Unit 5 课文
Unit 5
T1
Leisure inactivities – or how to relax and do nothing
1 Centuries ago people didn't have much free time, because everyone was working too hard. In Britain in the 19th century, people had more time off, but the Victorians thought relaxing and doing nothing was a sin. So to avoid temptation, they invented football, rugby and cricket. People took up more gentle leisure activities like bird-watching, gardening and trainspotting, and it was even possible simply to watch a sport and give the impression that you were actually doing something useful.
2 One instance of this is cricket, which is a peculiar game with weird rules, where nothing happens for five days, at the end of which the players often decide to call it a draw. And everyone, players and spectators, feel perfectly fulfilled by this non-event. It's a good example of what we can now call a leisure inactivity.
3 Gradually over the years, leisure inactivities have involved even less interaction. In the 1990s a new leisure creature evolved, one who thinks that lying on the sofa watching sport or DVDs on the television is the most exciting inactivity they can manage. This is the couch potato.
4 So who wants to be a couch potato? Well, as a matter of fact, many people do, and for understandable reasons. Maybe it's your one day off in the week. Maybe you just got back from work or school. Maybe you're tired and just want to chill. For the couch potato, every activity is too much trouble, and laziness is an art form.
5 How do you become a couch potato? It's easy. Sit down in a comfortable place, such as a reclining chair, a beanbag or … you knew it was coming … a couch. Don't sit on a potato. Make sure you have everything you need, snacks (especially potato chips – no serious couch potato would eat anything else), drinks, magazines and a telly.
6 The most important piece of equipment is of course, the remote control. Without the freedom to change channel without moving from the couch, no couch potato would be worthy of the name. In fact, watching TV without a remote control becomes dangerously like physical exercise, and probably should be avoided.
7 Now just start watching the telly. Change channels every ten seconds, and then move on. Don't be too keen, try not to get too interested in anything, because that risks your status as a couch potato. ( Remember that you have the attention span of a Maris Piper. ) Finally, ask other people to do things for you, like get more food, or rent a movie. But be nice to them! If you aren't nice, you'll probably have to do it yourself.
8 But with every new fashion, there's a reaction. British farmers were recently reported by the BBC to be angry at the use of the expression couch potato, because it was damaging the vegetable's image. Potatoes are inherently healthy, says the British Potato Council, and is organizing protests to demand the removal of couch potato from the Oxford English Dictionary.
9 So there you are! Couch potatoes are healthy.
10 Of course, for the true couch potato, there are inherent risks. Perhaps the greatest of these results from the lack of exercise, and is referred to by professional couch potatoes as telly belly. Some, however, see their telly belly as a mark of their dedication to their leisure inactivity, and wear it proudly over the top of their trousers. ( Interestingly, this is a highly fashionable style known as a muffin top. Find out why next time you're in Starbucks. )
11 But times move on, and in the 21st century we now have a version of the couch potato specially for the online activities on the computer. This is called the mouse potato. A mouse potato spends excessive amounts of time in front of a computer monitor, with the same lack of interest in the outside world as their older cousin, the couch potato. Mouse potatoes are addicted to online gaming with other fellow tubers around the world. In fact, leaving the computer not only seems pointless but also risks a threat by some rival mouse potato in a brighter time zone across the world. For time off, they usually perform extensive Internet searches or participate in online chat rooms, leaving ill-informed and badly spelt opinions around the virtual world, and generally insulting one's intelligence.
12 For the more adventurous mouse potatoes, you can even travel the world and visit countries you might otherwise never see by going to CouchPotatoTravel.com. You can also find out how much time you spend on your computer by logging the distance your mouse travels. These are called mouse miles, and who knows, maybe one day you can exchange them for more potato chips at all good computer stores.
13 So with a minimum of effort you too can have your own leisure inactivity. Become a couch potato! Earn that telly belly! Train hard as a mouse potato, and earn mouse miles. Get started today. There's so much time, and so little to do.
闲暇无为——或如何歇着无所事事
1 数百年前，人们没有多少空闲时间，因为人人都在辛苦劳作。在19世纪的英国，人们有了较多闲暇，可是维多利亚时代的人认为歇着无所事事是一种罪过。于是为了避免诱惑，他们发明了足球、橄榄球和板球。人们开始从事更温和的休闲活动，如观鸟、园艺、收集火车头号码。他们甚至可能只是观看一项运动，给人一种有事可做的印象。
2 其中一个例子是板球。这是一种规则怪异的奇特游戏，如果五天之内毫无进展，玩家往往就会决定双方战平。而无论是玩家还是观众，人人都对这毫无结果的比赛感到心满意足。这是个我们现在可以称之为闲暇无为的好例子。
3 近年来，闲暇无为中的互动逐渐变得更少了。在20世纪90年代，一个新的休闲物种进化成功，它认为躺在沙发上看电视体育节目或数码影碟是它们能做到的最令人兴奋的无为了。这就是沙发土豆。
4 那么，谁想当沙发土豆呢？好吧，事实上，许多人都想，理由也是可以理解的。也许今天你休息。也许你刚下班或放学。也许你累了，只想放松。对沙发土豆来说，任何活动都太麻烦，懒散是一门艺术。
5 怎样才能变成沙发土豆呢？那很容易。在一个舒适的地方坐下，例如一张躺椅、一个豆袋或……你知道接下来就是……一张沙发。可别坐在土豆上。确保你拥有所需的一切：零食（尤其是土豆片——严肃的沙发土豆不会吃别的）、饮料、杂志和电视。
6 最重要的装备当然是遥控器了。没有无需离开沙发就能换频道的自由，沙发土豆就配不上这个称号。事实上，没有遥控器看电视有变成近似体育锻炼的危险，或许是应当避免的。
7 现在，就开始看电视吧。每隔十秒钟换一次频道，然后继续换。别太用心，尽量不要对任何节目太感兴趣，因为这会威胁到你的沙发土豆身份。（记住，你的注意力持续时间只有玛丽斯•派铂马铃薯的那么长。）最后，要让别人帮你做事，如拿更多食物，或租影碟。但是对他们态度要好！如果你态度不好，你就很可能得亲自动手了。
8 但是，对于每种新时尚，都会有反对者。英国广播公司最近报道，英国农民对“沙发土豆”这一叫法感到愤怒，因为它败坏了土豆的形象。英国土豆协会称，土豆是天然有益于健康的，他们将要组织抗议活动，要求把“沙发土豆”一词从《牛津英语词典》中删除。
9 你瞧我没说错吧！沙发土豆是健康的。
10 当然，对于真正的沙发土豆来说，固有的危险还是有的。也许最大的危险来自缺乏锻炼，其后果便是被专业沙发土豆称为电视肚。然而，有些人则视自己的电视肚为专注闲暇无为的标志，骄傲地把它系在裤腰之上。（有趣的是，这是一种极为时尚的穿法，叫做松糕顶。下次泡星巴克的时候去弄明白为什么吧。）
11 可是时间在推移，到了21世纪，我们现在又有了沙发土豆的翻版，特指电脑在线活动。这叫做鼠标土豆。鼠标土豆在电脑显示器前面花费太多的时间，和他们的表兄沙发土豆一样缺乏对外界的兴趣。鼠标土豆痴迷于与世界各地的块茎同伴玩在线游戏。事实上，离开电脑不仅毫无意义，而且会使你受到世界上较亮时区的鼠标土豆对手的威胁。休息期间，他们通常在互联网上进行广泛搜索或加入在线聊天室，在虚拟世界到处留下缺乏见识和拼写拙劣的意见，一般来说是对人家智力的污辱。
12 对于更具冒险精神的鼠标土豆来说，你甚至可以登录沙发土豆旅游网站，去周游世界，造访列国，如果没有该网站你可能永远也去不了这些地方。通过记录你的鼠标旅行的距离，你还可以算出你在电脑上花了多少时间。这叫做鼠标英里数，或许将来的某一天，在所有好的电脑商店里你可以拿它换更多的土豆片。
13 就这样，费最小的劲，你也可以拥有自己的闲暇无为。变成一个沙发土豆吧！养一个那样的电视肚吧！作为鼠标土豆刻苦训练，挣鼠标英里数吧。今天就开始吧。时间那么多，而要做的事情却那么少。
T2
Painting as a pastime
1 A gifted American psychologist has said, " Worry is a spasm of the emotion; the mind catches hold of something and will not let it go. " It is useless to argue with the mind in this condition. The stronger the will, the more futile the task. One can only gently insinuate something else into its convulsive grasp. And if this something else is rightly chosen, if it is really attended by the illumination of another field of interest, gradually, and often quite swiftly, the old undue grip relaxes and the process of recuperation and repair begins.
2 The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of first importance to a public man. But this is not a business that can be undertaken in a day or swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will. The growth of alternative mental interests is a long process. The seeds must be carefully chosen; they must fall on good ground; they must be sedulously tended, if the vivifying fruits are to be at hand when needed.
3 To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: "I will take an interest in this or that." Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard week's sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or businessman, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend.
4 As for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire – for them a new pleasure, a new excitement is only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically round from place to place, trying to escape from avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline in one form or another is the most hopeful path.
5 It may be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune's favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.
绘画消遣
1 一位天才美国心理学家说过：“烦恼是感情的发作；此时大脑缠住了某种东西不肯放手。”在这种情况下，和头脑争论（让它放手）是无用的。愿望越强烈，与之争论就越是徒劳。你只能温和地将另一种东西慢慢灌输到痉挛状态的头脑中。如果（这一东西）选得恰当，而且它真的从另一领域的情趣中受到启迪的话，那么逐渐地，往往也是迅速地，原先不适当的“不肯放手”就会慢慢放松，恢复和补救的过程就会开始。
2 因此，对于公众人物而言，培养业余爱好和新的兴趣才是上策。但这并非一日之功，也不是单凭意志力就能做到的事情。精神情趣的培养是一个长期的过程。要想在需要的时候可随手摘取充满生机的果实，种子就必须精挑细选，必须播种在肥沃的土壤里，还必须辛勤地护理。
3 要想真正快乐，真正安全，一个人至少应有两三种业余爱好，而且必须是实际可行的。到了晚年才开始说：“我会培养对这或对那的兴趣”，这是没有用的。这种愿望只能加剧精神紧张。一个人可能会获得大量与其日常工作无关的知识，却不能从中得到任何益处或宽慰。做你喜欢做的事是没有用的，你要喜欢你做的事。泛而言之，人可以分为三类：极其劳累的人，极其操心的人，极其无聊的人。对于卖了一周力气、流了一周汗水的体力劳动者来说，让他们在星期六下午踢足球或打棒球是不合适的。同样，对于工作了六天、一直为公务操心的政界人士、专业人员或商人来说，在周末再让他们为鸡毛蒜皮的琐事而操心劳累也是无益的。
4 那些能够支配一切、能够肆意妄为、能够染指一切追求目标的人是“不幸的”。对于他们而言，多一种新的乐趣、多一种新的刺激只是增加一分厌腻而已。他们到处狂奔乱跑，企图靠喧闹和骚动来摆脱无聊对他们的报复，但这么做是徒劳的。对他们来说，某种形式的纪律约束是最有希望让他们走出困境、走上正道的。
5 可以这样说，理智的、勤劳的、有用的人可以分为两类：第一类人认为工作是工作，娱乐是娱乐；第二类人认为工作和娱乐是一回事。这两类人当中，第一类人占大多数。他们是能够得到补偿的。在办公室或工厂里长时间工作给他们带来了报酬，这不仅是谋生的手段，也使他们对寻找快乐充满了渴望，哪怕是最简单、最质朴的快乐。但是，幸运之神偏爱的是第二类人。他们的生活是一种自然的和谐。对他们来说，工作时间永远都不够长，每一天都是假日，而当普通节日来到时，他们会感到厌恶，因为这强行打断了他们埋头从事的工作。然而对这两种人来说，换换脑子，改变一下气氛，转移一下注意力都是不可缺少的。其实，把工作当作乐趣的人，很可能是最需要每隔一段时间就把工作放下，让头脑放松的人。
T3
A love of words
1 About 15 years ago, readers of The Independent, a daily national newspaper, were asked by its travel correspondent what they missed when they were away from home, and what they looked forward to when they returned. Apart from "family", "friends" and "favourite foods", many people mentioned "the Sunday newspapers" and "the crossword puzzle".
2 It's certainly true that among their many hobbies, the English enjoy words, above all reading them and playing with them. Reading books is one of the most popular leisure activities, with approximately 100,000 books a year published. Over 80 per cent of the population regularly read a daily newspaper, and there are more newspapers per person than any other country except Japan. The weekend newspapers generally contain hundreds of pages, and even the most popular hobbies – fishing, stamp collecting, train-spotting, bird-watching, walking, sports, pets, flower-arranging, knitting, and pigeon-fancying – have at least one, if not several specialist magazines, devoted to them. In fact, many people probably spend more time reading about their hobbies than actually doing them.
3 It's also undoubtedly true that word games, puzzles and competitions are hugely popular, in newspapers, on the radio and even on television. One of the most popular television games in the 1980s and 1990s was "Call My Bluff", where two teams of players had to guess which of three meanings of an unfamiliar word was correct. In many cases newspapers have a word games section, such as a "Words within Words" competition where the aim is to make as many words as possible with the letters of a single word. Above all, crossword puzzles are the most familiar word game, with clues ranging from words which have the same meaning as other words, to the "cryptic" crossword, where the clue expresses the word in a very indirect way, and uses a variety of linguistic and cultural references. Apparently, some people choose their newspaper not because of the quality of the news coverage but because of the crossword puzzle.
4 You may think that you would need an excellent command of the English language to enjoy playing with words as much as the English do. But many of the word games are very simple and good fun, and in fact, the only skill you must have is to speak and listen or read and write a little.
热爱文字
1 大约 15 年前，《独立报》（一份全国性日报）的读者被该报旅游记者问及，当离家外出的时候，他们想念什么；当回家的时候，他们期望什么。除了“家人”、“朋友”和“最爱吃的食物”之外，许多人都提到了“周日版报纸”和“填字游戏”。
2 这确实是真的：在许多爱好中，英国人最喜欢文字，尤其喜爱阅读文字、玩文字游戏。读书是最流行的休闲活动之一 ；每年大约有十万种图书出版。80% 以上的人经常读一份日报；人均拥有报纸数量仅次于日本。周末版报纸一般厚达数百页；甚至最流行的业余爱好——钓鱼、集邮、收集火车头号码、观鸟、散步、运动、宠物、插花、编织和养鸽——都拥有至少一种甚至数种专业杂志。事实上，许多人很可能花更多时间“阅读”爱好，而不是“践行”爱好。
3 报纸上、广播上，甚至电视上的文字游戏、字谜和相关的比赛非常受人欢迎，这也无疑是真的。20 世纪八九十年代间最流行的电视游戏之一是“跟我叫阵”，其中两队参赛选手要猜出一个生僻词的三种备选意思哪个是正确的。大多数报纸都有一个文字游戏专栏，例如“词中词”竞赛，其目的是用一个词的字母拼写出尽量多的词来。其中人们最熟悉的文字游戏是填字游戏，其提示词从同义词到“隐秘的”交叉词，多种多样，后者是用各种语言和文化知识以非常间接的方式提示的。显然，有些人选择报纸不是为了看其高质量的新闻报道，而是为了其填字游戏。
4 你可能以为，你需要精通英语才能像英国人一样玩文字游戏。但是，许多文字游戏都非常简单而且好玩；事实上，你所需的唯一技巧只是拥有一点听说或读写能力。
