The Odd Couple 翻译.doc

Unit One Family and Marriage The Odd CoupleThe story of Charlotte and John Fedders rocked Washington. It had all the ingredients: success, money, ambition, image obsession and violence. It has become a modern fable, a cautionary tale that flashes a warning beacon throughout a whole upper echelon of tough young men pushing their way to the top, at the expense of their families.Charlotte and John were the archetypical successful Washington couple. He was a young lawyer zooming up the status ladder in the fast lane. They were a crisp, cleanliving Catholic couple with five young sons, living in a gleaming colonial-style mansion. From the outside they seemed to have it all: the best country clubs, Catholic private schools for the children, the best privately catered parties. He was selected for a top job which brought him into the public eye. Then John Fedders life fell apart. Or, at least, his image of it, which for him was the same thing. His private life had always been a catastrophe but one well hidden. The last straw for his wife came the day he started to turn his violent rage against his eldest son.Charlotte Fedders filed for divorce. She hoped for a quiet divorce without dispute. But her husband wanted to battle it out. Perhaps he thought no one would notice an obscure hearing in a small courtroom in Maryland. But the Wall Street Journal sent a reporter to write the story, and what a story it was. Fedders had beaten his wife often and savagely. He thumped her repeatedly when she was pregnant. He ran the household with a set of iron rules: no one was permitted to enter the house in shoes; his sons had to do thirty press-ups whenever they came into the room. He was obsessively mean about money. Charlotte got virtually none for herself and the children. And yet she worried frantically about their rising debts. They lived way beyond their means. The day after the Wall Street Journal ran the story, John Fedders was forced to resign, and the story ran extensively on nationwide television. It rang new alarm bells. It showed that battered wives were not necessarily poor or confined to ghettos. Charlotte learned for the first time the FBI statistics: four women are beaten to death every day in America by husbands or lovers.Charlotte got her divorce. John Fedders took a lower paid job and paid $12,000 a year to Charlotte and the children. The older children all worked and contributed their money to the household. Charlotte earned a little in a flower shop, but they were hard pressed. Then a publisher asked her to write the awful story of her life. But just before the book was to appear John Fedders took her back to the divorce court to try to get his puny payments to the family reduced. On top of that, he wanted 25% of the proceeds of the book on the grounds that he was the star of it. Everyone expected him to be laugher out of court. Imagine the shock when the court accepted his plea and did award that 25%.Charlotte Fedders now seems like a self-confident and articulate woman. She makes speeches on battered wives up and down the country. Her book is a fascinating but dispiriting read. She was a poor, clinging pathetic creature who invested everything in her husband and her children. She thought as a young nurse that she would never find a husband with the sort of earning power that her family expected. When tall, handsome, athletic, clever Fedders looked on her with favor she thought she didnt deserve to land such a big fish. But he spied in her what he wanted: obedience, adoration, inferiority yet a sufficiently cultivated veneer for social acceptability. No danger of equality here. It is a terrible pattern: this story has caused such a stir in America as it forces attention on the family life of the high achievers. When gilded young husbands work all the hours under the sun, who takes the strain? Who bears the brunt of all that bottled frenetic activity? What do wives and children have to tolerate in order to keep a man on the upward path?Comprehension Exercises:I. Answer each of the following questions with the information from the text. a. What reaction did the story of the Fedderses cause in Washington? Why? b. What impression did outsiders have about the Fedderses lifestyle? c. What made Charlotte Fedders finally decide to divorce her husband? d. How was John Fedders relationship with his sons? Use a couple of sentences to outline the father-son relationship in the Fedders family. e. What were the reasons that John Fedders went back to the divorce court? f. What was the judgment of the court on the final issue? What was peoples reaction tothe judgment? g. What kind of woman was Charlotte Fedders before, during, and after her marriage?II. Read the following statements and then decide whether each of them is true or false, based on the information in the text. a. As part of their social life, the Fedderses used to hold nice parties for their friends. b. The story of the Fedderses was widely received because people are interested in reading about family cases. c. Charlotte Fedders was worried about money because John Fedders was not earning a good salary. d. Women who are not confident are more likely to be physically abused by their husbands. e. The marriage of the Fedderses was based more on external attractions than on the love deep inside.家庭和婚姻奇怪的一对约翰和夏洛特费德斯的故事震惊了华盛顿。它充满了成功、金钱、野心、美色的贪恋和暴力。它已成为一个现代的寓言故事, 一个警惕的教训就像闪烁的灯塔警示了那些为追求上层生活而不惜牺牲自己家庭的努力拼搏的年轻人。约翰和夏洛特是一对典型成功的华盛顿夫妇。在这个飞速发展的社会，他是一个地位攀升很快的年轻的律师。他们是安分守己的天主教夫妇，和5个年幼的儿子住在一座黄金大厦。在外人看来他们似乎拥有了一切:最好的乡村俱乐部,为孩子所建的天主教私立学校,最好的私人会所。他被选为高级工作者使他进入公众视线。然而,约翰费德斯的生活走向了崩溃的边缘，或者至少,他的精神,看起来是这样。他的私人生活就像一场灾难但一直隐藏的很好。对于他妻子来说当他把暴怒转向大儿子的那天就是最后一根稻草。夏洛特费德斯提出了离婚。她希望是一个心平气和没有争议的离婚。但她的丈夫想大闹一场。或许他以为没有人会注意马里兰州一个不起眼的小法庭的开庭审理。但华尔街日报派记者报道了这是一个怎样的故事。费德斯经常很野蛮的殴打他的妻子。怀孕期间他还经常打她。他制定了一套家庭铁规则:任何人未经他的允许不准穿鞋子进入他的房间; 每当他们进了房间，他的儿子必须做30 俯卧撑。他很吝啬钱。夏洛特几乎没给自己和孩子买过东西。然而,她对他们疯狂上升的债务很担心。他们生活方式超出了他们的购买能力。华尔街日报报道这个故事的第二天, 夏洛特费德斯被迫辞职, 这个故事被电视广泛的报道。它向人们敲响了新的警钟。结果表明,受虐待的妻子不一定是穷人或仅局限于贫民窟。夏洛特首次在美国联邦调查局的统计了解到:平均每天就有四个女人被自己的丈夫或爱好者殴打致死。夏洛特离了婚。约翰找了一个低薪的工作，每年要像夏洛特和她的孩子们支付12000美元。年纪较大的孩子们都工作了，他们赚的钱都填补家庭家用。夏洛特在鲜花店赚工作也能一点钱,但他们过得很艰难。后来，一个出版商要求将她的悲惨的命运写成故事。但就在书正要出版的时候，约翰又将她重新告上法庭并试图减少他对家庭的支出。最重要的是,他想要25%的新书效益,理由是他是故事的主人公。法院外，每个人都在笑他。当法庭同意并判给他25%效益时，人们都震惊了。夏洛特费德斯现在似乎是一位自信和睿智的女人。她给全国的受到家庭暴力的妻子做演讲。她的书很精彩但同时让人读起来有很气愤。她是一位将所有心思都投入到她的丈夫和她的孩子身上的贫穷而又可怜的女