Question

BELJLNG — Eating at a Beijing restaurant is usually an adventure for foreigners, and particularly when they get the chance to order “chicken without sex life” or “red burned lion head”.

Sometimes excited but mostly confused, embarrassed or even terrified, many foreigners have long complained about mistranslations of Chinese dishes. And their complaints are often valid, but such an experience at Beijing’s restaurants will apparently soon be history.

Foreign visitors will no longer, hopefully, be confused by oddly worded restaurant menus in the capital if the government’s plan to correctly translate 3,000 Chinese dishes is a success and the translations are generally adopted.

The municipal（市政）office of foreign affairs has published a book to recommend English translations of Chinese dishes, which aims to help restaurants avoid bizarre translations. It provides the names of main dishes of famous Chinese cuisines in plain English, “an official with the city’s Foreign Affairs office said .” Restaurants are encouraged to use the proposed translations, but it will not be compulsory .“ It’s the city’s latest effort to bridge the culture gap for foreign travelers in China.

Coming up with precise translations is a daunting task, as some Chinese culinary（烹飪的）techniques are untranslatable and many Chinese dishes have no English-language equivalent. The translators, after conducting a study of Chinese restaurants in English-speaking countries, divided the dish names into four categories: ingredients, cooking method, taste and name of a person or a place. For some traditional dishes, pinyin, the Chinese phonetic system, is used, such as mapo tofu (previously often literally translated as “beancurd made by woman with freckles”), baozi (steamed stuffed bun ) and jiaozi (dumplings) to “reflect the Chinese cuisine culture,” according to the book.

“The book is a blessing to tourist guides like me. Having it, I don’t have to rack my brains trying to explain Chinese dishes to foreign travellers,” said Zheng Xiaodong, a 31- year – old employee with a Beijing-based travel agency.

“I will buy the book as I major in English literature and I’d like to introduce Chinese cuisine culture to more foreign friends,” said Han Yang, a postgraduate student at the University of International Business and Economics.

It is not clear if the book will be introduced to other parts of China. But on Tuesday, this was the most discussed topic on weibo.com, China’s most popular microblogging site.

1.What’s the best title of the passage?

A. An adventure for foreigners who eat in Beijing.

B. Confusing mistranslations of Chinese dishes

C. Chinese dishes to have “official” English names

D. The effort to bridge the culture gap

2.“chicken without sex life” or “red burned lion head” are mentioned in the beginning of the passage to show__________.

A. some Chinese dishes are not well received

B. some Chinese dishes are hard to translate

C. some Chinese dishes are mistranslated

D. some Chinese dishes are not acceptable

3.What measure has the municipal office taken?

A. Recommending a book on Chinese dishes

B. Advocating using precise translation for Chinese dishes

C. Publishing a book on China’s dietary habits

D. Providing the names of main Chinese dishes

4.What’s the meaning of the underlined word “daunting” in paragraph 5?

A. discouraging B. disappointing

C. confusing D. worthwhile

5.What’s the attitude of most people to the book according to the passage?

A. not clear B. excited

C. favorable D. divided

Answer 1

1.C

2.C

3.B

4.A

5.C

【解析】試題分析：本文由非同尋常的誤譯中國(guó)菜名開(kāi)篇，講述了誤譯中國(guó)菜名給外國(guó)友人帶來(lái)的諸多誤解。而政府也在積極解決由文化差異帶來(lái)的誤解。相繼出臺(tái)了相關(guān)政策和發(fā)布一本權(quán)威的菜名翻譯書(shū)。并且獲得了不同人的認(rèn)同。但是翻譯菜名仍然是一個(gè)巨大的工程，因?yàn)橛行┲袊?guó)的烹飪技術(shù)是無(wú)法翻譯的，還有一些在中國(guó)菜名在英文里沒(méi)有相對(duì)應(yīng)的單詞。

1.主旨大意題。文章開(kāi)頭就談到中國(guó)菜名的誤譯給外國(guó)友人帶來(lái)的驚訝和誤解等諸多不便，而政府也出臺(tái)了相關(guān)政策以及翻譯樣本，這些都是在解決一個(gè)問(wèn)題——如何翻譯中國(guó)菜。故選C。

2.細(xì)節(jié)理解題。定位到第二段第一句Sometimes excited but mostly confused, embarrassed or even terrified, many foreigners have long complained about mistranslations of Chinese dishes.“有時(shí)候面對(duì)這些菜名外國(guó)人會(huì)感到激動(dòng)更多時(shí)候是迷惑、尷尬和害怕。他們老早就抱怨對(duì)中國(guó)菜名的誤譯。”由此可見(jiàn)第一段提出的一些菜名是為了引出下文中外國(guó)人對(duì)中國(guó)菜名誤譯的態(tài)度。故選C。

3.事實(shí)理解題。定位到第四段。文中說(shuō)到市政府發(fā)布了一本中國(guó)菜名英譯的書(shū)就是為了避免錯(cuò)誤翻譯。同時(shí)一位外國(guó)事務(wù)所的官員說(shuō)Restaurants are encouraged to use the proposed translations, but it will not be compulsory .“ It’s the city’s latest effort to bridge the culture gap for foreign travelers in China.飯店應(yīng)該采取合適翻譯菜名，而這也是這個(gè)城市最近為文化差異搭起橋梁的舉措。故選B。

4.語(yǔ)義理解題。聯(lián)系下文as some Chinese culinary techniques are untranslatable and many Chinese dishes have no English-language equivalent.說(shuō)到，有些中國(guó)的烹飪技術(shù)是無(wú)法翻譯的，還有一些在中國(guó)菜名在英文里沒(méi)有相對(duì)應(yīng)的單詞。所以可知精確翻譯是一個(gè)令人沮喪，難以解決的問(wèn)題。故選A，discouraging“令人沮喪，令人氣妥的。”

5.推理判斷題。從六、七兩段的人物語(yǔ)言可看出，人們對(duì)這本書(shū)的態(tài)度是支持的。北京的一個(gè)導(dǎo)游認(rèn)為這本書(shū)是一個(gè)福音，因?yàn)樗�解決了導(dǎo)游在向外國(guó)游客解釋菜名時(shí)突然卡殼的尷尬。而做外貿(mào)經(jīng)濟(jì)的學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō)，他可以把這本書(shū)作為自己的英語(yǔ)教材，也可以送人等。故選C。

考點(diǎn)：考查議論文閱讀。