Translate the text without a dictionary. Discuss the text. Make a summary of the text.

... The author of a general historical book is bound to make arbitrary decisions about what to put in and what to leave out, where to begin and where to end. Some of the gaps are the result of my own ignorance, of physics for example, or of technical economic history. Other gaps are the result of lack of space: in discussing intellectual and artistic developments I have limited myself to those which seem to me to have affected or reflected the quality of European society and the presuppositions of its members. And the result has been that some of the greatest imaginative writers, painters and musicians, as well as the most original natural scientists, have not been mentioned. On the other hand, I have tried to relate these developments to the political and social history of the period, rather than treating them separately.

All books reflect the interests and tastes of the writer, but they are also, especially if dealing with contemporary history, influenced by the author’s social, economic and national status. Yet one of the justifications for any kind of historical writing is that it enables the writer and the reader to make the effort to transcend his own limitations. History, like art, offers us an opportunity to enlarge our own experience.

But if history is like art, it is also like psycho-analysis. Just as the psycho-analyst helps us to face the world by showing us how to face the truth about our own motives and our own personal past, so the contemporary historian helps us to face the present and the future by enabling us to understand the forces, however shocking, which have made our world and our society what it is.

Finally any general work which attempts a broad synthesis of a long and crowded period of history inevitably imposes a pattern on what he describes. Each sentence must compress, and so distort the events and ideas which it summarises. Moreover, it is impossible to avoid what W. Llanger has called “the greatest mistake the historian could make... to construct a neat, logical pattern when in actual fact everything was confusion and contradiction”... And these confusion and contradiction are even more noticeable a feature of contemporary history than of earlier history. Every day new evidence becomes available, and new research is being published disapproving our assumptions and forcing us to revise our ideas.

... For the more recent past we do not know the outcome of historical events in which we are still personally involved. At least we can be aware of the endlessly unpredictable and surprising turns which history can take and share the excitement of feeling that we too are part of history, and whether we like it or not we are caught up in the events as important as any in the European past.

Commentary:

yet нареч. 1. 1) временные значения а) еще, все еще, пока что (о прошлом)

A yet-warm corpse, and yet unburiable. — Еще теплый труп, еще не подходящий для погребения.

not yet — еще не(т), нет пока

She hasn't yet decided if she wants to come or not. — Она еще не решила, нужно ей приезжать или нет.

б) еще (о будущем)

"You couldn't be safer, not if you were in Hereford jail itself. - That's where I may be yet," he said. — "Здесь куда как безопасно, безопаснее чем в Херефордской тюрьме". - "То ли еще будет, может, там-то я и окажусь", сказал он.

в) уже (в вопросительных предложениях) , пора

He tries to be cautious, one more cigarette, he wants to be open, but the time is not yet. — Он осторожничает - вот выкурю еще одну сигарету, тогда... - он хочет открыться, но еще не пора

Time enough yet? No, there isn't time enough yet. — Хватит? Нет, еще не хватит. г) до сих пор, по сию пору, когда-либо (часто в предложениях с поверхностным будущим значением, которые, однако, скорее следует переводить прошедшим временем с отрицанием, см. пример)

None of the rooms had been completely finished, the painting and papering being yet to be done. — Еще ни одна комната не была полностью готова, комнаты еще не покрасили и не наклеили в них обои.

This was the queerest thing yet! — До сей поры это казалось самым странным!

- as yet - все еще, пока, до сих пор, на данный момент, к настоящему моменту

2) степенные значения а) еще, кроме того, помимо этого, вдобавок, к тому же, также; также в качестве интенсива, оканчивающего предложения, напр. вот!

I purpose to dive yet more deeply into the depth of my text. — Я намереваюсь еще глубже нырнуть в пучину моего текста.

The tracks include "To Know Him is to Love Him" (with David Bowie on saxophone, yet!). — Среди записей есть "Знать его значит любить его" (в составе Дэвид Боуи на саксофоне, вот как!)

Syn: besides , also , further , furthermore , moreover

б) даже, даже более

My sandals were worse yet. — Мои сандалеты были еще хуже.

Syn: even , still

2. союз -уступительные значения однако, тем не менее

The splendid yet useless imagery. — Прекрасная, но вместе с тем ненужная образность.

No more "if only"s and no more "and yet"s. — Никаких больше "если только" и "и тем не менее"

3. прил. значение, производное по конверсии от временных значений, переводится перефразированием

her yet safety — пока она была в безопасности

4. гл. 1) или обливать, выливать, лить (жидкость куда-л.)

Syn: pour

2) припаивать, скреплять с помощью расплавленного свинца