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Unit 9 The One Against the Many
第九单元 一个对多个
Arthur M. Schlesinger.Jr
亚瑟·迈耶·施莱辛格
In an epoch dominated by the aspirations of new states for national development, it is instructive to recall that the United States itself began as an underdeveloped country.
在这个新生国家渴望发展的时代，回眸美国从不发达国家开始的发展历程是很有教益的。
Every country, of course, has its distinctive development problems and must solve them according to its own traditions, capacities, and values. The American experience was unique in a number of ways. The country was blessed by notable advantages-above all, by the fact that population was scarce in relation to available resources. But the favorable ratio between population and resources was obviously not the only factor in American development. Had that been so, the Indians, for whom the ratio was even more favorable, would have developed the country long before the first settlers arrived from over the seas. What mattered equally was the spirit in which these settlers approached the economic and social challenges offered by the environment. Several elements seem fundamental to the philosophy which facilitated the rapid social and economic development of the American continent.
当然，每个国家都有各自发展的问题，而且必须根据其各自的传统、能力和价值解决它们。美国的经验在许多方面都是独特的。这个国家有着得天独厚的优势——主要是人口相对稀少而资源十分丰富。但是很明显，人口和资源之间有利的比例不是促进美国发展的唯一因素。如果真是这样的话，在人口与资源比例上更具优势的印第安人，在海外殖民者到来以前，早就应该把国家发展起来了。同样重要的还有这些殖民者在面临各种经济和社会环境的挑战时的精神。几个基本思想因素对于促进美洲大陆社会和经济迅速发展起到了至关重要的作用。
One factor was the deep faith in education. The belief that investment in people is the most essential way for a society to devote its resources existed from the earliest days of the American colonies. It arose originally from a philosophical rather than an economic commitment-from a faith in the dignity of man and from the resulting belief that it is the responsibility of society to offer man the opportunity to develop his highest potentialities. But, at the same time, it also helped produce the conditions essential to successful modernization.
其中一个思想因素就是对于教育的深信不疑。对人员的投入是社会资源分配的最基本方式，这种信念在美国殖民地最早期就存在。它源于对思想原则的信仰，而不是出于对经济利益的追求；它源于对人的尊严的坚信以及由此而产生的信念，即给人类提供机会去发展其最大的潜能是社会的责任。但与此同时，它帮助美国奠定了走向现代化的基础。
Modern industrial society must be above all a literate society. Economic historians attribute two-thirds of the growth in American output over the centuries of American development to increases in productivity.
现代化的工业社会必须首先是知识的社会。经济历史学家把美国两个世纪发展期间2/3的经济增长归功于生产力的提高。
