ANNOTATION TRANSLATION (TRANSLATION WITH COMMENTARY): A SAMPLE

Ke Ping

Environmental Law        [1] As recently as the early 1960s, the phrase “environmental law” would probably have produced little more than a puzzled look, even from [2] many lawyers. Such issues as clean air, pure water and freedom from noise pollution [3] were not important public concerns. There were, of course, numerous state laws and some federal laws intended to protect America’s rivers and streams from excessive industrial pollution and to guard wildlife from the depredations [The depredations of a person, animal, or force are their harmful actions, which usually involve taking or damaging something. (FORMAL): Much of the region's environmental depredation is a result of poor planning. (CB4) // plural: RAVAGES <trying to ease the depredations of the disease> (W3)] of man. [4] But these regulations were generally ignored. With enforcement [= law enforcement (the job of making sure that the law is obeyed) (LDoCE4)] power dispersed among many federal, state and local agencies, [5] most of which were seriously undermanned, and with [6] noncompliance penalties so slight as to have little more than [7] harassment [Harassment is behaviour which is intended to trouble or annoy someone, for example repeated attacks on them or attempts to cause them problems. (CB4)] value, there were few incentives to obey the laws. Indeed, many environmental statutes [a law passed by a parliament, council etc and formally written down: Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute (=established by law) (LDoCE4)] were so little publicized and so vaguely worded that their existence was hardly known and their meaning was scarcely understood.        Then, in 1962, came a book called Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. A powerful indictment [1. (bill of) indictment (a formal document written for a prosecuting attorney charging a person with some offense) 2. an accusation of wrongdoing; “the book is an indictment of modern philosophy” (WN2.1)] of America’s disregard of ecology, Silent Spring was aimed chiefly at the wholesale use of chemical pesticides, especially DDT. In 1965 a court action took place that ranks in environmental importance with the publication of Silent Spring. That was the reversal by a court of appeals of a Federal Power Commission decision [8] to grant a license for a Consolidated Edison power plant at Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River in New York. The court ordered new proceedings [Legal proceedings are legal action taken against someone. (FORMAL): The Council had brought proceedings to stop the store from trading on Sundays. (CB4)] [9] that were to “include as a basic concern the preservation of natural beauty and of national historic shrines [a place that people visit and respect because it is connected with a famous person or event: Elvis's home has become a shrine for his fans. (LDoCE4)].”

?????        [1] ?????????????????{as recently as ????????????????????????“???????”?“??……??”?????????????“??????????”???????????} [2] ?????? {?????????????????????????????????????????????? environmental law ???????????????????even from many lawyers??????????????????????????? many lawyers ????????????????} ??“???”????????????????????[3] ???{??????????????????????????????????“??”??????????????be??????????????????????????????????} ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????[4] ???????????????????{??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????“???”???????????????????“?????????????”???????????? [cohesion] ????????“???????……?????????????????????????”?????“???????……?????????????????????????????”?????????????????????} ???????????????????? [5]????????????? {???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????}????? [6] ????????? {????????????????? (deep structure) ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????“?????”(contextual amplification)??????????????????? noncompliance penalties ????????penalties [imposed / handed down for] noncompliance [with state and federal environmental laws]?????????????} ?????????? [7] ???????????? {harassment ??? trouble ? annoy ???????????????????????}?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????        ??????1962?????·???????????????????????????????????????????????????????——??????——???????1965??????????????????????????????????????????????? [8] ??????????????????????????????? {???????Microsoft Encarta Reference Library?Archives??“1971: Environment”: About six years ago the Federal Power Commission granted New York’s Consolidated Edison Company a license to construct atop Storm King a 12-billion-gallon pumped-storage reservoir to be filled with water from the Hudson River and a power plant cut into the face of the mountain to produce additional electrical energy for New York City. Conservationists never challenged the company’s asserted need for additional energy but, rather, questioned the manner in which alternatives were seemingly discarded.????Edison power plant?Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River in NY??????????????????????????????} ????????????????????[9] ?? {“that were to” ??????} ????“?????????????????????”?

 

Reference tools used in conducting this annotated translation:

 

CB4: John Sinclair (Founding Editor-in-Chief). (2003). Collins CoBuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary (4^th ed). HarperCollinsPublishers (www.cobuild.collins.co.uk). xxiv + 1712 pp. + xxxii. [3^rd edn.: Collins Cobuild 3^rd Edition (CD-ROM) Sample page. Athelstan Pubns.]

LDoCE4: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Fourth Edition. 2003. London: Pearson Education Limited.

Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2004 (CD-ROM).

W3: Gove, Philip Babcock. (1961). Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language.

WN2.1: Princeton University Cognitive Science Laboratory (Principal Investigator: Professor George A. Miller). (2005). WordNet 2.1.

YHD: Lu, Gusun [???] (Ed.). (1993).???????. ???????. xv + 2308 pp.