《学术英语读译》2013~2014学年秋季学期
the cabinet with her boxes. This time there was no kiss. Persky shut the doors, took a deep breath, and tapped the box three times. There was the reassuring popping noise, and when Persky peered inside, the box was empty. Madame Bovary was back in her novel. Kugelmass heaved a great sigh of relief and pumped the magician‘s hand.
138 ―It‘s over,‖ he said. ―I learned my lesson. I‘ll never cheat again, I swear it.‖ He pumped Persky‘s hand again and made a mental note to send him a necktie.
139 Three weeks later, at the end of a beautiful spring afternoon, Persky answered his doorbell. It was Kugelmass, with a sheepish expression on his face.
140 ―O.K., Kugelmass,‖ the magician said. ―Where to this time?‖
141 ―It‘s just this once,‖ Kugelmass said. ―The weather is so lovely, and I‘m not getting any younger. Listen, you‘ve read Portnoy’s Complaint? Remember The Monkey? 1\
142 ―The price is now twenty-five dollars, because the cost of living is up, but I‘ll start you off with one freebie, due to all the trouble I caused you.‖
143 ―You‘re good people,‖ Kugelmass said, combing his few remaining hairs as he climbed into the cabinet again. \
144 ―I hope. But I haven‘t tried it much since all that unpleasantness.‖
145 ―Sex and romance,‖ Kugelmass said from inside the box. ―What we go through for a pretty face.‖
146 Persky tossed in a copy of Portnoy's Complaint and rapped three times on the box. This time, instead of a popping noise there was a dull explosion, followed by a series of crackling noises and a shower of sparks. Persky leaped back, was seized by a heart attack, and dropped dead. The cabinet burst into flames, and eventually the entire house burned down.
147 Kugelmass, unaware of this catastrophe, had his own problems. He had not been thrust into Portnoy's Complaint, or into any other novel, for that matter. He had been projected into an old textbook, Remedial Spanish2, and was running for his life over a barren, rocky terrain as the word ―tener‖ (―to have\a large and hairy irregular verb—raced after him on its spindly legs.
Background and Culture Notes
Woody Allen, with his own name Allen Stewart Konigsberg, was born in New York in 1935. At the age of 15 he began to write his first quips for newspaper columnists, using the name Woody Allen. Then he wrote for radio and television performers, worked as a night club comedian and in 1964 started his very successful film career. He received four Academy Awards for Annie Hall. The name Woody Allen is like a trade mark which always means something intelligent, funny and absolutely unexpected.
??The Kugelmass Episode‘‘ is generally acknowledged to be a classic short story and one of the finest pieces in Allen‘s relatively small output of prose fiction. It was well received critically when it first appeared in The New Yorker in 1977, evidenced by it being short-listed for and then winning the first prize in the following year‘s O. Henry awards, the annual prizes given to short stories of exceptional merit. 1
Portnoy’s Complaint is an erotic novel by Philip Roth. The Monkey The Monkey is a female character in Portnoy’s Complaint who is skillful at fulfilling Portnoy‘s sexual fantasies 2
Remedial Spanish is a Spanish language book for slow learners.
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《学术英语读译》2013~2014学年秋季学期
I. Read the text and answer the following questions.
1. At the beginning of the story, where is Kugelmass and what is he contemplating doing? What kind of a person is he?
2. What does Persky‘s machine look like? What can it do?
3. What does Emma Bovary like about Kugelmass? Waht happens inside Gustave Flaubert‘s novel while Kugelmass is having his affair with Emma Bovary?
4. What do Emma and Kugelmass do in New York during her visit? What happens inside Gustave Flaubert‘s novel while Emma is in New York?
5. After Persky finally succeeds in sending Emma back to Yonville, what does Kugelmass decide never to do again? Why does he come back to Persky‘s apartment three weeks later? 6. What happens to Persky and Kugelmass at the end of the story?
II. Find out what the following slang words & expressions (marked in blue in the text) mean.
1. operating nut 2. sock it to 3. be any great shakes 4. coed 5.carry on 6.sawbuck 7. give sb. a holler 8. I‘ve got the situation knocked
9.chippie 10. to bear with sb. 11. the pits 12. to have it up to here with sb. 13.my foot 14. to have it licked 15. freebie
Introduction to The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
by John Little
1. In 1968, shortly after winning the Pulitzer Prize for literature, Will Durant and his wife, Ariel, consented to a television interview to be conducted in their home in Los Angeles, California. The interviewer, who fancied himself something of an intellectual, posed to Durant the following question:
If I were to ask you to name the person who has most influenced our century (the 20th century) would it be Karl Marx?
2. Durant paused for a moment and then replied:
Well, if you use the word in its largest sense, we would have to give the greatest share of influence to the technical inventors, to men like Edison. Doubtless the development of electricity has transformed the world even more than any Marxian propaganda. Then, if you think in terms of ideas, I think the influence of Darwin is still greater than the influence of Marx, but in a different
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《学术英语读译》2013~2014学年秋季学期
field. The basic phenomenon of our time is not Communism; it’s the decline of religious belief, which has all sorts of effects on morals and even on politics because religion has been a tool of politics. But today in Europe it ceases to be a tool, it has very little influence in determining political decisions—whereas 500 years ago, the pope was superior in influence to any civil ruler on earth.
3. Later, during the same interview, the interviewer turned to his subject and asked:
Dr. Durant, of all the characters populating The Story of Civilization, whom would you have most liked to have known?
4. Durant contemplated the question seriously and then, poker-faced, replied, ―Madame De Pompadour1.‖
5. The interviewer was dumbfounded. 6. ―Why is that?‖ he asked.
7. A twinkle came to Durant‘s eyes as he answered, ―Well, she was beautiful, she was charming, she was luscious—what else do you want?‖
8. I cite these two anecdotes not simply to reveal Durant‘s views on the influence of inventors and biologists on human history, nor even his tendency to use wit to disarm journalists who took themselves too seriously (he once noted that humor is akin to philosophy for they are both viewpoints born of a large perspective of life), but rather to show that his opinion on assessing the significance of individuals and events form human history was something that was constantly sought after—sometimes twice in the same interview.
9. It is entirely understandable that Durant should find himself asked to answer such questions. Any time a man spends over half a century researching and writing an eleven-volume integral history of civilization, it is natural that people are going to want to know what conclusions he as drawn from the enterprise; to know what eras, individuals, and achievements stood out in his mind as being the greatest or most significant. Who, for example, would Durant rate on his Roll of Honor of human thought as the greatest thinkers in human history? Who would he rate as the truly great poets; the ones that plucked notes upon heartstrings that continue to resonate hundreds and thousands of years after their passing? And what would be the absolute best books one should read in order to receive a meaningful—and useful—education? Over the course of Durant‘s career, he responded to the increasing public demand for such qualified assessments by putting pen to paper and crafting a series of essays containing his personal ranking of ―The Ten Greatest Thinkers,‖ ―The Ten Greatest Poets,‖ ―The One Hundred Best Books for an Education,‖ ―The Ten Peaks of 1
See ―Background and Cultural Notes 2.‖
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《学术英语读译》2013~2014学年秋季学期
Human Progress,‖ and ―Twelve Vital Dates in World History.‖ Certain of these essays were published in periodicals; others were presented as lectures to standing-room-only attendees. However, unless you happened to purchase those magazines, or were fortunate enough to attend one of those lectures, it would not have been possible to learn of his conclusions in these matters. Fortunately, all of these essays have been brought together in The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time.
10. To formulate a ranking system and then apply it to such a broad array of human achievement is a difficult undertaking, to be sure, but Durant (as always) succeeds brilliantly; he not only presents compelling evidence for his selections, but also stimulates the reader to form his or her own opinions and to look beyond immediate surroundings and present culture and into a timeless realm, which he called ―The Country of the Mind,‖ a sort of cerebral retirement home wherein the heroes of our species dwell after having served their time and purpose in their respective eras and where to be human is something to be lauded. Indeed, the title of the first chapter of this book serves to frame its very thesis: ―A Shameless Worship of Heroes.‖
11. The philosophy that resonates from the pages of all of Durant‘s books, but most particularly in The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time, is unabashedly ―prohuman‖ and serves to underscore the splendor of our intellectual and artistic heritage. In fact, Durant was known as the ―gentle philosopher‖ and the ―radical saint,‖ as he always sought to report on the positive achievements in human events and history. In a sentence, Durant chose to illustrate with his pen the mountain peaks of greatness in our species‘ history.
12. The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time is a book containing the absolute best of our heritage passed on for the edification and benefit of future generations, replete with Durant‘s renowned erudition, wit, and unique ability to explain the profoundest of events and ideas in simple and exciting terms. It is a book that serves both as a wonderful introduction to the writings of Will Durant and as a summing up, a quantification of genius, a gravel guide to the ―must-see‖ stops in the landscape of human history.
13. In many respects this book is a wonderful and logical companion volume to Durant‘s Heroes of History. Most notably, whereas Heroes of History is an overview of over one hundred centuries of human achievement, The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time provides Durant‘s personal assessment of it. Moreover, The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time contains profiles of three individuals (Darwin, Keats, and Whitman) that had been intended for inclusion in the Heroes of History book, but owing to a series of personal calamities, culminating in Durant‘s death in 1981, were omitted from the text (indeed, the intended final two chapters of Heroes—Durant‘s last
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《学术英语读译》2013~2014学年秋季学期
book—would never be composed).
14. Through prose that rises at times to the heights of poetry, The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time is an extension of Durant‘s long-standing invitation to enter the world of the ―best of the best,‖ and a means by which one can come to recognize and befriend genius. The dividends from such an enterprise are many, for as Durant once noted:
We cannot live long in that celestial realm of all genious without becoming a little finer than we were. And though we shall not find there the poignant delirium of youth, we shall know a lasting, gentle happiness, a profound delight which time cannot take from us until it takes all.
Background and Culture Notes
1. William James Durant (November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for The Story of Philosophy, written in 1926, which one observer described as ―a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy.‖
2. Madame de Pompadour (29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764) was a member of the French court and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death. She was trained from childhood to be a mistress, and learned her trade well. She was a patron of many philosophers of the Enlightenment, including Voltaire. Hostile critics at the time said she was responsible for the Seven Years‘ War (which was untrue), and generally tarred her as a malevolent political influence. Historians are more favorable, emphasizing her successes as a patron of the arts and a champion of French pride.
I. Read the article carefully and find answers to the following questions.
1. What works of Will Durant‘s are mentioned in the article? What prize did Durant win?
2. Who did Durant think has most influenced the 20th century?
3. What did Durant think is the basic phenomenon of our time? 4. Why does John Little cite two anecdotes in the TV interview of Durant? 5. What did Durant think of humor?
6. Why did Durant write such essays as ―The Ten Greatest Thinkers‖? 7. What is the thesis of The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time? 8. Why do people call Durant the ―radical saint‖?
9. How does John Little comment on the book The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time? 10. Why is the book The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time a logical companion volume to
Durant‘s Heroes of History?
II. Read the article carefully and decide whether the following statements are True or False. 1. In history religion was used as a powerful toll of politics in Europe.
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