2005年NPR美国国家公共电台十二月-The Value of Family Meals Together

With two-income households, soccer practice and glee club rehearsals², getting Mom and Dad and Heather and Zeke to sit down for dinner together isn't as easy as it was back in the days of "Leave it to Beaver³". But as Weekend Edition food essayist Bonny Wolf notes, it's worth the trouble.

June Cleaver⁴ has left the building; she's taken with her Ward's slippers⁵, her good pearls and the illusion of the perfect family sitting down to dinner together every night. It seems pretty self-evident that the family dinner is important. But only about half of the families in America can get it together most nights according to a stew⁶ of sociological studies. Life has gone to warp⁷ speed in the decades since June Cleaver smilingly set the dining room table. There's soccer practice, play rehearsal¹, SAT prep and video games. Everyone's on a cellphone or IMing friends. And when both parents work, or single parent runs the household, there is often nobody home to make dinner. Now researchers from Harvard University to the National Pork Board have found that Wally and the Beav got more than a hot meal every night.

Kids who have regular family dinners have better grades, better vocabularies and better behavior. They are less likely to smoke, drink, do drugs, have eating disorders⁸, become depressed⁹ or to have sex. Things that Cleavers¹⁰ never seem to worry about. Oh, they also get better nutrition. The dinner table is where children are civilized¹¹, at least in theory. They learn not to talk with their mouth full, to say please and thank you and to keep their elbows off the table. A friend says she and her husband have dinner with their 2 young sons almost every night. When everyone seated, Will, a second grader says, "So, how was your day, mom? " Their dinner conversations have covered everything from what happened on the playground to a discussion on the finer points of "Star Wars" and the Senate filibuster¹². What these kids get along with their pot roast and mashed¹³ potatoes is a serving of safety, stability and a sense of belonging. The ritual of dinner tells kids that there are some things in life you can count on. It doesn't have to be every night, it doesn't have to be dinner, and it doesn't have to be complicated. Modern-day moms and dads have a lot of things June Cleaver didn't have: microwaves, slow cookers, food processors and a drawer full of carryout menus. There is pre-washed salad mix, rotisserie chicken and what the industry calls 'meal solutions', things like pineapple chicken wings in a microwavable box.

In the old days, kids stopped playing hopscotch¹⁴ in the alley¹⁵ when they were called for dinner. If it was still light out, they finished the game after dessert. Missing dinner was not an option. The food wasn't always great, the dinner wasn't always relaxed. But you could count on it.

Bonny Wolf lives in Washionton, where she tries to gather her family around for dinner together whenever she can take a break from writing a book of essays about food.

1 rehearsal   

n.排练，排演；练习

参考例句：

• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
• You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。

2 rehearsals   

n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 )；排练；复述；重复

参考例句：

• The earlier protests had just been dress rehearsals for full-scale revolution. 早期的抗议仅仅是大革命开始前的预演。
• She worked like a demon all through rehearsals. 她每次排演时始终精力过人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 beaver   

n.海狸，河狸

参考例句：

• The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
• A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。

4 cleaver   

n.切肉刀

参考例句：

• In fact,a cleaver is a class of ax.实际上，切肉刀也是斧子的一种。
• The cleaver is ground to a very sharp edge.刀磨得飞快。

5 slippers   

n. 拖鞋

参考例句：

• a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
• He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。

6 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

7 warp   

vt.弄歪，使翘曲，使不正常，歪曲，使有偏见

参考例句：

• The damp wood began to warp.这块潮湿的木材有些翘曲了。
• A steel girder may warp in a fire.钢梁遇火会变弯。

8 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

10 cleavers   

n.猪殃殃（其茎、实均有钩刺）；砍肉刀，剁肉刀( cleaver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These monsters would not lay down their cleavers even when on the brink of their own destruction. 这些魔鬼临死也不会放下屠刀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

12 filibuster   

n.妨碍议事，阻挠；v.阻挠

参考例句：

• A senator dragged the subject in as a filibuster.一个参议员硬把这个题目拉扯进来，作为一种阻碍议事的手法。
• The democrats organized a filibuster in the senate.民主党党员在参议院上组织了阻挠议事。

13 mashed   

a.捣烂的

参考例句：

• two scoops of mashed potato 两勺土豆泥
• Just one scoop of mashed potato for me, please. 请给我盛一勺土豆泥。

14 hopscotch   

n.小孩独脚跳踢石子的游戏，“跳房子”游戏

参考例句：

• The children squared off the sidewalk to play hopscotch.孩子们在人行道上划出方格，做“跳房子”的游戏。
• At hopscotch,the best hoppers are the children.在跳房子的游戏中，孩子是最优秀的单足跳者。

15 alley   

n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路

参考例句：

• We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
• The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。