Unit1

1. However intricate the ways in which animals communicate with each other, they do not indulge in anything that deserves the name of conversation.

不管动物之间的交流方式多么复杂，它们不能参与到称得上是交谈的任何活动中。

2. Argument may often be a part of it, but the purpose of the argument is not to convince. There is no winning in conversation.

争论会经常出现于交谈中，但争论的目的不是为了说服。交谈中没有胜负之说。

3. Perhaps it is because of my upbringing in English pubs that I think bar conversation has a charm of its own.

或许我从小就混迹于英国酒吧缘故，我认为酒吧里的闲聊别有韵味。

4. I do not remember what made one of our companions say it ---she clearly had not come into the bar to say it , it was not something that was pressing on her mind---but her remark fell quite naturally into the talk.

我不记得是什么使得我的一个同伴说起它来的---她显然不是来酒吧说这个的，这不是她事先想好的话题----但她的话相当自然地插入到了交谈中。

5. There is always resistance in the lower classes to any attempt by an upper class to lay down rules for “English as it should be spoken .”

下层社会总会抵制上层社会企图给“标准英语”制定得规则。

6. Words are not themselves a reality ,but only representations of it ,and the King’s English ,like the Anglo-French of the Normans , is a class representation of reality.

词语本身并不是现实。正如诺曼底人讲的英格鲁--法语一样，标准英语是一个阶层用来表达现实的形式。

7. Perhaps it is worth trying to speak it, but it should not be laid down as an edict , and made immune to change from below.

或许试着去说它还是值得的，但是它不能被制定成法令，从而拒绝来自下层的变化。

8. There is no worse conversationalist than the one who punctuates his words as he speaks as if he were writing , or even who tries to use words as if he were composing a piece of prose for print.

如果一个人说出的话就像写出来的文字，或者试图使用那些创作书面散文的文字，那么没有比这样的交谈者更糟糕的了。

9. When E.M. Forster writes of “ the sinister corridor of our age,” we sit up at the vividness of the phrase , the force and even terror in the image.

当E.M.福斯特写到“我们这个时代的险恶长廊”时，其用语之生动及由其所产生的生动有力，甚至可怖的形象苦令我们拍案叫绝。

10. There would have been no conversation the other evening if we had been able to settle at once the meeting of “ the King’s English.”

那天晚上如果我们立刻解决了“标准英语”的含义，就不会有第二天晚上的谈话了。

Unit2

1.When you walk through a town like this - two hundred thousand inhabitants of whom at least twenty thousand own literally nothing except the rags they stand up in - when you see how the people live, and still more how easily they die, it is always difficult to believe that you are walking among human beings. 当你穿行于这样的城镇中—20万居民中至少有2万人除了一身勉强蔽体的破衣烂衫外，一无所有——当你看到这些人是如何生活，又如何轻易死亡时，你总是很难相信自己是行走在人类之中。

2.When you go through the Jewish quarters you gather some idea of what the medieval ghettoes were probably like.

当你穿过犹太人聚居区时，你就会了解中世纪的贫民区大概是个什么样子。

3.Many of the streets are a good deal less than six feet wide, the houses are completely windowless, and sore-eyed children cluster everywhere i unbelievable numbers, like clouds of flies.

很多街道远远不足6英尺宽，房屋根本没有窗户，眼睛肿痛的孩子成群结队，随处可见，像成群的苍蝇，数也数不清。

4.Even a blind man somewhere at the back of one of the booths heard a rumour of cigarettes and came crawling out, groping in the air with his hand. 甚至在后面的窝棚里的一个盲人听到要烟的吵嚷声也爬了出来，伸手在空中乱摸。

5.Ah, that’s only for show! They’re all money lenders really.

噢！那只不过是装样子罢了。实际上他们都是些放贷获利的人。

6.In just the same way, a couple of hundred years ago, poor old women used to be burned for witchcraft when they could not even work enough magic to get themselves a square meal.

颇为相似的是，几百年前，有些可怜的老妇人常常被当成巫婆活活烧死，但事实上她们连为自己变出一顿像样的饭菜的巫术都没有。

7.It takes in the dried-up soil, the prickly pear, the palm tree and the distant mountain, but it always misses the peasant hoeing at his patch.

那干巴巴的土地，仙人掌，棕榈树和远方的山岭被尽收眼底，但在地里耕作的农民却往往没人看见。

8.Most of Morocco is so desolate that no wild animal bigger than a hare can live on it.

摩洛哥大部分土地都很荒凉，以至于那里生存的最大的野生动物就是野兔。

9.Except for a day or two after the rare rainstorms there is never enough water. 除了难得的暴雨之后的一两天之外，这里总是缺水。

10.It seems to be generally the case in primitive communities that the women, when they get beyond a certain age, shrink to the size of children.

在原始社会里，妇女超过了一定的年纪身材便会萎缩得如孩子般大小，这似乎是一个普遍现象。

Unit3

1. We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning , signifying renewal as well as change.

我们今天庆祝的不是一个政党的胜利，而是一个自由的盛会，它代表这一个时代的结束和另一个时代的开端，它代表着重生和改变。

2. Let the word go forth from this time and place , to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century,tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of these human rights to which this nation has always been committed , and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

此时此地我向朋友和敌人宣布：火炬已经传递给了新一代的美国人，他们出生于本世纪，经受过战争的洗礼，受过冷峻而苦涩的和平的考验，以我们的古代遗产为傲，不愿意见到或者允许这些人权被逐渐取消。这个国家一直致力于维护这些人权，如今我们在国内和全世界也在维护这些人权。

3. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price , bear any burden, meet any hardship , support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

让世界上每一个希望我们成功或窘迫的国家知道：我们将不惜任何代价，承担任何责任，应对任何艰难，支持一切朋友，反对一切敌人，以确保自由的幸存和成功。

4. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures.

只要我们团结起来，我们将在大量的合作型事业中战无不胜。

5. Divided, there is little we can do ,for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

如果分裂开来，我们将一事无成，因为我们不能在争执中去应对巨大的挑战，我们的关系会崩裂。

6. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

如果自由的社会不能帮助多数穷人，它就不能拯救少数的富人。

7. We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

我们不敢以软弱来诱惑它们。因为只有当我们的军备力量无疑是非常充足的时候，我们才能确保不会使用武力。

8. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine,will rest the final success or failure of our course.

我们的同胞们，我们事业成败的关键与其说掌握在我的手中，不如说掌握在你们的手中。

9. Now the trumpet summons us again----not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle , though embattled we are; but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle , year in and year out , “rejoicing in hope , patient in tribulation,” a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny , poverty disease and war itself.

现在号角再次向我们吹响----不是号召我们扛起武器，虽然我们需要武器；不是号召我们去参加战斗，虽然我们严阵以待；而是号召我们为迎接黎明而肩负起漫长斗争的责任，年复一年，”从希望中得到欢乐，在苦难中保持坚韧“，去反对人类共同的敌人：专制、贫困、疾病和战争本身

10. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds,let us go forth to lead the land we love , asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

良心是我们唯一可靠的报酬，历史是我们行为的最终裁判，让我们出发去领导我们所热爱的国家，祈求上帝的祝福和帮助，但是要明白上帝在人间的工作毕竟就是我们自己的工作。

Unit4

1. My brain was as powerful as a dynamo, as precise as chemist’s scales. As penetrating as a scalpel.

我的大脑如发电机一样强大，像化学家的平一样精确，像手术刀一样锋利。

2. To be swept up in every new craze that comes along, to surrender yourself to idiocy just because everybody else is doing it---this , to me , is the acme od mindlessness.

被卷入每一股新来的时尚之中，因为其他人都是这样做，自己也进去傻干---这对于我而言，简直就是愚蠢至极。

3. Let me emphasize that my desire for this young woman was not emotional in nature.