12. 英语有些副词放在句首,具有丰富的内容,译成汉语可以适当地加以发挥。
Ideally, one day, researchers will know enough about the genesis of earthquakes……
最理想的情况是,有朝一日研究人员能够对地震的成因……有足够的了解。
13. 主语的位置。英语往往把目的状语或其他成分放在句首,然后再出主语,主语与动词靠得较近。汉语则往往先出主语。
To protect the whale form the cold of the Arctic seas, nature has provided it with a thick covering of fat called blubber.
大自然为了保护鲸鱼,使它不致在北冰洋受冻,便让它长了厚厚的一层脂肪,叫做鲸脂。
14. 英语的书面语差不多每个句子都要有主语,汉语的主语则不那么重要,如果前面已把主语说清楚,后面的句子不一定用主语。甚至在一个句子里应该出现另外一个主语的时候,这个主语仍然可以省略。
They used this kind of scare tactic when I was growing up. I wonder what they use today.
我小的时候,他们用过这种吓唬人的办法。现在用什么办法,就不得而知了。(译文第二句,两个主语“他们”和“我”都没有出现。)
15. 英语有who, which等词,可以引出定语从句,汉语多用并列分句,或单成一句,有时可把定语从句先处理。
Richardson, who served as both Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare during the Nixon Administration, was talking about the negotiations for a Law of the Sea treaty, which came to a virtual conclusion last week after six years of deliberations.
理查森曾在尼克松政府中担任国防部长和卫生、教育和福利部长,他是在谈到关于海洋法条约的谈判时说这番话的。(译文用了并列分句)
I have never had much patience with the writers who claim from the reader an effort to understand their meaning.
有些作家,读者要费力气才能看懂他们的意思,我对这样的作家一向是没有多少耐心的。(原文中的定语从句在译文中提前处理。)
16. 英语的主语部分可以很长,其中包括几个介词引导的短语作定语,汉语往往用分句来表达,或者独立成句。
The 180-page document, with more than 300 articles and eight annexes, definitively covers every conceivable issue dealing with the seas, from the definition of what constitutes an island to the jurisdiction over fish that live in fresh water but spawn in the ocean.
这份长达一百八十页的文件,有三百余条,并有八个附件。它涉及能够想到的每一个与海洋有关的问题,从岛屿的定义,到对在淡水生长而在海洋产卵的鱼类的管辖权,都做了明确的规定。(原文中的主语部分独立成句。)
17. 英语除了有who, which等词外,还有动词的-ing形式,因此句子可以很长,但组织得很严密。汉语叙事,则多用并列结构,一层一层地把事情说清楚。有时可以把较长地句子译成几个短句。
In the winter of 1879, James Lecky, exchequer clerk from Ireland, and privately interested in phonetics, keyboard temperament, and Gaelic, all of which subjects he imposed on me, dragged me to a meeting of a debating society called The Zetetical: a junior copy of the once well known Dialectical Society founded to discuss John Stuart Mill’s Essay on Liberty when that was new.
1879年冬天,詹姆斯·莱基拉我去参加一次辩论会。莱基是爱尔兰人,在财政部门当职员,有空喜欢研究语音,练习弹琴,学习盖尔语,他还硬让我也学这些东西。这次他带我去参加的辩论会是一个名叫“探索学会”的团体举办的。当年约翰·斯图尔特·米尔的文章《论自由》刚刚发表时候,成立过一个“辩证学会”来讨论这篇文章,这个学会曾名噪一时。探索学会就是仿照这个学会建立起来的,只是没有它那么有名罢了。(原文虽然较长,但并不很复杂。主语部分有一个同位语和一个定语从句,谓语部分有一个同位语和一个状语从句。译文则分成了五个句子。)
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