搜档网
当前位置:搜档网 › 新标准读写英语第三册英语课后翻译

新标准读写英语第三册英语课后翻译

新标准读写英语第三册英语课后翻译
新标准读写英语第三册英语课后翻译

Unit 1 Discovering yourself

1 We all sensed we were coming to the end of our stay here, that we would never get

a chance like this again, and we became determined not to waste it. Most important of course were the final exams in April and May in the following year. No one wanted the humiliation of finishing last in class, so the peer group pressure to work hard was strong. Libraries which were once empty after five o’clock in the afternoon were standing room only until the early hours of the morning, and guys wore the bags under their eyes and their pale, sleepy faces with pride, like medals proving their diligence.

(?and guys wore the bags under their eyes and their pale, sleepy faces with pride … 这句的动词wear 后面带两个宾语,中文找不到能带这两个宾语的动词,故处理成四个中文短句;翻译 like medals proving their diligence时,采用“增词法”增加“这些”来概括前面所描写的“眼袋”,“脸色苍白”,“睡眼惺忪”等,使译文含义更加清晰流畅。) 我们都觉得在校时间不多了,以后再也不会有这样的学习机会了,所以都下定决心不再虚度光阴。当然,下一年四五月份的期末考试最为重要。我们谁都不想考全班倒数第一,那也太丢人了,因此同学们之间的竞争压力特别大。以前每天下午五点以后,图书馆就空无一人了,现在却要等到天快亮时才会有空座,小伙子们熬夜熬出了眼袋,他们脸色苍白,睡眼惺忪,却很自豪,好像这些都是表彰他们勤奋好学的奖章。

2 Tomorrow? It’s all a lie; there isn’t a tomorrow. There’s only a promissory note that we are often not in a position to cash. It doesn’t even exist. When you wake up in the morning it’ll be today again and all the same rules will apply. Tomorrow is just another version of now, an empty field that will remain so unless we start planting some seeds. Your time, which is ticking away as we speak (at about 60 seconds a minute chronologically; a bit faster if you don’t invest your time wisely), will be gone and you’ll have nothing to show for it but regret and a rear-view mirror full of “could haves”, “should haves” and“would haves”. (?本段的难点在于对一些词的理解与翻译,如 an empty field that will remain so, chronologically, invest your time wisely, have nothing to show for it but 等等。“could haves”, “should haves”,“would haves” 是表达与事实相反的条件句,指自己没有做,但有可能或应该做的事情。)

明天行吗?明天只是个谎言;根本就没有什么明天,只有一张我们常常无法兑现的期票。明天甚至压根儿就不存在。你早上醒来时又是另一个今天了,同样的规则又可以全部套用。明天只是现在的另一种说法,是一块空地,除非我们开始在那里播种,否则它永远都是空地。你的时间会流逝(时间就在我们说话的当下嘀嗒嘀塔地走着,每分钟顺时针走60 秒,如果你不能很好地利用它,它会走得更快些),而你没有取得任何成就来证明它的存在,唯独留下遗憾,留下一面后视镜,上面写满了“本可以做”、“本应该做”、“本来会做”的事情。3对于是否应该在大学期间详细规划自己的未来,学生们意见不一。有的人认为对未来应该有一个明确的目标和详细的计划,为日后可能遇到的挑战做好充分的准备;有的人则认为不用过多考虑未来,因为未来难以预料。(map out; brace oneself for; uncertainty) Students differ about whether they should have their future mapped out when they are still at university.Some think they should have a definite goal and detailed plan, so as to brace themselves for any challenges, whereas some others think they don’t have to think much about the future, because future is full of uncertainties.

4经过仔细检查,这位科学家得知自己患了绝症。虽然知道自己将不久于人世,他并没有抱怨命运的不公,而是准备好好利用剩下的日子,争取加速推进由他和同事们共同发起的那个研究项目,以提前结项。(tick away; make the best of; have a shot at)

After a very careful check-up, the scientist was told he had got a fatal disease. Although he knew that his life was ticking away, instead of complaining about the fate, the scientist decided to make the best of the remaining days, and speed up the research project he and his colleagues initiated, and have a shot at completing it ahead of schedule.

Unit 2 Childhood memories

1 My flying dreams were believable as a landscape by Dali, so real that I would awake with a sudden shock, a breathless sense of having tumbled like Icarus from the sky and caught myself on the soft bed just in time. These nightly adventures in space began when Superman started invading my dreams and teaching me how to fly. He used to come roaring by in his shining blue suit with his cape whistling in the wind, looking remarkably like my Uncle Frank who was living with mother and me. In the magic whirling of his cape I could hear the wings of a hundred seagulls, the motors of a thousand planes.

我的飞行梦像达利的风景画那么真实可信,以致于自己常常会在一阵惊吓中醒来,好像伊卡罗斯那样从空中摔下来,虽然发现自己刚好掉到软软的床上,但也被吓得喘不过气来。当超人开始侵入我的梦乡,并教给我飞行的技巧之后,我每夜的太空冒险便开始了。超人身着耀眼的蓝色衣服,肩披随风飕飕作响的斗篷,经常从我身边呼啸而过。他长得太像我的舅舅弗兰克了,舅舅那会儿正跟妈妈和我住在一起。当超人的斗篷神奇地旋转时,我好像能听见上百只海鸥的振翅声,上千架飞机的马达轰鸣声。

2 In contrast, children on the Pacific island of Tonga, studied by Helen Morton, are regularly beaten by their parents and older siblings. They are seen as being closer to mad people than adults because they lack the highly prized quality of social competence (or poto as the Tongans call it). They are regularly told off for being clumsy and a child who falls over may be laughed at, shouted at, or beaten. Children are thought of as mischievous; they cry or want to feed simply because they are naughty,and beatings are at their most severe between the ages of three and five when children are seen as particularly wilful. Parents believe that social competence can only be achieved through discipline and physical punishment, and treat their children in ways that have seemed very harsh to outsiders.

(?这段话里有多处被动用法,有些译成中文时仍保留被动态,有些则应该变成主动,否则译文就不通顺。)

相反,根据海伦·莫顿的研究,太平洋岛国汤加的儿童经常挨父母和哥哥姐姐的打。人们认为儿童和成年人相比更像疯子,因为他们缺乏被大家看重的社会能力(汤加人称之为poto)。小孩子经常因为笨手笨脚而挨骂,他们连摔跤都会被嘲笑、呵斥,甚至被打。人们认为儿童很顽皮,都是因为淘气他们才哭闹,或者要东西吃。在大人看来,三至五岁的儿童尤其任性,因此他们打这个年龄段的孩子也打得最狠。父母们相信,只有靠训导和体罚才能使孩子获得社会能力,所以他们用一种在外人看来非常严厉的方式对待孩子。

3在火车站上,有一位老人给我讲述了他参加解放战争的经历,那些战斗故事对我有着极大的吸引力。后来他上了车,列车从我身边隆隆地开走了。可那些故事仍然是那么清晰可见,

对于英雄们的壮举,我钦佩不已。(fascination; roar; marvel at)

At the railway station, an old man told me his experience in the Liberation War, the fighting stories of which were of great fascination to me. Then he got up on the train and it roared past me. But the stories were so real and definite that I greatly marvelled at the courageous deeds of those war heroes.

4行之有效的环保政策不仅能创造良好的生态环境,还能大大降低能源消耗。回顾这个地区近年来的发展情况,我们惊喜地发现地区政府强制实行的环保政策不但没有受到任何批评,还促使居民增强了环保意识,尽其所能节约能源。(consumption; impose; take exception to; prompt)

Effective environmental policy might bring about a good environment, as well as reducing energy consumption. Looking back on the recent development of this region, we find, to our pleasant surprise,that little exception has been taken to the environmental policy of the local government, and the policy has also raised the environmental awareness of the local residents and prompted them to save energy aspossible as they could.

Unit 3 Art for art’s sake

1 Listen, if you can, to the 48 fugue themes of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavichord. Listen to each theme,one after another. You will soon realize that each theme mirrors a different world of feeling. You will also soon realize that the more beautiful a theme seems to you the harder it is to find any word that will describe it to your complete satisfaction. Yes, you will certainly know whether it is a gay theme or a sad one. You will be able, in other words, in your own mind, to draw a frame of emotional feeling around your theme. Now study the sad one a little closer. Try to pin down the exact quality of its sadness. Is it pessimistically sad or resignedly sad; is it fatefully sad or smilingly sad?

可能的话,你不妨听听巴赫的《平均律钢琴曲集》中的48个赋格主题。依次地、一个个地听听其中的每一个主题,你很快就会意识到每个主题都反映了一个不同的情感世界,你很快也会意识到你越觉得某个主题美妙,就越难找到令你完全满意的字眼来描述它。是的,你当然知道那个主题是欢快的还是悲伤的。换句话说,你能够在脑海中勾勒出那个主题的情感框架。那么就更仔细地听一下这个悲伤的主题吧,要明确悲伤的性质。是悲观厌世的悲伤,还是无可奈何的悲伤?是时运不济的悲伤,还是强颜欢笑的悲伤?

2 We know less about the Girl with the Pearl Earring than any of Vermeer’s works. Indeed, the unexplainable lack of background information may even contribute to the worldwide popularity the painting enjoys.With so much mystery, the painting has been the theme of first, a novel and later, a film, both of which attempt to answer some of the questions about the painting, as well as one, which is immediately more appropriate to the medium of the novel or the film: Are her wide eyes and enigmatic half-smile innocent or seductive?

我们对《戴珍珠耳环的少女》的了解比对维梅尔的其他作品都少。实际上,这种无法解释的背景资料的缺失甚至会使得该画更受欢迎。正因为如此神秘,这幅画先是成了一部小说的主题,而后又被一部电影所采纳。它们都试图揭开有关这幅画的一些谜题,其中一个是:女孩那双睁得大大的眼睛,以及那一丝神秘的微笑,到底是天真还是诱惑?像小说或电影这类媒介更适合作出回答。

3 随着婚礼的临近,苏珊变得非常焦虑。她说不清楚是什么让自己如此烦恼。在同好友凯特长谈了一次后,她才意识到,尽管自己已经28岁了,但在情感方面还不够成熟,还没有为婚姻做好准备,也不知道这桩婚姻是否会给自己带来美满的家庭生活。(pin down; guarantee) As the wedding ceremony was approaching, Susan had become quite anxious. She could not pin down what exactly was troubling her. After a long talk with her close friend Kate, she realized that, although she was 28 years old, she was not emotionally mature enough to be ready for marriage and she was not sure whether the marriage would guarantee her a happy family life.

4 她知道中国学生总是不愿意表达自己的情感和想法,这不仅仅因为他们对自己的英语口语不够自信,还因为他们相信稳重是一种美德。因此她特意设计了一些简单的话题,鼓励学生参与讨论,让他们增强自信心,拉近彼此间的距离。(shy away; engage sb in)

She knew that Chinese students had a way of shying away from revealing their feelings or opinions, due not merely to their lack of confidence in spoken English, but to their belief in the virtue of modesty. So she specially conceived a couple of simple topics and encouraged them in the discussion, in order that they might become more confident and closer with each other.

Unit 4 Changing time

1 Even grown men who do market research have trouble visualizing what a public relations man does with his day, and it is a safe bet that the average systems analyst is as baffled about what a space salesman does at the shop as the average space salesman is about the tools needed to analyze a system.

即使是那些从事市场研究工作的成年人也难很想象公关部的人每天都在做些什么。一名普通的系统分析师肯定不知道空间推销员在店里都干些什么,就好像空间推销员对分析系统的工具也一窍不通一样。

2 So run the clichés, anyway. But it is only our obsession with novelty, ignorance of deeper historical patterns and arrogant insistence on our own importance that leads us into this kind of talk. Hoping to prove our superiority over the generations that preceded us, we boast that we live in a period of unprecedented change. Yet there is a good case that we do not, in fact, live in very interesting times at all. 不管怎么说,这就是那耳熟能详的套话。可是,让我们有这种论调的正是缘自我们对新奇事物的过度迷恋,对深层次历史模式的无知,以及我们的狂妄自大。为了证明相比于先辈们的优越性,我们夸耀说自己生活在一个前所未有的变革期。但是,有一个很好的例子可以用来证明,实际上我们并没有生活在多么有趣的时代。

3 我们根本就看不懂他们的计划书,因为他们的观点不太容易把握。这很可能是因为我们双方对于另一方的思维方式都感到同样的困惑。我认为应该安排一次面谈,让大家消除误会,扫除沟通的障碍。(make of; come to grips with; it’s a safe bet that; as baffled … as)

We couldn’t make of their proposal at all, because it was no easy job for us to come to grips with their perspective. It was a safe bet that we were as much baffled about their way of thinking as they were about ours. I think we need to arrange a meeting to clear up misunderstandings and to remove communication barriers.

4 从与他共事二十多年的一位同事所写的传记中不难得出这样的结论:他所代表的绝对是该国二战之后的精英阶层,他们在宗教和政治方面的观念较为保守。(nothing if not; in the

wake of; in terms of)

From a biography written by one of his former colleagues who had worked with him for more than two decades, it is not difficult to conclude that what he represented was nothing if not the elite class of the country in the wake of World War II, who were rather conservative in terms of religious and political views.

Unit 5 A place in society

1 Josh shivered as he checked the address on the slip o f paper in his hand. He’d never been to Joanne’s,but knew it by reputation, not because of its food, which had often been maligned, or its jazz orchestra,which had a guest slot for a well-known movie director who played trumpet, but because of the stellar quality of its sophisticated guests: politicians, diplomats, movie actors, hall-of-fame athletes, journalists,writers, rock stars and Nobel Prize winners –in short, anyone who was anyone in this city of power brokers.

乔希打了个冷战,他打开手里的纸条核对了一下地址。之前他没来过乔安妮餐厅,但对于它的鼎鼎大名却早有耳闻,倒不是因为这里的饭菜有多美味,其实这里的菜品屡遭恶评,也不是因为这里的爵士管弦乐队有一位知名电影导演客串吹小号,而是因为这里汇集了有头有脸的宾客,可以说是星光璀璨,他们中有政客、外交家、电影明星、载入名人堂的体育明星、记者、作家、摇滚明星、诺贝尔奖得主等等——总之,这里的每一位客人都是这座权力之里的一个人物。

2 The Swedes and the Saudis in this true story have different concepts of the role of personal relationships in business. For the Swedes, business is done with a company; for the Saudis, with a person whom one has learned to know and trust. As long as one does not know another person well enough it is convenient to have present an intermediary or go-between, someone who knows and is trusted by both parties. At the root of the difference between these cultures is a fundamental issue in human societies: the role of the individual versus the role of the group.

在这个真实的故事里,瑞典人和沙特人对人际关系在商业中的作用有着不同的理解。对瑞典人来说,他们是在和一个公司做生意;但对沙特人来说,他们是在和一个他们了解并且信任的人做生意。只要他们对某个人还不够了解,就会让一位双方都认识并信任的中间人或介绍人在场,这样做会比较方便。这两种文化的差异源于人类社会的一个根本问题:即个人角色与集体角色的问题。

3 这位年轻人是个侦探小说迷,在看了福尔摩斯探案故事之后,他自以为完全掌握了侦探技巧,于是就开始调查一起抢劫案。经过几个星期的周密调查,他倒是追查到了三名疑犯,只可惜案发时这三个人都身在国外。(know sth inside out; track down)

This young man liked reading detective stories. After finished reading Holmes’ stories, he thought he had known the detective’s skills inside out and started to investigate a case of robbery. After a few weeks of close investigation, he tracked down three suspects, who turned out to be abroad when the robbery took place.

4 在本书中我们确实体会到了两种文化之间的差异。不过作者没有详细叙述这些差异,而是仔细讨论了两种文化的相同点,其中说得最多的是为什么这两种文化都如此强调工作的热忱。(dwell on; of which; loyalty)

In this book, we do find some differences between the two cultures. But instead of dwelling on the differences, the author presents lengthy discussions on things they

have in common, of which their loyalty to work are most thoroughly touched upon. Unit 6 Streets full of heroes

1 I though t how we firemen were always saying to each other, “I’ll see you at the big one.” Or, “We’ll all meet at the big one.” I never knew how it started, or when I’d picked up on it myself, but it was part of our shorthand. Meaning, no matter how big this fire i s, there’ll be another one bigger, somewhere down the road. We’ll make it through this one, and we’ll make it through that one, too. I always said it, at big fires, and I always heard it back, and here I was, thinking I would never say or hear these words again,because there would never be another fire as big as this. This was the big one we had all talked about,all our lives, and if I hadn’t known this before – just before these chilling moments – this sick, black noise now confirmed it.

(?这段话由许多短句构成,要注意短句间语气的连接。像at big fires,all our lives 等词语应该调整语序。)

我想起我们消防员平常总互相打趣说:“在大火中见吧。”或者是“我们肯定会在大火中碰面的。”我不知道这种说法是怎么来的,或者我自己是从什么时候开始说起这种话来的,但这就是我们的暗语。意思是不管这场火有多大,以后在别处还会有比这更大的。我们能安然无恙地度过这场火,也会安然无恙地度过下一场火。遇到一场大火时,我总是这么说,也总听别人这么说,可现在,我呆在这儿,想着自己再也不会说这样的话了,也不会再听到别人这么说了,因为再也不会有比这更大的火了。这会是我们大家一辈子都在说的那场大火,如果以前——就在这一个个令人胆战心惊的瞬间之前——我没有认识到这一点的话,现在这浑厚的、不祥的响声印证了这一点。

2 Named as the first chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission, Roosevelt oversaw the two-year process of drafting and securing passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Additionally, her clashes with representatives of the Soviet Union led one Republican to lean forward in his chair and state –he wouldn’t allow his name to be used for fear of being labeled as a Democratic supporter –“Now,i f you want to know what I think about Mrs Roosevelt, she is tuh-riffic! Mrs Roosevelt is unique in her capacity to create an understanding of our position in the minds of the delegates of other countries. Her performance is so superlative that it is rather unexpected to be asked to evaluate her in ordinary terms.”

作为联合国人权委员会的首任主席,罗斯福监督了《世界人权宣言》历时两年的起草和通过的全过程。此外, 她和苏联代表的交锋让一位共和党人从椅子上朝前探过身来,说出了下面一番话——因为怕被当成是民主党的支持者,他不愿意透露自己的姓名——“如果你想知道我对罗斯福夫人的看法,那我会说她真是了不起! 罗斯福夫人有一种独特的能力,能让其他国家的代表清楚地了解我们的立场。要用平常的语言来评价她高超的外交手腕,一时间还真不知道该怎么说。”

3 人们很不理解为什么他一份工作干了30年,大多数人到了他这个年纪至少已经换了四五份工作了。也许对他来说,为了获得更高的薪水或是寻求体验新事物的刺激而换工作毫无意义。在他看来,唯一重要的事是稳定。(stick with; point; thrill)

People are quite puzzled about the fact that he has stuck with the same job for 30 years when most people of his age have changed at least four or five jobs. Maybe for him there is no point in changing jobs for a higher pay or for the thrill of

experiencing something new. The only thing that matters, in his point of view, is stability.

4 协会中的大多数会员认为应该竭力游说政府,确保这项计划获得批准。至关重要的是要把决策者中的一些反对者争取过来。虽然这会很难,但是他们下定决心要作最大的努力。(lobby; win over; adj. + though it + be; utmost)

Most members of the association believe that they need to lobby as hard as possible to make sure that the plan will be approved by the government. It’s essenti al to win over some of the naysayers among the policy makers. Tough though it will be, they have made up their mind to make utmost efforts.

Unit 7 The secret life of science

1 Red lights come up just as often when the driver is not in a hurry; it’s just that the disadvantage of the red light is considerably less if time is not critical. The false part of the perception is that red lights happen more than green lights. The reason for this is simply that a driver has more time to think about a red light than a green light, because while the latter is gone in seconds – and indeed is an experience no different from just driving along the open road – the red light forces a change of behaviour, a moment of exertion and stress, and then a deprivation of freedom for a minute or so. Red lights stick in the mind,while green lights are instantly forgotten.

(? The false part of the perception 直译为“认知中错误的

部分”不妥,应译成“错觉”。第三句是一个复杂的长句,应按原文的顺序拆分成若干短句。整个段落的译文要注意对比与因果的关系。)

司机不赶时间的时候碰到的红灯其实和赶时间的时候一样多;只是如果时间不紧急,红灯带来的不便要小得多。认为红灯出现的次数比绿灯多其实是一种错觉。产生这种错觉的原因很简单,因为司机有更多的时间去想红灯,而绿灯的时候,车子几秒钟之内就疾驰而过了——这其实和在畅通的公路上开车没有任何区别——而红灯却迫使司机改变行为,一小会儿的时间里要强迫自己努力一下,承受点压力,还要失去一两分钟的自由。所以红灯会深深地印在司机的脑海里,而绿灯转瞬间就被抛到脑后了。

2 Can anyone learn to sing? It’s a question that haunted me as I was writing my most recent book The Singing Neanderthals. My research had persuaded me that musicality is deeply embedded in the human genome, with far more ancient evolutionary roots than spoken language. Yet here I was, unable to carry a tune or match a rhythm. Friends and academic colleagues claimed this was simply because I had been“turned off” from music as a child and if only I took a few lessons I would find my voice. Maybe they were right. So humiliated was I by music teachers who made me “sing” alone in front of the class that I dropped music at the first opportunity and haven’t participated in anything musical for over 35 years.

Perhaps I could learn to sing.

(?被动说法 I had been turned off from music 译成主动态更好一些。倒数第二句原文是倒装句,译文不必按原文的顺序译,但需把长句拆分成短句。)

人人都能学会唱歌吗?在撰写我最新出版的《唱着歌的尼安德特人》一书时,这个问题就一直萦绕在我的心头。我做的研究让我相信音乐才能是深深植根于人类基因中的,从进化史的角度来说,它比人类的口头语言都要古老得多。可是我本人一唱起歌来不是跑调,就是跟不

上节奏。朋友们和学术同僚们都说,那都是因为我小时候对音乐失去了兴趣,只要上几节音乐课,我一定能放声歌唱。也许他们是对的。记得小时候,音乐老师们让我在全班同学面前独“唱”,让我觉得很丢脸。所以后来一有机会,我就躲开音乐,35 年来从来没有参加过任何音乐活动。说不定学一学我也能唱得不错。

1 媒体对于接连发生的两件惨剧之间没有任何关系的说法表示怀疑,总统没有迅速作出反应也让大家很不满。谈到总统的执政能力,媒体早已失去信心,除非他能在随后的任期中有所作为。(consecutive; independent of; responsive; when it comes to; if only)

The media doubt the claim that the two consecutive tragedies were independent of each other, and are dissatisfied with the fact that the President was not responsive immediately. When it comes to his competence in running the government, the media have long lost their trust, if only he could do well in his subsequent term.

2 时刻牢记不要因为你的孩子成绩不好而羞辱他们,因为这种被羞辱的痛苦记忆可能会困扰孩子很长时间,使他们从小就厌学,并且会妨碍他们形成积极的生活态度。只有当父母发现孩子身上的优点,并且不断鼓励他们,孩子的发展才能得以长久。(turn off from; humiliate; haunt; identify)

Keep remembering that do not humiliate your child because they don’t gain good grades, as their memory of the humiliation will haunt them for a long time, turn them off from learning at an early age and prevent them from gaining positive attitudes towards life. The development of children can be sustained only when parents identify the strengths in their children and encourage them from time to time.

Unit 8 High days and holidays

1 On International Women’s Day, Soviet women bask in their menfolk’s love and gratitude. In the morning, as it is a holiday, they lounge in bed instead of going out to work. Their husbands, with much cursing and clattering of pans, cook breakfast for the family; by ten o’clock they proudly serve their wives a charred and shrivelled egg. Beside the woman’s plate will be a bunch of flowers and a little gift,a bottle of scent perhaps, or a pair of tights, which she will exclaim over until the children, scarlet with fury, insist that their mother makes them their proper breakfast.

(? pans 在原文中其实泛指厨房里的物件,译成汉语时应为“锅碗瓢盆”。)

在国际妇女节那一天, 苏联的妇女们沐浴在男性所给予的爱意和感激之中。因为这一天是假日,早上她们不用去上班,可以懒洋洋地躺在床上。而她们的丈夫们则要为全家人做早饭,虽然嘴里骂骂咧咧的,还弄得锅碗瓢盆叮当乱响;到了十点,丈夫颇为自豪地把煎得焦糊糊、皱巴巴的鸡蛋端到妻子跟前。盘子边上还放着一束鲜花,一份小礼物,可能是一瓶香水或者一双裤袜,妻子会高兴得大叫起来,激动好一会儿,直到孩子们怒气冲冲地跑过来,小脸涨得通红,闹着要妈妈给他们做一顿像样的早餐。

2 For good or bad, the world has possibly undergone more changes in the past two decades than it did in the past two centuries. We have used more resources, burnt more fuel, caused more pollution and killed off more animals and plants as we have come closer to each other to form a truly global village. Television, we thought, was the last uniting factor till we got a feel for the Internet..All these changes have made us take a different look at the world beyond and our home within. Nothing

comes without a rider in this global market. If we want to be part of the dazzle and comfort that the West is known for, we had better accept some of its anomalies, too. This is not to say that festivals mean something else to the West.

不管是好是坏, 世界在过去二十多年间所经历的变化可能比过去两百年间所经历的还要多。为了让彼此间联系得更紧密,营造出一个真正的地球村,我们消耗了更多的资源,烧掉了更多的能源,造成了更多的污染,灭杀了更多的动植物。过去,我们一直把电视看作是连接全世界的终极手段,直到我们了解了互联网,才发现事实并非如此。所有这些变化都让我们用另外一种眼光来看待外面的世界以及我们自己的家园。在这个全球市场中,得到任何东西都是要付出代价的。如果我们想拥有西方世界那著名的眩目而舒适的生活,我们也必须接受西方文化中的一些异常事物。当然,这并不是说节日对于西方人来说有着不同的意义。

1 和妻子离婚之后,他知道自己将受到朋友们无穷无尽的指责,因为他们都听信流言,认为他为了一个更年轻的女人而抛弃了妻子。每次在街上碰到朋友,他们都会严厉地责备他不该背叛自己的妻子。他终于明白,如果谣言一直不散的话,人们会逐渐地信以为真。(never hear the end of it; dump; bump into; stick around)

When he divorced his wife, he knew that he would never hear the end of it from his friends, because they all believed the rumour that he had dumped her for a younger woman. Whenever he bumped into a friend in the street, they would reprimand him severely for betraying his wife. He realized with his own experience that if a rumour stuck around long enough, people would gradually take it as true.

2 在经历了这么多磨难后,他把所有的愤怒、不满和绝望都发泄在周围人身上了,不管他们是家人还是同事。对于他这些反常的行为我们不能视而不见,而要多给他一些关心和爱。我们相信,他一定会重拾信心,挺过这段艰难时期。(undergo; vent; be they …; shut one’s eyes and ears to; be bound to)

After undergoing so many misfortunes, he vents all his anger, discontent and despair on people around him, be they families or colleagues. Instead of shutting our eyes and ears to his anomalies, we should offer him more cares and love. We believe he is bound to recollect himself and go through the tough time.

相关主题