Unit 05 Quick fix society 原文译文.docVIP

Text A 急于求成的社会 Quick Fix Society 詹妮特·曼德尔·戈德斯坦 Janet Mendell Goldstein 我和老公在西弗吉尼亚州度了一周的假，刚回来。 My husband and I just got back from a weeks vacation in West Virginia. 不用说，我们迫不及待地想到那里，于是便走了宾夕法尼亚收费高速公路和几条州际公路。 Of course, we couldn’t wait to get there, so we took the Pennsylvania Turnpike and a couple of interstates. “看哪，那些美丽的农场！”老公高声喊道，田园景色以每小时五十五英里的速度在我们身边滑过。 Look at those gorgeous farms! my husband exclaimed as pastoral scenery slid by us at 55 mph. “你看见那些奶牛了吗？”可是，每小时五十五英里的速度，很难看清任何东西。美丽的农场像移动的绿色棋盘，成群的奶牛在后视镜里缩成了几个小黑点。 “Did you see those cows?” But at 55 mph, its difficult to see anything; the gorgeous farms look like moving green checkerboards, and the herd of cows is reduced to a few dots in the rear-view mirror. 四个小时里，我们唯一真正的乐趣就是数出口的标志，还有就是想再次停车时会有什么样的感觉。 For four hours, our only real amusement consisted of counting exit signs and wondering what it would feel like to hold still again. I can feel how cold the water is. 我能摸出来这水有多么凉。 The water feels warm. 觉得出这水是温的. This wallet feels to me like leather. 我觉得这钱包像是皮的. It feels like rain. 感觉好像要下雨. How does it feel to be alone all day? 整日独自一人感觉如何? 的确，去那里看上去没多少快乐，事实上根本就没一点儿快乐。 Getting there certainly didnt seem like half the fun; in fact, getting there wasnt any fun at all. 所以，该回费城外的家的时候，我坚持要换条路走。 So, when it was time to return to our home outside of Philadelphia, I insisted that we take a different route. 我建议说：“咱们去考察一下农村吧。”结果，我们返程的两天里满是新鲜的经历。 “Lets explore that countryside,” I suggested. The two days it took us to make the return trip were filled with new experiences. 我们游览了内战时的一个战场，站在了一座小山上。一百二十五年前，也是一个七月炎热的下午，一万五千名南部邦联的士兵曾努力想攻占它，不想他们当中有一半人在徒劳的尝试中身亡。 We toured a Civil War battlefield and stood on the little hill that fifteen thousand Confederate soldiers had tried to take on another hot July afternoon, one hundred and twenty-five years ago, not knowing that half of them would get killed in the vain attempt. 我们驾车缓慢地驶过宾夕法尼亚安静的德国城的主要街道，将速度降至每小时二十英里，以免和去赶集的马匹和马车挤在一起。 We drove slowly through main streets of sleepy Penns