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stationery是什么意思The Virtues of Ambition(周宏图英语阅读及练习题)

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2021-01-19 10:02
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smart中文意思-stationery是什么意思

2021年1月19日发(作者:裤带)

The V
irtues of Ambition
Joseph Epstein

Para 1


Ambition is one of those Rorschach (
罗夏墨迹测验
) words: define
it and you instantly reveal a
great
deal
about
yourself.
Event
that
most
neutral
of
works,
Webster

s,
in
its
Seventh
New
Collegiate Edition, gives itself away, defining ambition first and foremost as

an ardent

强烈的)
desire for rank, fame, or power.


Ardent immediately assumes a heat incommensurate with good
sense and stability, and rank, fame, and power have come under fairly heavy attack for at least a
century. One can, after all, be ambitious for the public good, for the alleviation of suffering, for the
enlightenment of mankind, though there are some who say that these are precisely the ambitious
people most to be distrusted.




























































Para 2


Surely
ambition
is
behind
dreams
of
glory,
of
wealth,
of
love,
of
distinction
(
名望
),
of
accomplishment,
of
pleasure,
of
goodness.
What
life
does
with
our
dreams
and
expectations
cannot, of course, be predicted. Some dreams, begun in selflessness, end in rancor; other dreams,
begun in selfishness, end in large- heartedness. The unpredictability of the outcome of dreams is no
reason to cease dreaming.




Para 3


To be sure, ambition, the sheer thing unalloyed by some larger purpose than merely clambering up,
is never a pretty prospect to ponder. As drunks have done to alcohol, the single-minded have done
to ambition

given it a bad name. Like a taste for alcohol, too, ambition does not always allow for
easy
satiation.
Some
people
cannot
handle
it;
it
has
brought
grief
to
others,
and
not
merely
the
ambitious alone. Still, none of this seems a sufficient cause for driving ambition under the counter.



Para 4


What is the worst that can be said

that has been said

about ambition? Here is a (surely) partial
list: To begin with, it, ambition, is often antisocial, and indeed is now outmoded, belonging to an
age when individualism was more valued and useful than it is today. The person strongly imbued
with
ambition
ignores
the
collectivity;
socially
detached,
he
is
on
his
own
and
out
for
his
own.
Individuality
and
ambition
are
firmly
linked.
The
ambitious
individual,
far
from
identifying
himself and his fortunes with the group, wishes to rise above it. The ambitious man or woman sees
the world as a battle; rivalrousness is his or her principal emotion: the world has limited prizes to


offer, and he or she is determined to get his or hers. Ambition is, moreover, jesuitical: it can argue
those possessed by it into believing that what they want for themselves is good for everyone

that
the satisfaction of their own desires is best for the commonweal. The truly ambitious believe that
it is a dog-eat-dog world, and they are distinguished by wanting to be the dogs that do the eating.




Para 5


From
here
it
is
but
a short
hop
to
believe
that
those who
have
achieved
the
common
goals
of
ambition


money, fame,
power


have
achieved
them
through corruption
of
a
greater
or
lesser
degree,
mostly
a
greater.
Thus
all
politic
ians
in
high
places,
thought
to
be
ambitious,
are
understood
to
be,
ipso
facto,
without
moral
scruples.
How
could
they
have
such
scruples


a
weighty burden in a high climb

and still have risen as they have?




Para 6


If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition


wealth, distinction, control over one’s
destiny

must be considered worthy of the sacrifices made on am
bition’s behalf. If the tradition of
ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be esteemed by people
who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. The educated not least because,
nowadays more than ever before, it is they who have usurped the platforms of public discussion
and wield the power of the spoken and written word in newspapers, in magazines, on television. In
an odd way
, it is the educated who have claimed to have given up on ambition as an ideal. What is
odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition

if not always their own then that of
their parents and grandparents. There is a heavy note of hypocrisy in this: a case of closing the
barn door after the horses have escaped

with the educated themselves astride them.




Para 7


Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its accoutrements now than formerly.
Summer
homes,
European
travel,
BMWs


the
locations,
place
names
and
name
brands
may
change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What
has
happened
is
that
people
cannot
own
up
to
their
dreams,
as
easily
and
openly
as
once
they
could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive, vulgar. Instead we are treated to fine pharisaical
spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the revolutionary lawyer quartered
in
the
$$250,000
Manhattan
luxurious
apartment;
the
critic
of
American
materialism
with
a
Southampton
summer
home;
the
publisher
of
radical
books
who
takes
his
meals
in
three-star
restaurants;
the
journalist
advocating
participatory
democracy
in
all
phases
of
life,
whose
own
children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so egregious,

smart中文意思-stationery是什么意思


smart中文意思-stationery是什么意思


smart中文意思-stationery是什么意思


smart中文意思-stationery是什么意思


smart中文意思-stationery是什么意思


smart中文意思-stationery是什么意思


smart中文意思-stationery是什么意思


smart中文意思-stationery是什么意思



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