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今天是小芳老师陪你精读外刊的第30天

难度指数7级（共8级）

读前想想，下面内容用英语怎么说？

1. 无聊的工作 2. 细微的 3. 成心的 4. 颠覆

第一步：泛读原文（盲听1遍，泛读1遍，对照文本听1遍）

Being a machine’s editor may sound depressing. For some translators, indeed it is. This can be seen the other way round, however. A human repeatedly translating identical formulae is in principle little different from a machine trained to do the same. Such work can be drudgery. Allowing the machine to do the easy bits—the chunks that are translated the same way, over and over—frees the translator to apply specialised linguistic and subject-matter knowledge, solving more intellectually satisfying problems.

What are those problems? One Madrid-based translator for a big law firm describes some recent tasks. One was finding a cultural example to replace a reference to a short story that is famous in Spain but little-known to English-speakers. Another involved catching a fairly fine-grained but critical distinction: a Spanish word (dolo) that is properly translated as “wilful misconduct”, but which was translated only as “malice” by software. Since the law in question considerably magnifies penalties when the misconduct is “wilful”, the omission was potentially disastrous—and could only have been caught by someone with the right combination of legal and linguistic nous.

That technology has upended translation is well-known. Many translators have been silently (and guiltily) relying on computers for years. What is newer is the willingness of translation firms, and individual translators, to be out and proud about using MT, not as a crutch but as a means to cut costs and turnaround times. Part of the job becomes knowing what can be automated and what cannot. Invoices and instruction manuals can be left to MT. Ditto, for the most part, contracts, which have lots of boilerplate language, so long as a human makes sure that slips like the dolo case above are avoided. A novel legal argument, says the translator in Madrid, needs to be almost entirely translated by hand.

This is not doable by someone who merely knows Spanish and English and took a few translation classes. The bad news for some translators is that a spigot of repeatable, easy work is being turned off. The good news is that what remains will be brain-challenging stuff for people who have a knowledge of a language and something else.

Tales of artificial intelligence usually pit humans against encroaching machines, “Terminator”-style. But the translators of the future will be neither entirely human nor machine. They will be human beings with mechanical enhancements. Call them cyborgs.

第二步：精读原文（精读1遍，对照文本听1遍，精读1遍）

读原文（精读1遍，对照文本听1遍）

01

Being a machine’s editor may sound depressing. For some translators, indeed it is. This can be seen the other way round, however. A human repeatedly translating identical formulae is in principle little different from a machine trained to do the same. Such work can bedrudgery. Allowing the machine to do the easy bits—the chunks that are translated the same way, over and over—frees the translator to apply specialised linguistic and subject-matter knowledge, solving more intellectually satisfying problems.

1.drudgery: 无聊的工作；You use drudgery to refer to jobs and tasks which are boring or unpleasant but which must be done. E.g. People want to get away from the drudgery of their everyday lives. 人们想摆脱日常生活中单调乏味的工作。

2. 句型理解：Allowing the machine to do the easy bits—the chunks that are translated the same way, over and over—freesthe translator to apply specialised linguistic and subject-matter knowledge, solving more intellectually satisfying problems. 黑体短句为动名词引导的主语，斜体为同位语，指代the easy bits, free为位于动词。

翻译：做一个机器的编辑，听起来可能很令人沮丧。对某些译者来说，确实如此。不过，这也可以反过来看。一个人重复翻译相同的公式，原则上与训练有素的机器没什么区别。这种工作可能是苦差事。让机器做简单的部分--以同样的方式反复翻译的部分--使译者可以运用专门的语言和主题知识，解决更多智力上令人满意的问题。

02

What are those problems? One Madrid-based translator for a big law firm describes some recent tasks. One was finding a cultural example to replace a reference to a short story that is famous in Spain but little-known to English-speakers. Another involved catching a fairlyfine-grainedbut criticaldistinction: a Spanish word (dolo) that is properly translated as “wilfulmisconduct”, but which was translated only as “malice” by software. Since the law in question considerablymagnifiespenalties when the misconduct is “wilful”, the omission was potentially disastrous—and could only have been caught by someone with the right combination of legal and linguistic nous.

1.fine-grained: 细微的，

2.distinction: 对比, distinctions between traditional and modern societies 传统社会和现代社会的差别

3.wilful: 成心的：wilful damage m蓄意破坏

4.magnify: ify 是动词后缀，to make (something) greater

翻译：这些问题是什么？一位在马德里为一家大型律师事务所工作的译员描述了最近的一些任务。其中一项任务是找到一个文化实例，以取代对一个在西班牙很有名但对英语使用者来说鲜为人知的短篇小说的引用。另一项任务是抓住一个相当细微但关键的区别：一个西班牙语单词（dolo）被正确地翻译为 "故意的不当行为"，但在软件中只被翻译为 "恶意"。由于有关法律在不当行为是 "故意 "的情况下会大大加重处罚，这一遗漏可能是灾难性的--只有具有正确的法律和语言学知识组合的人才能发现。

03

That technology hasupendedtranslation is well-known. Many translators have been silently (and guiltily) relying on computers for years. What is newer is the willingness of translation firms, and individual translators, to be out and proud about using MT, not as acrutchbut as a means to cut costs and turnaround times. Part of the job becomes knowing what can be automated and what cannot. Invoices and instruction manuals can be left toMT.Ditto, for the most part, contracts, which have lots ofboilerplatelanguage, so long as a human makes sure that slips like the dolo case above are avoided. A novel legal argument, says the translator in Madrid, needs to be almost entirely translated by hand.

1.upended: 颠覆, e.g. Their lives have been upended, and this is far from over. 他们的生活已经天翻地覆，但这种情况远未结束。

2.crutch: 拐杖

3.MT: 机器翻译

4.Ditto: 同上，Local residents are opposed to the proposal. Ditto many members of the council (= They are also). 当地居民反对这个提案，很多议会议员也是如此。

5.boilerplate: 文件范例

翻译：技术已经颠覆了翻译，这是众所周知的。多年来，许多译员一直默默地（和内疚地）依赖计算机。较新的是，翻译公司和个别译员愿意公开和自豪地使用MT，而不是作为一个拐杖，而是作为削减成本和周转时间的一种手段。工作的一部分变成了知道什么可以自动化，什么不能。发票和说明手册可以留给机器翻译。在大多数情况下，合同也是如此，其中有很多模板语言，只要有一个人确保避免像上面的dolo案例那样的失误。马德里的翻译说，一个新颖的法律论据，几乎需要完全由手工翻译。

04

This is not doable by someone who merely knows Spanish and English and took a few translation classes. The bad news for some translators is that aspigotof repeatable, easy work is being turned off. The good news is that what remains will be brain-challenging stuff for people who have a knowledge of a language and something else.

1.spigot: a tap , especially on the outside of a building（尤指室外的）水龙头，这里指开关，源头。

翻译：这不是一个仅仅懂得西班牙语和英语并上过一些翻译课的人可以做到的。对一些译员来说，坏消息是，一个可重复的、容易的工作的源头正在被关闭。好消息是，剩下的将是对那些有语言知识和其他知识的人的大脑挑战。

05

Tales of artificial intelligence usually pit humans againstencroaching machines, “Terminator”-style. But the translators of the future will be neither entirely human nor machine. They will be human beings with mechanical enhancements. Call themcyborgs.

1.encroach: 侵蚀，蚕食(土地), e.g. The growing town soon encroached on the surrounding countryside. 这个不断扩大的城市不久便将周围的农村变成了市区。

2.cyborgs: 半人半机器的生物

翻译：人工智能的故事通常是以人类对抗入侵的机器，"终结者 "式的。但是，未来的翻译员既不完全是人，也不完全是机器。他们将是具有机械增强功能的人类。称他们为电子人。

第三步：阅读双语文章

上下滑动阅读双语全文

Being a machine’s editor may sound depressing. For some translators, indeed it is. This can be seen the other way round, however. A human repeatedly translating identical formulae is in principle little different from a machine trained to do the same. Such work can be drudgery. Allowing the machine to do the easy bits—the chunks that are translated the same way, over and over—frees the translator to apply specialised linguistic and subject-matter knowledge, solving more intellectually satisfying problems.

做一个机器的编辑，听起来可能很令人沮丧。对某些译者来说，确实如此。不过，这也可以反过来看。一个人重复翻译相同的公式，原则上与训练有素的机器没什么区别。这种工作可能是苦差事。让机器做简单的部分--以同样的方式反复翻译的部分--使译者可以运用专门的语言和主题知识，解决更多智力上令人满意的问题。

What are those problems? One Madrid-based translator for a big law firm describes some recent tasks. One was finding a cultural example to replace a reference to a short story that is famous in Spain but little-known to English-speakers. Another involved catching a fairly fine-grained but critical distinction: a Spanish word (dolo) that is properly translated as “wilful misconduct”, but which was translated only as “malice” by software. Since the law in question considerably magnifies penalties when the misconduct is “wilful”, the omission was potentially disastrous—and could only have been caught by someone with the right combination of legal and linguistic nous.

这些问题是什么？一位在马德里为一家大型律师事务所工作的译员描述了最近的一些任务。其中一项任务是找到一个文化实例，以取代对一个在西班牙很有名但对英语使用者来说鲜为人知的短篇小说的引用。另一项任务是抓住一个相当细微但关键的区别：一个西班牙语单词（dolo）被正确地翻译为 "故意的不当行为"，但在软件中只被翻译为 "恶意"。由于有关法律在不当行为是 "故意 "的情况下会大大加重处罚，这一遗漏可能是灾难性的--只有具有正确的法律和语言学知识组合的人才能发现。

That technology has upended translation is well-known. Many translators have been silently (and guiltily) relying on computers for years. What is newer is the willingness of translation firms, and individual translators, to be out and proud about using MT, not as a crutch but as a means to cut costs and turnaround times. Part of the job becomes knowing what can be automated and what cannot. Invoices and instruction manuals can be left to MT. Ditto, for the most part, contracts, which have lots of boilerplate language, so long as a human makes sure that slips like the dolo case above are avoided. A novel legal argument, says the translator in Madrid, needs to be almost entirely translated by hand.

技术已经颠覆了翻译，这是众所周知的。多年来，许多译员一直默默地（和内疚地）依赖计算机。较新的是，翻译公司和个别译员愿意公开和自豪地使用MT，而不是作为一个拐杖，而是作为削减成本和周转时间的一种手段。工作的一部分变成了知道什么可以自动化，什么不能。发票和说明手册可以留给MT。在大多数情况下，合同也是如此，其中有很多模板语言，只要有一个人确保避免像上面的dolo案例那样的失误。马德里的翻译说，一个新颖的法律论据，几乎需要完全由手工翻译。

This is not doable by someone who merely knows Spanish and English and took a few translation classes. The bad news for some translators is that a spigot of repeatable, easy work is being turned off. The good news is that what remains will be brain-challenging stuff for people who have a knowledge of a language and something else.

这不是一个仅仅懂得西班牙语和英语并上过一些翻译课的人可以做到的。对一些译员来说，坏消息是，一个可重复的、容易的工作的源头正在被关闭。好消息是，剩下的将是对那些有语言知识和其他知识的人的大脑挑战。

Tales of artificial intelligence usually pit humans against encroaching machines, “Terminator”-style. But the translators of the future will be neither entirely human nor machine. They will be human beings with mechanical enhancements. Call them cyborgs.

人工智能的故事通常是以人类对抗入侵的机器，"终结者 "式的。但是，未来的翻译员既不完全是人，也不完全是机器。他们将是具有机械增强功能的人类。称他们为电子人。

第三步：回答问题（评论区回答问题）

Reading Questions：

1. What does “the easy bit” in paragraph one refer to?

2. What kinds of materials can be left to machine translation?

3. What will the translators of the future be called?

滑动查看答案

Q1

The chunks that are translated the same way, over and over.

Q2

Invoices and instruction manuals and contracts.

Q3

cyborgs.

今天是小芳老师陪你精读外刊的第30天

检查一下，你学到了吗？

1. drudgery: 无聊的工作 2. fine-grained: 细微的 3. wilful: 成心的 4. upended: 颠覆

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