新版《大学英语B》阅读理解参考译文2

cauedu

TEST 4
Passage 1
Community service is an important component of education here at our university. We encourage all students to volunteer for at least one community activity before they graduate. A new community program called “One On One” helps elementary students who’ve fallen behind. Your education majors might be especially interested in it because it offers the opportunity to do some teaching, that is, tutoring in math and English.
You’d have to volunteer two hours a week for one semester. You can choose to help a child with math, English, or both. Half-hour lessons are fine, so you could do a half hour of each subject two days a week.
Professor Dodge will act as a mentor to the tutors—he’ll be available to help you with lesson plans or to offer suggestions for activities. He has office hours every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. You can sign up for the program with him and begin the tutoring next week.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy this community service…
and you’ll gain valuable experience at the same time. It looks good on your resume, too, showing that you’ve had experience with children and that you care about your community. If you’d like to sign up, or if you have any questions, stop by Professor Dodge’s office this week. (220 words)

Passage 1社区服务是我们这里大学教育的一个重要组成部分。我们鼓励所有学生在毕业前至少参与一项社区的志愿者活动。最近有一个名为“1+1”的社区服务项目，该项目可以帮助到学业落后的低年级学生。你们的专业很可能与此有关，因为社区服务项目提供你参与教学的机会，比如辅导数学和英语。
社区服务要求至少有一个学期你每周要奉献出2小时。你可以选择辅导一个小学生的数学和英语，或其中的一门。如果你每次辅导数学和英语各花半小时的话，一周两次辅导正合适，刚好2个小时。
道奇教授将给这些从事社区服务的大学生当指导者，他会给你们提供许多建议，你们有授课计划方面的问题都可以找他帮助。道奇教授的办公时间是每周二和周四的下午。你们可以报名参加他的讲座，下周起就可开始社区的授课辅导。
我相信你们会喜欢上社区服务…同时能获得宝贵的经验。将来你们的简历上也会增添不少亮色，说明你有教育小学生的经历，关心社区。如果你们愿意报名或还有什么问题，欢迎各位本周前往道奇教授的办公室咨询。

Passage 2

When John and Victoria Falls arrived in New York City for one-year stay, they did not bring very many things with them. They had planned either to live in a furnished apartment or to buy used furniture. But they soon learned about a new system that more and more people are using. The renting of home furnishings (bed, tables, dishes, and so on) has become one of America’s fastest growing businesses.
What kinds of people rent their home furnishings instead of buying them? People who are international business or government officials, foreign students, airline workers, young married couple – people whose job or business may force them to move frequently from one city to another. They save a lot of trouble and the cost of moving their furniture each time. They simply rent new furniture when they reach their new homes. Young people with little money do not want to buy cheap furniture that they may soon dislike. They prefer to wait until they have enough money to buy furniture that they really like. Meanwhile, they find they can rent better quality furniture than they could afford to buy.
One family, who now have a large, beautiful home of their own, liked their rented furniture so much that they decided to keep renting it instead of buying new things. But usually people don’t like to tell others about it. The idea of renting home furnishings is still quite new, and they are not sure what their neighbors might think. (248words)

Passage 2 John和Victoria到了纽约并准备在那呆上1年，不过他们并没有随身带多少东西。他们打算要么住设施齐全的公寓，要么买一套新的家具。但是，他们很快了解到纽约越来越多的人体验着一种全新的方式----租家具。 家具租赁业是现在美国发展最快的行业。
什么样的人会租家具而不是买家具呢？跨国公司和政府的驻外人员、留学生、飞行工作人员、年轻夫妇----这些人的公司或工作常使他们在城市间迁移。租家具可以省却很多麻烦，也能省下不少钱。他们到达一处新家时通常只租新的家具。经济不宽裕的年轻夫妇一般不会买不喜欢的旧家具，他们宁可租新家具。他们喜欢在资金足够时去买真正心仪的新家具。同时他们发现，钱不够宽裕时，可以租到的家具要比买得起的家具质量上好许多。
有的家庭即使拥有属于自己的宽敞房子也愿意租用喜爱的家具，他们不急于去买。不过这一切他们是不会告诉别人的，因为租家具的思想还是比较新潮的，他们不知道邻居们对此会是如何看法。

Passage 3

Paper is one of the most important products ever invented by man. Wide spread use of written language would not have been possible without some cheap and practical material to write on. The invention of paper meant that more people could be educated because more books could be printed and distributed. Together with the printing press, paper provided an extremely important way to communicate knowledge.
How much paper do you use every year? Probably you cannot answer that question quickly. In 1990 the world’s use of paper was about one kilogram for each person a year. Now some countries use as much as 50 kilograms of paper for each person a year. Countries like the United States, England and Sweden use more paper than other countries.
Paper, like many other things that we use today, was first made in China. In Egypt and the West, paper was not very commonly used before the year 1400. The Egyptians wrote on a kind of material made of a water plant. Europeans used parchment for many hundreds of year. Parchment was very strong; it was made from the skin of certain young animals. We have learnt of the most important facts of European history from records that were kept on parchment. (208words)

Passage 3 纸是人类至今最重要的发明之一。要是没有廉价实用的材料可以书写，书面语言的广泛传播便不可能实现。纸的发明使大量书籍可以印刷发行，更多的人有机会接受教育。纸和印刷术成为了传播知识的特别重要的途径。
一个人每年要用掉多少纸张？你可能无法很快回答这个问题。1900年，世界的年人均用纸量是1公斤。现在有些国家这个数字已达50公斤。美国、英国和瑞典的用量还要多。
纸和其它许多东西一样，都是首先在中国发明的。在埃及和欧洲，直到1400年以后纸张才开始大量使用。之前埃及人是书写在一种由水生植物制造的材料上的。欧洲人则使用了几百年的养皮纸。羊皮纸非常坚韧，它是由年幼动物的皮做成的。我们所了解的欧洲历史很多是从羊皮纸上得来的。