2021年经济学人 英国私立学校还在培养情感侏儒吗？(1)

Books and Arts- Book Review

文学与艺术——书评

Class and Education - Noblesse Disoblige

阶级与教育——贵族的不满

Sad Little Men: Private Schools and the Ruin of England. By Richard Beard.

《可悲的小大人：私立学校与英格兰的毁灭》作者：理查德·比尔德。

As its subtitle¹ promises, this book is an uncompromising denunciation of Britain’s private schools.

正如副标题所显示的那样，这本书坚定地谴责了英国的私立学校。

They offer their charges a Faustian bargain, says Richard Beard: the tools of success (principally fluency² and self-confidence) in return for emotional impoverishment³.

理查德·比尔德说，这些学校向学生提供了一种浮士德式的交易：用成功的工具（主要是语言流利和自信）换取情感上的贫乏。

He knows whereof he speaks: in 1975 he was sent from home to a new life sleeping in dormitories and climbing hierarchies⁴, much like David Cameron and Boris Johnson.

他清楚自己在说什么：1975年，他被家里人送到学校，过上一种新的生活，睡在宿舍里，攀级而上，就像大卫·卡梅伦和鲍里斯·约翰逊那样。

This argument is far from original; lambasting public schools for tormenting⁵ their inmates⁶ and ruining the country is one of Britain’s oldest traditions.

这一论点绝不是原创；痛斥私校（public school）折磨囚犯般的学生及破坏国家是英国最古老的传统之一。

(In England and Wales private schools are confusingly known as “public schools”; they themselves prefer “independent schools”.)

（在英格兰和威尔士，私立学校被称为“public schools”，令人困惑；学校更喜欢称自己是“independent schools”。)

Thomas Macaulay, a Victorian historian and politician, avoided them after a family friend told his mother that “throwing boys headlong into those great public schools always puts me in mind of the practice of the Scythian mothers, who threw their new-born infants into the river.”

维多利亚时代的历史学家和政治家托马斯·麦考利没有去上私校，因为家族中的一位朋友告诉他母亲，“把男孩轻率地扔进那些名声很大的私校，总是让我想起塞西亚母亲们把刚出生的婴儿扔进河里的行为。”

In the 20th century Evelyn Waugh quipped that “anyone who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison.”

在20世纪，伊夫林·沃曾打趣说：“任何上过英国私校的人都能在监狱里过得相对自在。”

Goronwy Rees, a journalist, wrote of the public-school boys he encountered at Oxford⁷ that they “were all well-taught at school and what they understood they understood very well; what they did not understand included almost everything which would change the world in their lifetime”.

记者戈隆威·里斯在谈到他在牛津遇到的私校男孩时写道，他们“在学校里都受到了很好的教育，他们所懂得的东西他们都理解得很好；而他们不懂的几乎包括在他们一生中会改变世界的所有事情。”

Two of the best books about the classic public school (both by T.C. Worsley, a former schoolmaster) are entitled “Barbarians and Philistines” and “Flannelled Fool”.

关于经典私校的两本最好的书（都是前校长T.C.沃斯利写的）是《野蛮人与非利士人》和《穿法兰绒的傻瓜》。

1 subtitle   

n.副题（书本中的），说明对白的字幕

参考例句：

• His new book has a subtitle.他的新书有一个副标题。
• Ah!I don't know why they don't subtitle these movies.唉！我不知道这些电影为什么不打字幕。

2 fluency   

n.流畅，雄辩，善辩

参考例句：

• More practice will make you speak with greater fluency.多练习就可以使你的口语更流利。
• Some young children achieve great fluency in their reading.一些孩子小小年纪阅读已经非常流畅。

3 impoverishment   

n.贫穷，穷困；贫化

参考例句：

• Therefore, the spiritual impoverishment is a more fearful social phenomenon. 所以，精神贫困是一种比物质贫困更隐蔽更可怕的社会现象。 来自互联网
• Impoverishment is compounded by many elements, and can transmit to be a pernicious cycle. 贫困是由多种因素复合而成的，并且具有传递性，形成贫困的恶性循环。 来自互联网

4 hierarchies   

等级制度( hierarchy的名词复数 )； 统治集团； 领导层； 层次体系

参考例句：

• That's a trip of two hierarchies. 那是两个领导层之间的互访。
• Hierarchies of authority, spans of control, long-range plans, and budgets. 等级森严的权力机构，控制范围，长期计划，预算。 来自英汉文学 - 廊桥遗梦

5 tormenting   

使痛苦的，使苦恼的

参考例句：

• He took too much pleasure in tormenting an ugly monster called Caliban. 他喜欢一味捉弄一个名叫凯列班的丑妖怪。
• The children were scolded for tormenting animals. 孩子们因折磨动物而受到责骂。

6 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。