耶鲁大学的毕业生们在临近毕业时感到对现实世界的恐惧，他们承受着不能失败的压力，过度关注成绩和未来稳定的工作。尽管有些人选择继续深造，但并非出于真正的热情，而是因为父母期望、逃避决定或追求经济保障。文章指出，社会应鼓励年轻人敢于尝试，从失败中学习，而非一味追求传统意义上的成功。作者提倡学生们勇敢探索未标记的道路，寻找生活中的惊喜，释放对未来的恐惧。
Unit 2B - Letter from Home
Letter from Home
William Zinsser
Now is the edgy time for Yale seniors. In three weeks they will graduate and join the rest of us out here in the real world. It is a place that they are intensely afraid of.
Not all of them, of course, will take the icy plunge. Quite a few will stay on the academic assembly-line — in law school or medical school or graduate school — to study for three or four years more.
This doesn't mean that they necessarily want to be lawyers or doctors or scholars. Some are continuing their education because their parents want them to. Some are doing it just to postpone the day of decision. Some are doing it because lawyers and doctors make a good living. Some are doing it to acquire still another degree to impress a society in which they think credentials are the only currency. Some — the lucky ones — really do want to be lawyers, doctors, scholars or specialists in a field that requires further skill.
But they all are driven 一 those who are leaving Academia and those who are staying — by one message: Do Not Fail. It is a message that has been echoing in their heads since they were admitted to the nursery school of their choice, beating less competitive toddlers. Score high, test well, play it safe. Next month's graduates have been so obsessively bent for four years on measurable achievement (grades) and a secure future (jobs) that they have hardly had time to savor the present and to grow as well-rounded people. They know that the outside world is wary of experimenters, of late starters and temporary losers.
I'm talking about Yale students because I live in their midst and know them well. (I am Master of Branford College, one of Yale's twelve residential colleges. In our house I can lie awake and listen to some of the loudest stereo sets in the East. That, in fact, is why I lie awake.) And I'm talking about seniors because they are the ones who are most on my mind right now: panicky that they won't have enough A's to persuade an employer to hire them, though they are men and women I'd like to have working for me, if I were an employer, for qualities of intelligence and humor and humanity that don't show up on any chart.
But I could just as well be talking about Yale's juniors, sophomores and freshmen — or, I suspect, about the students at most colleges today. They are studying more and enjoying it less. At Yale, they play in fewer plays and musical groups, join fewer campus organizations, take part in fewer sports, carve out fewer moments just to linger and talk and put a margin around their lives. They are under pressure to do too much work in too little time.
If all their friends are studying in the library until it closes at midnight (and they are),they feel guilty if they want to go to a Woody Allen movie, though there is as much to be learned from a Woody Allen movie as from a book — much, in fact, that they will never learn from a book. Not surprisingly, their emotional health is often far from healthy. I see a lot of psychic disarray.
It is not that I don't wish them fame and fortune, especially the seniors as they lurch toward graduation, more stuffed with learning and short of money than they probably ever will be again. Obviously I do. But I also wish them a release from fear of the future. They should know that fame and fortune are not end products that they will automatically win if they follow a straight and safe route, but by-products that will come to them if they dare to poke down the unmarked side roads that lead to life's richest surprises.
Home is where the words “ Do not fail ” are first instilled and constantly repeated. One of next month's Yale graduates came to me on her first day as a freshman in 1973 and said: “I want to be a great journalist — what courses should I take for the next four years?” She wanted a blueprint at seventeen. Many students come to me in the middle of their sophomore year, afraid of changing the curriculum that they mapped but no longer think is the one that they want to pursue. “If I don't make all the right choices now, one of them said, "it will be too late."
Too late at eighteen? Sad words. They are growing up old and set in their ways. They have been told to prepare for one career and to stick to it and succeed. They are not told that they have a right to try many paths, to stumble and try something else, and to learn by stumbling. The right to fail is one of the few freedoms not granted in our Bill of Rights. Today it is more acceptable to change marriage partners than to change careers.
"Victory has very narrow meanings and can become a destructive force," writes Bill Bradley in his book, Life on the Run. Bradley was an Ivy Leaguer himself and a Rhodes Scholar — an earlier member of the same elite that is now so preoccupied with success — before starting his ten-year career of professional basketball, which has just come to an end. "The taste of defeat," he writes, "has a richness of experience all its own. To me, every day is a struggle to stay in touch with life's subtleties. No one grows without failing."
The fault is not with our children, but with the narrowness of the flowerbed in which we expect them to germinate. We are stunting their growth if we tell them that there is only one "right" way to get through their education or to get through life. America has always been nourished by men and women who are not afraid to go against the grain.
参考译文——家书
家书
威廉·津瑟
眼下正是耶鲁四年级学生紧张不安的时期。再有三个星期他们就要毕业，投身于外面的现实世界，加入到我们的行列之中。这是一个他们非常害怕的地方。
当然，并非所有的人都将投入到这个冰冷的现实世界中来。相当多的人将留在学业装配线上——在法学院、医学院或研究生院——再学习三至四年。
这并不意味着他们一定想成为律师、医生或学者。有些人继续他们的学业是因为他们的父母要他们这样做。有些人这样做只是为了推迟作决定的日期。有些人这样做是因为律师和医生可以过上优裕的生活。而有些人这样做只是为了再获得一个学位，好让这个他们认为只认证书的社会刮目相看。还有些人——那些幸运者——的确想成为律师、医生、学者或需要更深造诣的某一领域的专家。
但是，他们——无论是将要离开学术界的还是将要留下来的——都受着同一信息的驱使：不能失败。从他们击败竞争力较弱、蹒跚学步的儿童，进入精选的幼儿园起，这则信息就一直回响在他们的脑海中。得高分，考得好，稳扎稳打。下个月即将毕业的学生四年来一直沉迷于追求可计量的成就（分数）和一个稳固的前途（工作），以至于几乎没有时间来品味眼前的生活，成长为一个兴趣广泛的人。他们知道外面的世界对喜欢以实验进行探索的人、起步晚的人和暂时的失败者是持提防态度的。
我之所以谈论耶鲁的学生是因为我生活在他们中间，很了解他们。（我是耶鲁十二所寄宿制学院之一的布兰福德学院的院长。我可以醒着躺在家中，听着从东区传来的一些音量最大的立体声收音机中的音乐。事实上，这正是我醒着躺在那儿的原因。）我之所以谈论四年级学生，是因为他们正是眼下最让我牵肠挂肚的人：他们担心没有足够的A来说服雇主雇佣他们，虽然我倒十分愿意让他们为我工作，如果我是雇主的话，因为他们具有无法在任何表格上显现出来的品质：聪颖、幽默而善良。
但我所谈论的也可以是耶鲁的三年级、二年级和一年级学生——或者说，是当今大多数大学中的学生。他们学得比过去多，得到的乐趣却比过去少。在耶鲁，他们排演戏剧和音乐节目的时间少了，参加校园团体和体育运动的机会少了，连抽点时间散散步、聊聊天也很难得，几乎无法给自己的生活稍留空隙。他们被迫在极少的时间里做极多的事。
如果他们的朋友们都在图书馆里学习到午夜图书馆关门之时（他们的确如此），他们若想去看一场伍迪·爱伦的电影便会感到内疚，虽然从伍迪·爱伦的电影中能学到和书本上一样多的东西——事实上，从中能学到许多永远无法从书本上学到的东西。不足为怪的是，他们的心理经常很不健康。我就见过许多精神错乱的学生。
并非我不希望他们名利双收，尤其对那些正迈着蹒跚的步子走向毕业关口的四年级学生，我更同情；他们满腹经纶却又囊中羞涩，而以后他们也许再也不会像现在这样了。显然我希望他们名利双收。但我也希望他们从对未来的恐惧中解脱出来。他们应该懂得，名和利并非走一条笔直的坦途就必然会赢得的囊中之物，而是勇于沿着没有路标的小路探索丰富多彩的人生奇景时的意外收获。
家庭是首先灌输并不断重复“不能失败”这句话的地方。下个月即将毕业的一个耶鲁学生曾在1973年进大学的第一天跑来对我说：“我想成为一名大记者——在以后的四年里，我该修些什么课程?”她17岁就想要一幅蓝图。许多学生在二年级的中间来找我，为更改早已计划好但现在不再想修的课程而担忧。“如果我现在不做出所有正确的选择，”其中一个说，“那就太晚了。”
18岁就太晚了？真是令人伤心的话。他们的行为方式正变得陈旧呆板。一直有人告诉他们要为某一种职业作准备，要坚持不懈直至成功。没有人告诉他们，他们有权尝试多种道路，跌倒后再试试别的途径，在跌跌撞撞中学习。失败的权利是我们的《人权法案》没有授予我们的少数几项自由之一。如今，更换配偶比更换职业更易被人接受。
“胜利具有十分狭隘的意义，它能成为一种破坏力，”比尔·布雷德利在他的《奔忙的人生》一书中写道。布雷德利本人在开始其刚刚结束的十年职业篮球生涯之前是长春藤联合会名牌大学的学生，罗兹奖学金获得者——如今正忙于追求成功的精英族的早期一员。“失败的滋味，”他写道，“其本身蕴含着十分丰富的体验。对我而言，每天都是一场为一刻不脱离生活奥妙而进行的斗争。没有人在成长过程中不经历失败。”
过错不在我们的孩子们，而在我们期待他们在其中发芽成长的花坛过于狭小。如果我们告诉他们完成教育或度过人生的“正确”道路只有一条，那我们就是在阻碍他们的生长。美国的繁荣始终得益于不怕离经叛道的男女志士。
Key Words:
plunge [plʌndʒ]
v. 使投入，跳入，栽进
n. 跳入，投入
impress [im'pres]
n. 印象，特徵，印记
v. 使 ... 有印
savor ['seivə]
n. 味道，气味，滋味 vi. 有 ... 的味道或风味
bent [bent]
bend的过去式和过去分词 adj. 下定决心的，弯曲的
temporary ['tempərəri]
adj. 暂时的，临时的
n. 临时工
postpone [pə'spəun]
vt. 延期，推迟
achievement [ə'tʃi:vmənt]
n. 成就，成绩，完成，达到
acquire [ə'kwaiə]
vt. 获得，取得，学到
decision [di'siʒən]
n. 决定，决策
wary ['wɛəri]
adj. 小心的，机警的
persuade [pə'sweid]
vt. 说服，劝说
suspect [səs'pekt]
n. 嫌疑犯
adj. 令人怀疑的，不可信的<
humanity [hju:'mæniti]
n. 人类，人性，人道，慈爱，(复)人文学科
linger ['liŋgə]
vt. 消磨，无所事事
vi. 逗留，消磨，徘
carve [kɑ:v]
v. 雕刻，切割
intelligence [in'telidʒəns]
n. 理解力，智力
n. 情报，情报工作，情报
pressure ['preʃə]
n. 压力，压强，压迫
v. 施压
margin ['mɑ:dʒin]
n. 差额，利润，页边空白，边缘
fortune ['fɔ:tʃən]
n. 财产，命运，运气
release [ri'li:s]
n. 释放，让渡，发行
vt. 释放，让与，准
disarray [.disə'rei]
vt. 弄乱，使混乱 n. 无秩序，杂乱，不整齐的衣服
constantly ['kɔnstəntli]
adv. 不断地，经常地
route [ru:t]
n. 路线，(固定)线路，途径
vt. 为 .
curriculum [kə'rikjuləm]
n. 课程，全部课程
curricula(复数
lurch [lə:tʃ]
n. 举步蹒跚，突然倾斜 n. 惨败 vi. 突然倾斜，
emotional [i'məuʃənl]
adj. 感情的，情绪的
automatically [.ɔ:tə'mætikəli]
adv. 自动地，机械地
blueprint ['blu:'print]
n. 蓝图，设计图，(周详的)计划
destructive [di'strʌktiv]
adj. 破坏性的，有害的
elite [ei'li:t]
n. 精华，精锐，中坚份子
stumble ['stʌmbl]
n. 绊倒，失策
vi. 绊倒，失策，踌躇，无
stick [stik]
n. 枝，杆，手杖
vt. 插于，刺入，竖起<
germinate ['dʒə:mineit]
vt. 使发芽，使发展
vi. 发芽，萌芽，开
professional [prə'feʃənl]
adj. 职业的，专业的，专门的
n. 专业人
defeat [di'fi:t]
n. 败北，挫败
vt. 战胜，击败
acceptable [ək'septəbl]
adj. 合意的，受欢迎的，可接受的
fault [fɔ:lt]
n. 缺点，过失，故障，毛病，过错，[地]断层
参考资料：
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