-
1997
年
Text1.
It was 3:45 in the
morning when the vote was finally taken. After six
months of arguing and final 16 hours of
hot parliamentary debates,
Australia’s
Northern Territory became the first legal
authority in the
world to allow doctors
to take the lives of incurably ill patients who
wish to die. The measure passed by the
convincing vote of 15 to 10.
Almost
immediately word flashed on the Internet and was
picked up,
half a world away, by John
Hofsess, executive director of the Right
to
Die
Society
of
Canada.
He
sent
it
on
via
the
group’s
on
-line
service,
Death
NET.
Says
Hofsess:
“We
posted
bulletins
all
day
long,
because of course this isn’t just something that
happened in
Australia. It’s world
history.”
凌晨
3
点
45
分是最后的投票表决。经过半年的争辩和
最后
16
个小时的国会激烈辩论，
澳大
利亚北部地区成为世界上第一个允许医
生根据绝症病人的个人意愿来结束其生命的合法地
区。
这一法案是以
15
票对
10
票的无可争议的结果通过的。
该消息几乎同时
出现在互联
网上
。身处地
球另一
端的加拿
大死亡权利协会执行主席
John
Hofsess “死亡之网”发布了公告。
他说：
“我们这一整天都在发布公告，
因在看到该消息后便通过协会的在线服务网
站为这件事的意义不仅
仅是澳大利亚发生的事情，而是世界的历史
”
The full import may take a while to
sink in. The NT Rights of the
Terminally Ill law has left physicians
and citizens alike trying to deal
with
its moral and practical implications. Some have
breathed sighs
of
relief,
others,
including
churches,
right-to-life
groups
and
the
Australian
Medical
Association,
bitterly
attacked
the
bill
and
the
haste
of
its
passage.
But
the
tide
is
unlikely
to
turn
back.
In
Australia
——
where an aging population, life-extending
technology
and changing community
attitudes have all played their part
——
other states
are going to consider making a similar law to deal
with
euthanasia.
In
the
US
and
Canada,
where
the
right-to-die
movement
is
gathering
strength,
observers
are
waiting
for
the
dominoes to start
falling.
这一法案的深刻意义也许
还需要一段时间才能被人们接受。
澳大
利亚北部各州所通过的晚
期病人权益法使得医生和市民都必须尽力
去处理它的道德和实际的意义。
有一些人感到如释重负，
而另一些人，
包括教会，
生命权利组织以及澳大利亚医学会成员都对这一决议进行
了猛烈的抨
击，
并批评该决议的通过过于草率。
但是安乐死这一潮流
是不可逆转的。在澳大利亚，人口老龄化，延长寿命技术和公众态度
的
变化都发挥着各自的作用。
其他州也将考虑制定类似的法律法规来
处理安乐死问题。
在美国和加拿大，
死亡权利运动正在积蓄力
量，观
望者们正在等待多米诺骨牌效应。
Under the new
Northern Territory law, an adult patient can
request
death
——
probably by a deadly injection or pill
——
to put an end
to suffering. The patient must be
diagnosed as terminally ill by two
doctors. After a “cooling off” period
of seven days, the patient can
sign a
certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish
for death can
be met. For Lloyd
Nickson, a 54-year-old Darwin resident suffering
from lung cancer, the NT Rights of
Terminally Ill law means he can
get
on
with
living
without
the
haunting
fear
of
his
suffering:
a
te
rrifying death from his
breathing condition. “I’m not afraid of dying
from a spiritual point of view, but
what I was afraid of was how I’d
go,
because
I’ve
watched
people
die
in
the
hospital
fighting
for
oxygen and clawing at
their masks,” he says.
根据北部地区所通过的这项新法案，成年病人可以要求安乐死
——
可以是通过注射致死药剂或服用致死药片
——
来结束痛苦。
< br>但此前病人必须经由两名医生诊断为晚期病人，
然后病人再需经过
7
天的“冷静思考期”，
才可在申请书上签字。
48
小时后，
病人安乐死的
< br>愿望才会得到满足。对于居住在
Darwin
市、现年
54
岁的肺癌患者
Lloyd
Nickson
来说，这个法律意味着他可以平静地生活下去而无须<
/p>
整天惧怕即将来临的痛苦：这是由呼吸困难而产生的令人痛苦的死
亡。“从思想上说，我现在并不害怕死，但我原来怕的是怎样死去，”
他说，“因为我在
医院看到过病人挣扎着呼吸氧气，用手抓挠氧气面
罩时的情景。”
Text2.
A report
consistently brought back by visitors to the US is
how
friendly, courteous, and helpful
most Americans were to them. To
be
fair,
this
observation
is
also
frequently
made
of
Canada
and
Canadians, and should
best be considered North American. There
are,
of
course,
exceptions.
Small-minded
officials,
rude
waiters,
and ill-mannered
taxi drivers are hardly unknown in the US. Yet it
is
an observation made so frequently
that it deserves comment.
去过美国的人经常带回报告说
，大多数美国人对他们非常友善、
好客、
且他们都很乐于助人。
公正地说，人们对加拿大和加拿大人也
有这样的评论，因而，应当认为这是北美一个普遍
的现象。当然也有
例外。
在美国，
心胸
狭隘的官员，举止粗鲁的招待和缺乏教养的出租
车司机也并非罕见。
但人们却常常得出美国人好客的评论，
这就值得
我们探讨。
For
a
long
period
of
time
and
in
many
parts
of
the
country,
a
traveler
was
a
welcome
break
in
an
otherwise
dull
existence.
Dullness
and
loneliness
were
common
problems
of
the
families
who
generally
lived
distant
from
one
another.
Strangers
and
travelers were welcome sources of
diversion, and brought news of
the
outside world.
过去很长的一段时间内，在美国很多地方，旅行者的到
来因暂时
打破了本地人原本的单调生活而受人欢迎。
那个时候，
人们的住处彼
此非常遥远，沉闷、
孤独
是是一个普遍的问题。因此陌生人和旅行者
很受欢迎，
他们给当
地人带来了娱乐消遣，
同时还带来了外面世界的
消息。
The
harsh
realities
of
the
frontier
also
shaped this
tradition
of
hospitality. Someone traveling alone,
if hungry, injured, or ill, often
had
nowhere to
turn
except
to the
nearest cabin
or settlement.
It
was not a matter of
choice for the traveler or merely a charitable
impulse
on
the
part
of
the
settlers.
It
reflected
the
harshness
of
daily
life:
if
you
didn’t
take
in
the
stranger
and
take
care
of
him,
there was
no one else who would. And someday, remember, you
might be in the same situation.
边远地区的严酷生活现实也进一步促成了这一好客的传统。人们
在独自旅行时，
如果缺少食物、受伤或生病，通常只能向附近的小屋
或村落求助。因而对于旅行者来说，
这不是一个选择的问题；而对当
地居民来说，
< br>这也并非是想要行善的一时冲动。
这种情况反映了日常
生
活的严峻性：如果你不收留他，那他便无处可以落脚和求助了。请
记住，说不定有一天你
也可能陷入相同的遭遇。
Today there are many charitable
organizations which specialize
in
helping the weary traveler. Yet, the old tradition
of hospitality to
strangers
is
still
very
strong
in
the
US,
especially
in
the
smaller
cities
and
towns
away
from
the
busy
tourist
trails.
“I
was
just
traveling through, got
talking with this American, and pretty soon he
invited
me
home
for
dinner
--
amazing.”
Such
observations
reported
by
visitors
to
the
US
are
not
uncommon,
but
are
not
always
understood
properly.
The
casual
friendliness
of
many
Americans
should
be
interpreted
neither
as
superficial
nor
as
artificial,
but
as
the
result
of
a
historically
developed
cultural
tradition.
现在有很多慈善组织专门致力于帮助疲
惫不堪的旅行者。不过，
热情接待陌生人的传统在美国仍然非常流行，
< br>尤其是在远离旅游热线
的小城镇。“我只是随便走了一圈，和这个美国人聊了聊。
没过多久，
他就请我到他家吃饭——这真是不可思议。”来美国的旅客中碰到这
种事件的还不少，
但他们并非对这个现象都能正确理解。
很多美国人
在不经意间表现出的友好不应被看做是表面应酬或故作姿态，
而应该
视为是在历史发展中形成的一种文化传统。
As is true of any
developed society, in America a complex set of
cultural signals, assumptions, and
conventions underlies all social
interrelationships.
And,
of
course,
speaking
a
language
does
not
necessarily
mean
that
someone
understands
social
and
cultural
patterns. Visitors who fail to
“translate” cultural meanings properly
often
draw
wrong
conclusions.
For
example,
when
an
American
uses the word
“friend,” the cultural implications of the word
may be
quite different from those it
has in the visitor
’s language and
culture.
It
takes
more
than
a
brief
encounter
on
a
bus
to
distinguish
between
courteous
convention
and
individual
interest.
Yet,
being
friendly
is
a
virtue
that
many
Americans
value
highly
and
expect
from both neighbors and strangers.
同任何发达国家一样，美国人所有的社会交往的基础是一整套复
杂的文化
特征，信念和习俗。当然，
会讲一种语言并不意味着就理解
该语
言的社会和文化模式。不能正确“诠释”文化含义的旅行者经常得
出错误的结论。例如，
美国人嘴里所说的“朋友”一词所包含的文化内
涵可能与旅行者母语和文化中的“朋友”
涵义大相径庭。要想分清称呼
“朋友”是出于好客的文化习俗还是出于个人兴趣，只靠在
公共汽车上
的萍水相逢是不够的。然而，友好是很多美国人推崇备至的美德，同
时他们也希望自己的邻居和陌生人也能够如此。
Text3.
Technically, any
substance other than food that alters our bodily
or mental functioning is a drug. Many
people mistakenly believe the
term
drug
refers
only
to
some
sort
of
medicine
or
an
illegal
chemical
taken
by
drug
addicts.
They
don’t
realize
that
familiar
substances such
as
alcohol
and
tobacco
are
also
drugs.
This
is
why
the
more
neutral
term
substance
is
now
used
by
many
physicians
and
psychologists.
The
phrase
“substance
abuse”
is
often
used instead of “drug abuse” to make clear that
substances
such as alcohol and tobacco
can be just as harmfully misused as
heroin and cocaine.
严格说来，除了食
品外，任何能改变我们生理和心理机能的物质
都是药物。很多人误认为“药物”这个词仅
仅指某些药品或是吸毒者服
用的违禁化学品。
他们没有意识到诸
如酒精、
烟草这些我们熟悉的物
质也都是药物。这也就是为什么
现在许多医生和心理学家使用“物质”
这个更加中性的词的原因。他们常用“物质滥用”
而不用“药物滥用”来
清楚表明滥用酒精、烟草这样的物质与滥用海洛因和可卡因一样有
害。
We
live
in
a
society
in
which
the
medicinal
and
social
use
of
substances
(drugs)
is
pervasive:
an
aspirin
to
quiet
a
headache,
some
wine
to
be
sociable,
coffee
to
get
going
in
the
morning,
a
cigarette
for
the
nerves.
When
do
these
socially
acceptable
and
apparently
constructive
uses
of
a
substance
become
misuses?
First of all, most
substances taken in excess will produce negative
effects
such
as
poisoning
or
intense
perceptual
distortions.
Repeated use of
a substance can also lead to physical addiction or
substance
dependence.
Dependence
is
marked
first
by
an
increased tolerance, with
more and more of the substance required
to
produce
the
desired
effect,
and
then
by
the
appearance
of
unpleasant
withdrawal
symptoms
when
the
substance
is
discontinued.
在我们生活的这个社会中，物质
（药物）在医疗和社交方面的使
用都很广泛：服用阿斯匹林可以缓解头痛，应酬时要喝酒
，早晨醒来
喝咖啡来提神，
抽一支香烟可以稳定情绪等等。
使用这些物质得到了
社会的认可，
而且很明
显具有其积极的作用，
但什么时候就变成滥用
了呢？首先，
大多数物质的过量使用都会产生负作用，
如中毒或严重
的感知错乱。
反复使用一种物质可以导致上瘾、
也就
是对这种物质的
依赖。
依赖的最初表现是不断增长的耐药量，<
/p>
用量越来越大才能达到
预期效果，而一旦中断使用就会出现非常不
舒服的停药症状。
Drugs
(substances) that affect the central nervous
system and
alter
perception,
mood,
and
behavior
are
known
as
psychoactive
substances.
Psychoactive
substances
are
commonly
grouped
according
to
whether
they
are
stimulants,
depressants,
or
hallucinogens. Stimulants initially
speed up or activate the central
nervous system, whereas depressants
slow it down. Hallucinogens
have their
primary effect on perception, distorting and
altering it in a
variety
of
ways
including
producing
hallucinations.
These
are
the
substances often called psychedelic
(from the Greek word meaning
“mind
-
manifesting”)
because
they
seemed
to
radically
alter
one’s
state of
consciousness.
作用于中枢神经系统、能改变感知觉和行为的药物（物
质）被称
为对神经起作用的物质，
这一类物质通常分为兴奋剂、
镇静剂和幻觉
剂。
兴奋剂主要起到加速
或激活中枢神经系统活动的作用，
而镇静剂
则相反：使其活动变
缓。幻觉剂主要影响人的感知，通过各种不同的
方式对感知加以扭曲或改变，
其中包括产生幻觉。
这些物质常被认为
能“引起幻
觉”
（
psychedelic
一词源
自希腊语，
其意思是“心灵显现”）
，
因为它们似乎能完全改变人的意识状态。
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