英语中被动语态的使用范围极为广泛，凡是在不必、不愿说出或不知道主动者的情况下均可使用被动语态，因此，掌握被动语态的翻译方法是翻译的基本功。汉语也有被动语态，通常通过“把”或“被”等词体现出来，但它的使用范围远远小于英语中被动语态的使用范围，因此英语中的被动语态在很多情况下都翻译成主动结构。

1) The famous hotel had been practically destroyed by the big fire.

【参考译文】大火把这家著名的旅馆几乎全部烧毁。

2) Most letters from his wife, are read to him by the nurse in the hospital.

【参考译文】他妻子给他的信件，大多是由医院的护士念给他听的。

3) Rivers are controlled by dams.

【参考译文】拦河坝把河流控制住了。

4) Great efforts should be made to inform young people especially the dreadful consequences of taking up the habit.

【参考译文】应该尽量告诉年轻人吸烟的危害，特别是吸烟上瘾后的可怕后果。

5) Methods are found to take these materials out of the rubbish and use them again.

【参考译文】现在已经找到了从垃圾中提取和利用这些材料的方法。

【结构分析】前三个例子：译成“把” “使”和“由”字句，后两个：译成无主语句。

6) This seems mostly effectively done by supporting a certain amount of research not related to immediate goals but of possible consequences in the future.

【结构分析】本句应先译by supporting...这个方式状语，再译主句This seems mostly effectively done.

【参考译文】给某些与当前目标无关但在将来可能产生影响的科研以支持，看来通常能有效地解决这个问题。

7) New sources of energy must be found，and this will take time，but it is not likely to result in any situation that will restore that sense of cheap and plentiful energy we have had in the times past.

【结构分析】被动结构new sources of energy must be found应译为主动。

【参考译文】我们必须要找到新能源，但这需要时间；而过去我们感觉到的那种能源价廉而充足的情况，将不大可能再出现了。

8) The supply of oil can be shut off unexpectedly at any time，and in any case，the oil wells will all run dry in thirty yrears or so at the present rate of use.

【结构分析】本句中的被动结构可以根据汉语的习惯直接译为被动句。

【参考译文】石油供应可能随时被切断;不管怎样，以目前这种消费速度，过30年左右，所有的油井都会枯竭。

9) Over the years, tools and technology themselves as a source of fundamental innovation have largely been ignored by historians and philosophers of science.

【结构分析】本句中的被动语态也可以直接译成汉语的被动语态。

【参考译文】工具和技术本身作为根本性创新的源泉多年来在很大程度上被科学史 学家和科学思想家们忽视了。

10) And it is imagined by many that the operations of the common mind can be by no means compared with these processes, and that they have to be acquired by a sort of special

【结构分析】这个句子有三个被动结构：... is imagined... ,be compared...，...be required...。第一个被动结构的后面有动作的发出者，这种被动有时只要把动作发出 者提到前面就可以变成主动：it is imagined by many that = many imagine that, “许多人认为……”，这属于被动改主动的第一种情况。第二种情况是汉语不需要作任何改动就能将被动译成主动，句中第二个被动结构就属于这种情况,be compared with可以直接译为：“与……相比较”，因为“与……被比较”在汉语里显然是错误的。第三种情况则需要对 整个句子作很大的调整才能正确处理好:句中第三个被动结构后面虽然有介词by引导动作发出者，但简单地交换主语和宾语的位置显然行不通。上海道正学校教学与研究表明，这种情况通常是由于词的使用造成的，如代词they到底指什么以及动词required 在句中究竟是什么意思。解决这些问题需要进一步了解英汉两种语言在用词上的差异。

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