英翻汉

一单元I thought for a while I might learn something from the Spanish-speaking people, the most conversationally adroit people on earth. Say to one of them, “This is the most beautiful house I’ve ever been in,” and he responds, “It is made immeasurably more beautiful by your lovely presence.” Y ou are left standing there with immeasurably lovely egg on your face. There is no point in trying to play the game back at them —they’ll top you in the end, no matter what.我想了片刻，觉得世界上讲西班牙语的人最善于辞令，也许可以从他们身上学到点什么。

你对他们中的一个人赞叹道，“这是我曾经见到过的最漂亮的房子”，他立刻回应道，“您大驾光临，更使蓬荜生辉。

”让你站在那儿，一脸尴尬。

要想回敬他们是没有用的——不管说什么，最后他们总会占上风的One thing is clear: at the bottom of all graceful social intercourse lies poise. Eliza W. Farrar, who wrote one of America’s earliest books on etiquette, illustrated the importance of poise when she told of an elegant New England dinner party at which the host was carving a goose. The bird got away from him, shot out of the dish and landed in the lap of a lady of quality. Given the same circumstances I would have quietly asked for a coil of rope. This host, however, had poise. He said, with superb calmness and gravity, “Madam, I will thank you for that goose.” If we could all comport ourselves with that kind of dignity, and quit jittering, our social life would be much more enjoyable.有一点很清楚：所有得体的社交最根本的就在于保持镇定。

Eliza. W. Farrar，写过一本美国最早的关于礼仪方面的书。

她在书中讲述了在新英格兰举行的一次高雅的宴会上主人切鹅的故事，阐述了保持镇定的重要性。

鹅不慎脱手，滑出了盘子，落在一位贵妇人的衣裙上。

要是我遇到这种情况，我会感到极度地窘迫，恨不得悄悄地找根绳子去上吊。

可是，这位主人却泰然自若。

他极为平静而庄重地说，“夫人，如果您把那鹅还给我，我将感激不尽。

”如果我们的行为举止都能保持这种风度，摆脱局促不安，那我们的社交生活就会有趣得多。

We may acquire a bit more poise if we keep one thing in mind: whenever a person pays you a compliment, the chances are he’s just making conversation. The only sensible response consists of eight little letters arranged neatly into two little words: Thank you.如果我们牢记这一点，我们就会显得更加镇定自如：每当有人恭维你时，他可能只是想和你说说话。

唯一明智的回答就是由八个小小的字母构成的两个简洁的小词：Thank you ！三单元It is part of the nature of a strong erotic passion — as distinct from a transient fit of appetite — that it makes more towering promises than any other emotion. No doubt all our desires make promises, but not so impressively. To be in love involves the almost irresistible conviction that one will go on being in love until one dies, and that possessionof the beloved will confer, not merely frequent ecstasies, but settled, fruitful, deep-rooted, lifelong happiness. Hence all seems to be at stake. If we miss this chance we shall have lived in vain. At the very thought of such a doom we sink into fathomless depths of self-pity. 正是强烈情欲的力量使然。

情欲与转瞬而逝的其他欲望如食欲等不同，它所带来的期待无比壮观，为任何其他情感所不及。

毫无疑问，我们所有的欲望都带来期待，但无一能望其项背。

坠入爱河便会萌发难以抗拒的信念：相爱一定会到终老，拥有心爱的人不仅常常让人心醉神迷，还会带来安定感、成就感和深入骨髓的相伴一生的幸福感。

所以我们孤注一掷。

如果错过这个机会，一生都将失去意义。

只要一想到这样的厄运，便会深陷自怨自艾的无底深渊。

Unfortunately these promises are found often to be quite untrue. Every experienced adult knows this to be so as regards all erotic passions (except the one he himself is feeling at the moment). We discount the world-without-end pretensions of our friends amours easily enough. We know that such things sometimes last —and sometimes don’t. And when they do last, this is not because they promised at the outset to do so. When two people achieve lasting happiness, this is not solely because they are great lovers but because they are also —I must put it crudely —good people; controlled, loyal, fair-minded, mutually adaptable people.不幸的是，这些期待往往都是假象而已。

任何一个有所经历的成人都知道所有的情欲不过如此，当然他如果正身陷其中则另当别论。

朋友们天荒地老的故事我们并不当真，因为知道有的时候感情可以持续有时却难以为继。

而真正能够持久的感情并不是因为在最初的时候曾经有过怎样的诺言。

两个人能够白头偕老并不是因为他们是伟大的恋人，而是因为他们有良好的品行：克制，忠诚，不偏激，可以相互适应。

五单元The serious part of my life ever since boyhood has been devoted to two different objects which for a long time remained separate and have only in recent years united into a single whole. I wanted, on the one hand, to find out whether anything could be known; and, on the other hand, to do whatever might be possible toward creating a happier world. Up to the age of thirty-eight I gave most of my energies to the first of these tasks. I was troubled by scepticism and unwillingly forced to the conclusion that most of what passes for knowledge is open to reasonable doubt. I wanted certainty in the kind of way in which people want religious faith. I thought that certainty is more likely to be found in mathematics than elsewhere. But I discovered that many mathematical demonstrations, which my teachers expected me to accept, were full of fallacies, and that, if certainty were indeed discoverable in mathematics, it would be in a new kind of mathematics, with more solid foundations than those that had hitherto been thought secure. But as the work proceeded, I was continually reminded of the fable about the elephant and the tortoise. Having constructed an elephant自少年时代起，我的一生主要部分奉献给了两个不同的目标，它们长期以来彼此分隔，直至近年才合为一体。