【正文】 her into our time. 但技術(shù)發(fā)展沒(méi)有把我們解放出來(lái)，而是使我們成為奴隸。湯姆金斯著手解決這一問(wèn)題，并提出了建議。s a much better way for them to beInside me, yours truly, dear diarySomebody exploded an Hbomb todayBut it wasn39。s over. Will tomorrow be the sameI know that they39。s people like meWrite lightly, yours truly, dear diaryThey don39。s been just like a dreamWoke up too late. Wasn39。They don39。Rushing around so senselessly.So many people by the score.In the song you are about to listen to we hear what the singer is thinking as he writes his diary. Like many people who keep a diary, he treats it like a friend to whom he can pour out his inmost feelings. From the confidences he entrusts to his diary we learn of what he thinks of the way most people live. He thinks they spend their days in a rush, so much so that they have no time for him. As he says:t notice there39。t where I should have beenFor goodness sake what39。t know what they39。re really not to blameIf they weren39。t anyone I knewText A As the pace of life in today39。 Old Father Time Bees a Terror Richard Tomkins 1 Once upon a time, technology, we thought, would make our lives easier. Machines were expected to do our work for us, leaving us with everincreasing quantities of time to waste away on idleness and pleasure. 時(shí)間老人成了可怕的老人 理查德新技術(shù)紛至沓來(lái)，令人目不暇接：一年涌現(xiàn)的技術(shù)創(chuàng)新相當(dāng)于以前一千年。 4 The aircraft promised new horizons, too. The trouble is, it delivered them. Its very existence created a demand for timeconsuming journeys that we would never previously have dreamed of undertaking the transatlantic shopping expedition, for example, or the trip to a convention on the other side of the world. 飛機(jī)也曾有可能為我們拓展新天地。在家里，洗衣機(jī)可望使婦女?dāng)[脫繁重的洗衣勞作。技術(shù)發(fā)展還向我們提供機(jī)會(huì)，在個(gè)人電腦上一連幾小時(shí)處理軟件故障，或把因特網(wǎng)上那些無(wú)用的信息塞進(jìn)自己的大腦。如今，這些大腦休想容納下一天中產(chǎn)生的新信息中的小小一部分。雜志、書(shū)籍和光盤只讀存儲(chǔ)器的數(shù)量也激增?！叭缃瘢冶救司陀嗛喠?0或70種期刊雜志，以便自己跟上不斷拓展的學(xué)術(shù)前沿中一個(gè)微小部分的發(fā)展動(dòng)向。于是我們就深受威爾遜所謂的對(duì)極大富足不滿之苦 ── 即無(wú)休止的選擇所造成的困惑?！罢f(shuō)我們都缺少時(shí)間只是隨意講講，我們應(yīng)該記住，這種說(shuō)法大約只適用于一半人，”未來(lái)基金公司 ── 一家倫敦研究公司 ── 的經(jīng)理邁克爾ve got the unemployed, you39。ve got too much time, not too little. “有些人早早退休了，有些人失業(yè)了，有些人或許只與經(jīng)濟(jì)活動(dòng)沾點(diǎn)邊，根本不會(huì)有這種情況。s stress envy. If you39。愛(ài)德華茲指出，壓力感也可能被夸大，或者被強(qiáng)加于自身。人人都想表現(xiàn)幾分時(shí)間緊迫感，以顯示自己的重要。魯賓遜和賓夕法尼亞州立大學(xué)研究閑暇問(wèn)題的教授杰弗里得益最少的 ── 增加了不足1個(gè)小時(shí) ── 是有學(xué)前子女的雙職工夫婦，這或許反映了父母在撫養(yǎng)子女方面花費(fèi)更多時(shí)間這一傾向。據(jù)亨利中心的調(diào)查，在英國(guó)，有工作的父親平均每周有48小時(shí)的空余時(shí)間。如今人們需要快餐，需要電臺(tái)、電視臺(tái)播放簡(jiǎn)短片斷，還要即刻得到滿足。s and it39。ve lost something precious. If you lose some money you can earn some more, but if you waste time you can never get it back. “人們談?wù)撝|(zhì)量時(shí)間?！? 21 People are also trying to buy time. Anything that helps streamline our lives is a growth market. One example is what Americans call concierge services domestic help, childcare, gardening and decorating. And online retailers are seeing big increases in sales though not, as yet, profits. 人們還試圖購(gòu)買時(shí)間。 22 A third reaction to time famine has been the growth of the worklife debate. You hear more about people taking early retirement or giving up high pressure jobs in favour of occupations with shorter working hours. And bodies such as Britain39。 23 The trouble with all these reactions is that liberating time whether by making better use of it, buying it from others or reducing the amount spent at work is futile if the hours gained are immediately diverted to other purposes. 所有這些反應(yīng)的問(wèn)題在于，把時(shí)間解放出來(lái) ── 無(wú)論是靠更充分地利用時(shí)間，靠購(gòu)買他人的時(shí)間，還是靠縮短工作時(shí)間 ── 是沒(méi)有意義的，如果贏得的時(shí)間又即刻被用于其他目的?！熬拖裉枪昀锏暮⒆?，”他說(shuō)，“有那么多美好的事情要做。 26 Before the industrial revolution, people lived in small munities with limited munications. Within the confines of their village, they could reasonably expect to know everything that was to be known, see everything that was to be seen, and do everything that was to be done. 工業(yè)革命前，人們居住在交通聯(lián)系不方便的小社區(qū)里。 28 It is not more time we need: it is fewer desires. We need to switch off the cellphone and leave the children to play by themselves. We need to buy less, read less and travel less. We need to set boundaries for ourselves, or be doomed to mounting despair. 我們需要的不是更多的時(shí)間：是更少的欲望。 Text B Come on, admit it you like living at breakneck speed. 好了，承認(rèn)吧 ── 你就喜歡忙得團(tuán)團(tuán)轉(zhuǎn)。時(shí)間緊迫是我們?cè)S多人的生活特點(diǎn)。魯賓遜和杰弗里人們發(fā)表政治演說(shuō)時(shí)，聽(tīng)眾尚未形成看法，民意調(diào)查人員就利用電子裝置進(jìn)行當(dāng)場(chǎng)測(cè)定；快餐店增設(shè)了快速通道。電梯里的關(guān)門按鈕常常起心理安慰作用，好讓那些連10秒鐘都覺(jué)得漫長(zhǎng)難捱的乘梯人分散注意力。他那時(shí)或許如此。我們?yōu)榇伺d奮不已。費(fèi)爾德曼把用潔牙線清潔牙縫安排在日常瀏覽網(wǎng)上討論之時(shí)。有一整套的技術(shù)專門用來(lái)促進(jìn)一心多用。 6 Not so long ago, for most people, listening to the radio was a single task activity. Now it is rare for a person to listen to the radio and do nothing else. 不久以前，對(duì)大多數(shù)人而言，聽(tīng)收音機(jī)是一項(xiàng)單一的活動(dòng)。