为何美国教授面对中国学生哭了？转发(265)   评论(536)
08月15日 12:27

编者按：当一个耶鲁大学教授来到中国，就像白求恩当年一样，他是一个国际主义者，然而，他面对的是一个缺少基本普世道德的社会，一个无法实现普世价值的社会，他流出的不再是眼泪，而是肝胆之血，一个外国人对我们民族的刻骨铭心的挽救呐喊，这与白求恩当年抢救中国人何尝不是一回事。

耶鲁教授 Stephen Stearns 致北大学生的一封信
背景：
Prof. Sterns 是耶鲁大学知名进化生物学家，本学期在北大开设Key Issues in Evolut
ion 和 Principles of Evolution 两门课程，总计40余名学生。 在12月初，有一位学生交的期
末论文中发现明显剽窃，为此教授公开宣布判此人零分并致函所有同学以示告诫。
而所有论文都递交之后，又发现两人有严重剽窃行为。教授因此非常伤心，致函如下：

To my students in Beijing, Fall 2007:

While grading papers today I encountered two more cases of plagiarism.
One was sophisticated but serious. The other was so blatant that it
was almost unbelievable. That makes a total of three students who
have failed my courses because of plagiarism.

今天批阅论文的时候，我又遇到了两例剽窃行为。一例手法老练但是情节严重，另一例则是厚颜**得令人难以置信。这样总计就有三名学生因为剽窃而在我的课程中不及格。

If I had not warned you and given you the opportunity honestly to
correct your essays, there would have been several more. I thank those of
you who were honest and showed me what you had copied.

假如我前些时候没有警告过你们，并给你们一次机会去诚实地改正你们的文章，这种事情还会多好几例。有些同学诚实地告诉了我他们都抄袭了哪些部分，我向他们表示感谢。

Plagiarism disturbs me greatly, both because it corrodes my relationship
with you as my students, and because it tells me things about China and
Beida that neither you nor I want to hear.

这些剽窃行为让我非常苦恼，不但因为它损害了你我之间的师生关系，也因为它告诉了我一些关于北大、关于中国的事情，而这些事情是你我都不愿意听到的。

It corrodes my relationship with you because I work hard to be a good
teacher, I take time to prepare good lectures, and I spend many hours
providing detailed feedback on essays. It is hard work. You cannot
imagine what it is like to correct the details of the 500th essay until
you have done it yourself. I do that to help you
learn to think more clearly, to express yourself convincingly, and to
develop your intellectual power, your ability to understand the world.
I also do it because I value you, I value your ideas, and I think the world
will be a better place when you can all think clearly and behave
intelligently. Later in life, some of you will be leaders with important
positions. I want you to be competent and honest,
for I have seen too often what terrible things can happen when
leaders are incompetent and dishonest. Leadership aside, I want all of you
to be able to create value in your lives, whatever you end up doing,
and you cannot do that if you deceive.

它伤害了我们之间的关系，因为我为了当一名好老师而付出了许多努力。我花了许多时间准备课堂讲授，又花了许多时间给你们的文章写下详尽的反馈。这些工作都很辛苦。你无法想象，当改到第500篇文章的细节的时候你是什么感觉，除非你亲身经历。我做这一切，是为了让你们学会更清晰地思考问题，学会有说服力地表达自己的观点，学会培养自己的理性，锻炼自己理解世界的能力。我做这一切，也因为我珍视你们，珍视你们的想法，而且我想，如果你们都能够清晰地思考、明智地行动的话，这个世界也会变得更加美好。在以后的人生道路里，你们当中有的人会成为身居要位的领导，我希望你们能够德才均备，因为无德无才的领导者所能带来的可怕灾难，我已经见过太多了。就算不当领导，我也希望你们所有人都能在你们的生命中创造一些有价值的东西，无论你们最后从事什么。而如果你欺骗的话，你是做不到这一点的。

When a student whom I am teaching steals words and ideas from an
author without acknowledgment, I feel cheated, dragged down into the mud.
I ask myself, why should I teach people who knowingly deceive me?
Life is too short for such things. There are better things to do.

当我所教的学生从别人那里偷窃话语和思想的时候，我感到受了欺骗，心情沉重如同跋涉泥沼。我会问自己，我为什么要给那些存心欺骗我的人上课呢？生命是如此的短暂，太不值得。有比这好得多的事情可以做。

Disturbingly, plagiarism fits into a larger pattern of behavior in China.
Cxiaoneinternational intellectual property rights. Beida sees
nothing wrong in copying my textbook, for example, in complete violation
of international copyright agreements, causing me to lose income,
stealing from me quite directly. No one in China seems to care.
I can buy DVDs in stores and on the street for about one US dollar.
They cost $20-30 outside China; the artists who produced them are
losing enormous amounts of stolen income, billions of dollars each year.
China has become notorious for producing defective products that have to
be recalled because the pose health threats to consumers. A recent cartoon in
an American newspaper shows the Central Committee reacting to an accusation that
they have violated human rights. The response? "Wait until they see what we put in
their toothpaste next!" Corruption is a serious problem in a booming economy. For
example, in the mining industry, about 5000 miners die each year and mine owners cut corners in violation of the law. The social fabric breaks when workers die because
owners are greedy. The Mandate of Heaven is lost.

让人不安的是，剽窃已经成为整个中国行为模式的一部分。中国忽视国际知识产权。比如说，复印我的书彻头彻尾违反了国际版权协议，使我损失了收入，对我而言近乎直接的偷窃，然而北大人却对此安之若素。再比如，我只花大约一美元就能在街头和店铺买到DVD光碟，这些碟片在别国要卖上二三十美元。创作它们的艺术家因此损失的大笔收入全是被偷走的，每年几十亿。因为生产劣质商品对消费者造成潜在的健康威胁而不得不召回，中国已经是臭名昭著了。最近美国报纸上刊载的一幅漫画描绘了中央委员会被指责侵犯人权。猜他们怎么回答？“往他们牙膏里搁点东西，看他们还敢吭声不？”经济繁荣的背后，腐败已经成为严重的问题。就拿矿业来说，每年大约有五千名矿工死去，就因为矿主为了省事为了利润而不惜违反法律 。(译注：cut corners 指贬义的抄近道，此为意译。)矿主的贪婪导致工人死去，象征着社会阶层之间纽带的断裂。天道已丧。

China appears to have lost her way. Confucius said, do not
do to others what you do not want them to do to you. He also said, a
gentleman is honest. Honesty and reciprocity are the basis of trust and
community. We cannot get along in a world filled with deceit and defection;
such a world becomes a Hobbesian war of all against all, nasty and brutal.
We cannot do science if we cannot trust what others publish. There is no
reason to try to replicate a result if it cannot be trusted. It would not be worth the effort.Without replication there can be no shared knowledge that is tested and trustworthy -that is, no science. Without science, there can be no technology. And without technology, there can be no steady increase in productivity, economic growth, and a better life for all.

全文见：http://lunannanlu.i.sohu.com/blog/view/232954646.htm
注释：本文转自《耶鲁新闻报》（Yale News，作者：Thomas Kaplan）