2010春季中级口译考试阅读第三、四篇解析口译笔译考试

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2010:04:23 21:31:49
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

　　此篇文章选自英国报纸《卫报》，是一篇典型的科技说明文。

　　A team of world-leading neuroscientists has developed a powerful technique that allows them to look deep inside a persons brain and read their intentions before they act. The research breaks controversial new ground in scientists ability to probe peoples minds and eaves0drop on their thoughts, and raises serious ethical issues over how brain-reading technology may be used in the future. The team used high-resolution brain scans to identify patterns of activity before translating them into meaningful thoughts, revealing what a person planned to do in the near future. It is the first time scientists have succeeded in reading intentions in this way.

　　文章的第一句便开章明义，直提主题，即英国的一些神经科专家率先发明了一种科技，从而可以使人们透析大脑的工作原理。同时后面也介绍了这项研究的重要意义。

　　"Using the scanner, we could look around the brain for this information and read out something that from the outside theres no way you could possibly tell is in there. Its like shining a torch around, looking for writing on a wall," said John-Dylan Haynes at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany, who led the study with colleagues at University College London and Oxford University.

　　第二段为专家进一步阐述科学发现，对推动情节向前发展没有决定意义，可省掉不读。

　　The research builds on a series of recent studies in which brain imaging has been used to identify tell-tale activity linked to lying, violent behaviour and racial prejudice.

　　If brain-reading can be refined, it could quickly be adopted to assist interrogations of criminals and terrorists, and even usher in a "Minority Report" era (as portrayed in the Steven Spielberg science fiction film of that name), where judgments are handed down before the law is broken on the strength of an incriminating brain scan.

　　"These techniques are emerging and we need an ethical debate about the implications, so that one day were not surprised and overwhelmed and caught on the wrong foot by what they can do. These things are going to come to us in the next few years and we should really be prepared," Professor Haynes told the Guardian. The use of brain scanners to judge whether people are likely to commit crimes is a contentious issue that society should tackle now, according to Prof Haynes. "We see the danger that this might become compulsory one day, but we have to be aware that if we prohibit it, we are also denying people who arent going to commit any crime the possibility of proving their innocence."

　　接下来的三个段落结构较为零散，很难判断其结构。在这种情况下，就利用我们在课堂上讲的寻找强转并比的策略，略掉次要细节，只读主要细节。

　　During the study, the researchers asked volunteers to decide whether to add or subtract two numbers they were later shown on a screen. Before the numbers flashed up, they were given a brain scan using a technique called functional magnetic imaging resonance. The researchers then used a software that had been designed to spot subtle differences in brain activity to predict the persons intentions with 70% accuracy.

　　此段在具体介绍研究过程，当然也是次要细节，因为我们在课堂上一再强调，结构比过程更重要。

　　Because brains differ so much, the scientists need a good idea of what a persons brain activity looks like when they are thinking something to be able to spot it in a scan, but researchers are already devising ways of deducing what patterns are associated with different thoughts.

　　文章最后段段落模式仍旧模糊，但我们不难判断最后一句的强转折正预示着重要细节，也是答案出处。