翻译硕士英语

青岛大学2012年翻译专业硕士研究生入学试题

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PART I GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY (30 Points)

(I) There are twenty sentences in this section. For each sentence there are four words or phrases marked a, b, c and d. Choose the one word or phrase that best completes each sentence.

1. This country’s chief exports are coal, cars and cotton goods, coal _____ the most important of these. a. have been b. are c. being d. are being

2. The weather forecast says it may rain tomorrow, ______ the picnic will be cancelled. a. in this case b. in that case c. in case d. in which case

3. This is an illness that can result in total blindness _____ left untreated.

a. after b. if c. since d. unless

4. It is not so much the language _____ the cultural background that makes the novel difficult to translate. a. but b. not c. as d. than

5. His fondness for music was ______ most of his income went into it. a. so that b. much that c. such that d. in that

6. He said it was impossible for _____ a mistake in a computer’s calculation, so you can rely on that.

a. there to be b. there would be c. there being d. there was 7. ____________the station earlier, you would not have missed the train. a. If you reach b. If you reached c. If you have reached d. If you had reached 8. Until then，his family __________ from him for six months. a. didn’t hear b. hasn’t been hearing c. hasn’t heard d. hadn’t heard

9. On the other hand, it links these concepts to everyday realities in a which is parallel to the links journalists forge on a daily basis as they cover and comment on the news. a. manner b. light c. sense d. method

10. It was the first day of spring 2002, and she was standing in a

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helicopter as it ______roughly a kilometer up in the sky above Kabul a. covered b. hovered c. stopped d. fluttered

11. I’ll try to get in touch with the actor but he’s ____ ever at home when I phone.

a. rarely b. almost c. hardly d. occasionally 12. In spite of what they said, she refused to ______ to the police. a. give herself way b. give herself off c. give herself away d. give herself up

13. Swarms of ants are invading my window. They are such a _______.

a. trouble b. disturbance c. nuisance d. annoyance 14. Although badly damaged by the earthquake, the pagoda was finally ___ to its original magnificence.

a. recovered b. restored c. renewed d. replaced

15. The woman and children were taken to Matagorda Regional Hospital in Bay City, where the woman was in _____Wednesday night, Lewis said. a. surgery b. operation c. rescue d. action

16. It is considered bad manners to _____ other people behind their backs.

a. do up b. do by c. do away with d. do down

17. I would rather you ___ for Canada for a visit next year when it is warm there. a. left b. leave c. would leave d. had left

18. It has been discovered that the water _____ the coast is rich in all kinds of fish. a. off b. of c. in d. along

19. A letter from over 2,000 Crisis volunteers has been delivered to Downing Street calling ___ the Prime Minister to ensure people get the help they need when they approach their local council as homeless.

a. for b. on c. at d. in

20. Crisis has passed the half way mark towards an ambitious target to ____ almost 1,700 single homeless people in privately rented homes across England. a. provide b. let c. offer d. house

(II) Error correction. In each sentence, there is one error. Find each

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error and correct it.

1. Anger over her position became violent at times, with her Tucson office vandalizing after the House passed the overhaul last March and someone showing up at a recent gathering with a weapon.

2. The sheriff blamed the vitriolic political rhetoric that has consumed the country, much of it was centered in Arizona.

3. You have the satisfaction of having saved it on your own, and the knowledge which you don’t owe anyone.

4. Most of time there are consequences for violating rules at work—whether they are safety rules of the workplace, or directives on how to perform your specific job duties.

5. He later set out a fictional etymology for the name, to the effect like it was being derived from the word “Holbytlan” which translates “hole-dweller” in Old English.

6. In his writings, Tolkien depicted Hobbits as fond of an unadventurous bucolic life of farming, eating, and socializing, although able of defending their homes courageously if the need arises.

7. A group of escapees, find sanctuary in a Church compound, risk their lives as they struggle to survive the plight and persecution brought on by the violent invasion of the city.

8. MTI Film provides software based integrated solutions for post production with a focus in technology for digital film restoration and digital dailies.

9. The MTI degree, short for Master of Translation and Interpreting, is a professional level of education approved by the Commission of Academic Degrees of the State Department of China.

10. But if you get into an accident because of a personal risk you take for yourself, and not your employer, you could lose your right of benefits.

PART II READING COMPREHENSION (40 Points)

In this section there are five passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then write your answers on your answer sheet.

Passage 1

Few creations of big technology capture the imagination like giant dams. Perhaps it is humankind’s long suffering at the mercy of flood and drought that makes the ideal of forcing the waters to do our bidding so fascinating. But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. Several

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giant dam projects threaten to do more harm than good.

The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. It doesn’t help that building a big, powerful dam has become a symbol of achievement for nations and people striving to assert themselves. Egypt’s leadership in the Arab world was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. Turkey’s bid for First World status includes the giant Ataturk Dam.

But big dams tend not to work as intended. The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left—all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.

And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of sending in the troops in their contention over a dam on the Danube. The huge complex will probably have all the usual problems of big dams. But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, and now needs a dam to prove itself.

Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank has given the go-ahead to the even more wrong-headed Narmada Dam. And the bank has done this even though its advisors say the dam will cause hardship for the powerless and environmental destruction. The benefits are for the powerful, but they are far from guaranteed.

Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams and of the cost and benefits of controlling water can help to resolve these conflicts. Hydroelectric power and flood control and irrigation are possible without building monster dams. But when you are dealing with myths, it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. It is time that the world learned the lessons of Aswan. You don’t need a dam to be saved.

1. According to the passage, why is the ideal of building big dams so fascinating?

a. Because it involves a lot of high technology.

b. Because human beings have suffered too much from floods and droughts.

c. Because big dams can bring us great benefits. d. Because it is very beautiful and powerful.

2. According to the passage, building a big dam_______.

a. helped Egypt win the leadership among the Arab countries. b. made Turkey a powerful country in the Arab world. c. is both fascinating and blind.

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d. is always a symbol of achievement and power. 3. The Aswan Dam _____. a. worked as intended. b. prevented the Nile from flooding too often c. stopped the myth of controlling waters.

d. formed a reservoir which can hardly generate power. 4. Which is true about big dams?

a. Slovakia won its independence through a big dam. b. The Narmada Dam got the support of the World Bank. c. The Three Gorges Dam is an exception.

d. Hydroelectric power and flood control are their only functions.

Passage 2

The advance of spring made the climate of Pisa too hot for comfort; and early in April Trelawny and Williams rode off to find a suitable lodging for themselves and the Shelleys on the Gulf of Spezia. They pitched upon a house called the Villa Magni, between Lerici and San Terenzio, which “looked more like a boat or a bathing-house than a place to live in. It consisted of a terrace or ground-floor unpaved, and used for storing boat-gear and fishing-tackle, and of a single storey over it, divided into a hall or saloon and four small rooms, which had once been white-washed; there was one chimney for cooking. This place we thought the Shelleys might put up with for the summer. The only good thing about it was a verandah facing the sea, and almost over it.” When it came to be inhabited, the central hall was used for the living and eating room of the whole party.

The Shelleys occupied two rooms facing each other; the Williamses had one of the remaining chambers, and Trelawny another. Access to these smaller apartments could only be got through the saloon; and this circumstance once gave rise to a ludicrous incident, when Shelley, having lost his clothes out bathing, had to cross, in puris naturalibus, not undetected, though covered in his retreat by the clever Italian handmaiden, through a luncheon party assembled in the dining-room. The horror of the ladies at the poet's unexpected apparition and his innocent self-defence are well described by Trelawny. Life in the villa was of the simplest description. To get food was no easy matter; and the style of the furniture may be guessed by Trelawny's laconic remark that the sea was his only washing-basin.

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5. According to the passage, it can be inferred that ______.

a. The Shelleys asked Trelawny and Williams to look for lodgings for them.

b. Trelawny and Williams liked to live with the Shelleys. c. The Shelleys went to Pisa for summer holidays. d. Trelawny and Williams found a house by the sea. 6. What is true about the Villa Magni?

a. It was a boat or bathing-room rather than a house.

b. Its central hall was used as a dining-hall by all the inhabitants. c. It was a three-storey building.

d. Its hall was used for storing boat-gear and fishing-tackle.

7. What is true about the incident that happened to Shelley one day? a. He tried to find clothes to cover himself.

b. Shelley frightened away the ladies eating their lunch. c. puris naturalibus means “stark naked”.

d. Shelley was grateful to the clever housemaid.

Passage 3

Over the past decade, thousands of patents have seen granted for what are called business methods. Amazon.com received one for its “one-click” online payment system. Merrill Lynch got legal protection for an asset allocation strategy. One inventor patented a technique for laying a box.

Now the nation’s top patent court appears completely-property lawyers abuzz the U.S. court of Appeals for the federal circuit said it would use a particular case to conduct a broad review of business-method patents. In the Bilski, as the case is known, is a “very big deal”, says Dennis’D Crouch of the University of Missouri School of law. It “has the potential to eliminate an entire class of patents.”

Curbs on business-method claims would be a dramatic about-face, because it was the federal circuit itself that introduced such patents with is 1998 decision in the so-called state Street Bank case, approving a patent on a way of pooling mutual-fund assets. That ruling produced an explosion in business-method patent filings, initially by emerging internet companies trying to stake out exclusive rights to specific types of online transactions. Later, move established companies raced to add such patents to their files, if only as a defensive move against rivals that might bent them to the punch. In 2005, IBM noted in a court filing that it had been

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issued more than 300 business-method patents despite the fact that it questioned the legal basis for granting them. Similarly, some Wall Street investment films armed themselves with patents for financial products, even as they took positions in court cases opposing the practice.

The Bilski case involves a claimed patent on a method for hedging risk in the energy market. The Federal circuit issued an unusual order stating that the case would be heard by all 12 of the court’s judges, rather than a typical panel of three and that one issue it wants to evaluate is whether it should “reconsider” its state street Bank ruling.

The Federal Circuit’s action comes in the wake of a series of recent decisions by the Supreme Court that has narrowed the scope of protections for patent holders. Last April, for example the justices signaled that too many patents were being upheld for “inventions” that are obvious. The judges on the Federal circuit are “reacting to the anti-patent trend at the supreme court”, says Harold C. Wegner, an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.

8. Business-method patents have recently aroused concern because of a. their limited value to business b. their connection with asset allocation

c. the possible restriction on their granting d. the controversy over authorization

9. Which of the following is true of the Bilski case? a. Its ruling complies with the court decisions b. It involves a very big business transaction] c. It has been dismissed by the Federal Circuit d. It may change the legal practices in the U.S.

10. The word “about-face” (Para 3) most probably means a. loss of good will b. increase of hostility c. change of attitude d. enhancement of dignity 11. We learn from the last two paragraphs that business-method patents a. are immune to legal challenges b. are often unnecessarily issued

c. lower the esteem for patent holders d. increase the incidence of risks

12. Which of the following would be the subject of the text? a. A looming threat to business-method patents b. Protection for business-method patent holders c. A legal case regarding business-method patents

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d. A prevailing tread against business-method patents

Passage 4 In 1854 my great-grandfather, Morris Marable, was sold on an auction block in Georgia for $ 500. For his white slave master, the sale was just “business as usual.” But to Morris Marable and his heirs, slavery was a crime against our humanity. This pattern of human rights violations against enslaved African-Americans continued under racial segregation for nearly another century.

The fundamental problem of American democracy in the 21st century is the problem of “structural racism”: the deep patterns of socio-economic inequality and accumulated disadvantage that are coded by race, and constantly justified in public speeches by both racist stereotypes and white indifference. Do Americans have the capacity and vision to remove these structural barriers that deny democratic rights and opportunities to millions of their fellow citizens?

This country has previously witnessed two great struggles to achieve a truly multicultural democracy.

The First Reconstruction（1954-1877）ended slavery and briefly gave black men voting rights, but gave no meaningful compensation for two centuries of unpaid labor. The promise of “40 acres and a mule” was for most blacks a dream deferred.

The Second Reconstruction (1954-1968), or the modern civil rights movement, ended legal segregation in public accommodations and gave blacks voting rights. But these successes paradoxically obscure the tremendous human costs of historically accumulated disadvantage that remain central to black Americans’ lives.

The disproportionate wealth that most whites enjoy today was first constructed from centuries of unpaid black labor. Many white institutions, including some leading universities, insurance companies and banks, profited from slavery. This pattern of white privilege and black inequality continues today.

Demanding reparations is no just about compensation for slavery and segregation. It is, more important, an educational campaign to highlight the contemporary reality of “racial deficits” of all kinds, the unequal conditions that impact blacks regardless of class. Structural racism’s barriers include “equity inequity,” the absence of black capital formation that is a direct consequence of America’s history. One third of all black

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households actually have negative net wealth. In 1998 the typical black family’s net wealth was $ 16,400, less than one fifth that of white families. Black families are denied home loans at twice the rate of whites.

Blacks remain the last hired and first fired during recessions. During the 1990-91 recession, African-Americans suffered disproportionately. At Coca-Cola, 42 percent of employees who lost their jobs were blacks. At Sears, 54 percent were black. Blacks have significantly shorter life spans, in part due to racism in the health establishment. Blacks are statistically less likely than whites to be referred for kidney transplants or early-stage cancer surgery.

13. To the author, the auction of his great-grandfather is a typical example

of _______.

a. crime against humanity b. unfair business transaction c. racial conflicts in Georgia d. racial segregation in America 14. The barrier to democracy in 21st century America is ______. a. widespread use of racist stereotypes b. prejudice against minority groups

c. deep-rooted socio-economic inequality d. denial of legal rights to ordinary blacks.

15. What problem remains unsolved in the two Reconstructions? a. Differences between races are deliberately obscured. b. The blacks are not compensated for their unpaid labor. c. There is no guarantee for blacks to exercise their rights. d. The interests of blacks are not protected by law.

16. It is clear that the wealth enjoyed by most whites ________. a. has resulted from business successes over the years b. has been accompanied by black capital formation c. has derived from sizable investments in education d. has been accumulated from generations of slavery

Passage 5

In the last half of the nineteenth century “capital” and “labour” were enlarging and perfecting their rival organizations on modern lines. Many an old firm was replaced by a limited liability company with a bureaucracy of salaried managers. The change met the technical requirements of the new age by engaging a large professional element and prevented the decline in efficiency that so commonly spoiled the fortunes of family firms in the second and third generation after the energetic

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founders. It was moreover a step away from individual initiative, towards collectivism and municipal and state-owned business. The railway companies, though still private business managed for the benefit of shareholders, were very unlike old family business. At the same time the great municipalities went into business to supply lighting, trams and other services to the taxpayers.

The growth of the limited liability company and municipal business had important consequences. Such large, impersonal manipulation of capital and industry greatly increased the numbers and importance of shareholders as a class, an element in national life representing irresponsible wealth detached from the land and the duties of the landowners; and almost equally detached from the responsible management of business. All through the nineteenth century, America, Africa, India, Australia and parts of Europe were being developed by British capital, and British shareholders were thus enriched by the world’s movement towards industrialization. Towns like Bournemouth and Eastbourne sprang up to house large “comfortable” classes who had retired on their incomes, and who had no relation to the rest of the community except that of drawing dividends and occasionally attending a shareholders’ meeting to dictate their orders to the management. On the other hand “shareholding” meant leisure and freedom which was used by many of the later Victorians for the highest purpose of a great civilization.

The “shareholders” as such had no knowledge of the lives, thoughts or needs of the workmen employed by the company in which he held shares, and his influence on the relations of capital and labor was not good. The paid manager acting for the company was in more direct relation with the men and their demands, but even he had seldom that familiar personal knowledge of the workmen which the employer had often had under the more patriarchal system of the old family business now passing away. Indeed the mere size of operations and the numbers of workmen involved rendered such personal relations impossible. Fortunately, however, the increasing power and organization of the trade unions, at least in all skilled trades, enabled the workmen to meet on equal terms the managers of the companies who employed them. The cruel discipline of the strike and lockout taught the two parties to respect each other’s strength and understand the value of fair negotiation.

17. It’s true of the old family firms that . a. they were spoiled by the younger generations

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b. they failed for lack of individual initiative

c. they lacked efficiency compared with modern companies d. they could supply adequate services to the taxpayers

18. The growth of limited liability companies resulted in . a. the separation of capital from management b. the ownership of capital by managers

c. the emergence of capital and labour as two classes d. the participation of shareholders in municipal business

19. According to the passage, all of the following are true except that .

a. the shareholders were unaware of the needs of the workers

b. the old firm owners had a better understanding of their workers c. the limited liability companies were too large to run smoothly d. the trade unions seemed to play a positive role 20. The author is most critical of . a. family firm owners b. landowners c. managers d. shareholders

PART III WRITING (30 Points)

Write an essay of about 400 words, expressing your views on the following title. In the first part of your writing you should present your thesis statement and in the second part you should support the thesis statement with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion.

Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar, diction and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.

Should We Help the Injured Old People? 11