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有一个很好的方法来检验这宝贵的建议，我并没有贸然给出。当你偶然发现一本书，你想读，或认为你应该读，让它几天。但是你要尽可能认真地去想。让书名和作者的名字在你的脑海中盘旋。如果绝对有必要把这项工作加入你的知识宝库或你的享乐基金，那就认真地想一想吧。试着想象一下放弃这种额外的快乐或启迪意味着什么。然后，如果你发现你必须读这本书，观察你处理它是多么的敏锐。还要注意，不管这本书有多刺激，对你来说几乎没有什么是新的。如果你对自己诚实，你会发现你的地位已经从仅仅努力去抵制你的冲动中提高了。

Indubitably the vast majority of books overlap one another. Few indeed are these which give the impression of originality, either in style or in content. Rare are the unique books – less than 50, perhaps, out of the whole storehouse of literature. In one of his recent autobiographical novels, Blaise Cendrars points out that Remy de Gourmont, because of his knowledge and awareness of this repetitive quality in books, was able to select and read all that is worthwhile in the entire realm of literature. Cendrars himself – who would suspect it? – is a prodigious reader. He reads most author he reads every last book the man has written, as well as his letters and the books that have been written, as well as his letters and all the books that have been written a great many books that have been written a great many books. All on the side, as it were. For, if he is anything, Cendrars, he is a man of action, an adventurer and explorer, a man who has known how to “waste” his time royally. He is, in a sense, the Julius Caesar of literature.

毫无疑问，绝大多数的书都是相互重叠的。事实上，无论是在风格上还是在内容上，给人留下原创印象的东西很少。罕见的是独特的书-不到50，也许，在整个文学宝库。在他最近的一部自传体小说中，布莱斯·桑德拉斯指出，雷米·德·古尔蒙特，由于他的知识和对书中这种重复性的品质的认识，能够选择和阅读整个文学领域中所有有价值的东西。Cendrars自己——谁会怀疑呢?-是个了不起的读者。他读了大多数的作者，他读了这个人写的每一本书，还有他的信和已经写的书，还有他的信和所有已经写的书。可以说，一切都是侧面的。因为，如果他是什么人的话，他就是一个实干家，一个冒险家和探险家，一个知道如何“浪费”他的时间的人。在某种意义上，他是文学上的尤利乌斯·凯撒。

Reading across cultures / P42

Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel about culture clash. Set in Nigeria at the end of the 19th century, it describes how an African tribe “breaks up and falls apart” when the first while men arrive, in the form of Christian missionaries. It is thus a historical novel, but it is also the personal tragedy of a man who is a victim of his own character.

Chinua Achebe的《土崩瓦解》是一部关于文化冲突的小说。故事发生在19世纪末的尼日利亚，描述了一个非洲部落如何在第一批男性抵达时“分裂和分裂”，他们是基督教传教士。因此，这是一部历史小说，但也是一个人的个人悲剧，他是自己性格的受害者。

The novel traces the life of Okonkwo, a brave warrior who rises from a poor background to become a rich and respected man in his village, with three wives and a rich and respected man in his village, with three wives and a large farm. But Okonkwo is a proud man, and his pride leads to his undoing. He agrees to take part in the sacrifice of his adopted son lkemefuna, even though he is more fond of him than his own son, because he believes this is the will of the spirits of his ancestors, and not to take part in the sacrifice would be to show weakness.

这部小说讲述了一个勇敢的战士Okonkwo的生活，他从一个贫穷的家庭成长为一个富有而受人尊敬的人，他有三个妻子，一个富有而受人尊敬的人，他有三个妻子和一个大农场。但是Okonkwo是一个骄傲的人，他的骄傲导致了他的毁灭。他同意参加他的养子lkemefuna的牺牲,虽然他更喜欢比自己的儿子,因为他认为这是他的祖先的意愿,而不是参加牺牲是暴露了自己的弱点。

Later Okonkwo is exiled for seven years for killing another boy – this time by accident, when his gun goes off at a funeral. Okonkwo goes to live in the village of his mother’s relatives. When he returns things have changed. The Europeans have arrived, and the process of converting the tribespeople to Christianity has begun. Okonkwo is opposed to change, and angry when his son joins the group of Christians. When an over-enthusiastic convert insults the spirits, angry villagers burn down the church, and the British administration arrest the ringleaders.

后来，Okonkwo因为杀害另一个男孩而被流放七年——这一次是意外，因为他的枪在葬礼上走火了。Okonkwo去住在他母亲的亲戚的村庄。当他回来的时候，一切都变了。欧洲人来了，部落居民皈依基督教的进程已经开始。Okonkwo反对改变，当他的儿子加入基督教团体时，他很生气。当过于热情的皈依者侮辱神灵时，愤怒的村民烧毁了教堂，英国政府逮捕了罪魁祸首。

The novel ends with the suicide of Okonkwo, bitterly opposed to the way in which the white men have changed for ever a traditional way of life. In the final lines the British administrator looks at Okonkwo’s body hanging from a tree and thinks of writing a book about the matter, which he will call The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.

小说以Okonkwo的自杀结束，他强烈反对白人改变传统生活方式的方式。在最后几行，这位英国行政官员看着挂在树上的Okonkwo的尸体，想到要写一本关于这件事的书，他称之为《下尼日尔原始部落的和平》(the Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger)。

One of the strengths of the novel is that Achebe avoids a stereotypical portrayal of innocent natives and evil colonizers. Okonkwo’s character, for example, is complex, and one of the missionaries at least is a good man. Achebe chose to write in English (not his mother tongue), to ensure a wide audience, but also because he felt that English could “bear the weight” of his African experience. From the moment of publication in 1958, Things Fall Apart was recognized as a great “post-colonial” novel and a valuable portrayal of what happens when tradition and forces for change meet head on.

小说的优点之一是阿切比避免了对无辜的当地人和邪恶的殖民者的刻板印象。例如，Okonkwo的性格很复杂，至少有一个传教士是好人。阿切比选择用英语写作(不是他的母语)，以确保有广泛的读者，但也因为他觉得英语可以“承载”他的非洲经历。从1958年出版的那一刻起，《土崩瓦解》就被公认为是一部伟大的“后殖民”小说，是传统与变革力量正面交锋的宝贵写照。

Unit 3 Active reading (1) / P46 Been there, done that, got the T-shirt

In 1944 during the second day of the D-Day invasion, my father landed on a Normandy beach in France with the rest of his regiment. The enemy defences had been weakened by the first day’s assault, but in some places along the beach, there was still some resistance, with occasional gunfire. Within 24 hours my father had been wounded. “I forgot to dodge the bullet,” he said. He and the other casualties were sent back to England to recover. Fortunately, the wound was superficial. The bullet had grazed the fleshy inner part of his left arm, and he recovered fairly quickly.

1944年，在诺曼底登陆的第二天，我父亲和他所在军团的其他人在法国的诺曼底海滩登陆。第一天的进攻削弱了敌人的防御工事，但在海滩沿线的一些地方，仍然有一些抵抗，偶尔还会听到枪声。不到24小时，我父亲就受伤了。“我忘记躲避子弹了，”他说。他和其他伤亡者被送回英国恢复。幸运的是，伤口很浅。子弹擦伤了他左臂内侧的肌肉，他恢复得很快。

My father had been allowed to keep his old battle jacket, and when, as a child, I asked him to tell me about his adventures during the Second World War, he would always take the jacket out of the trunk in the loft, and show me the bullet hole. “Five centimeters to the right …” he said, but was too tactful to finish the sentence, … and it would have gone straight through his heart, a mortal wound. He said he kept the jacket to remind him how he had nearly died.

我父亲被允许保留着他的旧战衣，当我还是个孩子的时候，我让他告诉我他在二战期间的冒险经历，他总是把战衣从阁楼的箱子里拿出来，给我看弹孔。“向右五厘米……”他说，但他太机智了，话还没说完，……那剑就会直刺他的心脏，一个致命的伤口。他说，他留下这件夹克是为了提醒自己，自己差点就死了。

The original, prehistoric purpose of clothes was purely functional – they needed to be warm and waterproof, and to protect our modesty. Even today, we often have to make choices about dressing for comfort in low-maintenance clothes and dressing for fashion. In the damp and freezing