Question

I keep hammering this because I keep seeing people who don’t do it.

1. Look up English to Elvish.

2. Look up the Elvish word in the best Elvish dictionary you have, and, preferably, find out the context（上下文） in Tolkien’s language dictionary.

3. Change the word to suit rules of grammar: singular or plural, mutations, verb tenses, etc.

You cannot leave out any of these steps. If you do, you’re almost certain to have errors. Why you have to do step 2:

Languages never match up one- to-one. English and Elvish are closer than usual, but there are still problems. And English has strange idioms: why are there no baths or beds in public bathrooms or restrooms? You can’t translate literally（逐字地）. You have to understand the meaning behind each word.

In Elvish this is even more true, since our dictionaries contain more or less questionable reconstructions, and words that Tolkien later threw away or replaced. Find the best one you can.

Consider the word “fair”. We tend to use it to mean “just”. Tolkien tends to use it to mean “beautiful”. In Elvish, these are two entirely different words. So when you look up “fair”, you’ll have to go to the Elvish dictionary to see that you’ve got the right one.

Consider the nightmare（噩梦） of He left the bar. Is “left” the opposite of “right” （which also has two meanings） ? Is “bar” extruded steel（型材钢）, or something to do with law? You have to know what words mean in both languages.

And you’d be amazed at how many people ignore step 3, forgetting that language is more than a string of words, and there are rules about how to fit those words together. You can’t simply look up the word “I” and use it everywhere. Sometimes you need “me” or “my”. There’s a reason it takes a while to learn a language: you have to learn the rules.

It drives me completely mad when people give a questionable translation they insist is right because “it’s in the dictionary”. A dictionary is a tool, a resource. but its entries（词目）should not be mistaken for a finished product. They are raw materials.

The underlined word “this” in paragraph 1 refers to         .

A. consulting the dictionaries when translating between languages

B. finding out the true meaning in context

C. ignoring the rules of grammar

D. leaving out some of the three steps the author mentions

According to the author, you have to do step 2 because         .

A. you have to understand the meaning behind each word

B. Elvish and English are quite different in forms

C. there are no baths or beds in public bathrooms

D. Elvish has some words which are hard to find

Grammar is also very important because it         .

A. helps fit the words together

B. takes a while to learn a language

C. is a rule to obey

D. is often forgotten in translating

In the last paragraph, the author shows         .

A. his impatience to those who insist their wrong translation is right

B. his puzzle to the questionable translation

C. the importance of the correct use of dictionaries

D. the mistaken entries in the dictionaries

The passage is mainly about how to         .

A. learn a foreign language with a dictionary

B. avoid errors when looking up a dictionary

C. understand the meaning of a strange word

D. use a dictionary to translate between languages

Answer 1

【小题1】D

【小题1】A

【小题1】A

【小题1】C

【小题1】D

解析:

略