新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第四册 课文 4t01ab

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[00:00.00]，就把hxen.com复制到QQ个人资料中！(The Temptation of a Respectable Woman)
[00:-1.00]Mrs.Baroda was a little annoyed to learn that her husband expected his friend,
[00:-2.00]Gouvernail,up to spend a week or two on the plantation.
[00:-3.00]Gouvernail\'s quiet personality puzzled Mrs.Baroda.
[00:-4.00]After a few days with him,she could understand him no better than at first.
[00:-5.00]She left her husband and his guest,for the most part,alone together,
[00:-6.00]only to find that Gouvernail hardly noticed her absence.
[00:-7.00]Then she imposed her company upon him,
[00:-8.00]accompanying him in his idle walks to the mill
[00:-9.00]to press her attempt to penetrate the silence
[00:10.00]in which he had unconsciously covered himself.But it hardly worked.
[00:11.00]"When is he going — your friend?"she one day asked her husband.
[00:12.00]"For my part,I find him a terrible nuisance."
[00:13.00]"Not for a week yet,dear.I can\'t understand;he gives you no trouble."
[00:14.00]"No.I should like him better if he did
[00:15.00]— if he were more like others,
[00:16.00]and I had to plan somewhat for his comfort and enjoyment."
[00:17.00]Gaston pulled the sleeve of his wife\'s dress,
[00:18.00]gathered his arms around her waist and looked merrily into her troubled eyes.
[00:19.00]"You are full of surprises," he said to her.
[00:20.00]"Even I can never count upon how you are going to act under given conditions.
[00:21.00]Here you are," he went on,
[00:22.00]"taking poor Gouvernail seriously and making a fuss about him,
[00:23.00]the last thing he would desire or expect."
[00:24.00]"Fuss!"she hotly replied."Nonsense! How can you say such a thing!
[00:25.00]Fuss,indeed! But,you know,you said he was clever."
[00:26.00]"So he is.But the poor fellow is run down by too much work now.
[00:27.00]That\'s why I asked him here to take a rest."
[00:28.00]"You used to say he was a man of wit,"she said,still annoyed.
[00:29.00]"I expected him to be interesting,at least.
[00:30.00]I\'m going to the city in the morning to have my spring dresses fitted.
[00:31.00]Let me know when Mr.Gouvernail is gone;
[00:32.00]until that time I shall be at my aunt\'s house."
[00:33.00]That night she went and sat alone upon a bench
[00:34.00]that stood beneath an oak tree at the edge of the walk.
[00:35.00]She had never known her thoughts to be so confused;
[00:36.00]like the bats now above her,
[00:37.00]her thoughts quickly flew this way and that.
[00:38.00]She could gather nothing from them but the feeling of a distinct necessity
[00:39.00]to leave her home in the next morning.
[00:40.00]Mrs.Baroda heard footsteps coming from the direction of the barn;
[00:41.00]she knew it was Gouvernail.She hoped to remain unnoticed,
[00:42.00]but her white gown revealed her to him.
[00:43.00]He seated himself upon the bench beside her,
[00:44.00]without a suspicion that she might object to his presence.
[00:45.00]"Your husband told me to bring this to you,Mrs.Baroda," he said,
[00:46.00]handing her a length of sheer white fabric
[00:47.00]with which she sometimes covered her head and shoulders.
[00:48.00]She accepted it from him and let it lie in her lap.
[00:49.00]He made some routine observations upon the unhealthy effect
[00:50.00]of the night breeze at that season.
[00:51.00]Then as his gaze reached out into the darkness,he began to talk.
[00:52.00]Gouvernail was in no sense a shy man.
[00:53.00]His periods of silence were not his basic nature,but the result of moods.
[00:54.00]When he was sitting there beside Mrs.Baroda,
[00:55.00]his silence melted for the time.
[00:56.00]He talked freely and intimately in a low,hesitating voice that was not unpleasant to hear.
[00:57.00]He talked of the old college days when he and Gaston had been best friends,
[00:58.00]of the days of keen ambitions and large intentions.
[00:59.00]Now,all there was left with him was a desire to be permitted to exist,
[-1:00.00]with now and then a little breath of genuine life,
[-1:-1.00]such as he was breathing now.
[-1:-2.00]Her mind only vaguely grasped what he was saying.
[-1:-3.00]His words became a meaningless succession of verbs,nouns,adverbs,and adjectives;
[-1:-4.00]she only drank in the tones of his voice.
[-1:-5.00]She wanted to reach out her hand in the darkness and touch him
[-1:-6.00]— which she might have done if she had not been a respectable woman.
[-1:-7.00]The stronger the desire grew to bring herself near him,
[-1:-8.00]the further,in fact,did she move away from him.
[-1:-9.00]As soon as she could do so without an appearance of being rude,
[-1:10.00]she pretended to yawn,rose,and left him there alone.
[-1:11.00]Mrs.Baroda was greatly tempted that night to tell her husband
[-1:12.00]— who was also her friend
[-1:13.00]— of this foolishness that had seized her.
[-1:14.00]But she did not yield to the temptation.
[-1:15.00]Besides being an upright and respectable woman
[-1:16.00]she was also a very sensible one.
[-1:17.00]When Gaston arose the next morning,his wife had already departed,
[-1:18.00]without even saying farewell.
[-1:19.00]A porter had carried her trunk to the station
[-1:20.00]and she had taken an early morning train to the city.
[-1:21.00]She did not return until Gouvernail was gone from under her roof.
[-1:22.00]There was some talk of having him back during the summer that followed.
[-1:23.00]That is,Gaston greatly desired it;
[-1:24.00]but this desire yielded to his honorable wife\'s vigorous opposition.
[-1:25.00]However,before the year ended,she proposed,wholly from herself,
[-1:26.00]to have Gouvernail visit them again.
[-1:27.00]Her husband was surprised and delighted with the suggestion coming from her.
[-1:28.00]"I am glad,my dear,to know that you have finally overcome your dislike for him;
[-1:29.00]truly he did not deserve it."
[-1:30.00]"Oh," she told him,laughingly,after pressing a long,
[-1:31.00]ender kiss upon his lips,"I have overcome everything!
[-1:32.00]You will see.This time I shall be very nice to him."
[-1:33.00] The Obligations and Responsibilities to Marriage
[-1:34.00]I had given a talk on family change one night.
[-1:35.00]At dinner afterwards I was subjected to a hostile quizzing
[-1:36.00]by a group of women in their thirties
[-1:37.00]who claimed that my whole analysis ignored the most basic change of all.
[-1:38.00]They took offense to my statement that a family consists of a husband,
[-1:39.00]a wife and children, they said.
[-1:40.00]They,as a group of single women,were best friends,
[-1:41.00]supported one another,and defined one another as "family".
[-1:42.00]Marriage and having kids were now irrelevant,
[-1:43.00]and in their opinion,that was the most basic social change.
[-1:44.00]Looking back on it,I find they were right,
[-1:45.00]but this rising tide of change is itself the problem.
[-1:46.00]Family is,if anything,the link between generations,
[-1:47.00]the center of child rearing and cultural transmission.
[-1:48.00]It\'s not just a " big stadium " where everyone can enjoy the show.
[-1:49.00]Both marriage and family involve long-term obligations
[-1:50.00]and responsibility for shared care,not just the search of happiness,
[-1:51.00]that hollow goal of the modern age.It seems that love has got out of hand.
[-1:52.00]The modern nuclear family was rooted in the desire
[-1:53.00]to live happily in a more equal marriage,
[-1:54.00]where the raising of children and the investment of both parents
[-1:55.00]in the children\'s lives were guaranteed by bonds of friendship
[-1:56.00]between the parents,which were based on rational love.
[-1:57.00]There is a natural tendency for any relationship
[-1:58.00]based on voluntary affection to come apart,
[-1:59.00]but marriage provides the glue needed to keep a couple together
[-2:00.00]by providing ties of family,
[-2:-1.00]in conjunction with the obligations of parents to children.
[-2:-2.00]What people call the new Love Family,unfortunately,
[-2:-3.00]has replaced a permanent relationship with a new ideal of unlimited choice.
[-2:-4.00]We can now not only choose our marriage partner,
[-2:-5.00]we also can divorce that partner at will,
[-2:-6.00]subject children to our own adult worship of happiness,
[-2:-7.00]and deny the other parent any regular contact with their children.
[-2:-8.00]We can even,if we want,interpret the term "family"
[-2:-9.00]to include people who are not related to us either by blood or marriage
[-2:10.00]— a set of close friends who support one another,
[-2:11.00]like the women I mentioned above.
[-2:12.00]Throw in the faithful dog if you like.
[-2:13.00]Family is whatever we want it to be.
[-2:14.00]The trouble is,such an elastic classification ignores the problem of children
[-2:15.00]and the wider problem of caring for others.
[-2:16.00]If marriage exists only as a romantic relationship
[-2:17.00]that can be ended at will,
[-2:18.00]and family exists only by virtue of bonds of affection,
[-2:19.00]both marriage and family come second to the search for love.
[-2:20.00]Under this scheme,individuals attempt to march towards maximum happiness
[-2:21.00]as they move through a procession of more or less satisfying romantic relationships.
[-2:22.00]Children,relatives,and the ties of mutual obligation
[-2:23.00]and care are left behind,with no place to go.
[-2:24.00]Independent adults may find this okay.
[-2:25.00]But dependent children can\'t just be left behind
[-2:26.00]when it\'s time to move on to a new relationship:
[-2:27.00]they demand sacrifice and unselfishness,
[-2:28.00]a long-term investment of the parents\' time and money.
[-2:29.00]The whole point of marriage is that it imposes clear obligations,
[-2:30.00]not just the right to pursue your own happiness.
[-2:31.00]And the main obligation is to provide both emotional
[-2:32.00]and practical care for children.
[-2:33.00]The glory of burning passion may well have faded,
[-2:34.00]and your love for your wife or husband may not be as exciting
[-2:35.00]or satisfying as it once was,
[-2:36.00]but going off in search of another love will not help your children.
[-2:37.00]The Love Family is either too casual for children
[-2:38.00]— your friends have no obligation to provide for them
[-2:39.00]— or it\'s too unstable, with adults moving on if the relationship
[-2:40.00]no longer answers their search for perfect happiness.
[-2:41.00]What divorce does is to damage children,
[-2:42.00]making them into refugees as the people in their lives scatter in all directions.
[-2:43.00]I am aware of the complex research concerning the effects of divorce on children
[-2:44.00]and I acknowledge that some children are better off without a violent father,
[-2:45.00]a family income wasted on drinking or gambling,
[-2:46.00]or unhappy parents taking out their anger on everyone in the family.
[-2:47.00]But divorce destroys the stability, security,
[-2:48.00]and continuity that children need:
[-2:49.00]it results in poverty for many women and children;
[-2:50.00]it damages the natural link between father and children
[-2:51.00]and replaces it with one of regulated, arranged visits;
[-2:52.00]it removes the father from the household,
[-2:53.00]the only sensible basis for a working parental relationship;
[-2:54.00]it places a terrible strain on the mother-child bond
[-2:55.00]by saddling the mother with the double burden
[-2:56.00]of playing the role of both mother and father;
[-2:57.00]and it often interrupts the child\'s schooling,
[-2:58.00]friendships and neighborhood contacts,
[-2:59.00]those beginnings of trust and social relationships needed
[-3:00.00]to mold a child into a healthy member of society.
[-3:-1.00]It even weakens the child\'s links with grandparents
[-3:-2.00]and other family (usually on the father\'s side),
[-3:-3.00]and few lovers are willing to take on real responsibility
[-3:-4.00]for the welfare of another person\'s child.
[-3:-5.00]Love is not enough,
[-3:-6.00]compared with the presence and support of both a mother and a father.
[-3:-7.00]Nor,I would venture to suggest,
[-3:-8.00]is love enough to sustain a marriage relationship.
[-3:-9.00]The Love Family, in the end,
[-3:10.00]doesn\'t have to make concessions for children and relatives.
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