历年专八英译汉翻译真题1995I, by comparison, living in my overpriced city apartment, walking to work past putrid sacks of street garbage, paying usurious taxes to local and state governments I generally abhor, I am rated middle class. This causes me to wonder, do the measurement make sense? Are we measuring only that which is easily measured--- the numbers on the money chart --- and ignoring values more central to the good life?For my sons there is of course the rural bounty of fresh-grown vegetables, line-caught fish and the shared riches of neighbours’ orchards and gardens. There is the unpaid baby-sitter for whose children my daughter-in-law baby-sits in return, and neighbours who barter their skills and labour. But more than that, how do you measure serenity? Sense if self?I don’t want to idealize life in small places. There are times when the outside world intrudes brutally, as when the cost of gasoline goes up or developers cast their eyes on untouched farmland. There are cruelties, there is intolerance, there are all the many vices and meannesses in small places that exist in large cities. Furthermore, it is harder to ignore them when they cannot be banished psychologically to another part of town or excused as the whims of alien groups --- when they have to be acknowledged as “part of us.”Nor do I want to belittle the opportunities for small decencies in cities --- the eruptions of one-stranger-to-another caring that always surprise and delight. But these are,sadly,more exceptions than rules and are often overwhelmed by the awful corruptions and dangers that surround us.对我的几个儿子来说，乡村当然有充足的新鲜蔬菜，垂钓来的鱼，邻里菜园和果园里可供分享的丰盛瓜果。
乡下有不用付报酬便可请来照看孩子的邻居，作为回报，我儿媳也帮着照看其孩子。
乡邻之间互相交换技能和劳动。
但比之更重要的是，你如何来衡量那静谧与安详？如何来衡量自我价值呢？我无意将小地方的生活理想化。
因为有时外面的世界会无情地侵入：比如汽油价格上涨，开发商把眼睛盯住尚未开发的农田；那里充斥着凶残和偏狭，大城市的种种卑劣行径，小地方也一应俱全。
不仅如此，当人们无法自欺欺人地硬把那些丑恶现象想象成只是小地方的一小部分或将它们解释为异乡人的为所欲为，而又不得不承认这一切是我们的一部分时，就更难以忽视它们。
1996It should have been easy. They were battle-tested veterans with long ties to Reagan and even longer ties to the Republican party, men who understood presidential politics as well as any in the country. The backdrop of the campaign was hospitable, with lots of good news to work with: America was at peace, and the nation’s economy, a key factor in any election, was rebounding vigorously after recession. Furthermore, the campaign itself was lavishly financed, with plenty of money for a top-flight staff, travel, and television commercials. And, most important, their candidate was Ronald Reagan, a president of tremendous personal popularity and dazzling communication skills. Reagan has succeed more than any president since John F. Kennedy in projecting a broad vision of America – a nation of renewed military strength, individual initiative, and smaller federal government.这应该不是件难事。
这都是些跟着里根多年、久经沙场的老将，他们跟共和党则有更深厚的渊源，是这个国家里最熟悉总统政治的人。
竞选的背景也很有利，也很多好消息可供炒作。
例如，美国上下一片和平，美国经济这一竞选要素也在经过一段时间的衰退之后开始强劲反弹。
此外，这次竞选本身得到了慷慨资助，因此有充裕的资用于组织一流的竞选班子、支付巡回演讲和电视广告的费用。
而最重要的一点是，他们的候选人是罗纳德·里根，他可是位极具个人魅力和沟通技巧的总统。
自约翰·F·肯尼迪总统以来，里根是最成功地勾勒出美国蓝图的总统：一个军事力量复兴、富有个人进取心、联邦政府得以精简的国家。
1997年:English to ChineseOpera is expensive: that much is inevitable. But expensive things are inevitably the province（范围）of the rich unless we abdicate（退位、放弃）society’s power of choice. We can choose to make opera and other expensive forms of culture, accessible（易接近的，可达到的）to those who cannot individually pay for it. The question is: why should we? No body denies the imperatives（必要的）of food, shelter, defence, health and education. But even in a prehistoric cave, man-kind stretched out a hand of not just to eat, drink or fight, but also to draw. The impulse（冲动）towards culture, the desire to express and explore the world through imagination and representation（表述、陈述）is fundamental. In Europe, this desire has found fulfillment（完成、成就）in the masterpieces of our music, art, literature and theatre. These masterpieces are the touchstones（标准、试金石）for all our efforts; they are the touchstones for the possibilities to which human thought and imagination may aspire（立志、追求目标、渴望）; they carry the most profound （深厚的、深刻的）messages that can be sent from one human to another.译文1：欣赏歌剧是一种奢侈：你必须为此支付昂贵的票价。
然而，享用昂贵的东西并不完全是富人的特权，除非我们放弃社会选择的权利。
我们有权利使歌剧和其他昂贵的文化形式面向大众，面向那些个人没有支付能力的人。
然而，问题是我们为什么要这么做。
没有人会否认食物、居所、防护、健康与教育是不可或缺的。
但是，即使在史前的穴居时代，人们伸出手来，也不仅仅是为了吃喝，为了搏杀，而且还有一个目的，那就是动手作画。
人们对文化的冲动，即人们希望通过想象和再现来表现并探索这个世界的愿望，才是最根本的。
在欧洲，人们通过音乐、美术、文学和戏剧等方面的不朽作品的创作，实现了这一愿望。