【正文】 aid Polly.“我仍然認(rèn)為這是一個好主意，”波莉說。t taking a test to see how much they have learned, but students are. The situations are altogether different. You can39。舉個例子：學(xué)生考試時應(yīng)該允許看課本，因為外科醫(yī)生在做手術(shù)時可以看 X 光片。s sympathy Ad Misericordiam.“對，是挺可怕的，”我表示贊同地說，“但這不是理由?！監(jiān)h, this is awful, awful, she whispered in a choked voice.“哇，這太可怕了，太可怕了，”她哽咽著輕聲說到。我把她送回家，并且定下了下一次約會交談的日子。這似乎不言自明，對吧？仔細(xì)聽好了：你不會說法語，羅伯也不會說法語，那么這所學(xué)校里好像是沒有人會說法語。所以你應(yīng)該說，運動對大多數(shù)人來說是有益的。I could see she was stumped. Polly, I explained, it39?！盙reat,” she agreed.“好啊，”她表示同意。 The doctrine of logic,” I said, is a staple of clear thinking. Failures in logic distort the truth, and some of them are well known. First let39。我們呆在車子里，我調(diào)低了音響并把腳從剎車上挪開。而我也能施予她足夠多的“智慧之珠”，讓她變得“談吐優(yōu)雅”。t dye her hair strange colors or wear too much makeup. She had the right background to be the girlfriend of a dogged, brilliant lawyer. If I could show the elite law firms I applied to that I had a radiant, wellspoken counterpart by my side, I just might edge past the petition.但她漂亮而且富有，也沒有把頭發(fā)染成奇怪的顏色或是化很濃的妝。t too shrewd, either.在我和室友羅伯的交易成功之后，我和波莉有了第一次約會。t stand the idea of being the only football player who didn39。t, so he made a pact that he39。那一年校園里每個人都有件皮夾克，而羅伯是校足球隊員中唯一一個沒有皮夾克的，他一想到這個就受不了，于是他和我達成了一項協(xié)議，用他的女友換取我的夾克。她擁有合適的家庭背景，足以勝任一名堅忍而睿智的律師的女友。After a banner day out, I drove until we were situated under a big old oak tree on a hill off the expressway. What I had in mind was a little eccentric. I thought the venue with a perfect view of the luminous city would lighten the mood. We stayed in the car, and I turned down the stereo and took my foot off the brake pedal. What are we going to talk about? she asked.在一起外出度過了美好的一天之后，我驅(qū)車來到了高速公路旁一座小山上一棵古老的大橡樹下。“我們要談些什么？”她問道。s look at the fallacy Dicto Simpliciter.“邏輯學(xué)的原理，”我說道，“即清晰思考的主要原則。Dicto Simpliciter means an unqualified generalization. For example: Exercise is good. Therefore, everybody should exercise.“‘絕對判斷’是指在證據(jù)不足的情況下所作出的推斷。s too simple a generalization. If you have, say, heart disease or extreme obesity, exercise is bad, not good. Therefore, you must say exercise is good for most people.我看得出她沒弄明白?！盢ext is Hasty Generalization. Selfexplanatory, right? Listen carefully: You can39。”Really? said Polly, amazed. Nobody?“是嗎？”波莉吃驚地說。Seated under the oak the next evening I said, Our first fallacy tonight is called Ad Misericordiam.第二天晚上，坐在那棵橡樹下，我說：“今天晚上我們要談的第一個邏輯謬誤叫‘文不對題’。Yes, it’s awful, I agreed, but it39。這個人根本沒有回答老板的問題，而只是在博取老板的同情，這就是‘文不對題’?！盜 like that idea, she said.“我喜歡這個主意，”她說。t make an analogy between them.“波莉，”我抱怨道，“別打岔，這一推論是錯誤的。With five nights of diligent work, I actually made a logician out of Polly. She was an analytical thinker at last. The time had e for the conversion of our relationship from academic to romantic.經(jīng)過五個夜晚的辛勤努力，我竟然真的將波莉打造成了一個邏輯行家，她總算能夠分析思考了。”O(jiān)h? she said, a little disappointed.“哦？”她回答說，有一點失望。t you think?“草率結(jié)論，”波莉伶俐地說，“或者是按一般人的說法，這個結(jié)論有些不成熟，你不這樣認(rèn)為嗎？”39。s good.我被逗得笑了起來，她功課還真學(xué)得不錯，大大超過了我的預(yù)期。re a boy.“錯誤類比，”波莉立即回應(yīng)。d learned her lessons too few more false steps would be my doom. I decided to change tactics and try flattery instead.我又笑了笑，不過不覺得那么有趣了，同時還不能表露出我害怕她學(xué)得太好了。ll go out with me. I39。You certainly can discern a fallacy when you see it, I said, my hopes starting to crumble.But don39。你知道，學(xué)校里學(xué)的東西和實際生活根本沒有什么聯(lián)系。m more interested in a different petitioner Rob and I are back together.“我對另一位求愛者更感興趣――羅伯和我重歸于好了。是我讓他同意你們的協(xié)議的，這樣他就能擁有你的夾克！”Unit 2The confusing pursuit of beauty令人困惑的對美的追求If you39。相信我，這是最簡單的方法。大多數(shù)男性對自己外表的評價在七年級時就形成了，而且終生不變。 average is fine. They don39。如果他們偶爾想到自己外表的話，他們愿意認(rèn)為自己樣貌中等。對于一位男性來說，如果能花四分鐘刮刮胡子，結(jié)束之后再把粘到頭發(fā)上的剃須膏擦凈，又沒有出血太厲害，他就覺得自己已經(jīng)盡心盡力了?！币晃慌?，無論她看起來多么吸引人，她對自己的看法總是由于受美容業(yè)的影響而蒙著一層陰影。t inborn, but created through the interaction of many plex psychological and societal factors, beginning with the dolls we give them as children. Girls grow up playing with dolls proportioned so that, if they were human, they would be seven feet tall and weigh 61 pounds, with tiny thighs and a large upper body. This is an absurd standard to live up to, especially when you consider the size of the doll39。與女孩玩具的這種荒唐標(biāo)準(zhǔn)相比，小男孩們得到的“動作玩偶”卻是完全不同的模樣。 she stressed how important it was to adhere to the guidelines, like applying products via the tips of their fingers to protect elasticity. All the women dutifully did this, even though it was obvious to any rational observer that, no matter how carefully they applied these products, they would never have Cindy Crawford39。辛迪要求這些中年婦女在臉上敷上黏土面膜和其他去皺產(chǎn)品；她還強調(diào)一定要遵守這些方法，例如：往臉上涂抹這些產(chǎn)品時，要用指尖，這樣可以保護皮膚的彈性。m not saying that men are superior. I39。re encouraged to reach out to other characteristics to promote their selfesteem. They might say to Brad: Oh yeah? Well, what do you know about lawn care, pretty boy?我并不是說男性優(yōu)于女性。他們也許會對布拉德說：“是嗎？那么帥哥，你對草坪維護又知道多少？”O(jiān)f course women argue that they bee obsessed with appearance as a reaction to pressure from men. The truth is that most men think beauty is more than just lipstick and perfume and take no notice of these extra details. I have never once, in more than 40 years of listening to men talk about women, heard a man say, She had gorgeous fingernails! To most men, little things like fingernails are all homogeneous anyway, and one woman39。四十多年來，我在聽男性談?wù)撆詴r，從來沒有一次聽到過哪位男性這樣說：“她的指甲真漂亮??！”對大多數(shù)男性來說，像指甲這樣小的東西看起來都一樣，無論一個女士的指甲是用粉色指甲油涂得完美無瑕，還是光光的毫無修飾，男性都一概視而不見。re a man, and a woman asks you how she looks, you can39。re lying. She has spent countless hours worrying about the differences between her looks and Cindy Crawford39。但是，你也不能慷慨地大放空洞之詞，贊美她的鞋子和裙子是多么相配，因為她知道你是在說謊。然而，既然從泰德?特納到喬治?，每個人都聲稱自己熱愛地球母親，那么，在由議員、選民之類的人以環(huán)境名義而提出的眾多的相互矛盾的提案、規(guī)章和法規(guī)中，我們又該如何做出選擇呢？顯而易見，并不是每一項冠以環(huán)境保護名義的事情都值得去做。必需品則是指那些無論付出什么代價，都一定要去擁有的東西。s ecology, the beginning of the food chain atop which we humans sit.例如，保護大氣層——阻止臭氧損耗及控制溫室效應(yīng)——是環(huán)境保護的必需品。The possible thermal consequences of the greenhouse effect are far deadlier: melting ice caps, flooded coastlines, disrupted climate, dry plains and, ultimately, empty breadba