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现代大学英语精读(第2版)第六册:U12 Notes on the English Character(2)

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On leaving his school, the boy either sets to work at once-goes into the army or into business, or emigrates—or else proceeds to the university, and after three or four years there enters some other profession—becomes a barrister, doctor, civil servant, schoolmaster, or journalist. (If through some mishap he does not become a manual worker or an artist.) In all these careers his education, or the absence of it, influences him. Its memories influence him also. Many men look back on their school days as the happiest of their lives. They remember with regret that golden time when life, though hard, was not yet complex, when they all worked together and played together and thought together, so far as they thought at all; when they were taught that school is the world in miniature and believed that no one can love his country who does not love his school. And they prolong that time as best they can by joining their Old Boys' society: indeed, some of them remain Old Boys and nothing else for the rest of their lives. They attribute all good to the school. They worship it. They quote the remark that "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." It is nothing to them that the remark is inapplicable historically and was never made by the Duke of Wellington, and that the Duke of Wellington was an Irishman. They go on quoting it because it expresses their sentiments; they feel that if the Duke of Wellington didn't make it he ought to have, and if he wasn't an Englishman he ought to have been. And they go forth into a world that is not entirely composed of public-school men or even of Anglo-Saxons, but of men who are as various as the sands of the sea; into a world of whose richness and subtlety they have no conception. They go forth into it with well-developed bodies, fairly developed minds, and undeveloped hearts. And it is this undeveloped heart that is largely responsible for the difficulties of Englishmen abroad. An undeveloped heart—not a cold one. The difference is important, and on it my next note will be based.

毕业后,男生们要么立刻开始工作、参军从商或者移民,要么进入大学深造,经过三至四年的学习后从事律师、医生、公务员、教师或记者等职业(如果他们无缘成为体力工人或艺术家。)在上述事业中,他所受到的教育,或者说没有受到的教育,深深地影响着他。回忆也会影响他们。许多人都把在学校的日子视为人生中最快乐的时光。他们带着遗憾的心情怀念那段金色时光。那时,生活虽然艰苦,但还不算复杂。那时,他们同学习、同游戏、同思考,如果说他们思考的话。他们受到的教导告诉他们,学校是个微型世界,他们相信,一个人如果不爱自己的学校,那他就不可能爱自己的国家。而且他们通过加入“老朋友”社团尽量使那段岁月延长,事实上他们中某些人一生都没有离开这个社团。他们认为学校万事好。他们崇拜学校并引用这样的评论来赞誉学校:“打赢滑铁卢战役的基础是在伊顿公学的球场上奠定的。”他们并不在乎这句评论在历史上是不适用的,也不在乎它并不是惠灵顿公爵发表的,而且惠灵顿公爵是一位爱尔兰人。他们反复引用这句评论,因为它表达了他们的情感。他们认为,即使惠灵顿公爵没有这样说,他也应该这样说;即使他不是英国人,他也应该是英国人。他们所生活的社会并不完全由公学学生或安格鲁-撒克逊人组成的,而是由形形色色的人组成的,对于这个社会中的财富与难以捉摸的东西,他们完全摸不着头脑。他们进入社会时,体魄健全,智力一般,感情匮乏(身体锻炼得十分结实,大脑的开发一般,而心的发育则不健全)而恰恰就是感情匮乏使英国人在国外遇到了许多困难。感情匮乏并不是冷酷无情,这一差别相当重要,也是我下一个论点的基础。
For it is not that the Englishman can't feel—it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow or even open his mouth too wide when he talks—his pipe might fall out if he did. He must bottle up his emotions, or let them out only on a very special occasion.
并不是英国人没有感情,而是英国人害怕有感情。在公学中他们所受的教育是,感情是有害的。他们不应该表现出大喜大悲,甚至在谈话时不应该把嘴巴张得过大,否则他们的烟斗会从口中掉落。他们必须掩饰自己的情绪,或者仅在特殊场合才可以表达自己的感情。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
conception [kən'sepʃən]

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n. 概念,观念,构想,怀孕

 
worship ['wə:ʃip]

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n. 崇拜,爱慕,做礼拜
vi. 做礼拜

 
complex ['kɔmpleks]

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adj. 复杂的,复合的,合成的
n. 复合体

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prolong [prə'lɔŋ]

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vt. 延长,拖延

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quote [kwəut]

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n. 引用
v. 引述,举证,报价

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subtlety ['sʌtlti]

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n. 微妙,明敏

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miniature ['miniətʃə]

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n. 缩图,小画像
adj. 小型的

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composed [kəm'pəuzd]

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adj. 镇静的,沉着的

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attribute [ə'tribju:t,'ætribju:t]

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vt. 把 ... 归于
n. 属性,特征,标

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mishap ['mis.hæp]

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n. 不幸之事,灾祸,恶运

联想记忆

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