综合教程2翻译

1 I dreaded Sundays. I began living for the weekend at 8:30 Monday mornings. I felt bitter towards my boss. (1) The thought of answering other people's telephones, typing other people's work and watching other people take credit for my ideas and opinions would throw me into week-long bouts of depression. I hated my job. I hated my life. I hated myself for not having the courage to change either one.

我曾经惧怕星期天。那时我从星期一上午八点半开始就盼着周末。 我痛恨我的老板。每当我想起给别人回电话、打字，看到我出的主意和见解却让别人去受益时，常常整个星期都会闷闷不乐。我痛恨我的工作。我痛恨我的生活。我痛恨自己既没有勇气改换工作，也没有勇气改变我的生活。
　
2 When most of my friends were planning college schedules and partying into the night, I was changing dirty diapers and walking the floor with a crying baby. At 19 years old I was the mother of two, and a pitifully young wife. Everything I did for years, every decision I made, was done with my family in mind.
当我的大多数的朋友都在计划上大学，欢聚至深更半夜时，我却在换脏尿布，抱着一个哭闹的孩子在屋里走来走去。才19岁，我就已经是两个孩子的母亲，一个可怜的小媳妇。多年来不管我做什么或是作出什么决定，我总得考虑我的这个家。

3 And then I turned 29, and 30 was only a breath away. (2) How long could I live like this? Certainly not until I retired. I began to feel that if I didn't do something soon, something quickly, I would die of unhappiness. I decided to follow my childhood dream: I was going to get my undergraduate degree and become a full-time journalist.
一晃我就29岁了，离30岁仅一步之遥。这样的生活我能维持多久？肯定不会到我退休之时。我开始觉得，如果我不早日有所作为，马上行动的话，我就会苦闷而死。我决定去追寻儿时的梦想：我要拿到大学本科学位，做一个全职的记者。

4 I quit my job on one of my good days, a Friday. Almost at once I was filled with anxiety. What would I tell my husband and what would be his reaction? How would we pay our bills? I must be crazy, I thought. I was too old to begin again. I prayed, Lord, what have I done? I wondered if I was experiencing some sort of early mid-life crisis. Perhaps if I crawled back to my boss on my hands and knees and pleaded temporary madness, he'd give me my job back. I spent that entire weekend in the eye of an emotional storm.
我在我的一个美好的日子，一个星期五，辞去了工作。我的心中几乎马上充满了焦虑。我怎么跟丈夫说呢？他会怎么反应呢？我们如何付家里那些账单呢？我真是疯了，我心想。我已经不再年轻，没法从头开始了。我祈祷着，天哪，我都做了些什么呀？我怀疑自己

是在经历某种早期的中年生活危机。如果我爬回去跪倒在老板跟前，恳求他原谅我一时神志错乱，或许他会让我复职。整个周末我都在忐忑不安中度过。

5 But while I was feeling uneasy about the bridge I'd just crossed, I also began to feel a renewed sense of hopefulness about the possibilities on the other side. I had had a long love affair with the written word that was separate and apart from any of my roles. What we shared was personal: It belonged to me and would always be mine despite anything going on outside of me. I wasn't quite sure what my journey would involve, but I was positive who would be at the other end.(3) I steeled myself to travel the road that would lead me to a better understanding of who I was and of what I wanted out of life. I shared my mixed feelings with my husband. He was as worried as I was, but he was also warmly supportive. And so I stepped off the bridge and onto the path, nervous but determined. I soon discovered that I loved to learn and that my mind soaked up knowledge at every opportunity. My decision at those times felt right. But sometimes, after realizing what was expected of me, I would be weighed down by self-doubt and uncertainty. 然而，就在我对刚刚跨越人生之桥的举动深感不安之际，我同时也开始感到希望的复萌，觉得彼岸有种种机会在等着我。长久以来，我对与自己生活中的种种角色毫不相干的文字情有独钟。我与文字之间有一种默契：它属于我自己，并将永远是我的，无论外面的世界发生什么事情。我并不完全明白我的人生旅途中将要发生什么，但我对到达旅途终点之后的自己怀有信心。我坚定地走下去，这条路将使我更好地了解自己，更好地认清自己生活的目的。我向丈夫坦陈自己的复杂心绪。他和我一样担忧，但同时也热情支持我。于是我走下桥来，踏上征途，紧张但却坚定。我很快发现，我热爱学习，利用一切机会汲取知识。这时候我会觉得我的决定做对了。但有时，每当意识到别人对自己的期待时，我又会由于自我怀疑和对未来捉摸不定而感到心情沉重。

6 I was older than a few of my instructors and nearly all of my classmates. I felt like an outsider practically that entire first semester. Finally I met a group of older female students who were, like me, making a fresh start. We began to share our experiences of returning to school, dealing with husbands, lovers, children and bills that had to be paid. Over time we have become sisters, supporting ourselves by encouraging and supporting one another.
我比个别教师年龄还大，几乎比所有的同班同学都大。差不多整整第一学期，我觉得自己完全是个外人。终于我遇到了一些大龄女生，她们和我一样都在重新开始自己的生活。我们开始交流自己重返校园的体

验，谈论怎么与丈夫、男友相处，怎么带孩子，怎么应付各种要付的账单等等。随着时间的推移，我们成了姐妹，通过相互鼓励，相互支持使自己获得勇气和信心。

7 I eventually had to seek employment to help with expenses. In fact, I've had more jobs in the couple of years than I care to count. Many times I've had to stir a pot with one hand while holding a book with the other. More than a few times I've nearly broken under the pressure. I've shed tears on the bad days, but smiles are plentiful on the good ones.
我终于不得不找工作以贴补家用。事实上，在那两年里，我干过许许多多工作，连自己也懒得记数了。我常常不得不一手炒菜，一手拿着书看。好多次过重的负担几乎要把我压垮。在不顺利的日子里我哭泣流泪，但在顺利的日子里我也有许许多多欢笑。

8 However, I would not take back one tear or change one thing about the last couple of years. It hasn't been a snap: From the beginning I knew it would not be. (4) And it's not so much the results of the action that have reshaped me (although that's important, too) as it is the realization that I have within myself what it takes to do what I set out to do. I feel more in control these days and less like a flag on a breezy day, blowing this way or that depending on the wind.
然而，我不因流泪而后悔，也不想改变过去几年中发生的一切。这几年过得不容易：从一开始我就知道不容易。此外，给我带来新的生活的，与其说是自己努力取得的结果 (虽然这也很重要)，不如说是由于意识到自己具有潜在的能力可以做自己想做的事。如今我感到自己更能主宰自己的命运，不再如风中的旗帜，随风飘荡。

9 I no longer dread Sundays, and Wednesdays are just as pleasant as Fridays. Now I get credit for my ideas, and my opinions are sought after. I love my new career. I love my life again. And I can clearly see a new woman waiting patiently just a little way down the road, waiting for me to reach her.
我不再惧怕星期天，星期三也如星期五一样愉快。现在我出了主意，功劳就是我的；我讲的意见，别人认真聆听。我热爱自己的新工作。我重新热爱自己的生活。我清楚地看到，在不远的前方，一个全新的女人正在耐心地等着我去与她拥抱。







Unit7
Some languages resist the introduction of new words. Others, like English, seem to welcome them. Robert MacNeil looks at the history of English and comes to the conclusion that its tolerance for change represents deeply rooted ideas of freedom.
有些语言拒绝引入新词。另一些语言，如英语，则似乎欢迎新词的引入。罗伯特?麦克尼尔回顾英语的历史，得出结论说，英语对变化的包容性体现了根深蒂固的自由思想。

The Gloriou

s Messiness of English
Robert MacNeil
1 The story of our English language is typically one of massive stealing from other languages. That is why English today has an estimated vocabulary of over one million words, while other major languages have far fewer.
英语中绚丽多彩的杂乱无章现象
罗伯特?麦克尼尔
我们的英语的历史是典型的大量窃取其它语言的历史。正因为如此，今日英语的词汇量据估计超过一百万，而其它主要语言的词汇量都要小得多。
　
2 French, for example, has only about 75,000 words, and that includes English expressions like snack bar and hit parade. The French, however, do not like borrowing foreign words because they think it corrupts their language. The government tries to ban words from English and declares that Walkman is not desirable; so they invent a word, balladeur, which French kids are supposed to say instead -- but they don't.
例如，法语只有约75,000个单词，其中还包括像snack bar（快餐店）和 hit parade（流行唱片目录）这样的英语词汇。但法国人不喜欢借用外来词，因为他们认为这样会损害法语的纯洁性。法国政府试图逐出英语词汇，宣称Walkman（随身听）一词有伤大雅，因此他们造了个新词balladeur让法国儿童用——可他们就是不用。

3 Walkman is fascinating because it isn't even English. Strictly speaking, it was invented by the Japanese manufacturers who put two simple English words together to name their product. That doesn't bother us, but it does bother the French. Such is the glorious messiness of English. That happy tolerance, that willingness to accept words from anywhere, explains the richness of English and why it has become, to a very real extent, the first truly global language.
Walkman一词非常耐人寻味，因为这个词连英语也不是。严格地说，该词是由日本制造商发明的，他们把两个简单的英语单词拼在一起来命名他们的产品。这事儿我们不介意，法国人却耿耿于怀。由此可见英语中绚丽多彩的杂乱无章现象。这种乐意包容的精神，这种不管源自何方来者不拒的精神，恰好解释了英语为什么会这么丰富，解释了英语缘何在很大程度上第一个成了真正的国际语言。

4 How did the language of a small island off the coast of Europe become the language of the planet -- more widely spoken and written than any other has ever been? The history of English is present in the first words a child learns about identity (I, me, you); possession (mine, yours); the body (eye, nose, mouth); size (tall, short); and necessities (food, water). These words all come from Old English or Anglo-Saxon English, the core of our language. Usually short and direct, these are words we still use today for the things that really matter to us.
欧洲沿海一个弹丸小岛的语言何以会成

为地球上的通用语言，比历史上任何一种其他语言都更为广泛地被口头和书面使用？英语的历史体现在孩子最先学会用来表示身份（I, me, you）、所属关系（mine, yours）、身体部位（eye, nose, mouth）、大小高矮（tall, short），以及生活必需品（food, water）的词汇当中。这些词都来自英语的核心部分古英语或盎格鲁－萨克逊英语。这些词通常简短明了，我们今天仍然用这些词来表示对我们真正至关重要的事物。

5 Great speakers often use Old English to arouse our emotions. For example, during World War II, Winston Churchill made this speech, stirring the courage of his people against Hitler's armies positioned to cross the English Channel: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender." 伟大的演说家常常用古英语来激发我们的情感。例如，在二战期间，温斯顿?丘吉尔作了如下的演讲来激励国民的勇气以抵抗屯兵英吉利海峡准备渡海作战的希特勒的军队：“我们要战斗在海滩上，我们要战斗在着陆场上，我们要战斗在田野和街巷，我们要战斗在群山中。我们决不投降。”

6 Virtually every one of those words came from Old English, except the last -- surrender, which came from Norman French. Churchill could have said, "We shall never give in," but it is one of the lovely -- and powerful -- opportunities of English that a writer can mix, for effect, different words from different backgrounds. Yet there is something direct to the heart that speaks to us from the earliest words in our language.
这段文字中几乎每个词都来自古英语，只有最后一个词——surrender 是个例外，来自诺曼法语。丘吉尔原本可以说：“We shall never give in,”但这正是英语迷人之处和活力所在，作家为了加强效果可以糅合来自不同背景的不同词汇。而演说中使用古英语词汇具有直接拨动心弦的效果。

7 When Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 B.C., English did not exist. The Celts, who inhabited the land, spoke languages that survive today mainly as Welsh. Where those languages came from is still a mystery, but there is a theory.
尤利乌斯?凯撒在公元前55年入侵不列颠时，英语尚不存在。当时不列颠的居民凯尔特人使用的那些语言流传下来主要成了威尔士语。这些语言的起源至今仍是个不解之谜，但有一种理论试图解开这个谜。

8 Two centuries ago an English judge in India noticed that several words in Sanskrit closely resembled some words in Greek and Latin. A systematic study revealed that many modern languages descended from a common parent language, lost to us because nothing was written down.
两个世纪前，在印度当法官

的一位英国人注意到，梵文中有一些词与希腊语、拉丁语中的一些词极为相似。系统的研究显示，许多现代语言起源于一个共同的母语，但由于没有文字记载，该母语已经失传。

9 Identifying similar words, linguists have come up with what they call an Indo-European parent language, spoken until 3500 to 2000 B.C. These people had common words for snow, bee and wolf but no word for sea. So some scholars assume they lived somewhere in north-central Europe, where it was cold. Traveling east, some established the languages of India and Pakistan, and others drifted west toward the gentler climates of Europe. Some who made the earliest move westward became known as the Celts, whom Caesar's armies found in Britain.
语言学家找出了相似的词，提出这些语言的源头是他们称之为印欧母语的语言，这种语言使用于公元前3500年至公元前2000年。这些人使用同样的词表达“雪”、“蜜蜂”和“狼”，但没有表示“海”的词。因此有些学者认为，他们生活在寒冷的中北欧某个地区。一些人向东迁徙形成了印度和巴基斯坦的各种语言，有些人则向西漂泊，来到欧洲气候较为温暖的地区。最早西移的一些人后来被称作凯尔特人，亦即凯撒的军队在不列颠发现的民族。

10 New words came with the Germanic tribes -- the Angles, the Saxons, etc. -- that slipped across the North Sea to settle in Britain in the 5th century. Together they formed what we call Anglo-Saxon society.
新的词汇随日尔曼部落——盎格鲁、萨克逊等部落——而来，他们在5世纪的时候越过北海定居在不列颠。他们共同形成了我们称之为盎格鲁－萨克逊的社会。

11 The Anglo-Saxons passed on to us their farming vocabulary, including sheep, ox, earth, wood, field and work. They must have also enjoyed themselves because they gave us the word laughter.
盎格鲁－萨克逊人将他们的农耕词汇留传给我们，包括sheep, ox, earth, wood, field 和work等。他们的日子一定过得很开心，因为他们留传给我们laughter一词。

12 The next big influence on English was Christianity. It enriched the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary with some 400 to 500 words from Greek and Latin, including angel, disciple and martyr.
下一个对英语产生重大影响的是基督教。基督教以400至500个希腊语、拉丁语词汇丰富了盎格鲁－萨克逊词汇，如angel（天使）, disciple（门徒） 和 martyr（殉难者）等。

13 Then into this relatively peaceful land came the Vikings from Scandinavia. They also brought to English many words that begin with sk, like sky and skirt. But Old Norse and English both survived, and so you can rear a child (English) or raise a child (Norse). Other such pairs survive: wish and want, craft and skill, hide and skin. Each such addition gav

e English more richness, more variety.
接着北欧海盗从斯堪的纳维亚来到了这块相对和平的土地。他们也给英语带来了许多以sk开头的词汇，如sky 和 skirt。但古斯堪的纳维亚语和英语同时留传下来，因此你可以说rear a child（英语），也可以说raise a child（斯堪的纳维亚语）。其他留传下来的这类同义词组有：wish 和 want，craft 和 skill，hide 和 skin。每一个类似的词的增添都使英语更加丰富，更加多样化。

14 Another flood of new vocabulary occurred in 1066, when the Normans conquered England. The country now had three languages: French for the nobles, Latin for the churches and English for the common people. With three languages competing, there were sometimes different terms for the same thing. For example, Anglo-Saxons had the word kingly, but after the Normans, royal and sovereign entered the language as alternatives. The extraordinary thing was that French did not replace English. Over three centuries English gradually swallowed French, and by the end of the 15th century what had developed was a modified, greatly enriched language -- Middle English -- with about 10,000 "borrowed" French words.
另一次新词的大量涌入发生在1066年，诺曼人征服英国的时候。这时英国三种语言并用：贵族使用法语，教会使用拉丁语，平民使用英语。由于三种语言相互竞争，有时同一事物就出现了不同的名称。例如，盎格鲁－萨克逊语有kingly一词，但诺曼人入侵后，royal 和 sovereign作为替代词进入了英语。不同寻常的是，法语没有取代英语。三个多世纪后，英语逐渐吞并了法语，到15世纪末，发展成为一种经过改进，大大丰富了的拥有一万多个“借来”的法语词汇的语言——中古英语。

15 Around 1476 William Caxton set up a printing press in England and started a communications revolution. Printing brought into English the wealth of new thinking that sprang from the European Renaissance. Translations of Greek and Roman classics were poured onto the printed page, and with them thousands of Latin words like capsule and habitual, and Greek words like catastrophe and thermometer. Today we still borrow from Latin and Greek to name new inventions, like video, television and cyberspace.
大约在1476年，威廉?卡克斯顿在英国制造了一台印刷机，由此掀起了一场信息传播技术的革命。印刷术把欧洲文艺复兴运动中涌现的大量新思想传入英国。希腊罗马经典著作的译文纷纷印成书册，成千上万的拉丁词，如capsule （密封小容器；航天舱） 和 habitual （惯常的），希腊词，如catastrophe （大灾难） 和 thermometer（温度计）等也随之涌入。今天我们仍借用拉丁、希腊语命名新的发明创造，如video, television 和 cyberspace（虚拟空间）等。

16 As

settlers landed in North America and established the United States, English found itself with two sources -- American and British. Scholars in Britain worried that the language was out of control, and some wanted to set up an academy to decide which words were proper and which were not. Fortunately their idea has never been put into practice.
随着移民在北美登陆并建立美国，英语出现了两个源头——美式英语和英式英语。英国的学者担心英语会失控，有人想成立一个有权威的学会，决定哪些词汇合适，哪些词汇不合适。幸运的是，他们的设想从未付诸实施。

17 That tolerance for change also represents deeply rooted ideas of freedom. Danish scholar Otto Jespersen wrote in 1905, "The English language would not have been what it is if the English had not been for centuries great respecters of the liberties of each individual and if everybody had not been free to strike out new paths for himself."
这种对变化的包容态度也体现了根深蒂固的自由精神。丹麦学者奥托?叶斯柏森在1905年写道：“如果不是多少世纪以来英国人一向崇尚个人自由，如果不是人人都能自由地为自己开拓新的道路，英语就不会成为今天的英语。”

18 I like that idea. Consider that the same cultural soil producing the English language also nourished the great principles of freedom and rights of man in the modern world. The first shoots sprang up in England, and they grew stronger in America. The English-speaking peoples have defeated all efforts to build fences around their language.
我喜欢这一观点。想想吧，孕育英语的文化土壤也同样为现今的世界培育了伟大的自由精神及人权准则。最初的根芽在英国萌发，接着在美国生长壮大。英语国家的人民挫败了种种意欲建立语言保护的企图。

19 Indeed, the English language is not the special preserve of grammarians, language police, teachers, writers or the intellectual elite. English is, and always has been, the tongue of the common man.
事实上，英语不是语法学家、语言卫道士、教师、作家或知识精英的特殊领地。英语是，而且一向是，人民大众的语言。

Wondering whether all the time and effort spent learning English is worthwhile? Here are some good reasons why it is.
你怀疑费那么多时间和精力学英语是不是值得？本文列举充分理由说明完全值得。

The Role of English in the 21st Century
Melvyn A. Hasman
1 The global spread of English over the last 40 years has been remarkable. (1)It is unparalleled in several ways: by the increasing number of users of the language; by its depth of penetration into societies; by its range of functions.
英语在21世纪的作用
梅尔文?A?哈斯曼
在过去的40多年间，英语在全球的传播引人瞩目。这一过程在几

个方面都是前所未有的：英语使用人数的增加，英语在不同社会渗透的深度，以及英语功用的广度。
　
2 Worldwide over 1.4 billion people live in countries where English has official status. One out of five of the world's population speaks some English. And at present one in five -- over one billion people -- are learning English. Over 70% of the world's scientists read English. About 85% of the world's mail is written is English. And 90% of all information in the world's electronic retrieval systems is stored in English. By 2010, the number of people who speak English as a second or foreign language will exceed the number of native speakers. This trend will certainly affect the language.
全世界有14亿多人生活在英语享有官方地位的国家。世界人口的五分之一讲英语。在目前就有五分之一的人——超过10亿人——在学英语。全世界70%以上的科学家阅读英语。全世界约有85%的邮件是用英语书写的。世界上各种电子检索系统90%的信息用英语储存。到2010年，将英语作为第二语言或外语使用的人数将超过以英语为母语的人数。这一趋势无疑会对英语产生影响。

3 English is used for more purposes than ever before. Vocabularies, grammatical forms, and ways of speaking and writing have emerged influenced by technological and scientific developments, economics and management, literature and entertainment. (2)What began some 1,500 years ago as a crude language, originally spoken by little known German tribes who invaded England, now covers the globe.
使用英语的目的比以往任何时候都多。英语的词汇，语法形式，以及说写方式演变深受科技发展、经济状况，以及管理、文学、娱乐的影响。大约1500年前，英语还只是那些入侵英格兰的鲜为人知的日尔曼部落使用的一种粗俗的语言，如今它却遍及全球。

4 When Mexican pilots land their airplanes in France, they and the ground controllers use English. When German physicists want to alert the international scientific community to new discoveries, they first publish their findings in English. When Japanese executives conduct business with Scandinavian businessmen, they negotiate in English. When pop singers write their songs, they often use English. When demonstrators want to alert the world to their problems, they display signs in English.
墨西哥飞行员在法国降落飞机时，与地面控制人员用英语通话。德国物理学家要将新发现通报国际科学界时，他们首先用英语发表他们的研究成果。日本经理与斯堪的纳维亚商人做生意时，双方用英语谈判。流行歌手写歌时常常用英语。游行示威者要引起世界关注他们的问题，就打着用英语书写的标语。

5 Three factors continue to contribute to this spread of English: English usage in science, tech

nology and commerce; the ability to integrate vocabulary from other languages; and the acceptability of various English dialects. 有三个因素继续促进着英语的传播：英语在科技、商务上的应用；英语融合其他语言词汇的能力；对各种不同的英语方言的认同。

6 In science, English replaced German after World War Ⅱ. (3)With this technical and scientific dominance came the beginning of overall dominance by the language, first in Europe and then globally.
在科学领域，英语在二战之后取代了德语。随着它在科技领域主导地位的确立，英语先是在欧洲，继而在全球开始取得全面的主导地位。

7 Today, the information age has replaced the industrial age and has compressed time and distance. This is transforming world economies from industrial production to information-based goods and services. Ignoring geography and borders, the information revolution is redefining our world. In less than 20 years, information processing, once limited to the printed work, has given way to computers and the Internet. Computer-aided communication is closing the gap between spoken and written English. It encourages more informal conversational language and a tolerance for diversity and individual style.
今天，信息时代已经取代了工业时代，并缩短了时间和距离。这一情况正在改变世界经济使其从工业生产转向以信息为基础的产品与服务。信息革命不再受地域与国界的限制，正在重新界定我们的世界。在不到20年的时间内，过去仅限于出版物的信息处理已经让位于计算机和互联网。借助于计算机的通讯交际正在弥合英语口语与书面语之间的距离。它鼓励人们使用更多非正式的会话语言，包容多样性和个人风格。

8 English, like many languages, uses a phonetic alphabet and fairly basic grammar. But most importantly, it has a large and extensive vocabulary, of which about 80% is foreign. It has borrowed and continues to borrow words from Spanish and French, Hebrew and Arabic, Hindi-Urdu and Bengali, Malay and Chinese, as well as languages from West Africa and Polynesia. This language characteristic makes it unique in history.
英语像许多语言一样使用语音字母以及比较基本的语法。但最重要的是，它拥有庞大且覆盖面宽广的词汇，其中约有80%是外来词。它从西班牙语和法语、希伯来语和阿拉伯语、印地－乌尔都语和孟加拉语、马来语和汉语，以及西非和波利尼西亚等各种语言中曾经借用过并继续借用各种词汇。这一特点使得它成为历史上独一无二的语言。
9 Finally, no English language central authority guards the standards of the language, therefore, many dialects have developed: American, British, Canadian, Indian, and Australian, to name a few. There is no standard pronunciation. But within

this diversity is a unity of grammar and one set of core vocabulary. Thus, each country that speaks the language can introduce aspects of its own culture into the usage and vocabulary.
最后一点是，由于没有英语语言中央权威机构维护英语标准，因此形成了许多方言：美国英语、英国英语、加拿大英语、印度英语和澳大利亚英语，就是众多的方言中的几种。英语没有标准的发音。但在其多样性里存在一个统一的语法和一套核心词汇。这样，每一个讲英语的国家都能将各自的文化融入英语的用法和词汇中。

10 However, the future is unpredictable. There has never been a language so widely spread or spoken by so many people as English. So, there are no examples to help us predict what happens to a language when it achieves genuine world status.
然而，英语的未来无从预测。从来没有一种语言像英语这样为这么多人如此广泛地传播使用。因此，没有先例来帮助我们预测，当一种语言取得真正的国际性地位之后会发生什么情况。

11 The world is in transition, and the English language will take new forms. The language and how it is used will change, reflecting new patterns of contact with other languages and the changing communication needs of people.
世界正处于变革之中，英语将会出现新的形式。英语及其使用将有所变化，将反映出它与其他语言交往的新模式，以及变化中的人际交往需求。

12 English is ridding itself of its political and cultural associations as more people realize that English is not the property of only a few countries. Instead, it is a vehicle that is used globally. It belongs to whoever uses it for whatever purpose or need.
英语正在消除其自身的政治和文化的含义，因为越来越多的人认识到，英语不是少数几个国家的财产。相反，它是一种全球通用的媒介。谁使用它，它就属于谁，不管用于何种目的或需要。

13 There is no reason to believe that any one other language will appear within the next 50 years to replace English. However, it is possible that English will not remain unchallenged in the 21st century. Rather, a small number of languages may share in importance -- each with a special area of influence. For example, Spanish is rising because of expanding trade and the increase of the Latino population in the United States. This could create a bilingual English-Spanish region.
没有理由相信在未来50年内会出现任何其他一种语言取代英语。然而，英语在21世纪遭遇挑战的可能性不是不存在。少数几种语言倒是有可能与之分庭抗礼——各有其特殊的影响地域。比如，由于贸易的扩展和美国国内拉丁美洲人口的增加，西班牙语的地位正在上升。这可能产生出一个英语和西班牙语共存的双

语地区。

14 A language shift, in which individuals change their language loyalties, is another possibility. These shifts are slow and difficult to predict. But within the next 50 years substantial language shifts could occur as economic development affects more countries.
改换语言，即人们放弃自己一向使用的语言改用其他语言，是另一种可能。这种改换过程缓慢，难以预测。但在未来50年内，随着经济发展对更多国家产生影响，重大的语言改换可能会发生。

15 Because of these shifts in loyalties, more languages may disappear. Those remaining will rapidly get more native speakers. This includes English.
由于语言使用上的这些变动，更多的语言可能会消失。剩下来的语言将迅速为更多的人作为母语使用，其中包括英语。

16 Universities using English as the medium of instruction will expand and rapidly create a generation of middle-class professionals. Economic development will only increase the middle class, a group that is more likely to learn and use English in jobs.
用英语讲课的大学将会增多，并迅速造就一代中产阶级专业人员。经济发展只会壮大这个中产阶级，这一群体更有可能在工作中学习并使用英语。

17 (4)While languages such as English, German, and French have been international languages because of their governments' political power, this is less likely to be the case in the 21st century where economics and shifts in population will have more influence on languages.
虽然英语、德语和法语这些语言曾经凭着各自政府的政治力量而成为国际语言，这种情况在经济和人口变化对语言的影响更大的21世纪不太可能发生。

18 English has been an international language for only 50 years. If the pattern follows the previous language trends, we still have about 100 years before a new language dominates the world. However, this does not mean that English is replacing or will replace other languages as many fear. Instead, it may supplement or co-exist with languages by allowing strangers to communicate across language boundaries. It may become one tool that opens windows to the world, unlocks doors to opportunities, and expands our minds to new ideas.
英语成为国际语言至今仅有50年。如果英语的发展沿袭以往的语言发展模式，那么在一种新的语言主宰世界之前，英语仍可享有100 年左右的主导地位。然而，这并不意味着如许多人所担心的那样，英语正在或将会取代其他语言。相反，它可以作为其他语言的补充，或与其他语言并存，让陌生人跨越语言障碍进行交际。它可能成为人们了解世界、开启机遇大门、扩展思路、接纳新思想的一种工具。







Unit8
Protecting nature certainly has benefits, but it has costs as well. How are w

e to balance the two when deciding how far we should go in caring for the environment?
保护大自然固然裨益良多，但代价也不菲。当我们决定在保护环境方面应该走多远的时候，该如何协调这两者间的关系呢？

Saving Nature, but Only for Man
Charles Krauthammer
1 Environmental sensitivity is now as required an attitude in polite society as is, say, belief in democracy or aversion to nylon. But now that everyone has claims to love Mother Earth, how are we to choose among the dozens of conflicting proposals, restrictions, projects, regulations and laws advanced in the name of the environment? Clearly not everything with an environmental claim is worth doing. How to choose?
为了人类自身拯救自然
查尔斯?克劳特哈默
环境意识，就如同对民主制度的信奉，或是对尼龙的厌恶，已成为当今上流社会一种必备的态度。可是，在人人都有权利热爱地球母亲的情况下，面对以保护环境的名义而提出的许许多多相互冲突的建议、限制、规定、工程和法律，我们该如何选择呢？很显然，并不是每一件声称保护环境的事都值得去做。那我们该如何选择呢？


2 There is a simple way. First, distinguish between environmental luxuries and environmental necessities. Luxuries are those things it would be nice to have if costless. Necessities are those things we must have regardless. Then apply a rule. Call it the fundamental principle of sensible environmentalism: Combating ecological change that directly threatens the health and safety of people is an environmental necessity. All else is luxury.
有一种简单的选择方法。首先，要区分是出于对环境的奢侈追求还是出于环境保护之必需。对环境的奢侈追求指的是那些如果不需花费代价则不妨拥有的事物。环境保护之必需指的是无论花多大的代价我们都必须做的事情。然后，再运用一条法则。姑且称之为理智环境保护论的基本原理：遏制直接危害人们健康与安全的生态变化，是环境保护之必需。其他一切均为奢侈追求。

3 For example: preserving the atmosphere, by both protecting the ozone layer and halting the greenhouse effect, is an environmental necessity. In April scientists reported that ozone damage is far worse than previously thought. Ozone reduction not only causes skin cancer and eye cataracts, it also destroys plankton, the beginning of the food chain on top of which we humans sit.
例如：通过保护臭氧层和遏止温室效应来保护大气层是环境保护之必需。科学家们在4月份报告说，臭氧层破坏之严重远远超出过去的估计。臭氧的减少不仅导致皮肤癌和白内障，而且摧毁浮游生物，那是我们人类赖以生存的食物链的第一环。

4 The reality of the greenhouse effect is more speculative, though its

possible consequences are far deadlier: melting ice caps, flooded coastlines, disturbed climate, dried up plains and, ultimately, empty breadbaskets. The American Midwest feeds the world. Are we prepared to see Iowa acquire Albuquerque's climate? And Siberia acquire Iowa's?
温室效应的现实情况是怎样目前难以确定，但可能产生的后果破坏性更大：冰帽融化，海岸线被洪水淹没，气候反常，平原干涸，进而最终粮仓空匮。美国中西部是为全世界提供粮食的地方。我们是否愿意眼看着爱荷华州出现阿尔伯克基的气候，而西伯利亚则出现爱荷华州的气候呢？

5 Ozone reduction and the greenhouse effect are human disasters. They happen to occur in the environment. But they are urgent because they directly threaten man. A sensible environmentalism, the only kind of environmentalism that will win universal public support, begins by unashamedly declaring that nature is here to serve man. A sensible environmentalism is entirely man-centered: it calls for man to preserve nature, but on the grounds of self-preservation. 臭氧减少与温室效应都是人类的灾难。两者恰好都属于环境的范围。但这两种情况都很紧迫，因为它们直接威胁着人类。理智的环境保护论，亦即惟一能赢得公众普遍支持的环境保护论首先坦然指出，大自然是为人类服务的。理智的环境保护论完全是以人为本的：它呼吁人类保护自然，但其目的是自我保护。

6 A sensible environmentalism does not sentimentalize the earth. It does not ask people to sacrifice in the name of other creatures. After all, it is hard enough to ask people to sacrifice in the name of other humans. (Think of the public resistance to foreign aid and welfare.) Ask hardworking voters to sacrifice in the name of the snail darter, and, if they are feeling polite, they will give you a shrug.
理智的环境保护论对地球不感情用事。它不要求人们为其他生物做出牺牲。毕竟，要人们为他人作牺牲都难而又难。（想一想公众对海外援助和福利救助是何等的抵制。） 如果你要求勤劳的选民为蜗牛鱼做出牺牲，客气一点的，也就对你耸耸肩而已。

7 Of course, this man-centeredness runs against the grain of a contemporary environmentalism that worships the earth to the point of excess. One scientific theory -- Gaia theory -- actually claims that Earth is a living organism. This kind of environmentalism likes to consider itself spiritual. It is nothing more than sentimental. It takes, for example, a highly selective view of the kindliness of nature. My nature worship stops with the May storms that killed more than 125,000 Bengalis and left 10 million homeless.
当然，这种以人为本的做法与当前一种过分崇拜地球的环境保护论格格不入。有一种科学理论，即盖亚理论，就声称地球

是个有生命的机体。这种环境保护论喜欢自诩为崇高而纯洁。究其实不过是感情用事。比如，它在看待大自然的仁慈时往往好事尽记，坏事皆忘。本人过去也崇拜自然。但自5月风暴夺走了125,000多孟加拉人的生命，留下1,000万人无家可归以后，我的自然崇拜也就不复存在了。

8 A non-sentimental environmentalism is one founded on Protagoras' principle that "Man is the measure of all things." Such a principle helps us to fight our way through the jungle of environmental argument. Take the current debate raging over oil drilling in a corner of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Environmentalists, fighting against a bill working its way through Congress to permit such exploration, argue that we should be conserving energy instead of drilling for it. This is a false either/or proposition. The country does need a substantial energy tax to reduce consumption. But it needs more production too. Government estimates indicate a nearly fifty-fifty chance that under the ANWR lies one of the five largest oil fields ever discovered in America.
非感情用事的环境保护论是建立在普罗泰戈拉的“人是一切事物的尺度”的原则之上的。这一原则能帮助指点迷津，引导我们杀出环境保护的混争。且以目前要不要在阿拉斯加国家野生动物保护区一角开采原油引发的激烈争论为例。环境保护论者极力反对一项正在设法想获得国会通过的开采提案，他们争辩说，我们应该保护能源，不应该开采它。这一种非此即彼的提法根本站不住脚。美国的确需要对能源课以重税以减少消费。但我们也需要更多地生产石油。政府估计几乎有对半的可能，在阿拉斯加国家野生动物保护区之下蕴藏着美国迄今为止发现的五大油区之一。

9 We have just come through a war fought in part over oil: Energy dependence costs Americans not just dollars but lives. It is a ridiculous sentimentalism that would deny ourselves oil that is peacefully attainable because it risks disrupting the breeding grounds of Arctic reindeer.
我们刚刚经历了一场部分是为石油而进行的战争：对能源的依赖使美国人不仅付出了金钱的代价，更有生命的代价。荒唐的感情用事使我们用不上可以和平获得的石油，只因为那有可能破坏北极鹿的繁殖地。

10 I like the reindeer as much as the next man. And I would be rather sorry if their mating patterns are disturbed. But you can't have everything. And if the choice is between the welfare of reindeer and reducing oil dependence that gets people killed in wars, I choose man over reindeer every time.
我和别人一样喜欢北极鹿。如果它们的交配规律被打乱，我会深感遗憾。但你不可能什么都要。如果要在北极鹿的安乐和减少石油依赖以使人们免于战争

的屠戮之间做出选择的话，我永远都将舍鹿取人。

11 Similarly the spotted owl. I am no enemy of the owl. If it could be preserved at no or little cost, I would agree: the variety of nature is a good, a high aesthetic good. But it is no more than that. And sometimes aesthetic goods have to be sacrificed to the more fundamental ones. If the cost of preserving the spotted owl is the loss of livelihood for 30,000 logging families, I choose family over owl.
对斑枭也一样。我无意与斑枭为敌。如果能够不付代价或以极小的代价保护斑枭，我也赞成保护：自然的多样性是一件好事，是美学上的一大好事。但也仅此而已。有时美学上的好事不得不为那些更为基本的好事做出牺牲。如果保护斑枭的代价是30,000户伐木工丧失生计，那我宁要民生不要斑枭。

12 The important distinction is between those environmental goods that are fundamental and those that are merely aesthetic. Nature is our charge. It is not our master. It is to be respected and even cultivated. But it is man's world. And when man has to choose between his well-being and that of nature, nature will have to accommodate.
这里有一个重要的区别，就是基本的环保善举与仅具美学意义的环保善举之间的区别。自然归我们掌管，它不是我们的主人。自然理应得到尊重甚至抚育。但人类是这个世界的主宰。当人类不得不在自身的福祉与大自然的裨益两者之间取舍时，大自然就得通融了。

13 Man should accommodate only when his fate and that of nature are bound up together. The most urgent accommodation must be made when the very integrity of man's environment -- e.g. , atmospheric ozone -- is threatened. When the threat to man is of a lesser order (say, the pollutants from coal- and oil-fired generators that cause death from disease but not fatal damage to the ecosystem, a more moderate accommodation that balances economic against health concerns is in order. But in either case the principle is the same: protect the environment -- because it is man's environment.
人类只有在自身命运与大自然的命运紧密相连时才应该将就自然做自身调整。人类在居住环境的健全——如大气臭氧层——受到威胁的时候必须做出最紧迫的调整。如果对人类的威胁相对较小（如燃煤或燃油发电机排放的使人致病致死，但对生态系统并不带来致命伤害的污染物），应该权衡经济发展和人类健康而进行适度调整。但不管哪种情况，基本原则是一个：保护环境——因为这是人类的生存环境。


14 The sentimental environmentalists will call this saving nature with a totally wrong frame of mind. Exactly. A sensible -- a humanistic -- environmentalism does it not for nature's sake but for our own.
感情用事的环境保护论者会将这种对

自然的保护称之为心态完全错误的自然保护。完全正确。理智的——人本主义的——环境保护论不是为大自然保护环境，而是为我们自己保护环境。

In the first text in this unit we heard the case against too much environmental protection. Here we have the case for more.
本单元第一篇课文中，我们听取了反对过度保护环境的理由。接下来我们听一听要求加大环境保护力度的呼声。

An Ugly New Footprint in the Sand
A.B.C. Whipple

1 There were strangers on our beach yesterday, for the first time in a month. A new footprint on our sand is nearly as rare as in Robinson Crusoe. We are at the very edge of the Atlantic; half a mile out in front of us is a coral reef and then nothing but 3,000 miles of ocean to West Africa. It is a wild and lonely beach, with the same surf beating on it as when Columbus came by. And yet the beach is polluted.
沙滩上出现的一个丑陋的新脚印
A. B. C.惠普尔
昨天，曾经有陌生人来到我们的海滩上，这是一个月来的第一次。我们沙滩上任何一个新脚印几乎都像《鲁宾逊漂流记》里所描写的那样罕见。我们是在大西洋的边沿上；在我们前面半英里的地方是个珊瑚礁，再向前直至西非便什么也没有了，只有3000英里大海一片。这是个荒僻的人烟稀少的海滩，海浪与往昔哥伦布途经时一样日夜不停地拍打着海岸，但这片海滩却已遭受污染。
　
2 Oil tankers over the horizon have dirtied it more than hundreds of picnickers could. The oil comes ashore in floating patches that stain the coral black and gray. It has destroyed the rock crabs and the crayfish and has coated the delicate coils of the conch shells with black sticky substance. And it has hardened upon itself, littering the beach with globes of tar that resemble the cannonballs of a deserted battlefield. The islanders, as they go beachcombing for the treasures the sea has washed up for centuries, now wear old shoes to protect their feet from the oil that washes up too.
航行在地平线之外的油轮对海滩的污染要比成百个野餐者造成的污染更为严重。浮在海面上的片片油污漂到岸上，把珊瑚都染成了黑灰色。油污毁灭了黄道蟹和龙虾，在海螺精致的螺旋壳上涂上了一层黑色稠胶。油污凝固成柏油，一团团散落在海滩上，东一块，西一块，看上去就像是荒弃战场上的弹丸。岛上居民去海滩上捡拾千百年来被海水不断冲上岸的珍奇宝物时，现在也穿上旧鞋，以防同时冲上来的油污玷污了脚。

3 You have to try to get away from pollution to realize how bad it really is. We have known for the last few years how bad our cities are. Now there is no longer an escape. If there is oil on this island far out in the Atlantic, there is oil on nearly every other island.
当

你不得不想方设法逃离污染的时候，你才会意识到污染的严重程度。几年来我们已经意识到我们的城市污染严重。时至今日再也无路可逃。如果连远离陆地的这个大西洋小岛上都出现了油污，那么差不多所有的岛屿都不能幸免。

4 It is still early here. The air is still clear over the island, but it won't be when they build the airport they are talking about. The water out over the reef is still blue and green, but it is dirtier than it was a few years ago. And if the land is not spoiled, it is only because there are not yet enough people here to spoil it. There will be. (1)And so for the moment on this island we are witnesses to the beginning, as it were, of the pollution of our environment....
这里的污染才初现端倪。岛上空气依然清新，但拟议之中的机场一旦造好，空气就不再会清新了。离岛远一点的珊瑚礁上面的海水仍呈蓝绿色，但已经比前几年脏了许多。如果说这块土地尚未受到污染，那只是因为当地的居民很少，还不足以将其污染。人会多起来的。因此，目前在这个岛上，不妨说我们是环境开始受到污染的见证人……

5 Until the pollution of our deserted beach, it seemed simple to blame everything on the "population explosion." If the population of this island, for example, could be held steady at a couple of hundred, there would be very little problem with the environment in this remote area. There would be no pollution of the environment if there were not too many people using it. And so if we concentrate on winning the war against overpopulation, we can save the earth for mankind. 在我们荒僻的海滩遭受污染之前，人们简单地把一切归咎于“人口爆炸”。比如说，如果岛上的人口能够稳定地控制在几百人左右，那么这个偏僻的地方就不会有什么环境问题。如果没有太多的人使用环境，就不会有环境污染。因此，如果我们集中精力打赢人口过剩这一仗，我们就能为人类拯救地球。

6 But the oil on the beach disproves this too easy assumption. Those tankers are not out there because too many Chinese and Indians are being born every minute. They are not even out there because there are too many Americans and Europeans. They are delivering their oil, and cleaning their tanks at sea and sending the remains up onto the beaches of the Atlantic and Pacific, in order to fuel the technology of man -- and the factories and the power plants, the vehicles and the engines that have enabled man to survive on this planet are now spoiling the planet for life.
但海滩上的油污证明这一简单的推想是错误的。那些油轮不是由于每分钟降生了过多的中国人或印度人而航行在那遥远的大海上的，甚至也不是由于美国人、欧洲人太多而引起的。他们是在运送石油，在海上清洗

油舱，而将残余污油送上了大西洋、太平洋的海滩，目的是为人类科技提供燃料——如今，那些让人类得以在地球上生存的工厂、发电厂、车辆和发动机正为了人类生存而在毁坏地球。


7 The fishermen on this island are perfectly right in preferring the outboard motor to the sail. (2)Their livelihood is involved, and the motor, for all its unpleasant smell, has helped increase the fisherman's catch so that he can now afford to do away with the far worse outdoor toilet. But the danger of technology is in its escalation, and there have already been signs of that here. You can see the motor oil floating in the town dock. Electric generators can be heard over the sound of the surf. And while there are only about two dozen automobiles for the ten miles of road, already there is a wrecked one rusting in the harbor waters where it was dumped and abandoned. The escalation of technological pollution is coming here just as surely as it came to the mainland cities that are now covered in smog.
岛上的渔民宁用舷外马达不使风帆，这样做一点也没有错。这关系到他们的生计，马达尽管气味令人讨厌，却帮助渔民增加了捕获量，因而他们就可以有钱去掉远比马达气味糟糕的户外厕所。然而，技术的危害在于其自身的不断升级，而这里已经出现了这种迹象。你可以看到小镇码头漂浮水面的机油。发电机的声响已经压过了大海的涛声。虽然10英里长的公路上只行驶着二十多辆汽车，港口水域内已有一辆丢弃的破车在生锈。技术污染在这个小岛上已经开始升级，这与过去大陆城市的技术污染升级一模一样，而如今这些大陆城市已被笼罩在烟雾之中。

8 (3)If the oil is killing the life along the coral heads, what must it not be doing to the plankton at sea which provide 70% of the oxygen we breathe? The lesson of our stained beach is that we may not even have realized how late it is already. Man, because of his technology, may require far more space per person on this globe than we had ever thought, but it is more than a matter of a certain number of square yards per person. There is instead a delicate balance of nature in which many square miles of ocean and vegetation and clean air are needed to sustain only a relatively few human beings. We may find, as soon as the end of this century, that the final destruction of our environment has been signaled not by starvation but by people choking to death. (4)The technology -- the machine -- will then indeed have had its ultimate, mindless, all unintended triumph over man, by destroying the atmosphere he lives in just as surely as you can pinch off a diver's breathing tube.
如果油污正在毁灭珊瑚礁顶部的生物，那它对于供给我们70%呼吸所用氧气的海洋浮游生物还有什么影响不会产生呢？海滩污染给我们的教训

在于，我们甚至尚未意识到这一切已经为时太晚。人类因其技术的发展有可能需要比我们过去所想的多得多的人均空间才能在这个地球上生存，但这并不仅仅是一个人均多少平方码的问题。相反，这里有一个微妙的自然平衡问题，要维持不多几个人的生命，需要许多平方英里的海洋、植被和清新空气。到本世纪末我们就可能看到，我们生存环境的彻底破坏不是以饥馑为标志，而是以人们的窒息死亡为标志。那个时候，技术——即机器——便确实会像掐断潜水者的透气管一样毫不含糊地毁掉人类赖以生存的大气层，无意中不知不觉地取得击败人类的最终胜利。

9 Sitting on a lonely but spoiled beach, it is hard to imagine but possible to believe.
坐在人迹罕至却已遭受污染的海滩上，这一切难以想象，却可置信。