发布时间 : 星期日 文章新视野大学英语第三版读写教程3Unit 4课文更新完毕开始阅读207382135afb770bf78a6529647d27284b733725
Unit 4
Text A The surprising purpose of travel
1 It's 4:15 in the morning, and my alarm clock has just stolen away a lovely dream. I almost return back to sleep before my eye catches my packed suitcase and I groan, remembering that I'm going to the airport. The taxi is late and then lost, and I'm getting increasingly nervous that I'll miss my flight. I run in when we arrive, stagger through security and finally get to my gate. After all the trouble of this morning, my flight is canceled and I'm stuck in this terminal for the next 218 minutes, and my only consolation is a cup of complimentary airport coffee. This is traveling, a burdensome series of running and waiting, and after countless hours, finally getting there.
2 Why do we travel? I don't mind the actual flying, the wonder of being airborne in a dense metal bird. The rest of the journey, however, can feel like a tedious lesson in the ills of modernity, from the predawn x-ray screening to the sad airport malls selling clusters of keepsakes. It's the result of a globalized world, and it sucks.
3 Sometimes, of course, we travel because we need to. Because in this digital age, there is still something important about the handshake at a business luncheon. Or eating mom's special food on Thanksgiving. Or seeing your girlfriend on your 2-year anniversary.
4 But most travel is decidedly optional. Only corporate travel, about 30% of trips over 50 miles, is truly compulsory. Instead, we travel because we want to, because the annoyances of the airport are offset by the thrill of being someplace new. Because work is stressful and our blood pressure is too high and we need a vacation somewhere tropical. Because home is boring. Because the flights are on sale. Because Paris is Paris.
5 Thanks to modern aviation, we can now move through space at an inhuman speed. For the first time in human history, we can outrun the sun and move from one hemisphere to another in a single day. Of course, it's not enough to simply get on a plane. If we want to realize the creative benefits of travel, then we have to re-think its overall purpose. Most people, after all, escape to Paris so they don't have to think about those troubles they left behind. But here's the irony: Our mind is most likely to solve our most stubborn problems while we are sitting in luxury in a Left Bank café. So, instead of contemplating that buttery dessert, we should be conscious of those domestic issues we just can't solve.
6 The larger lesson, though, is that our thoughts are saturated with the familiar. The brain is a space of near infinite possibility, which means that it spends a lot of time and energy choosing what not to notice. As a result, creativity is traded away for efficiency; we think in finite, literal prose, not symbolic verse. A bit of distance, however, helps loosen the cognitive chains that imprison us, making it easier to mingle the new with the old; the mundane is grasped from a slightly more abstract perspective. According to research, the experience of an exotic culture endows us with a valuable open-mindedness, making it easier to realize that even a trivial thing can have multiple meanings. Consider the act of leaving food on the plate: In China, this is often seen as a compliment, a signal that the host has provided enough to eat. But in America the same act is a subtle insult, an indication that the food wasn't good enough to finish.
7 Such multicultural contrasts mean that seasoned travelers are open to ambiguity, willing to realize that there are decidedly different (and equally valid) ways of interpreting the world. This, in turn, allows them to expand the circumference of their \their first answers and initial guesses.
8 Of course, this mental flexibility doesn't come from mere distance, a simple change in latitude and longitude. Instead, this renaissance of creativity appears to be a side effect of difference: We need to change cultures, to experience the disorienting diversity of human traditions. The same facets of foreign travel that are so confusing (Do I tip the waiter? Where is this train taking me?) turn out to have a lasting impact, making us more creative because we're less insular. We're reminded of all that we don't know, which is nearly everything; we're surprised by the constant stream of surprises. Even in this globalized age, we can still be amazed at all the earthly things that weren't included in the Let's Go guidebook and that certainly don't exist back home.
9 So, let's not pretend that travel doesn't have its drawbacks, or that we endure jet lag for pleasure. We don't spend 10 hours lost in the Louvre because we like it, and the view from the top of Machu Picchu probably doesn't make up for the trouble of lost luggage. (More often than not, I need a vacation after my vacation.) We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret cornerstones of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything.
Unit 4
Text B Traveling solo — A blessing overall!
1 So you're ready to travel. Pick a place, any place. Let's say you've always wanted to go to China. You've seen pictures of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square. You've always been fascinated with Chinese aesthetics and culture, with red, fragrant temples and venerable statues. You have a chunk of money saved and extra vacation time earned. Now is the time to go!
2 But maybe you haven't traveled much. You've never been to an exotic place where you can't speak the language or read the signs. A place where you'll have to do all the research for yourself, find hotels, get yourself around, buy locomotive or bus tickets, order your own food. You must figure all of this out while looking at the unfamiliar notation which you see wherever you look or go.
3 So now you're ready to realize your dream to explore China, and find, for yourself, the soul of the country. Unfortunately, right from the onset, none of your friends share that dream. Your sister is pregnant and can't travel. Your best friend just got a new job and can't take time off. So what do you do? You could ask everyone you know — friends, acquaintances, co-workers. You could join a tour. Or, you could go alone.
4 To travel alone is a difficult decision for anyone, though especially for women. For me, it came naturally. I made that trip to China, and then zigzagged on a multinational excursion through Indonesia, Thailand, England and France.
5 But the reactions I've gotten, from people I know, fellow travelers, and especially, from the natives of the countries I've visited, showed me that solo traveling is strange, and even considered inconceivable or reckless by many people. People ask me if the isolation makes me sad or even if I'm more susceptible to violent or dangerous situations.
6 This has been sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse. I remember searching desperately for accommodations in Taiwan. The university listed in my booklet no longer had dormitories for travelers, and I was lucky when the desk clerk called a young woman out of a nearby office. As it turned out, she was offering to let me stay at her flat and even had a friend come show me around the city the next day.
7 Also in Taiwan, I met two girls who smuggled me into their hotel room, gave me one of the beds (they shared the other), and took me to a feast with their tour group. When they heard my next stop was their hometown, they arranged for a bilingual friend to pick me up at the train station.
8 But there has also been the downside of those not-so-pleasant experiences. In Indonesia, a cute boy gave me a ride on his motorbike, and thought that gave him license to grope me illicitly. Many times in Indonesia, boys menaced me, assuming I was willing to pay for their company. In Japan, I was picked up by a young man who refused to drop me at my Youth Hostel; he insisted I stay with his friends. The friends turned out to be four girls; I was safe, but one snored like a lawnmower, and it took me two days to escape.
9 I've been irritated and perplexed many times — not speaking a language, not understanding or being understood. Once, in Italy, a hotel clerk tried to overcharge me and only gave up after 10 minutes of arguing. Another time in China, a taxi driver insisted I pay more, and I was rescued by the doorman of a fancy hotel.
10 Having a companion might have helped safeguard me from some of those problems. But it would have suppressed other opportunities — a long afternoon in Thailand all alone in the back of a hay wagon and then seven days in the back of a truck with a Brit, two Aussies and two Norwegians! Eating ethnic food on my way through eastern Korea with four youthful Japanese salarymen. Getting sick in China, and being nursed with chocolate bars and tissues by a couple from Texas.
11 The few times I have traveled with a companion, I haven't had the same ample opportunities to meet people. Other travelers can swap stories with you about the local folklore of the places they've been to and often have credible insights into the place you're visiting. Locals are also more likely to see you as approachable and be upfront with you when you're on your own.
12 Of course you have to be careful not to endanger yourself by throwing caution to the wind. Watch your back, but don't presume the worst and be overly fearful. Be friendly with people, but watch out for those who are too friendly with you. Don't disregard your instincts. If you hear stories about criminals on a road, take the road – just don't take much cash, and don't accept Coca Cola from strangers.
13 The key to solo travel is to open your mind, close your eyes and leap in! Everything that happens to you is an experience, and good, bad or neutral, they will all benefit you in some way. Take those little annoyances, those inefficiencies, and those boring bureaucrats with a laugh. If you despise something, just remember: You don't live there, you can leave anytime, and you'll never have to deal with this again!
14 Don't ever let a lack of companionship constrain you from doing what you really want to do. Once you go solo, you'll be amazed at how sensational your travel experiences will be.