A Report On The E-C Translation Of The Biology Of Agroecosystems(Chapters 8-9)

The Biology of Agroecosystems is a book that provides an introduction to the biological and ecological attributes of ecosystems and the biological impacts of agriculture on the wider environment,covering the characteristics of different types of agroecosystems,the conflicts between management of land for productivity and conservation of natural resources,and some of the key biological issues.The book is of certain reference significance to the sustainable development of agroecosystems in China,so the translator excerpts its chapters 8 and 9 as the source text for this English-Chinese translation practice.This report first conducts an analysis of the source text based on Reiss’ s text typology theory and concludes that it is an informative text.In light of Reiss’ s translation theory,three translation principles of informative texts are analyzed,namely,fidelity,completeness and readability,based on which the translator presents how she deals with the difficulties encountered in translation at the lexical,syntactic and textual levels with specific examples.At the lexical level,fidelity principle is followed,and literal translation,annotation,free translation,transliteration are employed to address terminologies to accomplish “accuracy,specialization and unity”.At the syntactic level,in accordance with the principles of completeness and readability,division and inversion translation methods are applied to deal with long and complex sentences,and techniques of using non-subject sentences and converting passive to active are adopted to handle some passive sentences,and also the conversion of parts of speech is used to cope with some nominalized structures to make the translation more congruent with the characteristics of the target language.At the textual level,guided by the principles of completeness and readability,translation methods including omission,repetition,and substitution are adopted to make the translation more cohesive and coherent.At last,the translator summarizes her gains and experience in this translation practice and expresses her expectations for the future.The whole report consists of four parts: task description,translation process,case analysis,and summary.The primary purpose of this translation practice is to convey the text’s information objectively to the target readers,hoping it is of help to our country’s future agricultural development.