The rent and utilities coverage in the country

[vectra]

Hello all,

Today, teaching a translation class, my students and I tried to translate the following sentence into Russian. The idea is to show them that there are a lot of words in English which have multiple meanings. Alas, there is no context.

The rent and utilities coverage in the country is gradually growing and will reach as much as 80% by this July.

What does the rent and utilities coverage mean? Maybe the number of people who regularly pay the rent and utilities bills?

Thank you for your help in advance.

 

[bhaisahab]

Hello all,

Today, teaching a translation class, my students and I tried to translate the following sentence into Russian. The idea is to show them that there are a lot of words in English which have multiple meanings. Alas, there is no context.

The rent and utilities coverage in the country is gradually growing and will reach as much as 80% by this July.

What does the rent and utilities coverage mean? Maybe the number of people who regularly pay the rent and utilities bills?

Thank you for your help in advance.

As it stands, it doesn't have any clear meaning. You say there is no context, where did you find it?

 

[vectra]

Hello,
It is a textbook by a professor of linguistics from Byelorussia that we took these examples from. There is a list containing eight sentences attached to this chapter. That is all.
Here is this list:
1. The company's directing agency is located in Detroit.
2. This can hardly be treated as a free article. You'll have to include the funds for the customers clearing.
3. Competitive capacity of enterprises is number one issue.
4. The rent and utilities coverage in the country is gradually growing and will reach as much as 80% by this July.
5. Price gap has become the main reason for many domestic goods being brought out of the country.
6. They have been speculating on margin for a couple of years now.
7. The new chief executive officer was appointed in May.
8. The immediate task is to temper the impact of inflation.

As you see, there are no links or any mention from where these sentences come.
I do understand the students are majoring in international economics and need the basics of translating. But when we start doing such exercises, I want to scream.
Just to make classes in translation more interesting, I have started creating short video films ESL Video Quiz: Take that! and ask the students to translate the transcripts into Russian using wikis as a collaborative project and invited some guru-interpreters from Moscow to judge this project. But we have to use some textbooks as well.
This is the way the story goes.

 

[5jj]

I think you will have to accept that your book has come up with a sentence that does not have any clear meaning.

 

[vectra]

Hello,

Yes, I agree. But anyway, I have to return to this exercise later and point out that this is a good example of how not to use sentences for translation without context.
In future I will need to double-check the material myself. I might substitute some exercises and even chapters to make life easier for students.
Too busy doing the E-Moderator Essentials course run by the British Council Ukraine.

Thank you.