If you ask me, real life is not all it’s cracked up to be. Twelve years at school and three years at university, teachers banging on about opport##unities in the big wide world beyond our sheltered life as students, and what do I find?
依我看，现实生活并没有人们想象的那么好。我们上了12年的中、小学，又上了3年的大学，这期间老师们一直在没完没了地谈论在备受呵护的学生生活之外的那个广阔天地里的各种机会，可我遇到的又是什么呢？
Try as I might to stay cheerful, all I ever get is hassle, sometimes with people (especially boys, god, when will they grow up?), but mostly with money. It’s just so expensive out here! Everyone wants a slice off you. The Inland Revenue wants to deduct income tax, the bank manager wants repayments on my student loan, the landlord wants the rent, gas, water, electricity and my mobile bills keep coming in, and all that’s before I’ve had anything to eat. And then some bright spark calls me out of the blue, asking if I’m interested in buying a pension. At this rate, I won’t even last till the end of the year, let alone till I’m 60. （☞ 翻译时可以根据上下文增译，即增加原文暗含的、但没有直接表达出来的意思，如最后一句译文加了“领养老金”，点出了与上一句的关联。）
无论我怎么想保持心情愉快，可麻烦事总是接踵而来：有时是和人发生矛盾（尤其是跟男孩子，天哪！他们什么时候才能长大？），但通常是为钱发愁。这个地方什么东西都很贵！人人都想从我身上赚点钱：税务局要收个人所得税，银行经理要我偿清学生贷款，房东催我交房租、燃气费、水费、电费，手机账单也不断地寄来。所有这些还没算上吃饭的钱。更可气的是，不知从哪里冒出一个自作聪明的家伙给我打电话，问我要不要买养老金。照这样下去，我甚至都支撑不到年底，更别提活到60岁领养老金了。
我认为，选修第二专业并不适合每一位本科生。我大学本科主修英语专业，大一时就开始辅修经济学了。无疑，我是班里最用功的学生。我竭尽全力想同时达到两个不同专业的要求，但还是有不及格的时候。因为经济学需要良好的数学基础，我不得不花大量时间钻研数学，因而忽略了英语学习。(if you ask me; by all odds; try as … might; given that)
If you ask me, taking a second major isn’t good for every undergraduate. In my freshman year as an English major, I took economics as my minor. By all odds, I was the most hard-working student in my class. But try as I might to meet the requirements of the two different subjects, I still couldn’t do well enough to pass all the exams. Given that the study of economics required a good command of mathematics, I had to spend so much time on math that I neglected my English.
第二学期,《英国文学》及《宏观经济学》两门课不及格给我敲响了警钟，这可是我一生中第一次考试不及格，这大大打击了我的自信心。虽然我不是一个容易向命运低头的人，在暑假结束的时候，我还是决定放弃经济学，以免两个专业都难以完成。当我只需修一个专业的时候，一切似乎又回到了正轨。(sap one’s confidence; bow to fate; come to a close; for fear that; now that)
Failing English Literature and Macroeconomics in the second term sounded the alarm for me. This was the first time I did not pass a course in my life, which had greatly sapped my confidence. Although I was not a man who would easily bow to fate, as the summer break came to a close, I decided to give up economics for fear that I would fail both subjects. Now that I had only one subject to attend to, everything seemed to be on the right track again.
Unit2
Indubitably the vast majority of books overlap one another. Few indeed are those which give the impression of originality, either in style or in content. Rare are the unique books – less than 50, perhaps, out of the whole storehouse of literature. In one of his recent autobiographical novels, Blaise Cendrars points out that Rémy de Gourmont, because of his knowledge and awareness of this repetitive quality in books, was able to select and read all that is worthwhile in the entire realm of literature. Cendrars himself – who would suspect it? – is a prodigious reader. He reads most authors in their original tongue.（☞ 几处倒装句应灵活处理，以体现原文语气。every last book the man has written 意思为 all the books he has written，要注意这段话的逻辑关系。If he is anything, he is a man of …一句中的 if 从句 起强调作用，说明他不是一个书生或思想家，而是一个行动家，此处需灵活翻译。）
不容置疑的是，大多数书都互相重复，在文体或内容上让人感到具有独创性的书实在是少之又少。在整个文学库藏中，只有极少数作品——或许不到50本——是独具一格的。在最近出版的一部自传体小说中，布莱斯•桑德拉尔指出，古尔蒙之所以能够选择并通读文学领域中一切值得读的书籍，就是因为他知识渊博，并且了解书的这种重复性。桑德拉尔本人就是一个博览群书的人，没有人会怀疑这一点。他阅读了大部分作家的原作。
Not only that, but when he likes an author he reads every last book the man has written, as well as his letters and all the books that have been written about him. In our day his case is almost unparalleled, I imagine. For, not only has he read widely and deeply, but he has himself written a great many books. All on the side, as it were. For, if he is anything, Cendrars, he is a man of action, an adventurer and explorer, a man who has known how to “waste” his time royally. He is, in a sense, the Julius Caesar of literature.
不仅如此，一旦他喜欢上一个作家，他就会阅读这个作家写的每一本书，包括他的书信以及所有有关他的书籍。我猜想，在当今世界上，几乎没有人能像他一样，不仅读得广、读得精，而且还著述颇丰。可以说这一切都是在业余时间完成的。因为桑德拉尔是一个十足的行动家，一个四处跋涉的冒险家和探险家，一个懂得如何“肆意浪费”时间的人。从某种意义上说，他是文学界的凯撒大帝。
张磊是在毕业工作后才开始意识到读书的乐趣的。反思自己的大学教育时，他感慨不已：他的一些同学都沉浸于从图书馆或书店找到的各种有趣的书籍， 而他却只读了一些教科书，其中连一本真正值得一读、让他爱不释手的书都没有。他可以说是被剥夺了通过书了解作家奇妙世界的特权。
如今，他嗜书如命，废寝忘食，好像要把大学期间没机会读的好书全都读一遍。到目前为止他已经利用业余时间读了几百本小说、传记和游记。他意识到书不仅能向他展示一个充满希望的前景，帮他消除现实生活中的压力和疲劳，而且能够帮他澄清一些误解，找到生活的真谛。(reflect on; immerse in; lay hands on; worthwhile; in one sitting; so to speak; vista; withstand)
It was not until after he had graduated from university and started to work that Zhang Lei became aware of the pleasure of reading. Reflecting on his undergraduate studies, he lamented that he, unlike some of his classmates who had immersed themselves in various interesting books they were able to lay hands on from the library or bookshops, had only read textbooks, none of which was really worthwhile, or could be read in one sitting. He was deprived of the privilege of gaining access to the writers’ fantastic worlds through the windows their books have opened, so to speak.
Now he has become an avid and omnivorous reader. It is as if he wants to read all those marvellous books he hadn’t had a chance to read in his university days. By now, in his spare time, he has read several hundreds of books, including novels, biographies and travel notes. He realizes that books can not only reveal to him the vista of a hopeful future and help him withstand stresses and strains, they can also help him clear up some misconceptions and discover the true meaning of life.
Unit3
Sometimes the hemline indicator, as it’s called, can even precede and predict a change in the mood of the stock market long before it actually happens. In September 2007, at the New York fashion shows, which were displaying their styles for spring 2008, the trend was for much longer dresses and skirts, many to mid-calf or even down to the ankles. Some people felt this showed that the hemline indicator was no longer reliable, and that designers no longer dictated what people would wear.
有时候，所谓的裙摆标志甚至能够预示股市的行情。2007年9月的纽约时装展展示了2008年春季流行式样，潮流转向了长衣、长裙，裙摆长及小腿中部，甚至到了脚踝。有人觉得这表明裙摆标志靠不住了，服装设计师已经丧失了对时装的主宰权。
During the London and New York to drop. But sure enough, in the fall of 2008, the stock market indexes fell dramatically when the banking crisis hit the US, Europe and then the rest of the world. Hemlines were no longer following the stock market – they were showing the way and indicating future economic trends. （☞最后一句译文需要用加词译法，加上“被动地”一词可起强调作用，让本句的意思更明确。）
2008年9月，在伦敦和纽约时装展中，裙摆的高度继续降低。果然，2008年秋天金融危机袭击欧美，并波及全球，股指急剧下跌。这时，裙摆不再被动地追随股市的变化，而是预示股市行情及未来的经济趋势。
一个人的穿着似乎能影响他的行为方式。譬如，在校内要穿校服是中小学生所必须严格遵守的规矩之一。倘若在学生着装整齐划一和行为的统一规范之间不存在一种象征性关联的话，校服便不可能如此盛行。 (hard and fast; there is no doubt that; currency; correlation)
What you wear seems to dictate your behaviour. Take primary school and high school students for example. One of the hard and fast rules they have to observe is that they must wear uniforms at school. There is no doubt that school uniforms would not have achieved their currency without a symbolic correlation between the uniformity of clothes and the students’ conformity to some common code of conduct.
然而，多年的学校生活让学生在内心里对随处可见的校服产生了抵触情绪，校服毕竟压制了个性的表达。为了弥补这种损失，学生常常会在周末穿流行的休闲装。直到上了大学，他们才会享受真正的着装自由，而服装上的无序与大学培养创造力、鼓励自由表达思想及展露才华密切相关。可惜这样的好景不会太长，经过一段相对短暂的自由之后，他们在毕业工作之后将再次经历着装规范的压力。 (backlash; ubiquitous; compensate for; anarchy; obtain; revive)
However, after years of school life, there is always a backlash secretly nursed in the students’ mind against the ubiquitous uniform which suppresses the expression of individuality. To compensate for this loss, students usually wear more casual and popular clothes on weekends. It is not until they start university, however, that they can really enjoy the freedom of dress, an anarchy associated with the cultivation of creativity and the encouragement of free expression of ideas and talents. But this situation won’t obtain for long. After a relatively short time of liberty, they may experience again the revived pressure of dress code as soon as they become professionals.
Unit4
Today, while most of us marry for romantic reasons, marriage at its core is still a financial union. So much of what we want – or don’t want – out of life boils down to dollars and cents, whether it’s how hard we choose to work, how much we consume or how much we save. For some people, it’s working 80-hour weeks to finance a third home and country club membership; for others, it means cutting back on office hours to spend more time with the family.
如今，尽管我们大多数人是因相爱而结婚，婚姻从根本上讲仍然是金钱上的结合。不管是工作的努力程度，还是决定消费多少或储蓄多少，我们生活中想要得到的——或不想得到的——许多东西归根结底都跟钱有关。对一些人来说，他们想要的就是一周工作80小时来支付第三套房的房款和乡村俱乐部的会员费；而对另一些人来说，他们想缩短上班时间，花更多的时间陪伴家人。
“A lot of the debates people have about money are code for how we want to live our lives,” said Betsey Stevenson, assistant professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, who researches the economics of marriage and divorce. “A lot of the choices we make in how we want to live our lives involve how we spend our money.”
Making those choices as a team is one of the most important ways to preserve your marital assets, and your union, experts say. But it’s that much easier when you already share similar outlooks on money matters – or when you can, at the very least, find some middle ground.
“有关钱的许多争论是提示我们想如何生活的密码，而生活方式的许多选择则与如何花钱密切相关。”宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院的商业及公共政策助理教授贝齐•史蒂文森如是说，他研究婚姻和离婚经济学。
专家们说，夫妻共同做出这些选择是维护婚姻资产及婚姻关系的最重要的方法之一。当然，如果夫妻双方一开始就在钱的问题上看法相似，或者至少能够在钱的问题上相互妥协，那么事情就好办多了。
谈及目前经济萧条所带来的影响，学生活动的减少就是一个很好的例证。为了活跃校园生活，大学愿意划拨一部分资金来资助学生社团活动，但由于今年学校的预算大幅减少，对社团的资助也相应缩减了不少。显然，学生社团要恢复以前的活力就必须想办法克服自身的经济困难。有人主张招募更多会员，因为会员费的增加可以帮助他们度过难关。(when it comes to; carve out; pare down)
When it comes to the effects of the current economic downturn, the decrease of student activities is a good case in point. To enliven campus life, the university is always willing to carve out some money for activities organized by student clubs and societies, but such sponsorships have been pared down this year because of huge budget cut. Apparently, student organizations need to weather their own financial crisis if they want to recover from their current state of inactiveness. Some suggest enrolling more club members, on the ground that the consequent increase of membership fees may help them get out of the difficulty.
当然，如果有更多的会员交年费，而且缩减一些日常开支，我们还是能省下一些钱来组织活动的。但是，问题的关键在于社团活动的费用与参加活动的人数是成正比的，因此这种方法恐怕不太可行。要推进社团活动，同时又不使经费超支，我们必须群策群力，拿出别的筹钱方法，而不是仅仅依赖学校拨款和会员费。(cut back on; bottom line; go into the red; pool; in lieu of)
No doubt, if we have more members paying the annual fee, and if we cut back on our daily expenses, we can spare some money to organize activities. But the bottom line is that the expenses of these activities are in proportion to the number of participants. I’m afraid this won’t be of much help. To boost student activities and to avoid going into the red, we still need to pool our ideas and come up with some other ways of raising money, in lieu of just relying on university grants and membership fees.
Unit5
Women can’t even fill out a form without telling stories about themselves. Most application forms now give four choices for titles. Men have one to choose – “Mr.” – so their choice carries no meaning other than to say they are male. But women must choose among three, each of them marked. A woman who checks the box for “Mrs.” or “Miss” communicates not only whether she has been married but also that she has conservative tastes in forms of address, and probably other conservative values as well.
女人一填表就会暴露自己的个人经历。现在大多数的申请表会给出四种称谓选择。男人只有一种选择，即“先生”（Mr.），这除了表明他们是男性之外没有其他任何含义。女人则必须从三种称谓中选一个，而任何一种都是标记性的。如果一位女士勾选了“太太”（Mrs.）或者“小姐”（Miss）的称谓，那么她不仅暴露了自己的婚姻状况，而且还表明她在称谓方面很保守，或许在其他价值观念方面也很保守。
Checking “Ms.” declines to let on about marriage (whereas “Mr.” declines nothing since nothing was asked), but it also marks the woman who checks it on her form as either liberated or rebellious, depending on the attitudes and assumptions of the one making the judgment.
如果她选择“女士”（Ms.）这一称谓，那么说明她拒绝透露自己的婚姻状况（而男士选“先生”这个称谓时则没有故意隐瞒任何事情，因为本来就没有要求他透露婚姻信息）。另外，在表格中勾选“女士”这一称谓的人会被标记为思想解放的人或叛逆者，这就要看评判她的人持什么样的态度和看法了。
I sometimes try to duck these variously marked choices by giving my title as “Dr.” – and thereby risk marking myself as either uppity (hence sarcastic responses like “Excuse me!”) or an over-achiever (hence reactions of congratulatory surprise, like “Good for you!”).(第二段是一个长句，翻译时应注意按照中文的习惯断句。)
我有时会选择“博士”头衔，以避开这几种带标记的称谓选项。但这么做又会给自己带来风险，标明自己要么骄傲自大（于是乎招来讥讽的反应，比如“对不起，我不知道你是博士！”），要么是一个成功欲过强的人（那么对方的反应就是祝贺式的惊奇，比如“你真行！”）。
我们对理想丈夫或理想妻子的假设显示出我们的性别期待以及我们对性别期待的反应。如果大多数年轻姑娘希望她们的未婚夫强悍、能干、可靠，那么小伙子们也就别无选择，只能把自己训练得强悍、能干、可靠，这样才能赢得女孩子的芳心。如果他们的做法与性别期待背道而驰，那么他们很可能会在悲叹自己的光棍生涯中度过下半辈子。根据同样的不成文法则，如果多数年轻男子希望他们的未婚妻温柔体贴、耐心、忠贞，认为这些比什么都重要，那么姑娘即便不是这种人，也会假装自己将来会成为贤妻良母。 (presumption; option; other than; bemoan; unwritten rule; to be prone to; let on)
Our presumptions about what ideal husbands or wives are like reveal a lot about our gender expectations as well as our responses to them. If most girls want their fiancés to be tough, capable and reliable, there is no option left for young men other than to be trained as tough, capable and reliable if they want to win girls’ heart. If they act to the contrary, they will most probably bemoan their bachelor’s status for the rest of their lives. Following the same unwritten rule, if most boys expect their fiancées to be caring, patient and faithful more than anything else, girls are prone to let on that they will become faithful wives and loving mothers even if they are not the type.
深入研究一下这种性别期待，我们就会发现这是受生理和社会因素制约的。无疑，女性为孕育婴儿做好了生理准备，而男人则完全不适合这项工作。男人只有努力挣钱养家，才能让一家人过上好日子。(goes without saying)
Looking into such gender expectations, we may find that they are based on both physiological and social factors. It goes without saying that women are physically prepared to bear children, whereas men are utterly unfit for the job. Therefore, a family is better off when its male members devote their time to providing food and other necessities for it.
Unit6
The historian is not required to have the special skills which enable the expert to determine the origin and period of a fragment of pottery or marble, to decipher an obscure inscription, or to make the elaborate astronomical calculations necessary to establish a precise date. These so-called basic facts which are the same for all historians commonly belong to the category of the raw materials of the historian rather than of history itself.
历史学家不需要掌握特殊的技能去确定陶瓷或大理石残片的起源与断代、去解读一段意义隐晦的铭文的含义、或是为确定一个准确的日期而进行繁复的天文计算。这些所谓的基本事实对所有的历史学家来说都是一样的，它们是历史学家可用的原始素材，而非历史本身。
The second observation is that the necessity to establish these basic facts rests not on any quality in the facts themselves, but on an a priori decision of the historian. In spite of C. P. Scott’s motto, every journalist knows today that the most effective way to influence opinion is by the selection and arrangement of the appropriate facts. It used to be said that facts speak for themselves. This is, of course, untrue. The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: It is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context. It was, I think, one of Pirandello’s characters who said that a fact is like a sack – it won’t stand up till you’ve put something in it.
我要说的第二点是，是否需要确定这些基本的事实并不取决于这些事实本身，而是取决于历史学家事先做出的判断。尽管 C. P. 斯科特的那句箴言深入人心（译者注：斯科特的箴言Comment is free, but facts are sacred.“事实不可歪曲，评述大可自由”），但是现在每一名新闻记者都知道要影响大众舆论，最有效的方式就是对特定的事实进行选择和剪接。人们以前常说事实不言自明。这种说法显然是错误的，历史事实只是在历史学家用到时才会不言自明。哪些事实可以现身说法，以及这些事实以什么样的顺序或是在什么样的情景中出现，都是由历史学家来决定的。我记得皮兰德娄笔下的一个人物曾经说过：事实就像一个麻袋——不塞点东西进去就立不起来。
The only reason why we are interested to know that the battle was fought at Hastings in 1066 is that historians regard it as a major historical event. It is the historian who has decided for his own reasons that Caesar’s crossing of that petty stream, the Rubicon, is a fact of history, whereas the crossing of the Rubicon by millions of other people before or since interests nobody at all. The fact that you arrived in this building half an hour ago on foot, or on a bicycle, or in a car, is just as much a fact about the past as the fact that Caesar crossed the Rubicon.
我们之所以对1066年发生在黑斯廷斯的战役感兴趣，其唯一的原因就是历史学家把这一战役看作是一个重大的历史事件。历史学家依照自己的推断，认为凯撒穿越那条小河——卢比孔河——是一个史实，但没有人对在他之前或是之后几百万其他人穿过这条河的举动感兴趣。你半个小时之前或徒步、或骑车或开车来到这座大楼，这件事和当年凯撒渡过卢比孔河一样都是一个关于过去的客观事实。
为保证校园的安全，校方最近发布了一项新的规定，禁止小商贩进入校园。校长呼吁学生在这件事上与学校合作。学生们表示强烈反对，几百名学生在学校的BBS上表达了他们的愤怒。他们说，因为校园离市中心很远，校内商店里的货品又不多，把小贩赶出校园就无异于把学生扔到孤岛上。有些人提出，正是在这样的事情上，学校应该听取学生的意见和需求。有些学生认为，这项规定能让校园更安全的想法是错误的。(it’s for matters of this kind; get sth. wrong)
To make the campus safer, the university authorities recently released a new regulation that forbids any vendors from entering the campus, and the president called on the students to cooperate with the university on this matter. But the students’ opposition was strong, and hundreds of them expressed their anger on the university BBS. They said that to keep vendors off campus was like deserting students on an isolated island, as the university was far away from the downtown and the shops on the campus did not provide enough commodities. Some claimed that it was precisely for matters of this kind that the university should listen to students’ opinions and needs. Some students thought the university had got it wrong in believing that this regulation will ensure safety on campus.
学生的反应让校长感到震惊，为弥补过失，他宣布学校将重新考虑这项规定。他对学生说，他们完全有权力过上方便、舒适的生活，但校园的安全也同样重要。他还提议在校园里建一个大超市，在宿舍楼附近开一些便利店 (convenience store)，这样就能大大方便学生们的生活 。 (make amends; be entitled to)
Shocked by students’ reaction, the president tried to make amends for this mistake by announcing that the university will look into this new regulation again. He told students that they were entitled to live a convenient and comfortable life, but safety was just as much an important concern as that. He proposed to build a big supermarket within the campus and some convenience stores near dormitory buildings, which would certainly make students’ life much easier.
Unit1
If you ask me, real life is not all it’s cracked up to be. Twelve years at school and three years at university, teachers banging on about opport##unities in the big wide world beyond our sheltered life as students, and what do I find? 依我看，现实生活并没有人们想象的那么好。我们上了12年的中、小学，又上了3年的大学，这期间老师们一直在没完没了地谈论在备受呵护的学生生活之外的那个广阔天地里的各种机会，可我遇到的又是什么呢？
Try as I might to stay cheerful, all I ever get is hassle, sometimes with people (especially boys, god, when will they grow up?), but mostly with money. It’s just so expensive out here! Everyone wants a slice off you. The Inland Revenue wants to deduct income tax, the bank manager wants repayments on my student loan, the landlord wants the rent, gas, water, electricity and my mobile bills keep coming in, and all that’s before I’ve had anything to eat. And then some bright spark calls me out of the blue, asking if I’m interested in buying a pension. At this rate, I won’t even last till the end of the year, let alone till I’m 60. （☞ 翻译时可以根据上下文增译，即增加原文暗含的、但没有直接表达出来的意思，如最后一句译文加了“领养老金”，点出了与上一句的关联。） 无论我怎么想保持心情愉快，可麻烦事总是接踵而来：有时是和人发生矛盾（尤其是跟男孩子，天哪！他们什么时候才能长大？），但通常是为钱发愁。这个地方什么东西都很贵！人人都想从我身上赚点钱：税务局要收个人所得税，银行经理要我偿清学生贷款，房东催我交房租、燃气费、水费、电费，手机账单也不断地寄来。所有这些还没算上吃饭的钱。更可气的是，不知从哪里冒出一个自作聪明的家伙给我打电话，问我要不要买养老金。照这样下去，我甚至都支撑不到年底，更别提活到60岁领养老金了。
我认为，选修第二专业并不适合每一位本科生。我大学本科主修英语专业，大一时就开始辅修经济学了。无疑，我是班里最用功的学生。我竭尽全力想同时达到两个不同专业的要求，但还是有不及格的时候。因为经济学需要良好的数学基础，我不得不花大量时间钻研数学，因而忽略了英语学习。(if you ask me; by all odds; try as … might; given that) If you ask me, taking a second major isn’t good for every undergraduate. In my freshman year as an English major, I took economics as my minor. By all odds, I was the most hard-working student in my class. But try as I might to meet the requirements of the two different subjects, I still couldn’t do well enough to pass all the exams. Given that the study of economics required a good command of mathematics, I had to spend so much time on math that I neglected my English.
第二学期,《英国文学》及《宏观经济学》两门课不及格给我敲响了警钟，这可是我一生中第一次考试不及格，这大大打击了我的自信心。虽然我不是一个容易向命运低头的人，在暑假结束的时候，我还是决定放弃经济学，以免两个专业都难以完成。当我只需修一个专业的时候，一切似乎又回到了正轨。(sap one’s confidence; bow to fate; come to a close; for fear that; now that) Failing English Literature and Macroeconomics in the second term sounded the alarm for me. This was the first time I did not pass a course in my life, which had greatly sapped my confidence. Although I was not a man who would easily bow to fate, as the summer break came to a close, I decided to give up economics for fear that I would fail both subjects. Now that I had only one subject to attend to, everything seemed to be on the right track again.
Unit2
Indubitably the vast majority of books overlap one another. Few indeed are those which give the impression of originality, either in style or in content. Rare are the unique books – less than 50, perhaps, out of the whole storehouse of literature. In one of his recent autobiographical novels, Blaise Cendrars points out that Rémy de Gourmont, because of his knowledge and awareness of this repetitive quality in books, was able to select and read all that is worthwhile in the entire realm of literature. Cendrars himself – who would suspect it? – is a prodigious reader. He reads most authors in their original tongue.（☞ 几处倒装句应灵活处理，以体现原文语气。every last book the man has written 意思为 all the books he has written，要注意这段话的逻辑关系。If he is anything, he is a man of …一句中的 if 从句 起强调作用，说明他不是一个书生或思想家，而是一个行动家，此处需灵活翻译。） 不容置疑的是，大多数书都互相重复，在文体或内容上让人感到具有独创性的书实在是少之又少。在整个文学库藏中，只有极少数作品——或许不到50本——是独具一格的。在最近出版的一部自传体小说中，布莱斯•桑德拉尔指出，古尔蒙之所以能够选择并通读文学领域中一切值得读的书籍，就是因为他知识渊博，并且了解书的这种重复性。桑德拉尔本人就是一个博览群书的人，没有人会怀疑这一点。他阅读了大部分作家的原作。
Not only that, but when he likes an author he reads every last book the man has written, as well as his letters and all the books that have been written about him. In our day his case is almost unparalleled, I imagine. For, not only has he read widely and deeply, but he has himself written a great many books. All on the side, as it were. For, if he is anything, Cendrars, he is a man of action, an adventurer and explorer, a man who has known how to “waste” his time royally. He is, in a sense, the Julius Caesar of literature. 不仅如此，一旦他喜欢上一个作家，他就会阅读这个作家写的每一本书，包括他的书信以及所有有关他的书籍。我猜想，在当今世界上，几乎没有人能像他一样，不仅读得广、读得精，而且还著述颇丰。可以说这一切都是在业余时间完成的。因为桑德拉尔是一个十足的行动家，一个四处跋涉的冒险家和探险家，一个懂得如何“肆意浪费”时间的人。从某种意义上说，他是文学界的凯撒大帝。
张磊是在毕业工作后才开始意识到读书的乐趣的。反思自己的大学教育时，他感慨不已：他的一些同学都沉浸于从图书馆或书店找到的各种有趣的书籍， 而他却只读了一些教科书，其中连一本真正值得一读、让他爱不释手的书都没有。他可以说是被剥夺了通过书了解作家奇妙世界的特权。 如今，他嗜书如命，废寝忘食，好像要把大学期间没机会读的好书全都读一遍。到目前为止他已经利用业余时间读了几百本小说、传记和游记。他意识到书不仅能向他展示一个充满希望的前景，帮他消除现实生活中的压力和疲劳，而且能够帮他澄清一些误解，找到生活的真谛。(reflect on; immerse in; lay hands on; worthwhile; in one sitting; so to speak; vista; withstand) It was not until after he had graduated from university and started to work that Zhang Lei became aware of the pleasure of reading. Reflecting on his undergraduate studies, he lamented that he, unlike some of his classmates who had immersed themselves in various interesting books they were able to lay hands on from the library or bookshops, had only read textbooks, none of which was really worthwhile, or could be read in one sitting. He was deprived of the privilege of gaining access to the writers’ fantastic worlds through the windows their books have opened, so to speak.
Now he has become an avid and omnivorous reader. It is as if he wants to read all those marvellous books he hadn’t had a chance to read in his university days. By now, in his spare time, he has read several hundreds of books, including novels, biographies and travel notes. He realizes that books can not only reveal to him the vista of a hopeful future and help him withstand stresses and strains, they can also help him clear up some misconceptions and discover the true meaning of life.
Unit3
Sometimes the hemline indicator, as it’s called, can even precede and predict a change in the mood of the stock market long before it actually happens. In September 2007, at the New York fashion shows, which were displaying their styles for spring 2008, the trend was for much longer dresses and skirts, many to mid-calf or even down to the ankles. Some people felt this showed that the hemline indicator was no longer reliable, and that designers no longer dictated what people would wear. 有时候，所谓的裙摆标志甚至能够预示股市的行情。2007年9月的纽约时装展展示了2008年春季流行式样，潮流转向了长衣、长裙，裙摆长及小腿中部，甚至到了脚踝。有人觉得这表明裙摆标志靠不住了，服装设计师已经丧失了对时装的主宰权。
During the London and New York to drop. But sure enough, in the fall of 2008, the stock market indexes fell dramatically when the banking crisis hit the US, Europe and then the rest of the world. Hemlines were no longer following the stock market – they were showing the way and indicating future economic trends. （☞最后一句译文需要用加词译法，加上“被动地”一词可起强调作用，让本句的意思更明确。） 2008年9月，在伦敦和纽约时装展中，裙摆的高度继续降低。果然，2008年秋天金融危机袭击欧美，并波及全球，股指急剧下跌。这时，裙摆不再被动地追随股市的变化，而是预示股市行情及未来的经济趋势。
一个人的穿着似乎能影响他的行为方式。譬如，在校内要穿校服是中小学生所必须严格遵守的规矩之一。倘若在学生着装整齐划一和行为的统一规范之间不存在一种象征性关联的话，校服便不可能如此盛行。 (hard and fast; there is no doubt that; currency; correlation) What you wear seems to dictate your behaviour. Take primary school and high school students for example. One of the hard and fast rules they have to observe is that they must wear uniforms at school. There is no doubt that school uniforms would not have achieved their currency without a symbolic correlation between the uniformity of clothes and the students’ conformity to some common code of conduct.
然而，多年的学校生活让学生在内心里对随处可见的校服产生了抵触情绪，校服毕竟压制了个性的表达。为了弥补这种损失，学生常常会在周末穿流行的休闲装。直到上了大学，他们才会享受真正的着装自由，而服装上的无序与大学培养创造力、鼓励自由表达思想及展露才华密切相关。可惜这样的好景不会太长，经过一段相对短暂的自由之后，他们在毕业工作之后将再次经历着装规范的压力。 (backlash; ubiquitous; compensate for; anarchy; obtain; revive) However, after years of school life, there is always a backlash secretly nursed in the students’ mind against the ubiquitous uniform which suppresses the expression of individuality. To compensate for this loss, students usually wear more casual and popular clothes on weekends. It is not until they start university, however, that they can really enjoy the freedom of dress, an anarchy associated with the cultivation of creativity and the encouragement of free expression of ideas and talents. But this situation won’t obtain for long. After a relatively short time of liberty, they may experience again the revived pressure of dress code as soon as they become professionals.
Unit4
Today, while most of us marry for romantic reasons, marriage at its core is still a financial union. So much of what we want – or don’t want – out of life boils down to dollars and cents, whether it’s how hard we choose to work, how much we consume or how much we save. For some people, it’s working 80-hour weeks to finance a third home and country club membership; for others, it means cutting back on office hours to spend more time with the family. 如今，尽管我们大多数人是因相爱而结婚，婚姻从根本上讲仍然是金钱上的结合。不管是工作的努力程度，还是决定消费多少或储蓄多少，我们生活中想要得到的——或不想得到的——许多东西归根结底都跟钱有关。对一些人来说，他们想要的就是一周工作80小时来支付第三套房的房款和乡村俱乐部的会员费；而对另一些人来说，他们想缩短上班时间，花更多的时间陪伴家人。
“A lot of the debates people have about money are code for how we want to live our lives,” said Betsey Stevenson, assistant professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, who researches the economics of marriage and divorce. “A lot of the choices we make in how we want to live our lives involve how we spend our money.” Making those choices as a team is one of the most important ways to preserve your marital assets, and your union, experts say. But it’s that much easier when you already share similar outlooks on money matters – or when you can, at the very least, find some middle ground. “有关钱的许多争论是提示我们想如何生活的密码，而生活方式的许多选择则与如何花钱密切相关。”宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院的商业及公共政策助理教授贝齐•史蒂文森如是说，他研究婚姻和离婚经济学。 专家们说，夫妻共同做出这些选择是维护婚姻资产及婚姻关系的最重要的方法之一。当然，如果夫妻双方一开始就在钱的问题上看法相似，或者至少能够在钱的问题上相互妥协，那么事情就好办多了。
谈及目前经济萧条所带来的影响，学生活动的减少就是一个很好的例证。为了活跃校园生活，大学愿意划拨一部分资金来资助学生社团活动，但由于今年学校的预算大幅减少，对社团的资助也相应缩减了不少。显然，学生社团要恢复以前的活力就必须想办法克服自身的经济困难。有人主张招募更多会员，因为会员费的增加可以帮助他们度过难关。(when it comes to; carve out; pare down) When it comes to the effects of the current economic downturn, the decrease of student activities is a good case in point. To enliven campus life, the university is always willing to carve out some money for activities organized by student clubs and societies, but such sponsorships have been pared down this year because of huge budget cut. Apparently, student organizations need to weather their own financial crisis if they want to recover from their current state of inactiveness. Some suggest enrolling more club members, on the ground that the consequent increase of membership fees may help them get out of the difficulty.
当然，如果有更多的会员交年费，而且缩减一些日常开支，我们还是能省下一些钱来组织活动的。但是，问题的关键在于社团活动的费用与参加活动的人数是成正比的，因此这种方法恐怕不太可行。要推进社团活动，同时又不使经费超支，我们必须群策群力，拿出别的筹钱方法，而不是仅仅依赖学校拨款和会员费。(cut back on; bottom line; go into the red; pool; in lieu of) No doubt, if we have more members paying the annual fee, and if we cut back on our daily expenses, we can spare some money to organize activities. But the bottom line is that the expenses of these activities are in proportion to the number of participants. I’m afraid this won’t be of much help. To boost student activities and to avoid going into the red, we still need to pool our ideas and come up with some other ways of raising money, in lieu of just relying on university grants and membership fees.
Unit5
Women can’t even fill out a form without telling stories about themselves. Most application forms now give four choices for titles. Men have one to choose – “Mr.” – so their choice carries no meaning other than to say they are male. But women must choose among three, each of them marked. A woman who checks the box for “Mrs.” or “Miss” communicates not only whether she has been married but also that she has conservative tastes in forms of address, and probably other conservative values as well. 女人一填表就会暴露自己的个人经历。现在大多数的申请表会给出四种称谓选择。男人只有一种选择，即“先生”（Mr.），这除了表明他们是男性之外没有其他任何含义。女人则必须从三种称谓中选一个，而任何一种都是标记性的。如果一位女士勾选了“太太”（Mrs.）或者“小姐”（Miss）的称谓，那么她不仅暴露了自己的婚姻状况，而且还表明她在称谓方面很保守，或许在其他价值观念方面也很保守。
Checking “Ms.” declines to let on about marriage (whereas “Mr.” declines nothing since nothing was asked), but it also marks the woman who checks it on her form as either liberated or rebellious, depending on the attitudes and assumptions of the one making the judgment. 如果她选择“女士”（Ms.）这一称谓，那么说明她拒绝透露自己的婚姻状况（而男士选“先生”这个称谓时则没有故意隐瞒任何事情，因为本来就没有要求他透露婚姻信息）。另外，在表格中勾选“女士”这一称谓的人会被标记为思想解放的人或叛逆者，这就要看评判她的人持什么样的态度和看法了。
I sometimes try to duck these variously marked choices by giving my title as “Dr.” – and thereby risk marking myself as either uppity (hence sarcastic responses like “Excuse me!”) or an over-achiever (hence reactions of congratulatory surprise, like “Good for you!”).(第二段是一个长句，翻译时应注意按照中文的习惯断句。) 我有时会选择“博士”头衔，以避开这几种带标记的称谓选项。但这么做又会给自己带来风险，标明自己要么骄傲自大（于是乎招来讥讽的反应，比如“对不起，我不知道你是博士！”），要么是一个成功欲过强的人（那么对方的反应就是祝贺式的惊奇，比如“你真行！”）。
我们对理想丈夫或理想妻子的假设显示出我们的性别期待以及我们对性别期待的反应。如果大多数年轻姑娘希望她们的未婚夫强悍、能干、可靠，那么小伙子们也就别无选择，只能把自己训练得强悍、能干、可靠，这样才能赢得女孩子的芳心。如果他们的做法与性别期待背道而驰，那么他们很可能会在悲叹自己的光棍生涯中度过下半辈子。根据同样的不成文法则，如果多数年轻男子希望他们的未婚妻温柔体贴、耐心、忠贞，认为这些比什么都重要，那么姑娘即便不是这种人，也会假装自己将来会成为贤妻良母。 (presumption; option; other than; bemoan; unwritten rule; to be prone to; let on) Our presumptions about what ideal husbands or wives are like reveal a lot about our gender expectations as well as our responses to them. If most girls want their fiancés to be tough, capable and reliable, there is no option left for young men other than to be trained as tough, capable and reliable if they want to win girls’ heart. If they act to the contrary, they will most probably bemoan their bachelor’s status for the rest of their lives. Following the same unwritten rule, if most boys expect their fiancées to be caring, patient and faithful more than anything else, girls are prone to let on that they will become faithful wives and loving mothers even if they are not the type.
深入研究一下这种性别期待，我们就会发现这是受生理和社会因素制约的。无疑，女性为孕育婴儿做好了生理准备，而男人则完全不适合这项工作。男人只有努力挣钱养家，才能让一家人过上好日子。(goes without saying) Looking into such gender expectations, we may find that they are based on both physiological and social factors. It goes without saying that women are physically prepared to bear children, whereas men are utterly unfit for the job. Therefore, a family is better off when its male members devote their time to providing food and other necessities for it.
Unit6
The historian is not required to have the special skills which enable the expert to determine the origin and period of a fragment of pottery or marble, to decipher an obscure inscription, or to make the elaborate astronomical calculations necessary to establish a precise date. These so-called basic facts which are the same for all historians commonly belong to the category of the raw materials of the historian rather than of history itself. 历史学家不需要掌握特殊的技能去确定陶瓷或大理石残片的起源与断代、去解读一段意义隐晦的铭文的含义、或是为确定一个准确的日期而进行繁复的天文计算。这些所谓的基本事实对所有的历史学家来说都是一样的，它们是历史学家可用的原始素材，而非历史本身。
The second observation is that the necessity to establish these basic facts rests not on any quality in the facts themselves, but on an a priori decision of the historian. In spite of C. P. Scott’s motto, every journalist knows today that the most effective way to influence opinion is by the selection and arrangement of the appropriate facts. It used to be said that facts speak for themselves. This is, of course, untrue. The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: It is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context. It was, I think, one of Pirandello’s characters who said that a fact is like a sack – it won’t stand up till you’ve put something in it. 我要说的第二点是，是否需要确定这些基本的事实并不取决于这些事实本身，而是取决于历史学家事先做出的判断。尽管 C. P. 斯科特的那句箴言深入人心（译者注：斯科特的箴言Comment is free, but facts are sacred.“事实不可歪曲，评述大可自由”），但是现在每一名新闻记者都知道要影响大众舆论，最有效的方式就是对特定的事实进行选择和剪接。人们以前常说事实不言自明。这种说法显然是错误的，历史事实只是在历史学家用到时才会不言自明。哪些事实可以现身说法，以及这些事实以什么样的顺序或是在什么样的情景中出现，都是由历史学家来决定的。我记得皮兰德娄笔下的一个人物曾经说过：事实就像一个麻袋——不塞点东西进去就立不起来。
The only reason why we are interested to know that the battle was fought at Hastings in 1066 is that historians regard it as a major historical event. It is the historian who has decided for his own reasons that Caesar’s crossing of that petty stream, the Rubicon, is a fact of history, whereas the crossing of the Rubicon by millions of other people before or since interests nobody at all. The fact that you arrived in this building half an hour ago on foot, or on a bicycle, or in a car, is just as much a fact about the past as the fact that Caesar crossed the Rubicon. 我们之所以对1066年发生在黑斯廷斯的战役感兴趣，其唯一的原因就是历史学家把这一战役看作是一个重大的历史事件。历史学家依照自己的推断，认为凯撒穿越那条小河——卢比孔河——是一个史实，但没有人对在他之前或是之后几百万其他人穿过这条河的举动感兴趣。你半个小时之前或徒步、或骑车或开车来到这座大楼，这件事和当年凯撒渡过卢比孔河一样都是一个关于过去的客观事实。
为保证校园的安全，校方最近发布了一项新的规定，禁止小商贩进入校园。校长呼吁学生在这件事上与学校合作。学生们表示强烈反对，几百名学生在学校的BBS上表达了他们的愤怒。他们说，因为校园离市中心很远，校内商店里的货品又不多，把小贩赶出校园就无异于把学生扔到孤岛上。有些人提出，正是在这样的事情上，学校应该听取学生的意见和需求。有些学生认为，这项规定能让校园更安全的想法是错误的。(it’s for matters of this kind; get sth. wrong) To make the campus safer, the university authorities recently released a new regulation that forbids any vendors from entering the campus, and the president called on the students to cooperate with the university on this matter. But the students’ opposition was strong, and hundreds of them expressed their anger on the university BBS. They said that to keep vendors off campus was like deserting students on an isolated island, as the university was far away from the downtown and the shops on the campus did not provide enough commodities. Some claimed that it was precisely for matters of this kind that the university should listen to students’ opinions and needs. Some students thought the university had got it wrong in believing that this regulation will ensure safety on campus.
学生的反应让校长感到震惊，为弥补过失，他宣布学校将重新考虑这项规定。他对学生说，他们完全有权力过上方便、舒适的生活，但校园的安全也同样重要。他还提议在校园里建一个大超市，在宿舍楼附近开一些便利店 (convenience store)，这样就能大大方便学生们的生活 。 (make amends; be entitled to) Shocked by students’ reaction, the president tried to make amends for this mistake by announcing that the university will look into this new regulation again. He told students that they were entitled to live a convenient and comfortable life, but safety was just as much an important concern as that. He proposed to build a big supermarket within the campus and some convenience stores near dormitory buildings, which would certainly make students’ life much easier.