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  3. What has happened to the American family--the fraying effect of harassed working parents, the stranglehold of the media, the pre

What has happened to the American family--the fraying effect of harassed working parents, the stranglehold of the media, the pre

admin2010-06-30  95
问题      What has happened to the American family--the fraying effect of harassed working parents, the stranglehold of the media, the pressures of peer culture--is a theme much ranted a bout. Yet one aspect of what has happened has been overlooked: kids like those we see in "Kids"--they come from all over the social spectrum--never seem to sit down to a proper meal at home anymore. 【61】 This is not another pious harangue on "spiritual starvation"; this is about the fact that we may be witnessing the first generation in history that has not been required to participate in that primal rite of socialization, the family meal.
     【62】 The family meal is not only the core curriculum in the school of civilized discourse; it is also a set of protocols that curb our natural savagery and our animal greed and cultivate a capacity for sharing and thoughtfulness.
     Dinner rituals have nothing to do with class, or working women’s busy lives, or any particular family structure. I’ve had dinners of boiled potatoes with families in Siberia, suppers of delicious cold cuts with single welfare mothers in Chicago, bowls of watery gruel in the Sahara--【63】 all made memorable by the grace with which they were offered and by the sight of youngsters learning through experience the art of human companionship. The teenagers on display in" Kids" are not only physically starved by the junk food they consume as they slouch in front of the TV or lope toward their next bacchanal. Far worse, they are deprived of the main course of civilized life--the practice of sitting down at the dinner table and observing the attendant conventions. Like the Passover seder or the practice of sitting down at the dinner table and observing the attendant conventions. Like the Passover seder or the Communion bread, the ritual of nutrition helps to imbue families, and societies at large, with greater empathy and fellowship. 【64】 However, all rituals involve, to some degree, a sacrifice and the home meal re quires genuine sacrifices of time and energy, large expenditures of those very traits it nurtures patience, compassion and self discipline. Many of the teenagers in "Kids"--the more affluent one--are the offspring of the" me generation," members of what Christopher Lasch called" the culture of narcissism." And those parents may be the most at fault. Might it be that they have stinted on the socializing of their children by focusing on their own rituals of self improvement--enjoying their workout highs at health clubs or their learning highs in evening classes. 【65】 How much more fun it is, how much less tiring, for us to enjoy a fine, quiet dinner by ourselves, or with our buddies, without the litany of questions and corrections that youngsters company entails. But the family meal should continue to be a ceremonial, sacred time. If we don’t hold on to it, we risk rearing yet more kids who wake up asking "What happened"?
【65】
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答案我们自己或和哥们儿一起静静地享用一顿晚餐，没有小孩子在场问这问那，还得给他们纠错，这该是多么惬意，多么轻松啊!
解析 这是一个感叹句。for us to enjoy...这是个感叹句的真正主语和动词的逻辑主语。that引导的定语从句修饰questions和corrections。How much more fun与 how much less tiring总体意思是一样的，即多么愉快，多么轻松啊!without the litany of...的意思是“没有那么多的……”。注意要把感叹的语气翻译出来。
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