A Translation Report On A Play For Oil-The Stories Behind The Discovery And Development Of Oil And Gas (Chapters 1-2)

Petroleum geology is a common research area of the world and indispensable for the modem life of mankind.However,many books about petroleum geology are very professional with professional terms and style.For non-professionals,it is quite challenging to understand the relevant knowledge in this field.The source text of this translation report is excerpted from the book A Playfor Oil—The Stories Behind the Discovery and Development of Oil and Gas,published by Springer Nature in 2018.The theme of this book is what the author has seen and heard in the field of petroleum geology.This book is a comprehensive text,which describes professional content in the field of petroleum geology as well as the author's working and life experiences in the past three decades.Besides,this book is intended for English-speaking oil industry practitioners,geologists and non-professionals interested in oil and gas resources.The translator chooses chapter 1 and chapter 2 of this book as the source text of this translation practice.The author of this book,Tim Daley,been working in the petroleum geology industry for more than 30 years,combines his own experiences with related rock knowledge in the first chapter,and narrates the process and characteristics of oil formation in the second chapter.A Play for Oil—The Stories Behind the Discovery and Development of Oil and Gas is simple and clear,which is an excellent introduction to the petroleum geology field for all members of the general public interested in how hydrocarbon resources are discovered.This translation report consists of six parts,which are Introduction,Introduction to the Source Text,Translation Process,Theoretical Foundation,Case Analysis and,Conclusion.The first chapter introduces the background,purpose and significance of the translation project.The second chapter gives a brief introduction to the content of the source text and its language features including the lexical features and stylistic features.The third chapter states the translator's translation process including pre-translation,while-translation and post-translation.The fourth chapter explains the theoretieal foundation of the translation.The fifth chapter is case analysis,the core of this report,which describes the translation difficulties encountered by the translator and the strategy and methods used to deal with hose difficulties.Taking Peter Newmark's Communicative Translation Theory as the guiding principle,the translator generalizes the difficulties in the process of this translation practice.The difficulties are reflected by correctly understanding the abstract nouns,faithfully and accurately conveying the information of source text,and flexibly translating the long and complicated sentences,and passive sentences.Under the gridance of Peter Newmark's Communicative Translation Theory,the translator adopts translation strategies and methods such as free translation,reconstruction of sentences,and change of passive voice so as to accurately convey the source text's information and give the target readers the feeling of the original text.The sixth chapter is the summary of the translator's experience and deficiencies in this translation project.This translation project enables the translator to have a better understanding of the petroleum geology,expands her knowledge,and improves her translation competence.In this translation practice,the translator has mastered some translation methods and language features of petroleum geological texts,which can provide some experience and guidance for her future translation work.