新编英语教程6Unit 7 text I Beauty.docx

1、新编英语教程新编英语教程 6Unit 7 text I Beauty Unit 7 text I Beauty Some sayings on Beauty 1.The good is the beautiful.-Lysias,Plato(428?BC-347?BC,Greek philosopher)2.“Beauty is truth,truth beauty,”that is all -Ode on a Grecian Urn,John Keats(1795-1821,British poet.)3.The beautiful is the symbol of the morally

2、good.-Critique of Judgement Immanuel Kant(1724-1804,German philosopher)4.beauty is goodness.-The Kreutzer Sonata,Leo Tolstoy(1828-1910,Russian writer)5.Beauty is altogether in the eye of the beholder.情人眼里出西施，美只是自我观感 Molly Bawn,Margaret Wolfe Hungerford(1855?-1897,Irish novelist)1.lamely，weakly，(lit)

3、unable to walk，站不住的-(extended)When used to describe an excuse,argument,remark as“lame”,it means“weak”,“poor”（牵强的、勉强的、）e,g,(I didnt hand in the assignment).My lame excuse was that I had too much else to do.(He didnt say“hello”to me the other day we met.)“I didnt recognize you,”he said lamely.2.parado

4、xical-incongruous,self-contradictory.Example:It is paradoxical that an intelligent child like him should write such a poor hand.It is paradoxical that the loneliest people live in the most crowded places.paradox(n.)-a situation which involves two opposite facts.Examples:There are a lot of paradoxes

5、in real life.It is a paradox that racial discrimination and protection of human rights should coexist in some countries.3.seductive，attractive，charming 4.pedagogical，of teaching pedagogue-(archaic/derogatory)school master,teacher(教书匠)pedagogy science of teaching 教学法 5.wary-cautious，careful Example:P

6、eople are understandably wary of the new government.Having been taken in several times by street peddlers,he is now very wary of them.Im very wary about believing these stories.6.throes，“intense or violent pain and struggles”in the throes of-in the middle of doing something very difficult.;be deeply

7、 involved in something.Examples:The country was in the throes of political reform.The company was then in the throes of reorganization.正处于改制的混乱和痛苦中）We are in the throes of drawing a blueprint for the reorganization of the Students Union.7.narcissism，the habit of excessive admiring oneself.8.obligati

8、on，duty，requirements 9.fretful，irritable，complaining，worried or unhappy about something，10.pass muster，qualify，meet the requirements 11.depreciation，devaluation；a disparaging or belittling act 12.censure-an expression of blame，harsh criticism 13.preenpreen，trim oneself carefully；dress with elaborate

9、 care 14.interminable，endless Beauty Susan Sontag Pre-reading questions 1.It is believed that almost without exception everyone wishes to be beautiful.However what kind of beauty is more important,internal beauty or external beauty?2.Is there any universally acceptable criterion for judging beauty?1

10、 For the Greeks,beauty was a virtue:a kind of excellence.Persons then were assumed to be what we now have to calllamely,enviouslywhole persons.If it did occur to the Greeks to distinguish between a persons“inside”and“outside”,they still expected that inner beauty would be matched by beauty of the ot

11、her kind.美之于古希腊人是一种德性，一种美德。今天看来，他们就是我们如今所谓的“全面的人”，虽然这个称呼有点不理直气壮，并且带有嫉妒之意。倘若让古希腊人区分一个人的“内在”和“外在”，他们仍期望内在美是需要与其他种类之美相匹配的。The well-born young Athenians who gathered around Socrates found it quite paradoxical that their hero was so intelligent,so brave,so honorable,so seductiveand so ugly.One of Socrate

12、s main pedagogical acts was to be uglyand teach those innocent,no doubt splendid-looking disciples of his how full of paradoxes life really was.那些聚集在苏格拉底身边的雅典青年人发现自己的偶像是如此得聪慧、勇敢、正直、充满诱惑力，而同时又那么得丑，这是多么自相矛盾啊。而苏格拉底主要的教学手段之一即为“丑”，告诉这些天真却拥有毋庸置疑般美貌的门生，真正的人生是充满悖论的。2 They may have resisted Socrates lessons.

13、We do not.Several thousand years later,we are more wary of the enchantments of beauty.We not only split off with the greatest facility-the“inside”(character,intellect)from the“outside”(looks);but we are actually surprised when someone who is beautiful is also intelligent,talent,good.他们或许能够抗拒苏格拉底的学说。

14、而我们做不到。几千年以后，美的魅惑使我们更加小心。我们不仅用最容易的方式将“内在美”（性格，心智）和“外在美”（外貌）割离开来，而且我们也对那些既有美貌亦有智慧天赋之人，感到诧异。3 It was principally the influence of Christianity that deprived beauty of the central place it had classical ideals of human excellence.By limiting excellence(virtus in Latin)to moral virtue only,Christianity

15、set beauty adriftas an alienated,arbitrary,superficial enchantment.美自古就是经典的人类优秀品格理想标准，而将其从如此最重要位置赶走的首要原因来自基督教的影响。通过把美德（拉丁语为 virtus）的概念限定到仅仅指伦理道德，基督教放逐了“美”把美当成一种异化的，武断的，肤浅的诱惑。And beauty has continued to lose prestige.For close to two centuries it has become a convention to attribute beauty to only on

16、e of the two sexes:the sex which,however Fair,is always Second.Associating beauty with women has put beauty even further on the defensive,morally.同时美不断丢失了它原本的美名。到二世纪末的时候，美成为一种约定概念，美仅用于两性之一的性别：这个性别纵然是美好的，但却处于第二位置。将美与女性联系起来，使得美在道德层面上更加受到指责。4 A beautiful woman,we say in English.But a handsome man.“Hand

17、some”is the masculine equivalent of and refusal of aa compliment which has accumulated certain demeaning overtones,by being reserved for women only8.That one can call a man “beautiful”in French and in Italian suggest that Catholic countriesunlike those countries shaped by the Protestant version of C

18、hristianitystill retain some vestiges of the pagan admiration for beauty.在英语里，我们说一位女子是美丽的。但是我们却说一位男子是英俊的。“英俊”是其阳性的等同词，同时拒绝一种带有某些贬义暗示的赞扬，而这种赞扬是仅用于女性的。在法语和意大利语里，人们可以称男子是“美丽的”，这暗示着这些天主教国家依旧保留了前基督教时期欣赏“美”的痕迹，而这些痕迹在新教国家中已经荡然无存。But the difference,if one exists,is of degree only.In every modern country tha

19、t is Christian or post-Christian,women are the beautiful sexto the detriment of the notion of beauty as well as of women.但即使存在，差别也只是程度不同而已。在任何一个基督教或者后基督教国家里，女性就是那个美丽的性别既损害了美这个概念，也损害了女性这个概念。5 To be called beautiful is thought to name something essential to womens character and concerns.(In contrast t

20、o menwhose essence is to be strong,or effective,or competent.)It does not take someone in the throes（挣扎）of advanced feminist awareness to perceive（感知）that the way women are taught to be involved with beauty encourages narcissism,reinforces dependence and immaturity.被称为“美”意味着要列举出一些针对女性十分本质的特征和她们所关心的事

21、物。（与男比较，男子的本质是身体强壮、工作有效率，或者工作有能力。）那些拥有超前女性意识的人不费力气就能感受到，让女性和“美”联系起来，会助长她们孤芳自赏的态度，也会让她们更加有依赖性且不成熟。Everybody(women and men)knows that.For it is “everybody”,a whole society,that has identified being feminine with caring about how one looks.(In contrast to being masculinewhich is identified with caring

22、about what one is and does only secondarily,if at all,about how one looks.)Given these stereotypes,it is no wonder that beauty enjoys,at best,a rather mixed reputation.所有人（女性和男性）都认识到这点。因为“所有人”，整个社会，都很明确，作为女性就应该关心长相。（作为男性则不同：他们体现的身份特征是他们关心他们是什么品质的人，而不太在乎长相，即使在乎也是次要的。）有了这些老套的看法，我们就不难明白，即使从最好的方面来看，为什么“

23、美”也有着褒贬不一的名声。6 It is not,of course,the desire to be beautiful that is wrong but the obligation to be or to try.What is accepted by most women as a flattering idealization of their sex is a way of making women feel inferior to what they actually areor normally grow to be.For the ideal of beauty is ad

24、ministered as a form of self-oppression.当然，对美的崇拜并没有什么错，错就错在认为美是一种义务，并且试图想要变美。，大多数女性都可以接受的方式是：由于女性处于被讨好的理想化位置，让她们觉得自己比实际情况来的差劲，因为美的理想受制于一种自我压制的状态。Women are taught to see their bodies in parts,and to evaluate each part separately.Breasts,feet,hips,waistline,neck,eyes,nose,complexion,hair and so oneach

25、 in turn is submitted to an anxious,fretful,often despairing scrutiny.Even if some pass muster,some will always be found wanting.Nothing less than perfection will do.人们教导女性要从各部分区看待她们的身体，并且要分别评价每一个部分。胸部、腿、臀部、腰、颈、眼睛、鼻子、肤色、头发等等每一部分都需要一番焦虑、苦恼，甚至绝望的审视。即使有些部分符合要求，但其他部位总是有待完美。只有完美无瑕了，才能无可挑剔。7 In men,goo lo

26、oks is a whole,something taken in a glance.In does not need to be confirmed by giving measurements of different regions of the body.Nobody encourages a man to dissect his appearance,feature by feature.As for perfection,that is considered trivialalmost unmanly.Indeed,in the ideally good-looking man a

27、 small imperfection or blemish is considered positively desirable.在男人身上，好的外表是一个整体，是那种一眼扫过的东西。并不需要通过测量身体每个部分来做出最后的确认。没有人会鼓励男性去一部分一部分地细查自己的外貌。至于完美，那是被认为无关紧要的，并且几乎是不男性化的。的确，对于一些理想中的美男子，一点小瑕疵反而是让人喜欢的。According to one movie critic(a woman)who is a declared Robert Redford fan,it is having that cluster of

28、skin-colored moles on one cheek that saves Redford from being merely a“pretty face”.Think of the depreciation of womenas well as of beautythat is implied in that judgment.有一位女性电影评论家，她自称是美国演员罗伯特-雷德福德的影迷，她觉得正是因为其脸颊一侧有一颗肉色的痣，才使得雷德福德不被当做仅仅有一张“漂亮的脸蛋”（演员）。想想这个评价里既暗示了对女性的贬低，也暗示了对“美”的标准贬低。8“The privileges o

29、f beauty are immense,”said Cocteau11.To be sure,beauty is a form of power.And deservedly so.What is lamentable is that it is the only form of power that most women are encouraged to seek.This power is always conceived in relation to men;it is not the power to do but the power to attract.It is a powe

30、r that negates itself.For this power is not one can be chosen freelyor renounced without social censure.“美的特权是无限的，”法国著名诗人让 科克托如是说。毫无疑问，美是一种力量，并且理因如此。但遗憾的是，如今人们只鼓励大多数的女性去追求这种力量。这种力量的获得总是和男性联系起来。这力量不是去做什么事，而是去吸引人。这种力量否定了自身。因为这种力量并不是一个人所能自我选择的，至少不是女性可以自我选择的，或者说如果她们声称要放弃这种力量的话，是要受到社会谴责的。9 To preen,for a

31、 woman,can never be just for a pleasure.It is also a duty.It is her work.If a woman does real workand even if she has clambered up to a leading position in politics,law,medicine,business,or whatevershe is always under pressure to confess that she still works at being attractive.对女性来说，梳妆打扮绝不是乐趣，更是责任，

32、是她的工作。如果一位女士做着实际的工作，乃至她在政治、法律、医学、商界或别的什么领域爬到了领导层位置，她也总是背负着压力，时刻要确保她在工作的时候还保持着吸引人的魅力。But insofar as she is keeping up as one of the Fair Sex,she brings under suspicion her very capacity to be objective,professional,authoritative,and thoughtful.Damned if they dowomen are.And damned if they dont.但只要她仍然

33、是“漂亮的性别”中的一员，那她就一直要受到怀疑是否有能力保持客观、专业、权威和缜密。如果真成为了那样的人，那样的女人真糟透了！如果她们不是这样，那也糟透了！10 One could hardly ask for more important evidence of the dangers of considering persons as split between what is“inside”and what is“outside”than that interminable half-comic half-tragic tale,the oppression of women.How easy it is to start off by defining women as caretakers of their surfaces,and then to disparage them(