翻译原文

The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets.

Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade's worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997. Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.

"No one should be surprised at the increased disparity, Analysts attributed the widening gap to the wave of layoffs in the economic downturn that have devastated household budgets. They said while the richest Americans may be seeing reductions in executive pay, those at the bottom of the income ladder are often unemployed and struggling to get by.

翻译评析

看了这次的E-C翻译，不出所料，依然以经济为热点。如果同学们在之前的复习中cover到0709，0903真题以及常见的经济热门词（包括在考前讲座中我们也依旧将它列为重点），那么将这个段落翻对应该不成问题。

我整理了整个篇幅中的一些经济相关词，便于大家回顾：

recession 衰退

economic gap 贫富差距

disparity 差距

layoff 下岗

hit 打击

ripple 波动

ravage 破坏

wipe out 抵消

devastate 加重

downturn 低糜

除了掌握了以上词汇，同学们也可以通过上下文推断出所对应的相近意思，比如文中的“median income”，有部分同学会认为是“中等家庭收入”，但根据上下文，此处的“median”相当于“average”。如果考生们可以在翻译过程当中，一边根据上下文判断一边完善句子翻译，才能翻出上乘的佳作。