新標(biāo)準(zhǔn)高職實(shí)用綜合教程(第2版)第四冊(cè)-unit3翻譯.doc

Why AmericansWould RatherDrive1 My dailycommuteto and from work generally takes about 25 minutes.Trafficand weather sometimes make it last 45 minutes or more.But if Ive got a good song to listen to, a long commute doesnt upset me.In fact, I dont mind my lonely drive at all I rather like it.2 And Im not the only one.3 In a recent survey of drivers in the U.S., 45 percent agreed that driving was their time to think and enjoy being alone.Only 30 percent disagreed; the rest wereneutral.This was an issue with no gender gap:there were as many women as men who said they liked their drive time. Nor was it an issue of age: only among people older than 55 was the number who didnt enjoy driving greater than the number who did.4 “The car offers a rare space over which the drivers have total control,” writes Alan Smith in the survey.“Here they can breathe in the middle of thebreathlesspaceof work and home, phones, and the Internet.”Smith also uses evidence collected by other scholars to confirm that drivers are far lessnegativeabout the time they spend in the car than experts have previously believed.5 But experts hardly agree that Americans generally like to drive themselves to work.For decades we have been urged to get out of our cars and into masstransit.Weve been told that cars are bad for the environment and bad for communities.Weve been hit with heavy gastaxesand we hear regular demands that they be made even heavier.6 Nevertheless, we drive.Only 5 percent of commuters take mass transit to work and the number has been dropping.While the use of cars has increased more than 85 percent since 1970, the use of mass transit buses, subways, trolleys, commuter trains has dropped by 3 percent.Today mass transit represents barely 1 percent of the nationssurfacepassenger travel.7 Almostwithout exception, every time a city builds or expands a subway system, the percentage of commuters using public transitdecreases.At a cost of more than $10 billion, Washington D.C. built a large subway network in the 1970s and 1980s.It now carries a smaller proportion of the regions commuters than the old bus and trolley system did 30 years ago.8 It is not that Americans wouldnt listen to their experts, but it isreasonableto prefer private cars to public trains and buses.Cars and highways are available 24 hours a day.They go almost everywhere.They sharplyreducetravel time in America, the average mass transit commute takes 42 minutes while the average commuter driving to work makes it in only 20.Andwithout question, cars and highways are safer: death rates are much lower for cars and highways especially interstate highways than for most forms of mass transit.9 It isnt a “l(fā)ove affair” with cars that keeps Americans behind the wheel. It is the freedom, flexibility, and efficiency that automobiles provide.Nor is this an American phenomenon.Anywhere people have the choice, they choose to drive.In Europe, automobile use has risen steadily for decades.Since 1989, in what was East Germany, the number of people using mass transit has been reduced by 50 percent; the number using cars now equals that in the former West Germany.10 People who dislike cars need to face the reality: Americans would rather drive.Subways and commuter trains, no matter how much is spent on them, willaccount foronly a small proportion of commuter trips.We have far more mass transit than we need, but not nearly enough highwaylanes.So it is high time to start spending the money where it is most needed. 我每天上下班花在路上的時(shí)間大約為25分鐘，有時(shí)由于交通和天氣的原因，要花45分鐘甚至更長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間。但如果有一首好歌聽著，在路上待久一點(diǎn)也并不讓我感到心煩。事實(shí)上，我一點(diǎn)都不反感獨(dú)自駕車，我很喜歡這樣呢。 2而且，喜歡駕車上下班的并非我一人。 3最近對(duì)美國(guó)駕車族的調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，45%的人認(rèn)為駕車是他們進(jìn)行思考和享受獨(dú)處的時(shí)間。只有30%的人不同意此看法，其余的人對(duì)此不置可否。在這個(gè)問題上沒有性別差異：在喜歡開車時(shí)光的人中，男女各半；也沒有年齡差異，只有在年齡超過55歲的人群中，不喜歡獨(dú)自開車的人數(shù)超過了喜歡的人數(shù)。 4在調(diào)查報(bào)告中，艾倫史密斯寫道：“車給駕車人提供了一個(gè)可以完全由他們操縱的難得空間。他們?cè)诠ぷ?、家庭、電話、互?lián)網(wǎng)的快節(jié)奏生活中喘不過氣來，而在這個(gè)空間里，他們可以歇口氣?！笔访芩惯€使用了其他學(xué)者收集到的證據(jù)來證明，開車的人對(duì)花在車?yán)锏臅r(shí)間遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)沒有專家們?cè)日J(rèn)為的那么反感。 5但是專家們還是不承認(rèn)美國(guó)人一般都喜歡開車上班。幾十年來，我們一直受到敦促：走出自家的車子，去乘坐公共交通工具。有人一直跟我們說汽車污染環(huán)境、危害社區(qū)。我們已被征收了高額的汽油稅,并且常聽見有人要求汽油稅收得更重些。 6然而，我們?nèi)匀获{車。只有5%的上班族乘坐公共交通工具上下班，而且他們的人數(shù)還一直在減少。從1970年到現(xiàn)在，私家車的使用增加了85%，而公共交通工具，如巴士、地鐵、電車、通勤列車的使用下降了3%。如今公共交通僅占全國(guó)地面客運(yùn)的1%。 7幾乎無一例外，每次一個(gè)城市修建或延伸一條地鐵線，使用公共交通上下班的人數(shù)比重就會(huì)隨之下降。在20世紀(jì)七八十年代，華盛頓特區(qū)耗資一百多億美元，建造了一個(gè)龐大的地鐵系統(tǒng)。但它現(xiàn)在運(yùn)載的本地上班族的比例比30年前老式巴士和電車運(yùn)載的還要少。 8這并非美國(guó)人不愿聽專家們的建議，而是因?yàn)檫x擇自駕車代替乘坐火車和公共汽車確實(shí)情有可原。汽車和高速公路一天24小時(shí)都可使用，而且四通八達(dá),可以去任何地方。出行的時(shí)間也大大減少 在美國(guó)，利用公共交通工具上下班的時(shí)間平均為42分鐘，而自己開車上下班平均花費(fèi)時(shí)間僅為20分鐘。而且毫無疑問，自駕車和高速公路也更安全：開車和在高速公路上的事故死亡率遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)低于公共交通，尤其是在州際公路上。 9并不是對(duì)汽車的“愛戀”使美國(guó)人更愿意駕