1、大学英语精读第 5 册和第 6 册全文课文翻译A Kind of SermonIt is probably easier for teachers than for students to appreciate the reasons why learning English seems to become increasingly difficult once the basic structures and patterns of the language have been understood. Students are naturally surprised and disappoi
2、nted to discover that a process which ought to become simpler does not appear to do so.It may not seem much consolation to point out that the teacher, too, becomes frustrated when his efforts appear to produce less obvious results. He finds that students who were easy to teach, because they succeede
3、d in putting everything they had been taught into practice, hesitate when confronted with the vast untouched area of English vocabulary and usage which falls outside the scope of basic textbooks. He sees them struggling because the language they thought they knew now appears to consist of a bewilder
4、ing variety of idioms, clichd and accepted phrases with different meanings in different contexts. It is hard to convince them that they are still making progress towards fluency and that their English is certain to improve, given time and dedication.In such circumstances it is hardly surprising that
5、 some give up in disgust, while others still wait hopefully for the teacher to give them the same confident guidance he was able to offer them at first. The teacher, for his part, frequently reduced to trying to explain the inexplicable, may take refuge in quoting proverbs to his colleagues such as:
6、 “You can lead a horse to water but you cant what you say. Its the way that you say it.“ His students might feel inclined to counter these with: “The more I learn, the less I know.“Of course this is not true. What both students and teachers are experiencing is the recognition that the more complex s
7、tructures one encounters in a language are not as vital to making oneself understood and so have a less immediate field of application. For the same reason, from the teachers point of view, selecting what should be taught becomes a more difficult task. It is much easier to get food of any kind than
8、to choose the dish you would most like to eat on a given day from a vast menu.Defining the problem is easier than providing the solution. One can suggest that students should spend two or three years in an English-speaking country, which 一番说教也许老师比学生更容易理解，为什么学生在掌握了英语基本结构和句型后英语学习反而变得越来越困难了。学生们自然感到惊奇并失
9、望地发现本来应该变得越来越容易的学习过程却完全不是那么回事。学生们并不感到多少安慰，在知道老师在其努力所产生的效果似乎不及一开始明显也会灰心丧气。他发现那些学生很容易去教，为他们能把所学的知识很快的用于实践。可现在，他们却面对前阶段中从未学过的大量生词，惯用法显得踌躇不前。他看到学生们在艰难地努力着，因为他们以前认为已经认识的语言现在似乎充满了令人头昏眼花的成语，陈旧用语以及在不同上下文中有不同含义的惯用词组。 要想让他们相信他们仍朝着精通的方向发展，他们英语就一定提高是很困难的。并且，只要肯花时间和持之以恒。 有些学生在此情况下厌恶地放弃了学习，这并不出人意外；同时，另一些学生仍然充满希望地
10、盼着老师象开始时那样给他们以满怀信心的指导。从教师这方面看，由于往往不得不去讲解一些无法说清楚的东西，他常常会对同事们引用一些谚语权充台阶，比如：你能牵马河边走，马不饮水你自愁， 或说得比较尊重对方但语法并不严谨：倒不在乎说什么，关键瞧您怎么说。他的学生则会反唇相讥道：我越学越糊涂。事实当然并非如此。师生们正体验着一种共识，即学习中遇到的较复杂的语言结构在表达思想中并非至关重要，因此也就少有可能立刻派上用场。出于同样的理由，在老师看来，恰当地选择教材变得更困难了。任选一种食品比从品种繁多的菜单上单挑一道在某个特定日子里你想吃的菜要容易多了。 amounts to washing ones ha
11、nds of them. Few students have the time or the money to do that. It is often said that wide reading is the time or the money to do that. It is often said that wide reading is the best alternative course of action but even here it is necessary to make some kind of selection. It is no use telling stud
12、ents to go to the library and pick up the first book they come across. My own advice to them would be: “read what you can understand without having to look up words in a dictionary (but not what you can understand at a glance); read what interests you; read what you have time for (magazines and news
13、papers rather than novels unless you can read the whole novel in a week or so); read the English written today, not 200 years ago; read as much as you can and try to remember the way it was written rather than individual words that puzzled you.“ And instead of “read“, I could just as well say “liste
14、n to.“My advice to teachers would be similar in a way. I would say “Its no good thinking that anything will do, or that all language is useful. Its no good relying on students to express themselves without the right tools for expression. Its still your duty to choose the best path to follow near the
15、 top of the mountain just as it was to propose a practicable short-cut away from the beaten track in the foothills. And if the path you choose is too overgrown to make further progress, the whole party will have to go back and you will have to choose another route. You are still the paid guide and e
16、xpert and there is a way to the top somewhere.“The Fifth Freedom More than three centuries ago a handful of pioneers crossed the ocean t Jamestown and Plymouth in search of freedoms they were unable to find in their own countries, the freedoms of we still cherish today: freedom from want, freedom fr
17、om fear, freedom of speech, freedom of religion. Today the descendants of the early settlers, and those who have joined them since, are fighting to protect these freedoms at home and throughout the world.And yet there is a fifth freedom - basic to those four - that we are in danger of losing: the fr
18、eedom to be ones best. St. Exupery describes a ragged, sensitive-faced Arab child, haunting the streets of a North African town, as a lost Mozart: he would never be trained or developed. Was he free? “No one grasped you by the shoulder while there was still time; and nought will 界定问题易于找出答案。你可建议学生去讲英
19、语的国家住两三年，这等于撒手不管他们。没有几个学生陪得起时间花得起钱。常言道：广泛阅读是最佳替代办法，但读书也应有所选择。让学生走进图书馆随便拿起他们遇到的第一本书就读，这是无用的。我会这样劝他们；读无需查字典就懂的书（但并非过眼即懂的书） ，读你感兴趣的书； 读时间允许的书（杂志和报纸，而不是长篇小说，除非你能在一周左右读完它） ；读现在写的文章，而不是二百年前的文章；读得尽量多一些，并尽量记住写作方法，而不要拘泥于令你困惑的个别单词。并且，代之以读文章，你应该听文章。从某种意义上说，我对教师的劝告也是相同的。我会说：最好不要认为学什么都可以，或任何语言都有用。让学生没有掌握表达方法就去表达
20、自己的思想是无益的。正象在山脚下你弃老路而择近道一样，在距山顶不远处你也仍应尽心尽责为他们指一条攀顶之最佳路线。如果你选的路线荆棘丛生，难以举步，全队则需返回，你应另择佳途。你仍是雇用向导和登山专家，总能找到一条登顶之路。第五种自由一小群早期拓荒者为了寻找在他们自己的祖国已不存在的自由，在三百多年前远涉重洋，来到詹姆斯敦和普列茅斯。自由我们今天仍然格外珍惜。它们是：脱离贫穷，消除恐惧、言论以及宗教信仰的自由。如今这些拓荒者的后代以及后来加入其行列的新老移民仍然在美国本土和世界各地为这些自由而奋斗着。与此同时还存在着第五种自由，也是上述四种自由之基石，我们有丢失它的危险。它是达到个人成就顶峰的自
21、由，在法国作家圣?埃克休帕里的作品里，一个破衣烂衫却长得聪明伶俐的阿拉伯少年，经常闲逛于北非某城市，被描写成一awaken in you the sleeping poet or musician or astronomer that possibly inhabited you from the beginning.“ The freedom to be ones best is the chance for the development of each person to his highest power.How is it that we in America have begun
22、to lose this freedom, and how can we regain it for our nations youth? I believe it has started slipping away from us because of three misunderstandings.First, the misunderstanding of the meaning of democracy. The principal of a great Philadelphia high school is driven to cry for help in combating th
23、e notion that it is undemocratic to run a special program of studies for outstanding boys and girls. Again, when a good independent school in Memphis recently closed, some thoughtful citizens urged that it be taken over by the public school system and used for boys and girls of high ability, what it
24、 have entrance requirements and give an advanced program of studies to superior students who were interested and able to take it. The proposal was rejected because it was undemocratic! Thus, courses are geared to the middle of the class. The good student is unchallenged, bored. The loafer receives h
25、is passing grade. And the lack of an outstanding course for the outstanding student, the lack of a standard which a boy or girl must meet, passes for democracy.The second misunderstanding concerns what makes for happiness. The aims of our present-day culture are avowedly ease and material well-being
26、: shorter hours; a shorter week; more return for less accomplishment; more softsoap excuses and fewer honest, realistic demands. In our schools this is reflected by the vanishing hickory stick and the emerging psychiatrist. The hickory stick had its faults, and the psychiatrist has his strengths. Bu
27、t hickory stick had its faults, and the psychiatrist has his strengths. But the trend is clear. Tout comprendre cest tout pardoner (To understand everything is to excuse everything). Do we really believe that our softening standards bring happiness? Is it our sound and considered judgment that the t
28、ougher subjects of the classics and mathematics should be thrown aside, as suggested by some educators, for doll-playing? Small wonder that Charles Malik, Lebanese delegate at the U.N., writes: “There is in the West“ (in the United States) “a general weakening of moral fiber. (Our) leadership does n
29、ot seem to be adequate to the unprecedented challenges of the age.“The last misunderstanding is in the area of values. Here are some of the most influential tenets of teacher education over the past fifty years: there is no eternal 个被埋没的莫扎特，他不可能受到训练或培养。这个孩子有自由吗？“在还来得及的时候却得为到培养。你也许很可能有着与生俱来的成为诗人、音乐家或
30、天文学家的潜能，但却不可能被唤醒了。完善自我的自由是一种让每个人把自己的能力发展到最高水平的机会。在美国我们为什么会开始失去这一自由呢？如何为我国的青年人重新获得这一自由呢？它之所以开始从我们身边悄然离去，我认为是由于以下三种误解所导致的。首先是对民主的误解。在费城、一所名牌中学的校长被迫大声疾呼，号召人们反对一种观点，即认为给尖子生吃小灶是不民主的。再如，当孟菲斯的一所教学质量好的私立学校在不久前停办时，一些有头脑的市民力主将其纳入公立学校系统，专门用来培养尖子人才。他们主张要设入学条件并为有兴趣、有能力的学生提供高级研修课程。然而这项建议竟遭反对，理由是这样做不民主！据此，课程均被定位在中
31、等难度。尖子生未受到挑战，情绪低落，差生也能及格。没有为优等生开设的培优课程，没有每位男女生都必须达到的标准反而带来了民主。其次是对幸福的误解。我们当今文化的取向明白无误地直指安逸和物质享受，更少的日工作小时和周工作日，干得更少，拿得更多，更多的滑头的借口，更少实实在在的要求。反映到我们的学校里，便是精神病医生取代了教鞭。以前用教鞭当然有不妥的时候，如今的精神病医生也功不可没。但趁势是显而易见的。 （原谅了一切才理解了一切。）我们真的相信较松的标准能带来幸福吗？象某些教育专家建议的，用玩娃娃取代难学的古典文学和数学。这难道是我们经过深思熟虑作出的判断吗？无怪乎黎巴嫩驻联合国代表查尔斯马立克会这
32、样写道： “在西方（美国）普遍存在着道德滑坡。 （我们的）领导似乎无从应付史无前例的时代的挑战。 ”最后是对价值观的误解。这里仅举几项在过去五十年里在师范教育界最具影响的信仰，永恒的真理是不存在的；绝对的道德准则是不存在的；上帝是不存在的。但人类全部的历史却告诉我们：否定这些基本原则，置人或国家于宇宙之中心，truth; there is no absolute moral law; there is no God. Yet all of history has taught us that the denial of these ultimates, the placement of man
33、 or state at the core of the universe, results in a paralyzing mass selfishness; and the first signs of it are already frighteningly evident.Arnold Toynbee has said that all progress, all development come from challenge and a consequent response. Without challenge there is no response, no developmen
34、t, no freedom. So first we owe to our children the most demanding, challenging curriculum that is within their capabilities. Michelangelo did not learn to paint by spending his time doodling. Mozart was not an accomplished pianist at the age of eight as the result or spending his days in front of a
35、television set. Like Eve Curie, like Helen Keller, they responded to the challenge of their lives by a disciplined training: and they gained a new freedom.The second opportunity we can give our boys and girls is the right to failure. “Freedom is not only a privilege, it is a test,“ writes De Nouy. W
36、hat kind of a test is it, what kind of freedom where no one can fail? The day is past when the United States can afford to give high school diplomas to all who sit through four years of instruction, regardless of whether any visible results can be discerned. We live in a narrowed world where we must
37、 be alert, awake to realism; and realism demands a standard which either must be met or result in failure. These are hard words, but they are brutally true. If we deprive our children of the right to fail we deprive them of their knowledge of the world as it is.Finally, we can expose our children to
38、 the best values we have found. By relating our lives to the evidences of the ages, by judging our philosophy in the light of values that history has proven truest, perhaps we shall be able to produce that “ringing message, full of content and truth, satisfying the mind, appealing to the heart, firi
39、ng the will, a message on which one can stake his whole life.“ This is the message that could mean joy and strength and leadership - freedom as opposed to serfdom.Your Key to a Better LifeThe most important psychological of this century is the discovery of the “self-image.“ Whether we realize it or
40、not, each of us carries about with us a mental blueprint or picture of ourselves. It may be vague and ill-defined to our conscious gaze. In fact, it may not be consciously recognizable at all. But it is there, complete 将导致使世界瘫痪的整体自私自利。而这恶果却已令人恐怖地初现端倪。阿诺德?汤因比曾经说，一切进步，一切发展均来自挑战以及相应的反应。而没有挑战，当然也没有了反应，没
41、有了进步，没有了自由。因此，首先我们要为我们的孩子提供最艰深，最具挑战性的在其力所能及的范围内的课程。米开朗基罗学画时可不是心不在焉的乱画。莫扎特要是整天看电视，也就不可能在八岁就成为小有名气的钢琴家。正象伊芙居里和海伦 凯勒一样，他们都是以严格的训练来面对挑战。并且赢得了新的自由。我们可以给我们的男孩女孩们的第二个机会乃是有权失败。 “自由不仅仅是一种特权，而且也是一种考验， ”德纽伊写道。一个不允许失败的考验是一种什么样的考验呢？这种自由又将是什么自由呢：美国能为每一位来听上四年高中课程的学生,发张高中文凭。但不管是否学到东西，这个时代已一去不复返了。我们生活在一个变得越来越小的世界里，我
42、们必须知晓现实主义，并对其保持警觉；而现实主义所要求的标准应是一种要么必须达到，要么达不到的标准。这种说法过于严酷，但也句句是实。如果剥夺了我们的孩子失败的权力，也就是剥夺了他们认识真实世界的权力。最后，我们应让孩子们全面了解我们已经找到的最好的价值。通过把我们的生活与各个时代，可资证明的事件联系起来，通过已经过历史证明为最真实的价值观来评判我们的人生哲学。我们也许能够提供一种充满真理、内容翔实、满足我们的思维，打劫我们心扉、燃起希望之火的，时时萦绕于耳的启示，一种受用终生的启示。这是一个意味着快乐力量和领袖才能的启示即自由而非奴役。美好生活的秘决这个世纪心理学领域里最重要的发现就是“自我行象
43、”。无论意识到与否，我们每个人大脑中都有一幅关于自己的蓝图或画像。如果我们有意识地去注视它，这个心象也许地会显得模糊不down to the last detail. This self-image is our own conception of the “sort of person I am.“ It has been built up from our own beliefs about ourselves. But most of these beliefs about ourselves have unconsciously been formed our past experie
44、nces, our successes and failures, our humiliations, our triumphs, and the way other people have reacted to us, especially in early childhood. From all these we mentally construct a “self,“ (or a picture of a self). Once an idea or a belief about ourselves goes into this picture it becomes “true“, as
45、 far as we personally are concerned. We do not question its validity, but proceed to act upon it just as if it were true.This self-image becomes a golden key to living a better life because of two important discoveries:1. All your actions, feelings, behavior - even your abilities - are always consis
46、tent with this self-image.In short, you will “act like“ the sort of person you conceive yourself to be. Not only this, but you literally cannot act otherwise, in spite of all your conscious efforts or will power. The man who conceives himself to be a “failure type person“ will find some way to fail,
47、 in spite of all his good intentions, or his will power, even if opportunity is literally dumped in his lap. The person who conceives himself to be a victim of injustice, one “who was meant to suffer“ will invariably find circumstances to verify his opinions.The self-image is a “premise,“ a base, or
48、 a foundation upon which your entire personality, your behavior, and even your circumstances are built. Because of this our experiences seem to verify, and thereby strengthen our self-images, and a vicious or a beneficent cycle, as the case may be, is set up.For example, a schoolboy who sees himself
49、 as an “F“ type student, or one who is “dumb in mathematics,“ will invariably find that his report card bears him out. He then has “proof“. A young girl who has an image of herself as the sort of person nobody likes, will find indeed that she is avoided at the school dance. She literally invites rejection. Her woebegone expression, her hang-dog manner, her over-anxiousness to please, or perhaps her unconscious hostility towards those she anticipates will affront her - all act to drive away those whom she would attract. In the same manner, a salesm
