| With the rapid development of global economy and technology,environmental problems and ecological damage are becoming increasingly serious.To achieve sustainable development,human beings must recognize the symbiotic relationship between human and nature,so as to continuously improve the ecological environment.A(Very)Short History of Life on Earth belongs to natural science texts in English for Science and Technology(EST).Translating such texts well is of great significance to deepen readers’ understanding of the development of the Earth’s environment,the evolution process of life and the close relationship between man and nature,and to enrich the domestic natural science field related data.The original text selected for this translation report are chapters 1 to 8.Based upon the Functional Equivalence Theory of Eugene Nida,a famous American scholar,this report analyzes some typical translation cases from the lexical,syntactic and textual levels,so as to explore the application of relevant translation methods and techniques to deal with the above-mentioned problems.Firstly,technical terms,semi-technical terms and common words are distinguished based on the actual text,and the translation methods of conversion,abstraction,amplification and omission are adopted to translate the words.And then,the translation strategies,such as change of voices,splitting,transposition and so on are employed to handle passive voice and longish and complex sentences.The textual translation is dealt with in terms of style and logic.Through the above translation methods,the author decodes the original information faithfully to improve the readability of the translation,finally achieving the functional equivalence between the language level and the communication level,so as to provide some reference to the E-C translation of EST texts.Based on the research of Functional Equivalence Theory as well as the application of this theory in translating EST texts,the present author holds that this theory can provide effective guidance for translating EST texts,help to solve the difficult problems encountered in the translation process to improve the quality of the translation.In this way,the target language readers can fully understand the natural science and technology and the writer’s point of view in the original text,thus achieving the important purpose of scientific text communication and exchange of the latest scientific information in EST texts. |
