3 comments: see 1., 2., and 3., below
Explanation:
1. I chose "as a backdrop to", as opposed to "against a background of", because it is in more general use in "newspaperese", which is the register your sentence is in.
I just ran an Alta Vista search for the phrase "as a backdrop to" and got 2,935 pages using this phrase. Here is the heading for one of the hits on the first page of the Alta Vista search results: 8. Pat Buchanan uses GE as a backdrop to blast NAFTA
2. "On the basis of" = based on the following reasons. However, as we all know, from innumerable news stories on the subject, there have been many, many drug seizures and athlete disqualifications across the board, in sports. We also know, from the same news sources, that the Olympic Committee hasn't been very good at checking on its competitors, giving rise to subsequent scandals. This information is the "background/backdrop" for the Committee's decision to do more testing. That is, there is no logical cause-effect between the drug seizures and the scandals. Rather, the OC has adopted more stringent testing in response to the **criticism** of its negligence. By the way, don't use "athletic" with "disqualitifications" -- disqualifications can't be athletic, studious, or any other such human trait; English uses nouns to modify other nouns, where French is limited to using adjectives; in this case, the disqualifications pertain to the athletes.
Here is what Termium has for *on the basis of* (note that it labels it a translation/language problem!):
French:Translation
Language Problems
à partir de s
en partant de s
à en juger s
en tenant compte de s
à la suite de s
sous réserve de s
sur le vu de s
en fonction de s
EX - la validité de la loi économique de [...] doit être démontrée ou réfutée à partir du comportement économique [...] (SAM 481) s
EX - C'est en partant de cette hypothèse et [...] s
EX - À en juger par les chiffres moyens que le Groupe a dégagés [...] s
EX - Les affectations vacantes sont attribuées en tenant compte de l'aptitude physique [...] s
EX - à la suite des rapports, l'Assemblée a fait des recommandations [...] s
EX - [...] verser la contribution sur le vu des factures présentées. s
3. I am puzzled by your mention of "Rule of thumb". I assume that the quotation marks do not mean that you are quoting me, since I didn't write anything of the sort in my answer. Do you mean that "rule of thumb" is a generally-accepted standard for translation? If so, which aspect of the translation process did you have in mind?
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If you wish to continue this discussion, you may contact me at:
[email protected]
Better yet, may I recommend that you get in touch with my ex-student (ex-, because he has now graduated from college), Matt Brumbaugh. You and he appear to have been using the KudoZ function for pretty much the same purposes: to hone your translation skills. An excellent use of KudoZ, of course... But I also believe, from the inquiries the two of you have been posting, that you are at about the same stage in your development into translators. It would be beneficial to both of you to share your questions/doubts, and use each other as "sounding boards" for your translations. Since you both seem to be reading news stories, then working on translations of them, why not agree ahead of time which ones you will be working on, then sharing your translations once you have finished? "Peer editing" is a very useful practice for improving one's writing skills--here's your chance!!!
Matt's e-mail address is: [email protected]
I am also forwarding this message to Matt, to try to expedite your getting in touch with each other. :-))
Good luck in your translation endeavo(u)rs!
Yolanda Stern Broad, Ph.D.
ProZ Moderator for the French to English Community
Reference: http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=q&kl=XX&q=%22as+a+...
| Yolanda Broad
United States
Local time: 13:43
Native speaker of:  English
PRO pts in pair: 1551
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