英语沙龙：Ambition

It may seem an exaggeration to say that ambition is the drive of society,

holding many of its different elements together, but it is not an exaggeration by much.

Remove ambition and the essential elements of society seem to fly apart.

Ambition is intimately connected with family,

for men and women not only work partly for their families;

husbands and wives are often ambitious for each other,

but harbor some of their most ardent¹ ambitions for their children.

Yet to have a family nowadays—with birth control readily available,

and inflation a good economic argument against having children—is nearly an expression of ambition in itself.

Finally,though ambition was once the domain² chiefly of monarchs³ and aristocrats⁴,

it has, in more recent times,increasingly become the domain of the middle classes.

Ambition and futurity—a sense of building for tomorrow—are inextricable.

Working, saving, planning—these, the daily aspects of ambition

—have always been the distinguishing marks of a rising middle class.

The attack against ambition is not incidentally an attack on the middle class and what it stands for.

Like it or not, the middle class has done much of society’s work in America;

and it, the middle class, has from the beginning run on ambition.

It is not difficult to imagine a world short of ambition.

It would probably be a kinder world:without demands, without abrasions,without disappointments.

People would have time for reflection.

Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity.

Competition would never enter in.

Conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past.

The stress of creation would be at an end.

Art would no longer be troubling, but purely⁵ entertaining in its functions.

The family would become superfluous⁶ as a social unit,

with all its former power for bringing about neurosis drained away.

Life span would be expanded, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by overwork.

Anxiety would be extinct.

Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart.

Ah, how unbearably⁷ boring life would be!

1 ardent   

adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的

参考例句：

• He's an ardent supporter of the local football team.他是本地足球队的热情支持者。
• Ardent expectations were held by his parents for his college career.他父母对他的大学学习抱着殷切的期望。

2 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

3 monarchs   

君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Monarchs ruled England for centuries. 世袭君主统治英格兰有许多世纪。
• Serving six monarchs of his native Great Britain, he has served all men's freedom and dignity. 他在大不列颠本国为六位君王服务，也为全人类的自由和尊严服务。 来自演讲部分

4 aristocrats   

n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many aristocrats were killed in the French Revolution. 许多贵族在法国大革命中被处死。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• To the Guillotine all aristocrats! 把全部贵族都送上断头台！ 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

5 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

6 superfluous   

adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的

参考例句：

• She fined away superfluous matter in the design. 她删去了这图案中多余的东西。
• That request seemed superfluous when I wrote it.我这样写的时候觉得这个请求似乎是多此一举。

7 unbearably   

adv.不能忍受地，无法容忍地；慌

参考例句：

• It was unbearably hot in the car. 汽车里热得难以忍受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She found it unbearably painful to speak. 她发现开口说话痛苦得令人难以承受。 来自《简明英汉词典》