I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who have strong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It

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问题     I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who have strong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this sphere that long experience is really fruitful, in this sphere that the wisdom born of experience can be exercised without being oppressive. It is no use telling grown-up children not to make mistakes, both because they will not believe you, and because mistakes are an essential part of education. But if you are one of those who are incapable of impersonal interests, you may find that your life will be empty unless you concern yourself with your children and grandchildren. In that case you must realize that while you can still render them material services, such as making them an allowance or knitting them jumpers, you must not expect that they will enjoy your company.
    Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble. The best way to overcome it—so at least it seems to me—is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.
    jumper 针织套衫
    justification正当理由
    abject 卑贱的
    ego自我,自我意识的
    impersonal 非个人的

选项

答案 我认为,如果老年人对于个人之外的事情怀有强烈兴趣,并参加适当的活动,晚年最容易过得好。因为正是在这些事情上,他们由于阅历深,能够真正做到卓有成效,也正是在这些事情上,他们从经验中得出的智慧能得以发挥作用,却又不致使人感到强加于人。告诫成年的子女不要犯错误,只是徒劳,一来他们不听你的,二来在错误中学习本身也是受教育的一个重要方面。但是,如果你对个人以外的事情没有兴趣,那就只能靠惦记儿孙来填补生活的空虚了。假若如此,你必须明白,虽然你还能够为他们提供物质上的帮助,比如给点生活补贴或织几件毛衣,但绝不要指望他们会享受你的陪伴。’ 有些老年人因为怕死而感到烦恼。青年人有这种感觉是情有可原的。有理由害怕自己会死在战场上的年轻人,想到自己被剥夺了生活所能给予的最美好的东西时,感到痛苦,这是可以理解的。可是老年人已经饱尝了人间的甘苦,一切能做的都做了,如果怕死,就有点儿可怜又可鄙。克服怕死的最好办法——至少在我看来是这样一就是逐渐使自己的兴趣更加广泛,逐渐摆脱个人狭小的圈子,直到自我的围墙一点一点地倒塌下来,自己的生活慢慢地和整个宇宙的生活融合在一起。个人的存在应该像一条河流,开始很小,被紧紧地夹在两岸中间,接着热情奔放地冲过巨石,飞下瀑布。然后河面渐渐地变宽,两岸后撤,河水流得平缓起来,最后连绵不断地汇入大海,毫无痛苦地失去了自我的存在。

解析     a successful old age.字面原意为“成功的老年生活”,其中successful为形容词,但是我们并不会在汉语行文中如此遣词造句,因此这里需要转变词性,将形容词转译为了副词,使用“过得好”来体现晚年生活的成功;have strong impersonal interests字面含义是“拥有强烈的非个人的兴趣”,其实也就是对那些与个人利益无关,不掺杂任何个人色彩的事情的兴趣,即“对个人之外的事情怀有强烈兴趣”。
    这句话中需要注意的是动词expect,它有“期待,希冀”的含义,但这些词语具有较强的积极意义,用在本句的语境中并不合适;结合上下文可知,这里expect包含一种“痴心妄想”之意,而且谈到老年人和孩子之间的关系时,中文也常常用“指望”来描述,因此这里翻译为“指望”一词,在语气以及语言文化方面都更合适。
    这句话的难点在于justification一词,表示“正当理由”,若直译为“年轻人有这种感觉是有正当理由的”,太直白生硬,不符合中文的行文习惯,这里使用“情有可原”不仅达意,且增加了译文的形式美。
    首先需要注意动词know,很明显这里它并非表示“知道”,根据英文释义,know也可以表示to have personal experience of sth. ,即“亲身经历”;其次,形容词abject有“没有尊严的、可怜的”之意,ignoble表示“卑鄙的,可鄙的”,将“可怜”和“可鄙”并列,可起到强调作用。
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