001 (专业八)The Decline of Neatness

001 The Decline of Neatness金桥翻译8@k9Up0c

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Anyone with a passion for hanging labels on people or things should have little difficulty in recognizing that an apt tag for our time is the Unkempt generation. I am not referring solely to college kids. The sloppiness virus has spread to all sectors of society. People go to all sorts of trouble and expense to look uncombed, unshaved, unpressed.金桥翻译&_P in2A
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The symbol of the times is blue jeans -- not just blue jeans in good condition but jeans that are frayed, torn, discolored. They don't get that way naturally. No one wants blue jeans that are crisply clean or spanking new. Manufacturers recognize a big market when they see it, and they compete with one another to offer jeans that are made to look as though they've just been discarded by clumsy house painters after ten years of wear. The more faded and seemingly ancient the garment, the higher the cost. Disheveled is in fashion; neatness is obsolete.金桥翻译3um9t6q'A

Nothing is wrong with comfortable clothing. It's just that current usage is more reflective of a slavish conformity than a desire for ease. No generation has strained harder than ours to affect a casual, relaxed, cool look; none has succeeded more spectacularly in looking as though it had been stamped out by cookie cutters. The attempt to avoid any appearance of being well groomed or even neat has a quality of desperation about it and suggests a calculated and phony deprivation. We shun conventionality, but we put on a uniform. to do it. An appearance of alienation is the triumphant goal, to be pursued in oversize sweaters and muddy sneakers.金桥翻译J Xq%c9BC

Slovenly speech comes off the same spool. Vocabulary, like blue jeans, is being drained of color and distinction. A complete sentence in everyday speech $ is as rare as a man's tie in the swank Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel. People communicate in chopped-up phrases, relying on grunts and chants of "you know" or "I mean" to cover up a damnable incoherence. Neatness should be no less important in language than it is in dress. But spew and sprawl are taking over. The English language is one of the greatest sources of wealth in the world. In the midst of accessible riches, we are linguistic paupers.金桥翻译%@"Az|*sr

Violence in language has become almost as casual as the possession of handguns. The curious notion has taken hold that emphasis in communicating is impossible without the incessant use of four-letter words. Some screenwriters openly admit that they are careful not to turn in scripts that are devoid of foul language lest the classification office impose the curse of a G (general) rating. Motion-picture exhibitors have a strong preference for the R (restricted) rating, probably on the theory of forbidden fruit. Hence writers and producers have every incentive to employ tasteless language and gory scenes.

The effect is to foster attitudes of casualness toward violence and brutality not just in entertainment but in everyday life. People are not as uncomfortable as they ought to be about the glamorization of human hurt. The ability to react instinctively to suffering seems to be atrophying. Youngsters sit transfixed in front of television or motion-picture screens, munching popcorn while human beings are battered or mutilated. Nothing is more essential in education than respect for the frailty of human beings; nothing is more characteristic of the age than mindless violence金桥翻译 jy\_.[Ef DO u

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(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,969738-1,00.html)

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1.      apt  adj. exactly suitable; appropriate: an apt reply.

2.      unkempt  adj. not properly maintained; disorderly or untidy: an unkempt garden.

3.      They don't get that way naturally.它们不是自然地穿成这样子的金桥翻译f k1h$ow

4.      crisply  adj. (of paper or cloth) fresh and clean; new and slightly stiff without any folds in it:a crisp new $5 bill  a crisp white shirt金桥翻译!{6MP|9ka

5.      clumsy  adj.1(of people and animals) moving or doing things in a very awkward way:I spilt your coffee. Sorry—that was clumsy of me.His clumsy fingers couldn’t untie the knot.金桥翻译$BsZ6Y:E;Vs

6.      It's just that  current usage is more reflective of a slavish conformity than a desire for ease.只是目前的做法，与其说是渴望轻便，还不如说是一种盲目跟帮的反映。金桥翻译xx|Uv?K

7.      affect v.(formal,disapproving) to use or wear sth that is intended to impress other people syn put on:I wish he wouldn’t affect that ridiculous accent.

8.      spectacular adj. of the nature of a spectacle; impressive or sensational.

9.      cutter  n.切割机金桥翻译R3}[jTn7E s

10.  groom  v. to care for the appearance of; to make neat and trim: groomed himself carefully in front of the mirror.金桥翻译(q*bCjxsZ

11.  The attempt to avoid any appearance of being well groomed or even neat has a quality of desperation about  it: It = the whole phrase "The attempt to avoid any appearance of being well groomed or even neat", which is the subject ofhas, or more succinctly "The attempt".金桥翻译"]#d:r!if

12.  deprivation  n. [U] the fact of not having sth that you need, like enough food, money or a home; the process that causes this: neglected children suffering from social deprivationsleep deprivationthe deprivation of war (= the suffering caused by not having enough of some things)

13.  alienation PsychologyA state of estrangement between the self and the objective world or between different parts of the personality.

14.  Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel贝弗利山庄宾馆的Polo Lounge餐厅金桥翻译mJQ2OI8L4C0n`z

15.  pauper [讽]叫化子a pauper school贫民学校

16.  four-letter word  n. 粗话(F**K)金桥翻译
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17.  be devoid of 缺乏

18.  gory adj. 血淋淋的;骇人听闻的金桥翻译T,v O*L|b@+V

19.  transfix  vt. To render motionless, as with terror, amazement, or awe.be transfixed with terror吓呆了金桥翻译pjL o#Nf