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American Car Culture 美国汽车文化

导读

1908年10月1日，福特公司的T型车问世，开辟了汽车消费的新时代。福特车实用、廉价，使汽车服务于大众，不再是少数富人的奢侈品，美国也因此很快成为车轮上的国家。20世纪50年代以后，曾经不可一世的美式汽车开始衰退，美国汽车主流文化出现分流：追求个性的美国人选择进口车，富人偏爱奔驰、捷豹，中产阶层则倾向德国的大众和意大利的菲亚特，劳动阶层仍选择维修方便的福特车。

America was destined to change on October 1, 1908, when the Ford Model T was made available to dealers. The Model T ushered in a new era of “automobility.” Before the creation of the Model T, automobiles were only available to the upper class, and the cars were poorly designed to handle the rough roads. The Model T was designed with utility in mind, ideal for getting out of ruts on muddy roads, was lightweight, had excellent fuel economy and most importantly it was inexpensive. American society has since revolved around the automobile. A huge infrastructure was created to support America's new obsession, and a culture developed around the automobile. From its inception, the automobile proved to be more than just transportation, it defined the restless and rugged nature of Americans. The American automobile is an incredible invention in that people shaped the car, and the car shaped people.

1908年10月1日，T型福特车面世，开创了汽车用途的新纪元。美国人的生活就此改变。在T型福特车出现以前，只有上流社会的人才拥有汽车，并且汽车的设计不适合在颠簸的路面行驶。设计者在T型福特车的设计上加入了实用的理念，所设计出来的T型车是适用于颠簸泥泞路面的理想车型。T型福特车不仅体重较轻，而且经济节油，更重要的是，它价格不高。美国社会的发展自此便以汽车为中心：为了支撑美国人爱车这项新的嗜好，发展了与之配套的强大的基础设施建设，由此而产生了独特的围绕着汽车发展的美国文化。自汽车出现以来，事实证明，汽车不仅仅是一种交通工具，它也塑造了美国人急躁粗鲁的性格。美国人制造汽车，汽车塑造美国人，汽车在美国是一项了不起的发明。

The automobile has redefined American society by enabling people to travel across the country, thus revolutionizing transportation. The automobile has changed the way Americans look at the world around them. Henry Ford's assembly line and mass production has now been applied to nearly every aspect of production, from farming to toy making. But, the negative aspects of Fordism still influence consumer pur-chases. Americans to this day desire individuality, something the Fordist assembly line could not produce. Mass consumption created by mass production has taken over Western civilization, and has spread across the world. It seems as if the entire world is now as materialistic as Americans. The American car culture has had effects beyond simple economic out comes. For many Americans, cars still symbolize freedom and mobility. Who doesn't remember that feeling after receiving their driver's license and suddenly the entire United States was just a gas tank or two away?

汽车使人们可以周游全国，它重塑了美国社会，在这个意义上，可以说汽车引起了交通革命。汽车改变了美国人看待周围世界的方法。亨利·福特的集成生产线和大批量生产模式现已应用于从农耕到玩具制造的各个生产领域。但是福特主义的消极面仍然影响着人们的消费购物。美国人直到如今依然追求个性——这是福特的集成生产线所不能提供的。大批量生产的大众消费品已经风靡西方国家，并在整个世界扩散开来。整个世界看起来似乎与美国一样物质化了。美国汽车文化的影响已不仅仅是经济上的成功，对于许多美国人来说，汽车象征着自由和灵活。每个美国人都不会忘记拿到驾驶执照时兴奋的心情，突然感觉只要一两箱汽油就能跑遍全美国。

The Revolt Against Mainstream Automobile Culture: In 1958, for the first time, the quantity of cars imported to America was greater than the quantity of cars exported. Clearly, the supreme reign of the American automobile was winding down. The rise of imports was caused by two events: Detroit discontinuing production of small cars from their line up, and Americans searching for autoindividuality through purchases of foreign cars. Upper class Americans often favored Mercedes Benz or Jaguar, while the slightly lower income group would often turn to Volkswagen or Fiat for their car needs. There was another consumer revolt that was taking place in the lower working classes of Americans. In Southern California in the early 1940s many young men were tired of paying outrageous amounts of money for cars that did not offer any mechanical advantage of old cars, just new body styles. Because older cars were so plentiful and cheap, it was easy to purchase older cars and make as much power from the car as possible. There was a return to pre-Depression Fordism; the emphasis was taken off styling and applied to the mechanics of the automobile.

主流汽车文化中的逆流：1958年美国汽车的进口量第一次超过出口量。很明显，美国汽车的统治地位开始动摇。汽车进口量的上升有两个原因。一是因为底特律的生产线已经停止生产小型汽车，所以美国人从国外进口汽车中寻找有个性的车子。上流社会的美国人比较偏爱奔驰和捷豹，而收入较少的人群则喜欢大众和菲亚特；二是因为美国底层社会的工人阶级消费者厌恶新汽车。早在20世纪40年代的加利福尼亚南部，许多年轻人都已不愿投入大笔金钱去买新车，因为它们仅拥有新的外观，其机械功能却与旧车相差无几。而旧车又多又便宜，很容易就买得到，并能把它的功率加大到与新车一样大。当时有一股回归大萧条前的福特主义的风潮，人们对汽车的关注已从其外形转移到车子的机械功能上。

Cloze 选词填空

The automobile has 1 American society by enabling people to travel across the country, 2 evolutionizing transportation. The automobile has changed the 3 Americans look at the world around them. Henry Ford's 4 line and 5 production has now been applied to nearly every aspect of production, 6 farming to toy making. 7 the negative aspects of Fordism still influence consumer pur chases.

Key

1. redefined 2. thus 3. way 4. assembly 5. mass

6. from 7. But

Translation Practices 翻译练习

Upper class Americans often favored Mercedes Benz or Jaguar, while the slightly lower income group would often turn to Volkswagen or Fiat for their car needs. There was another consumer revolt that was taking place in the lower working classes of Americans. In Southern California in the early 1940s many young men were tired of paying outrageous amounts of money for cars that did not offer any mechanical advantage of old cars, just new body styles.

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Key

上流社会的美国人比较偏爱奔驰和捷豹，而收入较少的人群则喜欢大众和菲亚特；二是因为美国底层社会的工人阶级消费者厌恶新汽车。早在20世纪40年代的加利福尼亚南部，许多年轻人都已不愿投入大笔金钱去买新车，因为它们仅拥有新的外观，其机械功能却与旧车相差无几。

Emulation 美文自己写得出——学生仿写

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仿写范例

Are Dialects Just Acceptable in Public Places?

Last week, a group of us students, who just attended a class given by a lecturer who advocates using dialects in public places and insists on speaking his Hunan dialect in his lecturing, raised a question about the issue: Are dialects just acceptable in public places? Some stood by the teacher because they believe that only by using his dialect can one express himself exactly and vividly while others maintained that since we are from across the country, we need a national “lingua franca” in order to secure efficient communication among dialectally different people. I side with the latter since I am convinced that language should above all function as a means of effective communication and in the current situation, Mandarin serves this purpose best.

To start with, our country is a culturally and of course dialectally diverse country. In order that people from different provinces can communicate with each other clearly and efficiently, we should concur on using a Putonghua, a variety of Chinese acceptable by all as a standard language especially in public places, on radios and TVs, in conferences. Otherwise, we may encounter a chaos of messy communications and misunderstandings and basic communication of society may be hindered and normal life disrupted.

In the second place, we as a people need an emblem to tell us from other peoples just as RP English distinguishes British from Australians. And of course Putonghua can best perform this function in this country. Don't forget that some 2,000 years ago the Chinese characters—a kind of Putonghua prevailing then helped unite the country in a way that few can imagine today. And now we don't see any sign we need such Putonghua less as we communicate with the outside world and among ourselves in public places. In this faster, richer and smaller world we do need a unified, efficient and gracious Putonghua as a national identity. No nation can be credited with civility without such a widely accepted, unified, economical means of communication for sake of our social, cultural and economic life.

Of course, advocating Mandarin or Putonghua does not mean we will banish or prejudice against our nation's richest treasure of dialects, estimated more than 200 altogether. They make up a great resource for our life and linguistic enrichment. As we all know, some of sit-comedies are comic and fun only when their lines are said in a certain dialect. Otherwise people don't find them amusing and laugh-worthy. So in a sense, dialects can enrich literary creation as is shown unmistakably in the fact that huge number of ethnic and local plays are sung or played only in dialects. And dialects can also contribute to the coinage and creation of new words and fresh expressions. It is one of the driving mechanisms for language change. Of course it can add a lot of fun and intimacy to family talks and folk conversations. But in public places we had better speak Putonghua.

Speaking Putonghua in public places has already become a public trend accepted by more and more people although there are still few who feel uneasy about this. Despite the fact that dialects are rich, innovative and figurative and there is nothing wrong with it when we speak overtly and loudly among folks and families, they are not acceptable on radios and televisions, in conferences and other public occasions so far as efficacy in communications among people from different parts of the country and in such a metropolitan as Shanghai is concerned.