The Quick Fix Society the meaning of the

The Quick Fix Society the meaning of the title?

My husband I just got back from a week's vacation in West Virginia. Of course, we couldn't wait to get there, so we took the Pennsylvania Turnpike and a couple of interstates. "Look at those beautiful farms!" my husband exclaimed as pastoral scenery slid by us at 55 mph. "Did you see those cows? " But at 55 mph, it's difficult to see anything; the beautiful farms look like moving green checkerboards, and the herd of cows is reduced to a sprinkling of dots in the rear-view mirror. 后视镜

For four hours, our only real amusement consisted of counting exit signs and wondering what it would feel like to hold still again. Getting there certainly didn't seem like half the fun; in fact, getting there wasn't any fun at all. The turnpike trip of getting to West Virginia wasn’t any fun at all.

1) All the wheels of the truck were tied up with skidding on the ice road. iron chains to avoid ____ 2) He was still mumbling something about hospitals at the end of the party when he slipped on a piece of ice and broke his ____ left leg.

slid 3) She fell over and ____ across the shiny floor. slides into those mechanical and 4) He ____ untruthful habits of thought. gliders 5) The albatross is the king of ____.

So, when it was time to return to our home outside of Philadelphia, I insisted that we take a different route. “I insisted that we take a different route. ” subjunctive mood. subject + order/command/demand/request/ask recommend/propose/suggest+ that… It is + important/vital/essential/necessary/desirable + that…

"Let's explore that countryside, " I suggested. Be Thefilled two with days it took us to make the return trip were studded with new experiences. We toured a Civil War battlefield and stood on the little hill that fifteen thousand Confederate soldiers had tried to take on another hot July afternoon, one hundred and twenty-five years ago, not knowing that half of them would die in the vain attempt. stud n. ��, 大��, �扣, 种�, �扣, v. 使散分 studded with / stud sth. with

We drove through main streets of sleepy Pennsylvania towns, slowing to twenty miles an hour so as not to crowd the horses on their way to market. We admired toy trains and antique cars in county museums and saved 70 percent in factory outlets. We stuffed ourselves with spicy salads and homemade bread pudding in an “all-you-can-eat” farmhouse restaurant, then wandered outside to enjoy the sunshine and the herds of cows--no figures of little dots this time--basking in it. And we speech? returned home refreshed, reeducated, revitalized. This time, getting there had been the fun.

Why is it that the featureless turnpikes and interstates are the routes of choice for so many of us? Why doesn't everybody try slowing down and 快行道 the countryside? But more and more, the exploring fast lane seems to be the only way for us to go. In fact, most Americans are constantly in a hurry--and not just to get from Point A to Point B. Our country has become a nation in search of the quick fix--in more ways than one. Find out the topic sentence of this paragraph

Now instead of later: Once upon a time, Americans understood the principle of deferred gratification. We put a little of each paycheck away "for a rainy day". deferred adj. 延�的，推�的延�的或拖延的： defer vt. 拖延, 延期, 展期, 延� defer payment ; defer red income I shall defer replying till I hear from home. paycheck: payment, salary for a rainy day : take precautions

If we wanted a new sofa or a week at a lakeside cabin, we saved up for it, and the banks helped us out by providing special Christmas Club and Vacation Clubs accounts. If we lived in the right part of the country, we planted corn and beans and waited patiently for the harvest. If we wanted to be thinner, we simply ate less of our favorite foods and waited patiently for the scale to drop, a pound at a time. But … What does “but” indicate?

But today we aren't so patient. We take out loans instead of making deposits, or we use our VISA or Mastercard to get that furniture or 现成的 vacation trip--relax now, pay later. We buy our food, like our clothing, ready-made and off the rack. And if we're in a hurry to lose weight, we try the latest miracle diet, guaranteed to shed ten pounds in ten days. ready-made & off the rack Main idea? food & clothing

Faster instead of slower: Not only do we want it now; we don't even want to be kept waiting for it. This pervasive impatience, 综合症 are expected to be talked about next? the. What "I-hate-to-wait" syndrome, has infected every level of our lives. Instead of standing in line at the bank, we withdraw twenty dollars in as many seconds from an automatic teller machine. Then we take our fast money to a fast convenience store (why wait in line at the supermarket? ), where we buy a frozen dinner all wrapped up and ready to be popped into the microwave. . . unless we don't care to wait even that long and pick up some fast food instead.

And if our fast meal doesn't agree with us, we hurry to the medicine cabinet for--you guessed it. Contents of -some fast relief. We like fast pictures, so we buy Polaroid fast cameras. We like fast entertainment, so we record our information favorite TV show on the VCR so we can "zap" each commercial, and stop watching if nothing exciting happens in the opening thirty seconds. We like our information fast, too: messages flashed on a computer screen, documents faxed from your telephone to mine, current events in 90 -second bursts on Eyewitness News, history reduced to "Bicentennial Minutes". Symbolically, the American eagle now flies for Express Mail. How dare anyone keep America waiting longer than overnight?

wrap up 1) 打包 food wrapped up 2) 结束得出结论；最终或成功地解决： wrap up a business deal. 做成一笔交易 3) 总结，概括 wrapped up in 1) 全神贯注于完全沉浸于或专注于： She is wrapped up in her studies. 2) 牵扯到： They were wrapped up in criminal activities.

agree with 1) 一致；相符合 agree with sb. 同意某人的话 2) 适宜健康；与…相宜 The liquor did not agree with me.

Superficially instead of thoroughly: What's more, we don't even want all of it. Once, we lingered over every word of a classic novel or the latest best-seller. Today, since faster is better, we read the condensed version or pop an audiocassette of the book into our car's tape player to listen to on the way to work. Or we buy the Cliff's Notes, linger over: to take a long time about; to give a lot of attention to Don’t longer over the meal, we have a train to catch. The book has been read, reread and lovingly lingered over.

especially if we are students, so we don't have to deal with the book at all. Once, we listened a short. Fifth simple tune on which a to every note of Beethoven's Symphony. Today, piece of is based we don't have the time; instead, wemusic can enjoy 26 seconds of that famous "da-da-da-DUM“ theme--and 99 other musical excerpts almost as famous--on our "Greatest Moments of the Classics" CD. After all, why waste 45 minutes listening to the whole thing when someone else has saved us the trouble of picking out the best parts? How to paraphrase this sentence?

condense: to put into a smaller or shortened form I’ve tried to condense ten pages of comments into two. I tried to condense every report into as few words as possible. During cold nights, dew condenses on the leaves. to turn gas into liquid

Paraphrase: Since the others have already picked the choicest pieces of music for us, we then need not waste our time of listening to the whole.

Our magazine articles come to us pre-digested in �� Reader's Digest. Our news briefings, thanks to USA Today, are more brief than ever. Even our personal relationships have become compressed. Instead of devoting large segments of our days to our loved ones--after all, we are busy people--we substitute something called "quality time", which, more often than not, is no time at all. As we 冰山原� rush from book to music to news item to relationship, we do not realize that we are living our lives by the iceberg principle —paying attention only to the top and ignoring the 8/9 that lies just below the surface. The magazine articles are picked by Reader’s Digest before we read them.

This paragraph shows us that people now want things done superficially instead of thoroughly. ( books, music, news briefs, family relationship… )

When did it all begin, this urge to do it now, to get it over with, to skim the surface of life? Why are we in such a hurry to save time? And what, pray tell, are we going to do with all the time we save--besides, of course, rushing out to save some more? The sad truth is that we don't know how to use the time we save, because all we're good at is saving time. . . not spending time. get over with [口]一�永逸地做完 pray : 祷告，�求，�求 We’re praying for good weather for tomorrow’s cricket match.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should go back to growing our own vegetables or knitting our own sweaters or putting our paychecks into piggy banks. I'm not even advocating a mass movement to cut all our credit cards into little pieces. advocate vt ��；提倡； 主� He advocates building more schools. 他主�多建几所学校。 n. ��者; 律�; ��者; 倡�者 an advocate of peace advocates for abused children and spouses.

toneed to think But I am saying. Put thatan allend of us more seriously about putting the brakes on our "wewant-it-all-and-we-want-it-now" lifestyle before we speed completely out of control. Let's take the time to read every word of that story, hear every note of that music, savor every nuance of that countryside--or 慢行道 that other person. Let's rediscover life in the slow lane. a subtle or slight degree of difference,