注重表達(dá)的順暢與質(zhì)量: 1.雖然感到有些可疑,但我還是跟著他進(jìn)了店里。(Though a little suspicious, I followed him into the shop.) 2.我開始對(duì)他的意圖起疑心是當(dāng)他反復(fù)地說(shuō)我能從中得到什么好處的時(shí)候。(I started to feel suspicious about his intention when he kept on talking about what good I could get out of it.) 3.這些票上面說(shuō)的是哪天用就只能哪天用。(The tickets must be used on the stated date.) 4.讓我再次重申:我絕對(duì)無(wú)意去傷害你。(Let me reiterate that I have absolutely no intention to hurt you.) 5.經(jīng)過(guò)很多天的爭(zhēng)吵與討價(jià)還價(jià),一項(xiàng)紡織品進(jìn)出口雙邊協(xié)議終于達(dá)成了。(After many days of quarreling and bargaining, a bilateral agreement on textile import and export was finally arrived at // reached // concluded.) 6.警方懸賞一大筆獎(jiǎng)金打探有關(guān)那個(gè)肇事后逃逸駕駛員的下落。(The police are offering a big reward for any information about the whereabouts of the hit-and-run driver.) 7.銀行遭劫時(shí),有人看到他的汽車正在附近,這決不是巧合。(It is no coincidence that his car was seen near the bank at the time of the robbery.) 8.他們結(jié)婚很久了,但兩人的感情漸漸變淡,最后終于分居了。(They had been married for a long time but gradually drifted apart until they separated.) 9.談話漫無(wú)邊際地從一個(gè)話題轉(zhuǎn)到另一個(gè)話題。(The conversation drifted from one subject to another.) 10.請(qǐng)隨時(shí)來(lái)我們商店轉(zhuǎn)轉(zhuǎn),不一定非要買東西。(Come and look round our shop without commitment to buy anything.) 11.會(huì)議開得亂七八糟的,這表明事先缺乏妥善籌劃。(The disorganized meeting suggested a lack of proper planning.) 12.她臉上掛著的表情顯示她生氣了。(The expression she is wearing on the face suggests anger.) 13.如果你沒有分散我的注意力的話,我報(bào)告早已經(jīng)寫完了。(I would have finished writing the report if you hadn’t distracted my attention.) 14.他成了,不妨說(shuō),一個(gè)沒有太太的已婚男人。(He became, as it were, a married man without a wife.) 15.雖然他們吃的、喝的都快耗盡了,但他們依然保持著快樂(lè)的心情和堅(jiān)定的信念,相信很快就會(huì)出去的,而且他們被告知救援行動(dòng)進(jìn)展順利。(Though they are running out of food and drink, the men are cheerful and confident that they will get out soon. They have been told that rescue operations are progressing smoothly.) 16.太感謝你的禮物了,但你沒必要花這么多錢。(Thanks so much for the present! But you needn’t have spent so much money.) 17.我本該知道他是個(gè)保不住什么密的人。我真不該告訴他那件事。(I should have known he could not keep anything secret. I really shouldn’t have told him that.) 18.我是不是來(lái)的不是時(shí)候?(Have I come at an awkward time?) 19.她強(qiáng)擠出了一絲微笑來(lái)掩飾自己的尷尬。(She forced a smile to cover up her awkwardness.) 20.太湖由于過(guò)度捕撈,著名的“三白”,即:白魚、白蝦、銀魚幾乎要枯竭了。(The Taihu Lake has been overfished and the well-known “Three Whites”, namely, white fish, white shrimps and small ‘silver’ fish are almost exhausted.) 21.我的背景是工薪階層,在這些高收入人群中感到很不自在。(With my working-class background, I feel like a fish out of water among these high-income people.) 22.很抱歉我不能整天坐在這兒和你瞎侃。我還有更要緊的事要做。(Sorry I can’t afford to sit here and chat with you all day. I have bigger fish to fry.) 23.我恐怕得讓你走人了。我這里廟小,裝不下你這個(gè)大和尚。(I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave. You are a big fish in a small pond.) 24.她突然辭職,我們皆為之愕然。(Her sudden resignation took us all by surprise.) 25.要確保勝利,我們就必須出其不意、攻其不備。(To ensure success, we’ll have to take them by surprise.) 26.造成這些魚長(zhǎng)這么大個(gè)兒的因素有三:海底的熱輸油管道、鉆井平臺(tái)工作人員扔下去的充足的食物供應(yīng)、石油平臺(tái)附近完全沒有捕魚船。(Three factors have caused these fish to grow so large: the warm water round the hot oil pipes under the sea; the plentiful supply of food thrown overboard by the crews of the rigs; the total absence of fishing boats around the oil rigs.) 27.就供需而言,經(jīng)濟(jì)型的中檔轎車在汽車市場(chǎng)上還是供貨不足。(In terms of supply and demand, economical intermediate-grade cars are still in short supply on the auto market.) 28.那是你不在的時(shí)候發(fā)生的。(It happened during // in your absence.) 29.我不會(huì)接受任何我不在場(chǎng)的情況下做出的決定的。(I wouldn’t accept any decision made in my absence.) 30.經(jīng)理不在的時(shí)候,由我負(fù)責(zé)。(In the absence of the manager, I shall be in charge.)
寫作構(gòu)思訓(xùn)練: From ideas to expressing: University should accept equal numbers of male and female students in every subject. To what extent do you agree or disagree? 現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中總難免會(huì)存在不平等的地方,比如男女之間的不平等、老少之間的不平等、上下級(jí)之間的不平等。在這里,我想談一談男女之間的不平等事宜,具體而言,就是我認(rèn)為大學(xué)里各科目不應(yīng)該追求男女比例相同的作法,因?yàn)檫@樣的做法太走極端,從而忽視了性別之間畢竟存在著差異。
In real life, it is always hard to avoid inequalities. For example, there are inequality between men and women, young and old, inferior and superior. Right here, I’d like to talk about inequalities between men and women. To be more specific, I argue that universities should not pursue to accept equal numbers of male and female students in every subject because this is an extreme way of doing things, ignoring the actual differences between the two sexes.
首先,我們應(yīng)該承認(rèn),男女在社會(huì)中的角色是有差別的。男性比女性更適合做體力活,而女性則比男性更適合做文秘、護(hù)理方面的工作。某些科目其實(shí)是有很強(qiáng)的性別要求的。比如航海專業(yè)就更適合男性,我們總不能期盼女性在大海上漂泊幾個(gè)月吧?再比如采礦專業(yè),很明顯,女性不太適合在礦井里工作,因?yàn)檫@份工作的危險(xiǎn)性及對(duì)體力的要求都會(huì)比較高。
First of all, we should acknowledge that men and women have different roles to play in the society. Men can do a better job than women when the work requires a lot of strength. Women, on the other hand, have the edge on men in terms of doing secretarial and nursing work. Some subjects such as ocean navigation and mining are actually sex distinctive. After all, we cannot expect women to be bumping and floating on the sea for months. Nor can we expect women to work under a mine as this job is often filled with danger and has a relatively high requirement for physical strength of the laborers.
其次,男女比例不一致有利于班級(jí)紀(jì)律和學(xué)習(xí)成效。有一項(xiàng)調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn),當(dāng)一個(gè)班級(jí)里男女比例為1:2時(shí),學(xué)生的學(xué)習(xí)熱情和效果、班級(jí)紀(jì)律最佳。這項(xiàng)研究是通過(guò)對(duì)比各種各樣的男女生比例班級(jí)狀況而進(jìn)行的,其中包括100%純男生班級(jí)、100%純女生班級(jí)、男女各半班級(jí)等等,因此,具有相當(dāng)?shù)恼f(shuō)服力。
Second, a disproportional rate of male and female students in one class is conducive to class discipline and learning effect. A survey shows that when the rate of males and females in one class is 1:2, the students’ motivation for learning and the actual learning effect as well as the class discipline are the best. This research was made by comparing the situations in various kinds of male-female student ratio classes, including all-boy classes, all-girl classes, 50%-50% male-female classes and, therefore, is rather persuasive.
當(dāng)然,為了維護(hù)男女平等,很多科目一定要招收同等比例的男女生也沒有什么問(wèn)題,但關(guān)鍵的問(wèn)題是:這樣做對(duì)嗎?恐怕會(huì)形成更大的不平等。舉個(gè)例子說(shuō)吧:某個(gè)學(xué)校的英語(yǔ)專業(yè)要招收30名新生,有200人申請(qǐng),根據(jù)入學(xué)考試成績(jī),前30名中有21人是女生,男生只有9人入圍,是不是應(yīng)該把堅(jiān)持錄取15名男生、15名女生呢?那樣的話,對(duì)6位沒被錄取的女生來(lái)講公正嗎?答案肯定是否定的。
Sure, it is okay to recruit the same number of male and female students just for the sake of maintaining equality between the two sexes, but the key point is: is it fair? I’m afraid this will lead to greater inequality. For instance: the English department planned to recruit 30 freshmen and it turned out that there were 200 applicants. Based on the entrance test result, among the top 30, 21 were girls while boys accounted for only 9. Does it mean that the university should insist on enrolling 15 girls and 15 boys? If so, is it fair to those six girls who were not accepted? The answer is obvious: No!
基于以上論證,我們可以看出:堅(jiān)持招收同比例的學(xué)生數(shù)目沒有道理,因此,是不可取的作法。
From the foregoing discussion, we can come to the conclusion that accepting the same number of male and female students in every subject does not hold water; therefore, it is totally unadvisable.
Reading to improve writing-context-based study Passage 1: Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. Did you ever wonder how it is possible for us to recognize people? Even a skilled writer probably could not describe all the features that make one face different from another. Yet a very young child—or even an animal, such as a pigeon—can recognize faces, and we all take this ability for granted. We also tell people apart by how they behave. When we talk about someone’s personality, we mean the ways in which he or she acts, speaks, thinks, and feels that make that individual different from others. Like the human face, human personality is very complex. But describing someone’s personality in words is somewhat easier than describing his face. If you were asked to describe what a ‘nice face’ looked like, you probably would have a difficult time doing so. But if you were asked to describe a ‘nice person’, you might begin to think about someone who was kind, considerate, friendly, warm, and so forth. There are many words to describe how a person thinks, feels and acts. Gordon Allport, an American psychologist, found nearly 18,000 English words characterizing differences in people’s behavior. And many of us use this information as a basis for describing, or typing, his personality. Bookworms, conservatives, military types—people are described with such terms. People have always tried to ‘type’ each other. Actors in early Greek drama wore masks to show the audience whether they played the villain’s or the hero’s role. In fact, the words ‘person’ and ‘personality’ come from the Latin persona, meaning ‘mask’. Today, most television and movie actors do not wear masks. But we can easily tell the ‘good guys’ from the ‘bad guys’ because the two types differ in appearance as well as in actions.
Passage 2: Statuses are marvelous human inventions that enable us to get along with one another and to determine where we ‘fit’ in society. As we go about our everyday lives, we mentally attempt to place people in terms of their statuses. For example, we must judge whether the person in the library is a reader or a librarian, whether the telephone caller is a friend or a salesman, whether the unfamiliar person on our property is a thief or a meter reader, and so on. The statuses we assume often vary with the people we encounter, and change throughout life. Most of us can, at very high speed, assume the statuses that various situations require. Much of social interaction consists of identifying and selecting among appropriate statuses and allowing other people to assume their statuses in relation to us. This means that we fit our actions to those of other people based on a constant mental process of appraisal and interpretation. Although, some of us find the task more difficult than others, most of us perform it rather effortlessly. A status has been compared to ready-made clothes. Within certain limits, the buyer can choose style and fabric. But an American is not free to choose the costume of a Chinese farmer or that of a Hindu prince. We must choose from among the clothing presented by our society. Furthermore, our choice is limited to a size that will fit, as well as by our pocketbook. Having made a choice within these limits, we can have certain alterations made, but apart from minor adjustments, we tend to be limited to what the stores have on their racks. Statuses, too, come ready made, and the range of choice among them is limited. |