新标准大学英语4课文翻译

Unit 1 Active reading (1)

大学毕业找工作的第一要义：别躺在沙发上做梦

More than 650,000 students left university this summer and many have no idea about the way to get a job.How tough should a parent be to galvanize them in these financially fraught times?

今年夏天，超过 65万的大学生毕业离校，其中有许多人根本不知道怎么找工作。在当今金融危机的背景下，做父母的该如何激励他们？

In July,you looked on as your handsome 21-year-old son,dressed in gown and mortarboard,proudly clutched his honours degree for his graduation photo.Those memories of forking out thousands of pounds a year so that he could eat well and go to the odd party,began to fade.Until now.

七月，你看着 21岁英俊的儿子穿上学士袍，戴上四方帽，骄傲地握着优等学士学位证书，拍毕业照。这时，记忆中每年支付几千英镑，好让儿子吃好、能参加奇特聚会的印象开始消退。总算熬到头了。

As the summer break comes to a close and students across the country prepare for the start of a new term,you find that your graduate son is still spending days slumped in front of the television,broken only by texting,Facebook and visits to the pub.This former scion of Generation Y has morphed overnight into a member of Generation Grunt.Will he ever get a job?

等到暑假快要结束，全国各地的学生正在为新学期做准备的时候，你发现大学毕业的儿子还歪躺在沙发上看电视。他只是偶尔走开去发短信，浏览社交网站 Facebook，去酒吧喝酒。这位前“千禧一代”的后裔一夜之间变成了哼哼一代的成员。他能找到工作吗？

This is the scenario facing thousands of families.More than 650,000 students left university this summer and most in these financially testing times have no idea what to do next.Parents revert to nagging; sons and daughters become rebels without a cause, aware that they need to get a job, but not sure now.

这就是成千上万家庭所面临的景象：今年夏天，超过 65万大学生毕业，在当今金融危机的背景下他们中的大多数人不知道自己下一步该做什么。父母只会唠叨，而儿女们则毫无缘由地变成了叛逆者，他们知道自己该找份工作，但却不知道如何去找。

Jack Goodwin,form Middlesex,graduated with a 2:1 in politics from Nottingham this summer.He walked into the university careers service and straight back out again;there was a big queue.He lived with five other boys all of whom did the same.There was no pressure to find a job,even though most of the girls he knew had a clearer plan.

来自米德尔塞克斯郡的杰克·古德温今年夏天从诺丁汉大学政治学系毕业，获得二级一等荣誉学士学位。他走进大学就业服务中心，又径直走了出来，因为他看见很多人在那里排长队。跟他一起住的另外 5个男孩也都跟他一样，进去又出来了。找工作的压力不大，虽然他所认识的大多数女生都有更清晰的计划。

“I applied for a job as a political researcher,but got turned down,”he says.”They were paying 18,000,which doesn’t buy you much more than a tin of beans after rent,but they wanted people with experience or master’s degrees.Then I applied for the Civil Service fast stream.I passed the exam,but at the interviews they accused me of being ‘too detached’ and talking in language that was ‘too technocratic’,which I didn’t think possible,but obviously it is.”

他说：“我申请政治学研究工作，但被拒了。他们给的年薪是 1万 8千镑，交完房租后所剩无几，也就够买一罐煮豆子，可他们还要有研究经历或硕士学位的人。然后我又申请了公务员速升计划，并通过了笔试。但在面试时，他们说我‘太冷漠’了，谈吐‘太像专家治国国论者’。我觉得自己不可能那样，但我显然就是那样的。”

Since then he has spent the summer “hiding”.He can recount several episodes of Traffic Cops and has seen more daytime television than is healthy.He talks to his friends about his aimless days and finds that most are in the same boat. One has been forced out to stack shelves by his parents.For the rest it is 9-to-5 “chilling” before heading to the pub.So how about working behind the bar,to pay for those drinks?”I don’t want to do bar work.I went to a comprehensive and I worked my backside off to go to a good university, where I worked really hard to get a good degree,”he says.”Now I’m back at the same stage as those friends who didn’t go to uni at all,who are pulling pints and doing dead-end jobs.I feel that I’ve come full circle.”

打那以后他整个夏天都在“躲”他能够轻松复述《交通警察》中的。若干片段，他白天看电视的时间太多，已经到了影响健康的地步。跟朋友谈自己漫无目标的日子时，他才发现他们的处境和自己的并没有两样。其中一位朋友在父母的逼迫下去超市摆货，其余的都是白天 9点到 5点“无所事事”，晚上去酒吧喝酒打发时间。要么，干脆就在酒吧工作？这样还可以挣些酒钱。“我不想在酒吧工作，我上的是综合性中学，我拼命读书才考上了一所好大学。到了大学，我又埋头苦读，才得到一个好学位。可现在我却跟那些没上过大学的朋友处在同一个水平线上，他们整天给客人倒酒，干无聊的活。我觉得自己好像兜了一圈，又回到了原来的起点。

Jacqueline Goodwin, his mother, defends him. She insists that he has tried to get a job,but having worked full-time since leaving school herself, she and her husband find it tricky to advise him on how to proceed.”I have always had to work,”she says. “It’s difficult because when you have a degree, it opens new doors for you, or you’d like to think that it does.”

他的母亲杰奎琳·古德温为他辩护。她坚持认为她的儿子已经尽力了，她自己中学毕业后一直都在工作，可是她和她的丈夫发现，建议儿子如何继续找工作是件很棘手的事情。她说，“我一直都必须工作。现在找工作很难，因为如果你有了学位，学位就会为你提供新的机会，至少你自己会这么想。”