The speaker, a teacher from a community college, addressed a sympathetic audience. Heads nodded in agreement when he said, “High school English teachers are not doing their jobs.” He described the inadequacies of his students, all high school graduates who can use language only at a grade 9 level. I was unable to determine from his answers to my questions how this grade 9 level had been established.
演讲者是一位来自社区大学的老师，他向富有同情心的听众发表了讲话。校长们点头表示同意，他说：“高中英语老师没有做好他们的工作。”他描述了他的学生的不足之处，他们都是高中毕业生，只能在九年级使用语言。我无法从他对我问题的回答中确定这个9年级的水平是如何建立的。
My topic is not standards nor its decline. What the speaker was really saying is that he is no longer young; he has been teaching for sixteen years, and is able to think and speak like a mature adult.
我的话题既不是标准也不是降低。演讲者真正说的是，他已经不再年轻；他已经教了十六年书，能像一个成熟的成年人一样思考和说话。
My point is that the frequent complaint of one generation about the one immediately following it is inevitable. It is also human nature to look for the reasons for our dissatisfaction. Before English became a school subject in the late nineteenth century, it was difficult to find the target of the blame for language deficiencies. But since then, English teachers have been under constant attack.
我的观点是，一代人对紧随其后的人的频繁抱怨是不可避免的。寻找我们不满的原因也是人类的天性。在19世纪末英语成为一门学校科目之前，很难找到语言缺陷的罪魁祸首。但从那时起，英语老师就一直受到攻击。
The complainers think they have hit upon an original idea. As their own command of the language improves, they notice that young people do not have this same ability. Unaware that their own ability has developed through the years, they assume the new generation of young people must be hopeless in this respect. To the eyes and ears of sensitive adults the language of the young always seems inadequate.
抱怨者认为他们偶然发现了一个新颖的想法。随着他们对语言的掌握能力的提高，他们注意到年轻人并没有同样的能力。他们没有意识到自己的能力多年来得到了发展，他们认为新一代年轻人在这方面一定是绝望的。在敏感的成年人看来，年轻人的语言似乎总是不够。
Since this concern about the decline and fall of the English language is not perceived as a generational phenomenon but rather as something new and peculiar to today’s young people, it naturally follows that today’s English teachers cannot be doing their jobs. Otherwise, young people would not commit offenses against the language.
由于这种对英语衰落的担忧并不是一种世代现象，而是当今年轻人特有的新现象，因此，今天的英语教师自然无法胜任自己的工作。否则，年轻人就不会触犯这种语言。
网友评论