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  3. Perhaps this tells us that people need to know one another to be at their honest best. The vast majority of Americans still

Perhaps this tells us that people need to know one another to be at their honest best. The vast majority of Americans still

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问题     Perhaps this tells us that people need to know one another to be at their honest best.
    The vast majority of Americans still believe that honesty is an important part of the American character. For that reason, there are numerous watch-dog committees at all levels of society. Although signs of dishonesty in school, business, and government seem much more numerous in recent years than in the past, could it be that we are getting better at revealing such dishonesty?
    There is some evidence that dishonesty may ebb and flow. When times are hard, incidents of theft and cheating usually go up. And when times get better such incidents tend to go down. Cheating in school also tends to ebb and flow. But it doesn’t seem linked to the economy.
    Many educators feel that as students gain confidence in themselves and their abilities, they are less likely to cheat. Surprisingly, some efforts to prevent cheating may actually encourage cheating — a person may feel "they don’t trust me anyway." and be tempted to "beat the system."   Distrust can be contagious. But, so can trust!
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答案 也许这就告诉我们，人们需要相互认识以达到最诚实的境界。 绝大多数的美国人仍然认为诚实是美国人性格中一个重要的组成部分。正因为如此，社会各阶层有为数不少的监督委虽会。近年来学校、商界和政应部门中的舞弊行为比过去增加了许多，但这会不会是因为我们越来越善于揭露此类欺行为的缘故呢? 有些证据表明，舞弊行为可涨可落。当时事艰难时，盗窃和骗行为便有上涨趋势。当形势好转时，这类事件就会减少。学校中的作弊现象，往往也起起落落。但它与经济似乎没有什么联系。 许多教育家声称，如果学生们对于自己以及自己的能力有了信心，他们就不太可能作弊了。令人惊奇的是，某些防止作弊的努力反而可能促使学生作弊——个人可能会感到“反正他们不信任我!”于是便很想“击败这个体制”。不信任是可以传染的。但，信任亦然!
解析 本篇选自斯塔西亚-罗宾斯(Stacia Robbins)的《诚实：它正在过时吗?》(Honesty：Is It Going Out of Style?)。文章从高中作弊行为上升这一问题开始反思，主要论述美国诚实问题。所选片段生词较少，句子结构清晰，总体而言，翻译难度不大，但细节之处仍需注意。
1．  划线部分第一段的第一句“the vast majority of”相当于“the large number of”、“the great majority of”，作“绝大多数，绝大部分”解，后面直接接名词，不加任何定冠词。而most of后面要加定冠词，再加名词。例：Most of the students on campus joined this campaign．
2．  第二句“there are…at all levels of society”是典型的there be句型，在翻译时，为了符合汉语习惯，需适当调整语序。故译为“社会各阶层有为数不少的监督委员会。”。
3．  “watch-dog committees”中形容词“watch—dog”解释为“organized or acting as a watchful guardian，esp．against unlawful practice(起监督作用的)”，故“watch—dog committees”在文中指“监督委员会”。
4．  第三句“could it be that…”译为“会不会是因为……”，这里是that的一种特殊用法，说明某一事实的原因。例：It is not that we don’t want to help you；it is that we are busy．不是因为我们不想帮你，而是因为我们很忙。
5．  第二段第一句“ebb and flow”中“ebb”解释为“(of the tide)flow back from the land to the sea；grow less；become weak or faint(落潮；低落，衰退)”；而“flow”解释为“(of the tide)come in；rise；run or spread smoothly(潮涨；上升；流)”。故“ebb and flow”在此处译为“可涨可落”。
6．  第三段最后一句“be linked to”意思是“与……有关联”，相当于“be related with”或“be connected to”。
7．  “they are less likely to cheat”的句型结构为“主语+be+less+likely+to do…”，解释为“某人不太可能会做某事”。拓展：It’s less likely that…：可能性非常小。例如： It’s less likely that Europe’s problems will spread directly to Asia’s financial systems．欧洲危机直接蔓延到亚洲金融系统的可能性不大。
8．  最后一段第二句“be tempted to”的主动形式是“tempt someone to do something”，解释为“诱惑某人做某事”。  “be tempted to”本义为“受诱惑做某事”，而由于汉语多为主动语态，故此处引申为“想要”、“试图”。
9．  “Distrust can be contagious．”中“contagious”本义为“感染性的；会蔓延的”。
10．最后一句“so can trust”，由so或neither引导的句子常用倒装，表“也……”。
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