book6 Unit 4_A_Red_Light_for_Scofflaws中英对照

A Red Light for Scofflaws给轻微违法行为亮红灯 1

take liberties with:

misinterpret; treat something freely, without strict observance

of the fact (随意对待)

behave in a bold or impolite way towards，

2．Outlaw litter：unlawful stewing (a place) with rubbish

t noise：very loud noise which is not permitted

4. motorized anarchy：disorder or chaos created by motorists

5. take to: to be pleased by or attracted to; begin to do sth. as a regular habit

ction：deliberate eglect；a tendency to be negligent ;

from: not affected or bound by (=excused)

: nce; great quantity

nce:

authoritative law，command or order; a regulation

10. pot smoker：One who smokes marijuana.客

out of: avoid doing, esp. by making an excuse (=back out)

beater：one who evades paying the fare on a public vehicle. “Beat” is U.S. slang

meaning “cheat”

13. public nuisance：sth. offensive to the community, esp. in violation of others’ legal

rights

-up：the tossing-up of a coin to decide something by its fall

15. mortal peril：danger that causes or is liable to cause death

: shameless.

： ignore; avoid; evade

t: destroy the power and influence

19．nullify: make ineffective; invalidate

1

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

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

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。

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. 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.”

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，践踏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。

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Nothing could be more obvious than the evidence supporting Riesman.

Scofflaws abound in amazing graffiti-prone turn public

surfaces into visual rubbish. Bicyclists often ride as though two-wheeled

vehicles are exempt from all traffic laws. Litterbugs convert their

communities into trash dumps.

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，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。

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 o 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!) the jaywalkers.

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，正如早先颁布禁令，禁止喝饱啤酒的流氓滋扰公园，竟毫无作用一样。烟草瘾君子对那些“禁止吸烟”的布告牌熟视无睹。衣冠楚楚的客传递也不再躲躲闪闪，避人耳目。泛滥，成了中上层社会中愈来愈恼人的丑闻。当然，还有那些不遵守交通规则，乱穿马路的人。

3

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. The most

immediately and measurably dangerous scofflawry, however, also happens

to be the most visible.

践踏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危险的化学废料的作法相比，其对公众的危害则要小多了。乘地铁不买票，当然不会像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践踏法令行为的危害却最直接最明显。

The culprit is the American driver, whose lawless activities today add

up to a colossal public hazards range from routine double

parking that jams city streets to the drunk driving that kills some 25,000

people and injures at least 650,000 others yearly. Illegal speeding on

open highways? New surveys show that on some interstate highways 83% of

all drivers are currently ignoring the federal 55 mph speed limit.

罪魁祸首要算那些无法无天的美国司机，其所做所为积累成今天的巨大公害。这种危害包括致使交通阻塞的常见的路边双排停车和导致每年车祸死亡 25,000

人、受伤至少 65 万人的酒后开车。高速公路上超速行驶的情况又是怎样呢 ? 据近期统计，某些州际高速公路上，有83%的司机们都常常无视联邦政府关于最高时速 55 英里的限速规定。

4

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 that 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.

最明目张胆的违法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信：红灯只不过是“街头的装饰品而已”。红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。

5

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 toss-up as to

whether people will stop for a red light.” Meanwhile,

his own police largely ignore the lawbreaking.

在纽约市，通过交叉路口就象玩俄国手赌。警察局长罗伯特•麦克盖尔承认：“如今红灯亮了是否停车，就像玩掷币游戏，机会各一半。”而他麾下的警察，对这种违章行为大都视而不见。

5 Red-light running has always been ranked as a minor wrong, and

so it may be in individual instances. When the violation becomes habitual,

widespread and incessant, however, a great deal more than a traffic

management problem is involved. The flouting of basic rules of the road

leaves deep dents in the social mood. Innocent drivers and pedestrians

pay a repetitious price in frustration, inconvenience and outrage, not

to mention a justified sense of mortal peril.

闯红灯常常被列为小错误，属于个案。然而，一旦人们违章形成习惯，而且不断违章、随处违章，那就远远超越了交通管理问题了。藐视交通法规的现象给公众心理造成深深的创伤。无辜的开车人和无辜的行人一次次地感到沮丧，忍受种种不便和愤怒，更不用说他们对危及他人生命行为的应有责任感了。

6

The significance of red-light running is magnified by its high

visibility. If hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, then

furtiveness is the true outlaw's salute to the force of law-and-order.

The red-light runner, however, shows no respect whatever for the social

rules, and society cannot help being harmed by any repetitious and brazen

display of contempt for the fundamentals of order.

闯红灯现象比比皆是，更增强了其危害性。如果说伪善是邪恶对美德所表示的敬意，那么鬼鬼崇崇便是犯罪分子对法律与制序的真心实意的敬礼了。然而，闯红灯的人对社会规章却毫无敬意可言，而任何屡禁不止、厚颜无耻的藐视社会秩序基本要求的行径，都会使社会无法免受其害。是个别情况。”

6 The scofflaw spirit is pervasive. It is not really surprising when

schools find, as some do, that their children frequently enter not knowing

some of the basic rules of living together. For all their differences,

today’s scofflaws are of a piece as a symptom of elementary social

demoralization---the loss by individuals of the capacity to govern their

own behavior in the interest of others.

这种无视法律的风气会四处蔓延的。所以当学校发现孩子们入学时经常连最起码的集体生活规则都不懂时，此类现象就不足为奇了(有些学校的确发现此事)。尽管无视法律的人各种各样，但是他们的违法都是社会基本道德败坏症候的一种表现——个体失去了为了他人的利益而约束自己的能力。

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7 The prospect of the collapse of public manners is not merely a

matter of etiquette. Society’s first concern will remain major crime,

but a foretaste of the seriousness of incivility is suggested by what

has been happening in Houston. Drivers on Houston freeways have been

showing an increasing tendency to replace the rules of the road with

violent outbreaks. Items from the Houston police department’s new

statistical category—freeway traffic violence: 1) Driver flashes

high-beam lights at car that cut in front of him, whose occupants then

hurl a beer can at his windshield, kick out his tail lights, slug him

eight stitches’worth.2) Dump-truck driver annoyed by delay batters

trunk of stalled car ahead and its driver was trying to stay within 55

m. p. h. limit. The Houston Freeway syndrome has fortunately not spread

everywhere. But the question is: Will it?

公众礼仪坍塌的未来景象并不只是一个礼仪问题。社会最关心的将仍然是严重犯罪。粗鲁无礼的严酷性的预判可以从发生在休斯顿的事件中得以揭示。在休斯敦的高速公路上，驾驶员展示了聚变的趋势：暴力犯罪取代了的道路规则。休斯敦警察局的新的统计分类的——高速公路交通的暴力行为包括：1）司机对挡住自己前面道路的车辆开大灯照射，另一司机用啤酒罐子打砸自己车辆的挡风玻璃，踢自己车辆的尾灯，把对手打得能缝他8针大伤口。 2）自卸卡车司机因被延误击打前面熄火车辆的司机停滞以及驾驶车辆时速不超过55英里的司机。值得庆幸地是，休斯顿高速公路综合症尚未蔓延全国。但问题是，未来会蔓延吗？

8 Americans are used to thinking that law-and-order is threatened

mainly by stereotypical violent crime. When the foundations of U.S. law

have actually been shaken, however, it has always been because ordinary

law-abiding citizens took to skirting the law. Major instance:

Prohibition. Recalls Donald Barr Chidsey in

On and Off the Wagon:” Law

breaking proved to be not painful, not even uncomfortable, but, in a mild

and perfectly safe way, exhilarating.” People wiped out Prohibition at

last not only because of the alcohol issue but because scofflawry was

seriously undermining the authority and legitimacy of government.

[8] 美国人习惯于认为，老一套的暴力犯罪是对法律秩序的主要威胁。然而，却正是出于普通的遵纪守法的公民设法钻法律的空子才真正动摇了美国法律的根基。主要例子有：禁酒令。唐纳德·巴·契德斯在《上下车》一书中回忆道：“违法显得不痛苦的，甚至都没有令人不舒服的感觉，反而以温和的、完全安全的方式令人欢喜鼓舞。”人们终于废除了禁酒令，不仅是因为酒的问题，而且因为违法行为严重地损害了政府的威信性和合法性。

8

Ironically, today’s scofflaw spirit, whatever its undetermined

origins, is being encouraged unwittingly by government at many levels.

The failure of police to enforce certain laws is only the surface of the

problem: they take their mandate from the officials and constituents they

serve. Worse, most state legislatures have helped subvert（破坏） popular

compliance with the federal 55 m. p. h. law, some of them by enacting puny

fines that trivialize transgressions.

具有讽刺意味的是，不管今天这种无视法律的风气源于何处，它却受到各级政府官员的无可奈何的鼓励。警察未能执法仅仅是问题的表面，他们只不过是从他们为之服务的官员和选民那里接受命令。更糟糕的是，大多数的州立法机构在公众遵守联邦法律规定的车速不得超过每小时 55 英里的规定时却帮了倒忙，其中一些州甚至擅自规定超速仅处以很少的以使大事化小。

On a higher level, the Administration in Washington has dramatized

its wish to nullify civil rights laws simply by opposing instead of

supporting certain court ordered desegregation rulings. With

considerable justification, environmental groups, in the words of

Wilderness magazine, accuse the Administration of “destroying

environmental laws by failing to enforce them, or by enforcing them in

ways that deliberately encourage noncompliance.” Translation:

scofflawry at the top.

更高一级的华盛顿当局则用反对（而不是支持）某些已成为法律条文的废除种族隔离法，来实现其取消民权法案的愿望，这真是令人啼笑皆非。据《荒原》杂志报道， 环保组织以相当正当的理由指责当局破坏环境保护法，或者是不执法此法，或是虽然执行了但却故意怂恿人们违反此法规。这解释为：违法行为在高层。

The most disquieting thing about the scofflaw spirit is its extreme

infectiousness. Only a terminally foolish society would sit still and

allow it to spread indefinitely.

无视法律之风最令人不安之处在于它的极端传染性。只有最愚蠢的社会才会坐视不管、任其蔓延。

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