Translation answer keys

Try to follow these important three steps:

1. Read the full excerpt;
2. Mark key words and expressions that might present some extra difficulty;
3. Do not automatically translate the text before understanding its meaning and how it would be written in English.

“Seria inócua, portanto, qualquer reforma que não adotasse uma perspectiva abrangente e de longo prazo. 

It would be meaningless/innocuous, therefore, any reform that would not adopt a comprehensive/an encompassing and long-term perspective/outlook.

Era preciso conceber um programa sério de reformas profundas, dedicadas a alterar as estruturas da sociedade, os hábitos e as hierarquias, as instituições e os valores. 

It was paramount/essential to conceive/create a serious program of profound reforms, dedicated to change social structures, habits and hierarchies, institutions and values. 

Não havia como conceber a abolição, por exemplo, sem uma reforma agrária, sem aquilo que Nabuco chamava de ‘constituição da democracia rural’, por intermédio da difusão da pequena propriedade no campo. 

It was impossible to conceive the abolition, for instance, without an agrarian reform, without what Nabuco called the ‘construction of rural democracy’, through the diffusion of the small property in the countryside/small countryside property. 

Uma operação complementava a outra. 

One operation supplemented/completed the other.

Dar-se-ia o mesmo com a introdução de medidas destinadas a garantir e valorizar o trabalho, estabelecer uma legislação trabalhista, promover a educação e inaugurar a previdência social, promovendo desta forma a emancipação de todos os trabalhadores.”

The same happened with the introduction of measures destined/dedicated to guarantee and value/appreciate/cherish labor, establish a labor legislation, promote education, and introduce social security, thus/thereby promoting the emancipation of all workers.”

*Note: When using the linking words thus or thereby in the middle of a sentence, follow the term with the gerund form of the verb:  

• "thus promoting (…)"