欧美人文风情第345篇:盖茨2017读过的书

 It's been a busy year, but I found time to read a number of great books. 今年是很忙碌的一年，但我抽空看了一些很棒的书。

Here's a few I think you might enjoy. 这里有几本我觉得你可能会喜欢。

Evicted¹ by Matthew Desmond. It's a brilliant book in terms of a sense of the chaos² 马修·德斯蒙德的《被驱逐者》。当你被赶出去然后东西被扔到路边时，

when you get evicted and they put your stuff out on the curb³. 对于那种混乱感的描述，这本书十分匠心独具。

The intertangled issues of mental health, drug abuse, 错综复杂的心理健康、毒品滥用问题，

it made me wanna really understand the various government programs a lot better. 它让我想真正更深入地了解政府的各种计划。

You get a really good picture of how it's a very tough life. 你可以清楚认识到那是怎样艰苦的生活。

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. It's a book about the Vietnam War. 阮越清的《同情者》。这是本关于越战的书。

And he writes about this extremely conflicted person who works for the Vietnamese army but is a Communist agent. 作者写了一位矛盾极为冲突的人物，他替越军效力，但又是个共谍。

There's this person who is a traitor⁴ and a murderer, 他既是叛徒又是杀人凶手的人物，

and you know, the whole messiness and futility⁵ is represented by the main character. It's a very sad story. 所有混乱失序和失败都透过主角呈现出来。这是个非常悲伤的故事。

I also read The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui. 我还看了Thi Bui的《我们能做到最好的》。

It's a very quick read. She does a good job of trying to be a good daughter and a good mother, 这本书很快就能读完。她是个称职的女儿和母亲，

trying to understand her parents and what went through, 试着了解她的父母和他们的经历，

and sort of appreciate the turmoil⁶ that the last three generations that lived in Vietnam went through. 然后在某种程度上去体会住在越南的祖先三代遭遇过的动荡。

Next is Energy and Civilization by Vaclav Smil. 下一本是瓦茨拉夫·斯米尔的《能源和文明》。

It's a sweeping⁷ explanation of human progress through the lens of energy. 这本书从能源角度针对人类进展作出全面的解释。

You can't have civilization without energy. 没有能源就没有文明。

You know, we went from hunter-gatherer to agriculture to the Industrial Age. 你知道，我们从狩猎采集变成农业，再进到工业时代。

Taking you through that whole progression...it's definitely a masterpiece. 它带你走过那整段进展...这绝对是杰作。

Finally, Believe Me by Eddie Izzard. 最后，艾迪·伊扎德的《相信我》。

If you've seen Eddie's stuff and you like it, you should read the book. 如果你有看过艾迪的作品然后很喜欢的话，你就应该读这本书。

He's very humble⁸. He had 10 years as a street performer with essentially⁹ no success, 他很谦虚。他有过十年当街头艺人但苦无成就的经历，

but he slowly but surely got slightly better and learned different things. 不过他缓慢却稳定地成长，并学到许多不同的事物。

And so, in terms of ability to learn things and see clever connections, he's just a genius guy. 因此，在学习事物和看见之间巧妙联结的这种能力上，他是个天赋异禀的人。

So, those are some of my favorites. I hope you find them as compelling as I did. 那么，那些就是其中几本我很喜欢的书。希望你们会和我一样觉得这些书很吸引人。

 

1 evicted   

v.（依法从房屋里或土地上）驱逐，赶出( evict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• They had evicted their tenants for non-payment of rent. 他们赶走了未交房租的房客。

2 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

3 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

4 traitor   

n.叛徒，卖国贼

参考例句：

• The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
• He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

5 futility   

n.无用

参考例句：

• She could see the utter futility of trying to protest. 她明白抗议是完全无用的。
• The sheer futility of it all exasperates her. 它毫无用处，这让她很生气。

6 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

7 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

8 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。