2004年E-C：

For me the most interesting thing about a solitary life, and mine has been that for the last twenty years, is that it becomes increasingly rewarding. When I can wake up and watch the sun rise over the ocean, as I do most days, and know that I have an entire day ahead, uninterrupted, in which to write a few pages, take a walk with my dog, read and listen to music, I am flooded with happiness.
I’m lonely only when I am overtired, when I have worked too long without a break, when from the time being I feel empty and need filling up. And I am lonely sometimes when I come back home after a lecture trip, when I have seen a lot of people and talked a lot, and am full to the brim(边缘) with experience that needs to be sorted out（挑选、选择）.
Then for a little while the house feels huge and empty, and I wonder where my self（本性、本我）is hiding. It has to be recaptured slowly by watering the plants and perhaps, by looking again at each one（指代 plant植物）as though it were a person.It takes a while, as I watch the surf（水浪）blowing up in fountains（喷泉）, but the moment（ 指the lonely moment） comes when the worlds falls away, and the self emerges again from the deep unconscious（潜意识）, bringing back all I have recently experienced to be explored and slowly understood.

　　参考答案：

只有我在非常疲劳的时候，在我不断工作了很长时间以后，在我倍感空虚，需要充实时候，我才会感到寂寞。而有时候在我结束巡回演讲回家的时候，在讲了很多话后，而且有太多经历需要整理时，我也会感到寂寞。于是，有那么一会儿，我感到房子又大又空，我都不知道我的自我又到哪里去了。这时，我必须给植物浇水，并挨个瞅瞅，仿佛他们是有生命的精灵一般，这样我才能慢慢找到我的那个自我。很长一段时间，我看着水浪从喷泉中喷涌而出。但只有当世界在我身边逐渐消失，当我再次从我内心深处的无意识中冒出来时，带给我最近的种种经历，让我探究，让我慢慢领会时，我才会感到寂寞。当我因为持续工作太久而感觉疲劳空虚，需要充实一下的时候，我会觉得孤独。有时，我出差做讲座，见很多人，说很多话，回来后脑子里很多东西需要理一理，这时我也会觉得孤独。

　　2004C-E:

在人际关系问题上我们不要太浪漫主义。人是很有趣的，往往在接触一个人时首先看到的都是他或她的优点。这一点颇像是在餐馆里用餐的经验。开始吃头盘或冷碟的时候，印象很好。吃头两个主菜时，也是赞不绝口。愈吃愈趋于冷静，吃完了这顿筵席，缺点就都找出来了。于是转喜为怒，转赞美为责备挑剔，转首肯为摇头。这是因为，第一，开始吃的时候你正处于饥饿状态，而饿了吃糠甜加蜜，饱了吃蜜也不甜。第二，你初到一个餐馆，开始举筷时有新鲜感，新盖的茅房三天香，这也可以叫做“陌生化效应”。

　　参考译文：

We should not be too romantic in interpersonal relations. Human beings are interesting in that they tend to first see good in a new acquaintance. This is like dining in a restaurant. You will be not only favorably impressed with the first two courses. However, the more you have, the more sober you become until the dinner ends up with all the flaws exposed. Consequently, your joy would give way to anger; your praises to criticism or even fault-finding; and your nodding in agreement to shaking the head. What accounts for all this is, in the first place, you are hungry when you start to eat. As the saying goes, “Hunger is the best sauce”, and vice versa.