新编英语教程5(第三版李观仪)Unit1-8课文及译文参考

Unit 1 恰到好处

Have you ever watched a clumsy man hammering a nail into a box? He hits it first to one side,

then to another, perhaps knocking it over completely, so that in the end he only gets half of it into

the wood. A skillful carpenter, on the other hand, will drive the nail with a few firm, deft blows,

hitting it each time squarely on the head. So with language; the good craftsman will choose words

that drive home his point firmly and exactly. A word that is more or less right, a loose phrase, an

ambiguous expression, a vague adjective（模糊的形容词）, will not satisfy a writer who aims at clean

English. He will try always to get the word that is completely right for his purpose.

你见过一个笨手笨脚的男人往箱子上钉钉子吗？只见他左敲敲，右敲敲，说不准还会将整个钉子锤翻，

结果敲来敲去到头来只敲进了半截。而娴熟的木匠就不这么干。他每敲一下都会坚实巧妙地正对着钉头落下

去，一钉到底。语言也是如此。一位优秀的艺术家谴词造句上力求准确而有力地表达自己的观点。差不多的

词，不准确的短语，摸棱两可的表达，含糊不清的修饰，都无法使一位追求纯真英语的作家满意。他会一直

思考，直至找到那个能准确表达他的意思的词。

The French have an apt（贴切的） phrase for this. They speak of “le mot juste,” (the exact word)

the word that is just right. Stories are told of scrupulous（一丝不苟的） writers, like Flaubert, who

spent days trying to get one or two sentences exactly right. Words are many and various; they are

subtle（微妙的） and delicate（细腻的） in their different shades（色调） of meaning, and it is not

easy to find the ones that express precisely（正是，恰恰） what we want to say. It is not only a matter

of having a good command of language and a fairly wide vocabulary; it is also necessary to think

hard and to observe accurately. Choosing words is part of the process of realization, of defining our

thoughts and feelings for ourselves, as well as for those who hear or read our words. Someone once

remarked: “How can I know what I think till I see what I say?” this sounds stupid, but there is a

great deal of truth in it.

法国人有一个很贴切的短语来表达这样一个意思，即“le mot juste”, 恰到好处的词。有很多关于精益

求精的作家的名人轶事，比如福楼拜常花几天的时间力求使一两个句子在表达上准确无误。在浩瀚的词海中，

词与词之间有着微妙的区别，要找到能恰如其分表达我们意思的词绝非易事。这不仅仅是扎实的语言功底和

相当大的词汇量的问题，还需要人们绞尽脑汁，要观察敏锐。选词是认识过程的一个步骤，也是详细描述我

们的思想感情并表达出来使自己以及听众和读者深刻理解的一个环节。有人说：“在我思想未成文之前，我

怎么知道自己的想法？”这听起来似乎很离谱，但它确实很有道理。

It is hard work choosing the right words, but we shall be rewarded by the satisfaction that

finding them brings. The exact use of language gives us mastery（掌握） over the material we are

dealing with. Perhaps you have been asked “What sort of a man is so-and-so（某某等）?” You

begin: “Oh, I think he’s quite a nice chap （家伙）but he’s rather…” and then you hesitate trying

to find a word or phrase to express what it is about him that you don’t like, that constitutes（构成）

his limitation. When you find the right phrase you feel that your conception of the man is clearer

and sharper.

寻找恰如其分的词的确是件不容易的事。一旦找到了那个词，我们就会感到很欣慰：辛劳得到了回报。

准确地用语言有助于我们深入了解我们描述的事物。例如，当有人问你：“某某是怎么样的人？”你回答说：

“恩，我想他是个不错的家伙，但他非常……”接着你犹豫了，试图找到一个词或短语来说明他到底讨厌在哪

里。当你找到一个恰当的短语的时候，你发觉自己对他的看法更清楚，也更精确了。

Some English words have a common root but are used in very different senses. Consider

human

and

humane（

人道，仁慈的

）

, for example. Their origin is the same and their meanings are

related, but their usage is distinct. A

human

action is not the same thing as a

humane

action. We

cannot speak of a Declaration of

Humane

Rights. --- There is a weapon called a

humane

killer, but it

is not a

human

killer.

一些英语词汇词根相同而意义却截然不同。例如human 和humane,二者的词根相同，词义也相关，但

用法完全不同。“ human action (人类行为)”和“humane action ( 人道行为)”完全是两码事。我们不能

说“人道权力宣言”，而是说“人权宣言”。有一种屠杀工具叫“humane killer ( 麻醉屠宰机)，而不是

human killer ( 杀人机器)。

We don’t have to look far afield to find evidence of bad carpentry in language. A student,

replying to an invitation to dinner, finished his letter: “I shall be delighted to come and I am

looking forward to the day with

anxiety

.”

Anxiety

carries with it suggestions of worry and fear.

What the writer meant was possibly

eagerness

.

Anxiety

has some kinship（亲属关系） with

eagerness

but it will not do as a substitute（替代） in this context.

语言中的坏手艺的例子在我们身边随处可见。有人邀请一名学生去吃饭，他写信给予回复。请看他的信

是这样结尾的：“我将很高兴赴约并满怀不安（anxiety ）期待着那个日子的到来。 ”“Anxiety” 含有烦

恼和恐惧的意味。作者想表达的很可能是一种翘首期盼的心情。 “Anxiety” 跟热切期盼有一定的关联，但

在这个场合是不能等同的。

The leader of a political party in Uganda wrote a letter to the Press which contained this

sentence:

乌干达一政党领袖给新闻界的一封信中有一句这样写道：

Let us all fight this selfishness, opportunism, cowardice and ignorance now rife in Uganda and

put in their place truth, manliness, consistency and

singularity

of mind.

让我们打破这自私、投机、怯懦和无知充斥的乌干达，代之以真理，刚毅，坚定和奇异的精神。

This stirring appeal is spoilt by a malapropism in the last phrase, the word

singularity

. What the

writer meant, I think, was

singleness

of mind, holding steadfastly to the purpose in mind, without

being drawn aside by less worthy objects.

Singularity

means

oddity

or

peculiarity

, something that

singles a man out from other men

这一激动人心的呼吁被最后一个词“奇异（singularity）” 的误用破坏掉了。我猜想作者真正要表达的

意思是思想的专一，即抱定一个信念永不改变，咬定青山不放松，不被次要的目的干扰。而singularity 指

的是古怪，特性，是将一个人从众多人中区分出来的那种东西。

Without being a malapropism, a word may still fail to be the right word for the writer’s

purpose, the “mot juste”. A journalist, writing a leader about Christmas, introduced a quotation

from Dickens by saying:

即使没有出现词语误用，这词仍可能不是符合作者意图的恰如其分的词。一名记者在一篇有关圣诞节的

社论中这样引出狄更斯的话：

All that was ever thought or written about Christmas is

imprisoned

in this sentence….

Imprisonment

suggests force, coercion（强迫）, as if the meaning were held against its will. It would

be better to write

contained

or

summed up

.

Epitomized

（集中体现）might do, though it is rather a

clumsy-sounding word. Searching a little farther for the “mot juste” we might hit on the word

distilled（

提取

）

. This has more force than

contained

or

summed up

. Distillation suggests essence

and we might further improve the sentence by adding this word at the beginning:

任何有关圣诞节的想法和文字已经被禁锢(imprisoned )在这句话中……“Imprisonment” 暗示着强迫，

威逼，这么一来似乎意思是有悖其初衷的。用 “包含(contained )”或 “归结（summed up ）”就要好

些。“概括（epitomized）”也行，尽管听起来有点僵硬。稍微再用点心我们就能准确地找到 “mot juste

(恰倒好处的词) ”，那就是“distilled”.它比包含和归结语气更强。“Distillation (提炼)”意味得到本质

（essence）的东西。因此我们可以进一步把这个句子修改为：

The essence of all that was ever thought or written about Christmas is distilled in this sentence.

所有有关圣诞节的想法和文字的精华都被提炼到这句话之中。

English has a wide vocabulary and it is a very flexible language. There are many different ways

of making a statement. But words that are very similar in meaning have fine shades of difference,

and a student needs to be alive to these differences. By using his dictionary, and above all by

reading, a student can increase his sensitivity to these shades of difference and improve his ability

to express his own meanings exactly.

英语词汇丰富，运用灵活。一个意思有很多种表达方式。但是无论意思上如何相近的词总是存在着些许

区别。作为学生就要敏感地意识到这些区别。通过查字典，尤其是通过阅读，学生对这类细微差别敏感性将

逐步增强，准确表达自己意思的能力也相应提高。

Professor Raileigh once stated: “there are no synonyms, and the same statement can never be

repeated in a changed form of words.” This is perhaps too absolute, but it is not easy to disprove.

Even a slight alteration in the wording of a statement can subtly shift the meaning. Look at these

two sentences:

(1) In my childhood I loved to watch trains go by.

(2) When I was a child I loved watching trains go by.

罗利教授曾经说过：“同义词是不存在的。句子用词改变了，句子就不再是原来的意思了。”这也许过

于绝对，但是很难驳倒。措辞稍有变更，意思会有微妙的变化。看下面两个句子：

（1） 童年时候我喜欢去看火车开过。

（2） 当我是个小孩子的时候我喜欢看火车开过。

At fist glance these two sentences are exactly the same. But look more closely and you will see

that there are very tiny differences.

In my childhood

is a shade more abstract than

when I was a

child

.

Watching

perhaps emphasizes the looking at trains a little more than

to watch

. This is a very

subtle example, and it would be possible to argue about it, but everyone would at once agree that

there is a marked difference between the next two statements:

乍一看这两个句子的意思完全一样。但仔细一看你会发现它们之间存在细微的差别。在

我童年时候比当我是小孩子的时候更加抽象。而看很可能比去看更强调看火车这一动作。这个例子不是

很明显，可能有待商榷。但每个人看了下面例子后一定马上同意。两者之间存在显著区别。

(1) He died poor.

(2) He expired（断气、死） in indigent（贫困） circumstances.

In one sense

expired

is a synonym for

died

and

in indigent circumstances

for

poor

, but when

the whole statement is considered, we cannot maintain that the two are the same. The change in

words is a change in style, and the effect on the reader is quite different. It is perhaps easier to be a

good craftsman with wood and nails than a good craftsman with words, but all of us can increase

our skill and sensitivity with a little effort and patience. In this way we shall not only improve our

writing, but also our reading.

（1） 他死的时侯很穷。

（2） 他断气时穷困潦倒。

在某种意义上，expired 是died 的同义词，in indigent circumstances 是poor 的同义词。

但当看整个句子时，我们就不能坚持认为两句是一样的了。措辞的变化往往意味着风格的改变，并给读

者以不同的感受。也许当好一个 谴词造句的工匠比当好一个与木头钉子打交道的木匠要难一些，但是只要我

们付出努力和耐心，我们就能提高自己的技能和敏感性。这样我们不仅可以提高我们的写作能力，还可以提

高阅读能力。

English offers a fascinating variety of words for many activities and interests. Consider the wide

range of meanings that can expressed by the various words we have to describe walking, for

example. We can say that a man is marching（行军）, pacing（起搏）, patrolling（巡逻）, stalking

（缠扰）, striding(大步), treading（踩水）, tramping（流浪）, stepping out（走出去）, prancing（昂

首阔步）, strutting（神气活现）, prowling（潜行）, plodding（单调乏味）, strolling（散步）, shuffling

（洗牌）, staggering（惊人的）, sidling（侧身而行；悄悄贴近）, trudging（跋涉）, toddling（蹒跚

学步；东倒西歪地走）, rambling（散漫）, roaming（漫游）, sauntering（参观船上）, meandering

（蜿蜒）, lounging（闲逛）, loitering（游荡）, or creeping（匍匐）.

英语为各种活动和嗜好提供了丰富多彩的词汇。就那走路来说，通过我们拥有的各种各样的词语的意义

范围有多么广阔。我们可以说行军，踱步，巡逻，潜进，跨过，践踏，重步走，蹦蹦跳跳地走，昂首阔步，

高视阔步，徘徊，沉重缓慢地走，溜达，曳足而行，摇摇晃晃地走，侧身而行，跋涉，蹒跚学步，漫步，徜

徉，漫游，闲荡，悄悄地走。

The foreign student of English may be discouraged and dismayed（惊惶） when he learns that

there are over 400,000 words in the English language, without counting slang（俚语）. But let him

take courage. More than half of these words are dead. They are not in current use. Even

Shakespeare used a vocabulary of only some 20,000 words. The average Englishman today

probably has a vocabulary range of from 12,000 to 13,000 words. It is good to make your

vocabulary as complete as you can, but a great deal can be said and written with a vocabulary of no

more than 10,000 words. The important thing is to have a good control and command over the

words you do know. Better know two words exactly than three vaguely. A good carpenter is not

distinguished by the number of his tools, but by the craftsmanship（手艺） with which he uses them.

So a good writer is not measured by the extent of his vocabulary, but by his skill in finding the

“mot juste”, the word that will hit the nail cleanly on the head.

即使不包括俚语在内英语就有四十余万单词，这很可能让学习英语的外国学生感到气馁和沮丧。但千万

不要灰心，因为超过半数的词已不再通用。就算大文豪沙士比亚也只使用了两万左右的词汇。今天普通英国

人的词汇量在12000到13000之间。一个人的词汇量当然是尽量扩大的好，但仅仅10000的词汇量就够他

说话写字表达丰富的意义了。关键是你要扎实地掌握你知道的单词。粗略地认识三个单词还不如准确地掌握

两个。衡量一个木匠的好坏并不在于他拥有工具的数量多少，而是在于他运用工具的技艺如何。同样的，衡

量一个作家好不好不能通过其认识单词的数量，而应通过其找到恰如其分的词的能力。这个词要不偏不倚正

中要害，一言中的。

UNIT 2 BEWARE THE DIRTY SEAS

当心肮脏的海洋--杰弗里· 利恩

1

Every year 100 million holiday-makers are drawn to the Mediterranean. With one-third of the

world's tourist trade, it is the most popular of all the holiday destinations; it is also the most

polluted.

每年都有一千万的渡假者到地中海去度假，这里占去了世界旅游业的三分之一，是最受欢迎的度假胜地，

但与此同时，它也成了受污染最严重的地方。

It has only 1 per cent of the world's sea surface, but carries more than half the oil and tar

floating on the waters. Thousands of factories pour their poison into the Mediterranean, and almost

every city, town and village on the coast sluices its sewage, untreated, into the sea.

虽然地中海仅占全球海洋面积的百分之一，但在它的海面上却漂浮着全球海面一半以上的汽油和焦油。

成千上万的工厂将他们排放的有毒物质倾人地中海，而且几乎每一个靠地中海海岸的城市、城镇和乡村也都

把未经处理的污水排到海里。

The result is that the Mediterranean, which

1

nurtured so many civilizations, is gravely ill --- the

first of the seas to

2

fall victim to

3

the abilities and attitudes that evolved around it. And the pollution

does not merely

4

stifle the life of the sea --- it threatens the people who inhabit and visit its shores.

其结果导致孕育了高度文明的地中海周围环境极其恶劣― 第一个由于人们对其利用能力的增强和对其环

境污染的忽视态度而受害的海洋。这种污染不仅使海洋生物感到窒息，而且对于那些居住在地中海周围并喜

欢游赏海滨的人们也是一个威胁。 不只是

4

Typhoid, paratyphoid, dysentery, polio, viral hepatitis

and food poisoning are endemic in the

area, and there are periodic outbreaks of cholera.

伤寒、副伤寒、痢疾、小儿麻痹症、病毒性肝炎和食物中毒是这个地区的常见病，并且还会引发阶段性

的霍乱。

5

The mournful litany of disease is caused by sewage. Eighty-five per cent of the waste from the

Mediterranean's 120 coastal cities is pushed into the waters where their people and visitors bathe

and fish. What is more, most cities just drop it in straight off the beach; rare indeed are the places

like Cannes and Tel Aviv which pipe it even half a mile offshore.

这一系列令人扼腕的疾病（这种恶疾的反复）爆发是由下水道污水造成的。地中海的120 个海滨城市中

85 ％的垃圾被倾人到供居民们和参观者游泳嬉戏，钓鱼的水域，而且，大多数城市直接将其废物倾倒在海

滩上，实际上很少有像（嘎纳）坎城和特拉维夫那样用管道把废物抽到离海岸半英里的地方。

6

Less than 100,000 of Greece's four million coastal people have sewage properly treated and

Greece, as our map shows, is one of the cleaner countries of the northern shore.

在希腊，生活在海滨城市的人有四百万，但只有不到十万的人将他们的污水进行适当处理。正如我们的

地图所显示的那样，希腊还算是北方海岸比较干净的国家之一。

What does the author want to tell his readers in Paragraph 6?

SA:

He wants to tell his readers in Paragraph 6 that because of man’s irresponsibility and

indifference towards environmental protection, Greece is rated one of the few cleaner countries of

the northern shore.

7

The worst parts of the sea are the Israeli / Lebanon coast and between Barcelona and Genoa,

which flushes out over 200 tons of sewage each year for every mile of its length.

叫最糟糕的则要数以色列及黎巴嫩海滨和巴赛罗那与热那亚之间的海洋部分，那里每年会向其海岸线的

每一英里倾倒200 多吨的污水。

8

Not surprisingly, vast areas of the shallows are awash with bacteria and it doesn't take long for

these to reach people. Professor William Brumfitt of the Royal Free Hospital once calculated that

anyone who goes for a swim in the Mediterranean has a one in seven chance of getting some sort

of disease. Other scientists say this is an overestimate; but almost all of them agree that bathers are

at risk.

一点也不感到惊奇的是，大面积的浅水区都滋生着细菌，而它们接触到人并不需要花费太多的时间。皇

家自由医院的威兼· 布鲁佛特教授曾经计算过任何到地中海游泳的人都会有七分之一感染疾病的可能。其他

科学家说这种估计过高，但几乎所有的人都同意游泳者是在冒险。

9

An even greater danger

5

lurks in the seductive seafood dishes that add much interest to

holiday menus. Shellfish are prime carriers of many of the most vicious diseases of the areas.

在那些诱人的、为假日的菜单增色不少的海鲜中还隐藏着一种更大的危险。贝类水生物是本地区大部分

恶性疾病最主要的携带者。

10

They often grow amid pollution. And even if they don't they are frequently infected by the

popular practice of "freshening them up" --- throwing filthy water over them in markets.

他们通常在污染中生长，而且即使不是这样，他们也会被“使它们变得新鲜一些”这一普遍做法所污染―

在市场里它们身上被卖主拨上脏水以保持鲜活。

11

Industry adds its own poisons. Factories cluster round the coastline, and even the most

modern rarely has proper waste-treatment plant污水净化厂. They do as much damage to the sea as

sewage.

工业也加重了地中海的污染。海岸线上，工厂密密匝匝，即使是最现代化的工厂也鲜有合适的污物处理

设备。他们对海洋造成的损害同污水造成的差不多。

12

Fifteen thousand factories

7

foul the Italian Ligurian

6

riviera. Sixty thousand pollute the

Tyrrhenian Sea between Sardinia, Sicily and the west Italian coast! The

8

lagoon of Venice alone

receives the

9

effluents of.76 factories.

15 , 000 家工厂污染着意大利利古里亚的沿海游憩胜地。6, 000 家工厂污染着撤丁岛和西西里岛之间的

第勒尼安海，以及西部的意大利海滨！仅威尼斯的礁湖就遭受着76个工厂废水的污染。

13

More filth comes washing down the rivers from industries far inland. The PO and the Rhone

are the dirtiest, followed by the Ebro and the Llobregat in Spain

,

by the Adige and the Tiber in Italy,

and by the. Nile.

更多的污物来自于内陆工业，自河流冲人到这里。波河和罗纳河是最脏的，其次就是西班牙的埃布罗河、

巴塞罗那，意大利的阿迪杰河和台伯河，再就是尼罗河。

14

Thousands of tons of pesticides are blown off the fields into the sea, detergents from millions

of sinks kill fish, and fertilizers, flushed out to sea, nourish explosions of plankton which cover

bathers with itchy slime.

数千吨的杀虫剂从田间流人海里；数以百万的洗涤剂从洗碗槽中流出，毒死了海鱼；被冲到海里的肥料，

滋养了海里的浮游生物并使其数量激增，它们粘在游泳者身上，成为一层令人发痒的黏液。

15

Then there is the oil --- 350,000 tons pouring each year from ships, 115,000 tons more from

industries round the shore. Recent studies show that the Mediterranean is four times as polluted by

oil as the north Atlantic, 40 times as bad as the north-east Pacific.

还有就是汽油― 每年有350 , 000 吨废油从船上倒人海里，还有ns , 00 多吨来自于海岸周围的工业。最

近的研究显示地中海的油污染是北大西洋的四倍，是东北太平洋的40倍。

16

Apart from the nine-mile-wide Strait of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean is

10

landlocked, virtually

unable to

11

cleanse itself. It takes 80 years for the water to be renewed, through the narrow, shallow

straits, far too slow a process to cope with the

12

remorseless rush of pollution.

除了九英里宽的直布罗陀海峡之外，地中海完全被陆地包围，因此它实际上不具备自洁功能。因为海峡

既窄且浅，地中海需要80 年才能完成水循环进行自洁，这个过程太缓慢，远远跟不上无情的污染大势肆虐

的进程。

17

Weak coastal currents keep sewage and industrial waste close to the shore and gently spin

floating oil and tar towards the beaches. And the sea's feeble tides can do little to help remove it.

海边的浪花无力地拍打着海岸，冲不走岸边的污水和工业废料，浪花轻轻地打着旋，把浮着汽油与焦油

的海水冲向海滩。

18

0f course, the people of the Mediterranean have always used the sea for their wastes. The

canals of Venice, the waters of the Bosphorus and the sea off the Nile Delta have been health

hazards for centuries.

很自然，地中海的人们也总是利用海洋来处理他们的废物。威尼斯运河、博斯普鲁斯海峡和尼罗河三角

洲一带的水域，几个世纪以来一直威胁着人们的健康。

19

But the population has increased round the shores to 100 million and a further 100 million

tourists come annually. The population of the French and Italian rivieras trebles every summer.

但是，海岸周围的人口已增长到了l 千万，而且每年还有1 千多万旅游者来此旅游。每年夏天，意大利

的沿海游憩胜地的人口呈三倍地增长着。

20

Three tourists visit the northern shore every year for every yard of beach. With the numbers of

holiday-makers expected to double in the next 20 years, it is hard for even the best treatment plants

to cope.

在北海岸平均每年每码海岸就有三个观光者。在今后20 年里渡假者的数量有可能会增加两倍，到时即

使是最好的污水处理厂也很难应付了。

21

The good news is that the countries of the Mediterranean have been coming together to

work out how to save their common sea.

但也有一个好消息：地中海周围的一些国家已经联合到一起正为拯救他们共同的海洋而努力工作着。

22

But it will be a long time before the measures they approved take effect in cleaning up the

sea.

但是离他们一致同意的净化海水措施确实产生效应之前还有很长的一段时间。

Unit3 My Friends, Albert Einstein

He was one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known, yet if I had to convey the

essence of Albert Einstein in a single word, I would choose simplicity. Perhaps an anecdote will help.

Once, caught in a downpour, he took off his hat and held it under his coat. Asked why, he explained,

with admirable logic, that the rain would damage the hat, but his hair would be none the worse for

its wetting. This knack for going instinctively to the heart of a matter was a secret of his major

scientific discoveries - this and his extraordinary feeling for beauty.

爱尔伯特·爱因斯坦是世界上最伟大的科学家之一，但如果要我用一个词来概括他这个人的品质，那我会

选"质朴"。也许一个小故事能让我们略知一二。有一次，天降大雨，爱因斯坦躲之不及，于是他摘下了帽子，

把它夹在外衣下。当别人问他为什么要这么做时，他解释说，雨水会弄坏他的帽子，但是他的头发湿了不会

有什么大碍。他的逻辑真是无懈可击。他这种本能地把握事物本质的能力正是他能够做出重大科学发现的秘

诀所在，除此之外，还有他对美的那种非凡的感觉。

I first met Einstein in 1935, at the famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He had

been among the first to be invited to the institute, and was offered carte blanche as to salary. To the

director's dismay, Einstein asked for an impossible sum: it was far too small. The director had to

plead with him to accept a larger salary.

我第一次见到爱因斯坦是在1935年，在位于新泽西New Jersey的著名的普林斯顿大学高级研究中心。

他是最早被邀请到该中心的科学家之一。薪水方面，研究中心让他自己全权决定。但让研究中心主任感到沮

丧的是，爱因斯坦开出了一个让人无法接受的数目：他要的实在是太少了。中心主任不得不恳求他接受一份

更高的工资。

I was in awe of Einstein, and hesitated before approaching him about some ideas I had been

working on. When I finally knocked on his door, a gentle voice said, "Come" - with a rising inflection

that made the single word both a welcome and a question. I entered his office and found him

seated at a table, calculating and smoking his pipe. Dressed in ill-fitting clothes, his hair

characteristically awry, he smiled a warm welcome. His utter naturalness at once set me at ease.

我对爱因斯坦充满了敬畏，因此当我想就一些我正在研究的问题与他探讨时，一直犹豫不决。最终我还

是鼓起勇气我敲了门，里面传来了非常温和的声音：请进---他说这个词的时候声调上扬，听起来即像是欢迎

又像是在提问。我进到他的办公室，发现他正坐在桌旁，抽着烟斗，演算一个问题。他的衣服很不合身，头

发乱蓬蓬的。他朝我微笑，表示对我的热忱的欢迎。他的自然随意立刻让我放松了。

As I began to explain my ideas, he asked me to write the equations on the blackboard so he

could see how they developed. Then came the staggering - and altogether endearing - request:

"Please go slowly. I do not understand things quickly." This from Einstein! He said it gently, and I

laughed. From then on, all vestiges of fear were gone.

当我开始向他解释我的想法时，他让我把方程写在黑板上，这样让他能看到每一步的推演。然后他提出

了一个让我极其震惊同时又备感亲切的要求："请讲得稍微慢一点，我理解问题的速度比较慢"。这种话出自

爱因斯坦之口！他说这话时非常温和，我不由得笑了。从此，我对他的畏惧之心烟消云散。

Collaborating with Einstein was an unforgettable experience. In 1937, the Polish physicist

Leopold Infeld and I asked if we could work with him. He was pleased with the proposal, since he

had an idea about gravitation waiting to be worked out in detail. Thus we got to know not merely

the man and the friend, but also the professional.

和爱因斯坦的合作是让人终身难忘的经历。1937年，我和波兰物理学家列奥泼德·英费尔德问他是否可

以和他合作，他欣然应允，因为他有一个重力方面的问题，有待仔细的研究。于是，我们有机会认识了爱因

斯坦作为一个普通人和朋友的一面，我们还了解了他作为一个科学家的职业素养。

The intensity and depth of his concentration were fantastic. When battling a recalcitrant

problem, he worried it as an animal worries its prey. Often, when we found ourselves up against a

seemingly insuperable difficulty, he would stand up, put his pipe on the table, and say in his quaint

English, "I will a little tink" (he could not pronounce "th"). Then he would pace up and down, twirling

a lock of his long, graying hair around his forefinger.

他极度的专注，全身心的投入，让人叹为观止。当他处理一个难题的时候，他努力思索，就像动物撕咬

猎物。通常，当我们碰到一个似乎是无法逾越的难题时，他会站起来，把烟斗放在桌子上，用他那口音古怪

的英语说："我要稍微思考一下。"然后他在房间里来回踱步，食指捻弄着他那长而灰白的发卷。

A dreamy, faraway and yet inward look would come over his face. There was no appearance of

concentration, no furrowing of the brow - only a placid inner communion. The minutes would pass,

and then suddenly Einstein would stop pacing as his face relaxed into a gentle smile. He had found

the solution to the problem. Sometimes it was so simple that Infeld and I could have kicked

ourselves for not having thought of it. But the magic had been performed invisible in the depths of

Einstein's mind, by a process we could not fathom.

他脸上会有一种恍惚出神而又深邃的表情。没有专著的神情，也没有皱眉---只有宁静的内心的交流。时

间一分一秒过去，突然他会停止自己的脚步，脸上浮现出温和的微笑。他已经找出了问题的答案。有的时候，

答案非常简单，我和英费尔德都会自责我们怎么会想不到呢。爱因斯坦在他的脑海深处，施展了外人无法看

见的魔法，这个高深的过程是我们无法理解的。

Einstein was an accomplished amateur musician. We used to play duets, he on the violin, I at

the piano. One day he surprised me by saying Mozart was the greatest composer of all. Beethoven

"created" his music, but the music of Mozart was of such purity and beauty one felt he had merely

"found" it - that it had always existed as part of the inner beauty of the Universe, waiting to be

revealed.

爱因斯坦还是一位出色的业余音乐家。我们那时常进行二重奏，他拉小提琴，我弹钢琴。有一天他说莫

扎特是所有作曲家中最伟大的一位，这让我吃惊不小。他认为贝多芬的音乐是"创造"出来的，而莫扎特的音

乐是如此纯净和优美，让人感觉他只是在哪儿"发现"了它---它一直是宇宙内在的美的一部分，一直存在着，

等待着我们去发现。

It was this very Mozartean simplicity that most characterized Einstein's methods. His 1905

theory of relativity, for example, was built on just two simple assumptions. One is the so-called

principle of relativity, which means, roughly speaking, that we cannot tell whether we are at rest or

moving smoothly. The other assumption is the speed of light is the same no matter what the speed

of the object that produces it. You can see how reasonable this is if you think of agitating a stick in a

lake to create waves. Whether you wiggle the stick from a stationary pier, or from a rushing

speedboat, the waves, once generated, are on their own, and their speed has nothing to do with

that of the stick.

这种莫扎特式的淳朴正是大部分爱因斯坦理论的最显著特点。比如他1905年提出的相对论就是建立在

两个简单的假说之上的。一个是所谓的相对原则，粗略的说，就是我们无法判断自己是否是静止还是在平稳

的移动。另一个假定是：不管产生它的物体速度如何，光的速度是恒定的。如果你用一根木棍搅动湖水，你

就会知道这个假定是多么的有道理。不管你是在一个静止的码头，还是在飞驰的高速游艇上搅动棍子，波浪

一旦产生，就不受外界的影响，它的速度和木棍没有任何关系。

Each of these assumptions, by itself, was so plausible as to seem primitively obvious. But

together they were in such violent conflict that a lesser man would have dropped one or the other

and fled in panic. Einstein daringly kept both - and by so doing he revolutionized physics. For he

demonstrated they could, after all, exist peacefully side by side, provided we gave up cherished

beliefs about the nature of time.

这两个假定，分开来看，都是合理的，而看上去又如此明显，自然，无须证明。但是如果把这两个假定

放在一起，它们之间便有了强烈的矛盾，一个二流的物理学家会丢掉其中一个，落荒而逃。爱因斯坦很大胆，

一个都没有放弃，从而使物理学发生了翻天覆地的变化。因为他证明如果我们放弃我们原先持有的关于时间

性质的观念，这两个假设是可以和谐地共存的。

Science is like a house of cards, with concepts like time and space at the lowest level. Tampering

with time brought most of the house tumbling down, and it was this that made Einstein's work so

important and controversial. At a conference in Princeton in honour of his 70th birthday, one of the

speakers, a Nobel Prize-winner, tried to convey the magical quality of Einstein's achievement. Words

failed him, and with a shrug of helplessness he pointed to his wristwatch, and said in tones of awed

amazement, "It all came from this." His very ineloquence made this the most eloquent tribute I have

heard to Einstein's genius.

科学就好像是由很多扑克牌建成的房屋，时间和空间的概念是最底下的那两张。对时间的胡乱干预会让

大半个房屋倒塌，正是这一点让爱因斯坦的工作显得举足轻重，同时也极具争议性。在普林斯顿举行的庆祝

他70大寿的会议上，其中一位发言人，是诺贝尔奖获得者，当他试图表述爱因斯坦卓绝非凡的成就时，他

找不到合适的词句，于是无助地耸了一下肩，指了指他的手表，说："所有的一切都来自于此"。语气中充满

了敬畏和惊异。他的语屈词穷恰恰是我听过的对爱因斯坦天才的最为深刻的褒奖。

There was something elusively whimsical about Einstein. It is illustrated by my favorite

anecdote about him. In his first year in Princeton, on Christmas Eve, so the story goes, some

children sang carols outside his house. Having finished, they knocked on his door and explained

they were collecting money to buy Christmas presents. Einstein listened, then said, "Wait a

moment." He put on his overcoat, and took his violin from its case. Then, joining the children as

they went from door to door, he accompanied their singing of "Silent Night" on his violin.

爱因斯坦身上有让人难以捉摸的古怪的一面。我最为喜欢的一个关于他的逸事很好的说明了这一点。据

说这是他在普林斯顿的第一年，圣诞前夜，几个孩子在他的屋外唱起了圣诞节颂歌。唱完之后，他们敲门告

诉他，他们在筹钱买圣诞礼物。爱因斯坦听了之后说："等一下"。他穿上外套，从琴盒里取出小提琴。然后

他和他们一起走家串户，他们唱"寂静的夜"， 他用小提琴给他们伴奏。

How shall I sum up what it meant to have known Einstein and his works? Like the Nobel

Prize-winner who pointed helplessly at his watch, I can find no adequate words. It was akin to the

revelation of great art that lets one see what was formerly hidden. And when, for example, I walk on

the sand of a lonely beach, I am reminded of his ceaseless search for cosmic simplicity - and the

scene takes on a deeper beauty.

能够认识爱因斯坦这个人，了解他的工作，这对我来说意味着什么呢？我应该如何表述呢？和那个无助

的指着自己手表的诺贝尔奖获得者一样，我找不到合适的词句。好像是一件伟大的艺术作品给人的启示，让

你看到了原来看不到的东西。比如，当我走在一片人迹稀少的沙滩，想起他对简单宇宙的不懈追求，于是眼

前的风景便具有了一种更为深沉的美。

Unit 4 Preparing for College为上大学做准备

The year 1884-85 was a period of great adventure for me. When I came up to Berkeley for

the entrance examinations at the University of California I failed in Greek, Latin, and was put

off for a year. My father was alarmed. I was eighteen years old, and he thought, that my failure

was his fault: he had chosen the wrong school for me. He had, but the right school for me did

not exist. There were schools that put boys into the colleges at a younger age than mine. I

knew those boys well. They are the boys that the schools, colleges, and the world are made for.

Often I have envied them; more often I have been glad that I was not of them.

从1884到1885，这段时间对于我来说是了不起的历险。我来到贝克莱，参加加利福尼亚大学的入学考

试，但是我的希腊语，拉丁语和其他几门功课不及格，不得不推迟一年再考。这时父亲慌了。那年我十八岁，

我想，他可能认为我的失败是他造成的：他以为他为我选错了学校，但是真正合适我和我这类人的学校并不

存在。当时的确有些学校将来自四面八方的男孩们送进了大学，那些男孩都比我小，后来我渐渐地和那些孩

子熟悉了。中小学、大学乃至世界都是为他们（那时的男孩，将来的男子汉）准备的。我常嫉妒他们，但更

多时候我庆幸我和他们不一样。

The elect were boys who had been brought up to do their duty. They memorized whatever

their teachers told them to learn. Whether they wanted to know it, whether they understood it

or no, they could remember and recite it. Their own driving motives were, so far as I could

make out, not curiosity; they rarely talked about our studies, and if I spoke of the implications

of something we had read or heard, they looked dazed or indifferent. Their own motives were

foreign to me; to beat the other fellows, stand high, represent the honor of the school.

一般来说，被选中的男孩都是已经受过教育，去担当己任的。他们记住老师让他们学的所有东西，不管

自己想不想学，也不管理解了没有，他们都能记住并背诵出来。在我看来，激发他们学习的动力并不是好奇

心：他们很少谈论我们的学习，我提到与我们读过或听到的内容相关的事情时，他们或是神情茫然，或是无

动于衷。他们学习的动力是：打败对手，独占鳌头，为学校争光，这样的学习动机是我所不解的。

My parents did not bring me up. They sent me to school, they gave me teachers of music,

drawing; they offered me every opportunity in their reach. But also they gave me liberty and

the tools of quite another life: horses, guns, dogs, and the range of an open country

（countryside）. The people, the businesses, and the dreams of this life interested me, and I

learned well whatever interested me. School subjects which happened to bear on my outside

interests I studied in school and out; I read more than I was required, and I read for keeps

（forever）, too. I know these subjects to this day, just as I remember and love still the men and

women, the boys and girls, who let me be friends with them then and so revealed to me some

of the depths and the limitations of human nature. On the other hand I can remember few of

my teachers and little of the subjects which seemed to me irrelevant to my life.

我的父母没有亲自教育我，他们把我送进学校，给我找音乐老师和美术老师。他们尽其所能为我提供各

种机会；但是同时也给我自由，给我另一种生活方式：骑马、射击、养狗以及在旷野漫游。如我所示：我对

形形色色的人，各种各样的职业和今生的美好的东西感兴趣；我感兴趣的，我学得很好，学习课程如果恰好

和我的课外兴趣爱好相吻合，我就校内外都学。阅读的内容超过了老师的要求，而且认真投入。时至今日，

这些课程我仍记忆犹新，就像我仍记得并爱着那些男女、少年，他们与我交友，让我多少了解人性的深浅；

但是，给我上课的老师，我倒是没记住几个，那些我似乎和我生活无关的课程，我也忘记得差不多了。

These other subjects are interesting to me. No one tried to interest me in them; they were

put before me as things that I had to have to get into college. The teachers of them did not

appeal to my curious, active result was that I did not really work at them and so got

only what stuck by dint of repetition: the barest rudiments of a school education. When I

knocked at the college gates, I was prepared for a college education in some branches; my

mind was hungry enough for the answers to some profound questions to have made me work

and develop myself, especially on lines which I know now had no ready answers, only more and

more questions: science, metaphysics, etc. I was not in the least curious about Greek, Latin,

mathematics, and the other "knowledge" required by the standardization of that day.

一些其它课程也很有意思，而且也应该能使我感兴趣，但从来没有人尝试激发我对这些课程的兴趣。这

些课程就这么摆在我面前：这些是上大学必须学的，这些课程的老师没有调动我好奇又活跃的大脑，结果就

是我没有认真地学这些课程，仅仅掌握了一些反复灌输的东西---学校教育的基础知识。我叩响大学之门时，

我只是在某些学科上为大学学习做了准备；我急切渴望找寻一些深奥的问题的答案，这种探寻使我不断学习

以提高自己，特别在一些还没有现成答案的领域里，我知道在这些领域仍然有很多的疑问：比如，科学和玄

学领域。对希腊语、拉丁语、数学和那些当时教育标准要求掌握的“知识”，我一点也不感兴趣。

My father discovered and put me into the best private school in San Francisco as a special

student to be crammed for Berkeley – and he retained one of the teachers there, Mr. Evelyn

Nixon, to tutor me on the side. （课外，作为兼职）Characteristically, too, my father gave me

liberty: a room to sleep and work in, with no one to watch over and care for me. I could go and

come as I pleased. And I came and went. I went exploring and dreaming alone around that city

and the place I liked best was the ocean shore; there I lived over the lives of the Greek heroes

and the Roman generals and all the poets of all the ages, sometimes with ecstasy, but never, as

in my boyhood, with myself as the hero. A change had come over me.

父亲发现了这一点，把我作为特殊学生送到旧金山的一所最好的私立学校，为去贝克莱而进行“填鸭”

式的学习。父亲在那里为我聘请了一位老师—---伊夫林·尼克松先生，让他课外辅导我。当然，依惯例，父亲

也给我很多自由：一个房间供我学习和睡觉，没有人监督和照顾我，我可以来去自由。我真的来去自由。在

旧金山，我独自外出漫步，思索问题，就像以前在萨克拉门托乡间漫游一样；我最喜欢的地方是海边；在那

里我重温希腊英雄的生活，重温罗马将军的生活，重温各个时代诗人的生活。有时我入迷得忘我，但是我从

来不把自己当成英雄，少年时代也是如此，我的生活发生了变化。

Evelyn Nixon formed it. He was the first teacher I ever had who interested me in what I had

to learn – not in myself, but in the world outside, the world of conscious culture. He was a

fanatic of poetry, especially of the classic poets. When he read or recited Greek verse the

Greeks came to life; romance and language sang songs to me, and I was inspired to be, like

him, not a hero nor even a poet, but a Greek scholar, and thus an instrument on which

beautiful words might play. Life filled with meaning, and purpose, and joy. It was too great and

too various for me to personify with my boyish imitations and heroism. I wrote verses, but

only to learn the technique and so feel poerty more perfectly. I wanted to read, not to write; I

wanted to know, not to do and be, great things – Mr. Nixon expressed it.

伊夫林·尼克松先生给我的生活带来了变化。他是第一个使我对必须要学的课程产生兴趣的老师—不是对

自己感兴趣，而是对外面世界感兴趣，对意识文化的世界产生了兴趣。他是诗歌狂人，尤爱古典诗歌，他朗

读或背诵希腊诗歌的时候，诗歌中的希腊人就栩栩如生；浪漫的情怀和优美的语言就像我耳畔的歌，我渴望

像他一样，不当英雄，更不当诗人，而成为希腊语学者，这样就可以奏响这美丽的语言。生活充满了意义，

充满了目标，充满了欢乐。但是，我少年的模仿和勇气远不是以使那些伟大的、变化无穷的诗篇再现生命。

我写了一点诗，仅是为了学写诗的技巧，不想去做伟大的事，或者成为伟大的人--尼克松先生曾经这样说。

"I'm nobody", he used to say. "I'm nothing but one of the unknown beings Homer and

Dante, Shakespeare, Caesar, and the popes and the generals and statesmen have sung and

fought and worked for. I'm the appreciator of all good words and deeds."

他过去常常说：“我是无名之辈，小人物，是荷马、但丁、莎士比亚、凯撒、教皇们、将军们和政治家

们为之歌颂、战斗、工作的芸芸众生中的一员，是一切美好的语言和行动的鉴赏者。”

A new, a noble role, and Evelyn Nixon was a fine example of it: the receiver, not the giver,

of beautiful inventions. He was an Englishman; he took a double first at Oxford, I heard, and

came for his health to San Francisco. There was a group of such men, most of them with one

story. They were athletes, as well as scholars at Oxford and Cambridge; they developed

muscles and a lung capacity which they did not need and could not keep up in the sedentary

occupations their scholarship put them into. Lung troubles exiled them.

是所有美好创造的受用者，而非创造者，这是一个全新的、崇高的角色。伊夫林·尼克松是其出色的代表。

他是英国人，我听说他曾在牛津大学拿过两个第一，之后以为健康的原因来到了旧金山。旧金山有一群这样

的人，他们各有各的故事，在牛津和剑桥他们既是学者也是运动员，他们炼就了强壮的肌肉和肺活量；然而，

学者经常需要伏案工作，不需要也很难保持发达的肌肉和肺活量，肺部疾病迫使他们离开牛津、剑桥。

"Keep out of college athletics", they advised. "Don't work up any more brawn there than

you can use every day afterward."

他们告诫说：“远离大学的田径运动，不要练出今后日常生活用不着的发达肌肉。”

Nixon taught me Greek, Latin, and English at school, and at his house he opened up the

beauty and the meaning of the other subjects I had to cram up for entrance. I worked for him;

I worked more, much more, for myself. He saw this, he saw my craving for the answers to

questions, and he laughed.

在学校里尼克松先生教我希腊语、拉丁语和英语。在他家里，他为我开启了另一类课程的美妙和意义，

而这些课程恰是我大学入学必考的。我为他而学习，我更是为自己而学习。他看出来了，他看出我渴望找到

问题的答案，他笑了。

"I will answer no questions of yours," he shouted. "Men know no answer to the natural

questions of a boy, of a child. We can only underline your questions, make you mad yourself to

answer them, and add ours to whip, to lash you on to find out yourself – one or two; and tell us!

That is what youth is for: to answer the questions maturity can't answer." And when I looked

disappointed and balked, he would roar at me like a demon.

他大声说：“我不回答你的任何问题，大人们回答不了小孩淳朴的问题，我们只能强调突出你的问题，

让你自己为寻求答案而痴迷，再假设我们的问题，来激励你，鞭策你去寻找答案—一个或二个，然后告诉我

们！这就是年轻的意义，去回答成年人不能回答的问题。”当我显出沮丧和犹豫的神情时，他就会像恶魔一

样向我吼叫。

"Go to, boy. The world is yours. Nothing is done, nothing is known. The greatest poem

isn't written, the best railroad isn't built yet, the perfect state hasn't been thought of.

Everything remains to be done – right, everything."

“去吧，孩子，世界是属于你的，一切都还没做呢，一切都还不为人所知，最伟大的诗篇还不曾创作出

来，最好的铁路也还没有建造出来，最理想的国家蓝图还没有勾画出来。一切都等待着你们去完成—--是的，

一切。”

He said it again and again, and finally, to drive me, he set our private hour from seven till

eight o'clock Saturday evenings, so that I could stay on into the night with his group of friends,

a maddening lot of cultivated, conflicting minds. There were from four to ten of them, all

Englishmen, all Oxford and Cambridge men, all exiles and all interested in any and all subjects,

which they discussed with knowledge, with the precise information of scholarship, but with no

common opinions on anything apparently. There were Tories among them and liberals and

one red: William Owen, a grandson, I think, certainly a descendant, of Robert Owen, the first of

the early English socialists. There was at least one Roman Catholic, who showed me so that I

never forgot it the Christianity of that church; his favorite thesis was that the Protestant

churches were Old Testament, righteous sects and knew nothing really of Christ's teachings of

love and forgiveness. And there were Protestants there, all schooled in church history, and

when a debate came to a clinch, they could quote their authorities with a sureness which

withstood reference to the books. I remember one hot dispute of the Catholic's reference to

some certain papal bull. Challenged, he quoted it verbatim in the original Latin. What they

knew was amazing to me, and how they knew it, but what they did not know struck me harder

still. They could not among them agree on anything but a fact. With all their knowledge they

knew no essential truth.

他一次又一次地这样说。最后，为了激励我，他把礼拜六七点到八点这段时间定为我们的特别时间，这

样我就可以和他那帮朋友一起待到很晚，他的那些朋友是受过教育的、想法相互冲突的痴迷之人，有四或十

人，都是英国人，全是牛津和剑桥的学者，到美国养病。他们对所有的学科感兴趣，谈论起那些学科，他们

都满腹经纶，很有学者的严谨风范，但是显然难就任何话题达成共识。他们中友极端的保守者，有自由主义

者，还有极左分子：威廉·欧文，我想肯定他是罗伯特·欧文的后裔，那是英国早期社会主义第一人；这些人中

至少一人是罗马天主教徒，他向我传授基督教精神使我难忘。他最得意的观点是：清教徒信奉的是回约，是

公正的教派，但是对基督的有关爱和宽容的教诲却知之甚少；他们中还有清教徒，他们都学过基督教历史，

当辩论激烈，难分伯仲时。他们会引用确切的权威之言，而且经得起原文的检验。我记得有一次那位天主教

徒引用了监督教皇的诏书。结果引发了激烈的争论，面对挑战，他竟逐字逐句地引用了拉丁语原文。我很惊

讶：他们怎么知道那么多，他们又是怎么知道？然而，我更惊讶于他们竟然也有不知道的。除了确凿的事实，

他们对任何事都不能达成共识，他们学富五车，才高八斗，他们不承认有绝对的真理。

It was conversation I was hearing, the free, passionate, witty exchanges of studied minds

as polished as fine tools. They were always courteous; no two ever spoke together; there were

no asides; they all talked to the question before the house, and while they were on the job of

exposition any one, regardless of his side, would contribute his quota of facts, or his

remembrance of some philosopher's opinion or some poet's perfect phrase for the elucidation

or the beautification of the theme. When the differences rose the urbanity（有礼貌的）persisted.

They drank their Californian wine with a relish, they smoked the room thick, and they pressed

their views with vigor and sincerity and eloquence; but their good temper never failed them. It

was conversation. I had never heard conversation before; I have heard conversation

sometimes since, but rarely, and never like my remembrance of those wonderful Saturday

nights in San Francisco – which were my preparation for college.

我听到的是自由而又有激情，是妙语连珠而又慎思周密的谈话。他们的大脑利如锐器；他们的态度平和

恭谦；从不两人窃窃私语，也不插趣打诨，他们总是当众谈论问题；他们在就某事进行阐述时，每个人（不

管立场如何）都会积极地说出他所知的事实，或者他所记得的某位哲人的观点，或者某位诗人的精彩片语，

使讨论更加透彻了明，精彩纷呈；即使意见相左，他们也会保持温文有礼的态度；他们津津有味地品着加州

红酒，他们抽着雪茄，房间都弥漫着浓浓的烟雾；他们坚持自己的观点时，陈词激昂，感情真挚，却决不有

失风度，这才是真正的谈话。我以前从来没有听过这样的谈话，后来听过，那也是少之又少，而且绝对没有

周六晚上旧金山的谈话那般精彩，这些谈话为我上大学做了准备。

For those conversations, so brilliant, so scholarly, and so consciously unknowing, seemed

to me, silent in the background, to reveal the truth that even college graduates did not know

anything, really. Evidences they had, all the testimony of all the wise men in the historical

world on everything, but no decisions. None. I must myself go to college to find out more, and

I wanted to. It seemed as if I had to go soon. My head, busy with questions before, was filled

with holes that were aching voids as hungry, as painful, as an empty stomach. And my

questions were explicit; it was as if I were not only hungry; I was hungry for certain foods. My

curiosity was no longer vague.

***我默默地坐在后面倾听，对我而言，这些谈话既精彩睿智、学识渊博，又包含对不知之事的清醒认识，

揭示了大学毕业生是一无所知的真理，真的，他们有证据，知道世上历代智者对万物的论说，但他们不下最

终定论。绝对没有。我必须自己到大学里学习，寻求更多的知识，我十分渴望这样做，看起来我必须马上进

大学，以前我的脑袋就忙于思考问题，那时就更是如此，觉得脑袋里到处是洞洞，就像空瘪的肚子，饥饿难

耐。我的问题很清楚：我似乎不仅仅是饿了，而是为着某些特别食物而饥饿，我的好奇心不再像以前那般模

糊混沌了。

Unit 5: 为何样样失灵？（为何什么都没用？）

根据著名学者摩非所发明的法则，“任何东西如果有坏的可能，它就一定会坏掉。”摩非法则的推论为

劣质商品问题提供了依据：任何东西如果可能会失效，它就一定会失效；任何东西如果可能解体，它就一定

会解体；任何东西如果可能停止运转，它就会停止运转。虽然摩非定律永远不会被推翻，但是它的效应通常

却是可以被延缓的。人类生存多半想能确保物品出厂后相当一段时间内不会坏掉、解体、失效或停止运转。

要想预防摩非法则对产品产生效应需要智慧、技术和承诺。如果这些人为的输入得到专门的质量监控仪器、

机械和科学的抽样工序的辅助，那就更好了。然而，单单是质量监控仪和抽样调查将永远不能制胜，因为这

些物件也受制于摩非法则。质检仪器需要维修；计量器也会出故障；X光和雷射光束需要调整。无论技术如

何先进，保持高质量需要智慧、活跃的思想和行动。

回忆一下史前和工业化前人类的物质文化也许有助于说明我的意思。博物馆里展览着简单的工业化前的

社会所用的手工物品，只参观一次就足于打消质量得依赖技术这种观点。手工物品也许设计简单甚至原始，

但其制作意图却是要终生耐用。我们敬慕“手工制作”的标签并愿意多花钱购买当今数量递减的手工艺人推

出的珠宝、毛衣和手袋，就是承认了这一点。

波摩印地安人的篮子编得如此紧密，以至于用它来盛开水而滴水不漏；爱斯基摩人的皮船具有一系列无

与伦比的综合优点，既轻巧结实又经得起风浪。这些东西的质量源泉是什么？仅仅因为它们是手工制作的吗？

我认为并非如此。不熟练不经意的手做出来的篮子或船只也会和机器制的篮子或船一样迅速分崩离析。我宁

可认为我们之所以敬慕“手工制作”的标签，是因为它让人联想起的不是生产者和产品之间的技术关系，而

是一种生产者和消费者之间的社会关系。贯穿史前时期，保证产品最高程度的耐用性和持久性的是这一个事

实：生产者和消费者不是同一个人就是同样的个体或是近亲。男人们制作自己的长矛、弓、箭以及抛掷尖物；

女人们编制自己的篮子和网兜，用动物皮毛、树皮或纤维做自己的衣服。后来随着技术的发展以及物质文化

变得更复杂，族人或村子里的不同成员采用技艺分工，如制陶术、编蓝术或制船术。尽管许多物品是通过实

物交易获得，生产者于消费者之间的关系仍然是亲密持久充满关爱的。

男人不可能为自己做一把飞到一半尖头就会脱落的长矛；女人也不会用烂草编织自己用的篮子。同样一

个妻子缝制的毛皮风雪大衣是给丈夫在零下60度的温度下出去为家人打猎穿的，那么针针线线都会密密细

缝、十分牢固。如果造船的人是开船人的叔伯、父亲，他当然会利用当时的一切技术，制造出最经得起大风

大浪的船只。

相比之下，人们很难去关怀陌生人或给陌生人使用的产品。在我们这个工业批量生产和批量营销的时代，

质量是个不断出现的问题，因为那种曾经使我们对彼此负责、对产品负责的亲密情感和个人关系已经消亡，

并被金钱关系所取代。不只是生产者与消费者素不相识，从事生产和分配各阶段工作的男男女女---- 从管理

人员到生产线上的工人，从办公室助理人员到销售人员，彼此都互不相识。在较大的公司也许有成千上万的

人全都在为同一产品工作，却从不对面相遇或知道对方的名字。公司越大，劳动分工就越复杂，漠不关心的

关系就越严重，因此摩非法则的效应也就越大。公司的发展使得工资单上的行政官、工头、工程师、生产工

人和销售人员层层增加。由于每个新雇员为整个生产程序所负责的分额在减少，他们与公司及其产品的疏远

就可能增加，同时还以来可能忽视或甚至故意破坏其质量标准。

Unit 6 Where is the News Leading Us

1 Not long ago I was asked to join in a public symposium on the role of the American press.

Two other speakers were included on the program. The first was a distinguished TV anchorman. The

other was the editor of one of the nation’s leading papers, a newsman to the core – tough,

aggressive, and savvy in the ways and means of solid reporting.

不久前，我应邀参加了一次有关美国报业的作用的公共研讨会。还有另外两位嘉宾也出席了，一位是知

名的节目主持人，另一位是美国一家主要报纸的编辑，他勇敢坚定，有闯劲 有进取心（咄咄逼人），深谙撰

写可靠新闻的之道，堪称一位彻头彻尾的新闻界人士。

2 The purpose of the symposium, as I understood it, was to scrutinize the obligations of the

media and to suggest the best ways to meet those obligations.

据我所知，本次研讨会旨在审查传媒的使命，提出完成使命的最佳方式。

3 During the open-discussion period, a gentleman in the audience addressed a question to

my two colleagues. Why, he asked, are the newspapers and the television news programs so

disaster-prone? Why are newsmen and women so attracted to tragedy, violence, failure?

在公开讨论时，观众席中的一位男士向两位嘉宾提问，‘为什么报纸和电视新闻都充斥灾难？为什么新

闻界的男男女女对悲剧、暴力和失败有如此关注?’

4 The anchorman and editor reached as though they had been blamed for the existence of

bad news. Newsmen and newswomen, they said, are only responsible for reporting the news, not

for creating it or modifying it

主持人和编辑的反应是，好像他们为坏消息的存在受到了责难（成为了指责对象）。他们回答说，新闻界

人士只负责报道新闻而不创造或修改新闻。

5 It didn’t seem to me that the newsmen had answered the question. The gentleman who

had asked it was not blaming them for the distortions in the world. He was just wondering why

distortions are most reported. The news media seem to operate on the philosophy that all news is

bad news. Why? Could it be that the emphasis on downside news is largely the result of tradition –

the way newsmen are accustomed to respond to daily events?

我认为他们没有回答那位先生的问题。那位先生的问题。那位提问的先生并没有责怪他们，让他们为世

上的不实复杂。他只是想弄明白为什么报道的最多的是扭曲的现实。新闻传媒的运作理念似乎凡是新闻皆坏

事。为什么？难道突出负面新闻是传统？是新闻业内人士对日常事件的习以为常的反应？

6 Perhaps it would be useful here to examine the way we define the world news, for this is

where the problem begins. News is supposed to deal with happenings of the past 12 hours - 24

hours at most. Any sniper kills some pedestrians; a terrorist holds 250 people hostage in a plane;

OPEC announces a 25 percent increase in petroleum prices; Great Britain devalues by another 10

percent; a truck conveying radioactive wastes collides with a mobile cement mixer.

或许看一下我们如何定义新闻一词会有所帮助，因为这是问题的起因，新闻应该是报道过去十二小时，

最迟二十四小时内所发生的事情。然而突发事件往往是具有爆炸性的：一名狙击手枪杀几名行人，一名恐怖

分子劫持飞机上250名人质，欧佩克宣布原油价格上涨25%，英国货币又贬值10%一辆载有放射性废料的

卡车与一架水泥搅拌车相撞。

7 Focusing solely on these details, however, produces a misshapen picture. Civilization is a

lot more than the sum total of its catastrophes. The most important ingredient in any civilization is

progress. But progress doesn’t happen all at once. It is not eruptive. Generally, it comes in bits and

pieces, very little of it clearly visible at any given moment, but all of involved in the making of

historical change for the better.

然而，一味聚焦这些报道，则是失真的画面。人类文明成果远远多于灾难总和。每个文明进步最重要的

组成元素是进步，但进步不是一蹴而就的，不具被爆发性。一般来说，它是一点一滴逐步发展的，在某个特

定的时刻是微不足察的，但是所有微小的进步都参与了历史性巨变的实现，是社会更加美好。

8 It is this aspect of living history that most news reporting reflects inadequately. The result is

that we are underinformed about positive developments and overinformed about disasters. This, in

turn, leads to a public mood of defeatism and despair, which in themselves tend to be inhibitors of

progress. An unrelieved diet of eruptive news depletes the essential human energies a free society

needs. A mood of hopelessness and cynicism is hardly likely to furnish the energy needed to meet

serious challenges.

这就是人类活生生的历史，绝大多数的新闻媒体没有予以充分的反映，才导致我们对社会的正面发展了

解不足，对灾难却知之甚多，这又使人产生失败和绝望的情绪，而这些情绪阻碍社会进步。爆发性新闻大餐

叫人忧心忡忡，大大消减了自由社会所需的人的动力，绝望和愤世的情绪使人没有动力迎接严峻的考验。

9 I am not suggesting that “positive” news be contrived as an antidote to the disasters on

page one. Nor do I define positive news as in-depth reportage of functions of the local YMCA. What

I am trying to get across is the notion that the responsibility of the news media is to search out and

report on important events--- whether or not they come under the heaven and hell, and both

sectors call for attention and scrutiny.

我并非暗示可以编造“积极”的新闻来抵消头版上灾难报道的作用，也没有把对亲年基督会作用的深刻

报道定义为“正面”新闻。我要传递的观点是，新闻媒体的职责是搜索及报道重大事件，无论他们是否有关

冲突、对抗或灾难。这世界既有光明的一面又有阴暗的一面，两个方面都要引起人们的关注和思考。

10 My hope is that the profession of journalism will soon see its responsibility in a wider

perspective. The time has come to consider the existence of a large area of human happenings that

legitimately qualify as news. For example, how many news articles have been written about

nitrogen-fixation --- the process by which plants can be made to “fix” their own nitrogen, thus

reducing the need for fertilizer? Scientists all over the world are now pursuing this prospect in the

hope of combating famine. How much is known about the revolutionary changes being made in

increasing the rice harvest in the Far East? There are literally dozens of similar important

development in the world that are worthy of inclusion in any roundup of major new stories.

我希望新闻界人士能以更广阔视野来看待传媒的责任。已经到时候了，该认识到人类事件中可以作为新

闻来报道的领域是及其宽广的。举例来说，有几篇新闻报道过固氮作用——这是使植物锁定自身的氮气，从

而减少对化肥需求的过程？全世界的科学家都在为这一前景而努力，希望借此解决饥荒，对远东地区水稻产

量提高的巨大的进步又了解多少？事实上，世界还有许多类似的重要发展，这些都值得做重要的新闻综合报

道。

11 The anchorman and editor were right in saying that newsmen and women are not

responsible for shaping the world. But they are responsible for affecting our attitudes. We are only

what we think we are; we can achieve only those goals we dare to envision. News people provide us

with the only picture we have of ourselves and of the world. It had better be a true portrait – and

not a caricature – for it is this picture on which we will base our decisions and around which we will

plan our future.

主持人和编辑说新闻界人士并没有责任来塑造世界，这是无可厚非的。但是他们有责任来影响我们的观

点。我们认为自己是怎样的，那我们就是怎样的。我们只能实现那些我们敢于设想的目标。新闻界人士为我

们提供我们对自身以及这个世界认识的写照——这种写照最好是逼真的肖像，而不是扭曲的漫画像，因为我

们就是根据这一写照来做决定，筹划未来的。

12 The journalist, to paraphrase Walter Lippmann, is the public’s philosopher. “ The

acquired culture,” Lippmann wrote, “is not transmitted in our genes. The good life in the good

society, though attainable, is never attained and possessed once and for all. What has been attained

will again be lost if the wisdom of the good life in a good society is not transmitted.”

按照华特里普曼的说法，新闻记者都是大众的哲学家。他曾经写道：后天习得的文化并非基因遗传，美

好社会的甜美的生活虽然可得但却不是一旦拥有就永远不会失去。如果美好生活正的智慧没有被传下来，所

得一切也将会化为乌有。

13 With an accurate report of the good life in the good society, we can begin to use the news

as Bernard de Chartres suggested we use history – boosting ourselves up on our experiences, “like

dwarfs seated on the shoulders of giants,” enabled, thus, “to see more things than the Americans

and things more distant.”

美好社会的美好生活有准确报道。伯纳德 德 查特斯建议我们这样善用历史，借鉴经验教训，鼓舞我们

的士气，“就像矮子站在巨人的肩膀上”使得我们“比前人看得更远，看到更多”。我们也可以这样善用新

闻报道。

Unit7 Things: The Throw-away Society一次性社会

“Barbie,” a twelve-inch plastic teen-ager, is the best known and best-selling doll in history.

Since its introduction in 1959, the Barbie doll population of the world has grown to 12,000,000—

more than the human population of Los Angeles or London or Paris. Little girls adore Barbie

because she is highly realistic and eminently dress-upable. Mattel, Inc., maker of Barbie, also sells a

complete wardrobe for her, including clothes for ordinary daytime wear, clothes for formal party

wear, clothes for swimming and skiing.

十二英寸高的塑料小人“芭比”曾是历史上最著名最畅销的洋娃娃，自从1959年问世以来，全世界的

芭比娃娃的数量增长到1200,0000人—比洛杉矶，伦敦和巴黎任何一个城市的人口还要多。小女孩热衷芭比

娃娃是因为他很像真的而且可以任意更换衣服，作为芭比娃娃的生产厂家，Mattel公司还出售芭比的整体衣

柜，包括日常便装，正式晚装，泳装和滑雪衫。

Recently Mattel announced a new improved Barbie doll. The new version has a slimmer figure,

“real” eyelashes and a twist-and turn waist that makes her more humanoid than ever. Moreover,

Mattel announced that, for the first time, any young lady wishing to purchase a new Barbie would

receive a trade-in allowance for her old one. 旧货换新折让

最近Mattel公司推出一款更高级的芭比娃娃，这个新产品身材更苗条，有仿真睫毛，又可以扭转弯曲的

腰肢，所有这些特点使其更加人性化。此外，M公司还首次宣布，任何一个购买芭比娃娃的女士都可以获得

旧芭比娃娃的折价优惠。

What Mattel did not announce was that by trading in her old doll for a technologically

improved modes, the little girl of today, citizen of tomorrow’s super-industrial world, would learn a

fundamental lesson about the new society: that man’s relationships with things are increasingly

temporary.

M公司所没有宣布的是，通过折旧芭比娃娃来销售新款芭比娃娃，今天的小女孩，明天工业化社会的公

民就会得出这样一个对社会的基本认识：人类和物品的关系越来越短暂。

The ocean of man-made physical objects that surrounds us is set within a larger ocean of

natural objects. But increasingly, it is the technologically produced environment that matters for the

individual. The texture of plastic or concrete, the iridescent glisten of an automobile under a

streetlight, the staggering vision of a cityscape seen from the window of a jet— these are the

intimate realities of his existence. Man-made things enter into and color his consciousness. Their

number is expanding with explosive force, both absolutely and relative to the natural environment.

This will be even more true in super-industrial society than it is today.

我们周围人造物品的海洋外围还有更广阔的自然物品的海洋。但是这个技术制造的环境逐渐影响着人类。

塑料或混凝土结构， 街灯下霓虹闪烁的汽车，从飞机窗口俯瞰到的缓慢移动的城市—这些人类的亲密伙伴。

人造物品进入并影响了人类意识，其数量急剧增长， 无论是就绝对而言还是相对而言。这种现象在将来的后

工业化社会会更加突出。

Anti-materialists tend to deride the importance of “things.” Yet things are highly significant,

not merely because of their functional utility, but also because of their psychological impact. We

develop relationships with things. Things affect our sense of foreshortening of our relationships

with things accelerates the pace of life.

唯心主义者试图否认物品的重要性，但是物品是非常重要的，不仅因为它有实用功能，还因为其对精神

的影响，我们发展和物品的关系，物品影响我们对关联和断联的意识。他们在情景结构中的作用，我们和物

品关系的缩短加快了生活的节奏。

Moreover, our attitudes toward things reflect basic value judgments. Nothing could be more

dramatic than the difference between the new breed of little girls who cheerfully turn in their

Barbies for the new improved model and those who, like their mothers and grandmothers before

them, clutch lingeringly and lovingly to the same doll until it disintegrates from sheer age. In this

difference lies the contrast between past and future, between societies based on permanence, and

the new, fast-forming society based on transience.

此外，我们对物品的态度反映了基本的价值评判。有的小女孩兴高采烈的把她们的芭比娃娃换成新款高

级的娃娃，有的小女孩象她们的母亲和祖母年少时一样，终日抱着同一个娃娃，形影不离，爱不释手，直到

长大后娃娃从生活中消失，没有什么比这更具有戏剧性的对比了。这种不同在于过去和未来的对比，对于永

久的社会和新的变幻无常的社会的对比。

That man-thing relationships are growing more and more temporary may be illustrated by

examining the culture surrounding the little girl who trades in her doll. This child soon learns that

Barbie dolls are by no means the only physical objects that pass into and out of her young life at a

rapid clip. Diapers, bibs, paper napkins, Kleenex, towels, non-returnable soda bottles—all are used

up quickly in her home and ruthlessly eliminated. Corn muffins come in baking tins that are thrown

away after one use. Spinach is encased in plastic sacks that can be dropped into a pan of boiling

water for heating, and then thrown away. TV dinners are cooked and often served on throw-away

trays. Her home is a large processing machine through which objects flow, entering and leaving, at

a faster and faster rate of speed. From birth on, she is inextricably embedded in a throw-away

culture.

观察一下旧芭比换新芭比的小女孩身后的文化就可以看出人类和物品间的关系越来越短暂，这些孩子很

快会知道有很多物品以极快的速度进入并离开他们的生活，不只是芭比娃娃。纸尿裤，围裙，纸巾，手绢，

非循环使用的苏打汽水瓶—所有这些在她家被迅速使用，有的被无情的丢弃。玉米松饼放进一次性的烤罐，

菠菜放进塑料袋中，这种塑料袋可以一起放进沸水锅中加热然后丢弃。电视上的烹饪节目也经常使用一次性

的碟子。她的家就是一个大型处理机器，通过这个机器，物品以越来越快的速度不断流动，进入又离开，从

出生开始，她就被包围在一次性的文化中。

The idea of using a product once or for a brief period and then replacing it, runs counter to the

grain of societies or individuals steeped in a heritage of poverty. Not long ago Uriel Rone, a market

researcher for the French advertising agency Publicis, told me: “The French housewife is not used

to disposable products. She likes to keep things, even old things, rather than throw-away curtain.

We did a marketing study for them and found the resistance too strong.” This resistance, however,

is dying all over the developed world.

对一次性物品的使用让人想到了粮食问题和祖祖辈辈生活在贫困中的人，不久前，法国广告代理公司P

的一位市场调查员U R 告诉我:“法国的家庭主妇并不习惯于使用一次性的产品，她们喜欢把东西留着，即

使是旧物品也不会丢。我们代表公司宣传一种一次性的塑料窗帘。我们队她们作市场调查，却发现她们的抵

制情绪很强。”这种抵制在其他发达国家越来越少了。

Thus a writer, Edward Maze, has pointed out that many Americans visiting Sweden in the early

1950’s were astounded by its cleanliness. “We were almost awed by the fact that there were no

beer and soft drink bottles by the road sides, as, much to our shame, there were in America. But by

the 1960’s lo and behold, bottles were suddenly blooming along Swedish highways… What

happened? Sweden had become a buy, use and throw-away society, following the American

pattern.” In Japan today throw-away tissues are so universal that cloth handkerchiefs are regarded

as old fashioned, not to say unsanitary. In England for sixpence one may buy a “Dentamatic

throw-away toothbrush” which comes already coated with toothpaste for its one-time use. And

even in France, disposable cigarette lighters are commonplace. Form cardboard milk containers to

the rockets that power space vehicles, products created for short-term or one-time use are

becoming more numerous and crucial to our way of life.

因此，作家E M 指出在十二世纪五十年代初期，很多区瑞典观光的美国人都被瑞典的干净所震惊“让我

们敬佩的是路边没有一个啤酒瓶和软饮料瓶，而自惭形秽的是，美国到处都是。但是到二十世纪六十年代，

看看吧，各种瓶瓶罐罐凸现在瑞典的高速公路上……怎么了？跟美国一样，瑞典已经变成一个购买，使用一次

性物品的国家了。在当今的日本，一次性的纸巾非常普遍，手绢已经老土了，而且也不卫生。在英国，花七

便士就可以买到已经挤好牙膏，一次性使用的牙刷。即使在法国，一次性的打火机也很普遍，从牛奶纸盒到

为太空提供动力的火箭，它们对我们的生活起着越来越重要的作用。

The recent introduction of paper and quasi-paper clothing carried the trend toward

disposability a step further. Fashionable boutiques and working-class clothing stores have sprouted

whole departments devoted to gaily colored and imaginatively designed paper apparel. Fashion

magazines display breathtakingly sumptuous gowns, coats, pajamas, even wedding dresses made

of paper. The bride pictured in one of these wears a long white train of lace-like paper that, the

caption writer notes, will make “great kitchen curtains” after the ceremony.

刚上市的纸衣服或者类似纸的衣服将一次性文化更推进了一步。时尚饰品店和工薪阶层服装店已经陆续

出现一个全新的部门，这个部门专门负责那些色彩艳丽设计特别的纸衣服。时尚杂志展示了价格惊人的纸长

袍，纸外套，纸睡袍，甚至纸婚纱和礼服。图中的新娘穿着仿蕾丝纸做成的白色长袍裙，标题写道：这条裙

子在婚礼结束后可以做成“不错的厨房窗帘”。

Paper clothes are particularly suitably for children, Writes one fashion expert: “Little girls will

soon be able to spill ice cream, draw pictures and make cutouts on their clothes while their mothers

smile benignly at their creativity.” And for adults who want to express their own creativity, there is

even a “paint-yourself-dress” complete with brushes. Price: $2.00.

纸衣服是最适合孩子的。一位时尚专家写道：“小孩子会乱溅冰激凌，而且他可以在纸衣服上画画，或

者贴剪纸画，而母亲在一旁微笑的赞许其创造力。”对于想展示创造力的成年人，可以买一种配有刷子的“自

助衣服”，价格两美元。

Price, of course, is a critical factor behind the paper explosion. Thus a department store features

simple A-line dresses made of what it calls “devil-may-care cellulose fiber and nylon.” At $1.29

each, it is almost cheaper for the consumer to buy and discard a new one than to send an ordinary

dress to the cleaners. Soon it will be. But more than economics is involved, for the extension of the

throw-away culture has important psychological consequences.

当然，价格是纸用品猛增的重要原因。因此有一家百货商店很有特色，店内全是清一色的衣服，这些衣

服都是用被称作“魔鬼也会留意的纤维和尼龙”做成的。每件事1.29美元，对于消费者来说，一次性要比普

通衣服送进洗衣店要便宜的多。但不仅仅是经济问题，一次性文化的蔓延还带来了不容忽视的精神影响。

***We develop a throw-away mentality to match our throw-away products. This mentality

produces, among other things, a set of radically altered values with respect to property. But the

spread of disposability through the society also implies decreased durations in man-thing

relationships. Instead of being linked with a single object over a relatively long span of time, we are

linked for brief periods with the succession of objects that supplant it.

我们已经形成了一种一次性的心态，来适应一次性的产品。这种心态使得我们对于物品的价值观产生了

巨大的改变。然而社会中的一次性文化的蔓延也预示着人类和物品的关系持续的时间越来越短。我们只是和

一系列马上将被代替的物品保持短期的联系，而不是和某一物品保持长期的联系。

Unit8 Cultivating a Hobby 培养一种业余爱好

A gifted American psychologist has said, “Worry is a spasm of the emotion; the mind catches

hold of something and will not let it go.” It is useless to argue with the mind in this condition. The

stronger the will is, the more futile the task is. One can only gently insinuate something else into its

rightly chosen, if it is really attended by the illumination of another field of interest, gradually, and

often quite swiftly, the old undue grip relaxes and the process of recuperation and repair, begins.

美国一位天才心理学家曾经说过：“忧虑是一阵情感的冲动，意识一旦陷入某种状态，这种状态将很难

被改变。”在这种情况下，与意识去抗争是徒劳的。意志力越强，这种抗争就越显得徒劳无益。这时，唯一

的解决办法只能是悄悄的渗入某种新的东西，来分散注意力。如果这种新的东西选择恰当，而且确实能激起

你对另一领域的兴趣，渐渐地、而且经常是非常迅速地，你过分紧张的情绪就会缓解，你又开始恢复到原来

的状态。

The cultivation of a hobby and the forms of interest is therefore a policy of first importance to a

public man .But this is not a business that can be untaken in a day or swiftly improvised by a mere

command of the will. The growth of alternative mental interests is a long process. The seeds must

be carefully chosen; they must fall on good ground; they must be sedulously tended, if the vivifying

fruits are to be at band when needed.

因此，对一个公众人物来说，培养一种业余爱好、一种新的兴趣显得尤为重要。但这不是一件一朝一日

或凭一时的意气就能一蹴而就的事情。这种替代忧虑的心理兴趣培养是一个长期的过程。它的种子必须要精

挑细选，然后播撒到肥沃的土壤中，要想得到籽粒饱满、需要时随手可摘的果实，还必须对他们精心呵护。

To be really happy really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all

be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: “I will take an interest in this or that.” Such an

attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics

unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you

like; you have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three

classes; those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to

death. It is no use offering the manual laborer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the

chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the

politician or the professional or businessman, who has been working or worrying about serious

things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the week-end.

要想真正的快乐，而且每次都能真正奏效，一个人必须有两种或三种业余爱好，而且必须是真正的业余

爱好。一个人到了晚年才说：“我要培养这种或那种兴趣。”那已经没有任何意义了。这种尝试只能更加增

加大脑的压力。一个人可能具有与他日常工作无关的大量的知识，但这些知识并无助于他减轻心理压力。随

心所欲的做你喜欢的工作不会帮你减轻心理压力，而是你必须设法喜欢你目前所做的工作。大致来说，人可

分为三类：第一类人是累死；第二类人是愁死；第三类人是烦死。体力劳动者经过一周的辛勤劳动已经筋疲

力尽，再让他们在周六下午踢足球或打棒球无助于消除他们的疲劳。让那些为一些大事已经连续工作或烦恼

了六天的政治家、专业人员或工商界人士来说，在周末的时候让他们为一些鸡毛蒜皮的小事烦恼费神，也不

会使他们身心轻松。

As for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify

every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire — for them a new pleasure, a

new excitement is only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically round from place to

place, trying to escape from avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline in

one form or another is the most hopeful path.

对于那些不幸的人：那些可以随意发号施令；那些随心所欲，无所不能的人，新的乐趣、新的喜悦对他

们来说是无所谓的事情。他们狂乱地从一个地方跑到另一个地方、想通过不断换地方的这种方式来摆脱烦恼，

这是徒劳的。对他们来说，条理、规矩是他们最有希望摆脱烦恼的办法。

It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are dividing into two classes:

first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly, those whose work

and pleasure are one. Of these the former is majority. They have their compensations. The long

hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance

（生计）, but a keen appetite for leisure even in its simplest and most modest forms. 在办公室或工

厂里长时间的工作，不仅带给他们维持生计的金钱，还带给他们一种渴求娱乐的强烈欲望，哪怕这种娱乐消

遣是以最简单、最朴实的方式进行的。 But Fortune’s favored children belong to the second class.

Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a

holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an

absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of

atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is

their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.

也可以说，理智、勤奋、有才能的人可以分为两类：第一类是工作与娱乐泾渭分明；第二类人是工作与

娱乐合二为一。大多数人属于前者。他们有他们的报酬。长时间在办公室或工厂的辛勤劳作不仅使他们得到

了维持生命的薪水，而且培养了他们追求快乐的强烈愿望，即使仅仅是那些最简单、最朴实的形式。然而命

运女神所偏爱的却是第二类人。他们的生活自然、和谐。对他们来说，工作的时间永远都不够长。每一天都

是假期，法定假期到来时，他们不愿休假，埋怨（认为）这是强行中断干扰了他们精彩的假期。然而，这两

类人都必须改变一下他们的观点，调整一下气氛、转移一下奋斗的方向。事实上或许那些以工作为乐的人正

是那些最需要通过一种兴趣或爱好使自己适时忘记自己工作的人。