翻译题
"The cat does not offer services," William Burroughs wrote. "The cat offers itself." But it does so with unapologetic contradictioa Greet a cat enthusiastically and it might respond with nothing more than a few unhurried blinks. Later, as you're trying to work, it will occupy your lap, keyboard, and attention, making noises all the while. A cat will mew at the food bowl in the morning and set off on a multiple-day trek in the afternoon. 【F1】"Are cats domesticated?" is one of the most frequently Googled questions about the animals, based on the search engine's autocomplete suggestions. It's a question that scientists have been asking, too. The latest answer, based on insights from recent archeological discoveries and genome-sequencing studies, is that cats are semi-domesticated. 【F2】Whether this affiliation began five or ten millions of years ago, the evidence suggests that cats have not been part of our domestic domain for nearly as long as dogs, which have been our companions for perhaps forty thousand years. At first, the cat was yet another opportunistic creature that evolved to take advantage of civilization. It was essentially a larger version of the mice it caught. Somewhere along the line, people shifted from tolerating cats to welcoming them, providing extra food and a warm place to sleep. Why? 【F3】Perhaps it is because of the cat's innate predisposition to tameness and its inherent pet-charm—what the Japanese would call kawaii. Not all researchers agree. "I don't think it makes sense to talk about animals as semi- or fully domesticated," Greger Larson, an expert on domestication, said. "Any threshold you try to define will necessarily be arbitrary." Larson tends to agree with the views of Melinda Zeder, an archeologist at the Smithsonian Institution. 【F4】Zeder characterized domestication as an ongoing coexistence between humans and another species—"a sort of treaty that ends up being mutually beneficial" she said. This relationship, she argued, can follow many paths and result in somewhat different outcomes, which she has catalogued. "Cats are domesticated," Zeder said. 【F5】"But I think what confuses people about cats is that they still carry some of the more remote behaviors of their solitary wild ancestors. Sometimes they don't give a damn about you, but they are very much part of your niche. Cats have us do everything for them. We clean their litter, stroke them, admire them, but unlike dogs they do not have to constantly please and satisfy our needs. They are probably the ultimate domesticate."
【答案解析】①本句是主系表结构，主语是引号内的问句。②表语部分中的questions由最高级形式的the most frequently Googled和后置的介词短语about the animals共同修饰，googled在文中的意义为“用谷歌搜索引擎进行搜索”，此处的the animals指代cats。③过去分词短语based on…suggestions在句中作状语，修饰逗号前的整句话。
【答案解析】①本句是复合句。句首的Whether引导让步状语从句，此为缩略形式，其完整形式应为Whether this affiliation began…or not；this affiliation指代前一句的semi-domesticated“半家养”。②that引导从句作suggests的宾语，说明证据指向什么；for nearly as long as dogs为宾语从句的时间状语。其中包含猫和狗成为家养动物时间的比较。③逗号后的which引导定语从旬，修饰先行词dogs，说明狗成为人类的同伴已长达四万年。
【答案解析】①此句是对上一句“why”的回答，主句是主系表结构，because of引导表原因的介词短语作句子的表语。②cat’s innate predisposition to tameness和its inherent pet-charm为because of引出的并列名词短语。③what the Japanese would call kawaii为what引导的名词性从句，对破折号前的pet-charm进行解释说明。④pet-charm中的pet本意为“宠物”，是名词，用连字符与charm组成合成词，表示具有宠物的魅力。⑤kawaii为日语，汉语中常用“卡哇伊”表达，形容很可爱的样子。
【答案解析】①本句是复合句。主句中的characterize…as…意为“将……定义为……”。②破折号后的a sort of treaty that．．．是对破折号前an ongoing coexistence between humans and another species的补充说明，以明确其意思；a sort of表示“某种，有点儿”；end up doing sth．意为“以……告终”。③句末的she said可视为插入语，表明引号中的内容是Zeder的原话。
问答题20.【F5】
【正确答案】但我想让人费解的是，它们仍旧继承着先祖在独立野生生存环境中形成的疏离感。
【答案解析】①本句是主从复合句。主句主干为I think…think的宾语由省略了引导词that的从句充当；该宾语从句本身也是一个主从复合句，为主系表结构，is之后为表语从句，是对宾语从句中主语what confuses people about cats“令人们对猫感到费解”的解释说明。②of their solitary wild ancestors作后置定语，修饰behaviors。