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为什么我们要阅读名著？ 请大家先阅读一篇文章，思考： 1、什么才算名著？ 2、为什么在书籍丰富的情况下，为什么我们要阅读名著？ What Is a Great Book? By Mortimer J. Adler There is no end to the making of books. Nor does there seem to be any end to the making of lists of “great books.” There have always been more books than anyone could read. And as they have multiplied through the centuries, more and more blue-ribbon lists ①have had to be made. ①蓝缎带是竞赛中第一名得奖的标志, 亦是英国最高荣誉嘉德(Garter)勋章的绶带。此处引申为“最佳书籍”。 No matter how long your life, you will, at best, be able to read only a few books of all that have been written, and the few you do read should include the best. You can rejoice in the fact that the number of such is relatively small. The listing of the best books is as old as reading and writing. The teachers and librarians of ancient Alexandria① did it. Quintilian② did it for Roman education, selecting, as he said, both ancient and modern classics. In the Renaissance, such leaders of the revival of learning as Montaigne③ and Erasmus④made lists of the books they read. ①(埃及港市)亚历山大。 ②Marcus Fabius Quintiliamus M. F.昆提连(公元 35—95),罗马修辞学家,主张发 表演说时要用简单和诚恳的风格。 ③ Michel Eyquem de Montaigne 蒙田(1533—1592),法国散文家。 ④Desiderius Erasmus 德西德里 乌斯·伊拉兹马斯(1466?—1536)，荷兰学者和人道主义者。 It is to be expected that the selections will change with the times. Yet there is a surprising uniformity in the lists which represent the best choices of any period. In every age, the list makers include both ancient and modern books in their selections, and they always wonder whether the moderns are up to the great books of the past. What are the signs by which we may recognize a great book? The six I will mention may not be all there are①, but they are the ones I’ve found most useful in explaining my choices over the years. ①there are 在语法上是定语从句, 省去了关系代词 that。 Great books are probably the most widely read. They are not best sellers for a year or two. They are enduring best sellers. GONE WITH THE WIND has had relatively few readers compared to the plays of Shakespeare or DON QUIXOTE. It would be reasonable to estimate that Homer’s ILIAD19 has been read by at least 25,000,000 people in the last 3000 years. A great book need① not even be a best seller in its own day. It may take time for it to accumulate its ultimate audience. The astronomer Kepler, whose work on the planetary motions is now a classic, is reported to have said of his book that “it may wait a century for a reader, as God has waited 6000 years for an observer.” ①need既可用作情态动词,亦可用作完全动词,即可以说 You needn’t go. 亦可以 说 You don’t need to go. 此处用法是用作情态动词。 Great books are popular, not pedantic. They are not written by specialists about specialties for specialists. Whether they be philosophy or science, or history or poetry, they treat of human, not academic problems. They are written for men, not professors. To read a textbook for advanced students, you have to read an elementary textbook first. But the great books can be considered elementary in the sense that they treat the elements of any subject matter. They are not related to one another as a series of textbooks, graded in difficulty or in the technicality of the problems with which they deal. 附上一些名句的搜集： v I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. ——《Pride and Prejudice》 在实际生活中我是个自私的人，但在原则上不是。 ——《傲慢与偏见》 v There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart. ——《Pride and Prejudice》 心灵的柔软是最大的魅力。 ——《傲慢与偏见》 v For you,a thousand times over. ——《The kite runner》 为你,千千万万遍。 ——《追风筝的人》 v To be or not to be,that is a question. ——《Hamlet》 生存还是死亡，这是一个问题。 ——《哈姆雷特》 Ø There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. ——William Shakespeare 一千个观众眼中有一千个哈姆雷特。 ——莎士比亚 v It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. 这是最好的时代，这是最坏的时代。 ——《A Tale of Two Cities》 ——《双城记》 v Tomorrow is another day. ——《Gone with the Wind》 明天是新的一天。 ——《乱世佳人/飘》 v Keep your friends close, but your enemy closer. ——《教父》 亲近你的朋友，但更要亲近你的敌人 ——《The Godfather》 v The pleasure lies not in finding the truth, but in seeking the truth. ——《Anna Karenina》 乐趣不在于发现真理，而在于探求真理。 ——《安娜卡列尼娜》 v More and more often now came those moments of obllivion. ——《Anna Karenina》 往事浑然淡忘。 ——《安娜卡列尼娜》 v The furthest distance in the world Is not between life and death But when I stand in front of you Yet you don't know that I love you. ——《The poetry of Tagore》 世界上最遥远的距离,不是生与死 而是我就站在你的面前,你却不知道我爱你。 ——《泰戈尔诗集》 v If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars. v 如果你因失去了太阳而流泪，那么你也失去了群星。 v What you are you do not see, what you see is your shadow. v 你看不见你自己，你所看见的只是你的影子。 v We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us. v 我们把世界看错了，反说它欺骗我们。 v Do not linger to gather flowers to keep them, but walk on,for flowers will keep themselves blooming all your way. v 只管走过去，不必逗留着采了花朵来保存，因为一路上花朵自会继续开放的。 ——《泰戈尔诗集》 |
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