Unit6

Unit Six

Getting Along with Nature

Wendell Berry

Text (Introductions: There is a far cry of environmental protection in the world. We human being have already Wendell Berry entertains the opinion that we will diminish ourselves if we diminish nature. Do you agree with him?)

1. The defenders of nature and wilderness --- like their enemies the defenders of the industrial economy --- sometimes sound as if the natural and the human estates were two separate estates, radically different and radically divided. The defenders of nature and wilderness sometimes seem to feel that they must oppose any human encroachment whatsoever, just as the industrialists often apparently feel that they must make the human encroachment absolute or, as they say, \"complete the conquest of nature.\" But there is danger in this opposition, and it can be best dealt with by realizing that these pure and separate categories are pure ideas and do not otherwise exist.

2. Pure nature, anyhow, is not good for humans to live in, and humans do not want to live in it --- or not for very long. Any exposure to the elements that lasts more than a few hours will remind us of the desirability of the basic human amenities: clothing, shelter, cooked food, the company of kinfolk and friends --- perhaps even of hot baths and music and books.

3. It is equally true a condition that is purely human is not good for people to live in,

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and people do not want to live for very long in it. Obviously, the more artificial a human environment becomes, the more the word \"natural\" becomes a term of value. It can be argued, indeed, that the conservation movement, as we know it today, is largely a product of the industrial revolution. The people who want clean air, clear streams, and wild forests, prairies, and deserts are the people who no longer have them.

4. People cannot live apart from nature; that is the first principle of the conservationists. And yet, people cannot live in nature without changing it. But this is true of all creatures; they depend upon nature, and they change it. What we call nature is, in a sense, the sum of the changes made by all the various creatures and natural forces in their intricate actions and influences upon each other and upon their places. Because of the woodpeckers, nature is different from what it would be without them. It is different also because of the borers and ants that live in tree trunks, and because of the bacteria that live in the soil under the trees. The making of these differences is the making of the world.

5. Some of the changes made by wild creatures we would call beavers are famous for making ponds that turn into fertile meadows; trees and prairie grasses build soil. But sometimes, too, we would call natural changes destructive. According to early witnesses, for instance, large areas around Kentucky salt licks were severely trampled and eroded by the great herds of hoofed animals that gathered there. The buffalo \"streets\" through hilly country were so hollowed out by hoofwear and erosion that they remain visible almost two centuries after the disappearance of the buffalo. And so it can hardly be expected that humans would not change nature. Humans, like all other creatures, must make a difference; otherwise, they cannot live. But unlike other creatures, humans must make a choice as to the kind and scale of the difference they make. If they choose to

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make too small a difference, they diminish their humanity. If they choose to make too great a difference, they diminish nature, and narrow their subsequent choices; ultimately, they diminish or destroy themselves. Nature, then, is not only our source but also our limit and measure. Or, as the post Edmund Spenser put it almost four hundred years ago. Nature, who is the \"greatest goddesse\, and Spenser represents her as both a mother and judge. Her jurisdiction is over the relations between the creatures; she deals “Right to all ... indifferently,” for she is “the equal mother” of all “ And knittest each to each, as brother unto brother.” Thus, in Spenser, the natural principles of fertility and order are pointedly linked with the principle of justice, which we may be a little surprised to see that he attributes also to nature. And yet in his insistence on an “indifferent” natural justice, resting on the “brotherhood” of all creatures, not just of humans, Spenser would now be said to be on sound ecological footing.

6. In nature we know that wild creatures sometimes exhaust their vital sources and suffer the natural remedy: drastic population reductions. If lynxes eat too many snowshoe rabbits --- which they are said to do repeatedly ---then the lynxes starve down to the carrying capacity of their habitat. It is the carrying capacity of the lynx's habitat, not the carrying capacity of the lynx's stomach, that determines the prosperity of lynxes. Similarly, if humans use up too much soil --- which they have often done and are doing --- then they will starve down to the carrying capacity of their habitat. This is nature's \"indifferent\" justice. As Spenser saw in the sixteenth century, and as we must learn to see now, there is no appeal from this justice. In the future, the Lord may forgive our wrongs against nature, but on earth, so far as we know, He does not overturn her decisions.

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7. One of the differences between humans and lynxes is that humans can see that the principle of balance operates between lynxes and snowshoe rabbits, as between humans and topsoil; another difference, we hope, is that humans have the sense to act on their understanding. We can see, too, that a stable balance is preferable to a balance that tilts back and forth like a seesaw, dumping a surplus of creatures alternately from either end. To say this is to renew the question of whether or not the human relationship with nature is necessarily an adversary relationship, and it is to suggest that the answer is not simple.

8. But in dealing with this question and in trying to do justice to the presumed complexity of the answer, we are up against an American convention of simple opposition to nature that is deeply established both in our minds and in our ways. We have opposed the primeval forests of the East and the primeval prairies and deserts of the West, we have opposed man-eating beasts and crop-eating insects, sheep-eating wolves and chicken-eating hawks. In our lawns and gardens and fields, we oppose what we call weeds. And yet more and more of us are beginning to see that this opposition is ultimately destructive even of ourselves, that it does not explain many things that need explaining—in short, that it is untrue.

9. If our proper relation to nature is not opposition, then what is it? This question becomes complicated and difficult for us because none of us, as I have said, wants to live in a \"pure\" primeval forest or in a \"pure\" primeval prairie; we do not want to be eaten by grizzly bears; if we are gardeners, we have a legitimate quarrel with weeds; if, in Kentucky, we are trying to improve our pastures, we are likely to be enemies of the nodding thistle. But, do what we will, we remain under the spell of the primeval forests and prairies that we have cut down and broken; we turn repeatedly and with love to the

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thought of them and to their surviving remnants. We find ourselves attracted to the grizzly bears, too, and know that they and other great, dangerous animals remain alive in our imaginations as they have been all through human time. Though we cut down the nodding thistles, we acknowledge their beauty and are glad to think that there must be some place where they belong. (They may, in fact, not always be out of place in pastures; if, as seems evident, overgrazing makes an ideal seedbed for these plants, then we must understand them as a part of nature's strategy to protect the ground against abuse by animals.) Even the ugliest garden weeds earn affection from us when we consider how faithfully they perform an indispensable duty in covering the bare ground and in building humus. The weeds, too, are involved in the business of fertility.

10. We know, then, that the conflict between the human and the natural estates really exists and that it is to some extent necessary. But we are learning, or relearning, something else, too, that frightens us: namely, that this conflict often occurs at the expense of both estates. It is not only possible but altogether probable that by diminishing nature we diminish ourselves, and vice versa.

Translating and Writing:

A. Translate the following two paragraphs into Chinese.

1. As the poet Edmund Spenser put it almost four hundred years ago. Nature, who is the \"greatest goddess,\" acts as a sort of earthly lieutenant of God, and Spenser represents her as both a mother and judge. || Her jurisdiction is over the relations between the creatures; she deals \"Right to all ... indifferently,\" for she is \"the equal mother\" of all \"and knittest each to each, as brother unto brother.\" || Thus, in Spenser,

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the natural principles of fertility and order are pointedly linked with the principle of justice, which we may be a little surprised to see that he attributes also to nature. || And yet in his insistence on an \"indifferent\" natural justice, resting on the \"brotherhood\" of all creatures, not just of humans, Spenser would now be said to be on sound ecological footing.

2. If our proper relation to nature is not opposition, then what is it? || This question becomes complicated and difficult for us because none of us, as I have said, wants to live in a \"pure\" primeval forest or in a \"pure\" primeval prairie; we do not want to be eaten by grizzly bears; || if we are gardeners, we have a legitimate quarrel with weeds; if, in Kentucky, we are trying to improve our pastures, we are likely to be enemies of the nodding thistle. || But, do what we will, we remain under the spell of the primeval forests and prairies that we have cut down and broken; we turn repeatedly and with love to the thought of them and to their surviving remnants. || We find ourselves attracted to the grizzly bears, too, and know that they and other great, dangerous animals remain alive in our imaginations, as they have been all through human time.

B. Translate the following sentences into English:

、 多数自然资源保护主义者认为，在良好的生态环境中人类最易兴旺发达，而各种野生动物的生存则是这种 良好生态环境的标志。

2、史密斯先生出示了大量的证据来证明：在某种程度上，如果我们破坏大自然，那就是毁灭我们自己。

3、 西方各国许多城市已经转换到使用新的可减少污染含量的汽油，我们中国有些城市也

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已经这样做了。

4、 正如英国诗人埃德蒙·斯宾塞在一首诗里描写的那样，大自然不仅是位母亲，而且是位法官，管辖并公正 地对待人类和所有的生物。

5、 的一项调查研究得出的结论是：除了过分拥挤和公共交通很差外，该市面临的最大问题是噪音 和污。

6、 与所有其他动物一样，人类具有根据自己的判断而行事的能力。

7、 难道你不同意健康而无财富比有财富而不健康要好得多的这种说法吗？

8、 即使那些工业经济的拥护者也不得不公开承认：人类与大自然之间发生任何冲突往往对双方都不利。

9、 如果你的朋友善意的指出你的一个缺点，你不仅要欣然接受，而且应当感谢。

10、人与野生动物之间的差别之一就在于，前者能就他们改变自然的种类及规模作出明智的选择。

1. get along with = having a friendly relationship with, be friendly and in harmony with. e.g.: Peter's an easy-going man and he gets along with almost every colleague in the company.

2. Wendell Berry was born in rural Kentucky in 1934, who received a Bachelor's degree in 1956 and a Master's degree in 1957 from the University of Kentucky. After

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traveling several years through the United States and Europe, Berry returned to the University of Kentucky in 19, where he has taught English. Berry's poem, redolent of the region and its people, are collected in The Broken Ground (19), Openings (1968), Findings (1969), Farming: A Handbook (a970), The Wheel (1982) and Collected Poems (1985). His novels, also set in his native state, are Natihan Coulter (1960), about a boy growing up in the tobacco-farming land; A Place on Earth (1967), about a Kentuckian at home whose only son was missing in action during World War II; and The Memory of Old Jack (1974), in which a 92-year-old farmer recalls the ways of life of his early days. Berry has also written essays collected in the Long-legged House (1969), The

Unforeseen Wilderness (1971). A Continuous harmony (1972), Home Economics (1987) and What Are People fore (1990).

3. wilderness n. [U] = 荒野

4. divided = separated into parts or pieces; disagreeing 截然分开的，有分歧的: e.g.: The employer's threat to dismiss all the strikers has left the workforce deeply divided. || The first sentence of the text \"The defenders of nature and wilderness ... sometimes sound as if the natural and human estates were two separate estates, radically different and radically divided.\" means \" The defenders sometimes give the

impression that the condition of animals, plants and other living creatures is extremely different from that of humans and that they are not connected or do not affect each other in any way.

5. encroachment n. || encroach vi ~ on/ upon gradually take more control of sb's time, possessions, right, etc. than you should; gradually cover more and more land 侵占，侵犯， 侵蚀：Nobody will support such a government that encroaches on the rights

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of individuals. / In desert areas, shifting sand used to encroach on the cultivated land.

6 whatsoever = whatever = no matter what 无论什么，无论怎样( This is a postpositive adjective(后置形容词) used as an intensifier in a negative sentence or in a sentence with indefinite pronouns and determiners such as any, anybody, none, e.g.: Political factors played no part whatsoever in this decision. / I don't think there's any evidence of that whatsoever. / He showed no intention whatsoever of resigning.

7. pure ideas and do not otherwise exist = the natural and human estates which are supposedly divided from each other are really nothing but mental images which do not exist in other respects. || otherwise adv. = apart from that or in other respects 在其它方面，除此以外 e.g.: The food ran out early, but otherwise, the party was a success. || c.f.: otherwise conj. 否则

8 elements = atmospheric forces, as rain, wind, or snow; bad weather 自然力 e.g.: Through the years, the temple was exposed to the elements, and therefore it had to be restored many times.

9 desirability [U] n.称心、合意 || c.f.: desirable 称心的、合意的: e.g.: a desirable residence, solution

10. amenity (often in plural) 生活福利设施、文娱康乐场所 = circumstance or sth, esp. equipment or a service, which makes life easier, more pleasant, etc. e.g.: A sauna in the hotel is a useful amenity. / The amenities of the town include a swimming pool, a library, public gardens and some beautiful parks. / Banks are now beginning to offer more amenities to their clients.

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11. kinfolk n. [U] = one's family or relative.

12 a term of value = a word which is of importance

13 prairie = a vast track grassland

14 conservationist 自然环境保护论者

15 be true of = apply of 符合于、适用 e.g.: As is true of \"due to\never begin a sentence. 正如\"due to\" 一样，\"prior to\" 从不用于句首。

16. intricate = complex, difficult to understand e.g.: It does need great skill to manipulate such an intricate piece of machinery.

17. bacteria n. [Pl.] (c.f.: bacterium sing.) || bacterial adj. e.g.: ~ contamination 细菌感染

18 beaver = 海狸

19. build soil = prevent soil from being washed away

20. lick n. a place where wild animals go to taste or eat salt 盐碱地

21 trample v. walk on roughly or heavily as to destroy

22 erode vt. gradually wear away 腐蚀 e.g.: Metals are eroded by acids.|| erosion n. || erosive adj. e.g.: the erosion of the coastline by the sea

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23 hollow out = to form sth into hollow shape e.g.: The birds hollowed out a nest in a tree trunk.

24. erosion （refer to Note 22）

25 humanity n. = people in general; human nature; kindness, respect, and sympathy towards other people 人类； 人性， 人的特点；人爱 || the humanities 人文学科

26 Edmund Spenser （英国诗人）埃德蒙.斯宾塞（1552-1599）: He was born in East Smithfield near the Tower of London in 1552. His education began at Merchant Tayor's School in London and was continued in Cambridge, where he earned a scant living. He left Cambridge in 1576. In his lifetime Spenser had many jobs, though he devoted most of his vigor and wisdom to literary work. He wrote countless noteworthy poems including \"the faerie Queen\rests. In 1599, Edmund Spenser died in London and he was buried in Westminster Abbey. His monument describes him as \"The Prince of Poets in His Time.\"

27. Nature, who is the \"greatest goddess,\" acts as a sort of earthly lieutenant of God = Nature is the supreme goddess of earth and acts on behalf of god to figuratively \"patrol\" and protect the earth.

29. jurisdiction n. 司法权、管辖权 = the right to use an official power to make legal decisions e.g.: The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country.

30 Thus, in Spenser, the natural principles of fertility and order are pointedly linked

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with the principle of justice, which we may be a little surprised to see that he attributes also to nature. = There, Spenser thinks that the natural principle of fertility and order are noticeably connected with the principle of justice. This linking of justice to nature may surprise us || fertility n. (of plant or animals) ability of producing fruits or young 生育能力 c.f.: fertile adj. Most men remain fertile into old age. fertilize vt. || attribute (sth.) to (sb. /sth.) 把...归因于；是...的结果；认为是...所作（所有）. = say that (sb. or sth.) has a particular quality; day that a situation or event is caused by (sb. or sth.); say that (sb.) is responsible for saying or writing (sth.), or painting a famous picture. e.g.: The management attributed the success of the company to the new marketing Director. / His success can be justifiably attributed to nothing but hard work. / The poem is traditionally attributed to the American poet, Longfellow. / The painting was attributed to a Tang artist.

31. And yet in his insistence on an “indifferent” natural justice, resting on the “brotherhood” of all creatures, not just of humans, Spenser would now be said to be on sound ecological footing = We would say that if Spenser were alive today his understanding of the brotherly relationship of all creatures would qualify him as a sound environmentalist. || rest on = base on or depend on e.g.: Success in management ultimately rests on good judgments. || footing n. the conditions or arrangements under which sth exists or operates. It is usually used in such phrases as on a sound footing / on a firm footing / on a solid footing and on an equal footing or on the same footing.

32 In nature we know that wild creatures sometimes exhaust their vital sources and suffer the natural remedy: drastic population reductions = We know that when wild animals use up all of the available resources which keep them alive, they begin to

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die out in large numbers. || remedy = a medicine which can cure an illness. In the text, it refers to nature's solution (cure) to the problem

33. (the lynxes) starve down to the carrying capacity of their habitat = The (lynxes) die off until their population drops to a point where the environment can sustain them.

34. carrying capacity = the population of any creature that an area can support. 某一自然环境下能容纳生物的数目

35 \"indifferent\" justice = impartial treatment

36. There is no appeal from this justice = This justice allows no review of the case.

37. the Lord may forgive our wrongs against nature = the Lord (God) may forgive us for the poor way we have treated nature and the earth ...

38.He does not overturn her decisions = God does not alter the decisions made by nature, i.e. the impartial judge.

39. operate = function

40. tilts back and forth like a seesaw =

41. alternately adv. by turn; first the one and then the other

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42. To say this is to renew the question of whether or not the human

relationship with nature is necessarily an adversary relationship = To say this is to raise again the question of whether the relationship between humans and nature is always a hostile one.

43. But in dealing with this question and in trying to do justice to the presumed complexity of the answer, we are up against an American convention of simple opposition to nature that is deeply established both in our minds and in our ways = But in attempting to answer the question and justify all of the complicated aspects of this issue, we encounter the American belief that man must fight against nature. This viewpoint is deeply rooted in our minds and behavior. || presumed adj. = supposed || complexity n. = state or quality of being complicated

44. primeval [prai'mi:vl] = very ancient 远古的、太古的 e.g.: primeval forests

45. is ultimately destructive even of ourselves = in the end causes damage even to ourselves

46 grizzly bear n. [C] 灰熊

47 We remain under the spell of the primeval forests and prairies that we have cut down and broken = in spite of having destroyed great forests and prairies, we still feel, respond, and are drawn to their majesty. || be under the spell of 被迷 住 = be attracted by e.g.: We were under the spell of the beautiful music.

48 nodding thistle = thistle moving gently up and down

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49 earn =

50 indispensable

51. in building humus = in making the dark organic part of soil formed from decaying matter

52. involved in = take part in

53. at the expense of = with loss, injury, or sacrifice of e.g.: High production rates are often achieved at the expense of quality of work. / He devotes his time to football at the expense of his studies.

54 vice versa = This phrase is used when the opposite of a situation you have just described is also true. e.g.: It is strange that any book he likes I don't and vice versa.

Key to the translation from English to Chinese:

A:正如诗人埃德蒙.斯宾塞在将近四百年前所说的那样，大自然是“最伟大的女神”。她似乎担任了上帝驻地球的总督的职务。斯宾塞把她描写成一位母亲和法官。|| 她管辖着所有的生物之间的往来，并不分厚薄地给予他们权利，因为她是一位公正的母亲。她把他们紧密地联结在一起，就象兄弟姐妹。|| 因而，在斯宾塞看来，生物繁殖及生物秩序的自然规律与公正原则显而易见地是联系在一起的。当我们得知斯宾塞认为大自然也具有公正原则的时候我们或许有点吃惊。|| 然而，斯宾塞不仅以人类的手足之情而是以所有生物的手足之情为依据来坚持自然界有这么一位“公正的”法官。要是在当今，我们会说斯宾塞是以生态学作为其可靠依据的。

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B. 如果我们人类和大自然的固有关系不是相互对抗的，那么，它又是什么样的一种关系呢？|| 对我们来讲，这个变得相当复杂难解，因为正如我先前所讲过的那样，我们中没有人想在未经开发的原始森林里或在未经改造的原始大草原上生活，我们不想被大灰熊吃掉。|| 假如我们是园艺家，我们有正当的理由去抱怨园内的杂草。在肯塔基州，如果我们准备改良牧场，我们就很可能成为那一片随风摆动的大蓟的敌人。|| 但是，如果我们还随心所欲，想做什么就做什么，那么，我们就会对那些曾经被我们砍伐破坏了的原始森林和草原着迷，我们会一而再而三地想起它们，想起那些幸存的原始森林和原始草原。|| 我们还会感到大灰熊深深地吸引着我们。我们知道，在整个人类时期我们会一直想起大灰熊及其他一些危险动物。

Key to the translation from Chinese to English:

1. Most conservationists believe that humans thrive best in ecological health and that the sign of this health is the survival of a diversity of wild animals.

2. Mr. Smith produced abundant evidence to indicate that we, to some extent, diminish ourselves if we diminish nature.

3. Many cities in Western countries have switched to a new gasoline formula that reduces the pollution content. This is also true of some cities in China.

4. As depicted in a poem written by the English poet Edmund Spenser, nature is not only a mother but a judge, having jurisdiction over and doing justice to all creatures

5. A government study concludes that besides overcrowding and poor public transport, the biggest problems the city is up against are noise and pollution.

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6. Unlike all other creatures, humans have the ability to act on their judgment/ understanding.

7. Don't you agree with the statement that health without wealth is preferable to wealth without health?

8. Even those defenders of industrial economy have to acknowledge openly that any conflict between humans and nature often occurs at the expense of both.

9. If your friend kindly points out a fault you have, take what is said not merely pleasantly, but thankfully.

10. One of the differences between humans and wild animals is that (or lies in that) the former can make a wise choice as to the kind and scale of the change they make to nature.

Key to Vocabulary and Structure

A.1. complexity 2. wild 3. surplus 4. indifferently 5. earthly 6. acknowledge 7. obviously/ apparently 8. diminish 9. artificial I 0. destructive

B.1.g 2 j 3 a 4 f 5 b 6 h 7 i 8 c 9 d 10 e 1. primeval 2. whatsoever 3. beneficent 4. ultimately 5. pointedly 6. intricate 7. encroaching 8. indispensable 9. legitimate 10. fertility

C.1. In short 2. attributed to 3. is up against 4. were under the spell of 5. at the

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expense of 6. regardless of 7. Allowing for 8. was involved in 9. acting on 10. vice versa

D.1.C.increases 2. B. that of the general population 3. B. largely self-contained 4. A. in charge of 5. D. confused 6. C. safety provisions 7. B.that 8. B. by which 9. C. put 10. D. much of

E.1. survival 2. perceive 3. public 4.occupy 5.lots 6.hand 7. restored 8. fertility 9. renewed 10. dwellings 11. wilderness 12. transitions 13. agriculture 14. even 15.beyond Key to Reading Practice1.D 2.D 3.B 4.C

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