新世纪大学英语综合教程课文翻译1—4单元

work which leaves man as little more than a machine operator . 让我们举一个医学上的例子，以便把问题讲得更清楚一些。

Let us use an example from medicine to make matters clearer. 技术可以提高人们的健康水平。看一下在像美国这样技术发达的国家采用外科手术的种种可能性便清楚了，相比之下，有些国家是没有这种优势的。另一方面，在医学研究 上，许多方法的使用把综合保守型的思维方式变成了分析型的思维方式。内科医生可以做许多事情，但都不是独立完成的。今天的医生已经成为―良好的效仿者‖，但却不是―思考 者‖，因为他们已经习惯于把健康范围内的每一个参数转换成数字。医患之间那种密切的关系和人际交往已不复存在。病人感到自己更像一件东西而不是一个人。

Technology improves people's health. This can be seen if one looks at the possibilities of surgery in technologically developed countries like America as compared to countries which do not have this advantage. On the other hand, the involvement of advanced technical equipment in medicine modified the synthetic and conservative way of thinking into an analytical (分析的) one . The physician can do much, but not on his own. Doctors today have become \\as they are used to translating every piece of health data into numbers. A close relationship and human interaction between the doctor and the patient does not exist any more. Patients feel more like objects than persons.

再者，让我们考虑一下生物工艺学的问题。这门科学把人们撩拨得神魂颠倒。科学家们觉得自己是在用生命的奥秘―做游戏‖，这一事实把他们的想法越推越远，指望会出现生物的永存或永恒。尽管人们期待着遗传工程的奇迹，可大自然有其自身的神秘法则，所有妨碍这些法则的东西都要付出代价。人们对大自然的本质知道的越多，就越对其本质感到困惑。当科学家找到了治愈某种疾病的疗法时，更加糟糕的疾病又会出现，给人们带来恐惧。

Furthermore, consider biotechnology (生物工艺学). It fascinates man's thoughts. The fact that scientists feel that they can \with the secret of life pushes them further and further, promising biological immortality and eternity. People expect miracles from genetic engineering , but nature has its own secret laws. Everything that disturbs them has its cost. The closer people reach nature's truth, the further it eludes (躲避) them. When scientists find the cure for a disease, something worse appears to terrify mankind.

此外，想一想由于技术战争发生了多么大的变化。人们不再手对手地交战了，而是远距离作战；是技术使之成为可能。另一方面，面对面打仗需要某些价值观，而在一个人按动按钮并指挥现代化武器装备的情况下，这些价值观是不存在的。

Additionally , think about how much war has changed because of technology. People do not fight hand to hand any more – they fight from a distance; technology makes this possible. Fighting face to face needs some values which do not exist in the case where someone presses a button and directs the modern means.

问题肯定不在技术方面，而在于我们最终对技术发出的指令。人一旦丧失了价值观，技术就再也无法控制了。只要人还有价值观，技术就会为人服务。

The problem is certainly not technology, but the direction we have finally given to it. When man has no values, technology cannot be controlled any more. When man has values, technology serves him.

技术本身既不会行善，也不会作恶，这要看我们怎样使用它。我坚信，现在是我们明白这个道理的时候了：确保技术造福人类的责任只能由具有社会良知、尊重人类、尊重自然和自然平衡的那些人来承担。

Technology is neither good nor bad. It depends on how we use it. I strongly believe that it is time

for us to understand that the responsibility belongs exclusively to humans who have to acquire a social conscience, to respect human beings, nature and its balances.

Unit 3 Text A

知识彩虹 克雷格·拉塞尔 Preface

The acquisition of knowledge is self-contradictory by nature. The more one knows, the more he knows how little he knows. Reading often leads to more questions than answers. Writing opens things up rather than closes them off. The author of the following essay regards truth as a rainbow that cannot be really grasped. He urges us to be humble about what we don't know as we pride ourselves on what we know.

我这辈子四分之三以上的时间（50年中有39年）是在纽约的中小学或大学里度过的，不是在上学，就是在教学。

For more than 3/4 of my life – 39 of my 50 years – I've either studied or taught in a school or a college in New York.

于是，你或许会认为，经过这么长一段时间，我应该了解一些情况，确实知道一些东西，对知识和对生活该会积极地予以把握和肯定了。可是，我却没有做到这一点。事实 上，我知道的东西越多，反倒越觉得自己无知。

You might think, then, that after all this time I'd have some grasp of the situation, that I'd actually know things – that I'd have some positive sense of assurance, of certainty, about knowledge and about life. But I don't. In fact, the more I know, the more I know I don't know.

当然，说自己知道的东西越多，反倒越觉得自己无知，这种说法是矛盾的。然而，现代物理学告诉我们，现实世界本身就是矛盾的。科学家们对物质现实世界研究得越多，就越无法对它进行把握。在某种意义上，他们了解的越多，知道的就越少。

To say that the more I know, the more I know I don't know is, of course, contradictory. But then, modern physics tells us that reality itself is contradictory. The more scientists look into our physical reality, the more it slips away from them. In a way , the more they learn, the less they know.

知识本身就是矛盾的。打个比方，假设你的知识是一个点，就像这个句子末尾的句号一样。请注意这个句号微小的圆周，假设它代表我们已知和未知的分界——换句话说，就是你对自己不知道的东西的认知。

Knowledge itself is contradictory. For example, picture your knowledge as a dot , as perhaps the period at the end of this sentence. Notice the tiny circumference of that period, and let that represent the interface of the known with the unknown – in other words, your awareness of what you don't know.

但现在想象一下那个小小的句号在渐渐扩大，它的黑色部分占据页面越来越多的地方。随着它的扩大，它的周缘也跟着扩大。如果那个正在增大的黑色部分代表你的知识的 话，在知识增长的同时，你会意识到自己有许多不知道的东西。也就是说，你知道的越多，就越觉得自己无知。

But now imagine that little period growing, its blackness consuming more and more of the page. As it grows, so does its circumference. And if that growing blackness represents knowledge, then as it grows, so does the awareness of what remains unknown. In other words, the more you know, the more you know you don't know.

你在求知过程中肯定有过类似的经历。起初，你甚至并不知道还有某个学科的存在。当然，这个学科是早就存在 的，只是你以前没有注意到而已。1988年有了第一台电脑以后，我去杂志店，想找一些关于电脑操作方面的书，结果发现这类书琳琅满目，让我吃惊。同样，当我有幸获得讲授电影分析这门课的机会时，我发现有关这个领域的专著也多得令我眼花缭乱。

No doubt you have experienced this yourself in your own personal quests for knowledge. At first, you don't even know a field of learning exists. It's been there all along, of course; you just haven't noticed it before. When I got my first computer in 1988, I walked down to the magazine store, hoping to find something about computing and was amazed at the number of choices. Likewise , when I lucked into an opportunity to teach film analysis, I found myself dazzled at the sheer number of books devoted to the subject. 假设你决定研究这一课题。你买了一本有关这一课题的书，一本你能找到的最好也是最全面的（或是你认为是这样的）书，或许你是从图书馆借来了这本书。但你很快就会发现，阅读这本书只会给你带来更多的问题，而不是要解答你的疑问。

Let's say you decide to learn about this topic. You buy one of these books, the best and most complete one you can find (or so you think), or perhaps you borrow it from the library. But you quickly find that your reading, rather than answering questions, only creates more of them.

譬如，今年早些时候，我非但不知道自己对技术和自由之间的关系有兴趣，甚至没有意识到这两者之间有可能存在着某种联系。于是，我开始阅读这方面的书籍，越读越意识到技术与自由之间的关系。一方面，比起短短的几个月之 前，现在我对这个课题的了解是多了。但另一方面，所有这些阅读让我看到了自己真正懂得的东西是多么的少，而需要阅读、思考和写作的东西又是多么的多。每读完一本书，我总是觉得需要再读三本书，才能更好地把握这个课题。我的思考和写作也在同时进行。事实上，正是写作让我接触了这一课题。我们通常认为只有那些知识渊博、充满自信的人才会从事写作。然而，在我看来却恰恰相反。写作并不是总 结，而是拓展。

Earlier this year, for example, I not only had no idea that I had any interest at all in the relationship of technology to freedom; I didn't even realize that a connection between them might exist. So I started reading books and became more and more aware of the relationship between technology and freedom. Then, on the one hand, I now know much more about this topic than I did a few short months ago. But on the other hand, all this reading has made me see how little I really know and how much more I need to read and think and write. Once I've finished reading a book, I always feel that I need to read three more to gain a better grasp of the topic. And I think and write at the same time. In fact, it is my writing that has led me into it. We think often that only people who know and who are sure of themselves write. For me, however, it's just the opposite. Writing doesn't close things off – it opens things up .

身为作家，很长一段时间我都被这个矛盾所困惑——知道的越多，越感到自己无知。我深深领悟了道家的教诲：―知者不言，言者不知。‖我对自己该不该写作毫无把握，即使写了，也觉得自己没有资格写。我总觉得自己应该先获得更多的知识。我花了很长一段时间，才解除了这种矛盾对我的禁锢，最终才确信正是写作让我增长了知识，而不是知识让我有资格从事写作。我觉得自己的作品不是文章或者专栏，而是essays，即―随笔‖，essays是一个法语词，

意思是―尝 试‖。我不懂得真理，只是努力要找到它。

For a long time, I, as a writer, was paralyzed by this paradox – the more I know, the more I know I don't know. I was very aware of the teaching from Taoism that said \those who speak don't know.\that I was qualified to do it. I always felt I had to know more first. It took me a long time not to let this paradox freeze me and to believe that it was my writing that would qualify my knowledge, and not the other way around. I think of my work not as articles or as columns but as essays – a word from French, meaning \

当然，我不是说我们不应该学习，或者不应该阅读、写作、思考和交谈。我也不是说我们不应该去尝试。永无止境的探索并非毫无希望。我只是认为，对知识中矛盾的理解，必然会把我们从教条主义的压迫和僵化中引导出来，迈向个人的灵活和自由。这正如道家所说：―坚强者死之徒，柔弱者生之徒。‖

I don't mean, of course, to suggest that we should not learn, or that we should not read and write and think and talk. I do not mean to suggest that we should not try. An infinite quest is not a hopeless one. I only suggest that an understanding will inevitably and doubtlessly lead us away from the force and rigidity of dogmatism and toward the flexibility and freedom of the individual. As Taoism teaches, \disciple of life.\

我们必须将因知识而生出的自豪感和因无知而生出的谦卑感加以揉和。他们说得好，真理就在那里，但或许就像彩虹一样，我们却永远不能真正地抓住它，也不能把它握在手里并真正地掌握它。正如威廉·詹姆斯所说的那样，我们只能―按照今天得到的真理而生活，并准备明天把它叫做谬论。‖

We must temper our pride in knowing with the humility of not knowing. The truth, as they say, is out there, but, maybe, like the rainbow , we can never really grasp it, never hold it in our hands and truly know it. We can only, as William James said, \and be ready to call it falsehood tomorrow.\

Text B

知识传递的障碍 Barriers to Knowledge Transfer 维多利亚·格里菲斯

Preface

We now have easy access to more information than what we ever possibly dreamed of. Huge amounts of data move around the globe at incredible speed. Yet, knowledge transfer requires more than just technology. Lack of trust and resistance to change are the two major barriers to knowledge transfer.

今天人人都在谈论―知识时代‖，然而，知识是什么？这是一个模糊的概念。我们大多数人都感到知识肯定不仅仅是信息。我2岁的女儿就能告诉你美国的第一任总统是乔治·华盛顿；列奥纳多·达·芬奇创作了《蒙娜丽莎》这幅油画。但是，她真的―知道‖这些人物、艺术和政治的一般情况吗？当然不是。电脑尽管很擅长执行某些任务，譬如在网上预订机票，或清理银行账户，可对于那些人类天生俱有的东西，譬如对情感的理解，则特别笨拙。但是，如果说知识不是纯信息，那它就是经验了？经验当然很重要。譬如，只听一个人不停地谈论关于（骑自行车）过程的信息，是不可能学会骑自行车的。

Everyone is talking about the \et what is knowledge? It is a vague