北京科技大学研究生英语课文及翻译(重点标注)

Unit 1 Move Over, Big Brother

Unit1 老大哥，移过去一点

[1] Living without privacy, even in his bedroom, was no problem for Louis XIV. In fact, it was

a way for the French king to demonstrate his absolute authority over even the most powerful members of the aristocracy. Each morning, they gathered to see the Sun King get up, pray, perform his bodily functions, choose his wig and so on.

[1] 对路易十四而言，即使在卧室里生活没有隐私都不是问题。事实上，这是这位法国君主向那些甚至是最为显赫的贵族展示自己绝对君权的一种方式。每天早晨，这些权贵们聚集在一起观摩太阳王起床、祈祷、上厕所、挑假发等活动。

[2] Will this past—life without privacy—be our future? Many futurists, science-fiction writers and privacy advocates believe so. Big Brother, they have long warned, is watching. Closed-circuit television cameras often track your moves; your mobile phone reveals your location; your transit pass and credit cards leave digital trails. Now there is the possibility that citizens are being watched.

[2] 过去这种生活——没有隐私的生活——会成为我们的未来吗? 许多未来学家、科幻小说作家和隐私权倡导者都确信会这样。他们一直提醒人们“老大哥”在监视着我们。闭路电视摄像头常常跟踪你的行动；你的手机会泄露你所在的位臵；你的过境证和信用卡会留下数码痕迹。现在公民有可能正受到监视。

[3] But in the past few years, something strange has happened. Thanks to the spread of mobile phones, digital cameras and the internet, surveillance technology has become far more widely available. Bruce Schneier, a security guru, argues that a combination of forces—the miniaturisation of surveillance technologies, the falling price of digital storage and ever more sophisticated systems able to sort through large amounts of information—means that "surveillance abilities that used to be limited to governments are now, or soon will be, in the hands of everyone."

[3] 但是，在过去的几年中，某种奇怪的事情发生了。由于手机、数码相机和互联网的普及，监视技术被更为广泛地利用。保安专家布鲁斯·施奈尔认为，监视技术的微型化、数字存储设备价格的下降以及能够处理大量信息的更为尖端的系统的出现等因素的结合，意味着“监视能力曾经只由政府掌握，现在或在不久的将来，会掌握在每个人手中。”

[4] Digital technologies, such as camera phones and the internet, are very different from their analogue counterparts. A digital image, unlike a conventional photograph, can be quickly and easily copied and distributed around the world. Another important difference is that digital devices are far more widespread. Most people take their camera phones with them everywhere.

[4] 数字技术产品，如可拍照手机及互联网，与模拟技术同类产品大不相同。数字图像与传统照片不同，能被迅速、便捷地复制并传遍全球。另外一个重大不同是数码设备的使用更为广泛。大多数人都随身携带着可拍照手机。

[5] The speed and ubiquity of digital cameras lets them do things that film-based cameras could not. In October, for example, the victim of a robbery in Nashville, Tennessee, used his camera-phone to take pictures of the thief and his getaway vehicle. The images were shown to the police, who broadcast descriptions of the man and his truck, leading to his arrest ten minutes later.

[5] 数码照相机的快速和普及使它们能做到使用胶卷的照相机做不到的事情。比如，10月份，田纳西州纳什维尔一宗抢劫案的受害者用可拍照手机拍下了劫匪的照片和他逃走时使用的交通工具。警方看了这些照片后，在广播里描述了这名劫匪和他的卡车，10分钟后，此人便被抓获。

[6] The democratisation of surveillance is a mixed blessing, however. Camera-phones have led to voyeurisms and new legislation to strengthen people's rights to their own image. In September, America's Congress passed the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act, which prohibits the photography of various parts of people's unclothed bodies or undergarments without their consent. The legislation was prompted both by the spread of camera-phones and the growing incidence of hidden cameras in bedrooms, public showers, toilets and locker rooms. Similarly, Germany's parliament has passed a bill that outlaws unauthorized photos within buildings. In Saudi Arabia, the import and sale of camera-phones has been banned, and religious authorities have denounced them for “spreading obscenity.” South Korea's government has ordered manufacturers to design new phones so that they beep when taking a picture.

[6] 然而，监视行为的大众化有利有弊。可拍照手机导致了窥淫癖现象，从而导致了维护个人形象权的新法规的出台。9月份，美国国会通过了“防止录像窥淫法”，该法案禁止在未经本人同意的情况下对其裸露身体的各个部位或内衣拍照。该法案的出台是由于可拍照手

机的普及以及在卧室、公共浴室、卫生间和更衣室出现隐蔽摄像头事件的增加。同样，德国议会也通过了一项议案，禁止未经授权在建筑物内拍照。沙特阿拉伯完全禁止进口和销售可拍照手机，因为宗教权威认为可拍照手机“传播淫秽思想”而对其加以谴责。韩国政府也命令制造商设计新型手机，拍照时能够发出“哔哔”声。

[7] There are also concerns about the use of digital cameras and camera-phones for industrial espionage. Sprint, an American mobile operator, is now offering one of its bestselling phones without a camera in response to demands from its corporate customers, many of which have banned cameras in their workplaces. Some firms make visitors and staff leave camera-phones at the entrance of research and manufacturing facilities—including Samsung, the South Korean company that pioneered the camera-phone.

[7] 人们还担心数码相机和可拍照手机用于工业间谍活动。应公司客户需求，美国移动电话经营商斯伯林特公司推出一款没有拍照功能的热销手机。许多客户公司都已禁止把照相机带到工作场所。一些公司——包括最先推出可拍照手机的韩国三星公司——要求来访者和员工把可拍照手机留在研究和生产制造设施外。

[8] Cheap surveillance technology facilitates other sorts of crime. Two employees at a petrol station in British Columbia, for example, installed a hidden camera in the ceiling above a card reader, and recorded the personal identification numbers of thousands of people. They also installed a device to “skim” account details from users as they swiped their plastic cards. The two men gathered the account details of over 6,000 people and forged 1,000 bank cards before being caught.

[8] 廉价的监视技术方便了其他犯罪活动。比如，加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省的一家加油站的两名雇员在读卡机上方的天花板内安装了一个隐蔽的摄像头，记录了数千人的个人身份证号码。这两人还安装了一个仪器，当用户刷信用卡时，该仪器可以“扫描”他们账户的详细信息。时至被捕时，两人已收集了6000多人的账户信息，伪造了1000张银行卡。

[9] But the spread of surveillance technology also has its benefits. In particular, it can enhance transparency and accountability. More and more video cameras can be found in schools, for example. Web-based services such as https://www.wendangku.net/doc/e812501709.html, and https://www.wendangku.net/doc/e812501709.html, link to cameras in hundreds of American child-care centers, so that parents can see what their offspring (and those looking after them) are up to. Schools are also putting webcams in their classrooms. And tech firms such as Google have put webcams in their staff restaurants, so employees can delay going to lunch if they see a long queue.

[9] 但是，监视技术的广泛使用也有其益处。特别是它能提高透明度、加强责任感。比如，越来越多的摄像机被安装在学校里。像ParentWatch. com和KinderCam. com这样的网络服务商与美国上百家托儿所的摄像机联网，这样家长就可以看到他们的孩子（以及那些照看他们孩子的人）在做什么。学校也把网络摄像头设在教室里。像google这样的科技公司把网络摄像头设在员工餐厅内, 如果员工们看见打饭的队伍排得很长，就可以晚点去用餐。

[10] Steve Mann, a professor at the University of Toronto, calls the spread of citizen surveillance “sousveillance” —because most cameras no longer watch from above, but from eye level. Instead of being on top of buildings and attached to room ceilings, cameras are now carried by ordinary people. The video images of Rodney King being assaulted by police officers and the horrific pictures of prisoner abuse from the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq are the best known examples.

[10] 多伦多大学教授史蒂夫·曼把公民监视的普及称为“平视”，因为多数摄像机不再是俯瞰，而是来自眼睛的视角高度。现在，摄像机不再被高臵于楼顶并附在屋内天花板上，而是被普通人随身携带。最广为人知的例子就是罗德尼·金遭警察殴打的录像以及令人震惊的伊拉克阿布格莱布监狱虐囚照片。

[11] Camera-phones could have a profound effect on the news media. Camera-phones make everyone a potential news photographer. Unsurprisingly, old media is starting to embrace the trend. The San Diego Union-Tribune recently launched a website to gather camera-phone images of news events taken by their readers, and the BBC also encourages users of its website to send in pictures of news events.

[11] 可拍照手机可能对新闻媒体产生深刻的影响。可拍照手机使每个人都有可能成为新闻摄影师。旧媒体正开始欢迎这种趋势，这并不奇怪。最近，《圣地亚哥联合论坛报》创办了一个网站，专门征集读者用可拍照手机拍摄的新闻照片。英国广播公司也鼓励访问其网站的用户上传自拍的新闻事件图片。

[12] Companies and governments will have to assume that there could be a camera or a microphone everywhere, all the time, argues Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future. Unsafe conditions in a factory or pollution at a chemical plant are harder to deny if they are not just described, but shown in photos and videos. Animal-rights activists, for instance, operate online

multimedia archives where people can store and view graphic images from chicken farms, slaughterhouses and fur factories. Such material can cause outrage among consumers, as was the case with videos of dolphins caught in tuna nets.

[12] 未来学会的保罗·塞福认为，公司和政府将不得假设照相机或麦克风有可能无时无刻无所不在。如果工厂的危险环境或化工厂的污染情况不仅仅是被描述一下，而且还能通过图片和录像展示出来，那么厂方就很难抵赖了。比如，动物权利保护者创办了网上多媒体档案库，人们可以在此存储并查看拍摄自养鸡场、屠宰场和皮毛加工厂的生动图像。用金枪鱼网捕捉海豚的录像等材料会使消费者义愤填庸。

[13] Last year, a German member of parliament was caught photographing a confidential document of which only a few copies were handed out (and later collected) at a background meeting on health-care reform. Some Berlin politicians are said to let reporters eavesdrop on fellow parliamentarians by calling them right before an important meeting—and then failing to hang up, in effect turning their phones into bugs.

[13] 去年，一位德国议员在拍摄一份机密文件时被逮个正着。这份文件只在一次医疗保健改革的背景会议上分发了几份（而后又被收回）。据说，一些柏林政客让记者在一次重要会议前给他们打电话，然后不挂断电话，实际上把他们的电话变成了窃听器，让记者偷听其他议员的讲话。

[14] In November 1996, Senegal's interior minister was caught out when he admitted that there had been fraud in a local election, but failed to notice that a bystander was holding a mobile phone with an open line. The election was annulled. In the same country's presidential election in 2000, radio stations sent reporters to polling stations and equipped them with mobile phones. The reporters called in the results as they were announced in each district, and they were immediately broadcast on air. This reduced the scope for electoral fraud and led to a smooth transfer of power, as the outgoing president quickly conceded defeat.

[14] 1996年11月，塞内加尔内政部长没有注意到一个站在旁边的人拿着接通的手机，当承认地方选举有舞弊行为时被曝光。选举宣告无效。2000年，在该国总统选举中，电台派记者到每个计票站，并给他们配备了手机。每个选区的结果宣布后，记者就向电台打电话报告结果，然后电台马上播报。这就减少了选举作弊的机会，使得权力交接顺利进行，落选的总统很快承认失败。

[15] The social consequences of the spread of surveillance technology remain unclear. David Brin, author of The Transparent Society, suggests that it could turn out to be self-regulating: after all, Peeping Toms are not very popular. In a restaurant it is generally more embarrassing to be caught staring than to be observed with crumbs in your beard. “A photographically ‘armed’ society could turn out to be more polite,” he suggests, referring to an American aphorism that holds “an armed society is a polite society”. Alternatively, the omnipresence of cameras and other surveillance technologies might end up making individuals more conformist, says Mr. Brin, as they suppress their individuality to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves.

[15] 监视技术广泛使用的社会效应仍不明朗。《透明社会》一书的作者戴维·布雷恩提出，这将导致自我约束：毕竟，偷窥者不是很受欢迎。在饭店里，一般来说，被发现正盯着别人看比让人看到自己胡子上沾着面包屑更尴尬。他指出，美国有句格言说，“一个武装的社会是有礼貌的社会”，依此类推，“一个用照相机‘武装’的社会可能会变得更有礼貌”。布雷恩先生说，换句话说，摄像机及其他监视技术的无处不在可能最终使人更加循规蹈矩，因为他们会压抑个性以免他人过多地注意自己。

[16] The surveillance society is on its way, just as privacy advocates have long warned. But it has not taken quite the form they imagined. Increasingly, it is not just Big Brother who is watching—but lots of little brothers, too.

[16] 正如隐私权倡导者一直警告的那样，受人监视的社会即将到来，但并不是以他们想像的那种形态出现。注视着每个人的不仅仅只有“老大哥”——还有越来越多的小兄弟。

Unit 2 When Ancient Artifacts Become Political Pawns

Unit2 古代文物与当代政治

[1] As thousands lined up to catch a glimpse of Nefertiti at the newly reopened Neues Museum here, another skirmish erupted in the culture wars.

[1]柏林新博物馆最近重新开放了，这里成千上万的人排着长队，想看一眼奈费尔提蒂王后的半身雕像，文化战争的又一场冲突随即爆发了。

[2] Egypt’s chief archaeologist, ZahiHawass, a nnounced that his country wanted its queen handed back forthwith, unless Germany could prove that the 3,500-year-old bust of Akhenaten’s wife wasn’t spirited illegally out of Egypt nearly a century ago.

[2]埃及首席考古学家扎西·哈瓦斯曾经宣布，埃及要求德国立即归还奈费尔提蒂雕像，除非德国能够证明，有着3500年历史的、阿克那顿国王的王后的这尊雕像，不是一个世纪以前从埃及非法偷运出境的。

[3] “We’re not treasure hunters,” Mr. Hawass told Spiegel Online. “If it’s proven clearly that the work was not stolen,” he said, “there shouldn’t be any problem.”

[3]哈瓦斯先生对Spiegel在线说，“我们并非寻珍猎宝之徒，如果有确定的证据，证明这尊雕像不是偷运出境的，那就不存在任何问题。”

[4] Then he said he was sure the work had been stolen.

[4]之后他又说，他确信这件艺术品是被偷运出境的。

[5] Globalization, it turns out, has only intensified, not diminished, cultural differences among nations. The forces of nationalism love to exploit culture because it’s symbolic, economically potent and couches identity politics in a legal context that tends to pit David against Goliath.

[5]事实上，全球化不但没有缩小国家之间的文化差异，反而加剧了这种差异。民族主义势力热中于让文化为己所用，因为文化具有象征意义，有着巨大的潜在经济利益，而且文化使动辄引起纷争的身份政治有了合法的说法。

[6] Mr. Hawass also recently fired a shot at France, demanding the Louvre return five fresco fragments it purchased in 2000 and 2003 from a gallery and at auction. They belonged to a 3,200-year-old tomb near Luxor and had been in storage at the museum. Egypt had made the deman d before, but this time suspended the Louvre’s long-term excavation at Saqqara, near Cairo, and said it would stop collaborating on Louvre exhibitions.

[6]哈瓦斯先生最近还在法国放了一炮，他要求卢浮宫将五幅湿壁画残片归还给埃及。2000年和2003年，卢浮宫从一家美术馆和一次拍卖会上买到了这些残片。这些残片是从卢克索附近的一个有着3200年历史的古墓中发掘出来的，之后一直藏于卢克索博物馆。埃及此前提出过这种要求，但是这一次，埃及中止了卢浮宫在开罗附近的撒卡拉的长期发掘，并且声称将中止与卢浮宫在其会展中的合作。

[7] France got the message. It promised to send the fragments back tout de suite.

[7]法国很明白其中的意思，承诺立即将这些残片归还给埃及。

[8] It didn’t go unnoticed in Paris, Berlin or Cairo that Mr. Haw ass pressed his case about Nefertiti and suspended the excavations by the Louvre just after his country’s culture minister, Farouk Hosny, bitterly lost a bid to become director general of the United Nation’s cultural agency, Unesco. The post went late last month to a Bulgarian diplomat instead. Mr. Hosny would have been the first Arab to land the job, and Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, had banked a not insignificant amount of his own prestige on the minister’s getting it.

[8]巴黎、柏林和开罗不会没有注意到，哈瓦斯先生提出的归还奈费尔提蒂雕像以及中止卢浮宫的发掘活动的要求，正是在埃及文化部长法鲁克·赫斯尼竞选联合国的文化机构——联合国教科文组织——秘书长一职遭到惨痛失败之后提出的。这一职位在上个月下旬给了保加利亚的一位外交官。赫斯尼先生本可以成为获得这一职位的首个阿拉伯人，埃及总统赫斯尼·穆巴拉克以自己极大的威信打了保票，说部长将得到这一职位。

[9] But Jewish groups and prominent French and German intellectuals (not the Israeli government, though) campaigned against Mr. Hosny. When asked in Egypt’s Parliament last year about the presence of Israeli books in Alexandria’ s library, Mr. Hosny said: “Let’s burn these books. If there are any, I will burn them myself before you.” That prompted Eli e Wiesel, Claude Lanzmann and Bernard-Henri Lévy in Le Monde to urge that he not be selected, also quoting Mr. Hosny as saying in 2001, “Israeli culture is an inhuman culture” based on theft.

[9]但是一些犹太组织以及知名的法国和德国知识界人士（尽管不是以色列政府）发起了反对赫斯尼先生竞选的活动。去年，在埃及议会开会期间，有人就亚历山大里亚图书馆藏有犹太书籍一事问及赫斯尼先生，他说，“让我们一起烧掉这些书吧。假如真有犹太书籍的话，我会当着你的面亲自把它们烧掉。”这件事使得艾里·韦塞尔、克劳德·兰兹曼和伯纳尔-

亨利·列维在《世界报》上发表文章，呼吁阻止赫斯尼先生竞选，文章还引用赫斯尼先生2001年说过的话，他说以色列文化是建立在偷窃基础上的“野蛮文化。”

[10] After that Mr. Hosny told the same French newspaper that he was sorry for those remarks and “nothing is more distant to me than racism, the negation of others and the desire to hurt Jewish culture or any other culture.”

[10]此后，赫斯尼先生向这家法国报纸表示，他对自己的那些话表示遗憾，还说“种族主义，否定别人，以及伤害犹太文化或者任何其他文化的念头，是我最不能容忍的。”

[11] Then he failed to get the job and blamed the failure on a Jewish conspiracy.

[11]后来赫斯尼先生竞选失败，就将自己的失败归咎于犹太人的阴谋。

[12] “The conspiracy was bigger than you can imagine,” he told an Egyptian weekly.

[12]他对埃及一家周刊说，“这个阴谋之大，超出了你的想象。”

[13] In fact, what may have ultimately done Mr. Hosny in, aside from his closeness to an old, tired, dictatorial regime, was his suspected role, as an Egyptian diplomat in 1985, in protecting the perpetrators of a terrorist attack on a cruise ship, the AchilleLauro, during which a Jewish American tourist in a wheelchair was shot and pushed into the sea.

[13]事实上，最终导致赫斯尼先生竞选失败的原因，除了他与埃及古老的、陈腐的专制政权之间的密切关系之外，可能还有一个原因。1985年，在阿基尔·洛罗号邮轮上发生了一场恐怖袭击，当时他是埃及的外交官，有人怀疑他为袭击者提供了保护。在这次恐怖袭击中，一位犹太裔美国游客在轮椅中遭到枪杀后被推到海里。

[14] In any case, days after the Unesco decision, Mr. Hawass went after France and Germany. When questioned about the timing, he insisted there was no connection, saying he had asked the French to return the artifacts two months earlier. But that was when Mr. Hosny’s campaign had already started to fall apart. Likewise, Mr. Hawass has also said that his sudden announcement, in late August, of restoration work on an Egyptian synagogue had nothing to do with Mr. Hosny’s bid. It was just as clear back then that this was an attempt to assuage growing Jewish opposition to the minister.

[14]不管怎样，就在联合国教科文组织宣布竞选结果之后的几天，哈瓦斯先生就对法国和德国采取了行动。有人问及他的时机选择问题，他强调这两件事情之间根本没有联系，声称他两个月以前就已经向法国人提出了归还要求。但是那是在赫斯尼先生的竞选即将失败的时候。哈瓦斯先生还说，去年八月他突然宣布修复埃及境内的一个犹太教堂的决定与赫斯尼先生的竞选一事没有关联。这就不足为奇了。回想当时，很显然此举是为了平息日益高涨的犹太人对埃及部长的反对情绪。

[15] Over the years Egypt has occasionally made a bid for Nefertiti, when the political climate is ripe. Germans point out that Ludwig Borchardt, who discovered Nefertiti at Tel el Amarna in 1912, had Egyptian approval to take it to Berlin. Just the other day, Iraq repeated its demand that Germany return the Gate of Ishtar from the ancient city of Babylon, excavated and shipped to Berlin before World War I.

[15]这些年来，每当政治时机成熟的时候，埃及就不时地提出归还奈费尔提蒂雕像的要求。德国人指出，路德维希·博夏特于1912年在泰尔·埃尔·阿马尔那发现了这尊雕像，在埃及的官方许可下才把它带到柏林。就在几天前，伊拉克重申了要求德国归还巴比伦古城伊什塔尔城门的请求，这座城门是在一战之前发掘出来运到柏林的。

[16] In Iraq’s case, the government seems to be wagering that German ambivalence about the current war may help swing popular opinion here about giving back the gate, just as Saddam Hussein’s regime played the repatriation card in 2002 as a tactic in negotiating with the United Nations over letting weapons inspectors into the country.

[16]就伊拉克而言，政府似乎是在下赌注，认为德国对目前战争的矛盾立场也许有助于影响国内公众对于归还伊什塔尔城门的态度。这和2002年萨达姆·侯赛因政权的做法是一样的。当时的政权大打遣返牌，将其视为一种策略，与联合国就允许武器检查人员入境检查问题进行谈判。

[17] For the Egyptian public, Mr. Hosny’s defeat was another condemnation of the country’s stagnant leadership. “Defeat and failure and regression will keep following this regime, whose members’ policy is to stay in office forever,” wrote Mushin Radi, a Muslim Brotherhood Member of Parliament, in the daily Al-Dustour.

[17]对于埃及公众来说，赫斯尼先生的失败是对政府领导不力的又一责难。一位隶属穆斯林兄弟会的议员马辛·拉迪在《阿尔-达斯托日报》上发表文章说，“政府成员的策略是永远保住自己的位臵，这样的政府将不断遭到挫折、失败和倒退。”

[18] The country’s only potent weapon left m ay be antiquities. It plays to popular sentiment and national pride. While the art world likes to ponder the merits or misfortunes of seeing art

from one place in another place or the inequalities that have resulted from centuries of imperialist collecting, the real issue behind the Egyptian claims, as with so many others, is nationalism.

[18]埃及剩下的、唯一可能有效的武器或许就是文物了。文物牵引着公众的情感，展示着国家的自豪。艺术界偏向于反思文物辗转流落的兴衰得失，以及几个世纪以来由于帝国主义掠夺而造成的不公正现象，而隐藏在埃及文物归还要求背后的真正问题，和许多其他国家一样，是民族主义。

[19] Laws are laws, of course, and lootin g can’t be tolerated, although when decades or centuries have passed, laws have changed, populations shifted, empires come and gone, legal arguments can be dubious. But the larger truth is that all patrimony arguments ultimately live or die in the morally murky realm of global relations, meaning that modern governments like Egypt’s and Iraq’s may win sympathy today by counting on Western guilt about colonialism when asking for the return of art from ancient sites within their current borders. At the same time there’s no international clamor for Russia to return storerooms of treasures it stole from Germany at the end of the war, or for that matter, for Sweden to fork over the spoils of a war 350 years ago with Denmark. It’s about emotion, not airtight logic and consistent policy.

[19]当然，法律就是法律，趁火打劫是不能容忍的，尽管几十年、几个世纪已经过去了，法律发生了变化，人口迁移了，帝国兴亡更替，合法与否的争论可能说不清楚了。但是更大的事实在于，一切有关遗产的争论最终都存亡于全球关系这个道德沦丧的领域，就是说，像埃及和伊拉克这样的现代政府，通过要求归还其目前境内古文化遗址发掘出土的艺术品的做法，使西方对殖民主义产生愧疚感，藉此或许可以赢得世人的同情。虽说如此，俄罗斯在二战结束时从德国偷窃了难以数计的珍宝，现在国际上却没人大声疾呼，要求物归原主。也没有人要求瑞典交出其在350年前与丹麦的战争中掠夺的战利品。这其中关涉的是情感因素，而不是无懈可击的逻辑和一贯的政策问题。

[20] The vagaries of realpolitik, and a shifting sense of justice, determine these things. That’s not meant to sound cynical. Plenty of good arguments, legal, moral, intellectual, economic and artistic, support returning objects that came from Egypt back to Egypt, or from Greece back to Greece, or from Italy back to Italy. And plenty support the opposite: dispersing these artifacts around the world, where they can act as diplomats, benefiting not least the people who occupy the territories from which the art came.

[20]风云变幻的现实政治，正义含义的不断更迁，决定了这一切。这样说并非有意讽刺。有许多合理的证明，包括法律方面的、道德方面的、知识方面的、经济方面的和艺术方面的，都主张将埃及的文物归还给埃及，将希腊的文物归还给希腊，将意大利的文物归还给意大利。也有许多相反的证明，主张把这些文物散布到全世界，在所在地充当文化的使节，认为这样做尤其能让文物出土地的人们受益。

[21] Michael Slackman in The New York Times reported that while Mr. Mubarak’s government took Mr. Hosny loss as a rebuke, Mr. Hosny, like the government, is despised by many of Egypt’s cultural elite, for, among other reasons, having long enforced governm ent censorship. In the looking-glass world of Middle East relations, he only worsened his situation. His remarks about burning books were seen at home as the least he could have said to defend himself from a public that considered him too soft on Israel. Then he lost face for subsequently apologizing to Jews. Then he struggled to salvage his reputation after his defeat by blaming a Jewish-Zionist conspiracy.

[21]迈克尔·斯拉克曼在《纽约时报》上报道说，穆巴拉克先生的政府把赫斯尼先生的失败看成是一种叱责，而赫斯尼先生和埃及政府一样，受到了埃及许多文化界精英人士的鄙视。其中的一个原因是，埃及早就实行了政府审查制度。在颠三倒四的中东外交关系中，赫斯尼先生只能使自己的处境变得更糟。国内的公众认为他对以色列太软弱，他说的有关焚书的话，是他为了自保所能说的最底线的话。随后他向犹太人道歉，又让他丢了面子。于是，他竞选失败后，为了竭力挽回自己的名誉，就把责任归咎于犹太复国主义者的一场阴谋。

[22] That argument was “amplified by a government eager to limit its embarrassment after having staked its credibili ty” on him, as Mr. Slackman wrote.

[22]正如斯拉克曼先生所写的，这样的辩解“因为埃及政府的表现而显得夸大了，这个政府把信赖的赌注押在他身上，之后又急于减轻自身面临的尴尬。”

[23] Getting back Nefertiti would help on the score. So might flexing some archaeological muscle, even with no realistic expectation the bust will be returned. Either way, art becomes a political football.

[23]收回奈费尔提蒂雕像将会提升人气。显示一下考古方面的实力或许也行，哪怕雕像归还根本没有任何现实的可能。

[24] That’s what restitution often comes down to these days.

[25] Nationalism by other means.

[26] Politics by proxy.

[24]这就是当今归还文物要求的实质。

[25]通过其他途径达到民族主义的目的。

[26]一种代理政治。

Unit 3 At What Cost Beauty

Plastic surgery may have lost some of its stigma, but that doesn't mean the risks have vanished too.

Unit3 美丽的代价是什么

整形外科可能已经抹去了一些污名，但这并不意味着风险也突然消失了。

[1] It was not that long ago that the term makeover suggested little more than a new eye shadow or a dye job. Now it is just as likely to result in a straighter nose, larger breasts and a brow that won't furrow when confronted by even the most noxious odor. That attaining such features often involves anesthesia, injections, incisions, blood and a professional with at least seven years of medical training is a distinction increasingly lost on the general population.

[1]就在不久以前，“改变面貌”一词不过是指重新描一下眼影或者染一下头发而已，而现在改变面貌可能使人拥有更为挺直的鼻梁、更丰满的乳房以及即使闻到最恶臭的气味也不会出现皱纹的额头。把面貌改造成这个样子，常常要进行麻醉、注射、切开，可能流血，此外改造需要由经过至少7年医学培训的专业人员来完成──但这个特点越来越被大众所忽视。

[2] But plastic surgery does mean going under the knife, and lately there have been plenty of reminders of the risks involved. From May 2003 to January 2004, five people in Florida died following cosmetic plastic surgery, prompting the state's board of medicine to open an investigation. All five, ranging in age from 38 to 63, had their operations done in doctors' offices. One had a breast augmentation; another, surgery on his eyes, chin and neck; another had liposuction and a fat transfer; and two, liposuction and tummy tuck. Citing an “immediate danger to public health”, the board issued a 90-day moratorium on the two procedures being performed together in a non-hospital setting. A 54-year-old woman, the wife of a cardiologist, died of complications from plastic surgery last week while undergoing a procedure at one of New York City's most prestigious hospitals, the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, run by Sherrell Aston, husband of socialite Muffie Potter Aston. This is the same location where last month, in a case that made national headlines, The First Wives Club author Olivia Goldsmith, whose work often celebrated and satirized plastic surgery, died after seeking a cosmetic procedure. Both women died of complications from anesthesia.

[2]然而整形外科确实意味着经受一刀之苦。近来大量事实一直在提醒人们：做整形外科手术是有许多风险的。从2003年5月到2004年1月，佛罗里达州有5个人在接受了整容手术后死亡，这促使该州的医药委员会开展调查。这5个人的年龄从38岁到63岁不等。他们的手术都是在医生的诊所里进行的：一个是隆胸手术；一个是眼、下巴和颈部手术；一个(男性)是吸脂术和脂肪转移术；还有两个则是吸脂术和腹部打裥术。该委员会颁布了一项禁令，规定在90天内禁止在非医院环境中同时进行两种整形手术，称这是“公众健康当前面临的危险”。一位54岁的妇女，心脏病学家的妻子，在曼哈顿眼、耳、喉科医院接受整形外科手术时死于并发症。该医院是纽约市最负盛名的医院之一，由社交界名流穆菲·波特·阿斯顿的丈夫谢雷尔·阿斯顿主持。上个月在同一所医院里，《第一夫人俱乐部》的作者奥丽维娅·戈德史密斯在接受整容手术后身故，这件事在全国引起轰动，成为各家报纸的重要新闻。奥丽维娅的作品经常颂扬或调侃整形外科。这两位妇女都死于麻醉并发症。

[3] The vast majority of cosmetic procedures—both surgical, such as face-lifts and liposuction, and nonsurgical, like Botox and collagen injections—conclude without incident. But with the number of these operations growing—8.3 million in 2003, a 293% increase from 1997—things can end badly more often. Part of the problem may be that it is not necessary, from a legal standpoint, to be trained as a plastic surgeon to practice plastic surgery. All a person needs is a medical degree. Doctors can choose to become certified by the American Medical Association-recognized American Board of Plastic Surgery. For that, they must complete seven years of training, including a three-year residency in general surgery and at least two additional years of a residency in plastic surgery. But many doctors don't bother with the special training and practice the surgery anyway to supplement their incomes. Only two of the five doctors in the fatal Florida cases were board-certified. The woman who died after a breast augmentation was operated on by a doctor who specialized in dentistry.

[3]绝大部分整容手术──无论是手术操作(如面部除皱和吸脂)还是非手术操作(如波托克斯(Botox)和胶原注射)──都平安无事。但是随着此类手术数量的增加(2003年达830万起，比1997年增加了293%)，结局很糟糕的情况也会增加。一部分问题可能在于：从法律的观点看，实施整形外科手术的医师并不需要经过专业的整形外科培训。他们所需要的只不过是一个医学的学位。医生们可选择去接受由美国医学会认可的美国整形外科委员会颁发的证书。为此，他们必须完成7年的培训，包括在普通外科担任3年住院医师，以及在整形外科担任至少2年住院医师。但许多医生不想费事去接受专门培训。他们随随便便地从事整形外科工

作以增加他们的收入。在佛罗里达州的案例中，5名医生当中只有两名获得了美国整形外科委员会颁发的证书，给死于隆胸手术的那个妇女做手术的是一名牙科医师。

[4] Since doctors have the right to perform such operations, it is up to the patient to monitor their backgrounds and decide whether he or she feels comfortable with their training. A patient should also investigate the facility where a procedure would be performed. Technological advances have made it possible to perform intricate surgeries in nonhospital settings on an outpatient basis. Some are done in private, freestanding surgical centers, others in doctors' offices.

[4]因为凡是医生就有权进行整容手术，所以病人需要自己去查明医生的专业背景，确定自己对医生曾接受的培训是否感到放心，此外，还应对自己打算做手术的场所进行调查。由于技术的进步，一些复杂的手术已经能够在非医院的环境中作为门诊手术进行，其中一些手术是在独立的私营外科中心完成，另一些则在医生的诊所内进行。

[5] Patients often enjoy a doctor's office because it feels more personal; many doctors prefer it because they exercise complete control over their surroundings and costs. That can be perfectly safe as long as the offices maintain safety precautions, but some states and local governments do not monitor whether they do. The task can be left to accrediting agencies. States may require offices to be accredited, but the agencies perform inspections and give the seal of approval. The one considered the gold standard is from the American Association for the Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF). To receive its blessing, doctors must be board-certified in their field, and their facilities must prove they have the means to handle emergency situations. The problem is that getting inspected for accreditation is done on a voluntary basis. Says Michael McGuire, a Los Angeles cosmetic surgeon and the AAAASF's president: "Facilities open, and nobody knows on a state level that they are there."

[5]病人常常喜欢医生的诊所，因为诊所给人一种更人性化的感觉；许多医生更喜欢在自己的诊所做手术，因为他们能完全控制周围的情况以及治疗费用。只要坚持采取预防措施以保证安全，在这里接受手术能做到绝对安全，但是一些州政府和地方政府对诊所是否坚持采取这样的措施并没有进行监控。这个任务可留给鉴定机构来完成。各州可以要求各诊所都进行水准鉴定，而由有关鉴定机构来进行检查并盖章批准。美国非卧床外科机构鉴定协会（AAAASF）的批准被认为是高水准的鉴定。要得到它的批准，医生们必须得到(美国整形外科)委员会对其从事该专业的批准，而且他们的诊所也必须证明其自身拥有处理紧急情况的手段。问题在于接受检查以获得水准鉴定是一种自愿行为。洛杉矶的整容外科医师、美国非卧床外科机构鉴定协会主席迈克尔·麦圭尔说：“一些诊所开张了，但州里没有人知道这些诊所的存在。”

[6] Why —or whether —the liposuction–tummy -tuck combination is particularly hazardous in a doctor's office is a question the Florida board is investigating. It is not uncommon for people to have multiple procedures performed at once, and when the patient is in good health, it is not especially perilous. But generally, undergoing more than one procedure not only prolongs recovery but also increases the time a patient is anesthetized, which can be risky. "I personally don't believe in procedures that go beyond five or six hours," says Dr. Robert Bernard, who operates in his Westchester, N. Y., office and is the president of the American Society for Anesthetic Plastic Surgery, whose members are all board-certified. "If somebody comes in and wants their face, eyes and nose done, that's O.K.. But if they want that as well as breast reduction and a large amount of liposuction, I’d prefer to divide it into two procedures."

[6]在医生的诊所里同时进行吸脂术和腹部打裥术为什么──或是否─—特别危险，佛罗里达州的委员会正在对此问题进行调查。一个病人同时接受多种医疗手术的情况并不罕见；当病人的健康状况良好时，这样做并不特别危险。但一般来说，接受一种以上的操作不仅延长了病人复苏的时间，而且延长了病人接受麻醉的时间，这可能带来风险。罗伯特·伯纳德医师说：“我个人认为超过5小时或6小时的手术是不可行的。如果有人进来，要求给他们的脸、眼睛和鼻子做整容，那行。但如果他们不仅想做脸部、眼睛和鼻子整容，还想将乳房缩小并将大量脂肪吸出，那么我宁可将这些手术分两次完成。” 伯纳德医师在其开设于纽约州威斯切斯特的诊所里给人做手术，他是美国麻醉整形外科学会的主席，该学会的会员都获得了(美国整形外科)委员会颁发的证书。

[7] In one of the Florida cases under investigation, a combination of surgeries may have proved fatal. James McCormick had decided to go to the Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery in Fort Lauderdale to nip and tuck his crow’s feet. His doctor recommended a brow job as well and offered to throw in a chin implant at a discount. McCormick agreed to all the procedures and was at the facility less than four hours. By the next day, he was dead. Citing patient confidentiality, Dr. Jeffrey Hamm, medical director of the facility, declined to discuss the case.

[7]正在接受调查的佛罗里达州案例中，其中一个已经证明同时进行多种手术可能会致人于死命。詹姆斯·麦考密克决定到劳德代尔堡的佛罗里达整容外科中心来消除眼角皱纹。他的医生建议将额头的皱纹一并清除，并提出额外奉送打折的颏部植入片。麦考密克同意接受所有这些操作，他在诊所里待了不到4个小时。但是第二天他就撒手人寰。诊所的医疗主任杰弗里·哈姆医师以为病人保密为由，拒绝讨论这个案例。

[8] Bernard reports that he has received more requests for combination surgeries since the premiere of Extreme Makeover, a phenomenally popular reality show on ABC in which subjects undergo as many as six surgeries at a time to remove any perceived flaws on their bodies. He says the show has generated good p.r. for the field, but he is worried that it raises unrealistic expectations. “People don't realize that subjects on the show are preselected,” he says. "They're in excellent health, screened by psychologists and analyzed by the best plastic surgeons in the country to ensure that their transformation has the potential to look like a home run." Bernard points out that the subjects also work with dermatologists, cosmetic dentists and hair stylists.

[8]伯纳德说，美国广播公司播放了一个极受欢迎的真人秀节目──《最大限度的面目一新》，节目显示了人们一次接受多至6种外科手术以去除他们身上任何能觉察到的瑕疵。自从该节目首次播放以来，他已接到更多要求同时进行多项操作的申请。他说，该节目已为整容专业作了很好的宣传，聚集了大量人气，但他担心这会增加人们不切实际的期望。他说：“人们并设有认识到节目中的角色是预先选定的。他们的健康状态好极了，他们经过了心理学家的筛选，由国内最好的整形外科医生对他们进行分析，以确保他们的改头换面可能看起来像个打出了一记成功的本垒打。”伯纳德指出，节目中的人物还需要皮肤病学家、美容牙医和发型师的帮助。

[9] Sometimes a patient can appear to do everything right but still end up paying the ultimate price. For her chin tuck, a procedure generally characterized as routine, Goldsmith chose the best board-certified plastic surgeon royalties could buy and had the operation at a respected hospital but still had a bad reaction to anesthesia. Her death was not necessarily related to plastic surgery; it might very well have happened during an emergency appendectomy. It did, however, cause a momentary flutter in the plastic-surgery community. Doctors across Florida, California and New York said they received a few concerned calls from patients that week. But virtually no surgeons reported any cancellations. And the phones kept ringing for new appointments.

[9]有时病人可能看上去一切都做得很对，但依然以付出生命的代价而告终。戈德史密斯想消除下巴上的褶皱，一般来说，这是个常规操作。她选择了获得(由美国整形外科委员会颁发的)证书的最好的整形外科医生，即使皇族能请到的也不过如此。她的手术在一家备受推崇的医院里进行，但她对麻醉还是出现了不良反应。她的死未必一定与整形手术有关；即使在急症阑尾炎切除手术中，这种情况也是非常可能发生的。但它的确在整形外科界激起了片刻的波动。佛罗里达、加利福尼亚和纽约3个州的医生都说，他们在那个星期接到过几个病人表示担心的电话。但事实上，没有一个外科医生报告有病人取消任何手术预约。预约新手术的电话依然响个不停。

Unit 4 Too Much Too Soon

Unit4 拔苗助长

[1] In a society that prides itself on providing its children with great opportunities to learn, grow and develop is it possible that we might be doing more harm than good?

[1] 让孩子们充分享有学习、成长和发展的机会是一个社会的骄傲，然而在这样的社会里，我们的这些做法是否有可能对孩子的伤害大于裨益呢？

[2] On more than one occasion I have paused to reflect on that very question given some current trends and ideas about children as little sponges of learning. I remember seeing a recent current affairs program where there was much hype about teaching two year olds to read and was mystified at the parents who gleefully expressed how they were paving the way for their child’s future by having them participate in this program.

[2] 这一问题常令我驻足反思。时下流行的一些趋势和思潮认为，儿童接受能力强，就像小海绵一样。我记得最近看过一个大肆宣传教两岁孩子阅读的时事节目，其间，家长们兴奋之情溢于言表，仿佛让孩子参加了这一节目，就等于为孩子的明天铺平了道路。这些家长令人匪夷所思。

[3] Interestingly, many of these children were also in the throngs of extracurricular overload and shuffled from one form of tuition to another as their parents espoused how important it was to give them the best start in life…remember, these kids were two! Adding to this type of hype are news stories and advertisements telling parents of particular toys and “educational” activities that will build better brains and turn their children into little geniuses.

[3] 有趣的是，这些孩子中有许多还参加了其他课外活动。他们穿梭于一个个辅导班之间，只因为他们的家长坚信给孩子最好的起跑是一生中的关键。别忘了，这些孩子才两岁。除这类宣传之外，还有许多新闻报道和广告节目，向家长们推销一些特殊的玩具和“教育”活动，宣称这些东西能更好地开发大脑，打造天才。

[4] Moreover, in order to ensure that children have skills and knowledge needed for the future, schools are increasing academic demands on children at very young ages—even in pre-school or earlier. The truth of the matter, however, is that any agenda which forces learning upon young children may actually be doing more harm than good.

[4] 此外，为了确保儿童具备未来所需的知识和技能，学校正在提高对年幼儿童的学习要求，甚至连学前班或幼儿园也不例外。事实是，任何强迫幼儿学习的课程设臵实际上都可能是弊多利少。

[5] One of the most fascinating neurological findings in recent years is the recognition of the important influence of experience on brain development and learning. In some sense this seems rather intuitive and most people have always known that we learn from experience. What is truly amazing is how experience actually shapes the architecture of the brain and the fact that this process starts long before little Johnny takes piano lessons or some academic test. In fact, Johnny’s brain is taking shape about t hree weeks after conception.

[5] 近年来，对于经验对大脑发育和学习的影响的重要性，人们取得了新的认识，这是神经学领域最引人注目的发现之一。从某种意义上说，这似乎是不言而喻的，大部分人一直以来都知道我们从经验中学习知识。真正不为我们所知的是经验在大脑结构形成中的作用，以及这一过程远始于小约翰学钢琴或参加文化课考试之前。事实上，约翰的大脑在受孕大约3个星期后就开始成形了。

[6] In uterus, Johnny has actually begun his lifelong learning journey via sensory stimuli received from the world inside and outside of the womb. Upon birth, Johnny’s learning really begins to take off with the growth of connections (synapses) between some 100 billion neurons.

[6] 在子宫内，约翰就已经通过来自于子宫内外的感官刺激开始了他一生的学习旅程。出生的那一刹那，大约1千亿个神经元之间产生了连接（这些连接叫做突触），此时约翰的学习生涯真正开始了。

[7] These connections are influenced by individual experience and the more repetitive an experience the greater the opportunity for connections to become permanently hardwired. It is widely recognized that Johnny will need developmentally appropriate environmental stimuli to facilitate his learning and neurological functioning. Importantly, over-stimulation and activities that are introduced to Johnny too early can actually hinder his learning. In other words, “appropriate” does not necessarily mean more and much of this is dependent on the growth of a fatty material called myelin.

[7] 这些连接受个人经历的影响。某一经历重复得越多，这些连接就越有可能终生不变。人们普遍认识到约翰的成长需要来自于环境的适当刺激，以帮助其学习和行使神经官能。重要的是，过度刺激和过早让约翰接触的活动实际上可能会阻碍他的学习。换句话说，刺激要

适当，不一定越多越好。刺激是否有效，很大程度上取决于一种叫做髓鞘的脂肪物质的生长。

[8] As noted above, neurons provide the raw material for learning by building connections in the brain. Throughout life neurons become differentiated to assume specialised roles and form connections with other neurons enabling them to communicate and store information. Stimulating experiences activate certain connections, repetition consolidates these connections and the brain learns. However, there is also a neurological timetable that extends from birth into the second decade of life. Through early childhood and into adolescence this timetable is significantly influenced by myelin. This important material insulates an equally important part of the neuron known as the “axon”. Current research identifies that the escalation of myelin occurs in various stages and there is actually a 100% increase in myelin during adolescence. In other words, the build-up and acquisition of myelin towards full brain maturation is more marathon than sprint and no measure of extra tuition or early training in any activity will influence this developmental timeline.

[8] 如上所述，神经元通过在大脑中建立连接，为学习提供物质原料。神经元终生都在分化，承担着各种专门任务，并与其他神经元连接，从而交流并储存信息。经历的刺激激活了某些连接，而不断的重复巩固了这些连接，因而我们的大脑从中得到了学习。然而，从人的一出生直到十几岁，神经的生长成熟是按部就班的。从婴儿期到青春期，高度影响这一生长进程的就是髓鞘。这一重要物质把神经元中同等重要的部分——“轴突”包裹起来，使之绝缘。最新研究表明，髓鞘的增长发生在各个成长阶段。青春期髓鞘的增长事实上能达到100%。也就是说，从髓鞘的获得、增长、直至大脑发育完善，这一过程与其说是百米冲刺，倒不如说是马拉松。任何程度的课外辅导班或任何形式的早期教育都影响不了大脑发育的时间表。

[9] You may be wondering why myelin is so significant. As an insulator, myelin aids in the transmission of information from one neuron to another and the more “myelinated” axons in the brain, the greater opportunity for neural information to be passed quickly. The end result of all of this is that certain activities may be easier to learn when regions of the brain are sufficiently myelinated or when our brains become “fatter”. The growth of myelin, otherwise known as myelination, is very important for children due to the fact that when we are born we have very few myelinated axons. This is one reason why visual acuity and motor coordination are so limited at birth.

[9] 你可能要问髓鞘为什么就这么重要。作为一种绝缘体，髓鞘能帮助神经元之间的信息传递。大脑中包裹着髓鞘的轴突越多，神经信息的传递就越快。所以大脑中的区域充分鞘化后，或者说我们的大脑“长胖”后，有些活动可能就更容易学会了。髓鞘的生长，也叫鞘化，对于儿童来说是很重要的，因为我们出生时，轴突几乎没有被鞘化。这是初生婴儿的视觉不太灵敏、动作不太协调的一个原因。

[10] Another important aspect of myelin is that as we grow older different regions of the brain myelinate at different ages. For example, when the region of the brain responsible for language production myelinates, children are then able to develop speech and grammar. These times of myelination have become referred to by neuroscientists as “learning windows” and amazingly, a healthy brain knows which areas need to be myelinated first and that myelination cannot happen all at once; again, it takes time to become a “fathead”. Therefore, claims of teaching two year old children to read would be highly dependent on a child’s neural development.

[10] 关于髓鞘还有一点也很重要。随着我们的成长，大脑的不同区域鞘化的时间不同。例如，当大脑中控制语言产生的区域得到鞘化，这个时期儿童话语和语法就能得到发展。神经学家把这些鞘化时期称为“学习之窗”。让人惊讶的是，健康的大脑知道哪些区域需要先鞘化，而各区域的鞘化不同时进行；再有，变成“胖头”需要时日。因此，要教会两岁的孩子阅读，在很大程度上取决于这个孩子的神经发育程度。

[11] Given the importance of experience, some might suggest that the earlier children are introduced to certain experiences or stimulation the greater the propensity for learning and early success. However, while we know that input from the environment helps shape the brain, we must also remember that brain maturation and overall development do not follow a nice neat agenda. Significantly, each individual child is different and simply immersing a child in an endless bombardment of stimuli may do more harm than good.

[11] 鉴于经验的重要性，有些人会主张儿童越早接触某些经验或刺激，就越热爱学习，越早成功。然而，尽管我们知道来自环境的输入能帮助大脑的形成，也要记住大脑的成熟和全面发展不会循规蹈矩。重要的是，儿童个体存在差异。简单地让一个孩子饱受无休止的连续刺激，只会是弊大于利。

[12] Think of penmanship as an example. There is no denying the importance of providing a

child with opportunities to colour, doodle and mimic letter making with developmentally appropriate tools like large crayons or chalk. However, many children often get a hold of or are presented with writing instruments designed for the manual dexterity of an adult. This becomes even more problematic if a child is introduced to formalized writing lessons too soon. In these situations the child compensates for a lack of fine motor skill development whereby the brain adapts and finds a grip that is useful. This adaptation is neurologically hardwired into the brain and becomes a problem when the child enters a school only to be told he h as “incorrect’ pencil grip. This problem is often exacerbated when a teacher or parent aims to correct this problem and finds it frustratingly difficult, if not impossible.

[12] 以书写为例。给孩子大蜡笔或粉笔之类的适合其发展的工具，让他有机会涂色、涂鸦、模仿写字，其重要性毋庸臵疑。然而，许多儿童常常只能得到一些针对成人的手指灵活程度设计的书写工具。如果儿童过早接触正规书写训练，问题就变得更严重了。在这种情形下，儿童为弥补运动技能发展的不足，大脑就会进行调整而找到一种权宜的握笔姿势。大脑所作的调整被神经系统固化在大脑中。一旦这个孩子上学后得知他的握笔姿势不正确，这种调整就真正成了问题。决计要纠正这一问题的老师和家长常常遭遇挫折，因为他们发现即使不是完全不可能，也非常困难。这时，问题往往变得更严重了。

[13] In this situation, a child’s brain is being asked to “unlearn” s omething already programmed because the “learning window” was forced open too early. If something like pencil grip can be hampered by racing too fast what might happen to children, who in the early years of their educational lives, engage in any form of endeavour beyond the developmental timetable of their brain?

[13] 在这种情形下，儿童的大脑被要求“弃学”已经程序化的东西，由于“学习之窗”被过早撬开。如果说像握笔姿势这样的东西都会因竞争过早而受到阻碍，那么儿童学习伊始就急于从事超出大脑发育进程的各种活动，结果会怎样呢？

[14] Children are born curious and ready to learn and from a neurological standpoint it makes sense to arm parents with this knowledge and provide support and assistance. Education and learning are not a race. While leisure and play may be increasingly portrayed as wasteful the brain is uniquely programmed to ensure that too much too fast may actually result in some form of breakdown.

[14] 儿童生性好奇，敏而好学。从神经学的角度，用这一知识来武装父母们，并为他们提供援助与支持是不无道理的。教育与学习不是一场竞赛。无所事事、嬉戏玩耍可能越来越被视为虚度光阴，但是大脑发育的程序是独特的，拔苗助长只会导致某种形式的神经崩溃。

Unit 5 Universities Under Threat

Unit5 大学岌岌可危

[1] Across the country, university students sit in lectures every day, listening to someone speak for an hour in crowded theatres. Most are daydreaming, checking Facebook, surfing the web, texting and tweeting; if they’re particularly motivated or the lecture is unusually good, some might actually be paying attention. At the same time, millions of learners around the world are watching world-class lectures online about every subject imaginable, from fractional reserve banking to moral philosophy to pharmacology, supplied by Harvard, MIT, and The Open University.

[1] 在全国各地，大学生们每天都要听课，在拥挤的大教室里听一个人讲上一个小时。他们中的大多数在做白日梦、上脸谱网、网上冲浪、发短信或写推文。如果他们动力特别大或老师讲得异常精彩，或许会有些人真正专心听课。与此同时，全球数百万学习者正在线观看由哈佛大学、麻省理工学院和英国开放大学提供的世界一流的讲座。这些课程无所不及，从部分储备金体系到道德哲学再到药理学，凡是你能想象得到的，应有尽有。

[2] One group gets its education for free, and the other pays thousands of pounds per year. It’s a situation that can’t continue, and unless universities face up to the internet’s fierce competition they won’t have any future.

[2] 一些人免费接受教育，另一些人则需每年花费数千英镑的教育费。这种情况不可能持久，除非大学勇敢地面对互联网的激烈竞争，否则它们没有未来。

[3] We have a romantic ideal of universities being places of higher education where students absorb knowledge, skills and critical thinking—an ideal modelled over centuries on universities like Oxford and Heidelberg. Since they used a multi-year, highly structured residential course of lectures, tutorials, and exams to produce smart graduates, we now believe that this same model ought to work for the majority of the adult population.

[3] 在我们浪漫的理想中，大学是高等学府，是学生汲取知识、掌握技能和学会批判性思维的地方。这种理想是我们几个世纪以来，依照牛津和海德堡等著名大学而塑造起来的。由于这些大学采用多年制高度分层的寄宿课程讲座、导师指导和考试来培养聪明的毕业生，于是我们相信，同样的模式对大多数成年人也应该有效。

[4] We’re wrong. The simple fact is that university lectures never worked that well in the first place—it’s just that for centuries, we didn’t have any better option for transmitting information. In fact, the success of top universities, both now and historically, is in spite of lectures, not because of it.

[4] 我们错了。一个简单的事实是，大学讲座从一开始就并不那么奏效——只是几个世纪以来，我们传播信息没有更好的途径。事实上，无论是现在还是过去，尽管有教师授课，顶尖大学的成功并非源于授课。

[5] Even Adam Smith complained about this problem in 1776, in The Wealth of Nations:

[5] 连亚当?斯密也在1776年的《国富论》中也抱怨了这个问题：

[6] The teacher, instead of explaining to his pupils himself the science in which he proposes to instruct them, may read some book upon it; and if this book is written in a foreign and dead language, by interpreting it to them into their own; or, what would give him still less trouble, by making them interpret it to him, and by now and then making an occasional remark upon it, he may flatter himself that he is giving a lecture.

[6] 老师不是亲自向学生阐释他本应讲授的学科，可能会拿本书，照本宣科；如果这本书是用外语或不再通用的语言写成的，他就用本国语翻译给学生听；或者用一种更省力的方法，就是让学生翻译给他听，间或作一点评论。这样，他便心安理得，自诩为学生授课了。

[7] The slightest degree of knowledge and application will enable him to do this without exposing himself to contempt or derision, or saying anything that is really foolish, absurd, or ridiculous. The discipline of the college, at the same time, may enable him to force all his pupils to the most regular attendance upon this sham lecture, and to maintain the most decent and respectful behaviour during the whole time of the performance.

[7] 只要略有些知识，稍作点儿努力，他就能做到这一点。既不招致轻蔑或嘲弄，也可以避免讲出非常愚蠢、荒谬或可笑的话。同时，大学的纪律也使教师可以强迫所有学生规规矩矩地到堂听所谓的课，并在他授课的整个过程中，保持一种最得体、最谦恭的态度。

[8] Smith later says that good lecturers can keep attendance up without any coercion, but let’s be honest, such lecturers are few and far between. I studied at Cambridge, Oxford, and the University of California at San Diego, and while there were a few exceptions, most lecturers were little more than talking textbooks. A large part of the problem is that we require researchers and academics to become teachers, without any training or assessment of teaching skill; I was able to

tutor students at Oxford with zero training, as if my degree somehow meant I was a brilliant teacher.

[8] 斯密随后说，好老师不用强迫学生也能让他们到堂听课。但老实说，这种老师实属凤毛麟角。我曾就读于剑桥、牛津和加州大学圣地亚哥分校，尽管有个别例外，大多数老师不过是照本宣科。造成这一问题的主要原因是，我们要求研究者和学者成为老师，却没有对他们进行任何培训或对其授课技能进行任何评估。我从未接受任何培训就在牛津指导学生，好像我的学位就意味着我是一个出色的教师。

[9] The mediocrity of the average lecturer was made very clear when I watched Prof. Michael Sandel’s fantastically engaging Harvard philosophy lectures on Justice on YouTube, seen by millions around the world. Other universities, including MIT’s OpenCourseWare and The Open Uni versity, now offer videos of lectures free as a matter of course. It isn’t only traditional institutions that are getting into the game. The Khan Academy offers over 1,600 undergraduate-level videos on math, sciences and humanities, which have collectively been watched over 30 million times. For several years, it has been run by a single person, Sal Khan, and it’s just been awarded a $2 million grant by Google.

[9] 当我在YouTube 网站上看到哈佛大学的迈克?桑德尔教授讲授关于正义的哲学课程时，他引人入胜的讲座使普通教师的平庸凸显无余。全球数百万人在线观看了这一课程。现在，包括麻省理工学院和英国开放大学在内的其他大学也顺应潮流，提供免费的讲座视频。参与其中的不仅有传统高校。可汉学院提供了1600多个本科水平的数学、理科和人文学科课程视频，这些视频在全球的点击量总共超过3000万。几年来，可汉学院一直由萨尔?可汉一个人经营。谷歌公司才刚刚向该学院提供了200万美元的资助。

[10] Today, we don’t go to the music hall to hear songs—we can listen to the most popular performers on iTunes or the radio. Most of us don’t visit the theatre for an evening’s entertainment —we can watch TV. You can guess where this is heading with universities. Anyone online can now watch thousands of world-class lectures whenever they want. They can pause and rewind if they don’t understand something, and they can review the transcript when revising. At some universities, they can even email questions to lecturers without the risk of embarrassment.

[10] 如今，我们不去音乐厅听歌——我们可以在iTunes或电台上听当红歌手演唱。我

们大多数人也不会晚上去剧院消遣——我们可以看电视。同样你可以想象一下大学的前景。现在，任何人在任何时间都可以在线观看数以千计的世界级讲座。如果他们有哪里不懂，还可以暂停或重播；他们还可以在复习时查看文稿。在一些大学，他们甚至可以通过电子邮件向教师提问，避免了尴尬。

[11] And what about seminars, workshops, and tutorials, the “contact time” where students talk with teachers directly? This is perhaps the most valuable part of the university experience, yet how much contact time do students at most universities really have? A few hours a week, at most?

[11] 那么研讨课、专题研讨会以及导师指导这些学生与老师直接对话的“交流时间”呢？这也许是大学经历中最有价值的部分，但在大多数大学中，学生真正有多少“交流时间”？至多一周几个小时？

[12] Again, the internet can help by linking students to experts around the world, by email and through video conferencing. It's not as good as face-to-face contact, but if it’s with the right teachers, it’s better than spending time with a mediocre one.

[12] 此外，通过电子邮件和视频会议，互联网还可以帮助学生与世界各地的专家建立

联系。尽管这不如面对面的接触，但如果能接触到出色的老师，这就好过在一个平庸老师那里花时间。

[13] Undergraduate education should be paid for by the government—after all, most of us have enjoyed free or highly subsidized education that also benefits the whole country. However, if universities are going to cost over ￡7,000 a year, students should think very hard about whether they’re getting va lue for money. A friend of mine recently pursued a history degree at a good Russell Group university. In practice, this involved three or four hours a week in lectures and seminars with the rest of the time spent shopping or having fun with her friends. After three years of this she emerged several thousand pounds of debt and took a job in a bank. Clearly the bank didn’t require a history degree—any degree would have been sufficient. So could those three years and thousands of pounds been better spent?

[13] 本科教育的费用应该由政府承担——毕竟，我们中的大多数都享受了免费或高补

贴的教育，而这也有利于整个国家。但如果大学要收取每年7000多英镑的学费，那么学生就要慎重考虑这是否值得。我的一个朋友最近在罗素大学联盟旗下的一所著名大学攻读历史

学学位。事实上，她每周只需参加3至4个小时的讲座和小组讨论，剩下的时间就购物或与朋友玩乐。3年后，她背上了几千英镑的债务，在一家银行找到了工作。显然，银行并不需要历史学学位——任何学位都可以胜任。那么，这3年的时间和数千英镑是否有更好的用处?

[14] Universities are important, and not just for training scientists, doctors, and lawyers. When taught well, the humanities can help students think beyond the “how” and into the “why”—and they provide the invaluable gift of critical thinking. They’re useful skills for a ny job, and they’re vital attributes for a healthy democracy.

[14] 大学很重要，并非仅仅为了培养科学家、医生和律师。如果教得好，人文学科也可以帮助学生的思考超越“如何”的问题并深入探究“为什么”的问题——它们送给学生一个无价之宝：批判性思维。对于任何工作而言，人文学科都是有用的技能；对于一个健康的民主国家而言，它们是至关重要的特质。

[15] Freely available online lectures and textbooks give universities the opportunity to reduce costs and increase quality, while focusing resources on what really matters: contact time between teachers and students. The simple fact is that the education most universities provide isn’t worth the money. If t hey don’t have world-class reputations—and only a few do—then they need to change fast, or watch an exodus of students away to cheaper, better alternatives.

[15] 免费的在线讲座和教科书使大学有机会降低成本、提升品质，将资源集中用在真正管用的地方: 老师与学生的交流时间。简而言之，大多数大学提供的教育并非物有所值。如果它们不具备世界级的声誉——除了少数之外——那么它们就需要迅速做出改变，否则只能眼睁睁地看着大批学生转而寻求更便宜、更好的替代品。

Unit 8 How to Live and Love in the 21st century

Unit8 21世纪该怎样生活怎样爱

[1] There are many reasons to think quotidian ethics matter. For one, go back to Aristotle, the inventor of what has come to be known as virtue ethics. Aristotle recognized that human beings are essentially creatures of habit. If we want to be good, we have to get into the habit of being good. And habits are formed by constant repetition of behaviors. The daily practice of civility and politeness helps, because it reinforces a regard for others and concern for their welfare. Another reason to be worried about small acts of virtue is that 1ife is, on the whole, made up of small things．Most of us manage to avoid murdering people or stealing their cars．Among the majority, what makes the difference between people we think of as good and those we regard as selfish, mean or just disagreeable, is very much how they behave over myriad small issues. Just think about the nicest people you know and most of the time you’ll discover that your regard for them is not based on their tireless work to eradicate world poverty, but a basic decency expressed through their everyday dealings with others．

[1] 我们有很多理由去思考日常道德问题。首先，我们可以追溯到亚里士多德，现代伦理学的创始人。亚里士多德认识到，人类本质上是受习惯约束的动物。如果我们想做高尚人，就得形成高尚的习惯。而习惯是由行为的不断重复形成的。平时知书达理、彬彬有礼的行为能对你成为高尚的人有帮助，因为这样做可以使你更加尊重他人、关心他人的幸福。我们要关注细小善举的另一个原因是：生活总的看来就是各种各样的小事。我们大多数人一般都不会去杀人或偷车。但在我们看来，芸芸众生中，高尚的人与自私刻薄、面目可憎的人的区别，在很大程度上就体现在他们言行举止的小节上。想想你所认识的最和善的人，大多数时候你会发现，你尊敬他们，并不是因为他们在不遗余力地为消除世界贫困而奋斗，而是因为他们日常与人打交道时表现得体。

[2] Just as good character comes from the bottom up, so does a good society．This is why the idea of clamping down on anti-social behavior builds on a genuine insight．Respect for our fellow citizens starts with a respect for their right to leave a train without having to push past others trying to get on, or to sit on a bus without having someone shouting in their ear the whole way．So it is that good manner and civility need to be reclaimed by social progressives．Forget etiquette：it really doesn’t matter how you hold your fork or which way you pass the port. What matters is how you treat your host and fellow guests. It's not primarily a question of rules; it's a question of having an attitude of respect and consideration. Still, rules help, even if they are only of thumb. Here are some of ours.

[2] 培养良好的品格要从小事做起，建设良好的社会要从基础抓起。因此，拒绝反社会行为的思想真是具有远见卓识。尊重我们的同胞，就要尊重他们先下火车的权利，而不要让他们非得挤过蜂拥而上的人群；或是安安静静坐公共汽车的权利，而不是一路上在他们耳边大声喧哗。由此看来，倒是文明举止值得社会改良者重新提倡。繁文缛节却不必在意：叉怎么拿，酒如何递，无关紧要。紧要的是你如何对待主人和其他客人。这主要是个尊重他人、体谅他人的态度问题，而不是个规则问题。不过，规则也是有用的，哪怕只是些不成文的规则，如下所示：

[3] Wrong numbers You should not accept or continue a phone call if a shop assistant is serving you. If Jean-Paul Sartre were alive, which he isn't, and he gave advice, which he didn't, he may well have shed light on the correct use of a mobile phone. So when we ignore the presence of someone like a shop assistant, treating them as absent and the absent caller as present, we are doing no less than denying their humanity. For the same reason, you should never text anybody while in the middle of a conversation. Or email, for that matter. You should always monitor your volume when chatting on your mobile. People who haven't yet learned this basic fact show themselves to be oblivious to the presence of others. This is no small failing. David Hume argued, that morals are founded on a basic sympathy for our fellow creatures, by which we can appreciate that they too have plans, projects and experiences of the world, ones that may not involve having to listen to the fascinating details of where-we-are-now. Confucius says, "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." QED.

[3] 拨号错误如果售货员在为你服务，就别接电话，也别继续打电话了。要是让·保罗·萨特还活着——当然他已不在了，并提出建议——可惜他没能做到，他本可能阐明手机使用的礼仪。因此，如果我们把电话那头的隐形人当成存在，而对售货员等人的存在熟视无睹，那简直就是在否定他们的人格。同样的道理, 在谈话中千万别给任何人发短信，或者发邮件。打手机时始终要注意说话声音不要太大。还未学会这一基本礼貌的人，表明他们无视他人的存在。这可不是小过失。大卫·休谟认为，道德基于对同胞基本的同情，出于这种同情我们才能意识到，他人也有自己的计划方案和处世经验。他们不一定非要对我们鸡毛蒜皮的小事

都听得津津有味。孔子曰：“己所不欲，勿施于人。”的确如此。

[4] Travelling right Stop for pedestrians at pedestrian crossings. Even someone who rejects conventional morality and asserts their Nietzschean will to power has reason to do this. You demonstrate your power over the pedestrian more effectively, not by ignoring them, but by showing that you voluntarily stop, even though you could just motor on by. Such a display of magnanimity is worthy of the ubermensch. On public transport, allow people to alight before you board. Do not put your feet up on the seats. As Burke said, “Society is indeed a contract,” and each of us has to meet our side of the bargains.

[4] 出行有礼在人行横道前要停车给路人让行。即使你拒绝遵守日常道德规范，并坚持尼采的“权力意志”哲学，你也有理由这么做。你本可以径直开过去，但如果你表明自愿停车，而非无视行人，就能更有效地显示出你对行人的控制权。这种宽宏大度的表现正是“超人”的价值取向。乘公交车时，等别人先下后你再上。别把脚搭在座位上。正如柏克所言，“社会其实是个契约。”我们每个人都得遵守与我们相关的条款。

[5] Good Loving Do not smooch in the company of others. It is an oddity of human nature that while pornography is much sought after, we do not generally delight in seeing others slurpily manifest their love in public. Maybe it is just envy: the single are harshly reminded of the lack of affection in their lives, the long-attached of the lack of raw passion in theirs. Whatever the explanation, public smooching is exceedingly irritating to others, which means we shouldn't do it. Always dump in person, not by text, fax or email. Hamlet may have said that “conscience doth make cowards of us all”, but surely it takes a special lack of conscience to be so cowardly as to end a relationship any other way than face to face. It's the only way to preserve both respect for the dumped and the dignity of the dumper.

[5] 得体示爱在大庭广众之下，别搂抱亲吻个不停。人性很怪，一些人虽然对色情作品趋之若鹜，但一般都不喜欢看到别人在大庭广众下啧啧地亲吻示爱。这会使单身男女们联想到生活中缺情少爱而痛苦，使老夫老妻们意识到生活中激情不再而悲哀。也许这只是妒忌，不过不管如何解释，公开搂抱亲吻会令人非常反感，这就是说，我们不应该这样做。恋爱分手时，不要通过短信、传真或电子邮件，一定当面解决。哈姆雷特好像说过：“良知使我们大家都成了胆小鬼”，但是，可以肯定的是，只有特别缺乏良知的人才会胆怯到不敢用面对面的方式去结束一段情感。要想弃人者不难堪，人弃者不受辱，面对面谈是惟一的办法。

[6] New age If you go through a door first you should always hold it open for those who follow. Age, gender and social class make no difference. Extending this common courtesy to all is a sign that we hold everyone in equal respect. In other words, it's nothing less than an expression of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the smallest possible level. Offer your seat to the elderly, but don't assume they'll want it. Marx may have got his economics and history terribly wrong, but when it comes to public transport, you can't do much better than apply his principle, “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” The trouble is that many older people are fitter than the fat thirty somethings who can barely get their arses into the seats on public transport, and they resent the assumption that they are too frail to stand for more than five minutes without having a cardiac arrest. So although in general you should offer the elderly a seat, avoid patronizing them when you do so. Offer your seat to a pregnant woman. But please, only if you're confident she really is pregnant.

[6] 新时代，新风尚如果你先出门，一定要为随后出来的人开着门。不管年龄、性别和社会阶层都一视同仁。对所有人都给予这一相同的礼遇，表示我们平等地尊重每个人。换句话说，这完全是《世界人权宣言》最起码的一种体现。给老年人让座时，别以为他们想要座位。马克思的经济学及其历史学或许存在严重错误，但涉及到公共交通问题，还真没有比他提出的“各尽所能，按需分配”更好的做法了。问题是，许多老年人身体好得很，有些三十多岁的人没法儿比。他们胖得几乎无法把整个屁股坐到公交车上的座位上。这些老人讨厌别人以为他们年老体衰，站五分钟以上就会心脏病突发。因此，尽管一般来说应该给老年人让座，但让座时别显得居高临下，屈尊俯就。给孕妇让座时，也要确信她的确是孕妇才好。

[7] Social work If invited to someone's house for dinner, don't be one of the ungrateful fed. Exactly what you do can vary, and it is silly to think that you must always bring wine or flowers, or send a thank you message, even though both are usually advisable. The main thing is not to take your host's hospitality for granted and show gratitude. Don't drink more at a party than you brought. This is a version of the so-called freeloader problem, which on a grander scale includes people who use public services without paying for them, accept charity while never giving, or ponce cigarettes but are never knowingly ponced themselves. This breaks Kant's maxim that one should only act in a way that you can consistently wish all to follow. And, of course, we can't all freeload, as there would be no one to freeload from.

[7] 礼尚往来如果应邀到某人家中赴宴，别吃了还不领情。具体该怎么做因人而异，不要傻乎乎地总认为得带上酒或鲜花，或送张卡片以示感谢，尽管这么做通常很明智。主要问题是，别把主人的盛情款待看成理所当然，要表示谢意。聚会上，别酒带得少，倒喝得多。这是我们常说的占便宜的一种表现，推而广之包括如下人等：他们享用公共服务而不付费，接受施舍却从不给予，或者老抽“伸手”牌香烟却从不自动递烟。这就违背了康德的格言——希望别人怎么做你就得怎么做。所以，我们当然不能都去占人便宜，要是那样，也就没有人可以被你占便宜了。

[8] Child's play Do include little Emily and baby Jack when addressing Christmas cards to their parents. Never tell somebody else's child off in front of them, or criticize adults for their poor parenting. Except when you should. Do not undertake. It may be a free country, but as John Stuart Mill pointed out, our liberty does not extend to causing harm to others. Undertaking is a safety and so a moral issue, not one of etiquette. Wipe down gym equipment after use. Stick to the swimming lane that's right for you. Remember that neither the cinema nor the theatre is your front room. Apart from, obviously, making sure your mobile is turned off, don't talk during the performance, and if you have to say something to your companion, make sure it is inaudible to others. If you want to talk, rent a video. Sorry, DVD. Don't punctuate your sentences with profanities in public. It's OK with fellow foul-mouthed fuckers, but many people are likely to be either offended or bored by your rep etitive and unimaginative use of vocabulary. Don't think “I was here first” is a trump card. Let someone else go first if their need is greater. A person who only ever asserts their rights isn't necessarily always in the right. Don't write in and say these rules are stupid. They're not.

[8] 举手之劳在给为人父母的人送圣诞贺卡时，别忘了问候他们的孩子。千万别在大人面前斥责他们的孩子，非万不得已，也不要批评大人教子无方。别轻易许诺。这也许是个自由的国家，但正如约翰·斯图亚特·穆勒所指出的，我们的自由不能大到危及他人。许诺是一种保障，因此也是个道德问题，而不是礼仪问题。用完健身设备后要擦拭干净。一定不要占用别人的泳道。记住，电影院和剧院都不是你自家的客厅。显然，除了要保证手机关闭之外，在演出中也不要讲话，如果非得和你的同伴说点什么，就一定得小声，不吵到别人。如果想交谈，那就租个录像带，不，DVD，回家看去。在公开场合不要三句话不离粗话。满嘴脏话的家伙们倒不会介意，但你脏话连串、语言无味很可能会使大部分人厌烦、倒胃口。别以为“我先来，我就是王。”如果别人有急事，就让他先行。一味强调自己权利的人不一定总有道理。别给我来信说这些规则太愚蠢。其实不然。

Unit 9 The Global food Crisis

Unit9 全球粮食危机

[1] Last year the skyrocketing cost of food was a wake-up call for the planet. Between 2005 and the summer of 2008, the price of wheat and corn tripled, and the price of rice climbed fivefold, spurring food riots in nearly two dozen countries and pushing 75 million more people into poverty. But unlike previous shocks driven by short-term food shortages, this price spike came in a year when the world’s farmers reaped a record grain crop. This time, the high prices were a symptom of a larger problem tugging at the strands of our worldwide food web, one that’s not going away anytime soon. Simply put: For most of the past decade, the world has been consuming more food than it has been producing. After years of drawing down stockpiles, in 2007 the world saw global carryover stocks fall to 61 days of global consumption, the second lowest on record. Agricultural productivity growth is only one to two percent a year. This is too low to meet population growth.

[1]去年，粮食成本巨幅上升给我们这颗行星敲响了警钟。2005年至2008年夏天，小麦和玉米的价格增加了两倍，而大米价格上涨了5倍，引发了近24个国家的粮食骚乱并使陷入贫困人口增加了七千五百万。但是，与从前短期的粮食短缺导致的震动不同，这次粮价上涨是发生在全世界农民收获粮食产量创纪录的一年。这一次，高粮价是更大问题的表现，这个问题牵动着世界范围的粮食网，不会很快消失。简单地说：过去十年的大部分时间，世界已经消耗了比产出更多的粮食。经过多年，库存耗尽，2007年，全球粮食库存下降到只有61天的全球消费量，是纪录中的倒数第二。农业生产率的增长每年只有百分之一到二，如此之低不能满足人口增长的需求。

[2] High prices are the ultimate signal that demand is outstripping supply, that there is simply not enough food to go around. Such agflation hits the poorest billion people on the planet the hardest, since they typically spend 50 to 70 percent of their income on food. Even though prices have fallen with the imploding world economy, they are still near record highs, and the underlying problems of low stockpiles, rising population, and flattening yield growth remain. Climate change—with its hotter growing seasons and increasing water scarcity—is projected to reduce future harvests in much of the world, raising the specter of what some scientists are now calling a perpetual food crisis.

[2]高价格是供不应求的最终信号，即根本没有足够的粮食来分配。这样的农业通胀给这个星球上最贫穷的10亿人口最狠的打击，因为他们通常花费收入的百分之五十到七十购买食品。即使粮价随着世界经济的衰退而下降，它仍然接近纪录高点。低库存、人口增长和产量增长趋于稳定等根本问题仍然存在。气候变化连同生长季节变暖和日益严重的水短缺，预计将大大减少世界未来的粮食收成，成为现在有些科学家所谓的永久性粮食危机恐慌。

[3] With world population spiraling toward nine billion by mid-century, these experts now say we need a repeat performance, doubling current food production by 2030. In other words, we need another green revolution. And we need it in half the time.

[3]然而，随着世界人口不断上升，到本世纪中叶的90亿人口，这些专家现在表示，我们需要重复过去的成绩，那就是到2030年，将目前的粮食生产量提高一倍。换言之，我们需要再一次的绿色革命，而且我们经常需要它。

[4] Ever since our ancestors gave up hunting and gathering for plowing and planting some 12,000 years ago, our numbers have marched in lockstep with our agricultural prowess. Each advance—the domestication of animals, irrigation, wet rice production—led to a corresponding jump in human population. Every time food supplies plateaued, population eventually leveled off. Early Arab and Chinese writers noted the relationship between population and food resources, but it wasn’t until the end of the 18th century that a British scholar tried to explain the exact mechanism linking the two—and became perhaps the most vilified social scientist in history.

[4]约12,000年前，自从我们的祖先因耕种而放弃了狩猎和采集，我们的人数已经与我们的农业技术同步发展。每一个进步—饲养动物，灌溉，水稻生产—都导致了人口的相应暴增。每当粮食供应平稳，人口最终趋于稳定。早期阿拉伯和中国作者就注意到人口与粮食资源的关系，但直到18世纪末，才出现一位英国学者试图解释连接两者的准确机制，而且此人可能是历史上最为臭名昭著的社会科学家。

[5] Thomas Robert Malthus, the namesake of such terms as “Malthusian collapse” and “Malthusian curse,” was a mild-mannered mathematician, a clergyman—and, his critics would say, the ultimate glass-half-empty kind of guy. When a few Enlightenment philosophers, giddy from the success of the French Revolution, began predicting the continued unfettered improvement of the human condition, Malthus cut them off at the knees. Human population, he observed, increases at a geometric rate, doubling about every 25 years if unchecked, while