The mighty Pacific washes the shores of the continents —North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. Its waters mingle in the southeast with the Atlantic Ocean and in the southwest with the Indian Ocean. It is not on the shores of continents or in the coastal islands, however, that the soul of the great Pacific is found. It lies far out where the fabled South Sea Islands are scattered over the huge ocean like stars in the sky.
气势磅礴的太平洋冲刷着五大洲—北美洲、南美洲、亚洲、大洋洲和南极洲—的海岸。太平洋在东南方与大西洋汇合，在西南方与印度洋相接。然而，巨大的太平洋最美妙之处不在大陆的海岸上，也不在沿海的岛屿上，而是在远离陆地的海域，在那里，富有神奇色彩的南太平洋诸岛像天上的繁星一样散布在广阔的海面上。
Here great disturbances at the heart of the earth caused mountains and volcanoes to rise above the water. For hundreds of years tiny coral creatures have worked and died to make thousands of ring-shaped islands called atolls.
在那里，由于地心的剧烈活动，使山脉和火山升出水面。千百年来，微小的珊瑚虫在这里活动、死亡，形成了数不胜数的环状岛屿，这些岛屿被称为环礁。
The air that sweeps the South Sea Islands is fragrant with flowers and spice. Bright warm days follow clear cool nights, and the rolling swells break in a never-ending roar on the shores. Overhead the slender coconut palms whisper their drowsy song.
散发着鲜花和香料芬芳的微风轻轻吹拂着南太平洋诸岛。明媚温暖的白天和清澈而凉爽的夜晚交相更替。滚滚巨浪拍打着海岸发出阵阵轰鸣，椰树柔弱的枝叶在空中低声吟唱着催眠曲。
When white men first came to the Pacific islands, they found that the people living there were like happy children. They were tall men and beautiful women who seemed not to have a care in the world. Coconut palms and breadfruit trees grew at the doors of their huts. The ocean was filled with turtles and fish, ready for the net. The islanders had little need for clothing. There was almost no disease.
白人首次登上这些太平洋海岛时，发现生活在那里的人们都像孩子一样欢乐。男子身材高大，妇女婀娜多姿，他们无忧无虑，好像对世界上的一切都不用操心似的。茅舍门前长着椰子树和面包树，海洋里鱼鳖成群，张网可得。岛上人几乎不需要穿什么衣服，也几乎没有任何疾病。
Cruel and bloody wars sometimes broke out between neighboring tribes, and canoe raids were sometimes made on nearby islands. The strong warriors enjoyed fighting. Many of the islanders were cannibals, who cooked and ate the enemies they killed. This was part of their law and religion. These savages, however, were usually friendly, courteous, and hospitable. Some of the early explorers were so fascinated with the Pacific islands that they never returned to their own countries. They preferred to stay.
在邻近部落之间有时会爆发残酷的流血战争。他们有时乘独木舟去攻击附近的岛屿。
强悍的勇士们认为战争是一种乐趣。许多岛上的人都有吃人的习俗。他们把杀死的敌人煮熟吃掉。这一习俗是他们的法律和宗教的一部分。然而，这些野蛮人通常是友善、谦恭和好客的。一些早期的探险家因为太迷恋这些太平洋岛屿而不再返回自己的国家，他们宁愿长期呆在那里。
When Bill Clinton and Bill Gates played golf on Martha's Vineyard a few years ago, they didn't click. The President gave Gates a heavy dose of the Clinton treatment, oozing charm and seeking emotional common ground in the fact that both had recently lost their mothers. Clinton must have been disappointed by the cool response of Gates, who saw the subject as unduly personal. Gates, for his part, was put off that Clinton didn't engage him on his favorite topic, technology. When the golfing ended, the two men went their separate ways. Gates didn't take sides in the Clinton-Dole election a couple of years later. Clinton let his Justice Department pursue a potentially devastating antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.
几年前比尔·克林顿和比尔·盖茨在马撒葡萄园里打高尔夫球，两个人并没有相处的很融洽。总统以自己惯用的热烈的待人接物方式对待盖茨，满脸魅力，笑容可掬。因为两人都新近丧母，所以他满以为能在两人之间找到共同语言。但是盖茨认为这个话题太私人而表现得很冷漠，总统肯定很是失望。对比尔盖茨来说，也很不爽，因为克林顿没有让他谈论他喜欢的话题——科技。打完高尔夫后，两个人分道扬镳。几年后，克林顿和多尔竞选总统，盖茨选择了中立。而克林顿不久却让美国司法部指控盖茨违反《反托拉斯法案》，这对微软公司是一次毁灭性的打击。
It's not hard to see why these two larger-than-life figures--one is the world's most powerful man, the other is the richest--didn't become fast friends: the two Bills are as different as the two ends of the baby-boom generation they represent. Clinton, who entered college in 1964, is dripping with Sixties values: a John F. Kennedy-style belief in public service as a calling; an Age-of-Aquarius focus on emotional connection; and a countercultural streak of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll. Gates, who came of age in the 1970s, has a Watergate-year detachment from politics, a mind-set more me-generation than "love-in", and a passion for the great revolutionary force of his own decade: the personal computer.
不难看出这两位带有传奇色彩的人物——世界上最有权者和最有钱者——没有成为密友。因为两个比尔禀性大不一样，他们分别代表了战后生育高峰首尾两端出生的这一代人。克林顿1964年进大学，满脑子浸透了60年代的价值观念：他的身上既有约翰·肯尼迪式的以服务大众为己任的信念，也有大同时代的人所特有情感专注，同时还带有纵欲、吸毒、迷恋摇滚乐之类反文化的个人特性。盖茨70年代长大成人，具有水门事件年代的人对政治冷漠超然的特点，其心态更接近“惟我的一代”，而不是颓废派；他热衷于个人电脑，将其视为自己这十年的一种极具革命性的动力。
But Clinton and Gates are remarkably alike in other ways, particularly in their flaws. Both have almost limitless drive and self-absorption and a willingness to push the rules to the edge--or pass it--to get what they want. When called to account, both have been dismissive of the legal process and have had a strained relationship with the truth. These qualities have landed both men in similar binds: Clinton is waiting to hear if he will be removed from office; Gates is fending off the Justice Department's effort to rein in, or even carve up, Microsoft. Their flaws will take center this week, as both men mount defenses in their respective trials.
但是在其他方面，克林顿和盖茨有惊人的相似，尤其是在两人的缺点方面。两个人都有无限的干劲和专注力，为了获得自己想要的东西，他们都会触及条规底线或者超越条规。当被要求解释他们的行为时，两人都选择蔑视法律，甚至违背事实。这些品质是两人陷入了同样的困境：克林顿等待着被革职，盖茨尽力避开司法部门对微软的控制，甚至是瓜分。他们的缺点在这周将成为焦点，因为两人都在为各自的案子尽力辩护。
About 150 years ago, a village church vicar in Yorkshire , England , had three lovely , intelligent daughters but his hopes hinged entirely on the sole male heir，Branwell, a youth with remarkable talent in both art and literature.
大约150年前，在英国的约克郡，有一个乡村牧师，他有三个聪颖可爱的女儿，但是他把所有的希望都倾注在唯一的男性继承人---儿子B 身上。这个年轻人在艺术和文学上都有出众的天资。
Branwell's father and sisters hoarded their pennies to pack him off to London's Royal Academy of Arts, but if art was his calling, he dialed a wrong number. Within weeks he hightailed it home, a penniless failure.
父亲和姐妹们都省吃俭用，帮弟弟凑足盘缠，打点行装，送他上了伦敦皇家艺术学院。但是要指望他在艺术上有所成就，那他可就走错了门。不到几个星期，他就分文全，无败北而归。
Hopes still high, the family landed Branwell a job as a private tutor, hoping this would free him to develop his literary skills and achieve the success and fame that he deserved. Failure again.
家人仍然对B 寄予厚望，他们想方设法为他找了一份私人家教的工作。希望这份工作能使他自由施展自己的文学才华，获取应有的功名。可这一次又失败了。
For years the selfless sisters squelched their own goals, farming themselves out as teachers and governesses in support of their increasingly indebted brother, convinced the world must eventually recognize his genius. As failures multiplied, Barnwell turned to alcohol, then opium, and eventually died as he has lived: a failure. So died hope in the one male —but what of the three anonymous sisters?
几年来，无私的姐妹们压抑着自己的志向，应邀去学校任教或当家庭教师，以负担那债台日益高筑的弟弟。她们深信，总有一天，弟弟的天才会得到社会的承认。然而，接踵而来的失败使B 一蹶不振，他染上了酗酒、吸毒的恶习，最后临死时仍然与生前一样：一事无成。于是寄托在全家唯一男性身上的希望也随之破灭。而那三位默默无闻的姐妹，其命运又是如何呢？
During Barnwell’s last years, the girls published a book of poetry at their own expense (under a pseudonym, for fear of reviewers’ bias against femal es). Even Barnwell might have snickered: they sold only 2 copies.
在B 生前最后几年，姑娘们自己出资出版了一本诗集（用的是假名，必防编辑们对女性的偏见）只卖出了两本。也许连B 都在窃笑。
Undaunted, the continued in their spare time, late at night by candlelight, to pour out their pent-up emotion, writing of what they knew best, of women in conflict with their natural desires and social condition—in reality, less fiction than autobiography! And 19th century literature was transformed by Anne’s Agnes Grey, Emily’s Wuthering Heights, and Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.
然而姐妹们并不气馁，利用空余时间继续笔耕。夜深人静时，她们秉烛而书，倾吐她们幽禁的情怀，抒写自己最熟悉的一切。她们描写了女性天赋的追求与社会现状乏间的冲突。实际上，她们所写的与其说是小说，倒不如说是自传！于是，19世纪的文坛就因A 的《艾格尼斯格雷》，E 的《呼啸山庄》和C 的《简爱》的问世而大大改观。
But years of sacrifice for Barnwell had taken their toll. Emily tool ill at her brother’s funeral and died within 3 months, aged 29; Anne died 5 months later, aged 30; Charlotte lived only to age
39. If only they had been nurtured instead of sacrificed.
然而，多年来牺牲自己扶持B 的三姐妹，终于为此付出了沉痛的代价！E 在她弟弟葬礼的那一天得了病，三个月后便离开了人世，年方29岁；5个月后A 也以30岁芳龄长逝；C 则只活到39岁。假若她们能早日得到培养而不做出牺牲，该有多好啊！
Today, there' s scarcely an aspect of our life that isn' t being upended by the torrent of information available on the hundreds of millions of sites crowding the Internet, not to mention its ability to keep us in constant touch with each other via electronic mail. " If the automobile and aerospace technology had exploded at the same pace as computer and information technology," says Microsoft, "a new car would cost about $ 2 and go 600 miles on a thimble of gas. And you could buy a Boeing 747 for the cost of a pizza. "
今天，我们的生活方方面面无不受到因特网上数以亿计的网点所提供的大量信息的冲击，更不用说因特网是我们通过电子邮件不断互相接触的本事了。“如果汽车和航空航天技术像计算机信息技术那样迅速发展，”微软公司宣称，“那么一辆新汽车大约只值2美元，行驶600英里费不了几滴汽油。而你用买一张比萨饼的钱就可以买一架波音747客机。”
Probably the biggest payoff, however, is the billions of dollars the Internet is saving companies in producing goods and serving the needs of their customers. Nothing like it has been seen since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when power-driven machines began producing more in a day than men could turn out in nearly year.
不过最大的报偿大概还在于因特网为各公司在商品生产和为顾客服务方面所节省下的数十亿美元费用。自从工业革命开始以来，没有任何事物能像因特网那样神通广大，尽管在工业革命时代电力驱动的机器一天所生产的东西差不多比人们一年生产的还要多。
All the time spent online has left many young infotech workers without much time for life —or love—offline. The U. S. free enterprise system, which reaches a frenzy in Silicon Valley, has recognized that the local love boat is taking on water and is rushing in to save the day. Dating services are approaching overload. Seminars and love doctors are teaching these rich, busy young singles how to find and capture their heart's desire in this romantic wasteland. And dot-com facilitators such as Matchmaker. com are struggling to bring the sexes together online.
整天都联机工作，这使得信息技术工作者们很少有时间享受离开网络的生活与爱情。在美国硅谷，自由企业制达到了一种狂热的境地，这一体制已认识到本地的爱之舟正在出现危机，准备全力以赴扭转局面。提供幽会服务的公司现已接近超负荷运行。各种研讨会和恋爱心理医生正在指导那些富有而忙碌的年轻单身贵族，叫他们如何在浪漫的荒原上去发现并捕获所渴望的爱情。而各类辅助交流的网络公司，比如“媒人网”正在想方设法让异性网友共同参与网上活动。
One reality that losers in this love bazaar must face is that they weren’t picked because they were out of shape. But not to worry since the Cyber Age has the answer to this one, too. Computerized fitness programs with audio, visual, and cyber personal trainers are ready to turn your home and treadmill into your own personal health club.
在网络爱情集市中竞争失利的人必须面对一个事实：他们没有得到异性的青睐是因为身体不佳。但这不足为虑，因为计算机网络时代对这类问题也能给与解答。带有音频、图像和网络个人训练机的计算机化健身程序随时可以是你的家及单调的工作室变成自己的个人健身俱乐部。
In Medieval England the tallest horses were ridden by people of the highest rank who, from their lofty position , looked down on their humble subjects. From this we get the phrase to be on one’s high horse or to ride the high horse, describing somebody who behaves scornfully or appear arrogant.
在中世纪的英格兰，最高大的马是社会上层人士的坐骑。他们拥有显赫的地位，高高在上俯视自己卑微的臣民。由此产生了“趾高气扬、盛气凌人”这一短语，用来形容那些举止傲慢或者看起来自负的人。
The sport of horse racing is said to date from ancient Egyptian times. Presumably even then horse owners would make bets as to whose horse was faster. The ancient Olympic games of Greece included what are thought to be the first public horse races, and harness-horse racing began some years later when horses were set to pull chariots. The Romans preferred the chariot race above all others.
据说，赛马源于古埃及。大概甚至早在古埃及，马主们也会打赌看谁的马跑得更快。古希腊的奥运赛马包括公认的首次公开赛马，而几年后当人们用马来拉战车，驾车赛马这项运动便兴起了。驾车赛马是罗马人最喜爱的运动。
Organized horse racing dates from 12th-century Britain, when royalty encouraged this pastime, and horse racing is still called the sport of king. Betting is an integral part of the racing scene, and unfortunately many individuals find themselves backing the wrong horse. It means to make an error in judgment, and has been extended to various causes and candidates since about 1860.
有组织的赛马可以追溯到12世纪的英国。那时候皇室倡导这种休闲娱乐的方式。直到现在赛马还被称为“王室的运动”。赌马是赛事的主要部分，但不幸的是，许多人发现自己下错了注。这意味着做出了错误的判断。大约在1860年后，这一说法延伸到各种各样的情况即候选人的选举中。
In racing terminology a horse is called "dark" when its history is unknown. The origin has not been verified, but the expression dark horse was known in the early 19th century and then was extended from racing, where it is also still used, to politics when James Polk, who had not even been mentioned at the Democratic Convention in 1844 until the eighth ball, won the election and became the eleventh President of the United States. Ever since, the term has been applied to a political candidate or other have been deliberately kept a good of winning.
在比赛术语中，来历不明的马称之为“黑马”。尽管其起源未得到证实，但“黑马”这个词在19世纪早期就为人所知，在赛马中沿用至今，并拓展到政治领域。最初是指经过八轮投票、1844年才在民主党大会上获得选举提名并赢得选举担任美国第11届总统的詹姆斯波尔克，而在此前甚至没有人提及他的名字。从此“黑马”就用来指那些虽名不见经传，但却很可能由于故意隐藏的自己的卓越品质，最后极有可能在竞争中胜出的政党候选人或竞争者。