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  3. If it were a country, California would be one with more people than Canada and an economy the size of China’s. Its scientists sh

If it were a country, California would be one with more people than Canada and an economy the size of China’s. Its scientists sh

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问题     If it were a country, California would be one with more people than Canada and an economy the size of China’s. Its scientists shoot, with their rockets, for the moon; its films spread Hollywood’s culture around the globe; its athletes break world records; even its wines now rank with the best of France’s. Somehow, it is always at the cutting edge, be it in the flower-power days of the 1960s or the dotcom boom of the 1990s. As Kevin Starr points out in his history of the state, California has long been "one of the prisms through which the American people, for better and for worse, could glimpse their future".
    Mr. Starr is too good a historian to offer any pat explanation; instead, he concentrates on the extraordinary array of people and events that have led from the mythical land of Queen Calafia, through the rule of Spain and Mexico, and on to the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Moreover, he does so with such elegance and humor that his book is a joy to read.
    What emerges is not all Californian sunshine and light. Think back to the savage violence that accompanied the 1849 Gold Rush; or to the exclusion orders against the Chinese; or to the riots that regularly marked industrial and social relations in San Francisco. California, it should be remembered, was very much the wild west, having to wait until 1850 before it could force its way to statehood.
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答案 如果加利福尼亚是一个国家，那么它将是一个人口超过加拿大、经济规模与中国相当的强国。它的科学家们将火箭发射到了月球，它的电影将好莱坞文化传播到全世界，它的运动健儿打破了世界纪录，甚至它出产的美酒现在都可以与法国的顶级佳酿并驾齐驱了。不知何故，加州总是处在风口浪尖，不管是在20世纪60年代的“嬉皮士运动”中，还是在90年代的互联网经济热潮里。正如凯文?斯塔在他为加州撰写的历史中所指出的那样，长期以来，“加州一直像一个棱镜，透过它，美国人可以瞥见自己的未来，无论好坏。” 作为优秀的历史学家，斯塔先生对这一说法不会急于做出解释，相反，他将笔墨集中在那些特别的历史事件和人物的叙述和描写上：从黑人女王加利菲娅管辖下的这块神奇土地开始，到西班牙和墨西哥人的统治，再到今天阿诺德?施瓦辛格治理下的州政府。
解析 1、本段语言生动，句式及用词都比较典雅，透彻理解原文，处理好富有时代特征和文化内涵的词语对译好本段文字非常重要。
2、首段第1句的If it were a country，California would be one．．．是虚拟条件句，表示与现在事实相反的一种假设，从句中be动词通常用were。
3、首段第2句中四个分句构成排比结构，突出了表达效果，译文中同样需要使用排比结构，以保持原文排比修辞格所构成的语势。
4、首段第3句后半句结构为“be+主语+表语+or+表语”相当于whether．．．or．．．引导的让步状语从句，例如：Be he friend or enemy，the law regards him as a criminal．(不管他是朋友还是敌人，根据法律他是个罪犯。)flower-power days of the 1960s译为“20世纪60年代的‘嬉皮士运动’”，其中flower power通常译为“权力归花儿”，系20世纪60年代美国嬉皮士使用的口号，主张通过爱情和非暴力实现社会改革；the dotcomboom of the 1990s中，boom意为“经济的繁荣昌盛”。
5、首段末句中，prism意为“棱镜”；习语for better and for worse意为“无论好坏，不管结果如何”，为副词短语作状语，修饰整个定语从句。
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