AUGUST was once a time for dreaming, wandering the empty streets of this city, reading silly-season newspaper stories after a leisurely lunch washed down with Sancerre, gazing at squares where fountains plashed and the pregnant or the old chatted on benches at dusk. Then something happened. The world speeded up. Stress levels soared. Idle moments evaporated. Egos expanded. Devices became hand-held. Money outpaced politics. August aborted this year. It morphed into the serious season. The beach lost out to the barricades. A time of outrage is upon us.

八月曾經(jīng)是一個(gè)適合做夢(mèng)的季節(jié)，漫步在空闊的街道上，悠閑地享受午飯，然后喝點(diǎn)桑塞爾白葡萄酒 ，讀讀在七八月這樣的淡季新聞報(bào)紙上的小道故事，或是盯著廣場上的噴泉發(fā)發(fā)呆，旁邊長椅上有孕婦和老人在閑談。然后，突然發(fā)生了一些事情。世界開始加快了它的步伐，壓力日益劇增。悠閑的時(shí)光一去不復(fù)返了。人們的自我意識(shí)不斷膨脹，每個(gè)人手中都拿著各種設(shè)備，金錢勝過了政治。悠閑的八月已成為了一個(gè)嚴(yán)酷的季節(jié)，路障取代了長椅。我們正面臨著一個(gè)憤怒的時(shí)期。

A feeling has grown in Western societies that uncontrollable forces are at work shrinking possibility. History has never seen a global power shift as radical as the current one that managed to be peaceful.

一股不可控的力量正在發(fā)揮作用，不斷的減少各種可能性，這種感覺正在西方社會(huì)蔓延滋長。歷史從未見證過這樣一種全球力量變化是如此激進(jìn)卻又試圖趨于平靜。

Growth, jobs, expansion, excitement — and, yes, possibility — lie in the great non-Western arc from China through India to South Africa and Brazil. The world has been turned upside-down. What we are witnessing is how shaken Western societies are by such inversion.

經(jīng)濟(jì)增長，充分的就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)，迅速的發(fā)展，成功的喜悅，哦，是的，還有無限的可能性，都存在于那些非西方的國度，從中國到印度、南非和巴西。整個(gè)世界都被顛倒了，我們正在見證西方社會(huì)是如何因這些變化而受到動(dòng)搖。

As new powers emerge, globalization has altered the relationship between capital and labor in the former’s favor. The only people who walked away unscathed from the great financial binge that preceded this mess were its main architects and greatest beneficiaries: bankers, financiers. This, too, is fueling a time of outrage that has left Western politicians chasing shadows.

當(dāng)一種新力量產(chǎn)生的時(shí)候，全球化必將導(dǎo)致資本與勞動(dòng)之間的關(guān)系發(fā)生改變，而往往會(huì)對(duì)前者有利。唯一能從這場金融風(fēng)暴中全身而退且毫發(fā)無傷的人，就是它的主導(dǎo)者和受益者：銀行家和金融家。這也刺激了一個(gè)憤怒時(shí)代的出現(xiàn)，讓那些西方政客在那里捕風(fēng)捉影。

點(diǎn)評(píng)：這篇散文評(píng)論摘自2011年8月的New York Times ， 題目為The Age of Outrage 《憤怒的時(shí)代》。Roger Cohen散文般的時(shí)評(píng)，是否讓你在考試時(shí)感到一陣輕松呢？

首先這篇這段220字的文章的話題我們并不陌生，討論的是全球化的影響。這段話的難點(diǎn)在第一段，話題切入以及短句的羅列，如果沒有看到后面的內(nèi)容，考生很容易不知所云。所以，閱讀前首先掃讀，預(yù)判文章大意，不確定的地方再根據(jù)大意來展開。翻譯的時(shí)候注意把握三點(diǎn)：短句的翻譯；詞語的翻譯；生詞的翻譯。

第一段從“Then something happened.”一直到結(jié)束都是主謂或主謂賓組成的短句，間或有比喻出現(xiàn)，如August aborted this year.考生注意本題材話題切入，準(zhǔn)確翻譯各短句所指，即理解經(jīng)濟(jì)類話題的內(nèi)涵和外延。這也是下面一點(diǎn)要提到的，詞語的翻譯。第三段段首的Growth, jobs, expansion, excitement — and, yes, possibility也是可以翻譯出彩的地方，翻譯成名詞還是偏正短語，視個(gè)人水平而定，但是意思一定不要出錯(cuò)。

第三點(diǎn)就是生詞的翻譯，第一段出現(xiàn)了Sancerre，法國白葡萄酒，這種詞語雖然在考試中出現(xiàn)的幾率不大，翻譯時(shí)稍微注意一下即可。其他難詞，比如第一段的abort, morph into，最后一段unscathed ，architects，chasing shadows；這些詞語在經(jīng)濟(jì)類話題中出現(xiàn)，注意平時(shí)的積累，或者考生根據(jù)上下文判斷出大意進(jìn)行翻譯。