新视野大学英语第四册 unit2B Making the choice to be beautiful

Making the choice to be truly beautiful

下决心成为真正美丽的人

Extreme makeovers are all the rage these days, with too many

people addicted to Botox injection parties and reality shows. Plastic

surgery is on the rise. Many people are trying to match the extraordinary

measures actors and actresses go through to look perfect on the screen.

Yet, the shortcuts to create biomedical happiness by having surgery,

taking supplements or dieting don't usually fulfill their promise. Besides,

beautiful people are not automatically happy people.

当今，过度追求 相貌修整的风气无比盛行，太多的人沉迷于肉毒杆菌

注射的宣讲会和真人秀，整容手术也 日趋流行。许多人的做法堪比男女演

员为了使自己在屏幕上看起来完美无瑕而采取的手段 。为了获得生物医学

标准下的幸福感，人们会走做整容手术、吃营养品、节食这样的捷径 ，但

这些捷径并不总能实现它们所承诺的效果。而且，外表漂亮的人并不一定

Attaining the highest degree of your beauty is not about looking

good during social interaction, or physiological perfection, and you can't

get there via technology. It's a growth process, a transformation of self

through awareness and learning. It's about meaning, and being real. It's

an emotional and spiritual walk, and it requires faith fueled with liberal

doses of loving kindness.

最大限度地实现你自己的美并不是指要让自己在社 交时漂亮或在生理

上完美，况且这些也不是通过技术就能实现的。美是一个成长的过程， 是

一种通过意识和学习而达到的自我改造。美在于生活的意义，在于真实。

它是一个情感和精神的旅程，需要人有信念才能获得，而且这种信念的动

力来 自慷慨和充满爱心的善良。

Every day, I have the delight and privilege of loving Richard, my

husband, a real, human, emotionally accessible man. We're about the

same age, and our looks have corroded a bit over time. After almost 20

years, though, we have grown together in ways that go far deeper than

the surface of our skin. Our life is lovely even if it doesn't match the

criterion of love in movie fantasies. We laugh together, we share the

struggles of daily life together, and the thought that he might die before I

do fills me with dread. All the muscle- bound male models in the world

couldn't replace my very own, sensual, outgoing friend. It took me 37

years to find him, and I'm not about to replace him with the so-called

能有幸每天爱着理查德，我感到很高兴。他是我丈夫，一个真实的、

有人情味的、情感上可以靠近的人。我们年龄相仿，相貌已在岁月中有所

消退。但近二十年来，我们共同成长，远超肌肤之表。尽管我们的生活不

如虚幻的电影故 事中描述的爱情生活那样，它却很美好。我们一起欢笑，

一起分担日常生活的磕磕绊绊。 如果想到他有可能先于我离世，我会充满

恐惧。世界上任何一位肌肉发达的男模都不能取 代我自己的这位性感、外

向的伴侣。

我花了

37

年时间才找到他，

我决不 会因为所谓的

“

审美标准上

的完美

”

而另寻他人。

I work as a psychotherapist, and clients come to

my office every day scarred with emotional pain because their lives

aren't

with jealousy because they can't attain life as they see it on the big

screen. It helps when I preface our sessions with the mention that tens of

thousands of dollars go into every second of media they see, that stars

have dozens of people devoted exclusively to making them look good

(even when they're naked), that the effort of maintaining their images is

an exhausting, full-time job. The

under enormous pressure to maintain their looks, and for some reason,

my clients don't realize that they're exempt from that predominant

pressure.

我 是一名心理理疗师。每天我都要接待许多客户，他们都是因为生活

不够

< br>“

完美

”

而倍受情感痛苦。由于 无法获得大屏幕上所看到的那种生活，

他们感到力不从心、

绝望 无助，

并因嫉妒而陷于沮丧。

给他们提供治疗时，

如果在治疗开始前，我告诉他们，他们在媒体上所看到的每秒钟的图像都

耗资 数万，每个明星都有几十个人专门为其打理形象，使其外表悦目（甚

至是裸体时也是如此 ），而且明星们保持形象是一件既费力又费时的事，

这会对他们的治疗有所帮助。媒体上 的俊男俏女们承受着保持形象的巨大

压力，而我的客户却因某种原因，没有意识到他们有 幸免受了这种强大的

压力。

I underscore that all the face creams, physical workouts, dietary fads,

Prozac capsules and meditation regiments in the world aren't going to

make their lives, their bodies, or their mental state much better. In fact,

they often hamper happiness by distracting from the things that lead to

real inner beauty. Life is not about maintaining some young and stylish

outward costume to hide behind. It's about growing and deepening your

soul.

我要强调的是，世界上所有的面霜、健身锻炼、饮食风尚、抗抑郁症

的百忧解胶囊，乃至许多人在一起打坐冥思等等，都不能改善一个人的生

活、身体或 精神状况。事实上，这些方法还常常阻碍人们获得幸福，因为

它们会使人分心，不去关注 那些能带来真正内在美的事物。生活的意义不

在于通过维持某种年轻时髦的外表来掩盖自 己，而在于精神的成长和升华。

The only way I know to develop my soul is through feelings.

Witnessing natural phenomena - the star-lit galaxy, a centuries-old

redwood, the symphony of birds' songs in spring - stretches it, making

me feel humble and majestic, all at the same time. Human relationships

bruise, collide and comfort, teaching me maturity and passion. Love

urges my soul to blossom and glow, affection elicits feelings of eternity,

and so I learn to accept others as they are.

我所知道的唯一的精神升华

的途径就是通过情感。亲 眼目睹各种自然现象

——

星光闪烁的银河，几百

年树龄的红杉木，春天里鸟儿的叫声汇成的交响乐

——

这些都使我的精神

得以延伸，让我觉得自己既卑微又伟大。人际关系中的摩擦、冲突和安 慰

使我变得成熟并充满激情。爱情促使我的精神成长并焕发光彩，亲情激发

了我对永恒的感受，因此我学会了接受他人的真实本色。

The humans in my life are not the barren, self-absorbed

people

we work hard stumbling through life, trying to be our best selves, knitting