2012年广外高翻学院考研英译汉真题及参考答案 - 广外考研论坛（广东外语外贸大学考研网）前程校

The lives of most men are determined by their environment. They accept the circumstances amid which fate has thrown them not only with resignation but even with good will. The are like streetcars running contentedly on their rails and they despise the sprightly flitter that dashes in and out of the traffic and speeds so jauntily across the open country. I respect them; they are good citizens, good husbands, and good fathers, and of course somebody has to pay the taxes; but I do not find them exciting. I am fascinated by the men, few enough in all conscience, who take life in their own hands and seem to mould it to their own liking. It maybe that we have no such thing as free will, but at all events, we have the illusion of it. At a cross-road it does seems to us that we might go either to the right or the left, and the choice once made, it is difficult to see that the whole course of the world’s history obliged us to take the turning we did.

自己考完后没当回事，春节前坐在回家的火车上听MP3，无意中听到这么一段，回去后赶紧翻书（书名《英文诵典·每天都要读的名家散文》（中英对照+MP3）/风云英语策划中心栾桂凤编译---北京·化学工业出版社，2010.12），原来这是英国作家威廉. 萨默赛特.毛姆（William Somerset Maugham)的一篇小散文，参考译文如下：

大多数人的生活，都由他们所生活的环境决定。他们对于命运扔给的环境，不仅顺从而且还很乐意地接受。他们就像电车一样在既定的轨道上满足的驰骋，并且对那些敏捷地出没于车水马龙中、欢乐地奔跑于荒野上的廉价小车不屑一顾。我尊敬他们，因为他们是好人民、好父亲和好丈夫，当然总得有人来支付税收。但是，我并没有发现他们有令人兴奋之处。我为另一些人所深深吸引，他们将自己的命运掌握在自己手中，并且按其所好创造喜欢的生活，但这样的人毕竟是少数。也许，我们并没有所说的自由意志，但是不管怎样，我们总有那种幻想。在一个交叉口，对我们来说，我们可向左，可向右。但是一旦做了决定，我们却很难意识到，其实整个世界的历史进程迫使我们做出了这个改变。