人们为什么工英文全文以及翻译.doc

Why People WorkEveryone needs to work but what does work mean to him? In the following essay Leonard R. Sayles explores the relationship between work and human beings well-being. 每个人都必须劳动，可是劳动意味着什么？在下面这篇文章里，莱昂纳多·塞勒斯研究了 劳动和人类幸福之间的关系。Jobs and work do much more than most of us realize to provide happiness and contentment. Were all used to thinking that work provides the material things of life － the goods and services that make possible our version of modern civilization. But we are much less conscious of the extent to which work provides the more intangible, but more crucial, psychological well-being that can make the difference between a full and an empty life. 工作和劳动带来的幸福和满足感要比我们意识到的大得多。我们习惯于认为，劳动提供了生活的物质财富——它带来的商品和服务使我们的现代文明成为可能。可是，我们却很少意识到劳动带来的无形的、更关键的心理健康，它关系着我们的生活是充实还是空虚。Why is it that most of us dont put work and human satisfaction together, except when it comes to the end product of work: automobiles and houses and good food? 为什么大多数人除了劳动转化为其最终产品：汽车、房子和珍馐美味的时候，并不能把劳动和满足感结合起来？Its always useful to blame someone else and the Greeks of the ancient world deserve some blame here. At that time work was restricted to slaves and to those few free citizens who had not yet accumulated adequate independent resources. The real citizens of Greece － whom Plato and others talked about － expected to spend their time in free discussion and contemplation. 责备别人总是有用的，而古老世界的希腊人负有一定责任。那时，劳动只局限于奴隶和少数没有积累到足够独立财富的自由民。柏拉图等人谈到的那些“真正”的希腊公民，只想把时间都花在自由辩论和冥想上。The Middle Ages didnt help the reputation of work. It became more acceptable to engage in work. In fact, it was asserted that man had a religious duty to fulfill his calling. To fail to work was immoral － worse, work was thought of as a punishment for the sins of man.中世纪时期劳动的声誉也没能提高，劳动开始更多地为人们接受。但事实上，当时强调的是人要履行自己“使命”的宗教义务。不劳动是不道德的——更糟糕的是，劳动被看作是对人类罪孽的惩罚。Its not difficult to understand the tarnished reputation. Historically, work has been associated with slavery and sin, compulsion and punishment. And in our own da