第一篇：新视野大学英语第三版第四册课文及翻译

Love and logic: The story of fallacy I had my first date with Polly after I made the trade with my roommate Rob.That year every guy on campus had a leather jacket, and Rob couldn't stand the idea of being the only football player who didn't, so he made a pact that he'd give me his girl in exchange for my jacket.He wasn't the brightest guy.Polly wasn't too shrewd, either.But she was pretty, well-off, didn't dye her hair strange colors or wear too much makeup.She had the right background to be the girlfriend of a dogged, brilliant lawyer.If I could show the elite law firms I applied to that I had a radiant, well-spoken counterpart by my side, I just might edge past the competition.“Radiant” she was already.I could dispense her enough pearls of wisdom to make her “well-spoken”.After a banner day out, I drove until we were situated under a big old oak tree on a hill off the expressway.What I had in mind was a little eccentric.I thought the venue with a perfect view of the luminous city would lighten the mood.We stayed in the car, and I turned down the stereo and took my foot off the brake pedal.“What are we going to talk about?” she asked.爱情与逻辑：谬误的故事

在我和室友罗伯的交易成功之后，我和波莉有了第一次约会。那一年校园里每个人都有件皮夹克，而罗伯是校足球队员中唯一一个没有皮夹克的，他一想到这个就受不了，于是他和我达成了一项协议，用他的女友换取我的夹克。他可不那么聪明，而他的女友波莉也不太精明。

但她漂亮而且富有，也没有把头发染成奇怪的颜色或是化很浓的妆。她拥有合适的家庭背景，足以胜任一名坚忍而睿智的律师的女友。如果我能够让我所申请的顶尖律师事务所看到我身边伴随着一位光彩照人、谈吐优雅的另一半，我就很有可能在竞聘中以微弱优势获胜。“光彩照人”，她已经是了。而我也能施予她足够多的“智慧之珠”，让她变得“谈吐优雅”。

在一起外出度过了美好的一天之后，我驱车来到了高速公路旁一座小山上一棵古老的大橡树下。我的想法有些怪异。而这个地方能够俯瞰灯火灿烂的城区，我觉得它会使人的心情变轻松。我们呆在车子里，我调低了音响并把脚从刹车上挪开。“我们要谈些什么？”她问道。

“Logic.” “Cool,” she said over her gum.“The doctrine of logic,” I said, ”is a staple of clear thinking.Failures in logic distort the truth, and some of them are well known.First let's look at the fallacy Dicto Simpliciter.“ ”Great,” she agreed.“Dicto Simpliciter means an unqualified generalization.For example: Exercise is good.Therefore, everybody should exercise.” She nodded in agreement.I could see she was stumped.“Polly,” I explained, “it's too simple a generalization.If you have, say, heart disease or extreme obesity, exercise is bad, not good.Therefore, you must say exercise is good for most people.” “Next is Hasty Generalization.Self-explanatory, right? Listen carefully: You can't speak French.Rob can't speak French.Looks like nobody at this school can speak French.” “Really?” said Polly, amazed.“Nobody?” “This is also a fallacy,” I said.“The generalization is reached too hastily.Too few instances support such a conclusion.” She seemed to have a good time.I could safely say my plan was underway.I took her home and set a date for another conversation.Seated under the oak the next evening I said, “Our first fallacy tonight is called Ad Misericordiam.” She nodded with delight.“Listen closely,” I said.“A man applies for a job.When the boss asks him what his qualifications are, he says he has six children to feed.” “Oh, this is awful, awful,” she whispered in a choked voice.“Yes, it‟s awful,” I agreed, “but it's no argument.The man never answered the boss's question.Instead he appealed to the boss's sympathyRob and I are back together.With great effort, I said calmly, ”How could you give me the axe over Rob? Look at me, an ingenious student, a tremendous intellectual, a man with an assured future.“错误类比，”波莉立即回应。

“你的前提是约会就如同吃东西。可你不是蛋糕，你是个男孩。”

我又笑了笑，不过不觉得那么有趣了，同时还不能表露出我害怕她学得太好了。再错几步我可就无法挽回了。我决定改变策略，转而尝试奉承她的办法。“波莉，我爱你。请答应做我的女朋友，没有你我什么也不是。” “文不对题，”她说。

“你还真是能在遇到逻辑谬误时一一辨别它们了，”我说，心里的希望已经开始动摇。

“不过不要对它们太死板，我是说这都是些学术的东西。你知道，学校里学的东西和实际生活根本没有什么联系。” “绝对判断，”她说道，“而且，你自己教的东西应该自己身体力行。” 我一下跳了起来，怒火中烧，“你到底愿不愿意做我的女朋友？” “我不愿意，”她答道。

“为什么？”我追问道。“我对另一位求爱者更感兴趣――罗伯和我重归于好了。” 我极力地保持着平静，说道：“你怎么会甩了我而选择罗伯？

看看我，一个聪明过人的学生，一个不同凡响的学者，一个前途无量的人。

“错误类比，”波莉立即回应。“你的前提是约会就如同吃东西。可你不是蛋糕，你是个男孩。”

我又笑了笑，不过不觉得那么有趣了，同时还不能表露出我害怕她学得太好了。再错几步我可就无法挽回了。我决定改变策略，转而尝试奉承她的办法。34 “波莉，我爱你。请答应做我的女朋友，没有你我什么也不是。”

“文不对题，”她说。

“你还真是能在遇到逻辑谬误时一一辨别它们了，” 我说，心里的希望已经开始动摇。“不过不要对它们太死板，我是说这都是些学术的东西。你知道，学校里学的东西和实际生活根本没有什么联系。” 37 “绝对判断，”她说道，“而且，你自己教的东西应该自己身体力行。” 38 我一下跳了起来，怒火中烧，“你到底愿不愿意做我的女朋友？”

“我不愿意，”她答道。

“为什么？”我追问道。

“我对另一位求爱者更感兴趣——罗伯和我重归于好了。”

我极力地保持着平静，说道：“你怎么会甩了我而选择罗伯？看看我，一个聪明过人的学生，一个不同凡响的学者，一个前途无量的人。再看看罗伯，一个肌肉发达的蠢材，一个有了上顿没下顿的家伙。你是否能给我一个充足的理由，为什么要选择跟他？”

“喔，这是什么假设啊！为了让像你这样聪明的人能够明白，我这么说吧，”波莉反驳道，声音里充满了讽刺，“事情的真相是——我喜欢罗伯穿皮衣。是我让他同意你们的协议的，这样他就能拥有你的夹克！”

再看看罗伯，一个肌肉发达的蠢材，一个有了上顿没下顿的家伙。你是否能给我一个充足的理由，为什么要选择跟他？”

“喔，这是什么假设啊！为了让像你这样聪明的人能够明白，我这么说吧，”波莉反驳道，声音里充满了讽刺，“事情的真相是——我喜欢罗伯穿皮衣。是我让他同意你们的协议的，这样他就能拥有你的夹克！”

Unit 2 The confusing pursuit of beauty

If you're a man, at some point a woman will ask you how she looks.You must be careful how you answer this question.The best technique is to form an honest yet sensitive response, then promptly excuse yourself for some kind of emergency.Trust me, this is the easiest way out.No amount of rehearsal will help you come up with the right answer.The problem is that men do not think of their looks in the same way women do.Most men form an opinion of themselves in seventh grade and stick to it for the rest of their lives.Some men think they're irresistibly desirable, and they refuse to change this opinion even when they grow bald and their faces visibly wrinkle as they age.Most men, I believe, are not arrogant about their looks.If the transient thought passes through their minds at all, they like to think of themselves as average-looking.Being average doesn't bother them;average is fine.They don't affix much value to their looks, or think of them in terms of aesthetics.Their primary form of beauty care is to shave themselves, which is essentially the same care they give to their lawns.If, at the end of his four-minute allotment of time for grooming, a man has managed to wipe most of the shaving cream out of the strands of his hair and isn't bleeding too badly, he feels he's done all he can.Women do not look at themselves this way.If I had to guess what most women think about their appearance, it would be: “Not good enough.” No matter how attractive a woman may be, her perception of herself is eclipsed by the beauty industry.She has trouble thinking I'm beautiful, She magnifies the smallest imperfections in her body and imagines them as glaring flaws the whole world will notice and ridicule.令人困惑的对美的追求

如果你是一位男士，肯定在某个时候会有女士问你她看起来怎么样。

对于如何应对这个问题，你一定得小心。最好的对策就是给一个诚实但又谨慎的回答，然后借口有急事马上脱身。相信我，这是最简单的方法。对于她的这一问题，无论你事先练习多少次，都不会找到正确答案。

其原因是，男性和女性对外表的看法截然不同。大多数男性对自己外表的评价在七年级时就形成了，而且终生不变。有些男性认为自己有不可抗拒的魅力，即使随着年龄的增长，他们头发掉光了，脸上布满皱纹，他们仍然拒绝改变这种看法。我相信，大多数男性都不会对自己的相貌感到过分自傲。如果他们偶尔想到自己外表的话，他们愿意认为自己样貌中等。长相普通不会使他们有任何烦恼，因为普通就已经是很好了。男性不是特别注重自己的外貌，也不会从美学的角度去审视自己。他们的打扮方式主要就是刮刮胡子，就像打理自家草坪一样。对于一位男性来说，如果能花四分钟刮刮胡子，结束之后再把粘到头发上的剃须膏擦净，又没有出血太厉害，他就觉得自己已经尽心尽力了。

女性可不是这样看待自己的。如果非要我猜测大多数女性对自己的相貌是如何评价的话，那肯定是：“还不够好。”一位女士，无论她看起来多么吸引人，她对自己的看法总是由于受美容业的影响而蒙着一层阴影。要她认为“我很漂亮”是一件难事。她把身体上的极小的不完美之处加以放大，并且幻想这些缺点十分明显，以至于全世界的人都会注意到并且嘲笑她。

Why do women consider their looks so deficient? This chronic insecurity isn't inborn, but created through the interaction of many complex psychological and societal factors, beginning with the dolls we give them as children.Girls grow up playing with dolls proportioned so that, if they were human, they would be seven feet tall and weigh 61 pounds, with tiny thighs and a large upper body.This is an absurd standard to live up to, especially when you consider the size of the doll's waist, a relative measurement physically impossible for a living human to achieve.Contrast this absurd standard with that presented to little boys with their “action figures”.Most of the toys that young boys have played with were weird-looking, like the one called Buzz-Off that was part human, part flying insect.This guy was not a looker, but he was still extremely self-confident.You could not imagine him saying to the others, “Is this accessory the right shade of violet for this outfit?” But women grow up thinking they need to look like Barbie dolls or girls on magazine covers, which for most women is impossible.Nonetheless, the multibillion-dollar beauty industry, complete with its own aisle in the grocery store, is devoted to constant warfare on female self-esteem, convincing women that they must buy all the newest moisturizing creams, bronzing powders and appliances that promise to “stimulate and restore” their skin.I once saw an Oprah Show in which supermodel Cindy Crawford dispensed makeup tips to the studio audience.Cindy had all these middle-aged women apply clay masks and other “wrinkle-removing” products to their faces;she stressed how important it was to adhere to the guidelines, like applying products via the tips of their fingers to protect elasticity.All the women dutifully did this, even though it was obvious to any rational observer that, no matter how carefully they applied these products, they would never have Cindy Crawford's face or complexion.为什么女性会把自己的外貌想得这么差呢？这种长期的不安全感并不是与生倶来的，而是由许多复杂的心理和社会因素的相互作用造成的，从小时候大人们给她们买洋娃娃时就开始了。女孩成长过程中摆弄的洋娃娃，如果按照身材比例还原为真人大小的话，就会是 7 英尺高，61 英磅重，大腿纤细，上身丰满。要达到这样的标准是很荒唐的，尤其是当我们想想那种洋娃娃的腰围尺寸，就知道其相对尺寸对任何一个活人来说都是不可企及的。与女孩玩具的这种荒唐标准相比，小男孩们得到的“动作玩偶”却是完全不同的模样。大多数男孩的玩具都样貌古怪，例如那个叫作“蜜蜂侠”的玩偶，一半像人，一半像会飞的昆虫。这个玩偶尽管样子不好看，但仍然非常自信。你肯定无法想象他会问别人说：“这个配饰的紫罗兰色和这件外套配不配呢？”

然而，女性在成长过程中却认为自己应该长得像芭比娃娃或杂志的封面女郎那样，这对大多数女性来说是不可能的。尽管如此，产值达几十亿美元的美容业，在超市化妆品销售专区的配合下，总是在不停地攻击着女性的自尊，使其相信自己只有购买最新的保湿面霜、古铜散粉，以及各种美容器具，才能“激发和恢复”肌肤活力。我曾经看过一期《奥普拉脱口秀》，在节目中，超级名模辛迪•克劳馥和演播室里的观众分享了自己的化妆秘诀。辛迪要求这些中年妇女在脸上敷上黏土面膜和其他去皱产品；她还强调一定要遵守这些方法，例如：往脸上涂抹这些产品时，要用指尖，这样可以保护皮肤的弹性。所有这些妇女都非常忠实地按照辛迪说的做了。可是对任何一个理智的旁观者来说，无论她们如何认真地使用这些产品，她们都不可能拥有辛迪那样的面容或肤色。

I'm not saying that men are superior.I'm just saying that you're not going to get a group of middle-aged men to plaster cosmetics to themselves under the instruction of Brad Pitt in hopes of looking more like him.Men don't face the same societal focus purely on physical beauty, and they're encouraged to reach out to other characteristics to promote their self-esteem.They might say to Brad: “Oh yeah? Well, what do you know about lawn care, pretty boy?” Of course women argue that they become obsessed with appearance as a reaction to pressure from men.The truth is that most men think beauty is more than just lipstick and perfume and take no notice of these extra details.I have never once, in more than 40 years of listening to men talk about women, heard a man say, “She had gorgeous fingernails!” To most men, little things like fingernails are all homogeneous anyway, and one woman's flawless pink polish is exactly as invisible as another's bare nails.By participating in this system of extreme conformity, women are actually opening themselves up to the scrutiny of other women, the only ones qualified to judge their efforts.What is the real benefit of working this hard to appease men who don't notice when it only exposes women to prosecution from other women? Anyway, to get back to my original point: If you're a man, and a woman asks you how she looks, you can't say she looks bad without receiving immediate and well-deserved outrage.But you also can't shower her with empty compliments about how her shoes complement her dress nicely because she'll know you're lying.She has spent countless hours worrying about the differences between her looks and Cindy Crawford's.Also,she suspects that you're not qualified to voice a subjective opinion on anybody's appearance.This may be because you have shaving cream in your hair and inside the folds of your ears.我并不是说男性优于女性。我的意思是你不可能让一群中年男子在布拉德•皮特的指导下把化妆品敷到自己脸上，期望自己能看起来更像布拉德。与女性不同，男性的外貌美不是社会所关注的唯一焦点。人们会鼓励男性借助其他特征来提升自尊。他们也许会对布拉德说：“是吗？那么帅哥，你对草坪维护又知道多少？” 当然，女性会争辩说她们对外表的热衷追求是出于对来自男性的压力的一种反应。而事实是，大多数男性认为美丽不仅仅来自于口红和香水，而且他们也不会去注意这些额外的细节。四十多年来，我在听男性谈论女性时，从来没有一次听到过哪位男性这样说：“她的指甲真漂亮啊！”对大多数男性来说，像指甲这样小的东西看起来都一样，无论一个女士的指甲是用粉色指甲油涂得完美无瑕，还是光光的毫无修饰，男性都一概视而不见。

女性参与这种极端的从众行为，实际上是把自己置于其他女性的审视之下，因为只有那些女性才有资格评价她们所付出的努力。但是，如此费力地去取悦男性而他们却根本不会注意，同时又只是招致其他女性的指责，这样做究竟有什么好处呢？

不管怎样，言归正传：如果你是一位男性，当有女士问你她看起来怎么样时，你千万不能说她看起来很糟糕，那样肯定会使她立刻迁怒于你，这也是你咎由自取。但是，你也不能慷慨地大放空洞之词，赞美她的鞋子和裙子是多么相配，因为她知道你是在说谎。她已经花费了无数个小时发愁自己的容貌不能和辛迪•克劳馥的一样。而且，也许因为你的头发和耳廓上粘着剃须膏，她会怀疑你根本没有资格对任何人的外表给出主观评价。

Unit 3 Fred Smith and FedEx: The vision that changed the world

Every night several hundred planes bearing a purple, white, and orange design touch down at Memphis Airport, in Tennessee.What precedes this landing are package pickups from locations all over the United States earlier in the day.Crews unload the planes' cargo of more than half a million parcels and letters.The rectangular packages and envelopes are rapidly reshuffled and sorted according to address, then loaded onto other aircraft, and flown to their destinations to be dispersed by handknown originally as Federal Expressstopping ozone depletion and the greenhouse effectbiopersity is after all necessary to the ecosystem.But we must remember that not every species is needed to keep that persity.Sometimes aesthetic aspects of life have to be sacrificed to more fundamental ones.If the cost of preserving the spotted owl is the loss of livelihood for 30,000 logging families, I choose the families(with their saws and chopped timber)over the owl.11 The important distinction is between those environmental goods that are fundamental and those that are not.Nature is our ward, not our master.It is to be respected and even cultivated.But when humans have to choose between their own well-being and that of nature, nature will have to accommodate.12 Humanity should accommodate only when its fate and that of nature are inseparably bound up.The most urgent maneuver must be undertaken when the very integrity of humanity's habitat, e.g., the atmosphere or the essential geology that sustains the core of the earth, is threatened.When the threat to humanity is lower in the hierarchy of necessity, a more modest accommodation that balances economic against health concerns is in order.But in either case the principle is the same: protect the environmentat first.But after a while, it annoys, as if the only things that people heard one say were what had been filtered through the sieve of social niceties: I'm so pleased to meet you.I've heard many wonderful things about you.These remarks are not representative of new ideas, honest emotions, or considered thought.Like a piece of bread, they are only the crust of the interaction, or what is said from the polite distance of social contexts: greetings, farewells, convenient excuses, and the like.This generalization, therefore, is not a true composite of Chinese culture but only a stereotype of our exterior behavior.“So how does one say 'yes' and 'no' in Chinese?” my friends may ask carefully.At this junction, I do agree in part with The New York Times Magazine article.There is no one word for “yes” or “no”, but not out of necessity to be discreet.If anything, I would say the Chinese equivalent of answering “yes” or “no” is specific to what is asked.Ask a Chinese person if he or she has eaten, and he or she might say chrle(eaten already)or meiyou(have not).Ask, “Have you stopped beating your wife?” and the answer refers directly to the proposition being asserted or denied: stopped already, still have not, never beat, have no wife.What could be clearer? 我当然相信每个人在一开始都会把这种描述的话当成称赞。但过了一段时间，这种话就会让人恼怒，就好像所听到的只是些经过细微的社交区别过滤后的言辞，诸如“很高兴认识你，我听到许多人都夸奖你”之类的话。

这些话不能表达什么新观点，也不能传达什么真实的情感或深思熟虑的想法。它们就像一片面包，只是人们交往中最表层的东西，或社交场合下出于礼貌而说的一些话：问候、道别、顺口的托词，诸如此类。由此看来，那些对中国人的概括性评价并非是对中国文化成分的真实描述，而仅仅是对我们外在行为的一种成见而已。

“那么中文究竟怎么表达„是‟和„不是‟呢？”我的朋友也许会小心翼翼地问。

在这一点上，我的确在某种程度上同意《纽约时报杂志》的那篇文章。在中文里，没有哪一个字专门用于表达“是”或“不是”，但这并非是因为需要保持谨慎。若的确有什么不同的话，那我会说中文里对应的“是”或“不是”的表达通常是针对所问的具体内容而定的。如果你问一个中国人是否吃饭了，他（或她）会说“吃了”（已经吃过）或“没有”（没有吃过）。你若问：“你停止打老婆了吗？”他会直接就所断定或所否认的假设进行回答：已经停止了，还没有，从来不打，没有老婆。还有什么能比这更明了的呢？

Unit 6 The weight men carry

When I was a boy growing up off the grid in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the men I knew labored with their bodies from the first rooster crow in the morning to sundown.They were marginal farmers, shepherds, just scraping by, or welders, steelworkers, carpenters;they built cabinets, dug ditches, mined coal, or drove trucks, their forearms thick with muscle.They trained horses, stocked furnaces, made tires, stood on assembly lines, welding parts onto refrigerators or lubricating car engines.In the evenings and on weekends, they labored equally hard, working on their own small tract of land, fixing broken-down cars, repairing broken shutters and drafty windows.In their little free time, they drowned their livers in beer from cheap copper mugs at a bar near the local brewery or racecourse.The bodies of the men I knew were twisted and wounded in ways visible and invisible.Heavy lifting had given many of them spinal problems and appalling injuries.Some had broken ribs and lost fingers.Racing against conveyor belts had given some ulcers.Their ankles and knees ached from years of standing on concrete.Some had partial vision loss as the glow of the welding flame damaged their optic receptors.There were times, studying them, when I dreaded growing up.All around us, the fathers always seemed older than the mothers.Men wore out sooner, being martyrs of constant work.Only women lived into old age.There were also soldiers, and so far as I could tell, they scarcely worked at all.But when the shooting started, many of them would die for their patriotism in fields and forts of foreign outposts.This was what soldiers were forthe news commentators, the lawyers, the doctors, the politicians who levied the taxes and the bosses who gave ordersany place where the fates of men and women are symmetrically bleak and grim.When the women I met at college thought about the joys and privileges of men, they didn't see the sort of men I had known.These daughters of privileged, Republican men wanted to inherit their fathers' power and lordship over the world.They longed for a say over their future.But so did I.The difference between me and these daughters was that they saw me, because of my sex, as destined from birth to become like their fathers, and therefore as an enemy to their desires.But I knew better.I wasn't an enemy to their desires, in fact or in feeling.I was an ally in their rebellion.If I had known, then, how to tell them so, or how to be a mediator, would they have believed me? Would they have known? 在这样一个满是富人的陌生世界里，我在理解女人们深深的怨怒方面很是迟钝。这是因为，当我还是一个小男孩时，我就嫉妒过她们。在上大学之前，我所认识的唯一对艺术、音乐或文学有兴趣的人，唯一看上去能够享受一丝自在的一群人就是那些做母亲和女儿的人。而且，她们也不必去参加战争。与父亲们所遭受的狭隘的、封闭的日子相比，母亲们所承担的相对较轻的工作显得更加宽泛一些。她们剪用购物券，探访邻居，在学校或教堂跑跑腿。我仿佛是透过望远镜看到她们的生活，满是闪烁的星星和一缕缕光线，而漏掉了她们生活岁月的真实细节。毋庸置疑，如果我用更具理性的方式审视她们的生活，我就不会那么嫉妒她们了。可在那时，我实在看不出一幢房子能成为什么样的牢狱，因为房子在我看来比任何厂房都更亮堂、更体面。我也没有意识到女人是多么频繁地遭受男人的欺凌，因为这样的事情从未被提及过。即使在那时，我也能够看出一个母亲整日忙碌着应付年幼孩子们的需要是多么地辛苦。但是，作为男孩，如果我那时必须在照顾婴儿和照看机器之间作选择，我想我会选择照顾婴儿。

所以，当学校里的女性大吵大囔，谴责我和我所属的性别，说我们霸占着世间的欢乐时，我很困惑。她们要求从性别歧视的束缚中解放出来。我认为别的男孩（女孩也一样）也会有我这样的迷惑，只要他们成长于一贫如洗的农村，成长于码头边或工厂附近——成长于任何让男人和女人的命运同样苍白和严酷的地方。当我在大学里遇到的那些女子们想到男人的享乐和特权时，她们并没有见过我以前认识的那些男人。这些特权阶层的、共和党男人的女儿们渴望继承她们父亲的权力和凌驾世界的贵族身份。她们渴望能对自己的未来拥有发言权。而我也渴望这样。我和这些女儿们之间的区别在于，她们看我时想到的是，我因为自己的性别而自出生起就注定可以成为像她们父亲那样的人，从而也是她们实现自己欲望的敌人。但我比她们更清楚，无论是事实上还是情感上，我都不是她们欲望的敌人。我是她们反抗行动的同盟者。如果那时我就知道如何把这些告诉她们，或如何在中间做一个调停人，她们会相信我吗？她们能够理解吗？

第二篇：新视野大学英语第四册第三版课文及翻译

Unit 8

A turning point of my life

我人生的转折点

I wasn't yet 30 years old and was working as a firefighter in New York City, in a firehouse completely swamped with calls.In the rare moments when we weren't busy, I would make calls on our cordless phone handset or rush to our office to read Captain Gray's subscription of the Sunday New York Times.Late one afternoon when I finally read the Book Review section, my blood began to boil.An article stated a thesis I took to be an offensive insult: William Butler Yeats, the Nobel Prize-winning light of the Irish Literary Renaissance, had risen above his Irishness and was now a universal poet.I grew indignant suddenly, and a deep-seated passion within me was activated.我那时还不到 30 岁，是纽约市的一名消防员，我工作的消防站总是不断有求助电话进来。偶尔在我们不忙的时候，我会打打无绳电话，或是到办公室，看看格雷队长订的《纽约时报》周日版。一天下午晚些时候，当我最后读到书评栏时，我开始血液沸腾。一篇文章提出了一个在我看来带有侮辱性的观点：它说诺贝尔奖获得者威廉.巴特勒.叶芝，即点亮爱尔兰文学复兴之光的人，已经超越了其爱尔兰身份，是一名世界性的诗人。我突然感到愤怒，内心深处一种激情也被激发起来。

There were few things I was more proud of than my Irish heritage.My ancestors were Catholic Irish farmers, fishermen and blue-collar workers, all of whom were patrons of literature.From the time my family came ashore on Ellis Island and faced the threat of being deported, we have fought discrimination against Irish immigrants.Ever since I first picked up a book of his poems, Yeats had been my favorite writer.He wrote his poetry in close adherence to his Irish sensibilities.His life was, in essence, a tribute to his homeland.很少有什么事情比我是爱尔兰后裔更让我感到骄傲的了。我的祖先是信仰天主教的爱尔兰人，他们做过农夫、渔民和蓝领工人，但是他们所有人都热爱文学。从我的家族登上埃利斯岛、面临被驱逐的威胁那一刻起，我们就一直在反抗对爱尔兰移民的歧视。自从我第一次拿起叶芝的诗集开始，他就一直是我最喜欢的作家。他创作的诗中有着深深的爱尔兰情怀。实际上，他的一生都在赞颂祖国。所以，不管是从心理的、社会的还是文学的角度，认为爱尔兰的身份是能够超越的，都是一种侮辱。我感觉自己继承的身份就像是成了法庭上的被告，我别无选择，只能保护它并谴责这样一种过时的偏见。

So, it was offensive to think Irishness, no matter if it was psychological, social or literary, was something to rise above.I felt like my heritage was a defendant at a tribunal, and I had no choice but to protect it and denounce such an outdated prejudice.我焦躁不安，全身颤动，于是抓起了一张干净的纸，那张纸的顶部印有纽约市消防局的标志。我开始给《周日书评》栏目的编辑写信，表达我的愤怒。我把叶芝描述为他本来的样子，即无论从行为还是从作品来看，他都是地地道道的爱尔兰作家。

Vibrating with agitation, I grabbed a piece of clean paper, one that had the logo of the Fire Department of the City of New York across the top.I began a letter, trumpeting my indignation to the editor of the Sunday Book Review, describing Yeats as he was: a writer fundamentally Irish in all he did and wrote.我不知道为什么我觉得自己必须捍卫这位世界上最伟大的诗人（至少是仅次于荷马和莎士比亚的诗人），使其免于被“起诉”，或者为什么我要撰文捍卫爱尔兰文学。我只知道我必须写那封信，就像牧师必须祷告，或者音乐家必须演奏乐器一样。

Until that point in my life I hadn't written much of valuethe article titled “Fireman Smith” provided the impetus for a large publishing company to request a manuscript about my life.我一直认为消防员的工作是个值得一写的题材，但是到目前为止却很少被写过。起初我很困惑，对于自己是否有能力写一本完整的书没有多少信心。所以，我开始一点一点地写，一次写一部分。很快，我对整本书有了基本的结构和框架。这本书最终卖出了 200 万册，并被译成了 12 种语言。在接下来的几年中，我又写了 3 本畅销书，去年还出版了一本自传。

Being a writer had been far from my expectations;being crowned a best-selling author was almost unimaginable.How had it happened? I often found myself thinking about it, marveling at the inconsistency of my success and earlier failure.My thoughts always came back to the nucleus at the center of it all, that letter to The New York Times.最清楚的解释就是，我发现了一个让我有强烈感触的题材，因此，写作就成为这种激情很自然的结果了。在我写关于消防员以及后来写关于我母亲的系列故事时，我都怀有同样的激情。不管题材是什么，它们总是有意义并且合时宜的，因为它们代表了人类生活中伟大的价值观——得体、诚实和公正。在我写作时，这些题材在我心中炙热如火。

The clearest explanation is that I had found a subject I felt so strongly about that the writing was a natural consequence of that passion.I felt the same kind of passion when I began writing about firefighters and, later, a serial story about my mother.Whatever the subjects, they are always meaningful and timely because they represent the great values of human lifesubjects that burn within me as I write.多年来，我的五个孩子会时不时地来问我一个又一个让他们进退两难的问题：我应该踢足球还是打篮球？我是到这家公司工作还是到那家？

Over the years, all five of my children have come to me periodically with one dilemma or another.Should I go out for soccer or basketball? Should I take a job with this company or that one? 我的回答一直是相同的：想想你骨子深处的情感。估量一下那些情感的热度，因为那就是流淌于你身体每一部分的激情。任何时候都要找到那种激情。如果你失去了它，就要重新搜寻到它，然后再重新开始。你接受的教育和你的经验会引导你作出正确的决定，但是你的激情总是会使你在做任何事情时都成就非凡。My answer is always the same: Think about your feelings deep down in your bones.Measure the heat of the fire there, for that is the passion that will flow through every particle of your being.Always find that passion.And, if you lose it, retrieve it and start again.Your education and your experience will guide you toward making a right decision, but your passion will always enable you to make a difference in whatever you do.这就是那天我挺身而出为爱尔兰最伟大的诗人辩护时所学到的东西。That's what I learned the day I stood up for Ireland's greatest poet.A meaningful life

有意义的人生

The death of an angel of animal rights activism does not rate with that of a drugged-out rock star.So when Henry Spira died of cancer in September 1998, his death passed without notice, apart from a brief obituary in The New York Times.Yet Henry Spiral life tells us something important, not only about the modern animal movement, but about the possibility of an inpidual making a difference in the modern world.一位动物权利保护运动的天使的去世还比不上一个沉溺于毒品的摇滚明星的死亡。所以，亨利.斯皮拉在 1998 年 9 月因癌症去世的消息根本没有引起公众的注意，只是《纽约时报》上刊登了一则简短的讣告。但是亨利.斯皮拉的一生让我们懂得了一些重要的东西，不仅关于现代动物权益保护运动，而且还有一个人改变现代社会的可能性。

I first met Henry when he turned up at an adult education seminar I was giving at New York University.I offered a course on “Animal Liberation” that attracted about 20 students.One student was an unusual specimen, outside the regular aesthetic of an “animal person”.His clothes were untidy, and his hair uncombed.His language was so blunt and earthy that at times I thought I was listening to an assassin from a violent mob.Yet, I couldn't help feeling intrigued with his direct way of speaking and his solemn, secular oath to help animals in need.第一次见到亨利，是我在纽约大学教一个成人教育研修班时他前来听课。我开设了一门关于“动物解放”的课程，吸引了大约 20 名学生。其中一名学生很另类，完全和通常意义上“动物权利保护者”的形象背道而驰。他的衣着邋遢，头发也未曾梳理。他说话非常直率并且粗俗，有时我甚至认为，我好像是在听一个暴力团伙的杀手在讲话。但是，我情不自禁地被他那种直截了当的说话方式，还有他那庄重的、不是出于宗教目的要帮助处于困境中的动物的誓言吸引住了。

I left New York soon after that, but one day got a call from Henry.He talked with me about his work.I knew that for over a century, the animal rights movement had been putting out graphic brochures, leaflets, and audio propaganda, alerting people to the dreadful experiments on animals.But in all that time, the number of animals used in experiments had risen from a small batch of a few hundred to more than 30 million.No activist had managed to stop a single experiment or improve the lives of animals living in tiny, constricted enclosures.Henry changed that.One of his earliest campaigns permanently closed down a laboratory conducting experiments with toxic vapor on about 60 rabbits.在那之后，我很快就离开了纽约。但是有一天，我接到了亨利的电话。他和我聊起了他的工作。我知道，一个多世纪以来，动物权益运动的倡导者一直通过散发带图画的手册、传单以及音频宣传材料，来引起公众对那些可怕的动物实验的关注。但与此同时，用于实验的动物数量从原来区区几百骤增到三千多万。没有哪位活动家曾成功阻止过一项实验或改善了蜗居在狭小困笼中的动物的生活。亨利却改变了这一切。他早期的运动之一就是使一间用毒蒸汽在大约 60 只兔子身上做实验的实验室被永久关闭。

Following that success, Henry rapidly moved on to bigger targets.He laid siege to Revlon over their use of rabbits to test cosmetics for potential eye damage, and exerted enough pressure to persuade them to put $750,000 into the search for alternatives.Having seen the boycott that Revlon had narrowly averted and being afraid of incurring similar wrath, Avon, Bristol-Myers and other major cosmetics corporations soon followed suit.Though it took 10 years for the research to achieve results, it was largely Henry's public and judicious watchdog efforts that brought so many cosmetics corporations to where they now truthfully state their products are not tested on animals.取得上述成功之后，亨利马上转向更大的目标。他谴责露华浓公司用兔子检测化妆品对眼睛可能造成的伤害。他还给露华浓施加了强大的压力，说服其投入 75 万美元进行研究，以寻找替代方法。雅芳、百时美及其他大型化妆品公司看到露华浓险些遭到抵制，担心自己也会招致同样的愤怒，所以很快也都纷纷效仿。虽然他们的研究历经 10 年才取得成果，但是正是亨利所作出的这种公开而又明智的监督，才使得这么多化妆品公司现在可以如实地说，他们的产品没有在动物身上进行实验。

From decades spent working on the side of the weak and oppressed, Henry became efficient at masterminding campaigns.His victory over Revlon didn't require wealth, legislators, or the help of big governments.He learned how to build public awareness campaigns, how to shape malpractice lawsuits to successfully sue large companies and how to build committed groups of supporters for the cause.经过几十年为弱势及受压迫群体所做的抗争，亨利变得非常善于策划各种活动。他在与露华浓的抗衡中获胜，靠的不是财富、立法者或庞大的政府的帮助。他学会了如何发起能够唤醒公众意识的活动，如何开展渎职诉讼以便成功起诉大公司，以及如何为这一事业建立忠实的支持者团队。

We often assume that society has become too big and too bureaucratic for inpiduals to make a difference.How could one inpidual, however humane and passionate, possibly bring about change in the face of powerful global corporations, ministerial indifference and complicated parliamentary rules? 我们经常认为社会已经变得太大、太官僚，从而个体不可能改变它。在面对强大的跨国公司、冷漠的执政部门和众多复杂的议会规则时，单单一个人，不管他多么具有人道主义，多么富有激情，又如何能促成改变呢？

Henry's life was dedicated to the cause of preventing suffering of innocent, helpless animals, especially those used in research.He didn't stand on the sidelines or try to get revenge for the suffering he observed.Henry was practical.He acted.He appealed to the public and created publicity kits to help common people become activists.亨利的一生都致力于阻止无辜又无助的动物遭受痛苦，尤其是那些被用于研究的动物。他没有袖手旁观，也没有试图为他所看到的苦难复仇。亨利是个很实际的人。他采取了行动。他向公众呼吁，并做了各种成套的宣传材料来帮助普通人成为积极的参与者。

On April 21, 1996, I sent Henry a fax telling him I was thinking about writing a book to chronicle his life and work.I asked whether I could stay with him for a few days in June to talk about it.1996 年 4 月 21 日，我给亨利发了一份传真，告诉他我正在考虑写一本记录其生平和事业的书。我问他我是否可以 6 月份过去和他待几天，以讨论这一事宜。

Henry called that evening.He said he'd really like me to write the book, but he wasn't sure he was still going to be around in late June.He explained that he'd been diagnosed with cancer, and asked whether I could come earlier.当天晚上亨利就给我打了电话。他说他很愿意由我来写这本书，但是他不确定自己 6 月下旬是否还会活在世上。他解释说他已经被确诊得了癌症，所以问我能不能早点来。

I was in New York six days later.Henry had lost a lot of weight, and lacked the energy I was used to seeing in him.His life expectancy was a matter of months.Death seemed to be stalking him.6 天后我就到了纽约。亨利瘦了很多，而且也没有了我以前在他身上看到的精力。他的生命只剩几个月了。死亡似乎正在向他逼近。

The most remarkable thing about Henry, though, was the total absence of any sign of depression.Life had been good, he said, refusing to hear my sympathy and condolences.He said he'd done what he wanted to do and enjoyed it a lot.Why should he be depressed? 尽管如此，亨利最了不起的一点就是，你根本看不到他有一丝一毫的沮丧。他说他一直过得很好，因而拒绝听我说同情和安慰的话。他说，他做了自己想做的事，而且很享受所做的一切，为什么要感到沮丧呢？ Henry's life did not terminate in the time his doctors predicted.For the next two years he kept working, helping develop the material I needed for the book, through interviews and questionnaires.When I began writing, I never thought Henry would see a completed draft, but he lived to see the book on sale in a New York bookstore.Then, within a week, wearing his favorite striped pajamas, he died.亨利的生命并没有像医生预言的那么快终止。在接下来的两年里，他一直坚持工作，通过采访和问卷调查的方式，帮助我准备写书需要的材料。在我开始动笔的时候，我从来没想到亨利能看到完整的初稿，但是他一直活到亲眼看到书在纽约的书店出售。然后，不到一个星期，他就去世了，当时身上穿着他最喜欢的条纹睡衣。

One essential mark of living well is to be satisfied with one's accomplishments when taking a retrospective look at life, and to be able to accept death and face infinity calmly.Henry's life seemed to lack many of the things that most of us take for granted as essential to a good life.He never married, or had a long-term, live-in relationship.He had no children or successors.He never went to concerts, to the theater, or to fine restaurants.He didn't bring antibiotics to the needy or vaccinate the poor.He was never called a hero like the caped crusaders of our comic books.There is no fancy stone for him at the cemetery after his death.He just cared for the weakest creatures in his society.What gave Henry Spira's life depth and purpose? What did hesun, wind, water, and so on.While renewable energy sources are promising, an international confederation of scientists and engineers is working feverishly to overcome the various obstacles associated with these “new energy” technologies.The major challenge is to develop efficient and economically workable versions of these technologies.我们怎样才能满足未来急剧增长的能源需求呢？在我们完善冷聚变技术之前，我们只能专注于开发太阳能、风能、水电能之类的可再生能源，并提高其产量。虽然可再生能源前景乐观，一个由科学家和工程师组成的国际联盟却正在积极工作，努力克服与这些“新兴能源”技术相关的各种障碍，其中最大的挑战就是如何使这些技术变得既高效又经济。Take solar energy for example.It is a good option because there is an unlimited supply of glittering sunlight.Making it work on a large scale, however, is much easier said than done.It would be cost prohibitive to take the intricate gadgets of solar energy from the fringe of “green” society to the mainstream for major world consumption.The solar apparatus itself is ready for many new business and consumer applications, but it is way too expensive to replace the old combustion machinery of gears and motors with new electronic technology of semiconductors and transistors on a global or even a national scale.以太阳能为例。由于耀眼的太阳光能够提供源源不断的能源，所以它是个不错的选择。但是，大规模地使用太阳能却是说起来容易做起来难。把制造太阳能所需要的复杂零件从“环保”社会的边缘推广到主流社会，使之成为世界主要的消费性能源，其代价之高让人望而却步。太阳能设备本身已是技术成熟，可以使商业和消费者进行许多新型应用，但是，在全球或者即便是在全国范围内，用新型的半导体和晶体管电子技术取代老式的用齿轮和发动机驱动的燃烧设备，其成本实在太高。

Wind power, which has been used effectively in some places for generations, is also rapidly growing in the energy market.The principle behind it is that wind converts rotary force into electricity by turning the blades of the turbine clockwise or counterclockwise around an axis.Unfortunately, wind power is very unreliable and its strength depends on local weather patterns, temperature, time of year, and location.In addition to this unreliability, wind power equipment is very expensive compared with other energy sources and won't become a viable alternative until we can slash the costs significantly.Also, a “wind farm” requires enormous land clearing to produce significant amounts of energy.风能在一些地方已经被几代人有效利用，目前在能源市场中也发展迅速。风能的原理是：风通过驱动涡轮机叶片按顺时针或逆时针方向绕着一个轴旋转，从而把转动时所产生的力转换成电能。不幸的是，风能非常不稳定，其强度取决于当地的天气模式、温度、季节以及地域。除了不稳定的因素之外，和其他能源相比，风能设备造价昂贵。除非我们能将其成本大大降低，否则风能就不会成为一个可行的替代能源。而且，一个“风能农场”需要大片空旷的土地才能生产大量能源。

Hydroelectric power is another source of clean and renewable energy.It can be harnessed by controlling the natural outflow of water with different methods.The most popular is through dams, which, unfortunately, are no longer considered environmentally friendly.Most of the hydroelectric dams in the world are historically recent, but all reservoirs eventually will fill up with mud and require very expensive excavation to clear them up to become useful again.水力电能是另外一种既干净又能再生的能源。人们可以通过不同方法来控制自然水流以进行发电。最普遍的方法是通过水坝，但不幸的是，建水坝已被认为是对环境不利的方法了。世界上大多数用于水力发电的大坝建造历史都不长，但是所有的水库最终都会被淤泥填塞，需要耗资巨大进行清淤才能使它们重新得到利用。

Biomass energy derived from plant and animal matter is still another renewable source being considered as a standby replacement for fossil fuels.Organic waste in the form of dead trees, leaves, animal corpses and food processing waste exists in abundance and can be used to produce energy.However, there is no way to ventilate the direct burning of biomass as fuel without diffusing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.These gases can pose a risk to the ozone layer, increasing overall exposure of human beings to harmful UV rays from the sun.Besides, it takes time and money to collect and transport biomass in its raw form to a central point for processing into fuel, and the automation of such a process is too difficult.So, for the time being, biomass has too many costly drawbacks to be a workable alternative to fossil fuels.动植物物质所产生的生物能源也是一种可再生能源，且被认为是矿物燃料的备用替代品。以死树、枯叶、动物尸体以及食品加工废料的形式存在的有机废物十分充足，可以被用来制造能源。然而，将生物质作为燃料直接燃烧，通风时必然会将二氧化碳及其他温室气体排放到大气中。这些气体会对臭氧层造成威胁，增加人们受到来自太阳的有害紫外线照射的危险。除此以外，将生物质以原始形态进行收集，并将它们运送到某个中心站加工处理成燃料，这一过程既耗时又耗财，而且对这一过程实现自动化非常困难。所以，在目前，生物质能源有太多高成本方面的缺点，不能成为矿物燃料可行的替代品。

Although renewable energies are not yet economically competitive with fossil fuels, their price becomes more attractive when compared with the health and environmental costs associated with burning coal and oil.Perhaps the best solution to our growing energy challenges comes in a bulletin from the Union of Concerned Scientists: “Our society's future success cannot hinge on one single solution.The answer instead must come from a family of perse energy technologies that share a unified purpose-they do not deplete our natural resources or destroy our environment.” Despite the difficulties, it is important to remember that an energy crisis is approaching at supersonic speeds and will soon be upon us.In order to inaugurate a new era in energy, we must act quickly and work toward international collaboration to find the most effective solutions to our energy problems.虽然从经济实惠方面来说，可再生能源没有矿物能源有竞争力，但是，与燃烧煤和石油所带来的健康及环境代价相比，它们的价格又变得较有吸引力了。也许，对于日益紧迫的能源挑战，最好的解决办法正如“忧思科学家联盟”所出的一份简报上所说的那样：“未来我们社会的成功不能依赖于某一单一的解决方案。相反，答案须来自一系列各种不同的能源技术。这些技术有一个共同目的：它们不会耗尽我们的自然资源，也不会破环我们的环境。”尽管困难重重，我们需要牢记的是，能源危机正以超音速逼近，即将来到我们面前。为了在能源领域开创一个新时代，我们必须赶快行动，努力寻求国际合作，以找到能源问题最有效的解决办法。

A worldwide food crisis 会有全球粮食危机吗？

Historically, only local governments worried about a widespread food crisis, but today, a sharp spike in food prices and the resulting food crisis can quickly become a worldwide phenomenon.Recent droughts along the equator, and in Russia and Ukrainecaused wheat prices to surge.Many worry the tight supply will cause inflationary prices.They fear the skyrocketing grain costs in 2007, which harshly struck the world's poor and led to food riots, will recur.在历史上，只有地方政府才会担心大范围的粮食危机，而如今，粮食价格的急剧上涨及由此导致的粮食危机会很快成为一种全球现象。最近发生在赤道沿线、俄罗斯及乌克兰的干旱使小麦价格不断飆升——俄罗斯和乌克兰两国小麦出口总量占世界出口总量的四分之一。许多人担心小麦供应短缺会引发其价格膨胀，他们害怕 2007 年使世界穷人遭受重创并引发食品骚乱的飞涨的粮食价格会再次出现。

Is their fear grounded? Consultancy firms measuring the status of commodities like wheat don't think so.Stocks of wheat are at sufficiently high levels, and harvest turnout from other big producers like the US is expected to stay strong.So unlike in 2007, the supply situation isn't desperate, meaning wheat prices should eventually calm down and level off.他们的担心有根据吗？负责对像小麦这样的商品现状进行评估的咨询公司并不这样认为。目前小麦的储备非常充足，并且，重要农业生产国如美国等的农作物生产也有望十分强劲。所以，与 2007 年不同，现在粮食供应状况并不那样令人绝望，这也意味着小麦价格最终会恢复正常并平稳下来。

However, this rosy picture provides only temporary security.The bigger picture discloses a reality not so optimistic.Though current prices aren't as sky-high as in the panicked market of 2007, they're still at higher levels than before and are likely to stay that way.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development sees the average prices of products classified as essential such as grains, vegetable oils, and dairy products rising for the next decade.但是，这一美好的画面只能带来短暂的安心。更大的画面所揭示的现实不容乐观。虽然目前粮食价格没有达到 2007 年引起恐慌的市场上的那种天价，但和以前相比，价格仍然居高不下，而且很有可能维持这样。经济合作与发展组织认为，谷物、植物油和奶制品这些基本食品的平均价格在未来十年都将持续上涨。It doesn't take an oracle to foretell that the fight to feed the world will be a huge challenge facing the global economy over the next 20 years.Food production is suffering from decades of neglect of agriculture, a period when the sector was starved of the resources and technology it needed to keep up with rising world demand.Though more and more people are intrigued by the issue and there is a growing global consensus about the need for reform in farming, we're really only at the beginning of a long, expensive, process of repairing world agricultural practices.That means food prices will stay high over the next several years, as will the risk of dangerous price fluctuations like the current one with wheat.未来 20 年，让世界上所有人都吃饱饭将是全球经济所面临的巨大挑战，这一点很明确，不需要通过行家来预言。由于过去几十年对农业的疏忽，粮食生产受到影响，而这几十年正是农业这一行业急需得到资源和技术支持以满足日益增长的世界需求的重要时期。虽然现在越来越多的人对这一问题表示出兴趣，对农业耕作进行改革的需要也获得全球越来越广泛的认同，但事实上，在修复全球农业作业这样一项耗时长、代价高的工作中，我们还只处于起步阶段。这也意味着，粮食价格在未来几年会居高不下，正如目前小麦价格波动所带来的风险也会居高不下一样。

Food isn't like garments or other products traded on world markets.The issue of food is filled with emotion.Intermittent uncertainty in food markets will animate people to act when they would otherwise remain calm.No country, for example, wants to run out of food or watch sky-high prices push people into poverty and malnourishment.That can lead to riots or even revolutions.When emotions are running high enough, grain exporters and importers may take extreme measures to prevent a shortage, like hoarding and panic-driven wholesale purchases.In other words, the overreaction of market players will act like a pistol to the head, creating a crisis when none should exist.粮食这一商品和世界市场上交易的衣服或其他商品有所不同。粮食问题是充满感情色彩的。粮食市场时断时续的不确定性会促使人们采取行动，而这种不确定性如果涉及的是其他商品，人们则会保持冷静。比如，没有哪个国家希望出现粮食短缺，眼睁睁看着粮价飞涨而使人们陷入贫穷和营养不良的困境，因为这样会引发骚乱甚至革命。当人们的情绪积聚到足够高度的时候，粮食出口商和进口商就会采取一些极端的手段，以防止粮食出现短缺。比如，他们会囤积粮食及因恐慌而大批量购买等等。换句话说，市场操纵者如果反应过度，其作用就如同指向头部的手枪，会无中生有地制造危机。

Will current prices stay high and volatile? Probably yes.There are enormous structural problems with the agriculture industry that have caused the great imbalance between supply and demand.These problems have a dual nature, one part of it on the production side, and the other on the consumption side.目前的价格会一直居高不下且变化不定吗？很可能会的。农业产业结构方面存在的诸多问题已经引发了供求关系的巨大失衡。这些问题具有两面性，一个是生产方面的，另一个是消费方面的。

On the production side, global funding for rural infrastructure or technological research to keep yields growing has been very small, well below what is needed to keep crises at bay and to meet our future food demands.But in the past, whenever economists predicted massive shortages, technological advances like higher-yield strains of wheat would overcome the difference and rescue civilizations from large-scale starvation.在生产方面，全球用于乡村基础设施建设或农业技术研究以保持粮食产量持续增长的资金非常少，大大低于能够使我们避免危机、满足人类未来食品需求所必需的资金投入量。但是，在过去，一旦经济学家们预测会有大规模的粮食短缺，就会有像高产量小麦之类的技术进步来解决这一供需差异，使人类免受大规模挨饿之苦。

On the consumption side, citizens of wealthier countries have grown accustomed to consuming more food than they need and eating more costly types of food like meat.This means more grain gets turned into livestock feed instead of food for people.Add in the new demand for bio-fuels, and you get a recipe for disaster.As an excerpt from a pamphlet by activist Peter Singer explains: “...the problem isn't that we are producing too little food;rather we're not eating the food we grow.Nearly 100 million tons of grain per year is turned into bio-fuel that goes into gas tanks.The problem is that we-the relatively affluentthey were tools like a wrench, a hammer or a screw.还有士兵也是男人的工作。据我所知，他们几乎不工作，但当战争一打响，他们很多人都会出于爱国热情而战死在疆场或异域前哨的堡垒前。这就是士兵的作用——他们就像工具，如同扳钳、锤子或螺丝一样。These weren't the only destinies of men, as I learned from having a few male teachers, from reading books and from watching television.But the men on televisionseemed as remote and unreal to me as the figures in old paintings.I could no more imagine growing up to become one of these sophisticated people than I could imagine becoming a sovereign prince.这些并非男人们唯一的归宿，我从曾经有过的几位男教师、从看书及看电视中认识到了这一点。但是，那些上电视的男人们——新闻评论员、律师、医生、课征税款的政治家及发号施令的老板们——在我看来就像古老绘画上的人像，遥远而不真实。我不能想象自己长大会变成这些精明世故的人中的一员，就像我无法想象自己能变成一个权力至高无上的国君一样。

A scholarship enabled me not only to attend college, a rare enough feat in my social circle, but even to traverse the halls of a historic university meant for the children of the rich.Here for the first time I met women who told me that men were guilty of having kept all the joys and privileges of the earth for themselves.I was puzzled, and demanded clarification.What privileges? What joys? I thought about the grim, wounded lives of most of the men back home.What had they allegedly stolen from their wives and daughters? The right to work five days a week, 12 months a year, for 30 or 40 years, wedged in tight spaces in the textile mills, or in the coal mines, struggling to extract every last bit of coal from the rock-hard earth? The right to die in war? The right to fix every leak in the roof, every gap in the fence? The right to pile banknotes high for a rich corporation in a city far away? The right to feel, when the lay-off came or the mines shut down, not only afraid but also ashamed? 一份奖学金使我得以上大学，这可是我社交圈子里极其难得的荣耀。不仅如此，它还让我能够穿行于为富人家的孩子打造的史上著名的大学殿堂里。就在这里，我生平头一次碰到女人告诉我说男人是有罪的，因为他们把地球上所有的欢乐和特权都据为己有。我被弄糊涂了，要求她们予以解释。什么特权？什么欢乐？我想到家乡大多数男人那种艰难严酷、伤痛累累的生活。人们所说的他们从妻子和女儿那里偷走的东西又能是些什么呢？难道是每周五天、每年十二个月，如此三四十年里挤缩在纺织厂狭小的空间里，或是在煤矿下挣扎着从岩石般坚硬的泥土中挖出最后一点煤的劳作的权力？战死疆场的权利？修缮屋顶上每条裂缝和围栏上每个断栏的权利？为一个遥远的城市某个富裕财团垒积钱钞的权利？在遭遇解雇或煤矿倒闭时感到既害怕又羞耻的权利？

In this alien world of t