2021年经济学人 两性智慧-不完美的忠告(2)

Could a woman get pregnant, ran one enquiry, if a man and a woman sleeping alone thought of making love at the same time? (Answer: “There are no angels to carry your sperm¹ to the person you dream of.”) If acidic substances prevented pregnancy², ran another, could orange or lemon juice be poured into the vagina after sex? (“Are you a bhel puri vendor³? Where did you get this weird⁴ idea?”)

有人提问，如果男人和女人分居时，两人同时想做爱，女人会怀孕吗？(回答:“世上没有天使会把你的精子送进爱人肚子里。”)还有人提问，如果酸性物质可以阻止受孕，那么性交后可以把橘子汁或柠檬汁倒进阴道利吗？(回答：“阁下是卖贝尔普里的小贩吗？”这些稀奇古怪的想法怎么出来的？”)

Young men—especially young men, though about three in ten who wrote were women—knew that if they wanted sprightly⁵ clarity on sexual matters they could find it on page 34 of the Mirror; just as, in Britain, women—especially women, though men were also firm fans—searched out Ms Whitehorn’s trenchant⁶ views on life in the Sunday Observer for more than 30 years, and after that in Saga⁷ magazine.

年轻男性——尤其是年轻男性，尽管十分之三的提问者是女性——都了解，如果想对性问题有进一步的、详细的认识，他们可以看看《镜报》第34页；就像在英国，女性——尤其是女性，尽管男性也是怀特霍恩的忠实粉丝——30多年来一直在周日的《观察家报》和《故事杂志》上寻找怀特霍恩女士字字珠玑的人生感悟。

Both she, and he, cut through the confusion with a strong sense of mission. Ms Whitehorn was the first columnist⁸ in Britain to give a voice to ordinary, non-decorative, muddling-through women, and became the model for the dozens of confessional columns that followed.

怀特霍恩和沃特萨都以强烈的使命感为众人解惑。怀特霍恩女士是英国第一个为普通、平凡、懵懂过活的女性发声的专栏作家，并成为随后数十个自述性专栏的模范人物。

She had started in journalism⁹, a patriarchal club as it was in the 1950s, typecast and moody-looking in the fashion section, but quickly encouraged women (in books and broadcasts, as well as columns) to overcome any obstacles of biology, maternity¹⁰ or delicacy¹¹, and to write about anything and everything.

起初，她在新闻界工作，在20世纪50年代，这还是一个由男性主导的行业，她在时尚圈也摸爬滚打过一阵儿，她看上去一副阴晴不定的样子，但很快就(在书籍、广播和专栏中)鼓励女性克服生理、生育或敏感方面的障碍，随心所欲地创作。

As for Dr Watsa, his campaign, almost single-handed at the start, was to talk plainly and naturally to Indians about sex. From 1974, when he joined the national Family Planning Association, he promoted sex education in schools, trained teachers, wrote manuals and ran workshops, daring to raise against considerable hostility¹² a subject that people too often wouldn’t face.

而沃特萨医生，他的事业一开始几乎是单打独斗，与印度人坦率而自然地谈论性问题。从1974年加入国家计划生育协会开始，他就在学校里推广性教育，培训教师，编写手册，开办讲习班，敢于面对各方的敌意，对人们羞于启齿的话题畅所欲言。

1 sperm   

n.精子，精液

参考例句：

• Only one sperm fertilises an egg.只有一个精子使卵子受精。
• In human reproduction,one female egg is usually fertilized by one sperm.在人体生殖过程中，一个精子使一个卵子受精。

2 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

3 vendor   

n.卖主；小贩

参考例句：

• She looked at the vendor who cheated her the other day with distaste.她厌恶地望着那个前几天曾经欺骗过她的小贩。
• He must inform the vendor immediately.他必须立即通知卖方。

4 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

5 sprightly   

adj.愉快的，活泼的

参考例句：

• She is as sprightly as a woman half her age.她跟比她年轻一半的妇女一样活泼。
• He's surprisingly sprightly for an old man.他这把年纪了，还这么精神，真了不起。

6 trenchant   

adj.尖刻的，清晰的

参考例句：

• His speech was a powerful and trenchant attack against apartheid.他的演说是对种族隔离政策强有力的尖锐的抨击。
• His comment was trenchant and perceptive.他的评论既一针见血又鞭辟入里。

7 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

8 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

9 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

10 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

11 delicacy   

n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴

参考例句：

• We admired the delicacy of the craftsmanship.我们佩服工艺师精巧的手艺。
• He sensed the delicacy of the situation.他感觉到了形势的微妙。

12 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。