翻譯社提供以下資訊
英文翻譯練習二
Passage One
In the warm enclosed water of farm ponds, conditions are very likely to be lethal for fish when insecticides are applied in the neighbourhood. As many examples show, the poison is carried in by rains and runoff from surrounding lands. Sometimes the ponds receive not only contaminated runoff but also a direct dose as crop-dusting pilots neglect to shut off the duster in passing over a pond. Even without such complication, normal agricultural use subjects fish to far heavier concentrations of chemicals than would be required to kill them. In other words, a marked reduction in the poundages used would hardly alter the fatal situation, for application of over 0.1 pound per acre to the pond itself are generally considered hazardous. And the poison, once introduced, is hard to get rid of. One pond that had been treated with DDT to remove unwanted shiners remained so poisonous through repeated draining and flushings that it killed 94 percent of the sunfish with which it was later stocked. Apparently the chemical remained in the mud of the pond bottom.
In some parts of the world the cultivation of fish in ponds provides an indispensable source of food. In such places the use of insecticides without regard for the effects on fish creates immediate problems. In Rhodesia, for example, the young of an import food fish, the Kafue bream, are killed by exposure to only 0.04 parts per million of DDT in shallow pools. Even smaller die, of many other insecticides would be lethal. The shallow waters in which these fish live are favorable mosquito-breeding places. The problem of controlling mosquitoes and at the same time conserving a fish important in the Central African diet has obviously not been solved satisfactorily.
Passage Two
There have been many great inventions, things that changed the way we live in. The first great invention was one that is still very important today___ the wheel. This made it easier to carry heavy things and to travel long distances. For hundreds of years after that there were few inventions that had ass much effect as the wheel. Then in the early 1800’s the world started to changed. There was little unknown land left in the world. People did not have to explore much anymore. They began to work instead to make life better. In the second half of the 19th century many great inventions were made. Among them were the camera, the electric light and the radio. These all became a big part of our life today.
The first part of the 20th century saw more great inventions. The helicopter in 1909. Movies with sound in 1926. The computer in 1928. And jet planes in 1930. This was also a time when a new material was first made. Nylon came out in 1935. It changed the kind of clothes people wear. The middle part of the 20th century brought new ways to help people get over disease. They worked very well. They made people healthier and let them live longer lives. By the 1960’s most people could expect to live to be at least 60. By this time most people had a very good life. Of course new inventions continued to be made. But man now had a desire to explore again. The world was known to man but the stars were not. Man began looking for ways to go into space. Russia made the first step. Then the United States took a step. Since then other countries, including China and Japan, have made their steps into space. In 1969 man took his biggest step away from earth. Americans first walked on the moon. This is certainly just a beginning though. New inventions will someday allow us to do things we have never yet dreamed of.
Passage Three
One hundred and thirteen million Americans have at least one bank-issued credit card. They give their owners automatic credit in stores, restaurants, and hotels, at home, across the country, and even abroad, and they make many banking services available as well. More and more of these credit cards can be read automatically, making it possible to withdraw or deposit money in scattered locations, whether or not the local branch bank is opened. For many of us the “cashless society” is not on the horizon-it’s already here.
While computers offer these conveniences to consumers, they have many advantages for sellers too. Electronic cash registers can do much more than simply ring up sales. They can keep a wide range of records, including who sold what, when, and to whom. This information allows businessman to keep track of their list of goods by showing which items are being sold and how fast they are moving. Decisions to record or return goods to suppliers can then be made. At the same time these computers record which hours are busiest and which employees are the most efficient, allowing personnel and staffing assignments to be made accordingly. And they also identify preferred customers for promotional campaigns. Computers are relied on by manufacturers for similar reasons. Computer-analyzed marking reports can help to decide which products to emphasize now, which to develop for the future, and which to drop. Computers keep track of goods in stock, of raw materials on hand, and even of the production process itself.
Numerous other commercial enterprises, from theaters to magazines publishers, from gas and electric utilities to milk processors, bring better and more efficient services to consumers through the use of computers.
Passage Four
Ours has becomes a society of employees. A hundred years or so age only one out of every five Americans at work was employed. Today only one out of five is not employed but working for himself. And when fifty years ago “being employed” meant working as a factory labourer or as a farmhand, the employee of today is increasingly a middle-class person with a substantial formal education, holding a professional or management job requiring intellectual and technical skills. Indeed, two things have characterized American society during these last fifty years: middle-class and upper-class employees have been the fastest-growing groups in our working population-growing so fast that the industrial worker, that oldest child of the Industrial Revolution, has been losing in numerical importance despite the expansion of industrial production.
Yet you will find little if anything written on what it is to be an employee. You can find a great deal of very dubious advice on how to get a job or how to get a promotion. You can also find a good deal of work in a chosen field, whether it be the mechanist’s trade or bookkeeping（會計）. Every one of these trades requires different skills, sets different standards, and requires a different preparation. Yet they all have employeeship in common. And increasingly, especially in the large business or in government, employeeship is more important to success than the special professional knowledge or skill. Certainly more people fail because they do not know the requirements of being an employee than because they do not adequately possess the skills of their trade. The higher you climb the ladder, the more you get into administrative of executive work, the greater the emphasis on ability to work within the organization rather than on technical abilities or professional knowledge.
參考譯文:
1. 在世界的一些地區，池塘魚的養殖為我們提供了必不可少的食物來源。但在這些地方，因為沒有考慮到殺蟲劑的使用給魚帶來的影響，所以也給我們造成了直接的問題。
2. 從古至今誕生了許多偉大的發明，這些發明改變了我們的生活方式。第一個偉大的發明--車輪，在現在仍然是很重要的一個。車輪使得搬運重物和長距離的旅行更容易。這之後的幾百年，很少有其他的發明能有如此重大的影響。
3. 越來越多的信用卡能被自動讀取，無論當地的銀行是否開放，我們都能在這些分散的地方存款或取款。
4. 你往上爬得越高，就更多地參與行政管理工作，就越需要強調在機構內部的工作能力，而不是技術能力和專業知識。
如有其他疑問也可以跟我們翻譯社詢問~~
