BEIJING—Eating at a Beijing restaurant is usually an adventure for foreigners, and particularly when they get the chance to order “chicken without sex life” or “red burned lion head”.
Sometimes excited but mostly confused, embarrassed or even terrified, many foreigners have long complained about mistranslations of Chinese dishes. And their complaints are often valid(有效), but such an experience at Beijing’s restaurants will apparently soon be history.
Foreign visitors will no longer, hopefully, be confused by oddly worded restaurant menus in the capital if the government’s plan to correctly translate 3,000 Chinese dishes is a success and the translations are generally adopted.
The municipal(市政) office of foreign affairs has published a book to recommend English translations of Chinese dishes, which aims to help restaurants avoid bizarre translations. “It provides the names of main dishes of famous Chinese cuisines in plain English,” an official with the city’s Foreign Affairs office said. “Restaurants are encouraged to use the proposed translations, but it will not be compulsory.” It’s the city’s latest effort to bridge the culture gap for foreign travelers in China.
Coming up with precise translations is a daunting task, as some Chinese culinary(烹饪) techniques are untranslatable and many Chinese dishes have no English-language equivalent. The translators, after conducting a study of Chinese restaurants in English-speaking countries, divided the dish names into four categories: ingredients, cooking method, taste and name of a person or a place. For some traditional dishes, pinyin, the Chinese phonetic system, is used, such as mapo tofu(previously often literally translated as “beancurd made by woman with freckles”), baozi(steamed stuffed bun) and jiaozi(dumplings) to “reflect the Chinese cuisine culture,” according to the book.
“The book is a blessing to tourist guides like me. Having it, I don’t have to rack my brains trying to explain Chinese dishes to foreign travellers,” said Zheng Xiaodong, a 31-year-old employee with a Beijing-based travel agency.
“I will buy the book as I major in English literature and I’d like to introduce Chinese cuisine culture to more foreign friends,” said Han Yang, a postgraduate student at the University of International Business and Economics.
It is not clear if the book will be introduced to other parts of China. But on Tuesday, this was the most discussed topic on weibo.com, China’s most popular microblogging site.
小题1:What’s the best title of the passage?
A．An adventure for foreigners who eat in Beijing.
B．Confusing mistranslations of Chinese dishes.
C．Chinese dishes to have “official” English names.
D．The effort to bridge the culture gap.小题2: “chicken without sex life” or “red burned lion head” are mentioned in the beginning of the passage to show .
A．some Chinese dishes are not well received
B．some Chinese dishes are hard to translate
C．some Chinese dishes are mistranslated
D．some Chinese dishes are not acceptable小题3:What measure has the municipal office taken?
A．Recommending a book on Chinese dishes.
B．Advocating(提倡) using precise translation for Chinese dishes.
C．Publishing a book on China’s dietary habits.
D．Providing the names of main Chinese dishes.小题4:What’s the meaning of daunting in paragraph 5?
A．confusing
B．disappointing
C．discouraging
D．Worthwhile
小题1:C
小题2:C
小题3:B
小题4:C
题目分析：本文介绍了在北京，对中文菜肴的错误翻译导致了外国客人的误解，最后北京政府出台了官方的建议菜肴名。
小题1:C 主旨大意题。本文讨论的主要是中国的菜肴有了英文名，就不再会有这样那样的尴尬了。故C正确。
小题2:C 推理题。根据第二段1,2行Sometimes excited but mostly confused, embarrassed or even terrified, many foreigners have long complained about mistranslations of Chinese dishes.说明这些中文的菜名被错误的翻译了，故C正确。
小题3:B 细节题。根据文章第四段1,2行The municipal(市政) office of foreign affairs has published a book to recommend English translations of Chinese dishes, which aims to help restaurants avoid bizarre translations.说明现在官方采用了统一的菜名并建议大家都使用，故B正确。
小题4:C 推理题。根据本句Coming up with precise translations is a daunting task,以及本段内容说明这是一个不容易的事情，因为中国的菜肴里含有太多难以翻译的东西。故C正确。
点评：本文对考生的要求较高，要在阅读理解整体语篇的基础上，把握文章的真正内涵。要吃透文章的字面意思，从字里行间捕捉有用的提示和线索，这是推理的前提和基础。要忠实于原文，以文章提供的事实和线索为依据。立足已知，推断未知。立足现在，猜测未来。不能主观臆想，凭空想象，随意揣测，更不能以自己的观点代替作者的观点;