基础英语4课文翻译1-8.docx

Unit 1 Never Give In, Never, Never, Never 绝不屈服，绝不，绝不，绝不Winston Churchill 温斯顿丘吉尔Almost a year has passed since I came down here at your Head Masters kind invitation in order to cheer myself and cheer the hearts of a few of my friends by singing some of our own songs. The ten months that have passed have seen very terrible catastrophic events in the worldups and downs, misfortunesbut can anyone sitting here this afternoon, this October afternoon, not feel deeply thankful for what has happened in the time that has passed and for the very great improvement in the position of our country and of our home? Why, when I was here last time we were quite alone, desperately alone, and we had been so for five or six months. We were poorly armed. We are not so poorly armed today; but then we were very poorly armed. We had the unmeasured menace of the enemy and their air attack still beating upon us, and you yourselves had had experience of this attack; and I expect you are beginning to feel impatient that there has been this long lull with nothing particular turning up!1 将近一年前，应贵校校长盛情邀请，我来到这里唱了几首我们自己的歌曲，既为自己加油，也为一些朋友打气。过去的10个月中全世界发生了可怕的、灾难性的事件盛衰浮沉、厄运磨难但是，今天下午，这个10月的下午，在座有哪一位不会因为这段时间所发生的一切，因为我们家国境况的改善，而心存感激呢？是的，上次我来这里时我们还孤立无援，形单影只，这种状况持续了五六个月。当时我们装备简陋，现在有所改善，但那时真是家徒四壁。我们曾面临着敌人的巨大威胁，而他们至今对我们狂轰滥炸，你们自己对于这种袭击都有亲身感受；我料想你们已经开始按捺不住了，因为这么长的一段时间里，我们碌碌无为，按兵不动。But we must learn to be equally good at what is short and sharp and what is long and tough. It is generally said that the British are often better at the last. They do not expect to move from crisis to crisis; they do not always expect that each day will bring up some noble chance of war; but when they very slowly make up their minds that the thing has to be done and the job put through and finished, then, even if it takes monthsif it takes yearsthey do it.2 但我们必须学会同样善于应付短暂而干脆与漫长而艰难的局面。人们普遍认为英国人最终总是会胜出的。他们不指望关键时刻接踵而至；他们不是一直期待每天都有决战的重大机会；不过一旦深思熟虑之后决意出手，即便需要经年累月，他们也矢志不渝。Another lesson I think we may take, just throwing our minds back to our meeting here ten months ago and now, is that appearances are often very deceptive, and as Kipling well says, we must . meet with Triumph and Disaster. And treat those two impostors just the same.3 回首10个月前我们在此地的相聚，对比现在，我觉得我们可以汲取的另一个教训就是，事物的表象常常是很有欺骗性的。吉卜林说得好：我们必须“面对胜利和灾难，以同样的方式对待这两个骗子。”You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination. But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this periodI am addressing myself to the schoolsurely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, neverin nothing, great or small, large or pettynever give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our school history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated.4 光看表象很难判断事物将何去何从。有时想象的情景比事实糟糕很多，但缺乏想象人们会碌碌无为。那些想象力丰富的人们也许预想的危险比现实多很多；当然，还会发生很多危险；然而他们也必须祈祷获得更多勇气来维持这样深远的想象。当然，对每个人而言，我们在这个阶段经历的一切我正在对学校发表演讲诚然这是我们从这10个月中得到的教训：绝不屈服，绝不屈服，绝不，绝不，绝不，绝不无论事务巨细都绝不屈服，除非你坚信屈服是光荣的明智之举。绝不屈服于强权，绝不屈服于貌似气势排山倒海的强敌。一年前我们孤军作战，许多国家都以为我们被彻底打败了，我们完蛋了。我们所有的传统，我们的歌曲，我们的校史，我们国家的这部分历史，已经消逝、告终与完结。Very different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer.5 今天的情绪大不相同。其他国家认为英国输得一无所有了。但恰恰相反，我们的国家挺身而出。没有退缩，也丝毫没有屈服的念头；我们发现以目前的处境来看，我们只要坚持下去就一定能够征服敌人，这一点在英伦三岛以外的人看来是一个奇迹，但我们从不怀疑这一点。You sang here a verse of a school song: you sang that extra verse written in my honour, which I was very greatly complimented by and which you have repeated today. But there is one word in it I want to alterI wanted to do so last year, but I did not venture to. It is the line: Not less we praise in darker days.6 你们当时在此地吟唱了校歌中的一段，这一段是你们为了我而特地写的，我感到不胜荣幸，而今天你们又再次唱起那一段。不过我想改动其中一个词语，我去年就想这么做了，但是没敢这么做。就是这一句歌词：“我们在更黑暗的日子里的赞美依然如故。”I have obtained the Head Masters permission to alter darker to sterner. Not less we praise in sterner days.7 蒙校长应允，我现在可以把“更黑暗的”改成“更严峻的”。“我们在更严峻的日子里的赞美依然如故。”Do not let us speak of darker days: let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great daysthe greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.8 让我们不用“更黑暗的岁月”这样的字眼：让我们用“更严峻的岁月”来代替。这不是黑暗的岁月；这是伟大的岁月我们国家历史上最伟大的岁月；我们全都应该感谢上帝，因为上帝允许我们每一个人根据自己不同的地位扮演一个角色，让这些岁月成为我们民族历史上令人难忘的时刻。 Unit 2 Space Invaders 空间入侵者Richard Stengel 理查德斯坦格尔 At my bank the other day, I was standing in a line snaking around some tired velvet ropes when a man in a sweat-suit started inching toward me in his eagerness to deposit his Social Security check. As he did so, I minutely advanced toward the woman reading the Wall Street Journal in front of me, who, in mild annoyance, began to sidle up to the man scribbling a check in front of her, who absentmindedly shuffled toward the white-haired lady ahead of him, until we were all hugger-mugger against each other, the original lazy line having collapsed in on itself like a Slinky.1 几天前，我去银行排队，队伍沿着松松垮垮的天鹅绒围栏蜿蜒前伸，这时一位身穿运动套装的男子急不可耐地从我后头向前挪步，想尽早办理社会保险支票存储业务。当他这么做的时候，我只好谨小慎微地向排在我前面阅读华尔街日报的女士挪动步子。她略有不快，于是侧身向她前面那位正在涂写一张支票的男士走去，而这位男士则漫不经心地拖着脚走向他前面的银发老太。这样我们的队伍就变得七歪八扭，原来慵懒的队伍活脱脱变成了个“机灵鬼”I estimate that my personal space extends eighteen inches in front of my face, one foot to each side, and about ten inches in back though it is nearly impossible to measure exactly how far behind you someone is standing. The phrase personal space has a quaint, seventies ring to it (Youre invading my space, man), but it is one of those gratifying expressions that are intuitively understood by all human beings. Like the twelve-mile limit around our national shores, personal space is our individual border beyond which no stranger can penetrate without making us uneasy. 2.我估计我个人空间的范围身前有18英寸，身后10英寸，两侧各1英尺尽管要估算某人站在你身后多远几乎是不可能的。“个人空间”这个词组带有一种古雅的、70年代的味道(“老兄，你侵犯了我的空间”)，但这是一个能让全人类一下子明白过来的令人满意的词组之一。就像我们国家拥有12海里领海权一样，个人空间就是我们的边界，只要有陌生人穿过这个边界，就会使我们感到不安。Lately, Ive found that my personal space is being invaded more than ever before. In elevators, people are wedging themselves in just before the doors close; on the street, pedestrians are zigzagging through the human traffic, jostling others, refusing to give way; on the subway, riders are no longer taking pains to carve out little zones of space between themselves and fellow-passengers; in lines at airports, people are pressing forward like fidgety taxis at red lights.3 最近，我发现我的个人空间比以往任何时候所遭受的侵犯都更加厉害。电梯里，人们抢在关门之前拼命挤进来；马路上，行人奋勇向前，在人流中穿梭，推推搡搡，拒不让路；地铁中，乘客不再刻意在自己和别人之间留出狭小空间；在机场队伍中，人们拼命向前压上，就像等待红灯时烦躁不安的出租车一样。At first, I attributed this tendency to the population explosion and the relentless Malthusian logic that if twice as many people inhabit the planet now as did twenty years ago, each of us has half as much space. Recently, Ive wondered if its the season: T-shirt weather can make proximity more alluring (or much, much less). Or perhaps the proliferation of coffee bars in Manhattan the number seems to double every three months is infusing so much caffeine into the already jangling locals that people can no longer keep to themselves.4 最开始我把这种趋势归结于“人口爆炸”以及无情的马尔萨斯理论。该理论认为，如果现在居住在地球上的人口比20年前多一倍，每个人得到的空间就缩小一半。近来，我怀疑是不是季节的原因：穿着T恤衫的天气使彼此靠近更具吸引力(抑或使吸引力大大减少)。或许是因为曼哈顿咖啡厅的激增数量每3个月翻一番将如此多的咖啡因注入原来就已经烦躁不安的当地人体内，使他们更加难以离群索居。Personal space is mostly a public matter; we allow all kinds of invasions of personal space in private. (Humanity wouldnt exist without them.) The logistics of it vary according to geography. People who live in Calcutta have less personal space than folks in Colorado. Dont tread on me could have been coined only by someone with a spread. I would wager that people in the Northern Hemisphere have roomier conceptions of personal space than those in the Southern. To an Englishman, a handshake can seem like trespassing, whereas to a Brazilian, anything less than a hug may come across as chilliness.5 个人空间基本上是个公众场合的问题；私下里，我们允许对个人空间进行各种各样的侵犯。(没有这些“侵犯”，人类不可能存在。)如何界定个人空间的大小因地而异。住在加尔各答的人比科罗拉多的人个人空间要来得少。“别踩我”这句话只可能是由拥有大牧场的人杜撰发明的。我敢担保北半球的居民比南半球的个人空间的概念要宽大。对英国人来说，握个手简直就是擅闯禁地，而对巴西人来说，不给你来个拥抱就会给人一种冷若冰霜的感觉。Like drivers who plow into your parked and empty car and dont leave a note, people no longer mutter Excuse me when they bump into you. The decline of manners has been widely lamented. Manners, it seems to me, are about giving people space, not stepping on toes, granting people their private domain. 6 就像司机撞上你停着的空车连个条子也不留，人们撞上人再也不说声“对不起”。世风日下，哀声遍野。在我看来，礼貌就是给别人以空间，不冒犯他人，允许别人有隐私。Ive also noticed an increase in the ranks of what I think of as space invaders, mini-territorial expansionists who seize public space with a sense of manifest destiny. In movie theatres these days, people are staking a claim to both armrests, annexing all the elbow room, while at coffee shops and on the Long Island Railroad, individuals routinely commandeer booths and sets of facing seats meant for foursomes.7 我还注意到，那些我所认为的空间入侵者们的规模在不断扩大，这些小小的领土扩张主义者们带着舍我其谁的架势堂而皇之地侵占着公共空间。这些日子，在影剧院中，人们霸占着两边的扶手，吞并手肘的全部空间；在咖啡厅里和长岛的铁路上，往往一个人就占领了面对面的火车座，而这种座位本来是给4位顾客或乘客的。Ultimately, personal space is psychological, not physical: it has less to do with the space outside us than with our inner space. I suspect that the shrinking of personal space is directly proportional to the expansion of self-absorption: people whose attention is inward do not bother to look outward. Even the focus of science these days is micro, not macro. The Human Genome Project is mapping the universe of the genetic code, while neuroscientists are using souped-up M.R.I. machines to chart the flight of neurons in our brains.8 归根结底，个人空间是个心理上的问题，而非物理上的问题：与其说它与我们的外部空间相关，不如说它与人的内心空间相关。我怀疑个人空间的缩水直接与自我专注的扩大成比例：那些只关注自我的人根本不屑于关注外部世界。这些日子，甚至科学研究都聚焦于微观世界而非宏观领域。人类基因组工程正力图绘制基因代码的全貌，神经科学家们正使用加强型磁共振成像机捕捉脑神经元的飞速漫游。In the same way that the breeze from a butterflys wings in Japan may eventually produce a tidal wave in California, I have decided to expand the contracting boundaries of personal space. In the line at my bank, I now refuse to move closer than three feet to the person in front of me, even if it means that the fellow behind me starts breathing down my neck9 正如日本一只蝴蝶轻舞飞扬可能最终引发加利福尼亚的一场海啸，我决心一己之力拓展不断收缩的个人空间。在我办事银行的队伍中，如果前面有人，我一定和他最少保持3英尺的距离，即便排在我后面的人的呼吸在我脖颈上都感受得到也在所不惜。Unit 3 Alienation and the Internet 因特网与人际之疏远1. The Internet provides an amazing forum for the free exchange of ideas. Given the relatively few restrictions governing access and usage，it is the communications modal equivalent of international waters.1 It is my personal belief that the human potential can only be realized by the globalization of ideas. I developed this position2 years before the Internet came into wide spread use. And I am excited at the potential for the Internet to dramatically alter our global society for the better. However I am also troubled by the possible unintended negative consequences. 因特网为思想的自由交流提供了一个非凡的平台。由于登录和使用互联网的限制相对较少，它的作用就等同于通讯传播中的公海。我个人认为人类潜能只有通过思想的全球化才能实现。在因特网广为应用之前许多年我就有了这样的立场。我为因特网给全球社会的更好发展带来的巨大变化振奋不已。然而，我也为预料之外的负面后果感到困扰。2. There has been much talk about the“new information age.”But much less widely reported has been the notion that the Internet may be responsible for furthering the fragmentation of society by alienating its individual users.3 At first this might sound like an apparent contradiction：how can something，that is on the one hand responsible for global unification by enabling the free exchange of ideas，alienate the participants？ 关于“新的信息时代”人们谈论得很多。但是，互联网使网民之间彼此疏远，从而导致社会的进一步土崩瓦解，对这方面的报道却少得多。乍听起来这似乎相互矛盾：一种东西怎么会既能让人们自由地交流思想，从而使全球融为一体，同时又让参与者彼此疏远呢？3. I had a recent discussion with a friend of mine who has what he described as a“problem”with the Internet. When I questioned him further he said that he was“addicted，”4 and has“forced”himself to go off-line. He said that he felt like an alcoholic，in that moderate use of the Internet was just not possible for him.5 I have not known this fellow to be given to exaggeration，therefore when he described his internet binges，6 when he would spend over twenty-four hours on line non-stop，it gave me pause to think. He said，“the Internet isnt real，but I was spending all my time on line，so I just had to stop.”He went on to say that all of the time that he spent on line might have skewed7 his sense of reality，and that it made him feel lonely and depressed. 我一位朋友自称使用因特网出了“问题”，最近我和他讨论了这个问题。我进一步追问时他说他有“网瘾”，经常得“强制”自己离线下网。他觉得自己像个酒鬼，因为他就是无法有节制地上网。据我所知，此人不喜欢夸大其词，因此当他描述自己的网瘾，说常常连续泡网一天一夜时，这引起了我的思考。他说：“网络世界不是真实的，但我还偏偏把自己所有时间花在网络上，所以我不得不悬崖勒马。”他接着说他在网上花的那么多时间使他扭曲了现实感，让他觉得孤单压抑，郁郁寡欢。4. The fragmentation of society has been lamented for some time now. It seems to me that it probably began in earnest after World War II when a generation returned from doing great deeds overseas. They won the war，and by God they were going to win the peace. Automobile ownership became commonplace and suburbs were created.“Progress”was their mantra.8 So even prior to the Internets widespread popularity，folks were already becoming distanced from their extended families and neighbors. And when we fast-forward to today we see an almost cruel irony in that people can and often do develop on-line relationships with folks on the other side of the globe，without leaving their homes. But at the expense of the time that would have otherwise been available for involvement in other activities which might foster a sense of community in their villages，towns and cities.大家哀叹社会的四分五裂由来已久。在我看来，这种分裂真正始于第二次世界大战结束后，当时一代人在海外完成宏伟事业之后荣归故里。他们打赢了战争，面对上帝，他们还要赢得和平。小汽车变得普及，人们建起了郊区。“进步”是时常挂在他们嘴边的口号。于是甚至早于因特网大行其道之时，人们早就疏远了大家庭的其他成员和左邻右舍。我们把场景快进到今天，见到的情景几乎可以说是残酷的讽刺：人们足不出户就经常能和远在地球另一端的人建立网络关系，但这样做的代价是：他们花掉了很多时间，而这些时间本来可以在他们自己的村子和城镇里投身于各项活动，从而培养社区观念。5. Last weekend my wife and I invited our extended family to our home to celebrate our daughters birthday. During the celebration my young nephew spent the entire time on my computer playing a simulated war game. My brother-in-law and I were chatting nearby and it struck us that in generations past，his son，my nephew，would have been outside playing with his friends. But now the little fellow goes on line to play his games against his friends in cyberspace.上周末我们夫妻邀请大家庭的其他成员来家里庆祝我女儿的生日。整个庆祝过程中，小外甥把全部时间都花在我电脑上玩一个模拟战争的游戏。我和妹夫就坐在边上聊天。我们都认识到，要是像几代前的先辈那样，他儿子，也就是我外甥，一定在外头和朋友玩耍。但如今这小家伙不在外头玩，而是上网和虚拟空间的朋友玩游戏。 6. It seems to me that the Internet is a powerful tool that presents an opportunity for the advancement of the acquisition and application of knowledge. However，based on my personal experience I can understand how，as they surf the web some folks might be confronted with cognitive overload.9 And I can also understand how one might have his or her sense of reality distorted in the process. Is the Internet a real place？Depending upon how a“real place”is defined it might very well be. At the very least，I believe that when we use the Internet，we are forced to ask fundamental questions about how we perceive the world about usperhaps another unintended consequence. Some would argue that the virtual existences created by some users who debate，shop，travel and have romance on line are in fact not real. While others would argue that，since in practical terms，folks are debating，shopping，traveling and having romance，the converse is true.对我来说，因特网似乎是个强大的工具，它给人们提供一个不断获取和应用知识的机会。然而，通过我自己的亲身经历，我能够理解当某些人上网的时候，是如何面临认知超载的。我也同样明白一个人的现实感在上网过程中如何被扭曲。网络空间是真实的吗？按照界定“真实处所”的定义，网络空间很可能是真实的。退一万步说，我相信上网时，我们会被迫拷问自己一些基本问题，比如我们如何感知周围的世界或许这是另一个预料之外的后果。有人或许会说，用户在网上唇枪舌剑、购物旅游、谈情说爱的虚拟存在并不真实；而另一些人主张说，按实际的说法，人们确实在网上唇枪舌剑、购物旅游、谈情说爱，那么网络世界就应该是真实的。7. All of this being said，I believe that the key to realizing the potential of the Internet is in achieving balance in our lives. This would allow us to maximize its potential without losing our sense of place.10 However like most things that is easier said than done. It seems to me that we are a society that values immediate gratification above all else，and what better place to achieve it than in cyberspace，where the cyber-world is your cyber-oyster. The widespread use of the automobile forever changed our society and culture，and perhaps a similar sort of thing is occurring now. I am not at all certain where the“information superhighway”will lead us：some say to Utopia，12 while others feel its the road to hell. But I do know that we all have the ability to maintain our sense of place in the world. Whether we choose to take advantage of this ability is another matter.说了这么多，我认为发挥因特网潜能的关键在于在生活中取得平衡。这能使我们最大程度地挖掘网络潜能而不迷失自己。然而，就像大多数事理那样，说易行难。在我看来，我们这个社会似乎最崇尚及时行乐，要实现这一点，还有比网络空间更好的场所吗？在网络上你可以想干什么就干什么。汽车的广泛使用永远改变了我们的社会和文化，类似的事情现在也在发生。我压根不确定“信息高速公路”将会把我们引向何方：有人说它会把我们带入乌托邦，而另一些人觉得它是通往地狱之路。但我确信我们都有能力保持我们在世界上的方位感。但是我们能否选择利用这种能力却是另外一回事。Unit 4 A View of Mountains 望远山1. On August 9, 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Yosuke Yamahata, a photographer serving in the Japanese army, was dispatched to the destroyed city. The hundred or so pictures he took the next day constitute the fullest photographic record of nuclear des