226. "People are mistaken when they assume that the problems they confront are more complex and challenging than the problems faced by their predecessors. This illusion is eventually dispelled with increased knowledge and experience."

人们总是错误地认为自己面临的问题要比前人来得更复杂和更具有挑战性。不断增加的知识和经验最终消除这种假象。

现在和过去

1. The speaker overlooks certain societal problems unique to today’s world, which are complex and challenging in ways unlike any problems that earlier societies ever faced.

2. However, humans face certain universal and timeless problems, which are neither more nor less complex and challenging for any generation than for preceding ones.

231. " ’Moderation in all things’ is ill-considered advice. Rather, one should say, ’Moderation in most things,’ since many areas of human concern require or at least profit from intense focus."

“做任何事都要适度”这句话是欠考虑的。更确切的说，我们应该“对大多数事情都要适度”，因为人类在很多领域中遇到的问题都需要全力以赴(解决)，或者至少会从中获益。

1. The virtues of moderation are undeniable. Moderation in all things affords us the time and energy to sample more of what life and world have to offer. In contrast, lack of moderation leads to a life out of balance.

2. Having acknowledged the wisdom of the old adage, I nevertheless agree that under some circumstances, and for some people, abandoning moderation might be well justified.

度的问题

234. "Most people prefer restrictions and regulations to absolute freedom of choice, although they would probably deny such a preference."

大多数人更喜欢约束和规则，而不是绝对自由的选择权，尽管他们可能会否认这样的倾向。

1. History informs us that attempts to quell basic individuals freedoms—of expression, of opinion and belief, and to come and go as we please—invariably fail; however, reasonable constraints on freedom are needed to protect freedom—and to prevent a society from devolving into a state of anarchy where life is short and brutish.

2. Our preference for constraining our own freedom of choice is evident on societal level as well as on individual level.

自由和约束