Section 1: English-Chinese Translation (50 points)

It was just one word in one email, but it triggered huge financial losses for a multinational company.

The message, written in English, was sent by a native speaker to a colleague for whom English was a second language. Unsure of the word, the recipient found two contradictory meanings in his dictionary. He acted on the wrong one.

Months later, senior management investigated why the project had flopped, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. “It all traced back to this one word,” says Chia Suan Chong, a UK-based communications skills and intercultural trainer, who didn’t reveal the tricky word because it is highly industry-specific and possibly identifiable. “Things spiralled out of control because both parties were thinking the opposite.”

When such misunderstandings happen, it’s usually the native speakers who are to blame. Ironically, they are worse at delivering their message than people who speak English as a second or third language, according to Chong.

The non-native speakers, it turns out, speak more purposefully and carefully, typical of someone speaking a second or third language. Anglophones, on the other hand, often talk too fast for others to follow, and use jokes, slang and references specific to their own culture, says Chong.

“The native English speaker is the only one who might not feel the need to accommodate or adapt to the others,” she adds.

Non-native speakers generally use more limited vocabulary and simpler expressions, without flowery language or slang. And then there’s cultural style, Zurich-based Michael Blattner says. When a Brit reacts to a proposal by saying “That’s interesting”, a fellow Brit might recognise this as understatement for, “That’s rubbish.” But other nationalities would take the word “interesting” on face value, he says.

In Berlin, Dale Coulter, head of English at one language course provider, saw German staff of a Fortune 500 company being briefed from their Californian HQ via video link. Despite being competent in English, the Germans gleaned only the gist of what their American project leader said. So among themselves they came up with an agreed version, which might or might not have been what was intended by the California staff.

It’s the native speaker who often risks missing out on closing a deal, warns Frenchman Jean-Paul Nerriere, formerly a senior international marketing executive at IBM.

“Too many non-Anglophones, especially the Asians and the French, are too concerned about not ‘losing face’ — and nod approvingly while not getting the message at all,” he says.

“When trying to communicate in English with a group of people with varying levels of fluency, it’s important to be receptive and adaptable, tuning your ears into a whole range of different ways of using English”, says Jenkins, professor of global Englishes at the UK’s University of Southampton.

“People who’ve learned other languages are good at doing that, but native speakers of English generally are monolingual and not very good at tuning in to language variation,” she says.

In meetings, Anglophones tend to speed along at what they consider a normal pace, and also rush to fill gaps in conversation, according to Rob Steggles, senior marketing director for Europe at a telecommunications company.
He recommends making the same point in a couple of different ways and asking for some acknowledg- ement, reaction or action.（出自www.bbc.com/capital/story/20161028-native-english-speakers-are-the-worlds-worst-communicators mtizt.com注）

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Section2: Chinese-English Translation (50 points)

气候变化已不是单纯的环境保护问题，而成为人类生存与发展问题。中国需要改变以煤为主的能源结构和高污染、高能耗的产业结构，以治理环境和应对全球气候变化。同时，积极应对气候变化也是中国参与全球治理的责任，也是实现可持续发展的迫切需要。中国作为世界最大的发展中国家，需要积极推动经济与能源的转型，以推动全球可持续发展。

长期以来，中国高度重视气候变化问题，把积极应对气候变化作为国家经济社会发展的重大战略，把绿色低碳发展作为生态文明建设的重要内容，采取了一系列行动，为应对全球气候变化做出了重要贡献。

到2020年单位国内生产总值二氧化碳排放比2005年下降40%-45%，非化石能源占一次能源消费总量的比重达到15% ， 森林面积比2005年增加4000万公顷，森林蓄积量2005年增加13亿立方米。

中国还将在农业、林业、水资源等重点领域和城市、沿海、生态脆弱地区形成有效抵御气候变化风险的机制，提高抵抗能力。（原文出自中国向联合国气候变化框架公约秘书处提交的应对气候变化国家自主贡献文件《强化应对气候变化行动 ——中国国家自主贡献》 mtizt.com注）

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