大学英语精读第册课文全文翻译

2020年12月4日发(作者：祁豸佳)
大学英语精读第5册和第6册全文课文翻译
一番说教

也许老师比学生更容易理解，为什么学
A Kind of Sermon
It is probably easier for teachers than
生在掌握了英语基本 结构和句型后英语学
惊奇并失望地发现本来应该变得越来越容
易的学习过程却完全不是那么回事 。
在其努力所产生的效果似乎不及一开始明
for students to appreciate the reasons why
习反而变得越来越困难了。学生们自然感到
learning English seems
once
to become
increasingly difficult the
在知道老师
basic
学生们并不感到多少安慰，
structures and patterns of the language
显也会灰心丧气。他发现那些学生很容易去
have been understood. Students are
教，为他们能把所学的知识很快的用于实
践。可现在，他们却面对前阶段中从未学过
学生们在艰难地努力着，因为他们以前认为
眼花的 成语，陈旧用语以及在不同上下文中
有不同含义的惯用词组。 要想让他们相信
定提高是很困难的。并且，只要肯花时间和
有些学生在此情况下厌恶地 放弃了学
习，这并不出人意外；同时，另一些学生仍
们以满怀信心的指导。从教师这方面看，由
naturally surprised and disappointed to
的大量生词，惯用法显得踌躇不前。他看到
discover that a process which ought to
已经认识的语言现在似乎充满了令人头昏
become simpler does not appear to do so.
他们英语就一
It may not seem much consolation to
他们仍朝着精通的方向发展，
point out that the teacher, too, becomes
持之以恒。
frustrated when his efforts appear to
produce less obvious results. He finds that
然充满希望地盼着老师象开始时那样给他
students who were easy to teach, because
于往往不得不去讲解一些无法说清楚的东
他常常会对同 事们引用一些谚语权充台
they succeeded in putting everything they
西，
阶，比如：你能牵马河边走，马不饮水你自
倒 不在乎说什么，关键瞧您怎么说。他的学
生则会反唇相讥道：我越学越糊涂。
识，即学习中遇到的较复杂的语言结构在表
had been taught into practice, hesitate
愁， 或说得比较尊重对方但语法并不严谨：
when confronted with the vast untouched
师生们正体验着一种共
area of English vocabulary and usage which
事实当然并非如此。
falls outside the scope of basic textbooks.
达思想中并非至关重要，因此也就少有可能
He sees them struggling because the
立刻派上用场。出于同样的理由，在老师看
来，恰当地选择教材变得 更困难了。任选一
某个特定日子里你想吃的菜要容易多了。
language they thought they knew now
种食品比从品种繁多的菜单上单挑一道在
你可建议学生
appears to consist of a bewildering variety
界定问题易于找出答 案。
去讲英语的国家住两三年，这等于撒手不管
常言道：广泛阅读是最佳替代办法，但读书也应有所选择。让学生走进图书馆随便拿起
会这样劝他们；读无需查字典就懂的书（但
of idioms, clichéd and accepted phrases
他们。没有几个学生陪得起时间花得起钱。
with different meanings in different
contexts. It is hard to convince them that
他们遇到的第一本书就读，这是无用的。我
they are still making progress towards
并非过眼即懂的书），读你感兴趣的书； 读
fluency and that their English is certain to
improve, given time and dedication.
时间允许的书（杂志和报纸，而不是长篇小
说，除非你能在一周左右 读完它）；读现在
写的文章，而不是二百年前的文章；读得尽
量多一些，并尽量记住写作方法， 而不要拘
文章，你应该听文章。
从某种意义上说，我对教师的劝告也是
以，或任何语言都有用。让学生没有掌握表
In such circumstances it is hardly
泥于令你困惑的个别单词。并且，代之以读
surprising that some give up in disgust,
while others still wait hopefully for the
相同的。我会说：最好不要认为学什么都可
teacher to give them the same confident
达方法就去表达自己的思想是无益的。正象
guidance he was able to offer them at first.
在山脚下你弃老路而择近道一样，在距山顶
不远 处你也仍应尽心尽责为他们指一条攀
难以举步，全队则需返回，你应另择佳途。
The teacher, for his part, frequently reduced
顶之最佳路线。如果你选的路线荆棘丛生，
to trying to explain the inexplicable, may
你仍是雇用向导和登山专家，总能找到一条
take refuge in quoting proverbs to his
登顶之路。
colleagues such as:
water but you can't what you say. It's the
way that you say it.
inclined to counter these with:
learn, the less I know.
Of course this is not true. What both
students and teachers are experiencing is
the recognition that the more complex
structures one encounters in a language are
第五种自由
一小群 早期拓荒者为了寻找在
他们自己的祖国已不存在的自由，在
三百多年前远涉重洋，来到詹姆斯敦
和普列茅斯。自由我们今天仍然格外
珍惜。它们是：脱离贫穷，消除恐惧、
言论以及宗 教信仰的自由。如今这些
拓荒者的后代以及后来加入其行列
的新老移民仍然在美国本土和世界< br>各地为这些自由而奋斗着。
与此同时还存在着第五种自由，
也是上述四种自由 之基石，我们有丢
失它的危险。它是达到个人成就顶峰
的自由，在法国作家圣?埃克休帕里的作品里，一个破衣烂衫却长得聪明
伶俐的阿拉伯少年，经常闲逛于北非
not as vital to making oneself understood
某城市，被描写成一个被埋没的莫扎
特，他不可能受到训练或培养。这个
and so have a less immediate field of
孩子有自由吗？“在还来得及的时 候
却得为到培养。你也许很可能有着与
application. For the same reason, from the
生俱来的成为诗人、音乐家或天文学
家的潜能，但却不可 能被唤醒了。完
teacher's point of view, selecting what
善自我的自由是一种让每个人把自
should be taught becomes a more difficult
己的能力发展到最高水平的机会。
在美国我们为什么会开始失去
task. It is much easier to get food of any
这一自由呢？如何为我国的青年人
重新获得这一自由呢？它之所以开
kind than to choose the dish you would
始从我们身边悄然离去，我认为是由
于以下三种误解所导致的。首先是对
most like to eat on a given day from a vast
民主的误解。在费城、一所名牌中学
的校长被迫大声疾呼，号召人们反对
menu.
一种观点，即认为给尖子生吃小灶是
Defining the problem is easier than
不民主的。再如，当孟菲斯的一所教
学质量好的私立学校在不 久前停办
providing the solution. One can suggest
时，一些有头脑的市民力主将其纳入
公立学校系统，专门用来培养尖子人
that students should spend two or three
才。他们主张要设入学条件并为有兴
years in an English- speaking country, which
趣、有能力的学生提供高级研修课
程。然而这项建议竟遭反对，理由是
amounts to washing one's hands of them.
这样做不民主！据此，课程均被定位
在中等难度。尖子生未受到挑战，情
Few students have the time or the money to
绪低落，差生也能及格。没有为优等
do that. It is often said that wide reading is
生开设的培优课程，没有每位男女生
都必须达到的标准反而带来了民主。
the time or the money to do that. It is often
其次是对幸福的误解。我们当今
文化的取向明白无误地直指安逸和
said that wide reading is the best
物质享受，更少的日工作小时和周工
作 日，干得更少，拿得更多，更多的
alternative course of action but even here it
滑头的借口，更少实实在在的要求。
is necessary to make some kind of
反映到我们的学校里，便是精神病 医
生取代了教鞭。以前用教鞭当然有不
selection. It is no use telling students to go
妥的时候，如今的精神病医生也功不
可没。但趁势是显而易见的。Ｔｏｕ
to the library and pick up the first book they
ｒ ｃｏｍｐｒｅｎｄ ｃ’ｅｓｔ
ｐａｒｄｏｎｅｒ（原谅了一切才理
come across. My own advice to them would
解了一切。）我们真的相信较松的标
be:
准能带来幸福吗？象某些教育专家
建议的，用玩娃娃取代难学的古典文
having to look up words in a dictionary (but
学和数学。这难道 是我们经过深思熟
虑作出的判断吗？无怪乎黎巴嫩驻
马立克会这样写
not what you can understand at a glance);
联合国代表查尔斯·
道： “在西方（美国）普遍存在着道
read what interests you; read what you
德滑坡。（我们的）领导似乎无从应
付史无前例的时代的挑战。”
have time for (magazines and newspapers
最后是对价值观的误解。这里仅举几
rather than novels unless you can read the
项在过去五十年里在师范教育界最
具影响的信仰，永恒的真理是不存在
whole novel in a week or so); read the
的；绝对的道德准则是不存在 的；上
帝是不存在的。但人类全部的历史却
English written today, not 200 years ago;
告诉我们：否定这些基本原则，置人
或国家于宇宙之中心，将导致使世界
read as much as you can and try to
瘫痪的整体自私自利。而这恶果却已
remember the way it was written rather
令人恐怖地初现端倪。
阿诺德?汤因比曾经说，一切进
than individual words that puzzled you.
步，一切发展均来自挑战以及相应的
反应。而没有挑战，当然也没有 了反
And instead of
应，没有了进步，没有了自由。因此，
首先我们要为我们的孩子提供最艰
say
深，最具挑战性的在其力所能及的范
My advice to teachers would be similar
围内的课程。米开朗基罗学画时可不
是心不在焉的乱画。莫扎特要是整天
in a way. I would say
看电视，也就不可能在八岁就成为小
有名气的钢琴家。正象伊芙·居里和海
that anything will do, or that all language is
伦·凯勒一样，他们都是以严格的训练
useful. It's no good relying on students to
来面对挑战。并且赢得了新的自由。
我们可以给我们的男孩女孩们
express themselves without the right tools
的第二个机会乃是有权失败。 “自由
不仅仅是一种特权，而且也是一种考
for expression. It's still your duty to choose
验，”德·纽伊写道。一个不允许失败
的考验是一种什么样的考验呢？这
the best path to follow near the top of the
种自由又将是什么自由呢：美国能为
mountain just as it was to propose a
每一位来听上四年高中课程的学生,
发张高中文凭。但不管是否学到东< br>practicable short-cut away from the beaten
西，这个时代已一去不复返了。我们
生活在一个变得越来越小的世界里，
track in the foothills. And if the path you
我们必须知晓现实主义，并对其保持
警觉；而现实主义所要求的标准应是
choose is too overgrown to make further
一种要么必须达到，要么达不到的标
progress, the whole party will have to go
准。这种说法过于严酷，但也句句是
实。如果剥夺了我们的孩子失败的权
back and you will have to choose another
力，也就是剥夺了他们认识真实世界
的权力。
route. You are still the paid guide and
最后，我们应让孩子们全面了解
我们已经找到的最好的价值。通过把
expert and there is a way to the top
我们的生活与各个时代，可资证明的
事件联系起来，通过已经过历史证明
somewhere.
为最真实的价值观来评判我们的人< br>生哲学。我们也许能够提供一种充满
The Fifth Freedom
真理、内容翔实、满足我们的思维，
More than three centuries ago a handful
打劫我们心扉、燃起希望之火的，时
时萦绕于耳的启示，一种受用终生的
of pioneers crossed the ocean t Jamestown
启示。这是一个意味着快乐力量和领
袖才能的启示—即自由而非奴役。
and Plymouth in search of freedoms they
美好生活的秘决
were unable to find in their own countries,
the freedoms of we still cherish today:
freedom from want, freedom from fear,
freedom of speech, freedom of religion.
Today the descendants of the early settlers,
and those who have joined them since, are
fighting to protect these freedoms at home
and throughout the world.
And yet there is a fifth freedom - basic
to those four - that we are in danger of
losing: the freedom to be one's best. St.
Exupery describes a ragged,
sensitive-faced Arab child, haunting the
streets of a North African town, as a lost
Mozart: he would never be trained or
developed. Was he free?
这个世纪心理学领域里最重要
的 发现就是“自我行象”。无论意识到
与否，我们每个人大脑中都有一幅关
于自己的蓝图或画像。 如果我们有意
识地去注视它，这个心象也许地会显
得模糊不清、难以界定。事实上，它
也许完全不能被有意识地辨认出来。
但它确实存在而且细节分明。这个自
我心象就是我们关于“ 我是哪种人”的
自我概念。它是建立在我们关于自己
的信念之上的。但这大部分的关于我
们自己的信念是在无意识中通过我
们过去的经验、我们的成功和失败、
我们遭受的屈辱、我们 的胜利以及别
人对我们所作出的反应，尤其是在儿
童时期对我们的反应等等形成的。通
过以上种种经历，我们在大脑中建立
了一个“自我”（或是一个关于自我的
画像。）一旦某种关 于我们自己的想
法和信念进入到这幅图象当中，就我
们自己而言，它即变成了“真实”。我们从不过问它的正确性，而是按此行
事，似乎它确实是真的。
这个自我心象由于有了两个重
要的发现而变成了打开通往更美好
生活之门的金钥匙。
１、你所有的行动、情感、举止
—甚至你的能力—总是与这个自我
you by the shoulder while there was still
心象保持一致。
简言之，你将按照构想中的你去
time; and nought will awaken in you the
行事。
不仅如此，无论你尽多大有意识
sleeping poet or musician or astronomer
的努力或有怎样的毅力，你都不可能
有其他的行为模式。
that possibly inhabited you from the
一位认定自己属于“失 败型”的人
beginning.
们会设法去失败，尽管他有着良好的
愿望或意志力， 即便有时幸运之神已
the chance for the development of each
经来敲门了。一位认定自己是非正义
的受害者的人，一位“注定要遭灾的
person to his highest power.
人”，他将总是寻找一些根据去证实自
己的观点。
How is it that we in America have begun
自我心象是个“前提”，一个基地
to lose this freedom, and how can we regain
或基础，在此之上你建立起你全部的
个性、举止甚至你的生活环境。由此，
it for our nation's youth? I believe it has
我们的生活经验总象是去证实并因
此而加强我们的自我心象。并且，也
started slipping away from us because of
就视具体情况不同而建立起一套恶
性或良性循环。
three misunderstandings.
例如，一位把自己看作“失败”型
First, the misunderstanding of the
的学校男生，一位数学上 很“笨”的学
生，将总是发现他的成绩报告单往往
meaning of democracy. The principal of a
证明他判断的正确性。于是他便有了
“证据”。一位自我心象为不讨人喜欢
great Philadelphia high school is driven to
的小女孩，会发现在学校的舞会上大
cry for help in combating the notion that it
家确实老是躲着她。她的的确确是在
自寻冷遇。她那一脸苦相、羞臊的举
is undemocratic to run a special program of
止、过于想取悦别人的心态，或者也
许是她无意之间对她觉得会冒犯她
studies for outstanding boys and girls.
的人的敌意，这一切把她本应能够吸
引过来的人都赶走了。同样地，一位
Again, when a good independent school in
售货员或一位商人也会发现他实际
Memphis recently closed, some thoughtful
经历过的事趋向于“证明”他的自我心
象是正确无误的。
citizens urged that it be taken over by the
由于有这个客观的“证明”，一个
人就很难发觉他的问题正是出在他
public school system and used for boys and
的自我心象或他对自己的评价上。告
诉那位男生他只是“认为”自己无法学
girls of high ability, what it have entrance
会代数。那他就会怀疑你的判断力。
requirements and give an advanced
他试了又试，可成绩单却总是一样。
告诉售货员他挣的钱不会超过某个
program of studies to superior students
数字也只是一个想法而已。他就会拿
出订单证明你错了。他太了解他曾怎
who were interested and able to take it. The
样艰苦地尝 试过并失败了的。然而，
就象我们将要看到的那样，学生的成
proposal was rejected because it was
绩和售货员的业务能力几乎是奇迹
般地改 变了在他们听劝改变自我心
undemocratic! Thus, courses are geared to
象之后。
the middle of the class. The good student is
２、自我心象能被改变。大量例
子表明无论年长或年幼都可改变自
unchallenged, bored. The loafer receives
我心象并由此开始新的生活。一个很
难让人改变其生活习惯、人格或，其
his passing grade. And the lack of an
生活方式的原因之一仍是： 到目前为
止，几乎所有的试图改变的努力都是
outstanding course for the outstanding
朝着可以说是自我的外围，而不是中
student, the lack of a standard which a boy
心进行的。很多病人对我说了如下的
话： “如果你要讲什么‘积极思维’我
or girl must meet, passes for democracy.
以前早试过了，只是对我无效。”然而，
如果细问一下，我们就会明白这些人
The second misunderstanding concerns
所用的“积极思维”或他们想要用的
“积极思维”，只是针对某个具体的外
what makes for happiness. The aims of our
部情况，或是一些个别的习惯或性
present-day culture are avowedly ease and
格缺陷（“我要得到那份工作”） “以
后我要更冷静和放松。” “这次商业冒
material well-being: shorter hours; a
险会对我有利”等等，但是他们从未想
过要改变对将去干 这些事的“自我”的
shorter week; more return for less
看法。
accomplishment; more softsoap excuses
耶稣警告我们把一块新布补在
旧衣上，或是把新酒倒入旧瓶中都是
“积极思维”不可能被有效地
and fewer honest, realistic demands. In our
愚蠢的。
当做一个补丁或拐杖用于旧的自我
schools this is reflected by the vanishing
心象上。事实上，你绝对不会积极地
去思考某个具体问题，如果你是对自
hickory stick and the emerging psychiatrist.
我持的是否定态度的话并且，大量实
The hickory stick had its faults, and the
验表明：一旦关于 自我的概念改变
了，其他与新自我相一致的事物就很
psychiatrist has his strengths. But hickory
容易完成，且无需绞尽脑汁。
已故普斯科特?莱基曾作过一个
stick had its faults, and the psychiatrist has
实验，也是最早期且最具说服力的实
验之一。自我心象心理学先驱之一，
his strengths. But the trend is clear. Tout
他假定个性是一个思想体系，其中所
comprendre c'est tout pardoner (To
有的思想看上去必须是相互一致、相
互协调的。与该体系不一致的 思想是
understand everything is to excuse
被排斥的 ，不被相信的并且不被用作
行动的指南。而与该系统相一致的思
everything). Do we really believe that our
想则被接受。在这个思想体系的最中
心—核心思想—其他思想均建立在
softening standards bring happiness? Is it
其之上的基础思想就是
一个人的“自我概念”，他的“自我
our sound and considered judgment that
心象”，或他对自己的否定。莱基是位
the tougher subjects of the classics and
学校教师，因此有机会在学生中检验
他的理论。
mathematics should be thrown aside, as
根据莱基的理论，如果一位学习
某门功课有困难，这可能是因为（从
suggested by some educators, for
学生的角度看）他不合适于那门课。
然而莱基相信如果你能够改变学生
doll- playing? Small wonder that Charles
之所以有这种观点的自我认定的模
Malik, Lebanese delegate at the U.N.,
式，他对那门课的态度也会随之改
变。如果学生听劝改变他的自我定
writes:
义，他的学习能力也将改变。这一点
已经被证实。一位写100个词就错
States ) .
55个，并由于多门功课不及格而失
去了一年学分的学生，在第二年里每
(Our) leadership does not seem to be
门成绩平均９１分，并成为学校拼写
adequate to the unprecedented challenges
最好者之一；一位由于成绩不佳而从
学院退学的男生进了哥伦比亚大学
of the age.
并成为全优生，一位４次都没通过拉
丁文考试的女生在与学校顾问谈了
The last misunderstanding is in the area
三次话后，拉丁语课程以８４分通过
of values. Here are some of the most
了，一位被一个考试机关告之他没有
学英语的天赋的男生第二年获得 了
influential tenets of teacher education over
文学荣誉奖。
这些学生的问题不是他们笨或
the past fifty years: there is no eternal
缺乏基本能力。问题在于一个不正确
的自我心象（“我没有学数学的脑袋”，
truth; there is no absolute moral law; there
“我天生写不好字”）他们认为自己与
is no God. Yet all of history has taught us
错误和失败是共存的。他们不是说：
“我那次 考试失败了”（事实上的，描
而是下结论道：“我是个失败
that the denial of these ultimates, the
述性的）
者。”他们不是说：“我那门功课考糟
placement of man or state at the core of the
了”而是说：“我是个糟糕的学生。”< br>对于那些有兴趣多读点莱基的着作
universe, results in a paralyzing mass
的人，我推荐一本他的书：《自我一
selfishness; and the first signs of it are
致，一个关于个性的理论》海岛出版
社，纽约州，纽约市。
already frighteningly evident.
Arnold Toynbee has said that all
progress, all development come from
challenge and a consequent response.
Without challenge there is no response, no
development, no freedom. So first we owe
to our children the most demanding,
challenging curriculum that is within their
capabilities. Michelangelo did not learn to
paint by spending his time doodling. Mozart
was not an accomplished pianist at the age
of eight as the result or spending his days in
front of a television set. Like Eve Curie, like
Helen Keller, they responded to the
challenge of their lives by a disciplined
training: and they gained a new freedom.
The second opportunity we can give our
boys and girls is the right to failure.

writes De Nouy. What kind of a test is it,
what kind of freedom where no one can fail?
The day is past when the United States can
afford to give high school diplomas to all
who sit through four years of instruction,
尾声(摘自牛虻)
她手里拿着信，静静地站了一会
儿， 然后在敞开的窗旁坐下读了起
来。信是用铅笔写的，密密麻麻，有
些地方几乎难以辨认了，但头 两个字
却清晰地跃然纸上，字是用英语写
的：
“亲爱的吉姆，”
字迹突然变得模糊不清，象蒙上
了一层雾。她又一次失去了他—又一
次失去了他！一看到那熟悉 的带孩子
气的小名，她的心又一次被那种失去
亲人无助的痛楚所攫住。她茫然绝望
地伸 出双手，好象压盖在他身上的土
块，正沉沉地压向自己的心上。
不一会，她又拿起信，接着往下
读：
“明天一早，太阳升起之时，我就
要被 枪毙；所以如果我真的要信守诺
言，告诉你一切的话，现在就必须兑
现了。不过，我们之间毕竟 没有多少
需要解释的。我们彼此总能心领神
会，不需过多的言语；甚至当我们还
是两个 小不点的时候就已如此了。”
“所以，亲爱的，你不必再为过去
regardless of whether any visible results
的那一耳光而伤心了；当然，那是重
can be discerned. We live in a narrowed
重的一击,但是我一生中经受过多次
world where we must be alert, awake to
如此沉重的打击，我都设法挺过来
realism; and realism demands a standard
了，—甚至还反击了几次。此刻，我
which either must be met or result in
仍象我们读过的小人书里（书名我忘
failure. These are hard words, but they are
记了）的那条鲭鱼那样“活蹦乱跳的
brutally true. If we deprive our children of
哟！”。不过这是我最后一跳了，明天
the right to fail we deprive them of their
一早，“喜剧结束了！”你我也可这样
knowledge of the world as it is.
翻译：“杂耍结束了”同时，我们还得
Finally, we can expose our children to
感谢众神，至少，他们给了我们如此
the best values we have found. By relating
多的恩惠，虽不是大恩大惠，这就算
our lives to the evidences of the ages, by
是幸运的了。对这一切和其他所有的
judging our philosophy in the light of values
恩赐，我们真应该好好感谢！
我希望
that history has proven truest, perhaps we
“还是明天早上的那件事，
shall be able to produce that
你和玛蒂尼都能清楚地明白：我十分
message, full of content and truth,
地快活和满足，不能向命运之神要求
satisfying the mind, appealing to the heart,
更好的结局了。请替我把这些话转达
firing the will, a message on which one can
给玛蒂尼；他是一个好人，一个好同
stake his whole is the message
志，他会理解的。亲爱的，你瞧，我
that could mean joy and strength and
知道那些极端保守的人这么急于恢
leadership -- freedom as opposed to
复秘密审讯和秘密处决实际上是帮
serfdom.
了我们的忙，而给他们自己帮了倒
忙。我也知道，如果你们活下来的人
Your Key to a Better Life

The most important psychological of
紧密地团结在一起奋力反击，你们就
this century is the discovery of the
会取得伟大的胜利。至于我，我 会象

准备回家度假的孩子那样，带着轻松
each of us carries about with us a mental
的心情走到外面的院子里去。我已经
blueprint or picture of ourselves. It may be
完成了我的那份工作，这死刑判决正
vague and ill-defined to our conscious gaze.
好证明了我工作完成得十分彻底。他
In fact, it may not be consciously
们杀了我，是因为他们害怕我。一个
recognizable at all. But it is there, complete
人能这样，还渴望得到别的什么呢？
我还渴望一件事情。一个
down to the last detail. This self-image is
“不过，
our own conception of the
快要死的人有权拥有个人幻想，我的
has been built up from our own
愿望就是让你明白我为什么一直对
beliefs about ourselves. But most of these
你象头愠怒的野兽，为什么老是忘不
beliefs about ourselves have unconsciously
掉宿怨。当然，你是清楚的，但是我
been formed our past experiences, our
还是想告诉你，仅仅是为了享受写这
successes and failures, our humiliations,
几个字的乐趣，我爱过你，琼玛，当
our triumphs, and the way other people
你还是个身穿花条布衫背后拖着一
have reacted to us, especially in early
条辫子的丑丫头时，我就爱上了你。
childhood. From all these we mentally
现在依然爱你。你还记得那天我吻了
而你却央求我：“再别这样干
construct a
你的手，
Once an idea or a belief about ourselves
了”这件事吗？我知道这是一个卑劣
goes into this picture it becomes
的手段，但你一定要原谅我，现在我
far as we personally are concerned. We do
又吻着写有你名字的信纸。所以，我
not question its validity, but proceed to act
已经吻过你两次了，每次都没经过你
upon it just as if it were true.
的同意。
This self-image becomes a golden key
“就说这些，别了，亲爱的。”
to living a better life because of two
信尾没有签名，而是写着他们童
important discoveries:
年时一起学过的一首诗句：
我都是一
1. All your actions, feelings, behavior --
“不管我活着还是死去，
even your abilities -- are always consistent
只快乐的飞虻。”
with this self-image.
半个小时后，玛蒂尼走进房间，见状
In short, you will
猛然一惊，一下子冲破半生的沉默；
person you conceive yourself to be. Not
他丢下手中的布告，一把抱住琼玛。
看在上帝的份上，你这是怎么
only this, but you literally cannot act
“琼玛！
otherwise, in spite of all your conscious
了？别这样哭泣—你从来不哭的！琼
efforts or will power. The man who
玛！我亲爱的琼玛！”
彻萨雷；我以后再告诉
conceives himself to be a type
“没什么，
person
你—我—现在没法说。”
all his good intentions, or his will power,
她匆匆地把那封沾满泪水的信
even if opportunity is literally dumped in his
偷偷塞进口袋，起身探出窗外，不让
lap. The person who conceives himself to be
他看到自己的脸。玛蒂尼咬着自己的
a victim of injustice, one
小胡子，一言不发。经过这么多年以
suffer
后他终于象一个小学生一样暴露了< br>verify his opinions.
自己的真实感情—而她却甚至没有
The self-image is a
察觉到！
or a foundation upon which your entire
“大教堂的钟响了，”过了一会儿
转过头来说，“一定
personality, your behavior, and even your
她控制住了自己，
circumstances are built. Because of this our
是有人死了。”
experiences seem to verify, and thereby
“我就是想来告诉你这件事。”玛
strengthen our self-images, and a vicious or
蒂尼用他平日的声调回答到。他从地
a beneficent cycle, as the case may be, is
上拾起布告递给她。
set up.
这是一份加了黑边框的公告，是
“我们
For example, a schoolboy who sees
用大号字体匆匆地印刷出来的：
himself as an
敬爱的主教，罗伦梭尼里红衣主教阁
”在拉文纳溘然长逝。因心脏动脉
is in mathematics,will invariably
下，
find that his report card bears him out. He
瘤破裂。”
then has
她的眼睛迅速地离开了布告向
image of herself as the sort of person
上瞥了一下，玛蒂尼看出了她眼中暗
nobody likes, will find indeed that she is
示的意思，于是耸耸肩说：
avoided at the school dance. She literally
“你还会怎么说呢，夫人？”动脉
invites rejection. Her woebegone
瘤可是一个最贴切的词了。”
科学与科学态度
科学是关于 自然的知识主体，代
表了人类集体的努力，洞察力，新发
现和智慧。科学不是某种新事物，它< br>始于有文字记载的历史前，人类首次
发现其周围重复出现的事物之间的
各种关系之时。 通过对这些相互关
系的仔细观察，他们开始认识自然，
又由于自然的可靠性，他们发现自己可以预测未来从而能够对周围环境
实施某种程度上的控制。
在十六世纪，科学 取得了最大的
进步。那时的人们已经开始就自然现
象提出一些可以回答的问题， 那时，
人们已开始用对秩序的规律系统的
研究来代替迷信；那时，人们除了使
用逻辑外，还运用实验 来验证各种观
点。 过去人们曾试图用魔术和超自
然的力量来左右自然现象， 然而现
在他们用科学来作指导。但是，由于
对科学方法与思想强烈的反对，进步
是缓慢的。
大约在1510年，哥白尼提出了
expression, her hang-dog manner, her
over-anxiousness to please, or perhaps her
unconscious hostility towards those she
anticipates will affront her - all act to drive
away those whom she would attract. In the
same manner, a salesman or a
businessman will also find that his actual
experiences tend to
is correct.
Because of this objective
seldom occurs to a person that his trouble
lies in his self-image or his own evaluation
of himself. Tell the schoolboy that he only

太阳静止不动，地球绕太阳旋转之观
点。他驳斥了地球是宇宙中心的观
will doubt your sanity. He has tried and
点。经过几年的犹豫，他发表了自己
研究成果，还没等到他的书广泛流
tried, and still his report card tells the story.
传，哥白尼就逝世了。他的书被认为
是异端的、危险的，并被教会禁锢了
Tell the salesman that it is only an idea that
二百年。在哥白尼之后一个世纪，数
he cannot earn more than a certain figure,
学家布鲁诺被烧死在火刑柱上—主
要是因为支持哥白尼，认为太阳是一
and he can prove you wrong by his order
棵恒星，并且还认为太空是无限的。
伽俐略因为普及哥白尼的理论以及
book. He knows only too well how hard he
他对科学思想的其它贡献而被关进
监狱。然而，几个世纪以后，哥白尼
has tried and failed. Yet, as we shall see
的拥护者们似乎就没有危害了。
later, almost miraculous changes have
这种事情一个时代接一个时代
都会发生。在十九世纪初，地质学家
occurred both in grades of students, and in
们遭到强烈遣责，因为他们的观点与
《创世纪》中所叙述的创世观点相
the earning capacity of salesmen - when
左。可就在同一世纪稍晚些时候，地
质学就安全了，但是有关进化的理论
they were prevailed upon to change their
依然遭到谴责，并被禁止教授。这种
情况很可能继续下去，因为在通往未
self- images.
来大道上的每一个十字路口，各种进
2. The self- image can be changed.
步精神都会遭到上千名受命维护过
去的卫道士 们的反对。每一个时代都
Numerous case histories have shown that
会有一批或更多的知识分子叛逆者
one is never too young nor too old to
都会在那个时候遭到迫害、谴责，甚
至是镇压；但在后来的岁月，他们似
change his self-image and thereby start to
乎无害，并且在提高人类条件上起着
重要作用。科学的巨大成功引出一个
live a new life.
普遍的信念，即科学家们已经研制并
且运用了一种方法—一种在获得、组
One of the reasons it has seemed so difficult
织和运用新的知识方面极端有效的
for a person to change his habits, his
方法。伽俐略，十七世纪的着名科学
家，被认为是科学方法之父。
personality, or his way of life, has been that
他的主要方法如下：
１、认明问题。
heretofore nearly all efforts at change have
２、猜想答案。
３、预测猜想结果。
been directed to the circumference of the
４、进行实验证明预测。
self, so to speak, rather than to the center.
５、用公式表述形成这三大要
素：
Numerous patients have said to me
猜想、预测及实验结果的最简明
的理论。尽管这标准化的方法有一点
something like the following: you are
的吸引力。但它并不是大多数科学突破和发现的关键。反复试验、不作猜
talking about 'positive thinking', I've tried
测的实验，偶然的发现，还有其它的
方法都是许多科学进步的原因所在。
that before, and it just doesn't work for
科学的成功不在于采用特殊的方法，
r, a little questioning 它更取决于科学家们所共有的一种
态度。这种态度的实质就是探究、实
invariabl y brings out that these individuals
验和尊重事实。如果一位科学家认为
某种观点是正确的，可后来又发现相
have employed thinking,or
反的证据，他就会修改或放弃这一观
点。依照科 学的精神，不管提出这一
attempted to employ it, either upon
观点的人有多高的声望，这个观点都
particular external circumstances, or upon
必须修正或放弃， 例如，深受人们
尊重的希腊哲学家亚里士多德说过：
some particular habit or character defect (
落体的速度与其重量成正比。因为亚
里士多德的巨大权威，这一错的观点
will get that job.
在２０００多年的时间里一直被认
为是正确的。然而，依照科学的 精神，
relaxed in the ss
单单一次反证实验就可胜过任何权
venture will turn out right for me,
威。不管你的名望有多高，或者追随
者和拥护者的人数有多少。
they had never thought to change their
科学家必须接受事实，即使他们
希望事实不是如此。他们必须力求去
thinking of the which was to
把他们所看到的及他们所希望看到
的加以区分——因为人 类的自欺能
accomplish these things.
力是很强的。人们往往倾向于采纳一
Jesus warned us about the folly of
般的规则、信仰、信念、理论和观点，
而不经过全面地询问它们正 确与否，
putting a patch of new material upon an old
而且早在它们被证明是毫无意义的、
错误的、或至少是有疑问的之后，仍
ga rment, or of putting new wine into old
保留不改。传播最广的假定最少受到
bottles.
疑问。通常，当一种观点被接 受，支
持它的论点往往受到特别重视，而那
effectively as a patch or a crutch to the
些似乎是反驳它的论点却被歪曲、贬
低或忽视。我们深深地感到改变主意
same old self-image. In fact, it is literally
是一种弱点 的表现，然而，有能力的
科学家必须善于改变看法。这是因为
impossible to really think positively about a
科学所追求的不是保护人们的信念，
particular situation, as long as you hold a
而是去改进它们。只有那些不迷恋盛
行观点的人才能创造出更好的理论。
negative concept of self. And, numerous
离开他们的职业，科学家们并不
比其他人生来就更诚实、更讲道德。
experiments have shown that once the
但在他们职业范围内，他们却工作在
一 种极为看重诚实的圈子里。科学中
concept of self is changed, other things
一条主要的原则就是所有的断言都
必须是可检验的——它们必须至 少
consistent with the new concept of self, are
在原则上都能够被证明是正确或错
误的。比如，若有人声称某种程序会
accompl ished easily and without strain.
有某种结果，那么，在原则上，就必
One of the earliest and most convincing
须能施行一种程序既能证明又能反
驳这一断言。若 被证实，那么这一断
experiments along this line was conducted
言就被看作是有用的，并且可作为进
一步获取知识的一个台阶。 没有人
by the late Prescott Lecky, one of the
能够有时间、精力和财力去验证每一
pioneers in self-image psychology. Lecky
个断言，因此，大多数情况下，我们
必须相信某人的观 点。然而，在判断
conceived of the personality as a
某人的观点或断言是否与另外一个
观点或断言同样正确时，我们必须有
ideasall of which must seem to be
一个尺度，这个尺度同样是：断言必
须能够被 检验的。为了减少出错的可
consistent with each other. Ideas which are
能性，科学家们只接受那些观点、理
inconsistent with the system are rejected,
论和研究成果经得起检验的人的思< br>想言论；这些言论即便不是在实践中

至少也要在原理上可以得到检验。那
些无法 检验的推测则被认为是不科
which seem to be consistent with the
学的。这样就使得强制的诚实具有长
system are accepted. At the very center of
期的效果——在科学家同行中广为
宣扬的研究成果通常是被进一步检
this system of ideas -- the keystone -- the
验的对象。错误（和谎言）迟早肯定
会被发现， 如意算盘也肯定会被揭
base upon which all else is built, is the
穿。 诚实，对科学的发展极为重要，
因此，它也就会成为与科学家自身利
individual's
益密切相关的事情。
如果它回来

his conception of himself. Lecky was a
查尔斯是同时看到他们俩的，那
school teacher and had an opportunity to
只从公园的树丛中翩翩飞出的白色
小鸟和那个转动着轮椅沿小路而来
test his theory upon thousands of students.
的少女。小鸟滑翔而下，落到草地上，
少女沿着阳光斑斓、树影婆娑的小路
Lecky theorized that if a student had
轻快地引导着轮椅 。她那可折叠的金
属轮椅很可能装了马达；它载着她如
trouble learning a certain subject, it could
此轻松地行驶。她停下来看了一会池
塘中的鸭子，当她重新使劲推动轮椅
be because (from the student's point of
view) it would be inconsistent for him to
learn it. Lecky believed, however, that if you
could change the student's self-conception,
which underlies this viewpoint, his attitude
toward the subject would change
accordingly. If the student could be induced
to change his selfdefinition, his learning
ability should also change. This proved to
be the case. One student who misspelled 55
words out of a hundred and flunked so
many subjects that he lost credit for a year,
made a general average of 91 the next year
and became one of the best spellers in
school. A boy who was dropped from one
college because of poor grades, entered
Columbia and became a straight
student. A girl who had flunked Latin four
times, after three talks with the school
counselor, finished with a grade of 84. A boy
who was told by a testing bureau that he
had no aptitude for English, won honorable
mention the next year for a literary prize.
The trouble with these students was not
时，查尔斯从地上跳起 来。“我能推你
吗？”他朝她一边跑一边喊着穿过草
地。那只白鸟扑棱棱地飞上树梢。
大部分时间都是他在说话，他似
乎害怕停下来，生怕话一停下来，她
就会支开 他让她自己呆着。她脸上没
有显示出一丝表情表明坐在轮椅上
是孤独无助的，他也知道自己的帮 助
并没有被看成是一种恩惠。他问她怎
样致残的，并不是因为这对他来说很
重要，而是 借此话题继续对话。
“在我十二岁时，出了一次车祸”
艾米解释道。“当时我在汽车 后排座正
给我弟弟念书。突然妈妈一声尖叫，
拼命地想躲开一辆超到我们前面的
卡车。 当我在医院苏醒过来时，又听
到妈妈在门外一声尖叫，这次，她试
图逃避我再也不能走路了这一 事实。”
“这对你们俩来说，都是很不幸
的，你弟弟怎么样了？”
“他结果比我好一些，至少他比我
先出院。
我们都过了很久才接受和适应
这一事实。”
他们一块去吃了午餐。要不要她能完
全地 自己照料自己，他一定会觉得很
尴尬。因为老是他显得笨手笨脚并且
撞到了一张桌子上，而她倒 是在过道
上行动自如。
“你和什么人住在一起呢？”第二
天他问道，因为他执意要求和她再次
见面。
“就我一个人，”她回答道。他感
到一阵心酸，主要是想起了自己的孤
独，而不是因为想象到她 的孤独。
他开始喜欢起手握白色把柄的
那种感觉，喜欢起在那两支镶有白边
的金属轮子之间行走。他对她背后的
微曲的披发几乎比对她的眼睛或嘴
巴还要熟悉。轮椅移动起 来灵活极
了，一用劲，它就给人一种权力和力
量感，他喜欢这种感觉。有一次，他
对着 披发的波浪说“我希望在你一生
中，我是你唯一的推轮椅人。”但她只
是微笑了一下。双眼没有 任何表示。
that they were dumb, or lacking in basic
aptitudes. The trouble was an inadequate
self-image (don't have a mathematical
mind
They with their mistakes and
failures. Instead of saying failed that
test(factual and descriptive) they
concluded am a d of
saying
am a failure.
that subject
For those who are interested in leaning
more of Lecky's work, I recommend
securing a copy of his book: self
consistency, a Theory of Personality. The
Island Press, Now York, N.Y.

Epilogue (From The Gadfly)
The stood still for a little while with the
paper in her hand; then sat down by the
open window to read. The letter was closely
written in pencil, and in some parts hardly
legible. But the first two words stood out
quite clear upon the page; and they were in
English:
当他抬起头来，发现一只白色小鸟跟
着他们从一棵树飞到另一棵树。
六月的 一天，她为他做了一顿
饭。他本以为她会为自己的能力感到
骄傲，坐在轮椅上什么能干。但看到
她毫无骄傲之感，不禁有点失望。把
此当成很平常的事。他鬼使神差地拿
起盐瓶，把它 放在一层比较高的，没
有用过的碗柜上，然后等着她乞求帮
助。他不知道自己为什么这样做。但
不一会她的眼神使他在得意洋洋中
不觉一惊。他好象觉得自己正在打扑
克，一不小心刚 刚把自己手中的牌让
对手看到了。为了让她忘记自己的所
作所为，他对她讲起了公园中那只小< br>白鸟。
“我也看到了，”她说，“我以前读
过一首诗，讲的是一只小白鸟歇息 在
一个窗台上，住在房中的女主人开始
给它喂食物。不久，这位夫人便爱上
了这只小鸟 ，但这是不般配的爱恋。
每天小白鸟飞到窗台上，这位夫人也
每天为它提供食物。当这段恋爱结 束
后，小白鸟再也没回来了，而这位妇
人却天天把面包屑放在窗外，年复一
年，任凭风 儿把它们吹散。”
在七月，他常常带她去划船。她
每次都准备了中午的野餐，而他则 驾
驶小船。对她来说每次划船最使她的
尴尬的事，就是每次都是让人抬上、
抬下。然而 ，对查尔斯来说，这种后
来被她称之为“货物装卸”的事，似乎
是出游中最精彩的时刻。每一次 ，他
似乎很乐意把她推到码头，从轮椅里
抱她起来，保持自己的平衡把她放到
船上，然 后折起轮椅平放在船上。头
几次出游，她对自己被无依无靠地放
在一个不能动弹的地方，感到很 不自
在。她曾想到，自己不能游泳，要是
船翻了怎么办。而查尔斯已经对船长
这个角色 极为适应，根本就没有注意
到她的不自在。她看到他如此喜欢操
纵一切，一种无助的感觉又涌上 心
头。八月初的一天，他来叫她，软软
的棕色头发上歪戴着一顶崭新的船
长帽，一想到 又要一整天在水里被困
在木头座上，心里就觉得极为反感，
The writing grew suddenly blurred and
她拒绝再去。
他们倒是可以出去散散步，她
misty. And she had lost him again -- had
说，散步可以靠自己的双臂的力量移
动自己，他可以陪伴在她的身边。他
lost him again! At the sight of the familiar
最终同意了， 但每走一步，他就会觉
得更加不痛快。他可不想扮演这个角
childish nickname all the hopelessness of
色。
“你为什么不歇歇手，让我来推你
her bereavement came over her afresh, and
呢？”
“不用。”
she put out her hands in blind desperation,
“你的手臂会酸的，
as though the weight of the earth-clods that
我已经帮你推了三个月了。”
“在你来之前，我已经推了自己十
lay above him were pressing on her heart.
二年了，我认为自己的胳膊未必会忘
记怎么推吧。”
Presently she took up the paper again
“但是我不愿意走在你身边，而你
却要自己推自己。”“你以为这两个月
and went on reading:
来，我喜欢每个周末无依无靠地坐在
你的船里。”

这个新发现使他吃惊得好一阵
子说不出话来，最后他轻声地说“我从
So if I am to keep at all my promise to tell
来没意识到这点，艾米。你整天都坐
you everything, I must keep it now. But,
在轮椅里，我决没想到你会介意坐在
船里，坐在哪不都一样嘛。”
坐在轮椅里，我
after all, there is not much need of
“这不是一回事，
可以行动自如，我可想到哪就到哪
explanations between you and me. We
去。在船上，我被困住了，什么事都
不能做，万一出事我掉到水里，我连
always understood each other without
自己都救不了。”
“但是有我在呀，你难道没想到我能救
many words, even when we were little
你或帮你移动或替你干你想干的任
何事情吗？”
thing.
“我知道。可是，查尔斯，问题的

关键在于，我花了十二年的时间才学
会怎样照料自己。我甚至住在这个离
need to break your heart over that old story
家很远的城市里，目的就是要独立地
做一切事情。置身于船里就把我所拥
of the blow. It was a hard hit, of course; but
有的都拿走了。你难道还不明白我为
什么反对你的做法？我不会让自己
I have had plenty of others as hard, and yet
受任何人的摆布——即使你的也不
行。”
I have managed to get over them, -- even
他们沿着小路默默在走着，他内
心的感情翻腾着，最终冲破了情感的

to pay back a few of them, -- and here I am
still, like the mackerel in our nursery-book
(I forget its name), 'Alive and kicking, oh!
This is my last kick though; and then,
to-morrow morning, and -- 'Finita la
Commedia!You and I will translate that:
'The variety show is over'; and will give
thanks to the gods that they have had, at
least, so much mercy on us. It is not much,
but it is something; and for this and all
other blessings may we be truly thankful!

want both you and Martini to understand
clearly that I am quite happy and satisfied,
and could ask no better thing of Fate. Tell
that to Martini as a message from me; he is
a good fellow and a good comrade, and he
will understand. You see, dear, I know that
the stick-in-the-mud people are doing us a
good turn and themselves a bad one by
going back to secret trials and executions
so soon, and I know that if you who are left
stand together steadily and hit hard, you
will see great things. As for me, I shall go < br>闸门：“艾米，我需要你依赖我，我需
要你的依赖。”说着，象是为了强调自
己的愿望， 他一把握住熟悉的白色
柄，快速地推着她走了起来，结果她
只好把手从轮子上拿开，放在腿上。
她披在身后头发的波纹显示不出她
眼中的愤怒，这倒也好，因为他也不
能理解这种愤怒 。
第二天早上，她不接他的电话，
但是在下午的信件中有一封信，他知
道是 艾米写来的。字写得不漂亮，但
无疑是她的字迹。信封里只有一张卡
片，她在上面写着：
如果你极想得到某物，
你必须让它自由。
如果它回到你身边，
它就属于你。
如果它不回来，
你就从来没有真正拥有。
（无名氏）
他冲出公寓，不愿相信艾米可能
已经不在她的屋子里了 。他一种朝她
的公寓跑着，一个声音一直在耳边吼
叫：“你必须让它自由，你必须让它自
由。”
但是他还在想：我不能冒这个
险，她是我的，不能让她走，不能给
她一个离开我的机会，不能让她认为
她不需要我，她必须得需要我。哦，
上帝，我一定要得到她 。
但是，她的公寓是空的，头天一
晚上在几个小时里，她已经设法一个
人打 好行李，并且一个人搬走了。
房间里冷冰冰的，他倒在地上抽
泣起来，冷漠的寂静毫不理会他的心
情。
到 八月中旬，他没有一点艾米的
消息。他常躺在床上，胸口上放着艾
米的信，数着天花板上的裂纹 。他也
常去公园，但却谨慎地避免看到那只
小白鸟。他有时在风中的树下一坐数
小时， 甚至没有意识到自己在外面，
没有意识到周围生命的活动。
九月已至，眼看着又要结束了，
他终于收到一个熟悉的信封，字写得
out into the courtyard with as light a heart
as any child starting home for the holidays.
I have done my share of the work, and this
death-sentence is the proof that I have
done it thoroughly. They kill me because
they are afraid of me; and what more can
any man's heart desire?

A man who is going to die has a right to a
personal fancy, and mine is that you should
see why I have always been such a sulky
brute to you, and slow to forget old scores.
Of course, though, you understand why,
and I tell you only for the pleasure of writing
the words. I loved you, Gemma, when you
were an ugly little girl in a gingham frock,
with your hair in a pig-tail down your back;
and I love you still. Do you remember that
day when I kissed your hand, and when you
so piteously begged me 'never to do that
again'? It was a scoundrelly trick to play, I
know; but you must forgive that; and now I
kiss the paper where I have written your
name. So I have hissed you twice, and both
并不漂亮，但无疑是她的笔迹。
邮戳上盖着一个遥远的城市。他
心中涌起一 股强烈的冲动，一下子撕
开信封。起初他以为它是空的，然后
他发现桌子上有一根从信封中落出
的白色羽毛。在他脑海里，那只小白
鸟腾空而起，双翅中抖落一根羽毛。
要不是飞走时 留下的那根羽毛，没人
会知道小白鸟曾在这呆过。于是，他
知道艾米再也不会回来了，过了好几
个小时，他才放掉手中的那根羽毛。
爱情故事
第十三章
奥利佛·巴雷特第三夫妇谨启盼予赐
复
谨订于三月六日星期六下午七时在
马 萨诸塞州易普威治多佛府举行家
宴为巴雷特先生庆祝六十寿辰。

“这个？”詹妮弗问道。
“这还用问吗？”我答道。我正在摘录
珀西瓦尔公诉案，一 个刑法里非常重
要的判例。詹妮稍稍晃动请柬来烦
我。
“我想差不多该是时候了，奥利佛，”
她说。
“该干什么的时候了？”
“你知道得很清楚要干什么事，”她答
道。
“一定得要他跪着爬到这里不可吗？”
任她责备我什么，我照干我的事。
“奥利——他在向你伸手联系呢！”
“瞎说，詹妮。我母亲写的信封。”
“我记得你说过你不看来着！”她叫起
来，声音 有点大。行啦，就算早些时
候我扫过一眼，或许我已经忘掉了。
毕竟我正在摘录珀西瓦尔公诉案 ，而
且实际上考试已临近。关键是她该停
止对我抱怨了。
“奥利，想想看，”她现在用有点恳求
的口气说着。
“整六十岁的人了。当你最后愿 意与他
和解时，谁也没法说得准他是否仍活
在这个世界上。”
我用最直截了当的话告诉詹妮，将不
times without your consent.

There was no signature, but a verse which
they had learned together as children was
written under the letter:

A happy fly,
If I live
Or if I die.
Half an hour later Martini entered the
room, and, startled out of the silence of half
a life-time, threw down the placard he was
carrying and flung his arms about her.
What is it, for God's sake?
Don't sob like that -- you that never cry!
Gemma! Gemma, my darling!
Cesare; I will tell you
afterwards -- I -- can't talk about it just
now.
She hurriedly slipped the tear-stained
letter into her pocket; and, rising, leaned
out of the window to hide her face. Martini
held his tongue and bit his moustache. After
all these years he had betrayed himself like
存在和解。并请她让我继续学习下
去 。她在我放脚的沙发一角紧缩着身
体坐了下来，不再出声。尽管她没说
话，很快我便意识到她正 紧盯着我。
我抬头看着她。
“有那么一天，”她说，“当奥利佛第五
烦你时……”
“他决不会叫奥利佛这个名字，这是肯
定的！”我对她恶狠狠地说。她没有抬
高嗓门。 尽管通常我大声时，她的声
音就更大。
“听着，奥利。即使我们把儿子叫成小
丑‘博 佐’，他仍因你曾是哈佛的体育
明星而恨你。而且，当他读大学一年
级时，你将可能是高等法院 的法官
了。”
我告诉她，我们的儿子肯定不会恨
我。而她问我为什么那么肯定。我却
拿不出证据来。我的意思是，我凭
“你的父亲也爱你，奥利佛。他爱你的
方式就象你 将来爱‘博佐’那样。但是
你们巴雷特家族的人极其自大，喜欢
竞争。你们一生中总以为你们相 互恨
着。”
“要不是你的话，还真要那样呢！”我
以开玩笑的口气说道。
“是的”。她说。
“到此为止。”我以毕竟是丈夫兼一家
之主的口气说道。我的眼睛 又回到珀
西瓦尔公诉案上而詹妮站了起来。但
她却仍记得：“还有‘盼予赐复’这事
呢 。”我说，一个莱德克利夫音乐专业
的学生不要专业指导大概也可以写
出恰当的婉拒短信的。
“听着，奥利佛，”她说道，“我一生中
大概撒过谎，骗过人。但我决不会有
意去伤害 别人。我想我不会那样。”
实际上，此时她却正在伤害我。于是
我客气地要她以她想要的任何 方式
去处理“盼予赐复”这件事，只要信的
本意是我们不出席宴会，除非地狱冰
冻起来 。我便再次回到帕西瓦尔公诉
案上。
“电话号码是多少？”我听到她轻声地
说。她已在电话机旁。
a schoolboy -- and she had not even noticed
it!

a little while, looking round with recovered
self-command.
is what I came to show you,
Martini answered in his everyday voice. He
picked up the placard from the floor and
handed it to her. Hastily printed in large
type was a black-bordered announcement
that: dearly beloved Bishop, His
Eminence the Cardinal, Monsignor Lorenzo
Montanelli,
the rupture of an aneurism of the
heart.
She glanced up quickly from the paper.
And Martini answered the unspoken
suggestion in her eyes with a shrug of his
shoulders.
would you have, Madonna?
Aneurism is as good a word as any other.

Science and the Scientific Attitude
Science is the body of knowledge about
nature that represents the collective
“你就不能只写封短信吗？”“我马上
就会失去勇气的。号码是多少？”
我告诉了她 号码就立刻沉浸于帕西
瓦尔呈交高等法院的上诉书。我不去
听詹妮打电话，也就是说，我尽可能
不去听。但毕竟我们在同一间房里。
“啊！晚上好，先生。”我听她说。
她用一只手捂住话筒。
“奥利佛，一定要拒绝吗？”
我点头表示一定要那样做，并摆摆手
示意她必须快一点。
“我非常抱歉，”她对着话筒说。“我的
意思是，我们非常抱歉，先生……”
我们！她干嘛一定要牵涉到我？她为
啥不直说了就把电话挂断呢？
“奥利佛！” < br>她又用一只手捂住话筒并大声同我
说话。“他是伤心的，奥利佛！让你父
亲心中流血而你 能坐得住吗？”
假如她不是处于这样的感情状态，我
会再次解释：石头是不流血的。但她的心绪非常烦乱,这使我的心绪也烦
乱起来。
“奥利佛，”她恳求道，“你就说一句话
吧？”
跟他说？她一定是疯了！
“我的意思是就说象‘哈罗’之类的？”
她要把电话递给我，并尽量不哭出
来。
“我决不与他说什么，不说。”我非常
平静地说。
此时，她无声地哭起来了。泪流满面。
然后——她乞求着。
“为了我，奥利佛。我从 不求你做什么
事。就求你这回了。”我们三个。（我
莫明其妙地想象我父亲也在场。）我
们三个就站着等待什么似的。什么
呢？等我吗？
我不会干的。
詹妮真不明白她在 要求不可能的事
吗？除了此事外我绝对会做任何其
他事的。当我看着地板，极不自在但
又毫不动摇地晃着头表示拒绝时，詹
妮满腔怒火，以我从来没有听她说过
的话低声责骂我：
efforts, insights, findings, and wisdom of
the human race. Science is not something
new but had its beginnings before recorded
history when humans first discovered
reoccurring relationships around them.
Through careful observations of these
relationships, they began to know nature
and, because of nature's dependability,
found they could make predictions to
enable some control over their
surroundings.
Science made its greatest headway in
the sixteenth century when people began
asking answerable questions about nature
-- when they began replacing superstition
by a systematic search for order -- when
experiment in addition to logic was used to
test ideas. Where people once tried to
influence natural events with magic and
supernatural forces, they now had science
to guide them. Advance was slow, however,
because of the powerful opposition to
scientific methods and ideas.
In about 1510 Copernicus suggested
“你是个无情的杂种，”她说。接着她
以下面的话来结束与我父亲的电话
交谈：
“巴雷特先生，奥利佛确实想要你知
道，用自己特别的方式……”
她顿了一下，吸了 一口气。她一直在
抽泣，所以说得很费力。我惊讶得不
知所措，只好等她结束好象我要她说的“口信”。
“奥利佛非常爱你，”她说完就很快挂
断了电话。在紧接着一刹那，我无法
对自己的行为作出合情合理的解释。
我所做的事使我决不会得到宽恕。
我从她手里抢过电话，拔出插头，把
电话机猛地扔到屋子的另一边。
“该死的，詹妮，滚你的吧！”
我站着不动，突然我变得象野兽那样
直喘粗气。天啊 ！我到底怎么啦？我
转过去看詹。但她已走了。我的意思
是，她确实消失不见了，因为我甚至< br>没有听到楼梯的脚步声，天啊！她一
定在我抢电话的刹那间冲出去的。连
她的外套和围巾 都仍在那儿。这时，
我为自己所做的事感到的痛苦超过
了因不知所措而引起的痛苦。
我到处去找她。
我在法学院图书馆里徘徊于一排排
埋头苦读的学生中，看了又看，走 去
走来，至少有五、六次之多。尽管我
没有吭声，但我知道我的眼神慌里慌
张、脸色可 怕吓人。我扰乱了整个地
方。谁在乎呢？
但詹不在那儿。
接着，我穿过哈克尼斯公 共食堂、休
息室和自助餐厅。然后发疯似地冲到
莱德克利夫的阿加西斯楼去寻找。也
不 在那儿。此时我到处奔走，我的双
脚努力去赶上我心跳的节拍。
佩因楼？（该死的名字，太挖 苦人
了！）楼下是钢琴练习室。我知道当
詹妮发脾气时，她就猛击琴键。
对吗？但当她被吓得要死时又会如
何呢？
走在两侧都是钢琴练习室的走廊里
真让人疯狂。莫扎特、巴尔托克、巴
that the sun was stationary and that the
earth revolved about the sun. He refuted
the idea that the earth was the center of the
universe. After years of hesitation, he
published his findings but died before his
book was circulated. His book was
considered heretical and dangerous and
was banned by the Church for 200 years. A
century after Copernicus, the
mathematician Bruno was burned at the
stake -- largely for supporting Copernicus,
suggesting the sun to be a star, and
suggesting that space was infinite. Galileo
was imprisoned for popularizing the
Copernican theory and for his other
contributions to scientific thought. Yet a
couple of centuries later, Copernican
advocates seemed harmless.
This happens age after age. In the early
1800s geologists met with violent
condemnation because they differed with
the Genesis account of creation. Later in the
same century, geology was safe, but
theories of evolution were condemned and
赫及勃拉姆斯曲调的声音从这些练
习室的门缝里钻出 来，混合成一种离
奇的、嘈杂可憎的声音。
詹妮一定到这里来了！
本能使我停在弹着肖邦序曲的练习
室门口，听到有人（愤怒地）猛击琴
键的声音。 < br>我停了一会儿。弹得很糟——弹弹停
停，夹着许多错误。在一次停顿中我
听到一个女孩的 声音喃喃自语，“去他
的！”一定是詹妮。我猛地打开门。
一位莱德克利夫学院的女生在练习
钢琴。她抬头看我。这个莱德克利夫
女生是个难看宽肩的嬉皮士，对我的
闯入很生气。
“什么事，伙计？”她问。
“对不起，”我答道，马上关上了门。
接着，我到哈佛广场找找看。也不在。
詹妮会去那儿呢？
我就在哈佛广场的黑暗中 站着，不知
所措。不知去哪儿，也不知下一步该
干什么。一个黑人走近我，问我是否
要 毒品注射。我有点儿漫不经心地答
道：“不要。谢了，老兄。”
此刻，我不再奔跑了。 我的意思是，急急忙忙跑回空空的家
里干什么呢？很晚了——大概凌晨
一点了——我麻木了 ——要说是因
为天冷（不过，天的确不暖和，真的。）
倒不如说是因为惊吓。在离家几码的地方，我想我看到有人坐在台阶的最
高一级。因为那个人坐着不动，这必
定是我的眼睛在开 我的玩笑了。
那人是詹妮。
她正坐在最高一级台阶上。
我累得没法表示恐慌；欣慰得没法表
达言语。
我的内心倒希望她用什么钝器打我
一下。
“詹？”
“奥利？”
我们都说得很平静，不可能听出话中
的情感来。
“我忘了钥匙，”詹妮说。
我站在台阶的最低一级，怕问她坐在
the teaching of them forbidden. This most
likely continues.
road that leads to the future, each
progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand
men appointed to guard the
age has one or more groups of intellectual
rebels who are persecuted, condemned, or
suppressed at the time; but to a later age,
they seem harmless and often essential to
the elevation of human conditions.
The enormous success of science has
led to the general belief that scientists have
developed and ate employing a
a method that is extremely effective in
gaining, organizing, and applying new
knowledge. Galileo, famous scientist of the
1600s, is usually credited with being the
of the Scientific
method is essentially as follows:
1. Recognize a problem.
2. Guess an answer.
3. Predict the consequences of the
guess.
4. Perform experiments to test
这里多久了。只知道我对她太不公平
了。
“詹妮，很抱歉……”
“不要说了！”她打断了我的道歉，然
后非常平静地说，“爱 意味着永远不必
说抱歉。”我登上她坐着的台阶。
“我要去睡觉了，行吗？”她说。
“行。”
我们走上去进了我们的公寓。当我们
脱衣睡觉时，她以一种让人放心的神
情看着我。
“我说的话是当真的，奥利佛。”
于是，此事就过去了。

漫游宇宙 英格兰剑桥的天空已经黑下来。
在一个潮湿，阴冷的晚上，“国王广场”
上挤满了学生和老 师们。此时，沿着
挤满人群的大道上驶来一辆剑桥大
学里最与众不同的车子，载着最杰出
的公民。在这辆电动轮椅车里，他那
孩子气的脸被装在轮椅左手扶把上
发亮的计算机屏幕隐隐 约约地映照
出来，这就是斯蒂芬·威廉·霍金，四
十六岁，世界上最伟大的理论物理学
家之一。当他熟练地驾着轮椅穿过人
群时，开汽车的放慢了车速，有的按
喇叭致意。人们挥手或 大声向他问
候。
霍金戴着眼镜面露笑容，但他无法挥
手或回喊答礼。他二十刚出头时 就患
上肌萎缩性脊髓侧索硬化症（ＡＬ
Ｓ），这是一种中枢神经系统逐渐退
化的病。病 人通常在三、四年内死亡。
霍金的病情进展很缓慢，而现在看来
几乎已经稳定下来。但仍使霍金 丧失
了差不多全部的实际活动能力。他无
法控制大部分肌肉，自己不能穿衣吃
饭，失去 了说话能力。现在他“说话”
只有靠使用他的手和手指上还剩下
的微弱的随意活动能力来操纵装 在
轮椅上的计算机和声音合成器进行
的。
尽管他的这种ＡＬＳ病使他身体丧
predictions.
5. Formulate the simplest theory
organizes the three main ingredients:
guess, prediction, experimental outcome.
Although this cookbook method has a
certain appeal, to has not been the key to
most of the breakthroughs and discoveries
in science. Trial and error, experimentation
without guessing, accidental discovery, and
other methods account for much of the
progress in science. Rather than a
particular method, the success of science
has more to do with an attitude common to
scientists. This attitude is essentially one of
inquiry, experimentation, and humility
before the facts. If a scientist holds an idea
to be true and finds any counterevidence
whatever, the idea is either modified or
abandoned. In the scientific spirit, the idea
must be modified or abandoned in spite of
the reputation of the person advocating it.
As an example, the greatly respected Greek
philosopher Aristotle said that falling bodies
fall at a speed proportional to their weight.
失实际的活动能力，他的勇气和幽默
却仍然完美无缺，他的智力任其自由
漫游。他的智 力确实在漫游：从无穷
小到无穷大，从亚原子王国到宇宙宽
广的领域。霍金在这些智力远征过程
中想出了一些令人吃惊的新理论，描
述了黑洞及紧跟着形成宇宙“大爆炸”
而出现的杂 乱无章的事件。而在最
近，他提出了令物理学家和神学家震
惊的意见：宇宙没有边界，它不是创
造出来的，因而将来也不会毁灭的。
斯蒂芬·霍金的大部分创新思想是在
剑桥大学确 立的。他是剑桥大学罗卡
斯数学教授，艾萨克·牛顿曾担任过这
个职位。在该校数学和理论物理 系，
霍金和蔼可亲地领导着一个由来自
九个国家十五个成绩优异的研究生
组成的相对论 小组。在他办公室门上
有一块小装饰板，上面不太恭敬地写
着：请保持安静，老板在睡觉。 < br>那大概不是真实的。霍金的日常生活
是从上午十点左右开始一直到下午
七点左右才离去吃 饭，这对强壮能干
的人来说也是很重的负担他工作在
摆满书籍，中间还有他妻子珍妮和他
们三个孩子的办公室里。上月的一天
上午，霍金驾着轮椅到了系的公共休
息室，他的学生们正 围在一张张矮桌
子谈论着本行的一些事情。敏捷地操
纵着轮椅来到一张桌子前，霍金卡嗒
一声按下控制开关，他的计算机就发
出轻微的嘟嘟声；他从计算机屏幕上
显示出来的单词表中 选择了一些词。
这些词在屏幕下方一个接一个地排
列好，最后通过声音合成器说出来：
“早上好！我可以来杯咖啡吗？”（声
音合成器是美国加利福尼亚一家公
司制造的。）
当谈论的话题转到创造力及数学家
看来在他们二十出头就达到创造力
顶峰时，霍金的计算机发 出嘟嘟声。
他说：“我已过了顶峰。”他的话引得
This false idea was held to be true for more
大家放声大笑。
霍金生于一九四二年一月八日——
than 2,000 years because of Aristotle's
他常常提起，伽利略就在三百年前的
这一天去世的。小时候，他学习 读书
immense authority. In the scientific spirit,
很迟钝，而喜欢把东西拆开，但他承
认从来不善于把拆开的东西装回原
however , a single verifiable experiment to
样。他幽默地回忆起：“十二岁那年，
the contrary outweighs any authority,
我有一个朋友以一包糖跟另一个朋
友打赌，认为我将来不会有 什么出息
regardless of reputation or the number of
的。我不知道这次打赌是否已解决；
如果解决了，也不知谁赢了。”
followers and advocates.
由于迷上了物理学，斯蒂芬在牛津大
学学院集中精力学习这门学科，但成
Scientists must accept facts even when
绩并不出色。他参加的是社交聚会，
they would like them to be different. They
感兴趣的是划船，而每天花在学习上
的时间仅仅一小时左右。到剑桥大学
must strive to distinguish between what
读研究生时，他从事相对论研究。他
觉得学得很艰难，部分原因是他身体
they see and what they wish to see -- for
有病令他困惑；他时常跌倒，并且似
乎逐渐变得笨拙起来。
humanity's capacity for self-deception is
很快，医生告诉他这个坏消息：他得
vast. People have traditionally tended to
的是ＡＬＳ病，而且病情只会越来越
糟，却无法治愈。霍金不知所措。没
adopt general rules, beliefs, creeds,
有多久，他需要拐杖走路，还开 始酗
酒，而对学习却置之不理。他说，“当
theories, and ideas without thoroughly
时看来，完成我的博士学位没有什么
questioning their validity and to retain them
用处了。”
然而，霍金的运气改变了。他病情进
long after they have been shown to be
展缓慢下来。而且爱因斯坦的时－空
理论突然似乎不那么难以对付了 。但
meaningless, false, or at least
他说：“真正有重 要影响的是我与珍妮
订婚了。”当时珍妮正在剑桥大学学习
questionable. The most widespread
现代语言。“这给了我生活的目的。”
“如果我们准备结
assumptions are the least questioned. Most
正象他解释的那样：
婚，我得有工作做。而要得到工作就
often, when an idea is adopted, particular
不得不完成博士学位。我开始一生中
第一次刻苦学习。
attention is given to cases that seem to
使我感到惊奇的是，我发现我喜欢刻
苦了。”
support it, while cases that seem to refute it
特别引起斯蒂芬兴趣的是奇点，这是
are distorted, belittled, or ignored. We feel
广义相对论中所预言的怪物。爱因斯
坦的方程式指出，当比太阳大几倍的
deeply that it is a sign of weakness to
一颗星星消耗尽其核燃料并瓦 解时，
它的物质在巨大力量的作用下向中

心挤压在一起，从而形成一个奇点，
一个没有维度而具有无限密度和不
however, must be expert at changing their
可抗拒的引力的点。围绕着奇点的一
个广大区域成为一个“黑 洞”，由于巨
minds. This is because science seeks not to
大的引力，任何东西，甚至光也不例
defend our beliefs but to improve them.
外，无法脱离“黑洞”。
多年前，科学家发现了黑洞存在的令
Better theories are made by those who are
人信服的证据。但是他们对奇点感到
不自在，因为所有科学法则在这些点
not hung up on prevailing ones.
上不起作用。大多数科学家相信在实
际宇宙里，在一个黑洞中心的物体将
Away from their profession, scientists
会是很小的（但不是没有维度的），
。这时，
are inherently no more honest or ethical
而密度极大（但不是无限大）
霍金登台了。当霍金还是一名研究生
than other people. But in their profession
时，他和数学家罗杰·彭罗斯揭示了一
些新的方法来进行数学论证：如果广
they work in an arena that puts a high
义相对论是正确的，那末奇 点就必定
存在。霍金继续论证——再次假定广
premium on honesty. The cardinal rule in
义相对论是正确的——整个宇宙必
science is that all claims must be testable --
定是从一个奇点爆炸而形成的。如同
他在一九六六年博士论文中写的那
they must be capable, at least in principle,
样：“我们过去曾有一个奇点。”
后来，斯蒂芬认识到黑洞的几个新特
of being proved wrong. For example, if
点并论证了“大爆炸”惊人的力量会产
someone claims that a certain procedure
生一些微型黑洞，每个微型黑洞的质
量约等于地球上一座大山的质量，但
has a certain result, it must in principle be
不会大于亚原 子的质子。另外，霍金
在应用量子理论（这种理论精确地叙
possible to perform a procedure that will
述了不规则的，不确定的亚原子世
界）替代了广义相对论（它被证明在
either confirm or contradict the claim. If
这极小的领域中失去作用）后，惊奇
confirmed, then the claim is regarded as
地发现微型黑洞必定放射粒子和辐
射线。
useful and a stepping-stone to further
以几百万枚氢弹的能量发生爆炸。
霍金访问美国三十次，到过莫斯科七
knowledge. None of us has the time or
次，进行环球旅行一次，并驾着轮椅
上了中国长城。在旅途中，偶尔他会
energy or resources to test every claim, so
参加一些与物理学无关的活动。一天
most of the time we must take somebody's
晚上，斯蒂芬陪着一个团体去芝加哥
一家用唱片伴奏的舞厅。他同大家一
word. However, we must have some
起娱乐：驾着轮椅车进了舞池并转了
一圈又一圈。
criterion for deciding whether one person's
最近，霍金，这位一旦确定自己错了
会毫不迟疑地放弃自己成果的人，可
word is as good as another's and whether
能已超越他关于存在奇点的着名论
证。与物理学家詹姆斯·哈特尔一起，
one claim is as good as another. The
他已获得一个描述独立宇宙的量子
criterion, again, is that the claim must be
波。这个独立宇宙象地球的表面那样
没有边缘，没有边 界。霍金说，假如
testable. To reduce the likelihood of error,
事实是那样的话，爱因斯坦的广义相
对理论将不得不作修改，而奇点就不
scientists accept the word only of those
复存在了。“宇宙是不会创造出来的，
也不会毁灭；它会一直存在下去。”
whose ideas, theories, and findings are
他挑战性地总结说：“那么，造物主又
testable -- if not in practice then at least in
会在什么地方呢。

管理的秘决

principle. Speculations that cannot be
如果要我用一个词来总结一下
tested are regarded as
一个优秀的经理所应具备的品质，我
has the long-run effect of compelling
会说优秀的经理所应具备的品质可
honesty - findings widely publicized among
归结为果断二字。你可以使用世界上
fellow scientists are generally subjected to
最最复杂的电脑，可以搜集所有的图
further testing. Sooner or later, mistake
表和数字，但最后你还是不得不集中
(and lies) are bound to be found out;
所有的信息，制定一张时间表，并依
wishful thinking is bound to be exposed.
此而行动。
The honesty so important to the progress of
但我的意思并不是说鲁莽行事。
science thus becomes a matter of
在报刊上，有时我被描写成一个爱卖
self-interest to scientists.

弄的领导，一个做事莽撞的人，一个
单凭直觉行事的投机商人。有时我或
If It Comes Back
Charles saw them both at the same time:
许会给人留下这种印象，但如果这种
the small white bird floating from among
形象真的真实可信的话，我绝不可能
the park trees and the girl wheeling down
在这个行业有所建树。
the walk. The bird glided downward and
实际上，我的管理风格向来是相当保
rested in the grass; the girl directed the
守的。每次冒险都是在我确信研究工
chair smoothly along the sunlit, shadowy
作和市场调查证实了我的直觉之后
walk. Her collapsible metal chair might have
才付诸行动的。我可能会凭直觉行事
been motorized; it carried her along so
——但只有当我的预感得到证实的
smoothly. She stopped to watch the ducks
情况下我才会这么做。
on the pond and when she shoved the
太多的经理在决策时使自己感
wheels again, Charles sprang to his feet.
到压力过重，尤其是那些接受过太多
我曾经对菲尔·考德威尔
< br>教育的经理。
the grass to her. The white bird flew to the
（我离开福特公司后，他当上了福特
top of tree.
公司的总裁）说过：“菲尔，你的麻烦
It was mostly he who talked and he
就在于你读过哈佛，在那儿他们教你
seemed afraid to stop for fear she'd ask him
在没有得到所有事实之前不要采取
to leave her by herself. Nothing in her face
任何行动。你已经得到了百分之九十
had supported the idea of helplessness
五的事实，但要得到剩下的百分之五
conveyed by the wheelchair, and he knew
你还要再花六个月的时间。而当你得
that his assistance was not viewed as a
到了那最后剩下的百分之五的事实
favor. He asked the cause of her handicap;
的时候，你所掌握的事实就会因过时
not because it was so important for him to
而毫无用处，因为市场行情早已发生
know, but because it was something to
了变化。这就是生活的全部内涵——
keep the conversation going.
时机的掌握。

一个好的企业领导不能那样做。
was twelve,
想要得到所有的事实，并坚持等到研
to my younger brother in the back seat and
究工作确保某项特定的计划切实可
suddenly my mother screamed and tried
行以后才采取行动，这是再自然不过
frantically to miss the truck that had pulled
的事情了。如果你要花三亿美元之巨
out in front of us. When I woke up in
资去开发一种新产品，你毕竟还是希
hospital, my mother was screaming again
望绝对肯定你的所做所为是正确的。
outside the door. This time she was trying to
这在理论上是对的，但在现实生
escape the fact that I would never walk
活中却行不通。显然，你有责任尽可
again.
能多地搜集相关事实和预测情况。但
rough on both of you. What
有时你却不得不根据自己的信念跳
about your brother?
一步，断然采取行动。首先，因为即

使是正确的决定如果做得太晚了也
did; at least he was dismissed from the
会成为错误的决定。其次，因为在多
hospital before I was. It took us all a long
数情况下，生意场上是没有毫无疑问
time to accept and adjust.
的事的。有时即使是最优秀的经理也
They went for lunch, and he would have
会象一个牵着一条大狗的小男孩儿
felt awkward except that she knew
了样，停下来看看狗想到哪里去，于
completely how to take care of herself. It
是他就把狗牵到那儿。
was he who seemed clumsy and bumped
那么决策者需要多少信息才算
into a table; she who moved competently
足够呢？要就此提出一个具体的数
through the aisle.
字是不可能的，但很显然，如果你只

有百分之五十的事实就行动的话，你
the next day for he'd made a point of asking
就会处于很不利的位置。如果事情果
to meet her again.
真如此的话，你最好是非常幸运——

否则就得有极妙的预感。有时这种赌
qualm in his stomach, and it was more in
博是需要的，但决不能这样来管理铁
memory of his own loneliness than
路。
anticipation of hers.
同时，你永远也不可能百分之百
He came to like to feel the white
地知道你需要什么。象现如今的许多
handles in his grasp, to walk between the
行业一样，汽车业也在不断地变化
two white- rimmed metal wheels. And he
着。对于我们这些在底特律的人来
grew almost more familiar with the slight
说，最大的挑战一直是设法推断出三
wave at the back of her hair than with her
年后什么样的汽车能吸引顾客。我这
eyes or her mouth. The chair was a
些话是1984年写的，而我们已经在
moveable wonder; he loved the feeling of
着手计划1987和1988年可能受顾
power and strength it gave him for so little
客欢迎的新的汽车样式了。无论如何
exertion. Once, he said to the wave at the
我不得不设法预测出三至四年后什
back of her hair, I hope I'm the only
么样的汽车会畅销，尽管我还不能肯
chair-pusher in your life,
定地说出公众下个月会需要什么样
smiled a little and her eyes had admitted
的汽车。
nothing. When he looked up, he noticed a
当你没有掌握所有事实的时候，
white bird flying from one tree to another,
有时你不得不凭以往的经验来做事
tracing their route with them.
了。每当我在报上读到诸如“李·亚科
我就对自
She cooked dinner for him once in June.
卡喜欢轻举妄动”的描述时，
“喔，也许他打猎已经有很久了，
He expected her to be proud of her ability to
己说：
do everything from her seat in the
所以这会儿他非常清楚怎样才能有
wheelchair -- and was faintly disappointed
的放矢哦！”
to see that she would not feel pride at what
在某种程度上，我一贯是凭直觉
was, for her, simply a matter of course. He
进行管理的。我喜欢深入到堑壕阵地
watched his own hand pick up the salt
上去。我决不是那种只会呆坐着没完
shaker and place it on one of the higher,
没了地制订战略行动计划的决策者。
unused cabinet shelves, then awaited her
但是有一类新型企业家——大
plea for assistance. He didn't know why
多有工商管理硕士学位，对凭直觉决
he'd done it, but the look in her eyes a
策小心翼翼。在某种程度上他们这种
moment later gave him a shock in his easy
审慎的态度是对的。通常，直觉并不
joy. He felt as though he were playing poker
是采取行动的一种足够好的依据。但
and he had just accidentally revealed his
他们中的许多人却走向了另一个极
hand to the opponent. To make her forget
端。他们似乎认为企业中的第一个问
what he'd done, he told her about the little
题都可以加以组织并归纳为一个个
white bird in the park.
案研究。这在学校也许是对的，但在

企业中却总要有个人在那儿说：“好
poem once about a little white bird that
了，伙计们，是时候了。准备好一个
”每当我读到历史书中对
came to rest on a window sill and the lady
小时内行动。
who lived in the house began to put out
第二次世界大战和盟军反攻日的叙
food for it. Soon the lady fell in love, but it
述时，我总是被同一想法所打动：艾
was a mismatched love. Everyday the little
森豪威尔差一点使成功的希望成为
bird came to the window and the lady put
泡影，因为他一直在踌躇不定。但最
“不管天气怎样，我们现在不
out food. When the love affair was over, the
后他说：
little white bird never returned, but the
得不前进了。再等下去只会更加危
woman went on putting out the crumbs
险。所以，我们行动吧！”
every day for years and the wind just blew
这一教训同样适用于企业生活。
them away.
总会有那么一些人想再用一至两个
In July he took her boating frequently.
月的时间来对新车车顶的形状进行
She prepared a picnic lunch each time, and
进一步研究。虽然这种研究或许有
he manned the sails. The most awkward
用，但它却会给你的整个生产计划造
event of this, she felt, was the loading and
成混乱。过了某一时刻，当大多数相
unloading of herself. For Charles, however,
关的事实掌握在手时，你就会发现自
these handlings,as she came to
己只有听凭报酬递减律摆布了。
call it, seemed to be the highlight of the
这就是为什么必须冒一定的风
outings. He appeared to take great delight
险的原因所在。我知道不是人人都必
in wheeling her to the end of the pier,
须冒险。有些人早晨若不带把伞是不
picking her up out of the chair, balancing
会离开家的，既便是阳光灿烂也如
himself to set her into the boat, then
此。遗憾的是，在你试图预料你的损
collapsing the chair and setting it on its side
失时，世界并不总是停下来等你。有
on board. On the first few outings, she had
时你只得去冒险——接着一边前进
felt distinctly ill at ease at having been
一边改正你的错误。
placed helplessly in a spot form which she
追溯到六十年代和七十年代的
could not move herself. It occurred to her,
大部分时间里，这些事情并不象现在
too, that she was unable to swim, should
这样显得这么重要。那时，汽车工业
the boat turn over. Charles, who adapted
就象一只会下金蛋的鹅。我们几乎不
himself marvelously to the captain's role,
必付出努力就能赚到大钱。然而在今
was completely oblivious to her discomfort;
天，无论是涉及到一个人的工作安排
she noted with a returning sense of
不当，或者是涉及到五年后一个完整
helplessness how much he enjoyed being in
的新车系列的规划，没有哪个企业能
control. When he called for her one day in
够付担起慢条斯里决策的“奢华”代
early August with a brand new captain's hat
价。
cocked atop his soft brown hair, all her
无论教科书上是怎样说的，企业
emotions revolted at the idea of another
生活中的绝大多数重要的决策是由
day trapped on the wooden seat over the
个人作出的，
water -- and she refused to go.
而不是由委员会作出的。我的一
They would, instead, she said, go for a
贯政策是：决策之前尽可能地发扬民
walk in which she would move herself by
主，然后我就成了一个无情的指挥
“行了，你们诸位的意见我已经知
the strength of her own arms and he would
官。
walk beside her. He finally agreed, but his
道了，”我说。“现在该我来讲一讲我
displeasure grew with each step; this was a
们要做些什么了。”
role he didn't want to play.
你总还是需要委员会的，因为在

委员会里人们可以分享彼此的知识，
me push you?

交流彼此的意图。但是当委员会取代
了个人集中作出决定的权力的时候

——而现在福特汽车公司的委员会
you do it for three months now.
就比通用汽车公司的委员会要多
wheeled myself for twelve years
——则生产率就开始下降。
before you came along - I doubt that my
总之，世上没有一成不变的事
arms have forgotten how.
物。我喜欢去打鸭子，在这种猎鸭活

动中，不停地运动和不断地变化就是
you while you push yourself!
生活的事实。你可以瞄准一只鸭子，
you think I've liked having to sit
让它处于你猎枪的瞄准线上，但鸭子
helpless in your boat every weekend for the
总在不停地跑动。为了打中鸭子，你
past two months?
不得不移动你的猎枪。但当面对一项
For a moment he was stunned into
重大决策时，委员会并非总能对迅速
silence by this new learning. Finally he said
变化的事件作出同样敏捷的反应。等
quietly,
到委员会做好开枪的准备时，鸭子已
in a wheelchair all the time -- I never
经飞跑了。

thought you'd mind sitting in the boat. It's
the same thing.
我有一个梦想
100年前，一位伟大的美国人
, I
——今天我们就站在他象征性的身
can move by myself; I can go anywhere I
影下——签署了《解放宣言》。这项
need to go. That boat traps me so I can't do
重要法令的颁布，对于千百万灼烤于
anything -- I couldn't even save myself if
非正义残焰中的黑奴，犹如带来希望
something happened and I fell out.
之光的硕大灯塔，恰似结束漫漫长夜

禁锢的欢畅黎明。
save you or help you move or whatever it is
然而，100年后，黑人依然没有
you want?
获得自由。100年后，黑人依然悲惨
but Charles -- the point is I've
地蹒跚于种族隔离和种族歧视的枷
spent twelve years learning to manage by
锁之下。100年后，黑人依然生活在
myself. I even live in a city that's miles from
物质繁荣翰海的贫困孤岛上。100年
my family so I'll have to be independent and
后，黑人依然在美国社会中向隅而
do things for myself. Being placed in the
泣，依然感到自己在国土家园中流离
boat takes all that I've won away from me.
漂泊。所以，我们今天来到这里，要
Can't you see why I object to it? I can't let
把这骇人听闻的情况公诸于众。
myself be at anyone's mercy -- not even
从某种意义上说，我们来到国家
yours.
的首都是为了兑现一张支票。我们共
They continued down the path in
和国的缔造者在拟写宪法和独立宣
silence as his feelings boiled within him and
言的辉煌篇章时，就签署了一张每一
finally ran over the edge of his control:
个美国人都能继承的期票。这张期票

向所有人承诺——不论白人还是黑
me. I need your dependence upon me.
人——都享有不可让渡的生存权、自
And, as if to punctuate his desire, he took
由权和追求幸福权。
the familiar white bars in hand and pushed
然而，今天美国显然对她的有色
her rapidly along so that her own hands
公民拖欠着这张期票。美国没有承兑
came off the wheels and rested in her lap.
这笔神圣的债务，而是开始给黑人一
The wave at the back of her hair did not
张空头支票——一张盖着“资金不足”
show the anger in her eyes, and it was just
的印戳被退回的支票。但是，我们决
as well for it was an anger he would not
不相信正义的银行会破产。我们决不
have understood.
相信这个国家巨大的机会宝库会资
She would not answer her telephone
金不足。
the next morning but in his mail that
因此，我们来兑现这张支票。这
afternoon came an envelope that he knew
张支票将给我们以宝贵的自由和正
had come from Amy. The handwriting was
义的保障。
not beautiful, but it was without question
我们来到这块圣地还为了提醒
hers. Inside was only a card on which she
美国：现在正是万分紧急的时刻。现
had written:
If you want something baby written,
You must let it go free.
If it comes back to you,
It's yours.
If it doesn't,
You really never had it anyway.
(Anonymous)
在不是从容不迫悠然行事或服用渐
进主义镇静剂的 时候。现在是实现民
主诺言的时候。现在是走出幽暗荒凉
的种族隔离深谷，踏上种族平等阳关< br>大道的时候。现在是使我们国家走出
种族不平等的流沙，踏上充满手足之
情的磐石的时候 。现在是让上帝所有
的孩子真正享有公正的时候。
He ran out of his apartment, refusing to
忽视这一时刻的紧迫性，对于国
believe that Amy might no longer be in her
家将会是致命的。自由平等的朗朗秋
home. As he was running towards her
日不到来，黑人顺情合理哀怨的酷暑
1963年不是一个结束，
apartment, he kept hearing a roar in his
就不会过去。
ears:
而是一个开端。
it go free.
如果国家依然我行我素，那些希
But he thought: I can't risk it, she is
望黑人只需出出气就会心满意足的
mine, can't just let go, can't give her a
人将大失所望。在黑人得到公民权之
chance not to belong to me, can't let her
前，美国既不会安宁，也不会平静。
think she doesn't need me, she must need
反抗的旋风将继续震撼我们国家的
me. Oh God, I have to have her.
But her apartment was
基石，直至光辉灿烂的正义之日来
empty.
临。
Somehow in the hours overnight, she had
但是，对于站在通向正义之宫艰
packed -- by herself - and moved by herself.
险门槛上的人们，有一些话我必须要
The rooms were now impersonal; their cold
说。在我们争取合法地位的过程中，
stillness could not respond when he fell
切不要错误行事导致犯罪。我们切不
to the floor and sobbed.
要吞饮仇恨辛酸的苦酒，来解除对于
By the middle of August he had heard
自由的饮渴。
nothing from Amy. He lay often on his bed
我们应该永远得体地、纪律严明
with her letter on his chest and counted the
地进行斗争。我们不能容许我们富有
minute cracks in his ceiling; he went often
创造性的抗议沦为暴力行动。我们应
to the park but scrupulously avoided
该不断升华到用灵魂力量对付肉体
looking for the white bird. Sometimes he
力量的崇高境界。
would sit for hours there in the wind under a
席卷黑人社会的新的奇迹般的
tree and not even notice that he was
战斗精神，不应导致我们对所有白人
outside, that life went on around him.
的不信任——因为许多白人兄弟已
September came and had almost gone
经认识到：他们的命运同我们的命运
before he finally received an envelope of
紧密相连，他们的自由同我们的自由
familiar stationery. The handwriting was not
休戚相关。他们今天来到这里参加集
beautiful but it was without question hers.
会就是明证。我们不能单独行动。
The postmark was that of a city many miles
当我们行动时，我们必须保证勇
distant. With a shock of feeling returning to
往直前。我们不能后退。有人问热心
“你们什么时候会感到
his heart, he tore open the envelope and at
民权运动的人：
first thought it was empty. Then he noticed
满意？”只要黑人依然是不堪形容的
on his desk a single white feather that had
警察暴行恐怖的牺牲品，我们就决不
fallen from it. In his mind, the white bird
会满意。只要我们在旅途劳顿后，却
rose in flight and its wings let fly one
被公路旁汽车游客旅社和城市旅馆
feather. Were it not for the feather lost in
拒之门外，我们就决不会满意。只要
departure, no one would have known that
黑人的基本活动范围只限于从狭小
the white bird had ever been. Thus he knew
的黑人居住区到较大的黑人居住区，
Amy would not be back, and it was many
我们就决不会满意。只要我们的孩子
hours before he let the feather drop out of
被“仅供白人”的牌子剥夺个性，损毁
his hand.
尊严，我们就决不会满意。只要密西
西比州的黑人不能参加选举，纽约州

Love Story
CHAPTER 13
Mr. And Mrs. Oliver Barrett III
request the pleasure of your company
at a dinner in celebration of < br>的黑人认为他们与选举毫不相干，我
们就决不会满意。不，不，我们不会
满意，直至公正 似水奔流，正义如泉
喷涌。
我并非没有注意到你们有些人
Mr. Barrett's sixtieth birthday
Saturday, the sixth of March
at seven o'clock
Dover House, Ipswich, Massachusetts
R. S. V. P.
.
历尽艰难困苦来到这里。你们有些人
刚刚走出狭小的牢房。有些人来自因
追求自由而遭受迫害风暴袭击和警
察暴虐狂飙摧残的地区。你们饱经风
霜，历尽苦难。继续努力 吧，要相信：
无辜受苦终得拯救。

回到密西西比去吧；回到亚拉巴
in the midst of abstracting The State v.
马去吧；回到南卡罗来纳去吧；回到
Percival, a very important precedent in
佐治亚去吧；回到路易斯安那去吧；
criminal law. Jenny was sort of waving the
回到我们北方城市中的贫民窟和黑
invitation to bug me.
,

人居住区去吧。要知道，这种情况能
够而且将会改变。我们切不要在绝望
的深 渊里沉沦。
you know very well that,she
朋友们，今天我要对你们说，尽
answered.
管眼下困难重重，但我依然怀有一个
his hands and knees?
I kept working as she worked me over.

梦。这个梦深深植根于美国梦之中。
我梦想有一天，这个国家将会奋
起，实现其立国信条的真谛：“我们认

为这些真理不言而喻：人人生而平
envel ope.
等。”
thought you said you didn't look at it!
我梦想有一天，在佐治亚州的红
she sort of yelled.
色山岗上，昔日奴隶的儿子能够同昔
Okay, so I did glance at it earlier. Maybe it
日奴隶主的儿子同席而坐，亲如手
had slipped my mind. I was, after all, in the
足。
midst of abstracting The State v. Percival,
我梦想有一天，甚至连密西西比
and in the virtual shadow of exams. The
州——一个非正义和压迫的热浪逼
point was she should have stopped
人的荒漠之州，也会改造成为自由和
haranguing me.
公正的青青绿洲。
think,she said, her tone kind of
我梦想有一天，我的四个小女儿
pleading now. goddamn years old.
将生活在一个不是以皮肤的颜色，而
Nothing says he'll still be around when
是以品格的优劣作为评判标准的国
you're finally ready for the reconciliation.
家里。
I informed Jenny in the simplest possible
我今天怀有一个梦。
terms that there would never be a
我梦想有一天，亚拉巴马州会有
reconciliation and would she please let me
所改变——尽管该州州长现在仍滔
continue my studying. She sat down
滔不绝地说什么要对联邦法令提出
quietly, squeezing herself onto a corner of
异议和拒绝执行——在那里，黑人儿
the sofa where I had my feet. Although she
童能够和白人儿童兄弟姐妹般地携
didn't make a sound, I quickly became
手并行。
aware that she was looking at me very
我今天怀有一个梦。
hard. I glanced up.
我梦想有一天，深谷弥合，高山
she said, you're being
夷平，歧路化坦途，曲径成通衢，上
bugged by Oliver V --
帝的光华再现，普天下生灵共谒。
, be sure of that!
这是我们的希望。这是我将带回
I snapped at her. She didn't raise her voice,
南方去的信念。有了这个信念，我们
though she usually did when I did.
就能绝望之山开采出希望之石。有了

这个信念，我们就能把 这个国家的嘈
Clown that kid's still going to resent you
杂刺耳的争吵声，变为充满手足之情
because you were a big Harvard athlete.
的悦耳交响曲。有了这个信念，我们
一同祈祷，一同斗争，
And by the time he's a freshman, you'll
就能一同工作，
probably be in the Supreme Court!
一同入狱，一同维护自由，因为我们
I told her that our son would definitely not
知道，我们终有一天会获得自由。
resent me. She then inquired how I could be
从到了这一天，上帝的所有孩子
so certain of that. I couldn't produce
都能以新的含义高唱这首歌：
evidence. I mean, I simply knew our son
我的祖国，
would not resent me, I couldn't say
可爱的自由之邦，
precisely why. Jenny then remarked:
我为您歌唱。
. Her loves
这是我祖先终老的地方，
you just the way you'll love Bozo. But you
这是早期移民自豪的地方，
Barretts are so damn proud and
让自由之声，
competitive, you'll go through life thinking
响彻每一座山岗。
you hate each other.


如果美国要成为伟大的国家，这
一点必须实现。因此，让自由之声响
彻新罕布什尔州的巍峨高峰！

让自由之声响彻纽约州的崇山
the husband and head of household. My
峻岭！
eyes returned to The State v. Perival and
让自由之声响彻宾夕法尼亚州
Jenny got up. But then she remembered.
.
的阿勒格尼高峰！
让自由之声响彻科罗拉多州冰
I said that a Radcliffe music major could
雪皑皑的洛基山！
probably compose a nice little negative
让自由之声响彻加利福尼亚州
RSVP without professional guidance.
的婀娜群峰！
,
不，不仅如此；让自由之声响彻
or cheated in my life. But I've never
佐治亚州的石山！
deliberately hurt anyone. I don't think I
让自由之声响彻田纳西州的望
could.
山！
Really, at that moment she was only hurting
让自由之声响彻密西西比州的
me, so I asked her politely to handle the
一座座山峰，一个个土丘！
RSVP in whatever manner she wished, as
让自由之声响彻每一个山岗！
long as the essence of the message was
当我们让自由之声轰响，当我们
that we wouldn't show unless hell froze
让自由之声响彻每一个大村小庄，每
over. I returned once again to The State v.
一个州府城镇，我们就能加速这一天
Percival.
的到来。那时，上帝的所有 孩子，黑

人和白人，犹太教徒和非犹太教徒，
softly. She was at the telephone.

耶稣教徒和天主教徒，将能携手同唱
那首古老的黑人 灵歌：“终于自由了！

终于自由了！感谢全能的上帝，我们
number?
I told her and was instantly immersed in
Percival's appeal to the Supreme Court. I
was not listening to Jenny. That is, I tried
not to. She was in the same room, after all.
,
She had her hand over the mouthpiece.

The nod of my head indicated that it had to
终于自由了！”

商务、技术研究报告的写作

作为学生和专 业人员，他们花了
大量时间将自己的研究项目的结果
报告给老师，经理和委托人。的确，
一个人如果没有从事研究工作的基
本技能和将研究成果清楚而完整地
表达的能力，那么他就会 在学习和工
作中碰到许多障碍。科研写作能力的
需要对于在各个领域的学生都是相
等的 ，无论理工科学生还是商务、人
文学科的学生都是这样研究生阶段
的学习对学生的科研写作提出 了很
高的要求，而且大多数职业继续要求
、广告与市场营销、
be, the wave of my hand indicated that she
这样：教育（学）
经济学与会计学，理工科、心理学、
should hurry up.
人类学、艺术以及农艺可能都要定期

报告研究的信息。
研究报告的要素
…
标准的研究报告，不论是哪个领域或
We're! Did she have to involve me in this?
针对哪类读者，都有四个主要部分。
这些大的部分可以分成许多小的部
And why can't she get to the point and hang
分，而且结构安排可以多种多样，但
是报告的核心通常由这四大部分组
up?
成的。

问题部分。研究报告的首要部分就是
She had her hand on the mouthpiece again
陈述研究项目所涉及的问题。这一部
分要求准确阐述研究者要问答的根
and was talking very loud.
本问题。在这同一个部分里应该从社
wounded, Oliver! Can you just sit
会、经济，医学、心理、教育方面来
解释问题的意义：换言之，为什么值
there and let you father bleed?
得进行这项研究。这样，举例来说，
Had she not been in such an emotional
如果我们开始回答“经常食用快餐食
品对美国青少年有什么影响？”那么
state, I could have explained once again
我们就必须解释，此问题认为同这部
that stones do not bleed. But she was very
分的人口有着非常密切的关系，可能
导致对此类食品作出某种规定。
upset. And it was upsetting me too.
问题这一部分通常有一个小部分对,
该课题过去的研究民情况进行回顾。
这可能包括对这个问题以前的研究
word ?
者作出的贡献进行总结以及对这些
To him? She must be going out of her mind!
贡献作出某种评价。这一小部分具有
修辞作用，因为它显 示了所提供的资

料是在对本领域所取得的成果透彻
She was offering the phone to me. And
理解的基础上取得的，因而它提高了
对研究者的可信度。并且很可能是从
trying not to cry.
某种调查研究中得出来的。
,
过程部分。研究报告的第二 大部分准
确阐述了，用尽可能多的资料，研究
perfect calm.
是如何进行的。这部分包括说明所需
And now she was crying. Nothing audible,
要的设备，实验对象是怎样选择的，
如果使用了的话，用什么统计方法来
but tears pouring down her face. And then
评价实验成果的意义，进行了多少次
观察以及什么时候进行的等。如果要
she -- she begged.
对不同泳姿的相应效果进行研究的
me, Oliver. I've never asked you for
话，那么就要详细说明参加测试的人
数 ，进行测试的性质，游泳者的经历，
anything. Please.
进行测试的天气条件，以及对整个实
Three of us. There of us just standing (I
验有影响的其它因素。过程部分的目
somehow imagined my father being there
的是让读者能模拟实验，如果他愿意
这么样来证实或驳斥你的结果的话。
as well) waiting for something. What? For
结果部分。研究报告的第三，也许是
最重要的部分是展示从研究中获得
me?
的结果。这部分的基本原则就是对最
I couldn't do it.
初提出的问题提供一切有关的资料。
Didn't Jenny understand she was asking the
当然，虽然人的自然倾向可能是对任
何在某方面与自 己的假设不符的结
impossible? That I would have done
果进行隐瞒，可是这种不诚实与任何
absolutely anything else? As I looked at the
领域优秀的研究报告是相背的。如果
所进行的实验不能证实什么，如果资
floor, shaking my head in adamant refusal
料不充分或与期望相反，那么研究报
and extreme discomfort, Jenny addressed
告就应该如实而且尽可能完整地写
下来，就象假设被研究证实了的那样
me with a kind of whispered fury I had
把它写下来。
never heard from her:
讨论部分。研究报告的最后一个必要
部分就是讨论所获得的结果，阐述从

那些结果中得出的任何结论。在商务
then she ended the telephone conversation
和技术的研究报告中，人们主要关注
是结果的可靠性，这也是公司决策的
with my father saying:
依据；我们策划的项目符合联邦环境
. Barrett, Oliver does want you to know
政策吗？会得到批准进行吗？?这个
新项目会吸引技术人材到我们公司
that in his own special way…
来吗？从金融方面看，这项石油回收
She paused for breath. She had been
新技术可行吗？这样，研究报告 的讨
论必须全面评价研究成果：它们获得
sobbing, so it wasn't easy. I was much too
是否真实？它们是完整的还是有局
astonished to do anything but await the end
限性？它们的应用范围很大吗？讨
论部分也应该指出哪些问题仍然没
of my alleged
有找到答案，也许对进一步研究提出

一些建议。
研究报告的文体
hung up very quickly.
人们认为研究报告是属于正规的专
据此，并不强调用活泼文体，
There is no rational explanation for my
业交流。
当然也不反对文章写得生动有趣。专
actions in the next split second. I must
业交流的主要目的是准确、明晰，完
整。校订任何研究报告初稿都应保证
never be forgiven for what I did.
所有资料正确提供，所有设备列出，
I ripped the phone from her hand, then
所有结果恰当详述。为方便读者，应
from the socket -- and hurled it across the
该使用标题，至少标明报告的主要部
分，而所有资料都应当在恰当的标题
room.
下陈述。标题除了有向读者提示每部

分内容的功能外，它还提高了报告的
规范 性和学术质量，同时报告是按逻
the hell out of my life!
辑、有条理地写出来的，因此在某种
I stood still, panting like the animal I had
程度上增加了作者的可信度，消除了
报告各部分之间冗长的承上启下的
suddenly become. Jesus Christ! What the
词语。
hell had happened to me? I turned to look
应该用一种恰当强调项目主要方面
的方式陈述研究资料。对于不同的读
at Jen.
者来说，不同的方面具有不同的重要
But she was gone.
性。应该考虑到报告的结构因不同的
读者而有所不同。例如：资方对研究
I mean absolutely gone, because I didn't
项目的结果最为关心，所以这部分应
even hear footsteps on the stairs. Christ,
该加以强调。在问题部分之后和过程
部分之前有可能立即出现。其他的研
she must have dashed out the instant I
究人员对过程部分尤为感兴趣，所以
grabbed the phone. Even her coat and scarf
在把研究项目整理成文用于在专业
刊物发表或在专业会议上宣读时，这
were still there. The pain of not knowing
一部分应该着重突出。对于非专业读
what to do was exceeded only by that of
者和联邦机构来说，首要考虑的是研
究结果的含意，对于这部分读者来
knowing what I had done.
说，应该强调讨论部分。
I searched everywhere.
In the Law School library, I prowled the
rows of grinding students, looking and
looking. Up and back, at least half a dozen
times. Though I didn't utter a sound, I knew
my glance was so intense, my face so
fierce, I was disturbing the whole place.
Who cares?
But Jenny wasn't there.
Then all through Harkness Commons, the
lounge, the cafeteria. Then a wild sprint to
look around Agassiz Hall at Radcliffe. Not
there, either. I was running everywhere
now, my legs trying to catch up with the
pace of my heart.
Paine Hall? (Ironic goddamn name!)
Downstairs are piano practice rooms. I
know Jenny. When she's angry, she pounds
the keyboard. Right? But how about when
she's scared to death?
It's crazy walling down the corridor, practice
rooms on either side. The sounds of Mozart
另外为了明晰、强调，主要成果不仅
应该用书面文字而且还应该用表格，
图表，图解，简图等直观形式来表述。
除了检查研究报 告是否在技术资料
方面表达清楚、准确外，作者还应该
检查基本语法和打印方面是否准确。在陈述复杂信息时最好使用短句。应
该使用列举方法来避免长篇大论，强
调信息。研究报告 的作者应该在不损
害报告的专业质量的情况下尽可能
使用最简单的语言。虽然专业术语能
够使用，但虚饰的行为应当避免。一
篇完整的研究报告应该是一份把读
者装在心中，可读而又 有用的文献。
结论
虽然我们在中学就努力去写好
研究报告，在大学仍有点 害怕，在专
业生活中还经常感到它是一种负担，
然而学会与之泰然相处也是一件相
对容 易的事。为了帮助人们及时而又
有效地写出报告，人们应该做到：有
一种积极的态度（即把口头 和书面陈
述研究成果与资料收集过程看成同
样重要）：写作步骤井然有序，包括
写作前 的准备工作（即在进行实际研
究工作之前，研究者应当尽可能多地
把与研究课题有关的资料写下 来）有
一个正式研究报告的构思作为调查
的框架；有一个合理的写作方法，包
括为了准 确、清楚、将会很有效的进
行校订过程。

职业的开端

贝尔蒙特宾馆，1952年6月11日
and Bartok, Bach and Brahms filter out from
亲爱的妈妈：
你那份令我吃惊的电报，[宣布了
the doors and blend into this weird infernal
由我转寄的＜明顿家的星期天＞、获
得了＜小姐＞杂志五百元奖金。它正
sound.
Jenny's got to be here!
Instinct made me stop at a door where I
heard the pounding (angry?) sound of a
Chopin prelude. I paused for a second. The
playing was lousy -- stops and starts and
many mistakes. At one pause I heard a
girl's voice mutter, It had to be
Jenny. I flung open the door.
A Radcliffe girl was at the piano. She looked
up. Au ugly, big-shouldered hippie Radcliffe
girl, annoyed at my invasion.
, man?
I replied, and closed the door
again.
Then I tried Harvard Square. Nothing.
Where would Jenny have gone?
I just stood there, lost in the darkness of
Harvard Square, not knowing where to go
or what to do next. A colored guy
approached me and inquired if I was in need
of a fix. I kind of absently replied,
thank you sir.
I wasn't running now. I mean, what was the
好是我在阴暗的贝尔蒙特餐厅洗餐
桌时收到的我非常 激动，大声叫着，
竟一把抱住了女服务员领班。毫无疑
问，她一定认为我发疯了。不管怎样，< br>从心理上讲，你的电报来得正是时
候。那时我觉得很累——人到一个新
地方，第一夜总是 睡不好的——而我
就没有睡多少觉。更糟糕的是，我是
这里唯一的女招待。一直要擦洗家
具，洗盘子和银餐具，搬桌子等， 从
上午８点开始我刚知道，因为我完全
没有经验，将不会 让我在正厅工作，
而是让我在经理们和主管人员就餐
的“侧厅”工作。所有，这个暑假的小费毫无疑问会少得多，并且一起干活
的伙伴缺乏风趣。我正开动为缺钱发
愁时你的电报来了 。上帝啊！想想看，
《明顿家的星期天》竟是一家全国性
通俗刊物的两篇获奖小说之一！说实< br>话，我真地不敢相信！
我当时想到的第一件事是：妈妈可以
将她要给我暑假用的钱留下 ，买些好
衣服，进行一次特别旅游什么的。至
少我能够用《明顿家》获得的奖金买
一件 冬装和一套非常精美的衣服。奖
金有五百元之多啊！
这么多人中，获奖的竟是我！
现在这里一切都好起来，因为我不必
为钱担心了，……啊，即使这第一个
星期之后我双脚疼得要 命，即使摔破
了二十个盘子我仍然会到海滩去，要
侍者为我拿酒，要享受海边的阳光，
要与年轻的伙伴同乐。多么美好的生
活！
爱你，你那发疯的女儿。
西维
1952年6月12日
毫无疑问，我睡足觉，学会用左手端
稳高高的盘子后， 我会感到更高兴的。现在实际上，我
觉得自己陷入一伙闹哄哄、厚脸皮的
爱尔兰天主教徒之 中，无法脱身，而
我能够自乐的唯一办法就是说：“嗯，
只是一个夏天，而我还可以把他们写< br>到我的小说里去呢。”至少，我已经为
rush to return to the empty house? It was
very late -- almost 1 A. M. -- and I was
numb -- more with fright than with the cold
(although it wasn't warm, believe me).
From several yards off, I thought I saw
someone sitting on the top of the steps.
This had to be my eyes playing tricks,
because the figure was motionless.
But it was Jenny.
She was sitting on the top step.
I was too tired to panic, too relieved to
speak. Inwardly I hoped she had some
blunt instrument with which to hit me.


We both spoke so quietly, it was impossible
to take an emotional reading.

I stood there at the bottom of the steps,
afraid to ask how long she had been sitting,
knowing only that I had wronged her
terribly.

she cut off my apology, then said
我的下一个主人公取了一个新名字
——马莉， 一个能说会道熟知人情世
故的女孩，小伙子们与大姑娘的比例
越来越小。所以如果我被这儿哪个 最
年轻的小伙子追求的话，那我是很幸
运的。这里的很多女孩确实机灵，能
喝酒，会调 情卖俏。而我因是那种保
守、文静、优雅的女孩，所以不太可
能和一些帅小伙子约会……要是我 能
与这些女孩相处很好，作她们朋友而
决不让她们知道我是个文雅的知识
分子的话，那 就好了。
对于《小姐》杂志那条消息，我还是
感到不可理解。我曾经确信他们弄错
了 ，或是你杜撰出来让我高兴的。最
大的好处将是我不必为这个夏天只
能挣到300美金发愁了。 不然的话，
我会忧心忡忡的。我现在真是急不可
耐地希望八月到来，到那时我可随意
走 进杂货店拿起一册漂亮的《小姐》
杂志，赶快翻到索引部分，看到我，
美国两名女大学生之一！
真的，当我想起整个春假期间怎样着
手写这篇小说。在学校修改润色，在
海文豪斯厨房 喧闹的环境中熬夜打
字到深夜的时候，我真的无法相信这
篇小说会获得如此大奖……
因为你能真正理解，它对我来说有多
么重要的意义。它充分表明我有创作
潜力。唯一的事就是我 极有可能再也
没有机会获得《小姐》杂志的大奖了。
所以也许明年，也许在大四，我要努
力争取做一名客座编辑，而且我的目
标是要做《大西洋》月刊的客座编辑。
天哪，能和你谈论 这事，我很高兴
——很可能你是我拥有的唯一——
一位不厌其烦地听我谈论写作的听
众 ……
再谈谈亨利和莉兹，它是我小说创作
迈出的一步。故事中的主人公不再总
是“我 ”，它还证明我开始动用想象力
来改变真事。我还真害怕过这事办不
到，不过我想这表明我观察 事物的能
力在扩大.
有时我想——见鬼，我不知道我为何
very quietly,
to say you're sorry.
I climbed up the stairs to where she was
sitting.


We walked up to our apartment. As we
undressed, she looked at me reassuringly.
.
And that was all.

Roaming the Cosmos
Darkness has fallen on Cambridge,
England, and on a damp and chilly evening
king's Parade is filled with students and
faculty. Then, down the crowded
thoroughfare comes the University of
Cambridge's most distinctive vehicle,
bearing its most distinguished citizen. In
the motorized wheelchair, boyish face dimly
illuminated by a glowing computer screen
attached to the left armrest, is Stephen
William Hawking, 46, one of the world's
greatest theoretical physicists. As he
skillfully maneuvers through the crowd,
整个 夏天不呆在家里写作、学习自然
科学，做一份兼职的小事。我现“有能
力”做到了，不过我想过 于想得到这个
并不一定是好事，虽然这样做了会很
好。好啦，我会振作精神的，我爱你。
你的西维
1952年6月12日
亲爱的妈妈，
妈妈，你一定要给我写信 ，因为我现
在处在一种自惭形秽的危险状态……
就眼下，生活糟透了。《小姐》获奖
好 象完全不是真的，我现在总的来
说，情绪低落：疲惫、害怕、无能、
精力不济……
在 侧厅工作把我撇在一边，我感到孤
立无援，非常尴尬。我越是看见正厅
的女孩们熟练地准备特别 的菜肴，
做刨冰，水果等，就越是感到自叹不
如，感到每天在侧厅工作使我大大落
后 了……但是尽管我受到诱惑去当胆
小鬼、爬回家去，我还决心试着干完
这一个月——直到7月1 0日……不
要为我担心，不过请一定时常给我寄
些简短的建议来。
1952年6月15日
昨天晚上我到“桑德酒吧”参加了一个
“同伙”生日聚会。在 哪儿我们唱啊、
谈啊她几个小时。从宾馆我们去了大
约四十个少男少女。受到某种魔力的
驱使，我设法挨着一名哈佛法学院的
一年级学生坐了下来——而且她的
确招人喜爱……最好的 时光是我们回
来的时候。那是一个美丽、明净、星
星满天夜晚，因为天气冷，克拉克进
屋去拿了两件毛衣让我穿，还拿出了
一本T·S·艾略特诗集。我们坐在一张
我能够勉强看得清 字的长凳上，他把
头靠在我的膝上，我给他念了一会儿
诗。真好。唯一的问题就是我非常容易爱上像这样和我一起欣赏诗歌的
人了——总是容易谈论非常抽象、严
肃的话题——这就是 我的主要问
题……所以非常高兴听到《小姐》杂
志的支票是真的。我简直不敢相信。
现 在我的思绪混乱，所以完全记不住
东西，也不能清楚考虑问题。工作仍
然不熟练，觉得累。由于 一天要换三
horns in greeting. People wave and shout
次制服。我总是忙于日常琐事、与人
交往，还没来得及整理、消化我所经
历的这些杂乱 的事情。尽管如此，我
hello.
还是像以往那样具有幽默感，很多时
A huge smile lights up Hawking's
候还是尽量让自己开怀大笑……不管
我发生什么事，我都会全力以赴的。
bespectacled face, but he cannot wave or
非常爱你的
西维

shout back. Since his early 20s, he has
探寻外星人

motorists slow down, some honking their
suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS), a progressive deterioration of the
central nervous system that usually causes
death within three or four years. Hawking's
illness has advanced more slowly, and now
seems almost to have stabilized. Still, it has
robbed him of virtually all movement. He
has no control over most of his muscles,
cannot dress or eat by himself and has lost
his voice. Now he only by using
the slight voluntary movement left in his
hands and fingers to operate his
自从人类有 历史记载以来，我们
一直在思索着星星，反复考虑是否只
有人类存在，或者说在太空深处的某< br>个地方是否存在其他同我们一样在
不停地思索着的生命，也就是宇宙中
跟我们一起思考的 人。这样的人可能
对自己和宇宙算法不同。在别的什么
地方可能存在着非常奇异的生物、技术和社会。我们在一种空间和时间都
超出人类理解的宇宙环境里感到有
点孤独。我们深思着 根本的意义，我
们这个渺小的但精巧的蓝色星。
探寻外星人就是为人类寻找一个普
遍 能接受的宇宙环境。从最深层次的
意义来说，探寻外星人就是寻找我们
自己。
在过去的几年中——在我们人
类生活在这个星球上的百万分之一
的时间里，——我们已经具有了 一种
非凡的能力。这种技术能力能使我们
搜寻到无比遥远的文明世界，即使他
们和我们 一样不先进。
这种技术能力叫做射电天文学。
它涉及到单架射望远镜、阵列射电望< br>远镜、高灵敏度的无线电探测器，用
于处理接收的信息的先进计算机以
及全身心投入的科 学家们的想象力
和技能。射电天文学在过去的十年中
已经打开了一个研究宇宙的新窗口。
如果我们充分发挥自己的聪明才智
去努力，它可能会帮助我们弄清楚宇
宙生物世界。
wheelchair's built-in computer and voice
synthesizer.
While ALS has made Hawking a virtual
prisoner in his own body, it has left his
courage and humor intact, his intellect free
to roam. And roam it does, from the
infinitesimal to the infinite, from the
一些 研究外星人问题的科学家，包括
我自己，都已努力设法对银河系的先
subatomic realm to the far reaches of the
进技术文明社会的数目进行了估 计
——先进技术文明社会定义为具有
universe. In the course of these mental
射民天文学能力的社会。这样的估计
比猜想强不了多少。
expeditions, Hawking has conceived
它们要求将这些情况数字化，诸如星
startling new theories about black holes and
球的数量和年龄，有多少个行星系、
生命起源的可能性有多大，这些我们
the disorderly events that immediately
较少知道：还有智慧生物 进化的可能
性和技术文明世界的寿命，这些我们
followed the Big Bang from which the
近乎一无所知。
当我们进行计算时我们得出的这类
universe sprang. More recently, he has
数字是很有特点的大约有一百万个
shaken both physicists and theologians by
文明世界。想象一下这百 万个文明世
界的五花八门、这真令人兴奋，各种
suggesting that the universe has no
生活方式以及商业，可是银河系有大
约二千五百亿个恒星， 即使有一百万
boundaries, was not created and will not be
个文明世界，可每二十万个恒星中不
到一个有文明世界的人居住的行星。
des troyed.
既然我们几乎不知道哪些恒星可能
Most of Stephen Hawking's innovative
存在文明世界，我们将不得不搜寻大
量的恒星。 这样就意味着探寻外星人
thinking occurs at Cambridge, where he is
可能需要作出极大的努力。
尽管有人声称古代在太空人，见过不
Lucasian professor of mathematics, a seat
明飞行物，然而却缺乏确凿的证据证
once occupied by Isaac Newton. There, in
明过去有其他文明世界的人来过地
球。我们只限于运用远距离的通信，
the Department of Mathematics and
在目前我们的技术所能运用的长距< br>离的技术手段中，无线电肯定是最好
Theoretical Physics, he benevolently reigns
的。无线电望远镜相对来说价格便
宜；无线电象光速那样快速发送信
over the relativity group, 15 overachieving
号，而且前没有任何东西快过光速；
graduate students from nine countries. On
把无线电用于通讯不是一种短视的
或以人类为宇宙中心的行为。无线电
his office door is a small plaque irreverently
具有大部分的电磁波谱，银河系中的
任何地方的任何技术文明世界该早
reading QUIET, PLEASE. THE BOSS IS
就发现无线电，无线电具有大部分的
电磁波谱，银河系中的任何地方的任
ASLEEP.
何技术文明世界该早就发现无线电
Hardly. From midmorning until he departs
了——正像在过去的几个世纪中我
们对从短伽马射线到长线电波的整
for dinner around 7 p. m., Hawking follows a
个电磁波谱已经探索过了一样。先进
的文明社会要能使用其它的通讯方
routine that would tax the most
式同他们的同辈进行联系。但是，假
如他们想和落后的或新兴的文明社
able- bodied, working in his book-lined
会联系，很显然只有几种方法，其中
主要的方法就是无线电。
office, amid photographs of his wife Jane
在西旨吉尼亚州格林班克国家无线
and their three children. When he rolled
电天文台第一次认真的尝试收听了
来自其他文明的信号。在１９５９年
into the department's common room one
和１９６０年。此项工作是由 弗兰
克·德雷克主持的，他现在在康乃尔大
morning last month, his students were
学。这是以奥兹国公主的名字命名
的，叫作奥兹玛项目。奥兹国是个十
talking shop around low tables.
分奇异、非常遥远，难以到达的地方。
Maneuvering to one of the tables, Hawking
德雷克在几个星期里对两个附近的
恒星进行了探测，没有取得积极的结
clicked his control switch, evoking tiny
果。假如取得了积极的结果，那会令
人吃惊的，因为，正象我们已经看到
beeps from his computer and selecting
的一样，即使非常乐观地估算一下银
河系中的技术文明社会的数目,要想
words from lists displayed on his screen.
不加选择地探测就取得成功的话，必
These words, assembled in sequence at the
须探测几十万个恒星。
自从奥兹玛项目以来，又有６到８个
bottom of the screen, finally issued from
这样规模的项目。都是这样的规模，
无论是在美国，加拿大和苏联。所有
the voice synthesizer:
都未取得结果到目前为止用这种方
I have coffee?Then, for the benefit of a
法探测过的恒星总数还不到 一千个，
也就是我们大约只探测了需要探测
visitor: am sorry about my American
的百分之一中的十分之一。可是，种
种迹象表明，人们可能在最近的 将来
accent.
作出更大的努力。此外，随着最近无
线电技术取得巨大进步，科学 界和公
California company.)
众对外星人这一整个课题的认识极
When the conversation shifted to creativity
大地提高了。这种新态度的一种显着
标志就是向火星发射的“海盗”号。这
and how mathematicians seem to reach a
些发射在很大程度上是专门寻找另
一个行星上的生命的。
creative peak in their early 20s, Hawking's
但是在人们正为认真探索 奉献更多
力量的同时，一种略具否定意味却又
computer beeped. over the hill,he
十分有趣地声音出现了。有几名科学
家最近提出了一个奇怪的问题：如果
said, to a chorus of laughter.
有大量的外星人存在，为什么我们还
Hawking was born on Jan. 8, 1942-300
没有看到它存在的迹象？ 持怀疑态
度的人还对为什么没有明显证据证
years to the day, he often notes, after the
明外星人到过地球提出了疑问。我们
已经发射了速度慢、不太大的星际宇
death of Galileo. As a small boy, he was
宙飞船。一个比我们先进的社会，如
果不是毫不费力的话，也应该能很方
slow to learn to read but liked to take things
便地来往于星际之间。在几百万年的
apart though he confesses that he was
时间中，这样的社会应该早已建立了
殖民地， 他们本身可能进行星际远
never very good at putting things back
征探险。他们为什么没到这里来？人
们很自然地推断地球外最多有几个
to gether. When he was twelve, he recalls
先进的文明社会 ——这要么是因为
从统计数据上看我们是已经形成的
humorously,
首批技术文明社会之一，要么由于命
friend a bag of sweets that I would never
运不济，所有这样的文明社会在他们
发达得远远超过我们之前就自我来
come to anything. I don't know if this bet
亡了。
我认为这种绝望是相当幼稚的。所有
was ever settled and, if so, who won.
这些论断取决于我们对远比我们自
己先进行得多的生物的动机是否 能
Fascinated by physics, Stephen
作出正确判断：如果对这些论断进行
concentrated in the subject at Oxford's
更为细致的审视的话，我认为它们表
现出了人类一 种有趣的自负心态。我
University College, but did not distinguish
们为什么要指望会很容易地找出非
常先进的文明社会存在的迹象呢？
himself. He partied, took a great interest in
我们的境况不是和亚马逊河流域的
rowing and studied only an hour or so a day.
与世隔绝的社会中的人很接近吗？
这些人缺少工具来探测他们周围功
Moving on to Cambridge for graduate work
率强大的国际间的无线电和电视通
讯。天文学中也有大量没有完全理解
in relativity, he found the going rough,
的现象。肪冲星的调制或者类星体的
能量来源,例如，是不是可能源于某种
party because of some puzzling physical
技术？或许银河系有一条不许干涉
problems; he stumbled frequently and
落后或新兴文明社会的道德规范；或
许要等一段时间再进行接 触才认为
得体，以便给我们一个公平的机会来
seemed to be getting clumsy.
先毁灭自己。假如我们想这么做的
Doctors soon gave him the bad news: he
话。或许所有比我们自己要先进得多
的社会都已经有效地达到了使每个
had ALS, it would only get worse, and there
成员长生不老的阶段，所以以就失去
was no cure. Hawking was overwhelmed.
了到星际间去邀游的愿望，而这种愿
望可能可是早期文明社会的一种典
Before long, he needed a cane to walk, was
型的冲动，谁知道呢。 或许成熟的文
明社会不想污染宇宙。可以说出很多
drinking heavily and ignoring his studies.
这样的“或许”，但没有几种我们能够
肯定地 作出估计。在我看来，地球文
didn't seem to be much point in < br>明社会的问题还远未解决。我个人认
为理解在一个宇宙中只有我们这一
completi ng my Ph. D.,
个技术文明是很困难的。或着少数几
Then Hawking's luck turned. The progress
个宇宙与想象的一个充满生命的宇
宙想比也是一样。幸运的是，这个问
of the disease slowed, and Einsteinian
题的许多方面可以经得起实践的检
验。我们能够搜寻其它恒星，寻找象
space- time suddenly seemed less
火星这样离我们很近的行星上的简
单 生命形式，并且在实验室中可以对
formidable. But what really made the
生命起源的化学机理作更广泛的研
difference, he says,
究。我们还可以更深入地研究生物和
社会的进化原理。这个问题需要人们
to Jane,who was studying modern
长期地、不带偏见地、系统地去探索，
而只有大自然才是什么可能、什么不
languages at Cambridge. gave me
可能的唯一仲裁者。

something to liver for.
we were to get married, I had to get a job.
And to get a job, I had to finish my Ph. D. I
started, working hard for the first time in
my life. To my surprise, I found I liked it.
What particularly interested Stephen was
singularities, strange beasts predicted by
general relativity. Einstein's equations
indicated that when a star several times
larger than the sun exhausts its nuclear fuel
and collapses, its matter crushes together
at its center with such force that it forms a
singularity, an infinitely dense point with no
借书证
一天早上，我上班到得早，便走
进银行的门廊，里面有一个黑人清洁
工在拖地。我站在柜台边，拿了一份
孟菲斯《商业呼声报》，读起了免费
报纸。我最后翻到社论 版，上面登了
一篇写关于一名叫H.L.门肯的人的
文章。我听说门肯是《美国信使》报
的编辑。不过除此之外，对他毫无别
的了解。该文言辞激烈地遣责门肯，
文章结尾时用了一句 辛辣的短句：门
肯是个傻子。
我在想这位门肯先生到底做了什么
事以至于引得南方对 他嘲弄。我所听
说过在南方唯一受到谴责的人就是
黑人。而此人不是黑人。那么门肯持
有什么样的观点使得象《商业呼声》
这样的报纸公开攻击他？不用说，他
一定是在宣扬南方所不 喜欢的思想。
那么我怎样能够弄清楚门肯其人？
江边有一大型图书馆，但我知道，正
如不许黑人进入城里的公园和运动
场一样，他们也同样不被允许进入图
书馆。我曾经几次去过那 儿，帮正在
dimensions and irresistible gravity. A
voluminous region surrounding the
singularity becomes a hole,from
which -- because of that immense gravity --
nothing, not even light, can escape.
Scientists years ago found compelling
evidence that black holes exist, but they
were uncomfortable with singularities,
because all scientific laws break down at
these points. Most physicists believed that
in the real universe the object at the heart
of a black hole would be small (but not
dimensionless) and extremely dense (but
not infinitely so). Enter Hawking. While still
a graduate student, he and Mathematician
Roger Penrose developed new techniques
proving mathematically that if general
relativity is correct, singularities must exist.
Hawking went on to demonstrate - again if
general relativity is correct - that the entire
universe must have sprung from a
singularity. As he wrote in his 1966 Ph. D.
thesis,
Stephen later discerned several new
干活的白人借书。
他们中有哪个人能帮我借书呢？
我反复琢磨着这些白人 的人品。有一
个犹太人叫唐，但我信不过他。他的
情况并不比我好多少，而且我知道他
这个人总是不安分没有安全感。他待
我总是满不在乎、傲气十足，对我的
轻视几乎也不加掩饰。 我不敢要他去
帮我借书。他特别渴望表示自己在与
白人团结一致反对黑人，这使他有可
能会出卖我。
那么老板如何样呢？不成。他是个浸
礼会教徒，我有这样的怀疑，就是他
可能不大会明白为什么一个黑人孩
子想去读门肯的书。上班的还有一些
别的白人，但他们的态 度明确地表明
他们要么是三K党徒，要么是其支持
者，要他们帮忙是不可能的。
仅剩 一人了，他的态度不属于反黑人
的范畴，因为我曾经听白人们叫他为
“拍教皇马屁的人”。他是 爱尔兰的天
主教徒，南方白人不喜欢他。我知道
他常读书。因为我曾经有几次帮他去
图 书馆借过书。因为他也是白人仇视
的对象，我感到他也许会拒绝我但不
大可能出卖我。我拿不准 ，只在心里
反复琢磨，反复权衡着这无法估计的
事情。
一天早上，我来到这位天主教徒的桌
子边停下。
“我想请你帮个忙。”我低声对他说。
“什么忙？”
“我想借书。我从图书馆中借不到书。
我不知道你可否让我用一用你的借
书证？”
他满心怀疑地看着我。
“我的证大部分时间都借满了，”他说。
“我知道。”我边说边等待着，用沉默
来提出我的问题。
“你不是想给我惹麻烦，对吗，小伙
子？”他两眼瞪着我。
“噢，不，先生。”
“你想借什么书？”
“H.L.门肯写的。“
“哪一本？”
characteristics of black holes and
demonstrated that the amazing forces of
the Big Bang would have created mini-black
holes, each with a mass about that of a
terrestrial mountain, but no larger than the
subatomic proton. Then, applying the
quantum theory (which accurately
describes the random, uncertain subatomic
world) instead of general relativity (which,
it turns out, falters in that tiny realm),
Hawking was startled to find that the
mini-black holes must emit particles and
radiation. Even more remarkable, the little
holes would gradually evaporate and, 10
billion years or so after their creation,
explode with the energy or millions of
H-bombs.
Hawking has visited the U. S. 30 times,
made seven trips to Moscow, taken a
round-the-word journey, and piloted his
wheelchair on the Great Wall of China. On
the road, the activities occasionally deviate
somewhat from physics. One night Stephen
accompanied a group to a Chicago
“我不知道。他写过不止一本书吗？”
“他写了好几本。”
“我以前不知道。”
“你为什么想读门肯的书？”
“噢，我刚刚在报纸上看到他的名字。”
我说。
“你想读书是不错的，”他说，
“不过，你应该读一些好的书。”
我什么也没说。他会不会要监督我的
阅读呢？
“让我想一下，我会想出办法的。”他
说。
我转过身走开，他把我叫了回来。
有些不解地盯着我说：
“理查德，不要对其他的白人讲此事。”
“我知道，我是一个字也不会说的。”
几天后，他把我叫了过去。
“我用我妻子的名义搞了张借书证，”
他说。“我的这张就给你了。”
“谢谢你，先生。”
“你认为自己能成功吗？”
“我会搞妥的。”我说。
“如果他们怀疑上你，你就麻烦了。”
他说。
“我会象你以前让我去借书时一样写
张条子给图书馆。”我告诉他说，
“我会签上你的名子的。”
他听后笑了起来。
“去吧。看看你能借到什么书。”
那天下午，我竭尽全力造了一张假便
条。但是，H.L.门肯写的书的书名都
是什么呢 ？我一点也不知道。最后，
我写了一张自认为万无一失的条子：
亲爱的夫人，请让这个小黑鬼— —我
使用了“黑鬼”这个词是为了让图书管
理员不认为我写这张便条——借几
本H.L .门肯的书好吗？在便条上我
假冒了这个白人的签名。
我象以往为白人跑腿借书时一样走进了图书馆，但不知怎么搞的，我总
觉得自己不知会在什么地方出点岔
子，最终暴露自己。 我摘下帽子，毕
恭毕敬地站在离借书桌有一段距离
的地方，显出一副不会读书的样子，
等着白人读者先借。桌边已经空无一
discotheque, where he joined in the
festivities by wheeling onto the dance floor
and spinning his chair in circles.
Recently, Hawking, who has no qualms
about recanting his own work if he decides
he was wrong, may have transcended his
famous proof that singularities exist. With
Physicist James Hartle. He has derived a
quantum wave describing a self-contained
universe that, like the earth's surface, has
no edge or boundary. If that is the case,
says Hawking, Einstein's general theory of
relativity would have to be modified, and
there would be no singularities.
universe would not be created, not be
destroyed; it would simply be,he
concludes, adding challengingly,
place, then, for a Creator?

The Key to Management
If had to sum up in one word the
qualities that make a good manager, I'd say
that it all comes to decisiveness. You can
use the fanciest computers in the world and
you can gather all the charts and numbers,
but in the end you have to bring all your
人了，我仍在等着。
白人管理员看着我问道：
“你想干什么，伙计？”
像不会说话一样
我迈向前，一声也没作的把那张伪造
的条子递了过去。
“他想借门肯的书？”她问。
“我不知道，夫人。”我躲开了她的双
眼。
“这张卡是谁给你的？”
“福尔克先生。”
“他在哪儿？”
“他在工作。在M——光学仪器公司，”
我说，
“我以前在这儿给他借过书。”
“我记得，”她说。“但他从未写过象这
样的条子。”
噢，天啊！她有点怀疑了。也 许她不
会让我借这些书了。如果当时她转过
身去的话，我一定会低头冲出门外，
再也不 回去了。这时，我想出了一个
大胆的主意。
“你可以打电话问问他，夫人，”我说
道，心里却紧张得砰砰狂跳。
“不是你自己用这些书吧？”她直率地
问。
“噢，不会，夫人。我不会认字。” < br>“我不知道他要门肯的什么书？”她低
声说道。此时，我知道成功了。她已
经忘了种族问 题，在考虑其它的问题
了。她走到书架前，又转过头来看过
我一、两次，似乎仍对我有些怀疑。
最后她拿了两本书走了过来。“我借给
他两本书。”她说。
“但你要告诉福尔克先生 ，下次让他
来，要不就告诉他要借的书的名字。
我不清楚他借什么书。”
我什么也没 有说。她在借书证上盖了
章，然后把书交给了我。我连看都没
敢看一眼借到的书就走出了图书馆 ，
生怕她会把我叫回去进一步地盘问。
走出一个街区后我打开其中一本书，
看了一下书 名：《序言集》。我马上就
十九岁了，可我不知道怎样发“序言”
这个词的音。我用手指快速地 翻着，
information together, set up a timetable,
and act.
And I don't mean act rashly. In the press,
I'm sometimes described as a flamboyant
leader and a hip-shooter, a kind of
fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants operator. I
may occasionally give that impression, but
if that image were really true. I could never
have been successful in this business.
Actually, my management style has always
been pretty conservative. Wherever I've
taken risks, it's been after satisfying myself
that the research and the market studies
supported my instincts. I may act on my
intuition -- but only if my hunches are
supported by the facts.
Too many managers let themselves get
weighed down in their decision-making,
especially those with too much education. I
once said to Philip Caldwell, who became
the top man at Ford after I left:
with you, Phil, is that you want to Harvard,
where they taught you not to take any
action until you've got all the facts. You've
看到了一些奇怪的词和句子。我失望
地摇了摇头。又去看另一本书。书名
叫《偏见》。 我知道这个词的含义。
我从小到大都一直在听到这个词。我
由此一下子对门肯的书有了警觉。为
什么一个人要把书名定为《偏见》
呢？这个词沾满了我对种族仇恨的
所有记忆，我以致 于无法想象会有人
以它作为书名。也许我错看了门肯？
一个带有偏见的人肯定是错的。
当我把书扔给福尔克先生看时，他望
了望我皱起了眉头。
“图书管理员可能会给你打电话的。”
我先给他提个醒。
“这好办。”他说，“但是当你读完这些
书后，希望你能告诉我从中学到了些
什么。”
那天晚上，有租来的房间里，我让热
水冲着洗碗池里的猪肉烧豆罐头，一
边打开那本《 序言集》读了起来。我
被书中的风格和它那干净、整齐，有
力的句子给震惊了。他为什么要这样
写呢？又是怎样象这样写成的呢？
我把他想象成一个凶狠的魔鬼一样，
用手中的笔奋力 进攻，内心充满仇
恨。对美国的一切进行抨击，而又竭
力称颂欧洲或德国的一切东西。他嘲笑人性的弱点，嘲弄上帝和权威。这
是怎么回事？我站起来，试图弄明白
隐藏在字眼后面的 实际情况。是的，
这个人一生在战斗，用他手中的笔作
武器进行战斗。他就象别人使用棍棒一样使用文字。文字可以作为武器
吗？是的，因为在这儿就是如此。不，
这种想法把我吓坏 了。而是居然会有
人有勇气说这些话。
我遇到了很多自己不知其意的词。有
些我查了 字典，有些词还没等我去
查，就又遇见了，通过上下文词义清
楚了。世界多么奇特啊！看完书后 我
得出一个结论，那就是不知由于什么
原因，自己忽视了生活中一些重要的
东西。我曾 经试过写作，也曾十分乐
意去感受事物，让我那淳朴的想象云
游四方。但人生的经历慢慢地磨灭 了
got ninety-five percent of them, but it's
going to take you another six months to get
that last five percent. And by the time you
do, your facts will be out of date because
the market has already changed. That's
what life is all about -- timing.
A good business leader can't operate that
way. It's perfectly natural to want the facts
and to hold out for the research that
guarantees a particular program will work.
After all, if you're about to spend $$300
million on a new product, you want to be
absolutely sure you're on the right track.
That's fine in theory, but real life just
doesn't work that way. Obviously, you're
responsible for gathering as many relevant
facts and projections as you possibly can.
But at some point you've got to take that
leap of fait. First, because even the right
decision is wrong if it's made too late.
Second, because in most cases there's no
such thing as certainty. There are times
when even the best manager is like the little
boy with the big dog waiting to see where
这些的冲动的梦想。现在它又冒了出
来。我渴望看书，期待着新的观察和
理解世界的方法。这不 是相信或不相
信自己所读到的东西的问题，而是一
种对新的东西的感受，受到影响并使
世界的面貌有的不同。
我又造了一些假便条，到图书馆去的
次数也更多了。读书成了我的一种 爱
好。我读的第一本严肃小说是辛克
莱·刘易斯的《大街》。它让我明白了
自己的老板 杰的尔德先生。我发现到
他是一个典型的美国人。当我看到他
拖着高尔夫球袋走进办公室时我总
要笑。以前我一直觉得自己和老板间
距离很远，现在我感到离他近多了，
尽管还有一定 的距离。我感到自己真
正认识了他，我能够感到他的生活圈
子小，具有局限性。因为我读了一本
写一个虚构的人物乔治·F·巴比特的
小说才有这番变化的。
我读了德莱塞的《珍尼 ·格哈特》和《嘉
莉妹妹》。它们使我又一次真切地感
受到了母亲所遭受的苦难。我完全沉浸在书中了。我变得沉默起来，思考
着周围的生活。我不可能告诉任何人
自己从小说中有什 么收获，因为那正
是对生活自身的感受。生活的经历使
得我喜欢现代小说中的现实主义，自然主义，这些小说中我百读不厌。
我沉浸在新的思想和情绪之中。买了
一令纸，我试着写 作。可有时我什么
也写不出来，有时写出的东西又极为
乏味。我发现写作所需要的不仅仅是愿望和感情，于是便放弃了这种想
法。但我仍想弄明白怎样才能充分地
了解以便能够把他们 写出来。我能否
真正理解人和生活呢？对我为说，由
于自己完全无知和作为黑人在社会
中的地位。这似乎是一个可望而不可
及的目标。我现在明白了作为一个黑
人到底意味着什么。我 能够忍受饥
饿，也能面对被仇恨的现实。但感觉
到自己连某些感情的东西都得不到，
就 连生活中最基本的东西对我来讲
也以难以获取，这一点比其他任何东
the dog wants to go so he can take him
there.
What constitutes enough information for
the decision-maker? It's impossible to put a
number on it, but clearly when you move
ahead with only 50 percent of the facts the
odds are stacked against you. If that's the
case, you had better be very lucky -- or else
come up with some terrific hunches. There
are times when that kind of gamble is called
for, but it's certainly no way to run a
railroad.
At the same time, you'll never know 100
percent of what you need. Like many
industries these days, the car business is
constantly changing. For us in Detroit, the
great challenge is always to figure out
what's going to appeal to customers three
years down the road. I'm writing these
words in 1984, and we're already planning
our models for 1987 and 1988. Somehow I
have to try to predict what's going to sell
three and four years from now, even though
I can't say with any certainty what the
西都令我伤心。我有了一种新的渴
望。

感觉很糟糕的事情为何如此之好？

可能现在是采用一种新的策略
去搞清楚为什么今天的生活会如此
困难。
以及该怎样来应付这个问题的时候
了。假定事物不仅是它们通常看上去
的样子，
它们可能恰好相反。当涉及到人的问
题的时候，一切事情都是自相矛盾
的。
例如，人们现在感到不满意，不是因
为事情比以往更糟，而是因为事情比
以往任何时候都好。以 婚姻为例，在
加利福利亚，十对夫妇中有约六对离
婚--在一些较富裕的地区这个比例还
要高一些。人们必须承认，这些数字
说明了许多不满。但人们通常对此给
予的解释-- 婚姻制度正处于崩溃的状
态--根本站不住脚。人们从未象现在
这样渴望和欢迎婚姻。的确，婚 姻是
如此地引人入胜，连很多正在办离婚
的人几乎等不及法律许可他们重新
结婚。 < br>问题在于人们对婚姻报有的期望从
未象现在这样高。有史以来，家底就
一直是一个生存的 重要单元。从一个
充当肉体生存的防御体系，渐渐地演
变成为一个经济生存的单元。现在，毫无疑问，家庭变成了经济和肉体上
的负担而不是财富。作为一个社会，
基本的生存和安全 需要得到满足之
后，人们不再相互需要去纺纱或是去
和印第安人作战了--进而言之，人们也不相互需要去洗盘子或是去修电
源插头。婚姻和家庭生活的纽带不再
是功能性的，而是情 感性的了。人们
过去相爱通常是因为他们彼此需要。
而今却刚好相反，人们互相需要是因
为他们彼此相爱。
听一听最近离婚的人的抱怨，人们很
public will want next month.
When you don't have all the facts, you
sometimes have to draw on your
experience. Whenever I read in a
newspaper that Lee Iacocca likes to shoot
from the hip, I say to myself:
he's been shooting for so long that by this
time he has a pretty good idea of how to hit
the target.
To a certain extent, I've always operated by
gut feeling. I like to be in the trenches. I
was never one of those guys who could just
sit around and strategize endlessly.
But there's a new breed of businessmen,
mostly people with M. B. A.' S, who are
wary of intuitive decisions. In part, they're
right. Normally, intuition is not a good
enough basis for making a move. But many
of these guys go to the opposite extreme.
They seem to think that every business
problem can be structured and reduced to a
case study. That may be true in school, but
in business there has to be somebody
around who will say:
少能听到虐待和遗弃的事。常常听到
的 都是这样的话：我们就是无法好好
地沟通。我们之间受教育的差距太
大，难以逾越。
我感到被婚姻束缚住了。他不让我自
主行事。我们之间不再有很多共同的
东西了。 < br>这些抱怨都很有意思。因为它们反映
了由于婚姻未能达到原来人们对其
所抱的高期望值而 引发的高层次的
不满。夫妻们现在期望--并要求--相
互沟通和理解，共同的价值观和目标，精神伴侣，和美妙的亲密时刻。
总体上看，婚姻的确带来了这样的时
刻，但正是这样， 夫妻们进一步用更
高的要求来给婚姻关系增加负担。从
某种程度上看，是婚姻的成功产生了这些不满。民权运动的情况也是一
样。它所取得的就没有导致满足而是
增加了紧张和不满意 ，特别是在那些
从中获益的人中更是如此。
人们的不满情绪北方高于南方，城市
高于乡村。
社会变革产生了一种令人不安的矛< br>盾现象。即进步带来了对更多的进步
的要求，而且这种要求是以不断加速
的形式出现的。 所以，与过去相比，
社会已经大有进步了；但与将来可能
的情形相比，却又远远落后了。由此< br>使人们感到情况很糟，而这正是由于
实际情况很好所致。
另一个问题是一切都是短暂的 ，没有
什么是一成不变的。人们从小就养成
了一种观念：为了增进个人的安全，
我们需 要安定，有根基，始终如一，
需要了解熟悉周围的一切。但我们生
活在一个各个方面都在不停变 化着
的世界上。无论是说到摩天大楼，还
是家庭生活，是科学事实还是宗教信
仰，一切 都是非常短暂的，并且会越
来越短暂。如果要画一张曲线来反映
人类历史上发明创造的发生率的 话，
Be ready to go in one hour.
就会发现变化不仅在增加，而且在加
速进行。变化越来越快-- 从某种意义
historical accounts of Word War II and
上看，变化已经成了一种生活方式。
在将来的世界上只有那些能够接受
D-Day, I'm always struck by the same
和喜欢暂时性制度的人才能够成功
地生活下去。
thought: Eisenhower almost blew it
人们还因为现今存在的参与情绪而
because he kept vacillating. But finally he
烦恼。这是一个自己动手干的社会。
每个人都想参与到活动中去。爱默生
said: matter what the weather looks
的自己动手自己干的中号已经成为
时代的口头禅。人们不会再做被动的
like, we have to go ahead now. Waiting any
成员，他们如今想成为积极的变革
者。
longer could be even more dangerous. So
人们可以在现代生活中的各个方面
看到这种参与现象，--无论在校园，
let's move it!
在教堂，在大众传播媒体中，在艺术
The same lesson applies to corporate life.
上，在商业和工业中，在贫民窟的街
道上，还是在家里。
There will always be those who will want to
问题是现代人似乎不能重新设计其
体制，来不及迅速地容纳那些新的要
take an extra month or two to do further
求。
新的社会能力。至到如今，
research on the shape of the roof on a new
新的智慧，
仍然没有认真对待。相应的结果是，
car. While that research may be helpful, it
人们被黑人革命吓怕了，被学生的激
进活动惊呆了。现在他们又面临着可
can wreak havoc on your production plans.
能更具破坏性的事情--妇女的反叛。
After a certain point, when most of the
社会只不过以往从未经历过这些问
题罢了。要解决这些问 题，需要采用
relevant facts are in, you find yourself at the
与这些问题一样新、一样相异、一样
矛盾的策略才行。不要试图去减少不
mercy of the law of diminishing returns.
满的情绪，应该去提高不满的水平或
质量。也许最有希望在今天的社会上
That's why a certain amount of risk-taking
做到的是产生高水平的不满，即对那
is essential. I realize it's not for everybody.
些真正事关紧要的事情的不满。在估
价方案的时候，不要以它们会使人们
There are some people who won't leave
多么高兴，满意为标准，而要看它们
会产生什么样的不满。例如，当一个
home in the morning without an umbrella
顾问在评价一个机构是否健全时，他
不是去问是不是没有抱怨？而是要
even if the sun is shining. Unfortunately, the
问有些什么样的抱怨？
world doesn't always wait for you try to
不要试图渐进地变革，要进行大的变
革。毕竟大的变革相对而言比小的 变
anticipate your losses. Sometimes you just
革要容易一些。有些人认为进行改进
的方式是使变革小到让人难以察觉
have to take a chance -- and correct your
得到。这种方法从未成功过 。人们不
禁要问，为什么这种思想还在继续？
mistakes as you go along.
人人都知道如何去抵抗小的变革，他
们时时都在这样做。然而，如果变革
Back in the 1960s and through most of the
足够大的话，要想对它发起抵抗就不
1970s, these things didn't matter as much
行了。管理部门可以进行大规模的机
构改革，但如果让一个经理把某个人
as they do now. In those days the car
的办公桌从一个地方移到 另一个地
方的话，你就会看到他将遇到的困难
industry was like a golden goose. We were
会有多大。所有的变革都会有阻力，
问题在于怎样使变革的步子大到使
making money almost without trying. But
之有机会获得成功。
today, few businesses can afford the luxury
巴克明斯特?富勒说过，社会需要的
不是变革而是新的形式。比如，要减
of slow decision-making, whether it
少交通事故，就该去改进汽车 和公路
而不是司机。这一概念也适用于人际
involves a guy who's in the wrong job or the
关系。有必要根据社会构成考虑问
题，提供人员 安排，从而引出人们真
planning of a whole new line of cars five
正想从自己身上看到的东西。人们一
直在苦心经营着有形的建筑，现在开
years down the road.
始关心人类自身作为其组成成份的
Despite what the textbooks say, most
系统设计了。但这些设计大多是为了
安全 、效率和生产力而进行的。系统
important decisions in corporate life are
设计没有影响人们最为关心的生活
made by individuals, not by committees. My
方面，比如家底生活，谈情说爱和美
学欣赏等。在进行超越迄今为止人类
policy has always been to be democratic all
所有的一切经历和人际安排时，我们
需要社会科学和自然科学的技术。不
the way to the point of decision. Then I
类不应该成为其环境的受害者，而应
该通过自身的环境实现自身的价值。
become the ruthless commander.
当今重大的前沿课题是人类潜能的
I've heard everybody,I say. here's
开发。人的那种似乎无限的适应能
力。生长，设计其自身命运的能力我
们要学很多的东西，但有一点我们早
what we're going to do.
已知晓：我们不必消极地坐等明天，
You always need committees, because
我们可以创造未来。
怪才

that's where people share their knowledge
他身材矮小，同他的身体相比，
and intentions. But when committees
头却很大——他是一个常生病的小
个子。
replace individuals -- and Ford these days
他的神经有毛病，他的皮肤也有病。
要是贴身穿的衣服比丝绸粗糙一点
has more committees than General Motors
的话，他就会非常痛苦。而且他还患
有狂想症。
-- then productivity begins to decline.
他是个自负的怪才。他是一刻都
To sun up: nothing stands still in this world.
没有正眼看过世界和世人。除了和自
己和关在他看来，他不仅是世界上最
I like to go duck hunting, where constant
伟大的剧作家之一、最伟大的思想家
movement and change and facts of life. You
之一、最伟大的作曲家之一。听他谈
话，他就是集莎士比亚、贝多芬、柏
can aim at a duck and get it in your sights,
拉图于一身。你如果听他谈话并不会
but the duck is always moving. In order to
有什么困难。他是人世间最健谈的人
之一。你如果听他谈话并不会有什么
hit the duck, you have to move your gun.
困难。他是人世间最健谈的人之一。
But a committee faced with a major
如果和他在一起呆上一个晚上，就等
于花一个晚上听他一人独讲。他有时decision can't always move as quickly as
讲得很精彩，有时却让人讨厌。不过
无论是精彩还是让人讨厌，他的话题
the events it's trying to respond to. By the
只有一个，那就是他自己，他和所想
time the committee is ready to shoot, the
和他所为。
他有一种癖号，就是认为自己总是对
duck has flown away.

的。对于来自任何人的一点点不同的
意见，在这最不起眼的观点上，很可
I Have a Dream
能使他夸夸其谈几个钟头。用各种方
Five score years ago, a great American, in
法来证明自己是正确的。和尽力流利
whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed
的证明最后他的听众目瞪口呆，为了
息事宁人，只好同意他的观点。
the Emancipation Proclamation. This
他从来都没有想过，他和他所做的事
momentous decree came as a great beacon
对于同他有联系的人来说并不是最
令人感兴趣的。他对天底下差不多作
light of hope to millions of Negro salves who
何事情都有自己的观点。无论是素食
主义、戏剧、政治还是音乐。为了证
had been seared in the flames of withering
明自已的观点，他写了小册子信，书，
injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to
和成千上万的字。共数百页。通常是
靠别人资助－而且总是坐着把这些
end the long night of captivity.
东西大声的读。一念就是几个小时，
But one hundred years later, we must face
给他的朋友和家人。
他写歌剧，一有了故事的概要，他就
the tragic fact that the Negro is still not
邀请——说得更准确一点是召唤
——他那一帮朋友去他家，听他念故
free. One hundred tears later, the life of the
事概要。他请他们来不是听他们批评
意见的，而是听他们赞扬的。当歌剧
Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles
的词全部写完后，他的朋友们还得再
of segregation and the chains of
来听他读整部戏的歌词。而后你就拿
去发表，可有时歌词写好了，数年后
discrimination. One hundred years later,
其配乐才完成。他弹钢琴象一个作曲
the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty
家，一样弹得糟糕透顶，而且他还总
是坐在钢琴傍，面对有他同时代的最
in the midst of a vast ocean of material
优秀的钢琴家在场的一群人，数小时
prosperity. One hundred years later, the
地为他们演奏；不用说，他演奏的都
是自己写的音乐作品。他有作曲家的
Negro is still languishing in the corners of
嗓子。他总是邀请杰出的声乐家到家
American society and finds himself an exile
里，给他们演唱自己写的歌剧，一个
人演所有的角色。
in his own land. So we have come here
他的感情就象6岁孩子那样极不稳
定。只要感到不舒服，他总是乱骂一
today to dramatize an appalling condition.
通，直跺脚，要么就情绪极其低落，
In a sense we have come to our nation's
伤心地说要去东方当和尚，度过余
生。十分钟后如果有什么事让他高兴
capital to cash a check. When the architects
的话，他就会冲出门，在花园里跑来
of our republic wrote the magnificent words
跑去，或者在沙发上跳上跳下，或头
朝下倒立着。一只爱犬死了他会痛不
of the Constitution and the Declaration of
欲生，可他要是冷酷起来，连罗马皇
Independence, they were signing a
帝也会发抖的。
他简直缺乏任何责任感。他不仅好象
promissory note to which every American
没有能力养活自己，而且他也从来没
was to fall heir. This note was a promise
有想到有这么做的责任。他坚信人们
该养活自己。由于是这样认为的，他
that all men would be guaranteed the
向所有的人——无论是男人还是 女
人，无论是朋友还是陌生人——谁有
inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the
能力拿出钱来，他就向谁借。他写信
向别人 乞讨，一写就是二十封；有时
pursuit of happiness.
奴颜婢膝，毫无羞耻，有时却非常傲
It is obvious today that America has
慢地把别人给他的特权赏给他心目
defaulted on this promissory note insofar as
中的捐助人，如果领受者拒绝接受，
他就会万分愤怒。我没有找到他把钱
her citizens of color are concerned. Instead
付给或还给没有法律依据的借款人
的任何记录。
of honoring this sacred obligation, America
只要弄得到钱，他就象印度王公那样
花销。一旦他的某部歌剧有望演出，
has given the Negro people a bad check; a
就足以使他欠下的帐单十倍于预计
check which has come back marked
给他的版税。无人会知道——他本人
也一定不曾知道——他欠别人多少
we refuse to
钱。但我们肯定知道的是，资助他最
believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.
多的人曾经给过他六千块钱来偿还
在某个城市要得最多的欠款。而一年
We refuse to believe that there are
后为了能使他在另一城市生活而不
insufficient funds in the great vaults of
会因债务入狱又不得不给他一万六
千元。
opportunity of this nation. So we have come
在其他方面，他同样肆无忌惮。在他
to cash this check -- a check that will give
一生中，与他有过关系的女人无计其
数。他的第一位妻子和他生活了二十
us upon demand the riches of freedom and
年，容忍、原谅他的种种不忠行为。
他的第二位妻子原来是对他最忠诚、
the security of justice. We have also come
最崇拜的朋友的妻子，可他却把她从
to this hallowed spot to remind America of
朋友那里夺走了。更有甚者，当他还
在设法说服她离开第一位丈夫时就
the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to
写信给朋友，问他能否穿针引线介绍
engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take
某位有钱的女人——只有她有钱，他
都会为了她的钱而娶她。
the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is
在和他人交往中他也非常自私。他对
the time to make real the promises of
朋友的喜好完全是由他们对他是否
忠诚，或者他们是否在经济上或艺 术
Democracy. Now is the time to rise from the
上对他有用来决定的。要是他们让他
dark and desolate valley of segregation to
有所失望——哪怕是拒绝宴会邀请
——或是开始不是那么有用了，他就
the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the
会毫不犹豫地不与他们往来了。他在
晚年只剩一个朋友，而且还是在中年
time to open the doors of opportunity to all
时认识的。
瓦格纳。我所讲
of God's children. Now is the time to lift our
这个怪才名叫理查德·
的在关他的一切都有案可查——在
nation from the quicksands of racial
报纸上，在警方报告中，在认识他的
injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
人的证词里，在他自己的信件中，和
他自传的字里行间里都能可以找到
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook
记录。这个记录奇怪的是它对此人没
有丝毫影响。
the urgency of the moment and to
因为这位身材矮小、多病、难以相处、
让人着魔的人一 直是正确的。这就给
underestimate the determination of the
我们开了一个玩笑。他是世界上最伟
Negro. This sweltering summer of the
大的戏剧家之一；他是伟大的思想
家；他是最伟大的音乐天才之一。迄
Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass
今为止世人所看到的。世人的确应养
until there is an invigorating autumn of
着他。
当你细想他所写的东西时——十三
freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end,
部歌剧和音乐剧，其中十一部仍在上
but a beginning. There will be neither rest
演，八部无可争议地列入世界音乐剧
名着——当你倾听他所写的一切时，
nor tranquility in America until the Negro is
他无论是欠债还是让人伤心，所有这
granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwind
些代价似乎算不了什么。想想曾经给
予的那份奢侈吧，由于拿破仑的命
of revolt will continue to shake the
运，他毁来了法国，肆虐了 欧洲。这
样一想，也许你就会同意，几千元的
foundations of our nation until the bright
债务用来换取《指环》三部曲，代价
day of justice emerges.
并不算高。
就是他对朋友和妻子不忠，又算得了
But there is something I must say to my
什么？他有一位至死都能忠心耿耿
people who stand on the warm threshold
的爱人：音乐。他一刻都没有与自己
信仰的，梦想的东西进行妥协。他的
which leads into the palace of justice. In the
音乐中没有一行是一般人所能构思
process of gaining our rightful place we
出来的。即使他乏味或极其糟糕，也
只是大手笔中的乏味。就是他最严重
must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us
的错误中也有伟大之处。这可不是原
not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by
谅不原谅的事情。又抓又扯，想冲出
来，尖叫 着，要他把身体的乐曲谱出
drinking from the cup of bitterness and
来。奇迹是在短暂的七十年中，他竟
然完成了这一切。就算是 一个天才，
hatred. We must forever conduct our
他没有时间做普通人这奇怪吗？
齐里茨基法

struggle on the high plane of dignity and
总有一天会有人去研究动物对
discipline. We must not allow our creative
历史的影响。在这样的研究里，格雷
厄姆太太的猫肯定会包括在其 中。现
protest to degenerate into physical
在已经 确切地证实了，这只猫的经历
使人萌发了快速冷冻人体这一想法，
violence. Again and again we must rise to
而这一想法转而又使齐里茨基法获
得了通过。
the majestic heights of meeting physical
我们还得回到了1950年，在洛
杉矶报纸的合订本中去寻找这个故
force with soul force. The marvelous new
事。简言之，有位弗雷德·C·格雷 厄姆
太太，把一大堆食品放进了家用冰
militancy which people, for many of our
柜，就在同一天，她的宠物猫失踪了。
white brothers, as evidenced by their
她从来没有认为这两件事之间会 有
联系。猫直到六星期后才被发现当它
presence here presence here today, have
的主人去冰箱取东西时。然他很爱这
宠物，但我们可以想象，发现它时，
come to realize that their destiny is tied up
她的恐惧胜于悲伤。她把被冰裹着的
小躯体拎出冰柜，放在地板上；然后，
with our destiny and their freedom is
赶在晕倒之前跑到了邻居家。
inextricably bound to our freedom. We
格雷厄姆太太苏醒过来后变得
底里；好几个小时过去了，她才完全
cannot walk alone.
平静下来，说服人们所有事情不是她
撰的。她劝邻居陪伴她回家。他们在
And as we walk, we must make the pledge
冰柜前发现了一小滩水，一只湿透的
猫正忙忙碌碌舐着自己。邻居后来告
that we shall always march ahead. We
诉记者，这只猫正舐着它的后腿。上
cannot turn back. There are those who are
面还有一些冰。对于他来说是相信这
件事的。
asking the devotees of civil rights,
一周以后发表了一篇跟踪报道。
报道说，那次冒险经历，未使猫受到
will you be satisfied?We can never be
伤害。报道进一步引用格雷厄姆太太
satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim
的话说，这只猫在失踪之前曾大吃了
一顿。它一得救，身上一干，便睡了
of the unspeakable horrors of police
很大一会，跟它往常吃饭后的行为一
模一样，而且直到晚上它都没有再
brutality. We can never be satisfied as long
饿。生命的进程突然完全中止，而在
解冻之后，生命正好在曾经中止的地
as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of
方重新开始，这一点报道中作了明确
travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of
的叙述。
也许把所有的责任推给一只不
the highways and the hotels of the cities.
幸的猫不公平。这种事如果发生在国
内其它任何地方，都会成为人们的谈
We can never be satisfied as long as our
资。只有少数人信，多数人 不信，接
着人们也就会将它遗忘。然而它却发
children are stripped of their selfhood and
生在洛杉矶。在那个地方，可能也只
robbed of their dignity by signs stating
有在那个地方，这件事根本没被人忘
记。它所揭示的原理为一种极为成功
Whites Only,We cannot be satisfied as
的生意打下了基础。
我们该怎样自待齐里茨基兄
long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a
弟？是罪魁祸首还是开拓者？如果
赞成后一种看法，我们就必须承认，
smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can
他们无疑是具有探索精神和心甘情
愿到未知领域去冒险的精神。然而，
never be satisfied as long as a Negro in
他们的开拓精神——如果我们同意
Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New
这样说的话——同样毫无疑问与寻
找快速捞钞票的门道有紧密联系。
York believes he has nothing for which to
在他们的第一批顾客中，有的支
付了高达一万五千美元的首次冷冻
vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we
费和每年一千美元的昂贵的储存费。
齐氏兄弟拥有并经营的这家工厂，是
will not be satisfied until justice rolls down
全世界最大的快速冷冻厂之一。他们
like waters and righteousness like a mighty
宣称道，把冷冻设备改为储藏设备来装人，花费极高，所以收费也随之而
stream.
高。
那些付过这些高额费用的早期
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite
顾客们数年之后解冻了，当他们发现
其他顾客只交三千美元就获得了同
of the difficulties and frustrations of the
样的服务。他们扬言要公开抗议。齐
moment I still have a dream. It is a dream
里茨基兄弟为此支付了一笔巨额退
款。这时的齐氏兄弟已经能够轻而易
deeply rooted in the American dream.
举地付出这笔钱。而且，因为他们不
欢迎对他们企业的任何宣传，所有的
I have a dream that one day this nation will
退款都是毫无怨言地付出的。三千美
rise up and live out the true meaning of its
元成了标准价，外加每年一百美元的
储存费，解冻时不另收费。
creed: hold these truths to be
齐里茨基兄弟是彻头彻尾的生
意人。只要付了钱，任何人都可以把
self-evident, that all men are created
自己冷藏起来，想多久就多久，他们
不 会问任何问题。所有费用必须预先
equal.
支付，这是铁的规定。
I have a dream that one day on the red hills
罪犯是第一批申请快速冷冻的
顾客。在过去的年月里，他们构成了
of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the
齐里茨基兄弟主意的主体。抢劫之
后，把赃物藏起来（留出至关重要的
sons of former slaveowners will be able to
那笔必须预先支付的款项），然后到
齐里茨基兄弟那里，在他们美妙的冷
sit down together at the table of
藏室呆上五年或是十年。出来时发现
当年追捕他们的叫喊声早已不复存
brotherhood.
在，他们的罪行已被遗忘。他们取出
I have a dream that even the state of
赃物，奢侈地度过余生。
由于他们的顾客大多声名狼藉，
Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with
齐里茨基兄弟便用一套数字来记录
所有的档案。姓名从不在登记册上出
the heat of injustice and oppression, will be
现，保证不让人知道。
寻找逃犯的执法人员，既想不出办法
transformed into an oasis of freedom and
来破除这套体系，也找不到法律条文< br>来证明快速冷冻为非法行为。也许，
justice.
事实是，他们并没有认真地去寻找可
I have a dream that my four little children
以适用的法律。只要齐里茨基兄弟保
持缄默，不做广告，也不引起公众的
will one day live in a nation where they will
注意，他们就可以安全地继续从事那
种奇特的生意。
not be judged by the color of their skin but
洛杉矶的市政官员，尤其是警察，享
受了一段从未有过的好日子。于是，
by the content of their character.
他们便永远地告别那份谋生计的辛
I have a dream today.
苦工作。
尽管洛杉矶有相当一部分人成为永
I have a dream that the state of Alabama
久的补贴对象，齐里茨基兄弟的财产
还是增长到令人难以置信的地步。到
will be transformed into a situation where
他们去世，把生意传给儿子们的时
little black boys and black girls will be able
候，它已是一座金矿，而且是一座用
之不竭的金矿。
to join hands with little white boys and
除罪犯之外，大多数申请快速冷冻的
人似乎都是些陷于难以维持的婚姻
white girls and walk together as sisters and
困境中的丈夫或 妻子。后来，他们的
经历被详细地写进了忏悔杂志。通常
brothers.
是丈夫逃到洛杉矶，自闭适当的时
间，出来后，他那不温柔的妻子早已
I have a dream today.
去世或另作了安排。如果我们相信这
I have a dream that one day every valley
些杂志，那么这个计划在大多数情况
下都会让人非常满意。
shall be exalted, every hill and mountain
父辈们所犯下的罪孽可能会报应到
shall be made low, the rough place will be
子辈们身上，但是我们常常看到的是
子辈们断送了你辈们的毕生事业，这
made plain, and the crooked places will be
一古老而熟悉的模式不断反复着！齐
里茨基兄弟都是极为谨慎之人。他们
made straight, and the glory of the Lord
监督操作程序中的每一个细节，并用
一套反复核实的详尽系统记录档案。
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
他们相当精明 ，深知自己的生意必须
有绝对的可靠性。满意的齐氏顾客才
together.
会是沉默的顾客。一名不满意的顾客
This is our hope. This is the faith with which
就足以毁掉他们的整个生意。
齐里茨基兄弟的子辈们由于贪婪，过
I return to the South. With this faith we will
分扩张生意，以致他们四兄弟也无法
亲自监督每一个细节。致命的错误肯
be able to hew out of the mountain of
定迟早都会发生。错误果然发生了，
受害者将他的冤情公布于众。
despair a stone of hope. With this faith we
这篇报道刊登在一家全国性的杂志
will be able to transform the jangling
上。每份杂志一到报摊，一个小时后
就销售一空。在《他们强行将 我冷冻》
约翰·A·莫纳汉讲述了他的
discords of our nation into a beautiful
的标题下，
悲惨故事。三十七岁那年，他不顾一
symphony of brotherhood. With this faith
切地爱上了一位十六岁的姑娘。
她尚未成熟，举止轻浮，想在成家过
we will be able to work together, to pray
安居生活之前再“玩”几年。
“五年之后再回来
together, to struggle together, to go to jail
“她对我说”她写道，
找她，这话让我不得不考虑一个问
together, to stand up for freedom together,
题，五年之后，我就四十二岁了，一
位二十一岁的姑娘要一个比她大两
knowing that we will be free one day.
倍的男人干什么？
约翰·莫纳汉与熟知齐氏家族生意的
This will be the day when all of God's
人有些交往。他不但看到一个机会，
children will be able to sing with new
可以使心爱的人长到二十一岁，自己
仍 保持三十七岁。而且还预见到一个
meaning:
无痛苦的办法，能使他度过他必须忍
受没有姑娘陪伴的那五个年头。于
My country, its of thee
是，他前去冷冻，预付了3000美元
和五百美元的的储存费。他声称，留
Sweet land of liberty
下了“书面证明，五年后他们出来，以
免出错。“
Of thee I sing:
没有人知道失误是如何发生的，但不
Land where my fathers died,
知为什么，约翰·A·莫纳斯汉，更确切
地说是给他指定的那个号码，在册子
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
上登记的是二十五年，而不是五年。
一经解冻，发现一个世纪已过去四分
From every mountainside
之一，他便勃然大怒。他对心上人的
爱，与其他一切一起完好地保存了下
Let freedom ring.
来，但是她早已不再等他，成了一位
And if America is to be a great nation this
有二儿六女的幸福母亲。
莫纳汉指控齐氏家族“毁了他的一
must become true. So let freedom ring from
生”，这未必可以完全相信。他依然年
the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire!
轻，而且传闻杂志付给他十万美元的
文章版权税，这也是真的。
Let freedom ring from the heightening
正如大多数读者所知的那样 ，现在人
所共知的“齐里茨基法”，在莫纳汉的
故事传开之后的三天，就被国会通
Al leghenies of Pennsylvania!
过，并由总统签署了。在格雷厄姆太
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped
太的猫掉进冰柜七十五年之后，国家
法律规定，任何人对任何生命，用 快
Rockies of Colorado!
速冷冻施行冰冻，都得处以死刑。论
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous
是人还是动物。而且所有快速冷冻的
人体必须立即解冻。
洛杉矶报纸报道说，从莫纳汉的故事
slopes of California!
公布于众的那天起，成千上万的男人
But not only that; let freedom ring from
们涌进这座城市。他们接踵而至，所
有的交通全被堵塞了一连几天，直到
Stone Mountain of Georgia!
齐里茨基法得以通过。
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of
如果我们考虑一下 这项法律通过的
日期，并还记得由于严峻的国际形
Tennessee.
势，刚刚通过的一项对十六岁到六十
岁的男子全部实行征兵的议案，我们
Let freedom ring from every hill and
就会明白国会为什么不得不采取行
动了。
molehill of Mississippi. From every
当然，齐里茨基兄弟是第一批被招进
部队 的。考虑到他们的经历，他们被
mountainside, let freedom ring.
安排负责一座军用脱水食品仓库，而
When we let freedom ring, when we let it
且受到警告，别再想做什么新生意。
科幻小说的作用

ring from every village and every hamlet,
1972年为世人所瞩目的一件事
就是出版了一本颇有争议的书——
from every state and every city, we will be
《增长的极限》。这一有关世界前景
able to speed up that day when all of God's
的研究，是由麻省理工学院一组科学
家借助模拟未来社 会的电脑“模型”进
children, black men and white men, Jews
行的，预言了人类若不大幅度限制人
口增长和自然资源消耗，就会出现全
and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will
球性的灾难。
该书问世时大多数人吃了一惊。许多
be able to join hands and sing in the words
人拒绝相信存在发生灾难的可能性、
盖然性、必然性——倘使我们不改变
of the old Negro spiritual,
对“地球飞船”的管理方式的话。但科
幻小说家及其读者却既不惊讶，也不
at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at
愤慨。事实上，这项研究对他们来说
已不是什么新鲜事了。他们毕生都在
last!
制作自己的未来世界“模型”，并付诸
试验。

因为科学家们试图用电脑模型实现
第六册

RESEARCH REPORTS FOR BUSINESS AND
THECNICAL WRITING
A surprising amount of one's time as a
student and professional is spent reporting
the results of one's research projects for
presentation to teachers, managers, and
clients. Indeed, without basic research
skills and the ability to present research
results clearly and completely, an individual
will encounter many obstacles in school and
on the job. The need for some
research- writing ability is felt nearly equally
by college students in all fields, engineering
and science as well as business and the
humanities. Graduate study often makes
great demands on
skills,
the student's
most research-writing
professions
and
the continue demand;
education, advertising and marketing,
economics and accounting, science and
engineering, psychology, anthropology, the
arts, and agriculture may all require regular
reporting of research data.

的事与科幻小说作家及其读者数十
年来所做 的非常相象。科幻小说作家
并不依靠电脑来“模拟”一个未来世
界，而是凭借人类的想象力。这 给了
作家某些极为有利的条件。
有利条件之一就是灵活性。
科幻小说作家的职责不 在预言未来，
他们做的比这重要得多。他们试图展
现许多可能出现在我们面前的前景。
因为并非只有一种前途，一种时代会
不可避免地降临人间。我们的未来世
界是由人类用自身的 行动一点一滴
地、一分一秒地创造起来的。科幻小
说的一个重要作用，便是揭示人类某
几种行为的结果会形成哪几种未来
世界。
为了展示对可能出现的无穷多的未
来世界的 种种构想、恐惧和希望、形
式和感受，科幻小说作家在很大程度
上依赖他们另一个有利条件：虚 构艺
术。
科学家把资料用表格或图表形式表
现出来时，他的工作几乎算完成了，而对科幻小说作家来说，他的工作则
刚刚开了个头。他的任务是要讲述与
人有关的故事：充 当他故事中可能出
现的那个未来的科学依据，仅仅是个
背景资料。也许“仅仅”这个词的局限< br>性还太大了。许多科幻小说除了背景
情况，主要构想和新奇的玩意儿外几
乎空无他物。但 科幻小说中的上乘之
作，即能对几代读者产生持久影响的
作品，都是写人的故事。书中人物也< br>许不是人类，可能是机器人或者其他
类型的机械装置。但作为人的读者会
同情它们，分享 它们的喜怒哀乐，为
它们遭遇危险而担忧，为它们终于成
功而庆幸。从这个意义上说，它们应< br>该算是人。
自史前以来，编故事的艺术并无多大
变化。讲个引人入胜的故事仍然沿用< br>老一套：塑造一个性格坚强的人物，
一个勇猛无比、感情丰富、行为果断
的人物。给他配 上一个弱点，使他与
另一名强者——或与自然——发生
ELEMENTS OF THE RESEARCH PAPER
The standard research report, regardless of
the field or the intended reader, contains
four major sections. These sections may be
broken down into a variety of subsections,
and they may be arranged in a variety of
ways, but they regularly make up the core
of the report.
Problem Section. The first required section
of a research report is the statement of the
problem with which the research project is
concerned. This section requires a precise
statement of the underlying question which
the researcher has set out to answer. In this
same section there should be an
explanation of the significance -- social,
economic, medical, psychological,
educational, etc. -- of the question; in other
words, why the investigation was worth
conducting. Thus, if we set out, for
example, to answer the question
the effect of regular consumption of fast
foods on the health of the American
teenager?we must explain that the
冲突。让主人公的外部冲突反映出自
己的内心冲突，反映 出他的各种欲望
之间的冲突，自身优点与弱点之间的
冲突。这样你的故事就编好了。不管
故事说的是亚伯拉罕把独生子献给
上帝，或帕里斯因一女子而使特洛伊
遭受灭顶之灾，还是讲 哈姆雷特与克
劳狄斯图谋置对方于死地，浮士德对
人世间的知识和权力的不断追求
—— 凡是深印在读者脑际的故事都
塑造了使人难以忘怀的人物。
只展示别的世界，描述可能形成的 未
来社会和潜在的问题是不够的。科幻
小说作家必须指出这些社会、这些前
景如何影响 人类。比这项工作还重要
得多的是，他必须揭示人类能够而且
确实在创造这些未来世界。因为我 们
的前途主要掌握在我们自己手里。前
途不是凭空从天上掉下来的，它是亿
万人的行动 共同造就的产物。在匆忙
浏览报纸大标题时，在忙得焦头烂额
的日常生活中，这一点是很容易被 遗
忘的。但这是科幻小说坚持试图说明
的问题：未来属于我们——不管它是
什么样子。 我们创造未来，我们的行
动塑造明天。我们有才智有勇气去建
造天堂(至少可以试试)。如果我 们失
败了，那将是一场悲剧；然而倘若我
们连试也不试一下，那就是最大的悲
哀了。
因此，科幻小说是沟通科学和艺术的
桥梁，是连接精通工艺的工程师与深
谙人性的诗人 的桥梁。过去从未像现
在这样迫切地需要这么一座桥梁。
着名诗人与历史学家罗伯特?格雷夫
斯于1972年在英国《新科学家》杂
志上撰文说：“如今工业技术和手工在
明争，科 学则与诗歌在暗斗。”
格雷夫斯的话道出了不少人都怀有
的恐惧心理：工业技术已使机器代替
了人的体力；现在诸如电子计算机之
类的机器似乎可以取代人的智力了。
他甚至走得更 远，竟批判起科学来，
其根据是，真正的人类活动诸如诗歌
创作等具有科学家无法认识的威力。
question is thought to have significant
relevance to the health of this segment of
the population and might lead to some sort
of regulations on such foods.
A frequent subsection of this problem
section is a review of past research on the
topic being investigated. This would consist
of summaries of the contributions of
previous researcher to the question under
consideration with some assessment of the
value of these contributions. This
subsection has rhetorical usefulness in that
it enhances the credibility of the researcher
by indicating that the data presented is
based on a thorough knowledge of what has
been done in the field and, possibly, grows
out of some investigative tradition.
Procedures Section. The second major
section of the research report details, with
as much data as possible, exactly how the
study was carried out. This section includes
description of any necessary equipment,
how the subjects were selected if subjects
were used, what statistical technique was
显而易见，格雷夫斯把科学家视为外
表严肃、动作缓慢、没有灵魂的思维
机器，未经事先深思熟 虑从不迈出一
步。
但作为历史学家，格雷夫斯应该知
道，詹姆斯?克拉克?麦克斯韦 尔关于
电磁的独到见解——即可见光仅是
电磁能光谱的一小部分这一猜想，该
猜想为电 子技术打下了基础——是
凭直觉深入未知世界的。麦克斯韦尔
几乎没有丝毫依据来证实他的猜想 。
证据是后来找到的。那些被认为感觉
迟钝、不苟言笑的科学家凭着直觉闯
进了未知世 界，这样的例子真可谓不
胜枚举。
科学家也是人! 他们与别人完全一
样，也有人性 ，也有直觉，也有感情。
但大多数人并没有意识到这一点。他
们不了解科学家，对科学也不知之 甚
少。
今天，大多数人对科学家仍然敬而远
之。然而，科学家毕竟给我们带来了核武器、现代医学、宇宙航行以及除
臭剂。但与此同时，我们看到科学家
被讥为头脑混乱的 书呆子，或被嘲为
冷酷无情的怪物制造家。科学家是一
个少数群体，与大多数少数群体一
样，他们往往避开公众视线，藏身于
他们自己的聚居区内——实验室、校
园、沙漠中或太平洋 珊瑚岛上的野外
工作场地。
人们先得观察、了解科学家本身，然
后才会懂得什么是科 学能办到的，什
么是科学无法办到的。要了解科学家
的工作和目的、他们的梦想、他们的
忧虑。
科幻小说有助于向不从事科学工作
的人解释科学是怎么一回事，科学家
是干 什么的。几百所大学和公立中学
都开设了科幻小说课程。发现这些课
是科学家、工程师和人文主 义者聚会
的场所，出现这种情况决非偶然。科
学和小说可以打通，理智和感情能够
交融 。
科学态度实质上就是认为人脑能够
used to evaluate the significance of the
findings, how many observations were
made and when, etc. An investigation of the
relative effectiveness of various
swim-strokes would have to detail the
number of swimmers tested, the nature of
the tests conducted, the experience of the
swimmers, the weather conditions at the
time of the test, and any other factors that
contributed to the overall experiment. The
goal of the procedures section is to allow
the reader to duplicate the experiment if
such were desired to confirm, or refute,
your findings.
Results Section. The third, and perhaps
most important, section of the research
report is the presentation of the results
obtained from the investigation. The basic
rule in this section is to give all data
relevant to the research question initially
asked. Although, of course, one's natural
tendency might be to suppress any findings
which do not in some way support one's
hypothesis, such dishonesty is antithetical 认识宇宙，人动脑筋、想办法便能移
山倒海——实际上人类已经这样做
了。从这个意义上说 ，科学是纯粹人
文主义的追求，是颂扬人类智力战胜
由于愚昧无知而造成的迷惘、混乱和
恐惧。
许多种幻小说歌颂这种精神。很少有
科幻小说把人类描绘成消极被动的
物种 ，听任自然力像潮水般肆意流动
而不加限制。科幻小说的主人公们
——新神话故事中的众神—— 无论
面对全球性山崩地裂的厄运，还是面
对贪得无厌的政客的罪恶行径，都挺
身而出， 勇敢地与黑暗势力作斗争。
他们不一定总会成功，但他们总是尽
力而为。
然而，科幻 小说在现代社会所起作用
最重要的方面，也许可以用一个词来
贴切地加以概括：变化。
说到底，科幻小说是描写变化的文学
作品。每篇小说都宣扬同一个信条：
明天与今天不一样， 也许大不一样。
科幻小说极其明确地揭示，变化——
无论变好还是变糟——是宇宙的一
条内在规律。抵制变化是墨守成规，
如今则更是危险的了。世界总是要变
的。她在不断地变。 人类最有成效的
行为莫过于确定如何形成这些变化，
如何影响这些变化，从而创造一个所
发生的变化符合我们需要的自然环
境。
也许这就是科幻小说最根本的作用：
向人类 解释科学。当然，这是一件双
刃武器，不仅要宣传讲福音，还要给
予警告。科学不仅能够创造， 而且能
够毁灭；技术能够把人的精神提到想
象所及的最高境界，也能够使人麻木
不仁。 只有具有真知灼见的人士能明
智地决定如何利用科学技术造福人
类。归根到底，这是一切艺术作 品的
最根本的作用：让我们自己看清自
己，帮助我们认识自己身上的人性。
寻求阴暗面

发愁是我祖父的癖好。尽管业余
爱好通常被认为是不能遗传的，但我
to good research reporting in any field. If
也是个才气横溢的爱发愁的人。我的
父亲的忧愁基因它跳过了我乐观的
the experiments undertaken fail to prove
父亲，而在我身上成 了主要因素，时
时担忧。比如说吧，几星期前，我得
anything, if the data was inadequate or
知那些即将崩溃的恒星会很快吞食
掉宇宙中 存在的一切物质。因为我读
contrary to expectations, the report should
了时尚杂志我开始希望这个黑洞是
be honestly written and as complete as
一种时尚，一个天上流行的事情，如
科胡特克彗星和ＵＦＯ，但是后来，
possible, just as it would be if the
我看见文章的作者拜访了二次高级
研究机构，现在，我明白了又一种危
hypothesis were totally proven by the
机迫在眉睫了。因 为我现在的担忧之
处很不幸地就在该研究院不远处的
research.
街上。
Discussion Section. The final required
宇宙要完结了，这本来可激起一
种极好的挑战，特别对于我这种天才
section of a research report is a discussion
的发愁者来说，因为它使我意识到自
己的忧愁太多了，在黑洞文章之前，
of the results obtained and a statement of
我还没有来的急从早先的当心两极
冰帽融化，大西洋水位要长高并逐步
any conclusions which may be drawn from
淹没整个东海岸中抽身出来。我一直
those results. Of primary interest in
在盘算把家搬到萨斯卡切温，但现在
我的发愁已远远落后于当今形势 我
business and technical research reports is
不得不担心是否萨斯卡彻温会比普
林斯顿更能吸引黑洞的注意。另一方
the validity of the results as the bases for
面，普林斯顿离那些非洲杀人蜂更
company decisions: Will our planned
近。这些毒蜂从巴西一直顽固地向北
面逼近，使得我决定去年冬天不到中construction project meet federal
美洲访问。毒蜂们越来 越逼近中美
洲，这样巴拿马可能成了唯一能把毒
environmental guidelines and be approved
蜂挡回去的地方。当然，即使巴拿马
那里光是蝴蝶，作为度假地来说仍然
for building? Will this new program attract
令我担忧，因为那儿和波士顿一样满
skilled personnel to our company? Will this
是反美的情绪。
在这段糟糕的日子里，我经常想
new oil recovery technique be financially
到祖父。他生活的时代比现代要单纯
幸福得多，也紧张得神经近乎崩 溃。
feasible? Thus, the discussion section of the
他的忧愁稍纵即逝，易于对会：何时
梅尔·奥茨会开始重新击球得分？何
re search report must evaluate the research
时埃琳诺·罗斯福会因为四处旅行过
results fully: were they validly obtained, are
多而身体垮掉？何时第三条大街上
的高架铁路桥会生锈烂掉？祖父真
they complete or limited, are they
幸运，没有活在当今世界里去处处发
愁。我想念他，但我却一直在考验我
applicable over a wide range of
的理智，他甚至可能屈服，成为一个
乐观的人。这样放弃心爱的嗜好。
circumstances? The discussion section
祖父令人敬仰的发愁者。当我是个小
孩子时，他过去常到房间里去看我，
should also point out what question remain
在那儿检查我的功课， 然后摇摇头
“拼写成你这个样子，万万不可能
unanswered and perhaps suggest
说，
坚持读写医学院了。”
“这些单词对我来说太陌生了，”我会
directions for further research.
很着急地对他说。“和二年级的比起

来，今年的拼写难多了。”
他会叹气着说：“我搞不清楚。我甚至
STYLE OF RESEARCH REPORTS
不能肯定你是否应该当名医生。据说
Research reports are considered formal
医生拥有最高的突然死亡率，这个我
刚刚看过。”
professional communication. As such, there
祖父担心我，担心梅尔·奥茨，担心埃
琳诺·罗斯福，他这些奇怪的忧虑足够
is little emphasis on a lively style, although,
让同时代的发愁者们羡慕得掉泪。我
真想知道，如果他看到了冈纳.默德尔
of course, there is no objection to writing
作出的新预测，美国经济会在五年之
that is pleasing and interesting. The
内全盘崩溃。会如何反应也就是在东
部海啸之前，毒蜂们 抵达后不久也许
primary goals of professional
他会模仿我 的先进的发愁姿态，学会
采取用新忧覆旧愁的方法来为新愁
communication are accuracy, clarity, and
挪出地方。比如：我对东部将被淹没
completeness. The rough draft of any
的忧虑，挤掉了我过去担忧的拖欠已
久的布鲁明代商场帐单的位置 ；而冈
默德尔的警告则挤掉了我对康涅
research report should be edited to ensure
纳·
狄格州的古董被搞光了后该如何的
that all data is correctly presented, that all
担忧； 我听到的毒蜂消息则减轻了
我对自己牙髓管的担心。这样使得巴
equipment is listed, that all results are
拿马运河取代了其位置而跻身于我
properly detailed. As an aid to the reader,
二十大忧愁之无列。
多么丰富的一份忧愁单啊！我的忧愁
也有新的；既有事关宇宙的，
headings indicating at least the major
有旧的，
也有微不足道的，把平凡的忧愁和古
section of the report should be used, and all
老的忧愁有机地结合在一块儿，梅茨
棒球队在太阳灭了的情况下能在夜
data should be presented under the proper
间打完所有预定的比赛吗？复活了
headings. In addition to their function of
的低温冷冻人需要重新登记去参加
选举吗？三分球在没 有小脚趾的情
suggesting to the reader the contents of
况下，能继续在全国足球联赛中发挥
这么大的作用吗？
each section, headings enhance the formal
以毁灭宇宙的黑洞带给我的忧愁程
度，实质上是我以前所有的忧愁无法
appearance and professional quality of the
带来的。我的意思是让我置身其中作
出了一切忧愁的宇宙，如 果忽然没有
report, increase to some degree the writer's
了，我的家也再没办法安顿了。我担
credibility by reflecting a logical and
忧了一辈子，学到了关于发愁的第一
原 理，这可能是我唯一希望的源泉
methodical approach to the reporting
了。这一原理就是：一些最严重的问
题往往是相互抵销的一对问题中的< br>process, and eliminate the need for wordy
一 个。这儿有一个很好的例子：对于
可怕的极地冰帽，有的科学家说它不
transitiona l devices between sections.
仅没融化，反而很快会开始增大，一
Research data should be presented in a way
直到盖住整个美国，产生一个新的冰
河时期。这一冰层，我是从2月9号
that places proper emphasis on major
开始忧虑的，到劳动节左右，就被挤
得只剩下冰场大小了，这是我那时对
aspect of the project. For different readers
圆腿牛肉底部的价 格担忧所造成的。
但是，近来我又重新重视冰层起来。
different aspects will take on different
冰层是不可能同时既增大又融化的，
degrees of importance, and some
这是我的担忧所在。必有一种情况是
假的，是哪一种呢？一个热忱的忧愁
c onsideration should be given to structuring
者必须找出这个答案。
同一原理应用到黑洞上的话，那么是
research reports differently for different
否存在某种黑洞的对立面——白洞
audiences. Management, for example, will
呢？它们可能是一些存在于宇宙空
间中的漂亮的发光的物体。它们不会
be most concerned with the results of a
象黑洞一样吞掉宇宙，相反地， 却很
乐意把宇宙全吐出来。只要研究院能
research project, and thus the results
发表一则有关白洞情况的新的简短
消息，我就能消除掉对黑洞的担忧。
section should be emphasized, probably by
这正是我目前所需要的一切。这样的
presenting it immediately after the problem
话，我就可能会开始担忧麦虱，男性
绝经期和所有其他祖父会认可的温
section and before the procedures section.
和和恐怖了。这样拼写“麦虱”对吗？
探究未知领域
Other researchers would be most interested
发现了人类自身的无知，这是二
十世纪取得的最伟大的成就。我们生
in the procedures section, and this should
活在困惑中，对自然界以前从未象现
be highlighted in writing up research
在这样困惑过，对宇宙，以及对我们
人类自己，对我们人类来说，这 是一
projects for publication in professional
种新的感受。一百年前，我们在达尔
文和华莱尔引起的轰动平息后，就以
journals or for presentation at professional
为自己对进化论的本质 内容全部了
如指掌了，仅仅只因为我们已领悟和
conferences. For non- technical readers and
接受了自然选择的观点。在十八世纪
时，没有 巨大的难解之迷。人们完全
federal agencies, the implications of the
凭自己的理性去了解宇宙。在此以前
results might be the most important
的几个世纪里，教会大多数时间几乎
囊括了一切：既 提问题又给答案。现
consideration, and emphasis should be
在，我们在人类历史上首次，看见了
自己理解力的缺乏。我们象往常那样
placed on the discussion of the report for
为解释世界而编出的说法，如今一定
得通过实验去证实了再证实，这就是
this readership.
科学的方法。只要我们采用了这种科
For additional clarity and emphasis, major
学方法去开始做某事后，我们无法再往回走了。我们不得不在怀疑一切的
results should be presented in a visual
环境中成长，我们需要证据来证明每
个有关自然界的断言.我们除了马上
format -- tables, charts, graphs, diagrams
行动，努力探索，除此之外，别无他
法。我们希望将来能理解未知的一
-- as well as in a verbal one.
切，但是我们在这以前很长一段时间
Beyond checking the report for clarity and
内只能处于理解不完善的阶段。 承
认自己是无知的，这会导致进步。不
accuracy in the presentation of technical
是完全因为这个特别迷的解答直接
地增加了一点理解，而是因为这些
data, the author of a research report should
迷，如果能引起科学家的足够兴趣的
review for basic grammatical and
话，是它们引导了这个工作。昆虫学
中存在一种类似的现象 ，这种现象被
mechanical accuracy. Short sentences are
格兰塞称之为“siigmergy”，其含义
为“推动去努力。”放在房间内的三四
preferable to long in the presentation of
只白蚁会 四处毫无目的地乱爬，但是
放进更多的白蚁后，它们便会开始建
complex information. Listings should be
造了。是因为其它白蚁的存在， 达
used to break up long passages of prose
到一定数量后，就紧紧聚在一起，开
始工作。它们用对方的小粪团堆起整
and to emphasize information. The
整齐齐的柱状。那些正好到合适高度
的柱状物会横向延伸成为一个个极
research writer should try to use the
佳的拱形建筑，构成白蚁们修建蚁窝
的基础。一只只单个的白蚁不会做这simplest possible language without
种事，可一旦数量足够的白蚁聚在一
sacrificing the professional quality of the
块儿，它们便成了完美的建筑师。这
些盲眼白蚁群不仅能察觉彼此间的
report. Although specialized terms can be
距离，而且能造成一个巨大的复杂建
筑，该建筑还带有自身的空调系统和
used, pretentious jargon should be avoided.
温度控制系统。在自己建成的生态系
统中，白蚁们一直工作着，忙碌一生。
A finished research report should be
我能想起的和蚁窝搭建最 相似的人
类行为是语言的创造。在终生相互交
readable and useful document prepared
往的过程中，我们一代接一代地创造
语言，并出于某种本能改变其结构。
with the reader in mind.
对于这种集体行为，我们还了解得
很少。谈论起“超有机个体”，现在已

不时髦了。但是，要解释清楚白蚁现
CONCLUSION
象和其他群居昆虫现象，我们手头上
基于单个昆虫研究的资料数量还远
Although we struggle with research
远不够。 这些昆虫群的化学反应系
reports in high school, dread them in
统可以由我们作出一些极好的推测，
但它们为什么会显现出集体的智慧，
col lege, and are often burdened by them in
这一明明白白的事实却始终是个迷。
或者不管怎样也是个带没解答的，也
our professional live, learning to live
许对整个社会生活都有 重要含义的
问题。由此我想到，在大学生物学课
comfortably with them is a relatively easy
上，这个神秘问题应该是最好的开场
task. A positive attitude (i.e. one that seem
白。老师们应当告诉学生们这个问题
的奇特之处，及意义的含糊之处。这
the oral or written presentation of research
些应该教给医科大学预科生们他们
需要在事业开创早期通过上课来了
results as of equal importance to the
解科学领域内所存在的一些尚未确
data-gathering process); an orderly
定的问题。 大学生，还有那些中学
生，应该尽早地，也许从一开始，就
approach which includes prewriting (i.e.,
得去了解目前科学家正在争论不休
的一些重大问题。这类重大争论可以
before any actual research is done, the
激起学生们的兴趣，如果弄得 好的
话，甚至可以吸引他们全部的注意
researcher should try to get down on paper
力。生活中绝大多数事都比不上训练
as much about the subject under
有素，经验丰富的论敌间的激烈辩论
引人 入胜。不管怎样，对于当代那些
investigation as possible) and a formal
主要争论，年轻学生们却不很了解。
关于达尔文主义者和他们论敌间所
research report structure as the framework
展开的争论，年轻的学生们也许被老
师教过一点。但是其他方面正在进行
for the investigation; and a reasonable
相仿的争论。其中许多已触及到有关
approach to the actual writing process
我们自然界理解的深奥问题，实际上
仍然在继续着并反映了 科学进程中
including editing for accuracy and clarity,
的本质特征。这一切，学生们并不了
解。我担忧的是，理科老师自己不情
will help one to produce effective research
愿谈论这事情，因为他们相信学生们
对这些争论的理解只能建立在领会
reports efficiently.

掌握了“基本知识”的基础上。我很想
看到与这方面相关的一些实验，心目
THE BEGINNING OF A CARREER
中已有不少当代学术争鸣的例子。即
使对这些主题没有深刻，详尽地了
Dear Mother,
解，人们也容易理解争论的大意。
Your amazing telegram [telegram
这儿有个例子是有关动物意识问题
的。有一派生态学 家，他们专门从事
announcing $$500 Mademoiselle prize for
动物行为的研究，他们断言道，人类
是唯一拥有意识的，在能够仔细考虑
at the Mintons,which I
事情方面，不同于其他生物，充分利
forwarded] came just as I was scrubbing
用过去的经验，大胆有根据地推测未< br>来。而其他“低级”动物（黑猩猩，鲸
tables in the shady interior of The Belmont
鱼和海豚可能要排除在外），是不能
用大脑做出类似事情的。它们大脑只
dining room. I was so excited that I
能按一定程序作出，自动的或有条件
的反应。对于生活环境中的突发性事
screamed and actually threw my arms
件，但他们认为人的心理活动可以通
around the head waitress who no doubt
过这种自动的或条件化的反应得以
解释。尽管行为心理学家们不太喜欢
thinks I am rather insane! Anyhow,
“心理的”一词，另一派生态学家，则< br>显得更为宽容大度。一般动物完全能
psychologically, the moment couldn't have
够真正地思维并且正在进行大量的
been better. I felt tired -- one's first night's
思维。他们认为没有理由必须去怀疑
这一事实。与人类的思维比较起来，
sleep in a new place never is peaceful -- and
动物思维稀疏得多，这也是动物缺乏
语言，缺乏比喻去推动思维进程。但
I didn't get much! To top it off, I was the
无论如何它们是在思维。 争论中，
哪一方的事实比另一方的更强有力，
only girl waitress here, and had been
更有说服力，这不是争论的意义所
scrubbing furniture, washing dishes and
在，而是刚好相反。两方想展开真正
的长期的争论， 但却都没有充分的事
silver, lifting tables, etc. since 8 a.m. Also, I
实来支持自己的观点。动物意识问题
还处于未被解决的状态。 人们开始
just learned since I am completely
仔细考 虑整个生物圈时，另一个可争
论的问题便出现了。生物圈也就是地
inexperienced , I am not going to be working
球上所有连接在一起的生命。它是如
in the main dining room, but in the
何能保持这样稳定、和谐，象一个硕
大无比正发育着的胚胎一样的呢？
hallwhere the managers and top hotel
只是由于一个偶然的事件决定其出
现的吗?洛夫洛克和马克利斯就这一
brass eat. So, tips will no doubt net much
问题，提出了盖亚假说。用简短的话
来说，该假说认为地球本身就是一种
less during the summer and the company
生命形式。“这一囊括了地球生物圈、
大气层、海洋和土壤的复杂实体，整
be less interesting. So I was beginning to
个构成了一个为地球生命寻求最佳
worry about money when your telegram
物理和化学环境的反馈或控制系统。
拉夫洛克还假定了，地球表面的物理< br>“越来越适宜的大气层由
came. God! To think at the
和 化学条件，
生命本身的存在已经创造出来并且
Mintons
现在仍然在积极地创造着 。” 这述观
点正开始激起风暴，已有一些迹象表
in a big national slick! Frankly, I can't
明了这一点。我认为这一观点如果流
行的 话，生物学界将很快地分裂成怒
believe it!
气十足的两派：一派认为进化了的生
The first thing I though of was: Mother can
物圈是按计划有目的地进行的结果。
另一派谴责这类异端邪说。对于这场
keep her intersession money and buy some
争论，这认为学生们应尽可能多去了
解。 另一场同时存在的争论是在社
pretty clothes and a special trip or
会生物学家和反社会生物学家之间
something! At least I get a winter coat and
展开的，它也是一场有关世未知领域
的论战。对学生们来说，它提供了一
extra special suit out of the Mintons. I think
次绝妙的机会使他们拓宽视野。观看
这场论战的人们会惊愕得张大嘴。一
the prize is $$500!
群科学家，他们聪明绝顶，训练有素，
知识广博，想象丰富，主张，基因无
ME! Of all people!…
疑整个控制了所有动物的或人类的
另一群科学家，同样出类拔萃，
So it's really looking up around here, now
行为；
则坚持环境和文化决定了一切行为。
that I don't have to be scared stiff about
每个大学生都不要错过这场很有教
育意义的论战。在这儿，论据的相对
money … Oh, I say, even if my feet kill me
可靠程度并不是我们要学的十分必
after this first week, and I drop 20 trays, I
要的一课。实际上，这里的教育意义
就在于争论本身：我们依靠目前的知
will have the beach, boys to bring me beer,
识想解决这类问题，那还是远远不够
的。
sun, and young gay companions. What a
life.
Love, your crazy old daughter.

Sivvy

June 12. 1952
No doubt after I catch up on sleep, and
learn to balance trays high on my left hand,
I'll feel much happier. As it is now, I feel
stuck in the midst of a lot of loud, brassy
Irish Catholics, and the only way I can jolly
myself is to say, well, it's only for a
summer, and I can maybe write about them
least I've got a new name for my
next protagonist -- Marley, a gabby girl who
knows her way around but good. The ration
of boys to girls has gotten less and less, so
I'll be lucky if I get tagged by the youngest
kid here. Lots of the girls are really wise,
drinking flirts. As for me, being the
conservative, quiet, gracious type, I don't
stand much chance of dating some of the
cutest ones … If I can only get
with these girls, and never for a minute let
them know I'm the gentle intellectual type,
it'll be O.K.
As for the Mlle news, I don't think it's really
sunk in yet. I felt sure they made a mistake,
or that you'd made it up to cheer me. The
big advantage will be that I won't have to
worry about earning barely $$300 this
summer. I would really have been sick
otherwise. I can't wait till August when I
can go casually down to the drug store and
pick up a slick copy of Mlle, flip to the index,
and see ME, one of two college girls in the
U.S.!
Really, when I think of how I started it over
spring vacation, polished it at school, and
sat up till midnight in the Haven House
kitchen typing it amidst noise and chatter, I
can't get over how the story soared to were
it did…
I get great pleasure out of sharing it [her
feeling about the story] with you, who
really understand how terribly much it
means as a tangible testimony that I have
got a germ of writing ability. The only thing,
I probably won't have a chance to win Mlle
again, so I'll try for a guest editorship
maybe next or my senior year, and set my
sights for the Atlantic. God, I'm glad I can
talk about it with you -- probably you're the
only outlet that I'll have that won't get tired
of my talking about writing …
Speaking again of Henry and Liz, it was a
step for me to a story where the protagonist
isn't always ME, and proved that I am
beginning to use imagination to transform
the actual incident. I was scared that would
never happen, but I think it's an indication
that my perspective is broadening.
Sometime I think -- heck, I don't know why
I didn't stay home all summer, writing,
doing physical science, and having a small
part-time job. I could
doesn't do much good to yearn about that, I
guess. Although it would have been nice.
Oh well, I'll cheer up. I love you.
Your own Sivvy

June 15, 1952

Dear Mother.
… Do write me letters, Mommy, because I
am in a very dangerous of feeling sorry for
myself … Just at present, life is awful.
Mademoiselle seems quite unreal, and I am
exhausted, scared, incompetent,
unenergetic and generally low is spirits …
Working in side hall puts me part, and I feel
completely uprooted and clumsy. The more
I see the main hall girls expertly getting
special dishes, fixing shaved ice and fruit,
etc., the more I get an inferiority complex
and feel that each day in side hall leaves me
further behind … But as tempted as I am to
be a coward and escape by crawling back
home, I have resolved to give it a good
month's trial -- till July 10 … Don't worry
about me, but do send me little pellets of
advice now and then.

June 24, 1952
… Last night I went on a birthday
party at the
talked for a few hours. There were about
forty of us kids from the hotel. I managed
by some magic to get myself seated next to
a fellow in his first year at Harvard Law --
and he was just a dear … The best part was
when we came back. It was a beautiful clear
starry night, and Clark went in to get me
two of his sweaters to wear because it was
cold, and brought out a book of T.S. Eliot's
poems. So we sat on a bench where I could
just barely read the print, and he put his
head in my lap and I read aloud to him for a
wile. Most nice. The only thing is I am so
inclined to get fond of someone who will do
things with me like that -- always inclined to
be too metaphysical
--
and serious
main conversationally that's my
trouble … So glad to hear the check from
Mlle is real. I hardly could believe it. Just
now I am mentally so disorganized that I
can't retain knowledge or think at all. The
work is still new enough to be tiring, what
with three changes a day into uniforms, and
I am so preoccupied by mechanics of living
and people that I can't yet organize and
assimilate all the chaos of experience
pouring in on me. In spite of everything, I
still have my good old sense of humor and
manage to laugh a good deal of the time …
I'll make the best of whatever comes my
way.

Much love to you,
Sivvy

THE QUEST FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL
INTELLIGENCE
Through all of our history we have
pondered the stars and mused whether
humanity is unique or if, somewhere else in
the dark of the night sky, there are other
beings who contemplate and wonder as we
do, fellow thinkers in the cosmos. Such
beings might view themselves and the
universe differently. Somewhere else there
might be very exotic biologies and
technologies and societies. In a cosmic
setting vast and old beyond ordinary human
understanding, we are a little lonely; and
we ponder the ultimate significance, if any,
of our tiny but exquisite blue planet.
The search for extraterrestrial
intelligence is the search for a generally
acceptable cosmic context for the human
species. In the deepest sense, the search
for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search
for ourselves.
In the last few years -- in one-millionth the
lifetime of our species on this planet -- we
have achieved an extraordinary
technological capability which enables us to
seek out unimaginably distant civilizations
even if they are no more advanced than we.
That capability is called radio astronomy
and involves single radio telescopes,
collections or arrays of radio telescopes,
sensitive radio detectors, advanced
computers for processing received date,
and the imagination and skill of dedicated
scientists. Radio astronomy has in the last
decade opened a new window on the
physical universe. It may also, if we are
wise enough to make the effort, cast a
profound light on the biological universe.
Some scientists working on the question of
extraterrestrial intelligence, myself among
them, have attempted to estimate the
number of advanced technical civilizations
-- defined operationally as societies capable
of radio astronomy -- in the Milky Way
Galaxy. Such estimates are little better than
guesses. They require assigning numerical
values to quantities such as the numbers
and ages of stars; the abundance of
planetary systems and the likelihood of the
origin of life, which we know less well; and
the probability of the evolution of intelligent
life and the lifetime of technical
civilizations, about which we know very
little indeed.
When we do the arithmetic, the sorts of
numbers we come up with are,
characteristically, around a million technical
civilizations. A million civilizations is a
breathtakingly large number, and it is
exhilarating to imagine the diversity,
lifestyles and commerce of those million
worlds. But the Milky Way Galaxy contains
some 250 billion stars, and even with a
million civilizations, less than one star in
200,000 would have a planet inhabited by
an advanced civilization. Since we have
little idea which stars are likely candidates,
we will have to examine a very large
number of them. Such considerations
suggest that the quest for extraterrestrial
intelligence may require a significant effort.
Despite claims about ancient astronauts
and unidentified flying objects, there is no
firm evidence for past visitation of the Earth
by other civilizations. We are restricted to
remote signaling and, of the long-distance
techniques available to our technology,
radio is by far the best. Radio telescopes are
relatively inexpensive; radio signals travel
at the speed of light, faster than which
nothing can go; and the use of radio for
communication is not a short-sighted or
anthropocentric activity. Radio represents a
large part of the electromagnetic spectrum
and any technical civilization anywhere in
the Galaxy will have discovered radio early
-- just as in the last few centuries we have
explored the entire electromagnetic
spectrum from short gamma rays to very
long radio waves. Advanced civilizations
might very well use some other means of
communication with their peers. But if they
wish to communicate with backward or
emerging civilizations, there are only a few
obvious methods, the chief of which is
radio.
The first serious attempt to listen for
possible radio signals from other
civilizations was carried out at the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory in
Greenbank, West Virginia, in 1959 and
1960. It was organized by Frank Drake, now
at Cornel University, and was called Project
Ozma, after the princess of the Land of Oz,
a place very exotic, very distant and very
difficult to reach. Drake examined two
nearby stars for a few weeks with negative
results. Positive results would have been
astonishing because as we have seen, even
rather optimistic estimates of the number
of technical civilizations in the Galaxy imply
that several hundred thousand stars must
be examined in order to achieve success by
random stellar selection.
Since Project Ozma, there have been six or
eight other such programs, all at a rather
modest level, in the United States, Canada
and the Soviet Union. All results have been
negative. The total number of individual
stars examined to date in this way is less
than a thousand. We have performed
something like one tenth of one percent of
the required effort.
However, there are signs that much more
serious efforts may be mustered in the
reasonably near future. Besides, hand in
hand with the recent spectacular advances
in radio technology, there has been a
dramatic increase in the scientific and
public respectability of the entire subject of
extraterrestrial life. A clear sign of the new
attitude is the Viking missions to Mars,
which are to a significant extent dedicated
to the search for life on another planet.
But along with the burgeoning dedication to
a serious search, a slightly negative note
has emerged which is nevertheless very
interesting. A few scientists have lately
asked a curious question: If extraterrestrial
intelligence is abundant, why have we not
already seen its manifestations? Skeptics
also ask why there is no clear evidence of
extraterrestrial visits to Earth. We have
already launched slow and modest
interstellar spacecraft. A society more
advance than ours should be able to ply the
spaces between the stars conveniently if
not effortlessly. Over millions of years such
societies should have established colonies,
which might themselves launch interstellar
expeditions. Why are they not here? The
temptation is to deduce that there are at
most a few advanced extraterrestrial
civilizations -- either because statistically
we are one of the first technical civilizations
to have emerged or because it is the fate of
all such civilizations to destroy themselves
before they are much further along than
we.
It seems to me that such despair is quite
premature. All such arguments depend on
our correctly surmising the intentions of
beings far more advanced than ourselves,
and when examined more closely I think
these arguments reveal a range of
interesting human conceits. Why do we
expect that it will be easy to recognize the
manifestations of very advanced
civilizations? Is our situation not closer to
that of members of an isolated society in
the Amazon basin, say, who lack the tools to
detect the powerful international radio and
television traffic that is all around them?
Also, there is a wide range of incompletely
understood phenomena in astronomy.
Might the modulation of pulsars or the
energy source of quasars, for example,
have a technological origin? Or perhaps
there is a galactic ethic of noninterference
with backward or emerging civilizations.
Perhaps there is a waiting time before
contact is considered appropriate, so as to
give us a fair opportunity to destroy
ourselves first, if we are so inclined.
Perhaps all societies significantly more
advanced than our own have achieved an
effective personal immortality and lose the
motivation for interstellar gallivanting,
which may, for all we know, be a typical
urge only of adolescent civilizations.
Perhaps mature civilizations do not wish to
pollute the cosmos. There is a very long list
of such
position to evaluate with any degree of
assurance.
The question of extraterrestrial civilizations
seems to me entirely open. Personally, I
think it far more difficult to understand a
universe in which we are the only
technological civilization, or one of a very
few, than to conceive of a cosmos brining
over with intelligent life. Many aspects of
the problem are, fortunately, amenable to
experimental verification. We can search for
planets of other stars, seek simple forms of
life on such nearby planets as Mars, and
perform more extensive laboratory studies
on the chemistry of the origin of life. We can
investigate more deeply the evolution of
organisms and societies. The problem cries
out for a long-term, open-minded,
systematic search, with nature as the only
arbiter of what is or is not likely.
THE LIBRARY CARD
One morning I arrived early at work and
went into the bank lobby where the Negro
porter was mopping. I stood at a counter
and picked up the Memphis Commercial
Appeal and began my free reading of the
press. I came finally to the editorial page
and saw an article dealing with one H. L.
Mencken. I knew by hearsay that he was
the editor of the American Mercury, but
aside from that I knew nothing about him.
The article was a furious denunciation of
Mencken, concluding with one, hot, short
sentence: Mencken is a fool.
I wondered what on earth this Mencken had
done to call down upon him the scorn of the
South. The only people I had ever heard
enounced in the South were Negroes, and