【正文】 cross. They show the world a mask, often an impressive on, but take care to conceal their real selves. They play the part that is expected from them, and with practice learn to play it very well, but you are stupid if you think that this public performance of theirs corresponds with the man within.I have been attached, deeply attached, to a few people。 but I have been interested in men in general not for their own sakes, but for the sake of my work. I have not, as Kant enjoined, regarded each man as an end in himself, but as material that might be useful to me as a writer. I have been more concerned with the obscure than with the famous. They are more often themselves. They have had no need to create a figure to protect themselves from the world or to impress it. Their idiosyncrasies have had more chance to develop in the limited circle of their activity, and since they have never been in the public eye it has never occurred to them that they have anything to conceal. They display their oddities because it has never struck them that they are odd. And after all it is with the mon run of men that we writers have to deal。 kings, dictators, mercial magnates are from our point of view very unsatisfactory. To write about them is a venture that has often tempted writers, but the failure that has attended their efforts shows that such beings are too exceptional to form a proper ground for a work of art. They cannot be made real. The ordinary is the writer’s richer field. Its unexpectedness, its singularity, its infinite variety afford unending material. The great man is too often all of a piece。 it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never e to the end of the surprises he has in store for you. For my part I would much sooner spend a month on a desert island with a veterinary surgeon than with a prime minister.譯文： 論見(jiàn)名人許多人熱衷于見(jiàn)名人，我始終不得其解。在朋友面前吹噓自己認(rèn)識(shí)某某名人，同此而來(lái)的聲望只能證明自己的微不足道。名人個(gè)個(gè)練就了一套處世高招，無(wú)論遇上誰(shuí)，都能應(yīng)付自如。他們給世人展現(xiàn)的是一副面具，常常是美好難忘的面具，但他們會(huì)小心翼翼地掩蓋自己的真相。他們扮演的是大家期待的角色，演得多了，最后都能演得惟妙惟肖。如果你還以為他們?cè)诠娒媲暗谋硌菥褪撬麄兊恼鎸?shí)自我，那就你傻了。我自己就喜歡一些人，非常喜歡他們。但我對(duì)人感興趣一般不是因?yàn)樗麄冏陨淼木壒?，而是出于我工作需求。正如康德勸告的那樣，我從?lái)沒(méi)有把認(rèn)識(shí)某人作為目的，而是將其當(dāng)作對(duì)一個(gè)作家有用的創(chuàng)作素材。比之名流顯士，我更加關(guān)注無(wú)名小卒。他們常常顯得較為自然真實(shí)，他們無(wú)須再創(chuàng)造另一個(gè)人物形象，用他來(lái)保護(hù)自己不受世人干擾，或者用他來(lái)感動(dòng)世人。他們的社交圈子有限，自己的種種癖性也就越有可能得到滋長(zhǎng)。因?yàn)樗麄儚膩?lái)沒(méi)有引起公眾的關(guān)注，也就從來(lái)沒(méi)有想到過(guò)要隱瞞什么。他們會(huì)表露他們古怪的一面，因?yàn)樗麄儚膩?lái)就沒(méi)有覺(jué)得有何古怪?？傊?，作家要寫(xiě)的是普通人。在我們看來(lái)，國(guó)王，獨(dú)裁者和商界大亨等都是不符合條件的。去撰寫(xiě)這些人物經(jīng)常是作家們難以抗拒的冒險(xiǎn)之舉，可為此付出的努力不免以失敗告終，這說(shuō)明這些人物都過(guò)于特殊，無(wú)法成為一件藝術(shù)作品的創(chuàng)作根基，作家也不可能把他們寫(xiě)得真真切切。老百姓才是作家的創(chuàng)作沃土，他們或變幻無(wú)常，或難覓其二，各式人物應(yīng)有盡有，這些都給作家提供了無(wú)限的創(chuàng)作素材。大人物經(jīng)常是千人一面，小人物身上才有一組組矛盾元素，是取之不盡的創(chuàng)作源泉，讓你驚喜不斷。就我而言，如果在孤島上度過(guò)一個(gè)月，我寧愿和一名獸醫(yī)相守，也不愿同一位首相做伴。第十篇：The 50Percent Theory of Life 生活理論半對(duì)半 The 50Percent Theory of LifeI believe in the 50percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal。 the other half, they re worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future.Let’s benchmark the parameters: yes, I will die. I’ve dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of these deaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing. Bad stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale.Then there are those high points: romance and marriage to the right person。 having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son’s baseball team, paddling around the creek in the boat while he’s swimming with the dogs, discovering his passion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos.But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flipflop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50percent theory.One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so floodprone that neighbors laughed. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutalthe worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The airconditioned died。 the well went dry。 the marriage ended。 the job lost。 the money gone. I was living lyrics from a country tunemusic I loathed. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits.Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldn’t last long. I am owed and savor the halcyon times. The reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that can thrive. The 50percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals’ recent slump, a field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest.For that on blistering summer, the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed pollination before heat withered the tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing corn from floods. That winter my crib overflowed with cornfat, healthy threetoastalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tipwhile my neighbors’ fields yielded only brown, empty husks.Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50percent expectation, and they probably will again in the future, I am still sustained by the crop that flourishes during the drought. 譯文：生活理論半對(duì)半我信奉對(duì)半理論。生活時(shí)而無(wú)比順暢，時(shí)而倒霉透頂。我覺(jué)得生活就像來(lái)回?cái)[的鐘擺。讀懂生活的常態(tài)需要時(shí)間和閱歷，而讀懂它也練就了我面對(duì)未來(lái)的生活態(tài)度。讓我們確定一下好壞的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)：是的，我注定會(huì)死去。我已經(jīng)經(jīng)歷了雙親，一位好友，一位敬愛(ài)的老板和心愛(ài)寵物的死亡。有些突如其來(lái)，近在眼前，有些卻緩慢痛苦。這些都是糟糕的事情，它們屬于最壞的部分。生活中也不乏高潮：墜入愛(ài)河締結(jié)良緣；身為人父養(yǎng)育幼子，諸如訓(xùn)練指導(dǎo)兒子的棒球隊(duì)，當(dāng)他和狗在小河中嬉戲時(shí)搖槳?jiǎng)澊?，感受他如此?qiáng)烈的同情心即使對(duì)蝸牛也善待有加，發(fā)現(xiàn)他如此豐富的想象力即使用零散的樂(lè)高玩具積木也能堆出太空飛船。但在生活最好與最壞部分之間有一片巨大的中間地帶，其間各種好事壞事像耍雜技一樣上下翻滾，輪番出現(xiàn)。這就是讓我信服對(duì)半理論的原因。有一年奏，我在一塊洼地上過(guò)早地種上了玉米。那塊地極易遭到水淹，所以鄰居們都嘲笑我。我為浪費(fèi)了精力而感到懊惱。沒(méi)想到夏天更為殘酷我經(jīng)歷了最糟糕的熱浪和干旱?？照{(diào)壞了，進(jìn)干了，婚姻破裂了，工作丟了，錢(qián)也沒(méi)有。我正經(jīng)歷著某首鄉(xiāng)村歌曲中描繪的情節(jié)，我討厭這種音樂(lè)，只有剛出道不久的堪薩斯皇家棒球隊(duì)能鼓舞我的精神?；厥啄莻€(gè)糟糕的夏天，我很快就明白了，所有后來(lái)出現(xiàn)的好事只不過(guò)與壞事相互抵消。比一般情況糟糕的境遇不會(huì)延宕過(guò)久；而太平時(shí)光是我應(yīng)得的，我要盡情享受，它們?yōu)槲易⑷牖盍σ詰?yīng)對(duì)下一個(gè)險(xiǎn)情，并確保我可以興旺發(fā)達(dá)。對(duì)半理論甚至幫助我在堪薩斯皇家棒球隊(duì)最近的低潮中看到希望這是一快艱難行進(jìn)的新手們耕耘的土地，只要播種了，假以時(shí)日我們就可以收獲十月的金秋。那個(gè)夏天天氣酷熱，地而濕度適宜，提早播種就可以在熱浪打蔫植尖之前完成授粉，同于干旱更沒(méi)有爆發(fā)洪水，產(chǎn)在田里的玉米得以保存。因此那個(gè)冬天我的糧倉(cāng)堆滿(mǎn)了玉米豐滿(mǎn)，健康，一顆三穗且從頭到腳都是飽滿(mǎn)的玉米粒的玉米穗