A Report On The Translation Of The Chapter 1 Of What We Cannot Know: Explorations At The Edge Of Knowledge

The translation material comes from the first chapter of What We Cannot Know: Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge,which is popular science book by Marcus du Sautoy,a professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.The book is filled with vivid language,interesting stories and much cutting-edge scientific knowledge in fields from quantum physics and cosmology,to sensory perception and neuroscience.The advances in science and technology play a crucial role in social civilization.In the modern world,almost countries attach much importance to the development of this field,so the translation activities about popular science book have important implications for disseminating knowledge and enriching translation books of this filed.This translation report covers translation task description,translation process description,translation case analysis and the conclusion,of which the case analysis is the key part.The author conducts an analysis of vocabulary,syntax and discourse difficulties with specific translation cases related to nouns,adjectives,verbs,attributive clauses and appositive clauses,long sentences and so on,which involve many translation skills such as lexical conversion,addition,division and integration,so as to present translation with accurate and smooth language.After the practice,the author summarizes the translation experience in popular science,and realizes the importance of translation tools and the indispensable background knowledge in this translation process,so the translator will continue to learn the knowledge of science,and enhance the English-Chinese competence.A certain contribution would be made by this report for the translation and research in popular science translation books.