英语二课文翻译
[共享]自考英语(二)课文翻译
08-10-11 17:57 发表于:《心理健康教育自考之家》 分类:未分类 Unit One What Is a Decision ?
何为决策 ?
A decision is a choice made from among alternative courses of action that are available. The purpose of making a decision is to establish and achieve organizational goals and objectives. The reason for making a decision is that a problem exists, goals or objectives are wrong, or something is standing in the way of accomplishing them.
决策是一种选择,来自可以获得的、任择其一的行动步骤。作决策的意图是要确立和实现机构的目标和目的。作决策的原因是有问题存在、目标和目的不正确、或者有某种东西妨碍目标或目的的实现。
Thus the decision-making process is fundamental to management. Almost everything a manager does involves decisions, indeed, some suggest that the management process is decision making. Although managers cannot predict the future, many of their decisions require that they consider possible future events. Often managers must make a best guess at what the future will be and try to leave as little as possible to chance, but since uncertainty is always there, risk accompanies decisions . Sometimes the consequence s of a poor decision are slight; at other times they are serious.
因此,作决策的过程对管理人员来说至关重要。管理者所做的每件事几乎都与决策有关, 事实上,有些人认为管理过程就是作决策。尽管管理者不能预测未来,但他们所作的许多决策都要求他们考虑将来可能发生的事情。通常情况下,管理者必须对未来情况作出最佳估测,并且 努力要使偶然事件尽可能少地发生,但是,由于不确定的因素一直存在,所以,决策总是与风险为伴。有时候,拙劣决策的后果并不严重,但在另外一些时候则是非常严重了。
Choice is the opportunity to select among alternatives. If there is no choice, there is no decision to be made. Decision making is the process of choosing, and many decisions have a broad range of choice. For example, a student may be able to choose among a number of different courses in order to implement the decision to obtain a college degree. For managers, every decision has constraints based on policies, procedures, laws, precedents, and the like. These constraints exist at all levels of the organization. 选择是指从多个可能性中挑选的机会。如果没有选择,就毋须作决策。作决策就是挑选的过程, 许多决策的选择范围很广。例如,一个学生为了获得学位,他可能会从许多不同的课程中选择从而作出决策。对管理者来说,每项决策都受到基于政策、程序、法律、惯例等等因素的制约, 这
些制约存在于各个层次的机构中。
Alternatives are the possible courses of action from which choices can be made. If there are no alternatives, there is no choice and, therefore, no decision. If no alternatives are seen, often it means that a thorough job of examining the problems has not been done. For example, managers sometimes treat problems in an either/or fashion; this is their way of simplifying complex problems. But the tendency to simplify blind s them to other alternatives.
抉择是从中可以作出选择的可能的行动步骤。假如没有可供选择的可能性,这就意味着没有 做过对问题进行彻底调查的工作。例如,管理者有时用两者择一的方式来处理问题,即他们简化复杂问题的手法。但是,这种简化的倾向使他们看不到其他可供选择的可能性。
At the managerial level, decision making includes limiting alternatives as well as identify ing them, and the range is from highly limited to practically unlimited.
在管理层,作决策包括了限定和鉴别可供选择的可能性,其限定范围从非常有限到基本无限。
Decision makers must have some way of determining which of several alternatives is best — that is, which contributes the most to the achievement of organizational goals. An organizational goal is an end or a state of affairs the organization seeks to reach. Because individuals (and organizations) frequently have different ideas about how to attain the goals, the best choice may depend on who makes the decision. Frequently, departments or units within an organization make decisions that are good for them individually but that are less than optimal for the larger organization. Called suboptimization, this is a trade-off that increases the advantages to one unit or function but decreases the advantages to another unit or function. For example, the marketing manager may argue effective ly for an increased advertising budget. In the larger scheme of things, however, increased funding for research to improve the products might be more beneficial to the organization.
决策者必须具备从多个可供选择的可能性中确定最佳选择——即:最有助于实现机构的目标—的手段。机构目标是该机构竭力要达到的最终目标或理想状态。因为个人(和机构)常常对达到目标有着不同的主意,所以,最佳选择就取决于决策者了。在同一机构内的部门或单位经常会作出有利于他们自己而对大单位不甚理想的决策。被称为局部最优化的权衡加强了某一单位或某一功能的优势,却削弱了另一单位或另一功能的优势,例如,市场营销经理会极力要求增加广告预算。然而,在更大的事情策划中,为改进产品而增加科研经费可能会更有益于该机构。
These trade-offs occur because there are many objectives that organizations wish to attain simultaneously. Some of these
objectives are more important than others, but the order and degree
of importance often vary from person to person and from department to department .Different managers define the same problem in different term s. When presented with a common case, sales managers tend to see sales problems, production managers see production problems, and so on.
这些权衡的产生是因为机构希望同时达到多个目标。有些目标比其他的目标更重要,但其重要性的先后顺序和等级却因人而异、因部门而异。不同的管理者对同一个问题持不同的看法。面对一件日常事件时,销售经理常易看到销售问题,生产经理则常易看到生产问题等等。
The ordering and importance of multiple objectives is also based, in part, on the values of the decision maker. Such values are personal; they are hard to understand, even by the individual, because they are so dynamic and complex. In many business situations different people's values about acceptable degrees of risk and profitability cause disagreement about the correctness of
decisions.
多种目标的顺序和重要性也部分地基于决策者的价值观,这些价值观带有个人特色,他人很难理解,因为价值观是不断变化的、极为复杂的。在许多商情中,不同的人对于风险的可接受程度有着不同的价值观,这就造成了决策正确与否的不同意见。
People often assume that a decision is an isolated phenomenon. But from a systems point of view, problems have multiple causes, and decisions have intended and unintended consequences. An
organization is an ongoing entity, and a decision made today may have consequences far into the future. Thus the skilled manager looks toward the future consequences of current decisions. 人们常常以为决策是一个孤立的现象。但从系统的观点来看,问题具有多种原因,故而决策有意料中的结果和非意料中的结果。一个机构是一个发展中的实体,今天所作的决策可能会对将来产生深远的影响。因此,有经验的管理者着眼于当前决策的将来效果。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
[回复] [引用]引用地址:
http://www.xici.net/u12786212/d78603403.htm [复制链接] 乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 17:59:48第2楼
Unit Two Black Holes
黑洞
12786212
What is a black hole ? well, it's difficult to answer this question , since the terms we would normally use to describe a scientific phenomenon are inadequate here. Astronomers and scientists think that a black hole is a region of space (not a thing ) into which matter has fallen and from which nothing can escape – not even light. So we can't see a black hole. A black hole exerts a strong gravitational pull and yet it has no matter . It is only space — or so we think. How can this happen? 黑洞是什么?这个问题很难回答,因为我们通常用来描述某一科学现象
的术语不足以回答这个问题。天文学家和科学家都认为黑洞是一个太空区域(不是一种事物),落人其中的任何物质都无法逃逸——甚至包括光。所以我们看不见黑洞。一个黑洞能产生强大的吸力,但它却没有物质。它只是空间——或许是我们这么想的。这种现象是怎样发生的呢? The theory is that some stars explode when their density increases to a particular point; they collapse and sometimes a supernova occurs. From earth, a supernova looks like a very bright light in the sky which shines even in the daytime. Supernova were reported by astronomers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Some people think that the Star of Bethlehem could have been a supernova. The collapse of a star may produce a White Dwarf or a neutron star — a star, whose matter is so dense that it continually shrinks by the force of its own gravity. But if the star is very large (much bigger than our sun) this process of shrinking may be so intense that a black hole results. Imagine the earth reduced to the size of a marble, but still having the same mass and a stronger
gravitational pull, and you have some idea of the force of a black hole . Any matter near the black hole is sucked in. It is impossible to say what happens inside a black hole. Scientists have called the boundary area around the hole the "event horizon." We know nothing about events which happen once object s pass this boundary. But in theory, matter must behave very differently inside the hole. 从理论论来说,当某些恒星的密度增大到某种程度时就会发生爆炸,爆炸使它们崩溃,有时会产生超新星。从地球上看,一颗超新星看上去像是天空中的一盏明灯,甚至在白天也闪闪发光。超新星是由十七、十八世纪的天文学家发现的。有人认为圣诞星可能是一颗超新星。一颗超新星的崩溃可能会产生白矮星或中子星,其物资的密度非常大以至于在其自身重力的作用下持续收缩。但是,假如这颗恒星非常大(比我们的太阳大得多),那么,这种收缩的过程可能会非常强烈,其结果导致了黑洞的产生。想像一下地球收缩小到有弹球那么大,但仍具有同样的质量和更强的吸力,你就会对黑洞的力量有某种概念。靠近黑洞的任何物质都会被吸入,根本说不出黑洞里究竟发生了什么、科学家把黑洞的边缘区域称为“事界”。对物质通过这个界线时发生的情况我们一无所知。从理论上来说,黑洞里面物质的表现一定是不大相同的。
For example, if a man fell into a black hole, he would think that
he reached the center of it very quickly. However an observer at the event horizon would think that the man never reached the center at all. Our space and time law s don't seem to apply to objects in the area of a black hole. Einstein's relativity theory is the only one which can explain such phenomena. Einstein claimed that matter and energy are interchangeable, so that there is no " absolute " time and space. There are no constants at all, and measurements of time and space depend on the position of the observer. They are relative. We do not yet fully understand the implications of the relativity theory; but it is interesting that Einstein's theory provided a basis for the idea of black holes before astronomers started to find some evidence for their
existence. It is only recently that astronomers have begun specific research into black holes. In August 1977, a satellite was launched to gather data about the 10 million black holes which are thought to be in the Milky Way. And astronomers are planning a new
observatory to study the individual exploding stars believed to be black holes.
例如,假如一个人落人黑洞,他可能会认为自己很快就会到达黑洞的中心。然而,位于“事界”上的观察者则认为这个人永远不会到达黑洞的中心。我们的时空法则似乎不适用于黑洞区内的物体。爱因斯坦的相对论是惟-解释这种现象的理论。爱因斯坦宣称物质和能量是互换的,因此不存在“绝对的”时间和空间。根本没有不变的事物,时间和空间的衡量取决于观察者的位置,是相对的。我们还没有能完全理解相对论的蕴涵。但有趣的是爱因斯坦的相对论为黑洞的假说提供了理论基础,早于天文学家找到黑洞存在的证据。天文学家只是在最近才开始对黑洞作具体的研究。1977年8月,人类发射了一颗卫星收集有关被认为处于银河系中的1000万个黑洞的信息。而且天文学家正在设计一座新天文台,用来研究被认为是黑洞的爆炸恒星。
The most convincing evidence of black holes comes from research into binary star systems. Binary stars, as their name suggests, are twin stars whose position in space affects each other. In some binary systems, astronomers have shown that there is an invisible companion star, a "partner" to the one which we can see in the sky. Matter from the one which we can see is being pulled towards the companion star. Could this invisible star, which exerts such a great force, be a black hole? Astronomers have evidence of a few other stars too, which might have black holes as companions. 有关黑洞的最有说服力的证据来自对双星系的研究。双星,顾名思义,就是彼此之间的空间位置相互影响的成双恒星。天文学家已证实在某些双子星座里有一颗隐匿的伴星,即我们从天空上能看到的某颗星的“伙伴”。我们能看见的那颗星被其伴星所吸引,难道产生这么大吸引力的隐匿的恒星就是黑洞?天文学家也还有另外几颗恒星的证据,这几颗恒星也可能有黑洞作伴。
he reached the center of it very quickly. However an observer at the event horizon would think that the man never reached the center at all. Our space and time law s don't seem to apply to objects in the area of a black hole. Einstein's relativity theory is the only one which can explain such phenomena. Einstein claimed that matter and energy are interchangeable, so that there is no " absolute " time and space. There are no constants at all, and measurements of time and space depend on the position of the observer. They are relative. We do not yet fully understand the implications of the relativity theory; but it is interesting that Einstein's theory provided a basis for the idea of black holes before astronomers started to find some evidence for their
existence. It is only recently that astronomers have begun specific research into black holes. In August 1977, a satellite was launched to gather data about the 10 million black holes which are thought to be in the Milky Way. And astronomers are planning a new
observatory to study the individual exploding stars believed to be black holes.
例如,假如一个人落人黑洞,他可能会认为自己很快就会到达黑洞的中心。然而,位于“事界”上的观察者则认为这个人永远不会到达黑洞的中心。我们的时空法则似乎不适用于黑洞区内的物体。爱因斯坦的相对论是惟-解释这种现象的理论。爱因斯坦宣称物质和能量是互换的,因此不存在“绝对的”时间和空间。根本没有不变的事物,时间和空间的衡量取决于观察者的位置,是相对的。我们还没有能完全理解相对论的蕴涵。但有趣的是爱因斯坦的相对论为黑洞的假说提供了理论基础,早于天文学家找到黑洞存在的证据。天文学家只是在最近才开始对黑洞作具体的研究。1977年8月,人类发射了一颗卫星收集有关被认为处于银河系中的1000万个黑洞的信息。而且天文学家正在设计一座新天文台,用来研究被认为是黑洞的爆炸恒星。
The most convincing evidence of black holes comes from research into binary star systems. Binary stars, as their name suggests, are twin stars whose position in space affects each other. In some binary systems, astronomers have shown that there is an invisible companion star, a "partner" to the one which we can see in the sky. Matter from the one which we can see is being pulled towards the companion star. Could this invisible star, which exerts such a great force, be a black hole? Astronomers have evidence of a few other stars too, which might have black holes as companions. 有关黑洞的最有说服力的证据来自对双星系的研究。双星,顾名思义,就是彼此之间的空间位置相互影响的成双恒星。天文学家已证实在某些双子星座里有一颗隐匿的伴星,即我们从天空上能看到的某颗星的“伙伴”。我们能看见的那颗星被其伴星所吸引,难道产生这么大吸引力的隐匿的恒星就是黑洞?天文学家也还有另外几颗恒星的证据,这几颗恒星也可能有黑洞作伴。
The story of black holes is just beginning. Speculations about them are endless. There might be a massive black hole at the center of our galaxy swallowing up stars at a very rapid rate. Mankind may one day meet this fate. On the other hand, scientists have suggested that very advanced technology could one day make use of the energy of black holes for mankind. These speculations sound like science fiction . But the theory of black holes in space is accepted by many serious scientists and astronomers. They show us a world which operates in a totally different way from our own and they question our most basic experience of space and time.
有关黑洞的故事刚刚开头,各种各样的假说层出不穷。在我们的星系中心可能存在一个以极快速度吞噬恒星的巨大黑洞。人类总有一天要遭此命运。另一方面,科学家已表明,总有一天,人类会使用非常先进的技术来利用黑洞的能量。这些假说听起来像科幻小说,但宇宙黑洞理论却被许多严肃的科学家及天文学家所接受。他们给我们展示了一个跟我们截然不同的世界,他们对时空的基本认识提出了疑问。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 18:05:21第3楼 12786212
Unit Three Euthanasia : For and Against 安乐死—赞成和反对 "We mustn't delay any longer ... swallowing is difficult ... and breathing, that's also difficult. Those muscles are weakening too ... we mustn't delay any longer." “我们不能再拖了„„吞咽困难„„呼吸困难。那部分肌肉也在萎缩„„我们不能再拖了。” These were the words of Dutchman Cees van Wendel de Joode asking his doctor to help him die. Affected with a serious disease, van Wendel was no longer able to speak clearly and he knew there was no hope of recovery and that his condition was rapidly deteriorating. 以上是荷兰人齐思.范.万德尔,德.尤德请求医生帮他结束自己生命时说过的话了,患有严重疾病的范.万德尔当时已不再能够清楚地说话
了,他知道自己没有康复的希望,他的病情正在迅速恶化。
Van Wendel's last three months of life before being given a final, lethal injection by his doctor were filmed and first shown on television last year in the Netherlands . The programme has since been bought by 20 countries and each time it is shown, it starts
a nationwide debate on the subject.
范.万德尔在接受其医生给他打最后致命的一针之前的3个月的情况被制作成影片,去年首次在荷兰电视上播出。此后,该影片被20个国家购买,每次播放时都引起一场全国性的有关安乐死的大讨论。 The Netherlands is the only country in Europe which permits euthanasia, although it is not technically legal there. However, doctors who carry out euthanasia under strict guidelines
introduced by the Dutch Parliament two years ago are usually not prosecuted. The guideline s demand that the patient is experiencing extreme suffering , that there is no chance of a cure, and that the patient has made repeated requests for euthanasia . In addition to this, a second doctor must confirm that these criteria have been met and the death must be reported to the police department. 尽管安乐死在荷兰并未合法化,但荷兰仍然是欧洲惟一允许安乐死的国家。两年前在荷兰议会制定的严格标准下实施安乐死的医生通常不会被起诉。这此指导原则要求:病人正在经受极度的痛苦;没有治愈的机会;病人一再提出安乐死的请求。除此之外,还需有另外一位医生确认是否已达到安乐死的标准,而且,必须向警方提出死亡报告。
Should doctors be allowed to take the lives of others? Dr, Wilfred van Oijen, Cees van Wendel's doctor, explains how he looks at the question: "Well, it's not as if I'm planning to murder a crowd of people with a machine gun. In that case, killing is the worst thing 1 can imagine. But that's entirely different from my work as a doctor. I care for people and I try to ensure that they don't suffer too much. That's a very different thing."
是不是应该允许医生结束病人的生命呢?齐思.范.万尔德的医生威尔费雷德.范.奥仁博上解释了对这个问题的看法: “情况并不像我计划用机关枪屠杀一大群人似的,倘若那样,屠杀是我所能想像到的最坏的事情,这与我的医生职业风马牛不相及。我关怀病人并努力使他们不至于遭受太多的痛苦。这完全是两码事。”
Many people, though, are totally against the practice of euthanasia, Dr. Andrew Ferguson, Chairman of the organization Healthcare Opposed to Euthanasia, says that "in the vast majority of euthanasia cases, what the patient is actually asking for is something else. They may want a health professional to open up communication for them with their loved ones or family — there's nearly always another question behind the question."
然而,许多人完全反对安乐死。反对安乐死保健组织主席安德鲁.福格森博士说:“在大量安乐死的病例中,病人实际所要求的是别的东西。他们或许是想要保健专业人员为他们打开与亲人或家人开展思想交流的渠道—-可能请求之后另有他求”。
Britain also has a strong tradition of hospices — special hospitals which care only for the dying and their special needs. Cicely Saunders, President of the National Hospice Council and a
founder member of the hospice movement, argues that euthanasia doesn't take into account that there are ways of caring for the dying. She is also concerned that allowing euthanasia would undermine the need for care and consideration of a wide range of people: "It's very easy in society now for the elderly, the disabled and the dependent to feel that they are burdens, and therefore that they ought to opt out. I think that anything that legally allows the shortening of life does make those people more vulnerable. 英国对晚期病人收容所的做法有着根深蒂固的传统。收容所就是指那些关怀临终之人和照顾他们特殊需要的专门医院。英国收容所理事会主席及收容所运动创始人之一的茜茜莉.桑德斯认为,安乐死没有考虑其他关怀临终病人的途径。她还担心允许安乐死会减弱大众对关怀和照顾的需求:“当前社会中的那些老年人、残疾人和受赡养的人很容易感到自已是个负担从而脱离社会。我认为任何法律允许缩短生命的行为都必定使这些人更容易受到伤害”。
Many find this prohibition of an individual's right to die paternalistic. Although they agree that life is important and should be respected, they feel that the quality of life should not be ignored. Dr. van Oijen believes that people have the fundamental right to choose for themselves if they want to die: "What those people who oppose euthanasia are telling me is that dying people haven't the right. And that when people are very ill, we are all afraid of their death. But there are situations where death is a friend. And in those cases, why not?"
许多人认为这种禁止个人生死权利的做法是家长作风。尽管他们同意生命是重要的、应该受到尊重,但是他们感到生命的质量不应该被漠视。范.奥仁博十认为人们具有自己选择生死的基本权利:“那些反对安乐死的人告诉我的是临终之人没有这个权利。当人们病重的时候,我们都害怕他们死亡。但是,在某些情况下,死亡是一位朋友。如果这样,为什么不呢?”
But "why not?" is a question which might cause strong emotion . The film showing Cees van Wendel's death was both moving and sensitive. His doctor was clearly a family friend; his wife had only her husband's interests at heart. Some, however, would argue that it would be dangerous to use this particular example to support the case for euthanasia. Not all patients would receive such a high level of individual care and attention.
然而,“为什么不呢?”是一个引起强烈感情的问题。展示齐思.范.万德尔死亡的影片既动人又敏感。他的医生显然是他们家的一位朋友;他的妻子心中只有她丈夫的利益。那么,有人就会争辩说用这样一个特殊的例子来支持安乐死是危险的,并非所有的病人都会受到如此高水平的关怀和照料。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 18:06:26第4楼 12786212Slavery on Our Doorstep 家庭雇佣奴役 There are estimate d to be more than 20,000 overseas domestic servants working in Britain (the exact figure is not known because the Home Office, the Government department that deals with this, does not keep statistics). Usually, they have been brought over by foreign businessmen, diplomats or Britons returning from abroad. Of these 20,000, just under 2,000 are being exploited and abused by their employers, according to a London-based campaigning group which helps overseas servants working in Britain. 据统计,在美国工作的外籍家庭佣人有两万多人(由于处理该项事务的政府部门————内政部——没有做过统计,精确数字不得而知)。通常,他们是由外国商人、外交官员和归国英侨带来的。根据设在伦敦的帮助在伦敦工作的外籍家庭佣人的政治组织说,在两万多外籍家庭佣人中几乎有2000人正
遭受雇主的剥削和虐待。
The abuse can take several forms. Often the domestics are not allowed to go out, and they do not receive any payment . They can be physically , sexually and psychologically abused. And they can have their passports removed, making leaving or "escaping" virtually impossible.
虐待有几种形式〔家庭佣人常常不允许外出,又得不到任何报酬。他们在身体上、性和心理上遭受凌辱。他们还会被收去护照,使得出走或“逃跑”根本不可能。
The sad condition of women working as domestics around the world received much media attention earlier this year in several highly publicise d cases. In one of them, a Filipino maid was executed in Singapore after being convicted of murder, despite protests from various quarter s that her guilt had not been adequately established. Groups like Anti-Slavery International s
ay other, less dramatic, cases are equally deserving o
f attention, such as that of Lydia Garcia, a Filipino
maid working in London:
今年年初,几个透明度颇高的案例中有关世界各地的家庭
女佣的悲惨状况受到新闻媒体的关注。其中一个案例是讲一位
菲律宾女佣因被指控犯有谋杀罪在新加坡被处死,尽管有来自
各地的抗议认为她的罪名不足以成立。诸如“反对奴隶制国际
组织”之类的团体说,一些不那么戏剧化的其他案例也应同样
受到人们的关注,比如莉迪亚.加西亚,一位在伦敦工作的菲
律宾女佣的案例。
"I was hired by a Saudi diplomat directly from th
e Philippines to work in London in 1989. I was suppose
d to be paid £ 120 but I never received that amount.
They always threatened that they would send me back to
my country."
“我是1989年由一位沙特外交官直接从菲律宾雇到伦敦来
工作的。我的报酬应该是 120英镑,但我从未得到过那么多钱。
雇主总是威胁要把我遣送回国”。
Then there is the case of Kumari from Sri Lanka.
The main breadwinner in her family, she used to work f
or a very low wage at a tea factory in Sri Lanka. Beca
use she found it difficult to feed her four children,
she accepted a job working as a domestic in London. Sh
e says she felt like a prisoner at the London house wh
ere she worked.
还有一个来自斯里兰卡名叫库马里的案例。她家主要靠她
挣钱维持生计,她曾在斯里兰卡一家茶厂挣一份微薄的工资。
因为她发现很难养活她的4个孩子,她才接受到伦敦去做家庭
佣人。她说她觉得在伦敦她干活的那家人家眼就像一个犯人:
"No days off — ever, no breaks at all, no proper
food. I didn't have my own room; I slept on a shelf w
ith a space of only three feet above me. I wasn't allo
wed to talk to anybody. I wasn't even allowed to open
the window. My employers always threatened to report m
e to the Home Office or the police."
“没有休息日——甚至根本没有闲下来的功夫,没有适当
的食物,没有自己的房间,睡在一个上面的空间只有3英尺高
的架子上。不允许我跟任何人说话,甚至不许我开窗。雇主总
是威胁把我的身份报告给内政部或警察局。”
At the end of 1994 the British Government introdu
ced new measure s to help protect domestic workers fro
m abuse by their employers. This included increasing t
he minimum age of employees to 18, getting employees t
o read and understand an advice leaflet , getting empl
oyers to agree to provide adequate maintenance and con
ditions, and to put in writing the main terms and cond
itions of the job (of which the employees should see a
copy).
1994年底,英国政府采取新措施来帮助家庭佣人免遭雇主
的虐待。措施包括把雇工的最小年龄提高到18岁,使受雇者能
阅读并理解通告单,使雇主同意提供适当的生活费用和条件,
并写出工作条件和主要的工作条款(受雇者应有此种副本)。
However, many people doubt whether this will succ
essfully reduce the incidence of abuse. For the main p
roblem facing overseas maids and domestics who try to
complain about cruel living and working conditions is
that they do not have independent immigrant status and
so cannot change employer. (They are allowed in the U
nited Kingdom under a special concession in the immigr
ation rules which allow foreigners to bring domestic s
taff with them.) So if they do complain, they risk bei
ng deported.
然而,许多人怀疑该措施能否成功地减少虐待发生率,因
为那些企图抗议恶劣生活和工作条件的外籍女佣和家仆所面临
的主要问题是他们没有独立的移民身份,因此不能更换雇主(英
国移民法的特许条款允许外国人携带家仆)。所以如果抗议的
活,他们就冒着被驱逐出境的风险。
Allowing domestic workers the freedom to seek the
same type of work but with a different employer, if t
hey so choose, is what groups like Anti-Slavery Intern
ational are campaigning the Government for. It is, the
y say, the right to change employers which distinguish
es employment from slavery.
允许家庭雇工自由寻找不同雇主的同类工作——假如他们
这样选择——正是“反奴隶制国际组织”与政府交涉的内容,
他们说正是有权改变雇主的这一做法区分了雇佣制和奴隶制。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 18:07:03第5楼
Unit Five
12786212 The new music was built out of materials already
in existence: bules, rock'n'roll, folk music. But alth
ough the forms remained, something completely new and
original was made out of these older element s — more
original, perhaps, than even the new musicians themse
lves yet realize. The transformation took place in 196
6- 1967. Up to that time, the blues had been an essent
ially black medium . Rock'n'roll, a blues derivative ,
was rhythmic dance music. Folk music, old and modern,
was popular among college students. The three forms r
emained musically and culturally distinct, and even as
late as 1965, none of them were expressing any radica
lly new states of consciousness. Blues expressed black
soul; rock was the beat of youthful energy; and folk
music expressed anti-war sentiments as well as love an
d hope.
新音乐是从已有的音乐:布鲁斯,摇滚乐,民间音乐中产
生的。虽然新音乐保留了原有的形式,但某些全新的、独创性
的东西从旧的成分中脱颖而出的——它们也许比新音乐家意识
到的还要更富有独创性。这个变革发生在1966-1967年间。那
个时候以前,布鲁斯基本上一直是黑人的音乐表达方式。由它
衍生出的摇滚乐是节奏性很强的舞蹈音乐。而民间音乐,既有
古老又有现代的,在大学生中颇为流行。这三种音乐形式在音
乐和文化方而都各不相同,甚至直到1965年,它们中任何一个
都没有表达任何全新的意识境界。布鲁斯表现黑人的心灵,摇
滚是年轻活力的节拍,民乐除表现爱情与希望外,还表现反战
情绪。
In 1966-1967 there was spontaneous transformation
. In the United States, it originated with youthful r
ock groups playing in San Francisco. In England, it wa
s led by the Beatles, who were already established as
an extremely fine and highly individual rock group Wha
t happened, as well as it can be put into words, was t
his. First the separate musical traditions were brough
t together. Bob Dylan and the Jefferson Airplane playe
d folk rock, folk ideas with a rock beat White rock gr
oups began experimenting with the blues. Of course, wh
ite musicians had always played the blues, but essenti
ally as imitators of the Negro style; now it began to
be the white band s' own music. And all of the groups
moved towards a broader eclecticism and synthesis. The
y freely took over elements from jazz, from America co
untry music, and as time went on from even more divers
e sources What developed was a music readily taking on
various forms and capable of an almost limitless rang
e of expression.
自发的变革出现在1966年到1967年间。在美国,旧金山
的年轻摇滚乐队发起了这场变革;在英国,被公认是极其完美
和非常独特的披头士摇滚乐队领导了这股新潮流。所发生的情
况,如用言词尽可能地表达出来是这样的:首先,分离的音乐
传统被结合起来了。鲍伯.狄伦和杰弗逊飞机队演奏民歌摇滚
乐,将民歌思想与摇滚节奏结合在一起。白人摇滚乐队开始尝
试演奏布鲁斯。当然,白人音乐家虽然已经一直在演奏布鲁斯,
但基本上只是模仿黑人音乐的风格。而现在,它开始变成白人
乐队自己的音乐了。所有的乐队都朝着更广泛的折衷主义和结
合主义的方向前进。他们自由地吸收爵士音乐、美国乡土音乐
的成分,而随着时间的推移,他们甚至对各种各样的音乐兼收
并蓄,最后发展成一种能轻松采取多种形式的、几乎有无穷表
现力的新音乐。
The second thing that happened was that all the m
usical groups began using the full range of electric i
nstruments and the technology of electronic amplifier
s. The electric guitar was an old instrument, but the
new electronic effects were altogether different — so
different that a new listener in 1967 might well feel
that there had never been an; sounds like that in the
world before. Electronics did, in fact, make possible
sounds that no instrument up to that time could produ
ce. And in studio recordings, new techniques made poss
ible effects that not even an electronic band could pr
oduce live . Electronic amplifiers also made possible
a fantastic increase in volume , the music becoming as
loud and penetrating as the human ear could stand, an
d thereby achieving a "total" effect, so that instead
of an audience of passive listeners, there were now au
diences of total participants, feeling the music in al
l of their senses and all of their bones.
发生的第二件事是所有乐队都开始使用全套的电子乐器和
电子扬声器技术。电吉他是一种老式乐器,但新的电子效果迥
然不同——如此不同,以致1967年一位新听众可能感觉以前在
世界上从没有听过像这样的声音。事实上,电子技术的确能合
成那时任何乐器也无法奏出的声音。在录音室录制时,新技术
有可能制作出甚至电子乐队现场表演时也演奏不出的效果。电
子扬声器也能使音量有惊人的增大,音乐变得那么宏亮,那么
富有穿透力,极尽人的耳朵承受之能,从而达到了一种“整体”
效果。因此,观众不再是被动地听,而是完全参与,他们全身
心地感受音乐,如痴如醉。
Third, the music becomes a multi-media experienc
e; a part of a total environment. The walls of the bal
lrooms were covered with changing pattern s of light,
the beginning of the new art of the light show. And th
e audience did not sit, it danced. With records at hom
e, listeners imitated these lighting effects as best t
hey could, and heightened the whole experience by usin
g drugs. Often music was played out of doors, where na
ture provided the environment.
第三,音乐变成一种多媒体的感受,成了整体环境的一部
分。舞厅的墙壁上布满变幻无常的灯光图案,这也是灯光表演
这门新艺术的开始。观众并不坐着,而是随着音乐起舞。在家
里欣赏唱片时候听众尽力模仿照明效果,甚至服用毒品来增强
整个音乐享受的快感。音乐常在户外演奏,在那儿大自然则提
供了周围的环境。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 18:10:54第10楼
Unit Ten
The campaign for election
美国的竞选运动
The winner in the November general election is almost
certain to be either the Republican or the Democratic
nominee. A minor-party or independent candidate, such as
George Wallace in 1968, John Anderson in 1980, or Ross
Perot in 1992 and 1996, can draw votes away from the
major-party nominees but stands almost no chance of
defeating them.
12786212 11月大选的获胜者几乎可以肯定不是共和党就是民主党提
名的候选人。小党派或独立的候选人,如1968年的乔治.华莱
十、1980年的约翰.安德森,或者1992年和1996年的罗斯.佩
罗等,可能会从大党的提名人那里拉走一此选票,但几乎没有
人可能战胜他们。
A major-party nominee has the critical advantage of
support from the party faithful. Earlier in the twentieth
century, this support was so firm and steady that the
victory of the stronger party's candidate was almost
a certainty. Warren G. Harding accepted the 1920
Republican nomination at his Ohio home, stayed there
throughout most of the campaign, and won a full victory
simply because most of the voters of his time were
Republicans. Party loyalty has declined in recent
decades, but more than two-thirds of the nation's
voters still identify themselves as Democrats or
Republicans, and most of them support their party's
presidential candidate. Even Democrat George McGovern,
who had the lowest level of party support among recent
nominees, was backed in 1972 by nearly 60 percent of his
party's voters.
大党提名人具有得到党的忠实信徒支持这一关键的优
势.在20世纪早期,这种支持是如此的坚固和稳定以至于强大
党派候选人的胜利几乎是不容置疑的。沃伦.G.哈定在他的俄
亥俄州的家中接受了1920年共和党的提名,而且竞选期间他多
数时间是呆在家里。他最终大获全胜仅仅是因为那个时期多数
选民是共和党成员。近几十年人们对党的忠诚有所减弱,但是
这个国家三分之二以上的选民仍自我归属为民主党人或共和党
人,并且他们当中的大多数会支持自己党派的总统候选人。甚
至于民主党的乔治.麦戈文,他在近期的提名人中所得到的党
派支持是最低的,也于1972年时获得了他的党将近团%的选民
的支持。
Presidential candidates act strategically. In
deciding whether to pursue a course of action, they try
to estimate its likely impact on the voters. During the
1992 campaign, a sign on the wall of Clinton's
headquarters in Little Rock read, "The Economy, Stupid."
The slogan was the idea of James Carville, Clinton's
chief strategist, and was meant as a reminder to the
candidate and the staff to keep the campaign focused on
the nation's slow-moving economy, which ultimately
was the issue that defeated Bush. As in 1980, when Jimmy
Carter lost to Ronald Reagan during tough economic times,
the voters were motivated largely by a desire for
change.
总统竞选人做事讲究战略。在决定是否遵循某一项行动方
针时,他们要尽量估计一下该方针对选民可能具有的影响。在
1992年的选运动中,在小石城克林顿总部的墙上的一条标语说,
“经济,愚蠢。”这一口号是克林顿的总战略家詹姆斯.卡维
尔的主意,其用意是想提醒候选人及总部人员始终把竞选的注
意力集中在本国缓慢发展的经济上。而这一点正是最终击败布
什的问题。正如1980年在经济艰难时期吉米.卡特败与罗纳
德.里根时那样,选民很大程度上是被他们想变革的欲望调动
起来的。
Candidates try to project a strong leadership image.
Whether voters accept this image, however, depends more
on external factors than on a candidate's personal
characteristics. In 1991, after the Gulf War, Bush's
approval rating reached 91 percent, the highest level
recorded since polling began in the 1930s. A year later,
with the nation's economy in trouble. Bush's
approval rating dropped below 40 percent. Bush tried to
stir images of his strong leadership of the war, but voters
remained concerned about the economy.
候选人都想尽力突出表现一种强有力的领导者的形象。然
而选民们是否接受这一形象则更取决于外在因素而不是候选人
的个人特征。1991年海湾战争以后,布什的支持率达到91%,
这是自20世纪30年代开始民意测验以来的最高记录。一年以
后,随着国家经济陷入困境,布什的支持率则下降到40%以下。
布什试图重振其战争期间强有力的领导者的形象,但是选民们
始终一直关心经济。
The candidates' strategies are shaped by many
considerations, including the constitutional provision
that each state shall have electoral votes equal in number
to its representation in Congress. Each state thus gets
two electoral votes for its Senate representation and a
varying number of electoral votes depending on its House
representation. Altogether, there are 538 electoral votes
(including three for the District of Columbia, even though
it has no voting representatives in Congress). To win the
presidency, a candidate must receive at least 270 votes,
an electoral majority.
候选人的战略的形成要考虑到许多因素,包括宪法的这一
条款:每个州拥有的选票必须与其在国会中的代表人数相等。
于是每个州便有两票选举参议院的代表并根据各州在众议院的
代表数,有不同数量的选票。选票总数为538张(包括哥伦比
亚特区的3张选票,尽管在国会中它没有投票代表)要赢得总
统席位,候选人必须至少获得270票,即选票的大多
数。
Candidates are particularly concerned with winning
the states which have the largest population, such as
California (with 54 electoral votes), New York (33), Texas
(32), Florida (25), Pennsylvania (23), Illinois (22), and
Ohio (21). Victory in the eleven largest slates alone
would provide an electoral majority, and presidential
candidates therefore spend most of their time campaigning
in those states. Clinton received only 43 percent of the
popular vote in 1992, compared with Bush's 38 percent
and Perot's 19 percent; but Clinton won in states that
gave him an overwhelming 370 electoral votes, compared
with 168 for Bush and none for Perot.
候选人特别关注人口最多的几个州的州选举中获胜,例如,
加利福尼亚州(有54张选票),纽约州(33张),德克萨斯
州(32张),佛罗里达州(25张),宾夕法尼亚州(23张),
伊利诺斯州(22张)和俄亥俄州(21张)。仅在这11个最大
的州获胜就可获得选举的多数,因此,总统候选人花大量的时
间在这些州进行竞选活动。在1992年,克林顿仅获得民众选票
的43%,相比之下,布什是38%,佩罗是19%;但是克林顿在州
选举中获胜。这些州却给了他压倒多数的370张选票,相比之
下布什是168张,佩罗则一张也没有。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 18:12:07第11楼
Unit Eleven
Sacrificed to Science ?
是为科学牺牲吗?
Professor Colin Blukemore works at Oxford University
Medical School doing research into eye problems and
believes that animal research has given humans many
benefits:
科林.布莱克默教授任职于牛津大学医学院,正在对眼睛
疾病进行研究他认为,用动物进行研究给人带来了很多好
处。
The use of animals has been central to the development
12786212 of anaesthetics, vaccines and treatments for diabetes,
cancer, developmental disorders...most of the major
medical advances have been based on a background of animal
research and development.
使用动物对于发展麻醉学、疫苗以及糖尿病、癌症、发育
失调等疾病的治疗具有至关重要的作用。大部分重大的医学进
展都是基于对动物的研究和开发。
There are those who think the tests are simply
unnecessary. The International Association Against
Painful Experiments on Animals is an organization that
promotes the use of alternative methods of research which
do not make animals suffer. Their spokesman Colin Smith
says:
Animal research is irrelevant to our health and it can often produce misleading results. People and animals are different in their reactions to drugs and in the way their bodies work. We only have to look at some of the medical mistakes to see this is so.
有些人认为用动物进行试验根本没有必要,反对用动物进行痛苦实验国际协会是一个提倡使用替代的研究方法,使动物免受痛苦的组织、他们的发言人科林.史密斯说,用动物进行研究与我们的健康无关。它常常能产生令人误导的结果。人和动物对药物的反应不同,身体作用的方式也不同,我们只要看一下几起医疗错误便会明白情况就是这样。 But Professor Blackmore stresses:
It would be completely irresponsible and unethical to use drugs on people that had not been thoroughly tested on animals. The famous example of thalidomide is a case for more animals testing, not less. The birth defects (hat the drug produced were a result of inadequate testing. If thalidomide were invented today, it would never he released for human use because new tests on pregnant animals would reveal the dangers.
但是布莱克默教授却强调说,如果把还没有在动物身上彻底实验过的药物用在人身上,那是完全不负责任和不道德的。萨立多胺就是一个著名的例子,说明对动物进行的实验应该更多而不是更少。这种药物造成的婴儿先天性缺损就是实验不够的结果。如果萨立多胺是今天发明的,它就决不会用在人身上,因为对怀孕的动物的新试验将会发现这种危险。 Another organization that is developing other methods of research is FRAME. This is the Hund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments. It recognises that many experiments still have to be done on animals and is aiming for Reduction. Refinement and Replacement of animals in experiments. In 1981. it established a research programme to improve and expand non-animal testing. Increasingly, new technology is making it easier for us to find
alternative methods of testing. Computer models can be used to simulate the way that cells work and to try to predict the toxicity of chemicals. Data from previous animal experiments is used lo develop a computer model which will predict what will happen if you add a chemical with an unknown biological effect to a substance. The eventual aim of computer modeling is to reduce the number of animals used in experiments.
另一个组织,英文简称叫FRAME,其全称的意思是替代动
物药物实验基金会。该组织正在开展替代方法的研究,这个组织承认有很多实验仍然不得不在动物身上进行,但它正致力于减少、改进和代替对动物的实验。1981年时,这个组织确定了一个研究项目来改进非动物试验和扩大非动物试验的范围。新的技术使我们日益容易找到替代的试验方法。可用计算机模型来模拟细胞的活动方式和预报化学药品的毒性。可用从以前的动物实验获取的数据来建立一个计算机模型,这个模型能够预报如果将某一生物效果不明的化学药品添加到另一种物质上将会出现什么情况。计算机模拟的最终目的是减少用作实验对象的动物的数量。
The Lethal Dose 50 test (LD50) may also be replaced. In the original test, all the animals in a test group are given a substance until half of them die. The test
indicates toxicity. A method using a fixed amount, which gives the same eventual information hut uses fever animals and does not require that they die, may replace the LD50. Many other new techniques are now available that enable more research to be done in the test tube to see if chemicals produce harmful biological effects.
The number of animals used in laboratory tests has declined over the last 20 years. This is partly due to alternatives and partly to the fact that experiments are better designed so fewer need Co be used --healthier animals provide better experimental results. For example, it used to take 36 monkeys to test a sample of polio vaccine, now it takes only 22. Also, lack of money has reduced the number of animals used — they are expensive to buy and expensive to keep.
药剂致死剂量50(LD50)试验也可以被代替。在最初的试验中,一个试验组里的全部动物都要给予某种物质,直到其中一半死亡为止。这一试验可以指示出物质毒性的大小。另一种方法是使用固定量的有毒物质,能够给出同样的最终信息,但使用较小的动物并且不需要它们死亡,这个方法可以代替LD50。现在已有很多别的新技术,使更多的研究能在试管里进行,以便发现化学药品是否产生有毒的生物效果。
用于实验室试验的动物数量在过去20年中已经减少。这部分地是由于采用了替代的方法,部分地是由于实验比以前设计得更好,所以需要的动物就少了。结果是更健康的动物提供了更好的实验效果。例如,以前做一次脊髓灰质炎需要36只猴子,现在只需要22只。此外,资金缺乏也使得使用动物的数鼠减少了,因为购买和豢养这些动物都很费钱。
Birmingham University now has Britain's first department of Biomedical Ethics. Professor David Morton of the department is involved in animal research and is
concerned with reducing animal suffering as much as
possible. Animals spend 95% of their time in their cages and refinement also means making their lives better when not undergoing tests. This includes keeping them in more suitable cages, allowing social animals like dogs to live together and trying to reduce the boredom that these
animals can experience.
In Professor Morton's laboratory, rabbits live together in large runs, filled with deep litter and boxes that they can hide in. The researchers have also refined some experiments. In the US, one experiment in nerve
regeneration involves cutting a big nerve in a rat's leg, leaving its leg paralysed. In Morton's lab. the researcher cuts u small nerve in the foot. He can see if it can regrow and the rat can still run around its
cage.
伯明翰大学设有英国的第一个生物医德系。该系的大卫.莫顿教授正在进行动物研究,他热心于尽可能地减少动物的痛苦。被试验的动物一生中95%的时间是在笼子里度过的,因此条件的改善也意味着使它们在不被用来试验时活得更好一些。这包括把它们豢养在更符合要求的笼子里,允许像狗这样的群居性动物能生活在一起,并且努力降低这些动物生活的单调枯燥程度。
在莫顿教授的实验室望,兔子一起生活在宽敞的兔舍甩,里面放满了很厚的褥草和箱子以便它们能在甲而躲藏。研究人员们还改进了他们的某些实验。在美国,进行一次神经再生实验要在兔子腿上切掉一大段神经,结果就把它的腿弄瘫痪了。在莫顿的实验室里研究人员只在兔子脚上切下一小段神经。研究人员可以看到神经能否再生,老鼠是否还能在笼子里跑来跑去。
Even with these new developments in research, only a tiny proportion of all tests are done without using
animals at some stage. The use of animals in experiments cannot stop immediately if medical research is to continue and consumer products are to be properly tested, and
Professor Blakemore believes that sometimes there are no alternatives:
即使研究工作中取得了这些新进展,全部实验中也只有极小的一部分在某个阶段不再需要使用动物。如果药物研究需要继续进行并且需要准确试验消费品商品的话,使用动物进行实验就不可能立即停止。布莱克默教授认为,有时候人们没有替代的办法:
Wherever possible, for both ethical and scientific reasons, we do not use animals. But cells live in animals
and we can only really see how they behave when they are inside animals. We cannot possibly reproduce in a test tube or a computer model ail the complex reactions of the body to a drug or a disease. When it comes to research into heart disease and its effects on the body, or diseases of the brain for example, we do not have adequate substitutes for the use of animals.
As research techniques become more advanced, (he
number of animals used in experiments may decrease, but stopping testing on animals altogether is a long wav
away.
只要可能,为了道德的和科学的两种理由,我们不使用动物。但是细胞生活在动物身上,我们只有在动物体内才能看到它们怎样活动。我们不可能在试管里或用计算机模型模拟出身体对药物或疾病的全部复杂反应。例如当研究心脏病和它对身体的影响时,或者当研究大脑疾病时,我们没有充分的代用品来代替动物。
随着研究技术的日益先进,用于实验的动物的数量可能会减少,但距离彻底停止使用动物还很遥远。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 18:12:41第12楼
Unit Twelve
Let Your Mind Wander
让你的思想遨游
Until recently daydreaming was generally considered either a waste of time or a symptom of neurotic tendencies, and habitual daydreaming was regarded as evidence of
maladjustment or an escape from life's realities and
12786212 responsibilities. It was believed that habitual
daydreaming would eventually distance people from society and reduce their effectiveness in coping with real
problems. At its best, daydreaming was considered a
compensatory substitute for the real things in
life.
直到最近白日做梦通常被认为是浪费时间或者是神经官能症倾向的一种症状,而习惯性的白日做梦被认为是精神失调或
者逃避生活现实和责任的证据。人们相信,习惯性的白日做梦最终会把人同社会疏远并降低他们在处理实际问题时的成效。白日做梦最好也不过被认为是对生活中实际事物的一种补偿性的替代。
As with anything carried to excess, daydreaming can be harmful. There are always those who would substitute fantasy lives for the rewards of real activity. But such extremes are relatively rare, and there is a growing body of evidence to support the fact that most people suffer from a lack of daydreaming rather than an excess of it.We are now beginning to learn how valuable it really is and that when individuals are completely prevented from daydreaming, their emotional balance can be disturbed. Not only are they less able to deal with the pressures of day-to-day existence, but also their self-control and self-direction become endangered.
像任何事情过分都可能有害,白日做梦也一样。总有那么一些人,他们用想入非非的生活来代替从实际活动得到的好处。但是这类极端的情况较为罕见,愈来愈多的证据却支持这样一种现象,即大部分人受白日做梦过少而不是过多之苦。现在我们开始了解,白日做梦如何真有价值.并且人如果白日完全不做梦,他们的情绪平衡会被打乱。不仅他们应付每日生活的压力的能力会变差,他们的自我控制和自我导向能力也会受到损害。
Recent research indicates that daydreaming is part of daily life and that a certain amount each day is essential for maintaining equilibrium. Daydreaming, science has discovered, is an effective relaxation technique. But its beneficial effects go beyond this. Experiments show that daydreaming significantly contributes to intellectual growth, powers of concentration, and the ability to interact and communicate with others.
In an experiment with schoolchildren in New York, Dr. Joan Freyberg observed improved concentration: "There was less running around, more happy feelings, more talking and playing in the group, and more attention paid to detail."
研究表明,白日做梦是日常生活的一部分,每天白天做一定的梦对保持情绪平衡是必不可少的,科学已经发现,白日做梦是一种有效的松弛办法。但它的好处不只这些。试验证明,白日做梦对智力发展、注意力集中和同别人的交往和沟通有相当大的好处。
通过用纽约的小学生做实验,琼.弗雷伯格观察到孩子们的专心程度得到了改善:“跑来跑去的情况少了,愉快的心情
多了,更多的人在一起谈话和玩耍,对细节的注意力增强了。
In another experiment at Yale University, Dr. Jerome Singer found that daydreaming resulted in improved self-control and enhanced creative thinking ability. Daydreaming, Singer pointed out, is one way individuals can improve upon reality. It is, he concluded, a powerful spur to achievement.
But the value of daydreaming does not stop here. It has been found that it improves a person's ability to be better adapted to practical, immediate concerns, to solve everyday problems, and to come up more readily with new ideas. Contrary to popular belief, constant and conscious effort at solving a problem is, in reality, one of the most inefficient ways of coping with it. While conscious initial effort is always necessary, effective solutions to especially severe problems frequently occur when conscious attempts to solve them have been put off. Inability to relax, to let go of a problem, often prevents its solution.
在另一个耶鲁大学做的实验里,杰罗姆.辛格博士发现,白日做梦导致自我控制的改善和创造性思维能力的增强。辛格指出,白日做梦是人们改善现实的一种方法。他得出结论说,白日做梦强烈激发人取得成就。
但白日做梦的价值并不到此为止。人们已经发现,它能改善一个人的能力,使他能更好地适应实际的紧迫的事务,解决日常问题并且更容易地提出新的想法。与一般人的看法相反,经常有意识地致力解决某个问题,实际上是一种效果最差的处理问题的方法。虽然最初的有意识的努力永远是必要的,但对特别困难问题的有效解决办法常常在这种有意识的努力遇到了阻碍的时候才会出现。不会放松,不会放过问题,常常妨碍问题的解决。
Historically, scientists and inventors are one group that seems to take full advantage of relaxed moments. Their biographies reveal that their best ideas seem to have occurred when they were relaxing and daydreaming. It is well known, for example, that Newton solved many of his toughest problems when his attention was waylaid by private musings. Thomas Alva Edison also knew the value of "half waking" states. Whenever confronted with a task which seemed too hard to be dealt with, he would stretch out on his laboratory sofa and let fantasies flood his mind.
Painters, writers, and composers also have drawn
heavily on their sensitivity to inner fantasies. Debussy used to gaze at the River Seine and the golden reflections of the selling sun to establish an atmosphere for
creativity. Brahms found that ideas came effortless only when he approached a state of deep daydreaming. And Cesar Frank is said to have walked around with a dreamlike gaze while composing, seemingly totally unaware of his surroundings.
在历史上,科学家和发明家是似乎能充分利用松弛时刻的一类人。他们的传记揭示出,他们最出色的想法是在他们放松和白日做梦时出现的。比如,众所周知,牛顿的很多最困难的问题都是他的注意力被个人的遐想打断时解决的。托马斯.埃尔瓦.爱迪生也懂得“半醒”状态的价值。无论什么时候他遇到一个似乎解决不了的问题时,他会躺在沙发上,四肢舒展,让各种幻觉涌满他的脑海。
画家、作家和作曲家都十分依赖对内心幻觉的敏感性。德彪西习惯于凝视着塞纳河上落日的金色倒影来确立一种创造的气氛。布拉姆斯发现,只有当他接近一种深沉的白日梦境时,他的乐思才轻松而来。据说赛萨尔.弗兰克在作曲的时候,走来走去,朦胧凝眸,仿佛毫不意识周围的一切。 Many successful people actually daydreamed their successes and achievements long before they realized them. Henry J. Kaiser maintained that "you can imagine your future,'' and he believed that a great part of his business success was due to positive use of
daydreams. Harry S. Truman said that he used daydreaming for rest. Conrad Hilton dreamed of operating a hotel when he was a boy. He recalled that all his accomplishments were first realized in his imagination.
很多有成就的人实际上在他们取得成就之前很久就梦寐以求地幻想过功业。亨利.凯泽主张“你应该想像你的未来。”他相信,他事业成功大部分应归功于积极利用白日梦。哈利.杜鲁门说过,他把白日做梦当成一种休息。康拉德.希尔顿还是个孩子的时候就梦见过开旅馆。他回忆说,他的全部成就最早都是在想像中实现的。
"Great living starts with a picture, held in some person's imagination, of what he would like someday to do or be. Florence Nightingale dreamed of being a nurse. Edison pictured himself an inventor; all such characters escaped the mere push of circumstance by imagining a future so vividly that they headed for it." These are the words of the well-known thinker Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, and they show that people can literally daydream
themselves to success. Fosdick, aware of the wonderful
power of positive daydreaming, offered this advice: "Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye, and you will be drawn toward it. Picture yourself vividly as defeated and that alone will make victory impossible. Picture yourself as winning and that will contribute remarkably to success. Do not picture yourself as anything, and you will drift like an abandoned ship at sea."
“伟大的生活起始于一个人在想像中幻想自己有朝一日能做出什么事业或成为什么人物。弗洛伦斯—南丁格尔梦想能成为一名护士。爱迪生把自己想成一名发明家。所有这些人都如此生动地幻想自己的未来,朝着这个即定方向前进,从而避免了单纯地受环境的推动。”这是著名的思想家哈利.爱默生.福斯迪克所说的话。这些话说明,人确实可以通过幻想自己而取得成就。福斯迪克知道积极的白日梦的神奇作用,提出了如下的意见:“如果你经久地、坚定地在你的想像中给自己描绘一个形象,你将会被引往这个形象。你如果把自己生动地幻想成一个战败者,单单这一点就能使胜利成为不可能。你要把自己幻想成一个胜利者,这将显著地有助你取得成就。你要是什么也不幻想自己,你将像一条被遗弃的船,在大海上四处漂
泊。”
To get the results, you should picture yourself — as vividly as possible — as you want to be. The important thing to remember is to picture these desired objectives as if you had already attained them. Go over several times the details of these pictures. This will deeply impress them on your memory, and these memory traces will soon start influencing your everyday behavior toward the
attainment of the goal.
While exercising your imagination, you should be alone and completely undisturbed. Some individuals seem to have the ability to tune into their private selves in the midst of the noisiest crowds or company. But most of us, especially when the experience is new, require an environment free from outside distraction.
如想得到期望的结果,你应把自己——尽可能生动地——幻想成你要成为的人。重要的是要记住,你幻想这些期望的目标时就好像你已经实现了他们那样。要把幻想的细节在脑子里反复想几遍,这样它们会深深地印在你的记忆中,而这些记忆的痕迹将很快影响你每天的行为去实现你的目标。
在幻想的时候,你应该独处一处,完全不受外界干扰。有些人能做到在非常喧闹的人群中调节自己,进人自我。但我们中的大多数人,特别当我们这样做还感到生疏时,需要有一个不受外界干扰的环境。
A life lived without fantasy and daydreaming is a seriously impoverished one. Each of us should put aside a few minutes daily, taking short 10- or 15-minute
vacations. Daydreaming is highly beneficial to your
physical and mental well-being, and you will find that this modest, inexpensive investment in time will add up to a more creative and imaginative, a more satisfied, and a more self-fulfilled you.It offers us a fuller sense of being intensely alive from moment to moment, and this, of course, contributes greatly to the excitement and joy of living.
人的一生如果没有想像和梦幻,他的一生将是十分贫乏的。我们每个人每天都应留出几分钟来,享有一次短短的10或15
分钟的休闲。白日做梦对你的身心健康大为有益。你会发现这份小小的花费不多的时间投资最终带来的是一个更有创造性,更富有想像力,更心满意足和更踌躇满志的你。它时时使我们更充分地意识到强烈的活力,这当然会大大有助于我们生活的激奋和欢乐。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 18:13:37第13楼
Unit Thirteen
Work, Labor, and Play
工作,劳作和娱乐
So far as I know, Miss Hannah Arendt was the first person to define the essential difference between work and labor. To be happy, a man must feel, firstly, free and, secondly, important. He cannot be really happy if he is compelled by society to do what he does not enjoy doing, 12786212 or if what he enjoys doing is ignored by society as of no value or importance. In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been abolished, the sign that what a man does is of social value is that he is paid money to do it, but a laborer today can rightly be called a wage slave.
A man is a laborer if the job society offers him is of no interest to himself but he is compelled to take it by the necessity of earning a living and supporting his
family
就我所知,汉纳.阿伦特小姐是第一个说明了工作与劳作之间基本差异的人。一个人要想快乐,必须首先感觉自己是自由的,其次是感到自己是重要的。如果社会强迫他去做自己不乐意做的事;或者社会无视他自己喜欢做的事,将其当作没有价值或无关紧要的,他就不可能真正快乐。在一个严格意义上讲已经废除奴隶制的社会里,一个人所做的事具有社会价值的标志就是他为此得到了报酬,但实际上我们可以把今天的劳作者称为薪水奴隶。如果一个人对社会给予的工作毫无兴趣,只是为了生计和养家糊口而被迫接受这份工作,那他就是一名劳作者。
The antithesis to labor is play. When we play a game, we enjoy what we are doing, otherwise we should not play it, but it is a purely private activity; society could not care less whether we play it or not.
Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his own point of view voluntary play.Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer. Which a man is can be seen from his attitude toward leisure. To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently- He is therefore more likely to take too
little leisure than too much; workers die of coronaries and forget their wives' birthdays. To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion, so that it is natural for him to imagine that the fewer hours he has to spend laboring, and the more hours he is free to play, the better.
与劳作对应的是娱乐。我们玩游戏时,会感到快乐,否则我们就不会去玩,但这完全是个人的活动,社会对你玩或不玩是不会在意的。
介于劳作和娱乐之间的是工作。如果一个人对社会给予他报酬而从事的工作发自内心地感兴趣的话,他就是一名工作者;从社会观点来看是必要的劳动,从他个人观点来看则成了自愿娱乐。一件工作被归类为劳作还是工作,不取决于工作本身,而取决于从事这项工作的人的兴趣。比如,它们两者的区别并不等同于体力劳动与脑力劳动之间的区别。园丁或补鞋匠可能是工作者,而银行职员则可能是劳作者。一个人是劳作者还是
工作者,可以从他对闲暇的态度看出。对工作者来说,闲暇只是他用来放松和休息以便能有效地工作所需要的时间。因此他尽可能少闲着;工作者会死于冠心病,会忘了妻子的生日。另一方面,对劳动者来说,闲暇意味着从强迫劳动中摆脱出来的自由,因此很自然地他会想像自己被迫劳动的时间越短,自由娱乐的时间越长就越好。
What percentage of the population in a modern
technological society are, like myself, in the fortunate position of being workers?At a guess 1 would say sixteen per cent, and 1 do not think that figure is likely to get bigger in the future.
在现代技术社会吧,有百分之几的人能像我一样处在工作者的幸运位置上呢?凭猜测,我会说大概是16%,而且我认为在将来这个数字也不可能增加。
Technology and the division of labor have done two things; by eliminating in many fields the need for special strength or skill, they have made a very large number of paid occupations which formerly were enjoyable work into boring labor, and by increasing productivity they have reduced the number of necessary laboring hours.It is
already possible to imagine a society in which the
majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy.When one recalls how
aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. Indeed, the problem of dealing with
boredom may be even more difficult for such a future mass society than it was for aristocracies. The latter, for example, ritualized their time; there was a season to shoot grouse, a season to spend in town, etc. The masses are more likely to replace an unchanging ritual by fashion which it will be in the economic interest of certain people to change as often as possible.Again, the masses cannot go in for hunting, for very soon there would be no animals left to hunt. For other aristocratic amusements like
gambling, dueling, and warfare, it may be only too easy to find equivalents in dangerous driving, drug-taking, and senseless acts of violence. Workers seldom commit acts of violence, because they can put their aggression into their work, be it physical like the work of a smith, or mental like the work of a scientist or an artist. The role of aggression in mental work is aptly expressed by the phrase “getting one’s teeth into a problem.” 技术和劳动分工完成了两件事:通过在很多领域消除了对
特殊能力或技能的需求,把大量以前令人愉快的有偿工作变成了枯燥无味的劳作;通过提高生产力减少了必要的劳动时间。现在人们已经可能去想像这样一个社会:其大部分人口,即劳作者,将会享有与以前贵族阶层几乎同样多的闲暇时间。可当我们回忆起过去贵族们实际上是如何消磨时光时,前景就不是令人兴奋的了。确实,与当时的贵族相比,为这样一个未来的大众社会解决如何打发闲暇的问题要困难的多。例如,贵族们有程式化的消遣安排:这季节去射猎松鸡,那季节在城里寻欢作乐等等。老百姓更可能用时尚取代千篇一律的程式,而尽可能地经常改变时尚是符合某些人的经济利益的。另外,老百姓也不能都有打猎的爱好,因为这样的话很快就会没有动物可供射猎了。对其他的贵族娱乐如赌博、决斗和打仗,要找一些与其对等的消遣方式实在是很容易的、如危险驾驶、吸毒和无意义的暴力行为。工作者很少有暴力行为,因为他们会把自己的进取精神都投人到工作中去,不管是像铁匠那样的体力工作还是像科学家或艺术家那样的脑力工作,都是如此。“死死咬住某个问题”这个习语很贴切地表示出了进取精神在脑力工作中的作用。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 18:14:09第14楼
Unit Fourteen
The Teacher's Last Shocking Lesson
老师最后令人震惊的一课
一位了不起的妇女与杀害她的歹徒讲道理—并录了
音 1 2 She used the miniature tape recorder for a graduate-school 7course she was taking. The device, though, would do much more than 8capture a lecture. It was a microcassette found in Kathleen 6Weinstein's shirt pocket that not only led police to her 2alleged killer but also revealed the New Jersey teacher to be a 1woman of extraordinary courage and compassion. 2 她使用了微型录音机,那是她用来录她正在听的研究生院的一门课 的。不过这个设备起的作用要比录下一堂课的内容大得多。正是在凯思琳.温斯坦衬衣口袋里发现的这盘微型卡式录音带不仅使得警察找到了杀害她的凶手嫌疑人,而且也正是它展现了新泽西州的这位老师是一位具有非凡的勇气和同情心的女性。
Weinstein, 45, was on her way to an exam at Toms River High School South on March 14 when she got out of her gold 1995 Toyota Camry to buy a sandwich at the busy Toms River Shopping Center. That's where her path crossed that of Michael LaSane, who, police say, wanted just such a car to celebrate his 17th birthday. Grabbing Weinstein by the jaw, the attacker told her he had a gun and forced her into the Camry. The car was then driven to Manitou Park, about two miles from the shopping center. It was there, police believe, that Weinstein was able to activate the recorder she kept in her bag. According to Ocean County prosecutor Daniel Carluccio, the taped conversation between Weinstein and L.aSane took place as they removed personal items — hags, notebooks, her six-year-old son's belongings, from the car. "It wasn't hysterical," Carluccio says of the 24-mimue tape. "It wasn't the kind of thing you would expect of someone who is facing a life-threatening situation. Mrs. Weinstein bravely and persistently used every skill and power she had to convince her attacker to simply take her car and not her life."
3月14日,45岁的温斯坦正开车赶往市南汤姆斯河中学参加考试。在繁忙的汤姆斯河购物中心,她停了下来,走出她那辆金色的丰田公司产的1995年款式坎利牌车去买一份三明治。正是在那里她遇上麦克尔.拉森。据警察说,拉森正想要这样一部车来庆贺他的17岁生日。这名歹徒猛地夹住温斯坦的颌部,自称有枪并胁迫她上了车。然后,车被开到距购物中心大约两英里远的曼尼托公园。据警察推测,温斯坦正是在这里才得以打开放在她包里的录音机。据海洋县检查官丹尼尔.卡鲁齐奥说,温斯坦和拉森之间的录音对话是在温斯姻和拉森把她的个人物品——包、笔记本还有她6岁儿子的东西从车上取出来时进行的。关于这盘24分钟的录音带,卡鲁齐奥说,“没有歇斯底里。它也不是那种你能指望一个人在生命受到威胁时所说的话。温斯坦夫人勇敢地一直用她所有的各种技巧和能力,去说服歹徒可以要她的车,但别要她的命。” The excerpts of the talk released by the prosecutor show why Weinstein was a beloved figure at Thorne Middle School in
Middletown, where she was a special-education teacher. "You haven't done anything yet," she tells her attacker. "All you have to do is let me go and lake my ear. For my life, don't you think I should be concerned and let you take my car? For my life! Do you really want to have that on your head?" At another point, (he teacher tries to get him to open up. "Why don't you just tell me? Of course, it's important. It's determining your whole life and (he direction you're taking." Weinstein also talks about her son Daniel and her plans to take in a foster child with her husband Paul. "1 want to give something to somebody, to give something back," she says.
从检查官透露的谈话片段可以说明:作为在米道镇的桑恩中学一名
从事特殊教育的老师,温斯坦为什么会在那里成为如此受爱戴的人物。她跟歹徒说,“直到现在你还没犯什么大错。你完全可以拿走我的车,但要放我走。为了活命,难道我还会关心让不让你拿走我的车吗?为了保住我的命!你真的想要背负杀我的罪名?”在另一个时刻,这位老师试图让歹徒敞开他的思想“你难道不能跟我说说吗?当然,这很重要。这关系到你的整个生命和你要走的方向。”温斯坦还谈到了她的儿子丹尼尔以及她与丈夫保罗打算领养一个孩子。她说,“我想为别人做点什么,回报别人。”
Her powers of persuasion were lo no avail. Weinstein's body, with hands and feet bound, was discovered by a hiker on March
17. She. had been smothered with her coat. But before she died she somehow slipped the microcassette into her pocket without her killer knowing it. Because Weinstein had asked LaSane aboul himself and his family, police quickly had their suspect, the son of a local official. "Our impression was that she was very aware she was leaving something behind." says Carluccio. He will not comment on LaSane's side of the conversation except to say. "When you hear the tape, it will raise profound questions about what is happening in our world with juveniles and our society. It goes beyond materialism."
她的规劝能力没有起作用。3月17日,一名徒步旅行者发现了温斯坦的尸体,她的手脚被捆绑着。歹徒用她的衣服使她窒息而死。但在她死以前.她没让歹徒知道,偷偷把微型录音机放进了自己的衣袋里。由于温斯坦曾问及拉森本人及其家庭情况,因此警察很快找到了嫌疑犯:一个地方官员的儿子、卡鲁齐奥说,“我们感觉她十分清楚地意识到她会留下点什么。”他不准备评论拉森的谈话部分,而只是说,“你在听带子的时候,会提出关于这个世界上青少年及社会现象的一些深刻的问题。这已不仅仅是物质至上的问题。”
Weinstein also helped leave behind a new program at Thorne Middle School in which students were encouraged to do nice things for others. Every morning Weinstein would announce various good deeds over the p.a. system and she solicited prizes from local merchants and restaurants. Given her fate, the name of the program has a heartbreaking resonance to it: Random Acts of
Kindness.
温斯坦也给桑恩中学留下了一个新的活动内容,即鼓励学生为别人多做好事。每天早上温斯坦都曾通过校内广播系统宣布一些好人好事,并且她恳请地方商人和餐馆设奖鼓励这些行为。在她遭受如此不幸命运的时候,这项活动的名称听起来令人心碎:随时随地做好事。
在路的那一头,隐约看见另一个自己„„
乍到初来 发表于:2008-10-11 18:17:38第15楼 12786212Unit Fifteen The Computer and The Poet 计算机与诗人 The essential problem of man in a computerized age remains the same as it has always been. That problem is not solely how to be more productive, more comfortable, more content, but how to be more sensitive, more sensible, more proportionate, more alive. The computer makes possible a marvelous leap in human proficiency; it pulls down the fences around the practical and even the theoretical intelligence. But the question persists and indeed grows whether the computer will make it easier or harder for human beings to know who they really are, to identity their real problems, to respond more fully to beauty, to place adequate value on life, and to make their world safer than it now is. 人类在计算机化时代所面临的根本问题一如既往。这个问题不仅仅是要提高生产力,使人们更舒适、更满足,而且是怎样才能更有情感、更理智、更均衡、更有活力。计算机使人类进步发生飞跃的变化;它在实际上乃至理论上扫除制约人类智
能发展的障碍。但是,涉及到人类对自身的认识,对实际存在
的问题的辨别,对美的更充分的理解,对怎样给生活更充分的
价值,怎样使人类世界比现在更安全等方面,计算机给人类带
来的究竟是更大的便利还是更多的困难,这个问题依然存在,
而且变得日益严重。
Electronic brains can reduce the profusion of dead
ends involved in vital research. But they can't
eliminate the foolishness and decay that come from the
unexamined life. Nor do they connect a man to the things
he has to be connected to — the reality of pain in others;
the possibilities of creative growth in himself; the
memory of the race; and the rights of the next generation.
The reason these matters are important in a
computerized age is that there may he a tendency to mistake
data for wisdom, just as there has always been a tendency
to confuse logic with values, and intelligence with
insight. Easy and convenient access to facts can produce
unlimited good only if it is matched by the desire and
ability to find out what they mean and where they would
lead.
电脑能解开重要研究中的大量解决不了的问题,但不能清除来自未经研究审视的生活的愚蠢与腐朽。电脑也不能把人和应该与人有关系的事情联系起来,例如,别人的痛苦的现实、提高自身创造力的可能性、人类的记忆、以及下一代人的权利等等。
在计算机化时代,上述这些问题之所以重要是因为人们可能倾向于把数据误认为智慧,正如人们总是倾向于把逻辑与价值相混淆,把智能与洞察力混为一谈一样。方便快捷地获得信息,只有在人们有愿望和能力搞清这些信息意味着什么和会把人们引向何方时,才能够给人带来无限的好处。 Facts are terrible things if left spreading and unexamined.They are too easily regarded as evaluated certainties rather than as the rawest of raw materials crying to be processed into the texture of logic. It requires a very unusual mind, Whitehead said, to undertake the analysis of a fact. The computer can provide a correct number, but it may be an irrelevant number until judgment is pronounced.
信息如果任其泛滥,不加审核,那是可怕的事情。它们很容易被看作已有定论的可靠事实,而不是迫切需要处理使之具有逻辑条理的原始材料中最原始的材料。怀特黑德说过,对信息的分析需要非凡的头脑。计算机能够提供正确的数据,但在未加判断之前它可能只是一个无关的数据。
To the extent, then, that man fails to distinguish between the intermediate operations of electronic intelligence and the ultimate responsibiliti