河海大学研究生英语教程-单元.doc

.Unit 1Ghosts for Tea Ten pence for a view over the bay . said the old man with the telescope. Lovely clear morning. Have a look at the old lighthouse and the remains of the great shipwreck of 1935. Ten pence was sheer robbery, but the view was certainly magnificent. Cliffs stretched into the distance, sparkling waves whipped by the wind were unrolling on to the beach, and a few yachts, with creamy-white sails, were curving and dodging gracefully on the sea . Just below a flock of seagulls were screaming at one another as they twisted and glided over the water. A mile out to sea, the old lighthouse stood on a stone platform on the rocks, which were being greedily licked by the waves. In no way indeed did I grudge my money. As I directed the telescope towards the lighthouse, the man beside me tapped my wrist. Have you heard about the terrible tragedy that occurred there in that lighthouse? he asked in a hushed whisper. I imagine there may be plenty of legends attached to such a dramatic-looking place , I suggested. Its no legend , declared the old man. My father knew the two men involved.lt all took place fifty years ago to-day. Let me tell you. His voice seemed to grow deeper and more dramatic. For a whole week that lighthouse had been isolated by storms , he began, with terrifying seas surging and crashing over the rocks. People on shore were anxious about the two men working there. Theyd been on the best of terms until two or three weeks before, when they had quarreled over cards in the village inn. Martin had accused Blake of cheating. Blake had vowed to avenge the insult to his honour. But thanks to the wise advice of a man they both respected, they apologised to each other, and soon seemed to have got over their disagreement. But some slight resentment and bitterness remained. and it was feared that the strain of continued isolation and rough weather might affect their nerves, though, needless to say, their friends had no idea how serious the consequences would be. Fifty years ago tonight, no light appeared in the tower, and only at two oclock in the morning did the beam suddenly start to flash out its warning again. The next morning the light was still visible. The storm had almost blown itself out, so a relief boat set out to investigate. A grim discovery awaited the crew . The mens living-room was in a horrifying state. The table was over-turned: a pack of playing cards was scattered everywhere :bloodstains splashed the floor. The relief men climbed the winding stair to the lantern room and there discovered Martins body, crouched beside the burning lamp. He had been stabbed and was dead. Two days later, Blakes body was washed up. scratched, bruised, and terribly injured. Only then could we really start guessing what had happened. This great tragedy could only have been due to a renewal of their quarrel. Bored and depressed as a result of their isolation, Martin and Blake must have started to play cards. Again suspecting cheating, Martin had accused his former friend of dishonesty; a fight had broken out and Blake had seized his knife. In a fit of madness he had attacked his companion, who had fallen mortally wounded. Then, appalled by what he had done, the loneliness, the battering of wind and waves, Blake had rushed to the parapet and flung himself on to the rocks below, where the sea had claimed him. But Martin was still alive. Hours later, after darkness had fallen, he had recovered consciousness. He remembered his job of lighting the lamp; suffering intense pain, the poor wretch crawled slowly up the winding staircase, dragging himself from step to step till he got to the lantern. At his last gasp he managed to light this before finally collapsing. For years afterwards it was said that the lighthouse was haunted, and, owing to these stories, they didnt have any applicants for the job of lighthouse-keeper from among the superstitious local inhabitants. And now they say that on every anniversary of that day, especially when the sea is rough, you can stand in the living-room, hear the cards failing and the sound of angry cries, seethe flash of a blade, and then glimpse a figure rushing to the parapet. And then you hear the slow dragging of a body from step to step towards the room above. The old man paused and I turned to go. By the way , he added, have you any free time this afternoon? If so, why dont you have tea in the lighthouse? We are putting on a special boat trip to-day. Were charging a pound. And my brother, who bought the old lighthouse when they built the new one just on the point, can serve very good teas there - included in the price of the boat trip - a bargain, considering the problem of obtaining the food. And if you are at all sensitive to the supernatural, youre likely to have an unusual, perhaps an uncanny experience there. I eyed him appreciatively. Youre wasting your talents , I said. You should have been a fiction writer. You dont believe it? exclaimed the old man indignantly.Id find it a job, I answered. My father, Henry Cox, started as keeper of that light house fifty- two years ago, and he and Jim Dowley, now retired on a pension, were in charge for ten years. Come and see my dad one day with that tale; hed enjoy it . But the old man had already turned his attention to a more likely client.Unit 2Individuals and MassesAldous Huxley A man or woman makes direct contact with society in two ways: as a member of some familial, professional or religious group, or as a member of a crowd. Groups are capable of being as moral and intelligent as the individuals who form them; a crowd is chaotic, has no purpose of its own and is capable of anything except intelligent action and realistic thinking. Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice. Their suggestibility is increased to the point where they cease to have any judgement or will of their own. They become very excitable, they lose all sense of individual or collective responsibility, they are subject to sudden excesses of rage, enthusiasm and panic. In a word, a man in a crowd behaves as though he had swallowed a large dose of some powerful intoxicant. He is a victim of what I have called herd-poisoning . Like alcohol, herd- poison is an active, extravagant drug. The crowd-intoxicated individual escapes from responsibility, intelligence and morality into a kind of frantic, animal mindlessness. Reading is a private, not a collective activity. The writer speaks only to individuals, sitting by themselves in a state of normal sobriety. The orator speaks to masses of individuals, already well-primed with herd-poison. They are at his mercy and, if he knows his business, he can do what he likes with them. Unlike the masses, intellectuals have a taste for rationality and an interest in facts. Their critical habit of mind makes them resistant to the kind of propaganda that works so well on the majority. Intellectuals are the kind of people who demand evidence and are shocked by logical inconsistencies and fallacies. They regard over-simplification as the original sin of the mind and have no use for the slogans, the unqualified assertions and sweeping generalizations which are the propagandists stock-in- trade. Philosophy teaches us to feel uncertain about the things that seem to us self-evident. Propaganda, on the other hand, teaches us to accept as self-evident matters about which it would be reasonable to suspend our judgement or to feel doubt. The propagandist must therefore be consistently dogmatic. All his statements are made without qualifications. There are no greys in his picture of the world; every thing is either diabolically black or celestially white. He must never admit that he might be wrong or that people with a different point of view might be even partially right. Opponents should not be argued with; they should be attacked, shouted down, or if they become too much of a nuisance, liquidated.Virtue and intelligence belong to human beings as individuals freely associating with other individuals in small groups. So do sin and stupidity. But the subhuman mindlessness to which the demagogue makes his appeal, the moral imbecility on which he relies when he goads his victims into action, are characteristic not of men and women as individuals, but of men and women in masses. Mindlessness and moral idiocy are not characteristically human attributes; they are symptoms of herd-poisoning. In all the worlds higher religions, salvation and enlightenment are for individuals. The kingdom of heaven is within the mind of a person, not within the collective mindlessness of a crowd. In an age of accelerating over-population, of accelerating over-organization and ever more efficient means of mass communication, how can we preserve the integrity and reassert the value of the human individual? This is a question that can still be asked and perhaps effectively answered. A generation from now it may be too late to find an answer and perhaps impossible, in the stifling collective climate of that future time, even to ask the question.个人以及群体 一个人通过以下两种方式与社会直接接触：作为某个家庭、职业或宗教组织的成员，或者仅仅是隶属于某个群体。一个组织所表现出来的智慧和道义是与其成员的一致的，而一个群体却是无秩序的，没有特定的目的并且无法进行明智的行为和现实性的思考。在一个群体里，人们失去了用逻辑思维来推论和选择对与错的能力，取而代之的是那个群体的集体思维的选择。他们因此也变得极为亢奋，将作为个人和大众的责任全都抛之脑后，易受到意想不到的过多怒气、狂热以及恐惧而极度情绪化。总之，一个人身处某个群体里就好像吃了大量的烈性致醉药物，他自己便是这种有毒药物的牺牲品。和酒精一样，这种药物能使人兴奋，并且是极度兴奋。被这种群体药物麻醉的人逃避责任，不愿动脑子，失去道德感，变得和疯子、动物没两样。 阅读是一种个人而不是集体的思维活动。作者叙述的对象是处于清醒状态的个人，而演讲家讲演的对象是由一个个被麻醉的个人组成的群体。这个群体已经处在他的控制当中，如果他知道这种情况的话，如果他愿意的话他可以随意的煽动这些人。 和大多数人不一样，知识分子崇尚理性，讲究事实。对大多数人都有影响的宣传在他们这失去了应有的效果便是得益于这种思维方式。知识分子就是这么一些注重证据以及对逻辑的不一致与欺骗性感到震惊的人。他们认为过于简单化是思想的原罪，标语、毫无道理的断言和大量的概括性用语等宣传家们常用的伎俩对他们毫无作用。 哲学告诉我们要对那些不证自明的事情进行怀疑。而宣传家们却恰恰相反，他们教我们要无条件的接受这些本应该受到质疑东西。因此他们是始终如一的教条主义分子，说的话都是不允许他人质疑的。在他们的世界里，只存在邪恶的黑色和崇高的白色而没有处于中间的灰色。他们从不承认自己有一点点的错误，也决不会认为别人有部分是对的，更不会和对手讲道理，只会用蛮力对对手进行攻击压制，一旦他们感到这些反对者太过讨厌就把这些人终结了。 在小组织里，人与人作为个体而进行自由交往时美德和智慧就会成为他们个人的特点，罪孽和愚钝也是一样。但是煽动分子经常依靠的低人类的盲目和他们进行煽动时所凭借的被煽动者的道德障碍是人在群体里表现的特征而不是人本身的特征。盲目和道德障碍不是人的本性，而是被药物麻醉后的症状。在世界所有有更高宗教信仰的地区，超度和启蒙的对象都是个人。因知道上帝而获得的安详和快乐只会存在于个人的心里，而不是集体无知的群体里。在一个人口和社会组织急剧膨胀以及公众交流方式前所未有多的年代，我们要如何保护人类个体的完整性，重申人类个体的价值呢？这是一个仍需解答的也是一直被深刻探询的问题。也许等到下一代即使找到答案也为时过晚，也许在那样一个集体气候极为浓重的年代就是连问这个问题也变的不可能了。Unit 3On FriendshipMargret Mead, Rhoda Metraux Few Americans stay put for a lifetime. We move from town to city to suburb, from high school to college in a different state, from a job in one region to a better job else where, from the home where we raise our children to the home where we plan to live in retirement. With each move we are forever making new friends, who become part of our new life at that time. For many of us the summer is a special time for forming new friendships. Today millions of Americans vacation abroad, and they go not only to see new sights but also - in those places where they do not feel too strange - with the hope of meeting new people. No one really expects a vacation trip to produce a close friend. But surely the beginning of a friendship is possible? Surely in every country people value friendship? They do. The difficulty when strangers from two countries meet is not a lack of appreciation of friendship but different expectations about what constitutes friendship and how it comes into being. In those European countries that Americans are most likely to visit, friendship is quite sharply distinguished from other, more casual relations, and is differently related to family life .For a Frenchman, a German or an Englishman friendship is usually more particularized and carries a heavier burden of commitment . But as we use the word, friend can be applied to a wide range of relationships - to someone one has known for a few weeks in a new place, to a close business associate, to a childhood playmate, to a man or woman, to a trusted confidant. There are real differences among these relations for Americans - a friendship may be superficial, casual, situational or deep and enduring. But to a European, who sees only our surface behavior, the differences are not clear. As they see it, people known and accepted temporarily, casually, flow in and out of Americans homes with little ceremony and often with little personal commitment. They may be parents of the children s friends, house guests of neighbors, members of a committee, business associates from another town or even another country. Coming as a guest into an American home, the European visitor finds no visible landmarks. The atmosphere is relaxed. Most people, old and young, are called by first names. Who, then, is friend? Even simple translation from one language to another is difficult. You see. a Frenchman explains, if I were to say to you in France, This is my good friend, that person would not be as close to me as someone about whom I said only, This is my friend. Anyone about whom I have to say more is really less. In France, as in many other European countries, friends generally are of the same sex, and friendship is seen as basically a relationship between men. Frenchwomen laugh at the idea that women can t be friends, but they also admit sometimes that for women its a different thing. And many French people doubt the possibility of a friendship between a man and a woman. There is also the kind of relationship within a group - men and women who have worked together for a long time, who may be very close, sharing great loyalty and warmth of feeling. They may call one another copains - a word that in English becomes friends but has more the feeling of pals or buddies. In French eyes this is not friendship, although two members of such a group may well be friends. For the French, friendship is a one-to-one relationship that demands a keen awareness of the other persons intellect, temperament and particular interests. A friend is someone who draws out your own best qualities, with whom you sparkle and become more of whatever the friendship draws upon. Your political philosophy assumes more depth, appreciation of a play becomes sharper, taste in food or wine is accentuated, enjoyment of a sport is intensified. And French friendships are compartmentalized. A man may play chess with a friend for thirty years without knowing his political opinions, or he may talk politics with him for a long time without knowing about his personal life. Different friends fill different niches in each persons life. These friendships are not made part of family life. A friend is not expected to spend evenings being nice to children or courteous to a deaf grandmother . These duties, also serious and enjoined, are primarily for relatives. Men who are friends may meet in a cafe. Intellectual friends may meet in larger groups for evenings of conversation. Working people may meet at the little bistro where they drink and talk, far from the family. Marriage does not affect such friendships; wives do not have to be taken into account. In the past in France, friendships of this kind seldom were open to any but intellectual women. Since most womens lives centered on their homes, their warmest relations with other women often went back to their girlhood. The special relationship of friendship is based on what the French value most - on the mind, on compatibility of outlook, on vivid awareness of some chosen area of life. Friendship heightens the sense of each persons individuality. Other relationships commanding as great loyalty and devotion have a different meaning. In World War II the first resistance groups formed in Paris were built on the foundation of less copains. But significantly, as time went on these little groups, whose lives rested in one anothers hands, called themselves families. Where each had a total responsibility for all, it was kinship ties that provided the model. And even today such ties, crossing every line of class and personal interest, remain binding on the survivors of these small, secret bands. In Germany, in contrast with France, friendship is much more articulately a matter of feeling. Adolescents, boys and girls, from deeply sentimental attachments, walk and talk togethernot so much to polish their wits as to share hopes and fears and dreams, to form a common front against the world of school and family and to join in a kind of mutual discovery of each others and their own inner life. Within the family, the closest relationship over a lifetime is between brothers and sisters. Outside the family, men and women find in their closest friends of the same sex the devotion of a sister, the loyalty of a brother. Appropriately, in Germany friends usually are brought into the family. Children call their fathers and their mothers friends uncle and aunt. Between French friends, who have chosen each other for the congeniality of their point of view, lively disagreement and sharpness of argument are the breath of life. But for Germans, whose friendships are based on mutuality of feeling, deep disagreement on any subject that matters to both is regarded as a tragedy. Like ties of kinship, ties of friendship are meant to be irrevocably binding. Young Germans who come to the United States have great difficulty in establishing such friendships with Americans. We view friendship more tentatively, subject to changes in intensity as people move, change their jobs, marry, or discover new interests. English friendships follow still a different pattern. Their basis is shared activity. Activities at different stages of life may be of very different kinds - discovering a common interest in school, serving together in the armed forces, taking part in a foreig