Unit 5 Language新编大学英语第二版第三册课文翻译

1、Unit 5 LanguageHow I Discovered WordsHelen KellerThe most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrast between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March,

2、 1887, three months before I was seven years old. On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on t

3、he steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marve

4、l or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this passionate struggle. Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way t

5、oward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbor was. "Light! Give me light!" was the wordles

6、s cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour. I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Someone took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to

7、love me. The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. The little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman had dressed it; but I did not know this until afterward. When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled

8、into my hand the word "d-o-l-l". I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to imitate it. When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly I was flushed with childish pleasure and pride. Running downstairs to my mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I

9、 did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in this uncomprehending way a great many words, among them, pin, hat, cup and a few verbs like sit, stand and walk. But my tea

10、cher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a name. One day, while I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put my big rag doll into my lap, also spelled "d-o-l-l" and tried to make me understand that "d-o-l-l" applied to both. Earlier in the

11、day we had had a tussle over the words "m-u-g" and "w-a-t-e-r". Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon me that "m-u-g" is mug and that "w-a-t-e-r" is water, but I persisted in confounding the two. In despair she had dropped the subject for the time, only t

12、o renew it at the first opportunity. I became impatient at her repeated attempts and, seizing the new doll, I dashed it upon the floor. I was keenly delighted when I felt the fragments of the broken doll at my feet. Neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll.

13、 In the still, dark world in which I lived there was no strong sentiment or tenderness. I felt my teacher sweep the fragments to one side of the hearth, and I had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of my discomfort was removed. She brought me my hat, and I knew I was going out into the warm suns

14、hine. This thought, if a wordless sensation may be called a thought, made me hop and skip with pleasure. We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the

15、 cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly, I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten-a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of

16、 language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away. I lef

17、t the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. On entering the door I remembered

18、 the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow. I learned a great many new words that day. I do not remember what th

19、ey all were; but I do know that mother, father, sister, teacher were among them-words that were to make the world blossom for me, "like Aaron's rod, with flowers". It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and

20、lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come. 我是怎样识字的在我记忆中，我一生最重要的日子是我的老师安妮·曼斯菲尔德·沙利文走进我生活的那一天。至今，每当我想起这一天仍会惊叹不已：是这一天把（我过的）截然不同的两种生活连在一起，那是1887年3月3日，离我7岁生日还有三个月。我那个重要的日子的午后，我呆呆地站在我家的门廊上，内心充满了期盼。从我母亲给我的手势和屋子里众人来来往往的忙碌中我隐约猜到将有不同寻常的事发生，于是我来到门口，在台阶

21、上等着。午后的阳光透过覆盖着门廊的忍冬花簇照射到我仰起的脸庞上。我的手指近乎下意识地抚弄着这些熟悉的叶片和花朵。它们刚刚抽叶开花，迎来南方温馨的春天。至于我的未来究竟会出现什么样的奇迹，我茫然不知。几个星期来，愤怒和怨恨一直折磨着我。这种激烈的情感争斗之后是一种极度的疲惫。你可曾在航海时遇上过浓雾？那时，你仿佛被困在了触手可及的一片白茫茫中，不见天日。你乘坐的巨轮，靠测深锤和测深线的指引，举步维艰地靠向海岸，既紧张又焦急不安；而你则心里怦怦直跳，等着什么事情发生。我在接受教育之前正像那艘巨轮，所不同的是我连指南针或测深线都没有，更无从知晓离港湾还有多远。我的心灵在无声地疾呼：“光明！给我光明吧

22、！”而就在那个时刻，爱的光芒洒在了我的身上。我感觉到有脚步由远及近，于是我伸出了手，以为会是母亲。有人抓住了我的手，将我抱住并紧紧地搂在了怀里。正是这个人的到来，把整个世界展示给我，最重要的是，给我带来了爱。在老师来到我家的第二天上午，她把我带到了她的房间，给了我一个玩具娃娃。这娃娃是帕金斯学校的小盲童们送给我的礼物，劳拉·布里奇曼给娃娃穿上了衣服，不过这些是我在后来才知道的。我玩了一小会儿之后，沙利文小结慢慢地在我的手上拼出了“d-o-l-l”（玩偶）这个词。我一下子便对这种手指游戏产生了兴趣，而且试着模仿它。当我终于正确地拼出了这几个字母时，内心充满了孩子气的喜悦和自豪。我跑到楼

23、下找到母亲，伸手拼出了“玩偶”所含的字母。当时我并不知道我是在拼一个单词，甚至还不知道有“单词”这么回事；我只是像猴子那样用手指进行模仿。在接下来的几天里，我就这样，虽然并不知词识义，却学会了拼写好些单词。这些单词中有“别针”、“帽子”、“杯子”，还有些动词，如“坐”、“站”和“走”。但是等我懂得了每样东西都有名字时，已经是我和老师在一起好几个星期之后的事了。一天，我正在玩我的新玩具娃娃，这时，沙利文小姐把我的大布娃娃放在我的膝上，又给我拼了一遍“d-o-l-l”，想让我懂得“d-o-l-l”这个单词适用于这两件东西。就在当天早些时候，我曾和她因“m-u-g”和“w-a-t-e-r”这两个词发

24、生过争执。沙利文小姐想让我记住“m-u-g”是“大杯”，而“w-a-t-e-r”是“水”，但我却总是把这两个词的意思给弄混。失望之余她暂时搁起这一话题，但一有机会她就马上旧事重提。我却对她一遍又一遍的努力感到忍无可忍，于是就抓起新的玩具娃娃，狠狠地砸在了地板上。当我感觉到脚边摔碎的玩具娃娃时，产生了一种强烈的快感。在这种强烈的情感发泄之后，我没有一丝伤感或懊悔之情。我从没有喜欢过那个玩具娃娃。在我所生活的那个无声、黑暗的世界里是没有柔情或情感的。我感觉到老师已把碎片扫到了壁炉炉床的一边，此时我有一种满足感，因为让我不快的东西已不复存在了。她给我拿来了草帽，我知道我将要走出屋子，到温暖的阳光下。

25、一想到这（如果一种无法用言语表达的感觉也可以称为想法的话），我便高兴地又蹦又跳。我们沿着小路来到了井房，井房上布满了忍冬，它的芳香深深地吸引了我们。有人正在抽水，老师把我的一只手放到了喷水口下方。凉爽的水流过我的一只手，这时她在我的另一只手上拼写了“水”这个词。开始她拼得很慢，接着拼得很快。我站在那儿一动不动，所有的注意力都集中在她手指的移动上。刹那间，我朦胧地意识到了些什么，仿佛记起了被久久遗忘的什么东西那是一种恢复思维的激动。不知怎的，语言的奥秘一下子展现在我的面前。这时我明白了，“w-a-t-e-r”指的就是从我手上流过的那美妙无比的凉爽的东西。这活生生的字眼唤醒了我沉睡的灵魂，赋予了它

26、光明、希望和喜悦，使它获得了自由！诚然，障碍依然存在，但那是一些假以时日终究会被消除的障碍。我离开井房，心中充满了求知的欲望。万物皆有名，而每个名字又引申出一种新的 概念。在我们回家的路上，我感到我触摸到的每件东西似乎都有生机。那是因为我在用刚刚赋予我的新奇的眼光看待每样东西。进门时我记起了那个被我摔破的娃娃。我摸索着来到了路床边，捡起那些碎片，试着把他们拼接在一起，但却徒劳无益。这时我的眼里满是泪水，因为我意识到了自己先前干了些什么，而且有生以来第一次感到了悔恨和难过。那天我学会了很多新词。现在我已记不清都是些什么词了，但我还记得其中有“妈妈、爸爸、姐妹、老师”。这些词使得整个世界在我面前绽

27、放，“有如亚伦的神杖，开满了鲜花”。在这个重要的日子就要结束时，已很难找到一个比我更加幸福的孩子了。我躺在自己的小床上，回味着这一天所给予我的欣喜，渴望着新的一天的到来。这是我有生以来从未有过的期盼。Not Just Parrot-TalkScientists have taught a parrot English. So what? This time, it seems, the bird not only says the words but also understands them. Alex, an African grey parrot residing at America&

28、#39;s Purdue University in Indiana, has a vocabulary of about 40 words with which he identifies, requests and sometimes refuses more than 50 toys. He seems to manipulate words as abstract symbolsin other words, to use a primitive form of language. In many birds, communication takes the form of simpl

29、e, stereotyped signals. Some birds, like parrots, are capable of learning huge repertoires of phrases by mimicking each other or other species. But, until now, there has been no evidence that any bird could make the big leap to associating one sound exclusively with one object or quality. Alex can.

30、Dr Irene Pepperberg, his trainer, exploited the natural curiosity of the parrot to teach him to use the names of different toys. The trainer and an assistant play with the toys and ask each other questions about them. To join in, the parrot has to compete for the trainer's attention. The results

31、 have been spectacular. Alex rapidly learned to ask for certain objects, identifying them by words for shape, colour and material (e.g. three-cornered green paper, or five-cornered yellow wood). He is asked to repeat words until he gets them right and is then rewarded by being given the object to pl

32、ay with. Dr Pepperberg believes it is important that the bird is not rewarded with food, because that would make him think of words as ways of getting treats rather than as symbols for objects. Twice a week, Alex is tested and he normally gets about 80 % of the objects right. The mistakes are usuall

33、y small omissions (for instance, he forgets to name the colour of an object) rather than specific errors. To discover if he really is able to grasp concepts like colour and shape, he is shown entirely novel combinations. When first shown a blue piece of leather he said "blue hide" even tho

34、ugh the blue objects he had previously seen were all keys or made of wood. This suggests that he is aware that words are building blocks that can be used in different combinations. Still, a vocabulary of adjectives and nouns hardly amounts to mastery of a language. The scientists have been looking f

35、or evidence that Alex understands more complicated ideas. One unexpected breakthrough was when he learned to say "no". He picked this up from the conversations between the trainer and her assistant and seems to understand at least one meaning of the wordrejection (for instance, when Dr Pep

36、perberg tries to play with him and he does not feel like it). He can also count to five when asked how many objects are being shown. There are occasional hints that he has grasped even more advanced concepts but Dr Pepperberg is cautious. Public reaction to the abilities of chimpanzees to use sign l

37、anguage has recently descended from excitement to bitterness and nobody dare make extravagant claims any more. It is not that people doubt the ability of apes to accumulate a large vocabulary of signs. The argument is about whether apes can understand syntax. Examples which seem to show them doing s

38、o are few and disputed. For instance, Washoe, the first and most famous of the talking chimpanzees, once pointed to a swan and signed "water bird". Or did she? Dr Herbert Terrace of Columbia University pointed out that she might simply have signed "water" and "bird" in

39、quick succession. Other sceptics argue that, in the course of a lifetime, it would be surprising if such apes did not occasionally produce syntactical combinations of signs by pure chance. A more serious criticism is that the apes are responding to unconscious cues from their trainers. Unconscious c

40、ueing is known as the "clever Hans effect" in honour of a famous horse in nineteenth-century Germany. Hans appeared to knock out the answers to mathematical sums with his hoof. In fact, the horse was not doing the sums but was responding to subtle signs from the crowd which told him when t

41、o stop. When the crowd did not know the answer, Hans could not do the sum. Dr Pepperberg believes that her experiments are free of such an effect because speech is less easy to cue than sign language. She argues that this makes talking parrots better subjects than signing apes for probing the limits

42、 of animal intelligence. She would like to see Alex (or, even better, a young parrot) compared with children to see if the bird discovers ideas in the same order as the children do and exactly where the children leave the bird behind. 外国口音第一节对我来说，我的确倾向于以口音来判断我所遇到的人。我并不是说自己是势利小人，只喜欢有上流社会口音的人；但是，跟一个新结

43、识的人在一起，我从来都不会感到自在，只有在我能够根据他们说的话判断出他们是哪里人之后，感觉才会不同。如果是个英国人，我还能判断出“啊，他是利物浦人”，或者“他可能上过公立学校”，我就会觉得更自在。这样我就知道该和他谈些什么以及他能够告诉我些什么。（如果）对方是外国人，也一样。就个人而言，我喜欢外国人说话带点明显的口音，这样我就知道自己是在和法国人、加纳人、波兰人或别的什么国家的人交谈。所有对我来说，外国人话大力气改掉自己的本族语口音，想方设法去说标准英语，似乎是毫无意义的。如果对方很明显是法国人，我就知道没有必要（与他）谈论板球或开爱尔兰人的玩笑。坦率地说，我觉得外国口音更吸引人。我无法解释为

44、什么，但如果说话人带有外国口音，那么即便是说最最普通的事，也会显得妙趣横生。第二节尽管如此，（口音）得有个限度，要能让人听懂。如果口音太重，你非得费劲地去弄明白对方想要说什么，就会妨碍谈话的进行，而且交谈也就无法连贯，（因为）你的设法把对方的声音整理成能够明白的话语。我所指的并非是这么重的口音，而是那种让你马上明白对方是哪国人，但又不妨碍你听懂他的话的那种口音。我认为大多数外国人都有这样的口音，真的。老实说，只有极少数听觉特别灵敏、模仿能力极强的人才能说还算纯正的英国英语。即使能够那样，他们的英语听起来也会很可笑，因为他们可能学会的是一种非常明显的地方口音，甚至是与自己的气质特点完全不相称的上

45、流社会口音。但是大多数学英语的外国人都非常热衷于去掉自己的外国口音，并且为此浪费了很多时间。第三节换一个角度来看，我得理解他们，甚至钦佩他们。因为我自己法语说得还可以，如果别人认为我是法国人，我就感到很开心，如果别人一听就知道我是英国人，我也会感到很泄气。同样的，对我来说，带英国口音的法语实在是太难听了，而且当我听自己的同胞在糟蹋法语时，总是感到很不自在。所以我想外国人听到自己的同胞说蹩脚英语时，也会有同感的。然而，法国朋友告诉我，略带英国口音的发育丝毫不会令他们感到难受，相反，还相当动听呢。我还听说佩特拉·克拉克之所以能在法国成为成功的歌手，部分原因是因为她的英国口音。所以我想，最

46、著名的说英语的法国人之一，就是那位叫莫里斯·谢瓦利埃的演员，他靠一口明显的法语口音成就了一番事业。其实若他愿意，他也许可以不带那么重的口音。我把他和我的一个显然很有语言天赋的法国朋友进行对比。我的这个法国朋友和我一起在英国的时候，总被人误认为是受过良好教育的英国人。因为他的说话方式，我的应该朋友便以为他对英国生活的某些方面非常了解，而这些只有在英国生活多年才会了解的。因而夜里从酒吧回来以后，他经常得让我解释一些事情给他听。我不知道他花了多少时间纠正口音，但或许他更应该花时间扩大词汇量和加强对英国的了解。既然英语是这样一种国际性的语言，我认为我们应该接受更多的口音，而学习者更应该注重（

47、语言）结构和词汇的学习而不是口音（的纯正）。Science Looks Twice at TwinsIf twins interest you, Twinsburg will fascinate you. Every summer since 1976, this little town outside Cleveland, Ohio, has been invaded by twins. Last summer 2,356 sets of twins showed up from around the world to watch and take part in parades, fire

48、works, magic acts, a 5K race, and more than 100 contests: contests to honor the oldest twins, the youngest, the most alike, the least alike, the twins with the widest combined smile. Had you been there, you might have noticed a large group of scientists who also attend the festival. Some come seekin

49、g clues to the causes of health problemsskin diseases, cancer, and heart attack, for example. Others are interested in how it feels to be a twin. But of all the scientists, perhaps the ones doing the most importantand most controversialwork are those who study nature and nurture, that age-old questi

50、on of how we come to be the kind of people we are. Why are some of us good at math, or writing, while others excel at art or basketball? What causes the differences in our intelligence, talents, and tastes? Are they largely determined by the genes we inherit from our parents (nature)? How much do ou

51、r experiences in life (nurture)the social environment we grow up inhave to do with it? If you were a scientist interested in this question, wouldn't you love to study identical twins? Just think of it: two people who developed from the same fertilized egg. That is, two people with the exact same

52、 set of genes. Any differences between such identical twins would have to be the result of differences in their environment. But could you also say that any similarities were the result of having the same genes? Not really. Remember, most twins share a similar environmentsame house, food, relatives,

53、 and so on. The only way you could accurately measure the effects of nature and nurture would be to study identical twins raised apart, in different environments. Over the last ten years, a team of scientists led by psychologist Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. has studied about 65 pairs of identical twins wh

54、o were raised apart. They've also studied about 45 fraternal twins who were raised apart. The scientists bring each pair of twins to the University of Minnesota for a week of intensive testing. Doctors and dentists on the team give the twins thorough physical examinations. They record the twins&

55、#39; height, weight, eye color, ear shape, and head length. Meanwhile, psychologists give the twins 1Q and personality tests. To measure personality, the psychologists try to determine things like how much the twins worry, whether they are cautious or reckless, and how creative they are. They measur

56、e these and other traits by the twins' responses to statements such as "I rarely, if ever, do anything reckless" and "The flames of a wood fire stimulate my imagination". By the end of the week, each twin has answered about 15,000 questions. Bouchard's team has been start

57、led by the similarities between twins raised apart. The twins often have surprisingly similar gestures and postures, for instance. In pictures, many of the twins strike nearly identical poses. And some of the identical twins discover they have led remarkably similar lives. The first set of identical

58、 twins Bouchard studied, the "Jim twins", were adopted by different families four weeks after they were born. They grew up in Ohio, 45 miles away from each other. When they were reunited at the age of 39, they discovered a series of striking similarities. Both were named Jim. Both drove th

59、e same model blue Chevrolet, liked woodworking, chewed their fingernails, and owned dogs named Toy. Both started having late-afternoon headaches at the age of 18. The sort of similarities the Jim twins discovered are common with the twins the Minnesota team has studied. Some critics of the Minnesota

60、 study say the coincidences are not surprising. They argue that everyone's life has enough details that a number of coincidences are bound to exist. What's more, for every coincidence discovered by a pair of identical twins raised apart, a skeptic could point to a vast number of undiscovered differences. The same two twins might have different model television sets and support different football teams. But the diffe