世博英语札记【31】1999年12月9日札记

1999年12月9日

今天看到了一篇由<<新概念英语>>的著者L.G.Alexander所写的文章,令我捧读再三,文章的题目是"The only way to travel is on foot".看完全文我愈发体会到这里的travel不仅仅指向一般的旅游,文章所折射出的我们这个时代生活的方式,以及对成功,奋斗的价值取向,的确值得我们深思.就如文章中所说的:我们这个时代的人总是处于一种高速"旅游"的状态,不再用"foot"来描绘我们的人生之路,都成为了一种"legless man".是啊!看看我们周围的人群,大家都是行色匆匆的样子,大家都生活在"未来"中,还有多少人还用我们的"foot"---我们的心,来品味"present",来发现生活中的处处火花啊!

我准备用三天的时间连载完这篇文章.

The only way to travel is on foot

The past ages of man have all been carefully labelled by anthropologists(人类学家). Descriptions like "Palaeolithic Man". "Neolithic Man", etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label "Legless Man". Histories of the time will go something like this:" In the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large building to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth-dwellers of that time because of their extraordinary way of life. In those days,people thought nothing of travelling hundreds of miles each day.But the surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday.They built cable railways, ski-lifts(滑雪索道) and roads to the top of every huge mountain.All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks." (待续)