The Odd Couple 翻译

Unit One Family and Marriage The Odd Couple The story of Charlotte and John Fedders rocked Washington. It had all the ingredients: success, money, ambition, image obsession and violence. It has become a modern fable, a cautionary tale that flashes a warning beacon throughout a whole upper echelon of tough young men pushing their way to the top, at the expense of their families. Charlotte and John were the archetypical successful Washington couple. He was a young lawyer zooming up the status ladder in the fast lane. They were a crisp, cleanliving Catholic couple with five young sons, living in a gleaming colonial-style mansion. From the outside they seemed to have it all: the best country clubs, Catholic private schools for the children, the best privately catered parties. He was selected for a top job which brought him into the public eye. Then John Fedders’ life fell apart. Or, at least, his image of it, which for him was the same thing. His private life had always been a catastrophe but one well hidden. The last straw for his wife came the day he started to turn his violent rage against his eldest son. Charlotte Fedders filed for divorce. She hoped for a quiet divorce without dispute. But her husband wanted to battle it out. Perhaps he thought no one would notice an obscure hearing in a small courtroom in Maryland. But the Wall Street Journal sent a reporter to write the story, and what a story it was. Fedders had beaten his wife often and savagely. He thumped her repeatedly when she was pregnant. He ran the household with a set of iron rules: no one was permitted to enter the house in shoes; his sons had to do thirty press-ups whenever they came into the room. He was obsessively mean about money. Charlotte got virtually none for herself and the children. And yet she worried frantically about their rising debts. They lived way beyond their means. The day after the Wall Street Journal ran the story, John Fedders was forced to resign, and the story ran extensively on nationwide television. It rang new alarm bells. It showed that battered wives were not necessarily poor or confined to ghettos. Charlotte learned for the first time the FBI statistics: four women are beaten to death every day in America by husbands or lovers. 1 Charlotte got her divorce. John Fedders took a lower paid job and paid $12,000 a year to Charlotte and the children. The older children all worked and contributed their money to the household. Charlotte earned a little in a flower shop, but they were hard pressed. Then a publisher asked her to write the awful story of her life. But just before the book was to appear John Fedders took her back to the divorce court to try to get his puny payments to the family reduced. On top of that, he wanted 25% of the proceeds of the book on the grounds that he was the star of it. Everyone expected him to be laugher out of court. Imagine the shock when the court accepted his plea and did award that 25%. Charlotte Fedders now seems like a self-confident and articulate woman. She makes speeches on battered wives up and down the country. Her book is a fascinating but dispiriting read. She was a poor, clinging pathetic creature who invested everything in her husband and her children. She thought as a young nurse that s he would never find a husband with the sort of earning power that her family expected. When tall, handsome, athletic, clever Fedders looked on her with favor she thought she didn’t deserve to land such a big fish. But he spied in her what he wanted: obedience, adoration, inferiority yet a sufficiently cultivated veneer for social acceptability. No danger of equality here. It is a terrible pattern: this story has caused such a stir in America as it forces attention on the family life of the high achievers. When gilded young husbands work all the hours under the sun, who takes the strain? Who bears the brunt of all that bottled frenetic activity? What do wives and children have to tolerate in order to keep a man on the upward path? Comprehension Exercises: I. Answer each of the following questions with the information from the text. a. What reaction did the story of the Fedderses cause in Washington? Why? b. What impression did outsiders have about the Fedderses’ lifestyle? c. What made Charlotte Fedders finally decide to divorce her husband? d. How was John Fedders’relationship with his sons? Use a couple of sentences to outline the father-son relationship in the Fedders’ family. e. What were the reasons that John Fedders went back to the divorce court? f. What was the judgment of the court on the final issue? What was people’s reaction to the judgment? g. What kind of woman was Charlotte Fedders before, during, and after her marriage? II. Read the following statements and then decide whether each of them is true or false, based on the information in the text. a. As part of their social life, the Fedderses used to hold nice parties for their friends. b. The story of the Fedderses was widely received because people are interested in reading about family cases. c. Charlotte Fedders was worried about money because John Fedders was not earning a good salary. d. Women who are not confident are more likely to be physically abused by their husbands. e. The marriage of the Fedderses was based more on external attractions than on the love deep inside. 家庭和婚姻 奇怪的一对 约翰和夏洛特费德斯的故事震惊了华盛顿。它充满了成功、金钱、野心、美色的贪恋和暴力。它已成为一个现代的寓言故事, 一个警惕的教训就像闪烁的灯塔警示了那些为追求上层生活而不惜牺牲自己家庭的努力拼搏的年轻人。 约翰和夏洛特是一对典型成功的华盛顿夫妇。在这个飞速发展的社会,他是一个地位攀升很快的年轻的律师。他们是安分守己的天主教夫妇,和5个年幼的儿子住在一座黄金大厦。在外人看来他们似乎拥有了一切:最好的乡村俱乐部,为孩子所建的天主教私立学校,最好的私人会所。他被选为高级工作者使他进入公众视线。 然而,约翰费德斯的生活走向了崩溃的边缘,或者至少,他的精神,看起来是这样。他的私人生活就像一场灾难但一直隐藏的很好。对于他妻子来说当他把暴怒转向大儿子的那天就是最后一根稻草。 夏洛特费德斯提出了离婚。她希望是一个心平气和没有争议的离婚。但她的丈夫想大闹一场。或许他以为没有人会注意马里兰州一个不起眼的小法庭的开庭审理。但《华尔街日报》派记者报道了这是一个怎样的故事。费德斯经常很野蛮 的殴打他的妻子。怀孕期间他还经常打她。他制定了一套家庭铁规则:任何人未经他的允许不准穿鞋子进入他的房间; 每当他们进了房间,他的儿子必须做30 俯卧撑。他很吝啬钱。夏洛特几乎没给自己和孩子买过东西。然而,她对他们疯狂上升的债务很担心。他们生活方式超出了他们的购买能力。 《华尔街日报》报道这个故事的第二天, 夏洛特费德斯被迫辞职, 这个故事被电视广泛的报道。它向人们敲响了新的警钟。结果表明,受虐待的妻子不一定是穷人或仅局限于贫民窟。夏洛特首次在美国联邦调查局的统计了解到:平均每天就有四个女人被自己的丈夫或爱好者殴打致死。 夏洛特离了婚。约翰找了一个低薪的工作,每年要像夏洛特和她的孩子们支付12000美元。年纪较大的孩子们都工作了,他们赚的钱都填补家庭家用。夏洛特在鲜花店赚工作也能一点钱,但他们过得很艰难。后来,一个出版商要求将她的悲惨的命运写成故事。但就在书正要出版的时候,约翰又将她重新告上法庭并试图减少他对家庭的支出。最重要的是,他想要25%的新书效益,理由是他是故事的主人公。法院外,每个人都在笑他。当法庭同意并判给他25%效益时,人们都震惊了。 夏洛特费德斯现在似乎是一位自信和睿智的女人。她给全国的受到家庭暴力的妻子做演讲。她的书很精彩但同时让人读起来有很气愤。她是一位将所有心思都投入到她的丈夫和她的孩子身上的贫穷而又可怜的女人。她觉得作为一个年轻的护士她将难以找到一个家里人期待的那种很会赚钱的丈夫。所以当高大英俊、健壮聪明的费德斯带着赞赏的眼光看着她时,她觉得她不可能会掉上这条大鱼。但是他洞察到了她的想法,并告诉她他所需要的妻子是什么样的:顺从、可爱、一切以他为中心同时能培养出足够使社会可以接受的外表。在这点上没有平等的顾虑。 这是一个可怕的案例:这个故事在美国引起了轰动,在那些成功者的家庭生活中引起了很大的反响。当阔绰富有的年轻丈夫们在外辛苦闯荡,谁来替他们分担压力?谁是由于压抑而导致的所有疯狂行为首当其冲的受害者?为了使一个男人继续往上爬妻子和孩子还得忍受什么? 理解练习: 我回答以下问题从文本的信息。 做一个。有什么反应Fedderses引起的故事在华盛顿?为什么? b。有什么印象Fedderses外人一直是对的生活方式吗? c。是什么让夏洛特对于飞达仕最后决定丈夫离婚吗? d。约翰和他的儿子对于飞达仕的关系吗?用几句勾勒的父子关系对于飞达仕的家庭。 e。那是为什么约翰对于飞达仕回到了离婚法庭? f。什么是判断院子的最后一期吗?人们的反应是什么 审判吗? 克。什么样的女人是夏绿蒂对于飞达仕之前、之中或之后她的婚事吗? II。读下面的陈述,然后决定是否他们中的每一个人都是正确的还是错误的,基于信息在文本。 一个。作为社会生活,Fedderses用来装好党对他们的朋友。 b。故事的Fedderses被广泛地接受,因为人们有兴趣阅读关于家庭的病例。 c。夏绿蒂对于飞达仕担心钱,因为约翰对于飞达仕没有获得很好的薪水。 d。妇女没有自信的人更有可能是一个身体上的被她们的丈夫。 e。的婚姻是Fedderses更依赖于外部景点比在爱的灵魂深处。