托福阅读背景知识（五）

一、托福阅读背景知识：慢车道生活

　　各种汽车广告中，我们总能看到车辆飞驰而过，如风般飘逸，如光般迅疾;各种大电影中，机车发动时，引擎轰鸣，下一秒便如箭离弦，消失在道路尽头……这个时代，巨大的压力化成强大的动力，推着所有人往前飞奔，似乎所有人都崇尚“速度与激情”，而作者却喜欢在空无一人的林荫道上，慢悠悠地开车，为什么呢?

　　There are moments in life when you’re in the middle of some activity and think, “I love doing this. Love it!” Maybe it happens on the golf course , or camping, or when you’re having dinner at a favorite restaurant. There are so many things to love about modern life.

　　I’m in love with 35 miles per hour.

　　It’s a difficult kind of love to talk about in this era of TV commercials and big-budget movies that constantly promote and glorify images of supercharged vehicles with roaring engines and smoking tires thundering across city streets in endless pursuit of high-octane adventure.

　　My personality has never had a fast-and-furious side. This aversion to speed began early: I learned to ski during elementary school, and while everyone around me was schussing and swooping downhill, I got really good at traveling along in short segments of about one or two hundred feet, then pulling off to a secluded spot where I could rest, survey the surrounding terrain, and plan the next portion of my methodical, low-risk descent.

　　I vividly recall going to Disneyland as a young teenager and being emotionally thrashed on the Matterhorn bobsled ride. Other kids were howling with delight at the sharp turns and steep drops while I was mentally repeating the phrases “Please be over soon” and “I don’t want to die.”

　　In high school, I thoroughly enjoyed driver’s education class because of the no-need-to-hurry approach the instructors emphasized. The day my ride-along teacher said, “OK, I think we’re ready for the expressway ” wasn’t an occasion for any internal celebration.