Section Two Global Reading

I． Text Analysis

Main Idea

“Out of Step” is an expositionthat presents the absurdity of the Americans’ dependence on cars. TheAmericans, being so accustomed to using cars, have almost forgotten theexistence of their legs. Wherever they go, they go in their cars. As a result, pedestrian facilities are neglected in city planningor rejected by the inhabitants.

 

II. Structural Analysis

Paragraph1-6    The writer introduces his ideawith an anecdote.

Paragraphs 7-13  In this part, the author presents the factthat the Americans are habituated to using cars for everything.

Paragraphs14-20 In this part, the author explains that pedestrian facilities areneglected or discarded.

 

SectionThree Detailed Reading

I.                  Text 1

Out of Step

Bill Bryson

 

1        Afterliving inEnglandfor 20years, my wife and I decided to move back to theUnited States. We wanted to live ina town small enough that we could walk to the business district, and settled onHanover, N.H., a typical New England town — pleasant, sedate and compact. It hasa broad central green surrounded by the venerable buildings of DartmouthCollege, an old-fashioned Main Street and leafy residential neighborhoods.

 

2        Itis, in short, an agreeable, easy place to go about one’s business on foot, andyet as far as I can tell, virtually no one does.

 

3        Nearlyevery day, I walk to the post office or library or bookstore, and sometimes, ifI am feeling particularly debonair, I stop at Rosey Jekes Café for acappuccino. Occasionally, in the evenings, my wife and I stroll up to theNugget Theatre for a movie or to Murphy’s on the Green for a beer, I wouldn’tdream of going to any of these places by car. People have gotten used to my eccentric behavior, but in the early daysacquaintances would often pull up to the curband ask if I wanted a ride.

 

4         “I’m going your way,” they would insist when Ipolitely declined. “Really, it’s no bother.”

 

5        “Honestly,I enjoy walking.”

 

6        “Well,if you’re sure,” they would say and depart reluctantly, even guiltily, as ifleaving the scene of an accident without giving their name.

 

7        In theUnited Stateswe have become so habituated to using the carfor everything that it doesn’t occur to us to unfurl our legs and see whatthose lower limbs can do. We have reached an age where college students expect to drive betweenclasses, where parents will drive three blocks to pick up their children from afriend’s house, where the letter carrier takes his van up and down everydriveway on a street.

 

8        Wewill go through the most extraordinary contortionsto save ourselves from walking. Sometimes it’s almost ludicrous. The other day Iwas waiting to bring home one of my children from a piano lesson when a carstopped outside a post office, and a man about my age popped out and dashedinside. He was in the post office for about three or four minutes, and thencame out, got in the car and drove exactly 16 feet (I had nothing better to do,so I paced it off) to the general store⁶ next door.

 

9        Andthe thing is, this man looked really fit. I’m sure he jogs extravagantdistances and plays squash and does all kinds of healthful things, but I amjust as sure that he drives to each of these undertakings.

 

10     An acquaintance of ours wascomplaining the other day about the difficulty of finding a place to parkoutside the local gymnasium. She goes there several times a week to walk on atreadmill. The gymnasium is, at most, a six-minute walk from her front door.

 

11     I asked her why she didn’t walk tothe gym and do six minutes less on the treadmill.

 

12     She looked at me as if I weretragically simple-minded and said, “But I have a program for the treadmill. Itrecords my distance and speed and calorie burn rate, and I can adjust it fordegree of difficulty.”

 

13     I confess it had not occurred tome how thoughtlessly deficient nature is in this regard.

 

14     According to a concerned andfaintly horrified 1997 editorial in the BostonGlobe, theUnited Statesspent less than one percent of its transportation budget on facilities forpedestrians. Actually, I’m surprised it was that much. Go to almost any suburbdeveloped in the last 30 years, and you will not find a sidewalk anywhere.Often you won’t find a single pedestrian crossing.

 

15     I had this brought home to me one summer when we were driving across Maine andstopped for coffee in one of those endless zones of shopping malls, motels, gasstations and fast-food places. I noticed there was a bookstore across thestreet, so I decided to skip coffee and head over.

 

16     Although the bookshop was no morethan 70 or 80 feet away, I discovered that there was no way to cross on footwithout dodging over six lanes of swiftly moving traffic. In the end, I had toget in our car and drive across.

 

17     At the time, it seemed ridiculousand exasperating, but afterward I realized that I was possibly the onlyperson ever to have entertained the notion of negotiating that intersection on foot.

 

18     The fact is, we not only don’twalk anywhere anymore in this country, we won’t walk anywhere, and woe toanyone who tries to make us, as the city of Laconia, N.H., discovered. In theearly 1970s, Laconia spent millions on a comprehensive urban renewal project,which included building a pedestrian mall to make shopping more pleasant.Esthetically it was a triumph— urban planners came from all over to cooand take photos--but commercially it was a disaster. Forced to walk one wholeblock from a parking garage, shoppers abandoned downtown Laconia for suburban malls.

 

19     In 1994 Laconia dug up its pretty paving blocks, tookaway the tubs of geraniums and decorative trees, and brought back the cars. Nowpeople can park right in front of the stores again, and downtown Laconia thrives anew.

 

20     And if that isn’t sad. I don’tknow what is.

 

II. Questions

1)      What kind of town is it? (Paragraph1)

2)      What is considered the author’s “eccentricbehavior”? (Paragraph 3)

3)      Why would drivers “departreluctantly, even guiltily” when their offer was declined? (Paragraphs 3-6)

4) Whydid the author say “Actually, I’m surprised it was that much”? (Paragraph 14)

5) Why did Laconiachange its downtown pedestrian mall to one with parking lots? (Paragraphs18-19)

 

Class Activity

Group discussion: What does the title mean?

With the use of this title, the writerseems to suggest

1. people no longer walk in America;

2. the few people who do walk seem to beold-fashioned and “eccentric”.