💬 新概念英语第四册

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

the main complicating facts of human life must remain unintelligible.

我们才能明白人类生活中主要的复杂现象。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

The study of custom can be profitable only after certain preliminary propositions have been accepted,

只有在某些基本的主张被接受下来、同时有些主张被激烈反对时，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

and some of these propositions have been violently opposed.

对风俗的研究才是全面的，才会有收获。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

In the first place, any scientific study requires that there be no preferential weighting of one or another of the items in the series it selects for its consideration.

首先，任何科学研究都要求人们对可供考虑的诸多因素不能厚此薄彼，偏向某一方面。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

In all the less controversial fields, like the study of cacti or termites or the nature of nebulae,

在一切争议较小的领域里，如对仙人掌、白蚁或星云性质的研究，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

the necessary method of study is to group the relevant material and to take note of all possible variant forms and conditions.

应采取的研究方法是，把有关各方面的材料汇集起来，同时注意任何可能出现的异常情况和条件。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

In this way, we have learned all that we know of the laws of astronomy,

例如，用这种方法，我们完全掌握了天文学的规律。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

or of the habits of the social insects, let us say.

和昆虫群居的习性

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

It is only in the study of man himself that the major social sciences have substituted the study of one local variation, that of Western civilization.

只是在对人类自身的研究中，各主要的社会学科才用对一个局部地区各种情况的研究（如对西方文明的研究）来代替对全人类的研究。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

Anthropology was by definition impossible,

那么人类学按其定义来说就无法存在。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

as long as these distinctions between ourselves and the primitive,

只要我们同原始人，我们同野蛮人，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

ourselves and the barbarian, ourselves and the pagan, held sway over people's minds.

我们同异教徒之间存在的区别在人的思想中占主导地位，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

It was necessary first to arrive at that degree of sophistication where we no longer set our own belief against ourneighbour's superstition.

不用自己的信仰去反对我们邻居的迷信。

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

It was necessary to recognize that these institutions which are based on the same premises,

必须认识到，这些建立在相同前提基础上的风俗，

Lesson 44 Patterns of culture

let us say the supernatural, must be considered together, our own among the rest.

暂且可以说是超自然的东西，必须放在一起加以考虑，我们自己的风俗和其他民族的风俗都在其中。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

In man's early days, competition with other creatures must have been critical.

在人类早期，人类与其他生物的竞争一定是必不可少的。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

But this phase of our development is now finished.

但这个发展阶段已经结束。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

Indeed, we lack practice and experience nowadays in dealing with primitive conditions.

确实，我们今天缺乏对付原始环境的实践和经验。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

I am sure that, without modern weapons,

我断定，如果没有现代化的武器，

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

I would make a very poor show of disputing the ownership of a cave with a bear,

要我和一只熊去争洞穴，我会出洋相的；

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

and in this I do not think that I stand alone.

我也相信，出洋相者并非我一人。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

The last creature to compete with man was the mosquito.

能与人竞争的生物最后只有蚊子了，

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

But even the mosquito has been subdued by attention to drainage and by chemical sprays.

然而即使蚊子，也由于我们注意清理污水和喷洒化学药品而被制服了。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

Competition between ourselves, person against person, community against community,

然而人类之间的竞争，人与人，团体与团体，

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

still persists, however; and it is as fierce as it ever was.

依然在进行着，而且和以前一样激烈。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

But the competition of man against man is not the simple process envisioned in biology.

但是，人与人的竞争并不像生物学中想像的那样是一个简单过程。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

It is not a simple competition for a fixed amount of food determined by the physical environment,

它已不是为了争得物质环境所决定的有限食物而进行的简单竞争了，

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

because the environment that determines our evolution is no longer essentially physical.

因为决定我们进化环境的主要方面已不再是物质。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

Our environment is chiefly conditoned by the things we believe.

我们的环境由我们信仰的东西所决定。

Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies

Morocco and California are bits of the Earth in very similar latitudes,

摩洛哥和加利福尼亚是地球上纬度极其相似的两个地方，