暑期英語閱讀訓練“放慢生活節(jié)奏”

時間：2023-04-27 09:35:23 考研英語我要投稿

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When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming “I wanted to spend more time with my family".

　　Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term "downshifting" has turned my tired excuse into an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of “have it all", preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the pages of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything.

暑期英語閱讀訓練“放慢生活節(jié)奏”

　　I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build-up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making the alternative move into “downshifting” brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing could persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12-hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on “quality time”.

　　In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well-established trend. Downshifting — also known in America as “voluntary simplicity” — has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anti-consumerism. There are a number of best-selling downshifting self-help books for people who want to simplify their lives; there are newsletters, such as The Tightwad Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support groups for those who want to achieve the mid-'90s equivalent of dropping out.

　　While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economic decline―after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late’ 80s―and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class downshifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives.

　　For the women of my generation who were urged to keep juggling through the '80s, downshifting in the mid-'90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life—growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into one—as a personal recognition of your limitations.

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　　當決定辭去自己的全職工作時我絕對沒有想到自己竟然變成了一種新的國際性潮流的一部分。一次平行的調動傷了我的自尊，并阻礙了我的事業(yè)發(fā)展，這促使我放棄自己地位較高的職業(yè)，就像顏面丟盡的政府部長那樣，我也掩飾自己的離開，說“我想花更多的時間與家人待在一起”。

　　奇怪的是，在大約兩年半我寫完兩部小說后，我這個被美國人稱為“放慢生活節(jié)奏”的試驗，卻使我老掉牙的借口變成了絕對的現(xiàn)實。我曾經(jīng)是“占有一切”哲學(琳達?凱茜過去七年中在《她》這本雜志所宣揚的)的狂熱支持者，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)變成了什么都只要一點點的女人。

　　我已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)——凱茜由于壓力過大已多次公開宣稱要辭去《她》雜志編輯的職務，在這之后她也許會有同樣發(fā)現(xiàn)——放棄“耍弄生活”的生活哲學，轉而過一種“放慢生活節(jié)奏”的生活所帶來的回報，比經(jīng)濟成功和社會地位更有價值。沒有什么能夠說服我再回到過去那種凱茜所宣揚的、我也很享受的生活中去。那個時候，工作日每天工作12小時，有壓力很大的的最后期限，壓抑的的辦公室的政治，以及連做母親也得“高效率”。

　　在美國，擺脫忙碌，轉而過一種簡單、不再那么物質化的生活已成確定趨勢。具有諷刺意味的是，“放慢生活節(jié)奏”——在美國也稱“自愿簡單”——甚至孕育了一個嶄新的、可稱之為反消費主義的生活方式。對于那些想簡單生活的人來說，有許多很暢銷的的自助書籍幫你輕松生活；有各種簡訊，例如省錢簡報，會給美國人提供成千上萬條有用的點子去做事，從回收保鮮膜到自制肥皂；甚至還有一些幫助團體，幫人按90年代中期脫離傳統(tǒng)社會的人的生活方式去生活。

　　在美國，這種趨勢出現(xiàn)之初是對經(jīng)濟衰落所做出的一種反應——出現(xiàn)于80年代后期縮小經(jīng)濟規(guī)模所引起的大量人員冗余之后——在英國，至少在我所認識的中產(chǎn)階級的簡化生活者中，這種趨勢仍被認為與節(jié)儉政治有關聯(lián)，雖然如此，然而我們有著不同的緣由去尋求使自己的生活簡單化。

　　對我們這一代女性來說，整個80年代我們曾被迫忙碌地生活，90年代中期的簡化生活與其說是尋求神話般的好生活——自己種有機蔬菜以及冒險進入一個仙境——倒不如說我們都認識了自身的局限。

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