保險杠貼紙讓高速公路更具社交性英語美文

　　“You know how it is when you’re driving behind a car and you notice the bumper sticker, and you think to yourself ‘Oh, it’s that kind of person’ or, ‘Why would somebody put that on their car?’” Walter Goettlich, a sociology graduate student at the University of Kansas.

　　“你知道那是怎樣的感覺嗎——當你開車時跟在一輛車后面，你留意到它的保險杠貼紙，你對自己說，’哦，那就是那種人’，或者’為什么有人把它放在車上呢?”堪薩斯大學社會學研究生Walter Goettlich說。

　　“I was coming back from a vacation with my family…and I was behind a car and the bumper sticker on the car was almost illegible, the type was really tiny and it said, ‘When this baby hits 88 miles an hour, you’re going to see some serious s**t.’”

　　“我和家人度假回來，我前面那輛車的保險杠貼紙幾乎難以辨認，非常微小，它是那樣寫的：‘當這輛車的時速達到每88英里,你會看到奇跡的發生。’”

　　This was Goettlich’s AHA! moment. As you may guessed, the bumper sticker was a reference to the movie Back to the Future. It’s moments like this, on the highway, driving at speed, that can seem so solitary, but in fact there are opportunities to connect—and with perfect strangers.

　　這是Goettlich非常驚喜的時刻。你可能已經猜到，這個貼紙指的是電影《回到未來》，它的那一瞬間和這類似，在高速公路上，開的非常快，看起來如此孤單，但事實上還是有機會聯系的——與完美的陌生人。

　　“That’s’ what I’m trying to get at…the way that we think about the world, based on how we read what other people put on their cars.”

　　“這就是我試著去證實的......我們如何看待世界，可以從我們看到的、其他人車上的貼紙上展現出來。”

　　To sample the kinds of messages being sent on our roads, Goettlich drove more than 10,000 miles on interstate highways throughout the eastern United States. He says one major variety of bumper sticker refers to things nearly everyone knows about—an election, a church, a social issue. But other bumper stickers may require an observer to access what Goettlich calls “outside resources.” For example, the bumper sticker that says, “The Dude Abides” might drive some people to do a quick Google search. But a few viewers may feel an instant bond, being fans of the movie The Big Lebowski.

　　為了對道路上發送的信息進行采樣，Goettlich在美國東部的州際高速公路上行駛了超過10,000英里。 他說，保險杠貼紙主要的一類就是它上面的那些事——選舉、教會、社會問題等是幾乎每個人都知道的。但還有一些保險杠貼紙可能需要觀察員訪問Goettlich所謂的“外部資源”。例如，“The Dude Abides”( 注：電影《The Big Lebowski》中的人物名)這個保險杠標簽可能會讓一些人快速去Google搜索，但是，如果是電影《The Big Lebowski》的粉絲，他就能迅速的聯想起來。

　　“So, the kinds of stickers I tend to like are the ones that don’t make sense to me, because what they do is they challenge my preconceived notions of the world.”

　　“因此，我更喜歡那些對我來說沒有意義的貼紙，因為他們所做的就是挑戰我先入為主的世界觀。”

　　Another type of care sticker is a response to other stickers. For example, you know those window stickers of stick families? Some even include a stick dog or a stick cat? “And then I saw recently another example which was ‘making my family,’ and it was what were clearly male and female stick figures having sex.”

　　另一種類型的貼紙是對其他貼紙的回應。 例如，你知道家庭窗口貼紙嗎? 有些甚至包括一只狗或一只貓? “最近我又看到了另一個“創造我的家人”的例子，那很明顯是男女正在發生性行為的貼紙。

　　Then there are the ones that say, “My son beat up your honor student.”

　　還有一些貼紙上寫著：“我的兒子要打您的學生。”

　　So, when you’re on the road, check the messages sent by other cars around you. You might just connect, in a way you never expected. And without even bending a fender.

　　所以，當你在路上駕駛時，留意你周圍其他車輛傳遞的消息。你可能在以一種你從未想到的方式連接，甚至無需彎曲擋泥板。