Sentence 55

英文原文：

Many signals that animals make seem to impose on the signalers costs that are overly damaging.

TPO-11(2006.12.8):Begging by Nestlings

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参考翻译：

动物发出的许多信号可能会给信号发出者（动物自身）施加极大的伤害。

知识点小结：

本句话的难点在于如何分清楚各个成分。

1．句子的主语是“Many signals”，后面的定语从句“that animals make”修饰前面的“signals”。

2．句子的谓语是“seem to impose”，此处涉及一个词组“impose A on B”，意思是“把A强加于B”。

3．句子的宾语是“costs”，定语从句“that are overly damaging”修饰前面的“costs”。

4. “cost”常见的意思是“费用，价钱，成本”，但是在这里的意思是“代价，损失”。例如“the environmental cost of nuclear power”（核动力对环境的破坏）。

5．本句中将原本正常的“impose costs on signalers”的语序改成了“impose on the signalers costs”。这样做一方面是为了避免歧义，必须使定语从句和先行词紧连，试想如果句子是“impose costs on the signalers that are overly damaging”，可能就会有考生认为该定语从句是修饰与之相邻的“signalers”了，而这种理解是错误的；另一方面是为了使句子结构更加平衡，因为“costs that are overly damaging”比“on the signalers”长一些，如果放在前面会显得头重脚轻。看懂这一点，整个句子就显得非常容易理解了。

与本次句子翻译相关的阅读题目：

Many signals that animals make seem to impose on the signalers costs that are overly damaging. A classic example is noisy begging by nestling songbirds when a parent returns to the nest with food. These loud cheeps and peeps might give the location of the nest away to a listening hawk or raccoon, resulting in the death of the defenseless nestlings. In fact, when tapes of begging tree swallows were played at an artificial swallow nest containing an egg, the egg in that “noisy” nest was taken or destroyed by predators before the egg in a nearby quiet nest in 29 of 37 trials.

1. The phrase “impose on” in the passage is closest in meaning to____.

A. increase for

B. remove from

C. place on

D. distribute to

2. According to this paragraph, the experiment with tapes of begging tree swallows establishes which of the following?

A. Begging by nestling birds can attract the attention of predators to the nest.

B. Nest predators attack nests that contain nestlings more frequently than they attack nests that contain only eggs.

C. Tapes of begging nestlings attract predators to the nest less frequently than real begging calls do.

D. Nest predators have no other means of locating bird nests except the begging calls of nestling birds.

汉英翻译练习：

大部分家长很容易将自己年轻时未能实现的理想强加于孩子身上，这使得很多青少年往往不能做自己喜欢做的事情，而是被迫去完成父母认为他们应该做的事情。

参考翻译：

Most parents are likely to impose on their children the dreams that they themselves failed to fulfill when they were young, which means that many teenagers are generally not doing what they would like most of the time but are compelled to do what their parents think they should do.

请将以上句子扩充而成的中文段落翻译成英文：

① 但是，我也认为不能简单地只关注“应该做”却完全不关注“是否喜欢”，有时候到底什么是应该做的事情都是一个很模糊的话题。② 一个常见的情形是这样的：大部分家长很容易将自己年轻时未能实现的理想强加于孩子身上，这使得很多青少年往往不能做自己喜欢做的事情，而是被迫去完成父母认为他们应该做的事情。③ 我们当然不会认为这种行为是值得赞同的。

大家想一想，该翻译练习是不是可以用到下面的托福写作中呢？

写作题目：

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

Nowadays people spend too much time on personal enjoyment—things they like to do—rather than the things they should do.

——2008.3.8

勇哥批改学生翻译练习：

潇尘

Victor Liszt

小麦田