大学英语精读4-课文-中英文对照

1、Text Book 4Unit 1Text Two college-age boys, unaware that making money usually involves hard work, are tempted by an advertisement that promises them an easy way to earn a lot of money. The boys soon learn that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. 一个大学男孩，不清楚赚钱需要付出艰苦的劳动，被一份许诺轻松赚大钱的广

2、告吸引了。男孩们很快 就明白，如果事情看起来好得不像真的，那多半确实不是真的。 BIG BUCKS THE EASY WAY轻轻松松赚大钱 John G. Hubbell"You ought to look into this," I suggested to our two college-age sons. "It might be a way to avoid the indignity of having to ask for money all the time." I handed them some magazines in a plast

3、ic bag someone had hung on our doorknob. “你们该看看这个，”我向我们的两个读大学的儿子建议道。“你们若想避免因为老是向人讨钱而有失尊 严的话，这兴许是一种办法。”我将挂在我们门把手上的、装在一个塑料袋里的几本杂志拿给他们。 A message printed on the bag offered leisurely, lucrative work ("Big Bucks the Easy Way!") of delivering more such bags. 塑料袋上印着一条信息说，需要招聘人投递这样的袋子，这活儿既轻松又赚钱。(

4、“轻轻松松赚大钱!”)"I don't mind the indignity," the older one answered. “我不在乎失不失尊严，”大儿子回答说。"I can live with it," his brother agreed. “我可以忍受，”他的弟弟附和道。"But it pains me," I said，"to find that you both have been panhandling so long that it no longer embarrasses you."

5、 “看到你们俩伸手讨钱讨惯了一点也不感到尴尬的样子，真使我痛心，”我说。The boys said they would look into the magazine-delivery thing. Pleased, I left town on a business trip. By midnight I was comfortably settled in a hotel room far from home. The phone rang. It was my wife. She wanted to know how my day had gone. 孩子们说他们可以考虑考虑投递杂志的事

6、。我听了很高兴，便离城出差去了。午夜时分，我已远离家门，在一家旅馆的房间里舒舒服服住了下来。电话铃响了，是妻子打来的。她想知道我这一天过得可好。"Great!" I enthused. "How was your day?" I inquired. “好极了!”我兴高采烈地说。“你过得怎么样”我问道。"Super!" She snapped. "Just super! And it's only getting started. Another truck just pulled up out front."

7、; “棒极了!”她大声挖苦道。“真棒!而且这还仅仅是个开始。又一辆卡车刚在门前停下。”"Another truck?" “又一辆卡车”?"The third one this evening. The first delivered four thousand Montgomery Wards. The second brought four thousand Sears, Roebucks. I don't know what this one has, but I'm sure it will be four thousand of somet

8、hing. Since you are responsible, I thought you might like to know what's happening. “今晚第三辆了。第一辆运来了四千份蒙哥马利-沃德百货公司的广告；第二辆运来四千份西尔斯-罗伯 克百货公司的广告。我不知道这一辆装的啥，但我肯定又是四千份什么的。既然这事是你促成的，我想你或许想了解事情的进展。”What I was being blamed for, it turned out, was a newspaper strike which made it necessary to hand-deliver

9、the advertising inserts that normally are included with the Sunday paper. The company had promised our boys $600 for delivering these inserts to 4,000 houses by Sunday morning. 我之所以受到指责，事情原来是这样：由于发生了一起报业工人罢工，通常夹在星期日报纸里的广告插页，必须派人直接投送出去。公司答应给我们的孩子六百美金，任务是将这些广告插页在星期天早晨之前投递到四千户人家去。"Piece of cake!&q

10、uot; our older college son had shouted. “不费吹灰之力!”我们上大学的大儿子嚷道。" Six hundred bucks!" His brother had echoed, "And we can do the job in two hours!" “六百块!”他的弟弟应声道，“我们两个钟点就能干完!”"Both the Sears and Ward ads are four newspaper-size pages," my wife informed me. "There are

11、thirty-two thousand pages of advertising on our porch. Even as we speak, two big guys are carrying armloads of paper up the walk. What do we do about all this?" “西尔斯和沃德的广告通常都是报纸那么大的四页，”妻子告诉我说，“现在我们门廊上堆着三万二千页 广告。就在我们说话的当儿，两个大个子正各抱着一大捆广告走过来。这么多广告，我们可怎么办”。"Just tell the boys to get busy,"

12、; I instructed. "They're college men. They'll do what they have to do." “你让孩子们快干，”我指示说。“他们都是大学生了。他们自己的事得由他们自己去做。”At noon the following day I returned to the hotel and found an urgent message to telephone my wife. Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering. There had been several

13、more truckloads of ad inserts. 第二天中午，我回到旅馆，看到一份紧急留言，要我马上给妻子回电话。她的声音高得很不自然，而 且有些颤抖。家里又运到了好几卡车的广告插页。"They're for department stores, dime stores, drugstores, grocery stores, auto stores and so on. Some are whole magazine sections. We have hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of pages of adve

14、rtising here! “有百货公司的，廉价商店的，杂货店的，食品店的，汽 车行的，等等。有些像整本杂志那么厚。我们这里有数十万页，说不定是几百万页的广告!They are crammed wall-to-wall all through the house in stacks taller than your oldest son. There's only enough room for people to walk in, take one each of the eleven inserts, roll them together, slip a rubber band a

15、round them and slide them into a plastic bag. 我们家整个房子 从东墙到西墙，从南墙到北墙统统堆满了广告，一堆又一堆，比你大儿子还要高。现在只剩下一点点空间，刚够一个人走进去，从十一种插页中各取一份，卷在一起，套上橡皮筋，再塞进一只塑料袋内。We have enough plastic bags to supply every takeout restaurant in America!" Her voice kept rising, as if working its way out of the range of the human e

16、ar. "All this must be delivered by seven o'clock Sunday morning."我们的塑料袋足够供应全美所有的外卖餐厅!”她越讲声音越响，几乎震耳欲聋。“这么多的广告必须在星期日早晨七 点以前统统送出去。”"Well, you had better get those guys banding and sliding as fast as they can, and I'll talk to you later. Got a lunch date.” “嗯，你最好让孩子们尽快地捆扎装袋，等会儿我再跟

17、你谈。我有个午餐约会。”When I returned, there was another urgent call from my wife. 我餐后回来，妻子又打来一只紧急电话。"Did you have a nice lunch?" she asked sweetly. I had had a marvelous steak, but knew better by now than to say so. “你午餐吃得不错吧”她用悦耳的声音问道。我吃的牛排好极了，但这次我学乖了，还是不说为妙。"Awful," I reported. "So

18、me sort of sour fish. Eel, I think." “糟透了，”我报告说。“一种什么酸溜溜的鱼，我想大概是鳗鲡吧。”"Good. Your college sons have hired their younger brothers and sisters and a couple of neighborhood children to help for five dollars each. Assembly lines have been set up. In the language of diplomacy, there is 'move

19、ment.'"“不错嘛。你的大学生儿子已经雇了他们的弟弟妹妹和两三个邻居的小孩帮忙，工钱一人五块，建起了 流水作业线。用外交术语来说，事情有进展。”"That's encouraging." “这确实令人鼓舞。”"No, it's not," she corrected. "It's very discouraging. They're been as it for hours. Plastic bags have been filled and piled to the ceiling, bu

20、t all this hasn't made a dent, not a dent, in the situation! It's almost as if the inserts keep reproducing themselves!" “不，并非如此，”她纠正说。“相反，非常叫人泄气。他们干了好几个小时了。装好的塑料袋，一直堆到天花板，但一切努力收效很小。这些广告宣传品简直就像是不停地自行生产出来一样!”"Another thing," she continued. "Your college sons must learn tha

21、t one does not get the best out of employees by threatening them with bodily harm. “还有一件事，”她接着说，“你那上大学的儿子必须明白，威胁雇员，说要揍他们，是不可能使他们卖力的。”Obtaining an audience with son NO. 1, I snarled, "I'll kill you if threaten one of those kids again! Idiot! You should be offering a bonus of a dollar every h

22、our to the worker who fills the most bags. 我跟大儿子一通上话，便咆哮道，“你如果再威胁那些孩子，我就对你不客气了!白痴!你应该给奖金，对装袋最多的工人每小时奖励一块。”"But that would cut into our profit," he suggested. “可那要减少我们的利润啦，”他提醒道。"There won't be any profit unless those kids enable you to make all the deliveries on time. If they don&

23、#39;t, you two will have to remove all that paper by yourselves. And there will be no eating or sleeping until it is removed." “那些孩子不帮你按时将所有的广告投送出去，你就什么利润也得不到。如果他们不干，你们俩就得亲手搬走所有的广告。而在把它们搬掉之前，你们吃不成，也睡不成。”There was a short, thoughtful silence. Then he said, "Dad, you have just worked a profo

24、und change in my personality." 电话里出现了短暂的沉默，他在思考。接着，他说，“爸爸，你刚才使我深受启迪，令我恍然大悟。”"Do it!" “那就干吧!”"Yes, sir!" “是，阁下!”By the following evening, there was much for my wife to report. The bonus program had worked until someone demanded to see the color of cash. 到第二天傍晚，我妻子就有许多事报告了。奖金计

25、划行之有效，可后来有人对能否兑现表示怀疑，提出把钱拿出来给大家看看。Then some activist on the work force claimed that the workers had no business settling for $5 and a few competitive bonuses while the bosses collected hundreds of dollars each. The organizer had declared that all the workers were entitled to $5 per hour! They would

26、not work another minute until the bosses agreed. 接着工人队伍里的一位活动家声称，老板每人拿几百块钱，工人们决没有理由满足于每人五块外加一点点竞争性的奖金。劳工组织人宣布，所有工人的工资都应该达到每小时五块钱! 在老板答应之前，他们不再干活儿，一分钟也不干。The strike lasted less than two hours. In mediation, the parties agreed on $2 per hour. Gradually, the huge stacks began to shrink. 罢工持续了不到两小时。通过调解

27、，双方达成协议，每小时两块。渐渐地，大堆的广告开始减少。As it turned out, the job was completed three hours before Sunday's 7 a.m. deadline. By the time I arrived home, the boys had already settled their accounts: $150 in labor costs, $40 for gasoline, and a like amount for gifts - boxes of candy for saintly neighbors who

28、had volunteered station wagons and help in delivery and dozen roses for their mother. 结果，全部工作比最后限期星期日早晨七点提前三个小时完成。等我回到家里，孩子们已经结了账。 劳务支出 150 元，汽油费40 元，还有 40 元买礼品几盒糖果，送给乐于助人的邻居，他们主动开出 自家的车帮助投递，还有一打玫瑰送给他们的母亲。This left them with $185 each - about two-thirds the minimum wage for the 91 hours they worked.

29、 Still, it was "enough", as one of them put it, to enable them to "avoid indignity" for quite a while. 除去以上开支，他们每人得到 185 元 -大约相当于 他们所干的 91 小时的最低工资的三分之二。 虽然如此，可正如一个儿子所说，那还是“足够”他们花一阵子，使他们“避免那种有失尊严的事。” All went well for some weeks. Then one Saturday morning my attention was drawn to

30、 the odd goings-on of our two youngest sons. They kept carrying carton after carton from various corners of the house out the front door to curbside. 几个星期过去了，一切都很好。后来，一个星期六的上午，我们两个小儿子的奇怪举动引起了我的注意。他们不停地将一个又一个的纸箱从房屋四处的角落里搬出，经过前门，送到人行道边。I assumed their mother had enlisted them to remove junk for a tras

31、h pickup. Then I overheard them discussing finances. 我以为他们的妈妈在指挥他们清除破烂，好让垃圾车运走呢。正在这时，我听到他们在议论经济问题。"Geez, we're going to make a lot of money!" “哟，我们会赚许多钱呢!”"We're going to be rich!" “我们要发财啦!”Investigation revealed that they were offering " for sale or rent" our e

32、ntire library. 经查问发现，他们正在把我们的全部图书“出售或出租”。"No! No!" I cried. "You can't sell our books!" “不成!不成!”我叫道。“不能把我们的书卖了!”"Geez, Dad, we thought you were done with them!" “哎唷，爸，我们以为你用不着它们了呢!”"You're never 'done' with books," I tried to explain. “书永远不会

33、9;用'不着的，”我尽力解释道。"Sure you are. You read them, and you're done with them. That's it. Then you might as well make a little money from them. We wanted to avoid the indignity of having to ask you for"“你肯定用不着了。你都看过了，再也不用了。没有错。既然不用，还不如卖点钱。我们想避免那种有 失尊严的事，不再伸手向你要”Unit 2Text Is there an

34、ything we can learn from deer? During the "energy crisis" of 1973-1974 the writer of this essay was living in northern Minnesota and was able to observe how deer survive when winter arrives. The lessons he learns about the way deer conserve energy turn out applicable to our everyday life.

35、有什么是我们能从鹿身上学到的吗在 1973-1974 年的“能源危机”期间，本文作者正住在明尼苏达北部，能够观察当冬天来临时，鹿如何生存。他从鹿储存能量的方法上得到的经验也能够运用到我们的日常生活中。 DEER AND THE ENERGY CYCLE鹿和能量循环Some persons say that love makes the world go round. Others of a less romantic and more practical turn of mind say that it isn't love; it's money. But the truth

36、 is that it is energy that makes the world go round. 有些人说，爱情驱使世界运转；另一些并不那么罗曼蒂克而更为注重实际的人则说，不是爱情，而是金钱。但真实情况是，能量驱使世界运转。Energy is the currency of the ecological system and life becomes possible only when food is converted into energy, which in turn is used to seek more food to grow, to reproduce and to

37、survive. On this cycle all life depends. 能量是生态系统的货币，只有当食物转变为能量，能量再用来获取更多的食物以供生长、繁殖和生存，生命才成为可能。所有生命都维系在这一循环上。It is fairly well known that wild animals survive from year to year by eating as much as they can during times of plenty, the summer and fall, storing the excess, usually in the form of fat, a

38、nd then using these reserves of fat to survive during the hard times in winter when food is scarce. But it is probably less well known that even with their stored fat, wild animals spend less energy to live in winter than in summer. 差不多众所周知，野生动物得以年复一年地生存下去，主要依靠在夏秋生长旺季尽量多吃，通常将多余的部分以脂肪的形式储存起来，然后到了冬天食物

39、稀少的艰难时期，就用这些储备的脂肪来维持生命。然而，很可能鲜为人知的是，即使有储备的脂肪，野生动物在冬天消耗的能量比夏天要少。A good case in point is the whiter-tailed deer. Like most wildlife, deer reproduce, grow, and store fat in the summer and fall when there is plenty of nutritious food available. A physically mature female deer in good condition who has c

40、onceived in November and given birth to two fawns during the end of May or first part of June, must search for food for the necessary energy not only to meet her body's needs but also to produce milk for her fawns. 一个很好的例证是白尾鹿。与大多数野生动物一样，鹿在营养丰富、食物充足的夏秋两季，繁殖、生长并储存脂肪。一只成熟健壮的母鹿，在十一月份怀胎，五月底或六月初生下两只幼

41、鹿，这时，它必须寻找食物以获得必要的能量，这不仅是为了满足自身的需要，而且也是为了给幼鹿生产乳汁。The best milk production occurs at the same time that new plant growth is available. This is good timing, because milk production is an energy consuming process it requires a lot of food. The cost can not be met unless the region has ample food resour

42、ces.产乳的最佳期也正是植物生长茂盛之时。这个时机选择得很好，因为乳汁生产是一个消耗能量的过程 - 它需要大量的食物，除非该地区具有丰富的食物资源，否则无法满足这种消耗。As the summer progresses and the fawns grow, they become less dependent on their mother's milk and more dependent on growing plants as food sources. The adult males spend the summer growing antlers and getting

43、fat. 夏季一天天过去，幼鹿日渐生长，它们变得较少依赖母鹿的乳汁，而更加依靠生长中的植物为其食物来源。雄性成鹿在夏天生长鹿角并养肥身体。Both males and females continue to eat high quality food in the fall in order to deposit body fat for the winter. In the case of does and fawns, a great deal of energy is expended either in milk production or in growing, and fat is

44、 not accumulated as quickly as it is in full grown males. 在秋天，雄鹿和雌鹿都继续进食高质量食物，贮存体内脂肪，以备过冬。至于雌鹿和幼鹿，由于大量的能量用于产奶或生长，脂肪的积累速度不如完全成熟的雄鹿快。Fat reserves are like bank accounts to be drawn on in the winter when food supplies are limited and sometimes difficult to reach because of deep snow. 脂肪储备如同银行里的存款，供冬天食物

45、来源不足时和有时由于雪深难以获得时，支取使用。As fall turns into winter, other changes take place. Fawns lose their spotted coat. Hair on all the deer becomes darker and thicker. The change in the hair coats is usually complete by September and maximum hair depths are reached by November or December when the weather becom

46、es cold. 随着秋去冬来，还会发生其他变化: 幼鹿失去皮毛上的斑纹，所有鹿身上的毛长厚，颜色变深。毛皮 的变化通常持续到 9 月。到11 月或 12 月天气变冷时，毛长得最厚。But in addition, nature provides a further safeguard to help deer survive the winter - an internal physiological response which lowers their metabolism, or rate of bodily functioning, and hence slows down thei

47、r expenditure of energy. 此外，大自然还为鹿提供进一步的保护以帮助它们度过冬天 - 体内生理机能作相应调节，放慢新陈 代谢，亦即生理活动的速度，从而降低能量的消耗。The deer become somewhat slow and drowsy. The heart rate drops. Animals that hibernate practice energy conservation to a greater extreme than deer do. Although deer don't hibernate, they do the same thi

48、ng with their seasonal rhythms in metabolism. Deer spend more energy and store fat in the summer and fall when food is abundant, and spend less energy and use stored fat in the winter when food is less available. 鹿变得有点动作迟缓、嗜睡。它们的心率减慢。冬眠的动物保存能量的习性胜过鹿。虽然鹿不冬眠，但他们随季节改变新陈代谢节奏的习性则是一样的。夏秋间，食物充裕的时候，鹿消耗较多的能量

49、并储存脂肪。在冬天食物匮乏时，它们则消耗较少的能量并使用储存的脂肪。When the "energy crisis" first came in 1973-1974, I was living with my family in a cabin on the edge of an area where deer spend the winter in northern Minnesota, observing the deer as their behavior changed from more activity in summer and fall to less as

50、 winter progressed, followed by an increase again in the spring as the snow melted. 1973-1974 年间，第一次出现“能源危机”的时候，我正与家人住在明尼苏达州北部一处鹿群过冬地方的边缘地带。我们住在一个小屋里，观察鹿的生活习性，观察它们是如何随着冬季来临从夏秋的活动频繁状态而变得少动的，而到春暖雪融时，他们的活动又是如何增多起来的。It was interesting and rather amusing to listen to the advice given on the radio: "

51、 Drive only when necessary," we were told. "Put on more clothes to stay warm, and turn the thermostat on your furnace down." 当时广播电台常告诫我们:“没有必要不开车，”“多穿衣服好保暖，并请调低锅炉上的恒温器。”这些话听起来既有趣又逗笑。Meanwhile we watched the deer reduce their activity, grow a winter coat of hair, and reduce their metab

52、olism as they have for thousands of years. It is biologically reasonable for deer to reduce their cost of living to increase their chance of surviving in winter. 因为与此同时，我们一直注视着鹿减少活动，长出越冬的厚毛，并减缓新陈代谢。几千年来，他们一贯如此。鹿减少生存所需的能耗以增加越冬生存的机会，从生物学角度来看是合情合理的。Not every winter is critical for deer of course. If th

53、e winter has light snow, survival and productivity next spring will be high. But if deep snows come and the weather remains cold for several weeks, then the deer must spend more energy to move about, food will be harder to find, and they must then depend more on their fat reserves to pull them throu

54、gh. 当然，对鹿来讲，并非每个冬天都处于危难之中。如果冬天雪下得少，存活率和次年春天的繁殖力就高。但如果雪积得深，天气连续数周寒冷，鹿活动起来就得花费较多的能量，觅食会更难，这时它们就得更多地依赖其脂肪储备度过寒冬。If such conditions go on for too long some will die, and only the largest and strongest are likely to survive. That is a fundamental rule of life for wild, free wandering animal such as deer.

55、 如果这种情况持续太久，有些鹿就要死亡，只有体型最大最壮的，才有可能存活。对于像鹿这样四处自由奔走的野生动物来说，这是一条根本的生存规律。Yes, life - and death, too - is a cycle that goes round and round, and when animals die their bodies become food for other life forms to use by converting them into energy. 的确，生命-还有死亡-周而复始，循环不已。当动物死亡的时候，他们的尸体转化为能量，变成食物，供其他生命形式使用。An

56、d the cycle continues. 如此循环，永不止息。Unit 3TextCan you prove that the earth is round? Go ahead and try! Will you rely on your senses or will you have to draw on the opinions of experts?你能证明地球是圆的吗来试试看吧！你将依靠你自己的智力还是不得不引用专家的观点呢？ WHY DO WE BELIEVE THAT THE EARTH IS ROUND?我们为什么相信地球是圆的 George OrwellSomewhere

57、or other I think it is in the preface to saint Joan Bernard Shaw remarks that we are more gullible and superstitious today than we were in the Middle Ages, and as an example of modern credulity he cites the widespread belief that the earth is round. 记得在什么地方-我想是在圣女贞德序言中-肖伯纳评论说，今天我们比在中世纪时更加轻 信，更加迷信。而作

58、为现代轻信的例证，他举出地圆说这一广为传播的信念。The average man, says Shaw, can advance not a single reason for thinking that the earth is round. He merely swallows this theory because there is something about it that appeals to the twentieth-century mentality. 肖伯纳说，普通人举不出一条理由来说明为什么相信地球是圆的。他全盘接受这一理论，只是因为这一理论中有一种迎合20世纪心态的东

59、西。Now, Shaw is exaggerating, but there is something in what he says, and the question is worth following up, for the sake of the light it throws on modern knowledge. 当然，肖伯纳是夸大其词了，但他说的也确实有些道理，这一问题值得进一步探讨，因为它会帮助人们看清现代知识的真实情况。Just why do we believe that the earth is round? I am not speaking of the few

60、thousand astronomers, geographers and so forth who could give ocular proof, or have a theoretical knowledge of the proof, but of the ordinary newspaper-reading citizen, such as you or me. 我们究竟为什么会相信地球是圆的呢我说的不是数千位天文学家、地理学家之类的人，他们可以用观察到的事实或用理论上的根据来证实这一点，我指的是如同你我之辈的报纸的普通读者。As for the Flat Earth theory,

61、 I believe I could refute it. If you stand by the seashore on a clear day, you can see the masts and funnels of invisible ships passing along the horizon. This phenomenon can only be explained by assuming that the earth's surface is curved. 至于“地平说”，我相信我能够加以驳斥。如果你在天气晴朗的日子站立海边，你可以看到船桅和烟囱沿着地平线移动而不见船体本身。只有假设地球表面呈曲线状，这一现象才能得到解释。 But it does not follow