一、 A commom misconception among youngsters attending school is that their teacher were child prodigies.Who else but a bookworm,with none of the normal kid’s tendency to play tather than study,would grow up to be a teacher anyway?年轻学子一个共同的错误认识就是认为他们的老师从小就是天才。但是除了根本没有普通孩子乐玩厌学天性的书虫之外,长大后又有谁会去当老师呢?二、 I sincerely believe that for children,and for parents seeking to guide them,it is not half so important to know as it is to feel.If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom,then the emotions and the impressions of thw senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil.Once the emotions have been aroused—a sense of the beautiful,the excitement of the new and the unknown,a feeling of sympathy,pity,admiration or love—then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response.Once found,such knowledge has far more lasting meaning than mere information.It is more important to pave the way for children’s desire to know than to put them on a diet of facts they are not ready to assimilate.我从心里认为,对于孩子以及希望指导孩子的父母来说,知道还不及感觉的一半。如果事实是后来产生知识和智慧的种子,那么感官的情感和印象就是种子籍以生长的沃土。儿童早期的那几年就是准备沃土的时间。一旦引起了情感---包括对美感、对新奇和未知事物惊喜的感悟以及对同情、怜悯、敬仰或爱的感情---我们就希望了解我们为何产生这类情感反应的相关知识。一旦掌握,这类知识比单纯的信息具有更为长久的意义。因此,为孩子的求知欲望铺路要比让孩子吸收他们尚不能吸收的各种事实重要得多。三、 What I wish for all students is some release from the grim grip of the future.I wish them a chance to enjoy each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a tiresome requirement in preparation for the next step.I wish them the right to experiment,to trip and fall,to learn that defeat is as educational as victory and is not the end of the world.My wish ,of course,is naive.Once of the few rights that America does not proclaim is the right to fail.Achievement is the nationai god,worshipped in our media—the million-dollar athlete,the wealthy executive—and glorified in our praise of possessions.In the presence of such a potent state religion,the young are growing up old. 我所希望的是让孩子从未来的严酷铁爪下解放出来。我希望让孩子们有机会将他们教育的每一个阶段本身都当作是一种享受的经历,而不是变成一个为下一步而准备的讨厌要求。我希望孩子们有权去实验、去抓、去失败、去得知失败与胜利同样具有教育意义并且失败并非是世界末日。当然了,我的愿望是天真的。美国没能宣布的少数权利之一就是失败权。成就是全国的上帝、备受我们的媒体崇拜---身价百万的运动员、富裕的行政人员---并且成就也在我们对财富的赞叹声中得以大肆炫耀。在这样一种强大的国教面前,年轻人人未长大而心已老。四、 America can be a strange experience for a foreigner.My wife and I arrived in the United States in January after seven years overseas—four in France,three in Poland From the jumble of first impressions,we compiled an A-to-Z explanation of why America can be such a foreign country to those who arrive here from Europe.I should explain at the outset that I am from Britain,but mu Florida-born wife Lisa is as American as apple pie.In our list,however,A doesn’t stand for apple pie.It stands for.Ambition.In the Old World,people are taught to hide it.Here it’s quite proper to announce that you’re after the boss’s job or want to make a million dollars by the age of 30.美国对于外国人来说是非常奇怪的。我和我妻子在海外七年之后于一月份回到美国---四年在法国,三年在波兰。通过纷杂的第一印象,我们用A到Z来梳理和解释为何那些从欧洲来的人感觉美国是如此的陌生。我应该一开始就说明我来自英格兰,但我妻子莉萨却是出生在佛罗里达、象苹果派那样地道的美国人。在我们所列的清单中,A并不是指苹果派,而是指野心。在旧世界里,人们所学的是将野心隐藏起来。而在美国则可以名正言顺地说,你想要老板的工作,或者你想在30岁时就成为百万富翁。(手工翻译的)