英國女王2013圣誕演講.docx

Unit7 Things: The Throw-away Society一次性社會 “Barbie,” a twelve-inch plastic teen-ager, is the best known and best-selling doll in history. Since its introduction in 1959, the Barbie doll population of the world has grown to 12,000,000 more than the human population of Los Angeles or London or Paris. Little girls adore Barbie because she is highly realistic and eminently dress-upable. Mattel, Inc., maker of Barbie, also sells a complete wardrobe for her, including clothes for ordinary daytime wear, clothes for formal party wear, clothes for swimming and skiing. 十二英寸高的塑料小人“芭比”曾是歷史上最著名最暢銷的洋娃娃，自從1959年問世以來，全世界的芭比娃娃的數(shù)量增長到1200,0000人比洛杉磯，倫敦和巴黎任何一個城市的人口還要多。小女孩熱衷芭比娃娃是因為他很像真的而且可以任意更換衣服，作為芭比娃娃的生產(chǎn)廠家，Mattel公司還出售芭比的整體衣柜，包括日常便裝，正式晚裝，泳裝和滑雪衫。 Recently Mattel announced a new improved Barbie doll. The new version has a slimmer figure, “real” eyelashes and a twist-and turn waist that makes her more humanoid than ever. Moreover, Mattel announced that, for the first time, any young lady wishing to purchase a new Barbie would receive a trade-in allowance for her old one.舊貨換新折讓 最近Mattel公司推出一款更高級的芭比娃娃，這個新產(chǎn)品身材更苗條，有仿真睫毛，又可以扭轉(zhuǎn)彎曲的腰肢，所有這些特點使其更加人性化。此外，M公司還首次宣布，任何一個購買芭比娃娃的女士都可以獲得舊芭比娃娃的折價優(yōu)惠。 What Mattel did not announce was that by trading in her old doll for a technologically improved modes, the little girl of today, citizen of tomorrows super-industrial world, would learn a fundamental lesson about the new society: that mans relationships with things are increasingly temporary. M公司所沒有宣布的是，通過折舊芭比娃娃來銷售新款芭比娃娃，今天的小女孩，明天工業(yè)化社會的公民就會得出這樣一個對社會的基本認識：人類和物品的關(guān)系越來越短暫。 The ocean of man-made physical objects that surrounds us is set within a larger ocean of natural objects. But increasingly, it is the technologically produced environment that matters for the individual. The texture of plastic or concrete, the iridescent glisten of an automobile under a streetlight, the staggering vision of a cityscape seen from the window of a jet these are the intimate realities of his existence. Man-made things enter into and color his consciousness. Their number is expandingwith explosive force, both absolutely and relative to the natural environment. This will be even more true in super-industrial society than it is today. 我們周圍人造物品的海洋外圍還有更廣闊的自然物品的海洋。但是這個技術(shù)制造的環(huán)境逐漸影響著人類。塑料或混凝土結(jié)構(gòu)， 街燈下霓虹閃爍的汽車，從飛機窗口俯瞰到的緩慢移動的城市這些人類的親密伙伴。人造物品進入并影響了人類意識，其數(shù)量急劇增長， 無論是就絕對而言還是相對而言。這種現(xiàn)象在將來的后工業(yè)化社會會更加突出。 Anti-materialists tend to deride the importance of “things.” Yet things are highly significant, not merely because of their functional utility, but also because of their psychological impact. We develop relationships with things. Things affect our sense of foreshortening of our relationships with things accelerates the pace of life. 唯心主義者試圖否認物品的重要性，但是物品是非常重要的，不僅因為它有實用功能，還因為其對精神的影響，我們發(fā)展和物品的關(guān)系，物品影響我們對關(guān)聯(lián)和斷聯(lián)的意識。他們在情景結(jié)構(gòu)中的作用，我們和物品關(guān)系的縮短加快了生活的節(jié)奏。 Moreover, our attitudes toward things reflect basic value judgments. Nothing could be more dramatic than the difference between the new breed of little girls who cheerfully turn in their Barbies for the new improved model and those who, like their mothers and grandmothers before them, clutch lingeringly and lovingly to the same doll until it disintegrates from sheer age. In this difference lies the contrast between past and future, between societies based on permanence, and the new, fast-forming society based on transience. 此外，我們對物品的態(tài)度反映了基本的價值評判。有的小女孩興高采烈的把她們的芭比娃娃換成新款高級的娃娃，有的小女孩象她們的母親和祖母年少時一樣，終日抱著同一個娃娃，形影不離，愛不釋手，直到長大后娃娃從生活中消失，沒有什么比這更具有戲劇性的對比了。這種不同在于過去和未來的對比，對于永久的社會和新的變幻無常的社會的對比。 That man-thing relationships are growing more and more temporary may be illustrated by examining the culture surrounding the little girl who trades in her doll. This child soon learns that Barbie dolls are by no means the only physical objects that pass into and out of her young life at a rapid clip. Diapers, bibs, paper napkins, Kleenex, towels, non-returnable soda bottlesall are used up quickly in her home and ruthlessly eliminated. Corn muffins come in baking tins that are thrown away after one use. Spinach is encased in plastic sacks that can be dropped into a pan of boiling water for heating, and then thrown away. TV dinners are cooked and often served on throw-away trays. Her home is a large processing machine through which objects flow, entering and leaving, at a faster and faster rate of speed. From birth on, she is inextricably embedded in a throw-away culture. 觀察一下舊芭比換新芭比的小女孩身后的文化就可以看出人類和物品間的關(guān)系越來越短暫，這些孩子很快會知道有很多物品以極快的速度進入并離開他們的生活，不只是芭比娃娃。紙尿褲，圍裙，紙巾，手絹，非循環(huán)使用的蘇打汽水瓶所有這些在她家被迅速使用，有的被無情的丟棄。玉米松餅放進一次性的烤罐，菠菜放進塑料袋中，這種塑料袋可以一起放進沸水鍋中加熱然后丟棄。電視上的烹飪節(jié)目也經(jīng)常使用一次性的碟子。她的家就是一個大型處理機器，通過這個機器，物品以越來越快的速度不斷流動，進入又離開，從出生開始，她就被包圍在一次性的文化中。 The idea of using a product once or for a brief period and then replacing it, runs counter to the grain of societies or individuals steeped in a heritage of poverty. Not long ago Uriel Rone, a market researcher for the French advertising agency Publicis, told me: “The French housewife is not used to disposable products. She likes to keep things, even old things, rather than throw-away curtain. We did a marketing study for them and found the resistance too strong.” This resistance, however, is dying all over the developed world. 對一次性物品的使用讓人想到了糧食問題和祖祖輩輩生活在貧困中的人，不久前，法國廣告代理公司P的一位市場調(diào)查員U R 告訴我:“法國的家庭主婦并不習(xí)慣于使用一次性的產(chǎn)品，她們喜歡把東西留著，即使是舊物品也不會丟。我們代表公司宣傳一種一次性的塑料窗簾。我們隊她們作市場調(diào)查，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)她們的抵制情緒很強?！边@種抵制在其他發(fā)達國家越來越少了。 Thus a writer, Edward Maze, has pointed out that many Americans visiting Sweden in the early 1950s were astounded by its cleanliness. “We were almost awed by the fact that there were no beer and soft drink bottles by the road sides, as, much to our shame, there were in America. But by the 1960s lo and behold, bottles were suddenly blooming along Swedish highways What happened? Sweden had become a buy, use and throw-away society, following the American pattern.” In Japan today throw-away tissues are so universal that cloth handkerchiefs are regarded as old fashioned, not to say unsanitary. In England for sixpence one may buy a “Dentamatic throw-away toothbrush” which comes already coated with toothpaste for its one-time use. And even in France, disposable cigarette lighters are commonplace. Form cardboard milk containers to the rockets that power space vehicles, products created for short-term or one-time use are becoming more numerous and crucial to our way of life. 因此，作家E M 指出在十二世紀五十年代初期，很多區(qū)瑞典觀光的美國人都被瑞典的干凈所震驚“讓我們敬佩的是路邊沒有一個啤酒瓶和軟飲料瓶，而自慚形穢的是，美國到處都是。但是到二十世紀六十年代，看看吧，各種瓶瓶罐罐凸現(xiàn)在瑞典的高速公路上怎么了？跟美國一樣，瑞典已經(jīng)變成一個購買，使用一次性物品的國家了。在當今的日本，一次性的紙巾非常普遍，手絹已經(jīng)老土了，而且也不衛(wèi)生。在英國，花七便士就可以買到已經(jīng)擠好牙膏，一次性使用的牙刷。即使在法國，一次性的打火機也很普遍，從牛奶紙盒到為太空提供動力的火箭，它們對我們的生活起著越來越重要的作用。 The recent introduction of paper and quasi-paper clothing carried the trend toward disposability a step further. Fashionable boutiques and working-class clothing stores have sprouted whole departments devoted to gaily colored and imaginatively designed paper apparel. Fashion magazines display breathtakingly sumptuous gowns, coats, pajamas, even wedding dresses made of paper. The bride pictured in one of these wears a long white train of lace-like paper that, the caption writer notes, will make “great kitchen curtains” after the ceremony. 剛上市的紙衣服或者類似紙的衣服將一次性文化更推進了一步。時尚飾品店和工薪階層服裝店已經(jīng)陸續(xù)出現(xiàn)一個全新的部門，這個部門專門負責那些色彩艷麗設(shè)計特別的紙衣服。時尚雜志展示了價格驚人的紙長袍，紙外套，紙睡袍，甚至紙婚紗和禮服。圖中的新娘穿著仿蕾絲紙做成的白色長袍裙，標題寫道：這條裙子在婚禮結(jié)束后可以做成“不錯的廚房窗簾”。 Paper clothes are particularly suitably for children, Writes one fashion expert: “Little girls will soon be able to spill ice cream, draw pictures and make cutouts on their clothes while their mothers smile benignly at their creativity.” And for adults who want to express their own creativity, there is even a “paint-yourself-dress” complete with brushes. Price: $2.00. 紙衣服是最適合孩子的。一位時尚專家寫道：“小孩子會亂濺冰激凌，而且他可以在紙衣服上畫畫，或者貼剪紙畫，而母親在一旁微笑的贊許其創(chuàng)造力?！睂τ谙胝故緞?chuàng)造力的成年人，可以買一種配有刷子的“自助衣服”，價格兩美元。 Price, of course, is a critical factor behind the paper explosion. Thus a department store features simple A-line dresses made of what it calls “devil-may-care cellulose fiber and nylon.” At $1.29 each, it is almost cheaper for the consumer to buy and discard a new one than to send an ordinary dress to the cleaners. Soon it will be. But more than economics is involved, for the extension of the throw-away culture has important psychological consequences. 當然，價格是紙用品猛增的重要原因。因此有一家百貨商店很有特色，店內(nèi)全是清一色的衣服，這些衣服都是用被稱作“魔鬼也會留意的纖維和尼龍”做成的。每件事1.29美元，對于消費者來說，一次性要比普通衣服送進洗衣店要便宜的多。但不僅僅是經(jīng)濟問題，一次性文化的蔓延還帶來了不容忽視的精神影響。 *We develop a throw-away mentality to match our throw-away products. This mentality produces, among other things, a set of radically altered values with respect to property. But the spread of disposabilitythrough the society also implies decreased durations in man-thing relationships. Instead of being linked with a single object over a relatively long span of time, we are linked for brief periods with the succession of objects that supplant it. 我們已經(jīng)形成了一種一次性的心態(tài)，來適應(yīng)一次性的產(chǎn)品。這種心態(tài)使得我們對于物品的價值觀產(chǎn)生了巨大的改變。然而社會中的一次性文化的蔓延也預(yù)示著人類和物品的關(guān)系持續(xù)的時間越來越短。我們只是和一系列馬上將被代替的物品保持短期的聯(lián)系，而不是和某一物品保持長期的聯(lián)系。 Unit8Cultivating a Hobby 培養(yǎng)一種業(yè)余愛好 A gifted American psychologist has said, “Worry is a spasm of the emotion; the mind catches hold of something and will not let it go.” It is useless to argue with the mind in this condition. The stronger the will is, the more futile the task is. One can only gently insinuate something else into its rightly chosen, if it is really attended by the illumination of another field of interest, gradually, and often quite swiftly, the old undue grip relaxes and the process of recuperation and repair, begins. 美國一位天才心理學(xué)家曾經(jīng)說過：“憂慮是一陣情感的沖動，意識一旦陷入某種狀態(tài)，這種狀態(tài)將很難被改變?！痹谶@種情況下，與意識去抗爭是徒勞的。意志力越強，這種抗爭就越顯得徒勞無益。這時，唯一的解決辦法只能是悄悄的滲入某種新的東西，來分散注意力。如果這種新的東西選擇恰當，而且確實能激起你對另一領(lǐng)域的興趣，漸漸地、而且經(jīng)常是非常迅速地，你過分緊張的情緒就會緩解，你又開始恢復(fù)到原來的狀態(tài)。 The cultivation of a hobby and the forms of interest is therefore a policy of first importance to a public man .But this is not a business that can be untaken in a day or swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will. The growth of alternative mental interests is a long process. The seeds must be carefully chosen; they must fall on good ground; they must be sedulously tended, if the vivifying fruits are to be at band when needed. 因此，對一個公眾人物來說，培養(yǎng)一種業(yè)余愛好、一種新的興趣顯得尤為重要。但這不是一件一朝一日或憑一時的意氣就能一蹴而就的事情。這種替代憂慮的心理興趣培養(yǎng)是一個長期的過程。它的種子必須要精挑細選，然后播撒到肥沃的土壤中，要想得到籽粒飽滿、需要時隨手可摘的果實，還必須對他們精心呵護。 To be really happy really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: “I will take an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes; those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual laborer, tired out with a hard weeks sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or businessman, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the week-end. 要想真正的快樂，而且每次都能真正奏效，一個人必須有兩種或三種業(yè)余愛好，而且必須是真正的業(yè)余愛好。一個人到了晚年才說：“我要培養(yǎng)這種或那種興趣?！蹦且呀?jīng)沒有任何意義了。這種嘗試只能更加增加大腦的壓力。一個人可能具有與他日常工作無關(guān)的大量的知識，但這些知識并無助于他減輕心理壓力。隨心所欲的做你喜歡的工作不會幫你減輕心理壓力，而是你必須設(shè)法喜歡你目前所做的工作。大致來說，人可分為三類：第一類人是累死；第二類人是愁死；第三類人是煩死。體力勞動者經(jīng)過一周的辛勤勞動已經(jīng)筋疲力盡，再讓他們在周六下午踢足球或打棒球無助于消除他們的疲勞。讓那些為一些大事已經(jīng)連續(xù)工作或煩惱了六天的政治家、專業(yè)人員或工商界人士來說，在周末的時候讓他們?yōu)橐恍╇u毛蒜皮的小事煩惱費神，也不會使他們身心輕松。 As for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire for them a new pleasure, a new excitement is only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically round from place to place, trying to escape from avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline in one form or another is the most hopeful path. 對于那些不幸的人：那些可以隨意發(fā)號施令；那些隨心所欲，無所不能的人，新的樂趣、新的喜悅對他們來說是無所謂的事情。他們狂亂地從一個地方跑到另一個地方、想通過不斷換地方的這種方式來擺脫煩惱，這是徒勞的。對他們來說，條理、規(guī)矩是他們最有希望擺脫煩惱的辦法。 It may also be said that rational, in