2005年11月英语二级《笔译实务》试题
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英语翻译二级笔译实务模拟试题及答案解析(10)(1/2)Section ⅠEnglish-Chinese TranslationTranslate the following two passages into Chinese.Part A Compulsory Translation第1题There was, last week, a glimmer of hope in the world food crisis. Expecting a bumper harvest, Ukraine relaxed restrictions on exports. Overnight, global wheat prices fell by 10 percent.By contrast, traders in Bangkok quote rice prices around $1,000 a ton, up from $460 two months ago.Such is the volatility of today's markets. We do not know how high food prices might go, nor how far they could fall. But one thing is certain: We have gone from an era of plenty to one of scarcity. Experts agree that food prices are not likely to return to the levels the world had grown accustomed to any time soon.Imagine the situation of those living on less than $1 a day—the "bottom billion," the poorest of the world's poor. Most live in Africa, and many might typically spend two-thirds of their income on food.In Liberia last week, I heard how people have stopped purchasing imported rice by the bag. Instead, they increasingly buy it by the cup, because that's all they can afford.Traveling through West Africa, I found good reason for optimism. In Burkina Faso, I saw a government working to import drought resistant seeds and better manage scarce water supplies, helped by nations like Brazil. In Ivory Coast, we saw a women's cooperative running a chicken farm set up with UN funds. The project generated income—and food—for villagers in ways that can easily be replicated.Elsewhere, I saw yet another women's group slowly expanding their local agricultural production, with UN help. Soon they will replace World Food Program rice with their own home-grown produce, sufficient to cover the needs of their school feeding program.These are home-grown, grass-roots solutions for grass-roots problems—precisely the kind of solutions that Africa needs.下一题(2/2)Section ⅠEnglish-Chinese TranslationTranslate the following two passages into Chinese.Part A Compulsory Translation第2题LONDON—Webster's Dictionary defines plague as "anything that afflicts or troubles; calamity; scourge." Further definitions include "any contagious epidemic disease that is deadly; esp., bubonic plague" and, from the Bible, "any of various calamities sent down as divine punishment." The verb form means "to vex; harass; trouble; torment."In Albert Camus' novel, The Plague, written soon after the Nazi occupation of France, the first sign of the epidemic is rats dying in numbers: "They came up from basements and cubby-holes, cellars and drains, in long swaying lines; they staggered in the light, collapsed and died, right next to people. At night, in corridors and side-streets, one could clearly hear the tiny squeaks as they expired. In the morning, on the outskirts of town, you would find them stretched out in the gutter with a little floret of blood on their pointed muzzles, some blown up and rotting, other stiff,with their whiskers still standing up."The rats are messengers, but—human nature being what it is—their message is not immediately heeded. Life must go on. There are errands to run, money to be made. The novel is set in Oran, an Algerian coastal town of commerce and lassitude, where the heat rises steadily to the point that the sea changes color, deep blue turning to a "sheen of silver or iron, making it painful to look at." Even when people start to die—their lymph nodes swollen, blackish patches spreading on their skin, vomiting bile, gasping for breath—the authorities' response is hesitant. The word "plague" is almost unsayable. In exasperation, the doctor-protagonist tells a hastily convened health commission: "I don't mind the form of words. Let's just say that we should not act as though half the town were not threatened with death, because then it would be."The sequence of emotions feels familiar. Denial is followed by faint anxiety, which is followed by concern, which is followed by fear, which is followed by panic. The phobia is stoked by the sudden realization that there are uncontrollable dark forces, lurking in the drains and the sewers, just beneath life's placid surface. The disease is a leveler, suddenly everyone is vulnerable, and the moral strength of each individual is tested. The plague is on everyone's minds, when it's not in their bodies. Questions multiply: What is the chain of transmission? How to isolate the victims?Plague and epidemics are a thing of the past, of course they are. Physical contact has been cut to a minimum in developed societies. Devices and their digital messages direct our lives. It is not necessary to look into someone's eyes let alone touch their skin in order to become, somehow, intimate. Food is hermetically sealed. Blood, secretions, saliva, pus, bodily fluids—these are things with which hospitals deal, not matters of daily concern.A virus contracted in West Africa, perhaps by a man hunting fruit bats in a tropical forest to feed his family, and cutting the bat open, cannot affect a nurse in Dallas, Texas, who has been wearing protective clothing as she tended a patient who died. Except that it does. "Pestilence is in fact very common," Camus observes, "but we find it hard to believe in a pestilence when it descends upon us."The scary thing is that the bat that carries the virus is not sick. It is simply capable of transmitting the virus in the right circumstances. In other words, the virus is always lurking even if invisible. It is easily ignored until it is too late.Pestilence, of course, is a metaphor as well as a physical fact. It is not just blood oozing from gums and eyes, diarrhea and vomiting. A plague had descended on Europe as Camus wrote. The calamity and slaughter were spreading through the North Africa where he had passed his childhood. This virus hopping today from Africa to Europe to the United States has come in a time of beheadings and unease. People put the phenomena together as denial turns to anxiety and panic. They sense the stirring of uncontrollable forces. They want to be wrong but they are not sure they are.At the end of the novel, the doctor contemplates a relieved throng that has survived: "He knew that this happy crowd was unaware of something that one can read in books, which is that the plague bacillus never dies or vanishes entirely, that it can remain dormant for dozens of years in furniture or clothing, that it waits patiently in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, handkerchiefs and old papers, and that perhaps the day will come when, for the instruction or misfortune of mankind, the plague will rouse its rats and send them to die in some well-contented city."上一题下一题(1/2)Section ⅡChinese-English TranslationThis section consists of two parts, Part A—"Compulsory Translation" and Part B— "Choice of Two Translations" consisting of two sections "Topic 1" and "Topic 2". For the passage in Part A and your choice of passages in Part B, translate the underlined portions, including titles, into English. Above your translation of Part A, write "Compulsory Translation" and above your translation from Part B, write "Topic 1" or "Topic 2".第3题中华文明经历了5000多年的历史变迁,但始终一脉相承,积淀着中华民族最深层的精神追求,代表着中华民族独特的精神标识,为中华民族生生不息、发展壮大供了丰厚滋养。
全国翻译专业资格(水平)考试英语二级《笔译实务》试卷Section1:English-Chinese Translation(50points)Translate the following two passages into Chinese.Passage1There they come,trudging along,straight upright on stubby legs,shoulders swinging back and forth with each step,coming into focus on the screen just as I’m eating my first bite of popcorn.Then Morgan Freeman’s voice informs us that these beings are on a long and difficult journey in one of the most inhospitable places on earth,and that they are driven by their“quest for love.”I’ve long known the story of the emperor penguin,but to see the sheer beauty and wonder of it all come into focus in the March of the Penguins,the sleeper summer hit,still took my breath away.As the movie continues, everything about these animals seems on the surface utterly different from human existence;and yet at the same time the closer one looks the more everything also seems familiar.Stepping back and considering within the context of the vast diversity of millions of other organisms that have evolved on the tree of life—grass,trees, tapeworms,hornets,jelly-fish,tuna and elephants—these animals marching across the screen are practically kissing cousins to us.Love is a feeling or emotion—like hate,jealousy,hunger,thirst—necessary where rationality alone would not suffice to carry the day.Could rationality alone induce a penguin to trek70miles over the ice in order to mate and then balance an egg on his toes while fasting for four months in total darkness and enduring temperatures of minus-80degrees Fahrenheit?Even humans require an overpowering love to do the remarkable things that parents do for their children.The penguins’drive to persist in behavior bordering 笔译实务(英语·二级)试卷第1页(共4页)on the bizarre also suggests that they love to an inordinate degree.I suspect that the new breed of nature film will become increasingly mainstream because,as we learn more about ourselves from other animals and find out that we are more like them than was previously supposed,we are now allowed to“relate”to them,and therefore to empathize.If we gain more exposure to the real—and if the producers and studios invest half as much care and expense into portraying animals as they do into showing ourselves—I suspect the results will be as profitable,in economic as well as emotional and intellectual terms—as the March of the Penguins.Passage2After years of painstaking research and sophisticated surveys,Jaco Boshoff may be on the verge of a nearly unheard-of discovery:the wreck of a Dutch slave ship that broke apart239years ago on this forbidding,windswept coast after a violent revolt by the slaves.Boshoff,39,a marine archaeologist with the government-run Iziko Museums, will not find out until he starts digging on this deserted beach on Africa’s southernmost point,probably later this year.After three years of surveys with sensitive magnetometers,he knows,at least, where to look:at a cluster of magnetic abnormalities,three beneath the beach and one beneath the surf,near the mouth of the Heuningries River,where the450-ton slave ship,the Meermin,ran aground in1766.If he is right,it will be a find for the history books—especially if he recovers shackles,spears and iron guns that shed light on how147Malagasy slaves seized their captors’vessel,only to be recaptured.Although European countries shipped millions of slaves from Africa over four centuries,archaeologists estimate that fewer than10slave shipwrecks have been found worldwide.If he is wrong,Boshoff said in an interview,“I will have a lot of explaining to do.”笔译实务(英语·二级)试卷第2页(共4页)He will,however,have an excuse.Historical records indicate that at least30 ships have run aground in the treacherous waters off Struis Bay,the earliest of them in1673.Although Boshoff says he believes beyond doubt that the remains of a ship are buried on this beach—the jagged timbers of a wreck are sometimes uncovered during September’s spring tide—there is always the prospect that his surveys have found the wrong one.“Finding shipwrecks is just so difficult in the first place,”said Madeleine Burnside,the author of Spirits of the Passage,a book on the slave trade,and executive director of the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society in Key West, Florida.“Usually—not always—they are located by accident.”Other slave-ship finds have produced compelling evidence of both the brutality and the lucrative nature of the slave trade.Section2:Chinese-English Translation(50points)Translate the following two passages into English.Passage1改革开放27年来,中国发生了巨大变化。
笔译二级实务(综合)模拟试卷11(题后含答案及解析) 题型有:1. English-Chinese Translation 2. Chinese-English TranslationPART 1 English-Chinese Translation (60 points)This part consists of two sections: SECTIONA 1 “Compulsory Translation”and SECTION 2 “Optional Translation”which comprises “Topic 1”and “Topic 2”. Translate the passage in SECTION 1 and your choice from passages in SECTION 2 into Chinese. Write “Compulsory Translation”above your translation of SECTION 1 and write “Topic 1”or “Topic 2”above your translation of the passage from SECTION 2. The time for this part is 100 minutes.SECTION 1 Compulsory Translation (30 points)1.Our world has never been so small or so flat, thanks to technologies that have altered our relationship with time and space in ways that would startle even Albert Einstein.正确答案:由于技术改变了我们与时空之间的关系,我们的世界从未变得如此之小、如此之平,而这些变化甚至可能让爱因斯坦也惊讶不已。
第一部分真题精选英语二级笔译实务英译汉真题精选(42篇)及答案Passage1Where Shakespeare Slept,or So They SayTucked away in this small village in Buckinghamshire County is the former Elizabethan coaching inn where William Shakespeare is said to have penned part of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”Dating from1534,the inn,now called Shakespeare House,is thought to have been built as a Tudor hunting ter it became a stop for travelers between London and Stratford-upon-Avon,where Shakespeare was born and buried.It was“Brief Lives,”a17th-century collection of biographies by John Aubrey, that linked Shakespeare to the inn,saying that he had stayed there and drawn inspiration for the comedy while in the village.One of the current owners,Nick Underwood,said the local lore goes even further:“It is also said he appears at the oriel window on the top floor of the house on April23every year—the date he is said to have been born and to have died.”“In later years,the house later became a farm house,with150acres of land, but,over time,pieces were sold off,”Mr.Underwood said.“In the20th century,it was owned by two American families.”Now,he and his co-owner,Roy Elsbury, have put the seven-bedroom property on the market at1.375million,or$2.13 million.Despite its varied uses and renovations over the years,the4,250-square-foot,or395-square-meter,inn has retained so much of its original character that the organization English Heritage lists it as a Grade II property,indicating that it is particularly important and of“more than special interest.”Only27percent of the 1,600buildings on the organization’s register have this designation.“We knew of the house before we bought it and were very excited when it came up for sale.It is so unusual to find an Elizabethan property of this size,in this area,and when we saw it,we absolutely fell in love with it,”Mr.Underwood said.“We have taken great pleasure in working on it and living here.This house is all about the history.”In addition to being the owners’home,the property currently is run as a luxury guest house,with rooms rented for99to250a night.“Shakespeare House is a wonderful example of Elizabethan architecture,”said Dean Heaviside,the national sales director of Fine real estate agency,which is representing the owners.“It has been beautifully restored and offers a unique lifestyle,which brings a taste of the past together with modern-day comfort.It is rare to find a home like this on the market.”参考译文白金汉郡一座小村落深处,有一所伊丽莎白时期的车马驿站,据说莎士比亚曾在这里执笔创作了《仲夏夜之梦》的部分篇章。
2004 年11 月英语二级《笔译实务》试题及参考答案Section 1: English-Chinese Translation (英译汉)(60 point )Part A Compulsory Translation (必译题)(30 points)Until recently, scientists knew little about life in the deep sea, nor had they reason to believe that it was being threatened. Now, with the benefit of technology that allows for deeper exploration, researchers have uncovered a remarkable array of species inhabiting the ocean floor at depths of more than 660 feet, or about 200 meters. At the same time, however, technology has also enabled fishermen to reach far deeper than ever before, into areas where bottom trawls can destroy in minutes what has taken nature hundreds and in some cases thousands of years to build.Many of the world's coral species, for example, are found at depths of more than 200 meters. It is also estimated that roughly half of the world's highest seamounts - areas that rise from the ocean floor and are particularly rich in marine life - are also found in the deep ocean.These deep sea ecosystems provide shelter, spawning and breeding areas for fish and other creatures, as well as protection from strong currents and predators. Moreover, they are believed to harbor some of the most extensive reservoirs of life on earth, with estimates ranging from 500,000 to 100 million species inhabiting these largely unexplored and highly fragile ecosystems.Yet just as we are beginning to recognize the tremendous diversity of life in these areas, along with the potential benefits newly found species may hold for human society in the form of potential food products and new medicines, they are at risk of being lost forever. With enhanced ability both to identify where these species-rich areas are located and to trawl in deeper water than before, commercial fishing vessels are now beginning to reach down with nets the size of football fields, catching everything in their path while simultaneously crushing fragile corals and breaking up the delicate structure of reefs and seamounts that provide critical habitat to the countless species of fish and other marine life that inhabit the deep ocean floor.Because deep sea bottom trawling is a recent phenomenon, the damage that has been done is still limited. If steps are taken quickly to prevent this kind of destructive activity from occurring on the high seas, the benefits both to the marine environment and to future generations are incalculable. And they far outweigh the short-term costs to the fishing industry.前不久,科学家们对深海生物还知之甚少,也不太相信它们正受到威胁。
笔译二级实务(综合)模拟试卷15(题后含答案及解析) 题型有:1. English-Chinese Translation 2. Chinese-English TranslationPART 1 English-Chinese Translation (60 points)This part consists of two sections: SECTIONA 1 “Compulsory Translation”and SECTION 2 “Optional Translation”which comprises “Topic 1”and “Topic 2”. Translate the passage in SECTION 1 and your choice from passages in SECTION 2 into Chinese. Write “Compulsory Translation”above your translation of SECTION 1 and write “Topic 1”or “Topic 2”above your translation of the passage from SECTION 2. The time for this part is 100 minutes.SECTION 1 Compulsory Translation (30 points)1.The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.正确答案:美国参议院应由每州两名参议员组成,参议员由各州立法机构选送,任期6年,每个参议员应有一个投票权。
11月翻译资格考题二级英语笔译实务试卷及答案第一部分英译汉必译题This week and next, governments, international agencies and nongovernmental organizations are gathering in Mexico City at the World Water Forum to discuss the legacy of global Mulhollandism in water - and to chart a new course.They could hardly have chosen a better location. Water is being pumped out of the aquifer on which Mexico City stands at twice the rate of replenishment. The result: the city is subsiding at the rate of about half a meter every decade. You can see the consequences in the cracked cathedrals, the tilting Palace of Arts and the broken water and sewerage pipes.Every region of the world has its own variant of the water crisis story. The mining of groundwaters for irrigation has lowered the water table in parts of India and Pakistan by 30 meters in the past three decades. As water goes down, the cost of pumping goes up, undermining the livelihoods of poor farmers.What is driving the global water crisis? Physical availability is part of the problem. Unlike oil or coal, water is an infinitely renewable resource, but it is available in a finite quantity. With water use increasing at twice the rate of population growth, the amount available per person is shrinking - especially in some of the poorest countries.Challenging as physical scarcity may be in some countries, the real problems in water go deeper. The 20th-century model for water management was based on a simple idea: that water is an infinitely available free resource to be exploited, dammed or diverted without reference to scarcity or sustainability.Across the world, water-based ecological systems - rivers, lakes and watersheds - have been taken beyond the frontiers of ecological sustainability by policy makers who have turned a blind eye to the consequences of over- exploitation.We need a new model of water management for the 21st century. What does that mean? For starters, we have to stop using water like there"s no tomorrow - and that means using it more efficiently at levels that do not destroy our environment. The buzz- phrase at the Mexico Water forum is "integrated water resource management." What it means is that governments need to manage the private demand of different users and manage this precious resource in the public interest.参照译文:本周,世界水论坛在墨西哥城开幕,论坛将一直持续到下周。
2008年11月英语二级《笔译实务》试题Section 1: English-Chinese Translation(英译汉)Part A Compulsory Translation(必译题)Mangoes in Africa, as elsewhere, often fall prey to fruit flies, which destroy about 40% of the continents crop. In fact, fruit flies are so common in African mangoes that America has banned their import altogether, to protect its own orchards. African farmers, meanwhile, have few practical means to defend their fruit. Chemical pesticides are expensive. And even for those who can afford them they are not that effective since, by the time a farmer spots an infestation, it is too late to spray. Agricultural scientists have also looked at controlling fruit flies with parasitic wasps. But the most common ones kill off only about one fly in 20, leaving plenty of survivors to go on the rampage. Lethal traps baited with fly-attracting pheromones are another option. But they, too, are expensive. Instead, most farmers simply harvest their fruit early, when it is not yet fully ripe. This makes it less vulnerable to the flies, but also less valuable. Farmers whose trees are teeming with worker ants, however, do not need to bother with any of this. In a survey of several orchards in Benin, Dr van Mele and his colleagues found an average of less than one fruit-fly pupa in each batch of 30 mangoes from trees where workerants were abundant, but an average of 77 pupae in batches from trees without worker ants. The worker ants, it turns out, are very thorough about hunting down and eating fruit flies, as well as a host of other pests. Worker ants have been used for pest control in China and other Asian countries for centuries. The practice has also been adopted in Australia. But Dr van Mele argues that it is particularly suited to Africa since worker ants are endemic to the mango-growing regions of the continent, and little training or capital is needed to put them to work. All you need do is locate a suitable nest and run string from it to the trees you wish to protect. The ants will then quicklyn find their way to the target. Teaching a group of farmers in Burkina Faso to use worker ants in this way took just a day, according to Dr van Mele. Those farmers no longer use pesticides to control fruit flies, and so are able to market their mangoes as organic to eager European consumers, vastly increasing their income. The ants, so to speak, are on the march.。
全国翻译专业资格(水平)考试英语二级笔译实务章节题库-汉译英【圣才出品】第2章汉译英◆外交关系类Practice12007年2月6日,国家主席胡锦涛在比勒陀利亚(Pretoria)同南非总统姆贝基(Thabo Mbeki)举行会谈。
双方回顾了建交近10年来中南关系特别是两国务实合作的成功经验和丰硕成果,就中南关系的未来发展达成广泛共识。
双方都表示,继续从战略和全局高度看待和发展中南关系,进一步拓展两国各领域合作,加强在非洲和国际事务中的协调和配合,积极推进建立在平等互利、共同发展基础上的中南战略伙伴关系,造福两国人民,推动中南世代友好。
胡锦涛指出,中南两国人民有着深厚的传统友谊。
在南非人民反对种族隔离制度的长期斗争中,中国人民始终坚定地同南非人民站在一起。
建交近10年来,中南关系呈现高速度、多领域、全方位的发展态势。
经贸、科技、教育、文化、旅游、司法等领域的交流合作成果丰富,人民往来密切。
双方在国际事务中保持着密切沟通和配合。
中方对两国关系发展的良好势头感到高兴。
中方赞赏南方奉行一个中国政策、支持中国统一大业。
参考译文On February6,2007,Chinese President Hu Jintao held talks with his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria.Both sides reviewed the successful experience and fruitful achievements of bilateral ties,especially those of the pragmatic cooperation,since the establishment of diplomatic ties nearly10years ago,and reached broad consensus on future development of bilateral relations. Both sides agreed to view and develop bilateral ties from a strategic and overallperspective,push forward their cooperation in all areas,strengthen coordinationand cooperation in African and international affairs,and actively push forward China-South Africa strategic partnership based on equality,mutual benefit and common development,so as to promote their friendship for generations.Hu pointed out that the two countries share a profound traditional friendship. Hu said that China firmly stood alongside the South African people during their long-term struggle against apartheid and that the Chinese-South African ties have enjoyed fast,multi-facet and all-round growth since the two countries established diplomatic ties10years ago.The two countries have had fruitful bilateral cooperation in economy and trade,science and technology,education,culture, tourism and justice with close people-to-people exchanges,he noted.Both sides have also maintained close communication and coordination in international affairs, he said.China is pleased with the sound momentum of the development of bilateral ties and appreciates South Africa’s adherence to the one-China policy and its support for China’reunification cause,said Hu.Practice21月18日,商务部副部长于广洲和白俄罗斯(Belarus)国家监察委员会主席洛马奇共同主持了中白经贸合作委员会第八次会议。
2005年11月英语二级《笔译实务》试题Section 1: English-Chinese Translation(英译汉)Part A Compulsory Translation(必译题)Hans Christian Andersen was Denmark's most famous native son. Yet even after his fairy tales won him fame and fortune, he feared he would be forgotten. He need not have worried. This weekend, Denmark began eight months of celebrations to coincide with the bicentenary of his birth, and Denmark is eager that the world take note as it sets out to define the pigeon-holed writer in its own way.The festivities began in Copenhagen on Saturday, Andersen's actual birthday, with a lively show of music, dance, lights and comedy inspired by his fairy tales before a crowd of 40,000people -- including Queen Margre the II and her family -- at the Parken National Stadium. The opening, called Once Upon a Time, will be followed by a slew of concerts, musicals, ballets, exhibitions, parades and education programs costing over US$40 million.So more than in recent memory, Danes -- and, they hope, foreigners -- will be reliving the humor, pain and lessons to be found in evergreen stories like The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Match-Seller, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Shadow, The Princess and the Pea and others of Andersen's 150 or so fairy tales.In organizing this extravaganza, of course, Denmark is also celebrating itself. After all, Andersen is still this country's most famous native son. Trumpeting his name and achievements not only draws attention to Denmark's contribution to world culture, but could also woo more foreign tourists to visit his birthplace in the town of Odense and to be photographed beside the famous bronze statue of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen's harbor.And Denmark has even more in mind. Local guardians of the Andersen legacy evidently feel his stories have lost ground in recent years to the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Andersen's fairy tales may remain central to the Danish identity, serving as homespun guides to the vagaries of human behavior, but what about the rest of the world?"What we really need is a rebirth of Andersen," noted Lars Seeberg, secretary general of the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation. "Two centuries after his birth, he still fails to be universally acknowledged as the world-class author he no doubt was.Part B Optional Translation(二选一题)Topic 1(选题一)Independent Information and Analysis from the USAThe Gap between Rich and Poor Widened in U.S. Capital Washington D.C. ranks first among the40 cities with the widest gap between the poor and the rich, according to a recent report released by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute on July 22nd. The top 20 percent of household in D.C. have an averageyearly income of $186,830, 31 times that of the bottom 20 percent, which earns only $6,126 per year. The income gap is also big in Atlanta and Miami, but the difference is not as pronounced.The report also indicates that the widening gap occurred mainly during the 1990s. Over the last decade, the average income of the top 20 percent of households has grown 36 percent, while the average income of the bottom 20 percent has only risen 3 percent."I believe the concentration of the middle- to high-income families in the D.C. area will continue, therefore, the income gap between rich and poor will be hard to bridge," David Garrison told the Washington Observer. Garrison is a senior researcher with the Brookings Institution, specializing in the study of the social and economic policies in the greater Washington D.C. area.The report attributed the persistent income gap in Washington to the area's special job opportunities, which attract high-income households. Especially since the federal government is based in Washington D.C., Government agencies and other government related businesses such as lobbying firms and government contractors constantly offer high-paying jobs, which contribute to the trend of increasing high-income households in the D.C. area. For example, a single young professional working in a law firm in D.C. can earn as much as $100,000 in his or her first year out of law school. "In addition, high-quality housing available in Washington D.C. is one of the main reason swhy high-income families choose to live here, while middle and low-income families, if they can afford it, choose to move out of Washington D.C. to the Virginia and Maryland suburbs so that their kids can go to better schools," stated Garrison."As rich families continue to move into D.C. and middle and low-income families are moving out, the poorest families are left with nowhere to move, or cannot afford to move. This creates the situation we face now: a huge income gap between the rich and poor."The Washington D.C. area to which Garrison refers is the District of Columbia city itself, not including the greater Washington metro area. "The greater Washington metro area has a large population of about 5 million, but the low-income households are often concentrated in D.C. proper," Garrison explained.Tony Blalock, the spokesperson for Mayor Anthony Williams, said resignedly, "No matter what we seem to do to bring investment into the District, a certain population is not able to access the unique employment opportunities there. The gap between the rich and poor is the product of complex forces, and won't be fixed overnight."Garrison believes that the D.C. government should attract high-income families. By doing so, the District's tax base can grow, which in turn can help improve D.C.'s infrastructure. "But in the meantime, the District government should also take into consideration the rights of the poor, set up good schools for them, and provide sound social welfare. All these measures can alleviate the dire situation caused by income disparity. "Garrison, however, is not optimistic about the possibility of closing the gap between the rich and poor. He is particularly doubtful that current economic progress will be able to help out the poor. "Bush'stax-cut plan did bring about this wave of economic recovery, and the working professionals and rich did benefit from it. It is unfair to say that the plan did not help the poor at all… it just didn't benefit them as much as it did the rich, " Garrison said. "The working class in America, those who do the simplest work, get paid the least, and dutifully pay their taxes, has not benefited from Bush's tax-cut plan much."Garrison concludes, "A lot of cities in America did not enjoy the positive impact of the economic recovery. Washington D.C., on the other hand, has always been sheltered by the federal government. The wide gap between rich and poor in the District, therefore, deserves more in-depth study and exploration."Topic 2(选题二)Sometimes you can know too much. The aim of screening healthy people for cancer is to discover tum ours when they are small and treatable. It sounds laudable and often it is. But it sometimes leads to unnecessary treatment. The body has a battery of mechanisms for stopping small tum ours from becoming large ones. Treating those that would have been suppressed anyway does no good and can often be harmful.Take lung cancer. A report in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, by Peter Bach of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York and his colleagues, suggests that, despite much fanfare around the use of computed tomography (CT) to detect tum ours in the lungs well before they cause symptoms, the test may not reduce the risk of dying from the disease at all—indeed, it may make things worse.The story begins last year, when Claudia Henschke of Cornell University and her colleagues made headlines with a report that patients whose lung cancer had been diagnosed early by CT screening had excellent long-term survival prospects. Her research suggested that 88% of patients could expect to be alive ten years after their diagnosis. Dr Bach found similar results ina separate study. In his case, 94% of patients diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer were alive four years later.Survival data alone, though, fail to answer a basic question: “compared with what?” People are bound to live longer after their diagnosis if that diagnosis is made earlier. Early diagnosis is of little value unless it results in a better prognosis.Dr Bach, therefore, interrogated his data more thoroughly. He used statistical models based on results from studies of lung cancer that did not involve CT screening, to try to predict what would have happened to the individuals in his own study if they had not been part of that study. The results were not encouraging.Screening did, indeed, detect more tum ours. Over the course of five years, 144 cases of lung cancer were picked up in a population of 3,200, compared with a predicted number of 44.Despite these early diagnoses, though, there was no reduction in the number of people who went on to develop advanced cancer, nor a significant drop in the number who died of the disease (38, compared with a predictionof 39). Considering that early diagnosis prompted at enfold increase in surgery aimed at removing the cancer (the predicted number of surgical interventions was 11; the actual number was 109), and that such surgery is unsafe—5% of patients die and another 20-40% suffer serious complications—the whole process seems to make things worse.Section 2: Chinese-English Translation(汉译英)Part A25年来,中国坚定不移地推进改革开放,社会主义市场经济体制初步建立,开放型经济已经形成,社会生产力和综合国力不断增强,各项社会事业全面发展,人民生活总体上实现了由温饱到小康的历史性跨越。