2015年12月英语四级翻译题——秦始皇陵墓

   请将以下这段话翻译成英文：

   复杂的汉字(Chinese characters)书写体系是中国古代文化遗留下来的瑰宝。而这一体系正面临着退化的命运。随着电脑和智能手机的迅速发展和普及，年轻人拿起笔却写不出字来的现象越来越常见。若不借助电子产品的帮助，很多人难以写出10万个日常用字。为此，中央电视台开播了一档汉字听写比赛(Chinese Character Dictation Competition)节目，以引起人们对汉字的重视，帮助观众提高汉字书写能力。

   请将以下这段话翻译成英文：

   胡同(Hutong)是北京的一大特色，有着与北京城一样久远的历史。最早的胡同出现在元朝(the Yuan Dynasty)，如今大部分胡同是在明清时代(the Mingand Qing Dynasties)形成的。据专家考证，“胡同”一词源干蒙古语(Mongolian)的“井”。自古以来胡同都是北京城里普通市民生息的场所，可以说是北京平民文化的代表。但随着人口的增加，很多古老的胡同已经消失，取而代之的是现代化的却没有特色的高楼大厦。

Questions 61-65 are based on the following passage.

In this age of Internet chat, videogames and reality television, there is no shortageof mindless activities to keepa child occupied. Yet, despite the competition,my 8-year-old daughter Rebecca wants to spend her leisure timewriting shortstories. She wants to enter one of her stories into a writing contest, a competitionshe won last year.

As awriter I know about winning contest, and about losing them. I know what it islike to work hard on astory only to receive a rejection slip from thepublisher. I also know the pressures of trying to live up to a reputationcreatedby previous victories. What if she doesn't win the contest again? That's thestrange thing about being aparent. So many of our own past scars and dashedhopes can surface.

Arevelation (启示)came last week when I asked her, "Don't you want to win again?" "No," she replied, "I　just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade."

I hadjust spent weeks correcting her stores as she spontaneously(自由地)told them. Telling myself that Iwas merely an experienced writerguiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions forcharacters,conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angelstarting first grade was quickly "guided" by meinto the tale of alittle girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turnedher contest into mycontest without even realizing it.

Stayingback and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I knowvery little about farmanimals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, Ihad to accept the fact that I was coopting (借用)mydaughter'sexperience.

Whilestepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that Iwill quickly follow with moresteps, putting myself far enough away to give herroom but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will bereminding myselfthat children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.

61、What do we learn from the first paragraph?

A.Children do find lots of fun in many mindlessactivities.

B.Rebecca is much too occupied to enjoy herleisure time.

C.Rebecca draws on a lot of online materials forher writing.

D.A lot of distractions compete for Children'stime nowadays.

62、What did the author say about her own writingexperience?

A.She did not quite live up to her reputation as awriter.

B.Her way to success was full of pains andfrustrations.

C.She was constantly under pressure of writingmore.

D.Most of her stories had been rejected bypublishers.

63、Why did Rebecca want to enter this year'swriting contest?

A.She believed she possessed real talent forwriting.

B.She was sure of winning with her mother's help.

C.She wanted to share her stories with readers.

D.She had won a prize in the previous contest.

64、The author took great pains to refine herdaughter's stories because ____

A.she believed she had the knowledge andexperience to offer guidance

B.she did not want to disappoint Rebecca whoneeded her help so much

C.she wanted to help Rebecca realize her dream ofbecoming a writer

D.she was afraid Rebecca's imagination might runwild while writing

65、What's the author's advice for parents?

A.A writing career, though attractive, is not forevery child to pursue.

B.Children should be allowed freedom to growthrough experience.

C.Parents should keep an eye on the activitiestheir kids engage in.

D.Children should be given every chance to voicetheir opinions.

Questions 56-60 are based on the followingpassage.

Byalmost any measure, there is a boom in Intemet-based instruction. In just a fewyears,34 percent ofAmerican universities have begun offering some form. ofdistance learning (DL), and among the larger schools,it's closer to 90 percent.If you doubt the popularity of the trend, you probably haven't heard of theUniversity ofPhoenix. It grants degrees entirely on the basis of onlineinstruction. It enrolls 90,000 students, a statistic used tosupport its claimto be the largest private university in the country.

Whilethe kinds of instruction offered in these programs will differ, DL usuallysignifies a course in which theinstructors post syllabi(课程大纲), reading assignments, and schedules on Websites, and students sendin theirassignments by e-mail. Generally speaking, face-to-face communicationwith an instructor is minimized oreliminated altogether.

Theattraction for students might at first seem obvious. Primarily, there's theconvenience promised by courseson the Net: you can do the work, as they say, inyour pajamas (睡衣). But figures indicate that the reducedeffortresults in a reduced commitment to the course. While dropout rates for allfreshmen at American universitiesis around 20 percent, the rate for onlinestudents is 35 percent. Students themselves seem to understand theweaknessesinherent in the setup. In a survey conducted for eComell, the DL division ofComell University, lessthan a third of the respondents expected the quality ofthe online course to be as good as the classroom course.

Clearly,from the schools' perspective, there's a lot of money to be saved. Althoughsome of the moreambitious programs require new investments in servers andnetworks to support collaborative software, most DLcourses can run on existingor minimally upgraded(升级)systems. The more students who enroll in acourse butdon't come to campus, the more the school saves on keeping the lightson in the classrooms, paying doorkeepers,and maintaining parking lots. Andthere's evidence that instructors must work harder to run a DL course foravariety of reasons, they won't be paid any more, and might well be paid less.

56、What is the most striking feature of theUniversity of Phoenix?

A.Allits courses are offered online.

B.Itsonline courses are of the best quality.

C.It boasts the largest number of studentson campus.

D.Anyone taking its online courses is sure to get a degree.

57、According to the passage, distance learning isbasically characterized by____

A.aconsiderable flexibility in its academic requirements

B.the great diversity ofstudents' academic backgrounds

C.a minimum or total absence of face-to'faceinstruction

D.the casual relationship between students and professors

58、Manystudents take Internet-based courses mainly because they can ____

A.earntheir academic degrees With much less effort

B.savea great deal on traveling and boarding expenses

C.select courses from variouscolleges and universities

D.work on the required courses whenever andwherever

59、What accounts for the high dropout rates for online students?

A.Thereis no strict control over the academic standards of the courses.

B.Theevaluation system used by online universities is inherently weak.

C.There is nomechanism to ensure that they make the required effort.

D.Lack of classroominteraction reduces the effectiveness of instruction.

60、According to the passage, universities showgreat enthusiasm for DL programs for the purpose of____

A.building up their reputation

B.cutting down on their expenses

C.upgrading their teaching facilities

D.providing convenience for students

_____26____the situation they arein. This isvery natural. All languages have two general levels of usage: a formal leveland an informal level.English is no ____27_____. The difference in these twolevels is the situation in which you use a ____28_____ level.Formal language is the kind oflanguage you find in text books,_____29____ books and in business letters. 　　Youwould also use formal English in _____30 ____ and essays that you write inschool. Informal language is used inconversation with _____31 ____family members and friends, andwhen we write personal notes or letters to closefriends.

Formallanguage is different from informal language in several ways. First, formallanguage _____32____ bemore polite.What we may find interesting is that it usually takes more words to be polite.For example, I might sayto a friend or a family member, "Close the door,please," but to a ____ 33_____, I probably would say "Would youmindclosing the door?"

Anotherdifference between formal and informal language is some of the ____ 34_____. There are bound to besome wordsand phrases that belong in formal language and others that are informal. Let'ssay that I really likesoccer. If I am talking to my friend, I might say "Iam just _____35____ soccer!" Butif I were talking to my boss, Iwould probably say "I really enjoysoccer.

ess Campaign.The World Centers of Compassion for ChildrenInternational call attention tochildren's rights and how to help the ____44____of war. Starting a Peacemakers'Club is apraiseworthy venture for a class and one that could spread to otherclassrooms and ideally affect the culture ofthe ____45____ school.

Questions 61-65 are based on the following passage.

I don't ever want to talk about being a woman scientist again. There was a time in my life when people askedconstantly for stories about what it's like to work in a field dominated by men. I was never very good at telling thosestories because truthfully I never found them interesting. What I do fred interesting is the origin of the universe, theshape' of space-time and the nature of black holes.

At 19, when I began studying astrophysics, it did not bother me in the least to be the only woman in theclassroom. But while earning my Ph.D. at MIT and then as a post-doctor doing space research, the issue started tobother me. My every achievement--jobs, research papers, awards--was viewed through the lens of gender (性别) politics. So were my failures. Sometimes, when I was pushed into an argument on left brain.versus (相对于)fight brain, or nature versus nurture (培育), I would instantly fight fiercely on my behalf and all womankind.

Then one day a few years ago, out of my mouth came a sentence that would eventually become my reply toany and all provocations: I don't falk about that anymore. It took me 10 years to get back the confidence I had at 19and to realize that I didn't want to deal with gender issues. Why should curing sexism be yet another terrible burdenon every female scientist? After all, I don't study sociology or political theory.

Today I research and teach at Barnard, a women's college in New York City. Recently, someone asked mehow many of the 45 students in my class were women. You cannot imagine my satisfaction at being able to answer:45. I know some 9fmY students worry how they will manage their scientific research and a desire for children. AndI don't dismiss those concerns. Still, I don't tell them "war" stories. Instead, I have given them this: the visual oftheir physics professor heavily pregnant doing physics experiments. And in turn they have given me the image of45 women driven by a love of science. And that's a sight worth talking about.

61、Why doesn't the author want to talk about being a woman scientist again?

A.She feels unhappy working in male-dominated fields.

B.She is fed up with the issue of gender discrimination.

C.She is not good at telling stories of the kind.

D.She finds space research more important.

62、From Paragraph 2, we can infer that people would attribute the author's failures to ____

A.the very fact that she is a woman

B.her over-confidence as a female astrophysicist

C.her involvement in gender politics

D.the burden she bears in a male-dominated society

63、What did the author constantly fight against while doing her Ph.D. and post-doctoral research?

A.Lack of confidence in succeeding in space science.

B.Unfair accusations from both inside and outside her circle.

C.People's stereotyped attitude towards female scientists.

D.Widespread misconceptions about nature and nurture.

64、Why does the author feel great satisfaction when talking about her class?

A.Female students no longer have to bother about gender issues.

B.Her students' performance has brought back her confidence.

C.Her female students can do just as well as male students.

D.More female students are pursuing science than before.

65、What does the image the author presents to her students suggest?

A.Women students needn't have the concerns of her generation.

B.Women have more barriers on their way to academic success.

C.Women can balance a career in science and having a family.

D.Women now have fewer problems pursuing a science career.

Questions 56-60 are based on the following passage.

I've been writing for most of my life. The book Writing Without Teachers introduced me to one distinctionand one practice that has helped my writing processes tremendously. The distinction is between the creative mindand the critical mind. While you need to employ both to get to a finished result, they cannot work in parallel nomatter how much we might like to think so.

Trying to criticize writing on the fly is possibly the single greatest barrier to writing that most of us encounter.If you are listening to that 5th grade English teacher correct your grammar while you are trying to capture afleeting ( 稍纵即逝的) thought, the thought will die. If you capture the fleeting thought and simply share it withthe world in raw form; no one is likely to understand. You must learn to create first and then criticize if you want tomake writing the tool for thinking that it is.

The practice that can help you past your learned bad habits of trying to edit as you write is what Elbow calls"free writing". In free writing, the objective is to get words down on paper non-stop, usually for 15-20 minutes. Nostopping, no going back, no criticizing. The goal is to get the words flowing. As the words begin to flow, the ideaswill come out from the shadows and let themselves be captured on your notepad or your screen.

Now you have taw materials that you can begin to work with using the critical mind that you've persuaded tosit on the side and watch quietly. Most likely, you will believe that this will take more time than you actually haveand you will end up staring blankly at the page as the deadline draws near.

Instead of staring at a blank screen, start filling it with words no matter how bad. Halfway through youravailable time, stop and rework your raw writing into something closer to finished product. Move back and forthuntil you run out of time and the final result will most likely be far better than your current practices.

56、When the author says the creative mind and the critical mind "cannot work in parallel" (Line 3, Para.1 ) in the writing process, he means ____

A.no one can be both creative and critical

B.they cannot be regarded as equally important

C.they are in constant conflict with each other

D.one cannot use them at the same time

57、What prevems people from writing on is ____

A.putting their ideas in raw form

B.attempting to edit as they write

C.ignoring grammatical soundness

D.trying to capture fleeting thoughts

58、What is the chief objective of the first stage of writing?

A.To organize one's thoughts logically.

B.To choose an appropriate topic.

C.To get one's ideas down.

D.To collect raw materials.

59、One common concern of writers about "free writing" is that ____. .

A.it overstresses the role of the creative mind

B.it takes too much time to edit afterwards

C.it may bring about too much criticism

D.it does not help them to think clearly

60、In what way does the critical mind help the writer in the writing process?

A.It refines his writing into better shape.

B.It helps him to come up with new ideas.

C.It saves the writing time available to him.

D.It allows him to sit on the side and observe.

Protect Your Privacy When Job-hunting Online

A)Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfullyobtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically foreconomic gain.

B)The numbers associated with identity theft are beginning to add up fast these days. A recent GeneralAccounting Office report estimates that as many as 750,000 Americans are victims of identity theft every year.And that number may be low, as many people choose not to report the crime even if they know they have beenvictimized:

C)Identity theft is "an absolute epidemic", states Robert Ellis Smith, a respected author and advocate of privacy,"It's certainly picked up in the last four or five years. It's worldwide. It affects everybody, and there's very littleyou can do to prevent it and, worst of all, you can't detect it until it's probably too late."

D)Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, yourpersonal data, especially your social security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephonecalling card number, and other valuable identifying data, can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, topersonally profit at your expense. In the United States and Canada, for example, many people have reportedthat unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, rtmning up vast debts and committing crimes while using the victims' names. Inmany cases, a victim's losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additionalfinancial costs associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and correcting erroneousinformation for which the criminal is responsible.

E) According to the FBI, identity theft is the number one fraud committed on the Internet. So how do job seekersprotect themselves while continuing to circulate their resumes online? The key to a successful online jobsearch is learning to manage the risks. Here are some tips for staying safe while conducting a job search on theInternet.

F)Check for a privacy policy. If you are considering posting your resume online, make sure the job search siteyou are considering has a privacy policy, like CareerBuilder.com. The policy should spell out how yourinformation will be used, stored and whether or not it will be shared. You may want to think twice aboutposting your resume on a site that automatically shares your information with others. You could be openingyourself up to unwanted calls from solicitors (推销员). When reviewing the site's privacy policy, you'll be ableto delete your resume just as easily as you posted it. You won't necessarily want your resume to remain outthere on the Internet once you land a job. Remember, the longer your resume remains posted on a job board,the more exposure, both positive and not-so-positive, it will receive.

G)Take advantages of site features. Lawful job search sites offer levels of privacy protection. Before posting yourresume, carefully consider your job search objectives and the level of risk you are willing to assume.CareerBuilder.com, for example, offers three levels of privacy from which job seekers can choose. The first isstandard posting. This option gives job seekers who post their resumes the most visibility to the broadestemployer audience possible. The second is anonymous( 匿名的) posting. This allows job seekers the samevisibility as those in the standard posting category without any of their contact information being displayed.Job seekers who wish to remain anonymous but want to share some other information may choose whichpieces of contact information to display. The third is private posting. This option allows a job seeker to post aresume without having it searched by employers. Private posting allows job seekers to quickly and easily applyfor jobs that appear on CareerBuilder.com without retyping their information.

H)Safeguard your identity. Career experts say that one of the ways job seekers can stay safe while using theIntemet to search out jobs is to conceal their identities. Replace your name on your resume with a generic (泛指的) identifier, such as "Intranet Developer Candidate", or "Experienced Marketing Representative". Youshould also consider eliminating the name and location of your current employer. Depending on your title, itmay not be all that difficult to determine who you are once the name of your company is provided. Use ageneral description of the company such as "Major auto manufacturer," or "international packaged goodssupplier." If your job title is unique, consider using the generic equivalent instead of the exact title assigned byyour employer.

I)Establish an email address for your search. Another way to protect your privacy while seeking employmentonline is to open up an email account specifically for your online job search. This will safeguard your existingemail box in the event someone you don't know gets hold of your email address and shares it with others.Using an email address specifically for your job search also eliminates the possibility that you will receiveunwelcome emails in your primary mailbox. When naming your new email address, be sure that it doesn'tcontain references to your name or other information that will give away your identity. The best solution is anemail address that is relevant to the job you are seeking such as salesmgr2004@provider.com.

J)Protect your references. If your resume contains a section with the names and contact information of yourreferences, take it out. There's no sense in safeguarding your information while sharing private contactinformation of your references.

K)Keep confidential (机密的) information confidential. Do not, under any circumstances, share your social security, driver's license, and bank account numbers or other personal information, such as race or eye color.Honest employers do not need this information with an initial application. Don't provide this even if they saythey need it in order to conduct a background check. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book--don't fallfor it.

46、Those who post their resumes online for a long time will run an increased risk of becoming victims of identity theft.

47、Robert Ellis Smith says that identity theft is spreading around the world and hard to detect beforehand.

48、Victims of identity theft may suffer additional financial losses in order to restore their reputation and correct wrong infbrmation.

49、In the US,750,000 people are estimated to become victims of identity theft each year.

50、It is a safer way to find a job online when you use an email account specifically.

51、One is supposed to learn how to manage the risks if he or she is going to seek jobs online safely.

52、Standard posting allows fullest potential audience to browse through the resumes posted online.

53、Honest employers will not ask their initial job applicants to reveal their social security account, driver's license or bank account numbers.

54、Make sure that your email address will not be named in a way that could let out your personal information.

55、Job seekers are advised to describe the company they are serving right now in a general way instead of giving an exact name.

Questions 36-45 are based on the following passage.

Years ago, doctors often said that pain was a normal part of life. In particular, when older patients ____36____ of pain, they were told it was a natural part of aging and they would have to learn to, live with it.

Times have changed. Today, we take pain ____37____. Indeed, pain is now considered the fifth vital, as important as blood pressure, temperature, breathing rate and pulse in ____38____a person's well-being. We know that chronic(慢性的) pain can disrupt (扰乱的) a person's life, causing problems that ____39 ____ from missed work todepression.

That's why a growing number of hospitals now depend upon physicians who ____40____ in pain medicine. Not onlydo we evaluate the cause of the pain, which can help us treat the pain better, but we also help providecomprehensive therapy for depression and other psychological and social ____41____ related to chronic pain. Suchcomprehensive therapy often ____42 ____ the work of social workers, psychiatrists (心理医生) and psychologists, aswell as specialists in pain medicine.

This modem ____43____ for pain management has led to a wealth of innovative treatments which are more effectiveand with fewer side effects than ever before. Decades ago, there were only a ____44 ____number of drugs available, andmany of them caused ____45 ____ side effects in older people， including dizziness and fatigue. This created a double-edged sword: the medications helped relieve the pain but caused other problems that could be worse than the painitself.

A.result

B.involves

C.significant

D.range

E.relieved

F.issues

G.seriously

H.magnificent

I.determining

J.limited

K.gravely

L.complained

M.respect

N.prompting

O.specialize

Questions61-65 are based onthe following passage.

A useful definition of an air pollutantis a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the atmospherein suchquantities as to affect humans, animals, vegetation, or material adversely (有害地). Air pollution requires avery flexibledefinition that permits continuous change. When the first air pollution lawswere established inEngland in the fourteenth century, air pollutants werelimited to compounds that could be seen or smelled—a farcry (悬殊的差别) from the extensive list of harmful substances known today. Astechnology has developed andknowledge of the health aspects of variouschemicals has increased, the list of air pollutants has lengthened. Inthefuture, even water vapor (水蒸气) might be consideredan air pollutant under certain conditions.

Many of the more important airpollutants, such as sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides,arefound in nature. As the Earth developed, the concentrations (浓度). of these pollutants were altered byvariouschemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical (生物地球化学的) cycles. These serve as an airpurification scheme by allowing thecompounds to move from the air to the water or soil. On a global basis,nature'soutput of these compounds dwarfs that resulting from human activities. However,human productionusually occurs in a localized area, such as a city.

In this localized region, human outputmay be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural purificationscheme ofthe cycles. The result is an increased concentration of noxious (有害的). chemicals in the air. Theconcentrations atwhich the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations thatthe pollutants wouldhave in the absence of human activities. The actualconcentration need not be large for a substance to be apollutant; in fact thenumerical value tells us little until we know how much of an increase thisrepresents over the concentration that would occur naturally in the area. Forexample, sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at0.08 parts per million(ppm), which is about 400 times its natural level.Carbon monoxide, however, has a naturallevel of 0.1 ppm and is not usually apollutant until its level reaches about 15 ppm.

61、It can be inferred from thefirst paragraph that _________

A.water vapor is an air pollutant in localized areas

B.the definition of air pollution will continue to change

C.a substance becomes an air pollutant only in cities

D.most air pollutants today can be seen or smelled

62、In what way can naturalpollutants play an important role in controlling air pollution?

A.They function as part of a purification process.

B.They are dwarfed by the pollutants produced by human activities.

C.They are less harmful to living beings than are other pollutants.

D.They have existed since the Earth developed.

63、According to the passage,the numerical value Of the concentration level of a substance is only useful if

A.the other substances in the area are known

B.it is a localized area

C.it can be calculated quickly

D.the naturally occurring level is also known

64、Which of the following isbest supported by the passage?

A.To effectively control pollution, local government should regularlyrevise the air pollution laws.

B.One of the most important steps in preserving natural lands is tobetter enforce air pollution laws.

C.Scientists should be consulted in order to establish uniform. limitsfor all air pollutants.

D.Human activities have great impact on air pollution.

65、The passage mainlydiscusses _________

A.the economic impact on air pollution

B.how much damage air pollutants can cause

C.what constitutes an air pollutant

D.the quantity of compounds added to the atmosphere