Unit-2-Space-Invaders課文翻譯綜合教程四

1、精選優(yōu)質(zhì)文檔-傾情為你奉上精選優(yōu)質(zhì)文檔-傾情為你奉上專心-專注-專業(yè)專心-專注-專業(yè)精選優(yōu)質(zhì)文檔-傾情為你奉上專心-專注-專業(yè)Unit 2 Space InvadersRichard StengelAt my bank the other day, I was standing in a line snaking around some tired velvet ropes when a man in a sweat-suit started inching toward me in his eagerness to deposit his Social Security check. As

2、he did so, I minutely advanced toward the woman reading the Wall Street Journal in front of me, who, in mild annoyance, began to sidle up to the man scribbling a check in front of her, who absentmindedly shuffled toward the white-haired lady ahead of him, until we were all hugger-mugger against each

3、 other, the original lazy line having collapsed in on itself like a Slinky.I estimate that my personal space extends eighteen inches in front of my face, one foot to each side, and about ten inches in back though it is nearly impossible to measure exactly how far behind you someone is standing. The

4、phrase personal space has a quaint, seventies ring to it (Youre invading my space, man), but it is one of those gratifying expressions that are intuitively understood by all human beings. Like the twelve-mile limit around our national shores, personal space is our individual border beyond which no s

5、tranger can penetrate without making us uneasy.Lately, Ive found that my personal space is being invaded more than ever before. In elevators, people are wedging themselves in just before the doors close; on the street, pedestrians are zigzagging through the human traffic, jostling others, refusing t

6、o give way; on the subway, riders are no longer taking pains to carve out little zones of space between themselves and fellow-passengers; in lines at airports, people are pressing forward like fidgety taxis at red lights.At first, I attributed this tendency to the population explosion and the relent

7、less Malthusian logic that if twice as many people inhabit the planet now as did twenty years ago, each of us has half as much space. Recently, Ive wondered if its the season: T-shirt weather can make proximity more alluring (or much, much less). Or perhaps the proliferation of coffee bars in Manhat

8、tan the number seems to double every three months is infusing so much caffeine into the already jangling locals that people can no longer keep to themselves. Personal space is mostly a public matter; we allow all kinds of invasions of personal space in private. (Humanity wouldnt exist without them.)

9、 The logistics of it vary according to geography. People who live in Calcutta have less personal space than folks in Colorado. Dont tread on me could have been coined only by someone with a spread. I would wager that people in the Northern Hemisphere have roomier conceptions of personal space than t

10、hose in the Southern. To an Englishman, a handshake can seem like trespassing, whereas to a Brazilian, anything less than a hug may come across as chilliness. Like drivers who plow into your parked and empty car and dont leave a note, people no longer mutter Excuse me when they bump into you. The de

11、cline of manners has been widely lamented. Manners, it seems to me, are about giving people space, not stepping on toes, granting people their private domain. Ive also noticed an increase in the ranks of what I think of as space invaders, mini-territorial expansionists who seize public space with a

12、sense of manifest destiny. In movie theatres these days, people are staking a claim to both armrests, annexing all the elbow room, while at coffee shops and on the Long Island Railroad, individuals routinely commandeer booths and sets of facing seats meant for foursomes. Ultimately, personal space i

13、s psychological, not physical: it has less to do with the space outside us than with our inner space. I suspect that the shrinking of personal space is directly proportional to the expansion of self-absorption: people whose attention is inward do not bother to look outward. Even the focus of science

14、 these days is micro, not macro. The Human Genome Project is mapping the universe of the genetic code, while neuroscientists are using souped-up M.R.I. machines to chart the flight of neurons in our brains. In the same way that the breeze from a butterflys wings in Japan may eventually produce a tid

15、al wave in California, I have decided to expand the contracting boundaries of personal space. In the line at my bank, I now refuse to move closer than three feet to the person in front of me, even if it means that the fellow behind me starts breathing down my neck空間入侵者理查德斯坦格爾1 幾天前，我去銀行排隊(duì)，隊(duì)伍沿著松松垮垮的天鵝

16、絨圍欄蜿蜒前伸，這時(shí)一位身穿運(yùn)動(dòng)套裝的男子急不可耐地從我后頭向前挪步，想盡早辦理社會(huì)保險(xiǎn)支票存儲(chǔ)業(yè)務(wù)。當(dāng)他這么做的時(shí)候，我只好謹(jǐn)小慎微地向排在我前面閱讀華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)的女士挪動(dòng)步子。她略有不快，于是側(cè)身向她前面那位正在涂寫一張支票的男士走去，而這位男士則漫不經(jīng)心地拖著腳走向他前面的銀發(fā)老太。這樣我們的隊(duì)伍就變得七歪八扭，原來(lái)慵懶的隊(duì)伍活脫脫變成了個(gè)“機(jī)靈鬼”1。2 我估計(jì)我個(gè)人空間的范圍身前有18英寸，身后10英寸，兩側(cè)各1英尺盡管要估算某人站在你身后多遠(yuǎn)幾乎是不可能的?！皞€(gè)人空間”這個(gè)詞組帶有一種古雅的、70年代的味道(“老兄，你侵犯了我的空間”)，但這是一個(gè)能讓全人類一下子明白過(guò)來(lái)的令人滿意的

17、詞組之一。就像我們國(guó)家擁有12海里領(lǐng)海權(quán)一樣，個(gè)人空間就是我們的邊界，只要有陌生人穿過(guò)這個(gè)邊界，就會(huì)使我們感到不安。3 最近，我發(fā)現(xiàn)我的個(gè)人空間比以往任何時(shí)候所遭受的侵犯都更加厲害。電梯里，人們搶在關(guān)門之前拼命擠進(jìn)來(lái)；馬路上，行人奮勇向前，在人流中穿梭，推推搡搡，拒不讓路；地鐵中，乘客不再刻意在自己和別人之間留出狹小空間；在機(jī)場(chǎng)隊(duì)伍中，人們拼命向前壓上，就像等待紅燈時(shí)煩躁不安的出租車一樣。4 最開始我把這種趨勢(shì)歸結(jié)于“人口爆炸”以及無(wú)情的馬爾薩斯理論。該理論認(rèn)為，如果現(xiàn)在居住在地球上的人口比20年前多一倍，每個(gè)人得到的空間就縮小一半。近來(lái)，我懷疑是不是季節(jié)的原因：穿著T恤衫的天氣使彼此靠近更具

18、吸引力(抑或使吸引力大大減少)。或許是因?yàn)槁D咖啡廳的激增數(shù)量每3個(gè)月翻一番將如此多的咖啡因注入原來(lái)就已經(jīng)煩躁不安的當(dāng)?shù)厝梭w內(nèi)，使他們更加難以離群索居。5 個(gè)人空間基本上是個(gè)公眾場(chǎng)合的問(wèn)題；私下里，我們?cè)试S對(duì)個(gè)人空間進(jìn)行各種各樣的侵犯。(沒有這些“侵犯”，人類不可能存在。)如何界定個(gè)人空間的大小因地而異。住在加爾各答的人比科羅拉多的人個(gè)人空間要來(lái)得少。“別踩我”這句話只可能是由擁有大牧場(chǎng)的人杜撰發(fā)明的。我敢擔(dān)保北半球的居民比南半球的個(gè)人空間的概念要寬大。對(duì)英國(guó)人來(lái)說(shuō)，握個(gè)手簡(jiǎn)直就是擅闖禁地，而對(duì)巴西人來(lái)說(shuō)，不給你來(lái)個(gè)擁抱就會(huì)給人一種冷若冰霜的感覺。6 就像司機(jī)撞上你停著的空車連個(gè)條子也不留，人們撞上人再也不說(shuō)聲“對(duì)不起”。世風(fēng)日下，哀聲遍野。在我看來(lái)，禮貌就是給別人以空間，不冒犯他人，允許別人有隱私。7 我還注意到，那些我所認(rèn)為的空間入侵者們的規(guī)模在不斷擴(kuò)大，這些小小的領(lǐng)土擴(kuò)張主義者們帶著舍我其誰(shuí)的架勢(shì)堂而皇之地侵占著公共空間。這些日子，在影劇院中，人們霸占著兩邊的扶手，吞并手肘的全部空間；在咖啡廳里和長(zhǎng)島的鐵路上，往往一個(gè)人就占領(lǐng)了面對(duì)面的火車座，而這種座位本來(lái)是給4位顧客或乘