in pioneer days, being a good neighbor was very important. neighbors helped one another raise a house, build a barn, and clear fields.families depended on one another for friendship and entertainment. but today in our cities and suburbs, neighboring is not common. a family may not even know the other families that live close by.

we live in an age of machines, and each family may have its own car, tv set, and washing machine. people no longer depend on neighbors as much as they once did.

machines keep people apart in other ways. in our grandparents' time, women met while they hung out their washing, and men stopped and talked while they mowed their lawns. today, women stay in the house with their automatic dryers. the men can't hear anything above the roar of their

power lawn mowers. and the children are inside watching their favorite tv show.

is the idea of being neighborly old-fashioned? in 1965, a power failure hit new york city, and many thousands of people were left stranded. suddenly, everyone shared the same problem, and our largest city became a group of eight million neighbors. people with cars offered rides to those walking.other persons helped direct traffic. trapped in elevators,people played word games and helped keep each other in good spirits.

in times of trouble, people still depend on one another.as time goes on, people may once again feel that being a good neighbor is important.

鄰居重要嗎?

在拓荒時(shí)代，成為好鄰居非常重要。鄰居們相互幫助養(yǎng)家糊口，修建谷倉，清理農(nóng)田。家庭之間相互依賴獲得友誼和娛樂。但如今在市區(qū)或者市郊，比鄰而居并不常見。 一個(gè)家庭可能甚至不認(rèn)識(shí)附近居住的其他家庭。

我們生活在一個(gè)機(jī)器時(shí)代，每個(gè)家庭都可能有自己的汽車、電視和洗衣機(jī)。人們不再像以前那樣依賴鄰居。

機(jī)器還在其他方面把人們分離開來。在我們的祖父母時(shí)代，女人們出去晾衣服的時(shí)候都能相互見面，男人們?cè)诔莸臅r(shí)候也停下來聊天?，F(xiàn)在，女人們和她們的自動(dòng)烘干機(jī)呆在家里。 男人們則除了他們電動(dòng)除草機(jī)的轟鳴聲外什么都聽不到。孩子們則呆在家里觀看他們最喜歡的電視節(jié)目。

與鄰居友好相處的想法是否過時(shí)了?1965年，紐約城停電，使得成千上萬的人手足無措。突然，所有的人都有著共同的問題，我們最大的城市變成了八百萬人互為鄰里的大集體。開車的人讓走路的人搭載。另外有些人幫忙指揮交通。陷在電梯里的人們做著文字游戲，相互幫忙保持良好情緒。

遇到麻煩時(shí)，人們?nèi)匀幌嗷ヒ蕾?。隨著時(shí)間的推移，人們有可能會(huì)再次感到成為好鄰居的重要。

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