro, named on Thursday as the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature, once observed:“The complexity of things - the things within things - just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.”
爱丽丝.门罗(Alice Munro)于本周四获得2013年诺贝尔文学奖，她曾说过:“事物的复杂性，即蕴含在事物之中的事物，似乎无穷无尽。我的意思是，没有任何事是轻松简单的。”
注：
observe
1）熟词僻义，表示“评述；说，讲；评论”，英文解释为“If you observe that something is the case, you make a remark or comment about it, especially when it is something you have noticed and thought about a lot.”：
(formal ) 动词+that从句
e.g. She observed that it was getting late.
她说天色晚了。
2）表示“庆祝”，英文解释为“If you observe an important day such as a holiday or anniversary, you do something special in order to honour or celebrate it.”
(formal)
如：Do they observe Christmas?他们过不过圣诞节？ 3）VERB 遵守，奉行（法律、习俗等）
If you observe something such as a law or custom, you obey it or follow it. 如：Will the rebels observe the ceasefire?
Alice Munro, 艾丽丝.门/蒙罗
加拿大女作家艾丽丝·门罗（Alice Munro,1931-），
她本来无意专营短篇，但写了几年后，终于痛感长篇过于松弛，缺乏她面对短篇时所感受到的那种张力，索性就此放弃。她总是将目光流连于平凡女性的生活，从自己和母亲身上寻找灵感，精确地记录她们从少女到人妻与人母，再度过中年与老年的历程，尤擅贴近女性之性心理的波折与隐情，以及由此而来的身心重负，细致入微，又复杂难解，看似脆弱，却又坚忍顽强。她在文坛的地位，好比当代契诃夫——契诃夫的女传人。在40余年的文学生涯中，门罗女士始终执著地写作短篇小说，锤炼技艺，并以此屡获大奖。在英语文学界享有盛誉，她三次获得加拿大总督奖，并于2009 年获得曼布克奖。她的作品以女性的爱情、婚姻及日常生活为视角，反映女性的自我成长主题，笔风朴素细腻，情感真挚深沉。
婚姻暴力在加拿大乃至世界范围内都十分普遍。门罗在多篇小说中对此现象做了生动的刻画，揭示了婚姻暴力产生的社会历史原因,从而以个体命运折射时代的变迁。具体说来，她的《空间》（Dimension）、《逃离》（Runaway）、《父亲们》（Fathers）、《一个善良女人的爱》（The Love of a Good Woman）以及《密尼赛唐河》（Meneseteung）等短篇小说追溯了加拿大不同历史时期的婚姻暴力问题以及公众意志对婚姻暴力的态度变化。
be named as the winner of 固定搭配，意思是被指名为...的获胜者 比如：Amy, 60, was named on Thursday (on Thursday 时间状态可以移动）as the winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. 60岁的Amy于本周四获得2021年的诺贝尔和平奖。举一反三：
1. 她获颁诺贝尔和平奖。
She was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. 2. She won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for pushing girls' rights to go to school. 她因推动女孩上学的权利而获得2021年诺贝尔和平奖。3. Since then, (the world War 2) there has been a growing trickle of women winning in literature, peace and medicine. 二战后，赢得诺贝尔文学奖、和平奖和医学奖的女性逐渐增加。
，named on Thursday as the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature, 播入语分析：named 引导的前后用逗号隔开的部分在句中作为抽入语，这是的named 作为过去分词引导抽入语部分，而不是被动语态中的谓语。原译文中的once observed 才是谓语部分。
— the things within things — 前后用“—”符号表示对前面的内容作进一步解释，翻译成中文时可以把这个符号译为即成者变成中文的括号（...）代替。也是插入语的一种形式，去掉后句子结构也是完整的。
That is also a perfect description of Ms. Munro’s quietly radiant short stories — stories that have established her as one of the foremost practitioners of the form. Set largely in small-town and rural Canada and often focused on the lives of girls and women, her tales have the swoop and density of big, intimate novels, mapping the crevices of characters’ hearts with cleareyed Chekhovian empathy and wisdom.
这番话亦是门罗那些宁静闪光的短篇小说的绝好写照，这些作品为她奠定了短篇小说界一流作者的地位。她的小说主要发生在加拿大的乡村小镇，描绘女孩与女人们的生活，带着契诃夫式（Chekhovian）洞悉一切的同情与智慧勾勒出笔下人物心灵的罅隙，亦有着长篇小说所具备的冲击力与厚重。
That is also（这番话亦是） 这里的that 是指代前面说的那句话，英译汉的时候通常要把指代译出来。“亦是”的“亦”比较书面化，口语通常用“也”。
a perfect description of sth/sb 对什么事或对什么人的完美描述 如： a perfect description of the killer 对罪犯的完美描述，原段中的参考翻译把a perfect description 译为“绝好写照” 那种文学气息的感觉就出来了。
Ms.Munro译为门/蒙罗或者门罗女士，Ms.可用于已婚或末婚，后面是自己的姓氏，而Mrs.是夫人，后面是丈夫姓氏。
Ms.Munro’s (所有格）译为门/蒙罗或者门罗女士的， Ms.可用于已婚或末婚，后面是自己的姓氏，而Mrs.是夫人，后面是丈夫姓氏。quietly radiant 宁静闪光的short stories 短篇小说。（长篇小说novel ; long novel ;full-length novel)
radiant
UK [ˈreɪdiənt]
US [ˈreɪdiənt]
adj.
喜气洋洋的；容光焕发的；面色红润的；灿烂的；光芒四射的；辐射的；放射的
n.
光点；[天]流星群的辐射点
radi 光线 + ant …的→ 发光的
复数：radiants派生词：radiantly adv. synonym: beaming; beamy; effulgent; refulgent
—stories that have established her as one of the foremost practitioners of the form. “—”符号stories that 这个部分可以去掉变为short stories that...have established 一般用于建立一个组织机构等，这里翻译为奠定，—stories that have established her as one of the foremost practitioners of the form. 某人因某事奠定了在某方面的地位。the foremost practitioners of the form, 这里的the form 就是指短篇小说形式，参考译文把它译为短篇小说界。the foremost practitioners 字面意思是一流的专业人士，因为她是小说家，所以译为一流作者，相当于foremost writers 或 short-story writers. 而译文把地位译出来，如果不译出来，中文意思就不完整。反向思考，如果把中文译为英文，有些不必要的词就需要去掉。当然也可以把地位status用上-stories that have established her status as one of the foremost practitioners of the form.
her tales have the swoop冲击力and density of big, 厚重intimate novels(与长篇小说联系密切）译为:他的小说(有着长篇小说所具备的)冲击力与厚重. intimate可以作形容词、动词及名词,intimate novels中作为形容词。
罅隙
拼音
[xià xì] （夏）
释义 缝隙：阳光从树叶的～中透过。
例句
站在十六岁，站在青春转弯的地方，站在一段生命与另一段生命的～，我终于泪流满面。 the crevices 罅隙 of
mapping the crevices of characters' hearts 勾勒出笔下人物内心的罅隙with 带着cleareyed Chekhovian 契诃夫式洞查一切的empathy and wisdom.同情与智慧。
Chekhovian（h不发音）契诃夫的小说风格质朴，语言精悍，篇幅简短，有点像我们所说的小小说；情节也十分简单，不靠悬念吸引读者，但自有一种震撼人灵魂的力量。他认为，只有那些有才气的作家，才能把小说写得既简练又意味深长。总的说来，契诃夫的早期小说多是在平常人看来习以为常的生活现象中发现可笑之处，晚期的小说和戏剧则注重表现日常生活中诗意或辛酸，它们在艺术上都取得了很高的成就，受到了高度的赞扬。列夫·托尔斯泰认为，契诃夫的文学创作达到了“登峰造极”的高度，高尔基也认为，俄罗斯的语体文是契诃夫同普希金、屠格涅夫一道创立的，他们都是“不可企及”的。This is chekhov's contribution to Russian literature.
这是契诃夫对俄罗斯文学的贡献。
句型分析：（Set largely in small-town and rural Canada and often focused on the lives of girls and women, ）1.并列过去分词引导的状语部分（her tales have the swoop and density of big, intimate novels, ）2.句子主干部分（mapping the crevices of characters' hearts with cleareyed Chekhovian empathy and wisdom. ）3.现在分词引导的状语部分。把整个句子划分为这三个部分来理解，翻译顺序：1-3-2
Fluent and deceptively artless on the page, these stories are actually amazingly intricate constructions that move back and forth in time, back and forth between reality and memory, opening out, magically, to disclose the long panoramic vistas in these people’s lives (the starts, stops and reversals that stand out as hinge moments in their personal histories) and the homely details of their day-to-day routines: the dull coping with “food and mess and houses” that can take up so much of their heroines’ time.
她的短篇小说行文流畅，文风表面质朴无华，实则结构精美复杂，在时间之中往复穿梭，在现实与记忆之间转换；故事神秘展开，揭开笔下人物生平的全貌景观（在关键的转折点中突出个体人物生活史中的开端、停顿与逆境），乃至日常生活中的平凡琐碎细节：她会平淡地描述 “食物、琐事与家务”，这些事占去了她笔下女主人公的大部分时间。
注：
deceptively adv. 迷惑地
intricate adj. 错综复杂的
panoramic /ˌpænəˈræmɪk/表示“全景的；远景的”，英文解释为“If you have a panoramic view, you can see a long way over a wide area.”
vista /ˈvɪstə/表示“（农村、城市等的）景色，景观”，英文解释为“a beautiful view, for example, of the countryside, a city, etc.”
表示“（未来可能发生的）一系列情景，一连串事情”，英文解释为“a range of things that might happen in the future”
E.g.This new job could open up whole new vistas for her.
这项新工作可能给她开辟全新的前景。
reversal表示“颠倒；彻底转变；反向”，英文解释为“a change to an opposite arrangement, process, or way of doing something”
E.g.Some carers and dependants find it difficult to adapt to a role reversal.
有些照料者和被照料者觉得难以适应角色对换。
heroine
heroine和hero相对；heroine可以表示“女主角，女主人公”，英文解释为“the woman or girl who is the main character in a book, film, play etc”， 也可以指“女英雄（a woman who is admired for doing something extremely brave）”，以及“受崇拜的女人，女偶像（a woman who is admired very much for a particular skill or quality）”等，同理hero则可以指“男主角，男主人公”。
类似的表达还有：
protagonist /prəʊˈtæɡənɪst/ 表示“（戏剧、电影或故事的）主要人物，主角，主人公”，英文解释为“the most important character in a play, film, or story”；
main character 主要人物；主要角色；
star表示“主角，主演”（the person who has the main part, or one of them, in a film, play, show etc）；
Fluent 行文流畅and deceptively artless on the page文风表面质朴无华, these stories are actually amazingly intricate constructions 实则结构精美复杂that move back and forth in time在时间之中往复穿梭, back and forth between reality and memory在现实与记忆之间转换，opening out, magically故事神秘展开，to disclose 揭开the long panoramic vistas 全貌景观in these people’s lives笔下人物生平(the starts, stops and reversals开端、停顿与逆境 that stand out 突出as hinge moments转折点 in their personal histories)and the homely details 平凡琐碎细节of their day-to-day routines日常生活:the dull coping 平淡描述with “food and mess and houses” “食物、琐事与家务”that can take up so much of their heroines’ time.这些事占去了她笔下女主人公的大部分时间。
Fluent and deceptively artless on the page, these stories are actually amazingly intricate constructions……这些作品（these stories )行为流畅......实则......
Ms. Munro’s stories possess an emotional amplitude and a psychological density 门罗的小说既有情感的广度，亦有心理的深度，that stand in sharp contrast to 形成鲜明的对比 the minimalistic work of Raymond Carver与雷蒙德·卡佛(Raymond Carver)的简约风格，and to Donald Barthelme’s playful, postmodernist tales. 乃至唐纳德·巴塞尔姆(Donald Barthelme’s)戏谑的后现代主义故事
雷蒙德·卡佛（Raymond Carver，1938—1988），“美国二十世纪下半叶最重要的小说家”和小说界“简约主义”的大师，是“继海明威之后美国最具影响力的短篇小说作家”。《伦敦时报》在他去世后称他为“美国的契诃夫”。 美国文坛上罕见的“艰难时世”的观察者和表达者，并被誉为“新小说”创始者。
句型分析： (Ms. Munro’s stories possess an emotional amplitude and a psychological density)句子主干（ that stand in sharp contrast to the minimalistic work of Raymond Carver, and to Donald Barthelme’s playful, postmodernist tales. ）两并例对比成分...contrast to..., and to结构。另外翻译时两人的work和tales合起来翻译为作品。
Her understanding of the music of domestic life,她深悉家庭生活的乐章； her ability to simultaneously detail her characters’ inner landscapes and their place in a meticulously observed community, 在描绘笔下人物内心世界细节的同时，无微不至地勾勒出社区的状态，并点出人物在社区中的位置；and her talent for charting “the progress of love” as it morphs and mutates through time 此外她还擅长书写“爱的进程”，在时间的演进中为爱的变形与变异画出图谱。（列举了三方面，用逗号隔开，中文把逗号变为分号，注意️，例举的三方面都是名词成分，并不是完整的句子）— these gifts 这些特质/才能have not only helped Ms. Munro redefine the contours of the contemporary short story, 令她重新定义了当代短篇小说的外延，but have also made her one of today’s most influential writers, 也使她成为当今世上最重要的作家之一，celebrated by authors as disparate as风格各异的作家都对她赞不绝口 洛丽·摩尔(Lorrie Moore)、乔纳森·弗兰岑(Jonathan Franzen)、黛博拉·埃森堡(Edborah Eisenberg)与莫娜·辛普森(Mona Simpson)等
唐纳德·巴塞尔姆Donald Barthelme（1931年4月7日—1989年7月23日）是美国后现代主义小说家，代表作是《巴塞尔姆的白雪公主》。他一生写了大量的短篇小说，并曾从事新闻记者、杂志编辑等工作，并曾在纽约城市大学任教。1972年获得美国国家图书奖。唐纳德·巴塞尔姆一生中著有四部中长篇小说：《白雪公主》、《死去的父亲》、《天堂》以及《The King》。另有一百多篇短篇收集在《Come Back Dr Caligari》、《Unspeakable Practices Unnatural Acts》《City Life》和《Sadness》等书中。另外，它的大部分作品汇集在了《故事六十篇》和《故事四十篇》之中。唐纳德·巴塞尔姆还著有一些非小说书籍，如：《Guilty Pleasures》、《Not-Knowing The Essays and Interviews of Donald Barthelme》。并和女儿一道写了儿童文学作品《The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine》。并于1972年获得美国国家图书奖。
后现代主义文学：后现代主义文学是第二次世界大战之后西方社会中出现的范围广泛的文学思潮，于20世纪70－80年代达到高潮。无论在文艺思想还是在创作技巧上，后现代主义文学都是现代主义文学的延续和发展。主流学术界曾经不区分“现代”和“后现代”两个概念，但由于二战之后文学发展的特征已经远远超过了传统的“现代主义”所能涵盖的范围，因此将后现代主义文学看作一个独立的文学思潮，和古典主义、浪漫主义、现实主义以及现代主义并举。
possess表示“拥有；具有”，英文解释为“to have or own something, or to have a particular quality” amplitude表示“广阔，广大；充足，丰富”，英文解释为“a large amount or wide range”： meticulously
meticulously副词，meticulous 形容词 /mɪˈtɪkjʊləs/ 表示“严谨的，一丝不苟的；非常注意细节的”，英文解释为“very careful and with great attention to every detail” morph /mɔːf/
1）表示“（尤指很大的、质的）改变；变化”，英文解释为“If one thing morphs into another thing, especially something very different, the first thing changes into the second.” 2）表示“（使）图像变形；将（图像）进行合成处理”，英文解释为“to gradually change one image into another, or combine them, using a computer program”
mutate表示“转变”，英文解释为“to change from one thing or type of thing into another” contour/ˈkɒntʊə/表示“轮廓；外形；曲线”，英文解释为“the shape of a mass of land or other object, especially its surface or the shape formed by its outer edge” disparate表示“迥然不同的，不相干的”，英文解释为“consisting of things or people that are very different and not related to each other”
句型分析： （Her understanding of the music of domestic life,）（ her ability to simultaneously detail her characters’ inner landscapes and their place in a meticulously observed community, ）（and her talent for charting “the progress of love” as it morphs and mutates through time）（ — these gifts have not only helped Ms. Munro redefine the contours of the contemporary short story, but have also made her one of today’s most influential writers,）（ celebrated by authors as disparate as Lorrie Moore, Jonathan Franzen, Deborah Eisenberg and Mona Simpson. ） 三个列举的名词成分+ not only...but also句型+过去分词引导的状语成分
have not only...but have also...
莫娜·辛普森Mona E. Simpson（1957年6月14日——)，苹果联合创始人乔布斯的胞妹代表作有《凡人》、《在别处》等。
short fiction /short stories /short tales, works
fiction 作小说不可数/is a fiction幻想
In short fiction that spans four and a half decades — beginning with the collection “Dance of the Happy Shades” (1968), through classic volumes like “The Moons of Jupiter” (1982), “The Progress of Love”(1986), “Friend of My Youth”(1990) and “Open Secrets” (1994), up to “Dear Life” (2012), which she has said will be her last — Ms. Munro has given us prismatic portraits of ordinary people that reveal their intelligence, toughness and capacity to dream, as well as their lies, blind spots and lapses of courage and good will. Such descriptions are delivered not with judgmental accountancy, but with the sort of “unsparing unsentimental love” harbored by a close friend or family member.
门罗创作短篇小说已有45年，最早的作品集是1968年的《快乐影子舞》(Dance of the Happy Shades)，其间有《木星的卫星》(The Moons of Jupiter，1982)、《爱的进程》(The Progress of Love, 1986)、《青年时代的朋友》(Friend of My Youth, 1990)和《公开的秘密》(Open Secrets, 1994)等经典小说集，直到2012年的《亲爱的生活》(Dear Life)——她说《亲爱的生活》将是她的最后一本小说集。在这些作品中，门罗为普通人的生活描绘出五光十色的画像，展现他们的智慧、坚韧与梦想的能力，与此同时也有他们的谎言和盲点，乃至勇气和善意的偶尔缺失。她的描写不带评判色彩，只有“不夹偏私，冷静理性的爱”，如同来自亲密的朋友或家庭成员。
In short fiction that spans four and a half decades门罗创作短篇小说已有45年， — beginning with the collection 最早的作品集是“Dance of the Happy Shades” (1968), 是1968年的《快乐影子舞》(时间先译）through classic volumes（ 等经典小说集）like “The Moons of Jupiter” (1982), 其间有《木星的卫星》（英文作品名加双引号引用，时间加了（）括号）“The Progress of Love”(1986), 《爱的进程》、“Friend of My Youth”(1990) and “Open Secrets” (1994), 《青年时代的朋友》和《公开的秘密》、等经典小说集。up to “Dear Life” (2012),直到2012年的《亲爱的生活》which she has said will be her last她说《亲爱的生活》将是她的最后一本小说集。（which 指代《亲爱的生活》要译出来。 — Ms. Munro has given us prismatic portraits of ordinary people 在这些作品中，门罗为普通人的生活描绘出五光十色的画像，that reveal their intelligence, toughness and capacity to dream, 展现他们的智慧、坚韧与梦想的能力，as well as their lies, blind spots and lapses of courage and good will. 与此同时也有他们的谎言和盲点，乃至勇气和善意的偶尔缺失。 Such descriptions are delivered not with judgmental accountancy, 她的描写不带评判色彩，but with the sort of “unsparing unsentimental love” 只有“不夹偏私，冷静理性的爱”，harbored by a close friend or family member.如同来自亲密的朋友或家庭成员。 注：
prismatic表示“射出七色光彩的，五光十色的，灿烂耀眼的”，英文解释为“consisting of many different bright colours, like those separated from white light by a prism” lapse表示“过失，小失误”，英文解释为“a temporary failure”，如：a lapse of concentration 走神，a memory lapse 一时想不起来 unsparing表示“无情的；不避讳的，不隐藏的”，英文解释为“showing no kindness and no wish to hide the unpleasant truth”： in unsparing detail未经删节 harbor表示“心怀，怀有（想法或感情）”，英文解释为“to think about or feel something, usually over a long period” unsentimental
UK [ˌʌnˌsentɪˈmentl]
US [ˌʌnˌsentɪˈmentl]
adj.
没有(或不流露)感情的；不感情用事的 If you describe someone as unsentimental, you mean that they do not allow emotions like pity or affection to interfere with their work or decisions. the collection /the volumes 作品集
Like Ms. Munro, many of the women in these stories grew up in small towns in Canada and, at some point, faced a decision about whether to stay or to leave for the wider world. Their lifetimes often span decades of startling social change — from a time and place when tea parties and white gloves were de rigueur to the days of health food stores and stripper bars.
和门罗一样，她小说中的女人们也多在加拿大小镇上成长，在某个时刻面临留在家乡还是奔赴广大世界的抉择。她们在数十年的人生中往往历经社会巨变，从举办茶会、社交场合必须戴白手套的年代和地点一路走到健康食品店与脱衣舞酒吧（stripper bars）的时代。 注：
startling adj. 惊人的; 让人震惊的; 极鲜亮的; v. startle的现在分词 使惊吓; 使吓一跳; 使大吃一惊; de rigueur表示“（在时尚、习惯等方面）必需的，必备的，不可缺少的”，英文解释为“demanded by fashion, custom, etc.”：
much like 很像/ more like 更像/most like 最像 cultural mores 文化习俗
For that matter,因此 Ms. Munro’s women, 门罗笔下的女人（要根据段落背景翻译，不要直译为门罗的女人）much like John Updike’s men, 很像约翰·厄普代克笔下的男人，often find themselves caught on the margins of shifting cultural mores 经常发现自己被困在文化道德转型的边缘，and pulled between conflicting imperatives在互相矛盾的义务中挣扎 — between rootedness and escape, 坚守与逃避domesticity and freedom, 家庭与自由between tending to familial responsibilities or following the urgent promptings of their own hearts.对家族的责任与内心冲动的迫切召唤。 注：
mores表示“风俗，习惯，行为方式 ”，英文解释为“the traditional customs and ways of behaving that are typical of a particular (part of) society”，如：middle-class mores 中产阶级的习惯。 imperatives n. 重要紧急的事; 必要的事; 祈使语气; 祈使语气动词; rootedness ['rʊtɪdnɪs] n. 根深蒂固，牢不可破=inveteracy
deep rootedness 扎根 Shallow-rootedness 浅根性 need of rootedness 生根需求 in grain inveteracy rootedness 根深蒂固 need for rootedness 归根的需要 句型分析： For that matter,（ Ms. Munro’s women, ）句子主语（much like John Updike’s men, ）插入语（often find themselves caught on the margins of shifting cultural mores and pulled between conflicting imperatives ）谓语及宾语部分（— between rootedness and escape, domesticity and freedom, between tending to familial responsibilities or following the urgent promptings of their own hearts.）“—”横子符后面作进一步解释
John Updike ( 1932-2009) is a famous American writer.
约翰·厄普代克（1932-2009）是美国著名作家，在当代文坛占有重要席位。 姓氏Updike中Up发up，dike中的元音i发/ai/所以音译为代克而不是迪克。
inveterate
UK [ɪnˈvetərət]
US [ɪnˈvetərət]
adj.
积习难改的；有…瘾的；长期形成的；根深蒂固的
is adept/good/exellent at 在某方面擅长 configurations N-COUNT 安排;格局;布局
A configuration is an arrangement of a group of things.
N-UNCOUNT 配置
The configuration of a computer system is way in which all its parts, such as the hardware and software, are connected together in order for the computer to work. suffocate/ˈsʌfəˌkeɪt/ 1）表示“束缚，阻止…的发展；遏制”，英文解释为“to prevent something or someone from improving or developing in a positive way”。
2）表示“（使）窒息而死；（使）闷死”，英文解释为“to (cause someone to) die because of not having enough oxygen”。 tryst [trɪst] n. (情人的) 约会，幽会; a datating /a tryst bulwark [ˈbʊlwək] ] n. 保护者，防御者(指人或事物); 堡垒; 防御工事; (船的) 舷墙; banality [bəˈnæləti] n. 平凡；陈腐；陈词滥调
Ms. Munro is adept at tracing the many configurations that intimacy can take over the years, 门罗还擅长描写多年亲密关系的多种复杂情况，(configurations布局，这里翻译为复杂情况，这个词作为配置用是不可数名词configuration, intimacy亲密关系intimate relationship )showing how it can suffocate a marriage or inject it with a renewed sense of devotion. 描述了这样的关系如何扼杀一段婚姻，或为婚姻注入新的奉献精神。 She shows how sexual ardor性欲 can turn into a “tidy pilot flame”她刻画出了性爱可以变为“蔓延的火势”；and how an impulsive tryst can become a treasured memory, 一时冲动的幽会可以成为珍贵的回忆，( turn into /become) hoarded as a bulwark 汇聚为against the banalities of middle age.汇聚为对抗平庸中年生活的堡垒。
N-UNCOUNT 通奸；婚外性行为
If a married person commits adultery, they have sex with someone that they are not married to.
adulterous
UK [əˈdʌltərəs]
US [əˈdʌltərəs]
adj.
通奸的 adulterous relationship 通奸/外遇关系 heroine’s expectations 女主人公的渴望 delusions
UK [dɪˈluːʒənz]
US [dɪˈluʒənz]
n.
错觉；谬见；妄想；欺骗；哄骗
delusion的复数 self-delusions 自欺
sense of belonging / a need to belong 归属感
the precariousness of life 不稳定生活 /生活不易 precariousness[prɪ'keəriəsnəs] n. 不稳定
spur-of-the-moment表示“（决定、行动等）一时冲动的，心血来潮的”，英文解释为“used to say that a decision, action, etc. is sudden and done without any planning”
总结：这篇文章来自于NYT,平时多读这个外刊累积，一边读一边进行句型分析、词义辨析、固定搭配等的累积。进行翻译演练，训练翻译速度