U4 A Red Light for Scofflaws中英对照

A Red Light for Scofflaws

Law-and-order is the longest-running and probably the best-loved

political issue in U.S. history. Yet it is painfully apparent 2 that

millions

of

Americans

who

would

never

think

of

themselves

as

lawbreakers,

let

alone

criminals,

are

taking

increasing

liberties

with

the

legal

codes

that are designed to protect and nourish their society. 3 Indeed, there

are

moments

today

—

amid

outlaw

litter,

tax

cheating,

illicit noise

and

motorized

anarchy

—

when

it

seems

as

though

the

scofflaw

represents

the

wave of the future. 4 Harvard Sociologist David Riesman suspects that a

majority

of

Americans

have

blithely

taken

to

committing

supposedly

minor

derelictions as a matter of course. Already, Riesman says, the ethic of

U.S. society is in danger

of becoming this: “You're a fool if you obey

the rules.”

法律和秩序，

可以说是美国历史上历时最久、

或许还是人们最 爱谈论的政治问

题。

然而，

说来痛心，

显然有成百万从来没有想过自己会违法——更不用说犯罪

——的 美国人，

对于遵守那些旨在保护和维持他们的社会的法律条文，

却愈来愈

表现得放肆起来。今天，随处乱扔拉圾、逃税、违禁噪音，以及开汽车的无序状

态，真是比比皆是；有时简直使人觉得，玩忽法令者似乎代表了未来的潮流。哈

佛大学的社会学者戴维?里斯曼认为，大多数美国人都不以为然、毫无顾忌地喜

< br>欢犯些所谓的小过失。

里期曼说，

今天美国社会的道德规 范已差不多快变成

“谁

守法谁就是傻瓜”了。

< br>

Nothing could be more obvious than the evidence supporting Riesman.

Scofflaws abound in amazing variety. 5 The graffiti-prone turn public

surfaces

into

visual

rubbish.

Bicyclists

often

ride

as

though

two-wheeled

vehicles are exempt from all traffic laws. 6 Litterbugs convert their

communities into trash dumps. Widespread flurries of ordinances have

failed to clear public places of high- decibel portable radios, just as

earlier

laws

failed

to

wipe

out

the

beer- soaked

hooliganism

that

plagues

many parks. 7 Tobacco addicts remain hopelessly blind to signs that say

NO

SMOKING.

Respectably

dressed

pot

smokers

no

longer

bother

to

duck

out

of public sight to pass around a joint. The flagrant use of cocaine is

a festering scandal in middle and upper-class life. And then there are

(hello, everybody!) 8 the jaywalkers.

里斯曼的论断，

随处都可得到极为充 分的证实。

玩忽法令者形形色色，

令人吃

惊。

喜欢在公共场所乱涂乱写的人，

把这些地方弄得满目疮痍 。

骑自行车无拘无

束，

仿佛两轮车就可 以不遵守交通规则似的。

随处乱扔拉圾的人把他们的居住区

变成 了拉圾堆。

到处张贴的禁令，

也未能使公共场所免于手提收音机 的高分贝噪

音的污染，

正如前些日子颁布禁令，

禁止灌醉啤酒的流氓滋扰公园，

竟毫无作用

一样。瘾君 子对那些“禁止吸烟”的布告牌视若无睹。衣冠楚楚的大麻烟客传递

毒品也不再躲躲闪闪 ，

避人耳目。

可卡因毒品泛滥，

成了中 上层社会中愈来愈恼

1

The dangers of scofflawry vary widely. The person who illegally spits

on

the

sidewalk

remains

disgusting,

but

clearly

poses

less

risk

to

others

than the company that illegally buries hazardous chemical waste in an

unauthorized

location.

The

fare

beater

on

the

subway

presents

less

threat

to life than the landlord who ignores fire safety statutes. 9 The most

immediately and measurably dangerous scofflawry, however, also happens

to

be

the

most

visible.

The

culprit

is

the

American

driver,

whose

lawless

activities

today

add

up

to

a

colossal

public

nuisance.

10

The

hazards

range

from

routine

double

parking

11

that

jams

city

streets

to

the

drunk

driving

that

kills

some

25,000

people

and

injures

at

least

650,000

others

yearly.

12 Illegal speeding on open highways? New surveys show that on some

interstate

highways

83%

of

all

drivers

are

currently

ignoring

the

federal

55 m .p. h. speed limit.

玩忽法令的危害 有轻有重。

在人行道上随地吐痰，

当然是令人讨厌的；

但与那

些大工厂在非指定地点违法掩埋化学废料的作法相比，

了。

乘地下火车不买票，

当然不会象房东老板无视防火安全条文那样会危及人的

生命安全 。

然而正是这些极常见的玩忽法令行为，

其为害却最直接最严重 。

罪魁

祸首要算那些无法无天的驾驶汽车的美国人，其所做所为 成了今天的巨大公害。

这种危害，从日常的双重停车

(

指把车停在业已顺停在路边的车辆的旁边——

译注

< br> )

，致使交通阻塞，到酒后开车，导致每年车祸死亡

25,000

人，伤者至

少

65

万人。高速公路上超速行驶的情况又是怎样呢

?

高速公路上，通常有

83%

的开车人都无视联邦政府关于最高时速

55

英里的规

The most flagrant scofflaw of them all is the red-light runner. The

flouting of stop signals has got so bad in Boston that residents tell an

anecdote about a cabby who insists tha

t red lights are “ just for

decoration ” .The power

of the stoplight to

control traffic seems

to be

waning everywhere. In Los Angeles, red-light running has become perhaps

the

city's

most

common

traffic

violation.

In

New

York

City,

going

through

an intersection is like Russian roulette. Admits Police Commissioner

Robert

J.

Mc

Guire:

“Today

it's

a

50

-50

tossup

as

to

whether

people

will

stop for a red light.” Meanwhile, his own police largely ignore the

lawbreaking.

最明目张胆的藐视法律的行径要算闯红灯了。

在波士顿，

无视停车信号的状况

已经严重到了如此程度，

以至在当地居 民中流传着这样一个趣闻：

一位出租汽车

司机竟然坚持说，红灯 只不过是“街头的装饰品而已”。停车指示灯控制交通的

能力，

似乎处处都在减弱。

在洛杉矶，

闯红灯恐怕要算该市最常见的交 通违章现

象。在纽约市，通过交叉路口就象玩俄国轮盘赌

(

参加者轮流用一支只装有一

颗子弹的左轮手枪向自己头部扣动扳 机——译注

)

，不知何时就会出事。警察

< br>局长罗伯特?麦克盖尔承认：“如今红灯亮了是否停车，就象玩掷币游戏，机会

各 一半。”而他署下的警察，对这种违章行为大都视而不见。

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