罗莎.帕克斯和其他三个黑人坐在中间，此时有一个白人上了公交车，想要一个坐位。司机命令所有的黑人都离开他们的坐位，这样白人就可以不必与他们中的任何一个黑人坐在一起了。这三个黑人站了起来，但帕克斯太太拒绝了，于是她被捕了。在关于此事件的一些流传的说法中，有一个说法是，帕克斯太太之所以拒绝让坐，是因为她的脚实在是太累。但几年后她自己说，那个说法是错误的。她说，她真正感到厌倦的是接受不平等的待遇。她后来解释说，这里似乎就是她要停止那种令人摆布、追求她应有的人权的地方。
蒙哥马利的一个黑人妇女活动组织是著名的一个妇女政治理事会，这个组织正在努力反对黑人在公交车上所受到的不公平待遇。黑人由于冒犯公交司机的命令而经常被捕，甚至被杀。罗莎.帕克斯不是第一个拒绝将自己的坐位让给白人的黑人，但蒙哥马利的黑人组织认为她成为那些抗议者中的有权利的公民，因为她是该城市中最优秀的一位公民。这个妇女组织立即呼吁蒙哥马利市的所有黑人在帕克斯太太受审的那天拒绝乘坐公交车，这一天是12月5日，星期一。其结果，这一天，有四万人步行或使用其他的交通工具。那天晚上，全城举行集会，蒙哥马利市的黑人同意继续联合抵制乘坐市公交车，一直到他们所受的不平等待遇结束为止。他们还要求市政官员雇用黑人司机，而且任何人都可以坐在公交车的中间，而不必给他人让坐。
蒙哥马利市联合抵制公交车行动一直持续了381天，这一行动是由当地黑人领导人尼克松和一名年轻黑人部长马丁.路德.金领导的。类似的抗议活动在其他南方城市相继出现。最后，美国最高法院对帕克斯太太的案件作出裁决，该裁决城市公交车上实施种族隔离为非法。这一裁决于1956年11月13日作出，几乎是帕克斯太太被捕的一年之后。蒙哥马利市的联合抵制乘坐公交车的行动于该裁决到达的当天，即1956年12月20日结束。罗莎.帕克斯和马丁.路德.金在美国南方开始了非暴力抗议运动，这一非暴力抗议运动永远改变了美国的民权状况。马丁.路德.金成为该运动著名的演说家，但他没能看到他所为之努力的成果，而罗莎.帕克斯看到了。
在联合抵制乘坐公交车后，罗莎.帕克斯和她家庭的生活越来越困难，她被解雇了，而且没能找到工作，所以，帕克斯一家离开蒙哥马利，他们搬到了维吉尼亚，后来又搬到了密歇根州的底特律。帕克斯太太在1965年以前一直做裁缝。后来，密歇根州国会代表John Conyers给她提供了一份岗位――――在他位于底特律的国会办公室中工作，她从事此项工作一直到1988年退休为止。
纵观她的一生，罗莎.帕克斯一直为全国有色人种发展联合会（NAACP）工作，并参与了各种民权活动。她是一位宁静的女性，这似乎与她的名声不怎么相符。但她说，她想帮助别人，特别是想帮助年轻人，让他们自己而更好地生活，同时也帮助他人。在1987年，她成立了罗莎－雷蒙德.帕克斯自我发展协会，以帮助改善黑人儿童的生活状况。
罗莎.帕克斯由于她在民权运动的杰出贡献而获得两项国家最高荣誉。在1996年，克林顿总统授予她总统自由勋章，在1999年，她又获得了国会授予的金质勋章。
在她晚年，人们经常问罗莎.帕克斯，当民权法律在二十世纪六十年代得到通过后，种族之间的关系得到了多少改善，她认为消除种族之间的隔阂还有很长的路要走，她仍然关注美国的种族平等运动。罗莎.帕克斯于2005年10月24日逝世，享年92岁。她的遗体被安放在华盛顿的美国国会大厦，她是第一位获此荣誉的美国女性。三万多人静静地向她的遗体告别，
以显示他们对她的敬仰。Conyers众议员谈到，这位女性平静的力量对美国意味着什么，他说：“在美国，只有少数几个人敢说，他们的行为改变了美国的形象，罗莎.帕克斯就是其中之一。”
unit 3 The Land of the Lock
Years ago in America, it was customary for families to leave their doors unlocked, day and night. In this essay, Greene regrets that people can no longer trust each other and have to resort to elaborate security systems to protect themselves and their possessions.
许多年前，在美国，家家户户白天黑夜不锁门是司空见惯的。在本文中，格林叹惜人们不再相互信任，不得不凭借精密的安全设备来保护自己和财产。
The Land of the Lock Bob Greene
1 In the house where I grew up, it was our custom to leave the front door on the latch at night. I don't know if that was a local term or if it is universal; \closed but not locked. None of us carried keys; the last one in for the evening would close up, and that was it. 锁之国 鲍伯·格林
小时候在家里，我们的前门总是夜不落锁。我不知道这是当地的一种说法还是大家都这么说；\不落锁\的意思是掩上门，但不锁住。我们谁都不带钥匙；晚上最后一个回家的人把门关上，这就行了。
2 Those days are over. In rural areas as well as in cities, doors do not stay unlocked, even for part of an evening.
那样的日子已经一去不复返了。在乡下，在城里，门不再关着不锁上，哪怕是傍晚一段时间也不例外。
3 Suburbs and country areas are, in many ways, even more vulnerable than well-patroled urban streets. Statistics show the crime rate rising more dramatically in those allegedly tranquil areas than in cities. At any rate, the era of leaving the front door on the latch is over.
在许多方面，郊区和农村甚至比巡查严密的城市街道更易受到攻击。统计显示，那些据称是安宁的地区的犯罪率上升得比城镇更为显著。不管怎么说，前门虚掩不落锁的时代是
一去不复返了。
4 It has been replaced by dead-bolt locks, security chains, electronic alarm systems and trip wires hooked up to a police station or private guard firm. Many suburban families have sliding glass doors on their patios, with steel bars elegantly built in so no one can pry the doors open. 取而代之的是防盗锁、防护链、电子报警系统，以及连接警署或私人保安公司的报警装置。郊区的许多人家在露台上安装了玻璃滑门，内侧有装得很讲究的钢条，这样就没人能把门撬开。
5 It is not uncommon, in the most pleasant of homes, to see pasted on the windows small notices announcing that the premises are under surveillance by this security force or that guard company. 在最温馨的居家，也常常看得到窗上贴着小小的告示，称本宅由某家安全机构或某个保安公司负责监管。
6 The lock is the new symbol of America. Indeed, a recent public-service advertisement by a large insurance company featured not charts showing how much at risk we are, but a picture of a child's bicycle with the now-usual padlock attached to it. 锁成了美国的新的象征。的确，一家大保险公司最近的一则公益广告没有用图表表明我们所处的危险有多大，而是用了一幅童车的图片，车身上悬着如今无所不在的挂锁。
7 The ad pointed out that, yes, it is the insurance companies that pay for stolen goods, but who is going to pay for what the new atmosphere of distrust and fear is doing to our way of life? Who is going to make the psychic payment for the transformation of America from the Land of the Free to the Land of the Lock?
广告指出，没错，确是保险公司理赔失窃物品，但谁来赔偿互不信任、担心害怕这种新氛围对我们的生活方式所造成的影响呢？谁来对美国从自由之国到锁之国这一蜕变作出精神赔偿呢？
8 For that is what has happened. We have become so used to defending ourselves against the new atmosphere of American life, so used to putting up barriers, that we have not had time to think about what it may mean. 因为那就是现状。我们已经变得如此习惯于保护自己不受美国生活新氛围的影响，如此习惯于设置障碍，因而无暇考虑这一切意味着什么。
9 For some reason we are satisfied when we think we are well-protected; it does not occur to us to ask ourselves: Why has this happened? Why are we having to barricade ourselves against our neighbors and fellow citizens, and when, exactly, did this start to take over our lives?
出于某种原因，当我们觉得防范周密时就感到心满意足；我们没有问过自己：为什么会出现这种情况？为什么非得把自己与邻居和同住一城的居民相隔绝，这一切究竟是从什么时候开始主宰我们生活的？
10 And it has taken over. If you work for a medium- to large-size company, chances are that you don't just wander in and out of work. You probably carry some kind of access card, electronic or otherwise, that allows you in and out of your place of work. Maybe the security guard at the
front desk knows your face and will wave you in most days, but the fact remains that the business you work for feels threatened enough to keep outsiders away via these \ 这一切确是主宰了我们的生活。如果你在一家大中型公司上班，你上下班很可能不好随意进出。你可能随身带着某种出入卡，电子的或别的什么的，因为这卡能让你进出工作场所。也许前台的保安认识你这张脸，平日一挥手让你进去，但事实明摆着，你所任职的公司深感面临威胁，因此要借助这些“钥匙”不让外人靠近。
11 It wasn't always like this. Even a decade ago, most private businesses had a policy of free access. It simply didn't occur to managers that the proper thing to do was to distrust people.
这一现象并非向来有之。即使在十年前，大多数私营公司仍采取自由出入的做法。那时管理人员根本没想到过恰当的手段是不信任他人。
12 Look at the airports. Parents used to take children out to departure gates to watch planes land and take off. That's all gone. Airports are no longer a place of education and fun; they are the most sophisticated of security sites.
且看各地机场。过去家长常常带孩子去登机口看飞机起飞降落。这种事再也没有了。机场不再是一个有趣的学习场所；它们成了拥有最精密的安全检查系统的场所。
13 With electronic X-ray equipment, we seem finally to have figured out a way to hold the terrorists, real and imagined, at bay; it was such a relief to solve this problem that we did not think much about what such a state of affairs says about the quality of our lives. We now pass through these electronic friskers without so much as a sideways glance; the machines, and what they stand for, have won.
凭借着电子透视装置，我们似乎终于想出妙计让恐怖分子无法近身，无论是真的恐怖分子还是凭空臆想的。能解决这一问题真是如释重负，于是我们不去多想这种状况对我们的生活质量意味着什么。如今我们走过这些电子搜查器时已经看都不看一眼了，这些装置，还有它们所代表的一切已经获胜。
14 Our neighborhoods are bathed in high-intensity light; we do not want to afford ourselves even so much a luxury as a shadow.
我们的居住区处在强光源的照射下；我们连哪怕像阴影这样小小的享受也不想给自己。
15 Businessmen, in increasing numbers, are purchasing new machines that hook up to the telephone and analyze a caller's voice. The machines are supposed to tell the businessman, with a small margin of error, whether his friend or client is telling lies. 越来越多的商人正购置连接在电话机上、能剖析来电者声音的新机器。据说那种机器能让商人知道他的朋友或客户是否在撒谎，其出错概率很小。
16 All this is being done in the name of \that is what we tell ourselves. We are fearful, and so we devise ways to lock the fear out, and that, we decide, is what security means. 所有这一切都是以“安全”的名义实施的：我们是这么跟自己说的。我们害怕，于是我们设法把害怕锁在外面，我们认定，那就是安全的意义。
17 But no; with all this \civilized man. What better word to describe the way in which we have been forced to live? What sadder reflection on all that we have become in this new and puzzling time? 其实不然；我们虽然有了这一切安全措施，但我们或许是人类文明史上最不安全的国民。还有什么更好的字眼能用来描述我们被迫选择的生活方式呢？还有什么更为可悲地表明我们在这个令人困惑的新时代所感受到的惶恐之情呢？
18 We trust no one. Suburban housewives wear rape whistles on their station wagon key chains. We have become so smart about self-protection that, in the end, we have all outsmarted ourselves. We may have locked the evils out, but in so doing we have locked ourselves in. 我们不信任任何人。郊区的家庭主妇在客货两用车钥匙链上挂着防强暴口哨。我们在自我防卫方面变得如此聪明，最终聪明反被聪明误。我们或许是把邪恶锁在了门外，但在这么做的同时我们把自己锁在里边了。
19 That may be the legacy we remember best when we look back on this age: In dealing with the unseen horrors among us, we became prisoners of ourselves. All of us prisoners, in this time of our troubles.
那也许是我们将来回顾这一时代时记得最牢的精神遗产：在对付我们中间无形的恐惧之时，我们成了自己的囚徒。在我们这个问题重重的时代，所有的人都是囚徒。
Many people in America own handguns. Some, like Gail Buchalter, buy a gun for self-defense. Others, like her friends, refuse to do so because they think that guns cause more problems than they solve. Gail used to share her friends' views, but eventually changed her mind. Read what she has to say and decide whether she made the right choice.
在美国，许多人拥有手枪。有人为了自卫买枪，如盖尔·巴卡尔特。另外一些人则拒绝这么做，比如她的许多朋友，因为他们认为，枪支引发的问题比解决的更多。以前盖尔与她的朋友们持有相同的观点，但后来她改变了看法。读一读她所说的一切，并判定她的选择是否明智。
Why I Bought A Gun
Gail Buchalter
1 I was raised in one of Manhattan's more desirable neighborhoods. My upper-middle-class background never involved guns. If my parents felt threatened, they simply put another lock on the door.
我为什么买枪 盖尔·巴卡尔特
我在曼哈顿一个相当不错的社区长大。我的中上阶级的社会背景从来与枪支无涉。我的父母要是觉得有威胁存在，他们仅仅是在门上再加把锁。
2 By high school, I had traded in my cashmere sweaters for a black arm band. I marched for Civil Rights, shunned Civil Defense drills and protested the Vietnam war. It was easy being 18 and a peacenik. I wasn't raising an 11-year-old child then.