03 Equality and greatness 平等与伟大
Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. Money is nothing: character, conduct, and capacity are everything. Instead of all the workers being leveled down to low wage standards and all the rich leveled up to fashionable income standards, everybody under a system of equal incomes would find her or his own natural level. There would be great people and ordinary people and little people, but the great would always be those who had done great things, and never the idiot whose mothers had spoiled them and whose fathers had left a hundred thousand a year; and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters, and not poor persons who had never had a chance. That is why idiots are always in favour of inequality of income (their only chance of eminence), and the really great in favour of equality.
By George Bernard Shaw
注释
distinction[dis´tiŋkʃən]steele: the condition or fact of being dissimilar or distinct; difference 区别，差别
merit[´merit]: 功绩，荣誉，价值
eminence[´eminəns]: a position of great distinction or superiority 卓越
作者简介
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish-born playwright, pamphleteer and music and theater critic. Shaw was a ruthless social critic and irreverent toward institutions. By forging a drama that combined moral passion and intellectual conflict and experimenting with symbolic farce, Shaw helped to reshape the stage of his time and to mold the thought of his own and later generations. His play The Devil’s Disciple became a success in the United States, and Shaw’s next work, Man and Superman (1903) helped establish Shaw’s reputation in London. Among the plays that followed was Saint Joan (1923), for which Shaw received the 1925 Nobel Prize in literature. 萧伯纳，英国戏剧家，1856年7月
26日生于爱尔兰都柏林。1885年萧伯纳开始戏剧创作。到1949年为止，共完成剧本51部。1925年获得诺贝尔文学奖。
5 American dream 美国梦
美国梦是一个被众多美国人普遍信仰的信念，即通过努力的工作，非凡的勇气与意志力，每个人都可以致富，实现自己的梦想。机会均等是美国梦的灵魂。聪明、勤奋与坚忍不拔是实现美国梦的必要条件。
To Americans, industriousness, thrift and ambition are positive values. We encourage our children to be competitive, to get ahead, to make money, to acquire possession. In games and in business alike, the aim is to win the game, the trophy, the contract. We go in for labor-saving devices, gadgets, speed and shortcuts. We think every young couple should set up a home of their own. And we pity the couple who must share their home with their parent, let alone with other relatives. Actually, of course, not all Americans hold all these values. And those who do may hold other, and at times contradictory, values that affect their ways of behaving. In the main, however, the collective expectation of our society is t
hat these are desirable goals, and the individual, whatever his personal inclination, is under considerable pressure to conform.
By Corinne Brown
注释
positive[´pɔzətiv]: 积极的，却有助益的
gadget[´gædʒit]: 小器具，小配件
conform[kən´fə:m]: 一致，符合
作者简介
Corinne Brown has her master degree in history. The author of children’s books is also a poet and playwright. Her stories demonstrate that children from diverse backgrounds can choose to get along even when adults are hostile to each other. Brown is the author of Let’s Keep This Secret.
科林娜.布朗，儿童作家、诗人及剧作家。
对美国人而言，刻苦努力、勤俭节约、胸怀大志都是积极向上的美德。我们鼓励子女敢于竞争、力争上游、自谋营生、积累财富。在比赛中，在商务往来中，目标就是要赢得比赛，获得奖品，签订合约。我们孜孜不倦地追求省力的工具、灵巧的装置，提高速度，寻求捷径。我们认为每对年轻夫妇都应该有属于自己的家，我们同情那些必须和父亲或者母亲住在一起的年轻夫妇，更不用说与其他亲戚住在同一屋檐下的人了。当然，事实上并不是所有的美国人都具有这些品质，拥有这些品质的人可能同时还具备一些影响他们行为方式的品质，或者相反的品质。但是，总的来说，我们的社会普遍期望这些品德是我们的既定目标，无论每个人的自我倾向是什么，他都承受着一定压力去实现这些目标。
6. Heart of a stranger 陌生者之心
每位作家在滚滚红尘中，大概都渴望有一个宁静恬适的地方，在那里不但可以思考、写作，也可以让疲惫的心灵能够停泊在避风的港湾。虽然有些作家相信“大隐隐于市”，因此并不刻意想在大自然中寻觅隐居之所，然而自然总是具有某种不可抗拒的魔力，当自然喃喃细语、含情轻诉之时，恐怕没有哪个作家，可以对它野性多情的呼唤充耳不闻。
The most loved place, for me, in this country has in fact been many places. It has changed throughout the years, as I and my circumstances have changed. I haven't really lost any of the best places from the past, though. I may no longer inhabit them, but they inhabit me, portions of memory, presences in My best place at the moment is very different, although I guess it has some of the attributes of that long-ago place. It is a small cedar cabin on the Otonabee river in southern Ontario. I've lived three summers there, writing, birdwatching, riverwatching. I sometimes feel sorry for the people in speedboats who spend their weekends zinging up and down the river at about a million miles an hour. For all they're able to see, the riverbanks might just as well be green concrete and the river itself flowing with molten plastic.

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