英汉双语：我们如何建立名誉.docVIP

How we construct our reputations我们如何建立名誉 While engineers can be judged almost instantly by the quality of their work, a longer-term view is required when examining the reputations of our politicians, says Lisa Jardine in her Point of View column.丽莎·贾丁在《观点》专栏中说，凭借其作品，人们几乎可以立刻判定工程师的优劣。而政治家的名誉必须经受时间的考验。 At some point during his final year at university, my eldest son explained to me why he had decided on a career as an engineer, and had never considered following me into an academic life in the humanities. 我的大儿子在大学最后一年，曾向我解释他为何决心做一名工程师，却从未考虑追随我从事人文学术研究。 The thing is, he said, when an engineer designs and builds a bridge, he is assessed strictly on the basis of the work he has produced. If the bridge does what it was intended to do, he is a good engineer. If it fails - if, at worst, it falls down - he is a bad one.“事实是，”他说，“当一名工程师设计和制造桥梁时，人们以他生产的产品为基础对其进行严格评估。如果桥梁达到了设计效果，他是个好工程师。如果失败，或者情况更糟，桥塌了，他就是个糟糕的工程师。” Whereas, he continued, in your profession, there are no objective criteria for success. However original what you write is, your reputation depends almost entirely on the opinion of others. “然而，”他接着说，“在你的职业里没有客观的成功标准。虽然你在创作，但你的名声几乎完全依赖于他人的意见。” In the end my son did not become a civil engineer - he works in semiconductors. But driving across France a couple of weeks ago, I found it easy to understand why he chose bridge-building as his example of a feat of engineering which can stand up to public scrutiny. Whichever route you take southwards, sooner or later you will find yourself gasping in amazement as you speed across a viaduct of almost impossible daring and beauty, suspended between sky and earth, seemingly defying the laws of gravity. 最终，我的儿子没有成为土木工程师，他供职于半导体领域。但在几周前我驾车穿越法国，我发现很容易理解儿子要做桥梁工程师的选择，因为他所例举的一项工程壮举正高高耸立，接受公众的检阅。向南行驶，不管你选择哪一条路，迟早你会惊奇地发现，当你飞驰在似乎无视重力、高悬在天空与大地之间的高架桥上，你几乎无法不惊叹于这一勇气和美的杰作。 In summer 2005, our slightly circuitous descent to the Mediterranean took us across the newly opened Millau viaduct on the A75 - architect Norman Fosters magnificent