大学英语综合教程一 Unit1至Unit8 课文内容英译中 中英翻译

 

  大家好，我叫亓官劼（qí guān jié ），在ImapBox中记录学习的点滴历程，时光荏苒，未来可期，加油~博客地址为：亓官劼的博客

本文原创为亓官劼，请大家支持原创，部分平台一直在盗取博主的文章！！！

博主目前仅在ImapBox中写博客，唯一博客更新的地址为：亓官劼的博客

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文本为博主整理翻译所得，送给有需要的小伙伴，还有综合教程一到4的课文文本翻译，后续陆续整理更新，都是之前学习时使用的一些资料，最近在整理电脑时发现的。

如果有需要可以，全部更新完之后，会在本文内加入各个单元翻译的链接

大学英语 综合教程 一到四 课文文章翻译 英译中 所有文章的目录导航为：大学英语 综合教程 一到四 课文文章翻译 英译中 目录导航  

导航的博客地址为：https://blog.csdn.net/qq_43422111/article/details/105754423 有需要有去查看

 

Book 1 Unit 1 Writing for Myself

为自己而写

Russell Baker

 

The idea of becoming a writer had come to me off and on since my childhood in Belleville, but it wasn’t until my third year in high school that the possibility took hold. Until then I’d been bored by everything associated with English courses. I found English grammar dull and difficult. I hated the assignments to turn out long, lifeless paragraphs that were agony for teachers to read and for me to write.

    从孩提时代，我还住在贝尔维尔时，我的脑子里就断断续续地转着当作家的念头，但直等到我高中三年级，这一想法才有了实现的可能。在这之前，我对所有跟英文课沾边的事都感到腻味。我觉得英文语法枯燥难懂。我痛恨那些长而乏味的段落写作，老师读着受累，我写着痛苦。

When our class was assigned to Mr. Fleagle for third-year English I anticipated another cheerless year in that most tedious of subjects. Mr. Fleagle had a reputation among students for dullness and inability to inspire. He was said to be very formal, rigid and hopelessly out of date. To me he looked to be sixty or seventy and excessively prim. He wore primly severe eyeglasses, his wavy hair was primly cut and primly combed. He wore prim suits with neckties set primly against the collar buttons of his white shirts. He had a primly pointed jaw, a primly straight nose, and a prim manner of speaking that was so correct, so gentlemanly, that he seemed a comic antique.

    弗利格尔先生接我们的高三英文课时，我就准备着在这门最最单调乏味的课上再熬上沉闷的一年。弗利格尔先生在学生中以其说话干巴和激励学生无术而出名。据说他拘谨刻板，完全落后于时代。我看他有六七十岁了，古板之极。他戴着古板的毫无装饰的眼镜，微微卷曲的头发剪得笔齐，梳得纹丝不乱。他身穿古板的套装，领带端端正正地顶着白衬衣的领扣。他长着古板的尖下巴，古板的直鼻梁，说起话来一本正经，字斟句酌，彬彬有礼，活脱脱一个滑稽的老古董。

I prepared for an unfruitful year with Mr. Fleagle and for a long time was not disappointed. Late in the year we tackled the informal essay. Mr. Fleagle distributed a homework sheet offering us a choice of topics. None was quite so simple-minded as “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” but most seemed to be almost as dull. I took the list home and did nothing until the night before the essay was due. Lying on the sofa, I finally faced up to the unwelcome task, took the list out of my notebook, and scanned it. The topic on which my eye stopped was “The Art of Eating Spaghetti.”

   我作好准备，打算在弗利格尔先生的班上一无所获地混上一年，不少日子过去了，还真不出所料。后半学期我们学写随笔小品文。弗利格尔先生发下一张家庭作业纸，出了不少题目供我们选择。像”暑假二三事”那样傻乎乎的题目倒是一个也没有，但绝大多数一样乏味。我把作文题带回家，一直没写，直到要交作业的前一天晚上。我躺在沙发上，最终不得不面对这一讨厌的功课，便从笔记本里抽出作文题目单粗粗一看。我的目光落在”吃意大利细面条的艺术”这个题目上。

This title produced an extraordinary sequence of mental images. Vivid memories came flooding back of a night in Belleville when all of us were seated around the supper table — Uncle Allen, my mother, Uncle Charlie, Doris, Uncle Hal — and Aunt Pat served spaghetti for supper. Spaghetti was still a little known foreign dish in those days. Neither Doris nor I had ever eaten spaghetti, and none of the adults had enough experience to be good at it. All the good humor of Uncle Allen’s house reawoke in my mind as I recalled the laughing arguments we had that night about the socially respectable method for moving spaghetti from plate to mouth.

      这个题目在我脑海里唤起了一连串不同寻常的图像。贝尔维尔之夜的清晰的回忆如潮水一般涌来，当时，我们大家一起围坐在晚餐桌旁 ── 艾伦舅舅、我母亲、查理舅舅、多丽丝、哈尔舅舅 ── 帕特舅妈晚饭做的是意大利细面条。那时意大利细面条还是很少听说的异国食品。多丽丝和我都还从来没吃过，在座的大人也是经验不足，没有一个吃起来得心应手的。艾伦舅舅家诙谐有趣的场景全都重现在我的脑海中，我回想起来，当晚我们笑作一团，争论着该如何地把面条从盘子上送到嘴里才算合乎礼仪。

Suddenly I wanted to write about that, about the warmth and good feeling of it, but I wanted to put it down simply for my own joy, not for Mr. Fleagle. It was a moment I wanted to recapture and hold for myself. I wanted to relive the pleasure of that evening. To write it as I wanted, however, would violate all the rules of formal composition I’d learned in school, and Mr. Fleagle would surely give it a failing grade. Never mind. I would write something else for Mr. Fleagle after I had written this thing for myself.

      突然我就想描述那一切，描述当时那种温馨美好的气氛，但我把它写下来仅仅是想自得其乐，而不是为弗利格尔先生而写。那是我想重新捕捉并珍藏在心中的一个时刻。我想重温那个夜晚的愉快。然而，照我希望的那样去写，就会违反我在学校里学的正式作文的种种法则，弗利格尔先生也肯定会打它一个不及格。没关系。等我为自己写好了之后，我可以再为弗利格尔先生写点什么别的东西。

When I finished it the night was half gone and there was no time left to compose a proper, respectable essay for Mr. Fleagle. There was no choice next morning but to turn in my tale of the Belleville supper. Two days passed before Mr. Fleagle returned the graded papers, and he returned everyone’s but mine. I was preparing myself for a command to report to Mr. Fleagle immediately after school for discipline when I saw him lift my paper from his desk and knock for the class’s attention.

      等我写完时已是半夜时分，再没时间为弗利格尔先生写一篇循规蹈矩、像模像样的文章了。第二天上午，我别无选择，只好把我为自己而写的贝尔维尔晚餐的故事交了上去。两天后弗利格尔先生发还批改过的作文，他把别人的都发了，就是没有我的。我正准备着遵命一放学就去弗利格尔先生那儿挨训，却看见他从桌上拿起我的作文，敲了敲桌子让大家注意听。

“Now, boys,” he said. “I want to read you an essay. This is titled, ‘The Art of Eating Spaghetti.'”

    “好了，孩子们，”他说。”我要给你们念一篇小品文。文章的题目是：吃意大利细面条的艺术。”

And he started to read. My words! He was reading my words out loud to the entire class. What’s more, the entire class was listening. Listening attentively. Then somebody laughed, then the entire class was laughing, and not in contempt and ridicule, but with open-hearted enjoyment. Even Mr. Fleagle stopped two or three times to hold back a small prim smile.

   于是他开始念了。是我写的！他给全班大声念我写的文章。更不可思议的是，全班同学都在听着他念，而且听得很专心。有人笑出声来，接着全班都笑了，不是轻蔑嘲弄，而是乐乎乎地开怀大笑。就连弗利格尔先生也停顿了两三次，好抑制他那一丝拘谨的微笑。

I did my best to avoid showing pleasure, but what I was feeling was pure delight at this demonstration that my words had the power to make people laugh. In the eleventh grade, at the eleventh hour as it were, I had discovered a calling. It was the happiest moment of my entire school career. When Mr. Fleagle finished he put the final seal on my happiness by saying, “Now that, boys, is an essay, don’t you see. It’s — don’t you see — it’s of the very essence of the essay, don’t you see. Congratulations, Mr. Baker.”

      我尽力不流露出得意的心情，但是看到我写的文章竟然能使别人大笑，我真是心花怒放。就在十一年级，可谓是最后的时刻，我找到了一个今生想做的事。这是我整个求学生涯中最幸福的一刻。弗利格尔先生念完后说道：”瞧，孩子们，这就是小品文，懂了没有。这才是 ── 知道吗 ── 这才是小品文的精髓，知道了没有。祝贺你，贝克先生。”他这番话使我沉浸在十全十美的幸福之中。

Book 1 Unit 2 All the Cabbie Had Was a Letter

出租车司机拥有的就剩一封信

Foster Furcolo

 

He must have been completely lost in something he was reading because I had to tap on the windshield to get his attention.

    他准是完全沉浸在所读的东西里了，因为我不得不敲挡风玻璃来引起他的注意。

“Is your cab available?” I asked when he finally looked up at me. He nodded, then said apologetically as I settled into the back seat, “I’m sorry, but I was reading a letter.” He sounded as if he had a cold or something.

    他总算抬头看我了。“你出车吗？”我问道。他点点头，当我坐进后座时，他抱歉地说：“对不起，我在读一封信。”听上去他像是得了感冒什么的。

“I’m in no hurry,” I told him. “Go ahead and finish your letter.”

    “我不着急，”我对他说，“你接着把信读完吧。”

He shook his head. “I’ve read it several times already. I guess I almost know it by heart.”

     他摇了摇头。“我已经读了好几遍了。我想我都能背出来了。”

“Letters from home always mean a lot,” I said. “At least they do with me because I’m on the road so much.” Then, estimating that he was 60 or 70 years old, I guessed: “From a child or maybe a grandchild?”

       “家书抵万金啊，”我说。“至少对我来说是这样，因为我老是在外旅行。”我估量他有六七十岁了，便猜测说：“是孩子还是孙子写来的？”

“This isn’t family,” he replied. “Although,” he went on, “come to think of it”, it might just as well have been family. Old Ed was my oldest friend. In fact, we used to call each other ‘Old Friend’ — when we’d meet, that is. I’m not much of a hand at writing.”

      “不是家里人，”他回答说。“不过，”他接着说，“想起来，也可以算是一家人了。埃德老伙计是我最老的朋友了。实际上，过去我俩总是以‘老朋友’相称的 —— 就是说，当我俩相见时。我这人就是不大会写东西。”

“I don’t think any of us keep up our correspondence too well,” I said. “I know I don’t. But I take it he’s someone you’ve known quite a while?”

“All my life, practically. We were kids together, so we go way back.”

       “我看大家写信都不那么勤快，”我说，“我自己笔头就很懒。我看，你认识他挺久了吧？”

      “差不多认识了一辈子了。我俩小时候就一起玩，所以我俩的友谊确实很长了。”

“Went to school together?”

“All the way through high school. We were in the same class, in fact, through both grade and high school.”

“There are not too many people who’ve had such a long friendship,” I said.

      “一起上的学？”

      “都一起上到高中呢。事实上，我俩从小学到高中都在一个班里。”

      “保持这么长久友谊的人可真不多见啊，”我说。

“Actually,” the driver went on, “I hadn’t seen him more than once or twice a year over the past 25 or 30 years because I moved away from the old neighborhood and you kind of lose touch even though you never forget. He was a great guy.”

      “其实呢，”司机接着说，“近25到30年来，我跟他一年只见一两次面，因为我从原来住的老街坊搬了出来，联系自然就少了，虽说你一直放在心上。他在的时候可真是个大好人。”

“You said ‘was’. Does that mean —?”

He nodded. “Died a couple of weeks ago.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s no fun to lose any friend — and losing a real old one is even tougher.”

      “你刚才说他‘在的时候’。你是说 ——？”

      他点了点头。“前两个星期过世啦。”

      “真遗憾，”我说，“失去朋友真不是个滋味，失去个真正的老朋友更让人受不了。”

He didn’t reply to that, and we rode on in silence for a few minutes. But I realized that Old Ed was still on his mind when he spoke again, almost more to himself than to me: “I should have kept in touch. Yes,” he repeated, “I should have kept in touch.”

    他开着车，没有接话儿。 我们沉默了几分钟。可我知道他还在想着老埃德。他又开口时，与其说是跟我说话，还不如说是自言自语：“我真该一直保持联系。真的，”他重复道，“我真该一直保持联系。”

“Well,” I agreed, “we should all keep in touch with old friends more than we do. But things come up and we just don’t seem to find the time.”

   “是啊，”我表示赞同，“我们都该与老朋友保持更多的联系。不过总是有事情冒出来，好像就是抽不出空来。”

He shrugged. “We used to find the time,” he said. “That’s even mentioned in the letter.” He handed it over to me. “Take a look.”

    他耸了耸肩。“我们过去总能抽出空来，”他说。“信里还提到呢。”他把信递给我，“你看看吧。”

“Thanks,” I said, “but I don’t want to read your mail. That’s pretty personal.”

    “谢谢你，”我说，“不过我不想读你的信。这纯属私事。”

The driver shrugged. “Old Ed’s dead. There’s nothing personal now. Go ahead,” he urged me.

    司机耸一耸肩。“老埃德人都死了。没什么私事不私事了。念吧，”他催促说。

The letter was written in pencil. It began with the greeting “Old Friend,” and the first sentence reminded me of myself. I’ve been meaning to write for some time, but I’ve always postponed it. It then went on to say that he often thought about the good times they had had together when they both lived in the same neighborhood. It had references to things that probably meant something to the driver, such as the time Tim Shea broke the window, the Halloween that we tied Old Mr. Parker’s gate, and when Mrs. Culver used to keep us after school.

      信是用铅笔写的。称呼写着“老朋友”，而开头第一句话让我想到自己。“早就想写信了，可就是一拖再拖。” 信里接着写道，他常常回想从前两人住在一个街坊时的快乐时光。信里提到些事，可能对司机很重要，比如“那次蒂姆·谢打破窗子，那年万圣节前夕，我们把老帕克先生的大门拴了起来，还有卡尔弗太太老是在放学后把咱俩留下训斥的那阵子”。

“You must have spent a lot of time together,” I said to him.

“Like it says there,” he answered, “about all we had to spend in those days was time.” He shook his head: “Time.”

      “你们俩准是在一起度过了不少时光，”我对他说。

      “就跟信里写的那样，”他回答说，“我俩在那个时候能花的只有时间。”他摇头叹道：“时间啊。”

I thought the next paragraph of the letter was a little sad: I began the letter with “Old Friend” because that’s what we’ve become over the years — old friends. And there aren’t many of us left.

      信里接下来的那段我觉得有点凄凉：“信的开头我写着‘老朋友’，因为这么多年来，我们这对老朋友渐渐都老了。我们这些人当中留下的也不多了。”

“You know,” I said to him, “when it says here that there aren’t many of us left, that’s absolutely right. Every time I go to a class reunion, for example, there are fewer and fewer still around.”

      “你要知道，”我对他说，“信里说我们这些人当中留下的不多了，说得一点不错。比如说，每次我去参加老同学聚会，来的人总是越来越少。”

“Time goes by,” the driver said.

“Did you two work at the same place?” I asked him.

      “时间不饶人啊，”司机说。

      “你们俩以前在一起工作吗？”我问他。

“No, but we hung out on the same corner when we were single. And then, when we were married, we used to go to each other’s house every now and then. But for the last 20 or 30 years it’s been mostly just Christmas cards. Of course there’d be always a note we’d each add to the cards — usually some news about our families, you know, what the kids were doing, who moved where, a new grandchild, things like that — but never a real letter or anything like that.”

      “不，不过没成家时我俩总在一起闲荡。后来，两人都成了家，就不时相互串门。可最近这二三十年来，主要就是寄寄圣诞卡了。当然，我俩都总在卡上写几句 —— 通常是关于各自家里的情况，不是吗，孩子们在干些什么，谁搬到哪儿，添了个小孙子，都是这类事 —— 可一直都没正儿八经地写过信什么的。”

“This is a good part here,” I said. “Where it says Your friendship over the years has meant an awful lot to me, more than I can say because I’m not good at saying things like that. ” I found myself nodding in agreement. “That must have made you feel good, didn’t it?”

      “这一处写得好，”我说，“这里写道：‘你多年的友谊对我非常重要，远比我能说出来的重要得多，因为我不擅长说这样的话。’”我颔首称是。“这话准让你听着开心，是吧？”

The driver said something that I couldn’t understand because he seemed to be all choked up, so I continued: “I know I’d like to receive a letter like that from my oldest friend.”

      司机说了句什么，可我没听明白，因为他似乎哽噎得厉害。于是我接着说：“我也真想收到这样一封老朋友的来信。”

We were getting close to our destination so I skipped to the last paragraph. So I thought you’d like to know that I was thinking of you. And it was signed，Your Old Friend, Tom.

     我们快到目的地了，于是我跳到最后一段。“因此我想你一定想知道我惦记着你。”信末署名： “老朋友汤姆”。

I handed back the letter as we stopped at my hotel. “Enjoyed talking with you,” I said as I took my suitcase out of the cab. Tom? The letter was signed Tom?

     我们在我的旅店前停下，我把信递了回去。“很高兴能和你聊聊，”我将衣箱从车上提下时说。汤姆？信的署名是汤姆？

“I thought your friend’s name was Ed,” I said. “Why did he sign it Tom?”

    我记得你朋友叫埃德，”我说，“为什么他署名汤姆呢？”

“The letter was not from Ed to me,” he explained. “I’m Tom. It’s a letter I wrote to him before I knew he’d died. So I never mailed it.”

      “这封信不是汤姆写给我的，”他解释说，“我是汤姆。这是我在得知他去世前写给他的信。所以我一直没寄出。”

He looked sort of sorrowful, or as if he were trying to see something in the distance. “I guess I should have written it sooner.”

    他神情有点悲伤，似乎想看清远处什么东西。“我想我真该早些写这封信。”

When I got to my hotel room I didn’t unpack right away. First I had to write a letter — and mail it.

    我进了旅馆房间之后，没有马上打开箱包。首先我得写封信 —— 而且要寄出去。

Book 1 Unit 3 Public Attitudes toward Science

公众科学观

Stephen Hawking

 

Whether we like it or not, the world we live in has changed a great deal in the last hundred years, and it is likely to change even more in the next hundred. Some people would like to stop these changes and go back to what they see as a purer and simpler age. But as history shows, the past was not that wonderful. It was not so bad for a privileged minority, though even they had to do without modern medicine, and childbirth was highly risky for women. But for the vast majority of the population, life was nasty, brutish, and short.

    无论我们是否愿意，我们生活的世界在过去一百年间已经变化了许多，而且在未来的一百年里可能变化更多。有人想中止这种种变化，回到那个他们认为更纯洁更朴素的时代。但正如历史所表明的，过去并非那么美妙。过去对享有特权的少数人不算太糟，但即便他们也无从享受现代医疗，而生育对妇女来说风险极大。对占人口大多数的民众而言，生活是艰难、残忍而又短暂的。

Anyway, even if one wanted to, one couldn’t put the clock back to an earlier age. Knowledge and techniques can’t just be forgotten. Nor can one prevent further advances in the future. Even if all government money for research were cut off (and the present government is doing its best), the force of competition would still bring about advances in technology. Moreover, one cannot stop inquiring minds from thinking about basic science, whether or not they are paid for it. The only way to prevent further developments would be a global state that suppressed anything new, and human initiative and inventiveness are such that even this wouldn’t succeed. All it would do is slow down the rate of change.

    不管怎样，即使有人想这么做，他也无法将时钟拨回到早先的时代。知识与技术不可能说忘就忘了。也没有人能阻止未来的进一步发展。即使所有用于研究的政府资金都被取消 （现政府最擅此事），竞争的力量仍将继续带来技术的发展。更何况，没有人能阻止探究求索之士去思索基础科学，无论他们是否会为此得到酬劳。惟一能阻止进一步发展的办法或许是一个压制任何新事物的全球政府，但人类的进取心与创造力如此旺盛，即便这个政府也不会成功。它所能做到的只是延缓变化的速度。

If we accept that we cannot prevent science and technology from changing our world, we can at least try to ensure that the changes they make are in the right directions. In a democratic society, this means that the public needs to have a basic understanding of science, so that it can make informed decisions and not leave them in the hands of experts. At the moment, the public is in two minds about science. It has come to expect the steady increase in the standard of living that new developments in science and technology have brought to continue, but it also distrusts science because it doesn’t understand it. This distrust is evident in the cartoon figure of the mad scientist working in his laboratory to produce a Frankenstein. It is also an important element behind support for the Green parties. But the public also has a great interest in science, particularly astronomy, as is shown by the large audiences for television series such as The Sky at Night and for science fiction.

    如果我们承认，我们无法阻止科学技术改变我们的世界，我们至少可以努力确保科技带来的变化方向正确。在一个民主社会里，这意味着公众需要对科学有一个基本的了解，从而可以作出明达的决定，而不是把决定留给专家去作。目前，公众对科学存有矛盾之心。公众期望科技新发展带来的生活水准的稳定提高能继续，但又怀疑科学，因为他们不懂科学。那个在实验室里设法制造弗兰肯斯泰因的疯狂的科学家的卡通人物清楚地体现了公众的这种怀疑。这也是人们之所以支持各种绿色组织的一个重要因素。但公众同时也对科学深感兴趣，尤其是对天文学，诸如《夜空》之类的电视连续剧观众不少以及科幻小说读者甚多就是明证。

What can be done to harness this interest and give the public the scientific background it needs to make informed decisions on subjects like acid rain, the greenhouse effect, nuclear weapons, and genetic engineering? Clearly, the basis must lie in what is taught in schools. But in schools science is often presented in a dry and uninteresting manner. Children learn it by rote to pass examinations, and they don’t see its relevance to the world around them. Moreover, science is often taught in terms of equations. Although equations are a brief and accurate way of describing mathematical ideas, they frighten most people. When I wrote a popular book recently, I was advised that each equation I included would halve the sales. I included one equation, Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc2. Maybe I would have sold twice as many copies without it.

    怎么样才能利用这种兴趣，向公众提供所需要的科学知识，以便其在酸雨、温室效应、核武器以及基因工程等问题上作出明达的决定呢？显然，必须把基础建立在学校课程上。但在学校里，科学往往被教得枯燥乏味。孩子们死记硬背应付考试，他们看不出科学与他们的周围世界的联系。更有甚者，科学常常是用公式来教的。虽然公式是阐述数学概念的一种简单而精确的方式，它们却使大多数人望而生畏。前不久我写了一本通俗读物，当时有人告诫我说，我每使用一个公式就会使销量减半。我只使用了一个公式，即爱因斯坦那个著名的公式，E=mc2。如果不用这个公式的话，也许我能多卖出一倍的书。

Scientists and engineers tend to express their ideas in the form of equations because they need to know the precise values of quantities. But for the rest of us, a qualitative grasp of scientific concepts is sufficient, and this can be conveyed by words and diagrams, without the use of equations.

科学家和工程师倾向于用公式阐述观点，因为他们需要知道量的精确值。但对我们其余的人来说，对科学概念有个质的认识就已足够，这可以用文字和图表来表述，大可不必使用公式。

The science people learn in school can provide the basic framework. But the rate of scientific progress is now so rapid that there are always new developments that have occurred since one was at school or university. I never learned about molecular biology or transistors at school, but genetic engineering and computers are two of the developments most likely to change the way we live in the future. Popular books and magazine articles about science can help to put across new developments, but even the most successful popular book is read by only a small proportion of the population. Only television can reach a truly mass audience. There are some very good science programmes on TV, but others present scientific wonders simply as magic, without explaining them or showing how they fit into the framework of scientific ideas. Producers of television science programmes should realize that they have a responsibility to educate the public, not just entertain it.

    人们在学校学到的科学知识可以提供一个基本的框架。但如今科学进步的速度如此之快，一个人离开学校或大学后新的发展层出不穷。我在学校从未学过分子生物学或晶体管，但基因工程和计算机是极有可能改变我们未来生活的两项发展。有关科学的通俗读物和杂志文章能帮助人们了解新发展，但即使是最畅销的科普读物也只有一小部分人阅读。只有电视能赢得真正广大的观众。电视上有一些相当优秀的科学节目，但其他的节目把科学奇迹简单地作为魔术播出，既不加以说明，也不展现它们与科学观念的整体框架的关系。电视科学节目的制片人应该认识到，他们负有教育民众的重任，而不仅仅是为他们提供娱乐。

The world today is filled with dangers, hence the sick joke that the reason we have not been contacted by an alien civilization is that civilizations tend to destroy themselves when they reach our stage. But I have sufficient faith in the good sense of the public to believe that we might prove this wrong.

    当今世界充满危险，因此就有了那个令人毛骨悚然的玩笑，说我们尚未受到外星文明造访的原因在于：但凡文明发展到我们目前的程度，它们往往就自我毁灭了。然而我对公众的明智充满信心，因而相信，我们将证明这一说法是错误的。

Book 1 Unit 4 Tony Trivisonno’s American Dream

托尼·特里韦索诺的美国梦

Frederick C. Crawford

 

He came from a rocky farm in Italy, somewhere south of Rome. How or when he got to America, I don’t know. But one evening I found him standing in the driveway, behind my garage. He was about five-foot-seven or eight, and thin.

    他来自意大利罗马以南某地一个满地石子的农庄。他什么时候怎么到美国的，我不清楚。不过，有天晚上，我看到他站在我家车库后面的车道上。他身高五英尺七、八左右，人很瘦。

“I mow your lawn,” he said. It was hard to comprehend his broken English.

     “我割你的草坪，”他说。他那结结巴巴的英语很难听懂。

I asked him his name. “Tony Trivisonno,” he replied. “I mow your lawn.” I told Tony that I couldn’t afford a gardener.

     我问他叫什么名字。“托尼·特里韦索诺，”他回答说，“我割你的草坪。”我对托尼讲，本人雇不起园丁。

“I mow your lawn,” he said again, then walked away. I went into my house unhappy. Yes, these Depression days were difficult, but how could I to turn away a person who had come to me for help?

    “我割你的草坪，”他又说道，随后便走开了。我走进屋子，心里有点不快。没错，眼下这大萧条的日子是不好过，可我怎么能把一个上门求助的人就这么打发走呢？

When I got home from work the next evening, the lawn had been mowed, the garden weeded, and the walks swept. I asked my wife what had happened.

     等我第二天晚上下班回到家，草坪已修整过了，花园除了草，人行道也清扫过了。我便问太太是怎么回事。

“A man got the lawn mower out of the garage and worked on the yard,” she answered. “I assumed you had hired him.”

I told her of my experience the night before. We thought it strange that he had not asked for pay.

      “有个人把割草机从汽车库里推出来就在院子里忙活起来，”她回答说，“我还以为是你雇他来的。”

      我就把前晚的事跟她说了。我俩都觉得奇怪，他怎么没提出要工钱。

The next two days were busy, and I forgot about Tony. We were trying to rebuild our business and bring some of our workers back to the plants. But on Friday, returning home a little early, I saw Tony again, behind the garage. I complimented him on the work he had done.

      接下来的两天挺忙，我把托尼的事给忘了。我们在尽力重整业务，要让一部分工人回厂里来。但在星期五，回家略微早了些，我又在汽车库后面看到了托尼。我对他干的活夸奖了几句。

“I mow your lawn,” he said.

I managed to work out some kind of small weekly pay, and each day Tony cleaned up the yard and took care of any little tasks. My wife said he was very helpful whenever there were any heavy objects to lift or things to fix.

      “我割你的草坪，”他说。

      我设法凑了一小笔微薄的周薪，就这样托尼每天清扫院子，有什么零活，他都干了。我太太说，但凡有重物要搬或有什么要修理的，他挺派得上用场。

Summer passed into fall, and winds blew cold. “Mr. Craw, snow pretty soon,” Tony told me one evening. “When winter come, you give me job clearing snow at the factory.”

Well, what do you do with such determination and hope? Of course, Tony got his job at the factory.

      夏去秋来，凉风阵阵。“克罗先生，快下雪了，”有天晚上托尼跟我说，“等冬天到了，你让我在厂里干扫雪的活。”

      啊，对这种执着与期盼，你又能怎样呢？自然，托尼得到了厂里的那份活儿。

The months passed. I asked the personnel department for a report. They said Tony was a very good worker.

One day I found Tony at our meeting place behind the garage. “I want to be ‘prentice,” he said.

      几个月过去了。我让人事部门送上一份报告。他们说托尼干得挺棒。

      一天我在汽车库后面我们以前见面的地方看到了托尼。“我想学徒，”他说。

We had a pretty good apprentice school that trained laborers. But I doubted whether Tony had the capacity to read blueprints and micrometers or do precision work. Still, how could I turn him down?

      我们有个挺不错的培训工人的徒工学校。可我怀疑托尼是否有能力学会看图纸、用千分尺，是否胜任做精密加工工作。尽管如此，可我怎么能拒绝他呢？

Tony took a cut in pay to become an apprentice. Months later, I got a report that he had graduated as a skilled grinder. He had learned to read the millionths of an inch on the micrometer and to shape the grinding wheel with an instrument set with a diamond. My wife and I were delighted with what we felt was a satisfying end of the story.

      托尼减了薪水当了徒工。几个月之后，我收到报告，他已从徒工学校毕业，成了熟练磨工。他学会了在千分尺上辨识一百万分之一英寸，会用镶嵌着金刚石的工具制作砂轮。我和太太都挺高兴，觉得他的事总算有了个令人满意的结局。

A year or two passed, and again I found Tony in his usual waiting place. We talked about his work, and I asked him what he wanted.

      一两年过去了，我在托尼惯常等我的地方又看到了他。我们聊起了他的工作，接着我问他有什么要求。

“Mr. Craw,” he said, “I like a buy a house.” On the edge of town, he had found a house for sale, a complete wreck.

      “克罗先生，”他说，“我想买房。”在小镇边上，他看到有房出售，完全是幢破房。

I called on a banker friend. “Do you ever loan money on character?” I asked. “No,” he said. “We can’t afford to. No sale.”

      我去见一位当银行家的朋友。“人品贷款你干不干？”我问。“不干，”他说，“我们承担不起。没门。”

“Now, wait a minute,” I replied. “Here is a hard-working man, a man of character, I can promise you that. He’s got a good job. You’re not getting a damn thing from your lot. It will stay there for years. At least he will pay your interest.”

    “哎，等等，”我应道，“有个人干活勤勉，人品端正，这一点我担保。他有个好工作。眼下，你从你那块地上一分钱也得不到。那块地空在那儿要好多年呢。至少他会付你利息嘛。”

Reluctantly, the banker wrote a mortgage for $2,000 and gave Tony the house with no down payment. Tony was delighted. From then on, it was interesting to see that any discarded odds and ends around our place — a broken screen, a bit of hardware, boards from packing — Tony would gather and take home.

      那位银行家勉强开了两千美金抵押贷款，没要托尼首付就把房子给了他。托尼乐不可支。从那以后，只要我家附近有什么被人扔弃的零星杂物，坏了的屏风啦，五金器具啦，包装纸板啦，托尼都要收起来拿回家，看他这个样子真是有意思。

After about two years, I found Tony in our familiar meeting spot. He seemed to stand a little straighter. He was heavier. He had a look of confidence.

      约摸过了两年，我在我们见面的老地方又看到了托尼。他身子似乎挺直了些，人也见胖了，样子挺自信。

“Mr. Craw, I sell my house!” he said with pride. “I got $8,000.”

I was amazed. “But, Tony, where are you going to live without a house?”

“Mr. Craw, I buy a farm.”

      “克罗先生，我卖房子！”他得意地说。“我得了八千美金。”

      我非常吃惊。“可是，托尼，没了房子你住哪儿呢？”

      “克罗先生，我买农庄。”

We sat down and talked. Tony told me that to own a farm was his dream. He loved the tomatoes and peppers and all the other vegetables important to his Italian diet. He had sent for his wife and son and daughter back in Italy. He had hunted around the edge of town until he found a small, abandoned piece of property with a house and shed. Now he was moving his family to his farm.

      我们坐下聊了起来。托尼告诉我说，拥有一个农庄是他的梦想。他喜欢番茄、辣椒以及意大利菜肴中相当重要的其它各种蔬菜。他把在意大利的妻子和儿子女儿都接来了。他在小镇周边到处找，终于找到一处没人要的一小块地产，有一幢房，还有间小棚。他正在把家搬到农庄去。

Sometime later. Tony arrived on a Sunday afternoon, neatly dressed. He had another Italian man with him. He told me that he had persuaded his childhood friend to move to America. Tony was sponsoring him. With an amused look in his eye, he told me that when they approached the little farm he now operated, his friend stood in amazement and said, “Tony, you are a millionaire!”

      又过了一些时候，在一个星期日的下午托尼来了，他穿戴得整整齐齐。和他一起来的还有另一位意大利人。他告诉我，他说服了儿时的伙伴前来美国。托尼为他作经济担保。他眼里露出顽皮的神情，对我说，他俩来到他经营的小农庄时，他的朋友惊奇地站住说，“托尼，你是个百万富翁啦！”

Then, during the war, a message came from my company. Tony had passed away.

I asked our people to check on his family and see that everything was properly handled. They found the farm green with vegetables, the little house livable and homey. There was a tractor and a good car in the yard. The children were educated and working, and Tony didn’t owe a cent.

      后来，在战争期间，公司里传出了一个消息。托尼去世了。

      我让公司的人去他家看看，确保各项事宜都得到妥善安置。他们看到农场上长着绿油油的蔬菜，小屋布置得舒适温馨，院子里有一辆拖拉机，还有一辆不错的汽车。孩子受过教育，都工作了，托尼身前没有分文欠债。

After he passed away, I thought more and more about Tony’s career. He grew in stature in my mind. In the end, I think he stood as tall, and as proud, as the greatest American industrialists.

They had all reached their success by the same route and by the same values and principles: vision, determination, self-control, optimism, self-respect and, above all, integrity.

      托尼去世后，我一直想着他的经历。他的形象在我心目中越来越高大。最后，我觉得他就和美国那些最大的实业家一样高大、自豪。

      他们都通过同样的途径，本着同样的价值观和原则获得了成功：远见、执着、自制、乐观、自尊，以及最重要的，正直。

Tony did not begin on the bottom rung of the ladder. He began in the basement. Tony’s affairs were tiny; the greatest industrialists’ affairs were giant. But, after all, the balance sheets were exactly the same. The only difference was where you put the decimal point.

      托尼不是从最低一级阶梯往上爬的，他是从地下室往上爬的。托尼的事业很小，那些最大的实业家的事业很大。但究其实，两者的资产负债表完全一样。惟一的不同是你把小数点点在什么地方。

Tony Trivisonno came to America seeking the American Dream. But he didn’t find it — he created it for himself. All he had were 24 precious hours a day, and he wasted none of them.

      托尼·特里韦索诺来到美国寻求美国梦。但他没有找到什么美国梦 —— 他为自己创造了一个美国梦。他的全部拥有是一天宝贵的二十四小时，而他一刻也没有浪费。

Book 1 Unit 5 The Company Man

公司人

Ellen Goodman

 

1 He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning.

    他终于在星期天凌晨三点整因过度劳累而离开人世。

2 The obituary didn’t say that, of course. It said that he died of a heart attack I think that was it but everyone among his friends and acquaintances knew it instantly. He was a perfect Type-A, a workaholic, a classic, they said to each other and shook their heads and thought for ten minutes about the way they lived.

    当然，讣告上没有提及这一点。讣告说他死于冠状动脉血栓形成——我认为这就是死因——但是，他所有的朋友和熟人都马上明白是怎么回事。他们议论道，他是十足的A型行为者，一个工作狂，一个典型的工作狂，他们边说边摇头，他们还花了五到十分钟的时间想了想自己的生活方式。

3 This man who worked himself to death finally and precisely at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning on his day off was fifty-one years old and a vice-president. He was, however, one of six vice-presidents, and one of three who might conceivably if the president died or retired soon enough have moved to the top spot. Phil knew that.

    这位最终于星期天——他的休息日——凌晨三点整累死的人是位公司副总裁，时年五十一岁。不过他是六位副总裁之一，如果总裁去世够早或退休够早的话，他本是有望当第一把手的三位人选之一。菲尔清楚这一点。

4 He worked six days a week, five of them until eight or nine at night, during a time when his own company had begun the four-day week for everyone but the executives. He had no outside interests, unless, of course, you think about a monthly golf game that way. To Phil, it was work. He always ate egg-salad sandwiches at his desk. He was, of course, overweight, by 20 or 25 pounds. He thought it was okay, though, because he didn’t smoke.

    他一周工作六天，其中五天要工作到晚上八、九点钟。而公司员工除领导层外已经开始实行每周四天工作制了。他像重要人物一样工作。他在外面没有“本职以外的 爱好”，当然，除非你认为每月一次的打高尔夫球也算的话。但是，对于菲尔来说，这也是工作。他总是在办公桌旁吃鸡蛋沙拉三明治，自然啦，他超重了，超出二十或二十五磅。不过他认为没关系，因为他不抽烟。

5 On Saturdays, Phil wore a sports jacket to the office instead of a suit, because it was the weekend.

    每周六菲尔身着运动夹克衫去上班。不穿西装，因为这是周末。

6 He had a lot of people working for him, maybe sixty, and most of them liked him most of the time. Three of them will be seriously considered for his job. The obituary didn’t mention that.

    他手下有不少人，约六十名。大部分人多半时间都喜欢他。其中三人被认真考虑当作接他班的人选。讣告上没有提及这点。

7 But it did list his “survivors” quite accurately. He is survived by his wife, Helen, forty-eight years old, a good woman of no particular marketable skills, who worked in an office before marrying and mothering. She had, according to her daughter, given up trying to compete with his work years ago, when the children were small. A company friend said, “I know how much you will miss him.” And she answered, “I already have.”

    但是讣告上的确颇为准确地列出了他的“遗嘱”，他的遗孀海伦，四十八岁，一个好女人，但没有什么适合市场需求的技能，结婚生育之前曾在办公室工作。据她女儿说，多年前，孩子们还小的时候，她就决定放弃与丈夫的工作竞争了。一位公司朋友说：“我知道你将会多么思念他。”她回答道：“我早就思念他了。”

8 “Missing him all these years,” she probably gave up trying to love him the way she used to. She would be well taken care of”.

    “这么多年来一直思念着他”，她一定是牺牲了自己，竭尽全力照顾此公。她会得到“很好照顾的”。

9 His “clearly beloved” eldest of the ‘dearly beloved” children is a hard-working executive in a manufacturing firm down South. In the day and a half before the funeral, he vent around the neighborhood researching his father, asking the neighbors what he was like. They were embarrassed.

    他“深爱的”子女中的“深爱的”大儿子是南方的一家制造公司的经理，工作十分努力。在葬礼前一天半，他走访了街坊邻里，向他们打听父亲是怎样的一个人，他们感到很尴尬。

10 His second child is a girl, who is twenty-four and newly married. She lives near her mother and they are close, hut whenever she vas alone with her father, in a car driving somewhere, they had nothing to say to each other.

    他的第二个孩子是个女儿，二十四岁，刚结婚。她住在娘家附近，与母亲很亲近。但每次和父亲单独在一起，比如开车到什么地方时，彼此竟无话可说。

11 The youngest is twenty, a boy, a high-school graduate who has spent the last couple of years, like a lot of his friends, doing enough occasional jobs to buy grass and food. He was the one who tried to grab the affection of his father, and tried to mean enough to him to keep the man at home. He was his father’s favorite. Over the last two years, Phil stayed up nights worrying about the boy.

    最小的孩子二十岁，是个男孩，高中毕业生。和他的许多朋友一样，在过去的几年里他打了不少零工，挣的钱足够供自己吃饭吸大麻。就是他努力想牢牢抓住父亲，努力想让自己在父亲心目中显得更重要，好让此公留在家里。他是父亲的最爱。在这两年来，菲尔往往彻夜不眠，为这个儿子担忧。

12 The boy once said, “My father and I only board here.”

    这个儿子曾经说过：“我和父亲只是寄宿在这儿。”

13 At the funeral, the sixty-year-old company president told the forty-eight-year-old widow that the fifty-one-year-old deceased had meant much to the company and would be missed and would he hard to replace. The widow didn’t look him in the eye. She was afraid he would read her bitterness and, after all, she would need him to straighten out the finances the stock options and all that.

    在葬礼上，六十岁的公司总裁对四十八岁的寡妇说，五十一岁的死者对公司来说举足轻重，会被人怀念，很难被人取代。寡妇没有正视他，她怕他会看出自己的怨恨，毕竟她还需要他来解决一些经济方面的问题——比如优先认股权之类的事情。

14 Phil vas overweight and nervous and worked too hard. If he wasn’t at the office, he was worried about it. Phil was a Type-A, a heart-attack natural. You could have picked him out in a minute from a lineup.

    菲尔体重超常，又有神经质，工作过于辛劳。即使人不呆在办公室里，心还是要牵挂着。菲尔是个A型行为者，天生容易患心脏病。你能在一排人中立马认出他。

15 So when he finally worked himself to death, at precisely 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning, no one vas really surprised.

    因此，他在星期天凌晨三点整最终劳累致死时，没有人真正感到意外。

16 By 5:00 P.M. the afternoon of the funeral, the company president had begun, discreetly of course, with care and taste, to make inquiries about his replacement. One of three men. He asked around: “Who’s been working the hardest?”

葬礼当天的下午五点，公司总裁已经开始询问接替菲尔的事。当然，他做的很谨慎，小心而得体。他四处打听：三人中，“谁一向工作最卖力？”

Book 1 Unit 6 A Valentine Story

Doug Bell

 

John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station.

He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t, the girl with the rose. His interest in her had begun twelve months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he soon found himself absorbed, not by the words of the book, but by the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind.

In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner’s name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II.

During the next year the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She explained: “If your feeling for me has any reality, any honest basis, what I look like won’t matter. Suppose I’m beautiful. I’d always be haunted by the feeling that you had been taking a chance on just that, and that kind of love would disgust me. Suppose I’m plain (and you must admit that this is more likely). Then I’d always fear that you were going on writing to me only because you were lonely and had no one else. No, don’t ask for my picture. When you come to New York, you shall see me and then you shall make your decision. Remember, both of us are free to stop or to go on after that — whichever we choose…”

When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting — 7:00 p.m. at Grand Central Station, New York.

“You’ll recognize me,” she wrote, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel.” So, at 7:00 p.m. he was in the station looking for a girl who had filled such a special place in his life for the past 12 months, a girl he had never seen, yet whose written words had been with him and sustained him unfailingly.

I’ll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened:

A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her golden hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive.

 

I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose.

As I moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips. “Going my way, sailor?” she murmured. Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her, and then I saw Hollis Maynell. She was standing almost directly behind the girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair pinned up under a worn hat.

She was more than a little overweight, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes.

The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own.

And there she stood. Her pale, round face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly glow. I did not hesitate.

My fingers gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her. This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful.

I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. “I’m Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?”

The woman’s face broadened into a smile. “I don’t know what this is about, son,” she answered, “but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should go and tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!”

It’s not difficult to understand and admire Miss Maynell’s wisdom. The true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive.

“Tell me whom you love,” Houssaye wrote, “and I will tell you who you are.”

 

爱情故事

 

      约翰·布兰查德从长凳上站起身来，整了整军装，留意着格兰德中央车站进出的人群。

      他在寻找一位姑娘，一位佩带玫瑰的姑娘。他知其心，但不知其貌。十二个月前，在佛罗里达州的一个图书馆，他对她产生了兴趣。他从书架上取下一本书，很快便被吸引住了，不是被书的内容，而是被铅笔写的眉批。柔和的笔迹显示出其人多思善虑的心灵和富有洞察力的头脑。

      在书的前页，他找到了前一位拥有人的姓名，霍利斯·梅奈尔小姐。他花了一番工夫和努力，找到了她的地址。她住在纽约市。他给她写了一封信介绍自己，并请她回复。第二天他被运往海外，参加第二次世界大战。

      在接下来的一年当中，两人通过信件来往增进了了解。每一封信都如一颗种子撒入肥沃的心灵之土。浪漫的爱情之花就要绽开。布兰查德提出要一张照片，可她拒绝了。她解释道：“如果你对我的感情是真实的，是诚心诚意的，那我的相貌如何并不重要。设想我美丽动人。我将会一直深感不安，惟恐你只是因为我的容貌就贸然与我相爱，而这种爱情令我憎恶。设想本人相貌平平（你得承认，这种可能性更大）。那我一直会担心，你和我保持通信仅仅是出于孤独寂寞，无人交谈。不，别索要照片。等你到了纽约，你会见到我，到时你可再作定夺。且记，见面后我俩都可以自由决定中止关系或继续交往 —— 无论你怎么选择……”

.       他从欧洲回国的日子终于到了。他们安排了两人的第一次见面 —— 晚上七点， 纽约格兰德中央车站。

      “你会认出我的，” 她写道，“我会在衣襟上戴一朵红玫瑰。” 于是，晚上七点，他候在车站，寻找一位过去一年里在自己生活中占据了如此特殊地位的姑娘，一位素未谋面，但其文字伴随着他、始终支撑着他精神的姑娘。

      且让布兰查德先生告诉你接下来发生的事吧：

      一位年轻的姑娘向我走来，她身材颀长纤细。一头卷曲的金发披在秀美的耳后；眼睛碧蓝，如花似玉。她的双唇和下颌线条柔和，却又柔中见刚，她身穿浅绿色套装，犹如春天一般生气盎然。

      我朝她走去，完全忘了去看她有没有戴玫瑰花。

      我走过去时，她双唇绽开撩人的微笑。“和我同路吗，水兵？”她小声问道。我情不自禁，再向她走近一步。可就在这时，我看到了霍利斯·梅奈尔。她差不多就站在姑娘的正后面，早已年过四十，灰白的头发用卡子向上别着，头上带着一顶旧帽子。

      她体态臃肿，粗圆的脚踝上套着一双低跟鞋。

      穿着绿色套装的姑娘快步走开了。我觉得自己好像被分成了两半，一方面热切地想去追赶她，但另一方面我又渴望那一位以其心灵真诚陪伴我并成为我的精神支柱的女人。

      她站在那儿，苍白的圆脸显得温柔理智，灰色的眼睛透出热情善良。我没有迟疑。

      我手里紧握着那本小小的让她辨认我的蓝色羊皮面旧书。这不会是爱情，但将是某种珍贵的、或许比爱情更美妙的东西，一种我曾经感激，并将永远感激的友情。

      我挺胸站立，敬了个礼，并举起手中的书好让那位女士看。不过在我开口说话的时候，失望的痛苦几乎使我哽咽。“我是约翰·布兰查德中尉，想必您就是梅奈尔小姐。很高兴您来见我。可否请您赏光吃饭？”

      妇女的脸上绽开了笑容。“我不知道是怎么回事，孩子，”她回答说，“可是刚才走过去的那位穿绿色套装的姑娘，她央求我把这支玫瑰插在衣服上。她还说，要是你请我吃饭的话，我就告诉你，她就在街对面那个大饭店里等你。她说这是一种考验！”

      梅奈尔小姐的智慧不难理解，也令人称奇。心灵的本质是从其对不美的事物的态度中反映出来的。

      “告诉我你所爱者是谁，”何赛写道，“我就知道你是什么样的人。”

Book 1 Unit 7 What Animals Really Think

Euqene Linden

 

Over the years, I have written extensively about animal-intelligence experiments and the controversy that surrounds them. Do animals really have thoughts, what we call consciousness? Wondering whether there might be better ways to explore animal intelligence than experiments designed to teach human signs, I realized what now seems obvious: if animals can think, they will probably do their best thinking when it serves their own purposes, not when scientists ask them to.

And so I started talking to vets, animal researchers, zoo keepers. Most do not study animal intelligence, but they encounter it, and the lack of it, every day. The stories they tell us reveal what I’m convinced is a new window on animal intelligence: the kind of mental feats animals perform when dealing with captivity and the dominant species on the planet — humans.

 

Let’s Make a Deal

 

Consider the time Charlene Jendry, a conservationist at the Columbus Zoo, learned that a female gorilla named Colo was handling a suspicious object. Arriving on the scene, Jendry offered Colo some peanuts, only to be met with a blank stare. Realizing they were negotiating, Jendry raised the stakes and offered a piece of pineapple. At this point, while maintaining eye contact, Colo opened her hand and revealed a key chain.

Relieved it was not anything dangerous or valuable, Jendry gave Colo the pineapple. Careful bargainer that she was, Colo then broke the key chain and gave Jendry a link, perhaps figuring. Why give her the whole thing if I can get a bit of pineapple for each piece?

If an animal can show skill in trading one thing for another, why not in handling money? One orangutan named Chantek did just that in a sign-language study undertaken by anthropologist Lyn Miles at the University of Tennessee. Chantek figured out that if he did tasks like cleaning his room, he’d earn coins to spend on treats and rides in Miles’s car. But the orangutan’s understanding of money seemed to extend far beyond simple dealings. Miles first used plastic chips as coins, but Chantek decided he could expand the money supply by breaking chips in two. When Miles switched to metal chips, Chantek found pieces of tin foil and tried to make copies.

Miles also tried to teach Chantek more virtuous habits such as saving and sharing. Indeed, when I caught up with the orangutan at Zoo Atlanta, where he now lives, I saw an example of sharing that anyone might envy. When Miles gave Chantek some grapes and asked him to share them, Chantek promptly ate all the fruit. Then, as if he’d just remembered he’d been asked to share, he handed Miles the stem.

 

Tale of a Whale

 

Why would an animal want to cooperate with a human? Behaviorists would say that animals cooperate when they learn it is in their interest to do so. This is true, but I don’t think it goes far enough.

Gail Laule, a consultant on animal behavior, speaks of Orky, a killer whale, she knew. “Of all the animals I’ve worked with, he was the most intelligent,” she says. “He would assess a situation and then do something based on the judgments he made.”

Like the time he helped save a family member. When Orky’s mate, Corky, gave birth, the baby did not thrive at first, and keepers took the little whale out of the tank by stretcher for emergency care. Things began to go wrong when they returned the baby whale to the tank. As the workers halted the stretcher a few meters above the water, the baby suddenly began throwing up through its mouth. The keepers feared it would choke, but they could not reach the baby to help it.

Apparently sizing up the problem, Orky swam under the stretcher and allowed one of the men to stand on his head, something he’d never been trained to do. Then, using his tail to keep steady, Orky let the keeper reach up and release the 420-pound baby so that it could slide into the water within reach of help.

 

Primate Shell Game

 

Sometimes evidence of intelligence can be seen in attempts to deceive. Zoo keeper Helen Shewman of Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo recalls that one day she dropped an orange through a feeding hole for Melati, an orangutan. Instead of moving away to get it, Melati looked Shewman in the eye and held out her hand. Thinking the orange must have rolled off somewhere inaccessible, Shewman gave her another one. But when Melati moved off, Shewman noticed the original orange was hidden in her other hand.

Towan, the colony’s dominant male, watched this whole trick, and the next day he, too, looked Shewman in the eye and pretended that he had not yet received an orange. “Are you sure you don’t have one?” Shewman asked. He continued to hold her gaze steadily and held out his hand. Giving in, she gave him another one, then saw that he had been hiding his orange underneath his foot.

What is intelligence anyway? If life is about survival of a species — and intelligence is meant to serve that survival — then we can’t compare with pea-brained sea turtles, which were here long before us and survived the disaster that wiped out the dinosaurs. Still, it is comforting to realize that other species besides our own can stand back and assess the world around them, even if their horizons are more limited than ours.

动物到底想些什么

 

      多年来，我写了大量关于动物智能实验、以及围绕这些实验所产生的争议的文章。动物真的有思想，即我们所说的意识吗？在考虑是否会有比设计教动物人类手势语的实验更好的方式探索动物智能时，我悟出了现在看来是显而易见的一点：如果动物能思维，它们会在能为自己所用的时候，而不是在科学家让它们思维的时候作出最佳思维。

      于是我开始与兽医、动物研究人员以及动物园饲养员交谈。他们大都不研究动物智能，但他们每天都碰到或碰不到动物智能。他们讲述的故事开启了我相信是研究动物智能的一扇新的窗口：即动物在对付樊笼生活和地球上的主宰物种 —— 人类 —— 时所表现的高超的思维技能。

      让我们做笔交易

      请考虑这一情况：哥伦布动物园的一位动物保护主义者查伦·延德里觉察到一头叫做科洛的雌性大猩猩在玩弄一件可疑的物品。延德里走过去，给了科洛一些花生，却被翻了个白眼。意识到这是在讨价还价，延德里加大了筹码，又给了一片菠萝。这时候，科洛一边望着延德里，一边摊开手，露出了一根钥匙链。

      见不是危险或珍贵物品，延德里松了一口气，把菠萝给了考勒。科洛真是个精明的还价者，它把钥匙链拉断，给了延德里一段，或许在算计着，要是每一小段都能换片菠萝，我干嘛要全都给她？

      如果动物能在以物换物中显示技能，又何尝不会在使用钱币中再露一手？在田纳西大学人类学家琳·迈尔斯进行的一项手势语研究中，有头名叫夏特克的猩猩就这么做了。夏特克悟出，如果它干些诸如清理房间的事，他就能挣些硬币，好用来买好吃的，还可以坐迈尔斯的车外出兜风。但这头猩猩对钱币的理解似乎远远超出了简单的交易。迈尔斯一开始用塑料片充当硬币，而夏特克竟认定，它可以把塑料片拗成两片，以此扩大钱币供应量。而当迈尔斯改用金属片时，夏特克找到了一些锡箔，试图复制。

      迈尔斯还试图教会夏特克一些好习惯，诸如节俭和与人。当我在它目前居住的亚特兰大动物园见到这头猩猩时，我果然见到它与人的一例，足以令任何人羡慕。迈尔斯给了夏特克一些葡萄，要求它与人，它很快吃完了所有的葡萄。随后，它似乎是想起了迈尔斯要它与人，便把梗儿递给了迈尔斯。

      鲸鱼的故事

      动物为什么会愿意与人合作？行为主义者会说，动物认识到合作于己有利时就会这么做。这没有错，但我觉得这一解释尚不充分。

      动物行为顾问盖尔·劳尔说起过她了解的一头虎鲸奥基。“在我照管过的动物当中，它是最聪明的，”她说，“它会审时度势，再根据自己的判断采取行动。”

      比如有次它救了一个家族成员。奥基的配偶科基生幼鲸时，那条幼鲸一开始情况不妙，饲养员把幼鲸用担架抬出水糟，实施紧急护理。他们把幼鲸送回水槽时，出了事情。当工人把担架停在高出水面几英尺处的时候，幼鲸开始呕吐。饲养员担心它会窒息，但他们无法接近幼鲸提供帮助。

      奥基显然看出了问题，它游到担架下，让其中一人站在它头上。这种事从来没有训练它做过。然后，奥基用尾部保持平衡，让饲养员接近，并松开了那条420磅重的幼鲸，以便让它滑入水中，获得帮助。

      灵长目动物的骗术

      有时动物的智能可以从其欺骗的企图中得以证明。西雅图伍德兰公园动物园饲养员海伦·休曼回忆道，一天她从喂食窗口给猩猩梅拉蒂扔了个桔子。梅拉蒂没有移动身体去接，而是眼睛直视休曼，伸出手来。休曼以为桔子准是滚到一边拿不到了，就又给了它一个。可当梅拉蒂走开时，休曼却注意到原来那只桔子就藏在它另一只手里。

      猩猩园的头领托温目睹了这个把戏。第二天，这头雄猩猩也是眼睛盯着休曼，装作没有接到桔子。“你肯定没拿到吗？”休曼问道。它仍直视着她，同时把手伸了出来。她让步了，又给了它一个，随后却看见它把桔子藏在脚下。

      智能究竟是什么？如果生命就是讲物种的生存——而智能是为了生存——那么我们根本无法与大脑只有豌豆大小的海龟相提并论，海龟早在人类出现很久之前便已存在，并经历了使恐龙灭绝的重大灾难而生存下来。尽管如此，想到除了我们人类，尚有其它物种，即便它们的视野比我们还狭小，却也能退后一步，清醒地审视周围的世界，不由人深感宽慰。

Book 1 Unit 8 Fable of the Lazy Teenager

Benjamin Stein

 

One day last fall, I ran out of file folders and went to the drugstore to buy more. I put a handful of folders on the counter and asked a teenage salesgirl how much they cost. “I don’t know,” she answered. “But it’s 12 cents each.”

I counted the folders. “Twenty-three at 12 cents each, that makes $2.76 before tax,” I said.

“You did that in your head?” she asked in amazement. “How can you do that?”

“It’s magic,” I said.

“Really?” she asked.

No modestly educated adult can fail to be upset by such an experience. While our children seem better-natured than ever, they are so ignorant — and so ignorant of their ignorance — that they frighten me. In a class of 60 seniors at a private college where I recently taught, not one student could write a short paper without misspellings. Not one.

But this is just a tiny slice of the problem. The ability to perform even the simplest calculations is only a memory among many students I see, and their knowledge of world history or geography is nonexistent.

Moreover, there is a chilling indifference about all this ignorance. The attitude was summed up by a friend’s bright, lazy 16-year-old son, who explained why he preferred not to go to U.C.L.A. “I don’t want to have to compete with Asians,” he said. “They work hard and know everything.”

In fact, this young man will have to compete with Asians whether he wants to or not. He cannot live forever on the financial, material and human capital accumulated by his ancestors. At some point soon, his intellectual laziness will seriously affect his way of life. It will also affect the rest of us. A modern industrial state cannot function with an idle, ignorant labor force. Planes will crash. Computers will jam. Cars will break down.

To drive this message home to such young Americans, I have a humble suggestion: a movie, or TV series, dramatizing just how difficult it was for this country to get where it is — and how easily it could all be lost. I offer the following fable.

As the story opens, our hero, Kevin Hanley 1990, a 17-year-old high school senior, is sitting in his room, feeling bitter. His parents insist he study for his European history test. He wants to go shopping for headphones for his portable CD player. The book he is forced to read — The Wealth of Nations — puts him to sleep.

Kevin dreams it is 1835, and he is his own great-great-great-grandfather at 17, a peasant in County Kerry, Ireland. He lives in a small hut and sleeps next to a pig. He is always hungry and must search for food. His greatest wish is to learn to read and write so he might get a job as a clerk. With steady wages, he would be able to feed himself and help his family. But Hanley’s poverty allows no leisure for such luxuries as going to school. Without education and money, he is powerless. His only hope lies in his children. If they are educated, they will have a better life.

Our fable fast-forwards and Kevin Hanley 1990 is now his own great-grandfather, Kevin Hanley, 1928. He, too, is 17 years old, and he works in a steel mill in Pittsburgh. His father came to America from Ireland and helped build the New York City subway. Kevin Hanley 1928 is far better off than either his father or his grandfather. He can read and write. His wages are far better than anything his ancestors had in Ireland.

Next Kevin Hanley 1990 dreams that he is Kevin Hanley 1945, his own grandfather, fighting on Iwo Jima against a most determined foe, the Japanese army. He is always hot, always hungry, always scared. One night in a foxhole, he tells a friend why he is there: “So my son and his son can live in peace and security. When I get back, I’l1 work hard and send my boy to college so he can live by his brains instead of his back.”

Then Kevin Hanley 1990 is his own father, Kevin Hanley 1966, who studies all the time so he can get into college and law school. He lives in a fine house. He has never seen anything but peace and plenty. He tells his girlfriend that when he has a son, he won’t make him study all the time, as his father makes him.

At that point, Kevin Hanley 1990 wakes up, shaken by his dream. He is relieved to be away from Ireland and the steel mill and Iwo Jima. He goes back to sleep.

When he dreams again, he is his own son, Kevin Hanley 2020. There is gunfire all day and all night. His whole generation forgot why there even was law, so there is none. People pay no attention to politics, and government offers no services to the working class.

Kevin 2020’s father, who is of course Kevin 1990 himself, works as a cleaner in a factory owned by the Japanese. Kevin 2020 is a porter in a hotel for wealthy Europeans and Asians. Public education stops at the sixth grade. Americans have long since stopped demanding good education for their children.

The last person Kevin 1990 sees in his dream is his own grandson. Kevin 2050 has no useful skills. Machines built in Japan do all the complex work, and there is little manual work to be done. Without education, without discipline, he cannot earn an adequate living wage. He lives in a slum where there is no heat, no plumbing, no privacy and survives by searching through trash piles.

In a word, he lives much as Kevin Hanley 1835 did in Ireland. But one day, Kevin Hanley 2050 is befriended by a visiting Japanese anthropologist studying the decline of America. The man explains to Kevin that when a man has no money, education can supply the human capital necessary to start to acquire financial capital. Hard work, education, saving and discipline can do anything. “This is how we rose from the ashes after you defeated us in a war about a hundred years ago.”

“America beat Japan in war?” asks Kevin 2050. He is astonished. It seems as impossible as Brazil defeating the United States would sound in 1990. Kevin 2050 swears that if he ever has children, he will make sure they work and study and learn and discipline themselves. “To be able to make a living by one’s mind instead of by stealing,” he says. “That would be a miracle.”

When Kevin 1990 wakes up, next to him is his copy of The Wealth of Nations. He opens it and the first sentence to catch his eye is this: “A man without the proper use of the intellectual faculties of a man is, if possible, more contemptible than even a coward.”

Kevin’s father walks in. “All right, son,” he says. “Let’s go look at those headphones.”

“Sorry, Pop,” Kevin 1990 says. “I have to study.”

 

关于懒散少年的寓言故事

 

      去年一个秋日，我文件夹用完了，便去杂货店买。我拿了一大把文件夹搁在柜台上，问一个十几岁的售货员多少钱。“不知道，”她回答说，“反正单价12美分。”

      我数了数文件夹。“二十三个，单价12美分，总共2.76美金，不含税，”我说。

      “你心算的？”她惊奇地问道，“你怎么会算出来的？”

      “靠魔力，” 我说。

      “真的？” 她问。

      略受教育的成年人没有谁不会为这样的经历难过。虽然我们的孩子似乎比以往任何时候都要温厚和气，他们却如此无知 —— 对自己的无知状况也如此无知 —— 以至使我感到可怕。在我最近任教的一所私立大学，一个六十人的四年级班上，没有一个学生写短文时不犯拼写错误。没有一个学生例外。

      但这只是问题的一小部分。在我所见过的许多学生中，再也没有过去学生都有的哪怕是进行最简单的计算的能力，他们对世界历史和地理都一无所知。

      更有甚者，他们对这种种的无知却毫不在乎，实在令人不寒而栗。一位朋友的聪明但却很懒散的十六岁儿子在解释他为什么不想上加州洛杉矶分校时说的话是对这种态度的高度概括。“我不想去那儿跟亚洲人竞争，”他说，“他们用功，什么都知道。”

      其实，无论他是否愿意，这位年轻人都将不得不去跟亚洲人竞争。他不能永远躺在先辈积累的经济、物质与人力资本上。用不了多久，他懒于用脑的结果将严重影响他的生活方式，也将影响我们其他所有的人。一个现代工业化国家无法靠一支懒散、无知的劳动大军运行。飞机会坠落。计算机会出故障。汽车会抛锚。

      为使这样的美国青年彻底认识到这一点，我的愚见是：拍一部电影，或电视连续剧，生动地描述我们国家的今天如何来之不易 —— 而要丧失这一切又何其容易。下面我奉献一篇寓言故事。

      故事开始时，我们的主人公凯文·汉利1990，一名十七岁的高三学生，正坐在自己房间里，心情痛苦。他父母一定要他准备欧洲史考试。而他则想去买一副激光唱片随身听的耳机。他被迫要读的书 —— 《各国的财富》 —— 让他打瞌睡。

      凯文进入梦乡，时值1835年，他是他本人的曾太祖父，十七岁，是爱尔兰克雷郡的一个农民。他住在小小的陋室里，睡在一头猪旁。他老是挨饿，总是要找吃的。他最大的心愿是学会读书写字，以便找一个职员的工作。有了固定的工资，他就能养活自己，贴补家用。但汉利的贫穷使他无从享受上学这样的奢侈。没有教育，没有钱，他无能为力。他惟一的希望寄托在孩子身上。如果他们能接受教育，他们就会生活得好一些。

      我们的寓言故事快速展开。现在凯文·汉利1990成了他自己的曾祖父，凯文·汉利1928。他也是十七岁，在匹兹堡一家钢铁厂工作。他的父亲从爱尔兰来到美国，参加过纽约地铁的修建。凯文·汉利1928比自己的父亲和祖父境遇好多了。他能读书写字。他的工资比先辈在爱尔兰时的收入高多了。

      接下来凯文·汉利1990梦见自己成了他自己的祖父凯文·汉利1945。他正在硫黄岛与死敌日本军队作战。他总是又热又饿又害怕。一天晚上他在散兵坑里与一个朋友讲自己为什么在那儿作战：“这样我的儿子、孙子就能生活在和平安全的环境里。等我回国了，我要勤奋工作，让儿子上大学，这样他就可以干脑力活儿，而不是靠卖苦力生活。”

      接着凯文·汉利1990成了他自己的父亲凯文·汉利1966。他终日用功，这样就可以上大学，进法学院。他住在漂亮的房子里。他一生在和平环境中过着富裕的生活。他对女朋友说，等他有了儿子，他不会像他父亲逼他那样逼自己的儿子整天读书。

      就在这时， 凯文·汉利1990被自己的梦惊醒了。他离开了爱尔兰，离开了那家钢铁厂，离开了硫黄岛，不由松了口气。他又睡着了。

      他接着做梦，这次成了他自己的儿子凯文·汉利2020。枪声日夜不停。他那整个一代人忘却了过去为什么要有法律，因此现在没有法律了。人们丝毫不关心政治，政府不为工人阶级提供服务。

      凯文2020的父亲，自然就是凯文1990本人，在日本人开的一家工厂当清洁工。凯文2020在一家专为有钱的欧洲人和亚洲人开的酒店里当行李工。公共教育到六年级为止。美国人早就不再要求自己的孩子接受良好的教育。

      凯文1990最后梦见的是他自己的孙子。凯文2050没有有用的技能。日本制造的机器包揽了所有复杂的工作，没有什么体力活可做。没有受过教育，没有受过训练，他挣不到足够的钱养活自己。他住在贫民窟，没有暖气，没有卫生设备，无法不受四邻干扰，靠搜捡破烂度日。

      总之，他的生活就像凯文·汉利1835在爱尔兰时一模一样。可是有一天，凯文·汉利2050与一位研究美国衰亡史的来访日本人类学家交上了朋友。那人跟凯文解释说，如果一个人没有钱，教育能提供积累金融资本所必需的人力资本。勤奋、教育、节俭、纪律能成就一切。“我们就是这样从一百多年前你们打败我们的战争废墟中站起来的。”

      “美国在战争中打败日本？”凯文2050问道。他惊讶之极。这听起来就像说巴西在1990年打败美国一样不可思议。凯文2050发誓，如果他有孩子的话，他一定要让他们工作、上学、学习并约束自己。“能凭自己的脑力，而不是靠偷窃为生，”他说，“那将会是个奇迹。”

      凯文1990醒了过来，身旁放着他的那本《各国的财富》。他打开书，跳入眼帘的第一句话就是：“一个不能恰当运用人类智力的人极可能比懦夫更可鄙。”

      凯文的父亲走了进来。“好了，儿子，”他说，“咱们去看耳机吧。”

      “抱歉了，爸爸，”凯文1990说，“我得看书学习了。”

 

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