重新把握命運英語短文閱讀

A New Control Of Destiny

重新把握命運

Children used to play a game of pointing at someone, suddenly saying, “What are you?” Some people answered by saying, “I am a human being,” or by nationality, or by religion. en this question was put to me by a new generation of children, I answered, “an anthropologist.”

Anthropology is the study of whole ways of life, to which one must be completely committed, all the time. So that when I speak of what I believe as a person, I cannot separate this from what I believe as an anthropologist.

過去，孩子們通常會玩這樣的遊戲——突然指着一個人說：“你是幹什麼的?”有些人會回答：“我是一個人。”或回答是哪國人，或是哪個宗教的信徒。當新一代的孩子這樣問我時，我答道：“我是一個人類學家。”

人類學是對人類所有生活方式的研究，需要一個人將全部的精力與時間都投入其中。所以，在談論信仰時，我無法將自己作爲一個人的信仰與作爲一個人類學家的信仰區分開來。

I believe that to understand human beings it is necessary to think of them as part of the whole living world. Our essential humanity depends not only on the complex biological structure which has been developed through the ages from very simple beginnings, but also upon the great social inventions which have been made by human beings, perpetuated by human beings, and in turn give human beings their stature as builders, thinkers, statesmen, artists, seers, and prophets.

I believe that each of these great inventions—language, the family, the use of tools, government, science, art, and philosophy—has the quality of so combining the potentialities of every human temperament, that each can be learned and perpetuated by any group of human beings, regardless of race, and regardless of the type of civilization within which their progenitors lived; so that a newborn infant from the most primitive tribe in New Guinea is as intrinsically capable of graduation from Harvard, or writing a sonnet, or inventing a new form of radar as an infant born on Beacon Hill.

我相信，把人類看作整個世界的一部分，對了解人類是十分必要的。除了經歷漫長歲月，由最初簡單的生命形式發展成爲的複雜生物結構，決定人性本質的因素還有人類社會的衆多偉大發明。人類創造並一直使用着它們，而反過來它們也將諸如建築師、思想家、政治家、藝術家、觀察家、預言家等身份賦予了人類。

我堅信，這樣的特性存在於每一項偉大的發明之中，比如語言、家庭、工具的使用、政府、科學、藝術和哲學，將每個人性格中的潛能巧妙地結合起來。無論任何種族、任何文明的後裔，任何一個人類羣體都能學習並將它發揚光大。所以，一個新幾內亞島最原始部落的新生嬰兒完全有能力從哈佛大學畢業，寫出一首十四行詩或發明一種新型的雷達，就像出生在比肯山的孩子那樣。

But I believe, also, that once a child has been reared in New Guinea or Boston or Leningrad or Tibet, he embodies the culture within which he is reared, and differs from those who are reared elsewhere so deeply, that only by understanding these differences can we reach an awareness which will give us a new control over our human destiny.

I believe that human nature is neither intrinsically good nor intrinsically evil, but individuals are born with different combinations of innate potentialities, and that it will depend upon how they are reared—to trust and love and experiment and create, or to fear and hate and conform—what kind of human beings they can become.

但我也相信，在新幾內亞島、波士頓、列寧格勒或是西藏長大的孩子，必定具備不同於他人的、屬於自己國家的文化特性。這些文化特性對他們有着深遠的影響，因此要想真正瞭解如何重新把握人類的命運，必須首先理解這些差異。

我相信，人性本無善惡之分，每個人生來都是先天潛能的不同組合，而決定人性善惡的是他們所接受的教育——是教育他們去信任、愛、試驗和創造，還是教育他們去恐懼、仇恨和順從——他們的人格也由此決定。

I believe that we have not even begun to tap human potentialities, and that by continuing humble but persistent study of human behavior, we can learn consciously to create civilizations within which an increasing proportion of human beings will realize more of what they have it in them to be.

I believe that human life is given meaning through the relationship which the individual’s conscious goals have to the civilization, period, and country within which one lives.

At times, the task may be to fence a wilderness, to bridge a river, or rear sons to perpetuate a young colony. Today, it means taking upon ourselves the task of creating one world in such a way that we both keep the future safe and leave the future free.

我認爲，人類的潛能甚至還不曾開始發揮，我相信只要以謙恭的態度堅持不懈地研究人類行爲，讓越來越多的人發現自身更多的潛能，我們就能自覺地學會創造文明。

我相信，人的生命之所以有意義，正是由於其個人樹立的目標與他所處的文明、時代和國家之間有着密切的聯繫。

也許有時，我們的任務會是爲一片荒地修起圍牆，爲一條河架橋，或養育後代讓年輕的羣體延續下去。如今，爲了安寧而自由的未來生活，這就意味着我們必須承擔起責任，去創造一個全新的世界。