现代大学英语精读5-第三课-中文对照(共10页)

1、精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上商品流通、人员流动、观念转变、文化变迁埃拉·兹温格尔1. Today we are in the throes of a worldwide reformation of cultures, a tectonic shift of habits and dreams called, in the curious vocabulary of social scientists, "globalization."It's an inexact term for a wild assortment of changes in polit

2、ics, business, health, entertainment. "Modern industry has established the world market. All old-established national industries are dislodged by new industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old wants we find new wants, requiri

3、ng for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes." Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote this 150 years ago in The Communist Manifesto. Their statement now describes an ordinary fact of life.今天我们正经历着一种世界范围文化巨变的阵痛，一种习俗与追求的结构性变化,用社会学家奇特的词汇来称呼这种变化，就叫“全球化”。对于政治、商贸、保健及娱乐领域的巨大变化，这个词并

4、不贴切。 “现代工业已建立了世界市场。已建立的所有旧的国民工业被其产品不仅在国内而且在世界各地范围内销售的新兴工业所取代。人们用新的需求取代原有的需求，用外地的产品满足自己的需求。”卡尔.马克思和弗雷德里希·恩格斯早在150年前就在共产党宣言中写下了这些。他们那时的陈述描绘了现在生活中的普遍事实。 2. How people feel about this depends a great deal on where they live and how much money they have. Yet globalization, as one report stated, &quo

5、t;is a reality, not a choice." Humans have been weaving commercial and cultural connections since before the first camel caravan ventured afield. In the 19th century the postal service, newspapers, transcontinental railroads, and great steam-powered ships wrought fundamental changes. Telegraph,

6、 telephone, radio, and television tied tighter and more intricate knots between individuals and the wider world. Now computers, the Internet, cellular phones, cable TV, and cheaper jet transportation have accelerated and complicated these connections.对此人们有何感受很大程度上取决于他们的生活所在地和所拥有的金钱数。然而，正如某篇报道所述，全球化“

7、是一种事实，而不是一种选择”。早在第一批骆驼商队冒险出外经商前至今，人们一直在编织着商贸和文化相互间的交往。在19世纪，邮政服务、报纸、横跨大陆的铁路及巨大的蒸汽轮船带来了根本变化。电报、电话、收音机和电视把个人和外部世界更紧密地连在一起，这种联系更为复杂、不那么直接也不易察觉。现在，计算机、互联网、移动电话、有线电视和相对便宜的喷气式飞机空运加速了这种联系并使这种联系更加复杂。3.Still, the basic dynamic remains the same: Goods move. People move. Ideas move. And cultures change. The di

8、fference now is the speed and scope of these changes. It took television 13 years to acquire 50 million users; the Internet took only five.然而，产生这种变化的动力是一致的：商品流通、人员流动、观念转变、文化变迁。不同的是这些变化的速度和范围。电视机拥有5,000万用户用了13年时间，互联网只用了5年时间。4. Not everyone is happy about this. Some Western social scientists and anthr

9、opologists, and not a few foreign politicians, believe that a sort of cultural cloning will result from what they regard as the "cultural assault" of McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Disney, Nike, MTV, and the English language itselfmore than a fifth of all the people in the world now speak Engl

10、ish to some degree. Whatever their backgrounds or agendas, these critics are convinced that Westernoften equated with Americaninfluences will flatten every cultural crease, producing, as one observer terms it, one big "McWorld.对这种变化并不是人人满意。一些西方社会学家、人类学家和为数不少的外国政治家认为文化克隆是他们所认为的麦当劳、可口可乐、迪斯尼、耐克和MT

11、V“文化轰炸”的结果，也是英语语言本身的结果，因为现在全球多于五分之一人口都或多或少地讲英语。不管他们的背景和纲领如何, 这些对全球化持反对态度的人深信西方的影响往往等同于美国的影响 .会把文化上的差异一压平。就像一位观察家所说的，最终产生一个麦当劳世界，一个充斥美国货和体现美国价值观的世界。5.Popular factions sprout to exploit nationalist anxieties. In China, where xenophobia and economic ambition have often struggled for the upper hand, a r

12、ecent book called China can say no became the best-seller by attacking what it considers the Chinese willingness to believe blindly in foreign things, advising Chinese travelers to not fly on a Boeing 777 and suggesting that Hollywood be burned,反映公众情绪(或得到公众支持)的派别不断滋生以便利用持此观点的国民的焦虑和不安。在闭关锁国和发展经济两种政策并

13、存并争取其主控地位的中国，中国可以说不这本新书成为畅销书，这本书对中国人的盲目崇洋媚外心理进行了，批驳，建议中国游客不要乘坐波音777飞机，还建议烧掉进口的好莱坞大片。6.There are many Westerners among the denouncers of Western cultural influences, but James Watson, a Harvard anthropologist, isn't one of them. "The lives of Chinese villagers I know are infinitely better no

14、wthan they were 30 years ago," he says. "China has become more open partly because of the demands of ordinary people. They want to become part of the worldI would say globalism is the major force for democracy in China. People want refrigerators, stereos, CD players. I feel it's a mora

15、l obligation not to say: ?Those people out there should continue to live in a museum while we will have showers that work.'"对西方文化影响持斥责态度的人中有许多西方人而哈佛人类学家詹姆斯·沃森并不是其中一员。他说：“我知道现在中国农村人的生活比30年前的好多了。中国越来越开放，部分原因是出于中国老百姓的要求。他们想成为世界的一部分-我要说全球观念在中国是民主的重要动力。人们需要冰箱、音响和CD机。?远在中国的那些人应该继续过着落后的生活，而我们

16、却可以使用淋浴器，过着舒适的现代生活?。我认为不说这种话是一种道义。”7.Westernization, I discovered over months of study and travel, is a phenomenon shot through with inconsistencies and populated by very strange bedfellows. Critics of Western culture blast Coke and Hollywood but not organ transplants and computers. Boosters of West

17、ern culture can point to increased efforts to preserve and protect the environment. Yet they make no mention of some less salubrious aspects of Western culture, such as cigarettes and automobiles, which, even as they are being eagerlyadopted in the developing world, are having disastrous effects. Ap

18、parently westernization is not a straight road to hell, or to paradise either.经过几个多月的研究和旅行，我发现西方化是一种内部充满矛盾的现象，在特别怪异之人中占有一席之地。西方文化批评家斥责可乐和好莱坞，却不斥责器官移植和计算机。西方文化支持者指出继续努力保护环境，但他们不提西方文化中不那么健康的一面，譬如香烟和汽车，就在发展中国家急切地接纳这些东西时，它们已带来很坏的后果。显然，西方化既不会直达地狱，也不会直通天堂。8.But I also discovered that cultures are as resou

19、rceful, resilient, and unpredictable as the people who compose them. In Los Angeles, the ostensible fountainhead of world cultural degradation, I saw more diversity than I could ever have supposedat Hollywood High School the student body represents 32 different languages. In Shanghai I found that th

20、e television show Sesame Street has been redesigned by Chinese educators to teach Chinese values and traditions. "We borrowed an American box," one told me, "and put Chinese content into it." In India, where there are more than 400 languages and several very strict religions, McD

21、onald's serves mutton instead of beef and offers a vegetarian menu acceptable to even the most orthodox Hindu.不过我也发现文化就如同构成文化的民族一样，善于随机应变，富有弹性而且不可预测。在洛杉矶，世界文化堕落明显的源头，我看到的差异要比我想像的多在好莱坞高中学生说32种完全不同的语言。在上海，我发现“芝麻街”这一电视节目已被中国教育家重新改组，用以传授中国人的价值观和传统习惯。一位教育家对我说：“我们借用美国盒子，装进去的是中国内容。”在有400多种语言和几种纪律严明的宗教的

22、印度，麦当劳供应的是羊肉汉堡而不是牛肉汉堡，还为那些最正统的印度人提供素食菜谱。9.The critical mass of teenagers800 million in the world, the most there have ever beenwith time and money to spend is one of the powerful engines of merging global cultures. Kids travel, they hang out, and above all they buy stuffm. I'm sorry to say I fai

23、led to discover who was the first teenager to put his baseball cap on backward. Or the first one to copy him. But I do know that rap music, which sprang from the inner-city ghettos, began making big money only when rebellious white teenagers started buying it. But how can anyone predict what kids ar

24、e going to want? Companies urgently need to know, so consultants have sprung up to forecast trends. They're called "cool hunters," and Amanda Freeman took me in hand one morning to explain how it works.许多既有时间又有钱的青少年-全世界共有8亿-是融合全球文化的关键及主要力量之一。孩子们爱旅行、闲逛，重要的是他们买东西。很遗憾我没能发现哪个青少年第一个倒戴垒球帽，哪个

25、青少年第一个模仿他，但是我确实知道最先出现在市内黑人区的说唱乐就是在有叛逆精神的白人青少年开始买票观看时才开始赚大钱的。然而，人们又会如何预测孩子们需要什么呢?许多公司迫切想要了解孩子们的需要，因此出现了顾问，他们预测将来的趋势，被称之为“猎酷者”。阿曼达·弗里德曼一天上午向我讲述了其中的奥秘。10.Amanda, who is 22, works for a New York-based company called Youth Intelligence and has come to Los Angeles to conduct one of three annual surve

26、ys, whose results go to such clients as Sprint and MTV. She has shoulder-length brown hair and is wearing a knee-length brocade skirt and simple black wrap top. Amanda looks very cool to me, but she says no. "The funny thing about my work is that you don't have to be cool to do it," sh

27、e says. "You just have to have the eye."阿曼达22岁，在其基地设在纽约的一家叫作“青年情报”的公司工作，她到洛杉矶进行调查，调查的结果要通报给公司很多重要的客户。她留着披肩的棕发，穿着一条长及膝盖的织锦短裙。在我看来，阿曼达打扮得很酷，但她自己并不这样认为。她说：“我的工作有趣之处就在于做此工作你不必扮酷，你得有眼光。”11.We go to a smallish ?50s-style diner in Los Feliz, a slightly seedy pocket east of Hollywood that has just

28、 become trendy. Then we wander through a few of the thrift shops. "If it's not going to be affordable," Amanda remarks, "it's never going to catch on."我们去了一家小一点的、50年代式样的餐馆，这家餐馆位于好莱坞东面一个比较破落的区域，这个区域刚刚成为时尚聚集点。然后我们去逛了几家旧货店。阿曼达说：“如果人们买不起，那它就不会流行起来。”12.What trends does she see

29、 forming now? " the home is becoming more of a social place again. And travel's huge right nowyou go to a place and bring stuff back."现在她看到将要形成的流行趋势了吗?“家正在成为一个社交的地方，眼下旅行正热人们到某地去，买回来许多东西。”13."It's really hard to be original these days, so the easiest way to come up with new stu

30、ff is to mix things that already exist. Fusion is going to be the huge term that everybody's going to use," she concludes."There's going to be more blending, like Spanish music and punkthings that are so unrelated."她最后说：“现今创新极为困难，因此最容易的办法就是把现存的东西捏在一起，拿出一个新玩意儿来。融合将会成为人人都要使用的大词，

31、将来会有越来越多的毫不相关的东西融合在一起，如西班牙乐和蓬克乐。”14.Los Angeles is fusion central, where cultures mix and morph. Take Tom Sloper and mah-jongg. Tom is a computer geek who is also a mah-jongg fanatic. This being America, he has found a way to marry these two passions and sell the result. He has designed a software p

32、rogram, Shanghai: Dynasty, that enables you to play mah-jongg on the Internet. This ancient Chinese game involves both strategy and luck, and it is still played all over Asia in small rooms that are full of smoke and the ceaseless click of the chunky plastic tiles and the fierce concentration of the

33、 players. It is also played by rich society women at country clubs in Beverly Hills and in apartments on Manhattan's Upper West Side. But Tom, 50, was playing it at his desk in Los Angeles one evening in the silence of a nearly empty office building.洛杉矶是融合中心，各种文化在这里交汇并有所改变。以汤姆·斯洛珀和麻将为例：汤姆是个

34、计算机怪才，同时还是个麻将迷。由于这是美国，所以他找到了把这两种爱好结合在一起的方式并把自己的成果出售。他设计了一个人们可以在互联网上玩麻将的软件程序，这个程序叫做“上海：帝国”。玩这种老式中国麻将既需要技巧又需要运气。亚洲人仍然在小屋子里玩麻将，屋子里弥漫着烟雾，到处都能听到麻将牌相互撞击所发出的不绝于耳的喀哒声。玩家们精神高度集中。居住在比弗利山(美国加利福尼亚州西南部城市，好莱坞影星集居地)和曼哈顿上西城公寓里的有钱女人们也在俱乐部里玩麻将。然而，一天晚上，在洛杉矶，50岁的汤姆一个人坐在办公桌旁，在寂静、空旷的办公大楼里玩麻将。15.Actually, he only appeared

35、 to be alone. His glowing computer screen showed a game already in progress with several habitual partners: "Blue Whale," a man from Germany,; Russ, from Ohio; Freddyboy, a Chinese-American who lives in Edina, Minnesota. Tom played effortlessly as we talked.事实上，他只是看上去是一个人。他那亮着的计算机屏幕表明麻将已经玩

36、起来了，其他几个参与者都是老牌友。他们是德国人“蓝鲸”、俄亥俄州的拉斯和住在明尼苏达州的美籍华人弗雷迪。我们一边谈着话，汤姆一边毫不费力地在玩麻将。16."I've learned about 11 different styles of mah-jongg," he told me with that detached friendliness of those whose true connection is with machines. "There are a couple of different ways of playing it in Am

37、erica. We usually play Chinese mah-jongg."汤姆对我的态度很友好，但那是那种超然的友好，他的兴趣在连线的计算机上。他对我说：“我已掌握了11种麻将的玩法。在美国有几种不同麻将的玩法。我们常打中国式麻将。”17.I watched the little tiles, like cards, bounce around the screen. As Tom played, he and his partners conversed by typing short comments to each other.我看着小小麻将牌像纸牌一样在屏幕上弹来弹

38、去。汤姆边玩边打字，和牌友简短交流牌局情况。18.Does he ever play with real people? “Oh yeah,” Tom replied. “ Once a week at the office in the evening, and Thursday at lunch.” A new name appeared on the screen. “There?s Fred?s mother. Can?t be, they? re in Vegas. Oh, it must be his sister. TJ?s online too, she?s the one f

39、rom Wales-a real night owl. She?s getting married soon, and she livedwith her fiance, and sometimes he gets up and says ? Get off that damn computer!?”他和真人打过麻将吗?他回答说：“打过。一周一次，晚上在办公室，周四中午。”这时，屏幕上出现一个新名字。“是弗雷迪的母亲。不可能是，他们在维加斯。噢!一定是他姐姐。TJ也在线，她是威尔士人，一个真正的夜猫子。她快结婚了，现在与她未婚夫一起生活。有时她未婚夫起床对她说：?离开那讨厌的电脑!?”19.T

40、om played on into the night. At least it was night where I was. He , an american playing a Chinese game with people in Germany, Wales, Ohio, and Minnesota, was up in the cybersphere far above the level of time zones. It is a realm populated by individuals he?s never met who may be more real to him t

41、han the people who live next door.汤姆继续玩，一直到深夜。至少我所在的地方是深夜。他- 一个美国人，和德国人、威尔士人、俄亥俄人还有明尼苏达人一起玩中国游戏，他在网络世界活动，这种活动超越时区。这是他从未谋面的那些人的王国，对他来说，那些人要远比他的左邻右舍更真实。20.If it seems that life in the West has become a fast-forward blur, consider China. In just 20 years, since market forces were unleashed by economic

42、reforms begun in 1978, life for many urban Chinese has changed drastically. A recent survey of 12 major cities showed that 97 percent of the respondents had televisions, and 88 percent had refrigerators and washing machines. Another study revealed that farmers are eating 48 percent more meat each ye

43、ar and 400 percent more fruit. Cosmopolitan magazine, plunging necklines and all, is read by 260,000 Chinese women every month.如果说西方的生活太超前了，已经看不清轮廓了。那么就看看中国。从1978年经济改革搞活市场至今的20年时间，许多中国城市居民的生活有了极大的改善。最近对12个主要城市进行了，调查，数据显示97的调查对象拥有电视机，88拥有电冰箱和洗衣机。另一项调查显示农民每年的食肉量增加了48，水果增加了400。26万中国妇女每个月都在阅读时尚杂志，那些开领袒胸

44、的画页及其他内容。21.I went to Shanghai to see how the cultural trends show up in the largest city in the world's most populous nation. It is also a city that has long been open to the West. General Motors, for example, set up its firstBuick sales outlet in Shanghai in 1929; today GM has invested 1.5 bil

45、lion dollars in a new plant there, the biggest Sino-American venture in China.我到上海去调查在世界人口最多国家的最大城市里文化趋势如何出现。上海也是对西方开放最久的城市，譬如通用汽车公司早在1929年就在上海设立。如今，通用汽车投资1.5亿美元在上海建立了中国最大的中美合资新厂。22.Once a city of elegant villas and imposing office buildings facing the river with shoulders squared, Shanghai is curre

46、ntly ripping itself to ribbons. In a decade scores of gleaming new skyscrapers have shot up to crowd and jostle the skyline, cramp the narrow winding streets, and choke the parks and open spaces with their sheer soaring presence (most are 80 percent vacant). Traffic crawls, even on the new multilane

47、 overpasses. But on the streets the women are dressed in bright colors, and many carry several shopping bags, especially on the Nanjing Road, which is lined with boutiques and malls. In its first two weeks of business the Gucci store took in a surprising $100,000.上海曾是一座建有雅致的别墅和庄严的办公大楼的城市，但现在却是一座带状城市

48、。10年中，几十座闪闪发亮的新的高层建筑拔地而起，挤压空间，使人张目不能远眺，使原本狭窄弯曲的街道更显压抑。而这些高耸大楼的存在也使公园和空地感到憋闷。即使是在多车道的高架桥上，车辆也在爬行。然而，街上的妇女着装色彩艳丽，特别是在街道两边布满精品店和时装店的南京路上，许多妇女手里拎着多个购物袋。在刚开业的两周时间里，古奇专卖店的营业额为十万美元，令人惊讶不已。23."Maybe young women today don't know what it was like," says Wu Ying, editor in chief of the Chinese ed

49、ition of the French fashion magazine Elle. "But ten years ago I wouldn't have imagined myself wearing this blouse." It was red, with white polka dots. "When people bought clothes, they thought ?How long will it last?' A housewife knew that most of the monthly salary would be s

50、pent on food, and now it's just a small part, so she can think about what to wear or where to travel. And now with refrigerators, we don't have to buy food every day."法国时装杂志Elle中国版的总编吴颖说：“也许现在的年轻女性不了解过去。10年前我决不会想到我会穿这样的衬衫(那是一件红白相间的紧身圆点花纹衬衫)。那时人们买衣服时考虑的是它能穿多久，家庭主妇把每月的工资主要用来买食品。而现在买食品只需一小

51、部分工资，因此她会考虑着装和旅行。现在有冰箱，我们也不必天天买食品。”24.As for the cultural dislocation this might bring: "People in Shanghai don't see it as a problem," said a young German businessman. "The Chinese are very good at dealing with ambiguity. It's accepted?It's very different, but it's OK

52、, so, so what?'"至于由此可能带来的文化错位问题，一位年轻的德国商人说：“上海人认为这不是问题。中国人是很善于应对多种可能性的。人们接受了它。?很难，但还可以。那有什么?”?25.Potential: This is largely a Western concept. Set aside the makeup and skyscrapers, and it's clear that the truly great leap forward in Shanghai is at the level of ideas. To really grasp thi

53、s, I had only to witness the local performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth by the Hiu Kok Drama Association from Macau.潜力：这主要是西方概念。不谈古奇专卖店和摩天大楼，真正的巨大飞跃体现在观念上。我只有在亲眼目睹了澳门的休考克戏剧协会在当地上演的莎土比亚戏剧麦克白时才真正领会了这一点。26.There we were at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, some 30 professors and students of literature

54、and drama from all over china and I,on folding chairs around a space ont alike half of a basketball court. “ I?m not going to be much help,” murmured Zhang Fang, my interpreter. “I don?t understand the Cantonese language, the most of these people don't either.”在上海戏剧学院，我和来自全中国文学与戏剧专业的大约30名教授和学生一起

55、坐在折叠椅上观看演出，演出场地大约有半个垒球场那么大。翻译张芳小声对我说：“我帮不了什么忙；我不懂广东话，这里许多人都不懂。”27.I thought I knew what to watch for, but the only characters I recognized were the three witches. Otherwise the small group spent most of an hour running in circles, leaping, and threatening to beat each other with long sticks. The lig

56、hting was heavy on shadows, with frequent strobelike flashes. Language wasn't a problem, as the actors mainly snarled and shrieked. Then they turned their backs to the audience and a few shouted something in Cantonese. The lights went out, and for a moment the only sound in the darkness was the

57、whirring of an expensive camera on auto-rewind.我原以为自己能看个八九不离十，结果却只能辨认出三个女巫。这几个人用了近一个小时的时间转圈、跳来跳去、用长棍子相互威胁打来打去。灯光集中在鬼影上，常常夹着闪电。语言不是问题，因为演员主要是在咆哮和尖叫。后来他们背对观众，一些人用广东话叫喊着。灯光熄灭，有一阵子，黑暗中惟一的声音就是一部价格昂贵的照相机自动倒卷时所发出的声音。28.This is China? It could have been a college campus anywhere in the West: the anguished s

58、tudents, the dubious adults, the political exploitation of the massacred classic. Until recently such a performance was unthinkable. It strained imagination that this could be the same country where a generation ago the three most desired luxury items were wristwatches, bicycles, and sewing machines

59、.这是中国吗?这可以是西方的任何一所大学校园。这样的表演即使是现在也难以想像。令人难以想像的是就是在这个国家，20年前人们最想要的一种奢侈品是手表、自行车和缝纫机。29.Early on I realized that I was going to need some type of compass to guide me through the wilds of global culture. So when I was in Los Angeles, I sought out Alvin Toffler, whose book Future Shock was published in 1

60、970. In the nearly three decades since, he has developedand refined a number of interesting ideas, explained in The Third Wave, written with his wife, Heidi.许久以来我认识到我需要某种指南针来指引我穿越全球文化的荒原。因此在洛杉矶时，我找到阿尔文·托夫勒1970年他的未来的冲击一书出版。此后近30年，他提出并完善了一些有趣的想法，他在与夫人海蒂合著的第三次浪潮一书中详述了这些想法。30.What do we know about the future now, I asked, that we didn't know before? "We now know that order grows out of chaos," he answered immediately. "You cannot have significant change, especially on the scale of Russia or China, without conflict. Not confli