英译汉指导：大学英语四级考试翻译练习8

　　练习五

　　Directions: Read the underlined sentences carefully, and then translate them into Chinese. You may check your answers after you finish them.

　　Passage One

　　People can be addicted(上瘾)to different things, for example, alcohol, drugs, certain foods, or even television. People who have such an addiction are compulsive(强迫的); i.e., they have a very powerful psychological need that they feel they must satisfy. According to psychologists, many people are compulsive spenders. They feel that they must spend money. This compulsion, like most others, is impossible to explain reasonably. For compulsive spenders, charge accounts(赊购帐户)are even more exciting than money. In other words, compulsive spenders feel that with credit, they can do anything. Their pleasure in spending enormous amounts is actually greater than the pleasure that they get from the things they buy.

　　There is even a special psychology of bargain hunting. To save money, of course, most people look for sales, low prices, and discounts. Compulsive bargain hunters, however, often buy things that they dont need just because they are cheap. They want to believe that they are helping their budgets, but they are really playing an exciting game. When they can buy something for less than other people, they feel that they are winning. Most people, experts claim, have two reasons for their behavior: a good reason for the things that they do and the real reason.

　　It is not only scientists, of course, who understand the psychology of spending habits, but also businesspeople. Stores, companies, and advertisers use psychology to increase business: They consider peoples needs for love, power, or influence, their basic values, their beliefs and opinions, and so on in their advertising and sales methods.

　　Psychologists often use a method called behavior therapy to help individuals solve their personality problems. In the same way, they can help people who feel that they have problems with money.

　　Passage Two

　　For centuries man dreamed of achieving vertical flight. In 400 A.D. Chines children played with a fan like toy that spun upwards and fell back to earth as rotation ceased. Leonardo da Vinci conceived(构思)the first mechanical apparatus(装置), called a Helix, which could carry a man straight up, but this was only a design and was never tested.

　　The ancient dream was finally realized in 1940 when a Russian immigrant, an aeronautical engineer, piloted a strange-looking craft of steel tubing with a rotating fan on top. It rose awkwardly and vertically into the air from a standing start, hovered a few feet above the ground, went sideways and backwards, and then settled back to earth. That vehicle was called a helicopter.

　　Imaginations were fired. Men dreamed of commuting to work in their own personal helicopter. Every man would have one in his backyard. People anticipated that vertical flight transports would carry millions of passengers as do the airliners of today. Such fantastic expectations were not fulfilled.

　　The helicopter has now become an extremely versatile(多样化)machine. It excels in military missions, carrying troops, guns and strategic instruments where other aircraft cannot go. Corporations use them as offices in the air, many big cities use them in police work, construction and logging companies employ them in various advantageous ways, engineers use them for site selection and surveying, and oil companies use them as the best way to make offshore and remote work stations accessible to crews and supplies: Any urgent mission to a hard-to get to place is a likely task for a helicopter. Among their other kinds of uses, they deliver people across town, fly to and from airports, assist in rescue work, and aid in the search for missing or wanted persons.

　　Passage Three

　　Most of us trade money for entertainment. Movies, concerts and shows are enjoyable but expensive. If you think that you cant have a good time without spending a lot of money, read on. A little resourcefulness(丰富资源)and a few minutes of newspaper-scanning should give you some pleasant surprises.

　　People may be the most interesting show in a large city. Stroll through busy streets and see what everybody else is doing. You will probably see people from all over the world; you will certainly see people of every age, size, and shape, and youll get a free fashion show, too. Window-shopping is also a safe sport -if the stores are closed.

　　Check the listing in your neighborhood paper. Local colleges or schools often welcome the public to hear an interesting speaker or a good debate. The film or concert series at the local public library probably wont cost you a penny. Be sure to check commercial advertisements too. A flea market(跳蚤市场)can provide hours of pleasant browsing(浏览). Perhaps you can find a free cooking or crafts demonstration in a department store.

　　Plan ahead for some activities. It is always more pleasant not to have people in front of you in a museum or at a zoo. You may save money, too, since these places often set aside one or two free admission days at slow times during the week. Pretend that you are a tourist from time to time, and get to know your city all over again including the indispensable sights that people travel miles to see. If you feel like taking an interesting walk, find a free walking tour, or plan one yourself. You will see your city in a new perspective once you know more about its history or its architectural treasures. With imagination and a spirit of adventure you can quite easily find good entertainment at no cost at all.

　　Passage Four

　　If you want to stay young, sit down and have a good think. This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors, who say that most of our brains are not getting enough exercise-and as a result, we are aging unnecessarily soon.

　　Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why otherwise healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a relatively early age, and how the process of aging could be slowed down.

　　With a team of colleagues at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain volumes of a thousand people of different ages and varying occupations.

　　Computer technology enabled the researchers to obtain precise measurements of the volume of the front and side sections of the brain, which relate to intellect(智能)and emotion, and determine the human character.

　　Contraction of front and side parts-as cells die off-was observed in some subjects in their thirties, but it was still not evident in some sixty- and seventy-year-olds.

　　Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple remedy to the contraction normally associated with age-using the head.

　　The findings show in general terms that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than in the towns. Those least at risk, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed by university professors and doctors, white collar workers doing routine work in government offices are, however, as likely to have shrinking brains as the farm worker, bus driver and shop assistant.

　　Matsuzawas fingings show that thinking can prevent the brain from shrinking. Blood must circulate properly in the head to supply the fresh oxygen the brain cells need. The best way to maintain good blood circulation is through using the brain, he says. Think hard and engage in conversation. Dont rely on pocket calculators.