PBS高端访谈:美国城乡差距明显

JUDY WOODRUFF: Last week's elections highlighted the divide between urban and rural America. Author Gary Shteyngart spent a good deal of time in both camps and was surprised by what he learned. That's tonight's In My Humble¹ Opinion.

GARY SHTEYNGART, Author, Lake Success: My novel Lake Success is the story of a hedge fund manager who flees his failing marriage and an impending² SEC investigation³ on a cross-country Greyhound bus trip. To research the book, I did two things. I spent four months touring the country on the Hound, as we called it, and I spent four years hanging out with hedge fund managers in Manhattan. Along the way, I got to ask the question, who is happy in America? And, conversely, who is not? The answers surprised me and changed the tone of the book I was writing. Being a Leningrad-born sap, or Soviet⁴ Ashkenazi pessimist⁵, let's start with the unhappy people, hedge fund managers. There was the competitive nature of their job, the sense that nothing was ever enough, and the fact that the money they earned represented not a means of sustenance⁶, but a form of winning, of being right, of proving to their fellow competitors that they had the answers to the universe. Then there was the Greyhound.

The unhappiest people there seemed to be those who perceived they were about to suffer a fall in status, as well as financial well-being⁷. Around Louisiana, a group of white supremacists boarded the bus and spoke⁸ loudly of crucifying Muslims and Jews. As we drove past Grambling State University, a historically African-American college, one of the white supremacists pointed⁹ to a group of summer students and said, Well, they have their colleges, and one day, we will have ours. Which part of Dartmouth don't you understand? I wanted to say to him. So, who were the happiest people? First-generation college students were a permanent fixture¹⁰ of my month on the bus. Often, they would cross state lines to see their folks or their girlfriends or boyfriends. They still talked about their prospects¹¹, the way we imagine young Americans always have, with ambition and resilience and humor. I discovered perhaps the happiest people of all, professors at the University of Texas at El Paso. They led lives of relative wealth and contentment, along with a feeling that they were a part of something bigger. Indeed, what can bring more fulfillment than the knowledge that you have changed someone's life, and not just by giving to a charity, but by helping¹² to educate someone for whom higher education is not a birthright, but a shining goal? Community was the surest indication of happiness on my long journey. Those who worked with people, and not just basis points on a Bloomberg monitor, were optimistic. They had hope for the people they mentored¹³ and hope for our fractious country as a whole. Along the border with Mexico, at one of the southwest extremities¹⁴ of our country, I found the kind of people I wanted to become. The future, I believe, is theirs for the taking.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：上周的大选凸显了美国城乡之间的巨大差异。作家加里·斯特恩加特历时弥久探访了两个阵营，对于自己的发现，他感到很震惊。所以，欢迎来到今晚的《我之拙见》。

盖理·斯特恩加特，作家，《成功湖》：我的小说《成功湖》讲述了一个对冲基金经理的故事。这个人为了逃离了失败的婚姻，以及躲避美国证券交易委员会即将对他进行的调查，就乘坐越野的灰狗巴士离开了。为了研究这本书，我做了两件事情。我历时4个月周游祖国各地，又花费4年的时间跟曼哈顿的各种对冲基金经理打交道。过程中，我都会问一个问题：美国的哪些人有幸福感？哪些人没有幸福感？答案让我大吃一惊，并改变了我所写的这本小说的基调。作为一名生于列宁格勒的人，或者说苏联的德系犹太悲观主义者，让我们先从一类不幸福的人说起吧——对冲基金经理。他们的工作本身竞争就很激烈，所以他们会有一种做再多都不够的危机感，他们赚的钱并不是用来维持生计用的，而是象征着胜利，象征着自己是正确的，并向自己的竞争者们炫耀自己找到了正途。但后来他们还是逃离了这一切。

不幸福的人似乎是那些知道自己的社会地位和财政状况会下降的人。在路易斯安那州，一群至上主义的白人上了公交后，就开始大声讨论着要折磨穆斯林人和犹太人。在公交行驶过关柏林州立大学这家有着深厚历史的非裔美国人的大学的时候，其中一名至上主义的白人指着一群暑期学生说道，他们有自己的大学可以读，我们有朝一日也会有的。关于达特茅斯，会有什么不能理解的地方吗？我想跟他说。所以谁才是最幸福的人呢？在我坐公交的那个月里，第一代大学生一直也都在公交上。他们经常会跨州去看望自己的家人或者男女朋友。他们还会讨论自己对未来的期许，那种姿态是我们眼中的年轻美国人都会有的——充满了野心、韧性和幽默感。我或许发现了最幸福的美国人——厄尔巴索德克萨斯大学的教授。他们的生活相对富足，不愁吃穿，他们甚至还有一种自己能干大事的感觉。比知识更能让人感到满足的就是你能改变其他人的生活，而不只是做慈善而已。而是助力教育那些没有财力获得高等教育的人、那些将获得高等教育视为梦想的人。在我漫长的旅途中，社群是最能彰显幸福的地方。跟人一起工作的人通常都很积极乐观，而并非把基点情况视为一切。他们希望自己辅导的人和动辄纷乱的国家能够凝聚在一起。在美墨边境线上，在美国西南部的蛮荒之地，我发现了自己想要成为的那种人。我相信未来是他们的。

1 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。

2 impending   

a.imminent, about to come or happen

参考例句：

• Against a background of impending famine, heavy fighting took place. 即将发生饥荒之时，严重的战乱爆发了。
• The king convoke parliament to cope with the impending danger. 国王召开国会以应付迫近眉睫的危险。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

5 pessimist   

n.悲观者；悲观主义者；厌世

参考例句：

• An optimist laughs to forget.A pessimist forgets to laugh.乐观者笑着忘却，悲观者忘记怎样笑。
• The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.悲观者在每个机会中都看到困难，乐观者在每个困难中都看到机会。

6 sustenance   

n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• The urban homeless are often in desperate need of sustenance.城市里无家可归的人极其需要食物来维持生命。

7 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

10 fixture   

n.固定设备；预定日期；比赛时间；定期存款

参考例句：

• Lighting fixture must be installed at once.必须立即安装照明设备。
• The cordless kettle may now be a fixture in most kitchens.无绳电热水壶现在可能是多数厨房的固定设备。

11 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

13 mentored   

v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They had a fantastic dean who really mentored a lot of people. 那儿的教务长非常出色，的确为许多人提供了指导。 来自互联网
• The famous professor mentored him during his years in graduate school. 那位著名的教授在他读研究生期间指导他。 来自互联网

14 extremities   

n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地

参考例句：

• She was most noticeable, I thought, in respect of her extremities. 我觉得她那副穷极可怜的样子实在太惹人注目。 来自辞典例句
• Winters may be quite cool at the northwestern extremities. 西北边区的冬天也可能会相当凉。 来自辞典例句