【英譯漢】

　　The main impression growing out of twelve years on the faculty of a medical school is that the No.1 health problem in the U.S. today, even more than AIDS or cancer, is that Americans don’t know how to think about health and illness. Our reactions are formed on the terror level. We fear the worst, expect the worst, thus invite the worst. The result is that we are becoming a nation of weaklings and hypochondriacs, a self-medicating society incapable of distinguishing between casual, everyday symptoms and those that require professional attention.

　　Early in life, too, we become seized with the bizarre idea that we are constantly assaulted by invisible monsters called germs, and that we have to be on constant alert to protect ourselves against their fury. Equal emphasis, however, is not given to the presiding fact that our bodies are superbly equipped to deal with the little demons and the best way of forestalling an attack is to maintain a sensible life-style.

　　【參考譯文】

　　在醫(yī)學(xué)院任教十二年來(lái)，我獲得的最主要的印象就是，當(dāng)今美國(guó)頭號(hào)健康問(wèn)題——一個(gè)比艾滋病或者是癌癥更為嚴(yán)重的問(wèn)題——是美國(guó)人不知該如何去認(rèn)識(shí)健康與疾病。我們的反應(yīng)是驚恐萬(wàn)分。我們怕最壞的事，想著最壞的打算，卻迎來(lái)了最壞的事。結(jié)果就是我們變成了一個(gè)孱弱不堪的，總是疑心自己有病的民族、一個(gè)分不清哪些是日常偶發(fā)癥狀、那些是需要專業(yè)治療，而自己擅自用藥的社會(huì)。

　　年輕的時(shí)候，還種下了一種奇怪的念頭，一種肉眼看不見(jiàn)的名為細(xì)菌的小妖怪在不斷地向我們進(jìn)攻，而我們必須長(zhǎng)期不懈的保護(hù)自己不受傷害。然而，我們應(yīng)該卻沒(méi)有給予同等重視的一點(diǎn)，那就是我們的身體裝備精良，足夠?qū)Ω哆@些小妖怪。而防止它們進(jìn)攻的最好方式是，保持一種合理的生活方式。