Unit 4 Unit 4

A Red Light for ScofflawsA Red Light for Scofflaws

Frank Trippett

Luo Zhaohui

The Author— Frank Trippett

• Born in 1926. U.S. journalist and freelance writer, is sometime editor of major American popular journals and a senior writer for Time magazine.

• This text is an article that appeared in Time magazine, 1983.

Frank Trippett (1926-1998)Frank Trippett (1926-1998)Born and grew up in Born and grew up in MississippiMississippi Started his career as a journalist Then, he was an associate editoran associate editor a senior editora senior editor a senior writer and an essayist

Dictionary work• scofflaw=scoff+law: one who habitually ignores the law and

does not answer court sumonses,常违反法规者• Take liberties with: treat sth. freely or casually，很随意地对待

• Blithely: in a happy and carefree manner,快活地，无忧无虑地，漫不经心地

• Dereliction: being deserted or abandoned,放弃，弃置不顾，玩忽职守，忽略

• be exempt from： be freed from，免于，不受约束或制约• Flurry： great quantity, 大量• Ordinance： an official rule or order, (a formal word ),法

令，法规，条例

• Flagrant: very obvious and not concealed in any way,赤裸裸的、明目张胆的，公然的

• Festering scandal: very shocking and immoral act that causes feelings of bitterness and anger,令人痛苦、苦恼的丑闻 /丑行

• Statutes: formal rules, a law that has been made by a government and has been formally written down,成文法，法规，章程，规程

• Public nuisance: thing, person or behavior that is troublesome or annoying to the public,令公众讨厌的事物、人或行为

• Flouting: treating with contemptuous disregard ，公然藐视（ flout）

• Dent: a hollow in the surface, here in the text means harm or damage,凹痕，伤痕，损伤

• Brazen： shameless，厚颜无耻的• Slug： hit hard with the fist,用拳头重击• Skirt： avoid dealing with , go around the edge

or the outside of…回避，避免，绕道• Mandate： the authority that it has to carry out

particular policies as a result of winning an election,授权，委任 , 命令，指示

• Constituent: 选区居民，选民• Subvert： to destroy,破坏，搅乱• Enact: 制定（法律），通过（法案）；演出，表演

• Puny： insignificant，无足轻重的，微弱的，微不足道的

• Nullify: to make…ineffective, to declare …not legally valid,宣布无效，废除

• Desegregation rulings: official decisions made to end racial segregation,关于废除种族隔离的决定 /裁定

• Disquieting: upsetting,引起不安、令人忧虑的

• Terminally: fatally, extremely, helplessly,极端地，非常，无可救药地

Some Terms (1)

• Outlaw litter— unlawful strewing ( a place )with rubbish

• Illicit noise— very loud noise which is not permitted

• Motorized anarchy — disorder or chaos created by motorists

Some Terms(2)

• Pot smoker — marijuana (/mærə΄wanə/ 大麻烟 ) addict (one who is addicted to marijuana)

• Joint – cigarette containing marijuana

• Fare beater – one who evades paying fare on a public vehicle. “Beat” is U.S. slang meaning “swindle”, “cheat”.

Some Terms (3)

• Toss-up – the tossing up of a coin to decide something by its fall./ something that is difficult to decide； 50% of chance

• Mortal peril – danger that causes or is liable to cause death.

• Rear-end – (U.S.) collide, or cause (one’s vehicle) to collide with the rear-end (back part) of another vehicle

Some Terms (4)

• Prohibition— the forbidding by law of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks in the U.S.A. from 1920 to 1933. ( see reference )禁酒令

Organization and Development

• What method of development is adopted by the author in the text?

• Identify the explicitly stated topic sentence or supply the implied topic sentence of each paragraph, and put them together. Does this help you to get the theme of the essay? And what is the theme?

Organization and Development

• Do you think the illustrations in each paragraph appropriately support the topic sentence?

Topic- sentence Outline• para.1: This beginning para. Introduces the topic

of the essay— Millions of Americans are taking increasing liberties with the legal codes.(scofflaw)

• para.2: Scofflaws abound in amazing variety.• para.3: The dangers of scofflawry vary wildly.• para.4: The most flagrant scofflaw of them all is

the red-light runner.• para.5 : The flouting of basic rules of the road

(including red-light running) leaves deep dents in the social mood.

Topic- sentence Outline

• para.6: The scofflaw spirit is pervasive.• para.7: The prospect of the collapse of

public manners is not merely a matter of etiquette.

• Para.8: ... today's scofflaw spirit, whatever its undetermined origins, is being encouraged unwittingly by government at many levels.(para.8)

Topic- sentence Outline

• para.9: This conclusive paragraph naturally comes to the thesis:

The scofflaw spirit is dangerously infectious; something must be done to check its spread.

All the topic sentences put together present a well-worked sentence outline for the writer to write on, and also a highly condensed gist of the essay for the reader.

Are all the topic sentences well illustrated?

Paragraph 1

• Painfully apparent: very clear ,very obvious,

• (awfully beautiful, terribly hungry )• The wave of the future: 未来的潮流或趋势• Take to sth./ doing sth.习惯于• As a matter of course: 作为理所当然的事情

• Ethic：道德规范，伦理标准，行为规范

Paragraph 2

• Nothing could be more obvious than the evidence supporting Riesman.—

The evidence that supports what Riesman says is very obvious (most obvious).

• Scofflaws abound in amazing variety.—

scofflaws exit in large numbers and great many types.

Paragraph 2

• Convert…into…: turn …into…• Fail to do sth. …没有能够• Clear public places of high-decibel portable

radio: 清除、消灭公共场所高分贝的手提式收音机

• Wipe out the beer-soaked hooliganism that plagues many parks: 清除 /消灭使许多公园受到干扰的、因饮啤酒而产生的流氓行为

Paragraph 2

• Tobacco addicts remain hopelessly blind to signs that say NO SMOKING. “吸烟成瘾者对写有 不准

”吸烟 的告示牌无可救药地完全熟视无睹。• Bother to : …费心或费事做• Duck out of public sight:躲避公众视线• Pass around: 传递• Jaywalker: one who crosses the street defying

traffic rules 随便穿越马路者，无视交通规则穿过马路者

Paragraph 3

• 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.

( Actually, here two types of scofflaws are mentioned and compared, with one more dangerous than the other.)

Paragraph 3

• The fare beater on the subway presents less threat to life than the landlord who ignores fire safety statutes.

Again ,here two other types of scofflaws are compared.

• Present threat to: …给 带来威胁• Pose risk to… …给 带来危险

Paragraph 3

• The hazards range from routine double parking that jams the city streets to the drunk driving that kills some 25,000 people and injures at least 650,000 others yearly.

• Range from…to…：其范围（种类，内容等）涉及 / … …包括从 到

• Interstate highway: 州际高速公路 （美）

Paragraph 4

• Red-light runner: 闯红灯者• The flouting of stop signals：无视红灯信号

• Traffic violation: 违反交通规则• As to: 至于，关于

Paragraph 5

• Be ranked as: be considered as• The flouting of basic rules of the road leaves

deep dents in the social mood.—

The flouting of basic rules of the road brings harm to the social attitude (or social mentality).

Pay a repetitious price in …:

repeatedly endure such situation as…不断地、…反复地忍受 ( …遭受 )

Paragraph 5

• 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, …

If …then…however…： … …如果说 ，那么 ; …然而 。

Paragraph 5

• Can not help being harmed by: 无法避免…受到 的伤害

• Repetitions and brazen display of contempt for the fundamentals of order.对于基本秩序反复表现出无耻的蔑视

Paragraph 6

• 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.

尽管有各种各样的藐视法律行为，如今这些行为都— 一样是基本社会道德丧失的症状 个人在涉及他

人利益时，丧失了控制自己行为的能力。

Paragraph 7

• The collapse of public manners: 公共行为规范的崩溃，垮掉

• A foretaste of the seriousness of incivility is suggested by what has been happening in Houston. –

What has been happening in Houston gives us a suggestion (an pre- experience) of seriousness of incivility.

Foretaste: 预尝滋味，预示迹象

Paragraph 7

• Replace A with B: 用 B代替 A• Slug him eight stitches’ worth: 用拳重击他，导致伤口需要缝八针

• Dump-truck: (美 )自动卸货卡车• Batter： bit for many times,连续捶打，猛击• Rear-end： here used as a verb, meaning

to strike or collide with the end of another car

Paragraph 8

• Today’s scofflaw spirit, whatever its undetermined origins, is being encouraged unwittingly by government at many levels.

Please illustrate this sentences by citing examples given by the author in the text.

“On and off the wagon”

•

On and off the wagon  不再戒酒 On the wagon 和 off the wagon用来形容喝酒的人戒酒，然后又忍不住喝酒的过程。Wagon在英语中是卡车、货车的意思，那么又为什么和戒

酒联系到一起了呢？•

"On the wagon" 来源于短语 on the water wagon 和 on the water cart。在美国 19世纪后期，人们用马车拉水 (horse-drawn water cart)，但并不是用来运输居民的饮用水，而是在干燥炎热的夏

季，像现在的洒水车一样，喷洒在尘土飞扬的道路上。 这段时期正是全国大规模开展禁酒运动的时期，妇女门还有部分男士都积极参加了禁酒运动。他们极力支持关闭啤酒厂和沙龙，希望通过这一运动唤醒他们酗酒的

丈夫和父亲，根除国内酗酒这一不良风气。这期间，很多男人都发誓要戒酒，他们说： "无论我们多么多么的希望来上一杯，我们宁愿爬上 water cart喝口水解解谗，绝不食言。 "

•

• 所以， "I am on the water cart." 逐渐成为 "No, thank you; I am not drinking any more." 或 "I am trying to stop." 的意思。后来，wagon 一词又逐渐取代了cart。

• 现在，减肥、运动，甚至政府的挥霍无度，任何一种不良嗜好戒了又犯，或犯了再戒，都可以用这一对短语来形容。

• e.g.:•

"Now that Congress and the Clinton White House have fallen back off the wagon, Bush and Gore's long-term projections (for using the budget surplus) are almost meaningless." (St. Petersburg Times, Fla., November 2, 2000) 现在国会和白宫又在乱花钱了，布什和戈尔制定的长期财政计划已变成一纸空文。

Paragraph 8

• Popular compliance with: …对 的普遍服从、遵守

• State legislatures: 州的立法机关• Enact puny fines: 处以微不足道的罚款• Dramatize its wish to …: …夸大它的 愿望• With considerable justification: 用足够的 /充分的理由

• Translation： to express in another way

How to reduce stress?

• Scheduling • Treat your body well • Read• Expectation (be realistic)• Sleep well• Smile (and have confidence)