全新版大学进阶英语综合教程(二)课文+翻译

Unit 1

After living in the 24-hour city of Las Vegas, Nevada for nearly ten years, my family and I decided to slow

things down. My daughter wanted a horse. My husband wanted property. My son wanted a dirt bike. I wanted

our family to be more self-sufficient.

None of us felt that this could be accomplished where we were living and we all agreed that a move to the

country would be great for everyone.

Before long we set about looking for a home in Yucca, Arizona, a very small town of less than 1,000

people. It was while I was scanning listings from our real estate agent that I first learned of it. There was a home

for sale there on 40 acres. When I called to inquire about the property, I was informed that there was no

electricity available in the area. What? No electricity? I almost dismissed the idea immediately.

The property was off the grid. It was not connected whatsoever to any utilities — power, water or

sewer. Power was supplied by a wind turbine and solar panels. Water had to be hauled in and stored in two

tanks located on the property. Forty acres would give us plenty of room for all of our animals and give my

husband and son space to ride their ATVs. Besides, what better way is there to become more self-sustainable? After giving it some thought, we decided to put in an offer and moved in on Thanksgiving Day.

When we first moved to the property, we did some remodeling and stayed in our motor home. We were

confronted with real challenges at the time. The power kept going out, the main water line to the house

broke, the plumbing backed up into the front yard and the generator died.

But the setbacks just made us work harder. We slowly got things fixed and moved into the house after 38

days in the RV. The next challenge was to become familiar with your power system, and to learn the ins and

outs of hauling your own water and generating your own power.

Our off-the-grid system consists of eight solar panels (1,000 watts) that are mounted on a sun tracker

rack. We also have a wind turbine that generates 3,000 watts in 24 mph winds. The energy generated by the

wind and sun is stored in 16 6v golf cart batteries. We also have two 2,500-gallon above-ground water tanks and

a 250-gallon propane tank. Every weekend, we haul two 275-gallon water tanks to the nearby town of Yucca and

fill them with water, which we then pump into our big water tanks.

While living here for the past four months has been a big adjustment, there are many benefits to living off

the grid. I think one of the greatest is teaching my kids the importance of conservation. They used to take water,

power and gas for granted. The first week we were here, we used almost 1,000 gallons of water. With only a

5,000-gallon water tank, it didn’t take them long to understand that we had to use less water. We started taking

quicker showers, doing only full loads of laundry, turning off the water while brushing our teeth or shaving.

Over-consumption is even more clearly demonstrated by our electricity usage. We have a digital readout of

how many volts of DC power we have stored in our batteries at any given time. If you turn on a light or the TV,

the number goes down. In order to protect the batteries, the system is set up to shut the inverter off if the volts

get too low. Then the power goes out. When we first moved in, we lost power almost daily. After this happens a

few times, it becomes clear very quickly just how often you waste electricity. Everything from lights and ceiling

fans to computers and radios were left on when they were not in use. The cell phone chargers were plugged in

even when they weren’t charging anything. All of this uses unnecessary power. We are steadily learning to be

more diligent with our power usage.

In addition, we are also trying to make other changes. They include reducing the amount of trash we

generate by recycling and composting, growing our own organic vegetables, and reusing and repurposing things

that we would normally toss. We also want to produce our own eggs and goat’s milk in the near future.

Overall, going off the grid has been great for our family. We have learned how to conserve power and water

and to really appreciate what the earth gives to us every day. I hope that once my kids move out of the house,

they will keep the habits that they have learned by living off the grid.

Unit 3

I received an email from a reader who asked, “Why do some friendships end, no matter how much you want

them to last?” She referred to having seen the question in one of my articles, Mystery of Friendship. As I wrote

in it, I don’t think easy answers exist as to how friendships start, why some turn into lifetime ones, and why some

end. Although I’ve tried answering the first two questions in other articles (To Have A Friend and Be A Friend), I

still get surprised by friendships that endure and disillusioned by ones that slip away. Even so, I’ll try to offer

some insights here as to why friendships end.

My simple answer is that friendships end because the situations friends are in or even the friends themselves

change. Others have similar answers. First, the situations friends face may change. The decision to relocate for a

new school or job cannot help but affect a friendship. Likewise, if a friend is in an accident, develops an illness, or

loses someone close, these situations cannot help but affect a friendship. Does a friendship need to end because

of these changes? No, but it’ll require adjustments that one or both friends might not be willing to make.

Second, the friends themselves may change. A significant reason that friendships often end when friends

are apart for an extended period of time (for summer camp, college, etc.) is that one or both of the friends

change. I think it hurts less when both friends change, because then the breakup is more often mutual and so

both friends get closure by both deciding to let go and move forward in their lives without each

other. What tends to hurt most is when just one friend changes. One friend might change social circles,

become involved in new social organizations, start to date, get a pet, or take on some

other venture that consumes more time and passion. Again, a friendship can endure these changes, unless one or

both of the friends for some reason decide not to invest the time and energy involved in the adjustment

period. (For example, one friend might forget the importance of the friendship due to the high of having a new

pet or might feel that the change is impossible to overcome when one gets married but the other is still single.) In

this situation, breakups may not be mutual and so one or both friends feel betrayed and end up with bitter

memories about what was a precious friendship to them.

There are other reasons why friendships end. For example, as much as two people might want a friendship

to survive, one or both of them might unintentionally neglect it. Friendship is often compared to a flower

garden. Well, if flowers don’t get exposed regularly enough to sunlight and don’t get watered enough, flowers will

wither and even die. The same applies to friendship. If week after week passes where plans are made to spend

time together but are never honored, perhaps due to taking a friendship for granted, eventually even the closest

of friendships may cease to have a reason to exist.

Conflicts can also cause the end of friendships. If the flower is a fledgling plant, one blow might destroy it just

as sometimes relatively young friendships aren’t strong enough to endure much conflict. Even those amazing

close friendships, where friends love us no matter what our faults are, need care when it comes to conflicts. Sure,

if a flourishing flower gets stepped on, it might revive on its own. Moreover, if it gets a little extra special care,

it’ll probably bounce back as if it hadn’t ever been injured. At the same time, if a flower gets repeatedly trampled

on, it’ll probably eventually break. Especially the friendships that have been around for a long time can endure

storms, and even become stronger for them, but most friendships have breaking points.

Nevertheless, while we can rarely predict at the outset which ones will last, most friendships do enrich us for

however short or long they’re a part of our lives.

Unit 4

In the sleepiness at the end of a library nap, I wasn’t sure where I was. I stretched out my arm to reach for a

human being, but what I grabbed was a used copy of The Odyssey, the book about going home. My heart ached.

It was The library, flooded with white fluorescent light and smelling of musty books and sweaty

sneakers, was eerily quiet. My readings seemed endless. I had been admitted into a three-course, yearlong

freshman program called Directed Studies, dubbed Directed Suicide by Yalies. It was supposed to introduce us to

“the splendors of Western civilization,” in the words of the catalog, by force-feeding the canons of philosophy,

literature and history.

I wanted very much to study the Western canon, because I knew nothing about it. Yes, McDonald’s ads and

Madonna posters were plastered on Shanghai streets, but few Western ideas filtered through. We had been

informed of Karl Marx’s habit of sitting at the same spot in the British Library, for instance, but had read none of

his original words. Western civilization was different, mysterious and thus alluring. Besides, because I longed to

be accepted here, I yearned to understand American society. What better way to comprehend it than to study the

very ideas on which it is based?

But at , I was tired of them all: Homer, Virgil, Herodotus and Plato. Their words were dull and the

presentations difficult to follow. The professors here do not teach in the same way that teachers in China

do. Studying humanities in China means memorizing all the “correct,” standard interpretations given during

lectures. Here, professors ask provocative questions and let the students argue, research and write papers on

their own. At Yale, I often waited for the end-of-class “correct” answers, which never came.

Learning humanities was secure repetition in China, but it was shaky originality here. And it could be even

shakier for me. The name Agamemnon was impossibly long to pronounce, and as a result I didn’t recognize it

when we were discussing him in the seminars. I had written my first English essay ever just a year earlier, when

applying to colleges, and now came the papers analyzing the canons. And I simply didn’t write in English fast

enough to take notes in classes.

I hoped my diligence would make up for lack of preparation. On weekend nights, when my American

roommates were out on dates, I would tell them I had planned a date with Dante or Aristotle. (They didn’t think

it was funny.)

On one of those weekend nights, I wrote a paper on Aeneas, the protagonist of The Aeneid, who was

destined to found Rome but reluctant to leave behind his native Troy. “Aeneas agonizes,” I

wrote. “He hesitates. Natural instincts call him to stick to the past, while at the same time, he feels obligated

to obey his father’s instructions for the future. His present life is split, pulled apart by the bygone days and by the

days to come. ” I saw myself in what I wrote.

During calls home every two weeks, my mother pleaded with me to take chemistry or biology. Science was

the same everywhere, she said. And I, like everybody else from China, was well prepared in math, physics and

chemistry. (To graduate from a standard six-year Chinese high school, one needs to take five years of physics,

four years of chemistry and three years of biology.)

Instead, I visited the writing tutor — there is one in every undergraduate residential hall — for every paper

I turned in. My papers were always written days before they were due. I lingered after classes to question

professors. My classmates lent me their notes so I could learn the skill of note-taking in English.

By the time I missed home so much that soup dumplings and sautéed eels popped up in my head as I read,

Nietzsche had replaced Plato on the chronological reading list and Flaubert Homer. And every paper of mine

came back with an A.

Unit 1

脱离电网的生活：一家城市居民如何发现了简单生活

艾莉森·佐谢尔

1.在内华达州的不眠之城拉斯维加斯生活了将近十年之后，我和我的家人决定放慢生活节奏。 女儿想要一匹马， 我的丈夫想要一块地产， 儿子想要一辆越野轻型摩托车， 我想要一家人更加自给自足。

2.我们都感到这个梦想在我们居住的这个城市里不可能实现。大家一致认为，搬到乡下去对谁都是最好的。

3.很快，我们便着手在亚利桑那州的尤卡，这个不满千人的小镇寻找房子。 我是在浏览我们的房地产经纪人提供的在售房屋清单时得知这个地方的。 那儿有一处占地40英亩的房产在出售。 我打电话去询问这处房产时，人家告诉我那个地区不通电。 什么？不通电？我差点立刻打消在那里购房的念头。

4.这处房产不接电网， 一切公用服务事业都没有——电、水、下水道。 电由风力涡轮机和太阳能电池板提供， 水得靠人力拉进来，储存在房里的两个贮水箱里。 40英亩的地给我们充裕的场地饲养动物，也给我的丈夫和儿子足够地方驾驶他们的全地形车。 还有什么地方比这里更能够做到自给自足呢？ 考虑一番后，我们决定出价购买，并在感恩节那天搬了进去。

5.刚搬进来时，我们住在房车里，给房屋做了一些改建。 当时，我们遇到了真正的挑战。 电老是断，通向房屋的主水管破裂，水管堵塞，水流到前院，发电机也停转了。

6.但是，这些挫折促使我们更加卖力地干活。 慢慢地，我们把东西一一修好。在房车里住了38天后，我们搬进了新家。 接下来的挑战是逐步熟悉供电系统，了解自己拉水、自己发电的方方面面。

7.我们的不连网发电系统由8个安装在太阳跟踪架上的太阳能电池板(1,000瓦)组成。 此外，我们还有一个在风速达到每小时24英里时能发3,000瓦电的风力涡轮机。 风能和太阳能发的电存储在16个6伏特的高尔夫球车电池中。 我们还有两个蓄水量为2,500加仑的地上贮水箱和

一个储量为250加仑的丙烷储气罐。 每个周末，我们把两个275加仑的水箱拉到附近的尤卡镇，给它们加满水，再用泵把水抽入两个大的贮水箱中。

8.过去的四个月我们在这里生活，尽管经历了巨大的调整，却也得到了脱离电网生活的诸多好处。 我想，其中最大的一个好处在于教育孩子节约的重要性。 以往，他们认为有水、有电、有煤气是理所当然的事。 搬来的第一周，我们用掉将近1,000加仑的水， 而水箱只能贮存5,000加仑。不久，他们便懂得我们必须少用水。 于是，我们加快淋浴速度，洗衣机不满不洗衣，刷牙或剃须时关掉水龙头。

9.过度消费在电的使用中表现得尤为明显。 我们有一个数字读表器，它能显示在任何时刻电池中储存有多少伏特的直流电。 打开电灯或电视，数值就会下降。 为了保护电池，系统设置在电压过低的情况下关闭变流器， 然后断电。 我们刚搬进来的时候，家里几乎天天断电。 几次断电之后，你便很快明白你过去经常浪费电。 从电灯、吊扇到电脑、收音机，不用的时候都开着。 即便不在充电，手机的充电器也插在插座上。 所有这一切都消耗着不该消耗的电。 我们渐渐学会勤于省电。

10.此外，我们还试图在其他方面做出改变， 包括通过再循环利用和堆制肥料来减少垃圾，自己种植有机蔬菜，对平日里打算丢弃的物品再利用或派作其他用途。 我们还想在不久的将来养鸡生蛋、养羊产奶。

11.总体上讲，脱离电网的生活对我们一家人大有裨益。 我们从中学会了怎样节约用电、用水，以及对地球每一天赐予我们的一切真正感恩。 我希望孩子们将来搬出去住时，仍能保持他们在脱离电网生活期间养成的习惯。

Unit 3

为什么友谊会终结？

艾利森·亨特

友谊内在的唯一危险是：友谊将会终结。

—亨利·大卫·梭罗

1.我收到一位读者的电子邮件，她在邮件中问道： “为什么有些友谊不管你多么想维系它却还是会终结？” 该读者说她曾在我发表的一篇文章《友谊之谜》中见到过这个问题。 正如我在文章中所说，对于友谊是如何开始的、为什么有些友谊会维系终生、为什么有些友谊会终结这类问题，我认为没有简单的答案。 虽然我在别的文章中——《拥有一个朋友》和《做一个朋友》——尝试回答过前两个问题，但是，我仍然对那些经久不衰的友谊感到惊讶，也对那些逝去的友谊感到失望。 即便如此，我还是要在本文中对为什么友谊会终结提出我的一些见解。

2.我的回答很简单, 友谊终结是因为朋友处境的改变，或甚至是因朋友自身的变化。 其他人也有相似的回答。 首先，朋友面临的境遇有可能改变。 因进一个新的学校或有一份新的工作而决定搬家，这就不能不影响到友谊。 同样，如果朋友出了事故，患了疾病，或失去了亲人，这些情况也不能不影响友谊。 然而，基于上述原因，友谊就要终结吗？ 回答是不，但这就需要作相应调整，然而一方或双方却可能不愿作这样的调整。

3.其次，朋友自身可能在变。 朋友长时间不在一起（如参加夏令营、上大学等）友谊常常会终止的一个重要原因是一方或双方改变了。 我认为当朋友双方都改变时，其伤害较轻，因为这时的分手往往是互相的，双方都决定不再交往，从此各奔东西，让友谊终结。 当只有一方改变时，往往造成的伤害最重。 一方也许换了社交圈子、加入了新的社会组织、开始谈恋爱了、养了一只宠物或从事某个更费时间、更需激情的有风险的事业。 当然，友谊是经得起这些变化的，除非一方或双方由于某种原因决定不再在友谊调整期内投入必要的时间和精力。 （例如，一方由于养了新宠物而极度兴奋，因而可能忘了友谊的重要性，又或者一方结婚而另一方还是单身时，朋友也许感到这一变化无法克服。） 在这种情况下，友谊终止可能不是相互的，所以，一方或双方感到被背叛，最后只留下对一段珍贵友谊的苦涩回忆。

4.除此以外，友谊终结还有其它原因。 例如，尽管双方也许想维系这段友谊，但是一方或双方可能无意间疏忽了它。 友谊常被比作花园， 如果花儿不能时常晒到阳光和得到足够的浇灌，花儿将会枯萎，甚至死亡。 友谊也是如此。 有人也许将友谊当成理所当然的事，他们让时间一周一周流逝，从不兑现相聚的计划，最终，即便是最亲密的友谊也可能失去存在的理由。

5.矛盾冲突也会导致友谊的终结。 如果花儿还很幼嫩，一阵风就可能将其摧毁。同样，相对稚嫩的友谊有时无法经受大的冲突。 当涉及矛盾冲突时，即便那些令人称羡的亲密友谊，即那种不管有什么过错朋友也照样关爱我们的那种友谊，也需要得到呵护。 无疑，如果盛开的花儿被人踩了一下，它也许会自我复苏。 而且，如果它得到一点额外的特别呵护的话，它很可能会迅速痊愈，就好像从未经历过伤害一样。 然而，如果花儿被人不断地踩踏，它很可能最终夭折。 只有那些长存的友谊才能经得起大风大浪，甚至因此变得更加牢不可破。但是大多数朋友之间的友谊有其折断点。

6.然而，虽然我们很少能从一开始就预见到哪些友谊会持久，但多数友谊确实丰富了我们的人生，因为无论友谊是长是短，它们都是我们生活的一部分。

Unit 4

目的地：美国大学

赵轶璐

通宵苦读西方经典

1.我在图书馆打盹醒来，迷糊之间不知身处何处。 我伸出手去，想触摸到身边的其他人，不料却抓到了一本旧书：《奥德赛》。这本书的主题是回家。 我的心好痛。

2.这是凌晨两点。 图书馆被白色日光灯照得透亮，空气中弥漫着书本的霉味和运动鞋的汗臭，安静得令人不寒而栗。 我要读的书似乎读也读不完。 我选修了一个由三门课组成、持续一年的新生课程，名为 “指导学习” ，耶鲁学生们戏称它为 “指导自杀” 。 根据课程介绍，其宗旨是让我们填鸭式地通读哲学、文学和历史经典，了解 “西方文明的辉煌” 。

3.我很想学习西方经典名著，因为我对其一无所知。 上海街头的确到处张贴着麦当劳的广告和麦当娜的海报，但西方思想很少渗透过来。 例如，我们得知，马克思习惯坐在大英图书馆的同一个位置看书，但我们从未读过他的原作。 西方文明跟我们的文明不一样，显得神秘并因此诱人。 此外，因为我渴望被美国社会接纳，所以我很想对它有所理解。 而要理解它，最好的办法难道不是研究它赖以存在的理念吗？

4.然而，在凌晨两点的时候，我烦透了他们：荷马、维吉尔、希罗多德和柏拉图。 他们的语言乏味，表达艰涩。 这里的教授的教学方法跟中国教师不一样。 在中国，学习人文学科意味着牢记所有上课时给出的 “正确” 、标准的解读。 在这里，教授们提出引人深思的问题并让学生们自行争论、研究和撰写论文。 在耶鲁，我常常等待下课前的 “正确” 答案，但每次都是落空。

5.在中国，人文学科的学习是安稳的重复，在这里则是惴惴不安的独创， 而我比别人还更加惴惴不安。 阿伽门农这个名字长得让我读不出来，以至于在讨论课上我都没明白我们原来是在讨论他。 一年前申请大学时，我才第一次写英语短文，而今我得用英语写出分析经典著作的论文来。 还有，我写英语的速度不够快，上课来不及记笔记。

6.我希望以勤奋来弥补准备的不足。 每逢周末夜晚，在我的美国室友们外出约会时，我总是跟他们说我已约了但丁或亚里士多德。 （他们并不觉得这有什么好笑。）

7.就在这样的一个周末夜晚，我写了一篇关于《埃涅阿斯纪》的主人公埃涅阿斯的论文。命运注定埃涅阿斯将要建立罗马，但他难以割舍他的故乡特洛伊。 “埃涅阿斯感到极度痛苦，” 我写道， “他犹豫不决。 直觉叫他坚守过去，而同时他又感到有义务遵照父亲有关未来的指令。 他当下的生活被一劈为二，已逝的岁月和将来的日子相互撕扯。” 而这正是我自己的写照。

8.每两周打电话回家时，我母亲总是极力劝我选修化学或生物学。 她说，无论到哪里，科学都是一样的。 而我就像所有其他中国留学生一样，数理化的功底很好。 （要从中国六年制的正规高中毕业，人人都得学五年物理、四年化学和三年生物学。）

9.我没有听从她。每写一篇论文，在交上去之前我都会请教写作导师——每一幢本科生宿舍楼都配备有一位写作导师。 我总是在截止日期前好几天就写好论文。 下课后我总是留在教室，向教授提问。 同学们把笔记借给我，好让我学习用英语记笔记的技能。

10.等到我的思乡情绪越来越重，读书时脑海里会蹦出小笼包和清炒鳝丝的时候，我那个按年代顺序排列的必读书单上，尼采已经取代了柏拉图，福楼拜已经取代了荷马。 而我的每篇论文发还时都得到了A等。