.9月高级翻译阅读真题

1、.9 月高级翻译阅读真题英语类考试频道为网友整理英语翻译资格考试，供大家参考学习The Super Bowl just aggravates our addiction to hyperboleAmericans have become addicted to superlatives. We seem to need our regular “ hyperbole fixes as if to validate our own existence. This nationndarol msye becomesmost egregious during the run-up to the “

2、Super Bowl, a football game that more oft than not turns out to be the -hum “bohwol.But to the attuned ear, this pumped-up hype routinely infects most of our conversations. This exaggeration is not the exclusive province of the magpies of sports talk. In a broader sense, some of these embellishments

3、 carry with them a subtle but undeniable element of dishonesty.The news media is perhaps most culpable in promoting our obsession with overstatement. Consider last November's midterm elections. Television ' s political pundits portrayed the results as a“ landslide victory for Republicans anP

4、resident Obama. While it's true that the GOP picked up 63 seats, the“ mabecomes a slim plurality when you crunch the numbers.Michael McDonald, a professor of politics at Virginia 's George Mason University, found that only 41 percent of eligible voters even bothered to vote in the so-called

5、GOP landslide. And within that 41 percent, the margin of victory for House Republicans in the national popular vote was about 7 percent. Still, the media acted as though America had become a tea party nation. In reality, more Americans identify as Democrats (31 percent) than Republicans (29 percent)

6、, according to a recent Gallup survey. Facts stand on their ownDistortions like this tend to be at their most shameful during triumphs and tragedies, precisely when facts and events should be able to stand on their own without being propped up by the banalities of those paid to read a TV teleprompte

7、r.I recall during CNN 's live coverage of Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005, one of my colleagues gushed in her impromptu on- air eulogy that the late pontiff was “the pope of the whole world! Such silly media pronouncements are so common that few of us even notice them as they float off i

8、nto the ether. Yet such hyperbole is not just pompous; it also reveals considerable ignorance. My former colleague's remark marginalized not just the billion or so Protestants and Eastern Orthodox adherents who don't follow orders from Rome but also the 4 billion Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddh

9、ists, and others who don 't consider the pontiff worthy of such adulation and veneration.Perhaps just as embarrassing amid this verbal extravagance was the failure to note the significant Catholic dissent over his legacy. Many Roman Catholic clerics, including Jesuits, had been quite critical of

10、 John Paul II; some were privately relieved his time at the helm was up.Overused words become meaningless“ Great and “ awesome are other examples of overused words that have becom almost meaningless. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and tornadoes bearing down on you are awesome. Bone-crunching NFL football ta

11、ckles and films like “ Avatar are not. “ Awesome is so overused it can now be rendered to mean“ rather ordinar“ Tragedy has become another nearly meaningless word. It used to be reserved for events of mass casualties and deep suffering. Now i't s applied to stories ranging from lost puppies to q

12、uarterly earnings reports. The adage (attributed to Stalin) comes to mind: “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.The real tragedy is the demise of intelligent self-expression, a consequence of ourshriveling vocabularies.Well may we cringe listening to contemporary

13、blather, especially superlatives like “ unbelievable, which should properly be used to describe politicians.Sometimes this national obsession with superlatives does a genuine disservice. Wherever did we get the idea that everyone who serves in the military is a hero? Heroism demands an act of valor.

14、A retired US Navy captain I know put it best:“ Heroes are selfless warriorisk their lives and often give their lives so others may live. There are plenty of warriors and wannabes, but very few genuine heroes. Do as the British (somIf Americans insist on anointing themselves with superlatives, they s

15、hould at least strive to imitate the British, who are the true masters of exaggeration.The late historian Barbara Tuchman was spot on:“No nation has ever promilitary history of such verbal nobility as the British There is no shrinking fromsuperlatives Everyone is splendid: soldiers are staunch, commanders cool, thefighting magnificent. Years later Tuchman told me nothing she ever wrote received such an overwhelmingly favorable response as that passage.But rather than imitating British hyperbole, Americans would do well to master the art of understatement and dry wit, the other