第46课

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So great is our passion for doing things for ourselves,

我们自己动手做事情的热情如此高涨，

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that we are becoming increasingly less dependent on specialized labour.

以至于我们对专业劳动的依赖越来越少。

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No one can plead ignorance of a subject any longer, for there are countless do-it-yourself publications.

任何人不能再声称对某事一无所知了，因为有无数的自己动手刊物。

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Armed with the right tools and materials, newlyweds gaily embark on the task of decorating their own homes.

新婚夫妇带着合适的工具和材料，愉快地着手装饰自己的家园。

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Men, particularly, spend hours of their leisure time installing their own fireplaces,

男人们，尤其是，花费数小时的闲暇时间安装自己的壁炉，

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laying out their own gardens; building garages and making furniture.

布置自己的花园；建造车库和制作家具。

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Some really keen enthusiasts go so far as to build their own computers.

一些真正热心的爱好者甚至自己组装电脑。

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Shops cater for the do-it-yourself craze not only by running special advisory services for novices,

商店为了迎合这种自己动手热潮，不仅为新手提供专门的咨询服务，

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but by offering consumers bits and pieces which they can assemble at home.

而且还向消费者提供他们可以在家组装的零配件。

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Such things provide an excellent outlet for pent up creative energy, but unfortunately not all of us are born handymen.

这样的事情为积压的创造性精力提供了很好的发泄途径，但不幸的是，我们并非所有人都是天生的巧匠。

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Some wives tend to believe that their husbands are infinitely resourceful and can fix anything.

一些妻子倾向于认为她们的丈夫足智多谋，什么都能修好。

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Even men who can hardly drive a nail in straight are supposed to be born electricians, carpenters, plumbers and mechanics.

即使那些连钉子都钉不直的男人，也被认为是天生的电工、木匠、水管工和机械师。

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When lights fuse, furniture gets rickety, pipes get clogged, or vacuum cleaners fail to operate,

当灯泡烧坏、家具摇晃、管道堵塞或吸尘器无法工作时，

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some women assume that their husbands will somehow put things right.

一些女人会认为她们的丈夫总会把事情弄好。

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The worst thing about the do-it-yourself game is that sometimes even men live under the delusion that they can do anything,

自己动手游戏的糟糕之处在于，有时连男人也活在自己无所不能的错觉中，

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even when they have repeatedly been proved wrong.

即使他们一再被证明是错的。

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It is a question of pride as much as anything else.

这更多的是一个面子问题。

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Last spring my wife suggested that I call in a man to look at our lawn mower.

去年春天，我妻子建议我请人来修理我们的割草机。

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It had broken down the previous summer, and though I promised to repair it, I had never got round to it.

它在前一个夏天坏了，虽然我答应修理，但一直没空动手。

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I would not hear of the suggestion and said that I would fix it myself.

我不听她的建议，说我会自己修好它。

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One Saturday afternoon, I hauled the machine into the garden and had a close look at it.

一个星期六下午，我把机器拖到花园里仔细查看。

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As far as I could see, it needed only a minor adjustment:

据我所见，它只需要做一些小调整：

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a turn of a screw here, a little tightening up there, a drop of oil and it would be as good as new.

这里拧一下螺丝，那里紧一紧，再滴一滴油，就会焕然一新。

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Inevitably the repair job was not quite so simple.

不可避免地，这项修理工作远没有那么简单。

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The mower firmly refused to mow, so I decided to dismantle it.

割草机坚决不肯割草，所以我决定把它拆开。

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The garden was soon littered with chunks of metal which had once made up a lawn mower.

花园里很快就散落着曾经组成割草机的金属碎片。

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But I was extremely pleased with myself. I had traced the cause of the trouble.

但我对自己非常满意。我找到了故障的原因。

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One of the links in the chain that drives the wheels had snapped.

驱动车轮的链条上的一环断裂了。

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After buying a new chain I was faced with the insurmountable task of putting the confusing jigsaw puzzle together again.

买了一条新链条后，我面临着一项无法克服的任务：把这个令人困惑的拼图重新组装起来。

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I was not surprised to find that the machine still refused to work after I had reassembled it,

我重新组装好机器后，发现它仍然无法工作，对此我并不感到惊讶，

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for the simple reason that I was left with several curiously shaped bits of metal which did not seem to fit anywhere.

理由很简单，我剩下了一些形状奇特的金属零件，似乎哪里也安不上。

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I gave up in despair.

我绝望地放弃了。

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The weeks passed and the grass grew.

几周过去了，草长高了。

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When my wife nagged me to do something about it,

当我妻子唠叨我该做些什么时，

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I told her that either I would have to buy a new mower or let the grass grow.

我告诉她，要么我买一台新割草机，要么就让草长着。

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Needless to say our house is now surrounded by a jungle.

不用说，我们的房子现在被一片丛林包围着。

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Buried somewhere in deep grass there is a rusting lawn mower which I have promised to repair one day.

某个地方，在深草丛中埋着一台生锈的割草机，我曾承诺有一天会把它修好。