2008年考研翻譯題及參考答案

Part C

Directions: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points)

In his autobiography, Darwin himself speaks of his intellectual powers with extraordinary modesty. He points out that he always experienced much difficulty in expressing himself clearly and concisely, but (46) he believes that this very difficulty may have had the compensating advantage of forcing him to think long and intently about every sentence, and thus enabling him to detect errors in reasoning and in his own observations. He disclaimed the possession of any great quickness of apprehension or wit, such as distinguished Huxley. (47) He asserted, also, that his power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought was very limited, for which reason he felt certain that he never could have succeeded with mathematics. His memory, too, he described as extensive, but hazy. So poor in one sense was it that he never could remember for more than a few days a single date or a line of poetry. (48) On the other hand, he did not accept as well founded the charge made by some of his critics that, while he was a good observer, he had no power of reasoning. This, he thought, could not be true, because the “Origin of Species” is one long argument from the beginning to the end, and has convinced many able men. No one, he submits, could have written it without possessing some power of reasoning. He was willing to assert that “I have a fair share of invention, and of common sense or judgment, such as every fairly successful lawyer or doctor must have, but not, I believe, in any higher degree. ” (49) He adds humbly that perhaps he was “superior to the common run of men in noticing things which easily escape attention, and in observing them carefully. ”

Writing in the last year of his life, he expressed the opinion that in two or three respects his mind had changed during the preceding twenty or thirty years. Up to the age of thirty or beyond it poetry of many kinds gave him great pleasure. Formerly, too, pictures had given him considerable, and music very great, delight. In 1881, however, he said: “Now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music. ” (50) Darwin was convinced that the loss of these tastes was not only a loss of happiness, but might possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character.

46. 他認為或許正因為(語言表達上的)這種困難，他不得不對自己要說的每句話都經過長時間的認真思考，從而能發現自己在推理和觀察中的錯誤，結果這反而成為他的優點。

47. 他還堅持認為自己進行長時間純抽象思維的能力十分有限，由此他也認定自己在數學方面根本不可能有大的作為。

48. 另一方面，某些人批評他雖然善于觀察，卻不具備推理能力，而他認為這種說法也是缺乏根據的。

49. 他又自謙的說，或許自己“在注意到容易被忽略的事物，并對其加以仔細觀察方面優于常人”。

50. 達爾文確信，沒有了這些愛好不只是少了樂趣，而且可能會有損于一個人的思維能力，更有可能導致一個人道德品質的下降。