【例36】 John is now with his parents in New York; it is three years since he was a high school teacher in Washington.
【译文】 约翰现在同父母一起住在纽约;他不在华盛顿当中学教师已有三年了。
【例37】 She didn't attend the meeting because she wanted to.
【译文】 她去开会并不是她自己想去。
【例38】 As a place to live, it left much to be desired. As a secret training base for a new plane, it was an excellent site, its remoteness effectively masking its activity.
【例39】 The teacher didn't tell her students that in so many words, but obviously something about her attitude convinced them.
×老师没有用很多话把这种情况告诉学生,但她的某种态度显然使学生相信情况的确如此。
【译文】 老师没有把这种情况对学生明说,但她的某种态度显然使学生相信情况的确如此。
【例40】 If I am getting a free ride, how come I am so tired when I go home at the end of a shift?
×如果我是免费乘车的话,我上完一次班回家后怎么会那么累呢?
【译文】 如果我上班偷闲的话,我下班回家怎么会那么累呢?
【例41】 I am sorry I was a little short with you just now. I don't feel myself today.
×如果我刚才陪你的时间短了一些的话,我很抱歉。今天我自己也没有感觉到。
【译文】 刚才对你态度不好,我很抱歉。今天我身体有点不舒服。
三、要结合上下文语境进行理解:
【例42】 The financial implications of this resolution remain to be defined.
【译文】 本决议所涉及的财政问题尚待确定。
本决议对财政工作的意义尚待阐明。
【例43】 The tyrants might array their cruelty, but the people would oppose their bravery.
【译文】 暴君恣意肆虐,人民则奋勇反抗。
【例44】 Managers face a host of new business realities, such as changing patterns of employment that include an explosion of outsourcing and new alliances.
1. Let it deceive them, then, a little longer; it can not deceive them too much.
2. We shall never get anywhere with all the criticism and fault finding. I believe in the principle "Live and let live".
3. He said that no one could beat him at tennis, but he had to eat his word after losing several games.
4. I had read too many novels and had learned too much at school not to know a good deal about love.
5. In fact, one office-system expert recently said that he had yet to encounter a business work place that was functioning at more than 60 percent efficiency.
6. Nobody with any sense expects to find the whole truth in advertisement any more than he expects a man applying for a job to describe his shortcomings and serious faults.
7. There is probably no better way for a foreigner (or an Englishman) to appreciate the richness and variety of the English language than by studying the various ways in which Shakespeare used it.
8. We are human and human beings are far from perfect. To be human implies that we will make mistakes. But it's more than that we feel human. We now feel entitled.
A new era is upon us. Call it what you will: the service economy, the information age, the knowledge society. It all translates to a fundamental change in the way we work. Already we're partly there. The percentage of people who earn their living by making things has fallen dramatically in the Western World. Today the majority of jobs in America, Europe and Japan (two thirds or more in many of these countries) are in the service industry, and the number is on the rise. More women are in the workforce than ever before. There are more part-time jobs. More people are sell-employed. But the breadth of the economic transformation can't be measured by numbers alone, because it also is giving rise to a radical new way of thinking about the nature of work itself. Long-held notions about jobs and careers, the skills needed to succeed, even the relation between individuals and employers -- all these are being challenged.
We have only to look behind us to get some sense of what may lie ahead. No one looking ahead 20 years possibly could have foreseen the ways in which a single invention, the chip, would transform our world thanks to its applications in personal computers, digital communications and factory robots. Tomorrow's achievements in biotechnology, artificial intelligence or even some still unimagined technology could produce a similar way of dramatic changes. But one thing is certain: information and knowledge will become even more vital, and the people who possess it, whether they work in manufacturing or services, will have the advantage and produce the wealth; computer knowledge will become as basic a requirement as the ability to read and write. The ability to solve problems by applying information instead of performing routine tasks will be valued above all else. If you cast your mind ahead 10 years, information services will be predominant. It will be the way you do your job. (320 words) 作者: ABCjun 时间: 2009-10-16 13:52