标记时间—七天之痒
Marking time -- The seven-day itch
刘立军 供稿
TRANSCRIPT
Book Review
Marking time -- The seven-day itch: The Week by David Henkin.
In the autumn of 1853 Thomas Butler Gunn got lost - temporally rather than physically. On a visit to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and isolated from the outside world, his diary quickly slipped the moorings of chronological reality. Wednesdays are repeated and days go mislabelled. It took around a fortnight, and renewed contact with civilisation, for Gunn to restore his weekly bearings.
The episode, says David Henkin, suggests how fragile a sense of time can be - especially when it comes to weeks. Unlike months or years, these seven-day groupings have no real basis in astronomy. People from Nigeria to China have thrived without them. And yet the week has become the measure not only of routine, but even of sanity." Weekly rhythms have become so thoroughly absorbed into ordinary human experience", Mr Henkin writes, "that forgetting what day it is constitutes a singular symptom and feeling of disorientation."
His new book shows how the week came to rule the world. Until the 19th century, he explains, the other days were a preamble to the Sabbath for many Protestants. Catholics followed a cycle of feast days and fasts. When newspapers, factory schedules and weekly paydays were all rarer, the weekly structure was less important. People got muddled, not just underground. As late as 1866, the Louisville Courier mentioned a man getting drunk on Friday because he thought it was Saturday.
In outline, the story is one of urban development. As towns grew and society became more sophisticated, citizens "became differently and more intensely week-oriented, in ways we can now recognise as modern". When his local benevolent society met on Wednesdays in 1859, and choral concerts were scheduled for Fridays, James Fiske of Massachusetts couldn't afford to mix up his days. When Every Saturday magazine landed in New York each weekend in 1866, Bayard Taylor was expecting it.
Later anecdotes illustrate the "distinctive air" that individual days came to develop - the particular associations each subliminally carries. Philadelphians once used chains to block horse traffic on Sundays. The advent of washing machines disrupted the weekly cleaning schedule.
In due course Westerners exported these feelings to the world. Japan formally adopted the seven-day system only in 1873; all the same, a character in a novel by Haruki Murakami is as sure of something "as I am that today is Wednesday".
That sort of conviction is now crumbling. French and Russian revolutionaries ultimately failed in their attempts to abolish the seven-day week, but for many people the pandemic has squashed the weekly rhythm into an interminable present. Monday, runs the joke, has been replaced by Noneday. As Netflix offers entertainment on a whim, and morning newspapers become obsolete, Mr Henkin argues that "the hold of the week on our lives loosens, and our place in the cycle becomes in turn less memorable." Everyone may soon start to feel a bit like Thomas Butler Gunn.
VOCABULARY
1. temporally adv. 暂时地
2. moorings n. the place where a ship or boat is moored 停泊处；系泊区。例如：private moorings 私人停泊区
3. chronological adj. (of a number of events 许多事件) arranged in the order in which they happened 按发生时间顺序排列的。例如：The facts should be presented in chronological order. 这些事实应按时间先后顺序陈述。
4. fortnight n. (British English) two weeks 两星期。例如：a fortnight's holiday 两周的假期
5. astronomy n. the scientific study of the sun, moon, stars, planets, etc. 天文学
6. thrive v. to become, and continue to be, successful, strong, healthy, etc. 兴旺发达；繁荣；蓬勃发展；旺盛；茁壮成长。例如：New businesses thrive in this area. 新商家在这一地区蓬勃兴起。
7. sanity n. the state of having a normal healthy mind 精神健全；神志正常。例如：to keep/preserve your sanity 保持头脑清醒
8. preamble n. (formal) an introduction to a book or a written document; an introduction to sth. you say 序言；绪论；导言；前言；开场白。例如：She gave him the bad news without preamble. 她开门见山地把坏消息告诉了他。
9. the Sabbath: （单数）(in Judaism and Christianity 犹太教和基督教) the holy day of the week that is used for resting and worshipping God. For Jews this day is Saturday and for Christians it is Sunday. 安息日（犹太教定为星期六，基督教定为星期日）。例如：to keep/break the Sabbath (= to obey/not obey the religious rules for this day) 守 / 不守安息日
10. Protestant n. a member of a part of the Western Christian Church that separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century 新教教徒（16世纪脱离罗马天主教）
11. muddled adj. (especially British English) confused 糊涂的；困惑的；混乱的。例如：He gets muddled when the teacher starts shouting. 老师一喊叫他就心烦意乱。
12. benevolent adj. (formal) (especially of people in authority 尤指当权者) kind, helpful and generous 慈善的；仁慈的；乐善好施的。例如：a benevolent smile/attitude 和蔼的笑容 / 态度
13. choral adj. connected with, written for or sung by a choir (= a group of singers) 唱诗班的；为唱诗班谱写的；由唱诗班演唱的；合唱的。例如：choral music合唱音乐
14. subliminal adj. affecting your mind even though you are not aware of it 下意识的；潜意识的。例如：subliminal advertising 隐性广告
15. conviction n. a strong opinion or belief 坚定的看法（或信念）。例如：strong political/moral convictions 坚定不移的政治 / 道德信念
16. crumble v. to begin to fail or get weaker or to come to an end （开始渐渐）衰退，衰弱；崩溃；瓦解；消亡。例如：All his hopes began to crumble away. 他所有的希望开始化为泡影。
17. interminable adj. lasting a very long time and therefore boring or annoying 冗长的；没完没了的。例如：an interminable speech/wait/discussion 无休止的讲话 / 等待 / 讨论
18. whim n. a sudden wish to do or have sth., especially when it is sth. unusual or unnecessary 心血来潮；一时的兴致；突发的奇想。例如：We bought the house on a whim. 我们一时冲动买了这所房子。
19. obsolete adj. no longer used because sth. new has been invented 淘汰的；废弃的；过时的。例如：With technological changes many traditional skills have become obsolete. 随着技术的革新，许多传统技艺已被淘汰。
QUESTIONS
Read the statements. Then listen to the news and decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F). Then correct the false statements.
1. In the autumn of 1853 Thomas Butler Gunn got lost physically rather than temporally.
2. Unlike months or years, these seven-day groupings have some real basis in astronomy.
3. As late as 1866, the Louisville Courier mentioned a man getting drunk on Friday because he thought it was Sunday.
4. Philadelphians once used chains to block horse traffic on Sundays.
5. French and German revolutionaries ultimately failed in their attempts to abolish the seven-day week.
KEY
Read the statements. Then listen to the news and decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F). Then correct the false statements.
(F) 1. In the autumn of 1853 Thomas Butler Gunn got lost physically rather than temporally.（正确表达）In the autumn of 1853 Thomas Butler Gunn got lost temporally rather than physically.
(F) 2. Unlike months or years, these seven-day groupings have some real basis in astronomy.（正确表达）Unlike months or years, these seven-day groupings have no real basis in astronomy.
(F) 3. As late as 1866, the Louisville Courier mentioned a man getting drunk on Friday because he thought it was Sunday.（正确表达）As late as 1866, the Louisville Courier mentioned a man getting drunk on Friday because he thought it was Saturday.
(T) 4. Philadelphians once used chains to block horse traffic on Sundays.
(F) 5. French and German revolutionaries ultimately failed in their attempts to abolish the seven-day week.（正确表达）French and Russian revolutionaries ultimately failed in their attempts to abolish the seven-day week.
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