(完整版)英语美文翻译

1、The Aim of a University Education大学教育的目的By John Henry Newman约翰亨利纽曼If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society. Its art is the art of social life, and its end is fitness for the world. It neither confines its views to particula

2、r professions on the one hand, nor creates heroes or inspires genius on the other. Works, indeed, of genius fall under no art; heroic minds come under no rule.大学教育的目的大学教育的目的大学教育的目的 如果一定要赋予大学教育一个切实的 目的， 我的主张是培养社会的好公民。 大学教育的艺术就是社会生活的艺术， 其目的就是使 人适应这个世界。 大学教育一方面既不应把着眼点局限于某些特定的职业上， 另一方面也 不应是造就英雄，培养天才。事实上

3、，天才伟业无法人为造就，英雄的思想亦如天马行空。A University is not a birthplace of poets or of immortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies, or conquerors of nations. It does not promise a generation of Aristotles or Newtons, of Napoleons or Washingtons, of Raphaels or Shakespeares, though such miracles o

4、f nature it has before now contained within its precincts.Nor is it content on the other hand withforming the critic or the experimentalist, the economist or the engineer, though such too it includes within its scope.大学不是诗人、 不朽作家和学派创立者的诞生地， 也不是殖民地头领或外族征服者的培 训所。大学并不承诺要造就一批亚里士多德、牛顿、拿破仓、华盛顿、拉斐尔、莎士比亚式 的

5、巨人，尽管这些大自然的杰作此前曾在大学的院墙中出现过。 此外，大学也不应满足于 培养批评家、 实验人员、 经济学家和工程师， 尽管这些人才的培养也在大学教育的范畴之内。But a University training is the great but ordinary means to a great but ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at cultivating the public mind, at purifying the national taste, at supplyin

6、g true principles to popular enthusiasm and fixed aims to popular aspiration, at giving enlargement and sobriety to the ideas of the age, at facilitating the exercise of political power, and refining the intercourse of private life.大学教育是一条通向伟大而平凡的目标的伟大而平凡的途径。 大学教育旨在提高社会的 知识氛围， 培养国民的公心，净化国民的情趣，为浮躁的公众

7、提供真正的公理，为公众的理 想提供确定的目标， 扩大时代的思想库并注入冷静的思考， 促进政治权力的行使， 提高人际 交流的质量。It is the education that gives a man a clear, conscious view of his won opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they are, to go rig

8、ht to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought, to detect what is sophistical, and to discard what is irrelevant. It prepares him to fill any post with credit, and to master any subject with facility. It shows him how to accommodate himself to others, how to throw himself into their state of min

9、d, how to bring before them his own, how to influence them, how to come to an understanding with them, how to bear with them.大学教育应让人清醒地认知自己的观点和判断，并正确地发挥，雄辩地阐述，有力地 强调。 大学教育应教会人们看清事物的真实面目并直接抓住要害，教会人们解开思想的缰 结，发现其中的诡辩之处，舍弃其中的不相关之处。大学教育使人做好准备，可靠地胜任任 何职位，轻松自如地掌握任何科目。 大学教育教会人们如何适应他人，如何设身处地为人 着想，如何把自己的想法转达给

10、他人，如何影响他人，如何相互理解、相互宽容。Of Study论读书Francis BaconStudies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.读书足以怡情，足以傅彩，足以长才。其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其傅彩也， 最见

11、于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处世判事之际。For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best form those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; t

12、o make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar.练达之士虽能分别处理细事或一一判别枝节，然纵观统筹，全局策划，则舍好学深思 者莫属。读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰太盛则矫，全凭条文断事乃学究故态。They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants that need proyning by study; and studies themselves do give for

13、th directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.读书补天然之不足， 经验又补读书之不足， 盖天生才干犹如自然花草， 读书然后知如 何修剪移接，而书中所示，如不以经验范之，则又大而无当。Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them ； for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them

14、, won by observation.有一技之长者鄙读书，无知者羡读书，唯明智之士用读书，然书并不以用处告人，用 书之智不在书中，而在书外，全凭观察得之。Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.读书时不可存心诘难读者， 不可尽信书上所言， 亦不可只为寻章摘句， 而应推敲细思。Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallow

15、ed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts ； others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in

16、 the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are ， like common distilled waters, flashy things.书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。换言之，有只需读其部分者，有只 须大体涉猎者，少数则须全读，读时须全神贯注，孜孜不倦。书亦可请人代读，取其所作摘 要，但只限题材较次或价值不高者，否则书经提炼犹如水经蒸馏，淡而无味。Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and

17、writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.读书使人充实，讨论使人机智，笔记使人准确。因此不常做笔记者须记忆力特强，不 常讨论者须天生聪颖，不常读书者须欺世有术，始能无知而显有知

18、。If I Were a Freshman Again如果我能再次成为大一学生Thomas Arkle ClarkIf I were a freshman again I should not work so many hours as I did. I put in enough hours with my books in my hands, but I did not accomplish much. I had little concentration. Many students whom I knew, and I was one of this sort, spent a gre

19、at deal of time in getting ready to work. With a book in hand they look out of the window at the clouds or at the pretty girls passing along the street, and all the time they deceive themselves with the idea that they are working.如果我能再次成为大一学生， 我会少花一些时间在学习上。 我手捧书本的时间是够了， 可是收效却甚微，因为我有些心不在焉。 我知道许多学生我就是

20、其中之一把大量的 时间花在做准备工作上， 他们手里拿着一本书， 眼睛却看着窗外的白云或者街上走过的漂亮 女孩，而且从头到尾欺骗自己说自己在学习Many an evening, when the work was heavy, I would determine to begin early and get it over with; but I could spend half an hour in arranging my books and getting myself seated in a comfortable chair. All this time I imagined I wa

21、s working. I spent as much time in goading myself on to duties that I should have liked to shirk or in getting ready to work as I did in actual labor. If I were a freshman I should plan my work, I should try to develop concentration I should workharder but not so long.无数个傍晚，只要学习任务很重，我就会下决心早动手早完工，可是我

22、可能会花半个 小时整理书本、坐到一把舒服的椅子上， 在整个过程中，我一直想像自己是在学习。对于我 想逃避或者应该准备的工作， 我会磨蹭半天，磨蹭的时间和工作的时间一样多。 如果我能再 次成为大一学生，我会做事有计划、学习更专心一一我会更加努力但是少花时间。I should learn to work with people about me. As it was I lived a somewhat isolated life. I did my reading and my studying alone, and though there were some advantages in th

23、is method, there were serious objections. Now I must often work under different conditions than those by which I was surrounded in college; there is work to be done where there is no quiet, and I do it with difficulty. As I tried on a crowded ocean steamer to put these wandering thoughts on paper I

24、was constantly annoyed by the confusion about me and by the spasmodic attempts at conversation made by a well-intentioned but misguided young man at my side. If I had learned to work under different conversations I might have turned the conversation aside as a steep roof sheds the rain. I believe it

25、 is a great advantage for a young man to do his work himself, but he should not subject himself to the slavery of doing it alone.我会学会在周围有人的环境中工作。 实际上，我的生活有些与世隔绝。 我一个人看书， 一个人学习，这种方法虽然也有一些优点， 却也有着严重的缺点。 现在我经常要在与大学完 全不同的环境里工作，手里有活儿要干， 周围却不那么安静， 结果我就感到很吃力。曾经有 一次在一艘拥挤的海船上， 我正想把这些纷乱的思绪写下来， 却不时受到一些干扰， 身边一

26、位出于好心但误入歧途的年轻人有一茬儿没一茬儿地想跟我说话。如果我学会了在不同的对话场合工作，我可能就避免了和他的谈话， 就像陡屋顶让雨水滑落一样。 我认为让年轻人自 己做事好处不少，但是他不应该一个人死扛。College PressureBy William ZinsserI see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It's easy to lo

27、ok around for bad guys to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are no bad guys, only victims.我发现有四种压力影响着今天的大学生：经济上的压力、父母的压力、同伴的压力，和 自己导致的压力。在

28、身边找罪魁祸首容易得很：学校要钱太多，教授学业太重，父母施压太 大，学生逼己太甚。但其实身边并没有罪魁祸首，有的只是受害者。Today it is not unusual for a student, even one who works part time at college and full time during the summer, to have accumulated $5,000 in loans after four years loans that the student must start to repay within one year after graduati

29、on. Encouraged at the commencement ceremony to go forth into the world, students are already behind as they go forth. How can they not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? Women at Yale are under even more pressure than men to justify their expensive education

30、 to themselves, their parents, and society. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male jobs, society hasn't yet caught up with this fact.如今，一个学生，甚至是一个读书时部分时间打工，暑假时做全日工作的学生，在四 年之后背上 5 000 美元债务的情况并不罕见这笔债务学生必须在毕业后一年之内开始偿 还。在毕业典礼上，他们欢欣鼓舞，要踏入社会，然

31、而在踏入社会之际，他们已经落后于人 了。为准备迎接这一结账之日， 他们又怎能不在整个大学期间感到处在压力之下呢？耶鲁的 女生比男生压力更大， 因为她们要向自己、 父母和社会证明她们接受如此昂贵的教育是值得 的。因为虽然她们离开大学时已经具备了出众的才能， 完全可以给传统上由男性占统治地位 的工作注入新鲜的领导力量，但是社会还没有认识到这一事实。Along with economic pressure goes parental pressure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined. I see students taking premedic

32、al courses with joyless determination. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know them in other corners of their life as cheerful people.伴随着经济压力而来的是父母的压力。两者不可避免地深深交织在一起。我看到学生 们闷闷不乐却又一心一意地去念医学预科课程。 他们去实验室的那种感觉就好比是要去看牙 医一样。这使我感到悲哀，因为我知道他们在生活的其他方面都是些高高兴

33、兴的人。Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they begin from the very start of freshman year. "I had a freshman student I'll call Linda," one instructor told me, "who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much

34、brighter and studied all the time. I couldn't tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda."来自同伴的压力和自我导致的压力也相互交织着， 而且它们从一年级一开始就出现了。 “我有一个一年级的学生叫琳达， ”一位老师告诉我， “她进来对我说她的压力极大， 因为她 的室友芭芭拉比她聪明得多而且整天在学习。 我没法告诉她两个小时之前芭芭拉也进来这样 描述过琳达。 ”The disadvantages of an

35、 elite educationThe first disadvantage of an elite education, as I learned in my kitchen that day, is that it makes you incapable of talking to people who aren't like you. Elite schools pride themselves ontheir diversity, but that diversity is almost entirely a matter of ethnicity and race. With

36、 respect to class, these schools are largelyindeed increasingly homogeneous. Visit any elite campus in our great nation and you can thrill to the heartwarming spectacle of the children of white businesspeople and professionals studying and playing alongside the children of black, Asian, and Latino b

37、usinesspeople and professionals. At the same time, because these schools tend to cultivate liberal attitudes, they leave their students in the paradoxical position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone in it. Witness the la

38、st two Democratic presidential nominees, Al Gore and John Kerry: one each from Harvard and Yale, both earnest, decent, intelligent men, both utterly incapable of communicating with the larger electorate.正如我在厨房认识到的，精英教育的第一个劣势是它让你无法和与你不同的人进行交 流。精英大学常常夸耀自己的多元化， 但是这种多元化几乎总是限于种族和民族的范畴。 说 到阶级，这些学校基本上越来越多地趋同化。 如果你到我们伟大国家的任何一所名牌大学看 看，就会惊讶地发现白人商贾名流和专业人士的子女和黑人、 亚裔、拉丁裔商贾名流和专业 人士的子女一起学习和玩耍的温馨场景。 与此同时，因为这些学校培养自由态度， 所以让这 些学生陷入矛盾的困境， 他们愿意为工