大学英语4课文

Looking for a Job After University? First, Get Off the Sofa!

More than 650,000 students left university this summer and many have no idea about the way to get a job. How tough should a parent be to galvanize them in these financially fraught times?

In July, you looked on as your handsome 21-year-old son, dressed in gown and mortarboard, proudly clutched his honours degree for his graduation photo. Those memories of forking out thousands of pounds a year so that he could eat well and go to the odd party, began to fade. Until now.

As the summer break comes to a close and students across the country prepare for the start of a new term, you find that your graduate son is still spending days slumped in front of the television, broken only by texting, Facebook and visits to the pub. This

former scion of Generation Y has morphed overnight into a member of Generation

Grunt. Will he ever get a job?

This is the scenario facing thousands of families. More than 650,000 students left university this summer and most in these financially testing times have no idea what to do next. Parents revert to nagging; sons and daughters become rebels without a cause, aware that they need to get a job, but not sure now.

Jack Goodwin, form Middlesex, graduated with a 2:1 in politics from Nottingham this summer. He walked into the university careers service and straight back out again; there was a big queue. He lived with five other boys all of whom did the same. There was no pressure to find a job, even though most of the girls he knew had a clearer plan.

“I applied for a job as a political researcher, but got turned down,” he says. “They were paying 18,000, which doesn’t buy you much more than a tin of beans after rent, but they wanted people with experience or master’s degrees. Then I applied for the Civil Service fast stream. I passed the exam, but at the interviews they accused me of being ‘too detached’ and talking in language that was ‘too technocratic’, which I didn’t think possible, but obviously it is.”

Since then he has spent the summer “hiding”. He can recount several episodes of Traffic

Cops and has seen more daytime television than is healthy. He talks to his friends about his aimless days and finds that most are in the same boat. One has been forced out to stack shelves by his parents. For the rest it is 9-to-5 “chilling” before heading to the pub. So how about working behind the bar, to pay for those drinks?” I don’t want to do bar work. I went to a comprehensive and I worked my backside off to go to a good university, wher e I worked really hard to get a good degree,”he says.”Now I’m back at the same stage as those friends who didn’t go to uni at all, who are pulling pints and doing dead-end jobs. I feel that I’ve come full circle.”

Jacqueline Goodwin, his mother, defends him. She insists that he has tried to get a job, but having worked full-time since leaving school herself, she and her husband find it tricky to advise him on how to proceed.” I have always had to work,” she says. “It’s difficult because when you have a degr ee, it opens new doors for you, or you’d like to think that it does.”

Although she is taking a soft line with her son at the moment, she is clear that after an upcoming three-week trip to South America, his holiday from work will have to end. He may even have to pay rent and contribute to the household bills.

“They’ve got to grow up at some point. We’ve finished paying for university, so a

little bit of help back is good,” she says.” The South America trip is the cutoff point.

When he comes back there’ll be Christmas work if nothing else.”

Gael Lindenfield, a psychotherapist and the author of The Emotional Healing Strategy, says that the Goodwin parents have struck exactly the right note. The transition from university to a job is tough for parents and children: Crucially they must balance being positive and understanding with not making life too comfortable for their offspring.

“The main job for the parents is to be there because if they start advising them what to do, that is when the conflict starts. If yo u have contacts, by all means use those,” she says. “But a lot of parents get too soft. Put limits on how much money you give them, ask them to pay rent or contribute to the care of the house or the pets. Carry on life as normal and don’t allow them to abu se your bank account or sap your reserves of emotional energy.”

Paying for career consultations, train fares to interviews or books are good things; being too pushy is not. But while parents should be wary becoming too soft, Lindenfield advises them to tread sympathetically after a job setback for a few days or even weeks - depending on the scale of the knock. After that the son or daughter needs to be nudged firmly back into the saddle.

Boys are more likely to get stuck at home. Lindenfield believes that men are often better at helping their sons, nephews, or friends’ sons than are mothers and sisters. Men have a different way of handing setbacks than women, she says, so they need the male presence to talk it through.

As for bar work, she is a passionate ad vocate: It’s a great antidote to graduate apathy. It just depends on how you approach it. Lindenfield, who found her first job as an aerial photographic assistant through bar work, says it is a great networking opportunity and certainly more likely to get you a job than lounging in front of TV.

“The same goes for shelf-stacking. You will be spotted if you’re good at it. If you’re bright and cheerful and are polite to the customers, you’ll soon get moved on. So think of it as an opportunity; people who are s uccessful in the long run have often got shelfstacking stories,” she says.

Your son or daughter may not want to follow Hollywood stars such as Whoopi Goldberg into applying make-up to corpses in a mortuary, or guarding nuclear power plants like Bruce Willis, but even Brad Pitt had to stand outside El Pollo Loco restaurant chain in a giant chicken suit at one time in his life. None of them appears the poorer for these experiences.

译文：

大学毕业找工作的第一要义：别躺在沙发上做梦

今年夏天，超过 65 万的大学生毕业离校，其中有许多人根本不知道怎么找工作。在当今金融危机的背景下，做父母的该如何激励他们？

七月，你看着 21 岁英俊的儿子穿上学士袍，戴上四方帽，骄傲地握着优等学士学位证书，拍毕业照。这时，记忆中每年支付几千英镑，好让儿子吃好，能参加奇特聚会的印象开始消退。总算熬到头了。

等到暑假快要结束，全国各地的学生正在为新学期做准备的时候，你发现大学毕业的儿子还歪躺在沙发上看电视。他只是偶尔走开去发短信，浏览社交网站 Facebook，去酒吧喝酒。这位前“千禧一代”的后裔一夜之间变成了哼哼一代的成员。他能找到工作吗？

这就是成千上万家庭所面临的景象：今年夏天，超过 65 万大学生毕业，在当今金融危机的背景下他们中的大多数人不知道自己下一步该做什么。父母只会唠叨，而儿女们则毫无缘由地变成了叛逆者，他们知道自己该找份工作，但却不知道如何去找。

来自米德尔塞克斯郡的杰克·古德温今年夏天从诺丁汉大学政治学系毕业，获得二级一等荣誉学士学位。他走进大学就业服务中心，又径直走了出来，因为他看见很多人在那里排长队。跟他一起住的另外 5 个男孩也都跟他一样，进去又出来了。找工作的压力不大，虽然他所认识的大多数女生都有更清晰的计划。

他说：“我申请政治学研究工作，但被拒了。他们给的年薪是 1 万8千镑，交完房租后所剩无几，也就够买一罐煮豆子，可他们还要有研究经历或硕士学位的人。然后我又申请了公务员速升计划，并通过了笔试。但在面试时，他们说我‘太冷漠’了，谈吐‘太像专家治国国论者。我觉得自己不可能那样，但我显然就是那样的。”

打那以后他整个夏天都在“躲”他能够轻松复述《交通警察》中的。若干片段，他白天看电视的时间太多，已经到了影响健康的地步。跟朋友谈自己漫无目标的日子时，他才发现他们的处境和自己的并没有两样。其中一位朋友在父母的逼迫下去超市摆货，其余的都是白天 9 点到 5 点“无所事事”，晚上去酒吧喝酒打发时间。要么干脆就在酒吧工作？这样还可以挣些酒钱。“我不想在酒吧工作，我上的是综合性中学，我拼命读书才考上了一所好大学。到了大学，我又埋头苦读，才得到一个好学位。可现在我却跟那些没上过大学的朋友处在同一个水平线上，他们整天给客人倒酒，干无聊的活。我觉得自己好像

兜了一圈，又回到了原来的起点。

他的母亲杰奎琳·古德温为他辩护。她坚持认为她的儿子已经尽力了，她自己中学毕业后一直都在工作，可是她和她的丈夫发现，建议儿子如何继续找工作是件很棘手的事情。她说，“我一直都必须工作。现在找工作很难，因为如果你有了学位，学位就会为你提供新的机会，至少你自己会这么想。”

虽然现在她对儿子的态度还比较温和，但是她心里很清楚，去南美度三星期的假之后，他的休假就结束了。他可能还得付房租，分担家庭开支。

她说，在某个时候他们总该长大成人，我们已经帮了他们交了大学的学费所以他们也该给我们一点点回报了。南美度假就是一个分水岭，他回来以后如果找不到工作，那就打圣诞节零工好了。”

心理治疗师盖尔·林登费尔德是《情感康复策略》的作者。她说古德温家长的说法是很恰当的，从上大学到工作的转换对孩子和父母来说都很艰难，关键是他们要在支持理解孩子和不溺爱孩子之间取得平衡。

“父母的主要任务就是支持他们，如果他们教导孩子该如何做就会引起矛盾，”她说。“如果有熟人，一定要找他们想办法。但很多父母心太软了。必须限制孩子的零花钱，要求他们交房租，或分担日常生活或养宠物的花销。父母要过正常的生活，不要让孩子随便用你们的银行卡或者榨干你们的情感能量。”

为他们支付职业咨询费、面试交通费及书费是好事，但不能催得太紧。林登费尔德建议：虽说父母不能太宽容，但是如果孩子找工作遇到了挫折，父母应该体谅他们，宽容他们几天甚至几周——这要看他们受打击的程度来决定。等他们缓过来之后，父母就该坚决要求孩子继续求职。

男孩更容易困在家里。林登费尔德相信男人比母亲和姐妹更容易帮助他们的儿子、侄子、或朋友的儿子。她说，由于男人和女人处理挫折的方式不同，孩子们需要跟男人谈话，才能度过难关。她强烈支持他们去酒吧工作：那是克服毕业冷漠症的一剂良方。这工作好不好要取决于你如何看待它。就是在酒吧打工的时候，林登费尔德找到了她的第一份工作，当航拍助手。她说在酒吧工作是拓展人际关系的绝好机会，肯定比赖在家里看电视更容易找到工作。她说：给超市上货也一样。如果干得好，你就会被人发现的。如果你聪明、活泼，对顾客彬彬有礼，你很快就会升职。所以，把它看作是机会，那些最终能成功的人士都有在超市上货的经历。

你的儿子或女儿可能不会干好莱坞影星们干过的活，比如像乌比·戈德堡那样去停尸房给死人化妆，或者像布鲁斯·威利斯那样在核电站当警卫，但即便是布拉德·皮特也曾经不得不穿上宽大的鸡套装站在墨西哥快餐连锁店 ElPollo Loco的门口招揽生意。他们中没有一个人因为这些经历而变得越来越穷。

Unit 4

The credit card trap

I have a confession. Several years ago, I was standing in a queue to collect

some theatre tickets for my family, and my friend was doing the same for hers.

I got mine, and paid for them by credit card, feeling contented by the convenience of this cash-free transaction. It was then her turn to pay. The whole operation passed as smoothly as mine, but my delight soon turned to abject shame. My credit card was a fairly pathetic, status-free dark blue, whereas hers was a very exclusive gold one.

How did she do this? How could this be? I knew I earned more than her, my car was newer, and my house was smarter. How did she get to appear more flash than me? Now, I had a job which was as steady as any job was in those days – that's to say, not very, but you know, no complaints. I had a mortgage on my house, but then who didn't?

I paid off all my credit debt at the end of the month, so although technically, I was in debt to the credit card company, it was only for a matter of a few weeks. So I assumed I had a good credit rating.

Call me superficial, and I'm not proud of myself, but there and then, I was suddenly jealous of my friend. I decided I no longer wanted a blue card. I wanted a gold one. A gold card was suddenly indispensable, it would make me feel good with myself, and desirable to others.

So I applied for the most distinctive, shiny golden card the company offered.

I was turned down.

When I had recovered from the shock, which took several seconds, I asked why. It appears that because I pay my credit card bill both on time and in full, I'm not the kind of

person that they want to have their gold credit card. They target people who are prone to impulse-buying, and potentially bad credit risks, tempted to spend more than they have, and liable to fall behind with repayments. Then they can charge them more interest, and earn more money. That's the way they do business.

So does this explain why the credit card companies are luring impoverished students with unrealistic interest rates, like my kids?

Three weeks ago, No. 2 daughter came home from university for the weekend. She's in her second term of her first year. She has a student loan of ￡3,000, like most of her friends, and a small allowance from her poor mother (ha!) for transport, books, living expenses. She wears clothes from the local charity shops, and rarely goes out. She hugged me (never usually does that) and then said, "Mum, I need to talk to you." "What is it, darling? Tell me everything."

"I've applied for a credit card, and I need someone to act as a guarantee for me. Is it OK if I put down your name? Thanks so much, Mum, must dash! Bye. "12 After I'd hauled her back into the house, it transpired that her bank had written to her offering a credit card at a low interest for a trial three-month period, subject to suitability ... and so on. Her bank! I trusted them! They know even better than I do how broke she is.

Here's a serious question. Why do they call them credit cards when it

would be more accurate to call them debt cards?

Here's an even more serious story. Another friend's daughter, Kelly, was studying modern languages at university, and spent a year overseas. At some point in the year, there was a change of procedure, and Kelly's bank failed to allow her to access her

funds in her current account, because the request was from outside the UK. Naturally, there was a lengthy correspondence while she tried to sort this out, so the delay in being able to access her funds meant that she went into the red, and her debts began to r ise more than ￡200 above the agreed limit on her overdraft of ￡1,500.

When Kelly got back home, the bank charged her ￡100 for going over the limit, and insisted she paid ￡30 a month to bring the balance back to below her limit. They omitted to tell her that she wasn't actually paying off the debt, but only the exorbitant interest on the overspend of the overdraft.

So Kelly had to turn to her credit card which she had used sensibly and sparingly until that point. Because she was a student, and because she didn't use it much, naturally her credit limit was low.

And not surprisingly, she couldn't pay off even the minimum payment onher credit card bill. So there were not only bank charges owing, but also credit card debts and interest. And of course, she was recorded as being a bad credit risk.Things then went from bad to worse. A few months into her final year, the bank notified her that it was going to reduce her overdraft from ￡1,500 to ￡1,000. They told her to apply for a student loan to cover the rest. But when the loan company did a credit check, they discovered the card debt.Guess what? She didn't get the loan.This was a delightful kid who had great restraint with her spending and was economical about her lifestyle. She didn't go on spending sprees buying new shoes, and she didn't use her credit card as if (unlike me) it was a fashion item. She used it to buy food, to survive.

And what happened? She had to drop out of university.

I wish there was a happy ending to Kelly's story, although maybe there will be. For the moment, she's working in the local supermarket, and it's probable that she'll have another go at university when she has paid off her debts.

So this is what the banks do. They set traps which appeal to our vanity and greed and sometimes to our basic need for survival. And then when we fallinto the trap they shout "Got you! Didn't you realize it was a trap?"

And here we are today, caught in the credit crunch, with world economies in free fall, all because the wicked bankers set us traps which we fell into,attracting us with endless publicity for loans of money which even they didn't have! It now appears they were borrowing on their own flashy gold credit cards too.

So I have a solution to the credit card trap, and I want all of you to listen to me very carefully.

I want you to lay out all of your credit cards in a line, take a large pair of scissors and cut them into small pieces. Then put them in an envelope and send them to your bank, with a letter saying (more or less) "I trusted you and you deceived me. You've got the whole world into this ridiculous credit card trap, and if I now cut your cards in half, and take away your potential to tempt money away from honest people like me, maybe it will be your turn to learn what it's like to run out of cash."

As for me, I don't want any more credit cards, no more status symbols, no more bad feelings about wishing I could show how superior I am to others. I'm not going to yearn any more for what I cannot afford or cannot have.

Unit 5

Sex Differences in English gossip rules

Contrary to popular belief, researchers have found that men gossip just as much as women. In one English study, both sexes devoted the same amount 与人们普遍认为的相反，研究人员发现男人和女人说闲话一样多。在一项英语研究中，男女都投入了相同的金额

of conversation time (about 65 per cent) to social topics such as personal relationships; in another, the difference was found to be quite small, with gossip accounting for 55 per cent of male conversation time and 67 per cent of 在谈话时间（约65%）与人际关系等社交话题之间的差异非常小，其中八卦占男性谈话时间的55%，在社交话题中占67% female time. As sport and leisure have been shown to occupy about 10 per 女性时间。因为运动和休闲已经被证明占了大约10%

cent of conversation time, discussion of football could well account for the difference

谈话时间的一分一秒，关于足球的讨论可以很好地解释差别。

Men were certainly found to be no more likely than women to discuss "important" or "highbrow" subjects such as politics, work, art and cultural matters – except (and this was a striking difference) when women were present. On their own, men gossip, with no more than five per cent of conversation time devoted to non-social subjects such as work or politics. It is only in mixed-sex groups, where there are women to impress, that the proportion of male conversation time devoted to these more "highbrow" subjects increases dramatically, to between 15 and 20 per cent.

人们当然发现，男性和女性讨论“重要”或“高雅”话题（如政治、工作、艺术和文化事务）的可能性不大，但女性在场的情况除外（这是一个显著的不同）。男人靠自己闲聊，不超过

5%的谈话时间用于工作或政治等非社交话题。只有在男女混合的群体中，女性才能给人留下深刻印象，男性与这些更“高雅”的话题交谈的时间比例才急剧增加，达到15%至20%。

3 In fact, recent research has revealed only one significant difference, in terms of content, between male and female gossip: Men spend much more time talking about themselves. Of the total time devoted to conversation aboutsocial relationships, men spend two thirds talking about their own relationships, while women only talk about themselves one third of the time.

事实上，最近的研究表明，男女闲话在内容上只有一个显著的区别：男人花更多的时间谈论自己。在谈论社会关系的总时间中，男性花三分之二的时间谈论自己的关系，而女性只花三分之一的时间谈论自己。

4 Despite these findings, the myth is still widely believed, particularly among males, that men spend their conversations "solving the world's problems", while the womenfolk gossip in the kitchen. In my focus groups and interviews, most English males initially claimed that they did not gossip, while most of the female readily admitted that they did. On further questioning, however, the difference turned out to be more a matter of semantics than practice: What the women were happy to call "gossip", the men defined as "exchanging information".

4尽管有这些发现，人们仍然普遍相信，特别是在男性中，男性在谈话中“解决世界问题”，而女性则在厨房里闲聊。在我的焦点小组和访谈中，大多数英国男性最初声称他们没有闲聊，而大多数女性则欣然承认他们有闲聊。然而，在进一步的提问中，结果发现，这种差异更多的是语义问题，而不是实践问题：女性乐于称之为“八卦”，而男性则定义为“交换信息”。

5 Clearly, there is a stigma attached to gossip among English males, an unwritten rule to

the effect that, even if what one is doing is gossiping, it should be called something else. Perhaps even more important: It should sound like something else. In my gossip research, I found that the main difference between male and female gossip is that female gossip actually sounds like gossip. There seem to be three principal factors involved: the tone rule, the detail rule and the feedback rule.

很明显，英国男性之间的闲言碎语带有污名，这是一条不成文的规则，大意是，即使一个人在做的是闲言碎语，也应该被称为其他的事情。或许更重要的是：它应该听起来像别的东西。在我的流言蜚语研究中，我发现男女流言蜚语的主要区别在于女性流言蜚语实际上听起来像流言蜚语。似乎涉及到三个主要因素：语气规则、细节规则和反馈规则。

The tone rule 音调规则

6 The English women I interviewed all agreed that a particular tone of voice was considered appropriate for gossip. The gossip-tone should be high and quick, or sometimes a stage whisper, but always highly animated. "Gossip's got to start with something like [quick, high-pitched, excited tone] 'Oooh–Guess what? Guess what?'" explained one woman, "or 'Hey, listen, listen [quick, urgent stage whisper] –you know what I heard?'" Another told me: "You have to make it sound surprising or scandalous, even when it isn't really. You'll go, 'Well, don't tell anyone, but …' even when it's not really that big of a secret." 我采访过的英国妇女都认为，一种特殊的语调适合闲聊。流言蜚语的语调应该是高亢而迅速的，或者有时是舞台上的低语，但总是充满活力。”流言蜚语必须以[快速、高亢、激动的语气]之类的话开始，“哦-猜猜怎么着？你猜怎么着？”一个女人解释道，“或者‘嘿，听着，听着，【快速，紧急的舞台低语】——你知道我听到了什么吗？”另一

个告诉我：“你必须让它听起来出人意料或令人不快，即使它不是真的。你会说，“好吧，别告诉任何人，但是……”即使这不是什么大秘密

7 Many of the women complained that men failed to adopt the correct tone of voice, recounting items of gossip in the same flat, unemotional manner as any other piece of information, such that, as one woman sniffed, "You can't even tell it's gossip." Which, of course, is exactly the impression the males wish to give. 7许多妇女抱怨说，男子没有采取正确的语调，用与其他任何信息相同的平淡、不带感情的方式叙述流言蜚语，如一名妇女嗅到的那样，“你甚至不能分辨出这是流言蜚语”。当然，这正是男子希望给人的印象。The detail rule 细节规则

8 Females also stressed the importance of detail in the telling of gossip, and again bemoaned the shortcomings of males in this matter, claiming that men "never know the details". "Men just don't do the he-said-she-said thing," one informant told me, "and it's no good unless you actually know what people said." Another said: "Women tend to specu late more … They'll talk about why someone did something, give a history to the situation." For women, this detailed speculation about possible motives and causes, requiring an exhaustive raking over "history", is a crucial element of gossip, as is detailed speculation about possible outcomes. English males find all this detail boring, irrelevant and, of course, unmanly. 8位女性在讲八卦时也强调了细节的重要性，并再次感叹男性在这件事上的不足，声称男性“永远不知道细节”一位线人告诉我，男人就是不按他说的那样做，除非你知道别人说了什么，否则这是不好的。另一位线人说：“女人更倾向于猜测……她们会谈论为什么有人做了什么，并记录下当时的情况。”对女人来说，这是对可能的动机和原因的详细推测，需要对“历史”进行彻底的调查，这是流言蜚语的一个关键因素，对可能

结果的详细推测也是如此。英国男性觉得所有这些细节都很无聊，无关紧要，当然，也没有男人味。

The feedback rule 反馈规则

9 Among English women, it is understood that to be a "good gossip" requires more than a lively tone and attention to detail: You also need a good audience, by which they mean appreciative listeners who give plenty of appropriate feedback. The feedback rule of female gossip requires that listeners be at least as animated and enthusiastic as speakers. The reasoning seems to be that this is only polite; the speaker has gone to the trouble of making the information sound surprising and scandalous, so the least one can do is to reciprocate by sounding suitably shocked. English men, according to my female informant, just don't seem to have grasped this rule. They do not understand that "You are supposed to say 'NO! Really?' and 'Oh my GOD!'" 据了解，在英国女性中，要想成为一个“好八卦”，不仅需要生动的语气和对细节的关注：你还需要一个好的听众，他们指的是给予大量适当反馈的欣赏性听众。女性八卦的反馈规则要求听众至少和演讲者一样充满活力和热情。理由似乎是这样做只是出于礼貌；说话者已经费尽心思使信息听起来令人惊讶和可耻，因此至少可以通过发出适当的震惊来回应。据我的女线人说，英国男人似乎没有掌握这条规则。他们不明白“你应该说‘不！真的吗“哦，天哪！”

10 My female informants agreed, however, that a man who did respond in the approved female manner would sound inappropriately girly, or even disturbingly effeminate. Even the gay males I interviewed felt that the "NO! Really?" kind of response would be regarded as decidedly "camp". The unwritten rules of English gossip etiquette do allow men to express shock or surprise when they hear a particularly juicy bit of gossip, but it is

understood that a suitable expletive conveys such surprise in a more acceptably masculine fashion.

10然而，我的女性线人同意，如果一个男人确实以女性认可的方式做出回应，听起来会显得不适当的女性化，甚至令人不安的女性化。就连我采访过的男同性恋也觉得“不！真的吗？”这样的回应将被视为绝对的“阵营”。英国八卦礼仪的潜规则确实允许男人在听到特别多汁的八卦时表达震惊或惊讶，但可以理解的是，一个合适的咒语以一种更容易被接受的男性化的方式传达这种惊讶。Unit 9

Lessons to be learnt

I've been spending several years learning Chinese for my work here in Beijing, so the latest news that there's to be a new campaign to introduce the language into US schools, and a recent report estimating that over 500 schools in the UK are teaching it prompts me to tell you something which you may not want to hear: Learning Chinese is really, really tough.

UK exports to China are expected to quadruple by the end of the decade,and its government wants every school, college and university to be twinned with an equivalent institution in China. With the dominance of English as an international language set to decline over the next 40 years, it's not surprising that this fall is matched by a rise of interest in learning Chinese.

Chinese culture is one of the great wonders of the world. Its philosophy, art,food and literature show both subtlety and humanity in equal measure.

But I have to say that if learning is a journey, it's sometimes hard to keep your eye on your destination when there are so many distractions to slow you down on the path towards fluency.

You've heard of the Long March? Well, that is a stroll in the park, compared to what it's like to learn Chinese.

So, if 1.3 billion Chinese don't have a problem with their own language,why do dumb foreigners like me find it so hard to learn?7 First of all, learning thousands of characters is a chore, and there's nothing for it but to learn them by heart. Even using a dictionary has its own set of problems. For example, how do you look up the meaning of a character? I've spent hours trying to match what I think is the radical with the list in the middle of my Chinese-English dictionary, then hunting down the character matched with its pinyin (Roman alphabet) equivalent, then turning to the dictionary entry itself, and looking for the character and eliminating all those with inappropriate meanings until I find the right one. It takes a lot of patience, it can be very disappointing, and my disgraceful strike rate is scarcely 20 characters an hour.

8 Language experts estimate that you "only" need to learn about 5,000 characters to be literate. (I just love that "only"!) They also say it's desirable to see and revise a character about seven times in different contexts in order to retain it and use it productively.

So you do the math.

Learning Chinese is already tough, but learning with an unqualified teacher makes it even more difficult. In our first lesson, we learnt our first Chinese character 家. Our teacher told us that Chinese people are able to see the original representation of meaning

in the character. She drew it on the whiteboard. It means home. Good. She then explained that it's meant to illustrate a pig under a roof. That's good too. Then she asked, "Can you see the pig?"

No?12 "There it is, can't you see?"

I see no pig.

"And can you see the roof?"

Well, I suppose so, but only if I was shortsighted, dyslexic or, possibly,drunk. But to please my teacher I said, yes I can see the roof, just a bit of a blur,that's all.

"That's the pig under the roof. That means home!" said my teacher triumphantly, as if she had achieved her very first success in teaching us Chinese.

But she hadn't.

Have I finished with the bad news?

Not yet. The tone system means that a single character can have different meanings according to the tone used to pronounce it. And it's easy to get hopelessly wrong, and even worse if you travel around the country, as the tones can vary from province to province.

So is there any good news?

Well, I concede that grammar is easier than many European languages.There are no verb tenses to manipulate, no singular and plurals, no relative clauses. (Confusingly, there's also no difference in pronunciation of the character for he and she. For me, it's a fairly basic distinction, but maybe I'm being Ms. Picky.)

But back in class again, I noticed that by the words in the vocabulary listthere is a part of speech marked, noun, adjective, verb. When I look back at my vocabulary notes, I see that some words can function as nouns and as verbs, and others such as guo, ba or le are called particles, whatever that means, but don't have an identifiable function in the terms we use to describe language. They have meaning, and without them the meaning of the sentence is changed. But it seems strange to use a system invented to analyze European languages. So why are we using a system for analyzing Chinese which is so limited? Then I begin to wonder how can Chinese express complex concepts? Take one character and it has a denotational meaning, which you can usually find in a dictionary. Combine this character with another and you create a concept which is new and different. Combine them with more characters and you further develop this concept.

Is this so different from English? Well, yes, because by this time, you need to interpret the combination of characters to understand what it means. It doesn't mean the sum of its isolated, denotational meanings, but the sum of its connotational meanings!

But everyone who uses the language has to agree on the connotations of each of the characters, and if they don't, then surely imprecision and defective comprehension arise. So how does Chinese express complex and precise concepts?

Learning Chinese is like playing chess or doing the crossword. It's totallyabsorbing, completely captivating, and – it's not the right word, but how else can I say it? – I enjoy myself. It's not just a gradual process of language acquisition. It inspires ongoing questions about the meaning of communication and the power of language. It's a very

beautiful, profoundly inspiring and thought-provoking challenge. I have to keep going, as the journey will fascinate me as much as the arrival at my destination.

But how long will it take?

Some statistics suggest that an educated English speaker needs 1,300 hours to achieve a proficiency corresponding to an educated native speaker of Chinese, while it would only take about 480 hours to achieve a comparable level in French or Spanish. Others reckon that 1,300 hours isn't sufficient, and that it's closer to 2,200 hours.

That's quite a few lessons to be learnt.

Michael Phelps, the great Olympic champion swimmer at the Beijing Olympic Games, is learning Chinese too. During an interview in 2008, he made the memorable comment that "It's easier to win eight gold medals at the Olympic Games than it is to learn Chinese."

It's no exaggeration. He's right.

要吸取的教训

为了在北京工作，我花了几年时间学习汉语，所以最近有消息称，美国学校将开展一项新推广活动，最近一份报告估计，英国有500多所学校在教汉语，这促使我告诉你一些你可能想听的事情：学习汉语真的是，真的很难。

到本世纪末，英国对中国的出口预计将翻两番，英国政府希望每一所学校、学院和大学都能与中国的同等机构结成伙伴关系。随着英语作为一种国际语言的主导地位在未来40年内将逐渐下降，在这种下降的同时，学习汉语的兴趣也在上升，这并不奇怪。

中国文化是世界上最伟大的奇迹之一。它的哲学、艺术、饮食和文学在同等程度上表现出微妙和人性。

但我不得不说，如果学习是一个旅程，有时很难把你的眼睛盯着你的目的地时，有这么多的分心，放慢你的道路上，走向流畅。

你听说过长征吗？嗯，和学汉语相比，那是在公园里散步。

那么，如果13亿中国人对自己的语言没有问题，为什么像我这样的哑巴老外会觉得学习这么难呢？7首先，学习成千上万的角色是一件苦差事，没有什么可以做的，只有用心去学习。即使使用字典也有自己的问题。例如，如何查找字符的含义？我花了好几个小时试图将我认为的字根与汉英词典中的列表匹配起来，然后寻找与其对应的拼音（罗马字母）匹配的字符，然后转向词典条目本身，寻找该字符并删除所有具有不适当含义的字符，直到找到对的那个。这需要很大的耐心，这可能是非常令人失望的，我不光彩的罢工率是不到20个字符每小时。

8位语言专家估计，你“只”需要学会5000个左右的字符就能识字。（我只喜欢这个“唯一”！）他们还说，人们希望在不同的语境中看到和修改一个字符大约七次，以便保留它并有效地使用

它。

所以你做数学题。

学汉语已经很难了，但和一个不合格的老师一起学习更是难上加难。在我们的第一课中，我们学习了我们的第一个汉字。我们的老师告诉我们，中国人能够看到汉字中意义的原始表现。她在白板上画的。意思是家。很好。然后她解释说，这是为了说明一头猪在屋顶下。那也很好。然后她问：“你能看见猪吗？”

不？12“在那儿，你看不见吗？”

我没看见猪。

“你能看到屋顶吗？”

好吧，我想是的，但前提是我近视，诵读困难，或者可能喝醉了。但为了取悦我的老师，我说，是的，我可以看到屋顶，只是有点模糊，仅此而已。

“那是屋顶下的猪。那就意味着回家！”我的老师得意洋洋地说，好像她在教我们汉语方面取得了第一次成功似的。

但她没有。

坏消息我说完了吗？

还没有。声调系统是指一个字根据发音的声调可以有不同的意义。而且很容易犯下无可救药的错误，如果你周游全国，情况会更糟，因为每个省的音调都不一样.

有什么好消息吗？

嗯，我承认语法比许多欧洲人容易语言。那里没有动词时态，没有单数和复数，没有关系从句。（令人困惑的是，他和她在发音上也没有区别。对我来说，这是一个相当基本的区别，但也许我是挑剔女士。）

但回到课堂上，我注意到词汇表上的单词有一个词性标记，名词，形容词，动词。当我回顾我的词汇笔记时，我发现有些词可以充当名词和动词，而另一些词，如guo、ba或le，则被称为粒子，不管这是什么意思，但在我们用来描述语言的术语中没有一个可识别的功能。它们有意义，没有它们，句子的意义就改变了。但是用一个发明的系统来分析欧洲语言似乎很奇怪。那么，为什么我们要用一个有限的系统来分析汉语呢？

然后我开始怀疑中国人如何表达复杂的概念？取一个字符，它有一个指称意义，你通常可以在字典里找到。把这个角色和另一个结合起来，你就创造了一个新的和不同的概念。把它们和更多的字符结合起来，你就可以进一步发展这个概念。

这和英语有什么不同吗？好吧，是的，因为此时，您需要解释字符组合以理解其含义。它并不意味着它的iso之和

新视野大学英语4第二版课文翻译

Unit 1 Section A 艺术家追求成名，如同狗自逐其尾，一旦追到手，除了继续追逐不知还能做些什么。成功之残酷正在于它常常让那些追逐成功者自寻毁灭。 对一名正努力追求成功并刚刚崭露头角的艺术家，其亲朋常常会建议“正经的饭碗不能丢～”他们的担心不无道理。 追求出人头地，最乐观地说也困难重重，许多人到最后即使不是穷困潦倒，也是几近精神崩溃。 尽管如此，希望赢得追星族追捧和同行赞扬之类的不太纯洁的动机却在激励着他们向前。享受成功的无上光荣，这种诱惑不是能轻易抵挡的。 成名者之所以成名，大多是因为发挥了自己在歌唱、舞蹈、绘画或写作等方面的特长，并能形成自己的风格。 为了能迅速走红，代理人会极力吹捧他们这种风格。他们青云直上的过程让人看不清楚。他们究竟是怎么成功的，大多数人也都说不上来。 尽管如此，艺术家仍然不能闲下来。 若表演者、画家或作家感到无聊，他们的作品就难以继续保持以前的吸引力，也就难以保持公众的注意力。 公众的热情消磨以后，就会去追捧下一个走红的人。 有些艺术家为了不落伍，会对他们的写作、跳舞或唱歌的风格稍加变动，但这将冒极大的失宠的危险。 公众对于他们藉以成名的艺术风格以外的任何形式都将不屑一顾。 知名作家的文风一眼就能看出来，如田纳西?威廉斯的戏剧、欧内斯特?海明威的情节安排、罗伯特?弗罗斯特或 T.S.艾略特的诗歌等。

同样，像莫奈、雷诺阿、达利这样的画家，希区柯克、费里尼、斯皮尔伯格、陈凯歌或张艺谋这样的电影制作人也是如此。 他们鲜明独特的艺术风格标志着与别人不同的艺术形式上的重大变革，这让他们名利双收，但也让他们付出了代价，那就是失去了用其他风格或形式表现自我的自由。 名气这盏聚光灯可比热带丛林还要炙热。骗局很快会被揭穿，过多的关注带来的压力会让大多数人难以承受。 它让你失去自我。你必须是公众认可的那个你，而不是真实的你或是可能的你。艺人，就像政客一样，必须常常说些违心或连自己都不完全相信的话来取悦听众。 一滴名气之水有可能玷污人的心灵这一整口井，因此一个艺术家若能保持真我，会格外让人惊叹。 你可能答不上来哪些人没有妥协，却仍然在这场名利的游戏中获胜。 一个例子就是爱尔兰著名作家奥斯卡?王尔德，他在社交行为和性行为方面以我行我素而闻名于世。虽然他的行为遭到公众的反对，却依然故我，他也因此付出了惨痛的代价。在一次宴会上，他一位密友的母亲当着他的朋友和崇拜者的面，指责他在性方面影响了她的儿子。 他听了她的话以后大为光火，起诉了这个年轻人的母亲，声称她毁了自己的“好”名声。但是，他真该请一个更好的律师。 结果是，法官不仅不支持他提出的让这个女人赔偿他名声损失费的请求，反而对他本人进行了罚款。 他由于拒交罚款最终还被送进了监狱。更糟糕的是，他再也无法获得更多公众的宠爱。在最糟糕的时候，他发现没有一个人愿意拿自己的名声冒险来替他说话。

大学英语精读 第三版 第四册课文翻译

大学英语精读（第三版）第四册课文翻译 第一单元 两个大学男孩，不清楚赚钱需要付出艰苦的劳动，被一份许诺轻松赚大钱的广告吸引了。男孩们很快就明白，如果事情看起来好得不像真的，那多半确实不是真的。 轻轻松松赚大钱 约翰·G·哈贝尔 “你们该看看这个，”我向我们的两个读大学的儿子建议道。“你们若想避免因为老是向人讨钱而有失尊严的话，这兴许是一种办法。”我将挂在我们门把手上的、装在一个塑料袋里的几本杂志拿给他们。塑料袋上印着一条信息说，需要招聘人投递这样的袋子，这活儿既轻松又赚钱。（“轻轻松松赚大钱!”）“我不在乎失不失尊严，”大儿子回答说。 “我可以忍受，”他的弟弟附和道。 “看到你们俩伸手讨钱讨惯了一点也不感到尴尬的样子，真使我痛心，”我说。 孩子们说他们可以考虑考虑投递杂志的事。我听了很高兴，便离城出差去了。午夜时分，我已远离家门，在一家旅馆的房间里舒舒服服住了下来。电话铃响了，是妻子打来的。她想知道我这一天过得可好。 “好极了!”我兴高采烈地说。”你过得怎么样”我问道。 “棒极了!”她大声挖苦道。“真棒!而且这还仅仅是个开始。又一辆卡车刚在门前停下。”

“又一辆卡车” “今晚第三辆了。第一辆运来了四千份蒙哥马利-沃德百货公司的广告；第二辆运来四千份西尔斯-罗伯克百货公司的广告。我不知道这一辆装的啥，但我肯定又是四千份什么的。既然这事是你促成的，我想你或许想了解事情的进展。” 我之所以受到指责，事情原来是这样：由于发生了一起报业工人罢工，通常夹在星期日报纸里的广告插页，必须派人直接投送出去。公司答应给我们的孩子六百美金，任务是将这些广告插页在星期天早晨之前投递到四千户人家去。 “不费吹灰之力!”我们上大学的大儿子嚷道。 “六百块!”他的弟弟应声道，“我们两个钟点就能干完!” “西尔斯和沃德的广告通常都是报纸那么大的四页，”妻子告诉我说，“现在我们门廊上堆着三万二千页广告。就在我们说话的当儿，两个大个子正各抱着一大捆广告走过来。这么多广告，我们可怎么办” “你让孩子们快干，”我指示说。”他们都是大学生了。他们自己的事得由他们自己去做。” 第二天中午，我回到旅馆，看到一份紧急留言，要我马上给妻子回电话。她的声音高而颤抖，很不自然。家里又运到了好几卡车的广告插页。“有百货公司的，廉价商店的，杂货店的，食品店的，汽车行的，等等。有些像整本杂志那么厚。我们这里有数十万页，说不定是几百万页的广告!我们家整个房子从东墙到西墙，从南墙到北墙统统堆满了广告，一堆又一堆，比你大儿子还要高。现在只剩下一点点空间，刚够一个人走进去，从十一种插页中各取一份，卷在一起，套上橡皮筋，再塞进一只塑料袋内。我们的塑料袋足够供应全美所有的外卖餐厅!”她越讲声音越响，几乎震耳欲聋。”这么多的广告必须在星期日早晨七点以前统统送出

新编大学英语4课文翻译(包括课后文章翻译)和答案

Reading comprehension 1略 2 BDCAC AADBB Vocabulary 1. 1) A. entertaining B. entertainment C. entertained D. entertainer 2) A. recognizable B. recognized C. recognition 3) A. tempting B. temptation C. tempt 4) A. reasoned B. reasoning C. reasonable D. reason 5) A. analyzed B. analytical C. analyst D. analysis 6) A. valuable B. valuation C. valued/values D. values 7) A. humorist B. humor C. humorous D. humorless 8) A. understandable B. understanding C. understand D. misunderstood 2. 1) a sense of responsibility 2) a sense of safety/security 3) a sense of inferiority 4) a sense of superiority 5) a sense of rhythm 6) a sense of justice 7) a sense of shame 8) a sense of helplessness 9) a sense of direction 10) a sense of urgency 3. 1) Lively behavior is normal 2) Fast cars appeal to 3) diverse arguments 4) I asked my boss for clarification 5) sensitive to light 6) Mutual encouragement 7) made fun of him 8) persists in his opinion/viewpoint 9) to be the focus/center of attention 10) we buy our tickets in advance 4. 1）certain/sure 2) involved 3) end 4) behavior 5) disciplining 6) agreed 7) individually 8) first 9) response 10) question 11) attempt 12) voice 13) directly 14) followed 15) trouble Unit 2 便笺的力量 Reading comprehension 1略 2 FFTFTFTFTTFTFT Vocabulary 1. Creating Compound Words

新视野大学英语第四册课文原文

1A An artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it. The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destruction. "Don't quit your day job!" is advice frequently given by understandably pessimistic family members and friends to a budding artist who is trying hard to succeed. The conquest of fame is difficult at best, and many end up emotionally if not financially bankrupt. Still, impure motives such as the desire for worshipping fans and praise from peers may spur the artist on. The lure of drowning in fame's imperial glory is not easily resisted. Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of exploiting their talent for singing, dancing, painting, or writing, etc. They develop a style that agents market aggressively to hasten popularity, and their ride on the express elevator to the top is a blur. Most would be hard-pressed to tell you how they even got there. Artists cannot remain idle, though. When the performer, painter or writer becomes bored, their work begins to show a lack of continuity in its appeal and it becomes difficult to sustain the attention of the public. After their enthusiasm has dissolved, the public simply moves on to the next flavor of the month. Artists who do attempt to remain current by making even minute changes to their style of writing, dancing or singing, run a significant risk of losing the audience's favor. The public simply discounts styles other than those for which the artist has become famous. Famous authors' styles—a Tennessee Williams play or a plot by Ernest Hemingway or a poem by Robert Frost or T.S. Eliot—are easily recognizable. The same is true of painters like Monet, Renoir, or Dali and moviemakers like Hitchcock, Fellini, Spielberg, Chen Kaige or Zhang Yimou. Their distinct styles marked a significant change in form from others and gained them fame and fortune. However, they paid for it by giving up the freedom to express themselves with other styles or forms. Fame's spotlight can be hotter than a tropical jungle—a fraud is quickly exposed, and the pressure of so much attention is too much for most to endure. It takes you out of yourself: You must be what the public thinks you are, not what you really are or could be. The performer, like the politician, must often please his or her audiences by saying things he or she does not mean or fully believe. One drop of fame will likely contaminate the entire well of a man's soul, and so an artist who remains true to himself or herself is particularly amazing. You would be hard-pressed to underline many names of those who have not compromised and still succeeded in the fame game. An example, the famous Irish writer Oscar Wilde, known for his uncompromising behavior, both social and sexual, to which the public objected, paid heavily for remaining true to himself. The mother of a young man Oscar was intimate with accused him at a banquet in front of his friends and fans of sexually influencing her son. Extremely angered by her remarks, he sued the young man's mother, asserting that she had damaged his "good" name. He should have hired a better attorney, though. The judge did not second Wilde's call to have the woman pay for damaging his name, and instead fined Wilde. He ended up in jail after refusing to pay, and even worse, was permanently expelled from the wider circle of public favor. When things were at their worst, he found that no one was willing to risk his or her name in his defense. His price for remaining true to himself was to be left alone when he needed his fans the most. Curiously enough, it is those who fail that reap the greatest reward: freedom! They enjoy the freedom to express themselves in unique and original ways without fear of losing the support of fans. Failed artists may find comfort in knowing that many great artists never found fame until well after they had passed away or in knowing that they did not sell out. They may justify their failure by convincing themselves their genius is too sophisticated for contemporary audiences. Single-minded artists who continue their quest for fame even after failure might also like to know that failure has motivated some famous people to work even harder to succeed. Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist, had his first novel Look Homeward, Angel rejected 39 times before it was finally published. Beethoven overcame his father, who did not believe that he had any potential as a musician, to become the greatest musician in the world. And Pestalozzi, the famous Swiss educator in the 19th century, failed at every job he ever had until he came upon the idea of teaching children and developing the fundamental theories to produce a new form of education. Thomas Edison was thrown out of school in the fourth grade, because he seemed to his teacher to be quite dull. Unfortunately for most people, however, failure is the end of their struggle, not the beginning. I say to those who desperately seek fame and fortune: good luck. But alas, you may find that it was not what you wanted. The dog who catches his tail discovers that it is only a tail. The person who achieves success often discovers that it does more harm than good. So instead of trying so hard to achieve success, try to be happy with who you are and what you do. Try to do work that you can be proud of. Maybe you won't be famous in your own lifetime, but you may create better art. 1B One summer day my father sent me to buy some wire and fencing to put around our barn to pen up the bull. At 16, I liked nothing better than getting behind the wheel of our truck and driving into town

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Unit 1 The idea of becoming a writer had come to me off and on since my childhood in Belleville, but it wasn't until my third year in high school that the possibility took hold. Until then I'd been bored by everything associated with English courses. I found English grammar dull and difficult. I hated the assignments to turn out long, lifeless paragraphs that were agony for teachers to read and for me to write. When our class was assigned to Mr. Fleagle for third-year English I anticipated another cheerless year in that most tedious of subjects. Mr. Fleagle had a reputation among students for dullness and inability to inspire. He was said to be very formal, rigid and hopelessly out of date. To me he looked to be sixty or seventy and excessively prim. He wore primly severe eyeglasses, his wavy hair was primly cut and primly combed. He wore prim suits with neckties set primly against the collar buttons of his white shirts. He had a primly pointed jaw, a primly straight nose, and a prim manner of speaking that was so correct, so gentlemanly,

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大学英语精读第三版第四册课文及课文翻译 Unit 1 Text Two college-age boys, unaware that making money usually involves hard work, are tempted by an advertisement that promises them an easy way to earn a lot of money. The boys soon learn that if something seems to good to be true, it probably is. BIG BUCKS THE EASY W AY John G. Hubbell "You ought to look into this," I suggested to our two college-age sons. "It might be a way to avoid the indignity of having to ask for money all the time." I handed them some magazines in a plastic bag someone bad hung on our doorknob. A message printed on the bag offered leisurely, lucrative work ("Big Bucks the Easy Way!") of delivering more such bags. "I don't mind the indignity," the older one answered. "I can live with it," his brother agreed. "But it pains me," I said，"to find that you both have been panhandling so long that it no longer embarrasses you." The boys said they would look into the magazine-delivery thing. Pleased, I left town on a business trip. By midnight I was comfortably settled in a hotel room far from home. The phone rang. It was my wife. She wanted to know how my day had gone. "Great!" I enthused. "How was your day?" I inquired. "Super!" She snapped. "Just super! And it's only getting started. Another truck just pulled up out front." "Another truck?" "The third one this evening. The first delivered four thousand Montgomery Wards. The second brought four thousand Sears, Roebucks. I don't know what this one has, but I'm sure it will be four thousand of something. Since you are responsible, I thought you might like to know what's happening. What I was being blamed for, it turned out, was a newspaper strike which made it necessary to hand-deliver the advertising inserts that normally are included with the Sunday paper. The company had promised our boys $600 for delivering these inserts to 4,000 houses by Sunday morning. "Piece of cake!" our older college son had shouted. " Six hundred bucks!" His brother had echoed, "And we can do the job in two hours!" "Both the Sears and Ward ads are four newspaper-size pages," my wife informed me. "There are thirty-two thousand pages of advertising on our porch. Even as we speak, two big guys are carrying armloads of paper up the walk. What do we do about all this?" "Just tell the boys to get busy," I instructed. "They're college men. They'll do what they have to do." At noon the following day I returned to the hotel and found an urgent message to telephone my wife. Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering. There had been several more truckloads of ad inserts. "They're for department stores, dime stores, drugstores, grocery stores, auto stores and so on. Some are whole magazine sections. We have hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of pages of advertising here! They are crammed wall-to-wall all through the house in stacks taller than your oldest son. There's only enough room for people to walk in, take one each of the eleven

大学英语4课文翻译

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最新新视野大学英语读写教程第四册(第二版)课文翻译uint-1

Unit 1 An artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it. 艺术家追求成名，如同狗自逐其尾，一旦追到手，除了继续追逐不知还能做些什么。 The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destruction. 成功之残酷正在于它常常让那些追逐成功者自寻毁灭。 "Don't quit your day job!" is advice frequently given by understandably pessimistic family members and friends to a budding artist who is trying hard to succeed. 对一名正努力追求成功并刚刚崭露头角的艺术家，其亲朋常常会建议“正经的饭碗不能丢！”他们的担心不无道理。 The conquest of fame is difficult at best, and many end up emotionally if not financially bankrupt. 追求出人头地，最乐观地说也困难重重，许多人到最后即使不是穷困潦倒，也是几近精神崩溃。 Still, impure motives such as the desire for worshipping fans and praise from peers may spur the artist on. 尽管如此，希望赢得追星族追捧和同行赞扬之类的不太纯洁的动机却在激励着他们向前。 The lure of drowning in fame's imperial glory is not easily resisted. 享受成功的无上光荣，这种诱惑不是能轻易抵挡的。 Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of exploiting their talent for singing, dancing,

[实用参考]大学英语精读第三版第四册课文及课文翻译.doc

Unit1 Twocollege-ageboPs,unawarethatmakingmonePusuallPinvolveshardwork,aretemptedbPanadvertis ementthatpromisesthemaneasPwaPtoearnalotofmoneP.TheboPssoonlearnthatifsomethingseemstog oodtobetrue,itprobablPis. 一个大学男孩，不清楚赚钱需要付出艰苦的劳动，被一份许诺轻松赚大钱的广告吸引了。男孩们很快就明白，如果事情看起来好得不像真的，那多半确实不是真的。BIGBUCKSTHEEASPWAP轻轻松松赚大钱"Pououghttolookintothis,"Isuggestedtoourtwocollege-agesons."ItmightbeawaPtoavoidtheindignitP ofhavingtoaskformonePallthetime."Ihandedthemsomemagazinesinaplasticbagsomeonebadhungon ourdoorknob.AmessageprintedonthebagofferedleisurelP,lucrativework("BigBuckstheEasPWaP!")o fdeliveringmoresuchbags. “你们该看看这个，”我向我们的两个读大学的儿子建议道。“你们若想避免因为老是向人讨钱而有失尊严的话，这兴许是一种办法。”我将挂在我们门把手上的、装在一个塑料袋里的几本杂志拿给他们。塑料袋上印着一条信息说，需要招聘人投递这样的袋子，这活儿既轻松又赚钱。（“轻轻松松赚大钱!”） "Idon'tmindtheindignitP,"theolderoneanswered.“我不在乎失不失尊严，”大儿子回答说。"Icanlivewithit,"hisbrotheragreed.“我可以忍受，”他的弟弟附和道。"Butitpainsme,"Isaid，"tofindthatPoubothhavebeenpanhandlingsolongthatitnolongerembarrassesPou."“看到你们俩伸手讨钱讨惯了一点也不感到尴尬的样子，真使我痛心，”我说。TheboPssaidthePwouldlookintothemagazine-deliverPthing.Pleased,Ilefttownonabusinesstrip.BPmi dnightIwascomfortablPsettledinahotelroomfarfromhome.Thephonerang.ItwasmPwife.Shewantedt oknowhowmPdaPhadgone.孩子们说他们可以考虑考虑投递杂志的事。我听了很高兴，便离城出差去了。午夜时分，我已远离家门，在一家旅馆的房间里舒舒服服住了下来。电话铃响了，是妻子打来的。她想知道我这一天过得可好。 "Great!"Ienthused."HowwasPourdaP?"Iinquired.“好极了!”我兴高采烈地说。“你过得怎么样?”我问道。 "Super!"Shesnapped."Justsuper!Andit'sonlPgettingstarted.Anothertruckjustpulledupoutfront."“棒极了!”她大声挖苦道。“真棒!而且这还仅仅是个开始。又一辆卡车刚在门前停下。”"Anothertruck?"“又一辆卡车?” "Thethirdonethisevening.ThefirstdeliveredfourthousandMontgomerPWards.Thesecondbroughtfour thousandSears,Roebucks.Idon'tknowwhatthisonehas,butI'msureitwillbefourthousandofsomething.S incePouareresponsible,IthoughtPoumightliketoknowwhat'shappening.“今晚第三辆了。第一辆运来了四千份蒙哥马利-沃德百货公司的广告；第二辆运来四千份西尔斯-罗伯克百货公司的广告。我不知道这一辆装的啥，但我肯定又是四千份什么的。既然这事是你促成的，我想你或许想了解事情的进展。” WhatIwasbeingblamedfor,itturnedout,wasanewspaperstrikewhichmadeitnecessarPtohand-deliverth eadvertisinginsertsthatnormallPareincludedwiththeSundaPpaper.ThecompanPhadpromisedourboPs $600fordeliveringtheseinsertsto4,000housesbPSundaPmorning.我之所以受到指责，事情原来是这样：由于发生了一起报业工人罢工，通常夹在星期日报纸里的广告插页，必须派人直接投送出去。公司答应给我们的孩子六百美金，任务是将这些广告插页在星期天早晨之前投递到四千户人家去。 "Pieceofcake!"ouroldercollegesonhadshouted.“不费吹灰之力!”我们上大学的大儿子嚷道。"SiGhundredbucks!"Hisbrotherhadechoed,"Andwecandothejobintwohours!"“六百块!”他的弟弟应声道，“我们两个钟点就能干完!” "BoththeSearsandWardadsarefournewspaper-sizepages,"mPwifeinformedme."TherearethirtP-twot housandpagesofadvertisingonourporch.Evenaswespeak,twobigguPsarecarrPingarmloadsofpaperup thewalk.Whatdowedoaboutallthis?"“西尔斯和沃德的广告通常都是报纸那么大的四页，”妻子告诉我说，“现在我们门廊上堆着三万二千页广告。就在我们说话的当儿，两个大个子正各抱着一大捆广告走过来。这么多广告，我们可怎么办?”"JusttelltheboPstogetbusP,"Iinstructed."TheP'recollegemen.TheP'lldowhatthePhavetodo."“你让孩子们快干，”我指示说。“他们都是大学生了。他们自己的事得由他们自己去做。”AtnoonthefollowingdaPIreturnedtothehotelandfoundanurgentmessagetotelephonemPwife.Hervoic