Unit 14 Five Traits of the Educated Man 课文翻译 综合教程一

Unit 14 Five Traits of the Educated Man

A question often asked is: "What are the marks of an educated man?" It is plain that one may gain no inconsiderable body of learning in some special field of knowledge without at the same time acquiring those habits and traits which are the marks of an educated gentleman. A reasonable amount of learning must of course accompany an education, but, after all, that amount need not be so very great in any one field. An education will make its mark and find its evidences in certain traits, characteristics, and capacities which have to be acquired by patient endeavor, by following good examples, and by receiving wise discipline and sound instructions.

These traits or characteristics may be variously described and classified, but among them are five that should always stand out clearly enough to be seen by all men. The first of these is correctness and precision in the use of the mother tongue. The quite shocking slovenliness and vulgarity of much of the spoken English, as well as not a little of the written English, which one hears and sees, proves beyond peradventure that years of attendance upon schools and colleges that are thought to be respectable have produced no impression. When one hears English well spoken, with pure diction, correct pronunciation, and an almost unconscious choice of the right word, he recognizes it at once. How much easier he finds it to imitate English of the other sort!

A second and indispensable trait of the educated man is refined and gentle manners, which are themselves the expression of fixed habits of thought and action. "Manners make the man," wrote Wykeham William over his gates at Winchester and at Oxford. He pointed to a great truth. When manners are superficial, artificial, and forced, no matter what their form, they are bad manners. When, however, they are the natural expression of fixed habits of thought and action, and when they reveal a refined and cultivated nature, they are good manners. There are certain things that gentlemen do not do, and they do not do them simply because they are bad manners. The gentleman instinctively knows the difference between those things which he may and should do and those things which he may not and should not do.

A third trait of the educated man is the power and habit of reflection. Human beings for the most part live wholly on the surface of life. They do not look beneath the surface or far beyond the present moment and that part of the future which is quickly to follow it. They do not read those works of prose and poetry which have become classic because they reveal power and habit of reflection and induce that power and habit in others. When one reflects long enough to ask the question how? He is on the way to knowing something about science. When he reflects long enough to ask the question why? He may, if he persists, even become a philosopher.

A fourth trait of the educated man is the power of growth. He continues to grow and develop from birth to his dying day. His interests expand, his contacts multiply, his knowledge increases, and his reflection becomes deeper and wider. It would appear to be true that not many human beings, and even not many of those who have had a college education, continue to grow after they are twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. By that time it is usual to settle down to life on a level of more or less contented intellectual interest and activity. The whole present day movement for

adult education is a systematic and definite attempt to keep human beings growing long after they have left school and college, and, therefore, to help educate them.

A fifth trait of the educated man is his possession of efficiency, or the power to do. The mere visionary dreamer, however charming or however wise, lacks something which an education requires. The power to do may be exercised in any one of a thousand ways, but when it clearly shows itself, that is evidence that the period of study, of discipline, and of companionship with parents and teachers has not been in vain.

Given these five characteristics, one has the outline of an educated man. That outline may be filled in by scholarship, by literary power, by mechanical skills, by professional zeal and capacity, by business competence, or by social and political leadership. So long as the framework or outline is there, the content may be pretty much what you will, assuming, of course, that the fundamental elements of the great tradition which is civilization, and its outstanding records and achievements in human personality, in letters, in science, in the fine arts, and in human institutions, are all present.

教养的五个特征

常常有这么一个问题：“一个有教养的人的标志是什么？”很显然，可能一个人在获取了某个专业知识领域大量的知识的同时，却未能养成作为一个有教养的人标志性的那些习惯和特征。教育理所当然会伴随着一定量的合理学习，而终究来说，这个量不可过多集中于某一个领域。一种教育会留下自身的标志并表现出一定的特征、特性和能力，而这些又需要通过耐心的努力，学习榜样，以及接受明智的管教和有效的指导才能获得。

对这些特征或特性的描述和分类可能不尽相同，而所有人都应该能注意到，其中有五个特征是非常明显的。第一个是对母语的精确运用。人们在英语口语中会惊奇地听到大量混乱和粗俗的用法，在英语书面语中也读到不少，这些都无疑表明多年在中学、大学里接受的高尚教育没能在人们脑海里留下任何印象。当一个人听到规范的英语，纯正的发音方式，准确的发音和脱口而出的正确措辞，他会马上明白：模仿另一种不规范的英语要容易得多！ 第二个不可或缺的特征是温文尔雅的举止，这本身就是自身的思维和行为习惯的表现。维克汉·威廉在温切斯特和牛津大学的门上写着“举止造就人”。他指出了一个伟大的真理。如果举止是肤浅的、虚伪的以及被迫的，那么无论外在形式怎样，都是不良举止。而当举止是自身固有的思维和行动的自然表现，或是展示出了优雅和有教养的天性，那就是优良举止。有一些事情绅士们不会去做，他们不去做的原因就是因为那是不良的举止。绅士会本能地知道哪些是可以并且应该做的事， …… 此处隐藏：4210字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……