全新版大学英语(第二版)综合教程2课文及翻译

Unit1

Howard Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard University, reflects on a visit to China and gives his thoughts on different approaches to learning in China and the West.

哈佛大学教育学教授霍华德·加德纳回忆其中国之行，阐述他对中西方不同的学习方式的看法。

Learning, Chinese-Style

Howard Gardner

1 For a month in the spring of 1987, my wife Ellen and I lived in the bustling eastern Chinese city of Nanjing with our 18-month-old son Benjamin while studying arts education in Chinese kindergartens and elementary schools. But one of the most telling lessons Ellen and I got in the difference between Chinese and American ideas of education came not in the classroom but in the lobby of the Jinling Hotel where we stayed in Nanjing. 中国式的学习风格 霍华德·加德纳

1987年春，我和妻子埃伦带着我们18个月的儿子本杰明在繁忙的中国东部城市南京住了一个月，同时考察中国幼儿园和小学的艺术教育情况。然而，我和埃伦获得的有关中美教育观念差异的最难忘的体验并非来自课堂，而是来自我们在南京期间寓居的金陵饭店的大堂。

2 The key to our room was attached to a large plastic block with the room number on it. When leaving the hotel, a guest was encouraged to turn in the key, either by handing it to an attendant or by dropping it through a slot into a box. Because the key slot was narrow, the key had to be positioned carefully to fit into it. 我们的房门钥匙系在一块标有房间号的大塑料板上。酒店鼓励客人外出时留下钥匙，可以交给服务员，也可以从一个槽口塞入钥匙箱。由于口子狭小，你得留神将钥匙放准位置才塞得进去。

3 Benjamin loved to carry the key around, shaking it vigorously. He also liked to try to place it into the slot. Because of his tender age and incomplete understanding of the need to position the key just so, he would usually fail. Benjamin was not bothered in the least. He probably got as much pleasure out of the sounds the key made as he did those few times when the key actually found its way into the slot.

本杰明爱拿着钥匙走来走去，边走边用力摇晃着。他还喜欢试着把钥匙往槽口里塞。由于他还年幼，不太明白得把钥匙放准位置才成，因此总塞不进去。本杰明一点也不在意。他从钥匙声响中得到的乐趣大概跟他偶尔把钥匙成功地塞进槽口而获得的乐趣一样多。

4 Now both Ellen and I were perfectly happy to allow Benjamin to bang the key near the key slot. His exploratory behavior seemed harmless enough. But I soon observed an interesting phenomenon. Any Chinese staff member nearby would come

over to watch Benjamin and, noting his lack of initial success, attempt to assist. He or she would hold onto Benjamin's hand and, gently but firmly, guide it directly toward the slot, reposition it as necessary, and help him to insert it. The \smile somewhat expectantly at Ellen or me, as if awaiting a thank you ─ and on occasion would frown slightly, as if considering us to be neglecting our parental duties.

我和埃伦都满不在乎，任由本杰明拿着钥匙在钥匙的槽口鼓捣。他的探索行为似乎并无任何害处。但我很快就观察到一个有趣的现象。饭店里任何一个中国工作人员若在近旁，都会走过来看着本杰明，见他初试失败，便都会试图帮忙。他们会轻轻握紧本杰明的手，直接将它引向钥匙的槽口，进行必要的重新定位，并帮他把钥匙插入槽口。然后那位“老师”会有所期待地对着我和埃伦微笑，似乎等着我们说声谢谢——偶尔他会微微皱眉，似乎觉得我俩没有尽到当父母的责任。

5 I soon realized that this incident was directly relevant to our assigned tasks in China: to investigate the ways of early childhood education (especially in the arts), and to throw light on Chinese attitudes toward creativity. And so before long I began

to introduce the key-slot anecdote into my discussions with Chinese educators. 我很快意识到，这件小事与我们在中国要做的工作直接相关 ：考察儿童早期教育 （尤其是艺术教育）的方式，揭示中国人对创造性活动的态度。因此，不久我就在与中国教育工作者讨论时谈起了钥匙槽口一事。

TWO DIFFERENT WAYS TO LEARN

6 With a few exceptions my Chinese colleagues displayed the same attitude as the staff at the Jinling Hotel. Since adults know how to place the key in the key slot, which is the ultimate purpose of approaching the slot, and since the child is neither old enough nor clever enough to realize the desired action on his own, what possible gain is achieved by having him struggle? He may well get frustrated and angry ─ certainly not a desirable outcome. Why not show him what to do? He will be happy, he will learn how to accomplish the task sooner, and then he can proceed to more complex activities, like opening the door or asking for the key ─ both of which accomplishments can (and should) in due course be modeled for him as well. 两种不同的学习方式

我的中国同行，除了少数几个人外，对此事的态度与金陵饭店工作人员一样。既然大人知道怎么把钥匙塞进槽口——这是处理槽口一事的最终目的， 既然孩子还很年幼，还没有灵巧到可以独自完成要做的动作，让他自己瞎折腾会有什么好处呢？他很有可能会灰心丧气发脾气——这当然不是所希望的结果。为什么不教他怎么做呢？他会高兴，他还能早些学会做这件事，进而去学做更复杂的事，如开门，或索要钥匙——这两件事到时候同样可以 （也应该）示范给他看。

7 We listened to such explanations sympathetically and explained that, first of all, we did not much care whether Benjamin succeeded in inserting the key into the slot. He was having a good time and was exploring, two activities that did matter to us. But the critical point was that, in the process, we were trying to teach Benjamin that

one can solve a problem effectively by oneself. Such self-reliance is a principal value of child rearing in middle-class America. So long as the child is shown exactly how to do something ─ whether it be placing a key in a key slot, drawing a hen or making up for a misdeed ─ he is less likely to figure out himself how to accomplish such a task. And, more generally, he is less likely to view life ─ as Americans do ─ as a series of situations in which one has to learn to think for oneself, to solve problems on one's own and even to discover new problems for which creative solutions are wanted.

我俩颇为同情地听着这一番道理，解释道，首先，我们并不在意本杰明能不能把钥匙塞进钥匙的槽口。他玩得开心，而且在探索，这两点才是我们真正看重的。但关键在于，在这个过程中，我们试图让本杰明懂得，一个人是能够很好地自行解决问题的。这种自力更生的精神是美国中产阶级最重要的一条育儿观。如果我们向孩子演示该如何做某件事——把钥匙塞进钥匙的槽口也好，画只鸡或是弥补某种错误行为也好——那他就不太可能自行想方设法去完成这件事。从更广泛的意义上说，他就不太可能——如美国人那样——将人生视为一系列的情境，在这些情境中，一个人必须学会独立思考，学会独立解决问题，进而学会发现需要创造性地加以解决的新问题。

TEACHING BY HOLDING HIS HAND

8 In retrospect, it became clear to me that this incident was indeed key ─ and key in more than one sense. It pointed to important differences in the educational and artistic practices in our two countries. 把着手教

回想起来，当时我就清楚地意识到，这件事正是体现了问题的关键之所在——而且不仅仅是一种意义上的关键之所在。这件事表明了我们两国在教育和艺术实践上的重要差异。

9 When our well-intentioned Chinese observers came to Benjamin's rescue, they did not simply push his hand down clumsily or uncertainly, as I might have done. Instead, they guided him with extreme facility and gentleness in precisely the desired direction. I came to realize that these Chinese were not just molding and shaping Benjamin's performance in any old manner: In the best Chinese tradition, they were ba zhe shou jiao ─ \by holding his hand\─ so much so that he would happily come back for more.

那些善意的中国旁观者前来帮助本杰明时，他们不是简单地像我可能会做的那样笨拙地或是犹犹豫豫地把他的手往下推。相反，他们极其熟练地、温和地把他引向所要到达的确切方向。我逐渐认识到，这些中国人不是简单地以一种陈旧的方式塑造、引导本杰明的行为：他们是在恪守中国传统，把着手教，教得本杰明自己会愉快地要求再来一次。

10 The idea that learning should take place by continual careful shaping and molding applies equally to the arts. Watching children at work in a classroom setting, we were astonished by their facility. Children as young as 5 or 6 were painting

flowers, fish and animals with the skill and confidence of an adult; calligraphers 9 and 10 years old were producing works that could have been displayed in a museum. In a visit to the homes of two of the young artists, we learned from their parents that they worked on perfecting their craft for several hours a day.

学习应通过不间断的精心塑造与引导而得以实现，这一观念同样适用于艺术。我们观看了孩子们在教室里学习艺术的情景，他们的娴熟技艺令我们惊讶。年仅5、6岁的孩子就带着成人的那种技巧与自信在画花、画鱼和动物；9岁、10岁的小书法家写出的作品满可以在博物馆展示。有一次去两位小艺术家的家里参观，我们从孩子的父母处得知，他们每天练习数小时以完善他们的技艺。

CREATIVITY FIRST?

11 In terms of attitudes to creativity there seems to be a reversal of priorities: young Westerners making their boldest departures first and then gradually mastering the tradition; and young Chinese being almost inseparable from the tradition, but, over time, possibly evolving to a point equally original. 创造力第一？

从对创造力的态度来说，优先次序似乎是颠倒了：西方的年轻人先是大胆创新，然后逐渐深谙传统；而中国的年轻人则几乎离不开传统，但是，随着时间的推移，他们同样可能发展到具有创新的境界。

12 One way of summarizing the American position is to state that we value originality and independence more than the Chinese do. The contrast between our two cultures can also be seen in terms of the fears we both harbor. Chinese teachers are fearful that if skills are not acquired early, they may never be acquired; there is, on the other hand, no comparable hurry to promote creativity. American educators fear that unless creativity has been acquired early, it may never emerge; on the other hand, skills can be picked up later.

美国人的立场可以概括起来这么说，我们比中国人更重视创新和自立。我们两种文化的差异也可以从我们各自所怀的忧虑中显示出来。中国老师担心，如果年轻人不及早掌握技艺，就有可能一辈子掌握不了；另一方面，他们并不同样地急于促进创造力的发展。美国教育工作者则担心，除非从一开始就发展创造力，不然创造力就有可能永不再现；而另一方面，技艺可于日后获得。

13 However, I do not want to overstate my case. There is enormous creativity to be found in Chinese scientific, technological and artistic innovations past and present. And there is a danger of exaggerating creative breakthroughs in the West. When any innovation is examined closely, its reliance on previous achievements is all too apparent (the \

但我并不想夸大其辞。无论在过去还是在当今，中国在科学、技术和艺术革新方面都展示了巨大的创造力。而西方的创新突破则有被夸大的危险。如果仔细审视任何一项创新，其对以往成就的依赖则都显而易见（“站在巨人肩膀之上”的现象）。

14 But assuming that the contrast I have developed is valid, and that the fostering

of skills and creativity are both worthwhile goals, the important question becomes this: Can we gather, from the Chinese and American extremes, a superior way to approach education, perhaps striking a better balance between the poles of creativity and basic skills?

然而，假定我这里所说的反差是成立的，而培养技艺与创造力两者都是值得追求的目标，那么重要的问题就在于：我们能否从中美两个极端中寻求一种更好的教育方式，它或许能在创造力与基本技能这两极之间获得某种较好的平衡？

Finding a way of teaching children to appreciate the value of money can be a problem. Yet the solution, David Owen suggests, is simple -- just open a bank. Easier said than done? Well, it turns out to be not quite so difficult as it sounds, as you'll discover in reading about the First National Bank of Dave.

设法教育孩子珍惜钱财会是件难事。然而，大卫·欧文说，方法也很简单——开个银行就行。说来容易做起来难？其实，这事并没听上去那么难，你读一读戴夫第一国家银行的故事就知道了。

Children and Money David Owen

1 Parents who decide that the time has come to teach their children about money usually begin by opening savings accounts. The kids are attracted at first by the notion that a bank will pay them for doing nothing, but their enthusiasm disappears when they realize that the interest rate is tiny and, furthermore, their parents don't intend to give them access to their principal. To a kid, a savings account is just a black hole that swallows birthday checks. 孩 子 与 金 钱 大卫·欧文

当家长觉得该教孩子们懂得如何对待金钱的时候，他们通常先为孩子开个储蓄账户。刚开始的时候，孩子们颇感兴趣，因为他们想自己什么也不干银行还会付给他们钱，可当他们明白利率小得很，而且父母也无意让他们动用本金时，他们的热情一下子就冷却了。对一个孩子来说，一个储蓄账户只不过是一个吞没其生日礼金支票的黑洞。

2 Kid: \

Parent: \ Kid: \

Parent: \it will still be yours. You just have to keep it in the bank so that it can grow.\

Kid (suspicious) : \

Parent: \the bank will pay you seventy-five cents. And if you leave all of that in the bank for just one more year, the bank will give you another seventy-five cents plus two and a half more cents besides. That's called compound interest. It will help you go to college.\ 孩子：“奶奶给了我25美金！”

家长：“太棒了。咱们把支票直接存到你的账户上去。” 孩子：“可这钱她是给我的！我要用！” 家长：“嗳，钱还是你的嘛。你只不过是要把钱放在银行里，好让它增多。” 孩子（狐疑地）：“你说‘增多’是什么意思？” 家长：“哦，要是你把这25美金在银行里放一年，银行就会付给你75美分。要是你连本带息在银行里再放一年，银行会再付给你75美分，另加2.5美分。这叫做复利。这钱能帮你上大学。”

3 The main defect in such saving schemes is that there's nothing in them for the kids. College is a thousand years away, and they probably think they'd just as soon stay home anyway. Indeed, the true purpose of such plans is usually not to promote saving but to prevent consumption. (1) Appalled by what their children spend on candy and video games (or, rather, appalled by the degree to which their children's overspending seems to mimic their own), parents devise ways to lock up their children's resources. Not surprisingly, kids quickly decide that large sums aren't real money and that all cash should either be spent immediately or hidden in a drawer. 这类储蓄计划的主要缺陷在于，孩子本人一无所获。上大学还不知要过多少年，他们或许会想他们宁愿呆在家里。实际上，这类计划的真正目的通常不是促进储蓄而是限制消费。孩子们在糖果、电子游戏上的花费之大令家长们十分震惊（或者更确切地说，令他们吃惊的其实是孩子们的超支行为与他们自己的相似程度），于是他们便设法让孩子们将钱存起来不用。毋怪乎孩子们很快就认定，大额钱款不是实实在在的钱，有了现钱要么赶紧花掉，要么藏在抽屉里。

4 To avoid this problem with my two children, I started my own bank. It's called the First National Bank of Dave. I set up an account for each child, using the same computer program I use to keep track of my checkbook. Because I wanted my kids' deposits to grow at a pace that would hold their attention, I offered an attractive interest rate-five per cent a month. (2) Compounded, that works out to an annual rate of more than 70 per cent. (No, I don't accept deposits from strangers.) Allowances are deposited automatically on the first day of each month. The kids can make other deposits, or withdrawals, whenever they like.

为了避免我的两个孩子产生这一问题，我开设了自己的银行，名叫戴夫第一国家银行。我用记录自己支票簿使用情况的同一个电脑程序给每个孩子开了一个账户。因为我希望孩子存款增长的速度足以引起他们的注意，便给他们一个诱人的利率——月息5厘。以复利计算，年息达到70%以上。（不，我不接受外来存款。）零花钱在每月第一天自动存入。孩子们也可以把别的钱存进来，想存就存，想取就取。

5 The Bank of Dave, which has been in operation four years, instantly turned both my children into keen savers. My son still comes to me with change he has found on the floor of the car, saying, \credit this today.\Both kids' accounts grew so fast that after two years I had to roll back my monthly interest rate to three per cent. The kids protested when I announced the change, but they nodded solemnly when I explained that the law of supply and demand applies even to the supply of money. The

kids help me calculate their interest -- a useful lesson in averaging and percentages. (3) I give them unlimited access to their funds, no questions asked, and I provide printed statements on demand. 戴夫银行经营了4年，一下子就把我的两个孩子变成了热心的储蓄者。至今我儿子在车里找到零钱仍会来找我说， “今天就把这个上账。”两个孩子的存款增长很快，两年之后，我不得不将月利率降至3厘。我宣布调低利率时两个孩子反对，可当我解释说供求法则同样适用于货币供应后，两人严肃地点头赞同。两个孩子帮我一起计算他们的利息——这可是学习计算平均值与百分比的颇为有用的一课。他们使用自己的资金我不加任何限制，不作任何询问，我还根据要求随时提供打印的账单。

6 The high rate of interest is not the only attractive feature of the Bank of Dave. Equally important from the kids' point of view is that their accounts belong to them. When they save, they harvest the benefit; when they want to spend, they don't need permission. Children who have no control over their own funds have no incentive not to beg for money and then spend every dollar that comes into their hands.

高利率并非戴夫银行惟一诱人之处。在孩子看来同样重要的是，他们的存款属于他们自己。他们存钱便会获利；他们想花钱也用不着获得许可。孩子对自己的钱没有自主权，就没有什么东西激励他们不去伸手要钱，不把到手的钱花个光。

7 The way to help children become rational consumers is to give them more control, not less. Before we go on vacation, I'll usually give my kids an extra twenty bucks or so, which I deposit in their accounts. I tell them that they can spend the extra money on a T-shirt, save it, spend it before we leave, or do anything else they want with it -- but that while we are on vacation, they won't receive any additional pocket money from me (except in the form of communal purchases considered by custom to be vacation entitlements, such as candy, ice cream, movie tickets, and so on). Because any money they spend starts out as theirs, not mine, they think twice before throwing it away. In a souvenir store on Martha's Vineyard a couple of summers ago my son quietly studied the unpromising merchandise while a friend of his loudly cajoled his parents into paying five dollars for a toy gun, which fell apart almost before we got back to the car. My son ended up spending thirty-three cents for an unopened geode, which he later cracked open by hitting it with a hammer -- a good value, it seemed to me. If he had been spending my money instead of his, he undoubtedly would have wanted a toy gun instead.

帮助孩子们成为理性消费者的方法是，交给他们更多的，而不是更少的自主权。我们去度假前，我通常额外多给孩子们20块钱左右存在他们账户上。我告诉他们，他们可以在我们出发前用这笔额外的钱买T恤衫、存起来，或者花掉，或随便他们派什么别的用场——但在度假期间，他们就不会从我这儿再拿到任何额外的零用钱了（根据惯例被认为是度假享受的共同消费除外，如糖果、冰淇淋、电影票等）。由于他们花费的任何一笔钱都是他们自己的而不是我的，他们出手时就很谨慎。两年前的一个夏天，在玛莎葡萄园的一家纪念品商店，我儿子一声不响地仔细察看那些不起眼的商品，他的一个朋友则吵着让父母花5美金买了一把玩具枪，可几乎还没等我们回到车上，枪就坏了。我儿子最后花了33

美分买了个未打开的空心晶球，后来他用榔头把它砸了开来——我看这钱花得值得。要是他花的是我的而不是他自己的钱，毫无疑问，他肯定也会要买一把玩具枪的。

8 \are instinctive capitalists. If given enough leeway, they quickly become shrewd managers of their own finances. When parents fail in their efforts at financial education, it's usually because for reasons of their own they have managed to make saving seem painful and dull. Money is fun, and it's almost entirely self-explanatory. (4) The only way to teach kids to adopt a long-term perspective is to give them a short-term incentive for doing so.

儿童是天生的资本家。只要给予足够的自由活动余地，他们很快就会成为精明的理财者。如果家长的理财教育失败，那往往是因为他们出于自身的原因把存钱弄得似乎既痛苦又无聊。金钱是有趣的，而且几乎完全是不讲自明的。教育孩子们看问题要有长远目光的惟一途径，是让孩子们近期内便能尝到某种甜头，从而激励他们去那样做。

Unit2

Does being rich mean you live a completely different life from ordinary people? Not, it seems, if your name is Sam Walton.

有钱是否意味着过一种完全不同于普通人的生活？看来未必，如果你的名字叫萨姆·沃尔顿。

THE RICHEST MAN IN AMERICA, DOWN HOME

Art Harris

1 He put on a dinner jacket to serve as a waiter at the birthday party of The Richest Man in America. He imagined what surely awaited: a mansion, a \for every day of the week,\dogs with diamond collars, servants everywhere. 美国乡巴佬首富 阿特·哈里斯

他穿上餐服准备到美国首富的生日聚会上去担任侍者。在他的想象里，他定然会看到：豪宅，主人天天要坐的罗尔斯—罗伊斯轿车，戴着钻石颈圈的家犬，到处可见的仆人。

2 Then he was off to the house, wheeling past the sleepy town square in Bentonville, a remote Arkansas town of 9,920, where Sam Walton started with a little dime store that grew into a $6 billion discount chain called Wal-Mart. He drove down a country road, turned at a mailbox marked \at a house in the woods.

他动身前往那所宅邸，开着车穿过本顿维尔镇冷冷清清的市政广场。本顿维尔镇是阿肯色州一个人口仅有9,920的偏远小镇，萨姆·沃尔顿就在该镇从一

个专卖廉价商品的小店起家，逐渐发展成为价值60亿美金资产的廉价连锁店沃尔玛公司。 侍者上了一条乡间车道，转过一个标着“萨姆和海伦·沃尔顿”的信箱，在一幢林间住宅前跳下了车。

3 It was nice, but no palace. The furniture appeared a little worn. An old pickup truck sat in the garage and a muddy bird dog ran about the yard. He never spotted any servants.

房子还不错，但绝对不是宫殿。家具略显陈旧，一辆旧的轻便货车停在车库里，一条土褐色的捕禽猎犬在院子里窜来窜去。根本没看见任何仆人的身影。

4 \ “太令人失望了，”侍者杰米·鲍尤叹道。

5 Only in America can a billionaire carry on like plain folks and get away with it. And the 67-year-old discount king Sam Moore Walton still travels these windy back roads in his 1979 Ford pickup, red and white, bird dogs by his side, and, come

shooting season, waits in line like everyone else to buy shells at the local Wal-Mart. 只有在美国，一个亿万富翁才能像普通百姓一样，安稳地过着普普通通的日子。67岁的廉价店大王萨姆·穆尔·沃尔顿仍然开着他那辆红白两色的1979年出厂的福特牌轻型货车穿行在弯弯曲曲的乡间小道上，身边坐着他的捕禽猎犬。当狩猎季节来临时，他跟别人一样在当地的沃尔玛商店排队购买猎枪子弹。

6 \doesn't want any special treatment,\says night manager Johnny Baker, who struggles to call the boss by his first name as a recent corporate memo commands. Few here think of his billions; they call him \and accept his folksy ways. \the same man who opened his dime store on the square and worked 18 hours a day for his dream,\ “他不要任何特殊待遇，” 夜班经理乔尼·贝克说，他费了好大的劲才如公司最近一份备忘录所规定的那样对自己的老板以名相称。这里几乎没人去想他的亿万身价，他们称他为萨姆先生，丝毫不以他的平民作风为怪。“他还是那个在市政广场开廉价店，为了自己的梦想每天工作18个小时的人，一点没变，”市长理查德·霍巴克说。

7 By all accounts, he's friendly, cheerful, a fine neighbor who does his best to blend in, never flashy, never throwing his weight around.

人人都说他为人友善，性情开朗，是个好邻居；他尽力与人们融洽相处，从不炫耀，也从不盛气凌人。

8 No matter how big a time he had on Saturday night, you can find him in church on Sunday. Surely in a reserved seat, right? \don't have reserved seats,\says Gordon Garlington III, pastor of the local church.

无论他星期六晚上的夜生活过得多晚，星期日你还是能在教堂见到他。当然是坐在他的包座上，对吗？“我们不设包座，”当地教堂牧师戈登·加林顿第三说。

9 So where does The Richest Man in America sit? Wherever he finds a seat. \. He doesn't have a set place. At a church supper the other night, he and his wife were in back washing dishes.\

那美国首富坐哪儿呢？哪儿有空位子就坐哪儿。“知道吗，他根本就不是那种人。他没有包座。前几天晚上教堂举行晚餐会，他和太太一起在后面洗盘子。”

10 For 19 years, he's used the same barber. John Mayhall finds him waiting when he opens up at 7 a.m. He chats about the national news, or reads in his chair, perhaps the Benton County Daily Democrat, another Walton property that keeps him off the front page. It buried the Forbes list at the bottom of page 2.

19年来，为他理发的总是同一个师傅。约翰·梅霍早上七点开门会见到他等在门外。他跟人闲聊国内新闻，或是坐在椅子里看报，没准是《本顿民主日报》，这是沃尔顿的又一宗产业。这份报纸从来不让有关他的消息出现在头版上。 它将《福布斯》的富人排行榜塞在第二版的报尾。

11 \ “他压根儿不是那种爱上头版新闻的人，”一位报社雇员解释说。

12 But one recent morning, The Richest Man in America did something that would have made headlines anywhere in the world: He forgot his money. \said, 'Forget it, take care of it next time, '\and he went home for his wallet.\

但最近有天早上，美国首富做了件在任何其他地方准会成为头条新闻的事：他忘了带钱。“我说，‘没事，下次一起付吧，’”理发师梅霍说，“可他说，‘不行，我得回去拿，’就回家去取钱包了。”

13 Wasn't that, well, a little strange? \sir,\says Mayhall, \only thing strange about Sam Walton is that he isn't strange.\

这一切，嗯，是不是有点怪？“一点也不，先生，”梅霍说，“萨姆·沃尔顿惟一不同寻常的就是，他平平常常。”

14 But just how long Walton can hold firm to his folksy habits with celebrity hunters keeping following him wherever he goes is anyone's guess. Ever since Forbes magazine pronounced him America's richest man, with $2.8 billion in Wal-Mart stock, he's been a rich man on the run, steering clear of reporters, dreamers, and schemers. 然而，沃尔顿所到之处名人追星族紧跟不舍，他的平民习惯能保持多久，就很难说了。自从《福布斯》杂志宣布他拥有价值28亿的沃尔玛股票成为美国首富以后，他就成了一个东躲西藏的富人，他得甩开记者、寻梦者，还有图谋不轨者。

15 \Von Gremp, \he doesn't know whether he is or not -- and he doesn't care. He doesn't spend much. He owns stock, but he's always left it in the company so it could

grow. But the real story in his mind is the success achieved by the 100,000 people who make up the Wal-Mart team.\

“他或许是《福布斯》排行榜的首富，”公司事务主管吉姆·冯·格雷姆普说，“但他并不知道自己是不是首富——而且他也不在乎。他不怎么花钱。他是拥有股票，但他一直把股票留在公司里好让公司发展。而他脑子里真正想着的是沃尔玛十万员工共同取得的成功。”

16 He's usually back home for Friday sales meetings, or the executive pep rally Saturday morning at 7 a.m., when Walton, as he does at new store openings, is liable to jump up on a chair and lead everyone in the Wal-Mart cheer: \me a W! Give me an A! Give me an L! Louder!\

他通常回来参加星期五的销售会议，或是星期六早晨7点的行政人员鼓劲会，届时沃尔顿会像分店新开张时那样，跳上椅子，带领大家呼喊沃尔玛公司口号：“给我一个W！给我一个A！给我一个L！大声点！”

17 And louder they yell. No one admits to feeling the least bit silly. It's all part of the Wal-Mart way of life as laid down by Sam: loyalty, hard work, long hours; get ideas into the system from the bottom up, Japanese-style; treat your people right; cut prices and margins to the bone and sleep well at night. Employees with one year on board qualify for stock options, and are urged to buy all they can.

于是大家越喊越响。没有谁说这样做有点傻。这都是萨姆定下来的沃尔玛生活方式的一部分：忠诚，勤勉，加班加点；从公司最底层起大家集思广益，日本管理方式；善待员工；尽可能降低价格、减少利润，一夜安睡到天亮。员工进公司一年就有资格获得优先认股权，并一再鼓励他们尽能力购买。

18 After the pep rally, there's bird hunting, or tennis on his backyard court. But his stores are always on his mind. One tennis guest managed to put him off his game by asking why a can of balls cost more in one Wal-Mart than another. It turned out to be untrue, but the move worked. Walton lost four straight games.

鼓劲会之后，大家一起去打野禽，或在他家后院打网球。但他的那些商店总搁在他的心上。一位来打网球的客人为了分散他打球的注意力，故意问了一句为什么一筒网球在一家沃尔玛商店卖得比别的一家沃尔玛商店贵。此话并非实情，但这一招却真管用。沃尔顿连输四局。

19 Walton set up a college scholarship fund for employees' children, a disaster relief fund to rebuild employee homes damaged by fires, floods, tornadoes, and the like. He believed in cultivating ideas and rewarding success.

沃尔顿为员工子女设立了大学奖学基金，为房屋遭受火灾、洪水、龙卷风等破坏的员工重建家园设立了灾难救助基金。他信奉广开思路、褒奖成功。

20 \say, 'That fellow worked hard, let's give him a little extra,'\recalls retired president Ferold F. Arend, who was stunned at such generosity after the stingy employer he left to join Wal-Mart. \my way of thinking when I came

aboard.\

“他会说，‘那人工作努力，奖励一下吧，’”退休的前任总裁费罗尔德·F·阿伦德回忆道。他原先供职的雇主非常吝啬，所以离开那里加入沃尔玛公司之后，他对这种慷慨行为深感震惊。“我加盟沃尔玛后，不得不改变自己的思维方式。”

21 \reason for our success,\says Walton, in a company handout, \our people and the way they're treated and the way they feel about their company. They believe things are different here, but they deserve the credit.\ “我们之所以成功，”沃尔顿在公司宣传册上写道，“是由于我们的员工，是由于他们所受到的待遇以及他们对公司的感情。他们认为这里与众不同，但是这种荣誉他们受之无愧。”

22 Adds company lawyer Jim Hendren: \never seen anyone yet who worked for him or was around him for any length of time who wasn't better off. And I don't mean just financially, although a lot of people are. It's just something about him -- coming into contact with Sam Walton just makes you a better person.\ 公司律师吉姆· 亨德伦补充说，“我从没见过有谁为他工作或和他接触一段时间后而不受益的。我不仅仅是指钱财方面，当然许多人是更富有了。我是说他的某种内在的东西——与萨姆·沃尔顿交往会使你成为一个更健全的人。”

Making the journey from log cabin to White House is part of the American Dream. But when Jimmy Carter was defeated in his attempt to gain a second term as President of the United States he found himself suddenly thrown out of the White House and back in his log cabin. This is how he coped.

从小木屋走向白宫是美国梦的一部分。可是，当吉米·卡特连任美国总统的努力失败后，他发现自己一下子被赶出白宫，回到了自己的小木屋。本文叙述了他是如何应对的。

The Restoration of Jimmy Carter

Sara Pacher

1 Maybe it's because I, too, was born and raised in a small south Georgia town, but I found sitting down to talk to Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter as comfortable as lazing in a porch swing on a summer afternoon, sipping iced tea. Just such a swing overlooks a roaring mountain stream at the Carters' log cabin retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Along with the cabin's other furniture, the swing was designed and built by the former president, a master woodworker who selects and cuts the trees for such projects from his 160-acre farm. He then strips off the bark and shapes the wood into furniture and other items. 吉米·卡特的复元

莎拉·帕夏尔

或许因为我本人也生长在佐治亚州的一个南方小镇的缘故，我觉得跟罗莎琳和吉米·卡特夫妇坐下交谈就如同在夏日午后荡在门廊的秋千椅上呷冰茶那么舒服。坐落于蓝岭山脉的卡特夫妇幽居的原木小屋前，恰好就有这样的秋千椅，往下看去是一条咆哮的山间溪流。和小屋里别的家具一样，这秋千椅是前总统卡特设计和制作的。卡特是一位手艺高明的木工，为了制作这些家具，他从其方圆160英亩的农庄上亲自遴选并砍伐树木，而后剥去树皮，将木料制成家具及其他用品。

2 \daddy was a good man with tools,\he recalls, \learning how to use them was as natural as breathing for us. If something broke, we had to fix it ourselves. You didn't call somebody in to repair something or replace it with something new. We had these skills -- all farmers did during the Depression years.\ “我父亲擅长使用工具，”他回忆道，“因此学习使用工具对我们来说就像呼吸一样自然。要是有什么东西坏了，我们就得自己修。我们不会请人来修理或换新的。我们有这种手艺 —— 大萧条时期，农民都有这一手。”

3 Over the years, Carter has made some 50 household items, about half of which he has given away as gifts. But some pieces still sit around the family's Plains house and have been in use for over 30 years. His wife is quick to point out, however, that his skills improved as time went on. \built a sofa for the back porch. He used nails then. Now he builds everything without nails. He's studied woodworking and worked at it, and he's made really beautiful furniture for our home -- including a pencil-post bed and tables by the side.\

多年来，卡特制作了约50件居家用品，差不多有一半已作为礼物馈赠他人。但有些制品仍留在普兰斯的家里，都用了30多年了。不过，他妻子赶紧指出，他的手艺在不断提高。“1953年我们刚从海军退役回家时，他做了只放在后门廊用的沙发。那时他还用钉子。现在他做什么都不用钉子了。他研究木工工艺，下功夫制作，他给家里做的家具真的非常漂亮，包括一张细柱床和配套的床头柜。”

4 His woodworking talent served Carter well during his political campaigns, particularly when meeting factory workers. \people who work in a factory before they realize that you, yourself, have been a laborer. It may be a different kind of skill from theirs, but there's a bond, sort of like a brotherhood, among people who work with their hands.\ 卡特的木工才干在政治竞选中，尤其是在与工厂工人见面时发挥了很好的作用。“你不用跟在工厂干活的人多说，他们就会明白，原来你本人也是个劳动者。你的手艺或许跟他们不一样，但在干体力活的人之间有种天然的纽带，好似手足之情。”

5 Once he campaigned his way to the presidency, Carter occasionally managed to slip in a few hours at the carpenter's shed at Camp David, because, in his opinion, \

with one's own hands -- whether it's tilling the soil, building a house, making a piece of furniture, playing a violin or painting a painting -- is something that doesn't change with the ups and downs of life. And for me, going back to the earth or going back to the woodshop have always been opportunities to reinforce my basic skills. (2)No matter if I was involved in writing a book, conducting a political campaign, teaching at Emory University or dealing with international affairs, I could always go back -- at least for a few hours at a time -- to the woodshop. That's meant an awful lot to me. It's

a kind of therapy, but it's also a steadying force in my life -- a total rest for my mind. 卡特一路竞选当上总统之后，偶尔也设法悄悄溜到戴维营的木工场干上几个小时，因为在他看来，“我们在生活中需要一些永远不变的要素。我认为手艺 —— 不管是耕地，造房子，做家具，拉小提琴，还是画图 —— 这些东西不会因生活的起起落落而改变。至于我，回到农场种地或重返木工场一直是我增进基本技能的机会。无论我在写书，从事政治活动，在爱莫瑞大学教书，还是处理国际事务，我总会设法抽空回到木工场，每次至少呆上几个小时。这对我十分重要。这是一种理疗，同时也是我生活中的一种稳定力量 —— 是身心的完全休息。”

6 \I'm writing or the paragraph I can't complete or the ideas that don't come. I'm thinking about the design of a piece of furniture, how the wood's going to fit together, what joint I'm going to use and whether or not my hand tools are sharp.\ “在木工场的时候，”他接着说，“我不会去想正在写的章节，不会去想写不下去的段落或搁浅的思路。我考虑的是一件家具的设计，木料该如何嵌合，用什么样的榫头，还有工具是否锋利。”

7 (3)In Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's recently published book, Everything to Gain, they explain frankly how they used back-to-basics skills to confront and resolve their painful political defeat, a sudden departure from Washington and their fears of an empty future.

在吉米和罗莎琳·卡特最近出版的书名为《好处说不尽》的书中，他们直言不讳地解释了当他们遭遇痛苦的政治上的失败，突然告别华盛顿以及对茫然的未来感到惧怕时，他们是如何使用返璞归真的技能来面对和化解这些问题的。

8 \\lives, not to the White House, but to Plains -- for a couple of reasons. One, to show the attraction of a small town, and, second, to make it clear that the book is not just about a couple who happened to have been the First Family of the nation; it's also written for the average person who loses a job, has an unexpected career change, has to move to a place not of his or her choice, has a last child leave home. Or for a married couple who suddenly find themselves at retirement age and living together for the first time all day long -- not just at night.\ “在书里，”吉米说，“出于几种原因，我们试图将我们的生活与普兰斯而不是跟白宫联系在一起。其一，是为了展示小镇的魅力；其二是要清楚地表明，这本书写的并不仅仅是一对有幸成为美国第一家庭的夫妇的生活，它也是写给普通人看的，例如一个失去工作的人，突然遇到职业变迁的人，并非出于自己的选

择而不得不迁居的人，一个连自己最小的孩子也长大成人离家而去的人，或者是写给一对突然发现已届退休年龄、第一次得从早到晚而不仅仅是夜里厮守在一起的夫妇看的。”

9 The Carters plunged with enthusiasm into such projects as laying a sidewalk and putting a hardwood floor in their unfinished loft. Rosalynn has picked up additional carpentry skills in working with one of their favorite organizations, Habitat for Humanity. This is a housing program for the homeless, helping them to build their own houses together with the help of volunteers. 卡特夫妇热情投入了诸如铺设人行道、在尚未完工的阁楼里铺硬木地板这类工程。在与两人最喜欢的一个机构“博爱居家”的共事过程中，罗莎琳学到了不少木工手艺。“博爱居家”是一项为无家可归的人创办的住房工程，帮助他们在志愿者的协助下建造自己的家园。

10 \we both spend a good bit of time on our farm,\adds Carter. \take care of the timberlands. Sometimes we go for long walks in the woods. I may see a particular tree that I think would be suitable for four or five -- perhaps, seven or eight -- chairs or for some other piece of furniture. I usually select a tree close to home, though, since I have to carry the pieces back to the woodshop area. “我俩都在农场上花了不少时间，”卡特说，“我们护理林地。有时我们在林子里长时间散步。我或许会看到某棵我觉得适合制作四五把——也许七把、八把——椅子或别的什么家具的树。不过，我通常挑选离家近的树，因为我得自己把木料搬回到木工场地。

11 \my favorite kinds of woodworking involves green wood, but there's a tremendous amount of hard labor involved in that. You have to try to handle the different rates at which the wood dries, so the joints get tight and durable. It's the kind of technical problem that appeals to me,\

“我最喜欢的一件木工活是用湿材制作家具，不过这活要费很大的劲。你得处理好木料干燥后引起的不同的收缩率，以保证榫头紧固不松。我喜欢的就是这样的技术难题，”这位前核工程师说。

12 Obviously, most of today's young people don't grow up routinely learning to use their hands \naturally as breathing,\he thinks they still have an advantage his parents' generation lacked.

很显然，今天大多数的年轻人在成长过程中，不像卡特当年那样，在日常生活中得学会“像呼吸一样自然”地使用自己的双手。但他认为，年轻人还是拥有他们父辈所没有的优势。

13 \or were physically incapable of working anymore. You began work at sunrise and worked until dark. But, nowadays, you work 40 hours a week, get a couple of weeks off for vacation and then retire at 55, 60 or 65. You have so much spare time to take on additional exciting things. Sometimes they can be quite useful things; sometimes

just enjoyable; sometimes devoted to serving others. In Everything to Gain we try to present a broad range of activities an average person can undertake. We try to point out that no matter what stage of life you may be in -- young, middle-aged or retired -- there's the possibility of a constantly expanding field of interest, excitement, challenge, fulfillment and adventure. (4)In this book we encourage people to take on new things that might look very difficult, but that become very rewarding once the person is involved.\do is to learn something new.\

“过去，你16岁或18岁就开始干活，一直干到死或者再也干不动为止。太阳一出来你就开始干活，一直干到天黑。可如今，你一星期只工作40小时，还有两个星期的休息度假，然后到了55岁，60岁，或65岁，你就退休了。你有那么多的空余时间去干别的有趣的事。这些事有时可能是相当有益的，有时仅仅是好玩，有时则旨在服务他人。在《好处说不尽》一书中，我们试图展示一个普通人所能参与的广阔的活动范围。我们试图指出，无论你处于人生的哪个阶段——青年，中年，或退休之年——都有可能不断拓展兴趣的领域，找到新的刺激，迎接新的挑战，获得新的成功和尝试新的冒险。在此书中，我们鼓励人们勇于开拓新天地，看起来也许非常困难，但你一旦投入进去，就会得益匪浅。” “如果你遭遇某种危机，”罗莎琳补充说，“最好的对策之一就是学习新事物。”

Unit3

This comedy centers around a proud father's attempts to help his children, attempts which somehow or other always end up embarrassing them. For the sake of fun it carries things to extremes, but nearly everyone can recognize something of themselves and their parents in it.

这出喜剧主要写一位为儿女感到自豪的父亲虽做出种种努力帮助子女，不知怎的，其结果却总是令子女尴尬不已。出于搞笑的目的，故事情节作了极度夸张，但几乎人人都能从中看到自己以及父母的影子。

Father Knows Better

Marsh Cassady

1

CHARACTERS: FATHER; MOTHER; HEIDI, 14; DIANE, 17; SEAN, 16; RESTAURANT MANAGER, 20s; MRS. HIGGINS.

SETTING: Various locations including a fast-food restaurant, the Thompson family dining room, and an office at a high school.

AT RISE: As the lights come up, HEIDI enters and crosses Down Right to the edge of the stage. SEAN and DIANE enter and cross Down Left to the edge of the stage. They listen as HEIDI addresses the audience. 老爸英明

马什·卡萨迪

人物： 父亲；母亲；海蒂，14岁；黛安，17岁；肖恩，16岁；饭店经理，20多岁；希金斯太太

场景： 快餐店，汤普森家餐厅，一所中学的办公室等

幕启： 随着灯光亮起，海蒂上，走至舞台右前方。肖恩与黛安上，走至舞台左前方。海蒂对观众说话，两人倾听。 2

HEIDI: My dad's a nice man. Nobody could possibly believe that he isn't. Yet he's...well, he's always doing these stupid things that end up really embarrassing one or more of us kids. One time, see, my brother wanted to buy this guitar. Been saving money for it for a long time. Then he got a job at this fast-food place, OK? Waiting tables. It was Sean's first actual job, and he was real happy about it. He figured in two or three months he'd have enough money to buy exactly the kind of guitar he wanted. Mom and Dad were proud of him, and well, OK, he's my big brother, and he's always pulling these dumb things on me. But, well, I was proud of him too. You know what happened? I hate to tell you because:

SEAN, DIANE and HEIDI: (In unison) Father knows better!

海蒂： 我老爸是个大好人。没人会相信他不好。可是他??唉，他老是干那些蠢事，弄得我们当儿女的到头来无地自容。瞧，我哥曾一度想买把吉他。他都积攒了好一阵子钱了。后来他在这家快餐店找了份活，不错吧？当服务员。这是肖恩第一次正经打工，他真的挺开心。他算计着，再过两三个月，他就能攒够钱买他想要的那把吉他了。老爸老妈都为他感到骄傲。唔，是啊，他是大哥，老是要捉弄我。不过嘛，我也同样为他感到骄傲。你猜后来怎么了？我都不想说这事，因为：

肖恩、黛安、海蒂：（齐声）老爸英明！ 3

(The lights come Up Left on the fast-food restaurant where SEAN works. It consists of a counter and couple of small tables. The MANAGER stands behind the counter. SEAN is busily cleaning the tables when FATHER walks in. ) MANAGER: Good evening, sir. May I help you? FATHER: Good evening.

SEAN: (To himself) Oh, no! (He squats behind one of the tables trying to hide from FATHER. )

FATHER: I'm looking for the manager. MANAGER: That would be me, sir.

FATHER: I'm Sam Thompson. My son works here. MANAGER: Oh, you're Sean's father.

FATHER: Yes. It's his first job, you know. I just wanted to check that he's doing OK. MANAGER: Oh, fine. No problem.

（左后方灯光亮起，肖恩打工的快餐店。有柜台和几张小桌子。经理站在柜台后面。父亲进店时，肖恩正忙着擦桌子。）

经理： 晚上好，先生，能为您效劳吗？ 父亲： 晚上好。 肖恩： （自言自语）噢，不！（他在一张桌子后蹲下，欲躲过父亲的视线。） 父亲：我找经理。

经理： 我就是，先生。

父亲： 我是萨姆·汤普森。我儿子在这儿打工。 经理： 哦，您是肖恩的父亲。

父亲： 是啊。知道嘛，这是他第一次打工。我只想看看他干得怎么样。 经理： 噢，不错。没问题。 4

SEAN: (Spreading his hands, palms up, speaking to himself) What did I do to deserve this? Tell me what?

FATHER: Hiring him was a good thing then? MANAGER: Well, yeah, I suppose so.

SEAN: (Still to himself) Go home, Dad. Go home. Go home.

FATHER: I'm sure he's a good worker but a typical teenager, if you know what I mean.

MANAGER: (Losing interest) I wouldn't know.

FATHER: He's a good boy. And I assure you that if there are any subjects that need to be addressed, Sean and I will have a man-to-man talk. MANAGER: I don't think that will be necessary...

FATHER: Oh, no problem. I'm proud of my son. Very, very proud. And I just wanted you to know that I'll do anything I can to help him through life's dangerous sea.

肖恩： （双手摊开，掌心向上，自言自语）我干了什么了要受这份罪？倒是告诉我啊？

父亲： 那么雇用他没错啦？ 经理： 呃，对，我想是的。

肖恩： （仍然自言自语）回家去，老爸。回家去。回家去。

父亲： 我肯定他是一把干活的好手，可他也跟其他孩子一个样，明白我的意思吗？

经理： （不再有兴趣）我怎么知道。

父亲： 他是个好孩子。你放心，要是有什么问题需要解决的话，我和肖恩会开诚布公谈一谈的。

经理： 我看没必要吧??

父亲： 噢，没事儿。我为我儿子感到骄傲，我为他深感骄傲。我只是想让你知道，我将竭尽全力帮助他驶过人生的惊涛骇浪。 5

SEAN: (Standing up and screaming) Aaaargh! Aaaargh! Aaaaaaargh! FATHER: Son, I didn't know you were here. SEAN: It's where I work, Dad.

FATHER: Of course. I mean, I didn't see you. SEAN: I can't imagine why.

FATHER: Your manager and I were just having a nice chat.

(DIANE enters Down Left just as HEIDI enters Down Right. They look at SEAN and FATHER. )

SEAN, DIANE, HEIDI: (In unison) Father, you know better than that. 肖恩： （站起身，高声喊叫）唉！唉！唉！ 父亲： 儿子，不知道你在这儿。 肖恩： 这是我打工的地方嘛，爸！

父亲： 那自然。我是说，刚才没看见你。 肖恩： 我真弄不明白。

父亲： 经理和我正聊得起劲呢。

（黛安从左前方上，海蒂自右前方上。两人看着肖恩和父亲。） 肖恩、黛安、海蒂：（齐声）老爸，你这是干什么呀。 6

(The lights quickly fade to black and then come up a second or two later. SEAN stands alone at the Down Right edge of the stage. HEIDI and DIANE cross to Down Left edge of the stage. )

SEAN: If that sort of thing happened only once in a while, it wouldn't be so bad. Overall, I wouldn't want to trade my dad for anyone else's. He loves us kids and Mom too. But I think that's sometimes the problem. He wants to do things for us, things he thinks are good. But he needs to give them more thought because: SEAN, HEIDI and DIANE: (In unison) Father knows better!

（灯光迅速暗下，片刻之后又亮起。肖恩独自站在舞台右前边。海蒂、黛安走至舞台左前边。）

肖恩： 这类事要是偶尔发生一两次，那倒也没什么。总的来说，我是不肯把自己老爸跟别人的老爸换的。他爱我们当子女的，也爱老妈。不过我想，有时问题就出在这儿。他一心想帮助我们，他自以为在为我们做好事呢。可他应该多想想才对，因为：

肖恩、海蒂、黛安：（齐声）老爸英明！ 7

(The lights fade to black and come up on the Center Stage area where FATHER and the three children are seated around the dining room table. MOTHER enters carrying a dish, which she sets on the table. FATHER quickly rises and pulls out her chair. She sits. The family starts eating dinner. )

FATHER: I have a surprise for you, Diane.

DIANE: (Knows it can't be good. ) You have... a surprise?

MOTHER: Well, whatever it is, dear, don't keep us in suspense. FATHER: Well, you know, Dan Lucas and I work together? DIANE: Kyle's father?

MOTHER: Don't interrupt, dear, your father is trying to tell you something. HEIDI: (Stage whisper to SEAN) Something Diane won't want to know, I'll bet. SEAN: (Whispering to HEIDI) Whatever would make you think that? MOTHER: Sean, dear. Heidi, sweetheart, don't distract your father. SEAN and HEIDI: (Simultaneously) Sorry, Mom.

（灯光暗下，旋即又在舞台中央亮起。父亲与三个孩子围坐在餐桌旁。母亲端菜上，把菜放在桌上。父亲迅速起身为她拉出椅子。母亲坐下。全家开始用餐。）

父亲： 我要给你一个惊喜，黛安。

黛安： （知道不会有好事）你要给我??一个惊喜？ 母亲： 哎，是什么事啊，亲爱的，别卖关子了。 父亲： 呃，你们知道，丹·卢卡斯和我是同事。 黛安： 凯尔的父亲？

母亲： 别插嘴，亲爱的，你父亲正有事要跟你们说呢。 海蒂： （与肖恩耳语）我敢肯定准是黛安不要听的事儿。 肖恩： （与海蒂耳语）你怎么会知道？

母亲： 肖恩，亲爱的。海蒂，宝贝儿，别打扰你们的父亲。 肖恩、海蒂：（同时地）对不起，妈妈。 8

FATHER: Now then. As I was saying, I know how much you like young Kyle. DIANE: Father!

FATHER: It's true, isn't it? Didn't I hear you tell your mother that you wish Kyle would ask you to the senior prom? SEAN: Uh-oh! HEIDI: Oops!

MOTHER: Please, children, please. Your father is trying to speak.

DIANE: (Through clenched teeth, the words are in a monotone and evenly spaced. ) Yes-I-said-that-why-are-you-asking? FATHER: Well then.

DIANE: (Becoming hysterical)\ FATHER: What did I say? Did I say something wrong? HEIDI: (To SEAN) Not yet, he didn't.

SEAN: (To HEIDI) But you know it's coming.

MOTHER: Children, please. Do give your father the respect he deserves. HEIDI and SEAN: (Rolling their eyes) Yes, Mother.

父亲： 好吧。我说了，我知道你挺喜欢小凯尔。 黛安： 爸爸！

父亲： 是这么回事，对吗？我不是听你跟你妈说，你希望凯尔邀请你在高年级舞会上跳舞吗？ 肖恩： 喔！ 海蒂： 哎哟！

母亲： 静一下，孩子们，静一下。你们父亲在说话呢。

黛安： （咬紧牙，一字一顿地）对－我－是－说－过－你－问－这－干－嘛？

父亲： 那就算了。

黛安： （歇斯底里地）什么算了？

父亲： 我说什么啦？我说错什么了吗？

海蒂： （对肖恩）这会儿还没有，还没说错什么。

肖恩： （对海蒂）等着吧，这就来了。

母亲： 静一下，孩子们。对父亲应该尊敬一点。 海蒂、肖恩：（一边转着眼珠）是，妈妈。 9

FATHER: Well, today I saw Dan and asked if he'd like to go to lunch at that French restaurant on Third Street. You know the one, Mother. MOTHER: Well, yes, I believe I do.

FATHER: My treat, I told him. And, of course, he was glad to accept. MOTHER: Why wouldn't he be?

FATHER: (Somewhat surprised) Well, yes. DIANE: What-has-this-to-do-with me?!

MOTHER: Diane, sometimes I just don't understand your behavior. I try my best. DIANE: (Very short with her) I'm sorry.

MOTHER: Thank you, Diane. (To FATHER) Please do go on, dear. FATHER: As I said --

HEIDI: We know what you said, Daddy. FATHER: Er...uh, what's that?

SEAN: She said,\.\ FATHER: Yes, yes, of course.

MOTHER: Do get on with it, dear. I've made the most glorious dessert. An old recipe handed down to me by my great Aunt Hilda -- DIANE: Mother, please! MOTHER: Yes, dear?

父亲： 嗯，今天我见到丹时，问他想不想去第三街上的那家法国餐馆吃午饭。孩子他妈，你是知道那家餐馆的。 母亲： 对，是啊，我知道。

父亲： 我请客，我对他说。当然，他挺乐意去了。 母亲： 他哪能不乐意呢？

父亲： （略为惊讶地）对，是啊。

黛安： 这－跟－我－有－什－么－关－系－呢？

母亲： 黛安，你的行为有时我真弄不懂。无论怎样我就是弄不懂。 黛安： （没好气地）那就抱歉了。 母亲： 多谢了，黛安。（对父亲）请说下去，亲爱的。 父亲： 我说过??

海蒂： 我们知道你说过什么，爸爸。 父亲： 嗯??哦，你说什么？ 肖恩：她说，“我们知道你说过什么，爸爸。” 父亲： 是啊，是啊，当然。

母亲： 快说吧，亲爱的。我做了特别好吃的甜点。是我姨祖母希尔达传下来的老配方??

黛安： 妈妈，好了！ 母亲： 怎么啦，宝贝？

10

(DIANE shakes her head and lets her body fall against the back of the chair. )

FATHER: At any rate, Dan's a nice guy. Never knew him well. Found we have a lot of the same interests. Our families, our community, global peace, human welfare. HEIDI: (Mumbling to herself) That narrows it down, all right. SEAN: Father? FATHER: Yes, son?

SEAN: I do believe Diane would like to know the surprise.

DIANE: (Breathing hard as if exhausted, she turns to SEAN, nodding her head up and down repeatedly.) Thank you, Sean. I owe you one. （黛安摇着头，身体仰靠在椅背上。）

父亲： 不管怎么说，丹人不错。过去我跟他不熟。发现我俩还有不少志趣相同之处。家庭，社区，世界和平，人类幸福。 海蒂： （咕哝着自言自语）就要说到正题了。 肖恩： 爸爸？

父亲： 嗳？儿子？

肖恩： 我肯定黛安很想知道是什么惊喜。

黛安： （粗粗地喘气，好像精疲力竭的样子，她转向肖恩，连连点头）多谢了，肖恩。我记着你的情。 11

FATHER: Well, yes. Here it is then. I told Dan of your interest in his son. DIANE: You what?

MOTHER: Diane, what has come over you? I just don't understand the younger generation. Why back in my day -- DIANE: Mother, please!

MOTHER: What, what? What?

HEIDI: Mother, I believe she wants Father to continue. SEAN: (To himself) Get this over with, more likely.

DIANE: Daddy, please, tell me. Now. Right away. What did you say, Daddy? Please. Tell me, what did you tell Mr. Lucas? Tell me, please. Please tell me.

FATHER: Well, now, isn't this nice. It looks like my little scheme is a success. You're so eager to find out... makes a man feel as if it's all worthwhile.

父亲： 啊，对。我就说吧。我告诉丹，你对他儿子很感兴趣。 黛安： 你说什么？ 母亲： 黛安，你怎么啦？我真不明白你们年轻人。唉，在我那个时候?? 黛安： 妈，好啦！

母亲： 怎么啦，怎么啦？又怎么啦？ 海蒂： 妈妈，我知道她想听爸爸说完。

肖恩： （自言自语）还不如说是快把这份罪受完算了。

黛安： 爸爸，请你告诉我。现在，马上告诉我。你说什么啦，爸爸？求你了，快说，你跟卢卡斯先生说什么啦？请快告诉我。请快说。

父亲： 嗨，瞧，太妙了。看来我的小计策成功了。如今你急着想知道??这可让人觉得我做的这一切还真值。

12

HEIDI: (To SEAN) Can you believe this? SEAN: (To HEIDI) Oh, sure. Can't you?

FATHER: Yes, well, I told him how much you liked young Kyle, and how you'd been wishing he'd ask you to the prom.

DIANE: You didn't! Tell me you didn't!

FATHER: Oh, yes. Anything for my children. DIANE: (Swallowing hard) And...and -- MOTHER: Diane, are you all right?

DIANE: (She juts out her chin at MOTHER and quickly jerks her head around to face FATHER. ) Well...what did he say?!

FATHER: Well, of course, being the sort of man he is -- frank, understanding, he said he'd speak to the young man, insist he give you a call. DIANE: (Angry scream! ) Whaaaaaat!

SEAN and HEIDI: (Together) Father, you know better than that. FATHER: I do? Yes, yes, I guess I do. I've...done it again, haven't I? 海蒂： （对肖恩）你能相信吗？

肖恩： （对海蒂）啊，当然。你还不信？

父亲： 嗯，对了，我告诉他你是多么喜欢小凯尔，一心希望他邀你在班级舞会上跳舞。

黛安： 你没这么说过！告诉我你没这么说过！ 父亲： 说了，当然说了。只要为了我孩子好嘛。 黛安： （尽力忍住）那??那?? 母亲： 黛安，你没事吧？

黛安： （冲着母亲撅起下巴，很快扭头面对父亲）那??他怎么说？！ 父亲： 嗯，当然啦，以他的为人——坦率，善解人意，他说他会去跟小伙子说的，一定让他给你打电话。

黛安： （愤怒地高喊）什——么！ 肖恩、海蒂：（齐声）老爸，你这是干什么呀。

父亲： 是吗？对，对，我想是。我又??弄糟了，是吗？ 13

(The lights quickly fade to black and then come up a second or two later. DIANE stands alone at the Down Right edge of the stage. HEIDI and SEAN enter Down Left and cross to the edge of the stage. )

DIANE: Can you imagine how humiliated I was? An honor student, class president. And Father was out asking people to have their sons call and ask me to the prom! But that's dear old dad. Actually, he is a dear. He just doesn't stop to think. And it's not just one of us who've felt the heavy hand of interference. Oh, no, all three of us live in constant dread knowing that at any time disaster can strike because: DIANE, HEIDI and SEAN: (Shouting in unison) Father knows better.

（灯光迅速暗下，旋即重新亮起。黛安独自站在舞台右前边沿。海蒂、肖恩自左前方上，走至舞台边。）

黛安： 你们能想象我觉得自己有多么丢人现眼吗？堂堂的优秀生，班主席。父亲竟然去求别人叫他们的儿子打电话来邀我跳舞！可这就是我那可爱的老爸。他其实挺可爱的。他就是不好好想一想。不止我一个人深受他横加干预之苦。哦,绝非我一个人，我们兄妹三个整天提心吊胆，知道倒霉的事随时可能来临，因为：

黛安、海蒂、肖恩：（齐声）老爸英明！ 14

(The lights fade to black and quickly come up again Stage Left where there is an executive-type desk and chair and two other chairs. Behind the desk sits MRS. HIGGINS, in charge of admitting new students to Benjamin Harrison High School. HEIDI and FATHER sit in the other chairs. ) MRS.HIGGINS: So this is our new student, is it? FATHER: That's right.

MRS.HIGGINS: What's your name, young lady? HEIDI: HEIDI Thompson.

MRS.HIGGINS: I'm sure you'll find the students friendly. And the teachers more than willing to answer questions.

FATHER: She is an exceptional young woman, you know. HEIDI: Daddy!

（灯光暗下，旋即在舞台左侧重新亮起。舞台左侧摆放着一套办公桌椅和另两张椅子。希金斯太太坐在办公桌旁办理本杰明·哈里森中学新生入学手续。海蒂和父亲坐在另外两张椅子上。）

希金斯太太：你是我们新来的学生，是吗？ 父亲： 是的。

希金斯太太：你叫什么名字，小姐？ 海蒂： 海蒂·汤普森。

希金斯太太：我相信你一定会发现这里的同学们都挺友好。这里的老师也都乐意回答问题。

父亲： 您知道，她是个出类拔萃的姑娘。 海蒂： 爸爸！ 15

FATHER: Very, very bright.

MRS.HIGGINS: Yes, now if we can get you to fill out --

FATHER: Don't know where she got her brains. Her mother, I suppose. Oh, I was bright enough. But nothing like HEIDI. All her teachers have told Mrs. Thompson -- that's her mother -- and me that she was just about the brightest --

MRS.HIGGINS: (Interrupts as she loses her patience, though trying to be pleasant) As I said, if you have proof of vaccinations --

FATHER: (Interrupts, carrying on with his line of thought) Besides being bright, she's very, very talented.

HEIDI: (Twists her hands over and over in front of her chest. ) Please, Daddy, don't do this.

FATHER: Well, of course I will, darling. I'm proud of you. Your mother and I are proud of you.

(Turns back to MRS. HIGGINS. ) Why just last year, in her last year of junior high school, before we moved, Heidi placed first in the county in the annual spelling bee! Isn't that wonderful? And she plays the piano like an angel. An absolute angel. 父亲： 非常非常聪明！

希金斯太太：一定是的，现在你是不是能填一下??

父亲： 不知道她怎么会这么聪明。我想是她母亲的遗传。哦，我也不笨。可没法跟海蒂比。教过她的老师都对汤普森太太，就是她妈，还有我说，她差不多是最聪明的一个?? 希金斯太太：（不耐烦地打断，但口气仍尽量和缓）我刚才说了，如果你有疫苗接种证明??

父亲： （打断希金斯太太，沿着自己的思路讲下去）她不仅聪明，而且才华出众。

海蒂： （双手置于胸前，搓拧着）行了，爸爸，别说了。

父亲： 啊，宝贝儿，我当然要说。我为你感到骄傲。我和你妈都为你感到骄傲。（转回身面向希金斯太太）嗳，就在去年，她初中最后一年，我们还没搬家的时候，海蒂在县里每年一度的拼单词比赛中得了第一名！了不起吧？而且她钢琴也弹得美妙之极。简直就是仙乐。 16

HEIDI: Daddy, please. Please, please. Daddy, I have to go to class. I want to go to class. Please let me go to class.

FATHER: See what I mean? Such an eager learner. I can't imagine anyone's being more eager for knowledge than my Heidi. My little girl. MRS.HIGGINS: Yes, well, be that as it may -- HEIDI: Aaargh! Aaaaargh! Aaaargh!

(DIANE and SEAN enter Down Right. They look at HEIDI, FATHER, and MRS. HIGGINS. )

HEIDI, DIANE and SEAN: (Shouting in unison) Daddy, you know better than that! FATHER: Er, uh, I do? (Curtain)

海蒂： 爸爸，行了。求求你了，求求你了。爸爸，我得上课去了。我要去上课。请让我去上课吧。

父亲： 瞧见了没有？一个多么好学的学生。我想不出还有谁比我家海蒂更好学了。我的好姑娘。

希金斯太太：是的，嗯，不过?? 海蒂: 唉！唉！唉！

（黛安、肖恩从右前方上。两人望着海蒂、父亲和希金斯太太。） 海蒂、黛安、肖恩：（齐声喊）老爸，你这是干什么呀。 父亲： 呃，嗯，是吗？ （幕落）

Unlike the father in the play which began this unit, here we have a father who is far better at seeing things from his son's point of view. As Merton shows, however, this

does not always come easy.

与本单元开始的那场戏里的那位父亲不同，这里我们读到的是一位颇能设身处地为儿子着想的父亲。然而，正如默顿所描述的那样，要做到这点往往并非易事。

WHEN FATHER DOESN'T KNOW BEST

Andrew Merton

1 On November 25, 1983, the prizefighter Marvis Frazier, 23 and inexperienced, was knocked out by the heavyweight champion of the world, Larry Holmes, after 2 minutes and 57 seconds of the first round. Holmes pretended to come in with a left punch and Frazier went for it, leaving himself open for a right. Frazier managed to stay on his feet while Holmes rained down 19 blows in a row. Finally, with three seconds left in the round, the referee stopped the fight. At that moment, Marvis Frazier's father and manager, the former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, embraced his son and repeated over and over: \ 父亲未必英明 安德鲁·默顿

1983年11月25日，年仅23岁、缺乏临场经验的职业拳击手马维斯·弗雷泽在第一回合比赛打到2分57秒时被重量级世界冠军拉里·霍姆斯击倒。霍姆斯出左拳佯攻，弗雷泽防卫时右侧暴露。霍姆斯重拳出击，雨点般地连打19拳，弗雷泽挺着没有倒下。最后，在第一回合只剩三秒钟时，裁判叫停。当时，马维斯·弗雷泽的父亲兼经纪人、前重量级冠军乔·弗雷泽搂抱着儿子一遍遍地说：“没事儿。没事儿。我爱你。”

2 Later, responding to criticism that he had overestimated his son's abilities, Joe Frazier said, \knew what I was doing.\(1)In the face of clear evidence to the contrary, Joe Frazier was unable to give up the notion that Marvis would succeed him as champion, that he would continue to hold the crown through his son. 后来，有人批评他对儿子的实力估计过高，乔·弗雷泽回答说：“我知道自己在做什么。” 尽管事实清楚表明并非如此，但乔·弗雷泽还是坚信马维斯能继承他的衣钵成为冠军，他的荣耀能通过儿子继续下去。

3 (2)It is a disturbing business, this drive for immortality, usually much more subtle than thrusting one's son naked into the ring. Often it is simply a matter of expecting the boy to repeat one's own boyhood, step for step.

这种通常比硬把儿子推上拳坛要微妙得多的对不朽的追求是一件让人苦恼的事。这常常不过是在期待孩子亦步亦趋地重复自己的童年。

4 In July 1983, my son Gabriel was 4 and extremely conscious of it. In fact, he defined and justified much of his behavior by his age:\own clothes.\4-year-old, I thought, was ready for a major-league baseball game. So on Saturday,

July 16, I drove him to Boston to see the Red Sox play the Oakland A's.

1983年7月，我儿子加布里埃尔4岁，并且已经有了强烈的年龄意识。事实上，他的许多行为是以年龄来界定的：“4岁的孩子会自己穿衣服。”或是：“我能比迈克跑得快。因为我4岁了，他才3岁。” 当时我想，一个4岁的孩子可以去看全美职业棒球赛了。于是，7月16日星期六，我开车带他去波士顿看红袜队与奥克兰A队的比赛。

5 It was a clear, hot day -- very hot, in fact, setting a record for Boston on that date at 97 degrees -- but, rare for Boston, it was dry. I had packed a bag with fruit and vegetables. Gabe slept through the entire 90-minute drive to Boston, a good sign, he'd be fresh for the game. Another good sign: I found a free, legal parking space. And as we entered the ball park, Gabe seemed excited. Gravely he accepted my advice to go

to the bathroom now, so we would not have to move from our seat during the action. 那是个晴朗、炎热的日子——事实上那一天非常炎热，气温达到97度，创下了波士顿当天的最高纪录——但没有下雨，这在波士顿是极为罕见的。我装了一大袋果蔬。加布在前往波士顿的90分钟的车程里一直在睡觉，这是个好征兆，看球时他就会有精神了。还有一个好征兆：我找到一个合法的免费泊车位。我俩进场时，加布显得兴致勃勃。他郑重其事地接受了我的建议先去厕所方便，这样在球赛当中我们就不必离开座位了。

6 As we walked through the tunnel beneath the stadium, I remembered my own first game, in Yankee Stadium in 1952. As my father and I emerged into the sun, I was overwhelmed by the vast, green outfield. A pitcher named Vic Raschi fired strike after strike, A Yankee named Joe Collins hit a home run and the Yankees won, 3-2. The opponent had been the old Philadelphia Athletics, direct ancestors of the Oakland team. I felt joy and anticipation as Gabe and I now emerged into the sun for his first look at the field. Gabe said nothing, but he must have felt the excitement.

当我们穿过体育场下的通道时，我想起了1952年在扬基体育场自己第一次看球赛的情景。当我和父亲走进阳光下的体育场时，那绿茵茵的巨大外场令我惊喜万分。一位名叫维克·拉希的投球手投出了一个又一个好球，扬基队球员乔·柯林斯击出一个本垒打，最后扬基队以3 ：2获胜。对手是历史悠久的费城竞技队，就是奥克兰队的前身。此刻，当我和加布走到阳光下，他第一次见到赛场时，我心中不由充满了喜悦与期待。加布没说话，但他一定也感受到了那份激动。

7 We found our seats, on the right-field side of the park. Good seats, from which we could see every part of the playing field. We were about a half-hour early, and we settled down to watch the end of batting practice. Gabe said he was hungry. I gave him a carrot stick, which he chewed happily. When he finished that, he asked what else I had in the bag. I gave him some grapes, then an apple. Within 15 minutes he had polished off most of the contents of the bag. And then he said:\think I've had enough baseball. I want to go home now.\

我俩找到了座位，在右外场侧面。位置不错，我们能看清场上的每一个部位。我俩提前了半小时入场，坐了下来看差不多就要结束的击球练习。加布说他

饿了。我给了他一根胡萝卜条，他开心地啃着。吃完了胡萝卜，他问我袋子里还有什么好吃的。我给了他一些葡萄，接着是一个苹果。在15分钟之内，他把袋子里的大多数食品都一扫而光。随后他说：“我想棒球已经看够了。现在我想回家。”

8 \ “可比赛还没开始呢，”我说，“你一点比赛还没看到呢。”

9 \es, I have. And I want to go home.\

“看到了，我已经看到了。我想回家了。”

10 \ “那只是击球练习。你不想看正式比赛吗？”

11 \

“不想看。”

12 I considered staying anyway. It was my day with my son that was being ruined here, wasn't it?

我想怎么着都得呆下去。难道我和儿子的这一天就这么毁了不成？

13 (3)But I knew better. I knew now that if I insisted on staying, it would be his day that would be ruined so Dad could watch a ball game. In a rotten mood, I carried him out of the park on my shoulders just as the Red Sox took the field. 但我还是比较明智，放弃了呆下去的念头，我很明白如果我坚持呆着不走，那他的一天就会因为爸爸想看球赛而过得十分扫兴。 我情绪糟透了，让他骑在我的肩上，就在红袜队上场击球时走出了体育场。

14 \ “爸爸，我想吃冰淇淋，行吗？”

15 Without much grace, I bought him an ice-cream. Then we got in the car, and I drove away from my precious parking space, still in a bad temper. He was well aware that I was upset; I could see the troubled look on his face, a combination of fear and pain. I hated that look. But I could not shake my mood. I was not looking forward to the drive back to New Hampshire.

我不很情愿地给他买了个冰淇淋。我俩上了车，我开车退出那个宝贵的车位，仍然没有好气。他也很明白我不高兴；我能看到他脸上不安的神情，恐惧中夹杂着痛苦。我讨厌那副神情。可我没法摆脱自己恶劣的心境。我一点都不想开车回新罕布什尔去。

16 Then on Storrow Drive, I spotted the Boston Museum of Science, just across the Charles River. Gabe had been there before, and he had loved it, although he still

referred to it, quite seriously, as the \of Silence.\Still angry, I managed to say,\

随后，在斯托罗街上， 我瞥见波士顿科学博物馆，就在查尔斯河对岸。加布以前去过，而且很喜欢那个地方，不过一直到现在他还郑重其事地把它叫做“静默博物馆”。我压着一肚子火，勉强问了一句：“加布，你想不想去博物馆？”

17 \eah,\ “想，”他说。

18 We had the museum nearly to ourselves. As we walked through the wonderfully cool exhibition halls, I acknowledged to myself how much I wanted Gabe to be like me. (4)He was supposed to like the baseball game, not for his sake, but for mine, and I had gotten angry at him when he didn't measure up to my expectations. It was those expectations, and not Gabe's actions, that were out of line. And it was those expectations that had to change.

博物馆里几乎就我们俩。当我俩穿过一个个凉爽舒适的展厅时，我心里不得不承认，自己是多么希望加布能像我一样。他应该为了我，而不是为了他自己喜欢这场棒球赛，当他辜负了我的期望的时候，我便对他生气了。不是加布的行为不当，而是这种期待不近情理。因此，必须改变的是这种期待。

19 I also thought about the competition between us: what had happened at the ball park was, after all, a battle of wills. He had won. He had stood up for what he thought was right.

我还反思了我俩刚才的对峙：球场上所发生的一切，归根到底，是两种意志的对峙。他赢了。他坚持了自己认为是正确的做法。

20 We spent three quick hours at the museum, viewing the life-sized tyrannosaurus rex from different angles, trying out the space capsule, making waves and viewing exhibits on everything imaginable. And I was excited.

我俩在博物馆里浏览，三个小时转眼就过去了，我们从不同的角度观看与实物一样大小的霸王龙，尝试宇航舱，造波浪，观看各种各样想象得出的展品。我也感到兴致勃勃。

21 Son and father, together, had saved the day -- he by holding out for something he enjoyed and I by having the sense, finally, to realize that he was right, and to let go of my dream of how things should be. 儿子和父亲，两个人共同挽救了这一天——他坚持不放弃自己所喜欢的事物，而我，总算明智，最终认识到他是对的，并放弃了自己不切实际的幻想。

22 This time, anyway. 至少这一次是这样的。

23 And then I remembered something else. When my own father took me to

Yankee Stadium, I was 6 years old, not 4.

后来我还想起了另一件事。我父亲带我去扬基体育场看棒球的时候，我是6岁，不是4岁。

24 Maybe in a couple of years... 也许再过一两年??

Unit4

Maia Szalavitz, formerly a television producer, now spends her time as a writer. In this essay she explores digital reality and its consequences. Along the way, she compares the digital world to the \world, acknowledging the attractions of the electronic dimension.

迈亚·塞拉维茨曾是电视制片人，目前从事写作。她在本文中探索了数字化世界及其后果。与此同时，她将数字化世界与真实世界做了比较，承认电子空间自有其魅力。

A Virtual Life

Maia Szalavitz

1 After too long on the Net, even a phone call can be a shock. My boyfriend's Liverpool accent suddenly becomes impossible to interpret after his easily understood words on screen; a secretary's clipped tone seems more rejecting than I'd imagined it would be. Time itself becomes fluid -- hours become minutes, or seconds stretch into days. Weekends, once a highlight of my week, are now just two ordinary days. 虚拟世界的生活 迈亚·塞拉维茨

在网上呆了太久，听到电话铃声也会吓一大跳。显示屏上看多了我男朋友那些一目了然的文字，他的利物浦口音一下子变得难以听懂；而秘书的清脆快速的语调听上去比我想象的要生硬。时间本身变得捉摸不定——几小时变成几分钟，或几秒钟延伸为几天。周末原本是我一周的黄金时段，现在却不过是平平常常的两天。

2 For the last three years, since I stopped working as a television producer, I have done much of my work as a telecommuter. I submit articles and edit them via email and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists. My boyfriend lives in England, so much of our relationship is also computer-assisted. 在我不再当电视制片人的这三年间，我的大部分工作都是在家里使用计算机终端进行的。我通过电子邮件投稿和校订，利用互联网上的人名地址与同行交流。我男朋友住在英国，因此两人的关系也在很大程度上借助于电脑维系。

3 If I desired, I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything. I can order food, and manage my money, love and work. In fact, at times I have spent as long as three weeks alone at home, going out only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries. I watched most of the endless snowstorm of '96 on TV.

我要是愿意的话，可以一连几个星期不出门而什么也不缺。我可以在网上订购食品、网上理财、网上恋爱、网上工作。事实上我有时独自呆在家里长达三个星期，只偶尔出去拿信、买报纸及日用品。1996年那一场接一场的暴风雪我大都是在电视上看到的。

4 But after a while, life itself begins to feel unreal. I start to feel as though I've become one with my machines, taking data in, spitting them back out, just another link in the Net. Others on line report the same symptoms. We start to feel an aversion to outside forms of socializing. We have become the Net critics' worst nightmare. 然而，一段时间之后，生活本身就显得不那么真实了。我开始觉得自己似乎与机器融为一体了，我接收信息，再发送出去，就如同互联网的一个连接点。其他上网的人也谈到了同样的症状。我们开始厌恶外面的社交方式。我们的状况成了批评互联网的人们最害怕见到的一幕。

5 What first seemed like a luxury, crawling from bed to computer, not worrying about hair, and clothes and face, has become a form of escape, a lack of discipline. And once you start replacing real human contact with cyber-interaction, coming back out of the cave can be quite difficult. 一下床就上机，不再为发型、服饰、面部化妆烦心，起初看似高级的享受如今却成为一种对生活的逃避，一种缺乏自律的表现。你一旦开始用网络交际取代人与人的真实接触，要走出这种穴居状态就会相当困难。

6 I find myself shyer, more cautious, more anxious. Or, conversely, when suddenly confronted with real live humans, I get overexcited, speak too much, interrupt. I constantly worry if I am dressed appropriately, that perhaps I've actually forgotten to put on a skirt and walked outside in the T-shirt and underwear I sleep and live in.

我发现自己变得比以前怯生、谨慎、焦虑。或者，反过来，当我突然面对现实中活生生的人时，会变得过于兴奋，说个不停，爱打断别人的讲话。我老是担心自己衣着是否得体，担心自己会不会真的忘了穿裙子，只穿着夜间睡觉、白天活动的那件T恤和内衣就出门了。

7 At times, I turn on the television and just leave it to talk away in the background, something that I'd never done previously. The voices of the programs are comforting, but then I'm jarred by the commercials. I find myself sucked in by soap operas, or needing to keep up with the latest news and the weather. \\\ork 1, every possible angle of every story over and over and over, even when they are of no possible use to me. Work moves into the background. I decide to check my email.

有时我把电视机开着，让它作为背景声音一直响着，以前我从不这样做。

电视节目中的说话声让人感到宽慰，可那些广告又叫我心烦。我发现自己沉浸在肥皂剧里，或者不停地收看最新的新闻报道和天气预报。一而再再而三地从“每日新闻”、“一线新闻”、 “夜间新闻”、 有线新闻电视网、纽约一套上收看有关每一条新闻的各种不同视角的报道，尽管它们对我毫无用处。工作成了次要的。我决定去看一下自己的电子信箱。

8 On line, I find myself attacking everyone in sight. I am bad-tempered, and easily angered. I find everyone on my mailing list insensitive, believing that they've forgotten that there are people actually reading their wounding remarks. I don't realize that I'm projecting until after I've been embarrassed by someone who politely points out that I've attacked her for agreeing with me.

在网上，我发现自己见谁攻谁。我脾气暴躁，动辄生气。我觉得我与之通信的每一个人都麻木不仁，认为他们已经忘却还有人真会去读他们那些刻薄伤人的言辞。直到有人礼貌地指出，她同意我的观点却遭到我的抨击时，我才意识到，自己是在以己度人，不由得深感尴尬。

9 When I'm in this state, I fight my boyfriend as well, misinterpreting his intentions because of the lack of emotional cues given by our typed dialogue. The fight takes hours, because the system keeps crashing. I say a line, then he does, then crash! And yet we keep on, doggedly.

在这种精神状态下，我也和男朋友吵架，常因键出的对话缺乏情感暗示而误解他的本意。由于系统常出故障，两人一争就是几个小时。我写一句，他回一句，接着系统失灵！可我们俩还是锲而不舍地接着吵。

10 I'd never realized how important daily routine is: dressing for work, sleeping normal hours. I'd never thought I relied so much on co-workers for company. I began to understand why long-term unemployment can be so damaging, why life without an externally supported daily plan can lead to higher rates of drug abuse, crime, suicide. 以前我从未意识到日常的生活起居是多么重要，如穿戴整齐去上班，按时就寝。以前我从未想过自己会那么依赖同事做伴。我开始理解为什么长时间的失业会那么伤人，为什么一个人的生活缺少了外部支持的日常计划就会导致吸毒、犯罪、自杀率的增长。

11 To restore balance to my life, I force myself back into the real world. I call people, arrange to meet with the few remaining friends who haven't fled New York City. I try to at least get to the gym, so as to set apart the weekend from the rest of my week. I arrange interviews for stories, doctor's appointments -- anything to get me out of the house and connected with others.

为了恢复生活的平衡，我强迫自己回到真实世界中去。我给别人打电话，与所剩无几的仍然住在纽约城的几个朋友安排见面。我至少设法去去健身房，以便使周末与工作日有所不同。我安排采访好写报道，预约看医生——安排任何需要我出门与他人接触的活动。

12 But sometimes being face to face is too much. I see a friend and her ringing laughter is intolerable -- the noise of conversation in the restaurant, unbearable. I

make my excuses and flee. I re-enter my apartment and run to the computer as though it were a place of safety.

但有时面对面地与人相处实在难以忍受。我与一位朋友见面，她那种响亮的笑声让人忍无可忍——饭店里的噪杂谈话声也让人受不了。我找了个藉口逃之夭夭。我重新回到我的公寓，冲向电脑，似乎那儿才是一个安全的地方。

13 I click on the modem, the once-annoying sound of the connection now as pleasant as my favorite tune. I enter my password. The real world disappears.

我点击鼠标，打开调制解调器，曾经听了就烦的连接声此刻听起来就如同最心爱的曲子那么悦耳。我键入密码。真实世界转瞬便消逝了。

Thought you were safe sharing secrets with Internet friends? Wait for the doorbell... 你以为与网友分享秘密不会出事儿吗？等着门铃响起来吧??

Mother's Mad About the Internuts

Carol Sarler

1 Tap tap tappa tap-tap. It is the last sound to be heard before sleep. On especially bad days, it is the first sound to be heard in the morning. (1) It is the sound of the only lasting disagreement in a household that is otherwise peaceful. My daughter is hooked on the Internet and I think that it is mad, bad and dangerous. 母亲恨死了网虫 卡罗尔·萨尔勒 嗒嗒，嗒嗒，嗒－嗒。这是入睡前最后听到的声音。遇到特别糟糕的日子，早上一醒来就听到这种声音。这是一个原本安宁的家庭中惟一持续不去的不和谐音。女儿沉迷于互联网，我觉得这是一种疯狂的不端行为，而且凶险四伏。

2 She is in every other respect a sensible young woman. She graduated in the summer, she goes to work each day, she and her friends are on the phone all evening and she goes out with them at weekends. But on top of that she has lately started spending some two hours in intense communication with a computer. And I hate it. 她在别的哪个方面都不失为一个明事理的姑娘。她是夏天毕业的，天天上班，晚上和朋友们在电话里聊天，周末和他们一起外出玩耍。但除此之外，近来她每天花两个小时光景与电脑厮守在一起。对此我深恶痛绝。

3 This is not just fear of new technology. Of course, there is value in instant access to information banks worldwide and, of course, email is revolutionizing the way we correspond with each other. My mistrust is based on the fact that this use of the Internet is such a pale copy of the time-honored way in which people communicate with each other. (2) It leads to intimacy before acquaintance; it scatters secrets outwards, not inwards; and, most worrying of all, it is a vehicle for liars. 这不完全是对新科技的恐惧。当然，能随时获取全世界信息库中的信息是很有价值的，电子邮件正在完全改变人们相互间通信联系的方式。我的不信任感是基于这样一个事实：使用互联网通讯与人们传统的相互交流方式相比实在大为逊色。它使人们还未相识就已亲近，它不能保守秘密反而扩散秘密；而最令人担

心的是，它是撒谎人传播谎言的工具。

4 What frightens me is that my daughter rejects all this. The denial is there in the language she uses. \Janet in January,\\we've been 'friends' ever since.\\to Alex the other day and he 'said'...\\he didn't,\friends are friends when, and only when, you have seen the whites of their eyes. She just rolls hers, skywards.

最令我心惊胆战的是女儿对我的一切规劝都拒之不理。这在她的言谈间流露无遗。“我是一月份‘遇见’珍妮特的，”她说，“那以后我们就成了‘朋友’。” 有时，她又说“前几天我和亚历克斯‘聊天’，他‘说’??”“不对，他没有说，”我争辩道；只有当你亲眼见过一个人之后，只有在那个时候，朋友才成其为朋友。她只是朝上翻了翻白眼。

5 Imagine this. When I was planning to go away for a few days last month, this intelligent 22-year-old announced a plan for a party, the guests to include a variety of

Internuts who, coming as they would from all corners, would need to stay overnight. 你想象得到吗，上个月我正打算外出数日的时候，这位聪明的22岁的姑娘宣布打算举行一次聚会，客人包括各色网虫，他们来自各地，还要在我家过夜。

6 Overnight? In my home, my home that contains everything I care about, rather high on the list being my daughter herself.

在我家里过夜？在这个有我珍爱的一切的家里，而女儿本身就是我的最珍爱的宝贝之一。

7 She said: \be silly.\She said it would be quite all right, because the people she was planning to invite were those whom she had \for at least a year and whom she \as any of her other friends that, on the whole, I tend to like. (3) I said, trying to be reasonable but not altogether succeeding, that in and among the things they \just have been overlooked, might it not? 她说，“别傻。”她说不会有事的，因为她准备邀请的那些人都是“认识”了至少有一年的，而且她“了解”他们，就像了解我总的来说比较喜欢的她的其他朋友一样。我说，他们啪哒啪哒“讲”给互相听的事情中，杀人的倾向或许就被忽略了，难道这不可能吗？我说这话时尽量想做到通情达理，但不完全成功。

8 The party did not happen. The row most certainly did. 聚会不了了之。但我和她确实大吵了一场。

9 When I say that if they are not nutters they are nerds, she tries to reason. Do I think she is a nerd? Absolutely not. Well, then, why should they be? Do I think she is a liar? Just as absolutely not. Seizing the initiative she moves over to the attack.

当我说那些人即使不是疯子也一定是些怪人时，她试图跟我争论。那我是不是觉得她就是怪人一个？绝对不是。既然这样，那他们为什么会是怪人呢？我是不是觉得她就是个谎言家？当然也不是。她抓住了主动权，开始反攻。

10 \ou remember that favorite story of yours, the one about how the army captain and the woman whose book he discovered got to know one another solely through writing letters? And how she refused to send him a photograph because she felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter what she looked like? Well, they hadn't seen each other either.\always like that, so annoying. They always know where your weak points are, just where to slip in under your guard.

“还记得你最喜欢的那个讲一个上尉和一个女人的故事吗？那个他看到那女的读过的一本书便和她通过书信往来而认识的故事？记得吗，她拒绝给他寄照片，因为她认为如果他真的喜欢她，她长得怎么样并不重要？瞧，他们俩也没见过面嘛。”她得意地笑了。跟女儿争辩总是这个样，总是令你烦恼不堪。她们深知你的弱点，知道如何乘虚而入。

11 But I cannot clear it from my head, the worries refuse to go away. It is not that, as individuals, I have reason to believe they would lie. But they could. They could lie about their age, their state of mind or even their sex. Indeed, apparently in America it is common for men to tap-tap pretending to be women on the basis that they then get other women to communicate with far greater intimacy.

但我总是忘不了这个事儿，种种担忧萦绕心头。并不是说我有理由认为，他们作为个人，一定会撒谎。但他们可能会撒谎。他们可能隐瞒自己的真实年龄、心态，甚至性别。的确，在美国显然有不少上网的男人常常自称女人，认为藉此可使其他女人更无顾忌地与他们讲知心话。

12 A thought occurs. The worst scenes my mind dreams up play like a horror movie. So I call a friend in Hollywood: has anyone thought of this for a movie plot? He laughs. There are five, to his knowledge alone, in development and one heading into production. (4) Needless to say, it is a new version of the old tale of innocents calling forth evil forces they cannot control, this time in the form of a visitor with the ever-handy axe packed in his luggage. 有一天我突然产生了一个想法。我脑子里虚构出来的最可怕的场景一幕接着一幕，就像一部恐怖片。于是我给一个好莱坞的朋友打了个电话：有没有谁想过用这个题材构思一部电影情节？他哈哈大笑。据他本人所知就有5部正在酝酿之中，一部已经进入制作阶段了。不用说，这又是一些无辜的人引出了邪恶的力量却又不能控制的老故事的翻版，这一次的邪恶力量是以一位来客的面貌出现，但行囊中却藏着斧头，随时可以拿出来杀人。

13 So now, I say to my daughter, we just wait for life to imitate art and we're home and dry. And murdered in our beds. 于是，我对女儿说，我们就等着看生活去模仿艺术吧。我们现在安然无恙。谁知道什么时候被谋杀在自己的卧床上。

14 She laughs. \you in the morning, Mum. I'm just going upstairs to talk to my friends. Goodnight.\

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