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Just recently a committee meeting at the University of Colorado was interrupted by the spectacle of a young man scaling the wall of the library just outside the window. Discussion of new interdisciplinary courses halted as we silently hoped he had discipline enough to return safely to the earth. Hope was all we could offer from our vantage point in Ketchum Hall, the impulse to rush out and catch him being checked by the realization of futility.
就在不久前，科罗拉多大学的一次委员会会议被窗外的一幕打断了：一个年轻人正徒手攀爬着图书馆外墙。关于新跨学科课程的讨论戛然而止，我们都默默地希望他有足够的能力安全返回地面。我们坐在凯彻姆大厅里，除了为他祈祷，别无他法。想要冲出去接住他的想法，终究被无能为力的现实所取代。
The incident reinforced my sense that mountaineering serves as an apt analogy for the art of teaching. The excitement, the risk, the need for rigorous discipline all correspond though the image I have in mind is not that of the solitary adventurer rappelling off a wall, but that of a Swiss guide leading an expedition.
这一幕让我更加确信，登山可以恰如其分地类比教学的艺术。其中的兴奋、风险，以及对严格纪律的要求都如出一辙。不过，我脑海中浮现的画面并非是孤胆英雄从墙壁上速降，而是一位瑞士向导带领着一支探险队攀登高峰的景象。
I remember a mountaineer named Fritz who once led a group up the Jungfrau at the same time a party was climbing the north face of the Eiger. My own mountaineering skill was slender, and my enthusiasm would have faltered had I not felt Fritz was capable of hauling not only me but all the rest of us off that mountain. Strong, self-assured, calm, he radiated that solid authority that encouraged me to tie on to his rope. But I soon realized that my presence on his line constituted a risk for Fritz. Had I been so foolhardy as to try to retrieve my glove which went tumbling off a precipice, or had I slipped into one of those inexplicably opening crevasses, I might well have pulled the noble Fritz down with me. It was a sobering realization. I, the novice, and he, the expert, were connected by the same lifeline in an experience of mutual interdependence. To give me that top of the world exaltation he, too, was taking a risk.
我记得一位名叫弗里茨的登山家，他曾经带领一队人攀登少女峰，与此同时，另一队人正在攀登艾格峰的北壁。我自己的登山技术有限，如果不是因为弗里茨让我感到他有能力把我们所有人都从山上安全带下来，我的热情可能早就消退了。他强壮、自信、沉着，散发出一种让人安心的权威感，这鼓励我将自己系在他的绳索上。但我不久就意识到，我在他的绳索上对他来说是一种风险。如果我当时不顾一切地试图去捡回掉下悬崖的手套，或者如果我不小心滑进了那些莫名其妙出现的冰隙中，我很可能会把高尚的弗里茨也一起拉下去。这是一个发人深省的认识。我，作为新手，和他，作为专家，通过同一根生命线连接在一起，体验着相互依存的关系。为了让我体验那种站在世界之巅的狂喜，他也在冒着风险。
The analogy to teaching seems to me apt, and not just for professors who happen to live in Colorado, for the analogy implies an active acceptance of responsibility for one's own fate, whereas most other analogies to teaching suggest passivity. What is needed to restore teachers' confidence that the profession is significant is a new analogy, a new metaphor (I shy away from the PR word, "image") that conveys more of the essence of teaching than the worn-out analogies we have known. Most previous analogies are seriously inadequate, for while they may describe a part of the teaching activity, they also suggest patterns that are not fully applicable to teaching. It is not a simple matter, for those faulty analogies create misunderstandings about the professor's role, not only in the lay public, but in the professoriate itself. These wrong analogies have contributed to growing demoralization within the profession, and have confused the difficult issue of proper evaluation.
将教学比作登山，在我看来十分贴切，而且不仅仅适用于恰好住在科罗拉多的教授们。因为这个类比意味着主动承担起对自己命运的责任，而大多数其他的教学类比则暗示着被动性。为了重振教师们对自身职业重要性的信心，我们需要一个新的类比，一个新的隐喻（我不太喜欢公关行业常用的那个词——“形象”），它要比我们已知的那些陈旧的类比更能传达教学的本质。以往的大多数类比都存在严重的不足，因为它们虽然可以描述教学活动的某一方面，但也暗示了一些并不完全适用于教学的模式。这并非易事，因为那些错误的类比不仅在普通大众中，而且在教授群体内部，都造成了对教授角色的误解。这些错误的类比加剧了教师队伍内部日益增长的士气低落，并使本就棘手的合理评估问题变得更加复杂。
The most common analogies to the teacher are the preacher, the shepherd, the curator the actor, the researcher, and, most insidiously the salesman. None captures the special relationship between teacher and students, a relationship better described by Socrates as a coming together of friends. Rather than emphasizing the mutuality of the endeavor, each of these common analogies turns on a separation between the professional and his clients. Each leads to a certain kind of evaluation.
人们最常用牧师、牧羊人、博物馆馆长、演员、研究员来类比教师，其中最隐蔽、最容易产生负面影响的，是推销员。然而，这些类比都未能捕捉到师生之间那种特殊的关系，苏格拉底将这种关系描述为“朋友间的聚会”，或许更为恰当。这些常见的类比非但没有强调师生互动的本质，反而突出了专业人士与其服务对象之间的分离，每一种类比都会导致某种特定的评价方式。
The preacher exhorts, cajoles, pleads with a congregation often so benighted as to exist in a state of somnolence. He measures his success by the number of souls so stirred as either to commit themselves to his cause, or vehemently to reject it. Somewhat like the preacher is the shepherd who gathers and watches over a flock clearly inferior to himself. The analogy may be apt for the Lord and his subangelic followers, but it will not do for teacher and students, or, especially, for Socrates and his friends. The Shepherd is likely to be evaluated by the gulf separating his wisdom from that of his flock.
布道者总是对他的听众们进行劝诫、哄骗和恳求，而这些听众往往愚昧无知，昏昏欲睡。他衡量自己成功的标准，是看有多少人被他感召，要么投身于他的事业，要么强烈地反对它。与牧师有些相似的是牧羊人，他召集并看管着一群显然不如他自己的羊群。这个类比或许适用于上帝和那些次天使般的追随者，但它不适用于教师和学生，尤其是苏格拉底和他的朋友们。人们通常会根据牧羊人与其羊群之间智慧的鸿沟来评判牧羊人。
If the poor country curate has often furnished an analogy to the bleating professor so has the curator of a museum. Lips pursed so as to distill a purer essence of hauteur, the curator as connoisseur points out the rarities of classical cultures to the uninitiated who can scarcely be expected to appreciate these finer things. Since they cannot understand him anyway, the curator has no compunction about sprinkling his presentation with Latin and Greek and with English so esoteric as to sound foreign. Chances are high that the professor as connoisseur will succeed in convincing most of the class that the subject is really the province of a secret society with its own arcane practices and language, best left behind its own inaccessible walls. Indeed, colleagues of the connoisseur measure his success by the paucity of devotees allowed in to the society through this winnowing process.
如果说乡村牧师常被用来类比咩咩叫的教授，那么博物馆馆长也难逃此命运。作为“鉴赏家”的馆长，嘴唇紧闭，仿佛要提炼出更纯粹的高傲，向那些一无所知的人们指出古典文化的珍稀之处，而这些人几乎不可能欣赏这些精美之物。反正他们也听不懂，馆长便毫无顾忌地在讲解中穿插使用拉丁语、希腊语，以及晦涩难懂到如同外语的英语。作为“鉴赏家”的教授，极有可能成功地让大多数学生相信，这门学科实际上是一个秘密团体的专属领域，有着自己深奥难懂的实践和语言，最好还是将它们留在高墙之内吧。事实上，同行们也正是通过这个筛选过程中获准进入该团体的极少数信徒来衡量“鉴赏家”的成功的。
The teacher as actor also plays to a passive audience, but he measures success by larger numbers. A certain aura of the magician clings to him as he lures spectators into witnessing his academic sleight-of-hand without their ever really getting in on the trick. A certain tinge of the stand-up comedian colors the performance as the actor plays to the audience to register laughs big enough to drown out the lecturer droning on next door.
演员型的教师同样面对的是被动的观众，但他以观众的数量来衡量自己的成功。他身上笼罩着一层魔术师的光环，诱导观众观看他学术上的障眼法，却从不让他们真正了解其中的奥秘。表演中还带着一丝单口喜剧演员的色彩，演员卖力地表演，以博得观众的阵阵笑声，甚至盖过隔壁房间里单调乏味的讲座。
A bastardized version of the actor is that figure now thought so apt an analogy in our consumer-conscious society: the salesman. His predecessors include the snake-oil man and the door-to-door purveyor of anything from brushes to Britannicas. He or she takes the product to the people, wherever they are, and tailors the pitch to their pockets. While all of these analogies create a certain level of despair in the professoriate either struggling to pattern themselves in a particular mode or hopelessly realizing they can never achieve it, the salesman analogy has the most deleterious effects. No longer adhering even to a prepared script, the salesman shamelessly alters his or her presentation so it will draw the largest number of contented consumers.
在当今这个消费至上的社会中，人们认为推销员是演员的一种“变体”，非常适合用来类比教师。他的前身包括兜售蛇油的江湖骗子，以及挨家挨户推销各种商品（从刷子到大英百科全书）的小贩。他或她把产品带到人们面前，无论他们在哪里，并根据他们的消费能力调整推销的说辞。虽然所有这些类比都让教授们感到一定程度的绝望，他们要么努力将自己塑造成某种特定的模式，要么无望地意识到自己永远无法做到这一点，但推销员的类比造成的负面影响最大。推销员甚至不再遵循事先准备好的脚本，而是无耻地改变他或她的推销方式，以吸引最多的满意消费者。
The researcher as teacher differs from the previous analogies, and that very distinction is often thought to make him or her a good teacher. Taciturn, solitary, he disdains the performing arts and is content merely to mutter out an assortment of scattered facts to the young only dimly perceived beyond his clouded trifocals. His measure of success is his students' capacity to regurgitate factual data.
研究员型的教师不同于之前的类比，而这种区别往往被认为是他或她成为一名好教师的原因。他沉默寡言，离群索居，不屑于表演艺术，只满足于向年轻人嘟囔出一堆零散的事实，而他那副模糊的三焦眼镜后面，只能隐约看到年轻人的身影。他衡量成功的标准是学生复述事实性数据的能力。
None of these analogies comes close enough to the essential magic and majesty of a real learning experience. None even dimly anticipates that self-eradicating feature that is built into the teaching process, for those who have truly mastered what their teacher has presented no longer need him or her. None accepts as a necessary ingredient in the learning process, activity, the sense of an intellectual excitement so compelling that one's whole being is caught up in it. None acknowledges the peril, and the joy, of encountering those mental deeps Hopkins described
…the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne'er hung there.
这些类比都无法充分展现真正学习体验的核心魅力与庄严感。没有一个类比能够隐约预见到教学过程中固有的那种“自我消解”的特性，因为那些真正掌握了老师所传授知识的人，就不再需要他或她了。没有一个类比将“积极参与”视为学习过程中必不可少的要素，那种令人全神贯注、欲罢不能的智力上的兴奋感。没有一个类比认识到遭遇霍普金斯所描述的那些精神深渊时的危险和快乐：
……心灵，心灵有高山；坠落的悬崖
可怕、陡峭，深不可测。轻视它们吧
那些从未悬于其上的人。
Mountaineering furnishes the needed analogy. The Swiss mountain guide, like the true teacher, has a quiet authority about his very person. He or she engenders trust and confidence so that one is willing to join the endeavor. The mountaineer accepts his leadership role, yet recognizes that the success of the journey (measured by the scaling of the heights) depends upon close cooperation and active participation by each member of the group. He has crossed the terrain before and is familiar with the landmarks, but each trip is new, and generates its own anxiety and excitement. Essential skills must be mastered if the trip is to be successful; lacking them, disaster looms as an ominous possibility. The very precariousness of the situation necessitates keen focus and rapt attention; slackness, misjudgment, or laziness can bring doom.
登山运动提供了我们所需要的类比。瑞士的登山向导，就像真正的教师一样，他或她的身上散发着一种沉静的权威。他或她能激发人们的信任和信心，使人们愿意加入到这项事业中来。登山向导承担着领导者的角色，同时也认识到旅程的成功（以登上顶峰为标志）取决于团队中每个成员的密切合作和积极参与。他以前曾穿越过这片地形，熟悉沿途的地标，但每一次旅行都是全新的，都会产生独特的焦虑和兴奋。如果想要旅程成功，就必须掌握必要的技能；如果缺乏这些技能，灾难就会像一个不祥的阴影一样笼罩着你。这种岌岌可危的处境要求人们必须高度集中注意力，全神贯注；松懈、误判或懒惰都可能带来厄运。
The teacher as mountaineer learns, as E. M. Forster urged, to connect. The guide rope links mountaineers together so that they may assist each other in the ascent. The effective teacher does something similar by using the oral and written contributions of the students as instructional materials. The teacher also makes other connections, locating the text in its historical setting, forging inter-and intradisciplinary links where plausible, joining the material of the course with the lives of the students, where possible, and with the wider national life beyond the classroom where pertinent.
作为登山向导的教师，正如E. M.福斯特所倡导的那样，学会了“连接”。向导绳将登山者们连接在一起，以便他们在攀登过程中互相帮助。高效的教师也做着类似的事情，他们将学生的口头和书面贡献作为教学材料。教师还建立起其他的联系，将文本置于其历史背景中，在可能的情况下建立起跨学科和学科内部的联系，将课程材料与学生的生活联系起来，并在相关的情况下，与课堂之外更广泛的社会生活联系起来。
Teaching as mountaineering does not encourage the yellowed lecture note syndrome. Indeed, the analogy does not really encourage lecturing at all. If the student as mountaineer is to be challenged, the student must come to each class session ready and prepared to assist in scaling the next peak, ready to test his or her own abilities against those of the master teacher. Only by arduous and sustained effort does the student approach the mastery of the teacher, and only then is the student ready to assume the role of guide—well-trained in the art of mountaineering, able to take controlled risks, ready to lead others to a mountain-top experience. Not a huckster, not a performer, not a pleader, but a confident, exuberant guide on expeditions of shared responsibility.
将教学比作登山，可以避免“泛黄的讲义”综合征。事实上，这个类比并不真正鼓励照本宣科的讲授。如果作为登山者的学生想要接受挑战，他就必须在每节课前做好准备，协助攀登下一座高峰，准备好与作为“大师”的教师一较高下。只有通过艰苦而持续的努力，学生才能逐渐接近教师的水平，只有到那时，学生才能准备好承担起向导的角色——在登山艺术方面训练有素，能够承担可控的风险，准备好带领其他人体验登顶的快感。不是叫卖的小贩，不是表演者，也不是恳求者，而是一位自信、充满活力的向导，带领大家进行一场责任共担的探险。
To encourage and further such mountain-top experiences the society must recognize teaching for the sublime art it is—not merely an offshoot of research, not merely a performance before a passive audience, but a guided expedition into the most exciting and least understood terrain on earth—the mind itself.
为了鼓励和推动更多这样的“登顶体验”，社会必须认识到教学是一门崇高的艺术——它不仅仅是研究的副产品，也不仅仅是在被动观众面前的表演，而是一场有向导的探险，前往地球上最令人兴奋也最不为人知的领域——人类的心灵本身。
Summary
English Summary
The author uses the analogy of mountaineering to illustrate the essence of effective teaching, contrasting it with other common but inadequate analogies such as preacher, shepherd, curator, actor, salesman, and researcher. The author argues that teaching, like mountaineering, requires active participation, mutual interdependence, and a shared sense of risk and excitement. The teacher, like a Swiss mountain guide, must possess a quiet authority, engender trust, and lead students on an intellectual journey where they actively engage with the material and each other. The success of this journey depends on close cooperation, rigorous discipline, and a willingness to take risks. The author criticizes other analogies for promoting passivity and a separation between teacher and student, ultimately advocating for a reevaluation of the teaching profession that recognizes its true nature as a challenging and collaborative exploration of the mind.
中文概括
作者将登山类比为有效教学的本质，并将其与其他常见但不足够贴切的比喻（如传教士、牧羊人、策展人、演员、推销员和研究员）进行对比。作者认为，教学，如同登山，需要积极参与、相互依赖以及共同的风险和兴奋感。教师，就像瑞士登山向导一样，必须拥有沉静的权威，赢得信任，并引领学生进行一场智力之旅，在旅程中学生们积极地与材料和其他人互动。这段旅程的成功取决于密切合作、严格的纪律和冒险的意愿。作者批评了其他比喻，因为它们助长了被动性和师生之间的隔阂，最终主张重新评估教学职业，承认其作为一项具有挑战性和协作性的心灵探索的真正本质。
Analysis
Just recently a committee meeting at the University of Colorado was interrupted by the spectacle of a young man scaling the wall of the library just outside the window. Discussion of new interdisciplinary courses halted as we silently hoped he had discipline enough to return safely²to the earth.
解析: 这句话是一个典型的复杂长句，主句为 "a committee meeting... was interrupted by the spectacle of a young man..."，其中 "scaling the wall of the library just outside the window" 是现在分词短语作定语，修饰 "a young man"。第二个句子 "Discussion of new interdisciplinary courses halted..." 是主句，"as we silently hoped he had discipline enough to return safely to the earth" 是 as 引导的原因状语从句，其中 "he had discipline enough to return safely to the earth" 是宾语从句，作 hoped 的宾语，其中 "to return safely to the earth" 是不定式短语作定语，修饰 "discipline"。
这句话的难点在于句子结构复杂，信息量大，需要读者仔细分析才能理清句子之间的逻辑关系。此外，"spectacle" 一词通常指壮观的景象或表演，这里用来形容一个年轻人在图书馆外墙攀爬的场景，带有一定的戏剧性和夸张意味。"return safely to the earth" 中的 "earth" 指的是地面，而不是地球，这里是一种形象的说法。
Strong, self-assured, calm, he radiated that solid authority⁵that encouraged me to tie on to his rope.
解析: 这句话的难点在于 "radiated that solid authority" 的理解。"radiate" 本意为 "辐射"，这里引申为 "散发出"，"solid authority" 指 "稳固的权威"，整个短语的意思是 "他散发出一种稳固的权威"。后面的 "that encouraged me to tie on to his rope" 是定语从句，修饰 "authority"，其中 "tie on to his rope" 是一个登山术语，指 "系在他的绳子上"，这里比喻 "信任他，愿意跟随他"。
这句话通过 "Strong, self-assured, calm" 三个形容词描绘了登山向导 Fritz 的形象，并通过 "radiated that solid authority" 进一步强调了他的权威性，从而解释了为什么 "我" 愿意跟随他。
Had I been so foolhardy as to try to retrieve my glove which went tumbling off a precipice, or had I slipped into one of those inexplicably opening crevasses⁶, I might well have pulled the noble Fritz down with me.
解析: 这句话是一个虚拟语气句，使用了倒装结构。"Had I been so foolhardy as to..." 和 "had I slipped into..." 都是 "If I had been so foolhardy as to..." 和 "If I had slipped into..." 的倒装形式，表示与过去事实相反的假设。其中 "so foolhardy as to..." 意为 "如此愚蠢以至于..."，"retrieve" 意为 "取回"，"which went tumbling off a precipice" 是定语从句，修饰 "glove"，其中 "tumbling off a precipice" 意为 "从悬崖上滚落"，"inexplicably opening crevasses" 意为 "莫名其妙裂开的冰隙"，"crevasse" 指的是冰川上的裂缝。
这句话的难点在于虚拟语气的倒装结构和一些专业术语。"I might well have pulled the noble Fritz down with me" 是主句，表示假设的结果，其中 "might well have done" 表示 "很可能已经做了某事"，"noble" 意为 "高尚的"，这里用来形容 Fritz，带有一定的赞美意味。这句话通过假设 "我" 的愚蠢行为，说明了登山过程中存在的风险，以及 "我" 和 Fritz 之间的相互依赖关系。
The analogy to teaching seems to me apt, and not just for professors who happen to live in Colorado, for the analogy implies an active acceptance of responsibility for one's own fate, whereas most other analogies to teaching suggest passivity.
解析: 此句为复合句，包含转折和因果关系。"The analogy to teaching seems to me apt" 为主句，"analogy" 指的是前文提到的登山类比，"apt" 意为 "贴切的"。"and not just for professors who happen to live in Colorado" 为并列分句，其中 "who happen to live in Colorado" 为定语从句，修饰 "professors"，"happen to" 表示 "碰巧"，这里用以说明这个类比不仅仅适用于科罗拉多州的教授，而是具有普遍意义。"for the analogy implies an active acceptance of responsibility for one's own fate" 为 for 引导的原因状语从句，解释了为什么作者认为这个类比是贴切的，其中 "active acceptance of responsibility for one's own fate" 意为 "主动承担对自己命运的责任"，这是登山类比的核心含义之一。"whereas most other analogies to teaching suggest passivity" 为 whereas 引导的转折状语从句，指出其他类比暗示了被动性，与登山类比形成对比。
此句难点在于理解 "active acceptance of responsibility for one's own fate" 这一抽象概念，以及把握句子内部复杂的逻辑关系。作者通过对比，强调了登山类比的优越性，因为它强调了主动性和责任感。
The preacher exhorts, cajoles, pleads with a congregation often so benighted as to exist in a state of somnolence.'°He measures his success by the number of souls so stirred as either to commit themselves to his cause, or vehemently to reject it.
解析: 这句话描述了传教士与信众之间的关系，并将其与教师和学生的关系进行类比。"exhorts, cajoles, pleads with" 三个动词并列，描绘了传教士布道的方式：劝诫、哄骗、恳求。"a congregation often so benighted as to exist in a state of somnolence" 描述了信众的状态，其中 "benighted" 意为 "愚昧无知的"，"somnolence" 意为 "昏睡状态"，整个短语的意思是 "信众常常如此愚昧无知，以至于处于一种昏睡状态"。
"He measures his success by the number of souls so stirred as either to commit themselves to his cause, or vehemently to reject it" 描述了传教士衡量成功的标准，其中 "souls so stirred" 指的是 "被唤醒的灵魂"，"commit themselves to his cause" 意为 "投身于他的事业"，"vehemently" 意为 "激烈地"。这句话的难点在于理解 "benighted" 和 "somnolence" 这两个不常用的词汇，以及 "souls so stirred as either to commit themselves to his cause, or vehemently to reject it" 这个复杂结构的含义。这句话通过描述传教士的工作方式和衡量成功的标准，暗示了传教士与信众之间的不对等关系，以及传教士对信众的控制欲。
None even dimly anticipates that self-eradicating feature that is built into the teaching process²⁴, for those who have truly mastered what their teacher has presented no longer need him or her.
解析: 这句话指出，之前提到的所有类比都没有预见到教学过程中的一个关键特征——"self-eradicating feature"。"None" 指的是前面提到的所有类比。"even dimly anticipates" 意为 "甚至没有模糊地预见到"，"anticipate" 意为 "预见"，"dimly" 意为 "模糊地"。"that self-eradicating feature that is built into the teaching process" 是 "anticipates" 的宾语，其中 "self-eradicating" 意为 "自我消除的"，"feature" 意为 "特征"，"that is built into the teaching process" 是定语从句，修饰 "feature"，"built into" 意为 "内置于"。
"for those who have truly mastered what their teacher has presented no longer need him or her" 是 for 引导的原因状语从句，解释了什么是 "self-eradicating feature"，其中 "those who have truly mastered what their teacher has presented" 是主语，"mastered" 意为 "掌握"，"what their teacher has presented" 是宾语从句，作 "mastered" 的宾语，"no longer need him or her" 是谓语，"him or her" 指的是 "teacher"。
这句话的难点在于理解 "self-eradicating feature" 这个抽象概念，以及 "those who have truly mastered what their teacher has presented no longer need him or her" 这个复杂句子的含义。这句话指出，真正的教学目的是让学生掌握知识，从而不再需要老师，这是一种 "自我消除" 的过程。