新概念英语（第四册，旧版）复习（原文及全文翻译）——Lesson 19 - English Social Differences（英国社会的差异）

Lesson 19 - English Social Differences

A gentleman is, rather than does. He is interested in nothing in a professional way. He is allowed to cultivate hobbies, even eccentricities, but must not practise a vocation. He must know how to ride and shoot and cast a fly. He should have relatives in the army and navy and at least one connection in the diplomatic service. But there are weaknesses in the English gentleman's ability to rule us today. He usually knows nothing of political economy and less about how foreign countries are governed. He does not respect learning and prefers 'sport'. The problem set for society is not the virtues of the type so much as its adequacy for its function, and here grave difficulties arise. He refuses to consider sufficiently the wants of the customer, who must buy, not the thing he desires but the thing the English gentleman wants to sell. He attends inadequately to technological development. Disbelieving in the necessity of large-scale production in the modern world, he is passionately devoted to excessive secrecy, both in finance and method of production. He has an incurable and widespread nepotism in appointment, discounting ability and relying upon a mystic entity called 'character,' which means, in a gentleman's mouth, the qualities he traditionally possesses himself. His lack of imagination and the narrowness of his social loyalties have ranged against him one of the fundamental estates of the realm. He is incapable of that imaginative realism which admits that this is a new world to which he must adjust himself and his institutions, that every privilege he formerly took as of right he can now attain only by offering proof that it is directly relevant to social welfare. 

参考译文——英国社会的差异

绅士应该原本就是，而不是去学着做。他们对专业领域的东西一概不感兴趣。他们可以培养爱好，甚至怪癖，但不能从事职业。他们必须知道如何骑马、射击和垂钓。他们应该在陆军和海军有亲戚，在外交部门至少有一个关系。但这样的英国绅士要在今天统治我们，其能力存在弱点。他们通常对政治经济学一无所知，对外国的治理方式也不太了解。他们不尊重学习，喜欢“运动”。社会要回答的问题并不是这类人物有无美德，而是他们是否胜任其职务，答案是他们存在严重的困难。他们拒绝充分考虑顾客的需要，顾客必须购买英国绅士想卖的东西，而不是顾客真正想要的东西。他们对技术发展的参与不够。他们不相信现代世界大规模生产的必要性，热衷于金融和生产方法的过度保密。他们有不可救药的，到处蔓延的任人唯亲的作法。他们能力不强，依赖一种称为“品质”的神秘因素，也就是他们所谓的他们传统上所拥有的品质。他们缺乏想象力，社会忠诚偏狭，使他们不配拥有现有的社会地位。他们没有那种想象中的现实主义能力，来承认这是一个新世界，他们必须调整他们自己和他们的组织。他们以前拥有的认为是理所当然的每一项特权，现在只有通过提供证据证明它与社会福利直接相关才能获得。

注：博主基于百度翻译校译而成

参考资料：

http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~yuana/new_concept_english.html