英文思考：如何正确看待一篇新闻

 
The news, at its best, is often an indulgence, a relief, an escape from one’s own troubles, a flight from the mundane. News is not a civic chore. In fact, to treat reading the news as a duty is to treat ice cream like mustard greens–to believe readers must be tricked into eating it, and thus guarantee that they rarely will.
 
在最好的情况下，新闻通常是一种放纵，一种放松，一种摆脱烦恼，逃离世俗的方式。阅读新闻不是公民的职责。事实上，随着人们对其他义务的考虑，新闻就像对待芥末看冰淇淋一样，认为读者必须被骗吃芥末，以确保他们几乎不主动阅读新闻。
 
I’m going to propose that we should read news sites as ice cream–not as an obligation, but for stimulation, escapism, and even righteousness. At the same time we must admit to ourselves that–far from being a duty–news in heated times (and in the age of Twitter) can often represent a full-tilt compulsion, and thus a habit to be judiciously managed.
 
我建议把新闻网站看作冰淇淋，不是义务，而是灵感、逃避，甚至正义。同时，我们不得不承认，在激烈的变革时代，特别是在推特时代，阅读新闻和履行义务，与读者相去甚远，往往不得不被迫接受全面，因此，阅读新闻作为一种习惯，需要认真的管理。
 
This new avidity and readerly sense of purpose began about a year ago, during the psychic upheaval of the presidential primaries, with the repeated shocks to our society’s manners, morals, and politics. The work of “being informed”–so long preached in social studies classes–now felt like the opposite of work. You didn’t have to force yourself to read the news. You had to force yourself to take a break.
 
大约一年前，在美国总统初选的激荡中，这种全新的阅读迫切感以及读者目的意识便生根发芽了，社会的习俗、道德和政治一次又一次遭到冲击。“正被告知”盛行社会研究课堂那么多年，现在感觉正好相反。你无需强迫自己阅读新闻，反而需要强迫自己停下来。
 
There is everything to be gained by cultivating a personal stake in the lives of others, in the future of our nation, and in the world. But reading the front section as if it were the sports pages, with every line a credit or debit, a win, or a loss, has hazards. You begin to twist what you read. It’s what happens when the public’s consumption of news becomes too much about sides, about winning and losing, and less about empathy for our fellow men.
 
把个人利益与他人的生活、国家和世界的未来联系起来有许多好处。但是阅读标题，比如阅读体育版，阅读每一行内容是很危险的，因为都在计较输赢。你会开始把你所读到的。在消费新闻中，如果过分强调对抗和胜利，而对苦难几乎没有同情，就会产生误解和扭曲。
 
So how do we combat this? By increasing our literacy. To become a better reader, we must borrow practices from higher-order reading, including the reading of fiction. Remember that the best characters and novels–and every single flesh-and-blood human and real-life event–mix good and evil. Suspend judgement. Let yourself be surprised by evidence that doesn’t fit your hypothesis. Take breaks.
 
那么我们该如何回应呢？答案是提高素养。要想成为一个更好的读者，我们必须从更高层次的阅读，包括小说中汲取营养。记住，最好的人物和小说，包括每一个真实的生活事件，都混杂着善恶。所以不要妄下结论，对与你的假设不一致的证据感到惊讶，偶尔强迫自己停下来。
 
But also, keep reading. It’s quite a story. And you’re part of it.
 
同时，继续读新闻。因为这是一个伟大的故事，你是故事的一部分。
 


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