可以说从一万两千年前农业的发展开始，对我们的生活所产生的影响最为深远的两大发明是电灯和汽车。电灯使得人们可以抹去白昼和黑夜的分界，而汽车则扩大了我们的地理边界，并使得我们能去任何我们想去的地方。
　　我们对汽车持有一种我们对其它机器（包括冰箱、飞机甚至电脑）所没有的情感。我们总赋予汽车某种情感—喜爱、刺激甚至爱情。
　　想想一百年前这个世界的状况。外出是一件缓慢而且艰难的事。到哪里去都是一个大问题。大部分的道路遍地砂土。城市总是建立在溪流、湖泊或者铁路边上，显得局促而拥挤。如今道路很快为汽车改造成城市综合设施。为了美国的3亿辆汽车，许多楼宇被夷平，许多田地被铺成停车场。
　　公路沿途上有汽车旅馆、快餐店、购物商场、汽车电影院、汽车银行、汽车花店，甚至汽车殡仪馆。有可靠数据表明，六分之一或七分之一有工作的美国人都从事与汽车的制造、销售或维修有关的工作。
　　汽车与其它机器迥然不同，它是我们的一部分。
　　爷爷的时代已过去，连回忆也已变得遥不可及。如果你现在时值中年，那么这种变化是可喜的，因为你的祖父出生在汽车让美国人的生活发生翻天覆地的变化之前。在三代人的岁月中，电力、电话、收音机、电视机、飞机、电脑，甚至太空旅行，已经将我们的生活方式改变得令人难以置信。但是没有任何发明像汽车那样，使得我们的日常生活发生如此大的改变。
　　爷爷才能记得当年那个与现在很不同的世界。
　　


　　Automobile Is Part of Us in the U.S.
　　
　　It could be argued that since the development of agriculture about 12,000 years ago, the two inventions which have had the most profound^[深远的] effect on the way we live have been the electric light and the automobile. The electric light made it possible to erase^[抹去] the boundary^[边界] between day and night. The automobile expanded^[扩张] our geographic boundaries and allowed us to go where we want and live where we want.
　　We reserve^[保存] an emotion^[感情] for the car we do not have for other machines, not with refrigerators, or airplanes or even computers. The car has been venerated^[尊敬] as an object of affection^[感情], excitement, even love.
　　Think for a moment about the world of 100 years ago. Travel was slow and difficult. A trip to anywhere was a major^[较大的] undertaking^[事业]. Most roads were just gravel^[砾石] or dirt^[尘土]. Cities, usually built on streams or lakes or rail lines were compact^[狭小的] and congested^[拥挤的]. Now the roads were quickly transformed by the car into urban complexes^{[综合设施]}. Buildings have been razed^[夷平] and farmland paved over to provide parking^[停车场] for the 300 million vehicles in the United States.
　　And along those roads are motels (motor hotels), fast food restaurants, shopping malls, drive in movies, drive in banks, drive in florists^[花店], even drive in funeral homes^[殡仪馆]. Depending on whose figures you accept, one in six or one in seven working Americans are engaged in the building, selling or maintenance^[维修] of motor vehicles.
　　The automobile is, like no other machine, part of us.
　　Grandpa’s world is gone, changed beyond recall^[回忆]. If you are now in middle age, there is a good chancethat your grandparents were born before the automobile worked its enormous^[巨大的] change on American life. In about three generations electrical power, the telephone, radio, TV, airplanes, computers, even space travel, have changed the way we live beyond recognition^[认识]. But no invention has changed our day to day life quite so much as the automobile.
　　Grandpa can remember when the world was a lot different.