More Chinese are preferring to late marriage, with an increasing number tying the knot after reaching 25, according to statistics issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Wednesday.The number of Chinese getting married between 20 and 24 years old made up the largest proportion, accounting for 35.5 percent of last year's total marriage registrations. The figure has decreased by about 1.1 percentage points annually. Meanwhile, the 25-29 age bracket saw an increasing number of marriage registrations last year, up by 0.8 percentage points from the previous year to 34.2 percent.The legal age for marriage in China is 22 for males and 20 for females.文中的late marriage就是“晚婚”的意思,也可以说成是marry at a late age。
类似的表达法还有late arrival 迟到、晚点;late spring 晚春;late work 晚期作品;the late 19th century 十九世纪末;late payment 逾期付款;late hour 深更半夜。
此外,文中还有一些表达法值得一学。
第一段的tie the knot为习惯用法,意思是“结婚”、“喜结良缘”;the Ministry of Civil Affairs 民政部;还有第二段的marriage registration意思是“结婚登记”。
More than 60 million students and teachers at China's 80,000 middle schools experienced a space lesson by China's first teacher in space from more than 300 kilometers above Earth's surface on Thursday.Female astronaut Wang Yaping carried out fundamental physics experiments onboard the orbiting Tiangong-1 space module. She interacted with more than 330 students who gathered at a classroom of the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China in Beijing.文中的space lesson就是“太空授课”的意思了。
lesson就是“一节课”的意思,与之搭配的常见动词词组有:attend a lesson 去上课;conduct a lesson 授一堂课(=give a lesson);have a lesson 有课(要上);prepare a lesson 备课;receive a lesson 上(某人的)课;skip a lesson 逃课。
lesson还有“教训”、“经验”的意思,如absorb lessons 吸取经验(=draw lessons);give somebody a lesson 给某人一个教训等。
Tourists at a beach in Sanya City were accused of contributing to the death of a stranded dolphin by mistreating it, lifting it out of the water and posing with it in photographs that were posted to theInternet.Online pictures do not show anyone trying to stop the abuse.Angry netizens condemned them for using a dolphin as a photography prop.Some netizens said it shows Chinese tourists' uncivilized habits.文中“stranded”是搁浅的意思,引申为“处于困境的”,如the stranded passengers 滞留的旅客。
文中netizen译为“网民”,是net(网)和citizen(市民)组合而成的新兴词汇,类似的表达有sitcom 情景喜剧(situation 情景+ comedy 喜剧),brunch 早中饭(breakfast 早饭+ lunch 午饭)和medicare 医疗保健(medical 医疗+ care 保健)等。
Factories in Nanchang county in Jiangxi were the main source of "the toxic preserved eggs incident" and 30 companies have been closed by authorities since the discovery. Other factories are still undergoing investigation.Preserved eggs generally take about two months to create, using baking soda, salt, and quicklime.The plants were guilty of adding industrial copper sulphate to the eggs to speed up the production schedule, halving the time to a month.文中"preserved egg"即是皮蛋的意思,也可以表达为"preserved duck egg", 或者"thousand-year egg"。
其中preserved可译为“腌制的”,如preserved food (腌制食品),类似的表达还有smoked (烟熏的),salted (盐腌的),canned (罐装的)等。
文中的“copper sulphate”译为硫酸铜,这些企业采用的是工业级别的原料,根本无法用于食品生产。
By this month, 180 dining spots in Shanghai's central Jing'an District had signed up for the "White-Collar Lunch" project, accordingto the Jing'an District Commercial Commission.It aims to provide affordable meals, priced at around 20 to 30 yuan on average, for the district's 200,000 white-collar workers and create business opportunities for restaurants facing a tough operating environment.According to the Ministry of Commerce, during the first quarter of this year the high-end dining industry in Shanghai saw a 20 percent fall in revenue, while Beijing's has witnessed a 35 percent drop.“white-collar lunch”解释为白领午餐,旨在为白领提供平价的午餐。
“sign up for”解释为报名参加,又如:sign up for training 报名参加培训、sign sb. up for 给某人报名。
“affordable”是形容词,解释为支付得起的、不太昂贵的。
例如:affordable fees 平价收费、affordable products 价格实惠的产品。
A widely circulated series of photos of aspiring beauty queens reveals once again just how obsessed Korean women are with plastic surgery.All of the contestants have dark, long hair; fair, pale skin; big eyes and a perfect, bright white smile. Their faces are oval with sharp, pointed chins that seem to have undergone a certain procedure called "V-line surgery".The photos may be the result of Photoshop, but they still show that the contemporary concept of female beauty in South Korea is highly monotonous and conforms to a single ideal.“plastic surgery”解释为整容,也可以说成是cosmetic surgery。