1) I am afraid I can't teach you swimming. I think my little brother is a betterteacher than I.
我未必會教你游泳。我想我的小弟弟比我教得好。
2) Talking with his son, the old man was the forgiver of the young man's past wrong doings.
在和兒子談話時,老人寬恕了年輕人過去所干的壞事。
3) Although he was always the "background" briefer on foreign policy issues, he could never be identified as anything other than "a White House official" or "a high Administration source."
雖然外交問題的“背景情況”總是由他介紹,但他仍只能稱為是“一位白宮官員”或“一位政府高級人士”。
上例中的teacher,forgiver,briefer如直譯為“教師”、“寬恕者”和“匯報者”,既不符合原文含義,又不合乎漢語表達習慣,所以應該轉譯成動詞。但She is a well-known singer一句中的“singer”確是指她的職業(yè),所以只能譯成名詞:“她是一位著名的歌唱家”。而Some of my classmates are good singers這一句中的singer則顯然不是指他們的職業(yè),所以還是應該譯成動詞:“我們班同學中有些人唱歌唱得很好”。