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  3. If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny—must be deemed worth

If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny—must be deemed worth

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问题     If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny—must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition’s behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, however, it is the educated who have claimed to have given up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition—if not always their own then that of their parents and grandparents. There is a heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped—with the educated themselves riding on them.
    Certainly, people do not seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs—the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three-star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, "Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious. "
    The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly professed. Consequences follow from this, of course, some of which are that ambition is driven underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
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答案 如果人们正确看待雄心，那么它带来的回报——财富、声誉、对自己命运的掌控——就对得起为实现雄心和抱负而付出的牺牲。如果雄心壮志这一传统要焕发活力，那么它就应该受到广泛推崇，尤其应受到那些受人仰慕者的高度重视，那些受过教育的人更应包括在内。然而，恰恰是那些受过教育的人声称他们已经放弃了雄心壮志的理想，这令人费解不已。奇怪的是，他们或许已经从雄心中获益匪浅——即便不是他们自己的雄心，也是他们父母或祖父母的。这其中含有浓厚的伪善色彩。这些受过教育的人无异于“贼走关门”，而将马骑走的“贼人”正是他们自己。 当然，与过去相比，现在的人们对成功及其标志的兴趣丝毫未减。避暑别墅、欧洲旅行、宝马轿车一一位置、地名和品牌可能有变化，但现在对这些东西的需求似乎不比一二十年前少。现在的情况是，人们无法再像以前那样轻易地公开坦陈自己的梦想，惟恐别人认为自己爱出风头、贪得无厌、庸俗不堪。相反，我们目睹了比以前任何时候都多的虚伪景象：批判美国物质主义的人在南安普顿拥有避暑别墅；激进书籍的出版商在三星级餐厅就餐；倡导终生参与民主制的记者把自己的子女送进私立学校。对于这样的人，以及更多或许不那么出色的人而言，最好的诠释是“不惜一切代价取得成功，但避免显露雄心壮志”。 对雄心壮志的攻击不在少数，且角度各异；公开为之辩解者则少之又少，虽不能说他们毫无吸引力，但却未能给人们留下深刻印象。因此，在美国，雄心壮志作为一种健康的动力、一种令人称羡并扎根于青年人心灵的品质，其所获得的支持或许比以往任何时期都低。但这并不意味着雄心壮志已经穷途末路，人们再也感觉不到它的萌动和激励了，只是人们不再公开以它为荣，更不愿公开向它表白了。当然，由此产生了一些后果，其中一些就是雄心壮志被迫转入地下，或暗藏于胸。于是就形成了如此的局面：左边是愤怒的批评家，右边是愚蠢的支持者，中间的通常是大多数认真努力想要出人头地的人。
解析     本段包含一个由if引导的条件状语从句，从句部分使用了被动语态，翻译时按照中文习惯添加主语“人们”，转换为主动语态。句末的过去分词结构made on ambition’s behalf为后置定语，其中0n behalf表示“为了”，按照因果逻辑联系可将这个后置定语处理为前置修饰语，译为“为实现野心而付出的”。worthy of本意为“值得的”，为与其后的宾语“牺牲”搭配，这里处理为“对得起”，更自然地道。
    名词note在这里意为“感觉；印象；气氛”，结合语境可知，这里表示他们对雄心的态度透露着虚伪或伪善，因此将之译为“色彩”，符合中文的表达习惯。后半句使用了比喻的修辞，将雄心比作马，讽刺了那些从驾驭雄心中受益却声称自己没有雄心的人；close the barn door after the horses have escaped是个英文俗语，指出了事故以后才知道警惕，这与中文“贼走关门”这个成语含意相通。
    修饰动词confess的副词有三个，分别为fully、easily和openly，译为“轻易地公开坦陈”，其中“坦”字包含“直率；没有隐讳”之意，即fully，因此无需再使用“充分”等词赘述。连词lest：表示“惟恐；以免”，在这里引导状语从句，表示假设，为虚拟语气。pushing、acquisitive和vulgar这三个词很明显皆为贬义词，翻译时使用了三个四字词语“爱出风头、贪得无厌、庸俗不堪”，译文生动活泼. 通顺达意。
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