耶鲁的“骷髅会”是什么？曾经的耶鲁校长小金曼布鲁斯特为什么拒绝加入

今天的这段对话，在谈论“骷髅会”，

耶鲁的“骷髅会”是什么？曾经的耶鲁校长小金曼布鲁斯特为什么拒绝加入

来听今天的讲解:

A:If only someone patted me on the shoulder and ordered me to go back to my room.

要是这时候有个人拍一下我肩膀，告诉我“回到你的房间去”就好了。

B:You want to join in the Skull and Bones?

你想加入骷髅会呀？

A:Yes. Don’t you?

是啊。你不想吗？

B:I do. But I don’t think any of us met their requirements. You know, to be one of its members, you need to be extremely excellent in every respect.

我也想。但是，我觉得我们俩都不够条件。要知道，想成为骷髅会的成员，自身条件必须在各个方面都很优越。

A:That’s true. I think it's every Yalie，s dream to join it. No one will be fool enough to refuse the request from Skull and Bones.

那倒是。我想，每个耶鲁人都梦想加入骷髅会吧。一旦受到遨请，没有人会傻到拒绝它。

B:I heard that there was somebody who said NO to the organization. It’s former Yale President Kingman Brewster Jr. Do you know him?

我可听说，有一个人曾经对骷髅会说"不”哦。就是曾经的耶鲁校长小金曼布鲁斯特。你知道他吗？

A:Yes, of course I do. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. And as an undergraduate, he was the chairman of The Yale Daily News. He was also an ardent opponent of America’s intervention into World War II and was an outspoken isolationist. No wonder he was valued by Skull and Bones.

是的，当然知道。他出身豪门，大学期间，又担任《耶鲁每日新闻> 的主编，是一名热情的反战者，反对美国介入二战，还是一位直言不讳的孤立主义者。难怪他会被骷髅会看中呢。

B:But why he refused such a good opportunity?

可是，他为什么拒绝这么好的机会呢？

A:God knows.

谁知道呢。

B:Anyway, he was really something. There were a lot of awe-inspiring events in his whole lifetime. You know, when he served as Yale president, he weathered a succession of controversies such as rejecting calls to dismiss the university chaplain.

不管怎么说，他真是个了不起的人物。他一生中做过许多令人肃然起敬的事情。 你应该知道吧，他做耶鲁校长的时候，经受住了一系列争议，比如，他拒绝解聘校园牧师

A:What’s more, under Mr. Brewster, Yale enhanced the quality of its faculty and student body and added new programs in various fields. Thanks to his effort, Yale has grown to be a first-rate academic program that was excellent in many areas.

此外，在布鲁斯特校长的领导下，耶鲁的教职工水平及学生层次都得到了提高， 各个领域都增加了许多新项目。由于他的努力，耶鲁大学形成了在各个领域都很 出色的一流的学术体系。

B:That’s true. Yale is where she is because of those wisdom presidents. Ah, one great contribution of Mr. Brewster was that during his tenure, Yale enrolled more minority students and began admitting women as undergraduates.

是的。耶鲁能有今天，那些英明的校长们功不可设。对了，布鲁斯特校长还有一个伟大贡献,就是在他任职期间，耶鲁扩招少数民族的学生,并且开始招收女大学生。

A:But by 1977, the year he stepped down from his Yale post, there was widespread criticism of his presidency and of university activities and policies in his era. Yale had various financial problems.

但是，到他1977年离职的时候，针对他任内的业绩、组织的活动、实行的政策， 存在大片谴责之声。那时候，耶鲁面临着各种各样的财政问题。

B:You mean his attitude toward antiwar protesters and people in the civil rights movement on the Yale campus?

你是指他对校内的反战者以及民权运动者的态度吗？

A:Yeah, there was widespread ill feeling among alumni who believe that Mr. Brewster was too lenient toward those people. But I don’t agree.

是的。校友们对此存在普遍不满，他们认为布鲁斯特对那些人太仁慈了。但是， 我不这样认为。

B:I see. During the Vietnam War in 1960s, the U.S. government ordered that Conscientious Objectors are not allowed to be granted scholarship. While many prestigious universities in U.S. followed this instruction, Yale still adhered to its academic independence and continued to put the applicant’s performance as the sole principle for scholarship, without observing government’s regulations.

这我知道。20世纪60年代正值越战期间，美国政府下令：凡是自称以道德或宗 教理由反战的学生一律不准得到奖学金。当时美国许多名校都遵照政府的指示行 事，惟独耶鲁坚守学术独立的一贯作风，仍以申请者的成绩为考虑奖学金的惟一 原则，完全漠视政府的规定。

A:As a result, Yale lost a large number of funds from the federal government and went into financial troubles several times.

结果，耶鲁失去了来自联邦政府的一大笔基金，经济上一度陷入困境。

B:However, in my opinion, Mr. Brewster did the right thing because he maintained Yale’s spirit.

但是，我认为，布鲁斯特校长做得对，他维护了耶鲁的精神。

A:Great minds think alike. As a matter of fact, he did gain respect from both Yalies and Non-Yalies, including the Harvard president.

英雄所见略同。事实上,他确实赢得了耶鲁内外人士的尊敬,包括当时的哈佛校长。

B:Well, I'm leaving since it’s hopeless for the Skull and Bones to discover me. How about you?

哦，我看等骷髅会的人发掘我是没戏了，我要走了。你呢？

A:Let’s go together.

我们一起走吧。