通过阅读学词汇6级(2007年新版)Lesson8

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2007:04:30 09:19:34
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

Lesson 8
On Ambition

If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny— must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition’s behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared: and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, however, it is the educated who have claimed to have given up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition — if not always their own than that of their parents and grandparents. There is a heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped — with the educated themselves riding on them. Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs not than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs — the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home. the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three — star restaurants. the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, “Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious.”

The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles. its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly professed. Consequences follow from this, of course, some of which are that ambition is driven underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.

名人名言

Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go. it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.

— Alice Swain

If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.

— Haim Ginott

Children who have the habit of constantly correcting should be stopped before they grow up to drive spouses and everyone else crazy by interrupting stories to say, “No, dear — it was Tuesday, not Wednesday.”

— Judith Martin

说野心

如果你对野心足够重视的话，野心必定有足够的回报——财富、出人头地和对自己命运(destiny)的把握——来补偿你为其付出的一切。但是如果野心的目的是为了更有活力，那就应该大大推广，尤其是对那些本来已经很受尊敬的人，而受过教育者不在此列。但奇怪的是，受过教育的人却宣称他们已经不把野心当作自己的理想。同样奇怪的是受教育者本人就是野心——他们自己的野心或父辈的野心——的最大受益者。这中间有很大的虚伪性（hypocrisy），就像是马厩里的马全跑光了才把门关上，而骑在马上的恰恰是这些受过教育的人。当然，如今人们一如既往地对成功及其表现感兴趣。避暑别墅、欧洲旅行、宝马轿车——位置、地名或者品牌可能会有所变化，但对以上这些的需求却一点也不比一二十年前少。事实上，人们无法像过去那样，自然、坦率地面对自己的梦想，以免被人家说成咄咄逼人、贪得无厌、粗鄙俗气（vulgar）。看到种种虚伪现象，其普遍性是空前的：有人嘴上在批评美国的物质主义，实际上却在南罕普顿置有避暑别墅；有人出版的是激进的书籍，却在三星级饭店就餐；有的新闻记者呼吁在人生各阶段参与权都应实现民主，但是却把自己的孩子送到私立学校读书。对这些人，以及那些没有他们那样出众的（exceptional）人而言，最恰如其分的概括(formulation)是：“不惜一切代价成功，但不要给人野心勃勃的（ambitious）印象。”

对野心的批评比比皆是，批评的方式多种多样；公然支持者寥寥无几，此外，他们的支持虽不能说是毫无吸引力，但就是难成气候。野心应该可以作为健康的心态，让年轻人欣赏、接受，但在美国，对这种做法的支持从未像现在这样少，这并不意味着野心已经死路一条，人们已经不再受其蛊惑、激励，而是它不再受到公开的颂扬，也不会被人挂在嘴边。当然，其结果是野心开始转入地下，或者被遮遮掩掩。现在的情况就是：左派的人对其猛烈抨击，右派的人对其盲目支持，处在中间的仍然是占大部分的老百姓，他们心态诚挚，力争快马加鞭地改善生活。

名人名言

勇气不是参天橡树，俯瞰风暴来来去去，而是开放在寒天雪地中的柔弱(fragile)花朵(blossom)。

——艾丽丝·斯温

如果你想让孩子们做得更好，那就让他们听到你跟别人谈起他们时说的好话吧。

——海姆·吉诺特

有不停纠正别人错误的习惯的孩子必须被制止，以防他们长大以后老是打断别人，总是说：“不，亲爱的——是星期二，不是星期三。”这样会把他们的爱人（spouses）和别人逼疯的。

——朱迪思·马丁