2009年研究生考試公共英語試題（翻譯部分）

There is a marked difference between the education which every one gets from living with others, and the deliberate education of the young. In the former case the education is incidental; it is natural and important, but it is not the express reason of the association. It may be said that the measure of the worth of any social institution is its effect in enlarging and improving experience; but this effect is not a part of its original motive. Religious associations began, for example, in the desire to secure the favor of overruling powers and to ward off evil influences; family life in the desire to gratify appetites and secure family perpetuity; systematic labor, for the most part, because of enslavement to others, etc. Only gradually was the by-product of the institution noted, and only more gradually still was this effect considered as a directive factor in the conduct of the institution. Even today, in our industrial life, apart from certain values of industriousness and thrift, the intellectual and emotional reaction of the forms of human association under which the world’s work is carried on receives little attention as compared with physical output.

But in dealing with the young, the fact of association itself, as an immediate human fact, gains in importance. While it is easy to ignore in our contact with them the effect of our acts upon their disposition, it is not so easy as in dealing with adults. The need of training is too evident; the pressure to accomplish a change in their attitude and habits is too urgent to leave these consequences wholly out of account. Since our chief business with them is to enable them to share in a common life we cannot help considering whether or not we are forming the powers which will secure this ability. If humanity has made some headway in realizing that the ultimate value of every institution is its distinctively human effect we may well believe that this lesson has been learned largely through dealings with the young.

So we are thus led to distinguish, within the broad educational process which we have been so far considering, a more formal kind of education—that of direct tuition or schooling. In undeveloped social groups, we find very little formal teaching and training. These groups mainly rely for instilling needed dispositions into the young upon the same sort of association which keeps the adults loyal to their group.

1. 原文：It may be said that the measure of the worth of any social institution is its effect in enlarging and improving experience; but this effect is not a part of its original motive.

分析：it may be said that是一個常見的句型，一般譯為“可以說”；measure意思是“衡量，尺度”。

參考譯文：可以說，衡量一種社會制度的價值，是看其在豐富經驗、改進經驗方面的效果。但這種效果并不是其初衷的一部分。

2. 原文：Only gradually was the by-product of the institution noted, and only more gradually still was this effect considered as a directive factor in the conduct of the institution.

分析：這是一個由兩個倒裝結構組成的并列句。翻譯的關鍵是要恢復句子的正常語序，即：The by-product of the institution was only gradually noted, and this effect was still only more gradually considered as a directive factor in the conduct of the institution. 在詞匯層面上，the by-product和this effect指同一事物。在翻譯技巧上，可以把英語的被動結構轉換成漢語的主動結構。

參考譯文：人們是逐漸才注意到這種制度所帶來的效果的，而把這種效果視為制度實施中的指導性因素的過程就更加緩慢。

3. 原文：While it is easy to ignore in our contact with them the effect of our acts upon their disposition, it is not so easy as in dealing with adults.

分析：在理解方面，最難的就是找出ignore的賓語the effect，由于中間插入了in our contact with them，很多考生可能無法弄清結構。在詞匯層面上，them指the young，在翻譯時需要明確；effect…upon形成搭配，意思是“對某事的影響”。

參考譯文：我們在與年輕人交往中容易忽視自己的行為對他們的性格所產生的影響，而在與成年人打交道時就不會如此容易。

4. 原文：Since our chief business with them is to enable them to share in a common life we cannot help considering whether or not we are forming the powers which will secure this ability.

分析：cannot help considering是慣用語，意思是“禁不住考慮”。注意英語中的一次多義現象，在本句中since意思是“既然”；business意思是“職責，任務”；consider意思是“考慮”；powers的意思是“影響力”。

參考譯文：既然我們與年輕人交往的主要職責是為了讓他們能夠參與共同的生活，我們就不能不考慮自己是否正在形成確保獲得這種能力的影響力。

5. 原文：So we are thus led to distinguish, within the broad educational process which we have been so far considering, a more formal kind of education—that of direct tuition or schooling.

分析：理解這個句子的關鍵是弄清句子的結構，確切說是找出distinguish的賓語。它的賓語是a more formal kind of education。詞匯層面，要注意lead（過去分詞led）的用法，這里的lead作及物動詞用，其用法為lead...to do，意思是“要求，誘使”，而不是我們平常所見到的結構lead to sth。

參考譯文：因此，這就要求我們從迄今為止所考慮的廣義教育過程中區分出一種更加正規的教育，即直接傳授或學校教育。