MBA英语：近十年联考英语翻译真题汇总（二）

2013年

I can pick a date from the past 53 years and know instantly where I was, what happened in the news and even the day of the week, I’ve been able to do this, since I was four.

I never feel overwhelmed with the amount of information my brain absorbs. My mind seems to be able to cope and the information is stored away neatly. When I think of a sad memory, I do what everybody does-try to put it to one side. I don’t think it’s harder for me just because my memory is clearer. Powerful memory doesn’t make my emotions any more acute or vivid. I can recall the day my grandfather died and the sadness I felt when we went to the hospital the day of the week the day of the week day before. I also remember that the musical play Hair opened on Broadway on the same day-they both just pop into my mind in the same way.

参考译文：

从过去的53年里随便找出哪一天，我都能够立刻想起那一天我在哪里，那一天发生了什么新闻，甚至那一天是星期几。从4岁起，我就能这么做了。

我从来没有为自己所记住的大量的信息而感到不知所措。我的大脑似乎能够应对这种状况，能够有条理地将这些信息记在脑子里。当我想起悲伤的事情时，我会像每个人一样，尽力把它放在一边，不去想它。我并不认因为我的记忆非常强而导致很难把不高兴的事情放在一边。强大的记忆力并不能使我的情感更加敏锐和生动。我能够记得我祖父去世的那一天，以及前一天我们去医院的路上所感到的悲伤。同样，我也能记得同一天在百老汇上演的音乐剧《Hair》——这些事情都以同样的方式在我脑海里突然浮现。

2014年

Most people would define optimism as being endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half full. But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists would not recommend. “Healthy optimism means being in touch with reality,” says Taal Ben-Shah-ar, a Harvard professor. According to Ben-Shah-ar, realistic optimists are those who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.

Ben-Shah-ar uses three optimistic exercises. When he feels down—say, after giving a bad lecture—he grants himself permission to be human. He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner, some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction. He analyzes the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what does not. Finally, there is perspective, which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really does not matter.

参考译文：

在大部分人眼中，乐观主义就意味着永远满怀希望、无忧无虑，遇事只往好的方面想。然而积极心理学专家认为这种乐观只是假象，不建议人们这么做。哈佛大学教授塔尔·本沙哈尔指出：“健康的乐观主义应该是切合实际的。”他认为，现实的乐观主义者会尽力让事事顺利，而不是迷信万事大吉。

本沙哈尔提出了“三步乐观法”。第一步：在碰到例如演讲表现糟糕这种让人沮丧的情况时，他首先会安慰自己人非圣贤，不是所有的演讲都能拿到诺贝尔奖，总会有些演讲的效果不如他人。第二步：重现场景。他会对这次失败的演讲进行分析，总结优缺点，为以后的演讲吸取经验教训。第三步：形成这样一个观念，要明白在生命的宏大蓝图中，一次演讲着实微不足道。

2015年

Think about driving a route that's very familiar. It could be your commute to work, a trip into town or the way home. Whichever it is, you know every twist and turn like the back of your hand. On these sorts of trips it's easy tolose concentration on the driving and pay little attention to the passing scenery. The consequence is that you perceive that the trip has taken less time than it actually has.

This is the well-travelled road effect: people tend to underestimate the time it takes to travel a familiar route.

The effect is caused by the way we allocate our attention. When we travel down a well-known route, because we don't have to concentrate much, time seems to flow more quickly. And afterwards, when we come to think back on it, we can't remember the journey well because we didn't pay much attention to it. So we assume it wasshorter.

参考译文：

设想一下，你正开车行驶在一条非常熟悉的路线上。可能是你每天上下班、去城里、或是回家的路。不管是哪一条路，你对每一个拐每一个弯都了如指掌，非常熟悉。在这样的路途中，我们容易在开车的时候心不在焉，对途中的景色也几乎是全然不顾。如此一来，你会觉得路上所花的时间比实际要少。

这就是"熟悉路线效应"：人们往往会低估行驶在熟悉的路上所花费的时间。

这一效应由我们分配精力的方式引起。当行驶在熟悉的路上时，由于我们不用太过集中精力，时间似乎飞逝而过。随后，我们回想行车过程时，由于我们没有过多关注，所以对行车的印象也很模糊。因此我们会认为花费的时间会更短些。

2016年

The supermarket is designed to lure customers into spending as much time as possible within its doors. The reason for this is simple: The longer you stay in the store, the more stuff you’ll see, and the more stuff you see, the more you’ll buy. And supermarkets contain a lot of stuff. The average supermarket, according to the Food Market Institute, carries some 44,000 different items, and many carry tens of thousands more. The sheer volume of available choice is enough to send shoppers into a state of information overload. According to brain-scan experiments, the demands of so much decision-making quickly become too much for us. After about 40 minutes of shopping, most people stop struggling to be rationally selective, and instead begin shopping emotionally — which is the point at which we accumulate the 50 percent of stuff in our cart that we never intended buying.

参考译文：

超市旨在吸引顾客在店里停留尽可能长的时间。原因非常简单：顾客在店里停留的时 间越长，看到的商品越多；看到的商品越多，买的也就越多。超市陈列了大量的商品。根 据食品市场科的调查，一般超市里有约 44000 种不同的商品，许多超市都有上万种。如此 众多的选择足以使顾客陷入信息量超载的状态。根据脑部扫描实验，需要迅速地做出这么 多决定就会使我们太累。大约购物 40 分钟以后，大多数人就放弃了去做理性的选择，取而 代之的是冲动购物——正是此时，我们在购物车里已经装了一半根本没想买的东西。