Unit 2
The New Singles
Carla Power
Increasing numbers of Northern Europeans are choosing to live alone
新 单 身 族
卡拉 鲍威尔
越来越多的北欧人选择单身生活
1. You know the type. Eleanor Rigby, who picks up the rice in the church where the wedding has been. Austin Powers, proud owner of a Lava lamp, lush chest hair and an equal-opportunity libido. Bridget Jones, of the wobbly ego and much-watched answering machine. The Single, long a stock figure in stories, songs and personal ads, was traditionally someone at the margins of society: a figure of fun, pity or awe.
1.你知道他们是这样的人：在举行过婚礼的教堂里捡大米的埃莉诺 雷格比；胸毛浓密、性欲旺盛、以拥有熔岩灯而感自豪的奥斯丁 鲍威尔斯；个人意识模糊不清、总是期待录音电话响起的布里奇特 琼斯。这些单身人士过去一直是故事、歌曲和个人广告中的常见人物，传统上这些人处在社会的边缘：滑稽有趣、让人怜悯或令人敬畏。
2. Those days are gone. In the place of withered spinsters and bachelors are people like Elizabeth de Kergorlay, a 29-year-old Parisian banker who views her independence and her own apartment as the spoils of professional success. Scooting around Paris in her Golf GTI, one hand on the wheel and the other clutching her cell phone, de Kergorlay pauses between calls to rave about life alone. “I’m not antisocial,” she says. “I love people. But living alone gives me the time and space for self-reflection. I’ve got the choice and the privacy to grow as a human being.”
2. 那些日子已经一去不复返了。现在的单身族不再像过去那些面容枯槁的老处女和鳏夫，而是像伊丽莎白 克尔戈莱这样的人。伊丽莎白 克尔戈莱是个29岁的巴黎银行家，她把拥有独立生活和自己的公寓看成是事业成功的结果。她开着漂亮的德国Golf GTI牌小汽车快速
地在巴黎兜着风，一手扶着方向盘，另一手抓着手机，在打电话的间歇中热情洋溢地谈论着单身生活。她说：“我不厌恶社交，我喜欢与人交往。但是独自生活使我有时间和空间自我反省。我作为一个人有权选择并不受干扰地成长。”
blond3. As the sages would say, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. This isn’t the stuff of gloomy philosophical meditations, but a fact of Europe s new economic landscape, embraced by demographers, real-estate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyles, observes French sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann, is part of the “irresistible momentum of individualism” over the last century. The communications revolution, the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have wreaked havoc on Europeans private lives. More and more of them are remaining on their own: they’re living longer, divorcing more and marrying later — if at all. British marriage rates are the lowest in 160 years of records. INSEE, France s National Institute of Statistics, reports that the number of French people living alone doubled between 1968 and 1990.
3.正如圣人们所言，我们最终都将是单独一人。但是越来越多的欧洲人在很年轻的时候就决定过独身生活。这不是悲观的人生思考，而是欧洲经济新气象，受到人口学家、房地产发展商和广告商这类人的普遍欢迎。法国社会学家让 克劳特`考夫曼评论这种从家庭生活到独身生活模式的过渡是上个世纪不可抗拒的个人主义趋势的组成部分。通信技术的革命、商业文化从稳定性过渡到流动性以及大量妇女进入产业大军都对欧洲人的私生活产生巨大冲击。越来越多的欧洲人在步入独自生活，因为他们寿命更长了、离婚更多了并且结婚也更晚了——如果他们还要结婚的话。现在英国的结婚率在160年的记录中最低的。据法国国家统计局的报道，在1968到1990年期间法国独身的人翻了一番。
4. The home-alone phenomenon remains an urban and a Northern European trend: people who live in rural areas — as well as Spaniards, Greeks and Irish — tend to stick to families. By contrast, Scandinavians, Dutch and Germans like to live alone: 40 percent of all Swedes live alone, as do seven million Britons — three times as many as 40 years ago. According to the recent report “Britain in 2010” by Richard Scase, professor of organizational behavior at the University of Kent, single-person households will outnumber families and couples within a decade. In London s tonier neighborhoods like K
ensington and Chelsea, about half of all households are people living alone. In Germany this year, 56-year-old divorcee Bernd Klosterfelde produced a CD called “Alone No More.” Featuring 15 tracks of household noises with titles like “Nothing on TV; At Least the Chips Are Good” and “The Fridge Is Finally Full Again,” it promises people who live alone “62 minutes of togetherness.”
4.独自生活的现象一直是都市和北欧的趋势：生活在农村的人们——以及西班牙人、希腊人和爱尔兰人——倾向于过家庭生活。与此相反，斯堪的纳维亚人、荷兰人和德国人喜欢独自生活：40%的瑞典人独自生活，七百万英国人独自生活——这是40年前的3倍。根据肯特大学组织行为学教授理查德 斯凯斯最近的“2010年的英国”的报道，单身家庭数量将会在十年内超过两人或两人以上的家庭。在伦敦的肯辛顿和切尔西这样的“贵族”区，大约有一半的房子里住着独自生活的人。在德国今年56岁的离异者伯恩德 克劳斯特费尔德创作了一盘称作“不再孤独”的CD。该碟片的特点是有15段家庭生活的录音，如“电视没什么节目；最起码薯条还是不错的”和“冰箱终于又满了”，它为独自生活的人们提供了“62分钟归属感”。
5. Europe s new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. T
he current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe s shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American-style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today s tech-savvy workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modern Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone, and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so. A recent poll by the Institute Francaisd Opinion Publique, the French affiliate of the Gallup poll, found that 58 percent of French respondents viewed living alone as a choice, not an obligation. Other European singles agree. “I’ve always wanted to be free to go on adventures,” says Iris Eppendorf, who lives by herself in Berlin. “I hate dreary, boring, bourgeois living — it’s not interesting.”
5.欧洲的新经济气候大大地鼓励了独立的趋势。当代独自生活的这一代人的成长时期正是欧洲从社会民主政治过渡到更精明、更个性化的美国风格的资本主义气候的时期。成长在私有化和日益买方市场时代的当今熟谙技术的工人象接受自由经济那样也热情欢迎爱情自由。现代的欧洲人相当富有，有财力独自生活；而且他们性格独立，希望独自生活。法国公众民意研究所（盖洛普民意测验法国分部）最近的调查发现，被提问的法国人中有58%
的人认为独自生活是一种选择而不是一种强迫。其他欧洲单身一族也这样认为。独自住在柏林的艾丽丝 埃彭道夫说：“我一直想要随心所欲地去冒险。我讨厌沉闷、令人厌烦的中产阶级生活——一点都没意思。”
6. Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage — twenty-something professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women, make up a hefty proportion of those living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. “The Swedish word for someone living alone used to be ensam, which had connotations of being lonely,” notes Eva Stanstead, author of “Living Alone in Sweden.” “It was conceived as a negative — dark and cold, while being together suggested warmth and light. But then along came the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, and strong! Now, young people want to live alone.”

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