第四冊 Unit 11. If you ask me, real life is not all its cracked up to be. Twelve years at school and three years at university, teachers banging on about opportunities in the big wide world beyond our sheltered life as students, and what do I find?Try as I might to stay cheerful, all I ever get is hassle, sometimes with people (especially boys, god, when will they grow up?), but mostly with money. Its just so expensive out here! Everyone wants a slice off you. The Inland Revenue wants to deduct income tax, the bank manager wants repayments on my student loan, the landlord wants the rent, gas, water, electricity and my mobile bills keep coming in, and all thats before Ive had anything to eat. And then some bright spark calls me out of the blue, asking if Im interested in buying a pension. At this rate, I wont even last till the end of the year, let alone till Im 60.依我看，現實生活與人們想象的不一樣。我們上了12年的中、小學，又上了3年的大學，這期間老師們一直在沒完沒了地談論在安寧的學生生活之外那個廣闊天地里的各種機會，可我遇到的又是什么呢？無論我怎么想保持心情愉快，麻煩事總是接踵而來：有時是跟人爭吵（尤其是跟男孩，天哪！他們什么時候才能長大？），但通常是為錢發愁。這個地方什么東西都很貴！人人都想從我身上拿點錢去：國稅局要收個人所得稅，銀行經理要我償清學生貸款，房東催我交房租、燃氣費、水費、電費，手機賬單也不斷地寄來。所有這些還沒算上吃飯的錢。更可氣的是，不知從哪里冒出一個自作聰明的家伙冷不丁地給我打電話，問我要不要買養老金。照這樣下去，我連今年都活不過去了，更別提活到60歲領養老金了。2.我認為，選修第二專業并不適合每一位本科生。我大學本科主修英語專業，大一時就開始輔修經濟學了。無疑，我是班里最用功的學生。我竭盡全力想同時達到兩個不同專業的要求，但還是有不及格的時候。因為經濟學需要良好的數學基礎，我不得不花大量時間鉆研數學，因而忽略了英語學習。If you ask me, taking a second major isnt good for every undergraduate. In my freshman year as English major, I took economics as my minor. By all odds, I was the most hardworking student in my class. But try as I might to meet the requirements of the two different subjects, I still couldnt do well enough to pass all the exams. Given that the study of economics required a good command of mathematics, I had to spend so much time on math that I neglected my English major.第二學期,英國文學及宏觀經濟學兩門課不及格給我敲響了警鐘，這可是我一生中第一次考試不及格，這大大打擊了我的自信心。雖然我不是一個容易向命運低頭的人，在暑假結束的時候，我還是決定放棄經濟學，以免兩個專業都難以完成。當我只需修一個專業的時候，一切似乎又回到了正軌。 (if you ask me; odds; try as might; sap ones confidence; given that; bow to fate; come to a close; for fear that; now that)Failing English Literature and Macroeconomics in the second semester sounded the alarm for me. This was the first time I did not pass a course in my life, which had greatly sapped my confidence. Although I was not a man who would easily bow to fate, as the summer break came to a close, I decided to give up economics for fear that I would fail in both subjects. Now that I had only one subject to attend to, everything seemed to be on the right track again.第四冊Unit 51 .Women cant even fill out a form without telling stories about themselves. Most application forms now give four choices for titles. Men have one to choose “Mr.” so their choice carries no meaning other than to say they are male. But women must choose among three, each of them marked. A woman who checks the box for “Mrs.” or “Miss” communicates not only whether she has been married but also that she has conservative tastes in forms of address, and probably other conservative values as well. Checking “Ms.” declines to let on about marriage (whereas “Mr.” declines nothing since nothing was asked), butit also marks the woman who checks it on her form as either liberated or rebellious, depending on the attitudes and assumptions of the one making the judgment. I sometimes try to duck these variously marked choices by giving my title as “Dr.” and thereby risk marking myself as either uppity (hence sarcastic responses like “Excuse me!”) or an over-achiever (hence reactions of congratulatory surprise, like “Good for you!”). 女人一填表就會暴露自己的個人經歷。給出四種稱謂選擇。男人只有一種選擇，即“先生”(MR.)，這除了表明他們是男性之外沒有其他任何含義。女人則必須三種稱謂中選一個，而任何一種都是標記性的。如果一位女士勾選了“太太”（Mrs.）或者“小姐”（Miss）的稱謂，那么她不僅暴露了自己的婚姻狀況，而且還表明她在稱謂方面很保守，或許在其他價值觀方面也很保守。如果一位女士勾選了“太太”（Mrs.）或者“小姐”（Miss）的稱謂，那么她不僅暴露了自己的婚姻狀況，而且還表明她在稱謂方面很保守，或許在其他價值觀方面也很保守。另外，在表格中勾選“女士”這一稱謂的人會被標記為思想解放的人或叛逆者，這就要看評判她的人持什么樣的態度和看法了。我有時會選擇“博士”頭銜，以避開這幾種帶標記的稱謂選項。但這么做又會給自己帶來風險，標明自己要么驕傲自大（于是乎招來譏諷的反應，比如“對不起，我不知道你是博士！”），要么是一個成功欲過強的人（那么對方的反應就是祝賀式的驚奇，比如“你真行！”）。2.我們對理想丈夫或理想妻子的假設顯示出我們的性別期待以及我們對性別期待的反應。如果大多數年輕姑娘希望她們的未婚夫強悍、能干、可靠，那么小伙子們也就別無選擇，只能把自己訓練得強悍、能干、可靠，這樣才能贏得女孩子的芳心。如果他們的做法與性別期待背道而馳，那么他們很可能會在悲嘆自己的光棍生涯中度過下半輩子。根據同樣的不成文法則，如果多數年輕男子希望他們的未婚妻溫柔體貼、耐心、忠貞，認為這些比什么都重要，那么姑娘即便不是這種人，也會假裝自己將來會成為賢妻良母。深入研究一下這種性別期待，我們就會發現這是受生理和社會因素制約的。無疑，女性為孕育嬰兒做好了生理準備，而男人則完全不適合這項工作。男人只有努力掙錢養家，才能讓一家人過上好日子。Our presumptions about what ideal husbands or wives are like reveal a lot about our gender expectations as well as our responses to them. If most girls want their fiances to be tough, capable and reliable, there is no option left for young men other than to be trained as tough, capable and reliable if they want to win girls heart. If they act to the contrary, they will most probably bemoan their bachelors status for the rest of their lives. Following the same unwritten rule, if most boys expect their fiances to be caring, patient and faithful more than anything else, girls are prone to let on that they will become faithful wives and loving mothers even if they are not the type. Looking into such gender expectations, we may find that they are based on both physiological and social factors. It goes without saying that women are physically prepared to bear children, whereas men are utterly unfit for the job. Therefore, a family is better-off when its male members devote their time to providing food and other necessities for it.第四冊Unit 81.But architecture as a process and a means has other meanings. So much of architecture has the best intention of creating pleasure or a sense of satisfaction, even if it doesnt always succeed. It may be the moderate pleasure of combining form with function. The shanty towns in Rio or Mumbai demonstrate an organic architecture which has no overall layout or prescribed plan, and no obvious logic, but its function is to protect and shelter the inhabitants who would otherwise live in discomfort on the streets. Presumably, even the architects who designed the tower blocks of flats in the war-damaged cities of Britain in the 1960s and 1970s aspired to combine the economy of space to the maximum effect and for the benefit and pleasure of the people who were going to live there. There was nothing malign about their intentions, even though they were overoptimistic about the simplicity of imposing a new relationship between the space and the occupiers. In the end, it wasnt the neo-brutalism of the style or the materials square forms made of reinforced concrete, often located with little or no regard to the environment, and rising 20 or 30 floors into the cloudy British skies which brought criticism and scorn on this modernist architecture. It was the absence of gardens, shops and a sense of community which challenged and finally defeated this idealistic attempt to define a new way of living in cities.然而，作為一種方法和手段，建筑藝術還有其他的意義。就算不一定 能做到，那么多的建筑藝術還是一心一意要給人創造愉悅或滿足感。這種 愉悅可能是形式和功能完美結合所帶來的那種適度的愉悅。里約熱內盧和 孟買的棚屋鎮向我們展示了一種有機建筑，它們沒有總體布局，沒有既定 的規劃，也沒有什么明顯的邏輯，但它們可以為居民遮風擋雨，為他們提 供安身之所。如果沒有這些棚屋，他們就得露宿街頭，過著顛沛流離的生 活。 或許 20世紀 60、70年代那些為被戰火摧殘的英國城市設計公寓塔樓的建 筑師們也想最大限度地節約空間，同時保障入住居民的利益和愉悅。他們 的愿望沒什么不好的，但是他們過于樂觀，以為可以簡單地在空間和居住 者之間強行建立起一種新的關系。最終，讓這種現代主義建筑備受批評和 蔑視的并不是風格和材料上的新野性主義用強化混凝土澆鑄的方形建 筑，選址時幾乎不顧及對環境的影響，二、三十層拔地而起，直插英國陰 云密布的天空。這種建筑沒有花園，沒有商店，沒有社區感，正是這一點 使得那些建筑師重新定義都市生活的理想主義的嘗試遭遇挑戰，并最終徹底失敗。2.新的國家博物館建成之后，一些市民和建筑師對于在 一群極其美麗精 巧的古建筑中建造一座現代建筑 感到憤怒。 其高昂的維護費用和古怪的形 狀也引發了 大量的批評。顯然，許多人對在這個古城中涌現 的時髦的現 代建筑感到不舒服。不過，也有不少藝術 家和市民覺得這些批評沒有看到 該建筑的美和藝 術上的成熟。 在一個公眾日益崇拜西方技術和風格的時代里， 這座 建筑所引發的爭 論促使許多人開始思考這座城市 里古建筑的未來。古建筑復雜而奢華，大 規模建造過 于昂貴。而現代西方建筑常常很難跨越文化的障 礙?；蛟S應 該采取更為溫和的方式，事先制定一個總 體的規劃，讓古建筑得到妥善保 護，讓現代建 筑成為這個城市和諧的一部分。(indignant; exquisite; an outburst of; erect; do justice to; contemplate; worship; extravagance; transcend; moderate) When the new national museum was completed, some citizens and architects were indignant at the appearance of a modern building amidst the most beautiful and exquisite ancient buildings of the city. There was also an outburst of criticism of its high cost of maintenance and its strange shape. Obviously, some people felt