2015考研英语阅读丽莲海尔曼的生活_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读丽莲海尔曼的生活

　　Hellman hardly helped matters by claiming her own moral superiority. In her 1976memoir, Scoundrel Time, she lambasts fellow leftists for not speaking up when innocentAmericans were being jailed or ruined by the HUAC witch hunt. Her anger was not directed atthe government, but at the people of my world, the intellectuals who did nothing to defendAmerica s civil liberties. By placing herself on this righteous pedestal, touting her ownbravery in a time of fear, she left herself open to criticism, particularly for her blindness toStalin s sins. She was also more vulnerable to claims that she twisted the facts to promoteher story of personal courage.

　　海尔曼想通过声称自己的道德优越感来帮助解决事情，可事情却正好相反。1976年的回忆录《邪恶的日子》，HUAC监禁或迫害无辜的美国人民，左翼分子们没有大声抗议，海尔曼炮轰同行的行为。她的愤怒并不是指向美国政府，而是我的王国里的人们，那些知识分子，对于保卫人民的自由，置若罔闻。她把自己当做正义的化身，在人们充满恐惧心理的年代，兜售自己的勇敢。海尔曼将自己置于大众批评的箭靶之下，尤其是她对斯大林罪行的一无所知。同时她也很容易让人们攻击她利用扭曲事实来推广自己很有勇气。

　　But the final nail in the coffin of Hellman s reputation was hammered in 1980, when shedecided to go after Mary McCarthy, a novelist and literary critic, for defaming her in alate-night TV interview. Younger, more attractive and intellectually fierce, McCarthyaccused Hellman of being a bad and dishonest writer; every word she writes is a lie,including and and the . Hellman sued. The lawsuit lasted for the rest of her life. Afteryears of defending civil liberties and criticising rapacious wealth-seeking, Hellman ended herdays seeming like a greedy and vengeful censor.