大學(xué)英語綜合教程第四冊 13

[00:00.00] Come on,admit it-you like living at breakneck speed. [00:05.64]LIFE IN THE FAST LANE by James Gleick [00:11.13]We are in a rush. We are making haste.A compression of time characterzies many of our lives. [00:19.80]As time-use reserchers look around,they see a rushing and scurrying everywhere. [00:27.53]Sometimes cultureresembles "one big stomped anthill," say John P.Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey in their book Time for Life [00:38.95](1) Instantaneity rules.Pollsters use electronic devices during poilitical speeches to measure opinions on the wing [00:49.19]before they have been fully formed;fast-food restaurants add express lanes.Even reading to children is underpressure. [00:59.43]The volume One-Minute bedtime Stories cinsists of traditional stories that can be ready by a busy parent in only one minute [01:10.14]There are places and objects that signify impatience.The door-close button in elevators, [01:18.71]so often a placebo used to distract riders to whom ten seconds seems an eternity.Speed-dial buttons on telephones. [01:30.41]Remote controls,which have caused an acceleration in the pace of films and television commercials. [01:38.17]Time is a gentle deity,said Sophocles.Perhaps it was,for him.These days it cracks the whip.We humans have chosen speed. [01:51.02]and we thrive on it-more than we generally admit.Our ability to work and play fast gives us power.It thrills us. [02:01.84]And if haste is the accelerator pedal,multitasding is overdrive.These days it is possible to drive, eat [02:12.55]listen to a book and talk on the phone-all at once,if you dare.David Feldman,in New York, [02:21.43]schedules his tooth flossing to coincide with his regular browsing of online discussion groups. [02:29.47]He has learned to hit PageDown with his pinkie.Mike Holderness,in London,watches TV with captioning [02:39.48]so that he can keep the sound off and listen to the unrelated music of his choice.An entire class of technologies [02:50.24]is dedicated to the futherance of multitasking.Car phones.Bookstands on exercise machines.Waterproof shower radios [03:02.10]Not so long ago, for most people,listening to the radion was a single task activity. [03:09.83]Now it is rare for a person to listen to the radio and do nothing else. [03:16.23]Even TV has lost its command of our foreground.In so many households the Tvjust stays on, [03:26.08]like a noisy light bulb,while the life of the family passes back and forth in its shimmering glow. [03:34.33](3)A sense of well-being comes with this saturation of parallel pathways in the brain. [03:41.00]We choose mania over bored boredom every time. [03:46.14]"Humans have never,ever opted for slower,"point out the historian Stephen Kern. [03:54.08]We catch the fever-and the fever feels good.We live in the buzz."It has gotten to the point where my days, [04:04.90]crammed with all sorts of activities,feel like an Olympic endurance event:the everydaython, [04:13.78]confesses Jay Walljasper in the Utne Reader. [04:19.37]All humanity has not succumbed equally,of course.If you make haste,you probably make it in the technology-driven world [04:29.09]Sociologists have also found that increasing wealth and increasing deucation bring a sense of tension about time [04:38.96]We believe that we posses too little of it.No wonder Ivan Seidenberg,an American telecommunications executive, [04:49.67]jokes about the mythical Day Doubler program his customers seem to want:Using sophistiated time-mapping [05:00.43]and compression techniques,Daydoubler gives you access to 48 hours each and every day.At the higher numbers [05:10.80]DayDoubler becomes less stable, [05:15.04]and you run the risk of a temporal crash in which everything from the beginning of time to he present [05:22.56]couldcrash down around you,sucking you into a suspended time zone." [05:29.59]Our culture views time as a thing to hoard and protect. [05:35.36]Timesaving is the subject to scores of books with titles like Streamlining Your Life;Take Your Time [05:45.39]More Hours in My Day.Marketers anticipate our desire to save time, [05:53.25]and respond with fast ovens,quick playback,quick freezing and fast credit. [06:01.51]We have all these ways to"save time,"but what does that concept really mean?Does timesaving mean getting more done? [06:12.01]If so,does talking on a cellular phone at the beach save time or waste it?If you can choose between a 30-minute train ride [06:23.35]during which you can read,and a 20-minute drive,during which you cannot,does the drive save ten minutes? [06:32.80]Does it make sense to say that driving saves ten minutes from your travel budget [06:38.68]while removing ten minutes from your reading budget? [06:43.51]These questions have no answer.They depend on a concept that is ill formed:the very idea of timesaving [06:53.83]Some of us say we want to save time when really we just want to do more--and faster. [07:01.98]It might be simplest to recognise that there is time and we make choices about how to spend it, [07:10.99]how to spare it,how to use it and how to fill it. [07:16.48]Time is not a thing we have lost.It is not a thing we ever had.It is what we live in. [07:25.26]haste characterize on the wing under pressure [07:30.08]急忙 以……為特征 正在進(jìn)行中 承受壓力的 [07:34.90]volume signify thrill browse [07:39.95]被催逼的 意呋 非常激動 瀏覽 [07:45.01]caption waterproof forth parallel [07:49.96]給……加標(biāo)題 防水的 向前 平行的 [07:54.91]opt buzz endurance confess [07:59.46]作出抉擇 激動不安 忍耐力 供認(rèn) [08:09.93]難怪 冒危險 中止 范圍

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