现代大学英语精读6 课后题答案

Lesson 1

1.An imbalance between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of republics.

贫富不均乃共和政体最致命疾.

2. Their poverty is a temporary misfortune, if they are poor and meek, they eventually will inherit the earth.

他们的贫穷只是一种暂时性的不幸，如果他们贫穷但却温顺，他们最终将成为世界的主人.

3.Couples in love should repair to R H Macy’s not their bedrooms.

热恋的夫妇应该在梅西百货商店过夜,而不是他们的新房.

4.The American beauty rose can be produced in the splendor and fragrance which bring cheer to its beholder only by sacrificing the early buds which grow up around it. And so is in economic life. It’s merely the working out of a law of the nature and a law of God.

美国这朵玫瑰花以其华贵与芳香让观众倾倒，赞不绝口，而她之所以能被培植就是因为在早期其周围的花蕾被插掉了，在经济生活中情况亦是如此。这是自然规律和上帝的意志在起作用.

5.(It has become) an economically not unrewarding enterprise.

（它已成为）经济上收入不菲的行业.

6. There is...no form of oppression that is quiet so great, no constriction on thought and effort quiet so comprehensive, as that which come from having no money at all.

没有哪种压迫比身无分文更厉害，也没有哪种对思想和行为的束缚比一无所有来得更全面彻底

7.Freedom we rightly cherish. Cherishing it, we should not use it as a cover for denying freedom to those in need.

我们珍惜自由式对的。正因为珍惜自由，我们就不能以此为借口，不给最需要自由的人自由.

8. Whether they be in Erhiopa, the south Bronx, or even in such an Elysium as Los Angeles, we resolve to keep them off our minds.

不管他们生活在埃塞俄比亚，还是在纽约的南部布朗克斯区，甚至是洛杉矶这样的天堂，人们都决心不去为这些人操心.

9. ...he is enjoying, as indicated, unparalleled popularity in high Washington circles.

如上述所说，他在华盛顿高层当中有无比的威望.

https://www.360docs.net/doc/f011098316.html,passio , along with the association public effort is the least comfortable, the least convenient course of behavior and action in our time.

同情心，加上与之相关的社会努力是人们这个年代，最令人不快的行为何行动方针.

Lesson 2

1. It was an idyllic life, and we lived close to our family and to the comforts and safety a small town could afford.

这是一种田园式的生活,我们和亲戚们住得很近,享受着小镇生活所能给予我们的舒适和安全.

2.But papa was a man of enterprise, he realized that the untouched Ten Thousand Islands off the southwest coast of the sate were rich in soil for crops and in game for food.

但父亲是一个很有进取心人, 他知道佛罗里达州西南海岸的万岛群岛还没有被开发,那儿土壤肥沃,适于耕种,而且猎物充足,不必担心食物来源.

3. This third day out, and the days to come, found us in the unsettled wilds of Florida.

出发的第三天以及以后的日子里,我们都在佛罗里达无人居住的荒野中穿行.

4.Its underwater grasses looked like green ribbons, constantly unrolling, and the trees held thick sprays of wild orchids.

水下的水草就像绿色的丝带,不断地伸展开来,野兰花一簇簇地挂满了枝头.

5. The burly arms of oaks were huge with ferns and blooming bromeliads. Redbirds, tanagers and painted buntings flew back and forth across the trail, leaving a child with the impression that the woods were tossing with jewels...

乔叶栎粗壮的枝杆上覆盖着蕨类植物,附生的凤梨科植物也在盛开. 红雀,唐纳雀和色彩斑斓的鸟沿着小路飞来飞去,让一个小孩子觉得好像是宝石在树林中跳动.

6.The native whites feared him as you would a rattlesnake, but the Indians and black people were susceptible to his manipulations.

本地的白人像惧怕响尾蛇一样怕他, 而印第安人和黑人则不得不受他的控制和剥削.

7.Our new home was more than safe; it was a joy!

我们的新家不仅安全牢固,它还给我们带来了无尽的乐趣.

8.Today I can see in my grandsons and great-grandsons some of those qualities of courage and caring that my father had in such abundance.

今天,在我的子孙身上, 我仍然能看到我父亲所拥有的无尽的勇气和爱心.

Lesson 3

1. We have been tamperin g with this powerful force, unaware, like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, of the potentially disastrous consequences of our actions.

我们一直在滥用职权这股强大的力量,就像传说中魔术师的徒弟一样,我们并没有意识到我们的这种行为很可能会导致灾难性的后果.

2. Even if the global warming catastrophe never materializes, and the ozone hole remains an esoteric, polar phenomenon, already human activity has profoundly altered global conditions in ways that may not register on the camera.

即使全球变暖这种灾难永不发生, 即使臭氧空洞仍然只是一种深奥的极地现象,人类活动也已极大地改变了全球条件,这些也许是照相机拍不出来的.

3.The technosphere, in contrast, is dominated by linear processes.

与生态圈相反,技术圈是由线性流程所决定的.

4. The energy sources that now power the technosphere are mostly fossil fuels, stores that, once depleted, will never be renewed.

现在技术圈运作的能源主要是矿物燃料,一旦用完,永不再生.

5. Nylon...is not biodegradable—that is, there is no enzyme in any know living organism that can break it down.

尼龙不能进行生物分解—也就是说,在现存的有机物中还没有发现有哪种没酶可以分解尼龙.

6. ...living things have created a limited but self-consistent array of substances and reactions that are essential to life.

…有生命的东西创造了一系列对生命至关重要的有限但独立的物质和反应.

7. A free lunch is really a debt, in the technosphere, a debt is an acknowledged but unmet cost...

免费午餐实际上是一种债务. 在技术圈, 债务是指已承认但尚未归还的欠款….

8....when the debts represented by environmental pollution are created by the technosphere and transferred to the ecosphere, they are never canceled, damage is unavoidable.

… 当债务以技术圈制造的环境污染的形式出现,然后又转嫁到生态圈时, 这种债务将永远无

法消除.造成破坏是不可避免的.

Lesson 4

1.Each of the trees on the place had an attitude and a presence--the elm looked serene and the oak threatening, the maples friendly, the hawthorn old and crabby.

这里的每一颗树都表现出某种神态。比如,榆树看上去宁静安详，橡树则咄咄逼人，枫树亲切友好，而山楂树则老气横秋，脾气暴躁。

2. There was a keen alarm when the cry came, a wire zinging through your whole body, a fanatic feeling of devotion.

当他喊我的名字时，我会紧张万分，全身蹭地就像过了电似的，一种狂热的忠诚感油然而生。

3. One morning, of course, the job was all finished, the well capped, the pump reinstated, the fresh water marvelled at.

一天早上，工作全部完成，这是意料中的事。井口上了盖子，水泵重新安装好了，大家对清澈的井水赞叹不已。

4.In my kitchen or in hers, once a week or so, distracted by our children and sometimes reeling for lack of sleep, we stoked ourselves on strong coffee and cigarettes and launched out a rampage of talk--about our marriages, our fights, our personal deficiencies, our interesting and discreditable motives, our forgone ambitions.

我们大约每周都要在我的厨房或她的厨房聚会一次。孩子们总是不断打扰我们有时我们还会因为缺觉而感到头晕目眩，于是我们就用大量的浓咖啡和香烟给自己提神，开始天南海北的聊大天，所谈的话题无所不包：我们的婚姻，奋斗，个人的不足，既有趣又有些丢脸的动机，以及我们曾有过的理想抱负。

5. Sunny had given him fresh sheets rather than unmaking and making up again the bed he had left for me.

苏妮给了他干净的床单，免得在他留给我的床上重新叠被，铺床。

6.My sleep was shallow, my dreams monotonously lustful, with irritating and unpleasant subplots. 我睡得很浅，没完没了地做着充满情欲的梦，中间还穿插着令人不快的小情节。

7.The bushes right at the edge of the grass looked impenetrable, but close up there were little openings, the narrow paths that animals or people looking for golf balls had made.

挨着草地边上的灌木丛看上去似乎无法穿过，但走近了可以看到一些小缺口和窄窄的小径，这是给动物或者找高尔夫球的人们踩出来的。

8.It looked as if a large portion of the sky had detached itself and was bearing down, bustling and resolute, taking a not quite recognizable but animate shape.

看上去，天空的一大部分似乎脱离了主体，喧闹着、果断地压向地面，那形状虽然说不出具体像什么，但像是一种活物的样子。

9. This was more of a ritual, a recognition of survival rather than of our bodies' inclinations.

我们拥抱并不是出鱼身体的渴望，而是庆祝劫后余生的一种表示。

Lesson 5

1.The American experience was unique in a number of ways.

美国的经验在许多方面都是独特的。

2.The country was blessed by notable advantages—above all, by the the fact that population was scare in relation to available resources.

这个国家有着得天独厚的优势-主要是人口相对稀少而资源十分丰富。

3. It arose originally from a philosophical rather than an economic commitment...

它源于对思想原则的信仰，而不是出于对经济利益的追求…

4.We have found no better way than democracy to fulfill man’s talents and release his energies.

我们发现民主是使人的才智得到充分施展、人的能量得以充分发挥的最好方式。

5. We have found no better way than democracy to fulfill man's talents and release his energies...

在意识形态体系与经验主义斗争的历史上，意识形态体系曾吸引了人类历史上一些聪明绝顶的人物….

6.In its finest hours, the US has, so to speak, risen above ideology.

在她处于最佳时期时.美国可以说超越了所有的意识形态体系。

7....hat government was best which governed least...

…政府管得越少越好….

8. Ind eed, the whole ideological enterprise contradicted Jefferson’s temper, which was basically flexible and experimental.

说实在的，杰斐逊一生在意识形态体系上所做的努力与他的性格是矛盾的。他的性格特征基本上是灵活的、从经验出发的。

9. Indeed, I would suggest that we might well banish some overloaded words from intellectual discourse...(These words) are sources of heat, not of light.

我甚至建议在思想界和学术界讨论中摒弃某些用滥了的词语。… 这些词语只能是头脑发热，而不会给人以智慧的光芒。

10.Free men know many truths, but they doubt whether any mortal man knows the Truth.

自由人掌握许多具体的真理，但他们认为没有一个凡人能够掌握绝对真理。

Lesson 6

1.He stood his ground, sucking slightly at the residue of oil; a few drops leaked out of his lips while his wicked eyes, shaded by their coy little lashes, turned on me in disgust and hatred.

他站在那儿，轻轻地吸吮着剩下的油，有几滴从嘴唇边漏了出来。他看着我，害羞得短睫毛下那原本淘气的眼睛里充满了厌恶和憎恨。

2.We had been having an unseasonable spell of weather- hot, close days, with the fog shutting in every night, scaling for a few hours in midday, then creeping back again at dark, drifting in first over the trees on the point, then suddenly blowing across the fields, blotting out the world and taking possession of houses, men, and animals.

我们正经历一段非常反常的天气，闷热且雾气沉沉。浓雾每晚笼罩着村庄。中午的几个小时雾会渐渐散去，但傍晚时又悄悄地潜回，先是覆盖树梢，接着一下子飘过田地，挡住了外面的世界，将整个村庄的房屋、人和动物都裹在其中。

3.With very small, timid pigs, weanlings, this ruse is often quite successful and will encourage them

to eat; but with a large, sick pig the ruse is senseless and the sound I made must have made him feel, if anything, more miserable.

对于羞涩的、刚断奶的小猪，这一招常常很有效，能诱使他们吃东西；但对于一头生病的大猪，这个做法却丝毫没有意义，我发出的声音肯定只会让他觉得更难受。

4. From the lustiness of a healthy pig a man derives a feeling of personal lustiness; the stuff that goes into the trough and is received with such enthusiasm is an earnest of some later feast of his own, and when this suddenly comes to an end and the food lies stale and untouched, souring in the sun, the pig's imbalance becomes the man's, vicariously, and life seems insecure, displaced, transitory.

看到一头健康的猪精力充沛，人们常常感到自己也是精力充沛。看到它狼吞虎咽地吃掉食槽中的食物，人们就像是预订了今后的大餐。而当这一切突然结束，槽中的食物丝毫未动，任其在阳光下发馊时，猪的不适也就让人觉得自己也不舒服，生活变得失去了安全感、失去了平衡、变得转瞬即逝。

5.The pig's lot and mine were inextricably bound now, as though the rubber tube were the silver cord. From then until the time of his death I held the pig steadily in the bowl of my mind; the task

of trying to deliver him from his misery became a strong obsession. His suffering soon became the embodiment of all earthly wretchedness.

现在这头猪的命运和我的命运紧紧地联系在一起，似乎冲洗直肠的橡皮管就是连接我们情感的纽带。从他生病到死去，我无时无刻不想着他。如何想办法使他脱离苦海成了我心里想的唯一的事情。他的苦难很快就变成世间所有悲惨经历的写照。，

6. The awakening had been violent and I minded it all the more because I knew that what could be true of my pig could be true also of the rest of my tidy world. 1 tried to put this distasteful idea from me, but it kept recurring.

这种醒悟来得太过突然，使我深感不安，因为我知道世事难料，在猪身上发生的事情同样也有可能在我身边其他看似平静之处发生。我想忘记这个令人不快的想法，但他总是不停地出现。

7. all of us working in darkness and in comfort, working with the instinctive teamwork induced by emergency conditions, the pig unprotesting, the house shadowy, protecting, intimate.

我们大家凭着紧急情况下产生的本能的合作精神，在黑暗中默契地配合。猪并没有反抗，屋子笼罩在黑暗中，给人一种安全感和亲切感。

8. Everything about this last scene seemed overwritten - the dismal sky, the shabby woods, the imminence of rain, the worm (legendary bedfellow of the dead), the apple (conventional garnish of a pig).

关于这最后一亩的描写显得有点冗长—阴沉的天空、杂乱的树丛、即将来临的降雨，以及传说中与尸体作伴的蚯蚓和烤猪时常用作点缀的苹果。

Lesson 7

1. We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end as well as beginning—signifying renewal as well as change.

我们今天庆祝的不是党派的胜利, 而是自由的选择—象征着一个时代的结束和另一个时代的开始—意味着延续与变化。

2.United, there is little we can’t do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do—for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

如果我们团结一致，我们在一系列共同从事的事业中就可以无往而不胜。如果我们四分五裂，我们就会一事无成—因为在意见分歧，四分五裂的情况下，我们不敢迎接强有力的挑战。3. …one form of colonial control shall not ha ve passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny.

….一种殖民控制形式的消失，不应为另一种更为残酷的暴政所取代。

4. … and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger and ended up inside.

….要记住，在过去，那些愚蠢地想靠与虎谋皮而得势的最终都为虎所食。

5.…we renew our pledge of support—to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective—to strength its shield of the new and the weak—and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.…

我们重申我们的支持—不让其变成一个相互指责的论坛—加强其对新生国家和弱小国家的保护—扩大其主导作用的领域。

6. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they

will never be employed.

只有当我们的军力强大无比时，我们才有把握永不使用武力。

7.Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

我们永远不会由于恐惧而去谈判，但我们永不畏惧谈判。

8. And if a beached of cooperation may push back the jungles of suspicion…

如果小小的一点合作能驱散深深的猜疑…

9. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course.

同胞们，我们事业最终的失败不是掌握在我手中，而是掌握在你们手中。

10. Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

不要问你的国家能为你做什么，要自问你能为你的国家作何贡献。

Lesson 8

1.When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant – a combined gardener and cook – had seen in at least ten years.

艾米丽·格里尔森小姐过世了，我们全镇人都去参加她的葬礼。男人们去是出于一种尊敬，因为一座纪念碑倒下了；女人们则大多是出于好奇，想看看她房子里面到底是什么样的。因为除了一位兼任花匠和厨师的老男仆之外，至少有十年没人进去看过了。

2.And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson.

现在艾米丽小姐也加入到那些名门望族代表的行列之中了。他们在令人沉思的雪松的陪伴下长眠于公墓，他们的墓碑周围埋葬着一排排南北战争中在杰斐逊战场上阵亡的南军和北军的

无名战士。

3.Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.

艾米丽小姐在世时，一直是传统的化身，履行职责和给予关照的对象，这是全镇人沿袭下来的一种义务。

4.They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow.

老黑鬼把他们引进光线黯淡的门厅，厅里的楼梯通向更加阴暗的楼上。

5.And when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sunray.

当他们坐下时，一股细细的灰尘在他们大腿周围慢慢扬起，尘粒在孤独的太阳光束中缓缓地旋转着。

6.Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her.

她的骨架小而瘦，也许这就是为什么别人穿起来只是显得丰满的服装在她身上却显得肥胖。

7.So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily’s lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder.

于是，第二天午夜之后，四个男人穿过艾米丽家的草坪，如同窃贼般在她屋子里潜行，沿着房子砖基部分以及地窖的通风处使劲地嗅着。其中一个人不时地将手从背在肩上的麻袋里掏出，做出一个播种的动作。

8.They had not even been represented at the funeral.

他们甚至没有派代表出席葬礼。

9.Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up.

艾米丽小姐只是盯着她，他的头向后仰，以便能与他对视，直到他移开视线转而去取砒霜并打包。

10.Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows – she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house – like the carven torso of an idol in a niche, looking or not looking at us, we could never tell which.

有时我们在楼下的一个窗口可以看到她，显然她已封闭了顶楼，她的身影就像供奉在壁龛里的一尊雕刻成的神像躯体，我们永远分辨不出她是否在看着我们。

Lesson 9

1.They have put in the window the cardboard sign that has a pound measure printed on each of three edges – 10 lbs., 25 lbs., 50 lbs. – and No Ice on the fourth.

他们在窗上挂了一块硬纸板做的牌子，上面的三边分别写着10磅、25磅、50磅，第四边写着“不加冰”。

2.They go to land-grant colleges, normal schools, and learn how to do the white man’s work with refinement: home economics to prepare his food; teacher education to instruct black children in obedience; music to soothe the weary master and entertain his blunted soul.

她们就读于政府拨款的大学以及师范学院。她们学习如何把服务白人丈夫的工作做得更细致：学家政是为了给他们烧菜做饭；当老师是为了教育黑人孩子顺从；学音乐是为了抚慰疲惫的主人以及娱乐他那麻木的灵魂。

3A sidelong look will be enough to tell him to smoke on the back porch.

一个斜视便足以告诉他抽烟应该到房后的走廊那边。

4.At her gentlest touch he will preen, stretch, and open his mouth.

在她最温柔的抚摸下，他舔着毛、伸着懒腰、张开嘴巴。

5.Junior considered the playground his own, and the schoolchildren coveted his freedom to sleep late, go home for lunch, and dominate the playground after school.

朱尼尔把操场当做是自己的，小学生们都羡慕他有这么多的自由，可以睡懒觉，可以回家吃午饭，放学后还可以统治整个操场。

6.More than anything in the world he wanted to play King of the Mountain and have them push him down the mound of dirt and roll over him.

比起这个世界上的任何东西，他最想玩“山丘之王”的游戏，被他们推下土山坡，让他们在他身上滚过去。

7.She was deep in admiration of the flowers wh en Junior said, “Here!”

当朱尼尔说“给你”的时候，她正深深地欣赏着那些花儿。

8.Pecola’s banging on the door increased his gasping, high-pitched laughter.

佩克拉拼命拍门让他笑得更厉害了。他尖声笑着，几乎喘不过气。

9.But she could not hold it low enough to avoid seeing the snowflakes falling and dying on the pavement.

但是就算她把头垂得再低，也不足以避免看到雪花纷纷飘落到人行道上并立刻消融。

Lesson 10

1.But it is on the middle classes that the eye of the critic rests – just as it rests on the poor in Russia and on the aristocracy in Japan.

但是，最吸引评论者关注的是中产阶级，正如在俄国人们关注的是穷人，在日本人们关注贵族一样。

2.How perfectly it expresses their character – far better, for instance, than does the university, into which social and spiritual complexities have already entered.

它比例如带有社会与精神的复杂性的大学更充分的表现了他们的特性。参考资料翻译：英国公学制度比大学更充分地表现了英国中产阶级的特性。社会与精神的复杂性已经进入大学。

3.In all these careers his education, or the absence of it, influences him.

在上述事业中，他所受的教育，或者说没有受到的教育，深深地影响着他。

4.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.

他们心怀遗憾地怀念那段金色时光。那时生活虽然艰苦，但还不算复杂。他们同学习、同游戏、同思考，如果说他们思考的话。他们受到的教育告诉他们，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。

5.They go forth into it with well-developed bodies, fairly developed minds, and undeveloped hearts.他们进入社会时，体魄健全，大脑发育还算可以，但是心的发育则不健全。

6.He could not express his sorrow too much. But in me the Englishman came out strong.

他过度地表达出自己的悲伤，但是在我身上则变现出强烈的英国人特性。

7.Shelley, at all events, believes that the wealth of the spirit is endless; that we may express it copiously, passionately, and always; and that we can never feel sorrow or joy to acutely.

无论怎样，雪莱相信精神的财富是无穷无尽的。他相信我们可以大量地、充满激情地、经常地表达我们的情感；我们永远都不能觉得悲伤或者欢乐过于剧烈。

8.The Frenchmen responded at once; the Englishmen responded in time.

法国人立即做出反应，而英国人则需过一段时间才做出反应。

9.It acts promptly and feels slowly. Such a combination is fruitful, and anyone who possesses it has gone a long way toward being brave.

它行动迅速，感觉却迟缓。这二者的结合富有成效，具备这一结合的人多半都很勇敢。10.But she has a merciless eye for questions of conduct, and the classical example of two English people muddling themselves before they embark upon a wrong course of action is to be found in the opening chapters of Sense and Sensibility.

但是在观察行为问题时，她的目光冷酷无情。她的小说《理智与情感》开头前几章提供了一个经典的例子——两个英国人在开始一项错误的做法之前是如何先犯糊涂的。

11.From villainies such as these the average Englishman is free. His character, which prevents his rising to certain heights, also prevents him from sinking to these depths.

普通的英国人没有这样的恶行。他的性格会阻碍他上升到一定的高度，同时也防止他堕落到这样的深度。

12.The nations must understand one another, and quickly; and without the interposition of their governments, for the shrinkage of the globe is throwing them into one another’s arms.

各民族必须互相了解，而且要快，不要政府的插手和干预，因为世界在缩小，正把他们抛向对方的怀中。参考资料翻译：……，因为世界在缩小，这使得他们不可避免地要进行接触。

Lesson 11

1.If we trace the universe back to its origins in the Big Bang, we find the multiplicity of things fusing into greater and greater simplicity, until at the moment of creation itself there is only pure undifferentiated energy.

如果我们追溯宇宙的起源到原始大爆炸，我们就会发现众多的事物逐渐合并成越来越简单的事物，直到创世的那一刻时，就只剩下纯粹而无区别的能量了。

2.I also believe this primal energy continues to feed us, directly through the goods of creation, and indirectly through the experience of beauty.

我还认为这种原始能源继续在给我们提供能量，直接地是通过世间万物，间接地是通过美的感受。

3.I study images of quasars giving birth to galaxies, galaxies whirling in the shapes of pinwheels, supernovas ringed by strands of luminous debris, and all the while I am delving back toward that utter beginning when you and I and my daughter and her new husband and the bright heavenly host were joined in the original burst of light.

我研究类星体产生星系的图像，这些星系如同玩具风车一样旋转，超新星被一缕缕发光的星体残骸所包围。我不断地探索宇宙的开端，追溯到你、我、我的女儿、她的新婚丈夫以及天空中闪闪发光的星星汇合成原始大耀光。

4.The stimulus might be the sheen of moonlight on the needles of a white pine, or the iridescent glimmer on a dragonfly’s tail. It might be bird song or Bach sonata or the purl of water over stone. It might be a line of poetry, the savor of bread, the sway of a bough or a bow. The provocation might be as grand as a mountai n sunrise or as humble as an icicle’s jeweled tip, yet in each case a familiar surge of gratitude and wonder wells up in me.

这一刺激也许来自倾泻在白松松针上的月光，或是蜻蜓尾部彩虹色的微光。它可能来自小鸟的歌唱、巴赫的奏鸣曲或流水淌过石头的潺潺声。它可能来自一行诗、面包的香味、树枝或琴弓的摇摆。它可能如同高山日出般雄伟壮观，或如冰柱晶莹的柱尖般谦卑，但不管是何种起因，每次我内心都会涌起同样的感激和惊叹。

5.Do my sensory thrills tell me anything about the world? Does beauty reveal a kinship between my small self and the great cosmos, or does my desire for meaning only fool me into thinking so?

感官的激情是否让我对世界有所了解呢？是美揭示了小自我与大世界之间的紧密关系还是我对事物内涵的追求让我愚蠢地这样认为呢？

6.Mustn’t beauty be shallow if it can be painted on? Mustn’t beauty be a delusion if it can blink off and on like a flickering bulb?

如果美可以被描绘，就一定不会是肤浅的吗？如果它能够像闪烁的灯泡般断断续续地闪光，就一定不会是一种错觉吗？

7.If we take a ride through the suburbs and study the rolling acres of lawn dotted with clumps of trees and occasional ponds, what do we see but a faithful simulation of the African savanna where humans first lived.

如果我们坐车穿越郊区，观察一下占地好几英亩的起伏的草坪，点缀其间的树丛及偶尔出现的池塘，我们所看到的不就是人类最早居住的非洲热带大草原的忠实翻版吗？

8.Just so, I believe, the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power that permeate the universe.

因此，我相信对美的感受是弥漫于宇宙中的秩序与能量的共鸣。

Lesson 12

1.As Greek food goes, I was lucky.

就希腊菜肴而言，我是幸运的。

2.If you do not drink ouzo as an aperitif in a Greek provincial town, you go without.

如果在希腊一个地方城市你不把茴香烈酒当做开胃酒喝的话，你就没到过那里。参考资料翻译：……，那你就只好不喝。

3.Where there was once a narrow pass, there is no room for road and rail, and fields that lap round the corner.

起初这里只是一条狭窄的通道，现在已经宽到可以通公路和铁路了，农田一直延伸到山的拐角处。

4.When that assembly of nations heaved itself off the earth and marched, the ground shuddered like the head of a drum.

当来自各国的军队起步行进时，大地颤抖，声如擂鼓。

5.It is said that Xerxes leaped from his throne three times in terror for his whole army.

据说薛西斯由于担心军心不稳，三次从皇帝宝座上跳了起来。

6.At any moment, rumor could have sent those savage levies scrambling away into the mountains.谣言随时都可能让这些强征来的野蛮人组成的军队争先跑进山里面。参考资料翻译：……作鸟兽散，匆忙逃进周围的高山。

7.Obscurely, and in part, I understood what it had meant to Leonidas when he looked up at these cliffs in the dawn light and saw that their fledging of pines was not thick enough to hide the glitter of arms.

朦胧地，我在某种程度上懂得了当利奥尼达斯在拂晓的晨光中抬头看着那些悬崖峭壁，看到松针不够茂密得足以将兵器的锋芒掩盖之时，对他来说意味着什么。

8.If the rest of Greece beyond the wall did not unite and make its stand, the game was up.

如果在墙的那一边的希腊余部不能联合起来抵抗，那么一切都完了。

9.It is famous for its reticence and simplicity – has been translated a hundred times but can only be paraphrased.

它以其含蓄与简洁著称——虽已被译过上百次，但也只能是意译而已。