新高级阅读前（双语）73（972）

PASSAGE SEVENTY-THREE

Power to walk

1.People aren’t walking any more—if they can figure out a way to avoid it. I felt superior about this matter until the other day I took my car to mail a small parcel.

2.The journey is a matter of 281 steps. But I used the car. And I wasn’t in any hurry, either. I had merely become one more victim of a national sickness: motorosis.

3.It is an illness to which I had thought myself immune, for I was bred in the tradition of going to places on my own two legs. 

4.At that time, we regarded 25 miles as good day’s walk and the ability to cover such a distance in ten hours as sign of strength and skill.

5.It did not occur to us that walking was a hardship. And the effect was lasting. When I was 45 years old I raced—and beat—a teenage football player the 168 steps up the Statue of Liberty.

6.Such enterprises today are regarded by many middle-aged persons as bad for the heart. But a well-known British physician, Sir Adolphe Abrahams, pointed out recently that hearts and bodies need proper exercise. 

7.A person who avoids exercise is more likely to have illnesses than one who exercises regularly. And walking is an ideal form of exercise—the most familiar and natural of all.

8.It was Henry Thoreau who showed mankind the richness of going on foot. The man walking can learn the trees, flower, insects, birds and animals, the significance of seasons, the very feel of himself as a living creature in a living world. 

9.He cannot learn in a car. The car is a convenient means of transport, but we have made it our way of life. Many people don’t dare to approach Nature any more; to them the world they were born to enjoy is all threat. 

10.To them security is a steel river thundering on a concrete road. And much of their thinking takes place while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

11.I say that the green of forests is the mind’s best light. And none but the man on foot can evaluate what is basic and everlasting.

第七十三篇

行走的力量

1.如果人们能想办法避免走路，他们就不会再走路了。直到有一天我开车去寄一个小包裹，我才觉得这件事很了不起。

2.整个旅程总共有281步。但我用的是车。我也不着急。我只不过成了一种全国性疾病的又一个受害者:运动症。

3.我原以为自己对这种病是免疫的，因为我从小就养成了用两条腿去旅行的习惯。

4.那时，我们认为25英里是一天的步行量，能在10小时内走完这段距离是力量和技巧的体现。

5.我们没有想到走路是一件困难的事。这种影响是持久的。当我45岁的时候，我和一个十几岁的足球运动员赛跑，并击败了他，爬上了自由女神像的168级台阶。

6.如今，许多中年人认为这类计划对心脏有害。但是，一位著名的英国医生阿道夫·亚伯拉罕爵士最近指出，心脏和身体需要适当的锻炼。

7.不运动的人比经常运动的人更容易生病。步行是一种理想的锻炼方式——最熟悉、最自然的锻炼方式。

8.亨利·梭罗向人类展示了徒步旅行的丰富多彩。行走的人可以认识树、花、虫、鸟和动物，了解季节的意义，了解自己作为一个活生生的世界中的活生生的生物的感觉。

9.他不能在汽车里学习。汽车是一种方便的交通工具，但我们已经把它变成了我们的生活方式。许多人再也不敢接近大自然了;对他们来说，他们生来就喜欢的世界充满了威胁。

10.对他们来说，安全是一条在混凝土道路上轰鸣的钢铁河流。他们的大部分想法都发生在等待交通灯变绿的时候。

11.我说，森林的绿色是心灵最好的光。除了步行的人，没有人能评价什么是基本的和永恒的。