Unit7CollegeLife新编大学英语第二版文翻译

1、Unit 7 College LifeThe Commencement Speech You'll Never HearWe the faculty take no pride in our educational achievement with you. We have prepared you for a world that does not exist, indeed, that cannot exist. You have spent four years supposing that failure leaves no record. You have learned a

2、t Brown that when your work goes poorly, the painless solution is to drop out. But starting now, in the world to which you go, failure marks you. Confronting difficulty by quitting leaves you changed. Outside Brown, quitters are no heroes. With us you could argue about why your errors were not error

3、s, why mediocre work really was excellent, why you could take pride in routine and slipshod presentation. Most of you, after all, can look back on honor grades for most of what you have done. So, here grades can have meant little in distinguishing the excellent from the ordinary. But tomorrow, in th

4、e world to which you go, you had better not defend errors but learn from them. You will be ill-advised to demand praise for what does not deserve it, and abuse those who do not give it. For years we created an altogether forgiving world, in which whatever slight effort you gave was all that was dema

5、nded. When you did not keep appointments, we made new ones. When your work came in beyond the deadline, we pretended not to care. Worse still, when you were boring, we acted as if you were saying something important. When you were garrulous and talked to hear yourselves talk, we listened as if it ma

6、ttered. When you tossed on our desks writing upon which you had not labored, we read it and even responded, as though you earned a response. When you were dull, we pretended you were smart. When you were predictable, unimaginative and routine, we listened as if to new and wonderful things. When you

7、demanded free lunch, we served it. And all this why? Despite your fantasies, it was not even that we wanted to be liked by you. It was that we did not want to be bothered, and the easy way out was pretense: smiles and easy Bs. It is conventional to quote in addresses such as these. Let me quote some

8、one you've never heard of: Professor Carter A. Daniel, Rutgers University: "College has spoiled you by reading papers that don't deserve to be read, listening to comments that don't deserve a hearing, paying attention even to the lazy, ill-informed and rude. We had to do it, for the

9、 sake of education. But nobody will ever do it again. College has deprived you of adequate preparation for the last 50 years. It has failed you by being easy, free, forgiving, attentive, comfortable, interesting, unchallenging fun. Good luck tomorrow. That is why, on this commencement day, we have n

10、othing in which to take much pride. Oh, yes, there is one more thing. Try not to act toward your co-workers and bosses as you have acted toward us. I mean, when they give you what you want but have not earned, don't abuse them, insult them, act out with them your parlous relationships with your

11、parents. This too we have tolerated. It was, as I said, not to be liked. Few professors actually care whether or not they are liked by peer-paralyzed adolescents, fools so shallow as to imagine professors care not about education but about popularity. It was, again, to be rid of you. So go, unlearn

12、the lies we taught you. To life! 你将永远不会听到的毕业演讲1 我们这些教师对于在你们身上取得的教育成就一点都不感到自豪。我们培养你们去适应的是一个根本不存在的世界事实上也是不可能存在的。在这里度过的四年时间里，你们一直以为失败是不会留下任何记录的。要是学得不好，一个最省事的办法就是中途退出（不修这门课），在布朗大学你们学会了这一点。但是，从现在开始，在你们要涉足的世界里，失败是要给你留下疤痕的。知难而退也会使你变成另一个人。走出布朗，知难而退的人绝不是英雄。2 你们可以跟我们争辩，说服我们为什么你们的错误不是错误，为什么平庸的作业是优秀的，为什么你们会对普普通

13、通并不出色的课堂报告感到骄傲。回想一下，毕竟你们中的大多数人在你们所学的大部分课程中都得了高分。因此，在这里分数并不能作为区分优秀学生与学业平平的学生的依据。但是，今后，在你们所要去的世界里，你们最好不要为自己的错误辩护，而应该从中吸取教训。假如你们要求得到你们不该得到的表扬，诋毁那些不给你们表扬的人，这是不明智的做法。3 多年来，我们创造了一个完全宽容的世界。这里所要求于你们的仅仅是一点微不足道的努力。当你们没有按约定的时间赴约时，我们就再约时间。当你们没有按期交作业时，我们装作不在乎。4 更糟糕的是，当你们的言谈枯燥无味时，我们却装作你们说的是重要的事情；当你们喋喋不休、不知所云时，我们认

14、真倾听，似乎你们说的东西事关重大；当你们把根本没有花心思写的作业扔到我们桌上时，我们不仅拜读，甚至批改给评语，好像值得为你们这样做似的。当你们犯傻时，我们装作你们聪明过人；当你们老生常谈、毫无想象力、平平淡淡时，我们却装作像在听什么美妙绝伦的新鲜事情一样；当你们要不劳而获时，我们拱手奉上。所有这一切究竟是为了什么？5 对这一切尽管你们可以想入非非，但我们决不是因为想要讨你们的欢心，而是因为我们不想让你们来啰唆。一个简单的办法就是作假：微笑，让你们轻轻松松都得B。6 在这一类的演说中人们往往习惯于引用，在此让我来引用一个你们从来没有听说过的人的话，这个人是拉特格斯大学的卡特A.丹尼尔教授。7 他

15、说：“大学毁了你们，让你们阅读那些不值得一读的论文，听那些不值得一听的评论，甚至要去尊重那些无所事事、孤陋寡闻、极不文明的人。为了教育，我们过去不得不这样做，但是今后不会有人再这样做了。在过去的50年中，大学使你们丧失了得到充分培养的机会。由于大学成了一个轻松、自由、包容、体贴、舒适、充满乐趣、好玩的地方，它没有对你们尽到责任。但愿你们今后好运。”8 这就是为什么，在今天进行毕业典礼之际，我们没有任何可引以自豪的东西。9 哦，对了，还有一点。尽量不要像对待我们那样去对待你们的同事和老板。我的意思是，当他们把你们想要但不是你们应得的东西给了你们时，要善待他们，不要侮辱他们，不要在他们身上重演你们

16、与父母之间的那种糟糕的关系。这一切，我们也都忍受了。正如我刚才所说的，这不是为了讨你们的欢心。有一些年轻人只能在同龄人的眼中找到自我，是一些愚昧无知的人，竟然肤浅到以为教授们关心的不是教育，而是自己的人缘。实际上，很少有教授在乎这类年轻人是否喜欢他们。我们容忍这一切，只是为了摆脱你们。摒弃我们在教学中给你们造成的这些假象，投身到真实的生活中去吧。Those College FinalsI was sitting around downtown the other night. The wind was blowing; the temperature was frigid; the atmos

17、phere was depressing. I knew that the combination of these things reminded me of something, and soon enough I realized what that something was. Final exams. The most miserable moments of a college student's life come during final exam week during the winter. It is a horror that stays with a pers

18、on for the rest of his life: the desperation, the frustration, the realization that one has to cough up mounds of knowledge that one does not even possess. And that one's future career may depend on how well one does the coughing. I checked the calendar. Sure enough, it was just about time for t

19、he end of the term at Northwestern University, just up the road from me. I knew that thousands of students were up there at that very moment, bending over textbooks and notes and trying against all odds to memorize arcane facts and figures that they really cared nothing about. I couldn't help my

20、self. I headed for the campus. In the first building where I stopped, a light was burning brightly in a classroom. I walked in; two young men had papers spread all over the room. Class was not in session; the two were alone. "Hi, fellows," I said. They looked up. Their eyes were filled wit

21、h pain. They appeared to have gone without sleep for three or four days. "What's up, guys?" I said. "Please leave us alone," one of them said softly. "Leave you alone?" I said. "Finals," the other one gasped. I walked out of the room and began a leisurely

22、stroll around campus. Men and women looked as if they were about to sob as they staggered toward the library. They muttered to themselves. They lifted their eyes in silent prayer. They walked into trees, steadied their bodies, and kept walking. I felt great. I had been one of them, and now I wasn

23、9;t. There probably is no feeling in this world more exhilarating than being on a college campus during final exams, and knowing that you don't have to take them. I spent most of the evening wandering from building to building, watching the students get ready for the next day's finals. It wa

24、s all so familiar. They gathered around long tables, spiral-bound notebooks open, and they shot questions at one another. There were lengthy periods of silence, and then a series of tentative answers. Cursing was common. Moans broke out. They stomped on the floor, and gazed out the window, and seeme

25、d to be ready to weep. Once in a while they glanced over at me. Under normal circumstances they probably would have been curious about my presence, but on this night their eyes were so glazed over that they couldn't even think straight. I just read the sports section and winked at them. If I wou

26、ld have been in a charitable mood, I would have told them one of the great secrets of the real world. It is a secret that all of us who have been to college learned only after we got out; a secret that, if college students knew it, would ease their minds and make them calm. The secret is this: There

27、 are no final exams in real life. It's true. In the real world, you don't have to know anything. There are no cases in which you have to sit down in a crowded room, scrunch your eyes up in concentration and regurgitate obscure and ridiculous facts from memory. In real life, you get to bring

28、the book along. Believe it, college students: Real life is an open-book test. If you've forgotten something, you get to go look it up, or ask someone who's smarter than you. It's easy; much easier than college. The only place you'll ever encounter something as bizarre and frightening

29、 as a final exam is at college. The college administrators fool the students by making them believe that final exams are only a mild precursor of what is going to happen every day in the big, mean' world. But it's not true. If the real world were as bizarre and rotten as final exams, you'

30、;d see everyone on the street walking around in the same demented, pathetic state as college students during exam week. No, it's all downhill after college finals. Real life is a coast, a glide. No one is ever going to ask you to compare and contrast the works of the Elizabethan authors no one i

31、s ever going to demand that you trace the battles of the Boer War. If someone did come up to you at work and ask you something like that, he'd soon be locked up in an institution somewhere. I could have told the students that. I could have soothed their minds and made things simple for them. I c

32、ould have asked them to join me for a beer and forget about finals week. Look at the top executives of the Fortune 500 companies, I could have told them. Do you think anyone would ever dare ask them how they did on their college final exams? I could have filled the students' mind with comforting

33、 thoughts like that. But I didn't. And why should I have? I went through finals many times; finals made me crazy, and now it was time for these students to be made crazy. I watched them in their despair, and I smiled the smile of the truly contented. I stayed on campus until nearly midnight, and

34、 then I wandered off. On a path between some classroom buildings, something tumbled across the sidewalk, blowing in the wind. I knelt to pick it up. It was a blue book, the dreadful, chilling symbol of finals week. A blue book that some poor student had carried out of his exam and then discarded on

35、the ground. I stuck it in my pocket and laughed a mechanical laugh. The lights still glowed in the campus building, as they would all night, but I got to go home. 大学期末考试1那天晚上，我在市中心附近闲坐。风在呼啸，气温很低，这气氛让人感到压抑。我知道，所有这一切让我想起了什么，很快我就明白是什么了：期末考试。2大学生活最痛苦的时刻莫过于冬天期末考试那一周。这种恐惧刻骨铭心，一生都忘不了是一种绝望、沮丧，是意识到自己不得不勉强应答一

36、大堆并未掌握的知识，而且一个人的前途如何，就取决于这种勉强的应答。3我查了一下日历。果然，西北大学现在正好是学期快结束的时候沿着我面前这条路走过去就是西北大学。我知道，就在此刻，就在那里，成千上万的大学生正埋头于课本和笔记，使出浑身解数去背那些晦涩难解的事实和数字，其实这些东西跟他们毫无关系。我按捺不住，径直朝校园走去。在我停下来的第一栋楼里，有一问教室灯火通明。我走了进去。两个年轻人将资料摊得满屋子都是。这会儿没课，只有他们俩。“嘿，伙计，”我说。他们抬起头，满眼的痛苦。他们看上去好像三四天没睡觉似的。4“怎么了，年轻人?”我问。5“请别打扰我们，”其中一个轻声道。6“别打扰你们?”我问。7

37、“期末考试了，”另一人喘着粗气说。8我走出教室，开始在校园里悠闲地溜达。男生女生个个神情沮丧，摇摇晃晃地朝图书馆走去。他们有的自言自语，有的抬头默默祈祷，有的走进树林，站稳身子，然后继续往前走。我感觉好极了。我曾经是他们中的一员，但现在我不是了。也许，在这世上，期末考试时，置身大学校园而知道你不必参加考试，可能是世界上最令人兴奋的事了。9那晚大部分时问，我从一栋教学楼逛到另一栋教学楼，看着学生们为第二天的考试做准备。这一切是那么熟悉。他们围坐在长桌周围，前面摊开用螺旋线穿起来的笔记簿，连珠炮似地互相发问。一次次良久的沉默，接着是试探性地回答。咒骂声不绝于耳，时不时夹杂着哀叹。他们跺脚，凝视窗外

38、，仿佛随时会哭出来。他们偶尔也朝我瞥一眼。在平时，他们可能会对我的出现感到好奇，但是，那天晚上，他们的目光呆滞无神，思维也不清晰了。我翻阅着体育版的消息，朝他们眨眨眼。10如果我当时善心大发，我就会告诉他们现实世界中一个最大的秘密。这是我们所有上过大学的人走出校园后才领悟到的秘密，如果让大学生领悟了这个秘密，他们就会轻松、平静。这就是：现实生活中没有期末考试。11确实如此。在现实生活中，你不必了解任何事情。没有任何情况需要你坐在拥挤不堪的教室里，为集中注意力而眯起眼睛，或者一字不漏地背出晦涩、荒唐的具体事实。在现实生活中，你可以把书带上。同学们，请相信：现实生活是开卷考，如果你忘了什么，你可以

39、去查阅，或者请教比你聪明的人。很容易，比在大学里容易多了。12只有在大学里，你才会遇上像期末考试那样稀奇古怪、令人恐惧的事情。大学管理者们欺骗学生们，让他们相信与庞大的残酷无情的世界里每天所发生的事情相比，期末考试不过是温和的前驱。但这并不是事实。如果现实世界确如期末考试那样荒诞可笑、令人厌烦，你就会看到街上的每位行人都如同在考试那周里的学生一样焦躁不安、可怜之极。现实并非如此，熬过了大学的期末考试后，一切如履平地。现实生活如同靠惯性滑行。没有人会要求你说出伊丽莎白时期作品的异同，或者强令你描述布尔战争各大战役的来龙去脉。如果在你工作时真有人过来问你这类问题，那么他就会马上被关进某所精神病院。

40、13我本来可以将这些告诉学生们，我本来可以安慰他们，让事情变得简单些。我本来可以请他们和我一起喝杯啤酒，忘了这期末考试周。我本来可以告诉他们：看看(财富前500强企业的总经理。你想会有人胆敢问他们的期末考试成绩吗?我本来可以灌输给他们这类令人宽慰的想法。14但是我没有。我为什么要告诉他们呢?我经历了许多次期末考试，期末考试让我几乎发疯，现在该轮到他们发疯了。我看着绝望中的他们，像一个真正心满意足的人那样笑了。我在校园里几乎呆到午夜，然后才悠闲地离开。在几栋教学楼之间的小径上，我看见有什么东西被风吹动，在人行道上翻滚，我跪下将它拾了起来。这是一本蓝皮答题册，是期末考试周恐怖的、令人心惊胆战的标志

41、。这一定是某个可怜的学生带出考场后，丢在地上的。我把它插入口袋，机械地笑了笑。校园教学楼里的灯光依然闪烁着，而且会整夜这样，但是我得回家了。Fall from University GraceJust as Adam was east out of Eden, I was kicked out of university; but while his transgression was eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge, my sin was ignoring the tree. After my dismal performance in

42、 my first year of university, I contemplated the reasons for my failure. Now, I understand the two factors that contributed to my downfall: the lack of a career goal and premature independence. Without a career goal, I lacked direction and motivation. About halfway through my final year of high scho

43、ol, I was hounded by my parents to enroll in university, but until that time I had not given any thought to what career I wanted to pursue. To silence their nagging, I told them I wanted to be an engineer. Though I got high marks in math, physics, and chemistry, I was bored with them, and my dislike

44、 of the sciences became apparent in the first four months of university. I failed all my science courses. Had I been more motivated, I might have passed those courses, but I just wasn't ready for university. In fact, I wasn't ready for any career. I assumed that the amount of studying I did

45、in high schoolan hour per daywould be sufficient to attain respectable marks in university. I was wrong. Because I could not see myself as an engineer, I could not motivate myself to study harder; then I began looking for excuses to avoid studying. Even when I was reading my textbooks, I wasn't

46、studying. Daydreams of sleeping on a patch of cool grass on a breezy summer day intruded upon my concentration, chasing away calculus and physics theories. By the time the daydreams ended, I had forgotten most of what I had studied in the previous hour. As the midterm week drew closer, the daydreams

47、 grew longer while the study sessions grew shorter. Studying was avoidable as long as daydreaming was possible. I escaped often and as a result I failed my math, chemistry and physics exams. Why didn't I transfer to another program? Why didn't I just drop out? First, my parents had paid for

48、my tuition and I feared they would pull out their financial support and leave me destitute. Second, my aspirations were still cloudy, so if I transferred out of the engineering faculty I would still lack direction. Without a definite goal, afraid of disappointing my strict parents, I remained in the

49、 program until Christmas, hopeful that my marks would improve as well as my disposition towards engineering. However, passing grades eluded me, as did maturity. Coming from a small town and being unaccustomed to the fast-paced routine of campus life in a big city like Calgary, I inhabited the reside

50、nce hall, believing that it would shelter me from competitive courses and merciless engineering professors. After the first month of adjustment, I learned that the place offered the niceties of home without the watchful eye of parents. Snow fell in mid-Decemberfinal exam timebut I didn't notice

51、either event, because I had become a creature of the night preying on full beer mugs in smoke-filled bars. A week later, snow covered every building on campus, which promised a white Christmas for everyone but me: my exams had been returned and I had failed all my courses. I didn't care; neither

52、 did my friends, whose marks were equally bad. We bragged of our freedom from our parents, not realizing that their influence was more beneficial than the influence we had on each other. When my friends and I were not in the bar, we were playing cards in somebody's room or inviting ourselves to

53、parties held by other students in the residence hall. At the time, my independence was exhilarating; freedom, denied me for eighteen years, was mine to experience and abuse. I got drunk with impunity. No angry mother awaited my return home at five in the morning. No enraged father tongue-lashed me f

54、or lousy grades. But freedom had its price: nobody told me to study harder; no one said that if I didn't get an eighty on my next three exams, I would fail; no one told me to take responsibility for my actions. When Christmas day arrived, I found a "withdrawal from university" notice i

55、n my stocking. My refusal to claim responsibility for my actions and my abuse of newly gained independence and freedom from parental rule had combined to ensure my marks were below the passing grade and to make my Christmas black. Unearned independence was the fruit from the tree of knowledge that tempted me and caused my downfall. Because I was not mature enough to accept