Translation of English for Science and Technology

1. Translation of English for Science and Technology

2. Scientific prose • Science fiction, science news, academic papers, science report, monograph, product pamphlet or description, experimental report, survey, etc.

3. Features of Science Prose • Diction: power 力量，权力 政权，国力，政治力量，军队（国家政权） 机能，体力，活力 （生理学） 幂，乘方，基数 （数学） 力，动力，电，店里，电源，功率 （物理学） • polysemy

4. Grammatical structure • Complete sentence • Present tense • General statement (definition, formula, tables…) • Nonfinite verbs • Long sentences • Passive voice • noun

5. Style • Formal • Coherence • Clarity • Plainness • Preciseness

6. Translation of Scientific Prose • 例1：Around 2050, the amount of carbon released from the soil by bacteria would be greater than the amount soaked up by trees, and global warming would be accelerated. • 到2050年左右，土壤中细菌的碳释放量有可能大于林木的吸收量，地球会加速变暖。

7. 例2：Then what? Well, mankind is not doing a very good job of running the earth right now. Maybe, when the time comes, we ought to step gracefully aside and hand over the job to someone who can do it better. And if we don’t step aside, perhaps Supercomputer will simply move in and push us aside. • (I. Asimov: The Difference Between a Brain and a Computer) • 到那时会怎么样呢? 唉，反正人类现在也没有做好管理地球的工作。也许到那时候，我们真该豁达大度地让到一边，把工作交给更为称职的去做。如果我们不主动让位，也许超级电脑就会老实不客气地闯进来，把我们推到一边。

8. 例3：A further inference was drawn by Pascal, who reasoned that if this “sea of air” existed, its pressure at the bottom (i.e. sea level) would be greater than its pressure further up, and that therefore the height of mercury column would decrease in proportion to the height above sea-level. • 【译文】帕斯卡作了进一步推论，他说，如果这种“空气海洋”存在的话，其底部（即海平面）的压力就会比其高处的压力大。因此，水银柱的高度降低量与海拔高度成正比。

9. 例4: Earth is a spacecraft too. Our atmosphere acts as a shield against harmful radiation and space debris. Gravity holds the air and people on the spacecraft, so that everything doesn’t float away. Each of us is an astronaut and our spacecraft, earth, provides our food and water. The sun is our energy source and without it we would not be able to survive. • 【译文】地球跟宇宙飞船完全一样，其周围的大气层对有害的辐射和宇宙碎片起到保护作用。地心引力吸住空气和地球这艘宇宙飞船上所有的人，使每件东西不致飘浮离去。我们每个人都是宇航员，地球这艘宇宙飞船提供我们食物和水。太阳是能源，没有太阳我们就无法生存。

10. abstract Abstract: An aim of the experiments is to determine if an imperfect listening typewriter would be useful for composing letters. Participants dictated, either in isolated words or in consecutive word speech. This was carried out with simulations of listening typewriters that recognized either a limited vocabulary or an unlimited vocabulary. Results show that some versions, even upon first using them, are at least as good as traditional methods of handwriting and dictating. Isolated word speech with large vocabularies may provide the basis for a useful listening typewriter.

11. Science News • The Age of Spiritual Machines • Since its beginning in the work of Alan Turing, the British mathematical genius who conceived of the computer, artificial intelligence has been overly anthropocentric. Its traditional—some would say misguided—aim has been to build machines that are like humans. For example, the Turing test for machine intelligence holds that a computer is a genuine thinker if it resembles a human being to the degree that someone interviewing both the computer and a human by teletype cannot tell which is which.

12. Against this background, it is not surprising that researchers in artificial intelligence often make believe that their inventions possess human qualities. Turing himself described a simple computational mechanism as a “child-machine”, to be “rewarded”, “punished”, and taught by a process intended to produce “discipline” and “initiative”. Turing’s child-machine was a "creature" that was taught by an inspector of schools but could not be sent to school without “the other children making excessive fun of it”.

13. In a contemporary example, Daniel Dennett states that Cog, a robot under construction at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, is to have an “infancy and childhood”. Cog has “hips” and a “waist”, and will have skin and a face. Cog is to be “as human as possible in its wants and fears, likes and dislikes”. It will “want to keep its mother’s face in view” and is to “delight in learning, abhor error, strive for novelty, and recognize progress”.

14. Animal Athletes • The camel is a slow-moving creature. But what it lacks in speed it gains in stamina. This veritable beast of burden can walk 30 miles a day carrying a load that weighs half a ton. • The kangaroo, with its long, muscular hind legs, is a marvel of fitness. Weighing about 200 pounds, it can thrust its heavy body into the air and clear a fence nine feet high. While airborne, this leaping marsupial uses its thick tail as both a counterbalance and a rudder.

15. 骆驼属慢行动物，动作虽缓，却不乏耐力。骆驼是名符其实的负重动物，承载重量可达半吨之多，负重日行30英里。骆驼属慢行动物，动作虽缓，却不乏耐力。骆驼是名符其实的负重动物，承载重量可达半吨之多，负重日行30英里。 • 大袋鼠长着一双长而有力的后腿，特别健壮。袋鼠虽重约200磅，其沉重的身体却能腾空穿越9英尺高的栅栏。做空中腾越动作时，这种跳跃型有袋动物用其粗大的尾巴保持平衡，控制方向。

16. Unemployment may also result. Many workers will be replaced by machines. People will need to be computer-literate and retraining is required for the people involved. • There will be more computer crimes like theft of computer time, theft of confidential information stored in computers, unauthorized manipulation of computer information, etc. Large sums of money are involved. The criminals are rarely convicted because it is difficult to catch/charge them.

17. There is also the danger of more people knowing things we would like to keep private. The more information is stored in computer, the greater the possibility of it being misused or accessed by the wrong people.