新世纪大学英语综合教程课文翻译1—4单元

Unit 1 Text A

人在自然界 |亚历山大·斯伯金

Nature nurtures mankind unselfishly with its rich resources. Yet, man is so carried away in his transformation of nature that he is unaware that it also has limitations and needs constant care. Now worn by the excessive demands of mankind, nature is unable to maintain the ecological balance needed. Humanity is faced with the problem of how to stop, or at least to moderate, the destruction of Mother Nature.

人类生活在大自然的王国里。他们时刻被大自然所包围并与之相互影响。人类呼吸的空气、喝下的水和摄入的食 物，无一不令人类时刻感知到大自然的影响。我们与大自然血肉相连，离开大自然，我们将无法生存。

Human beings live in the realm of nature. They are constantly surrounded by it and interact with it. Man is constantly aware of the influence of nature in the form of the air he breathes, the water he drinks, and the food he eats. We are connected with nature by \ties and we cannot live outside nature.

人类不仅生活在大自然之中，同时也在改变着大自然。人类把自然资源转变为各种文化，社会历史的财富。人类降服并控制了电，迫使它为人类社会的利益服务。人类不仅把各种各样的动植物转移到不同的气候环境，也改变了他生活环境的地貌和气候并使动植物因之而发生转变。

Man is not only a dweller in nature, he also transforms it. Humanity converts nature's wealth into the means of the cultural, historical life of society. Man has subdued and disciplined electricity and compelled it to serve the interests of society. Not only has man transferred various species of plants and animals to different climatic conditions, he has also changed the shape and climate of his environment and transformed plants and animals.

随着社会的发展，人类对大自然的直接依赖越来越少，而间接的依赖却越来越多。我们远古的祖先生活在大自然的威胁及破坏力的恐惧之中，他们常常连基本的生活物资都无法获取。然而，尽管工具不甚完备，他们却能同心协力，顽强工作，并总是有所收获。在与人类的相互作用中，大自然也发生了改变。森林被破坏了，耕地面积增加了。大自然及其威力被看成是和人类敌对的东西。譬如，森林被认为是野性的和令人恐惧的，因此人类便想方设法使其面积缩小。这一切都是打着―文明‖的旗号进行的，所谓―文明‖，就是人类在哪里建立家园，耕耘土地，哪里的森林就被砍伐。

As society develops, man tends to become less dependent on nature directly, while indirectly his dependence grows. Our distant ancestors lived in fear of nature's destructive forces. Very often they were unable to obtain the merest daily necessities. However, despite their imperfect tools, they worked together stubbornly , collectively, and were able to attain results . Nature was also changed through interaction with man. Forests were destroyed and the area of farmland increased. Nature with its elemental forces was regarded as something hostile to man. The forest, for example, was something wild and frightening and people tried to force it to retreat . This was all done in the name of civilization , which meant the places where man had made his home, where the earth was cultivated, where the forest had been cut down. 然而，随着岁月的流逝，人类越来越关注的是在何处得到和如何得到生产所需的不可替代的

自然资源的问题。科学与人类改变大自然的实践活动已经使人类意识到了工业在改变地球的进程中对地质产生的重大影响。

But as time goes on mankind becomes increasingly concerned with the question of where and how to obtain irreplaceable natural resources for the needs of production. Science and man's practical transforming activities have made humanity aware of the enormous geological role played by the industrial transformation of the earth.

目前，人与自然以及自然与社会整体之间过去存在的动态平衡，已呈现崩溃的迹象。生物圈中所谓可替代资源的问题变得极为尖锐。人类和社会的需求，即便是简单得像淡水一样的物质，也变得越来越难以满足。清除工业废物的问题也变得日益复杂。

At present the previous dynamic balance between man and nature and between nature and society as a whole, has shown ominous signs of breaking down. The problem of the so-called replaceable resources of the biosphere has become particularly acute . It is getting more and more difficult to satisfy the needs of human beings and society even for such a substance , for example, as fresh water. The problem of eliminating industrial waste is also becoming increasingly complex.

现代技术的特征是生产和使用日益丰富的人工合成产 品。人们生产成千上万的人工合成材料。人们越来越多地用尼龙和其他人造纤维把自己从头到脚地包裹起来，这些绚丽的织物显然对他们无益。年轻人或许很少注意到这一点，他们更关注的是外表，而不是健康。但是上了年岁之后，他们就会感受到这种有害的影响。

Modern technology is distinguished by an ever increasing abundance of produced and used synthetic goods. Hundreds of thousands of synthetic materials are being made. People increasingly cover their bodies from head to foot in nylon and other synthetic, glittering fabrics that are obviously not good for them. Young people may hardly feel this, and they pay more attention to appearance than to health. But they become more aware of this harmful influence as they grow older.

久而久之，这些合成物质转变成废弃物，那些原本毒性不大的物质在自然循环中变为极其有害的物质。自然科学家和哲学家如今都在问自己这样一个问题：人类对生物圈的破坏难道是无法避免的吗？

As time goes on the synthetic output of production turns into waste, and then substances that in their original form were not very toxic are transformed in the cycle of natural processes into aggressive agents . Today both natural scientists and philosophers are asking themselves the question: Is man's destruction of the biosphere inevitable?

人与大自然的关系——生态环境的危机——已经成为一个全球性问题。这一问题的解决之道在于理性而明智地协调生产和对大自然的关爱之间的关系，这不仅要依靠个人、企业或者某些国家的力量，而且要依靠全人类的力量。解决人与大自然关系危机的方法之一，就是使用太阳能、风能、海洋能等资源，以及其他尚不为人所知的宇宙中的自然能。

The man-nature relation – the crisis of the ecological situation – is a global problem. Its solution lies in rational and wise organization of both production itself and care for Mother Nature, not just by individuals, enterprises or countries, but by all humanity. One of the ways to deal with the crisis situation in the \, the power of winds, the riches of the seas and oceans and other, as yet unknown natural forces of the universe. 但是，回到我们原先的主题上，令人难以接受的事实是那些违背了自然规律、破坏了生物圈和谐的人类行为将会带来灾难，而这种灾难也许是全球性的。古代东方智者的话讲得真是恰如其分：朋友们，你要是亲近大自然，大自然就会用那永恒不变的规律永远呵护你！ But to return to our theme, the bitter truth is that those human actions which violate the laws of

nature, the harmony of the biosphere, threaten to bring disaster and this disaster may turn out to be universal. How apt then are the words of ancient Oriental wisdom: live closer to nature, my friends, and its eternal laws will protect you!

Text B

|物种灭绝 —— 过去和将来 Extinctions, Past and Present 理查德·利基 Preface

Man and wildlife are supposed to live in harmony, but human intrusion has driven a large number of species to extinction. It is high time that we took up the cause of wildlife conservation; otherwise, the price for us to pay in the future will be extremely high. In the following essay, the author calls for a global fund for wildlife conservation.

我在肯尼亚的图尔卡纳湖东岸工作时度过了生命中最激动人心的一些日子，寻找我们人类祖先的化石残骸。我们并不总是想找什么就能得到什么，但是，除了我们祖先的遗迹外，每天都会发现更多的东西。那些化石，有些相当完整，有些仅是碎片，道出了另一个世界。在那个世界，约150万年至200万年前，许多今天非洲哺乳动物的祖先漫游在肥沃的草原和森林边缘。当时的环境与现在非洲雨水更多的一些草原没有太大区别，但那里当时到处生活着今天早已灭绝的令人称奇的动物。

I spent some of the most exciting days of my life working on the eastern shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana searching for the fossilized remains (遗体) of our early ancestors. We did not always find what we wanted, but every day there was much more to discover than the traces of our own ancestors. The fossils , some quite complete, others mere fragments , spoke of another world in which the ancestors of many of today's African mammals (哺乳动物) wandered the rich grassland and forest edges between 1.5 million and 2 million years ago. The environment was not too different from the wetter grasslands of Africa today, but it was full of amazing animals that are now long extinct (绝种的).

不仅非洲如此，世界上任何地方的化石记录下来的一 切，都是一样。据估计，在过去的6亿年中，这个世界上存在过的物种，有95％以上都已灭绝了。

That was true not just for Africa. The fossil record tells the same story everywhere. It is estimated that more than 95％ of the species that have existed over the past 600 million years are gone. 工农业不断的扩展加速了当前物种灭绝的步伐，因此，我们该不该关心一下这个问题？有没有必要尽力去减慢这个永不停止的过程呢？

So, should we be concerned about the current rate of extinction (灭绝), which has been accelerated by the constant expansion of agriculture and industry? Is it necessary to try to slow down a process that has been going on forever?

我认为是应该的。我们知道，人类的健康发展与其他许多物种的健康发展紧密相关，而我们不能确知哪一种生物对我们的生存最为重要。

I believe it is. We know that the well-being of the human race is tied to the well-being of many other species , and we can't be sure which species are most important to our own survival. 但是，解决物种灭绝的危机问题决非易事，因为世界上许多生物多样性地区位于最贫穷的国家，尤其是亚洲、非洲和拉丁美洲。这些国家划拨土地，兴建国家公园和自然保护区而禁止人类侵入甚至接近它们，人们能接受吗？当一个国家相当大一部分人仍生活在贫困线以下，

去花大笔钱挽救一些物种，这样做是否合适呢？

But dealing with the extinction crisis is no simple matter, since much of the world's biodiversity (生物多样性) resides (存在) in its poorest nations, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Can such countries justify setting aside national parks and nature reserves where human intrusion (侵扰) and even access is forbidden? Is it appropriate to spend large sums of money to save some species in a nation in which a considerable percentage of the people are living below the poverty line?

这些问题令我对倡导在贫穷国家中推行野生动植物的保护感到不安。然而我相信我们能够——而且也应该——做大量的工作。这是一个改变侧重点的问题。大量资金已投入到对濒危物种的野外科学研究和会议上。但是，能不能给那些保护野生动物使之不被偷猎的公园管理人员提供些胶鞋和车子？能不能为那些靠伐木和种地为生的当地人提供别的经济出路，帮助他们发展？这些资金很难获得。

Such questions make me uneasy about promoting wildlife conservation in poor nations. Nonetheless , I believe that we can – and should – do a great deal. It's a matter of changing priorities. Plenty of money is available for scientific field studies and conferences on endangered (将要灭绝的) species. But what about boots and vehicles for park personnel who protect wildlife from illegal hunters? What about development aid to give local people economic alternatives to cutting forests and plowing over the land? That kind of funding is difficult to come by . 我们不应该要求贫穷国家的人们在自己的短期生存和长期环境需求之间做出选择。假如他们的政府愿意保护环境，所需的资金应由国际组织提供。我认为，答案是明摆着的：要么富有国家现在就伸出援助之手，要么整个世界将遭受巨大损失。

People in poor countries should not be asked to choose between their own short-term survival and longer-term environmental needs. If their governments are willing to protect the environment, the money needed should come from international sources. To me, the choice is clear. Either the more wealthy world helps now or the world as a whole will lose out . 为此，我们需要在全球筹集专门用于野生动植物保护的资金，这些资金应该主要由工业国家的政府和国际援助机构提供。

For that reason, we need permanent global funds devoted to wildlife protection. The funds should Primarily come from the governments of the industrial nations and international aid agencies. 至于如何使用这些资金，人们可能会无休无止地争论下去。是应该由当地社团决定工作事项，还是由外面请来的专家控制这些资金？野生动物园里应该允许有限制的打猎呢，还是禁止入内？错误总是难免的，自然外貌也会不断地发生变化，物种仍旧会继续消逝，但是这项工作的困难不应该使我们放弃希望。地球上的许多自然栖息地已经永远消失了，但是也有许多栖息地可以挽救，并最终得到恢复。

How to use those funds would be a matter of endless debate. Should local communities be entitled to set the agenda , or should outside experts take control? Should limited hunting be allowed in parks, or should they be put off limits ? Mistakes will be made, the landscape will keep changing, and species will still be lost, but the difficulty of the task should not lead us to abandon hope. Many of the planet's natural habitats (栖息地) are gone forever, but many others can be saved and in time restored.

21世纪的一个主要挑战是保护尽可能多的自然栖息地。让我们全力抵制任何减少现有野生物种天然栖息地数量的行为。让我们号召全世界最富有的国家提供资金，使这个抵制行动成为可能。这并不是对慈善事业的捐赠，这是对人类未来和地球上所有生命的一项投资。 A major challenge for the 21st century is to preserve as much of our natural estate as possible. Let

us resist with all our efforts any moves to reduce the amount of wild land available for wild species. And let us call upon the world's richest nations to provide the money to make that possible. That would not be a contribution to charity ; it would be an investment in the future of humanity – and all life on Earth.

Unit 2 Text A

技术与幸福Technology and Happiness 詹姆斯·萨洛维奇

Preface

In the present era, all of us are enthusiastically pursuing technological advancement and take it for granted that the development of technology will make us happier. However, little evidence can be found to prove the correlation between technology and happiness once material and technological advances reach a certain level. The text below may provide you with some insights into this issue.

20世纪的美国人、欧洲人和东亚人都享受到了过去历代人都无法想象的物质和技术进步带来的乐趣。譬如，在美 国，从1950年到2000年国民生产总值翻了3倍。人们的寿命大幅度提高。二战后生产力的迅速发展使商品变得价廉物 美。诸如乘飞机旅游和打长途电话等曾经是奢侈的事情成了生活不可或缺的一部分。

In the 20th century, Americans, Europeans, and East Asians enjoyed material and technological advances that were unimaginable in previous eras. In the United States, for instance, gross domestic product per capita tripled from 1950 to 2000. Life expectancy soared. The boom in productivity after World War II made goods better and cheaper at the same time . Things that were once luxuries, such as jet travel and long-distance phone calls, became necessities. And even though Americans seemed to work extraordinarily hard, their pursuit of entertainment turned media and leisure into multibillion-dollar industries.

那么，根据大多数标准衡量，你会说，现在的美国人比上个世纪中叶富裕多了。不过，奇怪的是，如果你问美国人有多幸福，你会发现，他们并不比1946年时幸福（1946年正式开始对幸福状况进行调查）。事实上，那些说自己―非常幸福‖的人所占的比例自20世纪70年代以来一直稳中有降——尽管20世纪40年代出生的人的收入在他们的工作生涯中平均增长了116％。你可以在大多数发达国家找到相似的数据。

By most standards, then, you would have to say that Americans are better off now than they were in the middle of the last century. Oddly, though, if you ask Americans how happy they are, you find that they are no happier than they were in 1946 (which is when formal surveys of happiness started). In fact, the percentage of people who say they are \the early 1970s – even though the income of people born in 1940 has, on average , increased by 116 percent over the course of their working lives. You can find similar data for most developed countries.

自工业革命开始以来，幸福与技术之间的关系一直是社会批评家和哲学家们长期研究的课题，然而，基本上还没有受到经济学家和社会学家们的关注。经济学家理查德·伊斯特林在经济繁荣和幸福的关系方面进行了具有开拓性的研究，并于1974年发表了一篇题为―经济增长改变人类命运吗？‖的著名论文。伊斯特林表明，就发达国家而言，一个国家的收入和国民的幸福之间没有真正的相互关系。伊斯特林认为，金钱买不到幸福，至少在（金钱）达到

了一定程度以后是如此。伊斯特林认为，尽管贫穷与苦难密不可分，但是，一个国家一旦达到稳定的中产阶级水平，富有似乎并没有让其国民感到更多的幸福。

The relationship between happiness and technology has been an eternal subject for social critics and philosophers since the advent of the Industrial Revolution. But it's been left largely unexamined by economists and social scientists . The truly groundbreaking work on the relationship between prosperity and well-being was done by the economist Richard Easterlin , who in 1974 wrote a famous paper entitled \Easterlin showed that when it came to developed countries, there was no real correlation between a nation's income level and its citizens' happiness. Money, Easterlin argued, could not buy happiness – at least not after a certain point. Easterlin showed that though poverty was strongly correlated with misery, once a country was solidly middle-class, getting wealthier did not seem to make its citizens any happier.

这好像几乎是一种普遍现象。实际上，研究幸福的学者们最重要的观点之一是：人们对好消息很快便习以为常。拿彩票中奖者为例。一项重要的研究表明，尽管买彩票中奖的人中奖时会感到非常非常幸福，可这种兴奋很快就消逝了。一段时间之后，他们的心情和幸福感与中奖之前没有什么两样。

This seems to be close to a universal phenomenon . In fact, one of happiness scholars' most important insights is that people adapt very quickly to good news . Take lottery winners for example. One famous study showed that although winners were very, very happy when they won, their extreme excitement quickly evaporated , and after a while their moods and sense of well-being were indistinguishable from what they had been before the victory. 人们对待技术的态度也是一样的：无论一种新事物多么引人注目，也无论它使我们的生活变得多么舒适，人们都认为这是理所当然的事情。在技术世界，你每天都会看到这一原则起作用。曾经一度被视为非常神奇的东西很快就变得习以为常，更糟的是，当这些东西运转不正常时，还会令人沮丧。要把新技术问世之前的情形牢记在心原来是如此困难！

So, too, with technology: no matter how dramatic a new innovation is, no matter how much easier it makes our lives, it is very easy to take it for granted. You can see this principle at work in the world of technology every day, as things that once seemed miraculous soon become common and, worse, frustrating when they don't work perfectly. It's hard, it turns out, to keep in mind what things were like before the new technology came along.

那么，我们对技术进步的快速吸收是否意味着技术没有发挥什么作用呢？不，决非如此。不论好歹，这只是把技术影响的问题变得更加复杂。我们先从负面影响谈起。在某些方面，技术显然使得生活更加糟糕了。譬如，我们马上会想到电话推销、交通阻塞以及身份资料失窃等情况。这些都是让人们明显意识到不幸福的现象。可是，现代的技术评论文章多半都没有把焦点集中在具体的、有害的技术上，而是集中在了技术对人际关系的影响上。

Does our fast assimilation of technological progress mean, then, that technology makes no difference ? No. It just makes the question of technology's impact, for good or ill , more complicated. Let's start with the downside . There are certain ways in which technology makes life obviously worse. Telemarketing , traffic jams, and identity theft all come to mind . These are all phenomena that make people consciously unhappy. But for the most part, modern critiques of technology have focused not so much on specific, bad technologies as the impact of technology on our human relationships.

在联了网的数据库世界里，隐私变得越来越脆弱。在许多工作场所，诸如按键监控和电话全程录音之类的技术使得对员工的监视变得更加容易。人们对电视的攻击主要集中在以下方

面：技术扰乱了人际关系、破坏了社区交往。一些人甚至说，电视是美国人逐渐相互疏远的罪魁祸首。同样也有人认为，互联网的负面影响进一步使人远离了我们常说的―真实世界‖。 Privacy has become increasingly fragile in a world of linked databases . In many workplaces, technologies like keystroke monitoring and full recordings of phone calls make it easier to watch workers. The notion that technology disrupts relationships and fractures community gained mainstream prominence as an attack on television. Some even say that TV is chiefly responsible for the gradual isolation of Americans from each other. Similarly , the harmful effects of the Internet, which supposedly further isolates people from what is often called \这种广义上关于技术影响人际关系的批评颇有趣味，尤与幸福的问题相关，因为我们真正有把握说清楚的事情没有几件，但其中之一是：人们的朋友越多，关系越密切，就越幸福。 This broad criticism of technology's impact on relationships is an interesting one and is especially relevant to the question of happiness, because one of the few things we can say for certain is that the more friends and the closer relationships people have, the happier they tend to be.

今天的技术变化异常神速，购买某种产品时你就知道，再过几个月，比这个产品性能更好、运作更快的款式就会问世，而你却还得使用旧款式的产品。换句话说，别人买到的产品要比你的好。这种失望感仿佛从开始购买这件产品时就已经存在了。

Today, technological change is so rapid that when you buy something, you do so knowing that in a few months there's going to be a better, faster version of the product, and that you're going to be stuck with the old one . Someone else, in other words, has it better. It's as if disappointment were built into acquisition from the very beginning. 日常生活的压力，一种令人烦恼的失望感、对政府知道你的情况超出你所希望程度的恐惧感——这些显然都是技术降低了人们幸福感的几个方面。然而，技术对人们的幸福感最重要的影响是在医疗保健方面。工业革命以前，每三个欧洲人就有两个的寿命不足30岁。今天，西欧妇女的寿命差不多是80岁，而且还会继续提高。道理很清楚：绝大多数人很乐意活下去，他们在地球上生活的时间越长，感觉就越好。可是，不久前，绝大多数人还过着龌龊不堪、畜生般的生 活，而且生命非常短暂。技术改变了这种状况，至少对于富裕国家的人们来说是如此。我们在该为医疗保健费用的提高和没有参加保险的人们的问题而担忧的同时，也应该记住，医疗技术带给我们身体上和精神上的好处是多么有价值。

Daily stress, an annoying sense of disappointment, fear that the government knows a lot more about you than you would like it to – these are obviously some of the ways in which technology reduces people's sense of well-being. But the most important impact of technology on people's sense of well-being is in the field of health care. Before the Industrial Revolution , two out of every three Europeans died before the age of 30. Today, life expectancy for women in Western Europe is almost 80 years, and it continues to increase. The point is obvious: the vast majority of people are happy to be alive, and the more time they get on earth, the better off they feel they'll be . But until very recently, life for the vast majority of people was nasty , rough , and short. Technology has changed that, at least for people in the rich world. As much as we should worry about the rising cost of health care and the problem of the uninsured , it's also worth remembering how valuable for our spirits as well as our bodies are the benefits that medical technology has brought us.

从更深的层次上说，我们在健康和长寿方面所取得的进步却强调了在国家和全球层面讨论幸福问题的一个自相矛盾的说法。即使人们不会更幸福，即使他们更加富裕并拥有更多技术，他们还会像以前那样渴望长寿。这就像那个古老的笑话一样：食品也许并不好，可我们都想让自己得到的那一份尽量大。

On a deeper level, what the technological improvement of our health and our longevity emphasizes is a paradox of any discussion of happiness on a national or a global level : even though people may not be happier, even though they are wealthier and possess more technology, they're still as hungry as ever for more time. It's like that old joke: the food may not be so great, but we want the portions to be as big as possible.

Text B

该怨谁，是技术，还是使用技术的人？ Who to Blame, Technology or the Person Who Uses It? 斯比洛斯·泽勒皮斯 Preface

Nowadays, great concern has arisen over the negative impact of technology on various aspects of life. Who is to blame for the negative impact, technology or the person who uses it? Read the following text and see how the author answers the question.

技术一直是人们当今谈论的―热门‖话题。关于这个话 题，人们发表了许多见解，撰写了大量的文章。捍卫技术的人和反对技术的人数旗鼓相当。这两类人通常都不愿意花时间去考虑对方的观点，而是各自一味地强调技术的长处或短处。至于那些对技术没有偏见（既不偏爱技术，也不反对技术）的人，他们的看法大致在这两种极端的观点之间。技术就像一把刀：我们可以用它切割食物，也可以用它去杀人。这要看我们想用它去做什么。我们是要用它改善我们的生活呢，还是要毁坏我们的生活？

Technology is always a \ lot has been said and written about it. The defenders of technology are as many as the opponents of it. Usually each one of these two classes of people stresses the advantages or disadvantages of technology without taking the time to look at the opposite point of view. For those who have no prejudice in favor of or against technology, the truth is to be found somewhere between these two extreme views. Technology is like a knife: we can use it to cut our food, and we can also use it to kill somebody. It depends on what we want to do with technology. Do we want to improve our lives or do we want to destroy them?

当然，谁也不能反驳下面的事实：由于技术，我们的生活条件得到了改善；科学家能治疗多种疾病；由于产品成本降低，生产得以提高，许多产品得以被更多的人享用；人们的劳动减少了，空余的时间就多了；人们的视野开扩了；总的来说，由于技术，我们的寿命延长了，生活也好起来了。

Of course, nobody can neglect the fact that our living conditions have been improved due to technology; scientists have been able to cure many diseases; production has been increased, and many products have become obtainable by many more people, because the cost of production has been reduced; human labor has been decreased, and, therefore, people have more free time; people's mental horizons have been broadened; and generally we live longer and better because of technology.

但是，事情的另一面也已经显现出来。我们在谈论对大自然的无理破坏、自然资源的枯竭、现代社会的消费至上、许多科学家把自己的发明用于不道德的目的而产生的社会责任、以及工作的机械化把人类置于仅仅是机器操作者的地位等问题。

But the other side of the coin has become already visible. We talk about the irrational interference with nature, the exhaustion of natural resources, the consumerism of modern societies, the social responsibility of scientists when their inventions are used for bad ends, and the mechanization of

work which leaves man as little more than a machine operator . 让我们举一个医学上的例子，以便把问题讲得更清楚一些。

Let us use an example from medicine to make matters clearer. 技术可以提高人们的健康水平。看一下在像美国这样技术发达的国家采用外科手术的种种可能性便清楚了，相比之下，有些国家是没有这种优势的。另一方面，在医学研究 上，许多方法的使用把综合保守型的思维方式变成了分析型的思维方式。内科医生可以做许多事情，但都不是独立完成的。今天的医生已经成为―良好的效仿者‖，但却不是―思考 者‖，因为他们已经习惯于把健康范围内的每一个参数转换成数字。医患之间那种密切的关系和人际交往已不复存在。病人感到自己更像一件东西而不是一个人。

Technology improves people's health. This can be seen if one looks at the possibilities of surgery in technologically developed countries like America as compared to countries which do not have this advantage. On the other hand, the involvement of advanced technical equipment in medicine modified the synthetic and conservative way of thinking into an analytical (分析的) one . The physician can do much, but not on his own. Doctors today have become \\as they are used to translating every piece of health data into numbers. A close relationship and human interaction between the doctor and the patient does not exist any more. Patients feel more like objects than persons.

再者，让我们考虑一下生物工艺学的问题。这门科学把人们撩拨得神魂颠倒。科学家们觉得自己是在用生命的奥秘―做游戏‖，这一事实把他们的想法越推越远，指望会出现生物的永存或永恒。尽管人们期待着遗传工程的奇迹，可大自然有其自身的神秘法则，所有妨碍这些法则的东西都要付出代价。人们对大自然的本质知道的越多，就越对其本质感到困惑。当科学家找到了治愈某种疾病的疗法时，更加糟糕的疾病又会出现，给人们带来恐惧。

Furthermore, consider biotechnology (生物工艺学). It fascinates man's thoughts. The fact that scientists feel that they can \with the secret of life pushes them further and further, promising biological immortality and eternity. People expect miracles from genetic engineering , but nature has its own secret laws. Everything that disturbs them has its cost. The closer people reach nature's truth, the further it eludes (躲避) them. When scientists find the cure for a disease, something worse appears to terrify mankind.

此外，想一想由于技术战争发生了多么大的变化。人们不再手对手地交战了，而是远距离作战；是技术使之成为可能。另一方面，面对面打仗需要某些价值观，而在一个人按动按钮并指挥现代化武器装备的情况下，这些价值观是不存在的。

Additionally , think about how much war has changed because of technology. People do not fight hand to hand any more – they fight from a distance; technology makes this possible. Fighting face to face needs some values which do not exist in the case where someone presses a button and directs the modern means.

问题肯定不在技术方面，而在于我们最终对技术发出的指令。人一旦丧失了价值观，技术就再也无法控制了。只要人还有价值观，技术就会为人服务。

The problem is certainly not technology, but the direction we have finally given to it. When man has no values, technology cannot be controlled any more. When man has values, technology serves him.

技术本身既不会行善，也不会作恶，这要看我们怎样使用它。我坚信，现在是我们明白这个道理的时候了：确保技术造福人类的责任只能由具有社会良知、尊重人类、尊重自然和自然平衡的那些人来承担。

Technology is neither good nor bad. It depends on how we use it. I strongly believe that it is time

for us to understand that the responsibility belongs exclusively to humans who have to acquire a social conscience, to respect human beings, nature and its balances.

Unit 3 Text A

知识彩虹 克雷格·拉塞尔 Preface

The acquisition of knowledge is self-contradictory by nature. The more one knows, the more he knows how little he knows. Reading often leads to more questions than answers. Writing opens things up rather than closes them off. The author of the following essay regards truth as a rainbow that cannot be really grasped. He urges us to be humble about what we don't know as we pride ourselves on what we know.

我这辈子四分之三以上的时间（50年中有39年）是在纽约的中小学或大学里度过的，不是在上学，就是在教学。

For more than 3/4 of my life – 39 of my 50 years – I've either studied or taught in a school or a college in New York.

于是，你或许会认为，经过这么长一段时间，我应该了解一些情况，确实知道一些东西，对知识和对生活该会积极地予以把握和肯定了。可是，我却没有做到这一点。事实 上，我知道的东西越多，反倒越觉得自己无知。

You might think, then, that after all this time I'd have some grasp of the situation, that I'd actually know things – that I'd have some positive sense of assurance, of certainty, about knowledge and about life. But I don't. In fact, the more I know, the more I know I don't know.

当然，说自己知道的东西越多，反倒越觉得自己无知，这种说法是矛盾的。然而，现代物理学告诉我们，现实世界本身就是矛盾的。科学家们对物质现实世界研究得越多，就越无法对它进行把握。在某种意义上，他们了解的越多，知道的就越少。

To say that the more I know, the more I know I don't know is, of course, contradictory. But then, modern physics tells us that reality itself is contradictory. The more scientists look into our physical reality, the more it slips away from them. In a way , the more they learn, the less they know.

知识本身就是矛盾的。打个比方，假设你的知识是一个点，就像这个句子末尾的句号一样。请注意这个句号微小的圆周，假设它代表我们已知和未知的分界——换句话说，就是你对自己不知道的东西的认知。

Knowledge itself is contradictory. For example, picture your knowledge as a dot , as perhaps the period at the end of this sentence. Notice the tiny circumference of that period, and let that represent the interface of the known with the unknown – in other words, your awareness of what you don't know.

但现在想象一下那个小小的句号在渐渐扩大，它的黑色部分占据页面越来越多的地方。随着它的扩大，它的周缘也跟着扩大。如果那个正在增大的黑色部分代表你的知识的 话，在知识增长的同时，你会意识到自己有许多不知道的东西。也就是说，你知道的越多，就越觉得自己无知。

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