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1、自考高级英语上册 Lesson 15 The Beauty Industry大耳朵英语http:/ 2011-01-21 22:35:03 【打印】Lesson 15: The Beauty Industry美容用品业The one American industry unaffected by the general depression of trade is the beamy industry.美国工业中惟一未受贸易大萧条影响的是美容用品业。American women continue to spend on their faces and bodies as much as the
2、y spent before the coming of the slump經濟蕭條前about three million pounds a week.美国妇女仍不断在她们的脸上和身体上花费与经济萧条到来之前同样多的钱每周约300万英镑。These facts and figures are official, and can he accepted as being substantially 充分true.这些事实与数字都是官方的，可大致属实。Reading them. I was only surprised by the comparative 相對較小smallness of th
3、e sums expended.当读到这时，我只为花费的数目相对较小而感到惊奇。From the prodigious巨大 number of advertisements of aids to beauty contained in the American magazines,从美国杂志上铺天盖地的化妆品广告来看，I had imagined that the personal appearance business must stand high up among the champions of American industrythe equal, or only just less
4、 than the equal, of bootlegging販賣私酒 and racketeering,敲詐勒索 movies and automobiles.从美国杂志上铺天盖地的化妆品广告来看，我原以为美容用品业一定居美国工业群雄之首，与贩卖私酒和敲诈勒索，电影和汽车业并驾齐驱或稍逊一筹。Still, one hundred and fifty-six million pounds a year is a tidy 相當大的sum.虽然如此，每年 1亿 5，600万英镑是一个相当不小的数目，Rather more than twice the revenue收入 of India, if
5、 I remember rightly.如果我没有记错的话，超出印度年收入的两倍。I do not know what the European figures are. Much smaller undoubtedly.我不知道欧洲的数字是多少，毫无疑问要小得多。Europe is poor, and a face can cost as much in upkeep as a Rolls-Royce.欧洲很穷，保养一张脸需要花费和保养一辆罗尔斯罗伊斯牌汽车一样多的钱。The most that the majority of European women can do is just to
6、 wash and hope for the best.大多欧洲妇女最多只能洗洗脸，听天由命。Perhaps the soap will produce its loudly advertised effects;也许肥皂会产生广告中大肆宣扬的效果，perhaps it will transform them into the likeness of those ravishing creatures who smile so rosily and creamily紅潤白嫩, so peachily艷如桃李 and pearlily美若珠肌, from every hoarding廣告牌.也许
7、能把她们变成像那些在每块广告牌上绽开令人陶醉的红润白嫩、艳如桃李、美若珠玑般笑容的女郎。Perhaps, on the other hand, it may not.另一方面，或许肥皂不具有这种效能。In any case, the more costly experiments in beautification are still as much beyond most European means as are high-powered motor-cars and electric refrigerators.无论怎样，在装饰自己上更为昂贵的试验和大马力汽车及电冰箱一样都是欧洲人的经济
8、能力所不及的。Even in Europe, however, much more is now spent on beauty than was ever spent in the past.然而即使在欧洲，如今花在化妆品上的钱比过去任何时候都要多得多，Not quite so much more as in America, that is all.只不过比起美国来要逊色些罢了。But, everywhere, the increase has been undoubtedly enormous.增長無疑是巨大的但无论在任何地方，增长无疑是巨大的。The fact is significa
9、nt.这一事实意义重大。To what is it due?为什么会出现这种现象呢？In part, I suppose, to a general increase in prosperity繁榮.我认为部分是由于普遍增长的繁荣。The rich have always cultivated their personal appearance.有钱的人总是追求个人容貌的修饰，The diffusion擴散 of wealthsuch as it isnow permits those of the poor who are less badly off than their fathers
10、to do the same.财富的扩散尽管程度并不大，境况比其父辈稍好一些的穷人也能这样做。But this is, clearly, not the whole story.但显然这并非事情的全部。The modern cult of beauty is not exclusively 不隻是a function (in the mathematical sense) of wealth.现代对美貌的狂热崇拜并不只是财富的作用（从数学意义上看），If it were, then the personal appearance industries would have been as ha
11、rdly hit by the trade depression as any other business.因为如果是这样，那么美容用品业就会和其他企业一样受到贸易萧条的沉重打击。But, as we have seen, they have not suffered.但是正如我们所见，它并未受到损失。Women are retrenching緊縮 on other things than their faces.女人们在美容之外的一切方面紧缩开支，The cult of beauty must therefore be symptomatic of changes that have ta
12、ken place outside the economic sphere因而对美貌的狂热崇拜必定表现了经济领域以外产生的变化。. Of what changes? Of the changes, I suggest, in the status of women; of the changes in our attitude towards the merely physical.單純是肉體的變化什么变化？我认为表现了妇女地位的变化，表现了我们对“单纯是肉体”的态度的变化。Women, it is obvious, are freer than in the past.很显然，妇女比过去自由
13、了，Freer not only to perform the generally unenviable social functions hitherto 迄今為止reserved保留to the male,不仅在完成迄今为止由男性完成的并值得羡慕的社会职能上比较自由了，but also freer to exercise the more pleasing, feminine privilege of being attractive.而且在运用更令人愉快的女性吸引力的特权上比较自由了。They have the right, if not to be less virtuous than
14、 their grandmothers, at any rate to look less virtuous貞淑.如果她们没有权利不如祖母们贞淑，至少可以有权利看起来不那么贞淑。The British Matron, not long since a creature of austere嚴峻 and even terrifying aspect,英国的命妇不久前还是神色严厉可怕的人物，now does her best to achieve and perennially 永久preserve保持 the appearance of what her predecessor前輩 would
15、have described as a Lost Woman. She often succeeds.现在也尽一切努力获得并常年保持她的前辈会称作为荡妇的外表,她们常能做到这点。But we are not shockedat any rate, not morally shocked.但我们并不感到震惊，至少在道德上没有震惊。Aesthetically shockedyes; we may sometimes be that. But morally, no.审美上受到震惊是的，有时是这样，但道德上没有We concede 讓步that the Matron is morally justified正當的 in being preoccupied with her personal appearance.我们作出让步，承认
