一个英国人的汉译英试译（以此接得某大项目）

lai an wrote:

Yueyin

Thank you for the above link.
In this particular industrial context, I think I prefer the Thesaurus entry 6.: 'pitch - any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue'.

Coal-tar pitches are used primarily as the binder for aluminum smelting electrodes (IARC 1984). They also are used in roofing materials, to impregnate and strengthen refractory brick (for lining industrial furnaces), and in surface coatings, such as pipe-coating enamels and black varnishes used as protective coatings for industrial steelwork and as antifouling paints for boats. Hard pitch is used as a binder for foundry cores. Coke-oven pitch is used to produce pitch coke, which is used as the carbon component of electrodes, carbon brushes, and carbon and graphite articles. Distillation fractions and residues from high-temperature coal tars are used for road paving and construction and in the production of naphthalene, recovery of benzene, production of anthracene paste, briquetting of smokeless solid fuel, impregnation of electrodes and fibers, and manufacture of electrodes and graphite (IARC 1985).

OSHA believes that removal of petroleum asphalt from coverage under the Coal Tar Pitch Volatiles (CTPV) Standard was appropriate based on both scientific and technical considerations. Data indicate that there are qualitative and quantitative chemical differences between the volatiles arising from coal tar and asphalt. For example, a 1982 study by Niemeier et al., comparing the skin carcinogenicity of "roofing asphalt" and "coal tar pitch" fumes reported that the asphalt fume material contains less than one percent aromatic hydrocarbons (the hydrocarbons listed in 1910.1000 as CTPV's) while the coal tar pitch fume contains more than 90 percent aromatic hydrocarbons. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) criteria documents for asphalt (1977) and coal tar products (1977) support this distinction. In addition, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' 1966 Documentation of Threshold Limit Values leaves little doubt that the recommended limit of 0.2 mg/m3 for CTPV's was not intented to apply to volatiles arising from asphalt because of this quantitative difference.

OSHA does recognize, however, that asphalt fumes can present a health hazard to employees. This Agency is presently reviewing the degree of this hazard with NIOSH in order to determine the urgency of undertaking rulemaking on asphalt. Your letter will be considered as a petition for OSHA to develop a new standard for asphalt and will be responded to upon conclusion of our deliberations with NIOSH.

wherestip wrote:

煤焦沥青(coal-tar pitch)、石油沥青(petroleum asphalt)、天然沥青(natural/native asphalt)

nigerose wrote:
另外关于asphalt和bitumen。词源不同。
前者
Middle English aspalt
fromMedieval Latin asphaltus
fromGreek asphaltos

后者
Middle English bithumen[ a mineral pitch from the Near East ]
中古英语 bithumen[ 近东的一种沥青 ]
fromLatin bitumen
源自拉丁语 bitumen
[ perhaps of Celtic origin ]
[ 可能源于凯尔特语的 ]

ysun wrote:

In my opinion, when some terms in an original document are ambiguous, a translator has no obligation to make them clear. He is allowed to keep them ambiguous in the translation.

wherestip wrote:

I agree, Yueyin. The segment provided of the original text wasn't specific enough to be conclusive of some of the details. Using a generic term would be the way to go in vague situations like this.

Like you said, use of the term "powders" for 粉料 falls in the same category.

ysun wrote:

Steve,

I agree with you. So, both asphalt and pitch are correct for 沥青 unless the rest of the Chinese document indicates more specifically what kind of 沥青 it is.

粉料 in this context may be powders of 石油焦, 无烟煤, 冶金焦 and the like. Since the source text is about production of 碳素产品, I can say that a major component of the 粉料 is carbon powder. Here is an article about 炭素/碳素.

http://knology.chinaccm.com/phrase-2006030712063300372.html

lai an wrote:

@ Steve Thanks for the vid - I hadn't seen it before. We used to listen to a version of the story on the radio (Sunday Morning Request Session). We even had the original book at home. The clip you posted seems to be missing a section. I found the full 2nd part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4D470YSl2Y&feature=related.

lai an wrote:
http://www.continentalrollomixer.com/videos/citrus_fertilizer.php