英美报刊选读 passage 13 the decline of neatness (含翻译)

The Decline of Neatness

行为标准的蜕化

By Norman Cou s ins

Anyone with a passion for hanging labels on people or things should have little difficulty in recognizing that an apt tag for our time is the “Unkempt Generation”. 任何一个喜欢给别人或事物贴标签的人应该不难发现我们这个时代合适的标签是“邋遢的一代”。

I am not referring solely to college kids. The sloppiness virus has spread to all sectors of society," People go to all sorts of trouble and expense to look uncombed, unshaved. unpressed.3 我说这话不仅仅是针对大学生。邋遢这种病毒已经蔓延到社会各个部分。人们刻意呈现一幅蓬头散发、边幅不修、衣着不整的形象。

The symbol of the times is blue jeans—not just blue jeans in good condition but jeans that are frayed, torn, discolored. They don't get that way naturally. No one wants blue jeans that are crisply clean or spanking new. 如今时代潮流的象征是穿蓝色牛仔裤--不是完好的牛仔裤，而是打磨过的，撕裂开的，和褪色了的牛仔裤。正常穿着磨损很难达到上述效果。没有人喜欢穿干净崭新的牛仔裤。

Manufacturers recognize a big market when they see it, and they compete with one another to offer jeans（that are made to look as though they've just been discarded by clumsy house painters after ten years of wear. ）生产商意识到这将是个潜力巨大的市场，于是展开了激烈地竞争，生产出的

牛仔裤好像是笨拙的油漆工人穿了十年之后扔掉的一样。

The more faded and seemingly ancient the garment- the higher the cost. Disheveled is in fashion; neatness is obsolete.

衣服看上去越褪色越旧，成本越高。时下流行的是衣冠不整，服饰整洁已不合时宜。

Nothing is wrong with comfortable clothing. It's just that current usage is more reflective of a slavish conformity than a desire for ease. 穿着追求舒适原本并无过错。问题是目前人们的着装习惯与其说是为了寻求舒适，倒不如说盲目追求单调一致。No generation has strained harder than ours to affect a casual, relaxed, cool look;none has succeeded more spectacularly in looking as though it had been stamped out by cookie cutters.6没有哪一代人像我们这一代这样努力装出一付随便、轻松、酷的样子，没有哪一代人如此出奇成功地塑造出看出犹如饼干模子压出来一样的形象。

The attempt to avoid any appearance of being well groomed or even neat has a quality of desperation(处心积虑) about it and suggests a calculated and phony deprivation.7这种避免服饰考究、衣着整洁形象的努力真是煞费苦心，显出故意装出的虚假穷酸相。

We shun (avoid) conventionality, but we put on a uniform to do it.8 An appearance of alien ation is the triumphant goal, to be pursued in oversize sweaters and muddy sneakers. 我们避免落入俗套，但是我们却穿上制服来实现该目标。树立标新立异的形象是最终目标，为了成功塑造这种形象，各个都穿上了超大号的毛衣和沾满泥巴的运动鞋。

Slovenly speech comes off the same spool.10 Vocabulary, like blue jeans, is being drained of color and distinction. 言语杂乱如出一辙。词汇就象蓝色牛仔裤正失去色彩和特性。

A complete sentence in everyday speech is as rare as a man's tie in the

swank Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel.日常生活中很难听到一句完整的句子，就好像贝弗利山庄酒店的豪华水球休闲厅里很难见到打领带的绅士。

People communicate in chopped-up phrases, relying on grunts and chants of "you know" or "I mean" to cover up a damnable incoherence. 人们在交流的时候，说的话老是支离破碎，全靠“你知道吧”“我是说”等口头禅来掩盖该死的语无伦次

Neatness should be no less important in language than it is in dress. But spew and sprawl are taking over.。其实语言利落和穿衣整洁一样重要。但现在肆意辱骂和衣着懒散之风却尘嚣日上。

The English language is one of the greatest sources of wealth in the world. In the midst of accessible riches, we are linguistic paupers (beggars).

英语是世界最大的语言财富之一。富饶的语言资源触手可及，我们却宁愿成为语言的乞丐。

Violence in language has become almost as casual as the possession of handguns.The curious notion has taken hold that emphasis in communication is impossible without the incessant use of four-letter words. (crap, damn, slut，shit, fuck, ) 语言粗野几乎就象拥有枪支一样随便。这种古怪的观念已经根深蒂固，以至于有些人在言谈中必需借助连篇脏话才能表达自己的想法。

Some screenwriters openly admit that they are careful not to turn in scripts that are devoid of foul language lest the classification office impose the curse of a G (general) rating15. 很多电影剧本作家都坦白说他们会尽量避免递交上的剧本中没有一些污言秽语，以防电影分级办公室把该剧本定为G级电影片。（这对电影来说无疑是施加了紧箍咒）

Motion-picture exhibitors have a strong preference for the R (restricted)