[美文欣賞]

The lives of most men are determined by their enviroment.They accept the circumstances amid which fate has thrown them not only resignation but even with good will.They are like streetcars running contendedly on their rails and they despise the sprightly flitter that dashes in and out of the traffic and speeds so jauntily across the open country .I respct them; they are good citizens,good husbands,and good fathers ,and of course somebody has to pay the taxes; but I do not find them exciting. I am fasinated by the men, few enough in all conscience , who take life in their own hands and seem to mould it in to their own liking. It may be that we have no such thing as free will, but at all events, we have the illusion of it. At a cross-road it does seem to us that we might go either to the right or to the left and ,the choice once made, it is difficult to see that the whole course of the world's history obliged us to take the turning we did.

[參考譯文]

大多數人的生活被他們身處的環境所決定。他們不僅接受既定的命運，而且順從命運的安排。他們就像街上的電車一樣，在他們既定的軌道上行駛，而對于那些不時出沒于車水馬龍間和歡快地奔馳在曠野上的廉價小汽車卻不屑一顧。我尊重他們，他們是好公民、好丈夫和好父親。當然，總得有些人來支付稅收，但是，他們并沒有令人激動的地方。另外有一些人，他把生活掌握在自己的手里，可以按照自己的喜好去創造生活，盡管這樣的人少之又少，但我卻被他們深深的吸引著。可能世界上并沒有諸如自由意志這樣的事情，但是無論怎樣，我們總有關于自由意志的的幻想。當我們處在一個十字路口時，我們似乎可以決定向左走還是向右走，可是一旦做出選擇，我們卻很難意識到，實際上是世界歷史的全部進程強迫我們做出了那樣的選擇。