英专综合教程6册课文翻译及课后答案AnswertoUnit4解析

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2024年1月22日发(作者：)

Unit 4 Matriculation Fixation

Chinese Translation of Paragraphs

1. 两年前的一天，我坐在费城一所医院的大厅里焦急地等待着，一位素不相识的人突然向我讲述了他女儿的大学就读计划。由于那天下午我79岁的老母亲刚动了大手术，还没醒过来，我无法全神贯注地听他的叙述。但是随着他讲述的深入，我却记住了其中的大部分与话题有关的细节。

2. 这位女生虽然算不上出类拔萃，但还算出色，她已经被一所一流名牌大学接受，不过没有助学金。与此同时，一所当地的二大学也录取了她，并承诺全免学费。由于家里还有几个孩子排在后面将上大学，经济自然有些紧，这位父亲便说服 女儿接受了第二所大学的录取通知。现在，他担心她某天会 懊 悔 这个决定，因为她将来毕业的学校名气较小，结交不广，为她敞开的大门也少些。虽然她的学位证书使她离通往 成功的黄金大道并不遥远，但却不会把她直接放在这条大道上。

3. 我本世俗百姓，对一些陌生人的婚姻、职业和嗜好最为私密的细枝末节耳熟能详，因此很早便掌握了调解这类危机的必备技巧。我告诉这位男士，我许多高中同学都毕业于这所

二流大学，但他们都过上了丰富而充实的生活。

4. 我告诉他，我自己就毕业于费城一所二流大学，和她女儿要就读的学校并无二致，而我也已在世上为自己找到了一小块立足之地。我还告诉他，我的大学岁月是我人生中最快乐的时光，教授们既有才识又很敬业，对他们的教诲和启发我永怀感恩之心。他又追问我的个人情况，我解释说我是个自由 作家，我扼要罗列了自己的资历，还告诉他我对自己的职业生涯也很满意。

5. 这位父亲从来没有听说过我，也没有读过我的作品。尽管他对我那可怜的履历佯装兴趣，我依然看出他已经崩溃了。他女儿也计划从事新闻行业，如果走上和我一样的学术道路，最终也会像我一样失败。

6. 我始终没有弄明白他为什么去那医院。

7. 我之所以提及此事，是因为它折射了在该送孩子上大学的时刻到来时家长们神经质到了什么程度。我知道我在说什么。明年秋天，我的女儿就要上大学了；三年之后，我的 儿子也要跟着上大学。看着他们离开家门，我会难过。这些年，他俩带给了我无尽的欢乐。但是事情总是有两面性的。我的孩子离家后，我将不必再加入到那些令人头脑麻木的讨论，探讨我自己的孩子或者哪个朋友或邻居的孩子上哪所 大学啦，为什么要上那所大学啦。在这个话题上，我已经 彻底落伍了。

8. 我对此不感兴趣，并非因为我自私，也不纯粹是因为我瞧不起别人的子女，而是因为我发现，这类关于择校的谈话几乎都很庸俗乏味，不是自吹自擂，就是自我贬损。与此相比，我宁愿聊聊怎么打纸牌。

9. 最令人愤慨的是，在有些讨论中，家长显然是想替孩子做主，决定孩子的职业，并从中得到情感上的满足。这些人相信，进入一流大学等于拿到了通向成功的无限期护照和一生

财运亨通的保证。这些一心往上爬的傻瓜家长们，在宣告自己孩子的归宿并庆贺自己干了件好事的同时，也流露出了一副普鲁士式的好斗，低声挖苦那些子女天赋不高的父母。天赋不高的父母。对他们而言，抚养孩子最艰难的部分已经熬过去了。孩子初中毕业上了对头的预备学校，交上对头的朋友，参加了对头的活动，现在又瞄准了对头的大学。现在我们可以闪人离开这儿搬到托斯卡纳了。

10. 但在现实中，人生并非止步于17岁，也不止步于21岁！在现实生活中，有些孩子虽然接受了最好的教育，但人生却糟糕无比。做我这行的，不少人虽上对了名校，但最终却入错了行。那些最有可能成功的少男少女之中，有些最终将靠福利救济生活，或者沦落于贫民区，需要父母的接济。父母的责任并不止于孩子离开家门之时，父母的责任永远不会完结，这就是为什么大自然赋予你当父母的职责。

11. 第二类人是数目更为庞大的强迫症患者，他们突然意识到，自己平庸的孩子将不会有出息。17年没有好好读过书，没有参观过博物馆，没有修过的高级预备课程，现在终于酿成恶果，那些步入阿默斯特学院、巴德学院和杜克大学宏伟的演讲大厅之梦瞬间化为乌有。这些家长们羞愧难当，无地自容，咕哝着那些名不见经传的学校名字，他们的孩子正 要灰溜溜地到那儿读书了。毫无例外，这些学校在人们闻所未闻且都无人知晓的小镇上，连它们所在州的首府也只有那些《勇闯险关》节目的多次获 胜者才知道。脸色凝重的家长似乎在说，市场说了算，我的孩子是笨蛋 ！

12. 然而，现实总能打乱老鼠和门萨策划得最糟糕的计划。有些孩子开窍较晚，有些孩子则在竞争不太激烈的环境中表现更优秀。许多人虽然没有名校的学位，但在社会上照样成就斐然。同样，你也不应该仅仅因为孩子没跨过人生第一道、甚至第二十道栏杆，就不认他。马蒂斯40多岁才成名，比尔·盖茨、大卫·格芬、迈克尔·戴 尔、格雷顿·卡特和麦当娜 都曾在大学中途辍学 。罗纳德·里根曾就读的是很小的尤里卡学院，沃伦·巴菲特上的则是内布拉斯加州林肯市的足球学校。即便你可能读过弗·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德（其本人于1917年从普林斯顿退学）小说中的故事，人生并非一出独幕剧，通常还有第二幕和第五幕，更不要说续篇了。上述择校问题之荒唐程度，莫过于人们按规定参观大学校园时看到的景象了。家长们根本不清楚自己想要什么，特别是在那些引人注目、名声在外的学校。最近我们到麻省理工学院参观，我看了30秒钟招生办公室摄制的视频，该段视频自嘲地说该校是个书呆子工厂。随后，我妻子和女儿继续观看视频，听它向申请的学生保证说，麻省理工学院生产的是人间难觅的书呆子，而我则在校园漫步。我真的看到了很多书呆子。我这么说并非指责他们什么。

13. 那天早晨晚些时候，一位导游带我们一群人参观了校园。走到一处，她指给我们一个餐厅说，学生可以在那里买到便宜的快餐。“一顿多少钱？”一位母亲兴奋地问。“八美元，”导游回答道。这位妇女不禁打了个哆嗦，说每天晚餐八美元实在太贵了。

14. “你得花四万美元才能送你的孩子到这里上学，”我插了一句，“请先不要担心晚餐的价格 。”

15. 自从今年秋天参观了这个校园之后，这件事就成了我的一个重要的保留话题。现在，每当我被卷入有关大学择校的无休止的讨论时，我就表示校园餐厅价格的持续监管，尤其是帕尼尼三明治的价格，也应成为大学择校的一项重要参考指标。那些听过我的类似言论的人，也无从判别我到底是感觉迟钝，脾气乖戾，还是纯粹是个白痴。不过，我们可以这么说：我

从来就不是上麻省理工学院的那块料。

Section Four Consolidation Activities

I. Text Comprehension

1. Decide which of the following best states the author's purpose.

A. To tell his personal experience in college selection procedures.

B. To offer his philosophy about college selection and one’s future career or success in life.

C. To describe the importance of parents’ role in children’s college education.

Key: [ B ]

2. Judge, according to the text, whether the following statements are true or false.

1). The primary reason for the father to choose a local, second-echelon university for his

daughter is based on economic considerations. [T]

2). The author’s success as a freelance writer is largely due to his education in a prestigious

university. [F]

3). It is implied, though not stated, that all parents (including the author himself) undergo a

critical time when their children are going to college. [T]

4). Ensuring that their children enter one of the top universities is the ultimate objective of some

parents. [T]

5). The parents who recognize their children’s incapability to make the cut have never expected

their children to go to prestigious universities. [T]

6). The campus tour of MIT enabled the author to change his attitude about college selection. [T]

II. Writing Strategies

Written in a personal and informal style, this essay has a number of subtopics that are carefully

introduced. What are these subtopics? The essay begins with the author’s unexpected encounter

with a stranger in a hospital, and ends with his tour of MIT campus. How do these two incidents

help to connect all the subtopics to the theme of the essay?

The essay has the following subtopics as main components:

1) the author’s own situation and experiences in college education and college selection

(Paragraphs 3–8);

2) his probe into and comments on the two classes of college selection obsessives

(Paragraphs 9–12).

The two incidents are respectively related with the first and the second subtopics: the encounter

puts the author and the man in a similar situation (both the man and the author have kids who

are going to attend college); the campus tour provides support to the author’s comments on the

matter.

The two incidents help to clarify the subtopics by means of full and progressive explanation

of the author’s attitude towards the matter (the author’s college days, his high school chums,

examples of failures and successes, etc.)

III. Language Work

1. Explain the underlined part(s) in each sentence in your own words.

1). Money being tight, with other college-bound children in the family queue, the man had

persuaded his daughter to accept the second university’s offer.

 Not having much money; children who are going to college

2). Now he was worried that she would one day rue this decision

 regret not having studied in the first-class university

3). I ... had managed to carve out a nice little niche for myself.

 find a job which was very suitable

4). Three years later my son will follow suit.

 go to college too

5). Some of those boys and girls most likely to succeed are going to end up on welfare or skid

row.

 are going to be poor, living on welfare, without a job or a place to live, and often drinking

too much alcohol

6). A second, far more numerous class of obsessives consists of people who suddenly realize that

their Brand X children aren’t going to make the cut.

 measure up to a certain standard

7). Seventeen years of unread textbooks, unvisited museums, and untaken AP courses are now

finally taking their toll ...

 having a bad effect

8). During a recent visit to MIT, I watched the first thirty seconds of an admissions office video

poking fun at the university’s reputation as a nerd factory.

 making jokes about; a place where boring personalities are fostered

9). At one juncture, she pointed out a restaurant where students could grab a fast, inexpensive

meal.

 At one point

10). ...sedulous monitoring of on-campus restaurant prices should be a vital component of the

winnowing procedure, particularly vis-a-vis panini.

 the process of reducing a large number of universities to a much smaller number; with

regard to

2. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the given words.

1). The only illumination (illuminate) was from a skylight.

2). The golden autumn light provided the inspiration (inspire) for the painting.

3). There was a biographical (biography) note about the author on the back of the book.

4). She was utterly devastated (devastate) when her husband died.

5). She’s neurotic (neurosis) about her weight — she weighs herself three times a day.

6). It’s infuriating (infuriate) when people keep spelling your name wrong, isn’t it?

7). He’s obsessive (obsess) about punctuality

8). Liz has a fixation (fixate) with food.

9). The medical examination before you start work is obligatory (oblige).

10). Her controversial speech was punctuated with noisy interjections (interject) from the

audience.

3. Fill in the blank(s) in each sentence with a phrase taken from the box in its appropriate form.

Explaining1 | Filling1 | Filling2 | Explaining2 | Proof-reading | Cloze

in jeopardy | screw up | in question | flat out

tick off | take a toll | sotto voce | winnow down

dragoon into | follow suit | fork over | stem from

1). I’ve been dragooned into giving the after-dinner speech.

2). I stayed at home on the night in question.

3). The lives of thousands of birds are in jeopardy as a result of the oil spillage.

4). When one airline reduces its prices, the rest soon follow suit .

5). I screwed up my exams last year.

6). The problems of the past few months have taken a toll on her health and there are shadows

beneath her eyes.

7). Their disagreement stemmed from a misunderstanding.

8). The remark was uttered sotto voce.

9). We had to fork over ten bucks to park near the stadium.

10). Tick off each item on the list as you complete it.

11). A list of 12 candidates has been winnowed down to a shortlist of three.

12). She told him flat out that she would not go to the show.

4. Explain the meaning of the underlined part in each sentence.

1). Spending time with one’s family is never an unalloyed pleasure.

 a one-hundred-percent pleasant experience

2). I can’t stand his belligerence.

 his wish to argue with people all the time

3). She gave a bashful smile as he complimented her on her work.

 embarrassed

4). When his parents died, he found himself $100,000 better off.

 had $100, 000 more than he had in the past

5). The CIA was monitoring his phone calls.

 secretly listening to

6). Northbound traffic is moving very slowly because of the accident.

 Traffic which is traveling north

7). She had a look of utter devastation on her face.

 extreme shock and sadness

8). In his closing remarks, the chairman thanked everyone who had helped

 concluding

9). If you have not signed a contract, you are under no obligation to pay them any money.

 it is not necessary for you to

10). There was a screech of brakes and the bus shuddered to a halt.

 shook violently and stopped

5. Correct the errors in the following passage. The passage contains ten errors, one in each

indicated line. In each case, only one word is involved.

Corrections should be done as follows:

Wrong word: underline the wrong word and write the correct word in the blank.

Extra word: delete the extra word with an “×.”

Missing word: mark the position of the missing word with a “∧” and write the missing word

in the blank.

Ivy Retardation

It didn’t down on me that there might be a few holes in (1) dawn

my education until I was about 35. I’d just bought a house, the

pipes needed fixing, and the plumber was standing in my

kitchen. There he was, a short, beefy guy with a thick Boston

accent, and I suddenly learned that I didn’t have the slightest

idea what to say to someone like him. So alien was his

experience to me, so unguessable his value, so mysterious his (2) values

very language, that I couldn’t succeed in engaging him in a few

minutes’ of small talk before he got down to work. Fourteen (3) minutes

years of higher education and a handful of Ivy League degrees,

and there I was, stiff and stupid, struck dumb by my own

dumbness. “Ivy retardation,” a friend of mine calls this. I could

carry out conversations with people from other countries, in (4) on

other languages, but I couldn’t talk to the man who was

standing in my own house.

It’s not surprising that it took me so long to discover the extent

of my miseducation, because the latest thing an elite education (5) last

will teach you is its own inadequacy.

The first disadvantage of an elite education, as I learned in my

kitchen that day, is that it makes you incapable of talking to

people who don’t like you. Elite schools pride themselves on (6) aren’t

their diversity, but that diversity is almost entirely a matter of

ethnicity and race. With respect in class, these schools are (7) to

largely homogeneous.

At the same time, because these schools tend to cultivate

liberal attitudes, they leave their students in the paradoxical

position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class

while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone

in it.

The second disadvantage is that an elite education inculcates a

false sense of self-worth. Getting to an elite college, being at an

elite college, and going on from an elite college — all involve

numerical rankings: SAT, GPA, GRE. You learn to think for (8) of

yourself in terms of those numbers. They come to signify not

only your fate, but your identity; not only your identity, but

your value. There is nothing wrong with taking pride in one’s (9) something

intellect or knowledge. There is something wrong with the

smugness and self-congratulation that elite schools connive at

from the moment the fat envelopes come in the mail. From

orientation to graduation, the message is clear: You deserve

everything your presence here is going to enable you to get.

When people say that students at elite schools have a strong

sense of entitlement, they mean that those students think they

deserve more than other people because their SAT scores are

high. But they don’t. Graduates of elite schools are not more (10) higher

valuable than stupid people, or talentless people, or even lazy

people. Their pain does not hurt more. Their souls do not

weigh more. If I were religious, I would say, God does not love

them more.

6. Fill in each blank in the passage below with ONE appropriate word.

Confucius and Socrates

Kong Zi, also called Confucius (551–479 B.C.) and Socrates (469–399 B.C.) lived only a

hundred years apart, and during their (1) lifetimes there was no contact between China and

Greece, but it is interesting to look at how the world that each of these great philosophers came

from shaped their ideas, and how these ideas in (2) turn shaped their societies.

Both philosophers lived in (3) times of conflict, though there was more warfare in Greece

than in (4) China. The Chinese states were very large and feudal, while the (5) Greek city-states

were small and urban.

The (6) urban environment in which Socrates lived allowed him to be more radical than Kong

Zi. (7) Unlike Kong Zi, Socrates was not asked by rulers how to govern effectively. Thus, Socrates

was able to be more idealistic, focusing on issues (8) like freedom, and knowledge for its own

sake. Kong Zi, on the other hand, advised those in government service, and many of his students

went on to (9) government.

Kong Zi suggested the Golden Rule as a principle for the (10) conduct of life: “Do not do to

others what you would not want others to do to you.” He assumed that all men were equal at (11)

birth, though some had more potential than others, and that it was knowledge that set men (12)

apart.

Socrates (13) focused on the individual, and thought that the greatest purpose of man was

to seek wisdom. He believed that some people had more (14) potential to develop their reason

than others (15) did. Like Kong Zi, he believed that the superior class should rule the (16)

inferior classes.

For Socrates, the family was (17) of no importance, and the community of (18) little concern.

For Kong Zi, however, the family was the center of society, with family relations (19) considered

much more important than political relations.(20) Both men are respected much more today

than they were in their lifetimes.

IV. Translation

1. Translating Sentences

Translate the following sentences into English, using the words or phrases given in brackets.

1). 他是家里的长子, 所以也是唯一得到过父母全身心照顾的孩子。(undivided attention)

 Being the eldest son in the family, he was the only one to have gained the undivided

attention of his parents.

undivided adj. not mixed with other feelings or intentions

e.g. She devoted herself to her students with undivided concentration and energy.

2). 他不具备干这项工作所需要的技能。(requisite)

 He lacked the requisite skills for the job.

requisite adj. necessary for a particular purpose

e.g. Decision is a quality requisite to a leader.

3). 在那场危机中, 联合国在当地政府和叛军之间进行了斡旋。(mediate)

 The United Nations mediated between the local government and the rebels during the

crisis.

mediate v. to try to end a disagreement between two people or groups

e.g. They mediate territorial disputes between neighbouring nations.

4). 他用杰出的成就为自己在学术界谋得了一个顶尖科学家的席位。(carve out a niche)

 He has carved out a niche for himself as a leading researcher in his field of study.

carve out: to develop a career or position for yourself by working hard

e.g. It can be difficult to carve out a niche in the fashion industry.

5). 当我告诉别人我有多大岁数时，每个人都故作惊讶。(feign)

 Everyone feigned surprise when I told them how old I was.

feign vt. to pretend to have a particular feeling

e.g. 'OK,' she said, feigning indifference.

6). 数据被输入电脑以后，电脑会自动使其生效。(be validated by)

 The data is validated automatically by the computer after it has been entered.

validate vt. to make a document legally valid

7). 当成年人做一件事的时候，大多数小孩子会跟着做， 因为他们并不知道这样做对不对。(follow suit)

 When an adult does something, most small children will follow suit, because they have

no sense of right and wrong.

follow suit: to follow in the same pattern; to follow someone else's example.

8). 这部小说以上世纪为背景，讲述了一个因和外国人结婚，父母与之断绝关系的姑娘的故事。(disown)

 Set in the last century, the novel tells a story about a girl who was disowned by her

parents when she married a foreigner

disown vt. to say that you no longer want to be connected with someone or something, for

example because you are ashamed of them

e.g. I think my parents would disown me if I ever got a tattoo.

9). 我必须面对面地和詹姆斯谈谈星期四的安排。(vis-à-vis)

 I’ve got to speak to James vis-à-vis the arrangements for Thursday.

vis-à-vis prep. compared to or relating to someone or something

e.g. Our students' marks are quite good vis-à-vis the national averages.

10). 此时还说不准她是否能彻底痊愈。(at this juncture)

 At this juncture, it is impossible to say whether she will make a full recovery.

2. Translate the following passage into English.

对于成千上万的美国大学生来说，夏季意味着实习(internship)的大好时机。他们干着他们将来可能想干的工作。据专家统计，美国大学生中至少有1/3在毕业前都曾做过实习工作。这些学生有的为大公司服务，有的在小机构里干活，有的则在美国政府部门做事。

对许多实习生(intern)来说，夏日工作并不挣钱。有的大学生实习是为了获得他们毕业后希望从事的工作的经验，有的则是由于还不明确自己毕业后到底想长久地从事何种工作，便在不同的公司和机构内实习，以确定自己最喜欢的工作是什么。实习工作为什么如此受学生青睐呢？学生们可以借此了解各种工作，他们可以做有趣的工作，可以学习技巧，获得有价值的经验，还可以接触到重要人物。因此学生们常把实习描述为千载难逢的机会。

参考译文：

Summer means internships for thousands of American college students. They work in the

kinds of jobs they might want to have some day. Experts say at least one-third of all American

college students complete an internship before they graduate. Some students work for large

companies. Some work for small organizations. Some work for the United States government.

Many interns do not earn money at their summer jobs. Some college students get an

internship to gain experience in the kind of job they want to get after graduation. Others do not

yet know what kind of permanent job they want. In this way, they can find out what kind of job

they like best. Why are internships so popular? Students can learn about different kinds of jobs.

They can do interesting work. They can learn skills and gain valuable experience. And they can

meet important people. Therefore students often describe internships as a chance that happens

once in a lifetime.

— Mark Twain

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