新世纪大学英语综合教程4unit2课文逐段翻译.pdfVIP

Unit 2 Text A 技术与幸福Technology and Happiness 詹姆斯·萨洛维奇 Preface In the present era, all of us are enthusiastically pursuing technological advancement and take it for granted that the development of technology will make us happier. However, little evidence can be found to prove the correlation between technology and happiness once material and technological advances reach a certain level. The text below may provide you with some insights into this issue. 20 世纪的美国人、欧洲人和东亚人都享受到了过去历代人都无法想象的物质和技术进步带 来的乐趣。譬如，在美 国，从1950 年到2000 年国民生产总值翻了3 倍。人们的寿命大幅 度提高。二战后生产力的迅速发展使商品变得价廉物 美。诸如乘飞机旅游和打长途电话等 曾经是奢侈的事情成了生活不可或缺的一部分。 In the 20th century, Americans, Europeans, and East Asians enjoyed material and technological advances that were unimaginable in previous eras. In the United States, for instance, gross domestic product per capita tripled from 1950 to 2000. Life expectancy soared. The boom in productivity after World War II made goods better and cheaper at the same time . Things that were once luxuries, such as jet travel and long-distance phone calls, became necessities. And even though Americans seemed to work extraordinarily hard, their pursuit of entertainment turned media and leisure into multibillion-dollar industries. 那么，根据大多数标准衡量，你会说，现在的美国人比上个世纪中叶富裕多了。不过，奇怪 的是，如果你问美国人有多幸福，你会发现，他们并不比1946 年时幸福 （1946 年正式开始 对幸福状况进行调查）。事实上，那些说自己“非常幸福”的人所占的比例自20 世纪70 年代 以来一直稳中有降——尽管20 世纪40 年代出生的人的收入在他们的工作生涯中平均增长了 116％。你可以在大多数发达国家找到相似的数据。 By most standards, then, you would have to say that Americans are better off now than they were in the middle of the last century. Oddly, though, if you ask Americans how happy they are, you find that they are no happier than they were in 1946 (which is when formal surveys of happiness started). In fact, the percentage of people who say they are very happy has fallen slightly since the early 1970s – even though