全新版大學(xué)英語(yǔ)綜合教程第四冊(cè)Unit6A

1、WORD7/7As the pace of life in todays world grows ever faster, we seem forever on the go. With so much to do and so little time to do it in, how are we to cope? Richard Tomkins sets about untangling the problem and comes up with an answer.隨著當(dāng)今世界生活節(jié)奏日益加快，我們似乎一直在不停奔忙。事情那么多，時(shí)間卻那么少，我們?cè)撛趺崔k？里查德湯姆金斯著手解決這一問題

2、，并提出了建議。 Old Father Time Becomes a TerrorRichard Tomkins1 Once upon a time, technology, we thought, would make our lives easier. Machines were expected to do our work for us, leaving us with ever-increasing quantities of time to waste away on idleness and pleasure.時(shí)間老人成了可怕的老人理查德湯姆金斯從前，我們以為技術(shù)發(fā)展會(huì)使我們的生

3、活變得更安逸。那時(shí)我們覺得機(jī)器會(huì)替代我們工作，我們則有越來越多的時(shí)間休閑娛樂。2 But instead of liberating us, technology has enslaved us. Innovations are occurring at a bewildering rate: as many now arrive in a year as once arrived in a millennium. And as each invention arrives, it eats further into our time.但技術(shù)發(fā)展沒有把我們解放出來，而是使我們成為奴隸。新技術(shù)紛

4、至沓來，令人目不暇接：一年涌現(xiàn)的技術(shù)創(chuàng)新相當(dāng)于以前一千年。而每一項(xiàng)新發(fā)明問世，就進(jìn)一步吞噬我們的光陰。3 The motorcar, for example, promised unimaginable levels of personal mobility. But now, traffic in cities moves more slowly than it did in the days of the horse-drawn carriage, and we waste our lives stuck in traffic jams.比如，汽車曾使我們希望個(gè)人出行會(huì)方便得讓人難以想象。

5、可如今，城市車輛運(yùn)行得比馬車時(shí)代還要慢，我們因交通堵塞而困在車，徒然浪費(fèi)生命。4 The aircraft promised new horizons, too. The trouble is, it delivered them. Its very existence created a demand for time-consuming journeys that we would never previously have dreamed of undertaking - the transatlantic shopping expedition, for example, or the

6、 trip to a convention on the other side of the world.飛機(jī)也曾有可能為我們拓展新天地。問題是，飛機(jī)提供了新的天地。其存在本身產(chǎn)生了對(duì)耗時(shí)的長(zhǎng)途旅行的需求，這種旅行，如越洋購(gòu)物，或遠(yuǎn)道前往地球的另一半?yún)⒓訒?huì)議，以前我們是根本無(wú)法想象的。5 In most cases, technology has not saved time, but enabled us to do more things. In the home, washing machines promisedto free women from having to toil ove

7、r the laundry. In reality, they encouraged us to change our clothes daily instead of weekly, creating seven times as much washing and ironing. Similarly, the weekly bath has been replaced by the daily shower, multiplying the hours spent on personal grooming. 在大多數(shù)情況下，技術(shù)發(fā)展并未節(jié)省時(shí)間，而是使我們得以做更多的事。在家里，洗衣機(jī)可望

8、使婦女?dāng)[脫繁重的洗衣勞作。但事實(shí)上，它們促使我們每天，而不是每星期換一次衣服，這就使熨洗衣物的工作量變成原來的7倍。同樣地，每周一次的沐浴為每日一次的淋浴所代替，使得用于個(gè)人穿著打扮的時(shí)間大大增加。6 Meanwhile, technology has not only allowed work to spread into our leisure time - the laptop-on-the-beach syndrome - but added the new burden of dealing with faxes, s and voicemails. It has also prov

9、ided us with the opportunity to spend hours fixing software glitches on our personal computers or filling our heads with useless information from the Internet.與此同時(shí)，技術(shù)發(fā)展不僅聽任工作侵入我們的閑暇時(shí)間帶著便攜式電腦去海灘綜合癥而且添加了收發(fā) 、電子和語(yǔ)音這些新的負(fù)擔(dān)。技術(shù)發(fā)展還向我們提供機(jī)會(huì)，在個(gè)人電腦上一連幾小時(shí)處理軟件故障，或把因特網(wǎng)上那些無(wú)用的信息塞進(jìn)自己的大腦。7 Technology apart, the Interne

10、t points the way to a second reason why we feel so time-pressed: the information explosion.除去技術(shù)發(fā)展，因特網(wǎng)指出了我們?yōu)楹胃械綍r(shí)間如此緊迫的第二個(gè)原因：信息爆炸。8 A couple of centuries ago, nearly all the worlds accumulated learning could be contained in the heads of a few philosophers. Today, those heads could not hope to accommod

11、ate more than a tiny fraction of the information generated in a single day.幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以前，人類積累的幾乎所有知識(shí)都能裝在若干哲人的大腦之中。如今，這些大腦休想容納下一天中產(chǎn)生的新信息中的小小一部分。9 News, facts and opinions pour in from every corner of the world. The television set offers 150 channels. There are millions of Internet sites. Magazines, books an

12、d CD-ROMs proliferate.各種消息、事實(shí)和見解從世界各個(gè)角落大量涌入。電視機(jī)能收到150個(gè)頻道。因特網(wǎng)網(wǎng)址多達(dá)千百萬(wàn)。雜志、書籍和光盤只讀存儲(chǔ)器的數(shù)量也激增。10 In the whole world of scholarship, there were only a handful of scientific journals in the 18th century, and the publication of a book was an event, says Edward Wilson, honorary curator in entomology at Harvar

13、dUniversitys museum of comparative zoology. Now, I find myself subscribing to 60 or 70 journals or magazines just to keep me up with what amounts to a minute proportion of the expanding frontiers of scholarship.“在18世紀(jì)，整個(gè)國(guó)際學(xué)術(shù)界總共只有屈指可數(shù)的幾家科學(xué)刊物，出版一本書是件了不起的大事，”哈佛大學(xué)比較動(dòng)物學(xué)博物館昆蟲館名譽(yù)館長(zhǎng)愛德華威爾遜說?！叭缃瘢冶救司陀嗛喠?0或70種

14、期刊雜志，以便自己跟上不斷拓展的學(xué)術(shù)前沿中一個(gè)微小部分的發(fā)展動(dòng)向?！?1 There is another reason for our increased time stress levels, too: rising prosperity. As ever-larger quantities of goods and services are produced, they have to be consumed. Driven on by advertising, we do our best to oblige: we buy more, travel more and play mor

15、e, but we struggle to keep up. So we suffer from what Wilson calls discontent with super abundance - the confusion of endless choice.我們產(chǎn)生日益加重的時(shí)間緊迫感還有一個(gè)原因：日漸繁榮富足。由于生產(chǎn)的物品與提供的服務(wù)越來越多，我們必須去消費(fèi)。在廣告的推動(dòng)下，我們努力照辦：我們多多購(gòu)買多多旅游多多玩兒，但得盡力堅(jiān)持下去。于是我們就深受威爾遜所謂的對(duì)極大富足不滿之苦即無(wú)休止的選擇所造成的困惑。12 Of course, not everyone is overstre

16、ssed. Its a convenient shorthand to say were all time-starved, but we have to remember that it only applies to, say, half the population, says Michael Willmott, director of the Future Foundation, a London research company.當(dāng)然，并非人人感到時(shí)間過度緊迫。“說我們都缺少時(shí)間只是隨意講講，我們應(yīng)該記住，這種說法大約只適用于一半人，”未來基金公司一家倫敦研究公司的經(jīng)理邁克爾威爾莫特

17、說。13 Youve got people retiring early, youve got the unemployed, youve got other people maybe only peripherally involved in the economy who dont have this situation at all. If youre unemployed, your problem is that youve got too much time, not too little.“有些人早早退休了，有些人失業(yè)了，有些人或許只與經(jīng)濟(jì)活動(dòng)沾點(diǎn)邊，根本不會(huì)有這種情況。如果失業(yè)

18、了，那你的問題就是時(shí)間太多，而不是太少?！?4 Paul Edwards, chairman of the London-based Henley Centre forecasting group, points out that the feeling of pressures can also be exaggerated, or self-imposed. Everyone talks about it so much that about 50 percent of unemployed or retired people will tell you they never have e

19、nough time to get things done, he says. Its almost got to the point where theres stress envy. If youre not stressed, youre not succeeding. Everyone wants to have a little bit of this stress to show theyre an important person.總部設(shè)在倫敦的亨利中心預(yù)測(cè)小組組長(zhǎng)保羅愛德華茲指出，壓力感也可能被夸大，或者被強(qiáng)加于自身?！叭巳硕即笳剦毫Γ灾劣诙噙_(dá)半數(shù)的失業(yè)者或退休人員都會(huì)跟你說

20、，他們根本來不與把事情做完，”他說?！斑@幾乎是到了羨慕壓力的程度。沒有感到有壓力，就不是成功者。人人都想表現(xiàn)幾分時(shí)間緊迫感，以顯示自己的重要?！?5 There is another aspect to all of this too. Hour-by-hour logs kept by thousands of volunteers over the decades have shown that, in the U.K. , working hours have risen only slightly in the last 10 years, and in the U.S., they

21、have actually fallen - even for those in professional and executive jobs, where the perceptions of stress are highest.這一切還有另外一個(gè)方面。幾十年來由數(shù)千名志愿者所作的鐘點(diǎn)日志表明，英國(guó)在最近十年中工作時(shí)間只略微增加，而在美國(guó)，即使對(duì)工作壓力最大的專業(yè)人士和管理人員而言，工作時(shí)間實(shí)際上減少了。16 In the U.S., John Robinson, professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, and Geof

22、frey Godbey, professor of leisure studies at PennStateUniversity found that, since the mid-1960s, the average American had gained five hours a week in free time - that is, time left after working, sleeping, commuting, caring for children and doing the chores.在美國(guó)，馬里蘭大學(xué)社會(huì)學(xué)教授約翰魯賓遜和賓夕法尼亞州立大學(xué)研究閑暇問題的教授杰弗里

23、戈德比發(fā)現(xiàn)，自20世紀(jì)60年代中期以來，普通美國(guó)人每周增加了5小時(shí)空余時(shí)間，即工作、睡眠、乘車上下班、照料孩子和家務(wù)勞動(dòng)之余的時(shí)間。17 The gains, however, were unevenly distributed. The people who benefited the most were singles and empty-nesters. Those who gained the least - less than an hour - were working couples with pre-school children, perhaps reflecting the

24、 trend for parents to spend more time nurturing their offspring.但增加的時(shí)間分配得并不均勻。受惠最多的是未婚者和子女不在身邊的人。得益最少的增加了不足1個(gè)小時(shí)是有學(xué)前子女的雙職工夫婦，這或許反映了父母在撫養(yǎng)子女方面花費(fèi)更多時(shí)間這一傾向。18 There is, of course, a gender issue here, too. Advances in household appliances may have encouraged women to take paying jobs: but as we have alrea

25、dy noted, technology did not end household chores. As a result, we see appalling inequalities in the distribution of free time between the sexes. According to the Henley Centre, working fathers in the U. K. average 48 hours of free time a week. Working mothers get 14.這里當(dāng)然也存在著性別問題。家用器具的更新?lián)Q代或許鼓勵(lì)婦女去做有報(bào)

26、酬的工作，但正如我們已經(jīng)注意到的，技術(shù)發(fā)展并沒有掃除家務(wù)雜活。其結(jié)果是，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)男女空余時(shí)間的分配驚人地不平等。據(jù)亨利中心的調(diào)查，在英國(guó)，有工作的父親平均每周有48小時(shí)的空余時(shí)間。有工作的母親只有14小時(shí)。19 Inequalities apart, the perception of the time famine is widespread, and has provoked a variety of reactions. One is an attempt to gain the largest possible amount of satisfaction from the small

27、est possible investment of time. People today want fast food, sound bytes and instant gratification. And they become upset when time is wasted.除去不平等，缺乏時(shí)間的感覺也普遍存在，并引起了各種反應(yīng)。反應(yīng)之一是試圖投入最少的時(shí)間以獲取最大的滿足。如今人們需要快餐，需要電臺(tái)、電視臺(tái)播放簡(jiǎn)短片斷，還要即刻得到滿足。時(shí)間一旦被浪費(fèi)，人們就會(huì)很不高興。20 People talk about quality time. They want perfect mom

28、ents, says the Henley Centres Edwards. If you take your kids to a movie and McDonalds and its not perfect, youve wasted an afternoon, and its a sense that youve lost something precious. If you lose some money you can earn some more, but if you waste time you can never get it back.“人們談?wù)撝|(zhì)量時(shí)間。他們需要最佳時(shí)光

29、，”亨利中心的愛德華茲說?！叭绻銕Ш⒆尤タ措娪盎蛉湲?dāng)勞，但度過的時(shí)光并不甜美，你浪費(fèi)了一個(gè)下午，感覺就像是你丟失了寶貴物品。錢丟失了還能掙回來，但時(shí)間浪費(fèi)了就再也無(wú)法追回?！?1 People are also trying to buy time. Anything that helps streamline our lives is a growth market. One example is what Americans call concierge services - domestic help, childcare, gardening and decorating. And

30、 on-line retailers are seeing big increases in sales - though not, as yet, profits.人們還試圖購(gòu)買時(shí)間。任何能幫助我們提高生活效率的事物都有越做越大的市場(chǎng)。美國(guó)人所謂的家政服務(wù)做家務(wù)，帶孩子，修剪花木，居家裝飾即為一例。網(wǎng)上零售商在看著銷售額大幅增長(zhǎng)雖然利潤(rùn)尚未同樣大幅增長(zhǎng)。22 A third reaction to time famine has been the growth of the work-life debate. You hear more about people taking early r

31、etirement or giving up high pressure jobs in favour of occupations with shorter working hours. And bodies such as Britains National Work-Life Forum have sprung up, urging employers to end the long-hours culture among managers and to adopt family-friendly working policies.對(duì)時(shí)間匱乏的第三個(gè)反應(yīng)是有關(guān)人的一生應(yīng)該工作多少年的爭(zhēng)論

32、增多。你比過去更常聽到人們談?wù)撛缭缤诵荩務(wù)摲艞墘毫Υ蟮墓ぷ魅氖鹿ぷ鲿r(shí)間短的工作。諸如英國(guó)全國(guó)工作年限論壇這樣的機(jī)構(gòu)像雨后春筍般出現(xiàn)了，敦促雇主終止讓管理人員長(zhǎng)時(shí)間加班的做法，而采取能適應(yīng)家庭生活的工作方式。23 The trouble with all these reactions is that liberating time - whether by making better use of it, buying it from others or reducing the amount spent at work - is futile if the hours gained ar

33、e immediately diverted to other purposes.所有這些反應(yīng)的問題在于，把時(shí)間解放出來無(wú)論是靠更充分地利用時(shí)間，靠購(gòu)買他人的時(shí)間，還是靠縮短工作時(shí)間是沒有意義的，如果贏得的時(shí)間又即刻被用于其他目的。24 As Godbey points out, the stress we feel arises not from a shortage of time, but from the surfeit of things we try to cram into it. Its the kid in the candy store, he says. Theres just so many good things to do. The array of choices is stunning. Our free time is increasing, but not as fast as our sense of the necessary.正如戈德比所指出的，我們的緊感并非源于時(shí)間短缺，而是因?yàn)槲?/p>