| 英文原文
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中文原文
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| It is not difficult to imagine a world short of ambition. |
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一个缺乏抱负的世界将会怎样，这不难想象。 |
| It would probably be a kinder world: with out demands, without abrasions, without disappointments. |
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或许，这将是一个更为友善的世界：没有渴求，没有磨擦，没有失望。 |
| People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity. |
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人们将有时间进行反思。他们所从事的工作将不是为了他们自身，而是为了整个集体。 |
| Competition would never enter in. conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past. |
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竞争永远不会介入；冲突将被消除。人们的紧张关系将成为过往云烟。 |
| The stress of creation would be at an end. |
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创造的重压将得以终结。 |
| Art would no longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its functions. |
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艺术将不再惹人费神，其功能将纯粹为了庆典。 |
| Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. |
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人的寿命将会更长，因为由激烈拼争引起的心脏病和中风所导致的死亡将越来越少。 |
| Anxiety would be extinct. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart. |
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焦虑将会消失。时光流逝，抱负却早已远离人心。 |
| Ah, how unrelieved boring life would be! |
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啊，长此以往人生将变得多么乏味无聊！ |
| There is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. |
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有一种盛行的观点认为，成功是一种神话，因此抱负亦属虚幻。 |
| Does this mean that success does not really exist? That achievement is at bottom empty? |
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这是不是说实际上并不丰在成功？成就本身就是一场空？ |
| That the efforts of men and women are of no significance alongside the force of movements and events |
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与诸多运动和事件的力量相比，男男女女的努力显得微不足？ |
| now not all success, obviously, is worth esteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which are not is something one soon enough learns on one's own. |
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显然，并非所有的成功都值得景仰，也并非所有的抱负都值得追求。对值得和不值得的选择，一个人自然而然很快就能学会。 |
| But even the most cynical secretly admit that success exists; that achievement counts for a great deal; and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women are useless. |
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但即使是最为愤世嫉俗的人暗地里也承认，成功确实存在，成就的意义举足轻重，而把世上男男女女的所作所为说成是徒劳无功才是真正的无稽之谈。 |
| To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view that is likely to be deranging. |
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认为成功不存在的观点很可能造成混乱。 |
| It is, in its implications, to remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and regard for posterity.We do not choose to be born. |
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这种观点的本意是一笔勾销所有提高能力的动机，求取业绩的兴趣和对子孙后代的关注。 |
| We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. |
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我们无法选择出生，无法选择父母，无法选择出生的历史时期与国家，或是成长的周遭环境。 |
| We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. |
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我们大多数人都无法选择死亡，无法选择死亡的时间或条件。 |
| But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. |
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但是在这些无法选择之中，我们的确可以选择自己的生活方式：是勇敢无畏还是胆小怯懦，是光明磊落还是厚颜无耻，是目标坚定还是随波逐流。 |
| We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. |
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我们决定生活中哪些至关重要，哪些微不足道。 |
| We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. |
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我们决定，用以显示我们自身重要性的，不是我们做了什么，就是我们拒绝做些什么。 |
| But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. |
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但是不论世界对我们所做的选择和决定有多么漠不关心，这些选择和决定终究是我们自己做出的。 |
| We decide. We choose. |
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我们决定，我们选择。 |
| And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. |
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而当我们决定和选择时，我们的生活便得以形成。 |
| In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about. |
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最终构筑我们命运的就是抱负之所在。 |
