abstruse深奥的。
unintelligible难理解的。
touchstone试金石，但是在文中是什么意思呢？
shepherd牧师，牧羊人。
thee古代“你”的意思。
hast是什么意思？
panorama全貌。
take in 欺骗，蒙骗
Saturday, January 25, 2003
In modern life, a philosopher is about the most honored and most unnoticed person in the world, if indeed such a person exists. "Philosopher" has become merely a term of social compliment. Anyone who is abstruse and unintelligible is called "a philosopher." Anyone who is unconcerned with the present is also called "a philosoper." And yet there is some truth in the latter meaning. When Shakespeare made Touchstone say in As You Like It, "Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?" he was using it in the second meaning. In this sense, philosophy is but a common, rough and ready outlook on things or on life in general, and every person has more or less of it. Anyone who refuses to take the entire panorama of reality on its surface value, or refuses to believe every word that appears in a newspaper, is more or less a philosopher. He is the fellow who refuses to be taken in.----------------Who Can Best Enjoy Life? by Lin, Yutang.
Friday, January 24, 2003
Some chat about British history
I've just had a Speaking Assisstant Programme, invited by one of my friends. We began by talking on IELTS and ended up with the teacher lecturing us with the British history, which he described as absolutely a big mess. The teacher, Tonny, happened to be born in a town some 35 miles away from York, as he discovered that I was planning to York. He emphasized a lot on the historical value of York city and, especially its old walls that date from about 1 AD, the roman regime time.
York is was a capital of the northen British island at the time of Norman governance. And Norman were people from Normandie, the northwest part of a mainland now called France. But ironically the Norman were not French at that time. They came from Norway and were a group of Norwegen people, who were good sailors as well as invaders to other nations. The Norman, from Normandie in now northwesten France, invaded England after a certain king in England, one of whose remote relative was the then Norman commander of this invasion, died and claimed the kingdom of England. This special relation was due to the fact that the English king that died and the Norman commander of the army shared the same Norwegen ancestors, who invaded the easten coastal areas of England much earlier to this invasion and whose descendents coexisted with the local English people ever since and eventually the king that died had the blood of both the English and the Norwegen.
Already a mess, isn't it? I just have more to tell before I get messed up myself. It is far beyond the capacity of a short piece of narration. Apart from the king's war, he told us other things about the English language. It is really a melting pot because it was influenced by the Norman French, and Norwegen Germantic, and of course Latin, due to early rule of Roman. And I joked that it is now being invaded again by Chinese language, for example kungfu.
I've just had a Speaking Assisstant Programme, invited by one of my friends. We began by talking on IELTS and ended up with the teacher lecturing us with the British history, which he described as absolutely a big mess. The teacher, Tonny, happened to be born in a town some 35 miles away from York, as he discovered that I was planning to York. He emphasized a lot on the historical value of York city and, especially its old walls that date from about 1 AD, the roman regime time.
York is was a capital of the northen British island at the time of Norman governance. And Norman were people from Normandie, the northwest part of a mainland now called France. But ironically the Norman were not French at that time. They came from Norway and were a group of Norwegen people, who were good sailors as well as invaders to other nations. The Norman, from Normandie in now northwesten France, invaded England after a certain king in England, one of whose remote relative was the then Norman commander of this invasion, died and claimed the kingdom of England. This special relation was due to the fact that the English king that died and the Norman commander of the army shared the same Norwegen ancestors, who invaded the easten coastal areas of England much earlier to this invasion and whose descendents coexisted with the local English people ever since and eventually the king that died had the blood of both the English and the Norwegen.
Already a mess, isn't it? I just have more to tell before I get messed up myself. It is far beyond the capacity of a short piece of narration. Apart from the king's war, he told us other things about the English language. It is really a melting pot because it was influenced by the Norman French, and Norwegen Germantic, and of course Latin, due to early rule of Roman. And I joked that it is now being invaded again by Chinese language, for example kungfu.
Thursday, January 23, 2003
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Vocabulary about media
!) For the book's main character, withdrawal is the only means of escape from the crowd, from groupthink, from the mass media.
withdrawal 隐居; groupthink 是什么??
2) The documentary should be required study for all students of mass-media communications, because it illustrates to perfection the way in which illustrations of man's inhumanity to man can mislead public opinion.
sth. be required study for sb. 怎么翻译较好呢?
3) The White House has announced that they normally will not let any member of the news media report on what is going to be in the speech until the president actually delivers it.
deliver a speech 发表演讲. deliver 的用途好象很多.比如运输货物什么的.
4) Belief systems and older cultures expire under a weight of more or less trivial information conveyed by an all-pervasive electronic media.
belief systems and older cultures 信念和传统文化
5) Black had set his heart on the 'News', which he saw as a key part of his plan to build a worldwide media empire.
see...as, look...as好象是一个意思
6) The thought of a quiet ceremony and a small dinner party to follow is becoming more attractive to stars as they watch pulicised marriages like Elizabeth Taylor's being transformed into a media circus.
media circus 在媒体上出丑
7) We were quite upset about the amount of attention this announcement was given, and the amount of media hype that went on around it.
media hype 媒体的大肆宣传
8) Those people ought to be our priority. I don't think they would be best pleased to hear this domestic squabble about the leadership of the Conservative Party being hyped yp by the media at this sort of time.
squabble小争吵, leadership 领导阶层, 类似的有fellowship意思是同伴
9) Reporters were kept away from the group when they arrived from Vietnam amid fears that any media coverage of the event might compromise their safety.
compromise折中;连累,损害. 后者的意思似乎很新鲜,也很好用.
明天登全句翻译:)
!) For the book's main character, withdrawal is the only means of escape from the crowd, from groupthink, from the mass media.
withdrawal 隐居; groupthink 是什么??
2) The documentary should be required study for all students of mass-media communications, because it illustrates to perfection the way in which illustrations of man's inhumanity to man can mislead public opinion.
sth. be required study for sb. 怎么翻译较好呢?
3) The White House has announced that they normally will not let any member of the news media report on what is going to be in the speech until the president actually delivers it.
deliver a speech 发表演讲. deliver 的用途好象很多.比如运输货物什么的.
4) Belief systems and older cultures expire under a weight of more or less trivial information conveyed by an all-pervasive electronic media.
belief systems and older cultures 信念和传统文化
5) Black had set his heart on the 'News', which he saw as a key part of his plan to build a worldwide media empire.
see...as, look...as好象是一个意思
6) The thought of a quiet ceremony and a small dinner party to follow is becoming more attractive to stars as they watch pulicised marriages like Elizabeth Taylor's being transformed into a media circus.
media circus 在媒体上出丑
7) We were quite upset about the amount of attention this announcement was given, and the amount of media hype that went on around it.
media hype 媒体的大肆宣传
8) Those people ought to be our priority. I don't think they would be best pleased to hear this domestic squabble about the leadership of the Conservative Party being hyped yp by the media at this sort of time.
squabble小争吵, leadership 领导阶层, 类似的有fellowship意思是同伴
9) Reporters were kept away from the group when they arrived from Vietnam amid fears that any media coverage of the event might compromise their safety.
compromise折中;连累,损害. 后者的意思似乎很新鲜,也很好用.
明天登全句翻译:)
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Find Thyself
by Lin, Yutang
The only problem unconsciously assumed by all Chinese philosophers to be of any importance is : How shall we enjoy life, and who can best enjoy life? No perfectionism, no straining after the unattainable, no postulating of the unknowable; but taking poor, mortal human nature as it is, how shall we organise our life so that we can work peacefully, endure nobly and live happily?
Who are we? That is the first question. It is a question almost impossible to answer. But we all agree that the busy self occupied in our daily activities is not quite the real self. We are quite sure that we have lost something in the mere pursuit of living. When we watch a person running about looking for something in a field, the wise man can set a puzzle for the spectators to solve: what has that person lost? Some one thinks it is a watch; another thinks it is a diamond brooch; and others will essay other guesses. After all the guesses have failed, the wise man who really does not know what the person is seeking after, tells the company:" I'll tell you. He has lost some breath." And no one can deny that he is right. So we often forget our true self in the pursuit of living, like a bird forgetting its own danger in pursuit of a mantis, which again forgets its own danger in pursuit of another prey, as is so beautifully expressed in a parable by Chuangtse.
by Lin, Yutang
The only problem unconsciously assumed by all Chinese philosophers to be of any importance is : How shall we enjoy life, and who can best enjoy life? No perfectionism, no straining after the unattainable, no postulating of the unknowable; but taking poor, mortal human nature as it is, how shall we organise our life so that we can work peacefully, endure nobly and live happily?
Who are we? That is the first question. It is a question almost impossible to answer. But we all agree that the busy self occupied in our daily activities is not quite the real self. We are quite sure that we have lost something in the mere pursuit of living. When we watch a person running about looking for something in a field, the wise man can set a puzzle for the spectators to solve: what has that person lost? Some one thinks it is a watch; another thinks it is a diamond brooch; and others will essay other guesses. After all the guesses have failed, the wise man who really does not know what the person is seeking after, tells the company:" I'll tell you. He has lost some breath." And no one can deny that he is right. So we often forget our true self in the pursuit of living, like a bird forgetting its own danger in pursuit of a mantis, which again forgets its own danger in pursuit of another prey, as is so beautifully expressed in a parable by Chuangtse.
Monday, January 20, 2003
A few notes on the previous paragraph
proceed from//sim/come from,arise from//这种用法现在似乎看不到
rapidity//sim/speed,agility//opp/sluggishness//似乎可用下文的quickness代替
estimable值得评价的,好象很难找到其他例子
execution在这里应该不是执行的意思
prize//sim/appreciate//用作动词
resolve on doing//sim/decide to do/似乎两者区别不大
should在这里似乎可以换作could
panegyric赞颂//sim/laud//
laudable//sim/praisable//
precipitance//sim/haste//
necessary//sim/essential/important//
proceed from//sim/come from,arise from//这种用法现在似乎看不到
rapidity//sim/speed,agility//opp/sluggishness//似乎可用下文的quickness代替
estimable值得评价的,好象很难找到其他例子
execution在这里应该不是执行的意思
prize//sim/appreciate//用作动词
resolve on doing//sim/decide to do/似乎两者区别不大
should在这里似乎可以换作could
panegyric赞颂//sim/laud//
laudable//sim/praisable//
precipitance//sim/haste//
necessary//sim/essential/important//
Volume I Chapter X
(Mr. Darcy) "The indirect boast;-for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting. The power of doing anything with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance. When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning that if you ever resolved on quitting Netherfield you should be gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of panegyric, of compliment to yourself-and yet what is there so very laudable in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business undone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or anyone else?"
(Mr. Darcy) "The indirect boast;-for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting. The power of doing anything with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance. When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning that if you ever resolved on quitting Netherfield you should be gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of panegyric, of compliment to yourself-and yet what is there so very laudable in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business undone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or anyone else?"
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