工作和娱乐_大学英语阅读_大学英语-查字典英语网

工作和娱乐

　　Scientific studies have been made of street-corner society, out of which crime, gangsterdom, and fascism inevitably develop. It is a society with leisure that is to say, spare time and without compensatory occupation. It does not need a Satan to find mischief for such idle hands. They will spontaneously itch to do something: muscles have a life of their own unless they are trained to purposeful actions. Actions, or rather activities, are the obvious reflex to leisure; they consume it, and leave the problem solved.

　　But work is also activity, and if we reach the conclusion that all our time must be filled with one activity or another, the distinction between work and play becomes rather meaningless, and what we mean by play is merely a change of occupation. We pass from one form of activity to another; one we call work, and for that we receive pay; the other we call play, and for that we receive no pay on the contrary, we probably pay a subscription.

　　1. The Industrial Revolution brought about a change in the nature of peoples work as well as in the amount of time it took.

　　2. Passive entertainment, which has increased in our age, leads to a decline in health and may also create psychological problems.

　　3. The division of activities into work and play is unsatisfactory because it conceals the important distinction between active entertainment and passive entertainment.