Unit 14 Five Traits of the Educated Man 课文翻译 综合教程一.doc

Unit 14 Five Traits of the Educated Man A question often asked is: What are the marks of an educated man? It is plain that one may gain no inconsiderable body of learning in some special field of knowledge without at the same time acquiring those habits and traits which are the marks of an educated gentleman. A reasonable amount of learning must of course accompany an education, but, after all, that amount need not be so very great in any one field. An education will make its mark and find its evidences in certain traits, characteristics, and capacities which have to be acquired by patient endeavor, by following good examples, and by receiving wise discipline and sound instructions. These traits or characteristics may be variously described and classified, but among them are five that should always stand out clearly enough to be seen by all men. The first of these is correctness and precision in the use of the mother tongue. The quite shocking slovenliness and vulgarity of much of the spoken English, as well as not a little of the written English, which one hears and sees, proves beyond peradventure that years of attendance upon schools and colleges that are thought to be respectable have produced no impression. When one hears English well spoken, with pure diction, correct pronunciation, and an almost unconscious choice of the right word, he recognizes it at once. How much easier he finds it to imitate English of the other sort! A second and indispensable trait of the educated man is refined and gentle manners, which are themselves the expression of fixed habits of thought and action. Manners make the man, wrote Wykeham William over his gates at Winchester and at Oxford. He pointed to a great truth. When manners are superficial, artificial, and forced, no matter what their form, they are bad manners. When, however, they are the natural expression of fixed habits of thought and action, and when they reveal a refined and cultivated nature, they are good m