复旦研究生英语Unit Eight.docx

Is Love an Art?Is Love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort. Or is love a pleasant sensation, which to experiences is a matter of chance, something one falls intro if one is lucky? Undoubtedly, the majority of people today believe in the latter.爱是一门艺术吗？那就需要知识并付出努力。或者爱是一种令人愉悦的情感，只有幸运儿才能“坠入”爱河呢？这本小书是以第一种假设为前提的，而大多数人无疑都相信第二种假设。Not that people think that love is not important. They are starved for it; they watch endless numbers of films about happy and unhappy love stories, they listen to hundreds of trashy songs abut love - yet hardly anyone thinks that there is anything that needs to be learned about love.人们并非认为爱无关紧要。人们对于爱总是如饥似渴，悲欢离合的爱情电影他们百看不厌，百般无聊的爱情歌曲他们百听不烦。但很少有人认为爱需要学习。This peculiar attitude is based on several premises which either singly or combinedly tend to uphold it. Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of “being loved”, rather than that of “loving”, of ones capacity to love. Hence the problem to them is how to be loved, how to be lovable. In pursuit of this aim they follow several paths. One, which is especially used by men, is to be successful, to be as powerful and rich as the social margin of ones position permits. Another, used especially by women, is to make oneself attractive, by cultivating ones body, dress, etc. Other ways of making oneself attractive, used both by men and women, are to develop pleasant manners, interesting conversation, to be helpful, modest, inoffensive. Many of the ways to make oneself lovable are the same as those used to make oneself successful, to win friends and influence people. As a matter of fact, what most people in our culture mean by being lovable is essentially a mixture between being popular and having sex appeal.对爱的这种奇怪观点基于几个错误前提，这些前提或单独或一起支撑着这一观点。多数人认为爱就是“被人爱”，而非“爱别人”，或主动去爱的能力。因此，对他们而言，关键问题就在于如何被爱，如何扮可爱。他们采取各种途径以期达到此目的。一个方法就是成为成功人士，在自己的社会地位所许可的范围内获取最大量的权力和财产。这种方法的效法者多为男性。另一个方法则是通过保持身材和注重打扮使自己富有魅力。女性优为青睐该方法。其他一些让自己魅力四射的方法有：举止得体，谈吐风趣，乐于助人、低调内敛等。这些方式男女均有采用。很多使自己可爱的方式和使自己成功的途径并无区别，那就是“赢得朋友和影响他人”