精美英文欣赏:孩子起名学问大

Baby Names

孩子起名学问大

Few decisions are more personal than the naming of offspring.

给自己的孩子取名完全是个人私事，

Yet laws regulating the choice of both first names and surnames are common around the world.

但世界上对孩子取名有所限制的国家还真不少。

Denmark expects new parents to choose from a register of acceptable names;Portugal lists banned and approved ones.

丹麦希望父母给孩子取名在可接受的范围之内；葡萄牙明确规定了哪些名字禁止使用和允许使用。

In Iceland a committee of language specialists must rule on any unusual name.

在冰岛，任何不合常规的名字都必须经过一个语言专家小组的审核。

German registrars¹ prohibit the use of most nouns and place-names,and also frown upon any that do not clearly imply a gender:bad luck, Kim.

德国登记官禁止用常用物名和地名给孩子取名，也不喜欢性别不甚明了的名字，比如基姆。

Experts at a German-language society run a helpline offering advice to puzzled parents.

德语专家开通了收费的热线电话来给不明就里的父母提供帮助。

Governments argue that these rules prevent children being saddled with preposterous² names that may cause them problems in later life.

政府称如此是为了使孩子免受滑稽名字之累，比如Sinbin，这样的名字会给他们未来的生活带来麻烦。

They also aim to block names that might cause offence to others.

他们也会驳回容易引起他人反感的名字，比如耶稣滚蛋。

Even where registrars have no power of prohibition,worrisome choices can be referred to judges or to child-protection agencies.

即使在登记官职责范围之外，只要取名有可能引起麻烦，也会被提交评审机构或是儿童保护组织。

In 2009 a couple in New Jersey³ lost custody⁴ of a boy they had named Adolf Hitler.

2009年新泽西的一对夫妇丧失了一名男孩的监护权，因为他们给他起名为阿道夫?希特勒。

Less noble concerns play a role, too.

即使不算鹤立鸡群，但出类拔萃的名字也有麻烦。

First names that imitate lofty titles remain the most frequently disallowed⁵ in New Zealand.

寓意高贵的名字在新西兰被频频驳回，

Registrars often frustrate⁶ enterprising parents trying to name their infants Justice, King, Prince,Baron and Duke.

登记官常给激情满怀的父母泼冷水，他们给孩子的取名包括法官、国王、王子、男爵、公爵。

Strict laws in Sweden once aimed to stop people creating family names that imitated those already in use,says Staffan Nystrm at Uppsala University.

乌普萨拉大学的Staffan Nystrm说，在瑞典，曾有严格法律禁止人们造出一些模仿现有姓氏的新姓氏，

Requests to change a last name must still pass through the patent office there.

就算现在，更改姓氏也仍需经过专门委员会的同意。

Patriarchy remains⁷ entrenched⁸ in countries like Italy that refuse to allow married women to pass their maiden⁹ names on to their children,even in a double-barrelled surname.

在意大利这样的父权占主导地位的国家，不可以让孩子从母姓，从父母双姓也不可以。

Over time, the rules have eased.

随着时间的推移，取名限制开始放松。

France scrapped¹⁰ its saint-strewn list of acceptable names in 1993.

法国1993年取消了他们的取名可用权威名单，

Two years later Iceland stopped requiring immigrants to adopt local names.

两年后冰岛不再要求移民取当地名字。

The new constraint¹¹ is technological¹², not bureaucratic¹³.

新的限制抛弃了传统思维而考虑了技术因素。

Government databases may struggle with long names:New Zealand allows 100 characters for all first names;the state of Massachusetts has a limit of 40 for each.

政府的数据库深受冗长名字之苦：新西兰规定人名不能超过100个字母，马萨诸塞州只允许使用40个。

Chinese face a particular difficulty:their language has tens of thousands of characters,but a name that uses archaic¹⁴ or rare ones can mean computer problems.

中国更是苦恼：汉字数以万计，使用古汉字和稀有汉字的名字会给计算机输入带来很大麻烦。

Japanese parents with a penchant¹⁵ for the arcane¹⁶ face similar difficulties.

对神秘字符有特殊嗜好的日本父母面临着同样的困难。

1 registrars   

n.主管注册者( registrar的名词复数 )；记录者；登记员；注册主任

参考例句：

• Authorization Code is required when attempting to transfer a domain between registrars. 当域名要转移注册商时需要授权代码。 来自互联网
• Only IATF registrars are authorized to conduct the surveillance audit. 仅仅IATF登记官被授权进行监视审计。 来自互联网

2 preposterous   

adj.荒谬的，可笑的

参考例句：

• The whole idea was preposterous.整个想法都荒唐透顶。
• It would be preposterous to shovel coal with a teaspoon.用茶匙铲煤是荒谬的。

3 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

4 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

5 disallowed   

v.不承认（某事物）有效( disallow的过去式和过去分词 )；不接受；不准；驳回

参考例句：

• The judge disallowed that evidence. 法官驳回那项证据。 来自辞典例句
• Her claim was disallowed on the ground(s) that she had not paid her premium. 她要求赔款遭到拒绝，原因是她事先没有交纳保险费。 来自辞典例句

6 frustrate   

v.使失望；使沮丧；使厌烦

参考例句：

• But this didn't frustrate Einstein.He was content to go as far as he could.但这并没有使爱因斯坦灰心，他对能够更深入地研究而感到满意。
• They made their preparations to frustrate the conspiracy.他们作好准备挫败这个阴谋。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 entrenched   

adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯)

参考例句：

• Television seems to be firmly entrenched as the number one medium for national advertising.电视看来要在全国广告媒介中牢固地占据头等位置。
• If the enemy dares to attack us in these entrenched positions,we will make short work of them.如果敌人胆敢进攻我们固守的阵地，我们就消灭他们。

9 maiden   

n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的

参考例句：

• The prince fell in love with a fair young maiden.王子爱上了一位年轻美丽的少女。
• The aircraft makes its maiden flight tomorrow.这架飞机明天首航。

10 scrapped   

废弃(scrap的过去式与过去分词)； 打架

参考例句：

• This machine is so old that it will soon have to be scrapped. 这架机器太旧，快报废了。
• It had been thought that passport controls would be scrapped. 人们曾认为会放开护照管制。

11 constraint   

n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物

参考例句：

• The boy felt constraint in her presence.那男孩在她面前感到局促不安。
• The lack of capital is major constraint on activities in the informal sector.资本短缺也是影响非正规部门生产经营的一个重要制约因素。

12 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

13 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

14 archaic   

adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的

参考例句：

• The company does some things in archaic ways,such as not using computers for bookkeeping.这个公司有些做法陈旧，如记账不使用电脑。
• Shaanxi is one of the Chinese archaic civilized origins which has a long history.陕西省是中国古代文明发祥之一，有悠久的历史。

15 penchant   

n.爱好，嗜好；（强烈的）倾向

参考例句：

• She has a penchant for Indian food.她爱吃印度食物。
• He had a penchant for playing jokes on people.他喜欢拿人开玩笑。

16 arcane   

adj.神秘的，秘密的

参考例句：

• The technique at one time was arcane in the minds of most chemists.这种技术在大多数化学家心目中一度是神秘的。
• Until a few months ago few people outside the arcane world of contemporary music had heard of Gorecki.直至几个月前，在现代音乐神秘殿堂之外很少有人听说了戈莱斯基。