CollegePressures完整譯文[10頁]

1、Unit 2 College PressuresDear Carlos: I desperately need a deans excuse for my chem.（化學） midterm（期中考試）, which will begin in about one hour. All I can say is that I totally blew it this week. Ive fallen incredibly（難以置信地，非常地）, inconceivably（不可思議地） behind.敬愛的卡洛斯院長：還有一個小時就要化學期中考試了，我急切需要一個院長給我點建議。我唯一能說的就是

2、，我這周過得渾渾噩噩，課業(yè)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幫幫我！我非常需要你的回應！我會一直在房間里等，直到你給我回應。明天就是最后一天.Carlos: I left town because I started bugging out again. I stayed up all night to finish a take-home make-up

3、 exam and am typing it to hand in on the tenth. It was due on the fifth. PS: Im going to the dentist. Pain is pretty bad.我離開城鎮(zhèn)是因為我又得趕時間開溜了。我熬了一整晚做完家庭完成的考試，然后打印出來在第十周上交。規(guī)定截止時間是第十五周。PS:我要去看牙醫(yī)。牙疼的厲害。Carlos: Probably by Friday Ill be able to get back to my studies. Right now, Im going to take a long wal

4、k. This whole thing has taken a lot out of me.也許周五我能趕回來繼續(xù)學習。現(xiàn)在，我要走一段好遠的路了。這些事情讓我疲憊不堪。Carlos: Im really up the proverbial（諺語的，眾所周知的）creek（小溪）. The problem is I really bombed the history final. Since I need that course for my major I我真的是有大麻煩了。我考砸了歷史期末考。由于我的專業(yè)要求學這門課，我.Carlos: Here follows a tale of woe

5、. I went home this weekend, had to help my Mom, and caught a fever so didnt have much time to study. My professor講個悲傷的故事。我這周末回家，幫我媽做事，結果發(fā)燒了，沒怎么學習。我們教授.Carlos: Aargh! Trouble. Nothing original but everythings piling up at once. To be brief, my job interview.不是吧！真遭罪。禍不單行啊。話說，我的工作面試.Hey Carlos, good ne

6、ws! Ive got mononucleosis（單核細胞增多癥）!好消息！我得了單核細胞增多癥！Who are these wretched（可憐的） supplicants（祈求者）, scribbling（亂寫，潦草地書寫） notes so laden（苦惱的） with anxiety（焦慮，渴望）, seeking such miracles of postponement（延期） and balm（香油，鎮(zhèn)痛軟膏）? They are men and women who belong to Branford College（布蘭福德學院）, one of the twelve

7、residential colleges （住宿學院） 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.這些可憐的祈求者是誰？字條上潦草的字跡如此痛苦焦慮。乞求著延期的奇跡和止痛劑。這些男女都是布蘭福德學院，耶魯大學12個住宿學院之一的學生，而以上不過是他們給院長Carlos Hortas成百紙條中的寥寥幾個。去年，

8、這些紙條總是被塞入他的辦公室門里，在早上4點。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

9、are real. In their urgency and their gallows humor（黑色幽默，絞刑架上的幽默） they are authentic（真實的） voices of a generation that is panicky（恐慌的，驚慌失措的） to succeed.然而像這樣寫小紙條的學生，在全國各地是常見的尤其在新英格蘭，很多有高水平學術和高度自發(fā)自覺的學生的私立院校。沒人會懷疑這些紙條真實性。從這些迫切性和黑色幽默不難看出一代人迫切渴望成功的真實聲音。My own connection with the message writers is that I

10、am master of Branford 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 throu

11、gh tomorrow, they come to me to ask how to get through the rest of their lives.我是耶魯大學布蘭福德學院的院長。我住在校內，非常了解學生。（我們有485名學生。）我常聽他們訴說自己的希望和恐懼也常聽他們的立體聲音樂和他們在夜深人靜時發(fā)出的刺耳喊叫（“有什么人關心嗎？”）。他們問Carlos 明天怎么辦，他們到我這兒來，問我如何度過余生。Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more une

12、xpected turns 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,

13、 presumably, a prepaid grave.我主要是試圖提醒他們，前面的路途漫長，沿途中的曲折將比他們想象的要多。將來有時候會改變工作，改變職業(yè)，改變整個的態(tài)度和處理問題的方式。他們不想聽這種無關緊要的消息。他們現(xiàn)在就想要一張地圖，能據(jù)以直接通向業(yè)保障、經(jīng)濟保障、社會保障，也許還通向一座預購的墳墓。What I wish for all students is some release from the clammy（濕冷的） grip 緊握），（柄，支配） of the future. I wish them a chance to savor （品嘗） each segmen

14、t 部分）of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim（冷酷的，殘忍的） 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.我的希望是所有學生能從未來的嚴酷無情中得到一些解脫。我希望他們有機會把他們每一階段的教

15、育純粹作為一種經(jīng)歷來享受，而不是作為一種為下一步作準備的令人厭倦的要求。我希望他們有權利失誤、有權利跌倒，并懂得失敗同勝利一樣有教育意義，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

16、and glorified in our praise（贊揚） of possessions（財產(chǎn)）. In the presence of such a potent（強有力的）state religion, the young are growing up old.當然，我的希望是天真的。在美國人沒有聲明擁有的為數(shù)不多的權利之中，有一個便是失敗的權利。成就是民族之神，它在我們的媒體中受到崇拜身價百萬的運動員，富有的主管人員在我們對財富的贊揚中得到榮耀。年輕人就是在這樣一種強有力的國教的熏陶下長大的。I see four kinds of pressure working on colleg

17、e students today: 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 drivi

18、ng themselves too hard. But there are no villains（壞人）, only victims.我發(fā)現(xiàn)有四種壓力影響著今天的大學生：經(jīng)濟上的壓力，父母的壓力，同伴的壓力，和自己導致的壓力。四處尋找罪魁禍首并不難指責大學收費太高，指責教授布置作業(yè)太多，指責父母望子成龍過于心切，指責學生把自己逼得太緊。但罪魁禍首是沒有的，只有受害者?！癐n the late 1960s,” one dean told me, “the typical question that I got from students was Why is there so much suf

19、fering in the 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

20、（邊緣，優(yōu)勢） the intangible（無形的，難以言喻的） something that will look better on paper if two students are about equal.”“1960年代末，”一位院長對我說，“學生問我的典型問題是“為什么世界多磨難？”或“我能做些什么？”如今問的是“你覺得，如果我學歷不高但有歷史和政治科學的雙學位，會不會比較好？或者只是學其中一門？”其他院長也面臨這樣的的問題。其中一個說：“他們嘗試找到一種優(yōu)勢當兩個學生差不多的時候，可以讓成績看起來更好的無形東西。”Note the emphasis on looking bett

21、er. The transcript 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

22、very good is no 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

23、are harsh. Yale Law School, for instance, matriculates 170 students from an applicant pool of 3,700; Harvard enrolls 550 from a pool of 7,000.對看起來更好的追求。使得成績單成為一種神圣的文本，安全的護照。這些書面表達的內容比一個人本身表達的內容更重要。A是被艷羨的，B是勉強接受的，即使在耶魯大學官方評分系統(tǒng)里，A是“極佳”，B是“非常好”。如今，非常好已經(jīng)不夠好，尤其是對于那些想繼續(xù)法律或醫(yī)學學習的學生。他們知道更好的學校意味著更好的就業(yè)公司，更好的醫(yī)療

24、實踐能讓他們金銀滿缽。他們還知道成功很難。以耶魯大學的法學院為例，3700個申請者只有170個被錄?。还鸫髮W7000申請者中錄取550個。Its all very well for those of us who write letters of recommendation（推薦信） 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

25、reading our letters and looking for the extra dimension（方面） of commitment（承諾，保證，委托） or concern. Still, it would be hard for a student not to visualize these officers shuffling（洗牌） so many transcripts studded（鑲嵌） with As that they regard a B as positively shameful.對于我們這些做院長的人來說，為學生寫推薦信，并在信中強調學生的人文素養(yǎng)與

26、品質倒也是件好事，這些素養(yǎng)與品質也將使他們成為優(yōu)秀的律師或醫(yī)生。同樣值得高興的是，招生面試官在認真閱讀我們的信的同時，也會留意其它能夠確保學生品質的證書或是有關文件。然而，一個學生很難想象到的是，面試官已經(jīng)閱遍無數(shù)標滿了A的成績單，在他們眼中，一個B就會被理所當然地認為是可恥的。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 throu

27、gh college with 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 tho

28、se who narrowly 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 j

29、obs. I tell them to relax. They cant.對于想畢業(yè)去找工作的學生來說，這種壓力也是幾乎一樣沉重的。拿個C等成績便萬事大吉的日子早已過去了，那時的學生可以輕松地度過大學生活，廣泛涉獵各門課程：音樂、藝術、哲學、古希臘羅馬文學、人類學，詩歌，宗教等，這些課程把一批批經(jīng)受過人文教育的學生送出校門。如果我是雇主，我寧愿雇傭那些有這種視野和好奇心的畢業(yè)生，而不是那些囿于追求簡單科目和高分的畢業(yè)生。我所認識的許多學生都能以他們勤學好問的頭腦使振奮起來。我喜歡聽他們的想法。我不知道他們考試成績是A還是C，我不在乎。我也喜歡作為人而存在的他們。國家需要他們，他們也會找到令自己

30、滿意的工作。我告訴他們對未來放松一點，而他們往往放松不下來。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. T

31、uition covers 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

32、 up. We are witnessing in America the creation of a brotherhood of paupers colleges, parents, and students, joined by the common bond of debt.我也不能責怪他們。他們生活在殘酷的經(jīng)濟體制下。大多數(shù)私立學校的學費、住宿費和學費達到至少7000美元，這其中還不包括書本費和雜費。這也似乎暗示著大學正在變得富有。然而，大學會受到通貨膨脹的打擊。在大學將一名學生培育成才所需的成本里，學費只占了百分之60，其余部分來自其在贊助、贈款和禮物上獲得的收入。如今，只要一打開

33、門辦校，成本就年年上漲，這剩下的百分之40的價值因而不斷縮水，油價在上漲，保險費在上漲，什么都在漲。我們在美國目睹著一個貧困群體的創(chuàng)立 由于背負巨債，大學、父母和學生們都一同落入了身無分文的境地。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 y

34、ear after graduation. 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 t

35、o 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.如今，一個學生，甚至是一個上學時部分時間打工，暑假里全日

36、打工的學生，在四年之后欠下5，000美元債務的情況并不罕見這筆債務學生必須在畢業(yè)后一年之內開始償還（順便說一句，并非像許多非大學生的人們所以為的那樣都是低息貸款）。雖然在畢業(yè)典禮上學生們被鼓勵邁步走向社會，但他們剛出發(fā)就已經(jīng)落后了。為準備迎接這一結帳之日，他們整個大學期間又怎能不感壓力沉重呢？耶魯?shù)呐饶猩鷫毫Ω?，因為她們要向自己、父母和社會證明她們值得接受昂貴的教育。因為雖然她們離開大學時已經(jīng)具備了出眾的才能，完全可以給一貫由男性從事的工作注入新鮮的領導力量，但是社會的進步還沒有到認識這一事實。Along with economic pressure goes parental pres

37、sure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined.伴隨著經(jīng)濟壓力的是來自父母的壓力。這兩者不可避免地深深交織在一起。I see many students taking pre-medical courses with joyless tenacity. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know them in other corners of their life as cheerful people.

38、我看到學生們下定決心毫無歡樂地在修醫(yī)學預科課程。他們去實驗室，就像是去看牙醫(yī)。這使我感到悲哀，因為我知道他們在生活的其它方面都是些高高興興的人?！癉o you want to go to medical school?” I ask them.“你想進醫(yī)學院嗎？”我問他們?！癐 guess so,” they say, without conviction, or “Not really.”“我想是這樣的吧，”他們不能肯定地說，或者“并非真的想?！薄癟hen why are you going?”“那你為什么還打算進呢？”“Well, my parents want me to be a do

39、ctor. Theyre paying all this money and.”“父母要我當醫(yī)生。錢都是他們付的，而且”Poor students, poor parents. They are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt. The parents mean well; they are trying to steer their sons and daughters toward a secure future. But, the sons and daughters want to major in

40、 history or classics or philosophy - subjects with no practical value. Where is the payoff on the humanities? It is not easy to persuade such loving parents that the humanities do, indeed, pay off. The intellectual faculties developed by studying subjects such as history and classics - and ability t

41、o synthesize and relate, to weigh the cause and effect, to see events in perspective - are just the faculties that make creative leaders in business or almost any general field. Still, many parents would rather put their money on courses that point toward a specific profession - courses that are pre

42、-law, pre-med., pre-business, or as I sometimes heard it put, pre-rich.可憐的學生們，可憐的父母們。他們被困在一張最古老的由愛與責任以及負疚感交錯的網(wǎng)中。父母們初衷良善，他們試圖引導自己的兒女們通往一個有保障的未來。只是兒女們想主修的是歷史或文學一些不“實用”的專業(yè)。讀人文科學的回報在哪里呢？要說服愛心拳拳的父母們人文科學確有回報，不是件容易的事。學習歷史和文學之類的學科所獲得的智力綜合、相互聯(lián)系、通因明果、洞察深入正是那些在商界乃至幾乎一切領域具有創(chuàng)造力的領袖所必需的能力。然而，許多父親們仍然寧愿將金錢花在職業(yè)指向明確的課

43、程上法律預科、醫(yī)學預科、商業(yè)預科我有時稱之為“財富預科”。 But, the pressure on students is severe. They are truly torn. One part of them feels obligated to fulfill their parents expectations; after all, their parents are older and presumably wiser. Another part tells them that the expectations that are right for their parents

44、are not right for them.然而學生身上的壓力就非常嚴重了。他們真的備受折磨。一方面他們覺得有義務實現(xiàn)父母的期望，畢竟父母比自己年長，應該較為見多識廣。另一方面，他們又覺得父母的期望對于父母是合適的，但對于自己卻未必合適。I know a student who wants to be an artist. She is very obviously an artist and will be a good one - she has already had several modest local exhibits. Meanwhile she is growing as

45、a well-rounded person and taking humanistic subjects that will enrich the inner resources out of which her art will grow. But her father is strongly opposed. He thinks that an artist is a dumb thing to be. The student vacillates and tries to please everybody. She keeps up with her art somewhat furti

46、vely and takes some of the dumb courses her father wants her to take - at least that are dumb courses for her. She is a free spirit on a campus of tense students - no small achievement in itself - and she deserves to follow her muse.我認識一個想當藝術家的學生。她顯然就是一名藝術家的樣子，而且將會成為一名優(yōu)秀的藝術家她的作品已經(jīng)有過好幾次小型本地展覽了。同時，她也正

47、在成長為一個多才多藝的人；她正在攻讀人文學科，這些學科的豐富內涵將會充實她的藝術素養(yǎng)。但她的父親對此強烈反對。他認為搞藝術是一個“愚蠢”的事情：藝術生總是躊躇不定，又試圖取悅所有人。而她暗自堅持了自己的藝術愛好，并按父親要求去上一些“愚蠢”的課程至少這些課對她來說是顯得愚蠢的。在校園里，在一群神經(jīng)兮兮、又碌碌無為的學生之間，她就像一個自由的靈魂她順從自己的本心是值得的。Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they start almost at the beginning of freshman y

48、ear.來自同伴的壓力和自我導致的壓力也是相互交織的，而且它們從一年級一開始就出現(xiàn)了?！癐 had a freshman student Ill call Linda,” one dean told me. “Who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I couldnt tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to sa

49、y the same thing about Linda.”“我有一個一年級的學生, 我就稱她為琳達吧，”一位老師告訴我，“她進來對我說她的壓力極大，因為她的室友芭芭拉比她聰明得多而且整天用功。我沒法啟口告訴她兩個小時之前芭芭拉也進來這樣說過琳達?！盩he story is almost funny - except that it is not. It is symptomatic of all the pressures put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doi

50、ng better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they would sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the clack of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see

51、the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due: “Will I get everything done?”這件事近乎可笑但事實上并不可笑。這是所有種種綜合的癥狀。每個學生都認為別的學生更用功、學得更好時，唯一的辦法便是更加努力地學習。我看見學生們每天晚上吃完飯后就去圖書館，到半夜關門時才回來。我真希望他們能夠有時候忘掉他們的同學，去看一場電影。天亮以前幾個小時我就聽見打字機的敲擊聲。當考試來臨，論文該交時，我看到他們眼中的緊張；“我能完成所有的事情嗎？”Probably they will not

52、. They will get sick. They will get blocked. They will sleep. They will oversleep. They still bug out. Hey Carlos, HELP!或許他們不能。他們會生病。他們會睡著。他們會睡過頭。他們會退卻。Part of the problem is that they do more than they are expected to. A professor will assign a five-page paper. Several students will start writing t

53、en page papers to impress him. Then more students will write ten page papers, and a few will raise the ante to fifteen. Pity the poor student who is still just doing the assignment.出現(xiàn)這一問題的部分原因是：他們會遠遠超額完成任務。老師布置一篇5頁的論文，一些學生就會寫上10頁，而少數(shù)人甚至會把賭注升到15頁?？蓱z那些僅僅寫了5頁的學生。“Once you have twenty or thirty percent

54、of the student population deliberately overexerting,” one dean points out, “Its bad for everybody. When a teacher gets more and more effort from his class, the student who is doing normal work can be perceived as not doing well. The tactic works, psychologically.”一位系主任指出：“一旦20或30的學生刻意地去超量學習，對每個學生來說都

55、不是好事。當一位教師在班上看到越來越多的努力嘗試，那些只是正常完成作業(yè)的學生就會被看作是表現(xiàn)不夠好。就心理上而言，這個策略還是有效的?！盬hy cant the professor just cut back and not accept longer papers? He can, and he probably will. But by then term will be half over and the damage done. Grade fever is highly contagious and not easily reversed. Besides, the professo

56、rs main concern is with his course. He knows his students only in relation to the course and does not know that they are also overexerting in their other courses. Not that it is really his business. He did not sign up for dealing with the students as a whole person and with all the emotional baggage

57、 the student brought along from home. That is what deans, masters chaplains, and psychiatrists are for.為什么教授就不能要求學生刪減論文，或是干脆不接受太長的文章了？他當然可以，而且他很可能會這么做。但到那時，學生們的成績就會下降一半，因此也會造成一些損失。學生們對于成績的狂熱是易于傳染，且不易逆轉的。此外，教授主要關心的是他自己的課程。他只知道學生會來上自己的課，而不知道這些人還需為其他課程奮筆疾書，那不關他的事。他的確是來教書的，但他并不會負責處理學生們從家里帶來的各種情感包袱。仿佛這些工

58、作應該由院長、專職教士、或是心理醫(yī)生來負責。To some extent this is nothing new: a certain number of professors have always been self-contained islands of scholarship and shyness, more comfortable with books than with people. But the new pauperism has widened the gap still further, for professors who actually like to spen

59、d time with students do not have as much time to spend. They are also overexerting. If they are young, they are busy trying to publish in order not to perish, hanging by their fingernails onto a shrinking profession. If they are old and tenured, they are buried under the duties of administering departments - as departmental c