1、人事部三级笔译（CATTI）2007.11 英译汉真题One of the biggest decisions Andy Blevins has ever made, and one of the few he now regrets, never seemed like much of a decision at all. It just felt like the natural thing to do.In the summer of 1995, he was moving boxes of soup cans, paper towels and dog food across the
2、floor of a supermarket warehouse, one of the biggest buildings here in southwest Virginia. The heat was brutal. The job had sounded impossible when he arrived fresh off his first year of college, looking to make some summer money, still a skinny teenager with sandy blond hair and a narrow, freckled
3、face.But hard work done well was something he understood, even if he was the first college boy in his family. Soon he was making bonuses on top of his $6.75 an hour, more money than either of his parents made. His girlfriend was around, and so were his hometown buddies. Andy acted more outgoing with
4、 them, more relaxed. People in Chilhowie noticed that.It was just about the perfect summer. So the thought crossed his mind: maybe it did not have to end. Maybe he would take a break from college and keep working. He had been getting Cs and Ds, and college never felt like home, anyway.“I enjoyed wor
5、king hard, getting the job done, getting a paycheck,“ Mr. Blevins recalled. “I just knew I didnt want to quit.“So he quit college instead, and with that, Andy Blevins joined one of the largest and fastest-growing groups of young adults in America. He became a college dropout, though nongraduate may
6、be the more precise term.Many people like him plan to return to get their degrees, even if few actually do. Almost one in three Americans in their mid-20s now fall into this group, up from one in five in the late 1960s, when the Census Bureau began keeping such data. Most come from poor and working-
7、class families.That gap had grown over recent years. “We need to recognize that the most serious domestic problem in the United States today is the widening gap between the children of the rich and the children of the poor,“ Lawrence H. Summers, the president of Harvard, said last year when announci
8、ng that Harvard would give full scholarships to all its lowest-income students. “And education is the most powerful weapon we have to address that problem.“Andy Blevins says that he too knows the importance of a degree. Ten years after trading college for the warehouse, Mr. Blevins, 29, spends his d
9、ays at the same supermarket company. He has worked his way up to produce buyer, earning $35,000 a year with health benefits and a 401(k) plan. He is on a path typical for someone who attended college without getting a four-year degree. Men in their early 40s in this category made an average of $42,0
10、00 in 2000. Those with a four-year degree made $65,000.Mr. Blevins says he has many reasons to be happy. He lives with his wife, Karla, and their year-old son, Lucas, in a small blue-and-yellow house in the middle of a stunningly picturesque Appalachian valley.“Looking back, I wish I had gotten that
11、 degree,“ Mr. Blevins said in his soft-spoken lilt. “Four years seemed like a thousand years then. But I wish I would have just put in my four years.“Why so many low-income students fall from the college ranks is a question without a simple answer. Many high schools do a poor job of preparing teenag
12、ers for college. Tuition bills scare some students from even applying and leave others with years of debt. To Mr. Blevins, like many other students of limited means, every week of going to classes seemed like another week of losing money .“The system makes a false promise to students,“ said John T.
13、Casteen III, the president of the University of Virginia, himself the son of a Virginia shipyard worker.One of the biggest decisions Andy Blevins has ever made, and one of the few he now regrets, never seemed like much of a decision at all. It just felt like the natural thing to do.安迪布莱文思曾做过的最大的、同时也
14、是他现在极少为之后悔的决定之一，看起来一点也不像个决定。倒像是自然而然做的事。In the summer of 1995, he was moving boxes of soup cans, paper towels and dog food across the floor of a supermarket warehouse, one of the biggest buildings here in southwest Virginia. The heat was brutal. The job had sounded impossible when he arrived fresh of
15、f his first year of college, looking to make some summer money, still a skinny teenager with sandy blond hair and a narrow, freckled face.1995 年夏天，他在一家超市的仓库上班，把汤罐头、纸巾和狗粮箱子在地板上搬来搬去，这家超市是弗吉尼亚西南部最大的建筑物之一。天气酷热。他刚到这开始第一个学年时，希望在暑期挣点外快，这份工作在那时显得不可思议。当时他还是个瘦得皮包骨的十几岁的小伙子，有着沙质金发和瘦削的布满雀斑的脸。But hard work done w
16、ell was something he understood, even if he was the first college boy in his family. Soon he was making bonuses on top of his $6.75 an hour, more money than either of his parents made. His girlfriend was around, and so were his hometown buddies. Andy acted more outgoing with them, more relaxed. Peop
17、le in Chilhowie noticed that.但是，他明白应该把坚苦的工作干好，即使他是他家族的第一个大学生。很快，他挣的钱高达 6.75 美元一小时，比他父母挣得都多。他有女友和同乡作伴。安迪待他们更友好宽容。芝尔豪伊镇的人注意到了。It was just about the perfect summer. So the thought crossed his mind: maybe it did not have to end. Maybe he would take a break from college and keep working. He had been gett
18、ing Cs and Ds, and college never felt like home, anyway.这只是个完美的夏天。于是一丝念头闪过他的脑海，兴许这一切不必结束，兴许他可以暂时休学继续工作。他的学业成绩得了一些 C 和 D，无论如何，大学从来不像家里。“I enjoyed working hard, getting the job done, getting a paycheck,“ Mr. Blevins recalled. “I just knew I didnt want to quit.“我喜欢努力干活，完成工作，挣一份薪水， ”布莱文思回忆说。 “我只知道我不想离开。
19、 ”So he quit college instead, and with that, Andy Blevins joined one of the largest and fastest-growing groups of young adults in America. He became a college dropout, though nongraduate may be the more precise term.于是他反而退了学，随之加入了美国最大和成长最快的年轻人群体之一。他成了辍学生，尽管未毕业也许是更准确的定义。Many people like him plan to r
20、eturn to get their degrees, even if few actually do. Almost one in three Americans in their mid-20s now fall into this group, up from one in five in the late 1960s, when the Census Bureau began keeping such data. Most come from poor and working-class families.很多像他那样的人计划重新取得学位，即使实际上很少人那么做。20 岁左右的美国人几
21、乎有三分之一成为这个群体中的一员，高于 20 世纪 60 年代的五分之一，那时人口调查局开始保存这一数据。其中大部分人出生于穷人和工薪阶层家庭。That gap had grown over recent years. “We need to recognize that the most serious domestic problem in the United States today is the widening gap between the children of the rich and the children of the poor,“ Lawrence H. Summer
22、s, the president of Harvard, said last year when announcing that Harvard would give full scholarships to all its lowest-income students. “And education is the most powerful weapon we have to address that problem.“最近几年这种差距已扩大。 “我们必须意识到，美国今天最严重的国内问题是日益分化的贫富孩子之间的差距， ”哈佛校长劳伦斯.H 夏默尔在宣称哈佛应给所有收入最低的学生颁发全额奖学
23、金时说。 “教训是解决这一问题的最强有力的武器。 ”Andy Blevins says that he too knows the importance of a degree. Ten years after trading college for the warehouse, Mr. Blevins, 29, spends his days at the same supermarket company. He has worked his way up to produce buyer, earning $35,000 a year with health benefits and a
24、401(k) plan. He is on a path typical for someone who attended college without getting a four-year degree. Men in their early 40s in this category made an average of $42,000 in 2000. Those with a four-year degree made $65,000.安迪布莱文思说他也知道学位的重要性。在拿大学生涯换仓库工作的十年后，已 29 岁的布莱文思先生，仍在同一家超市工作。他干到了产品采购，年薪 35000
25、 美元，有健康保险和一份 401（k）计划。他走的路，是那些进入大学却未取得 4 年学位的人走的一条典型的路。2000 年，40 多岁的此类人平均年薪为 42000 万美元。而那些取得了 4 年学位的人年薪则为 65000 美元。Mr. Blevins says he has many reasons to be happy. He lives with his wife, Karla, and their year-old son, Lucas, in a small blue-and-yellow house in the middle of a stunningly picturesqu
26、e Appalachian valley.布莱文思先生说他有很多理由高兴。他同他的妻子卡拉及周岁的儿子卢卡斯，住在风景如画的阿巴拉契亚山谷中部的一座蓝黄相间的小房子里。“Looking back, I wish I had gotten that degree,“ Mr. Blevins said in his soft-spoken lilt. “Four years seemed like a thousand years then. But I wish I would have just put in my four years.“回想起来，我希望我已经取得了那个学位， ”布莱文思先生
27、轻快地说。 “那时 4 年似乎像 1000 年。但是我希望自己只是投入了 4 年。 ”Why so many low-income students fall from the college ranks is a question without a simple answer. Many high schools do a poor job of preparing teenagers for college. Tuition bills scare some students from even applying and leave others with years of debt.
28、To Mr. Blevins, like many other students of limited means, every week of going to classes seemed like another week of losing money .为什么如此多的低收入学生辍学，这是一个没有简单答案的问题。许多高中在将青少年送进大学的准备工作上没做好。学费吓得学生甚至不敢申请，或让其他入学的人欠下多年的债。布莱文思先生，像其他门路有限的学生一样，每周去上课，就像每周在赔钱。“The system makes a false promise to students,“ said J
29、ohn T. Casteen III, the president of the University of Virginia, himself the son of a Virginia shipyard worker.“教育体制给了学生们一个虚假的承诺， ”弗吉尼亚大学校长约翰.T.卡斯廷三世说，他本人是一个弗吉尼亚船厂工人的儿子。人事部三级笔译（CATTI）2008.5 英译汉真题Europe Pushes to Get Fuel From Fields欧洲竞相从农田获取燃料ARDEA, Italy The previous growing season, this lush coast
30、al field near Rome was filled with rows of delicate durum wheat, used to make high-quality pasta. Today it overflows with rapeseed, a tall, gnarled weedlike plant bursting with coarse yellow flowers that has become a new manna for European farmers: rapeseed can be turned into biofuel.阿尔代亚，意大利上个生长季节，
31、罗马近郊植物葱茏的靠海农田，遍布成排的纤细的硬质小麦，过去用于制作高品质意粉。今天，这里却长满了油菜花，一种高高的、多节的类似杂草的、盛开野黄花的植物。它已经成为上帝赐给欧洲农民的一种新的作物：因为油菜籽能被转变为生物燃料。Motivated by generous subsidies to develop alternative energy sources and a measure of concern about the future of the planet Europes farmers are beginning to grow crops that can be turned
32、 into fuels meant to produce fewer emissions than gas or oil. They are chasing their counterparts in the Americas who have been raising crops for biofuel for more than five years.在丰厚补贴的驱动下，人们正在开发各种可替代能源这是对地球未来一定程度的关注欧洲农民正开始种植可转换为燃料的作物，这意味着比汽油或石油产生更少的排放物。他们正在追随美国同伴，后者种植用于生物燃料的作物已超过 5 年。“This is a muc
33、h-needed boost to our economy, our farms,” said Marcello Pini, 50, a farmer, standing in front of the rapeseed he planted for the first time. “Of course, we hope it helps the environment, too.”“这对我们的经济和农田，是一种急需的激励， ”50 岁的农民马赛罗.皮尼，站在他第一次种植的油菜籽田前面说， “当然，我们也希望这有助于环境。 ”In March, the European Commission,
34、 disappointed by the slow growth of the biofuels industry, approved a directive that included a “binding target” requiring member countries to use 10 percent biofuel for transport by 2020 the most ambitious and specific goal in the world.3 月，对生物燃料产业成长缓慢感到失望的欧洲委员会，批准了一条包括“约束力目标”的指令，要求成员国到 2020 年时，生物燃
35、料占运输用燃料的 10这是世界上最雄心勃勃和具体的目标。Most European countries are far from achieving the target, and are introducing incentives and subsidies to bolster production.大部分欧洲国家还远远未实现这一目标，正引入激励和补贴，以提高产量。As a result, bioenergy crops have replaced food as the most profitable crop in several European countries. In thi
36、s part of Italy, for example, the government guarantees the purchase of biofuel crops at 22 euros for 100 kilograms, or $13.42 for 100 pounds nearly twice the 11 to 12 euros for 100 kilograms of wheat on the open market in 2006. Better still, farmers can plant biofuel crops on “set aside” fields, la
37、nd that Europes agriculture policy would otherwise require be left fallow.结果，生物能源作物已取代粮食，成为几个欧洲国家最有利可图的作物。例如，意大利在这方面，政府保证以每 100 公斤 22 欧元或 13.42 美元的价格购买生物燃料作物这几乎是 2006 年公开市场上每 100 公斤小麦 11 或 12 欧元价格的两倍。更好的是，农民可以在“搁置”地上种植生物燃料作物，欧洲的农业政策曾要求这些地休耕。But an expert panel convened by the United Nations Food and
38、 Agriculture Organization pointed out that the biofuels boom produces benefits as well as trade-offs and risks including higher and wildly fluctuating food prices. In some markets, grain prices have nearly doubled.但是，联合国粮农组织召集的专家组指出，生物燃料热潮有利有弊，需要权衡包括跌宕起伏的粮食价格波动。在一些市场，谷物价格已几乎翻番。“At a time when agricu
39、ltural prices are low, in comes biofuel and improves the lot of farmers and injects life into rural areas,” said Gustavo Best, an expert at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. “But as the scale grows and the demand for biofuel crops seems to be infinite, were seeing some negative effects
40、and we need to hold up a yellow light.”“一旦农产品价格降低，生物燃料就会进入，改善农民的命运，并给农村地区注入活力， ”位于罗马的粮农组织专家古斯塔罗.贝斯特说。 “但随着规模增长，对生物燃料作物的需求似乎无穷无尽，我们看到一些负面影响，需要举起黄灯。 ”Josette Sheeran, the new head of the United Nations World Food program, which fed nearly 90 million people in 2006, said that biofuels created new probl
41、ems. “An increase in grain prices impacts us because we are a major procurer of grain for food,” she said. “So biofuels are both a challenge and an opportunity.”联合国世界粮食计划在 2006 年养活了近 9000 万人，其新领导人乔塞特希兰说生物燃料制造了新问题。 “粮食价格的增长对我们造成了冲击，因为我们是粮食的主要生产者， ”她说。 “因此，生物燃料挑战与机遇并存。 ”In Europe, the rapid conversion
42、 of fields that once grew wheat or barley to biofuel crops like rapeseed is already leading to shortages of the ingredients for making pasta and brewing beer, suppliers say. That could translate into higher prices in supermarkets.供应商说，在欧洲，成熟后的小麦或大麦改为像油菜籽那样的生物燃料作物，已经引起了制作意粉和酿造啤酒所需的配料短缺。这转化为了超级市场里更高的价
43、格。“New and increasing demand for bioenergy production has put high pressure on the whole world grain market,” said Claudia Conti, a spokesman for Barilla, one of the largest Italian pasta makers. “Not only German beer producers, but Mexican tortilla makers have see the cost of their main raw materia
44、l growing quickly to historical highs.”“对生物能源产品新的和不断增长的需求，已给整个世界粮食市场施加了高压， ”意大利最大的意粉制造商之一、百得阿姨的发言人克劳迪亚科蒂说。 “不仅德国的啤酒制造商，而且墨西哥的玉米饼生产者，都已注意到他们主要的原材料成本增长迅速，已达历史最高水平。 ”Some experts are more worried about the potential impact to low-income consumers. In the developing world, the shift to more lucrative bi
45、ofuel crops destined for richer countries could create serious hunger and damage the environment if wild land is converted to biofuel cultivation, the agriculture panel concluded.一些专家更担心其对低收入消费者的潜在冲击。农业小组断定，在发展中国家，如果荒地转为种植生物燃料作物，这种以富国为目的、向更多高利润生物燃料作物转变的做法，可能造成严重的饥饿，并损害环境。But officials at the Europea
46、n Commission say they are pursuing a measured course that will prevent some of the price and supply problems seen in American markets.但欧洲委员会的官员说，他们正在寻求一种审慎的进程，它将避免在美国市场上看见的一些价格和供应问题。In a recent speech, Mariann Fischer Boel, the European agriculture and rural development commissioner, said that the 1
47、0 percent target was “not a shot in the dark,” but was carefully chosen to encourage a level of growth for the biofuel industry that would not produce undue hardship for Europes poor.欧洲农业和农村发展委员会的马里兰.菲舍尔.波伊尔，在最近一次演讲中说，10目标并非“误打误撞， ”但是小心选择一个增长水平以促进生物燃料产业，并不会给欧洲的穷人产生过度困难。She calculated that this appro
48、ach would push up world raw material prices for cereal by 3 percent to 6 percent by 2020, while prices for oilseed might rise 5 percent to 18 percent. But food prices on the shelves would barely change, she said.她估计 2020 年前，这种做法将把世界谷物原材料价格提高 3至 6，而含油种子的价格可能增长 5到 18。但她说货架上的食品价格几乎不变。Yet even as the Eu
49、ropean program begins to harvest biofuels in greater volume, homegrown production is still far short of what is needed to reach the 10 percent goal: Europes farmers produced an estimated 2.9 billion liters, or 768 million gallons, of biofuel in 2004, far shy of the 3.4 billion gallons generated in the United States in the period. In 2005, biofuel accounted for around 1 percent of Europes fuel, according to European statistics, with almost all of that in Germany and Sweden. The biofuel share in Italy was 0.51 percent, and in Britain, 0.18 percen
