看《参考消息》，学地道翻译（50）——福利院孤儿取名淡化政治色

《参考消息》2007年3月28日第15版：福利院孤儿取名淡化政治色彩　　
【英国《经济学家》周刊2007年3月24日文章】题：党的女儿：不同姓氏的孤儿

Party girl
Mar 22nd 2007 | BEIJING
From The Economist print edition

An orphan by any other name

（1）In much of China, children in state care are given unusual surnames that clearly identify them as orphans.Common choices are Dang meaning “party” (the Communist one, naturally), or Guo meaning “country” or “state”. Those saddled with these names face a lifetime of funny looks, or a bureaucratic quagmire[1] trying to change them.

In February last year, the north-eastern city of Dalian caused a nationwides_______①when it announced that it would no longer give all girl orphans the surname Dang and boys Guo. This had been the city's practice for 30 years, thel________②of an era when being called Comrade Party or Comrade State.

After the fanfare with which Dalian ditched[2] the Party/State naming system, others have been changing their policies too. （2）Early last year, the southern city of Guangzhou stopped giving its orphans the surname Guang and given names after the district where they were found.This year nearby Dongguan stopped calling its orphans Guan, the second character of its name. This followed a complaint about the naming system raised by an adviser to the city's legislature. In January the northern city of Taiyuan gave up its practice of calling all orphans Party.

But there are a few, at least, who still regard the names Party or State as badges of honour. Last year, on the 30th anniversary of an earthquake that killed perhaps 600,000 people in Tangshan, near Beijing, the official press reported (approvingly) that______________________________.（一名姓“党”的 地震 孤儿已经入党，她从未想过要改回自己原来的姓氏。）In February, the party chief of the southern city of Zhanjiang met a group of local orphans, all surnamed Guo. A photographer asked the name of one of them. “Guo Yuqun,” came the reply. Anxious to distinguish the surname from a more common one alsop________③Guo, the orphan went on: “that's Guo meaning state”. Proudly, of course.

NOTES:
[1]quagmire n.泥沼；困境
[2]ditch v.1 [I, Tn] land (an aircraft) in the sea in an emergency 使（飞行器）在海上紧急降落; 迫降: A sudden engine failure forced the pilot to ditch (in the Irish Sea). 由于发动机突然出现故障, 飞行员不得不（在爱尔兰海上）紧急降落.  2 [Tn] (infml 口) abandon (sb/sth); get rid of 抛弃（某人[某事物]）; 摆脱: I hear she's ditched her boy-friend, ie stopped seeing him. 听说她把男朋友给甩了. * When the road became impassable, we had to ditch the car and walk. 道路无法通行时, 我们只好弃车步行.  3 [I] make or repair ditches 挖沟; 修沟: hedging and ditching 筑篱和挖沟.

试一试：
1．根据首字母提示和译文，填入适当单词：
①caused a nationwides_______（在全国范围内引起了反响）（名词）
②thel________of an era when being called Comrade Party or Comrade State（这是从那个彼此间称呼“党同志”或“国同志”的时代继承下来的）（名词）
③distinguish the surname from a more common one alsop________Guo（同另一个更常见的同音字“郭”姓区别开来）（动词）

参考答案：①stir ②legacy  ③pronounced

2．翻译划线部分英文：

参考答案：
（1）在中国许多地方，国家（福利院）收养的孩子往往都有一个与众不同的姓氏，人们从姓氏中就一眼可以看出他或她是个孤儿。
（2）去年初，南方城市广州也停止了让孤儿姓“广”或按孤儿被发现的区给他们取名的做法。

3．根据译文，写出句子：

参考译文：a quake orphan surnamed Party had just joined the party and would not dream of changing her name to the one she was born with.（是不是您的翻译与原文相去甚远？这不奇怪，同一意思表达方式成千上万，只要您愿意尝试学习作者的用法，您就达到学习的目的了。）