An English Translation Report Of The 6th And 7th Chapters Of Discovering The Western Past

Discovering the Western Past is the western history textbook of the popular Discovering series published by Cengage Learnig in 2007. It provides a broad range of both visual and written sources. Along with evidence, the book also provides explicit suggestions about how one might analyze that evidence, guiding students as they reach their own conclusions. Above all, this book possesses the unique pedagogical framework, including The Problem, Sources and Method, The Evidence, Questions to Consider and The Epilogue. It attempts to help students learn the skills used by historians. Not only will these skills--- analyzing arguments, developing hypotheses, comparing evidence, testing conclusions and reevaluating material---enable students to master historical content, they will also provide the necessary foundation for a productive, meaningful life beyond college.The book is worth translating, since in similar historical materials, it possesses a unique pedagogical framework, which can provide a new type of teaching method for Chinese history teachers and offer a more practical skill for Chinese students to analyze history. Meanwhile, it will be an important and easy way for other readers to learn the history of Medieval Europe. I chose Chapters Six and Seven because I have a keen interest in humanistic history of Medieval Europe and, as a university student, I want to figure out the differences between medieval universities and modern universities. The two chapters will make Chinese readers know the symbolic meanings of symbols and ceremonies in Medieval Europe and compare the medieval universities life with those in our modern universities, thus having a deeper understanding of Medieval Europe.The translation report has four parts. The first part is the introduction of the task and the source text; the second part is about the preparation before starting to do the translation, potential problems found during the preparation and the theory and strategies that are used in general for the translation, especially my consideration of skopos theory, domestication and Yan Fu’s “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance”; the third part is the case study, discussing the details in the translation; the last part is the summary of what is gained from the translation.