新视野大学英语读写教程【第三版】第四册课文原文与翻译

Unit 1

Text A Love and logic: The story of a fallacy

爱情与逻辑：谬误的故事

1 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.

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。

2 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.

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。

3 "Radiant" she was already. I could dispense her enough pearls of wisdom to make her "well-spoken".

“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”。

4 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.

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。

5 "Logic."

“逻辑学。”

6 "Cool," she said over her gum.

“好酷啊，”她一边嚼着口香糖一边说。

7 "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."

“逻辑学的原理，”我说道，“即清晰思考的主要原则。逻辑上出现的问题会歪曲事实，其中有些还很普遍。我们先来看看一种叫做‘绝对判断’的逻辑谬误。”

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8 "Great," she agreed.

“好啊，”她表示同意。

9 "Dicto Simpliciter means an unqualified generalization. For example: Exercise is good. Therefore, everybody should exercise."

“‘绝对判断’是指在证据不足的情况下所作出的推断。比方说：运动是有益的，所以每个人都应该运动。”

10 She nodded in agreement.

她点头表示赞同。

11 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."

我看得出她没弄明白。“波莉，”我解释说，“这个推断太过简单化了。如果你有心脏病或者超级肥胖症什么的，运动就变得有害而不是有益。所以你应该说，运动对大多数人来说是有益的。”

12 "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."

“接下来是‘草率结论’。这似乎不言自明，对吧？仔细听好了：你不会说法语，罗伯也不会说法语，那么这所学校里好像是没有人会说法语。”

13 "Really?" said Polly, amazed. "Nobody?"

“是吗？”波莉吃惊地说。“没有人吗？”

14 "This is also a fallacy," I said. "The generalization is reached too hastily. Too few instances support such a conclusion."

“这也是一种逻辑谬误，”我说，“这一结论太草率了，因为能够支持这一结论的例证太少了。”

15 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.

她似乎学得很开心，而我也可以放心地说我的计划正在稳步推进中。我把她送回家，并且定下了下一次约会交谈的日子。

16 Seated under the oak the next evening I said, "Our first fallacy tonight is called Ad Misericordiam."

第二天晚上，坐在那棵橡树下，我说：“今天晚上我们要谈的第一个逻辑谬误叫‘文不对题’。”

17 She nodded with delight.

她高兴地点了点头。

18 "Listen closely," I said. "A man applies for a job. When the boss asks him what his

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qualifications are, he says he has six children to feed."

“听好了，”我说，“有个人去申请工作，当老板问他有什么应聘资格时，他说他有六个孩子要抚养。”

19 "Oh, this is awful, awful," she whispered in a choked voice.

“哇，这太可怕了，太可怕了,”她哽咽着轻声说道。

20 "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 sympathy — Ad Misericordiam."

“对，是挺可怕的,”我表示赞同地说,“但这不是理由。这个人根本没有回答老板的问题，而只是在博取老板的同情，这就是‘文不对题’。”

21 She blinked, still trying hard to keep back her tears.

她眨着眼睛，仍在竭力地忍住眼泪。

22 "Next," I said carefully, "we will discuss False Analogy. An example, students should be allowed to look at their textbooks during exams, because surgeons have X-rays to guide them during surgery."

“接下来”，我小心地说，“我们来讨论‘错误类比’。举个例子：学生考试时应该允许看课本，因为外科医生在做手术时可以看X光片。”

23 "I like that idea," she said.

“我喜欢这个主意，”她说。

24 "Polly," I groaned, "don't derail the discussion. The inference is wrong. Doctors aren't taking a test to see how much they have learned, but students are. The situations are altogether different. You can't make an analogy between them."

“波莉，”我抱怨道，“别打岔，这一推论是错误的。医生们不是在参加考试以检查他们学到了多少，而学生却是。他们的情况完全不同，你不能将他们作类比。”

25 "I still think it's a good idea," said Polly.

“我仍然认为这是一个好主意，”波莉说。

26 With five nights of diligent work, I actually made a logician out of Polly. She was an analytical thinker at last. The time had come for the conversion of our relationship from academic to romantic.

经过五个夜晚的辛勤努力，我竟然真的将波莉打造成了一个逻辑行家，她总算能够分析思考了。现在应该是时候让我们的关系从学术向浪漫发展了。

27 "Polly," I said when next we sat under our oak, "tonight we won't discuss fallacies."

“波莉，”当我们又一次坐在那棵橡树下的时候我对她说，“今晚我们不讨论逻辑谬误了。”

28 "Oh?" she said, a little disappointed.

“哦？”她回答说，有一点失望。

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29 Favoring her with a grin, I said, "We have now spent five evenings together. We get along pretty well. We make a pretty good couple."

我赞许地对她笑了笑，说:“我们在一起已经度过了五个晚上，相互之间挺合得来，我们是蛮相配的一对。”

30 "Hasty Generalization," said Polly brightly. "Or as a normal person might say, that's a little premature, don't you think?"

“草率结论，”波莉伶俐地说，“或者是按一般人的说法，这个结论有些不成熟，你不这样认为吗？”

31 I laughed with amusement. She'd learned her lessons well, far surpassing my expectations. "Sweetheart," I said, patting her hand in a tolerant manner, "five dates is plenty. After all, you don't have to eat a whole cake to know it's good."

我被逗得笑了起来，她功课还真学得不错，大大超过了我的预期。“亲爱的，”我开口说，同时宽容地拍了拍她的手，“五次约会已经够多了，毕竟你不需要吃掉整个蛋糕才知道它是不是好吃。”

32 "False Analogy," said Polly promptly. "Your premise is that dating is like eating. But you're not a cake. You're a boy."

“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。”

33 I laughed with somewhat less amusement, hiding my dread that she'd learned her lessons too well. A few more false steps would be my doom. I decided to change tactics and try flattery instead.

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 "Polly, I love you. Please say you'll go out with me. I'm nothing without you."

“波莉，我爱你。请答应做我的女朋友，没有你我什么也不是。”

35 "Ad Misericordiam," she said.

“文不对题，”她说。

36 "You certainly can discern a fallacy when you see it," I said, my hopes starting to crumble. "But don't take them so literally. I mean this is all academic. You know the things you learn in school don't have anything to do with real life."

“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 "Dicto Simpliciter," she said. "Besides, you really should practice what you preach."

“绝对判断，”她说道，“而且，你自己教的东西应该自己身体力行。”

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38 I leaped to my feet, my temper flaring up. "Will you or will you not go out with me?"

我一下跳了起来，怒火中烧，“你到底愿不愿意做我的女朋友？”

39 "No to your proposition," she replied.

“我不愿意，”她答道。

40 "Why?" I demanded.

“为什么？”我追问道。

41 "I'm more interested in a different petitioner — Rob and I are back together."

“我对另一位求爱者更感兴趣——罗伯和我重归于好了。”

42 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. Look at Rob, a muscular idiot, a guy who'll never know where his next meal is coming from. Can you give me one good reason why you should be with him?"

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？”

43 "Wow, what presumption! I'll put it in a way someone as brilliant as you can understand," retorted Polly, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Full disclosure — I like Rob in leather. I told him to say yes to you so he could have your jacket!"

“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 1

Text B Why do smart people do dumb things?

聪明人为何会做蠢事？

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1 Orthodox views prize intelligence and intellectual rigor highly in the modern realm of universities and tech industry jobs. One of the underlying assumptions of this value system is that smart people, by virtue of what they've learned, will formulate better decisions. Often this is true. Yet psychologists who study human decision-making processes have uncovered cognitive biases common to all people, regardless of intelligence, that can lead to poor decisions in experts and laymen alike.

传统观念将智力和思维的缜密性看作现代大学领域和科技产业工作的重要素质。这一价值体系所隐含的前提是，聪明人借助自己丰富的学识会作出更高明的决定。在大多数情况下，确实如此。但是，研究人类决策过程的心理学家们却发现了每个人身上都常见的“认知偏差”。不管智力水平如何，这些认知偏差都会引导人们作出错误的决定，不论他们是专家还是门外汉。

2 Thankfully these biases can be avoided. Understanding how and in what situations they occur can give you an awareness of your own limitations and allow you to factor them into your decision-making.

好在这些偏差是可以避免的。只要知道这些偏差如何及在何种情况下发生，你就能意识到自身的缺陷，并在决策过程中考虑到这些因素的影响。

3 One of the most common biases is what is known as the fundamental attribution error. Through this people attribute the failures of others to character flaws and their own to mere circumstance, subconsciously considering their own characters to be stainless. "Jenkins lost his job because of his incompetence; I lost mine because of the recession." It also leads us to attribute our own success to our qualifications, discounting luck, while seeing others' success as the product of mere luck.

最常见的偏差之一就是通常所说的“基本归因错误”。犯这种错误的人会将别人的失败归因于性格缺陷，而将自己的失败仅仅归因于周遭环境，潜意识中认为自己的性格是完美无瑕的。“詹金斯丢掉了工作是因为他能力太差，我丢掉了工作则是因为经济衰退。”同样，这种偏差也会让我们将自己的成功归功于自身素质而不是运气，而将别人的成功仅仅看作是运气使然。

4 In other words, we typically demand more accountability from others than we do from ourselves. Not only does this lead to petty judgments about other people, it also leads to faulty risk assessment when you assume that certain bad things only happen to others. For example, you might assume, without evidence, that the price of your house will go up even though 90 percent of them have dropped in price, because you yourself are more competent.

换句话说，我们通常要求别人承担更多的责任，而不是自己。这不仅导致我们心胸狭窄地对别人进行评价也会由于假定某种坏事只会发生在别人身上而致使我们做出错误的风险评判。举一个例子，你可能会毫无根据地假定自己的房子会升值，哪怕周围百分之九十的房子都已经贬值了，因为你总认为自己的能力更强。

5 Confirmation bias is sometimes found together with fundamental attribution error. This one has two parts. First, we tend to gather and rely upon information that only confirms our existing views. Second, we avoid or veto things that refute our preexisting hypotheses.

“确定性偏差”有时会和“基本归因错误”一并出现。这种偏差包含两部分：第一，我们往往

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只收集且只依赖对我们的已有观点起支持作用的信息；第二，我们回避或否认那些与自己之前所持的假设相左的信息。

6 For example, imagine that you suspect your computer has been hacked. Every time it stalls or has a little error, you assume that it was triggered by a hacker and that your suspicions are valid. This bias plays an especially big role in rivalries between two opposing views. Each side partitions their own beliefs in a logic-proof loop, and claims their opponent is failing to recognize valid points. Outwitting confirmation bias therefore requires exploring both sides of an argument with equal diligence.

比如说，假设你怀疑自己的电脑受到了黑客攻击，那么它每次死机或出个小错，你都会认定是由黑客引起的，而且你认定自己的怀疑正确无误。这种偏差在两种敌对观点的对抗中会起到尤其重要的作用。每一方都会把自己的观点隔离出来，认为其在逻辑上无懈可击，并声称他们的对手忽略了某些要点。所以，要克服“确定性偏差”，就要以同样的努力认真探究论点的正反两面。

7 Similar to confirmation bias is the overconfidence bias. In an ideal world, we could be correct 100 percent of the time we were 100 percent sure about something, correct 80 percent of the time we were 80 percent sure about something, and so on. In reality, people's confidence vastly exceeds the accuracy of those judgments. This bias most frequently comes into play in areas where someone has no direct evidence and must make a guess — estimating how many people are in a crowded plaza, for example, or how likely it will rain. To make matters worse, even when people are aware of overconfidence bias, they will still tend to overstate the chances that they are correct. Confidence is no prophet and is best used together with available evidence. When witnesses are called to testify in a court trial, the confidence in their testimony is measured along with and against the evidence at hand.

与“确定性偏差”相类似的是“过度自信偏差”。在一个理想的世界，当我们百分之百地确信某件事时，我们就百分之百地正确；当我们百分之八十地确信某件事时，我们就百分之八十地正确，以此类推。但在现实中，人们的信心却大大超过了其判断的准确度。在一个人缺乏直接证据而必须要作出某种猜测的情况下，这一偏差就最有可能起作用，比如，估计一个拥挤的购物广场有多少人，或下雨的可能性有多大。更糟糕的是，即使人们意识到自己有过度自信的偏差，他们还是会高估自己的正确率。光靠自信是无法进行准确预测的，只有在切实证据的基础上，自信才能发挥最大的作用。当法庭传唤目击者出庭作证时，对他们证词的信任度是通过已经获取的相符或相反的证据来度量的。

8 The availability bias is also related to errors in estimation, in that we tend to estimate what outcome is more likely by how easily we can recount an example from memory. Since the retention and retrieval of memories is biased toward vivid, sensational, or emotionally charged examples, decisions based on them can often lead to strange, inaccurate conclusions.

与估计失误相关的还有“可得性偏差”，因为我们常常会凭借回忆某一例证的难易程度来推测哪种结果更可能出现。由于记忆的留存和重拾会因为事件的生动与否、震撼程度和情感触动程度的不同而产生偏差，那么，基于这些记忆所作出的决定也往往会是奇怪或不准确的结论。

9 In action this bias might lead someone to cancel a trip to, for example, the Canary

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Islands because of a report that the biggest plane crash in history happened there. Likewise some people might stop going out at night for fear of assault or rape.

在具体行为中，这种偏差可能会使某人取消比如前往加那利群岛的行程，因为有报道说，史上最惨重的空难就发生在那里。同样，人们也可能因惧怕遭到人身侵犯或者强暴而不敢再在晚上出门。

10 Repelling the availability bias calls for an empirical approach to a particular decision, one not based on the obscured reality of vivid memory. If there is a low incidence of disaster, like only one out of 100,000 plane landings results in a crash, it is safe to fly to the Canary Islands. If one out of one million people who go out is assaulted, it is safe to go out at night.

要排除“可得性偏差”，就必须在作某一具体决定时，以实证方法所取得的证据为依据，而不是以与现实不太相符的某个鲜明的记忆为依据。如果灾难的发生率很低，比如飞机着陆过程中坠毁的可能性只有十万分之一，那么飞往加那利群岛就仍是安全的。如果人们外出只有百万分之一的几率遭到人身侵犯，那么夜晚出行也就仍是安全的。

11 The sunk cost fallacy has a periodic application and was first identified by economists. A good example of how it works is the casino slot machine. Gamblers with a high threshold for risk put money into a slot machine hoping for a big return, but with each pull of the lever they lose some money playing the odds. If they have been pulling the lever many times in a row without success, they might decide that they had better keep spending money at the machine, or they will have wasted everything they already put in.

“沉没成本谬误”也时有发生，它最初是由经济学家发现的。其作用机理最好的例证就是赌场老虎机。赌徒们冒着高风险，把钱投入老虎机，期望能够得到很大的回报，但随着一次次拉动拉杆，他们也一次次把钱赌输了。如果他们多次连续拉动拉杆而没有一次成功，他们可能会决定最好还是继续把钱投入老虎机，否则他们之前投入的成本就悉数浪费了。

12 The truth is that every pull of the lever has the same winning probability of nearly one in a trillion, regardless of how much money has been put in before — the previous plays were sunk costs.

而事实是，不论他们之前投入了多少钱，每一次拉动拉杆的成功几率都同样是极小的——之前投入的那些即为沉没成本。

13 In everyday life this can lead people to stay in damaging situations because of how much they have already put in, stuck on the erroneous belief that the value of that time or energy they have invested will decay or disappear if they leave. The wisest course is to recognize the effects of the sunk cost fallacy and to leave a bad situation regardless of how much you have already invested.

在日常生活中，这种谬误会导致人们由于顾及之前所投入的成本，而持续停留在损失的状态中，同时困顿于一种错误的观念，即他们害怕自己一旦离开，之前所投入的时间和精力就会贬值或付诸东流。而最明智的办法则是，要充分认识沉没成本谬误导致的结果，离开糟糕的境况，不论之前已投入了多少。

14 While there are still more biases, the key to avoiding them remains the same: When a decision matters, it is best to rely on watertight logic and a careful examination of the evidence

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and to remain aware that what seems like good intuition is always subject to errors of judgment.

尽管还有其他更多的偏差，避免这些偏差的关键其实都一样：当涉及重要决策时，最好是依靠严密的逻辑并仔细审查证据；同时，要保持警惕，那些看上去良好的直觉总是很容易导致判断失误。

Unit 2

Text A The confusing pursuit of beauty

令人困惑的对美的追求

1 If you're a man, at some point a woman will ask you how she looks.

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。

2 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

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answer.

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。

3 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.

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。

4 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.

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。

5 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.

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。

6 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

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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?"

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俱来的，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？”

7 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.

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。

8 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?"

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

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吗？那么帅哥，你对草坪维护又知道多少？”

9 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.

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。

10 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?

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？

11 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.

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。

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\

Unit 2

Text B Making the choice to be truly beautiful

选择拥有真正的美丽

1 Extreme makeovers are all the rage these days, with too many people addicted to Botox injection parties and reality shows. Plastic surgery is on the rise. Many people are trying to match the extraordinary measures actors and actresses go through to look perfect on the screen. Yet, the shortcuts to create biomedical happiness by having surgery, taking supplements or dieting don't usually fulfill their promise. Besides, beautiful people are not automatically happy people.

当今，过度追求相貌修整的风气无比盛行，太多的人沉迷于肉毒杆菌注射的宣讲会和真人秀，整容手术也日趋流行。许多人的做法堪比男女演员为了使自己在屏幕上看起来完美无瑕而采取的手段。为了获得生物医学标准下的幸福感，人们会走做整容手术、吃营养品、节食这样的捷径，但这些捷径并不总能实现它们所承诺的效果。而且，外表漂亮的人并不一定就幸福。

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2 Attaining the highest degree of your beauty is not about looking good during social interaction, or physiological perfection, and you can't get there via technology. It's a growth process, a transformation of self through awareness and learning. It's about meaning, and being real. It's an emotional and spiritual walk, and it requires faith fueled with liberal doses of loving kindness.

最大限度地实现你自己的美并不是指要让自己在社交时漂亮或在生理上完美，况且这些也不是通过技术就能实现的。美是一个成长的过程，是一种通过意识和学习而达到的自我改造。美在于生活的意义，在于真实。它是一个情感和精神的旅程，需要人有信念才能获得，而且这种信念的动力来自慷慨和充满爱心的善良。

3 Every day, I have the delight and privilege of loving Richard, my husband, a real, human, emotionally accessible man. We're about the same age, and our looks have corroded a bit over time. After almost 20 years, though, we have grown together in ways that go far deeper than the surface of our skin. Our life is lovely even if it doesn't match the criterion of love in movie fantasies. We laugh together, we share the struggles of daily life together, and the thought that he might die before I do fills me with dread. All the muscle-bound male models in the world couldn't replace my very own, sensual, outgoing friend. It took me 37 years to find him, and I'm not about to replace him with the so-called "esthetic perfection".

能有幸每天爱着理查德，我感到很高兴。他是我丈夫，一个真实的、有人情味的、情感上可以靠近的人。我们年龄相仿，相貌已在岁月中有所消退。但近二十年来，我们共同成长，远超肌肤之表。尽管我们的生活不如虚幻的电影故事中描述的爱情生活那样，它却很美好。我们一起欢笑，一起分担日常生活的磕磕绊绊。如果想到他有可能先于我离世，我会充满恐惧。世界上任何一位肌肉发达的男模都不能取代我自己的这位性感、外向的伴侣。我花了37年时间才找到他，我决不会因为所谓的“审美标准上的完美”而另寻他人。

4 I work as a psychotherapist, and clients come to my office every day scarred with emotional pain because their lives aren't "perfect" enough. They feel inadequate, hopeless, and frustrated with jealousy because they can't attain life as they see it on the big screen. It helps when I preface our sessions with the mention that tens of thousands of dollars go into every second of media they see, that stars have dozens of people devoted exclusively to making them look good (even when they're naked), that the effort of maintaining their images is an exhausting, full-time job. The "beautiful" people in the media are under enormous pressure to maintain their looks, and for some reason, my clients don't realize that they're exempt from that predominant pressure.

我是一名心理理疗师。每天我都要接待许多客户，他们都是因为生活不够“完美”而倍受情感痛苦。由于无法获得大屏幕上所看到的那种生活，他们感到力不从心、绝望无助，并因嫉妒而陷于沮丧。给他们提供治疗时，如果在治疗开始前，我告诉他们，他们在媒体上所看到的每秒钟的图像都耗资数万，每个明星都有几十个人专门为其打理形象，使其外表悦目（甚至是裸体时也是如此），而且明星们保持形象是一件既费力又费时的事，这会对他们的治疗有所帮助。媒体上的俊男俏女们承受着保持形象的巨大压力，而我的客户却因某种原因，没有意识到他们有幸免受了这种强大的压力。

5 I underscore that all the face creams, physical workouts, dietary fads, Prozac capsules and meditation regiments in the world aren't going to make their lives, their bodies, or their

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mental state much better. In fact, they often hamper happiness by distracting from the things that lead to real inner beauty. Life is not about maintaining some young and stylish outward costume to hide behind. It's about growing and deepening your soul.

我要强调的是，世界上所有的面霜、健身锻炼、饮食风尚、抗抑郁症的百忧解胶囊，乃至许多人在一起打坐冥思等等，都不能改善一个人的生活、身体或精神状况。事实上，这些方法还常常阻碍人们获得幸福，因为它们会使人分心，不去关注那些能带来真正内在美的事物。生活的意义不在于通过维持某种年轻时髦的外表来掩盖自己，而在于精神的成长和升华。

6 The only way I know to develop my soul is through feelings. Witnessing natural phenomena —the star-lit galaxy, a centuries-old redwood, the symphony of birds' songs in spring —stretches it, making me feel humble and majestic, all at the same time. Human relationships bruise, collide and comfort, teaching me maturity and passion. Love urges my soul to blossom and glow, affection elicits feelings of eternity, and so I learn to accept others as they are.

我所知道的唯一的精神升华的途径就是通过情感。亲眼目睹各种自然现象——星光闪烁的银河，几百年树龄的红杉木，春天里鸟儿的叫声汇成的交响乐——这些都使我的精神得以延伸，让我觉得自己既卑微又伟大。人际关系中的摩擦、冲突和安慰使我变得成熟并充满激情。爱情促使我的精神成长并焕发光彩，亲情激发了我对永恒的感受，因此我学会了接受他人的真实本色。

7 The humans in my life are not the barren, self-absorbed "beautiful people" of the screen. We're ordinary, real, imperfect people. Together, we work hard stumbling through life, trying to be our best selves, knitting together families and friendships, and striving to illuminate the world with our personal ethics and aspirations.

我生活中的人都不是屏幕上那种思想平庸、迷恋自我的“美貌人士”。我们只是平凡的、实实在在的、有缺点的人。我们一起勤奋努力，患难与共，尽力完善自我，和家人及朋友紧密相处，努力用我们的个人道德和志向去照亮世界。

8 We come from numerous backgrounds and we don't always approve of each other's decisions, but we care for each other the best we can. We struggle to be less self-indulgent, more compassionate and understanding. We try to resist the lure of novelty fads, the manipulations of advertising. We survive through social phenomena that we don't agree with, through interwoven natural and unnatural disasters that take our loved ones and possessions, through fads and fancies that are often unhealthy. From each event, we learn, we stretch, we sometimes fracture, we process the emotional outcome, and we move on. These life events are the soul's workout, and though we may groan and complain, we can feel the growth eventually.

我们来自各种不同的背景，而且有时意见相左，但是我们尽力互相关心。我们努力消除自己的任性，努力使自己更具同情心、更宽容。我们努力抗拒新奇事物的潮流的诱惑及广告的操纵。我们会经历自己并不赞同的社会现象，经历那些夺走我们所挚爱的人和财物的错综交织的自然及人为灾难，经历不良的时尚和幻想。但从每一例这样的事件中，我们都不断地学习、成长。我们有时也会发生分歧，也要处理分歧对感情所带来的影响，然后继续前行。这些人生经历是对我们心灵的历练。虽然我们会抱怨、发牢骚，我们终会感受到自己的成长。

9 The secret is that this growth is visible to others, and the effort registers on one's entire

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being. It becomes an authentic element that makes the spirit glow radiantly like that of a saint. Have you ever seen an elderly person like that, one whose wisdom shows in his eyes, and whose love is evident as he gently enquires about your health, or offers a brief sentiment that calms and affirms? The spirit that shines from within this person is true beauty, and it can't be bought in a jar.

这其中的秘密就在于这种成长是他人可见的，而且这种努力在一个人的全身上下都能得到展现。它成了一种真实的存在，使一个人的精神像圣人那样光彩四溢。你是否见过这样一位老者，他眼睛里透射着智慧，当他温柔地询问你的健康，或以简短的抚慰让你感到平静和放心时，他对你的关爱是那样显露无遗？这样的老者内心所散发出的精神才是真正的美，这种美不是瓶瓶罐罐的化妆品所能买得到的。

10 The miracle is that each of us has the total capacity to achieve this perspective, this fullest embodiment of the highest expression of soul, even as our mortal bodies wear out and degenerate.

神奇的是，尽管我们的肉体会老去并且衰退，我们每个人都完全有能力达到这个境界，即最大程度地展现最崇高的精神内涵。

11 In other words, true beauty is not about looks. It's about choices. As we move through life and grow through each of its checkpoints, we should seek out and build the kinds of experiences that reveal and purify our divine inner beauty. We must look at our own lives and decisions from a more valuable perspective than the media's shallow eye.

换句话说，真正的美丽无关外貌，而在于选择。在人生的旅途中，每当我们经过一个节点，都应该寻找那些能够展示和净化我们神圣的内在美的人生体验，并且将它们积累下来。我们必须从一个更有价值的角度而非以媒体肤浅的眼光来看待自己的人生和决定。

12 The decisions we make today affect the rest of our lives. We ourselves are ultimately the only people to whom we are accountable and for whom we are responsible. Each new decision we make can be a new resolution to build the beautiful future we long to have.

我们今天所作的决定会影响我们的余生。归根到底，我们自己才是唯一要对自己负责的人。我们所做的每一个新决定都可能表明了一个新决心，一个创造我们所渴望拥有的美好未来的决心。

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