1、1Unit 1Obtaining an audience with son No. 1, I snarled, “Ill kill you if you threaten one of those kids again! Idiot! You should be offering a bonus of a dollar every hour to the worker who fills the most bags.”“But that would cut into our profit,” he suggested. “There wont be any profit unless thos
2、e kids enable you to make all the deliveries on time. If they dont, you two will have to remove all that paper by yourselves. And there will be no eating or sleeping until it is removed.”There was a short, thoughtful silence. Then he said, “Dad, you have just worked a profound change in my personali
3、ty.”“Do it!”“Yes, sir!”我跟大儿子一通上话,便咆哮道, “你如果再威胁那些孩子,我就对你不客气了!白痴!你应该给奖金,对装袋最多的工人每小时奖励一块。 ”“可那要减少我们的利润啦, ”他提醒道。“那些孩子不帮你按时将所有的广告投送出去,你就什么利润也得不到。如果他们不干,你们俩就得亲手搬走所有的广告。而在把它们搬掉之前,你们吃不成,也睡不成。 ”电话里出现了短暂的沉默,他在思考。接着,他说, “爸爸,你刚才使我深受启迪,令我恍然大悟。 ”“那就干吧!”“是,阁下!”Unit 2Some persons say that love makes the world go ro
4、und. Others of a less romantic and more practical turn of mind say that it isnt love; its money. But the truth is that it is energy that makes the world go round. Energy is the currency of the ecological system and life becomes possible only when food is converted into energy, which in turn is used
5、to seek more food to grow, to reproduce and to survive. On this cycle all life depends.It is fairly well known that wild animals survive from year to year by eating as much as they can during times of plenty, the summer and fall, storing the excess, usually in the form of fat, and then using these r
6、eserves of fat to survive during the hard times in winter when food is scarce. But, it is probably less well known that even with their stored fat, wild animals spend less energy to live in winter than in summer.有些人说,爱情驱使世界运转;另一些并不那么罗曼蒂克而更为注重实际的人则说,不是爱情,而是金钱。但真实情况是,能量驱使世界运转。能量是生态系统的货币,只有当食物转变为能量,能量再
7、用来获取更多的食物以供生长、繁殖和生存,生命才成为可能。所有生命都维系在这一循环上。差不多众所周知,野生动物得以年复一年地生存下去,主要依靠在夏秋生长旺季尽量多吃,通常将多余的部分以脂肪的形式储存起来,然后到了冬天食物稀少的艰难时期,就用这些储备的脂肪来维持生命。然而,很可能鲜为人知的是,即使有储备的脂肪,野生动物在冬天消耗的能量比夏天要少。2Unit 2It will be seen that my reasons for thinking that the earth is round are rather precarious ones. Yet this is an exception
8、ally elementary piece of information. On most other questions I should have to fall back on the expert much earlier, and would be less able to test his pronouncements. And much the greater part of our knowledge is at this level. It does not rest on reasoning or on experiment, but on authority. And h
9、ow can it be otherwise, when the range of knowledge is so vast that the expert himself is an ignoramus as soon as he strays away from his own specialty? Most people, if asked to prove that the earth is round, would not even bother to produce the rather weak arguments I have outlined above. They woul
10、d start off by saying that “everyone knows” the earth to be round, and if pressed further, would become angry. In a way Shaw is right. This is a credulous age, and the burden of knowledge which we now have to carry is partly responsible.由此可见,我认为地球是圆的,其根据是相当不牢靠的。然而这却是一点极其基本的知识。在别的大多数问题上,我只得更早地依赖专家的理论
11、,且更少有办法检验他的结论了。我们的知识,其绝大部分都停留在这一水平上。它不是依靠推理或实验,而是依赖权威。可是,不这样,又有什么别的法子呢?知识的范围如此广博,一旦越出其专业范围,专家也会变成一无所知。对大多数人来说,如果要他们证明地球是圆的话,就连我上面概述的这些相当无力的论据,他们也不愿提供出来。他们一开始就会说: 谁都知道地球是圆的。要是再加追问,就会生气了。在某种程度上讲,肖伯纳是说对了,如今是一个轻信的时代。究其缘由,部分在于,我们现今必须掌握的知识实在太多了。Unit 4I think Jeremy always suspected he had a higher purpose
12、. I dont believe it was an accident that he was on Flight 93. It wasnt mere luck that an airline passenger with precisely the right physical skills to abort one of the terror missions happened to be on the only plane hijacked that day where there was an opportunity to do that.Jeremy was 31 when he d
13、ied, had been married to me for five years and knew his daughter for barely three months. Yet I consider us blessed. He and I left nothing unsaid or undone, and he managed to give Emmy and me everything we need. And sometimes, when Im watching and listening, I can still feel him near me, leading me
14、forward into the rest of my life. 我觉得杰里米一直认为他生来就肩负有崇高使命。我也并不认为杰里米乘坐上第 93 次航班是出于偶然。一位具有足够挫败恐怖行径体能的旅客正好搭乘了那天被劫持的飞机中唯一一个可以有机会进行反击劫机者的航班,这不仅仅是一种巧合。杰里米去世时 31 岁,和我结婚了五年,和他的女儿相处了三个月都不到。可我认为我们是幸福的。他与我之间未留下任何未尽之言或未竟之事。他总是努力给埃米和我带来我们所需的一切。有时,当我留神观察和倾听时,我仍然能感到他就在我的身边,在我有生之年指引我向前。3Unit 5Sharp conflicts are now
15、arising. Patients are learning to press for answers. Patients bills of rights require that they be informed about their condition and about alternatives for treatment. Many doctors go to great lengths to provide such information. Yet even in hospitals with the most eloquent bill of rights, believers
16、 in benevolent deception continue their age-old practices. Colleagues may disapprove but refrain from objecting. Nurses may bitterly resent having to take part, day after day, in deceiving patients, but feel powerless to take a stand.There is urgent need to debate this issue openly. Not only in medi
17、cine, but in other professions as well, practitioners may find themselves repeatedly in difficulty where serious consequences seem avoidable only through deception. Yet the public has every reason to be wary of professional deception, for such practices are peculiarly likely to become deeply rooted,
18、 to spread, and to erode trust. Neither in medicine, nor in law, government, or the social sciences can there be comfort in the old saying, “What you dont know cant hurt you.”剧烈的冲突正在出现。病人开始学会催问真实情况。根据病人应享有的权利的规定,医生应将病情和可供选择的治疗方案通告病人。许多医生尽可能向病人提供这些情况。然而,即使在对病人的权益考虑得最周到的医院里,信奉“仁慈”欺骗的医生们继续他们传统的古老做法。同事们
19、也许不赞同,但避免公开表示反对。护士们对不得不日复一日地参与欺骗病人的做法也许深恶痛绝,但要抵制却感到无能为力。及时对这个问题进行公开辩论非常必要。不仅在医疗业,而且在其他行业,从业者不断发现,自己常处于似乎不采用欺骗手段就无法避免严重后果的困难处境。但是公众完全有理由对职业性欺骗保持警惕,因为这种做法特别容易变得根深蒂固,蔓延滋长,并损害信任。无论医疗界、法律界、政府机构还是社会科学界,都不应从“不知者,不为所害”这句老话中得到丝毫慰藉。Unit 6There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the propert
20、y right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An illustration may m
21、ake the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butchers icebox to your own. But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your bloodstream to do you any good.一个人
22、拥有书的方法有两种,第一种是花钱取得财产所有权,就像你花钱买衣服和家具一样。但花钱买书只是占有它的前奏。只有在你将它化为你自己的一部分之后,你才完全占有了它。而把你自己变为书的一部分的最好方法就是在书中写字。打个比方也许可以把这一点说清楚。你买下一块牛排,把它从肉铺的冰箱里转移到你的冰箱中。但从最重要的意义上来说,你还没有占有它,除非你吃下它并将它吸收进你的血液之中。我的论点是,书的营养也只有在被吸收进你的血液中时,才能对你有所裨益。4Unit 7Then came the question of drink.“I never drink anything for luncheon,” she
23、 said.“Neither do I,” I answered promptly.“Except white wine,” she proceeded as though I had not spoken. “These French white wines are so light. Theyre wonderful for the digestion.”“What would you like?” I asked, hospitable still, but not exactly effusive.She gave me a bright and amicable flash of h
24、er white teeth.“My doctor wont let me drink anything but champagne.”I fancy I turned a trifle pale. I ordered half a bottle. I mentioned casually that my doctor had absolutely forbidden me to drink champagne.“What are you going to drink, then?”“Water.”接着而来的是饮料问题。“我午餐从不喝饮料, ”她说。“我也是如此, ”我马上答道。“但白葡萄酒例
25、外, ”她接着说,就好像我刚才没说似的。 “法国的白葡萄酒非常清淡,十分有助消化。 ”“你想喝点什么?”我依然客气地问道,但算不上热情。她嫣然一笑,露出一口白牙。“我的医生只让我喝香槟。 ”我猜想我的脸色一定有点发白了。我要了半瓶,顺便提及我的医生绝对禁止我喝香槟酒。“那你喝什么呢?”“水。 ”Unit 8First, weather would no longer be important, since it is primarily a phenomenon of the atmosphere. Rain, snow, sleet, fog would not trouble the un
26、derground world. Even temperature variations are limited to the open surface and would not exist underground. Whether day or night, summer or winter, temperatures in the underground world would remain equable and nearly constant. The vast amounts of energy now expended in warming our surface surroun
27、dings when they are too cold, and cooling them when they are too warm, could be saved. The damage done to manmade structures and to human beings by weather would be gone. Transportation over local distances would be simplified. (Earthquakes would remain a danger, of course.)首先,气候将变得无关紧要,因为它主要是大气层的一种
28、现象。雨、雪、霰、雾将不会给地下世界带来麻烦。甚至气温的变化也局限于露天地表,而在地下则不存在这种变化。不论白天黑夜,炎夏寒冬,地下世界的温度将保持平稳,近乎恒温。如今,当我们的地表环境太冷时,则需要取暖,而太暖时,又需降温,耗费大量的能量。若搬到地下生活,则统统可以省去。天气对人造的建筑物以及人类本身的损害将不复存在。地区性的交通问题也将大为简化。 (当然,地震将依然是个危险。 )5Unit 9I still have warm memories of spending many quiet hours reading every book I could find about this g
29、reat man and his theories. When I exhausted the books in our local library, I began to visit libraries and bookstores across the city, eagerly searching for more clues. I soon learned that the unfinished papers on Einsteins desk were an attempt to construct what he called the unified field theory, a
30、 theory that could explain all the laws of nature, from the tiniest atom to the largest galaxy. However, being a child, I didnt understand that perhaps there was a link between the carp swimming in the Tea Garden and the unfinished papers lying on Einsteins desk. I didnt understand that higher dimen
31、sions might be the key to solving the unified field theory. Nevertheless, I could see that this story was far more exciting than any murder mystery and more important than anything I could ever imagine. I decided that I would try to get to the root of this mystery, even if I had to become a theoreti
32、cal physicist to do it. 我现在仍能激动地忆起,那时我花了好多时间安静地阅读我能找到的有关这个伟人和他理论的所有书籍。我读完了邻近图书馆的藏书,就开始去市里别的图书馆和书店,急切地搜寻更多线索。不久我便获悉,爱因斯坦书桌上未完成的论文旨在建立一种他称之为统一场论的理论,这种理论能够解释所有自然法则,从最小的原子到最大的星系。不过,当时我还是个孩子,不懂得茶园里游水的鲤鱼和爱因斯坦书桌上未完成的论文之间也许有关联。我不懂得高维也许是解决统一场论的关键。 但是,我懂得这个故事比任何凶杀疑案作品都惊心动魄得多,比任何我能想像的事物都重要。我决心想方设法揭开这个谜的谜底,哪怕我得
33、为此做一个理论物理学家。 Unit 10Jobs and work do much more than most of us realize to provide happiness and contentment. Were all used to thinking that work provides the material things of life the goods and services that make possible our modern civilization. But we are much less conscious of the extent to whi
34、ch work provides the more intangible, but more crucial, psychological well-being that can make the difference between a full and an empty life. Historically, work has been associated with slavery and sin and punishment. And in our own day we are used to hearing the traditional complaints: “I cant wa
35、it for my vacation,” “I wish I could stay home today,” “My boss treats me poorly,” “Ive got too much work to do and not enough time to do it.” Against this background, it may well come as a surprise to learn that not only psychologists but other behavioral scientists have come to accept the positive
36、 contribution of work to the individuals happiness and sense of personal achievement. Work is more than a necessity for most human beings; it is the focus of their lives, the source of their identity and creativity. 职业和工作在使人得到幸福与满足方面所起的作用比我们大多数人意识到的要多得多。我们都习惯于认为工作为人生提供物质的东西提供使我们的现代文明成为可能的商品和服务。但是我们对工作在促进精神生活方面所起的作用则知之甚少。这方面的作用难以捉摸,却更加至关重要,它是人生过得充实还6是空虚的决定性因素。 在历史上,工作一直与奴役、罪恶和惩罚联系在一起。现今我们还常常听到那些老一套的怨言:“我巴不得早点放假” , “今天我要是呆在家里该多好” , “我的老板待我不好” , “我的事情多得来不及做”等等。在这种情况下,当你得悉心理学家们以及其他的行为科学家们都认为,工作对个人幸福和个人成就起着积极作用时,你很可能会感到惊奇。对大多数人来说,工作不仅仅是一种必需,它还是人们生活的焦点,是他们的个性和创造性的源泉。