CollegePressures完整译文.docx

1、CollegePressures完整译文College-Pressures-完整译文Unit 2 College PressuresDear Carlos: I desperately need a deans excuse for my chem.（化学） midterm（期中考试）, which will begin in about one hour. All I can say is that I totally blew it this week. Ive fallen incredibly（难以置信地，非常地）, inconceivably（不可思议地） behind.敬爱的卡洛斯

2、院长：还有一个小时就要化学期中考试了，我急切需要一个院长给我点建议。我唯一能说的就是，我这周过得浑浑噩噩，课业落下一大截。Carlos: Help! I am anxious to hear from you. Ill be in my room and wont leave it until I hear from you. Tomorrow is the last day for帮帮我！我非常需要你的回应！我会一直在房间里等，直到你给我回应。明天就是最后一天.Carlos: I left town because I started bugging out again. I stayed

3、up all night to finish a take-home make-up exam and am typing it to hand in on the tenth. It was due on the fifth. PS:事，结果发烧了，没怎么学习。我们教授.Carlos: Aargh! Trouble. Nothing original but everythings piling up at once. To be brief, my job interview.不是吧！真遭罪。祸不单行啊。话说，我的工作面试.Hey Carlos, good news! Ive got mo

4、nonucleosis（单核细胞增多症）!好消息！我得了单核细胞增多症！Who are these wretched（可怜的） supplicants（祈求者）, scribbling（乱写，潦草地书写） notes so laden（苦恼的） with anxiety（焦虑，渴望）, seeking such miracles of postponement（延期） and balm（香油，镇痛软膏）? They are men and women who belong to Branford College（布兰福德学院）, one of the twelve residential co

5、lleges （住宿学院） at Yale University, and the messages are just a few of the hundreds they left for their dean, Carlos Hortas - often slipped（塞入） under his door at 4 a.m. - last year.这些可怜的祈求者是谁？字条上潦草的字迹如此痛苦焦虑。乞求着延期的奇迹和止痛剂。这些男女都是布兰福德学院，耶鲁大学12个住宿学院之一的学生，而以上不过是他们给院长Carlos Hortas成百纸条中的寥寥几个。去年，这些纸条总是被塞入他的办公室

6、门里，在早上4点。But students like the ones who wrote those notes can also be found on campuses from coast to coast - especially in New England and many other private colleges across the country that have high academic standards and highly motivated students. Nobody could doubt that the notes are real. In t

7、heir urgency and their gallows humor（黑色幽默，绞刑架上的幽默） they are authentic（真实的） voices of a generation that is panicky（恐慌的，惊慌失措的） to succeed.然而像这样写小纸条的学生，在全国各地是常见的尤其在新英格兰，很多有高水平学术和高度自发自觉的学生的私立院校。没人会怀疑这些纸条真实性。从这些迫切性和黑色幽默不难看出一代人迫切渴望成功的真实声音。My own connection with the message writers is that I am master of B

8、ranford College. I live in its Gothic quadrangle and know the students well. (We have 485 of them.) I am privy to their hopes and fears - and also their stereo music and their piercing cries in the dead of night (“Does anybody ca-a-are?”). If they went to Carlos to ask how to get through tomorrow, t

9、hey come to me to ask how to get through the rest of their lives.我是耶鲁大学布兰福德学院的院长。我住在校内，非常了解学生。（我们有485名学生。）我常听他们诉说自己的希望和恐惧也常听他们的立体声音乐和他们在夜深人静时发出的刺耳喊叫（“有什么人关心吗？”）。他们问Carlos 明天怎么办，他们到我这儿来，问我如何度过余生。Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns

10、that they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They do not want to hear such liberating news. They want a map - right now - that they can follow unswerving to career security, financial security, social security and, presumably, a

11、 prepaid grave.我主要是试图提醒他们，前面的路途漫长，沿途中的曲折将比他们想象的要多。将来有时候会改变工作，改变职业，改变整个的态度和处理问题的方式。他们不想听这种无关紧要的消息。他们现在就想要一张地图，能据以直接通向业保障、经济保障、社会保障，也许还通向一座预购的坟墓。What I wish for all students is some release from the clammy（湿冷的） grip 紧握），（柄，支配） of the future. I wish them a chance to savor （品尝） each segment 部分）of their

12、education as an experience in itself and not as a grim（冷酷的，残忍的） preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as instructive （有益的，教育性的） as victory and is not the end of the world.我的希望是所有学生能从未来的严酷无情中得到一些解脱。我希望他们有机会把他们每一阶段的教育纯粹作为一种经历来享受，而

13、不是作为一种为下一步作准备的令人厌倦的要求。我希望他们有权利失误、有权利跌倒，并懂得失败同胜利一样有教育意义，而不是世界的末日。My wish, of course, is nave. One of the few rights that America does not proclaim （宣告，公布） is the right to fail. Achievement is the national god, venerated（尊敬） in our media the million-dollar athlete, the wealthy executive and glorified

14、in our praise（赞扬） of possessions（财产）. In the presence of such a potent（强有力的）state religion, the young are growing up old.当然，我的希望是天真的。在美国人没有声明拥有的为数不多的权利之中，有一个便是失败的权利。成就是民族之神，它在我们的媒体中受到崇拜身价百万的运动员，富有的主管人员在我们对财富的赞扬中得到荣耀。年轻人就是在这样一种强有力的国教的熏陶下长大的。I see four kinds of pressure working on college students tod

15、ay: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. Its easy to look around for villains to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, the students for driving themselves

16、too hard. But there are no villains（坏人）, only victims.我发现有四种压力影响着今天的大学生：经济上的压力，父母的压力，同伴的压力，和自己导致的压力。四处寻找罪魁祸首并不难指责大学收费太高，指责教授布置作业太多，指责父母望子成龙过于心切，指责学生把自己逼得太紧。但罪魁祸首是没有的，只有受害者。“In the late 1960s,” one dean told me, “the typical question that I got from students was Why is there so much suffering in the

17、world? or How can I make a contribution? Today its Do you think it would look better for getting into low school if I did a double major in history and political science, or just majored in one of them? ” Many other deans confirmed this pattern. One said: “Theyre trying to find an edge（边缘，优势） the in

18、tangible（无形的，难以言喻的） something that will look better on paper if two students are about equal.”“1960年代末，”一位院长对我说，“学生问我的典型问题是“为什么世界多磨难？”或“我能做些什么？”如今问的是“你觉得，如果我学历不高但有历史和政治科学的双学位，会不会比较好？或者只是学其中一门？”其他院长也面临这样的的问题。其中一个说：“他们尝试找到一种优势当两个学生差不多的时候，可以让成绩看起来更好的无形东西。”Note the emphasis on looking better. The transc

19、ript has become a sacred document, the passport to security. How one appears on paper is more important than how one appears in person. A is for Admirable and B is for Borderline, even though, in Yales official system of grading, A means excellent and B means very good. Today, looking very good is n

20、o longer good enough, especially for students who hope to go on to law school or medical school. They know that entrance into the better schools will be an entrance into the better law firms and better medical practices where they will make a lot of money. They also know that the odds are harsh. Yal

21、e Law School, for instance, matriculates 170 students from an applicant pool of 3,700; Harvard enrolls 550 from a pool of 7,000.对看起来更好的追求。使得成绩单成为一种神圣的文本，安全的护照。这些书面表达的内容比一个人本身表达的内容更重要。A是被艳羡的，B是勉强接受的，即使在耶鲁大学官方评分系统里，A是“极佳”，B是“非常好”。如今，非常好已经不够好，尤其是对于那些想继续法律或医学学习的学生。他们知道更好的学校意味着更好的就业公司，更好的医疗实践能让他们金银满钵。他们还

22、知道成功很难。以耶鲁大学的法学院为例，3700个申请者只有170个被录取；哈佛大学7000申请者中录取550个。Its all very well for those of us who write letters of recommendation（推荐信） for our students to stress the qualities of humanity that will make them good lawyers or doctors. And its nice to think that admission officers are really reading our le

23、tters and looking for the extra dimension（方面） of commitment（承诺，保证，委托） or concern. Still, it would be hard for a student not to visualize these officers shuffling（洗牌） so many transcripts studded（镶嵌） with As that they regard a B as positively shameful.对于我们这些做院长的人来说，为学生写推荐信，并在信中强调学生的人文素养与品质倒也是件好事，这些素养与

24、品质也将使他们成为优秀的律师或医生。同样值得高兴的是，招生面试官在认真阅读我们的信的同时，也会留意其它能够确保学生品质的证书或是有关文件。然而，一个学生很难想象到的是，面试官已经阅遍无数标满了A的成绩单，在他们眼中，一个B就会被理所当然地认为是可耻的。The pressure is almost as heavy on students who just want to graduate and get a job. Long gone are the days of the “gentlemans C”, when students journeyed through college wit

25、h a certain relaxation, sampling a wide variety of courses - music, art, philosophy, classics, anthropology, poetry, religion - that would send them out as liberally educated men and women. If I were an employer I would rather employ graduates who have this range and curiosity than those who narrowl

26、y pursued safe subjects and high grades. I know countless students whose inquiring minds exhilarate me. I like to hear the play of their ideas. I dont know if they are getting As or Cs, and I dont care. I also like them as people. The country needs them, and they will find satisfying jobs. I tell th

27、em to relax. They cant.对于想毕业去找工作的学生来说，这种压力也是几乎一样沉重的。拿个C等成绩便万事大吉的日子早已过去了，那时的学生可以轻松地度过大学生活，广泛涉猎各门课程：音乐、艺术、哲学、古希腊罗马文学、人类学，诗歌，宗教等，这些课程把一批批经受过人文教育的学生送出校门。如果我是雇主，我宁愿雇佣那些有这种视野和好奇心的毕业生，而不是那些囿于追求简单科目和高分的毕业生。我所认识的许多学生都能以他们勤学好问的头脑使振奋起来。我喜欢听他们的想法。我不知道他们考试成绩是A还是C，我不在乎。我也喜欢作为人而存在的他们。国家需要他们，他们也会找到令自己满意的工作。我告诉他们对未来

28、放松一点，而他们往往放松不下来。Nor can I blame them. They live in a brutal economy. Tuition, room, and board at most private college now comes to at least $ 7,000, not counting books and fees. This might seem to suggest that the colleges are getting rich. But they are equally battered by inflation. Tuition covers

29、only 60 percent of what it costs to educate a student, and ordinarily the remainder comes from what colleges receive in endowments, grants, and gifts. Now the remainder keeps being swallowed by the cruel costs higher every year of just opening the doors. Heating oil is up. Insurance is up. We are wi

30、tnessing in America the creation of a brotherhood of paupers colleges, parents, and students, joined by the common bond of debt.我也不能责怪他们。他们生活在残酷的经济体制下。大多数私立学校的学费、住宿费和学费达到至少7000美元，这其中还不包括书本费和杂费。这也似乎暗示着大学正在变得富有。然而，大学会受到通货膨胀的打击。在大学将一名学生培育成才所需的成本里，学费只占了百分之60，其余部分来自其在赞助、赠款和礼物上获得的收入。如今，只要一打开门办校，成本就年年上涨，这剩

31、下的百分之40的价值因而不断缩水，油价在上涨，保险费在上涨，什么都在涨。我们在美国目睹着一个贫困群体的创立 由于背负巨债，大学、父母和学生们都一同落入了身无分文的境地。Today it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part time at college and full time during the summer, to accrue $ 5,000 in loans after four years - loans that he must start to repay within one year after grad

32、uation. Exhorted at commencement to go forth into the world, he is already behind as he goes forth. How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? I have used “he”, incidentally, only for brevity. Women at Yale are under no less pressure to justify their expensive education to themselves, their parents, and society. In fact, they re probably under more pressure. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male job, society hasnt yet caught up with this fact.