高级英语英美文学课文中文

Why Don't We Complain?

It was the very last coach and the only empty seat on the entire train，so there was no turning back. The problem was to breathe. Outside the temperature was below freezing. Inside the railroad car the temperature must have been about 85 degrees. I took off my overcoat，and a few minutes later my jacket，and noticed that the car was flecked （饰以斑点）with the white shirts of the passengers. I soon found my hand moving to loosen my tie. From one end of the car to the other，as we rattled through Westchester Country，we sweated；but we did not moan.

这是整列火车最后一节车厢中唯一的一个空位子，所以也不必再掉头去找了。问题是这里让人透不过气。外面的气温在冰点以下，而火车车厢里的温度一定有85度左右。我脱掉了大衣，几分钟后又脱掉了外套，并且我注意到车厢里望去星星点点的都是乘客们的白衬衫。不久我就发现我的手开始在松领带了。在火车哐啷哐啷地行进在威彻斯特县的时候，从车厢的一头到另一头，我们全都汗水淋漓，但我们没有吭声。

I watched the train conductor appear at the head of the car. "Tickets，all tickets，please！" In a more virile （雄壮的）age，I thought，the passengers would seize the conductor and strap him down on a seat over the radiator （暖气片）to share the fate of his patrons. He shuffled down the aisle，picking up tickets，punching commutation cards. No one addressed a word to him. He approached my seat，and I drew a deep breath of resolution. "conductor，" I began with a considerable edge to my voice……Instantly the doleful （消沉的）eyes of my seatmate turned tiredly from his newspaper to fix me with a resentful stare：what question could be so important as to justify my sibilant intrusion into his stupor（麻木不仁）？I was shaken by those eyes. I am incapable of making a discreet fuss，so I mumbled a question about what time we were due in Stamford （I didn't even ask whether it would be before or after dehydration could be expected to set in），got my reply，and went back to my newspaper and to wiping my brow.

我看到乘务员在车厢的头里出现了。―查票了，全都把票拿出来！‖我想，若是在一个更有男儿气概的时代，乘客们准会抓住乘务员，把他捆在暖气片上方的座位上，让他也尝尝乘客们受的苦。他慢吞吞地沿着过道走着，验着票，在长期车票上打着洞。没有一个人跟他说一句话，他来到了我的座位边，我深呼吸做了决定。―乘务员‖，我用勉强可以听到的声音开口说道。马上，我的同座从报纸间懒懒的抬起阴沉的眼，向我投来懊怒的一望：有什么问题那么重要，值得我用颤巍巍的声音扰了他的入定呢？我在这目光中动摇了，我连稍有条理的瞎拉上几句也做不到了，于是只好咕哝着问了下什么时候能到斯坦福德县（我甚至没问那是在可以预期发生的脱水之前还是之后）得到回答后，我就一边抹着额头的汗，一边重新看我的报纸。

The conductor had nonchalantly （冷漠地）walked down the gauntlet （夹击）of eighty sweating American freemen，and not one of them had asked him to explain why the passengers in that car had been consigned to suffer. There is nothing to be done when the temperature outdoors is 85 degrees，and indoors the air conditioner has broken down；obviously when that happens there is nothing to do，except perhaps curse the day that one was born. But when the temperature outdoors is below freezing，it takes a positive act of will on somebody's part to set the temperature

indoors at 85. Somewhere a valve （阀门）was turned too far，a furnace overstocked，a thermostat maladjusted：something that could easily be remedied by turning off the heat and allowing the great outdoors to come indoors. All this is so obvious. What is not obvious is what has happened to the American people.

乘务员毫不关心地走过他身边这八十个流着汗的自由的美国人，他们之中竟然没有一个要求他解释为什么那节车厢的乘客得经受如此的折磨。如果外面温度是85度，而里面的空调又坏了的话，那没办法；显然当那样的事情发生的时候人们是束手无策的，除了或许可以咒骂生不逢时。但当外面的温度在冰点以下，把室内的温度调到85度，则肯定是人的意愿能控制的范围之内的事。哪儿有个阀门开的太大了，哪个炉子烧的太旺了，或是哪个调温器没调好：总之这些毛病都可以通过把暖气关掉，把外面的空气放进车厢里来轻易地予以纠正。这一切都是如此的显而易见。让人不明白的是发生在美国人身上的事。

It isn't just the commuters，whom we have come to visualize as a supine breed who have got on to the trick of suspending （暂时不起作用）their sensory faculties twice a day while they submit to the creeping dissolution （瓦解）of the railroad industry. It isn't just they who have given up trying to rectify （纠正）irrational vexations. It is the American people everywhere.

不光乘车往返的人是这样的。虽然我们看到的乘车族好像是怠惰的一群，当他们不得不一天两次路上火车忍受缓慢的旅程时，他们已经学会暂停身上的感觉器官了，不只是他们已经放弃试图纠正令他们烦恼的不合理现像。哪儿的美国人都是一样的。

A few weeks ago at a large movie theatre I turned to my wife and said，"The picture is out of focus." "Be quiet，" she answered. I obeyed. But a few minutes later I raised the point again，with mounting impatience. "It will be all right in a minute，" she said apprehensively. （She would rather lose her eyesight than be around when I make one of my infrequent scenes.）I waited. It was just out of focus —— not glaringly out，but out. My vision is 20-20，and I assume that is the vision，adjusted，of most people in the movie house. So，after hectoring my wife throughout the first reel，I finally prevailed upon her to admit that it was off，and very annoying. We then settled down，coming to rest on the presumption that：a）someone connected with the management of the theatre must soon notice the blur and make the correction；or b）that someone seated near the rear of the house would make the complaint in behalf of those of us up front；or c）that —— any minute now —— the entire house would explode into catcalls and foot stamping，calling dramatic attention to the irksome （讨厌的）distortion.

几星期以前在一家大电影院里，，我扭头对我妻子说：―片子没对好焦此距。‖―别说话。‖，她这样回答我。我遵命了，但几分钟以后越来越失去耐心的我提出再次提出了这一观点。―马上就会变好的。―她善解人意地说道。(她情愿把眼睛看坏也不愿在我很难得地发一次脾气的时候把脸转过来。)我等着。片确实没对准焦——偏得不算太离谱，可确实偏了。我的视力是20-20，我想那也是电影院里大多数观众的视力，包括矫正后的。因此，在折磨了我妻子整整第一卷片子之后，我终于使她承认片子没对准焦距，而且这是让人很不舒服的。我们然后平静下来，期待出现以下的可能性:l)某个电影院的管理人员不久就注意到画面的模糊并作出改正；或2)某个坐在电影院后排的人会帮我们这些坐在前面的人来艳怨一下；

或3)一现在随时都行了一整个电影院会爆发出倒彩声和踩脚声，以唤起对画面可恶的变形的足够注意。

What happened was nothing. The movie ended，as it had begun just out of focus，and we trooped out，we stretched our faces in a variety of contortions to accustom the eye to the shock of normal focus.

可什么都没有发生。电影直到结束都和开始时一样没对准焦。当我们这一大群人步出电影院时，我们做着各种面目扭曲的表情以适应正常的焦距对我们眼睛的冲击。

I think it is safe to say that everybody suffered on that occasion. And I think it is safe to assume that everyone was expecting someone else to take the initiative in going back to speak to the manager. And it is probably true even that if we had supposed the movie would run right through the blurred image，someone surely would have summoned up the purposive indignation to get up out of his seat and file his complaint.

我想如果说人人都在那种场合里道了罪应该不会错的，认为每个人都在期待着别人先出头跑到后面去跟经理说也是不会错的。这样的想法或许足有道理的，即就算我们预计到影片会这么模模糊糊地一直放下去，也肯定会有别的某个人会实在气不过，从而起身离座发表他的怨言。

But notice that no one did. And the reason no one did is because we are all increasingly anxious in America to be unobtrusive（不引人注目），we are reluctant to make our voices heard，hesitant about claiming our right；we are afraid that our cause is unjust，or that if it is not unjust，that it is ambiguous；or if not even that，that it is too trivial to justify the horrors of a confrontation with Authority；we will sit in an oven or endure a racking headache before undertaking a head-on，I'm-here-to-tell-you complaint. That tendency to passive compliance，to a heedless endurance，is something to keep one's eyes on —— in sharp focus.

但是请注意没有一个人这样做。之所以没人这样做是因为我们在美国越来越相信少说为妙，我们不愿意别人听见我们的声音，在要求获得自己的权益时犹豫不决；我们生怕自己的理由是不正当的，或即便它是正当的，也提得不够明确；或即使够明确了，又嫌它太琐碎，不值得为之承受直面权威所引起的恐惧，在我们敢于正面地、用―我现在告诉你‖的口气进行抱怨之前，我们会坐在炉子上或忍受折磨人的头痛。这种消极地屈从和不在乎地忍受的倾向是我们必须注意到，并予以深究的。

I myself can occasionally summon the courage to complain，but I cannot，as I have intimated，complain softly. My own instinct is so strong to let the thing ride，to forget about it ——to expect that someone will take the matter up，when the grievance （不满）is collective，in my behalf ——that it is only when the provocation is at a very special key，whose vibrations touch simultaneously a complex of nerves，allergies（反感），and passions，that I catch fire and find the reserves of courage and assertiveness to speak up. When that happens，I get quite carried away. My blood gets hot，my brow wet，I become unbearably and unconscionably sarcastic and bellicose；I am girded for a total showdown（摊牌）。我有时候会有足够的勇气去抱怨，但如同我明白表示过的那样，我不会柔声细气地抱怨。我的直觉十分强烈，我不会让事情就这么算了，让自己忘了它——或在

有人和我一同受到委屈时指望别人来替我出头——只要刺激到了某一个特殊的点，由这一点引起的震动同时激起了我的勇气、厌恶和激情，这时我就会发火，并找到我储备的勇气和自信来开口。这种事发生时，我会有点不能自已。我会热血沸腾，额头冒汗，变得让人难以忍受地、过度地爱挖苦人和好斗；并摆开了和人一争到底的架势。

Why should that be？Why could not I （or anyone else）on that railroad coach have said simply to the conductor，"Sir" —— I take that back：that sounds sarcastic ——"Conductor，would you be good enough to turn down the heat？I am extremely hot. In fact，I tend to get hot every time the temperature reaches 85 degr —— " Strike that last sentence. Just end it with the simple statement that you are extremely hot，and let the conductor infer the cause.

为什么要那样呢?为什么我(或随便哪个别人)在那节火车车厢中不直截了当地对乘务员说，―先生‖—我收回:这听上去有点讽刺—―乘务员，能否请您好心把暖气开低一点?我感到太热了。事实上，我每次在温度达到85度的时候都会感觉到热‖—删去最后一句，就在简简单单地说―太热了‖的时候结束，让乘务员去推出原因。

Every New Year's Eve I resolve to do something about the Milquetoast in me and vow to speak up，calmly，for my rights，and for the betterment of our society，on every appropriate occasion. Entering last New Year's Eve I was fortified in my resolve because that morning at breakfast I had had to ask the Waitress three times for a glass of milk. She finally brought it —— after I had finished my eggs，which is when I don't want it any more. I did not have the manliness to order her to take the milk back，but settled instead for a cowardly sulk（生气），and ostentatiously（显眼地）refused to drink the milk —— though I later paid for it —— rather than state plainly to the hostess，as I should have，why I had not drunk it，and would not pay for it.

每个元旦，我都下决心要对付在我体内的那个胆小鬼，并发誓在每个合适的场合要平静地开口去说，既为了维护自己的权利，也为了改善社会。在去年元旦的时候我的决心更加强了，因为那天早上在吃早餐的时候我为了要一杯牛奶不得不跟女侍应说了三遍。她最终把牛奶拿来了—但那是时我已经吃完鸡蛋了，也就是说我已经不想再喝牛奶了。我没有勇气让她把牛奶拿回去，而是代之以一种懦夫式的不快，并娇情地拒绝喝下牛奶—尽管我后来还是付了牛奶钱—而不是像我应该做的那样，简单明了地告诉女侍应我为什么不喝，并且不付牛奶钱。

So by the time the New Year ushered out the Old，riding in on my morning's indignation and stimulated by the gastric juices of resolution that flow so faithfully on New Year's Eve，I rendered （表示）my vow. Henceforward I would conquer my shyness，my despicable disposition to supineness（苟安）。I would speak out like a man against the unnecessary annoyances of our time.

于是就在元旦辞别了旧岁，乘着我早晨的怒气来到我身边时，受着元旦前夜大快朵颐时的决心的驱策，我立下了我的誓言。自此以后我要战胜我的羞祛和多一事不如少一事的可那心态。对于不该我们承受的可厌之事。我要像真正的男人出言相争。

Forty-eight hours later，I was standing in line at the ski repair store in Pico Peak，Vermont. All I needed，to get on with my skiing，was the loan，for one minute，

of a small screwdriver，to tighten a loose binding. Behind the counter in the workshop were two men. One was industriously engaged in servicing the complicated requirements of a young lady at the head of the line，and obviously he would be tied up for quite a while. The other —— "Jiggs，" his workmate called him —— was a middle-aged man，who sat in a chair puffing a pipe，exchanging small talk with his working partner. My pulse began its telltale acceleration. The minutes ticked on. I stared at the idle shopkeeper，hoping to shame him into action，but he was impervious to my telepathic reproof （责备）and continued his small talk with his friend，brazenly insensitive to the nervous demands of six good men who were raring to ski.

四十八小时之后，我在佛蒙特州皮科峰的滑雪用具修理店里排队。我所需要的只是借一把小小的螺丝刀，把一个连接处的螺丝紧一紧，这样我就能滑雪了。修理店的拒台后面有两个男人。一位正在忙得不亦乐乎地为排在头里的一位年轻女士服务，，满足她提出的复杂要求。很明显，他一时半会儿脱不开身，另一位一一他的同事管他叫―吉格—是一位中年人，他正坐在椅子里拿着烟斗喷云吐雾，不时和他的伙伴聊上几句。我的脉搏加快了，宛如在向我搬弄着是非。一分钟又一分钟滴答滴答着流逝了。我瞪着无所事事的店主，希望能让他因感到羞愧而起身干活，但他对我用心灵感应发出的谴责无动于衷，仍然继续着和朋友的谈天，厚颜无耻地漠视六个急切想要滑雪的好人的不安要求。

Suddenly my New Year's Eve resolution struck me. It was now or never. I broke from my place in line and marched to the counter. I was going to control myself. I dug my nails into my palms. My effort was only partially successful.

突然间我想到了我的新年决心，此时不为，更待何时?我从队伍里走了出来，来到了柜台前，我把拳头握得紧紧的，想要控制住自己。但我的努力只部分达到了目的。

"If you are not too busy，" I said icily，"would you mind handing me a screwdriver？"

―如果你不太忙的话，‖我冷冰冰地说道，―能否请你给我递一把螺丝刀?‖

Work stopped and everyone turned his eyes on me，and I experienced that mortification （耻辱）I always feel when I am the center of centripetal shafts of curiosity，resentment，perplexity（困惑）。

忙着的活停了下来，所有人都把眼光转向我，我感受到了一种熟悉的屈辱，这是每次我成为人们好奇、怨恨或疑惑的中心时，我都能感受到的。

But the worst was yet to come. "I am sorry，sir，" said Jiggs deferentially，moving the pipe from his mouth. "I am not supposed to move. I have just had a heart attack." That was the signal for a great whirring noise that descended from heaven. We looked，stricken，out the window，and it appeared as though a cyclone had suddenly focused on the snowy courtyard between the shop and the ski lift. Suddenly a gigantic army helicopter materialized，and hovered down to a landing. Two men jumped out of the plane carrying a stretcher tore into the ski shop，and lifted the shopkeeper onto the stretcher. Jiggs bade his companion goodbye，was whisked out the door，into the plane，up to the heavens，down —— we learned —— to a near-by army hospital. I looked up manfully —— into a score of man-eating eyes. I put the experience down as a reversal.

但更糟糕的还在后头呢，―对不起，先生，‖吉格斯恭敬地说道，一边把烟斗从嘴里拿开。我不应该动的，我的心脏病刚才犯了，他的话音刚落，一阵什么东西旋转着发出的巨响便从天而降了。我们目瞪口呆地朝窗外望去，那架势就好像有一阵赐风突然降落在了修理店和滑雪缆车之间积雪的院子中。突然一架庞大的军用直升机出现了，盘旋着降落了下来。两个男人抬着一副担架从直升机上跳了下来，拨开人群冲进修理店，把店老板抬到了担架上。吉格斯向他的伙伴道了别，被迅速抬出了门，运上飞机，送上天，然后再回到地上—我们听说的—附近的一家军队医院里。我鼓足勇气抬起了眼睛—遇到了二十多道能把人给吃了的目光。我把这次经历当作反例给记了下来。

As I write this，on an airplane，I have run out of paper and need to reach into my briefcase under my legs for more. I cannot do this until my empty lunch tray is removed from my lap. I arrested the stewardess as she passed empty-handed down the aisle on the way to the kitchen to fetch the lunch trays for the passengers up forward who haven't been served yet. "Would you please take my tray？" "Just a moment，sir！" she said，and marched on sternly. Shall I tell her that since she is headed for the kitchen anyway，it could not delay the feeding of the other passengers by more than two seconds necessary to stash away my empty tray？Or remind her that not fifteen minutes ago she spoke unctuously （甜言蜜语地）into the loudspeaker the words undoubtedly devised by the airline's highly paid public relations counselor："If there is anything I or Miss French can do for you to make your trip more enjoyable，please let us —— " I have run out of paper.

当我在飞机上写这段东西的时候，我的纸用光了，得从放在我腿下的公文包里再拿一点出来。可如果我腿上的空餐盘不拿走的话，我就没法拿纸。于是我在空姐路过走道的时候叫住了她，她正空着手到厨房去，准备拿上餐盘给前排还没吃饭的乘客送饭。―请帮我把餐盘拿走好吗?‖―请稍等片刻，先生。‖她一边回答着，一边坚决地向前走去。我该不该告诉她，反正她也是朝厨房去的，，收走我的餐盘不会超过两秒钟，耽误不了其他乘客吃饭?或者我是不是要提醒她，就在不到十五分钟以前，她还在喇叭里用甜腻腻的声音说着那些显然是航空公司高薪请来的公关顾问设计的话:―如果我或者弗兰奇小姐能为您做任何使您的旅行变得更愉快的事情，请尽管把您的要求—‖我的纸写到这儿用完了。

I think the observable reluctance of the majority of Americans to assert themselves in minor matters is related to our increased sense of helplessness in an age of technology and centralized political and economic power. For generations，Americans who were too hot，or too cold，got up and did something about it. Now we call the plumber，or the electrician，or the furnace man. The habit of looking after our own needs obviously had something to do with the assertiveness that characterized the American family familiar to readers of American literature. With the technification of life goes our direct responsibility for our material environment，and we are conditioned to adopt a position of helplessness not only as regards the broken air conditioner，but as regards the over-heated train. It takes an expert to fix the former，but not the latter；yet these distinctions，as we withdraw into helplessness，tend to fade away.

很明显，大多数美国人懒得在小事情上坚持自己的权利，我认为这与我们在一个技术发达、政治和经济权利高度集中的时代中日益增强的无助感有关。多少代以来，美国人要是觉得太热或太冷，他们自己想办法来解决。而现在我们打电话叫

管道工、电气工戴修炉子的人。自己动手满足自己需要的习惯显然与自信有关，这是美国家庭的特点，熟悉美国文学的读者对这样的家庭是不会陌生的。随着生活的技术化，我们对物质环境所承担的直接责任也不复存在了，我们不仅习惯了在空调坏了的时候陷入无助的状态也在暖气过热的火车车厢里同样不知所措。空调坏了得要专家来修，可后一种情况里却用不着专家来。然而我们在遁入无助感时往往便无暇顾及这些差别了。

Our notorious political apathy （漠然）is a related phenomenon. Every year，whether the Republican or the Democratic Party is in office，more and more power drains away from the individual to feed vast reservoirs in far-off places；and we have less and less say about the shape of events which shape our future. From this alienation of personal power comes the sense of resignation with which we accept the political dispensations of a powerful government whose hold upon us continues to increase.

我国国民对政治的冷漠也是与此相关的一个现象。每年，无论是共和党还是民主党当政，都有越来越多的权力从个人的手中流失，这些权力足够把远方的大水库一个个给灌满。而且对于那些左右着我们未来的事件，我们变得越来越没有发言权了。随这种与个人权力的疏离而来的是政治上的俯首听命，我们接受了一个对我们的控制持续增强的强大的政府。

An editor of a national weekly news magazine told me a few years ago that as few as a dozen letters of protest against an editorial stance of his magazine was enough to convene a plenipotentiary （有全权的）meeting of the board of editors to review policy. "So few people complain，or make their voices heard，" he explained to me，"that we assume a dozen letters represent the unarticulated views of thousands of readers." In the past ten years，he said，the volume of mail has noticeably decreased，even though the circulation of his magazine has risen.

几年以前，一家全国性新闻周刊的一位编辑告诉我，只要有十来封信抗议该杂志某篇文章的编辑立场，就足以令他们召集全体编辑会议来重新审视编辑方针。―抱怨的人太少了，也没人想让他们的声音被人听见，‖他对我解释道，―因此我们有理由认为十来封信代表的是几千名沉默的读者的意见。‖他说在过去的十年里，来信的数量明显减少了，即便该杂志的发行量是上升的。

When our voices are finally mute，when we have finally suppressed the natural instinct to complain，whether the vexation is trivial or grave，we shall have become automatons（自动机器），incapable of feeling. When Premier Khrushchev first came to this country late in 1959 he was primed，we are informed，to experience the bitter resentment of the American people against his tyranny，against his persecutions，against the movement which is responsible for the great number of American deaths in Korea，for billions in taxes every year，and for life everlasting on the brink of disaster；but Khrushchev was pleasantly surprised，and reported back to the Russian people that he had been met with overwhelming cordiality （read：apathy），except，to be sure，for "a few fascists who followed me around with their wretched posters，and should be horsewhipped（鞭打）。"

当我们的声音最终归于沉默，当我们最终压抑了抱怨的本能，无论令我们感到烦恼的事情。是大是小，我们将变成没有感觉的机器人。1959年下半年，苏联总理赫鲁晓夫第一次访问我国时，他已经作好了准备(我们是听说的)要承受美国人

对他的暴政、迫害及导致为数众多的美国人死于朝鲜、令美国国民每年付出数十亿计税收且时时生活在灾难边缘的运动所表示的强烈愤概。但赫鲁晓夫感受到的是意外的惊喜，他回去以后向俄国人民报告说，他遇到的绝大部分是热忱，诚然，除了―一小撮法西斯分子举着肮脏的标语到处跟着我，真该有人用马鞭子狠狠抽他们。

I may be crazy，but I say there would have been lots more posters in a society where train temperatures in the dead of winter are not allowed to climb to 85 degrees without complaint.

我或许是疯了，但要我说的话，寒冬的火车车厢里温度到5度也没人抱怨，在这样的社会抗议的标语本该再多些才是。

Unit 2 College Pressures

Dear Carlos: I desperately need a dean‘s excuse for my chem.（化学）midterm（期中考试）, which will begin in about one hour. All I can say is that I totally blew it this week. I‘ve fallen incredibly（难以置信地，非常地）, inconceivably（不可思议地）behind.

还有一个小时就要化学期中考试了，我急切需要一个院长给我点建议。我唯一能说的就是，我这周过得浑浑噩噩，课业落下一大截。

Carlos: Help! I am anxious to hear from you. I‘ll be in my room and won‘t lea ve it until I hear from you. Tomorrow is the last day for…

帮帮我！我非常需要你的回应！我会一直在房间里等，直到你给我回应。明天就是最后一天...

Carlos: I left town because I started bugging out again. I stayed up all night to finish a take-home make-up exam and am typing it to hand in on the tenth. It was due on the fifth. PS: I‘m going to the dentist. Pain is pretty bad.

我离开城镇是因为我又得赶时间开溜了。我熬了一整晚做完家庭完成的考试，然后打印出来在第十周上交。规定截止时间是第十五周。PS:我要去看牙医。牙疼

的厉害。

Carlos: Probably by Friday I‘ll be able to get back to my studies. Right now, I‘m going to take a long walk. This whole thing has taken a lot out of me.

也许周五我能赶回来继续学习。现在，我要走一段好远的路了。这些事情让我疲惫不堪。

Carlos: I‘m really up the proverbial （谚语的，众所周知的）creek（小溪）. The problem is I really bombed the history final. Since I need that course for my major I…我真的是有大麻烦了。我考砸了历史期末考。由于我的专业要求学这门课，我...... Carlos: Here follows a tale of woe. I went home this weekend, had to help my Mom, and caught a fever so didn‘t have much time to study. My professor…

讲个悲伤的故事。我这周末回家，帮我妈做事，结果发烧了，没怎么学习。我们教授...

Carlos: Aargh! Trouble. Nothing origina l but everything‘s piling up at once. To be brief, my job interview….

不是吧！真遭罪。祸不单行啊。话说，我的工作面试...

Hey Carlos, good news! I‘ve got mononucleosis（单核细胞增多症）!

好消息！我得了单核细胞增多症！

Who are these wretched（可怜的）supplicants（祈求者）, scribbling（乱写，潦草地书写）notes so laden（苦恼的）with anxiety（焦虑，渴望）, seeking such miracles of postponement 延期and balm香油，镇痛软膏? They are men and women who belong to Branford College布兰福德学院, one of the twelve residential colleges 住宿学院at Yale University, and the messages are just a few of the hundreds they left for their dean, Carlos Hortas - often slipped 塞入under his door at 4 a.m. - last year. 这些可怜的祈求者是谁？字条上潦草的字迹如此痛苦焦虑。乞求着延期的奇迹和止痛剂。这些男女都是布兰福德学院，耶鲁大学12个住宿学院之一的学生，而以上不过是他们给院长Carlos Hortas成百纸条中的寥寥几个。去年，这些纸条总是被塞入他的办公室门里，在早上4点。

But students like the ones who wrote those notes can also be found on campuses from coast to coast - especially in New England and many other private colleges across the country that have high academic standards and highly motivated students. Nobody could doubt that the notes are real. In their urgency and their gallows humor黑色幽默，绞刑架上的幽默they are authentic真实的voices of a generation that is panicky 恐慌的，惊慌失措的to succeed.

然而像这样写小纸条的学生，在全国各地是常见的——尤其在新英格兰，很多有高水平学术和高度自发自觉的学生的私立院校。没人会怀疑这些纸条真实性。从这些迫切性和黑色幽默不难看出一代人迫切渴望成功的真实声音。

My own connection with the message writers is that I am master of Branford College.

I live in its Gothic quadrangle and know the students well. (We have 485 of them.) I am privy to their hopes and fears - and also their stereo music and their piercing cries in the dead of night (―Does anybody ca-a-are?‖). If they went to Carlos to ask how to get through tomorrow, they come to me to ask how to get through the rest of their lives.

我是耶鲁大学布兰福德学院的院长。我住在校内，非常了解学生。（我们有485

名学生。）我常听他们诉说自己的希望和恐惧——也常听他们的立体声音乐和他们在夜深人静时发出的刺耳喊叫（―有什么人关心吗？‖）。他们问Carlos 明天怎么办，他们到我这儿来，问我如何度过余生。

Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns that they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They do not want to hear such liberating news. They want a map - right now - that they can follow unswerving to career security, financial security, social security and, presumably, a prepaid grave.

我主要是试图提醒他们，前面的路途漫长，沿途中的曲折将比他们想象的要多。将来有时候会改变工作，改变职业，改变整个的态度和处理问题的方式。他们不想听这种无关紧要的消息。他们现在就想要一张地图，能据以直接通向业保障、经济保障、社会保障，也许还通向一座预购的坟墓。

What I wish for all students is some release from the clammy湿冷的grip 紧握，柄，支配of the future. I wish them a chance to savor 品尝each segment 部分of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim冷酷的，残忍的preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as instructive 有益的，教育性的as victory and is not the end of the world.

我的希望是所有学生能从未来的严酷无情中得到一些解脱。我希望他们有机会把他们每一阶段的教育纯粹作为一种经历来享受，而不是作为一种为下一步作准备的令人厌倦的要求。我希望他们有权利失误、有权利跌倒，并懂得失败同胜利一样有教育意义，而不是世界的末日。

My wish, of course, is na?ve. One of the few rights that America does not proclaim 宣告，公布is the right to fail. Achievement is the national god, venerated 尊敬in our media – the million-dollar athlete, the wealthy executive – and glorified in our praise 赞扬of possessions财产. In the presence of such a potent 强有力的state religion, the young are growing up old.

当然，我的希望是天真的。在美国人没有声明拥有的为数不多的权利之中，有一个便是失败的权利。成就是民族之神，它在我们的媒体中受到崇拜——身价百万的运动员，富有的主管人员——在我们对财富的赞扬中得到荣耀。年轻人就是在这样一种强有力的国教的熏陶下长大的。

I see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It's easy to look around for villains—to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are no villains坏人, only victims.

我发现有四种压力影响着今天的大学生：经济上的压力，父母的压力，同伴的压力，和自己导致的压力。四处寻找罪魁祸首并不难——指责大学收费太高，指责教授布置作业太多，指责父母望子成龙过于心切，指责学生把自己逼得太紧。但罪魁祸首是没有的，只有受害者。

―In the late 1960s,‖ one dean told me, ―the typical question that I got from students was ?Why is there so much suffering in the world?‘ or ?How can I make a contribution?‘ Today it‘s ?Do you think it would look better for getting into low school if I did a double major in history and political science, or just majored in one of them?‘ ‖ Many other deans confirmed this pattern. One said: ―They‘re trying to find an edge边缘，优势– the intangible无形的，难以言喻的something that will look better on paper if two students are about equal.‖

―1960年代末，‖一位院长对我说，―学生问我的典型问题是―为什么世界多磨难？‖或―我能做些什么？‖如今问的是―你觉得，如果我学历不高但有历史和政治科学的双学位，会不会比较好？或者只是学其中一门？‖其他院长也面临这样的的问题。其中一个说：―他们尝试找到一种优势——当两个学生差不多的时候，可以让成绩看起来更好的无形东西。‖

Note the emphasis on looking better. The transcript has become a sacred document, the passport to security. How one appears on paper is more important than how one appears in person. A is for Admirable and B is for Borderline, even though, in Yale's official system of grading, A means "excellent" and B means "very good". Today, looking very good is no longer good enough, especially for students who hope to go on to law school or medical school. They know that entrance into the better schools will be an entrance into the better law firms and better medical practices where they will make a lot of money. They also know that the odds are harsh. Yale Law School, for instance, matriculates 170 students from an applicant pool of 3,700; Harvard enrolls 550 from a pool of 7,000.

对看起来更好的追求。使得成绩单成为一种神圣的文本，安全的护照。这些书面表达的内容比一个人本身表达的内容更重要。A是被艳羡的，B是勉强接受的，即使在耶鲁大学官方评分系统里，A是―极佳‖，B是―非常好‖。如今，非常好已经不够好，尤其是对于那些想继续法律或医学学习的学生。他们知道更好的学校意味着更好的就业公司，更好的医疗实践能让他们金银满钵。他们还知道成功很难。以耶鲁大学的法学院为例，3700个申请者只有170个被录取；哈佛大学7000申请者中录取550个。

It‘s all very well for those of us who write letters of recommendation 推荐信for our students to stress the qualities of humanity that will make them food lawyers or doctors. And it‘s nice to think that admission officers are really reading our letters and looking for the extra dimension方面of commitment 承诺，保证，委托or concern. Still, it would be hard for a student not to visualize these officers shuffling洗牌so many transcripts studded 镶嵌with As that they regard a B as positively shameful. The pressure is almost as heavy on students who just want to graduate and get a job. Long gone are the days of the ―gentleman‘s C‖, when students journeyed through college with a certain relaxation, sampling a wide variety of courses - music, art, philosophy, classics, anthropology, poetry, religion - that would send them out as liberally educated men and women. If I were an employer I would rather employ graduates who have this range and curiosity than those who narrowly pursued safe subjects and high grades. I know countless students whose inquiring minds exhilarate me. I like to hear the play of their ideas. I don't know if they are getting As or Cs, and

I don't care. I also like them as people. The country needs them, and they will find satisfying jobs. I tell them to relax. They can't.

Nor can I blame them. They live in a brutal economy. Tuition, room, and board at most private college now comes to at least $ 7,000, not counting books and fees. This might seem to suggest that the colleges are getting rich. But they are equally battered by inflation. Tuition covers only 60 percent of what it costs to educate a student, and ordinarily the remainder comers from what colleges receive in endowments, grants, and gifts. Now the remainder keeps being swallowed by the cruel costs – higher every year – of just opening the doors. Heating oil is up. Insurance is up. We are witnessing in America the creation of a brotherhood of paupers – colleges, parents, and students, joined by the common bond of debt.

Today it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part time at college and full time during the summer, to accrue $ 5,000 in loans after four years - loans that he must start to repay within one year after graduation. Exhorted at commencement to go forth into the world, he is already behind as he goes forth. How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? I have used ―he‖, incidentally, only for brevity. Women at Yale are under no less pressure to justify their expensive education to themselves, their parents, and society. In fact, they re probably under more pressure. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male job, society hasn‘t yet caught up with this fact.

如今，一个学生，甚至是一个上学时部分时间打工，暑假里全日打工的学生，在四年之后欠下5，000美元债务的情况并不罕见——这笔债务学生必须在毕业后一年之内开始偿还（顺便说一句，并非像许多非大学生的人们所以为的那样都是低息贷款）。虽然在毕业典礼上学生们被鼓励迈步走向社会，但他们刚出发就已经落后了。为准备迎接这一结帐之日，他们整个大学期间又怎能不感压力沉重呢？耶鲁的女生比男生压力更大，因为她们要向自己、父母和社会证明她们值得接受昂贵的教育。因为虽然她们离开大学时已经具备了出众的才能，完全可以给一贯由男性从事的工作注入新鲜的领导力量，但是社会的进步还没有到认识这一事实。

Along with economic pressure goes parental pressure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined.

伴随着经济压力的是来自父母的压力。这两者不可避免地深深交织在一起。

I see many students taking pre-medical courses with joyless tenacity. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know them in other corners of their life as cheerful people.

我看到学生们下定决心毫无欢乐地在修医学预科课程。他们去实验室，就像是去看牙医。这使我感到悲哀，因为我知道他们在生活的其它方面都是些高高兴兴的人。

―Do you want to go to medical school?‖ I ask them.

―你想进医学院吗？‖我问他们。

―I guess so,‖ they say, without conviction, or ―Not really.‖

―我想是这样的吧，‖他们不能肯定地说，或者―并非真的想。‖

―Then why are you going?‖

―那你为什么还打算进呢？‖

―Well, my parents want me to be a doctor. They‘re paying all this money and...‖

―父母要我当医生。钱都是他们付的，而且……‖

Poor students, poor parents. They are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt. The parents mean well; they are trying to steer their sons and daughters toward a secure future. But, the sons and daughters want to major in history or classics or philosophy - subjects with no ?practical‘ value. Where is the payoff on the humanities? It is not easy to persuade such loving parents that the humanities do, indeed, pay off. The intellectual faculties developed by studying subjects such as history and classics - and ability to synthesize and relate, to weigh the cause and effect, to see events in perspective - are just the faculties that make creative leaders in business or almost any general field. Still, many parents would rather put their money on courses that point toward a specific profession - courses that are pre-law, pre-med., pre-business, or as I sometimes heard it put, ?pre-rich‘.

But, the pressure on students is severe. They are truly torn. One part of them feels obligated to fulfill their parents‘ expectations; after all, their parents are older and presumably wiser. Another part tells them that the expectations that are right for their parents are not right for them.

I know a student who wants to be an artist. She is very obviously an artist and will be

a good one - she has already had several modest local exhibits. Meanwhile she is growing as a well-rounded person and taking humanistic subjects that will enrich the inner resources out of which her art will grow. But her father is strongly opposed. He thinks that an artist is a ?dumb‘ thing to be. The s tudent vacillates and tries to please everybody. She keeps up with her art somewhat furtively and takes some of the ?dumb‘ courses her father wants her to take - at least that are dum

b courses for her. She is a free spirit on a campus of tense students - no small achievement in itself - and she deserves to follow her muse.

Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they start almost at the beginning of freshman year.

来自同伴的压力和自我导致的压力也是相互交织的，而且它们从一年级一开始就出现了。

―I had a freshman student I‘ll call Linda,‖ one dean told me. ―Who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter

and studied all the time. I couldn‘t tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about L inda.‖

―我有一个一年级的学生，我就称她为琳达吧，‖一位老师告诉我，―她进来对我说她的压力极大，因为她的室友芭芭拉比她聪明得多而且整天用功。我没法启口告诉她两个小时之前芭芭拉也进来这样说过琳达。‖

The story is almost funny - except that it is not. It is symptomatic of all the pressures put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doing better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they would sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the clack of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due: ―Will I get everything done?‖

这件事近乎可笑——但事实上并不可笑。这是所有种种综合的症状。每个学生都认为别的学生更用功、学得更好时，唯一的办法便是更加努力地学习。我看见学生们每天晚上吃完饭后就去图书馆，到半夜关门时才回来。我真希望他们能够有时候忘掉他们的同学，去看一场电影。天亮以前几个小时我就听见打字机的敲击声。当考试来临，论文该交时，我看到他们眼中的紧张；―我能完成所有的事情吗？‖

Probably they will not. They will get sick. They will get ?blocked‘. They will sleep. They will oversleep. They still bug out. Hey Carlos, HELP!

或许他们不能。他们会生病。他们会睡着。他们会睡过头。他们会退却。

Part of the problem is that they do more than they are expected to. A professor will assign a five-page paper. Several students will start writing ten page papers to impress him. Then more students will write ten page papers, and a few will raise the ante to fifteen. Pity the poor student who is still just doing the assignment.

―Once you have twenty or thirty percent of the student population deliberately overexerting,‖ one dean points out, ―It‘s bad for everybody. When a teacher gets more and more effort from his class, the student who is doing normal work can be perceived as not doing well. The tactic works, psychologically.‖

Why can‘t the professor just cut back and not accept longer paper? He can, and he probably will. But by then term will be half over and the damage done. Grade fever is highly contagious and not easily reversed. Besides, the professor‘s main concern is with his course. He knows his students only in relation to the course and does not know that they are also overexerting in their other courses. Not that it is really his business. He did not sign up for dealing with the students as a whole person and with all the emotional baggage the student brought along from home. That is what deans, masters chaplains, and psychiatrists are for.

To some extent this is nothing new: a certain number of professors have always been

self-contained islands of scholarship and shyness, more comfortable with books than with people. But the new pauperism has widened the gap still further, for professors who actually like to spend time with students do not have as much time to spend. They are also overexerting. If they are young, they are busy trying to publish in order not to perish, hanging by their fingernails onto a shrinking profession. If they are old and tenured, they are buried under the duties of administering departments - as departmental chairmen or members of committees - which have been thinned out by the budgetary ax.

Ultimately, it will be the students‘ own business to break the ci rcles in which they are trapped. They are too young to be prisoners of their parents‘ dreams and their classmates‘ fears. They must be jolted into believing in themselves as unique men and women who have the power to shape their own future.

―Violence is being done to the undergraduate experience,‖ says Carlos Horta. ―College should be open-ended; at the end it should open many, many roads. Instead, students are choosing their goal in advance, and their choices narrow as they go along.‖

It is almost as if they think that the country has been codified in the types of jobs that exist - that they have got to fit into certain slots. Therefore, fit into the best paying slots.

―They ought to take chances. Not taking chances will lead to a life of colorless medio crity. They‘ll be comfortable. But something in the spirit will be missing.‖

I have painted too drab a portrait of today‘s students, making them seem a solemn lot. That is only half of their story: If they were so dreary, I would not so thoroughly enjoy their company. The other half is that they are easy to like. They are quick to laugh and offer friendship. They are not introverts. They are usually kind and are more considerate of one another that any student generation I have known.

我对当今学生的描绘过于悲观，使他们看上去过于严肃。这只是他们的一半情况；另一半情况是，这些学生都是些可爱的人，你很容易喜欢上他们。他们爱笑，待人友善。他们比我所了解的任何一代学生都更加相互关爱。

Nor are they so obsessed with their studies that they avoid sports and extra-curricular activities. On the contrary, they juggle their crowded hours to play on a variety of teams, perform with musical and dramatic groups, and write for campus publications. But this in turn is one more cause of anxiety. There are too many choices. Academically, they have 1300 courses to select from: outside class they have to decide how much spare time they can spare and how to spend it.

This means that they engage in fewer extracurricular pursuits than their predecessors did. If they want to row on the crew and play in the symphony they will eliminate one,

in the ?60s they would have done both. T hey are tending to choose activities that are self-limiting. Drama, for instance, is flourishing in all twelve of Yale‘s residential colleges, as it never has before. Students hurl themselves into these productions - as actors, directors, carpenters, and technicians - with a dedication to create the best possible play, knowing the day will come when the run will end and they can get back to their studies.

They also cannot afford to be the willing slaves of organizations like the Yale Daily News. Last spring the one hundredth anniversary banquet of that paper, whose past chairs include such once and future kings as Potter Stewart, Kingman Brewster, and William F. Buckley, Jr. much was made of the fact that the editorial staff used to be small and totally com mitted and that ?newsies‘ routinely worked fifty hours a week. In effect, they belonged to a club; Newsies is how they defined themselves at Yale. Today‘s students will write one or two articles a week, when he or she can, and is defined as a student. I have never heard the word newsie except at the banquet.

If I have described the modern undergraduate primarily as a driven creature who is largely ignoring the blithe spirit inside who keeps trying to come out and play, it is because that is where the crunch is, not only at Yale, but throughout American education. It is why I think we should all be worried about the values that are nurturing a generation so fearful of risk and so goal-obsessed at such an early age.

如果我把他们主要描绘成了受到逼迫而大大忽略了生活的欢乐一面的人，那是因为这正是问题之所在——不仅在耶鲁，而且在整个美国教育界都是如此。这就是为什么我认为我们都应该为培育着这一代人的价值观感到担忧，他们年纪这么轻就这样害怕冒险，这样沉溺于目标的追求。

I tell students that there is no one ?right‘ way to get ahead - that each of them is a different person, starting from a different point and bound for a different destination. I tell them that change is a tonic and that all the slots are not codified nor the frontiers closed. One of my ways of telling them is to invite men and women who have achieved success outside the academic world to come and talk informally with my students during the year. They are the heads of companies or ad agencies, editors of magazines, politicians, public officials, television magnates, labor leaders, business executives, Broadway producers, artists, writers, economists, photographers, scientists, historians - a mixed bag of achievers.

我告诉学生们并没有一条―正确的‖成功之路——他们每个人都是一个不同的人，开始的起点不同，前往的目的地也不同。我告诉他们变化是有益的，人们不必去适应事先安排好的职位。我告诉他们这个道理的办法之一便是在学年中邀请已经在校外获得成功的男女人士来同我的学生们随意交谈。我邀请公司领导、杂志编辑、政治家、百老汇制片人、艺术家、作家、经济学家、摄影家、科学家、历史学家——各种各样事业的成功者。

I ask them to say a few words about how they got started. The students assume that they started in their present profession and knew all along that it was what they

wanted to do. Luckily for me, most of them got into their field by a circuitous route, to their surprise, after many detours. The students are startled. They can hardly conceive of a career that was not pre-planned. They can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to nudge them down some unforeseen trail.

我请他们简单谈谈他们是如何起步的。学生们总以为他们从一开始就在干现在的工作，而且始终都知道那就是他们想干的。但事实上，他们大多数人是通过一条曲折的道路，走过不少弯路后才到达现在的位置的。学生们惊讶不已。他们简直想象不出一个不事先计划好的职业生涯。他们简直不能想象让上帝或者命运来带领他们沿着某条未曾预见到的小路走去。

Unit3 The Politician

After damning politicians up hill and down dale for many years, as rogues and vagabonds, frauds and scoundrels, I sometimes suspect that, like everyone else, I often expect too much of them. Though faith and confidence are surely more or less foreign to my nature, I not infrequently find myself looking to them to be able, diligent, candid, and even honest. Plainly enough, that is too large an order, as anyone must realize who reflects upon the manner in which they reach public office. They seldom if ever get there by merit alone, at least in democratic states. Sometimes, to be sure, it happens, but only by a kind of miracle. They are chosen normally for quite different reasons, the chief of which is simply their power to impress and enchant the intellectually underprivileged. It is a talent like any other, and when it is exercised by a radio crooner, a movie actor or a bishop, it even takes on a certain austere and sorry respectability. But it is obviously not identical with a capacity for the intricate problems of statecraft.

在多年来不依不饶地谴责政治家们是骗子和无赖之后，我有时也怀疑自己是否也像其他人一样常常对他们期望过高。虽然我生来就没有多少信心和自信，但是，我还是不时地发现自己期待政治家们有才能、勤勉、坦诚，甚至诚实。很明显，正如任何思考这些人是如何步入宦途的人一定会认识到的那样，这个要求对他们来说是太高了。他们极少有单凭自身的优点就步入政坛的，至少在民主国家是如

此。当然，有时候确有这种情况发生，但是那仅仅是由于奇迹而已。他们之所以被选上，通常都是由于迥然不同的原因，其中最主要的是他们影响和蛊惑智力低下的人们的能力。这种能力和其他任何才能是一样的。当歌星、影星和主教们施展这一才能时，它甚至表现某种严肃而可悲的体面感。但是，显而易见，这与具有处理错综复杂的国家事务问题的能力是并不相同的。

Those problems demand for their solution - when they are soluble at all, which is not often - a high degree of technical proficiency, and with it there should go an adamantine kind of integrity, for the temptations of a public official are almost as cruel as those of a glamor girl or a dipsomaniac. But we train a man for facing them, not by locking him up in a monastery and stuffing him with wisdom and virtue, but by turning him loose on the stump. If he is a smart and enterprising fellow, which he usually is, he quickly discovers there that hooey pleases the boobs a great deal more than sense. Indeed, he finds that sense really disquiets and alarms them - that it makes them, at best, intolerably uncomfortable, just as a tight collar makes them uncomfortable, or a speck of dust in the eye, or the thought of Hell. The truth, to the overwhelming majority of mankind, is indistinguishable from a headache. After trying a few shots of it on his customers, the larval statesman concludes sadly that it must hurt them, and after that he taps a more humane keg, and in a little while the whole audience is singing "Glory, glory, hallelujah," and when the returns come in the candidate is on his way to the White House.

为了解决这些问题(这些问题可以解决的时候并不多)就需要高超的技巧以及与此密不可分的刚直不阿的廉正，因为政府官员承受的诱惑之令人难熬与有魅力的姑娘和酗酒者所面对的诱惑几乎相同。但是，我们训练一个人面对这些挑战的方法并不是把他关进修道院并且给他灌输智慧和德；而是让他出去作巡回政治演说时为所欲为。如果他是个精明和富于进取精神的家伙(情况往往如此)，他很快就会发现，胡说八道反而比有见识的话更能取悦于愚氓。他确实发现，有见识的话使人们不安和惊恐——在最好的情况下也会使他们感到不可忍受的不舒服，就像领口太紧或是眼睛里进了沙子、或是想到地狱时那样使他们感到不舒服一样。对于人类的绝大多数成员来说，真理和头疼没有什么区别。在一个初出茅庐的国务活动家试图向他的支持们说一点真话之后，他痛苦地得出结论：这肯定伤害了他们。从此之后，他就弹奏更仁慈的调子，不一会儿，所有的听众都在唱：―光荣、光荣、赞美上帝。‖在计票结果回来之时，这位候选人已经起身走上去白宫的路了。

I hope no one will mistake this brief account of the political process under democracy for exaggeration. It is almost literally true. I do not mean to argue, remember, that all politicians are villains in the sense that a burglar, a child-stealer, or a Darwinian are villains. Far from it. Many of them, in their private characters, are very charming persons, and I have known plenty that I'd trust with my diamonds, my daughter or my liberty, if I had any such things. I happen to be acquainted to some extent with nearly all the gentlemen, both Democrats and Republicans, who are currently itching for the Presidency, including the present incumbent, and I testify freely that they are all

pleasant fellows, with qualities above rather than below the common. The worst of them is a great deal better company than most generals in the army, or writers of murder mysteries, or astrophysicists, and the best is a really superior and wholly delightful man - full of sound knowledge, competent and prudent, frank and enterprising, and quite as honest as any American can be without being clapped into a madhouse. Don't ask me what his name is, for I am not in politics. I can only tell you that he has been in public life a long while, and has not been caught yet.

我希望不要有人把我对民主制度下的政治进程的简单描述误解为夸张。这个描写几乎是千真万确的。请记住，我并不想争辩说，所有的政治家都和窃贼、拐卖儿童的人以及达尔文主义者一样是恶棍。决不是那么回事。许多政治家就他们个人品质来说是非常可爱的人；我认识许多这样的人。如果我拥有像钻石、女儿和自由这样一些珍贵的东西的话，我也会托付给他们的。我有幸对目前正在角逐总统宝座的先生们(既有民主党人，也有共和党人)几乎都有所了解，其中包括现任总统。我可以毫不费力地证明他们具有超人的品德，而且讨人喜欢。即令是他们之中最差的也比军队中的大多数将军、写谋杀悬念小说的作家以及天体物理学家要强得多；其中最优秀的简直是一等超人、非常令人喜爱——知识渊博、精明能干、谨慎、直率、并且富于进取精神，与任何不必被强制关进疯人院的美国人一样诚实。请不要问我他的名字，因为我不参与政治。我只能告诉你，他从政多年还从来没有被人抓住过什么把柄。

But will this prodigy, or any of his rivals, ever unload any appreciable amount of sagacity on the stump? Will any of them venture to tell the plain truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the situation of the country, foreign or domestic? Will any of them refrain from promises that he knows he can't fulfill - that no human being could fulfill? Will any of them utter a word, however obvious, that will alarm and alienate any of the huge packs of morons who now cluster at the public trough, wallowing in the pap that grows thinner and thinner, hoping against hope? Answer: maybe for a few weeks at the start. Maybe before the campaign really begins. Maybe behind the door. But not after the issue is fairly joined, and the struggle is on in earnest. From that moment they will all resort to demagogy, and by the middle of June of election year the only choice among them will be a choice between amateurs of that science and professionals.

但是，这位奇才或是他的任何对手会在巡回政治演说中显露出一点点睿智吗?他们之中的任何人敢冒险把国家的形势（国内或国际的）毫无保留地公诸于众吗?他们之中有任何人会约束自己不向群众开空头支票，不做自己或任何凡人都无法实现的许诺吗?他们对于那些聚集在施舍的食槽前，在绝望中仍抱有一线希望地等待越来越少的救济金的天真的人们会说一句明显的话来惊吓或疏远他们吗?答案是：也许在开始的几周之内他们会是这样的。也许在竞选运动真正开始之前他们会这样的。也许在私下里他们会这样的。但是在论战开始之后，在竞选斗争激烈进行之时，他们决不会这样。从那个时刻开始他们就要求助于煽动蛊惑了，到了选举年的6月中旬，他们之中惟一的区别就是职业(专精此道)的宣传鼓动家或业余的宣传鼓动家了。

They will all promise every man, woman and child in the country whatever he, she or

it wants. They'll all being roving the land looking for chances to make the rich poor, to remedy the irremediable, to succor the unsuccorable, to unscramble the unscrambleable, to dephlogisticate the undephlogisticable. They will all be curing warts by saying words over them, and paying off the national debt with money that no one will have to earn. When one of them demonstrates that twice two is five, another will prove that it is six, six and a half, ten, twenty, n. In brief, they will divest themselves of their character as sensible, candid and truthful men, and become simply candidates for office, bent only on collaring votes. They will all know by then, even supposing that some of them don't know it now, that votes are collared under democracy, not by talking sense but by talking nonsense, and they will apply themselves to the job with a hearty yo-heave-ho. Most of them, before the uproar is over, will actually convince themselves. The winner will be whoever promises the most with the least probability of delivering anything.

不管这个国家的男人、女人和孩子想要什么，他们都会有求必应。他们会走遍全国去寻找机会来使富人变穷；来治好不可救药者；来救助不可救助的人；来整顿不可能整顿的秩序，或者来减轻不可能减轻的负担。他们都会用念咒语的方法来治愈赘疣；也会用不用任何人去挣的钱来偿还国家的债务。当他们中间如有一个人证明2的两倍是5的时候，另一个人就会证明它是6、6.5、10、20等等。简而言之，他们会抛弃他们作为明智、坦率和诚实的人的性格，变为只热衷于拉选票的公职候选人。即使我们假定他们中的一些人现在还不明白，到选举时他们都会明白：在民主制度下选票是靠说废话而不是靠讲道理而拉来的，他们会非常卖力地喊着号子大干一场。在喧闹过去之前，他们中的大多数人实际上对自己的鼓吹也深信无疑了。胜利者将会是许诺最多而兑现的可能性最少的人。

Some years ago I accompanied a candidate for the Presidency on his campaign-tour. He was, like all such rascals, an amusing fellow, and I came to like him very much. His speeches, at the start, were full of fire. He was going to save the country from all the stupendous frauds and false pretenses of his rival. Every time that rival offered to rescue another million of poor fish from the neglects and oversights of God he howled his derision from the back platform of his train. I noticed at once that these blasts of common sense got very little applause, and after a while the candidate began to notice it too. Worse, he began to get word from his spies on the train of his rival that the rival was wowing them, panicking them, laying them in the aisles. They threw flowers, hot dogs and five-cent cigars at him. In places where the times were especially hard they tried to unhook the locomotive from his train, so that he'd have to stay with them awhile longer, and promise them some more. There were no Gallup polls in those innocent days, but the local politicians had ways of their own for finding out how the cat was jumping, and they began to join my candidate's train in the middle of the night, and wake him up to tell him that all was lost, including honor. This had some effect almost as powerful as that of sitting in the electric chair. He lost his intelligent manner, and became something you could hardly distinguish from an idealist. Instead of mocking he began to promise, and in a little while he was promising everything that his rival was promising, and a good deal more.

几年前，我曾随同一位总统候选人进行了竞选旅行。和所有这些流氓一样，他是

高级英语下lesson13课文翻译

Lesson Thirteen Work 工作 究竟工作是幸福还是痛苦的源泉，这可能是一个难以回答的问题。 Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. 毫无疑问有许多工作是非常令人厌烦的，而且过多的工作总是十分痛苦的事。 There is certainly much work which is exceedingly irksome, and an excess of work is always very painful. 然而我认为，只要不过量，对多数人来说即使是最枯燥的工作也比终日无所事事要好些。 I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. 工作给人的愉快的程度多种多样，从仅仅是消烦解闷到产生巨大的快乐，这会随工作的性质和工 作者的能力而异。 There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. 大多数人不得不从事的工作本身大都无乐趣可言，但即使是这样的工作也有一些很大的好处。Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. 首先，工作可将一天的许多时间占满，人们不必再费神来决定应干些什么，大多数人在可以自由地按自己的愿望打发时间时，常常会不知所措，想不起有什么令人愉快的事值得去做。 To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. 而他们的决定又总是受到干扰，觉得干别的什么事也许会更令人愉快。 And whatever they decide on, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. 能够有意义地利用闲暇时间是文明发展到最高阶段的结果，而目前很少有人能达到这一层次。To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. 何况作出选择本身就是件令人厌烦的事。 Moreover the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. 除了那些具有非凡主动性的人，其他的人肯定有人乐于被告诉一天中的每时每刻该做什么， 当然命令他们做的事不能太令人厌烦。 Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. 多数无所事事的阔佬免遭从事单调乏味工作之苦，但代价是莫名其妙的无聊。 Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from drudgery. 有时他们去非洲猎取巨兽或环绕世界飞行来解闷，但这类刺激的数量有限，尤其到了中年以后更 是如此。 At times they may find relief by hunting big game in Africa, or by flying round the world, but the number of such sensations is limited, especially after youth is past. 因此较为明智的阔佬们工作起来几乎像穷人一样卖力，而有钱的女人则大多忙于她们自以为

(完整版)高级英语第二册课文翻译

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Lesson Thirteen Work工作 究竟工作是幸福还是痛苦的源泉，这可能是一个难以回答的问题。 Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. 毫无疑问有许多工作是非常令人厌烦的，而且过多的工作总是十分痛苦的事。 There is certainly much work which is exceedingly irksome, and an excess of work is always very painful. 然而我认为，只要不过量，对多数人来说即使是最枯燥的工作也比终日无所事事要好些。 I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. 工作给人的愉快的程度多种多样，从仅仅是消烦解闷到产生巨大的快乐，这会随工作的性质和工作者的能力而异。 There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. 大多数人不得不从事的工作本身大都无乐趣可言，但即使是这样的工作也有一些很大的好处。 Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. 首先，工作可将一天的许多时间占满，人们不必再费神来决定应干些什么，大多数人在可以自由地按自己的愿望打发时间时，常常会不知所措，想不起有什么令人愉快的事值得去做。To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. 而他们的决定又总是受到干扰，觉得干别的什么事也许会更令人愉快。

(完整版)高级英语2第三版_张汉熙_课文翻译

Unit 1 Pub Talk and the King’s English 人类的一切活动中，只有闲谈最宜于增进友谊，而且是人类特有的一种活动。动物之间的信息交流，不论其方式何等复杂，也是称不上交谈的。 闲谈的引人人胜之处就在于它没有一个事先定好的话题。它时而迂回流淌，时而奔腾起伏，时而火花四射，时而热情洋溢，话题最终会扯到什么地方去谁也拿不准。要是有人觉得“有些话要说”，那定会大煞风景，使闲聊无趣。闲聊不是为了进行争论。闲聊中常常会有争论，不过其目的并不是为了说服对方。闲聊之中是不存在什么输赢胜负的。事实上，真正善于闲聊的人往往是随时准备让步的。也许他们偶然间会觉得该把自己最得意的奇闻轶事选出一件插进来讲一讲，但一转眼大家已谈到别处去了，插话的机会随之而失，他们也就听之任之。 或许是由于我从小混迹于英国小酒馆的缘故吧，我觉得酒瞎里的闲聊别有韵味。酒馆里的朋友对别人的生活毫无了解，他们只是临时凑到一起来的，彼此并无深交。他们之中也许有人面临婚因破裂，或恋爱失败，或碰到别的什么不顺心的事儿，但别人根本不管这些。他们就像大仲马笔下的三个火枪手一样，虽然日夕相处，却从不过问彼此的私事，也不去揣摸别人内心的秘密。 有一天晚上的情形正是这样。人们正漫无边际地东扯西拉，从最普通的凡人俗事谈到有关木星的科学趣闻。谈了半天也没有一个中心话题，事实上也不需要有一个中心话题。可突然间大伙儿的话题都集中到了一处，中心话题奇迹般地出现了。我记不起她那句话是在什么情况下说出来的——她显然不是预先想好把那句话带到酒馆里来说的，那也不是什么非说不可的要紧话——我只知道她那句话是随着大伙儿的话题十分自然地脱口而出的。 “几天前，我听到一个人说‘标准英语’这个词语是带贬义的批评用语，指的是人们应该尽量避免使用的英语。” 此语一出，谈话立即热烈起来。有人赞成，也有人怒斥，还有人则不以为然。最后，当然少不了要像处理所有这种场合下的意见分歧一样，由大家说定次日一早去查证一下。于是，问题便解决了。不过，酒馆闲聊并不需要解决什么问题，大伙儿仍旧可以糊里糊涂地继续闲扯下去。 告诉她“标准英语”应作那种解释的原来是个澳大利亚人。得悉此情，有些人便说起刻薄话来了，说什么囚犯的子孙这样说倒也不足为怪。这样，在五分钟内，大家便像到澳大利亚游览了一趟。在那样的社会里，“标准英语”自然是不受欢迎的。每当上流社会想给“规范英语”制订一些条条框框时，总会遭到下层人民的抵制。 看看撒克逊农民与征服他们的诺曼底统治者之间的语言隔阂吧。于是话题又从19世纪的澳大利亚囚犯转到12世纪的英国农民。谁对谁错，并没有关系。闲聊依旧热火朝天。 有人举出了一个人所共知，但仍值得提出来发人深思的例子。我们谈到饭桌上的肉食时用法语词，而谈到提供这些肉食的牲畜时则用盎格鲁一撒克逊词。猪圈里的活猪叫pig，饭桌上吃的猪肉便成了pork(来自法语pore)；地里放牧着的牛叫cattle，席上吃的牛肉则叫beef(来自法语boeuf)；Chicken用作肉食时变成poultry(来自法语poulet)；calf加工成肉则变成veal(来自法语vcau)。即便我们的菜单没有为了装洋耍派头而写成法语，我们所用的英语仍然是诺曼底式的英语。这一切向我们昭示了诺曼底人征服之后英国文化上所存在的深刻的阶级裂痕。 撒克逊农民种地养畜，自己出产的肉自己却吃不起，全都送上了诺曼底人的餐桌。农民们只能吃到在地里乱窜的兔子。兔子肉因为便宜，诺曼底贵族自然不屑去吃它。因此，活兔子和吃的兔子肉共用rabbit 这个词表示，而没有换成由法语lapin转化而来的某个词。 当我们今天听着有关双语教育问题的争论时，我们应该设身处地替当时的撒克逊农民想一想，新的统治阶级把法语用来对抗撒克逊农民自己的语言，从而在农民周围筑起一道文化障碍。当英国人在像觉醒者赫里沃德这样的撒克逊领袖领导下起来造反时，他们一定深深地感受到了文化上的屈辱。“标准英语”——如果那时候有这个名词的话——已经变成法语。而九百年后我们在美国这儿仍然继承了这种影响。 那晚闲聊过后，第二天一早便有人去查阅了资料。这个名词在16世纪已有人使用过。纳什作于1593年的《截获信函奇闻》中就有过“标准英语”(Queen’s English)的提法。1602年德克写到某人时有句话说：

大学高级英语下册翻译

Lesson One 1. This picture brings back many pleasant memories of her Spanish holiday. 2. News and weather forecasts reports are staples of radio programmes. 3. By mere accident Tom met in a bar his long-lost brother who was thought to have been killed in action during the war. 4. Bill intuited something criminal in their plan. 5. They think that obsessive tidiness in factory is a bad sign . 6. Yesterday his mother sold several years’ worth of paper and magazines. 7. His heartening speech impelled us to (work with) greater efforts. 8. Those who enjoy pulling off a miracle often fail. 9. As language students we should have a sense of nuances of plain words and expressions. 10. The rude behavior of Mrs. Taylor’s adopted son is driving her into a nervous breakdown. 11. I like to see films in general, and American Western and horrors in particular. 12. In some sense Mary saw in her aunt a surrogate of her mother. 13. My father never equivocated, and he always gave some brief but poignant opinions. 14. Though he disabled, he never tries of helping people. 15. In any country, those who are remiss in their duty must be severely punished. 16. Awareness of the fact that the child was in danger impelled the policeman to action. Lesson 2 1. A. The chances are that they will be held up by traffic on their way to the airport. B. the plane takes off at 6:35. It would be a pity if they couldn’t make it. 2. Another popular notion which is in fact a misconception is that expensive clothes invariably raise one’s status. 3. Can you imagine what kind of life a man has lived who aspires to excellence and abhors mediocrity 4. A copy of our latest product catalogue will be sent free of charge if you will fill up the form on the reverse of this card and post it. 5. It will be an absurdity, if not a catastrophe. If half of the population of this city abandons their posts and goes in for business. 6. Because they want their kids to be somebodies, some well-intentioned parents exercise enormous pressures on their children and the results all too often prove the reverse. 7. The revered professor predicted that these brilliant young people would surely make their way in the scientific-technical realm in a few years.

高级英语1 第二课课文翻译

第二课 广岛——日本“最有活力”的城市 (节选) 雅各?丹瓦“广岛到了!大家请下车!”当世界上最快的高速列车减速驶进广岛车站并渐渐停稳时，那位身着日本火车站站长制服的男人口中喊出的一定是这样的话。我其实并没有听懂他在说些什么，一是因为他是用日语喊的，其次，则是因为我当时心情沉重，喉咙哽噎，忧思万缕，几乎顾不上去管那日本铁路官员说些什么。踏上这块土地，呼吸着广岛的空气，对我来说这行动本身已是一个令人激动的经历，其意义远远超过我以往所进行的任何一次旅行或采访活动。难道我不就是在犯罪现场吗? 这儿的日本人看来倒没有我这样的忧伤情绪。从车站外的人行道上看去，这儿的一切似乎都与日本其他城市没什么两样。身着和服的小姑娘和上了年纪的太太与西装打扮的少年和妇女摩肩接踵；神情严肃的男人们对周围的人群似乎视而不见，只顾着相互交淡，并不停地点头弯腰，互致问候：“多么阿里伽多戈扎伊马嘶。”还有人在使用杂货铺和烟草店门前挂着的小巧的红色电话通话。 “嗨!嗨!”出租汽车司机一看见旅客，就砰地打开车门，这样打着招呼。“嗨”，或者某个发音近似“嗨”的什么词，意思是“对”或“是”。“能送我到市政厅吗?”司机对着后视镜冲我一笑，又连声“嗨!”“嗨!”出租车穿过广岛市区狭窄的街巷全速奔驰，我们的身子随着司机手中方向盘的一次次急转而前俯后仰，东倒西歪。与此同时，这

座曾惨遭劫难的城市的高楼大厦则一座座地从我们身边飞掠而过。 正当我开始觉得路程太长时，汽车嘎地一声停了下来，司机下车去向警察问路。就像东京的情形一样，广岛的出租车司机对他们所在的城市往往不太熟悉，但因为怕在外国人面前丢脸，却又从不肯承认这一点。无论乘客指定的目的地在哪里，他们都毫不犹豫地应承下来，根本不考虑自己要花多长时间才能找到目的地。 这段小插曲后来终于结束了，我也就不知不觉地突然来到了宏伟的市政厅大楼前。当我出示了市长应我的采访要求而发送的请柬后，市政厅接待人员向我深深地鞠了一躬，然后声调悠扬地长叹了一口气。 “不是这儿，先生，”他用英语说道。“市长邀请您今天晚上同其他外宾一起在水上餐厅赴宴。您看，就是这儿。”他边说边为我在请柬背面勾划出了一张简略的示意图。 幸亏有了他画的图，我才找到一辆出租车把我直接送到了运河堤岸，那儿停泊着一艘顶篷颇像一般日本房屋屋顶的大游艇。由于地价过于昂贵，日本人便把传统日本式房屋建到了船上。漂浮在水面上的旧式日本小屋夹在一座座灰黄色摩天大楼之间，这一引人注目的景观正象征着和服与超短裙之间持续不断的斗争。 在水上餐厅的门口，一位身着和服、面色如玉、风姿绰约的迎宾女郎告诉我要脱鞋进屋。于是我便脱下鞋子，走进这座水上小屋里的一个低矮的房间，蹑手蹑脚地踏在柔软的榻榻米地席上，因想到要这样穿着袜子去见广岛市长而感到十分困窘不安。

高级英语课文翻译

青年人的四种选择 Lesson 2: Four Choices for Young People 在毕业前不久，斯坦福大学四年级主席吉姆?宾司给我写了一封信，信中谈及他的一些不安。 Shortly before his graduation, Jim Binns, president of the senior class at Stanford University, wrote me about some of his misgivings. 他写道：“与其他任何一代人相比，我们这一代人在看待成人世界时抱有更大的疑虑 ,, 同时越 来越倾向于全盘否定成人世界。” “More than any other generation, ” he said, “ our generation views the adult world with great skepticism, there is also an increased tendency to reject completely that world. ”很 明显，他的话代表了许多同龄人的看法。 Apparently he speaks for a lot of his contemporaries. 在过去的几年里，我倾听过许多年轻人的谈话，他们有的还在大学读书，有的已经毕业，他 们对于成人的世界同样感到不安。 During the last few years, I have listened to scores of young people, in college and out, who were just as nervous about the grown world. 大致来说，他们的态度可归纳如下：“这个世界乱糟糟的，到处充满了不平等、贫困和战争。 对此该负责的大概应是那些管理这个世界的成年人吧。如果他们不能做得比这些更好，他们又能拿 什么来教育我们呢？这样的教导，我们根本不需要。” Roughly, their attitude might be summed up about like this:“ The world is in pretty much of a mess, full of injustice, poverty, and war. The people responsible are, presumably, the adults who have been running thing. If they can’ t do better than that, what have they got to teach our generation? That kind of lesson we can do without. ” 我觉得这些结论合情合理，至少从他们的角度来看是这样的。 There conclusions strike me as reasonable, at least from their point of view. 对成长中的一代人来说，相关的问题不是我们的社会是否完美（我们可以想当然地认为是这 样），而是应该如何去应付它。 The relevant question for the arriving generation is not whether our society is imperfect (we can take that for granted), but how to deal with it. 尽管这个社会严酷而不合情理，但它毕竟是我们惟一拥有的世界。 For all its harshness and irrationality, it is the only world we’ ve got. 因此，选择一个办法去应付这个社会是刚刚步入成年的年轻人必须作出的第一个决定，这通 常是他们一生中最重要的决定。 Choosing a strategy to cope with it, then, is the first decision young adults have to make, and usually the most important decision of their lifetime. 根据我的发现，他们的基本选择只有四种： So far as I have been able to discover, there are only four basic alternatives: 1）脱离传统社会