时间:2018-12-29 作者:英语课 分类:新视野大学英语读写教程(4)


英语课

  A Leisure Boom in Japan

My knees are shaking, my heart is beating wildly and my head is enclosed in a crash helmet (防撞头盔) that seems much too thin. Balanced at the edge of a narrow white platform, I am about to jump head first into a hot new phase of Japan's leisure boom: indoor sky diving, without a parachute.

I am deep into second thoughts, but there is no backing out now. To get out, I would have to climb back down the narrow ladder from the tower and walk past the long row of "salarymen"(薪水阶层)and "office ladies" lined up behind me at an amusement park (游乐园) named Tokyo Roof(东京屋顶).

Tokyo Roof is one of hundreds of amusement parks, sports centers, and resorts opening all over Japan as this hard-working nation brings its characteristic efficiency and intensity 1 to the newly serious business of play.

There is a leisure boom in Japan, and like many national trends here it is largely a government-led phenomenon. Under pressure from the United States and other trading partners, who complain about the labor 2 force working too much, Japan is working hard at the notion of working less hard.

Japanese workers labor about 200 more hours per year than the average of their American counterparts, according to figures from Japan's Labor Ministry 3. With school in session every weekday plus Saturday morning 10 months of the year, Japanese students have almost 60 more class days annually 4 than their American peers.

But now government and big businesses are vigorously promoting the concept of "leisure". Some companies require employees to take longer vacations, and others are moving to eliminate the traditional Saturday workday so that people will get out and relax. But there is a problem for people with free time in a tightly packed country where land is dear: There aren't many places to play. Designing cities according to the traditional concept that hard work is a moral duty, those who rebuilt Japan after World War II left almost no room for recreation. Today, according to the Ministry of Construction, Tokyo has about 2.5 square meters of park for each resident.

To make up for the lack of public parks, the private sector 5 is devising all sorts of new entries in the leisure market. They include: indoor ski resorts, with mountains made of crushed ice inside huge buildings complete with chair lifts and ski schools; indoor mountain-climbing centers, with artificial peaks and cliffs; all-night golf courses, with brightly colored balls and blinking red lights atop the flag stick; golf driving ranges layered four stories high in the heart of the city, with towering green nets to keep the balls from smashing windows in neighboring office buildings.

Scores of amusement parks have opened since Tokyo Disneyland arrived in 1983, and 200 more are proposed or under construction. Targeted at not only children but also young working singles, many amusement parks are pushing thrills. One Tokyo attraction has six roller coasters (环滑车道), which can spin 360 degrees, while whipping around the track.

And then there is Tokyo Roof, where I went sky diving indoors. Set up on a downtown parking lot, its entrance marked by a massive sign that reads, in English, "Good Music from Your Body Heart on the World Line", Tokyo Roof is a test market for new amusement park ideas. It offers video-imitated golf courses, a racetrack where customers can drive scale racecars, a movie theater where the seats roll and shake in accord with happenings on the screen. But its most popular attraction is the tall tower where I lined up.

For a fee of $15.60 per jump, Tokyo Roof rented me a flight suit, special shoes, gloves, earplugs(耳塞), a crash helmet, a face mask, a tooth guard and a safety harness (but no parachute).

Enclosed in this outfit 6, I waited in line for an hour with other adventurers, mostly office workers in their 20's. Finally it was my turn to climb the stairs and step out onto the narrow platform.

I was looking into a 6-meter-high cylinder(圆柱体) of netting with a wire net floor. Taking directions from my "coach", who was standing 7 at the bottom of the tower, I tightened 8 my helmet, closed my eyes and leaped into the air.

I found myself suspended in the middle of the air — held up by a 130-kilometer-an-hour blast of wind coming from an industrial-strength fan in the bottom of the tower. This is the trick that permits indoor, parachute-free "sky diving". To my tremendous relief, it worked.

For three minutes I flapped on the whistling, pounding, deafening 9 column of wind. It did seem like sky diving, except that there is no diving involved; I floated at about the same level in the tower for the whole bone-shaking ride.

There was a bar hanging from the top of the tower, and I seized it for balance. I struggled uselessly to respond to the instructions of my coach, who was shouting above the roar of the fan to tell me how to ride the wind funnel 10 up and down, left and right, by bending various limbs. Eventually I acquired just enough control to move over to the exit platform. With my blood pressure going crazy but my pride intact, I exited the tower, only slightly shaken after a thrilling encounter with the Japanese concept of leisure.

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n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度
  • I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
  • The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
n.(政府的)部;牧师
  • They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
  • We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。
adv.一年一次,每年
  • Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
  • They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。
n.部门,部分;防御地段,防区;扇形
  • The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
  • The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。
n.(为特殊用途的)全套装备,全套服装
  • Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
  • His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)变紧; (使)绷紧; 加紧
  • The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
  • His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机,然后又松开了。
n.漏斗;烟囱;v.汇集
  • He poured the petrol into the car through a funnel.他用一个漏斗把汽油灌入汽车。
  • I like the ship with a yellow funnel.我喜欢那条有黄烟囱的船。
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-phasia
advanced rural transportation system
ancillary resources
andrologia
arcus frontalis
bacteriomes
battlestars
betula populifolias
Big, large,
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chinne
Chlormuron-ethyl
chromospheric bubble
close in for the kill
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electronic ceramic device
fat vacuole
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grid plate characteristics
inch-meal
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landside slope
lead compensation
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No power
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Pedicularis pseudocephalantha
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property insured
quasi peak
radiation analyzer
reverse conducting thyristor
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Simchat Torah
simulation centre
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skirt
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UnitName
virtual core
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WILKIE
windowless presenter
withdraw an action
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worth his salt