汉译英看着容易，其实难点在于要准确理解我们认为我们一眼看过去就能理解的句子和词语，然后找到英语中能恰当表达这个意思的词语。只有真正理解原词语后才能把它们的意思准确翻译出来。看下面的例子：
中国社会常常讥讽某人好名，某人爱出风头，其实只不过醋酸在暗暗作怪，恨自己没有露一手，一旦有机会可以露一手，也会照露一手不误。一个人如果连荣誉心都没有，连好名声都不愿博取，则该人啥丧天害理的事，都可能干得出。人之异于禽兽者，在于人好名，禽兽不好名也。
第一句中“好名”和“爱出风头”中的动词在翻译时要根据原句真正的意思进行选词，这里指的是有些人try to obtain，那么动词用seek就可以。
“名”指的是名声，声誉，用fame，“出风头”指的是有些人表现自己，炫耀自己，喜欢成为公众注意的中心，那么用limelight比较合适。“醋酸在暗暗作怪”指的是嫉妒别人，jealous就可以表达这个意思。
第一个原句很长，可以采用断句的方式，把翻译成两个英文句子，即，把“一旦有机会可以露一手，也会照露一手不误”拿出来单独译成一个句子。需要注意的是，在翻译“也会照露一手不误”时，为了避免和“一旦”前面的“露一手”重复，可以不用动词show off，译成do exactly the same即可。整个句子可译成：
In China, people are likely to ridicule someone who seeks fame or the limelight simply because people are jealous of him, regretting that they haven’t got a chance to show off like him. Given a chance, they think, they would certainly do exactly the same.
根据原文第一句和第二句的内在关系，我们可以增加介词短in effect。这个句子可以按照汉语的句子顺译：如果没有……，不愿……，那么。前面用否定句式。也可以是条件句部分用肯定句的形式，“则”处用otherwise（否则），这样也表达出了原文的意思，句子就是肯定形式表达否定意义，即：
In effect, everyone has a sense of honor and intends to get oneself a good reputation. Otherwise, it would be quite possible for him to do anything wicked and immortal.
原句的第三句中的“在于”是因为的意思，我们可以用because，as等，但用in that更恰当，因为in that更书面一些。从整个原文段落的文体看，in that优于其他同义连词。句子译为：
Man differs from beasts in that man cares for fame whereas beasts are indifferent to it.
段落参考译文：
In China, people are likely to ridicule someone who seeks fame or the limelight simply because people are jealous of him, regretting that they haven’t got a chance to show off like him. Given a chance, they think, they would certainly do exactly the same. In effect, everyone has a sense of honor and intends to get oneself a good reputation. Otherwise, it would be quite possible for him to do anything wicked and immortal. Man differs from beasts in that man cares for fame whereas beasts are indifferent to it.
