背诵为王 第 四 册 第 48 课

Lesson48 Credit and Modern Consumers
Credit is now being promoted and advertised as never before. People arebeing persuaded to buy money and then being told by other advertisementswhat to spend it on. Banks and Building Societies are at the forefront ofthis onslaught, heedless of the effect of personal debt on the social fabricand the balance of payments and a laissez-faire government refuses to takeany responsibility. Artificial needs and desires are being foisted² upon usand, because of the employment of evermore sophisticated techniques, we arebeginning to believe that they are natural and immutable³.
We now have to contend with junk mail, telephone selling and even coldvisits by sales representatives to our homes in the evening. There is a newand thriving market for "luxury" goods, often bought on credit, naturally,with the manufacturers of glassware, china, jewellery and leather-boundbooks promoting their products and the associated "lifestyle" all over theplace.
Designer labels have acquired special status and emanated⁵ a kind ofreligious aura. Any pair of jeans will not do; it has to be a pair with thecorrect label. Not only have we been transmogrified into habitual⁶ consumers,but we are increasingly defining ourselves and each other in terms ofobjects. We have become commodity fetishists. Images of consumers in advertsare largely stereotypes⁷; they have to stand for categories of people inorder to strike a bond of identification with as many of us as possible.

forefront 　　　　　最前部；最前线
onslaught 　　　　 冲击
heedless 　　　　　不注意的；不顾
laissez faire 　　 放任；自由主义
foist¹ 　　　　　　　硬卖给；把...强加
evermore 　　　　　 始终
emanate⁴　　　　　　散发；发出,
transmogrify 　　　 使变形；使改变
fetishist 　　　　 物神崇拜者

信用与现代消费者
过去从未像现在这样大力提倡和宣传信用。人们被说服去购买金钱，然后又被其他广告告知用钱买什么。银行和建房互助会站在这场冲击波的最前沿，无视个人欠债对社会结构和支付平衡的影响，而一个采取放任主义的政府不愿对此承担任何责任。人造的需求和欲望正强加给我们。因为使用的技术始终很深奥，我们开始相信这些需求是自然的和不可改变的。
我们现在不得不应付垃圾邮件、电话销售，甚至是销售代表们的强行登门夜访。新生而繁荣的“奢侈品”市场，通常以信用支付，自然到处都是玻璃器具、瓷器、珠宝和皮边儿书籍的制造商们在推销他们的产品以及与其紧密联系的“生活方式”。
设计师标牌已经获得了特殊地位，并发出一种带宗教色彩的光环。不是随意一条牛仔裤都行，必须是一条有正确标牌的牛仔裤。我们不但已经被改变为习惯性消费者，而且我们越来越根据物品来定义自己和别人。我们已经开始盲目迷恋商品。广告里的消费者形象大多是模式化的，他们必须代表各个类型的人，以便让尽可能多的人形成认同。

1 foist   

vt.把…强塞给，骗卖给

参考例句：

• He doesn't try to foist his beliefs on everyone.他不会勉强每个人接受他的信念。
• He tried to foist some inferior goods on me.他企图把一些劣质货强售给我。

2 foisted   

强迫接受，把…强加于( foist的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She resented having the child foisted on her while the parents went travelling abroad. 她对孩子的父母出国旅行卻硬要她来照看孩子这事很反感。
• The author discovered that the translator had foisted several passages into his book. 作者发现译者偷偷在他的原著中插入了几段。

3 immutable   

adj.不可改变的，永恒的

参考例句：

• Nothing in the world is immutable.世界没有一成不变的东西。
• They free our minds from considering our world as fixed and immutable.它们改变着人们将世界看作是永恒不变的观点。

4 emanate   

v.发自，来自，出自

参考例句：

• Waves emanate from the same atom source.波是由同一原子辐射的。
• These chemicals can emanate certain poisonous gases.这些化学药品会散发出某些有毒的气味。

5 emanated   

v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的过去式和过去分词 )；产生，表现，显示

参考例句：

• Do you know where these rumours emanated from? 你知道谣言出自何处吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rumor emanated from Chicago. 谣言来自芝加哥。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 habitual   

adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的

参考例句：

• He is a habitual criminal.他是一个惯犯。
• They are habitual visitors to our house.他们是我家的常客。

7 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》