【正文】 show that context indeed plays a very significant role in translation studies and practice. However in the field of translation, context has already bee a hot point in translators and translation theorists in China. But most of them only studied a single aspect, or certain elements that influence context. Now this essay studies the importance of context from three aspects: linguistic context, situational context, cultural context. This essay consists of six chapters. The first chapter is the introductory part, which reflects the significance of the study coupled with its aims in writing as well as the whole structure of this essay. The second chapter is about the theoretic background of the study on context. In the first part, the author reviews the development of the theory of context. The third chapter reflects the nature of context. It concerns the definition. and classification of context. At the same time, it discusses how context influences translation. The fourth chapter deals with linguistic context and translation which include two parts. Here the meaning of linguistic context contains word context and sentence context. And the first part is going to discuss how the linguistic context influences translation, ambiguity, antonyms and synonyms. While the second part forces on the relationship between sentence context and translation through substitute, ellipsis and so on. The fifth chapter mainly concerns on situational context and translation. This chapter introduced the concept of register which is consists of field, mode, and tenor. And at the beginning of the chapter gives different examples to explain the relations between these three factors and translation. Meanwhile, the translation of rhetoric is included in the part of mode. The sixth chapter talks about the cultural context and translation .At first。 cultural context Contents Chapter One Introduction??????????????????????? Chapter Two Theoretic Background of the Study on Context???????? Previous theoretic exploration in context Malinowski’s contribution to the study of context Firth’s theoretic studies of context Halliday’s theoretic studies of context Other theoretic investigations into context Chapter Three On Context Contextual elements involved in translation Linguistic context Nonlinguistic context Situational context Socialcultural context How context influences translation Chapter Four Linguistic Context and Translation Word context The change of words’ meaning in munication Ambiguity Polysemy Homonymy Antonyms and synonyms Antonyms in pairs Synonyms in pairs Sentence Context The change of sentence’ s meaning in munication Sentence context’ s essential factors Substitution Ellipsis Conjunction Repetition The confirmation and explanation of the sentence context Chapter Five Situational Context and Translation The concept of register Field Translation in different fields Mode Translations in different modes Rhetoric Tenor Four divisions of the tenor Translation in different tenors Chapter Six Cultural Context and Translation Cultural context and translation Cultural context and prehension Cultural context and representation The difference of thinking patterns and translation The difference of historical background and translation The difference of geographic culture and translation The difference of religious culture and translation Conclusion Bibliography Acknowledge Chapter One Introduction As a kind of information system, language is unique to human society. The munication with languagethe transmitting and receiving of information, appears only in particular circumstance and are affected by them. So context plays a very important role for a translator to understand the texts and it also helps the reader to interpret the meaning. The famous translation theorist, Peter Newmark, has said in his famous book Approaches to Translation ( 1982:113) that “ context is the overriding factor in all translation, and has primacy over any rule, theory, or primary meaning.” The relation between context and translation is just like the relation between water and fish. In the field of modern linguistics, context plays a more important role. While in the field of translation, context has bee the highlight of translators as well as their theorists in our country. However, most of them have only studied a certain problem or aspect that influence context. As we know, translation is a sophisticated language social activity. It not concerns on the wordtoword translation. “ Translation is a municative progress which takes place with in a social context.” (Hatim amp。說不定他會娶個十足的鄉(xiāng)下人的女兒，沒有一點教養(yǎng)。 while in “ 這藥早晚各吃一次” ,“早晚” means “ in the morning and evening” . So although the meaning of a single word is understand by the people using the same language, it would change when in munication course the influence of the words in the context. Without context, it is impossible for us to define which kinds of words express concept which kinds do not. Ambiguity Ambiguity is not the same as vagueness, and there are three main aspects: phonological ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, syntactic ambiguity. As to lexical ambiguity, there are only two that cause it： polysemy and homonymy. As we know, many words in both English and Chines