【考研类试卷】考研英语翻译-(二)及答案解析.doc

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1、考研英语翻译-(二)及答案解析(总分：500.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、BSection Use o(总题数：5，分数：500.00)Much has been made of the 400th anniversary this year of Galileo pointing a telescope at the moon and jotting down what he saw. But 2009 is also the 400th anniversary of the publication by Johannes Kepler, a German mathematician a

2、nd astronomer, of “Astronomia Nova“. U U 1 /U /UUThis was a book that contained an account of his discovery of how the planets move around the sun, correcting Copernicuss own more famous but incorrectly formulated description of the solar system./U And it established the laws for planetary motion on

3、 which Isaac Newton based his work.Four centuries ago the received wisdom was that of Aristotle, who asserted that the Earth was the centre of the universe, and that it was encircled by the spheres of the moon, the sun, the planets and the stars beyond them. Copernicus had noticed inconsistencies in

4、 this theory and had placed the san at the centre, with the Earth and the other planets travelling around the sun.U U 2 /U /UUSome six decades later when Kepler tackled the motion of Mars, he proposed a number of geometric models, checking his results against the position of the planet as recorded b

5、y his boss/U. Kepler repeatedly found that his model failed to predict the correct position of the planet. He altered it and, in so doing, created first egg-shaped “orbits“ and, finally, an ellipse (椭圆) with the sun placed at one focus. U U 3 /U /UUKepler went on to show that an elliptical orbit is

6、sufficient to explain the movement of the other planets and to devise the laws of planetary, motion that Newton built on./UA.E.L. Davis this week told astronomers and historians that it was the rotation of the sun that provide Kepler with what he thought was one of the causes of the planetary motion

7、 that his laws described, although his reasoning would today be considered entirely wrong.U U 4 /U /UUIn 1609 astronomy and astrology were seen as intimately related; mathematics and natural philosophy, meanwhile, were quite separate areas of endeavor; however, Kepler sought physical mechanisms to e

8、xplain his mathematical result./U He wanted to know how it could be that the planets orbited the sun. U U 5 /U /UUOnce he learned that the sun rotated, he comforted himself with the thought that the suns rays must somehow sweep the planets around it while some magnetism accounted for the exact ellip

9、tical path./U As todays astronomers struggle to determine whether they can learn from the past, Keplers tale provides a salutary reminder that only some explanations stand the test of time.（分数：100.00）_The middle classes have always been the defense wall of society. U U 6 /U /UUAristotle believed the

10、y were democracys secret weapon-the protectors of social values, the moderators of political extremism, and believers in a society run by laws instead of by strongmen./U They have also been the engines of economic growth, setting the stage centuries ago for the expansion of capitalism and global tra

11、de, and continuing through the ages to snap up every new gadget in sight.U U 7 /U /UUNow, with the Western middle classes sinking into debt and distress, many economists look to a new emerging-market middle class as the potential foundation for a new age of global safety and prosperity./U As large d

12、eveloping nations became more prosperous, it was always assumed that they would become more like the suburbs of Washington or London-liberal, democratic, market-friendly bastions not only of Western-style consumerism but also of political liberty. With time and wealth, “they“ would become just like

13、“us.“The truth is that “they“ are not becoming just like “us.“ U U 8 /U /UUThe global middle class is rising faster than expected, in numbers and in wealth, but converging incomes are not yielding shared values/U. The emerging bourgeoisie is a patchwork of contradictions: clamorous but rarely confro

14、ntational politically, supporters of globalization yet highly nationalistic, proud of their nations upward mobility yet insecure and fearful they will fall back, fiercely individualistic but reliant on government subsidies, and often socially conservative. Many of the aspiring elite seem willing to

15、let the powers that be-whether authoritarian governments or elected ones-call the shots as long as they deliver the spoils of growth.Its also worth remembering that the new middle classes are psychologically driven by an odd mix of pride and insecurity. U U 9 /U /UUClose to 30 percent of Brazils new

16、 middle class owes its livelihood to the informal market, where income is irregular, safety nets are nonexistent, and opportunity for entrepreneurship is limited/U. Many have borrowed their way to higher living standards, one reason perhaps that 53 percent say they live in fear of unemployment, loss

17、 of income, or even bankruptcy. They have benefited from the explosion of private schools but have seen the overall quality of education plummet, eroding one of the classic middle-class paths to social mobility. U U 10 /U /UUIndeed, some development economists argue that the poor will be a greater f

18、orce for social change, but their ability to become a force for better government, greater freedoms, less corruption, and more economic liberty is much less certain./U “They“ have a very long way to go before becoming “us.“（分数：100.00）_Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) embodies a uniquely Asian approach to governan

19、ce that has often been at odds with the Western democratic principles. U U 11 /U /UUFor decades, he has spoken in favor of “Asian values“, a political philosophy that might be loosely summed up as respect for authority and order, while putting the good of society above that of the individual./U His

20、criticisms have focused on the excesses of democracy, particularly freedom of speech, and the impact they have on the search for economic growth.U U 12 /U /UUIn the past, Lee has not been shy about singling out those nations in which an excess of democracys messiness has tempered steady economic pro

21、gress and the betterment of the life chances of ordinary folk./U But the strength of his argument does not rest only on other nations failures. For as any visitor can attest, the scale of what Lee and his colleagues have achieved by applying his principles is simply astonishing.It is an almost mirac

22、ulous achievement, and one in which Lee and his colleagues take justifiable pride. It is, moreover, something that has been much admired, to the point of imitation, around the region. U U 13 /U /UUAsian leaders like Malaysias Prime Minister Mahathir and Indonesias President Suharto may rarely have c

23、hosen to admit it, but their “economy first“ strategy owes much to the intelligence of this Cambridge-educated lawyer/U. Above all Chinas leaders have for three decades come to Singapore to listen, to learn, and to admire.Yet for all Singapores success, there remains a feeling that it has come at a

24、price. Lees methods have found plenty of critics at home and abroad. U U 14 /U /UUOrdinary Singaporeans when questioned about tics of Lee and his family, without quite knowing it, they often instinctively lower their voices and glance over their shoulders./U “People are still too frightened to talk

25、about the taboo subjects,“ wrote Catherine Lim. There are few voices prepared to speak out in favor of wider democratic debate.U U 15 /U /UUFor his part, Lee Kuan Yew acknowledges that there is a need to make Singaporeans less dependent on the government and to encourage more open debate/U. He insis

26、ts that the ruling Party can absorb and benefit from dissenting voices. But he is determined that Singaporeans are not yet ready for the vociferous free market of ideas that typifies, for example, politics in the U.S. “I see the marketplace of ideas, as in the Philippines, and I see chaos,“ he says,

27、 while adding: “Gradually, we will loosen up.“（分数：100.00）_Like other forms of life on this planet, human beings confront a basic task: to deal satisfactorily with their conflicts and thereby secure the advantages of community and cooperation. U U 16 /U /UUUnlike other forms of life, human beings are

28、 endowed with a capacity to reflect on this task and to search for better solutions by conscious thought and deliberate choices./UThe task of overcoming conflicts and achieving community and cooperation arises because human beings are unable and unwilling to live in complete isolation. U U 17 /U /UU

29、The advantages of cooperation and community life are so numerous and so obvious that they must have been evident to man from earliest times./U By now, our ancestors have closed off the choice; for most of us the option of total isolation from a community is, realistically speaking, no longer open.U

30、U 18 /U /UUNonetheless, however strongly_ human beings are driven to seek the company of one another, and despite thousands of years practice they have never discovered a way in which they can live together without conflict/U. Conflict exists when one individual wishes to follow a line of action tha

31、t would make it difficult or impossible for someone else to pursue his own desires. Conflict seems to be an inescapable aspect of the community and consequently of human being. Why conflict seems inescapable is a question that has troubled many people: philosophers, theologians, historians, social s

32、cientists, and doubtless a great many ordinary people. James Madison held that conflict was built into the very nature of men and women. Human beings have diverse abilities, he wrote in The Federalist, and these in turn produce diverse interests. U U 19 /U /UU“As long as man has irrational ideas, an

33、d he is at liberty to exercise it,“ Madison wrote, “different opinions will be formed.“/UWhatever the explanation for conflict may be, and Madisons is but one of many, its experience is one of the prime facts of all community of life. Yet if this were the only fact, then human life would fit the des

34、cription by the English political philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, in his Leviathan (1651). Hobbes describes mankind in a state of nature-a condition without government-having little in the way of agriculture, industry, trade, knowledge, arts, letters or society. U U 20 /U /UU“And which is worst of all,“

35、 he concluded in a famous sentence, to exist without government would mean “continual fear, and danger of violent death and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty and short.“/U（分数：100.00）_Environmentalists claim the moral high ground: their interests are in preserving our precious planet, protecting

36、 defenseless animals, ensuring our children have clean water to drink and air to breathe. Yet environmentalists policies have been a much more mixed bag in terms of their actual consequences. U U 21 /U /UUIndisputably, many regulations and initiatives have reduced pollution and improved air and wate

37、r quality, to the benefit of everyone, but other environmental efforts have backfired, some with truly disastrous consequences./UConsider whats happened with DDT (a chemical used to kill insects that harm crops). The pesticide came into use during World War II and helped eliminate malaria. However i

38、n 1962, an environmentalist wrote that the chemical was causing cancer and destroying wildlife. In 1972, DDT was banned in the U. S. and ultimately worldwide. As a result of the ban, malaria remained a plague in many poor countries. U U 22 /U /UUSo during the decades in which DDT was not used, when

39、the world bowed to undoubtedly well-intentioned environmental activists, about 50 million people-overwhelmingly African children-died, mostly unnecessarily./UEthanol provides another example. For years, biofuels were heralded as the promising alternative to fossil fuels, yet it turns out biofuels en

40、vironmental impact is much more complicated. In 2008, Time magazine wrote about ethanols dubious environmental benefits. U U 23 /U /UUThe article warned that forests, wetlands, and grasslands were being sacrificed in a rush to farm crops that could be turned into gasoline, so the once environmentall

41、y favored solution to our energy problems is now recognized as a potential environmental catastrophe/U. Its worth noting that, beyond biofuels environmental effects, using food for fuel has a significant impact on the worldwide food supply.Prominent environmentalists promise that they are confident

42、that man is causing the Earth to warm, and they dont want to contemplate alternative theories about how the sun might be responsible for warming, that the warming isnt unprecedented and therefore could be naturally occurring. U U 24 /U /UUThey dont want to consider the costs of policies that they wa