Unit Seven Education and employmentPassage one1.Fourteen years of higher education and a handful of Ivy League degrees, and there I was, stiff and stupid, struck dumb by my own dumbness.“Ivy retardation,”a friend of mine calls this.1.我十四年的大学教育和在几所常春藤大学工作的经历使得我傻乎乎站在那里，笨拙不看，尴尬不已。
有个朋友称这种现象为“常春藤错位”。
2. To consider that while some opportunities are being created, others are being canceled and that while some abilities are being developed, others are being crippled is, within this context, not only outrageous, but inconceivable.2.但是再这个背景下，如果认为它创造了一些机会，却丧失了其他机会，培养了有些能力，却其消弱了其他能力，不仅是大逆不道的而且是不可思议的。
3. There is nothing wrong with taking pride in one’s intellect or knowledge. There is something wrong with the smugness and self-congratulation that elite schools connive at.3.对自己的智慧或者只是感到自豪没有任何不对的地方，问题出现在名牌大学录取通知书进入家门的时刻起，是名牌大学所纵容的沾沾自喜和自我吹捧。
4.Not the most abject academic failure, not the most heinous act of plagiarism, not even threatening a fellow student with bodily harm—I’ve heard of all three—will get you expelled. 4.不管是最绝望的课程不及格，还是最可恶的抄袭劣行，甚至对其他同学的身体伤害的威胁等都不会被开除，这三种情况我都听说过。
5.Long before they got to college, they turned themselves into world-class hoop-jumpers and teacher-pleasers, getting A’s in every class no matter how boring they found the teacher or how pointless the subject, racking up eight or ten extracurricular activities no matter what else they wanted to do with their time.5.在他们进入大学之前很久就已经把自己变成世界一流的俯首帖耳，讨好老师的小爬虫，在每门课上都得优秀成绩，不管他们觉得这个老师多么乏味，不管他觉得这门课多么没有意义。
他们也尽力积累八到十个课外活动，不管多么想用这些时间做别的事情。
Passage two1.Certainly many neurotic boomer parents-and their stressed-out ,resume-building teenagers—assume that it is always better to choose Harvard over Big State U. because of Harvard’s presumably superior educational environment, better alumni connections, and more lucrative on-campus recruiting opportunities.对于那些在生育高峰期出生，已为人父母的人和他们焦虑不安，整日忙于增加阅历，以使简历内容更加丰富的十几岁的孩子来说，选择哈佛大学当然比重点州立大学更好。
因为哈佛可能会有优越的教育环境，更好的校友圈子，以及更加诱人的校园招聘机会。
2.It’s true that big law firms, major teaching hospitals, and investment banks—heck, even the offices of FORTUNE—are stuffed with Ivy Leaguers. It’s also true that if you want a career at what passes for the American establishment—Sullivan&Cromwell, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs—a gilt-edged diploma is a distinct advantage.事实上，大型法律公司，主要示教医院和投资银行，甚至是财富杂志的办公室，满是常春藤学生。
这也是事实，如果你想在被当做美国经济基石的公司谋得一份职业，如苏利文＊克伦威尔律师事务所，麦肯锡，高盛等，那么一份镶金的学位证书无疑是一个独特的优势。
3.The advantages of Harvard, in other words, confer few benefits on the class slacker. Robert Zemsky. An education professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who believes a prestigious undergraduate degree does pay off, puts it this way: “It’s like the brass ring on a merry-go-round.If you go to a high-prices, highly selective school, you have a better shot at the brass ring. But you have to grab it.”换句话说，哈佛的优势在于不会给偷懒者带来太多的好处。
宾夕法尼亚大学的教育学教授Robert Zemsky认为读有名的大学是划算的，他这样说：“这就好比是旋转木马上的铜环。
如果你选择一个昂贵的高选性的学校，你就有更好的机会能够击中铜环。
但是你必须得抓住它。
”4.So listen up, high school seniors: Your life is not over if you end up at the University of Oklahoma. In fact, if you want to be governor of Oklahoma when you grow up, you’re probably better off graduating a sooner.请高校的高年级学生注意听好了：如果你仅仅只是毕业于俄克拉马荷马州立大学你的人生并没有完蛋。
而事实上，如果你想长大后成为俄克拉荷马州的州长，你还能近水楼台先得月。
5.Most studies use future income, the favorite yardstick of those dead souls called economists. But knowing the cost-benefit ratio of a purchase is not the same as knowing it value.很多研究运用未来收入，因为这是那些被称为经济学家的老家伙们最青睐的计算标准。
但是，知道一件所购之物的成本效益率并不等于知道了它的价值。
Unit Eight TravelPassage one1. As darkness fell on the olive trees and the grazing deer, I slipped into the jacuzzi in my tree house and listened to the Pacific breakers roll in.当夜幕落在橄榄树和吃草的鹿上，我滑进我树屋中的浴缸，听着太平洋的波涛滚滚的声音。
2. Kaikoura is not a name that trips off the tongue when you list those lucky places that offer encounters with nature and a touch of luxury.与那些让游人接触到大自然和获得奢侈享受的著名景点相比，凯库拉并不是人民耳熟能详的名字3. There’s a shock of cold water and a heave of ocean swell, even though we’re within sight of the mountains ,not half a mile from the shore.尽管我们的视线还能看到山脉，离海岸不超过半英里，却感到一股冰冷的水袭和湍急的海涌。
4. Today, the hunt is for thrills not kills.今天，追踪鲸鱼只是为了刺激而不是杀戮。
5. It’s a view that the modern world is starting to share .And here in Kaikoura, you can experience it for real.这一点在世界渐达共识。
在卡库拉，你可以真真切切体会到它。
Passage two1.It often puts a strain on water resources and it can force local populations to compete for the use of critical resources.1.它常常造成的水资源紧张的局面，迫使当地居民为了争夺紧缺资源。