暖了懵意4 The only sour note in all the songs of joy over this phenomenon has come from some parents and conservative religious leaders who say Rowling advocates witchcraft. reading of the books has been challenged in 25 school districts in at least 17 states, and the books have been banned in schools in Kansas and Colorado. But that's nothing new, says Michael Patrick Hearn, a children's book scholar and editor of The Annotated Wizard, of Oz. \considered evil by some people,\in the mid-1980s.\
4在对“哈利波特”现象的一路欢歌中，出现的唯一一个不和谐音符来自干一些父母和保守的宗教领袖。他们认为罗琳在宣扬巫术。至少在17个州的25所学校校区内，阅读《哈利波特》受到了质疑，而在堪萨斯州和科罗拉多州的学校里，《哈利波特》系列丛书则被明令禁止。但是作为儿童图书专家和《绿野仙踪》的编辑，迈克尔·帕特里克·赫恩觉得这并不奇怪。“无论何种魔法都会被有些人视为邪恶，”他说，“《绿野仙踪》就曾经在80年代中期遭到正统派基督教徒们的抨击。”
5 But perhaps the most curious thing about the Potter phenomenon, especially given that it is all about books, is that almost no one has taken the time to say how good— or bad—these books are. The other day my 11-year-old daughter asked me if I thought Harry Potter was a classic. I gave her, I'm afraid, one of those adult-sounding answers when I said, \not an outright lie. There's no telling which books will survive from one generation to the next. But the fact is, I was hedging. What my daughter really wanted to know was how well J. K. Rowling stacks up against the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson or Madeleine L'Engle.
5但是对于“哈利波特”现象最让人感到好奇的事情可能是几乎没有人会花时间去讨论这些书有多好或者多糟，尤其是当这些评论仅仅涉及书本身的时候。有一天，11岁的女儿问我是否认为《哈利波特》是经典之作，我给出了一个恐怕听起来十分成人化的回答，“时间会证明一切的。”这不能算是一个彻头彻尾的谎言，因为谁也没有办法预测有哪一本书能够代代相传。但事实上，我在闪烁其词。我女儿真正想知道的是：与罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森和马德琳·英格这一类人相比较，罗琳到底有多棒。
6 I could have told her that I thought they were beautifully crafted works of entertainment, the literary equivalent of Steven Spielberg. I could also have told her I thought the Potter books were derivative. They share so many elements with so many children's classics that sometimes it seems as though Rowling had assembled her novels from a kit. However, these novels amount to, much more than just the sum of their parts. The crucial aspect of their appeal is that they can be read by children and adults with equal pleasure. Only the best authors—and they can be as different as Dr. Seuss and Philip Pullman\—can pull that off.
6我本可以告诉她我认为这些书是精心构思的通俗作品，是堪比史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格之电影的文学作品。本来我还可以告诉她我认为《哈利波特》系列丛书没有什么新意，它们与众多儿童经典作品有太多相似之处，所以有时候会给读者一种感觉，仿佛罗琳组装编织了这些故事。但是，这些故事绝对不仅仅是各个部分的简单相加。它们如此受欢迎的关键之处就在于无论是大人还是小孩都能够从阅读中获得乐趣。只有最好的作家——他们能够与苏斯博士和菲利普·普尔曼，当然还有罗琳一样与众不同——才能够做到这一点。
7 P. L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, put it best when she wrote, \chop off a section of your imaginative substance and make a book specifically for children, for—if you are honest— you have, in fact, no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is all endless and all one. There is plenty for children and adults to enjoy in Rowling's books, starting with their language. Her prose may be unadorned, but her way with naming people and things reveals a quirky and original talent.
7《(欢乐满人间》的作者帕梅拉·林登·特拉弗斯概括得精辟至极。她写到，“你不能把你想象的东西砍掉一部分然后写成一本专给孩子看的书，坦白地说，因为事实上你根本无从知道童年究竟是什么时候结束，而成人期又是什么时候开始的。它们相互连接、浑然一体。”在罗琳的书中，从语言开始，就有足够多的让大人和孩子都喜欢的东西。也许她文风朴实，但是她给人和物取名的方式显示了独特的原创才能。
8 The best writers remember what it is like to be a child with astonishing intensity. Time and again, Rowling articulates just how defenseless even the bravest children often feel. Near the end of the second book Dumbledore, the wise and protective headmaster, is banished from Hogwarts. This terrifies Harry and his schoolmates—\as never before\—and it terrified me. And in all of Rowling's books there runs an undercurrent of sadness and loss. In the first book the orphaned Harry stares into the Mirror of Erised, which shows the viewer his or her utmost desires. Harry sees his dead parents. \what I'd written did I realize that that had been taken entirely- entirely- from how I felt about my mother's death,\say, is one of the central themes in all seven books.\intellectualism? Consciously, perhaps not. But I don't think the books would have their broad appeal if they were only exciting tales of magical adventure, and I know adults would not find them so enticing.
8优秀作家关注孩子特点的能力达到惊人的程度。罗琳不只一次地清楚表达出，即便是最勇敢的孩子也经常会表现得那么无助。在《哈利波特》(二)中，当那位智慧的、对学生呵护有加的魔法学校校长邓布利多被驱逐出霍格华兹时，哈利和他的同学们都感到恐惧万分。“邓布利多走了，前所未有的恐惧蔓延开来。”而这也让我很害怕。在罗琳所有的书中都流淌着一种潜在的伤感与迷失。在《哈利波特》(一)中，变成孤儿的哈利盯着那面能够说出每个人内心深处愿望的厄里斯魔镜看，他看见了逝去的双亲。“直到我自己重读我写过的东西，我才意识到这个情节完完全全——完完全全地——来自于我对于母亲去世的感觉，”罗琳说，“事实上，我可以说，死亡、丧亲之痛以及死亡意味着什么是所有这七册书的中心主题之一。”而年轻的读者们能够领会这一份深刻的理性吗?也许不能自觉地做到这一点吧。但是我认为，如果这些书只是一些有关魔幻之旅的有趣的故事，那么它们就不可能有这么广泛的吸引力。而且我知道，那样的话成人就不会被它吸引。
9 The Harry Potter books aren't perfect. What I miss most in these novels is the presence of a great villain. And by great villain I mean an interesting villain. Long. John Silver is doubly
frightening because he is both evil and charming. If he were all Bad, he wouldn't frighten us half as much. Voldemort is resistible precisely because he is just bad to the bone. That said, I should add that in the new book Rowling outdoes herself with a bad guy so seductive you'll never see him coming. And he is scary.
9《哈利波特》系列丛书不尽完美。在这些丛书中我最想看到的是一个绝妙的反面角色。我这里说的“绝妙的反面角色”是指“有趣的反面角色”。因为高个子约翰·希尔弗既邪恶又迷人，所以他才让人更觉害怕。如果他仅仅只是坏的话，他带给我们的恐怖感会减少一大半。伏地魔王让人抗拒就是因为他仅仅只是一个十足的坏蛋。这么一说，我想在罗琳超越自己的这本新书中加上这样一个反面角色。这个角色是如此的有魅力，你是永远也见不到的，而且他相当令人恐惧。
10 That quibble aside, Rowling’s novels are probably the best books children have ever encountered that haven't been thrust upon them by an adult. I envy kids reading these books, because there was nothing this good when I was a boy-nothing this good, I mean, that we found on our own, the way kids are finding Harry. We affectionately remember The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, but try rereading them and their charm fades away pretty quickly. Rowling may not be as magisterial as Tolkien or as quirky as Dahl, but her books introduce fledgling readers to a very high standard of entertainment. With three books left to go in the series, it's too early to pass final judgment. But considering what we've seen so far, especially in the latest volume, Harry Potter has all the earmarks of a classic. 10除了这些吹毛求疵的意见，罗琳的书可能是孩子们所接触到的最好的书，而且阅读这些书也不是家长强加的任务。我羡慕那些阅读这些书的孩子，因为在我还是个孩子的时候，可没有这么好的东西——我的意思是说，我们没有通过自己去发现有这么好的东西，不像现在的孩子，他们找到了哈利。我们深深地记着哈迪男孩和南茜·朱尔，但是当我们尝试着重新阅读这些角色的时候，他们的魅力很快就散去了。罗琳的书也许不如托尔金的书那么具有权威性，也不如达尔的作品那般跌宕起伏，但是她的书将涉世未深的读者带入了一个相当高的娱乐水准。(《哈利波特》系列丛书还有三册尚未出版，现在下定论还为时尚早。但是，就目前我们看到的情况来看，特别是在最后一册，《哈利波特》具备了经典作品的所有特征。
Unit Four
The following text is extracted from Marriages and Families by Nijole V. Benokraitis.
The book has been used as a textbook for sociology courses and women's studies in a number of universities in the United States. It highlights important contemporary changes in society and the family and explores the choices that are available to family members, as well as the constraints that many of us do not recognize. It examines the diversity of American families today, using cross-cultural and multicultural comparisons to encourage creative thinking about the many critical issues that confront the family of the twenty-first century.
下面的文章选自奈杰尔贝诺克瑞提斯的婚姻与家庭。此书在美国的一些大学里被用作社会学和妇女研究等课程的教材，它强调了在当代社会和家庭中所发生的重要变化，探索了家庭成员所面临的选择，以及我们很多人都还未意识到的种种约束。该书还审视了当今美国家庭的多样性，运用跨文化和多元文化的比较，以激发创造性思维来研究21世纪家庭所面临的许多严峻问题。
LOVE AND LOVING RELATIONSHIPS
Nijole V. Benokraitis
爱和情感连系
奈杰尔·贝诺克瑞提斯
1 Love- as both an emotion and a behavior- is essential for human survival- The family is usually our earliest and most important source of love and emotional support. Babies and
children deprived of love have been known to develop a wide variety of problems- for example, depression, headaches, physiological impairments, and neurotic and psychosomatic difficulties- that sometimes last a lifetime. In contrast, infants who are loved and cuddled typically gain more weight, cry less, and smile more. By five years of age, they have been found to have significantly higher IQs and to score higher on language tests.
1爱，对于人类的生存是不可或缺的。它既是一种情感，又是一种行为。家庭通常是我们最早和最重要的爱和情感支持的来源。众所周知，缺乏爱的婴幼儿会产生各种各样的问题，如抑郁症、头痛、生理残疾、神经质或身心疾病，这些病有时会伴随他们一生。而对比之下，拥有爱和拥抱的婴儿通常体重增加得快，哭得少，而笑得多。到了五岁时，他们的智商和语言测试的分数明显比前一类儿童高得多。
2 Much research shows that the quality of care infants receive affects how they later get along with friends, how well they do in school, how they react to new and possibly stressful situations, and how they form and maintain loving relationships as adults. It is for these reasons that
people's early intimate relationships within their family of origin1 are so critical. Children who are raised in impersonal environments (orphanage, some foster homes, or unloving families) show emotional and social underdevelopment, language and motor skills retardation, and mental health problems.
2很多研究发现婴儿获得关爱的质量会影响到他们以后的交友，在学校的表现，如何应对陌生的或可能充满压力的情况，以及他们成年后如何建立并且维系情感连系。正是因为这些原因，人们与家庭成员的早期亲密关系才如此至关重要。在人情冷漠的环境中(如孤儿院，某些寄养家庭，或缺乏关爱的家庭)长大的孩子会出现情感和社会性发育不良，语言和运动技能迟缓，以及精神健康问题。
3 Love for oneself, or self-love, is also essential for our social and emotional development. Actress Mae West once said, \such a statement may seem self-centered, it's actually quite insightful Social scientists describe self-love as an important oasis for self- esteem. Among other things, people who like themselves are more open to criticism and less demanding of others. Fromm (1956) saw self-love as a necessary prerequisite for loving others. People who don't like themselves may not be able to return love but may constancy seek love relationships to bolster their own poor self-images. But just what is love? What brings people together?
3对自己的爱，或者说自爱，对我们的社会性和情感发展也是至关重要的。女演员梅·韦斯特曾说过，“我从没有像爱自己那样爱过别人。”虽然这样的话听起来似乎有些以自我为中心，实际上却是相当有见地。社会学家将自爱描述为自尊的一个重要基础。从别的方面来说，自我喜欢的人更乐于接受批评，对别人的要求也不那么苛刻。弗罗姆(1956)认为自爱是爱别人的先决条件。不喜欢自己的人也许不懂得回报爱，而却有可能不停地寻找爱的关系来改变卑微的自我形象。那么到底什么是爱?是什么让人们走到一起?
4 Love is an elusive concept. We have all experienced love and feel we know what it is; however, when asked what love is, people give a variety of answers. According to a nine- year-old boy, for example, \What we mean by love depends on whether we are talking about love for family members, friends, or lovers. Love has been a source of inspiration, wry witticisms, and even political action for many centuries.
4爱是一个难以描述的概念。我们都经历过爱，觉得我们知道爱是什么，然而当被问到什么是爱时，人们给出的答案却不尽相同，比如一个九岁的男孩说，“爱像雪崩，你必须快跑才能活命。”爱对我们来说意味着什么，这取决于我们所指的是家人之间、朋友之间还是恋人之间的爱。几百年来爱都是灵感、俏皮的揶揄、甚至是政治活动的来源。
5 Love has many dimensions. It can be romantic, exciting, obsessive, and irrational- It can also be platonic, calming, altruistic, and sensible? Many researchers feel that love defies a single definition because it varies in degree and intensity and across social contexts. At the very least, three elements are necessary for a loving
relationship: (1) a willingness to please and accommodate the other person, even if this involves compromise and sacrifice; (2) an acceptance of the other person's faults and shortcomings; and (3) as much concern about the loved one's welfare as one's own. And, people who say they are \
5爱有很多层面，它可能是浪漫的，令人激动的，让人着迷的，或者是非理性的。它也可能是柏拉图式的，令人平静的，无私的，或者理智的。许多研究者觉得爱没有一个唯一的定义，它有程度和强度之分，并且跨越了社会背景。拥有恋爱关系至少需要具备三个元素：1)愿意取悦和迁就另一方，即使需要妥协或牺牲；2)能接受另一方的错误和缺点；3)关心爱人的幸福像关心自己一样。而且，说自己“处于恋爱中”的人们重视相互之间的关心、亲密和忠诚。
