英语PK台 第148期:家在何方(2)

 Section 2:

When I got out of my car, the air was pulsing. The whole place was absolutely silent, but the silence wasn't an absence of noise. It was really a presence¹ of a kind of energy or quickening². And at my feet was the great, still blue plate of the Pacific Ocean. All around me were 800 acres of wild dry brush, and 1,200 feet of golden pampas grass running down to the sea.

And the next day, when I woke up in the absence of telephones and TVs and laptops, the days seemed tostretch for a thousand hours. It was really all the freedom I know when I'm traveling, but it also profoundly³ felt like coming home. I looked at the clouds, and I did what is hardest of all for me to do usually, which is nothing at all. And I thought back to that wonderful phrase I had learned⁴ as a boy from Seneca, in which he says, "That man is poor not who has little but who hankers after more."

I do think it's only by stopping movement that you can see where to go. And it's only by stepping out of your life and the world that you can see what you most deeply care about and find a home. And I've noticed so many people now take conscious measures to sit quietly for 30 minutes every morning just collecting themselves in one corner of the room without their devices⁵, or go running every evening, or leave their cell phones behind when they go to have a long conversation with a friend.

Movement is a fantastic privilege⁶, and it allows us to do so much that our grandparents could never have dreamed of doing. But movement, ultimately⁷, only has a meaning if you have a home to go back to. And home, in the end, is of course not just the place where you sleep. It's the place where you stand.

Vocabulary:

Pulsing, stretch, hanker after, collect oneself, privilege

1 presence   

n.出席；到场；存在

参考例句：

• Her presence lent an air of respectability to the occasion.她的到场使那种场合增添了崇高的气氛。
• His presence is indicative of his willingness to help.他的出席表示他愿意帮忙。

2 quickening   

复生； 活泼； 兴奋； 胎动初觉

参考例句：

• Quickening his pace, he soon left all the other runners behind. 他加快速度，不一会就把别的运动员都甩在后头了。
• Pity is a lever for quickening love. 怜悯是加速爱情的手段。

3 profoundly   

ad.深深地

参考例句：

• We are profoundly affected by what happens to us in childhood. 童年发生的事深深地影响着我们。
• It disturbs me profoundly that you so misuse your talents. 你如此滥用自己的才能，使我深感不安。

4 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

5 devices   

n.设备；装置( device的名词复数 )；花招；（为实现某种目的的）计划；手段

参考例句：

• electrical labour-saving devices around the home 节省劳力的各种家用电器
• modern labour-saving devices such as washing machines and dishwashers 诸如洗衣机和洗碗机之类的现代化省力设备

6 privilege   

n.特权，优惠，特许；v.给予优惠，给予特权

参考例句：

• Of course,no country has the privilege of fishing in our coastal water.当然，在我国的领海内没有一个国家有捕鱼的特权。
• He never abuses his privilege.他从不滥用特权。

7 ultimately   

adv.最后地，最终地，首要地，基本地

参考例句：

• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience.那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。
• Vitamin C deficiency can ultimately lead to scurvy.缺乏维生素C最终能道致坏血病。