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American Car Culture 美國(guó)汽車文化

導(dǎo)讀

1908年10月1日，福特公司的T型車問(wèn)世，開辟了汽車消費(fèi)的新時(shí)代。福特車實(shí)用、廉價(jià)，使汽車服務(wù)于大眾，不再是少數(shù)富人的奢侈品，美國(guó)也因此很快成為車輪上的國(guó)家。20世紀(jì)50年代以后，曾經(jīng)不可一世的美式汽車開始衰退，美國(guó)汽車主流文化出現(xiàn)分流：追求個(gè)性的美國(guó)人選擇進(jìn)口車，富人偏愛奔馳、捷豹，中產(chǎn)階層則傾向德國(guó)的大眾和意大利的菲亞特，勞動(dòng)階層仍選擇維修方便的福特車。

America was destined to change on October 1, 1908, when the Ford Model T was made available to dealers. The Model T ushered in a new era of “automobility.” Before the creation of the Model T, automobiles were only available to the upper class, and the cars were poorly designed to handle the rough roads. The Model T was designed with utility in mind, ideal for getting out of ruts on muddy roads, was lightweight, had excellent fuel economy and most importantly it was inexpensive. American society has since revolved around the automobile. A huge infrastructure was created to support America's new obsession, and a culture developed around the automobile. From its inception, the automobile proved to be more than just transportation, it defined the restless and rugged nature of Americans. The American automobile is an incredible invention in that people shaped the car, and the car shaped people.

1908年10月1日，T型福特車面世，開創(chuàng)了汽車用途的新紀(jì)元。美國(guó)人的生活就此改變。在T型福特車出現(xiàn)以前，只有上流社會(huì)的人才擁有汽車，并且汽車的設(shè)計(jì)不適合在顛簸的路面行駛。設(shè)計(jì)者在T型福特車的設(shè)計(jì)上加入了實(shí)用的理念，所設(shè)計(jì)出來(lái)的T型車是適用于顛簸泥濘路面的理想車型。T型福特車不僅體重較輕，而且經(jīng)濟(jì)節(jié)油，更重要的是，它價(jià)格不高。美國(guó)社會(huì)的發(fā)展自此便以汽車為中心：為了支撐美國(guó)人愛車這項(xiàng)新的嗜好，發(fā)展了與之配套的強(qiáng)大的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施建設(shè)，由此而產(chǎn)生了獨(dú)特的圍繞著汽車發(fā)展的美國(guó)文化。自汽車出現(xiàn)以來(lái)，事實(shí)證明，汽車不僅僅是一種交通工具，它也塑造了美國(guó)人急躁粗魯?shù)男愿瘛Ｃ绹?guó)人制造汽車，汽車塑造美國(guó)人，汽車在美國(guó)是一項(xiàng)了不起的發(fā)明。

The automobile has redefined American society by enabling people to travel across the country, thus revolutionizing transportation. The automobile has changed the way Americans look at the world around them. Henry Ford's assembly line and mass production has now been applied to nearly every aspect of production, from farming to toy making. But, the negative aspects of Fordism still influence consumer pur-chases. Americans to this day desire individuality, something the Fordist assembly line could not produce. Mass consumption created by mass production has taken over Western civilization, and has spread across the world. It seems as if the entire world is now as materialistic as Americans. The American car culture has had effects beyond simple economic out comes. For many Americans, cars still symbolize freedom and mobility. Who doesn't remember that feeling after receiving their driver's license and suddenly the entire United States was just a gas tank or two away?

汽車使人們可以周游全國(guó)，它重塑了美國(guó)社會(huì)，在這個(gè)意義上，可以說(shuō)汽車引起了交通革命。汽車改變了美國(guó)人看待周圍世界的方法。亨利·福特的集成生產(chǎn)線和大批量生產(chǎn)模式現(xiàn)已應(yīng)用于從農(nóng)耕到玩具制造的各個(gè)生產(chǎn)領(lǐng)域。但是福特主義的消極面仍然影響著人們的消費(fèi)購(gòu)物。美國(guó)人直到如今依然追求個(gè)性——這是福特的集成生產(chǎn)線所不能提供的。大批量生產(chǎn)的大眾消費(fèi)品已經(jīng)風(fēng)靡西方國(guó)家，并在整個(gè)世界擴(kuò)散開來(lái)。整個(gè)世界看起來(lái)似乎與美國(guó)一樣物質(zhì)化了。美國(guó)汽車文化的影響已不僅僅是經(jīng)濟(jì)上的成功，對(duì)于許多美國(guó)人來(lái)說(shuō)，汽車象征著自由和靈活。每個(gè)美國(guó)人都不會(huì)忘記拿到駕駛執(zhí)照時(shí)興奮的心情，突然感覺只要一兩箱汽油就能跑遍全美國(guó)。

The Revolt Against Mainstream Automobile Culture: In 1958, for the first time, the quantity of cars imported to America was greater than the quantity of cars exported. Clearly, the supreme reign of the American automobile was winding down. The rise of imports was caused by two events: Detroit discontinuing production of small cars from their line up, and Americans searching for autoindividuality through purchases of foreign cars. Upper class Americans often favored Mercedes Benz or Jaguar, while the slightly lower income group would often turn to Volkswagen or Fiat for their car needs. There was another consumer revolt that was taking place in the lower working classes of Americans. In Southern California in the early 1940s many young men were tired of paying outrageous amounts of money for cars that did not offer any mechanical advantage of old cars, just new body styles. Because older cars were so plentiful and cheap, it was easy to purchase older cars and make as much power from the car as possible. There was a return to pre-Depression Fordism; the emphasis was taken off styling and applied to the mechanics of the automobile.

主流汽車文化中的逆流：1958年美國(guó)汽車的進(jìn)口量第一次超過(guò)出口量。很明顯，美國(guó)汽車的統(tǒng)治地位開始動(dòng)搖。汽車進(jìn)口量的上升有兩個(gè)原因。一是因?yàn)榈滋芈傻纳a(chǎn)線已經(jīng)停止生產(chǎn)小型汽車，所以美國(guó)人從國(guó)外進(jìn)口汽車中尋找有個(gè)性的車子。上流社會(huì)的美國(guó)人比較偏愛奔馳和捷豹，而收入較少的人群則喜歡大眾和菲亞特；二是因?yàn)槊绹?guó)底層社會(huì)的工人階級(jí)消費(fèi)者厭惡新汽車。早在20世紀(jì)40年代的加利福尼亞南部，許多年輕人都已不愿投入大筆金錢去買新車，因?yàn)樗鼈儍H擁有新的外觀，其機(jī)械功能卻與舊車相差無(wú)幾。而舊車又多又便宜，很容易就買得到，并能把它的功率加大到與新車一樣大。當(dāng)時(shí)有一股回歸大蕭條前的福特主義的風(fēng)潮，人們對(duì)汽車的關(guān)注已從其外形轉(zhuǎn)移到車子的機(jī)械功能上。

Cloze 選詞填空

The automobile has 1 American society by enabling people to travel across the country, 2 evolutionizing transportation. The automobile has changed the 3 Americans look at the world around them. Henry Ford's 4 line and 5 production has now been applied to nearly every aspect of production, 6 farming to toy making. 7 the negative aspects of Fordism still influence consumer pur chases.

Key

1. redefined 2. thus 3. way 4. assembly 5. mass

6. from 7. But

Translation Practices 翻譯練習(xí)

Upper class Americans often favored Mercedes Benz or Jaguar, while the slightly lower income group would often turn to Volkswagen or Fiat for their car needs. There was another consumer revolt that was taking place in the lower working classes of Americans. In Southern California in the early 1940s many young men were tired of paying outrageous amounts of money for cars that did not offer any mechanical advantage of old cars, just new body styles.

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Key

上流社會(huì)的美國(guó)人比較偏愛奔馳和捷豹，而收入較少的人群則喜歡大眾和菲亞特；二是因?yàn)槊绹?guó)底層社會(huì)的工人階級(jí)消費(fèi)者厭惡新汽車。早在20世紀(jì)40年代的加利福尼亞南部，許多年輕人都已不愿投入大筆金錢去買新車，因?yàn)樗鼈儍H擁有新的外觀，其機(jī)械功能卻與舊車相差無(wú)幾。

Emulation 美文自己寫得出——學(xué)生仿寫

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仿寫范例

Are Dialects Just Acceptable in Public Places?

Last week, a group of us students, who just attended a class given by a lecturer who advocates using dialects in public places and insists on speaking his Hunan dialect in his lecturing, raised a question about the issue: Are dialects just acceptable in public places? Some stood by the teacher because they believe that only by using his dialect can one express himself exactly and vividly while others maintained that since we are from across the country, we need a national “l(fā)ingua franca” in order to secure efficient communication among dialectally different people. I side with the latter since I am convinced that language should above all function as a means of effective communication and in the current situation, Mandarin serves this purpose best.

To start with, our country is a culturally and of course dialectally diverse country. In order that people from different provinces can communicate with each other clearly and efficiently, we should concur on using a Putonghua, a variety of Chinese acceptable by all as a standard language especially in public places, on radios and TVs, in conferences. Otherwise, we may encounter a chaos of messy communications and misunderstandings and basic communication of society may be hindered and normal life disrupted.

In the second place, we as a people need an emblem to tell us from other peoples just as RP English distinguishes British from Australians. And of course Putonghua can best perform this function in this country. Don't forget that some 2,000 years ago the Chinese characters—a kind of Putonghua prevailing then helped unite the country in a way that few can imagine today. And now we don't see any sign we need such Putonghua less as we communicate with the outside world and among ourselves in public places. In this faster, richer and smaller world we do need a unified, efficient and gracious Putonghua as a national identity. No nation can be credited with civility without such a widely accepted, unified, economical means of communication for sake of our social, cultural and economic life.

Of course, advocating Mandarin or Putonghua does not mean we will banish or prejudice against our nation's richest treasure of dialects, estimated more than 200 altogether. They make up a great resource for our life and linguistic enrichment. As we all know, some of sit-comedies are comic and fun only when their lines are said in a certain dialect. Otherwise people don't find them amusing and laugh-worthy. So in a sense, dialects can enrich literary creation as is shown unmistakably in the fact that huge number of ethnic and local plays are sung or played only in dialects. And dialects can also contribute to the coinage and creation of new words and fresh expressions. It is one of the driving mechanisms for language change. Of course it can add a lot of fun and intimacy to family talks and folk conversations. But in public places we had better speak Putonghua.

Speaking Putonghua in public places has already become a public trend accepted by more and more people although there are still few who feel uneasy about this. Despite the fact that dialects are rich, innovative and figurative and there is nothing wrong with it when we speak overtly and loudly among folks and families, they are not acceptable on radios and televisions, in conferences and other public occasions so far as efficacy in communications among people from different parts of the country and in such a metropolitan as Shanghai is concerned.