lesson 1   Courtesy:Key to a happier world
难句释义：

1.Courtesy,politeness,good-manners——call it what you will,the supply never seems to equal the demand:
礼貌也好，客气，或文明举止也好，无论你称它什么，其供应似乎总是小于需求。（意思是人们维护和谐的关系所需要的礼貌从来都低于他们实际表现出的水平。）

2.What impelled the boy to take so much trouble to spare the feelings of a stranger?Courtesy,compassionate courtesy.
是什么促使这个年轻人不厌其烦地这么做？是礼貌，基于同情心的礼貌。（为了不让一个陌生人感到自己无用而难堪。）

3.Even when you have doubts about some people,act as if they are worthy of your best manners.
即使对有些人你不太有把握（他们是否值得你礼遇），也要以礼相待，就像他们值得你这样对待他们一样。

4.All skills require constant repetition to become second nature;good manners are no exception.
一切技能都需要经常重复而后才能成为第二天性，礼貌也是如此。

5.Nowhere is thinking courtesy more important than in marriage.
理性的礼貌在婚姻中比在其他任何方面都更加重要。
（此句是倒装句，表强调。正常语序：Thinking courtesy is more important in marriage than anywhere else.）

6．But some of the most precious gifts in life come with no strings attached.
可是生活中的有些最宝贵的赠品却是不带有任何附加条件的。（意思是别人对你的善举、好意、礼貌也是生活给你的赠品——无须回报就能得到的东西，不要认为人家是别有用心的。）

7.The only constant,daily,effective solution is politeness——which is the golded rule in action.
唯一能经常、每天使用的有效的解决方法就是以礼待人这个行为准则。

Lesson 2 & 3   The man who could work miracles(I  &  II)

1.It’s something contrary to the course of nature done by power of will.
奇迹是通过意志的力量产生违反自然规律的事物。

2.The fears of his first discovery were now mixed with pride and ideas of advantage.
刚发现自己超凡能力时的恐惧心情这时已经掺入了自豪感和优越感。

3．As the day passed, his state of mind passed from wonder to delight.
就在这一天之内，他的思想状况由惊讶变成了喜悦。

4.Mr. Fotheringay performed no more miracles that night, nor did he trouble to see what had become of his flowering stick.
那天夜里，佛泽林盖先生没有再制造奇迹，也没有费神去看看他那根开花的拐仗到底怎么样了。

5．Except for the loss of his miraculous powers, everything was back as it had been. And among other things, of course,he did not believe in miracles.
除了失去他那不可思议的能力之外，一切都回到了以往的状况，其中当然也包括他不相信有奇迹这一情况。

Lesson 4    Zero hour:43 seconds over Hiroshima紧急时刻：广岛上空的43秒钟

1.But she felt well enough to be up and about.
不过，她感觉起床活动是没有问题的。

2.she had sunk into unconsciousness.
她失去了知觉。

3.The very air seemed hostile, so thick with dust and ash that she could barely see.
连空气也好像是在作对，充满了尘土和灰烟，使她什么也看不见。

4.That life had been a comfortable one, wanting in nothing——not, at least, until the war.
那本来是很舒适的生活，什么也不缺，至少直到战争爆发之前是如此。

5.But he could not shut the war out of the sheltered world he had built for himself and his family.
但是这场战争也必然波及到他极力保护的家庭。（直译：他不可能把这场战争排斥在他为自己和家人营造的小天地之外。）

6.The street were filled with the dead and the barely living.
街上到处是死人和只剩下一口气的人。

7.The illness had not really left her; it had gone into hiding.
病魔并没有真正离开她，只不过是隐藏起来了。

Lesson 5   First principles 首要原则

1.What we ought to do is give to people we love——give memorable things according to our ability.
我们应该做的是为我们所爱的人奉献，也就是说根据我们的能力送给他们有纪念意义的东西。

2.It was Laura’s ovvious pleasure that had brightened everything.
正是因为劳拉喜形于色，给全家增添了节日气氛。

3.They made her think of the ballerina dress, and of all the pure, proud, filmy beauty of the world that belonged, by right,to Laura.
那朵朵鲜花使她想到那件芭蕾舞衣，使她想到世上一切纯真的、值得自豪的、朦胧的美，都理所当然地属于劳拉。（意思是说：劳拉这样好的女孩子应该享受世上一切美好的东西。）

Lesson 6  The beauty of Britain

1.The beauty of our country——or at least all of its south of North Scotland——is as hard to define as it is easy to enjoy.
我们国家的美，至少北苏格兰以南所有的地方之美欣赏容易，描绘难。（直译：欣赏起来容易，说明白难。）

Lesson 7   Some meanings of Authentic Love
1.If I love you, I’m responsive to most of your major needs as a person.
如果我爱你，我就回对你作为人的大多数的主要需求有反映。

2.This commitment does not entail surrendering our total selves to each other; nor does it imply that the relationship is necessarily permanent.
这种承诺并不需要我们相互放弃自身的特性，也不表示我们的这种关系一定是永久的关系。

3.In other words, love comes into an imperfect world to make it livable.
换句话说，爱来到这个不完美的世界，使它可以适合人们居住。（即：因为有了爱，人们才能在这个问题很多的世界上生活下去。）

4.Love means having a want for the person I love without having a need for that person in order to be complete.
爱意味着对于我所爱的人，我需要有他，而不是缺了他就不行。

Lesson 8   How I designed an A-Bomb in my junior year at Princeton

1.I develop a terrible case of bloodshot eyes. Sleep comes rarely.
我的双眼布满了血丝，我很少感到困。

2.Seven days before the design is due, I’m still deadlocked.
离规定交设计的日子还有七天的时候，最后两个问题还是毫无进展。

3.But I can’t be sure until I know the exact nature of the explosives I will use.
可是，我要是不了解我要使用的炸药的性能，我是不敢肯定我设计的原子弹是不是真的有那么大的威力。

4.”The question has been raised by the department whether your paper should be classified by the U.S. government.”
“系里有人已经提出你的论文是否应该由美国政府列为保密项目的问题。”

5.Here I have put on paper the plan for a device capable of killing thousands of people, and all I was worrying about was flunking out.
我把一个能够杀死成千人的装置设计出来了，而我一直担心的是再考不及格让我退学。

Lesson 9   Forty years on

1.The comparisons were, without exception, to my disadvantage.
比较的结果总是我不如他。

2.To me it seemed sinister that Mother always passed on any small achievement of mine.
妈妈总是把我每一点小小的成绩传递过去，我觉得这样做好像是不吉利。

3.What a boomerang that proved!By return of post came the news that John had won a scholarship.
真是适得其反！她收到的回信带来了约翰获得奖学金的消息。

4.I did have, however, one horribly narrow escape.
不过，有一次我是幸免于难。（narrow escape夸张的手法，取得幽默的效果。）

5.In addition to my physical woes I had mental agonies; I prayed that something might occur to prevent this meeting.
肉体的痛苦不说，我还受精神压力的折磨；我祈求发生什么意外的事情把这次会面化为泡影。

6.So they played the game both ways, did they?
这么说他们两关玩的是同样的把戏，是不是？

Lesson 10    On friendship

1.For a Frenchman, a German or an Englishman friendship is usually more special and carries a heavier burden of commitment.
对于法国人、德国人或是英国人来说，友谊一般包含更为特殊的内容，承担更多的义务。

2.Related to this is the sense each friend gives the other of being a special individual, on whatever grounds this recognition is based.
与此相关的是,朋友之间彼此使对方感到与众不同,无论这种感觉的依据是什么.

3.And between friends there is inevitably a kind of equality of give and take.
此外,朋友之间必然要有来有往,互让互谅.

Lesson   11    Selling the post(I)

1.The flaw in my character which she had already spotted was lack of "gumption".
在我的性格中,她已经发现的弱点是缺少"进取心".

2.We were only sixty-five years from Lincoln. Many a grandfather who walked among us could remember Lincoln's time.
我们离林肯也只有65年的时间,生活在我们中间的许多爷爷辈的人还记得林肯时代.
               many a:  a large number of(正式)很多

3.Those young men would not go far in this world.
那些年轻人在这个世界里没有多在的前程.

4.He presented it with reverence fit for a religious object.
他毕恭毕敬地把那帆布包递给我,似乎那包是件圣物.

Lesson 12   Selling the post (II)

1.Put me down as a regular customer.
把我算成一个长期买主吧.

2.I bowed to superior will and entered journalism with a heavy heart.
我只好屈服于我母亲至高无上的意志,心事重重地进入了新闻行业.

3.So far as I could make out, what writers did couldn't even be classified as work.
按我当时的理解,作家干的事甚至不能算作是工作.

4.I did not dare tell anybody for fear of being laughed at in the school yard, but secretly I decided that what I’d like to be when i grew up was a writer.
这事我不敢跟任何人说,怕在校园里让人笑话,不过我私下认定长大之后要当作家.

Lesson 13   How to grow old

1.I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.
尽管我喜欢做的事情大多数是有益于健康的，但我从不因某事有益于健康而特意去做那件事。

2.Psychologically there are 2 dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is too great an absorption in the past. The other thing to be avoided is clinging to young in the hope of finding strength in its vitality.
从心理角度来说，老年时期要提防两种危险。一是沉溺于过去。另一件要避免的事，就是依恋子女，希望从他们身上的活力中获取生命的力量。

3.Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life; the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
三个牵挂，简单但又极为深重，支配了我的一生：对爱的渴望，对知识的追求，对人类苦难的无限的同情。

4.This has been my life. I have found it worth living,and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
我就是这样生活的。我认为这样活着值得，如果上天赐我良机，我愿意这样再活一次。

Lesson 14   The listener

1.And he sat there, gentle and reflective, his great workman hands resting on outspread thighs.
于是他坐在那里，和蔼、深沉，一双劳动者的大手搭在伸开的大腿上。

2.For some time he continued to sit in silence. Then he looked up, lifted those hands calmly, judiciously, and nodded his head.
他静静地又坐了一会儿，然后抬起头来，安详地、有见地地举起了双手，点了点头。

Lesson 15   Edison: Inventor of invention

1.In my youth the lonely inventor who could not obtain a hearing was still the stock figure of the imagination.
我年轻的时候，人们对发明家的印象仍然是那种不为人理睬、孤立无援这种固定模式的人物。

2.In strict truth an invention is almost never the sole product of any one mind.
严格地说，一项发明创造几乎不可能只是任何一个个人的思想结晶。

3.It may be that in time we shall become used to change as in our older wisdom we had become used to the unchanging.
也许，随着时间的推移，我们会慢慢习惯于变革，就像在此以前，我们的思想状态使我们习惯于停滞不变一样。