良人

What does the computer industry thrive on apart from anarchy?

  

    Technology trends may push Silicon Valley back to the future. Carver Mead, a pioneer in integrated circuits and a professor of computer science at the California Institute of Technology, notes there are now work-stations that enable engineers to design, test and produce chips right on their desks, much the way an editor creates a newsletter on a Macintosh. As the time and cost of making a chip drop to a few days and a few hundred dollars, engineers may soon be free to let their imaginations soar without being penalized by expensive failures. Mead predicts that inventors will be able to perfect powerful customized chips over a weekend at the office -- spawning a new generation of garage start-ups and giving the U.S. a jump on its foreign rivals in getting new products to market fast. 'We're got more garages with smart people,' Mead observes. 'We really thrive on anarchy.'

    And on Asians. Already, orientals and Asian Americans constitute the majority of the engineering staffs at many Valley firms. And Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Indian engineers are graduating in droves from California's colleges. As the heads of next-generation start-ups, these Asian innovators can draw on customs and languages to forge righter links with crucial Pacific Rim markets. For instance, Alex Au, a Stanford Ph. D. from Hong Kong, has set up a Taiwan factory to challenge Japan's near lock on the memory-chip market. India-born N.Damodar Reddy's tiny California company reopened an AT & T chip plant in Kansas City last spring with financing from the state of Missouri. Before it becomes a retirement village, Silicon Valley may prove a classroom for building a global business.

                       

US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, October 2, 1989

  

New words and expressions 生词和短语

  

    silicon

n.  硅

    integrated

adj. 综合的

    circuit

n.  线路，电路

    California

n.  加利福尼亚（美国州名）

    workstation

n.  工作站

    chip

n.  芯片，集成电路片，集成块

    newsletter

n.  时事通讯

    Macintosh

n.  苹果机，一种个人电脑

    penalize

v.  处罚，惩罚

    customize

v.  按顾客具体需要制造

    spawn

v.  引起，酿成

    thrive

v.  兴旺，繁荣

    anarchy

n.  无政府状态，混乱

    oriental

n.  东方人

    constitute

v.  构成

    drove

n.  群

    innovator

n.  发明者

    forge

v.  发展

    memory-chip

n.  内存条

    AT & T

    美国电话电报公司 (American Telephone and Telegraph)

    Kansas

n.  堪萨斯（美国州名）

    Missouri

n.  密苏里（美国州名）

  

参考译文


    技术的发展趋势有可能把硅谷重新推向未来。卡弗.米德 -- 集成电路的一位先驱，加州理工学院的计算机教授 -- 注意到，现在有些计算机工作站使工程技术人员可以在他们的办公桌上设计、试验和生产芯片，就像一位编辑在苹果机上编出一份时事通讯一样。由于制造一块芯片的时间已缩短至几天，费用也只有几百美元，因此，工程技术人员可能很块就可充分发挥他们的想像力，而不会因失败而造成经济上的损失。米德预言发明者可以在办公室用一个周末的时间生产了完美的、功能很强的、按客户需求设计的芯片 -- 造就新一代从汽车间起家的技术人员，在把产品推向市场方面使美国把它的外国对手们打个措手不及。 我们有更多的汽车间，那里有许多聪明人，米德说。我们确实是靠这种无政府状态发展起来的。 靠的是亚洲人。硅谷许多公司中工程技术人员的大多数是东方人和亚裔美国人。中国、韩国、菲律宾和印度的工程师一批批地从加州的大学毕业。作为新掘起一代的带头人，亚裔发明家可以凭借他们在习惯和语言上的优势，与关键的太平洋沿岸市场建立起更加牢固的联系。比如说，亚历克斯.奥，一位来自香港的斯坦福大学博士，已经在台湾建厂，对日本在内存条市场上近似垄断的局面提出了挑战。印度出生的N.达莫达.雷迪经营的小小的加州公司在堪萨斯城重新启用了美国电话电报公司的一家芯片工厂，并从密苏里州获取了财政上的支持。在硅谷变成一个退休村之前，它很可能成为建立全球商业的一个教学场地。

良人

How much of each year do spiders spend killing insects?

  

    Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race. Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals. We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the harm to us or our belongings.

    Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them. One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and insect never more than six.

    How many spiders are engaged in this work no our behalf? One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre; that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch. Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects. It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day. It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.

  

T. H. GILLESPLE Spare that spider from The Listener

  

New words and expressions

    beast

n.  野兽

    census

n.  统计数字

    acre

n.  英亩

    content

adj. 满足的

  

参考译文


    你可能会觉得奇怪， 蜘蛛怎么会是我们的朋友呢？因为它们能消灭那么多的昆虫，其中包括一些人类的大敌，要不是人类受一些食虫动物的保护，昆虫就会使我们无法在地球上生活下去，昆虫会吞食我们的全部庄稼，杀死我们的成群的牛羊。我们要十分感谢那些吃昆虫的鸟和兽，然而把它们所杀死的昆虫全部加在一起也只相当于蜘蛛所消灭的一小部分。此外，蜘蛛不同于其他食虫动物，它们丝毫不危害我们和我们的财物。

    许多人认为蜘蛛是昆虫，但它们不是昆虫，甚至与昆虫毫无关系。人们几乎一眼就能看出二者的差异，因为蜘蛛都是8条腿，而昆虫的腿从不超过6条。

    有多少蜘蛛在为我们效力呢？一位研究蜘蛛的权威对英国南部一块草坪上的蜘蛛作了一次调查。他估计每英亩草坪里有225万多只蜘蛛。这就是说，在一个足球场上约有600万只不同种类的蜘蛛。蜘蛛至少有半年在忙于吃昆虫。它们一年中消灭了多少昆虫，我们简直无法猜测，它们是吃不饱的动物，不满意一日三餐。据估计，在英国蜘蛛一年里所消灭昆虫的重量超过这个国家人口的总重量。

  

Audiences in the second decade of the twentieth century found it pleasant to escape to a time  when life, though hard, was relatively simple. We still do; living in a world in which undeclared  aggression, war, hypocrisy, chicanery, anarchy and impending immolation are part of our daily  lives, we all want a code to live by.

  

生活在20世纪20年代的观众认为，逃到一个即使艰苦但比较简朴的时代中去是件愉快的事，我们今天仍有 这种感觉。如今，不宣而战的侵略、战争、虚伪、诈骗、无政府状态以及即将临头的毁灭成了我们日常生活的 一部分，我们都希望有一个赖以生存的行为准则。

良人

What is the most important factor, both in government or business, for keeping running costs low?

  

    If a nation is essentially disunited, it is left to the government to hold it together. This increases the expense of government, and reduces correspondingly the amount of economic resources that could be used for developing the country. And it should not be forgotten how small those resources are in a poor and backward country. Where the cost of government is high, resources for development are correspondingly low.

    This may be illustrated by comparing the position of a nation with that of a private business enterprise. An enterprise has to incur certain costs and expenses in order to stay in business. For our purposes, we are concerned only with one kind of cost -- the cost of managing and administering the business. Such administrative overheads in a business are analogous to the cost of government in a nation. The administrative overheads of a business are low to the extent that everyone working in the business can be trusted to behave in a way that best promotes the interests of the firm. If they can each be trusted to take such responsibilities. and to exercise such initiative as falls within their sphere, then administrative overheads will be low. It will be low because it will be necessary to have only one man looking after each job, then the business will require armies of administrators, checkers, and foremen and administrative overheads will rise correspondingly. As administrative overheads rise, so the earnings of the business after meeting he expense of administration, will fall; and the business will have less money to distribute as dividends or invest directly in its future progress and development.

    It is precisely the same with a nation. To the extent that the people can be relied upon to behave in a loyal and responsible manner, the government does not require armies of police and civil servants to keep them in order. But if a nation is disunited, the government cannot be sure that the actions of the people will be in the interests of the nation; and it will have to watch, check, and control the people accordingly. A disunited nation therefore has to incur unduly high costs of government.

            

RAYMOND FROST The Backward Society

  

New words and expressions 生词和短语

    disunited

adj. 分裂的

    correspondingly

adv. 相应地

    backward

adj. 落后的

    incur

v.  承担

    administer

v.  管理

    adminstrative

adj. 行政管理的

    analogous

adj. 类似的

    overheads

n.  一般费用

    initiative

n.  主动，积极性

    checker

n.  检查人员

    foreman

n.  监工

    dividend

n.  红利

    unduly

adv. 过度地   

  

  

参考译文


    如果一个国家实际上处于分裂状态，使之联合起来就是政府的事了。这样的一来就增加了政府的开支，从而相应地减少了可以用来了展国家的那部分经济资源。不应忘记，在一个贫穷落后的国家里，那部分财力是很有限的。凡是政府管理费用高的地方，用于发展国家经济的资金就会相应地减少。

    把国家的状况同私人企业的状况加以比较，就可以看清这个问题。一个企业为了继续经营，不得不支出一定的费用和开销。就我们的目的而言，我们只关心一种费用 -- 企业行政管理费。一家企业的行政管理开支类似于一个国家的政府管理所用的开支。如果企业中的每个人都在真诚地为提高企业利润而工作，那么企业的管理费用就会降低到相应的程度。如果企业的每个人都信得过，人人都认真负责，在各自的工作范围内发挥主动性，行政管理费用就会降低。行政管理费用的降低的原因是：每项工作只需要一个人去完成，用不着另外再有一个人检查工作。督促他遵守章程，或向有关人士汇报他的工作。但是，如果企业中谁也不可信赖会对工作尽忠守职，那公企业就会需大批的管理人员、检查人员和带班人员，管理费用就会相应在增加。管理费用增加了，那么在扣除管理费用后，企业的收入就降低了。因此用于分红的金额就用于将来开拓和发展的投资就相应地减少了。

    一个国家的情况也完全相同。如果人民忠于职守，举止规矩，能受到政府的信赖，那么政府就不需要大批的警察和文职人员运去促使人民遵纪守法。但是，如果一个国家处于分裂状态，政府不能相信人民的行动有利于国家，那么政府就不得不对人民进行监督、检查和控制。因此，一个处于分裂的国家必须要支付过高的行政管理费用。

良人

What is the author's main argument about the modern city?

  

    In the organization of industrial life the influence of the factory upon the physiological and mental state of the workers has been completely neglected. Modern industry is based on the conception of the maximum production at lowest cost, in order that an individual or a group of individuals may earn as much money as possible. It has expanded without any idea of the true nature of the human beings who run the machines, and without giving any consideration to the effects produced on the individuals and on their descendants by the artificial mode of existence imposed by the factory. The great cities have been built with no regard for us. The shape and dimensions of the skyscrapers depend entirely on the necessity of obtaining the maximum income per square foot of ground, and of offering to the tenants offices and apartments that please them. This caused the construction of gigantic buildings where too large masses of human beings are crowded together. Civilized men like such a way of living. While they enjoy the comfort and banal luxury of their dwelling, they do not realize that they are deprived of the necessities of life. The modern city consists of monstrous edifices and of dark, narrow streets full of petrol fumes and toxic gases, torn by the noise of the taxicabs, lorries and buses, and thronged ceaselessly by great crowds. Obviously, it has not been planned for the good of its inhabitants.

      

ALEXIS CARREL Man, the Unknown

  

New words and expressions 生词和短语

  

    physiological

adj. 生理的

    maximum

adj. 最大限度的

    consideration

n.  考虑

    descendant

n.  子孙，后代

    artificial

n.  人工的

    impose

v.  强加

    dimension

n.  直径

    skyscraper

n.  摩天大楼

    tenant

n.  租户

    civilized

adj. 文明的

    banal

adj. 平庸

    luxury

n.  豪华

    deprive

v.  剥夺

    monstrous

adj. 畸形的

    edifice

n.  大厦

    toxic

adj. 有毒的

    ceaselessly

adv. 不停地

    throng

v.  挤满，壅塞

  

参考译文


    在工业生活的组织中，工厂对工人的生理和精神状态的影响完全被忽视了。现代工业的基本概念是：以最低成本获取最多产品，为的是让某个个人或某一部分人尽可能多地赚钱。现代工业发展起来了，却根本没想到操作机器的人的本质。工厂把一种人为的生存方式强加给工人，却不顾及这种生存方式给工人及其后代带来的影响。大城市的建设毫不关心我们。摩天大楼完全是按这样的需要修建的：每平方英尺地皮取得最大收入和向租房人提供使他满意的办公室和住房。这样就导致了许多摩天大厦拔地而起，大厦内众多的人挤地一起。文明人喜欢这样一种生活方式。在享受自己住宅的舒适和庸俗的豪华时，却没有意识到被剥夺了生活所必需的东西。大得吓人的高楼和阴暗狭窄的街道组成了今日现代化的城市。街道上充斥着汽油味和有毒气体，出租汽车、卡车、公共汽车的噪音刺耳难忍，络绎不绝的人群挤来挤去。显然，现代化的城市不是这居民的利益而规划的。

良人

What do you have to be able to do to appreciate sculpture?

  

    Appreciation of sculpture depends upon the ability to respond to form in there dimension. That is perhaps why sculpture has been described as the most difficult of all arts; certainly it is more difficult than the arts which involve appreciation of flat forms, shape in only two dimensions. Many more people are 'form-blind' than colour-blind. The child learning to see, first distinguishes only two-dimensional shape; it cannot judge distances, depths. Later, for its personal safety and practical needs, it has to develop (partly by means of touch) the ability to judge roughly three-dimensonal distances. But having satisfied the requirements of practical necessity, most people go no further. Though they may attain considerable accuracy in the perception of flat from, they do no make the further. Though they may attain considerable accuracy in the perception of flat form, they do not make the further intellectual and emotional effort needed to comprehend form in its full spatial existence.

    This is what the sculptor must do. He must strive continually to think of, and use, form in its full spatial completeness. He gets the solid shape, as it were, inside his head-he thinks of it, whatever its size, as if he were holding it completely enclosed in the hollow of his hand. He mentally visualizes a complex form from all round itself; he knows while he looks at one side what the other side is like, he identifies himself with its centre of gravity, its mass, its weight; he realizes its volume, as the space that the shape displaces in the air.

    And the sensitive observer of sculpture must also learn to feel shape simply as shape, not as description or reminiscence. He must, for example, perceive an egg as a simple single solid shape, quite apart from its significance as food, or from the literary idea that it will become a bird. And so with solids such as a shell, a nut, a plum, a pear, a tadpole, a mushroom, a mountain peak, a kidney, a carrot, a tree-trunk, a bird, a bud, a lark, a ladybird, a bulrush, a bone. From these he can go on to appreciate more complex forms of combinations of several forms.

            

HENRY MOORE The Sculptor Speaks from The Listener

  

New words and expressions 生词和短语

    colour-blind

adj. 色盲的

    perception

n.  知觉

    comprehend

v.  理解

    spatial

adj. 空间

    visualize

v.  使具形象，设想

    reminiscence

n.  回忆，联想

    tadpole

n.  蝌蚪

    mushroom

n.  蘑菇

    carrot

n.  胡萝卜

    bud

n.  花蕾

    lark

n.  云雀

    ladybird

n.  瓢虫

    bulrush

n.  芦苇

  

参考译文


    对雕塑的鉴赏力取决于对立体的反应能力。雕塑被说成是所有艺术中最难的艺术，可能就是这个道理。欣赏雕塑品当然比欣赏平面的艺术品要难。形盲的人数比色盲的人数要多得多。正在学看东西的儿童起初只会分辨二维形态，不会判断距离和深度。慢慢地，由于自身安全和实际需要，儿童必须发展（部分通过触觉）粗略判断三维空间距离的能力。但是。大部分人在满足了实际需要后，就不再继续发展这种能力了。虽然他们对平面形的感觉能达到相当准确的程度，但他们没有在智力和感情上进一步努力去理解存在于空间的整个形态。

    而雕塑家就必须做到这一点。他必须勤于想像并且利用形体在空间中的完整性。可以说，当他想像一个物体时，不管其大小如何，他脑子里得到的是一个立体的概念，就好像完全握在自己手心里一样。他的大脑能从物体周围的各个角度勾画出其复杂的形象，他看物体的一边时，便知道另一边是个什么样子。他把自身和物体重心、质量、重量融为一体。他能意识到物体的体积，那就是它的形状有空气中所占的空间。

    因此，敏锐的雕塑观赏者也必须学会把形体作为形体来感觉，不要靠描述和印象去想象。以鸟蛋为例。观赏者必须感觉到它是一个单一的实体形态，而完全不靠它的食用意义或它会变成鸟这样的文字概念来感觉。对于其他实体，如，贝壳、核桃、李子、梨子、蝌蚪、蘑菇、山峰、肾脏、胡萝卜、树干、鸟儿、花蕾、云雀、瓢虫、芦苇以及骨头也应这样来感觉。从这些形体出发，观赏者可进一步观察更为复杂的形体或若干形体的组合。

良人

What makes trading between rich countries difficult?

  

    Chickens slaughtered in the United States, claim officials in Brussels, are not fit to grace European tables. No, say the American: our fowl are fine, we simply clean them in a different way. These days, it is differences in national regulations, far more than tariffs, that put sand in the wheels of trade between rich countries. It is not just farmers who are complaining. An electric razor that meets the European Union's safety standards must be approved by American testers before it can be sold in the United States, and an American-made dialysis machine needs the EU's okay before is hits the market in Europe.

    As it happens, a razor that is safe in Europe is unlikely to electrocute Americans. So, ask businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, why have two lots of tests where one would do? Politicians agree, in principle, so America and the EU have been trying to reach a deal which would eliminate the need to double-test many products. They hope to finish in time for a trade summit between America and the EU on May 28TH. Although negotiators are optimistic, the details are complex enough that they may be hard-pressed to get a deal at all.

    Why? One difficulty is to construct the agreements. The Americans would happily reach one accord on standards for medical devices and them hammer out different pacts covering, say, electronic goods and drug manufacturing. The EU -- following fine continental traditions -- wants agreement on general principles, which could be applied to many types of products and perhaps extended to other countries.



From: The Economist, May 24th, 1997

  

New words and expressions 生词和短语

    slaughter

v.  屠宰

    fit

adj. 适合

    grace

v.  给...增光

    tariff

n.  关税

    standard

n.  标准

    dialysis

n.  分离，分解；透析，渗析

    electrocute

v.  使触电身亡

    eliminate

v.  消灭

    accord

n.  协议

    device

n.  仪器，器械

    hammer out

v.  推敲

    pact

n.  合同，条约，公约

  

参考译文



    布鲁塞尔的官员说，在美国屠宰的鸡不适于用来装点欧洲的餐桌。不，美国人说，我们的家禽很好，只是我们使用了另一种清洗方式。当前，是各国管理条例上的差异，而不是关税阻碍了发达国家之间的贸易。并不仅仅是农民在抱怨。一把符合欧洲联盟安全标准的电动剃须刀必须得到美国检测人员的认可，方可在美国市场上销售；而美国制造的透析仪也要得到欧盟的首肯才能进入欧洲市场。

    碰巧在欧洲使用安全的剃须刀不大可能使美国人触电身亡，因此，大西洋两岸的企业都在问，当一套测试可以解决问题时，为什么需要两套呢？政治家在原则上同意了， 因此，美国和欧洲一直在寻求达成协议，以便为许多产品取消双重检查。他们希望尽早达成协议，为5月28日举行的美国和欧洲贸易的最高通级会议作准备。然谈判代表持乐观态度，但协议细节如此复杂，他们所面临的困难很可能使他们无法取得一致。

    为什么呢？困难之一是起草这些协议。美国人很愿意就医疗器械的标准达成一个协议，然后推敲出不同的合同，用以涵盖 -- 比如说 -- 电子产品和药品的生产。欧洲人遵循优良的大陆传统，则希望就普遍的原则取得一致，而这些原则适用于许多不同产品，同时可能延伸到其它国家。

良人

Why Smart People Do Dumb Things

...and how to avoid their career-killing mistakes

      

为什么聪明人会做蠢事

...以及怎样避免他们那些扼杀前程的错误

  

  

By Mortimer R. Feinerg

  

      Why do smart people do such dumb things?  As a management consultant, I have studied a wide assortment of stupid decisions and weird actions taken by people with off-the-chart l.Q.s. From decades of personal observation, I have also learned that most of us make such mistakes sometime in our lives.  So understanding why the super-smart make career-killing bloopers can help us all avoid doing the same. Here are some reasons:

    [2] Arrogance, "Smart goys get used to knowing more than anybody else," says Brendan Sexton, vice president of New York's Rockefeller Group. "It's all too short a stop from there to thinking you know everything."

    [3] John Summu has a high I.Q. and did not keep it a secret. The combative former New Hampshire governor and White House chief of staff made many enemies in Congress, eschewing diplomacy for confrontation. Sununu once belittled Mississippi Sen .s Trent Lott, calling him "insignificant". Lott later became a member of the Senate Republican leadership.

    [4] Despite his genius-level 1.Q., Sununu made a mistake so foolish it amounted to professional suicide. He used military planes to go around the country on personal and political errands at a cost to taxpayer of hundreds of thousands of dollars. When calls for his resignation mounted and he needed defenders, the legions of insiders Sununu had angered rushed to stick knives in him.

    [5] Like the isolated world of Washington, the ivory towers of academia are fertile breeding ground for super-brain arrogance. In 1990, it was discovered that elite Stanford University was billing U.S. taxpayers for items that had nothing to do with government research, such as a 72-foot yacht and a reception for Stanford President Donald Kennedy's new wife. But Kennedy was unapologetic. Conceding that government funds had helped pay for "indirect research costs" that included napkins, ruble cloths and a dinner reception at his residence, Kennedy said, "I wouldn't be embarrassed about saying that every damn flower in the house ought to be an indirect cost against research.'

    [6] Kennedy handled the firestorm of outrage with self-defeating smugness. "He seemed to think that whatever he did was justifiable--because he did it,' says one Stanford insider. Within months, Kennedy had announced his resignation as president.

    [7]  Isolation.  From childhood on, high intelligence is an isolating factor. Bright youngster, feeling shut off from other kids, follow the pattern of our species and cluster among themselves. The same can happen in companies.

    [8]  "Smart people tend to surround themselves with other smart people," says

James W.  Wesley, Jr., president and CEO of Summit Communications. "That's good. But when the group starts relying on brilliance to the exclusion of experience, had things happen."

    [9] One danger is unwillingness to admit the need to change. "When smart people all agree with each other about a plan," observes Wesley, "they're apt to stay with the plan too long, even after others have seen that the direction is wrong."

    [10] A recent example is IBM.  For decades, the company enjoyed a near monopoly in the computer industry. Then the mainframe-computer market declined, 1987. Dogged by rumors of marital infidelity, Hart challenged reporters: "Follow me around." They did, and Hart was found with Donna Rice, a 29-year-old model. A tabloid ran a photo of Hart posing with Rice on his lap aboard a yacht named Monkey Business. Hafts Presidential ambitions were history, thanks to his own reckless actions.

    [14] Overreaching.  Many super-brains don't grasp a simple fact: brilliance

in one area is no guarantee of success in another.

    [l5] Victor Kiam, a Harvard Business School graduate, earned millions selling his Remington8 products in television commercials. In 1988, Kiam bought the New England Patriots. But owning a struggling football franchise9 proved quite different from marketing electric razors.  He was soon faced with heavy losses. Then came a public-relations disaster when a woman reporter accused players of sexually harassing her and Kiam initially belittled the problem. He apologized to her,  but after a few months was quoted making a joke about the incident. When Kiam unloaded the football team, it was for a loss of millions.

    [16] Many of the most successful and smartest achievers learn from such disasters. They listen to others. They refuse to take themselves too seriously. They actively seek feedback, and know their own limits.

    [17] The late Sam Walton was a business genius, building a *five-and-dime into the $ 55-billion Wal-Mart empire. He didn't do it by staying in corporate head-quarters. Instead, Walton flew his plane to stores across the country so he could listen to his "associates'' and even pitch bags of chocolate peanut clusters to customers.

    [18] Walton's humility was part of his recipe for success: competitors underestimated him, and his own employees felt they could tell him anything. "We're not that smart,  but we do change," Walton said shortly before he died. Believe only half that sentence.

    [19] Harold Tinker has noticed something in his 39 years as a teacher at The Choate School in Wallingford, Conn. Students who go on to achieve the most, he says, are almost never the top students. That's partly because of the self-defeating ways of the super-smart. But there's an even more important reason: these achievers learn the "Avis principle" of success: when you're No. 2, you try harder.

            

  

  

  

        为什么聪明人会做出这类蠢事?作为一名管理咨询人员，我研究了具有超常智商的人所做的各种各样的愚蠢决定以及他们的一些不可思议的行为。从几十年的亲身观察中我还了解到，我们中的大多数人在一生中也时面会犯这样的错误。因此，了解为什么极端聪明的人会犯下毁灭前程的大错．可以帮助我们所有人不至于重蹈覆辙。下面是几种原因：

    [2]傲慢。聪明人习惯于比别人懂得都多，"纽约洛克菲勒集团副总裁布伦丹塞克斯顿说，"这离认为你无所不知只不过一步之遥。"

    (3)约翰苏奴奴具有高智商，而对此毫不隐瞒。这位好斗的新罕布什尔州前州长和白宫办公厅主任，宁愿对抗而刻意不用外交手腕,在国会里树敌很多。一次，苏奴奴轻蓝地称密西西比州参议员特伦特洛特为"无足轻重的人"。后来洛特成了参议院共和党党团领导成员。

    [4)尽管具有天才级智商，苏奴奴却犯了个愚蠢到等于自毁前程的错误。他动用军用飞机周游全国，办私事，搞政治活动．耗费了纳税人几十万美元。当要求他辞职的呼声高涨，他需要保护人的时候，苏奴奴曾经得罪过的大批田里人都争着向他捅刀子。

    [5]跟隔绝的华盛顿世界一样，学术界的象牙塔也是滋生智力超常者妄自尊大的沃土。1990年，有人发现，精英云集的斯坦福大学要求美国纳税人支付的账单中有一些和政府研究没有任何关系的项目，例如72英尺长的游艇以及为斯坦福校长唐纳德肯尼迪的新妻子开的招待会。但是肯尼迪并无歉意。他承认用政府资金帮助偿付了包括餐巾、桌布和在他官邸中举办的招待宴会在内的"间接研究费用"，并说："我不会羞于说，在这所房子里的每朵该死的花都应该算作间接研究成本。

    [6)肯尼迪用自我拆台的自命不凡来对付愤怒的烈火。"他似乎认为，无论他做了什么都是无可非议的--因为是他做的．斯坦福的一位圈内人士说。不出几个月，肯尼迪宣布辞去校任职位。

    [7)孤立。从童年时起，高智力就是一个与人隔绝的因素。聪明的少年觉得自己被隔离在其他小孩之外，因而遵循我们这个物种的模式，只在自己的圈子里结伙。在公司中可能会发生同样的情况。

    [8] "聪明人倾向置身于其他的聪明人中间，"高峰通信公司董事长兼首席执行官小詹姆斯w韦斯利说，"这很好。然而，当这个集团开始依赖才华到排斥经验的程度，坏事就会发生。

    [9]一个危险是不愿意承认改变的必要。当聪明人都同意某个计划时，韦斯利说，"他们总是长久使用这个计划，即使别人已经看出方向不对他们也仍然坚持。'

    [10]最近一例是IBM'<国际商用机器)公司。几十年来，这家公司在计算机产业中几乎享有垄断地位。后来主计算机市场衰落了，客户开始需要较小、较便宜的系统。但是IBM公司的经理们未曾预料到这一变革的飞速步伐。结果呢?随着IBM公司公布的过去两年中创记录的78亿美元的亏损而来的，是大批的解雇和下岗。

    [11]反馈对于有效地和他人一起工作是必不可少的。但是某些聪明人对于任何不及他们聪明的人都不耐烦，觉得不可能倾听别人的意见。

    [12]"这种不耐烦，"一家通信公司--Senses国际公司一的首席执执行官罗伯特希弗说，'可能是一个危险的陷阱。'拿一家软料业巨擎的那位天才的销售经理来说吧，他强行推出了一种销售惨败的新型软饮料。后来发现，大量来自下层的提醒被这位经理忽视了。他的解释是；懦弱无能的人才需要反馈。他的事业进程不久就出轨了。

   [13]鲁莽。智力超常的人心中有种东西总是在吹风："现在该再来一招了"受无所不知的感觉所驱使，聪明人会演变为冒险成瘾者，就像科罗拉多州前参议员加里哈特那样。曾被(纽约时报)誉为"当代美国政坛最有智慧的人物之一"的哈特在1987年初是民主党总统提名候选人的领先者。由于被婚姻不忠的谣言所困扰，哈特向记者们发起了挑战：到处跟踪我吧。"他们这样做了，结果发现哈特和一名叫唐娜赖斯的29岁模特儿在一起。一家小报刊登了一张哈特的照片，是在一艘叫做"恶作剧"的游艇上拍的，赖斯正坐在他大腿上。由于自己的鲁莽行为，哈特的总统抱负成了历史。

    (14)好高骛远。很多智力超常的人不理解一个简单的事实：某个方面的智能绝不会成为另一个方面成功的保证。

    (15)哈佛商学院毕业生维克托基阿姆在电视业广告节目上卖他的雷明顿产品，赚了几百万美元。1988年，基阿姆买下了"新英格兰爱国者"。但是，拥有一个苦苦挣扎的橄榄球队和销售电动剃须刀原来大不相同。他很快面临严重亏损。接着又来了一场公共关系灾难，一名女记者指控球员们对她进行性骚扰，而基阿姆最初低估了这一问题。他向她道了歉，但是几个月后有人引述他的话说他拿这件事开个玩笑。当基阿姆甩掉这个橄榄球队时，他已损失了几百万美元。

    (16)很多最成功、最聪明的有成就者都能从这样的灾难中吸取教训。他们能倾听别人的意见。他们拒绝把自己看得过于了不起。他们积极地寻求反馈并且了解自己的局限所在。

    [17]已故的萨姆沃尔顿是位商业天才，他把一家小杂货店发展成了拥有550亿美元资产的"沃尔玛"帝国。他不是靠守在公司总部做到这一点的。相反，他开着自己的飞机到全国各个商场去，以能够聆听他的"同仁们"的章见，甚至亲自向顾客推销袋装的巧克力花生块糖。

    (18)沃尔顿的谦恭是他成功诀窍的一部分：他的竞争者会低估他，而他自己的雇员们觉得什么话都可以对他讲。"我们没有那么聪明，但是我们的确会改变，"沃尔顿在临终前不久曾这样说。这句话你只能相信一半。

    [19]哈洛德廷克在乔特学院(在摩涅狄格州沃林福德)的"年教师生涯中有所发现。他说，最能继续取得成就的学生几乎都不是尖子生。这一部分要归因于异常聪明者的种种自我挫败行径。但是有一个更为重要的原因：那些有成就的人学会了关于成功的"阿维斯定律"：当你是第二名时，你会加倍努力。

良人

How does the writer like to treat young people?

  

    People are always talking about 'the problem of youth'. If there is one -- which I take leave to doubt -- then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves. Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings -- people just like their elders. There is only one difference between an old man and a young one: the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.

    When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain -- that I was a new boy in a huge school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem. For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.

    I find young people exciting. They have an air of freedom, and they not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort. They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things. All this seems to me to link them with life, and the origins of things. It's as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures. All that is in my mind when I meet a young person. He may be conceited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous, but I do not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect of elders -- as if mere age were a reason for respect. I accept that we are equals, and I will argue with him, as an equal, if I think he is wrong.


FIELDEN HUGHES from Out of the Air, The Listener

  

New words and expression 生词和短语

  

    leave

n.  允许

    fundamentals

n.  基本原则

    glorious

adj. 光辉灿烂的

    splendid

adj. 灿烂的

    rub

n.  难题

    identity

n.  身份

    dreary

adj. 沉郁的

    commitment

n.  信奉

    mean

adj. 吝啬，小气

    social climber

    追求更高社会地位的，向上爬的人

    devotion

n.  热爱

    cosmic

adj. 宇宙的

    suburban

adj. 见识不广的，偏狭的

    conceited

adj. 自高自大的

    presumptuous

adj. 自以为是的，放肆的

    fatuous

adj. 愚蠢的

    cliche

n.  陈词滥调

  

参考译文



    人们总是在谈论青年问题。如果这个问题存在的话 -- 请允许我对此持怀疑态度 -- 那么，这个问题是由老年人而不是青年人造成的。让我们来认真研究一些基本事实：承认青年人和他们的长辈一样也是人。老年人和青年人只有一个区别：青年人有光辉灿烂的前景，而老年人的辉煌已成为过去。 问题的症结恐怕就在这里。

    我十几岁时，总感到自己年轻，有些事拿不准 -- 我是一所大学里的一名新生，如果我当时真的被看成像一个问题那样有趣，我会感到很得意的。因为这至少使我得到了某种承认，这正是年轻人所热衷追求的。

    我觉得年轻人令人振奋，无拘无束。他们既不追逐卑鄙的名利，也不贪图生活的舒适。他们不热衷于向上爬，也不一味追求物质享受。在我看来，所有这些使他们与生命和万物之源联系在了一起。从某种意义上讲，他们似乎是宇宙人，同我们这些凡夫俗子形成了强烈而鲜明的对照。每逢我遇到年轻人，脑子里就想到这些年轻人也许狂妄自负，举止无理，傲慢放肆，愚昧无知，但我不会用应当尊重长者这一套陈词滥调来为我自己辨护，似乎年长就是受人尊敬的理由。我认为我和他们是平等的。如果我认为他们错了，我就以平等的身份和他们争个明白。

良人

贴完了，好累的说。

特别谢谢阿莫和尚，嘻嘻

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