00600高级英语中英翻译A13WORK.docVIP

工 作Lesson Thirteen　 Work究竟工作是幸福还是痛苦的源泉，这可能是一个难以回答的问题。Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question.毫无疑问有许多工作是非常令人厌烦的，而且过多的工作总是十分痛苦的事。There is certainly much work which is exceedingly irksome, and an excess of work is always very painful.然而我认为，只要不过量，对多数人来说即使是最枯燥的工作也比终日无所事事要好些。I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness.工作给人的愉快的程度多种多样，从仅仅是消烦解闷到产生巨大的快乐，这会随工作的性质和工作者的能力而异。There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker.大多数人不得不从事的工作本身大都无乐趣可言，但即使是这样的工作也有一些很大的好处。Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages.首先，工作可将一天的许多时间占满，人们不必再费神来决定应干些什么，大多数人在可以自由地按自己的愿望打发时间时，常常会不知所措，想不起有什么令人愉快的事值得去做。To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing.而他们的决定又总是受到干扰，觉得干别的什么事也许会更令人愉快。And whatever they decide on, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter.能够有意义地利用闲暇时间是文明发展到最高阶段的结果，而目前很少有人能达到这一层次。To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.何况作出选择本身就是件令人厌烦的事。Moreover the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome.除了那些具有非凡主动性的人，其他的人肯定有人乐于被告诉一天中的每时每刻该做什么，当然命令他们做的事不能太令人厌烦。Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant.多数无所事事的阔佬免遭从事单调乏味工作之苦，但代价是莫名其妙的无聊。Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from drudgery.