外刊精读110 / New Scientist / 如何改变消费主义至上的社会风

Apes, not angels

Related Words:

1. consumerist 消费主义者
2. status signal 身份符号 e.g. If we want to change our consumerist society, we need greener status signals that appeal to our animal instincts.
3. conspicuous-consuming culture 炫耀性消费文化
4. obessed adj 痴迷的，celebrity-obsessed 明星粉 e.g. The boy is obessed with video games.
5. ostentatious = too obviously showing your money, possessions, or power, in an attempt to make other people notice.
6. tempting 吸引人的，诱人的
7. untangle 解开
8. semiotics 符号学
9. convetable adj 令人羡慕的

Vocabulary:

1. censure = strong criticism or disapproval e.g. His dishonest behaviour came under severe censure.
2. acclaim = praise v&n 赞扬，称赞 e.g. Despite the critical acclaim, the novel did not sell well.
3. infamous = notorious 臭名昭著的 e.g. The list included the infamous George Drake, a double murderer.
4. excess adj/n 过量的，超过 e.g1. An excess of enthusiasm is not always a good thing. e.g.2 The company's losses are in excess of(more than) 5 million.
5. preoccupation n 专注，令人全神贯注 e.g. Lately, his preoccupation with football had caused his marks at school to slip.
6. snag = hurdle = obstacle = disadvantage e.g. The drug is very effective - the only snag is that it cannot be produced in large quantities.
7. exhort = to strongly encourage or try to persuade someone to do something eg. These armed groups started exhorting refugees to stay in their camps.
8. have it both ways 兼得 e.g. You cannot have it both ways-you either work longer and get paid more, or have more leisure time and get paid less.
9. unclaimed 无人认领的，无主的 e.g. unclaimed prizes
10. decouple 分离，脱钩 e.g. Some people hope to decouple migration policy from party politics.

Nice words:

1. This is a tempting idea, but it has one major snag: when environmentalists exhort us to be careless about buying cars and clothes, and instead base our lifestyle choices on the planet's limited resources, they ignore an elmental part of our homind nature: preoccupation with status.
2. Rather than try to conquer our evolved desire for status, we must switch the symbols used to display it. Luckily, status semiotics are malleable.
3. It is virtual worlds where status symbols have the greatest potential to radically cut material consumption. Your online status and virtual possessions could become more important than anything you own in the real world.