Some comparisons are stark enough to generate a national inferiority complex

游客2023-12-09  21

问题     Some comparisons are stark enough to generate a national inferiority complex. In 1980, India had about 687m people, 300m fewer than China. Living standards, as measured by purchasing power per head, were roughly the same. Then, as China embraced modernity with a sometimes ugly but burning passion, it left India behind; in the next 21 years, India outperformed its neighbor in almost nothing but population growth.
    By 2001, India had 1,033m people against China’s 1,272m. But China’s national income per head, according to the World Bank, was $890, nearly double India’s $450. Adjusted for purchasing power, the Chinese were still 70% wealthier than Indians were. Some 5% of Chinese now live below the national poverty line, compared with 29% of Indians.
    Many Indians now often ask why the West is so obsessed with China’s economic success, but the obsession is India’s, too. Comparison with China has become a distorting mirror in which Indians see their country’s shortcomings grotesquely magnified. The same goes for India’s sense of geopolitical inferiority. An accident of history made China one of the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council, but that seat now seems to belong to it as of right. India, feeling it should have one too, is just one of a number of big countries with a claim, and laments its comparative geopolitical weakness.

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答案     在1980年,印度有大约6.87亿人口,比中国少3亿,两个国家的生活水平,按人均购买力来算的话基本相同。随之,中国凭着一种燃烧的激情——这种激情有时丑态尽现——进行现代化建设,将印度抛在了后面;而在接下来的21年中,印度除了在人口增长方面超过中国外,几乎就没有什么能超过中国。
    到2001年,印度人口达到10.33亿,中国有12.72亿,但是根据世界银行统计,中国的人均国民收入是890美元,是印度450美元的近两倍。按购买力计算,中国人的富裕度仍比印度人高出70%。目前大约只有5%的中国人生活在国家贫困线以下,而这一比例在印度高达29%。
    许多印度人常常想不通为什么中国的经济成就如此困扰西方人,但印度人自己何尝不是这样,与中国的比较已经成为一面哈哈镜,透过它印度人看到自己国家的缺点被荒诞般放大了。

解析 1、本段对比中国和印度的人口及经济发展情况,准确翻译数字和常用经济术语是做好
本篇翻译的首要任务。
2、第2段第1、2句为转折关系,故可译为一句话;against是介词,意为in contrast to;另外,在翻译million时,若以“亿”为单位,只需将小数点前移两位,如1,033m和1,272m分别译为10.33亿和12.72亿。
3第2段第3句的adjusted for purchasing power为过去分词短语作状语,意为“按购买力计算”。
4第3段首句的but the obsession is India’s,too意为but India is obsessed with China’s economic success,too;be obsessed with意为“受…困扰”,翻译时转换成了主动语态。
5、第3段末句中的grotesquely的词义可由a distorting mirror“哈哈镜”推断出,grotesquely一词意为“荒唐地,荒诞地”。
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