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  3. Tolstoy was a member of the Russian nobility, from a family that owned an est

Tolstoy was a member of the Russian nobility, from a family that owned an est

游客2023-12-28  16
问题    Tolstoy was a member of the Russian nobility, from a family that owned an estate and hundreds of serfs. The early life of the young count was raucous, debauched and violent.
   "I killed men in wars and challenged men to duels in order to kill them," he wrote. "I lost at cards, consumed the labour of the peasants, sentenced them to punishments, lived loosely, and deceived people ... so I lived for ten years."
   But he gradually weaned himself off his decadent, racy lifestyle and rejected the received beliefs of his aristocratic background, adopting a radical, unconventional worldview that shocked his peers. So how exactly might his personal journey help us rethink our own philosophies of life?
   One of Tolstoy’s greatest gifts was his ability and willingness to change his mind based on new experiences. The horrific bloodshed he witnessed while fighting in the Crimean War in the 1850s turned him into a lifelong pacifist. In 1857, after seeing a public execution by guillotine in Paris — he never forgot the thump of the severed head as it fell into the box below — he became a convinced opponent of the state and its laws, believing that governments were not only brutal, but essentially served the interests of the rich and powerful. "The State is a conspiracy," he wrote to a friend. "Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere." Tolstoy was on the road to becoming an anarchist.
   The most essential life lesson to take away from Tolstoy is to follow his lead and recognise that the best way to challenge our assumptions and prejudices, and develop new ways of looking at the world, is to surround ourselves with people whose views and lifestyles differ from our own. In Resurrection, he pointed out that most people — whether they are politicians, businessmen or thieves — "instinctively keep to the circle of those people who share their views of life and their own place in it". Cosseted within our peer group, we may think it perfectly normal and justifiable to own two homes, or to oppose same-sex marriage, or to bomb countries in the Middle East. We cannot see that such views may be perverse, unjust, or untrue, because we are inside circles of our own making. The challenge is to spread our conversational wings and spend time with those whose values and experiences contrast with our own. Our ultimate task, Tolstoy would advise us, is to journey beyond the perimeters of the circle.
选项
答案    托尔斯泰出身于俄国贵族家庭，家里有庄园和数百名农奴。这位青年伯爵早年狂放不羁，耽于声色，且好勇斗狠。
   “我在战争中杀人，挑战别人决斗好杀死他们。”他写道， “打牌上瘾，剥削农民，滥用私刑，生活放浪，欺骗他人……我就这么过了十年。”
   但是他逐渐告别了自己堕落不羁的生活方式，弃绝了贵族出身所带来的观念，选择了一种激进的、违背传统的世界观，震撼了同辈中人。那么他的个人经历可以怎样帮助我们反思自己的人生哲学呢?
   托尔斯泰能够也愿意基于新的经历转变自己的思想，这是他最伟大的禀赋之一。他曾参加过19世纪50年代的克里米亚战争，血雨腥风的战争场面使他终生成为一名反战主义者。1857年，托尔斯泰在巴黎目睹了一场公开处决，他无法忘记断头台上人头掉入盒子的声音。这使得他开始坚决反对政府和法律，认为政府无异于洪水猛兽，专为有钱有势的人谋利益。“国家就是一场阴谋，”他在写给一位朋友的信中提到，“故此，我绝不会为任何国家、任何政府卖命。”托尔斯泰走上了无政府主义者的道路。
   从托尔斯泰身上学到的人生最重要的一课，是在他的引领下认识到：要想克服臆想和偏见，建立全新的世界观，最好的方法就是与思想和生活方式迥然不同的人共处。在《复活》一书中，托尔斯泰指出，无论政客、商人还是窃贼，多数人“只会本能地待在自己的圈子里，与那些有相同人生观和身份的人在一起”。身处同侪之中，我们可能会认为，拥有两处房产、反对同性婚姻、轰炸中东国家是再正常不过、合理不过的事情。因为我们一直待在自己的圈子里，所以意识不到这些观点有悖常情，缺乏公正，异想天开。我们需要挑战自己，扩大谈话的圈子，花时间和那些价值观、生活经历迥异的人在一起。托尔斯秦会建议我们，人生的终级目标，就是要超越自己的生活半径。
解析    本文选自BBC News Magazine，原文标题为“The Secret to a Happy Life—Courtesy of Tolstoy”(幸福生活的秘诀：来自托尔斯泰的启示)，是一篇带有传记色彩的文章。全文围绕托尔斯泰人生哲学的七个方面展开(选文仅选取了两方面)，从历史视角记述一代文豪的传奇人生，从哲学视角窥探一代巨匠的思想转变，旨在启发现代读者汲取人生经验。
   文章包括三部分。第一部分包括前三段，描述了托尔斯泰早年生活与后来人生轨迹的强烈反差，第三段段尾以设问句引起下文。第二部分记述了托尔斯泰人生哲学的第一个特点，即心态开放，乐于转变。该部分按照时间顺序记叙托尔斯泰的生平经历和思想转变。第三部分记述托尔斯泰人生哲学的另一特点，即超越自己的生活半径。这部分主要引用了托尔斯泰名著中的书面论述，重在挖掘行为背后的思想本质，主要通过直接、间接引语阐述托尔斯泰的交友观。
   文中记述托尔斯泰生平的部分体现了传记特点，文学性较强。而对作家思想转变的直接和间接论述又体现出论说文特点，学术气息较重。翻译时应注意风格变化并恰当选词。
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