1、上海市中级口译第一阶段笔试分类模拟题 4及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、TRANSLATION TEST(总题数：4，分数：100.00)1.A Mixed Economy: the United States SystemThe economic system of the United States is principally one of private ownership. This system, often referred to as a “free enterprise system“, can be contrasted with a social
2、ist economic system, which depends heavily on government planning and public ownership of the means of production. It should be noted that although the United States operates a system of private enterprise, government has to some extent always been involved in regulating and guiding the U.S. economy
3、. At the same time, U.S. citizens have always had the freedom to choose for whom they will work and what they will buy. Most important, they vote for officials who set economic policy. In the U.S. economic system, consumers, producers and government make economic decisions on a daily basis, mainly t
4、hrough the price system. The dynamic interaction of these three groups makes the economy function. The market“s primary force, however, is the interaction of producers and consumers. This has led analysts to dub the U.S. economic system a “market economy“. As a rule, consumers look for the best valu
5、es for what they spend while producers seek the best price and profit for what they have to sell. Government, at the federal, state, and local level, seeks to promote the public security, assure fair competition, and provide a range of services believed to be better performed by public rather than p
6、rivate enterprises. Some of these public services include education (although there are many private schools and training centers), the postal (but not the telephone) service, the road system, social statistical reporting and, of course, national defense. In the United States most people are simulta
7、neously consumers and producers; they are also voters who help influence the decisions of government. The mixture among consumers, producers and members of government changes constantly, making a dynamic rather than a static economy. In recent years consumers have made their concern known, and gover
8、nment has responded by creating agencies to protect consumer interests and promote general public welfare. The U.S. economy has changed in other ways as well. The population and the labor force have moved dramatically from farms to cities, from fields to factories and, above a11, to service industri
9、es, thus providing more personal and public services. In today“s economy, these providers of services far outnumber producers of agricultural and manufactured goods. Statistics also reveal a rather startling shift away from self-employment to working for others. Generally, there are three kinds of b
10、usinesses: (1)those started and managed personally by single owners or single entrepreneurs; (2)the partnership where two or more people share the risks and rewards of business, and(3)the corporation where shareholders as owners can buy or sell their shares at any time on the open market. This latte
11、r structure, by far the most important, permits the amassing of large sums of money by combining the investments of many people, making possible large-scale enterprises. （分数：25.00）_2.The Stock ExchangeWhile there are literally thousands of stocks, the ones bought and sold most actively are usually l
12、isted on the New York Stock Exchange(NYSE). This exchange dates back to 1792, when 24 New York City stockbrokers and merchants gathered under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street in Manhattan to make some rules about how buying and selling was to be done. Those rules, known as the Buttonwood Agreement,
13、set in motion the NYSE“s unwavering commitment to investors and issuers. With a history of over 200 years, the NYSE has become the world“s largest financial market and the leading exchange in the United States. It is the place where America invests its money. Listed on the exchange are more than 3,0
14、00 enterprises, including approximately 450 operating companies from 50 different countries. The NYSE, housed in a large building on Wall Street, does the bulk of trading in listed securities. On the trading floor more than 2,200 common and preferred stocks are traded. The NYSE has more than 1,600 m
15、embers, most of whom represent brokerage houses involved in buying and selling for the public. They buy “seats“ on the exchange at considerable expense. They are paid commissions by the buyers and sellers for executing their orders. Almost half a million kilometers of telephone and telegraph wire li
16、nk the NYSE with brokerage offices around the nation and across the globe. In addition to the NYSE, there are eight other exchanges around the country. The second largest is the American Stock Exchange, which also operates in the same Wall Street area, and in much the same way, but on a smaller scal
17、e. How are stocks bought and sold? Suppose a widow in California wants to go on an ocean cruise. To finance the trip she decides to sell 100 shares of her General Motors stock. The widow calls her stockbroker and directs him to sell at once at the best price. The same day an engineer in Florida deci
18、des to use the savings he has accumulated to buy 100 shares of General Motors stock. The engineer calls his broker and asks him to buy the stock at the current price. Both brokers wire their orders to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The two brokers, one representing the widow and the other
19、 the engineer, negotiate the transaction. One asks, “How much do I have to pay for a hundred shares of General Motors?“ The highest bid is $65.25 and the least amount for which anyone has offered to sell is $65.75. Both want to get the best price. So they compromise and agree on a buy/sell at $65.50
20、. The New York Stock Exchange itself neither buys nor sells stocks; it simply serves as a mechanism by which brokers buy and sell for their clients. Each transaction is carried out in public and the information is sent electronically to every brokerage office in the nation. （分数：25.00）_3.ShakespeareF
21、or any Englishman, there can never be any discussion as to who is the world“s greatest poet and greatest dramatist. Only one name can possibly suggest itself to him: that of William Shakespeare. Every Englishman has some knowledge, however slight, of the work of our greatest writer. All of US use wo
22、rds, phrases and quotations from Shakespeare“s writings that have become part of the common property of the English-speaking people. Most of the time we are probably unaware of the source of the words we use, rather like the old lady who was taken to see a performance of Hamlet and complained that “
23、it was full of well-known proverbs and quotations!“ Shakespeare, more perhaps than any other writer, made full use of the great sources of the English language. Most of US use about five thousand words in our normal employment of English; Shakespeare in Iris works used about twenty-five thousand! Th
24、ere is probably no better way for a foreigner (or an Englishman!) to appreciate the richness and variety of the English language than by studying the various ways in which Shakespeare used it. Such a study is well worth the effort (it is not, of course, recommended to beginners), even though some as
25、pects of English usage, and the meaning of many words, have changed since Shakespeare“s day. It is paradoxical that we should know comparatively little about the life of the greatest English author. We know that Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon, and that he dies there in 1616. He al
26、most certainly attended the Grammar School in the town, but of this we cannot be sure. We know he was married there in 1582 to Anne Hathaway and that he has three children, a boy and two girls. We know that he spent much of his life in London writing his masterpieces. But this is almost all that we
27、do know. However, what is important about Shakespeare“s life is not its incidental details but its products, the plays and the poems. For many years scholars have been trying to add a few facts about Shakespeare“s life to the small number we already possess and for an equally long time critics have
28、been theorizing about the plays. Sometimes, indeed, it seems that the poetry of Shakespeare will disappear beneath the great mass of comment that has been written upon it. Fortunately this is not likely to happen. Shakespeare“s poetry and Shakespeare“s people (Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, Falstaff and
29、all the others) have long delighted not just the English but lovers of literature everywhere, and will continue to do so after the scholars and commentators and all their works have been forgotten. （分数：25.00）_4.The Welfare StateEvery British citizen who is employed (or self-employed) is obliged to p
30、ay a weekly contribution to the national insurance and health schemes. An employer also makes a contribution for each of his employees, and the Government too pays a certain amount. This plan was brought into being in 1948. Its aim is to prevent anyone from going without medical services, if he need
31、s them, however poor he may be; to ensure that a person who is out of work shall receive a weekly sum of money to subsist on; and to provide a small pension for those who have reached the age of retirement. Everyone can register with a doctor of his choice and if he is ill he can consult the doctor
32、without having to pay for the doctor“s service, although he has to pay a small charge for medicines. The doctor may, if necessary, send a patient to a specialist. or to hospital; in both cases treatment will be given without any fees being payable. Those who wish may become private patients, paying
33、for their treatment, but they must still pay their contributions to the national insurance and health schemes. During illness the patient can draw a small amount every week, to make up for his wages. Everyone who needs to have his eyes seen to may go to a state-registered oculist and if his sight is
34、 weak he can get spectacles from an optician at a much reduced price. For a small payment he may go to a dentist; if he needs false teeth, he can obtain dentures for less than they would cost from a private dentist. When a man is out of work, he may draw unemployment benefit until he finds work agai
35、n; this he will probably do by going to a Job Centre (an office run by the State to help people find jobs). If he is married, the allowance he receives will be larger. Obviously the amount paid is comparatively small, for the State does not want people to stop working in order to draw a handsome sum
36、 of money for doing nothing! When a man reaches the age of sixty-five, he may retire from work and then he has the right to draw a State pension. For women, the age of retirement is sixty. Mothers-to-be and children receive special benefits such as free milk or certain foodstuffs for which only a mi
37、nimum charge is made. The State pays to the mother a small weekly sum for each child in a family. There is also an allowance for funeral, for the State boasts that it looks after people “from cradle to grave“! There are special benefits for certain people, such as the blind and the handicapped. The
38、amount of money needed to operate these schemes is enormous and a large part of the money comes not from the contributions but from taxation. It is this social insurance scheme, together with the Government“s determination to see that there is full employment (or as near as can be), that constitutes
39、 what we can call the “Welfare State“. （分数：25.00）_上海市中级口译第一阶段笔试分类模拟题 4答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、TRANSLATION TEST(总题数：4，分数：100.00)1.A Mixed Economy: the United States SystemThe economic system of the United States is principally one of private ownership. This system, often referred to as a “free en
40、terprise system“, can be contrasted with a socialist economic system, which depends heavily on government planning and public ownership of the means of production. It should be noted that although the United States operates a system of private enterprise, government has to some extent always been in
41、volved in regulating and guiding the U.S. economy. At the same time, U.S. citizens have always had the freedom to choose for whom they will work and what they will buy. Most important, they vote for officials who set economic policy. In the U.S. economic system, consumers, producers and government m
42、ake economic decisions on a daily basis, mainly through the price system. The dynamic interaction of these three groups makes the economy function. The market“s primary force, however, is the interaction of producers and consumers. This has led analysts to dub the U.S. economic system a “market econ
43、omy“. As a rule, consumers look for the best values for what they spend while producers seek the best price and profit for what they have to sell. Government, at the federal, state, and local level, seeks to promote the public security, assure fair competition, and provide a range of services believ
44、ed to be better performed by public rather than private enterprises. Some of these public services include education (although there are many private schools and training centers), the postal (but not the telephone) service, the road system, social statistical reporting and, of course, national defe
45、nse. In the United States most people are simultaneously consumers and producers; they are also voters who help influence the decisions of government. The mixture among consumers, producers and members of government changes constantly, making a dynamic rather than a static economy. In recent years c
46、onsumers have made their concern known, and government has responded by creating agencies to protect consumer interests and promote general public welfare. The U.S. economy has changed in other ways as well. The population and the labor force have moved dramatically from farms to cities, from fields
47、 to factories and, above a11, to service industries, thus providing more personal and public services. In today“s economy, these providers of services far outnumber producers of agricultural and manufactured goods. Statistics also reveal a rather startling shift away from self-employment to working
48、for others. Generally, there are three kinds of businesses: (1)those started and managed personally by single owners or single entrepreneurs; (2)the partnership where two or more people share the risks and rewards of business, and(3)the corporation where shareholders as owners can buy or sell their shares at any time on the open market. This latter structure, by far the most important, permits the amassing of large sums of money by combining the investments of many people, making possible large-scale enterprises. （分数：25.00）_
