Bureaucracy

　　1) Most ironic was the image of government that was born of these experiences. 2) As any scholarly treatise on the subject will tell you the great advantage bureaucracy is supposed to offer a complex modern society like ours is efficient rational uniform and courteous treatment for the citizens it deals with. 3) Yet not only did these qualities not come through to the people I talked with it was their very opposites that seemed more characteristic. 4) People of all classes—the rich man dealing with the Internal Revenue Service as will as the poor woman struggling with the welfare department—felt the treatment they had received had been bungled not efficient; unpredictable not rational; discriminatory not uniform; and all too often insensitive rather than courteous. 5) It was as if they had bought a big new car that not only did not run when they wanted it to but periodically revved itself up and drove all around their yards.

　　參考譯文

　　這些經(jīng)給人們的政府形象是最有諷刺意味的。任何一篇論述這個(gè)問(wèn)題的學(xué)術(shù)論文都會(huì)說(shuō)，對(duì)一個(gè)像我們這樣復(fù)雜的現(xiàn)代化社會(huì)，官僚機(jī)構(gòu)應(yīng)當(dāng)提供的一大優(yōu)點(diǎn)是在和公民打交道時(shí)表現(xiàn)出富有效率，合乎情理，公平一致和文明禮貌的辦事方法。但是，和我談過(guò)話的人并沒(méi)有感覺(jué)到這些品質(zhì)，倒是恰恰相反的情況似乎更具有代表性。各階層的人，從與稅收部門(mén)打交道的富人到與福利部門(mén)交涉的可憐的婦人，都覺(jué)得他們受到的對(duì)待是糟糕的，而不是有效的，是捉摸不定的，而不是合情合理的是帶有歧視的，而不是公平的，而且經(jīng)常是冷漠的，而不是禮貌的。就像是買(mǎi)了一輛新的大轎車，不僅要它走的時(shí)候不走，面貌而且不時(shí)會(huì)自行加速，在院子里到處亂跑。