economist双语

economist双语 1 Books and Arts; Book Review;Our love of garbage;Rubbish heaps; 文艺;书评;我们对垃圾的爱;成堆的垃圾; Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash. By Edward Humes. 《垃圾学:我们对垃圾非常感兴趣》，Edward Humes 著。 Although it is the buried tombs and the lost cities that get all the press, one of the most valuable things that an archaeologist can dig up is rubbish.Palace murals and heroic statues record the sanitised, official version of history, but a society's garbage tells the true story of how its members lived. 虽然深埋的古墓和迷失的城市占据了所有的新闻版面，但是垃圾，却是考古学家们最值得深 挖的东西。宫廷壁画，英雄雕像，那些记录的都是一尘不染的东西，是历史的官方版本，但 是，一个社会的垃圾讲述的却是实实在在的市民生活。 With that thought in mind, archaeologists of the future are in for a treat.The industrial societies of the world's developed countries are the most wasteful ever, their spoor turning up in every corner of the Earth.Almost by definition, waste is something that most people prefer not to think too much about.But Edward Humes, an American journalist, is fascinated by the stuff.“Garbology” is his attempt to make sense of our historically unprecedented readiness to throw things away. 这样想来，我们确实是好好地款待了那些未来的考古学家们。因为处于工业社会的发达国家， 他们制造了有史以来最多的垃圾，地球上的每个角落都有他们的足迹。很显然，大多数的人 是不怎么会深思垃圾这类东西的。但是爱德华休姆斯，一位美国记者，却对垃圾如此着迷。 他试图通过“垃圾学”，搞清楚我们为什么会及其相当之非常愿意扔东西。 The book begins at the Puente Hills landfill, an artificial mountain near Los Angeles.It is the biggest dump in America, 30 years old, 150 metres high and containing 130m tonnes of rubbish within a 700-acre footprint.If it were a building, it would be among the 20 tallest in the city.Building a rubbish pile is, it turns out, surprisingly high-tech.The mountain is a giant, putrid layer-cake, with dozens of strata of rubbish separated by soil and plastic liners designed to contain the brew of noxious chemicals that would otherwise leach into groundwater.The rot produces methane, which is collected via a network of pipes that penetrate the mountain, and burned to produce electricity. 本书以朋地山垃圾场开头，朋地山垃圾场，靠近洛杉矶，大得看起来像一座假山。是美国最 大的垃圾堆，30岁高龄，150米高，1.3亿吨，700英亩。假如它是一座建筑物的话，那就能 名列该城市前20名了。建一座拉一堆可不是易事，事实证明，技术含量出奇的高。这座大 山犹如一个腐烂的大蛋糕，几十层的垃圾，由土和塑料管隔开，设计塑料管的目的，是为了 防止变质中的有毒化学物质浸入地下水。腐烂物产生沼气，经由管网收集，管网贯穿大山之 中，然后燃烧发电。 From there, Mr Humes traces the history of garbage in America,beginning with New York's “White Wings”, an army of municipal rubbish collectors created to clean the city's stinking streets in the 19th century,through the heyday of backyard incinerators (and the smog they produced) to the modern day,where the most common solutions often involve burying the stuff in the ground or dumping it in the sea.He talks to the researchers who are chronicling the plasticisation of the oceans, a swelling suspended solution of pulverised plastic.And he describes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous expanse of the Pacific Ocean where currents concentrate the trash over a continent-sized area. 休姆斯先生从那里去追溯美国的垃圾历史。先从纽约“白翼”开始，纽约“白翼”指的是19世纪， 为了清扫臭气熏天的街道，市里成立的专门用于收垃圾的群体。之后是后院焚烧炉活跃期(还 有焚烧炉产生的烟雾)。再后就是如今，最普遍的垃圾处理 方法 快递客服问题件处理详细方法山木方法pdf计算方法pdf华与华方法下载八字理论方法下载 莫过于地下掩埋或是倾倒大 海。休姆斯先生与从事海洋塑化记录的研究员一起，谈论那悬而未决的、了不起的粉末塑料 解决 方案 气瓶 现场处置方案 .pdf气瓶 现场处置方案 .doc见习基地管理方案.doc关于群访事件的化解方案建筑工地扬尘治理专项方案下载 。他说，太平洋垃圾带，使太平洋体积膨胀变大，水流将垃圾集中到一起，大小有 陆地那么大。 The author is just as interested in the creation of rubbish as its disposal.But whereas few will disagree with the gist of his observations about the shortcomings of our modern, disposable, consumer culture, the analysis is rather superficial.Mr Humes comes close to blaming a single man—J. Gordon Lippincott, an industrial designer—for the creation of the entire wasteful model of modern consumerism.And although it is understandable that an American author should write a book looking mostly at the problems of America, it nevertheless feels like a missed opportunity.Some of the most interesting parts of the book come towards the end, where he discusses some of the possible solutions—such as Denmark's strategy of burning rubbish to produce electricity, or an Irish scheme to charge shoppers for plastic bags, which led to a 90% drop in their use.Food for thought, and more. 这位作者对垃圾的产生与对垃圾的处理一样感兴趣。但是他的言论宗旨，即我们现代的、一 次性的消费文化缺陷，虽然很少有人反对，可是依然很肤浅。休姆斯先生几近于只责备一个 人——杰戈登利平科特，工业设计师——创造了整个奢侈的现代化消费模式。作为一个美国 作者，主要写当下美国发生的问题，是可以理解的，可是这总还是会让人觉得缺少了点什么。 一些最有趣的部分放在了最后，像关于垃圾问题的可行的解决方案——丹麦焚烧垃圾发电， 或是爱尔兰人对塑料袋收费计划，降低了对塑料袋90%的使用。发人深思，意味深远，超 出你的想象。 2 Business Ethnic advertising One message, or many? 商业 种族广告 要一个还是多个声音, The uses and limitations of ethnic ads 种族广告的使用和限制 IN THE television series "Mad Men", a 1960s adman makes a pitch to a television-maker whose sales are flat."Among Negroes sales are actually growing," he chirps.He proposes making "integrated" ads that appeal to both black and white consumers.His idea bombs.This being the era of segregation, one of his listeners wonders if mixed-race ads are even legal. 电视剧《广告狂人》，描述了二十世纪六十年代的一个广告制作人向电视制作人推销其对付 销售平淡的招数。他很兴奋地提出"黑人的购买额确实在上升。"他建议制作"一体化"广告以 吸引黑人和白人消费者。他的想法遭到狂轰烂炸。那时还处于种族隔离时期，其中一个在场 人员甚至怀疑种族混合的广告是否合法。 Such days are long gone.America's minorities will eventually be a majority of the population: by 2045, according to the most recent census.Advertisers have noticed.Many now favour cross-cultural ads that emphasise what black, Hispanic and Asian-American consumers have in common.This approach is thought to work well with the young, who often listen to the same music, eat the same food and wear similar clothes regardless of their ethnic background. 今非昔比。根据最新的人口普查资料显示，至2045年，美国的少数族裔将最终在人数上成 为主流大众。广告商知晓这趋势。如今许多广告商热衷于拍跨文化的广告，强调黑人、西班 牙人和亚裔美国人的消费共性。这一方法非常对年轻一代人的胃口，这些年轻人不管是何种 族背景，他们通常听同一首歌，吃同一种食物和穿相似的衣服。 Ogilvy & Mather, a big ad agency, formed OgilvyCulture in 2010 as a unit specialising in cross-cultural marketing."The ethnic ad model has not changed since the 1960s," says Jeffrey Bowman, head of OgilvyCulture.It was the census data that made Ogilvy change its model.In 2010 Burger King stopped employing ethnic agencies such as LatinWorks, which specialised in the Hispanic market, to address its consumers as a whole rather than taking a segmented approach. 广告业巨头奥美于2010年组建了奥美文化作为一个业务单元专门从事跨文化营销。奥美文 化的部门主管杰弗瑞?鲍曼说"种族广告模式自从二十世纪六十年代以来一成不变。正是人口 调查资料让奥美改变了其营销模式。2010年快餐连锁品牌汉堡王炒掉了如LatinWorks那些 专攻西班牙市场，具有种族色彩的广告代理商。汉堡王将顾客视为一体而不再采取细分的方 式。 Yet some admen feel ethnicity remains relevant."Every ten years we go through a rethink of targeted versus one voice," says McGhee Williams Osse, co-chief executive of Burrell, a Chicago-based agency specialising in the African-American market.She argues that ethnic origin is the key to people's identity, much more than education, income, religion, sex and sexual orientation.She would say that, of course. 但是有些广告人仍感到种族与广告还是有千丝万缕的关系。专攻非洲裔市场，总部位于芝加 哥的Burrell公司的联合行政长官 McGhee Williams Oss说 "每隔十年，我们会重新考虑反 对传播一个声音的广告"她认为种族血缘是人的身份认同的主要因素，比教育、收入、宗教、 性和性取向等更重要。她是这样说的，千真万确。 Maurice Lévy, the boss of Publicis Groupe, the French ad giant that owns 49% of Burrell, says that ethnic advertising makes sense for advertisers that are very big (and so can afford multiple ad campaigns), or very specialised.A maker of cream for black skin, for example, will probably not bother marketing it to Asians. 法国广告业巨头阳狮集团拥有Burrell49%的股票份额，阳狮的老板马千里说，种族广告对 大公司(因能付得起多个广告活动)或专业型公司还是有商业意义的。例如，为黑人制造的 面霜就没有必要进军亚洲市场了。 Nestlé, a huge food firm, aims some ads at Hispanics, America's largest minority.It recruited four Hispanic mothers to blog on a new bilingual website, El Mejor Nido (The Best Nest), offering tips about parenting and healthy eating.Hispanics are younger than other Americans, have more children and spend more on food, says Juan Motta,who heads the California-based unit running Nestlé's Hispanic campaign in the United States,which promotes both the firm's Latin American brands, such as La Lechera and Abuelita, and the rest of its larder. 食品巨擘雀巢公司针对美国最大的少数族裔西班牙裔制作了一些广告。它招聘了4名西班牙 裔母亲在其新设双语版的 El Mejor Nido (雀巢最佳)网上写博客，提供为人父母之道和健 康饮食的小贴士。负责雀巢西班牙裔广告促销的美国加利福尼亚分部主管胡安?莫塔说，西 班牙裔人比其他美国人更年轻，育有更多小孩且更舍得在食品上花钱。该分部主要负责促销 公司的两个拉丁美洲品牌如La Lechera 和Abuelita和其他的食品柜。 McDonald's has been a pioneer of ethnic advertising since the 1960s.Minorities represent about 40% of its customers in America.Neil Golden, the firm's American chief marketing officer, argues that other Americans often follow trends set by ethnic minorities.So he watches minorities for insights he can use in ads aimed at the general market.In 2010 McDonald's learned that African-Americans liked sweeter, weaker caramel mocha, so it started offering such blends everywhere, with great success.A similar thing happened with its mango and pineapple smoothies, a big hit with Hispanics.McDonald's featured the drinks in restaurants nationwide and they quickly overtook strawberry banana, the traditional favourite. 自从二十世纪六十年代，麦当劳一直是种族广告的先驱者。在美国少数民族裔占其消费者总 数的40%。麦当劳主要负责美国市场首席营销官尼尔?戈登认为其他美国人常跟在少数族裔 掀起的潮流后面。故他深入地了解少数族裔就可将其特色用于针对整个市场的广告中。2010 年麦当劳得知非洲裔美国人喜欢更甜一点，咖啡味更淡一点的焦糖摩卡。故麦当劳开始到处 提供这种混合物，结果一跑打响。它的芒果和凤梨冰沙也如法炮制，在西班牙裔人中大受欢 迎。麦当劳将此类饮品推广至遍布全国的门店，结果一夜之间便取代了传统畅销品草莓香蕉 饮料。 David Burgos, co-author of a book on marketing to the "new majority", says that in spite of the increasing importance of minority consumers, advertisers still put ethnic ads into a separate budget—which tends to be cut first when the economy goes sour.Only 7% of marketing dollars are spent on targeted ethnic campaigns, although nearly half of Americans belong to ethnic minorities.He thinks ad-agency staff need to be more diverse. David Burgos和别人合写了一本针对"新生大众"营销的书。该书上说尽管少数族裔消费者的 重要性日益俱增，广告商仍将种族广告单独预算——一旦经济不景气，首先便拿这块预算开 刀。尽管少数族裔占了将近一半的美国人口，但只有7%的营销费用花在针对种族的广告活 动上。他认为广告机构应招聘各种族的工作人员以使营销更多样化。 Getting the right ethnic perspective is tricky.Hispanics are a varied lot.An ad that delights Cuban-Americans may irritate migrants from Venezuela.Asians are hardly monolithic, either.Even the wittiest Korean catchphrases will provoke only bafflement in Chinatown. 在广告中从不同种族角度看问题这是非常高难度的工作。同为西班牙人却迥然不同。能让古 巴裔美国人捧腹大笑的广告可能会让委内瑞拉移民暴跳如雷。亚洲人也很是众口难调。即便 是韩国的警言妙句也可能令唐人街的中国人迷惑不解。 Saul Gitlin of Kang & Lee, an agency specialising in selling to Asian-Americans, argues that recent Chinese and Korean immigrants are best reached with communications in their mother tongue.They are generally ignored by advertisers, however, with the exception of financial firms.This is a mistake, he reckons: the median household income of Asian-Americans is some $10,000 higher than that of non-Hispanic whites. 专门针对亚洲裔美国人的广告公司Kang & Lee的Saul Gitlin认为和新一代的中国和韩国的 移民用其母语沟通能收到最好的效果。但是除了金融公司做到这一点外，广告商一般都置若 罔闻。广告商的做法大错特错，他推测:亚洲裔美国人的家庭收入中值比非西班牙裔白人还 高10,000美元。 Many modern Mad Men think digital media will allow them to know their audiences better, and feed them more precisely-tailored messages.This can be costly (see Schumpeter).But many consumers seem to like it.When Latinas disagree with something the four mommy bloggers at El Mejor Nido have written, they can go to the El Mejor Nido Facebook page, and let loose. 许多现代的广告狂人认为数字媒体能让他们更加了解受众，从而更易提供量身定制的信息来 满足他们的需求。这要付出很高的代价(请看熊彼得文)。但是许多消费者看来很喜欢这样。 如果拉丁裔美国人不喜欢在 El Mejor Nido网站上4位母亲所写的博客观点，他们可以移步 至El Mejor Nido脸谱网，可在此畅所欲言。 3 Books and Arts; Book Review;Meditations on love;Truly, madly, deeply; 文艺;书评;爱的沉思;爱得真挚，疯狂，深刻; Plato described love as a serious mental disease.Aristotle saw it as a single soul inhabiting two bodies.Tina Turner dismissed the feeling as a second-hand emotion.The nature of love—how and when and why and with whom humans fall for each other—has preoccupied thinkers through the ages.Now a philosopher and a scientist have a go in two new and markedly different books. 柏拉图曾经将爱描述为严重的心理疾病。亚里士多德认为爱是一灵栖两躯。蒂娜?特纳并不 认为这种感觉是种二手情感。爱的本质便是人们怎样，何时，为何，与谁共浴爱河，而这种 本质已让思想家们研究了好几个世纪。如今，一位哲学家和一位科学家在其两本截然不同的 新书中尝试着探求爱的本质。 In his latest work, “In Praise of Love”, Alain Badiou, a French philosopher, identifies three prevailing philosophical views of love.It can be an ecstatic encounter; an unsentimental contract; or an illusion, best treated with scepticism.He rejects all three.For Mr Badiou, love is the decision to live life through two perspectives, that of both the lover and the beloved.As such, it is more than the sum of its parts.Love “is a construction,” he writes, “a life that is being made, no longer from the perspective of One but from the perspective of Two.” 法国哲学家阿兰?巴迪欧在其新作《爱的礼赞》中指出，关于爱，有3种被普遍认同的哲学观 点:爱是一种令人欣喜的邂逅;一种理性的维系;一种与怀疑主义共存的幻觉。不过，这三 种观点都被巴迪欧否定了。对他而言，爱是决定在以后的生命中，同时拥有两个人的思想。 因此，爱，不止于是部分的叠加而已。“爱是建造，”他写道，“爱不再是一个人的思想能够 孕育出的生命，它需要两个人。” Mr Badiou sees risk as central to love.A loving relationship demands multiple and shared perspectives, which always give rise to incongruences and tensions.He reserves special scorn for dabblers in internet dating, who evidently believe that the search for “a photo, details of his or her tastes, date of birth, horoscope sign, etc” will ultimately net “a risk-free option”.This is to neglect the very essence of love, according to Mr Badiou, which involves the presence of risk, the possibility of failure and the need for vulnerability. 巴迪欧认为爱的核心便是风险。一段恋爱关系讲求既多样又相同的思想，这便总会让两人感 觉不合适，导致关系紧张。他一直都鄙视婚恋网上马虎配对的人，显然，这些人相信只需搜 集未来另一半的“照片，喜好，生日，星座之类的”，终会成功地筛选出一个“零风险的选项”。 他认为，这样做忽视了爱的本质——爱中存在着风险，有可能以分手告终，它也需要其中一 方的示弱。 The book's chatty style (it is based on a conversation with Nicolas Truong, a French journalist) lends a deceptive simplicity to the ideas within.Get to work unpicking these concepts and it soon becomes plain that, like many French philosophers, Mr Badiou sacrifices clarity for linguistic zip and sparkle.Nonetheless, he leaves the reader with an incisive overview of philosophical thinking on love, from Plato to Kierkegaard to Lacan. 该书的闲谈式风格(它以作者与一位法国记者尼古拉斯?特罗翁的谈话为基础)会让人误以 为:书中的思想都很简单。先得摒弃掉这些观点，之后，明显可以看到，巴迪欧与许多法国 哲学家一样，追求的不是清晰明确，而是语言上的表现力与闪光点。不过，对于从柏拉图到 克尔凯郭尔再到拉康关于爱的哲学思想，他的概述可谓鞭辟入里。 Robin Dunbar's book, “The Science of Love and Betrayal”, is—perhaps surprisingly—easier to get to grips with.Dr Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology with a study in this week's science section (see article), is best known for “Dunbar's number”, the limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships.He laments that scientists have largely ignored the concept of love.In this book he bridges the gap between the biological explanations for humans' romantic behaviour and the psychological, historical, social and evolu- tionary contexts that help to shape it. 罗宾?邓巴的新书《爱与背叛的科学》更容易理解，或许这有点令人惊讶。邓巴博士是进化 人类学的教授，本期科学专栏刊登了一篇他的研究，令他广为人知的是“邓巴数字”，即一个 人最多可以拥有的稳定社交关系的人数。他感到惋惜的是，科学家几乎忽略了爱的概念。生 物学上对人类浪漫行为做出了解释，这与有助于塑造这种行为的心理，历史，社会，及进化 因素本毫无关联，但在该书中，他将两者联系了起来。 In particular, he is interested in why humans have developed such an affinity for “pairbonding”, despite the fact that strictly monogamous mating and rearing systems are not terribly advantageous in evolutionary terms.Monogamy is not unique to humans.What is unique, however, is the intensity with which the species falls in love.Nearly every human culture in history exhibits this complex sense of longing, Dr Dunbar observes. 邓巴博士尤为感兴趣的是，虽然就进化角度而言，严格的一夫一妻制及养育制并不占多大优 势，但为何人类还如此热衷于“培养两个人的情侣关系”。一夫一妻制并不只是人类特有。不 过，人类特有的是这个物种爱火燃烧的炽热。邓巴博士观察到，历史上，几乎人类的每种文 化都表现出了这种复杂的渴望。 To understand this predisposition for monogamy, he takes readers through the myriad feelings of love, from the heady, breathless exhilaration of falling, to the stubborn persistence of familial affection, to the bitterness of betrayal.Throughout the book Dr Dunbar excels at taking obvious and familiar information—men prefer curvy women; women prefer men who dance well;older women rarely reveal their ages in lonely-hearts columns—and explaining the complex and often unexpected evolutionary science that lies behind it all. 为了理解一夫一妻制的偏向，邓巴博士带领读者体味了爱的各种感觉，从初坠爱河时忘乎所 以，呼吸困难的兴奋，到义无反顾地维持家庭关系，再到遭到背叛时的心如刀割。纵观全书， 邓巴的高超之处在于利用人们常见且熟悉的信息——男人偏好曲线玲珑的女人;女人喜欢舞 技出众的男人;年龄稍大的女人很少在征友专栏揭露自己的年龄——同时解释了这些现象背 后复杂且常出人意料的进化科学。 Love is a journey, a game, a many-splendoured thing.Though some give it a bad name (if Jon Bon Jovi is to be believed), the rest of us find the subject endlessly fascinating.The struggle to understand such a mystifying phenomenon invariably requires the help of philosophers and scientists, and others besides.Good news for Mr Badiou and Dr Dunbar. 爱是一次旅行，一场游戏，一件美妙的事。尽管有人给予爱很低的评价(如果人们愿意相信 乔恩?邦?乔维的话)，但是其余人都认为爱是一个永恒迷人的主题。当人们竭尽全力理解这迷 一样的现象时，总是需要哲学家，科学家，及其他专家的帮助。这对巴迪欧和邓巴来说，是 个好消息。 4 Books and Arts; Book Review;A history of dieting;Binge and purge; 文艺;书评;节食的历史;狂欢和清理; Calories and Corsets: A History of Dieting Over 2000 Years. By Louise Foxcroft. 《卡路里和束身衣:2000年来的节食历史》 Lousise Foxcroft 著。 After the binge of the holidays, many stumble into January with a hangover, some fragile resolutions and a desire to shed a few pounds.Alas, few will benefit from rigid calorie-counting or cabbage-soup slurping.In a recent study of 31 long-term diet plans, the American Psychological Association found that up to two-thirds of participants ended up heavier than before they started.Some diets are more sensible than others, but any regimen that promises swift and dramatic results will doom most followers to failure.Weight-loss pills and surgery are similarly ineffective—and sometimes dangerous—over time.Yet girth-management is big business, full of charismatic hucksters and fake science (fat-burning lip balm?), earning $40 billion a year in America alone. 在假日的狂欢之后，许多人宿醉，下着不坚定的决心，立志要减去数磅体重，在跌跌撞撞中 进入了一月。哎呀，少有人会得益于严格计算卡路里饮食或是食用卷心菜汤所带来的好处。 最近有一项关于31个长期节食计划的研究，美国心理协会发现有超过三分之二的参与者在 结束计划时比他们开始时还要重。一些饮食计划明显比其他的要有效果，但是任何承诺快速 有效的养生方法都注定让它的实践者们失败。减肥药片和手术经过时间的验证，同样效果不 佳——有时甚至很危险。然而，腰围管理仍然是一件大事，这里充满着有推销能力的商家和 伪科学(燃烧脂肪的唇膏,)，每年就仅仅在美国就可以挣得400亿美元。 “The diet industry is all about exploitation and profit,” writes Louise Foxcroft in “Calories and Corsets”, her slim new book about the history of dieting.Less a banquet than a tasting menu (the tone is breezy, opinionated and occasionally rushed), she chronicles more than 2,000 years of movers, shakers and tummy-tuckers, highlighting both the wise and the wacky. “节食产业几乎只有开发和盈利” Louise Foxcroft在《卡路里和束束身衣》一书中写道，她 薄薄的新书描述了节食的历史。她的书与其说是一场盛宴，不如说是一本激起人食欲的菜单 (整本书语调轻松，观点明确，有时有些咄咄逼人)，Foxcroft按时间顺序，编写了2000多 年来的行动者, 有影响的人物和减肥人士, 既写聪明人，也记叙古怪的人。 The word diet comes from the Greek diaita, an approach to health that linked the mental with the physical.Classical physicians saw being too fat or thin as a sign of an imbalance.Man “cannot live healthily on food without a certain amount of exercise”, observed Hippocrates, who believed in breakfast, long walks and prudent vomiting.Philosophers such as Socrates saw a relationship between food and ethics, as a taste for luxury often leads to greed and unjust behaviour. “diet”节食这个单词来源于希腊语“diata”,意思是使身体和心灵都健康的方法。传统的医师认 为太胖或者太瘦都是不平衡的标志。人类“依靠食物健康地生存必须要有定量的运动” 希波 克拉底得出这个结论，他崇尚早餐，长距离的行走和适当呕吐。哲学家如苏格拉底发现了食 物和道德之间的关系，吃大餐通常会导致人的贪婪和不公平行为。 Unlike the other deadly sins, gluttony is visible and so is often judged harshly, as if heft were always evidence of wanton indulgence or laziness.(The link between genetics and metabolism was not discovered until the 20th century.)In particularly hard times such as the two world wars, fat people were seen as traitors.Greater access to food and a rising stigma against podge helped inspire the fashion for corsets in the 17th century, which caused overlapping ribs, bad breath and the occasional death.When it comes to diets, women occupy a perversely central place, argues Ms Foxcroft.They are condemned for their gluttony, criticised for their vanity, manipulated for their insecurity and also blamed for the flab on their husbands and children. 不同于其他致命的罪恶，暴饮暴食是显而易见的，因此常招致严厉的批评，似乎重量就是放 肆纵容和懒惰的证据(直到20世纪，遗传学和新陈代谢之间的联系才被发现)尤其是在艰 难时期如两次世界大战，肥胖的人往往被视为是叛徒。17世纪，人们可以吃到更多的食物， 对于矮胖之人的羞辱也与日俱增，这一切引发了束身衣的流行，束身衣可以致使人肋骨重叠， 口臭，甚至是死亡。Foxcroft 女士指出，当谈到节食时，女性通常占据着主导地位。她们常 因暴食受到谴责，因虚荣招致批评，因心神不定而被人利用，因丈夫和孩子身上的肥肉受到 指责。 Until the 18th century, ideas on diet were mostly about healthy eating, morality and control.Laxatives and emetics were common, but many philosophers and physicians had sensible ideas about restraint and nutrition.By the early 19th century complaints about fat became rife, as even the working class had moved from the fields to the calorie-rich cities.This created a larger market for dieting solutions, particularly fads such as cold-rain douches, chest beatings, electrode zappings and massages that promised to crush subcutaneous fat globules. 直到18世纪，人们关于节食的想法大都关于健康饮食，道德和控制。排泄和催吐非常普遍， 但是许多哲学家和医师对于抑制和营养有着明智的看法。到19世纪早期，当工人阶级从农 村搬到充满卡路里的城市，人们对于肥胖的抱怨开始流行起来。这为节食计划创造了更大的 市场，尤其是冷水灌洗，击打胸部，电极刺激和按摩这些承诺可以减少皮下脂肪的方法。 The 19th century saw a chap named William Banting bring the first low-carbohydrate diet to a mass audience.A study in the Lancet later confirmed the value of favouring protein and fat over carbs well before a once overweight cardiologist named Robert Atkins figured this out for himself.Horace Fletcher, otherwise known as “The Great Masticator”, was emphatic about chewing each mouthful of food until it was liquid, and counted John D. Rockefeller and Franz Kafka among his disciples. 在19世纪，有个叫做William Banting的人，他第一次将低碳水化合物食谱推荐给大众。后 来在《柳叶刀》中刊登的一项研究证实了多摄入蛋白质和脂肪，少摄入碳水化合物的好处， 在此之后，有一个曾经超重的心脏病专家Robert Atkins也为自己指出了这一点。Horace Fletcher，以“伟大的咀嚼者”广为所知，曾强调咀嚼每一口食物直到它们成了液体，他的拥 趸包括洛克菲勒和卡夫卡。 There have been other gurus, plans, drugs and devices, but most offer short-lived results and long-term angst.Lasting changes need slow but steady modifications to lifestyle.Inspired by those early Greeks, who wished to achieve personal balance, not an ideal body type, Ms Foxcroft offers a suggestion that sounds enough like a resolution:“make sensible choices and stick to them.” 还有些权威，节食计划，药品和设备，但是大多数方法都缩短了人的寿命，引起了人们长期 的愤怒。持久的变化需要对生活方式进行缓慢但稳定的调整。Foxcroft女士受到了早期希腊 人的启发，要想获得个人的平衡，而不是理想的身材，她出了一个建议，但听起来更像一个 决心:做理智的选择，并且持之以恒。 5 Still in Books and Arts; Book Review;A memoir of Nigeria;Madmen on the ground; 文艺;书评;尼日利亚回忆录;尼日利亚游记; Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria. By Noo Saro-Wiwa. 《寻找仙境:尼日利亚游记》, Noo Saro-Wiwa 著。 Throughout her childhood and early teens, Noo Saro-Wiwa spent every summer in Nigeria.The flight back always came as a shock, as was the arrival itself.The noise, decay and corruption of Lagos airport were unending, along with the insects, power cuts and the higgledy-piggledy way of living that was far too intimate for one brought up in Britain’s home counties. 孩提时代和少年时光的Noo，每年都要去尼日利亚度过她的夏季。到达尼日利亚和航班返回 时的嗡嗡声一样让Noo感到厌恶。喧哗，肮脏的拉各斯机场永不停息，再加上昆虫和供电 中断，这种杂乱无章的生活方式，对于从小在英国长大的noo说是陌生的。 Ms Saro-Wiwa would far rather have stayed in the family house in leafy Surrey, with its golf clubs and Leylandii trees, or holed up with her smart boarding-school friends from Roedean.But her mother thought of their Surrey home as the “house”, whereas their Nigerian home was “home”, a character-building “tropical gulag” with kerosene lamps, rice-and-okra soup, “body-temperature Coca-Cola” and a live-in tribe of cackling uncles and aunts.Home, that is, until Noo’s father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, a businessman and activist from the oil-rich region of Ogoni, was arrested, imprisoned and then hanged in 1995 for his outspoken political views.The trips back to Nigeria came to an abrupt stop. Saro-Wiwa宁可呆在拥有高尔夫球具和Leylandii树的叶萨里郡家中，或者和来自罗丁寄宿 制学校的淘气小伙伴们玩躲猫猫的游戏。但Saro-Wiwa的妈妈把这个叶萨里郡的家当成一 座房子，而在尼日利亚的家才是真正意义上的“家”:标志性建筑“热带拉格”中的煤油灯和大 米秋葵粥，暖暖的可乐，家族中长辈的高谈阔论--这才是真正意义上的家，直到Noo的父亲 肯?萨洛-威瓦，这个来自于奥格尼的商人和活动家，因为他的直言不讳的政治言论，而逮捕 入狱，随后又于1995年被处于极刑。尼日利亚的旅途才戛然而止。 For a decade afterwards, Ms Saro-Wiwa traded Surrey and Roedean for new destinations which she wrote up for “Lonely Planet” and “Rough Guides”.As the rest of the world became increasingly familiar, Nigeria appeared to her to have more and more mystique.Eventually, she just had to return to the country no sane tourist would set foot in. 随后的十年，Saro-Wiwa将叶萨里郡和罗丁做为新的旅行目的地，并写进“孤独的星球”和“旅 游向导“中。随着对外部世界的逐渐了解，尼日利亚在Saro-Wiwa看来逐渐变得富有神秘。 最终，她决定返回尼日利亚这个任何神志清醒的人都不愿意踏上旅途的国家。 “Looking for Transwonderland” is a search for enlightenment.Why are Nigerians such “a nation of ruffians”?Why is Lagos, their largest city, such a “disaster of urban non-planning” characterised by “impatience, armed robberies and overflowing sewage”?How do Nigerians survive in their own country, let alone thrive?It would be easy to focus on the colourful insanitythat is Africa’s most populous nation.But Ms Saro-Wiwa is careful to avoid caricature.Curious, she travels out of Lagos to corners of the country many Nigerians never see:to the Transwonderland Amusement Park, to the beauty of the eastern mountains and to the northern city of Kano with its modestly covered women and its forest of ancient minarets.Along the way, she allows herself to be surprised by kindness and humour, making new friends who open her eyes to the passion, wit and ingenuity of her homeland. “寻找仙境“是探寻文明之旅。为什么尼日利亚是“绑匪之国”?为什么以骚动，持枪抢劫和污 水泛滥为特征的最大城市拉各斯被称作“无规划城市灾难”,尼日利亚人如何生存下去,更 别说繁荣昌盛,这个非洲人口最多国家，不难得到世人的关注。Saro-Wiwa却小心翼翼的避 免碰触任何夸张描述。让人称奇的是，她游历了连诸多尼日利亚人都不曾到过的拉各斯的各 个角落:充满奇幻色彩的主题娱乐公园，美丽的东部山脉，北部城市卡诺戴着头巾的优雅妇 女，稠密热带雨林中的远古宫殿。Saro-Wiwa惊叹于尼日利亚人民的善良幽默，并结交新朋 友—他们展开双臂拥抱这个充满激情，智慧，富有创造力的国家。 6 Science and Technology The Neolithic Boom-time machine 科技 新石器时代 时间机器解密:新石器时代的繁荣期 A new technique lets archaeologists reconstruct the past in greater detail 考古新技术让考古学家们能更加详尽地重构远古原貌 THAT economic expansion leads to building booms seems to have been as true 6,000 years ago as it is now.When agriculture came to Britain, it led to a surge of construction as impressive—and rapid—as the one that followed the industrial revolution. 在经济扩张时期,人们往往喜欢大兴土木，如今的这条经济定律在6000年前似乎也同样适用。 随着农业在英国生根萌芽，建筑业也随之蓬勃兴旺，其发展速度之快，令人印象之深刻毫不 逊色于英国工业革命之后的那次农业变革。 Which is all a bit of a surprise to archaeologists, who had previously seen the arrival of the Neolithic as a rather gentle thing.But that may be because of the tools they use. 这一切让考古学家们显得有些惊讶，他们之前一直认为新石器时代是经济发展较为和缓的时 期。不过这可能是由于他们使用的考古技术方法还不够先进。 Radiocarbon dating provides a range, often spanning 200 years or more, rather than an exact date for a site. 采用放射性碳技术来测定一处考古遗址的年代，得到的并不是一个准确日期，而是一个时间 跨度范围通常为200年或更久远的数值。 Stratigraphy, which looks at the soil layers in which artefacts are found, tells you only which ones are older and which younger.None of these data is precise.They do, however, limit the possible range of dates.And by using a statistical technique called Bayesian analysis it is possible to combine such disparate pieces of information to produce a consolidated estimate that is more accurate than any of its components.That results in a range that spans decades, not centuries. 而地层学采用的方法是通过对已发现古代文物的土壤层进行探测分析，从而判断土壤年代的 远近。这种方法得出的数据也都不精确。然而它们确实缩短了可推算的时间跨度。通过贝叶 斯分析的统计方法，这些分散孤立的信息可能被整合成一个可靠详实的估计数值，这比单一 研究其中的任何一条信息都更为精确。采用地层学断代推算出的时间范围是几十年，而不是 几百年。 A team led by Alex Bayliss, from English Heritage, a British government agency, has just used this technique to examine digs from hundreds of sites around Britain.The results have caused them to reinterpret the Neolithic past quite radically. Alex Bayliss领导的研究小组来自于英国政府机构的古迹署，他们刚刚采用这项技术对英国 周围几百处的人工挖凿遗址进行了研究。这些成果可以让他们更为彻底地重新诠释新石器时 代。 Agriculture seems to have arrived fully formed in what is now Kent, in the south-east, around 4050BC.The new culture spread slowly at first, taking 200 years to reach modern-day Cheltenham, in the west, but over the following five decades it penetrated as far north as Aberdeen.Soon afterwards, causewayed enclosures (circular arrangements of banks and ditches hundreds of metres across—see picture) began springing up all over the country. 大约在公元前4050年，在现今的英国东南部的肯特郡(Kent),那里的农业时代似乎已经到来 并发展成熟。起初这种新文化传播缓慢，用了200年的时间才到达今天英国西部的切尔滕纳 姆(Cheltenham)，但是在后续的50年中，它迅速东扩到了北部的阿伯丁(Aberdeen)。随后， 筑有堤道的围场(其格局为几百米跨度的环形堤岸与沟渠)开始在全国遍地开花。 Until now, archaeologists had assumed that these were built over the course of centuries.Dr Bayliss's work suggests they were the product of two booms, each just a few decades long—for the Neolithic seems to have seen its share of busts, too. 现在，考古学家断定这些建筑物是在几百年间陆续建成的。Bayliss博士的考古研究表明它 们是两个繁荣期的产物，每个繁荣期的持续时间仅为几十年，可见新时器时代似乎也存在过 衰落的萧条期。 The team's work offers such a sharp picture of the past that it is possible to trace the histories even of individual communities,such as one in Essex whose inhabitants built, used and then abandoned an enclosure within the span of a single generation. 考古研究小组为我们展示了清晰的远古画面，让我们可以追溯到更远的历史甚至小的个体群 落，例如在埃塞克斯(Essex)考古遗址,考古人员发现了当时原始居民修建，使用和后来废 弃的围场，它伴随了一代人的成长。 English Heritage now plans to apply the technique to another murky era of British history, the early Anglo-Saxon period between 400AD and 700AD.In principle, the method can be applied to any archaeological site, and several groups of researchers around the world are working on similar projects.But, fittingly for a discipline that deals in centuries and millennia, the revolution will be a slow one.Unlike traditional radiocarbon dating, which can be bought off the shelf, Dr Bayliss reckons it takes between three and four years to train a graduate researcher to use the new technique properly. 现在英国古迹署计划将此技术应用于英国另一段有着模糊记载的历史年代，即介于公元400 年至公元700年的早期盎格鲁-撒克逊时期。理论上，此种方法可以应用于任何一个考古遗址， 现在全世界已经有几组考古人员运用此方法进行着类似的考古项目。但是恰当地说，对一门 牵涉几百年和上千年的学科，它的发展将是一个漫长的过程。传统的放射碳断代法是一种现 学现卖的技术，但地层学与之不同，Bayliss博士认为培养一名完全掌握此项新技术且具有 硕士学位的研究人员得需要三到四年的时间。 7 Books and Arts; Book Review;The power of faith;Irrational belief; 文艺;书评;信仰的力量;非理性信仰; The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths. By Michael Shermer. 《有信仰者》:从鬼神到政治阴谋——我们是怎样形成信念并固以视之为真理。——麦可?薛 默著。 Michael Shermer is a psychologist, cyclist, one-time fundamentalist Christian, founder of Skeptic magazine and, currently, the author of a monthly column with the same name published in Scientific American.He has built a professional career out of casting a rationalist's eye over some of the wackiest beliefs that humanity has to offer. 麦可?薛默(Michael Shermer)是一位心理学家和骑自行车爱好者，曾经一度是基督教原教旨 主义者、《怀疑论者》杂志的创始人，而现在是《科学美国人》中与其同名的每月专栏的作 家。他已成就了他的职业生涯，因为他以理性的眼光审视人们情不自禁流露出来的某些极为 荒谬的信念。 But his latest book is more than just a display case full of specimens collected by a man fascinated by the paranormal.Mr Shermer is interested in how such beliefs come to be held, and why they can persist even in the face of what, to others, can seem to be the overwhelming evidence that contradicts them. 然而他的最新著作不仅仅是装满了着迷于超自然的他所收集案例的展示柜。而且薛默先生还 展示了他感兴趣的是人们是怎么怀有这样的信念以及为什么他们在面对似乎有压倒性证据 去反驳他们时还固执己见。 The first part of the book is a mixture of psychology and trendy neuroscience research that presents the evidence for Mr Shermer's central claim:that, instead of shaping belief around painstakingly gathered, soberly judged evidence, people most often decide upon their beliefs first,and then use an impressive range of cognitive tricks to bend whatever evidence they do discover into support for those pre-decided acts of faith. 该书的第一部分是心理学和盛行的神经科学研究的大杂烩，提供了证明薛默先生主要观点的 证据:也就是，四处煞费苦心收集来的成形信仰和冷静判断的依据，人们很多时候首先决定 自己的信念，然后，无论他们所发现证据是否去支撑他们以前决定的信仰行为，他们也利用 一些令人印象深刻的认知骗局去扭曲事实。 In the second part of “The Believing Brain” Mr Shermer applies those observations to the almost infinite variety of weird and wonderful beliefs that people hold,from alien abductions to government conspiracies to bring down the World Trade Centre—and, inevitably, to religion (a chapter on politics, by contrast, feels misplaced and forced).He is an able skewerer of sloppy thinking.The section on conspiracy theories, for instance, memorably exposes the bizarre leaps of logic that adherents often make:“If I cannot explain every single minutia [about the collapse of the twin towers]…that lack of knowledge equates to direct proof that 9/11 was orchestrated by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the CIA.” 在《有信仰者》第二部分，薛默先生引用了这些对人们所怀有的几乎所有怪异信仰的观察结 果，从外星人绑架到炸毁世界贸易中心的政府阴谋，不可避免地也谈及到宗教(相比之下， 政治这一章让人感觉有点错位和牵强)。他是一个能干的凌乱思维整理者。例如， 关于阴谋 论部分，明显出现逻辑思维的断层:信徒们常常认为“如果我不能解释出[关于双子塔倒塌] 的每一细节... ...这认识的缺失相当于直接证明9/11是布什、切尼、伦斯斐和中央情报局精 心安排的。 A common risk with this kind of book is that the author comes across as overly smug and superior;just look at how the duke of debunkers, Richard Dawkins, is sometimes perceived, even by his fans.Mr Shermer is aware of this risk, and is at pains to reassure readers that his conclusions apply to everyone, even himself.In a chapter on alien abductions, he recounts an abduction story of his own.Exhausted after cycling 1,259 miles in 83 hours as part of an endurance challenge called the Race Across America,he becomes convinced that the motorhome carrying his support team is actually an alien spacecraft,and that his team's pleas for him to come inside and get some rest are merely a cunning pretext to get him to co-operate with a spot of alien probing.Surprised when the interior of the mothership turns out to closely resemble a General Motors motorhome, Mr Shermer consents to lying down.On waking a couple of hours later, he is able to joke about the experience with his team-mates. 这类书籍的常见风险是，作者看上去好像过于自以为是和过于哗众取宠;只要看看揭露真面 目者的公爵理查德?道金斯有时给人的感觉就明白了，甚至连他的粉丝也有这种感觉。薛默 先生是意识到这种风险，并煞费心思地使认为“作者的结论适用于每个人，甚至他自己”的读 者安心下来。在关于外星人绑架那章中，他讲述了他自己的绑架故事。经过被他称为战横穿 美国的长征的83小时1259英里的骑行耐力挑战后，他筋疲力尽。他开始相信，装载着他支 持的球队的房车实际上是一艘外星飞船，他的球队那让他进去歇歇的请求仅仅是一个狡猾的 借口好让他与之合作一起探索外星船。当他发现母舰内部酷似通用汽车房车，薛默先生十分 惊讶并同意躺下歇会。他在两个小时后醒来，他还能拿这经历来和队友们开玩笑。 That experience gives one useful definition of a sceptic, as Mr Shermer understands the term:one who is aware of the fallibility of intuitions, and willing to take steps to minimise them.It remains, sadly, an uncommon combination. 这经验给出了怀疑论者的很好的定义，正如薛默先生理解术这语一样:一人意识到直觉的不 可靠性，并乐意采取 措施 《全国民用建筑工程设计技术措施》规划•建筑•景观全国民用建筑工程设计技术措施》规划•建筑•景观软件质量保证措施下载工地伤害及预防措施下载关于贯彻落实的具体措施 尽量减少直觉的偏差。可惜，这仍是一种不寻常的组合。 8 Books and Arts; Book Review;19th-century British politics;Third man; 文艺;书评;19世纪英国政坛;第三人; John Bright: Statesman, Orator, Agitator.By Bill Cash. 《约翰?布莱特:政治家, 演说家, 改革推动者》;比尔?凯西。 Bill Cash, a Conservative British backbench politician, has written a book about another backbench politician, who also happens to be an ancestor.Mr Cash frets that his great-grandfather's cousin has been forgotten, but he hasn't really.No historian doubts the importance of John Bright; it is just that he has slipped out of the popular consciousness. 比尔?卡什(Bill Cash), 这个英国保守党普通议员为另一位普通议员写了一本书, 而其撰写的 这个人物恰好是他的一位先人。卡什议员对于人们已经忘却了他的曾祖父的这位表兄感到不 快, 但是其实他没有被忘记。没有任何历史学家会怀疑约翰。布莱特(John Bright)的重要历 史地位; 现今他只是从公众的视野中淡出了。 So, for the layman, who was he?The very question, Mr Cash tells us, would have flabbergasted anyone in the 19th century.In 1878 Punch published a series of cartoons of the three Britons whom they deemed to be the greatest statesmen of the age—Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone and Bright.Born in 1811 and with a political career spanning nearly 50 years as a member of parliament for Durham, Manchester and Birmingham, Bright would be “the one contemporary statesman whose fame and accomplishments transcended the age,” according to Walter Bagehot, this newspaper's editor from 1860-77.A biography by G.M. Trevelyan, which came out in 1913, described him as “a rare example of the hero as politician”. 那么，对于我们这些门外汉来说, 这个约翰?布莱特究竟何方神圣,如果是在十九世纪, 卡什 先生向我们提出的这个问题, 会令任何人感到诧异。在1878年, Punch报纸出版了一系列的 连载漫画, 讲述了被认为是这个国家最伟大的政治家的3个人, 他们当中有本杰明?迪斯累利 (Benjamin Disreali)，威廉?格莱斯顿(William Gladstone), 还有一位就是约翰?布莱特。曾于 1860-1877年间担任该报主编的瓦尔特?伯格霍特(Walter.Bogehot)称赞这位生于1811年, 曾 担任杜伦、曼切斯特和伯明翰地区议员,拥有跨越了50个年头政治生涯的老议员布莱特为“声 誉和成就超越了本时代的当代政治家”。在1913年为其出版的一本传记中, 该书作者也将布 莱特描述为“一位罕见的能被称为英雄的政坛人物”。 A Quaker born in Rochdale, Bright made his name campaigning for the repeal of the protectionist Corn Laws, distinguishing himself, as Karl Marx testified, as “one of the most gifted orators that England has ever produced”.He was inspiring as well as courageous, and his passion for free trade was allied to his passion for democracy.He crusaded against monopoly, aristocracy, slavery and more.It was Bright who said that “England is the mother of Parliaments”, a phrase that has passed into idiom.He fought tirelessly for the Reform Act of 1867 which gave the vote to working-class men.A radical as well as a nonconformist, Bright was vocal in his opposition to the Crimean war, which he believed to be un-Christian, a stance that eventually lost him his parliamentary seat. 作为来自于罗奇达尔(Rochdale)的公宜会信徒, 布莱特在针对保护主义者的玉米法案的反 对运动中初次参加竞选活动, 就展现出超凡的演讲才能, 正如卡尔?马克思(Karl Marx)所言, 他是“英格兰有史以来最有天赋的演说家之一”。他的演讲大胆豪迈又鼓舞人心, 而他对自由 贸易的激情又与其对民主自由的热忱紧紧结合。他严词讨伐垄断势力，贵族阶层和奴隶 制度 关于办公室下班关闭电源制度矿山事故隐患举报和奖励制度制度下载人事管理制度doc盘点制度下载 等不平等的制度，而今已成谚语的名言”英国是议会之母”就是出自其语。布莱特曾经为给予 了劳工阶层投票权的1867年改革法案而不知疲倦的斗争。身为一个激进派的新教徒, 他也曾 直言不讳的反对克里米亚战争(Crimean War)，布莱特认为这场战争是不符合基督教精神的， 而这种立场最终让他丢掉了自己的议员席位。 Whether you rated him a hero or a villain depended on your point of view.His pugnacity fascinated and repelled people in equal measure.Early tales include a furious quarrel with a local Anglican vicar, both of them hollering from tombstones in the parish churchyard.He was, says Mr Cash, “an independent Radical by principle, with a persistent strain of innate conservatism.He was in the Liberal Party as it evolved but not always of, or evenwith, the Liberal Party”.His relationships with Gladstone and Disraeli were complex.He loathed Lord Palmerston, a former prime minister, and the feeling was mutual. 你认为布莱特是个英雄还是恶棍完全取决于你自己的好恶。他好斗的个性有多令人欣赏，同 时就有多令人讨厌。他早期的轶事中就有一则关于一次他和一个圣公会的副主教暴吵了一 架，两个人都在一个地区教堂的墓地里大喊大叫的故事。卡什先生说，布莱特是一个天生流 着保守主义血液的自有 原则 组织架构调整原则组织架构设计原则组织架构设置原则财政预算编制原则问卷调查设计原则 的激进派;他始终都在自由党中, 但并不总是属于自由党, 甚至 不见得总是支持自由党。布莱特和格莱斯顿以及迪斯累利的关系都很复杂。他还极端厌恶前 首相帕梅尔斯通(Palmerston), 而帕梅尔斯通对布莱特也没什么好感。 Mr Cash is a lawyer by training and a politician by profession.He has a sharp eye for detail and he presents a strong case.What he does not explain is how Bright slipped out of view.His own interest, he tells the reader, has increased “in inverse proportion to the decline in the vibrancy, accountability and sovereignty of our Parliament”.But the underlying lament, that Bright has been censored out by fashion “as people became cynical of moral and political certainties” is too marbled with nostalgia to be believable. 卡什先生是法律专业出身, 但是现在是职业政治家。他眼光犀利, 善于捕捉细节, 并能摆出 有力的例证。他并不想解释为什么布莱特从公众的关注中淡出了。他在书中透露给读者, 与 “英国议会的权威性、可信度和活跃度的每况愈下”, 他自己的影响力倒是与日俱增。但是那 份对于”由于如今人们对道德和政治信仰已是不屑一顾”而导致布莱特被人淡忘的哀伤却显 得过于有怀旧的意味而不足以令人信服。 Bright was a political force, but he never held high office, so he was rather like a midfielder who forever sets up the strikers: assists don't count as much as goals.A full- scale revival of his reputation would have to rouse the reader's imagination.Mr Cash quotes Bright's dictum that “my life is in my speeches”, many of which are rhetorical masterpieces; but the reader wants more of the man, more of the life outside the speeches.Bright believed that biographies “are soon forgotten, and of no influence in the future”.Historians will enjoy this fine political portrait, but it is unlikely to make Bright famous again. 布莱特有相当的政治影响力, 但是却从未担任高官, 所以其实他更像是一个永远为前锋提 供支持的中场队员:他的助攻不见得都能转化为得分。要全面恢复布莱特的声望还有赖于唤 起读者们的想象空间。卡什先生引述了布莱特的一句格言”我的生命都在演讲中”, 布莱特的 演讲的确很多都是修辞极佳的经典之作, 但读者们恐怕想要更多的了解这个人, 了解这个 人在演讲之外的生活中是什么样子。布莱特本人认为传记”都是容易被人遗忘的, 而且对未 来也不会产生什么影响”。历史学家们应该会对这一部精致地描写了这个政治人物的著作很 有兴趣, 但是这本书还是不太可能让布莱特再”火”起来。 9 Books and Arts; Book Review;Queen Elizabeth II; 文艺;书评;伊丽莎白二世; Royal bow;Why the queen has to be seen to be believed? 向女王致敬;女王为什么要与众不同, The Real Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. By Andrew Marr. 《真实的伊丽莎白:近观伊丽莎白二世》安德?鲁马尔著。 Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Our Times. By Sarah Bradford. 《伊丽莎白二世:她生活在我们这一代》莎拉?布莱德福德著。 A Brief Life of the Queen. By Robert Lacey. 《女王一生简观》罗伯特?拉西著。 Our Queen. By Robert Hardman. 《我们的女王》罗伯特?哈德曼著。 Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch. By Sally Bedell Smith. 《伊丽莎白女王:一位现代君主的一生》莎莉?贝德尔?史密斯著。 Being on show is a serious business for Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne 60 years ago next month.On royal tours and walkabouts, she is careful to choose bright colours and small-brimmed hats, glides through crowds “like a liner” and seemingly never tires.“Oh look! She's keeled over again,” the queen once noted at a stifling-hot palace reception, spotting her then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, pale and slumped in a chair. 对于伊丽莎白二世来说，出席公众场合是一项非常重要的任务，下个月就是她登基六十周年 的纪念了。在参加皇室的出访和视察时,她小心翼翼地选择明亮色调的衣服和窄檐礼帽，优 雅地走过人群，像“一艘远洋油轮”静静驶过，看上去永远都不知疲倦。“哦～看，她又跌倒 了”在一次皇宫的招待宴会上，室内的温度令人窒息，女王眼尖地发现了当时的首相撒切尔 夫人脸色惨白，跌落于椅子中。 On several occasions she has been urged to retreat behind more obtrusive layers of security.Each time she has refused with something between a joke and a motto for her six decades on the throne, telling aides: “I have to be seen to be believed.” 有许多次，女王被劝说退居二线，每一次，她都以一个介于玩笑和座右铭似的话来描述她在 位的六十年，她如此告诉副官:“我是如此与众不同”。 Yet for the 85-year-old monarch, belief requires distance, too.Younger generations of royals have kissed and told.But the queen has never given an interview.Though some of her 12 British prime ministers were convinced they forged a special bond during weekly audiences with their sovereign, her personal politics remain unknown. 然而，对于八十五岁的女王来说，信仰也是需要距离的。皇室里年轻的一代受到宠爱，都被 如此教育着。但是女王自己从来都不接受任何采访。英国的十二任首相都认为自己是民众和 女王之间的特殊纽带，女王对政治的看法仍不为大众所知。 Over the years, various aristocrats, cousins and horse-racing grandees have been more or less plausibly identified as her friends.Even among such intimates, boundaries are observed, for fear of crossing an unseen line and triggering a stare of blank, silent rebuke.“She is never—you know—not the Queen,” advises an unnamed friend, quoted in the opening lines of a new biography by the BBC's senior political interviewer, Andrew Marr. 许多年来，各种贵族，皇亲国戚，参加赛马的显贵们都或多或少地证实了哪些为女王的朋友。 即使在和这些密友相处的过程中，也有界线需要遵守，朋友们害怕越过无形的界线会使女王 受惊，从而招致无声的指责。“她从来都不是-你知道的-不是女王”一位不愿透漏姓名的朋友 说道，这句话被BBC资深政治记者安德鲁?马尔所引用，写在了关于伊丽莎白二世的一本新 传记的首页几行。 Yet as a constitutional monarch, ruling with the tacit consent of the majority, she is not the only judge of the trade-off between necessary display and indispensable discretion.The public have a say as well.Some of the queen's closest brushes with disaster have involved a lack of visibility, most painfully in 1997 when she remained in Scotland with the royal family after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.She only returned to London after pleas from her new, young prime minister, Tony Blair (and lynch-mob demands to “Show Us You Care” from the tabloids). 作为一名立宪制君主，女王和大众保持着一致，她不仅仅要为自己在公众面前必要的露面负 责，也要不失谨慎小心。因为公众也有发言权。在一些事情上，女王对灾祸的处理还缺乏透 明度，最为深痛的是在1997年，当戴安娜--威尔士王妃去世时，女王仍留在苏格兰和皇室成 员们在一起。在当时新上任的年轻的首相托尼?布莱尔的恳请下，女王才回到了伦敦。(一些 愤怒的群众在小报上叫嚣“拿出你关心的证据”) The double nature of the queen—an unusually private woman with extraordinary public duties—poses a test for all who try to write about her.Including Mr Marr's book, five new biographies have been prepared for 2012, the queen's diamond jubilee year.The authors boast of watching the queen at work, interviewing officials from the royal household and of trawling through archives.They quote family members, friends and people with a claim to know the queen. 女王的双重特性——一个非常低调的女子肩负着重大的公共责任——对于所有想描写她的 人都是一个难题。2012年，在女王登基60周年之际，纪念包括马尔这本书在内的五本新传 记都将出版。作者们吹嘘曾看过女王办公的样子，采访了皇室家族的成员们，翻阅无数文献 资料。他们引用了皇室家族成员，朋友和一些自称认识女王的人的话。 In the process, all five biographers wrestle with the question neatly framed by their subject herself:if to see the queen is to believe in her, what vantage point allows the most authentic experience of faith?Which queen is the most “real”, the private woman or the public figure?Each offers a different answer. 在此过程中，五本传记都在试图回答一个问题，这个问题都和女王有关:如果要信任我们所 看到的女王，那么我们应站在什么角度来获得这些最为真实的信任,哪一个女王是最“真实” 的,那个低调的女子还是那个公共人物,每个人心中都有不同的答案。 Two of the authors, Sarah Bradford and Robert Lacey, are veteran royal historians, whose 2012 biographies draw on previously published work.With the frankness of an old pro, at one point Ms Bradford names different schools of royal-watching.There is the “work of the Queen” genre, as pioneered by the 1969 television film “Royal Family”, which showed the monarch working through boxes of state papers, preparing state visits or relaxing with her family.Alas, she explains, once the public had seen inside royal drawing rooms, they soon Wanted to peer into the bedroom.Thus arose the “royal soap opera” genre.Ms Bradford takes readers on a brisk, assured canter through the familiar landmarks of both genres, adding a dose of history as she goes.Mr Lacey, who has been writing about the queen for nearly 40 years, advertises his slim volume as a “pleasant afternoon's reading”, which it is not.At once knowledgeable and jaundiced, Mr Lacey seems slightly sick of his royal subjects, as do the unnamed courtiers and insiders whom he quotes. 这其中的两个作者，沙拉?布拉德福德和罗伯特?拉西都是经验丰富的皇家历史学家，他们在 2012年出版的作品援引了之前已经出版著作的内容。布拉德福德女士坦白她是支持皇室的， 她曾经将几种关注皇室的不同行为进行了分类。有一种是“女王的工作”派别，是由1969年 电视节目“皇室家族”开启，展现女王伏案工作的场景，桌上堆满了国务文件，准备国事访问 以及和家人休闲娱乐。啊，她解释道，一旦公众看到了皇家的画室，他们会好奇卧室是什么 样子。因此出现了“皇室肥皂剧”流派。布拉德福德女士引入一部分历史事实，以轻松的笔调 带领读者信步于这两派熟知的情节之间。拉西曾用了将近40年的时间来写女王，他将自己 单薄的一本书定义为“午后休闲阅读”，但事实上并非如此。拉西博学多才，对女王怀有偏见， 他似乎有些反感这些皇室成员，在他书中一些没有提及姓名的官员和圈内人也此表示了同 感。 Robert Hardman, a royal correspondent for the Daily Mail, offers a convincing tour of the British monarchy as an institution, apeing the vantage point of the fly-on-the-wall documentary.His access produces an interview with Prince William and several lesser scoops—a rarity in the world of royal biography, in which the same anecdotes turn up in each book.But access has its limitations.The young prince is more loyal than revelatory about his grandmother, explaining that her “gravitas” awes even her family, that she offers good advice and was “so excited” by her 2011 state visit to Ireland.Some lesser sources appear to be quoted largely to thank them for their time. 罗伯特?哈德曼是《每日邮报》的一名王室事务记者，他模仿电视真人秀的纪实特点，展现 了英国女王的生活中很重要的部分。他有机会接触到皇室成员，在此过程中，他访问了威廉 王子，采访几个次要人物，获取了一些独家新闻—这在描写皇室的传记中是非常稀有的材料， 以前的传记中总是出现千篇一律的趣闻轶事。但是与皇室成员的接触也是有其限制之处。年 轻的王子对他的祖母十分忠诚，并不会透露女王的事情，他解释道，祖母的“庄重”使她整个 家族深感敬畏，女王也常常提出意见，2011年出访爱尔兰使她感到“很兴奋”。一些次要人 物在接受采访中大都表示生正逢时的幸运。 Sally Bedell Smith, an American society biographer, offers her readers the illusion of knowing the queen as a friend.Ms Bedell Smith brightly describes her own brief chats with the monarch at a Washington garden party and a London reception, before sprinkling her account with minute indiscretions from other people who have met her.The elder President Bush reveals that Elizabeth II is “rather formal” but not “standoffish”.A witness describes how a puppy defecated in front of the queen during a visit to a Kentucky horse-breeder, breaking the ice.Nancy Reagan recalls a breakfast with the queen, Prince Philip and Prince Charles at Windsor Castle; she was surprised that everyone poured their own cereal from the box.It is reported that the queen likes a travel rug round her knees and used to wear a hard hat when watching stallions cover her mares(now she stands on a viewing platform, after health and safety advice).This footling stuff is only of any interest because it is about the queen.But—fatally—those same domestic details have nothing to do with why Elizabeth II, as queen, is interesting. 美国的社会传记作家莎莉?贝德尔?史密斯向读者描述了女王作为朋友的一面。贝德尔?史密斯 女士生动地记叙了她在华盛顿一个花园派对和在伦敦的一次招待会上同女王简短的谈话，也 写到了一些遇见女王的人的轻率之举动。老布什总统透露，伊丽莎白二世“非常遵守礼节” 但又不“冷淡”。一个目击者描述，在女王去肯塔基州一户养马人家时，一只小狗当着女王的 大便，这打破了沉默的气氛。南希?里根回忆:有一次和女王，菲利普亲王以及查尔斯王子 在温莎城堡里共进早餐，当她看到在座的每个人都自己从一个大盒子里倒出吃的食物，她很 惊讶。据报道，女王喜欢在膝盖上裹一条毯子，在看她的种马和母马交配时喜欢戴一顶安全 帽(出于卫生和安全考虑，现在她站在一个观景平台上观看)。这些无足轻重的事情一点都 不有趣，仅仅因为它们和女王有关。但不幸的是，这些家庭生活的细节和作为女王的伊丽莎 白二世是否有趣一点关系都没有。 Mr Marr, a former political editor of the BBC and author of some shrewd books on modern Britain, sets himself a more ambitious task: to explain what the queen's role and position tell us about her subjects.It is an admiring portrait, of an unfashionably dutiful monarch who in her weekly audiences offers prime ministers what he calls “a kind of higher therapy”—a chance to share anxieties or explanations which will never leak, with someone who has read almost every state secret of the past 60 years (and so has heard worse before).He describes the queen and her strong sense of vocation, as a monarch “God-called” to give her life to her people as a sacrifice.Only by understanding that calling, he writes, can the queen be understood. 马尔以前是英国广播公司的一位政治编辑，曾写过几本关于现代英国的书，很有见地，现在 他给自己定下了一个甚为庞大的目标:要解释清楚女王的角色和位置，告诉我们她的民众的 看法。这是一本令人钦佩的传记，它记述了一位守旧、尽职的女王每周会见首相时提供的 “高 级疗法”—用马尔的话来说—这是首相和女王分担焦虑、共谋计策的时刻，这些谈话的内容 永远不会泄露出去，在过去的六十年，女王几乎知晓所有的国家机密(之前听过更糟糕的消 息)。在书中，马尔描述了女王和她强烈的使命感:女王是“受到了上帝召唤”，要将自己的 生命献给民众。“只有理解了这种召唤，才能理解女王”马尔如此写到。 In perhaps a claim too far, Mr Marr emphasises the comfort offered by the queen as a symbol of the continuing British state.By representing those who did not vote for the current government or did not vote at all, she strengthens democracy, he suggests.It is a clever thought, but may overstate the degree to which most Britons suffer from constitutional angst. 马尔强调了女王作为大英帝国延续的标志给人们带来的慰藉，这一点可能说的有些过头了。 为了那些反对现任政府和那些根本没有投票的人，女王要推进民主。这个想法非常明智，但 是这过度夸大了大多数英国人对现行体制的担心。 But a symbol she certainly is.And in modern Britain—a restless, exhibitionist place—Mr Marr's Queen Elizabeth stands out for her discretion, and for understanding that symbols are “better off keeping mostly quiet”.There is a lesson there for her heir, the Prince of Wales, Mr Marr suggests sharply. 但是女王肯定是一个标志。在现代英国—处于一个焦躁不安，要出风头的位置—马尔笔下的 伊丽莎白二世以她的谨慎而名，也深知作为标志性的人物“最好保持沉默”。马尔毫不留情的 指出，对于她的继承人--威尔士亲王来说，还有许多经验需要学习。 Mr Marr palpably likes the queen, whether for touring the country to greet and thank people mostly ignored by “London power brokers”, or for relaxing when her work is done with “a glass of something cheerful”.Yet liking is not really the point.In Mr Marr's words, there is only a little space, though “an interesting space”, between the queen and the woman who lives her life.Her calling gives her meaning.She “is what she does”. 能感觉的出来，马尔是欣赏女王的，不论是出访全国会见问候被““伦敦权势掮客”忽略的人 们，还是完成“很满意的工作”之后的放松。然而喜好无关紧要。用马尔的话来说，在女王和 过普通生活的女子之间只有一点点的距离，尽管这个距离很“有趣”。女王应有的使命感赋予 了她意义。女王的言行举止即代表了女王。 Mr Marr's sober conclusion feels right.To adapt the queen's one-liner: for all that the spectacle and unattainable glamour of royalty still fascinates (and helps sell books), for Britain's jubilee monarch the show is a means to an end.Being seen is about being believed. 马尔发人深省的结论可能是正确的。为了改编了女王一脉相承的生活:所有的规模宏大的庆 典和难以企及的皇室魅力仍然散发着强大的吸引力(这也有助于图书的销售)，对于已经登 基了六十周年的英国女王来说这场秀可能是一个结束。所见即所信。 10 Business . ManagementWhat do bosses do all day? 商业. 管理老板整天在干嘛, The shocking truth can at last be revealed 惊人真相终将披露 THANKS to closed doors and fierce gatekeepers, bosses are tricky to observe in their natural habitat.Yet it might be useful to know what they do all day, and whether any of it benefits shareholders.A new Harvard Business School working paper sheds some light. 多亏了紧闭的房门和尽忠职守的把关者，老板们得以狡猾地呆在自己的窝里观察一切。然而， 了解他们每天做什么，这些行为又对股东是否有利，也许是不无益处的。哈佛商业学院新披 露的一份文件向我们揭示了部分真相。 Researchers asked the chief executives of 94 Italian firms to have their assistants record their activities for a week.You may take this with a grain of salt.Is the boss’s assistant a neutral observer?If the boss spends his lunch hour boozing, or in a motel with his assistant, will she record this truthfully? Nonetheless, here are the results. 调查对象为94位意大利公司的首席行政官，他们被要求让助理们记录下一周的活动。对这些， 你也许不能全信。助理们是中立的观察者吗,如果老板在午餐时豪饮，或者和他的助理腻在 汽车旅馆，她会如实记录吗,尽管有此种种不定因素，调查结果如下: The average Italian boss works for 48 hours a week and spends 60% of that time in meetings.The most diligent put in another 20 hours. And the longer they work, the better the company does. 一般，意大利老板每周工作48小时，而且60%的时间花在会议上。最兢兢业业的人，工作时 长甚至达68小时。而且，公司的运营状况和他们的工作时长成正比。 Less diligent chief executives are more likely to have one-to-one meetings with people from outside the company.The authors speculate that such people are trying to raise their own profile, perhaps to secure a better job.Bosses who work longer hours, by contrast, spend more of them meeting their own employees. 不那么勤勉的行政总裁，则更可能和公司以外的人进行一对一谈话。作者推测，他们的动机 是增加自己的筹码，这样或许得到一份更好的工作。相比而言，工作时间更长的老板则大部 分时间都和自己的员工在一起。 Bosses often complain that they get bogged down in day-to-day operati, says Rajesh Chandy, a professor at the London Business School.Regulati that make them legally resp for their underlings’ wrongdoings are partly to blame.The prospect of jail is a powerful attention-grabber. 伦敦商业学院的教授拉杰什.钱迪说道，老板经常抱怨他们纠结在日常业务中。导致此结果， 部分可归咎于规章制度，是它们的存在使他们要为属下的违规行为负法律责任。坐监的景象 可是个非常吸引注意力的玩意儿。 Many bosses also feel they must dash around the world pitching to clients.Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-chief executive of SAP, a software firm, reck that he met over 200 last year.Mr Chandy thinks bosses should spend less time with clients and more time thinking about the future. 许多老板同样觉得自己必须到处奔波，以兜售产品。软件公司SAP的联合首席行政官吉姆. 哈格曼.什纳布估计他去年拜访了超过200家客户。钱迪先生认为老板的时间，不应多放在客 户身上，而应在思考公司的未来上。 How much time they spend thinking about anything is hard to measure.But in an experiment, Mr Chandy measured how often bosses use forward-looking words like “will” and “shall” in their public statements.He concluded that bosses spend only 3-4% of their day thinking about long-term strategy. 老板花多少时间思考未来，很难衡量。但是在一个试验中，钱迪先生测算了老板在公开演说 时愿景类词语，比如“将”“会”，出现的频率。由此得出结论，老板每天只花3-4%的时间思考 长期战略。 Brian Sullivan, the chief executive of CTPartners, a headhunting firm, says the most difficult part of his job is saying no to people who want a piece of his time.“If it was up to our partners I would be at every pitch,” he says.Mr Sullivan says the only time he gets for blue-sky thinking is when he is in the sky.“Chief executives will rue the day when BlackBerrys work on planes,” he predicts. 猎头公司CTPartners的首席行政官布莱恩.沙利文说，他工作最困难的一部分在于对只需他 “少少”时间的人说“NO”;“如果是客户的请求，我将随时恭候“。沙利文先生说只有在飞机上， 他才能放松下紧绷的思考神经。他预测“如果黑莓在飞机上也能运行，首席执行官将无限懊 恼。” Bill Gates took regular “think weeks”, when he would sit alone in a cabin for 18 hours a day reading and contemplating.This, it is said, led to such strategic masterstrokes as “the internet tidal wave memo” in 1995, which shifted Microsoft’s focus (some say belatedly) to the web.But not every boss thinks he needs more time for thinking. “You can hire McKinsey to do that for you,” says one. 比尔.盖茨有自己固定的“思考周”。这样的日子里，他可以独自坐在小木屋，除了睡觉的6小时，其他都在读书和冥想。据传，此举常能激发盖茨在发展战略上的神来之思，比如1995年将微软的焦点(有人认为已经迟了)转向互联网，记入“因特浪潮备忘录”。但不是每位老板都认为他需要更多思考，有人说:“你可以雇佣麦肯锡公司来为你做这些～” 11