In the next few weeks, I'm going to be giving a couple of lectures to high school and college students. It's been more than 10 years since I graduated from college, and if I want my lectures to be in any way useful to my young audience, I need to relate to them in some way. So I've been reflecting on what kind of student I was, trying to remember what it was that troubled or impressed me.
This week, I'm going to talk about a line from Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens": "The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends." I read this for the first time when I was a student in college. I didn't fully understand its implicationsat the time but for some reason it lingered in my mind for years. I had a strange feeling I'd "get it" some day.
The line is spoken by the philosopher Apemantus to the once wealthy and powerful lord of Athens, Timon. Before he lost his riches, people used to flock to him to take advantage of his kind and generous nature. Timon was naive in believing them to be his friends, and when, through various circumstances, he is forced into poverty, he finds out their true worth. They will not help him. They ignore him. And this realization turns Timon into a bitter and cynical man.
It's at this point, when Timon has become the exact opposite of what he once was, that Apemantus says the famous line.
What Apemantus is saying is that Timon isn't in a good position to judge people because he has only experienced two extremes of what human beings are like — flattery and indifference. Few of you have been in a comparable situation, but when you're young and inexperienced, you tend to see things in extremes.
Let's look at it in terms of the volume dial on a stereo system, with 10 being the loudest and one being the softest. Timon has only ever heard the volume set at one and 10. He thinks sounds are either very very loud or very very soft. He does not know that there can be anything in between.
In the case of young people, the volume might be set at, say, three or eight, but they will probably hear three or eight as one or 10. This may be because young people respond to things more intensely. Or it may be because, inexperienced with life, they are unaware of the gradations. They may not be aware of the differences between, say, two or three or four.
But as you get older, you learn to differentiate, to have a more accuratescale, and this helps you live in harmony with others and avoid extremes yourself. Sadly, Timon never really learns his lesson. But I'm sure my young audience will, as they grow older and study other languages and meet people from different cultures.
Q1 What were "the extremity of both ends" of humanity that Timon experienced from his friends?
A1) Cleverness and stupidity.
A2) Flattery and indifference.
A3) Beauty and ugliness.
正解： A2) Flattery and indifference.
Q2 When Timon becomes poor, his friends:
A1) Offer to help.
A2) Get angry with him.
A3) Stop paying attention to him.
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