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Four score and seven years ago our father brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
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Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
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八十七年前，我们的先辈们在这个大陆上创立了一个新国家。它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生来平等的原则。
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现在我们正从事一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家，或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行上述原则的国家能否长久存在下去。我们在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。烈士们为使这个国家能够生存下去而献出了自己的生命，我们来到这里，是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们作为最后安息之所。我们这样做是完全应该而且非常恰当的。
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美国第35任总统John F. Kennedy在其就职演说中有如此一句：
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We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficiently beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
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我们不敢以软弱去引诱他们，因为，只有当我们的武器毋庸置疑地达到了充足的地步，我们才能毋庸置疑地确信：这些武器将永远“入库”。
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此话的最后一个词是employed。employ一词，源自Middle English的emploien，另一说是源自Old French的emploier，是典型大词。假若大词employed被“小词”used所取代，总统就职演说之庄重美将如何消失于瞬间！they will never be employed被译成：这些武器将永远“入库”，值得赞许。借用汉语“刀枪入库，马放南山”之说，比翻译成“这些武器将永远不被使用”要显得庄重。
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3.1.2 传递委婉
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大词，还是用于语意扬升（inflating and magnifying）的最有效手段之一。所谓语意扬升法，指用一些比较温和、刺激性较少的词语代替难听的禁忌语以求避讳和文雅，用美好动听的词语代替中性词，以迎合人们的自尊和虚荣心理。
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试比较，注意左“小”右“大”之变：
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garbage collector（清洁工）→sanitary engineer（直译：清洁工程师）
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file clerk（档案管理员）→research consultant（直译：研究顾问）
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mechanic（机修工）→automobile engineer（直译：汽车工程师）
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dry cleaner（干洗工）→dry cleaning engineer（直译：干洗工程师）
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school principal（中小学校长）→educational engineer（直译：教育工程师）
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teacher（老师）→educator（直译：教育家）
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barber（理发师）→hair stylist（直译：发型设计师）
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undertaker（承办葬仪者）→mortician（直译：承办殡葬者）→funeral director（直译：丧葬承办者）
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把原本寻常的工作冠以high-sounding titles，有时甚至委婉地表达了一些不便明说的话。又如在以下的译例中，大词的频频出现，措辞委婉含蓄，精确地传达出写信人的迟疑、不安、欲试探虚实的心态。谈到存在先父与对方的不和时，用了subsist这么个大词，用了at variance with这么一个罗嗦的表达，就是为了传达那一份委婉和含蓄。
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Dear Sir,
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The disagreement subsisting between yourself and my late honoured father, always gave me much uneasiness, and since I have had the misfortune to lose him, I have frequently wished to heal the breach; but for some time I was kept back by my own doubts, fearing lest it might seem disrespectful to his memory for me to be on good terms with any one, with whom it had always pleased him to be at variance.
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亲爱的先生：
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以前您与先父之间曾有些芥蒂，这一直使我感到不安。自先父不幸弃世以来，我常常想到要弥补这个裂痕；但我一时犹豫，没有这样做，怕的是先父生前既然对阁下惟恐仇视不及，而我今天却来与阁下修好，这未免有辱先人。
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3.1.3 传递和谐
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