综合英语教程第三册课文翻译

1、Unit1 My FatherI don't really know my father. He isn't easy to get on with. He's quite self-centred, and a little bit vain, I think, and in some ways quite unapproachable. The public must think he's very easy-going, but at home he keeps himself to himself.He can't have been at ho

2、me much when I was a child, because I don't remember much about him. He's always been slightly out of touch with family life. His work always came first, and he was always off somewhere acting or rehearsing. He loves being asked for his autograph, he loves to be recognised. He has won severa

3、l awards, and he's very proud of that. He was made a Member of the British Empire, and we had to go to Buckingham Palace to get the medal. It was incredibly boring. There were hundreds of other people getting the same awards, and you had to sit there for hours. He shows off his awards to whoever

4、 comes to the house.I went to public school, and because of my total lack of interest and non-attendance I was asked to leave. I didn't want to go there in the first place. I was taken away from all my friends. He must have been very pleased to get me into the school, but in the end it was a com

5、plete waste of money. I let him down quite badly, I suppose. I tried several jobs but I couldn't settle down in them. Then I realised that what I really wanted to do was live in the country and look after animals, so that's what I now do.As a family, we're not that close, either emotiona

6、lly or geographically. We don't see much of each other these days. My father and I are totally different, like chalk and cheese. My interests have always been the country, but he's into books, music and above all, opera, which I hate. If they do come to see us, they're in completely the

7、wrong clothes for the country-mink coats, nice little leather shoes, not exactly ideal for long walks across the fields.He was totally opposed to me getting married. He was hoping we would break up. Gerald's too humble, I suppose. He must have wanted me to marry someone famous, but I didn't,

8、 and that's all there is to it. We don't want children, but my father keeps on and on talking about wanting grandchildren. You can't make someone have children just because you want grandchildren.I never watch him on television. I'm not that interested, and anyway he usually forgets

9、to tell me when he's on. 我实在不了解我的父亲，与他相处很难。在我看来，他总以自我为中心，还有一点自负，在某种程度上难以接近。公众一定以为他很随和，但在家里，他总是拒人于千里之外。在我小的时候，他一定很少在家，因为在我的记忆里关于他的不多。他总有点冷落家庭成员。工作是第一要义， 他总是离家去拍戏或排练。他喜欢别人索要他的亲笔签名，喜欢出风头。他获得过几项大奖，并引以为荣。他还被授 予英国皇家成员的称号，为此我们不得不去白金汉宫领取勋章。授勋典礼简直无聊透顶。由于有数百人获此勋章，因 此你就不得不在那儿等上好几个小时。只要有人来我家拜访，他总不忘向来访的每个人炫耀

10、他的那些奖章。我上的是私立学校，由于对功课毫无兴趣，再加上无故旷课，我被勒令退学。我本来就不愿去那儿上学，因为我 不得不离开我所有的朋友。把我送进那所学校父亲一定很满意，可到头来纯粹是在浪费钱。我猜我一定让他失望至极。 我试过几份工作，但总无法安下心来。后来，我终于意识到我真正想做的就是在乡下照料家畜，于是一直干到现在。作为一家人，我们不仅住的地方相隔不近，在情感上也不那么亲近。这些天我们很少互相走动。父亲和我性格迥 异，或者说是貌合神离。乡村是我的乐趣所在，而父亲却对书本，音乐，尤其是我最讨厌的歌剧感兴趣。就算他们真 的来看我，也是穿着及其 " 不合地宜 " 的衣服 -貂

11、皮大衣，漂亮小巧的皮鞋，根本不适合在田间远足。对于我的婚姻，他及其反对，且一直希望我们分手。我想是杰拉德出身太卑微了。父亲一定是想让我和名人结合， 但我没有，就这么回事。我和丈夫不想要小孩，可父亲却不停地唠叨说想要个外孙。但总不能因为你想要个外孙就让 别人生小孩吧。我从不看他演的电视节目，不怎么想看。何况他还常忘了告诉我播出的时间。Unit3 Saved by his mistakesJerry Cram set out to go coon hunting that gloomy afternoon. With him were his old shepherd dog and two be

12、agle hound pups. At least he said they were beagles, but his older brother Bob hadroared with laughter a month earlier, whenJerry had told him they had cost five dollars. "It's another of your mistakes, Jerry!" He said. And that's what Bob called the pups "Mistake No. 1"

13、and "Mistake No. 2"Even Jerry had to admit that the pups weren't much help, for he hunted for several hours without any luck, till at last he ran out of shells. Then, toward evening, he spotted a racoon high in a beech tree. It was a forty-foot tree, an ancient one that had died years

14、ago. The top of its trunk had been carried away in some storm, and the trunk itself had been gutted byrot andinsects.Still, Jerry went up after the coon, intending to capture him by hand. But he never reached the animal. Just as he got level with the top of the broken trunk, the limb on which he was

15、 standing cracked ominously under his feet. Instantly he jumped to the rim of the tree trunk, and at once the edge crumbled. Down he plunged, too suddenly to make a sound, into the deep hollow of the dead tree.Halfway dow n Jerry's fall was broke n for a mome nt by a jutting piece of wood that c

16、aught his cloth ing. The n he tumbled the rest of the way. Shaken, dazed, but miraculouslyunhurt, he picked himself upIt was dark in side the tree. Above him there was only a pale disc of sky. At his feet a pear-shaped hole framed a small patch of grey light. He could hear the pups sniffing and yelp

17、ing to him, and Shep backed off and barked in alarm.Jerry was scared Some time passed before he calmed down and began to look for a way to get out. There were no handholds on the in side of the trunk; the snag that had slowed him up on his way dow n was out of reach. And, though he tried desperately

18、, he could n't enlarge the hole at his feet by kick in g. It would do no good to call, either; he was much too far from home for that. At last the idea came to him of sending the dogs for help. "Go home, Shep! Go home!" He shouted. The dog gave one sharp bark. "Go home!" He s

19、houted aga in. And, at that, Shep turned and streaked across the field, but the two pups rema in ed, yelp ing encouragement to their master.Night came. A storm broke. Lightning writhed above his head, and rain poured into the hollow cylinder of the tree. There was just room for Jerry to stand, and h

20、e was drenched by the rain. For a minute he wondered if he would drown there, but the water ran out of the hole at the bottom as fast as it came in at the top. Outside, Jerry could hear the pupswhimpering.They were frighte ned by the storm, but they did n't go away .In stead, they moved closer t

21、o the tree to comfort him, and stuck their muzzles through the hole to lick his feet.Meanwhile Shep had run across the fields to the Cram home. Barking furiously, he got Bob to follow him back. But when they reached the fences the old dog, who had leaped over them frantically as he came, was too tir

22、ed to jump them again, and, in the end, it was only the barking of the sad-eyed little pups that guided Bob to the right tree.Even then it took a rescue party, ropes, and fifteen hours to get Jerry out of his sodden prison-wet, hungry, and exhausted"Oh, gosh," he said over and over after t

23、hey had fin ally pulled him up, "I kept thinking, this is Jerry's last mistake: I'm going to die dow n here. But the pups did n't give up hope! Shep went for help, and the pups stayed with me all the time! Mistake No. 1 and Mistake No. 2 -they saved me!"那是一个阴霾的下午，杰瑞"克莱姆动身准

24、备去猎浣熊。随他同行的有他的老牧羊狗和两只猎犬幼仔。至少他说他们是小猎兔犬。一个月以前，当杰瑞告诉他哥哥鲍勃说他自己花了五美元买了那两只小狗，鲍勃吼笑道："你又犯傻了，杰瑞！"因而，鲍勃称呼两只幼仔为”错误1号"和"错误2号"。杰瑞猎捕了好几个小时，一无所获，直到最后用尽了子弹，他不得不承认这两只幼仔无多大用处。临近傍晚，他在 一棵山毛榉树顶发现了一只浣熊。这棵树四十英尺高，极古老，数年前就枯死。树干顶部被风暴卷起了，树干本身由 于腐烂和虫咬被毁坏了。然而，杰瑞走到浣熊后，想用手抓它。但是他从未碰过动物。正当他到达残缺的树干的顶尖时，他踩的树枝

25、在脚下 不幸破裂了。他马上移到树干的边缘，立刻树梢被压断了。他突然跌下来了。事情发生的太突然了，杰瑞没来得及喊 一声，就落入了朽树的深洞里。他直摔下去，途中一根伸出的树枝挂住了他的衣服，悬空片刻，接着他又跌倒了。他颤抖地茫然地爬起来，但奇怪 的是没有受伤。树洞里一片漆黑。他头顶上仅有圆盘大的灰蒙蒙的天空。脚下梨状小孔映出一小块淡淡的光。他可以听见两只幼仔 朝着他叫，牧羊狗后退并且惊慌地叫着。杰瑞害怕了。过了一段时间，他平静下来了，开始寻找出路。树干里没有东西可以抓着爬出去；他无法抓住帮助阻 止他下跌速度的那根根株。他竭尽全力，却不能把脚下的那个孔踢大。求救也无用，当时他离家太远。最后他决定派

26、狗去寻求帮助。”回家，牧羊狗，回家！"他喊道。牧羊狗尖叫一声。”回家！"他又喊了一声。牧羊狗转身飞快的跨过田 野，但两只幼仔仍原地不动，用叫声鼓励着主人。夜幕来临。暴风雨袭来。闪电在尖顶上闪过，雨涌入了树中的空洞里。那恰是杰瑞可以站的地方，他被雨淋透了。 他曾担心自己是否会淹死在那儿。但是雨水从顶部流入的同时又流出了这个空洞。外面，杰瑞可以听到两只幼仔在呜 咽。他们被暴雨吓坏了，并没有离开。相反，他们更接近树了，用嘴穿过小孔去舔主人的脚以示安慰。同时牧羊狗跑过田野到了克莱姆家。它猛烈地叫着，鲍勃紧跟着它。但是当他们到达篱笆旁时，这只狗，正如它来 的时候一样身体慌乱不稳，太累

27、了再也不能跳过去了。最后，仅靠眼睛悲伤的幼仔的叫声引导鲍勃到了那棵树前。接着是营救工作，用绳子花了15个小时把杰瑞从浸透了的囚笼里拖出来-这时杰瑞浑身湿透了，又饿又累。他们把他拖上来后，杰瑞反复唠叨：”哎，天哪，我一直在想我会死在这儿，这是杰瑞的最后一次错误。但是幼仔没有放弃希望！牧羊狗去求助，幼仔自始至终陪着我！错误1号和错误2号-他们救了我的命。”Unit5 Learning a LanguageWhen we talk about lear ning a Ian guage like En glish, Japa nese or Spani sh, we speak and think

28、as though the Ian guage in question were a fixed unchanging thing. We expect to learn it as we learned geometry or how to ride a bicycle-systematically, and with clear ultimate success. Many people subseque ntly give up whe n they discover just what a misc on cepti on this is. They have in fact emba

29、rked on an activity that could last the rest of their lives. The experience makes them realise that they are not only going to have to work very hard in deed if they want to succeed, but also that they are -in many cases-barely masters of the Ianguage they call their own "mother tongue".St

30、udy ing any Ian guage is, in fact, an en dless voyage. Each of the thousa nds of Ian guages curre ntly used in the world is a complex affair. Many lang uages do have a sta ndard form-particularly on paper-a nd this is what we lear n, but they probablyalso have a variety of regional dialects and soci

31、al styles, and many are the products of the historical mingling of other languages. The English language is iust such a hybrid. It began its career iust under two thousand years ago as a form of ancient Germa n, collided with a special ki nd of old Fren ch, was subjected to several waves of Lati n a

32、nd a flood of Greek, and since the n has acquired bits and pieces of every other Ian guage that its users have ever bee n in con tact with.A sec ond com mon misc on cepti on about Ian guage is that words have fixed and clear meanin gs. This is-fort un ately or unfortun ately-far from true. Take even

33、 the appare ntly simple and specific En glish word man. It seems clear eno ugh; it refers to "an adult male huma n bein g". Of course it does, but just con sider for a mome nt the follow ing senten ces:1) There are several men miss ing in that chess set.2) The boat was manned en tirely by

34、wome n and childre n.You might argue that these sentences are somewhat unnatural; certainly, they do not represent the everyday core meaning of the word man. They are, however, legitimate extensions of that core meaning, the second being especially in teresti ng because it is a verb and not a noun,

35、and suggests that we expect adult male huma n beings to serve as the crews of ships, not women and certainly not children. Part of the pleasure and genius of Ianguage may well arise out of this slight "misuse" of words. After all, if you call a person a cat or a cabbage, no literal identif

36、ication is intended, but a great deal of meaning is n evertheless con veyed.A third misc on cepti on about Ian guage claims that every Ian guage is -or should be-equally used and un derstood by all its practitio ners everywhere. Certa inly, users of the sta ndard forms of En glish in the Un ited Kin

37、 gdom gen erally un dersta nd their equivalents in the United States; the degree of similarity between these two major forms of English is great. Dialect-users in these coun tries, however, have serious problems un dersta nding each other, to the exte nt that they may won der if they are actually us

38、ing the same Ian guage. Some one from Brookl yn, New York, will have trouble with a Cock ney from London; an old-style British Army colonel won't do well in discussi ons with a Califor nianflower-boy. Yet they all bel ong withi n the vastcom munity of 20th cen tury World En glish.当我们谈到学习一门语言诸如英语

39、、日语或西班牙语时，我们讲并且认为正在谈论中的语言是固定不变的，我们 期望像学几何或学骑车一样系统学习并且最后的成功明了可见。许多人发现这仅是一种误解时便放弃了。实际上，他 们开始了一份持续终生的工作。这种经验使他们不仅意识到如果想要成功不得不努力工作，而且意识到在很多情况下， 他们连自己所谓的母语也没有精通。其实，学习任何语言就像是一次永无止境的航行。当今世界上使用的成千上万语言中的每一种语言都是一件复杂 的事情。许多语言确实有一种标准形式-特别是书面语-这就是我们要学习的，然而，他们也可能有各种各样的地区方言和社会文体，许多是历史进程中和其他语言融合的产物。英语就是这样一种混合语言。大约二

40、千年前开始演变的。 首先是一种古德语形式，与一种特殊的古法语发生了冲突，其后又吸取了一些拉丁语和希腊语。自那以后有吸收了它 的使用者所接触的其他所有语言的点点滴滴。关于语言的第二种常见误解是单词意思固定清楚。这种想法-无论不幸还是有幸-是远远不正确的。举个十分简单和具体的英语单词"man"为例。似乎足够清楚，指的是"成年男子”。当然的确如此，但是考虑一下下列句子：1) There are several men miss ing in that chess set.那副象棋缺了几颗棋子。2) The boat was manned en tirely by wom

41、e n and childre n.这艘船全由妇女和小孩掌舵。你可能争论这些句子有点不自然。是的，它们不是单词"man"的日常用法，而是其中心意义的合理延伸。尤其有趣的是在第二个句子中它作动词用而不是名词。这表明我们期望成年男子做水手，而不是妇女当然更不是小孩。语言中 的一些乐趣和天赋很可能是由这种单词的细微差别的误用而产生的。另U忘了，如果你叫一个人"猫"或"卷心菜”，虽然你不是表达字面意思，但它们会被曲解成许多意思。关于语言的第二个误解是：每一种语言都被或者说应该被它的所有使用者到处同样地使用和理解。当然，一般说来，使用英国英语标准形式的人

42、都能理解其在美国英语中的对等词。英语这两种主要形式相似程度极大。这些国家 的讲方言的人在互相理解对方时有严重的障碍，甚至到了怀疑他们是否真正使用同一语言的程度。一个来自纽约布鲁 克林的人与来自伦敦的伦敦佬交流有困难一位古板的英国上校不会和一个加里福利亚的嬉皮士谈笑风生。然而他们都 属于20世纪世界英语的巨大群体中的成员。Unit6 BargainsLet us take the orthodox definition of the word bargain. It is something offered at a low and advantageous price. It is an op

43、port unity to buy somethi ng at a lower price tha n it is really worth. A more recent defi niti on is: a barga in is a dirty trick to extort money from the pockets of silly and inn oce nt people.I have n ever atte nded a large compa ny's board meet ing in my life, but feel certa in that the disc

44、ussi on ofte ntakes thefollowing lines. The cost of producing a new -for example-toothpaste would make 80p the decent price for it, so we will market it at £ 1.20. It is not a bad toothpaste (not specially good either, but not bad), and as people like to try new things it will sell well to star

45、t with; but the attract ion of no velty soon fades, so sales will fall. When that starts to happe n we will reduce the price to £ 1.15. And we will turn it into a bargain by printing 5p OFF all over it, whereupon people will rush to buy it even though it still costs about forty-three perce nt m

46、ore tha n its fair price.Sometimes it is not 5p OFF but 1p OFF. What breathtaking impertinence to advertise 1p OFF your soap or washing powder or dog food or whatever. Even the poorest old-age pensioner ought to regard this as an in sult, but he does n't. A bargain must not be missed. To be offe

47、red a "gift" of one penny is like being invited to dinner and offered one single pea (tastily cooked), and nothing else. Even if it represe nted a real reduct ion it would be an in sult. Still, people say, one has to have wash ing powder (or whatever) and one might as well buy it a penny c

48、heaper. When I was a boy in Hun gary a man was accused of murderi ng some one for the sake of one pen go, the equivale nt of a shilli ng, and pleaded guilty. The judge was outraged: "To kill a man for a shilli ng! . What can you say in your defe nee?" The murderer replied:"A shilli ng

49、 here . a shilli ng there". And that's what today's shopper says, too: "A penny here . a penny there".The real dan ger starts whe n utterly unn ecessary things become "barga in s". There is a huge nu mber of people who just cannot resist bargains and sales. Provided

50、they think they are getting a bargain they will buy clothes they will never wear, furn iture they have no space for. Old ladies will buy roller-skates and non-smokers will buy pipe-clea ners. And I once heard of a man who bought an electric circular saw as a barga in and cut off two of his fin gers

51、the next day. But he had no regrets: the saw had bee n truly cheap.Quite a few people actually believe that they make money on such bargains. A lady I know, otherwise a charming and seem in gly sane girl, sometimes tells me stories such as this: "I've had a lucky day today. I bought a dress

52、 for £ 120, reduced from £ 400." She feels as though she has made £ 280. She also feels, I am sure, that if she had more time for shopping, she could make a liv ing out of it.Some people buy in bulk because it is cheaper. I once knew a couple who could not resist buying sugar in

53、bulk. They thought it a treme ndous barga in, not to be missed, so they bought eno ugh sugar for their lifetime and the lifetime of their childre n and gra ndchildre n. When the sugar arrived they did n't know where to store it -un til they realised that their loo was a very spacious one. So tha

54、t was where they piled up their sugar. Not only did their guests feel rather stra nge whe never they were offered sugar to put into their coffee, but the loo became extremely sticky.To offer bargains is a commercial trick to make the poor poorer. When greedy fools fall for this trick, it serves them

55、 right. All the same, if bargains were prohibited by law our standard of living would immediately rise by 7.39 per cent.让我们给"甩货"这个词下一个传统定义，即商家推出的物美价廉的产品，也是一次机会让人们可以买到比实际价格 低的商品。而近来又有了这样的定义：甩货是商家使用的从傻子与无头脑的人们口袋中骗取钱财的伎俩。我从未参加过任何一家大型公司的董事会议，但可以肯定这样的会总是围绕以下事宜展开。以牙膏为例，生产这种 新产品的成本费80便士为其合理价格，市场价

56、格为1英镑20便士。这种牙膏不算很差(尽管没什么特别，也还过得去)，加之人们乐于尝试新事物的心理，因此起初它销量会很可观。但是新鲜的吸引力一过，销量自会下跌，于是我们将价格降到1英镑15便士，还打着甩货的幌子贴出买一盒牙膏省五便士 ”的海报，人们则争先恐后地抢购，尽管抢购价比正常价位高出大约43%。有时不是省5便士，而只是省1便士而已。"只要您购买香皂，洗衣粉，狗食或其他商品均可享受1便士的优惠。这样的广告是一种让人难以忍受的屈辱。”即使是最穷困的高龄养老金领取者也应当认为这是一种侮辱行为，然而却没有人这样想。甩货是不能错过的嘛！而这 1便士的礼物就像你应邀去参加一场丰盛的晚宴却只提

57、供一粒烹饪考究的豌豆。 即使1便士真实地反映了产品的降价，可它仍然是一种侮辱。然而，人们会说，反正我们不能没有洗衣粉这样的东西，还是买那个能省1便士的好了。记得当我在匈牙利时，还是个孩子，有一个人就因为1 pengo (等值于1先令)而被指控谋杀，并且他认了罪。法官义愤填膺："就为了 1先令去杀人你还要为自己辩护什么？ ”凶手答道：”这儿1先令，那儿1先令这也正是今天的商家所说：”这儿1便士，那儿1便士。”随着那些完全没有必要东西成了便宜货”，真正的危机也如期而至，一大群人都无法抵制甩卖和降价的诱惑。只要他们在买甩卖品，他们就会买这辈子都不会穿的衣服，没有地方安置的家具。老太太会买溜

58、冰鞋，不吸烟的人则买烟 斗通条。我还听说一个人在甩卖时买了一个电动圆锯，结果第二天就割掉了两根手指，可他并不后悔：这个锯子真是 很便宜啊！事实上，很多人都相信买甩货是有利可图的。我认识一个楚楚动人，似乎心志很健全的女士，她常给我讲这样的故 事："今天太走运了，只花120英镑就买到了一件原价400的连衣裙。"那感觉好像是她赚了280英镑。我确信她也认为如果再多花点时间购物，就可以靠此谋生了。由于商品的贱价出售，有人则大批量购买。我听说有一对夫妇忍不住购买了大量的糖，他们认为这是万万不能错过 捡大便宜的好时机，于是买足了供他们一辈子用的糖，就连他们的孩子们和子孙都够用了。可当糖

59、运到家中时，他们 意识到没有地方储存，直到发现卫生间还算宽敞，糖理所当然被堆在那里。每当他们往客人咖啡里加糖时，不仅客人 总觉得古怪，而且连卫生间也变得粘粘糊糊的。主动甩卖是一种商业诡计，使穷人变得更穷。如果那些贪婪的傻子上当受骗，那也是活该。无论如何，如果甩卖被 依法禁止的话，我们的生活标准会顺势上涨7.39个百分点。Unit8 Genius sacrificed for failureDuring my youth in America's Appalachian mountains, I learned that farmers preferred sons over daugh

60、ters, largely because boys were better at heavy farm labour. With only 3% of America ns in agriculture today, brain has suppla nted braw n, vet cultural preferences, like bad habits, are easier to make than break. But history warns repeatedly of the tragic cost of dismissi ng too casually the gifts of the so-called weaker sex.About 150 years ago, a village church vicar in Yorkshire, En gla nd, had three lovely, in tellige nt daughters but his hopes hin ged en tirely on the sole male heir, Bran well, a youth with rem