Within the span of a hundred years, in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, a tide of emigration—one of the great folk wanderings of history—swept from Europe to America. 46) This movement, driven by powerful and diverse motivations, built a nation out of a wilderness and, by its nature, shaped the character and destiny of an uncharted continent.47) The United States is the product of two principal forces—the immigration of European peoples with their varied ideas, customs, and national characteristics and the impact of a new country which modified these traits. Of necessity, colonial America was a projection of Europe. Across the Atlantic came successive groups of Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Scots, Irishmen, Dutchmen, Swedes, and many others who attempted to transplant their habits and traditions to the new world. 48) But, the force of geographic conditions peculiar to America, the interplay of the varied national groups upon one another, and the sheer difficulty of maintainingold-world ways in a raw, new continent caused significant changes. These changes were gradual and at first scarcely visible. But the result was a new social pattern which, although it resembled European society in many ways, had a character that was distinctly American.49) The first shiploads of immigrants bound for the territory which is now the United States crossed the Atlantic more than a hundred years after the 15th- and16th-century explorations of North America. In the meantime, thriving Spanish colonies had been established in Mexico, the West Indies, and South America. These travelers to North America came in small, unmercifully overcrowded craft. During their six- to twelve-week voyage, they subsisted on barely enough food allotted to them. Many of the ship were lost in storms, many passengers died of disease, and infants rarely survived the journey. Sometimes storms blew the vessels far off their course, and often calm brought unbearably long delay.“To the anxious travelers the sight of the American shore brou ght almost inexpressible relief.” said one recorder of events, “The air at twelve leagues’ distance smelt as sweet as a new-blown garden.” The colonists’ first glimpse of the new land was a sight of dense woods. 50) The virgin forest with its richness and variety of trees was a veritable real treasure-house which extended from Maine all the way down to Georgia. Here was abundant fuel and lumber. Here was the raw material of houses and furniture, ships and potash, dyes and naval stores.思路：1.大致介绍文章主要内容2. 逐段介绍每段的主要内容→分析句子结构→指出翻译时需要注意的点→试译→整理译文→总结翻译技巧和需掌握的单词1. 本篇文章的主要内容：主要讲述了17-18世纪早期从欧洲到美洲的移民运动。
来自欧洲的各民族人民历尽艰险，漂洋过海来到美洲。
他们的到来给美洲带来了巨大变化和影响。
美洲资源丰富，欧洲移民对这片陆地充满期盼。
2. 文章的第一段主要点明了这次移民的时间以及这次运动的深远影响。
共两句话。
在17世纪到18世纪早期的一百年时间里，一次移民浪潮——一次史上伟大的民族迁徙——从欧洲席卷至美洲。
这句中有两个需要注意的单词，第一个是span，span的意思是“一段时间”；wandering的意思是“流浪、漂泊”。
接下来是划线的需要翻译的第一句，（46）This movement, driven by powerful and diversemotivations, built a nation out of a wilderness and, by its nature, shaped the character and destiny of an uncharted continent.先来分析句子结构，找出句子的主干。
句子的主干是This movement built a nation out of a wilderness and shaped the character and destiny of an uncharted continent. 剩下的部分d riven by powerful and diverse motivations和by its nature，是句子的状语，用来修饰整个句子。
我们试着翻译一下句子的主干——这次运动/这次迁徙在一片荒野之地建立了一个民族，塑造了这片未知大陆的特征，决定了它的命运。
之后再来翻译状语部分，driven by powerful and diverse motivations，意思是“受各种强大的动机的推动”，by its nature的意思是“在其本质上，就其本质而言”。
下一步需要将这两部分整合起来，润色译文，使译文读起来通顺流畅，符合汉语习惯。
这里需要将driven by powerful and diverse motivations这部分放到句子最前面，因为这部分是表示原因的。
而汉语中一般表示原因的句子在前面。
这个句子的译文参考：在各种强大的动机的推动下，这次运动在一片荒野之地建立了一个民族，并且就其本质而言，塑造了这片未知大陆的特征，决定了它的命运。
这句话需要注意的有以下几点：1）状语的翻译。
需要将其提前，放在句子最前面。
2）适当使用增译法，以使词语搭配合适。
这里的shape修饰character和destiny两个词，但“塑造”和“命运”一词搭配不当，所以需要增加一个与“命运”搭配的词，这里用了“决定”一词。
这段中需要掌握的单词有：1）wandering to move about without a definite destination or purpose 流浪，漫游2）uncharted (of an area of land or sea) not mapped or surveyed 未知的，未探索的3. 文章的第二段：第二段主要论述了美洲是一个大熔炉，融合了欧洲各国移民的不同思想、习俗、文化、传统习惯等。
美洲在各种力量的影响下，逐渐形成了自己鲜明的特色。
第二段一共六句。
开头第一句是主题句。
指出美国（合众国）是两种主要力量相互作用的产物。
破折号后面是对这两种力量的解释。
第二句和第三句对第一种力量进行了说明。
第四句以but开头，表示转折。
尽管欧洲各国移民努力用自己的风俗习惯去影响他人，但由于各种因素的影响，都使美洲发生了巨大的变化。
这些变化虽然看上去难觅踪迹，但实际上一种新的、具有美洲特色的社会模式已经慢慢形成了。
第47题，句子的主干是破折号前面的这部分。
破折号后面的部分作同位语，是对two principal forces的解释。
翻译的时候不需调整语序，直接翻译即可。
这句话句式较简单，需要注意的单词有2个：1）principal,主要的2）traits特征。
这句话的翻译如下：美国是两种主要力量相互作用的产物——一是具有不同思想、不同风俗和不同民族特征的欧洲各民族人民的迁入；二是改变了这些特征的新国家所产生的影响。
接下来，我们边读句子边对句子进行大概的解释。
“不可避免地，殖民地时期的美洲是欧洲的投影。