The behavioral sciences have been slow to change partly because the explanatory items often seem to be directly observed and partly because other kinds of explanations have been hard to find. (2002:62)
There will be television chat shows hosted by robots, ……(2001:71)
翻譯本句,需添加“屆時”一詞來表達原文的將來時態。再請看:
But even more……, for what they were seeing were the patterns and structures that existed 15 billion years ago. (1998:71)
本句官方給出的參考譯文是:因為他們看到的是150億年前宇宙云的形狀和結構。我認為,這個譯文翻譯的實際上是“for what they saw”而不是“for what they were seeing”,換言之,它不足以表達一般過去時和過去進行時的區別。
再請看:
……and digital age will have arrived. (2001:72)
有考生將其翻譯成“數字時代將會來到”,體現的是一般將來時而不是將來完成時。
3.詞的單復數,大小寫等細節問題。請看例句:
Whether the Government should…… (1994:75)
官方給出的參考譯文將the Government簡單譯成“政府”,不確切。定冠詞the以及government首字母大寫這兩點明顯表明此處的government是特指。本句前一句為“Federal policy is necessarily involved in the technology vs. genius dispute”,可以確定,the Government指的是“(美國)聯邦政府”。
再請看:
Science moves forward, they say, not so much through the insights of great men of genius as because of more ordinary things like improved techniques and tools. (1994:71)
此處insights能否做“洞察力”講?如果能,“洞察力”有復數嗎?如果不能,它又當做何解釋?
順便說一句,not so much……as……引導的兩部分是對應的,因此可以確定,此處的through與后面的because of同義。
注意詞的單復數還有一個實際用途,就是可以比較快地確定代詞所指為何。請看例句:
But even more important, it was the farthest……(1998:71)