新视野研究生英语读说写2-课文翻译及课后答案

发布时间:2016-06-06 12:39:21

新视野研究生英语读说写2

英语原文加翻译

1 大学课堂:还有人在听吗?

Toward the middle of the semester, Fowkes fell ill and missed a class. When he returned, the professor nodded vaguely and, to Fowkes’s astonishment, began to deliver not the next lecture in the sequence but the one after. Had he, in fact, lectured to an empty hall in the absence of his solitary student? Fowkes thought it perfectly possible.

在学期中间,Fowkes 因病缺了一次课。他回到课堂的时候,教授毫无表情地向他点了点头。接着令Fowkes大吃一惊的是,教授并没有按照顺序讲下一课,而是讲了后面一课。难道他真的在他唯一的学生缺席的情况下对着空教室讲了一课?Fowkes认为这太有可能了。

Today American colleges and universities (originally modeled on German ones) are under strong attack from many quarters. Teachers, it is charged, are not doing a good job of teaching, and students are not doing a good job of learning. American businesses and industries suffer from unenterprising, uncreative executives educated not to think for themselves but to mouth outdated truisms the rest of the world has long discarded. College graduates lack both basic skills and general culture. Studies are conducted and reports are issued on the status of higher education, but any changes that result either are largely cosmetic or make a bad situation worse.

今天美国的大学(原本是以德国的大学为模型的)受到了各方面的严厉指责。人们指责老师没有教好,学生没有学好。美国的商业和工业饱受无进取心的、缺乏创造力的管理人员之苦,这些人受的教育是自己不用思考,而是说一些过时的、在世界上其他地方早已抛弃的陈词滥调。大学毕业生即没有基本技能也没有全面修养。有人对高等教育的状况做了研究并发表了报告,但由此引发的变化很大程度上不是表面的,就是使已经糟糕的情形变得更糟。

One aspect of American education too seldom challenged is the lecture system. Professors continue to lecture and students to take notes much as they did in the thirteenth century, when books were so scarce and expensive that few students could own them. The time is long overdue for us to abandon the lecture system and turn to methods that really work.

美国教育中很少被挑战的方面是讲课制度。教授不停地讲,学生不停地记笔记,就想十三世纪时的情形一样,那时因为课本缺乏又昂贵,很少有学生买得起。我们早就该舍弃讲课制度,开始使用真正有用的方法。

Some days Mary sits in the front row, from where she can watch the professor read from a stack of yellowed notes that seem nearly as old as he is. She is bored by the lectures, and so are most of the other students, to judge by the way they are nodding off or doodling in their notebooks. Gradually she realizes the professor is as bored as his audience. At the end of each lecture he asks, “Are there any questions?” in a tone of voice that makes it plain he would much rather there weren’t. He needn’t worry—the students are as relieved as he is that the class is over.

有几天玛丽坐在前排,她可以看到教授在读一叠几乎和他年纪一样老的发黄的讲义。她听课听烦了,其他大部分同学也听烦了,这从他们的行为中可以做出判断:他们要么在打盹,要么在笔记本上涂鸦。渐渐地她意识到教授和他的听众一样感到无聊。每次课结束时他都问道:“有问题吗?”他的语气明显表明他更希望没有问题。他不必担心,学生和他一样感到下课是一种解脱。

Mary knows very well she should read an assignment before every lecture. However, as the professor gives no quizzes and asks no questions, she soon realizes she needn’t prepare. At the end of term she catches up by skimming her notes and memorizing a list of facts and dates. After the final exam, she promptly forgets much of what she has memorized. Some of her follow students, disappointed at the impersonality of it all, drop out of college altogether. Others, like Mary , stick it out, grow resigned to the system and await better days when, as juniors and seniors, they will attend smaller classes and at last get the kind of personal attention real learning requires.

玛丽清楚的知道她应该在每次上课前阅读布置的作业。但是,因为教授不做小测验也不提问,她很快就认识到她不必准备。学期末她只要看看笔记,再记记一些事件、年代就可以跟上进度。期末考试后她会立刻忘掉她背下来的大部分内容。她的有些同学对这种无人情味的学习很失望,干脆辍学。其他人像玛丽一样坚持下来,无奈地接受了这种制度,等待着到大三大四时的好日子,那时他们就会有较小的班级,最终也会得到真正的学习所需要的那种针对个人的关注。

I admit this picture is overdrawn—most universities supplement lecture courses with discussion groups, usually led by graduate students; and some classes such as first-year English and always relatively small. Nevertheless, far too many courses rely principally or entirely on lectures, an arrangement much loved by faculty and administrators but scarcely designed to benefit the students.

我承认上面的描述言过其实。大多数大学有讨论课来补充听力课,通常讨论课是由研究生主持的。而且有些班级,如一年级的英语课,也总是相对较小的。但是,还有太多的课主要或者完全依赖于讲课,这种安排受到教师和管理人员的青睐,但绝不是为学生的利益而设计的。

One problem with lectures is that listening intelligently is hard work. Reading the same material in a textbook is a more efficient way to learn because students can proceed as slowly as they need to until the subject matter become clear to them. Even simply paying attention is very difficult; people can listen at a rate of four hundred to six hundred words a minute, while the most impassioned professor talks at scarcely a third of that speed. This time lag between speech and comprehension leads to daydreaming. Many students believe years of watching television have sabotaged their attention span, out their real problem is that listening attentively is much harder than they think.

听课存在的一个问题是:会听是件很难的事。阅读课本中的相同内容是更有效的学习方法,因为学生可以根据其需要慢慢阅读直到他们理解这些内容,甚至仅仅做到专心听课都很难。人听的速度可以达到每分钟400---600个词,而最富有激情的教授说话的速度也很难达到这个速度的1/3。讲课和理解之间的时间差异导致开小差。很多学生认为多年来看电视已经削弱了他们保持注意力的能力。但是他们真正的问题是专心听课比他们认为的要难得多。

Worse still, attending lectures is passive learning, at least for inexperienced listeners. Active learning, in which students write essays or perform experiments and them have their work evaluated by an instructor, is far more beneficial for those who have not yet fully learned how to learn. While it’s true that techniques of active listening, such as trying to anticipate the speaker’s next point or taking notes selectively, can enhance the value of a lecture, few students possess such skills at the beginning of their college careers. More commonly, students try to write everything down and even bring tape recorders to class in a clumsy effort to capture every word.

更糟的是,听课是被动学习,至少对没有经验的听众如此。主动学习时学生些文章或做实验,然后由教师评价他们的作业,因此主动学习对那些还没有完全学会如何学习的学生来说益处要大得多。的确,积极听讲的技巧,如设法预测说话人的下一个要点或有选择的记笔记,能够提高听课的价值,但是很少有学生在大学学习的开始阶段就已经掌握了这些技巧。更为常见的是学生试图写下所有的内容,甚至还带着录音机去听课,以这种笨拙的方式来记录每个词。

Students need to question their professors and to have their ideas taken seriously. Only then will they develop the analytical skills required to think intelligently and creatively. Most students learn best by engaging in frequent and even heated debate, not by scribbling down a professor’s often unsatisfactory summary of complicated issues. They need small discussion classes that demand the common labors of teacher and students rather than classes in which one person, however learned, propounds his or her own ideas.

学生需要教授提问,也需要别人重视他们的想法。只有这样他们才能开发出聪明的、创造性的思考所必需的分析能力。大多数学生通过参加频繁的、甚至激烈的辩论才会学的更好,而不是通过胡乱记下教授对复杂事件所作出的常常不能令人满意的总结,他们需要小型讨论课,这种课需要教师和学生的共同努力,他们不需要那种让一个人提出自己观点的课堂,无论这个人多么有学识。

The lecture system ultimately harms professors as well. It reduces feedback to a minimum, so that the lecturer can neither judge how well students understand the material nor benefit from their questions or comments. Questions that require the speaker to clarify obscure points and comments that challenge sloppily constructed arguments are indispensable to scholarship. Without them, the liveliest mind can atrophy. Undergraduates may not be able to make telling contributions very often, but lecturing insulates a professor even from the beginner’s naïve question that could have triggered a fruitful line of thought.

讲课制度最终也会危害到教授们。反馈减少到了最低点,因此讲课者既不能判断学生对材料的了解程度,也不能受益于学生的提问或评论。学生要求说话者澄清模糊论点所提出的问题,以及挑战结构松散的论据的评论,这对于学术是必不可少的。没有这些,最活跃的头脑也会萎缩。大学生也许还不能够常常做出显著的贡献,但是讲课把教授同新生天真的问题阻隔开了,而这些问题很可能会引起一系列思考。

If lectures make so little sense, why have they been allowed to continue? Administrators love them, of course. They can cram far more students into a lecture hall than into a discussion class, and for many administrators that is almost the end of the story. But the truth is that faculty members, and even students, conspire with them to keep the lecture system alive and well. Lectures are easier on everyone than debates. Professors can pretend to teach by lecturing just as students can pretend to learn by attending lectures, with no one the wiser, including the participants. Moreover, if lectures afford some students an opportunity to sit back and let the professor run the show, they offer some professors an irresistible forum for showing off. In a classroom where everyone contributes, students are less able to hide and professors less tempted to engage in intellectual exhibitionism.

如果说讲课如此不同情理,为什么还一直允许继续下去呢?当然是因为教学管理者喜欢了。他们可以把更多的学生塞进演讲厅,而无法把这么多学生塞进讨论班。对许多管理者而言,这基本上就是他们所关心的了。但是,事实上,教师,甚至学生和管理者联合起来使得这一制度继续存在,且运行的很好。对任何人来说,讲课都比辩论容易。教授可以通过讲课假装在教,就像学生可以通过听课假装在学,这一点没有人意识到,包括参与者(指老师和学生)。此外,如果听课给某些学生袖手旁观,而让老师唱主角的机会,这也给一些教授提供了炫耀其才学的不可抗拒的舞台。如果课堂上人人参与,学生就无法躲藏,教授也不太会被吸引去进行学识上的自我表现。

Smaller classes in which students are required to involve themselves in discussion put an end to students’ passivity. Students become actively involved when forced to question their own ideas as well as their instructor’s. their listening skills improve dramatically in the excitement of intellectual give-and-take with their instructors and yellow students. Such interchanges help professors do their job better because they allow them to discover who knows what—before final exams, not after. When exams are given in this type of course, they can require analysis and synthesis from the students, not empty memorization. Classes like this require energy, imagination, and commitment from professors, all of which can be exhausting. But they compel students to share responsibility for their own intellectual growth.

如果班级较小又要求学生参加讨论,这就会消除学生的被动性。学生被迫对他们自己老师的思想表示怀疑时,他们就变得主动参与了。他们听的技巧在与老师和同学的学术交流所带来的刺激中大大得到提高。这种交替互动能够帮助教师做得更好,因为他们会发现谁知道什么---在期末考试前,而不是之后。这种形式的课程考试要求学生分析和综合,而不是空洞的记忆。这样的课程需要教授们的活力、想象力和投入,所有这些都会令人精疲力竭的。但是,这也使得学生为他们自己 的学术成长分担责任。

Lectures will never entirely disappear from the university scene both because they seem to be economically necessary and because they spring from a long tradition in a setting that values tradition for its own sake. But the lectures too frequently come at the wrong end of the students’ educational careers—during the first two years, when they most need close, even individual, instruction. If lecture classes were restrictod to juniors and seniors, who are less in need of scholarly nurturing and more able to prepare work on their own, they would be far less destructive of students’ interests and enthusiasms than the present system. After all, students much learn to listen before they can listen to learn.

讲课这一方式不会完全从大学消失。一是因为讲课似乎从经济角度考虑是必需的,二是讲课起源于悠久的传统,而且人们又把传统本身看得很重。但是,讲课通常出现在学生接受教育生涯的错误的那一端------在大学的第一和第二年。那时他们最需要密切是甚至是针对个体的辅导。如果讲课这一形式局限于三、四年级的学生,则对学生的兴趣和热情的破坏力会比目前的制度小得多,因为三、四年级的学生不太需要学科上的指导与帮助,而且更有能力自己制定学习计划。毕竟,学生在能够从听讲课中学到知识之前必须先学会去听。

2 家与旅行

Margaret Mead

1For many people, moving is one kind of thing and travel is something very different. Travel means going away from home and staying away from home; it is an antidote to the humdrum activities of everyday life, a prelude to a holiday one is entitled to enjoy after months of dullness. Moving means breaking up a home, sadly or joyfully breaking with the past; a happy venture or a hardship, something to be endured with good or ill grace.

对许多人来说,搬家和施行是截然不同的两回事,施行意味着离开家外出一段时日。它是摆脱日常单调生活的一种手段,是经过数月乏味的生活之后一个人应该开始享有的度假生活。面对于搬家,有人喜爱有人厌恶,因为它意味着破坏一个家园,或悲伤或兴高采烈地摆脱过去而踏上也许幸福也许艰难的历险征途

4Every winter we went to live in or near Philadelphia so that Father would not have to travel too far or stay in the city on the nights that he lectured at the University. From the time I was seven years old, we went somewhere for the summer, too. So we moved four times a year, because for the fall and spring we returned to the house in Hammonton.

每年冬天我们都会去费城或附近居住。这样父亲到大学讲学就不必走很远的路。也不必在城里过夜。从我7岁起,每年夏天我们也会去其他地方居住。这样,我们一年要搬4次家,因为秋天和春天我们会搬回到哈蒙顿的家。

7In Hammonton we had five whole acres, a good part of which was second-growth bush, studded with blueberries, which the little Italian children who were our neighbors picked and sold back to us. In Lansdowne and Swarthmore there were bits of woodlot. But in Philadelphia there was nothing, only stone walls of different heights on which to walk. Nothing, except for the winter when we lived at the edge of the park near the zoo.

在哈蒙顿,我们拥有整整5英亩土地,其中很大一部分是再生灌木丛,里面点缀着蓝莓。邻居的意大利小孩会采摘蓝莓的果实再卖给我们。在LansdowneSwartthmore我们有些植林地。但在费城却什么也没有,只有高高矮矮的石头墙,上面可以走路,其它什么都没有了。不过冬天当我们住在动物园附近公园边上的时候是要除外的。

12There were treasures on Mother’s dressing table, too — a Wedgwood pin dish, a little porcelain Mary and her lamb, the pale green, flowered top of a rose bowl that had broken, and Mother’s silver-backed comb and brush and mirror. All these things held meaning for me. Each was — and still is — capable of evoking a rush of memories.

母亲的梳妆台上摆放着一些珍藏的物品一个韦奇伍德的放别针的小碟,一个小小的“玛丽和她的小绵羊”的瓷器制品。一个里面镶花但己破碎的浅绿色的玫瑰碗,以及母亲那把镀银的梳子,刷子和镜子。所有这些对我都深有含义,每件东西都曾经并且仍然能够勾起我串串回忆。

13Taken altogether, the things that mattered a great deal to me when I was a child are very few when I compare them to the overloaded tables and overcrowded shelves through which children today have to thread their way. Only if they are very fortunate will they be able to weave together into memories the ill-assorted mass of gadgets, toys, and easily forgotten objects, objects without a past or a future, and piles of snapshots that will be replaced by new, brightly colored snapshots next year.

现在的孩子书桌和书架上都堆满了东西。和他们比起来,童年时对我有意义的东西加在一起也没有几件。但是只有当他们非常幸运的时候,他们记忆中才有可能出现那些杂乱无章的小玩意、玩具、容易被人遗忘的没有过去和未来的东西和一叠叠第二年就会被更新更好看的照片所取代的照片。

14The difficulty, it seems to me, is not — as so many older people claim— that in the past life was simple and there were fewer things, and so people were somehow better, as well as more frugal. It is, rather, that today’s children have to find new ways of anchoring the changing moments of their lives, and they have to try to do this with very little help from their elders, who grew up in an extraordinarily different world. How many of the young people who are rebelling against the tyranny of things, who want to strip their lives down to contents of a rucksack, can remember and name the things that lay on their mother’s dress table or can describe every toy and book they had as a child?

我认为问题的症结并不是许多年纪大的人所认为的那样:认为过去生活很简单,物质也不够丰富,所以人们反而生活得比现在更好更简朴。关键是现在的孩子不得不找到新的方式来适应他们生活中变化的时刻,而且他们还不得不尝试着在没有得到家长多少帮助的情况下做到这点,因为家长们的成长环境和他们现在的环境大相径庭。这些年轻人正在反抗着控制他们的专治。他们想把生活的内容简单到只需一个帆布背包就能容纳。他们中有多少人能记得并说出他们母亲梳妆台上的东西,又有多少人能描绘孩提时所拥有的每一个玩具和每一本书呢?

15It has been found that when desperate, unhappy youngsters are preparing to break away from a disordered, drug-ridden commune in which they have been living for months, they first gather together in one spot their few possessions and introduce a semblance of order among them. The need to define who you are by the place in which you live remains intact, even when that place is defined by a single object, like the small blue vase that used to mean home to one of my friends, the daughter of a widowed trained nurse who continually moved from one place to another. The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert often build no walls when they camp in the desert. They simply hollow out a small space in the sand. But then they bend a slender sapling into an arch to make a doorway, an entrance to a dwelling as sacrosanct from invasion as the walled estates of the wealthy are or as Makati, in Manila, is, where watchmen guard the rich against the poor.

人们已经发现,当绝望的不幸少年打算摆脱他们曾经生活过数月的毫无秩序、充斥着毒品的社区时,他们通常会先把他们有限的财产聚集到某个地方并按顺序摆放起来。人们需要靠自己生活的地方来定义自己的身份的做法没有改变,即使那个地方只是用一件物品定义的。就比如我的一个朋友——她的母亲是一位经过专门训练的护,寡居但是需要经常搬家——一个小小的蓝色花瓶对她的含义就是家。卡拉哈里沙漠里的居民在沙漠中露营时通常是不建围墙的。他们仅仅是在沙漠中挖出一块小空间,然后把一棵小树弯曲起来做成拱形当作入口。这个入口是神圣不可侵犯的,就好比有钱人用墙围起来的地产或者是在马尼拉的马卡提,有保安人员为富人提防穷人一样。

17Home, I learned, can be anywhere you make it. Home is also the place to which you come back again and again. The really poignant parting is the parting that may be forever. It is this sense that every sailing may be a point of no return that haunts the peoples of the Pacific islands. On the very day I arrived in Samoa, people began to ask, “When will you leave?” When I replied, “In a year,” they sighed, “Alas, talofai” — our love to you — with the sadness of a thousand partings in their voices.

我领悟到一点:家可以是在任何地方,家也是你一次次回来的地方。真正让人难过的分别是那种有可能的永远的分别。正是这种感觉一直困扰着南太平洋岛上的人们。对他们来说,每一次出海都可能不再回来。在我到达萨摩亚群岛的当天,人们就开始问我:“你何时离开?”当我告诉他们:“一年后”,他们就会叹息道:“唉,talofai”,(意思是送上我们的爱),声音带着似乎告别无数次才会有的悲伤。因为住在这些群岛的居民都曾是航海者,他们出发时只是为了一次短途航行,但大风却把他们的小船吹离了航线数百英里。然而即使是一艘打鱼船出海,它都有可能撞上危险的暗礁而使人溺水身亡,因此最短的航行都可能意味着永别。

18I have seen something similar on the seacoast of Portugal, where every year for four hundred years fishermen set out in their frail boats for the fishing banks across the treacherous Atlantic and no one could tell when — or whether —they would return. Portugal is still a widow’s walk. The old women, dressed in black, still seem to be looking out to sea for the men who disappeared into the distance and an unknown fate.

同样的情形我在葡萄牙的海岸边也见过。400年来,那里的渔民们驾着他们不堪一击的小船穿越变化莫测的大西洋去浅水渔场。但是没有人知道他们什么时候或者说能否回来。现在葡萄牙仍然像是望台。身着黑衣的老妇们似乎仍在远眺着大海,搜寻她们消失在远方的丈夫,揣测他们未知的命运。

19In all my years of field work, each place where I have lived has become home. Each small object I have brought with me, each arrangement on a shelf of tin cans holding beads or salt for trade or crayons for the children to draw with becomes the mark of home. When it is dismantled on the last morning — a morning that is marked by the greed of those who have little and hope for a share of whatever is left behind, as well as by the grief of feeling that someone is leaving forever — on that morning, I weep. I, too, know that this departure, unlike my forays from home as a child, is likely to be forever.

在我多年实地考察的工作生涯中。我所生活过的每个地方都是家。我所带的每一样小东西,架子上的每一件摆设-----装着用来换东西的一珠子或盐的各种锡罐。或是孩子们用来画画的蜡笔都成了家的印记。最终有个早晨,我的这个家消失了。那个早晨留下了穷人的贪婪的鲂,他们希望分享你留下的任何东西。那个早晨也留下了悲伤的印记。因为他们感到有人即将永远离别------在那个早晨,我哭了,而且我知道。这次离别,和我儿时一次次离家探险有所不同,它可能是永远的。

3 濒危物种vs.人类需求

Martha Grace Low

1The most famous endangered species on earth were the dinosaurs. They died out in one of five "great extinctions "that have occured in the millions of years since life began on this planet ----periods in which, for natural causes ,a large percentage of the specices that ecisted simply disappeared .We are now in the middle of a six great extinction ,but this one has been caused by human activity. Consequently ,the importance of preserving species is a popular topic today ,particurlarly in the industrialized world .

地球上最著名的濒危动物是恐龙。自从地球上有生命以来,发生过5次“大灭绝”,每次都是由于自然的原因使得曾经存在的很多物种消失。恐龙就在几百万年中5次“大灭绝”中的其中一次灭绝。现在我们正处在第六次“大灭绝”的中期,但这次人类活动造成的。因此,物种保护的重要性成了当今的热门话题,尤其是在当今工业化世界。

2But no discussion of endangered species is complete without an examination of the reasons behind its causes,which are human needs.In Africa ,where the world's population is growing the fastest are shringking as people clear lands for homes and farms and cut wood for fuel.Herds of goats and sheep eat the vegetation,leaving the bare soil to be carried away by wind and water .Human kill wildlife to protect their crops ,and may also kill them for the illegal trade in ivory ,rhinoceros horns ,furs .In Latin America and Southeast Asia ,rainforests are cleared for farmlands and for fuel and timber .The loss of the forest endangers many species of plants and destroys many animals'habitats.or natural homes .And in the oceans ,fish supplies have been greatly reduced by overfishing and by pollutin.

但是,如果不考察导致物种濒危背后的原因而去讨论物种灭绝是不全面的。其背后的原因就是人类需要。在全球人口增长速度最快的非洲,森林在不断萎缩,因为人们为了住房和农场而开垦土地,为了燃料而砍伐树木。成群的山羊和绵羊吃掉草皮,造成土壤裸露而被风和水流带走。人们杀害野生动物以保护农作物,或去做非法象牙、犀牛角、皮毛贸易。在拉丁美洲和东南亚,为了农田、燃料和木材,雨林被砍伐。森林减失危及许多种植物,并破坏许多动物的栖息环境或自然家园。而在海洋,过度捕鱼和污染已使鱼的供应大大减少了

3Humans want to survive just as every other species does .we need food ,shelter ,and a place to rear our young ,So how do our activities endanger other species ?Speciefically ,there are three major ways ,We kill off animals directly in some cases ,We may want their meat ,bones .skins ,tusks .horns,or feathers ;or we may wantto protect our crops and livestock from them ,By overhunting ,Euro-Americans endangered the buffalo in North America ,and in the nin eteenth century hunters drove to extinction the passenger pigeon ,which was probably the most populous species that have ever lived.

人类和其他物种一样都渴望生存。我们需要食物、住所和哺育后代的地方。那么,我们的行为是怎样危及其他物种的呢?具体说来,主要有三种途径。我们有时直接杀死动物,或许是因为希望得到它们的肉、骨头、皮、牙、角或羽毛;或许是为了保护农作物和牲畜。由于过度狩猎,欧裔美国人使北美的野牛濒于灭绝。19世纪灭绝的旅鸽就是由于过度狩猎所致,而旅鸽曾经可能是生活在地球上的数量最多的鸟类。

4Another way that we endanger native life-forms is by introducing foreign species into their habitat .A prime example of this was the introduction of European rabbits into Australia . where they multiplied until they endangered the native species of grazing animals by eating all the vegetation .This became a terrible problem that has finally been brought under some control ,though not completely solved.

我们危及当地生态的另一种方式是引进外来物种。一个突出的例子是把欧洲的兔子引入澳洲。在澳洲,它们的数量倍增,以至吃掉所有植被,危及当地其他的吃草动物。这就造成了一个可怕的问题。虽然这一问题最后得到了一定的控制,但并没有完全解决。

7Many people's answer is thar every life-form has a right to exist,and that no other reason is needed for preserving it,A more common reason is the beauty of many species .Certain species also provide humans with economic value ,But scientists identify two additional reasons which may not be obvious to most of us.

许多人的回答是:每个物种都有生存的权利,因而保护它们不需要其它任何理由。而一个更加普遍的理由是物种多样化可使地球更加美丽。况且某些物种对人类还有经济价值。然而科学家却给出了另外两个我们大多数人可能没有意识到的理由。

8one of these reasons is that each life -form occupies a special place within its ecosystem --that is .its community of plant and animal life ,in combination with the nonliving components of its environment such as the climate ,soil .water .and air.For instance within a forest the larger trees drop off little twigs and debris.making a layer that holds water in the soil for other plants to use .The roots hold the soil and prevent it from washing away in rainstorms.Whether living or dead.the tree provides shelter for animals and birds and food for insects.As the dead tree rots away,it enriches the soil of the forest floor ,enabling other plants to spring up in its place Such large trees are an example of what we call keystone species ;if they disappeared from their ecosystem .the consequences would be felt throughout the community of other species living in the forest ,"The loss of akeystone species is like a drill accidentally striking a powerline ",says biologist Edward wilson of Harvard University ."It causes lights to go out all over " During the current sixth great extinction .three species of life-forms are dying out every hour ,or74per day .which equals 2700.each year .Some of these ---and we donot even know which ones ---are undoubtedly keystone species.

理由之一是,每个物种在它所处的由所有动植物和无生命的气候、土壤、水和空气等组成的生态系统中都占有一个特殊的地位。例如,在森林中,较大的树掉下的残枝在土壤中形成一个水分保持层,供其它植物利用。它们的根可以固定土壤,防止土壤被暴雨冲走。无论是活树还是枯树都可以为动物和鸟提供栖息地,为昆虫提供食物。枯树腐烂以后还可以肥沃森林地里的土壤,得以使其它植物从原处拔地而出。这样的大树就是我们所说的主要物种;如果它们从生态系统中消失,其影响会遍及所有生长在森林里的其它物种。哈佛大学的生物学家爱德华威尔逊说:“一个主要物种的消失就像钻头意外地钻断电线,导致四处断电。” 在当前第六次“大灭绝”时期,每小时平均有三个物种灭绝,也就是每天有74个物种灭绝,每年合计达27000个。其中有些物种(虽然我们不确定是哪些)毫无疑问是主要物种。 

9Natural ecosytems are characterized by biodiversity ,which means that a good variety of plant and animal life are present there ,In many parts of today's world .humans have replaced naturally diverse environments with monoculture ,in which only one species lives --one that we humans value , A prime example in forested regions of the world is the monocultural "tree farms "that have been planted after the original forests have been cut down .The character of these tree farms is very different from that of the original forests.

自然界的生态系统以物种多样性为特征,这意味着种类繁多的动植物在其中生存。当今在世界许多地区,人类用单一环境替换本来自然形成的不同环境。在这些单一的;环境中,只有我们人类看重的某一物种得以生存。在世界上的森林地区就有一个突出的例子:在原森林被砍伐之后,人们在原处建造了“林场”,但只栽种了某单一品种的树木。这样的林场和以前的森林是有很大差别的。

10In the case of forests .another extre,ely important reason for presserving species is illustrated by the pacific yew tree ,which people used to down and never replant because they thought it had no particular value,But recently medical researches discovered that a substance called taxol .produced naturally in the bark of this tree ,is an effective medication for treating certain kinds of cancer ,Suddenly harvesters began flocking to the forests of the North American Pacific Northwest in search of this tree,If it had become extinct before its value had been discovered .many cancer patients would have died needlessly.

谈到森林,还要再提一个及其重要的保护物种的理由。太平洋紫杉的例子就很好的说明了这一点。人们过去认为紫杉没有特殊价值,因而砍伐以后就不再重载。但最近医学研究发现,一种从紫杉树皮中自然产生的叫作紫杉醇的物质是治疗某些癌症的有效药物。突然之间,人们开始大批聚集到北美靠近太平洋的西北部地区森林里寻找这种树。如果这种树在它的价值被发现之前就已灭绝,那么许多癌症患者就难逃厄运了。

11Now .consider for a moment that there are around 1.6million species that we have identified on earth (plus uncounted others that we haven't identified )and most of them hace never been studied to see whether they might be able to provide us with food or medicine About 15percent of all our medicines are derived from tropical plants.But we have been able to test only about 10percent of the plants that we know about .and have intensively studied less than 1percent .Of the 74species dying out each day .many of them are tropical plants from the rainforests.Om,pst cases .we don't even knoe the value of what we are losing .

现在考虑一下,在地球上已经辨认的物种大约有160万个(加上我们仍未辨认的无数其他物种),它们当中大多数还未被研究,因而不知道它们是否为可以我们提供食物或药物。人类大约有15%的药物来自热带雨林,但我们现在能测试的只有我们所知道的植物10%左右,深入研究过的不到1%一天内灭绝的74个物种,大多数是热带雨林植物。在许多情况下,我们甚至不知道我们所失去的物种的价值。

12If we turn from medicines to food sources ,we find that over 50percent of today's global food supply consists of just three grains --wheat,rice and corn .if climatic changes or a plant disease suddenly threatened one of these grains .many people would starve unless we could find another species to strengthen or replace it ,It is dangerous to be so dependent on such a small number of species we need to preserve a wider variety of food species .

如果我们撇开医学而转谈食物来源,我们发现,目前全球食品供应的50%以上只包括三种谷类植物——麦子、稻子、玉米。如果气候变化或植物疾病突然威胁到这些谷类植物当中的一个。那么许多人就会挨饿,除非我们能找到其他物种来加强或替换它。人类对少数物种对的过于依赖是很危险的。我们需要保护广泛的植物种类来作为食物来源。

13Finally ,a very important reason for preserving forestland is that plants produce the oxygen that animals (like us )breathe ,and forests produce more of the world's oxygen than any other environment ,Forests also make the air more humid ,producing rain;and the loss of forests leads to the process of desertification ---the creation of deserts where little will grow.

最后还有一个保护森林的非常重要的原因,就是植物生产动物(如我们)呼吸的氧气,并且森林产出的氧气比其他任何环境都多。森林还使空气更加潮湿,并带来降雨;森林的消失会导致沙漠化,也就是形成几乎没有任何植物生长的沙漠。

14Many methods of protecting endangered species are being practiced in different parts of the globe ,Legislation is a common method : passing laws against killing endangered species or destroying their habitat ,Worldwide ,over 1200parks and preserves have been set aside in which wildlife are protected ,And certain endangered species are being raised in captivity for later release into their wild habitats .

在世界各地,人们实施着各种不同的保护濒危物种的办法。立法是一个普遍的方法:颁布法律来反对杀害濒危物种或毁坏他们的栖息地。在全世界范围内,已建立了1200个国家公园和保护区保护野生动物。有些濒危动物还由人工饲养,然后再放归大自然。

4 当看音乐电视长大的一代成为首席执行官

Susan M.Keaveney

2“Who will take the helm?” is one question that will keep CEOs awake at night in the next millennium. Most wonder what corporate culture in services firms will look like when the 40 million Gen Xers in the work force – now twenty-and thirty-something employees – take over as managers.

当这些“难以驾驭的”年轻人成为经理会发生什么样的情况呢?“将来谁来掌舵呢?”这个问题会使很多首席执行官在21世纪的晚上辗转难眠。他们大多想知道现在被称为X一代的近4 000万的20多岁、30多岁的员工如果担任经理职位,服务业的公司文化又将会是个什么样子。

3Much has been written about Gen X employees, most of it negative. Early studies accused them of being arrogant, uncommitted, unmanageable slackers – disrespectful of authority, scornful of paying dues – tattooed and pierced youths who “just don’t care.” Recent interpretations, however, offer some new and somewhat different insights.

关于X一代员工的描述并不鲜见,但多数是负面的评价。早期的研究指责他们傲慢、不愿承担责任、难于管理、散漫懒惰。这些年轻人不尊重权威,对尽职苦干嗤之以鼻,他们纹身或穿耳洞,一副“无所谓”的样子。但是,最近的解读却对他们提出了一些新的、有点不一样的看法。

4Gen Xers have been characterized as the “latchkey kids” of the 70’s and 80’s; often left on their own by divorced and/or working parents, these young people became adept at handling things on their own and in their own ways. Many became self-motivating, self-sufficient, and creative problem-solvers. Their independence, which baby-boom managers sometimes interpret as arrogance, may also reflect a need to feel trusted to get a job done.

X一代人的一个特征是,他们是七、八十年代脖子上挂钥匙的孩子,经常被已经离异或双职工的父母单独留在家里,因此这些年轻人已经习惯了独立地以自己的方式处理事情。许多人自我激励、自给自足,解决问题时颇具创造性。他们的独立性一有时会被婴儿潮时期出生的经理们认为是一种傲慢自大——也许正体现了他们需要得到别人信任,信任他们可以胜任某项工作。

5As employees, Gen Xers enjoy freedom to manage their own schedules. They don’t watch a clock and don’t want their managers to do so. Whether work is done from nine-to-eight – at home , in the office, or over lattes – is irrelevant to this group because Gen Xers are results-oriented. They seek guidance, inspiration, and vision from their managers but otherwise prefer to be left alone between goal-setting and deliverables.

作为员工,X一代人喜欢享有掌控自己时间表的自由。他们不愿意做事按部就班,也不希望他们的经理是这样的人。因为这代人更注重结果,因此对他们来说,工作的时间表是朝九晚五,还是从中午开始到晚上8点,是在家里、办公室或是在咖啡馆里都无所谓。他们会向经理们寻求指导、鼓励,听取他们的意见。但是从目标确立到完成这一过程中,他们却希望不受打扰。

6Many Gen Xers excel at developing innovative solutions, but need clear, firm deadlines to set boundaries on their creative freedom. They have been known to bristle under micromanagement but flourish with coaching and feedback.

许多X一代人擅长提出创新性的解决办法,但是他们需要清楚明确的期限来约束他们创造的自由。众所周知的是:凡事必亲躬的微观管理会惹怒X一代人,但是施以指导和提供反馈信息却能使他们成功。

7Gen X grew up with rapidly changing technology and the availability of massive amounts of information. Many developed skills at parallel processing or sorting large amounts of information quickly (which is sometimes interpreted as a short attention span). Most are skilled at understanding and using technologies, adapt quickly to new platforms, and are practiced at learning through technological media. They value visual as well as verbal communication.

X一代人的成长伴随着技术的快速变化和信息的大量涌现。他们中很多人都具有同时处理或迅速分类大量信息的技能(虽然这种技能有时被人理解为是缺乏持久注意力的表现)。他们大多数都熟悉并善于使用技术,能快速适应新的技术平台,并且能熟练地通过科技媒体学习。他们对视觉和言语上的交流同等重视。

8Gen X employees excel in a technologically advanced environment. They demand state-of-the-art capabilities, such as telecommuting, teleconferencing, and electronic mail, in order to work efficiently and effectively. To baby-boom managers this may seem to be a preference for impersonal means of communicating, living and working, but Gen Xers do not see it that way; for example, they have modified electronic language and symbolism to express emotions such as surprise, anger and pleasure.

X一代员工在科技先进的环境中最能凸显自己。他们要求自己工作的地方具备最新的科学技术设施,例如远程办公、远程会议和电子邮件,这样他们工作会更有效果,也更有效率。在婴儿潮时期出生的经理们看来,这种做法似乎是对那种没有人情味的交流、生活和工作模式的偏好,但是X一代人并不这样认为,例如:他们已经修改了电子语言和符号来表达诸如吃惊、愤怒和喜悦等情感。

9Gen X employees don’t live to work, they work to live. They place a high value on prototypical family values that they feel they missed. Having observed their parents trade personal lives for “the good of the company,” this group wants balance in their lives, demanding time for work, play, family, friends, and spirituality. Gen X employees are skeptical of forgoing the needs of today for a later, uncertain payoff.

X一代员工不是活着为了工作,而是为了生活而工作。他们非常重视他们认为曾经错过的典型的家庭观念。曾经目睹他们的父母为了公司的利益而牺牲了个人生活,这代人想要的是生活的平衡。他们需要时间来满足工作、玩乐、家庭、朋友以及精神的需求。对于为了将来未知的回报而放弃现在的需求,X一代员工是深表怀疑的。

10When on the job market, Gen Xers will openly ask life-balance questions. This can be a turnoff for unprepared interviewers used to classic baby-boomer scripts featuring such lines as “How can I best contribute to the company?” and “My greatest weakness is that I work too hard.”

在找工作时,X一代人会坦率地询问关于生活能否平衡的问题。没有思想准备的面试官也许会感到反感,因为他们已习惯了婴儿潮时期出生的人的经典回答版本,例如:“我怎样才能最好地为公司效力呢?”,还有“我最大的弱点就是我工作太努力了。”

11In contrast, Gen Xers want to know “What can you do to help me balance work, life, and family?” They expect companies to understand and respect their needs as individuals with important personal lives. This focus on “getting a life” cause some to label them as slackers. Viewed from another perspective, however, Gen Xers could be seen as balanced individuals who can set priorities within time limits.

恰恰相反,X一代人想知道的是:“你能做什么来帮我实现工作、生活和家庭的平衡?"他们希望公司能理解并尊重他们作为个体在拥有重要的个人生活方面的需要。这种对“有自己的生活”的强调态度使得有些人给他们贴上了“懒惰散漫的人”的标签。但是换一个角度,我们司以把X一代人看作是重视平衡的人,他们能够分清某一时限内事情的轻重缓急。

13Gen X employees tend to focus on the big picture, to emphasize outcomes over process or protocol. They respect clear, unambiguous communication – whether good news or bad. Gen Xers prefer tangible rewards over soft words. Cash incentives, concert tickets, computer equipment, or sports outings go farther with this group than “attaboys,” plaques, or promises of future rewards.

X一代员工关注的是整体,强调结果而不是过程或礼仪。不管消息是好是坏,他们都遵重清楚明确的交流。他们喜欢实质的奖励而不是甜言蜜语。现金奖励、音乐会的门票、电脑设备或户外运动这些远比夸他们是好样的、授予勋章或许诺将来奖励更让他们喜欢。

14Growing up in a period of corporate downsizing and right-sizing fostered Gen X beliefs that the future depends on their resumes rather than loyalty to any one company .Not surprisingly ,Gen X employees seek challenging projects that help them develop a portfolio of skills .

在公司裁员和精简的氛围中成长起来的X一代人持有这样的信念:未来是靠自己的资历而不是靠对哪一家公司的忠诚得来的。因此,理所当然,X一代员工总是寻求具有挑战性的项目来培养自己的各项技能。

15What might appear to a baby-boom manager as job-hopping can be interpreted as Gen Xer’s pattern of skill acquisition .Similarly, a refusal to just “do time” in an organization, often interpreted as disloyalty and a lack of commitment, may come from an intolerance of busywork and wasted time.

在婴儿潮期出生的经理人眼里看来是跳槽的行为,对X一代人来说可以理解为是他们学习技能的方式。同样,X一代人拒绝在公司里恪守工作时间通常被认为是他们不忠诚和缺乏责任感的表现,但其实这是他们出于对繁忙的工作的抗议和浪费时间的不满。

16Gen Xers will thrive in learning organizations where they can embrace creative challenges and acquire new skills. Smaller companies and work units will be valued for the opportunities they provide for Gen X employees to apply their diverse array of skills and, thereby, prove their individual merit.

X一代人在仍处于学习阶段的公司中会发展很快,他们可以接受有创造性的挑战并且获得新的技能。小型公司和单位会格外的受到青睐,因为它们能够给X一代员工提供施展各种技能从而证明自己个体价值的机会。

17Managers who enact their roles as teachers and facilitators rather than “bosses” will get the most from their Gen X employees. Training is valued by this group but should be immediately relevant: the best training seems to be self-directed or tied to self-improvement, personal development, and skills-building.

如果经理们扮演的不是老板,而是老师或辅助者的角色,他们则可以从X一代的员工身上获得最大的利益。X一代人重视培训,但是培训对他们来说应该是直接相关的。最好的培训似乎是自我指导型的,或者是和自我提高、个人发展和技能培养有关系的。

18Some baby-boom managers hope that the differences between themselves and their Gen X employees will fade away as less-conforming behaviors are abandoned with age and experience. But what if the wished-for assimilation into corporate culture —as presently defined by baby-boomers—doesn’t occur? Or, what if, more likely, the assimilation is less than complete? What vestiges of Gen X’s culture will be maintained? What will be absorbed, what will fade away?

一些婴儿潮期出生的经理们希望看到随着年龄和经验的增长,X一代人会减少叛逆行为,他们之间的分歧也将会逐步缩小,但是如果他们所希望的这种融入公司文化的方式(按照婴儿潮时期出生的人现在所定义的)没有发生,那该怎么办呢?或者,更可能的是,这种同化不完全彻底又怎么办?X一代的文化会有哪些被保留?哪些会被吸收?又有哪些会渐渐衰退?

19As a group, Gen X was not predicted to become “the establishment,” yet the establishment will claim them nevertheless. Having rebelled against standard business hours and micromanagement, they might find it difficult to make such demands of their subordinates. Having distained bosses, they might be uncomfortable being bosses themselves; having shunned hierarchy and titles, they may find their own managerial monikers awkward to bear.

作为一个群体,X一代人并没有被指望将成为当权人物,但是权力机构总会找上他们。他们曾经抗议过标准的上下班时间和微观管理,因而他们也许会发现自己对下属很难提出此类要求。他们曾经鄙视过自己的的老板,因而他们会对自己当老板不太适应:他们曾经逃避过等级制度和头衔,因而他们也许会对自己的管理头衔感到尴尬。

20Their emphasis on independence, combined with technological expertise, suggested that Gen X managers will support continued growth in telecommuting. This trend could put particular stresses on services firms that require contact personnel on-site to service customers. However, the creative problem-solving excellence of Gen X managers, combined with their technological prowess, will support new approaches to the issue of front-line service coverage.

X一代人强调独立和专业技术知识,这表明X一代人经理人会支持远程通讯的持续发展。这种趋势会对服务业施加更多的压力,因为服务业要求提供服务人员现场为客户服务的业务。但是,X一代经理人擅于创造性解决问题的能力以及高超的技术能力将会使他们支持采用新的方法解决一线服务所覆盖的问题。

21Their life-balance beliefs suggest that Gen X managers will support family-friendly corporate policies. Firms will experience a continued drive toward flexible work schedules and reduced hours that benefit both Gen Xers (who strive for balance throughout their careers) and baby boomers (who put off “life” until their career dues were paid) . Firms will manage differences in needs for employee benefits with cafeteria plans that allow Gen Xers to select benefits that support early family concerns (insurance, child care) and allow baby boomers to focus on 401ks [U.S] and retirement plans.

X一代经理人看重生活平衡,表明他们会拥护有利于家庭的公司政策。各公司会继续努力创建灵活弹性的工作制度,并且减少工作时间,这种做法会使X一代人(他们在职业生涯中一直致力于平衡生活)和婴儿潮时期出生的人(他们直到尽职退休后才开始享受生活)双方都受益。

22Gen Xer’s “just do it” attitudes and impatience with corporate cultures that seem to support style over substance indicate that Gen X managers will support a more casual workplace. Expect “dress-down Friday” to expand to encompass the entire workweek, with formal business attire required on an as-needed basis such as in the presence of customers.( Gen Xers will respect social niceties when they agree that there’s a good reason.)

X一代人讲求实干的态度以及对重视风格而非实质的公司文化的不耐烦的态度表明X一代的经理会拥护更轻松随意的工作环境。他们期待把“星期五可以着便装”的规定扩展到所有工作日,希望只有在必要的场合,例如有客户在场,才穿正装。(X一代人在有正当理由时还是会尊重社交礼节的。)

23Some “free-agent” Gen Xers will ultimately be unable or unwilling to make the transition to corporate manager. As Scott Asams’ Dilbert cartoons make painfully clear, many Gen Xers fear ending up in deed-end support jobs, especially when they see the road to the top clogged with baby-boom managers. We are likely to see many choose an alternative lifestyle by becoming entrepreneurs. Indeed, the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 80% of Americans starting their own businesses today are between ages 18 and 34. The trend may dilute corporate pools of promotable junior managers but provide a needed infrastructure for corporate outsourcing.

一些人做自由人的X一代人最终也许不能或不愿过渡到公司经理的职位。正如scottAdamsdilbert 的卡通片中所作的痛苦的描述那样,许多X一代人,尤其是当他们看到通往高层职位的职业道路上还挤满了婴儿潮事情出生的经理们的时候,担心最终会落到从事前途的下手工作的下场。我们很可能会看到许多人选择另外一种生活态度成为企业家。实际上,根据美国劳动统计局的报告,美国目前正在开始自主创业的群体中,有80%的人年龄在1834岁之间。这种趋势会使公司中有提职潜力的年轻经理储备量减少,但是却为公司外包业务提供了必要的基础。

25Facing the issue squarely and approaching Gen X workplace issues as issues of cultural diversity are necessary to get the most from the two groups of group. Lines of communication must be opened and maintained. For example, mentoring programs that pair the institutional memory and experience of baby boomers with the technological prowess and creativity of Gen Xers can help to foster mutual respect between the two groups.

坦率的面对这一问题并且把X一代在工作中所产生的问题作为文化多样性的体现来处理,是挖掘这两代经理人最大潜力的必要手段。公司必须理解、尊重每个群体的不同需求并对此做出反应。沟通的渠道应该保持开放并加以维护。例如:把婴儿潮时期出生的人对传统的眷恋和他们的经验与X一代人的技术能力及创新能力结合起来形成培养计划,将会有助于培育双方的相互尊重。

26Before mid-millennium, Gen Xers will be the CEOs of the future. This is a time when Gen X’s visionary qualities will be most valued by firms. Will their anger with pollution, devastation of natural resources, and waste inspire them to responsible environmental stewardshipWill their disgust with corruption and scandal stimulate ethical corporate leadership? Will their experiences as the forgotten generation motivate them to create supportive corporate cultures? Will their experiences as a marginal group help them to envision, and sponsor, corporate cultural diversity? Only time will tell.

21世纪中叶,X一代人将成为未来的首席执行官。那时,X一代人的远见将最为受到公司的重视。他们对于污染、自然资源遭到破坏及浪费等问题的愤怒是否会促使他们成为更负责任的环境保护者呢?他们对于腐败和丑闻的厌恶是否会激发他们成为更有职业道德的公司领导者呢?他们作为被遗忘的一代的经历是否会驱使他们创造对员工有更多支持和帮助的公司文化呢?

他们作为边缘群体的经历是否会有助于他们设想并支持公司文化的多样性呢?只有时间可以回答这些问题。

5 建立婚姻新规范的七条准则

David Popenoe

I propose as a remedy for socieyt’s confusion over marital gender-role expectations, a pattern of late marriage followed, in the early childrearing years, by what one could call a “modified traditional nuclear family.” The main elements of this pattern can be summarized as follows. (I recognize, of course, that this pattern—being a set of normative expectations—is not something to which everyone can or should conform.)

为了解决社会对婚姻中性别角色期望的困惑,我提议一种婚姻模式:晚婚,然后在哺育小孩子的前几年采纳一种可称为“改良型传统核心家庭”的家庭模式。这个婚姻模式的主要部分可以归纳如下(我当然承认这个模式包含的是一套规范性的期望,并不是每个人都能够或者应该遵循的。)

(1) Girls as well as boys should be trained according to their abilities for a socially useful paid job or career. It is important for women to be able to achieve the economic, social, and psychic rewards of the workplace that have long been reserved for men. It is important for society that everyone be well educated and that they make an important work contribution over the course of their lives.

不仅男孩而且女孩都应该根据他们的能力得到训练,以从事对社会有用的,并能获得报酬的工作或职业。能够在长期以来是男性领地的工作中获得经济的、社会的、心理的回报对女性非常重要。每个人都能够接受良好的教育并且在他们的生命历程中对所从事的工作做出重要的贡献,这对社会非常重要。

(2) Young people should grow up with the expectation that they will marry only once and for a lifetime and that they will have children. Reproduction is a fundamental purpose of life, and marriage is instrumental to its success. Today, close to 90percent of Americans actually marry, and about the same percentage of American women have children: Although these figures have been dropping, the social expectation in these respects is currently quite well realized. Lifetime monogamy is not so well realized, however, with the divorce rate now standing at over 50 percent.

我们期望年轻人在长大成人后只结一次婚,并且这场婚姻能持续一生,我们还期望他们生儿育女。生命繁衍是人生的根本目的,而婚姻对于这一目标的实现至关重要。当前,接近90%的美国人确实结了婚,大约有相同比例的美国女性生育了孩子:虽然这些数字一直在下降,但是目前社会在这些方面的期望还是较好地得到了实现。然而由于当前离婚率超过50%,社会对终生一夫一妻的期望就不如人意了。

(3) Young adults should be encouraged to marry later in life than is common now, with an average age at time of marriage in the late twenties or early thirties (the average ages currently are twenty-six for men and twenty-four for women). Even later might be better for men, but better for men, but at older ages than this for women who want children, the “biological clock” becomes a growing problem.

应该鼓励年轻人比现在的普遍年龄在晚一些,平均结婚年龄在30岁左右。甚至再晚一些对男性更好。但是如果超过这个年龄,对于想要小孩的女性来说,生物钟问题将越来越突出。

Form society’s viewpoint, the most important reason why people should be encouraged to marry relatively late in life is that they are more mature, they know better what they want in a mate, they are more established in their jobs or careers, and the men have begun to “settle down”, sexually (partly due to a biological diminution of their sex drive). Age at marriage has proven to be the single most important predictor of eventual divorce, with the highest divorce rates found among those who marry in their teenage years. But we must also recognize that both women and men want to have time, when they are young, to enjoy the many opportunities for personal expression and fulfillment that modern, affluent societies are able to provide.

从社会的角度看,鼓励人们相对晚婚的最重要的上网理由是,那是他们更成熟,更明白想从自己另一半哪里得到什么,有更好的工作和事业基础,而且男性性生活趋于平稳。结婚年龄已经被证明是能够预测最终是否离婚的唯一的最重要的因素。离婚率最高的群体是那些十几岁就结婚的年轻人。但是我们也必须承认男性和女性都希望在年轻的时候有时间享有现在富有社会所提供的表达自我,实现自我的诸多机会。

We should anticipate that many of these years of young adulthood will be spent in nonmarital cohabitation, an arrangement that often makes more sense than the alternatives to it, especially living along or continuing to live with one’s family of origin. I am not implying, much less advocating, sexual promiscuity here, but rather serious, caring relationships which may involve cohabitation.

我们应该预料到成年初期的不少年头将会在非婚同居中度过。比起其他选择。特备是独居胡哟这继续生活在原来家里的,这是一个更加合乎常理的生活安排。我这里不是在暗示,更不是在倡导滥交,而是指严肃,相互关爱的,可能涉及同居的恋爱关系。

(4)From the perspective of promoting eventual family life, however, the downside to late age of marriage is that people live for about a decade or more in a nonfamily, “singles” environment which reinforces their personal drive for expressive individualism and conceivably reduces their impulse toward carrying out eventual family obligations, thus making the transition to marriage and childrearing more difficult. To help overcome the anti-family impact of these years, young unmarried adults should be encouraged to save a substantial portion of their income for a “family fund” with an eye toward offsetting the temporary loss of the wife’s income after marriage and childbirth.

然而,从促进生活家庭的角度来看,结婚年龄大的缺点在于人们在10年或者更长的时间里生活在没有家庭的单身汉环境中,这段经历会强化他们追求表现型个人主义倾向。社会减少他们履行最终家庭义务的愿望。从而使向婚姻和抚育小孩的国度更加困难。为了克服这些年形成的不利于家庭生活的影响,应当鼓励年轻的未婚青年人将收入的大部分存起来作为家庭基金,一边抵消在结婚和生育之后妻子暂时失去收入的损失。

(5)Once children are born, wives should be encouraged to leave the labor market and become substantially full-time mothers for a period of at least a year to eighteen months per child. The reason for this is that mother-reared infants appear to have distinct advantages over those reared apart from their mothers. It is desirable for children to have full-time parenting up to at least age three, but after eighteen months—partly because children by then are more verbal—it is appropriate for fathers to become the primary caretakers, and some men may wish to avail themselves of the opportunity. At age three, there is no evidence that children in quality group care suffer any disadvantages (in fact, for most children there are significant advantages). Once children reach that age, therefore, the average mother could resume working part-time until the children are at least of school age, and preferably in their early to middle teen years, at which point she could resume work full-time. Alternatively, when the children reach the age of three the father could stay home part-time, and the mother could resume work full-time.

小孩出生以后,应该鼓励妻子离开劳动力市场,为每个孩子切实的做到至少到18个月的全职母亲。这样做的原因是母亲哺育的婴儿似乎比离开母亲抚养的婴儿有明显的优势,至少在3岁之前儿童最好有母亲全职照顾,但是18个月以后----部分原因在于那是儿童语言表达能力更强-----可以让父亲承担主要照料工作,而且有的男人也希望拥有这个机会,在3岁得时候,没有证据显示接收优良集体照看的儿童有什么不利之处。因此,一旦儿童达到那个年纪,一般母亲可以重新开始做兼职工作,一直到小孩至少达到入小学年龄。最好是13,14岁到15,16,17左右的时候。那时候母亲可以重新开始做全职工作。或者正在小孩3岁的时候,父亲可以做兼职工作,并在家照料孩子。而母亲可以重新开始做全职工作。

For women, this proposal is essentially the strategy known as “sequencing”. The main difficulty with it, as sociologist Phyllis Moen has noted,” is that child-nurturing years are also the career-nurturing years. What is lost in either case cannot be ‘made up’ at a later time.” Yet I would argue that it is possible to “make up” for career loss, but impossible to make up for child-nurturing loss. To make it economically more possible for a family with young children to live on a single income, we should institute (in addition to the “family fund”) what virtually every other industrialized society already has in place—parental leave and child allowance programs. And, to help compensate women for any job or career setbacks due to their time out of the labor force, we should consider the development of “veterans benefits” type programs that provide mothers with financial subsidies and job priorities when they return to the paid work force. In general, women must be made to feel that caring for young children is important work, respected by the working community.

对女性来说,这个提议实质上就是被称为“人生排的策略。正如社会学家菲利斯.莫恩提到的,他的主要困难”在于照料孩子的时光也正是建立事业的年纪。两者损失都无法再以后弥补。然而我想说在事业上的损失都能够弥补的。而养孩子的损失却是无法弥补的。为了使有幼孩子的家庭能够只靠一份收入生活,我们应该设立几乎所有工业化国家早就已经有的---育儿假以及儿童补贴项目。另外,为了帮助补偿女性由于一段时间不在职场而遇到的工作或者事业挫折,我们应该考虑类似“退伍军人补贴金的方法”,使他们重新就业时给予母亲以经济补贴和工作优先权。总之,必须让女性感到照料小孩是一项重要的工作,是受到就业群体尊重的。

(6)According to this proposal, the mother and not the father ordinarily would be the primary caretaker of infants. This is because of fundamental biological differences between the sexes that assume great importance in childrearing, as discussed above. The father should be an active supporter of the mother-child bond during this period, however, as well as auxiliary homemaker and care provider. Fathers should expect to spend far more time in domestic pursuits than their own fathers did. Their work should include not only the male’s traditional care of the house as a physical structure and of the yard and car, but in many cases cooking, cleaning, and child care, the exact distribution of such activities depending on the individual skills and talents of the partners. And, as noted above, after children reach age eighteen months it may be desirable for the father and not the mother to become the primary caretaker. This means that places of employment must make allowances for substantial flex-time and part-time job absence for fathers as well as for mothers.

根据这个提议,母亲而不是父亲成为婴儿的主要照看人。是因为,如前所述,男女性别之间的基本生理差异对育儿有重大影响。不过,父亲在这个阶段应该成为母亲关系的积极支持者,同时海燕帮助照料家务和照看孩子。父亲应该要比他们自己的父辈在家承担的事务上要花更多的时间。他们的职责范围应该不近包括传统上就一直有男性承担打理房屋,庭院和汽车,在很多情况下还包括做饭,打扫卫生和照顾小孩。这些事物的具体分工还取决于配偶双方的个人技巧和才能。而且,如前面提到的,在婴儿涨到18个月以后可以有父亲而不是母亲充当主要照看人。这就意味着用工单位必须不近体谅母亲而且还要体谅父亲在弹性工作时间和非全日制时的经常缺勤。

(7)It should be noted that there is some balancing out of domestic and paid-work roles between men and women over the course of life. Under current socioeconomic conditions, husbands, being older, retire sooner than their wives. Also, in later life some role switching occurs, presumably caused in part by hormonal changes, in which women become more work-oriented and men become more domestic. Given current male-female differences in longevity, of course, the average woman can expect to spend an estimated seven years of her later life as a widow.

应该注意的是,在一生中男性和女性所承担的家务和带薪工作是基本相当的。在当前的经济状况下,丈夫由于年龄大,比妻子退休的早。而且,在后半生会发生一定的角色转换,部分想必是有荷尔蒙变化引起的。在这个转换过程中,女性更加倾向外出工作,而男性则变得更加乐于操持家务。当然鉴于现在的男女寿命差异,一般女性在后半生估计要寡居7年左右。

Male breadwinning and female childrearing have been the pattern of social life throughout history, albeit not always in quite so extreme a form as found in modern societies over the past century and a half. Except perhaps for adult pair-bonds in which no young children are involved, where much social experimentation is possible, it is foolhardy to think that the nuclear family can or should be entirely scrapped. When children become a part of equation, fundamental biological and social constraints come into play—such as the importance of mothers to young children—and central elements of the nuclear family are dismissed at society’s peril. Rather than strive for androgyny and be continuously frustrated and unsettled by our lack of achievement of it, we would do much better to more readily acknowledge, accommodate, and appreciate the very different needs, sexual interests, values, and goals of each sex. And rather than the unisex pursuit of “freedom with a male bias,” we should be doing more to foster a culture in which the traditional female values of relationship and caring are given a higher priority and respect.

男人挣钱养家、女人生儿育女是有史以来天经地义的社会生活模式,虽然这种模式并不总如过去一个半世纪现代社会中表现得那样极端。也许除了在没有年幼儿童的成人伴侣中可以进行很多社会实验,认为核心家庭可以或者应该被完全抛弃是极其鲁莽的。当孩子成为综合考虑因素的一部分时,基本的生理和社会限制就开始发挥作用——比如母亲对幼小儿童的重要性——如果抛弃核心家庭的中心元素,社会将会承担极大的风险。与其努力同时承担男性挣钱养家和女性生儿育女的双重责任,并为自己不能达到目的而不断地感到失望和不安,不如我们更坦然地承认、考虑、并欣赏不同性别的截然不同的需求、性兴趣、价值观和目标,这样我们会做得更好。与其不分男女都追求“具有男性偏向的自由”,我们应该做更多的工作来促进一种社会文化:给予注重家庭亲情关系和养育子女的传统女性价值观更多的重视和尊重。

In a much modified form, then, traditional marital gender roles are necessary if the good of society---and of individuals --- are to be advanced.

因此,如果要推进社会及个人的利益吗,经过改良的传统婚姻性别角色是必要的。

Uint six

1America is a nation of ambitious people, and yet ambition is a quality that is hard to praise and easy to deplore. It’s a great engine of American creativity, but it also can be an unrelenting oppressor, which robs us of time and peace of mind. Especially in highly prosperous periods — periods like the present — it becomes fashionable to question whether ambition has gotten out of hand and is driving us to excesses of striving and craving that are self-destructive.

美利坚是一个雄心勃勃的民族,然而雄心这种品质却很少受到赞赏,更多受到的是谴责。它是激发美国人创造力的巨大动力,但是也会是一个残酷的压迫者,剥夺我们的1992时间和平和的心态,特别是在高度繁荣的时期——就像现在人们普遍质疑雄心是不是已经失去了控制,并正在驱使着我们走向导致自我毁灭的过度奋斗和过度渴望。

2Ambition is not, of course, only a quest for riches. The impulse pervades every walk of life. Here is Al Gore straining to be president — campaigning earnestly without any apparent joy — to fulfill an ambition that must date back to his diaper days. And does anyone really believe that the fierce rivalry among America’s immensely rich computer moguls is about money? What it concerns is the larger ambition to control the nation’s cyberagenda.

雄心当然不只是对财富的追求。这种推动力遍布社会各个行业,各个阶层。阿尔,戈尔正在竭尽全力力争当选总统——尽心竭力地参加竞选活动,毫无乐趣可言——为了实现一个准是在孩提时代就已萌发的雄心壮志。难道会有人真的相信美国及其富有的电脑巨头之间的激烈竞争只是为了金钱?这场竞争的目的是实现更大的野心——控制美国的网络世界。

3One-upmanship is a national mania. You see it every time a wide receiver prances into the end zone and raises his index finger in triumph. More common is the search for status symbols — a bigger house, a more exotic vacation, a niftier bike, a faster computer — that separate us from the crowd. Money may not be the only way to satisfy this urge, but it’s the most common because it can so easily translate itself into some other badge of identity and standing.

对胜人一筹的狂热充斥着整个民族。每当橄榄球边接应队员大步冲入球门区,并怀着胜利的喜悦竖起象征第一名的食指时,你都会看到这种狂热。更为普遍的则是对地位象征的追求——更大的房子,更有异国情调的假期,更灵便的自行车,速度更快的电脑——这些使我们有别于一般大众。金钱不一定是满足这种渴求的唯一途径,但它却是最常见的途径,因为它可以很容易地转化为其他某种身份和地位的象征。

4For many people, the contest seems futile. The New York Times recently ran a long story on four families with roughly $50,000 of income who “wonder why they have to struggle so hard just to pay the bills.” The answer isn’t that their incomes are stagnating. Between 1992 and 1997, the median income of married couples rose from $48,008 to $51,681 in inflation-adjusted dollars,reports the Census Bureau. They are surely higher now. All the families profiled by the Times owned homes as well as things like big-screen TVs and elaborate outdoor grills.

对于许多人来说,这种竞争毫无意义。<纽约时报>最近刊登了一个长篇报道介绍4个收入约为5万美元的家庭。他们都“奇怪为什么自己必须如此努力地工作,却仅仅能够缴清账单。”问题的答案并不是他们的收入停滞不前。根据美国人口普查局地报告,19921997年间,去除通货膨胀的因素,已婚夫妇收入的中位数从48088美元上升到了51681美元。现在的收入水平肯定比以前高。《纽约时报》所描述的家庭都拥有住宅以及大屏幕电视和制作精良的户外烤架等高档消费品。

5The problem isn’t that they’re running in place but that they’re running in the pack with everyone else. Consumer products morph from luxury to convenience to necessity. Cars, TVs and microwaves all followed the cycle; now it describes Internet connections and cell phones. If you don’t buy by the final stage, you’re considered a crank or a pauper. There’s nothing new here. In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Thorstein Veblen argued that, once an item becomes widely owned, possessing it becomes a requisite for “self-respect.” People try to consume “just beyond their reach” so they “can outdo” those with whom they compare themselves.

问题不在于他们正跑在跑道上,而在于他们正和所有其他人一起以同样的速度跑在比赛领先者地后面。消费品总是从奢侈品变为给人们带来便利的物品,在变为生活奢侈品。汽车、电视和微波炉都经历了这样一个过程;现在网络和手机也是一样。如果你没有购买最先进的产品,你就会被看成是怪物或者贫民。这并不是什么新鲜的现象。在1899年的著作《有闲阶级论》里,索尔斯坦。维布伦就论述到,一旦一件商品被大多数人拥有,那么拥有它就成为维持“自尊”的必要条件。人们想要购买“超过自己消费能力”的商品。这样他们就“可以胜过”那些他们用来与自己进行比较的人。

6Frustration is preordained. Despite the booming economy, a Newsweek Poll in June reported that 29 percent of adults found it “more difficult” to “live the kind of life” they want, while only 23 percent found it less difficult. (For 47 percent, there was no change.) The stress can lead to tragedy. Perhaps this is the story of Mark Barton, the day trader who murdered 12 people. People routinely try to beat the system through get-rich-quick schemes. This partly explains the explosion in legalized gambling. In 1998, Americans lost about $50 billion gambling.

人们注定会感到失望。尽管经济繁荣,《新闻周刊》6月份的一份民意调查却显示百分之29的成年人认为要过上自己想过的生活更困难了,只有百分之23的人觉得更容易(百分之47的人觉得没有变化。),这种压力可能会导致悲剧。这也许就是马克。巴顿,那个谋杀了12个人的当天买卖股票投机者的情况。人们习以为常地试图用各种暴发致富的方法钻制度的空子。这部分解释了合法化赌局急剧增加的原因。在1998年,美国人在赌博中输掉了约500亿美元。

7We’re constantly advised to subdue ambition. Search for deeper meaning in family, friends and faith, we’re told. Money cannot buy happiness. This seems sensible — up to a point. The General Social Survey at the University of Chicago asks people to rate their happiness. The 1998 survey shows a somewhat stronger relation between money and happiness than earlier polls. About 34 percent of those with incomes between $30,000 and $50,000 were “very happy” and 58 percent were “pretty happy.” Above $110,000, the ratings were 51 percent “very happy” and 45 percent “pretty happy.” (Marriage has a bigger impact than income; the “very happy” rate of couples is about double that of singles.)

我们不断地收到应该克制野心的忠告。人们奉劝我们应该从家庭、朋友和信仰中寻找人生更深刻的意义。金钱买不到幸福。这似乎有一定道理。芝加哥大学展开的综合社会调查要求人们评判自己的幸福等级。1998年的调查显示出的金钱和幸福之间的相关性略高于往年的调查。在收入为3万到5万美元之间的受访者中,大约34%感到“很幸福”,58%感到“相当幸福”,在收入为百万美元以上的受访者中,结果是51%的人感到“很幸福”,45%的人感到“相当幸福”,(婚姻比收入的影响更大;感到“很幸福”的夫妇所占比例是单身的两倍)。

8In a recent book (Luxury Fever), Cornell University economist Robert Frank urges that we penalize overambition with a progressive consumption tax. The more people spend, the higher their tax rate. Spend $5,000 on a watch instead of $50, and your taxes go up; buy a car for $60,000 instead of $20,000, and pay more taxes. People wouldn’t be worse off, Frank argues, because they’d be shielded from the “arms race” pattern of competitive consumption. Indeed, they’d have more free time, because it wouldn’t pay to work so hard.

在最近的《奢侈品热》一书中,康奈尔大学的经济学家罗伯特·弗兰克敦促我们采用累进消费税来惩罚过度雄心勃勃的行为。人们消费得越多,他们的税率就越高。花5000美元而不是50美元买一块手表,你交的税就会增加;花6万美元而不是2万美元买一辆汽车,你就要交更多的税。弗兰克认为,人们不会因此而变得更穷,因为他们将会得以避免“军备竞赛”式的竞争性消费。实际上,他们会有更多的空余时间,因此如此努力地工作并不划算。

9Hmm. Let’s rethink. Though unlovable, ambition is socially useful. It sustains economic vitality. It prods people to take risks and exert themselves. The Internet is the offspring of workaholics spending eight-day weeks to invent a new world and make a fortune. When the process works well, gains overwhelm losses — and not just in economic output. Today’s hyper-prosperity has improved the social climate. Almost all indicators of confidence have increased.

嗯,让我们重新考虑一下。虽然不太可爱,雄心却对社会有益。它使经济保持活力。它促使人们去冒险,去努力。因特网就是工作狂为为了创造一个新世界并借此发一笔大财而每周工作64小时的产物。当他们的工作进展顺利时,所得远远大于所失—--而且这并不仅仅在经济产出方面。今天因特网的超级繁荣也改善了社会心态。几乎所有的信心指数都有所增加。

10What people disdain as ambition they also venerate as opportunity. As Tocqueville long ago noted, America was built on the notion that — unlike in Europe, with its hereditary aristocracy — people could write their own life stories. The ideal endures. A 1996 survey asked whether anyone starting poor could become rich; 78 percent of Americans thought so. And social standing is fluid everywhere. Ambition and its creative powers permeate the arts, the professions, academia, science. Because everyone can be someone, the competition to excel is unrelenting and often ruthless.

人们鄙视野心,然而同时他们又崇拜它,视其为机遇。正如托克维尔很久之前特别提到的,美国是建立在----不像在具有世袭贵族的欧洲----相信人们可以书写自己的人生故事的观念基础之上的。这个理想持久存在。1996年的一项调查询问是不是所有开始时贫穷的人都可以变得富有;78%的美国人认为可以。而且在任何领域,人们的社会地位都是可以改变的。雄心和它的创造力弥漫在艺术界、职业界、学术界和科学界。因为每个人都可以成名,为脱颖而出的竞争是持久的,甚至常常是残酷的。

11Few of us escape ambition’s wounds. There are damaged dreams, abandoned projects and missed promotions. Most of us face the pressures of balancing competing demands between our inner selves and outer lives. A society that peddles so many extravagant promises sows much disappointment. Ambition is bitter as often as sweet; but without it, we’d be sunk.

很少有人能逃脱雄心的伤害。有破灭的梦想,放弃的计划和失去的升迁机会。我们大多数人都要面对平衡内心思想、情感和现实生活之间矛盾的压力。一个宣扬这么多不切实际的承诺的谁会导致了很多的失望。雄心往往是苦涩的,正如它往往是甜蜜的一样。但是,没有了它,我们会彻底毁灭。

7 网络空间:如果你不喜欢它,就离开它

Something in the American psyche loves new frontiers. we hanker after wide-open spaces; we like to explore; we like to make rules but refuse to follow them. But in this age it’s hard to find a place where you can go and be yourself without worrying about the neighbors.

在灵魂深处,美国人喜欢新的疆界。我们渴望广阔的空间;我们喜欢探索;我们新欢制定规则。然而在现在这个时代,政治正确(言行避免有歧视之嫌)和其他束缚正在侵犯我们国民所崇尚的独立精神,你很难可以找到一个可以去放松自己而不担心邻居打扰的地方。

1.There is such a place: cyberspace.lost in the furor over porn on the net is the exhilarating sense of freedom that this new frontier once promised-and still does in some quarters. Formerly a playground for computer nerds and techies, cyberspace now embraces every conceivable constituency: schoolchildren, flirtatious singles, Hungarian-Americans, accountants. Can they all get along? Or will our fear of kids surfing for dirty pictures behind their bedroom doors provoke a crackdown?

网络空间就是这样一个地方。被淹没在公众对网络色情的激愤之中的事这个新疆界曾经能并且在一些群体中依然能带给人们的一种激动人心的自由感觉。从前,网络空间是计算机爱好者和精通者的天地,而如今各种各样你可以想象的到得人都加入到进来,比如在校学生、打情骂俏的单身汉、匈牙利以美国人、会计师、还有色情爱好者。他们能和睦相处吗?或者说,我们对于孩子们躲在自己卧室里浏览色情网页的担忧会不会引发政府严厉打击网络色情?

2.The first order of business is to grasp what cyberspace is. It might help to leave behind metaphors of highways and frontiers and to think instead of real estate. Real estate, remember, is an intellectual, legal, artificial environment constructed on top of land. Real estate recognizes the difference between parkland and shopping mall, between red-light zone and school district, between church , state and drugstore.

首先的任务是要弄明白什么是网络空间。或者,抛开高速公路和疆界这样的比喻,而把它看作是房屋土地财产会对我们理解网络空间有所帮助。记住,房屋土地财产是构建在陆地上的、理性的、合法的、人造的环境。房屋土地财产承认公园用地与购物商场的区别,承认红灯区与学校区的区别,承认教堂、政府、与药店的区别。

3.In the same way, you could think of cyberspace as a giant and unbounded world of virtual real estate. Some property is privately owned and rented out; other property is common land; some places are suitable for children, and others are best avoided by all citizens. Unfortunately, it’s those places that are now capturing the popular imagination, places that offer bomb-making instructions, pornography, advice on how to steal credit cards. They make cyberspace sound like a nasty place. Good citizens jump to a conclusion: better regulate it.

同样,你可以把网络空间想象成一个由虚拟房屋土地财产构成的巨大无限的世界。一些财产为个人所有,并对外出租;一些财产属于公共用地;一些场所适合于儿童;而剩下的除了最怪癖的市民,大家最好都远远的避开的地方。不幸的是,当前正是这些地方正在激发人们的想象,比如提供炸弹制造的地方、提供色情内容的地方以及提供被盗信用卡方法的地方。它们让网络空间听起来像一个污秽的场所。善良的公民于是得出这样的结论:最好管理一下网络空间。

6.Aside from being unconstitutional, using censorship to counter indecency and other troubling” speech” fundamentally misinterprets the nature of cyberspace. Cyberspace isn’t a frontier where wicked people can grab unsuspecting children, nor is it a giant television system that can beam offensive messages at unwilling viewers. In the kind of real estate, users have to choose where they visit, what they see, what they do. It’s optional.and it’s much easier to bypass a place on the net than it is to avoid walking past an unsavory block of stores on the way to your local 7-11.

无论颁布多少法令,进行多少诉讼,法规管理都不会奏效。通过审查制度来抵制网络上的下流内容和其他制造麻烦的言论,不仅违反宪法,而且从根本上曲解了网络空间的本质网络空间不是坏人可以抓走毫无戒备的儿童的疆界地带,也不是可以将冒犯性信息强加给不乐意接受的观众的庞大电视体系。在这类房屋土地财产中,用户必须选择它们要访问哪里,他们要看什么,和他们要做什么。用户可以选择避开网上的某个地方,而且与去附近便利店的路上避开一个有许多讨厌商店的街区相比,这要容易的多。

7.Put plainly, cyberspace is a voluntary destination -----in reality, many destinations. You don’t just get “onto the net ”; you have to go someplace in particular. That means that people can choose where to go and what to see. Yes, community standards should be enforced, but those standards should be set by cyberspace communities themselves, not by the courts or by politicians in Washington.what we need isn’t government control over all these electronic communities:we need self-rule.

简单地说,网络空间是一个可供自由选择的目的地——实际上,是可供自由选择的很多目的地。你并不仅仅是“上网”,而且你必须要到某个地方去。也就是说人可以选择要去哪里,看什么。是的,社区行为规范必须执行,但是这些行为规范应该由网络社区自己制定,而不是由法院或者华盛顿的政客们来制定。我们需要的不是政府对网络社区的管理,我们需要的是自制。

10.Second, there are information and entertainment services, where people can download anything from legal texts and lists of “great new restaurants” to game software or dirty pictures. These places are like bookstores, malls and movie houses-----places where you go to buy something. The customer needs to request an item or sign up for a subscription; stuff(especially pornography) is not sent out to people who don’t ask for it. Some of these services are free or included as part of a broader service like compuserve or America online; others charge and may bill their customers directly.

第二,网络空间提供信息和娱乐服务,人们可以下载从法律文书、声誉良好的新饭店名单到游戏软件、淫秽图片的任何东西.这些场所类似于你可以去买东西的地方,比如书店、购物中心和电影院。客户需要提出购买某个商品,或者签约订阅某种刊物。否则,任何物品(尤其是色情信息)是不会被发送给他们的,这些服务有些是免费的,或是包含在像美联网和美国在线所提供的广泛服务之中,有些是收费的,可以直接开列账单要求顾客付账。

11.Third, there are “real ” communities-----groups of people who communicate among themselves. In real-estate terms, they’re like bars or restaurants or bathhouses. Each active participant contributes to a general conversation, generally through posted messages. Other participants may simply listen or watch.. some services are supervised by a moderator; others are more like bulletin boards------anyone is free to post anything. Many of these services started out unmoderated but are now imposing rules to keep out unwanted advertising, extraneous discussions or increasingly rude participants.without a moderator, the decibel level often gets too high.

第三,网络空间上有“真正的”社区——内部 相互交流的群体。参照房屋土地财产的比喻来说,它们类似与酒吧·饭馆和公共浴室。每个积极的参与者一般通过张贴信息来参与某一个讨论。其他参与者可以只是旁听或者是观望。部分社区由一个版主进行监管,其他的社区则更像电子公告牌——任何人都可以自由的张贴任何东西。许多服务开始时并不设版主,但是现在也实行强制规定以防止出现无用的广告·无用的讨论或日益粗鲁的参与者。没有版主,社区讨论往往会分贝太高,显得过于吵杂。

14.What’s unique about cyberspace is that it allows communities of any size and kind to flourish; in cyberspace, communities are chosen by the users, not forced on them by accidents of geography. This freedom gives the rules that preside in cyberspace a moral authority that rules in terrestrial environments don’t have. Most people are stuck in the country of their birth, but if you don’t like the rules of a cyberspace community, you can just sign off. Love it or leave it. Likewise, if parents don’t like the rules of a given cyberspace community, they can restrict their children’s access to it.

网络空间的特别之处在于。它把我们从必须遵循大多数人制定的规则而生活的政府专制中解放出来。在民主国家中,少数派和少数人的偏好往往会遭到排挤,无论他们是少数民族和文化还是少数人拥有的个人爱好。但是在网络空间,任何大小和类别的社区都能繁荣昌盛;在网络空间,用户自由选择自己的社区,而不是依据地域的偶然因素将社区强加给用户。这种选择的自由赋予主持网络空间的规章制度以一种道德权威,而这种权威是陆地环境中的规章制度所不具备的。大多数人被困于自己出生的国家无法脱身。然而如果你不喜欢某个网络社区的规章,你可以退出,要么喜欢它,要么离开它。同样的,如果父母们不喜欢某个网络社区的规章,他们可以限制自己孩子与它接触。

What’s likely to happen in cyberspace is the formation of new communities, free of the constraints that cause conflict on earth. Instead of a global village, which is a nice dream but impossible to manage, we’ll have invented another world of self-contained communities that cater to their own members’ inclinations without interfering with anyone else’s. the possibility of a real market-style evolution of governance is at hand. In cyberspace, we’ll be able to test and evolve rules governing what needs to be governed------intellectual property, content and access control, rules about privacy and free speech. Some communities will allow anyone in; others will restrict access to members who qualify on one basis or another. Those communities that prove self-sustaining will prosper (and perhaps grow and split into subsets with ever-more-particular interests and identities). Those that can’t survive----either because people lose interest or get scared off-----will simply wither away.

可以预料在网络空间将会形成不受那些在地球上导致冲突的种种约束的新社区。我们不会建立一个地球村,那只是一个美好却难以实现的梦想。我们将创造另一个由许多能满足其成员的意愿同时不妨碍他人意愿的独立自主的社区组成的世界。社区管理方式的真正市场化演变即将成为可能。在网络空间,我们将能够通过试验和改进规章制度来管理那些需要管理的——知识财产·内容和限制·关于隐私和言论自由的规则。有些社区将允许任何人加入,有些将只允许符合这种或那种条件的成员加入。那些能够自我维持·自我完善的社区将会昌盛起来(而且也许会壮大分裂为一个个依据更加具体的兴趣和身份而建立的分社区)。而那些不能生存的社区——或是因为人们对它们失去了兴趣或是因为人们被吓跑了——则将渐渐萎缩并消失。

15.In the near future, explorers in the cyberspace will need to get better at defining and identifying their communities. They will need to put in place-----and accept-----their own local governments,just as the owners of expensive real estate often prefer to have their own security guards rather than call in the police.but they will rarely need help from any terrestrial government.

在不远的将来,网络空间的探索者将需要更好的明确和识别他们的网络社区。他们将需要建立并接受他们自己的社区政府,就像高档房产的主人常常宁愿要自己的保安人员而不愿叫警察一样。不过他们将不太会需要来自陆地政府的帮助。

16.In the end, our society needs to grow up. Growing up means understanding that there are no perfect answers, no all-purpose solutions, no government-sanctioned safe havens. We haven’t created a perfect society on earth, and we won’t have one in cyberspace either. But at least we can have individual choice-----and individual responsibility.

最后,我们的社会需要成熟起来。成熟意味着认识到不存在完美的答案,不存在能够满足各类人群需要的解决方法,不存在政府批准的安全避风港。我们还没有在地球上建立一个完美的社会,我们同样也无法在网络空间建立一个完美的社会。但是至少我们可以拥有个人的选择和个人的责任。

最终还是那些规章制度决定这些社区成功那个与否。有些规则是由内容提供者制定的;有些规则涉及到价格与会员费。这些规章可以非常简单,如:“只接受石油行业法律责任与环境污染法规的高质量内容:每小时120美元”。或是:“本论坛不社版主,仅限于有关版权问题的信息。那些坚持发布广告和不相干内容的人将被要求停止其行为(并可能最终被禁止参与)。再比如:“只接受812岁的儿童,讨论和学校相关的话题,必须使用文明语言。版主将决定什么内容是容许发布的。”

读说写2 Unit one

Vocabulary

A 1. triggered 2. economically 3. minimum 4. commitment 5. relieved 6. shrinking 7. enrollments 8. scarcely 9. sequence 10. stride

B 1-5 ADBCB 6-10 ACACD

Cloze

1. requires 2. dimensional 3. thoughtfully 4. lines 5. next 6. summarize 7. own 8. notes 9. out 10. refuse 11. front 12. content 13. act 14. value 15. accent 16. distracting 17. effort 18. advantage 19. forth 20. conclusions

Translation

[A] 1. 那位教授很可能在他唯一的学生缺席的情况下对着空空的教室讲了一课。

The professor might probably have delivered his lecture to the empty classroom in the absence of his solitary student.

2. 现行的教育体制遭到了公众的批评,公众已经开始意识到这种体制给学生带来的危害。

The present educational system has been under attack from the public, who have begun to realize the harm the system has done to students.

3. 老师告诉这些大四学生他每次都会点名,因为这门课是必须要听的。

The professor told those seniors that he would take attendance every time because attendance at this course was compulsory.

4. 我真想参加你的乔迁聚会。但是很抱歉我无法去, 因为我有一大堆事情要做。

I’d love to go to your housewarming party, but I’m sorry I can’t make it because I’ve got a stack of things to do.

5. 中学辍学的年青人可以上夜校或通过电大和函授课程恢复他们的学业。

Youths who dropped out of middle school can resume their studies at night school or through television and correspondence courses.

6. 她不喜欢那位著名作家的讲座,但她为了在讲座后得到他的签名还是耐着性子听完了。

She didn’t like the famous writer’s lecture, but she stuck it out to get the writer’s autograph after the lecture.

7. 我对讲座制所体现的冷漠无情非常失望,但是最终我还是无奈接受了它,并耐心等待成为大三的学生。

I was disappointed at the impersonality of the lecture system, but eventually I grew resigned to the system and waited patiently to become a junior.

8. 我们不得不承认讲座体制会把教师和学生天真的问题隔绝开来,而这些问题很可能会引起学生很多有用的想法。

We have to admit that the lecture system insulates a teacher from students’ naive questions, which could have triggered a line of useful thought.

9. 我不同意那些评论家的意见。你得出的结论绝不是没有价值的。对我而言,这些结论很有道理。

I don’t agree with those critics’ opinions. Your conclusions are far from worthless; they make a good deal of sense to me.

10. 为了学生本身的缘故,应该在第一节课就告诉他们这门课的目的,内容以及要通过这门课的要求。

For the sake of the students, they should be told on the first class about the objective and content of the course and the requirements to pass the course.

[B] One problem with lectures is that listening intelligently is hard work. Reading the same material in a textbook is a more efficient way to learn because students can proceed as slowly as they need to until the subject matter becomes clear to them. Even simply paying attention is very difficult; people can listen at a rate of four hundred to six hundred words a minute, while the most impassioned professor talks at scarcely a third of that speed. This time lag between speech and comprehension leads to daydreaming. Many students believe years of watching television have sabotaged their attention span, but their real problem is that listening attentively is much harder than they think. (Para.9)

听讲课存在的一个问题是:会听是很难的事。阅读课本中的相同内容是更有效的学习方法,因为学生可以根据其需要慢慢阅读直到他们理解这些内容。有时甚至仅仅做到专心听讲都很难。人们可以以每分钟400-600个字的速度听,而最富有激情的教授说话的速度也很难达到这个速度的1/3。讲话和理解之间的时间差导致开小差。很多学生认为多年来看电视已经削弱了他们保持注意力的能力。但是他们真正的问题是专心听课比他们认为的要难得多。

Lectures will never entirely disappear from the university scene both because they seem to be economically necessary and because they spring from a long tradition in a setting that values tradition for its own sake. But the lectures too frequently come at the wrong end of the students’ educational careers — during the first two years, when they most need close, even individual, instruction. If lecture classes were restricted to juniors and seniors, who are less in need of scholarly nurturing and more able to prepare work on their own, they would be far less destructive of students’ interests and enthusiasms than the present system. After all, students must learn to listen before they can listen to learn. (Para.15)

讲课这一方式不会完全从大学消失。一是因为讲课似乎从经济上是必需的,二是讲课起源于悠久的传统,而且人们又把传统本身看得很重。但是,讲课通常出现在学生接受教育生涯的错误的那一端——在大学的第一和第二年,那时他们最需要密切的、甚至是针对个体需要的指导。如果讲课这一形式局限于三、四年级的学生,则对学生的兴趣和热情的破坏力会比目前的制度小得多,因为三、四年级的学生不太需要学科上的指导与帮助,而且更有能力自己制定学习计划。毕竟,学生在能够从听讲课中学到知识之前必须先要学会去听。

Unit two

Vocabulary

A 1. studded 2. mischief 3. evoked 4. tyranny 5. humdrum 6. prelude 7. frugal 8. frail 9. treacherous 10. forays

B 1-5 BCCAD 6-10 ACBAD

Cloze

1. boarders 2. build 3. extended 4. right 5. regular 6. familiar 7. by 8. homely 9. mobile 10. maintaining 11. keep 12. even 13. well 14. touch 15. closer 16. fewer 17. sense 18. step 19. waiting 20. imagination

Translation

[A] 1. 这一地区的每一角落都将在5年内得到供电, 这是电力部长2年前许下的诺言。

Every nook and corner of the region would be provided with electricity in five years. This was the pledge that the minister of electricity had taken two years ago.

2. 由于要在不同地区做实地考察工作, 他去年一年搬 4次家,虽然他每次都搬得很不情愿。

In order to do field work at different places, he moved four times last year, though each time he did it with an ill grace.

3. 在离开这个杂乱无序、毒品充斥的小镇前,他把自 己所有值钱的家当都放到一起并按一定的秩序存放 了起来。

Before leaving this disordered, drug-ridden small town, he gathered together in one place all his valuable possessions and introduced some semblance of order among them.

4. 她小时候家境贫寒,没有几件对她来说有意义的东西, 所以她拥有过的每一个玩具都能勾起她串串回忆。

Her family was poor when she was a child. The things that mattered a great deal to her were very few. Therefore, every toy she had played with could evoke a rush of memories.

5. 整整一个小时,警察们在拥挤的楼群里艰难地行进, 寻找一位射杀了5人的在逃持枪者。

For an hour, policemen threaded their way through the crowded buildings, looking for an elusive gunman who had shot five people.

6. 对很多人来说,旅行或离家外出一段时日是应对日常 单调乏味生活的一个有效手段。

For many people, traveling or staying away from home for some time is an effective antidote to the humdrum activities of everyday life.

7. 当今妇女比以前享有更加自由、独立的地位,因此她 们越来越不愿意屈从于丈夫的专横暴虐。

Women today enjoy a freer, more independent position than ever before, and are accordingly less and less willing to submit to the tyranny of their husbands.

8. 心绞痛常常是心脏病的前兆,需要特别治疗,主要是 药物治疗。

Angina pectoris is often a prelude to a heart attack and requires special treatment, primarily with drugs.

9. 我们决定挖空这些大圆木,以便更多的人能坐在里面 并乘坐他们顺河而下。

We decide to hollow out the great logs so that more men could sit inside them and ride in them down the river.

10. 这场大火把宫殿里所有东西都毁掉了。没有一件华丽的镶嵌着金银的家具幸存下来。

The fire destroyed everything in the palace. Nothing of the magnificent furniture, studded with gold and silver, has survived.

[B] Most of us associate very strongly with the place of our birth or the place we have learned to call home. It can hurt very much not to be able to go there physically in order to feel secure.

我们大多数人都把自己同自己的出生地或我们称之为家的地方紧密相联。不能回家以获得安全感是令人痛苦的。

Other students are very excited in the beginning only to find, after several weeks, that they are starting to miss what was familiar and wish for a visit with friends and family.

别的学生一开始很兴奋,几周后却发现自己开始想念所熟知的事物,并希望见到朋友和家人。

Homesickness can strike any of us when we have moved to new surroundings and are being called upon to meet our needs in a different way and with different people.

当我们搬迁到新的环境,需要以不同方式与不同的人交往以满足自己的需要的时候, 我们每个人都会有想家的感觉

Sometimes it can become a more serious depression if the person cannot begin to meet his/her needs for love and belonging with new people.

有时, 如果这个人开始对爱的需要不能得到满足,想融入新群体的愿望又不能实现, 那么想家就可能会导致更严重的忧郁症。

Often, homesickness is another way of saying we are scared to face the future, or that we’re doubting our ability to cope.

通常, 想家是另一种表明我们害怕面对未来或怀疑自己应对能力的方式。

Unit three

Vocabulary

A 1. prime 2. components 3. derived 4. biodiversity 5. monoculture 6. uncounted 7. multiplied 8. captivity 9. legislation 10. conservation

B 1-5 ACDBD 6-10 ACBBD

Cloze

1. contain 2. isolation 3. different 4. only 5. major 6. urban 7. natural 8. native 9. extensively 10. dramatic 11. extinction 12. contributed 13. numerous 14. developing 15. important 16. storing 17. maintains 18. view 19. survive 20. claim

Translation

[A] 1. 由生物多样性的丧失而引起的对人类和地球的威胁和由气候变化所带来的危险一样大。

The threat to humanity and the planet posed by biodiversity loss is as great as the dangers presented by climate change.

2. 收到年轻读者表达他们对被囚动物的关心的信,并询问他们能帮助做什么,我们总是很高兴。

We are always happy to hear from young readers expressing concern for animals in captivity and asking what they can do to help.

3. 这两个最盛行的理论都认为恐龙之所以灭绝是因为地球大气和温度的变化而造成的。

The two most popular theories both say that dinosaurs died out because of changes in the earth’s atmosphere and temperature.

4. 这场森林大火最终被消防队所控制住了,花费将近50万美元。

The forest fire was finally brought under control by the fire-fighting crews at a cost of nearly half a million dollars.

5. 植物根茎能够固定土壤,使之不会被雨水冲蚀。

Plant roots can hold the soil in position and prevent it from being washed away by the rain water.

6. 健康的生态系统以能源、营养物质、有机物质和水的可持续更替为特点。

Healthy ecosystems are characterized by sustainable turnovers of energy, nutrients, organic matter and water.

7. 在世界野生动物基金会一份新的报告中,科学家警告说全球变暖可能在今后20年中灭绝北极熊。

In a new report by the WWF, scientists have warned that global warming could kill off polar bears within the next 20 years.

8. 犁过的地对流水没有防范能力,因而珍贵的表土常常在大雨和洪水中被冲走。

Plowed fields don’t have any protection against running water, and often the valuable topsoil is carried away during heavy rains or floods.

9. 这个花园比前两天要安静多了,但周围还是有很多各式各样的鸟。

The garden was considerably quieter than it had been the previous two days, but there were still a good variety of birds around.

10. 尽管有不同的预计, 但总体上人们认为用于制作现代药品的活性成分有大约30%40%是从植物中提取的,或同植物有关。

While estimates differ, it is generally believed that around 30%–40% of the active ingredients used in modern medicines are derived from, or related to, plants.

[B] One of these reasons is that each life-form occupies a special place within its ecosystem — that is, its community of plant and animal life, in combination with the nonliving components of its environment such as the climate, soil, water, and air. For instance, within a forest the larger trees drop off little twigs and debris, making a layer that holds water in the soil for other plants to use. The roots hold the soil and prevent it from washing away in rainstorms. Whether living or dead, the tree provides shelter for animals and birds and food for insects. As the dead tree rots away, it enriches the soil of the forest floor, enabling other plants to spring up in its place. Such large trees are an example of what we call keystone species; if they disappeared from their ecosystem, the consequences would be felt throughout the community of other species living in the forest. “The loss of a keystone species is like a drill accidentally striking a powerline,” says biologist Edward Wilson of Harvard University. “It causes lights to go out all over.” During the current sixth great extinction, three species of life-forms are dying out every hour, or 74 per day, which equals 27,000 each year. Some of these — and we don’t even know which ones — are undoubtedly keystone species. (Para.8)

理由之一是, 每个物种在它所处的由所有动植物和无生命的气候、土壤、水和空气等组成的生态系统中都占有一个特殊的地位。例如, 在森林中,较高的树掉下的残枝在土壤中形成一个水份保持层,供其它植物利用。它们的根可以固定土壤,防止土壤被暴雨冲走。无论是活树还是枯树都可以为动物和鸟提供栖息地,为昆虫提供食物。枯树腐烂以后还可以肥沃森林的土壤,得以使其它植物从原处拔地而出。这样的大树就是我们所说的主要物种; 如果它们从生态系统中消失,其后果会遍及所有居住在森林的其它物种。哈佛大学的生物学家爱德华·威尔逊说:“一个主要物种的消失就像钻头意外地钻断电线,导致四处断电。”在当前第六次“大灭绝”时期, 每小时平均有三个物种灭绝,也就是每天有74 个物种灭绝, 每年合计达27,000 个。其中有些物种——虽然我们不确定是哪些——毫无疑问是主要物种。

Unit four

Vocabulary

A 1. institutional 2. burgeoning 3. envision 4. marginal 5. encompass 6. outsource 7. prowess 8. shunned 9. assimilating 10. forgo

B 1-5 BCADA 6-10 BDCCA

Cloze

1. previous 2. created 3. traits 4. giving 5. include 6. to 7. face 8. when 9. waste 10. with 11. offer 12. seriously 13. fluid 14. rigid 15. play 16. initiative 17. for 18. assure 19. stay 20. alone

Translation

[A] 1. 经过五年的实践, 他现在对同国际投资和贸易相关的法律事务已很在行了。

Having practiced for about 5 years,he is now adept at legal issues relating to international investment and trade.

2. 根据一项调查,X一代对退休后依靠社会保障持怀疑态度。和先辈们相比,他们早已开始在为退休而省钱了。

According to a survey, Gen Xers are skeptical about relying on Social Security when they retire. They began saving for retirement early compared with their predecessors.

3. 通过这种轻松舒适的脚摩治疗,你白天所有的烦恼压力好象都消失了。

All the cares and stresses of your day seem to fade away under the relaxing and comfortable treatment of foot massage.

4. 研究表明大部分员工都很看重他们卓有成效的工作能够得到认可或赞赏。

Studies show that most employees place a high value on being recognized or being complemented for a job well done.

5. 急诊室里挤满了来看常见病的病人,因为他们没有固定的医生。

Emergency rooms were clogged with patients who came for treatment of relatively routine medical problems because they didn’t have a regular doctor.

6. 任何一个试图训练或帮助一名新技术经理转变角色成为领导的人都可以从这本书中获得有用的想法。

Anyone trying to coach or help a new technical manager make the transition to a leadership role can get useful ideas from this book.

7. 大多数时候如果你走捷径完成一个项目,结果则需要你做一些修补工作,而其所花的时间会是你走捷径所省下的时间的两倍。

Most of the time when you take a short cut for completing a project you will end up doing some repair work later that will take double the time you saved by the short cut.

8. 那些不能在个人和职业生活之间设置合理界限的员工是不能理解生活和工作的意义的。

Employees who fail to set appropriate boundaries between their personal and professional lives will not be able to understand the meaning of life and work.

9. 这一运动的目的是训练人们在面对危险时有序而职业地作出反应。

The purpose of the exercise was to train staff to react in a disciplined and professional manner when in the presence of danger.

10. 大多数X一代人都有放弃职业发展而花费更多时间来陪妻子和孩子的愿望,特别是在他们孩子还小的那几年。

Most Gen Xers have the desire to forgo career advancement for more time with their wife and children, especially in the early years of their children’s lives.

[B] Gen Xers, on the other hand, watched the sacrifices that their parents made to move up the career ladder, only to be met with massive layoffs in American corporations.

然而,X一代人目睹了他们的父母为了职业晋升而做出牺牲,结果却遭遇了美国公司的大量裁员。

These different perspectives can often lead to clashes in the workplace. Each group is prone to generalizations about the other.

这些不同的观点视角常常导致工作中的冲突。他们彼此都易于把对方概念化。

Gen Xers see no reason to pay their dues because they can get the job done better and faster and still have time for their lifestyles and family.

X一代人认为自己没有理由要尽职苦干,因为他们能把工作做得又好又快,而且仍有时间来休闲和陪伴家人。

Some would say the only solution is the legal system, where age-bias lawsuits may rise as boomers age.

有人会说唯一的解决办法是通过司法体系,因为随着婴儿潮时期的人不断变老,与年龄歧视有关的诉讼可能会增加。

But history will repeat itself as the baby boomers leave the workforce, the Gen Xers rise to power and generation Y employees come on the scene.

但是,历史就是如此循还往复随着婴儿潮时期出生的人开始退休,X一代开始掌权,Y一代开始步入社会。

Unit six

Vocabulary

A 1. deplored 2. pervades 3. requisite 4. workaholics 5. hereditary 6. extravagant 7. crave 8. mania 9. one-upmanship 10. overwhelm

B 1-5 CBDBA 6-10 DCBAC

Cloze

1. probing 2. factors 3. degree 4. afford 5. extra 6. average 7. complicated 8. skyrocket 9. static 10. boost 11. colleague 12. seek 13. accept 14. rate 15. close 16. aspiration 17. beyond 18. size 19. fail 20. satisfying

Translation

[A] 1. 在追求幸福的过程中,人们注定要遭受许多挫折。

People are preordained to suffer many frustrations in their quest for happiness.

2. 美国是一个雄心勃勃的民族。各行各界的人们都面临着力求出类拔萃的激烈竞争压力。

American is an ambitious nation. People from every walk of life face the pressure of fierce competition to excel.

3. 当天买卖股票投机是一种危险的谋财之道。

Day trading is a dangerous way of trying to make a fortune.

4. 数百万人怀着暴发致富的幻想花钱买彩票。

Millions of people have a fantasy about getting rich quick and spend money on lotteries.

5. 人们担心如果军备竞赛失控,世界局势将进一步恶化

There is a fear that if the arms race gets out of hand, the world situation will be worse off.

6. 为了保护自己免遭失败的痛苦就放弃自己的抱负是不明智的。

It is not sensible to give up one’s own ambition in order to shield oneself from the bitterness of failure.

7. 许多人拼命挣钱,因为金钱可以买到大房子、小汽车、大屏幕电视以及其他被认为代表地位和身份的消费品。

Many people strain to earn money because money can buy big houses, cars, big-screen TVs and other consumer products which are considered symbols of status and identity.

8. 为了实现我们的抱负而努力奋斗是值得的。

It pays to exert ourselves to fulfill our own ambitions.

9. 十年前大多数中国人还买不起的手机现在已成为很普及的生活必需品。

The cell phone, which was beyond the reach of the majority of the Chinese people a decade ago, has now become a widely owned daily necessity.

10. 自从得到了晋升以后,她就表现得自命不凡。不过在我看来,她只不过是个微不足道的小人物。

She acts as if she were someone since she was promoted. But to me, she is a mere nobody.

[B] Ambition is one of those Rorschach words: define it and you instantly reveal a great deal about yourself. 1) Even the most neutral of works, Webster’s, in its Seventh New Collegiate Edition, gives itself away, defining ambition first and foremost as “an ardent desire for rank, fame, or power.”

即使是最中立的著作《韦伯斯特词典》也暴露了它自己的追求目标,它在其新大学版第七版中将雄心首先定义为“一种追求地位、荣誉或权利的热切欲望”。

Ardent immediately assumes a heat incommensurate with good sense and stability, and rank, fame, and power have come under fairly heavy attack for at least a century.

“热切”这个词立刻呈现出与理智的判断和沉稳的心态所不相称的热烈情绪,而地位、荣誉和权利也在至少长达一个世纪的时间里一直受到相当猛烈的抨击。

One can, after all, be ambitious for the public good, for the alleviation of suffering, for the enlightenment of mankind, …

然而毕竟一个人可以立志于促进公共的利益,减轻人们的痛苦,或是启迪人类的思想。

The family would become superfluous as a social unit, with all its former power for bringing about neurosis drained away.

家庭将成为多余的社会单位,不再具有以前能够带给人们焦虑和恐惧的力量。

Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor.

人们的寿命将会延长,因为越来越少的人会死于由拼命工作而引起的心脏病和中风。

新视野研究生英语读说写2-课文翻译及课后答案

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