最新官网上的argument题库及对应翻译(八)_GRE写作

最新官网上的argument题库及对应翻译(八)

　　56The following appeared as part of a recommendation made by a faculty member to the president of a large university.

　　Never once in our 150-year history as a university have we clarified our objectives. How, then, can we hope to adapt as an institution to the new challenges facing higher education. As a first step in this evolutionary process, therefore, we should send out questionnaires asking faculty members why they teach, asking students what they want from this university, and asking former students what they gained from their own education here. When the replies come in, we can tabulate them and formulate an official statement of our educational mission. This will surely result in improved programs at our university.

　　57There is a general idea that a translation always fails to preserve some of the qualities that distinguish the original work ― i.e., that something always gets lost in translation. Writers, critics, and the general reading public unthinkingly accept this clich. But this belief is unwarranted: translators are sometimes distinguished authors themselves, and some authors may even translate their own works. As the translator pointed out in the preface to an English version of Dantes works, the violin and the piano make different sounds, but they can play what is recognizably the same piece of music.

　　58There is a general idea that waiters and waitresses are more likely to receive larger gratuities from large groups of people. A recent research study suggests this is not true. The researchers examined the relationship between the size of tips in restaurants and the number of meals charged on the bill. They found that, while most tips were around 15 percent, the minimum percentage considered appropriate, people dining alone tipped consistently more and those dining in groups of four or more tipped considerably less than this 15 percent standard. These results strongly suggest that people dining in a group are less likely to feel personally responsible for leaving an adequate or generous tip.