新概念英语第四册11-01

主要词汇解析

Oxford: 牛津城 ox:公牛; 阉牛 cow:奶牛 cattle: 牛 calf: 小牛,牛犊

Dallas Mavericks 达拉斯小牛队 Chicago bulls 芝加哥公牛队

Cambrige: 剑桥城

ruinv. : 毁坏(名声 名誉,抽象意义) destroy v.:破坏(具体意思) the scandal ruins...

over smoking (drinking) ruins my health.

I'm ruined(broke). 我完蛋了(没钱了). I'm down and out. I'm down fall.

ruthlessly : 无情地 ruth : 有情的 同情 怜悯 ruthful a.:有同情心的

sympathize v. 同情 mercy n.:怜悯 merciless : 残忍 无情的

marble-hearted flinty-hearted

Lesson13

Oxford has been ruined by the motor industry. The peace which Oxford once knew, and which a great university city should always have, has been swept ruthlessly away; and no benefactions and research endowments can make up for the change in

character which the city has suffered. At six in the morning the old courts shake to the roar of buses taking the next shift to Cowley and Pressed Steel, great lorries with a double deck cargo of cars for export lumber past Magdalen and the

University Church. Loads of motor-engines are hurried hither and thither and the streets are thronged with a population which has no interest in learning and knows no studies beyond servo-systems and distributors, compression ratios and camshafts.Theoretically the marriage of an old seat of learning and tradition with a new and wealthy industry might be expected to produce some interesting children. It might have been thought that the culture of the university would radiate out and

transform the lives of the workers. That this has not happened may be the fault of the university, for at both Oxford and Cambridge the colleges tend to live in an era which is certainly not of the twentieth century, and upon a planet which bears little resemblance to the war-torn Earth. Wherever the fault may lie the fact remains that it is the theatre at Oxford and not at Cambridge which is on the verge of extinction, and the only fruit of the combination of industry and the rarefied atmosphere of learning is the dust in the streets, and a pathetic sense of being lost which hangs over some of the colleges.

ROGER PILKINGTON Thames Waters

参考译文

牛津已经被汽车工业毁了。昔日的一个大学城应该具有的宁静安逸已荡然无存。任何慈善捐款和研究资助都无法弥补该城所遭受的自身特征的改变。早晨６时，把接班工人送往考利和普利斯特钢城的公共汽车的马达轰鸣声使古老的大楼震撼不已。大卡车拖着装载出口木材的双层货车路过马格德林和大学教堂。大批内燃机车匆匆地驶来驶去，街道上挤满了人，这里的人无心学习，除了懂点伺服系统和配电盘，压缩比和凸轮轴之外，再也不想学点什么了。

从理论上来说，古老学府和传统中心与新的繁荣工业缔结良缘可能期望产生一些有趣的结果。也可以这样认为，大学的文化会影响并改变工人的生活。这样的事情之所以没有发生，可能责任在大学，因为在牛津和剑桥的各高等学府倾向于生活在一个肯定不是２０世纪的时代，一个与

被战争破坏了的地球丝毫不像的星球上。不管责任在哪一方，事实仍是牛津的讲坛而不是剑桥的讲坛正频于消亡。工业与学习空气不浓的结合，其唯一成果便是街道上的尘埃和笼罩在一些大学上空的一种可怜的失落感。