邓福德新视野大学英语第三版Book2-Unit 5 Section A- Spend or save — The studen

Unit 5 Section A

Spend or save

—

The student's dilemma

花钱还是存钱，学生进退维谷

1 Do you feel as confused and manipulated as I do with this question,

or

should

I

save?

I

think

that

the

messages

we

get

from

our

environment

seem

to

defy common sense

and contradict each other. The government

tells

us to spend or

we'll never get out of the recession. At the same time, they tell us that unless we save

more, our country is in grave danger. Banks offer higher interest rates so we increase

savings. Then the same banks send us credit card offers so we can spend more.

1

你是不是跟我一样 对

“

我应该花钱还是存钱

”

的感觉？

我觉

得我们从生活的环境里所获得的 信息似乎是有违常识、互相矛

盾的。

政府告诉我们要花钱，

否则我们将永 远走不出衰退；与此同时，他们

又告诉我们，除非我们节省更多的钱，否则我

们的国家会处于严重危险之中。

银行提供较高的利率以增加储蓄。

然后，同样是这些银行

又提供信用卡让我

们可以花更多的钱。

2 Here's another familiar example: If we don't pay our credit card bill on time, we get

demanding, nasty emails from the credit card company saying something like:

failure to pay is unacceptable. Pay immediately or you'll be in trouble!

as

we

pay,

we

get

a

follow-up

email

in

a

charming

tone

telling

us

how

valuable

a

customer we are and encouraging us to resume depiction is correct: a

failing

consumer

in

trouble

or

a

valued

customer?

The

gap

between

these

two

messages is enormous.

2

这里还有一个大家熟悉的例子：如果我们不按时支付信用卡 账单，我们会收

到从信用卡

公司发来 的类似这样的令人讨厌的催缴账单的电子邮件：不还款是

不可接受的。请立即缴付，

否则后果自负！

之后，一旦还款，我们就会收到

一封跟进的电子邮件，语气和蔼可亲，说

我们是多么宝贵的客户，并鼓励我们

继续花钱。< /p>

到底哪一个描述是正确的？有麻烦的失败

消费者还是宝贵的客户？

这两者之间可是天壤之别！

3 The paradox is that every day we get two sets of messages at odds with each other.

One

is

the

perspective,

spend,

get

it

now.

You

need

this!

The

other

we

could

call

an

message,

which

urges

us,

hard

and

save.

Suspend your desires. Avoid luxuries. Control your appetite for more than you truly

need.

from political figures referring to

the capacity to postpone desires are core American values that have made our country

great.

3

自相矛盾的情况还有，我们每天都收到彼此相左的两种信息。

一种从

“

纵容

”

的角度，让我

们

< br>“

买东西，花钱，现在就得到它。你需要这个！

”

另外一种，

我们可称之为

“

正直

”

的信息，

“

努力工作，把钱存起来。控制你< /p>

的欲望，不要买奢侈品，不要垂涎那些你并

不真正需要的东西。

”

这类信息来< /p>

源甚多，有学校方面的，有家长方面的，甚至还来自提及

传统价值观的政治人