[00:00.00] Years ago in America,it was customary for families to leave their doors unlocked,day and night.In this essay,
[00:09.80]Greene regrets that people can no longer trust each other
[00:15.62]and have to resort to elaborate security systems to protect themselves and their possessions.
[00:25.05]THE LAND OF THE LOCK’ by Bob Greene
[00:29.96]In the house where I grew up,it was our custom to leave the front door on the latch at night.
[00:37.20]I don't know if that was a local term or if it is universal;
[00:42.79]"on the latch" meant the door was closed but not locked.None of us carried keys;
[00:50.73]the last one in for the evening would close up,and that was it.
[00:56.14]2 Those days are over.In rural areas as well as in cities,doors do not stay unlocked,even for part of an evening.
[01:06.09]3 Suburbs and country areas are,in many ways,even more vulnerable than well-patroled urban streets.
[01:15.13]Statistics show the crime rate rising more dramatically in those allegedly tranquil areas than in cities.
[01:23.98]At any rate,the era of leaving the front door on the latch is over.
[01:30.02]4 It has been replaced by dead-bolt locks,security chains,electronic alarm systems and trip wires
[01:39.21]hooked up to a police station or private guard firm Many suburban families have sliding glass doors on their patios,
[01:49.11]with steel bars elegantly built in so no one can pry the doors open.
[01:55.77]5 It is not uncommon,in the most pleasant of homes,to see pasted on the windows small notices announcing that
[02:04.71]the premises are under surveillance by this security force or that guard company.
[02:11.29]6 The lock is the new symbol of America.Indeed,a recent public-service advertisement by a large insurance company
[02:22.32]featured not charts showing how much at risk we are,but a picture of a child's bicycle with the now-usual padlock attached to it.
[02:33.26]7 The ad pointed out that,yes,it it the insurance companies that pay for stolen goods,
[02:40.21]but who is going to pay for what the new atmosphere of distrust and fear is doing to our way of life?
[02:48.15]Who is going to make the psychic payment for the transformation of America from the Land of the Free to the Land of the Lock?
[02:57.29]8For that is what has happened.We have become so used to defending ourselves against the new atmosphere of American life,
[03:06.44]so used to putting up barriers,that we have not had time to think about what it may mean.
[03:13.75]9 For some reason we are satisfied when we think we are well-protected;it does not occur to us to ask ourselves:
[03:22.89]Why has this happened?Why are we having to barricade ourselves against our neighbors and fellow citizens,
[03:30.86]and when,exactly,did this start to take over our lives?
[03:36.69]10 And it has taken over.If you work for a medium-to large-size company,
[03:43.09]chances are that you don't just wander in and out of work.You probably carry some kind of access card,
[03:51.58]electronic or otherwise,that allows you in and out of your place of work.
[03:57.56]Maybe the security guard at the front desk knows your face and will wave you in most days,
[04:04.48]but the fact remains that the business you work for feels threatened enough to keep outsiders away via these "keys."
[04:13.54]11 It wasn't always like this.Even a decade ago,most private businesses had a policy of free access.
[04:22.69]It simply didn't occur to managers that the proper thing to do was to distrust people.
[04:29.48]12 Look at the airports.Parents used to take children out to departure gates to watch planes land and take off.
[04:38.54]That's all gone.Airports are no longer a place of education and fun;they are the most sophisticated of security sites.
[04:48.50]13 With electronic X-ray equipment,we seem finally to have figured out a way to hold the terrorists,real and imagined,
[04:57.38]at bay;it was such a relief to solve this problem that
[05:03.33]we did not think much about what such a state of affairs says about the quality of our lives.
[05:10.33]We now pass through these electronic friskers without so much as a sideways glance;
[05:16.94]the machines,and what they stand for,have won.
[05:21.91]14 Our neighborhoods are bathed in high-intensity light;we do not want to afford ourselves even so much a luxury as a shadow.
[05:30.97]15Businessmen,in increasing numbers,are pruchasing new machines that hook up to the telephone and analyze a caller's voice.
[05:40.40]The machines are supposed to tell the businessman,with a small margin of error,whether his friend or client is telling lies.
[05:49.44]16 All this is being done in the name of"security";that is what we tell ourselves.We are fearful,
[05:57.30]and so we devise ways to lock the fear out,and that we decide,is what security means.
[06:05.69]17 But no;with all this "security,"we are perhaps the most insecure nation in the history of civilized man.
[06:15.01]What better word to describe the way in which we have been forced to live?
[06:20.60]What sadder reflection on all that we have become in this new and puzzling time?
[06:26.95]18 We trust no one.Suburban housewives wear rape whistles on their station wagon key chains.
[06:35.83]We have become so smart about self-protection that,in the end,we have all outsmarted ourselves.
[06:43.77]We may have locked the evils out,but in so doing we have locked ourselves in.
[06:50.31]19 That may be the legacy we remenber best when we look back on this age:
[06:56.71]In dealing with the unseen horrors among us,we became prisoners of ourselves.All of us prisoners,in this time of our troubles.
[07:08.15]latch on the latch close up rural
[07:13.75]门 门关着没上锁 关闭 农村的
[07:19.35]unlock vulnerable well-patroled urban
[07:22.84]开锁 无防御的 巡查严密的 都市的
[07:26.33]statistics dramatially allegedly tranquil
[07:29.78]统计 戏剧性地 据称 平静的
[07:33.22]era dead-bolt electronic trip wire
[07:36.92]纪元 防盗门 电子的 绊索
[07:40.62]hook up to patio elegantly build in
[07:45.44]连接到 平台 优雅地 成为建筑物的一部分
[07:50.26]pry paste premise surveillance
[07:53.95]撬开 粘贴 前提 监视
[07:57.65]advertisement feature chart padlock
[08:01.62]广告 突出 示意图 扣锁
[08:05.59]ad psychic transformation put up
[08:09.42]广告 心灵 改变 设置
[08:13.24]barrier barricade wander X-ray
[08:16.34]妨碍 路障 徘徊 X射线的
[08:19.44]take off terrorist hold/keep(sb.) at bay
[08:22.70]起飞 恐怖 不让……逼近
[08:25.97]frisker without/with not so much as sideways stand for
[08:31.61]搜身 甚至连……都没…斜着(的) 代表
[08:37.25]be bathed in analyze with/by a small/large margin error
[08:42.14]沉浸于 分析 小/大幅度地 错误
[08:47.02]insecure secure civilize reflection
[08:50.89]不可靠的 安全的 使文明 思考
[08:54.75]puzzling housewife rape whistle
[08:57.25]令人困惑的 家庭主妇 强奸 哨子
[08:59.74]self-protection protection outsmart
[09:02.82]自我保护 保护 比…精明
[09:08.23]邪恶 遗产 回顾
