英语翻译也是要讲究技巧的，关键是要多练习，下面是小编整理的大学英语精度3课文翻译，希望对你有帮助。
A Brush with the Law
与警察的一场小冲突
I have only once been in trouble with the law. 我平生只有一次跟警方发生纠葛。
The whole process of being arrested and taken to court was a rather unpleasant experience at the time, but it makes a good story now. 被捕和出庭的整个过程在当时是一件非常不愉快的事，但现在倒成了一篇很好的故事。
What makes it rather disturbing was the arbitrary circumstances both of my arrest and my subsequent fate in court. 这次经历令人可恼之处在于围绕着我的被捕以及随后庭上审讯而出现的种种武断专横的情况。
It happened in February about twelve years ago. 事情发生在大约12年前，其时正是2月。
I had left school a couple of months before that and was not due to go to university until the following October. 几个月前我中学毕业了，但上大学要等到10月。
I was still living at home at the time. 当时我还在家中居住。
One morning I was in Richmond, a suburb of London near where I lived. 一天早晨，我来到里士满。这里是伦敦的一个郊区，离我住的地方不远。
I was looking for a temporary job so that I could save up some money to go travelling. 我在寻找一份临时工作，以便积些钱去旅游。
As it was a fine day and I was in no hurry, I was taking my time, looking in shop windows, strolling in the park, and sometimes just stopping and looking around me. 由于天气晴朗，当时又无急事，我便慢悠悠看看橱窗，逛逛公园。有时干脆停下脚步，四处张望。
It must have been this obvious aimlessness that led to my downfall. 现在看来，一定是这种明显的毫无目的的游逛，使我倒了霉。
It was about half past eleven when it happened. 事情发生在11点半钟光景。
I was just walking out of the local library, having unsuccessfully sought employment there, when I saw a man walking across the road with the obvious intention of talking to me. 我在当地图书馆谋职未成，刚刚走出来，便看到一个人穿越马路，显然是要来跟我说话。
I thought he was going to ask me the time. Instead, he said he was a police officer and he was arresting me. 我以为他要问我时间，不料他说他是警官，要逮捕我。
At first I thought it was some kind of joke. But then another policeman appeared, this time in uniform, and I was left in no doubt. 起先我还以为这是在开玩笑，但又一个警察出现在我的面前，这次是位身着警服的，这一下使我确信无疑了。
‘But what for?’ I asked. “为什么要抓我?”我问道。
“Wandering with intent to commit an arrestable offence,’ he said. “到处游荡，企图作案，”他说。
‘What offence?’ I asked. “作什么案?”我又问。
‘Theft,’ he said. “偷窃，”他说。
‘Theft of what?’ I asked. “偷什么?”我追问。
‘Milk bottles,’ he said, and with a perfectly straight face too! “牛奶瓶，”他板着面孔说道。
‘Oh,’ I said. “噢，”我说。
It turned out there had been a lot of petty thefts in the area, particularly that of stealing milk bottles from doorsteps. 事情原来是这样的，在这一地区多次发生小的扒窃案，特别是从门前台阶上偷走牛奶瓶。
Then I made my big mistake. 接着，我犯了一个大错误。
At the time I was nineteen, had long untidy hair, and regarded myself as part of the sixties’ youth countercultrue.
其时我年方19，留一头蓬乱的长发，自认为是60年代”青年反主流文化”的一员。
As a result, I want to appear cool and unconcerned with the incident, so I said, ‘How long have you been following me?’ in the most casual and conversational tone I could manage. 所以我想装出一副冷漠的、对这一事件满不在乎的样子。于是我尽量用一种漫不经心的极其随便的腔调说，”你们跟踪我多久啦?”
I thus appeared to them to be quite familiar with this sort of situation, and it confirmed them in their belief that I was a thoroughly disreputable character. 这样一来，在他们眼里，我就像是非常熟悉这一套的了，也使他们更加确信我是一个地地道道的坏蛋。
A few minutes later a police car arrived. 几分钟后，开来了一辆警车。
‘Get in the back,’ they said. ‘Put your hands on the back of the front seat and don’t move them.’ “坐到后面去，”他们说。”把手放到前排座位的靠背上，不准挪动。”
They got in on either side of me. It wasn’t funny any more. 他们分别坐在我的两边。这可再也不是闹着玩的了。
At the police station they questioned me for several hours. 在警察局，他们审讯了我好几个小时。
I continued to try to look worldly and au fait with the situation. 我继续装成老于世故、对这种事习以为常。
When they asked me what I had been doing, I told them I’d been looking for a job. 当他们问我在干什么时，我告诉他们在找工作。
‘Aha,’ I could see them thinking, ‘unemployed’. “啊，”我可以想象他们在想，”果然是个失业的家伙。”
Eventually, I was officially charged and told to report to Richmond Magistrates’ Court the following Monday. Then they let me go. 最后，我被正式起诉，并通知我下周一到里士满地方法庭受审。随后他们让我离开。
I wanted to conduct my own defence in court, but as soon as my father found out what had happened, he hired a very good solicitor. 我想在法庭上作自我辩护，但父亲知道这事后，马上请了一位高明的律师。
We went along that Monday armed with all kinds of witnesses, including my English teacher from school as a character witness. 我们星期一出庭的时候，带了各种各样的证人，其中包括我中学的英语老师，做我人品的见证人。
But he was never called on to give evidence. My ‘trial’ didn’t get that far. 但结果法庭没有叫他作证。我的”审判”没有进行到那一步。
The magistrate dismissed the case after fifteen minutes. 开庭15分钟，法官就驳回了对我的指控。
I was free. The poor police had never stood a chance. 我无罪获释。可怜的警方一点儿赢的机会都没有。
The solicitor even succeeded in getting costs awarded against the police. 我的律师甚至让法庭责成警方承担了诉讼费用。
And so I do not have a criminal record. 这样，我的履历上没有留下犯罪的记录。
But what was most shocking at the time was the things my release from the charge so clearly depended on. 但当时最令人震惊的，是那些显然导致宣布我无罪的证据。
I had the ‘right’ accent, respectable middle-class parents in court, reliable witnesses, and I could obviously afford a very good solicitor. 我讲话的口音”表明我教养良好”，到庭的有体面的中产阶级的双亲，有可靠的证人，还有，我显然请得起一名很好的律师。
Given the obscure nature of the charge, I feel sure that if I had come from a different background, and had really been unemployed, there is every chance that I would have been found guilty. 从对我指控的这种捕风捉影的做法来看，我肯定，如果我出身在另一种背景的家庭里，并且真的是失了业的话，我完全可能被判有罪。
While asking for costs to be awarded, my solicitor’s case quite obviously revolved around the fact that I had a ‘brilliant academic record’. 当我的律师要求赔偿诉讼费时，他公然把辩护的证据建立在我”学业优异”这一事实上。
Meanwhile, just outside the courtroom, one of the policemen who had arrested me was gloomily complaining to my mother that another youngster had been turned against the police. 与此同时，就在审判室外面，一位抓我的警察正在沮丧地向我母亲抱怨，说是又一个小伙子要跟警察作对了。
‘You could have been a bit more helpful when we arrested you,’ he said to me reproachfully. 他带着责备的口气对我说，”我们抓你的时候，你本可以稍微帮点忙的。”
What did he mean? 他说这话什么意思?
Presumably that I should have looked outraged and said something like, ‘Look here, do you know who you’re talking to? I am a highly successful student with a brilliant academic record. How dare you arrest me!’大概是说我本该显出愤愤不平的样子，并说，”喂，留神点，你知道你在跟谁说话?我是学业出众的高材生。你敢抓我!”
Then they, presumably, would have apologized, perhaps even taken off their caps, and let me on my way. 那样一来，他们或许会向我道歉，说不定还会脱帽致意，让我走开呢。
Fruitful Questions
获益匪浅的问题
The other night at the dinner table, my three kids--ages 9,6 and 4--took time out from their food fight to teach me about paradigm shifts, and limitations of linear thinking and how to refocus parameters. 不久前的一个晚上在餐桌旁，我的三个孩子--年龄分别为9岁、6岁和4岁--暂时停止争抢食物，腾出时间教我认识什么是范式变换、什么是线性思考的局限以及如何重新看待相关的各种因素。
Here’s how it happened: We were playing our own oral version of the Sesame Street game, “What Doesn’t Belong?,” where kids look at three pictures and choose the one that doesn’t fit. I said, “OK, what doesn’t belong, an orange, a tomato or a strawberry?” 事情是这样的：当时我们在玩自己那套只动嘴的”哪个不是同一类？”的芝麻街游戏。本来玩这游戏时，孩子们要看三张画并挑出那张不属同一类的画。我说：”来吧，哪个不是同一类，桔子，西红柿，还是草莓？”
The oldest didn’t take more than a second to deliver his smug answer: “Tomato because the other two are fruits.”I agreed that this was the right answer despite the fact that some purists insist a tomato is a fruit. To those of us forced as kids to eat them in salads, tomatoes will always be vegetables. 老大很快就说出了自以为非常得意的答案：”西红柿，因为其他两种是水果。”我承认这是正确答案，尽管有些纯粹主义者坚决认为西红柿是一种水果。对我们这些从小就被迫吃拌在色拉里的西红柿的人来说，西红柿永远是蔬菜。
I was about to think up another set of three when my 4-year-old said, “The right answer is strawberry because the other two are round and a strawberry isn’t.” How could I argue with that?我正准备再出一道三种东西为一组的题目时，我4岁的孩子说：”正确答案是草莓，因为另外两种是圆的，草莓却不圆。”我怎么能驳斥这种论点呢？
Then my 6-year-old said, “It’s the orange because the other two are red.” Not to be outdone by his younger siblings, the 9-year-old said, “It could also be the orange because the other two grow on vines.” 接着，我6岁的孩子说：”不属同一类的是桔子，因为另外两种是红色的。”9岁的孩子不想让弟妹占上风，说道：”不是同一类的也可以是桔子，因为其他两种长在藤上。”
The middle one took this as a direct challenge. “It could be the strawberry because it’s the only one you put on ice cream.” 老二把这看作对他发出的挑战。”可以是草莓，因为只有草莓会放在冰淇淋上。”
Something was definitely happening here. 毫无疑问，这里正发生着什么事儿。
It was messier than a food fight and much more important than whether a tomato is a fruit or vegetable. 这事儿比争抢食物还乱，比西红柿是水果还是蔬菜重要得多。
My kids were doing what Copernicus did when he placed the sun at the center of the universe, readjusting the centuries-old paradigm of an Earth-centered system. 哥白尼把太阳视为宇宙中心，重新调整了地心说这一长达数世纪的范式，我的孩子们正做着哥白尼当年做的事。
They were doing what Reuben Mattus did when he renamed his Bronx ice cream Hagen-Dazs and raised the price without changing the product. 鲁宾·马修斯把他的布朗克斯冰淇淋改名为哈根达斯，在不改变产品的情况下提高了价格，我的孩子们正做着鲁宾·马修斯做过的事。
They were doing what Edward Jenner did when he discovered a vaccination for smallpox by abandoning his quest for a cure.爱德华·詹纳放弃了寻找治疗天花的特效药，从而发现了能预防这一疾病的'疫苗，我的孩子们正做着爱德华·詹纳做过的事。
Instead of studying people who were sick with smallpox, he began to study people who were exposed to it but never got sick. He found that they’d all contracted a similar but milder disease, cow pox, which vaccinated them against the deadly smallpox. 他不去研究得了天花的患者，而去研究接触天花却从未染上此病的人。他发现他们都患了一种类似天花但比较轻微的疾病：牛痘；牛痘使他们得以防止染上致命的天花。
They were refocusing the parameters. They were redefining the problems. 他们在重新看待相关的各种因素。他们在重新认识他们的问题。
They were reframing the questions.他们在重新表述他们的问题。
In short, they were doing what every scientist who’s ever made an important discovery throughout history has done, according to Thomas Kuhn, in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: They were shifting old paradigms.总之，据托马斯·库恩在他的《科学革命的结构》一书中所言，他们正做着历史上有过重大发现的科学家都曾做过的事：他们在改变旧的范式。
But if this had been a workbook exercise in school, every kid who didn’t circle tomato would have been marked wrong. 但假若我们的游戏是学校里做在作业本上的练习，那么没有把西红柿圈出来的孩子全都会被批为答错。
Every kid who framed the question differently than “Which is not a fruit?” would have been wrong. 凡是没有把问题解读为”哪个不是水果”的孩子都是错的。
Maybe that explains why so many of the world’s most brilliant scientists and inventors were failures in school, the most notable being Albert Einstein, who was perhaps this century’s most potent paradigm-shifter.也许这种情形说明了为什么世界上最杰出的科学家和发明家中有那么多的人读书时是不及格的学生。其中最引人注目的是阿尔贝特·爱因斯坦，他也许是本世纪最有影响的范式改变者。
This is not meant to be a critique of schools. Lord knows, that’s easy enough to do. 这样说，并不是想对学校评头品足。天知道，发一通议论太容易了。
This is, instead, a reminder that there are real limits to the value of information. 这样说，不过是想提醒大家信息的价值实在是有限的。
I bring this up because we seem to be at a point in the evolution of our society where everyone is clamoring for more technology, for instant access to ever-growing bodies of information. 我提出这一点，是因为我们的社会似乎发展到了这样一个阶段，人人都大声要求得到更多的技术，大声要求即刻享用不断增多的信息。
Students must be online. Your home must be digitally connected to the World Wide Web. 学生们必须联机。你们家必须用数码与环球信息网连通。
Businesses must be able to download volumes of data instantaneously. But unless we shift our paradigms and refocus our parameters, the super information highway will lead us nowhere.企业必须能即时下载大量资料。但是，除非我们改变范式、重新看待相关的各种因素，否则，信息高速公路就不会给我们带来什么结果。
We are not now, nor have we recently been suffering from a lack of information. Think how much more information we have than Copernicus had four centuries ago. 无论是现在还是最近，我们都不缺信息。试想我们拥有的信息比四百年前的哥白尼多了多少。
And he didn’t do anything less Earth-shattering (pun intended) than completely change the way the universe was viewed. 但他作出了足以震撼地球的（权作双关语）惊人之举，完全改变了人们对宇宙的看法。
He didn’t do it by uncovering more information--he did it by looking differently at information everyone else already had looked at. 他作出此举不是靠发现更多的信息，而是靠用不同的眼光来看大家都看到过的信息。
Edward Jenner didn’t invent preventive medicine by accumulating information; he did it by reframing the question. 爱德华·詹纳不是靠积累信息发明预防药物，而是靠重新表述问题。
What we need as we begin to downshift onto the information highway is not more information but new ways of looking at it. 当我们开始驶入信息高速公路时，我们所需要的不是更多的信息，而是看信息的新方法。
We need to discover, as my kids did, that there is more than one right answer, there is more than one right question and there is more than one way to look at a body of information. 我们应该像我的孩子所做的那样，去发现有一个以上的正确答案、有一个以上正确的问题、有一个以上看一堆信息的方法。
We need to remember that when you have only a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
我们应该记住：当你只有一把锤子时，你往往把每个问题都看作钉子。
