问答题
Since Darwin, biologists have been firmly convinced that nature works without plan or meaning, pursuing no aim by the direct road of design. But today we see that this conviction is a fatal error. Why should evolution, exactly as Darwin knew it and described it, be planless and irrational? Do not aircraft design engineers work, at precisely that point where specific calculations and plans give out, according to the same principle of evolution, when they test the serviceability of a great number of statistically determined forms in the wind tunnel, in order to choose the one that functions best? Can we say that there is no process of natural selection when nuclear physicists, through thousands of computer operations, try to find out which materials, in which combinations and with what structural form, are best suited to the building of an atomic reactor? They also practise no designed adaptation, but work by the principle of selection. But it would never occur to anyone to call their method planless and irrational.
问答题
Since Darwin, biologists have been firmly convinced that nature works without plan or meaning, pursuing no aim by the direct road of design.
【正确答案】
【答案解析】自达尔文以来，生物学家们一直相信，大自然的运行是没有计划或者是没有意义的，不会按照直接设定的途径实现任何目的。
[解析] 本句中work译作名词“运行”或“运作”是一较好选择。原句作为从句的that nature works汉译成作为主语的名词短语。再如：
The film "Titanic" impressed us deeply.影片《泰坦尼克号》给我们留下很深的
印象
。
Science won"t let you juggle a bit.科学不容许你有一点
玄虚
。
On that day they were escorted to the Great Wall of China.他们那天和
陪同人员
一起去参观长城。
问答题
But today we see that this conviction is a fatal error. Why should evolution, exactly as Darwin knew it and described it, be planless and irrational?
问答题
Do not aircraft design engineers work, at precisely that point where specific calculations and plans give out, according to the same principle of evolution, when they test the serviceability of a great number of statistically determined forms in the wind tunnel, in order to choose the one that functions best?
【正确答案】
【答案解析】在具体运算和计划不起作用时，飞机设计师不也正是根据同样的进化原理来进行工作的吗?他们利用风洞检测大量机体模型的耐用性能，这些机体模型的建立均有统计依据，以此来选出功能最佳的设计。
[解析] 原句的句法结构是典型的英语内嵌句，包括两个定语从句(where specific calculations and plans give out, that functions best)、一个条件状语从句(when they test the serviceability of a great number of statistically determined forms in the wind tunnel)。采用拆句法将原句拆分，根据逻辑顺序，把部分语序进行重排。在条件状语从句中，用来修饰forms的成分较复杂，包括数量词(a great number of)、副词(statistically)、分词(determined)和介词短语(in the wind tunnel)，而汉语习惯于用简单句，要求修饰语少而短。因此，在翻译英语修饰结构时，可把部分修饰成分转化为短句。这里把statistically determined后移，译成短句“这些机体模型的建立均有统计依据”，使修饰语不至于显得累赘。再如：
Then a Los Angeles-bound American Airlines Boeing-757 left Washington"s Dulles International Airport, but instead hit the western part of the Pentagon, the military headquarters where 24,000 people worked, at 9:40 a.m.随后，美国航空公司另一架波音757飞机，自华盛顿杜丽斯国际机场起飞，原定飞往洛杉矶，却于上午9:40分撞向了五角大楼的西侧。当时美国国防部大楼里有24000名工作人员。
定语Los Angeles-bound同样采取“变词成句”、位置后移的策略，译为“飞往洛杉矶”。
问答题
Can we say that there is no process of natural selection when nuclear physicists, through thousands of computer operations, try to find out which materials, in which combinations and with what structural form, are best suited to the building of an atomic reactor?
问答题
They also practise no designed adaptation, but work by the principle of selection. But it would never occur to anyone to call their method planless and irrational.
【正确答案】
【答案解析】他们也未经过事先设计的适应性调节，而是根据选择原理来进行的。但是从来没有人认为这种方法是无计划、无理性的。
[解析] it的功能和语义主要为作虚义词、先行词和引导分裂句。it作形式主语泛指一切事物(情况)或发挥某种句法功能，目的是使句子完整，或起强调作用，以增强语气。上句中的it即起“先行词”作用。再如：
It never occurred to me that he would have lied to me.我从来没有想到过他会对我说谎。
It never occurred to him that he and his doing were not of the most intense and fascinating interest to anyone with whom he came in contact.他从来都这么认为，只要与他交往的人都会感到他本人和他的作为最富有情趣，令人倾倒。