“语言桥杯”全国翻译大赛

一、英译汉部分

Theodore Roosevelt wrote to a friend in the year 1897: “In strict confidence...I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.”

The year of the massacre at Wounded Knee, 1890, it was officially declared by the Bureau of the Census that the internal frontier was closed. The profit system, with its natural tendency for expansion, had already begun to look overseas. The severe depression that began in 1893 strengthened an idea developing within the political and financial elite of the country: that overseas markets for American goods might relieve the problem of underconsumption at home and prevent the economic crises that in the 1890s brought class war.

And would not a foreign adventure deflect some of the rebellious energy that went into strikes and protest movements toward an external enemy? Would it not unite people with government, with the armed forces, instead of against them? This was probably not a conscious plan among most of the elite - but a natural development from the twin drives of capitalism and nationalism.

Expansion overseas was not a new idea. Even before the war against Mexico carried the United States to the Pacific, the Monroe Doctrine looked southward into and beyond the Caribbean. Issued in 1823 when the countries of Latin America were winning independence from Spanish control, it made plain to European nations that the United States considered Latin America its sphere of influence. Not long after, some Americans began thinking into the Pacific: of Hawaii, Japan, and the great markets of China.

There was more than thinking; the American armed forces had made forays overseas. A State Department list, “Instan ces of the Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad 1798-1945” (presented by Secretary of State Dean Rusk to a Senate committee in 1962 to cite precedents for the use

of aimed force against Cuba), shows 103 interventions in the affairs of other countries between 1798 and 1895.

Thus, by the 1890s, there had been much experience in overseas probes and interventions. The ideology of expansion was widespread in the upper circles of military men, politicians, businessmen - and even among some of the leaders o f farmers’ movements who thought foreign markets would help them.

二、汉译英部分

毕业演讲是大学精神的窗口（节选）

又到毕业季，不少大学校长的毕业演讲引发了广泛关注。我们看到，在很多大学毕业典礼的讲台上，频频出现一些或充满感情、哲理，或很有个性的话。

这些话之所以被学子看重，是因为他们希望从师长的临别赠言中找到可圈点、可追忆之处，以充实自己的行囊，维系与母校的情感

线索。作为全体毕业生共同的“最后一课”，大学毕业演讲蕴含着厚重的惜别意味，让人自由、真挚地去表达情感、提出告诫、寄托希望。不管是一校之长还是普通老师，在这个话别与送行的场合，都不大适合端架子摆谱，穿靴戴帽地讲些干瘪无味的虚话套话。

外界之所以关注和看重毕业演讲，是因为大学的毕业演讲很多时候不单单是大学内部的事，它更被看作是观察一所大学精神与情怀的窗口。这也正是一些毕业演讲被广为传播，有的还被奉为文学经典流传的原因。毕业演讲是一个时代的“应景之作”，但它们所展现的大学精神与情怀，所倡导的为学、为人的遵循和担当，却有穿越时空的启示价值。比如几年前华中科技大学“根叔”的个性演讲、厦门大学教授邹振东另类演讲的视频，还有今年中科大、武大、西南交大等大学校长演讲中的经典语句。这些广为传播的演讲有共同的特点，那就是充满个性和情怀，每每让人耳目一新、精神一振。

有人说，毕业演讲和伸手、握手、行拨穗礼、合影等一样，只是高校授学位的一个程序而已，不必过多解读。可是，如果仅仅把毕业演讲当成一个例行程序，那校长和老师倒可以省事了，请教育部门制定一套标准的演说词，拿来通用就行了。可是，大学的特质就在于它需要在个性化的表达中，展现自身倡导的价值和追求，充满个性的言说方式、饱含情怀的叙述逻辑、富有吸引力的表达技巧是精彩的毕业演讲所应具备的特点。

从这个意义上说，大学毕业演讲既是社会观察大学精神和情怀的窗口，也是大学展示自身包容性、开放性以及亲和力的机会。社会

也好，毕业生也好，大学也好，都应看重毕业演讲的窗口价值，让大学的精神之光温暖人心。