人大附中上的最差大学-变化作文
Quick Fix Society
Janet
Mendell Goldstein
husband and I
just got back from a week's vacation in West
Virginia. Of course, we
couldn't wait
to get there, so we took the Pennsylvania Turnpike
and a couple of interstates.
at those
gorgeous farms!
you see those
cows?
moving green checkerboards, and
the herd of cows is reduced to a few dots in the
rear-view mirror.
For four hours, our
only real amusement consisted of counting exit
signs and wondering what it
would
feel
like
to
hold
still
again. Getting
there
certainly
didn't
seem
like
half
the
fun;
in
fact,
getting there
wasn't any fun at all.
2.
So, when it was time to return to our home outside of Philadelphia, I insisted that we
take
a
different
route.
explore
that
countryside,
I
suggested.
The
two
days
it
took
us
to
make
the return trip were filled with new experiences.
We toured a Civil War battlefield and stood
on the little hill that fifteen
thousand Confederate soldiers had tried to take on
another hot July
afternoon, one hundred
and twenty-five years ago, not knowing that half
of them would get killed
in the vain
attempt. We drove slowly through main streets of
sleepy Pennsylvania Dutch towns,
slowing to twenty miles an hour so as
not to crowd the horses and horse carriages on
their way to
market.
We
admired
toy
trains
and
antique
cars
in
country
museums
and
saved
70
percent
in
factory
outlets.
We
stuffed
ourselves
with
spicy
salads
and
homemade
bread
in
an
of cows
—
no little dots this time
—
lying in it. And we returned home refreshed, revitalized, and
reeducated. This time, getting there
had been the fun.
3.
Why
is
it
that
the
featureless
turnpikes
and
interstates
are
the
routes
of
choice
for
so
many of us? Why
doesn't everybody try slowing down and exploring
the countryside? But more
and
more,
the
fast
lane
seems
to
be
the
only
way
for
us
to
go.
In
fact,
most
Americans
are
constantly
in
a
hurry
—
and
not
just
to
get
from
Point
A
to
Point
B. Our
country
has
become
a
nation in search
of the quick fix
—
in more ways than one.
4.
Now instead of later: Americans understood the principle of deferred gratification. We
put
a
little
of
each
paycheck
away
a
rainy
day.
If
we
wanted
a
new
sofa
or
a
week
at
a
lakeside cabin, we saved up for it, and
the banks helped us out by providing special
Christmas
Club and vacation Club
accounts. If we lived in the right part of the
country, we planted corn and
beans and
waited patiently for the harvest. If we wanted to
be thinner, we simply ate less of our
favorite foods and waited patiently for
the scale to drop, a pound at a time. But today we
aren't so
patient.
We
take
out
loans
instead
of
making
deposits,
or
we
use
our
credit
card
to
get
that
furniture or vacation
trip
—
relax now, pay later. We buy our food, like our clothing, ready-made
and off the rack. And if we're in a
hurry to lose weight, we try the latest miracle
diet, guaranteed to
take away ten
pounds in ten days... unless we’re rich enough to
afford liposuction.
5.
Faster instead of slower: Not only do we want it now; we don't even want to be kept
waiting for it. This general
impatience, the
lives. Instead of
standing in line at the bank, we withdraw twenty
dollars in as many seconds from
an
automatic teller machine. Then we take our fast
money to a fast convenience store (why wait in
line at the supermarket?), where we buy
a frozen dinner all wrapped up and ready to be put
into
the microwave... unless we don't
care to wait even that long and pick up some fast
food instead.