Transcript Translation of English for Science and Technology

Translation of English for
Science and Technology
Scientific prose
• Science fiction, science news, academic
papers, science report, monograph,
product pamphlet or description,
experimental report, survey, etc.
Features of Science Prose
• Diction:
power 力量，权力
政权，国力，政治力量，军队（国家政权）
机能，体力，活力 （生理学）
幂，乘方，基数 （数学）
力，动力，电，店里，电源，功率 （物理学）
•
polysemy
Grammatical structure
• Complete sentence
• Present tense
• General statement (definition, formula,
tables…)
• Nonfinite verbs
• Long sentences
• Passive voice
• noun
Style
•
•
•
•
•
Formal
Coherence
Clarity
Plainness
Preciseness
Translation of Scientific Prose
• 例1：Around 2050, the amount of carbon
released from the soil by bacteria would
be greater than the amount soaked up by
trees, and global warming would be
accelerated.
• 到2050年左右，土壤中细菌的碳释放量有
可能大于林木的吸收量，地球会加速变暖。
• 例2：Then what? Well, mankind is not doing a
very good job of running the earth right now.
Maybe, when the time comes, we ought to step
gracefully aside and hand over the job to
someone who can do it better. And if we don’t
step aside, perhaps Supercomputer will simply
move in and push us aside.
•
(I. Asimov: The Difference Between a Brain
and a Computer)
• 到那时会怎么样呢? 唉，反正人类现在也没有做
好管理地球的工作。也许到那时候，我们真该豁
达大度地让到一边，把工作交给更为称职的去做。
如果我们不主动让位，也许超级电脑就会老实不
客气地闯进来，把我们推到一边。
• 例3：A further inference was drawn by Pascal,
who reasoned that if this “sea of air” existed, its
pressure at the bottom (i.e. sea level) would be
greater than its pressure further up, and that
therefore the height of mercury column would
decrease in proportion to the height above sealevel.
• 【译文】帕斯卡作了进一步推论，他说，如果这
种“空气海洋”存在的话，其底部（即海平面）
的压力就会比其高处的压力大。因此，水银柱的
高度降低量与海拔高度成正比。
• 例4: Earth is a spacecraft too. Our atmosphere
acts as a shield against harmful radiation and
space debris. Gravity holds the air and people
on the spacecraft, so that everything doesn’t
float away. Each of us is an astronaut and our
spacecraft, earth, provides our food and water.
The sun is our energy source and without it we
would not be able to survive.
• 【译文】地球跟宇宙飞船完全一样，其周围的大
气层对有害的辐射和宇宙碎片起到保护作用。地
心引力吸住空气和地球这艘宇宙飞船上所有的人，
使每件东西不致飘浮离去。我们每个人都是宇航
员，地球这艘宇宙飞船提供我们食物和水。太阳
是能源，没有太阳我们就无法生存。
abstract
Abstract: An aim of the experiments is to determine if an
imperfect listening typewriter would be useful for composing
letters. Participants dictated, either in isolated words or in
consecutive word speech. This was carried out with
simulations of listening typewriters that recognized either a
limited vocabulary or an unlimited vocabulary. Results show
that some versions, even upon first using them, are at least as
good as traditional methods of handwriting and dictating.
Isolated word speech with large vocabularies may provide the
basis for a useful listening typewriter.
Science News
•
•
The Age of Spiritual Machines
Since its beginning in the work of Alan Turing, the
British mathematical genius who conceived of the
computer, artificial intelligence has been overly
anthropocentric. Its traditional—some would say
misguided—aim has been to build machines that are
like humans. For example, the Turing test for
machine intelligence holds that a computer is a
genuine thinker if it resembles a human being to the
degree that someone interviewing both the computer
and a human by teletype cannot tell which is which.
Against this background, it is not surprising that
researchers in artificial intelligence often make
believe that their inventions possess human
qualities. Turing himself described a simple
computational mechanism as a “child-machine”, to
be “rewarded”, “punished”, and taught by a process
intended to produce “discipline” and “initiative”.
Turing’s child-machine was a "creature" that was
taught by an inspector of schools but could not be
sent to school without “the other children making
excessive fun of it”.
In a contemporary example, Daniel Dennett
states that Cog, a robot under construction at
the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, is to have an
“infancy and childhood”. Cog has “hips” and a
“waist”, and will have skin and a face. Cog is to
be “as human as possible in its wants and fears,
likes and dislikes”. It will “want to keep its
mother’s face in view” and is to “delight in
learning, abhor error, strive for novelty, and
recognize progress”.
•
•
Animal Athletes
The camel is a slow-moving creature. But
what it lacks in speed it gains in stamina. This
veritable beast of burden can walk 30 miles a
day carrying a load that weighs half a ton.
•
The kangaroo, with its long, muscular hind
legs, is a marvel of fitness. Weighing about 200
pounds, it can thrust its heavy body into the air
and clear a fence nine feet high. While airborne,
this leaping marsupial uses its thick tail as both a
counterbalance and a rudder.
•
骆驼属慢行动物，动作虽缓，却不乏耐
力。骆驼是名符其实的负重动物，承载重
量可达半吨之多，负重日行30英里。
•
大袋鼠长着一双长而有力的后腿，特别
健壮。袋鼠虽重约200磅，其沉重的身体却
能腾空穿越9英尺高的栅栏。做空中腾越动
作时，这种跳跃型有袋动物用其粗大的尾
巴保持平衡，控制方向。
•
Unemployment may also result. Many
workers will be replaced by machines. People
will need to be computer-literate and retraining is
required for the people involved.
•
There will be more computer crimes like
theft of computer time, theft of confidential
information stored in computers, unauthorized
manipulation of computer information, etc. Large
sums of money are involved. The criminals are
rarely convicted because it is difficult to
catch/charge them.
There is also the danger of more
people knowing things we would like to
keep private. The more information is
stored in computer, the greater the
possibility of it being misused or accessed
by the wrong people.