【答案解析】 Translation is a highly skilled, rewarding and satisfying career which plays an important role in the exchange of culture and development of language. Translators, accordingly, as the agents for transferring messages from one language to another, are required to have comprehensive capacities including language proficiency, knowledge-acquiring capabilities, and socio-cultural awareness, all of which are essential elements for the making of a good translator.
First of all, language proficiency is the most fundamental among all the above for it"s the basic tool for translation. To be proficient in a language means not only to master its grammar and vocabulary, but also to be familiar with the idiomatic expressions. For example, "a fish out of water" is a quite common phrase in English which means "feel uncomfortable" rather than the literal denotation, so unawareness of it may lead to embarrassing translation. Besides, language proficiency also refers to one"s competence in the target language, which enables the translator to create smooth expression instead of awkward literal translation.
Secondly, knowledge-acquiring capability is a must for a qualified translator. Since translation involves a variety of knowledge which is, to a great extent, interrelated and reciprocally connected, the translator is desirably something of an all-rounder. That is to say, he or she should be as erudite as possible, knowing something about everything, and knowing how to find everything. Then, with good knowledge of the subject matter, the translator can be always confident in doing a good job.
Thirdly, socio-cultural awareness, the competency of a translator to identify different customs, registers, cultural settings and speaking styles of both languages, can improve the quality of the translation greatly. It"s no exaggeration to say that the social context in translating a text is probably a more important variable than its genre. Only by taking cultural differences into consideration can a translator preserve the underlying ideas and values of the source text. For example, a Chinese idiom is saying: the rice is already cooked, meaning it"s a done deal and nothing can be done to correct it. But to a native English speaker, it only conveys the literal meaning. Considering such cultural bias, a good translator should interpret the idiom as "what"s done cannot be undone".
To sum up, a good translator is supposed to be proficient in language, rich in knowledge and sensitive to cultural diversity. It is worth noting that some non-intelligence factors matter as much as intelligence factors mentioned above, such as commitment and practice. In a word, just like any other career, translation asks for efforts as well as talents, and a good translator is the one who possesses both of them.