《Unit2TheVirtuesofAmbition.docxVIP

The Virtues of AmbitionJoseph Epstein1. Ambition is one of those Rorschach words: define it and you instantly reveal a great deal about yourself. Even that most neutral of works, Websters, in its seventh New Collegiate Edition, gives itself away, defining ambition first and foremost as an ardent desire for rank, fame, or power. Ardent immediately assumes a heat incommensurate with good sense and stability, and rank, fame, and power have come under fairly heavy attack for at least a century. One can, after all, be ambitious for the public good, for the alleviation of suffering, for the enlightenment of mankind, though there are some who say that these are precisely the ambitious people most to be distrusted. 野心是罗夏墨迹测验的字眼之一：给它下个定义你立刻就流露出你很多的内心世界。即使是最中立的著作，韦伯斯特的字典，新大学版第七版，也暴露出自己的观点，将“ambition”首先定义为：“追求官阶、名誉或权势的强烈欲望。”于是乎“ardent”这个词直接承受一种压力，与褒义和恒心不再不相称，而官阶、名誉和权势至少受到百年猛烈的抨击。毕竟是有人热衷于为民谋福利；为减轻民众的痛苦而奔走，为开发民智而雄心万丈，尽管有人说这些恰巧是野心勃勃的人，绝大多数不可信任。2. Surely ambition is behind dreams of glory, of wealth, of love, of distinction, of accomplishment, of pleasure, of goodness. What life does with our dreams and expectations cannot, of course, be predicted. Some dreams, begun in selflessness, end in rancor; other dreams, begun in selfishness, end in large-heartedness. The unpredictability of the outcome of dreams is no reason to cease dreaming. 毫无疑问，雄心大志期望的是荣耀、财富、爱情、名气、成就、享乐、完美。当然，命运怎样对待我们的理想和期待不可预料。有些梦想，始于大公无私的初衷，其结果是积怨结仇；有的梦想，起先纯粹是出干自谋私利，但到头来却称善于人梦想结果的不可预见性决不是停止梦想的理由。3. To be sure, ambition, the sheer thing unalloyed by some larger purpose than merely clambering up, is never a pretty prospect to ponder. As drunks have done to alcohol, the single-minded have done to ambition--given it a bad name. Like a taste for alcohol, too, ambition does not always allow for easy satiation. Some people cannot handle it; it has brought grief to others, and not merely the ambitious alone. Still, none of this seems a sufficient cause for driving ambition under the counter. 诚然，说到野心，即使并不掺杂超过敢于向上爬这样目的的纯粹事