Directions: Read the
following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into
Chinese.
Now, don’t get me wrong-I know it’s not my place to tell women
when they can and can’t have children and how many they can have. I can
testify that it’s hard to be childless at 36． 46． People ask you all the time
if you’re going to start a family-as if you didn’t already know that your
biological clock was winding down. What’s worse, they begin lecturing you on
fertility options as if to say, "Since it’s clear that you can’t catch a
partner, you’d better do this on your own. " I can’t imagine what that feels
like when you’re 66． It must be very painful. And trust me, I’m equally aghast
when men have children in their 70s and 80s ( Saul Bellow was 84 when his fifth
child was born). 47．I’m just saying that sometimes for the sake of the
children-to-be, we may have to put away our longings and grieve for the children
we might have had rather than go to the ends of the earth to get them. The
death of a parent can cause young children to suffer disproportionately from
depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and drug abuse in their later years,
according to studies published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent
Medicine and The American Journal of Psychiatry. I think parents should take
that into account when they’re planning a family. And yes, I know I could drop
dead tomorrow; life gives no one guarantees. After Bousada de Lara died, Sarah
Vine wrote a commentary for The Times of London, which concluded, "No one thinks
more carefully about having a child than the person who, through misfortune, or
trauma or simply because they happen to appreciate the work of Judy Garland,
cannot do so by natural means. " That may be true, it certainly feels true, but
we have to think about the children, not just having them. As
it is, I worry that I’m too old to raise a kid. I squandered too much of my
energy partying in my 20s. I should have had children when I didn’t need sleep
and had a much more cavalier attitude about my career. Of course, when I was in
my 20s, I had very little patience and even less serf-control, so maybe that
time wouldn’t have been any better. There’s never a perfect time for a kid, and
I respect that. But just as we worry about teenagers having children, I also
worry about kids born to elderly parents. Are they being shortchanged Won’t
they miss having grandparents to spoil them Maybe not-there are millions of
ways for children to be happy. They don’t have to be part of a traditional
nuclear family. Nor does there need to be a mommy and a daddy ; they can have a
couple of mommies or just a daddy. 48．Just somebody or somebodies to give
them a sense of permanent attachment and security- someone to count on when you
skin your knee or experience your first heartbreak or do badly on an exam,
someone to throw your graduation cap to. Even on the cusp of 40, I speak to
my parents almost every day, and I’m as dependent on their help as I ever was.
49．There are probably some of you reading this now who think I’m too old to
raise a baby into adulthood. But, I do have actuarial tables on my side. I have a hunch that cases like that of Bousada de Lara
and, of course, Octomom, are going to force fertility clinics to establish more
rules about who can use their services and under what circumstances. Just as
public outrage brought a uniform set of requirements for people to adopt or
contract a surrogate mother, there is already a push to further regulate
fertility clinics. 50．Like it or not, once we turn to others to facilitate
the conception of our families, we become subject to their morals and ethics as
well.., and maybe that’s not always a bad thing.