“2014上半年翻译资格考试笔译初级考点预测”提供给各位考生备考，希望对大家有所帮助！
The American and the English
1) Of the intrinsic differences that separate American from English the chief have their roots in the obvious disparity between the environment and traditions of the American people since the seventeenth century and those of the English.2) The latter have lived under a relatively stable social order and it has impressed upon their souls their characteristic respect for what is customary and of good report.3) Until the World War brought chaos to most of their institutions their whole lives were regulated perhaps more than those of any other people save the Spaniards by a regard for precedent.4) The Americans though partly of the same blood have felt no such restrain and acquired no such habit of conformity.5) On the contrary they have plunged to the other extreme for the conditions of life in their country have put a high value upon the precisely opposite qualities of curiosity and daring and so they acquired that character of restlessness that impatience of forms that disdain of the dead hand which now broadly marks them.
参考译文
许多本质上的不同造成了美语从英语中分出来。而主要的不同是两种语言根植于两个完全不同的社会环境和文化传统。自欺欺人17世纪来，美国人和英国人在这两方面的差异十分明显。英国人相对说来生活在一个相对稳定的社会秩序里。这种秩序铭记在他们心灵里的是对习惯上和名誉上的东西有一种特有的尊敬。虽然第一次世界大战改变了他们大多数的风俗习惯，但在这之前，他们的全部生活，或许比其他任何民族的生活，除西班牙人，都更受到先例的制约。而虽然美国人中一部分的祖先是英国人，但他们没有这种约束。也没有这种一致性习惯的要求。相反，他们走到了另一个极端，因为他们国家的生活状况使他们看重的是好奇和冒险这恰恰相反的品质，这样他们养成的是不安现状，厌烦形式主义，藐视旧势力的影响的个性。这些个性在他们身上普遍反映出来。
（责任编辑:秩名）
