Pompeii
1.Not very far from Naples, a strange city sleeps under the hot Italian sun. It is the city of Pompeii, and there is no other city quite like it in all the world. Nothing lives in Pompeii except crickets and beetles and lizards, yet every year thousands of people travel from distant countries to visit it.
1. 在离那不勒斯不远的地方，一座奇特的小城寂静的沉睡在意大利炙热的骄阳之下。那就是庞培城。全世界再没有任何一个城市和庞培城相像。在庞培城中，除了蟋蟀、甲虫和蜥蜴之外，别无其他生物，然而每年都有成千上万的人从不同国度不远万里前来参观。
2.Pompeii is a dead city. No one has lived there for nearly two thousand years----not since the summer of the year A.D. 79, to be exact.
2.庞培是一座死城。确切的说自从公元79年的那个夏天开始，两千年来没有人在这里生活过。
3.Until that year Pompeii was a prosperous city of 25,000 people. Nearby was the Bay of Naples, an arm of the blue Mediterranean. Rich men came down from wealthy Rome to build seaside villas. Farmlands surrounded Pompeii. Rising behind the city was the 4000-foot Mount Vesuvius, a grass-covered slope where the shepherds of Pompeii took their goats to graze. Pompeii was a busy city and a happy one.
3.直到那年夏天庞培成还是一座拥有25000人的繁荣城市，离那不远就是蓝色地中海之臂的那不勒斯湾。一些有钱人从富有的罗马城来到这里建造海边别墅。庞培城的周围有农田环绕。在这座城市的背后矗立着4000英尺高的维苏威火山。绿草覆盖的山坡上，牧羊人赶着他们的羊群在吃草。庞培城是一座繁忙而又充满幸福感的城市。
4.It died suddenly, in a terrible rain of fire and ash. The tragedy struck on the 24th of August, A.D.79. Mount Vesuvius, which had slept quietly for centuries, erupted with savage violence. Tons of hot ash fell on Pompeii, hiding it from sight. For three days the sun did not break through the clouds of volcanic ash that filled the sky. And when the eruption ended, Pompeii was buried deep. A city had perished. 4.可是，在一阵可怕的火与灰的袭击中，这座城市灭亡了。这个悲剧发生在公元79年的8月24日。维苏威火山。这座沉睡了几世纪的山脉，突然剧烈的爆发了。数以吨计滚烫的火山灰落到了庞培城遮住了人们的视线。3天以来阳光都无法穿过被火山灰充斥的云层。当喷发结束的时候，庞培城被深深的掩埋了。这座城市也就消失了。
5. Centuries passed, Pompeii was forgotten. Then, seventeen hundred years later, it was discovered again. Beneath the protecting shroud of ash, the city lay intact. Everything was as it had been the day Vesuvius erupted. There were still loaves of bread in the ovens of the bakeries. In the wine shops, the wine jars were in place, and on one counter could be seen a stain where a customer had thrown down his glass and fled.
5.几个世纪过去了，庞培城几乎被遗忘了。不过，1700年后，人们又重新发现了它。在火山灰的保护下，这座城市完好无损的躺在那里。一切都是维苏威火山喷发那天的样子。面包店烤箱里依然有尚未出炉的面包，在卖红酒的店里，酒坛子依然放在原处，在柜台前，人们扔下酒杯逃命的痕迹清晰可见。
6. To go to Pompeii today is to take a trip backward in time. The old city comes to life all around you. You can almost hear the clatter of horses’ hoofs on the narrow streets, the cries of children and the laughter of the shopkeepers. The sky is cloudlessly blue, with the summer sun high in the sky. The grassy slopes of great Vesuvius rise to the heavens behind the city, and sunlight shimmers on the waters of the bay a thousand yards from the city walls. Ships from every nation are in port and strange languages can be heard in the streets.
6.今天，去庞培可以称得上是一次体验时光倒流的旅行，古老的城市在你的周围仿佛又重新充满了活力。你几乎能听到狭窄街道上的马蹄声，孩子们的哭闹声和店主们的笑声。蔚蓝的天空万里无云，盛夏的烈日在空中高悬。城市的背后维苏威火山长满青草的山坡伸向天空，阳光在城墙外1000多码的海湾水面上闪烁发光。从世界各国驶来的船只停在港内，大街上还能听到各种不同的语言。
7.Such was Pompeii on its last day. And so it is today, now that the volcanic ash has been cleared away. A good imagination is all you need to restore it to activity. 7.这就是庞培的最后一天。也就是今天，火山灰已经清理完毕，你需要一个很丰富的想象力来把它恢复到现实当中。
8. At dawn on August 24, in the year A.D. 79, Pompeii’s 25,000 people awakened to another hot day in that hot summer. There was going to be a contest in the arena that night and the whole town was looking forward to the bloody fights of the gladiators. The children headed toward school, carrying slates and followed by their dogs. In the forum the town’s important men had gathered after breakfast to read the political signs that had been posted during the night. Elsewhere in the forum the wool merchants talked business. The banker was going over his account books. At the inn later-rising travellers from the East awakened and yawned and called for breakfast.
8.在公元79年8月24日黎明，庞培城的人们在炎热的夏天中迎来了新的一天，原本在那天晚上竞技场有一场竞赛，全城百姓都期待着角斗士们的血腥搏斗，孩子们提着石板跟在狗的后面去上学，在城镇广场上全城的重要人士在早饭后都聚集起来看张贴好的政治公告。在广场的其他地方，羊毛商正在谈生意；旅馆里刚刚起床的游客还在打着哈欠叫早餐。
9.The quiet morning moved slowly along. There was nothing very unusual about Pompeii. But tragedy was on its way. Beneath Vesuvius’ vine-covered slopes a mighty force was about to break loose. At one o’clock in the afternoon the critical point was reached. The mountain blew up, raining death on thousands. Down in Pompeii, four miles from the summit, a tremendous explosion was heard.
9.安静的早上，时间慢慢过去。庞培城没有什么异常。但是一场悲剧正在逼近，在维苏威火山藤蔓覆盖的山坡下一股巨大的力量即将爆发。在下午一点钟，这股力量到达了临界点。火山爆发了，死亡向成千上万的人们降临。山下的庞贝城，距离山顶有四英里，巨大的爆炸声清晰可闻。
10. “What was that?” people cried from one end of town to another. They stared at each other, puzzled, troubled. Were the gods fighting in heaven?
10.“那是什么？”人们哭喊着从一座城跑到应一座城，他们互相瞪着眼睛看 在猜测，在忧虑。难道是众神在天堂里打架么？
11.“Look!” somebody shouted. “Look at Vesuvius!”
11. “看!”一些人喊道，“看维苏威火山！”
12. Thousands of eyes turned upward. Thousands of arms pointed. A black cloud was rising from the shattered summit of the mountain. Higher and higher it rose. Like the trunk of a tree, it rose in the air, branching out as it climbed.
12.上万双眼睛齐刷刷的向上面望去，上万只胳膊指向那里，一阵乌云从粉碎的山顶向上升起，乌云越升越高，像一棵大树伸向填空，如枝条似的展开。
13.Minutes passed. The sound of the explosion died away, but it still reverberated in everyone’s ears. The cloud over Vesuvius continued to rise, black as night, higher and higher. A strange rain began to fall on Pompeii----a rain of stones. The stones were light. They were pumice stones, consisting mostly of air bubbles. These poured down as though there had been a sudden cloudburst. The pumice stones did little damage. 13.几分钟过去了，爆炸声逐渐消失，但每个人仍然能听到回音维苏威火山的黑云继续上升，暗如黑夜，越升越高。一阵奇怪的雨开始飘落——石块雨。石块是浅色的。这是浮石，大多数还夹杂着空气中的气泡。这些浮石倾泻而下，如同瞬间的倾盆大雨一般。不过这些浮石几乎没有破坏。
14.“What is happening?” Pompeiians asked one another. They rushed to the temples----the Temple of Jupiter, the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Isis. Priests tried to calm the citizens. The sky was dark. An hour went by and darkness still shrouded every thing. All was confusion. The people of Pompeii now knew that doom was at hand. Their fears were redoubled when a tremendous rain of hot ash began to fall. The wooden roofs of some of the houses began to catch fire as the heat of the ash reached them. Other buildings were collapsing under the weight of the pumice stones.
14.到底发生了什么？庞培城的百姓互相询问着，他们涌向了神殿——丘比特神殿、阿波罗神殿、宙斯神殿。牧师们设法去使居民们保持镇静，天空阴沉了下来，一小时过后一切变得黑暗起来，一切都是那么混乱。庞培城的人们现在知道厄运即将来临。当一场巨大的石灰雨从天而降的时候，他们更加恐慌了。一些房屋的木制屋顶在石灰的炙烤下开始着起火来。其他一些建筑也被浮石压塌了。
15. In these first few hours, only the quick-witted managed to escape. A wealthy wool merchant called his family together and crammed jewelry and money into a sack. Lighting a torch, he led his little band out into the nightmare of the streets. Many hundreds of Pompeiians fled in those first few dark hours. Stumbling in the darkness, they made their way to the city gates, then out and down to the harbor. They boarded boats and got away, living to tell the tale of their city’s destruction. Others preferred to remain within the city, huddling inside the temples, or in the public baths or in the cellars of their homes. They still hoped that the nightmare would end.
15.在最初的几个小时里，只有一些机警的人们设法去逃脱。一位富有的羊毛商人招呼他们全家人一起把珠宝和金钱统统塞进布袋里。点燃了火把，他带领他们一小队人马走上了噩梦般的街道。在最初的几小时内成百上千的庞培人逃亡，他们在黑暗中跌跌撞撞，设法涌向城门。接着，出了城门直奔港口。他们有的人登上了船离开了那里后得以幸存下来给我们讲述他们这座城市的毁灭。而其他人更喜欢留在城里面，在神庙里挤做一团或者索性呆在公共浴室和家中的酒窖里避难。他们仍在盼望噩梦能早点结束。
16. It was evening now. And a new trouble was in store for Pompeii. The earth trembled and quaked! Roofs went crashing in ruin, burying hundreds who had hoped to survive the eruption. In the forum the tall columns toppled. The entire city seemed to shake in the grip of a giant fist.
16. 到了傍晚的时候，一场新的灾难正等待着庞培。不久大地开始剧烈的摇晃，屋顶突然倒塌，瞬间掩埋了成百位尚有一线生机的人们。在城镇广场上高大的房柱轰然倒塌，整个古城仿佛被一只巨大的拳头握住，任其摆布。
17. Three feet of pumice stones now covered the ground. Ash floated in the air. Poisonous gas came drifting from the crater, though people could still breathe. Roofs were collapsing everywhere. The cries of the injured and dying filled the air. Rushing throngs, blinded by the darkness and the smoke, rushed up one street and down the next, trampling the fallen in a crazy fruitless dash toward safety. Dozens of people plunged into dead-end streets and found themselves trapped by crashing buildings. They waited there, too frightened to run further, expecting the end.
17. 三英尺大的浮石覆盖了整个地面。尘埃漂浮在空气中有毒的气体从火山口飘了出来，尽管人们还有一丝呼吸。倒塌的屋顶随处可见，空气中充斥着伤亡者的哭喊声。四处奔走的人群都被黑暗和浓烟熏得失明，他们从一条街挤向另一条街践踏着倒塌的（屋顶）疯狂的冲向安全的地方。很多人挤向了封死的街道最后发现他们被倒塌的建筑截在了那里。他们因为害怕已经不敢移动了 所以就在那里等着，期待厄运早点结束。
18. The poison gas thickened as the terrible night advanced. It was possible to protect oneself from the pumice stones but not from the gas and Pompeiians died by the hundreds. Carbon monoxide gas prevents the body from absorbing oxygen. Victims of carbon monoxide poisoning get sleepier and sleepier until they lose consciousness, never to regain it. All over Pompeii, people lay down on beds of pumice stones, overwhelmed by the gas, and death came quietly to them.
18.可怕的夜晚越深，城里的毒气越浓。人们可以保护自己不受浮石的攻击但无法幸免毒气的侵袭。又有数以百计的人死去了。一氧化碳阻碍了人体对氧气的吸收。一氧化碳的中毒者变得越来越疲倦直至最后失去了知觉，再也不能醒来了。整个庞培城，人们如同躺在由浮石铺好的床上，被毒气所熏倒，死神正静静地向他们走来。
19. All through the endless night, Pompeiians wandered about the streets or crouched in their ruined homes or clustered in the temples to pray. By morning few remained alive. Not once had Vesuvius stopped hurling pumice stones and ash into the air, and the streets of Pompeii were filling quickly. At midday on August 25, exactly twenty-four hours after the beginning of the first eruption, a second eruption occurred. A second cloud of ash rose above Vesuvius’s summit. The wind blew ash as far as Rome. But most of the new ash descended on Pompeii.
19.尽管在这个无尽的黑夜，庞培人在大街上徘徊，或在他们毁坏的家中蜷缩，或群集在神庙里祈祷。到转天清晨，几乎没有人还活着。维苏威火山还在不停的向空中猛投浮石和灰烬很快庞培的街道就被这些灰烬填满了。在8月25日中午确切的说是在第一次火山喷发24小时以后，第二次大喷发又发生了灰烬如乌云直冲山顶。风甚至把火山灰吹到了罗马。但大多数灰烬袭击了庞培。
20. The deadly shower of stones and ash went into its second day. But it no longer mattered to Pompeii whether the eruption continued another day or another year. For by midday on August 25, Pompeii was a city of the dead.
20. 这场致命的石灰雨进入了第二天。但是实际上不论喷发将持续多久对于庞培城来讲已经毫无意义了。因为在8月25日的中午，庞培已经成了一座死城。
第十二课 一个受到错误教育的人的自白
诺曼·卡因斯
1. 下面的这段文字是一篇自白，是一个受到错误教育的人的自白。
2. 每当我有机会检验我所受到的教育，我都会异常清醒地认识到它的不当之处。测验很简单：在这个有三十多亿人口的世界上生存并理解它，我真的准备好了吗？是今天这个世界，而不是1850年或1900年的那个世界；我受到的教育对那时的世界可能已经足够。实行这项测验的最佳地点是在国外——尤其是在亚洲或非洲。
3. 我的意思不是说我所受的教育彻底的失败了。它让我对这个世界有了很好的大致了解。它教我如何简便地找出地区之间和人们之间的差异：地理教给我地形、资源和生产力方面的差异；比较文化教给我背景和群体利益方面的差异；人种学教给我面部骨骼结构、肤色和人体大致构造方面的差异。总之，我的教育让我对事物不感到新奇。不论是有人住茅草棚，有人住竹制平房；还是有人烧木头，有人烧动物粪便；或者有人听五音阶音乐，有人听十二音阶的；还是有人因为宗教信仰而食素，有人因为个人爱好而食素：这些都不让我感到诧异。
4. 在那些方面，我的教育已经多得不必要了。但是它失败的地方在于它没有教我知道注重差异是毫无意义的。差异几乎早就被共性取代了。而我的教育恰恰没有讲到共性。它没有理解更没有解释这样一个事实：差异之外，都是因为太显而易见反而不为人理解的现实社会。而且最简单的现实就是，人类社会是一个整体——比它任何一部分都更为重要，比一些民族人为强加的分割更为重要，比不同的信仰和效忠对象或者不同文化的深度和颜色都更为重要。这个更大的统一体是当代最重要的中心事实——它能够使人类在希望渺茫、甚至不存在希望的时候共同取得进步。
5. 在写这些文字的时候，我觉得我说的这些还不能够完全表达出我的意思。其实，这个观点本身就是一条真理，即使人们不把它当作自己的行为准则，还是很乐于接受的。好，让我换种方式来说吧。为了使自己在世界各地都无拘无束，我必须忘记脑海里那些过去学过的东西。结果证明，我与别人相处的能力不是取决于我对他们独特生活方式的理解，而是取决于我对我们共同之处的理解。当然，尊重差异是非常重要的；但若就此停滞不前，那就如同打扫干净了场地却不知道要在上面建造什么一样。当你们交流完之后，你会发现你们双方谈的是同一个问题，那就是这个星球以及决定它是否适宜人类生存的环境。
6. 几年前，注重差异的教育尚能满足某个特定而有限的需求。那个时候，我们大都是处于好奇或是为了过不寻常的假期才会想到外面的地方和人们。到过很多地方，了解人类文化和行为上的惊人的细微差别成为知识全面的标志。但那并不是你赖以生存和发展的知识。
7. 然后，世界在一夜之间变的很小。原先那些以偏僻而自安的边远地区突然间都挤到同一个竞争舞台上来。一种新型教育，一种从部落制度解放出来的教育马上变的很有必要，因为部落制从伊始一直存在至今，尽管形式上进行了改良。这种新型教育必须要教会人类最难的课程：能够明白世界上所有的人都和我们自己一样。必须是关于自我认识的教育。过去，教育重视表面差异；现在，教育必须重视人类社会成员之间的平的功能关系和相互理解，相互尊重的关系。
8. 在这样的教育中，我们首先应该认识到宇宙中人类生命的宝贵性。在宇宙数以百万计的星系和太阳系中，生命是稀有的事物。在这个特别的太阳系中，也只有一个星球上有生命。而在这个星球上，生命的形式千差万别。在这些无数的生命形式中，只有人类拥有大大优于所有其他物种的综合能力。创造力就是其中一种；它使人类能够反思过去，预测未来；能够吸取过去的经验教训，预见未来的需求。另外还有许多神奇的能力，我们尚不能明白它们是怎么起作用的——像希望、良知、审美、亲情、爱及忠诚等能力。
9. 从全球的角度来看，重要的不是人们的思想引领他们走向不同的方向，而是所有的人豆油思考的能力；不是他们追求不同的信仰，而是他们都有精神追求；不是他们读写不同的书本，而是他们都能够发明印刷术，并用它穿越时空进行交流；不是他们欣赏不同的艺术和音乐，而是他们内在的素质使他们能够对形式、色彩和有序的声音做出深刻的反应。
10. 这些基本课程应该首先教会人们恰当地尊重宇宙中的人性。第二要教会人们懂得人类需求的统一性。无论宇宙对人类多么友好，它已经使人类的生存条件变得随时都可能失去平衡。所有的人都需要氧气、水、土地、温暖和食物；拿走其中任何一项，人类的需求都无法得到统一，人类也就灭亡了。下一课要讲人类自身的处境——如何从自己的角度理解人类福利事业；如何控制我们发明的机器，它们威胁到生命赖以存在的岌岌可危的平衡；如何创造一个和平的人类社会。
11. 有了这样的教育，某个民族或人民才偶可能挺身而出，给出人们像需要食物一样需要的很重要的理解和启发。这种高层次上的领导艺术不需要成座的金山，也不需要振聋发聩的宣传，因为它关系到人类的命运，而人类的命运是备受关注的话题，人们会响应的。
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