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新视野大学英语读写教程第四册unit1-ab-Section A and Section B

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 (The Temptation of a Respectable Woman)

Mrs.Baroda was a little annoyed to learn that her husband expected his friend, Gouvernail, up to spend a week or two on the plantation.

 

Gouvernail's quiet personality puzzled Mrs.Baroda. After a few days with him, she could understand him no better than at first. She left her husband and his guest, for the most part, alone together, only to find that Gouvernail hardly noticed her absence. Then she imposed her company upon him, accompanying him in his idle walks to the mill to press her attempt to penetrate the silence in which he had unconsciously covered himself. But it hardly worked.

 

"When is he going — your friend?" she one day asked her husband. "For my part, I find him a terrible nuisance."

 

"Not for a week yet, dear. I can't understand; he gives you no trouble."

 

"No. I should like him better if he did — if he were more like others, and I had to plan somewhat for his comfort and enjoyment."

 

Gaston pulled the sleeve of his wife's dress, gathered his arms around her waist and looked merrily into her troubled eyes.

 

"You are full of surprises," he said to her. "Even I can never count upon how you are going to act under given conditions. Here you are," he went on, "taking poor Gouvernail seriously and making a fuss about him, the last thing he would desire or expect."

 

"Fuss!" she hotly replied. "Nonsense! How can you say such a thing! Fuss, indeed! But, you know, you said he was clever."

 

"So he is. But the poor fellow is run down by too much work now. That's why I asked him here to take a rest."

 

"You used to say he was a man of wit," she said, still annoyed. "I expected him to be interesting, at least. I'm going to the city in the morning to have my spring dresses fitted. Let me know when Mr.Gouvernail is gone; until that time I shall be at my aunt's house."

 

That night she went and sat alone upon a bench that stood beneath an oak tree at the edge of the walk. She had never known her thoughts to be so confused; like the bats now above her, her thoughts quickly flew this way and that. She could gather nothing from them but the feeling of a distinct necessity to leave her home in the next morning.

 

Mrs.Baroda heard footsteps coming from the direction of the barn; she knew it was Gouvernail. She hoped to remain unnoticed, but her white gown revealed her to him. He seated himself upon the bench beside her, without a suspicion that she might object to his presence.

 

"Your husband told me to bring this to you, Mrs.Baroda," he said, handing her a length of sheer white fabric with which she sometimes covered her head and shoulders. She accepted it from him and let it lie in her lap.

 

He made some routine observations upon the unhealthy effect of the night breeze at that season. Then as his gaze reached out into the darkness, he began to talk.

 

Gouvernail was in no sense a shy man. His periods of silence were not his basic nature, but the result of moods. When he was sitting there beside Mrs.Baroda, his silence melted for the time.

 

He talked freely and intimately in a low, hesitating voice that was not unpleasant to hear. He talked of the old college days when he and Gaston had been best friends, of the days of keen ambitions and large intentions. Now, all there was left with him was a desire to be permitted to exist, with now and then a little breath of genuine life, such as he was breathing now.

 

Her mind only vaguely grasped what he was saying. His words became a meaningless succession of verbs, nouns, adverbs, and adjectives; she only drank in the tones of his voice. She wanted to reach out her hand in the darkness and touch him — which she might have done if she had not been a respectable woman.

 

The stronger the desire grew to bring herself near him, the further, in fact, did she move away from him. As soon as she could do so without an appearance of being rude, she pretended to yawn, rose, and left him there alone.

 

Mrs.Baroda was greatly tempted that night to tell her husband — who was also her friend — of this foolishness that had seized her. But she did not yield to the temptation. Besides being an upright and respectable woman she was also a very sensible one.

 

When Gaston arose the next morning, his wife had already departed, without even saying farewell. A porter had carried her trunk to the station and she had taken an early morning train to the city. She did not return until Gouvernail was gone from under her roof.

 

There was some talk of having him back during the summer that followed. That is, Gaston greatly desired it; but this desire yielded to his honorable wife's vigorous opposition.

 

However, before the year ended, she proposed, wholly from herself, to have Gouvernail visit them again. Her husband was surprised and delighted with the suggestion coming from her.

 

"I am glad, my dear, to know that you have finally overcome your dislike for him; truly he did not deserve it."

 

"Oh," she told him, laughingly, after pressing a long, tender kiss upon his lips, "I have overcome everything! You will see. This time I shall be very nice to him."

(Words: 927)

The Obligations and Responsibilities to Marriage

I had given a talk on family change one night. At dinner afterwards I was subjected to a hostile quizzing by a group of women in their thirties who claimed that my whole analysis ignored the most basic change of all. They took offense to my statement that a family consists of a husband, a wife and children, they said. They, as a group of single women,

 

were best friends, supported one another, and defined one another as "family". Marriage and having kids were now irrelevant, and in their opinion, that was the most basic social change. Looking back on it, I find they were right, but this rising tide of change is itself the problem.

 

Family is, if anything, the link between generations, the center of child rearing and cultural transmission. It's not just a " big stadium " where everyone can enjoy the show. Both marriage and family involve long-term obligations and responsibility for shared care, not just the search of happiness, that hollow goal of the modern age.

 

It seems that love has got out of hand. The modern nuclear family was rooted in the desire to live happily in a more equal marriage, where the raising of children and the investment of both parents in the children's lives were guaranteed by bonds of friendship between the parents, which were based on rational love.

 

There is a natural tendency for any relationship based on voluntary affection to come apart, but marriage provides the glue needed to keep a couple together by providing ties of family, in conjunction with the obligations of parents to children. What people call the new Love Family, unfortunately, has replaced a permanent relationship with a new ideal of unlimited choice.

 

We can now not only choose our marriage partner, we also can divorce that partner at will, subject children to our own adult worship of happiness, and deny the other parent any regular contact with their children. We can even, if we want, interpret the term "family" to include people who are not related to us either by blood or marriage — a set of close friends who support one another, like the women I mentioned above. Throw in the faithful dog if you like. Family is whatever we want it to be.

 

The trouble is, such an elastic classification ignores the problem of children and the wider problem of caring for others. If marriage exists only as a romantic relationship that can be ended at will, and family exists only by virtue of bonds of affection, both marriage and family come second to the search for love.

 

Under this scheme, individuals attempt to march towards maximum happiness as they move through a procession of more or less satisfying romantic relationships. Children, relatives, and the ties of mutual obligation and care are left behind, with no place to go. Independent adults may find this okay.

 

But dependent children can't just be left behind when it's time to move on to a new relationship: they demand sacrifice and unselfishness, a long-term investment of the parents' time and money. The whole point of marriage is that it imposes clear obligations, not just the right to pursue your own happiness.

 

And the main obligation is to provide both emotional and practical care for children. The glory of burning passion may well have faded, and your love for your wife or husband may not be as exciting or satisfying as it once was, but going off in search of another love will not help your children.

 

The Love Family is either too casual for children — your friends have no obligation to provide for them — or it's too unstable, with adults moving on if the relationship no longer answers their search for perfect happiness. What divorce does is to damage children, making them into refugees as the people in their lives scatter in all directions.

 

I am aware of the complex research concerning the effects of divorce on children and I acknowledge that some children are better off without a violent father, a family income wasted on drinking or gambling, or unhappy parents taking out their anger on everyone in the family.

 

But divorce destroys the stability, security, and continuity that children need: it results in poverty for many women and children; it damages the natural link between father and children and replaces it with one of regulated, arranged visits; it removes the father from the household, the only sensible basis for a working parental relationship; it places a

 

terrible strain on the mother-child bond by saddling the mother with the double burden of playing the role of both mother and father; and it often interrupts the child's schooling, friendships and neighborhood contacts, those beginnings of trust and social relationships needed to mold a child into a healthy member of society.

 

It even weakens the child's links with grandparents and other family (usually on the father's side), and few lovers are willing to take on real responsibility for the welfare of another person's child. Love is not enough, compared with the presence and support of both a mother and a father. Nor,

 

I would venture to suggest, is love enough to sustain a marriage relationship. The Love Family, in the end, doesn't have to make concessions for children and relatives. And complete freedom will finally become our chain, leaving us with no choice but to live in loneliness, with no one who need to care about us.

 

    一个正派女人受到的诱惑
    得知丈夫请了他的朋友古韦内尔来种植园小住一两周,巴罗达太太有点不快。
    古韦内尔生性沉默,这令巴罗达太太颇为不解。 在一起待了几天,她仍感到对他很陌生。 她只得大部分时间让丈夫陪着客人, 但发现自己不在场几乎并未引起古韦内尔的注意。 而后她执意要陪他散步到磨坊去, 试图打破他这种并非有意的沉默, 但仍不奏效。
    "你的朋友,他什么时候走?" 有一天她问丈夫,"我觉得他太讨厌了。"
    "还不到一周呢,亲爱的。 我真不明白,他并没给你添麻烦呀。"
    "是没有。他要是真能添点麻烦,我倒喜欢他一些了。真希望他能像别人一样,那样我倒可以做点什么使他过得舒心。"
    加斯顿拉了拉妻子的衣袖,双手搂着她的腰,快乐地望着她那充满困惑的眼睛。
    "你可真让人吃惊," 他说,"我都说不准你什么时候会怎么做。 瞧你对古韦内尔顶真的样子,对他那么大惊小怪,这可是他最不希望的。"
    "大惊小怪!" 她急急回道,"瞎说,你怎么这么说! 大惊小怪,真是!但你可说过他挺聪明的。"
    "他是聪明。但工作太多,这可怜的家伙累垮了, 所以我才请他来这儿休息一阵。"
    "你常说他是个风趣的人,"太太仍在生气,"我以为他至少该风趣点。 明早我进城去试春装。 古韦内尔走了你告诉我。他走之前我就住姑妈家。"
    那晚她独自一人坐在路边橡树下的长凳上, 思绪从未这么乱过,就像头顶飞着的蝙蝠一样,忽东忽西。 她理不出丝毫头绪,只感到有一点很明确:她必须第二天一早就离开这里。
    巴罗达太太听到从谷仓那边传来了脚步声,她知道那是古韦内尔。 她不想让他看见自己,但她的白色长袍泄露了踪迹。 他在她身旁的长凳上坐下,丝毫不曾想到她可能会反对他坐在那儿。
    "您丈夫要我把这个带给您,巴罗达太太,"说着,他递上一块白色纱巾,这是她有时用来做披肩的。 她接了过来,放在腿上。
    他照例说了些诸如这个季节的夜风对身体不好之类的话。 后来,望着茫茫夜色,他开始谈了起来。
    古韦内尔可不是个腼腆的人。 他的沉默寡言决非天性,而是情绪使然。 坐在巴罗达太太身边,他的沉默暂时消失了。
    他以低沉迟缓的嗓音亲切而无拘束地娓娓而谈, 谈他在大学里与加斯顿是好朋友,谈那时曾雄心勃勃,志向高远。 而现在他只求能生存,只是偶尔才体验到一丝真正的生活的气息,就像此刻。
    巴罗达太太只是模模糊糊地感到他在说些什么。 他的话变成了一串毫无意义的动词、名词、副词和形容词;她陶醉在他的声音里。 她想在夜色里伸出手去触摸他--要不是个正派女子,她真会这么做。
    她越想靠近他,结果却越往后退。 为使自己不显得失礼,她借机假装打了个哈欠,起身离开了他。
    那晚,巴罗达太太很想把自己的一时荒唐告诉丈夫--也是她的朋友,但还是忍住了。 她是个正派体面的女人,也是个非常明智的女人。
    第二天早晨加斯顿起床时,妻子已经走了,也没有跟他道别。 脚夫把她的箱子送到火车站,她搭早班车进的城。 直到古韦内尔离开后她才回去。
    那年夏天,他们有时会谈到再请古韦内尔来种植园一事。 也就是说,加斯顿很希望这样,但经不住他那品行高洁的妻子的强烈反对。
    然而,快到年底时,妻子主动提出邀请古韦内尔再来。 听到妻子的建议,丈夫真是又惊又喜。
    "我真高兴,亲爱的,你终于不再讨厌他了。说真的,他不应该使你觉得讨厌。"
    "噢,"她笑着,在他唇上印了长长的温柔的一吻,"我一切都已经克服了! 你会看到的,这次我会对他很好。


    婚姻的义务与责任
    有天晚上,我就家庭的变革发表了一番谈话。 在随后的晚宴上,一群三十多岁的女士对我颇不友好地质问攻击了一番。她们声称我的整个分析忽视了家庭变革中最基本的变化。
    她们称对我所说的家庭由夫妻和子女组成的观点感到不快。 她们这个群体,个个单身,都是好朋友,互相扶持,彼此视作"家人"。 如今婚姻与生儿育女都已变得不再重要,她们认为这才是最基本的社会变革。
    回想一下,她们也没错,可是问题就出在这日益高涨的变化浪潮本身。 可以说,家庭是联系两代人的纽带,是养育孩子和传递文化的中心。 它可不是个 "大场馆",人人都可以进来娱乐一场。 婚姻和家庭意味着互相关爱的长期义务与责任,而不仅仅是寻求幸福,这一摩登时代的空洞目标。
    爱情现在似乎已经失控。 现代核心家庭原本基于对更为平等的婚姻关系中幸福生活的渴望。 在这样的家庭里,父母间由于理性的爱所带来的友好关系保证了他们能共同抚养孩子和共同在孩子身上投入。
    任何建立在自发爱恋基础上的关系都会趋于自然终止,但婚姻建立起家庭纽带,以及父母与子女间的责任义务,这就提供了将夫妇联结在一起的粘合剂。 不幸的是,人们称之为 "情爱家庭"的新模式以无约束的选择这一理想化的做法取代了夫妻间长相厮守的关系。
    现在我们不仅可以选择配偶,也可以任意与其离婚,将我们成人对幸福的崇拜置于孩子的利益之上,也可以阻止另一方与孩子有任何经常性的来往。 愿意的话我们甚至可以把 "家庭"看作包括一些与我们既无血缘关系、又无婚姻关系的人 --一些互相扶持的亲密朋友,就像前面所提到的那些女士。 如果你愿意的话,可以把那条忠实的狗也算在内。 我们想要家庭什么样,它就是什么样。
    问题是,对家庭的这种灵活的归类忽视了孩子,也忽视了关怀他人这一更广泛的问题。 如果婚姻仅是一种可随意终止的浪漫关系,如果家庭仅由感情来维系,那么婚姻和家庭与追求爱情相比就只能退居其次了。 在这样的模式下,个人会去经历一次又一次带来或多或少满足感的浪漫关系,以便追求最大程度的幸福, 而将孩子、亲属、相互间的责任和关爱统统置于脑后,全然不顾。
    这对能独立生活的成年人没有问题。 但在建立新关系的同时不能不考虑尚未独立的孩子。 他们需要我们做出自我牺牲和无私奉献,也就是父母对子女在金钱和时间上的长期投入。
    婚姻的全部意义就在于它予以夫妻双方清晰的责任义务,而不仅仅是追求个人幸福的权利。 而主要的责任就是给孩子感情上和实际上的关爱。 激情的光焰可能早已减退,对妻子或丈夫的爱也许不及当初那般令人兴奋、那般美满,但转而寻求新的爱情不会对孩子有好处。 "情爱家庭"对孩子来说,要么太随意 —— 新的伴侣对你的孩子没有抚养责任,要么太不稳定,成年人一旦感到他们的关系无法满足自己对完美幸福的追求,就会转而他求。
    离婚造成的是对孩子的伤害,使他们随着身边人的离散而成了流亡者。 我注意到一些关于离婚对孩子的影响的综合性研究。 我承认,如果没有狂暴的父亲,家里的钱没有被浪费在酗酒或赌博上,父母感到不快时不会对家里每个人撒气,一些孩子会生活得更好。
    但是离婚摧毁了孩子所需要的稳定感、安全感、整体感,造成了很多妇女儿童的贫困,破坏了父亲与子女间的自然联系,代之以人为安排的定期探视。 离婚使父亲离开了家庭,这惟一的父亲与子女间关系赖以存在的合理基础不复存在。 离婚使得母亲既当母亲又当父亲而不堪重负,从而造成母子关系的紧张。 离婚也常使孩子中断学业、友情、邻里关系,而这正是使孩子能健康地融入社会所必需的信任感和人际关系的开端。 离婚甚至削弱了孩子与祖父母、与对方家庭(通常为父亲一方)的联系,而情人间几乎没有人愿为另一人的孩子的幸福真正承担责任。
    与双亲家庭和睦相处、相互支持相比,仅有爱是不够的。 我想冒昧地说,要维系婚姻关系,仅有爱也是不够的。 说到底,"情爱家庭"不用为孩子和亲属做出让步。 彻底的自由最终会成为我们的锁链,使我们别无选择,只能生活在孤独中,没有人来关怀我们。
 

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