=然而，技术对人们的幸福感的最重要的影响体现在医疗保健方面。 3. Before the Industrial Revolution, two out of every three Europeans died before the age of 30.
=工业革命以前，每三个欧洲人中就有两个的寿命不足30岁。 4. Today, life expectancy for women in Western Europe is almost 80 years, and it continues to increase.
=而今天，西欧妇女的寿命差不多是80岁，而且还会继续提高。 5. The point is obvious: the vast majority of people are happy to be alive, and the more time they get on earth, the better off they feel they’ll be. =道理很明了：绝大多数人很乐意活下去，他们在地球上生活的时间越长感觉就越好。
6. But until very recently, life for the vast majority of people was nasty, rough, and short.
=但是，就在不久前，绝大多数人还过着龌龊不堪、牲口不如的生活，而且寿命非常短暂。
7. Technology has changed that, at least for people in the rich world. =技术改变了这一状况，至少对于富裕国家的人们来说情况是如此。 8. As much as we should worry about the rising cost of health care and the problem of the uninsured, it’s also worth remembering how valuable for our spirits as well as our bodies are the benefits that medical technology has brought us.
=我们在为医疗保健费用的提高和没有参加保险的人们的问题担忧的同时，同样也应该记住，医疗技术所带给我们的身体和精神上的好处是多么有价值。 Para. 11
1. On a deeper level, what the technological improvement of our health and our longevity emphasizes is a paradox of any discussion of happiness on a national or a global level: even though people may not be happier, even though they are wealthier and possess more technology, they’re still as hungry as ever for more time.
=从更深层次上来说，我们在健康和长寿方面所取得的进步却强调了在国家和全球层面讨论幸福问题的一个自相矛盾的说法：即使人们不会更幸福，即使他们更加富裕并拥有更多技术，他们还会像以前那样渴望长寿。
2. It’s like that old joke: the food may not be so great, but we want the portions to be as big as possible.
=这就像那个古老的笑话一样：食品也许并不好，可我们都想让自己得到的那一份尽量大一些。
Fame
Fame is very much like an animal chasing its own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it. Fame and the exhilarating celebrity that accompanies it, force the famous person to participate in his or her own destruction. Ironic isn’t it?
声誉就像一直不断追逐自己尾巴的动物,当抓住自己的尾巴时,它也不知道除了继续追逐之外他还能做什么. 声誉和令人兴奋的名望相伴,促使着名人们走向毁灭.很讽刺,不是么?
Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of possessing a single talent or skill: singing, dancing, painting, or writing, etc. The successful performer develops a style that is marketed aggressively and gains some popularity, and it is this popularity that usually convinces the performer to continue performing in the same style, since that is what the public seems to want and to enjoy. But in time, the performer becomes bored singing the same songs in the same way year after year, or the painter becomes bored painting similar scenes or portraits, or the actor is tired of playing the same character repeatedly. The demand of the public holds the artist hostage to his or her own success, fame. If the artist attempts to change his or her style of writing or dancing or singing, etc., the audience may turn away and look to confer fleeting fickle fame on another and then, in time, on another, and so on and so on.
那些声名鹊起的人通常是因为他们具有某项天赋或者掌握了某样技能:唱歌,跳舞,绘画或者写作等.一个成功的表演者因为发展了一种激进的市场表演风格而倍受欢迎.也正是这种名气促使他保持着这种表演艺术.因为这是观众想要的和喜欢的.但是到最后,歌手会因为年复一年的唱着同样的歌而感到厌烦.画家会因为一直画着同样的风景和肖像而感到无趣.演员会因为长期表演同样的角色而感到厌倦.公众的需求掌握着艺术家们的获得声誉与否的关键.如果艺术家们想要去改变他们书法风格,唱腔或者舞步等的时候,观众们就有可能离开,把那些转瞬即逝的名誉授予他人.然后接着,给另一个再另一个再另一个…….
Who cannot recognize a Tennessee Williams play or a novel by John Updike or Ernest
Hemingway or a poem by Robert Frost or W.H. Auden or T.S. Eliot? The same is true of painters like Monet, Renoir, Dali or Picasso and it is true of movie makers like Hitchcock, Fellini,
Spielberg, Chen Kai-ge or Zhang Yimou. Their distinctive styles marked a significant change in the tradition forms and granted them fame and fortune, but they were not free to develop other styles or forms because their audience demanded of each of them what they originally presented. Hemingway cannot even now be confused with Henry James or anyone else, nor can Frost be confused with Yeats, etc. The unique forms each of them created, created them. No artist or
performer can entirely escape the lure of fame and its promise of endless admiration and respect, but there is a heavy price one must pay for it.
谁不认识田纳西.威廉斯的戏剧/约翰?厄普代克和欧纳斯特.海明威的小说/罗伯特.弗罗斯特/W.H.奥登和托.史.艾略特的诗歌?同样的还有画家莫奈,雷诺阿,达利或者毕加索,还有电影制作节家希契科克, 费里尼,斯皮尔伯格,陈凯歌或者张艺谋.他们与众不同的风格标志着传统形式的重大变革,从而授予他们声望和财富.但是他们没有发展其他风格或模式的自由,因为他们的观众需要的是他们最先呈现的形式.即使现在,海明威还被混淆为亨利?詹姆斯或者其他的什么人;弗洛斯特也没有被混淆为耶茨.他们创造的独一无二的风格成就了他们.没有任何一个艺术家或表演者能够完全逃脱声誉的诱惑,因为声誉能给他们带来无止境的赞美和尊重.但是想要获得声誉就一定要付出沉重的代价.
Fame brings celebrity and high regard from adoring and loyal fans in each field of endeavor and it is heady stuff. A performer can easily come to believe that he or she is as good as his or her press. But most people, most artists do not fain fame and fortune. What about those performers who fail, or anyone who fails? Curiously enough, failure often severs as its own reward for many people! It brings sympathy from others who are delighted not to be you, and it allows family and friends to lower their expectations of you so that you need not compete with those who have more talent and who succeed. And they find excused and explanations for your inability to succeed and become famous: you are too sensitive, you are not interested in money, you are not interested in the power
that fame brings and you are not interested in the loss of privacy it demands, etc.—all excused, but comforting to those who fail and those who pretend not to notice the failure.
在每个领域里, 声望都能够带来名气, 能够在那些满怀崇敬之心的忠实的粉丝里受到高度关注.但是它是是个容易使人沉醉的东西. 一个表演者很容易相信自己的成就与舆论者称赞一样.但是很多人,很多艺术家并没有获得声誉和财富.那些失败者的表演者,或者其他失败了的人呢?说来也奇怪,对于很多人来说,失败却常常是对他们的失败的补偿.它招来那些庆幸自己不是你的人的怜悯; 它使得你的家人,朋友降低对你的期望,从而你不必再与那些比你有天赋,比你成功的人攀比.他们为你不能成功成名的无能寻找各种各样的借口和解释: 你太容易受伤,你对金钱不感兴趣,你不屑于那些伴随名誉而来的权利,你也不喜欢因为出名而使隐私受到侵犯,等等. 所有的借口,只是为了安慰是那些失败了的人,或者那些假装不在意失败的人罢了.
History has amply proven that some failure for some people at certain times in their lives does indeed motivate them to strive even harder to succeed and to continue believing in themselves. Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist, had his first novel Look Homeward, Angel rejected 39 times before it was finally published and launched his career and created his fame. Beethoven overcame his tyrannical father and grudging acceptance as a musician to become the greatest,
most famous musician in the world, and Pestalozzi, the famous Italian educator in the 19th century, failed at every job he ever had until he came upon the idea if teaching children and developing the fundamental theories to produce a new form of education. Thomas Edison was thrown out of school in fourth grade, at about age 10, because he seemed to the teacher to be quite dull and
unruly. Many other cases may be found of people who failed and used the failure to motivate them to achieve, to succeed, and to become famous. But, unfortunately, for most people failure is the end of their struggle, not the beginning. There are few, if any, famous failures.
历史已经充分证明了有些人在他们生命的某些时间里遭遇的失败确实会激励他们为取得成功而更加努力奋斗并且继续相信自己. 美国小说家托马斯沃.尔夫的第一篇小说<向家乡看吧,安琪儿>被拒绝了39次才最终得以发表,从而开启了他的事业,为他创造了名誉.贝多芬不向他专横的父亲低头,也忍气吞声的做过乐师,但他最终还是成为了举世闻名的音乐家. 十九世纪意大利著名的教育家裴斯塔洛齐在他决定从事儿童教育事业并且为之建立起一套新的基本教育体系之前, 在各行各业一无所成. 托马斯.爱迪生在十岁读四年级的时候因为被老师认为愚笨任性而逐出学校. 另外,也有很多最初失败的人以失败为动力,发愤图强,最终取得成功. 但是, 很不幸, 对于很多人来说失败就是他们奋斗的终点,而不是起点.成功的失败者即使有,也很少.
Well then, why does anyone want fame? Do you? Do you want to be known to many people and admired by them? Do you want the money that usually comes with fame? Do you want the media to notice everything you do or say both in public and in private? Do you want them hounding you, questioning you and trying to undo you? In American politics it is very obvious that to be famous is to be the target of everyone who disagrees with you as well as of the media. Fame turns all the lights on and while it gives power and prestige, it takes the you out of you: you must be what the public thinks you are, not what you really are or could be. The politician, like the performer, must please his or her audiences and that often means saying things he does not mean or does not
believe in fully. No wonder so few people trust politicians. But we have not answered the question at the beginning of this paragraph: why does anyone want fame? Several reasons come to mind: to demonstrate excellence in some field; to gain the admiration and love of many others; to be the