高级英语第二册(MP3+中英字幕) 第11课:英国人的未来(15)
日期:2016-02-15 17:32

(单词翻译:单击)

At this time of writing (1973) both the cynical or frivolous majority, which imagines itself to be outside politics, and the stubbornly divided minority, only agreeing in being myopic and entirely self-interested, exist in England.
在我撰写本文之时,英国既存在着那种自以为是超出于政治之外的、愤世嫉俗或举止轻狂的多数派,又存在着那种各执己见、四分五裂,只在目光短浅、自私自利两方面有共同语言的少数派。
But I believe there must also still exist, if only on a hidden level, what remains of a characteristically English sense of community, decent fellow-feeling, fairness. (It isn't fair, children still cry.)
但我相信,这里也必然存在着英国人特有的社会群体感、高尚的同胞之情和正义之感,尽管隐藏得很深。(孩子们仍喊叫着"这不公平"。)
In spite of the 'Admass' atmosphere, inflation, the all-round grab, all this must yet exist even now, for there are deep roots here.
尽管到处弥漫着商业广告气氛,存在着通货膨胀和猖狂的剥削行为,这些东西即使是今日也一定依然存在,因为它们深深植根于英国。
But those roots must be needing nourishment.
但那些根一定正急需营养。
Englishness cannot be fed with the east wind of a narrow rationality, the latest figures of profit and loss, a constant appeal to self-interest.
要给英国人特性提供营养,却不能靠狭隘的理性思维的东风,最近的盈亏数字或对私利的不断呼唤。
Politicians are always making such appeals, whereas statesmen, when they can be found, prefer to take themselves and their hearers out of the stock exchanges, shareholders' meetings, counting-houses.
政客们总是发出这样的呼唤,而政治家--如果还能找到政治家的话--则宁愿将自己和听众带出股票交易所、股东会议及帐房之类的场所。
They offer men the chance of behaving better and not as usual.
他们提供机会,使人们努力向上,而不是保持原样。
They create an atmosphere in which the familiar greed and envy and resentment begin to seem small and contemptible.
他们创造出一种良好的社会风气,使得贪婪、嫉妒和怨恨这些常见的行为显得渺小、可鄙。

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重点单词
  • minorityn. 少数,少数民族,未成年
  • stubbornlyadv. 倔强地;顽固地
  • inflationn. 膨胀,通货膨胀
  • greedn. 贪心,贪婪
  • contemptibleadj. 可鄙的,可轻视的
  • rationalityn. 合理性;合理的行动
  • cynicaladj. 愤世嫉俗的,吹毛求疵的
  • stockn. 存货,储备; 树干; 血统; 股份; 家畜 adj
  • majorityn. 多数,大多数,多数党,多数派 n. 法定年龄
  • frivolousadj. 轻佻的,妄动的,琐碎的 adj. 无足轻重的