3.1 Grammatical Features of Newspaper English

1. 3.1 Grammatical Features of Newspaper English • 3.1.1 Flexiable usages of tense • [1] Hillary Clinton suffers collapse • US senator and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has collapsed during a public appearance in Buffalo, New York state. • 译文： 希拉里·克林顿胃部不适当众晕倒 • 美国前第一夫人、现任参议员希拉里·罗德汉·克林顿在纽约州西部城市布法罗出席公开活动时突然晕倒。 • [2] Stars rock Bangkok for tsunami relief • World entertainment giant, MTV Asia, will hold a star-studded concert today (Thursday) to raise money for the tsunami relief effort. • 译文： 众星云集曼谷，为印度洋海啸赈灾 • 世界娱乐界巨头——亚洲音乐电视，将在今晚（星期四）举行一场众星云集的音乐会，以筹集资金为海啸赈灾出力。 • 例[1]中所叙述的新闻事实是过去发生的，但不管是标题还是新闻内容中，并未使用过去时态，新闻记者的目的显然是给读者一种动态的新鲜感和现实感。例[2]新闻标题使用了一般现在时表示将要发生的事情。标题使用一般现在时预示将来的事实，其目的是想缩小两者的时间差，使读者觉得在第一时间内获得了新闻消息。

2. [3] Their only worry in Group C was Turkey, who they have played just once in their history unfriendly in 1956. • (China Daily, December 4, 2001) • [4] UNITED NATIONS, New York —— President George Bush wants the former attorney general, Dick Thornburgh to take a new top post at the United Nations, overseeing the organization’s budget and administration, UN and US officials say. • Secretary-General Butros Ghali asked Mr. Bush to find an American to fill this job when he attended the summit meeting of the Security Council here last month and the President then offered the job to Mr. Thornburgh, the official said. • … • The new post, undersecretary-general for administration and management, involves overall responsibility for budget and personal matters and is one of eight deputy positions created by Mr. Butros Ghali in a restructuring of the Secretariat announced on Friday, the officials said. • (The International Herald Tribune, Feb. 12, 1992) • 例[3]句中的新闻事实是说在C组中他们惟一担心的是土耳其足球队，用过去时态was表明他们两个球队过去只交锋过一次，而之后的从句又用了现在完成时have played，而没有根据语法规则用过去完成时had played，其目的就是想突出与现实的关联。在例[4]这一则新闻消息中，既有按传统语法规则呼应之处，如第二段中的“asked”，“attended”，“offered”，“said”等，也有从实际出发灵活运用的地方，如最后一段中的“involves”，“is”，“said”。英语新闻中时态不一致，特别是间接引语中用直接引语的动词形式增强了引语的真实感和现实性，缩短了新闻事件与读者的时间和空间距离。

3. 3.1.2 Frequent Usages of Passive Voice • [5] More than 50 million acres of farmland have been submerged and grain stores damaged. Thousands of peasants have been shown on television trying to save their grain by loading sacks into boats or trying to move them to higher ground. • 译文：五千多万亩粮田被淹，很多粮仓被毁。电视屏幕上，成千上万的农民在设法抢救粮食。他们或把麻袋装的粮食运到船上，或把它们移到高处。 • [6] At least 26 people were killed at the weekend in a new army offensive in which the army fired rockets, artillery and mortars at targets around the town as air force made repeated strikes. • 译文：在周末发动的一场新的攻势中，至少有26人被打死。在这次进攻中，军队用火箭、大炮和迫击炮向该市周围的目标进行袭击，同时空军也不断地向这些目标轰炸扫射。

4. 3.1.3 Sentence Pattern in Variety • (1 ) 单句多于复合句 • 要较好地达到英语新闻的告知和传播功能，适应并迎合各层次读者的口味，英语新闻的句式结构要尽力做到简洁。人们读报就是为了在最短的时间内获得最多的信息，因此，英语新闻中的句子多用单句。英语新闻经常使用分词短语、介词短语、名词短语、不定式短语等代替从句，使句子的结构更加简单、明了，使新闻的叙述更加清楚，从而使听、读新闻的人思路更加清晰，这样可以使新闻在短时间内被听众或读者理解和接受。要做到这一点，新闻报道的写作者必须追求句子结构紧凑、容载量大。例如： • [8] Screaming and weeping mourners clambered around the flag-draped coffin carrying the body of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri as hundreds of thousands of people turned out for his burial Wednesday, two days after a huge bomb killed the man credited with rebuilding post-civil war. • 译文：星期三，成千上万的黎巴嫩人涌上街头，与哈里里告别，黎前总理拉菲克·哈里里盖着国旗的棺材周围挤满了尖叫的、痛哭的哀悼者。哈里里在黎巴嫩内战后的重建中卓有功勋，两天前在一起剧烈的爆炸中遇害。 • [9] Partial election returns released yesterday showed a clergy-backed Shi’ite coalition performing better than expected in Baghdad and southern Iraq, diminishing Iyad Allawi’s chances of holding onto the position of prime minister in political horse-trading that already has begun. • 译文：昨天公布的部分选举结果显示，在巴格达和南部伊拉克，由僧侣支持的什叶派联盟得票高于预计。这个结果缩小了阿拉维在这场政界的讨价还价中继续担任总理的机会。

5. (2) 前置修饰语高度浓缩 • [13] Always erudite, famously verbose, and often controversial, Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould died last week at 60. • 译文：哈佛大学的古生物学家斯蒂芬·杰·格尔德上星期去世，终年60岁。斯蒂芬学识渊博，喜发评论，是一个具有争议性的人物。 • 例[13]句在被修饰语Stephen Jay Gould前面，罗列了长达9个单词的修饰语，而全句也只有17个单词。修饰语前置是精练句式、缩减篇幅的有效手段。 • 另外，修饰语由后置变为前置常常借助于连字符号，如，most-favored-nation treatment（最惠国待遇），the off-and-on-again civil war（断断续续的内战），multi-drug-resistant virus（抗多种药性病毒）等。如按照普通方式以后置修饰语来表示，篇幅显然会增加。如果以连字符连接并以词组的形式出现在所修饰的中心词前面，就能使句子结构简短，表述明快，易读易懂，达到快速传递信息的目的。

6. (3) 直接、间接引语的广泛使用 • 新闻报道在相当大的程度上是记述人们所说的话以及他们是怎么说这些话的。换言之，引语是必不可少的。记者必须经常在报道中以直接或间接的方式酌情甚至大量引用别人的原话。这既可增添报道的真实感和生动性，减少文字的沉闷感，同时又能显示记者的客观立场，使报道具有“最大限度的客观性”，使读者确信记者并未掺杂个人倾向（张健，2004：123）。

7. 3.2 Translation of Sentences in English News • 3.2.1 According to Their Original Order • [15] Even American fans can’t get enough of him, having selected Yao in a vote for the All-Star game ahead of the legendary Shaquille O’Neal, who ran into the “Great Wall” at the weekend as the Rockets beat the Los Angeles Lakers. • 译文：甚至连美国的球迷也为之倾倒。他们在选举NBA全明星队时把姚明排在了传奇人物大鲨鱼奥尼尔的前面。在上周末火箭队挫败洛杉矶湖人队的比赛中，奥尼尔还撞在了这座“长城”脚下。 • [16] British Prime Minister Tony Blair told that the annual conference of his governing Labour Party: “There is only one outcome —— our victory, not theirs.” • 译文：英国首相托尼布莱尔在其执政党工党的年度大会上中说：“战争的结局只有一个：胜利是我们的，不是他们的。”

8. 3.2.2 According to Their Inverted Order • [17] There are several reasons why he (Kissinger) no longer appears to be the magician the world press had made him out to be, an illusion which he failed to discourage because, as he would admit himself, he has a tendency toward megalomania. • 译文：全世界报界曾经把他（基辛格）渲染成魔术师一般的人物，他也没有阻止人们制造这种错觉，因为他自己也承认有一种自大自狂的倾向。现在，他看来不再像魔术师了，这里有几个原因。 • [18] Iraqis yesterday got a glimpse of what life without Saddam Hussein may hold, as protests and politicking marked the first day of meetings to decide the country’s fate. • 译文：昨天是伊拉克召开的讨论国家命运会议的第一天，与会人士举行了一系列的抗议和其他政治活动，让伊拉克人首次体验到了没有萨达姆后生活会是什么样子。

9. 3.2.3 Through Proper Adjustment • 19] But, should Clinton decide to play the heavy with China, the politics are reversible, though there is a feeling among some analysts that with the US such a huge market for China’s exports, the last thing that China will do is to risk cutting off access to it. • 译文：但是，如果克林顿决心下大赌注，政治形势是可以逆转的。尽管有些分析家有一种感觉，美国是中国出口商品如此巨大的市场，中国决不愿冒失去这个市场的风险。 • [20] White House officials have acknowledged during the past week that disclosure of the secret dealings was the latest and most serious in a number of recent issues that have raised broad questions about the administration’s credibility. • 译文：在过去一周中，白宫官员们承认，秘密交易的泄露是近来发生的一系列问题中最新最严重的一个。这些问题已使许多人对政府的信誉明显地产生了怀疑。

10. 3.2.4 By Means of Various Methods • But without Adolf Hitler, who was possessed of a demoniac personality, a granite will, uncanny instincts, a cold ruthlessness, a remarkable intellect, a strong imagination and—until toward the end, when drunk with power and success, he overreached himself—an amazing capacity to size up people and situations, there almost certainly would never have been a Third Reich. • 译文：然而，如果没有阿道夫·希特勒，那就几乎可以肯定不会有第三帝国。因为希特勒有着恶魔般的性格、坚如花岗岩的意志、不可思议的本能、无情的冷酷、杰出的智力、深远的想象力以及对人和局势惊人的判断力。最后，他由于被权力和胜利冲昏了头脑而自不量力，弄巧成拙。

11. Homework: • Page 39Ex. Two