2015江苏高考英语任务型阅读译文（邳州刘琦翻译）

People select news in expectation of a reward. This reward may be either of two kinds. One is related to what Freud calls the Pleasure Principle, the other to what he calls the Reality Principle. For want of better names, we shall call these two classes immediate reward and delayed reward.

In general, the kind of news which may be expected to give immediate reward are news of crime and corruption, accidents and disasters, sports, social events, and human interest. Delayed reward may be expected from news of public affairs, economic matters, social problems, science, education, and health.

人们在选择新闻的时候都希望从中得到回报。这种回报有两种类型。其一，被Freud称之为娱乐回报原则；其二，是现实回报原则；换一种更好听一点的名字，可以将他们分别称之为即时回报和延迟回报。

总的来讲，能够得到即时回报的新闻往往包括犯罪、贪污、交通事故、自然灾害、体育、社会重大事件以及人们津津乐道的话题。而延迟回报则往往和公众事件、经济、社会问题、科学、教育以及健康等方面的行为有关。

News of the first kind pays its rewards at once. A reader can enjoy an indirect experience without any of the dangers or stresses involved. He can tremble wildly at an axe-murder, shake his head sympathetically and safely at a hurricane, identify himself with the winning team, laugh understandingly at a warm little story of children or dogs.

读第一种类型的新闻，得到的回报是即时的。读这类新闻，读者无需经历任何危险或压力而获取直接经验：面对手持利斧的杀人犯而颤栗；也会对飓风灾难中人们的生死安危或同情或担忧；同样也会把自己列为比参赛中的获胜方而欢呼；读到关于孩子或狗狗的温情故事，也会为之动容，露出会心的笑容。

News of the second kind, however, pays its rewards later. It sometimes requires the reader to tolerate unpleasantness or annoyance—as, for example, when he reads of the threatening foreign situation, the mounting national debt, rising taxes, falling market, scarce housing, and cancer. It has a kind of “threat value.” It is read so that the reader may be informed and prepared. When a reader selects delayed reward news, he pulls himself into the world of surrounding reality to which he can adapt himself only by hard work. When he selects news of the other kind, he usually withdraws from the world of threatening reality toward the dream world.

然而读第一种类型的新闻，得到的回报却是延迟的，非直接的。它有时会要求读者去忍受各种不快与烦恼：如日益紧张的外交局势、节节攀升的国家债务、不断升高的各项税收、疲软的市场、紧张的住房、癌症凡此种种。这样就产生了一种“威胁价值”。此类新闻对读者起到了一种告知和预警的作用。一旦读者选择了延迟类的新闻，他就会全身心地投入现实世界之中，而要想在现实世界中立足，唯有通过艰辛的努力才能实现。但读者如果选择了第一种新闻，即即时回报类新闻，他往往会从具有威胁性的现实世界转向充满梦想的理想世界。 For any individual, of course, the boundaries of these two classes are not stable. For example, a sociologist may read news of crime as a social problem, rather than for its immediate reward. A coach may read a sports story for its threat value: he may have to play that team next week. A politician may read an account of his latest successful public meeting, not for its delayed reward, but very much as his wife reads an account of a party. In any given story of corruption or disaster, a thoughtful reader may receive not only the immediate reward of indirect

experience, but also the delayed reward of information and preparedness. Therefore, while the division of categories holds in general, an individual’s tendency may transfer any story from one kind of reading to another, or divide the experience between the two kinds of reward.

然而，对于任何一个个体而言，两种类别的之间的界限并不是十分明显。比如，社会学家读到有关犯罪的新闻，就会把它看成社会问题，并非想得到即时回报；教练看体育新闻是为了获取威胁价值：下一周也许他的队员会和报道中的球队对弈；政治家读一篇有关他最近一次公众会议的成功举行的报道，他并不是为了得到延时回报，倒更像和妻子一块儿读一篇有关晚会的报道。再比如，读到任何有关腐败或灾难的新闻，有良知、善思考的读者从中获取的不仅仅是即时回报，同时也得到了延迟回报和应对准备。 因此，尽管新闻总的来讲存在着类别上的差异，但是每个人的价值倾向都会随着新闻类型的不同而可能发生改变，或游走于两种类型之间。