外刊酱

Academic freedom：Wanted: severe contests

学术自由：希望激烈竞争

Universities that promote ideological conformity do

students a disservice

大学提倡意识形态一致，学生遭罪

【1】When seeking a job to teach in the University of California system, academic excellence is not enough. applicants must also submit a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statement, explaining how they will advance those goals. That sounds fair enough, except that a promise to treat everyone equally would constitute a fail. Meanwhile in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis and the state legislature are trying to ban the teaching of critical-race theory, an approach to studying racism with which they disagree. While this has been going on, a row has broken out (also in Florida) over a new pre-college course in African-American studies. These three developments have one thing in common: they are attempts to win arguments by controlling the institutions where those arguments take place.想要在加州大学求职任教，仅有学术上的成就是不够的。申请 人还须提交一份追求多样性、公平性以及包容性（DEI）的 声明，并阐释将如何推进这些目标。这听起来很公平，但承诺 平等对待每个人是不可能的。与此同时，在佛罗里达州，州长 罗恩·德桑蒂斯（Ron DeSantis）和州立法机构正试图禁止 批判种族理论的教学，他们强烈反对这种研究种族主义的教学 方式。另一边，（同样是在佛罗里达州）一门新设的大学预 科课程——非裔美国人研究，引发热论。

【2】Threats to academic freedom in America can come from many directions. Students sometimes object to being exposed to ideas they deemtroubling. Some even try to get faculty members fired for allowing such ideas to be voiced. Donors occasionally threaten to withdraw funding, which has a chilling effect on what can be taught. Speakers can be banned. Academics may self-censor, or succumb to groupthink. occasionally American society demands restrictions on academic freedom, as when professors in the 1950s were asked to take loyalty tests to prove they were not communistsympathisers.在美国，学术自由受到各种各样的威胁。比如，学生们不愿接 受他们认为不适的想法，甚至有些学生试图让那些允许此类观 点发声的老师丢掉饭碗；基金捐赠者也会威胁撤资，这让可 教授的内容产生了寒蝉效应（怕引发争论而不敢教）；发声 者被禁言；学术界可能会自审，又或屈于群体思维。美国社 会在过去也偶尔限制学术自由，如在20世纪50年代，教授们须 参加忠诚度测试，以证明他们不是共产主义的支持者。

【3】All these threats still exist. Plenty of people have rightly worried about academic freedom in America in the past. And yet one of the things that is distinctive about this moment is that the warring parties have determined that the best way to win the argument, and the most thorough way to stifledebate, is to remake institutions according to their preferences.如今，所有这些威胁都依然存在。过去，许多人担心美国的学 术自由并非杞人忧天。但与以往不同的是，交战双方坚信，赢 得争论以及扼制争辩的最佳方法就是按照他们的偏好重置机构 （这里指大学）。

【4】DEI statements may seem innocuous enough, and their intentions may seem laudable. Yet if they are used as a filter for hiring, they will filterout anyone who fails to toe the campus-progressive line, and anyone who objects on principle to ideological litmus tests.DIE声明可能看似无碍，他们的想法也值得称赞。然而，如果 这些都被当作是招聘过程的过滤器，它们将淘汰掉任何不服从 校园路线的人，以及任何在原则上反对意识形态试金石的人。

【5】In Florida, Mr DeSantis seems to be hoping that left-wing professors in state colleges will go to work somewhere else, creating openings for more conservative professors. The Stop WOKE Act, now law in Florida, bars teaching about systemic racism unless this is done “in an objective manner”—a qualifier which is rather subjective. Academics who cross the line will be threatened with dismissal.在佛罗里达州，德桑蒂斯（ DeSantis）先生似乎希望大学 里的左翼教授到别处任教，以提供机会给更多的保守派教授。佛罗里达州现行法律《停止觉醒法案》（The Stop WOKE Act）禁止系统性教授种族主义内容，除非是以“客观的方 式”——这是一个相当主观的限定词。违反规定的学者可能将 面临解雇的风险。

【6】As for that course on African-American history, a draft version was denounced from the right as dangerous woke nonsense and then, when it was revised, denounced from the left as a whitewashed version of black history. The notion that students might look at contradictory ideas and judge their merits was too terrifying to contemplate.至于那门研究非裔美国人历史的课程，它的拟稿被右派人士谴 责为耸人听闻的荒唐事，而经修改后，又被左派人士斥责，认 为是对黑人历史的掩饰。有言论称，学生看到相互矛盾的观点 或许能够判断是非曲直。这种想法简直可怕了，无法想象。

【7】Partisans on both sides seem indecently eager to create separate institutions for liberals and conservatives, where the liberals would never have to hear wrongthink (a category that would include some of Martin Luther King’s ideas, were they proposed by a less revered speaker), and the conservatives would never have to encounter the works of Derrick Bell (who has as good a claim as anyone to have developed critical-race theory).双方党派的拥护者似乎都不愿意为自由派或保守派设立单独的 机构，因为自由派永远接纳所有观点（这些观点可能包括马 丁路德金的一些观点，如果它们是由名声较小的人提出 的），而保守派永远不会遇到德里克·贝尔（ Derrick Bell ）的作品（他和其他人一样主张发展批判性种族理论）。

【8】No doubt this would make both ideological tribes happier. But it would be a disaster for the country. Democracy depends on citizens who can find compromises. Liberalism depends on taking an opponent’s argument seriously and learning from it. America needs institutions that can have these debates, rather than monocultural incubators of mutually exclusive ideologies. dei statements could even be repurposed to this end: rather than asking applicants what they have done to further racial diversity and equity, institutions of higher learning might start asking how they plan to further real diversity of thought.

毫无疑问，若真的设立这样的机构，双方党派都会满足。但对 整个国家而言，这将是场灾难。民主的关键在于民众的 求“和”之道。而自由派则需要认真对待对手的论点并从中学 习。美国需要的是允许百家争鸣的机构，而不是意识形态相互 排斥、文化单一的场面。DEI声明可能会被重新利用以达到这 个目的：高等教育机构可能不会问申请者为促进种族多样性 和公平做了什么，而是问他们如何进一步促进真正的思想多元 化。

一、短语

1. 原文：After the tweet went viral, the AP deleted it and apologised for dehumanising “the French”.

词典：go viral像病毒般扩散；走红

例句：Pay walls make it difficult for news to go viral.

付费权限只能让新闻难以传开。

2. 原文：But in contrast to some other languages, it is increasingly considered essentialising to refer to “the poor” or “the disabled”, as though they are nothing else.

词典：in contrast to与……形成对照

例句：In contrast to Samsung, Apple is a holdout.

与三星相比，苹果没有屈服。

3. 原文：The alternative is meant to be less so.

词典：be meant to理应发生;应该

例句：These letters seem to be meant to be read out loud.

这些书信似乎需要大声朗读出来。

4. 原文：One is that though a case can be made for each individual change, adopting every one will quickly make a piece of writing lumbering, since every new option is longer than the one it is supposed to replace.

词典：be supposed to应该

例句：I thought we were supposed to be living in a democracy.

我还以为我们应该是生活在一个民主国家里。

5. 原文：Changing the world is hard; changing the language is a lot easier, which is why linguistic engineering can tempt people who may feel they have no other tools at hand apart from their keyboards.

词典：apart from 除了……外

例句：I like all sports apart from football.

除足球外我喜欢所有的运动。

6. 原文：But it does not seem to work out as hoped.

词典：work out进展顺利

例句：Things just didn't work out as planned.

事情没有像计划的那样进展顺利。

7. 原文：As with reclaimingslurs, the idea seems to be that showing pride is likely to be more effective than swapping words.

词典：be likely to有可能……

例句：The series is likely to be screened in January.

这部系列剧可能在1月份播放。

二、长难句

【原文】

One is that though a case can be made for each individual change, adopting every one will quickly make a piece of writing lumbering, since every new option is longer than the one it is supposed to replace.

【译文】

一个问题是，尽管每个词汇替换都有其理由，但采用每一个替换将很快使一篇写作变得冗长累赘，因为每个新选项都比其要替换的词汇更长。

【分析】

本句的主句是“One is that...”,这是个主系表结构，表语是that引导的表语从句。在这个表语从句中，“though a case can be made for each individual change”是让步状语从句，“adopting every one will quickly make a piece of writing lumbering”是表语从句的主句，“adopting every one ”是动名词作主语。“ since every new option is longer than the one it is supposed to replace”是since引导的原因状语从句。

【原文】

Changing the world is hard; changing the language is a lot easier, which is why linguistic engineering can tempt people who may feel they have no other tools at hand apart from their keyboards.

【译文】

改变世界很难，改变语言要容易得多，这就是为什么语言工程能够吸引那些可能感觉手头除了键盘没有其他工具的人。

【分析】

本句的主句是由分号连接的两个句子组成，“Changing the world is hard; changing the language is a lot easier”，“which is why linguistic engineering can tempt people”为非限制性定语从句，which指代前面整个主句，其中why引导表语从句。“who may feel they have no other tools at hand apart from their keyboards”是限制性定语从句，修饰先行词people 。

三、写作技巧

【原文】

If such writing is sharply as well as humanely done, it will be compelling to readers, and may even be of benefit to its subjects.

【译文】

如果这样的写作既犀利又有人情味，它将会吸引读者，甚至可能对其所描述的对象有益。

表达

【表达】

在本句中，作者在表达“对......有益”时没有使用形容词，而是使用了be of benefit这个表达，be of +n等于be+adj，be of benefit=be beneficial。

例如：be of importance=be important

be of use=be useful

be of help=be helpful

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