英语优美段落及翻译

Unit one A
An artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it. The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destruction.
艺术家追求成名，如同狗自逐其尾，一旦追到手，除了继续追逐不知还能做些什么。

成功之残酷正在于它常常让那些追逐成功者自寻毁灭。

Fame's spotlight can be hotter than a tropical jungle—a fraud is quickly exposed, and the pressure of so much attention is too much for most to endure. It takes you out of yourself: You must be what the public thinks you are, not what you really are or could be. The performer, like the politician, must often please his or her audiences by saying things he or she does not mean or fully believe.
名气这盏聚光灯可比热带丛林还要炙热。

骗局很快会被揭穿，过多的关注带来的压力会让大多数人难以承受。

它让你失去自我。

你必须是公众认可的那个你，而不是真实的你或是可能的你。

艺人，就像政客一样，必须常常说些违心或连自己都不完全相信的话来取悦听众。

One drop of fame will likely contaminate the entire well of a man's soul, and so an artist who remains true to himself or herself is particularly amazing. You would be hard-pressed to underline many names of those who have not compromised and still succeeded in the fame game.
一滴名气之水有可能玷污人的心灵这一整口井，因此一个艺术家若能保持真我，会格外让人惊叹。

你可能答不上来哪些人没有妥协，却仍然在这场名利的游戏中获胜。

Unit three B
I hadn't noticed the five men performing at the side of the stage as an introduction to the show. "They're seated cross-legged on a rug, dressed in loose white cotton shirts and large black trousers, with fabric around their waists that has been dyed bright red. Three are young lads, one is middle-aged and one is elderly. One beats a small drum, another plays a wooden stringed instrument, and the other three have smaller, violin-like pieces they play with a bow."
我并没注意到舞台那头的五个人，他们在奏着演出的开场乐曲。

“他们盘着腿坐在小地毯上，身着宽松的白色棉布衬衫和肥大的黑裤，腰系染成鲜红色的布带。

他们中三个是年轻小伙子，还有一位中年乐手和一位老年乐手。

他们中一个击鼓，另一个奏着木制的弦乐器，另外三个用琴弓拉着一种类似小提琴但要小一些的乐器。

”
Unit five A
Loneliness may be a sort of national disease here, and it's more embarrassing for us to admit than any other sin. On the other hand, to be alone on purpose, having rejected company rather than been cast out by it, is one characteristic of an American hero. The solitary hunter or explorer needs no one as they venture out among the deer and wolves to tame the great wild areas. Thoreau, alone in his cabin on the pond, his back deliberately turned to the town. Now, that's character for you. 孤独或许是这里的一种民族弊病，我们羞于承认它，甚于其他任何罪恶。

而另一方面，刻意选择独处，拒绝别人的陪伴而非为同伴所弃，却是美国式英雄的一个特点。

孤独的猎人或探险者去鹿群和狼群中冒险，征服广袤的荒野时，并不需要有人陪伴。

梭罗独居在湖畔的小屋，有意疏离城市生活。

现在，你应有这样的个性。

Inspiration in solitude is a major commodity for poets and philosophers. They're all for it. They all speak highly of themselves for seeking it out, at least for an hour or even two before they hurry home for tea. 独处的灵感是诗人和哲学家们最有用的东西。

他们都赞成独处，都因能够独处而自视甚高，至少在他们匆忙赶回家喝茶之前的一两个小时之内是这样。

Thoreau had his own self-importance for company. Perhaps there's a message here: The larger the ego, the less the need for other egos around. The more modest and humble we feel, the more we suffer from solitude, feeling ourselves inadequate company.
梭罗以自尊自重为伴。

也许这里的启示是：自我意识越强，就越不需要其他的人在周围。

我们越是感觉谦卑，就越受孤独的折磨，感到仅与自己相处远远不够。

Unit seven A
Once the genes for surface features such as skin color and height are discounted, the "races" are remarkably alike under the skin. The variation among individuals is much greater than the differences among groups. In fact, there is no scientific basis for theories advocating the genetic superiority of any one population over another.
如果不考虑影响肤色、身高等表面特征的基因，不同的“种族”在外表之下相似地令人吃惊。

个体之间的差异远远大于群体之间的差异。

实际上，那种认为某一种群比另一种群的基因更优越的理论是毫无科学根据的
B
The not too surprising result was that the children whose parents were simply supportive were happier than average but were not particularly intense in their concentration when studying or working on something. The children who fared best were those whose parents were both supportive and stimulating. These children showed a reasonable level of happiness and were very alert during periods of study.
结果并不太出人意外。

支持型父母的孩子所感到的快乐程度高于平均水平，但学习或做事时精力却不是那么高度集中。

表现最好的孩子的父母结合了支持和激励型的教育。

这些孩子显示了相当不错的快乐感，在学习过程中反应也很敏捷。

There is general agreement that genuine biological differences exist between individuals; geniuses need to be lucky in both their genes and their parents. The most significant implication would seem to be that while most people are in a good position to fulfill their biological potential—barring serious illnesses or a poor diet during childhood —it is far from certain that they will grow up in an environment where that capacity will be developed.
人们普遍认为，个体之间存在着生理差异，要成为天才必须幸运地既拥有天才的基因，又拥有能造就天才的父母。

最重要的启示似乎是：尽管大多数人都有条件很好地去发挥他们的生理潜能──除非童年时得了严重疾病，或饮食太差──但是，他们能否成长在一个能开发其能力的环境中则很不确定。

Unit eight A
On the ground before you is the pile it held—so much like the piles in the other bags, could they be emptied, that all might be combined and mixed in a single heap and the bags refilled without altering the content of any greatly. A bit of colored glass more or less would not matter. Perhaps that is how the Great Stuffer of Bags filled them in the first place—who knows?
面前的地上则是袋中所装的那堆东西──与其他袋子中所倒出的东西几乎一模一样，如果把它们混成一大堆，再分装到各自的袋中，也不会有多大的不同。

多少有点有色玻璃片也没有什么关系。

也许当初上帝这个装袋者往我们各自的袋中填塞时正是这么做的，谁知道呢？
Unit ten A
What is the most valuable contribution employees make to their companies, knowledge or judgment? I say judgment. Knowledge, no matter how broad, is useless until it is applied. And application takes judgment, which involves something of a sixth sense—a high performance of the mind. 员工对公司最有价值的贡献是什么，是知识还是判断力？我说是判断力。

不管知识面有多宽，如果得不到应用，就毫无用处。

而知识的应用需要判断力，判断力涉及某种第六感觉──思维的高度运用。

But the latest research seems to imply that without the software of emotional maturity and self-knowledge, the hardware of academic training alone is worth less and less.
但最新的研究似乎表明，缺乏情感成熟和自我了解这一软件，纯学术性的培训这一硬件越来越没有价值。

B
By the time the children reach high school, something remarkable has happened. A survey of the children's parents and teachers found that those who as four-year-olds had enough self-control to hold out for the second piece of candy generally grew up to be better adjusted, more popular, adventurous, confident and dependable teenagers. The children who gave in to temptation early on were more likely to be lonely, easily frustrated and inflexible. They could not endure stress and shied away from challenges.
到这些孩子上高中时，引人注目的事发生了。

对这些孩子的家长和教师所作的调查发现，那些四岁时就能克制自己，坚持等到第二块糖的孩子长大后通常有较强的适应力，更合群，更富有进取心、自信心，也更可靠。

那些老早就经不住诱惑的孩子更容易变得孤独，容易受挫，缺乏灵活性。

他们受不了压力，逃避挑战。

For most of this century, scientists have worshipped the hardware of the brain and the software of the mind; the messy powers of the heart were left to the poets. But brain theory could simply not explain the questions we wonder about most: Why some people just seem to have a gift for living well; why the smartest kid in the class will probably not end up the richest; why we like some people virtually on sight and distrust others; why some people remain upbeat in the face of troubles that would sink a less resistant soul. What qualities of the mind or spirit, in short, determine who succeeds?
在本世纪大部分时间，科学家们一直重视大脑这个具体之物和思维这个无形之物，而把情感这一纷乱的力量留给诗人去谈论。

但大脑研究理论就是无法解释我们最想弄清的问题：为什么有些人似乎就是有过上好日子的才能；为什么班里最聪明的孩子很可能最终并不是最富有的；为什么我们几乎仅凭第一眼印象就喜欢有些人，而对另一些人则信不过；为什么有些人面对困难仍能保持乐观，而另一些人则坚持不住，沉沦下去。

一句话，思维或精神的何种素质决定人的成功？。