地理-080604.doc

神采翻译简历项目笔译人才选拔测试（英语）
测试稿类型：社会百科

Waterfall 瀑布
In all their majesty and seeming calm, waterfalls might look like a permanent fixture on the side of a mountain -- as long as the river's always there, the waterfall will be there, too, right? As it turns out, waterfalls are actually formed very slowly over the course of several thousand years. You would hardly notice any changes in one during a lifetime.
雄伟壮观却外表平和，瀑布好像永远定格在山峦之侧，只要河水奔腾不息，瀑布就飞流直下，不是吗？而实际上它的形成，可能历经千年之遥，我们穷尽一生，也难以察觉到它的些微变化。
Imagine a simple river flowing along bedrock, the harder rock that lays underneath loose earth like soil and sand. It's moving along pretty quickly and at a fairly steep incline. The bedrock over which the water is flowing has varying degrees of density and strength -- some layers are soft, while others are much harder. When water flows over a layer of hard rock, it erodes the softer rock beyond it. The bed of the river gets steeper as the water carries the softer rock downstream, and eventually the flow of water at this point becomes steep enough to be considered a waterfall.
设想一下：潺潺细流流经河床岩床
，水下硬石析出细软的沙土，这些沙土主语出错
沿陡峭斜面迅速流下。河床岩床
上石头的密度和硬度各不相同，有的松软，有的坚硬，当河水流经硬石表面时，它依然能渗透侵蚀硬石下面理解错误，beyound.
的松软层，随着松软的石头伴水流而下，河床日益陡峭，直到有一天，足够陡峭，此时我们就要改称其指代不清，河床？河流？还是其他？
为瀑布了。
Water continues to fall against a back wall, which also continues to wear away. Soon, the soft rock underneath the hard rock falls back, and a plunge pool is created where the water collects. Enough water moving over the hard rock will undercut it and break it away, and big pieces of rock will collapse and fall into the plunge pool, which makes it even bigger and deeper than before. The soft rock below the hard rock is receding so much that the hard rock becomes an overhang.
水流奔腾不息，冲击着谷底。谷底持续磨减，硬石底下的松软层不断侵蚀消退，直至形成一个水潭，汇聚水流。大量河水持续冲击硬石，使其破碎消减，而且此处多余
大块的岩石垮塌落入水潭，致其更深更阔。硬石下面的松软层大多被磨损冲走，从而在硬石下面硬石形成悬空
形成一个悬空。
Although the waterfalls we see today will be around for a long time, they'll eventually recede and disappear. As hard rock is slowly eroded by the constant flow of water, it falls into the plunge pool and creates a large gorge. The waterfall is actually retreating backwards. This happens very slowly -- just as it takes thousands of years for a waterfall to form, it takes just as long for it to disintegrate. Niagara Falls, for instance, is retreating at the rate of 3.3 feet (one meter) per year.
今日我们所见的瀑布，虽已存在多年will be
，却终将消退灭失。随着水流持续冲刷，硬石将会垮塌落入水潭，形成大的峡谷，同时瀑布也在不断后退。这一过程进展缓慢——恰如瀑布形成历时千年，它的消退也将跨越千载，例如，尼加拉瓜瀑布，每年大约后退3.3尺（1米）。
评级：A-
评语：译文通顺，英中转换能力和中文措辞表达能力很好；但是对于原文的理解，有些不妥当的地方，需要认真阅读原文，并且仔细分析每个长句或者段落的结构。对于某些重要的单词，如bedrock，应杜绝错译，否则将成为翻译的硬伤。
评审人：张木犀
评审日期：2008年6月4日