英美报刊选读 assage 13 the decline of neatness (含翻译).doc

The Decline of Neatness 行为标准的蜕化 By Norman Cousins Anyone with a passion for hanging labels on people or things should have little difficulty in recognizing that an apt tag for our time is the “Unkempt Generation”. 任何一个喜欢给别人或事物贴标签的人应该不难发现我们这个时代合适的标签是“邋遢的一代”。 I am not referring solely to college kids. The sloppiness virus has spread to all sectors of society, People go to all sorts of trouble and expense to look uncombed, unshaved. unpressed.3 我说这话不仅仅是针对大学生。邋遢这种病毒已经蔓延到社会各个部分。人们刻意呈现一幅蓬头散发、边幅不修、衣着不整的形象。 The symbol of the times is blue jeans—not just blue jeans in good condition but jeans that are frayed, torn, discolored. They dont get that way naturally. No one wants blue jeans that are crisply clean or spanking new. 如今时代潮流的象征是穿蓝色牛仔裤--不是完好的牛仔裤，而是打磨过的，撕裂开的，和褪色了的牛仔裤。正常穿着磨损很难达到上述效果。没有人喜欢穿干净崭新的牛仔裤。 Manufacturers recognize a big market when they see it, and they compete with one another to offer jeans（ that are made to look as though theyve just been discarded by clumsy house painters after ten years of wear. ）生产商意识到这将是个潜力巨大的市场，于是展开了激烈地竞争，生产出的牛仔裤好像是笨拙的油漆工人穿了十年之后扔掉的一样。 The more faded and seemingly ancient the garment- the higher the cost. Disheveled is in fashion; neatness is obsolete. 衣服看上去越褪色越旧，成本越高。时下流行的是衣冠不整，服饰整洁已不合时宜。 Nothing is wrong with comfortable clothing. Its just that current usage is more reflective of a slavish conformity than a desire for ease. 穿着追求舒适原本并无过错。问题是目前人们的着装习惯与其说是为了寻求舒适，倒不如说盲目追求单调一致。No generation has strained harder than ours to affect a casual, relaxed, cool look; none has succeeded more spectacularly in looking as though it had been stamped out by cookie cutters.6没有哪一代人像我们这一代这样努力装出一付随便、轻松、酷的样子，没有哪一代人如此出奇成功地塑造出看出犹如饼干模子压出来一样的形象。 The attempt to avoid any appearance of being well groomed or even neat has a quality of desperation(处心积虑) about it and suggests a calculated and phony deprivation.7这种避免服饰考究、衣着整洁形象的努力真是煞费苦心，显出故意装出的虚假穷酸相。 We shun (avoid) conventionality, but we put on a uniform to do it.8 An appearance of alienation is the triumphant goa