问答题
The conifer hedges in front of J. K. Rowling"s seventeenth-century house, in Edinburgh, are about twenty feet tall. They reach higher than the street lamps in front of them, and evoke the entrance to the spiteful maze in the film adaptation of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", the fourth volume of her fantasy series. Rowling, who, at forty-seven, is about to publish her first novel for adults—it is set in a contemporary Britain familiar with Jay-Z and online pornography, but is shaded with memories of her own, quite cheerless upbringing—lives here with her second husband, Neil Murray, a doctor, and their children. She has a reputation for reserve: for being likable but shy and thin-skinned, and not at all comfortable with the personal impact of having created a modern myth, sold four hundred and fifty million books, and inspired more than six hundred thousand pieces of Harry Potter fan fiction, a total that increases by at least a thousand stories a week.
【正确答案】
【答案解析】J·K·罗琳住在爱丁堡一座17世纪的房屋,她家门前的针叶树树篱约有20英尺高,比树篱面前的路灯还要高出些许,令人不禁联想起哈利·波特电影版《哈利·波特与火焰杯》(这是她魔幻系列小说的第四部)中危机四伏的迷宫入口。47岁的罗琳即将出版她第一本成人小说——小说设定在当代英国,一个饶舌歌手杰斯与网络色情盛行的年代。书中也夹杂了她自己凄惨的成长经历留下的回忆。她与第二任丈夫尼尔·默里医生和他们的孩子一起住在这里。大家都知道罗琳性格保守:她很招人喜欢,但非常内向害羞。她创造了一个现代神话——她的书卖出了4.5亿本,启发了60万本哈利·波特同人小说,同人小说的数量还在以每周至少1000本的速度增加——对由此带来的盛名她显得有些难以应付。
[解析] The conifer hedges in front of J. K. Rowling"s seventeenth-century house, in Edinburgh, are about twenty feet tall. They reach higher than the street lamps in front of them, and evoke the entrance to the spiteful maze in the film adaptation of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", the fourth volume of her fantasy series.
此句虽然不算长,但是包含的信息量较大,引出了罗琳家门前的针叶树树篱,以及罗琳家的住处及其信息,作为文段的开篇,有必要将其住处这一基本信息首先提出来,然后再继续介绍家门前的针叶树树篱,会更为理所当然一些。句中的they指的就是上句提到的针叶树树篱,与上句的结尾的“针叶树树篱”紧密相连,因此可以连成一句,省略本句主语。此句中翻译小说名字时,因为是有官方翻译版本的,因此尽量使用官方版本,相信大部分考生都对哈利波特系列小说比较熟悉了。在了解西方的文化时,我们在学习经典的过程中也要实时地关注现当代的一些优秀的作品,扩充自己的视野。
J·K·罗琳住在爱丁堡一座17世纪的房屋,她家门前的针叶树树篱约有20英尺高,比树篱面前的路灯还要高出些许,令人不禁联想起哈利·波特电影版《哈利·波特与火焰杯》(这是她魔幻系列小说的第四部)中危机四伏的迷宫入口。
Rowling, who, at forty-seven, is about to publish her first novel for adults—it is set in a contemporary Britain familiar with Jay-Z and online pornography, but is shaded with memories of her own, quite cheerless upbringing—lives here with her second husband, Neil Murray, a doctor, and their children.
罗琳后出现了一个由who引导的后置定语从句,修饰前边的名词,而我们在翻译时若是修饰语长度适中,我们可以将修饰语放在主语的前边。这句话的后半部分包含了她的凄惨童年、与第二任丈夫在这里居住等信息,需要按照信息块将其划分为多个句子,使逻辑更加清晰。
47岁的罗琳即将出版她第一本成人小说——小说设定在当代英国,一个饶舌歌手杰斯与网络色情盛行的年代。书中也夹杂了她自己凄惨的成长经历留下的回忆。她与第二任丈夫尼尔·默里医生和他们的孩子一起住在这里。