... to dodge a decision about how to lead his life or a realization that his life (is leading nowhere).

新潮势利虽不是我们这个时代独有，却已经变得空前重要。理由很简单，完全是经济原因。由于有了现代化机器，生产超过了消费。消费者有组织的浪费是我们工业繁荣的先决条件。对生产者来说，消费者扔得越快越好、买得越快越好。当然，与此同时，生产者必须做出自己的贡献——只生产最容易用坏的东西。

我们的调查表明，当今没有哪家公司会通过面面俱到来取胜。

我怀疑晚间电视新闻中的内容有多少是真正可吸收和可理解的。

与过去相比，现在更多的女人更长久地保持年轻的外貌。从这一点看，这是一个成 功。

她以前从未这样想过，然而这解释了她为什么每周都要特意在同一时间离家的原 因。

Nowadays, an obsessive devotion to strenuous physical activity is a prominent feature of modern life. What do you think are the reasons?

她的脸色通红、呼吸急促，我意识到她发高烧了。

We see wilderness shrinking; rivers losing their capacity to sustain life; the air, even the stratosphere, being loaded with potentially deadly junk.

Freedom is a wide and risky river; it can drown the person who does not know how to swim across it. The more obligations one takes on, the more time one occupies, the less threat freedom poses.

Theologists may take the argument one step further. It is our modern irreligion, our lack of confidence in any hereafter, that makes us anxious to stretch our mortal stay as long as possible.