2018年10月自考英语二真题_2018年10月自考英语（二）阅读强化辅导【21-24】

【#自考# 导语】天空吸引你展翅飞翔，海洋召唤你扬帆启航，高山激励你奋勇攀登，平原等待你信马由缰……出发吧，愿你前程无量,努力备考，考入理想院校！以下是©文档大全网为大家整理的 《2018年10月自考英语（二）阅读强化辅导【21-24】》供您查阅。

【篇一】

Let Your Mind Wander

　　Until recently daydreaming was generally considered either a waste of time or a symptom of neurotic tendencies, and habitual daydreaming was regarded as evidence of maladjustment or an escape from life's realities and responsibilities. It was believed that habitual daydreaming would eventually distance people from society and reduce their effectiveness in coping with real problems. At its best, daydreaming was considered a compensatory substitute for the real things in life.

　　As with anything carried to excess, daydreaming can be harmful.

　　There are always those who would substitute fantasy lives for the rewards of real activity. But such extremes are relatively race, and there is a growing body of evidence to support the fact that most people suffer from a lack of daydreaming rather than an excess of it.

　　We are now beginning to learn how valuable it really is and that when individuals are completely prevented form daydreaming, their emotional balance can be disturbed. Not only are they less able to deal with the pressures of day-to-day existence, but also their self-control and self-direction become endangered.

　　Recent research indicates that daydreaming is part of daily life and that a certain amount each day is essential for maintaining equilibrium. Daydreaming, science has discovered, is an effective relaxation technique. But its beneficial effects go beyond this.

　　Experiments show that daydreaming significantly contributes to intellectual growth, powers of concentration, and the ability to interact and communicate with others.

　　In an experiment with schoolchildren in New York, Dr. Joan Freberg observed improved concentration: "There was less running around, more happy feelings, more talking and playing in the group, and more attention paid to detail."

　　In another experiment at Yale University. Dr. Jerome Singer found that daydreaming resulted in improved self-control and enhanced creative thinking ability. Daydreaming, Singer pointed out, is one way individuals can improve upon reality. It is, he concluded, a powerful spur to achievement.

　　But the value of daydreaming does not stop here. It has been found that it improves a person's ability to be better adapted to practical, immediate concerns, to solve everyday problems, and to come up more readily with new ideas. Contrary to popular belief, constant and conscious effort at solving a problem is, in reality, one of the most inefficient ways of coping with it. While conscious initial effort is always necessary, effective solutions to especially severe problems frequently occur when conscious attempts to solve them have been put off. Inability to relax, to let go of a problem, often prevents its solution.

　　Historically, scientists and inventors are one group that seems to take full advantage of relaxed moments. Their biographies reveal that their best ideas seem to have occurred when they were relaxing and daydreaming. It is ell known, for example, that Newton solved many of his toughest problems when his attention was waylaid by private musings. Thomas Alva Edison also knew the value of "half waking" states. Whenever confronted with a task which seemed too hard to be dealt with, he would stretch out on his laboratory sofa and let fantasies flood mind.

　　Painters, writers, and composers also have drawn heavily on their sensitivity to inner fantasies. Debussy used to gaze at the River Seine and the golden reflections of the setting sun to establish an atmosphere for creativity. Brahms found that ideas came effortless only when he approached a state of deep daydreaming. And Cesar Frank is said to have walked around with a dreamlike gaze while composing, seemingly totally unaware of his surroundings.

　　Many successful people actually daydreamed their successes and achievements long before they realized them. Henry J. Kaiser maintained that "you can imagine your future," and he believed that a great part of his business success was due to positive use of daydreams. Harry S. Truman said that he used daydreaming for rest.

　　Conrad Hilton dreamed of operating a hotel when he was a boy. He recalled that all his accomplishments were first realized in his imagination.

　　"Great living starts with a picture, held in some person's imagination, of what he would like someday to do or be. Florence Nightingale dreamed of being a nurse. Edison pictured himself an inventor; all such characters escaped the mere push of circumstance by imagining a future so vividly that they headed for it." These are the words of the well-known thinker Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, and they show that people can literally daydream themselves to success.

　　Fosdick, aware of the wonderful power of positive daydreaming, offered this advice: "Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye, and you will be drawn toward it. Picture yourself vividly as defeated and that alone will make victory impossible.

　　Picture yourself as winning and that will contribute remarkably to success. Do not picture yourself as anything, and you will drift like an abandoned ship at sea."

　　To get the results, you should picture yourself - as vividly as possible - as you want to be. The important thing to remember is to picture these desired objectives as if you had already attained them.

　　Go over several times the details of these pictures. This will deeply impress them on your memory, and these memory traces will soon start influencing your everyday behavior toward the attainment of the goal.

　　While exercising your imagination, you should be alone and completely undisturbed. Some individuals seem to have the ability to tune into their private selves in the midst of the noisiest crowds or company. But most of us, especially when the experience is new, require an environment free from outside distraction.

　　A life lived without fantasy and daydreaming is a seriously impoverished one. Each of us should put aside a few minutes daily, taking short 10- or 15-minute vacations. Daydreaming is highly beneficial to your physical and mental well-being, and you will find that this modest, inexpensive investment in time will add up to a more creative and imaginative, a more satisfied, and a more self-fulfilled you. It offers us a fuller sense of being intensely alive from moment to moment, and this, of course, contributes greatly to the excitement and joy of living.

　　让头脑畅想

　　直到最近白日做梦通常被认为不中浪费时间就是要患精神病的征兆。习惯性白日做梦被看作精神失调的证据或是对现实生活和责任的逃避。人们相信，习惯性白日作梦被认为是代替生活现实的补偿品。

　　任何事情做得过分都可能有害，白日做梦也是一样。总有那么一些人，他们用想入非非的生活来代替实际活动得到的好处。但是这一类极端的情况极为罕见，愈来愈多的资料都能证明这样一种看法：大多数人的白日梦做得太少了，而不是太多了。现在我们才开始了解到它确实是那么有价值。当一个人被禁止做白日梦时，他们的感情平衡就可能被搅乱。不仅使他们更难以对付日常的生活压力，而且他们的自我控制和自我定向变得岌岌可危。最近的研究表明，白日做梦是日常生活的一部分，每天做一定数量的白日梦对保持平衡是必不可少的。科学已经发现白日梦是一种有效的消遣技巧。但它的有利影响不只这一点，实验表明，白日梦特别有助于智力的发展，有助于全神贯注的能力和与人交往、交流的能力。

　　在纽约对学童的一次实验中，琼·弗雷伯格博士观察到了注意力的改善："四处乱跑的现象少了，孩子们更开心，更爱一起谈话，一起玩了，而且更多地注意细节。"

　　在耶鲁大学的另一个实验中，杰罗姆·辛格博士发现白日做梦可以提高自我控制力和增强创造性的思维能力。辛格指出，白日做梦是个人超越现实的一种方式。他得出一个结论，白日做梦对成功是一种强有力的刺激。

　　但白日梦的价值并非仅限于此。已经发现，白日做梦能提高一个人的能力，使他能更好地适应实际的、紧急的事物，解决日常问题，并能较容易地提出新的想法。与普通的观点相反，不断的、有意识的努力常常是必需的，但在放弃解决问题的有意识的尝试时，对于特别严重的问题的有效的解决方法常常才会出现。不会放松，不会对某个问题置之不理，常常妨碍问题的解决。

　　历，科学家和发明家似乎属于充分利用放松时刻的群体。他们的传记提示了他们的想法似乎产生在他们放松和幻想的时候。例如，众所周知，牛顿在其注意力被个人深思打断时解决了许多棘手的难题。托马斯o 爱迪生也知道"半清醒"状态的价值。不论何时遇到似乎太难对付的任务，他都要舒展四肢躺在他实验室的沙发上，让幻想任意在脑际流淌。

　　画家、作家和作曲家十分依赖对内心幻觉的敏感性。德彪西常常盯着塞纳河和落日的金色反光来建立一种创造性的氛围。勃拉姆斯发现只有当他陷入一种深深的幻想状态时，各种想法才会毫不费力地泉涌而出。据说塞萨尔o 弗兰克作曲时，像做梦一样凝视着四处走动，似乎完全意识不到他周围的事物。

　　许多成功者实现他们的成功和成就前，实际上早在做白日梦了。亨利丁凯泽坚持说："你能想象你的未来。"他相信他的大部分商业成功是由于幻想的作用。哈利杜鲁门说他利用幻想来休息。当他还是小男孩时，康拉德o希尔顿就幻想经营一家旅馆，他回忆他所有的成功都是首先在他的想象中意识到的。

　　"伟大的生活开始于人们想象中的图画，这就是有一天他愿意去做的事或成为的样子。弗洛伦斯o南丁格尔想做一名护士，爱迪生反自己描绘成发明家，所有这些人都通过生动形象的想象未来为之追求，从不幸压力中解脱出来。"这就是思想家亨利爱默森福斯迪克的话，这些话表明人们简直可以用幻想并使自己成功。福斯迪克意识到幻想的强大力量，提出了这样一条建议："在你心目中，尽量长期并稳定保留你自己的形象，你就会被驱使着向这个方向发展。把自己生动形象地描绘成失败者，便可使胜利成淡泡影。把自己描绘为胜利者，就会极大地有助于成功。如果不去描绘自己的未来，你就会像大海上的弃船一样随波逐流。"

　　为了获得成功，你应该把自己描绘成你想要成为的样子--尽可能生动形象。要记住的重要一点是描述这些形象的细节，这将深深地把它们铭刻在你的记忆中，这些记忆痕将很快影响你的日常行为，直至达到目标。

　　在想象时，你应该独处，而且丝毫不受外界干扰。有些人似乎能在最嘈杂的人群中进行自我调节，进入安静状态。但我们中的大部分人，特别是在刚开始做白日梦时，需要一种免受外界干扰的环境。

　　没有想象和幻想的生活是极为贫乏的生活。我们每个人应该每天拿出几分钟时间，让自己享受10到15分钟的假期。白日做梦对你的身心健康有益，你会发现这一小小的廉价的时间投资最终带来的是一个更有创造性、更富想象力、更心满意足和更踌躇满志的你。它常常便我们更充分地意识到生活的紧张激烈，这当然大大有助于增加生活的兴奋和乐趣。

【篇二】

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

　　So you awoke this morning in a miserable mood. Well, maybe your special dream character didn't put in an appearance last night, or maybe there just weren't enough people drifting through your dreams.

　　If that sounds like far-fetched fantasy, consider these interesting findings that have emerged from eight years of sleep and dream research at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio:While sleep affects how sleepy, friendly, aggressive, and unhappy we feel after awakening, feelings of happiness or unhappiness depend most strongly on our dreams.

　　Each of us has a special dream character, a type of person whose appearance in our dreams makes us feel happier when we awake.

　　What we dream at night isn't as important to how we feel in the morning as the number of people who appear in our dreams. The more people, the better we feel.

　　Our sleep influences our mood. Our mood, in turn, affects our performance. And throughout the day, our levels of mood and performance remain closely linked.

　　During the past two decades, research has greatly expanded our knowledge about sleep and dreams. Scientists have identified various stages of sleep, and they have found that humans can function well on very little sleep, but only if they dream. Yet the true function of sleep and dreaming continues to elude precise explanation.

　　In 1970 Milton Kramer and Thomas Roth, researchers at the VA Hospital and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, respectively, raised this question: Do our moods in the morning relate in any way to our sleep and dreams the previous night?

　　Human experience suggests that they do. Certainly we generally feel better after a good night's sleep. But Drs. Kramer and Roth sought a much more definitive answer. And that answer, though still evolving, is positive yes.

　　Kramer and Roth began by seeking to determine whether one's mood differs between night and morning, and whether this is related directly to sleep. They found that there is a difference, and its is definitely related to sleep. Then they explored the various aspects of mood and their relationship to the various stages of sleep and dreaming.

　　What does a good night's sleep mean to our mood? Generally we are happier, less aggressive, sleepier, and a bit surprisingly, less friendly. Being sleepier is easily explained. It simply takes a little time to become fully alert after awakening.

　　But why should we feel less friendly? Here the researchers must speculate a little. They suggest the answer may be the lack of association with other humans during the period of sleep.

　　Once the two doctors established scientifically what common sense and folk wisdom had long taught - namely, that there is link between sleep and how we feel - they set out to learn what parts of our mood are related to which specific parts of the sleep cycle.

　　Normal sleep is broken into five distinct parts - Stages 1 through 4, plus REM, an acronym for rapid eye movement. Much remains unknown about each of the five sleep stages. Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep, a period when the eyeballs move rapidly beneath the closed lids. And whether they remember or not, all adults dream, usually four to six times a night.

　　Three types of mood are strongly related to some specific stage of sleep. Our friendly, aggressive, and sleepy feelings all relate to Stage 2 sleep, which accounts for most of our total sleep hours. Our friendly and sleepy feelings, but not our aggressive feelings, are affected as well by Stages 3 and 4, and by how long it takes us to fall asleep.

　　This means that if you get less sleep than normal - and people vary a great deal in how much sleep they normally require - you awake more friendly, more aggressive, and less sleepy.

　　At this point, the doctors found themselves puzzled. They knew from their earlier work that sleep determines if people feel happier.

　　Yet when they studied the various sleep stages, they found no correlation between sleep physiology and the unhappy mood. Clearly sleep made a difference, but that difference didn't relate to how much time one spent in each of the various sleep stages.

　　The two researchers decided the key to whether we feel happy or unhappy after sleep must lie in sleep's psychological component - our dreams. So they began studying dream content - what dreamers dreamed and who appeared in their dreams - to see how this affected mood.

　　Instead of sleeping through the night, volunteers now were awakened four times while in REM sleep. They were asked about such things as what their dreams were about; the sex, age, identity, and number of the people in their dreams; and what each person in a dream was doing.

　　Interestingly, Kramer and Roth found that being awakened four times a night didn't make a difference in the volunteers' morning mood patterns. But they did find that who appears in a dream has a far greater influence on mood than what occurs in the dream. "Who affects all the moods," Kramer says, "but primarily the unhappy mood."

　　Each of us, it turns out, has a special dream character, and if this type of character appears in our dreams, we are happier when we awake. "For people in general, how unhappy you feel after sleep depends on who is in the dream," Kramer says. "Who it is that makes you happier is different for you than for me." For some it may be an older woman, for example; for others, a young man.

　　Who appears in your dream isn't the only important thing. The more people who appear in your dreams the happier you are on awakening. It's a case of the more the merrier. "The bad thing in a dream is to be alone; you feel worse," Kramer explains. "You can relate this to wakening psychology, where being alone leads to more unhappiness. There is something about interacting with people that produces happiness."

　　A number of researchers have examined the relationship of mood and performance. The doctors also checked into this relationship, and they have found some interesting correlations.

　　"We found that the more friendly, more aggressive, more clear-thinking, less sleepy, and surprisingly, the more unhappy you are, the better you perform. That last one - the unhappy - I can't explain," Kramer says. Moreover, the level of person's moods and the level of his or her performance rise and fall together throughout the day.

　　Initially the two VA researchers worked only with men, because the dreams of men are far easier to study. Men and women dream differently. Indeed, sex is the biggest factor in accounting for differences in the people activities, locations and feelings that occur in dreams. Dr. Kramer says, "When you compare men and women, you get a greater difference in dream content than when you compare, say, 20- and 60-year-olds, or black and white."

　　Last year the VA researchers began studying the relationship of sleep, dreams, and mood in women. This work is continuing, but the initial findings reinforce what they had found in men.

　　"Overall, the women are just like men," Kramer says.

　　睡觉，偶尔做做梦

　　这么说，你今天早上醒来时心情很糟。唔，或许你的特别的梦中人昨夜未曾入梦来，或许只是没有足够的人进入你的梦境。

　　如果那听起来像靠不住的空想，想一想在俄亥俄州辛辛那提的退伍军人管理医院进行的对睡眠和做梦的八年研究中发现的有趣结果吧。

　　虽然睡眠影响我们醒来后是否疲倦、友好、好胜、不开心，感觉开心与否主要在于我们的梦。

　　我们每个人都有一个特别的梦中人，一个在我们的梦中出现、醒来时使我们感觉更开心的人。

　　在夜里梦到什么对于我们早上感觉如何并不比我们梦里出现的人数更重要。梦中人数越多，我们感觉越好。

　　梦影响我们的情绪，我们的情绪进而影响我们的行为，一整天，我们情绪高昂亦或低落的行为总是密切相关。

　　在过去的20年里，研究大大地扩展了我们对睡眠的梦的知识。科学家们已经可以识别不同的睡眠阶段，而且发现，人在睡眠很少的情况下，机体仍然很好的运转，但只是在睡眠时做了梦才如此。而睡眠和做梦真正的功能依然得不到准确的解释。

　　1970年，VA医院和辛辛那提大学医学院的研究者米尔顿·克莱默和托马斯·罗斯，分别提出了这个问题：我们早晨的情绪与我们前一天夜里的睡眠和做梦有某种关系吗?

　　人们的经验表明它们是有关系的。当然，在一夜足睡的时候，我们一般会感觉良好。但是克莱默和罗斯医生发现了一个更明确的答案，虽然这个答案仍在逐步形成中，但答案确是肯定的。

　　克莱默和罗斯开始于探求一个人的情绪在早上和晚上是否不同，是否与睡眠有直接关系。他们发现确实是不同的，也确实与睡眠有关。接着，他们研究了情绪的不同方面和它们的睡眠和梦不同阶段的关系。

　　一晚的好觉对我们的心情意味着什么?通常我们会更开心、不那么有攻击性、更困倦，而且令人感到有点吃惊的是，居然不那么友好。更困倦的容易解释，只是需要一点时间在醒来后使自己完全清醒。

　　但为什么我们会感到不那么友好呢?这里研究者得做一些推测，他们认为答案可能是睡眠期间缺少与他人的交流。

　　两位医生一旦把常识和民间智慧长期教给他们的东西--即睡眠与我们的感觉之间有联系--科学地确定下来，他们就着手了解我们的情绪的哪些部分与睡眠周期的哪些具体部分有关。

　　正常睡眠可划分为五个不同部分，从第一阶段到第四阶段，加上REM。每一个阶段都有许多人们未知的知识。大部分的梦发生在REM睡眠期间，眼球在紧闭的眼睑下快速移动。不管成年人是否记得，他们都做梦，通常一夜4到6次。三种情绪和睡眠的某一阶段紧密相关。我们友好的、有攻击性的、困倦和睡眠的某一阶段紧密有关。我们大部分的睡眠在第二阶段。我们友好的、困倦的、但没有攻击性的睡眠时间也受到第三、第四阶段以及我们多久才能入睡的影响。

　　这就意味着如果你比平时睡得少些--在政党情况下需要多少睡眠，人与人之间是有很大差别的--你醒后就会更加友好、更有攻击性、少些困倦。

　　在这一点上，医生们自己也感到困惑。在他们以前的研究中，他们知道睡眠决定着人们是否会更高兴。然而，当他们研究各个睡眠阶段时，他们发现在睡眠的生理状况和忧郁的情绪之间没有关系。很显然，睡眠会带来差异，但是这种差异与人们花在每一睡眠阶段的时间长短没有关系。

　　两位研究者断言，睡眠以后我们是否感觉高兴的关键肯定是取决于睡眠的心理构成部分--我们的梦。所以他们就开始研究梦的内容：人们梦到了什么、谁大梦中出现--来弄清楚梦会怎样影响到情绪。

　　参加试验的志愿者不能整夜睡眠，相反，在REM睡眠中，他们被唤醒四次，

　　然后回答问题，如他们梦的内容、梦中人物的性别、年龄、身份和数量，以及梦中每一个的所作所为。

　　令人感兴趣的是，克莱默和罗斯发现一夜被唤醒四次并没有使志愿者早上的情绪模式发生改变。但他们却发现谁出现在梦中比梦里发生什么事对情绪具有非常大的影响。"梦中出现的人物影响着所有的情况，"克莱默说，"但首要的是不高兴的情绪。"

　　结果是我们每一个人都有一个特殊的梦中人物，如果这个人出现在梦中，我们醒后就会感到很高兴。"对一般人来说，这个人可能是一位老太太，对另外一些人来讲，可能是一位年轻男子。"

　　谁出现在你梦中并不是重要的事情。梦中出现的人物越多，你醒来时就会更加高兴。它是一种梦中人愈多愈高兴的情况。"梦中如果你孤身一人，你的感觉就不会很好，"克莱默解释说，"你可以把这一点与人们睡醒时的心理联系起来，在刚睡醒的状态下孤单一人只会导致较多的不快。这是因为与人交际才能令人高兴。"

　　一些研究人员已经探讨了情绪和行为的关系，医生们也深入研究了这种关系。而且他们已经发现了一些有趣的相互关系。

　　克莱默说："我们发现，人越友好、越有锐气、思维越清晰，也就越一困倦，令人惊奇的是，你越不高兴，但是活儿却干得越好。最后这种情况不高兴--我解释不了。"而且一个人情绪水平和他行为水平在一天中的上下波动总是一致的。

　　最初，退伍军人管理医院的研究只对男人进行了研究，因为男人的梦研究起来容易得多。男人的梦和女人的梦是不同的。的确，在解释梦中出现的人物、他们的活动、活动地点和他们的感觉差异时，性别是最重要的因素。克莱默医生说："但你对比男人和女人时，你会发现他们梦的内容有很大的不同，这种不同与你比较，比如20岁和60岁的人或者黑人和白人要大得多。"

　　去年，退伍军人管理医院的研究者开始研究妇女的睡眠、做梦和情绪的关系。这项工作正在继续进行，但是一开始的发现有力地证实了他们在对男人研究时的发现。

　　"总的来说，男人和女人几乎没有什么两样，"克莱默说。

【篇三】

Let's Stop Keeping Pets

　　Pets are lovable, frequently delightful. The dog and the cat, the most favored of pets, are beautiful, intelligent animals. To assume the care for them can help bring out the humanity in our children and even in us. A dog or a cat can teach us a lot about human nature; they are a lot more like us than some might think. More than one owner of a dog has said that the animal understands everything he says to it. So a mother and father who have ever cared for pets are likely to be more patient and understanding with their children as well, and especially to avoid making negative or rude remarks in the presence of a child, no matter how young.

　　It is touching to see how a cat or dog - especially a dog - attaches itself to a family and wants to share in all its goings and comings. If certain animal psychologists are right, a dog adopts his family in a most literal way - taking it for granted that the family is the band of dogs he belongs to.

　　It is sometimes said that the cat "takes all and gives nothing."

　　But is that really true? A cat can teach us a valuable lesson about how to be contented, how to be serene and at ease, how to sit and contemplate. Whereas a dog's constant pleas for attention become, sometimes, a bit too much. Nevertheless it is the dog who can teach us lessons of loyalty and devotion that no cat ever knew.

　　So there's plenty to be said in favor of keeping pets. But with all that in mind, I still say let's stop keeping pets. Not that a family should kill its pets. Very few could bring themselves to do that. To be practical, I am suggesting that if we do not now have a pet we should not acquire one; second, that if we now have a pet, we let it be our last one. I could never say that pets are bad. I am saying, let's give up this good thing - the ownership of a pet - in favor of a more imperative good.

　　The purchase, the health care, the feeding and housing and training of a pet - and I chiefly mean the larger, longer-lived pets - cost time and money. Depending on the animal's size and activity, it's special tastes and needs, and the standard of living we establish for it, the care of a pet can cost form a dollar a week to a dollar or more a day. I would not for a moment deny it is worth that.

　　But facts outside the walls of our home keep breaking in on our awareness. Though we do not see the poverty-stricken people of India and Africa and South America, we can never quite forget that they are there. Now and then their faces are shown in the news, or is the begging ads of relief organizations. Probably we send a donation whenever we can.

　　But we do not, as a rule, feel a heavy personal responsibility for the afflicted and deprived for we are pretty thoroughly formed by the individualistic, competitive society we live in. The first dime we ever made was ours to spend in any way we chose. No one thought of questioning that. That attitude, formed before we had learned to think, usually prevails through our life: "I made my money. I can spend it any way I like."

　　But more and more we are reading that the people of the "Third World" feel bitter at us in the developed countries (with the United States far more developed than any of the others) for our seizing hold of two-thirds of the world's wealth and living like kings while they work away all day to earn a bare living.

　　The money and the time we spend on pets is simply not our own to spend as we like in a time of widespread want add starvation. A relief organization advertises that for $33 a month they can give hospital care to a child suffering from kwashiorkor - the severe dificiency disease which is simply a starving for protein. Doing without such a pet, and then sending the money saved to a relief organization would mean saving a life - over the years, several human lives.

　　Children not suffering from such a grave disease could be fed with half that amount - not on a diet like ours, but on plain, basic, life-sustaining food. It is not unreasonable to believe that the amount of money we spend on the average pet dog could keep a child alive in a region of great poverty. To give what we would spend on a cat might not feed a child, but it would probably pay for his medical care or basic education. The point needs no laboring. That is all that need be said.

　　让我们停止养宠物

　　宠物是可爱的，又常讨人喜欢。狗和猫――人们最喜爱的宠物，是漂亮和聪明的动物。担当起照料它们的责任有助于我们在孩子身上甚至在我们自己身上培养人情味。一只狗或一只猫能教给我们许多关于人类的本性的东西。它们比某些人想象的更像人类。不止一个养狗的人曾经说过狗理解他对它说的一切话。所以曾经照顾过宠物的父母可能也会对他们的孩子更有耐心和理解，特别是能避免在孩子面前做否定和不礼貌的评论，不管他年龄多小。

　　看到猫和狗――特别是狗――对一个家庭是如何地依恋，如何地想要分享家里发生的一切事情，是十分感人的。如果某些动物心理学家是对的，狗以最忠实的方式接受它的家庭――理所当然地认为家即是它所属的那一群狗。

　　有时人们说猫"索取一切，什么都不给予"。但那是真的吗?关于如何满足，如何安详自在，如何静坐深思，猫可以给我们上有价值的一课。而狗不断寻求人们和注意，有时太过分了。尽管如此，狗能教给我们忠诚和献身，这是猫从不知道的。

　　于是人们便有许多理由赞成养宠物。但尽管心里明白所有这些理由，我依然要说让我们停止养宠物吧。并不是说一个家庭应该杀死他们的宠物，很少有人能使自己做这样的事。实际上，我是在建议如果我们现在没有养宠物，我们就不要弄一个;第二，如果我们现在有一只宠物，就让它成为我们的最后一只吧。我怎么也不会说宠物很坏;我是说，让我们放弃这个好东西，去支持一个更紧迫的有益的事业吧。

　　购买一只宠物，照顾它的健康、喂养它、给它提供住处、训练它――我主要指的是较大的、较长寿的宠物――花费时间和钱财。根据动物的体形大小、活动，其特殊口味和需要，我们为之建立起生活标准，照顾一只宠物的花费可能从一周一美元到一天一美元或更多。我从不否认喂养它的价值。

　　但是我们房子外的事实却不断闯入我们的意识。虽然我们没有看到印度、非洲和南美洲穷困潦倒的人们，我们决不能完全忘记他们的存在。他们的面容不时出现在新闻里或救济组织的求援广告里。也许我们有能力时也送去了一份捐助。

　　但我们通常并不感到对贫穷的人们负有重大的个人责任，因为我们几乎完全是由我们生活于其中的这个个人主义的、竞争的社会所塑造成的。我们曾经挣得的第一个十分硬币是自己的，我们可以选择花掉它的任何一种方式。没人想到对此提出质疑，那种态度形成于我们学会思考之前，通常会贯穿我们的一生："我挣自己的钱，我可以以我喜欢的任何方式花掉它。"但我们越来越多地在阅读中了解到"第三世界"的人们怀恨发达国家的我们，因为我们占有了世界2/3的财富，生活得像国王一样，而他们整天工作以求糊口。

　　我们花在宠物身上的金钱和时间在广泛渴望帮助和饥饿遍布的时代绝对不是我们可以随心所欲花费的私有物。一个救援组织做广告说，每个月捐献33美元就可使一个患营养不良症的孩子住院治疗――这是一种仅仅由于缺乏蛋白质而产生的严重营养不良疾病。不养宠物，然后把节省下来的钱捐给救援组织将意味着挽救一条生命――几年后，就能挽救几条生命。

　　没有遭到那种严重疾病的孩子可以用那个数目的半数糊口――不是们那样的食物，只是一般的、基本的、维持生命的食物。相信我们平均花在宠物狗身上的钱能够养活一个特别贫穷地区的孩子是不过分的。拿出我们花在猫身上的钱可能养活不了一个孩子，但它们可能付清他的医疗费或基本教育费。这一点无须详述，这就是所有要说的。

【篇四】

Work, Labor, and Play

　　So far as I know, Miss Hannah Arendt was the first person to define the essential difference between work and labor. To be happy, a man must feel, firstly, free and, secondly, important. He cannot be really happy if he is compelled by society to do what he does not enjoy doing, or if what he enjoys doing is ignored by society as of no value or importance. In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been abolished, the sign that what a man does is of social value is that he is paid money to do it, but a laborer today can rightly be called a wage slave. A man is a laborer if the job society offers him is of no interest to himself but he is compelled to take it by the necessity of earning a living and supporting his family.

　　The antithesis to labor is play. When we play a game, we enjoy what we are doing, otherwise we should not play it, but it is a purely private activity; society could not care less whether we play it or not.

　　Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his own point of view voluntary play. Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer. Which a man is can be seen from his attitude toward leisure. To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently. He is therefore more likely to take too little leisure than too much; workers die of coronaries and forget their wives' birthdays. To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion, so that it is natural for him to imagine that the fewer hours he has to spend laboring, and the more hours he is free to play, the better.

　　What percentage of the population in a modern technological society are, like myself, in the fortunate position of being workers?

　　At a guess I would say sixteen per cent, and I do not think that figure is likely to get bigger in the future.

　　Technology and the division of labor have done two things: by eliminating in many fields the need for special strength or skill, they have made a very large number of paid occupations which formerly were enjoyable work into boring labor, and by increasing productivity they have reduced the number of necessary laboring hours. It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in ear5lier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. Indeed, the problem of dealing with boredom may be even more difficult for such a future mass society than it was for aristocracies. The latter, for example, ritualized their time; there was a season to shoot grouse, a season to spend in town, etc. The masses are more likely to replace an unchanging ritual by fashion which it will be in the economic interest of certain people to change as often as possible. Again, the masses cannot go in for hunting, for very soon there would be no animals left to hunt. For other aristocratic amusements like gambling, dueling, and warfare, it may be only too easy to find equivalents in dangerous driving, drug-taking, and senseless acts of violence. Workers seldom commit acts of violence, because they can put their aggression into their work, be it physical like the work of a smith, or mental like the work of a scientist or an artist. The role of aggression into their work, be it physical like the work of a smith, or mental like the work of a scientist or an artist. The role of aggression in mental work is aptly expressed by the phrase "getting one's teeth into a problem."

　　工作，劳作和娱乐

　　据我所知，汉纳·阿伦特小姐是第一个给予工作和劳作之间本质区别的人。一个人要高兴，首先要感到自由，其次是感到重要。如果他被社会*做他不愿做的事，或者他喜欢做的事被社会忽视，被认为无价值和不重要，他就不会真正高兴。在一个从严格意义上来说奴隶制已被废除的社会里，一个人所做的事情具有社会价值的樗是他的工作得到了报酬。但今天的劳动者可以恰当地称为薪金的奴隶。如果他对社会提供给他的工作不感兴趣，但出于谋生和养家而*接受，这个人就称为劳作者。

　　与劳作相对的是玩，当玩耍时我们在享受，否则是不会去玩的，不过这纯粹是私人活动，社会对你玩或不玩是极不关心的。

　　处于劳作和玩之间的是工作。如果一个人对社会付酬给他的工作感兴趣的话，他就是工作者;从社会的观点看，工作是必要的劳作也是个人心目中自愿的玩。例如：这个区别不同于体力劳动和脑力劳动之间的区别;一个园艺工人或一个补鞋匠可能是工作者，一个银行职员可能是劳作者。一个人属于哪一种可以从他对休闲的态度看出来。对于工作者来说，休闲只是他为了有效地工作而放松和休息的时间，所以他可能少休息而不是多休闲。工作者可能致于冠状动脉血栓症，忘记妻子的生日。反之，对于劳作者来说，休闲意味着从*中的摆脱，因此他们会很自然地想花在工作上的时间越少，自由自在玩的时间越多就越好。

　　像我这样，幸运地成为工作者的人现代技术社会里占多大比例呢?我猜测为60%并且我认为这个数字将来不可能变大。

　　技术和劳动分工已产生了两点影响：通过在许多领域里减少对特殊力量和技巧的需求，它们使大量曾经愉快的有偿劳动变成了使人厌烦的工作，通过提高提高生产率减少了一些必要的劳动时间。已经有可能去设想这样一个社会：大多数人，即劳作者，将拥有几乎与早期贵州所享有的一样多的休闲。当一个人回忆过去贵族的所作所为，前景就不会乐观了。的确对于这样一个未来群众社会，应付无聊的问题比起来贵族们可能更困难。例如：后者使他们的时间仪式化，有射猎松鸡的季节、有镇上度日的季节等。群众更可能用时尚取代千篇一律的程式，而尽可能经常地改变时尚也符合某些人的经济利益。同样，群众也不能都有打猎的爱好，因为很快就会没有动物可供射猎。对于其他贵族娱乐活动，像赌博、决斗和战争，可能很容易在危险驾驶、吸毒和愚蠢的暴力行为中找到等价物。工作者很少有暴力行为，因为他们能把进取心放在他们的工作上，不管是铁匠从事的体力劳动，还是科学家或艺术家从事的脑力劳动。"把牙到某个问题中"这条习语很贴切地表示出进取心在智力工作中的作用。

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