J_00795_ch1101

Lesson Eleven
How I Served My Apprenticeship 

Andrew Carnegie 　　 
　　人类进入新的千年之际，越来越多的青少年享受着父辈们创造的物质文明的成果，从小生活在“刻罐”里，不知道什么叫“匮乏”，不晓得何谓“贫困”，更不了解从小就要干活、帮助父母养家糊口的艰辛。与此同时，人类尚未消灭贫困，世界上还有穷人，在穷困生活中挣扎的青少年还大有人在。一个青少年时期经历一段艰苦的生活未必是件坏事。俗话说穷则思变，穷能使人发奋图强。一位少年时期有过一段贫困生活经历的大富翁如是说……
1. It is a great pleasure to tell how I served my apprenticeship as a businessman. But there seems to be a question preceding this: Why did I become a businessman? I am sure that I should never have selected a business career if I had been permitted to choose.


2. The eldest son of parents who were themselves poor, I had, fortunately, to begin to perform some useful work in the world while still very young in order to earn an living and therefore came to understand even in early boyhood that my duty was to assist my parents and become, as soon as possible, a breadwinner in the family. ①What I could get to do, not what I desired, was the question.


　　① What I could get to do, not what I desired, was the question.
　　　问题是，我能找到什么活干，而不是我想干什么活。
　　　I was not in a position to choose a job; I had to accept any job I could find.
3. When I was born my father was a well-to-do master weaver in Scotland. This was the days before the steam engines. He owned no fewer than four handlooms and employed apprentices. He wove cloth for a merchant who supplied the material.


4. ①When the steam engine came, handloom weaving naturally declined. The first serious lesson of my life came to me one day when I was just about ten years old. My father took the last of his work to the merchant, and returned home greatly distressed because there was no more work for him to do. ②I resolved then that the wolf of poverty should be driven from our door some day.


　　① When the steam engine came, handloom weaving naturally declined.
　　　蒸汽机的出现，自然使得手工机织业衰退。
　　　The emergence of steam engine naturally caused the weakening of handloom weaving.
　　② I resolved then that the wolf of poverty should be driven from our door some day.
　　　我当时下决心总有一天我们要解决温饱问题。
　　　I made up my mind then that some day we would have enough money to buy food and other necessities.
5. ①The question of starting for the United States was discussed from day to day in the family council. It was finally resolved that we would join relatives already in Pittsburgh. I well remember that both father and mother thought the decision was a great sacrifice for them, but that "it would be better for the two boys."


　　① The question of starting for the United States was discussed from day to day in the family council.
　　　 Every day my family discussed whether we should move to the United States.
6. On arriving, my father entered a cotton factory. I soon followed, and served as a "bobbin-boy," ①and that was how I began my preparation for subsequent apprenticeship as a businessman. I cannot tell you how proud I was when I received my first week's earnings — one dollar and twenty cents. It was given to me because I had been of some use in the world! And I became a contributing member of my family! ②I think this makes a man out of a boy sooner than almost anything else. ③It is everything to feel that you are useful.


　　① ...and that was how I began my preparation for subsequent apprenticeship as a businessman.
　　　就这样我开始了为后来实业家见习期的前期准备工作。
　　　...working in the cotton factory as a “bobbin-boy”started me off learning how to do business.
　　② I think this makes a man out of a boy sooner than almost anything else.The day I got my first week's earnings, I suddenly found myself grown up. I felt I was no longer a mere boy, but quite a man. I came to believe that hardships can help a boy mature quickly.
　　　I think this makes a man out of a boy sooner than almost anything else.我觉得没有别的什么事情能使一个少年更快地成长为一个男子汉。
　　　This perhaps is the best way to enable a boy to recognize his responsibility for his family./ It will turn a boy into a mature man in a shorter time.
　　③ It is everything to feel that you are useful.
　　　感到自己是个有用的人那才叫棒。
　　　You feel great when you are useful to your family and to society./To find yourself useful to the family and society gives you the greatest satisfaction you can ever feel.
7. I have had to deal with great sums. ①Many millions of dollars have since passed through my hands. But the genuine satisfaction I had from that one dollar and twenty cents outweighs any subsequent pleasure in money making. It was the direct reward of honest, manual labor; ②it represented a week of very hard work — so hard that it might have been described as slavery if it hadn't been for its aim and end.


　　① Millions of dollars have since passed through my hands. But the genuine satisfaction I had from that one dollar and twenty cents outweighs any subsequent pleasure in money making.
　　　从那以后有成百万的美元经过我的手，可是以后赚的任何一笔钱给我带来的欢欣，都远远比不上那1美元20美分使我体验到的满足感。
　　　The satisfaction I got from the one dollar and twenty cents was far greater than any pleasure I felt in making money later on.
　　② it represented a week of very hard work-----so hard that it might have been described as slavery if it hadn't been for its aim and end.
　　　这1美元20美分代表一个星期十分艰苦的劳动，要不是因为干活的目的是挣钱帮父母养家，那活真可以称为奴隶般的劳动。
　　　I did the job to help support the family. If it hadn’t been for this purpose, I wouldn't have to do the work because it was too hard for me.
8. ①Itwas a terrible task for a lad of twelve to rise every morning, except Sunday, go to the factory while it was still dark, and not be released until after darkness came again in the evening, forty minutes' break only being allowed at noon.


　　① It was a terrible task for a lad of twelve to rise every morning, except Sunday, go to the factory while it was still dark, and not be released until after darkness came again in the evening, forty minutes' break only being allowed at noon.
　　　除星期日之外，每天天不亮就要起床去工厂，直到晚上天黑下来才让离开，中午只给40分钟的时间休息，这对一个12岁的孩子来说，担子真是太重了。
　　　Working in the factory was a terrible experience for a child of twelve. I was kept there from early in the morning to late in the evening, with a lunch break of only forty minutes. (In American history, child labour was unscrupulously exploited by the industrial capitalists in the early 1900's.






9. But I was young and had my dreams, and something within always told me that this would not, could not, should not last - I should some day get into a better position. Also, I felt myself no longer a mere boy, but quite a little man, and this made me happy.


10. A change soon came, for a kind old Scotsman, who made bobbins, took me into his factory before I was thirteen. But here for a time it was even worse than in the cotton factory, because I was set to fire the boiler in the cellar and run the small steam engine which drove the machinery. ①The responsibility of keeping the water right and of running the engine, and the danger of my making a mistake and blowing the whole factory to pieces, caused too great a strain, and I often awoke and found myself sitting up in bed through the night, trying the steam-gauges. But I never told them at home about this. ②No, no! Everything must be bright to them.


　　① The responsibility of keeping the water right and of running the engine, and the danger of my making a mistake and blowing the whole factory to pieces, caused too great a strain, and I often awoke and found myself sitting up in bed through the night, trying the steam-gauges.
　　　我要使锅炉内的水位保持正常，还要看管发动机，责任重大；我要是出点差错，整个工厂就有爆飞的危险；这两件事给我的压力太大了。我经常夜间从睡梦中醒来，发现自己坐在床上做调试蒸汽压力表的动作。
　　　I was told to look after the steam engine, that is, to make sure that there was the right amount of water in the boiler and that the engine was running normally to drive the machines. If I made a mistake , the boiler might explode and the force of the explosion would destroy the factory. The responsibility was too great. I couldn’t sleep properly at night and would often sit up in my sleep trying the steam-gauges.
　　② No, no! Everything must be bright to them.
　　　不，不！只能让他们知道好的一面。
　　　 I never told my family about the strain I had. I only wanted them to know that everything was all right.
11. This was a point of honor, for every member of the family was working hard, and we were telling each other only the bright things. ①Besides, no man would complain and give up — he would die first.


12 There was no servant in our family, and my mother earned several dollars per week by binding shoes after her daily work was done! Father was also hard at work in the factory. ②And could I complain?


　　① Besides, no man would complain and give up—he would die first.
　　　Every member of the family would rather die than complain and give up.
　　② And could I complain?
　　　我怎能抱怨呢？
　　　With both my parents toiled to keep the family alive, I surely shouldn't tell them about the hardship I had to suffer at work.
13. ①My kind employer soon relieved me of the strain, for he needed someone to make out bills and keep his accounts, and finding that I could write a plain schoolboy hand and could add up, he made me his only clerk. But still I had to work hard upstairs in the workshop for the clerking took but little time.


14. ②You know how people grumble about poverty as a great evil, and it seems to be accepted that if people had only plenty of money and were rich, they would be happy and more useful, and get more out of life.


　　① My kind employer soon relieved me of the strain, for he needed someone to make out bills and keep his accounts, and finding that I could write a plain schoolboy hand and could add up, he made me his only clerk.
　　　我那好心的老板很快就解除了我的压力，他需要有个人开帐单、记账，他看我还能写出小学生水平的字，还会做加法，就叫我当了他惟一的职员。
　　　Soon my boss found that I could write well enough to make out bills and keep his accounts . As he needed someone to do this, he kindly made me the only clerk in the factory. This freed me from the terrible strain of running the steam engine.
　　② You know how people grumble about poverty as a great evil, and it seems to be accepted that if people had only plenty of money and were rich, they would be happy and more useful, and get more out of life.
　　　大家都知道人们总是把贫困说成是一大罪恶，好像觉得谁要是有许多钱，谁要是富有，谁就会更幸福、更有作为，谁就能享受更多的生活乐趣。
　　　Many people consider poverty as something bad and complain about it. People seem to believe that money could make them happy and more useful and able to enjoy life more.
15. ①As a rule, there is more genuine satisfaction from. life in the humble cottages of the poor than in the palaces of the rich. ②I always pity the sons and daughters of rich men, who are attended by servants, and have a governess even at a later age. They do not know what they have missed. For the poor boy who has in his father his constant companion, tutor, and model, and in his mother his nurse, teacher, guardian angel, saint, all in one, has a richer, more precious fortune in life than any rich man's son, and compared with which all other fortunes count for little.


　　① As a rule , there is more genuine satisfaction from life in the humble cottages of the poor than in the palaces of the rich.
　　　一般说来，穷人简陋小屋里的生活比富人豪华宅邸里的生活更温馨。
　　　Generally speaking, the poor are genuinely happier than the rich.
　　② I always pity the sons and daughters of rich men, who are attended by servants, and have a governess even at a later age.
　　　我总是可怜那些有仆人伺候、很大了还有家庭教师的富人子女。
　　　They do not know what they have missed.I always feel sorry for children of the rich who have servants to look after them, and have a governess even when they are teenagers. They do not realize that they have missed what children need most—their parents’ loving care.
16. It is because I know how sweet and happy and pure the home of honest poverty is, how free it is from perplexing care, from social envy and emulations, how loving and how united its members may be in the common interest of supporting the family, that I sympathize with the rich man's boy and congratulate the poor man's boy; and ①it is for these reasons that from the ranks of the poor so many strong, eminent, self-reliant men have always sprung and always must spring.


　　① ...it is for these reasons that from the ranks of the poor so many strong, eminent, self-reliant men have always sprung and always must spring.
　　　正是由于这些原因，穷人的队伍中已经不断涌现出，而且一定还会不断涌现出众多坚强、出众、依赖自己能力的杰出人才。
　　　 ...that is why poor families have produced and will continue to produce so many outstanding people. / Due to these reasons, many strong, remarkable, independent men have risen from poor family background and there is going to be more of these people rising from the poor class.
17. ①If you will read the list of the immortals who "were not born to die,"you will find that most of them were born to the precious heritage of poverty.


18. ②It seems, nowadays, a matter of universal desire that poverty should be abolished. We should be quite willing to abolish luxury, but to abolish honest, industrious self-denying poverty would be to destroy the soil upon which mankind produces the virtues which enable our race to reach a still higher civilization than it now possesses.


　　① If you will read the list of the immortals who “were not born to die,” you will find that most of them were born to the precious heritage of poverty.
　　　如果你愿意看看那些流芳百世之人的名单，你就会发现他们当中大部分人出生于贫困这个宝贵的环境中。
　　　If you read the list of great men, you will find that most of them were born to poor families.
　　② It seems, nowadays, a matter of universal desire that poverty should be abolished.
　　　今天人们好像普遍希望消除贫困。
　　　Nowadays it seems to be a common desire to wipe out poverty.
请认真答题，答题结果将记入知识点测评的成绩！


（单选题）23.I’m very grateful to my deskmate because his advice was _____ to my term paper.


A． of greatly help
B． great helpful
C． of great help
D． greatly helpfully
【答案】C


【解析】本题考查of+抽象名词=抽象名词对应的形容词。本题中of great help相当于greatly / very helpful，该句句意是“我非常感激我的同桌，因为他的建议对我的学期论文帮助很大。”


【知识点】of+抽象名词=抽象名词对应的形容词


请认真答题，答题结果将记入知识点测评的成绩！


（单选题）24.That famous singer was _____ a widowed mother in Spring hospital in 1969.


A． born to
B． born by
C． born into
D． born of
【答案】A


【解析】本题考查born后的介词。be born to sb.意为“由某人所生”，该句句意是“他寡居的母亲于1969年在春天医院生下了那位著名的歌手。”


【知识点】born后的介词