Lesson 15:
The Beauty Industry
美容用品业

The one American industry unaffected by the general depression of trade is the beamy industry.
美国工业中惟一未受贸易大萧条影响的是美容用品业。

American women continue to spend on their faces and bodies as much as they spent before the coming of the slump經濟蕭條前—about three million pounds a week.
美国妇女仍不断在她们的脸上和身体上花费与经济萧条到来之前同样多的钱——每周约300万英镑。

These facts and figures are "official", and can he accepted as being substantially 充分true.
这些事实与数字都是官方的，可大致属实。

Reading them. I was only surprised by the comparative 相對較小smallness of the sums expended.
当读到这时，我只为花费的数目相对较小而感到惊奇。

From the prodigious巨大 number of advertisements of aids to beauty contained in the American magazines,
从美国杂志上铺天盖地的化妆品广告来看，

I had imagined that the personal appearance business must stand high up among the champions of American industry—the equal, or only just less than the equal, of bootlegging販賣私酒 and racketeering,敲詐勒索 movies and automobiles.
从美国杂志上铺天盖地的化妆品广告来看，我原以为美容用品业一定居美国工业群雄之首，与贩卖私酒和敲诈勒索，电影和汽车业并驾齐驱或稍逊一筹。

Still, one hundred and fifty-six million pounds a year is a tidy 相當大的sum.
虽然如此，每年 1亿 5，600万英镑是一个相当不小的数目，

Rather more than twice the revenue收入 of India, if I remember rightly.
如果我没有记错的话，超出印度年收入的两倍。

I do not know what the European figures are. Much smaller undoubtedly.
我不知道欧洲的数字是多少，毫无疑问要小得多。

Europe is poor, and a face can cost as much in upkeep as a Rolls-Royce.
欧洲很穷，保养一张脸需要花费和保养一辆罗尔斯——罗伊斯牌汽车一样多的钱。

The most that the majority of European women can do is just to wash and hope for the best.
大多欧洲妇女最多只能洗洗脸，听天由命。

Perhaps the soap will produce its loudly advertised effects;
也许肥皂会产生广告中大肆宣扬的效果，

perhaps it will transform them into the likeness of those ravishing creatures who smile so rosily and creamily紅潤白嫩, so peachily艷如桃李 and pearlily美若珠肌, from every hoarding廣告牌.
也许能把她们变成像那些在每块广告牌上绽开令人陶醉的红润白嫩、艳如桃李、美若珠玑般笑容的女郎。

Perhaps, on the other hand, it may not.
另一方面，或许肥皂不具有这种效能。

In any case, the more costly experiments in beautification are still as much beyond most European means as are high-powered motor-cars and electric refrigerators.
无论怎样，在装饰自己上更为昂贵的试验和大马力汽车及电冰箱一样都是欧洲人的经济能力所不及的。

Even in Europe, however, much more is now spent on beauty than was ever spent in the past.
然而即使在欧洲，如今花在化妆品上的钱比过去任何时候都要多得多，

Not quite so much more as in America, that is all.
只不过比起美国来要逊色些罢了。

But, everywhere, the increase has been undoubtedly enormous.增長無疑是巨大的
但无论在任何地方，增长无疑是巨大的。

The fact is significant.
这一事实意义重大。

To what is it due?
为什么会出现这种现象呢？

In part, I suppose, to a general increase in prosperity繁榮.
我认为部分是由于普遍增长的繁荣。

The rich have always cultivated their personal appearance.
有钱的人总是追求个人容貌的修饰，

The diffusion擴散 of wealth—such as it is—now permits those of the poor who are less badly off than their fathers to do the same.
财富的扩散——尽管程度并不大，境况比其父辈稍好一些的穷人也能这样做。

But this is, clearly, not the whole story.
但显然这并非事情的全部。

The modern cult of beauty is not exclusively 不隻是a function (in the mathematical sense) of wealth.
现代对美貌的狂热崇拜并不只是财富的作用（从数学意义上看），

If it were, then the personal appearance industries would have been as hardly hit by the trade depression as any other business.
因为如果是这样，那么美容用品业就会和其他企业一样受到贸易萧条的沉重打击。

But, as we have seen, they have not suffered.
但是正如我们所见，它并未受到损失。

Women are retrenching緊縮 on other things than their faces.
女人们在美容之外的一切方面紧缩开支，

The cult of beauty must therefore be symptomatic of changes that have taken place outside the economic sphere.
因而对美貌的狂热崇拜必定表现了经济领域以外产生的变化。

Of what changes? Of the changes, I suggest, in the status of women; of the changes in our attitude towards "the merely physical."單純是肉體的變化
什么变化？我认为表现了妇女地位的变化，表现了我们对“单纯是肉体”的态度的变化。

Women, it is obvious, are freer than in the past.
很显然，妇女比过去自由了，

Freer not only to perform the generally unenviable social functions hitherto 迄今為止reserved保留to the male,
不仅在完成迄今为止由男性完成的并值得羡慕的社会职能上比较自由了，

but also freer to exercise the more pleasing, feminine privilege of being attractive.
而且在运用更令人愉快的女性吸引力的特权上比较自由了。

They have the right, if not to be less virtuous than their grandmothers, at any rate to look less virtuous貞淑.
如果她们没有权利不如祖母们贞淑，至少可以有权利看起来不那么贞淑。

The British Matron, not long since a creature of austere嚴峻 and even terrifying aspect,
英国的命妇不久前还是神色严厉可怕的人物，

now does her best to achieve and perennially 永久preserve保持 the appearance of what her predecessor前輩 would have described as a Lost Woman. She often succeeds.
现在也尽一切努力获得并常年保持她的前辈会称作为荡妇的外表,她们常能做到这点。

But we are not shocked—at any rate, not morally shocked.
但我们并不感到震惊，至少在道德上没有震惊。

Aesthetically shocked—yes; we may sometimes be that. But morally, no.
审美上受到震惊——是的，有时是这样，但道德上没有

We concede 讓步that the Matron is morally justified正當的 in being preoccupied with her personal appearance.
我们作出让步，承认命妇专注于个人容貌在道德上是正当的，

This concession讓步 depends on another of a more general nature—a concession to the Body, with a large B, to the Manichaean principle of evil
这一让步是基于另一个性质更为一般的让步，即将带有大写B的肉体让与摩尼教中说的邪恶，

For we have now come to admit that the body has its rights.
因为我们现在已经承认了肉体具有自己的权利。

And not only rights—duties, actually duties. It has, for example, a duty to do the best it can for itself in the way of strength and beauty.
而且不仅是权利——还有责任，具体的责任。例如它有责任在力与美方面尽其所能地使自己得到满足。

Christian-ascetic ideas no longer trouble us.
基督教的禁欲主义不再令我们不安。

We demand justice for the body as well as for the soul.
我们要求灵魂以及肉体都能得到公正的对待。

Hence, among other things, the fortunes made by face-cream manufacturers and beauty-specialists, by the vendors of rubber reducing belts and massage machines, by the patentees of hair-lotions and the authors of books on the culture of the abdomen.腹部線條
因此其结果之一便是雪花膏生产者和美容专家、橡胶减肥带及头油专利者和保持腹部线条指导书的作者们大发其财

What are the practical results of this modern cult of beauty?
——现代对美貌的狂热崇拜造成的具体结果是什么？

The exercises and the massage, the health motors and the skin foods—to what have they led?
锻炼与按摩机和护肤用品——它们造成了什么结果？

Are women more beautiful than they were?
女人们比过去漂亮了？

Do they get something for the enormous大量 expenditure of energy, time, and money demanded of them by the beauty-cult?
由于对美貌的崇拜使她们花去大量的精力、时间和金钱，她们从中获得了什么吗？

These are questions which it is difficult to answer. For the facts seem to contradict themselves.
这些都是很难回答的问题，因为事实似乎互相矛盾。

The campaign for more physical beauty seems to be both a tremendous success 巨大的成功and a lamentable failure可悲的失敗, It depends on how you look at the results.
为取得更丰富的体貌美的运动似乎既是巨大的成功也是可悲的失败，看你如何看待。

It is a success in so far as more women retain their youthful appearance to a greater age than in the past.
从更多的女人比过去更长久地保持年轻外貌这一点看，这是个成功。

"Old ladies" are already becoming rare.
“老太太”已经很少见了。

In a few years, we may well believe, they will be extinct絕跡.
我们可以相信，几年后她将绝迹。

White hair and wrinkles, a bent back and hollow cheeks will come to be regarded as medievally 中世紀old-fashioned.
满头白发、满脸皱纹、弯腰曲背、两颊深陷会被看作是中世纪般的过时

The crone of the future will be golden, curly 卷曲and cherry-lipped, neatankled勻側 and slender.
未来的老太婆将有卷曲的金发，樱桃红唇，匀侧脚踝，苗条身材。

The Portrait of the Artist's Mother will come to be almost indistinguishable難以分辯, at future picture shows, from the Portrait of the Artist's Daughter.
在未来的画展上，艺术家母亲的画像与其女儿的画像将变得几乎难以分辨，

This desirable consummation will be due in pan to skin foods and injections of paraffin-wax, facial surgery, mud baths泥浴, and paint, in part to improved health, due in its turn to a more rational mode of life.
这一令人满意的结果一部分是由于有了护肤品和使胸部丰满的石蜡，整形外科，泥浴，化妆品，另外也由于更合理的生活方式造成的健康状态的改善。

Ugliness is one of the symptoms of disease, beauty of health.
丑陋是疾病的症状之一，美则是健康的象征。

In so far as the campaign for more beauty is also a campaign for more health,it is admirable and, up to a point, genuinely successful.
争取更多美丽的运动就是争取更健康的运动，就这点而言，是值得赞许的，并且在一定程度上是真正获得了成功。

Beauty that is merely the artificial shadow of these symptoms of health is intrinsically of poorer quality than the genuine article.
模仿出来的象征健康的美本质上就比真货质量差，

Still, it is a sufficiently good imitation(模仿) to be sometimes mistakeable for the real thing.
然而模仿技术有时足以乱真。

The apparatus器具 for mimicking模仿 the symptoms of health is now within the reach of every moderately prosperous person;
以仿造健康状态的设备现在每一个中等富裕的人都可以买得起；

the knowledge of the way in which real health can be achieved is growing, and will in time, no doubt, be universally acted upon.
用有关真正健康方面的知识也在不断增加，且无疑终将被所有人采用。

When that happy moment conies, will every woman be beautiful—as beautiful, at any rate, as the natural shape of her features, with or without surgical and chemical aid, permits?
当那个幸福时刻来临之时，是否每个女人都会很美丽——至少和她五官的自然形状在有或没有外科手术或化物品的帮助下同样美丽?

The answer is emphatically斷然的: No. For real beauty is as much an affair of the inner as of the outer self.
回答是断然的：不是。真正的美，内在与外表同样重要。

The beauty of a porcelain jar陶器罐 is a matter of shape, of colour, of surface texture.
细瓷瓶美在外形、色彩、质地。

The jar may be empty or tenanted by spiders, full of honey or stinking slime
罐子可能是空的，也可能为蜘蛛盘踞，装满蜂蜜或又臭又粘的液体，

—it makes no difference to its beauty or ugliness.
而这一切都不影响瓷瓶的美与丑

But a woman is alive, and her beauty is therefore not skin deep.
但人是活生生的，因而她的美不是表面的。

The surface of the human vessel is affected by the nature of its spiritual contents.
人这种容器受其精神内涵的影响。

I have seen women who, by the standards of a connoisseur of porcelain, 瓷器鉴赏家were ravishingly lovely.
我见过一些女人，如果用瓷器鉴赏家的标准来衡量，她们可爱得迷人。

Their shape, their colour, their surface texture were perfect. And yet they were not beautiful.
她们的外形、色彩、表面质地都完美无缺，然而她们却不美，

For the lovely vase was either empty or filled with some corruption.
因为这可爱的花瓶不是空空如也便是充满了某种腐朽，

Spiritual emptiness or ugliness shows through.
精神空虚或灵魂丑恶透过外表显露出来。

And conversely, there is an interior light心靈的光芒 that can transfigure forms that the pure aesthetician would regard as imperfect or downright ugly.
相反，有种心灵的光芒可以把纯唯美主义者们认为有缺陷或简直是丑陋的外形变得美好。

There are numerous forms of psychological ugliness.
多种形式的心理丑陋，

There is an ugliness of stupidity, for example, of unawareness (distressingly common among pretty women). An ugliness also of greed, of lasciviousness好色的, of avarice. 还有贪心、淫荡、贪婪无厌。
例如愚蠢、无自知之明（在漂亮女人中此现象普遍得令人苦恼），

All the deadly sins, indeed, have their own peculiar 奇特的negation of beauty.
一切遭天谴的大罪都以其奇特的方式损坏美。

On the pretty faces of those especially who are trying to have a continuous "good time,"
在那些漂亮的脸蛋上，特别是在那些企图不停“享乐”的人的脸蛋上，

one sees very often a kind of bored sullenness that ruins破壞 all their charm.
常常可以看到一种厌倦的、阴沉的神情，破坏了他们的容貌。

I remember in particular two young American girls I once met in North Africa.
我特别记得我曾在北非遇见的两个年轻美国女郎。

From the porcelain specialist's point of view, they were beautiful.
从瓷器专家的观点来看，她们是美丽的，

But the sullen boredom of which I have spoken was so deeply stamped into their fresh faces,
但我上面谈到的那种阴沉厌倦的神情如此深深地刻在了她们年轻的脸上，

their gait步態 and gestures 姿態expressed so weary a listlessness, that it was unbearable to look at them.
她们的步伐和姿态表现出无聊与无精打采，真让人受不了。

These exquisite creatures were positively repulsive.
这些精美的人物的确令人厌恶。

Still commoner and no less repellent is the hardness which spoils 損壞so many pretty faces.
更为常见且同样使人反感的是损害了漂亮面孔的冷酷表情。

Often, it is true, this air of hardness is due not to psychological causes,
诚然，冷酷的表情有时不是出于心理原因，

but to the contemporary 當代habit of over-painting.
而是当今面部过度化妆的习惯引起的。

In Paris, where this over-painting is most pronounced, many women have ceased to look human at all.
在过度化妆非常明显的巴黎，许多妇女已经根本不像人了。

Whitewashed and ruddled, they seem to be wearing masks.
刷白涂红以后，他们像戴上了面具。

One must look closely to discover the soft and living face beneath-
你必须仔细看才能看出浓妆下柔软的有生命的面孔。

But often the face is not soft, often it turns out to be imperfectly alive.
但是那张脸常常并不柔软，常常会发现它不完全充满生命力，

The hardness and deadness are from within.
那冷酷与木然是从内心发出的，

They are the outward and visible signs of some emotional or instinctive 本能的disharmony,
是某种感情或本能上存在的不和谐的外部迹象，

accepted as a chronic condition of being.
被视作生存本身的慢性病疾。

We do not need a Freudian to tell us that this disharmony不調和 is often of a sexual nature.
不需任何弗洛伊德式的心理分析家来告诉我们，此种不和谐常常与性问题有关。

So long as such disharmonies continue to exist, so long as there is good reason for sullen boredom, so long as human beings allow themselves to be possessed 惡夢中and hagridden by monomaniacal vices, the cult of beauty is destined to be ineffectual.
只要这种不和谐继续存在下去，只要有阴沉厌倦的理由，只要人允许自己沉溺于罪恶之中被其纠缠困扰，那么对美貌的狂热崇拜便注定会是徒劳的。

Successful in prolonging the appearance of youth, or realizing or simulating the symptoms of health, the campaign inspired by this cult remains fundamentally a failure.
这一崇拜所激起的这场运动虽能成功地延迟外貌的衰老或使人获得或模仿出象征健康的美来，但从根本上仍是失败的，

Its operations do not touch the deepest source of beauty—the experiencing soul.
它的作用未能触及美的最深的源泉——感受中的灵魂。

It is not by improving skin foods and point rollers, by cheapening health motors and electrical hair-removers, that the human race will be made beautiful;
人类不能通过改进护肤品和卷发器或通过降低健身机和电动除毛器的价格使自己更美起来，

it is not even by improving health.
甚至也不能通过增进健康来实现。

All men and women will be beautiful only when the social arrangements give to every one of them an opportunity to live completely and harmoniously,
所有男女只有在社会一切安排使他们每个人都能得到机会过完整和谐的生活时才能是美的，

when there is no environmental incentive and no hereditary tendency遺傳因素 towards monomaniacal vice.
只有在没有环境刺激、没有遗传因素使他们沉溺于罪恶之中时才能是美的。

In other words, all men and women will never be beautiful. But there might easily be fewer ugly human beings in the world than there are at present.
换言之，不会所有的男女都是美的，但是很可能世界上会比过去少些丑陋的人。

We must be content with moderate hopes.
我们不能有过高的希望。

Lesson 16:
A Job Interview
面 试

The senior partner studied the resume 簡歷for the hundredth time and again found nothing he disliked about Mitchell Y. McDeere, at least not on paper.
当这位资深的合伙人第100次研究米切尔•Y•麦克迪尔的简历 时，还是找不到任何不满意的地方，至少从书面上没有发现

He had the brains, the ambition, the good looks.
他有头脑，有野心，而且一表人才。

And he was hungry; with his background, he had to be.
他非常需要钱。从背景情况看， 他一定是这样。

He was married, and that was mandatory必須的.
他已经结婚了，这也是公司需要的。

The firm also frowned heavily on divorce, as well as womanizing and drinking.
公司对离婚、玩弄女人和酗酒非常反感。

Drug testing was in the contract.
吸毒药检也在合同之列。

He had a degree in accounting and wanted to be a tax lawyer, which was of course a requirement with a tax firm.
他有会计学的学位，而且他想成为一名税务律师,这当然是税务公司所要求的。

He was white, and the firm had never hired a black. He was male, and there were no women in the firm.
他是白人，公司从未雇佣过黑人。他是男性，公司里没有女士。

He looked good on paper. He was their top and only choice for this year.
从书面上看他很出色。他是他们这一年最好的而且是惟一的选择。

The managing partner, Royce McKnight, studied a dossier檔案labeled “Mitchell Y. McDeere—Harvard."
业务主管罗伊斯•麦克耐特，仔细研究了标有“米切尔•Y•麦克迪尔—哈佛”的档案。

It had been prepared by some ex-CIA agents in a private intelligence outfit.
这是由在一家私人情报机构的工作的特工提供的。

They learned, among other things, that he was holding three job offers, two in New York and one in Chicago.
其中他们还了解到他有三份工作，两份在纽约，一份在芝加哥。

He was in demand. Also he owed close to $ 23,000 in student loans. He was hungry.
他很抢手。他还欠将近 23 000美元的低息助学贷款。他非常需要钱。

McKnight smiled. McDeere was their man.
罗伊斯•麦克耐特露出了微笑。麦克迪尔就是他们需要的人。

Lamar Quin was thirty-two and not yet a partner.
拉马尔•奎恩32岁，还不是合伙人。

He had been brought along to look young and act young朝气蓬勃and project a youthful image for Bendini, Lambert & Locke, which in fact was a young firm, since most of the partners retired in their late forties or early fifties with money to burn.
　他长得很年轻，朝气蓬勃，而且为本迪尼、兰伯特和洛克事务所设计了一个充满青春气息的形象，事实上它也的确是一个年轻的事务所，因为大多数合伙人在近50岁或50岁出头时就带着用不完的钱退休了。

Precisely at two-thirty someone knocked on the door. Lamar opened the door.
两点半的时候，有人敲门。拉马尔开了门，

"Mitchell McDeere?" he asked with a huge smile and a hand thrust forward.
“是米切尔•麦克迪尔吗？”他一只手向前伸，满面春风地问道。

"Yes." They shook hands violently-
“是的。”他们热烈地握手。

"Nice to meet you, Mitchell. I'm Lamar Quin."
　“见到你很高兴，米歇尔。我是拉马尔•奎恩。”．

"My pleasure. Please call me Mitch." He stepped inside.
“见到你我也很高兴。请叫我米切尔。”他上前一步。

"Sure, Mitch." Lamar grabbed his shoulder and led him across the spacious room,
“好的，米切尔。”拉马尔抓住他的肩膀，把他让进房间的一角，

where the partners introduced themselves.
在那儿，合伙人们做了自我介绍。

They were exceedingly warm and cordial真誠.
他们非常热情真诚

McDeere was now a seasoned veteran in the search of employment.
麦克迪尔现在成了找工作的老手。

He relaxed. With three job offers from three of the most prestigious有聲望的 firms in the country, he did not need this interview, this firm.
他很放松。有了由3个全国最有声望的公司提供的工作，他根本就不需要来参加这次面试，来这家事务所。

He was there out of curiosity好奇心的. And he longed for warmer weather.
他来完全是出于好奇，而且他喜欢一个更温暖的地方。

“Are you tired of interviewing?” asked Oliver Lambert, the senior partner who was in charge of the recruiting.新兵
“你是不是对面试感到厌倦了？”奥利佛•兰伯特问道，他是负责招聘的一个资深合伙人。

"Not really. It's part of it."
“不是。它是其中的一部分。”

Yes, yes, they all agreed.
他们一致赞同。

"May 1 ask a question?" Mitch asked.
“我能问一个问题吗？”米切尔问道。

"Certainly."
“当然。”

"Why are we interviewing in this hotel room? The other firms interview on campus through the placement office. "
“为什么我们在饭店里面试？其他公司都是在学校里进行。”

"Good question, Mitch," said Royce McKnight, the managing partner.
“这个问题提得好，米切尔，”负责管理的合伙人罗伊斯•麦克耐特说道。

"You must understand our firm. We are different, and we take pride in that.
“你必须理解我们的事务所。我们与众不同，并且以此为荣。

We have forty-one lawyers, so we are small compared with other firms.
我们有41位律师，因此和其他公司相比我们很小

We don't hire too many people; about one every other year.
我们不雇佣过多的人，每隔两年招聘一个。

We offer the highest salary and fringes附加福利 in the country,
我们提供全国最高的工资和附加福利，

and I'm not exaggerating夸大. So we are very selective.
我没有夸大其词。所以我们很挑剔，

We selected you. The letter you received last month was sent after we screened over 篩選two thousand third-year students at the best schools.
我们选择了你。你上个月收到的那封信是我们通过在最好的学校里对2000多名学生进行筛选后寄出的。

Only one letter was sent. We don't advertise openings and we don't solicit applications.
只发了一封信。我们不登招聘广告来让人们应聘。

We keep a low profile, and we do things differently. Thai's our explanation.
我们总是低调处理并且做事与众不同。这就是我们的解释。”

"Fair enough. What kind of firm is it?"
“很好。这是一个什么样的事务所呢？”

"Tax. Some securities股票, real estate房地產 and banking, but eighty percent is tax work. That's why we wanted to meet you, Mitch. You have an incredibly strong tax background. "
“税务。有一些股票、房地产和银行业务，但80％是税务工作。这就是我们想见你的原因。米切尔，你有非常好的税务方面的背景。”

"Why'd you go to Western Kentucky?" asked Oliver Lambert.
“你为什么想去肯塔基大学呢？”奥利佛•兰伯特问道。

"Simple. They offered me a full scholarship to play football. Had it not been for that, college would've been impossible. "
“很简单。他们为我打橄榄球提供全额奖学金。如果不是因为这个原因，我是不可能去这个学校的。”

"Mitch, our firm is in Memphis," Lamar said. "Does that bother you?”
“米切尔，我们的事务所在孟斐斯，”拉马尔说道，“你不会介意吧？”

"Not at all. I'm not fond of cold weather. "
“不介意。我不喜欢寒冷的天气。”

"Have you ever been to Memphis?"
“你去过孟斐斯吗？”

"No."
“没有。”

"We'll have you down soon. You'll love it."
“我们不久就会让你去那里。你一定会喜欢那里的。”

Mitch smiled and nodded and played along. Were these guys serious? How could he consider such a small firm in such a small town when Wall Street was waiting?
米切尔微笑着点点头，装出同意的样子。这些人是认真的吗？有华尔街的工作正等着去，他怎么会考虑到这个小镇上的这么小的事务所来工作呢？

"How are you ranked in your class?" Mr. Lambert asked.
“你在你们班里是第几名？”兰伯特先生问道。

"Top five." Not top five percent, but top five. Thai was enough of an answer for all of them. Top five out of three hundred.
“前5名。不是前5％。而是前5名。”这已经足以回答他们的问题。300个人中的前5名。

"Why did you select Harvard?"
“你为什么选择哈佛大学？”

"Actually Harvard selected me. I applied at several schools and was accepted everywhere. Harvard offered more financial assistance. I thought il was the best school. Still do. "
“实际上是哈佛选择了我。我申请了几所学校，而且都被录取了。哈佛提供的资助较多。我当时觉得这是一所最好的学校，现在我仍然这样认为。”

"You made extremely high grades in your tax and securities
“你的税务和有价证券的成绩相当高。”

"Thai's where my interest lies."
“那是我的兴趣所在。”

"Now, Mitch, tell us about your wife," Royce McKnight said. It was a standard, nonsacred area explored by every firm.
“好的，米切尔，谈谈你妻子吧。”罗伊斯•麦克耐特说道。这是每个公司都要问及的一个普遍问题。

"Her name is Abby. She has a degree in elementary education from Western Kentucky. For the past three years she's taught at a private kindergarten near Boston College. "
“她叫阿比。在西肯塔基大学获得了初等教育专业学位。最近三年她一直在波士顿大学附近的一所私立幼儿园任教。”

"And is the marriage—"
“你们的婚姻？”

"We're very happy. We've known each other since high school. "
“我们很幸福。我们从高中就认识了。”

"I don't imagine Western Kentucky is much of an academic school,"
“我觉得西肯塔基大学不是什么学术水平很高的学校。”

Lamar blurted with a stupid grin, and immediately wished he could take it back.
马尔•奎恩笑着脱口而出，但他马上就后悔了。　

"Sort of like Kansas State," Mitch replied. All the three people froze, and for a few seconds
stared incredulously難以置信 at each other.
“有点像堪萨斯大学，”米切尔回答道，三个人都惊呆了，用难以置信的目光相互对视了一会儿。

This guy McDeere knew Lamar Quin went to Kansas State. He had never met Lamar Quin and had no idea who would appear on behalf of the firm and conduct the interview.
麦克迪尔这家伙知道拉马尔•奎恩曾在堪萨斯大学上学。他与拉马尔•奎恩从未谋面，而且并不知道谁将代表事务所来面试。

Yet, he knew. He had checked them out. He had read the biographical sketches of all of the forty-one lawyers in the firm, and in a split second he had recalled that Lamar Quin had gone to Kansas State. They were impressed.
然而，他知道。他查出来了。他阅读了有关该事务所所有41名律师的介绍，而且能在一瞬间回忆起拉马尔•奎恩曾在堪萨斯大学读过书。这点给他们留下了深刻的印象。

"I guess that came out wrong," Lamar apologized.
“我不该这么说，”拉马尔表示道歉。

"No problem," Mitch smiled warmly. It was forgotten.
“没问题，”米切尔热情地微笑着，他已经不介意了。

Oliver Lambert cleared his throat and. decided to get personal again.
奥利佛•兰伯特清了清嗓子，决定亲自出马了。

"Mitch, our firm frowns on drinking and chasing women. We put business ahead of everything. We keep low profiles and we work very hard. And we make plenty of money."
“米切尔，我们事务所反对酗酒和玩女人。
我们把业务放在一切之首。我们采取低姿态，但工作很努力。而且我们赚的钱很多。”

"I can live with ail-that."
“我可以接受这些。”

"We reserve the right to test any member of the firm for drug
“我们保留事务所对任何成员进行吸毒的药检权。”

"I don't use drugs."
“我不吸毒。”

"Good. The reason why we ask these questions is because we want stable families. Happy lawyers are productive lawyers.'"
“好的，我们之所以问这些问题是因为我们需要稳定的家庭，幸福的律师是能干的。”

Milch smiled and nodded. He had heard this before.
米切尔微笑着点点头。他以前听过这话。

The three looked at: each other, then at Mitch.
三个人互相看了看，又看了看米切尔。

This meant they had reached the point in the interview where the interviewee was supposed to ask one or two intelligent questions.
这表明他们已经到了面试中问一两个更高层次问题的阶段了。

Mitch crossed his legs. Money, that was the big question, particularly how it compared to his other offers.
米切尔把一条腿搭在另一条腿上。钱，这是一个最大的问题，特别是与其他所提供的工作情况相比。

But, he knew, like all the other firms they had to shadowbox避免 around the issue until things got awkward and it was apparent they had discussed everything in the world but money.
但他明白他们也像其他公司一样避免直接谈及这个问题，直到事态变得很尴尬而且很明显除了钱不再有其他任何可谈的。

So hit them with a soft question first.
因此他提出一個委婉的問題先問他

"What type of work will 1 do initially?"
“我开始要做什么工作？”

They nodded and approved of the question. Lambert and Mcknight looked at Lamar. This answer was his.
他们点点头，对这个问题表示认可。兰伯特和麦克耐特看着拉马尔。这是他回答的问题。

"We have something similar to a two-year apprenticeship, although we don't call it that.
“我们有两年的类似实习的时间，但我们不把它叫做实习期。

We'll send you all over the country to tax seminars研討會.
我们会派你去参加在全国各地举行的税务研讨会。

If you want to pursue a master's in taxation, we'll pay for it.
如果你要继续攻读税务方面的硕士学位，我们会支付这笔费用。

As far as practicing law, it won't be very exciting for the first two years. You'll do a lot of research and generally boring stuff. Bui you'll be paid handsomely. "
至于从事律师业务，开始两年不会令人兴奋。你要做很多研究和一些令人乏味的事情，但是工资会很高。”

"How much?"
“多少？”

Lamar looked at Royce McKnight, who eyed Mitch and said, "We'll discuss the compensation and other benefits when you come to Memphis. "
拉马尔看了看正盯着米切尔的罗伊斯•麦克耐特说道，“你来孟斐斯的时候我们再谈工资待遇和其他附加福利。”

"I want a figure or I may not come to Memphis. "He smiled, arrogant傲慢 but cordial真誠. He spoke like a man with three job offers.
“我想知道一个数字，不然我可能不会去孟斐斯。”他傲慢而真诚地微笑着，讲话时就像一个有三份工作的人一样。

The partners look at each other, and Mr. Lambert spoke first. "Okay. A base salary of eighty thousand the first year, plus bonuses. Eighty-five the second year, plus bonuses. A low-interest mortgage 抵押贷款so you can buy a home. Two country club memberships. And a new BMW. You pick the color, of course. "
合伙人们相互对视了一下，兰伯特先生先开口了。“好吧。第一年的基本工资是8万，外加奖金。第二年是8万5，外加奖金。低息的抵押贷款以便你可以买房子。两个乡村俱乐部的会员身份和一辆新宝马，颜色当然你可以自己选。”

"That's incredible," 簡直不可思議的he mumbled.
“简直不可思议，”他小声说道。

"Plus a few fringes we'll be glad to discuss in Memphis."
“还有一些附加福利，我们希望到孟斐斯时再谈。”

Suddenly he had a strong desire to visit Memphis. Wasn't it by the river?
他突然之间萌发了去孟斐斯的强烈的愿望。它是不是靠近河边呢？

The smile vanished消失 and he regained his composure.泰然自菪 "Tell me about your firm.”
笑容从他的脸上消失了，他又恢复了泰然自若的样子。“请你说说事务所的情况。”

"Forty-one lawyers. Last year we earned more per lawyer than any firm our size or larger. That includes every big firm in the country.
“41名律师。去年我们每位律师挣的钱超过了所有和我们规模相当或规模大于我们的事务所。其中包括全国的所有大公司。

We take only rich clients顧客—corporations, banks and wealthy people who pay our healthy fees and never complain.
我们只接受有钱的客户——大公司、银行和巨富，他们为我们付医疗费却从不抱怨。

We've developed a specialty 專業in international taxation, and it's both exciting and very profitable. We deal only with people who pay."
我们已经成形成专业的国际税务，而且既刺激又有利可图。我们只和付钱的人打交道。”

"How long does it take to make partner?"
“需要多长时间才能成为合伙人？”

"On the average, ten years, and it's a hard ten years. It's not unusual for our partners to earn half a million a year and most retire before they are fifty.
“平均10年。这是非常艰苦的10年。对于我们的合伙人每年赚50万是司空见惯的，而且他们绝大多数在50岁以前就退休。

You've got to pay your dues, put in eighty-hour weeks, but it's worth it when you make partner. "
你必须付‘会费’，每周工作80小时，但当你成为合伙人时，是很值得的。”

"How many partners are there in the firm?"
“事务所有多少合伙人？”

"Twenty, active. We try to keep a ratio of one partner for each associate. That's high for the industry, but we like it. Again, we do things differently."
　“20个，现有的。我们要为每个同事留一个合伙人的比率。这在这行里是很高的，但是我们喜欢。而且，我们做事与众不同。”

"All of our partners are multimillionaires by the age of forty-five," Royce McKnight said.
“我们所有的合伙人在45岁的时候都成了大富翁。”罗伊斯•麦克耐特说道。

"All of them?"
“所有的人？”

"Yes, sir. We don't guarantee it, but if you join our firm, put in ten hard years, make partner and put in ten more years, and you're not a millionaire at the age of forty-five, you'll be the first in
“是的，先生。我们不做保证，但如果你加入我们的事务所，努力工作10年，成为合伙人后再花10年的时间，那么在45岁时，你不是百万富翁，20年后你将成为第一号。

"That's an impressive statistic."
“这真是个吸引人的数字。”

"It's an impressive firm, Mitch," Oliver Lambert said,
“这是个吸引人的事务所，米切尔，”奥利佛•兰伯特说道，

"and we're very proud of it. We are small and we take care of each other. We're very careful whom we hire, and our goal is for each new associate to become a partner as soon as possible.
“而且我们引以为荣。我们的事务所很小，所以我们互相关照。我们雇佣人员非常慎重，我们对每一位新同事的目标就是使他们尽快成为合伙人，

It is a rare, extremely rare occasion when a lawyer leaves our firm. It is simply unheard of.
很少有律师离开事务所，这种情况我们根本没听说过。

We want our people happy. We think it is the most profitable way to operate."
我们希望我们的员工幸福，我们觉得这是最能获益的运作方式。”

They watched him carefully lo make sure all of this sank in.
他们仔细地观察着他，确定他明白了所讲的一切。

They explained as best they could, for now. Further explanation would come later.
到目前为止，他们已尽了全力来作出解释，过后还会更进一步解释。

"Would you like to come to visit us?" asked Oliver Lambert.
“你想来看看我们的事务所吗？”奥利佛•兰伯特问道。

"When?" asked Mitch, dreaming of a black 318i with a sunroof.
“什么时候？”米切尔问道，此时他正在想像着带遮阳罩的318i型黑色汽车了。

期待下册

（下册课文）
Lesson One
The Company in Which I work
我工作的公司
By Joseph Heller

In the company in which I work , each of us is afraid of at least one person .
我工作的公司里，每个人都至少害怕一个人。

The lower your position is , the more people you are afraid of .
职位越低，所惧怕的人越多。

And all the people are afraid of the twelve men at the top who helped found and build the company and now own and direct it .
所有的人都害怕那十二位顶层上司，他们帮助创建了这个公司，而且现在仍然大权在握。

All these twelve men are elderly now and drained by time 歲月滄桑and success of energy and ambition .
所有这十二位都已经上了年纪，而且岁月的沧桑和对成功的执著追求使他们心力交瘁。

Many have spent their whole lives here .They seem friendly ,slow , and content when I come upon them in the halls and always courteous(有禮貌的) and mute 沉默不語的）when they ride with others in the public elevators .
他们中很多人在这儿干了一辈子。当我在大厅里遇见他们时，他们看上去非常友善、沉稳而心满意足，而且他们与别人一起乘坐公共电梯时又总是彬彬有礼、沉默不语

They no longer work hard .They hold meetings , make promotions, and allow their names to be used on announcements that are prepared and issued by somebody else .
他们不再努力工作。他们主持会议，决定别人的晋升，任凭别人在准备发布的通告中使用他们的名字，

Nobody is sure anymore who really runs the company ( not even the people who are credited with running it ) , but the company does run .
没有人知道谁真正经营这家公司（甚至连人们认为现在经营着这家公司的那些人都不知道），然而公司的确在运转。

In the normal course of a business day …I am afraid of Jack Green because my department is part of his department and Jack Green is my boss ;
在平常的工作日里，我很害怕杰克•格林，这是因为我所在的部门属于他的部门，而杰克•格林是我的上司。

Green is afraid of me because most of the work in my department is done for the Sales Department , which is more important than his department , and I am much closer to Andy Kagle and the other people in the Sales Department than he is .
格林害怕我则是因为我的部门的绝大部分工作是为销售部所做的，而销售部比他的部门更重要，而且同他相比，我与迪•卡葛勒以及销售部的其他人员的关系更加密切。

Green distrusts me fitfully .
格林偶尔也对我不信任，

He makes it clear to me every now and then that he wishes to see everything coming out of my department before it is shown to other departments
他有时会向我表示他希望我的部门的每一项工作在其他部门知道前要先让他知道。

I know he does not really mean this : he is too busy with his own work to pay that much attention to all of mine ,
我知道这不是他真正的意思，他自己的工作非常忙，根本就无暇顾及我们所有的工作。

and I will bypass him on most of our assignments rather than take up his time and delay their delivery to people who have an immediate need for them .
我会将大部分工作绕过格林并直接交给需要它们的人，而不愿意占他的时间。

Most of the work we do in my department is , in the long run, trivial (鎖事).
毕竟我们部门绝大部分工作只是微不足道的。

But Green always grows alarmed when someone from another department praises something that has come from my department .
但是每当其他部门赞扬我们部门的工作时，格林就会变得不安，

He turns scarlet with rage and embarrassment(惱羞成怒) is he has not seen or heard of it .
如果他从未看见或听到过的话，就更是恼羞成怒。

In my department , there are six people who are afraid of me , and one small secretary who is afraid of all of us .
在我的部门里，有六个人害怕我，其中一个小秘书害怕我们所有的人。

I have one other person working for me who is not afraid of me who is not afraid of anyone , not even me , and I would fire him quickly , but I’m afraid of him …
有一个为我工作的人，他对任何人都毫不惧怕，甚至连我也不怕，我真想尽快把他解雇掉，然而我害怕他……

The people in the company who are most afraid of most people are the salesmen . They live and work under pressure that is extraordinary . When things are bad , they are worse for the salesmen ;when things are good , they are not much better .
公司里非常惧怕大多数人的人是销售人员，他们都生活和工作在极大压力之下，当情况不好时，对销售人员来说就会更糟。而当情况较好时，他们也不会好到哪儿去。

They are always on trial , always on the verge of failure , collectively and individually .
不论是从整体上还是个人，他们总是在接受检查，总是处于不合格的边缘。

They strain工作努力even the most secure and self assured of them , to look good on paper ;
他们工作非常努力（就连他们中那些很有保障的和充满自信的人都是这样）以使在书面评语上看上去好一些，

and there is much paper for them to look good on . 况且要让他们看上去好的表格多得很。

Each week , for example , a record of the sales results of the preceding week for each sales office and for the Sales Department as a whole for each division of the company is kept and compared to the sales results for the corresponding week of the year before .
比如每星期为各部门准备的每个销售办事处及销售部所作的前一星期的销售业绩总记录加以保存并且与前一年同期的销售业绩相比较。

The figures are photocopied and distributed throughout the company to all the people and departments whose work is related to selling .
这些数字被复印后发到公司的每位员工和与销售有关的部门。

The result of the photocopying and distributing is that there is almost continuous public scrutiny 公開審查and discussion throughout the company of how well or poorly the salesmen in each sales office of each division of the company are doing at any given time .
这样做的结果是公司几乎一直在对每一个分公司的销售办事处中的销售人员在某一既定时间内的工作业绩进行公开审查和评论。

When salesmen are doing well , there is pressure upon them to begin doing better , for fear they may start doing worse .
当销售人员业绩好时，他们因为要开始使工作做得更好，以免不如以前，从而感到压力重重。

When they are doing poorly , they are doing terribly .
当他们的业绩不佳时，他们就会做得一塌糊涂`

When a salesman lands a large order or brings in an important new account , his elation is brief ,
当一个销售人员争取到了一份大订单或者得到了一笔大的应收的账款，他的兴奋也是短暂的，`

for there is danger he might lose that large order or important new account to a salesman from a competing company the next time around .
因为很可能他的那份大订单或者大笔的进账下一次有被竞争对手的公司拿去的危险，

It might even be canceled before it is filled ,
甚至在完成前被取消，

in which case no one is certain if anything was gained or lost .
对这种情况没有人能肯定谁输谁赢。`

So there is crisis危機 and alarm驚慌 even in their triumphs .
因此即便在他们的喜悦中也存在着危机和惊慌。

Nevertheless然而 , the salesmen love their work and would not choose any other kind .
然而，销售人员热爱他们的工作，而绝不再选择其他职业。

They are vigorous(精力旺盛) , fun-loving bunch愛說愛笑 when they are not suffering abdominal cramps(消化不良)or brooding miserably about the future ;
在没有消化不良的困扰或不再苦苦为未来忧虑时，他们是一群充满活力、爱说爱笑的人。

on the other hand , they often turn cranky(任性的) without warning and complain a lot .
另一方面他们会突然之间变得任性并且牢骚满腹，

Each of them can name at least one superior in the company who he feels has a grudge(怨恨)against him and is determined to wreck(毀) his career .
他们每个人都至少能说出公司的一个上层人物是令他极度不满并且觉得这个人会毁了他的前程的。　

The salesmen work hard and earn big salaries , with large personal expense accounts that they squander(浪費， 揮霍)generously on other people in and out of the company , including me .
销售人员工作努力，薪金丰厚，还有个人经费，他们会把这笔个人经费挥霍在进出公司的其他人的身上，其中包括我本人。

They own good houses in good communities and play good games of golf on good private golf courses .
他们在豪宅区拥有自己的房子，在高级的私人高尔夫球场打球。

The company encourages this . The company , in fact , will pay for their country club membership and all charges they incur(開支) there , and rewards salesmen who make a good impression on the golf course .
　公司鼓励这种做法。实际上，公司为他们支付乡村俱乐部会员费以及他们在那里的所有开支，并且对那些在高尔夫球上给人留下深刻印象的销售人员给予奖励。

Unmarried men are not wanted in the Sales Department , not even widowers ,
销售部不要未婚男士，甚至连丧偶的也不要，

for the company has learned from experience that it is difficult and dangerous for unmarried salesmen to mix socially with與社交來往 prominent executives and their wives or participate with them in responsible civic affairs .
因为公司根据以往的经验得出，对未婚销售人员来说与前程似锦的高级管理人员以及他们的太太们进行社交来往或者参与重大的活动不仅很困难而且危险。

If a salesman’s wife dies and he is not ready to remarry , he is usually moved into an administrative position after several months of mourning .
如果一位销售人员的妻子去世了，而他又没有准备再婚，那么通常在丧期后的几个月内他就会调去做行政管理工作。

Bachelors單身漢 are never hired for the sales force , and salesmen who get divorced , or whose wives die , know they had better remarry or begin looking ahead toward a different job .
单身汉永远都不会做销售员。离婚或者丧偶的销售员都很清楚他们最好再婚或者去另谋他职。

Strangely enough , the salesmen react very well to the constant pressure and rigid supervision to which they are subjected .
非常奇怪的是，销售人员对长期压力和他们所受的严格管理能够坦然处之。

They are stimulated and motivated by discipline and direction.
他们受到纪律和上级指令的激励和促动。

They thrive on explicit guidance toward clear objectives .
他们在上司的点拨下获得成功，业绩蒸蒸日上。

For the most part , they are cheerful , confident, and gregarious when they are not irritable 煩燥焦慮, anxious , and depressed .
当他们不是烦躁焦虑或者沮丧时，大多开朗、充满自信而且很合群。

There must be something in the makeup of a man that enables him not only to be a salesman , but to want to be one .一个人一定是具备某种特殊的性格和气质才使他不但从事销售工作而且想做一名销售人员。

The salesmen are proud of their position and of the status and importance they enjoy within the company ,
销售员们不仅对他们的岗位而且对他们在公司中享有的地位及重要性感到自豪。

for the function of my department , and of most other departments , is to help the salesmen sell .
因此我的部门以及其他的大多数部门的职能就是协助销售人员的推销，

The company exists to sell . That’s the reason we were hired , and the reason we are paid .
公司就是靠销售生存。这就是我们受雇佣拿薪水的原因。

The people in the company who are least afraid are the few in our small Market Research Department ,
公司里最不担惊受怕的人就是在我们这个小小的市场调研部工作的为数极少的几个人，

who believe in nothing and are concerned with collecting , organizing , interpreting 解釋, and reorganizing statistical information about the public , the market , the
country , and the world .
他们从不担心任何事情，而只关心对公众、市场、国内以及世界的统计信息的收集、组织、解释以及重新组织。

For one thing , their salaries are small , and they know they will not have much trouble finding jobs paying just as little in other companies if they lose their jobs here .
但有一点，他们的工资很少，而且他们也知道如果一旦失去这里的工作，这么少的工资，在其他公司找份工作并不困难

Their budget , too , is small , for they are no longer permitted to undertake large projects .
他们的预算也很少，因为他们从来没有得到允许承担过大项目。

Most of the information we use now is obtained free from trade associations and some governmental organizations ,
我们现在使用的绝大部分信息都是从贸易协会和一些政府机构免费得到的，

and there is no way of knowing anymore whether the information on which we base our own information for distribution is true or false .
而且对于我们所发布的信息的来源真实与否也无从知晓。

But that doesn’t seem to matter ; all that does matter is that the information come from a reputable 著名source .
然而这似乎并不太重要，重要的是这些信息出自一个信誉好的来源。

People in the Market Research Department are never held to blame for conditions they discover outside the company that place us at a competitive disadvantage .
市场调研部的人们从没有因为他们在公司外发现我们处于竞争劣势而受到责备。

They are not expected to change reality , but merely to find it if they can and suggest ingenious機靈 ways of disguising掩 it .
他们不能改变现实，而如果他们能的话，也只能发现它并提供巧妙的方法来掩盖它。

To a great extent , that is the nature of my own work ,
在很大程度上，这就是我工作的性质。

and all of us under Green work closely with the Sales Department and the Public Relations Department in converting whole truths into half truths and half truths into whole ones .
而且所有格林的属下与销售部和公共部密切合作，从而将全部的事实变成一半，而把一半事实变成全部。

I am very good at these techniques of deception(欺騙), although I am not always able anymore to deceive myself .
虽然我不是总能欺骗我自己，但是却很擅长这些骗人的把戏。`

In fact , I am continuously astonished by people in the company who fall victim to their own propaganda . 宣傳
实际上，我经常为公司的人们被自己的宣传所欺骗而吃惊

There are so many now who actually believe that what we do is really important .
现在有很多人相信我们所做的工作是非常重要的。

This happens not only to salesmen , but to the shrewd精明 , capable executives in top management .
不仅销售人员是这样，那些精明能干的高级管理人员也是这样。

It happens to people on my own level and lower .
和我同级的人是这样，比我低的人也是这样。

It happens to just about everybody in the company who graduated from a good business school with honors .
就连公司里几乎所有从高级商务学校以优秀成绩毕业的人们也不例外。

Every time we launch a new advertising campaign , for example , people inside the company are the first ones to be taken in by it .
比如，每当我们举行一个新的广告活动，公司内部的人总是最先被蒙骗的，

Every time we introduce a new product , or an old product with a different cover , color , and name that we present as new , people inside the company are the first to rush to buy it ---even when it’s no good .
每当我们介绍一种新的产品，或者换了外包装、颜色并起了新的品名的老产品，即使一点也不好，公司内部的人总是第一个赶着去买的。

It’s a wise person , I guess , who knows he’s dumb , and an honest person who knows he’s a liar .
我想，知道自己愚蠢的人是聪明的，而知道自己撒谎的人是诚实的。

And it’s a dumb person who’s convinced he is wise .
只有愚蠢的人才会自作聪明。

We wise grownups here at the company go sliding in and out all day long , scaring each other at
our desks and trying to evade the people who frighten us .
我们这些在公司这儿的聪明的成年人，整天悄悄地出没于办公室，大家互相惧怕并试图躲避令人生畏的人。

We come to work , have lunch , and go home .
我们上班，吃午饭，回家。

We goose-step in and goose-step out , change our partners and wander all about , and go back home till we all drop dead .
我们迈着正规的步子进进出出，下班后和其他部门的伙伴一起外出，直到累得筋疲力尽才回家。

Really , I ask myself every now and then , depending on how well or poorly things are going at the office or at home with my wife , or with my retarded son , or with my other son , or my daughter , or the colored maid黑人保 , or the nurse for my retarded son , is this all there is for me to do ?
实际上我时常问自己，仅取决于办公室情形的好坏，或者是家中我妻子、弱智的儿子、另一个儿子、我的女儿、黑人保姆以及照顾我的弱智儿子的护士情况的好坏，他们的情形如何，这就是我要做的全部吗？

Is this really the most I can get from the few years left in this one life of mine ?
难道这真的是我有生之年所能得到的最多的吗？

And the answer I get , of course , is always ---Yes !…
我所得出的结论当然永远是——是的！

I am bored with my work very often now .
我现在经常对工作非常厌烦，

Everything routine that comes in I pass along to somebody else . This makes my boredom worse .
每项常规的工作我总是交给其他人处理，而这使我更加感到厌烦。

It ‘s a real problem to decide whether it’s more boring to do something boring than to pass along everything boring that comes in to somebody else and then have nothing to do at all .
要判断究竟是干令人生厌的工作更加烦人，还是将令人生厌的工作交给他人处理，然后无所事事更烦人，这真是一个问题。

Actually , I enjoy my work when the assignments are large and urgent and somewhat frightening and will come to the attention of many people .
实际上，当任务又大又紧而且有些令人生畏还会引起很多人的注意时，我就非常喜欢我的工作。

I get scared , and am unable to sleep at night , but I usually perform at my best under this stimulating (刺激)kind of pressure and enjoy my job the most .
我变得惴惴不安，而且夜不能寐。但在这种极有刺激的压力下，我的表现最佳，也最喜欢我的工作。

I handle all of these important projects myself , and I rejoice with tremendous pride and vanity in the compliments I receive when I do them well .
我独自处理所有这些重大的项目，并且当我成功地完成时，我会因受到赞扬而沉浸在极大的自豪与虚荣之中。

But between such peaks of challenge and elation興奮 there is monotony and despair .
但在这些挑战与兴奋的巅峰之间是单调与绝望。

( And I find , too, that once I ‘ve succeeded in impressing somebody , I ‘m not much excited about impressing that same person again ;
（而且我也发现一旦我给某人留下了深刻的印象，我就不再为给同一个人留下深刻印象而感到兴奋不已

there is a large , emotional letdown after I survive each crisis , a kind of empty , tragic disappointment , and last year’s threat , opportunity , and inspiration are often this year’s inescapable tedium .
在度过每次危机后，都会有一次大的情感失落，一种空虚和令人悲哀的失望。去年的威胁、机遇和鼓励经常会成为今年不可避免的冗长乏味。

I frequently feel I ‘m being taken advantage of 被利用merely because I ‘m asked to do the work I ‘m paid to do . )
我常常觉得我被利用了，这只是因为我被要求做给我报酬的工作。）

On days when I ‘m especially melancholy悲傷 , I began constructing tables of organization….classifying people in the company on the basis of envy , hope , fear , ambition , frustration煩惱, rivalry競爭 , hatred憎恨 , or disappointment 失望.
在我极度悲伤的日子里，我便开始将公司的人员结构列入图表……根据嫉妒、希望、恐惧、雄心、烦恼、对手、痛恨或失望，将公司的人员分类。

I call these charts my Happiness Charts .
我把这些表格叫做我的“快乐图”。

These exercises in malice never fail to boost my spirits ----but only for a while .
这些恶作剧总是使我精神振奋，然而都非常短暂。

I rank pretty high when the company is analyzed this way , because I ‘m not envious or disappointed , and I have no expectations .
这样分析公司时，我的排名非常靠前，因为我既不嫉妒也不灰心，而且我胸无大志。

At the very top , of course , are those people , mostly young and without dependents ,
排在前几名的当然是这些人，他们中大部分是年轻又没有靠山的人。

to whom the company is not yet an institution of any sacred merit神聖價質的機構 but still only a place to work , and who regard their present association with it as something temporary .
对他们自己来说，公司还不是一个有重要价值的机构，而只是一个工作的地方，并且认为他们目前的状况只是短暂的。

I put these people at the top because if you asked any one of them if he would choose to spend the rest of his life working for the company , he would give you a resounding No ! ,
我之所以把这些人排在首位，是因为只要问他们中的任何一个人他们后半生是否为公司工作，不管有什么样的诱惑，他都会响亮地回答“不！”

regardless of what inducements were offered . I was that high once . if you asked me that same question today, I would also give you a resounding No ! and add:
我也曾是这样。如果你今天问我同样的问题，我也给你一个响亮的回答：“不！”并且还要补充上：

“ I think I’d rather die now . “
　“我想我宁可现在就死！”

But I am making no plans to leave .
然而我没有任何离开的打算。

I have the feeling now that there is no place left for me to go .
我现在有了一种感觉，那就是没有任何地方是我的容身之处。

Lesson Two Eveline伊芙林
By James Joyce

She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue大街.
她坐在窗前看着黄昏涌上大街。

Her head was leaned against the window curtains , and in her nostrils鼻孔 was the odour 氣味of dusty cretonne（印花棉布） . She was tired .
她的头靠在窗帘上，鼻孔里满是提花窗帘布上的尘土气味。她累了。

Few people passed . The man out of the last house passed on his way home ;
很少有人走过。最后一所房子里的那个男人经过这里往家走；

she heard his footsteps clacking along the concrete pavement水泥道 and afterwards crunching on the cinder path煤渣路 before the new red houses .
她听见他啪嗒啪嗒的脚步声走过水泥道，然后又嘎吱嘎吱地踩在新红房子前的煤渣小路上。

One time there used to be a field there in which they used to play every evening with other people’s children .
过去那里曾经有一块空地，他们每晚都在空地上和其他家的孩子一起玩耍。

Then a man from Belfast bought the field and built houses in it ----not like their little brown houses , but bright brick houses with shining roofs .
后来一个贝尔法斯特来的男人买走了那块地并在那里建了房子——与他们棕色的小房子不同，他的房子是明亮的砖房还有闪亮的屋顶。

The children of the avenue used to play together in that field –the Devines , the Waters , the Dunns , little Keogh the cripple , she and her brothers and sisters .
这条街的孩子们过去总是在那块地上玩——迪瓦恩家的，沃特家的，邓恩家的，瘸子小基奥，她和她的兄弟姐妹。

Ernest , however , never played: he was too grown up .
但是欧内斯特却从来没有玩过，他太大了。

Her father used often to hunt them in out of the field with his blackthorn stick ;
她的父亲经常用他那根黑刺李木的拐杖到地里把她们赶出去；

but usually little Keogh used to keep nix站崗 and call out when he saw her father coming .
但小基奥总是站岗，一看见她的父亲过来就大声喊。

Still they seemed to have been rather happy then .
即使这样他们那时似乎还是很开心。

Her father was not so bad then ; and besides , her mother was alive .
她父亲还没有这么坏，而且她母亲也还活着。

That was a long time ago ; she and her brothers and sisters were all grown up ; her mother was dead .
那是很久以前的事了，她和兄弟姐妹都已经长大了；她的母亲死了。

Tizzie Dunn was dead ,too, and the Waters had gone back to England . Everything changed . Now she was going to go away like the others , to leave her home .
迪齐•邓恩也死了，沃特一家回英格兰了。所有的一切都变了。现在她也要像其他人那样离开自己的家。

Home ! She looked round the room , reviewing all its familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many years , wondering where on earth all the dust came from .
家!她环顾屋内，审视着这么多年来她每周都要掸擦一遍的一切熟悉的物品，心里奇怪究竟哪来的这么多灰尘。

Perhaps she would never see again those familiar objects from which she had never dreamed of being divided .
也许她再也见不到那些熟悉的东西了，她做梦也没想到过和它们分开。

And yet during all those years she had never found out the name of the priest whose yellowing photograph hung on the wall above the broken harmonium 小風琴 beside the coloured print of the promises made to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque .
可是这么多年里她从来没有弄清楚那张泛黄的照片上的牧师的姓名，照片就挂在墙上，在破旧的风琴的上边，旁边是耶稣对圣玛利亚•玛丽•阿拉科特许诺的彩色图片。

He had been a school friend of her father . whenever he showed the photograph to a visitor her father used to pass it with a casual word :” He is in Melbourne now . “
他是父亲的学友。每次父亲把照片递给到家里的朋友看时，总是不经意地带一句：“他现在在墨尔本。”

She had consented to go away , to leave her home .
她已经答应离开，离开自己的家。

Was what wise ? She tried to weigh each side of the question .
这样做明智吗？她试着权衡这个问题的每一个方面。

In her home anyway she had shelter and food ; she had those whom she had known all her life about her .
在家里不管怎么说她有吃有住；有她认识了一辈子的人在她身边。

Of course she had to work hard , both in the house and at business .
当然她得拼命干活，不论是在家里还是在商店里。

What would they say of her in the stores when they found out that she had run away with a fellow ?
如果商店里的人知道她和一个男人跑了，她们会怎么说她呢？

Say she was a fool , perhaps; and her place would be filled up by advertisement .
也许说她是一个傻瓜；她们会登广告找别人代替她的位置。

Miss Gavan would be glad . She had always had an edge on her , especially whenever there were people listening .
加文小姐会很高兴。她总是要压她一头，尤其是有旁人听着的时候。

“Miss Hill , don’t you see these ladies are waiting ?”
“希尔小姐，难道你没有看见这些女士在等着吗？”

“ Look lively , Miss Hill , please . “
“请精神点，希尔小姐。”

She would not cry many tears at leaving the stores .
离开商店她不会掉多少眼泪的。

But in her new home , in a distant unknown country , it would not be like that .
但是在她的新家里，在一个遥远陌生的国家里，事情就不会是那样了。

Then she would be married ---she , Eveline . People would treat her with respect then .
她会结婚——她，伊芙林。人们会很尊重她。

She would not be treated as her mother had been .
她不会受到她母亲受过的那种对待

Even now , though she was over nineteen , she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father’s violence .
即使是现在，她已经过19岁了，她还是经常感到自己有挨父亲打的危险

She knew it was that that had given her the palpitations (心驚肉跳).
她知道正是因为这种担心才使她心惊肉跳。

When they were growing up he had never gone for her , like he used to go for Harry and Ernest , because she was a girl ;
她们长大以后，他还没有像他曾经打哈利和欧内斯特那样打过她，因为她是个女孩；

but latterly he had begun to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mother’s sake .
但最近他开始威胁地，说要不是因为她死去的母亲的缘故，他会怎样对待她。

And now she had nobody to protect her , Ernest was dead and Harry ,who was in the church decorating business , was nearly always down somewhere in the country .
现在没有人能保护她，欧内斯特死了，而干教堂装修的哈利几乎总是在乡下的什么地方。

Besides , the invariable squabble for money on Saturday nights had begun to weary her unspeakably .
另外，每星期六都为了钱而发生的争吵已使她开始感到说不出的厌倦。

She always gave her entire wages ----seven shillings ----and Harry always sent up what he could , but the trouble was to get any money from her father .
她总是交出她所有的工资——七个先令——哈利也总是尽力给家里寄钱，但问题是从她父亲手中要钱。

He said she used to squander浪費 the money , that she had no head 沒頭腦, that he wasn’t going to give her his hard-earned money to throw about the streets , and much more 等等, for he was usually fairly bad on Saturday night .
他说她过去总是胡乱花钱，没有头脑，还说他不会将他辛苦挣来的钱交给她到街上乱花，等等，因为他星期六晚上通常心情相当糟。

In the end he would give her the money and ask her had she any intention of buying Sunday’s dinner .
最后他会将钱给她并问她是否打算买星期天晚饭吃的东西

Then she had to rush out as quickly as she could and do her marketing , holding her black leather purse tightly in her hand as she elbowed her way through the crowds and returning home late under her load of provisions .
然后她不得不尽快跑到市场上买东西，她紧紧地将黑皮钱包攥在手里，在人群中挤着走，直到很晚才背着沉重的食品回家

She had hard work to keep the house together and to see that the two young children who had been left to her charge went to school regularly and got their meals regularly .
她好不容易才能将这个家维持下来，让那两个留给她照顾的年幼的弟弟妹妹能够按时上学，按时吃饭。

It was hard work ----a hard life ----but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life .
工作很艰难——生活也很艰难——但是现在她就要离开这一切，她发现这种生活并不是完全令人不快的。

She was about to explore another life with Frank .
她将要和弗兰克一起去探索另一种生活。

Frank was very kind , manly , open-hearted .
弗兰克非常善良，有男子气概，并且心胸坦荡。

She was to go away with him by the night –boat to be his wife and live with him in Buenos Ayres , where he had a home waiting fro her .
她要和他一起乘夜船逃走，去做他的妻子，和他一起生活在布宜诺斯艾利斯，在那里他有一个家在等着她。

How well she remembered the first time she had seen him ;
第一次见到他的情景她记得多么清楚啊：

he was lodging in 寄宿a house on the main road where she used to visit .
他住在她常去的那条大街上的一所房子里

It seemed a few weeks ago . he was standing at the gate , his peaked cap pushed back on his head and his hair tumbled forward over a face of bronze .
一切似乎就是几个星期以前的事，他站在大门口，尖顶帽推向脑后，头发向前散乱垂在晒得黧黑的脸上。

Then they had come to know each other .
接着他们就彼此认识了

He used to meet her outside the stores every evening and see her home .
他每晚都到店外接她并送她回家。

He took her to see The Bohemian Girl波希米亞女孩 and she felt elated 興高彩烈as she sat in an unaccustomed part of the theatre with him .
他带她去看《波希米亚女孩》，同他一起坐在剧院她难得一坐的地方使她感觉十分得意。

He was awfully fond of music and sang a little .
他非常喜欢音乐，也会唱一点。

People knew that they were courting談戀愛,
大家都知道他俩在谈恋爱，

and when he sang about the lass少女 that loves a sailor 水手的少女, she always felt pleasantly confused 愉快的困惑.
当他唱到爱上一个水手的少女时她常会感到一种愉快的困惑。

He used to call her Poppens雌天鹅 out of fun .
他总是开玩笑地叫她雌天鹅。

First of all it had been an excitement for her to have a fellow and then she had begun to like him .
起初她觉得有个男朋友是件令人兴奋的事，接着她开始喜欢他了

He had tales of distant countries .
他会讲许多遥远的国家的故事。

He had started as a deck boy at a pound a month on a ship of the Allan Line going out to Canada .
他一开始在阿伦航运公司的一艘开往加拿大的船上做舱面水手，月薪一英镑。

He told her the names of the ships he had been on and the names of the different services .
他告诉她他呆过的船的名字以及船上不同活计的名称。

He had sailed through the Straits of Magellan and he told her stories of the terrible Patagonians .
他曾经穿过了麦哲伦海峡，他给她讲可怕的巴塔丹尼亚印地安人的故事。

He had fallen on his feet in Buenos Ayres , he said , and had come over to the old country just for a holiday .
他说在布宜诺斯艾利斯他站稳了脚跟，回到祖国只是为了度假。

Of course , her father had found out the affair and had forbidden her to have anything to say to him .
当然，她的父亲知道了他们的事并禁止他们交往。

“ I know these sailor chaps , “ he said .
“我知道那些水手，”他说。

One day he had quarreled with Frank , and after that she had to meet her lover secretly .
有一天他和弗兰克吵了起来，从那以后她就不得不和她的情人偷偷地约会了。

The evening deepened in the avenue .
街上的夜色更深了

The white of two letters in her lap grew indistinct .
她腿上放的两封信的白色已变得模糊难辨了。

One was to Harry ; the other was to her father .
一封是给哈利的；另一封是给她父亲的

Ernest had been her favourite , but she likeed Harry too .
她最喜欢欧内斯特，但她也喜欢哈利。

Her father was becoming old lately , she noticed ;
她注意到近来父亲变老了；

he would miss her . Sometimes he could be very nice .
他会想她的。有时他还是非常不错的。

Not long before , when she had been laid up for a day , he had read her out a ghost story and made toast烤面包 for her at the fire .
不久以前，她生病躺了一天，他给她读了一个鬼的故事，还在火炉上给她烤面包片。

Another day , when their mother was alive , they had all gone for a picnic to the Hill of Howth .
还有一天，他们的母亲还活着的时候，他们一起去霍斯山野餐，

She remembered her father putting on her mother’s bonnet(無沿女帽) to make the children laugh .
她记得父亲带着母亲的无沿女帽逗孩子们笑。　

Her time was running out , but she continued to sit by the window ,leaning her head against the window curtain , inhaling the odour of dusty cretonne .
她的时间不多了，但她仍然坐在窗前，头靠着窗帘，呼吸着提花窗帘上的尘土气味。

Down far in the avenue she could hear a street organ 風琴playing .
她听见下面街的深处传来街头风琴演奏的声音

She knew the air (曲子). Strange that it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother , her promise to keep the home together as long as she could .
她知道这支曲子。真奇怪这支曲子恰好在这个夜晚出现来提醒她对她母亲的承诺，保证尽可能维持这个家。

She remembered the last night of her mother’s illness ; she was again in the close , dark room at the other side of the hall and outside she heard a melancholy 憂傷air of Italy .
她记得她母亲生病的最后一个夜晚，她又一次置身于门厅另一侧那间闷热黑暗的房间，她听见外面奏着一首忧伤的意大利曲子。

The organ-player had been ordered to go away and given sixpence .
他父亲给了风琴手六个便士让他走开。

She remembered her father strutting back into the sick-room saying :
她记得父亲神气活现地回到病房说：

“ Damned Italians ! Coming over here !”
“该死的意大利人!居然到这里来！”

As she mused(沉思) the pitiful vision of her mother’s life laid its spell on the very quick of her being ---that life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness .
她沉思的时候，母亲一生的可怜景象触动了她感情的最深处——那为平凡琐事牺牲了一切，最后在神经失常中结束了的一生。

She trembled as she heard again her mother’s voice saying constantly with foolish insistence (固執):“ Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun !”
她颤抖着，当她听到母亲的声音一遍一遍地固执地重复着：
“享乐的归宿是痛苦！享乐的归宿是痛苦！”

She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror . Escape ! She must escape ! Frank would save her . He would give her life , perhaps love , too .
在突然的恐怖感引起的冲动下，她站了起来。逃跑!她一定要逃跑！弗兰克会拯救她。他会给她生活，也许还有爱。

But she wanted to live . Why should she be unhappy ? She had a right to happiness . Frank would take her in his arms , fold her in his arms . He would save her .
但是她想活下去。为什么她就该不开心呢，她有快乐的权利，弗兰克会把她拥在臂弯里，紧紧地拥抱她。他会拯救她。

She stood among the swaying crowd in the station at the North Wall .
她站在北墙站拥挤摆动的人群中。

He held her hand and she knew that he was speaking to her , saying something about the passage over and over again .
他握着她的手，她知道他在同她说话，一遍遍地说着有关航行的事。

The station was full of soldiers with brown baggages .
车站里满是带着棕色行李的士兵。

Through the wide doors of the sheds she caught a glimpse of the black mass of the boat , lying in beside the quay碼頭 wall , with illumined portholes .(舷窗)
从棚子的大宽门望去，她瞥了一眼黑色的巨大的船体，停在码头旁边，舷窗上亮着灯光。

She answered nothing . She felt her cheek pale and cold and ,
她什么也没有回答。她感到自己的脸颊苍白冰冷。

out of a maze of distress , she prayed to God to direct her , to show her what was her duty .
在一片茫然的苦脑中，她请求上帝指引她，告诉她她该怎么做。

The boat blew a long mournful悲whistle into the mist 薄霧中.
船在薄雾中发出长长的哀伤的汽笛声。

If she went , tomorrow she would be on the sea with Frank , steaming towards Buenos Ayres .
如果她走了，明天她就会同弗兰克一起在海上，向布宜诺斯艾利斯驶去。

Their passage had been booked . Could she still draw back after all he had done for her ?
他们的旅行已经预定好了。在他为她做了这么多以后，她还能退缩吗？

Her distress awoke a nausea 反胃in her body and she kept moving her lips in silent fervent 狂熱prayer .
她的苦恼在她的身上引起想吐的感觉，她不停地动着嘴唇默默地、狂热地祈祷着。

A bell clanged upon her heart . She felt him seize her hand : “ Come!”
一阵铃声摇响在她的心头。她感到他在抓着她的手：

All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart . He was drawing her into them : he would drown her . She gripped(緊握) with both hands at the iron railing .
她的心潮汹涌澎湃。他正拉着她走进那波涛，他会把她淹死的。她的双手紧紧地抓着铁栏杆。

:”Come !”
“来!”

No! No! No ! It was impossible . Her hands clutched抓住 the iron in frenzy狂熱 . Amid the seas she sent a cry of anguish痛苦 .
不！不！不！不可能。她的手疯狂地抓着铁栅栏，在心海中她发出痛苦的叫喊。

“Eveline ! Evvy !”
“伊芙林！艾微！”

He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow .
他冲过栅栏，大喊着要她跟上。

He was shouted at to go on , but he still called to her .
人们喊着让他快走，但他仍在大声喊着她。

She set her white face to him , passive , like a helpless animal . Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition .
她苍白的面孔对着他，那么迟钝、被动，像个无助的动物。她的眼里没有向他表示出任何的爱或离情别意，就像不认识他一样。

Lesson Three
What’s Wrong With Our Press?
我们的报纸问题何在？

Newspapers have two great advantages over television
报纸与电视相比具有两大优越性。

They can be used by men as barriers against their wives .
男人可以把报纸作为阻隔妻子的屏障，

It is still the only effective screen against the morning features of the loved one ,and , as such , performs a unique human service .
现在这仍然是早晨避免目睹爱侣起床后尊容的惟一有效幕障。这样，报纸作出了独一无二的具有人情味的贡献。

The second advantage is that you can’t line a garbage pail with a television set ----it’s usually the other way around .
第二个优越性是，电视机不能用来衬垫垃圾桶，而报纸通常却有此功能。

But here are some interesting statistics from a little , and little known , survey by Mr. Roper called “ The public’s reaction to Television Following the Quiz Investigations “ .
罗珀先生进行了一项小小的鲜为人知的调查，题目是“从问答调查看观众对电视的反应”，

In it he asks everybody but me this question : Suppose you could continue to have only one of the following---radio ,television , newspapers ,or magazines ---which would you prefer ?
下面就是一些有趣的统计数字。调查中，他问了除我以外的所有人这样一个问题：假如你只能在广播、电视、报纸、杂志中继续保留一种，你愿意要哪一种？

Newspapers came in second : Forty –two percent said if they could only have one , they would keep television. Thirty –two per cent said if they could only have one , they would keep newspapers .
结果报纸占第二位：42％的人说，如果只能要一种，他们将保留电视；32％的人说如果只能要一种，他们将保留报纸。

Even so , newspaper people should be much happier than the magazine people , because only four per cent said they needed magazines , as against nineteen per cent for radio .
即便如此，报界人士应比办杂志的人高兴得多了，因为说需要杂志的人只有4％，而要广播的人达到了19％。

But listen to this . Mr. Roper asked these same harried (拉住的)people :” If you get conflicting or different reports of the same new story from radio , television , the magazines , and the newspapers , which of the four versions would you be most inclined to believe ?”
但听听下面这个吧。罗帕又问了同一组被拉住做调查的人这个问题：如果你
发现广播、电视、杂志和报纸对同一新闻事件的报导有争议或有出入时，你更倾
向于相信四种说法中的哪一种呢？

“ Thirty –two per cent believe newspapers as against thirty per cent who believe television .
32％的人相信报纸，而30％的人相信电视。

But then something really strange happens . When Mr. Roper asked his guinea pigs which of these media they would be least inclined to believe , the newspapers topped the list .
但接着就出现了十分奇怪的情况。当罗帕先生问这些被调查的人在这些媒体中他们最不相信哪一个时，报纸居首位。

In a big way , too . Twenty –four per cent don’t believe newspapers as against nine per cent who don’t believe television .
差距也很大。24％的人不相信报纸，而 9％的不相信电视。

The fact is that although network television still allots分配 too little time to the vital service of informing the public ,
事实的，尽管电视节目在为人众提供信息方面，安排的时间很少，

it does a better job in that little time than the nation’s press as a whole .
但总的来 说就在这有限的时间内，它在全国新闻界中做得是最出色的。

And when I speak of the nation’s press as a whole , I am not speaking of the five or six splendid newspapers ----and the one great newspaper -----which serve the world as models of responsible public information .
这里我提到的全国新闻界，不包括那五、六家尊贵的报社——其中一家重要的报社——一被当作是 全世界提供可靠消息的楷模。

I am speaking of the local press which in hundreds of American communities is the only news available , aside from those recitals(復述) of ticker tape電訊稿 that pass for radio news .
我指的是那些当地报纸。在美国的几百个社区中，除了那些把电讯稿复述一遍充当新闻广播之外，大众惟一能得到的新闻就来自这 些报纸了，而它们并没有履行对大众的义务。

Why do I think network Tv does a better job of informing than these papers ?
为什么我认为电视网在提供新闻方面比这些报纸做得好些呢？

Well , let’s get the partisan bit(黨派性) over with .
让我们先把报纸的党派性这一点说清楚。

Television lives on advertising to an even greater extent than newspapers , and since advertising is big business , advertising is by nature Republican (親共和黨).
电视比报纸依靠广告的程度甚至还要大，既然广告是笔大生意，广告从本质上就是亲共和党的。

yet nowhere in network newscasts 網絡新聞or network commentaries 網絡實事中on current events have I encountered the intense partisanship , the often rabid bias that colors the editorial pages of the majority of newspapers in this country .
然而无论在电视网的新闻节目中还是时事评论中，我都未遇到这个国家大多数报纸的社论版上所反映出的那强烈的党派性甚至常常是狂热无理的偏见。

Douglass Cater , in his book The Fourth Branch of Government , confines himself to only one pungent(尖銳) footnote on this subject . “ I have deliberately (故意回避)avoided , “ he writes , “ getting into the predominantly (有影響力的)one-party nature of newspaper wonership . it is a fact of life .
道格拉斯•卡特在他的《政府的第四部门》一书中仅在一尖刻的脚注中提到这一问题，他写道：”我有意识地回避讨论报纸实质上主要由一党占有这一问题。这是现实生活中的事实。”

This particular fact of life is a shameful one :
事实是个让人羞耻的事实，

that newspapers whose duty is to inform the American public give them only one side of the issues that affect them profoundly ---the Republican side .
生活中这样的负有向美国公众提供信息责任的报纸，在对公众具有深远影响的问题上只向他们提供一面之辞，即共和党的一面。

This is shameful not only for Democrats ---they have survived it before and will survive it again ----but for the maturity of our people .
这样做不仅对民主党来说不够体面——然而他们过去既能生存，今后也定能如此——对我们成熟的人民来说也是如此。

Some of the same papers which loudly extol (吹虛)the virtues (美德)of free enterprise and a free press are consistently failing to print the facts on which a people can form a balance and independent opinion .
有一些这样的报纸，它们一面大肆吹嘘企业的自由经营与自由办报的优点，一面始终不刊登能使人们得出公正独立见解的事实。`

That balanced and independent opinion is our only real security as a nation .而这种公正独立的见解正是我们作为一个国家惟一真正的安全保证。

Now , very often , television coverage of news is superficial(膚淺的) and inadequate（不充分）.
现在，电视新闻的报导常是肤浅而不完全的；

very often the picture takes precedence over the point .
常常是画面比实质史重要。

But by and large the news reports and commentaries on CBS and NBC and ABC make every effort to present viewers with more than one aspect of an issue ,
但总的说来，哥伦比业广播公司、全国广播公司及美国播公司的新闻报道和时事评
论总是尽其所能给观众提供更多的观点，而不是一面之辞。

either by letting opposing spokesmen have their say , or by outlining the positions held by both major parties on the subject involved .
它们或是让反对党发言人发表讲话，或是概述两大政党则同一问题的立场。

Television also provides a wide range of opinion by setting up four or five experts and letting them knock each other down . What has the local press of this nature ?
电视也安排四、五个专家，让他们辩论而且尽时能驳倒对方，以此提出大量
的观点。在这一点上，地方报纸是怎样做的呢？

Fortunately for the American public , television does not tolerate the kind of distortion of fact , the kind of partisan virulence(惡毒攻擊) and personal peeve（怨恨） ,many newspapers not only welcome but encourage .
幸运的是对美国公众来说，电视不允许那种对事实的歪曲，那种党派间的恶毒攻击和个人怨恨的发泄，而这是许多报纸不仅欢迎而且鼓励的。

In its entertainment , television caters投合 far too much to the lowest instincts本能 of man , particularly the lust(渴望) violence .
在娱乐节目中，电视过于迎合人们最低级的本能，特别是对暴力的欲望。

But there is one appetite(欲望) it does not feed and which the partisan newspapers of the nation do : the appetite for hate (仇恨) of whatever is different .
但是有一个欲望是电视无法满足而美国极具党派性的报纸却可以满足的，那就是仇恨——对一切不一样的事物的仇恨。

I do not find on televison the kind of editorials chronic(社論)the New York tabloids as well as in many local papers across the country .在电视上我从未看到过纽约的小报以及全国许多地方报纸上常年出现的那种社论。

A newspaper has the right ----the duty even ----to assume an attitude , to take a position . But it has an equally sacred(神聖的)right to explain that position in the light of the opposing one , to document that position , and to bolster(証實) it , not with emotion but with fact . 报纸有权利甚至有责任具有某种态度、采取某一立场，但它也有同样神圣的权利参照对立的观点来解释自己的立场，通过翔实的材料来证实这一立场，并运用事实而不是感情来支持这一立场。

Here , of course , is where background information helps the public to draw its conclusions .
当然这便是背景知识能帮助公众得出自己的结论之处。

TV does a great deal of this in the form of documentaries , and you can of course say that they have the time and the money to do this and you haven’t . Yet across this wide country , and with the exception of a handful of(少量的) syndicated columns辛迪加的专栏文章外， , I fail to find in any local paper any attempt , however minimal , to strengthen this muscle of digestion (加強領悟能力),.
电视通过纪录片在这方面做了大量的工作，当然你可以说他们有这份时间和金钱来这样做而你却没有，然而在这片广大的国土上，除了少量报业辛迪加的专栏文章外，我未能在任何地方报纸上看出任何加强人们领悟能力的努力，哪怕是极其微小的努力

without which news can neither nourish (教宜)nor inform（信息） It can only stuff(塞滿) . 缺乏这种领悟能力，人们既不能从新闻中收到教益，也无法从中获得信息，只能将头脑塞得满满当当。

Between the opinions of the editor and the bare statements of the wire services (通訊社)there is nothing , nothing , that is except a collection of snippets(小片) used as fillers between the ads and picked at random .
在编辑的见解和通讯社干巴巴的消息之间是一片空白，也就是说除了为填补广告间隙而任意选出的一些片段摘录之外，全是一无所有的空白。

One of the greatest and most justified criticisms of television has been that in appealing to the largest audience possible , it neglects minority audiences and minority tastes .
对电视最强烈也是最有道理的批评历来就是：它为了吸引最大数量的观众，忽视了少数观众以及少数人的爱好

This is still largely true . But there is , perhaps , one program a day and many , of course , on Sunday which an intelligent man or woman can enjoy and derive interest from .
这一批评在很大程度上仍是正确的。但是也许一天会有一个节目，当然星期日会有许多个节目，是能令聪明智慧的男女喜欢并产生兴趣的。

In my trips east or west or north or south , I pick up the local paper to find this enjoyment or interest ---in vain(都未能如願) . Now , surely there’s something wrong here .
在我走南闯北的旅行中，每次拿起当地的报纸寻找我喜欢并感兴趣的东西，都未能如愿，显然这里存在着某种问题。

Many of these places I ‘ve visited ---and I ‘m sure this is true of the whole country -----have college communities where highly intelligent and talented people live , whether they are teachers or doctors or lawyers or musicians or scientists .
我去过的那些地方许多都有大学社区——我相信在全国各地都是如此——那儿生活着极其聪颖、才华横溢的人们，不论是教师还是医生、律师、音乐家或科学家

What is there for them in the paper , usually the only paper , of their town ? What features are provided for these people ? What stimulation ? How many times have I heard them say “ If you want to see what a really bad paper is like , read our sheet “?。。在当地的报纸上，通常那还是惟一的一家报纸，有什么可供他们阅读的东西呢？有什么是针对这些人的特点呢？有什么促使他们思考的内容呢？有多少次我听到他们说：“你要是想看一份糟糕透顶的报纸是什么样子，那就读读我们这份吧？”

I believe that over a period of decades newspapers have become a habit rather than a function .
我相信，在这几十年中，人们已经将读报变成了一种习惯，而不是再注重它应有的作用。

They have held their franchise(特權) so long that change has become inadmissible (不許可的).
报纸如此长期地享有特权，已经无法接受改变了。

I do not know , in fact , of any medium that has changed as little in the last twenty years as the daily press .
事实上，我还不知道新闻传播媒介中有哪一种像报纸那样在过去二十年内变化如此之小。

And this resistance to change is the end of growth ---which , in turn , marks the end of usefulness .
这种对变革的抵制就是发展的终结，而停止了发展，反过来又标志着报纸用处的终结

Change means trouble , change means work , change means cost .
变革意味着麻烦，变革意味着工作，变革意味着开销。

It is easier to print wire services dispatches than have a reporter on the beat .
刊登通讯社的电讯稿比派记者到现场采访要容易，

It is easier to buy syndicated columns than find ---and train ---local talent .
买报业辛迪加的专栏比发现——而且还要训练——优秀的当地记者要容易

It is easier to let the ads dictate the format than develop a format that elevates news above dogfood .
听任广告左右版面比设计一个使新闻比狗食广告地位更为突出的版面要容易，

it is easier to write editorial copy that appeal to emotion rather than reason .
写社论稿时，诉诸于情感比诉诸于理智要容易

This is , to me , a tragedy .
对我来说这是个悲剧

I am a printed –word woman myself , and I still think the word was not only in the beginning but will be in the end .
我本人是个以写作为职业的女性，我仍认为从过去到现在文字始终不会消亡。

No picture can ever be an adequate substitute .
没有任何电视画面能胜任地代替文字。

The word will prevail ; that is , if you , who are its guardians , treat it with the respect it deserves .
文字终将取胜，也就是说，如果你，文字的捍卫者，给予它应有的尊重的话

For it you degrade(降低) and cheapen （貶低）the word too long , the people will turn to the picture .
而如果你过久地降低其品质，贬低其价值，人们便会转向电视画面

They are beginning to turn to the picture now . Not in New York , maybe , not in Washington D.C.,or St. Louis, or two or three other cities , but in hundreds of towns across the country .
人们现在已经开始这样做了，也许在纽约、华盛顿、圣路易或别的两三个城市中还不是这样，但在全国千百个市镇中已经是如此了

Oh, they will buy your papers ---to hold up at breakfast or to line the trash can or to light a fire .But not to learn .
哎，他们会买你们的报纸——用来吃早餐时举在手里，或用来衬垫垃圾桶或引火，但不是用来获取信息

And you may wake up one day to find you have lost the greatest power entrusted to men : to inform a free people .。。。。而你也许会有一天醒来时发现你已失去了人类被赋予的最大权利，即向自由的人民提供信息的权利。