目录
Unit1 Text A Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream Life ......................................................... 1
Unit1 Text B American Family Life: The Changing Picture ........................................ 4
Unit2 Text A The Freedom Givers .................................................................................... 10
Unit3 Text A The Land of the Lock .................................................................................. 14
Unit3 Text B Why I Bought A Gun ................................................................................... 16
Unit4 Text A Was Einstein a Space Alien? ................................................................... 21
Unit5 Text A Writing Three Thank-You Letters .......................................................... 25
Unit6 Text A The Last Leaf .................................................................................................. 28
Unit7 Text A Life of a Salesman ........................................................................................ 33
Unit7 Text B Bricklayer's Boy ............................................................................................ 41
Unit8 Text A Human Cloning: A Scientist’s Story .................................................... 47
Unit8 Text B Second Thoughts on Cloning .................................................................. 50
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Unit1 Text A Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream Life
多尔蒂先生创建自己的理想生活 吉姆·多尔蒂Jim Doherty
1 There are two things I have always wanted to do -- write and live on a farm. Today I'm doing both. I am not in E. B. White's class as a writer or in my neighbors' league as a farmer, but I'm getting by. And after years of frustration with city and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in the country.
有两件事是我一直想做的――写作与务农。如今我同时做着这两件事。作为作家，我和E·B·怀特不属同一等级，作为农场主，我和乡邻也不是同一类人，不过我应付得还行。在城市以及郊区历经多年的怅惘失望之后，我和妻子桑迪终于在这里的乡村寻觅到心灵的满足。
2 It's a self-reliant sort of life. We grow nearly all of our fruits and vegetables. Our hens keep us in eggs, with several dozen left over to sell each week. Our bees provide us with honey, and we cut enough wood to just about make it through the heating season.
这是一种自力更生的生活。我们食用的果蔬几乎都是自己种的。自家饲养的鸡提供鸡蛋，每星期还能剩余几十个出售。自家养殖的蜜蜂提供蜂蜜，我们还自己动手砍柴，足可供过冬取暖之用。
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3 It's a satisfying life too. In the summer we canoe on the river, go picnicking in the woods and take long bicycle rides. In the winter we ski and skate. We get excited about sunsets. We love the smell of the earth warming and the sound of cattle lowing. We watch for hawks in the sky and deer in the cornfields.
这也是一种令人满足的生活。夏日里我们在河上荡舟，在林子里野餐，骑着自行车长时间漫游。冬日里我们滑雪溜冰。我们为落日的余辉而激动。我们爱闻大地回暖的气息，爱听牛群哞叫。我们守着看鹰儿飞过上空，看玉米田间鹿群嬉跃。
4 But the good life can get pretty tough. Three months ago when it was 30 below, we spent two miserable days hauling firewood up the river on a sled. Three months from now, it will be 95 above and we will be cultivating corn, weeding strawberries and killing chickens. Recently, Sandy and I had to retile the back roof. Soon Jim, 16 and Emily, 13, the youngest of our four children, will help me make some long-overdue improvements on the outdoor toilet that supplements our indoor plumbing when we are working outside. Later this month, we'll spray the orchard, paint the barn, plant the garden and clean the hen house before the new chicks arrive.
但如此美妙的生活有时会变得相当艰苦。就在三个月前，气温降到华氏零下30度，我们辛苦劳作了整整两天，用一个雪橇沿着河边拖运木柴。再过三个月，气温会升到95度，我们就要给玉米松土，在草莓地除草，还要宰杀家禽。前一阵子我和桑迪不得不翻修后屋顶。过些时候，四个孩子中的两个小的，16岁的吉米和13岁的埃米莉，会帮着我一起把拖了很久没修的室外厕所修葺一下，那是专为室外干活修建的。这个月晚些时候，我们要给果树喷洒药水，要油漆谷仓，要给菜园播种，要赶在新的小鸡运到之前清扫鸡舍。
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5 In between such chores, I manage to spend 50 to 60 hours a week at the typewriter or doing reporting for the freelance articles I sell to magazines and newspapers. Sandy, meanwhile, pursues her own demanding schedule. Besides the usual household routine, she oversees the garden and beehives, bakes bread, cans and freezes, drives the kids to their music lessons, practices with them, takes organ lessons on her own, does research and typing for me, writes an article herself now and then, tends the flower beds, stacks a little wood and delivers the eggs. There is, as the old saying goes, no rest for the wicked on a place like this -- and not much for the virtuous either. 在这些活计之间，我每周要抽空花五、六十个小时，不是打字撰文，就是为作为自由撰稿人投给报刊的文章进行采访。桑迪则有她自己繁忙的工作日程。除了日常的家务，她还照管菜园和蜂房，烘烤面包，将食品装罐、冷藏，开车送孩子学音乐，和他们一起练习，自己还要上风琴课，为我做些研究工作并打字，自己有时也写写文章，还要侍弄花圃，堆摞木柴、运送鸡蛋。正如老话说的那样，在这种情形之下，坏人不得闲――贤德之人也歇不了。
6 None of us will ever forget our first winter. We were buried under five feet of snow from December through March. While one storm after another blasted huge drifts up against the house and barn, we kept warm inside burning our own wood, eating our own apples and loving every minute of it.
我们谁也不会忘记第一年的冬天。从12月一直到3月底，我们都被深达5英尺的积雪困着。暴风雪肆虐，一场接着一场，积雪厚厚地覆盖着屋子和谷仓，而室内，我们用自己砍伐的木柴烧火取暖，吃着自家种植的苹果，温馨快乐每一分钟。
7 When spring came, it brought two floods. First the river overflowed,
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covering much of our land for weeks. Then the growing season began, swamping us under wave after wave of produce. Our freezer filled up with cherries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, peas, beans and corn. Then our canned-goods shelves and cupboards began to grow with preserves, tomato juice, grape juice, plums, jams and jellies. Eventually, the basement floor disappeared under piles of potatoes, squash and pumpkins, and the barn began to fill with apples and pears. It was amazing.
开春后，有过两次泛滥。一次是河水外溢，我们不少田地被淹了几个星期。接着一次是生长季节到了，一波又一波的农产品潮涌而来，弄得我们应接不暇。我们的冰箱里塞满了樱桃、蓝莓、草莓、芦笋、豌豆、青豆和玉米。接着我们存放食品罐的架子上、柜橱里也开始堆满一罐罐的腌渍食品，有番茄汁、葡萄汁、李子、果酱和果冻。最后，地窖里遍地是大堆大堆的土豆、西葫芦、南瓜，谷仓里也储满了苹果和梨。真是太美妙了。
8 The next year we grew even more food and managed to get through the winter on firewood that was mostly from our own trees and only 100 gallons of heating oil. At that point I began thinking seriously about quitting my job and starting to freelance. The timing was terrible. By then, Shawn and Amy, our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League schools and we had only a few thousand dollars in the bank. Yet we kept coming back to the same question: Will there ever be a better time? The answer, decidedly, was no, and so -- with my employer's blessings and half a year's pay in accumulated benefits in my pocket -- off I went.
第二年我们种了更多的作物，差不多就靠着从自家树林砍斫的木柴以及仅仅100加仑的燃油过了冬。其时，我开始认真考虑起辞了职去从事自由撰稿的事来。时机选得实在
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太差。当时，两个大的女儿肖恩和埃米正在费用很高的常春藤学校上学，而我们只有几千美金的银行存款。但我们一再回到一个老问题上来：真的会有更好的时机吗？答案无疑是否定的。于是，带着老板的祝福，口袋里揣着作为累积津贴的半年薪水，我走了。
9 There have been a few anxious moments since then, but on balance things have gone much better than we had any right to expect. For various stories of mine, I've crawled into black-bear dens for Sports Illustrated, hitched up dogsled racing teams for Smithsonian magazine, checked out the Lake Champlain \"monster\" for Science Digest, and canoed through the Boundary Waters wilderness area of Minnesota for Destinations.
那以后有过一些焦虑的时刻，但总的来说，情况比我们料想的要好得多。为了写那些内容各不相同的文章，我为《体育画报》爬进过黑熊窝；为《史密森期刊》替参赛的一组组狗套上过雪橇；为《科学文摘》调查过尚普兰湖水怪的真相；为《终点》杂志在明尼苏达划着小舟穿越美、加边界水域内的公共荒野保护区。
10 I'm not making anywhere near as much money as I did when I was employed full time, but now we don't need as much either. I generate enough income to handle our $600-a-month mortgage payments plus the usual expenses for a family like ours. That includes everything from music lessons and dental bills to car repairs and college costs. When it comes to insurance, we have a poor man's major-medical policy. We have to pay the first $500 of any medical fees for each member of the family. It picks up 80% of the costs beyond that. Although we are stuck with paying minor expenses, our premium is low -- only $560 a year -- and we are covered against catastrophe. Aside from that and the policy on our two cars
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at $400 a year, we have no other insurance. But we are setting aside $2,000 a year in an IRA.
我挣的钱远比不上担任全职工作时的收入，可如今我们需要的钱也没有过去多。我挣的钱足以应付每月600美金的房屋贷款按揭以及一家人的日常开销。那些开销包括了所有支出，如音乐课学费、牙医账单、汽车维修以及大学费用等等。至于保险，我们买了一份低收入者的主要医疗项目保险。我们需要为每一位家庭成员的任何一项医疗费用支付最初的500美金。医疗保险则支付超出部分的80％。虽然我们仍要支付小部分医疗费用，但我们的保险费也低--每年只要560美金--而我们给自己生大病保了险。除了这一保险项目，以及两辆汽车每年400美金的保险，我们就没有其他保险了。不过我们每年留出2000美元入个人退休金账户。
11 We've been able to make up the difference in income by cutting back without appreciably lowering our standard of living. We continue to dine out once or twice a month, but now we patronize local restaurants instead of more expensive places in the city. We still attend the opera and ballet in Milwaukee but only a few times a year. We eat less meat, drink cheaper wine and see fewer movies. Extravagant Christmases are a memory, and we combine vacations with story assignments...
我们通过节约开支而又不明显降低生活水准的方式来弥补收入差额。我们每个月仍出去吃一两次饭，不过现在我们光顾的是当地餐馆，而不是城里的高级饭店。我们仍去密尔沃基听歌剧看芭蕾演出，不过一年才几次。我们肉吃得少了，酒喝得便宜了，电影看得少了。铺张的圣诞节成为一种回忆，我们把完成稿约作为度假的一部分……
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12 I suspect not everyone who loves the country would be happy living the way we do. It takes a couple of special qualities. One is a tolerance for solitude. Because we are so busy and on such a tight budget, we don't entertain much. During the growing season there is no time for socializing anyway. Jim and Emily are involved in school activities, but they too spend most of their time at home.
我想，不是所有热爱乡村的人都会乐意过我们这种生活的。这种生活需要一些特殊的素质。其一是耐得住寂寞。由于我们如此忙碌，手头又紧，我们很少请客。在作物生长季节，根本就没工夫参加社交活动。吉米和埃米莉虽然参加学校的各种活动，但他俩大多数时间也呆在家里。
13 The other requirement is energy -- a lot of it. The way to make self-sufficiency work on a small scale is to resist the temptation to buy a tractor and other expensive laborsaving devices. Instead, you do the work yourself. The only machinery we own (not counting the lawn mower) is a little three-horsepower rotary cultivator and a 16-inch chain saw.
另一项要求是体力――相当大的体力。小范围里实现自给自足的途径是抵制诱惑，不去购置拖拉机和其他昂贵的节省劳力的机械。相反，你要自己动手。我们仅有的机器（不包括割草机）是一台3马力的小型旋转式耕耘机以及一架16英寸的链锯。
14 How much longer we'll have enough energy to stay on here is anybody's guess -- perhaps for quite a while, perhaps not. When the time comes, we'll leave with a feeling of sorrow but also with a sense of pride at what we've been able to accomplish. We should make a fair profit on the sale of the place, too.
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We've invested about $35,000 of our own money in it, and we could just about double that if we sold today. But this is not a good time to sell. Once economic conditions improve, however, demand for farms like ours should be strong again.
没人知道我们还能有精力在这里再呆多久--也许呆很长一阵子，也许不是。到走的时候，我们会怆然离去，但也会为自己所做的一切深感自豪。我们把农场出售也会赚相当大一笔钱。我们自己在农场投入了约35，000美金的资金，要是现在售出的话价格差不多可以翻一倍。不过现在不是出售的好时机。但是一旦经济形势好转，对我们这种农场的需求又会增多。
15 We didn't move here primarily to earn money though. We came because we wanted to improve the quality of our lives. When I watch Emily collecting eggs in the evening, fishing with Jim on the river or enjoying an old-fashioned picnic in the orchard with the entire family, I know we've found just what we were looking for.
但我们主要不是为了赚钱而移居至此的。我们来此居住是因为想提高生活质量。当我看着埃米莉傍晚去收鸡蛋，跟吉米一起在河上钓鱼，或和全家人一起在果园里享用老式的野餐，我知道，我们找到了自己一直在寻求的生活方式。
Unit1 Text B American Family Life: The Changing Picture Donna Barron
1 It's another evening in an American household.
美国家庭生活变化中的景象
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唐娜•巴伦
这是美国家庭一个寻常的傍晚。
2 The door swings open at 5:30 sharp. \"Hi, honey! I'm home!\" In walks dear old Dad, hungry and tired after a
long day at the office. He is greeted by Mom in her apron, three happy children, and the aroma of a delicious pot
roast.
门在530 准时推开。“嗨亲爱的我回来了”亲爱的老爸走了进来他在办公室上了一天的
班肚子饿了人也累了。迎接他的是系着围裙的妈妈3 个快乐的孩子以及炖肉诱人的香味。
3 After a leisurely meal together, Mom does the dishes. That, after all, is part of her job. The whole family
then moves to the living room. There everyone spends the evening playing Scrabble or watching TV.
全家人从容地吃完饭后妈妈就刷洗碗碟。反正这是她的活。接着全家人聚在起居室。一个晚上大
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家玩玩牌看看电视。
4 Then everyone is off to bed. And the next morning Dad and the kids wake up to the sounds and smells of
Mom preparing pancakes and sausages for breakfast.
随后各自上床睡觉。第二天早上爸爸和孩子们在妈妈准备早餐发出的声响和薄饼、香肠散发的香
味中醒来。
5 (1) What? You say that doesn't sound like life in your house? Well, you're not alone. In fact, you're probably
in the majority. 什么你说那听起来不像你府上的生活其实不仅仅是你一个人这么想。事实上
大多数人很可能都跟你一样这么想的。
6 At one time in America, the above household might have been typical. You can still visit such a home -- on
television. Just watch reruns of old situation comedies. (2) Leave it to Beaver, for example, shows Mom doing
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housework in pearls and high heels. Dad keeps his suit and tie on all weekend. But the families that operate like
Beaver Cleaver's are fewer and fewer. They're disappearing because three parts of our lives have changed: the way
we work, the way we eat, and the way we entertain ourselves. Becoming aware of the effects of those changes
may help us improve family life.
上面描述的家庭可以说在美国曾一度相当典型。如今你仍能见到这样的家庭――不过得在电视里。
只要看一看那些重播的情景剧老片子。例如《交给比弗吧》一剧中妈妈带着珍珠项链、穿着高跟鞋做家
务。爸爸整个周末都穿着西装戴着领带。但像比弗•克立弗那样的家庭越来越少了。那样的家庭正在消
失因为我们生活中的三个部分发生了变化我们的工作方式餐饮方式以及娱乐方式。了解这些变化所
带来的影响也许有助于我们改善家庭生活。
7 Let's look first at the changes in the way we work. Today the words \"Hi,
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honey! I'm home!\" might not be
spoken by dear old Dad. Dear old Mom is just as likely to be saying them. A generation ago, most households
could get along on one paycheck -- Dad's. Mom stayed home, at least until the children started school. But today,
over half the mothers with young children go to work. An even greater percentage of mothers of older children are
in the workforce. And the number of single-parent homes has mushroomed in the last thirty years.
我们先来看一下我们工作方式的变化。今天“嗨亲爱的我回家了”这句话可能不是出自亲爱
的老爸之口。亲爱的老妈也同样可能说这句话。在上一代大多数家庭可以靠一份工资――爸爸的工资――
维持。妈妈呆在家里至少在孩子上学前是如此。但今天一半以上有幼儿的母亲外出工作。在职人员中
有大孩子的母亲的比例更高。而单亲家庭的数量在过去30 年中急剧增长。
8 These changes in work have affected children as well as parents. When only
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Dad went out to work, children
came home from school to Mom. (In TV situation comedies, they came home to Mom and home-baked cookies)
Today, we'll find them at an after-school program or a neighbor's house. Or they may come home to no one at all.
In every community, children are caring for themselves until their parents return from work. Are these children
missing out on an important part of childhood? Or are they developing a healthy sense of self-reliance? These are
questions that Mrs. Cleaver never had to deal with.
工作方面的这些变化影响着家长以及孩子。当父亲一人外出上班时孩子们放学回家有妈妈在。在
情景电视剧里他们回家有妈妈在还有家里做的饼干如今我们会在晚托班或邻居家里见到他们。要
不他们就回到空无一人的家。在各社区孩子们都自己照管自己直到父母下班回家。这些孩子会不会失
去童年时期本应有的一些重要的东西还是会因此培养起一种健康的自立意识这些
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问题是克立弗太太
过去从来不用操心的。
9 In addition, Dad and now Mom are often gone from home longer than ever. Not too long ago, most men
worked close to home. The office or factory was just downtown. Dad often walked to work or hitched a ride with
a friendly neighbor. But no more.
此外爸爸如今还有妈妈在外的时间常常比以往任何时候都长。不多久前大多数男人还就近
工作。办公室或者工厂就在市区。爸爸经常走着去上班或者顺路搭友好邻居的车。但现在不一样了。
10 Today's working men and women are commuters. They travel distances to work that would have made
their parents gasp. Commutes of forty-five minutes or an hour are common. Workers travel on buses, subways,
and crowded highways. Many leave their suburban homes at dawn and don't return until dark. No running home
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for lunch for today's commuter.
今天的上班男女都是坐车来回的。他们上班距离之远会让他们的父母惊讶得倒抽一口凉气。45 分钟
或1 小时的车程是常见的。上班族坐公共汽车、地铁或开车行驶在交通拥挤的公路上。不少人一清早就
离开位于郊区的家一直要到天黑了才回来。今天的通勤族不再赶回家吃午饭。
11 And speaking of lunch, there's been a second big change in American family life. If both parents are away
from home for long hours, who's whipping up those delicious meals in the kitchen? The answer, more and more, is
nobody.
说起午饭那正是美国家庭生活的第二大变化。要是父母都长时间不在家那谁在厨房里忙着准备
美味的菜肴呢越来越多听到的回答是没有人做饭。
12 These days, few people have time to shop for and prepare \"home-style\" meals. The Cleavers were used to
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dinners of pot roast or chicken. Potatoes, salad, and vegetables went with the main course, with pie or cake for
dessert. But this kind of meal takes several hours to fix. People can't spend hours in the kitchen if they get home at
5:30.
如今很少人有时间采购、烹制“家常”饭菜。克立弗一家常常吃炖肉或炖鸡除主菜外还有土豆、
色拉、蔬菜甜食是馅饼或蛋糕。但烧这种饭菜要花几个小时。要是人们530 才回到家就无法在厨房
里呆上几个小时。
13 So what do working families eat? They choose meals that are easy to prepare or are already prepared. Fast
food, takeout, and heat-and-serve dishes make up much of the modern American diet. Dad may arrive home with
a bag of Big Macs and shakes. Mom may phone out for Chinese food or ask the local pizza parlor to deliver. And
more and more people rely on microwaves to thaw frozen food in minutes.
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那么双职工家庭吃什么呢他们选择容易烹制或已经烹制好的食品。快餐外卖食物加热即食的
菜肴构成了当今美国食谱的很大一部分。爸爸可能带回家一大包巨无霸汉堡包和饮料。 妈妈可能电话定
购中国菜或让附近的比萨店外送。越来越多的人依赖微波炉在几分钟内把冷冻食品解冻。
14 One consequence of these quickly prepared meals is that families spend less time dining together. And
classic fast foods, like hamburgers and fries, are meant to be eaten on the run, not slowly enjoyed at the dinner
table. The modern family no longer shares the evening meal. As a result, it no longer shares the day's news... or
the feeling of togetherness.
这些烹制简易的菜肴造成的后果之一是一家人一起坐下吃饭的时间少了。传统的快餐如汉堡包
炸薯条是让人匆匆忙忙吃的而不是坐在餐桌旁慢慢享用的。现代家庭不再一起享用晚餐。其结果是
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大家不再相互交流一天的事也感觉不到合家团聚的气氛。
15 Finally, what about after dinner? Is the family evening at least something the Cleavers could relate to?
最后一点晚饭之后又如何晚上的家居生活总该跟克立弗家多少有几分相似了吧
16 Not a chance.
没有丝毫相似之处。
17 We don't have to look outside the home to see the changes. The modern American family entertains itself
in ways the Cleavers would never have dreamed of.
我们不必走出家门去看有什么变化。当今美国家庭的娱乐方式是克立弗家无从想像的。
18 Thirty years ago, families gathered around a radio each evening. Later, television took over. Most families
had just one set, which they watched together. Today, television and computers bring a dizzying array of
entertainment into the home. Cable television provides everything from aerobics classes to Shakespeare. VCRs
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expand the choices even more. (3) If there's nothing good on network TV or cable, the video store offers the best
and worst of Hollywood: recent movies, cartoons, \"adult\" films, exercise programs, travel, sports, how-to tapes.
Computer games, which make viewers part of the action, also provide excitement. Players can compete in the
Olympics, search out aliens, or wipe out entire civilizations on their little screens.
三十年前家家户户每天晚上围坐着听收音机。后来电视机取而代之。大多数家庭只有一台电视机
全家人一起收看。如今电视机和电脑将多得令人眩目的娱乐活动带入家庭。有线电视播出的节目从有氧
操到莎士比亚戏剧无所不有。录像机更是扩大了选择性。要是网络电视或有线电视没有中意的节目录像
制品商店可提供好莱坞制作的品质迥异的各种节目新近发行的电影、动画片、\"成人\"电影、体育锻炼节
目、旅游、体育以及入门指南录像带。让收看人参与其间的电脑游戏也提供了相当的刺激。游戏者能在奥
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运会上施展身手寻找外星人或者在小小的屏幕上摧毁整个文明国家。
19 With all these choices, it makes sense to own more than one television set. The two-or-more-TV family
used to be rare. (4) Nowadays, Dad might want to rent an action movie when Mom's cable shopping service is on.
Or Junior is playing a let's-blow-up-Saturn video game while Sis wants to see The Simpsons. Why not invest in
several sets? Then each family member can enjoy himself or herself in peace.
有了那么多的选择拥有一台以上的电视机也就合乎情理了。过去很少有人家拥有一台以上电视机。
如今妈妈在看她的有线电视销售服务节目的时候爸爸可能想租一部动作片。而在女儿想看《辛普森一
家》时儿子却在玩《让我们炸毁土星》的电子游戏。何不多买几台呢那样每一个家庭成员都可以互不
干扰地看各自喜爱的节目。
20 What's wrong with this picture of today's family?
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当今家庭的这一景象有何弊端呢
21 Only this. Today's Cleavers spend their evenings in front of their separate TV screens. Then they go to bed.
The next morning, they rush off to their separate jobs (work and school). They come home at separate times. They
eat separately. Finally, they return to their separate TV screens for another evening's entertainment. During all
these times, when do they talk to each other or even see each other? When are they a family?
只有一个弊端。今天的克立弗一家晚上各自守着自己的电视机。随后他们各自上床。第二天早上
他们匆匆忙忙各奔各的岗位上班或上学。他们在各自不同的时间回家。他们分头吃饭。最后他们又
各自回到自己的电视机前各自进行晚上的娱乐活动。在所有这些时段当中他们什么时候相互交谈或见
面呢家人什么时候才相聚呢
22 Certain realities of modern life cannot change. One is the need, in most
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families, for both parents to bring
home a paycheck. Another is the distance many of us must travel to work or to school. But must everything
change? And must we lose the family structure in the process?
现代生活的某些现实无法改变。其一是大多数家庭需要父母两个人的工资收入。其二是许多人必得
去较远处上班或上学。可是非得为此改变一切吗我们非得在这一过程中丧失原有的家庭结构吗
23 No one is suggesting that we go back to the 1950s. The Cleaver household was a fantasy even then, not
reality. But we might borrow one important lesson from the Cleavers. It is that family life is just as important as
work or play. If we agree, we'll find ways of spending more time together. We'll find things to share. And then
there will be something right with the picture.
没有人说我们应该回到五十年代去。克立弗家庭即使在当时也只是虚构而非现实。但我们或许能从
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这一人家获得一个重要的借鉴即家庭生活和工作、娱乐同样重要。如果我们同意这一看法我们就能设
法找到更多时间聚在一起。我们就能找到共同的兴趣。那样的话我们家庭生活的情景就颇为美妙了。
Unit2 Text A The Freedom Givers给人以自由者
Fergus M. Bordewich弗格斯·M·博得威奇
1 A gentle breeze swept the Canadian plains as I stepped outside the small two-story house. Alongside me was a slender woman in a black dress, my guide back to a time when the surrounding settlement in Dresden, Ontario, was home to a hero in American history. As we walked toward a plain gray church, Barbara Carter spoke proudly of her great-great-grandfather, Josiah Henson. \"He was confident that the Creator intended all men to be created equal. And he never gave up struggling for that freedom.\"
我步出这幢两层小屋，加拿大平原上轻风微拂。我身边是一位苗条的黑衣女子，把我带回到过去的向导。那时，安大略省得雷斯顿这一带住着美国历史上的一位英雄。我们前往一座普普通通的灰色教堂，芭芭拉·卡特自豪地谈论着其高祖乔赛亚·亨森。“他坚信上帝要所有人生来平等。他从来没有停止过争取这一自由权利的奋斗。”
2 Carter's devotion to her ancestor is about more than personal pride: it is about family honor. For Josiah Henson has lived on through the character in
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American fiction that he helped inspire: Uncle Tom, the long-suffering slave in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Ironically, that character has come to symbolize everything Henson was not. A racial sellout unwilling to stand up for himself? Carter gets angry at the thought. \"Josiah Henson was a man of principle,\" she said firmly.
卡特对其先辈的忠诚不仅仅关乎一己之骄傲，而关乎家族荣誉。因为乔赛亚·亨森至今仍为人所知是由于他所激发的创作灵感使得一个美国小说人物问世：汤姆叔叔，哈丽特·比彻·斯陀的小说《汤姆叔叔的小屋》中那个逆来顺受的黑奴。具有讽刺意味的是，这一人物所象征的一切在亨森身上一点都找不到。一个不愿奋起力争、背叛种族的黑人？卡特对此颇为愤慨。“乔赛亚·亨森是个有原则的人，”她肯定地说。
3 I had traveled here to Henson's last home -- now a historic site that Carter formerly directed -- to learn more about a man who was, in many ways, an African-American Moses. After winning his own freedom from slavery, Henson secretly helped hundreds of other slaves to escape north to Canada -- and liberty. Many settled here in Dresden with him.
我远道前来亨森最后的居所――如今已成为卡特曾管理过的一处历史遗迹――是为了更多地了解此人，他在许多方面堪称黑人摩西。亨森自己摆脱了黑奴身份获得自由之后，便秘密帮助其他许多黑奴逃奔北方去加拿大――逃奔自由之地。许多人和他一起在得雷斯顿这一带定居了下来。
4 Yet this stop was only part of a much larger mission for me. Josiah Henson is but one name on a long list of courageous men and women who
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together forged the Underground Railroad, a secret web of escape routes and safe houses that they used to liberate slaves from the American South. Between 1820 and 1860, as many as 100,000 slaves traveled the Railroad to freedom.
但此地只是我所承担的繁重使命的一处停留地。乔赛亚·亨森只是一长串无所畏惧的男女名单中的一个名字，这些人共同创建了这条“地下铁路”，一条由逃亡线路和可靠的人家组成的用以解放美国南方黑奴的秘密网络。在1820年至1860年期间，多达十万名黑奴经由此路走向自由。
5 In October 2000, President Clinton authorized $16 million for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center to honor this first great civil-rights struggle in the U. S. The center is scheduled to open in 2004 in Cincinnati. And it's about time. For the heroes of the Underground Railroad remain too little remembered, their exploits still largely unsung. I was intent on telling their stories. 2000年10月，克林顿总统批准拨款1600万美元建造全国“地下铁路”自由中心，以此纪念美国历史上第一次伟大的民权斗争。中心计划于2004年在辛辛那提州建成。真是该建立这样一个中心的时候了。因为地下铁路的英雄们依然默默无闻，他们的业绩依然少人颂扬。我要讲述他们的故事。
6 John Parker tensed when he heard the soft knock. Peering out his door into the night, he recognized the face of a trusted neighbor. \"There's a party of escaped slaves hiding in the woods in Kentucky, twenty miles from the river,\" the man whispered urgently. Parker didn't hesitate. \"I'll go,\" he said, pushing a pair of pistols into his pockets.
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听到轻轻的敲门声，约翰·帕克神情紧张起来。他开门窥望，夜色中认出是一位可靠的邻居。“有一群逃亡奴隶躲在肯塔基州的树林里，就在离河20英里的地方，”那人用急迫的口气低语道。帕克没一点儿迟疑。“我就去，”他说着，把两支手枪揣进口袋。
7 Born a slave two decades before, in the 1820s, Parker had been taken from his mother at age eight and forced to walk in chains from Virginia to Alabama, where he was sold on the slave market. Determined to live free someday, he managed to get trained in iron molding. Eventually he saved enough money working at this trade on the side to buy his freedom. Now, by day, Parker worked in an iron foundry in the Ohio port of Ripley. By night he was a \"conductor\" on the Underground Railroad, helping people slip by the slave hunters. In Kentucky, where he was now headed, there was a $1000 reward for his capture, dead or alive.
20年前，即19世纪20年代，生来即为黑奴的帕克才8岁就被从母亲身边带走，被迫拖着镣铐从弗吉尼亚走到阿拉巴马，在那里的黑奴市场被买走。他打定主意有朝一日要过自由的生活，便设法学会了铸铁这门手艺。后来他终于靠这门手艺攒够钱赎回了自由。现在，帕克白天在俄亥俄州里普利港的一家铸铁厂干活。到了晚上，他就成了地下铁路的一位“乘务员”，帮助人们避开追捕逃亡黑奴的人。在他正前往的肯塔基州，当局悬赏1000美元抓他，活人死尸都要。
8 Crossing the Ohio River on that chilly night, Parker found ten fugitives frozen with fear. \"Get your bundles and follow me, \" he told them, leading the eight men and two women toward the river. They had almost reached shore when a watchman spotted them and raced off to spread the news.
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在那个阴冷的夜晚，帕克渡过俄亥俄河，找到了十个丧魂落魄的逃亡者。“拿好包裹跟我走，”他一边吩咐他们，一边带着这八男二女朝河边走去。就要到岸时，一个巡夜人发现了他们，急忙跑开去报告。
9 Parker saw a small boat and, with a shout, pushed the escaping slaves into it. There was room for all but two. As the boat slid across the river, Parker watched helplessly as the pursuers closed in around the men he was forced to leave behind.
帕克看见一条小船，便大喝一声，把那些逃亡黑奴推上了船。大家都上了船，但有两个人容不下。小船徐徐驶向对岸，帕克眼睁睁地看着追捕者把他被迫留下的两个男人围住。
10 The others made it to the Ohio shore, where Parker hurriedly arranged for a wagon to take them to the next \"station\" on the Underground Railroad -- the first leg of their journey to safety in Canada. Over the course of his life, John Parker guided more than 400 slaves to safety.
其他的人都上了岸，帕克急忙安排了一辆车把他们带到地下铁路的下一“站”――他们走向安全的加拿大之旅的第一程。约翰·帕克在有生之年一共带领400多名黑奴走向安全之地。
11 While black conductors were often motivated by their own painful experiences, whites were commonly driven by religious convictions. Levi Coffin, a Quaker raised in North Carolina, explained, \"The Bible, in bidding us to feed the
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hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color.\"
黑人去当乘务员常常是由于本人痛苦的经历，而那些白人则往往是受了宗教信仰的感召。在北卡罗来纳州长大的贵格会教徒利瓦伊·科芬解释说：“《圣经》上只是要我们给饥者以食物，无衣者以衣衫，但没提到过肤色的事。”
12 In the 1820s Coffin moved west to Newport (now Fountain City), Indiana, where he opened a store. Word spread that fleeing slaves could always find refuge at the Coffin home. At times he sheltered as many as 17 fugitives at once, and he kept a team and wagon ready to convey them on the next leg of their journey. Eventually three principal routes converged at the Coffin house, which came to be the Grand Central Terminal of the Underground Railroad.
在19世纪20年代，科芬向西迁移前往印第安纳州的新港（即今天的喷泉市），在那里开了一家小店。人们传说，逃亡黑奴在科芬家总是能得到庇护。有时他一次庇护的逃亡者就多达17人，他还备有一组人员和车辆把他们送往下一段行程。到后来有三条主要路线在科芬家汇合，科芬家成了地下铁路的中央车站。
13 For his efforts, Coffin received frequent death threats and warnings that his store and home would be burned. Nearly every conductor faced similar risks -- or worse. In the North, a magistrate might have imposed a fine or a brief jail sentence for aiding those escaping. In the Southern states, whites were sentenced to months or even years in jail. One courageous Methodist minister, Calvin Fairbank, was imprisoned for more than 17 years in Kentucky, where he kept a log of his beatings: 35,105 stripes with the whip.
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科芬经常由于他做的工作受到被杀的威胁，收到焚毁他店铺和住宅的警告。几乎每一个乘务员都面临类似的危险――或者更为严重。在北方，治安官会对帮助逃亡的人课以罚金，或判以短期监禁。在南方各州，白人则被判处几个月甚至几年的监禁。一位勇敢的循道宗牧师卡尔文·费尔班克在肯塔基州被关押了17年多，他记录了自己遭受毒打的情况：总共被鞭笞了35,105下。
14 As for the slaves, escape meant a journey of hundreds of miles through unknown country, where they were usually easy to recognize. With no road signs and few maps, they had to put their trust in directions passed by word of mouth and in secret signs -- nails driven into trees, for example -- that conductors used to mark the route north.
至于那些黑奴，逃亡意味着数百英里的长途跋涉，意味着穿越自己极易被人辨认的陌生地域。没有路标，也几乎没有线路图，他们赶路全凭着口口相告的路线以及秘密记号――比如树上钉着的钉子――是乘务员用来标示北上路线的记号。
15 Many slaves traveled under cover of night, their faces sometimes caked with white powder. Quakers often dressed their \"passengers,\" both male and female, in gray dresses, deep bonnets and full veils. On one occasion, Levi Coffin was transporting so many runaway slaves that he disguised them as a funeral procession.
许多黑奴在夜色掩护下赶路，有时脸上涂着厚厚的白粉。贵格会教徒经常让他们的“乘客”不分男女穿上灰衣服，戴上深沿帽，披着把头部完全遮盖住的面纱。有一次，利瓦伊·科芬运送的逃亡黑奴实在太多，他就把他们装扮成出殡队伍。
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16 Canada was the primary destination for many fugitives. Slavery had been abolished there in 1833, and Canadian authorities encouraged the runaways to settle their vast virgin land. Among them was Josiah Henson.
加拿大是许多逃亡者的首选终点站。那儿1833年就废除了奴隶制，加拿大当局鼓励逃亡奴隶在其广阔的未经开垦的土地上定居。其中就有乔赛亚·亨森。
17 As a boy in Maryland, Henson watched as his entire family was sold to different buyers, and he saw his mother harshly beaten when she tried to keep him with her. Making the best of his lot, Henson worked diligently and rose far in his owner's regard.
还是孩子的亨森在马里兰州目睹着全家人被卖给不同的主人，看到母亲为了想把自己留在她身边而遭受毒打。亨森非常认命，干活勤勉，深受主人器重。
18 Money problems eventually compelled his master to send Henson, his wife and children to a brother in Kentucky. After laboring there for several years, Henson heard alarming news: the new master was planning to sell him for plantation work far away in the Deep South. The slave would be separated forever from his family.
经济困顿最终迫使亨森的主人将他及其妻儿送到主人在肯塔基州的一个兄弟处。在那儿干了几年苦工之后，亨森听说了一个可怕的消息：新主人准备把他卖到遥远的南方腹地去农庄干活。这名奴隶将与自己的家人永远分离。
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19 There was only one answer: flight. \"I knew the North Star,\" Henson wrote years later. \"Like the star of Bethlehem, it announced where my salvation lay. \"
只有一条路可走：逃亡。“我会认北斗星，”许多年后亨森写道。“就像圣地伯利恒的救星一样，它告诉我在哪里可以获救。”
20 At huge risk, Henson and his wife set off with their four children. Two weeks later, starving and exhausted, the family reached Cincinnati, where they made contact with members of the Underground Railroad. \"Carefully they provided for our welfare, and then they set us thirty miles on our way by wagon.\"
亨森和妻子冒着极大的风险带着四个孩子上路了。两个星期之后，饥饿疲惫的一家人来到了辛辛那提州，在那儿，他们与地下铁路的成员取得了联系。“他们为我们提供了食宿，非常关心，接着又用车送了我们30英里。”
21 The Hensons continued north, arriving at last in Buffalo, N. Y. There a friendly captain pointed across the Niagara River. \"'Do you see those trees?' he said. 'They grow on free soil.'\" He gave Henson a dollar and arranged for a boat, which carried the slave and his family across the river to Canada.
亨森一家继续往北走，最后来到纽约州的布法罗。在那儿，一位友善的船长指着尼亚加拉河对岸。“‘看见那些树没有？’他说，‘它们生长在自由的土地上。’”他给了亨森一美元钱，安排了一条小船，小船载着这位黑奴及其家人过河来到加拿大。
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22 \"I threw myself on the ground, rolled in the sand and danced around, till, in the eyes of several who were present, I passed for a madman. 'He's some crazy fellow,' said a Colonel Warren.\"
“我扑倒在地，在沙土里打滚，手舞足蹈，最后，在场的那几个人都认定我是疯子。‘他是个疯子，’有个沃伦上校说。”
23 \"'Oh, no! Don't you know? I'm free!'\"
“‘不，不是的！知道吗？我自由了！’”
Unit3 Text A The Land of the Lock锁之国
鲍伯·格林Bob Greene
1 In the house where I grew up, it was our custom to leave the front door on the latch at night. I don't know if that was a local term or if it is universal; \"on the latch\" meant the door was closed but not locked. None of us carried keys; the last one in for the evening would close up, and that was it.
小时候在家里，我们的前门总是夜不落锁。我不知道这是当地的一种说法还是大家都这么说；\"不落锁\"的意思是掩上门，但不锁住。我们谁都不带钥匙；晚上最后一个回家的人把门关上，这就行了。
2 Those days are over. In rural areas as well as in cities, doors do not stay unlocked, even for part of an evening.
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那样的日子已经一去不复返了。在乡下，在城里，门不再关着不锁上，哪怕是傍晚一段时间也不例外。
3 Suburbs and country areas are, in many ways, even more vulnerable than well-patroled urban streets. Statistics show the crime rate rising more dramatically in those allegedly tranquil areas than in cities. At any rate, the era of leaving the front door on the latch is over.
在许多方面，郊区和农村甚至比巡查严密的城市街道更易受到攻击。统计显示，那些据称是安宁的地区的犯罪率上升得比城镇更为显著。不管怎么说，前门虚掩不落锁的时代是一去不复返了。
4 It has been replaced by dead-bolt locks, security chains, electronic alarm systems and trip wires hooked up to a police station or private guard firm. Many suburban families have sliding glass doors on their patios, with steel bars elegantly built in so no one can pry the doors open.
取而代之的是防盗锁、防护链、电子报警系统，以及连接警署或私人保安公司的报警装置。郊区的许多人家在露台上安装了玻璃滑门，内侧有装得很讲究的钢条，这样就没人能把门撬开。
5 It is not uncommon, in the most pleasant of homes, to see pasted on the windows small notices announcing that the premises are under surveillance by this security force or that guard company. 在最温馨的居家，也常常看得到窗上贴着小小的告示，称本宅由某家安全机构或某个保安公司负责监管。
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6 The lock is the new symbol of America. Indeed, a recent public-service advertisement by a large insurance company featured not charts showing how much at risk we are, but a picture of a child's bicycle with the now-usual padlock attached to it.
锁成了美国的新的象征。的确，一家大保险公司最近的一则公益广告没有用图表表明我们所处的危险有多大，而是用了一幅童车的图片，车身上悬着如今无所不在的挂锁。
7 The ad pointed out that, yes, it is the insurance companies that pay for stolen goods, but who is going to pay for what the new atmosphere of distrust and fear is doing to our way of life? Who is going to make the psychic payment for the transformation of America from the Land of the Free to the Land of the Lock?
广告指出，没错，确是保险公司理赔失窃物品，但谁来赔偿互不信任、担心害怕这种新氛围对我们的生活方式所造成的影响呢？谁来对美国从自由之国到锁之国这一蜕变作出精神赔偿呢？
8 For that is what has happened. We have become so used to defending ourselves against the new atmosphere of American life, so used to putting up barriers, that we have not had time to think about what it may mean.
因为那就是现状。我们已经变得如此习惯于保护自己不受美国生活新氛围的影响，如此习惯于设置障碍，因而无暇考虑这一切意味着什么。
9 For some reason we are satisfied when we think we are well-protected; it
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does not occur to us to ask ourselves: Why has this happened? Why are we having to barricade ourselves against our neighbors and fellow citizens, and when, exactly, did this start to take over our lives?
出于某种原因，当我们觉得防范周密时就感到心满意足；我们没有问过自己：为什么会出现这种情况？为什么非得把自己与邻居和同住一城的居民相隔绝，这一切究竟是从什么时候开始主宰我们生活的？
10 And it has taken over. If you work for a medium- to large-size company, chances are that you don't just wander in and out of work. You probably carry some kind of access card, electronic or otherwise, that allows you in and out of your place of work. Maybe the security guard at the front desk knows your face and will wave you in most days, but the fact remains that the business you work for feels threatened enough to keep outsiders away via these \"keys.\"
这一切确是主宰了我们的生活。如果你在一家大中型公司上班，你上下班很可能不好随意进出。你可能随身带着某种出入卡，电子的或别的什么的，因为这卡能让你进出工作场所。也许前台的保安认识你这张脸，平日一挥手让你进去，但事实明摆着，你所任职的公司深感面临威胁，因此要借助这些“钥匙”不让外人靠近。
11 It wasn't always like this. Even a decade ago, most private businesses had a policy of free access. It simply didn't occur to managers that the proper thing to do was to distrust people.
这一现象并非向来有之。即使在十年前，大多数私营公司仍采取自由出入的做法。
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那时管理人员根本没想到过恰当的手段是不信任他人。
12 Look at the airports. Parents used to take children out to departure gates to watch planes land and take off. That's all gone. Airports are no longer a place of education and fun; they are the most sophisticated of security sites.
且看各地机场。过去家长常常带孩子去登机口看飞机起飞降落。这种事再也没有了。机场不再是一个有趣的学习场所；它们成了拥有最精密的安全检查系统的场所。
13 With electronic X-ray equipment, we seem finally to have figured out a way to hold the terrorists, real and imagined, at bay; it was such a relief to solve this problem that we did not think much about what such a state of affairs says about the quality of our lives. We now pass through these electronic friskers without so much as a sideways glance; the machines, and what they stand for, have won.
凭借着电子透视装置，我们似乎终于想出妙计让恐怖分子无法近身，无论是真的恐怖分子还是凭空臆想的。能解决这一问题真是如释重负，于是我们不去多想这种状况对我们的生活质量意味着什么。如今我们走过这些电子搜查器时已经看都不看一眼了，这些装置，还有它们所代表的一切已经获胜。
14 Our neighborhoods are bathed in high-intensity light; we do not want to afford ourselves even so much a luxury as a shadow.
我们的居住区处在强光源的照射下；我们连哪怕像阴影这样小小的享受也不想给自
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己。
15 Businessmen, in increasing numbers, are purchasing new machines that hook up to the telephone and analyze a caller's voice. The machines are supposed to tell the businessman, with a small margin of error, whether his friend or client is telling lies.
越来越多的商人正购置连接在电话机上、能剖析来电者声音的新机器。据说那种机器能让商人知道他的朋友或客户是否在撒谎，其出错概率很小。
16 All this is being done in the name of \"security\"; that is what we tell ourselves. We are fearful, and so we devise ways to lock the fear out, and that, we decide, is what security means.
所有这一切都是以“安全”的名义实施的：我们是这么跟自己说的。我们害怕，于是我们设法把害怕锁在外面，我们认定，那就是安全的意义。
17 But no; with all this \"security,\" we are perhaps the most insecure nation in the history of civilized man. What better word to describe the way in which we have been forced to live? What sadder reflection on all that we have become in this new and puzzling time?
其实不然；我们虽然有了这一切安全措施，但我们或许是人类文明史上最不安全的国民。还有什么更好的字眼能用来描述我们被迫选择的生活方式呢？还有什么更为可悲地表明我们在这个令人困惑的新时代所感受到的惶恐之情呢？
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18 We trust no one. Suburban housewives wear rape whistles on their station wagon key chains. We have become so smart about self-protection that, in the end, we have all outsmarted ourselves. We may have locked the evils out, but in so doing we have locked ourselves in.
我们不信任任何人。郊区的家庭主妇在客货两用车钥匙链上挂着防强暴口哨。我们在自我防卫方面变得如此聪明，最终聪明反被聪明误。我们或许是把邪恶锁在了门外，但在这么做的同时我们把自己锁在里边了。
19 That may be the legacy we remember best when we look back on this age: In dealing with the unseen horrors among us, we became prisoners of ourselves. All of us prisoners, in this time of our troubles.
那也许是我们将来回顾这一时代时记得最牢的精神遗产：在对付我们中间无形的恐惧之时，我们成了自己的囚徒。在我们这个问题重重的时代，所有的人都是囚徒。
Unit3 Text B Why I Bought A Gun我为什么买枪
Gail Buchalter盖尔•巴卡尔特
1 I was raised in one of Manhattan's more desirable neighborhoods. My upper-middle-class background never
involved guns. If my parents felt threatened, they simply put another lock on the door.
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我在曼哈顿一个相当不错的社区长大。我的中上阶级的社会背景从来与枪支无涉。我的父母要是觉
得有威胁存在他们仅仅是在门上再加把锁。
2 By high school, I had traded in my cashmere sweaters for a black arm band. I marched for Civil Rights,
shunned Civil Defense drills and protested the Vietnam war. It was easy being 18 and a peacenik. I wasn't raising
an 11-year-old child then.
高中时我用一件开司米羊毛衫跟人换了个黑色的臂章。我参加人权游行反对国防演习抗议越
南战争。作为妙龄18 的少女当一名反战分子真是轻松自在。那时我还没有一个11 岁的孩子要抚养。
3 (1) Today, I am typical of the women whom gun manufactures have been aiming at as potential buyers --
and one of the millions who have taken the plunge.
时至今日我成了一个典型的被枪支制造商看重并视为其潜在买主的那种女人--成了成千上万个采
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取这种行动的人中的一员。
4 I began questioning my pacifist beliefs one Halloween night in Phoenix, where I had moved when I married.
I was almost home when another car nearly hit mine head-on. With the speed of a New York cabbie, I rolled down
my window and screamed curses as the driver passed. He instantly made a U-turn, almost climbing on my back
bumper. By now, he and his two friends were hanging out of the car windows, yelling that they were going to rape,
cut and kill me.
一个万圣节的晚上在我婚后移居的凤凰城我开始怀疑自己的和平主义信条。一辆车与我的车差
点迎头相撞时我几乎都到家了。我以纽约城出租车司机的敏捷快速摇下车窗高声咒骂那位开车的。他
当即掉转车头几乎撞上我的车后保险杠。这时他和两个同伴从车窗伸出头来嚷嚷着要强奸我砍我
杀了我。
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5 I already had turned into our driveway when I realized my husband wasn't home. I was trapped. The car had
pulled in behind me. I drove up to the back porch and got into the kitchen, where our dogs stood waiting for me.
The three men spilled out of their car and into our yard. 我开进车道才想起丈夫不在家。这下我进退两
难。那辆车尾随着跟了进来。我把车开到后门廊停下冲进厨房我家的那两条狗站在那儿等我。那三个
家伙从汽车里一拥而出进了院子。
6 My heart was pumping. I grabbed the collars of Jack, our 200-pound Irish wolfhound, and his 140-pound
malamute buddy, Slush. Then I kicked open the back door -- I was so scared that I became aggressive -- and
actually dared the three creeps to keep coming. With the dogs, the odds had changed in my favor, and the men ran
back to the safety of their car, yelling that they'd be back the next day to blow me away. Fortunately, they never
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returned.
我的心怦怦直跳。我抓起杰克和斯露西的颈圈――一条是200 磅重的爱尔兰狼狗另一条是它的伙
伴140 磅重的北极犬。随后我一脚踢开后门――我吓坏了变得暴躁好斗――事实上我要激那三人过来。
有狗相助局势变得对我有利他们退回安全的车里嚷嚷着说要明天来宰了我。总算幸运他们没再露
面。
7 A few years and one divorce later, I headed for Los Angeles with my 3-year-old son, Jordan (the dogs had
since departed). When I put him in preschool a few weeks later, the headmistress noted that I was a single parent
and immediately warned me that there was a rapist in my new neighborhood.
几年后我离了婚带着3 岁的儿子乔丹前往洛杉矶那两条狗也死了。几个星期后我送他去幼
儿园老师发现我是个单身母亲马上提醒我我刚搬入的居住区里有个强奸犯。
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8 I called the police, who confirmed this fact. The rapist followed no particular pattern. Sometimes he would
be waiting in his victim's house; other times he would break in while the person was asleep. Although it was
summer, I would carefully lock my windows at night and then lie there and sweat in fear. Thankfully, the rapist
was caught, but not before he had attacked two more women.
我给警察局打了个电话他们证实了这一情况。那个强奸犯没有什么特别的作案规律。有时他在受
害者家里等候有时他趁人入睡时潜入。当时正是夏天可夜间我还是谨慎地锁住窗户然后躺在床上
吓得浑身是汗。谢天谢地那个强奸犯被逮捕了可那是在他又强暴了两名女子之后。
9 Soon the papers were telling yet another tale of senseless horror. Richard Bamirez, who became known as
\"The Walk-In Killer,\" spent months crippling and killing before he was caught. (2) His alleged crimes were so
brutal, his desire to inflict pain so intense, that I began to question my beliefs
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about not taking human life under
any circumstances. The thought of taking a human life disgusts me, but the idea of being someone's victim is
worse. And how, I began to ask myself, do you talk pacifism to a murderer or a rapist?
不久报纸上又报道起另一个丧心病狂的恐怖人物的事来。此人名叫理查德•巴米里人称“入室
杀手”被抓获前一连几个月残害、杀死他人。据称他的犯罪行为非常野蛮他加害于人的欲望非常强
烈这使我开始对自己在任何情况下决不杀人的信念产生了怀疑。取人性命的想法令我憎恨但成为他人
受害者的念头更可怕。我开始问自己你怎么跟一个杀人犯或强奸犯来谈论和平呢
10 Finally, I decided that I would defend myself, even if it meant killing another person. (3) I realized that the
one-sided pacifism I once so strongly had advocated could backfire on me and worse, on my son. Reluctantly, I
concluded that I had to insure the best option for our survival. My choices: to
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count on a cop or to own a pistol.
最后我决定要自我防卫哪怕这意味着杀死他人。我意识到自己曾积极提倡的一厢情愿的和平
主义会为害自身更糟的是会为害我的儿子。于是我极不情愿地决定为了我们的生存我必须确保有
一个最佳选择方案。我的选择依靠警察或拥有一支枪。
11 I called a man I had met a while ago who, I remembered, owned several guns. He told me he had a Smith
& Wesson 38 Special for sale and recommended it, since it was small enough for me to handle yet had the
necessary stopping power.
我给不久前认识的一个人打电话我记得他有好几支枪。他告诉我他有一支史密斯韦森0.38 口
径特种枪要出售建议我买下因为那支枪小巧好使又有必要的威慑力。
12 I bought the gun. That same day, I got six rounds of special ammunition with plastic tips that explode on
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impact. These are not for target practice; these are for protection.
我买下了枪。在同一天我弄到了6 发包着塑料头、一撞击就崩碎的特别的子弹。这些子弹不是打
靶练习用的是防身用的。
13 For about $50, I also picked up a metal safety box. Its push-button lock opens with a touch if you know the
proper combination, possibly taking only a second or two longer than it does to reach into a night-table drawer.
Now I knew that my son, Jordan, couldn't get his hands on it while I still could.
花了大约50 美元我还买了个金属安全盒。如果知道正确的暗码它的按钮式锁一碰就开大概
比伸手去床头柜抽屉取他只慢一两秒钟。我知道儿子乔丹拿不到它但我拿得到。
14 When I brought the gun home, Jordan was fascinated by it. He kept picking it up, while I nervously
watched. But knowledge, I believe, is still our greatest defense. And since I'm in favor of education for sex, AIDS
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and learning to drive, I couldn't draw the line at teaching my son about guns.
我把枪拿回家乔丹兴奋得不得了。他不停地拿起来看我紧张地瞧着。但我相信知识仍是我们
最有力的防范手段。由于我主张对孩子进行性知识教育艾滋病知识教育以及让孩子学会开车我不能
不赞成教儿子关于枪的知识。
15 Next, I took the pistol and my son to the target range. I rented a 22-caliber pistol for Jordan. (A .38 was too
much gun for him to handle.) I was relieved when he put it down after 10 minutes -- he didn't like the feel of it.
随后我携枪带儿子去射击场。我给乔丹租了一支0.22 口径的手枪。0.38 口径的他摆弄不了。10
分钟后他放下了枪我不禁松了口气――他不喜欢握枪的感觉。
16 But that didn't prevent him from asking me if he should use the gun if someone broke into our house while
I wasn't home. I shouted \"no!\" so loud, we both jumped. I explained that, if someone ever broke in, he's young and
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agile enough to leap out the window and run for his life.
但他并不因此不来问我如果我不在家时有人闯入他能不能用枪。我大喝一声“不行”喊声响
得把我们都吓得跳了起来。我解释说要是真有人闯入他人小又灵活完全可以跳窗逃生。
17 Today he couldn't care less about the gun. Every so often, when were watching television in my room, I
practice opening the safety box, and Jordan times me. I'm down to three seconds. I'll ask him what's the first thing
you do when you handle a gun, and he looks at me like I'm stupid, saying: \"Make sure it's unloaded. But I'm not to
touch it or tell my friends about it.\" Jordan's already bored with it all.
如今他对那支枪早没了兴趣。两人在我的卧室一起看电视时我常常练习开启安全盒乔丹替我计
时。我已经快到只需要3 秒钟了。我会问他拿枪时第一件要做的事是什么他像看傻瓜似的看着我说
“要看看子弹是不是没上膛。不过我是不会去碰它也不会跟朋友们说的。”乔丹对枪
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已经厌倦了。
18 I, on the other hand, look forward to Mondays -- \"Ladies' Night\" at the target range -- when I get to shoot
for free. I buy a box of bullets and some targets from the guy behind the counter, put on the protective eye and ear
coverings and walk through the double doors to the firing lines.
而我则盼着每个星期一――射击场的“女士专场”――我可以免费练习射击。我在柜台上买一盒子
弹几个靶子戴上护眼罩和护耳罩穿过双层门来到射击区。
19 Once there, I load my gun, look down the sights of the barrel and adjust my aim. I fire six rounds into the
chest of a life-sized target hanging 25 feet away. As each bullet rips a hole through the figure drawn there, I realize
I'm getting used to owning a gun and no longer feeling faint when I pick it up. The weight of it has become
comfortable in my hand. And I am keeping my promise to practice. Too many people are killed by their own guns
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because they don't know how to use them.
到了那儿我把子弹装上膛看着枪管上的瞄准器调整瞄准方向。我对着25 英尺开外的真人大小
的靶子的胸部连发6 弹。随着一发发子弹洞穿对面画着的图像我意识到自己正在习惯拥有枪支拿枪
时不再害怕了。枪的重量在手上已觉得挺舒服。我坚持练习。太多的人由于不知如何使用枪而死在自己的
枪下。
20 It took me years to decide to buy a gun, and then weeks before I could load it. It gave me nightmares.
我花了好多年才决定买枪又花了好几个星期才学会把子弹装上膛。枪让我恶梦不断。
21 One night I dreamed I woke up when someone broke into our house. I grabbed my gun and sat waiting at
the foot of my bed. Finally, I saw him turn the corner as he headed toward me. He was big and filled the hallway
-- an impossible target to miss. I didn't want to shoot, but I knew my survival was on the line. (4) I wrapped my
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finger around the trigger and finally squeezed it, simultaneously accepting the intruder's death at my own hand
and the relief of not being a victim. I woke up as soon as I decided to shoot.
一天夜晚我梦见自己醒来发现有人闯进屋子。我一把抓起枪坐在床脚处等着。最后我看着他
拐过墙角朝我走来。他很高大把过道都堵住了――根本不可能击不中。我不想开枪但我知道生死在此
一搏。我手指扣住扳机最后用力一扣准备在亲手结束侵入者性命的同时庆幸自己没有成为牺牲品。就
在我决定开枪时我醒了。
22 I was tearfully relieved that it had only been a dream.
我如释重负不由得热泪长流幸亏这只是个梦。
23 I never have weighed the consequences of an act as strongly as I have that of buying a gun -- but, then
again, I never have done anything with such deadly consequences. Most of my friends refuse even to discuss it
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with me. They believe that violence leads to violence.
我从来没有像在买枪一事上对某种行为的后果如此反复权衡――可是我也从来没做过后果如此严
重的事。我的大多数朋友甚至不肯跟我谈论这事。他们认为暴力只能导致暴力。
24 They're probably right.
他们或许是对的。
Unit4 Text A Was Einstein a Space Alien?
1 Albert Einstein was exhausted. For the third night in a row, his baby son Hans, crying, kept the household awake until dawn. When Albert finally dozed off ... it was time to get up and go to work. He couldn't skip a day. He needed the job to support his young family.
艾伯特爱因斯坦被搞得筋疲力尽.连续第三个晚上，他的宝贝儿子汉斯，哭泣，让家人清醒直到黎明。当艾伯特终于睡着了是时候起床去工作。他不能跳过一天。他需要工作来养活家人。
2 Walking briskly to the Patent Office, where he was a \"Technical Expert, Third Class,\" Albert worried about his mother. She was getting older and frail, and she didn't approve of his marriage to Mileva. Relations were strained. Albert
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glanced at a passing shop window. His hair was a mess; he had forgotten to comb it again.
他轻快地走到专利局，在那里他是一个“技术专家，第三级，”艾伯特担心他的母亲。她越来越虚弱，她不赞成他与米列娃结婚，关系紧张。艾伯特看了一眼路过商店的橱窗。他的头发是一个烂摊子，他忘了梳一遍。
3 Work. Family. Making ends meet. Albert felt all the pressure and responsibility of any young husband and father.
工作。家庭。使收支平衡。艾伯特感受到任何年轻的丈夫和父亲所有的压力和责任的
To relax, he revolutionized physics.
放松，他彻底改变了物理学。
4 In 1905, at the age of 26 and four years before he was able to get a job as a professor of physics, Einstein published five of the most important papers in the history of science--all written in his \"spare time.\" He proved that atoms and molecules existed. Before 1905, scientists weren't sure about that. He argued that light came in little bits (later called \"photons\") and thus laid the foundation for quantum mechanics. He described his theory of special relativity: space and time were threads in a common fabric, he proposed, which could be bent, stretched and twisted.
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1905年，在年龄26时，四年前他找到了工作作为一个物理学教授，爱因斯坦出版了五个最重要的论文在科学史”——所有在他的空余时间写的。”他证明了原子和分子的存在。1905年之前，科学家们不清楚那些。他认为光是小块，后来被称为“光子”，从而奠定了量子力的学基础。他描述了他的狭义相对论理论，空间和时间是同一个织物的线，他提出那是可弯曲、拉伸和扭曲的。
5 Oh, and by the way, E=mc2.
哦,顺便说一句,E = mc2
6 Before Einstein, the last scientist who had such a creative outburst was Sir Isaac Newton. It happened in 1666 when Newton secluded himself at his mother's farm to avoid an outbreak of plague at Cambridge. With nothing better to do, he developed his Theory of Universal Gravitation.
在爱因斯坦之前，最后一个有这样突出创意的科学家，是艾萨克牛顿先生。它发生在1666时，牛顿隔离自己母亲的农场去避免爆发在剑桥的瘟疫。没有什么更好的事，他提出了他的万有引力
7 For centuries historians called 1666 Newton's annus mirabilis, or \"miracle year.\" Now those words have a different meaning: Einstein and 1905. The United Nations has declared 2005 \"The World Year of Physics\" to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein's annus mirabilis.
几个世纪以来,历史学家称为1666牛顿的“奇迹年。现在这些话有不同的意义:爱因
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斯坦和1905。联合国已经宣布2005年“世界物理年“庆祝爱因斯坦“奇迹年的100周年
8 Modern pop culture paints Einstein as a bushy-haired superthinker. His ideas, we're told, were improbably far ahead of other scientists. He must have come from some other planet--maybe the same one Newton grew up on.
现代流行文化吧爱因斯坦画一个bushy-haired superthinker。我们被告之他的想法，是不可能远远领先于其他科学家。他一定是从其他星球来的——也许是牛顿长大的同一个星球。
9 \"Einstein was no space alien,\" laughs Harvard University physicist and science historian Peter Galison. \"He was a man of his time.\" All of his 1905 papers unraveled problems being worked on, with mixed success, by other scientists. \"If Einstein hadn't been born, [those papers] would have been written in some form, eventually, by others,\" Galison believes.
“爱因斯坦不是外星人。”哈佛大学物理学家和科学史家彼得笑到。“他是他那个时代的人。”他所有的1905年的文件揭开问题正在被其他科学家研究，成败参半。“如果爱因斯坦没有出生的 [文件]将最终由他人以某种形式写出来”Galison说
10 What's remarkable about 1905 is that a single person authored all five papers, plus the original, irreverent way Einstein came to his conclusions.
1905年值得注意的是，一个人撰写的五个文件的全部，加上原有的，爱因斯坦以不
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敬的方式得到自己的结论。
11 For example: the photoelectric effect. This was a puzzle in the early 1900s. When light hits a metal, like zinc, electrons fly off. This can happen only if light comes in little packets concentrated enough to knock an electron loose. A spread-out wave wouldn't do the photoelectric trick.
例如，光电效应。这在20世纪初是一个难题。当光照射到金属，如锌，电子会飞。只来一点点光集中集中撞击自由电子这才会发生。传播的波不具有光电效果。
12 The solution seems simple--light is particulate. Indeed, this is the solution Einstein proposed in 1905 and won the Nobel Prize for in 1921. Other physicists like Max Planck (working on a related problem: blackbody radiation), more senior and experienced than Einstein, were closing in on the answer, but Einstein got there first. Why?
解决办法似乎很简单——光的微粒。事实上，这是，爱因斯坦在1905年提出的解决方案并在1921获得了诺贝尔奖。其他物理学家如普朗克，工作相关的问题上，黑体辐射比爱因斯坦更先一步更有经验，步步逼近答案，但爱因斯坦先到那里。为什么呢
It's a question of authority.
这是一个问题的权威。
13 \"In Einstein's day, if you tried to say that light was made of particles, you
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found yourself disagreeing with physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Nobody wanted to do that,\" says Galison. Maxwell's equations were enormously successful, unifying the physics of electricity, magnetism and optics. Maxwell had proved beyond any doubt that light was an electromagnetic wave. Maxwell was an Authority Figure.
“在爱因斯坦的时代，如果你想说，光是由粒子构成的，你发现自己不同意的物理学家杰姆斯麦斯威尔的理论。“没有人想做这样的事。”Galison说。麦斯威尔方程取得了巨大的成功，统一的物理电磁和光学。麦斯威尔毫无疑问证明光是一种电磁波。麦斯威尔是一个权威人物。
14 Einstein didn't give a fig for authority. He didn't resist being told what to do, not so much, but he hated being told what was true. Even as a child he was constantly doubting and questioning. \"Your mere presence here undermines the class's respect for me,\" spat his 7th grade teacher, Dr. Joseph Degenhart. (Degenhart also predicted that Einstein \"would never get anywhere in life.\") This character flaw was to be a key ingredient in Einstein's discoveries.
爱因斯坦不在乎权威。他没有反抗被告知要做什么，但他讨厌被告诉什么是真理。即使作为一个孩子，他不断的怀疑和质疑。“你的存在在这里破坏了班级对我尊敬。”他第七年级的老师约瑟夫博士狄根哈特说。“狄根哈特还预测，爱因斯坦将一事无成”，这一性格缺陷是爱因斯坦发现的一个关键因素。
15 \"In 1905,\" notes Galison, \"Einstein had just received his Ph.D. He wasn't beholden to a thesis advisor or any other authority figure.\" His mind was free to roam accordingly.
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“在1905年，”Galison记录，“爱因斯坦刚刚获得博士学位。他不感激于一个导师或任何其他权威人物。”他的思想在自由漫游因此
16 In retrospect, Maxwell was right. Light is a wave. But Einstein was right, too. Light is a particle. This bizarre duality baffles Physics 101 students today just as it baffledEinstein in 1905. How can light be both? Einstein had no idea.
回想起来，麦斯威尔是正确的。光是一种波动。但爱因斯坦也是对的。光是粒子。这个奇特的二元性物质物理困惑physic101的学生一样在1905年困惑爱因斯坦。怎么光是二元性？爱因斯坦不知道。
17 That didn't slow him down. Disdaining caution, Einstein adopted the intuitive leap as a basic tool. \"I believe in intuition and inspiration,\" he wrote in 1931. \"At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason.\"
不过这不能使他慢下来。蔑视谨慎爱因斯坦采用了直观的飞跃，作为一个基本工具。“我相信直觉和灵感，”他写道，在1931年。“有时我觉得我是对的但不知道原因。”
18 Although Einstein's five papers were published in a single year, he had been thinking about physics, deeply, since childhood. \"Science was dinner-table conversation inthe Einstein household,\" explains Galison. Albert's father Hermann and uncle Jakob ran a German company making such things as dynamos, arc lamps, light bulbs and telephones. This was high-tech at the turn of the century, \"like a Silicon Valley company would be today,\" notes Galison. \"Albert's interest in science and technology came naturally.\"
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尽管爱因斯坦的五篇论文发表在一年的时间里，但他一直自童年开始在深深地思考物理学。“在爱因斯坦家中，科学是餐桌上的谈话”Galison解释到。艾伯特的父亲赫尔曼和叔叔雅各布一家制造发电机、电弧灯、灯泡、电话的德国公司。这是世纪之交的高科技，“像现在一个在硅谷公司。”Galison记录。“艾伯特对科技自然感兴趣。”
19 Einstein's parents sometimes took Albert to parties. No babysitter was required: Albert sat on the couch, totally absorbed, quietly doing math problems while others danced around him. Pencil and paper were Albert's GameBoy!
爱因斯坦的父母有时会带艾伯特参加聚会。保姆是不必要的，当其他人在他周围跳舞时艾伯特坐在沙发上，全神贯注，静静地做数学题而。笔和纸是艾伯特的玩具！
20 He had impressive powers of concentration. Einstein's sister, Maja, recalled \"...even when there was a lot of noise, he could lie down on the sofa, pick up a pen and paper, precariously balance an inkwell on the backrest and engross himself in a problem so much that the background noise stimulated rather than disturbed him.\"
他有令人印象深刻的专注力。爱因斯坦的妹妹，玛雅，回忆说，“„„即使有很大的噪音，他会躺在沙发上，拿起纸和笔，悠悠地平衡一个放在靠背墨水瓶使他自己全神贯注的沉浸在问题中就如同背景噪声促进而不是打扰他。”
21 Einstein was clearly intelligent, but not outlandishly more so than his peers. \"I have no special talents,\" he claimed, \"I am only passionately curious.\" And again: \"The contrast between the popular assessment of my powers ... and the
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reality is simply grotesque.\" Einstein credited his discoveries to imagination and pesky questioning more so than orthodox intelligence.
爱因斯坦很聪明,但没有比他的同行更特殊的地方。“我没有特殊的才能.”他说:“我只是有强烈的好奇心。”又说:“关于我力量的流行评估„和现实的对比真是荒唐。”爱因斯坦将他的发现归功于想象力和无止境的提问而不是传统的智慧。
22 Later in life, it should be remembered, he struggled mightily to produce a unified field theory, combining gravity with other forces of nature. He failed. Einstein's brainpower wasnot limitless.
在后来的生活中,我们应该记住他努力产生一个统一场理论结合重力和其他自然
的力量。他失败了。爱因斯坦的智慧不是无限的
23 Neither was Einstein's brain. It was removed without permission by Dr. Thomas Harvey in 1955 when Einstein died. He probably expected to find something extraordinary. But Einstein's brain looked much like any other, gray, crinkly, and, if anything, a trifle smaller than average.
爱因斯坦的大脑也是如此。它被托马斯博士哈维在1955年爱因斯坦死的时候移除。他可能期待会发现一些惊人的事,但爱因斯坦的大脑看起来像任何其他一样,灰色,起皱,并且,如果非要说什么不同,比一般人的小一点
Unit5 Text A Writing Three Thank-You Letters写三封感谢信
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亚利克斯·黑利Alex Haley
1 It was 1943, during World War II, and I was a young U. S. coastguardsman. My ship, the USS Murzim, had been under way for several days. Most of her holds contained thousands of cartons of canned or dried foods. The other holds were loaded with five-hundred-pound bombs packed delicately in padded racks. Our destination was a big base on the island of Tulagi in the South Pacific.
那是在二战期间的1943年，我是个年轻的美国海岸警卫队队员。我们的船，美国军舰军市一号已出海多日。多数船舱装着成千上万箱罐装或风干的食品。其余的船舱装着不少五百磅重的炸弹，都小心翼翼地放在垫过的架子上。我们的目的地是南太平洋图拉吉岛上一个规模很大的基地。
2 I was one of the Murzim's several cooks and, quite the same as for folk ashore, this Thanksgiving morning had seen us busily preparing a traditional dinner featuring roast turkey.
我是军市一号上的一个厨师，跟岸上的人一样，那个感恩节的上午，我们忙着在准备一道以烤火鸡为主的传统菜肴。
3 Well, as any cook knows, it's a lot of hard work to cook and serve a big meal, and clean up and put everything away. But finally, around sundown, we finished at last.
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当厨师的都知道，要烹制一顿大餐，摆上桌，再刷洗、收拾干净，是件辛苦的事。不过，等到太阳快下山时，我们总算全都收拾停当了。
4 I decided first to go out on the Murzim's afterdeck for a breath of open air. I made my way out there, breathing in great, deep draughts while walking slowly about, still wearing my white cook's hat.
我想先去后甲板透透气。我信步走去，一边深深呼吸着空气，一边慢慢地踱着步，头上仍戴着那顶白色的厨师帽。
5 I got to thinking about Thanksgiving, of the Pilgrims, Indians, wild turkeys, pumpkins, corn on the cob, and the rest. 我开始思索起感恩节这个节日来，想着清教徒前辈移民、印第安人、野火鸡、南瓜、玉米棒等等。
6 Yet my mind seemed to be in quest of something else -- some way that I could personally apply to the close of Thanksgiving. It must have taken me a half hour to sense that maybe some key to an answer could result from reversing the word \"Thanksgiving\" -- at least that suggested a verbal direction, \"Giving thanks.\"
可我脑子里似乎还在搜索着别的事什么――某种我能够赋予这一节日以个人意义的方式。大概过了半个小时左右我才意识到，问题的关键也许在于把Thanksgiving这个字前后颠倒一下――那样一来至少文字好懂了：Giving thanks。
7 Giving thanks -- as in praying, thanking God, I thought. Yes, of course. Certainly.
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表达谢意――就如在祈祷时感谢上帝那样，我暗想。对啊，是这样，当然是这样。
8 Yet my mind continued turning the idea over.
可我脑子里仍一直盘桓着这事。
9 After a while, like a dawn's brightening, a further answer did come -- that there were people to thank, people who had done so much for me that I could never possibly repay them. The embarrassing truth was I'd always just accepted what they'd done, taken all of it for granted. Not one time had I ever bothered to express to any of them so much as a simple, sincere \"Thank you.\"
过了片刻，如同晨曦初现，一个更清晰的念头终于涌现脑际――要感谢他人，那些赐我以诸多恩惠，我根本无以回报的人们。令我深感不安的实际情形是，我向来对他们所做的一切受之泰然，认为是理所应当。我一次也没想过要对他们中的任何一位真心诚意地说一句简单的谢谢。
10 At least seven people had been particularly and lastingly helpful to me. I realized, swallowing hard, that about half of them had since died -- so they were forever beyond any possible expression of gratitude from me. The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I became. Then I pictured the three who were still alive and, within minutes, I was down in my cabin.
至少有七个人对我有过不同寻常、影响深远的帮助。令人难过的是，我意识到，他们中有一半已经过世了――因此他们永远也无法接受我的谢意了。我越想越感到羞愧。最后
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我想到了仍健在的三位，几分钟后，我就回到了自己的舱房。
11 Sitting at a table with writing paper and memories of things each had done, I tried composing genuine statements of heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to my dad, Simon A. Haley, a professor at the old Agricultural Mechanical Normal College in Pine Bluff, Arkansas; to my grandma, Cynthia Palmer, back in our little hometown of Henning, Tennessee; and to the Rev. Lonual Nelson, my grammar school principal, retired and living in Ripley, six miles north of Henning.
我坐在摊着信纸的桌旁，回想着他们各自对我所做的一切，试图用真挚的文字表达我对他们的由衷的感激之情：父亲西蒙·A·黑利，阿肯色州派因布拉夫那所古老的农业机械师范学院的教授；住在田纳西州小镇亨宁老家的外祖母辛西娅·帕尔默；以及我的文法学校校长，退休后住在亨宁以北6英里处的里普利的洛纽尔·纳尔逊牧师。
12 The texts of my letters began something like, \"Here, this Thanksgiving at sea, I find my thoughts upon how much you have done for me, but I have never stopped and said to you how much I feel the need to thank you -- \" And briefly I recalled for each of them specific acts performed on my behalf.
我的信是这样开头的：“出海在外度过的这个感恩节，令我回想起您为我做了那么多事，但我从来没有对您说过自己是多么想感谢您――”我简短回忆了各位为我所做的具体事例。
13 For instance, something uppermost about my father was how he had impressed upon me from boyhood to love books and reading. In fact, this
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graduated into a family habit of after-dinner quizzes at the table about books read most recently and new words learned. My love of books never diminished and later led me toward writing books myself. So many times I have felt a sadness when exposed to modern children so immersed in the electronic media that they have little or no awareness of the marvelous world to be discovered in books.
例如，我父亲的最不同寻常之处在于，从我童年时代起，他就让我深深意识到要热爱书籍、热爱阅读。事实上，这一爱好渐渐变成一种家庭习惯，晚饭后大家围在餐桌旁互相考查近日所读的书以及新学的单词。我对书籍的热爱从未减弱，日后还引导我自己撰文著书。多少次，当我看到如今的孩子们如此沉迷于电子媒体时，我不由深感悲哀，他们很少，或者根本不了解书中所能发现的神奇世界。
14 I reminded the Reverend Nelson how each morning he would open our little country town's grammar school with a prayer over his assembled students. I told him that whatever positive things I had done since had been influenced at least in part by his morning school prayers.
我跟纳尔逊牧师提及他如何每天清晨和集合在一起的学生做祷告，以此开始乡村小学的一天。我告诉他，我后来所做的任何有意义的事，都至少部分地是受了他那些学校晨祷的影响。
15 In the letter to my grandmother, I reminded her of a dozen ways she used to teach me how to tell the truth, to share, and to be forgiving and considerate of others. I thanked her for the years of eating her good cooking, the equal of which I had not found since. Finally, I thanked her simply for having
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sprinkled my life with stardust.
在给外祖母的信中，我谈到了她用了种种方式教我讲真话，教我与人分享，教我宽恕、体谅他人。我感谢她多年来让我吃到她烧的美味菜肴，离开她后我从来没吃过那么可口的菜肴。最后，我感谢她，因为她在我的生命中撒下美妙的遐想。
16 Before I slept, my three letters went into our ship's office mail sack. They got mailed when we reached Tulagi Island.
睡觉前，我的这三封信都送进了船上的邮袋。我们抵达图拉吉岛后都寄了出去。
17 We unloaded cargo, reloaded with something else, then again we put to sea in the routine familiar to us, and as the days became weeks, my little personal experience receded. Sometimes, when we were at sea, a mail ship would rendezvous and bring us mail from home, which, of course, we accorded topmost priority.
我们卸了货，又装了其它物品，随后我们按熟悉的常规，再次出海。 一天又一天，一星期又一星期，我个人的经历渐渐淡忘。我们在海上航行时，有时会与邮船会合，邮船会带给我们家信，当然这是我们视为最紧要的事情。
18 Every time the ship's loudspeaker rasped, \"Attention! Mail call!\" two hundred-odd shipmates came pounding up on deck and clustered about the two seamen, standing by those precious bulging gray sacks. They were alternately pulling out fistfuls of letters and barking successive names of sailors who were, in
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turn, shouting back \"Here! Here!\" amid the pushing.
每当船上的喇叭响起：“大伙听好！邮件点名！”200名左右的水兵就会冲上甲板，围聚在那两个站在宝贵的鼓鼓囊囊的灰色邮袋旁的水手周围。两人轮流取出一把信，大声念收信水手的名字，叫到的人从人群当中挤出，一边应道：“来了，来了！”
19 One \"mail call\" brought me responses from Grandma, Dad, and the Reverend Nelson -- and my reading of their letters left me not only astonished but more humbled than before.
一次“邮件点名”带给我外祖母，爸爸，以及纳尔逊牧师的回信――我读了信，既震惊又深感卑微。
20 Rather than saying they would forgive that I hadn't previously thanked them, instead, for Pete's sake, they were thanking me -- for having remembered, for having considered they had done anything so exceptional.
他们没有说他们原谅我以前不曾感谢他们，相反，他们向我致谢，天哪，就因为我记得，就因为我认为他们做了不同寻常的事。
21 Always the college professor, my dad had carefully avoided anything he considered too sentimental, so I knew how moved he was to write me that, after having helped educate many young people, he now felt that his best results included his own son.
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身为大学教授的爸爸向来特别留意不使用任何过于感情化的文字，因此， 当他对我写道，在教了许许多多的年轻人之后，他认为自己最优秀的学生当中也包括自己的儿子时，我知道他是多么地感动。
22 The Reverend Nelson wrote that his decades as a \"simple, old-fashioned principal\" had ended with schools undergoing such swift changes that he had retired in self-doubt. \"I heard more of what I had done wrong than what I did right,\" he said, adding that my letter had brought him welcome reassurance that his career had been appreciated.
纳尔逊牧师写道，他那平凡的传统校长的岁月随着学校里发生的如此迅猛的变化而结束，他怀着自我怀疑的心态退了休。“说我做得不对的远远多于说我做得对的，” 他写道，接着说我的信给他带来了振奋人心的信心：自己的校长生涯还是有其价值的。
23 A glance at Grandma's familiar handwriting brought back in a flash memories of standing alongside her white rocking chair, watching her \"settin' down\" some letter to relatives. Character by character, Grandma would slowly accomplish one word, then the next, so that a finished page would consume hours. I wept over the page representing my Grandma's recent hours invested in expressing her loving gratefulness to me -- whom she used to diaper!
一看到外祖母那熟悉的笔迹，我顿时回想起往日站在她的白色摇椅旁看她给亲戚写信的情景。外祖母一个字母一个字母地慢慢拼出一个词，接着是下一个词，因此写满一页要花上几个小时。捧着外祖母最近花费不少工夫对我表达了充满慈爱的谢意，我禁不住流泪――从前是她给我换尿布的呀。
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24 Much later, retired from the Coast Guard and trying to make a living as a writer, I never forgot how those three \"thank you\" letters gave me an insight into how most human beings go about longing in secret for more of their fellows to express appreciation for their efforts.
许多年后，我从海岸警卫队退役，试着靠写作为生，我一直不曾忘记那三封“感谢”信是如何使我认识到，大凡人都暗自期望着有更多的人对自己的努力表达谢意。
25 Now, approaching another Thanksgiving, I have asked myself what will I wish for all who are reading this, for our nation, indeed for our whole world -- since, quoting a good and wise friend of mine, \"In the end we are mightily and merely people, each with similar needs.\" First, I wish for us, of course, the simple common sense to achieve world peace, that being paramount for the very survival of our kind.
现在，感恩节又将来临，我自问，对此文的读者，对我们的祖国，事实上对全世界，我有什么祝愿，因为，用一位善良而且又有智慧的朋友的话来说，“我们究其实都是十分相像的凡人，有着相似的需求。”当然，我首先祝愿大家记住这一简单的常识：实现世界和平，这对我们自身的存亡至关重要。
26 And there is something else I wish -- so strongly that I have had this line printed across the bottom of all my stationery: \"Find the good -- and praise it.\"
此外我还有别的祝愿――这一祝愿是如此强烈，我将这句话印在我所有的信笺底部：“发现并褒扬各种美好的事物。”
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Unit6 Text A The Last Leaf最后一片叶子
欧·亨利O. Henry
1 At the top of a three-story brick building, Sue and Johnsy had their studio. \"Johnsy\" was familiar for Joanna. One was from Maine; the other from California. They had met at a cafe on Eighth Street and found their tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so much in tune that the joint studio resulted.
在一幢三层砖楼的顶层，苏和约翰西辟了个画室。“约翰西”是乔安娜的昵称。她们一位来自缅因州，一位来自加利福尼亚。两人相遇在第八大街的一个咖啡馆，发现各自在艺术品味、菊苣色拉，以及灯笼袖等方面趣味相投，于是就有了这个两人画室。
2 That was in May. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the district, touching one here and there with his icy fingers. Johnsy was among his victims. She lay, scarcely moving on her bed, looking through the small window at the blank side of the next brick house.
那是5月里的事。到了11月，一个医生称之为肺炎的阴森的隐形客闯入了这一地区，用它冰冷的手指东碰西触。约翰西也为其所害。她病倒了，躺在床上几乎一动不动，只能隔着小窗望着隔壁砖房那单调沉闷的侧墙。
3 One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hallway with a bushy, gray eyebrow.
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一天上午，忙碌的医生扬了扬灰白的浓眉，示意苏来到过道。
4 \"She has one chance in ten,\" he said. \"And that chance is for her to want to live. Your little lady has made up her mind that she's not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?
“她只有一成希望，”他说。“那还得看她自己是不是想活下去。你这位女朋友已经下决心不想好了。她有什么心事吗？”
5 \"She -- she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples some day,\" said Sue. “她――她想有一天能去画那不勒斯湾，”苏说。
6 \"Paint? -- bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking about twice -- a man, for instance?\"
“画画？――得了。她有没有别的事值得她留恋的――比如说，一个男人？”
7 \"A man?\" said Sue. \"Is a man worth -- but, no, doctor; there is nothing of the kind.\"
“男人？”苏说。“难道一个男人就值得――可是，她没有啊，大夫，没有这码子事。”
8 \"Well,\" said the doctor. \"I will do all that science can accomplish. But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession I subtract 50 per cent from the curative power of medicines.\" After the doctor had gone Sue went into the workroom and cried. Then she marched into Johnsy's
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room with her drawing board, whistling a merry tune.
“好吧，”大夫说。“我会尽一切努力，只要是科学能做到的。可是，但凡病人开始计算她出殡的行列里有几辆马车的时候，我就要把医药的疗效减去一半。”大夫走后，苏去工作室哭了一场。随后她携着画板大步走进约翰西的房间，口里吹着轻快的口哨。
9 Johnsy lay, scarcely making a movement under the bedclothes, with her face toward the window. She was looking out and counting -- counting backward.
约翰西躺在被子下几乎一动不动，脸朝着窗。她望着窗外，数着数――倒数着数！
10 \"Twelve,\" she said, and a little later \"eleven\"; and then \"ten,\" and \"nine\"; and then \"eight\" and \"seven,\" almost together.
“12，”她数道，过了一会儿“11”，接着数“10”和“9”；再数“8”和“7”，几乎一口同时数下来。
11 Sue looked out of the window. What was there to count? There was only a bare, dreary yard to be seen, and the blank side of the brick house twenty feet away. An old, old ivy vine climbed half way up the brick wall. The cold breath of autumn had blown away its leaves, leaving it almost bare.
苏朝窗外望去。外面有什么好数的呢？外面只看到一个空荡荡的沉闷的院子，还有20英尺开外那砖房的侧墙，上面什么也没有。一棵古老的常青藤爬到半墙高。萧瑟秋风吹落了枝叶，藤上几乎光秃秃的。
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12 \"Six,\" said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. \"They're falling faster now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. It made my head ache to count them. But now it's easy. There goes another one. There are only five left now.\"
“6”，约翰西数着，声音几乎听不出来。“现在叶子掉落得快多了。三天前差不多还有100片。数得我头都疼。可现在容易了。又掉了一片。这下子只剩5片了。”
13 \"Five what, dear? \"
“5片什么，亲爱的？”
14 \"Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too. I've known that for three days. Didn't the doctor tell you?\"
“叶子。常青藤上的叶子。等最后一片叶子掉了，我也就得走了。三天前我就知道会这样。大夫没跟你说吗？”
15 \"Oh, I never heard of such nonsense. What have old ivy leaves to do with your getting well? Don't be so silly. Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances for getting well real soon were ten to one! Try to take some soup now, and let Sudie go and buy port wine for her sick child.\"
“噢，我从没听说过这种胡说八道。常青藤叶子跟你病好不好有什么关系？别这么傻。对了，大夫上午跟我说，你的病十有八九就快好了。快喝些汤，让苏迪给她生病的孩子去买些波尔图葡萄酒来。”
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16 \"You needn't get any more wine,\" said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixed out the window. \"There goes another. No, I don't want any soup. That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before it gets dark. Then I'll go, too. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves.\"
“你不用再去买酒了，”约翰西说道，两眼一直盯着窗外。“又掉了一片。不，我不想喝汤。这一下只剩下4片了。我要在天黑前看到最后一片叶子掉落。那时我也就跟着走了。我都等腻了。也想腻了。我只想撇开一切, 飘然而去，就像那边一片可怜的疲倦的叶子。”
17 \"Try to sleep,\" said Sue. \"I must call Behrman up to be my model for the old miner. I'll not be gone a minute.\"
“快睡吧，”苏说。“我得叫贝尔曼上楼来给我当老矿工模特儿。我去去就来。”
18 Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath them. He was past sixty and had a long white beard curling down over his chest. Despite looking the part, Behrman was a failure in art. For forty years he had been always about to paint a masterpiece, but had never yet begun it. He earned a little by serving as a model to those young artists who could not pay the price of a professional. He drank gin to excess, and still talked of his coming masterpiece. For the rest he was a fierce little old man, who mocked terribly at softness in any one, and who regarded himself as guard dog to the two young artists in the studio above.
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老贝尔曼是住在两人楼下底层的一个画家。他已年过六旬，银白色蜷曲的长髯披挂胸前。贝尔曼看上去挺像艺术家，但在艺术上却没有什么成就。40年来他一直想创作一幅传世之作，却始终没能动手。他给那些请不起职业模特的青年画家当模特挣点小钱。他没节制地喝酒，谈论着他那即将问世的不朽之作。要说其他方面，他是个好斗的小老头，要是谁表现出一点软弱，他便大肆嘲笑，并把自己看成是楼上画室里两位年轻艺术家的看护人。
19 Sue found Behrman smelling strongly of gin in his dimly lighted studio below. In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel that had been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive the first line of the masterpiece. She told him of Johnsy's fancy, and how she feared she would, indeed, light and fragile as a leaf herself, float away, when her slight hold upon the world grew weaker. Old Behrman, with his red eyes plainly streaming, shouted his contempt for such foolish imaginings.
苏在楼下光线暗淡的画室里找到了贝尔曼，他满身酒味刺鼻。屋子一角的画架上支着一张从未落过笔的画布，在那儿搁了25年，等着一幅杰作的起笔。苏把约翰西的怪念头跟他说了，并说约翰西本身就像一片叶子又瘦又弱，她害怕要是她那本已脆弱的生存意志再软下去的话，真的会凋零飘落。老贝尔曼双眼通红，显然是泪涟涟的，他大声叫嚷着说他蔑视这种傻念头。
20 \"What!\" he cried. \"Are there people in the world foolish enough to die because leafs drop off from a vine? I have never heard of such a thing. Why do you allow such silly ideas to come into that head of hers? God! This is not a place in which one so good as Miss Johnsy should lie sick. Some day I will paint a
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masterpiece, and we shall all go away. Yes.\"
“什么！”他嚷道。“世界上竟然有这么愚蠢的人，因为树叶从藤上掉落就要去死？我听都没听说过这等事。你怎么让这种傻念头钻到她那个怪脑袋里？天哪！这不是一个像约翰西小姐这样的好姑娘躺倒生病的地方。有朝一日我要画一幅巨作，那时候我们就离开这里。真的。”
21 Johnsy was sleeping when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the shade down, and motioned Behrman into the other room. In there they peered out the window fearfully at the ivy vine. Then they looked at each other for a moment without speaking. A persistent, cold rain was falling, mingled with snow. Behrman, in his old blue shirt, took his seat as the miner on an upturned kettle for a rock.
两人上了楼，约翰西已经睡着了。苏放下窗帘，示意贝尔曼去另一个房间。在那儿两人惶惶不安地凝视着窗外的常青藤。接着两人面面相觑，哑然无语。外面冷雨夹雪，淅淅沥沥。贝尔曼穿着破旧的蓝色衬衣, 坐在充当矿石的倒置的水壶上，摆出矿工的架势。
22 When Sue awoke from an hour's sleep the next morning she found Johnsy with dull, wide-open eyes staring at the drawn green shade.
第二天早上，只睡了一个小时的苏醒来看到约翰西睁大着无神的双眼，凝望着拉下的绿色窗帘。
23 \"Pull it up; I want to see,\" she ordered, in a whisper.
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“把窗帘拉起来；我要看，”她低声命令道。
24 Wearily Sue obeyed.
苏带着疲倦，遵命拉起窗帘。
25 But, Lo! after the beating rain and fierce wind that had endured through the night, there yet stood out against the brick wall one ivy leaf. It was the last on the vine. Still dark green near its stem, but with its edges colored yellow, it hung bravely from a branch some twenty feet above the ground.
可是，瞧！经过一整夜的急风骤雨，竟然还存留一片常青藤叶，背靠砖墙，格外显目。这是常青藤上的最后一片叶子。近梗部位仍呈暗绿色，但边缘已经泛黄了，它无所畏惧地挂在离地20多英尺高的枝干上。
26 \"It is the last one,\" said Johnsy. \"I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard the wind. It will fall today, and I shall die at the same time.\"
“这是最后一片叶子，”约翰西说。“我以为夜里它肯定会掉落的。我晚上听到大风呼啸。今天它会掉落的，叶子掉的时候，也是我死的时候。”
27 The day wore away, and even through the twilight they could see the lone ivy leaf clinging to its stem against the wall. And then, with the coming of the night the north wind was again loosed.
白天慢慢过去了，即便在暮色黄昏之中，他们仍能看到那片孤零零的常青藤叶子，
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背靠砖墙，紧紧抱住梗茎。尔后，随着夜幕的降临，又是北风大作。
28 When it was light enough Johnsy, the merciless, commanded that the shade be raised.
等天色亮起，冷酷无情的约翰西命令将窗帘拉起。
29 The ivy leaf was still there.
常青藤叶依然挺在。
30 Johnsy lay for a long time looking at it. And then she called to Sue, who was stirring her chicken soup over the gas stove.
约翰西躺在那儿，望着它许久许久。接着她大声呼唤正在煤气灶上搅鸡汤的苏。
31 \"I've been a bad girl, Sudie,\" said Johnsy. \"Something has made that last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was. It is a sin to want to die. You may bring me a little soup now, and some milk with a little port in it and -- no; bring me a hand-mirror first, and then pack some pillows about me, and I will sit up and watch you cook.\"
“我一直像个不乖的孩子，苏迪，”约翰西说。“有一种力量让那最后一片叶子不掉，好让我看到自己有多坏。想死是一种罪过。你给我喝点汤吧，再来点牛奶，稍放一点波尔图葡萄酒――不，先给我拿面小镜子来，弄几个枕头垫在我身边，我要坐起来看你做菜。”
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32 An hour later she said:
一个小时之后，她说：
33 \"Sudie, some day I hope to paint the Bay of Naples.\"
“苏迪，我真想有一天去画那不勒斯海湾。”
34 The doctor came in the afternoon, and Sue had an excuse to go into the hallway as he left.
下午大夫来了，他走时苏找了个借口跟进了过道。
35 \"Even chances,\" said the doctor, taking Sue's thin, shaking hand in his.
“现在是势均力敌，”大夫说着，握了握苏纤细颤抖的手。
36 \"With good nursing you'll win. And now I must see another case I have downstairs. Behrman, his name is -- some kind of an artist, I believe. Pneumonia, too. He is an old, weak man, and the attack is acute. There is no hope for him; but he goes to the hospital today to be made more comfortable.\"
“只要精心照料，你就赢了。现在我得去楼下看另外一个病人了。贝尔曼，是他的名字――记得是个什么画家。也是肺炎。他年老体弱，病来势又猛。他是没救了。不过今天他去了医院，照料得会好一点。”
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37 The next day the doctor said to Sue: \"She's out of danger. You've won. The right food and care now -- that's all.\"
第二天，大夫对苏说：“她脱离危险了。你赢了。注意饮食，好好照顾，就行了。”
38 And that afternoon Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay and put one arm around her.
当日下午，苏来到约翰西的床头，用一只手臂搂住她。
39 \"I have something to tell you, white mouse,\" she said. \"Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia today in the hospital. He was ill only two days. He was found on the morning of the first day in his room downstairs helpless with pain. His shoes and clothing were wet through and icy cold. They couldn't imagine where he had been on such a terrible night. And then they found a lantern, still lighted, and a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and some scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colors mixed on it, and -- look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the wall. Didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew? Ah, darling, it's Behrman's masterpiece -- he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell.\"
“我跟你说件事，小白鼠，”她说。“贝尔曼先生今天在医院里得肺炎去世了。他得病才两天。发病那天上午人家在楼下他的房间里发现他疼得利害。他的鞋子衣服都湿透了，冰冷冰冷的。他们想不出那么糟糕的天气他夜里会去哪儿。后来他们发现了一个灯笼，还亮着，还有一个梯子被拖了出来，另外还有些散落的画笔，一个调色板，和着黄绿两种颜
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色，――看看窗外，宝贝儿，看看墙上那最后一片常青藤叶子。它在刮风的时候一动也不动，你没有觉得奇怪吗？啊，亲爱的，那是贝尔曼的杰作――最后一片叶子掉落的那天夜里他画上了这片叶子。”
He did not trust the woman to trust him. And he did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not
want to be mistrusted now.
他不敢相信这个女人居然会信任自己。他也不认为这个女人就不信任自己。不过现在他不想失去
别人对自己的信任。
Unit7 Text A Life of a Salesman一个推销员的生活
小汤姆 • 霍尔曼
Making a living as a door-to-door salesman demands a thick skin, both to protect against the weather and
against constantly having the door shut in your face. Bill Porter puts up with all this and much, much more.
干挨家挨户上门推销这一营生得脸皮厚这是因为干这一行不仅要经受风吹日晒还要承受一次又
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一次的闭门羹。比尔 • 波特忍受着这一切以及别的种种折磨。
Life of a Salesman
Tom Hallman Jr.
1 The alarm rings. It's 5:45. He could linger under the covers, listening to the radio and a weatherman who
predicts rain. People would understand. He knows that.
闹钟响了。是清晨545。他可以在被子里再躺一会儿听听无线电广播。天气预报员预报有雨。
人们会理解的。这点他清楚。
2 A surgeon's scar cuts across his lower back. The fingers on his right hand are so twisted that he can't tie his
shoes. Some days, he feels like surrendering. But his dead mother's challenge echoes in his soul. So, too, do the
voices of those who believed him stupid, incapable of living independently. All his life he's struggled to prove
them wrong. He will not quit.
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3 And so Bill Porter rises.
他的下背有一道手术疤痕。他右手的手指严重扭曲连鞋带都没法系。有时他真想放弃不干了。
可在他内心深处一直回响着已故老母的激励, 还有那些说他蠢说他不能独立生活的人的声音。他一生
都在拚命去证明他们错了。他决不能放弃不干。
于是比尔•波特起身了。
4 He takes the first unsteady steps on a journey to Portland's streets, the battlefield where he fights alone for
his independence and dignity. He's a door-to-door salesman. Sixty-three years old. And his enemies -- a crippled
body that betrays him and a changing world that no longer needs him -- are gaining on him.
他摇摇晃晃迈出了去波特兰大街的头几步波特兰大街是他为独立与尊严而孤身搏杀的战场。他是
个挨家挨户上门推销的推销员今年63 岁。他的敌人――辜负他的残疾的身体和一个不再需要他的变化
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着的世界――正一步一步把他逼向绝境。
5 With trembling hands he assembles his weapons: dark slacks, blue shirt and matching jacket, brown tie, tan
raincoat and hat. Image, he believes, is everything.
他用颤抖的双手收拾行装深色宽松裤蓝衬衣和与之相配的茄克衫褐色领带土褐色雨衣和帽
子。在他看来形象就是一切。
6 He stops in the entryway, picks up his briefcase and steps outside. A fall wind has kicked up. The
weatherman was right. He pulls his raincoat tighter.
7 He tilts his hat just so. 他在门口停了一下提起公文包走了出去。秋风骤起冷飕飕的。天
气预报员说得没错。他将雨衣裹裹紧。
他把帽子往一侧微微一斜。
8 On the 7:45 bus that stops across the street, he leaves his briefcase next to the driver and finds a seat in the
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middle of a pack of bored teenagers.
9 He leans forward, stares toward the driver, sits back, then repeats the process. His nervousness makes him
laugh uncontrollably. The teenagers stare at him. They don't realize Porter's afraid someone will steal his briefcase,
with the glasses, brochures, order forms and clip-on tie that he needs to survive.
在街对面停靠的745 那班公共汽车上他把公文包放在司机身旁在一群没精打采的十几岁的孩
子当中找了个位子坐下。
他身子往前一倾盯着司机那儿望然后靠着椅背坐下接着他又反复这个过程。他心情紧张控
制不住自己而笑出声来。那些孩子望着他。他们不明白波特是担心有人偷他的包包里有他生存不可缺
少的眼镜宣传小册子定单以及可用别针别上的领带。
10 Porter senses the stares. He looks at the floor.
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11 His face reveals nothing. In his heart, though, he knows he should have been like these kids, like everyone
on this bus. He's not angry. But he knows. His mother explained how the delivery had been difficult, how the
doctor had used an instrument that crushed a section of his brain and caused cerebral palsy, a disorder of the
nervous system that affects his speech, hands and walk.
波特意识到了小孩子在盯着他看。他把目光转向车厢地板。
他脸上没有流露出任何神情。但在他心里他知道自己本该和这些孩子一样和车上其他所有人一
样。他并不生气。但他心里明白。他母亲解释说生他时难产医生使用了某种器械损坏了他大脑的一部
分导致了大脑性麻痹一种影响他说话手部活动以及行走的神经系统的紊乱。
12 Porter came to Portland when he was 13 after his father, a salesman, was transferred here. He attended a
school for the disabled and then Lincoln High School, where he was placed in a class for slow kids.
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13 But he wasn't slow.
波特13 岁那年随着当推销员的父亲工作调动来到波特兰。他上了一个残疾人学校后来就读林肯高级中
学在那儿他被编入慢班。
但他并不笨。
14 His mind was trapped in a body that didn't work. Speaking was difficult and took time. People were
impatient and didn't listen. He felt different -- was different -- from the kids who rushed about in the halls and
planned dances he would never attend.
他由于身体不能正常运行而使脑子不能充分发挥其功能。他说话困难而且慢。别人不耐烦不听
他说。他觉得自己不同于――事实上也确实不同于――那些在过道里东奔西跑的孩子那些孩子安排的舞
会他永远也不可能参加。
15 What could his future be? Porter wanted to do something and his mother
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was certain that he could rise
above his limitations. With her encouragement, he applied for a job with the Fuller Brush Co. only to be turned
down. He couldn't carry a product briefcase or walk a route, they said.
他将来会是个什么样子呢波特想做些事母亲也相信他能冲破身体的局限。在她的鼓励之下他
向福勒牙刷公司申请一份工作结果却遭到拒绝。他不能提样品包也不能跑一条推销线路他们说。
16 Porter knew he wanted to be a salesman. He began reading help wanted ads in the newspaper. When he
saw one for Watkins, a company that sold household products door-to-door, his mother set up a meeting with a
representative. The man said no, but Porter wouldn't listen. He just wanted a chance. The man gave in and offered
Porter a section of the city that no salesman wanted.
波特知道自己想当推销员。他开始阅读报纸上的招聘广告。他看到沃特金斯一家上门推销家用物
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品的公司要人他母亲就跟其代理人安排会面。那人说不行可波特不予理会。他就是需要一个机会。那
人让步了把城里一个其他推销员都不要的区域派给了他。
17 It took Porter four false starts before he found the courage to ring the first doorbell. The man who
answered told him to go away, a pattern repeated throughout the day.
波特一开始四次都没敢敲门第五次才鼓起勇气按了第一户人家的门铃。开门的那人让他走开这
种情形持续了一整天。
18 That night Porter read through company literature and discovered the products were guaranteed. He would
sell that pledge. He just needed people to listen.
19 If a customer turned him down, Porter kept coming back until they heard him. And he sold.
当晚波特仔细阅读了公司的宣传资料发现产品都是保用的。他要把保用作为卖点。只要别人肯
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听他说话就成。
要是客户回绝波特拒绝倾听他的介绍他就一再上门。就这样他将产品卖了出去。
20 For several years he was Watkins' top retail salesman. Now he is the only one of the company's 44,000
salespeople who sells door-to-door.
21 The bus stops in the Transit Mall, and Porter gets off.
他连着几年都是沃特金斯公司的最佳零售推销员。如今他是该公司44000 名推销员中惟一一个上门
推销的人。
公共汽车在公交中转购物中心站停下波特下了车。
22 His body is not made for walking. Each step strains his joints. Headaches are constant visitors. His right
arm is nearly useless. He can't fully control the limb. His body tilts at the waist; he seems to be heading into a
strong, steady wind that keeps him off balance. At times, he looks like a toddler taking his first steps.
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23 He walks 10 miles a day.
他的身体不适合行走。每走一步关节都疼。头疼也是习以为常的事。他的右臂几乎没用。他不能完
全控制这只手臂。他的身体从腰部开始前倾看上去就像是顶着一股强劲的吹个不停的风迈步向前风似
乎要把他刮倒。有时他看上去就像是个刚刚学步的孩童。
他每天要走10 英里的路程。
24 His first stop today, like every day, is a shoeshine stand where employees tie his laces. Twice a week he
pays for a shine. At a nearby hotel one of the doormen buttons Porter's top shirt button and slips on his clip-on tie.
He then walks to another bus that drops him off a mile from his territory.
25 He left home nearly three hours ago.
像平日一样他今天的第一站是个擦鞋摊这里的雇员替他系好鞋带。他每周请他们擦两次鞋。附
近一家旅馆的门卫替他扣上衬衣最上面一粒纽扣戴上用别针别上的领带。随后他步
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行去搭乘另一部巴士
在距离他的推销区域一英里处下车。
他是差不多3 个小时前从家里动身的。
* * *
26 The wind is cold and raindrops fall. Porter stops at the first house. This is the moment he's been preparing
for since 5:45 a.m. He rings the bell.
27 A woman comes to the door.
风冷雨淋。波特在第一户人家门前停了下来。这是他从545 分开始就为之准备的时刻。他按了门
铃。
一位妇人开了门。
28 \"Hello.\"
29 \"No, thank you, I'm just preparing to leave.\"
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30 Porter nods.
31 \"May I come back later?\" he asks.
32 \"No,\" says the woman.
33 She shuts the door.
34 Porter's eyes reveal nothing.
35 He moves to the next house.
36 The door opens.
37 Then closes.
“你好。”
“不多谢了。我这就要出门。”
波特点点头。
“那我过会儿来可以吗”他问。
“不用了”那妇人回答道。
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她关上了门。
波特眼里没有流露丝毫神情。
他转向下一个人家。
门开了。
随即又关上。
38 He doesn't get a chance to speak. Porter's expression never changes. He stops at every home in his territory.
People might not buy now. Next time. Maybe. No doesn't mean never. Some of his best customers are people who
repeatedly turned him down before buying.
他连开口说话的机会都没有。波特的表情从不改变。他敲开自己推销区内的每一个家门。人们现在
可能不买什么。也许下一次会买。现在不买不等于永远不买。他的一些老客户都是那些多次把他拒之门外
而后来才买的人。
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39 He makes his way down the street.
40 \"I don't want to try it.\"
41 \"Maybe next time.\"
42 \"I'm sorry. I'm on the phone right now.\"
43 \"No.\"
他沿着街道往前走。
“我不想试用这个产品。”
“也许下次试一试。”
“对不起。我在打电话。”
“不要。”
44 Ninety minutes later, Porter still has not made a sale. But there is always another home.
45 He walks on.
46 He knocks on a door. A woman appears from the backyard where she's
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gardening. She often buys, but not
today, she says, as she walks away.
47 \"Are you sure?\" Porter asks.
48 She pauses.
49 \"Well...\"
90 分钟之后波特仍没能卖出一件物品。不过下面有的是人家。
他继续向前走。
他敲响一扇门。一位正在拾掇花园的妇女从后院走了出来。她常常买他的东西不过今天不买她
说着走开了。
“你真的不买什么”波特问。
她迟疑了一下。
“那么„„”
50 That's all Porter needs. He walks as fast as he can, tailing her as she heads
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to the backyard. He sets his
briefcase down and opens it. He puts on his glasses, removes his brochures and begins his sales talk, showing the
woman pictures and describing each product.
波特要的就是这一迟疑。他尽可能快步上前跟着她朝后院走去。他放下公文包打了开来。他戴
上眼镜拿出产品介绍小册子开始推销给那位妇人看图片详细介绍每一个产品。
51 Spices?
52 \"No.\"
53 Jams?
54 \"No. Maybe nothing today, Bill.\"
55 Porter's hearing is the one perfect thing his body does. Except when he gets a live one. Then the word \"no\"
does not register.
调料
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“不要。”
果酱
“不要。恐怕今天不要什么比尔。”
波特的听觉是他身上惟一没有一点毛病的功能。只有当他察觉对方有可能买他东西的时候才会发生
例外。这个时候他是听不见“不”字的。
56 Pepper?
57 \"No.\"
58 Laundry soap?
59 \"Hmm.\"
60 Porter stops. He smells blood. He quickly remembers her last order.
61 \"Say, aren't you about out of soap? That's what you bought last time. You ought to be out right about now.\"
62 \"You're right, Bill. I'll take one.\"
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胡椒粉
“不要。”
洗衣皂
“嗯。”
波特停了下来。他嗅到了猎物。他很快记起了她上次的订单。
“对了你肥皂差不多用完了吧你上次买的就是这个。现在该差不多用完了。”
“没错比尔。我买一块。”
* * *
63 He arrives home, in a rainstorm, after 7 p.m. Today was not profitable. He tells himself not to worry. Four
days left in the week.
64 At least he's off his feet and home.
65 Inside, an era is preserved. The telephone is a heavy, rotary model. There is no VCR, no cable.
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66 His is the only house in the neighborhood with a television antenna on the roof.
晚上7 点过后他在暴风雨中回到了家。今天没赚钱。他跟自己说别着急。这个星期还有4 天呢。
至少他回到了家不用再站立了。
屋内俨然是保存完好的一个旧时代。电话是笨重的拨盘式的那种。没有录像放映机没有有线电
视。
他家是附近惟一一家屋顶上支着电视接收天线的人家。
67 He leads a solitary life. Most of his human contact comes on the job. Now, he heats the oven and slips in a
frozen dinner because it's easy to fix.
68 The job usually takes him 10 hours.
69 He's a weary man who knows his days -- no matter what his intentions -- are numbered.
70 He works on straight commission. He gets no paid holidays, vacations or
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raises. Yes, some months are
lean.
他过着离群索居的生活。他跟别人的来往大都限于工作上。他打开了烤炉放了一盒冷藏食品进去
因为这样做饭方便。
他的工作通常要花去他10 个小时。
他身心疲惫知道来日无多了――不管他愿不愿意。
他的收入完全依靠佣金。他没有带薪假期没有度假也没有加薪。的确有些月份收入相当微薄。
71 In 1993, he needed back surgery to relieve pain caused from decades of walking. He was laid up for five
months and couldn't work. He was forced to sell his house. The new owners, familiar with his situation, froze his
rent and agreed to let him live there until he dies.
1993 年他需要作背部手术以减轻数十年行走引起的疼痛。他卧床五个月无法工作。他被迫出
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售房子。房子的新主人了解他的处境冻结了他的房租并答应让他在有生之年继续住在那里。
72 He doesn't feel sorry for himself.
73 The house is only a building. A place to live, nothing more.
74 His dinner is ready. He eats at the kitchen table and listens to the radio. The afternoon mail brought bills
that he will deal with later this week. The checkbook is upstairs in the bedroom.
75 His checkbook.
他并不因此自悲自怜。
房子只不过是个建筑物。一个住的地方。仅此而已。
晚饭好了。他在厨房的桌子旁吃饭边吃边听着收音机。下午的邮差送来了他的账单这些账单他
将在这个星期后几天支付。支票簿在楼上卧室里。
他的私人支票簿。
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76 He types in the recipient's name and signs his name.
77 The signature is small and scrawled.
78 Unreadable.
79 But he knows.
80 Bill Porter.
81 Bill Porter, salesman.
他用打字机打上收款人的名字随后签上名。
签名小小的字迹潦草。
难以辨认。
可他认得出来。
比尔•波特。
推销员比尔•波特。
82 From his easy chair he hears the wind lash his house and the rain pound the street outside his home. He
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must dress warmly tomorrow. He's sleepy. With great care he climbs the stairs to his bedroom.
83 In time, the lights go off.
84 Morning will be here soon.
他坐在安乐椅上只听得呼啸的大风猛烈地冲击着他的屋子大雨击打着屋外的街面。明天他得穿
得暖和些。他觉得睏了他小心翼翼地爬上楼就寝。
没过一会儿灯就灭了。
早晨很快就会来临。
When children take up ways of making a living that differ greatly from their parents, differences in outlook
can easily arise. This is what Alfred Lubrano found. Brought up in the family of a building worker, education led
him to develop different interests and ambitions from his father. Here he writes about how this affected their
relationship.
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当子女的谋生方式与父母大相径庭时很容易产生观念上的差异。 这正是艾尔弗雷德•卢布拉诺的
发现。他在一个建筑工人的家庭里长大他所受的教育使他产生了不同于父亲的兴趣与抱负。他在本文中
叙述了这一差异如何影响着他们的父子关系。
Unit7 Text B Bricklayer's Boy砖瓦匠的儿子
Alfred Lubrano艾尔弗雷德•卢布拉诺
1 My father and I were both at the same college back in the mid 1970s. While I was in class at Columbia, he
was laying bricks not far up the street, working on a campus building.
二十世纪七十年代中期我和父亲同在一所大学里。我在哥伦比亚大学上学他在同一条街不远的
地方砌砖 .在校园的一处建筑工地上干活。
2 Sometimes we'd hook up on the subway going home, he with his tools, I with my books. We didn't chat
much about what went on during the day. My father wasn't interested in Dante,
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I wasn't up on arches. We'd share a
New York Post and talk about the Mets.
有时我俩一起坐地铁回家他提着工具我拿着书本。我俩不怎么聊白天的事。我父亲对但丁没有
兴趣我也不懂拱门什么的。我俩看一份《纽约邮报》谈论大都会棒球队的比赛情况。
3 My dad has built lots of places in New York City he can't get into: colleges, apartments, office towers. He
makes his living on the outside. Once the walls are up, a place takes on a different feel for him, as if he's not
welcome anymore. It doesn't bother him, though. For my father, earning the cash that paid for my entry into a
fancy, bricked-in institution was satisfaction enough. (1) We didn't know it then, but those days were the start of a
branching off, a redefining of what it means to be a workingman in our family. Related by blood, we're separated
by class, my father and I. Being the white-collar son of a blue-collar man means being the hinge on the door
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between two ways of life.
我爸爸建造了纽约市的许多他进不去的建筑大学公寓办公大楼。他在建筑物的外面谋生。一
旦高墙耸起这建筑给他的感受就变了他好像不再受到欢迎。不过他对此并不在意。对我父亲来说挣
点钱好让我进入一所高档的、用砖墙围起来的大学就读就挺满足了就像他自己进去一样。当时我俩并未
意识到这一点但那就是我们之间开始拉开距离的日子是开始在家庭内部重新界定劳动者的意义的日子。
我们父子俩血脉相连却分属不同的阶级。作为一个蓝领工人的白领儿子就等于是两种不同生活方式之
间的大门上的铰链。
4 It's not so smooth jumping from Italian old-world style to U.S. yuppie in a single generation. Despite the
myth of mobility in America, the true rule, experts say, is rags to rags, riches to riches. Maybe 10 percent climb
from the working to the professional class. My father has had a tough time
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accepting my decision to become a
mere newspaper reporter, a field that pays just a little more than construction does. He wonders why I haven't
cashed in on that multi-brick education and taken on some lawyer-lucrative job. After bricklaying for thirty years,
my father promised himself I'd never lay bricks for a living. He figured an education would somehow rocket me
into the upwardly mobile, and load some serious money into my pockets. (2) What he didn't count on was his
eldest son breaking blue-collar rule No. 1: Make as much money as you can, to pay for as good a life as you can
get.
仅在一代人的时间里从旧的意大利生活方式一跃而成为美国的雅皮士不是件容易事。虽说美国有
社会阶层上下流动的神话专家们却指出真实的情况是穷者穷富者富。或许有百分之十的人从工人
阶级爬到专业技术阶层。我父亲好不容易才接受了我当一名普通报纸记者的决定因
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为这个行当的收入只
略高于建筑业。他不明白我为什么不利用他砌砖赚钱付学费让我获得的大学教育找一份诸如律师那种
收入丰厚的工作。我父亲砌了30 年的墙他发誓不让我靠砌墙谋生。他以为我受过教育就能一步登天加
入向上流社会流动的行列并赚上大把大把的钞票把衣袋装得鼓鼓的。他没有想到的是他的大儿子打破
了蓝领规则的第一条赚尽可能多的钱过尽可能好的生活。
5 He'd tell me about it when I was nineteen, my collar already fading to white. I was the college boy who
handed him the wrong wrench on help-around-the-house Saturdays. \"You better make a lot of money,\" my
blue-collar handy dad warned. \"You're gonna need to hire someone to hammer a nail into a wall for you.\"
我19 岁时他就跟我这么说了那时我的衣领已经开始变白。我是在大学念书的儿子星期六在家里帮忙
时递给他的扳手总是不对。“你最好赚好多好多钱”我的手巧的蓝领父亲告诫道。“你
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将来连墙上钉个钉
子也要雇人帮忙。”
6 In 1980, after college and graduate school, I was offered my first job, on a daily paper in Columbus, Ohio. I
broke the news in the kitchen, where all the family business is discussed. My mother wept as if it were Vietnam.
My father had a few questions: \"Ohio? Where the hell is Ohio?\"
1980 年我读了大学又读了研究生毕业后俄亥俄州哥伦比亚市的一份日报给了我第一个工作。我
在厨房里说了这事因为家里的事都是在厨房里谈论的。我母亲哭了好像是去越南打仗似的。我父亲问
了几个问题“俄亥俄俄亥俄到底在哪儿”
7 I said it's somewhere west of New York City, that it was like Pennsylvania, only more so. I told him I
wanted to write, and these were the only people who'd take me.
我说是在纽约城西面一个地方就像宾夕法尼亚州一样只是更往西。我跟他说我想写
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作只有他
们肯给我这份工作。
8 \"Why can't you get a good job that pays something, like in advertising in the city, and write on the side?\"
“为什么你就不能找个收入高一点的好工作呢比如在纽约做广告边工作边写作”
9 \"Advertising is lying,\" I said. \"I wanna tell the truth.\"
“广告是撒谎”我说。“我要报道事实。”
10 \"The truth?\" the old man exploded, his face reddening as it does when he's up twenty stories in high wind.
\"What's truth?\" I said it's real life, and writing about it would make me happy. \"You're happy with your family,\"
my father said, spilling blue-collar rule No. 2. \"That's what makes you happy. After that, it all comes down to
dollars and cents. What gives you comfort besides your family? Money, only money.\"
“事实”老头气炸了脸涨得通红就像他顶着狂风站在20 层楼高的地方。“什么是
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事实”我
说就是真实的生活报道真实的生活会使我幸福。“你跟家人一起就是幸福”我父亲说无意中道出了蓝
领规则的第二条。“那才是让你幸福的东西。除了这一切都归结为美元、金钱。除了你的家还有什么给
你安慰钱只有钱。”
11 During the two weeks before I moved, he reminded me that newspaper journalism is a dying field, and I
could do better. No longer was I the good son who studied hard. I was hacking people off.
临行前的两个星期里他提醒我说报纸新闻是个行将消亡的行当我完全可以有个更好的前程。
我不再是那个用功听话的孩子。我让人大失所望.
12 One night, though, my father brought home some heavy tape and that clear, plastic bubble stuff you pack
your mother's second-string dishes in. \"You probably couldn't do this right,\" my father said to me before he sealed
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the boxes and helped me take them to UPS. \"This is what he wants,\" my father told my mother the day I left for
Columbus. \"What are you gonna do?\" after I said my good-byes, my father took me aside and pressed five $100
bills into my hands. \"It's okay,\" he said over my weak protests. \"Don't tell your mother.\"
可是一天晚上我父亲带回家一些粗胶纸和透明的塑料泡沫材料就是人家用来装母亲的备用餐
具的那种。“看来你做不了这个事”父亲对我说。接着他封好箱子并帮我把箱子拿到联邦快运公司。“这
是他要做的事”我动身去哥伦比亚那天父亲对母亲说。“你有什么办法呢”我道别后父亲把我拉到
一边往我手里塞了5 张100 元的票子。我稍微推辞了一下。他就说“拿着吧 别告诉你妈就是了。”
13 When I broke the news about what the paper was paying me, my father suggested I get a part-time job to
supplement my income. \"Maybe you could drive a cab.\" Once, after I was chewed out by the city editor for
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something trivial, I made the mistake of telling my father during a visit home. \"They pay you nothin', and they
push you around too much in that business,\" he told me, the rage building. \"Next time, you gotta grab the guy by
the throat and tell him he's a big jerk.\"
当我跟他们说了报社给我多少薪水时父亲建议我找个兼职以弥补工资的不足。“也许你可以开出
租车。”有一次为了件小事我被本地新闻编辑责骂我犯了个错回家时把这事跟父亲讲了。“他们简直
就不付你什么工钱把你差来差去欺人太甚了”他跟我说着火气就上来了。“下一次你要卡着那家
伙的脖子告诉他他是个大混蛋。”
14 My father isn't crazy about his life. He wanted to be a singer and actor when he was young, but his Italian
family expected money to be coming in. (3) My dad learned a trade, as he was supposed to, and settled into a life
of pre-scripted routine.
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我父亲对自己的生活并不心满意足。他年轻时想当歌唱家和演员可他的意大利家庭等着钱用。爸
爸就像家人期望的那样学了一门手艺过上了一种预先设计好的生活。
15 Although I see my dad infrequently, my brother, who lives at home, is with the old man every day. Chris
has a lot more blue-collar in him than I do, despite his management-level career. Once in a while he'll bag a lunch
and, in a nice wool suit, meet my father at a construction site and share sandwiches.
我虽然不经常见到爸爸但我弟弟住在家里天天和老爸在一起。克里斯虽然身为管理人员却比
我更像蓝领。他不时地会装上一袋午餐穿着考究的毛料西装在建筑工地上与父亲相会跟他一起吃三
明治。
16 It was Chris who helped my dad most when my father tried to change his life several months ago. My dad
wanted a civil-service bricklayer foreman's job that wouldn't be so physically
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demanding. There was a written test
that included essay questions about construction work. My father hadn't done anything like it in forty years. Every
morning before sunrise, Chris would be ironing a shirt and my father would sit at the kitchen table and read aloud
his practice essays on how to wash down a wall, or how to build a tricky corner. Chris would suggest words and
approaches.
几个月前当父亲想改变一下自己的生活时是克里斯给了父亲最大的帮助。父亲想当行政部门砌
砖工人的领班这活儿对体力的要求不是太高。想做这份工作要参加笔试回答有关建筑工作的一些问
题。父亲有40 年没做过这样的事情了。每天太阳还没有出来克里斯在一边熨烫衬衣父亲坐在厨房餐
桌旁大声朗读他练习写的怎么洗刷墙壁怎么砌一个难砌的墙角的回答。克里斯则提出建议用什么词
儿如何回答。
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17 It was so hard for my dad. He had to take a prep course in a junior high school three nights a week after
work for six weeks. At class time, the outside men would come in, twenty-five construction workers squeezing
themselves into little desks. Tough blue-collar guys armed with No. 2 pencils leaning over and scratching out their
practice essays, cement in their hair, tar on their pants, their work boots too big and clumsy to fit under the desks.
这真是难为了老父。一连6 个星期,他下班后每星期3 个晚上得去一所初中上培训班。上课的时候
这些常年在外面干活的人走进教室25 个建筑工人一个个挤坐在小小的桌椅里。干重活的蓝领工人握着
2 号铅笔趴在桌子上费力地书写他们练习回答的文字头发里沾着水泥裤子上蹭着沥青工作靴又笨
又重小桌子下面都放不大下。
18 \"Is this what finals felt like?\" my father would ask me on the phone. \"Were you always this nervous?\" I
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told him yes. I told him writing's always difficult. He thanked Chris and me for the coaching, for putting him
through school this time. My father thinks he did okay, but he's still awaiting the test results. (4) In the meantime,
he takes life the blue-collar way, one brick at a time.
“期终考试是不是都这样”父亲在电话里会问我。“你以前也一直这么紧张吗”我跟他说是的。
我跟他说写文章向来不容易。他感谢我和克里斯辅导他帮助他这次完成了学业。父亲觉得自己考得不错
不过他还在等考试成绩出来。与此同时他继续他的蓝领生活一步一个脚印。
19 When we see each other these days, my father still asks how the money is. Sometimes he reads my stories;
usually he likes them, although he recently criticized one piece as being a bit sentimental.
如今我俩见面时父亲仍要问我挣多少钱。有时他读我写的报道他通常还喜欢不过最近他批
评我的一篇报道有点感情用事。
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20 During one of my visits to Brooklyn not long ago, he and I were in the car, on our way to buy toiletries,
one of my father's weekly routines. \"You know, you're not as successful as you could be,\" he began, blue-collar
blunt as usual. \"You paid your dues in school. You deserve better restaurants, better clothes.\" Here we go, I
thought, the same old stuff. I'm sure every family has five or six similar big issues that are replayed like well-worn
videotapes. I wanted to fast-forward this thing when we stopped at a red light.
不久前我回布鲁克林和他坐在车里去买化妆用品。这是父亲每星期要干的事情。“我说你是
可以干得好一些的”他又开始了还是蓝领风格直来直去。“你读书时挺卖力。你理应上好一点的饭店
穿好一点的衣裳。”又来了我心想又是老一套。我敢肯定每家人家都有那么5、6 个类似的经常争论的
大问题就像反复放了多遍老掉牙的录像带。我们在一个红灯前停下时我想着要把这事快快带过去。
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21 Just then my father turned to me, solemn and intense. \"I envy you,\" he said quietly. \"For a man to do
something he likes and get paid for it -- that's fantastic.\" He smiled at me before the light changed, and we drove
on. To thank him for the understanding, I sprang for the deodorant and shampoo. For once, my father let me pay.
就在那时父亲转身看着我满脸严肃认真。“我羡慕你”他轻声道。“一个人能做自己喜欢做的
事还能挣钱――真是好极了。”他对着我微笑变绿灯了我们继续往前开。为了感谢他的理解我冲
上前去买了除臭剂和香波这一次父亲总算让我付了钱。
Unit8 Text A Human Cloning: A Scientist’s Story克隆技术
吉纳.科拉泰
克隆技术使我们有可能分毫不差地复制自己。这一技术是否应该获准应用?克隆技术会带来什么裨益与危险？克隆生命诞生了1996年7月5日下午5点，有史以来最出名的小羊羔问世了。它出生在苏格兰罗斯林镇的罗斯林研究院所在的那条路上的一个小棚里，这只羊羔是在该研究院创造出来的。而它的创造者伊恩·威尔穆特，一位正在谢顶的文质彬彬的52岁的胚胎学家，却不记得自己是在什么地方听到这头名叫多利的羊问世的消息的。
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他甚至不记得曾接到约翰·布雷肯的电话，这位对产下多利的那头羊的整个妊娠过程进行监测的科学家在电话上说多利健康存活，体重6．6千克。
没有人打开香槟酒庆贺。没有人拍照留影。只有研究院的几位员工，以及接生的一位当地兽医在场。然而，多利，这头与苏格兰起伏的山丘上散布着的千百头其他的羊毫无异样的小羊羔，很快就改变了世界。
当后人编写我们这一时代的历史的时候，这一平静的降生，这头小羊羔的问世，将会引人注目。世界因它降生而从此改变。
多利是头克隆羊。它不是精卵结合的产物，而是由取自一头六龄羊的乳腺细胞的基因材料生成的。威尔穆特先将取自另一头羊的卵子中的所有基因材料取出，再将该卵子与这一乳腺细胞融合。乳腺细胞的基因在该卵子中安营扎寨，令其生长发育。其结果就是多利羊，即与提供乳腺细胞的那头羊一模一样的孪生羊，只是这头孪生羊晚出生了6年。
在多利羊问世之前，克隆技术不过是科学幻想的故事。几十年前有人提出这种可能性，后来遭到摒弃，严肃的科学家那时认为克隆在近期根本不可能实现。现在这已不再是幻想，几十年之后，或许有朝一日你可以克隆自己，造出数十个，数百个，上千个基因完全相同的孪生的兄弟。事先改进你的细胞，运用基因工程注入某些基因，剔除某些基因，这样的事也不再是科学幻想。
没错，克隆的是头羊，而不是人。但羊并没有任何独特之处。甚至明确表示反对克隆人的威尔莫特也称，理论上，没有理由说人类不能使用与克隆多利羊同样的手段来克隆人类本身。“原则上没有不可能这么做的理由。”但他补充说，“我们都会认为这样做令人厌恶。”
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我们生活在这样一个时代，人们为了追求道德的完善对实用主义和妥协折中的问题争论不休。而克隆技术迫使我们回到有史以来一直困扰人类的那些最基本的问题：何者为善，何者为恶?为了获得可能有益的东西，我们对邪恶的隐患能容忍到何种程度?克隆技术以其创造与我们自身完全一样的孪生兄弟的可能性，将我们带回到种种古老的罪孽：虚荣傲慢；那喀索斯式的自恋罪，以及普罗米修斯的罪孽，他以盗火来谋求上帝的神力。因此，我们在扪心自问为什么对克隆技术如此着迷之前，不得不首先审视自己的心灵，问一问：究竟是什么东西使得我们中的许多人对于尝试复制与自身基因完全等同的孪生兄弟那么不安?或者，如果我们并没有感到不安，其原因又是什么?
我们希望子女像我们自己。即使是采用捐赠卵子或捐赠精子的夫妇也要查找精子捐献人名录，以发现与自己相像的人。若干年前，林达·帕斯坦写的一首题为《致离家的女儿》的诗曾出现在纽约地铁的墙上，诗中写道：
难道是我自己的形象
映在你的脸上
使我如此爱恋?
我俯视着安睡的你
就像那喀索斯俯视着
他那一潭清水，
随时准备跳下去——
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如有必要
为你沉溺
然而，如果我们如此爱恋在子女身上映现出来的自我，那为什么我们当中有这么多人，一想到将目睹与我们完全一样的基因复制品、比自己年轻许多的双胞胎降生的时候，就会感到如此惊恐?难道大自然通过基因的任意组合将我们造就是一回事，而由我们自己实施全面控制，摒弃一切随意的念头，通过基因组合造就一个与我们相似但更为完美的孩子则又是另外一回事?当男女一起生育孩子时，孩子往往是两个人基因的不可预料的组合。显然，一个老笑话表明我们已经认识到了这一点，这个笑话说的是一位漂亮但蠢笨的女人向一个丑陋但才华横溢的男人建议两人一起生一个孩子。想一想吧，那女人说，孩子拥有我的容貌，你的大脑那将会多么出色。啊，那男人说，可要是孩子继承了我的容貌你的大脑呢? ‘
克隆技术使我们直接面对做人的意义这个问题，使我们直接面对生命本身的特权与限制。克隆技术也迫使我们对科学的力量提出质疑。是不是确实有些知识我们真的不想要?有一些路我们宁愿不去探寻?
我们奢谈科学的纯洁性、将科学与其后果分离的时代早已过去。如果有谁还需要提醒，科学家的纯真早已丧失，他们只要回想一下J·罗伯特·奥本海默的话。奥本海默是一位天才，他是原子弹的发明创造者之一。他在追求科学的过程中，从一个极其自信，随时准备跟着科学好奇心走的人，逐渐变成了一个谦恭困惑、想知道科学释放出了什么妖魔的人。
在原子弹造出之前，奥本海默说：“当你看到某个技术上美妙的东西时，你就毫不犹豫地去实现它。”原子弹投在长崎、广岛之后，他在1947年发表的一则令人毛骨悚然的演说中指出：“物理学家们已经尝到过罪孽的滋味，这种滋味他们无法忘记。”
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如同原子弹一样，克隆技术带来的威胁与希望是复杂的、多层面的。它提供了改善生活、拯救生命的真正科学进步的可能性。在医学上，科学家梦想着运用克隆技术改编细胞的编码指令程序，这样我们就可以制造出我们自己身体的某些部分进行移植。比如说，假定你需要进行骨髓移植。如果医生摧毁你自身的骨髓，用他人的健康骨髓来取代，某些致命的白血病就能得到彻底的医治。但骨髓的基因类型必须与你自己的相匹配。不然的话，：移植的骨髓就会向你发起进攻，置你于死地。骨髓是免疫系统的白细胞的来源。如果你获得-SU人的骨髓，你就会造出别人的白细胞。如果这些白细胞认定你与它们不同，它们就会发起进攻。
不过，可以有别的办法。假定科学家能够用你自身的某个细胞——任何‘个细胞——将它与人的卵细胞融合。卵细胞开始分裂，生长，但你可以控制它，只让它分裂若干次。’·技术人员将它置于蛋白质当中，指令原始细胞，即胚胎细胞，长成骨髓细胞。开始时本可以克隆你的东西却可以长成你的一组骨髓——与你完美相配的骨髓。
更为困难，但并非不可思议的，是以同样的方法长成完整的器官，如肾脏或肝脏。
另一种可能性是生成器官与人类基因完全吻合的动物。如果你需要肝脏，肾脏，甚至心脏，你或许能从一头特别设计的克隆猪身上获得。
科学家称克隆技术蕴藏着无穷的可能性，因此，有人争辩说，我们不应该喋喋不休地谈论种种假设的恐惧，而去想一想克隆技术能够带来的裨益。
Unit8 Text B Second Thoughts on Cloning关于克隆的再思考
Laurence H. Tribe劳伦斯•H•特赖布
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1 Some years ago, long before human cloning became a near-term prospect, I was among those who urged
that human cloning be assessed not simply in terms of concrete costs and benefits, but in terms of what the
technology might do to the very meaning of human reproduction, child rearing and individuality. I leaned toward
prohibition as the safest course.
几年前在克隆人还远未成为一种近期前景的时候我和一些人一起极力主张对人类克隆的评判
不仅仅要考虑到具体的代价与裨益而且要考虑到这一技术将会对人类繁殖、孩子的抚养以及对人的个性
的真实意义会带来什么影响。我倾向于禁止克隆人认为此乃最为安全可靠的方针。
2 (1) Today, with the prospect of a renewed push for sweeping prohibition rather than mere regulation, I am
inclined to say, \"Not so fast.\"
时至今日眼看着新一轮要求对克隆人全面禁止而非简单规范的呼声即将再起我倒想说“慢一
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点来。”
3 When scientists announced in February that they had created a clone of an adult sheep -- a genetically
identical copy named Dolly, created in the laboratory from a single cell of the \"parent\" -- fierce debate arose over
the pros and cons of trying to clone a human being.
当科学家于2 月宣布他们缔造了一头由成年羊克隆而成的克隆羊――这头羊名叫多利是从其“母
体”的一个单细胞在实验室里缔造的基因完全一样的复制品――时对克隆人的利弊掀起了一场激烈的争
论。
4 People spoke of the plight of infertile couples; the grief of someone who has lost a child whose biological
\"rebirth\" might offer comfort; the prospect of using cloning to generate donors for tissues and organs; the
possibility of creating genetically enhanced clones with a particular talent or a resistance to some dread disease.
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有人说到不育夫妇的苦境说到人们失子之悲痛而生物再生可能给他们带来安慰说到利用克
隆技术产生组织与器官捐赠人的可能性说到缔造强化基因克隆人的可能性这些人可以拥有某种特别的
才能或能抵御某些凶疾的能力。
5 But others saw a nightmarish and decidedly unnatural interference with human reproduction. California
enacted a ban on human cloning, and the President's National Bioethics Advisory Commission recommended
making the ban nationwide. 而有人则看到了对人类繁殖的可怕的完全违背自然的干与。加利福尼亚
州通过了克隆人禁止令而总统的全国生物伦理顾问委员会则建议将这一禁令推向全国。
6 That initial debate has cooled, however, and many in the scientific field now seem to be wondering what all
the fuss was about.
然而最初的论争渐渐平息科学界不少人现在似乎诧异当初那么大惊小怪是为哪
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般。
7 They are asking whether human cloning isn't just a small step beyond what we are already doing with
artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, fertility enhancing drugs and genetic manipulation. That casual
attitude is sure to give way before long to yet another wave of prohibitionist outrage -- a wave that I no longer feel
comfortable riding.
他们问道克隆人技术不就是比我们已经在做的人工授精、试管婴儿、增强授精药物、基因控制等
往前再走了一小步吗这种不以为然的态度不用多久肯定会让位于另一波禁止主义的狂潮――本人对这
波狂潮深感不安无意做个弄潮儿。
8 I certainly don't subscribe to the view that whatever technology permits us to do we ought to do. Nor do I
subscribe to the view that the Constitution necessarily guarantees every individual the right to reproduce through
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whatever means become technically possible.
我当然不赞同那种认为只要技术能办到的我们什么都该做的观点。我也不赞同那种认为宪法一定
要保障每一个人有通过任何可能的科技手段进行繁殖的权利。
9 Rather, my concern is that the very decision to use the law to condemn, and then outlaw, patterns of human
reproduction -- especially by appealing to vague notions of what is \"natural\" -- is at least as dangerous as the
technologies such a decision might be used to control.
相反我的担心是用法律的手段谴责并进而禁止人类某些繁殖模式的决定本身――尤其是藉助于
什么是“自然”这一模糊观念――是危险的其危险性不亚于这种决定可能用去控制的那些技术。
10 Human cloning has been condemned by some of its most articulate opponents as the ultimate embodiment
of the sexual revolution, separating sex from the creation of babies and treating gender and sexuality as socially
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constructed.
克隆人被某些最雄辩的反对者谴责为性革命的最极端的表现――即把性与生育孩子相分离把性别
与性行为视为一种社会概念。
11 But to ban cloning as furthering what some see as culturally distressing trends may, in the end, lend
support to strikingly similar objections to surrogate motherhood.
然而认为克隆技术会促进某些人所认为的文化上令人忧虑的倾向而加以禁止最终可能会导致反对
代孕的呼声得以增强而这种反对与对克隆人的反对又是何等惊人的相似。
12 Equally scary, when appeals to the natural, or to religious laws, lead to the criminalization of some method
for creating human babies, we must come to terms with the inevitable: the prohibition will not be airtight.
同样可怕的是当诉诸自然的或宗教的法则导致追究某些生育方式的刑事责任时我们就必须面
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对一种必然的局面这种禁止不可能做到滴水不漏。
13 (2) Just as was true of bans on abortion and on sex outside marriage, bans on human cloning are bound to
be hard to enforce. And that, in turn, requires us to think in terms of a class of potential outcasts -- people whose
very existence society will have chosen to label as a misfortune and, in essence, to condemn.
就像禁止人工流产和婚外性行为一样禁止克隆人肯定难以实施。而这一情况反过来要求我们考虑
一个可能产生的社会弃儿阶层――那些社会将其存在视为不幸并实质上加以谴责的人们。
14 One need only think of the long struggle to overcome the stigma of \"illegitimacy\" for the children of
unmarried parents. (3) How much worse might be the plight of being judged morally incomplete by virtue of one's
man-made origin?
人们只要想一想为了消除非婚生孩子的“不法”污名所进行的长期努力就会明白。由
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于一个人的人
工出生而被判为道德欠缺的苦境将是何等难熬
15 There are some black markets (in drugs, for instance) that may be worth risking when the evils of
legalization would be even worse. But when what we prohibit takes the form of human beings, the stakes become
enormous.
当合法化的弊端更为严重得多的情况下我们可以冒点风险允许有些黑市例如毒品存在。可
是当我们所要禁止的是人的时候这个风险就会变得非常巨大。
16 There are few evils as grave as that of creating a caste system, one in which an entire category of persons,
while perhaps not labeled untouchable, is treated as not fully human.
人为制造一种等级制度其中整整一类人即使未必标上贱民二字却被当成不完整的人加以对待
还有什么弊端比这更为严重呢
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17 And even if one could enforce a ban on cloning, or at least insure that clones would not be a mistreated
caste, the social costs of prohibition could still be high. For the arguments supporting a rigid prohibition of
cloning are most likely to rest on, and reinforce, the notion that it is unnatural and wrong to cut the conventional
links between marriage and the creation and upbringing of new life.
而即使能对克隆技术实施禁止或至少确保克隆人不是遭受歧视的等级禁止的社会代价仍将是巨
大的。因为支持严令禁止克隆人的论点极有可能基于并强化一个观点即割断通常的传统上神圣的异性
结合与新生命的缔造与养育之间的联系是违背自然的和错误的。
18 Moreover, a society that bans acts of human creation for no better reason than that their particular form
defies nature and tradition is a society that risks cutting itself off from vital experimentation, thus losing a
significant part of its capacity to grow. (4) If human cloning is to be banned,
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then, the reasons had better be far
more compelling than any thus far advanced.
而且一个社会仅仅由于某一特定的创造人类生命的方式与自然及传统相杵就禁止这种行为那么
这个社会就有可能中断必要的实验从而丧失其相当一部分发展能力。因此如果要禁止克隆人其理由
应比任何已经提出的更为充分迫切得多才成。__
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