上外英语MTI英语翻译基础外刊选材练习积累七

　　对于政治、经济、科技、文史哲等方面的背景知识，很多同学是比较欠缺的。而这些背景知识在考试中却至关重要。同学们平时可以通过外刊精读，有意识得选择不同题材的文章，补齐背景知识的短板哦。

　　外刊精读的好处：

　　上外高翻MTI考研真题中，翻译基础和翻硕英语两门科目的很多试题都是选自外刊，尤其是一些西方传统大刊，如经济学人、纽约时报、金融时报等。

　　同学们平时的备考中，通过对外刊的阅读和解析，可以帮助提高阅读速度、积累词汇和表达(包括缩略语)、增强语句理解力，了解中英思维差异，培养英语思维，掌握分析文章逻辑的能力，提高总结能力。

　　学习英文表达和句型，为汉译英和作文积累地道表达、写作素材、扩展思路，提高写作能力。

　　下面是高译老师从本周的外刊中选取的一些题材，同学们在备考中也要多多涉猎哦：

　　【外刊选材一】

　　Digital platforms：The rickshaw wars

　　A battle of travel apps highlights the promise and perils of the India stack

　　【1】

　　In India’s startup capital of Bangalore, auto-rickshaw drivers are no less prized than software engineers. Given the city’s chaotic traffic, rickshaws are sometimes the fastest way to get around. But finding one isn’t easy. Threats, pleas and moral appeals are necessary before a driver accepts a ride. The experience is no better with Ola and Uber, two ride-hailing firms which offer rickshaw services for a commission.

　　【2】

　　Help is at hand. An app called Namma Yatri, launched in November by the rickshaw drivers’ union, directly connects riders to drivers, with no commission for digital middlemen. It averages around 68,000 trips a day, from only 2,000 at the start of the year, and boasts more than 78,000 drivers and 1.4m customers on its platform.

　　【3】

　　Namma Yatri is built on a new open network that represents the next phase of the “India stack”—a set of digital services created by the state. With a national biometric system and a hugely successful payments network in place, the government has now set its sights on reshaping India’s e-commerce market. The Open Network for Digital commerce (ondc) allows smaller retailers to reach buyers, bypassing private marketplaces like Amazon. In theory, it unbundles every part of the shopping process, allowing shoppers to choose from thousands of sellers and select delivery options by different providers rather than rely on overweening incumbents.

　　【4】

　　ondc is still new. Besides the ride-sharing app, early pilots have focused on food and local grocery deliveries. Questions abound about who bears responsibility when things go wrong, from fake products to payment disputes. No app has so far reached the scale to match the incumbents, which are also toying with the platform. In February Amazon announced that it would integrate its logistics services with ondc. In April PhonePe, a Walmart-backed payments system, launched a local delivery app on the open network. Still, the Indian government’s aim seems clear: it desires a noisy digital bazaar instead of one with a few big monopolies.

　　【5】

　　Or does it? Piyush Goyal, the commerce minister, wants big e-commerce firms to use ondc for all their operations. Fence-sitters risk being banned from the platform. He has also vowed to use the “full force of the government” to promote it, putting Amazon and Flipkart on notice. So much for openness and competition.

　　rickshaw drivers are no less prized than software engineers: 三轮车司机与软件工程师一样被珍视

　　rickshaws are sometimes the fastest way to get around: 有时候，三轮车是快捷的交通方式

　　threats, pleas and moral appeals are necessary before a driver accepts a ride: 在司机接受搭载之前，需要使用威胁、恳求和道义上的劝诱

　　rickshaw services for a commission: 收取佣金的三轮车服务

　　directly connects riders to drivers, with no commission for digital middlemen: 直接将乘客与司机连接起来，不需要为数字中间人支付佣金

　　averages around 68,000 trips a day: 每天平均约有6.8万次行程

　　the next phase of the "India stack": “印度堆栈”的下一个阶段

　　reshaping India's e-commerce market: 重塑印度电子商务市场

　　unbundles every part of the shopping process: 对购物过程的每个环节进行解构

　　a noisy digital bazaar instead of one with a few big monopolies: 喧嚣的数字市集，而不是只有几家大型垄断企业的市场

　　【外刊选材二】

　　Spiritualists：Clairvoyant cartel

　　mediums engage in anti-competitive behaviour, too

　　【1】

　　The gathering is like an auction crossed with a game of Mad Libs. Up steps a medium, mic in hand. Visions appear to her: the first, she says, is an old woman with a spinal deformity who liked caring for kids. The medium asks whether anyone recognises the spirit; a hand shoots up. “Know that she’s proud of you and wants you to treat yourself more!” Applause, then a second apparition, whom someone else recognises.

　　【2】

　　Such demonstrations of public mediumship are a staple of summers at Lily Dale, a hamlet in western New York founded in 1879. About 250residents live in gingerbread-trimmed houses in the gated community. All are adherents of spiritualism, a 19th-century movement that got its start 200km away, in Hydesville, New York. Spiritualists believe that the living can contact and glean insights from the dead; mediums are the conduit. At its peak spiritualism had somewhere between 4m and 11m followers in America, including Abraham Lincoln’s wife, who hosted séances at the White House.

　　【3】

　　Each year more than 20,000 people visit Lily Dale, the oldest and largest spiritualist centre in America. Others are Cassadaga, in Florida, and Camp Chesterfield, in Indiana. Only 34 certified mediums, having passed a test, are allowed to charge for their services on the grounds. Private “readings” cost up to $140 for half an hour.

　　【4】

　　The mediums operate a guild of sorts. To get inducted one must perform well in trial readings. “We’re like the Harvard of mediumship,” says Sharon Klingler, who earned her credentials a decade ago. Candidates are scored on how many spirits they conjure and the accuracy of the evidence—mannerisms, symptoms, jobs, hometowns—that they give. “People who come here expect someone who’s been vetted,” says Kris Seastedt, vice-president of the mediums League.

　　【5】

　　There are dos and don’ts of the trade. Don’t diagnose or prescribe: that could bring legal trouble. Brenda Reading, a newly certified medium, won’t inform women if she thinks that they have breast cancer, though she will ask if they have put off their mammogram. (Nothing stops her from telling your correspondent that he seems a bit low-energy. She recommends vitamin supplements.)

　　【6】

　　Clients want assurances that their loved ones are at peace. Best to keep the message uplifting; no one likes to relive tragedy. And the more specific the evidence, the better. It’s not enough to say that dead grandma baked. Everyone had a grandma who baked. Helpfully, most visitors to Lily Dale want to believe. The occasional sceptic can be a spoiler. So can people who get too dependent and expect to be told exactly what to do by their dearly departed. Ms Klingler sometimes asks needy clients to stop calling. She reminds them that they have free will, and suggests meditation.

　　【7】

　　Some encounters are disorienting. Your correspondent sat for a reading with a medium who immediately suffered a coughing fit—a sign, she insisted, that one of his grandparents had had a tracheotomy. Assured otherwise, she replied that he was misinformed and should trust the spirit.

　　【外刊选材三】

　　Palaeontology：What the bones tell

　　Bones recovered from tar pits suggest both sabre-tooth tigers and dire wolves were in trouble before they vanished

　　【1】

　　Along with the mammoth and the dire wolf, the sabre-tooth tiger was a casualty of the Quaternary extinction, a die-off that happened between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago that seems to have affected big animals in particular.

　　【2】

　　Exactly what caused the extinction is still a matter of debate. (Two popular possibilities are a warming in the climate, and the arrival of humans.) A new paper by Hugo Schmökel, a veterinary surgeon at the Evidensia Academy, a veterinary college in Sweden, and his colleagues, suggests that, for both the sabre-tooth tiger and the dire wolf, inbreeding played a part.

　　【3】

　　Dr Schmökel arrived at that conclusion after examining bones from the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles. These are gold mines for palaeontologists because they were death traps for the animals of the day. Rainwater can accumulate on top of the tar. A large herbivore, like a mastodon or giant sloth, that ventured in for a drink would risk becoming ensnared. Its subsequent attempts to free itself would attract predators, which would take advantage of its distress and attack—but then become trapped themselves. As a result Rancho La Brea contains bones from thousands of animals.

　　【4】

　　That allows for statistical studies that cannot be done anywhere else. Dr Schmökel examined 834 sabre-tooth-cat femurs dated to between 12,000and 10,000 years ago. Around 6% had defects suggestive of a bone disease known as osteochondrosis dissecans. This is caused by small fragments of bone underlying the cartilage in a joint dying and breaking loose. It causes joint pain, loss of motion, and becomes crippling in old age. An analysis of 266 dire-wolf femurs found that 2.6% likewise had defects indicative of the disease.

　　【5】

　　Several things, including diet and injury, can cause osteochondrosis dissecans. But one of the biggest predisposing factors is genetics. Indeed, though the disease is rare in wild animals today, it is common in domesticated dog breeds that have been heavily inbred. Around 9% of border collies, for instance, suffer from it. But inbreeding is not always a consequence of human interference. In the wild, it is usually a consequence of a shrinkingpopulation in which fewer and fewer mates are available with every passing generation.

　　【6】

　　That suggests both the sabre-tooth tigers and the dire wolves were locked in a miserable downward spiral. Not only were their populations already shrinking, but the disease caused by the resulting inbreeding would have made it harder for the remaining individuals to survive, especially as they got older. It is impossible, at least for now, to discern what led these animals to become inbred in the first place. But the evidence from the tar pits suggests they were on a genetic knife’s edge for thousands of years before they finally succumbed.

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