⑩nit 5 Text A Quick Fix Society Text B Hooked on the Quick Fix
Contemporary College English Text A Quick Fix Society Janet Mendell Goldstein 1 My husband and I just got back from a week's vacation in West Virginia.Of course, we couldn't wait to get there,so we took the Pennsylvania Turnpike and a couple of interstates."Look at those gorgeous farms!"my husband exclaimed as pastoral scenery slid by us at 55 mph."Did you see those cows?"But at 55 mph,it's difficult to see anything:the gorgeous farms look like moving green checkerboards,and the herd of cows is reduced to a few dots in the rear-view mirror.For four hours,our only real amusement consisted of counting exit signs and wondering what it would feel like to hold still again.Getting there certainly didn't seem like half the fun;in fact,getting there wasn't any fun at all. So,when it was time to return to our home outside of Philadelphia,I insisted that we take a different route."Let's explore that countryside,"I suggested.The two days it took us to 114
Unit 5 make the return trip were filled with new experiences.We toured a Civil War battlefield and stood on the little hill that fifteen thousand Confederate soldiers had tried to take on another hot July afternoon,one hundred and twenty-five years ago,not knowing that half of them would get killed in the vain attempt.We drove slowly through main streets of sleepy Pennsylvania Dutch towns,slowing to twenty miles an hour so as not to crowd the horses and horse carriages on their way to market.We admired toy trains and antique cars in country museums and saved 70 percent in factory outlets.We stuffed ourselves with spicy salads and homemade bread in an"all-you-can-eat"farmhouse restaurant,then wandered outside to enjoy the sunshine and the herds of cows-no little dots this time-lying in it. And we returned home refreshed,revitalized,and reeducated.This time,getting there had been the fun. 3 Why is it that the featureless turpikes and interstates are the routes of choice for so many of us?Why doesn't everybody try slowing down and exploring the countryside?But more and more,the fast lane seems to be the only way for us to go.In fact,most Americans are constantly in a hurry d not just to get from Point A to Point B.Our country has become a nation in search of the quick fix -in more ways than one. Now instead of later:Americans understood the principle of deferred gratification.We put a little of each paycheck away"for a rainy day."If we wanted a new sofa or a week at a lakeside cabin,we saved up for it,and the banks helped us out by providing special Christmas Club and vacation Club accounts.If we lived in the right part of the country,we planted com and beans and waited patiently for the harvest.If we wanted to be thinner,we simply ate less of our favorite foods and waited for the scale to drop,a pound at a time But today we aren't so patient.We take out loans instead of making deposits,or we use our credit card to get that furniture or vacation trip-relax now,pay later.We buy our food,like our clothing.ready-made and off the rack.And if we're in a hurry to lose weight,we try the latest miracle diet,guaranteed to take away ten pounds in ten days.unless we're rich enough to afford liposuction. Faster instead of slower:Not only do we want it now;we don't even want to be kept waiting for it.This general impatience,the"-hate-to-wait"attitude,has infected every level of our lives.Instead of standing in line at the bank,we withdraw twenty dollars in as many seconds from an automatic teller machine.Then we take our fast money to a fast convenience store (why wait in line at the supermarket?),where we buy a frozen dinner all wrapped up and ready to be put into the microwave.unless we don't care to wait even that long and pick up some fast food instead.And if our fast meal doesn't agree with us,we hurry to the medicine cabinet for-you guessed it-some fast relief.We like fast 15
Contemporary College English pictures,so we buy Polaroid cameras.We like fast entertainment,so we record our favorite TV show on the VCR.We like our information fast,too:messages flashed on a computer screen,documents faxed from your telephone to mine,current events in 90-second bursts on Eyewitness News,history reduced to Bicentennial Minutes.Symbolically,the American eagle now flies for Express Mail.How dare anyone keep America waiting longer than overnight? 6 Superficially instead of thoroughly:What's more,we don't even want all of it.Once,we lingered over every word of a classic novel or the latest best seller.Today,since faster is better,we read the condensed version or put a tape of the book into our car's tape player to listen to on the way to work.Or we buy the Cliffs Notes,especially if we are students,so we don't have to deal with the book at all.Once,we listened to every note of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.Today,we don't have the time;instead,we can enjoy 26 seconds of that famous"da-da-da-DUM theme"-and 99 other musical excerpts almost as famous-on our Greatest Moments of the Classics CD.After all,why waste 45 minutes listening to the whole thing when someone else has saved us the trouble of picking out the best parts?Our magazine articles come to us pre-digested in Readers Digest.Our news briefings,thanks to USA Today,are more brief than ever.Even our personal relationships have become compressed.Instead of devoting large parts of our days to our loved ones,we replace them with something called "quality time,"which,more often than not,is no time at all.As we rush from book to music to news item to.relationship,we do not realize that we are living our lives by the iceberg principlepaying attention only to the top and ignoring lies just below the surface. 7 When did it all begin,this urge to do it now,to get it over with,to skim the surface of life?Why are we in such a hurry to save time?And what are we going to do with all the time we save besides,of course,rushing out to save more time?The sad truth is that we don't know how to use the time we save,because all we're good at is saving time.not spending time. Don't get me wrong.I'm not saying we should go back to growing our own vegetables or making our own clothes.I'm not even advocating a mass movement to cut all our credit cards into little pieces.But I am saying that all of us need to think more seriously about putting the brakes on our"we-want-it-all-and-we-want-it-now"lifestyle before we speec completely out of control.Let's take the time to read every word of that story,hear every note of that music,and enjoy every subtle change of that countryside.Let's rediscover life in the slow lane.(1,204 words)
Unit 5 Notes on the Text 1.About the author and the Text Janet Mendell Goldstein(1940-)received her advanced degrees at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.An educator for thirty years,she now works as an editoria consultant,freelance writer,and textbook author.Her work has appeared in a variety of newspapers and magazines,including the English Journal,Faith and Inspiration,and The Philadelphia inguirer.This text is adapted from an essay out of a series that she has writter about contemporary life. 2.Pennsylvania Turnpike and a couple of interstates.(para.1) They are highways that are within the state of Pennsylvania or between states. 3.the herd of cows is reduced to a few dots in the rear-view mirror.(para.1) There are a number of nouns that refer to groups of people or things.They are used with "of+a plural noun,"which indicates what the group consists of.Here"herd"is one of such nouns.Further examples: An army of volunteers is working for the project. A team of specialists has arrived to look into the accident. Herds of cows are grazing in the meadow. These words usually have singular verbs when the group does the same action at the same time and plural verbs when the group do different actions or go different ways.More examples: The herd of deer were wandering here and there through the fields and woods. The group of tourists were enjoying themselves in their various ways-on the swings,on the rocks,on the beach. But today,a plural verb is also acceptable with a singular noun.For example, A bunch of bananas were ordered for the girl. 4.Civil War(para.2) This refers to the American Civil War which was fought from 1861 to 1865 between the Norther and Souther states.The war ended in victory for the Norther industrial states which led to the abolition of slavery in the South. 5.Dutch towns(para.2) This refers to the German-speaking communities that immigrated to Pennsylvania during the 17th and 18th centuries in their search for religious freedom.They were mostly Lutheran( 德教的)and Reformed Protestants(新教改革者)，but also included such unique religious sects as the Amish,who have retained their original culture up to this day.The word"Dutch" actually came from the sound of"Deutsch"which means"German"in German. 117