Question

BELJLNG-Eating at a Beijing restaurant is usually an adventure for foreigners, and particularly when they get the chance to order “chicken without sex life” or “red burned lion head”.

Sometimes excited but mostly confused, embarrassed or even terrified, many foreigners have long complained about mistranslations of Chinese dishes. And their complaints are often valid, but such an experience at Beijing’s restaurants will apparently soon be history.

Foreign visitors will no longer, hopefully, be confused by oddly worded restaurant menus in the capital if the government’s plan to correctly translate 3,000 Chinese dishes is a success and the translations are generally adopted.

The municipal（市政）office of foreign affairs has published a book to recommend English translations of Chinese dishes, which aims to help restaurants avoid bizarre translations. It provides the names of main dishes of famous Chinese cuisines in plain English, “an official with the city’s Foreign Affairs office said .” Restaurants are encouraged to use the proposed translations, but it will not be compulsory .“ It’s the city’s latest effort to bridge the culture gap for foreign travelers in China.

Coming up with precise translations is a daunting task, as some Chinese culinary techniques are untranslatable and many Chinese dishes have no English-language equivalent.The translators, after conducting a study of Chinese restaurants in English-speaking countries, divided the dish names into four categories: ingredients, cooking method, taste and name of a person or a place. For some traditional dishes, pinyin, the Chinese phonetic system, is used, such as mapo tofu(previously often literally translated as “beancurd made by woman with freckles”), baozi(steamed stuffed bun ) and jiaozi (dumplings) to “reflect the Chinese cuisine culture,” according to the book.

“The book is a blessing to tourist guides like me. Having it, I don’t have to rack my brains trying to explain Chinese dishes to foreign travellers,” said Zheng Xiaodong, a 31- year – old employe with a Beijing- based travel agency.

“I will buy the book as I major in English literature and I’d like to introduce Chinese cuisine culture to more foreign friends,” said Han Yang, a postgraduate student at the University of International Business and Economics.

It is not clear if the book will be introduced to other parts of China. But on Tuesday, this was the most discussed topic on weibo. com, China’s most popular microblogging site.

1.          What’s the best title of the passage?

A．An adventure for foreigners who eat in Beijing.

B．Confusing mistranslations of Chinese dishes

C．Chinese dishes to have “official” English names

D．The effort to bridge the culture gap

2.          “chicken without sex life” or “red burned lion head” are mentioned in the beginning of the passage to show     .

A．some Chinese dishes are not well received

B．some Chinese dishes are hard to translate

C．some Chinese dishes are mistranslated

D．some Chinese dishes are not acceptable

3.          What measure has the municipal office taken?

A．Recommending a book on Chinese dishes

B．Advocating using precise translation for Chinese dishes

C．Publishing a book on China’s dietary habits

D．Providing the names of main Chinese dishes

4.          What’s the meaning of daunting in paragraph 5?

A．confusing

B．disappointing

C．discouraging

D．worthwhile

5.          What’s the attitude of most people to the book according to the passage?

A．not clear

B．excited

C．favorable

D．divided

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.          C

2.          C

3.          B

4.          C

5.          C

【解析】

試題分析：

1.          推理題，由本文的主要意思“中國菜各種各樣，外國人點菜時總是搞錯，所以給中國菜有專門英語翻譯”所以選C

2.          細節題，由第二段第二行foreigners have long complained about mistranslations of Chinese dishes.可以知道答案，所以選C

3.          細節題，由第五段第一句Coming up with precise translations is a daunting task可以知道答案，所以選B

4.          推理題，由as some Chinese culinary techniques are untranslatable and many Chinese dishes have no English-language equivalent.可以推出想出寶貴的的翻譯是個令人沮喪的任務，所以選C

5.          推理題，由最后一段It is not clear if the book will be introduced to other parts of China. But on Tuesday, this was the most discussed topic on weibo. com, China’s most popular microblogging site.可以推出知道人們對這本書的態度是贊成的，所以選C

考點：本文為一篇說明文。

點評：本文說明了中國菜種類多，外國人在中國飯店吃飯時，總是搞錯，為了解決這個事情，中國菜有專門的英語翻譯。先通讀全文，然后帶著問題，再讀全文，找出答題所需要的依據，完成閱讀。本文主要考查推理題，要求學生有很強的推理分析能力。