Unit 1 课文
College just isn't special any more
1 "If you can remember anything about the 1960s, you weren't really there," so the saying goes. It may be true for those who spent their college years in a haze of marijuana smoke. But there is one thing everyone remembers about the 1960s: Going to college was the most exciting and stimulating experience of your life.
2 In the 1960s, California's colleges and universities had transformed the state into the world's seventh largest economy. However, Berkeley, the University of California's main campus, was also well-known for its student demonstrations and strikes, and its atmosphere of political radicalism. When Ronald Reagan ran for office as governor of California in 1966, he asked if Californians would allow "a great university to be brought to its knees by a noisy, dissident minority." The liberals replied that it was the ability to tolerate noisy, dissident minorities which made universities great.
3 On university campuses in Europe, mass socialist or communist movements gave rise to increasingly violent clashes between the establishment and the college students, with their new and passionate commitment to freedom and justice. Much of the protest was about the Vietnam War. But in France, the students of the Sorbonne in Paris managed to form an alliance with the trade unions and to launch a general strike, which ultimately brought about the resignation of President de Gaulle.
4 It wasn't just the activism that characterized student life in the 1960s. Everywhere, going to college meant your first taste of real freedom, of late nights in the dorm or in the Junior Common Room, discussing the meaning of life. You used to have to go to college to read your first forbidden book, see your first indie film, or find someone who shared your passion for Jimi Hendrix or Lenny Bruce. It was a moment of unimaginable freedom, the most liberating in your life.
5 But where's the passion today? What's the matter with college? These days political, social and creative awakening seems to happen not because of college, but in spite of it. Of course, it's true that higher education is still important. For example, in the UK, Prime Minister Blair was close to achieving his aim of getting 50 percent of all under thirties into college by 2010 (even though a cynic would say that this was to keep them off the unemployment statistics). Yet college education is no longer a topic of great national importance. Today, college is seen as a kind of small town from which people are keen to escape. Some people drop out, but the most apathetic stay the course because it's too much effort to leave.
6 Instead of the heady atmosphere of freedom which students in the 1960s discovered, students today are much more serious. The British Council has recently done research into the factors which help international students decide where to study. In descending order these are: quality of courses, employment prospects, affordability, personal security issues, lifestyle, and accessibility. College has become a means to an end, an opportunity to increase one's chances on the employment market, and not an end in itself, which gives you the chance to imagine, just for a short while, that you can change the world.
7 The gap between childhood and college has shrunk, and so has the gap between college and the real world. One of the reasons may be financial. In an uncertain world, many children rely on their parents' support much longer than they used to. Students leaving university in the 21st century simply cannot afford to set up their own home because it's too expensive. Another possible reason is the communications revolution. Gone are the days when a son or daughter rang home once or twice a term. Today students are umbilically linked to their parents by their cell phones. And as for finding like-minded friends to share a passion for obscure literature or music, well, we have the Internet and chat rooms to help us do that.
8 "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!"
9 Wordsworth may have written these lines about the French Revolution, but they were also true for the students of the 1960s. So why aren't they true for the students of today?
大学已经不再特别了
1 有这么一种说法：“要是你能记得20世纪60年代的任何事情，你就没有真正经历过那段岁月。”对于在**烟雾中度过大学时光的那些人，这话可能是真的。但是，20世纪60年代有一件事人人都记得，那就是：上大学是你一生中最激动人心、最刺激的经历。
2 20世纪60年代，加州的高校把本州变成了世界第七大经济实体。然而，加州大学的主校园伯克利分校也以学生示威、罢课以及激进的政治氛围而著名。1966年，罗纳德•里根竞选加州州长，他问加州是否允许“一所伟大的大学被喧闹的、唱反调的少数人征服”。自由派人士回答说，大学之所以伟大正是因为它们有能力容忍喧闹的、唱反调的少数人。
3 在欧洲的大学校园里，大学生以新的姿态和激情投入到争取和正义的事业中去，大规模的社会主义或共产主义运动引发了他们与当权者之间日益升级的暴力冲突。许多抗议是针对越南战争的。可是在法国，巴黎大学索邦神学院的学生与工会联盟发动了一场大罢工，最终导致戴高乐总统下台。
4 20世纪60年代大学生活的特点并不仅仅是激进的行动。不论在什么地方，上大学都意味着你初次品尝真正自由的滋味，初次品尝深更半夜在宿舍或学生活动室里讨论人生意义的滋味。你往往得上了大学才能阅读你的第一本禁书，看你的第一部独立影人电影，或者找到和你一样痴迷吉米•亨德里克斯或兰尼•布鲁斯的志同道合者。那是一段难以想象的自由时光，你一生中最无拘无束的时光。
5 可如今那份激情哪儿去了？大学怎么了？现在，政治、社会和创造意识的觉醒似乎不是凭借大学的助力，而是冲破其阻力才发生的。当然，一点不假，高等教育仍然重要。例如，在英国，布莱尔首相几乎实现了到2010年让50％的30岁以下的人上大学的目标（即使愤世嫉俗的人会说，这是要把他们排除在失业统计数据之外）。不过，大学教育已不再是全民重视的话题了。如今，大学被视为人们急于逃离的一种小镇。有些人辍学，但大多数已经有些麻木，还是坚持混到毕业，因为离开学校实在是太费事了。
6 没有了20世纪60年代大学生所发现的令人头脑发热的自由气氛，如今的大学生要严肃得多。英国文化协会最近做了一项调查，研究外国留学生在决定上哪所大学时所考虑的因素。这些因素从高到低依次是：课程质量、就业前景、学费负担、人身安全问题、生活方式，以及各种便利。大学已变成实现目的的手段，是在就业市场上增加就业几率的一个机会，上大学本身不再是目的，这给你提供一个机会，让你暂时想象一下：你能够改变世界。
7 童年与大学之间的距离已缩小了，大学与现实世界之间的距离也缩小了。其中的一个原因可能和经济有关。在一个没有保障的世界里，现在的许多孩子依赖父母资助的时间比以前的孩子更长。21世纪的学生大学毕业后根本无法自立门户，因为那太昂贵了。另一个可能的原因是通信革命。子女每学期往家里打一两回电话的日子一去不复返了。如今，大学生通过手机与父母保持着脐带式联系。至于寻找痴迷无名文学或音乐的同道好友，没问题，我们有互联网和聊天室来帮助我们做到这一点。
8 “幸福啊，活在那个黎明之中，
年轻更是如进天堂！”
9 华兹华斯的诗句说的可能是法国大革命，但是对于20世纪60年代的大学生而言，这样的诗句同样真实生动。可是为什么对于如今的大学来说，它们就不真实了呢？
The post-everything generation
Frank Thomas is a sophomore at Princeton, majoring in literary theory. He hopes to become a human rights lawyer.
1 I never hoped to understand the nature of my generation or how American colleges are changing by going to Literary Theory classes. This is the class where you look cool, a bit sleepy from too many late nights and wearing a T-shirt with some ironic comment on it. That's how I spent my time on the course, struggling through difficult subjects like gender theory and post-colonialism, and at the same time checking my iPod for something good to listen to. But when I started to study postmodernism, something clicked and made me sit up and take a fresh look at college life.
2 So what is postmodernism? Hard to say, almost by definition it can't be defined … it's just kind of negative and against everything that came before it. And that makes it difficult to see what it is. The term was first used in 1949, but no one has yet decided what postmodern attitudes mean for the future of culture or society. Yet for me, it made me curious, because "postmodern" seemed to describe my cool, sleepy and ironic, T-shirt wearing friends.
3 We're "post" in so many ways: post-Cold War, post-industrial, post-baby boom, post-9/11. We're a generation that comes from what has been called the short century (1914–1989), at the end of a century of war and revolution which changed civilizations, overthrew repressive governments, and left us with extraordinary opportunities and privilege, more than any generation before.
4 And yet what do we do? Do we revolt and rebel, like all students of generations before? Do we take to the streets and chant, "We're not leaving until we see change"? No, we do the opposite, we go to war, and we don't ask why, we give up our civil liberties, and we watch death and destruction on the evening news every day.
5 At college, we sign petitions, join organizations, sign up for mailing lists, wear our Live Strong bracelets, and watch Live Aid and Live Earth on the television – go to the concerts even, if we can get the tickets. But what do we stand for? Like a true postmodern generation, we have no way to describe our political commitment, we have no inspirational characters, we have no philosophy, we have no direction or theme. We're only defined by what came before us, we're the generation of the Che Guevara T-shirt.
6 We belong to a movement which appears to encourage individuals to assert themselves collectively. It seems to be waiting for the revolution. And as young people, we're expected to be angry because that's what young people do.
7 But how do we rebel against our parents' generation which is nostalgic for revolution? How do we rebel against parents who sometimes want revolution more than we do? We don't. We rebel by not rebelling.
8 The real energy is not on the campus, it's on the Internet. It provides us with a developing opportunity to communicate ideas and frustrations. We don't do demonstrations any more, we go onto Facebook and Twitter, instead of going onto the streets.
9 The American college as we used to know, with its radical activism and demonstration, is coming to an end. To my generation, radicalism is associated with Al-Qaeda, not the Weathermen . "Campus takeover" sounds less like students invading campus buildings and taking staff hostage, more like one of those school shootings which happen too often these days. The resonance of the words belongs to another era and doesn't reflect the realities of today.
10 But the technological revolution is just as real and just as profound as the revolution of the 1960s – it's just not as obvious. It's work in progress, but it's there. Perhaps when our parents stop pointing out everything they were and everything we're not, maybe they'll see that the post-everything generation is speaking a language which makes sense. We're writing the revolution, and we're using our own words to do so.
后一切的一代
弗兰克•托马斯是普林斯顿大学二年级学生，主修文学理论专业。他希望当人权律师。
1 我从没指望通过上文学理论课来了解我这一代人的特征，或了解美国大学在如何变化。这门课是让你在课堂上扮酷的——带着一丝熬夜太多的困劲儿，穿着一件印有揶揄意味俏皮话的T恤衫。我是这样在课上消磨时间的：一边费力地听着性别理论和后殖民主义这样艰深的话题，一边用我的iPod检索着好听的音乐。可是当我开始学习后现代主义的时候，我突然咔嗒一声开了窍。我提起精神，开始重新审视大学生活。
2 那么，什么是后现代主义呢？很难说，从定义角度来说，后现代主义几乎是无法定义的……就是有点儿否定和反对先前一切的意思。这就让人很难看清它究竟指的是什么。这一术语于1949年被首次使用，可是迄今为止还没有人能断定，对于文化或社会的未来，后现代态度究竟意味着什么。但对我来说，它令我感到好奇，因为后现代似乎说的正是我那些酷劲十足、困兮兮的和冷嘲热讽、穿T恤衫的朋友们。
3 我们在很多方面都是“后”的：后冷战、后工业时代、后生育高峰、后9•11。我们这一代人来自所谓的短世纪（1914—1989），处于其末尾。这个世纪充满了战争和革命，它改变了人类文明，推翻了强权政府，给我们留下了比从前任何一代人都多的非同寻常的机会和特权。
4 可是我们在干什么呢？像历代大学生那样去造反、叛逆吗？在街上一遍又一遍地高喊“不看到变化，我们决不离开”吗？不，我们做着相反的事情：我们去参战，根本不问为什么；我们放弃自己的公民自由权；我们每天在晚间新闻中观看死亡和破坏。
5 在大学里，我们在请愿书上签名，加入各种组织，把自己的名字添加到各种邮件通讯录中，戴“坚强活着”的标志腕带，观看电视转播的“拯救生命”和“拯救地球”明星义演音乐会——甚至去音乐会现场，假如能搞到票的话。可是我们代表什么呢？就像真正的后现代一代那样，我们无法描述我们的政治抱负，我们没有可以激发灵感、鼓舞斗志的领袖人物，我们没有哲学，我们没有方向或主题。我们只是被我们之前的一切所定义，我们是穿切•格瓦拉T恤衫的一代。
6 我们身处一场运动中，好像是鼓励个人集体地表现自我，似乎是在等待革命。作为年轻人，人们期待我们愤怒，因为那是年轻人的正常行为。
7 但是，我们如何反叛怀念革命的父母一代？我们如何去反叛有时候比我们更想闹革命的父母？我们不反叛。不反叛就是我们的反叛。
8 我们真正的精力不是放在校园里，而是放在互联网上。它给我们提供了一个交流思想和受挫感的机会，使我们不断成长。我们不再游行示威；我们不再到街上去，我们去用脸书和推特。
9 我们以往所知的拥有激进行为和游行倾向的美国大学即将终结。对我这一代人来说，与激进主义相关的是“基地”组织，而不是“气象员”组织。“校园接管”听起来不大像学生占领教学楼或挟持教务人员为人质，更像近来频繁发生的校园枪击事件。这些词语的寓意属于另一个时代，并不反映当今的现实。
10 可是，科技革命就像20世纪60年代的革命一样真实而深刻——只是不那么明显而已。它是正在推进中的未完成的事业，但它实实在在地存在。也许等到我们的父母不再说他们样样都好而我们一无是处时，他们或许会明白，后一切的一代说的话也有一定的道理。我们在书写革命，我们在用自己的语言书写革命。
Student power
1 Dating from the 12th century, the University of Bologna in Italy is Europe's oldest university. By the early 13th century power over the university lay with the students. This power was based on their economic grip over their teachers. At that time most university lecturers depended for their academic incomes on teaching fees which they collected from their students. A lecturer was required to attract an audience of at least five students at every lecture. If he failed to do so, he was declared absent and given a fixed fine.
2 To guarantee good teaching, at the beginning of each academic year the lecturer had to deposit a sum of money with a city banker who acted for the students. If a lecturer failed to meet the standards set out in the university statutes, a student court would authorize the deduction of fines from this deposit. Lecturers had to agree to the arrangement since a lecturer who didn't pay his fines was not allowed to collect fees from the students, thus removing his source of university income.
3 A lecturer could be punished for a variety of reasons. He was fined if he started his lectures a minute late or if he went on beyond the approved time. If he failed to end the lecture punctually, the students were obliged by the statutes to leave the room immediately. The lecturer was also fined if he failed to cover the syllabus according to an agreed timetable. At the beginning of the academic year the students and the lecturers decided which material was to be taught that year and when it was to be taught. A lecturer who passed over a difficult subject or who failed to emphasize each part of a difficult syllabus would be penalized.
4 Student controls were not limited to what happened within the lecture hall; they also extended to the private lives of lecturers. For example, if a lecturer wished to leave Bologna for a few days during term, he had to obtain the prior permission of student officials. If he didn't return within an agreed time, he had to pay a fine.
5 All students were encouraged to denounce lecturers who were absent without leave or who contravened the statutes in any other way. In addition, there was an organized system of secret denunciations. Four students were elected in secret to spy on lecturers. They were obliged to report irregularities such as bad lecturing technique, failure to cover the syllabus, or absence without leave. If denunciations were received from at least two students, the lecturers were punished.
6 Student power at Bologna lasted a little over 100 years, from the early 13th to the mid-14th century. As with its rise, its demise was linked directly to the subject of student fees. By 1350 almost all the lecturers were appointed and paid by the local town council. With changes in the payment of the lecturers, students effectively lost control of the university.
学生的权力
1 意大利的博洛尼亚大学创办于12世纪，是欧洲最古老的大学。在13世纪早期，大学的管理权都掌握在学生手里。这种权力是基于他们对教师的经济控制。那时候，大多数大学教师的教学收入都依赖从学生那里收取的学费。教师每堂课必须吸引至少五名学生来听讲。如果做不到，学校就会宣布他旷课，并处以一定的罚款。
2 为了保证良好的教学质量，每个学年之初，教师都要在为学生服务的市内银行预存一笔钱。如果教师没有达到大学章程规定的标准，学生法庭就会判决从这笔存款中扣除罚款。教师不得不同意这样的处理，因为不交罚款的教师不允许收学费，这就中断了他的收入来源。
3 教师会因各种各样的缘故而受到惩罚。如果晚一分钟上课，或者拖堂，他就会被罚款。如果他不能按时下课，学生按照章程必须立刻离开教室。如果教师不能按照既定的进度讲完教学大纲规定的内容，他也要被罚款。每年开学的时候，学生和教师共同决定教材内容和教学时间。跳过难点或没有逐一重点讲解难课的教师会被罚款。
4 学生的控制权不仅仅限于课堂，还延伸到教师的私生活。例如，假如一位教师希望在学期中间离开博洛尼亚几天，他就得事先征得学生官员的许可。如果不按时返回，他就得缴纳罚款。
5 学校鼓励所有的学生告发不请假就缺课或以其他任何方式违规的教师。此外，还有一个有组织的秘密告发系统。有四名学生被秘密选举出来监视教师。他们有义务报告诸如教学技巧拙劣、未完成教学大纲规定的教学内容或不请假就缺课之类的违规行为。如果有两个以上的学生告发，教师就会受到惩罚。
6 从13世纪早期至14世纪中期，学生的权力在博洛尼亚持续了一百余年。与它的起始一样，它的终结也直接与学费有关。到了1350年，几乎所有教师都是由当地的市政厅聘用和发薪。随着教师薪酬支付方式的改变，学生实际上就失去了对大学的控制。
