话说宝玉在林黛玉房中说"耗子精"，宝钗撞来，讽刺宝玉元宵不知"绿蜡"之典，三人正在房中互相讥刺取笑。
杨宪益：Pao-yu，as we saw, was in Tai-yu’s room telling her the story about the rat spirits when Pao-chai burst in and teased him for forgetting the “green wax” allusion on the night of the Feast of Lanterns.
霍克斯: We have shown how Bao-yu was in Dai-yu’s room telling her the story of the magic mice; how Bao-Chai burst in on them and twitted Bao-yu with his failure to remember the ‘green wax’ allusion on the night of the Lantern Festival; and how the three of them sat teasing each other with good-humored banter.
对比分析：杨宪益和霍克斯在翻译“耗子精”采用来了不同的处理方法，前者使用了异化”rat spirits”，后者用的是归化法”magic mice”,使用归化法更受英美读者的亲乃。但是二者同时采用了增译法，增添了the story，原文并没有。在翻译“宝玉不知绿烛之典”的“不知”，英文1用的是“forgetting”，而译文2用的是“with failure to ”，显然译文2更符合英美的表达习惯。
那宝玉正恐黛玉饭后贪眠，一时存了食，或夜间走了困，皆非保养身体之法。幸而宝钗走来，大家谈笑，那林黛玉方不欲睡，自己才放了心。
杨宪益：Pao-yu felt relieved as they laughed and made fun of each other, for he had feared that sleeping after lunch might give Tai-yu indigestion or insomnia that night, and so injure her health. Luckily Pao-chai’s arrival and the lively conversation that followed it had woken Tai-yu up.
霍克斯: Bao-yu had been afraid that by sleeping after her meal Dai-yu would give herself indigestion or suffer from insomnia through being insufficiently tired when she went to bed at night, but Bao-chai’s arrival and the lively conversation that followed it banished all Dai-yu’s desire to sleep and enabled him to lay aside his anxiety on her behalf.
对比分析：译文一对原文语序进行了调整，先说了“放心”，再说“担心”，但并不如不调整顺序的逻辑强。译文二只是用了一个“but”就把原文意思分层了两层，逻辑更加清晰，符合西方人注重逻辑的习惯。原文中的“谈笑”是动词，而两个译文版本都是译的“the lively conversation”，是名词，体现了汉语重动态，英文重静态的特点。
忽听他房中嚷起来，大家侧耳听了一听，林黛玉先笑道："这是你妈妈和袭人叫嚷呢。那袭人也罢了，你妈妈再要认真排场她，可见老背晦了。"
杨宪益：Just then, a commotion broke out in Pao-yu’s apartments and three of th em pricked up their ears.
“It’s your nanny scolding Hai-jen,” announced Tai-yu.
“There’s nothing wrong with Hai-jen, yet your nanny is for ever nagging at her. Old age has befuddled her.”
霍克斯: Just then a sudden commotion arose from the direction of Bao-yu’s room and the three of them stopped talking and turned their heads to listen. Dai-yu was the first to speak:
“That’s your Nannie quarrelling with Aroma,” she said. ‘To think how that poor girl goes out of her way to be nice to the old woman, yet still she manages to find fault with her! She really must be getting senile.
译文对比分析：在翻译“侧耳听了一听”时，前者用了“pricked up their ears.”是中国人的表达习惯，中国自古以来就有“竖耳倾听”这一说话，显然杨宪益采用的是异化法，保留了中国的文化；而后者用的是“turned their heads to listen”，属于归化法，接近译文读者。“排场”、“老背晦”都是中国独有的说法，二者的译法仍然采用了以上方法，译文一接近原文读者，译文二则是顾及译文读者。而且二者都同样使用了增译法，原文中并没有转折连词，而两个译文在翻译的时候根据需要都加了“yet”,体现了英文多用连接词，汉语少用或不用连接词的特点。
