英譯中

　　The task of writing a history of our nation from Rome's earliest days fills me, I confess, with some misgiving, and even were I confident in the value of my work, I should hesitate to say so. I am aware that for historians to make extravagant claims is, and always has been, all too common: every writer on history tends to look down his nose at his less cultivated predecessors, happily persuaded that he will better them in points of style, or bring new facts to light. Countless others have written on this theme and it may be that I shall pass unnoticed amongst them; if so, I must comfort myself with the greatness and splendor of my rivals, whose work will rob my own of recognition.

　　My task, moreover, is an immensely laborious one. I shall have to go back more than seven hundred years, and trace my story from its small beginnings up to these recent times when its ramifications are so vast that any adequate treatment is hardly possible. I shall find antiquity a rewarding study, if only because, while I am absorbed in it, I shall be able to turn my eyes from the troubles which for so long have tormented the modern world, and to write without any of that over-anxious consideration which may well plague a writer on contemporary life, even if it does not lead him to conceal the truth.

　　中譯英

　　據說，上海男人是最好的丈夫。他們總是知道該如何討妻子歡心，避免矛盾，一家人其樂融融。從某種程度上講，上海男人是社會安定和和諧的象征。當妻子快樂時，他也快樂。因而整個城市充滿快樂的氣氛。

　　上海男人常被戲謔為“妻管嚴”。但他們從不屈從于妻子，當發(fā)生爭吵時，他們總是保持沉默，要么一笑置之。但他們有時也會生氣，但事后不久他們會毫不猶豫道歉。最終妻子發(fā)現(xiàn)，她總是按照他說的去辦。

　　上海男人，聰明、務實，有時甚至有點圓滑。但最印象深刻的，上海男人在事業(yè)上有進取心，對家庭有很強的責任感，而且尊重女性。