2017翻譯考試英語(yǔ)筆譯初級(jí)模擬題：美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)大蕭條

　　【英譯漢】

　　It is difficult to measure the human cost2 ofthe Great Depression. The material hardships were bad enough. Men and women lived in lean-tos made of scrap wood and metal, and families went without meat and fresh vegetables for months, existing on a diet of soup and beans. 3 The psychological burden was even greater4: Americans suffered through year after year of grinding poverty with no letup in sight5. The unemployed stood in line for hours waiting for relief checks, veterans sold apples or pencils on street corners, their manhood - once prized so highly by the nation - now in question6. People left the city for the countryside but found no salvation on the farm. Crops rotted in the fields because prices were too low to make harvesting worthwhile7; sheriffs fended off angry crowds as banks foreclosed long overdue mortgages on once prosperous farms8.

　　Few escaped the suffering. African Americans who had left the poverty of the rural South for factory jobs in the North were among the first to be laid off. Mexican Americans, who had flowed in to replace European immigrants, met with competition from angry citizens, now willing to do stoop labor in the fields and work as track layers on the railroads9. Immigration officials used technicalities10 to halt the flow across the Rio Grande11 and even to reverse it; nearly a half million Mexicans were deported in the 1930s, including families with children born in the United States.

　　The poor — black, brown, and white - survived because they knew better than most Americans how to exist in poverty. They stayed in bed in cold weather, both to keep warm and to avoid unnecessary burning up of calories12; they patched their shoes with pieces of rubber from discarded tires13 , heated only the kitchens of their homes, and ate scraps of food that others would reject.

　　The middle class, which had always lived with high expectations, was hit hard. Professionals and white-collar workers refused to ask for charity even while their families went without food; one New York dentist and his wife turned on the gas and left a note saying, "We want to get out of the way before we are forced to accept relief money." 14 People who fell behind in their mortgage payments lost their homes and then faced eviction when they could not pay the rent.

　　Health care declined. 15 Middle-class people stopped going to doctors and dentists regularly, unable to make the required cash payment in advance for services rendered. 16 Even the well-to-do were affected, giving up many of their former luxuries and weighed down with guilt as they watched former friends and business associates join the ranks of the impoverished.17 "My father lost everything in the Depression" became an all-too-familiar refrained among young people who dropped out of college.

　　Many Americans sought escape19 in movement. Men, boys, and some women, rode the rails in search of jobs, hopping freights to move south in the winter or west in the summer. On the Missouri Pacific alone, the number of vagrants increased from just over 13,000 in 1929 to nearly 200,000 in 1931. One town in the Southwest hired special policemen to keep vagrants from leaving the boxcars. Those who became tramps had to keep on the move, but they did find a sense of community in the hobo jungles20 that sprang up along the major railroad routes. Here a man could find a place to eat and sleep, and people with whom to share his misery. Louis Banks, a black veteran, told interviewer Studs Terkel what these informal camps were like:

　　Black and white, it didn't make any difference who you were.Because everybody was poor. All friendly, sleep in a jungle. We used to take a big pot and cook food, cabbage, meat and beans all together. We all set together, we made a tent. Twenty five or thirty would be out on the side of the rail, white and colored: They didn't have no mothers or sisters, they didn't have no home, they were dirty, they had overalls on, they didn't have no food, they didn't have anything. 21

　　【參考譯文】

　　大蕭條的影響大蕭條對(duì)人們?cè)斐傻挠绊憻o(wú)法估量。物質(zhì)上的苦難本已非常深重。男男女女都住在破木板廢鐵皮搭起的披棚里，家家戶戶數(shù)月吃不上肉和新鮮蔬菜，只能用清湯和豆子填肚子。更為沉重的是心理上的負(fù)擔(dān)：美國(guó)人在極度的貧困中煎熬，年復(fù)一年，前景渺茫。失業(yè)工人排隊(duì)數(shù)小時(shí)等待救濟(jì)金，退伍老兵則在街角叫賣蘋果、鉛筆。曾幾何時(shí)，他們雄姿英發(fā)，氣概非凡，全國(guó)上下，無(wú)不贊嘆;現(xiàn)在，這種氣概不知到哪里去了。人們紛紛離開(kāi)城市，投奔農(nóng)村，但是無(wú)濟(jì)于事，農(nóng)村并不救世。農(nóng)產(chǎn)品價(jià)格過(guò)低，采摘得不償失，農(nóng)作物全都白白爛在地里;許多曾經(jīng)繁榮富足的農(nóng)場(chǎng)，因長(zhǎng)期拖欠抵押貸款，而被銀行沒(méi)收，憤怒的農(nóng)民欲奪回財(cái)產(chǎn)，但卻遭到了警方的阻攔。

　　這場(chǎng)劫難幾乎無(wú)人幸免。非洲裔美國(guó)人逃離了窮苦的南方農(nóng)村，在北方工廠找到了工作，。卻成為第一批被解雇的工人。墨西哥裔美國(guó)人曾大批涌入，以求取代歐洲移民，現(xiàn)在卻面臨與憤怒的本地公民競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的局面，這些美國(guó)人現(xiàn)在都愿意干卑微的農(nóng)活，或者去鋪設(shè)鐵軌。為了阻止墨西哥人跨過(guò)格蘭德河進(jìn)入美國(guó)，移民官員采取了各種手段，甚至將他們遣返回國(guó);20世紀(jì)30年代，將近五十萬(wàn)墨西哥人被驅(qū)逐出境，其中包括那些在美國(guó)生了孩子的家庭。

　　這場(chǎng)苦難中，窮人——無(wú)論黑人、棕種人還是白人——都幸存了下來(lái)，因?yàn)樗麄儽却蠖鄶?shù)美國(guó)人更懂得如何在貧困中生存。天氣寒冷時(shí)，他們呆在床上，既暖和也減少不必要的熱量消耗;他們用廢棄輪胎的橡膠碎片做鞋子，只在廚房里生火取暖，用別人不吃的菜皮殘?jiān)�果腹�?/P>

　　生活期望總是很高的中產(chǎn)階級(jí)，在大蕭條中也遭遇重創(chuàng)。專業(yè)人士和白領(lǐng)員工即使全家嗷嗷待哺，也不愿接受救濟(jì);一位紐約的牙醫(yī)和妻子開(kāi)煤氣自殺前，留下了這樣的字條，“與其被迫接受救濟(jì)，還不如離開(kāi)這個(gè)世界�！蹦切�無(wú)法按期支付按揭周供的人，先是失去了自己的房子，而后付不起房租，就給逐出門外。醫(yī)療條件也每況愈下。中產(chǎn)階級(jí)沒(méi)有現(xiàn)金預(yù)付門診費(fèi)用，不再定期看病。

　　大蕭條中，即便富人也深受影響，不得不放棄之前的許多奢華，眼巴巴地看著先前好友、生意伙伴一個(gè)個(gè)加入赤貧的行列，郁郁不樂(lè)，自責(zé)無(wú)力相助�！拔腋赣H在大蕭條中一無(wú)所有了”，成了輟學(xué)的大學(xué)生們?cè)偈煜げ贿^(guò)的口頭禪。

　　許多美國(guó)人輾轉(zhuǎn)流浪，尋找生計(jì)。男人，小孩，還有一些婦女，跳上貨車，沿鐵路四處尋找工作，冬天到南方，夏天到西部。僅密蘇里，太平洋鐵路沿線，流浪人數(shù)就從1929年的13000多增加到1931年的近20萬(wàn)。西南部的一個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)曾出動(dòng)特警，阻止流浪者下車。那些淪落流浪的人還得繼續(xù)流浪。在鐵路主干線沿途蔓生的游民露營(yíng)地，他們倒找到了一份歸屬。人們可以在這里找到地方吃住，也可以和同病相憐者互訴苦痛。黑人退伍軍人Louis Banks，在接受Studs Terkel采訪時(shí)，描述了這些臨時(shí)營(yíng)地的情形：黑人、白人，全都一樣，都窮到根了。大家住在一起，倒都很友好。我們支起大鍋燒飯，把卷心菜、肉和豆子放在一起煮。我們搭起帳篷，一起生活。二十五歲到三十歲的，不論白人黑人，都出去沿鐵路找活：他們沒(méi)有親人，也無(wú)家可歸，穿著工裝褲，一身油污，沒(méi)吃沒(méi)喝，啥都沒(méi)有。