考研英语翻译难点精析（三）

反译法

一个问题有时可以从不同的角度来解释说明。有些句子英语是从正面说的，汉语可以从反面来解释。

1)否定译成肯定。

Eg:

　　I never passed the theatre but I thought of his last performance.每一次经过那家剧院，我都会想起他的最后一次演出。

　Eg:

　Hardly a month goes by without word of another survey revealing new depths of scientific illiteracy among U.S. citizens.美国公民科盲日益严重，这种调查报告几乎月月都有。（双重否定）

2)肯定译成否定。

Eg:

　　Everyone has the right to be free from hunger.人人有不挨饿的权利。

Eg:

This will be particularly true since energy pinch will make it difficult to continue agriculture in the high-energy American fashion that makes it possible to combine few farmers with high yields.这种困境将是确定无疑的，[来源：考研加油绽]因为能源的匮乏使农业无法以高能量消耗、投入少数农民就可能获得高产的美国耕种方式继续下去了。

　　Eg:

　　The target is wrong, for in attacking the tests, critics divert attention from the fault that lies with ill-informed or incompetent users.把标准化测试作为抨击目标是错误的，因为在抨击这类测试时，批评者不考虑其弊病来自人们对测试不甚了解或使用不当。

几种特殊否定句式的翻译法

 “no more…than翻译成汉语“和……一样不”

   Eg:

 The heart is no more intelligent than the stomach, for they are both controlled by the brain.脏和胃一样不能思维，都受大脑支配。

Eg:

There is no reason they should limit how much vitamin you take, any more than they can limit how much water you drink.他们没有理由限定你吃多少维生素，就如同他们不能限定你喝多少水一样。

“not so much …as”翻译成“与其说……，不如说……”

Eg:

　It was not so much the many blows he received as the lack of fighting spirit that led to his losing the game.与其说他输了比赛是多次被击中，不如说是自己缺乏斗志。

Eg:

　　There is no agreement whether methodology refers to the concepts peculiar to historical work in general or to the research techniques appropriate to the various branches of historical inquiry.所谓方法论是指一般的历史研究中的特有概念，还是指历史研究中各个具体领域使用的研究手段，人们对此意见不一。

Eg:

　　He is the last person I want to see in the world.他是这个世界上我最不愿意见到的人。