There is a marked difference between the education which every one gets from living with others, and the deliberate education of the young. In the former case the education is incidental; it is natural and important, but it is not the express reason of the association. It may be said that the measure of the worth of any social institution is its effect in enlarging and improving experience; but this effect is not a part of its original motive. Religious associations began, for example, in the desire to secure the favor of overruling powers and to ward off evil influences; family life in the desire to gratify appetites and secure family perpetuity; systematic labor, for the most part, because of enslavement to others, etc. Only gradually was the by-product of the institution noted, and only more gradually still was this effect considered as a directive factor in the conduct of the institution. Even today, in our industrial life, apart from certain values of industriousness and thrift, the intellectual and emotional reaction of the forms of human association under which the world’s work is carried on receives little attention as compared with physical output.

But in dealing with the young, the fact of association itself, as an immediate human fact, gains in importance. While it is easy to ignore in our contact with them the effect of our acts upon their disposition, it is not so easy as in dealing with adults. The need of training is too evident; the pressure to accomplish a change in their attitude and habits is too urgent to leave these consequences wholly out of account. Since our chief business with them is to enable them to share in a common life we cannot help considering whether or not we are forming the powers which will secure this ability. If humanity has made some headway in realizing that the ultimate value of every institution is its distinctively human effect we may well believe that this lesson has been learned largely through dealings with the young.

So we are thus led to distinguish, within the broad educational process which we have been so far considering, a more formal kind of education―that of direct tuition or schooling. In undeveloped social groups, we find very little formal teaching and training. These groups mainly rely for instilling needed dispositions into the young upon the same sort of association which keeps the adults loyal to their group.

 

1. 原文：It may be said that the measure of the worth of any social institution is its effect in enlarging and improving experience; but this effect is not a part of its original motive.

分析：it may be said that是一个常见的句型，一般译为“可以说”；measure意思是“衡量，尺度”。

参考译文：可以说，衡量一种社会制度的价值，是看其在丰富经验、改进经验方面的效果。但这种效果并不是其初衷的一部分。

 

2. 原文：Only gradually was the by-product of the institution noted, and only more gradually still was this effect considered as a directive factor in the conduct of the institution.

分析：这是一个由两个倒装结构组成的并列句。翻译的关键是要恢复句子的正常语序，即：The by-product of the institution was only gradually noted, and this effect was still only more gradually considered as a directive factor in the conduct of the institution. 在词汇层面上，the by-product和this effect指同一事物。在翻译技巧上，可以把英语的被动结构转换成汉语的主动结构。

参考译文：人们是逐渐才注意到这种制度所带来的效果的，而把这种效果视为制度实施中的指导性因素的过程就更加缓慢。

 

3. 原文：While it is easy to ignore in our contact with them the effect of our acts upon their disposition, it is not so easy as in dealing with adults.

分析：在理解方面，最难的就是找出ignore的宾语the effect，由于中间插入了in our contact with them，很多考生可能无法弄清结构。在词汇层面上，them指the young，在翻译时需要明确；effect…upon形成搭配，意思是“对某事的影响”。

参考译文：我们在与年轻人交往中容易忽视自己的行为对他们的性格所产生的影响，而在与成年人打交道时就不会如此容易。

 

4. 原文：Since our chief business with them is to enable them to share in a common life we cannot help considering whether or not we are forming the powers which will secure this ability.

分析：cannot help considering是惯用语，意思是“禁不住考虑”。注意英语中的一次多义现象，在本句中since意思是“既然”；business意思是“职责，任务”；consider意思是“考虑”；powers的意思是“影响力”。

参考译文：既然我们与年轻人交往的主要职责是为了让他们能够参与共同的生活，我们就不能不考虑自己是否正在形成确保获得这种能力的影响力。

 

5. 原文：So we are thus led to distinguish, within the broad educational process which we have been so far considering, a more formal kind of education―that of direct tuition or schooling.

分析：理解这个句子的关键是弄清句子的结构，确切说是找出distinguish的宾语。它的宾语是a more formal kind of education。词汇层面，要注意lead（过去分词led）的用法，这里的lead作及物动词用，其用法为lead...to do，意思是“要求，诱使”，而不是我们平常所见到的结构lead to sth。

参考译文：因此，这就要求我们从迄今为止所考虑的广义教育过程中区分出一种更加正规的教育，即直接传授或学校教育。