翻译:邱敦莲

A language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns, unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.

一位语言老师给她班的同学讲解说，“法语与英语不同，名词在语法上是要分男女的。”

"House," in French, is feminine = "la maison."

“比如,房子这个词，在法语中是阴性的（ la maison）”

"Pencil," in French, is masculine = "le crayon."

“而"铅笔"这个词在法语中是阳性的（le crayon）.”

One puzzled student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?"

一位同学有些迷惑不解，“那计算机是什么性别的呢？”

The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups, appropriately enough by gender, and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be a masculine or feminine noun.

老师也不知道计算机是阴性的还是阳性的，因为这在她的法语词典里没有。因此，出于好玩，她把班上的同学按性别分成两个组，然后请他们决定计算机到底是阴性的还是阳性的。

Both groups were required to give four reasons for their recommendation.

两组的同学都要求要给出选择的理由。

The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:

男同学这组最终认为计算机肯定应该是阴性的("la computer")。理由如下：

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

因为除了制造者以外，没有人了解其内部逻辑关系。

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

她们（计算机）与其它计算机进行交流沟通所使用的语言，其它人无法理解。

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval; and

为了将来检索使用，即使是极小的错误也会长期存贮。

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

一旦你对她做出承诺（购买），你会发现自己一半的工资都将花在其零配件上。

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("le computer"), because:

   而女同学这组却认为计算机应该是阳性的。理由如下：

1. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on;

你必须要将其拧开才能引起它的注意；

2. They have a lot of data but they are still clueless;

尽管拥有大量数据，但是却仍然很笨；

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

本来是想让它们帮你解决问题，但是你发现，有一半的时间真正的问题是它们自己；

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

你刚一作出承诺，马上就会意识到,如果你稍微多等一阵儿，你会拿到更好一些的款式。

(Sociologically, this seems like a good example of a pervasive technology serving as a mirror to spoof cultural attitudes.)

（从社会学的角度来说，这似乎是普及性技术为恶搞文化服务很好的一个例证！）