【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 te and restore their skin. I once saw an Oprah Show in which supermodel Cindy Crawford dispensed makeup tips to the studio audience. Cindy had all these middleaged women apply clay masks and other wrinkleremoving products to their faces。 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。s face or plexion.然而，女性在成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程中卻認(rèn)為自己應(yīng)該長(zhǎng)得像芭比娃娃或雜志的封面女郎那樣，這對(duì)大多數(shù)女性來(lái)說(shuō)是不可能的。盡管如此，產(chǎn)值達(dá)幾十億美元的美容業(yè)，在超市化妝品銷(xiāo)售專(zhuān)區(qū)的配合下，總是在不停地攻擊著女性的自尊，使其相信自己只有購(gòu)買(mǎi)最新的保濕面霜、古銅散粉，以及各種美容器具，才能“激發(fā)和恢復(fù)”肌膚活力。我曾經(jīng)看過(guò)一期《奧普拉脫口秀》，在節(jié)目中，超級(jí)名模辛迪?克勞馥和演播室里的觀眾分享了自己的化妝秘訣。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(qiáng)調(diào)一定要遵守這些方法，例如：往臉上涂抹這些產(chǎn)品時(shí)，要用指尖，這樣可以保護(hù)皮膚的彈性。所有這些婦女都非常忠實(shí)地按照辛迪說(shuō)的做了?？墒菍?duì)任何一個(gè)理智的旁觀者來(lái)說(shuō)，無(wú)論她們?nèi)绾握J(rèn)真地使用這些產(chǎn)品，她們都不可能擁有辛迪那樣的面容或膚色。I39。m not saying that men are superior. I39。m just saying that you39。re not going to get a group of middleaged men to plaster cosmetics to themselves under the instruction of Brad Pitt in hopes of looking more like him. Men don39。t face the same societal focus purely on physical beauty, and they39。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(shuō)男性?xún)?yōu)于女性。我的意思是你不可能讓一群中年男子在布拉德?皮特的指導(dǎo)下把化妝品敷到自己臉上，期望自己能看起來(lái)更像布拉德。與女性不同，男性的外貌美不是社會(huì)所關(guān)注的唯一焦點(diǎn)。人們會(huì)鼓勵(lì)男性借助其他特征來(lái)提升自尊。他們也許會(huì)對(duì)布拉德說(shuō)：“是嗎？那么帥哥，你對(duì)草坪維護(hù)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。s flawless pink polish is exactly as invisible as another39。s bare nails.當(dāng)然，女性會(huì)爭(zhēng)辯說(shuō)她們對(duì)外表的熱衷追求是出于對(duì)來(lái)自男性的壓力的一種反應(yīng)。而事實(shí)是，大多數(shù)男性認(rèn)為美麗不僅僅來(lái)自于口紅和香水，而且他們也不會(huì)去注意這些額外的細(xì)節(jié)。四十多年來(lái)，我在聽(tīng)男性談?wù)撆詴r(shí)，從來(lái)沒(méi)有一次聽(tīng)到過(guò)哪位男性這樣說(shuō)：“她的指甲真漂亮?。　睂?duì)大多數(shù)男性來(lái)說(shuō)，像指甲這樣小的東西看起來(lái)都一樣，無(wú)論一個(gè)女士的指甲是用粉色指甲油涂得完美無(wú)瑕，還是光光的毫無(wú)修飾，男性都一概視而不見(jiàn)。By participating in this system of extreme conformity, women are actually opening themselves up to the scrutiny of other women, the only ones qualified to judge their efforts. What is the real benefit of working this hard to appease men who don39。t notice when it only exposes women to prosecution from other women?女性參與這種極端的從眾行為，實(shí)際上是把自己置于其他女性的審視之下，因?yàn)橹挥心切┡圆庞匈Y格評(píng)價(jià)她們所付出的努力。但是，如此費(fèi)力地去取悅男性而他們卻根本不會(huì)注意，同時(shí)又只是招致其他女性的指責(zé)，這樣做究竟有什么好處呢？Anyway, to get back to my original point: If you39。re a man, and a woman asks you how she looks, you can39。t say she looks bad without receiving immediate and welldeserved outrage. But you also can39。t shower her with empty pliments about how her shoes plement her dress nicely because she39。ll know you39。re lying. She has spent countless hours worrying about the differences between her looks and Cindy Crawford39。s. Also,she suspects that you39。re not qualified to voice a subjective opinion on anybody39。s appearance. This may be because you have shaving cream in your hair and inside the folds of your ears.不管怎樣，言歸正傳：如果你是一位男性，當(dāng)有女士問(wèn)你她看起來(lái)怎么樣時(shí)，你千萬(wàn)不能說(shuō)她看起來(lái)很糟糕，那樣肯定會(huì)使她立刻遷怒于你，這也是你咎由自取。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?yàn)樗滥闶窃谡f(shuō)謊。她已經(jīng)花費(fèi)了無(wú)數(shù)個(gè)小時(shí)發(fā)愁自己的容貌不能和辛迪?克勞馥的一樣。而且，也許因?yàn)槟愕念^發(fā)和耳廓上粘著剃須膏，她會(huì)懷疑你根本沒(méi)有資格對(duì)任何人的外表給出主觀評(píng)價(jià)。Unit 4Achieving sustainable environmentalism實(shí)現(xiàn)可持續(xù)性發(fā)展的環(huán)保主義Environmental sensitivity is now as required an attitude in polite society as is, say, belief in democracy or disapproval of plastic surgery. But now that everyone from Ted Turner to George H. W. Bush has claimed love for Mother Earth, how are we to choose among the dozens of conflicting proposals, regulations and laws advanced by congressmen and constituents alike in the name of the environment? Clearly, not everything with an environmental claim is worth doing. How do we segregate the best options and consolidate our varying interests into a single, sound policy?在上流社會(huì)，對(duì)環(huán)境的敏感就如同信仰民主、反對(duì)整容一樣，是一種不可或缺的態(tài)度。然而，既然從泰德?特納到喬治?，每個(gè)人都聲稱(chēng)自己熱愛(ài)地球母親，那么，在由議員、選民之類(lèi)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(jiàn)，并不是每一項(xiàng)冠以環(huán)境保護(hù)名義的事情都值得去做。我們?cè)鯓硬拍芊蛛x出最佳選擇，并且把我們各自不同的興趣統(tǒng)一在同一個(gè)合理的政策當(dāng)中呢？There is a simple way. First, differentiate between environmental luxuries and environmental necessities. Luxuries are those things that would be nice to have if costless. Necessities are those things we must have regardless. Call this distinction the definitive rule of sane environmentalism, which stipulates that bating ecological change that directly threatens the health and safety of people is an environmental necessity. All else is luxury.有一種簡(jiǎn)便的方法。首先要區(qū)分什么是環(huán)境奢侈品，什么是環(huán)境必需品。奢侈品是指那些無(wú)需人類(lèi)付出代價(jià)就能擁有的給人美好感受的東西。必需品則是指那些無(wú)論付出什么代價(jià)，都一定要去擁有的東西。這一區(qū)分原則可以被稱(chēng)為理性環(huán)保主義的至高原則。它規(guī)定，對(duì)那些直接威脅人類(lèi)健康與安全的生態(tài)變化采取應(yīng)對(duì)措施是環(huán)境保護(hù)的必需品，而其他則都屬于奢侈品。For example, preserving the atmosphere stopping ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect is an environmental necessity. Recently, scientists reported that ozone damage is far worse than previously thought. Ozone depletion has a correlation not only with skin cancer and eye problems, it also destroys the ocean39。s ecology, the beginning of the food chain atop which we humans sit.例如，保護(hù)大氣層——阻止臭氧損耗及控制溫室效應(yīng)——是環(huán)境保護(hù)的必需品。近來(lái)，科學(xué)家報(bào)告說(shuō)臭氧層遭受破壞的程度遠(yuǎn)比我們先前認(rèn)為的要嚴(yán)重得多。臭氧損耗不僅與皮膚癌及眼疾有關(guān)，而且它還會(huì)破壞海洋生態(tài)。而海洋生態(tài)是食物鏈的起點(diǎn)，人類(lèi)則位于該食物鏈的頂端。The possible thermal consequences of the greenhouse effect are far deadlier: melting ice caps, flooded coastlines, disrupted climate, dry plains and, ultimately, empty breadbaskets. The American Midwest feeds people at all corners of the atlas. With the planetary climate changes, are we prepared to see Iowa take on New Mexico39。s desert climate, or Siberia take on Iowa39。s moderate climate?溫室效應(yīng)所可能引發(fā)的熱效應(yīng)是非常具有毀滅性的：冰川融化、海岸線(xiàn)被淹沒(méi)、氣候遭受破壞、平原干涸，最終食物消失殆盡。美國(guó)中西部地區(qū)的糧食供養(yǎng)著全世界。隨著全球氣候的變化，我們難道準(zhǔn)備看到衣阿華州變成新墨西哥州的沙漠氣候，而西伯利亞變成衣阿華州的溫和氣候嗎？Ozone depletion and the greenhou