作者:侯毅凌
出版社:外语教学与研究出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
《英语学习》三刊精选2013年第08期(图文版)试读:
缤纷世界
Sense and Nonsense阡陌 选编“Instead of labeling kids with IQ ratings, tell them that creativity, persistence and resilience are more important qualities.”——今年16岁的Jack Andraka已经是科学领域的明星人物了。今年年初,他因发明了胰腺癌的早期检测方法获得了因特尔公司著名的高登·厄尔·摩尔奖(Gordon E. Moore Award)。眼下他又在进行下一项发明——一项可以对人体进行体检的手持仪器,该仪器有望通过读取人体体征,即刻判断出此人患了何种疾病。都说人小志气高,这位16岁的科学小少年又在挑战自己的创造力,为大众造福。要知道,他可不是我们想象中的科学小怪人,读一读他对儿童教育的独到见解:“与其通过智商排名评价孩子们,不如告诉他们创造力,毅力和适应力这些品质更加重要。”你就会明白了:天才是高智商和高情商的结合体。
“Last week he sold more books than he ever did in his life and if that's because of the film then I'm all right with that. ”——爵士时代的代表作家菲茨杰拉德(F. G. Fitzgrald)的名作改编的同名电影《伟大的盖茨比》(The Great Gatsby)上映之后迎来了褒贬不一的评价,但是导演巴兹·鲁赫曼(Baz Luhrmann)对负面评价不以为然,在采访中鲁赫曼说道,菲茨杰拉德写作此书在当时备受批评,而且不得不自己购买来获得高销量纪录,而如今《伟大的盖茨比》已经成为美国最畅销的小说。鲁赫曼也不忘开玩笑说,“上一周该书的销量比菲茨杰拉德生前的总数还要多,如果是由于这部电影的缘故,我也觉得没什么。”
“It's every athlete's dream, every footballer's dream to go out on the top—on top form or winning a trophy ... leaving as a champion.”——贝克汉姆拒绝了巴黎圣日耳曼俱乐部的续签合同,宣布在本赛季结束后退出足坛。精湛的球技、耀眼的外形加上金童玉女的婚姻,这一切让贝克汉姆在过去20年里一直是足坛和时尚界关注的焦点,一代球星希望在自己胜利辉煌的时刻为自己的职业生涯谢幕,祝福小贝在绿茵场外的人生依然精彩无限。
“Our time zone is first, so logically it should be Ausmerica. ”——近日,白宫请愿网爆红网络,各种不靠谱的请愿让人大跌眼镜,白宫网站于2011年设置的We the People版块原是本着美国宪法第一修正案的精神让民众在重要问题上有向政府请愿的途径,结果一不小心这个网站被世界人民当成了许愿池,甚至有中国网友要求白宫将豆腐脑的口味定为咸的。今年5月,有加利福尼亚州的居民请求美国合并澳大利亚,连国名都想好了,叫美大利亚(Ameristralia),不知道不支持此提案的澳大利亚人作何感想,但是支持两国合并的澳大利亚人也有异议,理由是:“我们的时区在前面,因此从逻辑上来说国名应该叫澳大利坚。”且不说30天内签名达不到十万,白宫不予回应,就算是真回应了,这个提议也不靠谱。
“This milestone at the World Trade Center site symbolizes the resurgence and resilience of our state and our nation.”——今年的5月2日,世贸中心的重建工程终于迎来了公众企盼的历史性时刻:世贸中心一号楼的主体工程已竣工,最后一部分塔尖被吊装至楼顶,从而成为西半球最高的建筑物,同时也是世界第三高建筑物。世贸中心一号楼也由此达到了设计高度的1776英尺(约合541米),这个数字象征美国通过《独立宣言》的1776年。世贸中心一号楼是在“9·11”世贸中心遗址上施工建设的。纽约州的州长安德鲁·科莫(Andrew Cuomo)认为这是一个令人骄傲的历史时刻,他说:“世贸中心遗址上的这一里程碑象征着我们纽约州和我们国家的复原与复苏。”项目经理胡安·埃斯特维兹(Juan Estevez)则对媒体说道:“It's a culmination of a tremendous amount of team work... rebuilding the New York City skyline once again.”(它是大量团队合作的巅峰之作……再一次重塑了纽约市的空中轮廓线。)
“It was absolutely mind-blowing. They were billions of years old.”——你能想象吗?地质科学家发现了26亿年前的水源,这是目前为止发现的最古老的水资源,甚至比多细胞生物的历史还要古老。该发现发表在今年5月的《自然》(Nature)杂志上,科学家在一个距地表两英里的地下矿井里发现了该水源,经过成分分析确定其有二十多亿年的历史。长期致力于地下水源研究的多伦多大学的地质科学家Barbara Sherwood Lollar称,“该发现令人无比震惊,它们竟然有几十亿岁了。”大自然总是带给我们无与伦比的惊奇,水渗入岩石层的夹缝中,流入地下,保留了下来,成为地质变化的记录者。科学家会进一步研究该水体内是否存在远古生命,如果答案是肯定的,那么与该水源类似的火星水源中也有望找到生命的痕迹。
部长演讲特辑
【 I 】The Role of Finance in the Peaceful Rise of China 重新思考金融在中国和平崛起进程中的作用∷中国光大(集团)总公司执行董事、副总经理 解植春About 20 years ago, I was inspired by Xiaoping's “South Tour Speech”, and decided to shift my career from working in the government to working in a financial institution. At that time, I started to learn English myself.
We are now still living in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The negative impact of finance on economic development has been greatly criticized. In the U.S., as a response from the grassroots, there has been the “Occupy Wall Street Movement”. In China, there are also debates on issues like monopoly profit, high salaries, and the high service fee. As a senior financial executive, I couldn't help re-thinking these questions. Why are there so many criticisms and misunderstandings? What is the problem and how should we solve it? What is the function of finance in a modern society, especially in the rise of China?
Financial innovations have always contributed hugely to the development of human society, with the U.S. as a typical example. America replaced Britain as the new hegemony in the world, not only because of its military and geographical advantages during the two world wars, but also through the dominance of the US dollar established in the Bretton Woods system. In our reform and opening-up, the financial industry has made a significant contribution to our society. Without finance, the per capita living space could not have increased from 7 m2 in 1978 to 32 m2 in 2011; without finance, our highway mileage could not have risen from 890,000 km to 4,100,000 km; without finance, our university students could not have hiked from 850,000 to 23,080,000. without finance, we could not have held the most successful Olympic Games in Olympic history. In a modern society, finance is like air and sunshine that no one can live without.
Once we have fully acknowledged the function of finance, we have to recognize its current problems. Financial tools are neutral, but can be abused and cause disasters. Because of our country's passivity in the world's financial markets, during the past 7 years, more than 2 trillion yuan of our foreign exchange reserves have vanished into thin air. That reminds us of Japan in the late 1980s. The Japanese economy suddenly plunged, causing it to lose in its competition with America right after the “Plaza Agreement”. We must draw lessons from Japan.
As the ruling Party, CPC has led China over the last thirty years into becoming the world's second largest economy. However, without a strong financial market and a strong RMB, no matter how much military or political advantages we have accumulated, we would always be at a disadvantage in the world competition. What China needs most is a clear national financial strategy. We should not let the industry's issues be manipulated to arouse social dissatisfaction. What we should do is to stick to the ideology and values which have been proved to be right in the process of reform and opening-up. A strong China needs a strong and well-developed financial market.
We are now at a critical historical moment, a new stage in our financial development. Time is very limited. We cannot afford to be a second Japan and this is not an exaggeration. If we can seize this rare opportunity, build up a strong financial market and establish a strong RMB, we will be sure to witness a more prosperous China.❖大约二十年前,在小平南巡讲话的鼓舞之下,我下决心离开党政机关,投身到国有金融机构。正是从那时起我开始下决心坚持自学英语。如今,我们仍身处“后经济危机”时代,金融对经济发展的负面影响受到了严厉指责。在美国,草根阶级发起了“占领华尔街行动”运动。在我国,舆论的焦点主要集中在金融行业垄断利润、从业人员收入高、服务费高等问题上。作为国有金融企业的高级管理人员,我不禁开始反思这些问题。为什么公众会对金融业有这样的批评和误会?金融业在发展中到底存在什么问题以及如何解决?在现代中国,尤其是在中国崛起的进程中,金融到底发挥着怎样的功用?历史上,金融创新极大地推动了人类社会的进步。美国取代英国成为世界霸主,其二次世界大战中的地理、军事优势固然是重要因素,但其霸权地位却是在“布雷顿森林会议”后随着美元的统治地位的形成而最终完成的。改革开放三十多年来,中国金融业对社会发展做出了巨大贡献。没有金融,我们的人均住房面积不可能从1978年的7平方米到2011年的32平方米;没有金融,我们的公路里程不可能从1978年的89万公里到2011年的410万公里;没有金融,我们的在校大学生数量不可能从1978年的85万人到2011年的2,308万人。没有今天的中国金融业,更不可能举办奥运史上最成功的奥运会。在当今中国社会,金融就像空气和阳光,每个人都不可或缺。我们在充分认识到金融的作用的同时,必须看到当前我国金融业存在的问题。金融工具本身没有对错,但金融工具一旦滥用,就会引起灾难性的结果。同时,由于我们的金融市场在世界金融市场中还处于被动地位,在过去七年中,两万多亿人民币的外汇储备从人间蒸发。这使我想到,在上个世纪80年代末期,日本正是由于美国策划的“广场协议”而经济衰退,失去了强大的竞争能力,我们必须吸取日本的教训。作为执政党,在过去的三十年里,我党已经成功地领导中国成为世界第二大经济体。即便如此,如果我们不能建立起强大的金融市场并确立人民币的强势地位,则无论我们积累了多少的政治和军事上的优势,在未来的世界竞争中,都会始终处于劣势。我们现在最需要的是,必须明确国家的金融战略,不能因为金融业存在的问题被操纵而引发社会不满情绪。我们必须坚持那些被三十年改革开放的历史证明是正确的思维方式和价值观。必须认识到,一个强大的中国一定要有一个强大的和成熟的金融市场来支撑。我们现在正处于一个关键的历史关头,新的挑战和新的历史机遇都在等待着我们。时不我待,我们绝不应该成为第二个日本,这并不是夸大其词、危言耸听,如果我们抓住难得的历史机遇,建立起强大的金融市场,确立人民币的市场地位,我们就能够实现祖国的伟大复兴。❖知识链接
中国光大(集团)总公司
中国光大集团是中央管理的国有重要骨干企业,创办于1983年。中国光大集团作为我国改革开放的窗口,经过二十多年的努力,现已发展成为以经营银行、证券、保险、资产管理、期货、金融租赁、实业等业务为主的特大型企业集团,为国家改革开放事业做出了积极贡献。
Established in 1983, China Everbright Group is a major state-owned under the direct management of the central government. Serving as the window of reform and opening-up and after 20 years' development, China Everbright Group has grown into a mega enterprise group engaged in businesses of bank, bonds, insurance, asset management, futures, financial lease, industry. It has made active contributions to the reform and opening-up of our country.
蝶翼文丛
【 C 】Attraversiamo穿越人文与技术By Kat Wang∷经纬 注查尔斯·斯诺在20世纪60年代提出了“两种文化”的割裂——科学文化与人文文化互不相容,两者互相鄙夷,彼此分裂,丧失了交流碰撞、产生创造性火花的机会——对社会发展产生了消极的影响。当时,科学还处于被人文轻视的情况下,斯诺有为科学争地位、争名分之意。半个世纪过去了,话语主导权易手,两种文化是否仍然割裂?当今的人文又将走向何方?
Hi readers! Call me Kat. I'm a writer and reader enthusiast; a native Harbin-er; a current tech geek in the Silicon Valley; an unapologetic food-lover and sojourner. Above all, I'm a romantic. If you've read my other stories—Been There, Done That or my previous ELL column—I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. My goal in writing, especially writing for you, is to bring a bit of happiness. As Roger Ebert spelled out: “We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try.” So, keep calm, and read on!
I stopped writing about three years ago. Why? My words were too recycled. My advice was so trite. My words came out like week-old bread.
Whatever reason, it was not the end of words. What made me happy, I realized, was dreaming—dreaming up things, scenarios, heroes, ideals, skirmishes.I needed to act as scribeto my fancy.
I can't guarantee that my next few attempts are going to be worth your while. Writers tend to be egotistical. I apologize upfrontfor talking so much about “me”. But, “me”, “you”, “him”, “her”, “life” as we know it, is so very critical to be copied down.
That is my mandate—to be messy, to be frank, to love words as much as I did when I was 17 years old.And, importantly, I hope to show you that life is as brilliant and wonderful as its little imperfections.
So, let's cross over, together—attraversiamo.
A Fuzzy in a Techie World
A piece came out earlier this year in The New Yorker that heavily criticized Stanford University for being too tied to the Silicon Valley;that it could hardly be called an educational institution anymore. Stanford students were leaving in packs to pursue startup life.“The school now looks like a giant tech incubator with a football team,” wrote Nicholas Thompson, the writer. It's all coding, all the time?
So what happens/happened to all those poor English and Political Science purveyors? Cough. Like myself?
After several years of working at a tech company, and not being a techie per se, I still wonder why on earth they keep me around. I've had moments of sheer panic while sitting in a conference room surrounded by people much (much) smarter, trying to parsethrough waves of “engineering talk”. They could have been communicating in beeps and boopsand I wouldn't have known the difference.
What do I have to contribute? How can I be more than a bump on a log? Why are they looking to me—literally staring at me—for advice? I'm a humanities lover—I'm all about emotions and feelings and the tickles of art.Poetry! Dickens!
But, after some breathing exercises, I come to the conclusion: I do have a place in this crazy town, and liberal artshelped get me here. Here are the simple reasons:
Edge casesmatter
“Group think” happens when you have something really cool and possibly revolutionary. And, that's good. You want a product everyone can rallybehind. However, cutting-edge products go through hundreds, thousands of tiny iterationsbefore and during their birth. They call these things... bugs. Bugs can be anything from critical product fixes to design tweaks.
My bug-bashing skills include identifying edge cases and spotting risk.In other words, my liberal arts background kicks in. How can this product get abused? How can someone misinterpretthis setting? Is this feature compromising the integrity of the whole?
Am I a Negative Nancy—most of the time? Probably. But, identifying and preparing for edge cases could mean the life or really terrible start (and sometimes death) of a product.
Coding is a language; you still need humans to put things together
Product and project managers need a special set of liberal arts skills; skills to read people and situations. At the end of the day, coding is critical but “herding cats” might be more still.
Think of it another way: To get your product to the finish line, you need the vehicle (the code) and the paved road (the management skills). It's everything from keeping people happy to knowing when/how to say no... to even being able to “fail” gracefully.
It's no cakewalk. It's Art of War.
The power of the stupid question
It's okay to ask stupid questions. There's genius behind the “dumb” person in the room. When I'm around engineers, I seem like the dumbest person in the world.
But, more often than not, your question isn't stupid. It could point out a flaw. Basic questions help pokeat the fundamentals. “Why do we need that?” and “Why can't we do it this other way?” are often great questions to ask. It opens up room for argument, leading to either changes or a stronger foundation.
In the off chancethe answer was common knowledge, you come away with a clearer picture of what's happening. This benefits you and everyone you work with.
Here's a cool trick: smart and knowledgeable people use the “this may be a stupid question...” opening to strategically maneuver a conversation in their favor.
No one is going to use it if no one understands it
Blada-blada-blah blah blah = my friend's response to my enthusiastic description of a product. I bored the daylights out of this poor girl.
My first and lethal mistake was getting too in the weeds, injecting all sorts of technical jargon into my descriptions.At the end of the day, general audience needs simple, precise, and consistent descriptions. How are you going to sell something if your client goes glassy-eyed half way through your pitch?
That's where language and art come in handy. Artists will tell you to cut, replace, and draw. At the end of the day, a product could be rocket science... but understanding it shouldn't be.
I hope this inspires a bit of hope for all those liberal arts lovers living in the techie world. Innovation, a word tossed aroundso often, isn't just for engineers. Innovation is dreaming. Innovation is moonshots.
It's science fiction, art, a really good conversation.❖【 I 】Playing Sports 运动,运动!By Sophie Zhang∷赵阳 注
Sophie Zhang(张苏菲)生于美国波士顿,后随家人移居北京,现为美国韦尔斯利学院的学生。Sophie从小热爱阅读和写作,丰富多彩的生活经历是她创作的灵感源泉。她的首部英文小说《柯盼的神奇旅程》(The Kohpan Crossing)已由外语教学与研究出版社出版。
你是否有过类似经历:自己身边的同学、朋友在才艺展示的时候都能大显身手,琴棋书画信手拈来,运动场上也各显其能,各个英姿飒爽;而你却从头到尾负责鼓掌,混个最佳观众奖。想想自己从前是不是也培养了好多兴趣爱好,但都浅尝辄止了呢?那就读读下面这篇文章吧,一个华裔的美国女孩用自己的亲身经历告诉你,选择一条路并坚持走下去你将看到什么样的风景;而半途而废你又将会有怎样的心境?
All through my childhood, I was very good at sports. My dad and I used to play soccer with an inflatableBarbie beach ball in the basement, using pillars as goal marks. I was that girl who used to tear down the field with the ball, screaming at all of those who were just standing around. I remember going to soccer camp with my good friend Victoria, who was skinny and much more feminine than I was, and later tattling on her for not moving around as much as I thought she should.In elementary school, I was on the swim team. I was the fastest at breaststroke, and would have gotten first place had my competitor's mother not messed me up (I still resent her till this day).The only thing that stopped me from completely dominating was my fear of diving. I could not and would not dive into the water. I dreadedgoing to swim practice because of those few minutes at the end when we would have to dive. If I was forced to get up on the diving stand, I would cannonballin the water. Most times, I would still beat the other girls. But the coaches always pointed out how much more I could win by if I only just dived in. I was ecstaticwhen we moved away from China and I was allowed to quit the swim team.
When we moved to America, my school didn't have a swim team. Basketball, volleyball, and track were pretty much my only options available. I had been known as a fast runner when I was younger—in fifth grade, my nickname was Speed due to the fact that I always beat the other girls in “race ya to the fence” competitions—and I went out for track.I made the track team and was fast enough to be selected for the 200m x 4 relay. I was excited and proud that I was able to compete with a bunch of tall, long-legged American girls and make the spot. Unfortunately, because I had piano lessons every Monsday and had to miss practice once a week, I was unable to defend my spot in the relay and some other girl took it. Track slowly floated away from me as I continued to miss practice to attend my piano lessons.
Gradually, the image of “sportswoman” no longer resembled me. I was that Asian girl who was smart and sometimes funny, but never athletic. I began to dread gym class, even though it had been one of my favorite classes when I was younger. I hated team sports. As I grew older, I even started making jokes about how horrible I was at sports. It was my sad reality. In ninth grade, I tried to rekindlemy love of soccer by trying out for the team. I made the junior varsity team, but felt uncomfortable and unhappy the entire time. The other girls, who were a year above me, were all considered to be the “mean” girls of our school, and rarely interacted with me. Even though I was the worst one on the team, the coach continually started me and rarely benched me, which, would have been a prize to most players, but was a punishment for me.Eventually, an injury allowed me to quit the team. I didn't admit it to anyone, but I was secretly elated that I no longer had to stay after school until 6 pm with girls who ignored me and spend my Saturdays on a field, running drills and trying to avoid being yelled at by my coach while on the field.To this day, I'm still not quite sure why he insisted on putting me in the center of the field every single time. Maybe I wasn't as bad as I thought—or maybe he saw something in me that I didn't.
When I stopped playing sports, I started gaining weight. On top ofthat, I had stopped growing taller as well. My body was short and stoutand I hated it. Because I was so horrible at sports, I had no real way to keep fit. The summer before my senior year of high school, after a fit of tears and anger, I decided to start running again. Not sprintingor short-distance running like I had done on the track team, but real running. That summer, I lost about twenty pounds and I felt great. Since then, I've gained some weight back (thanks to college), but at least I have a way out.
But this story isn't about my weight-loss transformation. It's about the importance of playing sports. Even though I don't play sports anymore, I still watch them on television. I love the NBA. I love watching basketball and seeing these men jump dizzyinglyhigh heights to gracefully sink the ball into the tiny basket. Watching them makes me want to play, but I know I can't.
Play a sport and stick withit, no matter how bad you think you are. Sticking with something even if you don't think you're very good at it is just a lesson of endurancethat comes with learning a sport. I never kept up that endurance. I let small things, like mean girls and diving boards, get in my way ofachieving great potential that everyone knew I had. I sometimes look at my classmates resentfully, the ones who walk around in their sports jackets and sweatpants and talk about how annoying their coaches are, and wonder what it would have been like to be in their position.Strong, built, and confident. There isn't anything in the world like being good at a sport. I remember that feeling of racing down the field with the ball rolling precariously in between my feet, trying to kick it into the giant net behind the goalie.I've never quite been able to replicate that feeling of pure bliss and focus and adrenaline.
My brother has recently become excellent at tennis, and while I'm so proud to see him on the court, slamming those balls over the net, I also wish that I could be there playing with him. He's no longer an amateur, like I will always be. So take it from someone who has lamented a life decision—whatever it is you're doing, if it's worthwhile, stick with it.You won't regret it.❖【 I 】The Boston Marathon波士顿马拉松By Sophie Zhang∷沐阳 注
始于1897年的波马是世界上首个城市马拉松赛,创办至今从未间断。优美的沿途风光、热情的现场观众、起伏不平的道路以及严格的参赛条件,都让赛事散发出别样的魅力。然而,2013年波马的恐怖爆炸案却让其蒙上了永远的污点,无辜的人为之殒命,包括一名年轻的中国女孩儿。身在波士顿亲身经历这一事件的作者又会以怎样的视角解读这次悲剧呢?
Each year, Boston celebrates Patriots' Day, a holiday that commemorates the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concordin 1775. This is a holiday unique to Boston, and the annual Boston Marathon is traditionally held on this day.
On April 15, I woke up, excited and energized to start the day. Because of the Boston Marathon, most schools in the area are closed to allow students to celebrate the holiday as well as cheer on the runners, who may be friends or family members. The marathon runs right through my school, and it is a tradition for the girls of my school to form a “scream tunnel”—essentially, the girls make a line right where the runners pass by, and scream and cheer them on as they continue the race.
I stood with all of the other cheering girls, holding my hand out for the runners to high fiveas they ran by, hoping that my encouragement might help motivate them to continue fighting through the race. Some of the more serious runners ignored us and ran determinedly on, eager to get a good time, but others smiled and nodded their heads at us, grateful for the boost.A few hours later, my throat was hoarse and my side was sore from leaning over the gate, and I went back to my room feeling slightly sick.
As I lay on my bed, I began to feel sweaty and cold at the same time. I had a 102 degreefever temperature, and I fell asleep. I was awoken by friend, who informed me that two bombs had gone off at
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