新发展研究生英语综合教程课文内容及翻译

G r o w i n g U p

1 Fifty years ago parents still asked boys if they wanted to grow up to be president, and asked it not jokingly but seriously. Many parents who were hardly more than paupers still believed their sons could do it. Abraham Lincoln had done it. We were only sixty-five years from Lincoln. Many of grandfather who walked among us could remeber Lincoln. Men of grandfatherly age were the worst for asking if you wanted to grow up to be president. A surprising number of little boys said yes and meant it.五十年前父母大都会问男孩子们长大后想不想当总统，问这话时一本正经，并非开玩笑。许多穷得跟乞丐似的父母也仍然相信他们的孩子能当上总统。亚伯拉罕?林肯就做到了。我们与林肯那个时代仅仅差65年。依然健在的许多爷爷辈的人还能记得林肯时代。就是他们最喜欢问你长大后想不想当总统。回答说想当的小男孩数量多得惊人，而且他们是当真的。

2 I was asked many times myself. No, I didn’t want to grow up to be president. My mother was present during one of these interrogations. An elderly uncle, having posed the usual question and exposed my lack of interest in the presidency, asked, “Well, what do you want to be when you grow up.我就曾经被问过多次。我会回答说不，我长大后不想当总统。有一个年纪大的叔叔，当着母亲的面向我提出这个问烂了的问

题，发现了我对当总统不感兴趣，他就接着又问：“那你长大了想干什么呢？”

3 I loved to pick through trash piles and collect empty bottles, tin cans with pretty labels, and discarded magazines. The most desirable job on earth sprang instantly to mind. “I want to be a garbage man,” I said.我那时喜欢到垃圾堆上去拣东西，收集空瓶子、有漂亮标签的罐子和废弃的杂志。世界上最吸引我的工作立刻浮现在我的脑子里。“我想当一个垃圾工。”我说道。

4 My uncle smiled, but my mother had seen the first distressing evidence of a bump budding on a log. “Have a little gumption, Russell,” she said. Her calling me Russell was a signal of unhappiness. When she approved of me I was always “Buddy”.叔叔听后笑了，而母亲却觉察到了我那呆头呆脑的苗头，不免伤心。“有点上进心吧，拉塞尔。”她说道。她叫我“拉塞尔”表明她不高兴，因为她夸我的时候总是叫我“小家伙”。

5 When I turned eight years old she decided that the job of starting me on the road toward making something of myself could no longer be safely delayed, “Buddy ,” she said one day, “ I want you to come home right after school this afternoon. Somebody’s coming and I want you to meet him.”转眼间我长到了八岁，她觉得我得找个工作，开始踏上那条让

我自己成就点什么的道路，而不能再四平八稳地坐失良机了。“巴迪”，有一天她跟我说，“今天放学后马上回家。有人要来，我要你见见他。”

6 When I burst in that afternoon she was in conference in the parlor with an executive of the Curtis Publishing Company. She introduced me. He bent low from the waist and shook my hand. Was it true as my mother had told him, he asked, that I longer for the opportunity to conquer the world of business?那天下午我冲进家门的时候，她正在客厅里跟柯蒂斯出版公司的一个负责人谈话。他把我介绍给他。他弯下腰和我握了握手，问我是不是像母亲说的那样渴望获得进入商界的机会。

7 My mother replied that I was blessed with a rare determination to make to succeed in business.”母亲在一旁忙说我决意要使自己成为一个有所成就的人。

8 “That’s right,” I said.“是的。”我低声说。

9 “But have you got the grit, the character, the never-say-quit spirit it takes to succeed in business.”“那么，你是否具备在商业上获得成功所需要的刚强、勇气和绝不放弃的精神呢？”

10 My mother said I certainly did.母亲回答说我当然具备。

11 “That’s right,” I said.“是的。”我说。

12 He eyed me silently for a long pause, as though weighing whether I could be trusted to keep his confidence, then spoke man-to-man. Before