日本高清色视频在线视频在,国产香蕉97碰碰视频碰碰看,丰满少妇av无码区,精品无码专区在线,久久无码专区免费看,四虎欧美精品永久地址99,亚洲色无码一区二区三区

您現(xiàn)在的位置: Language Tips> Audio & Video> Normal Speed News  
   
 





 
It's get-off-the-couch time in America
[ 2009-04-09 10:04 ]

Download

It's get-off-the-couch time in America

It's spring, when young men's - and some women's - fancies turn to . . . lawns! Older people's fancies, too. For some American homeowners, a perfect lawn is an obsession, for others an obligation, and for some - who'd rather look at green, weed-free expanses of grass than mow them - a triumph of landscape architecture.

A couple of years ago, we reported that old-fashioned push-style lawn mowers were making a big comeback. The so-called green revolution was in full thrall, and 7 times the number of muscle-powered mowers were being sold than in the 1980s, when power mowers were king.

Even so, millions of sales are still rung up for electric, gas-powered, self-propelled and riding mowers as well.

It's get-off-the-couch time in America

Ted Steinberg, a history professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, has even written a book about lawns and mowers. He comes down on the obsession side of things, asserting that the quest for the perfect lawn has changed the American landscape as profoundly as did tree-clearing in earlier centuries, as the nation spread westward.

Steinberg notes that Americans have 16th-century British aristocracy, with its legions of scythe-wielding gardeners, to blame for the idea that grassy glades should be trimmed with manicured precision.

Showplace lawns became such a status symbol at tract developments in the American suburbs that, as Steinberg points out, the first words that a neighbor had for comedian Alan King when he moved into a subdivision were, Whaddya gonna do about the crabgrass?

It's get-off-the-couch time in America

Then came garden shows and televised golf tournaments, with their immaculate greens, and the stampede for new lawn mowers, trimmers, fertilizers, watering systems and weed-killers was on.

For some Americans, Steinberg points out, lawn care represents the single most important engagement with the natural world. An engagement that, as often as not, the crabgrass wins!

American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, by Ted Steinberg, is published by Norton and Company.I'm Ted Landphair.

self-propelled: (of a vehicle) propelled by its own engine, motor, or the like, rather than drawn or pushed by a horse, locomotive, etc(自力推進(jìn)的,機(jī)動式的)

westward: toward the west(向西)

immaculate:free from fault or flaw; free from errors(完美的)

Related stories:

'March Madness' betting runs rampant in American offices

FBI director says white collar crimes skyrocket

Student journalists to report from Oscar red carpet

(Source: VOA 英語點(diǎn)津編輯)

 
英語點(diǎn)津版權(quán)說明:凡注明來源為“英語點(diǎn)津:XXX(署名)”的原創(chuàng)作品,除與中國日報(bào)網(wǎng)簽署英語點(diǎn)津內(nèi)容授權(quán)協(xié)議的網(wǎng)站外,其他任何網(wǎng)站或單位未經(jīng)允許不得非法盜鏈、轉(zhuǎn)載和使用,違者必究。如需使用,請與010-84883631聯(lián)系;凡本網(wǎng)注明“來源:XXX(非英語點(diǎn)津)”的作品,均轉(zhuǎn)載自其它媒體,目的在于傳播更多信息,其他媒體如需轉(zhuǎn)載,請與稿件來源方聯(lián)系,如產(chǎn)生任何問題與本網(wǎng)無關(guān);本網(wǎng)所發(fā)布的歌曲、電影片段,版權(quán)歸原作者所有,僅供學(xué)習(xí)與研究,如果侵權(quán),請?zhí)峁┌鏅?quán)證明,以便盡快刪除。
相關(guān)文章 Related Story
 
 
 
本頻道最新推薦
 
Walking in the US first lady's shoes
“準(zhǔn)確無誤”如何表達(dá)
英國新晉超女蘇珊大媽改頭換面
豬流感 swine flu
你有l(wèi)ottery mentality嗎
翻吧推薦
 
論壇熱貼
 
別亂扔垃圾。怎么譯這個亂字呀?
橘子,橙子用英文怎么區(qū)分?
看Gossip Girl學(xué)英語
端午節(jié)怎么翻譯?
母親,您在天堂還好嗎?

 

<strong id="xdwva"><div id="xdwva"></div></strong>
<label id="xdwva"></label>

<thead id="xdwva"></thead>
    <label id="xdwva"></label>

  1. 日本高清色视频在线视频在,国产香蕉97碰碰视频碰碰看,丰满少妇av无码区,精品无码专区在线,久久无码专区免费看,四虎欧美精品永久地址99,亚洲色无码一区二区三区 久久九九久精品国产日韩经典 国产国语国拍精品 啊v在线观看高清无码 视频一区二区欧美 久久精品爱爱唉爱