2008年6月真题短文2(1/2)

It seems to me that neighbors are going out of style in America. The friend next door from whom you borrowed for eggs or a ladder has moved and the people in there now are strangers. Some of the traditional stories of neighborliness are impractical or silly and maybe just as well that our relations with our neighbors are changing. The saying in the Bible "Love thy neighbor" was probably a poor translation of what must have originally been, "respect thy neighbor". Love can be called up on order. Fewer than half the people in the United States live in the same house they lived in five years ago. So there is no reason to love the people who live next door to you, just because they happen to wander into a real estate office that listed the place next door to yours.

在我看来“邻居”在美国已经过时了，那个住你对门向你借鸡蛋或梯子的朋友已经搬走了，现在住在那儿的是一个陌生人。许多讲述邻居情谊的传统故事现在看来不切实际并且很愚蠢，或许这也正说明了我们的邻里关系正在发生变化。圣经里的格言“去爱你的邻居”也许是对最初的邻居关系的阐述。去尊重你的邻居，你将获得爱。将近半数的美国人住在五年前搬入的房子里。只是因为他们恰巧被住宅规划办公室安排在住你们对面，所以你们没有理由去爱住在对面的人。