2015江苏高考英语D篇翻译

Freedom and ResponsibilityFreedom’s challenge in the Digital Age is a serious topic. We are facing today a strange new world and we are all wondering what we are going to do with it.Some 2,500 years ago Greece discovered freedom. Before that there was no freedom. There were great civilizations, splendid empires, but no freedom anywhere. Egypt and Babylon were both tyrannies, one very powerful man ruling over helpless masses.In Greece, in Athens (雅典), a little city in a little country, there were no helpless masses. And Athenians willingly obeyed the written laws which they themselves passed, and the unwritten, which must be obeyed if free men live together. They must show each other kindness and pity and the many qualities without which life would be very painful unless one chose to live alone in the desert.The Athenians never thought that a man was free if he could do what he wanted. A man was free if he was self-controlled. To make yourself obey what you approved was freedom. They were saved from looking at their lives as their own private affair. Each one felt responsible for the welfare of Athens, not because it was forced on him from the outside, but because the city was his pride and his safety. The essential belief of the first free government in the world was liberty for all men who could control themselves and would take responsibility for the state.But discovering freedom is not like discovering computers. It cannot be discovered once for all. If people do not prize it, and work for it, it will go. Constant watch is its price. Athens changed. It was a change that took place without being noticed though it was of the extreme importance, a spiritual change which affected the whole state. It had been the Athenians pride and joy to give to their city. That they could get material benefits from her never entered their minds. There had to be a complete change of attitude before they could look at the city as an employer who paid her citizens for doing her work. Now instead of men giving to the state, the state was to give to them.What the people wanted was a government which would provide a comfortable life for them; and with this as the primary object, ideas of freedom and self-reliance and responsibility were neglected to the point of disappearing. Athens was more and more looked on as a cooperative business possessed of great wealth in which all citizens had a right to share.Athens reached the point when the freedom she really wanted was freedom from responsibility.There could be only one result. If men insisted on being free from the burden of self-dependence and responsibility for the common good, they would cease to be free. Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom. It is to be had on no other terms. Athens, the Athens of Ancient Greece, refused responsibility; she reached the end of freedom and was never to have it again.But, “the excellent becomes the permanent”, Aristotle said. Athens lost freedom forever, but freedom was not lost forever for the world. A great American, James Madison, referred to: “The capacity (能力) of mankind for self-government.” No doubt he had not an idea that he was speaking Greek. Athens was not in the farthest background of his mind, but once man has a great and good idea, it is never completely lost. The Digital Age cannot destroy it. Somehow in this or that man’s thought such an idea lives though unconsidered by the world of action. One can never be sure that it is not on the point of breaking out into action only sure that it will do so sometime.参考翻译：自由与责任在数字时代，自由是一个严肃的话题。

我们当下面对的是一个陌生的新世界，我们都在想着我们将要做什么。

大约在2500年前，希腊发明了自由。

在这之前自由并不存在。

当时有伟大的文明，辉煌的帝国，但没有任何的自由。

埃及和巴比伦都是独裁的，有着一个集权者统治着绝望的大众。

在希腊雅典，一个小国家的小城市，在这里没有绝望的民众。

雅典人自愿地遵守着他们通过的自由人生活在一起就必须遵守的成文或不成文法。

他们必须向对方展示仁慈和怜悯，还有许多品质。

没有了这些品质，百姓就会活在水中当中，除非一个人选择独自于孤苦沙漠当中。

雅典人从不认为为所欲为的人是自由的，自由人是自控之人。

让自我服从于自我臣服的东西才是自由的。

他们自视自己的生活为私事，并从这个理念中被救赎。

每个人都对雅典的福祉负责，不是因为这是被外界强加的力量，而是因为这个城市是他们的骄傲和温床。

世界上第一个自由政府的必要信念对于每一个能自控，能对这个国家负责的人来说都是自由的。

然而发掘自由与发明电脑大相径庭。

一次发明自由，不代表永远流长。

如果人民不珍视它，不经营它，它将会消逝。

持续的耕耘才是它的价值。

雅典改变了，这是一次被人忽视，却又极为重要的改变，是一次影响整个国家的精神层面的改变。

它曾是雅典带给这座城市的骄傲与喜悦。

人们可以从雅典身上获取物质利益，雅典却并不了解人们的想法。

在人们把这座城市当作雇主来支付城市员工工作酬劳之前，必须要有一个彻底的转变。

现在并不是人民要奉献给国家，而是国家得偿还给人民。

人民所想要的是一个能给予人民舒适生活的政府，并把这种观点作为主要对象。

对于自由的想法，自立和责任被抛之脑后，达到逐渐消亡的程度。

雅典被愈发看成是一个拥有巨大财产的合作企业，在这个企业中每个公民都有权分享。

当雅典真正需要的是从责任中汲取的自由，她达到了这样的程度。

结果只有一个，如果人民坚持自由，而摆脱自我依赖和社会共同利益责任感的重负，他们将不再自由。

责任是每个人都必须为了自由而付出的代价，这一点决不动摇。