成人高等教育英語教材3 13
[00:00.00] UNIT 10
[00:28.92]Do They Save Time or Waste Time?
[00:35.58]Integrated Skills DevelopmentPassage
[00:44.64]Overload: More Time Is Less Time
[00:50.81]So you think you have some of the good things in life.
[00:58.28]You've got a video tape recorder
[01:02.41]and a device that answers the phone for you.
[01:07.06]And there's a gadget that turns off the lights when you've out.
[01:12.62]How about the electric knife, the coffee maker, the ice maker?
[01:18.89]Feel good about having all that stuff?
[01:24.74]Or do you wonder whether the gadgets are running you instead of you them?
[01:31.51]Americans apparently feel more hurried than ever these days.
[01:38.46]Part of the reason is trying to keep up with the demands on their time to purchase,
[01:46.53]store, service, repair, replace,
[01:51.57]and protect all those "time saving" machines.
[01:57.34]Add to them the problems of the extra car and the bigger house.
[02:04.19]And there's the RV parked on the side lawn.
[02:09.65]"Americans are eating up their leisure time
[02:15.11]by overloading themselves with all kinds of gadgets..."
[02:20.88]So says one expert in marketing.
[02:26.16]The downfall of lots of homes is trying to keep up with all the things that go wrong.
[02:34.91]There's the time spent to call repair people.
[02:40.47]Next we must wait for them to show up.
[02:45.22]Then there's the high hourly rates.
[02:50.08]These may force many people into poor do-it-yourself jobs.
[02:56.56]And costly tools often save little time
[03:02.13]because of the small scale of home repairs.
[03:07.19]Likewise, "labor-saving" appliances may lighten the house-work.
[03:14.85]But they save little time.
[03:19.21]Looking for the right electric knife or other new gadget
[03:25.37]and getting it ready for use often can take more time than doing the job by hand.
[03:32.92]Studies show we spend even more time on laundry than our grandparents did.
[03:40.87]That's because we have more clothes and wash them more often.
[03:47.42]Vacuum cleaners have raised standards of cleanliness.
[03:53.77]But they tempt people to spend more time than with a broom or dust rag.
[04:00.93]Cars are another time gobbler.
[04:06.70]One expert says that tires and batteries last longer than they used to.
[04:13.86]But U.S. cars are more prone to break down than they were.
[04:20.39]Plus, there are more gadgets on them to go wrong.
[04:26.03]The growing complexity of the car
[04:30.11]most owners can no longer play with a screwdriver and wrench under the hood to fix things themselves.
[04:38.86]Another problem we face more and more is dealing with computers in place of people.
[04:47.11]Impersonal, cold, and error-prone machines are replacing clerks.
[04:54.48]So to fix errors in bills and other problems with a product or service
[05:01.64]often is a slow and maddening process.
[05:07.10]The number of video games and other free time objects grows.
[05:14.25]And the pressure of choice joins in.
[05:19.61]Just to choose a free time activity from all the options taxes many people.
[05:26.97]And as people crowd their lives with things that eat up too much of their time,
[05:34.84]they come to feel that time is short.
[05:39.51]They feel they are in danger of wasting it.
[05:44.69]In the end, then, the possessions we consume end up consuming us.
