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● our American culture：问话的人（Price）是美国人。were：虚拟式动词。wiped out：扫除，消灭。
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● whom是疑问代名词；who是关系代名词，代替whom。到今天为止（so far），美国到底出了什么人才，可以算对全世界是一个永久的贡献呢？stand：别的东西都消灭了，他可以屹立不移。
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● Whitman（1819—1892）：美国诗人，《草叶集》的作者。Emerson（1803—1882）：美国诗人，思想家。
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● the Forbeses：怀德海的邻居Forbes一家人。Forbes指的是Cameron Forbes，美国外交家，曾任美国驻日大使，驻菲律宾总督。他和Emerson的血统关系不详。grandson解作“孙儿”，也可解作“外孙”。
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● pardon：批评人家的祖先，当然应该请人家原谅，即使他们人不在左右，听不见我的话。not so original：没有什么独创的贡献。
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● brought something：这两个简单的字，用处很大。something在本书前文中已经讨论过，这里可能代表一种“美”、或“力量”、或“风格”、或“思想”。brought可能表示“灌输”、“创造”、“倡导”种种意思。这两个字都可以用比较艰深专门的字代替，但是在普通谈话中，这样也就够用了。which was never there before：以前所没有的。定语从句，形容something。
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● what he says：他所说的（内容）。what的用法，在本书前文中曾讨论过。is so new的主语是Much。saying it的it代替Much。form：（诗歌的）形式。这句话用两种不同的时态：he says用现在式，话虽说过了，但是话还留传人间；古人说话，大多可用现在式以表示之，例如Confucius says。又is so new也用现在式，对于今日的读者，还是新鲜的。had to invent用过去式，Whitman创造新形式以表现新思想，是在过去。
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● seems to me to have been：分词用完成式，表示Whitman现在已不在人世。
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● can stand easily beside：足与（欧洲大诗人）相比。
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“You must remember that at Winchester the boys are a selected group, with a very special kind of training to which they are well adapted. In that groove they acquire astonishing proficiency, but they would be quite ignorant out of it. They would know a great deal about Roman customs in the period of the Punic Wars, but very little, perhaps nothing, about urgent problems of their own land and time. They do well at the universities and make names in the professions and as colonial administrators and civil servants. The creative arts? I do not think you will find many of them excelling there. They write very well, but not very imaginatively. American students are less well-informed but more eager to learn; English boys are less eager but more informed. The American boy knows less about what interests him more, the English boy knows more about what seems to interest him less.” He said this with a laughing twinkling in his bright blue eyes.
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● 本段怀德海讨论英美两国青年的知识程度。Price曾去参观英国有名的Winchester College（中学），发现高班中学生都能阅读希腊名著的原文，可是美国哈佛大学的学生都不一定有这样高的程度。怀德海即就此点发表意见。
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● selected group：经过挑选的一群人，优秀分子。adapted连前面的to which。这辈青年很能适应于这种训练。
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● groove：原意为“沟”或“槽”，转作“故辙”、“规定的路子”、“刻板文章”。这里指英国中学的训练方法。proficiency：精通、熟练。是动词acquire（获得）的宾语。would be：虚拟式动词，说话的人不敢说定。out of it=out of the groove。在规定课程范围之内，他们知道得非常之多；在这范围之外，他们的知识可能很浅陋。
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● Roman customs：罗马人的风俗习惯。Punic Wars：罗马与迦太基之战。（Punic就是腓尼基，迦太基是腓尼基人所建立的）。urgent problems：迫切的问题。他们对于本国目前的大问题，可能知道得很少，甚至一无所知。
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● do well：成绩很好。make names：扬名，露头角。excelling：出人头地。他们干律师、医生、牧师等（所谓professions）行业，到殖民地去做官，或者在本国做公务员（civil servants），成绩都很好，但是他们在创造性的艺术方面，却很少有人能有杰出的成绩。
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● They write very well：训练严格，故写作技巧很好；但思想可能窒塞，想象力不够活泼。eager to learn：求知欲旺盛。informed：学识丰富。less…more：美国学生对于学问（what）所知不多，但是兴趣较浓。
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● twinkling：闪光。
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“It strikes me that our writers don’t know enough.”
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“It is true that most great writers did know quite a lot. But it is possible to know too much. What is wanted is an immense feeling for things. And the danger in old civilizations is that the teaching may be too good. It damps students down. They know too much about what has been done, they write well, but without freshness. It is so fatally easy for a good period in art to die in scholasticism and pedantry, for the life to go out of it. Oxford has taught the classics for centuries, and for centuries Cambridge virtually refused to teach literature and taught mathematics, and yet twice as many poets came out of Cambridge as out of Oxford.”
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● our writers：美国作家。这一段又是Price发问。
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● did know：过去式，did用以加重语气。过去大作家学识的确是丰富的。
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● to know too much：若从充实学识着手，可能中了书毒，对于艺术创作反有妨害。
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● an immense feeling for things：学识并不重要，重要的是对于万事万物，有一种极大的“体会的能力”。
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● old civilizations：civilizations可以解作“国家”。在文明古国，教书先生过分道地，这是有危险的。
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● damps：使潮湿；挫折学生的锐气，打消学生的热诚。
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