【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 a longterm plan and a more or less settled life (and now I am not yet 25!). I was mature enough to enter a relationship which demands a lot of give and not so much of take. 6 在我的成長(zhǎng)歲月中，不知何故，我相信愛情該來的時(shí)候自然會(huì)來。事實(shí)果真如此。當(dāng)我有了穩(wěn)定的工作，有了長(zhǎng)期的計(jì)劃和比較安定的生活（我現(xiàn)在還不到25歲呢?。r(shí)，愛情降臨了。我也比較成熟了，能夠步入不貪圖許多回報(bào)而需要大量付出的感情關(guān)系。Love was a magnificent building I built on the foundation of friendship. It took time to blossom. It took a lot of understanding, loads of sharing and caring, and plenty of affection to bee what it is today. And it meant a meeting of minds. You might say that I belong to the traditional school of romance. But in my opinion, love needs to be nurtured. And it has to be distinguished from the intense but shortlived love or the pleasures of the flesh.7 我的愛情是在友誼這塊地基上建起的高樓大廈。愛情經(jīng)過曠日持久的培養(yǎng)才開花。我和我的戀人相互理解、同甘共苦、相互關(guān)心，投入了豐富的感情，才使愛情發(fā)展到今天。愛情意味著情投意合。你也許會(huì)說，我屬于浪漫的傳統(tǒng)派。但是，依我看，愛情需要培養(yǎng)。我們必須把愛情同強(qiáng)烈而短暫的激情或身體的愉悅區(qū)別開來。Our parents39。 generation was fed lavishly with ideals. It was an era of constraints, restraints, respect, admiration, and plenty of romance. The long skirts, the quiet and unpretentious looks, the curled long hair, the calmness, the shy glance 鈥?these are all so frequently remindful of a bygone era. An age when the distance between the sexes somehow managed to help preserve the holiness of love and relationships.8 我們的父輩，接受了理想愛情的灌輸。那是一個(gè)約束、壓抑、崇敬、仰慕和十足浪漫的年代。長(zhǎng)裙、嫻靜質(zhì)樸的外表、卷曲的長(zhǎng)發(fā)、恬靜的氣質(zhì)、羞怯的目光——這一切常使人想起一個(gè)消逝久遠(yuǎn)的年代。那個(gè)年代，男女之間的距離無論如何都有助于維持愛情以及戀愛關(guān)系的神圣性。The younger generation, with its openness and fading lines of proximity, has jumped on the bandwagon of love with so much haste that it is difficult for them to distinguish between physical attraction and mental patibilities. What we have been exposed to via the media have fast paced our sensibilities so much that taking things slow requires effort on our parts.9 年輕的一代人，由于觀念開放，隨著男女之間交往界線的消退，他們便急于趕浪頭，匆忙戀愛，以至于難以區(qū)分身體的互相吸引與心靈的相投。我們從媒體中接觸到的人和 事，使我們的感情歷程大大加速，要想慢慢地體會(huì)自己的感受，確實(shí)需要付出努力。I am sorry to learn about the kind of emotional baggage school kids are carrying in what are purely unemotional relationships. Some might blame the current state of affairs on peer pressure. But has anyone ever stopped to figure out where this peer pressure originates? Do any of us try and understand who is responsible for this shift? Does anyone bother to study the state of mind of the teenagers?10 學(xué)校里的青少年在全然沒有感情的關(guān)系中所背負(fù)的感情包袱，令我深感難過。也許有些人會(huì)把他們目前的感情狀況歸結(jié)為同齡人之間所施加的壓力。但是，可曾有任何人停下來想一想同齡人之間的壓力來自何處？我們是否嘗試著弄清楚是誰造成了這樣的轉(zhuǎn)變？可曾有人費(fèi)神去研究青少年的心理呢？The mindset of this generation is all too evident in the way it handles its personal life. There are more relationships being distorted under the pressures of lust than ever before. There is more focus on physical beauty than on inner charm. There is more of closeness and less of intimacy. There is more of passion and less of emotion. There is more of acquiring and less of sharing. There is more of opportunism and less of selflessness. In short, there is more of ME and less of US.11 從這一代人處理個(gè)人生活的方式上，我們很容易看出他們的思想傾向。跟從前相比，現(xiàn)在有更多的情感在欲望的壓力下扭曲。他們更注重外表的美麗而忽視內(nèi)在的魅力。兩性交往隨便了，親密無間卻少了；激情多了，感情卻少了；個(gè)人獲得的多了，相互間分享的少了；尋機(jī)獲利的現(xiàn)象多了，無私的奉獻(xiàn)少了。簡(jiǎn)而言之，“自我”多了，愛的分享少了。We have hardened ourselves so much in this petitive age that we have forgotten the essence of relationships. There39。s much more to being someone39。s lover than gifting them red roses and fiftycent cards. What about gifting our object of affection, our time, our pany, our support, our friendship? What about setting priorities in our lives and focusing on each with sincerity? What about trying to be selfsufficient emotionally before letting ourselves loose? What about giving ourselves, and others, time and space to forge relationships? What about working towards meaningful and lasting friendships? What about honouring our mitments? What about channeling our energies and emotions towards building lifelong bonds rather than wasting them on seasonal relationships?12 在這個(gè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈的年代，我們已經(jīng)變得麻木不仁，將戀愛的實(shí)質(zhì)拋于腦后。作為戀愛中的人，不只是意味著把紅色的玫瑰花和五毛錢一張的卡片送給戀人，我們要做的事情還很多。我們將自己的時(shí)間、陪伴、支持和友誼作為禮物送給自己的戀人了嗎？我們是否確定了生活中最重要的事情，而后真誠(chéng)地做好每一件事？我們是否先在情感上成熟起來，再盡情地追求愛情？我們是否給自己、給他人足夠的時(shí)間和空間以鞏固戀情的發(fā)展？我們是否為了追求有意義的、永恒的友誼而不遺余力？我們是否履行了自己的承諾？我們是否將自己的精力和感情傾注于終生不渝的關(guān)系而不是浪費(fèi)在朝秦暮楚的關(guān)系中？We have but one life and we must experience everything that can make us stronger. True love happens once in a lifetime. And we should not have bee so tired by our frivolous acts that when it es we aren39。t able to receive it with open arms. 13 人的生命只有一次，我們必須去體驗(yàn)?zāi)苁刮覀兏鼮閳?jiān)強(qiáng)的每件事。真正的愛情一生只有一次。我們?nèi)斡奢p佻的行為令自己身心疲憊，當(dāng)真正的愛情到來時(shí)，我們卻沒有能力伸開雙臂迎接它的降臨。Unit 3What Is Friendship?When we approach the notion of friendship, our first problem is that there is a lack of socially acknowledged criteria for what makes a person a friend. In one setting, we may describe someone as a friend。 in another, the label may seem less appropriate. Therefore, people tend to have a very thin understanding of what friendship really means. To help us understand what friendship really means, we need to review some classical views of friendship.One classical view of friendship is provided by Aristotle, the famous ancient Greek philosopher. Aristotle distinguishes between what he believes to be genuine friendships and two other forms: one based on mutual usefulness, the other on pleasure. So, according to Aristotle, we may find three kinds of friendship:Friendship based on utility. Utility is an impermanent thing: it changes according to circumstances. When the ground for friendship disappears, the friendship also breaks up. Friendships of this kind seem to occur most frequently between the elderly, because at their age what they want is not pleasure but utility. Friendships based on utility are also frequently found among those in middle or early life who are pursuing their own advantage. Such persons do not spend much time together, because sometimes they do not even like one another, and therefore feel no need of such an association unless they are mutually useful. They take pleasure in each other’s pany only in so far as they have