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2008年 考研英语翻译试题解析

　　上海新东方 靳萌

　　本次考试试题来源于Mayo W. Hazeltine所写的一篇学术评论，主题是关于达尔文在现代科学中的地位。

In his autobiography，Darwin himself speaks of his intellectual powers with extraordinary modesty. He points out that he always experienced much difficulty in expressing himself clearly and concisely, but 46 he believes that this very difficulty may have had the compensating advantage of forcing him to think long and intently about every sentence, and thus enabling him to detect errors in reasoning and in his own observations, He disclaimed the possession of any great quickness of apprehension or wit, such as distinguished Huxley. 47 He asserts, also, that his power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought was very limited, for which reason he felt certain that he never could have succeeded with mathematics. His memory, too, he described as extensive, but hazy. So poor in one sense was it that he never could remember for more than a few days a single date or a line of poetry. 48 On the other hand, he did not accept as well founded the charge made by some of his critics that, while he was a good observer, he had no power of reasoning.

This, he thought, could not be true, because the "Origin of Species" is one long argument from the beginning to the end, and has convinced many able men. No one, he submits, could have written it without possessing some power of reasoning. He was willing to assert that "I have a fair share of invention, and of common sense or judgment, such as every fairly successful lawyer or doctor must have, but not, I believe, in any higher degree."49 He adds humbly that perhaps he was "superior to the common run of men in noticing things which easily escape attention, and in observing them carefully."

　　Writing in the last year of his life, he expressed the opinion that in two or three respects his mind had changed during the preceding twenty or thirty years. Up to the age of thirty or beyond it poetry of many kinds gave him great pleasure. Formerly, too, pictures had given him considerable, and music very great, delight. In 1881, however, he said: "Now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry; I have tried lately to read Shakspeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music. Music generally sets me thinking too energetically of what I have been at work on, instead of giving me pleasure. I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did." 50 Darwin was convinced that the loss of these tastes was not only a loss of happiness, but might possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character.

　　试题解析

　　46 he believes that this very difficulty may have had the compensating advantage of forcing him to think long and intently about every sentence, and thus enabling him to detect errors in reasoning and in his own observations,

　　参考答案：

　　他相信，或许这种困难也有其好处，正是这种困难促使他能够长时间专注地思考每一个句子；从而能够在推理和自己的观察中发现错误。

　　解析

　　本句属于典型的长句题，篇幅长，结构层叠，意在考察考生分析句子结构的能力。

　　本句的句法结构为主语、谓语加上以that引导的宾语从句，句子主干为he believes that….that从句的结构是主语“this very difficulty ”加上含有情态动词的谓语“may have” 及其宾语the….advantage of forcing…, and thus enabling…。Of后面forcing和enabling组成并列结构，共同修饰advantage。并列结构的后半部分中，出现了thus enabling…，考前充分研究过往年考题的同学不难发现，这个结构和03年61题的thus subjecting…这个结构几乎完全相同，可以使用“从而“、”因而“等词来处理。。

　　本题中的词汇考点中绝大部分都是传统考点。句子中的compensating 曾在97年75题出现过，advantage 在90年65题中考过，force在2000年73题中考过， observation在02年62题中考过。

　　47 He asserts, also, that his power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought was very limited, for which reason he felt certain that he never could have succeeded with mathematics.

　　参考答案：达尔文还声称，对于冗长且完全抽象的思想，他的理解能力十分有限。因为这个原因，他确信自己在数学方面根本不会成功。


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