Translators should pay special attention to numerical expressions in their work as erroneously rendered numbers may produce disastrous outcome in economic activities and social life. In the following we shall briefly review some typical ways of expressing numbers in measurements and then go on to examine how multiples are translated between English and Chinese.
a piece of glass 7 mm thick 7毫米厚的玻璃
Maximum headroom 2 m (i.e. passage is limited to vehicles of less than this height) 最大净空高度为2米
a 1300 cc engine (i.e. the total capacity of the cylinders is 1300 cubic centimeters) 1300立方厘米的发动机
He takes a 16 1/2 collar.
他的衣服领口是16 1/2英寸。
Add 8 fl oz stock and bring to the boil.
加入8液盎司的原汤并煮沸。
They say the temperature will fall to minus five tonight. (-5°)
据说今天夜里气温会降到零下5摄氏度。
They say we’re going to have nine degrees of frost tonight. (23°F)
据说今天夜里气温会降到零下9摄氏度。
She’s 36-24-38. (The circumference of her bust, waist, and hips is 36, 24, and 38 inches respectively)
她的三围是36-24-38。
半打鸡蛋 half a dozen eggs / a half dozen eggs {24 is two dozen not two dozens. (OED)}
三打盒子 three dozen boxes
10的19次幂 ten to the power nineteen / ten to the nineteenth power
标准葡萄酒瓶的容量为75厘升。
The standard wine bottle contains 75 cl [centiliter].
这座城市的海拔高度为2000米。
This city rises to 2000 m above sea-level.
该地区年降雨量不足200毫米。
There is less than 200mm of rain a year in this area.
这辆汽车用5秒钟时间可从静止状态加速到每小时70英里。
The car does 0 to 70 in 5 secs.
A multiple (倍数) is a number that may be divided by another a certain number of times without a remainder. For example, 28 is a multiple of 4 or 7.
Increment means the amount of an increase or addition. The following are some common ways of representing increment in English:
This plot is three times larger than that one.
这块地比那块地大3 倍.
There’s a 10% increase of the new houses built this year.
The new houses built this year register a 10% increase.
今年新建房屋增加了10%。
The output increases 3.5 times as against 1988.
产量是1988年的3.5倍。[or “比1988年增加了2.5倍”]
Tom has as much again as Dick.
汤姆有的是迪克的两倍。
The earth is 49 times the size of the moon.
地球体积是月球体积的49倍。
The output doubles (or “is double”) that of 1988.
产量是1988年的两倍。
He trebled his money by buying a bird for $5 and selling it for $15。
他花5块钱买了一只鸟，又以15块钱把它卖掉，使自己原来的钱增加到3倍。
过去五十年中，计算机的速度每两年便翻一番，而其部件尺寸则每两年缩小1/2。电路中包含的导线和晶体管的宽度现在仅有人头发丝的百分之一。由于这一快速的进展，现今的计算机在功能上强过其粗糙的雏型数百万倍。但是，就像任何其它快速的进展最终都将走到其尽头一样，集成电路工艺的发展也正在逼近其极限。
Every two years in the past 50 years, computers have become twice as fast while their components have become twice as small. Circuits now contain wires and transistors that measure only one hundredth of a human hair in width. Because of this explosive progress, today’s machines are millions of times more powerful than their crude ancestors. But explosions do eventually dissipate [To attenuate to or almost to the point of disappearing (AHD)]], and integrated-circuit technology is running up against its limits.
It should be noted that some languages may use special ways of representing common numbers. In Chinese, e.g. a figure known as xi-shu 析数 (literally, “number-analysis”) is often used to denote the age of a person. In this figure, two numbers are given, whose product is the real number intended by the speaker or writer, e.g. “2 and 8” really means “16”, as may be evidenced by the following couplet from a poem by the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming (365-427):
阿舒已二八，
懒惰故无匹。 (陶渊明《责子》)
A-shu is twice eight,
For laziness he has no equal.
Decrement [`dekrimernt] means the amount lost by diminution or waste. The following are some common ways of representing decrement in English:
A is twice less than B.
A比B小2/3。 {In Chinese one would not say “减少(或缩小等)多少倍”，but “减少(或缩小等)几分之几”。}
The new type of equipment will reduce the error probability by a factor of five.
新型设备将使差错率减少到原来的1/5 [or “减少4/5”]。
先进的光刻技术能够生产出比现有元件小一百倍的元件。但是在如此微小的尺度上，一块块物质呈现为单个原子的集合，集成电路几乎无法工作。如果部件的尺寸在此基础上再缩小9/10，单个的原子便会表现出自己的特性，只要有一个缺陷就会造成大破坏。因此，未来的计算机如果要想更加微型化的话，就必须发明新的技术来取代或补充现有的技术。
Advanced lithographic techniques can yield parts 100 times smaller than what is currently available. But at this scale — where bulk matter reveals itself as a crowd of individual atoms, integrated circuits barely function. Ten times smaller again, the individuals assert their identity and a single defect can wreck havoc. So if computers are to become much smaller in the future, new technology must replace or supplement what we now have.