English to Chinese For my sons there is of course the rural county of fresh-grown vegetables, line-caught fish and the shared riches of neighbor ’ s orchards and gardens. There is the unpaid baby-sitter for whose children my daughter-in-law baby-sits in return, and neighbors who barter their skills and labor. But more than that, how do you measure serenity? sense of self? I don ’ t want to idealize life in small places. There are times when the outside would intrudes brutally, as when the cost of gasoline goes up or developers cast their eyes on untouched farmland. T here are cruelties, there is intolerance, there are all the many vices and meannesses in small places that exist in large cities. F urthermore, it is harder to ignore them when they cannot be banished psychologically to another part of town or excused as the whims of aliens groups – when they have to be acknowleged as “ part of us ” . 2. Chinese to English 以前的功课也许有一大部分是为了这张毕业文凭,不得已而做的,从今以后,你们可以依自己的心愿去自由研究了。趁现在年富力强的时候,努力做一种专门学问。少年一去不复返的,等到精力衰时,要做学问也来不及了。既为吃饭计,学问决不会辜负人的。吃饭而不求学问,三年五年之后,你们都要被后来少年淘汰掉的。到那时再想做点学问来补救,恐怕已太晚。 有人说:“出去做事之后,生活问题急需解决,哪有工夫去读书?即使要做学问,既没有图书馆,又没有实验室,哪能做学问?” 我要对你们说:凡是要等到有了图书馆方才读书的,有了图书馆也不肯读书。凡是要等到有了实验室方才做研究的,有了实验室也不肯做研究。你有了决心要研究一个问题,自然会撙衣节食去买书,自然会想出法子来设置仪器。