第一单元 TextA
A common misconception among youngsters attending school is that their teachers were child prodigies. Who else but a bookworm, with none of the normal kid's tendency to play rather than study, would grow up to be a teacher anyway? I've tried desperately to explain to my students that the image they have of me as an enthusiastic devotee of books and homework during my adolescence was a bit out of focus. On the contrary, I hated compulsory education with a passion. I could never quite accept the notion of having to go to school while the fish were biting. 上学的孩子们中间有一种普遍的错误想法，即认为他们的老师当年都是些神童。不管怎么说，除了不像一般孩子那样生性贪玩、不愿学习的书呆子之外，还有谁愿意长大后当老师呢？
我竭力向我的学生们解释我在他们心目中的形象 ---- 一个在青春期热衷于书本和作业的人 ---- 有一点被扭曲了。相反，我极为憎恨义务教育。我永远都无法接受在鱼儿上钩时不得不去上学的想法。 第二单元 TextA
Children are entitled to special consideration for two reasons: helplessness and innocence. They have not yet acquired either the faculty of reason or the wisdom of experience. Consequently, they are defenseless (incapable of fending for themselves) and blameless (incapable of real sin). That's why we grant them special protection. In an emergency, it is our duty to save them first because they, helpless, have put their lives in our hands. And in wartime, they are supposed to be protected by special immunity because they can have threatened or offended no one. 孩子们之所以有权享受特殊照顾有两个理由：无助和无辜。他们还不具备推理的能力或来自经验的智慧。所以，他们不能自卫（不能照料自己），无可指责（不可能真正犯罪）。这就是我们给予他们特殊保护的原因。在紧急情况下，我们有责任先救他们，因为他们软弱无助，已将生命交付于我们手中。在战时，他们应该受到特殊豁免权的保护，因为他们不可能会威胁或冒犯任何人。 第三单元 TextA
I sincerely believe that for children, and for parents seeking to guide them, it is not half so important to know as it is to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused — a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love — then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, such knowledge has far more lasting meaning than mere information. It is more important to pave the way for children's desire to know than to put them on a diet of facts they are not ready to assimilate.
我真诚地相信，对于孩子们来说，对于想要指导他们的父母们来说，感受比知道要重要得多。如果事实是以后能长出知识与智慧的种子，那么情感和感官印象则是种子必须赖以生长的沃土。幼儿时期就是培育土壤的时候。一旦情感被激起
----一种对美的感受，对新的和未知事物的激动，一种同情、怜悯、敬慕或爱恋的感觉----我们就会渴望了解引起我们情感反应的事物。一旦找到，这种知识就比纯粹的信息具有持久得多的意义。为孩子们的求知欲铺平道路比向他们灌输一堆他们不准备吸收的事实更为重要。 第四单元 TextA
What I wish for all students is some release from the grim grip of the future. I wish them a chance to enjoy each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a tiresome requirement in preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as educational as victory and is not the end of the world.
My wish, of course, is naive. One of the few rights that America does not proclaim is the right to fail. Achievement is the national god, worshipped in our media — the million-dollar athlete, the wealthy executive — and glorified in our praise of possessions. In the presence of such a potent state religion, the young are growing up old.
我的希望是所有学生能从未来的严酷无情中得到一些解脱。我希望他们有机会把他们每一阶段的教育纯粹作为一种经历来享受，而不是作为一种为下一步作准备的令人厌倦的要求。我希望他们有权利失误、有权利跌倒，并懂得失败同胜利一样有教育意义，而不是世界的末日。 当然，我的希望是天真的。在美国人没有声明拥有的为数不多的权利之中，有一个便是失败的权利。成就是民族之神，它在我们的媒体中受到崇拜——身价百万的运动员，富有的主管人员——在我们对财富的赞扬中得到荣耀。年轻人就是在这样一种强有力的国教的熏陶下长大的 第五单元 TextA
America can be a strange experience for a foreigner. My wife and I arrived in the United States in January after seven years overseas — four in France, three in Poland. From the jumble of first impressions, we compiled an A-to-Z explanation of why America can be such a foreign country to those who arrive here from Europe. I should explain at the outset that I am from Britain, but my Florida-born wife Lisa is as American as apple pie. In our list, however, A doesn't stand for apple pie. It stands for:
Ambition. In the Old World, people are taught to hide it. Here it's quite proper to announce that you're after the boss's job or want to make a million dollars by the age of 30.
对一个外国人来说，身在美国可能是一次奇特的经历。在国外七年以后----四年在法国，三年在波兰，我和妻子于一月份到达美国。从杂乱的初步印象中，我们编了一套从A到Z的解释，来说明为什么对那些从欧洲到这里的人来说，美国会是这样陌生的一个国家。 首先我得说明我是英国人，但我的妻子莉萨出生在弗罗里达州，是个地道
的美国人，就跟苹果馅饼一样地道。不过，在我们列出的清单中，A不代表苹果馅饼，而是代表：
雄心（Ambition）。在欧洲，人们受的教育是要掩饰雄心。在这儿，你宣称要谋取上司的职位或者想在30岁前赚到一百万美元也十分正当。 第六单元 TextA
Every 23 minutes A heart breaks.
Someone's pain shatters the confines of her body, leaking out in tears, exploding in cries, defying all efforts to soothe the despair. Sleep offers no escape from the nightmare of awakening. And morning brings only the irreversibility of loss. Every 23 minutes. A dream ends.
Someone's future blurs and goes blank as anticipation fades into nothingness. The phone will not ring, the car will not pull up to the house. The weight of tomorrow becomes unbearable in a world in which all promises have been broken by force.
每隔23分钟。 一颗心破碎了。
有的苦痛冲破她躯体的束缚，伴着眼泪流出，随着哭声迸发，绝望的心情无论如何努力都无济于事。睡眠中逃脱不了醒时的恶梦。清晨带来的只有无法挽回的损失。
每隔23分钟。 一个梦想结束。
有人的期望化为乌有，未来变得渺茫，成为空白。电话不会再响，汽车不会再停在屋前。在一个所有的诺言都被暴力打破的世界里，明天的沉重变得让人无法承受。 第七单元
Unfortunately, doing things badly has gone out of style. It used to be a mark of class if a lady or a gentleman sang a little, painted a little, played the violin a little. You didn't have to be good at it; the point was to be fortunate enough to have the leisure time for such pursuits. But in today's competitive world we have to be \遗憾的是，“不好”的做法已经不时兴了。过去如果一位女士或先生会一点唱歌、画画、拉拉小提琴，那是一种地位的标志。你不必很出色；问题是你要有幸有这一份闲情逸致。但是在今天充满竞争的世界里，即使业余爱好也必须是“专家”才行。 第八单元
The race to the moon, which was won by the Americans in 1969, was driven almost entirelyby politics. The rivalrybetween the U.S. and the former Soviet Union meant that the two countries were determined to be the first to put a man on the