A successful translator must have an excellent, up-to-date knowledge of his source language, full facility in the handling of his     1     language, which will be his mother tongue or language of habitual use, and a knowledge of the latest subject-matter in his fields of specialization. This is his professional     2    . In addition to this, it is desirable that he should have a (n)     3     mind, wide interests, a good memory and the ability to grasp quickly the basic principles of new developments. He should be willing to work on his own, often at high speeds, but should be     4     enough to consult others should his own knowledge not always prove adequate to the task in hand. He should be able to type fairly quickly and     5     and if he is working basically as an information translator, let us say, for an industrial firm, he should have the flexibility of mind to enable him to switch     6     from one source language to another, as well as from one-subject-matter to another, since this ability is frequently required of him in such work. Bear in mind the nature of the translator’s work is the     7     of the written word; it is, strictly speaking, unnecessary that he should speak the language he is dealing with. If he does speak them, it is a (n)     8     rather than a weakness, but this skill is in many ways a luxury that makes no much difference to him. It is, however,     9     that he should have a rough idea about the pronunciation of his source languages, even if this is restricted to     10     how proper names and place names are pronounced.

I am not an enthusiastic air traveler. Bustling through airports, getting checked by security, and standing in lines leave me     1    . But road trips are different. While the transit time is longer, opportunities to get off the beaten path(常走的路) make it     2    . I see places and interact with people and cultures that I otherwise tend to miss, rediscovering how far you can go and how much you can experience without leaving the United States. So, when my son said he wanted to tour the Kansas State University campus after receiving an admission offer, we threw our luggage and a case of bottled water in the car and     3     the highway. One attraction of traveling at the speed of a car is the transitions. Arizona's Meteor Crater(陨石坑), Two Guns, and Painted Desert give way to New Mexican villages, then farm towns. Red rocks become open plains and grain elevators are the only features     4     above endless miles of flatness.

That flatness poses an unexpected challenge when there's nothing to step behind. Eating on the road can also be a challenge. For basic food, Anthony and I relied on Subway sandwich shops, which offer the same reliable fare(饭菜) at every location. While not exactly a     5     of local cuisine, they didn't leave us regretting lunch when we returned to clocking miles. Salads were curiously difficult to find in the college town of Manhattan, Kansas, although we had no     6     about the burgers and barbecue.

In contrast to airport excursions, which often feature conflicts and even confrontations, our trip was entirely     7    . When you meet folks in their natural environment after hours of changing scenery, it's easier to remember just how big the world is and to     8     that many of its inhabitants are perfectly happy living     9    , and there's no reason they shouldn't be.

As it turned out, the greatest source of stress was the frequent reminder that my son changes     10     like he's afraid of missing a sharp turn. Fortunately, that's a travel headache that can be fixed.