2012级英语专业英译汉试题
The best way to overcome the fear of death – so at least it seems to me – is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river – small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue.
克服怕死念头的最好办法，至少在我看来，就是逐步扩大你的兴趣，并使其更加脱离个人所关心的事情，知道禁锢自我的壁垒逐渐步步隐退，直到你的生命越来越同大千世界的生命融合在一起，个人的存在应当像一条河---起初狭小，局限在自己的河岸之间，然后激越地流过巨砾，冲下悬崖。河逐渐越流越宽广，河岸越来越后退，水流也越来越平静，最后和大海融为一体，分不出任何界限，毫无痛苦地失去了自我的存在。如果一个老年人能以这样的态度来看待生命，他就不会怕死，因为他所关心的一切将会继续下去。
America is the land of opportunities for women. Already they own about eighty-five percent of the wealth of the nation. Soon they will have it all. Divorce has become a lucrative process, simple to arrange and easy to forget; and ambitious females can repeat it as often as they please and parlay their winnings to astronomical figures. The husband ’s death also brings satisfactory rewards and some ladies prefer to rely upon this method. They know that the waiting period will not be unduly protracted, for overwork and hypertension are bound to get the poor devil before long, and he will die at his desk with a bottle of benzedrines in one hand and packet of tranquillizers in the other.
美国是女人大显身手之地。她们目前已经拥有该国大约百分之八十五的财富，而且不日即将囊括全部。离婚堪称进财致富之道，手续简便，容易忘却。心雄万夫的女性，往往尽情恣意重演此技，巧取豪夺，直至获利激增，高达天文数字。丈夫去世，随之而来的报偿也颇为可观。因此一些夫人太太更愿寄望于此。她们知道，等待有限，总不会遥遥无期，劳累过度与高血压用不了多久就必定叫那可怜鬼一命呜呼---他将一手拿着安非他明，一手拿着一包镇静剂，死于写字台旁。
New buildings, massive in span and artful in design, have sprung up everywhere. A plethora of stores and shops have sprouted up everywhere. Within those stores one can find virtually anything one wants from anywhere in the world. I remember in the “old Beijing” there were not so many places to shop and the variety of products available was meager at best. Once while shopping at the only real department store on Wangfujing street, a consignment of new trousers were put out on display and there was an energetic rush by dozens of people to go buy whatever the could get their hands on. As I witnessed one fellow buy several pairs of pants, all different sizes, I asked why. He explained that one never knew when these trousers would become available again---so he wanted to buy as many as he could and he would either trade or exchanges them with his neighbors for other things he needed that they might have had the chance to buy. Now you can enter almost any store on Wangfujing street and find an ample of supply of dizzying array of clothes---enough to suit virtually any need or taste. To me, and I’m sure to thousands of other people, the difference between then and now seems extraordinary. But to hundreds of others the seeming luxury of chances and choices now available is becoming a rather ordinary state of affairs.
一撞撞新建的高楼大厦在各处拔地而起，规模宏伟，设计精美。到处冒出了大大小小数
不胜数的商店，世界各地的商品应有尽有。我记得“老北京”购物的地方并不多，能买到的商品种类充其量也只能说是匮乏。一次在王府井大街唯一一个真正的百货公司里购物，一批新运到的裤子刚取出来展示，很多人就蜂拥而上，抓着哪条买哪条。据我观察，有个人一下子就买了好几条尺码不同的裤子。一打听，原来谁也不知道这些裤子以后什么时候才能买到，所以这次赶上了就可劲地买，以便今后与邻居以裤易物，换取自己需要的东西，邻居们的东西也是赶上机会才买到的。现在，迈入网王府井任何一家商店，都能望见一排排的服装，货源充足，令人眼花缭乱---不论什么需求，何种款式，在这儿都能满足。在我看来，我相信在千千万万其他人眼里也一样，今昔巨变似乎是非同寻常的。但是在其他许多人眼里，眼下看上去很奢华的机会和选择，正在变成司空见惯的寻常事。