Translation and Summary
Translation and Summary tests whether you can carry meaning across languages and condense a passage without changing its stance. Translation items require natural English, not word-for-word substitution. Summary items require the main claim plus essential support, with examples and repetition removed.
Core rules
- Divide a Japanese sentence into meaning units: topic, comment, condition, contrast, result. Build English in English word order.
- Make the subject and tense explicit. English often needs a subject, article, or plural marker that Japanese does not show.
- Translate set phrases by function: 「住みやすい」 means “comfortable to live in,” not “easy to live” word by word.
- Preserve negation, modality, comparison, and contrast. Do not turn “not as … as” into “more … than.”
- For a summary, identify the writer’s main claim, then keep two or three essential supporting points. Omit examples, lists, and repeated wording.
- Use your own wording but keep names, numbers, and logical connectors accurate.
Worked example
Japanese: 「この町は昔ほど静かではないが、住みやすい。」 Translation: “This town is not as quiet as it used to be, but it is still a comfortable place to live.” Reasoning: 「昔ほど…ではない」 is a comparison meaning “not as … as it used to be.” 「が」 marks contrast, so “but” is appropriate. 「住みやすい」 describes livability, not silence. “Still” makes the contrast natural in English without adding a new fact.
Traps that cost marks
- Translating each word and keeping Japanese order.
- Dropping a negative or changing “but” to “so.”
- Summarizing by copying whole sentences instead of condensing.
- Adding personal opinion or outside information to a summary.
- Omitting articles or plural endings that change meaning.