2001年E

Possession for its own sake or in competition with the rest of the neighborhood

would have been Thoreau’s idea of the low levels. The active discipline of heightening one’s perception of what is enduring in nature would have been his idea of the high. What he saved from the low was time and effort he could spend on the high. Thoreau certainly disapproved of starvation, but he would put into feeding himself only as much effort as would keep him functioning for more important efforts. Effort is the gist（要点，主旨） of it. There is no happiness except as we take on(接纳) life-engaging（有魅力的、迷人的） difficulties. Short of the impossible, as Yeats put it, the satisfaction we get from a lifetime depends on how high we choose our difficulties. Robert Frost was thinking in something like the same terms（相同的表达、看法） when he spoke of “The pleasure of taking pains”. The mortal flaw （致命的缺陷）in the advertised version of happiness is in the fact that it purports（宣称、

声称） to be effortless.

We demand difficulty even in our games（体育比赛、游戏）. We demand it because without difficulty there can be no game. A game is a way of making something hard for the fun of it. The rules of the game are an arbitrary（武断的） imposition（强迫接受） of difficulty. When someone ruins the fun, he always does so by refusing to play by the rules. It is easier to win at chess if you are free, at your pleasure, to change the wholly arbitrary rules, but the fun is in winning within the

rules. No difficulty, no fun. 参考译文： 努力是问题的关键。如果不经历艰难困苦，就没有幸福可言。正如爱尔兰诗人叶芝所言，除了极少数不大可能出现的情况外，我们一生中得到的满意程度取决于我们愿意克服的困难有多大。美国诗人罗伯特费罗斯特谈到“苦中求乐”时，也表达了相同的看法。出现在广告中的幸福都有一个致命的错误，

那就是，不费吹灰之力即可获得幸福。

即使在体育比赛中，我们也需要克服困难。我们需要克服困难，因为没有困难就没有比赛。比赛就是使某件事情变得更加困难，以便难中取乐。制定比赛规则就是故意制造困难。违反竞赛规则也就丧失了比赛乐趣。下棋时，如果不受规则的约束，高兴怎么走就怎么走，你很容易取胜。然而，乐趣源于胜利而又遵守

规则。没有困难，也就没有乐趣。 2001 C-E：

乔羽的歌大家都熟悉。但他另外两大爱好却鲜为人知，那就是钓鱼和喝酒。晚年的乔羽喜爱垂钓，他说，“有水有鱼的地方大都是有好环境的，好环境便会给人好心情。我认为最好的钓鱼场所不是舒适的、给你准备好饿鱼的垂钓园，而是那极其有吸引力的大自然野外天成的场所。” 钓鱼是一项能够陶冶性情的运动，有益于身心健康。乔羽说：“钓鱼可分三个阶段：第一阶段是吃鱼；第二阶段是吃鱼和情趣兼而有之；第三阶段主要是钓趣，面对一池碧水，将忧心烦恼全

都抛在一边，使自己的身心得到充分休息。” 参考译文： In his later years (Late in his life), Qiao Yu has become enamored of fishing (developed a penchant / special fondness for fishing). He asserts: “ Mostly speaking, a place with water and fish must necessarily be blessed with a nice setting,

which in return keeps people in good mood. I believe that the optimum fishing places are not those commercial fishing centers which provide the fishermen with all the

conveniences and where fish are kept hungry for ready capture, but those

naturally-formed places in the wilderness which exert a special appeal.” According to

him, fishing can constitute an activity conducive to the cultivation of one’s

temperament and to one’s health, at once physical and psychological. Qiao Yu claims: “Fishing can be divided into three stages. The first stage consists of mere fish-eating; the second a combination of fish-eating and the pleasure (enjoyment) of fishing; the third primarily the pleasure of fishing when, confronted with a pond of clear water, one puts aside all his troubling vexations and annoyances and enjoys the total

relaxation both mentally and physically.”