unit3outofstep课文翻译综合教程三

1、Unit 3Out of StepBill Bryson1 After I i v i ng in Engl a nd for 20 years, my wife and I dec i ded to move back to the United States. We wan ted to live in a town sma I I enough that we could walk to the business dis trie t, and se ttledo nH anover,，at ypical New Eng I andtown pleasa nt, sedate and c

2、ompact It has a broad central green surrounded by the venerable bui Id ings of Dartmouth Col lege, an old-fashioned Main Street and Ieafy residential neighborhoods2 It is, in short, an agreeable, easy place to go about one s business on foot, and yet as far as I can tell, vi rtually no one does3 Nea

3、r ly every day, I walk to the post off ice or I ibrary or bookstore, and sometimes, if I am fee I i ng par t i cu I ar I y debona i r, I stop at Rosey Jekes Caf e for a cappucc i no. Occasional ly, in the evenings, my wife and I strol I up to the Nugget Theatre for a movie or to Murphy s on the Gree

4、n for a beer, I wouIdnf t dream of going to any of t hese places by car People have got ten used to my eccen trie behavior, but in the ear ly days acqua i nt ances would often pul I up to the curb and ask if I wan ted a r ide.4 T m going your way, M they would insist when I politely decl ined Really

5、, it s no bother5 uHonestly, I enjoy walking. ”6 $7 Well, if you re sure, M t hey would say a nd depar treluctan tly, even gu iltily, as if leaving the scene of an accident without giving their name8 In the Uni ted States we have become so habi tuated to using the car for every thing that it doesn t

6、 occur to us to unfu门 our legs and see what those lower I imbs can do. We have reached an age where col lege students expect to dr ive between classes, where parents wiI I drive three bIocks to p i ck up the i r ch i Idren from a friend s house, where the letter carr ier takes his van up and down ev

7、ery dr i veway on a street9 We wiI I go through the most extraordinary contortions to save ourselves from wa I k i ng Some ti mes it s almost I ud i crous The ot her day I was wa it ing to br i ng home one of my chiIdren from a piano lesson when a car stopped outside a post office, and a man abo ut

8、my age popped out and dashed in side He was in the pos t office forabout three or four minutes, and then came out, got in the car and drove exactly16 fee t (I had not hi ng bet ter to do, so I paced it off) to the general st ore nex t door.10 And the t hi ng is, t h i s manIooked reaIly fit.I m sure

9、 he jogs extravagantdistances and plays squash anddoes a I I k i nds of heaIthful things, but I am justas sure that he dr i ves to eachof these undertakings.11An acqua intance of ours wascomp I a i n i ng the other day about the difficuIty offinding a place to park outside the local gymnasium. She g

10、oes there severaI times a v/eek to v/a Ik on a treadmi II. The gymnasium is, at most, a s ix-minute wa Ik from her front door12 I asked her why she didt waIk to the gym and do s i x minutes I ess on the treadmiI I13 She looked at me as i f I were tragica I ly simple-minded and said, But I have a pro

11、gram for the treadmi II. It records my distanee and speed and calorie burn rate, and I can ad jus t it for degree of diff icu Ity.14 I confess it had not occurred to me how though11 ess Iy def i c i ent nature i s i n this regard15 16 Accord i ng to a concerned and fa i nt I y horr i f ied 1997 ed i

12、 tor ia I in the Boston Globe, the United States spervt less than one percent of its transportat ion budget on faci liti es for pedes tri a ns. Act ual ly, I m surpr i sed i t was that m uch Got oalmos t any suburb developed in the las t 30 years, and you will not find a s i dewa I k anywhere Often

13、you won t find a single pedestri an crossing.17 I had t hi s brought home to me one summer when we were driving across Ma i ne and stopped for coffee in one of those endless zones of shopping malls, motels, gas stations and fast-food places I noticed there v/as a bookstore across the street, so I de

14、cided to skip coffee and head over18 Although the bookshop was no more than 70 or 80 feet away, I discovered that there was no way to cross on foot without dodging over six lanes of swiftly moving traff ic In the end, I had to get in our car and dr ive across19 At the time, it seemed ridiculous and

15、exasperating, but afterward I real ized that I was poss ibly the on I y person ever to have enterta i ned the not i on of nego t i at i ng that intersection on foot.20 The fact is, we not only don, t walk anywhere anymore in this country, we won t wa I k anywhere, and woe to anyone who t r ies to ma

16、ke us, as the city of Lac onia,， d i scovered In the early 1970s, Laconia spent millions on a comprehens i ve urban renewal pro ject, which i ncIuded buiIding a pedestr ian mall to make shopping more pleasa nt Est het i cal ly it was a tr i umph urba n pla nners came from a I I over to coo and take

17、photosbut commerc i a I ly it was a d i sas ter. Forced to wa I k one who I e b I ock from a parking garage, shoppers abandoned downtown Laconia for suburban malls21 In 1994 Laconia dug up its pre tty paving blocks, took away the tubs of gera niums and decorative t rees, and brought back the cars No

18、w peop I e can park r i gh t in fron t of the stores again, and downtown Lacon i a thr ives anew22 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

19、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， 或是到格林街的英菲店喝杯啤酒。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，攵真的，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

20、. 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孩子回家，这时一辆汽车停在了邮局|1 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（我也没什么爭可干，正好用步子量了莹）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祈往这些运动场所。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董，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. 1