2007 National Entrance Examination for Postgraduate Studies English-Chinese Translation Four-Step Positioning Translation Method

Author: Hu Min
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: The postgraduate entrance exam is difficult, and the English section is the hardest. The English-to-Chinese translation is even more challenging. Looking at past exam results, the scores for English-to-Chinese translation have always been unsatisfactory. From the perspective of students' learning, translation is almost a blank area—few have practical experience, and even fewer have conducted research on it. Take a look at the overwhelming number of postgraduate entrance exam preparation books: there are countless masterpieces on listening, reading, and writing, yet it's rare to find a dedicated book on English-to-Chinese translation. Even when some books claim to focus on it, they are essentially useless. Compared to other question types, English-to-Chinese translation is always like Cinderella—either dismissed with a few words or neglected and unvalued, with authors leaving unclear explanations and readers understanding little. It was precisely this situation that inspired the author to write a guidebook for English-to-Chinese translation. It is undeniable that writing such a book is extremely challenging. Translation not only involves vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension but is also deeply connected to culture and language habits. Before actual translation, a certain level of language proficiency and knowledge is required. Moreover, translation is a creative activity with no universal methods. But to find a solution to the exam questions, we can only identify patterns based on students' actual abilities and exam requirements, forming relatively fixed models. Finally, analyzing the translation process is tedious and complex. To be concise and insightful requires precision. If one skims over the important points, the book loses its instructional value. Given these circumstances, although the author has been teaching postgraduate translation courses and had plans to publish a book for a long time, the birth of this manuscript took longer and required more effort compared to other books. To ensure quality, the author wrote three drafts of the English-to-Chinese translation alone; the "Four-Step Positioning Translation Method" was developed through repeated reflection and summarization based on years of practice; the detailed explanations of past exam questions mainly came from classroom lectures but included many examples that couldn't be covered in class; and the summary of difficulties in postgraduate English-to-Chinese translation is far more comprehensive than what can be discussed in class, where only brief summaries are possible due to time constraints. Therefore, the content of this book originates from the classroom, belongs to the classroom, and goes beyond it. It is worth mentioning that the "Four-Step Positioning Translation Method" is not only the author's personal insights but also a crystallization of collective wisdom. Without the exchange with students, the support of colleagues, and their care, the author would not have found the inspiration to develop it. When analyzing the annual English-to-Chinese translation questions, the "Four-Step Positioning Translation Method" has been repeatedly validated. Its step-by-step approach, problem-solving strategies, and techniques make the complex translation process clear, straightforward, and effortless. May this book assist all candidates, and we hope that readers will provide valuable feedback during their studies to help perfect the book in future revisions.