英语专业晨读美文-文化篇 13 Naps

[00:02.32]Naps

[00:04.55]Napping is too luxurious 1, too sybaritic,

[00:09.14]too unproductive, and it's free;

[00:11.56]pleasures for which we don't pay make us anxious.

[00:14.93]Besides, it seems to be a natural inclination 2.

[00:18.34]Those who get paid to investigate such things

[00:21.48]have proved that people deprived of daylight

[00:23.57]and their wristwatches, with no notion of

[00:26.41]whether it was night or day,

[00:28.22]sink blissfully asleep in mid-afternoon as regular as clocks.

[00:32.55]The American nap is even scarier because it's unilateral.

[00:36.66]Sleeping Frenchmen are surrounded by sleeping compatriots,

[00:39.83]but Americans who lie down by day stiffen 3

[00:42.46]with the thought of the busy world rushing past.

[00:45.27]There we lie, visible and vulnerable on our daylit bed,

[00:49.22]ready to cut the strings 4 and sink into the dark,

[00:52.29]swirling, almost sexual currents of the impending 5 doze 6,

[00:55.75]but what will happen in our absence? Our stocks will fall;

[00:59.45]our employees will mutiny and seize the helm;

[01:02.00]our clients will tiptoe away to competitors.

[01:04.63]Even the housewife, taking advantage of the afternoon lull 7,

[01:08.40]knows at the deepest level of consciousness

[01:11.16]that the phone is about to ring.

[01:13.18]And of course, for those of us with proper jobs,

[01:16.53]there's the problem of finding a bed. Some corporations,

[01:19.97]in their concern for their employees' health and fitness,

[01:22.89]provide gym rooms where we can commit

[01:25.00]strenuous exercise at lunchtime, but where are our beds?

[01:28.26]In Japan, the productivity wonder of

[01:31.09]the industrialized world, properly run companies

[01:34.35]maintain a nap room wherein the workers

[01:36.97]may refresh themselves. Even in America, rumor 8 has it,

[01:40.50]the costly 9 CEOs of giant corporations

[01:43.22]work sequestered 10 in private suites 11,

[01:45.97]guarded by watchpersons,

[01:47.55]mainly so they can curl up unseen to

[01:50.32]sharpen their predatory powers with a quick snooze.

[01:53.43]A couple of recent presidents

[01:55.57]famous for their all-night energies

[01:57.65]kept up the pace by means of naps. Other presidents,

[02:01.27]less famous for energy, slept by day and night;

[02:04.85]woe to the unwary footstep

[02:07.24]that wakened Coolidge in the afternoon.

[02:09.36]This leaves the rest of us lackeys 12 bolt upright,

[02:12.18]toughing it out, trying to focus on the computer screen,

[02:15.98]from time to time glancing furtively 13 around

[02:18.52]to see if we were noticed.

[02:20.04]The modern office isn't designed for privacy,

[02:22.99]and most of our cubicles 14 have no doors to close,

[02:25.94]only gaps in the portable partitions.

[02:28.71]Lay our heads down on the desk at the appropriate hour

[02:32.02]and we're exposed to any passing snitch

[02:34.94]who strolls the halls enforcing alertness.

[02:36.94]It's a wonder they don't walk around ringing bells

[02:39.61]and blowing trumpets 15 from one till three.

[02:41.80]American employers do not see the afternoon forty winks 16

[02:45.67]as refreshing 17 the creative wellsprings of mere 18 employees.

[02:49.02]They see it as goofing 19 off.

[02:50.75]But now, it's time to rethink the nap

[02:53.66]from both the corporate 20 and the personal viewpoint.

[02:56.37]Bed is not a shameful 21, shiftless place to be by day,

[02:59.99]nor is it necessary to run a fever of 102 to deserve it.

[03:04.70]Bed can even be productive.

[03:07.28]The effortless horizontal body

[03:09.36]and the sensory 22 deprivation 23 of the quiet bedroom

[03:12.19]leave the mind free, even in sleep,

[03:14.79]to focus, to roam, sometimes to forge ahead.

[03:18.33]Knotty problems can unknot themselves as if by magic.

[03:21.99]Creative solutions can tiptoe across the coverlet

[03:25.25]and nestle onto the pillow of the napper,

[03:27.68]even while the black velvet 24 paws of Morpheus

[03:30.79]lie closely over his eyes.

[03:32.65]He may wake half an hour later

[03:35.05]with the road ahead laid clear.

[03:37.43]Creativity doesn't come a running to

[03:40.21]those who toil 25 and slave for her;

[03:42.15]she's as much the daughter of rest

[03:44.18]and play as of effort. Just because we're uncomfortable

[03:47.81]doesn't mean we're productive;

[03:49.62]just because we're comfortable doesn't mean we're lazy.

[03:53.35]Milton wrote Paradise Lost in bed. Winston Churchill,

[03:57.53]a prodigious 26 producer, wrote all those

[04:00.53]large important histories in bed.

[04:02.57]Brandy bottle at the ready.

[04:04.54]No doubt when inspiration flagged and his thoughts

[04:07.22]refused to marshal, he took a nip and a nap.

[04:10.33]Now, there was a man who knew a thing

[04:13.14]or two about a good day's work.