大学英语unit6原文与翻译

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2024年1月22日发(作者：)

I'm Going to Buy the Brooklyn Bridge

How do some women manage to combine a full-time job with family responsibilities and still

find time for doing other things? Adrienne Popper longs to be like them, but wonders whether it is

an impossible dream.

有些妇女何以能既做一份全职工作又能兼顾家庭的责任，并仍有余暇做其他事情？艾德丽安·波珀渴望能像她们一样，但又怀疑这会不会是一个根本无法实现的梦想。

Adrienne Popper

1 Not long ago I received an alumni bulletin from my college. It included a brief item about

a former classmate:"Kate L. teaches part-time at the University of Oklahoma and is assistant

principal at County High School. In her spare time she is finishing her doctoral dissertation and

the final drafts of two books, and she still has time for tennis and horse riding with her daughters."

Four words in that description undid me: in her spare time. A friend said that if I believed

everything in the report, she had a bridge in Brooklyn she'd like to sell me.

我要买下布鲁克林桥

艾德丽安·波珀

不久前，我收到母校一份校友简报。里面有一条是关于一个老同学的消息：“凯特·L在俄克拉荷马大学兼职任教，并任县高中校长助理。她正在利用业余时间完成博士论文以及两本著作的最后定稿，同时她仍有时间与女儿们一起打网球、骑马。”这条短讯中有四个字令我心神不安：业余时间。有位朋友说，要是我对这一报道里的一切都信以为真，那她在布鲁克林还有一座桥要出售给我呢。

2 My friend's joke hit home. What an idiot I'd been! I resolved to stop thinking about Kate's

incredible accomplishments and to be suitably skeptical of such stories in the future.

朋友的打趣一针见血。我多蠢啊！于是我打定主意，不再去想凯特那些不可思议的成就，以后看到类似报道也不要轻易相信。

3 But like a dieter who devours a whole box of cookies in a moment of weakness, I found my

resolve slipping occasionally. In weak moments I'd comb the pages of newspapers and magazines

and consume success stories by the pound. My favorite superwomen included a politician's

daughter who cared for her two-year-old and a newborn while finishing law school and managing

a company; a practicing pediatrician with ten children of her own; and a television anchorwoman,

mother of two preschoolers, who was studying for a master's degree.

可是，就像节食者一时软弱竟把整盒饼干吃个精光一样，我发现自己的决心也有动摇之时。每当不坚定时，我就在报刊上到处搜寻，贪婪地阅读一篇又一篇的成功故事。我最喜欢的女强人有：一位政治家的女儿，她在照料一个两岁幼儿与一个新生儿的同时读完了法学院，同时还经营着一家公司；一位开业儿科医师， 她自己有十个子女；还有一位电视主持人，她是两个学龄前儿童的母亲，还在攻读硕士学位。

4 One day, however, I actually met a superwoman face to face. Just before Christmas last year,

my work took me to the office of a woman executive of a national corporation. Like her

supersisters, she has a husband, two small children and, according to reports, a spotless apartment.

Her life runs as precisely as a Swiss watch. Since my own schedule rarely succeeds, her

accomplishments fill me with equal amounts of wonder and guilt.

然而，有一天我真的与一位女强人面对面相逢。去年圣诞节前，我因工作需要来到一家全国性公司女总裁的办公室。如同其他女强人一样，她有丈夫，两个孩子，还有一处据说是纤尘不染的公寓。她的生活安排得如瑞士表一般精确。由于我本人的计划安排很少成功，她的成就既令我惊讶不已，又使我深感内疚。

5 On a shelf behind her desk that day were at least a hundred jars of strawberry jam, gaily tied

with red-checked ribbons. The executive and her children had made the jam and decorated the jars,

which she planned to distribute to her staff and visiting clients. 那天，她办公桌后面的架子上放置了至少一百罐草莓酱，上面扎着鲜艳的红格缎带。这些果酱是总裁和她的孩子们一起制作的，罐子也是他们一起装饰的，她准备把果酱送给员工及来访的客户。

6 When, I wondered aloud, had she found the time to complete such an impressive holiday

project? I should have known better than to ask. The answer had a familiar ring: in her spare time.

我不由得惊问，她从哪儿抽出时间完成如此令人钦佩的假日工程？我真不该多此一问。答案听上去相当熟悉：业余时间。

7 On the train ride home I sat with a jar of strawberry jam in my lap. It reproached me the

entire trip. Other women, it seemed to say, are movers and shakers -- not only during office hours,

but in their spare time as well. What, it asked, do you accomplish in your spare time?

坐火车回家途中，我把那罐草莓酱放在膝头。这罐草莓酱一路上都在责备我。它似乎在说，别的女人不仅在上班之时干得出人头地，而且在工作之余也大有作为。而你，它责问道，在业余时间都做了点什么呢？

8 I would like to report that I am using my extra moments to complete postdoctoral studies in

physics, to develop new theories of tonal harmony for piano and horn, and to bake cakes and play

baseball with my sons. The truth of the matter is, however, that I am by nature completely unable

to get my act together. No matter how carefully I plan my time, the plan always goes wrong.

我很想回答说，我在业余时间从事博士后物理学研究，在研究钢琴与号的声调和谐方面的新理论，在烘烤蛋糕，在跟儿子一起打棒球。然而，实际情形是，我生性就根本做不到事事有条不紊。不论怎么仔细安排时间，我的计划总是出问题。

9 If I create schedules of military precision in which several afternoon hours are given over to

the writing of the Great American Novel, the school nurse is sure to phone at exactly the moment I

put pencil to paper. One of my children will have developed a strange illness that requires him to

spend the remainder of the day in bed, calling me at frequent intervals to bring soup, juice, and

tea.

如果我制定像作战计划那样精确的时间表，将下午若干小时用于写作一部伟大的美国

小说，那么幼儿园的保育员肯定会在我刚刚提笔的那一瞬间打来电话。我的一个孩子得了一种怪病需要整天卧床休息，还不停地让我端汤倒茶送果汁。

10 Other days, every item on my schedule will take three times the number of minutes set

aside. The cleaner will misplace my clothes. My order won't be ready at the butcher shop as

promised. The woman ahead of me in the supermarket line will pay for her groceries with a check

drawn on a Martian bank, and only the manager (who has just left for lunch) can OK the matter.

"They also serve who only stand and wait," wrote the poet John Milton, but he forgot to add that

they don't get to be superwomen that way.

别的日子里，我时间表上的每一件事的耗时都超出原计划的三倍。洗衣工不知把我的衣服塞到什么地方去了。肉铺没有把我的订货按时准备好。在超市里，排在我前面的那位女士开出一张“火星银行”的支票为其食品杂货付款，只有经理（他刚出去吃午饭）才能决定可否接受。“站着等候的人们也在效劳，”诗人约翰·弥尔顿写道，但他却忘了补充一句，她们这样站着等候成不了女强人。

11 Racing the clock every day is such an exhausting effort that when I actually have a few

free moments, I tend to collapse. Mostly I sink into a chair and stare into space while I imagine

how lovely life would be if only I possessed the organizational skills and the energy of my

superheroines. In fact, I waste a good deal of my spare time just worrying about what other

women are accomplishing in theirs. Sometimes I think that these modern fairy tales create as

many problems for women as the old stories that had us biding our time for the day our prince

would come.

每天与时间赛跑令人精疲力竭，等我果真有了一些余暇，往往累得都要垮了。我大多瘫倒在椅子里，呆呆地凝视着前方，想象着要是自己拥有那些超级女英雄的组织才能与旺盛精力，生活该会是多么美妙。事实上，我白白浪费了许多闲暇时光不无忧愁地去想着别的女人在业余时间会成就什么事情。有时我想，这些现代神话故事给女人带来的问题并不少于那些害得我们终日等待王子前来相救的古老故事。

12 Yet superwomen tales continue to charm me. Despite my friend's warning against being

taken in, despite everything I've learned, I find that I'm not only willing, but positively eager to

buy that bridge she mentioned. Why? I suppose it has something to do with the appeal of an

optimistic approach to life -- and the fact that extraordinary deeds have been accomplished by

determined individuals who refused to believe that "you can't" was the final word on their dreams.

但女强人的故事仍然令我心醉神迷。尽管朋友提醒我不要上当，尽管我也长了不少见识，我还是发现自己不仅愿意，而且还真的渴望买下她说的那座桥。为什么？我想这是因为乐观的生活态度深深地吸引着我 —— 还有，那些就是不肯相信自己的梦想“不能”实现的意志坚定的人确实成就了非凡的业绩。

13 Men have generally been assured that achieving their heart's desires would be a piece of

cake. Women, of course, have always believed that we can't have our cake and eat it too-the old

low-dream diet. Perhaps becoming a superwoman is an impossible dream for me, but life without

that kind of fantasy is as unappealing as a diet with no treats.

男人一般确信，实现自己的心愿不费吹灰之力。女人嘛，当然总是相信鱼与熊掌不能兼得 —— 人们反复灌输的不要好高骛远那一套。我或许无望成为女强人，但如果没有这种

梦想，生活就变得平淡无味，就如同日常饮食中缺了美味佳肴一般。

14 I know the idea of admiring a heroine is considered silly today; we working women are too

sophisticated for that. Yet the superwomen I read about are my heroines. When my faith in myself

falters, it is they who urge me on, whispering, "Go for it, lady!"

我知道如今人们认为英雄崇拜是一种愚蠢的想法，我们职业女性业已成熟，不再干这种傻事。然而我所读到的女强人就是我的英雄。当我对自己失去信心时，正是她们激励我向前进，轻轻对我说：“去争取啊，女士！”

15 One of these days I plan to phone my former classmate Kate and shout "Well done!" into

the receiver. I hope she won't be modest about her achievements. Perhaps she will have completed

her dissertation and her two books and moved on to some new work that's exciting or dangerous

or both. I'd like to hear all about it. After that I'm going to phone the friend who laughed at me for

believing all the stories I hear. Then I'll tell her a story: the tale of a woman who bought her own

version of that bridge in Brooklyn and found that it was a wise investment after all.

我准备近日给老同学凯特打电话，对着话筒大叫一声“干得好！”我希望她对自己的成就不要谦虚。也许她已经完成了博士论文和两本著作，开始着手某项颇为刺激，或颇具危险，甚或两者兼有的新工作。我愿意听她讲述这一切。随后我要给那个嘲笑我轻信自己听到的成功故事的朋友打电话。我要给她讲一个故事：一个女人的故事，她买下了她自己演绎的布鲁克林的那座大桥，并发现这是一项明智的投资。

When you find yourself tied down to doing a job that just isn't you, it is easy to wish to be able to

start off along a completely new path. Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done, the path

stony and difficult to follow. For Muriel Whetstone, however, it turned out to be a journey well

worth the effort.

当你发现自己被一份你根本不想做的工作束缚住时，很容易希望自己能重新开辟一条全新的路。不幸的是，说来容易做来难，新路往往充满崎岖坎坷。然而，对穆丽尔·韦特斯通来说，这一人生之路还是值得一走的。

Beginning Anew

Muriel L. Whetstone

1 I dreaded Sundays. I began living for the weekend at 8:30 Monday mornings. I felt bitter

towards my boss. (1) The thought of answering other people's telephones, typing other people's

work and watching other people take credit for my ideas and opinions would throw me into

week-long bouts of depression. I hated my job. I hated my life. I hated myself for not having the

courage to change either one.

重新开始

穆丽尔·L·韦特斯通

我曾经惧怕星期天。那时我从星期一上午八点半开始就盼着周末。 我痛恨我的老板。每当我想起给别人回电话、打字，看到我出的主意和见解却让别人去受益时，常常整个星期都会闷闷不乐。我痛恨我的工作。我痛恨我的生活。我痛恨自己既没有勇气改换工作，也没有勇气改变我的生活。

2 When most of my friends were planning college schedules and partying into the night, I was

changing dirty diapers and walking the floor with a crying baby. At 19 years old I was the mother

of two, and a pitifully young wife. Everything I did for years, every decision I made, was done

with my family in mind.

当我的大多数的朋友都在计划上大学，欢聚至深更半夜时，我却在换脏尿布，抱着一个哭闹的孩子在屋里走来走去。才19岁，我就已经是两个孩子的母亲，一个可怜的小媳妇。多年来不管我做什么或是作出什么决定，我总得考虑我的这个家。

3 And then I turned 29, and 30 was only a breath away. (2) How long could I live like this?

Certainly not until I retired. I began to feel that if I didn't do something soon, something quickly, I

would die of unhappiness. I decided to follow my childhood dream: I was going to get my

undergraduate degree and become a full-time journalist.

一晃我就29岁了，离30岁仅一步之遥。这样的生活我能维持多久？肯定不会到我退休之时。我开始觉得，如果我不早日有所作为，马上行动的话，我就会苦闷而死。我决定去追寻儿时的梦想：我要拿到大学本科学位，做一个全职的记者。

4 I quit my job on one of my good days, a Friday. Almost at once I was filled with anxiety.

What would I tell my husband and what would be his reaction? How would we pay our bills? I

must be crazy, I thought. I was too old to begin again. I prayed, Lord, what have I done? I

wondered if I was experiencing some sort of early mid-life crisis. Perhaps if I crawled back to my

boss on my hands and knees and pleaded temporary madness, he'd give me my job back. I spent

that entire weekend in the eye of an emotional storm.

我在我的一个美好的日子，一个星期五，辞去了工作。我的心中几乎马上充满了焦虑。我怎么跟丈夫说呢？他会怎么反应呢？我们如何付家里那些账单呢？我真是疯了，我心想。我已经不再年轻，没法从头开始了。我祈祷着，天哪，我都做了些什么呀？我怀疑自己是在经历某种早期的中年生活危机。如果我爬回去跪倒在老板跟前，恳求他原谅我一时神志错乱，或许他会让我复职。整个周末我都在忐忑不安中度过。

5 But while I was feeling uneasy about the bridge I'd just crossed, I also began to feel a

renewed sense of hopefulness about the possibilities on the other side. I had had a long love affair

with the written word that was separate and apart from any of my roles. What we shared was

personal: It belonged to me and would always be mine despite anything going on outside of me. I

wasn't quite sure what my journey would involve, but I was positive who would be at the other

end.(3) I steeled myself to travel the road that would lead me to a better understanding of who I

was and of what I wanted out of life. I shared my mixed feelings with my husband. He was as

worried as I was, but he was also warmly supportive. And so I stepped off the bridge and onto the

path, nervous but determined. I soon discovered that I loved to learn and that my mind soaked up

knowledge at every opportunity. My decision at those times felt right. But sometimes, after

realizing what was expected of me, I would be weighed down by self-doubt and uncertainty.

然而，就在我对刚刚跨越人生之桥的举动深感不安之际，我同时也开始感到希望的复萌，觉得彼岸有种种机会在等着我。长久以来，我对与自己生活中的种种角色毫不相干的文字情有独钟。我与文字之间有一种默契：它属于我自己，并将永远是我的，无论外面的世界发生什么事情。我并不完全明白我的人生旅途中将要发生什么，但我对到达旅途终点之后的自己怀有信心。我坚定地走下去，这条路将使我更好地了解自己，更好地认清自己生活的目的。我向丈夫坦陈自己的复杂心绪。他和我一样担忧，但同时也热情支持我。于是我走下桥来，踏上征途，紧张但却坚定。我很快发现，我热爱学习，利用一切机会汲取知识。这时候我会觉得我的决定做对了。但有时，每当意识到别人对自己的期待时，我又会由于自我怀疑和对未来捉摸不定而感到心情沉重。

6 I was older than a few of my instructors and nearly all of my classmates. I felt like an

outsider practically that entire first semester. Finally I met a group of older female students who

were, like me, making a fresh start. We began to share our experiences of returning to school,

dealing with husbands, lovers, children and bills that had to be paid. Over time we have become

sisters, supporting ourselves by encouraging and supporting one another.

我比个别教师年龄还大，几乎比所有的同班同学都大。差不多整整第一学期，我觉得自己完全是个外人。终于我遇到了一些大龄女生，她们和我一样都在重新开始自己的生活。我们开始交流自己重返校园的体验，谈论怎么与丈夫、男友相处，怎么带孩子，怎么应付各种要付的账单等等。随着时间的推移，我们成了姐妹，通过相互鼓励，相互支持使自己获得勇气和信心。

7 I eventually had to seek employment to help with expenses. In fact, I've had more jobs in

the couple of years than I care to count. Many times I've had to stir a pot with one hand while

holding a book with the other. More than a few times I've nearly broken under the pressure. I've

shed tears on the bad days, but smiles are plentiful on the good ones.

我终于不得不找工作以贴补家用。事实上，在那两年里，我干过许许多多工作，连自己也懒得记数了。我常常不得不一手炒菜，一手拿着书看。好多次过重的负担几乎要把我压垮。在不顺利的日子里我哭泣流泪，但在顺利的日子里我也有许许多多欢笑。

8 However, I would not take back one tear or change one thing about the last couple of years.

It hasn't been a snap: From the beginning I knew it would not be. (4) And it's not so much the

results of the action that have reshaped me (although that's important, too) as it is the realization

that I have within myself what it takes to do what I set out to do. I feel more in control these days

and less like a flag on a breezy day, blowing this way or that depending on the wind.

然而，我不因流泪而后悔，也不想改变过去几年中发生的一切。这几年过得不容易：从一开始我就知道不容易。此外，给我带来新的生活的，与其说是自己努力取得的结果 (虽然这也很重要)，不如说是由于意识到自己具有潜在的能力可以做自己想做的事。如今我感到自己更能主宰自己的命运，不再如风中的旗帜，随风飘荡。

9 I no longer dread Sundays, and Wednesdays are just as pleasant as Fridays. Now I get credit

for my ideas, and my opinions are sought after. I love my new career. I love my life again. And I

can clearly see a new woman waiting patiently just a little way down the road, waiting for me to

reach her.

我不再惧怕星期天，星期三也如星期五一样愉快。现在我出了主意，功劳就是我的；我讲的意见，别人认真聆听。我热爱自己的新工作。我重新热爱自己的生活。我清楚地看到，在不远的前方，一个全新的女人正在耐心地等着我去与她拥抱。

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