Children in any society are expected to learn to conform to a number of social rules and expectations if they are to become participants in the culture. (46)Among the rules that children in our society are expected to learn are that certain classes of adults (such as teachers and doctors) are addressed by titles, that males and females use separate restroom facilities, and that women but not men wear dresses. These are examples of social conventions. In the absence of such a shared norm, the acts are neither right nor wrong. For this reason, conventions may be said to be arbitrary. For example, (47)we could just as easily have students address teachers by first names as have them call teachers by their last names and formal titles of Mr. or Ms.
Conventions, however, serve an important function by providing predictability and order to social life. (48)Without social conventions it would be impossible to organize social institutions such as schools, and societies as organized systems could not exist. The arbitrariness of conventions makes their importance difficult for children to figure out. (49) It is not until some time in adolescence that children come to fully understand the function that these arbitrary conventions serve to provide predictability and order to our social interactions.
In contrast with issues of convention are matters of morality. Morality refers to issues of human welfare, justice, and rights that are a function of the inherent features of interpersonal relations. Because of this, the right and wrong of moral actions are not simply determined by social consensus or the views of authority. For example, it is not possible to hit another person with force and not hurt the other person. Similarly, it is not possible to steal something valuable from someone else and not cause the person to experience the sense of loss. A moral judgment about unprovoked harm ( "It is wrong to hit") would not be dependent on the existence of a socially agreed upon rule or standard but could be generated solely from the intrinsic effects of the act (i.e., hitting hurts). (50)Similar analyses could be done regarding a broader range of issues that would extend beyond direct harm to concerns for what it means to be just, compassionate, and considerate of the rights of others.
参考答案:我们可以让学生对老师直呼其名,这和让他们称呼老师时要在姓后面加上先生或女士这种正式的称谓一样,都是轻而易举的事。
解析:[原文再现] We could just as easily have students address teachers by first names as have them call teachers by their last names and formal titles of Mr. or Ms.
[结构分析] 本句是由as...as...结构连接的两个分句,第一个分句的主干是...We could have students address teachers...。第二个人分句主干是...(we) have them call teachers...。由于两个分句的主语相同,因此第二个分句的主语we省略了。
[译点分析]
(1)...as easily have students address teachers by first names as...: ...as...as...意为“……与……(在某个方面)相同”,在翻译时既可以合并为一个句子说明其共同点,也可以拆分成两个句子并总结其相同点。
(2)have them call teachers by their last names: have sb do sth意为“让某人做某事”;call sb by sth“以……称呼某人”。