翻譯:邱敦蓮

A language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns, unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.

一位語言老師給她班的同學講解說，“法語與英語不同，名詞在語法上是要分男女的。”

"House," in French, is feminine = "la maison."

“比如,房子這個詞，在法語中是陰性的(la maison)”

"Pencil," in French, is masculine = "le crayon."

“而"鉛筆"這個詞在法語中是陽性的(le crayon).”

One puzzled student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?"

一位同學有些迷惑不解，“那計算機是什么性別的呢？”

The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups, appropriately enough by gender, and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be a masculine or feminine noun.

老師也不知道計算機是陰性的還是陽性的，因為這在她的法語詞典里沒有。因此，出于好玩，她把班上的同學按性別分成兩個組，然后請他們決定計算機到底是陰性的還是陽性的。

Both groups were required to give four reasons for their recommendation.

兩組的同學都要求要給出選擇的理由。

The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:

男同學這組最終認為計算機肯定應該是陰性的("la computer")。理由如下：

No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

因為除了制造者以外，沒有人了解其內(nèi)部邏輯關(guān)系。

The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

她們(計算機)與其它計算機進行交流溝通所使用的語言，其它人無法理解。

Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval; and

為了將來檢索使用，即使是極小的錯誤也會長期存貯。

As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

一旦你對她做出承諾(購買)，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)自己一半的工資都將花在其零配件上。

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("le computer"), because:

而女同學這組卻認為計算機應該是陽性的。理由如下：

In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on;

你必須要將其擰開才能引起它的注意；

They have a lot of data but they are still clueless;

盡管擁有大量數(shù)據(jù)，但是卻仍然很笨；

They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

本來是想讓它們幫你解決問題，但是你發(fā)現(xiàn)，有一半的時間真正的問題是它們自己；

As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

你剛一作出承諾，馬上就會意識到,如果你稍微多等一陣兒，你會拿到更好一些的款式。

(Sociologically, this seems like a good example of a pervasive technology serving as a mirror to spoof cultural attitudes.)

(從社會學的角度來說，這似乎是普及性技術(shù)為惡搞文化服務(wù)很好的一個例證！)

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