城市对人类生活的重要性及面临的问题 ——1987年英译汉及详解 Have there always been cities?【F1】Life without large urban areas may seem inconceivable to us, b

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问题 城市对人类生活的重要性及面临的问题
——1987年英译汉及详解
Have there always been cities?【F1】Life without large urban areas may seem inconceivable to us, but actually cities are relatively recent development. Groups with primitive economics still manage without them. The trend, however, is for such groups to disappear, while cities are increasingly becoming the dominant mode of man’s social existence.【F2】Historically, city life has always been among the elements which form a civilization. Any high degree of human endeavor and achievement has been closely linked to life in an urban environment.【F3】It is virtually impossible to imagine that universities, hospitals, large businesses or even science and technology could have come into being without cities to support them. To most people, cities have traditionally been the areas where there was a concentration of culture as well as of opportunity.【F4】In recent years, however, people have begun to become aware that cities are also areas where there is a concentration of problems. What has happened to the modern American city? Actually, the problem is not such a new one. Long before this century started, there had begun a trend toward the concentration of the poor of the American society into the cities. Each great wave of immigration from abroad and from the rural areas made the problem worse. During this century, there has also been the development of large suburban areas surrounding the cities, for the rich prefer to live in these areas. Within the cities, sections may be sharply divided into high and low rent districts, the "right side of town" and the slums.
Of course, everyone wants to do something about this unhappy situation. But there is no agreement as to goals. Neither is there any systematic approach or integrated program. Opinions are as diverse as the people who give them.【F5】But one basic difference of opinion concerns the question of whether or not the city as such is to be preserved. Perhaps transportation and the means of communication have really made it possible for there to be an end to the big cities. Of course, there is the problem of persuading people to move out of them of their own free will.【F6】And there is also the objection that the city has always been the core from which cultural advancement has radiated. Is this, however, still the case today in the presence of easy transportation and communication? Does culture arise as a result of people living together communally, or is it too the result of decisions made at the level of government and the communications industry?
It is probably true to say that most people prefer to preserve the cities. Some think that the cities could be cleaned up or totally rebuilt. This is easy to say; it would not be so easy to do.【F7】To be sure, a great rebuilding project would give jobs to many of those people who need them. Living conditions could not help but improve, at least for a while. But would the problems return after the rebuilding was completed?
Nevertheless, with the majority of the people living in urban areas, the problem of the cities must be solved.【F8】From agreement on this general goal, we have, unfortunately, in the past proceeded to disagreement on specific goals, and from there to total inaction. At the basis of much of this inaction is an old-fashioned concept—the idea human conditions will naturally tend to regulate themselves for the general goal.
【F1】

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答案对我们来说,生活中要是缺乏广大的城市区域似乎是不可想象的,但实际上城市还是相对近期才发展起来的。

解析 本句考查的重点是:but连接的两个并列分句的译法。 前一个分句的主干是:Life…may seem inconceivable…,其中,介词短语without large urban areas作Life的后置定语,inconceivable可译为“不可思议的,不可想象的”。后一个分句是一个主系表结构,表语中心语是名词development,翻译时可以活译为动词词性。
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