A great many people, when they speak of home, tend to associate it with a certain atmosphere, certain physical surroundings, and certain emotional attitudes within themselves. This sentimentality toward home is something that has come down to us from the past. Many modern people do not have it, and I think it is a good thing that they do not.许多人在谈到家的时候往往将它和某种气氛,某种环境及内心的某些情感态度联系在一起.这种对家的依恋情感古已有之,代代相传.许多现代人不再有了,我认为这是件好事.

In the old days life was difficult. Enemies could attack you and kill or rob you, and you had little protection against them. People did not live in well-built houses where doors could be locked. They did not have the protection of an organized police force or telephones which could summon the police instantly. How did this influence the way people felt about home? Small family groups clung tightly together for protection against beasts and against other men. Only the bravest went beyond the small family area. Even in the Middle Ages only the most daring went to lands beyond sea. The human pursuit of security conditioned men to love their homes. I am sure that this feeling must have been very strong among the early settlers of the United States who were obliged, by famine and oppression, to take the plunge and go to the new land where they knew no one and where they were subject to Indian attack. We can see this even today in the attitudes of minority groups who, because of a feeling of insecurity, still preserve cohesive family ties.在遥远的过去，人们生活十分艰难．敌人可能会攻击你，杀害你或抢动你的财富，而你却毫无还手之力．人们并不住在可以锁门闭户的构造坚固的房子里．他们没有一支有组织的警察队伍的保护，也不能随时打电话报警．这些怎样影响人们对于家的感情呢？小小家庭的成员紧密团结，聚在一起，共同抵御野兽和敌人．只有最勇敢的人才离开小小的家族管辖区．甚至在中世纪也只有最勇敢的人才敢涉足海外．人类对安全的追求决定了人们对家的热爱．我相信，美国的早期定居者对此一定深有感触．他们被饥茺压迫得走投无路，只好毅然决定冒险来到这个举目元亲．易爱印第安人攻击的陌生的地方．甚至今天，我们从少数民族团体的态度也可以看出这一点．由于缺乏安全感，他们仍然保持着富有凝聚力的家庭纽带．

Today, thanks to modern transportation and well-organized societies, thousands of people willingly and eagerly leave the surroundings where they were born, and the oftener they do so, the less sentiment they are likely to have for those surroundings. I lived in England for three years, and I noticed that boys and girls left their parents’ homes and lived in dwellings of their own. There they could just telephone and ask an agency to provide them with a house or an apartment, which was their home. How has the meaning of this word home been altered by such activity? What does home mean to those people or to families who often move about, living in first one hotel and then another? I believe that for them home means a place where they can have privacy.今天，由于有了现代交通和组织良好的社会，成千上万的人们愿意并且渴望离开他们出生的环境．而且，他们离家外出越频繁，对出生的环境的情感就可能越少．我曾经在英国，他们只需拿起电话，要求一家房地产经销处提供一幢房子或一个套间，那就是他们的家了．家这个词的意义是如何被这种行为改变的呢？家对于那些经常流动，从一家旅馆到另一家旅馆居住的人们或家庭成员又意味着什么呢？我认为，家对他们来说是一个离群独外不受干扰的地方．

This idea of home as being a place of privacy is emerging in my country, Saudi Arabia, where the young are abandoning their parents’ homes to live their own life. As for me, the atmosphere and surroundings of the place where my parents live have no sentimental attachment. Home is where I can shut the door and be by myself. At the moment it is a room in Eaton Hall. When I left my parents several years ago, I was anxious to leave. You might call it unfeeling, but that was the way I felt. On the day of my departure for the United States, my grandmother sobbed and wept. My father, however, indicated that he understood how I felt. “Son,” he said, “I am not sorry that you are leaving us. I only hope that you make the most of your time.在我的国家沙特陈拉伯，年轻人放弃父母的家去过他们自己的生活．这种把家作为私人独处这地的看法正在我的国家形成．我对父母居住之地的气氛，环境没有眷恋的情感．家就是一个我能关起门来独处的地方．现在我的家就是伊登宿舍的一个房间．几年前当我离开父母时，我没有恋恋不舍，巴不得快快离开．你也许会觉得这是无情无义，然而那确实是我的感受．我离家去美国寻卫，祖母呜咽，泪流不止．但我的父亲却表时他能理解我的心情．＂孩子＂他说＂我对于你的离去并觉得悲伤．我只希望你能充分利用时间．＂