A 1-in-100 risk of dying may not seem like bad odds, but there’s more to this ethical dilemma than a simple ratio. The first and most sacred rule of medicine is to do no harm. “For a normal healthy person a mortality rate 1% is hard to justify,” says Dr. John Fung, chief of transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “If the rate stays at 1%, it’s just not going to be accepted.” On the other hand, there’s an acute shortage of traditional donor organs from people who have died in accidents or suffered fatal heart attacks. If family members fully understand the risks and are willing to proceed, is there any reason to stand in their way? Indeed, a recent survey showed that most people will accept a mortality rate for living organ donors as high as 20%. The odds, thankfully, aren’t nearly that bad. For kidney donors, for example, the risk ranges from 1 in 2, 500 to 1 in 4, 000 for a healthy volunteer. That helps explain why nearly 40% of kidney transplants in the U.S. come from living donors.
The operation to transplant a liver, however, is a lot trickier than one to transplant a kidney. Not only is the liver packed with blood vessels, but it also makes lots of proteins that need to be produced in the right ratios for the body to survive. When organs from the recently deceased are used, the surgeon gets to pick which part of the donated liver looks the best and to take as much of it as needed. Assuming all goes well, a healthy liver can grow back whatever portion of the organ is missing, sometimes within a month.
A living-donor transplant works particularly well when an adult donates a modest portion of the liver to a child. Usually only the left lobe of the organ is required, leading to a mortality rate for living-donors in the neighborhood of 1 in 500 to 1 in 1, 000. But when the recipient is another adult, as much as 60% of the donor’s liver has to be removed. “There really is very little margin for error,” says Dr. Fung. By way of analogy, he suggests, think of a tree. “An adult-to-child living-donor transplant is like cutting off a limb. With an adult-to-adult transplant, you’re splitting the trunk in half and trying to keep both halves alive.”
Even if a potential donor understand and accepts these risks, that doesn’t necessarily mean the operation should proceed. All sorts of subtle pressures can be brought to bear on such a decision, says Dr. Mark Siegler, director of the MacLean for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. “Sometimes the sicker the patient, the greater the pressure and the more willing the donor will be to accept risks.” If you feel you can’t say
 
no, is your decision truly voluntary? And if not, is it the medical community’s responsibility to save you from your own best intentions?
Transplant centers have developed screening programs to ensure that living donors fully understand the nature of their decision. But unexamined, for the most part, is the larger issue of just how much a volunteer should be allowed to sacrifice to save another human being. So far, we seem to be saying some risk is acceptable, although we’re still vaguer about where the cutoff should be. There will always be family members like Mike Hurewitz who are heroically prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for a loved one. What the medical profession and society must decide is if it’s appropriate to let them do so.
4.    Describe in your own words the liver transplant between the two brothers Mike and Adam.
5.    What is the major issue raised in the article?

III.    Writing (30’)
Some people see education simply as going to school or college, or as a means to secure good jobs; other people view education as a lifelong process. In your opinion, how important is education to people in the modern society?
Write a composition of about 400 words on your view of the topic.
 
《翻译硕士英语》样题参考答案

I.    Vocabulary and grammar (30’)
1-10    DABAC    ACDDB    11-20   AABBD    ACBBC

II.    Reading comprehension (40’) Section 1 Multiple choice (20’)
1. C    2. A    3. D    4. B    5. A    6. D    7. A    8. C    9. B    10. B

Section 2 Answering questions (20’) Key points
1.    located in Dartmoor Park／ with 54 sq km of hills covered by “Tors”／ an event starting from 1959 ／young
people walking over a distance of 55-mile trek in two days ／ in Spring (May) ／ a kind of outdoor physical training

2.    environmentalism／threatening of some “internationally rare bird species”／breeding season／nesting season
／destroying eggs／frightening birds／declining of birds

3.    if moved to autumn／children “on holiday” during the training period／majority unwilling to change the time
／if moved earlier: lambing season／winter: too harsh and cold

4.    Mike and Adam／ one’s liver “failing”, Mike donated half of his liver／ Adam survived／ Mike, the healthy brother, due to the “complication” developed in the operation, died after the successful transplant

5.    when there is a risk of donors’ dying from organ transplant between family members／1 in 100 risk／higher or lower／Shall such transplant operations be encouraged?／different viewpoints／heated argument

III.    Writing    (30’)
Education as a Lifelong Process

When we talk about education, we can easily think of schools, colleges and young people. As a matter of fact, education is so important in modern society that it can be viewed as a lifelong process.?
Firstly, it’s the requirement of fast-developing society to receive education despite of your age. Our world is changing dramatically with the development of new science and technology. A person who completed his education at school in the 1970s or the 1980s may have encountered new problems when he is working now. The problems might have something to do with his major or other aspects. For example an accountant now must master the skills of accounting through computers, which is a basic tool for him, so he should also learn how to apply his job in a computer no matter how old he is.?
Secondly, education creates human character and moralities. Through education, youth may learn how to make contributions to the world. And the old may learn new things to enrich their lives. Through education, a healthy person can become stronger and a disabled person can have a new hope on his life. Man can find great pleasure in education.?
Thirdly, our modem society has provided everyone with the chance to receive education. As long as you wish you could get education by attending night-schools, adult colleges, training centers and even long-distance education through Internet and TV.?
In a word, knowledge is boundless, and life is limited. So education is a lifelong process.
 
翻译硕士考试《英语翻译基础》样题

I.    Directions: Translate the following words, abbreviations or terminology into their target language respectively. There are altogether 30 items in this part of the test, 15 in English and 15 in Chinese, with one pint for each. (30’)

1.    APEC
2.    ASEAN
3.    CFO
4.    CPI
5.    EMS
6.    FBI
7.    GPS
8.    IPO
9.    NATO
10.    International Monetary Fund
11.    most favored nations
12.    Intellectual Property Rights
13.    Certified Public Accountant
14.    European Free Trade Association
15.    International Atomic Energy Agency 16. 按揭贷款
17. 保健食品
18. 保税区
19. 不正之风
20. 春运
21. 第三产业
22. 法制国家
23. 国际惯例
24. 货到付款
25. 亏损企业
26. 减员增效
27. 联合兼并
28. 留职停薪
29. 特别提款权
30. 市场准入

II.    Directions: Translate the following two source texts into their target language respectively. If the source text is in English, its target language is Chinese. If the source text is in Chinese, its target language is English. (120’)

Source Text 1:

A physician starts playing a harsh mental tape in her head every time a new patient calls: What if I make the wrong diagnosis? I’m a terrible doctor. How did I get into medical school? An executive loses his job despite 25 productive years, he tells himself: I’m a loser. I can’t provide for my family, and I’ll never be able to do it again. If these real-life examples sound familiar, you may have a caustic commentary running in your head, too. Psychologists  say  many  of  their  patients  are  plagued  by  a  harsh  Inner  Critic—including  some    extremely
 
successful people who think it’s the secret to their success.