During the nineteenth century, she argues, the concept of the "useful" child who contributed to the family economy gave way gradually to the present day notion of the "useless" child who, though producing no income for, and indeed extremely costly to its parents, is yet considered emotionally "priceless".

　　譯文：

　　她認(rèn)為十九世紀(jì)給家庭經(jīng)濟(jì)作出貢獻(xiàn)的孩子才“有用”的概念慢慢改變了，今天提到那些沒有掙取收入的“無用”孩子，甚至還要花銷很多，仍然在情感上被認(rèn)為是無價(jià)的。

　　In traditional Chinese family culture, descendants of several generations from the same ancestor lived together and formed a big family system. This kind of autonomous family system was the basic unit of traditional Chinese society. Chinese children follow their father's family name. This is the same as western culture. Nowadays in China it is legally fine for a child to follow either father’s family name or mother's family name. Within each family system, of course people except those who joined this family system through marriage all have the same family name.

　　譯文：

　　在傳統(tǒng)的中國家庭文化中，同一祖先的幾代后裔(descendants)居住在一起，形成一個(gè)大家庭。這種自治(autonomous) 家族制度是中國傳統(tǒng)社會(huì)的基本單位。中國的孩子們跟隨他們父親的姓。這和西方文化是一樣的。如今在中國，孩子跟父親的姓或母親的姓在法律上都是合法的。除了那些因?yàn)榻Y(jié)婚加入到家庭中的人以外，人們的姓氏都是一樣的。

　　Of course, it would be as dangerous to overreact to history by concluding that the majority must now be wrong about expansion as it would be to reenact the response that greeted the suggestion that the continents had drifted.

　　譯文：

　　當(dāng)然，對歷史反應(yīng)過度以致結(jié)論說關(guān)于擴(kuò)張的問題大多數(shù)人都錯(cuò)了與重新形成對大陸漂浮建議理論的反應(yīng)一樣，是危險(xiǎn)的。將來對于這些關(guān)鍵問題的研究毫無疑問是必要的，然而不應(yīng)該否定最近研究結(jié)論的說服力，在18世紀(jì)的英格蘭對于一些微不足道和有使用價(jià)值的商品和服務(wù)的需求，預(yù)示了我們今天的世界。

　　While the fact of this consumer revolution is hardly in doubt, three key questions remain: who were the consumers? What were their motives? And what were the effect of the new demand for luxuries?

　　譯文：

　　然而這種消費(fèi)革命的情況還有疑問，三個(gè)關(guān)鍵的問題是：消費(fèi)者是什么人?他們的動(dòng)機(jī)是什么?對于奢侈品的新型需求的效果是什么?

　　Although it has been possible to infer from the goods and services actually produced what manufacturers and servicing trades thought their customers wanted, only a study of relevant personal documents written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what.

　　譯文：

　　盡管從生產(chǎn)廠商和服務(wù)行業(yè)認(rèn)為他們的顧客需要并實(shí)際生產(chǎn)的產(chǎn)品或者提供的服務(wù)來推斷他是可能的。但只有對實(shí)際的消費(fèi)者填寫的個(gè)人資料的研究才能清楚地描述顧客的需求。