四六级阅读理解题源文章选读.doc

Selling the sage of Qufu推销孔圣人THE old man would surely be proud. This week some 300 representatives, from 35 different countries, gathered in Beijings Great Hall of the People for the first-ever Confucius Institute conference. （1）This was no philosophical pow-wow1, but the worlds largest-ever conference on teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Confucius Institutes are Chinas answer _ the Alliance Franaise, Germanys Goethe Institut and the British Council, and officials hope they will help meet a growing global demand for Chinese-language education.孔老夫子肯定会感到自豪。本周，来自35个国家的近300名代表在北京人民大会堂召开了首届孔子学院大会。这不是一次讨论哲学思想的会议，而是迄今为止最大的一次研究对外汉语教学的大会。孔子学院的意义如同法兰西联谊会、德国歌德学院和英国文化协会，中国官员希望它将有助于满足全球对汉语教学日益增长的需求。（译者注：“sbs answer to somehitng”是指“someone or something that is considered to be just as good as a more famous person or thing”，即“与一样有名、出色”、“具有与等同的意义或重要性”）Confucius Institutes have got _ to a roaring start. The first was established in Tashkent in Uzbekistan in June 2004, the 75th in Cracow in Poland exactly two years later. No other Chinese international franchise has done as well. Officially, they are overseen by Hanban, the agency charged by the Education Ministry with promoting the teaching of Chinese overseas. （2）But Hanbans staff of only around 50 can barely cope with the volume of applications, on top of2 its other duties which include administering Hanyu Shuipin Kaoshi, the standard test of proficiency in Chinese.孔子学院一开始发展就非常迅猛。（译者注：get off to a bad/good start意为“开局不顺/顺利”，roaring表示“迅猛的”）第一所孔子学院于2004年6月在乌兹别克斯坦塔什干成立，短短两年后在波兰克拉科夫就成立了第75所。目前中国还没有哪一家国际机构能与之媲美。这些孔子学院的官方主管部门为国家汉办（国家汉语国际推广领导小组办公室），后者是教育部下属机构，负责海外汉语教学推广。不过，仅有50名左右工作人员的汉办实在难以应付纷至沓来的办学申请，而且它还担负其它一些职责比如汉语水平考试管理（考查汉语掌握程度的标准考试）。So Hanban has let the network grow organically. One key to its success has been the use of joint ventures. The institutes are not run by Hanban, but by partnerships between Chinese universities and local universities in the host country. _（所在国大学负责安排校舍，而中方则负责提供师资和教材。）因此，汉办有条不紊地扩大办学网络。其成功的秘诀之一是采取合资办学的方式。这些学院不归汉办管理，而归一些中国大学和所在国大学联合主办。所在国大学负责安排校舍，而中方则负责提供师资和教材。（3）A second advantage is the institutes ability to adapt to local demands, rather than following a set curriculum. Thus, in Nairobi, you can learn how to make Tianjin dumplings, while in Singapore you can sign _ for a 14-day study tour of the sages hometown, Qufu, in Shandong province.这种做法的第二个好处在于，学院可以因地制宜，而不用遵循固定课程模式。这样一来，在内罗毕可以学做天津包子，而在新加坡则可以报名参加赴孔圣人故乡山东曲阜的为期14天的学术旅行团。（4）Hanban claims that the primary role of the Confucius Institutes is to teach Chinese, but their name is also evocative of Chinas former influence in Asia, and its growing presence now. Despite the iciness of official relations between China and Japan, universities there are falling _ each other to set up the next institute. Already there are four, the most in any Asian country; the number is set to double by the end of the year. Even in the 21st century, Confucius is proving to be Chinas best ambassador.汉办称，孔子学院的首要任务是汉语教学，但是它们的名字也让人想起了中国在亚洲曾经拥有的影响力及其越来越重要的地位。虽然目前中日官方之间关系冷淡，但是日方的大学都在争先恐后地申办孔子学院。日本现已有4所孔子学院，居亚洲各国之首，到今年年底这一数字肯定还会翻一番。虽说已经到了21世纪，但事实表明孔子仍是中国最杰出的使者。1. 选择适当介词或副词填入空中：a. on b. of c. to d. fora. off b. out c. with d. up a. in b. up c. over d. ona. upon b. over c. at d. for2. 英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：3汉译英（根据译文提示和上下文，在空白处填入相应英文）：NOTES(LONGMAN)1. pow-wow n. （北美印第安人）议事会；会议，聚会2. on top of 另外，紧接着（祸不单行）KEY TO QUIZ1. c. to a. off b. up (sign up报名) b. over (fall over each other 竞争，争夺)2.（见译文，仅供参考，欢迎指正）3The host university takes the responsibility for housing the institute; its Chinese partner provides the teaching staff and materials.（注：答案肯定不是唯一，但至少你可以学习作者的写法）Brothers in arms袍泽之情）RAY BLANCHARD, a researcher at Torontos Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, was reviewing some data a few years ago when he noticed something odd: gay men seemed to have more older brothers than straight men. 几年前，多伦多毒瘾与心理健康中心研究员雷布朗夏尔在回顾一些数据时注意到一个奇怪的现象同性恋男子的哥哥似乎比异性恋男子多。Intriguedand scepticalhe decided to investigate. He recruited 302 gay men and the same number of heterosexual controls and inquired about their families. How many siblings1 did they have, _ what sex, and how had the births been spaced? How old had their parents been when they had had them? Dr Blanchard found that only one detail seemed to predict sexual orientation: the more elder brothers a man had, the more likely he was to be gay. （1）Neither elder sisters nor younger siblings of either sex had any effect, but each additional elder brother increased his chance of being gay by about 33% from the population average of one man in 50. 由于对此感到好奇和怀疑，他决定做个调查。他招募了302名同性恋男子和一样多的异性恋男子，并问及一些与家庭有关的问题：有几个兄弟，几个姐妹，前后出生间隔多长时间？出生时父母多大年龄？布朗夏尔博士发现，预示性取向的似乎只有一个细节：哥哥越多，成为同性恋的可能性就越大。姐姐以及弟妹的数量对某人的性取向没有任何影响。一般而言，平均50个男人中就有1人可能成为同性恋，每多一位哥哥，此人成为同性恋的可能性就增加33左右。（译者注：这句有些费解，我的理解是：from the population average of one man in 50中的“from”与前面的“increase”相对应，也就是在此基础上增加了33%。这个基础就是指“平均每50个男人中就有一个人可能成为同性恋”，这是一般而言的，如果这“一个”人多一位哥哥，他成为同性恋的可能性就增加33，也就是这个“50分之一”发生的可能性增加33%。有点乱，仅供参考。）It was a rather perplexing discovery. It implied either that being brought _ with a lot of elder brothers affects a boys sexual orientation, or that a mothers body is somehow able to keep count of how many sons she has conceived, and that this count affects the orientation of future children. （2）Hard as it was to explain, though, the finding was replicated again and again, across different cultures, eras and even psychiatric groups. 这一发现很是令人费解。它意味着和许多哥哥一起成长会影响某个男孩的性取向，抑或是指母体有可能计下了其曾经孕育的男孩数，而这一计数过程则会影响后出生男孩的性取向。这一现象虽难解释，但是在不同文化、不同时期甚至不同心理状况的人身上都得到了反复再现。Those who argued for a social explanation suggested that having lots of elder brothers makes a boy more likely to engage _ same-sex play, and might also increase the chance he is a victim of sexual abuse. But, regardless of whether either of these conjectures2 is true, neither playing with other boys nor sexual abuse has been scientifically linked to homosexuality. 那些认为应该从社会学角度解释这一现象的人指出，哥哥多会使得一个男孩与同性别的人在一起玩耍的可能性加大，也更有可能使之成为不正当性行为的受害者。不过，不管这两个猜测哪一个正确，从科学的角度看，同别的男孩一起玩耍或者不正当性行为都与同性恋毫无关联。Anthony Bogaert of Brock University in St Catharines, Ontario, therefore decided to examine the other hypothesisthat the phenomenon is caused by something that happens in the womb. He has just published his results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 因此，安大略省圣卡他林斯布罗克大学的安东尼博加尔特决定验证一下另一个假说，亦即此现象是由子宫中发生的某种情况所引起的，其验证结果刚刚发表在国家科学院学报上。Dr Bogaert reasoned that if the effect were social, elder brothers would wield3 the same power even if they had not been born _ the same mother. Lots of half- or step-siblings, or adopted brothers, for instance, would also cause their younger brothers to be gay. On the other hand, if the effect were really due to birth order, biological brothers would make their younger brothers more likely to be gay even if they did not grow up together; indeed, even if the younger boy grew up without any older boys around at all. 博加尔特推论，如果影响来自社会生活，哥哥们即便不是出生自同一个母亲，也会对其弟弟造成同样的影响。例如，许多同父异母或被收养的哥哥也能导致其弟弟成为同性恋。从另一点看，如果影响来自出生顺序，那么嫡亲哥哥更可能使其弟弟成为同性恋，就算他们不是在一起长大，亦即年纪小的男孩成长过程中周围没有任何年长男孩。Dr Bogaert collected a new sample of several hundred men, this time specifically recruiting those who had grown up with “brothers” to whom they were not biologically related. He collected information on how long they had been reared with each sibling, as well as about biological siblings _ whom they had been separated. 博尔加特集中研究了另外700名男子，此次专门招募了那些未曾和与自己有血缘关系的“哥哥”一起成长的人。他收集了他们与每一个兄弟共同被抚养的时间以及是否有亲兄弟但被隔离开来等有关资料。He found that only the number of biological elder brothers had an impact on a later-born boys sexual orientation; non-biological siblings had no effect. This was true even when a boy had grown up surrounded by an enormous gaggle4 of non-biological elder brothers. （3）By contrast, elder brothers raised in a separate household “influenced” their younger brothers sexual orientation in exactly the same way as they would have done had they been living with them. 他发现，仅亲哥哥的数量对后出生男孩的性取向有影响，而非亲兄弟则没有。就算一个男孩成长中周围有一大群嬉笑打闹的非亲哥哥也是如此。相比之下，生在兄弟彼此分离的家庭环境中的哥哥对其弟弟性取向的影响，实际上同与之共同生活时一样。Like many of the best pieces of research, this one raises questions, as well as answering them. One is, how does the mothers body keep count of how many sons she has conceived? A second is, how does that change the environment in the womb? A third is, how does that change affect sexual orientation? And a fourth is, is this an accidental effect, or has it evolved for some reason?像众多杰出的研究一样，这一研究在提出问题的同时也解决了问题。第一个问题是，母体如何数怀孕过男孩的数目？其二是，这样会造成子宫发生何种改变？其三是，这种改变如何影响性取向？第四个问题则是，这种影响是偶然性的，还是出于某种发育进化上的原因？To these questions, Dr Bogaert has no answers, though in some cases he has his suspicions. He speculates that, for reasons as yet unknown, a mothers immune system takes note of the number of male offspring and that each succeeding male fetus is subjected to increased levels of antibodies. These somehow affect its development. （4）Clearly, something strange is going on, because things other than sexual orientation are also affected by birth order. Boys with elder brothers are also likely to have larger-than-normal placentas while in the womb. And despite that apparent nutritional advantage (for a larger placenta should be able to draw more food from the mothers bloodstream), they are also likely to have lower birth-weights than would otherwise be expected. 博加尔特博士并没有回答这些问题，但就某些个案提出了自己的猜想。他推测，由于一些尚不为人知的原因，母体免疫系统可监测男性子代的数量，并且升高的抗体水平会影响每一个后孕男胎。这些对胎儿的发育会有一定的影响。不过显然，出生顺序并不单单会影响性取向，因此奇怪的现象层出不穷，比方说，有哥哥的男孩在子宫中的胎盘可能比正常大，而且，尽管具有明显的营养优势（因为大胎盘能从母体血流中摄取更多的养料），他们出生时的体重仍可能比预计的要轻。（5）Dr Blanchard, meanwhile, calculates that about one gay man in seven can chalk his orientation up to having elder brothers. But _ the question of whether there is some evolutionary advantage for a mother who has many sons to include a gay one among them, neither he nor Dr Bogaert has an answer. 与此同时，布朗夏尔统计发现，大约七分之一的同性恋男子认为其性取与自己有哥哥有关。（译者注：chalk sth. up to是指“把记在”，引申为“把归因于”）但是，至于是否存在某种进化优势而使得多子母亲的儿子中出现一个同性恋，无论他还是博尔加特博士，均未给出答案。QUIZ1. 选择适当的介词或副词填入文中空白处：a. from b. with c. of d. bya. about b. forth c. out d. upa. in b. on c. with d. fora. by b. from c. to d. ina. by b. from c. to d. witha. for b. with c. on d. to2. 英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：3汉译英（根据译文提示和上下文，在空白处填入相应英文）：NOTES(LONGMAN)1. sibling n. 兄弟姐妹2. conjecture n. 推断；臆说；猜测3. wield v. 行使权力，施加影响；挥舞4. gaggle n. （吵闹的）一群人；鹅群KEY TO QUIZ1. c（of what sex 性别）；d（bring up抚养长大）；a（engage in从事于）；c（to）；b（be separated from）；d（an answer to）2.（见译文，仅供参考，欢迎指正）Ulterior motives居心叵测IN ONE of the more shameful episodes of its past, Canada imposed a hefty head tax _ all Chinese immigrants in 1885, then banned their entry altogether from 1923 to 1947. For the 15,000 or so Chinese men who had come to build Canadas transcontinental railway and the many more that came thereafter, it became first prohibitively expensive and then impossible to send for their wives and children.1885年，加拿大开始向所有华人移民征收沉重的人头税，后来又在1923年至1947年间完全禁止华人移民入境，这是该国历史上发生的较不体面的事件之一。对于到加拿大修建横跨大陆铁路（即太平洋铁路）的大约15000名以及其后到来的更多中国男子而言，要想把他们的妻小接到加拿大，先是代价高得令其望而却步，后来连一点可能也没有了。_ decades, Canadians of Chinese descent have demanded an apology and redress1. Successive federal governments ignored them, apologising to various other groups, including 14,000 Japanese-Canadians, who also received C$21,000 each for their internment and property expropriation during the second world war. Fearing this might open the floodgates, a Liberal government declared in 1994 that the past was the past and that no further compensation would be forthcoming.数十年来，加拿大华裔一直要求道歉和赔偿，可继任的各届联邦政府都置之不理，倒是向其它许多种族进行了道歉，其中包括14000名日裔加拿大人，并给每人发放了21000加元，作为对其在二战时期身遭拘禁和财产被征用的赔偿。由于担心一发不可收拾，1994年自由党政府宣布，过去归过去，以后不会再有进一步的赔偿了。Given this, the decision this week by Stephen Harper, the Conservative prime minister, to offer both an apology and compensation to Chinese-Canadians might seem surprisingbut not if the politics behind it are taken into account. While only about 20 of those who paid the head tax are still alive and fewer than 300 of their widows, Chinese-Canadians now form a community of around 1m with considerable political and economic clout. And its members form a crucial link _ Canadas burgeoning trade with China. 若果真如此，本周保守党总理斯蒂芬哈珀关于要对华人进行道歉和赔偿的决定就有点出人意料，但要想想其背后隐藏的政治因素，就一点也不会感到奇怪了。虽然当年缴纳人头税的只有大约20人和不到300名遗孀仍健在，但如今加拿大华人已经构成了一个拥有100万左右成员的社团，有着相当大的政治和经济影响力。而且，这些人已成为中加贸易发展的重要纽带。Before Januarys general election, the former Liberal government angered the group by offering a programme of acknowledgment and education to cover all wronged ethnic groups, but no explicit apologies. Mr Harper, whose party lacks support in urban and immigrant communities, adroitly2 stepped in with a campaign promise both to apologise and to compensate._. （他说到做到。）在一月份的大选前，上一任自由党政府提出了一项面向所有曾遭受不公平待遇的种族的承认（历史）和教育计划，但并未明确表示歉意，这让华人社团很是愤怒。哈珀的保守党本来是得不到城市居民和侨民团体支持的，这一次他灵机一动站了出来，在竞选中许诺要进行道歉和赔偿。他说到做到。Whether this will set a precedent for many other aggrieved3 groups is doubtful. Some, like the Canadian Jewish Congress, want only acknowledgment rather than financial compensation (for the governments refusal to allow the 907 German Jewish refugees _ board the St Louis to land in Canada in 1939). The federal government did set aside C$2.2 billion in the last budget to compensate the children of aborigines4 who were taken from their parents and abused in residential schools. But that was to resolve a mountain of lawsuits that it was in danger of losing. 这是否会成为其它许多受过不公平对待的种族的先例尚且无法确定。有些团体比如加拿大犹太人代表大会就不需要赔款，只希望政府承认曾于1939年拒绝让圣路易斯号船上的907名德裔犹太人登陆加拿大。联邦政府确实从上年度财政预算中划拨了22亿加元，用以赔偿那些被强迫离开父母并在寄宿学校遭到虐待的原住民儿童，可这么一来它就要处理一大堆极有可能输掉的官司。（译者注：第一个that指代的是上一句所提到的赔款，第二个that引导的是一个定语从句，修饰a mountain of lawsuits，后者作为从句中lose的宾语，it指代上一句中的the federal government，即the government was in danger of losing a mountain of lawsuits. lose a lawsuit意为“败诉”。）Still, there is hope for others if they follow the Chinese-Canadians lead. A federal election is expected as early as next spring, when Mr Harper hopes to turn his minority _ a majority. An immigrant group concentrated in an urban area is certain to get the ear of any Conservative candidate. And perhaps an apology too.其他人如果步加拿大华人的后尘，也是有希望的。联邦选举预计最早将在明年春天举行，哈珀希望到时自己能从少数派成为多数派。所有保守党的候选人肯定都会洗耳恭听市区聚居的侨民团体的诉说，也许还要道个谦吧。（译者注：“get/have somebodys ear”表示“to be trusted by someone so that they will listen to your advice, opinions etc”，即“得到某人信任从而愿意听取你的意见和建议”。第二句为省略句，省略了上句中的主语和谓语以及定语，可还原为“ is certain to get an apology of any Conservative canditate too”。）QUIZ1. 在文中空白处填入适当的介词：2. 英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：3汉译英（根据译文提示和上下文，在空白处填入相应英文）：NOTES(LONGMAN)1.redress n. money that someone pays you because they have caused you harm or damaged your property = compensation赔款；赔偿2. adroit adj. clever and skilful, especially in the way you use words and arguments （用词、论辩）机敏的；熟练的3. aggrieved adj. having suffered as a result of the illegal actions of someone else 受虐待的，受侵害的4. aborigines n.原住民；土著TIPS & BACKGROUND加拿大征收华人人头税事件：KEY TO QUIZ1. on；For；in；on；into2.（见译文，仅供参考，欢迎指正）3He has been true to his word（注：答案肯定不是唯一，但至少你可以学习作者的写法）Hard to digest不好消化（陈继龙 编译）Jun 2nd 2006From The Economist print editionBACTERIA, like people, can be divided into friend and foe. Inspired by evidence that the friendly sort may help with a range of ailments1, many people c_ bacteria in the form of yogurts and dietary supplements.（1） Such a smattering2 of artificial additions, however, represents but a drop in the ocean. There are at least 800 types of bacteria living in the human gut. And research by Steven Gill of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland, and his colleagues, published in this weeks Science, suggests that the collective genome of these organisms is so large that it contains 100 times as many genes as the human genome itself. 细菌和人一样也有敌我之分。有益的细菌有助于防治多种疾病已经得到证实，这使得许多人都食用细菌制成的酸奶以及补品。然而，人为地补充这么一点点，只能是杯水车薪。人消化道内生活着至少800种细菌。马里兰州洛克威尔基因组研究中心的史蒂文吉尔及其同事们在本周科学杂志上发表的一篇研究报告认为，这些生物体有着庞大的宏基因组，所包含的基因总数是人类基因组的100倍。Dr Gill and his team were able to come to this conclusion by extracting bacterial DNA from the faeces of two volunteers. Because of the complexity of the samples, they were not able to reconstruct the e_ genomes of each of the gut bacteria, just the individual genes. But that allowed them to make an estimate of numbers.吉尔博士和他的研究小组是通过提取两位志愿者粪便中的细菌DNA后得出这一结论的。鉴于标本的复杂性，他们无法重建消化道所有细菌的全部基因组，而只构建了个别基因。但这使得他们能够对基因总数作出估计。What all these bacteria are doing is tricky to identifythe bacteria themselves are difficult to cultivate. （2）So the researchers guessed at what they might be up to by comparing the genes they discovered with published databases of genes whose functions are already known. 所有这些细菌的活动状况尚难以确定细菌不易培养。所以，研究人员将所发现的基因与功能已经明确且已公布的基因数据库进行比较，从而推测出细菌“大概在干什么”。（译者按：tricky在此句中是指“something that is difficult to deal with or do because it is complicated and full of problems”，即“棘手的，难以处理的”。be up to在这里略显口语化，表示“doing something secret or something that you should not be doing”，“偷偷摸摸地做”，比如：The children are very quiet. I wonder what theyre up to.孩子们很安静，我不知道他们到底在搞什么东东。）（3）This comparison helped Dr Gill identify for the first time the probable enzymatic processes by which bacteria help humans to digest the complex carbohydrates in plants. The bacteria also contain a plentiful supply of genes involved in the synthesis of chemicals essential to human lifeincluding two B vitamins and certain essential amino acidsalthough the team merely showed that these metabolic pathways exist rather than proving that they are used. N_, the pathways they found leave humans looking more like ruminants3: animals such as goats and sheep that