同济大学工程硕士英语课文翻译Unit1Unit6.doc

Usain Bolt: How Far and Fast We Go?Unit1Parental discretionBy dennis hevesiWhen the letter came saying that Pamela Stafford,after all her part-time study at night,had been accepted at the age of 34 as a full-time student by the University of California at Berkeley,her two teenage sons leaped into the air,slapped palms in a high-five and shouted,”we did it!we did it!”Pamela Stafford 一直参加晚上的业余学习班，她34岁时收到了伯克利的加利福利亚大学录取通知书，她的两个儿子高兴的跳了起来，拍着她的肩膀叫道：“我们成功了！我们成功了！”“Im not sure they included me,”she said.“我不确定他们包括我”，她说。Several months ago,when Gary Hatfield,also 34,and a sophomore at the Ohio State University,in Columbus,was telling his son,Seth,11,why he was spending so much time studying,”he patted me on the shoulder and said,Dad,I understand.You want to finish school,”Mr.Hatfield recalled,adding,”Blessed is the childs forgiving nature.”几个月前，同样是34岁的Gary Hatfield，在俄亥俄州立大学读大二，对他11岁的儿子Seth讲为什么他花这么多时间学习，“他轻拍我肩膀说道，爸爸，我明白，你想完成学业，” Hatfield 先生回忆道，并说，“祝福是孩子原谅的本性”。In hundreds of homes throughout the nation,as the rolls of those signing up for continuing education courses grow,getting mom or pop off to school has often wrought a kind of joyous havoc on family life and forced the sort of realignment of expectations that would warm the hearts of diehard feminists.在全国的几百个家庭里，随着签约继续教育课程的增多，许多母亲或突然离校的人经常对家庭生活发生高兴的浩劫，并推动那些期待温暖顽固的女权主义者的心的人重新组合。A Switch of family rolesDads or children are doing the shopping,the cooking,the cleaning,the laundry.Teenagers have become the family chauffeur,or at least make sure the car is available when a parent has to get to class.Schedules have been turned on end.Children have even adopted parental roles-nagging when homework hasnt been done.家庭里父母和孩子的角色转换包括购物、做饭、打扫卫生和洗衣服。年轻人成了家庭司机，或至少确保父母上课时车子没问题。这时间表变成了持续的。孩子甚至已经适应了父母的角色家务没做完时就抱怨。Mr.Hatfield,an English major, wants to teach high school or college English.”Ill sometimes get jabbed if I make a spelling or grammatical mistake,”he said.”Seth will say,Hey,English teacher. Hatfield 先生是一个英语专业的，想教高中或大学英语。 “我有时如果拼写或语法错误就会挨揍，”他说，“Seth 会说，嘿，英语老师”What can come through the difficulties and the role reversals is a shared commitment,a strengthened bond and a deepened appreciation for education.”when I went back to school,my older son went from being a C and D student to making honor roll,”said Ms.Stafford,who is divorced and lives in Albany,near the university.”The younger guy,well,not as much improvement.But he did develop a more serious attitude toward school.Now,its sort of a given that what you really do in life is finish school first.”经历困难和角色逆转是一份承诺，一个加强的契约和对教育的更深的感激。“当我回到学校，我的大儿子由一个C和D类学生进步到了荣誉榜上，” Stafford女士（离婚了，居住在奥尔巴尼，靠近大学）说，“小儿子则没有这么大的进步。但是他对学校的态度有了很大改变。现在，你在生活中真正应该做的首先是完成学业。”And when the boys-Joseph,18,and Christopher,14-run into what Ms.Stafford called “the geek mentality” of friends who think doing well in school is totally lame,they are equipped to respond.”Joseph once told his friend,”Ms.Stafford said,”Hey,my mom is smart.Its in the genes.I cant help being smart.”当孩子们18岁的Joseph和14岁的Christopher遭遇了和Stafford女士一样的对待，Stafford女士的朋友们认为学习好是残疾，因此他被称为“脑残”，孩子们准备好了回击。“Joseph有一次告诉她的朋友，”Stafford女士说，“嘿，我妈妈聪明，这是基因决定的，我不得不聪明。”Mom is indeed smart. Out of a possible 4.0,Ms.Stafford is maintaining a 3.9 grade-point average as an English major at Berkeley,where she is also on staff as an administrative assistant.妈妈确实聪明，在4.0的总分数里，Stafford 女士保持在英语专业3.9的平均分数，她还是一个行政助理。“I felt really guilty about taking night courses,”she said.”Then,at the end of that first semester, I got an A in ancient Mediterranean literature, and my sons developed an investment in my education. They sort of fired me as a mother and recreated me as a student.”“参加夜间课程我很心虚，”她说“于是在第一个学期结束时，我的远古地中海名族文化课得了个A，我的儿子们做了很大贡献。他们有点儿没把我当妈看，而是把我当做一个学生。”Joseph, now a freshman at St.Marys college in nearby Moraga,said,”I had to cook,wash dishes,pretty much take care of myself and my brother,too.There were times when I wished she was around,when things would happen that I couldnt handle.Joseph现在是邻近Moraga的圣玛丽学院的新生，说：“我不得不做饭、洗碗、照顾我自己和弟弟。有很多次当我不能处理的事情发生时我希望妈妈就在身边。”Joseph said Christopher”was always a hyper kid.So I just had to be real patient.I talked to him abhout girls,about drugs.He doesnt do the silly stuff he used to do to get attention,like kitchen gymnastics-you know, dancing and flipping around the house like an idiot. Sometimes we fought. But he and I loved each other enough to punch each other and then hug.”Joseph说Christopher“超孩子气，因此我不得不很有忍耐力。我跟他讨论女孩和药物。他不会为了吸引眼球而做愚蠢的事（他过去常常这样做），如厨房体育你知道，在屋子里蹦跳像一个白痴。有时我们打架，但我们爱对方，打完就拥抱。Mysterious Disappearances During FinalsDuring midterms and finals,Ms. Stafford said, the boys”would mysteriously disappear” so that she could study. “I like to deejay,”Joseph said ,” you know,sound-mixing in my room.I had to do this with headphones the entire time. There could be no noise.”期末期间的神秘失踪在期中和期末期间，Ms.Stafford说，孩子们会“神秘失踪”以便她能学习。“我喜欢放音乐”Joseph说，“你知道，在我房间里调音，我不得不一直戴着耳机，那样就没有了噪音。”Between classes, Ms.Stafford would call home and try to at least bring a maternal presence into the conversation:”Have you done your homework?Have you done your chores?”But they would say,”Hey, we dont need you. Goodness,the things we go through putting a parent through school.”课间，Ms.Stafford会给家里打电话，并试图以母亲的身份谈话：作业做好了没？家务做了没？但他们会说，嘿，我们不需要你，老天，我们把一个家长送进了学校。Sometimes it seemed that Seth Hatfield wasnt so much putting his father through school as accompanying him. “Last quarter,I was taking an anthropology course.” Mr.Hatfield said, “and one of the evenings I would take Seth to that class.He would sit and do his homework at the table with me. And the teacher was so nearsighted that she would walk by and give hime handouts, just like one the students.”有时Seth Hatfield不是那么愿意和他父亲一起上课。“上个季度，我选修了人类学，”Mr.Hatfield说，“有一天晚上，我带Seth去上课，他坐在我旁边的桌子上写着自己的作业。老师很近视以至于走到他旁边给他发了讲课提纲，把他当做了自己的学生。”Mr. Hatfield,who is divorced and lives in Columbus, has worked as a landscaper, a salesman , a counselor to juvenile delinquents, and a social worker at a home for the mentally retarded. With a part-time job, a little money in the bank and a grant from Ohio State, he returned to college in 1987 and is maintaining a grade-point average of 3.2.Mr.Hatfield离婚了，住在哥伦布，当过庭园设计家、销售员、少年犯指导老师以及在一个家庭里为弱智患者做社会工作者。通过兼职，和俄亥俄州的奖金，1987年他返回了大学，并保持平均3.2的年级绩点。“I get hit with anxiety attacks,” he said ,”because here I am plowing through Renaissance literature and wishing I was sitting with my son playing a game.”“我有些忧虑，”他说，“Getting early exposure to collegeBut Seth doesnt complain, and his exposure to college has had benefits.”I found out from his teachers that he speaks proudly of going to Ohio State with his dad,”Mr. Hatfield said. “Just walking across campus, with him wearing his Ohio State sweatshirt , gives me the opportunity to familiarize him with what the place really is. We go plunder through the library.He knows that the computer catalogue search system can lead him to information on superman.”“I might go there when I grow up,” Seth said .” When my dad gets his education, if he becomes a teacher, hell have a larger income and I might even have him as a teacher.Maybe Ill borrow money from him for lunch.”Mr. Hatfield realizes that Seth, who lives with his mother about a mile away, is his first priority. “I will cut class to go to his band concert,” he said. “Those things are too precious. I can take an incomplete in a course and make it up.I cant take an incomplete as a parent and ever make that up.”Unit Two: History and Personality Text A Voice of CourageBy Jonathan Alter勇气之声美国乔纳森奥尔特A few days after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn into office, he sat in the White House working on a radio speech about the countrys banking crisis, scheduled for delivery on Sunday, March 12, 1933. It was the depths of the Depression, with a quarter of Americans out of work, homeless and destitute. Glancing out the window, FDR saw a workman taking down the inaugural scaffolding on the White House grounds.在富兰克林德拉诺罗斯福宣誓就职的几天后，他坐在白宫里起草一份关于美国银行业危机的广播演说，它将于1933年3月12日这个星期天播出。此时此刻，美国正处于经济大萧条的水深火热之中，四分之一的美国人不是失业，就是无家可归，穷困潦倒。罗斯福向窗外望去，只见一个工人正在拆掉白宫临时搭建的总统就职演说的平台。 I decided Id try to make a speech that this workman could understand, he told Louis Howe, his chief aide. “我一定要让这样的普通工人也能听得懂我的演讲。”他对首席助理路易斯霍夫说。The American economic system was in a state of shock. On Saturday, March 4, a few hours before FDRs swearing-in, the governors of New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania signed orders closing banks in those states. The New York Stock Exchange had suspended trading, and the Chicago Board of Trade bolted its doors for the first time since its founding in 1848. The terrifying runs that began the year before on more than 5,000 failing banks had stripped rural areas of capital and now threatened to overwhelm American cities.美国的经济体系正处于危难之中。3月4日星期六，就在罗斯福宣誓就职前几个小时，纽约州、伊利诺斯州和宾夕法尼亚州的州长们刚刚签署了指令，关闭这些州的银行。纽约证券交易所已经暂停了交易。而自从1848年成立以来，芝加哥期货交易所也头一次关上了大门。始于前一年的“挤兑”现象令人惊慌，5000多家银行倒闭，农村资金极度匮乏，而现在美国的城市也面临着全面的危机。This was the bottom. If you had your money in a bank that went bust, you were wiped out. With no idea whether banks would reopen, millions of people hid their few remaining assets under their mattresses, where no one could steal them without a fight. 这就是底线了。如果你存钱的银行倒闭了，那么你也就完蛋了。数以百万计的美国人无法确定银行是否能够重新开门，于是把自己仅剩的那点财产都藏在褥垫下面。除非经过一场激战，藏在这里的钱谁也偷不走。Roosevelts inaugural address at the Capitol had begun to restore hope, with his standout line, The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Yet the greatest applause came when he said that if his reform program was not adopted, I shall ask Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis: broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency. 罗斯福在国会的就职演讲给人们重新带来了希望，他那句最著名的话给人们留下了深刻的印象：“唯一值得恐惧的就是恐惧本身。”当提到若改革措施不被接受时，他的决心得到了人们的大声喝彩：“我将向国会要求对付危机的最后手段向紧急状况开战的广泛行政权力。”Then FDR used a new medium in a new way to change millions. 罗斯福以新的方式利用了一种新媒体，改变了百万人的生活。The first Presidential radio broadcast was introduced by Robert Trout of CBS, who read from a folksy script approved by FDR: The President wants to come into your home and sit at your fireside for a little fireside chat. FDR brought natural talent to the role. His speaking voice was a beautiful, relaxed tenor, not the contrived basso profundo of pompous politicians. 第一次总统广播演讲是由CBS的罗伯特特劳特向公众介绍的，这份亲切的介绍词受到了罗斯福的肯定：“总统希望来到你的家里，坐在壁炉旁，与大家做个炉边小谈。”对于完成这个任务，罗斯福有着天分。他的音质优美，语调放松，与那些华而不实的政客的虚情假意完全不同。Roosevelt owed much to technological good fortune. In 1921, the number of radios in the United States was in the thousands. By 1928, there were 9 million, and by 1932, 18 million, with about half the households owning at least one radio. Herbert Hoover had appeared on one of the first telecasts produced by an infant technology called television, but neither he nor anyone else knew how to use the broadcasting medium effectively. 罗斯福的炉边谈话大大受益于技术的发展。1921年，全美收音机的数量只有几千台。而到了1928年，这个数字就达到了900万台。到1932年的时候，全美已经有1800万台收音机了，大约有一半的家庭每家至少有一台收音机。赫伯特胡佛利用过一种叫做电视的新生技术，他曾经首次出现在“电视广播”上。但无论是胡佛还是其他人，都不知道如何有效地利用广播媒体。Roosevelt, though, was different. 然而，罗斯福则与众不同。All afternoon, workers busily removed the gold pieces and Presidential china patterns in the Diplomatic Reception Room on the White House ground floor. In came bulky electrical equipment and telephone cables, connected to a desk and built-in microphone. Meanwhile, Roosevelt pictured people gathered in the parlor, listening with their neighbors, wrote Frances Perkins, who witnessed many broadcasts. As he talked, his head would nod and his hands would move in natural, relaxed gestures. His face would light up as though he were actually sitting with people. 整个下午，工人们都在忙着搬走白宫外交接待大厅里的各种金饰品和总统瓷器，而搬进来的则是笨重的电气设备和电话电缆，这些设备都与一台桌子和内置的麦克风相连接。与此同时，罗斯福想象人们“聚在客厅里，与他们的邻居共同倾听”。曾经亲历了无数广播现场的弗朗西斯珀金斯如是写道，“当罗斯福说话的时候，他点着头，并且做出各种自然而放松的手势。他的面孔熠熠生辉，就好像真的与人们坐在一起谈话一样。”The ritual went this way: Upstairs, FDR would put the finishing touches on every word and phrase. He was obsessed with punctuation. Grace Tully, his secretary, sometimes inserted extra commas when she typed, leading her boss to gently upbraid her for wasting the taxpayers commas. His real concern was timing. He read aloud at about 100 words a minute, but he adjusted his pace for effect. At 6 p.m., Roosevelt had his throat sprayed for a sinus problem. Then he enjoyed cocktails and dinner.整个过程是这样进行的：在楼上，罗斯福对每个单词和短语进行最后的润色。他对标点符号非常在意，而秘书格雷斯塔利打字时有时会多打一些逗号，她的老板会因此语气和善地批评她 “浪费纳税人的逗号”。罗斯福最关心的是时间把握问题。他大声朗读的速度大约是每分钟100个单词，但是他会调整自己的速度以求得到最好的效果。下午6点钟，因为鼻窦的问题罗斯福让人帮他冲洗了喉咙，然后就开始享用鸡尾酒和晚餐了。Moments before the first Fireside Chat was to air, there was a crisis. No one could find his leather-bound reading copy. Panic ensued for everyone except FDR, who calmly picked up a smudged, mimeographed copy. After sipping from a glass of water, he read the words perfectly on the air. 就在第一次炉边谈话播出前一刻，还发生了一场危机：那份用皮革包边的朗读稿找不到了。大家都惊慌失措，而罗斯福则没有。他冷静地拿起一份脏兮兮的油印稿，啜饮了一点水之后，开始完美地朗读起来，并同时向全国播出。The beauty of that first prime-time radio speech was its clarity. FDR walked people through the basics of banking without being patronizing. He outlined the process for deciding which banks to open. He made everyone understand it, even the bankers, Will Rogers quipped later. 这次黄金时段的广播演讲其美妙之处在于它的清晰。罗斯福帮助人们了解了银行业的基本原理，而没有任何施恩于人的姿态。对于哪些银行要开业，他大体介绍了其决策过程。“他让每个人都清楚明白甚至包括银行家在内。”威尔罗杰斯后来打趣地说道。In the middle of the speech, Roosevelt said simply, I can assure you that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress. By raising an issue that made so many feel shameful, he lifted the shameoffering listeners a way to strike a patriotic blow by simply depositing money into a solvent bank. Those who planned instead to withdraw money were gently thrown in with an unsavory lot. Hoarding, the President said, has become an exceedingly unfashionable pastime. 在演讲中，罗斯福简单地说道：“我敢向大家保证，把钱存在重新开业的银行里，比放在褥子底下要安全。”他提及了这件让很多人羞愧的事情，旨在帮助人们摆脱羞愧他告诉人们只要把钱存入有偿付能力的银行，就是一种爱国之举。而打算把钱从银行取走则被温和地指为不明智的行为。总统说，囤积，“已经成为一种极度不流行的消遣行为了。”Then he returned to themes so popular in his inaugural. Confidence and courage are the essentials in carrying out our plan. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system. Together we cannot fail. 然后他又回到在其就职演说中深受欢迎的主题。“在执行计划的过程中，信心和勇气必不可少。让我们联合起来，赶走恐惧。我们已经有了恢复金融体系的机制。只要团结起来，就不会失败的。”Jim Farley, a top political advisor, wrote that if judged by its impact, this speech may have been the greatest single utterance by an American President. No other talk ever called forth such a wave of spontaneous enthusiasm and cooperation. With 60 million people listening, the effect was immediate. The next day, Monday, March 13, newspapers reported long lines of Americans anxious to redeposit their money. The New York Stock Exchange, closed for over a week, opened 15 percent higher, the largest one-day surge in more than half a century. Within a week, most of the recently closed banks reopened. 高级政治顾问吉姆法利认为，如果以