Unit-2The roots of my ambition供参习.doc

The roots of my ambition “If there’s one thing I can’t stand, Russell, it’s a quitter.” “罗素，假如有一件事我不能容忍的话，那就是做轻易放弃的人”。 My mother, dead now to this world but still roaming free in my mind, wakes me some mornings before daybreak. If theres one thing I cant stand, its a quitter. 我的母亲虽然已经离开这个世界，但是她的形象常浮现在我的脑海里，在破晓前提醒我黎明即将到来。“如果我不能承担一件事，那么就是懦夫” I have heard her say that all my life. Now, lying in bed, coming awake in the dark, I feel the fury of her energy fighting the good-for-nothing idler within me who wants to go back to sleep instead of tackling the brave new day. 我一辈子老是听到他说这句话。现在，在黑暗中醒过来，躺在床上，在我想回去在睡觉而不是勇敢的面对新的一天时，我便能感受到她与一无是处的懒汉的对抗是如此激烈 Silently I protest: I am not a child anymore I have made something of myself. I am entitled to sleep late. 我暗暗抗议道：我已经不是小孩子了，我可以自己处理一些事情的，我有权利睡迟些的 Russell, youve got no more initiative than a bump on a log . “罗素，你还没有原木上的凸起那么进取” She has hounded me with these battle cries since I was a boy in short pants. 当我还是个穿着开裆裤的孩子时，他就已经用这些口号来敦促我 Make something of yourself! “试着自己完成一些事情” Dont be a quitter! “不要做一个轻易放弃的人” Have a little ambition. “要有一些小志向” The civilized man of the world within me scoffs at materialism and strivers after success: He has read the philosophers and social critics. He thinks it is vulgar and unworthy to spend ones life pursuing money, power, fame, and - Sometimes you act like youre not worth the powder and shot it would take to blow you up with. 这世界上有教养的人包括我在内，在成功之后便嘲笑唯物主义：他读懂哲学家和社会评论家。他认为穷其一生去追求金钱，权利，名声，以及——“有时你表现得你不该被这些子弹所摧毁”，是很肤浅也很不值得的 Life had been hard for my mother ever since her father died, leaving nothing but debts. The family house was lost, the children scattered. My mothers mother, fatally ill with tubercular infection, fell into a suicidal depression and was institutionalized. My mother, who had just started college, had to quit and look for work. 自从我父亲去世后，生活便变得很困难，因为我父亲除了一笔债务什么都没有留下。房子没有了，孩子们被分散了。我母亲的母亲，不幸的患上了结核病，意气消沉的想自杀并且遭受收容机构所产生的不良影响。刚上大学的母亲不得不辍学去找工作 Then, after five years of marriage and three b