【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 associations which nourish and minister to the munity. Look at the Who39。s Who entry for any prominent business man, and you are likely to find him involved in an amazing number of mittees and associations organized for the public good.既然高度注重成功，回報也就很高。在美國，人們很少看重金錢本身，它更多的是一種標(biāo)志，一種工具。當(dāng)一個人的地位提高，人們對他的要求也相應(yīng)提高。成百上千各種各樣的志愿者協(xié)會有益于社會并服務(wù)于社會，人們期望他能慷慨捐錢給這些協(xié)會。你去看看《名人錄》，隨便找一個知名商人的條目，就會發(fā)現(xiàn)他參加的公益性委員會和協(xié)會多得令人吃驚。This striving for success and prestige, according to psychologists, is a way of overing fears and a sense of inner emptiness. In a mobile society an energetic person can hardly help matching himself against others and seeing how far he can go. 這種為成功和名望而奮斗的心理，按心理學(xué)家的說法，是一種克服恐懼和內(nèi)心空虛感的方式。在一個時刻變化著的社會，一個有進(jìn)取精神的人難免會拿自己與別人相比，知道自己能達(dá)到的目標(biāo)是什么。Such a system is fine for those who have it in them to succeed. It is not so good for the mediocre. The fear of failure, the fear of petitors, the loss of self esteem － these arouse tensions that some people cannot handle. In their turn they produce an excessive craving for love. So love and success are linked. Gorer believes that most Americans by the time they are adolescents have confused two ideas: to be successful is to be loved, and to be loved is to be successful. Mothers help to impose the pattern by showing affection and admiration when their children do well at school and by withholding affection when they fail. 這種思維方式對于那些本來就這樣想的人是有利的。但對不求上進(jìn)的人卻沒什么好處。害怕失敗，害怕競爭對手，喪失自尊都導(dǎo)致了一些人無力應(yīng)付的緊張情緒。然后，這種緊張情緒就產(chǎn)生了對愛的極度渴望。因此愛和成功是密不可分的。戈羅爾認(rèn)為 ，許多美國人在少年時期就被兩個問題困擾：成功就是要得到愛，要得到愛就要成功。母親們把這個模式成功地灌輸給孩子：孩子們在學(xué)校里表現(xiàn)好，她們就對他們顯示出無限的疼愛和喜愛；孩子們要是做得不好，她們就拒絕給予關(guān)愛。Since there are no limits of class, inherited occupation or education to hold a child back, there are, in theory, no limits to what he can achieve. Consequently there is no point at which he can say: There, I39。ve done it. From now on all I have to do is to hold on. Since any boy can, in theory, bee President, striving is a moral obligation. Achievement, not class, is the standard by which men are judged. There is little or no glory attached to being born wealthy or privileged。 the real test is how far you climb from where you started. 既然沒有階級限制、世襲職業(yè)或教育來阻礙孩子的發(fā)展，所以從理論上說，他所能取得的成就也沒有限制。如果他說：“哦，我已經(jīng)做到了。從現(xiàn)在起我要做的就是繼續(xù)保持，”這樣的話毫無意義。因為，理論上，任何孩子都可以做總統(tǒng)，奮斗是一種道德上的義務(wù)。評價人的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)是成功而不是階級。不論出身豪門還是出身顯赫，都沒有什么可炫耀的；真正的考驗就是：從你的起點你能爬多高。Americans love work. It is meat and drink to them. In recent years they have learned how to play, but they make work of that too. If it39。s skiing, they throw themselves at it with an effort that would kill a horse. If it39。s a vacation, they travel five or six hundred miles a day, take in the sights at sixty miles an hour, pause only long enough to snap pictures, and then discover what it was they went to see when they get home and look at the photographs. 美國人熱愛工作。工作就是他們的命根子。近年來他們已經(jīng)學(xué)會玩，但是將玩也當(dāng)成了工作。要是去滑雪， 他們就在雪地上猛沖，那樣子連馬都會累死。如果去度假，他們就每天開車五六百公里，以每小時60英里的速度觀光，沿途只停下來拍些快照。然后 ，發(fā)現(xiàn)了自己要看的東西是怎么一回事，就打道回府，回去看照片。Until very recently there has always been a great deal of work to do in this country, a great deal that needed doing. At the beginning men of all sorts and conditions had to pitch in. The preacher had to fell trees and plough fields. The teacher, the doctor and the magistrate had to shoulder guns for the mon defense. The farmer made his own tools, harness, household equipment. He was blacksmith, carpenter, tinsmith, brewer and veterinary all rolled into one, as his wife was spinster, weaver and doctor.直到最近，這個國家還總是有許多事要做，還有許多事情必須要做。以前不管什么人都工作得很辛苦。傳教士要伐樹、犁田。教師、醫(yī)生 ，還有地方法官得扛著槍當(dāng)民兵。農(nóng)場主自己動手做工具、馬鞍和家用器具。他集鐵匠、木匠、白鐵匠、啤酒釀造者和獸醫(yī)于一身。他的妻子既是紡紗工、織布工，又是醫(yī)生。Americans still like to be handy at all things. College professors go in for making furniture or remodeling an old house in the country. Bankers don aprons and bee expert barbecue chefs. Nearly everyone knows how to use tools, make simple repairs to plumbing or electrical fixtur