Feom:http://wenku.baidu.com/view/0add83878762caaedd33d453.html 大学英语第六册
Unit 1
Section A The Pursuit of Happiness
The right to pursue happiness is promised to Americans by the US Constitution, but no one seems quite sure which way happiness runs. It may be we are issued a hunting license but offered no game. Jonathan Swift conceived of happiness as \"the state of being well-deceived\\"a fool among idiots \
It is, of course, un-American to think in terms of false goals. We do, however, seem to be dedicated to the idea of buying our way to happiness. We shall all have made it to Heaven when we possess enough.
And at the same time the forces of American business are hugely dedicated to making us deliberately unhappy. Advertising is one of our major industries, and advertising exists not to satisfy desires but to create them — and to create them faster than anyone's budget can satisfy them. For that matter, our whole economy is based on addicting us to greed. We are even told it is our patriotic duty to support the national economy by buying things.
Look at any of the magazines that cater to women. There advertising begins as art and slogans in the front pages and ends as pills and therapy in the back pages. The art at the front illustrates the dream of perfect beauty. This is the baby skin that must be hers. This, the perfumed breath she must breathe out. This, the sixteen-year-old figure she must display at forty, at fifty, at sixty, and forever. This is the harness into which Mother must strap herself in order to display that perfect figure. This is the cream that restores skin, these are the tablets that melt away fat around the thighs, and these are the pills of perpetual youth.
Obviously no reasonable person can be completely persuaded either by such art or by such pills and devices. Yet someone is obviously trying to buy this dream and spending billions every year in the attempt. Clearly the happiness-market is not running out of customers, but what is it they are trying to buy?
Defining the meaning of \"happiness\" is a perplexing proposition: the best one can do is to try to set some extremes to the idea and then work towards the middle. To think of happiness as achieving superiority over others, living in a mansion made of marble, having a wardrobe with hundreds of outfits, will do to set the greedy extreme. To think of happiness as the joy of a holy man of India will do to set the spiritual extreme. He sits completely still, contemplating the nature of reality, free even of his own body. If admirers bring him food, he eats it; if not, he starves. Why be concerned? What is physical is trivial to him. To contemplate is his joy and he achieves complete mental focus through an incredibly demanding discipline, the accomplishment of which is itself a joy to him.
Is he a happy man? Perhaps his happiness is only another sort of illusion. But who can take it from him? And who will dare say it is more false than happiness paid for through an installment plan?
Although the holy man's concept of happiness may enjoy considerable prestige in the Orient, I doubt the existence of such motionless happiness. What is certain is that his way of happiness would be torture to almost anyone of Western temperament. Yet these extremes will still serve to define the area within which all of us must find some sort of balance. Thoreau had his own firm sense of that balance: save on the petty in order to spend on the essential.
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Possession for its own sake or in competition with the rest of the neighborhood would have been Thoreau's idea of the petty. The active discipline of raising one's perception of what is eternal in nature would have been his idea of the essential. Time saved on the petty could be spent on the essential. Thoreau certainly didn't intend to starve, but he would put into feeding himself only as much effort as would keep him functioning for more important efforts.
Effort is the essence of it: there is no happiness except as we take on challenges. Short of the impossible, the satisfactions we get from a lifetime depend on how high we place our difficulties. The mortal flaw in the advertised version of happiness is in the fact that it claims to be effortless. We demand difficulty even in our diversions. We demand it because without difficulty there can be no game; a game is a way of making something hard for the fun of it. The rules of the game are an arbitrary addition of difficulty. It is easier to win at chess if you are free to change the rules, but the fun is in winning within the rules. If we could mint our own money, even building a fortune would become boring. No difficulty, no fun.
Those in advertising seem too often to have lost their sense of the pleasure of difficulty. And the Indian holy man seems dull to us, I suppose, because he seems to be refusing to play anything at all. The Western weakness may be in the illusion that happiness can be bought. Perhaps the oriental weakness is in the idea that there is such a thing as perfect happiness.
Happiness is never more than partial. Whatever else happiness may be, it is neither in having nor in being, but in becoming. What the writers of the Constitution declared for us as an inherent right was not happiness but the pursuit of happiness. What the early patriots might have underlined, could they have foreseen the happiness-market, is the cardinal fact that happiness is in the pursuit itself, in the pursuit of what is engaging and life-changing, which is to say, in the idea of becoming. A nation is not measured by what it possesses or wants to possess, but by what it wants to become. (Words: 1,005)
追求幸福
美国赋予美国人民追求幸福的权利，但是似乎谁也说不清幸福跑到哪里去了。 这就好比我们获得了打猎许可却无猎物可打一样。 乔纳森·斯威夫特认为幸福是 \"一种大上其当而浑然不觉的状态\"， 或者是充当\"一名白痴中的傻瓜\"的感觉 ，因为斯威夫特把社会看作是一片布满虚假目标的土地。
虚假目标的提法当然不是美国式思维。然而，我们似乎执迷于花钱买幸福的理念。 当我们拥有足够的财力时，我们就会获得极大的成功。
与此同时，美国商业势力却大肆渲染，人为地使我们感到不幸福。 广告业是我们的主要产业之一，它的存在不是为了满足欲望，而是为了制造欲望，其速度之快为任何人的预算所不及。 这样一来，我们整个的经济就建立在使我们沉溺于贪婪的基础上。 甚至有人告诉我们通过购物来支持国家经济是我们的爱国义务。
随便翻开一本迎合妇女口味的杂志，不难发现，开头的几页广告都是艺术和口号，到了结尾的几页就都变成了药丸和疗法。 开头几页的艺术包装所展示的是对至尊美丽的渴望。 她拥有的是婴儿般的细腻皮肤。 她呼出来的是芬芳的气息。 无论她40岁、50岁、60岁，还是任何时候，她永远都拥有16岁的身段。 这就是母亲为了展示她的优美体形所使用的束带。 这是可使人肌肤恢复细嫩的护肤霜，这些是减去大腿脂肪的药片，这些是青春永驻的药丸。 很明显，任何有理智的人都不会完全被此类广告艺术、药丸或器械所打动。 不过确实有人想要花钱买这个梦，不惜为此每年花销数十亿美元。 显然，幸福市场不乏顾客，但是他们想要购买的又是什么呢？
给\"幸福\"下定义是一个令人困惑的问题：最好的办法是先设定两个极端，然后寻求中庸。 认为幸福就是高人一等，住的是大理石豪宅，衣柜里有上百套衣服，这可成为贪婪的极端。 认
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为幸福就是印度圣人似的快乐，这将成为精神生活的极端。 圣人打坐，冥想着现实的本质，超脱于肉身的拖累。 如果有崇敬者给他端上食物，他就吃；如果没人给，他就饿着。 何苦为此事烦恼？一切物质的东西对他都微不足道。 冥想就是他的快乐。他凭借常人难以想像的自律达到高度的精神集中，对他来说，能够达到如此境界，这本身就是快乐。 他是一个幸福的人吗？也许他的幸福不过是又一种幻觉罢了。 但是，谁能剥夺他的幻觉呢？谁又敢说这种幸福比靠分期付款购买的幸福更虚假呢？
尽管圣人的幸福观在东方享有很高的声誉，但我却怀疑是否真有这样静态的幸福。 可以肯定的是，他的幸福方式几乎对于任何具有西方性格的人来说都是一种折磨。 但这些极端认识仍将有助于说明幸福的概念，我们每个人都能从中找到某种平衡。 梭罗自己的坚定平衡信念是：小事省一省，大事有保证。
为了占有而占有，或是为了与邻里攀比而占有，可能就是梭罗认为的小事。 自觉提高自己对自然界中永恒价值的认识能力，应该属于梭罗认识中的大事。 从小事上省下来的时间可以花在大事上。 梭罗当然不会让自己挨饿，但是他的进食仅仅是为了保持其体能，以便有精力做大事。
努力是幸福的精髓：只有接受了挑战，我们才会有幸福感。 除非不可能，我们一生的满足均取决于我们把困难定位到怎样的高度。 广告版幸福的致命缺陷在于它声称幸福不需要做出任何努力。
即使是在娱乐中，我们也希望有点难度。 我们想要难度，因为没有难度就没有了游戏乐趣；游戏要靠制造难度来生成乐趣。 游戏的规则是人为地增加难度。 如果可以自行改变棋赛规则，赢一盘棋将会容易得多。然而，下棋赢棋的乐趣是在规则下赢棋。 如果我们自己就能够造钱，那么即使造出一座金山也了然无趣。 没有难度，就没有乐趣。
广告中推销的东西似乎常常因缺少难度而缺少乐趣。 我想，印度圣人在我们看来似乎也提不起兴趣，因为他好像拒绝任何游戏。 西方幸福观的弱点可能在于他们幻想幸福是可以买来的。 而东方幸福观的弱点或许在于他们相信存在完美的幸福。
幸福从来就是不的。 不管我们对幸福还有什么别的解释，它都既不是拥有，也不是存在，而是过程。 美国的制订者为我们公布的天赋，不是幸福权，而是对幸福的追求权。 如果当年的爱国者能够预见后来的幸福市场，他们或许会强调这样一个基本事实：幸福在于追求本身，在于参与和改变人生，也就是说，在于相信\"过程\"这一理念。 评估一个国家的标准，不是看它已经拥有什么，或者想要拥有什么，而是看它想要成为什么。
Section B Wild like the Weasel
A weasel is wild. Who knows what he thinks? He sleeps in his cozy underground home, his tail wrapped around his nose. Sometimes he lounges in his hole for two days without leaving. Outside, he stalks rabbits, mice, and birds, killing more than he can eat warm, and often dragging the bodies home. Obedient to instinct, he bites his prey at the neck, either splitting the veins at the throat or crushing the brain at the base of the skull, and he does not let go.
I have been reading about weasels because I saw one last week. I startled a weasel who startled me, and we exchanged a long glance.
Twenty minutes from my house, through the woods and across a highway overpass, is Hollins Pond, a remarkable piece of shallow water where I like to go at sunset and sit on a tree trunk. The pond covers two acres of low-lying land with six inches of water. This is, mind you, a residential area. It is a five-minute walk in three directions to rows of houses, though none are visible here. There's a highway at one end of the pond, and a nesting pair of ducks at the other. At the far end fields and woods alternate, threaded everywhere with paths carved by humans.
So, I had crossed over the highway, stepped over two low fences, and strolled along a path,
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rejoicing in the wild rose blossoms sprinkled along the pond's shore. I climbed up into high pastures of grass and then cut down through the woods to the fallen oak tree where I sit. This tree is excellent. It makes a dry bench at the upper end of the pond, a tilted column thrusting out of the rose-crowded shore to become the intersection of a shallow blue body of water and the deep blue body of the sky.
The sun had just set. I was relaxed on the tree trunk, watching the water plants at my feet tremble and slowly part as a fish thrust its way through. An owl appeared to my right and flew behind me. It caught my eye; I whirled around — and the next instant, by some coincidence, I was looking down at a weasel, who was looking up at me.
Weasel! I'd never seen one in the wild before. He was ten inches long, a muscular ribbon, covered in soft velvet, brown as a sculpture of dark bronze, alert. His face was fierce, small and pointed as a snake's; he would have made a good arrow tip. There was just a dot of chin, and then began the ivory -colored fur that spread down his underside. He had two black eyes I didn't see, any more than you see a window.
The weasel was stunned into stillness as he was emerging from beneath an enormous wild rose bush four feet away. I was stunned into stillness, twisted backward on the tree trunk. Our eyes locked, and someone threw away the key.
Our look was as if two lovers, or deadly enemies, met unexpectedly on a quiet path when each had been thinking of something else: an abrupt blow to the stomach. It was also a stunning blow to the brain; it emptied our lungs. It extinguished the sun, moved the fields, and drained the pond; the world fell into pieces and tumbled into that black hole of eyes. If you and I looked at each other that way, our skulls would split and drop to our shoulders. But we don't. We keep our skulls.
He disappeared. This was only last week, and already I don't remember what shattered the magic. I think I blinked, I think I retrieved my brain from the weasel's brain, and tried to memorize what I was seeing, and the weasel, feeling the shock of separation, was wrenched back into real life and the urgent commands of instinct. He vanished under the wild roses. I waited motionless, my mind suddenly full of data and my spirit pleading, but he didn't return.
I was in that weasel's brain for sixty seconds, and he was in mine. Brains are private places, recording our inner muttering on secret tapes — but the weasel and I both plugged into each other's tapes, for a sweet and shocking time. Can I help it if his tape was blank?
What goes on in his brain the rest of the time? What does a weasel think about? He won't say. His journal is tracks in clay, a spray of feathers, mouse blood and bone: uncollected, unconnected, loose-leaf, and blown.
I would like to learn, or remember, how to live. I come to Hollins Pond not so much to learn how to live as, frankly, to forget about it. That is, I don't think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particular — shall I dine on raw meat, hold my tail high, walk with both feet and hands? — but I might learn something of the purity of living only in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive. The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating necessity but dying at last in its claws. I would like to live as I should, as the weasel lives as he should. And I suspect that for me the way to live is like the weasel's: open to time and death without regret, noticing everything, remembering nothing, taking his prey with a fierce and pointed will.
We could also take prey with such a will, you know. The trick is to stalk your calling with a certain skill and focus, to locate the most tender spot and bite deeply. This is yielding, not fighting. A weasel doesn't \"attack\" anything; a weasel lives as he's meant to, yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity. I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp one necessity and not let it go. Seize it and let it carry you upward. (Words: 1,010)
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黄鼠狼的野性
黄鼠狼很野。谁也不知道它心里在想什么。 它睡在舒适的地下洞穴里，尾巴盘到前面来直盖住鼻子。 有时它懒在洞内两天不出来。 一旦出来，就四处寻觅兔子、田鼠和鸟类，捕杀的猎物当时吃不了，就常常拖回家去。 出于本性，它撕咬猎物的脖子，或者咬断咽喉附近的血管，或者咬碎它们的头颅底部，决不松口。
我一直在阅读关于黄鼠狼的书，因为上周我看到了一只。 黄鼠狼吓了我一跳，我也吓了黄鼠狼一跳，我们互相对视了很久。
从我家出来，走20分钟，穿过树林，跨过一座高架公路桥，就是霍林斯湖，一个很独特的浅水池塘。我喜欢坐在那里的树干上看日落。 池塘水深六英寸，淹没了两英亩的低地。 告诉你吧，这是一个居民区。 由此出发，朝三个方向，分别走出去五分钟，原本从这里望去踪影不见的一排排的房子进入视野。 湖的一端是一条高速公路，在另一端一对鸭子正在筑窝。 更远处，田野与树林交错，行人踏出一条条小径横竖贯穿其中。
我穿过高速公路，跨过两道低矮的篱笆，沿着一条小路漫步，欣赏着湖畔一簇簇争奇斗艳的野玫瑰。 爬上高高的草地，然后往下走，穿过树林，径直来到我常坐观夕阳的那棵倒着的橡树前。 这棵树太好了。它在湖的北端充当着一个干透的长椅，仿佛从开满玫瑰花的湖畔伸出的一根斜柱，成为浅浅的蓝色湖水和深深的蓝色天空的交叉线。
太阳刚刚落山。我悠闲地坐在树干上，观赏脚边的水生植物随波摇曳，或被游过的鱼儿慢慢地分开。 一只猫头鹰从我的右侧飞来，向我的身后飞去。 它引起了我的注意；我迅速转身，很快，也许是碰巧，看见一只黄鼠狼，它正抬头看着我。
黄鼠狼！我还从未见过野生的黄鼠狼呢。 它身长10英寸，像一根结实的带子，被柔软的绒毛所覆盖，毛色如青铜雕像的棕色，非常机警。 它面相凶恶，脑袋如蛇头般小巧尖削，倒是做一个好箭头的材料。 它的下巴只有一点点，然后便是象牙色的皮毛，长满整个腹部。 两只黑黑的眼睛，深邃难测，就像洞开的窗户。
黄鼠狼当时正从四英尺外的一大簇野生玫瑰丛中钻出来，被我这一吓，一动不动了。 我也被它吓得不动了，慌乱地后退到树干上。 我们四目锁定，而开锁的钥匙却丢掉了。 我们的表情就像一对情侣，或一对冤家，在一条宁静的小路上双方各怀心事，突然不期而遇，着实令对方倒抽一口凉气。 同时也让对方不知所措，屏住呼吸。 此情此景，真让人觉得太阳失去了光芒，田野移走了，池塘枯竭了；整个世界化为碎屑，沉入了那双黑洞般的眼睛。 如果你我那样相互注视的话，我们的头骨会开裂，掉到肩上。 好在我们不会那样对视，所以我们的脑壳尚在。
它不见了。这是上周刚发生的事情，但我已记不清是什么解除了魔法。 我一定是眨过眼睛，一定是从黄鼠狼的脑袋里捡回了意识，努力地记住我的所见。而黄鼠狼也从夺人心魄的惊惧中挣脱出来，返回现实，迅速恢复了它的本能。 它消失在野玫瑰丛中。 我一动不动地等待，大脑突然兴奋起来，心中暗自祈求，而它却再也没有回来。
我和黄鼠狼交换意识，持续了60秒。 大脑属于个人的私处，把我们的心里话记录在若干秘密的磁带上。但是，在一个刺激而惊恐的瞬间，我和黄鼠狼都彼此介入了对方的磁带。 如果它的磁带是空白的，我又能有什么办法？
从那以后，它的脑袋里会发生些什么事情？ 一只黄鼠狼能想些什么呢？它是不会说的。 它惟一的自我记载就是地上的爪痕，散落的羽毛，田鼠的血迹和尸骨，无人收拾，杂乱无章，散落各处，随风飘零。
我愿意学会，或者记住，如何生活。然而，坦率地说，我来霍林斯湖与其说是为了学习如何生活，不如说是为了忘却生活。 也就是说，我认为我不能够从一只野生动物那里学会如何生活，尤其是某些具体做法：难道我会吃生肉吗？我会高高地翘起尾巴吗？我会手脚并用地走路吗？ 不过，我倒是可以学习如何生活在纯粹的感官世界里，学会排除偏见、放弃执著心的高雅生活。 黄鼠狼生活在最基本的物质条件下，我们则生活在广泛的选择中，憎恶清贫，但最终却归于清贫。 我愿意选择自己应该选择的方式来生活，正如黄鼠狼选择它应该选择的
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方式生活一样。 我怀疑我的生活方式像黄鼠狼：无悔地面对生死，关注一切，忘却一切，稳准狠地捕捉自己的猎物。
要知道，我们也能以这样的意志来捕捉猎物。 关键在于你要运用一定的技能和专注精神来寻找你的目标，找准最佳的切入点，狠狠地咬下去。 这种做法就是让步，而不是出击。 黄鼠狼从不\"攻击\"任何目标；它按自然赋予它的模式生活，每时每刻都为享有简约生活中那份绝对的悠闲而做出让步。 我认为，牢牢把握住你的一种需要不放手，生活将会平平安安，顺顺利利，合乎自然，安逸无忧。牢牢地把握住它，让它带你进入更加美好的生活境界。
Section C The Most Successful Human Being I Ever Knew
Jacob Horowitz never achieved fame, never accumulated wealth. He was a tailor, and pleased to be one. He walked the streets of our Brooklyn neighborhood with great dignity and a flash of laughter in his eye. He was my father, and the most successful human being I ever knew.
As a child I didn't fully understand his worth. When I saw how hard he worked for so little material reward I felt sorry for him and a little ashamed at his lack of ambition. I was wrong on both counts.
He worked for a dress manufacturer, and one summer evening he announced that the boss was giving him a chance to become a dress designer, something he had long hoped for. Night after night he drew until midnight or later. When at last the sketches were finished, he took them off to work. Nothing more was said about them. Finally I asked him, \"Pop, what happened to the drawings?\" \"Oh,\" he said, \"they weren't any good.\"
Seeing my dismay, he said, \"David, a man can't do everything in this world, but he can do one job well. I found out I'm not a good designer, but I am a good tailor.\" He never pretended to be something he wasn't. Free from pride or unreasonable ambition, he was able to enjoy each day as it came.
The core of Pop's happiness was showing off his wife, with a shy sort of worship. He thought no one in the world could match her. He once said of her, \"Where she walks there is light.\"
There were serious days, of course — as when Pop became a US citizen. He burst into the house. \"Everyone! Come here.\"
We all came running to find him holding a large and very official-looking certificate. \"What does it say, Pop?\" I cried.
\"It says that Jacob Horowitz is a citizen of the USA!\" We all thought it was wonderful. Thereafter he voted in every election, putting on his best suit for the occasion.
Pop enjoyed all men, but he reserved his friendship for a few — especially five old friends who had come to America together with him at the time of World War I. Once a month they gathered in our kitchen for an evening of talk. All these men had achieved business success. Yet in many matters it was to Jacob Horowitz they turned for advice, knowing that he saw life clearly and his opinions could not be twisted by envy.
They came to our rather poor neighborhood in big automobiles, wearing expensive suits, and smoking 25-cent cigars. I once asked my mother, \"Why do they come here instead of meeting in their own big houses?\"
She said, \"I think maybe they left the best part of themselves here. They need to come back to it every now and then.\"
When I was 13 my mother died. Through my own sorrow I was aware of the great loss this was to Pop. But he made only one reference to his own misery. He said, \"To be happy every day is to be not happy at all.\" He was saying to his sons that happiness is not a state you achieve and keep, but something that must be won over and over, no matter what the defeats and losses.
His patience with me when I was a teenager was infinite. Every time Pop's friends gathered in
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our kitchen they would ask, \"Has David got a job yet?\" Pop said, \"Not yet. My son is searching for something he can devote his life to. I can't tell him what it is. He'll never be happy unless he finds it for himself. It may take him longer than others, but he'll find it. I do not worry about him.\"
Later that year I got a job as an entertainer in small clubs, and suddenly I knew this was the career I had been searching for. The world of the theater was far removed from the world of my father, yet I found myself returning to him time and again, for the same reason his friends did.
When I was 20 I got what every actor dreams of — a permanent job! At that time, at the depth of the Depression, actors were out of work by the hundreds, yet I wanted to quit that job because I needed new experiences and challenges.
Pop heard me out, then said, \"There are some people who always have to test themselves, to stretch their wings and try new winds. If you think you can find more happiness and usefulness this way, then you should do it.\" This advice came from a man who never left a secure job in his life, who had the European tradition of family responsibility, but who knew I was different. He understood what I needed to do and he helped me do it.
For the next few years I worked in clubs, and then I got my big break, appearing in a major movie. After that I went to Hollywood, and from then on Pop lived with me and my family there. We had a big party one evening. That night I thought Pop might enjoy hearing some of the old folk songs we used to sing at home. When I began to sing, the music and the memories were too much for him to resist, and he came over to join me. I faded away, and he was in the middle of the room singing alone — in a clear, true voice. He sang for 15 minutes before some of the world's highest-paid stars. When he finished there was overwhelming applause.
This simple, kindly old man singing of our European roots had touched something deep in these sophisticated people. I remembered what my mother had said about Pop's rich friends: \"I think maybe they left the best part of themselves here. They need to come back to it every now and then.'' I knew the applause that night was not just for a performance; it was for a man. (Words: 1,010)
我所认识的最成功的人
雅各布·霍洛维兹从未出过大名，也不曾攒下财富。 他是一个裁缝，而且乐此不疲。他很神气地走在布鲁克林的大街上，眼神里透出笑意。 这就是我的父亲，我所认识的最成功的人。
在孩提时代，我并不十分理解他的价值。 看到他为了菲薄的报酬而那么辛苦地工作，我很难过，又为他缺乏雄心大志而感到羞愧。 然而，在这两个问题上我都错了。
他为一家服装厂工作。一个夏天的晚上，他宣布说，老板打算给他一个做服装设计师的机会，这是他梦寐以求的事。 他加班加点，甚至通宵达旦地绘图。 草图终于画完之后，他上班把图带走了，后来就再也没提及此事。 最后我忍不住问他：\"爸爸，那些图纸怎么样了？\"
他说：\"噢，那些图没什么用。\"
看到我沮丧的样子，他说：\"大卫，一个人不可能做好世上所有的事，但他能做好一件事。 我发现我不是一个好的服装设计师，但我的确是一个好裁缝。\" 他从不装腔作势，也没有傲慢和不切实际的野心，而是享受着每个实实在在的日子。
父亲幸福的核心内容是炫耀他的妻子，一提到她就显出腼腆而略带崇拜的神色。 他认为世上无人能与她相比。他曾经说过：\"她走到哪里，哪里就生辉。\"
当然，我们也有过一些庄严的日子，比如父亲成为美国公民的那一天。他急匆匆地从外面回来，嚷道：\"你们大家都过来！\"
我们跑过去，看到他手上拿着一张非常正式的大证书。\"爸爸，证书上写的什么呀？\"我大声问道。
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\"证书上写的是，雅各布·霍洛维兹是一位美国公民！\" 我们都觉得是天大的喜事。 从那以后，每次选举他都参加投票，而且他都要穿上最好的衣服。
爸爸喜欢跟所有人交往，但是，真正与之交友的却为数不多，朋友中尤其重要的是五位与他在第一次世界大战中一起来美国的老朋友。 他们每月一次在我家的厨房聚会，聊一个晚上。 这些人生意做得都很成功。 但在许多事情上，他们都要向雅各布·霍洛维兹讨主意，因为他们知道，他对生活看得透，而且他的见解不会因嫉妒而扭曲。
这些人开着大轿车来到我们这一相当贫穷的居民区，身穿昂贵西服，嘴里叼着25美分一支的雪茄。 有一次我问母亲：\"他们为什么要来这里，而不在他们的豪宅中聚会？\"
她说：\"我想，也许他们把自己最美好的东西留在了这里。 他们需要不时来这里重温过去。\"
我13岁那年，我母亲过世了。 从我自己的悲伤中，我感觉到母亲的过世对父亲的沉重打击。 但是他对自己的痛苦仅仅提到过一次。 他说：\"如果每天都幸福，那也就不幸福了。\" 他是想对儿子们说，幸福不是一个人所获取并保持的一种状态，而是一件需要不断争取的东西，无论面对什么样的失败和挫折都决不放弃。
我少年时，父亲对我表现出了无限的耐心。 每当父亲的朋友们在我家厨房聚会时，大家总会问：\"大卫找到工作了吗？\"父亲说：\"还没有。 我儿子正在寻找他能够为之奉献一生的事业。 我不能告诉他应该做什么。 只有他自己找到工作，他才会开心。 也许他比别人需要更长的时间找工作，但是他一定会找到的。 我不为他担心。\"
那年的年底，我在几家小型俱乐部中找到了一份演职工作，我突然之间意识到这就是我一直追求的事业。 演艺圈与我父亲的世界相距甚远，但是，出于同他的那些朋友一样的缘故，我一次又一次地回到他的身边。
20岁时，我得到了一份固定的工作——这是每个演员梦寐以求的事。 当时正值大萧条的谷底，成百上千的演员失业，而我却为了获得新的体验和挑战，打算主动辞去那份固定工作。
爸爸听了我的全部解释，然后说：\"有些人总是需要检验自己，伸展他们的翅膀，搏击新的风云。 如果这样做能让你找到更大的快乐和用武之地，那么你就去做好了。\" 这个建议出自一位一生从未离开一份固定工作的人之口，他有着欧洲传统的家庭责任感，但他也知道我与众不同。 他理解我需要做什么，并帮助我做到。
在以后的几年中，我在几家俱乐部里工作，后来便有了重大突破，出演一部大片。 之后我去了好莱坞，再往后爸爸也随我和我的家人生活在那里。一天晚上，我们举行了一场大型晚会。 那天晚上，我想爸爸也许喜欢听几首我们从前在老家常唱的民歌。 当我起调的时候，美妙的音乐和往昔的记忆令他情不自禁地加入了我的演唱。 我悄悄地退出，留下他在大厅独唱，歌声清晰、朴实。 他面对着世界上收入最高的明星，足足演唱了15分钟。 曲终歌罢，全场掌声雷动。
这位单纯、善良的老人所歌唱的欧洲传统歌曲深深地打动了那些演艺界精英。 我想起了母亲对于爸爸的那帮富有的朋友曾说过的那句话：\"我想，也许他们把自己最美好的东西留在了这里。 他们需要不时来这里重温过去。\"
我知道，那天晚上的掌声不仅仅是因为爸爸歌唱得好，也是对爸爸为人的喝彩。
Unit 2
Section A My Teacher, My Salvation
I stepped off the ship on a gray March day in 1949, a small boy with a new American visa shoved in his pocket, a boy who had lost his mother and was emigrating to America to live with a father he did not know. I was very suspicious of the heavy, bald man who embraced my sisters and
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me at the dock. Still, he was the very image of American people in his gleaming black shoes, gray overcoat, and new hat.
After several years in an elementary school class for those with low IQ — there were no classes for non-English-speaking children — I made it to junior high school. The first week of classes we were told to select a hobby to pursue during \"club hour\"on Fridays. I decided to follow the prettiest girl in my class, who led me through a door marked Newspaper Club. And there was a sharp-tongued, no-nonsense English teacher named Marilyn Burd. \"We're going to put out a newspaper,\" she yelled, rapping her desk with a ruler, \"so if any of you don't want to work, I suggest you go across the hall to the Theater Club rehearsal now, because you're going to work your tails off here!\"
I was soon under the spell of this formidable and eloquent woman. She drilled us on grammar and made me fall in love with literature. I was fascinated by the way she could read a story or a piece of verse, then open it up like a fan, displaying its various facets, colors, and meanings. I had considered stories to be simple adventures, but she showed me they could express feelings as well: pain, frustration, anger, and loss. And she taught me that my motherland was the foundation of Western civilization. I began to be proud of my origins.
One day she assigned us to compose a concise essay from our own experience. Fixing me with a stern look, she added, \"Nick, I want you to write about what happened to your family in your homeland.\"
That was the last thing I wanted to write about, and so I left the assignment until the last moment. Then, on a warm weekend afternoon, I sat in my room with a pad and pencil and stared out the window. The chorus of bird song, the buzz of insects, and the perfume of freshly cut grass distracted me. Finally I wrote the first sentence: \"To many people the coming of spring means the end of winter, the first birds, thoughts of love. Spring to me has a very different meaning because this was when I hugged my mother for the last time.\"
I kept writing, telling how the local guerrillas occupied our village and took our home and food; how my mother planned our escape when she learned all the children were to be sent to schools in another country for the indefinite future; and how she could not come with us because the guerrillas sent her to dig an irrigation ditch in a distant village.
I wrote about how one night we were smuggled down the mountain and into the lines of government soldiers, where a sergeant sent us to a refugee camp. It was there that we learned of our mother's torture and execution. I wrote that I could still hear the cries of my sisters when we were told my mother was taken into a cellar and shot by the guerrillas for what they called disloyalty — the escape of her children.
But I did write that I felt very lucky to have started a new life, my mother's dream for us. I ended my narrative by saying that, nevertheless, the coming of spring always reminded me of the green and gold day in 1948 when I last saw my mother.
I handed in my essay, hoping that was the end of it, but Miss Burd had it published in the school paper. I was horror-struck — until I saw that my classmates reacted with sympathy and understanding. Without telling me, Miss Burd also entered the essay in a national contest, and it won a medal.
For the first time I began to understand the power of the written word. Meanwhile, I followed the literary path Miss Burd had set me on. I managed to finance four years of university tuition with scholarships and part-time jobs with newspapers. An article I wrote about a friend who died in the Philippines — one of the first volunteers to lose his life in the Peace Corps — won a national award. The award was given to me in the White House by the President. When the local paper ran a picture of me clasping hands with the President, my father clipped it, had it sealed in plastic and carried it
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in his breast pocket. I found it there on the day he died 20 years later.
Miss Burd taught for 41 years. Often her students were from troubled homes, yet she would alternately bully and charm each one until the spark of potential caught fire. She retired in 1981 at the age of 62.
Marilyn Burd is still an honored and enthusiastic guest at all our family celebrations. At my 50th-birthday picnic last summer, my sisters and I felt a painful void because my father was not there to lead the line of dancers, the way he did at every celebration during his 92 years. But Miss Burd was there, sipping wine and viewing the scene with quiet satisfaction. Her presence was a comfort.
Life is full of opportunity, and I would have enjoyed its plenty even if I hadn't walked into Miss Burd's classroom. But she was the one who directed my grief and pain into writing. She was my salvation, the one that sent me into writing and indirectly caused all the good things that came after.
A few years ago, I answered the telephone and heard her telling me that I was to deliver the speech at her funeral. I hope, Miss Burd, that you'll accept this tribute instead. (Words:1,008)
我的老师，我的救星
1949年3月的一个阴沉的日子，我，一个小男孩，兜里揣着新领的美国签证走下了船。我刚刚失去了母亲，这次移民来美国，准备同素未谋面的父亲一道生活。 在码头上，看着这个拥抱我和我的姐妹们的秃顶胖男人，我满怀疑惑。 不过，他的皮鞋黑色，穿着灰色大衣，戴着崭新的帽子，是典型的美国人形象。
由于没有专为不会讲英语的孩子开设的课程，我在低智商孩子班读了几年小学后，升入了初中。 第一周的课上，老师通知我们要为周五的\"俱乐部活动时间\"选择一个自己喜欢的活动项目。 我决定随班里最漂亮的女孩去，她带着我进了一道门，门上标着\"报刊俱乐部\"。 在那里，我们见到了言辞尖刻、一本正经的英语教师玛丽莲·伯德。 \"我们准备出一份报纸，\"她用尺子敲着桌子，高声地说，\"所以，如果你们不想出力的话，我建议你们现在就到大厅那边去参加戏剧俱乐部的排练，因为在这里你们要玩命地干！\"
我很快就被这个令人望而生畏、口若悬河的女士所折服。 她反复训练我们掌握语法，并使我爱上了文学。 她能够读一篇故事或一首诗，然后像打开折扇一样，将它的各个侧面、色彩和含义全部展示出来，这一点强烈地吸引了我。 我过去一直认为小说写的只不过是不平凡的生活经历，而她却使我知道小说还可以表达情感：如痛苦、挫折、愤怒和失落。 她使我知道我的祖国是西方文明的发源地。 我开始对自己的出身感到骄傲。
一天，她布置了一份作业，让我们根据自己的亲身经历写一篇短文。 她用严厉的目光盯着我，接着说：\"尼克，我要你写你们一家在你家乡的经历。\" 这可是我最不愿写的东西，所以我把作业拖到了最后时刻。 后来，一个周末温暖的下午，我坐在自己的房间里，备好稿纸和铅笔，两眼呆呆地望着窗外。 鸟儿的欢唱声、昆虫的唧唧声，以及新剪草地的芳香使我无法集中注意力。 最后，我写下了第一句：\"对很多人来说，春天的来临意味着冬季的结束，第一批候鸟的出现，以及对爱的思念。 而春天对我来说却有着完全不同的意义，因为我最后一次拥抱母亲就是在这个季节。\"
我不停地写着，讲述当地游击队如何占领我们村庄，强占我们的房屋，夺走我们的食物。 写母亲在听说所有的孩子都要被送到外国的学校而前途未卜之后，如何安排让我们逃走，而她自己却被游击队强迫到远处的村庄挖水渠而不能与我们同行。
我描述了在一天夜里我们是怎样被偷偷地送下山，进入到军的地界，然后一位中士把我们送进难民营。 正是在难民营里，我们听说了母亲遭受的折磨和被处决的消息。 我写道，我依然能够听到姐妹们的哭声，那时，有人告诉我们，母亲因为让孩子们逃走而被认为是对游击队的不忠，所以被带到一个地窖杀了。
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但我也写道，开始了新的生活，我感到很幸运，这也是母亲为我们编织的梦。 在故事的结尾，我这样写道：不过，春天的来临总让我想起1948年那个大地返青、阳光灿烂的日子，那天，我最后一次见到母亲。
我交上了自己的作文，希望这件事到此为止，但伯德小姐却将它发表在了校刊上。 我非常惶恐，直到看见同学们同情和理解的反应心里才塌实了下来。 后来伯德小姐没让我知道，又报名让此文参加全国作文竞赛，并获得了一枚奖章。
我第一次开始理解文字的力量。 与此同时，我开始按着伯德小姐为我铺设的文学道路前行。 我设法用奖学金和在报社兼职赚的钱筹措了大学4年的学费。 我的一篇关于一个在菲律宾捐躯的朋友（他是和平队第一批志愿者中的牺牲者）的文章获得了国家奖，这个奖是总统在白宫为我颁发的。 当地报纸刊登了我与总统握手的照片，我父亲把它剪下塑封起来，放在自己胸前的口袋里。 20年后父亲去世的那天，我在他的口袋里发现了这张照片。
伯德小姐教了41年书。 她的学生大多来自不幸的家庭，但她总会交替使用逼迫和诱导的方法对待每个学生，直到他们的潜能绽放出火花。 1981年，她退休了，时年62岁。 玛丽莲·伯德至今仍是我们每次家庭聚会上的一位尊贵而热情的客人。 去年夏天我50岁生日野餐聚会，我和姐妹们都感到痛苦和空虚，因为我父亲不在了，不能再像他92年生命中每次喜庆场合那样领舞了。 但伯德小姐来了，她一边品啜着葡萄酒，一边平静而满意地看着这一切。 她的到来是对我们的一种安慰。
生活充满了机遇，即使我未曾走进伯德小姐的教室，我也会享有大量的机会。 但是她指导我把悲伤和痛苦写出来。 她是我的救星，是她把我引上了写作道路，随之而来的所有好事也是她间接地带给我的。
几年前，我接到她的电话，要我在她的葬礼上讲话。 伯德小姐，我希望您还是接受我以此文向您表达的敬意吧。
Section B The Most Fantastic Day
At age seven, Justin Thurston was an exceptional runner who enjoyed soccer and swimming. Gifted with a beautiful voice, he also sang solos in his school's chorus, and he loved playing the violin.
In August, Justin started complaining of an ache in his back. His mother, Dorothy, first thought he had just pulled a muscle. But the pain increased, and by the time Justin started school in the fall, even the short walk home was difficult.
Dorothy took Justin from one doctor to another, but none could give a satisfactory explanation. Meanwhile, a stabbing pain in his back began waking Justin at night, and his legs tickled so much that he was always scratching. Justin was forced to give up his sports, his singing, and his violin. He couldn't even pedal a bicycle. As the pain increased, he could only groan and bang his head in agony and frustration.
In early April, a specialist in London had Justin admitted to the hospital for testing. One test followed another. Finally, a few days before Easter, a grim-faced doctor met with Dorothy. He said, \"Brace yourself — your son has a large tumor inside his spine.\"
As the tumor had grown, it had compressed the nerves leading to Justin's legs, causing the tickling and pain.
\"Surgery,\" the doctor said, \"is impossible. There is simply no way to remove the growth without destroying the nerves.\" The only treatment that might slow the tumor, doctors told Dorothy, was radiation.
\"Will the radiation make Justin sick?\" she asked.
\"Oh, no,\" one of the doctors assured her. \"But it will damage the bones in his back. He will never grow normally, and he may have to walk with a cane.\"
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\"Then he will not have radiation!\" Dorothy announced. \"Is there anywhere I could take him for help?\" Dorothy pleaded.
\"Nowhere,\" the doctor told her. \"You've just got to accept it.\"
On Easter Day, the family sat around Justin's bed, ate a holiday dinner and tried to laugh at his father's jokes. But an underlying gloom ran through the whole day.
Then, Justin's best friend visited the hospital with his mother. The mother told Dorothy that she had read a magazine article telling of a surgeon at New York Metropolitan Hospital named Israel Epstein who could treat this kind of disease. The next morning, Dorothy went to see one of Justin's doctors, who promised to look up Epstein in a directory of surgeons; that same day, the doctor telephoned New York. Epstein asked for medical details about Justin. \"I'm quite certain I can help him,\" he said, \"please tell the family to come to New York as quickly as possible.\"
\"There's the question of money,\" the doctor informed Epstein. \"The boy's family is not wealthy. \" \"No problem,\" Epstein said quickly. \"I'm willing to deduct my fee from the bill. But the hospital needs $7,000 up front. I'm sorry, but I can't do anything about the hospital charges.\"
After months of agony, the Thurstons at last had a flash of hope. However, the prospect of raising $7,000 seemed impossible. But just as hope was fading, they received an envelope from an old friend; inside was a check for $7,000.
Justin and his mother left for New York. The next morning, as Dorothy was standing next to Justin's bed, Dr. Epstein entered the boy's room. \"You understand the serious risks involved?\" Epstein asked.
\"Yes, we do,\" Dorothy answered, \"but you're the only hope we have.\"
At 7 a.m. nurses wheeled Justin toward the hospital's sixth-floor operating suite. Minutes later, his back scrubbed clean and knocked out by drugs, Justin lay flat on the operating table. Epstein opened his spine, exposing the opaque gray film covering the nerves, and cut through that to reach the nerves themselves. Using a laser, Epstein carefully cut along a natural groove in the nerve bundle. The laser's beam sealed the small blood vessels as it moved along. Finally, peeling the nerve bundle open, Epstein looked down at the long, red-brown tumor. It dwarfed anything he had ever seen, and getting it out would be extremely difficult.
The surgeon now reached for the shaft of a pencil-like steel instrument with a tip that vibrates 26,000 times a second, breaking up the tissue it touches and then sucking it out through a tiny hose. Looking through the operating microscope, Epstein turned a knob and carefully moved the vibrating tip against Justin's tumor. There was no room for error; even so much as grazing the nerve bundle could permanently paralyze the patient. Millimeter by millimeter, the tumor began to disappear. Hours passed; occasionally a nurse sponged the sweat from Epstein's face. Eight hours after Justin had been wheeled in for surgery, Epstein turned off the humming device, stitched up the wound, and stepped back from the operating table.
\"I think it went well,\" Epstein told Dorothy in the waiting area, \"but we won't know for sure until we see if Justin can move his legs.\"
Minutes later, Epstein and Dorothy stood over the boy, waiting. Justin slowly emerged from his deep sleep.
\"Can you move your toes for me?\" Epstein asked. Slowly, Justin's toes came to life.
Justin remained in the intensive care ward for five days. The hospital lab confirmed that his tumor was not cancer. Although there remained a slight chance that the growth might recur, the odds were much greater that his immune system would destroy it.
All of Justin's pain disappeared. So did the itching in his legs. One morning in late May, Epstein strode briskly into Justin's room. \"Okay, Justin,\" he said. \"If you can walk, you can go
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home.\"
With help, Justin shifted his legs over the side of the bed. Dorothy gripped his hands as he slowly slid his feet to the tile floor. His expression full of determination, the boy managed five short, unsteady steps. Then he looked at his mother, his eyes sparkling. \"I can walk, Mum,\" he said softly. Tears streamed down Dorothy Thurston's cheeks. \"This is the most fantastic day!\" (Words:1,006)
最神奇的一天
贾斯廷·瑟斯顿在7岁时便是一个出色的赛跑选手，他还爱好足球和游泳。 他天生一副好嗓子，在学校的合唱团中，担当独唱，而且他还喜欢拉小提琴。
8月份，贾斯廷开始感到背部有些疼痛。 她的妈妈多萝西女士，刚开始以为只是肌肉拉伤。 但是贾斯廷背上的疼痛与日俱增，到了秋天开学的时候，就连放学回家短短的一段路贾斯廷走起来都感到困难。
多萝西带着贾斯廷看了一个又一个医生，但谁也没能对病情做出满意的解释。 与此同时，背部钻心的刺痛常常使贾斯廷夜不能寐，而且双腿奇痒无比，总是需要不停地搔痒。 贾斯廷不得不放弃了运动、歌唱和小提琴。 他甚至连自行车也不能骑了。 随着疼痛的加剧，他只能痛苦地呻吟，苦恼而沮丧地撞自己的脑袋。
今年4月初，伦敦的一个专家让贾斯廷到他的医院接受检查。 检查的项目一个接一个。 最后，在复活节的几天前，一位满脸严肃的医生找到多萝西。 他说：\"你要挺住——你儿子的脊柱中有一个大肿瘤。\"
随着肿瘤的长大，它压迫了贾斯廷腿上的神经，引起搔痒和疼痛。
\"做外科手术是不可能的，\"医生说，\"根本就没办法在不损伤神经的情况下摘除肿瘤。 \"惟一能够延缓肿瘤生长速度的治疗方法是放射疗法， 医生们都这样告诉多萝西。 \"放射疗法会使贾斯廷感到不适吗？\" 多萝西问道。
\"喔，不会的，\"一个医生向她保证说。 \"但是会损伤他背部的骨骼，他将永远不能正常发育，也许以后走路时还要依靠拐杖。\" \"如果这样他就不能做放射治疗！\" 多萝西坚决地说。\"还有别的什么地方可以收治他吗？\"她恳求道。
\"没有，\"医生告诉她说。\"你只能接受这一方案。\"
复活节那一天，全家人围坐在贾斯廷的床前，共进节日的大餐。听到父亲的笑话，大家强做笑脸， 但心底里的忧伤却伴了他们整整一天。
后来，贾斯廷最要好的朋友同他妈妈一道来医院探视。 朋友的妈妈告诉多萝西说，她在一本杂志上看见过一篇文章，说是在纽约的大都会医院有一个外科医生，叫伊斯雷尔·爱泼斯坦，可以治好这类疾病。 第二天早晨，多萝西就找到贾斯廷的一位主治医生，他答应帮忙在外科医生的名册中寻找名叫爱泼斯坦的医生。这位医生当天就打电话到纽约，联系上了爱泼斯坦。 爱泼斯坦询问了贾斯廷病情的详细情况， \"我想我肯定能够帮助他，\"他说，\"请通知这家人尽快来纽约。\"
\"但这里面涉及到钱的问题，\"医生告诉爱泼斯坦。 \"这孩子家庭不富裕。\"\"没问题，\"爱泼斯坦马上回答说，\"我愿意从他的账单中扣除我的诊疗费。 不过，医院需要预收7,000美元的住院费。 很抱歉，我对医院的收费实在是为力。\"
在苦恼了数月之后，瑟斯顿一家终于有了一线希望。 但要一下子筹集7,000美元似乎是不可能的。 就在希望眼看要破灭之际，他们突然收到了一位老朋友寄来的邮件，里面装着一张7,000美元的支票。
贾斯廷和妈妈动身前往纽约。 第二天，当多萝西站在孩子床边的时候，爱泼斯坦医生走进了贾斯廷的病房。 \"你知道这要冒很大风险吗？\" 爱泼斯坦医生问。 \"是的，我们知道，\" 多萝西回答道，\"但您是我们的惟一希望。\"
早上7点钟，护士们推着贾斯廷向医院的六楼手术室走去。 几分钟后，贾斯廷背部做了
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擦洗消毒，药物使他昏睡过去，于是他就平躺在手术台上。 爱泼斯坦切开他的脊柱，暴露出那层不透明的覆盖在神经上的灰膜，然后切开这层薄膜，直抵神经。 爱泼斯坦再用激光小心翼翼地沿着神经束的自然凹槽进行切割。 激光束一边移动，一边缝合了毛细血管。 最后，爱泼斯坦将神经束切开后，看到了那个长长的、红褐色的瘤。 这是他有生以来所见过的最大的肿瘤，很难切除。
这时，他伸手接过一根铅笔状钢制器械的手柄，其顶端每秒振动26,000次，它能切开所接触的组织，并通过一个细小的软管将它吸出。 爱泼斯坦通过手术显微镜，拧开旋钮，小心翼翼地使器械的震动头沿着肿瘤移动。 这容不得任何失误，哪怕是轻微擦伤神经束也会导致患者终身瘫痪。 肿瘤开始一毫米一毫米地消失。 几个小时过去了。护士时不时擦掉爱泼斯坦脸上的汗水。 贾斯廷被推进手术室8个小时后，爱泼斯坦医生关掉了那嗡嗡响的手术装置，缝好切口，离开了手术台。
\"我认为手术做得很好，\"爱泼斯坦告诉守候在等待室里的多萝西说，\"不过我们现在还不敢肯定，还得看贾斯廷的腿能否活动。\" 几分钟之后，爱泼斯坦和多萝西站到贾斯廷的床前等待着。 贾斯廷慢慢地从沉睡中苏醒。 \"你能活动一下你的脚趾给我看吗？\"爱泼斯坦问。 贾斯廷的脚趾慢慢地动了起来。
贾斯廷在特别重病护理病房呆了五天。 医院实验室确认了他的肿瘤不是癌。 尽管还存在着肿瘤重新长出的可能，但这种可能性微乎其微，更可能的情况是，他的免疫系统将有效地摧毁肿瘤。
贾斯廷的所有疼痛都消失了，腿上的奇痒也没有了。 5月末的一个早晨，爱泼斯坦迈着轻快的步子走进了贾斯廷的病房。 \"好啦，贾斯廷，\"他说。\"如果你能行走，就可以出院了。\"
贾斯廷在妈妈的帮助下将双腿挪过床沿。 当他慢慢把脚放在瓷砖地面上时，多萝西紧紧地抓着他的手。 贾斯廷神色坚定，迈出了小小的、摇摇摆摆的五步。 然后他看着妈妈，目光闪烁。\"我能走路了，妈妈，\"他轻轻地说。
多萝西·瑟斯顿泪水夺眶而出，顺着脸颊流淌。 \"这真是最神奇的一天！\"她说。
Section C Lee Kuan Yew: Statesman of Singapore
Lee Kuan Yew (1923—), first prime minister of Singapore (1959—1990). Born to a wealthy Chinese family, he studied at Cambridge, England, and was admitted to the English bar(英国律师行业) in 1950. After his return he became a popular nationalist leader, and in 19 he formed the People's Action Party. Lee was a member of the delegation that negotiated Singapore's independence from the British in 1956－1958. After his party's victory in the subsequent elections, he became prime minister in 1959. Lee brought Singapore into the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, but severe internal conflict resulted in Singapore's separation from the Federation in 1965. Under his rule, the city-state became a center of international trade and relative prosperity in Asia. He resigned as prime minister in November 1990, but retained his leadership of the ruling People's Action Party.
When I asked the Philippines' top business leaders as to whom they admire the most for enlightened leadership, they all mentioned the name of 77-year-old Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of Singapore and now Senior Minister.
One executive says, \"Lee is very straightforward, super honest and he always knows what he is talking about. Lee Kuan Yew is a great leader whom I admire the most.\"
Another explains, \"Lee Kuan Yew has a strong political will and selflessness as a leader.\" A third executive goes a step further, describing Lee as \"the world's greatest businessman\". He adds, \"Lee Kuan Yew is the world's greatest businessman because he efficiently managed the Republic of
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Singapore like a successful giant corporation.\" Lee is an exceptional Asian leader who embodies the qualities of excellent management, integrity, and discipline.
Even the boss of a global giant in the information industry says, \"There are two equalizers in life: the Internet and education. Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew is a world leader who understands this and is using the power of the Internet to position Singapore for survival and success in the Internet economy.\"
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher（玛格丽特·撒切尔）says, \"In office, I read and analyzed his every speech. He had a way of penetrating the fog of propaganda and expressing with unique clarity the issues of our times and the way we tackle them. He was never wrong.\"
More than 40 years ago, Lee Kuan Yew transformed what was a poor, decaying colony into a shining, rich, and modern city, all the time surrounded by hostile powers. With his brilliant intellect and powers of perception, he is one of the world's most blunt and respected statesmen. One of the remarkable successes of Lee Kuan Yew's management of Singapore was his making Singapore the least corrupt nation in Asia, by creating \"clean, no-money elections\" and recruiting the best people into government. He says, \"They must be paid a wage equal with what men of their ability and integrity are earning for managing a big corporation or successful legal or other professional practice. They have to manage a Singapore economy that yielded an annual growth rate of eight to nine percent in the last two decades, giving its citizens an average income that in 1995 was the ninth highest in the world.\"
One way Lee Kuan Yew cleaned up Singapore was by embarrassing corrupt officials. In fact, one of his cabinet ministers took his own life due to \"loss of face\" from corruption charges. \"We had established a climate of opinion which looked upon corruption in public office as a threat to society.\" Lee complains that in many countries, taking bribes has become a way of life for government officials. He said, \"The higher they are, the bigger their homes and more numerous their wives or secret girl-friends, all wearing clothes appropriate to the power and position of their men.\" Another method Lee used to stamp out corruption was inaugurated in 1960. His government made the rule that if a person accused of corruption was found to be living beyond his means or had property his income could not explain, these facts could be used as evidence that the person had accepted a bribe.
On a recent visit to Singapore, I called on the office of Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who, it turned out, was then in America. I had hoped that he would sign my copy of his latest book, From Third World to First, The Singapore Story: 1965—2000. His secretary explained that Lee's fee for signing his book is 10,000 Singapore dollars, and that the proceeds would be donated to charities. Even in such a minor detail as the cost of a signed book, Lee had a specific plan which reflected his practical business-like ways, his efficiency, and his public service.
The book describes Lee Kuan Yew's experiences as a government official, politician, and international diplomat. In 1965, when Singapore was forced to exist as a city-state with no natural resources or army, few people gave it much chance of survival. In 1965, one Australian newspaper said, \"An independent Singapore was not regarded as feasible three years ago. Nothing in the current situation suggests that it is more likely to survive today.\" A British paper also predicted the eventual collapse of Singapore without British aid. Today, after decades of good government and struggle, Singapore is a thriving nation.
In this latest book, Lee expresses his ideas \"to be correct, not politically correct\". He doesn't apologize for his aggressive responses to his political opponents and his often critical views of some Western systems. Lee also describes his diverse impressions of nations, leaders, and historic events. (Words:916)
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新加坡政治家李光耀
李光耀(1923—), 新加坡第一任（1959—1990）。 他出身于一个富裕的华裔家庭，曾就学于英国剑桥，于1950年获准在英国当律师。 回国后，他成为一个深受欢迎的民族主义领导人，并于19年组建了人民行动党。 1956年至1958年，新加坡就本国摆脱英国统治实现与英国谈判，李光耀是谈判代表团成员之一。 人民行动党在随后的选举中获胜，他于1959年当选为新加坡。 李光耀促成了1963年新加坡加入了马来西亚的联盟，但严重的内部矛盾使得新加坡于1965年脱离了联盟。 在他的领导下，新加坡这一城市国家成了一个国际贸易中心，成为亚洲相对繁荣的国家。 1990年11月他辞去职务，但在执政的人民行动党内仍保留着领导地位。
当我问菲律宾商界的一些头面人物，谁是他们最钦佩的开明领袖时，他们全都提到77岁的李光耀这个名字。李光耀是新加坡的国父，现任新加坡资政。
一位高层管理人员说：\"李先生很直爽，极其诚实，而且总是言之有物，他是我最崇敬的一位伟大领袖。\" 另一位解释道：\"作为一位领袖，李光耀有着很强的政治热情和无私精神。\" 第三位说得更深刻，他把李光耀描述为\"世界上最杰出的商人\"。 他补充道：\"李光耀之所以是世界上最杰出的商人，是因为他有效地治理新加坡共和国就像成功地管理一个庞大的商业集团。 \"李光耀是一个非凡的亚洲领导人，他是卓越管理、刚正品质和自律精神的体现。 甚至一位从事信息产业的公司的老板也说道：\"生活中有两股平衡力量，互联网和教育。 李光耀资政身为世界级领导人，深知这个道理，并善于利用互联网的力量，让新加坡准确定位，以便在网络经济里生存、成功。\"
英国前首相玛格丽特·撒切尔说：\"我在办公室里阅读并分析了他的每一份演讲稿。 他能够看透宣传鼓动的迷雾，以独特的方式清楚地描述我们这个时代所面临的问题和解决办法。 他从不出错。\"
40多年前，李光耀把一个贫困、衰败的殖民地变成一个富裕的、现代化的、光彩夺目的大都市，而自始至终都受到敌对势力的包围。 由于他超人的智慧和洞察力，他成为世界上最敢于直言、德高望重的政治家之一。
李光耀治理新加坡最令人瞩目的政绩之一，是通过建立\"廉洁、非金钱选举制度\"和把最优秀的人才吸纳进的做法，使新加坡成为亚洲最廉洁的国家。 他说：\"他们（公务员）的报酬必须同与他们的能力和正直程度相同、但从事大型企业的管理工作、法律工作或其他职业的人所获得的收入一样多。 他们需要管理的新加坡是这样一个国家：在过去20年中，国民经济年增长率为8—9%，1995年人均收入在世界上排名第九位。\" 李光耀保持新加坡廉洁的方法之一就是让贪污的蒙羞。 事实上，他的一名内阁成员就是由于指控\"丢了脸\"而自杀了。 \"我们已经建立起这样的氛围，人们把公职人员贪污受贿看成是对社会的一种威胁。\" 李光耀慨叹，在很多国家，收取贿赂已经成为了的一种生活方式。 他说：\"他们的官职越高，居住的房子就越大，妻妾就越多。她们穿的衣服跟她们男人的权力和地位相匹配。\" 李光耀用以消除的另一个办法出台于1960年。 他的规定，如果某人受到指控，而他又被证明生活奢华，挥霍超过其收入所能承受的程度，或是拥有其收入不能解释的财产，法庭就可以以此作为被告受贿的佐证。
在最近一次访问新加坡时，我造访了李光耀资政的办公室，而当时李光耀正在美国。 我一直想请他为我手中的一本他的新作《从第三世界到第一世界，新加坡的故事：1965－2000》签个名。 但他的秘书解释说，李光耀的亲笔签名标价为1万新元，此项收入将全部捐给慈善机构。 即使在给书签名这样的细节上，李光耀都有具体的计划，这充分反映了他的务实作风、讲求高效和为公众服务的精神。
这本录了李光耀的治国、从政和国际外交的生涯。 1965年，新加坡被迫成为一个没有自然资源和的城市国家，当时几乎没有人认为这样一个国家能够生存下去。 1965年，一家澳大利亚报纸写道：\"一个的新加坡在3年前被认为是行不通的，从目前的情况
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看，没有任何迹象表明它今天有可能生存下去。\" 一份英国的报纸也预测，没有英国的援助，新加坡最终将垮掉。 今天，经过几十年的治理和奋斗，新加坡成了一个繁荣的国家。 在这本新作中，李光耀阐明了他争取\"做到正确，而不是政治上正确\"的观点。 关于自己对其政敌们的强烈抨击，对某些西方政体的批评言论，他没有表示道歉认错。 李光耀还坦言了他对国家、领导人和历史事件的各种看法和印象。
Unit 3
Section A Humans in the Amazon —A Long-Lost History Comes to Light
The Amazon rainforest is one of the most significant and largely intact ecosystems left on the earth. It is often characterized as an essentially untouched natural environment in which man's presence is merely secondary. However, vast reaches of the rainforest have been lived in and shaped by human hands for thousands of years.
The Amazon River Basin boasts the largest river system on Earth and harbors an ecosystem that is tremendously complex. Early travelers from Renaissance Europe were overwhelmed by their first encounters. In 1531, Francisco Pizarro overthrew the Incan empire, removing the emperor from his throne and taking for Spain the Incan imperial treasures. A decade later his younger brother ventured east from the high plateau of the Andes Mountains in pursuit of the famous cities of gold and spices thought to be hidden in the jungle forest. Going down the river the expedition soon exhausted its supplies and a small group was sent ahead to search for food. Eight months later, this group emerged at the mouth of the Amazon, having made what would prove to be the first descent of the length of the river.
A missionary who accompanied the group sent a remarkable account of their adventures to the Pope, including mention of the great signal drums that sounded from village to village far in advance of their arrival, warning of the coming of the European strangers. His manuscript records seeing innumerable settlements along the river — on one day they passed more than twenty villages in succession, and some of these are said to have stretched for six miles or more. Such reports have intrigued scientists ever since, for they describe dense populations and large federations of tribes which, if verified, would be entirely at odds with modern stereotypes of hidden, thinly scattered tribes scratching out an uncertain existence.
Beginning in the late seventeenth century, the successors to the first explorers recorded and collected many of the everyday objects fashioned from wood and other organic materials that usually rot in a tropical climate. Such collections housed in European museums preserve a \"window\" into cultures that were soon to experience huge changes brought about by foreign diseases and cruel abuse at the hands of Europeans.
Population collapse and movement along the principal rivers of the Amazon system have contributed to a veil of misunderstanding that has long covered the cultural achievements of tropical forest societies. Diffuse bands hunting deep in the forest interior eventually came to be seen as the typical tropical forest adaptation. So much so that when archaeological studies began in earnest at the mouth of the Amazon in the 1950s, scientists argued that the sophisticated culture they were discovering could not have originated in the Amazon Basin itself, but must have been derived from more advanced cultures elsewhere. They imagined the tropical forest to be an \"imitation paradise\" unable to support much beyond a simple hunting-and-gathering way of life. This mistaken idea has
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exerted a persistent influence ever since.
Two factors have been instrumental in lifting the veil of misunderstanding. First is a surprisingly diverse range of ceramic styles. Recent research seems to confirm that a creative explosion of styles occurred about 2,000 years ago. Archaeological digs in the highest reaches of the Upper Amazon have demonstrated the existence of a widespread style of painting large watertight jars in bold black, red and cream designs. This same style has been found on an isle at the mouth of the Amazon, and appears to have its origins where the Amazon meets the ocean, later spreading across much of the Upper Amazon. The style transcends local and regional cultures and points to considerable intercourse between societies along the vast river network.
Secondly, there is a truly impressive diversity of languages, with several hundred distinct tongues and dialects. This verbal diversity must have evolved over thousands of years and implies an occupation of the Amazon Basin for at least 14,000 years, a figure supported by archaeological evidence. The rock art in the Amazon Basin may be as old as human occupation itself. Images are carved and painted on exposed rock near rapids and waterfalls where fishing is most productive, and in caves and rock shelters close to archaeological sites.
Recent archaeological research has focused on a phenomenon barely noticed before: extensive patches of rich black soil found along the banks and on terraces above all major rivers in the Amazon. Some cover an area of many acres and are up to 6 feet deep. They are thought to have formed over many centuries as the accumulated product of organic remains left by native settlements. These soils are usually filled with fragments of busted ceramics and are now being studied for clues to the rise of tropical forest civilizations in the Amazon Basin. Local farmers regard the black soils as a \"gift from the past\" because they are naturally fertile and have the ability to support a wide range of crops.
Among the most exciting discoveries are funeral jars dating to A.D. 1400 — 1700 found in caves and rock shelters near the mouth of the Amazon. The bones of men, women and children were preserved in individually dedicated vessels. It seems that the sites were visited regularly over the years and new jars added as family members expired. These burials reflect the family ties of ancient settlements and their nurturing of links between the living and the dead.
The native peoples of the Amazon can no longer be seen as isolated communities in the depths of the forest or dispersed along rivers. We still have much to learn about their societies, but the rainforest should no longer be seen as an untouched \"paradise\".
The future of the Amazon Basin is now a subject of fierce debate. Knowledge about the past has a vital role to play in planning and decision making for the future. Archaeology points to successful methods for adapting to the forest, grounded in practical expertise and empirical knowledge of the limitations and possibilities of this environment. These techniques for wise management are becoming a matter of global concern. (Words: 1,011)
亚马孙河流域的文明——一段被忘却已久的历史重见光明
亚马孙热带雨林是地球上现存最有意义、大部分保存完好的生态系统之一。 它基本上是无人涉足的自然环境。在这里，人类的存在退居第二位。 然而，大片大片的热带雨林有人类居住并被人类的双手塑造已经有成千上万年了。
亚马孙河流域拥有地球上最大的河系，能为极其复杂的生态系统提供庇护。 文艺复兴时期来自欧洲的早期旅行家们一见到它就被慑服了。 1531年，弗朗西斯科·皮萨罗推翻了印加帝国，把国王从宝座上赶下了台，为西班牙夺取了印加帝国的财宝。 10年后，他的弟弟从安第斯山脉高原冒险向东挺进, 探寻被认为隐藏在丛林之中的几个著名的盛产黄金和香料的城市。 探险队沿着河流行进，不久就耗尽了给养, 于是他们派一小队人向前突进，去寻找
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食物。 8个月后，这支小分队出现在亚马孙河口，完成了探险——后来证明他们首次顺流而下走完了全程。
跟随该小分队的一名传教士对他们的探险经历做了十分精彩的记述，并把它寄给了罗马教皇, 其中提到了当地的大信号鼓。 这种信号鼓发出的鼓声早在他们到达之前就从一个村落传向另一村落，通知大家欧洲陌生人的到来。 他的手稿记载了他们在亚马孙河沿岸看到的无数的大小村落。有一天，他们连续经过了20多个村庄，据说一些村庄延伸长达6英里或更长。 从那以后，这类报导便激起了科学家们的兴趣，因为报导所描绘的稠密人口和庞大的部落联盟如果得到证实，将会完全不同于现代有关部落的既定认识：隐秘的、稀疏零星的部落，居无定所。
从17世纪晚期开始，首批探险家的后继者们开始记载并收集了许多木制的和其他有机材料制成的日常物品。这些物品在热带气候条件下，一般是会腐烂的。 这些收藏在欧洲博物馆中的物品保留了一个认识亚马孙文化的\"窗口\"。然而，那些文化不久就经历了外来疾病和欧洲野蛮蹂躏带来的巨大变化。
人口的急剧下降和人们沿亚马孙河水系主要河流的迁移给亚马孙问题蒙上了一层曲解的面纱，这层面纱，长久以来一直掩盖着热带森林社会的文化成就。 密林深处零散的结帮狩猎活动逐渐被看成是典型的适应热带森林生活的方式。 这种认识如此顽固，以至于20世纪50年代亚马孙河口考古学研究真正开始之际，科学家们竟然怀疑他们所发现的复杂的文化不可能发源于亚马孙流域自身，而是可能发源于某些文化更先进的地方。 他们把热带森林设想为\"仿造的天堂\"，这种地方只能维持简单的、以守猎和采集为主的生活方式，仅此而已。 从那以后，这种错误观点就一直发挥着持久的影响。
揭开这层曲解的面纱的是两个因素。 首先是多得惊人的陶器制品样式。 最近的研究似乎证实，大约在2,000年前就出现了一个陶器制品样式创作的繁荣期。 在亚马孙河最上游挖掘出土的文物向我们展示了一种当时广为流传的陶罐式样——一种大型彩绘密封罐。这种陶罐上绘有醒目的黑色、红色、奶油色的图案。 在亚马孙河口的一个小岛上也发现了同样风格的陶瓷制品，而且其起源似乎出现在亚马孙河与海洋的交汇处，以后逐渐向亚马孙河上游的大部分地区流传。 其风格超越了当地的区域文化，说明广阔的河网沿岸社会群体之间曾有过大量的交流。
其次是令人瞩目的语言体系——各具特色的语言和方言多达数百种。 这种话语上的多样性肯定已经演化了数千年，这就意味着亚马孙河流域有人类居住至少已有14,000年了——这一说法得到了考古证据的支持。 亚马孙河流域的岩石艺术可能和人类在此居住的历史一样悠久。 在靠近急流和瀑布的裸露的岩石上，雕绘有各种各样的图像，这些地方是捕鱼的最佳位置。在靠近考古学遗址的洞穴和岩石遮蔽处也发现了上述雕刻和绘画。
最近的考古研究集中在一个以前几乎没有人注意到的现象上，即沿亚马孙河岸和亚马孙河所有主要支流的梯田上发现的大片大片的黑色沃土。 一些沃土面积有好几英亩，厚度达6英尺。 人们认为这些土地的形成要经过很多世纪，是当地定居点一代代积聚下来的有机物残骸。 这些土壤里往往布满了陶器的碎片，现在被用作研究亚马孙河流域热带森林文明兴起的线索。 当地农民把黑土地视为\"上古的遗赠\"，因为它们是天然的沃土，能够为庄稼提供充足的营养。
在所有的发现中，最令人激动的是在亚马孙河口附近的洞穴和岩石隐蔽处发现的葬礼陶罐。这些陶罐可追溯到公元1400至1700年。 男人、女人和孩子的尸骸被保存在各自的专用器皿里。 在过去的岁月里人们似乎定期来这里探视，而且随着家庭成员的不断去世，陶罐也不断地增加。 这些埋葬品反映了古代定居点家庭成员间的联系，以及他们对活人与死人之间联系的珍惜。
亚马孙河流域当地各族人民再也不能被视为是森林深处孤立的群体或是沿着亚马孙河沿岸居住的分散群体了。 关于他们的社会状况，有很多方面仍有待我们去了解，但亚马孙热带雨林再也不应该被视为无人类痕迹的\"天堂\"了。
今天，亚马孙河流域的未来是一个热烈争论的话题。 有关亚马孙河流域的过去的知识对
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于它明天的规划和决策至关重要。 考古学为我们揭示了适应雨林的成功方法，这些方法是在生活实践中以及对该环境的局限性和可能性亲身经历的基础上形成的。 这种高明的管理技能正日益成为全球关注的对象。
Section B An Inland Paradise for Birdwatchers
Standing at the edge of an enormous marsh, a visitor is overwhelmed by the vast area of tall water plants and the abundant bird life, which reminds one of the coasts of the southeastern United States. Yet this is a place where you will never see a hurricane, or foam stirred by crashing waves, or a dolphin or shark; the nearest ocean is well over a thousand miles away. For this is a naturally occurring but carefully managed inland sea, a flat landscape of glittering water surrounded by hundreds of miles of grass and farms.
These are the Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira marshes, the stopping point for hundreds of thousands of migrant birds that make their way north in the spring and south in the fall. In terms of the variety of species and numbers of birds, this is a remarkable place. Some of the finest bird watching sites on the continent are to be had in these impressive marshes, especially during the spring. On a recent day, various roads that traverse the marshes offered views of some of the rarest birds in the US. Views could be had of innumerable ducks, cranes, hawks, and all manner of shorebirds. Here, at this time of year, are found the largest concentrations and greatest diversity of water birds in the United States; about the only birds missing are penguins. For bird watchers, this place is paradise.
It is here in Kansas, near longitude 100 degrees, that east meets west and north meets south. Bird species that occur in the east or the west have a small zone of overlap here, and there are plenty of land birds in addition to the fantastic shorebird display. The inland habitat is packed with various sorts of small worms and young insects, which form the bulk of the birds' nutrition.
Migrating birds face many threats, chief among them habitat destruction: the loss of necessary places to feed and rest. Protection of such important resting areas is crucial to many species' survival. Here, government and private efforts have protected much of this vital landscape.
Cheyenne Bottoms, a spacious basin comprising some 41,000 acres, is the largest marsh in the interior of the United States. The state government operates approximately half as a wildlife management area. The Nature Conservancy has also acquired an additional 7,300 acres, mostly adjacent to Cheyenne Bottoms, where it has been restoring the native habitat.
Quivira National Wildlife Refuge is south and slightly east of Cheyenne Bottoms, a half-hour drive away. The US Congress created it in May 1955 after being petitioned by scientists eager to protect migrant birds. It includes about 22,135 acres, nearly 6,000 of which are managed marsh areas.
\"Each area is nationally important; together they have worldwide importance,\" said an expert on birds and author of a paperback bird watching handbook and several pamphlets on the subject. \"They are especially important in the context of the percentage of individuals of certain species passing through.\" He called the marshes \"unique and magnificent\".
To some extent, their importance was made known by the work of Edmund F. Martinez, a retired scientist who began capturing, measuring, marking and releasing birds here more than 30 years ago.
\"It's remarkable what passes through Cheyenne Bottoms,\" he said in a recent interview. \"Small shorebirds that spend the winter at the bottom of South America and breed in Russia in the summer, I got to hold them in my hands and marvel at how they do it. To find birds here that I banded from northern Russia and South America, it really put into perspective what is going on here in the center
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of the Kansas. These birds are the best athletes in the world.\"
When Mr. Martinez began his studies in 1965, his bird census work was greeted with doubt because the numbers of species and individuals were unlike anything being reported anywhere else in the country. Eventually, skeptical researchers came here to see if Mr. Martinez could be right, only to be amazed by what he had documented. Although today he is still tan and fit, he no longer walks through the marsh mud to capture and mark birds. But his work brought the region to the attention of scientists and amateur birdwatchers and he is now considered to be the dean of bird researchers in the region.
\"A very high percentage of the entire world population of several species of shorebirds depends on these marshes for survival,\" said one expert. \"According to population census data, anywhere from 50 to 95 percent of the population of some species may be using this area each spring, occasionally with all of these species present at the same time,\" he said. And, he noted, the area is just as critical in the fall, when hundreds of thousands of cranes — one species of which is federally listed as endangered — and countless other water birds stop over on their way south. Cheyenne Bottoms was originally obtained by the state for duck hunting in the late 1940s and 1950s. Irregular rainfall, periodic flooding, and the vagaries of nature combined to make the surrounding land marginal for cattle farming. Often, fluctuating water levels put the best shorebird habitat on grassland outside the protected areas. The Nature Conservancy stepped in to protect additional land, moving out the cows and bulls to make room for shorebirds.
Now, communities in the surrounding area have pegged their future to the hope that the area's growing reputation as a premier bird watching site will bring visitors and their dollars to the region. Municipal governments, motel operators and others in the hospitality industry hope to see more and more bird watchers.
Shorebird enthusiasts from all over the world are already traveling to this inland paradise. On a recent day, for example, a bird watcher from Spain was overwhelmed by the number and variety of birds. Though she could barely communicate with the Americans she encountered there, her giggle and the blush of happiness on her face needed no translation.
(Words: 1,001)
鸟类观察者的内陆天堂
站在一片广阔的湿地的边上，参观者陶醉于这绵延的高水草和繁荣的鸟世界：此情此景令人想起美国东南部的海岸。 然而，在这个地方你决不会见到飓风或波涛搅起的水沫，也不会见到海豚或鲨鱼；距它最近的海洋也在1,000多英里之外。 因为它是一片自然形成、精心管理的内陆海，水面平静，波光闪烁，周围是连绵数百英里草地和农田。 这就是夏延洼地和基维拉沼泽地，也是数十万春天北迁、秋天南归的候鸟落脚的地方。 就鸟的种类和数量而言，这是一个非同一般的地方。 美国的最佳观鸟处之一就是这摄人心魄的沼泽地，尤其是在春天。 前不久的一天，一条条纵贯沼泽地的道路让人们有幸一睹一批美国最稀有鸟类的风姿。 人们可以看到数不清的鸭子、仙鹤、隼和形形色色的滨鸟。 每年的这个时候，这里聚齐了美国数量最多、种类最全的水鸟；惟一不到场的鸟类大概只有企鹅。 对于鸟类观察者来说，这里简直就是天堂。
正是在堪萨斯州这个靠近经线100度的地方，东西南北在此交汇。 东部和西部的鸟在这里只有小范围的种类重叠，人们除了能看见稀奇古怪的滨鸟之外，还能看见许多陆地鸟类。 这块内陆生息地到处是各种各样的小蠕虫和幼虫，成为鸟类营养的主要来源。
候鸟面临着许多威胁，其中主要的是栖息地遭受破坏，这使它们失去了觅食和栖息之地。 要使众多鸟类得以生存，关键是保护好这些重要的栖息地。 和民间做了种种努力，使这一重要景观的大部分得到保护。
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夏延洼地是一个占地大约41,000英亩的广阔盆地，是美国内陆最大的沼泽地。 州将其中约一半的地区辟为野生动植物保护区。 此外，自然保护组织还承包了7,300英亩，大都靠近夏延洼地，在这里，自然保护组织一直在致力于恢复本地的栖息地的工作。
基维拉国家野生动物保护区位于夏延洼地南部稍稍偏东的地方，驱车要走半个小时。 保护区是在热心于保护候鸟的科学家上诉之后，由美国国会在1955年的五月创立的。 它占地22,135英亩，其中近6, 000英亩是有人管理的沼泽地。
一位鸟类专家（他是一本平装观鸟手册和几本鸟类知识小册子的作者）说：\"从国家的角度来看，每个地区都很重要；所有地区加在一起，便具有了世界意义。 对于某些占相当比例的路过此地的鸟类而言，它们显得尤其重要。\"用他的话说， 这些沼泽地\"独特而壮观\"。 它们的重要性能够为人们所知，在某种程度上应当归功于埃德蒙· F. 马丁内斯所做的努力。马丁内斯是一位退休的科技人员，30多年前，他开始在这里捕获、测量鸟类，给它们作上记号，然后放归自然。
在最近的一次采访中，他说道：\"值得注意的是飞经夏延洼地的都是些什么鸟。 小滨鸟在南美的洼地过冬，夏天在俄罗斯繁殖后代。我把它们拿在手上，惊叹它们何以有此等本事。 如果在这里能找到我在俄罗斯北部和南美替它们戴上标环的鸟类，就可以弄清楚在堪萨斯州中心地带发生了什么。 这些鸟类是全世界最优秀的运动员。\"
当马丁内斯先生1965年开始对这儿的鸟类做研究时，人们对他的鸟类普查工作深表怀疑，因为他统计的鸟的种类和个体的数量与国内其他任何一个地方所通报的数据都有差异。 最后，持怀疑态度的研究人员来到这里考察马丁内斯先生的统计是否正确，结果对他的论证大吃一惊。 虽然，他今天看上去仍是肤色黝黑，身体健康，但是他已不再走进泥泞的沼泽去捕捉鸟儿给它们做标记了。 不过他的工作使该地区受到科技工作者及业余鸟类观察者的注意。现在他被认为是该地区鸟类研究的泰斗。
一位鸟类专家曾说过：\"世界上有几种滨鸟，很大一部分靠这些沼泽地生存。\"他说：\"据鸟类普查数据显示，某些鸟类的50%到95%可能会在每年春季使用这一地区，偶尔也会出现所有这些鸟类同时光顾的场面。\" 他还指出，这一地区在秋天也同样重要，这时成千上万只鹤（其中一种被联邦列为濒临灭绝的鸟类）和无数其他水鸟在向南迁徙的途中路经此地，停下来歇息。
夏延洼地最初是在20世纪40 年代末和50年代被州征用，作为野鸭狩猎场。 由于无规律的降雨、周期性的洪水泛滥和自然气候的变幻无常等因素，周边的土地难以维持畜牧业。 升降不定的水位常常使草原上最好的滨鸟栖息地被挤到了保护区之外。 后来自然保护组织介入了此事，保护了更多的土地，赶走了牛群，为滨鸟腾出了地方。
如今，周边地区的人们把他们的未来寄托于这种希望：希望该地区作为一流的鸟类观察地，其声望的日益增长将吸引参观者带着美元前来观光。 市、汽车旅馆的经营者以及其他服务行业的经营者们希望能看到越来越多的鸟类观察者的到来。 来自世界各地的滨鸟爱好者正络绎不绝地来到这一内陆天堂。 例如，近日一位西班牙鸟类观察者为这里如此众多、形形色色的鸟惊叹不已。 虽然她几乎不能和她在此处碰见的美国人进行交谈，她那咯咯的笑声和满心欢喜的容光不需翻译，就说明了一切。
Section C Protecting the Great Bear Rainforest
A historic agreement reached this April between Canadian environmental groups and Canada's timber industry will ensure the long-term security of British Columbia's threatened west coast Great Bear Rainforest (大熊雨林). The deal promises to bring an end to almost 20 years of some of the most intense and bitter environmental disputes in Canadian history.
Under the terms of the agreement, which involved intense negotiations with native American groups, timber companies, labor unions and local communities, 20 river basins will receive permanent protection, and the cutting of trees will be postponed in another 68 river basins. In
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addition, the timber industry has committed itself to more ecologically sensitive harvesting. \"This is a great leap forward in securing the future of Canada's rainforest,\" says a spokesman for Greenpeace (绿色和平组织).
The Great Bear Rainforest, so named because of its high concentration of large bears, runs north from Vancouver to the border of Alaska and represents the Earth's largest remaining area of rainforest outside the tropics. Rendered virtually impossible to access due to its wild terrain of plunging valleys and ice-topped mountains, the Great Bear Rainforest has remained untouched since the last ice age some 15,000 years ago and, until now, was largely unknown to the outside world.
The forest is a natural treasure chest of rare plants, birds and mammals; scientists continue to discover the extent of its biodiversity and complex ecological relationships. It was discovered only recently, for example, that the region supports a distinct population of wolves. Researchers have also found up to 10,000 insect species specific to individual rainforest valleys, the vast majority of which had been unknown to science.
Perhaps the most amazing discovery of all is the importance of salmon (鲑鱼) in providing material to fertilize the entire rainforest ecosystem. Studies have shown that over the course of the salmon breeding season, each bear carries up to 700 salmon into the rainforest, eating only half of any one fish. The decaying bodies provide a vital surge of fertilizer into the ecosystem.
One of the more well-known examples of the forest's unique biodiversity is the spirit bear, a rare all-white type of black bear that only lives in a remote area of the Great Bear Rainforest. Though spirit bears are normally black, a number of them are born with all-white fur. According to local native people, when the snow of the last ice age retreated, the creator of humans made the spirit bear as a reminder that the rainforest was once white with ice and snow.
While nearly 1,000 black bears live in British Columbia's rainforests, only around 400 white spirit bears are thought to exist. They live mainly on two remote islands some 300 miles north of Vancouver. These islands form the heart of the proposed Spirit Bear Park.
Images of the spirit bear were used to great effect by environmental groups around the world in the global campaign to save the Great Bear Rainforest from being destroyed by tree cutting. Central to the successful campaign was market pressure against the Canadian forest products companies that were harvesting timber within the Great Bear Rainforest. Environmental advocates targeted these companies through a series of high-profile actions around the world designed to persuade consumers to stop buying timber cut from British Columbian rainforests. Finally, after a long period of opposing the agreement, timber companies agreed to protect the area. The breakthrough is widely attributed to the companies' loss of sales as dozens of major wood buyers in the US, Europe and Japan expressed strong support for conservation and responsible tree harvesting. Many have explicitly stated they would no longer purchase forest products from companies operating in a series of valleys in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Through this effort, environmental groups have brought about a significant victory. \"We have been under a lot of pressure,\" admits the director of public affairs and communications for one forest products company, \"and we have been anxious to find a way to resolve this.\" Unfortunately, two companies have still refused to accept the agreement, causing Greenpeace to step up its campaign against them. In addition to targeting buyers of forest products, Greenpeace is now also putting pressure on investors in the two companies.
As a consequence of the agreement, British Columbia has since undergone an extremely rapid change in the eyes of environmental groups. \"British Columbia's international reputation has been transformed overnight from an environmental criminal to an environmental hero,\" says the spokesman for one environmental group. He adds that the agreement creates a North American
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rainforest heritage \"that can be held up to the world as a model for resolving environmental conflict\".
However, the joy the environmentalists felt at the signing of the agreement with the Premier of British Columbia has given way to caution following provincial elections in May, when the conservative Liberal Party swept to power. \"We would expect the new Government to fully implement a deal that had such a high level of consensus from such diverse interests,\" says the Greenpeace spokesman. \"The bottom line, though, is that we don't know their full intentions.\"
Barbara Kravitz, a 72-year-old great-grandmother who was jailed last year for protesting against the cutting of trees in the Great Bear Rainforest, is more pessimistic. \"The Great Bear Rainforest is just one forest in British Columbia that has been saved while other old-growth forests are still being clear-cut,\" says Kravitz. \"The new provincial government is no friend of the rainforests, so I predict there's going to be more war in the woods. I fear that I may have to spend the rest of my life in jail.\"
Meanwhile, the environmental group's success has given a much needed boost to Greenpeace's Ancient Forests Campaign (绿色和平组织发起的古森林保护运动), which aims to save the remaining forests in the Amazon Basin, Africa, and the Russian Far East. \"Timber companies are destroying ancient forests around the world and their customers should take note of what has happened here in British Columbia,\" says a representative of Greenpeace International. \"We will be strengthening our campaign to target governments and companies who fail to protect the world's remaining ancient forests.\" (Words: 1,009)
保护大熊雨林
今年4月，加拿大环境保护团体和加拿大木材业达成了一项历史性的协议，它将确保加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省受到威胁的西海岸大熊雨林的长期安全。 协议承诺将结束加拿大历史上长达近20年的最激烈的有关环境问题的争议。
这一协议经过了与美国本土团体、木材公司、工会以及地方社区组织间的激烈谈判。根据有关协议条款，20条河流流域将受到永久的保护，另外6河流流域将推迟树木的砍伐。 此外，木材工业还承诺要更加注意生态保护，审慎地采伐树木。 一位绿色和平组织发言人称赞说：\"这是加拿大雨林保护迈出的一大步。\"
大熊雨林的得名与该地区大熊分布密集有关，其范围从温哥华向北直到美国阿拉斯加州界，是地球上除热带之外现存的最大雨林地区。 大熊雨林自大约15,000年前的最后一次冰河期，一直无人问津，直至今天，外界对它也知之甚少。由于它那以峭谷、雪峰为特征的野外地形，人们认为它基本上不可能靠近。
森林是稀有植物、鸟类、哺乳动物的天然百宝箱。科技工作者不断发现森林生物的多样性和它们之间的复杂生态关系。 例如，最近发现这一地区生活着一个数目很大的狼群。 研究人员还发现，个别雨林峡谷地区内的特有昆虫种类多达10,000种，其中大多数是科学界尚不知道的种类。
所有发现中最令人吃惊的或许要数对鲑鱼重要性的认识了，这种鱼类为整个雨林生态系统提供了肥料。 研究显示，在鲑鱼繁殖的季节，每头熊要携带多达700条鲑鱼进入雨林，每条鱼仅吃掉一半就放弃了。 腐烂的鱼体为生态系统提供了大量的至关重要的肥料来源。 人们较熟悉的雨林独有的生物多样性例子之一是斯皮瑞特熊。这是一种稀有的全身白化的黑熊，生活在大熊雨林中偏僻的地带。 虽然斯皮瑞特熊通常是黑色的，但也有一些熊一生下来就全身白毛。 据当地人介绍，最后一次冰河期的冰雪退去时，创世者把这种熊留作一种纪念物，提醒人们雨林曾是冰雪覆盖的白色世界。
在不列颠哥伦比亚省的雨林中有近1,000只黑熊，而斯皮瑞特熊只有约400只。 它们主要生活在温哥华以北大约300英里的两个遥远的岛屿上，这两个岛构成了拟建的斯皮瑞特熊
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公园的中心。
在全球性的保护大熊雨林免遭砍伐毁灭的运动中，斯皮瑞特熊的形象被世界各地环境保护组织大力采用。 这一运动成功的关键是对加拿大森林产品公司造成的市场压力，这些公司过去一直在大熊雨林采伐木材。 保护环境的提倡者把目标对准这些公司，通过在全球各地发动一系列旗帜鲜明的行动，奉劝消费者停止购买从不列颠哥伦比亚省雨林砍伐的木材。 在抵制这一协议多年之后，木材公司最终同意对这一地区予以保护。
这一突破在很大程度上归因于这些公司销售额的损失，因为数十家美国、欧洲和日本主要的木材购买商表示坚决支持对雨林的保护和负责任的树木采伐计划。 很多公司明确表示他们不再从在大熊雨林山谷作业的公司那里购买森林产品了。
经过这一努力，环境保护组织取得了重大的胜利。 一家森林产品公司负责公共事务和对外交流的主任坦言：\"我们承受了很大的压力，而且我们一直急于找到一种解决这一问题的方法。\" 不幸的是，有两家公司依然拒绝接受这一协议，迫使绿色和平组织发动抵制他们的运动。 除了把目标对准森林产品的买主外，绿色和平组织现正在对这两家公司的投资者施加压力。
在环境保护组织的眼中，这一协议带来的效果之一是，不列颠哥伦比亚省自那以后有了极为迅速的变化。 一个环境保护小组的发言人说：\"不列颠哥伦比亚省的国际形象一夜之间发生了变化，从环保罪人一跃成了环保英雄。\" 他还补充说，这份协议创造了一份北美雨林遗产，\"这一遗产为解决世界环境冲突树立了典范。\"
然而，环境保护主义者在与不列颠哥伦比亚省签署协议时所感受到的那份喜悦不久就被5月份进行的竞选后的谨慎心理所取代了。在这次选举中保守的自由党大获全胜。 \"我们期待新全面贯彻这一协议，因为这一协议的达成体现了高度的共识，符合多方面的利益，\" 一位绿色和平运动发言人说。 \"虽然现在的主要问题是我们尚不知道他们的整个意图。\"
72岁的芭芭拉·克拉维茨的态度比较悲观——她已当曾祖母了，去年因为在大熊雨林砍伐树木被关进监狱。 \"大熊雨林只是不列颠哥伦比亚省中被拯救下来的森林中的一个，而其他一些古老森林正在被砍伐一空，\" 克拉维茨说。 \"新一届省不是雨林的朋友，因此，我预言在森林中会爆发更多的冲突。 我怕我的余生得在监狱里度过了。\"
与此同时，环境保护组织的成功对绿色和平组织发起的古森林保护运动起到了必要的推动作用，该运动旨在挽救亚马孙河流域、非洲和俄罗斯远东地区现存的森林。 \"木材公司正在破坏全世界的古森林，他们的顾客应记住在不列颠哥伦比亚省所发生的一切，\"一位国际绿色和平组织的代表说。 \"我们将加强我们的运动，将目标瞄准那些不能自觉保护地球上现存古森林的和公司。\"
Unit 4
Section A An Encounter with Wolves
One spring morning many years ago, I had been prospecting for gold in southern Alaska, and as I emerged from a forest, I froze in my tracks. No more than 20 paces away in a flat marshy area was a huge, black Alaska timber wolf — caught in one of Old George's traps. Old George had died the previous week of a heart attack, so the wolf was lucky I had happened along.
Yet now, confused and frightened at my approach, the wolf backed away, straining at the trap chain. Then I noticed something else: it was a female, and she was full of milk. Somewhere, there was a batch of hungry babies waiting for their mother. From her appearance, I guessed that she had been trapped only a few days. That meant her babies were probably still alive, surely no more than a few miles away. But I suspected that if I tried to release the wolf, she would turn aggressive and try
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to tear me to pieces. So I decided to search for her pups and began to look for incoming tracks that might lead me to her nest.
Fortunately, there were still a few remaining patches of snow. After several moments, I spotted paw marks on a trail skirting the marsh. The tracks led a half-mile through the forest, then up a rock-filled slope. I finally spotted a hole at the base of an enormous tree stump. There wasn't a sound inside. Wolf pups are shy and timid, and I didn't have much hope of luring them outside. But I had to try. So I began imitating the high-pitched sound of a mother wolf calling her young. No response. A few moments later, after I tried another call, four tiny baby wolves appeared. They couldn't have been more than a few weeks old.
I extended my hands, and they tentatively sucked at my fingers; perhaps hunger had helped overcome their natural fear. I placed them in a cloth bag, and headed back down the slope. When the mother wolf spotted me, she stood erect. Possibly picking up the scent of her young, she let out a high-pitched, miserable howl. I released the babies and they darted towards her; within seconds, they were sucking at her belly.
What next? I wondered. The mother wolf was clearly suffering. Yet each time I moved in her direction, a menacing sound rose from her throat. With her young to protect, she was becoming aggressive. She needs food, I thought. I have to find her something to eat. I hiked towards a creek, and spotted the leg of a winter-killed deer sticking out of the snow. I cut off a piece, then returned the still edible remains to nature's icebox. Hoisting the meat, I went back to the wolf and whispered to her in a gentle tone, \"Okay, mother, your dinner is served. But only if you stop glaring at me...\" I tossed chunks of deer meat in her direction. She sniffed them, then started feasting. Cutting some sturdy tree branches, I fashioned a rough shelter for myself and was soon asleep.
At dawn I was awakened by four cute bundles of fur sniffing at my face and hands. I glanced toward the nervous mother wolf. If I could only win her confidence, I thought. It was her only hope. Over the next few days, I divided my time between prospecting and trying to win the wolf's trust. At dusk on the fifth day, I delivered her daily fare of deer meat. \"You want to go back to your friends on the mountain. Relax.\"
Then I thought I saw a slight movement of her tail. I moved within the length of her chain. She didn't move. My heart in my mouth, I sat down eight feet from her. One snap of her huge muscular jaws and she could break my arm, or my neck. Then I slowly placed my hand on the wolf's injured leg. She jumped back, but made no threatening move. I could see that the trap's steel jaws had caught only two toes. They were swollen and bleeding, but she would not lose the foot — if I could free her. I wedged a stick between the jaws of the trap and applied pressure; the slot between the two jaws of the trap became wider, and the wolf pulled free.
My experience in the wild suggested the wolf would now gather her pups and vanish into the woods. But cautiously, she crept toward me. Slowly, she sniffed my hands and arms. Then the wolf began licking my fingers. What a thrill! This went against everything I'd ever heard about timber wolves. Yet, in a bizarre way, it all seemed so natural. After a while, with her babies darting around her, the mother wolf was ready to leave and began to limp off toward the forest. Then she turned back to me. \"You want me to come with you, girl?\" I asked. Curious, I packed my gear, and set off. Following the creek for a few miles, we ascended a mountain until we reached a meadow. There I counted nine adult wolves and, judging by their playful behavior, four nearly full-grown juveniles. After a few minutes of greeting, the wolf clan broke into howling. It was a queer sound, ranging from low moaning to high-pitched crying. That night, by the light of my fire and a luminous moon, I could see wolf shapes darting in and out of the shadows in a kind of strange ballet, eyes shining. I had no fear. They were merely curious. So was I. I awoke at first light; it was time to leave. The wolves watched as I assembled my gear and started walking across the meadow.
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Reaching the far side, I looked back. The mother, with her babies at her flank, was sitting where I had left her, watching me. I don't know why, but I waved. At the same time, the mother wolf sent a long howl into the crisp air. (Words: 1,007)
与狼相处
多年前一个春天的上午，我在阿拉斯加南部探寻金矿。当我走出一片森林时，突然站住不敢动了。 距我不到20步远的一块平坦的沼泽地里有一只体形高大的阿拉斯加黑狼——它被老乔治安置的一个捕捉夹给夹住了。 老乔治上周死于心脏病发作，碰巧我从这儿路过，这头大黑狼算是够走运的了。
可这时，狼见我来了又是困惑又是恐惧，拖着捕捉夹的链子往后退。 这时，我注意到另一情况：这是只母狼，乳房鼓鼓的充满奶水。 在别的什么地方一定有一窝饥饿的小狼正等候着它们的妈妈。 从它的外表看来，它被夹住没几天。 这也就是说小狼崽可能还活着，肯定在不到几英里远的地方。 可是我想，要是我设法把这只狼放了，它肯定会转而攻击我，将我撕成碎片。 于是我决定还是先去找它的小狼崽，并开始寻找它进来的足迹，顺着足迹或许我能找到它的老窝。
好在路面还残留着一些积雪。 过了一会儿，我在沼泽地边缘的一条小路上发现了爪印。 爪印穿过森林有半英里路，然后上了一个布满岩石的斜坡。 最后我在一棵巨树的根部发现了一处洞穴。 里面悄然无声。小狼生性胆怯，对于把它们诱出洞来，我不抱多大希望。 但是我得试试。于是我开始模仿母狼召唤自己孩子的尖叫声。 里面毫无反应。过了一会儿，我又试着叫唤一次，四只极小的狼崽出来了。 它们大概刚出生不过几星期。 我伸出双手，它们试探性地吮吸我的手指。或许饥饿帮助它们克服了那天性的恐惧吧！ 我把它们一个一个放进布袋中，转身走下了斜坡。 母狼发现了我，直直地站了起来。 它大概是闻出了幼崽的气味，发出一声尖锐、哀伤的嗥叫。 我放出布袋中的小狼，它们径直奔向母狼。片刻之间，就在它肚子上吮吸起来。
下一步怎么办？我不知如何是好。母狼显然很痛苦。 然而我每次朝它走去时，它喉咙里就响起威胁的咆哮声。 由于要保护自己的孩子，它变得好斗了。 我想，它需要食物。 我必须给它找点东西吃。 我朝一条小河走去，发现了一只冻死的鹿，一条腿露在雪堆外。 我砍下一块肉，然后把还能食用的部分放回天然冰箱里。 我手提着鹿肉，回到了狼呆的地方，用温柔的语调轻声说，\"好了，妈妈，开饭了。 但愿你别对我怒目而视……\"我把一块块鹿肉向它扔过去。 它嗅了嗅，然后开始大口吞咽起来。 我砍了一些大的树枝，为自己搭了一个简陋的棚子，然后很快就睡着了。
黎明时分，我被四个可爱的毛团弄醒了，它们在我脸上和手上嗅来嗅去。 我朝那焦虑不安的母狼看了看。 我想，但愿能赢得它的信任。这是它得救的惟一希望。 在随后的几天里，我的一部分时间用于找矿，另一部分时间用于取得那只母狼的信任。 第五天傍晚，我照例抛给它每天一餐的鹿肉伙食。 \"知道你想回到山里的朋友那里。别紧张。\" 这时我似乎看见它的尾巴轻轻摆动了一下。 于是我走进那条链子的长度以内。它一动不动。我在离它八英尺处坐了下来，心提到了嗓子眼。 只要它强健的大嘴猛地咬我一口，就能咬断我的胳膊，或咬断我的脖子。 接着，我慢慢把手放在母狼的伤腿上。 它身子往后一缩，但没有做出威胁的举动。 我能看出捕捉夹的钢齿只夹住了它两个脚趾，已经肿起，流着血。如果我放了它的话，它还不至于丧失这只脚爪。 我把一根木棍塞进捕捉夹的钢齿中使劲撬；上下钢齿之间的槽变宽，母狼把腿抽了出来。
野外的生活经验告诉我，此刻母狼会带上小狼一起消失在树林中。 但是它却谨慎地慢慢朝我走过来。 它慢慢地嗅我的手和臂， 然后又开始舔我的手指。多么激动人心呀！ 这情形同我曾听说过的所有有关狼的说法大相径庭。 然而，在目前这种特殊环境下，这一切看起来完全顺理成章。 过了一会儿，母狼带着几只活蹦乱跳的小狼准备离开了，它开始一跛一跛地朝森林走去。 过了一会儿，它转身朝我看了看。\"姑娘，你想要我跟你们一起走吗？\"我问。
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出于好奇，我收拾好我的行头，随它们动身了。
沿着河走了几英里，我们登上了一座山头，一直来到了一片草地。 在那里我数了数，共有九只成年狼，从嬉戏顽皮的动作来看，还有四只近乎成年的幼狼。 母狼受到几分钟欢迎之后，狼群便大声嗥叫起来。 那是一种奇异的声音，有的是低沉的哀鸣，有的是高声的尖叫。 那一晚，借着我的篝火和融融的月光，我看见一只只狼影在黑暗中时隐时现，好像跳着一种奇怪的芭蕾舞，两只眼闪闪发光。 我并不害怕。它们只是好奇，我也一样。 曙光初现时，我醒了。该是我离开的时候了。 狼群看着我收拾好东西，起身穿过草地。 到了草地的另一头，我回过头来。 只见母狼和几只幼崽蹲在我离开它们的地方注视着我。 我下意识地朝它们挥了挥手。 与此同时，母狼冲着清澈的天空发出一声长长的嚎叫。
Section B From One Extreme to the Other
When the burning hot crust of the salt flat began to break under my boots, I knew I was approaching the lowest point in America. Death Valley is 140 miles long, five to 15 miles wide and, in the center, 282 feet below sea level. It was two in the morning, and we had been walking for hours. Below the dry salt was a layer of mud, heavy with the foul smell of sulfur. With every step, the sharp crust scraped our legs and then rubbed salt into our wounds.
We had made a pact to go from one extreme to the other, to walk from the bottom to the top of America. Since there was no place to sit without taking a hot mud bath, we pushed on, hoping to reach our first camp before sunrise brought with it the power of the blazing sun. Just before dawn, we found the supply of water and food that we'd buried at the foot of the mountains. Nearby lay the skeleton of a small animal that had strayed too far from shelter. We each drank about a quart of water, snacked on some peanuts and pitched our tents.
Inside the tent the thermometer registered 128oF; outside, 113. It did not make sense. I laid the thermometer on the ground, and the mercury went to 150 degrees — the highest it could go. We had underestimated just how hot dirt and sand can get under the sun. It felt as if the ground were on fire; the humidity must have been nil. We did not know it, but temperatures surpassing 200 degrees had been recorded on the valley floor. Instead of protecting us from the 113-degree heat, the tents were concentrating the heat radiating from the ground as well as the sun's rays, baking us alive.
By nine that night some of the heat had dissipated and it was finally cool enough to walk again. Neither of us had really slept for 40 hours. Worse, we had laid our boots, caked with muddy salt, on the ground to dry. The hot ground had baked them into weird shapes. Each seemed to weigh 20 pounds.
Our next water container was only five miles away by a rough road. Unfortunately, there had been flash floods in that area, destroying all familiar features and making it impossible to find the water. This was serious. We were developing severe sores on our feet, but there was no stopping — finding the water was more important than the terrible pain. About 2:30 a.m. we stumbled on the water and food; we had been on the valley floor for 26 hours. My swollen feet felt as if I'd been walking across hot coals. My second pair of boots did not fit, not even a little bit.
We had made too many mistakes, and we were near the end of our endurance. In the distance, 17 miles away, we could see the lights of a town. We attended to our feet and discussed giving up. In our condition, with sores and 30-pound packs, we could probably make two miles an hour. It would take a gloomy 8.5 hours to walk to town just to surrender.
On the other hand, the next supply of food was eight miles away, at 2,300 feet in the mountains. With extra time to cover the climb, we judged the food to be over six hours away. It would hurt just as bad to give up as to push on, and it would be 15 degrees or so cooler at 2,300 feet. Still, if sores and fatigue kept us from reaching the rocks before noon, it could be fatal. We decided to gamble and headed for the high country.
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We were perhaps 1,500 feet up into the mountains, walking along bare terrain littered with brush and chunks of white quartz; we had miles to go before the rocks would rise above us and offer shade, but it was only two hours until sunrise. Neither of us could survive another day stranded under a heat-reflecting blanket. An hour and a half later the sky suddenly burst into flame above the rim of mountains, flooding the valley floor with a light the color of blood. It was still cool — perhaps 85 degrees — but within hours the temperature would rise to 120. For the first time in my life, I was terrified by a beautiful sunrise.
In the rocks above the bare slope, we found a narrow valley — and shade. Finally we could rest. We shared the valley with a small bird feeding on a lovely bush with red flowers and large thorns. I suddenly loved Death Valley — it slammed you from one extreme to the other. My heart seemed to expand inside my chest, and I could feel tears welling up.
We slept for 12 hours, ate at nine that night, and then slept until six the next morning. Our swollen feet were better, and we could swap our muddy boots for our clean extra boots. I felt like skipping. By noon that day we reached an abandoned zinc mine where we had hidden more water. We were going to make it.
It was easier, now, to walk during the day and sleep in the cool of the evening. The next day, climbing another range of mountains, we came upon an intermittent creek running down a small valley, with grass and clusters of trees — actual trees — along its banks. Ahead, water flowed over large rocks that had formed a natural dam.
The next day we made 20 miles; the day after that, almost 30 — we were practically jogging. In the middle of the following day, we began to climb up Mount Whitney. We reached the snow-covered summit in a day and a half. As we stood at the highest point in the United States (outside of Alaska) the world dropped away on all sides. Then I knew, really knew, that there is a way to get from one extreme to the other, from the valleys to the peaks. (Words:1,010)
从极限到极限
当灼热的盐田表层在我的靴子底下开始断裂时，我知道我已接近了美国的海拔最低点。 死亡谷有140英里长，5到15英里宽，中心地带低于海平面282英尺。 现在是凌晨两点，我们已经连续行走几个小时了。 在干燥的盐层底下是一层泥浆，散发出浓浓的难闻的硫磺味。 每走一步，锋利的盐岩壳便擦伤我们的腿，将盐粒揉进我们的伤口。
我们事先有个约定：就是要从一个极端走向另一个极端，从美国境内的最低谷地走向最高峰。 因为没有任何一个可以坐下来的地方，除非你不怕沾上一身滚烫的泥浆，我们只好艰难地往前走，希望能赶在日出之前到达我们的第一个宿营地，以避开太阳的火热威力。 恰好就在黎明前我们找到了事先埋在山脚下的食物和水。 附近有一具小动物的骨架，它可能是迷了路而没能走回棚圈。 我们每人喝了约一夸脱水，简单地吃了点花生，然后搭帐篷。 帐篷里的温度计显示华氏128度；而外面是113度。 不过，这并不说明什么问题。 我把温度计放在地上，水银柱一下就窜到了150 度——温度计的最高点。 我们对泥土和沙子在太阳底下究竟能热到什么程度估计不足。 整个地面感觉像是着了火一样；湿度肯定是零。 我们还不知道，有史以来谷地创纪录的温度曾超过200度。 帐篷不仅不能为我们遮挡113度的灼热，反倒把地面的热和太阳光的热集中起来，热上加热，等于是烤活人。
到了晚上9点，热气消散了一些，气温终于又凉爽得可以行走了。 我们两人都没真正睡够40小时。 而且更糟糕的是，我们把粘满盐浆的靴子放在地上好让它们晾干，结果炙热的地面把它们烘成奇形怪状，每只似乎都重达20英磅。
我们下一个藏水处离我们仅有约5英里的崎岖山路。 不幸的是，那个地区此前刚突发洪水，把所有的熟悉特征冲刷得干干净净，这样一来水也找不到了。 这一情况很严重。我们的脚走得生疼，可是却不敢停顿下来——找到水比疼痛更为重要。 大约在早上2：30，我们碰
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巧找到了水和食物；我们在峡谷中整整走了26个小时。 我一双肿脚感觉好像在灼热的碳上走过。 我的第二双靴子脚套不进去，根本没法穿。
我们犯了太多的错，现在已到了耐力的极限。 离我们约17英里远的地方，我们能看到城市的灯光。 我们一面护理双脚，一面商量着要不要放弃行进。 以我们的情况，脚上的肿疼再加上30磅重的背包，我们一小时也就只能走两英里。 这样得经过8个半小时有气无力的跋涉才能赶到那座城里，然后放弃整个旅行计划。
另一方面，下一个能得到食物的地方还有8英里远，在山上约2,300英尺高的地方。 爬山需要占用额外的时间，因此我们判断找到食物还有6个多小时的路程。 无论是放弃还是往前走都同样令人痛苦，而且在2,300英尺高的山上温度要低15度左右。 还有，如果脚疼和疲劳使得我们不能在中午前赶到的话，后果就非常严重了。 我们决定孤注一掷，继续朝山上走去。
沿着光秃秃的地形，我们大概往上爬了1,500英尺，沿途到处是散乱的灌木丛和一块块白色石英石。我们还要走好几里路才能抵达能给我们遮荫的高大岩石，但是这时离太阳升起只剩下两个小时了。 如果躲在传导热辐射的毯子下面，我们俩连一天也活不过去。 一个半小时之后，山顶上的天空突然迸放出光芒，给谷地笼罩上一层血红的色彩。 此时气温还不算高——大约华氏85度，但是不用几个小时，温度就会攀升到120度。 我平生第一次被美丽的日出吓得魂不附体。
在光秃秃的斜坡的岩石丛中，我们发现一个狭窄的峡谷——一处阴凉地。 我们终于可以休息一下了。 我们与一只小鸟一块儿分享这峡谷的阴凉，这只鸟生活在一个开满红花、长满长刺的漂亮灌木丛中。 我突然爱上了死亡谷——它把你无情地从一个极端推向另一个极端。 我的心似乎在胸腔里膨胀，我感到热泪盈眶。
我们睡了12个小时，晚上九点钟吃了饭，然后再一觉睡到第二天早上6点。 这时肿胀的脚好些了，这样一来，我们就可以扔掉粘满泥浆的靴子，换上一双干净的。 我感到一下子轻松了许多。 那天中午，我们抵达了一个废弃的锌矿，在那儿我们藏有更多的水。 这下我们胜利在望了。
现在的旅程就容易多了。我们日间行走，傍晚趁凉爽睡觉。 第二天，再爬了几座山，我们来到一条流入小峡谷的断断续续的溪流旁，溪流的两岸长满了野草和树丛——真正的树。 再往前，溪水流经几块大石头，形成了天然的水坝。
接下来的一天我们走了20英里；再往后，一天几乎走了30英里——我们差不多是在小跑了。 在接下来的那天中午，我们开始攀登惠特尼山。 我们用了一天半的时间爬上了积雪覆盖的峰顶。 当我们站到美国的最高点时（除阿拉斯加之外），整个世界在我们的周围沉降下去。 这时我才真正知道，有一条路可以从一个极端通向另一个极端，从峡谷通向顶峰。
Section C Fighting for Life
Shortly after three o'clock one August afternoon, Harvey Swanson picked up his passengers at a shopping mall and drove the Senior Bus, a ten-passenger van, out of town. Leaving the main road, he started the five-mile climb up the steep mountain road to the next town. Around four o'clock, Swanson dropped off his last passenger, an elderly woman. Lifting her two shopping bags, he followed her across the yard and stood at the foot of her front steps while she fussed with the door lock. Glancing up, he saw a large bees' nest under the edge of the roof. The nest was quiet, but Swanson remembered he had heard that bees can become more aggressive and their poison more potent toward the end of summer. He mentioned this to Mrs. Jones, who by now had opened the door.
\"Oh, they don't bother me,\" she said lightly. \"I go in and out all the time.\"
Cautiously, Swanson looked at the nest again — to see the bees coming straight at him. \"Hurry!\" he shouted to Mrs. Jones. \"Get in the house.\"
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She stepped quickly inside and closed the screen door. Swanson ran for the van. Too late: they were upon him. He dropped the bags, arms waving wildly. Just as he jumped aboard the van, the bees gave up the chase and returned to their nest. At least half a dozen bumps showed on his bare arm, and he felt more stings on his back and shoulders — like tiny fires.
\"The bags don't matter,\" Mrs. Jones called out to Swanson. \"You go get those stings looked after. Right now!\"
About a mile down the road, a hot sensation began at the back of Swanson's neck and spread forward toward his face. His heart began a crazy rhythm, and an intense anxiety took hold of him. Swanson knew that stings could cause fatal reactions in allergic (过敏性的) individuals. But he had been stung the previous summer and the after-effects soon passed. What Swanson didn't know was that it takes an initial sting to make an allergy-prone person become sensitive. The previous episode had turned his body into a time bomb waiting for the next sting to trigger an explosion.
Minutes later, still in rural hill country, miles from the nearest medical assistance, Swanson started to lose feeling in his lips. His tongue felt thick and heavy; his pulse was getting louder and more irregular; and there was a loud ringing in his ears. Most frightening, his throat was slowly closing off.
Swanson saw that he was driving too fast even for an empty country road and he thought ahead to the narrow downhill section with its tight curves. He reached for the radio to try to contact his office, but his speech could barely be understood. Reception was also poor that far out. He decided to try again when he reached the mountain road.
When he passed a house, Swanson thought of telephoning for help. But it would be a waste of precious time. Local rescue volunteers would have to cover the same ground he was now covering. He knew that a crack rescue squad was on 24-hour duty at the next small town. So his best chance was to make a run for it.
Swanson reached the road leading down the mountain and began the steep, five-mile trip down. His arm had swollen; red bumps were spreading so fast that he could watch them forming. Breathing was becoming more difficult. Swanson remembered what he had been taught during a first-aid course about allergic bee-sting reactions: large amounts of chemicals released by the body as it reacts to the invading poison can widen blood vessels and cause a sudden and dangerous drop in blood pressure, often resulting in shock and possibly death. \"Can I reach help before that happens?\" he worried.
Flying down the mountain, he saw the first of the seven turns coming up fast. Dizzy, weak, his concentration fading, he felt the van slide straight for the rail and the woods beyond. He turned the wheel toward the direction of the slide and felt the van straighten out, missing the rail by inches. The other curves came up in quick succession. He tried not to panic, tried to focus his brain on each sharp bend. He was almost through the last of them when he realized that his vision was narrowing to a small tunnel of clarity. He was also feeling sleepy and he was sure he was going into shock.
Swanson reached for the radio again. \"Alert fire station,\" he said, concentrating to form the words. \"Emergency. Bee sting. Severe. There in ten minutes.\" \"Okay,\" his office manager replied.
Hold on, Swanson thought. Fight. Keep your eyes open. Breathe. Don't black out.
Now the loss of feeling had spread to his face, and the tunnel vision was getting worse. The last mile down the hill would be the longest. When he glanced in the van's mirror, the face staring back was that of a stranger. The skin was red, the features swollen, the eyes nearly squeezed shut. At last he reached the foot of the mountain and headed for the fire station. Two firemen came running out of the building. Swanson crawled out of the van, took a few steps and collapsed, feeling
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their hands grab him before he hit the ground. \"You made it,\" he thought. \"You're going to be okay.\" At the hospital a doctor gave Swanson a large injection of an anti-allergy drug. Within minutes, he felt warmth flowing back into his body and feeling returning to his face and neck. His throat was opening up, and he felt a powerful wave of relief. And, suddenly, he realized how carefully our lives are balanced. How, without warning, death can intrude into the most simple of situations.
\"You're lucky,\" a nurse said. \"Lots of people don't come through that. You'd have gone into shock if they hadn't gotten you here when they did, and I don't think you'd be alive now.\" (Words:1,002)
生死较量
那是八月份的一个下午，三点刚过一点，哈维·斯旺森在一家商场载上乘客，然后就驾驶着专供老年人乘坐的车——一个能容纳10人的面包车——出了城。 离开大道之后，他把车开上了一条五英里长的很陡的坡道——这条山道通往另一座城市。 大约4点钟的时候，斯旺森把他的最后一位乘客——一个老太太——送到了目的地。 他拎起老太太的两个购物袋，跟着她穿过院子来到她的门阶前。 就在老太太摸索着掏钥匙开门的时候，斯旺森抬头一望，看见她房檐下的有一个大蜂巢。 蜂巢静悄悄的，但是斯旺森记得他曾听人说过，夏末季节的蜜蜂会变得凶狠好斗，而且毒性也更厉害。 他把这事告诉了琼斯夫人（也就是这位老太太），这时她已打开了门。
\"哦，它们不打扰我，\"她轻松地说。\"我一直进进出出，我们相安无事。\"
斯旺森小心地又看了一眼蜂巢——他看到蜂群直端端地朝他扑了过来。 \"快，快进屋，\"他朝琼斯夫人喊到。
琼斯夫人急忙进去把纱门关上。 斯旺森朝他的面包车跑去。 然而已经太晚了：蜂群已经扑了上来。 他丢下购物袋，发疯地挥舞着手臂。 他跳上车，蜜蜂停止了追逐，返回了蜂巢。 他手臂上至少有五六处被蜂叮了，而且他感觉到背上和肩头有更多叮伤，火辣辣地疼。 \"别理会那些袋子了，\"琼斯夫人朝他喊到，\"快去看医生。立刻就去！\"
开车行驶了大约一英里之后，斯旺森感到后脖颈上一阵火热，并逐渐向面部扩散。 心脏开始狂跳，他感到一阵剧烈的烦躁。 斯旺森知道蜜蜂的叮蜇对过敏的人会造成严重的反应。 但他一年前曾被蜂蜇过，不良反应很快就过去了。 但他不知道的是，第一次叮咬能让有过敏倾向的人变得极其敏感。 上一次的事件已经把他的身体变成了一枚定时，一旦再一次被蜇，就会全身爆发。
几分钟之后，斯旺森的小车仍然行驶在乡间的山路上，离最近的医疗点还有数英里，斯旺森的嘴唇开始失去知觉。 舌头感到又笨又重，脉搏跳动激烈而紊乱，耳朵里嗡嗡作响。 最令人恐惧的是，他的喉咙也慢慢闭合了。
斯旺森感觉到，即使是在乡下空无一人的大道上，他开得也算够快的了。他想到前面那些急转弯的狭窄的下坡路。 他伸手去够无线电话机，想与他的办公室联系，但是他说的话几乎谁也听不懂。 这么远的距离接收效果也很差。 他决定开上山路时再联系一次。 当斯旺森路经一所房屋时，他想到用打电话的方式求救。 但这样做无疑是浪费宝贵的时间。 当地的救护队也要走和他同样远的路程才能到达。 他知道在下一个小镇上有个一流的救护小分队，全天候24小时值班。 因此他最好的选择是早点儿赶到那里。
斯旺森把车开到了通往下山的道上，开始驶下那陡峭的、长达5英里的坡道。 他的手臂肿胀；红肿的地方向四周迅速扩散，其速度之快，连他自己都看得见红肿的形成。 现在连呼吸也越发困难了。 斯旺森想起了他在有关蜜蜂蜇咬过敏反应急救课上所学到的东西：体内对来自外界的毒物反应时所排出来的大量的化学物质可能会造成血管扩张，使血压突然降低，十分危险，常常会导致休克，甚至可能死亡。 \"我能否在这种症状发生前得到救治？\"他焦虑地想。
他飞快地驶下山坡，猛然看到了7个陡弯中的第一个扑面而来。 由于眩晕、虚弱和注意
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力减退，他感到车子急速地朝旁边的栏杆和树林边滑去。 他急打方向盘将车往坡面引，只感到面包车车身一甩，差几寸没撞上栏杆。
剩下的几个陡弯接二连三迎面而来。 他尽量沉着，尽量把注意力集中到急转弯上。 当他就要通过最后一个急弯时，突然发现视线已变成了一道狭窄的缝隙。 他感到昏昏欲睡，知道自己就要休克了。
斯旺森再次伸手去够无线电话机。 \"接消防站，\" 他说，努力想把字咬清楚。\"紧急情况。蜜蜂蜇伤。危急。只剩10分钟。\"
\"马上就来，\"他的办公室主任回答说。
坚持！斯旺森鼓励自己。挺住！把眼睁开！呼吸！不能昏过去！ 此刻麻木的感觉已扩散到面部，狭窄的视线也更加恶化。 下山的最后一英里显得无比漫长。 他照照车里的镜子，面对自己的是一张陌生的面孔。 皮肤通红，五官肿胀，眼睛几乎要闭上了。
终于，他的车开到了山脚下，驶往消防站。 两名消防队员立刻跑了出来。 斯旺森爬出了驾驶室，没走几步，就一下子瘫倒了，他感到在他倒地之前几只手扶住了他。 \"你成功了。你会没事的。\" 他这样想。
到了医院，一位大夫给他注射了一支大剂量的抗过敏药。 几分钟过去，他感到一阵暖流回到了身上，脸和脖子也开始有了感觉。 闭合的喉咙又张开了，他有了一种强烈的放松感。 突然之间，他认识到人类生命的平衡是多么精密。 在没有任何预警的情况下，死亡又是多么容易就闯入最寻常的情境中。
\"你真幸运，\"一位护士说道。\"好多人都没能过了这一关。 你来这里时已不省人事了。要不是他们及早把你送到这里来，你早就没命了。\"
Unit 5
Section A Revolution in Biology — and Society?
Dissolved in a test tube, the essence of life is a clear liquid. To the naked eye it bears a strong resemblance to water. But when it is stirred, the \"water\" turns out to be sticky and thick, clinging to a glass rod and forming long, hair-thin threads. \"You get the feeling this is really different stuff,\" says Dr. Francis Collins in his laboratory. Collins heads a gigantic effort to catalog the library of biological data locked in those threads, a challenge he compares with splitting the atom or going to the moon.
In his laboratory at a university in California, Dr.W.French Anderson looks at the same clear liquid and sees not a library but a drug factory. This scientist's goal, and his passion, is to find the wonder drugs hidden in that test tube. Someday, he says, doctors will simply diagnose their patients' illnesses, give them a prescription for the proper pieces of molecular thread, and send them home cured.
This thread of life, of course, is DNA, the spiral- staircase -shaped molecule found in the nuclei of cells. Scientists have known since 1952 that DNA is the basic stuff of genetics. They've known its chemical structure since 1953. They know that human DNA acts like a biological computer program that spells out the instructions for the synthesis of proteins, the basic building blocks of life.
But everything the scientists have accomplished during the past half-century is just a preface to the work in which Collins and a multitude of his colleagues are now immersed. Collins leads the Human Genome Project, a 15-year effort to compile the first detailed atlas of every detail in human DNA. Anderson, who pioneered the first successful human gene-therapy operations, is leading the campaign to put information about DNA to use as quickly as possible in the treatment and
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prevention of human diseases.
What they and other researchers are plotting is nothing less than a biological and medical revolution. Like Silicon Valley pirates tearing apart a computer chip to steal a competitor's secrets, genetic engineers are studying life's secrets and trying to use that knowledge to reverse the natural course of disease. DNA in their hands has become a drug, a substance of extraordinary potential that can treat not just symptoms or the diseases that cause them but also the flaws in DNA that make people susceptible to a disease.
And that's just the beginning. Notwithstanding all the frantic work being done, science is still far away from the creation of human perfection. Much more research is needed before gene therapy becomes commonplace, and many diseases will take decades to conquer, if they can be conquered at all.
In the interim, the most practical way to use the new technology will be in genetic testing. Doctors will be able to detect all sorts of flaws in DNA long before they can be fixed. In some cases this knowledge may lead to treatments that delay the onset of the disease or soften its effects. Someone with a genetic disposition to heart disease, for example, could ward off a latent heart attack by following a low-fat diet to prevent cholesterol from building up in his arteries. And if scientists determine that a vital protein is missing because the gene that was supposed to make it is faulty, they might be able to give the patient an artificial version of the protein. But in other instances, almost nothing can be done to stop the damage brought on by genetic defects.
This is the dilemma currently posed by the genetic revolution. Do people want to know about genetic defects that can't be corrected yet? Do they want a notation describing a genetic defect added to their permanent medical records? The danger for many people in whom a genetic disease has been diagnosed is that if they leave their job (and their health insurance), they may never get another. In one case, an insurance company discovered that the baby a client was carrying had the gene for a serious inherited spine disease. The company told her it would pay for an abortion, but that if she chose to have the child, it would not pay for any treatments. The woman had the child, and threatened to sue the company, forcing it to back down.
\"You're going to see things you won't believe,\" says a professor of health law. He thinks it is only a matter of time before someone sweeps up some of Bill Clinton's hair at the barber shop, runs a genetic scan on the DNA in the hair cells and publishes a list of diseases to which the former President is heir. Under current law, there is nothing Clinton or anyone else could do to stop it. This expert is worried that samples from routine blood tests on ordinary citizens could be screened and that the resultant genetic information might eventually find its way into the vast DNA data banks. To prevent misuse of this information, he has proposed a series of guidelines that would, among other things, preclude genetic data collected for one purpose being used for another.
There is already talk of a revolt against the notion that we are nothing more than our genes. The editor of the scientific journal Nature warns that the greatest drawback of the genome project may be what he calls the \"arrogant optimism\" that accompanies a rush of discoveries, leaving the impression that scientists know a lot more than they do. Studies claiming to have found genes for high IQ, for instance, have been refuted by many scientists. Many people, however, still accept as plausible the premise that complex phenomena are determined by our genes.
Even if there were a gene for, say, criminal activity, what would society do about it? One scientist points out that \"we already have a true genetic marker, which can be detected before birth, that is correlated with violence.\" The individuals with this gene, he says, are nine times as likely to get arrested and convicted for a violent act as people without the gene. (Words: 1,010)
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生物，也是社会？
如果将生命的精华溶解于试管中，它便是一种透明的液体。 用肉眼观察，它和水非常相像。 但将其搅拌后，这种\"水\"就会变得很黏稠，黏附在玻璃棒上，形成头发般粗细的长丝。 \"你会觉得这确实是一种不同的物质，\"弗朗西斯·柯林斯博士在他的实验室里说。 柯林斯领导着一个大型研究项目，目标是将锁定在这些细丝里的大量生物信息编目分类。他认为，其挑战性堪与分解原子或登月技术相比。
在加利福尼亚一所大学的实验室里，W．弗伦奇·安德森博士正注视着同样的透明液体。但在他看来，这些透明液体不是信息库，而是药物制造厂。 安德森的目标和强烈的愿望就是要发现隐藏在试管中的神奇药物。 他说，总有一天，医生要做的只不过是给病人诊断病情，开几根适合病人的分子丝作为处方，然后病人即可痊愈回家。
这种生命细丝当然就是脱氧核糖核酸(DNA)，即人们在细胞核中发现的螺旋梯状分子。 自1952年以来，科学家们就知道DNA是遗传学的基本物质。 1953年以后，他们又弄清楚了它的化学结构。 他们了解到，人类的DNA的作用犹如一个生物计算机程序，该程序向生命的基本成分蛋白质的合成发出指令。
但是，科学家们在过去半个世纪中所完成的一切只是柯林斯和他的大批同事现在所做工作的一个前奏。 柯林斯主持的\"人类基因组工程\"将用15年的时间编写出第一部详尽的人类DNA图谱。 安德森，这位成功完成人类基因疗法手术的开拓者，正领导着一场将DNA信息尽快应用到人类疾病治疗和预防的运动。
他们与其他研究人员的策划决不亚于一场生物学和医学。 就像硅谷剽窃者拆开电脑芯片窃取竞争对手的秘密一样，遗传工程学家正在破译生命的奥秘，并试图用这方面的知识来逆转疾病的自然过程。 DNA在他们手中成为一种药。这种药具有超凡的潜力，不仅能消除病症，治疗引发病症的疾病，而且还能矫正使人易染某种疾病的DNA缺陷。
而这还仅仅是个开端。 尽管人们正以极高的热情从事着各种研究，但是科学还远远不能创造出十全十美的人。 基因疗法尚需大量的研究工作才能得以普及，许多疾病如果真能被攻克，也需要几十年的功夫。
在此期间，对这项新技术的最切实可行的应用将是遗传检测。 医生将能够检测到各种DNA缺陷，但要修复它们，尚待时日。 在某些情况下，知道检测结果有助于延缓疾病的发作，或减轻疾病的后果。 例如，有心脏病遗传倾向的人，可以通过低脂饮食防止胆固醇在动脉中凝聚，从而避免潜在的心脏病发作。 如果科学家们发现一种制造关键性蛋白质的基因有缺陷，从而导致该蛋白质缺失，他们或许就能够给病人输入这种人造蛋白质。 但在其他情况下，人们对基因缺陷所引起的损害几乎完全为力。
这就是基因目前面临的窘境。 对于目前还无法修正的基因缺陷，人们还想了解吗？ 他们愿意在自己的常规病历卡中添加一条注释来描述他们身上的某种基因缺陷吗？ 对于许多被诊断患有遗传疾病的人来说，他们所面临的危险是，如果他们离开了自己的工作（以及他们的健康保险），他们可能再也找不到另一份工作了。 有这样一个实例：一家保险公司发现一名投保妇女怀的胎儿体内带有一种很严重的遗传脊椎病基因。 保险公司告诉她，如果她流产，他们将负担一切费用。但是，如果她选择要孩子的话，他们将不承担任何医疗费用。 这位女士生下了这个孩子，并威胁要起诉这家公司，迫使公司让步。
\"你将会看到一些难以置信的事，\"一位医疗法律教授说。 他认为迟早会有人在理发店里扫到比尔·克林顿的一些头发，对发丝细胞中的DNA进行基因组扫描，然后公布这位前总统可能继承的一系列遗传疾病。 按照现行法律，克林顿以及其他任何人都无法阻止这种行为。 这位专家担心，普通人的常规血液检查血样可能会被筛选甄别，由此获取的基因信息可能最终进入庞大的DNA数据库。 为了防止滥用基因信息，他提出了一系列准则，包括防止为某一目的而收集的基因数据被另作他用等等。
目前已经有说法，反对\"我们的一切皆由基因控制\"的观念。 科学期刊《自然》的编辑警告说，基因组工程的最大弊端也许就是他所说的随发现的激增而产生的\"傲慢的乐观\" ，给人
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的印象是科学家懂得很多，虽然事实并非如此。 例如，声称已找到高智商基因的研究已受到许多科学家的驳斥。 然而，许多人仍然肯定地接受基因决定复杂生理现象这一假设。 即使真有一种，比方说，能导致犯罪活动的基因，社会又能拿它怎么样呢？ 一位科学家指出：\"人类已经有了一种真正的与暴力相关联的基因标志，这种标志在出生之前就能探测到。\" 他说，带有这种基因类型的人因暴力行为而被捕和判罪的概率很可能是不带这种基因的人的9倍。
Section B The New Age of Genetic Engineering
Ready or not, the world is entering the age of genetic engineering. Altered environments and human-created life forms will be part of this new age. Plants may be transformed into miniature factories producing plastics, medicines, or perfumes. Animals may be given human genes to make their tissues compatible with humans, allowing animal hearts and other organs to be transplanted into critically ill people.
Scientists have cloned animals, and the cloning of humans may soon commence. Gene therapy research is exploring ways to treat various inherited syndromes. The transfer of genes between bacteria, plants, and animals provides opportunities for altering organisms and even creating new ones.
Many people believe we should rein in the use of genetic knowledge. They realize that they can be identified by their DNA, possibly compromising their personal privacy. In addition, genetic tests that reveal inherited diseases could prejudice employers against them.
For better or for worse, genetic engineering will affect the major environmental problems of our time: increasing population, pollution, and the rapid loss of biodiversity. It is crucially important that we take stock of this technology's probable effects on our planet's ecosystems.
We should also take a sober look at the effects of genetic engineering in the social and political realms. Because the agricultural and medical benefits of genetic engineering are expensive, poor individuals and poor nations will not be able to afford them — at least not for years to come. As a result, the economic gap between rich and poor is likely to widen. In addition, Third World leaders have sometimes vetoed the use of their plant and animal species in genetic research. Western companies want these species for genetic engineering projects and hope to obtain them with minimal expense; Third World leaders want to ensure that their people are fairly compensated if these species are used to produce something of value. Dangers to the Environment and to Humans
It's a possibility that could become a nightmare: A genetically engineered crop, say a new type of cucumber, might accidentally reproduce with a wild relative in an adjoining field — a weed. The new weed could inherit the genetically altered crop's ability to poison hungry insects and to withstand big doses of weed-killing chemicals. Insect-proof, hard-to-kill weeds would not be welcome in twenty-first-century agriculture!
As with the environment, genetic engineering of humans has the potential to be dangerous. Because of the dangers involved, work on gene therapy for humans is proceeding cautiously, but the prospective rewards of gene therapy are tremendous: we may be able to suppress or even prevent inherited disease. At present, gene therapy is being directed at the working cells in a human body that do not pass on genes to the next generation. Therapy someday will be directed at germ cells — sperm and egg cells — that do transmit genetic information to the next generation. Such therapy would remove, replace, alter, or inhibit the genes that cause inherited diseases; however, mistakes in such gene therapy could cause extreme mutations. This is an area of medical research in which
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work must proceed with great care. No errors can be tolerated.
When gene therapy has become a precise procedure, prospective parents will be faced with a wide range of possibilities. Of course, they will want to make sure that, at their offspring's embryo stage, gene therapists correct any problems due to faulty genes. Parents also may want the therapists to boost their children's IQ; add inches to their height; or endow them with superior athletic ability, curly hair, blue eyes, and a good complexion. The possibilities for genetic engineering are likely to be vast, but only for millionaire parents. The wealthy would surely have a monopoly on \"custom-designed babies\" , because creating a baby according to parents' specifications would be far too expensive for the remainder of Americans, or most people in other countries. Genetic Diversity Must Be Maintained
Nature is never idle. Through random mutations, nature constantly tests new genetic models of organisms. Most of the time the mutations are not beneficial and the organism dies. If the environment changes, however, new models that possess appropriate genes for survival will replace the standard models. One veteran wheat breeder tells me \"nature does most of the work\" when new strains of wheat undergo testing. If a strain under study remains vigorous despite elevated temperatures or drought, or disease problems in adjacent plots, it may be a winner — always subject to further diligent testing.
Plant breeders recognize the danger of reducing a crop's gene pool and want to maintain the genetic variety the plants may need to meet future adverse conditions. For example, in 1970 a new type of corn parasite swept through corn fields in the United States. At the time, almost all common corn varieties were closely related, and virtually all were susceptible to the new parasite. If the corn varieties had been more genetically diverse, the corn problem might not have become an epidemic. In wild areas, a diversity of life forms interact with each other in complex ways to create a healthy ecosystem, but people and other ecological hazards can disrupt this natural biodiversity. Nature's inventory of life forms is decreasing, although the decline can't be exactly quantified. For instance, tropical forests near the equator are the habitat for about half of the Earth's biological species — and each minute of every day 100 acres of this habitat disappears.
Scientists find valuable genetic material in unlikely places. An unusual bacterium, discovered in a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, played a vital role in developing a process to synthesize DNA. The bacteria can grow at 86oC, a temperature at which other bacteria are killed. A heat-resistant protein produced by the bacteria made it possible to duplicate DNA molecules in large numbers.
The retention of genetic diversity everywhere in the world is in our interest; genetic material from a rare bamboo in a remote location might someday provide a crucial therapy. Protecting only a particular species would not be useful: species exist in ecosystems, and their survival depends on ecosystem conservation. (Words: 1,002)
遗传工程的新时代
不管你是否已做好准备，世界正在迈进遗传工程时代。 经过改变的环境和人工创造的生命形式将成为新时代的一部分。 植物可能被改造成生产塑料、药品或香水的微型工厂。 动物体内可能被植入人类的基因使其肌体组织与人类相容，从而可以将动物心脏和其他器官移植给生命垂危的病人。
科学家已克隆出动物，而对人类的克隆可能不久就会开始。 基因疗法研究正在探索治疗种种遗传综合征的方法。 基因在细菌、植物、动物之间的转换为改变机体、甚至创造新的机体提供了机会。
许多人认为我们应该控制对遗传知识的使用。 他们认识到通过DNA可以鉴定他们的身
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份，他们的个人隐私可能受到威胁。 此外，由于基因检验可以发现遗传疾病，所以它可能会导致雇主对他们产生偏见。
无论是祸是福，遗传工程将影响我们时代的主要环境问题：人口增加、污染加剧、生物多样性迅速丧失。 仔细掂量这一技术对地球的生态系统可能造成的影响，对我们来说是至关紧要的。
我们也应该冷静地看一看遗传工程在社会和政治领域中的影响。 由于遗传工程在农业和医学上的好处代价十分昂贵，所以穷人和穷国将担负不起这种开销——至少在未来数年中不行。 其结果是之间的经济差距很可能会扩大。 还有，第三世界国家的领导人有时候拒绝将他们的动植物物种用于遗传学研究。 西方国家的公司需要这些物种，以便开展遗传工程项目，他们希望以最低的费用获得它们；第三世界国家的领导人希望，如果这些物种被用来创造有价值的东西，那么他们的人民应得到相应的补偿。 对环境和人类的危险
这样一种可能性可能会演变成为一场噩梦： 一种经过遗传工程培育的作物，譬如说一种新品种黄瓜，可能偶然会与一块相邻田地里的野生亲缘植物——杂草进行繁育。 新生的杂草有可能通过遗传获得改变了基因的作物的性能，毒死饥饿的昆虫，并能经受住大剂量的化学除草剂。 抗虫害、难根除的杂草将是21世纪农业中不受欢迎的东西！
如同环境方面的问题一样，人类遗传工程也具有潜在的危险。 由于有危险，基因疗法用于人类的尝试进展十分谨慎，但是基因疗法预期的回报却无比巨大： 我们将有可能抑制甚至防止遗传性疾病的发作。 目前，基因疗法是针对人体中的活性细胞，这种细胞不会把基因传给下一代。 终有一天基因治疗将针对胚细胞——精细胞和卵细胞——这两种细胞确实能把基因信息转移到下一代。 这种疗法将去除、替换、改变或抑制造成遗传疾病的基因。不过，这样的基因疗法一旦出错，可能会造成剧烈变异。 在这一医学研究领域，工作必须小心翼翼，不容出现丝毫差错。
当基因疗法成为一种精确的程序之后，即将为人父母者将面临各式各样的可能性。 当然，他们肯定想在婴儿处于胚胎阶段，基因治疗专家能纠正任何基因缺陷所造成的问题。 父母也肯定希望治疗专家提高孩子的智商，增加孩子身高，或使其具有优秀运动员的天赋，长一头卷发、一双蓝眼睛、一副漂亮的面容。 遗传工程的可能性可能是不可限量的，但它仅仅属于家资百万的父母。 有钱人肯定会垄断\"定制基因宝贝儿\"，因为对其余的美国人，或其他国家的大多数人来说，按父母的要求规格来定制一个婴儿实在是太昂贵了。 必须保持基因的多样性
大自然从来就没空闲过。 通过无规则的变异，大自然不断地检验着生物体的新的基因品种。 在大多数情况下这些变异是非良性的，于是便有生物体死掉。 然而，如果环境发生变化，拥有适合生存的基因的新品种将取代标准品种。 一名经验丰富的小麦育种员告诉我说，在进行小麦新品系的试验中，\"大自然起了大部分作用\"。 如果被研究的品系不管高温还是干旱，或者是在邻近的田地存在病害的情况下，都能保持勃勃生机，那么它可能就是优胜者——往往会受到进一步的严格试验。
植物育种员清楚地认识到缩小农作物基因库规模的危险，他们希望保持植物适应未来不利环境所必需的基因多样性。 例如，1970年一种新的玉米寄生虫席卷了美国所有的玉米田。 当时，几乎所有的普通玉米品种都受到牵连，实际上全都受到了这种新寄生虫的危害。 如果玉米品种在此之前具有多样化的基因，这场虫害就不会大肆蔓延开来。
在野外，多种多样的生命形式以各种复杂方法相互作用，形成一个健康的生态系统，但是人和其他生态灾难可能会破坏这种天然的生物多样性。 自然界的生命形式在减少，尽管这种减少不能确切地量化。 例如，赤道附近的热带森林是地球上大约半数生物的栖息地——这块栖息地每天却以每分钟100英亩的速度消失。
科学家在一些意想不到的地方找到有价值的基因物质。 在黄石国家公园的一眼温泉中发现的一种不寻常的细菌，在研制合成DNA程序的过程中起到了至关重要的作用。 这种细菌能在摄氏86度的温度下生存——其他细菌在这样的温度下会死掉。 由这种细菌生产的一种
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耐高温的蛋白质能够大量地复制DNA分子。
在世界各地保持基因的多样性是对我们有利的；边远地区出产的一种稀有竹子，其基因物质将来有一天可能为我们提供一种重要的疗法。 仅仅保护某一物种是没有用的：物种存在于生态系统中，它们的生存依赖于生态系统的保持。
Section C Understanding the Genome Is Only the Beginning
The race to sequence the human genome has received so much public attention that people forget it's only the first leg of a much longer journey, according to leading scientists.
The next step is to figure out what all the newly discovered genes actually do, says J. Craig Venter, who announced in June that his company had finished sequencing the human genome. He estimates that 60% of those human genes \"are of unknown function. We're still in the very early stages of this science.\"
\"If determining the gene sequence is a hundred-yard dash, then interpreting it is a cross-country run,\" says another genetics expert, who worked with Venter to sequence and publish the entire fruit fly genome in 1999.
To give an idea of the amount of data scientists must sort through and analyze, Venter explains that if the fruit fly genome — all the genetic instructions for making a fly — were printed out on paper, it would take up 27,000 pages, \"but the human genome is 20 times larger.\" Digging Deeper, from Genes to Proteins
To understand the roughly 100,000 genes in the human genome, researchers say they must investigate an even more complicated set of molecules — proteins. Genes are the basic instructions for making proteins, and the \"sequence\" of a gene — its structure — determines the kind of protein it makes. Some proteins become building blocks for structural parts of the cell. Other proteins become molecular \"machines\" that carry out the multitude of activities necessary to keep the cell and the body working properly.
With an understanding of human proteins, scientists will be able to fight diseases on many fronts. For example, scientists in Denmark have isolated a protein that may fight diabetes (糖尿病). Diabetes seems to be caused when crucial cells are accidentally killed by the body's immune system. The scientists spent years analyzing the proteins present in diabetes-prone and diabetes-resistant cells, and they tentatively concluded that the newly discovered protein protects diabetes-prone cells from being attacked by the immune system. Preliminary animal tests, in which the gene for this protein has been inserted into diabetes-prone cells, seem to confirm this hypothesis.
Effective cancer drugs may also arise from a deeper understanding of genes and proteins, says Ken Croplin, president of one of the many companies working to devise new drugs based on genetic knowledge. Soon, scientists will be able to quickly and accurately compare cancer tissue with normal tissue to see which genes are \"switched on\" and making proteins (expressed) and which genes are not, he says.
\"If you found a gene that was highly expressed in lung cancer cells but not other tissues, you could guess that that gene was involved in lung cancer,\" according to Croplin. \"We would then try to develop in the lab a way to block the expression of that gene.\" One possibility would be a \"small molecule\" drug that would attach to the gene and shut it off, preventing that gene's protein from being produced.
Finally, drugs themselves will likely become safer and more effective because they will be tailored to an individual's genetic ability to process medicines, predicts another expert. In the future, a blood test could show how much of a particular drug-processing protein a person has, which would be a measurement of that person's ability to process a certain medicine. The doctor would
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then adjust the dose accordingly or prescribe a drug that is custom-designed for that person's genetic structure. This new technique should eliminate many of the drug side effects that result from our current, crude methods of determining the correct dose for a given patient. Genetic Information for All?
\"It will be 10 to 20 years before we have something like a complete knowledge of all the genes and their major functions,\" says Croplin.
However, some scientists already imagine a gigantic database（数据库）, accessible to everyone via the Internet, where scientists will publish not only the sequence of every gene but also the conclusions that have been reached about how particular genes and their proteins function in the human body.
\"The future is genetic information on databases, so people can do their own research,\" Venter says. \"The goal is to reach both physicians and individuals, and the Internet is allowing this. This will be extremely useful information for many people.\"
For example, explains Venter, if you know your genetic code, then research on a genetics database might reveal that you have a genetic tendency for certain diseases, perhaps skin cancer. With that knowledge, you can keep an eye out for symptoms, catch the cancer early if it appears, and correct it with a simple surgery.
\"My hope is that within 10 years every baby will have their complete genome sequenced and on a disk — or whatever data storage medium they're using then — before they leave the hospital,\" Venter says. Physicians could save time and perhaps even lives by consulting databases of genetic knowledge before they prescribe treatments, says Brent Greene, president of a genetic research company.
Greene has been studying the genetic component of throat cancer. He's learned that certain treatments, promising with other forms of cancer, will not work with this form of the disease. He intends to publish his findings on the Web so that doctors won't waste time with these ineffective treatments. (Other companies post some of their findings on the Web for free, but charge a fee for access to other information.) Venter and Greene agree that people with access to such Web-based, genetic databases could, with time and research, come to know more about a particular disease and cutting-edge（最前沿的）treatments than their physician.
Finally, at least one scientist is concerned that all the talk about scientists fighting disease might give people the wrong idea about their DNA. \"People have the perception that genes are full of diseases, but genes are the plans for a normal person,\" she says. Understanding genes ultimately means that \"we will know more about normal functioning,\" she says, \"we will enhance our knowledge about how the human body works.\" (Words: 1,001)
认识基因组仅仅是一个开端
根据顶级科学家的说法，为人类基因组排序的竞赛已受到公众太多的关注，以至于人们忘记了这仅仅是万里长征的第一步。
J. 克雷格·文特尔于6月宣布说他的公司已完成了人类基因组排序。他说，下一步要弄明白所有新近发现的基因究竟起什么作用。 他估计60%的人类基因\"其功能尚不得而知。 我们仍处于这门科学的起始阶段。\"
另一位遗传学专家与文特尔一道为果蝇的整个基因组排序，并于1999年公布了结果。他说：\"如果说确定基因序列是一场100码的短跑，那么解释基因序列就是一场越野赛。\" 为了描述科学家们必须分类和分析的数据量，文特尔解释说，如果果蝇基因组的排序——生成一只果蝇所需的所有基因指令——被印在纸上，将会长达27,000页，\"而人类基因组比果蝇的大20倍。\"
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深入探索：从基因到蛋白质
为了认识人类基因组中的大约10万个基因，研究人员说他们必须深入调查更复杂的分子组, 即蛋白质。 基因是制造蛋白质的基本指令，而一种基因的\"序列\"，也就是其结构，决定着所制造的蛋白质的种类。 有些蛋白质成为细胞构架的材料。 另一些蛋白质成为分子\"机器\"，开展大量必要的活动，以保持细胞和身体正常工作。
认识了人体蛋白质之后，科学家就能够从许多方面抗击疾病。 例如，丹麦科学家已分离出可对付糖尿病的蛋白质。 当一些起决定性作用的细胞偶然地被人体免疫系统杀死之后，人就会患糖尿病。 科学家们花费数年时间分析了容易患糖尿病和对糖尿病具有抵抗力这两种细胞里的蛋白质，得出了暂时结论，认为新近发现的蛋白质可以防止易患糖尿病的细胞受免疫系统的进攻。 初步的动物测试似乎证实了这种假设，在测试中，这种蛋白质基因被注入易患糖尿病的细胞中。
肯·克罗普林是一家利用遗传知识研制新药的公司总裁，他说，对基因和蛋白质的更深入的认识将有助于开发有效的治癌药物。 他说，科学家不久将能够迅速而准确地把癌变组织与正常组织进行比较，看看哪些基因已被\"打开\"并在合成蛋白质（基因在表型中产生有关性状），哪些基因未被打开。
按克罗普林的说法，\"如果你在肺癌细胞中找到一种表现出相关性状的基因，而在其他组织中找不到这种基因，那么你便可以猜想这种基因与肺癌有关\"。 \"然后我们就可以尝试在实验室里研究出一种方法来阻止这种基因性状的表现。\" 一种可能性是研制出一种\"小分子\"药，让它附着于基因并将其关闭，阻止该基因蛋白质的合成。
另外一位专家预言，最终药物本身将很有可能变得更加安全有效，因为医生将根据个体应对药物的基因能力来下药。 将来的血液检验可以显示出一个人有多少处理某一具体药物的蛋白质，这将衡量出此人接受某种药物的能力。 这样医生就可以据此调整剂量，或根据该患者的基因结构开出专门适用于他的处方。 这种新技术将会根除目前因确定药剂的方法粗陋而产生的许多药物副作用。 基因信息为全民服务？
\"我们将需要10年到20年才能获得关于所有基因及其主要功能的完整知识，\" 克罗普林说。
然而，一些科学家已在构思一个巨大的数据库，人人可以通过因特网进入，科学家将在网上发表每个基因的序列，而且还将发表对某些基因及其蛋白质如何在人体中发挥作用所得出的结论。
\"将来的情况是建立在数据库上的基因信息，因此人们能够做自主研究，\" 文特尔说。 \"其目标是供医生和病人共同使用，而因特网使这成为可能。 这对许多人来说，将是极为有用的信息。\"
譬如说，文特尔解释道，如果你知道自己的基因代码，那么借助于某个遗传学数据库所进行的研究便可以揭示你的某些疾病的基因趋势，或许是皮肤癌。 有了这样的了解，你就能密切注意其症状，一旦出现癌症症状，就能尽早发现，用简单的外科手术将其纠正。
\"我希望在10年之内，在婴儿离开医院之前，我们将能获得所有婴儿的完整基因组序列，并将其放入软盘——或那时人们所使用的无论什么数据存储媒介都行，\" 文特尔说。 医生可以节省时间，在开处方之前通过查看遗传知识数据库，甚至拯救病人的生命，一家基因研究公司的总裁布伦特·格林说。
格林一直在研究喉癌的基因成分。 他已发现，一些对其他癌症颇有疗效的方法对这种癌症可能不起作用。 他打算在网络上发表他的研究结果，这样，医生们就不必在这些低效的医疗方法上浪费时间。 (其他公司在网络上免费公布一些他们的研究结果，但是对其他一些信息则收取一定费用。) 文特尔和格林都认为，能够进入这类网络基因数据库的人，花点时间，做些研究，最终能比他们的医生懂得更多关于某一疾病和先进疗法的知识。
最后，至少有一位科学家对此问题感到不安。她认为，大谈特谈科学家们和疾病作斗争，可能会给人带来关于DNA的错误概念。 \"人们有这样一种误解，那就是基因充满了疾病，但
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其实基因是正常人的程序表，\"她说。 认识基因最终意味着 \"我们将了解更多的正常机能，\" 她说，\"我们将更多地知道人体是怎样工作的。\"
Unit 6
Section A Jeans: From Low Beginnings to High Fashion
A simple pair of pants may contain a multitude of meanings. In the 1850s, jeans were the unemotional, durable dress of those that came to California to labor in the gold fields. Seams were strengthened with metal pins to make them hold, a technology borrowed from the construction of horse blankets. Cloth for beasts of burden was translated to the needs of men of burden. These were the clothes of hard-laboring people, and these pants held little promise for the men who wore them, save the promise that they would be ready for the next day's labors.
During the same decade, in the court of one European queen, \"the gown worn by a fashionable lady in attendance contained 1,100 yards of material not including lace and other ornaments.\" American women of wealth were also wrapped in an abundance of cloth. While makers of jeans worried over how many men could be fitted into a given amount of cloth, for women of wealth the concern was with how many yards of cloth could be attractively arranged upon a given individual. This was the mark of prosperity: to wear enough material on one's back to clothe many of more modest means. The fashionable rich could not imagine themselves wearing the vulgar canvas pants of workers and \"peasants\". Neither could working-class people reasonably imagine themselves in the costumes of wealth and power. The only fashion link between them — subtle at best — was the stern top hat of wealthy capitalists, a coal-black cylinder symbolizing the factory chimney pipes that brought profit to one, hardship to the other. Blue jeans only signified labor and sweat.
Years later, the clothing of nineteenth-century laborers would assume new and different meanings. Humble beginnings became increasingly obscure within the unfolding of popular culture. In the movies, the horse riders of the early cattle industry were reborn as symbols of a noble, rural simplicity, and blue jeans became conspicuous within the landscape of the American media. On the screen these pants teased the imaginations of city folk, who longed for a simpler and less corrupt life. While laborers would continue to wear them at work, now the well-off might put on a pair at home or in the garden — an escape from the discipline of the business world.
In the 1950s, blue jeans became a statement by those who wished to boycott the values of a consumer-based society that was concerned only with acquisition. Blue-jeans-wearing rebels of popular movies were an expression of contempt towards the empty and obedient silence of Cold-War America; the positive images of American consumer society were under siege. What had been a piece of traditional American culture — blue jeans — became a rejection of traditional culture. These images found an eager audience among those for whom gray suits and formal dresses had been elevated as ideals of the age. In blue jeans, men and boys found relief from the priorities of the business world; women and girls found relief from the underlying harness required to fit into more formal wear. Even some among the middle class slipped into jeans for a sleepy afternoon on the porch.
By the mid-sixties, blue jeans were an essential part of the wardrobe of those with a commitment to social struggle. In the American Deep South, black farmers and grandchildren of slaves still segregated from whites, continued to wear jeans in their mid-nineteenth-century sense; but now they were joined by college students — black and white — in a battle to overturn deeply embedded race hatred. The clothes of the workers became a sacred bond between them. The
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clothing of toil came to signify the dignity of struggle.
In the student rebellion and the antiwar movement that followed, blue jeans and work shirts provided a contrast to the uniforms of the dominant culture. Jeans were the opposite of high fashion, the opposite of the suit or military uniform.
With the rise of the women's movement in the late 1960s, the political significance of dress became increasingly explicit. Rejecting orthodox sex roles, blue jeans were a woman's weapon against uncomfortable popular fashions and the view that women should be passive. This was the cloth of action; the cloth of labor became the badge of freedom.
If blue jeans were for rebels in the 1960s and early 1970s, by the 1980s they had become a foundation of fashion — available in a variety of colors, textures, fabrics, and fit. These simple pants have made the long journey \"from workers' clothes to cultural revolt to status symbol\".
On television, in magazine advertising, on the sides of buildings and buses, jeans call out to us. Their humble past is obscured; practical roots are incorporated into a new aesthetic. Jeans are now the universal symbol of the individual. They are the costume of liberated women, with a fit tight enough to restrict like the harness of old — but with the look of freedom and motion.
In blue jeans, fashion reveals itself as a complex world of history and change. Yet looking at fashions, in and of themselves, reveals situations that often defy understanding. Our ability to understand a specific fashion — the current one of jeans, for example — shows us that as we try to make sense of it, our confusion intensifies. It is a fashion whose very essence is contradiction and confusion.
To pursue the goal of understanding is to move beyond the actual cloth itself, toward the more general phenomenon of fashion and the world in which it has risen to importance. What events, what developments, what forces proceeded to make fashion a more important concern than function among increasing numbers of people? In what ways have fashion and society coincided, particularly in the context of changes in the structure, habits, and economy of the society?
Exploring the role of fashion within the social and political history of industrial America helps to reveal the parameters and possibilities of American society. The ultimate question is whether the development of images of rebellion into mass-produced fashions has actually resulted in social change.
(Words: 1,006)
牛仔裤：从劳工服到高级时装
一条普通的裤子可以包含许多层含义。 在19世纪50年代，牛仔裤属于毫无情感色彩的耐用服装，只有那些来加州淘金的人才穿。 裤缝是用金属别针加固过的，这样更结实。这种技术借用了马鞍鞍垫的制作法。 用来负重的动物身上的鞍垫布料变成了负重的人需要的东西。 这都是卖苦力的人穿的衣服，除了准备好第二天卖苦力的人以外，这些衣服对于着装的人来说就没有多大意义了。
就在同一个10年期间，在一位欧洲女王的宫廷里，\"一名穿着考究的侍女的一套礼服要用1,100码的布料做成，这还不包括花边和其他饰物。\" 那时美国有钱的女士也用大量的布料把自己裹起来。 牛仔裤的裁缝担心的是手中有限的布料能替多少劳工遮身裹体，而富家女子关心的是用多少码布料为自己量身定做才能展示出足够的魅力。 当时富贵的标志是：一个有钱人着装所用的布料足以为好几个普通人做衣服了。 时髦的富人很难想像自己会和工人和\"农民\"一样穿粗俗的帆布裤子。 劳动人民也别奢望穿上有钱有势的人才穿的高档服装。两类服装之间的联系微乎其微，惟一的联系就是戴在富有的资本家头上的威严高耸的大礼帽，乌黑的帽筒象征着给资本家带来利润、给劳工带来苦难的工厂烟囱。 蓝色牛仔裤仅象征劳动和
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汗水。
若干年后，19世纪的劳工服开始具有新的不同的意义。 随着通俗文化的不断发展，它卑贱的起源渐渐在演变中淡化。 在电影中，早期畜牧业界骑在马背上的牛仔获得重生，象征高贵而质朴的田园风情。蓝色牛仔裤则在美国媒体的画面里日益惹人注目。 在屏幕上，这些牛仔裤唤起城里人的想像力，他们渴望过上一种更简朴、不奢侈的生活。 劳动者继续穿牛仔裤上班，而富人呢，在家中或在花园里也身着牛仔裤——这让他们摆脱了生意场上的约束。 20世纪50年代，对于那些想否定只重视获取的消费者社会价值观的人们来说，蓝色牛仔裤就成了他们的一纸宣言书。 在大众化的电影中，身着蓝色牛仔裤的叛逆者表达了他们蔑视冷战时期美国无言的反应和逆来顺受的态度。 美国消费社会的一些正面形象受到围攻。 曾经作为美国传统文化一部分的蓝色牛仔裤却被传统文化抛弃了。 在那些曾经把灰西服和礼服奉为时代最理想的服装的人群中不乏牛仔裤的爱好者。 穿上蓝色的牛仔裤，男性不分老少都能从崇尚尊贵的商业气氛的压迫下解脱出来；女性不分长幼都能从正统着装的潜在压力中得到。 甚至一些中产阶级人士也会套上牛仔裤，在门廊里度过一个闲散的下午。
到60年代中期，蓝色牛仔裤已成为致力于社会斗争的人衣柜中的必备服装。 在美国的南方腹地，黑人农民和奴隶的后代仍然与白人隔离，他们所穿的牛仔裤仍保持着19世纪中叶的含义。 如今，大学生不分白人和黑人，都加入了他们的行列，为了推翻根深蒂固的种族仇视而斗争。 工装成为他们之间的神圣纽带。 劳工的衣服成为斗争尊严的象征。
在随后发生的学生反叛和反战的运动中，蓝色牛仔裤和工作服与主流文化中清一色的服装形成了对比。 牛仔裤与高级时装、西装和军服形成对立。
随着20世纪60年代后期妇女运动的兴起，服装的政治意义变得越来越明显。 为了抵制传统的性别歧视，蓝色牛仔裤成为女性的武器，用来抵制穿着不舒适的流行时装以及女性应该随大流的观念。 牛仔裤成为运动的衣服；劳动服成为自由的象征。
如果说蓝色牛仔裤在60年代和70年代初曾象征叛逆的话，那么到了80年代，它们已经成为时装的基础，而且颜色、质地、布料和尺码齐全。 这些朴素的裤子经历了\"从工装到文化叛逆使者、到社会地位象征\"的漫长历程。 在电视和杂志的广告中，在建筑物的围墙上，在公交车的侧面，牛仔裤在向我们呼唤。 它们卑微的过去已被淡忘；实用的渊源融入了新的审美理念。 现在，牛仔裤成为个人民主的普遍象征。 它们是了的妇女的服装，穿着束身，恰似旧时的束腰，但是看上去却使人觉得穿着随意、行动自如。
透过蓝色牛仔裤，复杂的时装界展示了它的历史和变迁。 然而，审视时装本身和相关的内容往往反映出一些令人费解的情形。 我们对某种时装的理解力（譬如说，这里讲到的牛仔裤）说明，我们越是想理解它，就越发感到迷惑不解。 时装的本质就是矛盾加费解。 要寻求理解不仅要考虑布料本身，而且要趋时顺势，因为世人重视这一点。 是哪些事件、哪些进展、哪些力量让越来越多的人更多地关心服装的时装感，而不是其功能呢？ 在社会结构、社会习惯、社会经济的变化的前提下，时装与社会在哪些方面相符相容？
在工业化美国的社会政治历史背景下探讨时装的作用，有助于揭示美国社会的特征和各种可能性。 最根本的问题在于，从叛逆形象发展成为大规模生产的时装是否真的引起了社会的变化。
Section B To Spend or Not to Spend
A week or so ago, a large sign appeared next to a Catholic chapel a few blocks from my home. It shows a giant dollar bill, so I thought it was going to be something about \"buy American goods,\" but when I got close enough to see the writing, it said, \"Buck the recession, spend a buck\". On what? It didn't say. Just get out there and buy. I found this deeply confusing. Wasn't our problem that we didn't save enough? (It certainly is my problem!) What are we supposed to do? Spend? Save? Spend and save?
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Here's another example that may be familiar to many of you: If I don't pay my credit card bill on time, I get one of those nasty messages from the credit card company saying, \"You miserable thief, pay up or die.\" As soon as I send in the check, another letter comes back saying, in prose designed to flatter, \"Ms. —, you are one of our most valued customers. How would you like us to increase your credit limit by $2,000?\" Well, which am I: valued customer or miserable thief? The paradox is that we get two sets of messages coming at us every day. One is the \"enjoy yourself\" message, saying, \"buy, spend, get it now, indulge yourself\your wants are also your needs — and you have plenty of needs that you don't even know about because our consumer culture hasn't told you about them yet! The other we could call, for lack of a better word, a \"discipline\" message, which says, \" work hard, save, postpone pleasure, curb your impulses. \" What are the psychological and social consequences of getting messages that so totally contradict each other? I think this is what you would call \"cognitive disagreement\and the psychological consequence is a deep anxiety, upon which political conservatives have been very skillful at mobilizing and building.
The \"discipline\" message comes to us from a variety of sources: from school, from church, often from parents, and every so often from political figures when they preach about \"traditional values\". Hard work, family loyalty, the capacity to wait for reward — these are supposed to be core American values that have existed since colonial times, the traits that made our country great.
But the \"enjoy yourself\" message, as I said, comes to us mostly in the form of advertising. Advertising is impossible to avoid; it is fed to us in a never-ending banquet, being served in dozens of forms and in more and more settings: · on TV, in movie theaters, and in movies themselves; · in the print media (including ads disguised as articles, which are so common in the fashion magazines); · over the phone; · and now there is even advertising in the schools.
Someone has calculated that by the time an American reaches the age of 40, he or she has been exposed to one million ads. Another estimate is that we have encountered more than 600,000 ads by the time we reach the age of only 18. Now, of course, we don't remember what exactly they said or even what the product was, but a composite message gets through: that you deserve the best, that you should have it now, and that it's okay to indulge yourself, because you deserve the compliments, sex appeal, or adventure you are going to get as a result of buying this car or those cigarettes.
Our consumer-based economy makes two absolutely reciprocal psychological demands on its members. On the one hand, you need the \"discipline\" values to ensure that people will be good workers and lead orderly, law-abiding lives. On the other hand, you need the \"enjoy yourself\" messages to get people to be good consumers. One author was disturbed about the \"enjoy yourself\" side, but acknowledged that \"without a means of stimulating mass consumption, the very structure of our business enterprise would collapse.\"
The interesting question has to do with the psychological consequences of the discrepancy between the dual messages. The \"discipline\" or \"traditional values\" theme demands that one compartment of the personality have a will strong enough to keep the individual doing unpleasant work at low wages, or to stay in an unhappy marriage, and, in general, to do things for the good of the commonwealth.
The \"enjoy yourself\" message, on the other hand, tends to encourage a very different kind of personality — one that is self-centered, based on impulse, and is unwilling to delay rewards. As an illustration, I can't resist reciting one of my favorite ads of all time, an ad from a psychology
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magazine. The caption says, in large type, \"I love me. I'm just a good friend to myself. And I like to do what makes me feel good. I used to sit around, putting things off till tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll drink champagne, and buy a set of pearls, and pick up that new stereo. But now I live my dreams today, not tomorrow.\"
So what happens to us as we take in these opposing messages, as we are, in fact, torn between the opposite personality types that our society seems to require of us? The result is anxiety, fear, and a mysterious dread. We want more things, we want to indulge ourselves, and not just because advertising tells us to — who wouldn't relish owning a new stereo?
But at the same time, a little voice inside us echoes all those traditional messages and says, \"watch out, don't buy that junk, you'll get into debt — worse still, you'll lose your edge, you'll get soft, you won't be able to succeed anymore.\"
The fear of being sucked in and dragged down by our consumer culture is real: the credit card company is not friendly when you default on your bills. And we all know that the path of pleasure-seeking and blind acquisition is a recipe for financial ruin — for most of us, anyway — and that, in American society, there isn't much of a safety net to catch you if you fall. (Words: 1,003)
花钱还是省钱
大约在一个星期以前，与我家隔几个街区的天主教堂旁边立起了一个大招牌，上面画了一张巨大的美钞。我原本以为是\"购买美国产品\"的告示，但是走近一看，上面写着\"花一美元，为制止经济衰退做点贡献\"。花一美元该买什么呢？ 牌子上没写。只要走出家门，买东西就行。 我觉得这真让人头疼。我们的问题不就是钱存得不够多吗？ （这的确是我的问题！）我们该怎么办？是该花钱，该省钱，还是既要花钱又要省钱？
这里还有一个大家也许很熟悉的例子：如果我没有按时把信用卡上的透支款项还清，就会从信用卡公司那儿收到让人讨厌的信息，\"你这个该死的贼，要么还钱，要么去死。\" 我刚把还账的支票寄去，就能收到回信——一封咬文嚼字、阿谀奉承的回信——\"某某女士，您是本公司一位最尊贵的顾客，您愿意我们把您的信用卡透支限额上调2,000美元吗？\" 这样一来，我到底是哪种人：尊贵的顾客还是该死的贼？
让人费解的是，我们每天都收到两种信息。 一种是要\"放纵自己\"的信息，让我们\"去买东西，去消费，马上就行动，随心所欲地买\"。 因为你的愿望就是你的需要——而你的很多需要连你自己都不知道，就因为我们的消费文化还没有来得及告诉你呢。 另外一种信息，我们找不到更合适的词，就称之为\"自律\"信息，就是要我们\"努力工作，勤俭储蓄，推迟享乐，控制冲动\"。 获得内容相悖的信息在心理方面和社会方面会产生怎样的后果呢？ 我认为，这就是人们所指的\"认知异议\"，其心理后果是深深的忧虑，政治保守派非常善于借此来鼓动和营造忧患意识。
\"自律\"的信息来自多种渠道，诸如学校、教堂、父母及鼓吹\"传统价值观\"的政客等等。 努力工作、忠于家庭和等待得到报答的能力，这些才应该是美国人价值观的核心内容，这些价值观从殖民时期开始就存在，这些特征造就了我们伟大的国家。
但是，正如我所说的，\"放纵自己\"的信息，大多是通过广告传达给我们的。 广告是躲不开的，就好比摆在我们面前的一次永不休止的宴会，形式不下数十种，场景也越来越多： · 以电视、电影院及电影本身为载体；
· 以印刷媒体为载体（包括设计得像文章的广告，这是时尚杂志中很普遍的现象）； · 通过电话做广告；
· 现在就连学校里也有广告。
有人统计过，一个美国人到40岁时，就已经领教过100万条广告了。也有人估计，我们刚满18岁就已经接触过60万条广告。 诚然，我们现在已记不起广告词怎么说的，产品是什
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么了。但是其中心内容是：你应该拥有最好的东西，现在就应该拥有，放纵一下自己也无妨。因为只要你买了这辆汽车或那些雪茄烟，你就应该受到恭维，应该显得性感，应该感受到刺激。
我们这个以消费者为基础的经济社会对它的成员提出了两种完全互补的心理需求。 一方面，你需要\"自律\"的价值观来确保人们辛勤工作，遵纪守法。 另一方面，你需要\"放纵自己\"的信息，让人们成为好的消费者。 有位作者很反感\"放纵自己\"的提法，但是又承认，\"不采取刺激大众消费的手段，商业本身的框架就会崩溃。\"
上面提过那个有趣的问题与因双重信息的差异而产生的心理结果有关。 \"自律\"或\"传统价值观\"的思想要求人有一种坚强的意志，使得某个人能够从事低薪的、不愉快的工作，或者维系一个不幸的婚姻。总之，做有益于集体的事。
另一方面，\"放纵自己\"的信息鼓励的是一种非完全不同的性格，即以自我为中心，好冲动，急于得到报答。 为了说明问题，我总是禁不住要背诵一条刊登在心理学杂志上的广告，也一直是我最喜欢的一条广告。 那条广告的字体很大，这样写着：\"我爱我自己。我是自己的好朋友。 我喜欢做让自己愉快的事情。 我以前老闲坐着，把事情推到第二天再做。 可第二天我又要喝香槟，买珍珠项链，还要买那套新式音响。 (但是现在)我生活在今天的、而不是明天的梦想中。\"
我们接受这些相悖信息的时候，我们承受社会给我们施加的双重性格压力的时候，会发生什么事情呢？ 结果自然是忧虑、害怕和莫名的惊恐。 我们想得到更多的东西，我们想放纵自己，并不仅仅因为广告告诉我们要这么做——谁不由衷地希望拥有新式音响呢？
但是，与此同时，我们心中有一个声音不断地提醒我们注意所有的传统观念，\"小心，不要买那个破烂东西，你会负债——更糟糕的是，你会失去锋芒，变得无主见，再也不会成功。\"
担心被卷进去，担心被消费文化毁掉，这种担心是实实在在的：你要是拖欠债款，信用卡公司对你就很不友好。 我们都知道，——至少对大多数人来说是这样——寻求快乐和盲目购物就会造成负债累累。而且在美国，如果你跌倒，不会有安全网接着你。
Section C Materialism: Economic Engine, Worker's Prison
Materialism and its attendant dissatisfaction is taken for granted. It is widely believed that our never-ending quest for material goods is part of the basic character of human beings. According to the popular belief, we may not like it, but there's little we can do about it.
Despite its popularity, this view of human nature is wrong. While human beings may have a basic desire to strive towards something, there is nothing inevitable about material goods. There are numerous examples of societies in which things have played a highly restricted role. In medieval Europe, the acquisition of goods was relatively unimportant. The common people, whose lives were surely poor by modern standards, showed strong preferences for leisure rather than money. In the nineteenth — and early twentieth-century United States, there is also considerable evidence that many working people also exhibited a restricted appetite for material goods.
Materialism is not a basic trait of human nature, but a specific product of capitalism. With the development of the market system, materialism \"spilled over\for the first time, beyond the circles of the rich. The growth of the middle class created a large group of potential buyers and the possibility that mass culture could be oriented around material goods. This process can be seen not only in historical experiences but is now going on in some parts of the developing world, where the growth of a large middle class has contributed to extensive materialism and the breakdown of traditional values.
In the United States, the turning point was the 1920s — the point at which the \"psychology of
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shortage\" gave way to the \"psychology of abundance\". This was a crucial period for the development of modern materialism. Economy and discipline were out; waste and excess were in. Materialism flourished — both as a social ideology and in terms of high rates of real spending. In the midst of all this buying, we can detect the origins of modern consumer discontent.
This was the decade during which the American dream, or what was then called \"the American standard of living\captured the nation's imagination. But it was always something of an illusion. Americans complained about items they could not afford — despite the fact that in the 1920s most families had telephones, virtually all had purchased life insurance, two-thirds owned their own homes and took vacations, and over half had motor cars.
The discontent expressed by many Americans was promoted — and to a certain extent even created — by manufacturers. The explosion of consumer credit made the task easier, as automobiles, radios, electric refrigerators, washing machines — even jewelry and foreign travel — could be paid for in installments. By the end of the 1920s, 60 percent of cars, radios, and furniture were being purchased this way. The ability to buy without actually having money helped encourage a climate of instant satisfaction, expanding expectations, and ultimately, materialism.
The 1920s was also the decade of advertising. The advertising men went wild: everything from salt to household coal was being nationally advertised. Of course, ads had been around for a long time. But something new was happening, in terms of both scale and strategy. For the first time, business began to use advertising as a psychological weapon against consumers. Without their product, the consumer would be left unmarried, fall victim to a terrible disease, or be passed over for a promotion. Ads developed an association between the product and one's very identity. Eventually they came to promise everything and anything — from self-esteem to status, friendship, and love.
This psychological approach was a response to the economic dilemma business faced. Americans in the middle classes and above (to whom virtually all advertising was targeted) were no longer buying to satisfy basic needs — such as food, clothing and shelter. These had been met. Advertisers had to persuade consumers to acquire things they most certainly did not need. In other words, production would have to \"create the wants it sought to satisfy\". This is exactly what manufacturers tried to do. The normally conservative telephone company attempted to transform the plain telephone into a luxury, urging families to buy \"all the telephones that they can conveniently use, rather than the smallest amount they can get along with\". One ad campaign targeted fifteen phones as the style for a wealthy home.
Business clearly understood the nature of the problem. According to one historian: \"Business had learned as never before the importance of the final consumer. Unless he or she could be persuaded to buy, and buy extravagantly, the whole stream of new cars, cigarettes, women's make-up, and electric refrigerators would be dammed up at its outlets.\"
But would the consumer be equal to her task as the foundation of private enterprise? A top executive of one American car manufacturer stated the matter bluntly: business needs to create a dissatisfied consumer; its mission is \"the organized creation of dissatisfaction\". This executive led the way by introducing annual model changes for his company's cars, designed to make the consumer unhappy with what he or she already had. Other companies followed his lead. Economic success now depended on the promotion of qualities like waste and self-indulgence.
The campaign to create new and unlimited wants did not go unchallenged. Trade unions and those working for social reform understood the long-term consequences of materialism for most Americans: it would keep them locked in capitalism's trap. The consumption of luxuries required long hours at work. Business was explicit in its resistance to increases in free time, preferring consumption as the alternative to taking economic progress in the form of leisure. In effect,
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business offered up the cycle of work-and-spend. In response, many trade union leaders rejected what they regarded as an evil bargain of time for money: \"Workers have declared that their lives are not to be sacrificed at any price. The worker is not the slave of fifty years ago; he reads, goes to the theater and has established his own libraries, his own educational institutions. And he wants time, time, time, for all these things.\" (Words: 1,003)
物质享乐主义：经济发展的动力，受苦工人的监狱
人们把物质享乐主义以及随之而来的难以满足的物欲看成是理所当然的。 人们普遍认为，对物质永不停止的追求是人性的一个方面。 按照流行的说法，我们可以不喜欢它， 但我们拿它没有办法。
尽管上述观点十分流行，但却是对人性的误解。 人类可能会有要有所作为的基本愿望，但是，在物质方面没有必不可少的东西。 社会生活中有许多案例，说明物质的作用是非常有限的。 在中世纪的欧洲，获得物质相对而言并不重要。 那时候老百姓的生活按照现代的标准衡量算是贫穷的，但是他们却非常喜欢消闲，对金钱的兴趣反而不大。 在19世纪和20世纪早期的美国，也有大量事实表明，许多劳动人民对物质不太感兴趣。 物质享乐主义并非人性的基本特征，而是资本主义的一个特殊产物。 随着市场体系的发展，物质享乐主义的观点首次\"溢出\"了富人圈。 中产阶级队伍的扩大创造了一个很大的潜在消费群体，也使大众文化有可能偏向对物质的追求。 这个过程不仅仅发生在历史的某个阶段，而且正在一些发展中国家出现：那里中产阶级队伍的扩大加剧了物质享乐主义的蔓延，瓦解了传统的价值观。
在美国，20世纪20年代是\"匮乏心理\"让位于\"富裕心理\"的转折点。 这是现代物质享乐主义发展的关键时期。 勤俭和节制的观念没有了，浪费和纵欲的想法出现了。 以社会意识形态和高消费为表现形式的物质享乐主义到处泛滥。 在这股高消费洪流中，我们能够察觉现代消费者不满的根源何在。
正是在这10年里，美国梦或者说当时称为\"美国生活标准\"的想法激发了全国人民的想像力。 但是，这终归是一种幻想。 尽管在20世纪20年代，大多数家庭拥有电话，几乎所有的人都购买了人寿保险，三分之二的家庭拥有自己的住房，可以享受假期，一半以上的家庭拥有汽车，但美国人仍然抱怨他们有想买而买不起的物品。
是制造商们助长了，从某种程度上讲甚至是制造了许多美国人的不满情绪。 由于信贷消费的迅猛发展，他们的助长行为变得更容易了。买汽车、收音机、电冰箱、洗衣机、甚至连买珠宝首饰和出国旅行都可以分期付款。 到了20世纪20年代末, 有60%的汽车、收音机和家具都是以分期付款成交的。 没钱也能消费，助长了立即得到满足的风气，膨胀了欲望，最终导致了物质享乐主义。
20世纪20年代也是广告的年代。 广告商们疯了：从食盐到家庭用煤，所有商品都在全国范围内做广告。 当然，广告并非始于此时，但是，这时候做广告的范围和方法都发生了变化。 商界首次借广告与消费者打心理战。 没有他们的产品，消费者就不能结婚，就会得大病，或者错过升职的良机。 广告把产品和人的身份地位联系起来。 最后他们到了做出一切许诺、提供一切服务的地步——从自尊到社会地位，再到友谊和爱情。 这种心理战术是商界面对经济困境的一种回应。 被所有广告商瞄准的美国中产阶级和上流社会的人们消费的目的已经不再是满足衣、食、住等基本需要。 这些需要早已得到满足。 广告商得劝说消费者去购买他们根本不需要的东西。 换句话说，生产领域需要\"创造出它无法满足的需求\"。 这正是制造商们试图做的事情。 就连一贯保守的电话公司也试图把朴素的电话渲染成一件奢侈品，劝说家家户户购买\"使用方便的各种话机，而不再满足于少量购买，凑合用的标准\"。 有一则广告为富裕家庭制定的目标是至少应有15部话机才够气派。 商界非常清楚问题的本质。 一位历史学家说：\"商界对最终消费者的重要性有了史无前例的认识。 如果不说服他们来消费，并且奢侈地消费的话，工厂门口的新车会排成长龙，香
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烟、女性化妆品和电冰箱会堆积如山。\" 但是，消费者能担当起支撑私有企业存在的重任吗？ 美国汽车制造业内的一位高级主管坦率地说：商业需要创造不满足的消费者，它就应该以\"有组织地创造不满足\"为己任。 这位主管率先为其公司的汽车引进一年一变的新款车型，目的就是让消费者对他们已经拥有的汽车感到不满。 其他公司纷纷效法。 现在的经济成功靠的是助长浪费行为和放纵个人欲望。 制造新的、无止境的欲望的行为并非一帆风顺。 工会和社会改革家理解物质享乐主义带给大多数美国人的长期后果：它会把人们禁锢在资本主义的陷阱里。 消费奢侈品的代价是长时间地工作。 商界明显地表现出对增加业余时间的反感，倾向于用消费，而非消闲的形式反映经济的发展。 结果，商界提出了\"工作——消费\"的循环机制。 许多工会领导人对此反映强烈，他们谴责这种以时间换金钱的害人交易：\"工人们已郑重表明，他们无论如何不能以牺牲生命做代价。 工人不是50年前的奴隶，他们要读书，要看戏，还建起了自己的图书馆和教育机构。 他们需要很多很多的时间来做这一切事情。\"
Unit 7
Section A The Effects of Space Travel on the Human Body (Part 1)
When a healthy Russian astronaut opened the hatch of his space capsule after a world-record 438 days on the Mir Space Station, he had demonstrated that humans could live and work in space for months at a time. It was not always clear that this would be the case.
In 1951, more than 10 years before the first human space flight, an expert in aviation medicine tried to predict some of the medical effects of space travel and, in particular, of weightlessness. Some of the things he predicted, such as the motion sickness that often occurs at the beginning of a flight, have been observed in real life. Others, such as the comic notion that space travelers would suddenly start to spin clockwise during normal motion in space, have not.
As most doctors can testify, it is difficult to predict what will happen when the novelty of a brand-new challenge is presented to the human body. Time and again, space travel has revealed the body's marvelous and sometimes subtle ability to adapt. But only in the last few years have scientists begun to understand the body's responses to weightlessness, as both numerical and qualitative data have grown tremendously. Pursuit of this analytic knowledge is improving health care not only for those who journey into space but also for those of us stuck on the ground. The unexpected outcome of space medicine has been an enhanced understanding of how the human body works right here on Earth.
Although many factors affect human health during periods in space, weightlessness is the dominant and single most important one. The direct and indirect effects of weightlessness lead to a series of related responses. Ultimately, the whole body, from bones to brain, kidneys to bowels, reacts.
When space travelers grasp the wall of their spacecraft and jerk their bodies back and forth, they say it feels as though they are stationary and the spacecraft is moving. This is due to our reliance on gravity to perceive our surroundings.
The continuous and universal nature of gravity removes it from our daily notice, but our bodies never forget. Whether we realize it or not, we have evolved a large number of silent, automatic reactions to cope with the constant stress of living in a downward-pulling world. Only when we decrease or increase the effective force of gravity on our bodies do our minds perceive it.
Our senses provide accurate information about the location of our center of mass and the relative positions of our body parts. Our brains integrate signals from our eyes and ears with other
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information from the organs in our inner ear, from our muscles and joints, and from our senses of touch and pressure.
The apparatus of the inner ear is partitioned into two distinct components: circular, fluid-filled tubes that sense the angle of the head, and two bags filled with calcium crystals embedded in a thick fluid, which respond to linear movement. The movement of the calcium crystals sends a signal to the brain to tell us the direction of gravity. This is not the only cue the brain receives. Nerves in the muscles, joints, and skin — particularly the skin on the bottom of the feet — respond to the weight of limb segments and other body parts.
Removing gravity transforms these signals. The inner ear no longer perceives a downward tendency when the head moves. The limbs no longer have weight, so muscles are no longer required to contract and relax in the usual way to maintain posture and bring about movement. Nerves that respond to touch and pressure in the feet and ankles no longer signal the direction of down. These and other changes contribute to orientation illusions, such as a feeling that the body or the spacecraft spontaneously changes direction. In 1961 a Russian astronaut reported vivid sensations of being upside down; one space shuttle specialist in astronomy said \"when the main engines cut off, I immediately felt as though we had inverted 180 degrees.\" Such illusions can recur even after some time in space.
The lack of other critical environmental cues also confuses the brain. Although flight around the Earth is a literal free fall — the only difference from \"normal\" falling is that the spacecraft's supersonic forward velocity carries it around the curve of the planet — space travelers say they do not feel as if they are falling. The perception of falling probably depends on visual and wind cues along with information from the organs that sense gravity directly.
The aggregate of the changes in brain signals produces a motion sickness that features many of the same symptoms as motion sickness on Earth: headache, impaired concentration, loss of appetite, and even throwing up. Space motion sickness may affect half or more of space travelers, but usually does not last beyond the first three days or so of weightlessness.
At one time, scientists attributed space motion sickness to the unusual pattern of inner ear activity, which conflicts with the brain's expectations. Now it is clear that this explanation was too simple. The sickness results as a variety of factors converge, including the alteration of the patterns and levels of muscle activity necessary to control the head itself. A similar motion sickness can also be elicited by computer systems designed to create virtual environments, through which one can move without the forces and nerve signals present during real motion.
Over time, the brain learns to mediate between conflicting signals, and some space travelers visualize \"down\" as simply where their feet are. This process probably involves physiological changes in nerve-cell patterns. Similar changes occur on the ground during children's growth and during periods of major body-weight changes. The way we control our balance and avoid falls is an important and poorly understood part of medical science. Because otherwise healthy people returning from space initially have difficulty maintaining their balance but recover this sense rapidly, studies of returning astronauts may allow doctors to help others who suffer a loss of balance on Earth, such as the elderly.
(Words:1,004)
太空旅行对人体的影响 (1)
当一名健康的俄罗斯宇航员在和平号空间站完成了创世界记录的438天工作后，打开太空舱的舱门时，他已证实人类在太空中一次连续居住、工作的时间可达数月之久。 但当时人们并不十分肯定结果竟然是这样的。
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1951年，在人类实现太空飞行10多年前，一位航空医学专家就试图预测太空旅行对人体产生的一些医学方面的影响，特别是失重对人体的影响。 他的一些预测，如飞行开始时出现的太空晕动症已经得到证实； 其他一些预测，如宇航员在太空中正常活动时会突然按顺时针方向旋转这样令人可笑的想法至今未得到证实。
正如多数医生所证实的那样，当一个全新的挑战摆在人体面前时，很难预测会发生什么情况。 太空旅行已不止一次地证实，人体具有令人惊异的、有时甚至是微妙的适应能力。 但直到最近几年，随着数据积累的量和质的增加，科学工作者才开始了解人体对失重的反应。 探索这方面的分析知识不仅能改善太空旅行者的健康，而且对于我们呆在地面上的人的健康也有好处。 太空医学所带来的意想不到的成果，就是我们更加了解人体在地球上是怎样工作的。 虽然在太空飞行中影响人体健康的因素有很多，但占主导地位、惟一至关重要的还是失重问题。 由失重引起的直接或间接的影响会导致一系列相关的反应。 最终整个身体——从骨骼到大脑，从肾脏到肠子——都会作出反应。
当太空旅行者抓住太空船舱壁，身体前后晃动时，他们说那种感觉就好像他们静止不动，而太空船在运动。 其原因在于我们通常借助地球引力来感知周围的环境。
地球引力的持续和普遍的存在使我们在日常生活中很容易忽略它，但我们的身体从未忘记过它。 无论我们是否认识到这一点，我们已逐步形成大量无声的、下意识反应来对付生活在一个重力向下的世界里所必须承受的每日每时的压力。 只有当地球引力对人体的作用减少或增加时，我们才意识到它的存在。
我们的感官提供我们身体重心所处位置的确切信息，以及我们身体各部位所处的相应位置。 大脑的功能是把来自眼睛和耳朵的信号与来自内耳器官、肌肉、关节以及触觉、压力等感官的信息综合在一起。
内耳的构造分为两部分：环状的、充满液体的液管，其作用是能感受头部所处的角度，以及两个充满浸在稠状液体的钙晶体液囊，其作用是对线性运动做出反应。 钙晶体的运动向大脑发出信号使我们感知地球引力的方向，但这不是大脑接收到的惟一信号。 肌肉、关节和皮肤中的神经，特别是足底皮肤的神经对肢体各部分及身体其他部位的重量作出反应。 消除地球引力就会改变这些信号。 当头部移动时，内耳再也感受不到向下的趋势了。 肢体不再有重量，所以肌肉再也不需要收缩、放松来保持某种姿势或促成运动。 对脚、踝部位的触、压产生反应的神经也不发出向下的信号了。 这些变化和其他一些变化使人产生方位错觉，例如感到身体或太空船突然自动改变方向。 1961年，一名俄罗斯宇航员报告过那种身体倒置时的逼真感觉。一名航天飞机专家说：\"当主发动机被关掉时，我立刻感觉到我们就好像经历了180度的大颠倒。\" 这种错觉甚至在太空航行一段时间后会再次出现。 缺少其他关键性环境提示同样使大脑感到不知所措。 尽管绕地球飞行确实是自由落体运动——它与\"正常\"下落的惟一区别是太空船的超音速前进最终使它围绕着地球的弧线飞行——但宇航员说他们并没有感到他们像是在下落。 下落的感觉大概取决于视觉和气流的暗示，以及来自那些直接感觉地球引力的器官的信息。
大脑中信号变化的集聚会使宇航员患晕动症，其特征类似于地球晕动症的很多症状：头痛、注意力不集中、没有胃口、呕吐等。 太空晕动症会对一半或一半以上的宇航员产生影响，但持续时间一般不超过失重的最初三天左右。
科学家曾一度把太空晕动症归结于内耳异常的活动模式，这种模式与大脑的期待相冲突。 现在我们弄清楚了，这种解释过于简单化了。 晕动症是各种因素综合在一起产生的，包括控制头部本身所需要的肌肉活动的模式和强度的改变。 我们也可以用模拟真实环境的计算机来诱发晕动症，通过此系统，我们可以在真实运动中才出现的力量和神经信号都不存在的情况下就可以活动。
经过一段时间，大脑就学会了在相互冲突的信号之间进行协调。一些太空旅行者把\"下面\" 形象化地理解为不过是脚所在的位置罢了。 这一过程大概包括了神经元模式在生理上的变化。 在地面上，当儿童生长或人的体重发生大的变化时也会出现类似的变化。 人类是用什么方法控制身体平衡、避免摔倒的，这是医学界一个非常重要但知之甚少的问题。 因为从太
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空返回的宇航员原本很健康，刚返回地面时会感到难以保持身体平衡，但他的平衡感很快就会恢复。所以对返回地面的宇航员所做的研究也许会有助于医生帮助那些地球上患有失衡症的人们，例如老年失衡症患者。
Section B The Argument for Going to Mars
For centuries, explorers have risked their lives venturing into the unknown for reasons of economic benefit and national glory. Following the lunar missions of the early 1970s, Mars now looms as humanity's next great, unknown land. But with dubious prospects for short-term financial return and with international competition in space a receding memory, it is clear that imperatives other than profit or national pride will have to compel human beings to leave their tracks on the planet's red surface. Could it be that science, which has long been a subsidiary concern for explorers, is at last destined to take a leading role? This question naturally invites a couple of others: Are there experiments that only humans could do on Mars? Could those experiments provide insights profound enough to justify the expense of sending people across such a large distance?
With Mars the scientific benefits are perhaps higher than they have ever been. The issue of whether life ever existed on the planet, and whether it persists to this day, has been highlighted by accumulating evidence that Mars once had abundant liquid water and by the controversy over suggestions that fossils of bacteria rode to Earth on a rock ejected from Mars during its early history. A definite answer about life on Mars, past or present, would give researchers invaluable data about the range of conditions under which a planet can generate the complex chemistry that leads to life. The revelation that life arose independently on Mars and on Earth would provide the first concrete clue in one of the deepest mysteries in all of science: how prevalent is life in our galaxy?
One of the reasons why the idea of sending people to Mars strikes a chord in so many people is that it is already possible — the US has the money and the fundamental technology needed to do it. More important, recent discoveries about the planet's environment in the distant past have presented a clear and compelling scientific incentive for sending people: to search for evidence of life. The thesis that liquid water was once stable on Mars has been strengthened by aerial photographs taken last year that showed what appeared to be a drainage channel cut deeply by water flowing for hundreds if not thousands of years.
A thorough hunt for any life on Mars that might be hanging on would also have to be undertaken by humans, according to some experts. Such life will be hidden and probably tiny. \"Finding it will require surveying vast tracts of territory,\" one expert explains. \"It will require the ability to cover long distances and adapt to different conditions.\" Robots might be up to the task sometime in the distant future, making human explorers redundant, he concedes. But relying on them to survey Mars during periodical missions to the planet would take a very long time — \"decades if not centuries,\" he believes.
Another reason why humans may have to be on site to conduct a thorough search for life stems from the fact that if any such life exists it is probably deep underground. Mars' atmosphere contains trace quantities of a chemical agent that destroys organic compounds, turning them into inorganic oxides. So most strategies for bacteria hunting involve digging down to depths where life or organic matter would be shielded from this chemical agent as well as from extremely high levels of ultraviolet light.
Future probes will be rigged with rotary drills made of a special steel alloy that can bore several centimeters into rocks or dig a few meters down into the soil. But barring any discoveries sieved from those shallow depths, researchers will have to bring up samples from hundreds of meters below the surface before they can declare Mars dead or alive. Drilling for samples at such
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depths most likely will require humans.
Researchers are unanimous in saying that a human mission to Mars would advance our understanding of the planet. The points of contention have to do with the cost of human missions in comparison with robotic ones. The problem is that so little is known about several key factors that any analysis must depend on some largely arbitrary assumptions.
Then, too, it is difficult to predict the capacities of robots even 5 or 10 years from now. Today the kind of robot that can be delivered to another planet is not really up to the demands of a game of cards, let alone those of fossil hunting in a complex environment that is colder than the polar regions of Earth. The kinds of robots used so far on Mars have been terribly limited: the last robot delivered to Mars traveled within a radius of just 106 meters from the landing site. And the best computer brains for robots can't even match the intellectual ability of an insect, making the automation of the explorer's task difficult indeed.
One intriguing option is to send a robot that would be controlled by human operators on Earth. Unfortunately, the round-trip time to relay communications from Mars is up to 40 minutes long. \"You can't yet do it this way,\" an expert says. \"At best, you can do something like supervise an independent robot, and I don't think that would be good enough to do serious scientific work.\" One fact everyone agrees on is that human space missions are costly. Estimates of the cost of a human mission to Mars range from $20 billion to about $55 billion.
Although a human mission would be more expensive, it would also be more cost-effective, some advocates of human missions insist. One expert concedes that sending astronauts to collect rock and soil samples and bring them to Earth would cost about 10 times more than sending robots. But by his calculations the human mission would return with a shipment of 100 times more material, gathered from an area 10,000 times larger. With its enormous territory, amazing landscape and difficult climate, Mars will surely be conquered only by a combination of people and machines. (Words: 1,000)
进军火星的理由
多少世纪以来，探险家为经济利益和国家荣誉等原因冒着生命危险进入未知世界。 随着20世纪70年代初登月使命的完成，现在火星作为人类下一个重要的、未知的陆地悄然隐现。 由于短期经济回报尚不确定，国际空间竞争已成往事，迫使人类在这个红色星球上留下足迹的显然不是利益或民族自豪感，而仅仅是人类的一个未了的心愿。 长期以来，对于探险家来说，科学在探险中一直扮演一个辅助的角色，现在它是否终于可以充当主角了呢? 这一疑问自然会引发其他几个问题：是否有什么实验只能由人类在火星上完成?这些实验能否让人类获得足够深刻的认识，以便证明把人类送往如此遥远的太空所耗资金花得很值? 就火星而言，其科学回报大概比以往任何研究项目都要高。 这颗行星上是否曾有过生命, 这种生命是否仍然存在? 这一问题因如下两种情况而更具争论性。一方面，有越来越多的证据表明，火星上曾有过大量的液态水；另一方面，有人提出，在火星的早期，地质喷发产生的一块岩石将细菌化石带到地球上。 围绕着这种假说，各方争论不休。无论是过去还是现在，有关火星生命的肯定答案都会为研究人员提供有关生命产生的条件范围的极其宝贵的数据。 在这些条件范围内，星球可产生导致生物合成的化学体系。在火星和地球上各自出现了的生命这一新发现将会为揭开全部科学中最深奥的谜底提供第一条具体的线索：在我们的星系中到底有多少星球上存在生命?
把人类送上火星这一想法能打动那么多人的心，其原因之一是实施这一计划已经有了可能：美国已拥有完成此项计划所需的财力和基本技术。 更重要的是，最近有关火星遥远的过去环境的发现为送人上火星提供了一个明确的、令人鼓舞的科学动机：寻找生命存在的证据。 有关火星表面上的液态水曾一度很稳定的论断由于去年空中拍摄的照片而更有说服力。这些照片展示出一条好似水流冲击而成的很深的排水渠道，看样子那水即使没有流淌数千年，也
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该有数百年了。
根据一些专家的分析，彻底搜寻火星上可能尚存的生命的任务仍然需要由人类来完成。 这种生命可能是隐蔽的、微小的。 \"要想找到它需要搜寻火星表面广阔的区域，\"一位专家说。 \"这需要具备跨越远距离、适应不同环境的能力。\" 他承认，在遥远的将来的某个时候，机器人将能够执行此项任务；那样的话，人类探险家就显得多余了。 但依靠机器人周期性地到星球上去勘测火星可能还要等待很长时间。\"就算不用等几个世纪，至少也要数十年，\" 他这样认为。
人类必须亲临火星进行彻底的生命搜寻的另一个原因源于这样一个事实，即如果有任何生命存在的话，它大概也是深埋地下。 火星大气层含有微量化学剂，能破坏有机化合物，把它们转换成非有机氧化物。 因此，多数寻找细菌的方法包括掘地深挖，在下面可能有生命或有机物能避开这种化学剂和极强紫外线照射。
未来的探测器将安装上数个特殊合金钢制成的旋转钻头，这种钻头可将岩石钻透数厘米，或掘进土层数米深。 倘若研究人员不能从浅层挖掘筛选出任何发现，那么他们就必须从数百米深的地下取出标本，然后才能宣布火星上究竟有没有生命。 在这么深的地方钻探取样很可能需要人亲自来做才行。
研究人员一致认为，人类亲自登陆火星探险会深化我们对这一星球的了解。 争论的焦点与人类探险相对于机器人探险所消耗的费用有关。 问题在于研究人员对几个关键因素知之甚少，以至于任何分析都必须主要依靠主观的假设。 其次，研究人员也同样难以预测，即使再过5到10年，机器人的能力会长进到什么地步。 今天，可以被发送到其他星球上去的机器人连玩纸牌游戏的技能还没有完全掌握，更不用说在一个比地球两极地区还要冷的复杂环境下进行化石勘探了。 到目前为止，用于火星勘探的机器人的能力十分有限： 最近一次发送到火星上的机器人的活动范围也只有距着陆点106米的半径的范围内。 而且，配备最好的电脑的机器人智力上也比不过一只昆虫，这使得探测器很难自动完成探险任务。
一个令人感兴趣的选择方案是把机器人发送到火星上去，由地球上的操作人员对其实施遥控。 麻烦的是，从火星到地球传递通信的每个来回的时间长达40分钟。 \"你不能采用这种方法，\" 一位专家说。 \"你最多只能场外指导一名机器人，而我认为这远远不符合严肃的科学探索的要求。\" 一个公认的事实是，人类太空探险耗资巨大。 据估计，人类登上火星的费用大约在200-550亿美元之间。
虽然送人上天如此昂贵，但它的一些支持者还是坚持认为这样做效果也会更好。 一位专家承认，把宇航员送到火星上去收集岩石和土壤标本，然后带回地球所需的费用，将比送机器人去完成此工作所需费用高出约10倍。 但是，依据他的计算，人类能够带回地面的标本将比机器人带回的多100倍，标本来源的覆盖地区比机器人的大10，000倍。 由于火星地域辽阔，地形异常复杂，气候条件恶劣，只有人机结合，才是征服火星的良策。
Section C The Effects of Space Travel on the Human Body (Part 2)
During weightlessness, the forces within the body undergo dramatic change. Because the spine is no longer compressed, people grow taller (two inches or so). The lungs, heart, and other organs within the chest have no weight, and as a result, the rib cage and chest relax and expand. Similarly, the weight of the liver, kidneys, stomach, and bowels disappears. One astronaut said after his flight: \"You feel your guts (内脏) floating up. I found myself tightening my belly, sort of pushing things back.\"
Meanwhile muscles and bones come to be used in different ways. Our muscles are designed to support us when standing or sitting upright and to move body parts. But in space, muscles used for support on the ground are no longer needed for that purpose; moreover, the muscles used for movement around a capsule differ from those used for walking down a hall. Consequently, some muscles rapidly weaken. This doesn't present a problem to space travelers as long as they perform
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only light work. But preventing the loss of muscle tissue required for heavy work during space walks and preserving muscle for safe return to Earth are the subject of many current experiments. Bone physiology, too, changes substantially. One of the strongest known biological materials, bone is a dynamic tissue. Some cells have the job of producing it, whereas others destroy it. Both types usually work together to maintain bones throughout life.
Bone contains both organic materials, which contribute strength and stability, and inorganic materials, which make the bones stiff and serve as a reservoir of minerals within the body. For example, 99 percent of the calcium in the body is in the skeleton. Stable levels of calcium in the body's fluids are necessary for all types of cells to function normally.
Studies have shown that astronauts lose bone mass from the lower spine, hips, and upper leg at a rate of about 1 percent per month for the entire duration of their time in space. Some sites, such as the heel, lose calcium faster than others. Studies of animals taken into space suggest that bone formation also declines.
Needless to say, these data are indeed cause for concern. During space flight, the loss of bone elevates calcium levels in the body, potentially causing kidney stones and calcium crystals to form in other tissues. Back on the ground, the loss of bone calcium stops within one month, but scientists do not yet know whether the bone recovers completely: too few people have flown in space for long periods. Some bone loss may be permanent, in which case ex-astronauts will always be more prone to broken bones.
These questions mirror those in our understanding of how the body works here on Earth. For example, elderly women are prone to a loss of bone mass（骨质疏松症）. Scientists understand that many different factors can be involved in this loss, but they do not yet know how the factors act and interact; this makes it difficult to develop an appropriate treatment. So it is with bone loss in space, where the right prescription still awaits discovery.
Many other body systems are affected directly and indirectly. One example is the lung. Scientists have studied the lung in space and learned much they could not have learned in laboratories on Earth. On the ground the top and bottom parts of the lung have different patterns of air flow and blood flow. But are these patterns the result only of gravity, or also of the nature of the lung itself? Only recently have studies in space provided clear evidence for the latter. Even in the absence of gravity, different parts of the lung have different levels of air flow and blood flow.
Not everything that affects the body during space flight is related solely to weightlessness. Also affected, for example, are the immune system (the various physical and psychological stresses of space flight probably play roles in weakening the immune system in astronauts) and the multiple systems responsible for the amount and quality of sleep (light levels and work schedules disrupt the body's normal rhythms). Looking out the spacecraft window just before going to sleep (an action difficult to resist, considering the view) can let enough bright light into the eye to trigger just the wrong brain response, leading to poor sleep. As time goes on, the sleep debt accumulates.
For long space voyages, travelers must also face being confined in a tight volume, unable to escape, isolated from the normal life of Earth, living with a small, fixed group of companions who often come from different cultures. These challenges can lead to anxiety, depression, crew tension and other social issues, which affect astronauts just as much as weightlessness — perhaps even more. Because these factors operate at the same time the body is adapting to other environmental changes, it may not be clear which physiological changes result from which factors. Much work remains to be done.
Finally, space flight involves high levels of radiation. An astronaut spending one year in a low-Earth orbit would receive a radiation dose 10 times greater than the average dose received on the ground. A year's stay on the moon would result in a dose seven times higher still, whereas a
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flight to Mars would be even worse. A sudden surge in radiation from the sun, as occurred in August 1972, can deliver a dose more than 1,000 times the annual ground dose in less than a day. Fortunately, such events are rare, and spacecraft designers can guard against them by providing special shielded rooms to which astronauts can retreat.
Obviously, the radiation hazard to long-duration space travelers — and the consequent cancer risk — is a major problem. The problems of space radiation are difficult to study because it is nearly impossible to duplicate on Earth the radiation environment of space, with its low but steady flow of high-energy particles. Even so, researchers generally believe that with proper radiation shields built into the spacecraft and protective drugs, the risks can be brought within satisfactory limits. (Words: 1,006)
太空旅行对人体的影响(2)
在失重的状态下，人体内的力量会发生急剧的变化。 由于人的脊柱不再呈挤压状态，因此人们比通常要高一些(两英寸左右)。 胸腔中的肺脏、心脏和其他器官都没有了重量，结果，胸腔和两胁处于放松和膨胀状态。 同样，肝脏、脾脏、胃及肠的重量也消失了。 一名宇航员在完成航行之后说：\"你会感觉你的内脏飘了起来。 我发觉自己的肚子受到压迫，类似往里塞东西的感觉。\"
同时，肌肉、骨骼开始以不同的方式发挥作用。 我们的肌肉是用于在站立、坐下或活动身体某个部位时支撑身体的。 但是太空中，在地面上用于支撑身体的肌肉不再需要起这种作用了，而且人们在太空舱里活动所动用的肌肉与在门厅里走动所动用的肌肉完全不同，因此部分肌肉会迅速萎缩。 这对于宇航员来说还算不上什么问题，只要他们从事的是轻微的工作。 但宇航员在太空中行走属于重体力工作，需要足够强壮的肌肉组织；宇航员安全返回地球也需要足够的肌肉支持。如何防止肌肉组织萎缩，如何保持他们肌肉强健已成为当前许多实验所要解决的课题。
骨骼在生理上也发生了根本的改变。 骨骼是人体最强壮的生理物质， 是一种动态组织。 一些细胞具有生成骨骼的功能，而另一些细胞则有破坏它的功能，两种细胞一道起作用，从而维持了人一生的骨骼状态。
骨骼包含有机物和无机物，前者的作用是提供力量与稳定性，后者的作用是使骨骼坚硬，是体内矿物质的存储处。 例如，人身体中99%的钙存在于骨架中。 体液中稳定的钙含量对于所有细胞的正常工作必不可少。
研究显示，宇航员在太空期间每月以1%的速率从尾椎骨、髋骨和大腿骨失去钙质。 一些部位，如脚后跟比其他部位损失钙要快。太空动物实验表明，骨骼结构强度也减弱了。 勿需质疑，这些数据的确使人焦虑。 在太空飞行中，骨质疏松会造成体内钙质比例的增高，可能会引起肾结石及钙晶体在其他组织的形成。 返回地面后，骨骼中的钙流失现象会在一个月内停止，但科学家们尚不清楚骨骼是否能得到完全恢复：有长时间太空飞行经历的人实在太少了。 一些骨质疏松的情况也许是永久性的，因此当过宇航员的人通常比常人更容易骨折。
这些问题类似于我们在关注人体在地球上的工作原理时遇到的问题。 例如，老年妇女易患骨质疏松症。 科学家知道造成骨质疏松症的因素很多，但他们尚未弄清这些因素是如何起作用，又是如何相互作用的，因而很难研制出一种合适的治疗方案。 太空中的骨质疏松症的情况是一样的，对症药方还需等待新的发现。
身体的很多其他系统也会直接或间接地受到影响，例如肺。 科学家在太空对人体的肺进行了研究并获得了地球实验室中得不到的许多成果。 在地球上，肺的顶部和底部有不同的气流与血流的模式， 但这些模式是引力的缘故还是兼受肺本身的性质所决定的呢? 直到近期，太空研究才对后者提供了明确的证据。 即使在没有地球引力的情况下，肺脏各部分的气流与血流的水平也各不相同。
在太空飞行中，并非所有对人体产生影响的因素只与失重有关。 同时受到影响的还有人
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体的免疫功能(太空飞行时各种生理和心理的压力可能会削弱宇航员免疫系统)、决定睡眠时间和质量的多种系统(光照及工作时间表会打乱人体的正常节奏)。 睡觉前，透过太空船窗户向外看一眼 (考虑到窗外的特殊景致，这种举动一般难以抑制)会使足够多的亮光进入眼睛，引起大脑的错误反应，从而导致睡眠质量的下降。 随着滞留太空时间的增加，缺觉会变得越来越严重。
对于长时间的太空飞行，宇航员必须要面对这样的情况：长期禁闭在密封舱里、不能逃逸、不能享受地球上的正常生活、和小组里固定的同事一道生活——他们往往来自不同国家。 这些挑战可能会导致忧虑、压抑、机组人员关系紧张以及其他一些交际上的问题，这些问题对宇航员的影响与失重一样大——或许更为严重。 由于这些因素是在身体适应不同的环境变化的同时发挥作用，因而很难分清是哪些因素引起了那些生理变化。这方面还有许多工作要做。
最后，太空飞行会受到高强度的辐射。 在地球低轨道上飞行一年的宇航员所受辐射量会比地面所受辐射量多10倍。 在月球上停留一年，所受辐射的量还要高出7倍；火星之旅的情形会更糟。 1972年8月爆发的太阳风在不到一天内释放出的辐射量比地面一年接受的太阳辐射量的1,000倍还要多。 幸运的是，此类事件很少发生，而且太空船的设计者为宇航员设计了特别防护间，必要时可撤退到里面，防止此类辐射的伤害。
显然，长时间太空飞行者所受到的辐射危险(即导致患癌症的危险)是一个主要的问题。 太空辐射问题难以研究，原因是在地球上几乎不可能模拟太空辐射的环境，因为地球上高能量宇宙射线流量低，而且又固定不变。 尽管如此，研究人员还是相信，在太空舱内安装适当的防护罩和服用保护性药物可以把辐射危险控制在令人满意的范围内。
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