【答案解析】

Shanghai Interpreters Accreditation Test

Shanghai Interpreters Accreditation(SIA) is an interpretation qualification test of high-level continuing education approved by the competent departments of Shanghai Municipal Government to meet the needs of the reform and opening-up drive in Shanghai. It is a project developed and implemented under the organization of Shanghai Pudong Continuing Education Center of High Learning(PCEC), and its activities are directed and supervised by Shanghai Interpreters Accreditation Board. The panel of experts for the test program consists of foreign language professors from prestigious universities in Shanghai, who are engaged by PCEC to take overall charge of various work including making out test papers, reading and marking them, and administering the oral examination. They arc also responsible for compiling and amending all the textbooks for interpreting training.
The accreditation program was officially initiated in 1994, and the first English Advanced Interpretation Test was held in the following year. Since 1995, the accreditation has evolved into a three-level—basic, intermediate and advanced—test system for practitioners who wish to do bilingual interpreting between Chinese and English or between Chinese and Japanese. As the trademark of Shanghai Interpreters Accreditation, SIA is registered with the State Trademark Office.
Launched in Shanghai, SIA has, through 18 years of steady development, expanded its operation to 15 big and medium-sized cities in 9 provinces in cooperation with 22 colleges and universities. The program, with its unique model of training and test, has aroused people"s interest in learning English and interpretation and attracted more and more people, especially college students, to go in for the accreditation test. The number of people taking the test has kept growing year by year. By the end of 2011, the aggregate number has reached over one million.
SIA test is given twice a year, comprising a written test and an oral test successively. The written test takes place in March and September, followed by the oral test in May and November. Only those who have passed the written test are eligible for the oral test. Examinees who have passed both the written and oral tests are issued the credentials for the corresponding level of interpreting.
The English Advanced Interpretation Test (written) consists of three parts of listening, reading and translation divided into six sections. Time for the test is 180 minutes. The oral test is composed of oral presentation and interpretation, which runs for 20 minutes. The English Intermediate Interpretation Test (written) is made up of four sections of listening, reading, English. Chinese translation and Chinese-English translation, which takes 120 minutes. The oral test is also composed of oral presentation and interpretation, which lasts approximately 15 minutes.
Thanks to its practicability and professional nature and the interpreting competence attained by accredited practitioners, SIA has become a well-known non-degree program of continuing education which is widely acknowledged by the society and is now a favorite with a large number of students. It has won many important awards for research achievement and textbook compilation, gaining wide acclaim in the educational circles.