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精选新概念英语必背 36 篇文章
新概念三 Lesson 14 A noble gangster 贵族歹徒
T Thheerree wwaass aa ttiimmee wwhheenn the owners of shops and businesses in Chicago had to
pay large sums of money to gangsters iinn rreettuurrnn ffoorr ' protection . ' If the money was
not paid promptly, the gangsters would quickly put a man oouutt ooff bbuussiinneessss by
destroying his shop. Obtaining 'protection money' is not a modern crime. AAss lloonngg
aaggoo aass the fourteenth century, an Englishman, Sir John Hawkwood, made the
remarkable discovery that people wwoouulldd rraatthheerr pay large sums of money than have
their life work destroyed by gangsters.
Six hundred years ago, Sir Johan Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of
soldiers and settled near Florence. He soon mmaaddee aa nnaammee ffoorr hhiimmsseellff and ccaammee ttoo
b bee kknnoowwnn ttoo the Italians as Giovanni Acuto . Whenever the Italian city-states were aatt
wwaarr wwiitthh each other, Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to princes who were willing
to pay the high price he demanded. IInn ttiimmeess ooff peace, when business was bad,
Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and, after bbuurrnniinngg ddoowwnn a few
farms, would ooffffeerr ttoo go away if protection money was paid to them. Hawkwood
mmaaddee llaarrggee ssuummss ooff mmoonneeyy in this way. IInn ssppiittee ooff tthhiiss, the Italians regarded him
as a sort of hero. When he died aatt tthhee aaggee ooff eighty, the Florentines gave him a
state funeral and had a pictured painted which was dedicated ttoo tthhee mmeemmoorryy ooff
'the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue.'
曾经有一个时期,芝加哥的店主和商行的老板们不得不拿出大笔的钱给歹徒以换取"保护"。如果交款不及时,歹
徒们就会很快捣毁他的商店,让他破产.榨取"保护金"并不是一种现代的罪恶行径.早在14世纪,英国人约翰.霍克伍德
就有过非凡的发现:"人们情愿拿出大笔的钱,也不愿毕生的心血毁于歹徒之手.
600年前,约翰.霍克伍德爵士带着一队士兵来到意大利,在佛罗伦萨附近驻扎下来,很快就出了名.意大利人叫他
乔凡尼.阿库托.每次意大利各城邦之间发生战争,霍克伍德把他的士兵雇佣给愿给他出高价的君主。和平时期,当生意
萧条时,霍克伍德便带领士兵进入某个城邦,纵火烧毁一两个农场,然后提出,如向他们缴纳保护金,他们便主动撤离。霍
克伍德用这种方法挣了大笔钱.尽管如此,意大利人还是把他视作某种英雄。他80岁那年死去时,佛罗伦萨人为他举行
了国葬,并为他画像以纪念这位"骁勇无比的战士、杰出的领袖乔凡尼.阿库托先生."
Lesson 17 The longest suspension bridge in the world
世界上最长的吊桥
Verrazano, an Italian about whom little is known, sailed into New York Harbour in
1524 and named it Angouleme. He described it as 'a very agreeable situation
located within two small hills in the midst of which flowed a great river.' Though
Verrazano is bbyy nnoo mmeeaannss considered to be a great explorer, his name wil l
probably remain immortal , for on November 21st, 1964, the longest suspension
bridge in the world was nnaammeedd aafftteerr him.
The Verrazano Bridge, which was designed by Othmar Ammann, joins Brooklyn
to Staten Island. It has a span of 4,260 feet. The bridge is so long that the shape of
the earth had to be ttaakkeenn iinnttoo aaccccoouunntt by its designer. Two great towers support
four huge cables. The towers are built on immense underwater platforms mmaaddee ooff
1steel and concrete. The platforms eexxtteenndd ttoo a depth of over 100 feet under the sea.
These alone took sixteen months to build. Above the surface of the water, the
towers rriissee ttoo a height of nearly 700 feet. They support the cables from which the
bridge has been suspended. EEaacchh ooff the four cables contains 26,108 lengths of
wire. It has been estimated that if the bridge were ppaacckkeedd wwiitthh cars, it would stil l
only be carrying a third of its total capacity . However, size and strength are not the
only important things about this bridge. Despite its immensity, it is both simple and
elegant , fulfilling its designer's dream to create 'an enormous object drawn as
faintly as possible'.
1524年，一位鲜为人知的意大利人维拉萨诺驾船驶进纽约港，并将该港名为安古拉姆。他对该港作了这样的描
述：“地理位置十分适宜，位于两座小山的中间，一条大河从中间流过”。虽然维拉萨诺绝对算不上一个伟大的探险家，
但他的名字将流芳百世，因为1964年11月21日建成的一座世界上最长的吊桥是以他的名字命名。
维拉萨诺大桥由奥斯马.阿曼设计，连结着布鲁克林与斯塔顿岛，桥长4,260英尺。由于桥身太长，设计者不得不
考虑了地表的形状。两座巨塔支撑着4根粗大的钢缆。塔身建在巨大的水下钢盘混凝土平台上。平台深入海底100英
尺。仅这两座塔就花了16个月才建成。塔身高出水面将近700英尺。高塔支撑着钢缆，而钢缆又悬吊着大桥，4根钢
缆中的每根由26，108股钢绳组成。据估计，若桥上摆满了汽车，也只不过是桥的总承载力的1/3。然而，这座桥重要
特点不仅是它的规模与强度。尽管此桥很大，但它的结构简单，造型优美，实现了设计者企图创造一个“尽量用细线条
勾画出一个庞然大物”的梦想。
Lesson 21 Daniel Mendoza 丹尼尔.门多萨
Boxing matches were very popular in England two hundred years ago. In those
days, boxers ffoouugghhtt wwiitthh bare fists for pprriizzee mmoonneeyy. Because of this, they were
kknnoowwnn aass 'prize-fighters'. However, boxing was very crude, for there were no rules
and a prize-fighter could be seriously injured or even killed during a match.
One of the most colourful figures in boxing history was Daniel Mendoza, who was
born in 1764. The use of gloves was not introduced until 1860, when the Marquis of
Queensberry ddrreeww uupp the first set of rules. Though he was technically a prize-
fighter, Mendoza did much to change crude prize-fighting into a sport, for he brought
science to the game. I Inn hhiiss ddaayy , Mendoza e ennjjooyyeedd ttrreemmeennddoouuss ppooppuullaarriittyy . He was
adored by rich and poor alike .
Mendoza rroossee ttoo ffaammee swiftly after a boxing-match when he was only fourteen
years old. This attracted the attention of Richard Humphries who was then the most
eminent boxer in England. He ooffffeerreedd ttoo train Mendoza and his young pupil was
quick to learn. In fact, Mendoza soon became so successful that Humphries ttuurrnneedd
aaggaaiinnsstt him. The two men quarrelled bitterly and it was clear that the argument
could only be settled by a fight. A match was held at Stilton, where both men fought
for an hour. The public bet a great deal of money on Mendoza, but he was defeated.
Mendoza met Humphries iinn tthhee rriinngg on a later occasion and he lost for a second
time. It was not until his third match in 1790 that he finally beat Humphries and
became Champion of England . Meanwhile, he founded a highly successful Academy
and even Lord Byron became one of his pupils. He eeaarrnneedd eennoorrmmoouuss ssuummss ooff
mmoonneeyy and was paid aass mmuucchh aass 100 pounds for a single appearance. Despite this ,
he was so extravagant that he was always in debt. After he was defeated by a boxer
called Gentleman Jackson, he was quickly forgotten. He was sent to prison for failing
to pay his debts and died iinn ppoovveerrttyy in 1836.
2两百年前，拳击比赛在英国非常盛行。当时，拳击手们不戴手套，为争夺奖金而搏斗。因此，他们被称作“职业拳
击手”。不过，拳击是十分野蛮的，因为当时没有任何比赛规则，职业拳击手有可能在比赛中受重伤，甚至丧命。
拳击史上最引人注目的人物之一是丹尼尔.门多萨，他生于1764年。1860年昆斯伯里侯爵第一次为拳击比赛
制定了规则，拳击比赛这才用上了手套。虽然门多萨严格来讲不过是个职业拳击手，但在把这种粗野的拳击变成一种
体育运动方面，他作出了重大贡献。是他把科学引进了这项运动。门多萨在他的全盛时期深受大家欢迎，无论是富人还
是穷人都对他祟拜备至。
门多萨在14岁时参加一场拳击赛后一举成名。这引起当时英国拳坛名将理查德.汉弗莱斯的注意。他主动提出教
授门多萨，而年少的门多萨一学就会。事实上，门多萨不久便名声大振，致使汉弗莱斯与他反目为敌。两个人争吵不休，
显而易见，只有较量一番才能解决问题。于是两人在斯蒂尔顿设下赛场，厮打了一个小时。公众把大笔赌注下到了门多
萨身上，但他却输了。后来，门多萨与汉弗莱斯再次在拳击场上较量，门多萨又输了一场。直到1790年他们第3次对
垒，门多萨才终于击败汉弗莱斯，成了全英拳击冠军。同时，他建立了一所拳击学校，办得很成功，连拜伦勋爵也成了
他的学生。门多萨挣来大笔大笔的钱，一次出场费就多可达100英镑。尽管收入不少，但他挥霍无度，经常债台高筑。
他被一个叫杰克逊绅士的拳击手击败后很快被遗忘。他因无力还债而被捕入狱，最后于1836年在贫困中死去。
Lesson 24 A skeleton in the cupboard “家丑”
We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person or family has some
terrible secret which has been ccoonncceeaalleedd ffrroomm strangers for years. The English
language possesses a vivid saying to describe this sort of situation . The terrible
secret is called ‘ aa sskkeelleettoonn iinn tthhee ccuuppbbooaarrdd ’. AAtt ssoommee ddrraammaattiicc mmoommeenntt in the
story, the terrible secret becomes known and a reputation is ruined. The reader's
hhaaiirr ssttaannddss oonn eenndd when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine, a
dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth,
poisoned every one of her five husbands.
I Itt iiss aallll vveerryy wweellll ffoorr such things to o ccur in fiction . TToo vvaarryyiinngg ddeeggrreeeess, we all
have secrets which we do not want even our closest friends to learn, but few of us
have skeletons in the cupboard. The only person I know who has a skeleton in the
cupboard is George Carlton, and he is very pprroouudd ooff the fact. George studied
medicine in his youth. Instead of becoming a doctor, however, he became a
successful writer of detective stories . I once spent an uncomfortable weekend
which I shall never forget at his house. George showed me to the guest-room which,
he said, was rarely used. He told me to unpack my things and then come down to
dinner. After I had stacked my shirts and underclothes in two empty drawers, I
decided to hang one of the two suits I had brought with me in the cupboard. I opened
the cupboard door and then stood iinn ffrroonntt ooff it petrified . A skeleton was dangling
before my eyes. The sudden movement of the door made it sway slightly and it gave
me the impression that it was aabboouutt ttoo lleeaapp oouutt at me. Dropping my suit, I dashed
downstairs to tell George. This was worse than ‘a terrible secret’; this was a real
skeleton! But George was unsympathetic. ‘Oh, that,’ he said with a smile aass iiff he
were ttaallkkiinngg aabboouutt an old friend. ‘That's Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical
student oonnccee uuppoonn aa ttiimmee. ’
在小说中，我们经常读到一个表面上受人尊重的人物或家族，却有着某种多年不为人所知的骇人听闻的秘密。英
语中有一个生动的说法来形容这种情况。惊人的秘密被称作“柜中骷髅”。在小说的某个戏剧性时刻，可怕的秘密泄
漏出来，接着便是某人的声誉扫地。当读者读到小说最后几页了解到书中女主人公，那位一向待大家很好的可爱的老
妇人年轻时一连毒死了她的5个丈夫时，不禁会毛骨悚然。
这种事发生在小说中是无可非议的。尽管我们人人都有各种大小秘密，连最亲密的朋友都不愿让他们知道，但我
3们当中极少有人有柜中骷髅。我所认识的唯一的在柜中藏骷髅的人便是乔治·卡尔顿，他甚至引以为自豪。乔治年轻时
学过医，然而，他后来没当上医生，却成了一位成功的侦探小说作家。有一次，我在他家里度周末，过得很不愉快。这事
我永远不会忘记。乔治把我领进客房，说这间房间很少使用。他让我打开行装后下楼吃饭。我将衬衫、内衣放进两个空
抽屉里，然后我想把随身带来的两套西服中的一套挂到大衣柜里去。我打开柜门，站在柜门前一下子惊呆了。一具骷髅
悬挂在眼前，由于柜门突然打开，它也随之轻微摇晃起来，让我觉得它好像马上要跳出柜门朝我扑过来似的。我扔下西
服冲下楼去告诉乔治。这是比“骇人听闻的秘密”更加惊人的东西，这是一具真正的骷髅啊！但乔治却无动于衷。
“噢，是它呀！他笑着说道，俨然在谈论一位老朋友。“那是塞巴斯蒂安。你忘了我以前是学医的了。”
Lesson 27 Nothing to sell and nothing to buy 没有东西可卖也没有东西可买
IItt hhaass bbeeeenn ssaaiidd tthhaatt everyone lliivveess bbyy selling something. IInn tthhee lliigghhtt ooff this
statement, teachers live by selling knowledge, philosophers by selling wisdom and
priests by selling spiritual comfort. Though it may be possible to measure the value
of material good iinn tteerrmmss ooff money, it is extremely difficult to estimate the true
value of the services which people perform for us. T Thheerree aarree ttiimmeess wwhheenn we
would willingly give everything we possess to save our lives, yet we might grudge
paying a surgeon a high fee for offering us precisely this service. The conditions of
society are such that skills have to be paid for iinn tthhee ssaammee wwaayy tthhaatt goods are paid
for at a shop. Everyone has something to sell.
Tramps seem to be the only eexxcceeppttiioonn ttoo tthhiiss ggeenneerraall rruullee. Beggars almost
sell themselves as hhuummaann bbeeiinnggss to arouse the pity of passers-by. But real tramps
are not beggars. They have nothing to sell and require nothing from others. In
seeking independence, they do not sacrifice their human dignity. A tramp may ask
you for money, but he will never ask you to ffeeeell ssoorrrryy ffoorr him. He has deliberately
chosen to lead the life he leads and is fully aawwaarree ooff the consequences. He may
never be sure where the next meal is ccoommiinngg ffrroomm, but he is ffrreeee ffrroomm the
thousands of anxieties which afflict other people. His few material possessions
make it possible for him to move from place to place wwiitthh eeaassee. By having to sleep
iinn tthhee ooppeenn, he ggeettss ffaarr cclloosseerr ttoo the world of nature than most of us ever do. He
may hunt, beg, or steal occasionally to keep himself alive; he may even, iinn ttiimmeess
ooff real need, do a little work; but he will never sacrifice his freedom. We often
s sppeeaakk ooff tramps with c ontempt and put them in the same class as beggars, but
how many of us can honestly say that we have not felt a little envious of their simple
way of life and their freedom from care?
据说每个人都靠出售某种东西来维持生活。根据这种说法，教师靠卖知识为生，哲学家靠卖智慧为生，牧师靠卖精
神安慰为生。虽然物质产品的价值可以用金钱来衡量，但要估算别人为我们为所提供的服务的价值却是极其困难的。
有时，我们为了挽救生命，愿意付出我们所占有的一切。但就在外科大夫给我们提供了这种服务后，我们却可能为所支
付的昂贵的费用而抱怨。社会上的情况就是如此，技术是必须付钱去买的，就像在商店里要花钱买商品一样。人人都有
东西可以出售。
在这条普遍的规律前面，好像只有流浪汉是个例外，乞丐出售的几乎是他本人，以引起过路人的怜悯。但真正的流
浪并不是乞丐。他们既不出售任何东西，也不需要从别人那儿得到任何东西，在追求独立自由的同时，他们并不牺牲为
人的尊严。游浪汉可能会向你讨钱，但他从来不要你可怜他。他是故意在选择过那种生活的，并完全清楚以这种方式生
活的后果。他可能从不知道下顿饭有无着落，但他不像有人那样被千万桩愁事所折磨。他几乎没有什么财产，这使他能
够轻松自如地在各地奔波。由于被迫在露天睡觉，他比我们中许多人都离大自然近得多。为了生存，他可能会去打猎、
乞讨，偶尔偷上一两回；确实需要的时候，他甚至可能干一点儿活，但他决不会牺牲自由。说起流浪汉，我们常常带有
轻蔑并把他们与乞丐归为一类。但是，我们中有多少人能够坦率地说我们对流浪汉的简朴生活与无忧无虑的境况不感
4到有些羡慕呢？
Lesson 33 A day to remember 难忘的一天
We have all experienced days when everything ggooeess wwrroonngg. A day may begin
well enough, but suddenly everything seems to ggeett oouutt ooff ccoonnttrrooll. What invariably
happens is that aa ggrreeaatt nnuummbbeerr ooff things choose to go wrong at precisely tthhee
s saammee mmoommeenntt . It is as if a single unimportant event sseett uupp aa cchhaaiinn ooff reactions.
Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and kkeeeeppiinngg aann eeyyee oonn the baby aatt
tthhee ssaammee ttiimmee. The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to aann uunnffoorreesseeeenn
sseerriieess ooff catastrophes. While you are oonn tthhee pphhoonnee, the baby pulls the table-cloth
off the table, smashing half your best crockery and cutting himself in the process.
You hhaanngg uupp hurriedly and aatttteenndd ttoo baby, crockery, etc. Meanwhile, the meal ggeettss
bbuurrnntt. As if this were not enough to reduce you to tears , your husband arrives,
unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.
Things can ggoo wwrroonngg on a big scale, as a number of people recently discovered
in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney. During the rruusshh hhoouurr one evening two cars
collided and both drivers began to argue. The woman immediately behind the two
cars hhaappppeenneedd ttoo bbee a learner. She suddenly ggoott iinnttoo aa ppaanniicc and stopped her car.
This made the driver following her brake hard. His wife was sitting beside him holding
a large cake. As she was thrown forward, the cake went right through the
windscreen and landed on the road. Seeing a cake flying through the air, a lorry–
driver who was ddrraawwiinngg uupp alongside the car, pulled up aallll ooff aa ssuuddddeenn. The lorry
was llooaaddeedd wwiitthh empty beer bottles and hundreds of them sslliidd ooffff the back of the
vehicle and on to the road. This led to yet another angry argument. Meanwhile, the
traffic ppiilleedd uupp behind. It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move
again. IInn tthhee mmeeaannttiimmee, the lorry driver had to sweep up hundreds of broken
bottles. Only two stray dogs benefited from all this confusion, for they greedily
devoured what was left of the cake. It was just one of those days!
我们大家都有过事事不顺心的日子。一天开始时，可能还不错，但突然间似乎一切都失去了控制。情况经常是这样
的，许许多多的事情都偏偏赶在同一时刻出问题，好像是一件无关紧要的小事引起了一连串的连锁反应。假设你在做
饭，同时又在照看孩子。这时电话铃响了，它预示着一连串意想不到的灾难的来临。就在你接电话时，孩子把桌布从桌
子上扯了下来，将家中最好的陶瓷餐具半数摔碎，同时也弄伤了他自己。你急急忙忙挂上电话，赶去照看孩子和餐具。
这时，饭又烧糊了。好像这一切还不足以使你急得掉泪，你的丈夫接着回来了，事先没打招呼就带来3个客人吃饭。
就像许多人最近在悉尼郊区帕拉马塔所发现的那样，有时乱子会闹得很大。一天傍晚交通最拥挤时，一辆汽车撞
上前面一辆汽车，两个司机争吵起来。紧跟其后的一辆车上的司机碰巧是个初学者，她一惊之下突然把车停了下来。她
这一停使得跟在后头的司机也来了个急刹车。司机的妻子正坐在他身边，手里托着块大蛋糕。她往前一冲，蛋糕从挡风
玻璃飞了出去掉在马路上。此时，一辆卡车正好从后边开到那辆汽车边上，司机看见一块蛋糕从天而降，紧急刹车。卡
车上装着空啤酒瓶，成百只瓶子顺势从卡车后面滑出车外落在马路上。这又引起了一场唇枪舌剑的争吵。与此同时，后
面的车辆排成了长龙，警察花了将近一个小时才使车辆又开起来。在这段时间里，卡车司机不得不清扫那几百只破瓶
子。只有两只野狗从这一片混乱中得到了好处，它们贪婪地吃掉了剩下的蛋糕。这就是事事不顺心的那么一天！
Lesson 34 A happy discovery 幸运的发现
Antique shops eexxeerrtt aa ppeeccuulliiaarr ffaasscciinnaattiioonn oonn a great many people. The more
expensive kind of antique shop where rare objects are beautifully displayed in glass
cases to keep them free from dust is usually a forbidding place. But no one has to
mmuusstteerr uupp ccoouurraaggee to enter a less pretentious antique shop. There is always hope
5that in its labyrinth of musty, dark, disordered rooms a real rarity will be found
amongst the piles of assorted junk that litter the floors.
No one discovers a rarity bbyy cchhaannccee. A truly dedicated bbaarrggaaiinn hhuunntteerr must
have patience, and aabboovvee aallll, the ability to recognize the worth of something when
he sees it. To do this, he must be aatt lleeaasstt aass kknnoowwlleeddggeeaabbllee aass the dealer. Like a
scientist bbeenntt oonn making a discovery, he must cherish the hope that one day he wil l
be aammppllyy rreewwaarrddeedd .
My old friend, Frank Halliday, is just such a person. He has often described to me
how he ppiicckkeedd uupp a masterpiece for a mere￡50. One Saturday morning, Frank
visited an antique shop in my neighbourhood. As he had never been there before, hhee
f foouunndd aa ggrreeaatt ddeeaall ttoo iinntteerreesstt hhiimm . The morning passed rapidly and Frank wwaass aabboouutt
ttoo leave when he noticed a large packing-case lying on the floor. The dealer told him
that it had just ccoommee iinn , but that he could not be bothered to open it . Frank bbeeggggeedd
hhiimm ttoo ddoo so and the dealer reluctantly prised it open. The contents were
disappointing. AAppaarrtt ffrroomm an interesting-looking carved dagger, the box was full of
crockery, mmuucchh ooff iitt bbrrookkeenn. Frank gently lifted the crockery out of the box and
suddenly noticed a miniature painting aatt tthhee bboottttoomm ooff the packing-case. As its
Composition and line reminded him of an Italian painting he knew well, he decided
to buy it. GGllaanncciinngg aatt it briefly, the dealer told him that it was worth￡50. Frank could
hardly ccoonncceeaall hhiiss eexxcciitteemmeenntt, for he knew that he had mmaaddee aa rreeaall ddiissccoovveerryy.
The tiny painting pprroovveedd ttoo bbee an unknown masterpiece by Correggio and was
worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
古玩店对许多人来说有一种特殊的魅力。高档一点的古玩店为了防尘，把文物漂亮地陈列在玻璃柜子里，那里往
往令人望而却步。而对不太装腔作势的古玩店，无论是谁都不用壮着胆子才敢往里进。人们还常常有希望在发霉、阴暗、
杂乱无章、迷宫般的店堂里，从杂乱地摆放在地面上的、一堆堆各式各样的破烂货里找到一件稀世珍品。
无论是谁都不会一下子就发现一件珍品。一个到处找便宜货买的人必须具有耐心，而且最重要的是看到珍品时
要有鉴别珍品的能力。要做到这一点，他至少要像古董商一样在行。他必须像一个专心致志进行探索的科学家那样抱
有这样的希望，即终有一天，他的努力会取得丰硕的成果。
我的老朋友弗兰克·哈利戴正是这样一个人。他多次向我详细讲他如何只花50英镑便买到一位名家的杰作。一个
星期六的上午，弗兰克去了我家附近的一家古玩店。由于他从未去过那儿，结果他发现了许多有趣的东西。上午很快过
去了，弗兰克正准备离去，突然看见地板上放着一只体积很大的货箱。古董商告诉他那只货箱刚到不久，但他嫌麻烦不
想把它打开。经弗兰克恳求，古董商才勉强把货箱撬开了。箱内东西令人失望。除了一柄式样别致、雕有花纹的匕首外，
货箱内装满了陶器，而且大部分都已破碎。弗兰克轻轻地把陶器拿出箱子，突然发现在箱底有一幅微型画，画面构图与
线条使他想起了一幅他所熟悉的意大利画，于是他决定将画买下来。古董商漫不经心看了一眼那幅画，告诉弗兰克那
画值50英镑。弗兰克几乎无法掩饰自己兴奋的心情，因为他明白自己发现了一件珍品。那幅不大的画原来是柯勒乔
的一幅未被发现的杰作，价值几十万英镑。
Lesson 38 The first calender 最早的日历
Future historians will be iinn aa uunniiqquuee ppoossiittiioonn when they ccoommee ttoo record the
history of our own times. They will hardly know which facts to sseelleecctt ffrroomm the ggrreeaatt
m maassss ooff evidence that steadily a ccumulates . WWhhaatt iiss mmoorree, they will not have to
rreellyy ssoolleellyy oonn the written word. Films, videos, CDs and CD-ROMS are just some of
the bewildering amount of information they will have. They will be able, aass iitt wweerree ,
to see and hear us iinn aaccttiioonn . But the historian aatttteemmppttiinngg ttoo reconstruct the
distant past is always ffaacceedd wwiitthh a difficult task. He has to deduce what he can from
the few scanty clues available. Even seemingly insignificant remains can sshheedd
iinntteerreessttiinngg lliigghhtt oonn the history of early man.
6UUpp ttoo nnooww, historians have assumed that calendars ccaammee iinnttoo bbeeiinngg wwiitthh tthhee
aaddvveenntt ooff agriculture, for then man was ffaacceedd wwiitthh aa rreeaall nneeeedd ttoo uunnddeerrssttaanndd
something about the seasons. Recent scientific evidence seems to indicate that this
assumption is incorrect.
Historians have long been puzzled by dots, lines and symbols which have been
engraved on walls, bones, and the ivory tusks of mammoths. The nomads who
made these markings lliivveedd bbyy hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age which
began about 35,000 B.C. and ended about 10,000 B.C. By correlating markings
made in various parts of the world, historians have been able to read this difficult
code. They have found that it is connected with the passage of days and the phases
of the moon. It is, iinn ffaacctt, a primitive type of calendar. I Itt hhaass lloonngg bbeeeenn kknnoowwnn that
the hunting scenes depicted on walls were not simply a form of artistic expression .
They had a definite meaning, for they were aass nneeaarr aass early man could get to
writing. IItt iiss ppoossssiibbllee tthhaatt there is a definite relation between these paintings and
the markings that sometimes accompany them. IItt sseeeemmss tthhaatt man was making a
real effort to understand the seasons 20,000 years earlier than has been supposed.
未来的历史学家在写我们这一段历史的时候会别具一格。对于逐渐积累起来的庞大材料，他们几乎不知道选取哪
些好，而且，也不必完全依赖文字材料。电影、录像、光盘和光盘驱动器只是能为他们提供令人眼花缭乱的大量信息的
几种手段。他们能够身临其境般地观看我们做事，倾听我们讲话。但是，历史学家企图重现遥远的过去可是一项艰巨的
任务，他们必须根据现有的不充分的线索进行推理。即使看起来微不足道的遗物，也可能揭示人类早期历史的一些有
趣的内容。
历史学家迄今认为日历是随农业的问世而出现的，因为当时人们面临着了解四季的实际需要，但近期科学研究发
现，好像这种假设是不正确的。
长期以来，历史学家一直对雕刻在墙壁上、骨头上、古代长毛象的象牙上的点、线和形形色色的符号感到困惑不
解。这些痕迹是游牧人留下的，他们生活在从公元前约35，000年到公元前10，000年的冰川期的末期，以狩猎、捕
鱼为生。历史学家通过把世界各地留下的这种痕迹放在一起研究，终于弄懂了这种费解的代码。他们发现代码与昼夜
更迭和月亮圆缺有关，事实上是一种最原始的日历。大家早就知道，画在墙上的狩猎图景并不是单纯的艺术表现形式，
它们有着一定的含义，因为它们已接近古代人的文字形式。有时，这种图画与墙壁上的刻痕共存，它们之间可能有一定
的联系。看来人类早就致力于探索四季变迁了，比人们想像的要早20,000年。
Lesson 40 Who's who 真假难辨
It has never been explained why university students seem to eennjjooyy pprraaccttiiccaal l
j jookkeess more than anyone else. Students ssppeecciiaalliizzee iinn a particular type of practical
joke: the hoax. Inviting the fire - brigade to ppuutt oouutt a non - existent fire is a crude form
of deception which no self-respecting student would ever iinndduullggee iinn . Students often
create amusing situations which are funny to everyone except the victims.
When a student recently saw two workmen using a pneumatic drill outside his
university, he immediately telephoned the police and informed them that two
students ddrreesssseedd uupp as workmen were tteeaarriinngg uupp the road with a pneumatic drill.
AAss ssoooonn aass he had hhuunngg uupp, he went over to the workmen and told them that if a
policeman ordered them to ggoo aawwaayy, they were not to ttaakkee hhiimm sseerriioouussllyy. He
added that a student had dressed up as a policeman and was playing aallll ssoorrttss ooff
silly jokes on people. Both the police and the workmen were grateful to the student
for this piece of advance information.
The student hid in an archway nearby where he could watch and hear everything
that went on. SSuurree eennoouugghh, a policeman aarrrriivveedd oonn tthhee sscceennee and politely asked
the workmen to go away. When he received a very rude reply from one of the
7workmen, he threatened to remove them by force. The workmen told him to do as
he pleased and the policeman tteelleepphhoonneedd ffoorr hheellpp . SShhoorrttllyy aafftteerrwwaarrddss, four more
policemen arrived and remonstrated with the workmen. As the men refused to stop
working, the police attempted to seize the pneumatic drill. The workmen struggled
fiercely and one of them lloosstt hhiiss tteemmppeerr. He tthhrreeaatteenneedd ttoo call the police. At this,
the police ppooiinntteedd oouutt ironically that this would hardly be necessary as the men
were already under arrest. P Prreetteennddiinngg ttoo speak seriously, one of the workmen asked
if he might mmaakkee aa tteelleepphhoonnee ccaalll l before being taken to the station. Permission
was granted and a policeman accompanied him to a ppaayy pphhoonnee. Only when he saw
that the man was actually telephoning the police did he realize that they had al l
been the victims of a hoax.
谁也弄不清为什么大学生好像比任何人都更喜欢恶作剧。大学生擅长一种特殊的恶作剧——戏弄人。请消防队
来扑灭一场根本没有的大火是一种低级骗局，有自尊心的大学生决不会去做。大学生们常常做的是制造一种可笑的局
面，除了受害者大家都觉得非常滑稽。
最近有个学生看见两个工人在大学校门外用风钻干活，马上打电话报告警察，说有两个学生装扮成工人，正在用
风钻破坏路面。挂上电话后，他又马上来到工人那儿，告诉他们若有个警察来让他们走开，不要把他当回事；还对工人
说，有个学生常装扮成警察无聊地同别人开玩笑。警察与工人都对那个学生事先通报情况表示感谢。
那学生躲在附近一拱形门廊里，在那儿可以看见、听到现场发生的一切。果然，警察来了，有礼貌地请工人离开此
地；但其中一个工人粗鲁地回了几句。于是警察威胁要强行使他们离开。工人说，悉听尊便。警察去打电话叫人。一会
儿工夫，又来了4个警察，规劝工人离开。由于工人拒绝停下手中的活，警察想夺风钻。两个工人奋力抗争，其中一个
发了火，威胁说要去叫警察。警察听后讥讽地说，这大可不必，因为他俩已被逮捕了。其中一个工人装模作样地问道，
在被带往警察局之前，是否可以打一个电话。警察同意了，陪他来到一个投币电话前。当他看到那个工人真的是给警察
挂电话，才恍然大悟，原来他们都成了一场骗局的受害者。
Lesson 41 Illusions of Pastoral Peace 宁静田园生活的遐想
The quiet life of the country has never aappppeeaalleedd ttoo me . City born and city bred,
I have always rreeggaarrddeedd tthhee ccoouunnttrryy aass something you look at through a train
window, or something you occasionally visit during the weekend. Most of my friends
live in the city, yet they always ggoo iinnttoo rraappttuurreess aatt tthhee mmeerree mmeennttiioonn ooff the
country. Though they extol the virtues of the peaceful life, only one of them has
ever gone to live in the country and he was back in town within six months. Even he
still lives uunnddeerr tthhee iilllluussiioonn tthhaatt country life is somehow ssuuppeerriioorr ttoo town life . He is
forever ttaallkkiinngg aabboouutt the friendly people, the clean atmosphere, the closeness to
nature and the gentle pace of living. Nothing can be compared , he maintains, with
the first cock crow, the twittering of birds at dawn, the sight of the rising sun
glinting on the trees and pastures. This idyllic pastoral scene is only part of the
picture. My friend ffaaiillss ttoo mention the long and friendless winter evenings iinn ffrroonntt
ooff the TV ---- virtually the only form of entertainment. He ssaayyss nnootthhiinngg aabboouutt the
poor selection of goods in the shops, or about those unfortunate people who have to
travel from the country to the city every day to get to work. Why people are
p prreeppaarreedd ttoo t olerate a four-hour journey each day for the dubious p rivilege of living
in the country is beyond me. They could be saved so much misery and expense if
they cchhoossee ttoo live in the city where they rightly belong.
If you can ddoo wwiitthhoouutt the few pastoral pleasures of the country, you will find the
city can pprroovviiddee yyoouu wwiitthh the best that life can offer. You never have to travel miles
to see your friends. They invariably live nearby and are always available for an
informal chat or an evening's entertainment. Some of my acquaintances in the
8country ccoommee uupp ttoo town once or twice a year to visit the theatre as a special treat.
For them this is a major operation which involves considerable planning. As the
play ddrraawwss ttoo iittss cclloossee, they wonder whether they will ever catch that last train
home. The city dweller never experiences anxieties of this sort. The latest
exhibitions, films, or plays are only a short bus ride away. Shopping, too, is always a
pleasure. TThheerree iiss ssoo mmuucchh vvaarriieettyy tthhaatt you never have to make do with second
best. Country people run wild when they go shopping in the city and stagger home
l looaaddeedd wwiitthh as many of the e xotic items as they can carry. N Noorr iiss tthhee cciittyy wwiitthhoouutt
i ittss mmoommeennttss ooff bbeeaauuttyy . There is something comforting about the warm glow shed
by advertisements on cold wet winter nights. Few things could be more impressive
than the peace that descends on deserted city streets at weekends when the
thousands that travel to work every day are ttuucckkeedd aawwaayy in their homes in the
country. I Itt hhaass aallwwaayyss bbeeeenn aa mmyysstteerryy ttoo mmee wwhhyy city dwellers, who a ppreciate
all these things, obstinately pretend that they would pprreeffeerr ttoo live in the country .
宁静的乡村生活从来没有吸引过我。我生在城市，长在城市，总认为乡村是透过火车车窗看到的那个样子，或偶尔
周末去游玩一下的景象。我的许多朋友都住在城市，但他们只要一提起乡村，马上就会变得欣喜若狂。尽管他们都交口
称赞宁静的乡村生活的种种优点，但其中只有一人真去农村住过，而且不足6个月就回来了。即使他也仍存有幻觉，好
像乡村生活就是比城市生活优越。他滔滔不绝地大谈友好的农民，洁净的空气，贴近大自然的环境和悠闲的生活节奏。
他坚持认为，凌晨雄鸡第一声啼叫，黎明时分小鸟吱喳欢叫，冉冉升起的朝阳染红树木、牧场，此番美景无与伦比。但
这种田园诗般的乡村风光仅仅是一个侧面。我的朋友没有提到在电视机前度过的漫长寂寞的冬夜——电视是唯一的
娱乐形式。他也不说商店货物品种单调，以及那些每天不得不从乡下赶到城里工作的不幸的人们。人们为什么情愿每
天在路上奔波4个小时去换取值得怀疑的乡间的优点，我是无法理解的。要是他们愿意住在本来属于他们的城市，则
可以让他们省去诸多不便与节约大量开支。
如果你愿舍弃乡下生活那一点点乐趣的话，那么你会发现城市可以为你提供生活中最美好的东西。你去看朋友根
本不用跋涉好几英里，因为他们都住在附近，你随时可以同他们聊天或在晚上一起娱乐。我在乡村有一些熟人，他们每
年进城来看一回或几回戏，并把此看作一种特殊的享受。看戏在他们是件大事，需要精心计划。当戏快演完时，他们又
为是否能赶上末班火车回家而犯愁。这种焦虑，城里人是从未体验过的。坐公共汽车几站路，就可看到最新的展览、电
影、戏剧。买东西也是一种乐趣。物品品种繁多，从来不必用二等品来凑合。乡里人进城采购欣喜若狂，每次回家时都
买足了外来商品，直到拿不动方才罢休，连走路都摇摇晃晃的。城市也并非没有良辰美景。寒冷潮湿的冬夜里，广告灯
箱发出的暖光，会给人某种安慰。周末，当成千上万进城上班的人回到了他们的乡间寓所之后，空旷的街市笼罩着一种
宁静的气氛，没有什么能比此时的宁静更令人难忘了。城里人对这一切心里很明白，却偏要执拗地装出他们喜欢住在
乡村的样子，这对我来说一直是个谜。
Lesson 42 Modern cavemen 现代洞穴人
Cave exploration, or pot-holing, as it has ccoommee ttoo bbee kknnoowwnn, is a relatively
new sport. Perhaps it is the desire for solitude or the chance of making an
unexpected discovery that lures people ddoowwnn ttoo the depths of the earth. It is
impossible to ggiivvee aa ssaattiissffaaccttoorryy eexxppllaannaattiioonn for a pot-holer's motives. For him,
caves have the same peculiar fascination which high mountains have for the
climber. They arouse instincts which can only be dimly understood.
Exploring really deep caves is not a task for the Sunday afternoon rambler. Such
undertakings require the precise planning and foresight of mmiilliittaarryy ooppeerraattiioonnss. IItt
ccaann ttaakkee aass lloonngg aass eight days to rriigg uupp rope ladders and to establish supply bases
before a descent can be mmaaddee iinnttoo a very deep cave. Precautions of this sort are
necessary, for it is impossible to foretell the exact nature of the difficulties which will
9confront the pot-holer. The deepest known cave in the world is the Gouffre Berger
near Grenoble. It eexxtteennddss ttoo a depth of 3,723 feet. This immense chasm has been
formed by an underground stream which has tunneled a course through a flaw in the
rocks. The eennttrraannccee ttoo the cave is on a plateau in the Dauphine Alps. As it is only
six feet across, it is barely noticeable. The cave might never have been discovered
had not the entrance been spotted by the distinguished French pot-holer, Berger.
Since its discovery, it has become a sort of pot-holers' Everest(珠峰). Though aa
nnuummbbeerr ooff descents have been made, much of it still remains to be explored.
AA tteeaamm ooff pot-holers recently wweenntt ddoowwnn the Gouffre Berger. After entering the
narrow gap oonn tthhee ppllaatteeaauu, they cclliimmbbeedd ddoowwnn the steep sides of the cave until
they came to narrow corridor. They had to eeddggee tthheeiirr wwaayy along this, sometimes
wwaaddiinngg aaccrroossss shallow streams, or swimming across deep pools. Suddenly they
came to a waterfall which ddrrooppppeedd iinnttoo an underground lake aatt tthhee bboottttoomm ooff the
cave. They pplluunnggeedd iinnttoo the lake, and after loading their gear on an inflatable
rubber dinghy, let the current carry them to the other side. To protect themselves
from the icy water, they had to wear special rubber suits. At the far end of the lake,
they came to huge piles of rubble which had been washed up by the water. In this
part of the cave, they could hear an insistent booming sound which they found was
ccaauusseedd bbyy a small water-spout shooting down into a pool from the roof of the cave.
Squeezing through a cleft in the rocks, the pot-holers aarrrriivveedd aatt an enormous
cavern, the size of a huge concert hall. After switching on powerful arc lights, they
saw great stalagmites -- some of them over forty feet high -- rriissiinngg uupp like tree-
trunks to meet the stalactites ssuussppeennddeedd ffrroomm the roof. Round about, piles of
limestone glistened in all the colours of the rainbow. In the eerie（可怕的） silence of
the cavern, the only sound that could be heard was made by water which dripped
continuously from the high dome above them.
洞穴勘查——或洞穴勘探——是一项比较新的体育活动。寻求独处的愿望或寻求意外发现的机会的欲望吸引人
们来到地下深处。要想对洞穴探险者的动机作出满意的解释是不可能的。对洞穴探险者来说，洞穴有一种特殊的魅力，
就像高山对登山者有特殊魅力一样。为什么洞空能引发人的那种探险本能，人们对此只能有一种模模糊糊的理解。
探测非常深的洞穴不是那些在星期日下午漫步的人所能胜任的。这种活动需要有军事行动般的周密布署和预见
能力。有时需要花费整整8天时间来搭起绳梯，建立供应基地，然后才能到一个很深的洞穴里。作出这样的准备是必要
的，因为无法预见到洞穴探险者究竟会遇到什么性质的困难。世界上最深的洞穴是格里诺布尔附近的高弗.伯杰洞，深
达3,723英尺。这个深邃的洞穴是由一条地下暗泉冲刷岩石中的缝隙并使之慢慢变大而形成的。此洞的洞口在丹芬
阿尔卑斯山的高原上，仅6英尺宽，很难被发现。若不是法国著名洞穴探险家伯杰由于偶然的机会发现了这个洞口的
话，这个洞也许不会为人所知。自从被发现以后，这个洞成了洞穴探险者的珠穆朗玛峰，人们多次进入洞内探险，但至
今尚有不少东西有待勘探。
最近，一队洞穴探险者下到了高弗.伯杰洞里。他们从高原上的窄缝进去，顺着笔直陡峭的洞壁往下爬。来到一条
狭窄的走廊上。他们不得不侧着身子往前走，有时过浅溪，有时游过深潭。突然，他们来到一道瀑布前，那瀑布奔泻而
下，注入洞底一处地下湖里。他们跳入湖中，把各种器具装上一只充气的橡皮艇，听任水流将他们带往对岸。湖水冰冷
刺骨，他们必须穿上一种特制的橡皮服以保护自己。在湖的尽头，他们见到一大堆一大堆由湖水冲刷上岸的碎石。在这
儿，他们可以听见一种连续不断的轰鸣声。后来他们发现这是由山洞顶部的一个小孔里喷出的水柱跌落到水潭中发出
的声音。洞穴探险者从岩石缝里挤身过去，来到一个巨大的洞里，其大小相当于一个音乐厅。他们打开强力弧光灯，看
见一株株巨大的石笋，有的高达40英尺，像树干似地向上长着，与洞顶悬挂下来的钟乳石相接。周围是一堆堆石灰石，
像彩虹一样闪闪发光。洞里有一种可怕的寂静，唯一的可以听见的声响是高高的圆顶上不间断地滴水的嘀嗒声。
Lesson 43 Fully insured 全保险
I Innssuurraannccee ccoommppaanniieess are n ormally willing to insure anything . Insuring public or
10private property is a ssttaannddaarrdd pprraaccttiiccee in most countries in the world. If, however,
you were holding an open air garden party or a fete it would be equally possible to
insure yourself iinn tthhee eevveenntt ooff bad weather. Needless to say, the bigger the risk an
insurance company takes, the higher the premium you will have to pay. IItt iiss nnoott
u unnccoommmmoonn ttoo hear that a shipping company has made a c laim for the cost of
salvaging a sunken ship . But the claim made by a local authority to recover the cost
of salvaging a sunken pie dish must surely be unique.
Admittedly it was an unusual pie dish, for it was eighteen feet long and six feet
wide. It had been purchased by a llooccaall aauutthhoorriittyy so that an enormous pie could be
baked for an annual fair. The pie committee decided that the best way to transport
the dish would be bbyy ccaannaall, so they insured it for the trip. SShhoorrttllyy aafftteerr it was
launched, the pie committee went to a local inn to celebrate. AAtt tthhee ssaammee ttiimmee, a
number of teenagers cclliimmbbeedd oonn ttoo the dish and held a little party of their own.
Dancing proved to be mmoorree tthhaann the dish could bear, for during the party it
capsized and sank in seven feet of water.
The pie committee telephoned a local garage owner who aarrrriivveedd iinn a recovery
truck to salvage the pie dish. Shivering in their wet clothes, the teenagers looked on
while three men ddiivveedd rreeppeeaatteeddllyy iinnttoo the water to locate the dish . They hhaadd lliittttllee
ddiiffffiiccuullttyy iinn finding it, but hauling it out of the water proved to be aa sseerriioouuss
pprroobblleemm. The sides of the dish were so smooth that it was almost impossible to
attach hawsers and chains to the rim without damaging it. Eventually chains were
fixed to one end of the dish and a powerful winch was ppuutt iinnttoo ooppeerraattiioonn. The dish
rroossee ttoo the surface and was gently drawn towards the canal bank. For one agonizing
moment, the dish was perched precariously oonn tthhee bbaannkk ooff the canal, but it
suddenly overbalanced and sslliidd bbaacckk iinnttoo the wate r. The men were now obliged to
try once more. This time they fixed heavy metal clamps to both sides of the dish so
that they could fasten the chains. The dish now had to be lifted vertically because
one edge was resting against the side of the canal. The winch was again put into
operation and one of the men ssttaarrtteedd uupp the truck. Several minutes later, the dish
was successfully hauled above the surface of the water. Water streamed in torrents
over its sides with such force that it sseett uupp a huge wave in the canal. TThheerree wwaass aa
d daannggeerr tthhaatt the wave would r ebound off the other side of the bank and send the
dish pplluunnggiinngg iinnttoo the water again. By working at tremendous speed, the men
mmaannaaggeedd ttoo get the dish on to dry land before the wave returned.
保险公司一般说来愿意承保一切东西。承办公共财产或私人财产保险是世界上大部分国家的正常业务。如果你要
举办一次露天游园会或盛宴，为避免碰上不好的天气而遭受损失也同样可以保险。不用说，保险公司承担风险越大，你
付的保险费也就越高。航运公司为打捞沉船而提出索赔，这是常有的事，但某地当局为打捞一只焙制馅饼的盘子提出
索赔，倒是件新鲜事儿。
这个馅饼盘子确实少见，有18英尺长，6英尺宽。某地方当局买下它用来焙制一个巨大的馅饼为一年一度交易会
助兴。馅饼委员会确认运输这只盘子的最佳方案是通过运河水运。于是，他们对这只盘子的运输安全投了保。盘子下水
后不久，馅饼委员会成员们来到当地一家小酒店庆贺。就在这个时候，许多十几岁的孩子爬上盘子举行他们自己的集
会。他们跳起了舞，盘子难以承受。舞会进行过程中，盘子倾覆，沉入了7英尺深的水中。
馅饼委员会给当地汽车修理库老板打电话，他闻讯后开着一辆急修车前来打捞盘子。那些孩子们穿着湿衣服哆嗦，
看着3个工人轮番潜入水中以确定盘子的位置。他们没费多大事儿就找到了盘子，可是把盘子捞出却是一个很大的难
题。盘子四边十分光滑，要在盘边拴上绳索或链条而同时又不损坏它是很难办到的。不过，他们终于将链条固定在盘子
的一端，一台大功率的绞车开动起来。盘子慢慢浮出水面，被轻轻地拽向运河岸边。在令人忐忑不安的瞬间，盘子晃晃
11悠悠地上了岸，但它突然失去了平衡，又跌回水中。工人们只得再来一次。这次，他们用沉重的金属夹子把盘子夹住，
以便往盘子上安装铁链。这次，盘子必须垂直吊出水面，因为盘子的一边紧靠着运河河岸。绞盘机再次启动，一位工人
发动了急修车的引擎。几分钟后，盘子被成功地拽出了水面。波浪从盘子两侧急涌而出，在运河里掀起一股大浪。但是
当波浪从河对岸折回来时，就有再次把盘子拖进水里的危险。工人们动作迅速，终于赶在那股大浪返回之前把盘子拽
到了岸上。
Lesson 44 Speed and comfort 又快捷又舒适
People, traveling long distances frequently have to decide whether they would
pprreeffeerr ttoo go by land, sea, or air. Hardly anyone can positively enjoy sitting in a train
for mmoorree tthhaann a few hours. Train compartments soon ggeett ccrraammppeedd and stuffy. It is
almost impossible to take your mind off the journey. Reading is only a partial solution,
for the monotonous rhythm of the wheels clicking on the rails soon lulls you to
sleep. During the day, sslleeeepp ccoommeess iinn ssnnaattcchheess. At night, when you really wish to
ggoo ttoo sslleeeepp, you rarely mmaannaaggee ttoo ddoo so. If you are lucky enough to get a sleeper,
you spend half the night ssttaarriinngg aatt the small blue light in the ceiling, or fumbling to
find your ticket for inspection. Inevitably you aarrrriivvee aatt your destination almost
exhausted. Long car journeys are even less pleasant, for it is quite impossible even to
read. On motorways you can, at least, travel fairly safely aatt hhiigghh ssppeeeeddss, but mmoorree
oofftteenn tthhaann nnoott, the greater part of the journey is spent on roads with few service
stations and too much traffic. B Byy ccoommppaarriissoonn, , ferry trips or c ruises offer a great
variety of civilized comforts. You can stretch your legs on the spacious decks, play
games, meet interesting people and enjoy good food----always assuming, of course,
that the sea is calm. If it is not, and you are likely to get sea - sick, no form of transport
could be worse. EEvveenn iiff you travel in ideal weather, sea journeys ttaakkee aa lloonngg ttiimmee.
Relatively few people are pprreeppaarreedd ttoo sacrifice holiday time for the pleasure of
travelling by sea.
Aeroplanes have the reputation of being dangerous and even hardened
travellers are intimidated by them . They also hhaavvee tthhee ddiissaaddvvaannttaaggee ooff being an
expensive form of transport. BBuutt nnootthhiinngg ccaann mmaattcchh tthheemm ffoorr speed and comfort.
Travelling at a height of 30, 000 feet, far above the clouds, and at over 500 miles an
hour is an exhilarating experience. You do not have to devise ways of taking your
mind off the journey, for an aeroplane gets you to your destination rapidly. For a few
hours, you sseettttllee bbaacckk in a deep armchair to enjoy the flight. The real escapist can
watch a film and sip champagne on some services. But even when such
refinements are not available, there is plenty to kkeeeepp yyoouu ooccccuuppiieedd. An aeroplane
offers you an unusual and breathtaking view of the world. You soar effortlessly over
high mountains and deep valleys. You really see the shape of the land. If the
landscape is hidden from view, you can enjoy the extraordinary sight of unbroken
cloud plains that ssttrreettcchh oouutt for miles before you, while the sun shines brilliantly in
a clear sky. The journey is so smooth that there is nothing to prevent you from
reading or sleeping. However you decide to spend your time, one thing is certain: you
will aarrrriivvee aatt your destination fresh and uncrumpled. You will not have to spend the
next few days rreeccoovveerriinngg ffrroomm a long and arduous journey .
出远门的人常常需要决定是走旱路、水路，还是坐飞机。很少有人能够真正喜欢坐几个小时以上的火车。车厢很快
就变得拥挤、闷热，想摆脱开旅途的困扰是很难的。看书只能解决部分问题。车轮与铁轨间单调的嘎喳声很快就会送你
进入梦乡。白天是忽睡忽醒，到了夜晚，你真想睡了，却很难入睡。即使你走运弄到一个卧铺，夜间有一半时间你会盯
12着车顶那盏小蓝灯而睡不着觉；要不然就为查票摸索你的车票。一旦抵达目的地，你总是疲惫不堪。乘汽车作长途旅行
则更加不舒服，因为连看书都几乎不可能。在公路上还好，你至少能以相当快的速度安全地向前行。但旅行的大部分时
间都花在路上，而且只有很少的服务设施，交通也很拥挤。相比之下，坐船旅行或环游可以得到文明世界的各种享受。
你可以在甲板上伸展四肢、做游戏，还能见到各种有趣的人，能享用各种美味佳肴——当然，这一切只有在大海风平浪
静的情况下才有可能。如果大海肆虐起来，你就可能晕船，那种难受劲儿是任何一种别的旅行方式都不会带来的。即便
风平浪静，坐船旅行也要占用很长时间。没有多少人会为了享受坐船旅行的乐趣而牺牲假期的时间。
飞机以危险而著称，连老资格的旅行者也怕飞机。飞机的另一个缺点是昂贵。但就速度与舒适而言，飞机是无与
伦比的。腾云驾雾，在3万英尺高空以500英里的时速旅行，这种经历令人心旷神怡。你不必想办法去摆脱旅途的困
扰，因为飞机会迅速地把你送到目的地。几小时之内，你躺在扶手椅上，享受着旅途的欢乐。真正会享受的人还可以在
某些航班上看一场电影和喝香槟。即使没有这些消遣条件，也总是有事可做。飞机上，你可以观察世界上非同寻常的奇
妙的美景。你毫不费劲地飞越高山幽谷，你确能饱览大地的风貌。如果这种景色被遮住了，你便可以观赏一下展现在你
面前的、一望数英里的、连绵不断的云海，同时阳光灿烂，天空清澈明朗。旅途平稳，丝毫不妨碍你阅读或睡眠。不管你
打算如何消磨时间，有件事是可以肯定的，即当你抵达目的地时，你感到精神焕发，毫无倦意，用不着因为漫长旅途的
辛苦而花几天时间休息来恢复精神。
Lesson 45 The power of the press 新闻报道的威力
In democratic countries any efforts to restrict the freedom of the P ress are
rightly condemned . However, this freedom can easily be abused. Stories about
people often attract far more ppuubblliicc aatttteennttiioonn than political events. Though we may
enjoy reading about the lives of others, iitt iiss eexxttrreemmeellyy ddoouubbttffuull wwhheetthheerr we would
equally enjoy reading about ourselves. Acting on the contention that facts are
sacred, reporters can cause untold suffering to individuals by publishing details
about their private lives. Newspapers eexxeerrtt ssuucchh ttrreemmeennddoouuss iinnfflluueennccee that they
can not only bbrriinngg aabboouutt major changes to the lives of ordinary people but can even
overthrow a government.
The story of a poor family that acquired fame and fortune overnight,
dramatically illustrates the power of the press. The family lliivveedd iinn Aberdeen, a
small town of 23, 000 inhabitants in South Dakota. As the parents had five children,
life was a perpetual struggle against poverty. They were expecting their sixth child
and were ffaacceedd wwiitthh even more pressing economic problems. If they had only had
one more child, the fact would have passed unnoticed. They would have continued to
ssttrruuggggllee aaggaaiinnsstt economic odds and would have lived in obscurity. But they
suddenly became the parents of quintuplets, four girls and a boy, an event which
radically changed their lives. The day after the birth of the five children, an aeroplane
arrived in Aberdeen bringing sixty reporters and photographers .
TThhee rriissee ttoo ffaammee wwaass sswwiifftt. Television cameras and newspapers carried the
news to everyone in the country. Newspapers and magazines offered the family huge
sums for the exclusive rights to publish stories and photographs. Gifts ppoouurreedd iinn nnoott
oonnllyy from unknown people, bbuutt from baby food and soap manufacturers who
wished to advertise their products. The old farmhouse the family lived in was to be
rreeppllaacceedd bbyy a new ＄500, 000 home. Reporters kept pressing for interviews so
lawyers had to be employed to aacctt aass spokesmen for the family at press
conferences. While the five babies were still quietly sleeping in oxygen tents in a
hospital nursery, their parents were ppaayyiinngg tthhee pprriiccee ffoorr ffaammee . It would never again
be possible for them to lead normal lives. They had become tthhee vviiccttiimmss ooff
13commercialization, for their names had aaccqquuiirreedd aa mmaarrkkeett vvaalluuee. IInnsstteeaadd ooff
being five new family members, these children had immediately become a
commodity.
在民主国家里，任何限制新闻自由的企图都理所当然地受到谴责。然而，这种自由很容易被滥用。常人轶事往往比
政治事件更能引起公众注意。我们都喜欢看关于别人生活的报道，但是否同样喜欢看关于自己生活的报道，就很难说
了。记者按事实至上的论点行事，发表有关别人私生活的细节，有时会给当事人造成极大的痛苦。新闻具有巨大的威力。
它们不仅可以给寻常人家的生活带来重大的变化，甚至还能推翻一个政府。
下面这户穷人一夜之间出名发财的故事戏剧性地说明了新闻报道的威力。这户人家住在南达科他州一个人口为
23，000的小镇上，镇名为阿拜丁。家里已有5个孩子，全家人常年在贫困中挣扎。第6个孩子即将问世，他们面临着
更为严峻的经济问题。如果他们只是添了1个孩子，这件事本来就不会引起任何人的注意。这家人会继续为克服经济
上的拮据而奋斗，并默默无闻地活下去。但是他们出人意料地生了个五胞胎，4女1男。这事使他们的生活发生了根本
的变化。五胞胎降生第二天，一架飞机飞抵阿拜丁，随机带来60名记者与摄影师。
这一家迅速出了名。电视摄像机和报纸把消息传送到全国。报纸、杂志出高价向他们购买文字、图片的独家报道权
不但素昧平生的人寄来了大量的礼物，而且婴儿食品、婴儿肥皂制造厂商为了替自己产品做广告也寄来了大量的礼物。
这家人住的旧农舍将由一座价值50万美元的新住宅所取代。由于记者纷纷要求会见，他们不得不请了律师充当他们
家的发言人举行记者招待会。眼下，五胞胎还静静地躺在医院婴儿室的氧气帐里，他们的父母却为这名声付出了代价，
他们再也无法过正常的生活。他们成了商业化的受害者，因为他们的名字具有了市场价值。这些孩子立即成了商品，而
不是5个新的家庭成员。
Lesson 47 Too high a price? 代价太高？
Pollution is the price we ppaayy ffoorr an overpopulated , over industrialized planet .
When you ccoommee ttoo tthhiinnkk aabboouutt it, there are only four ways you can ddeeaall wwiitthh
rubbish: dump it, burn it, turn it into something you can use again, aatttteemmpptt ttoo
produce less of it. We kkeeeepp ttrryyiinngg all four methods , but he sshheeeerr vvoolluummee of rubbish
we produce worldwide tthhrreeaatteennss ttoo oovveerrwwhheellmm uuss .
Rubbish, however, is only part of the problem of polluting our planet. The need to
produce ever-increasing quantities of cheap food lleeaaddss ttoo a different kind of
pollution. Industrialized farming methods produce cheap meat products: beef, pork
and chicken. The use of pesticides and fertilizers produces cheap grain and
vegetables. The price we pay for cheap food may be already too high: Mad Cow
Disease (BSE) in cattle, salmonella in chicken and eggs, and wisteria in dairy
products. And if you think you'll abandon meat and become a vegetarian, you have
the cchhooiiccee ooff very expensive oorrggaanniiccaallllyy--ggrroowwnn vveeggeettaabblleess or a steady diet of
pesticides every time you think you're eating fresh salads and vegetables, or just
having an iinnnnoocceenntt ggllaassss ooff wwaatteerr!
However, there is an eevveenn mmoorree insidious kind of pollution that particularly
affects urban areas and invades our daily lives, and that is noise. Burglar alarms
ggooiinngg ooffff aatt aannyy ttiimmee of the day or night serve only to annoy passers-by and
actually assist burglars to burgle. Car alarms constantly ssccrreeaamm aatt us in the street
and are a source of profound irritation . A recent survey of the effects of noise
revealed (surprisingly?) that dogs barking incessantly in the night rated the highest
form of noise pollution on a scale rraannggiinngg ffrroomm 11 ttoo 77. The survey revealed aa llaarrggee
n nuummbbeerr ooff sources of noise that we really dislike . LLaawwnn mmoowweerrss whining on a
summer's day, late-night parties in apartment blocks, noisy neighbors, vehicles of al
kinds, especially large ccoonnttaaiinneerr ttrruucckkss thundering through quiet village, planes
and helicopters flying overhead, large radios carried round in public places and
played at maximum volume. New technology has also mmaaddee iittss oowwnn ccoonnttrriibbuuttiioonn
14t too noise . A lot of people oobbjjeecctt ttoo mobile phones, especially when they are used iinn
ppuubblliicc ppllaacceess like restaurants or on public transport. Loud conversations on mobile
phones invade our thoughts or interrupt the pleasure of meeting friends for a quiet
chat. The noise pollution survey revealed a rather spurring and possibly amusing old
fashioned source of noise. It ttuurrnneedd oouutt ttoo bbee snoring! Men were found to be the
worst offenders. It was revealed that 20% of men in their mid-thirties snore. This
figure rriisseess ttoo a staggering 60% of men in their sixties. AAggaaiinnsstt tthheessee ffiigguurreess, it
was found that only 5% of women snore regularly, while the rest are constantly
woken or kkeepptt aawwaakkee by their trumpeting partners. Whatever the source of noise,
one thing is certain: silence, it seems, has become a golden memory.
污染就是我们为这个人口过密，过度工业化的星球所付出的代价。当我们开始考虑垃圾问题时，我们只有4种对
付垃圾的方法：倾倒、焚烧、把垃圾变成再生材料或试图少产生一些垃圾。我们一直在试这4种方式，但是，我们在世
界范围内仅产生的垃圾的量就有把我们覆盖的危险。
然而，垃圾只是我们这个星球的污染问题的一个方面。日益增长的对廉价食物的需求导致了另一种形式的污染。
工业化的农作方式生产出廉价的肉类制品——牛肉、猪肉和鸡肉。使用杀虫剂和化肥生产出廉价的谷物和蔬菜。为了
廉价食物我们付出代价已经太高了：牛肉中的疯牛病，鸡肉和鸡蛋中的沙门氏菌，奶制品中的利斯特杆菌。如果你想放
弃肉类而变成一位素食者，那么你可以两者择一：或是选用价格昂贵、有机培植的蔬菜，或是当你认为在享用新鲜色拉
和新鲜蔬菜或饮用一杯无害的水的时候，实际上每次都不断吃进杀虫剂。
但是，还有一种更加隐蔽有害的污染，它专门影响城镇地区，侵袭我们的日常生活，那就是噪音。防盗警报器在白
天和黑夜的任何时候都会响起来，它的作用只是骚扰过路行人，而实际上却帮助窃贼入室行窃。在街上，汽车的防盗警
报不断对我们吼叫，这是人们极度烦燥的一个原因，最近一个有关噪音的作用的调查（令人吃惊地）指出，夜间连续不
断的狗叫声，在一个从1级至7级刻度表上应列为最严重的噪间污染。这个调查揭示了我们所不喜欢的大量的噪间的
来源：夏天呜呜作响的割草机，公寓楼里深夜聚会的喧哗声，大声吵闹的邻居，各式各样的车辆，特别是穿越寂静的村
庄的集装箱卡车，从头顶飞过的飞机和直升机，被带到公共场所、音量开到最大的大功率收音机。新技术也为噪音作了
它的贡献。许多人都反对移动式电话，特别是在如饭店，公共交通车等公共场所使用移动电话。用移动电话大声交谈干
扰我们的思路，破坏我们和朋友在一起轻声聊天所得到的乐趣。这个有关噪音的污染调查还揭示了一种出人意外而同
时可能会引人意外而同时可能会引人发笑的老式噪音源。它竟然是鼾声。人类是这方面的罪魁祸首。调查指出，20%
的35岁左右的男人打鼾；而到60岁这个年龄段，这个数字上升到令人惊愕的60%。与这些数字相比，只有5% 的女
性经常打鼾；而其余则经常被与她们同睡、像吹号似地打着呼噜的男人吵醒或弄得睡不着。不管噪声来自何方，有一点
是肯定的：看来寂静已变成一种珍贵的回忆。
Lesson 50 New Year resolutions 新年的决心
The New Year is a time for resolutions . Mentally, aatt lleeaasstt , most of us could
compile formidable lists of ‘dos’ and ‘don'ts’. The same old favourites recur yyeeaarr iinn
yyeeaarr oouutt with monotonous regularity. We rreessoollvvee ttoo get up earlier each morning,
eat less, find more time to ppllaayy wwiitthh the children, do a thousand and one jobs about
the house, be nniiccee ttoo people we don't like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a
walk every day. P Paasstt eexxppeerriieennccee h as taught us that certain a ccomplishments are
b beeyyoonndd aattttaaiinnmmeenntt . If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so
often experienced the frustration that results from failure. Most of us ffaaiill iinn our
efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never
have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our
resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we sslliipp bbaacckk iinnttoo
our bad old ways. AAwwaarree ooff these pitfalls , this year I attempted to kkeeeepp mmyy
r reessoolluuttiioonnss ttoo mmyysseell f f . I lliimmiitteedd mmyysseellff ttoo two modest ambitions: to ddoo pphhyyssiiccaall
eexxeerrcciisseess every morning and to read more of an evening. An all-night party on New
Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying on either of these new
15resolutions on the first day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself
assiduously to the task .
The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I pprrooppoosseedd ttoo do them early
in the morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag myself
oouutt ooff bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. Nevertheless, I
mmaannaaggeedd ttoo ccrreeeepp ddoowwnn into the living-room for two days before anyone found me
out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into
uncomfortable positions , I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition .
It was this that betrayed me. The next morning the whole family ttrrooooppeedd iinn to watch
the performance. That was really unsettling, but I fended off the taunts and jibes of
the family good-humouredly and soon everybody ggoott uusseedd ttoo the idea. However, my
enthusiasm waned. The time I spent at exercise gradually diminished . LLiittttllee bbyy
lliittttllee the eleven minutes fell to zero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had
started from. I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the
morning, I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work.
Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings
with my eyes glued to a book. One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went
downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. That proved to be
my undoing, for I soon ggoott bbaacckk ttoo mmyy oolldd bbaadd hhaabbiitt ooff ddoozziinngg ooffff in front of the
screen. I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading. In fact, I have just
bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. Perhaps it will solve
my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it!
新年是下决心的时候，至少在大多数人的心里会编排出一份“应做什么”和“不应做什么”的令人生畏的单子。
相同的决心以单调的规律年复一年地出现。我们决心每天早晨起得早些；吃得少些；多花点时间与孩子们一起做游戏；
做大量的家务；对不喜欢的人友善一些；小心驾车；每天都要带着狗散步；等等。以往的经验告诉我们有些事是办不到
的。如果我们烟瘾大，戒不掉，那是因为屡戒屡败，失去了信心。我们大多数人想自我完善却遭到失败，这是因为我们
的规划过于宏大，而又根本没有时间去实施。我们还犯有一个根本性的错误，即把我们的决心向大家宣布。这样一旦滑
回到那些环的老习惯上去，我们在别人眼里会显得更加难堪。我深知这些问题，于是，今年我对自己的计划要严加保密，
只给自己定下两项适中的任务：每天早上锻炼身体，每天晚上多看点书。新年除夕举办的一次通宵晚会，使我理直气壮
地在新年头一天免去了这两项任务。不过，新年第二天，我全力以赴地照着去做了。
早锻炼一共只有11分钟，我打算在别人起床之前进行。这就要求我比平日早11分钟把自己从床上拽起来，这种
自我约束是很艰苦的。不过开头两天我还是成功地蹑手蹑脚地来到楼下起居室，被谁也没发现。我在地毯上跳过来蹦
过去，扭曲身子，摆出各种姿势，弄得浑身不舒服，然后坐到桌边吃早饭，一副筋疲力尽的样子。正是这副模样泄露了
我的秘密。第二天早晨全家人结队来到起居室看我表演。这真叫人不好意思，但我心平气和地顶住了全家人的嘲笑和
奚落。不久，大家对我习以为常了，而这时我的热情却减退了。我花在锻炼上的时间逐渐减少，慢慢地从11分钟减到
了零。到了1月10日，我恢复了原来的作息时间。我辩解说，早晨少耗费精力锻炼，晚上下班回家看书时头脑更清醒
些。有几天晚上，我极力摆脱了电视的诱惑，坐在自己房间里，两眼盯在书上。可是，有一天夜里，我感到又冷又孤单，
便来到楼下坐在电视机前假装看书。这下我可完了，因为不一会儿，我就恢复了以前的坏习惯，在屏幕前打起瞌睡来。
但我还没有放弃多看些书的决心。事实上，我刚买来一本叫《一分钟读一千字的诀窍》的书。也许这本书能解决我的问
题，但我一直还没时间去看这本书！
Lesson 53 In the public interest 为了公众的利益
The Scandinavian countries are much admired aallll oovveerr tthhee wwoorrlldd for their
enlightened social policies. Sweden has evolved an excellent system for protecting
the individual citizen from high - handed or incompetent public officers . The system
has worked so well, that it has been adopted in other countries too.
The Swedes were tthhee ffiirrsstt ttoo recognize that public officials like cciivviill sseerrvvaannttss,
police officers, health inspectors or ttaaxx--ccoolllleeccttoorrss can mmaakkee mmiissttaakkeess or act over-
16zealously iinn tthhee bbeelliieeff tthhaatt they are sseerrvviinngg tthhee ppuubblliicc. AAss lloonngg aaggoo as 1809, the
Swedish Parliament introduced a scheme to ssaaffeegguuaarrdd tthhee iinntteerreesstt ooff tthhee
iinnddiivviidduuaall.. A parliamentary committee representing all political parties appoints a
person who is suitably qquuaalliiffiieedd ttoo investigate private grievances against the
State. The official title of the person is ‘Justiteombudsman’, but the Swedes
commonly rreeffeerr ttoo hhiimm aass the ‘J. O.’ or ‘Ombudsman’. The Ombudsman is not
s suubbjjeecctt ttoo political pressure . He investigates complaints llaarrggee aanndd ssmmaallll that
ccoommee ttoo him from aallll lleevveellss ooff ssoocciieettyy. As complaints must be made in writing, the
Ombudsman receives aann aavveerraaggee ooff 1, 200 letters a year. He has eight lawyer
assistants to help him and he examines every single letter iinn ddeettaaiill. There is
nothing secretive about the Ombudsman's work, for his correspondence is open to
public inspection . If a citizen's complaint is justified, the Ombudsman will aacctt oonn
hhiiss bbeehhaallff. The action he takes varies aaccccoorrddiinngg ttoo the nature of the complaint. He
may gently reprimand an official or even suggest to parliament that a law be
altered. The following case is a typical example of the Ombudsman's work.
A foreigner living in a Swedish village wwrroottee ttoo the Ombudsman complaining
that he had been iillll--ttrreeaatteedd bbyy the police, simply because he was a foreigner. The
Ombudsman immediately wwrroottee ttoo the Chief of Police in the district asking him to
send a record of the case. There was nothing in the record to show that the
foreigner's complaint was justified and the Chief of Police strongly denied the
accusation. IItt wwaass iimmppoossssiibbllee ffoorr the Ombudsman to ttaakkee aaccttiioonn, but when he
received a similar complaint from another foreigner in the same village, he
immediately sent one of his lawyers to investigate the matter. The lawyer
ascertained that a policeman had indeed dealt roughly with foreigners oonn sseevveerraall
ooccccaassiioonnss. TThhee ffaacctt tthhaatt the policeman was prejudiced against foreigners could
not be recorded in the official files. It was only possible for the Ombudsman to find
this out by sending one of his representatives to cchheecckk tthhee ffaaccttss. The policeman iinn
qquueessttiioonn was severely reprimanded and was informed that if any further complaints
were llooddggeedd aaggaaiinnsstt him, he would be prosecuted. The Ombudsman's pprroommpptt
aaccttiioonn at once ppuutt aann eenndd ttoo an unpleasant practice which might have gone
unnoticed.
斯堪的纳维亚半岛各国实行的开明的社会政策，受到全世界的推崇。在瑞典，已逐渐形成了一种完善的制度以保
护每个公民不受专横的和不称职的政府官员的欺压。由于这种制度行之有效，已被其他国家采纳。
是瑞典人首先认识到政府工作人员如文职人员、警官、卫生稽查员、税务人员等等也会犯错误或者自以为在为公
众服务而把事情做过了头。早在1809年，瑞典议会就建立了一个保护公民利益的制度。议会内有一个代表各政党利
益的委员会，由它委派一位称职的人选专门调查个人对国家的意见。此人官衔为“司法特派员”，但瑞典人一般都管
他叫“J．O．”，即“司法特派员”。司法特派员不受任何政治压力的制约。他听取社会各阶层的各种大小意见，并进
行调查。由于意见均需用书面形式提出，司法特派员每年平均收到1，200封信。他有8位律帅做他的助手协助工作，
每封信都详细批阅。司法特派员的工作没有什么秘密可言，他的信件是公开的，供公众监督。如果公民的意见正确，司
法特派员便为他伸张正义。司法特派员采取的行动因意见的性质不同而有所不同。他可以善意地批评某位官员，也可
以甚至向议会提议修改某项法律。下述事件是司法特派员工作的一个典型例子。
一个住在瑞典乡村的外国人写信给司法特派员，抱怨说他受到警察虐待，原因就是因为他是个外国人。司法特派
员立即写信给当地的警察局长，请他寄送与此事有关的材料。材料中没有任何文字记载证明外国人所说的情况符合事
实，警察局长矢口否认这一指控。司法特派员难以处理。但是，当他又收到住在同一村庄的另一个外国人写的一封内容
类似的投诉信时，他立即派出一位律师前去调查。律师证实有个警察确实多次粗鲁地对待外国人。警察歧视外国人的
事在官方档案中不可能加以记载，司法特派员只有派他的代表去核对事实才能了解真相。当事的警察受到严厉斥责，
并被告知，如果再有人投诉他，他将受到起诉。司法特派员及时采取的行动，迅速制止了这一起不愉快的事件，不然这
17件事可能因未得到人们注意而不了了之。
Lesson 54 Instinct or cleverness? 是本能还是机智
We have been bbrroouugghhtt uupp ttoo fear insects . We rreeggaarrdd tthheemm aass unnecessary
creatures that ddoo mmoorree hhaarrmm tthhaann ggoooodd. We continually wwaaggee wwaarr oonn them, for
they contaminate our food, carry diseases, or devour our crops. They sting or bite
without provocation ; they ffllyy uunniinnvviitteedd iinnttoo our rooms on summer nights, or beat
ageist our lighted windows. We lliivvee iinn ddrreeaadd not only of unpleasant insects like
spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless one like moths . RReeaaddiinngg aabboouutt them
increases our understanding without dispelling our fears. K Knnoowwiinngg tthhaatt the
industrious ant lliivveess iinn aa hhiigghhllyy oorrggaanniizzeedd ssoocciieettyy does nothing to pprreevveenntt uuss
f frroomm being f fiilllleedd wwiitthh revulsion when we find h hoorrddeess ooff them c crraawwlliinngg oovveerr a
carefully prepared picnic lunch. N Noo mmaatttteerr hhooww much we like honey, or how much
we have read about the uncanny sense of direction which bees possess, we hhaavvee aa
h hoorrrroorr ooff being stung . Most of our fears are unreasonable, but they are impossible
to erase. AAtt tthhee ssaammee ttiimmee, however, insects are strangely fascinating. We enjoy
reading about them, especially when we find that, like the praying mantis, they lead
perfectly horrible lives. We enjoy ssttaarriinngg aatt them, entranced as they go about their
business, unaware (we hope) of our presence. Who has not ssttoooodd iinn aawwee aatt tthhee
s siigghhtt ooff a spider p ouncing on a fly, or a a ccoolluummnn ooff ants t riumphantly bearing
home an enormous dead beetle?
Last summer I spent days in the garden watching thousands of ants ccrraawwlliinngg uupp
the trunk of my prize peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a
sheltered side of the house. I am especially pprroouudd ooff it, not only because it has
survived several severe winters, but because it occasionally produces luscious
peaches. During the summer, I noticed that the leaves of the tree were beginning to
wither. Clusters of tiny insects called aphides were to be found on the underside of
the leaves. They were visited by aa llaarrggee ccoolloonnyy ooff ants which obtained a sort of
honey from them. I immediately eemmbbaarrkkeedd oonn an experiment which, even though if
failed to ggeett rriidd ooff the ants, kept me fascinated for twenty-four hours. I bound the
base of the tree with sticky tape, mmaakkiinngg iitt iimmppoossssiibbllee ffoorr the ants to reach the
aphides. The tape was so stick that they did not dare to cross it. FFoorr aa lloonngg ttiimmee. I
watched them scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment. I even wweenntt
oouutt at midnight with a torch and noted with satisfaction (and surprise) that the ants
were still swarming around the sticky tape without being able to do anything about
it. I got up early next morning hhooppiinngg ttoo ffiinndd tthhaatt the ants had ggiivveenn uupp iinn ddeessppaaiir r .
Instead, I saw that they had discovered a new route. They were climbing up the wall
of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree. I realized sadly that I had been
completely defeated by their ingenuity. The ants had been quick to ffiinndd aann aannsswweerr
ttoo my thoroughly unscientific methods!
我们自幼就在对昆虫的惧怕中长大。我们把昆虫当作害多益少的无用东西。人类不断同昆虫斗争，因为昆虫弄脏
我们的食物，传播疾病，吞噬庄稼。它们无缘无故地又叮又咬；夏天的晚上，它们未经邀请便飞到我们房间里，或者对
着露出亮光的窗户乱扑乱撞。我们在日常生活中，不但憎恶如蜘蛛、黄蜂之类令人讨厌的昆虫，而且憎恶并无大害的飞
蛾等。阅读有关昆虫的书能增加我们对它们的了解，却不能消除我们的恐惧的心理。即使知道勤奋的蚂蚁生活具有高
度组织性的社会里，当看到大群蚂蚁在我们精心准备的午间野餐上爬行时，我们也无法抑制对它们的反感。不管我们
多么爱吃蜂蜜，或读过多少关于蜜蜂具有神秘的识别方向的灵感的书，我们仍然十分害怕被蜂蜇。我们的恐惧大部分
18是没有道理的，但去无法消除。同时，不知为什么昆虫又是迷人的。我们喜欢看有关昆虫的书，尤其是当我们了解螳螂
等过着一种令人生畏的生活时，就更加爱读有关昆虫的书了。我们喜欢入迷地看它们做事，它们不知道（但愿如此）我
们就在它们身边。当看到蜘蛛扑向一只苍蝇时，一队蚂蚁抬着一只巨大的死甲虫凯旋归时，谁能不感到敬畏呢？
去年夏天，我花了好几天时间站在花园里观察成千只蚂蚁爬上我那棵心爱的桃树的树干。那棵树是靠着房子有遮
挡的一面暖墙生长的。我为这棵树感到特别自豪，不仅因为它度过了几个寒冬终于活了下来，而且还因为它有时结出
些甘甜的桃子来。到了夏天，我发现树叶开始枯萎，结果在树叶背面找到成串的叫作蚜虫小虫子。蚜虫遭到一窝蚂蚁的
攻击，蚂蚁从它们身上可以获得一种蜜。我当即动手作了一项试验，这项试验尽管没有使我摆脱这些蚂蚁，却使我着迷
了24小时。我用一条胶带把桃树底部包上，不让蚂蚁接近蚜虫。胶带极粘，蚂蚁不敢从上面爬过。在很长一段时间里，
我看见蚂蚁围着大树底部来回转悠，不知所措。半夜，我还拿着电筒来到花园里，满意地（同时惊奇地）发现那些蚂蚁
还围着胶带团团转。无能为力。第二天早上，我起床后希望看见蚂蚁已因无望而放弃了尝试，结果却发现它们又找到一
条新的路径。它们正在顺着房子的外墙往上爬，然后爬上树叶。我懊丧地感到败在了足智多谋的蚂蚁的手下。蚂蚁已很
快找到了相应的对策，来对付我那套完全不科学的办法！
lesson 59 Collecting 收藏
People tteenndd ttoo aammaassss ppoosssseessssiioonnss , sometimes without being aawwaarree ooff doing
so. Indeed they can hhaavvee aa ddeelliigghhttffuull ssuurrpprriissee when they find something useful
which they did not know they owned. Those who never have to move house become
indiscriminate collectors of wwhhaatt ccaann oonnllyy bbee ddeessccrriibbeedd aass cclluutttteerr. They leave
unwanted objects in drawers, cupboards and attics for years, iinn tthhee bbeelliieeff tthhaatt they
may one day need just those very things. As they grow old, people also accumulate
belongings for two other reasons, llaacckk ooff physical and mmeennttaall eenneerrggyy, both of which
are essential iinn ttuurrnniinngg oouutt and throwing away, and sentiment. Things owned for aa
l loonngg ttiimmee are full of a ssociations with the past, perhaps with r elatives who are
dead, and so they gradually acquire a value beyond their true worth.
Some things are collected deliberately in the home iinn aann aatttteemmpptt ttoo avoid
waste. Among these I would list string and brown paper, kept by thrifty people when
a parcel has been opened, to ssaavvee bbuuyyiinngg these two requisites. Collecting small
items can easily become a mania. I know someone who always cuts sketches out
from newspapers of model clothes that she wwoouulldd lliikkee ttoo buy, if she had the money.
As she is not rich, the chances that she will ever bbee aabbllee ttoo aaffffoorrdd such purchases
are remote; but she is never sufficiently strongminded to be able to stop the
practice. It is a harmless habit, but it lliitttteerrss uupp her desk ttoo ssuucchh aann eexxtteenntt tthhaatt
every time she opens it; loose bits of paper fall out in every direction .
Collecting as a serious hobby iiss qquuiittee ddiiffffeerreenntt and has many advantages . It
provides relaxation for lleeiissuurree hhoouurrss, as just looking at one's treasures is always a
joy. One does not have to go outside for amusement, since the collection is housed
at home. WWhhaatteevveerr iitt ccoonnssiissttss ooff, stamps, records, first editions of books, china,
glass, antique furniture, pictures, model cars, stuffed birds, toy animals, there is
always something to do iinn ccoonnnneeccttiioonn wwiitthh iitt ,, from finding the right place for the
latest addition, to verifying facts in reference books. This hobby educates one not
only in the chosen subject , but also in general matters which hhaavvee ssoommee bbeeaarriinngg
o onn iitt . There are also other benefits. One wants to meet like-minded collectors, to ggeett
aaddvviiccee, to ccoommppaarree nnootteess, to eexxcchhaannggee aarrttiicclleess, to show off the latest find. So
one's circle of friends grows. Soon the hobby leads to travel, perhaps to a meeting in
another town, possibly a trip abroad iinn sseeaarrcchh ooff a rare specimen, for collectors are
not confined to any one country. Over the years, one may well become an authority
on one's hobby and will very probably be asked to give informal talks to little
19gatherings and then, if successful, to larger audiences. IInn tthhiiss wwaayy sseellff--
ccoonnffiiddeennccee ggrroowwss, first from mastering a subject, then from being able to talk
about it. Collecting, by occupying ssppaarree ttiimmee so constructively , makes a person
contented , with no time for boredom .
人们喜欢收藏东西，有时并没有意识到自己在这样做。确实，一旦无意之中从自己的收藏品中找到某件有用的东
西时，可以给人一种惊喜的感觉。那些从来不必搬家的人们成了一种无所不容的收藏家。他们专门收藏那些只能被称
作杂货的东西。他们在抽屉里、碗柜中、阁楼上堆放着一些不用的东西，一放就是好几年，相信总有一天需要的正好是
那些东西。人们年老之后也喜欢收藏东西，不过是出于两个不同的原因：一是体力、精力均告不佳，这二者是清除无用
的东西必不可少的因素；另一个原因是感情因素。东西搁得时间久了，便会充满着与过去岁月的联系，比方说与死去的
亲戚有关。因此这些东西慢慢获得了一种超出它本身的价值。
居家度日，有目的地收藏某些东西是为了防止浪费。这些东西中我想举出线绳和包装纸为例。节俭的人们打开包
裹后便把这两样必备的东西收藏起来，省得日后去买。收集小玩艺儿很容易着迷。我认识一个人，她总喜欢从报纸上剪
下流行服装的图样，等以后有钱时去买服装。由于她并不富裕，她买得起这些服装的可能性十分渺茫。但她又缺乏足够
坚强的意志把这一收集活动停下来。这种习惯无害，只是把写字台里堆得满满当当，以致每次打开抽屉总能带出许多
纸片四处飞扬。
作为一种严肃的业余爱好的收藏活动完全是另外一回事，它具有许多益处。它可以使人在闲暇中得到休息，因为
欣赏自己收藏的珍品总会充满了乐趣。人们不必走到户外去寻求娱乐，因为收藏品都是存放在家中。不管收藏品是什
么，邮票、唱片、头版书籍、瓷器、玻璃杯、老式家具、绘画、模型汽车、鸟类标本，还是玩具动物，从为新增添的收藏品
寻找摆放位置到核对参考书中的事实，总归有事可做。这种爱好不仅能使人从选择的专题中受到教育，而且也能从与
之有关的一般事物中获得长进。除此之外，还有其他的益处。收藏者要会见情趣相投的收藏者，以获取教益、交流经验、
交换收藏品、炫耀自己的最新收藏。朋友的圈子就这样不断扩太。用不了多久，有这种爱好的人便开始旅行，也许是去
另一个城市参加会议，也可能是出国寻找一件珍品，因为收藏家是不分国籍的。一人积了多年经验会成为自己这种爱
好的权威，很可能应邀在小型集会上作非正式的讲话。如果讲得好，可能向更多的人发表演说。这样，你自信心不断增
强，先是因为掌握了一门学问，接下来是因为能够就此发表见解。收藏活动通过富有建设性地利用业余时间使人感到
心满意足，不再有无聊之日。
Lesson 60 Too early and too late 太早和太晚
Punctuality is a necessary habit in all ppuubblliicc aaffffaaiirrss in civilized society .
Without it, nothing could ever be bbrroouugghhtt ttoo aa ccoonncclluussiioonn ; everything would be iinn aa
ssttaattee ooff cchhaaooss. Only in a sparsely-populated rural community is it possible to
disregard it. IInn oorrddiinnaarryy lliivviinngg, there can be some tolerance of unpunctuality. The
intellectual, who is working on some abstruse problem, has everything
coordinated and organized for tthhee mmaatttteerr iinn hhaanndd. He is therefore forgiven, if late
for a dinner party. But people are often rreepprrooaacchheedd ffoorr unpunctuality when their
only fault is ccuuttttiinngg tthhiinnggss ffiinnee. It is hhaarrdd ffoorr energetic, quick-minded people to
wwaassttee ttiimmee, so they are often tempted to finish a job before sseettttiinngg oouutt to kkeeeepp aann
aappppooiinnttmmeenntt. If no accidents occur on the way, like punctured tyres, diversions of
traffic, sudden descent of fog, they will be oonn ttiimmee. They are often more
industrious, useful citizens than those who are never late. The over-punctual can be
a ass mmuucchh aa ttrriiaall ttoo ootthheerrss aass the unpunctual . The guest who arrives half an hour too
soon is the greatest nuisance. Some friends of my family had this irritating habit.
T Thhee oonnllyy tthhiinngg ttoo ddoo wwaass ask them to come half an hour later than the other
guests. Then they arrived just when we wanted them.
If you are catching a train, it is always bbeetttteerr ttoo bbee comfortably early than even
a fraction of a minute too late. Although being early may mean wasting a little time,
this will be lleessss tthhaann if you miss the train and have to wait an hour or more for the
next one; and you avoid the frustration of arriving at the very moment when the
train is drawing out of the station and being unable to ggeett oonn it . An even harder
situation is to be on the platform iinn ggoooodd ttiimmee ffoorr a train and still to see it ggoo ooffff
20without you. Such an experience befell a certain young girl the first time she was
travelling alone.
She entered the station twenty minutes before the train was due, since her
parents had iimmpprreesssseedd uuppoonn her that it would be unforgivable to miss it and cause
the friends with whom she was going to stay to make two journeys to meet her. She
gave her luggage to a porter and showed him her ticket. TToo hheerr hhoorrrroorr he said that
she was two hours too soon. She felt in her handbag for the piece of paper on which
her father had written down all the details of the journey and gave it to the porter. He
agreed that a train did come into the station aatt tthhee ttiimmee on the paper and that it did
stop, but oonnllyy ttoo take on mail, not passengers. The girl asked to see a timetable,
f feeeelliinngg ssuurree tthhaatt her father could not have made such a mistake . The porter wweenntt
ttoo ffeettcchh one and arrived back with the station master, who produced it with a
flourish and ppooiinntteedd oouutt a microscopic ‘o’ beside the time of the arrival of the train
at his station; this little ‘o’ indicated that the train only ssttooppppeedd ffoorr mail. JJuusstt aass
that moment the train ccaammee iinnttoo the station. The girl, tears streaming down her
face, begged to be allowed to sslliipp iinnttoo the guard's van. But the station master was
adamant: rules could not be broken. And she had to watch that train disappear
towards her destination while she was left behind.
准时是文明社会中进行一切社交活动时必须养成的习惯。不准时将一事无成，事事都会陷入混乱不堪的境地。只
有在人口稀少的农村，才可以忽视准时的习惯。在日常生活中人们可以容忍一定程度的不准时。一个专心钻研某个复
杂问题的知识分子，为了搞好手头的研究，要把一切都协调一致、组织周密。因此，他要是赴宴迟到了会得到谅解。但
有些人不准时常常是因为掐钟点所致，他们常常会受到责备。精力充沛、头脑敏捷的人极不愿意浪费时间，因此他们常
想做完一件事后再去赴约。要是路上没有发生如爆胎、改道、突然起雾等意外事故，他们是决不会迟到的。他们与那些
从不迟到的人相比，常常是更勤奋有用的公民。早到的人同迟到的人一样令人讨厌。客人提前半小时到达是最令人讨
厌的。我家有几个朋友就有这种令人恼火的习惯。唯一的办法就是请他们比别的客人晚来半小时。这样，他们可以恰好
在我们要求的时间到达。
如果赶火车，早到总比晚到好，哪怕早到一会儿也好。虽然早到可能意味着浪费一点时间，但这比误了火车、等上
一个多小时坐下一班车浪费的时间要少，而且可以避免那种正好在火车驶出站时赶到车站，因上不去车而感到的沮丧。
更难堪的情况是虽然及时赶到站台上，却眼睁睁地看着那趟火车启动，把你抛下。一个小姑娘第一次单独出门就碰到
了这种情况。
在火车进站20分钟前她就进了车站。因为她的父母再三跟她说，如果误了这趟车，她的东道主朋友就得接她两
趟，这是不应该的。她把行李交给搬运工并给他看了车票。搬运工说她早到了两个小时，她听后大吃一惊。她从钱包里
摸出一张纸条，那上面有她父亲对这次旅行的详细说明，她把这张纸条交给了搬运工。搬运工说，正如纸条上所说，确
有一趟火车在那个时刻到站，但它只停站装邮件，不载旅客。姑娘要求看时刻表，因为她相信父亲不能把这么大的事给
弄错。搬运工跑回去取时刻表，同时请来了站长。站长拿着时刻表一挥手，指着那趟列车到站时刻旁边的一个很小的圆
圈标记。这个标记表示列车是为装邮件而停车。正在这时，火车进站了。女孩泪流满面，央求让她不声不响地到押车员
车厢里去算了。但站长态度坚决，规章制度不能破环，姑娘只得眼看着那趟火车消逝在她要去的方向而撇下了她。
新概念四Lesson 1 Finding fossil man 发现化石人
We can rreeaadd ooff things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where
people first learned to write.But there are some parts of the world where eevveenn nnooww
people cannot write. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount
it as sagas ----legends hhaannddeedd ddoowwnn from one generation of story - tellers to another.
These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of
people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did.
Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples
now living in the Pacific Islands ccaammee ffrroomm. The sagas of these people explain that
some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.
But tthhee ffiirrsstt ppeeooppllee who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their
21sagas, if they had any, are forgotten. So archaeologists have neither history nor
legends to help them to ffiinndd oouutt where the first‘modern men’ came from.
Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint,
because this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also have used wood and
skins, but these have rrootttteedd aawwaayy. Stone does not decay , and so the tools of long
ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have
disappeared wwiitthhoouutt ttrraaccee .
我们从书籍中可以读到5,000年前近东发生的事情，那里的人最早学会了写字。但直到现在，世界上仍然有些地
方；人们还不会书写。他们保存历史的唯一办法是将历史当作传说讲述，由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故
事口传下来。这些传说是很有用的，因为它们能告诉我们以往人们迁居的情况。但是；没有人能把他们当时做的事情记
载下来。人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛上的波利尼西亚人的祖先来自何方，当地人的传说却告诉了人们：
其中有一部分是约在2,000年前从印度尼西亚迁来的。
但是，和我们相似的原始人生活的年代太久远了；因此，有关他们的传说即使有如今也失传了。于是，考古学家们
既缺乏历史记载，又无口头传说来帮助他们弄清最早的“现代人”是从哪里来的。
然而，幸运的是，远古人用石头制作了工具，特别是用燧石，因力燧石较之其他石头更易成形。他们也可能用过木
头和兽皮，但这类东西早已腐烂殆尽。石头是不会腐烂的。因此，尽管制造这些工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存；但远古
时代的石头工具却保存了下来。
Lesson 2 Spare that spider不要伤害蜘蛛
Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so
many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the hhuummaann
rraaccee． Insects would mmaakkee iitt iimmppoossssiibbllee ffoorr uuss ttoo lliivvee in the world; they would
devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, iiff iitt wweerree nnoott ffoorr the protection
we get from insect-eating animals．We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat
insects but all of them ppuutt ttooggeetthheerr kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by
spiders．Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never ddoo tthhee lleeaasstt
h haarrmm ttoo us or our b elongings .
Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly rreellaatteedd ttoo them ．
One can tteellll tthhee ddiiffffeerreennccee almost aatt aa ggllaannccee, for a spider always has eight legs
and an insect never more than six.
How many spiders are eennggaaggeedd iinn this work on our behalf? One authority on
spiders mmaaddee aa cceennssuuss ooff the spiders in a grass field in the south of England, and
he estimated that there were mmoorree tthhaann 2,250,000 in one acre; that is something
like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch．Spiders are bbuussyy ffoorr at
least half the year in killing insects．It is impossible to make more than the wildest
guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only
three meals a day． It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed
by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the
human beings in the country.
你可能会觉得奇怪，蜘蛛怎么会是我们的朋友呢？因为它们能消灭那么多的昆虫，其中包括一些人类的大敌。要
不是人类受一些食虫动物的保护，昆虫就会使我们无法在地球上生活下去，昆虫会吞食我们的全部庄稼，杀死我们的
成群的牛羊。我们要十分感谢那些吃昆虫的鸟和兽，然而把它们所杀死的昆虫全部加在一起也只相当于蜘蛛所消灭的
一小部分。此外，蜘蛛不同于其他食虫动物，它们丝毫不危害我们和我们的财物。
许多人认为蜘蛛是昆虫，但它们不是昆虫，甚至与昆虫毫无关系。人们几乎一眼就能看出二者的差异，因为蜘蛛都
是8条腿，而昆虫的腿从不超过6条。
有多少蜘蛛在为我们效力呢？一位研究蜘蛛的权威对英国南部一块草坪上的蜘蛛作了一次调查。他估计每英亩
草坪里有225万多只蜘蛛。这就是说，在一个足球场上约有600万只不同种类的蜘蛛。蜘蛛至少有半年忙于吃昆虫。
它们一年中消灭了多少昆虫，我们简直无法猜测，它们是吃不饱的动物，不满意一日三餐。据估计，在英国蜘蛛一年里
22所消灭昆虫的重量超过了这个国家人口的总重量。
Lesson 3 Matterhorn man马特霍恩山区人
Modern alpinists try to climb mountains by a route which will give them good
sport, aanndd tthhee mmoorree ddiiffifficcuulltt iitt iiss,, tthhee mmoorree hhiigghhllyy iitt iiss rreeggaarrddeedd．IInn tthhee ppiioonneeeerriinngg
d daayyss , however, this was not the case a att aalll l ．The early climbers were llooookkiinngg ffoorr the
easiest way to the top, because the summit was the prize they sought, especially if
it had never been attained before．IItt iiss ttrruuee tthhaatt during their explorations they
often faced difficulties and dangers of the most perilous nature, equipped iinn aa
mmaannnneerr which would make a modern climber shudder aatt tthhee tthhoouugghhtt, but they did
not ggoo oouutt ooff tthheeiirr wwaayy to court such excitement．TThheeyy hhaadd aa ssiinnggllee aaiimm, a
solitary goal---the top!
IItt iiss hhaarrdd ffoorr uuss ttoo rreeaalliizzee nowadays how difficult it was for the pioneers．
EExxcceepptt ffoorr one or two places ssuucchh aass Zermatt and Chamonix, which had rapidly
become popular, Alpine villages tteennddeedd ttoo be impoverished settlements ccuutt ooffff
from civilization by the high mountains． Such inns as there were generally dirty and
flea-ridden; the food simply local cheese accompanied by bread often twelve
months old, all wwaasshheedd ddoowwnn with coarse wine ．Often a valley boasted no inn aatt aallll,
and climbers found shelter wherever they could---sometimes with the local priest
(who was usually aass ppoooorr aass his parishioners), sometimes with shepherds or
cheese-makers．Invariably the background was the same: dirt and poverty, and very
uncomfortable． For men aaccccuussttoommeedd ttoo eating seven-course dinners and sleeping
between fine linen sheets at home, the change to the Alps mmuusstt hhaavvee bbeeeenn very
hard indeed ．
现代登山运动员总想找一条能够给他们带来运动乐趣的路线来攀登山峰。他们认为，道路愈艰险愈带劲儿。然而，
在登山运动的初期，全然不是这种情况。早期登山者所寻找的是通往山顶的最方便的途径，因为顶峰——特别是前人
未曾到过的顶峰——才是他们寻求的目标。确实，在探险中他们经常遇到惊心动魄的困难和危险，而他们装备之简陋
足以使现代登山者一想起来就胆战心惊。但是，他们并非故意寻求这种刺激，他们只有一个目的，唯一的目标——顶峰！
我们今天很难想像昔日的登山先驱们是多么艰苦。除了泽曼特和夏蒙尼等一两个很快出了名的地方外，阿尔卑斯
山山区的小村几乎全是高山环抱、与世隔绝的穷乡僻壤。那里的小客栈一般都很肮脏，而且跳蚤猖獗。食物是当地的干
酪和通常存放了一年之久的面包，人们就着劣质酒吞下这种食物。山谷里常常没有小客栈，登山者只好随遇而安。有时
同当地牧师（他通常和他的教民一样穷）住在一起，有时同牧羊人或制乳酪的人住在一起。无论住在哪儿，情况都一样：
肮脏、贫穷，极其不舒适。对于过惯了一顿饭吃7道菜、睡亚麻细布床单的人来说，变换一下生活环境来到阿尔卑斯山
山区，那一定是很艰难的。
Lesson 6 The sporting spirit体育的精神
I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwil l
between the nations, and that iiff oonnllyy the common peoples of the world could meet
one another at football or cricket, they would hhaavvee nnoo iinncclliinnaattiioonn ttoo meet on the
battlefield．EEvveenn iiff one didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic
Games, ffoorr iinnssttaannccee) that international sporting contests lleeaadd ttoo orgies of hatred,
one could ddeedduuccee iitt ffrroomm general principles.
Nearly all the sports practiced nowadays are competitive．You play to win, and
the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win．On the village green,
where you ppiicckk uupp sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved, it is possible
to play simply for the fun and exercise: but aass ssoooonn aass the question of prestige
arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you
lose, the most savage combative instincts are aroused ．Anyone who has played even
23in a school football match knows this．AAtt tthhee iinntteerrnnaattiioonnaall lleevveell, sport is frankly
mimic warfare．But the significant thing is not the behavior of the players but tthhee
aattttiittuuddee ooff the spectators: and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work
themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe --- aatt aannyy
rraattee for short periods --- that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national
virtue.
当我听人们说体育运动可创造国家之间的友谊，还说各国民众若在足球场或板球场上交锋，就不愿在战场上残
杀的时候，我总是惊愕不已。一个人即使不能从具体的事例（如1936年奥林匹克运动会）了解到国际运动比赛会导致
疯狂的仇恨，也可以从常理中推断出结论。
现在开展的体育运动几乎都是竞争性的。参加比赛就是为了取胜。如果不拚命去赢，比赛就没有什么意义了。在乡间的
草坪上，当你随意组成两个队，并且不涉及任何地方情绪时，那才有可能是单纯为了娱乐和锻炼而进行比赛。可是一旦
涉及到荣誉问题，一旦你想到你和某一团体会因你输了而丢脸时，那么最野蛮的争斗天性便会被激发起来。即使是仅
仅参加过学校足球赛的人也有这种体会。在国际比赛中，体育简直是一场模拟战争。但是，要紧的还不是运动员的行为，
而是观众的态度，以及观众身后各个国家的态度。面对着这些荒唐的比赛，参赛的各个国家会如痴如狂，甚至煞有介事
地相信——至少在短期内如此——跑跑、跳跳、踢踢球是对一个民族品德素质的检验。
Lesson 15 Secrecy in industry 工业中的秘密
Two factors wweeiigghh hheeaavviillyy aaggaaiinnsstt the effectiveness of sscciieennttiiffiicc rreesseeaarrcchh in
industry. One is the general atmosphere of secrecy in which it is ccaarrrriieedd oouutt, the
other the llaacckk ooff freedom of the individual research worker. IInn s soo ffaarr aass any inquiry
is a secret one, it naturally limits all those eennggaaggeedd iinn carrying it out from effective
contact with their fellow scientists either in other countries or in universities, or
even, oft en enough, in other departments of the same firm. The degree of secrecy
naturally varies considerably. Some of the bigger firms are engaged in researches
which are of such general and fundamental nature that it is a positive advantage to
them not to kkeeeepp tthheemm sseeccrreett. Yet a great many processes ddeeppeennddiinngg oonn such
research are ssoouugghhtt ffoorr with complete secrecy until the stage at which patents can
be ttaakkeenn oouutt . Even more processes are never patented at all but kept as secret
processes. This applies particularly to cchheemmiiccaall iinndduussttrriieess, where chance
discoveries ppllaayy aa mmuucchh llaarrggeerr ppaarrtt than they do in physical and mechanical
industries. Sometimes the secrecy ggooeess ttoo ssuucchh aann eexxtteenntt that the whole nature of
the research cannot be mentioned . Many firms, ffoorr iinnssttaannccee, hhaavvee ggrreeaatt ddiiffffiiccuullttyy
iinn obtaining technical or scientific books from libraries because they are uunnwwiilllliinngg
ttoo have their names entered as having taken out such and such a book for fear the
agents of other firms should be able to trace the kind of research they are likely to
be undertaking.
有两个因素严重地妨碍着工业中科学研究的效率：一是科研工作中普遍存在的保密气氛；二是研究人员缺乏个人
自由。任何一项研究都涉及到保密，那些从事科研的人员自然受到了限制。他们不能和其他国家、其他大学、甚至往往
不能与本公司的其他部门的同行们进行有效的接触。保密程度自然差别很大。某些大公司进行的研究属于一般和基础
性的研究。因此不保密对他们才有利。然而，依赖这种研究的很多工艺程序是在完全保密的情况下进行的，直到可以取
得专利权的阶段为止。更多的工艺过程根本就不会取得专利权，而是作为秘方保存着。这在化学工业方面尤其突出。同
物理和机械工业相比，化学工业中偶然发现的机会要多得多。有时，保密竟达到了这样的程度，即连研究工作的整个性
质都不准提及。比如，很多公司向图书馆借阅科技书籍时感到很困难，因为它们不愿让人家记下它们公司的名字和借
阅的某一本书。他们生怕别的公司的情报人员据此摸到他们可能要从事的某项科研项目。
Lesson 16 The modern city 现代城市
IInn tthhee oorrggaanniizzaattiioonn ooff industrial life the iinnfflluueennccee ooff tthhee ffaaccttoorryy uuppoonn the
physiological and mental state of the workers has been completely neglected．
Modern industry is bbaasseedd oonn the conception of the maximum production aatt lloowweesstt
24c coosstt , i inn oorrddeerr tthhaatt an i ndividual or a group of individuals may earn a ass mmuucchh
mmoonneeyy aass ppoossssiibbllee．It has expanded without any idea of the true nature of the
hhuummaann bbeeiinnggss who run the machines, and without ggiivviinngg aannyy ccoonnssiiddeerraattiioonn ttoo the
effects produced oonn tthhee iinnddiivviidduuaallss and on their descendants by the artificial mode
of existence imposed by the factory． The great cities have been built wwiitthh nnoo rreeggaarrdd
f foorr us ．||The shape and dimensions of the skyscrapers ddeeppeenndd eennttiirreellyy oonn the
necessity of obtaining the maximum income per square foot of ground, and of
offering to the tenants offices and apartments that please them．This caused the
construction of gigantic buildings where too large masses of human beings are
ccrroowwddeedd ttooggeetthheerr．Civilized men like ssuucchh aa wwaayy ooff lliivviinngg．While they enjoy the
comfort and bbaannaall lluuxxuurryy of their dwelling , they do not realize that they are
deprived of the necessities of life ．The modern city ccoonnssiissttss ooff monstrous edifices
and of dark, narrow streets full of ppeettrrooll ffuummeess and toxic gases, torn by the noise of
the taxi-cabs, lorries and buses, and thronged ceaselessly by great crowds ． ||
Obviously, it has not been planned ffoorr tthhee ggoooodd ooff its inhabitants. ||
在工业生活的组织中，工厂对工人的生理和精神状态的影响完全被忽视了。现代工业的基本概念是：以最低成本
获取最多产品，为的是让某个个人或某一部分人尽可能多地赚钱。现代工业发展起来了，却根本没想到操作机器的人
的本质。工厂把一种人为的生存方式强加给工人，却不顾及这种生存方式给工人及其后代带来的影响。大城市的建设
毫不关心我们。摩天大楼完全是按这样的需要修建的：每平方英尺地皮取得最大收入和向租房人提供使他满意的办公
室和住房。这样就导致了许多摩天大厦拔地而起，大厦内众多的人挤在一起。文明人喜欢这样一种生活方式。在享受自
己住宅的舒适和庸俗的豪华时，却没有意识到被剥夺了生活所必需的东西。大得吓人的高楼和阴暗狭窄的街道组成了
今日现代化的城市。街道上充斥着汽油味和有毒气体，出租汽车、卡车、公共汽车的噪音刺耳难忍，络绎不绝的人群挤
来挤去。显然，现代化的城市不是为居民的利益而规划的。
Lesson 22 Knowledge and progress 知识和进步
Why does tthhee iiddeeaa ooff progress loom so large in the modern world? Surely
because progress of a particular kind is actually ttaakkiinngg ppllaaccee around us and is
becoming more and more manifest．Although mankind has undergone no general
improvement in intelligence or morality, it has mmaaddee eexxttrraaoorrddiinnaarryy pprrooggrreessss in
the accumulation of knowledge．|| Knowledge began to increase as soon as tthhee
t thhoouugghhttss ooff one individual could be c ommunicated to another b byy mmeeaannss ooff
speech．With the invention of writing, a great advance was made,for knowledge
could then be not only communicated but also stored．Libraries made education
possible, and education iinn iittss ttuurrnn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge
followed a kind of compound-interest law,which was greatly enhanced by the
invention of printing．All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of
science, the tempo was suddenly raised．Then knowledge began to be accumulated
aaccccoorrddiinngg ttoo a systematic plan．The trickle became a stream; the stream has now
become a torrent．|| Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now
ttuurrnneedd ttoo practical account．What is called‘mmooddeerrnn cciivviilliizzaattiioonn’is not the result of a
balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge aapppplliieedd ttoo
practical life．The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all
this knowledge? As is so often ppooiinntteedd oouutt , knowledge is a ttwwoo--eeddggeedd wweeaappoonn
which can be used equally for good or evil．It is now being used indifferently for
both． Could any spectacle , ffoorr iinnssttaannccee , be more grimly whimsical than that of
gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it
to restore them? We have to ask ourselves very seriously wwhhaatt wwiillll hhaappppeenn iiff this
25twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power,continues .||
为什么进步这个概念在现代世界显得如此突出？无疑是因为有一种特殊的进步实际上正在我们周围发生，而且
变得越来越明显。虽然人类在智力和道德上没有得到普遍提高，但在知识积累方面却取得了巨大的进步。人一旦能用
语言同别人交流思想，知识的积累便开始了。随着书写的发明，又迈进了一大步，因为这样一来，知识不仅能交流，而
且能储存了。藏书使教育成为可能，而教育反过来又丰富了藏书，因为知识的增长遵循着一种“滚雪球”的规律。印刷
术的发明又大大提高了知识增长的速度。所有这些发展都比较缓慢，而随着科学的到来，增长的速度才突然加快。于是，
知识便开始有系统有计划地积累起来。涓涓细流汇成了小溪，小溪现已变成了奔腾的江河。而且，新知识一旦获得，便
得到实际应用。所谓“现代文明”并不是人的天性平衡发展的结果，而是积累起来的知识应用到实际生活中的结果。
现在人类面临的问题是：用这些知识去做什么？正像人们常常指出的，知识是一把双刃刀，可以用于造福，也可用来为
害。人们现在正漫不经心地把知识用于这两个方面，例如：炮兵利用科学毁坏人的身体、而外科医生就在附近用科学抢
救被炮兵毁坏的人体，还有什么情景比这更可怕、更怪诞的吗？我们不得不严肃地问问我们自己：随着日益增长的知
识的力量，如果我们继续利用知识的这种双重性，将会发生什么样的情况呢？
Lesson 32 Galileo reborn 伽利略的复生
IInn hhiiss oowwnn lliiffeettiimmee Galileo was the centre of violent controversy; but the
scientific dust has long since settled, and today we can see even his famous clash
with the Inquisition in something like its proper perspective. But, in contrast, it is
only iinn mmooddeerrnn ttiimmeess that Galileo has become a problem child for historians of
science.
The old view of Galileo was delightfully uncomplicated. He was, aabboovvee aalll l , a
man who experimented: who despised the prejudices and book learning of the
Aristotelians, who ppuutt hhiiss qquueessttiioonnss ttoo nature instead of to the ancients, and who
d drreeww hhiiss ccoonncclluussiioonnss fearlessly . He had been tthhee ffiirrsstt ttoo turn a telescope to the
sky, and he had seen there evidence enough to overthrow Aristotle and Ptolemy
together. He was the man who climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped
various weights ffrroomm tthhee ttoopp, who rolled balls down inclined planes, and then
generalized the results of his many experiments into the famous llaaww ooff ffrreeee ffaallll.
But a closer study of the evidence, supported by a deeper sense of the period,
and particularly by a new consciousness of the philosophical undercurrents in the
scientific revolution, has profoundly modified this view of Galileo. Today, although
the old Galileo lliivveess oonn iinn many popular writings, among historians of science a new
and more sophisticated picture has emerged. AAtt tthhee ssaammee ttiimmee our sympathy for
Galileo's opponents has grown somewhat. His telescopic observations are justly
immortal; they aarroouusseedd ggrreeaatt iinntteerreesstt at the time, they had important theoretical
consequences, and they provided a striking demonstration of the potentialities
hhiiddddeenn iinn instruments and apparatus. But can we blame those who looked and
failed to see what Galileo saw, if we remember that to use a telescope at the limit of
its powers calls for long experience and intimate familiarity with one's instrument?
Was the philosopher who refused to look through Galileo's telescope more culpable
than those who alleged that the spiral nebulae observed with Lord Rosse's great
telescope in the eighteen-forties were scratches left by the grinder? We can perhaps
forgive those who said the moons of Jupiter were produced by Galileo's spyglass if
we recall that iinn hhiiss ddaayy, as for centuries before, curved glass was the popular
contrivance for producing not truth but illusion, untruth; and if a single curved glass
would distort nature, how much more would a pair of them?
伽利略在世时是激烈论战的中心。但是，自他逝世以来，那场科学上的纷争早已平息了下来，甚至他和宗教法庭的
著名冲突，我们今天也能正确如实地看待。但是相比之下，对于科学史家来说，伽利略只是在现代才变成一个新的难题。
令人高兴的是，过去对伽利略的看法并不复杂。他首先是个实验工作者，他蔑视亚里士多德学派的偏见和空洞的
26书本知识。他向自然界而不是向古人提出问题，并大胆地得出自己的结论。他是第一个把望远镜对准天空的人，观察到
的论据足以把亚里士多德和托勒密一起推翻。他就是那个曾经爬上比萨斜塔，从塔顶向下抛掷各种重物的人；他就是
那个使球体沿斜面向下滚动，然后将多次实验结果概括成著名的自由落体定律的人。
但是，对那个时代的深化了解，尤其是以科学革命中哲学潜流的新意识为依据，进一步仔细研究，就会极大地改
变对伽利略的看法。今天，虽然已故的伽利略继续活在许多通俗读物中，但在科学史家中间，一个新的更加复杂的伽利
略的形象出现了。与此同时，我们对伽利略的反对派的同情也有所增加。伽利略用望远镜所作的观察确实是不朽的，这
些观察在当时引起了人们极大的兴趣，具有重要的理论意义，并充分显示出了仪表和仪器的潜在力量。但是，如果我们
想到，使用一架倍数有限的望远镜需要长期的经验和对自己仪器的熟悉程度，那么我们怎么能去责备观察了天空但没
有看到伽利略所看到的东西的那些人呢？某位哲学家曾拒绝使用伽利略的望远镜去观察天空；到了19世纪40年代，
有人硬把罗斯勋爵高倍望远镜观测到的螺旋状星云说成是磨镜工留下的磨痕。难道反对伽利略的哲学家比诋毁罗斯
勋爵造谣者应受到更大的谴责吗？如果我们回想一下伽利略之前的几个世纪期间，曲面镜一直是一种用于产生幻影
而不是产生真象的把戏装置，那么我们就会原谅那些当初把伽利略观察到的木星卫星说成是伽利略用他的小望远镜
变出来的人们，何况一片曲面镜就可歪曲自然，那么伽利略的两片曲面镜对自然的歪曲又该多大呢？
Lesson 33 Education 教育
Education is one of the kkeeyy wwoorrddss of our time. A man without an education,
many of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of adverse circumstances, ddeepprriivveedd ooff
one of the greatest twentieth-century opportunities. Convinced of the importance
of education, modern states ‘invest’ in institutions of learning to ggeett bbaacckk ‘interest’
i inn t thhee ffoorrmm ooff a large group of enlightened young men and women who are
potentia l leaders . Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully wwoorrkkeedd oouutt,
punctuated by text-books----those purchasable wells of wisdom----what would
civilization be like without its benefits?
So much is certain: that we would have doctors and preachers, lawyers and
defendants, marriages and births---but our spiritual outlook would be different. We
would llaayy lleessss ssttrreessss oonn ‘facts and figures ’ and more on a good memory, on applied
psychology, and on the capacity of a man to ggeett aalloonngg wwiitthh his fellow-citizens . If our
educational system were fashioned after its bookless past we would have the most
democratic form of ‘college’ imaginable. Among tribal people all knowledge
inherited by tradition is sshhaarreedd bbyy all; it is taught to every member of the tribe so
that in this respect everybody is equally equipped for life.
IItt iiss tthhee iiddeeaall ccoonnddiittiioonn ooff the ‘equal start’ which only our most progressive
forms of modern education try to regain. In primitive cultures the obligation to seek
and to receive the traditional instruction is bbiinnddiinngg ttoo aallll. There are no
‘illiterates’----if the term can be aapppplliieedd ttoo peoples without a script----while our own
compulsory school attendance became law in Germany in 1642, in France in 1806,
and in England in 1876, and is still non-existent in a number of ‘civilized’ nations.
This shows how long it was before we deemed it necessary to mmaakkee ssuurree tthhaatt all
our children could share in the knowledge accumulated by the ‘happy few’ during
the past centuries.
Education in the wilderness is not aa mmaatttteerr ooff monetary means. All are eennttiittlleedd
ttoo an equal start. There is none of the hurry which, in our society, often hampers the
full development of a growing personality . There, a child grows up under the ever-
present attention of his parents; therefore the jungles and the savannahs know of no
‘jjuuvveenniillee ddeelliinnqquueennccyy’. No necessity of mmaakkiinngg aa lliivviinngg away from home results in
n neegglleecctt ooff children, and no father is c onfronted with his inability to ‘buy’ a n
education for his child.
27教育是我们这个时代的关键词之一。我们许多人都相信，一个没有受过教育的人，是逆境的牺牲品，被剥夺了20
世纪最优越的机会之一。现代国家深深懂得教育的重要性，对教育机构投资，收回的“利息”便是培养出大批有知识
的男女青年，这些人可能会成为未来的栋梁。教育，以其教学周期如此精心地安排，并以教科书—那些可以买到的智慧
源泉—予以强化，如果不受其惠，文明将会是个什么样子呢？
至少，这些是可以肯定的：虽然我们还会有医生和牧师、律师和被告、婚姻和生育，但人们的精神面貌将是另一个
样子。人们不会再重视“资料和数据”，而靠好记性、实用心理学和与同伴相处的能力。如果我们的教育制度仿效没有
书籍的古代教育，我们的学院将具有可以想像得出的最民主的形式了。在部落中，通过传统继承的知识为所有人共享，
并传授给部落中的每一个成员。从这个意义上讲，人人受到的有关生活本领的教育是相等的。
这就是我们最进步的现代教育试图恢复的“平等起步”的理想状况。在原始文化中，寻求和接受传统教育的义务
对全民都有约束力，因而没有“文盲”（如果这个字眼儿可以用于没有文字的民族的话）。而我们的义务教育成为法律
在德国是在1642年，在法国是在1806年，在英国是在1876年。今天，在许多“文明”国家里，义务教育迄今尚未
实行。这说明，经过了多么漫长的时间之后，我们才认识到，有必要确保我们的孩子享有多少个世纪以来由“少数幸运
者”所积累起来的知识。
荒凉地区的教育不是钱的问题，所有的人都享有平等起步的权利。那里没有我们今天社会中的匆忙生活，而匆忙
的生活常常妨碍个性的全面发展。荒凉地区的孩子无时无刻不在父母关怀下成长。因此，丛林和荒凉地区不知道什么
叫“青少年犯罪”。人们没有必要离家谋生，所以不会产生孩子无人管的问题，也不存在父亲无力为孩子支付教育费
用而犯难的问题。
Lesson 34 Adolescence 青春期
Parents are often upset when their children praise the homes of their friends and
rreeggaarrdd iitt aass a slur on their own cooking, or cleaning, or furniture, and often are
ffoooolliisshh eennoouugghh ttoo let the adolescents see that they are annoyed. They may even
aaccccuussee tthheemm ooff disloyalty, or make some spiteful remark about the friends'
parents. Such aa lloossss ooff ddiiggnniittyy and descent into childish behavior on the part of the
adults deeply shocks the adolescents, and makes them resolve that iinn ffuuttuurree they
will not ttaallkk ttoo their parents about the places or people they visit. Before very long
the parents will be complaining that the child is so secretive and never tells them
anything, but they seldom realize that they have brought this on themselves.
Disillusionment with the parents, hhoowweevveerr ggoooodd aanndd aaddeeqquuaattee tthheeyy mmaayy bbee
both as parents and as individuals , is ttoo ssoommee ddeeggrreeee inevitable . Most children
have such a high ideal of their parents, unless the parents themselves have been
unsatisfactory, that it can hardly hope to ssttaanndd uupp ttoo a realistic evaluation.
Parents would be greatly surprised and deeply touched if they realized how much
belief their children usually have in their character and infallibility, and hhooww mmuucchh
tthhiiss ffaaiitthh mmeeaannss ttoo aa cchhiilldd. If parents were pprreeppaarreedd ffoorr this adolescent reaction,
and realized that it was a sign that the child was ggrroowwiinngg uupp and developing
valuable powers of observation and independent judgment, they would not be so
hurt, and therefore would not ddrriivvee tthhee cchhiilldd iinnttoo opposition by resenting and
resisting it.
The adolescent, wwiitthh hhiiss ppaassssiioonn ffoorr sincerity , always respects a parent who
admits that he is wrong, or ignorant , or even that he has been unfair or unjust . What
the child cannot forgive is the parents' refusal to admit these charges if the child
knows them to be true.
Victorian parents believed that they kept their dignity by retreating behind an
unreasoning authoritarian attitude; iinn ffaacctt they did nothing of the kind, but children
were then ttoooo ccoowweedd ttoo let them know how they really felt. Today we tteenndd ttoo ggoo ttoo
tthhee ootthheerr eexxttrreemmee, but oonn tthhee wwhhoollee this is a healthier attitude both for the child
28and the parent. It is always wiser and safer to ffaaccee uupp ttoo reality, however painful it
may be at the moment.
当家长听到孩子赞扬自己朋友的家时，总感到不安，认为这是孩子在嫌弃自家的饭菜、卫生、或家具，而且愚蠢地
让孩子看出自己的烦恼。他们甚至责备孩子不忠，或者讲些小朋友家长的坏话。家长这种有失身份和孩子气的作法使
青春期的孩子大为震惊，决心以后不再向父母讲述去过的地方和见过的人。不要很久，家长就会抱怨孩子守口如瓶，什
么事也不告诉他们，殊不知这是他们自找的。
不管家长的人品有多么好，作为父母又多么合格，孩子们对家长幻想的破灭在某种程度上是不可避免的。除非父
母自身不能令人满意，大多数孩子对父母估价过高，以致这种估价很难指望经受住现实的考验。如果家长意识到孩子
们通常是多么相信家长的品行和绝对正确，意识到孩子们的这种信念会对孩子产生多么大的影响，那么家长会大为吃
惊和深受感动的。如果家长对青少年的这种反应有思想准备，并且意识到这象征着孩子们正在成熟和正在发展宝贵的
观察力、独立判断力，那么他们就不会那样伤心，也就不会由于怨恨和抵触这种反应，而把孩子推到自己的对立面去。
青少年酷爱真诚，对于能够承认错误或无知、甚至承认自己做得不公平或不公正的父母，他们总是尊敬的。孩子们
所不能原谅的是：父母错了，孩子们也看出来了，可是做父母的还不肯承认。
维多利业时代的父母认为，他们可以靠无理的权威气派来维护自己的尊严，实际上那是根本不行的。孩子们只不
过被吓得不敢让父母知道自己的想法罢了。虽然现在我们倾向于走向另一个极端，但总地来看，孩子和家长双方态度
都比较端正。遇事采取面对现实的态度总是比较明智和稳妥的，尽管会有暂时的痛苦。
Lesson 36 The cost of government 政府的开支
If a nation is essentially disunited, it is lleefftt ttoo the government to hhoolldd iitt
ttooggeetthheerr. This increases the expense of government, and reduces correspondingly
the amount of economic resources that could be uusseedd ffoorr developing the country.
And it should not be forgotten how small those resources are in a poor and
backward country. Where the cost of government is high, resources for development
are correspondingly low.
This may be illustrated by comparing the position of a nation wwiitthh tthhaatt ooff a
private bbuussiinneessss eenntteerrpprriissee. An enterprise has to incur certain costs and expenses
in order to ssttaayy iinn bbuussiinneessss. For our purposes, we aarree concerned only with one kind
of cost---the cost of managing and administering the business. Such administrative
overheads in a business are aannaallooggoouuss ttoo the cost of government in a nation. The
administrative overheads of a business are low ttoo tthhee eexxtteenntt tthhaatt everyone working
in the business can be trusted to behave iinn aa wwaayy tthhaatt best promotes the interests
of the firm. If they can each bbee ttrruusstteedd ttoo ttaakkee ssuucchh rreessppoonnssiibbiilliittiieess, and to
exercise such initiative as falls within their sphere, then administrative overhead will
be low. It will be low because it will be necessary to have only one man looking after
each job, without having another man to cchheecckk uuppoonn what he is doing, keep him in
line, and report on him to someone else. But if no one can be trusted to aacctt iinn aa
llooyyaall aanndd rreessppoonnssiibbllee mmaannnneerr towards his job, then the business will require
armies of administrators, checkers, and foremen, and administrative overheads will
rise correspondingly. As administrative overhead rises, so the earnings of the
business, after meeting the expense of administration, will fall; and the business wil l
have less money to distribute as dividends or invest directly in its future progress
and development.
It is precisely the same with a nation. To the extent that the people can be
rreelliieedd uuppoonn to behave in a loyal and responsible manner, the government does not
require armies of police and civil servants to kkeeeepp tthheemm iinn oorrddeerr. But if a nation is
disunited, the government cannot be sure that the actions of the people will be iinn
tthhee iinntteerreessttss ooff the nation; and it will have to watch, check, and control the people
accordingly. A disunited nation therefore has to incur unduly high costs of
29government.
如果一个国家实际上处于分裂状态，使之联合起来就是政府的事了。这样一来就增加了政府的开支，从而相应地
减少了可以用来发展国家的那部分经济资源。不应忘记，在一个贫穷落后的国家里，那部分财力是很有限的。凡是政府
管理费用高的地方，用于发展国家经济的资金就会相应地减少。
把国家的状况同私人企业的状况加以比较，就可以看清这个问题。一个企业为了继续经营，不得不支出一定的费
用和开销。就我们的目的而言，我们只关心一种费用—企业行政管理费。一家企业的这种行政管理开支类似于一个国
家的政府管理所用的开支。如果企业中的每个人都在真诚地为提高企业利润而工作，那么企业的管理费用就会降低到
相应的程度。如果企业的每个人都信得过，人人都认真负责，在各自的工作范围内发挥主动性，行政管理费用就会降低。
行政管理费用降低的原因是：每项工作只需一个人去完成，用不着另外再有一个人检查他的工作，督促他遵守章程，或
向有关人士汇报他的工作。但是，如果企业中谁也不可信赖会对工作尽忠守职，那么企业就会需要大批的管理人员、检
查人员和带班人员，管理费用就会相应地增加。管理费用增加了，那么在扣除管理费用后，企业的收入就降低了。因而
用于分红的金额或直接用于将来开拓和发展的投资就相应地减少了。
一个国家的情况也完全相同。如果人民忠于职守，举止规矩，能受到政府的信赖，那么政府就不需要大批的警察和
文职人员去促使人民遵纪守法。但是，如果一个国家处于分裂状态，政府不能相信人民的行动有利于国家，那么政府就
不得不对人民进行监督、检查和控制。因此，一个处于分裂状态的国家必然要支付过高的行政管理费用。
Lesson 37 The process of ageing 衰老过程
AAtt tthhee aaggee ooff twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous. IItt hhaass yyeett
ttoo rreeaacchh iittss ffuullll ssiizzee and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence; but at
this age the likelihood of death is least. Earlier, we were infants and young children,
and consequently more vulnerable; later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of
our vigour and resistance which, though imperceptible aatt ffiirrsstt, will finally become
so steep that we can live no longer, however well we llooookk aafftteerr ourselves, and
however well society, and our doctors, look after us. This ddeecclliinnee iinn vviiggoouurr with the
passing of time is called ageing. It is one of the most unpleasant discoveries which
we all make that we must decline iinn tthhiiss wwaayy , that if we escape wars, accidents and
diseases we shall eventually ‘ die of old age’, and that this happens aatt aa rraattee which
differs little ffrroomm ppeerrssoonn ttoo ppeerrssoonn , so that there are heavy odds iinn ffaavvoouurr ooff our
dying between the ages of sixty-five and eighty. Some of us will die sooner, a few will
live longer----on into a ninth or tenth decade. But the chances are against it, and
there is a virtual limit on how long we can hope to remain alive, however lucky and
robust we are.
NNoorrmmaall ppeeooppllee tend to forget this process unless and until they are reminded of
it. We are so ffaammiilliiaarr wwiitthh the fact that man ages, that people have for years
assumed that the process of losing vigour with time, of becoming more likely to die
the older we get, was something self-evident, like the cooling of a hot kettle or the
wearing-out of a pair of shoes. They have also assumed that all animals, and
probably other organisms such as trees, or even the universe itself, must iinn tthhee
nnaattuurree ooff things ‘wweeaarr oouutt’. Most animals we commonly observe do in fact age as
we do, if given the chance to live long enough; and mechanical systems like a
wound watch, or the sun, do in fact run out of energy in accordance with the second
law of thermodynamics (whether the whole universe does so is a moot point at
present). But these are not analogous to what happens when man ages. A run-down
watch is still a watch and can be rewound. An old watch, bbyy ccoonnttrraasstt , becomes so
worn and unreliable that it eventually is not worth mending. But a watch could never
repair itself----it does not ccoonnssiisstt ooff living parts, only of metal, which wears away by
friction. We could, aatt oonnee ttiimmee, repair ourselves----well enough, aatt lleeaasstt, to
overcome all but the most instantly fatal illnesses and accidents. Between twelve
30and eighty years we gradually lose this power; an illness which at twelve would kknnoocckk
uuss oovveerr, at eighty can kknnoocckk uuss oouutt, and into our grave. If we could stay as vigorous
as we are at twelve, it would take about 700 years for half of us to die, and another
700 for the survivors to be rreedduucceedd bbyy half again.
人体在12岁时是生命力最旺盛的时期。虽然在这个时期人的身材、体力和智力还有待发展和完善，但在这个
年龄死亡的可能性最小。再早一些，我们是幼儿和小孩子，身体较脆弱；再迟一些，我们就要经历生命力和抵抗力逐步
衰退的过程。虽然这个过程起初难以觉察，但最终会急转直下，不管我们怎样精心照料我们自己，不管社会和医生怎样
对我们进行精心照顾，我们也无法再活下去了。生命力随时间的流失而衰退叫做衰老。人类发现的最不愉快的一个事
实是：人必然会衰老。既使我们能避开战争、意外的事故和各种疾病，我们最终也会“老死”；衰老的速度在人与人之
间相差甚微，我们最可能死亡的年龄在65至80岁之间，有些人会死得早一些，少数人寿命会长一些——活到八十几
岁或九十几岁，但这种可能性很小。不管我们多么幸运，多么健壮，我们所希望的长寿实际上是有限度的。
衰老的过程，不经提起，正常人容易忘记；一经提醒，才会记起。我们对人总是要衰老的现象并不陌生，多年来就
已认识到。生命力随着时间流失而丧失活力，人随着年龄的增长而接近死亡，这是不言而喻的，就像一壶热水迟早会凉
下来，一双鞋渐渐会磨破一样。人们不但认识到所有的动物，大概也认识到所有的有机物，如树木，甚至宇宙本身，从
事物的本质上来说都会“磨损掉”。我们通常看到的大多数动物，即使能让它们活得足够长久的话，也会像我们一样
衰老的。像上紧发条的手表那样的机械装置，或太阳，也都会消耗完其能量（整个宇宙是否如此，目前尚有争论）。不过，
这些衰老的情况同人并不相似。手表停了依然是只手表，还可以重上好发条。然而一只老掉牙的手表，磨损太厉害，老
得一点儿也不准了，最终会不值得修理了。但是，手表决不会自行修理，它不是由有生命的部件组成，而是由金属组成，
而金属可以随着磨擦而磨损殆尽。而我们人，在一定时间内是可以自行修复的，除了暴病而死或意外事故外，至少足以
克服一切一般疾病和事故。在12岁至80岁之间，我们逐渐丧失这种能力。能使我们在12岁时病倒的疾病，到了80
岁可能会使我们一蹶不振而进入坟墓。假如我们能保持12岁时的旺盛生命力，那么我们当中的一半人过700年才死
去，剩下的一半人再过700年，才会又减少一半。
Lesson 39 What every writer wants 作家之所需
I have known very few writers, but those I have known, and whom I respect,
confess aatt oonnccee that they have little idea where they are going when they first sseett
ppeenn ttoo ppaappeerr. They have a character, perhaps two; they are iinn tthhaatt ccoonnddiittiioonn ooff
eager discomfort which ppaasssseess ffoorr inspiration; all admit radical changes of
destination once the journey has begun; one, to my certain knowledge, ssppeenntt nniinnee
mmoonntthhss oonn a novel about Kashmir, then reset the whole thing in the Scottish
Highlands. I never hheeaarrdd ooff anyone making a ‘skeleton’, as we were taught at
school. In the breaking and remaking, iinn tthhee ttiimmiinngg, interweaving, beginning
afresh, the writer ccoommeess ttoo ddiisscceerrnn things in his material which were not
consciously in his mind when he began. This organic process, often lleeaaddiinngg ttoo
moments of extraordinary self-discovery, is of an indescribable fascination . A
blurred image appears; he adds a brushstroke and another, and it is gone; but
something was there, and he will not rest till he has captured it. Sometimes the
yeast within a writer outlives a book he has written. I have heard of writers who
read nothing but their own books; like adolescents they stand before the mirror, and
still cannot fathom the exact outline of the vision before them. FFoorr tthhee ssaammee
r reeaassoonn , writers talk i nterminably about their own books, w wiinnkklliinngg oouutt hidden
meanings, super-imposing new ones, begging response from those around them. Of
course a writer doing this is misunderstood: he might as well ttrryy ttoo eexxppllaaiinn a crime
or a love affair. He is also, incidentally, an unforgivable bore.
This temptation to cover the distance between himself and the reader, to study
his image iinn tthhee ssiigghhtt ooff those who do not know him, can be his undoing : he has
begun to write to please.
A young English writer made the pertinent observation a year or two back that
31the talent ggooeess iinnttoo the first draft, and the art into the drafts that follow. FFoorr tthhiiss
r reeaassoonn also the writer, like any other artist, has no r reessttiinngg ppllaaccee , no crowd or
movement in which he may take comfort, no judgment from outside which can
replace the judgment from within. A writer mmaakkeess oorrddeerr out of the anarchy of his
heart; he ssuubbmmiittss hhiimmsseellff ttoo a more ruthless discipline than any critic dreamed of,
and when he flirts with fame, he is ttaakkiinngg ttiimmee ooffff from living with himself, from the
search for what his world contains at its inmost point.
我所认识的作家寥寥无几，然而凡是我所认识和尊敬的作家，都立即承认在他们动笔时，不清楚要写什么，怎
么写。他们心中有一个或两个角色。他们处于急切不安的状态，而这被当作是灵感。他们无不承认，一旦“旅程”开始，
“目的地”常有急剧的变化。据我所知，有位作家花了9个月的时间写了一部有关克什米尔的小说，后来却把整个故
事背景换成了苏格兰高地。我从未听说过任何一位作家像我们在学校学的那样，动笔前先列什么提纲。作家在剪裁修
改、构思时间、穿插情节、以至从头重写的过程中，会领悟到素材中有很多东西是他刚动笔时所未意识到的。这种有机
的加工过程往往达到不寻常自我发现的境界，具有难以言表的构思魅力。一个朦胧的形象出现在作家的脑海里，他左
添一笔，右添一笔，形象反而消逝了；可是，好像还有什么东西存在着，不把它捕捉到，作家是不会罢休的。有时，一个
作家一本书写完了，但兴奋仍不消散。我听说一些作家，除了自己的书外，别的书一概不读，犹如希腊神话中那位漂亮
少年，站在镜前，不能辨认出自身的真面目。由于这个原因，作家喋喋不休地谈论自己的书，挖掘其隐晦的含义，增添
新的含义，询问周围人的反应。作家如此行事当然会被人误解。他还不如给人讲一个犯罪案件或一个恋爱故事。顺便说
一句，他也是个不可饶恕的令人厌烦的人。
这种企图消除自己和读者之间距离的作法，企图用不了解自己的人的观点来研究自己塑造的形象的作法，会导致
作家的毁灭，因为他已经开始为取悦他人而写作了。
一两年前，一位年轻的英国作家发表了中肯的看法。他说，初稿是才华，以后各稿是艺术。也是由于这个原因，作
家同任何艺术家一样，找不到可休息的场所，找不到伙伴和活动使自己得到安逸。任何局外人的判断也比不上他自己
内心的正确判断。一旦作家从内心的紊乱中理出头绪，就应按任何评论家想像不到的无情规范约束自己去写作；当他
沽名钓誉时，他就脱离了自我生活，脱离了对自己灵魂最深处世界的探索。
Lesson 44 Patterns of culture 文化的模式
Custom has not commonly been rreeggaarrddeedd aass a subject of any great moment.
The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation,
but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behavior at its most commonplace. AAss aa
mmaatttteerr ooff ffaacctt, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over,
is a mass of detailed behavior more astonishing than what any one person can ever
evolve in individual actions, nnoo mmaatttteerr hhooww aberrant . Yet that is a rather trivial
aspect of the matter. The fact of ffiirrsstt--rraattee iimmppoorrttaannccee is the predominant role that
custom plays iinn eexxppeerriieennccee and iinn bbeelliieeff, and the very great varieties it may
manifest.
No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it eeddiitteedd bbyy a
definite set of customs and institutions and wwaayyss ooff tthhiinnkkiinngg. Even in his
philosophical probings he cannot ggoo bbeehhiinndd these stereotypes; his very ccoonncceeppttss
ooff the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional
customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in
shaping the behavior of the individual , as against any way in which he can affect
traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue
against those words of his own baby talk that are ttaakkeenn uupp into the vernacular of
his family. When one seriously studies the social orders that have hhaadd tthhee
ooppppoorrttuunniittyy to develop autonomously, the figure becomes nnoo mmoorree tthhaann an exact
and matter-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is ffiirrsstt aanndd ffoorreemmoosstt
an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally hhaannddeedd ddoowwnn in his
community. From the moment of his birth, the customs into which he is born sshhaappee
32hhiiss eexxppeerriieennccee aanndd bbeehhaavviioorr. B Byy tthhee ttiimmee he can talk, he is the little creature of his
culture, and by the time he is grown and able to ttaakkee ppaarrtt iinn its activities, its habits
are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities. Every child
that is bboorrnn iinnttoo his group will share them with him, and no child born into one on
the opposite side of the globe can ever achieve the thousandth part. There is no
social problem it is more incumbent upon us to understand than this of the role of
custom. Until we are intelligent as to its laws and varieties, the main complicating
facts of human life must remain unintelligible.
TThhee ssttuuddyy ooff ccuussttoomm ccaann bbee pprroofifittaabbllee oonnllyy aafftteerr certain preliminary propositions
have been accepted, and some of these propositions have been violently opposed. IInn
tthhee ffiirrsstt ppllaaccee, any scientific study requires that there be no preferential weighting
of one or another of the items in the series it selects for its consideration. In all the
less controversial fields, like the study of cacti or termites or the nature of nebulae,
the necessary method of study is to group the relevant material and to take note of
all possible variant forms and conditions. IInn tthhiiss wwaayy, we have learned all that we
know of the laws of astronomy, or of the habits of the social insects, let us say. IItt iiss
o onnllyy iinn tthhee ssttuuddyy ooff mmaann hhiimmsseellff tthhaatt the major social sciences have s ubstituted the
study of one local variation , that of Western civilization.
Anthropology was by definition impossible, aass lloonngg aass these distinctions
between ourselves and the primitive, ourselves and the barbarian, ourselves and
the pagan, hheelldd sswwaayy oovveerr ppeeooppllee''ss mmiinnddss. IItt wwaass nneecceessssaarryy ffiirrsstt ttoo aarrrriivvee aatt
that degree of sophistication where we no longer set our own belief against our
neighbor’s superstition. It was necessary to recognize that these institutions which
are bbaasseedd oonn the same premises, let us say the supernatural, must be considered
together, our own among the rest.
风俗一般未被认为是什么重要的课题。我们觉得，只有我们大脑内部的活动情况才值得研究，至于风俗呢，只是些
司空见惯的行为而已。事实上，情况正好相反。从世界范围来看，传统风俗是由许多细节性的习惯行为组成，它比任何
个人养成的行为都更加引人注目，不管个人行为多么异常。这只是问题的一个次要的侧面。最重要的是，风俗在实践中
和信仰上所起的举足轻重的作用，以及它所表现出来的极其丰富多采的形式。
没有一个人是用纯洁而无偏见的眼光看待世界。人们所看到的是一个受特定的风俗习惯、制度和思想方式剪辑过
的世界。甚至在哲学领域的探索中，人们也无法超越这些定型的框框。人们关于真与伪的概念依然和特定的传统风俗
有关。约翰·杜威曾经非常严肃地指出：风俗在形成个人行为方面所起的作用和一个人对风俗的任何影响相比，就好像
他本国语言的总词汇量和自己咿呀学语时他家庭所接纳的他的词汇量之比。当一个人认真地研究自发形成的社会秩
序时，杜威的比喻就是他实事求是观察得来的形象化的说法。个人的生活史首先就是适应他的社团世代相传形成的生
活方式和准则。从他呱呱坠地的时刻起，他所生于其中的风俗就开始塑造他的经历和行为规范。到他会说话时，他就是
传统文化塑造的一个小孩子了；等他长大了，能做各种事了，他的社团的习惯就是他的习惯，他的社团的信仰就是他的
信仰，他的社团不能做的事就是他不能做的事。每一个和他诞生在同一个社团中的孩子和他一样具有相同的风俗；而
在地球的另一边，诞生在另一个社团的孩子与他就很少有相同的风俗。没有任何一个社会问题比得上风俗的作用问题
更要求我们对它理解。直到我们理解了风俗的规律性和多样性，我们才能明白人类生活中主要的复杂现象。
只有在某些基本的主张被接受下来、同时有些主张被激烈反对时，对风俗的研究才是全面的，才会有收获。首先，
任何科学研究都要求人们对可供考虑的诸多因素不能厚此薄彼，偏向某一方面。在一切争议较小的领域里，如对仙人
掌、白蚁或星云性质的研究，应采取的研究方法是，把有关各方面的材料汇集起来，同时注意任何可能出现的异常情况
和条件。例如，用这种方法，我们完全掌握了天文学的规律和昆虫群居的习性。只是在对人类自身的研究中，各主要的
社会学科才用对一个局部地区各种情况的研究（如对西方文明的研究）来代替对全人类的研究。只要我们同原始人，我
们同野蛮人，我们同异教徒之间存在的区别在人的思想中占主导地位，那么人类学按其定义来说就无法存在。我们首
先需要达到这样一种成熟的程度：不用自己的信仰去反对我们邻居的迷信。必须认识到，这些建立在相同前提基础上
的风俗，暂且可以说是超自然的东西，必须放在一起加以考虑，我们自己的风俗和其他民族的风俗都在其中。
Lesson 46 Hobbies业余爱好
33A gifted American psychologist has said, ‘Worry is a spasm of the emotion; the
mind ccaattcchheess hhoolldd ooff something and will not lleett iitt ggoo .’ IItt iiss uusseelleessss ttoo aarrgguuee wwiitthh
the mind in this condition. TThhee ssttrroonnggeerr tthhee wwiillll,, tthhee mmoorree ffuuttiillee tthhee ttaasskk. One can
only gently insinuate something else into its convulsive grasp. And if this something
else is 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.
The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of the
ffiirrsstt iimmppoorrttaannccee to a public man. But this is not a business that can be undertaken
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 ffaallll oonn good ground; they must be sedulously tended, if the vivifying
fruits are to be aatt hhaanndd when needed.
To be really happy and really safe, one oouugghhtt ttoo have at least two or three
hobbies, and they must all be real. IItt iiss nnoo uussee starting late in life to say: ‘I will ttaakkee
aann iinntteerreesstt iinn 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 get hardly any benefit or relief. IItt iiss nnoo uussee doing what you like; you
have got to like what you do. B Brrooaaddllyy ssppeeaakkiinngg , human beings may be d diivviiddeedd iinnttoo
three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and
those who are bored to death. IItt iiss nnoo uussee 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. I Itt iiss nnoo uussee inviting the politician or the p rofessional or
business man, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days,
to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend .
AAss ffoorr the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can
gratify every caprice and llaayy tthheeiirr hhaannddss oonn almost every object of desire----for
them a new pleasure, a new excitement is only an additional satiation. In vain they
rush frantically round ffrroomm ppllaaccee ttoo ppllaaccee, trying to eessccaappee ffrroomm avenging
boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline iinn oonnee ffoorrmm oorr aannootthheerr is
the most hopeful path.
It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful hhuummaann bbeeiinnggss are divided
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 are the
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, but a kkeeeenn
aappppeettiittee ffoorr pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. 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, iiss eesssseennttiiaall.. Indeed, it may well be that those
whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it aatt
i inntteerrvvaallss from their minds .
一位天才的美国心理学家曾经说过：“烦恼是感情的发作，此时脑子纠缠住了某种东西又不肯松手。”在这种情
34况下，你和头脑争吵让它松手是无济于事的。这种意志越是强烈，这种尝试越是徒劳。你只能缓和而巧妙地让另一种东
西进入痉挛僵持的头脑中。如果选得合适，而且的确受到别的领域的情趣的启迪，那么渐渐地，往往也是很顺利地，原
先不适当的紧张就会松弛下来，恢复和修整的过程就会开始。
因此，对一个从事社会活动的人来说，培养一种业馀爱好和各种新的兴趣是头等重要的作法。但这并非一日之功，
也不是单凭意志一蹴而就的事。精神上多种情趣的培养是一个长期的过程。要想在需要的时候可随手摘取充满生机的
果实，那就必然从精选良种做起，然后将其植入肥沃的土地，还需要勤勉地护理。
一个人要想真正感到幸福和平安，至少应有两三种爱好，而且都比较实际。到了晚年才开始说：“我会对这个或那
个发生兴趣”，已没有用了。这种愿望只能加剧精神紧张。一个人可能会获得与其日常工作无关的某些课题的渊博知
识，而没有从中得到什么实益或宽慰。干你所喜欢的事是没有用的，你得喜欢你所干的事。泛泛地说，人可以分为 3类：
劳累至死的人、忧虑至死的人、无聊至死的人。对于流汗出力干了一周苦活的体力劳动者来说，让他们在星期六下午再
踢足球或打垒球是不合适的；同样，对于为严肃的公务操劳或烦恼了6天的政界人士、专业技术人员、商人来说，在周
末再让他们为琐事而动脑子和忧虑也是无益的。
至于那些能任意支配一切的“可怜的人”，他们能够恣意妄为，能染指一切追求的目标。对这种人来说，多一种新
的乐趣、多一种新的刺激只是增加一分厌腻而已。他们到处狂奔乱跑，企图以闲聊和乱窜来摆脱无聊对他们的报复，但
这是徒劳的。对他们来说，用某种形式的纪律约束他们一下才能有希望使他们走上正道。
也可以这样说，理智的、勤劳的、有用的人可以分为两类：第一类是分清工作是工作，娱乐是娱乐的人；第二类人
的工作和娱乐是一回事。这两类人当中，第一类人是大多数，他们能够得到补偿。在办公室或工厂里长时间的工作给他
们带来了酬劳，这不仅是谋生的手段，而且还带来了寻找乐趣的强烈欲望。那怕是最简单的、最低等的乐趣。但是，命
运之神的宠儿是第二类人，他们的生活是一种自然的和谐，对他们来说，工作时间总不会太长，每天都是假日，而通常
的假期到来时，他们却惋惜这假期强制打断了他们埋头从事的工作。然而对这两种人来说，都需要换一换脑子，改变一
下气氛，转移一下注意力，这是不可缺少的。说实在的，把工作当作享受的那些人可能最需要每隔一段时间把工作从头
脑中撇开。
Lesson 47 The great escape大逃亡
Economy is one powerful motive for camping, ssiinnccee aafftteerr the initial outlay
upon equipment, or through hiring it, the ttoottaall eexxppeennssee can be ffaarr lleessss than the
cost of hotels. But, ccoonnttrraarryy ttoo a popular assumption , it is far from being the only
one, or even the greatest. The man who mmaannooeeuuvvrreess ccaarreelleessssllyy iinnttoo his twenty
pounds' worth of space at one of Europe's myriad permanent sites may find himself
bumping a Bentley. MMoorree lliikkeellyy, Ford Escort will be hub to hub with Renault or
Mercedes, but rarely with bicycles made for two.
That the equipment of modern camping becomes yearly more sophisticated is
an entertaining paradox for the cynic , a brighter promise for the hopeful traveller
who has sswwoorrnn ttoo ggeett aawwaayy ffrroomm it al l. It also provides---and some student
sociologist might care to bbaassee hhiiss tthheessiiss uuppoonn the phenomenon----an escape of
another kind. The modern traveller is often a man who dislikes the Splendide and
the Bellavista(都是旅馆名) ， not because he cannot afford, or shuns their material
comforts, but because he is aaffrraaiidd ooff them. Affluent he may be, but he is bbyy nnoo
m meeaannss sure what to tip the doorman or the c hambermaid . Master in his own house,
he hhaass lliittttllee iiddeeaa ooff when to say boo(呸，表不满) to a maitre d`hotel.（总管）对旅馆管事不满.
From all such fears camping releases him. Granted , a snobbery of camping
itself, bbaasseedd uuppoonn equipment and techniques, already exists; but it is of a kind that,
if he meets it, he can readily understand and ddeeaall wwiitthh . There is no superior ‘they’
iinn tthhee sshhaappee ooff managements and hotel hierarchies to darken his holiday days.
To such motives, yet another must be added. The contemporary phenomenon of
car worship is to be explained not least bbyy tthhee sseennssee ooff independence and
freedom that ownership entails. To this pleasure camping gives an exquisite
refinement.
From one's own front door to home or foreign hills or sands and back again,
35everything is to hand. Not only are the means of aarrrriivviinngg aatt the holiday paradise
entirely within one's own command and keeping, bbuutt tthhee mmeeaannss ooff eessccaappee ffrroomm
holiday hell (if the beach proves too crowded, the local weather too inclement) are
there, outside----or, as likely, part of----the tent.
Idealists have oobbjjeecctteedd ttoo the practice of camping, aass ttoo the package tour,
that the traveller abroad thereby denies himself the opportunity of ggeettttiinngg ttoo
kknnooww the people of the country visited. Insularity and self-containment, it is
argued, go hhaanndd iinn hhaanndd. The opinion does not survive experience of a popular
Continental camping place. Holiday hotels tend to ccaatteerr ffoorr one nationality of
visitors especially, sometimes exclusively. Camping sites, bbyy ccoonnttrraasstt, are highly
cosmopolitan. Granted, a preponderance of Germans is a characteristic that
sseeeemmss ccoommmmoonn ttoo most Mediterranean sites; but aass yyeett there is no
overwhelmingly specialized patronage. Notices forbidding the open-air drying of
clothes, or the use of water points for car washing, or those inviting ‘ our camping
friends’ to a dance or a boat trip are printed not only in French or Italian or Spanish,
but also in English, German and Dutch. At meal times the odour of sauerkraut vies
with that of garlic. The Frenchman's breakfast coffee ccoommppeetteess wwiitthh the
Englishman's bacon and eggs.
Whether the remarkable growth of organized camping means the eventual
death of the more independent kind is hhaarrdd ttoo ssaayy. Municipalities naturally wwaanntt ttoo
secure the campers'site fees and other custom. Police are wwaarryy ooff itinerants who
cannot be traced to a recognized camp boundary or to four walls. But most
probably it will all ddeeppeenndd uuppoonn campers themselves: how many heath fires they
cause; how much litter they leave; iinn sshhoorrtt, whether or not they wholly alienate
landowners and those who live in the countryside. Only good scouting is likely to
preserve the freedoms so dear to the heart of the eternal Boy Scout.(童子军)
图省钱是露营的一个主要动机，因为除了开始时购置或是租借一套露营装备外，总费用算起来要比住旅馆开
支少得多。但是，和一般的看法相反，这决非是仅有的，甚至不是最主要的动机。如果一位游客漫不经心地驾车驶入欧
洲无数常年营地之一，花20镑租用一个空位，那么他可能会碰见一辆本特利汽车，更可能会望见一辆福特·康索尔和
一辆雷诺或一辆梅塞迪斯并排停放着，不过双人自行车则不容易看到。
现代露营装备一年比一年讲究，这对那些厌世嫉俗者来说是一件有趣的自相矛盾的事情。而对于发誓用露营来摆
脱烦恼的人来说，却带来了更光明的前景。学社会学的大学生来露营是另一种形式的摆脱现实，他们的目的很可能是
根据观察到的露营现象去写论文。现代露营旅游的人往往讨厌住“斯普兰迪德”和“贝拉维斯塔”这样的大酒店，这
并不是因为他们付不起钱，也不是为了躲避物质享受，而是因为他们害怕酒店。他们可能很富有，但给看门人和房间女
服务员多少小费，心中却根本没有数；他们在家可能是主人，但不知道什么时候才能对酒店的经理表示不满。
露营使人们免除了这些忧虑。诚然，露营地本身也存在以露营装备和方式取人的势利现象，但如果有这种情况，露
营者也容易理解，知道如何对付，但在露营地里根本不会有管人的“人上人”和酒店里的等级制度来使露营者的假日
过得阴郁低沉。
除了以上动机外，还应再加上一个。当前崇拜汽车现象可以用与所有权相伴的独立和自由意识来解释。因此开车
去露营会给这种快乐意识增加一种优雅意境。
从自己的家门出发到国内国外的山区或沙滩上露营然后返回，一切都很便利。完全在自己掌握之中的私人汽车不
仅是到达假日天堂的工具，而且也是逃离假日地狱（如海滩太挤，当地天气恶劣）的方便工具，因为汽车就停在帐篷外
面，或者汽车本身可能就是露营帐篷的一个组成部分。
理想主义者像反对旅行社安排一切的一揽子旅游一样反对露营的作法，说这种封闭的作法使到国外旅游者失去
36了了解所去国家人民的机会。他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。但这种说法在受人欢迎的欧洲露营场地是
站不住脚的。假日旅馆有只接待来自一个国家的旅游者的倾向，有时会达到排他的程度。而露营驻地则相反，是高度世
界性的。在大多数地中海露营地里，德国人占优势似乎是个普遍现象，确实如此，但并没有特别的优待。禁止露天晒衣
服、禁止用水龙头冲洗汽车的布告和邀请露营朋友参加舞会、乘船观光的招贴不仅印成法语、意大利语、西班牙语，而
且也印成英语、德语、荷兰语。用饭的时候，德国泡菜味和大蒜味争相散发，法国人的早点咖啡和英国人的咸肉煎蛋竞
相比美。
有组织的露营活动的明显发展是否意味着较独立的自我封闭式露营的最终消失，还很难说。市政当局当然希望获
得露营者的场地费和其他光临的好处，警察则对那些查不出有固定营地或住处的游荡者保持警惕。但最重要的或许是
露营者自己，即他们引起了多少场野火，留下了多少垃圾。总之，他们是否弄得土地的主人和乡间的居民同他们反目。
只有优良的童子军活动才能保持不朽的童子军所衷心热爱的各项自由。
经典教材精选的美文
这个优秀文章36篇是我从新概念三、四的教材里精心挑选出来的，其中新概念三20
篇和新概念四的16篇，从贴近考研英语的角度来筛选，剔除了大部分的记叙文和说明文
题材，主要就是论说文了。
这些精选出来的文章作为必须背诵的素材。这些文档原先来自沪江的电子书，不过
原来的文档很多都有或多或少的小错误。这里我都精心对照过，并且尽力避免出现错误。
以前那个版本只有20篇文章（新三12篇，新四8篇），有网友反映排版使用不是很方
便，这里重新排版。另外字体用稍微大一点的5号，眼睛会舒服一点，还可以做一点点笔
记，不过页数会增加一点。
蓝色加粗是考研重点词汇，要从课文句子中掌握其用法，不是很熟的最好查一下牛
津或者其他词典；加阴影紫色字体是考研用短语和句型。划线的重点要熟练应用的句子，
尽量应用到作文中去。
对这36篇文章最好是听写、翻译、背诵一步步来。先把文章听写出来，然后翻译成中
文，再把中文翻译成英文，最后背诵。不过这个过程很花时间，但是也能提高英语能力。
如果单纯考研应试，英语不想考那么高分，而其他科目需要的时间多点，那就只背诵吧。
背诵是一件很痛苦的事情，实在背不下来，可以给自己定一个量的要求：“50遍啊
50遍！”甚至更强的“100遍啊100遍”读了50遍以上就算背不出来也很熟练了吧。星
沙英语网
语言是背出来，模仿磁带的读音，大声跟读大声的背，将可以达到听说读写齐头并进。
37
