句子的主语是to stop there
句子的谓语是was like
句子的宾语是clearing the ground without any idea of what was to be built on it
句子的宾语是意思是“平整地面,却不知道要在这块地上建造什么”
句子的意思是“如果只停留于此,就像有了一块清理好了的地面而不知道在上面建什么一样.”
Confessions of a Miseducated Man
Norman Cousins
一个接受错误教育的人的自白
诺曼 库辛斯
1.These notes are in the nature of a confession. It is the confession of a miseducated man.
下面这段文字是我的自白,是一个接受了错误教育的人的自白.
2.I have become most aware of my lack of a proper education whenever I have had the chance to put it to the test. The test is a simple one: am I prepared to live and comprehend a world in which there are 3 billion people? Not the world as it was in 1850 or 1900, for which my education might have been adequate, but the world today. And the best place to apply that test is outside the country — especially Asia or Africa.
当我有机会来检验平生所学时,我清楚地意识到自己所接受的是不当的教育.测验很简单：我是否能适应并生存在这个有30亿人口的地球上?这个世界已经不是l850或1900年那个时候了,也许对那个时代来说我受的教育还算恰当,可如今已经不同了.进行测试的最好的地点是在国外,特别是亚洲或非洲.
3.Not that my education was a complete failure. It prepared me very well for a bird's-eye view of the world. It taught me how to recognize easily and instantly the things that make one place or one people different from another. Geography had instructed me in differences of terrain, resources, and productivity. Comparative culture had instructed me in the differences of background and group interests. Anthropology had instructed me in the differences of facial bone structure, skin color and general physical aspect. In short, my education protected me against surprise. I was not surprised at the fact that some people lived in mud huts and others in bamboo cottages; or that some used wood for fuel and others dung; or that some enjoyed music with a five-note scale and others with twelve; or that some people were vegetarian by religion and others bypreference.
我受的教育并不完全是一个失败,它使我得以统观整个世界.它教会我怎样轻松并迅速地识别人与人之间或地区与地区之间的迥然差异.学地理使我了解到不同国家在地形、地貌、资源和生产力方面的差异.学习比较文化使我懂得了不同的社会团体有不同的文化背景和社会习俗.人类学使我知晓了人的面部骨骼结构、肤色和身体特征方面的基本差异.总而言之,我所受到的教育使我不至于对一些事情感到大惊小怪.比如：有些人住泥房子,而有些人却住竹房子；有些人用木头做燃料,而有些人却用粪便；有的人喜欢五声音阶,有的人却喜欢十二声音阶；有些素食者是出于宗教原因,而有些人却是因为自己的偏爱.凡此种种都不会令我感到惊讶.
4.In those respects my education had been more than adequate. But what my education failed to do was to teach me that the principal significance of such differences was that they were largely without significance. The differences were all but wiped out by the similarities. My education had by-passed the similarities. It had failed to grasp and define the fact that beyond the differences are realities scarcely comprehended because of their verysimplicity. And the simplest reality of all was that the human community was one — greater than any of its parts, greater than the separateness imposed by the nations, greater than the different faiths and loyalties or the depth and color of varying cultures. This larger unity was the most important central fact of our time — something on which people could build at a time when hope seemed misty, almost unreal.
从这些方面来看,我受的教育还是很恰当的.但是失败的一面在于它所教授的这些差异的重要意义恰恰是毫无意义的.与他们之间的共性相比,这些差异太微不足道了.我受的教育恰恰忽视了这些相似之处.它没能领悟和说明：如果你能超越这些差异,就会发现有些事实人们尚未明白完全是因为事实本身太简单、太明显了.其中最简单的事实就是人类社会是一个共同体——整体总要比其组成部分要更大、要重要；没有一个国家比整个人类更重要；没有任何宗教信仰和文化底蕴会大于全人类的. 这个大的共同体是我们这个时代最重要的支柱——它是人们在希望渺茫或几乎不存在希望的时候能够 赖以生存和发展的基础.
5.As I write this, I have the feeling that my words fail to give force to the idea they seek to express. Indeed, the idea itself is a truth which all peoples readily accept even if they do not act on it. Let me put it differently, then. In order to be at home anywhere in the world I had to forget the things I had been taught to remember. It turned out that my ability to get along with other peoples depended not so much upon my comprehension of the uniqueness of their way of life as my comprehension of the things we had in common. It was important to respect these differences, certainly, but to stop there was like clearing the ground without any idea of what was to be built on it. When you got through comparing notes, you discovered that you were both talking about the same neighborhood, i.e., this planet, and the conditions that made it pleasant or hostile to human life.
当我写下这段文字的时候,我仍然感觉到我所说的话并不能够完全表达我的想法.实际上,这种 想法本身就是人们都乐意接受的一个事实,即使他们没能把它作为行为的准则.换一种方式说,就是为 了能对世界各地的了解就像对国内的了解一样,我必须忘记我曾经学过的东西.事实证明我与其他人 相处的能力并不取决于我对他们独特生活方式的理解,而在于对我们共同之处的理解.当然,尊重这些 差别是十分重要的,但如果只停留于此,就像有了一块清理好了的地面而不知道在上面建什么一样.当 你们彼此进行交流时,你会发现你们俩实际上在谈论同一个问题,那就是这个星球以及决定它是否适宜 人类生存的环境状况.
再问： 非常感谢 was like 是个什么形式的谓语？ was 是系动词 like 是个介词啊？
再答： be动词+介词+宾语
