重新把握命运英语短文阅读(2)

重新把握命运英语短文阅读

我相信，把人类看作整个世界的一部分，对了解人类是十分必要的。除了经历漫长岁月，由最初简单的生命形式发展成为的复杂生物结构，决定人性本质的因素还有人类社会的众多伟大发明。人类创造并一直使用着它们，而反过来它们也将诸如建筑师、思想家、政治家、艺术家、观察家、预言家等身份赋予了人类。

　　我坚信，这样的特性存在于每一项伟大的发明之中，比如语言、家庭、工具的使用、政府、科学、艺术和哲学，将每个人性格中的潜能巧妙地结合起来。无论任何种族、任何文明的后裔，任何一个人类群体都能学习并将它发扬光大。所以，一个新几内亚岛最原始部落的新生婴儿完全有能力从哈佛大学毕业，写出一首十四行诗或发明一种新型的雷达，就像出生在比肯山的孩子那样。

学习啦在线学习网 　　But I believe, also, that once a child has been reared in New Guinea or Boston or Leningrad or Tibet, he embodies the culture within which he is reared, and differs from those who are reared elsewhere so deeply, that only by understanding these differences can we reach an awareness which will give us a new control over our human destiny.

学习啦在线学习网 　　I believe that human nature is neither intrinsically good nor intrinsically evil, but individuals are born with different combinations of innate potentialities, and that it will depend upon how they are reared—to trust and love and experiment and create, or to fear and hate and conform—what kind of human beings they can become.

　　但我也相信，在新几内亚岛、波士顿、列宁格勒或是西藏长大的孩子，必定具备不同于他人的、属于自己国家的文化特性。这些文化特性对他们有着深远的影响，因此要想真正了解如何重新把握人类的命运，必须首先理解这些差异。

　　我相信，人性本无善恶之分，每个人生来都是先天潜能的不同组合，而决定人性善恶的是他们所接受的教育——是教育他们去信任、爱、试验和创造，还是教育他们去恐惧、仇恨和顺从——他们的人格也由此决定。

学习啦在线学习网 　　I believe that we have not even begun to tap human potentialities, and that by continuing humble but persistent study of human behavior, we can learn consciously to create civilizations within which an increasing proportion of human beings will realize more of what they have it in them to be.

　　I believe that human life is given meaning through the relationship which the individual’s conscious goals have to the civilization, period, and country within which one lives.

学习啦在线学习网 　　At times, the task may be to fence a wilderness, to bridge a river, or rear sons to perpetuate a young colony. Today, it means taking upon ourselves the task of creating one world in such a way that we both keep the future safe and leave the future free.

　　我认为，人类的潜能甚至还不曾开始发挥，我相信只要以谦恭的态度坚持不懈地研究人类行为，让越来越多的人发现自身更多的潜能，我们就能自觉地学会创造文明。

　　我相信，人的生命之所以有意义，正是由于其个人树立的目标与他所处的文明、时代和国家之间有着密切的联系。

　　也许有时，我们的任务会是为一片荒地修起围墙，为一条河架桥，或养育后代让年轻的群体延续下去。如今，为了安宁而自由的未来生活，这就意味着我们必须承担起责任，去创造一个全新的世界。