Unit 12
Unit 12
Table of Contents
Audio
Text&Translation
Just recently a committee meeting at the University of Colorado was interrupted by the spectacle of a young man scaling the wall of the library just outside the window. Discussion of new interdisciplinary courses halted as we silently hoped he had discipline enough to return safely² to the earth. Hope was all we could offer from our vantage point in Ketchum Hall, the impulse to rush out and catch him being checked by the realization of futility.
就在前不久，科罗拉多大学的一场委员会会议，被窗外图书馆墙壁上一名青年攀爬的惊险景象所打断。我们正讨论着新的跨学科课程，此刻却都停了下来，默默祈祷他有足够的技艺与自制力，能够平安返回地面。从凯彻姆礼堂的窗口望去，除了祝愿，我们别无他法；那份想冲出去接住他的冲动，也因意识到此举徒劳而只能作罢。
The incident reinforced my sense that mountaineering serves as an apt analogy for the art of teaching. The excitement, the risk, the need for rigorous discipline all correspond³, though the image I have in mind is not that of the solitary adventurer rappelling off a wall, but that of a Swiss guide leading an expedition.
此事愈发使我感到，登山诚然是教学艺术的绝佳写照。其间的激情澎湃、风险莫测以及对精湛技艺的严格要求，无不与教学之道遥相呼应。然而，我心目中的景象，并非孤胆英雄独悬绝壁、缘绳而下，而是瑞士向导引领探险队伍勇往直前。
I remember a mountaineer named Fritz who once led a group up the Jungfrau at the same time a party was climbing the north face of the Eiger. My own mountaineering skill was slender, and my enthusiasm would have faltered had I not felt Fritz was capable of hauling not only me but all the rest of us off that mountain⁴. Strong, self-assured, calm, he radiated that solid authority⁵ that encouraged me to tie on to his rope. But I soon realized that my presence on his line constituted a risk for Fritz. Had I been so foolhardy as to try to retrieve my glove which went tumbling off a precipice, or had I slipped into one of those inexplicably opening crevasses⁶, I might well have pulled the noble Fritz down with me. It was a sobering realization⁷. I, the novice, and he, the expert, were connected by the same lifeline in an experience of mutual interdependence. To give me that top of the world exaltation⁸ he, too, was taking a risk.
我记得一位名叫弗里茨的登山家，他曾带领一队人攀登少女峰，而同一时间，另一支队伍正在挑战艾格峰北壁。我自己的登山技艺尚浅，若非深信弗里茨有能力将我，不，将我们所有人安全带下山，我的热情恐怕早已消磨殆尽。他强壮、自信、沉着，周身散发着一种稳如磐石的权威感，正是这份气度，鼓舞我将自己的绳索系于他的主绳之上。但我很快意识到，我的加入，对弗里茨而言也意味着一份风险。倘若我鲁莽行事，试图去捡拾那只滚落悬崖的手套，或者不慎滑入某个悄然裂开的冰川缝隙，我很可能将高尚的弗里茨一同拖下深渊。这个认识令我猛然警醒。我，一个新手，与他，一位专家，就这样被同一根生命之索紧密相连，彼此依存。为了让我体验那登顶览众山小的豪情，他也同样承担着风险。
The analogy to teaching seems to me apt, and not just for professors who happen to live in Colorado, for the analogy implies an active acceptance of responsibility for one's own fate, whereas most other analogies to teaching suggest passivity. What is needed to restore teachers' confidence that the profession is significant is a new analogy, a new metaphor (I shy away from the PR word, "image") that conveys more of the essence of teaching than the worn-out analogies we have known. Most previous analogies are seriously inadequate, for while they may describe a part of the teaching activity, they also suggest patterns that are not fully applicable to teaching. It is not a simple matter, for those faulty analogies create misunderstandings about the professor's role, not only in the lay public, but in the professoriate itself. These wrong analogies have contributed to growing demoralization within the profession, and have confused the difficult issue of proper evaluation.
在我看来，此比喻于教学十分贴切，且并非仅适用于恰巧住在科罗拉多州的教授们。因为这个比喻蕴含着一种对自身命运的主动担当，而其他大多数关于教学的比喻则暗示着被动。要重塑教师对自身职业重要性的信心，我们需要一个新的比喻，一个新的隐喻——我不太喜欢用“形象”这个公关辞令——它要比我们习以为常的那些陈旧比喻更能传达教学的精髓。以往的多数比喻都存在严重缺陷，它们或许能描绘教学活动的某个侧面，却也暗示了某些不完全适用于教学的模式。这并非小事，因为这些错误的比喻不仅在普通民众中，甚至在教授群体内部，都造成了对教授角色的误解。这些不当的比喻助长了行业内日渐低落的士气，也使本就棘手的合理评估问题更加扑朔迷离。
The most common analogies to the teacher are the preacher, the shepherd, the curator, the actor, the researcher, and, most insidiously, the salesman. None captures the special relationship between teacher and students, a relationship better described by Socrates as a coming together of friends. Rather than emphasizing the mutuality of the endeavor, each of these common analogies turns on a separation between the professional and his clients. Each leads to a certain kind of evaluation.
最常见的教师比喻有：布道者、牧羊人、策展人、演员、研究员，以及最潜滋暗长、贻害无穷的——推销员。这些比喻无一能捕捉到师生间的特殊联结，一种苏格拉底称之为“朋友相聚”的关系。它们非但未能强调双方共同努力、相辅相成，反而都着眼于专业人士与其“客户”间的分离。每一种比喻都会导向某种特定的评价方式。
The preacher exhorts, cajoles, pleads with a congregation often so benighted as to exist in a state of somnolence.¹⁰ He measures his success by the number of souls so stirred as either to commit themselves to his cause, or vehemently to reject it.¹¹ Somewhat like the preacher is the shepherd who gathers and watches over a flock clearly inferior to himself. The analogy may be apt for the Lord and his subangelic followers¹², but it will not do for teacher and students, or, especially, for Socrates and his friends. The Shepherd is likely to be evaluated by the gulf separating his wisdom from that of his flock.
布道者对往往愚昧无知、昏昏欲睡的会众谆谆教诲，巧言劝诱，苦心恳求。他衡量成功的标准，是看有多少灵魂受到感召，或投身其事业，或激烈反对。与布道者有些相似的是牧羊人，他聚集并看护着一群显然远逊于己的羊群。这个比喻或许适用于上帝和他那些尚未企及天使境界的追随者，但绝不适用于师生之间，尤其不适用于苏格拉底和他的朋友们。牧羊人的成就，多半是以其智慧与羊群智慧之间的鸿沟来衡量的。
If the poor country curate¹³ has often furnished an analogy to the bleating professor¹⁴, so has the curator of a museum. Lips pursed so as to distill a purer essence of hauteur, the curator as connoisseur points out the rarities of classical cultures to the uninitiated¹⁵ who can scarcely be expected to appreciate these finer things. Since they cannot understand him anyway, the curator has no compunction about sprinkling his presentation with Latin and Greek and with English so esoteric as to sound foreign. Chances are high that the professor as connoisseur will succeed in convincing most of the class that the subject is really the province of a secret society with its own arcane practices and language, best left behind its own inaccessible walls. Indeed, colleagues of the connoisseur measure his success by the paucity of devotees allowed in to the society through this winnowing process.
如果说贫困的乡村助理牧师常被用作夸夸其谈的教授的写照，那么博物馆的策展人亦是如此。策展人俨然一位鉴赏家，双唇紧抿，仿佛要凝练出更纯粹的傲慢之气，向那些门外汉指点古典文化的珍奇，似乎本就没指望这些外行能欣赏此等雅物。既然他们横竖也听不懂，策展人便毫无顾忌地在讲解中夹杂拉丁文、希腊文，以及那些深奥得如同外语的英文。这样的鉴赏家式教授，十有八九会成功地让大多数学生相信，他所教授的科目实乃某个秘密社团的专属领域，有着其神秘的仪式和语言，最好还是敬而远之，任其固守在高不可攀的壁垒之后。事实上，这位鉴赏家的同行们，正是通过这种筛选过程后，被允许加入该“社团”的追随者之寡众，来衡量其成功的。
The teacher as actor also plays to a passive audience, but he measures success by larger numbers. A certain aura of the magician clings to him as he lures spectators into witnessing his academic sleight-of-hand¹⁶ without their ever really getting in on the trick. A certain tinge of the stand-up comedian¹⁷ colors the performance as the actor plays to the audience to register laughs big enough to drown out the lecturer droning on next door.
将教师比作演员，同样是面对一群被动的观众，但他以观众人数的多寡来衡量成功。他身上似乎带着魔术师般的光环，诱使旁观者欣赏其学术戏法，却从不让他们真正洞悉其中的奥秘。其表演又带有几分单口喜剧演员的色彩，他刻意迎合听众，以博取足以压过隔壁教室讲师枯燥授课的哄堂大笑。
A bastardized version¹⁸ of the actor is that figure now thought so apt an analogy in our consumer-conscious society: the salesman. His predecessors include the snake-oil man¹⁹ and the door-to-door purveyor of anything from brushes to Britannicas²⁰. He or she takes the product to the people, wherever they are, and tailors the pitch to their pockets²¹. While all of these analogies create a certain level of despair in the professoriate either struggling to pattern themselves in a particular mode or hopelessly realizing they can never achieve it, the salesman analogy has the most deleterious effects. No longer adhering even to a prepared script²², the salesman shamelessly alters his or her presentation so it will draw the largest number of contented consumers.
演员这一比喻的拙劣翻版，便是推销员——在我们这个消费意识强烈的社会里，这被认为是一个再恰当不过的类比。推销员的前辈包括兜售假药的江湖郎中，以及挨家挨户推销从刷子到《大英百科全书》等各色商品的货郎。他或她将“产品”送到人们面前，无论他们身在何处，并根据顾客的腰包调整推销说辞。尽管所有这些比喻都令教授群体或多或少感到绝望——他们要么努力将自己塑造成某种特定模式，要么无奈地意识到自己永远无法企及——但推销员这个比喻的负面影响最为深远。推销员甚至不再遵循预设的讲稿，而是恬不知耻地改变其“演示”内容，只为吸引尽可能多的“满意消费者”。
The researcher as teacher differs from the previous analogies, and that very distinction is often thought to make him or her a good teacher. Taciturn, solitary, he disdains the performing arts²³ and is content merely to mutter out an assortment of scattered facts to the young only dimly perceived beyond his clouded trifocals. His measure of success is his students' capacity to regurgitate factual data.
将教师比作研究员，则与先前的比喻有所不同，而正是这种差异，常使人误以为这样的教师便是好教师。他沉默寡言，离群索居，不屑于所谓的“表演艺术”，仅仅满足于对着他那模糊的三焦镜片后方依稀可辨的年轻人，咕哝出一些零散的事实。他衡量成功的标准，在于学生复述这些事实数据的能力。
None of these analogies comes close enough to the essential magic and majesty of a real learning experience. None even dimly anticipates that self-eradicating feature that is built into the teaching process²⁴, for those who have truly mastered what their teacher has presented no longer need him or her. None accepts as a necessary ingredient in the learning process, activity, the sense of an intellectual excitement so compelling that one's whole being is caught up in it. None acknowledges the peril, and the joy, of encountering those mental deeps Hopkins²⁵ described …the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap May who ne'er hung there.²⁶
这些比喻无一能触及真实学习体验中那份内在的魅力与庄严。它们甚至未能些许预见到教学过程中固有的那种“自我消弭”的特性——即当学生真正掌握了老师所传授的一切之后，便不再需要这位老师了。它们也无一将那份令人全身心沉醉的、智识上的激荡与积极参与，视作学习过程中不可或缺的要素。它们更无一承认在探索精神深渊时所伴随的危险与喜悦，正如霍普金斯所描绘的那般： 心灵，心灵自有其崇山峻岭；悬崖峭壁， 触目惊心，陡峭险绝，人迹罕至，深不可测。 未曾攀悬其上之人， 方敢轻视此等险境。
Mountaineering furnishes the needed analogy. The Swiss mountain guide, like the true teacher, has a quiet authority about his very person. He or she engenders trust and confidence so that one is willing to join the endeavor. The mountaineer accepts his leadership role, yet recognizes that the success of the journey (measured by the scaling of the heights) depends upon close cooperation and active participation by each member of the group. He has crossed the terrain before and is familiar with the landmarks, but each trip is new, and generates its own anxiety and excitement. Essential skills must be mastered if the trip is to be successful; lacking them, disaster looms as an ominous possibility. The very precariousness of the situation necessitates keen focus and rapt attention; slackness, misjudgment, or laziness can bring doom.
登山，恰恰提供了我们所需要的那个比喻。瑞士登山向导，如同真正的教师，其人本身便散发着一种沉静的权威。他或她能够赢得人们的信任与信心，使人甘愿投身于共同的事业。登山向导承担起领导者的角色，却也深知，旅程的成功（以登顶为衡量标准）取决于团队中每一位成员的密切合作与积极参与。他曾穿越过这片土地，熟悉沿途的地标，但每一次旅程都是全新的，都会带来其特有的焦虑与兴奋。若要旅程顺利，必须掌握关键技能；一旦匮乏，灾难便如不祥之兆般隐约浮现。情势的险峻本身，就要求高度专注、全神贯注；任何松懈、误判或懒惰，都可能招致灭顶之灾。
The teacher as mountaineer learns, as E.M. Forster²⁷ urged, to connect. The guide rope links mountaineers together so that they may assist each other in the ascent. The effective teacher does something similar by using the oral and written contributions of the students as instructional materials. The teacher also makes other connections, locating the text in its historical setting, forging inter- and intradisciplinary links²⁸ where plausible, joining the material of the course with the lives of the students, where possible, and with the wider national life beyond the classroom where pertinent.
身为登山向导的教师，会学习E.M.福斯特所倡导的“联结”。向导绳将登山者们联结在一起，使他们在攀登过程中能够相互扶助。卓有成效的教师亦是如此，他们将学生的口头和书面成果当作教学素材加以运用。教师还会建立其他联结：将课文置于其历史背景之中，在合理之处构建跨学科及学科内部的联系，在可能的情况下将课程内容与学生的生活相联系，并在适宜之处将其与课堂之外更广阔的国民生活联系起来。
Teaching as mountaineering does not encourage the yellowed lecture note syndrome²⁹. Indeed, the analogy does not really encourage lecturing at all. If the student as mountaineer is to be challenged, the student must come to each class session ready and prepared to assist in scaling the next peak, ready to test his or her own abilities against those of the master teacher. Only by arduous and sustained effort does the student approach the mastery of the teacher, and only then is the student ready to assume the role of guide—well-trained in the art of mountaineering, able to take controlled risks, ready to lead others to a mountain-top experience. Not a huckster, not a performer, not a pleader, but a confident, exuberant guide on expeditions of shared responsibility.
将教学比作登山，便不会助长“陈腐讲稿综合症”。实际上，这个比喻根本就不提倡讲授式教学。如果学生如登山者般勇于接受挑战，那么他必须为每一次课程做好充分准备，以便协力攀登下一座高峰，并勇于用自身能力与大师级教师的水平一较高下。唯有通过艰苦卓绝、持之以恒的努力，学生才能逐渐企及教师的精通之境，也只有到那时，学生才真正准备好承担起向导的职责——在登山艺术方面训练有素，能够驾驭可控的风险，并带领他人体验登顶的豪情。他不是叫卖的小贩，不是哗众的演员，也不是哀求的祈祷者，而是在共担责任的探险征程中，一位自信、热忱的向导。
To encourage and further such mountain-top experiences the society must recognize teaching for the sublime art³⁰ it is—not merely an offshoot of research, not merely a performance before a passive audience, but a guided expedition into the most exciting and least understood terrain on earth—the mind itself.
为了鼓励并促进此等“登峰造极”的体验，整个社会必须认识到教学本身即为一门崇高的艺术——它不仅仅是研究的副产品，也不仅仅是在被动观众面前的表演，而是一场进入地球上最激动人心、也最不为人所了解的领域——即人类心智本身——的、有向导引领的探险。
Summary&Mindmap
English Summary The article critiques traditional analogies for teaching (preacher, shepherd, curator, actor, salesman, researcher), finding them inadequate as they often portray students as passive and misrepresent the teacher's role. It champions the analogy of a Swiss mountain guide leading an expedition, highlighting the shared risk, mutual interdependence, rigorous discipline, active student participation, and the exhilarating nature of the learning journey. This metaphor, the author argues, better captures the essence of teaching as a sublime art involving shared responsibility and intellectual exploration.
中文概括 本文批判了将教师比作传教士、牧羊人、策展人、演员、推销员和研究员等常见教学类比的不足，认为它们未能体现教学的本质，常将学生置于被动地位，并曲解了教师的角色。作者力倡以“瑞士登山向导带领探险”为教学的新隐喻，强调教学过程中的共同风险、相互依存、严格纪律、学生积极参与以及智力探索的激动人心之处。该隐喻更能捕捉教学作为一种共享责任和智力探索的崇高艺术的精髓。
Analysis
1. Hope was all we could offer from our vantage point in Ketchum Hall, the impulse to rush out and catch him being checked by the realization of futility.
- 中文解释： 这句话的主干是“Hope was all we could offer...”（希望是我们从凯彻姆楼的有利位置唯一能提供的）。逗号后的部分“the impulse to rush out and catch him being checked by the realization of futility”是一个独立主格结构，用作状语，补充说明当时的情景。其中，“the impulse to rush out and catch him”（想要冲出去抓住他的冲动）是这个独立主格结构的逻辑主语；“being checked”（被抑制/被阻止）是现在分词的被动形式，充当逻辑谓语；“by the realization of futility”（因为意识到这样做是徒劳的）是方式状语，说明了冲动被抑制的原因。整个结构生动地描绘了旁观者想施救却因无能为力而只能旁观的复杂心理。
2. My own mountaineering skill was slender, and my enthusiasm would have faltered had I not felt Fritz was capable of hauling not only me but all the rest of us off that mountain.
- 中文解释： 这句话由两个分句构成。第一分句“My own mountaineering skill was slender”直陈作者登山技术不佳。第二分句是一个复杂的虚拟语气句：“my enthusiasm would have faltered had I not felt Fritz was capable of hauling not only me but all the rest of us off that mountain”。其中“had I not felt...”是省略了连词“if”的倒装虚拟条件句，相当于“if I had not felt...”，表达与过去事实相反的假设。主句“my enthusiasm would have faltered”表示在这种假设情况下热情本可能会动摇。宾语从句“Fritz was capable of hauling not only me but all the rest of us off that mountain”说明了弗里茨的能力——不仅能把作者，还能把所有其他人从山上“拖”下来，“hauling”一词形象地暗示了救援的艰辛和向导的强大能力。
3. Had I been so foolhardy as to try to retrieve my glove which went tumbling off a precipice, or had I slipped into one of those inexplicably opening crevasses, I might well have pulled the noble Fritz down with me.
- 中文解释： 这是一个由两个并列的倒装虚拟条件从句引导的复杂句，主句在最后。两个条件从句都省略了“if”，并将助动词“Had”提至句首，表示与过去事实相反的假设。第一个条件是“Had I been so foolhardy as to try to retrieve my glove which went tumbling off a precipice”（如果我当时那么鲁莽，试图去捡回我那掉下悬崖的手套）。其中“so foolhardy as to...”意为“鲁莽到如此程度以至于...”，“which went tumbling off a precipice”是修饰“glove”的定语从句。第二个并列条件是“or had I slipped into one of those inexplicably opening crevasses”（或者如果我滑入了那些莫名其妙就裂开的冰缝中）。主句是“I might well have pulled the noble Fritz down with me”（我很可能就会把高尚的弗里茨也一起拉下去了）。“might well have pulled”表达了在假设条件下极可能发生的、令人后怕的严重后果。
4. What is needed to restore teachers' confidence that the profession is significant is a new analogy, a new metaphor (I shy away from the PR word, "image") that conveys more of the essence of teaching than the worn-out analogies we have known.
- 中文解释： 这是一个主语从句充当句子主语的复杂句。句子的主语是“What is needed to restore teachers' confidence that the profession is significant”（恢复教师们对其职业重要性的信心所需要的东西）。在这个主语从句中，“to restore teachers' confidence...”是不定式短语作表语，“that the profession is significant”是同位语从句，解释“confidence”的具体内容。句子的谓语动词是“is”。表语部分是“a new analogy, a new metaphor...”。括号中的“(I shy away from the PR word, "image")”是作者的插入语，表达了他对“image”一词公关色彩的规避。紧随其后的“that conveys more of the essence of teaching than the worn-out analogies we have known”是一个定语从句，修饰“a new analogy, a new metaphor”，说明这种新的类比/隐喻要比“我们已知的那些陈旧类比”（the worn-out analogies we have known，其中“we have known”是修饰analogies的定语从句，省略了关系代词which/that）更能传达教学的精髓。
5. Lips pursed so as to distill a purer essence of hauteur, the curator as connoisseur points out the rarities of classical cultures to the uninitiated who can scarcely be expected to appreciate these finer things.
- 中文解释： 这句话的开头“Lips pursed so as to distill a purer essence of hauteur”是一个独立主格结构（或理解为描述主语“curator”神态的伴随状语）。“Lips pursed”（嘴唇紧抿）描绘了策展人的姿态，“so as to distill a purer essence of hauteur”（目的是为了提炼/流露出一种更纯粹的傲慢气质）是不定式短语表目的。“the curator as connoisseur”（作为鉴赏家的策展人）是句子的主语。“points out the rarities of classical cultures”（指出古典文化的珍品）是谓语和宾语。“to the uninitiated”（给那些外行/未入门的人）是间接宾语。最后，“who can scarcely be expected to appreciate these finer things”是一个定语从句，修饰“the uninitiated”，意思是“这些人几乎不能被指望会欣赏这些更精妙的事物”，“scarcely be expected to”表达了一种否定的预期。整句话通过生动的神态描写和行为描述，讽刺了策展人型教师的清高孤傲和与学生的隔阂。
6. None even dimly anticipates that self-eradicating feature that is built into the teaching process, for those who have truly mastered what their teacher has presented no longer need him or her.
- 中文解释： 这句话的主干是“None even dimly anticipates that self-eradicating feature”。“None”指代前文讨论的各种不恰当的教学类比。“dimly anticipates”意为“模糊地预见到”或“未能清楚地认识到”。“that self-eradicating feature”（那种自我消除的特性）是宾语，指教学成功后学生便不再需要老师的这一特点。“that is built into the teaching process”是定语从句，修饰“feature”，说明这种特性是“教学过程中固有（built into）的”。逗号后的“for”引导一个原因状语从句，解释为什么那些类比没有预见到这个特性：“for those who have truly mastered what their teacher has presented no longer need him or her”（因为那些真正掌握了老师所传授内容的学生就不再需要他或她了）。在这个原因状语从句中，“those”是主语，由定语从句“who have truly mastered what their teacher has presented”修饰；“what their teacher has presented”是“mastered”的宾语从句。
7. ...the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap / May who ne'er hung there.
- 中文解释： 这是引用自诗人杰拉德·曼利·霍普金斯（Gerard Manley Hopkins）的诗句，语言风格较为古老且具有诗意。第一部分“the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed.”意为“心灵，心灵拥有山峦；（那是）坠落的悬崖（即极险峻的悬崖）/ 可怕的，陡峭的，无人能测量其深度的。”重复“mind”是为强调。“cliffs of fall”形象地描绘了悬崖的险峻。“Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed”是层层递进的形容词，描述悬崖的恐怖、陡峭和深不可测。第二部分“Hold them cheap / May who ne'er hung there.”采用了诗歌中常见的倒装语序，正常语序应为“Who ne'er hung there may hold them cheap.”其中“ne'er”是“never”的古体缩写。“Hold them cheap”意为“轻视它们”或“认为它们不值钱/不重要”。整句可译为：“那些从未亲身悬于其上（经历过那种险境）的人，或许会轻视这些（心灵的险峻山峰）。”作者引用此诗句是为了说明心智探索的艰难、风险与深邃，非亲身经历者无法体会其价值和挑战。
8. The teacher also makes other connections, locating the text in its historical setting, forging inter- and intradisciplinary links where plausible, joining the material of the course with the lives of the students, where possible, and with the wider national life beyond the classroom where pertinent.
- 中文解释： 这句话的主干是“The teacher also makes other connections”（教师还会建立其他联系）。其后紧跟一长串由现在分词引导的并列状语成分，详细说明了教师是如何建立这些“其他联系”的：
- “locating the text in its historical setting,”（将文本置于其历史背景中，）
- “forging inter- and intradisciplinary links where plausible,”（在合理可行之处，建立跨学科和学科内部的联系，）其中“where plausible”是省略了连词的地点/条件状语从句。
- “joining the material of the course with the lives of the students, where possible,”（在可能之处，将课程内容与学生的生活联系起来，）其中“where possible”也是类似的状语从句。
- “and with the wider national life beyond the classroom where pertinent.”（以及在适切之处，（将课程内容）与课堂之外更广阔的国民生活联系起来。）这部分与前一个“with the lives of the students”并列，都是“joining”这个动作的对象，而“where pertinent”同样是状语从句。 这个长句通过一系列并列的、由现在分词（locating, forging, joining）引导的短语，具体阐释了登山向导型教师如何主动地将教学内容与历史、其他学科、学生生活乃至更广阔的社会现实联系起来，体现了教学的广度和深度。