首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Ben Was Swell, But He’s Out Old saws are wearing out. Take the case of "The devil finds work for idle hands to do. " As rece
Ben Was Swell, But He’s Out Old saws are wearing out. Take the case of "The devil finds work for idle hands to do. " As rece
admin
2022-05-24
18
问题
Ben Was Swell, But He’s Out
Old saws are wearing out. Take the case of "The devil finds work for idle hands to do. " As recently as fifteen years ago when a mother caught a son loafing around the pornography rack at the corner drugstore, she could take him by the ear and lead him home to wash the windows, with the perfectly satisfactory explanation that "The devil finds work for idle hands to do. "
Nowadays, the world is different. With the march of automation, idleness is becoming the national occupation and sociologists will speak sternly to mothers who oppose it. Since ever-expanding idleness is the goal of the American economy, it is unpatriotic to mention it in the same breath with Beelzebub.
The goal now is to rehabilitate idleness, and the first step in every rehabilitation program is a name change. During World War I, when Germany became the power, the Hunnish sauerkraut was restored to respectability by being renamed "liberal cabbage". In the same way, ugly satanic old idleness is now rechristened "leisure".
Leisure sounds ever so much more decent than idleness. It sounds like something that the uptown set might go in for enthusiastically. Idleness was an evil to be taught by placing such weapons as window-washing rags and lawnmowers in the hands of the indolent young. Leisure is merely another typical American problem to be solved by a nexus of committees, study groups and Congressional investigations.
Now, if a boy loafs around the pornography, it is merely because he has a "leisure-time problem. " The solution is not to put him to work—the machines have most of the jobs well in hand—but to encourage him to take up the oboe or start a bee colony, In this way, we say, he uses his leisure "creatively".
The notion of creative leisure is mostly non-sense, of course. The sin that a boy may stumble into by keeping company with oboe players or going to bee-keepers’ conventions is considerable, especially if his interest in oboes or bees is only a substitute for loafing around the drugstore.
The American economic system must, nevertheless, be justified. And so if a boy follows the oboe path to see his parents are no longer permitted to blame it all on Satan; instead, the parents are indicated for failing to find a creative solution to the leisure-time problem.
There are many other pieces of ancient wisdom that have turned obsolete under the bizarre of American prosperity, Take "A penny saved is a penny earned. " Sound enough in France, perhaps, but clearly subversive in 1965.
The first economic duty of every citizen today is to consume. To keep the economy booming we must consume with our cash, consume with our credit cards, consume with our charge accounts and then go to the bank to borrow the means to consume again.
It is obvious that if people begin acting on the theory that " A penny saved is a penny earned," production would fall, unemployment would rise, salutes would be cut and the country would stagnate. Nowadays, the homily should read, "A penny spent is not good enough. "
Then there is the collapse of "A stitch in time saves nine. " To maintain even the present unsatisfactory level of employment, it is absolutely imperative that we never settle for the timely one-stitch job when a bit of dallying can make work for nine additional stitchers.
As we have seen too many industries, the nine stitches thrown out of work either go on relief— which reduces the timely stitches take-home pay—or turn in desperation to braining the smug stitch-in-time takers for their entire pay envelopes. In this type of economy, the canny stitcher takes his stitch too late.
And, of course, there is old " Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. " Taken literally, this advice would now be disastrous.
In the first place, rising early would immediately raise the leisure-time problem to unmanageable proportions. The safest of all leisure-time activities is sleep, and the fellow who rolls out at cock’s crow to work on his oboe is going to be thoroughly sated with leisure by breakfast time.
What’s more, early rising tends to make a man reflect on the absurdity of his life. In this mood, he may very well realize that his way of life is insane and decide to change it by saving a penny, thereby triggering an economic catastrophe.
Very likely he will go to the office feeling energetic and healthy and, before he can stop himself take a stitch in time, thus causing unemployment raising his taxes and increasing crime. "Early to bed and early to rise" has had its day.
So, apparently, has Benjamin Franklin.
How many "old saws" does Baker consider in this essay? Why does Baker devote more space to the first "old saw" than he does to subsequent ones?
选项
答案
There are four "old saws" in this essay. Baker devoted more space to the first one "The devil finds work for idle hands to do," as he uses to draw out the subject of idleness, then he tells current ideas on idleness, and how should people treat this way of life.
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/MKra777K
本试题收录于:
翻译硕士(翻译硕士英语)题库专业硕士分类
0
翻译硕士(翻译硕士英语)
专业硕士
相关试题推荐
中国国际进口博览会(ChinaInternationalImportExpo,简称CIIE)。2017年5月,习近平主席在“一带一路”国际合作【R31】________上宣布,中国将从2018年起举办中国国际进口博览会。2018年
Gulfofficialssayanaffluentlifestyleisbleedingtheregion’sheavily______watersupplies.
You______hurthisfeelingsbysayingthat,evenif"youthoughtit.
Australia’sfrogsarehavingtroublefindinglove.Trafficnoiseandothersoundsofcitylife,suchasairconditionersandcon
"MayIspeaktoyourmanagerMr.Cooperatthreeo’clockthisFridayafternoon?""I’msorry.Mr.Cooper______toaconferencel
SharepricesontheStockExchangeplungedsharplyinthemorningbut______slightlyintheafternoon.
Theworkintheofficewas______byaconstantstreamofvisitors.
Theclamorousgroupofchildrenenjoyedtheparkallafternoon.
Her______shouldnotbeconfusedwithmiserliness;aslongasIhaveknownher,shehasalwaysbeenwillingtoassistthosewhoa
BenWasSwell,ButHe’sOutOldsawsarewearingout.Takethecaseof"Thedevilfindsworkforidlehandstodo."Asrece
随机试题
以融资租赁方式租入的固定资产,在会计核算上将其视为承租企业的资产,遵循的会计信息质量要求是()
亚急性甲状腺炎与甲状腺结核病的区别主要是
量化是指将连续变化的灰度或密度等模拟信息,转化成离散的数字信息的过程,有关量化的描述,正确的是
三组比较的秩和检验,样本例数均为6,确定P值时应查
患慢性消耗性疾病时,最早发生萎缩的组织是
质量为m的小物块在匀速转动的圆桌上,与转轴的距离为r,如图所示。设物块与圆桌之间的摩擦系数为μ,为使物块与桌面之间不产生相对滑动,则物块的最大速度为()。
某投资者2010年年初投资100元,半年后得到105元,如果再将这105元投资半年,假设同样获得半年5%的收益率,则其年百分比收益率为()
甲公司为上市公司,内审部门在审核公司2×16年度的财务报表时,对以下交易或事项的会计处理提出质疑。(1)2×16年9月1日,经董事会批准,甲公司的母公司实施一项股权激励计划,其主要内容为:甲公司的母公司向甲公司的50名管理人员每人授予1万份现金股票增值权
建立E-R模型正确的步骤是()。①确定实体②设计出E-R图所表示的概念模型③确定实体之间的联系类型④确定相关实体的属性
Wemodempeopleeatnotonlywhenwearehungrybutalsowhenweareinbadmood.Peopleconsumemoreandmorecaloriestomake
最新回复
(
0
)