2015年高考英语江苏卷 - 阅读理解D

Freedom and Responsibility
自由和责任

Freedom’s challenge in the Digital Age is a serious topic. We are facing today a strange new world and we are all wondering what we are going to do with it.
数字时代的自由挑战是一个严肃的话题。我们今天面临着一个陌生的新世界，我们都想知道如何应对。

Some 2,500 years ago Greece discovered freedom. Before that there was no freedom. There were great civilizations, splendid empires, but no freedom anywhere. Egypt and Babylon were both tyrannies, one very powerful man ruling over helpless masses.
大约2500年前，希腊发现了自由。在此之前，没有自由。有伟大的文明，辉煌的帝国，但任何地方都没有自由。埃及和巴比伦都是暴君，一个非常强大的人统治着无助的群众。

In Greece, in Athens, a little city in a little country, there were no helpless masses. And Athenians willingly obeyed the written laws which they themselves passed，and the unwritten，which must be obeyed if free men live together. They must show each other kindness and pity and the many qualities without which life would be very painful unless one chose to live alone in the desert. The Athenians never thought that a man was free if he could do what he wanted. A man was free if he was self­controlled. To make yourself obey what you approved was freedom. They were saved from looking at their lives as their own private affair. Each one felt responsible for the welfare of Athens, not because it was forced on him from the outside，but because the city was his pride and his safety. The essential belief of the first free government in the world was liberty for all men who could control themselves and would take responsibility for the state.
在希腊，在雅典，一个小城市，一个小国家，没有无助的群众。雅典人愿意遵守他们自己通过的成文法律和不成文法律，如果自由人生活在一起，就必须遵守这些法律。他们必须互相表示善意和怜悯，以及许多品质，如果没有这些品质，生活将非常痛苦，除非一个人选择独自生活在沙漠中。雅典人从来没有想过，如果一个人能做他想做的事，他就是自由的。如果一个人能自我控制，他就是自由的。让自己服从你所认可的就是自由。他们被解救出来，不再把自己的生活视为自己的私事。每个人都觉得应该为雅典的福祉负责，不是因为这是外界强加给他的，而是因为这座城市是他的骄傲和安全。世界上第一个自由政府的基本信念是所有能够控制自己并对国家负责的人都享有自由。

But discovering freedom is not like discovering computers. It cannot be discovered once for all. If people do not prize it, and work for it, it will go. Constant watch is its price. Athens changed. It was a change that took place without being noticed though it was of the extreme importance, a spiritual change which affected the whole state. It had been the Athenian’s pride and joy to give to their city. That they could get material benefits from her never entered their minds. There had to be a complete change of attitude before they could look at the city as an employer who paid her citizens for doing her work. Now instead of men giving to the state，the state was to give to them. What the people wanted was a government which would provide a comfortable life for them; and with this as the primary object, ideas of freedom and self­reliance and responsibility were neglected to the point of disappearing. Athens was more and more looked on as a cooperative business possessed of great wealth in which all citizens had a right to share.
但发现自由和发现电脑不同。它不可能一次就被发现，如果人们不奖励它，不为它努，它就会消失。持久的关注就是它的价值。雅典发生了变化。这是一种没有被注意到的变化，尽管它极其重要，可以影响整个国家的精神变化。给予他们的城市是雅典人的骄傲和喜悦。他们从未想过他们可以那里得到物质利益。他们必须彻底改变态度，才能把这座城市视为一个雇主，为她的公民提供工作报酬。现在，不是男人向国家施舍，而是国家向他们施舍。人民想要的是一个能为他们提供舒适生活的政府以此为主要目标，自由、自力更生和责任的思想被忽视，直至消失。雅典越来越被视为一个拥有巨大财富的合作企业，所有公民都有权分享。

Athens reached the point when the freedom she really wanted was freedom from responsibility. There could be only one result. If men insisted on being free from the burden of self­dependence and responsibility for the common good, they would cease to be free. Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom. It is to be had on no other terms. Athens, the Athens of Ancient Greece, refused responsibility; she reached the end of freedom and was never to have it again.
雅典获得了真正想要的自由是免于责任。可能只有一个结果。如果人们坚持要摆脱自力更生的负担和对共同利益的责任，他们将不再自由。责任是每个人必须为自由付出的代价。这是没有其他条件的。雅典，古希腊的雅典，拒绝承担责任；她已经到了自由的尽头，再也不能拥有自由了。

But, “the excellent becomes the permanent, ” Aristotle said. Athens lost freedom forever, but freedom was not lost forever for the world. A great American, James Madison, referred to: “The capacity of mankind for self­government.” No doubt he had not an idea that he was speaking Greek. Athens was not in the farthest background of his mind, but once man has a great and good idea, it is never completely lost. The Digital Age cannot destroy it. Somehow in this or that man’s thought such an idea lives though unconsidered by the world of action. One can never be sure that it is not on the point of breaking out into action only sure that it will do so sometime.
但是，亚里士多德说过：“优秀变成永恒”。雅典永远失去了自由，但世界并没有永远失去自由。一位伟大的美国人詹姆斯·麦迪逊提到：“人类的自治能力。”毫无疑问，他不知道自己在说希腊语。雅典并不是他心目中最遥远的地方，但一旦人们有了一个伟大而好的想法，它就永远不会完全消失。数字时代无法摧毁它。不知何故，在这个或那个人的思想中，这样一个想法虽然没有被行动世界所考虑，但仍然存在。人们永远无法确定它是否即将采取行动，只能确定它会在某个时候采取行动。