★ They do not advocate pragmatism. 他们不主张实事求是。 此句不能译作:“他们不搞实用主义”,如要表达此意, 可说:They will not base their policies on expediency. 在现代英语中,有一批数量相当可观的词语,它们宛如“时髦服装”一样, 人们在社会交际时争相使用,因而被称之为“时髦词”(vogue words)。 有时候,因为用得太多太滥,造成了误用或误解。例如,pragmatism原为哲学用语, 是“实用主义”之意,后来,人们把这个词用作“实事求是”的意思, 相当于matter-of-factness。又如I feel guiliy并不是“我感到有罪”, 而是“我感到过意不去”。How goes the enemy?不是“敌人怎样了?” 而是“现在几点钟啦?”guilty和enemy在这里也是“时髦词”。
下面请看几个类例: It is technically legal. 它看来合法,其实不然。 (technically不作“从技术的角度看”解, 而是表示“从表面看”之义,相当于outwardly或superficially) Hopefully,we will get to the show on time. 运气好的话,我们可以赶上开演。 Their opposition put him on the spot. 他们的反对使他陷于困境。 I have no use for films like that. 我不喜欢那样的电影。 My mother had a time trying to get my younger sister to bed. 我妈妈花了好大的劲才把妹妹哄到床上去睡觉。 Our delegation is made up of twenty people from a wide spectrum of professions. 我们的代表团由各种不同职业的二十名成员组成。 在现代英语中,有些“时髦词”昙花一现就夭折了,但亦有一些词语, 由于符合人们交往和表达的需要而具有旺盛的生命力,现已被收录在各类词典中。 常见的“时髦词”有:abrasive,aspect,background,balance,calibre, catalyst,capacity,complex,compound,escalate,expertice,facility, field,function,input,interface, involvement,level,marginal, optimiscally,parameter,pattern,pragmatic,psychological,realistic, reasonable,scenario,spectrum等。遇到这些词,我们往往需要根据上下文才能猜出其义。 现在请读者想一下reasonable,input和calibre在下列三个句子中的涵义: We will arrive home at a reasonable hour. They need your input. A lot of educators in Hong Kong have warned of a decline in the calibre of students entering the Colleges of Education. |