Man is the creature of interest and ambition. His nature leads him forth into the struggle and bustle of the world. Love is but the embellishment of his early life, or a song piped in the intervals of the acts. He seeks for fame, for fortune for space in the world's thought, and dominion over his fellowmen. But a woman's whole life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world; it is there her ambition strives for empire—it is there her avarice seeks for hidden treasures. She sends forth her sympathies on adventure; she embarks her whole soul in the traffic of affection; and if shipwrecked, her case is hopeless—for it is a bankruptcy of the heart. To a man, the disappointment of love may occasion some bitter pangs; it wounds some feelings of tenderness—it blasts some prospects of felicity; but he is an active being—he may dissipate his thoughts in the whirl of varied occupation, or may plunge into the tide of pleasure; or, if the scene of disappointment be too full of painful associations, he can shift his abode at will, and taking, as it were, the wings of the morning, can "fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, and be at rest."
【答案解析】解析: 本文选自华盛顿.欧文(Washington Irving)《见闻札记》(The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon,Gent)中的《破碎的心》(The Broken Heart)一文。华盛顿.欧文是19世纪美国散文大师,美国文学奠基人之一。他的《见闻札记》引起欧洲和美国文学界的重视,奠定了他在美国文学史上的地位。他的文笔优雅清新,时常流露出温和的幽默。选段介绍了男人和女人对待爱情的不同态度,幽默中含有讽刺,讽刺中又让人不禁莞尔。