英语阅读：牺牲英才得庸才.docVIP

美联英语提供：英语阅读：Genius Sacrificed for Failure 牺牲英才得庸才 两分钟做个小测试，看看你的英语水平 /test/kuaisu.aspx?tid=16-73675-0 During my youth in America’s Appalachian mountains, I learned that farmers preferred sons over daughters，largely because boys were better at heavy farm labor (though what boys anywhere could best the tireless Hui’an girls in the fields of Fujian!) 我在美国的阿巴拉契亚山区度过青少年时代时，发现那里的农民重男轻女，多半因为男子更能胜任重体力农活。当然，如果要同福建省惠安县农田里的妇女相比，她们那份不歇不竭的能耐是任何地方的男子都自叹弗如的！ With only 3% of Americans in agriculture today，brain has supplanted brawn, yet cultural preferences, like bad habits，are easier to make than break. But history warns repeatedly of the tragic cost of dismissing too casually the gifts of the so-called weaker sex. 今天在美国，脑力已经取代了体力，只有3%的美国人在从事农业。但文化上的习俗正如陋规，形成容易冲破难。面对所谓“阴柔”性别，历史再三告诫我们，若对她们的禀赋过于轻率地否定，其代价将会何等惨重！ About 150 years ago，a village church vicar in Yorkshire, England，had three lovely，intelligent daughters but his hopes hinged entirely on the sole male heir, Branwell, a youth with remarkable talent in both art and literature. 约150年前在英国的约克郡有一个乡村教区的牧师，他有三个聪慧可爱的女儿，但是他的希望却独独钉在唯一的继承者儿子布朗维尔身上。这个年轻人在艺术和文学上都有出众的天赋。 Branweir s father and sister hoarded their pennies to pack him off to London s Royal Academy of Arts, but if art was his calling, he dialed a wrong number. Within weeks he hightailed it home, a penniless failure. 父亲和姐妹都省吃俭用，帮兄弟打点完备，送他上了伦敦皇家艺术学院。可是尽管他要以艺术为业，但拨错了号。不到几个礼拜，就不名一文，弃甲归家。 Hopes still high, the family landed Branwell a job as a private tutor, hoping this would free him to develop his literary skills and achieve the success and fame that he deserved. Failure again. 然而家人并不就此罢休，他们又想方设法帮布朗维尔捞到一份私人教师的活儿，希望这份差事能够使他自由发展文学才能，走上应得的功成名就的大道：这次又失败了。 For years the selfless sisters squelched their own goals， farming themselves out as teachers and governesses in support of their increasingly indebted brother, convinced the world must eventually recognize his genius. As failures multiplied, Branwell turned to alcohol，then opium，and eventually died as he had lived: a failure. So die