危及人的生命安全。然而正是这些极常见的践踏法令行为的危害却最直接最明
显。

The culprit is the American driver, whose lawless activities today
add up to a colossal public hazards range from routine
double parking that jams city streets to the drunk driving that kills
some 25,000 people and injures at least 650,000 others yearly. Illegal
speeding on open highways? New surveys show that on some interstate
highways 83% of all drivers are currently ignoring the federal 55 mph
speed limit.
罪魁祸首要算那些无法无天的美国司机，其所做所为积 累成今天的巨大公害。
这种危害包括致使交通阻塞的常见的路边双排停车和导致每年车祸死亡
25,000 人、受伤至少 65 万人的酒后开车。高速公路上超速行驶的情况又是怎
样呢 ? 据近期统计，某些州际高速公路上，有83%的司机们都常常无视联邦政
府关于最高时速 55 英里的限速规

The most flagrant scofflaw of them all is the red-light runner. The
flouting of stop signals has got so bad in Boston that residents tell
an anecdote about a cabby who insists that red lights are ‚ just for
decoration ‛ .The power of the stoplight to control traffic seems to
be waning everywhere. In Los Angeles, red-light running has become
perhaps the city's most common traffic violation.
最明目张胆的违法的行径要算闯红灯了。在波士顿，无视停车信号的状况已< br>经严重到了如此程度，以至在当地居民中流传着这样一个趣闻：一位出租汽车
司机竟然坚信：红灯 只不过是‚街头的装饰品而已‛。红色停车指示灯控制交通
的能力似乎处处都在减弱。在洛杉矶，闯红灯 恐怕要算该市最常见的交通违章
现象。
In New York City, going through an intersection is like Russian
roulette. Admits Police Commissioner Robert J. Mc Guire: ‚Today it's
a 50-50 toss-up as to whether people will stop for a red light.‛ Meanwhile,
his own police largely ignore the lawbreaking.
在纽约市，通过交叉路口就象玩俄国手枪轮盘赌。警察局长罗伯特•麦克 盖尔
承认：‚如今红灯亮了是否停车，就像玩掷币游戏，机会各一半。‛而他麾下的
警察，对这 种违章行为大都视而不见。


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Unit 7 text I Beauty

1 For the Greeks, beauty was a virtue: a kind of excellence. Persons
then were assumed to be what we now have to call—lamely, enviously—
whole persons. If it did occur to the Greeks to distinguish between a
person‘s ―‚inside‛ and ‚outside‛, they still expected that inner
beauty would be matched by beauty of the other kind. The well-born young
Athenians who gathered around Socrates found it quite paradoxical that
their hero was so intelligent, so brave, so honorable, so seductive—
and so ugly. One of Socrates‘ main pedagogical acts was to be ugly—
and teach those innocent, no doubt splendid-looking disciples of his how
full of paradoxes life really was.

美之于古希腊人是一种德性，一种美德。今天看来，他们就是我 们如今所谓的‚全
面的人‛，虽然这个称呼有点不理直气壮，并且带有嫉妒之意。倘若让古希腊人
区分一个人的‚内在‛和‚外在‛，他们仍期望内在美是需要与其他种类之美相
匹配的。那些聚集在苏 格拉底身边的雅典青年人发现自己的偶像是如此得聪慧、
勇敢、正直、充满诱惑力，而同时又那么得丑， 这是多么自相矛盾啊。而苏格拉
底主要的教学手段之一即为‚丑‛，告诉这些天真却拥有毋庸臵疑般美貌 的门生，
真正的人生是充满悖论的。
2 They may have resisted Socrates‘ lessons. We do not. Several
thousand years later, we are more wary of the enchantments of beauty. We
not only split off –with the greatest facility-the ‚inside‛ (character,
intellect)from the ‚outside‛(looks); but we are actually surprised when
someone who is beautiful is also intelligent, talent, good.
他们或许能够抗拒苏格拉底的学说。而我们做不到。几千年以后，美的魅
惑使我们更加小心。我们不仅用 最容易的方式将‚内在美‛（性格，心智）和‚外
在美‛（外貌）割离开来，而且我们也对那些既有美貌 亦有智慧天赋之人，感到
诧异。


3 It was principally the influence of Christianity that deprived
beauty of the central place it had classical ideals of human excellence.
By limiting excellence (virtus in Latin) to moral virtue only,
Christianity set beauty adrift—as an alienated, arbitrary, superficial
enchantment. And beauty has continued to lose prestige. For close to two
centuries it has become a convention to attribute beauty to only one of

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the two sexes: the sex which, however Fair, is always Second. Associating
beauty with women has put beauty even further on the defensive, morally.
美自古就是 经典的人类优秀品格理想标准，而将其从如此最重要位臵赶走的
首要原因来自基督教的影响。通过把美德 （拉丁语为virtus）的概念限定到仅
仅指伦理道德，基督教放逐了‚美‛——把美当成一种异化的 ，武断的，肤浅的
诱惑。同时美不断丢失了它原本的美名。到二世纪末的时候，美成为一种约定概
念，美仅用于两性之一的性别：这个性别纵然是美好的，但却处于第二位臵。将
美与女性联系起来，使 得美在道德层面上更加受到指责。
4 A beautiful woman, we say in English. But a handsome man.
‚Handsome‛is the masculine equivalent of –and refusal of a—a
compliment which has accumulated certain demeaning overtones, by being
reserved for women only8. That one can call a man ― ‚beautiful‛ in French
and in Italian suggest that Catholic countries—unlike those countries
shaped by the Protestant version of Christianity—still retain some
vestiges of the pagan admiration for beauty. But the difference, if one
exists, is of degree only. In every modern country that is Christian or
post-Christian, women are the beautiful sex—to the detriment of the
notion of beauty as well as of women.
在英语里，我们说一位女子是美 丽的。但是我们却说一位男子是英俊的。
‚英俊‛是其阳性的等同词，同时拒绝一种带有某些贬义暗示的 赞扬，而这种赞
扬是仅用于女性的。在法语和意大利语里，人们可以称男子是‚美丽的‛，这暗
示着这些天主教国家依旧保留了前基督教时期欣赏‚美‛的痕迹，而这些痕迹在
新教国家中已经荡然无存 。但即使存在，差别也只是程度不同而已。在任何一个
基督教或者后基督教国家里，女性就是那个美丽的 性别——既损害了美这个概
念，也损害了女性这个概念。


Unit 8 Appetite（渴望）
1、 One of the major pleasures in life is appetite, and one of our major
duties should be to preserve it. 食欲乃生活大乐事之一，而保持食欲则成
为重要的任务之一。Appetite is the keenness of living; it is one of the
senses that tells you that you are still curious to exist, that you still
have an edge on your longings and want to bite into the world and taste
its multitudinous flavors and juices.欲望意味着对生活充 满热情，这种饥
饿感表明你依然希冀生活下去，热衷梦想，向往探索世界，尝遍世间百味。

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2、 By appetite, of course, I don’t mean just the lust for food, but
any condition of unsatisfied desire, any burning in the blood that proves
you want more than you’ve got, and that you haven’t yet used up your
life.当然，我所说的‚欲望‛不单指对食欲，而指所有欲求尚未满足的状态，
及血液中燃 烧的激情，这炽热的激情证明你希望收获更多，也证明你的生命活
力尚未耗尽。
Wilde said he felt sorry for those who never got their heart’s desire,
but sorrier still for those who did.王尔德曾说过，对未能梦想成真者，
他深表惋惜；而对心愿已遂者，他则更为遗憾。I got mine once only, and it
nearly killed me, and I’ve always preferred wanting to having since.
仅有一次，我如愿以偿，但就那次把我要了我的命，自那以后，我总是更乐于
想往，而非如愿以 偿。
3、 For appetite, to me, is this state of wanting, which keeps one’
s expectations alive. 对我来说，渴望就是这种想往的状态，它总是让人满
怀期待。I remember learning the lesson long ago as a child, when treats
and orgies were few, and when I discovered that the greatest pitch of
happiness was not in actually eating a toffee but in gazing at it before
hand.还是小孩子时，我就对此有所感悟。那时没什么极乐之事，我发现那时候最大的乐趣其实不在于吃太妃糖，而在于吃糖之前好好地把糖果端详一番。
True, the first bite was delicious, but once the toffee was gone one was
left with nothing, neither toffee nor lust. Besides, the whole toffeeness
of toffees was imperceptibly diminished by the gross act of having eaten
it. 的确如此。第一口甜蜜无比，然而，糖一旦吃完， 你就一无所有了：糖没
了，诱惑也没了。太妃糖吃完了，吃糖的欲望也随之消失殆尽了。此外，在大口咀嚼时，太妃糖的滋味也不知不觉地淡去了。No, the best was in wanting
it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted an inexhaustible

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treasure-house of flavors.不能如此享用。最好的享受是 欲求不达，只消坐
在那盯着糖，你就能感受到太妃糖无穷无尽的金屋藏娇似。
4、 So, for me, one of the keenest pleasures of appetite remains in
the wanting, not the satisfaction. In wanting a peach, or a whisky, or
a particular texture or sound, or to be with a particular friend. 因
此，对我来说，渴望的最大乐趣之一在于心怀向往，而非心 满意足，比如，向
往一只密桃，一杯威士忌，或者一种特别的触觉 ，或听觉，亦或期望与特定朋
友相聚。 For in this condition, of course, I know that the object of desire
is always at its most flawlessly perfect. 因为，我知道在这种情况下，
心中渴求之物总是完美无缺的。Which is why I would carry the preservation
of appetite to the extent of deliberate fasting, simply because I think
that appetite is too good to lose, too precious to be bludgeoned into
insensibility by satiation and over-doing it. 我把此种渴望的坚守，故
意延伸 成斋戒期。原因很简单，我觉得食欲是极好的事，不能丧失，它弥足珍
贵，不能饱食生腻，耗费过度使其 沦为索然无味。
unit 10 euphemism.
A euphemism is commonly defined as an auspicious or exalted term
(like ‚sanitation engineer‛) that is used in place of a more down-to-earth
term (like ‚garbage man‛). People who are partial to euphemisms stand
accused of being ‚phony‛ or trying to bide what it is they are really
talking about.
委婉语通常被定义为一个用一个吉祥或颂扬的词汇，像‚卫生 工程师‛来替
代一个更加就事论事的词，像‚清洁工‛。喜欢用委婉语的人通常受人指责虚伪
或 者企图掩饰他们真正想要说的事情。

And there is no doubt that in some situations the accusation is
entirely proper. For example, one of the more detestable euphemisms I have
come across in recent years is the term ‚Operation Sunshine,‛ which is
the name the U. S. Government gave to some experiments it conducted with
the hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.
毫无疑问，有些情况下 这种指责是完全合理的。比如，今年来我所见过的最让人
恶心的是‚阳光行动‛这一术语，它指的是美国 政府在南太平洋进行氢弹的实验。

It is obvious that the government, in choosing this name, was trying to

8

expunge the hideous imagery that the bomb evokes and in so doing committed,
as I see it, an immoral act. This sort of process — giving pretty names
to essentially ugly realities — is what has given euphemizing such a bad
name.
很明显，在选择这一术语时，政府企图消除炸弹在人们 心中引发的恐怖形象，这
在我看来是相当不道德的行为。这种将一些很漂亮的名称加在很丑陋的事情头上
的行为让委婉语臭名远扬。
And people like George Orwell have done valuable work for all of us in
calling attention to how the process works. But there is another side to
euphemizing that is worth mentioning, and a few words here in its defense
will not be amiss.
有像乔治.奥维尔的人为我们所有 人做了很有价值的工作，他们唤起人们对这类
委婉语的使用过程的注意。但委婉语的使用有另外一面值得 一提，在这里为委婉
语辩护几句不会有错。


3、Now, all sorts of scoundrels know this perfectly well and can make
us love almost anything by getting us the charm of a name to whatever
worthless thing they are promoting. But at the same time and in the same
vein, euphemizing is a perfectly intelligent method of generating new
and useful ways of perceiving things.
现在所有的无赖商家都非常 清楚他们能通过将他们推销的百无一用的产品取一
个好听的名字来使我们爱上他们的产品。但是同时、以 同样的方式，使用委婉
表达是一种非常智慧的方法，是让人感知事物具有新颖又有用的方法。

The man who wants us to call him a ‚sanitation engineer‛ instead of
a ‚gar­bage man‛ is hoping we will treat him with more respect than
we presently do. He wants us to see that he is of some importance to our
society. His euphemism is laughable only if we think that he is not
deserving of such notice or respect.
希望人们称其为‚卫生工程师‛而非‚清洁工‛的人，希望人们给以他比
现在更多的尊重。他希望我们看 到他对社会的重要性。如果我们认为他们不值
得这样的关注或尊重，那他这样的委婉才显得可笑。

The teacher who prefers us to use the term ‚culturally different
children‛ instead of ‚slum children‛ is euphemizing, all right, but
is doing it to encourage us to see aspects of a situation that might
otherwise not be attended to.
老师倾向于我们使用‚文化不同的孩子‛这一表达而不是‚贫民区小孩‛ ，这种
委婉表达是可行的，这样做是鼓励我们看到现实生活中我们没有关注的一些方
面。
4、The point I am making is that there is nothing in the process of
euphemizing itself that is contemptible. Euphemizing is contemptible
when a name makes us see something that is not true or diverts our

9

attention from something that is. The hydrogen bomb kills. There is
nothing else that it does.
我想说的是委婉表达本身是没有值得鄙视的。只有当一个名字的目的是为 了让
我们看到不真实的东西或转移我们对某事的注意力是才可鄙。因此，称氢弹试
验为‚阳光行 动‚是为了暗示人们一种炸弹并不拥有的功能。

And when you experiment with it, you are trying to find out how widely
and well it kills. Therefore, to call such an experiment ‚Operation
Sunshine‛ is to suggest a purpose for the bomb that simply does not exist.
But to call ‚slum children‛ ‚culturally different‛ ‘is something
else. 当你进 行氢弹实验室，你想测试它的杀伤力。因而，你把这个实验委婉
地叫做‚阳光行动‛，就是要表达此核弹 根本没有的目的。
但是称 ‚文化不同的孩子‛而非‚贫民区孩子‛则需另当别论。

It calls attention, for example, to legitimate reasons why such children
might feel alienated from what goes on in school.
比如它唤起人们去注意为什么这些小孩会感觉和学校中进行的事情格格不入。

5、I grant that sometimes such euphemizing does not have the intended
effect. It is possible for a teacher to use the term ‚culturally
different‛ but still be controlled by the term ‚slum children‛ (which
the teacher may believe is their ‚real‛ name).
我敢肯定有时这样的委婉表达并不具备预期的效果 。可能一个老师表面上称有
些学生为‚文化上不同的学生‛，但实际上内心仍将人们视为‚贫民窟小孩‛ 。

‚Old people‛ may be called ‚senior citizens,‛ and nothing might change.
And ‚lunatic asylums‛ may still be filthy, primitive prisons though
they are called ‚mental institutions.‛ Nonetheless, euphemizing may
be regarded as one of our more important intellectual resources for
creating new perspectives on a subject.
用‚高级公民‛来取代‚老人‛也许什么都没有变. ‚疯人院‛ 即使被称为‚精
神疗养院‛，它还是一座脏兮兮的原始落后的监狱。尽管如此，委婉表达可以视
为一种重要的知 识资源，它可以为我们对某件话题产生一个新的视角。

The attempt to rename ‚old people‛ ‚senior citizens‛ was obviously
motivated by a desire to give them a political identity; which they not
only warrant but which may yet have important consequences。 In fact,
the fate of euphemisms is very hard to predict. A new and seemingly silly
name may replace an old one (let us say, ‚chairperson‛ for ‚chairman‛)
and for years no one will think or act any differently because of it.
用‚高级公民‛来取代‚老人‛的企图明显的动机是希望给他们一种政治身
份。这样 做不仅有必要而且会产生重要的结果。事实上委婉语的命运很难预测。
一个新的，看起来很蠢的名字可能 取代一个旧的表达（比如用chairperson取
代chairman），但几年之后人们不会因为 名字的改变而在思维或行动上有所改

10

变。

And then, gradually, as people begin to assume that ‚chairperson‛ is
the ‚real‛ and proper name (or ‚senior citizen‛ or ‚tuna fish or
sanitation engineer‛), their attitudes begin to shift, and they will
approach things in a slightly different frame of mind.
久而久之，当人们开始认为‚chairperson‛是‚真‛ 名字和恰当的名字时，
他们的态度开始改变，他们开始以一种稍微不同的心态来对待这些事物。

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