2018年11月翻译资格考试二级英语笔译实务真题及答案
【英译中】【Passage 1】
New drone footage gives a glimpse of the damage that Hawaii’s Big Island sustainedin the wake of volcanic explosions in recent days. Smoke can be seen billowing off the lava as it creeps down roads and through wooded areas toward homes. Fires are visible with terrifying streams of brightness breaking through the surrounding areas of black. After a day of relative calm, Kilauea roared back in full force on Sunday,expressed翻译spewing lava 300 feet in the air, encroaching on a half mile of new ground and bringing the total number of destroyed structures to 35. 
从无人机拍摄到的最新视频中，可以大概了解到近日火山喷发后，夏威夷大岛所遭受的损失情况。火山岩浆在道路上、树林里蔓延，直逼住家，岩浆所到处浓烟滚滚。在一片漆黑中可见多处大火，火光十分刺眼。基拉韦厄火山经过相对平静的一天后，周日又火力全开，将岩浆喷到300英尺高空，又侵蚀了半英里土地，共有35处建筑遭摧毁。
There have been 1,800 residents evacuated from their neighborhoods where cracks have been opening and spilling lava. In evacuated areas with relatively low sulfur dioxide levels, residents were allowed to return home for a few hours to collect belongings on Sunday and Monday. Officials said those residents – a little more than half of the evacuees — were allowed to return briefly, and they would continue to allow residents in if it could be done safely.
由于地面开裂、岩浆涌出，1800社区居民被疏散。周六周日，在二氧化硫浓度不高的被疏散区域，居民获准回家几个小时收拾家中物品。当地官员称，这些居民——约占被疏散居民总数的半数多些——被准许回家短暂停留，并且在保证安全的前提下，允许其他居民回家。
“Things got pretty active,” an official said at a Saturday press conference. “The eight volcanoes were pretty active, to the point where lava was spewing and the flow started spreading so we got additional damage out there. I’m not sure what the count is, but we thought it was just continuing to go. Fortunately, seismicity has laid down and the volcanoes have gone quiet now.” But officials had cautioned that while the lava flow was qu
iet, it wouldn’t be for long. “More volcanoes could open up, the existing ones could get active again.” There’s a lot of lava under the ground so eventually it’s going to come up.”
“这些火山变的很活跃，”一位官员在周六举行的新闻发布会上称，“有八个火山变的很活跃，岩浆喷出后，四处扩散，因此我们那里损失又多了些。我现在还不了解损失总数，但我们认为这个数字仍在不断攀升。庆幸地是，现在地震强度已经减弱，火山也开始平息下来了。”但是官员警告称，虽然岩浆流动慢下来了，但是不会维持太久。“还有更多地火山可能会爆发，现有的火山可能再次变得活跃。”地表下面有许多岩浆，这些岩浆最终会喷发出来。
The island was also rocked by a 6.9-magnitude earthquake on Friday, which caused landslides near the coast, but minimal structural damage. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said Sunday the island had experienced more than 500 earthquakes – 13 with a magnitude greater than 4.0 — in the 24 hours following the 6.9-magnitude quake. But, the concern for residents continues to be the lava and gas emitted from volcanoes. “The lava is definitely destroying people’s homes — we don’t have an exact count – but it is a devastating situation.” Hawaii County head said Saturday. “There’s no way we could’ve predicted this.”
夏威夷大岛周五发生6.9级地震，导致海岸附近出现滑坡，但建筑物没出现什么损坏。美国地质调查局（USGS）周日表示，大岛发生6.9级地震后，在24小时内又发生了500多次余震，其中13次震级超过4.0级。然而，居民所担心的依然是火山喷出的岩浆和气体。“岩浆肯定还在摧毁人们的房子——我们目前还没有得到确切的数字——但情况十分严重。”夏威夷郡负责人周六称，“我们也没有办法预测到现在这种情况。”
【英译中】【Passage 2】
Just as in America, in Britain too, the story told by official statistics does not alwaysmatch people’s experience. That is especially true in places like Newcastle, a former shipbuilding city, which lost out to competition from Asia in the 1970s and has seen living standards stagnate ever since. The U.S. economy, we are told, is booming.
比如，在美国，还有英国，官方统计数据和人们的感受并不总是相符，这种情况对诸如纽卡斯尔这样的城市来说尤为如此。纽卡斯尔此前曾是一个造船城市，20世纪70年代不敌来自亚洲国家的竞争，人民生活水平从此一直停滞不前。我们被告知，美国经济正快速发展。
In the past two quarters, gross domestic product has risen by more than 3%, the stock market is soaring and unemployment is down to a 17-year low of 4.1%. Many people, though, don’t feel that upside. The perception gap is huge. Unemployment, more broadly measured, is higher than the headline number suggests because many people have simply given up looking for work or are working in part-time jobs when they want a full-time job.
前两个季度，国内生产总值（GDP）增长超3%，股市飘红，失业率降至4.1%，创17年来的新低。但是，许多人感受不到这种经济增长。数据和人们感知之间的差距十分巨大。若从广义程度上衡量失业率，那么它则要比报纸头条刊登的数字要高些，因为许多人干脆不工作了，或者在工作时做着兼职工作。
One of the prime faults of GDP is that it deals in averages and aggregates.Aggregates hide the inequality. And averages don’t tell us very much at all. Barring a few recessions, the U.S. economy has been on a near relentless upward path since the 1950s. Yet according to a Pew Research Center report, the average hourly wage for nonmanagement private-sector work was $20.67 in 2014, just $1.49 higher than in 1964, adjusted for inflation.
GDP的一个主要缺陷就是它反映的是总数和平均数。看总数的话，就看不到不平等的一面，而平均数根本没有什么实质性的信息。美国经济自20世纪50年代以来除了几次经济衰退外，一直不断高速增长。但皮尤研究中心（Pew Research Center）的一份报告表明，扣除通货膨胀因素后，2014年私营部门非管理层员工的时薪为20.67美元，比1964年仅多出1.49美元。
Studies suggest that people care more about relative than absolute wealth. If that is true, then as a minority have become richer, the majority have grown more miserable. In a famous experiment carried out at Emory University, two monkeys were put side by side and given cucumbers as a reward for performing a task. When one of the monkeys was given better-tasting grapes instead, the monkey receiving cucumbers became distraught, flinging its now despised reward at its trainer. The problems with using GDP as a barometer go beyond masking inequality.