There’s a Lot More to Life than a job原文及翻译.docVIP

PAGE PAGE 2 Lesson Seven There’s a Lot More to Life than a job 人生的意义远远不止是工作 It has often been remarked that the saddest thing about youth is that it is wasted on the young. 　　　 人们常常说：对于青春来说，最令人悲伤的事情莫过于青春在年轻时被浪费掉了。 Reading a survey report on first-year college students, I recalled the regret, If only I knew then what I know now. 在读一份对大学一年级新生作的调查报告时，我又想起了这种惋惜之情：“要是当初我就懂得了现在我领悟到的东西该有多好！” The survey revealed what I had already suspected from informal polls of students both in Macon and at the Robins Resident Center: If it (whatever it may be) wont compute and you cant drink it, smoke it or spend it, then it holds little value. 这份调查报告印证了我以前根据在梅肯和罗宾斯住宿中心对学生进行的非正式民意调查所作的推断：学生们认为如果某种东西（不管它是何物）没有实际意义，不能把它当酒喝、当烟抽、当钱花，那么“它”就基本毫无价值。 According to the survey based on responses from over 188,000 students, todays college beginners are more consumeristic and less idealistic than at any time in the 17 years of the poll. 　　　 基于对188，000多名学生答卷的调查表明，当今的大学新生比这项民意测验开始17年以来的任何时候的大学新生都“更主张消费主义，同时也少了些理想主义”。 Not surprising in these hard times, the students major objective is to be financially well off. Less important than ever is developing a meaningful philosophy of life. Accordingly, today the most popular course is not literature or history but accounting. 　　 在这个经济不景气的时代，学生们的主要目标是追求“经济上的富裕”。与过去任何时候相比，树立有意义的人生哲学已不那么重要了。这一情况并不让人感到惊奇。因此，如今最受欢迎的课程不是文学或历史，而是会计学。 Interest in teaching, social service and the humanities is at a low, along with ethnic and womens studies. On the other hand, enrollment in business programs, engineering and computer science is way up. 如今人们对当教师、社会服务和人文学科、还有种族和妇女研究的兴趣都处于低潮。而另一方面，攻读商科、工程学及计算机科学的学生人数却在迅速增加。 Thats no surprise either. A friend of mine (a sales representative for a chemical company) was making twice the salary of college instructors during her first year on the job—even before she completed her two-year associate degree. 还有一件事也不令人意外。我的一个朋友（一个化工公司的销售代理）在干这份工作的第一年所挣的钱就已是大学教师薪水的两倍了──这甚至还是在她修完两年制的准学士学位课程之前的事。 Ill tell them what they can do with t