outofstep课文全文翻译

1、Unit 3Out of StepBill Brys on1 After liv ing in En gla nd for 20 years, my wife and I decided to move back tothe Un ited States. We wan ted to live in a tow n small eno ugh that we couldwalk to the bus in ess district, and settled on Hano ver, N.H., a typical NewEn gla nd tow n pleasa nt, sedate and

2、 compact. It has a broad cen tral gree nsurro un ded by the ven erable build ings of Dartmouth College, anold-fashioned Main Street and leafy residential neighborhoods. 2 It is, inshort, an agreeable, easy place to go about one s bus in ess on foot, and yefar as I can tell, virtually no one does.3 N

3、early every day, I walk to the post office or library or bookstore, andsometimes, if I am feeli ng particu larly deb on air, I stop at Rosey Jekes Cafea cappucc ino. Occasi on ally, in the eve nin gs, my wife and I stroll up to theNugget Theatre for a movie or to Murphy s on the Green for a beer, Iw

4、ouldn t dream of going to any of these places by car. People ha ve gottenused to my ecce ntric behavior, but in the early days acqua intan ces wouldofte n pull up to the curb and ask if I wan ted a ride.4 “I m going your way,” they would insist when I politely declined.no bother.5 “ Honestly, I enjo

5、y walking.6 “ Well, if you re sure, ” they would say and depart reluctantly, even guiltily, asif leaving the scene of an accident without giving their name.7 In the United States we have become so habituated to using the car foreveryth ing that it does nr tousttoounfurl our legs and see what thoselo

6、wer limbs can do. We have reached an age where college stude nts expect to drive between classes, where parents will drive three blocks to pick up their children from a friend s house, where the lettebakesrihis van up anddow n every driveway on a street.8 We will go through the most extraordi nary c

7、on torti ons to save ourselvesfrom walking. Sometimes it s almost ludicrous. The other day I was waiting tobring home one of my childre n from a pia no less on whe n a car stoppedoutside a post office, and a man about my age popped out and dashed in side.He was in the post office for about three or

8、four minu tes, and the n came out, got in the car and drove exactly 16 feet (I had no thi ng better to do, so I paced it off) to the gen eral store6 n ext door.9 And the thing is, this man looked really fit. I m sure he jogs extravagdista nces and plays squash and does all kinds of healthful thi ngs

9、, but I amjust as sure that he drives to each of these un dertak ings.10 An acqua intance of ours was compla ining the other day about the difficulty of finding a place to park outside the local gymnasium. She goes there several times a week to walk on a treadmill. The gymnasium is, at most, a six-m

10、inute walk from her front door.11 I asked her why she didn t walk to the gym and do six minutes less on thetreadmill. 12 She looked at me as if I were tragically simple-minded and said,“ But I have a program for the treadmill. It records my distanee and speed andcalorie bur n rate, andI can adjust i

11、t for degree of difficulty.”13 I con fess it had not occurred to me how thoughtlessly deficie nt n ature is in this regard.14 Accordi ng to a concerned an d fain tly horrified 1997 editorial in the Bost onGlobe, the United States spent less than one percent of its transportationm surprised it was th

12、atbudget on facilities for pedestrians. Actually, IGo to almost any suburb developed in the last 30 years, and you will not findt find a single pexdesstrian ca sidewalk any where. Often you won15 I had this brought home to me one summer whe n we were driv ing across Maine and stopped for coffee in o

13、ne of those en dless zones of shopp ing malls, motels, gas statio ns and fast-food places. I no ticed there was a bookstore across the street, so I decided to skip coffee and head over.16 Although the bookshop was no more than 70 or 80 feet away, I discovered that there was no way to cross on foot w

14、ithout dodg ing over six lanes of swiftly moving traffic. In the en d, I had to get in our car and drive across.17 At the time, it seemed ridiculous and exasperating, but afterward I realized that I was possibly the only pers on ever to have en terta ined the no ti on ofn egotiati ng that in tersect

15、 ion on foot.18 The fact is, we not only don t walk anywHuerthianymntry, wewon t walk any where, and woe to anyone who tries to make us, as the city of Lac onia, N.H., discovered. In the early 1970s, Lac onia spe nt milli ons on a comprehe nsive urba n ren ewal project, which in cluded build ing a p

16、edestria nmall to make shopp ing more pleasa nt. Esthetically it was a triumph urba n pla nners came from all over to coo and take photos-but commercially it was a disaster. Forced to walk one whole block from a park ing garage, shoppers aba ndoned dow ntow n Lac onia for suburba n malls.19 In 1994

17、Lac onia dug up its pretty pav ing blocks, took away the tubs of gera niums and decorative trees, and brought back the cars. Now people can park right in front of the stores aga in, and dow ntow n Lac onia thrives an ew.20 And if that isn t sad. I don t know what is.不合拍比尔布里森1. 在英格兰住了 20年之后，我和妻子决定搬回美

18、国。因为想住在.二-个可 以步行到商业区的小城镇，所以我们决定定居在新罕布什尔州的汉诺威，一个 典型的新英 格兰城镇，令人愉快、宁静而紧凑。城镇中心有一大块宽阔的绿地 周围是达特茅斯学院那庄严的建筑、一条老式的主干道和绿树成荫的住宅区。2. 总之，这是一个怡人、舒适的地方，适合步行去上班。不过据我所知，实际 上没有什么人这样做。3. 我几乎每天都步行去邮局、图书馆或书店，有时，如果心情极好，我会在 罗斯杰克斯咖啡店喝上一杯卡布奇诺咖啡。有时，我会和妻子在晚上漫步到纳 吉特剧院看上 一场电影，或是到格林街的莫菲店喝杯啤酒。我做梦都没想过开 车去这些地方。人们对我的古怪行为已经习以为常，但是开始的

19、时候，熟人们 会将车停在路边，问我是否要搭车。4. 我和你同路，”他们坚持道，真的，一点也不麻烦。”而我婉言谢绝。5. 说实话，我喜欢步行。”6. 哦，那随你吧，”他们这么说着然后不情愿地离开了 ，甚至带着点负罪感， 就好像离开了事故现场却没有留下姓名。7. 在美国，我们已经习惯于事事用车，时时开车，我们都没想过伸展双腿，看 看自己的下肢到底能做些什么。我们已经进入了这样一个时代，大学生希望课 间开车去上课，父母会开车去三个街区外的朋友家接孩子，邮递员在街上开车在每一条私人车道上进进出出。8. 为了不走路，我们愿意忍受最可怕的身体扭曲。有时甚至到了愚蠢可笑的地 步。一天，我正在等着接上钢琴课的

20、孩子回家，这时一辆汽车停在了邮局11 口， 车门砰地一声打开了，一位男士和我年龄相仿，他走下车冲进邮局。只在邮局 里呆了三四分钟，他就出了邮局，钻进汽车，开了 16英尺（我也没什么事可干，正好用步子量了量）到隔壁的百货商店。9. 情况是这样的，这个人看上去身体健康。我相信他会长跑、会打壁球，参与 其他各种有益于健康的运动，但是我也相信他会开车前往这些运动场所。10. 某日我们的一位熟人抱怨本地健身会所外很难找到停车的地方 ，她一周有 几次会去那里在走步机上锻炼身体。从这个健身会所走路到她家前门最多 6分 钟。11. 我问她为什么不步行到健身房，这样在走步机上少走6分钟就行了。12 .她看着我，好像我是个可怜的傻瓜似的，然后说，但是步行机上有我的锻 炼程序。它记录我锻炼的距离、时间和卡路里的消耗量，我还可以利用它调整 锻炼的难易程度。”13. 我承认，过去我从来没有意识到我对这个问题是多么地思虑不周。14. 1997年波士顿环球报刊载的一篇有点骇人听闻的相