英语期末15选10资料

Unit1 Looking for a job after university?
First, get off the sofa
More than 650,000 students left university this summer and many have no idea about the way to get a job. How tough should a parent be to galvanize them in these financially fraught times?
1 In July, you looked on as your handsome 21-year-old son, dressed in gown and mortarboard, proudly clutched his honors degree for his graduation photo. Those memories of forking out thousands of pounds a year so that he could eat well and go to the odd party began to fade. Until now.
2 As the summer break comes to a close and students across the country prepare for the start of a new term, you find that your graduate son is still spending his days slumped 掉落in front of the television, broken only by texting, Facebook and visits to the pub. This former scion of Generation Y has morphed改变overnight into a member of Generating Grunt. Will he ever get a job?
3. This is the scenario情节facing thousands of families. More than 650,000 students left university this summer and most in these financially testing times have no idea what to do next. Parents revert to回复nagging; sons and daughters become
rebels without a cause, aware that they need to get a job, but not sure how.
4. Jack Goodwin, from Middlesex, graduated with a 2:1 in politics from Nottingham this summer. He walked into the university careers service and straight back out again; there was a big queue. He lived with five other boys all of whom did the same. There was no pressure to find a job, even though most of the girls he knew had a clearer plan.
5. “I applied for a job as a political researcher, but got turned down,” he says. “they were paying￡18,000, doesn’t buy you much more than a tin of beans after rent, but they wanted people with experience or master’s degrees. Then I applied for the Civil Service fast stream. I passed the exam, but at the interviews they accused me of being ‘too detached” and talking in language that was ‘too technocratic’, which I didn’t think possible, but obviously it is.”
6. Since then he has spent the summer “hiding”. He can recount several episodes of Traffic Cops and has seen more daytime television than is healthy. He talks to his friends about his aimless days and finds that most are in the same boat. One has been forced out to stack shelves by his parents. For the rest it is 9-to-5 “chilling”before heading to the pub. So how about
working behind the bar, to pay for those drinks? “I don’t want to do bar work. I went to a comprehensive and I worked my backside off to go to a good university, where I worked really hard to get a good degree,” he says. “Now I’m back at the same stage as those friends who didn’t go to uni at all, who are pulling pints and doing dead-end jobs. I feel that I’ve come full circle.”
7. Jacqueling Goodwin, his mother, defends him. She insists that he has tried to get a job, but having worked full-time since leaving school herself, she and her husband find it tricky to advise him on how to proceed. “I have always had to work,” she says. “It’s difficult because when you have a degree, it opens new doors for you, or you’d like to think that it does.”
8. Although she is taking a soft line with her son at the moment, she is clear that after an upcoming three-week trip to south America, his holiday from work will have to end. He may even have to pay rent and contribute to the household bills.
9. “They’ve got to grow up at some point. We’ve finished paying for university, so a little bit of help back is good,”she says. “The South America trip is the cutoff point. When he comes back there’ll be Christmas work if nothing else.”
10. Gael Lindenfield, a psychotherapist and the author of the
Emotional Healing Strategy, says that the Goodwin parents have struck exactly the right note. The transition from university to a job is tough for parents and children: Crucially they must balance being positive and understanding with not making life too comfortable for their offspring.
11 “the main job for the parents is to be there because if they start advising them what to do, that is when the conflict starts. If you have contacts, by all means use those,” she said. “
But a lot of parents get too soft. Put limits on how much money you give them, ask them to pay rent or contribute to the care of the house or the pets. Carry on life as normal and don’t allow them to abuse your bank account or sap your reserves of emotional energy.”
12 paying for career consultations, train fares to interviews or books are good things; being too pushy is not. But while parents should be wary of becoming too soft, Lindenfield advises them to tread 踩sympathetically after a job setback for a few days or even weeks – depending on the scale of the knock. After that the son or daughter needs to be nudged firmly back into the saddle.
13 boys are more likely to get stuck at home. Lingenfield believes that men are often better at helping their sons, nephews, or friends’sons than are mothers and sisters. Men have a
different way of handling setbacks than women, she says, so they need the male presence to talk it through.
14 as for bar work, she is a passionate advocate: it’s a great antidote to graduate apathy. It just depends on how you approach it. Lindenfield, who found her first job as an aerial photographic assistant through bar work, says it is a great networking opportunity and certainly more likely to get you a job than lounging in front of the TV.
15 “The same goes for shelf-stacking. You will be spotted if you’re good at it. If you’re bright and cheerful and are polite to the customers, you’ll soon get moved on. So think of it as an opportunity; people who are successful in the long run have often got shelf-stacking stories,” she says.
16 your son or daughter may not want to follow Hollywood stars such as Whoopi Goldberg into applying make-up to corpses in a mortuary, or guarding nuclear power plants like Bruce Wills, but even Brad Pitt had to stand outside El Pollo Loco restaurant chain in a giant chicken suit at one time in his life. None of them appears the poorer for these experiences.
unit 1大学毕业找工作的第一要义：别躺在沙发上做梦
今年夏天，超过65 万的大学生毕业离校，其中有许多人根本不知道怎么找工作。

在当今金融危机的背景下，做父母的该如何激励他
们？
1 七月，你看着英俊的21岁的儿子穿上学士袍，戴上四方帽，骄傲地握着优等学士学位证书，拍毕业照。

这时，记忆中每年支付几千英镑，好让儿子吃好、并能偶尔参加聚会的记忆开始消退。

但现在，你又不得不再考虑钱的问题。

2 等到暑假快要结束，全国各地的学生正在为新学期做准备的时候，你却发现大学毕业的儿子还歪躺在沙发上看电视。

除此之外，他只是偶尔发发短信，浏览社交网站Facebook，或者去酒吧喝酒。

这位属于“千禧一代”的年青人一夜之间变成了“抱怨一代”的成员。

他能找到工作吗？
3 这就是成千上万家庭所面临的状况：今年夏天，65万多大学生毕业，在当今金融危机的背景下，他们中的大多数人不知道自己下一步该做什么。

父母只会唠叨，而儿女们则毫无缘由地变成了叛逆者。

他们知道自己该找份工作，但却不知道如何去找。

4 来自米德尔塞克斯郡的杰克·古德温今年夏天从诺丁汉大学政治学系毕业，获得二级一等荣誉学士学位。

他走进大学就业服务中心，但又径直走了出来，因为他看见很多人在那里排长队。

跟他一起住的另外5个男孩子也都跟他一样，进去又出来了。

找工作的压力不大，虽然他所认识的大多数女生都有更明确的计划。

5 他说：“我申请政治学研究工作，但被拒绝了。

他们给的年薪是1万8千镑，交完房租后所剩无几，也就够买一罐豆子，可他们还要有研究经历或硕士学位的人。

然后我又申请参加快速晋升人才培养
计划，并通过了笔试。

但在面试时，他们说我‘太冷漠’了，谈吐‘太像专家政治论者’。

我觉得自己不可能那样，但我显然就是那样的。

”
6 打那以后，他整个夏天都在“隐身”。

他能够轻松地复述出电视剧《交通警察》中的若干片段。

他白天看电视的时间太长，已经到了影响健康的地步。

跟朋友谈起自己漫无目标的日子时，他才发现他们的处境和自己一样。

其中一位朋友在父母的逼迫下去超市上货，其余的则都是朝九晚五地“无所事事”，晚上则去酒吧喝酒打发时间。

要么，干脆就在酒吧工作？这样还可以挣些酒钱。

“我不想在酒吧工作。

我上的是综合学校，我拼命读书才考上了一所好大学。

到了大学，我又埋头苦读，才取得一个好学位。

可现在我却跟那些没上过大学的做无聊的酒吧侍应的朋友处在同一个水平线上。

我觉得自己好像兜了一圈，又回到了原来的起点。

”
7 他的母亲杰奎琳·古德温替他辩护。

她坚持认为她的儿子已经尽力了。

因为她自己中学毕业后一直都在工作，所以她和她的丈夫发现，建议儿子如何继续找工作是件很棘手的事情。

她说，“我一直都不得不工作。

而现在的年青人很难做到这一点，因为如果你有了学位，学位就会为你提供新的机会，至少你自己会这么想。

”
8 虽然现在她对儿子的态度还比较温和，但是她心里很清楚，去南美度三星期的假之后，他的休假就该结束了。

他可能还得付房租，并分担家庭开支。

9 她说，“在某个时候孩子们总要长大成人。

我们已经帮他交了大学的学费，所以他也该给我们一点点回报了。

南美度假就是一个分
水岭，他回来以后如果找不到工作，那就圣诞节打零工好了。

”
10 心理治疗师盖尔·林登费尔德是《情感康复策略》的作者。

她说古德温夫妇的做法是很恰当的。

从大学到工作的转换对父母和孩子来说都很艰难，关键是父母要在支持理解孩子和不溺爱孩子之间找到一个平衡点。

11 “父母的主要任务就是支持孩子，如果他们教导孩子该如何做，那么就会引起矛盾，如果有熟人，一定要找他们想办法。

”她说。

“但很多父母心太软了。

必须限制孩子的零花钱，要求他们交房租，或分担日常生活或养宠物的开销。

父母要维持正常的生活，不要让孩子随便用你们的银行账户或者榨干你们的情感能量。

”
12 为孩子支付职业咨询费、面试交通费及书费是好事，但不能催得太紧。

林登费尔德建议：虽说父母不能太宽容，但是如果孩子找工作遇到了挫折，父母应该体谅他们，宽容他们几天甚至几周——这取决于他们受打击的程度。

等他们缓过来之后，父母就该坚决要求孩子继续求职。

13 男孩更容易窝在家里。

林登费尔德相信男人比母亲和姐妹更容易帮助儿子、侄子或朋友的儿子。

她说，由于男人和女人处理挫折的方式不同，所以男孩需要跟男人谈话才能度过难关。

14 林登费尔德强烈支持去酒吧打工：那是克服毕业冷漠症的一剂良方。

这工作好不好要取决于你如何看待它。

就是在酒吧打工的时候，林登费尔德找到了她的第一份当航拍助手的工作。

她说在酒吧工作是拓展人际关系的绝好机会，肯定比赖在家里看电视更容易找到工作。

15 她说：“在超市上货也一样。

如果干得好，你就会被人发现的。

如果你聪明、活泼，礼貌待客，你很快就会升职。

所以，把它看作是机会。

那些最终成功的人士很多都有在超市上货的经历。

”
16 你的儿女可能不会干好莱坞影星们干过的活，比如像乌比·戈德堡那样去停尸房给死人化妆，或者像布鲁斯·威利斯那样在核电站当警卫，但即便是布拉德·皮特也曾经不得不穿上宽大的小鸡模样的服装站在快餐连锁店El Pollo Loco 的门口招揽生意。

他们中没有一个人因为这些经历而变得更加穷困。

Unit 2 Danger! Books may change your life
1 Like Lewis Carroll's Alice, who falls into a rabbit hole and discovers
a mysterious wonderland, when we pick up a book we are about to enter a new world. We become observers of life from the point of view of a person older than ourselves, or through the eyes of a child. We may travel around the globe to countries or cultures we would never dream of visiting in real life. We'll have experiences which are new, sometimes disconcerting, maybe deeply attractive, possibly unpleasant or painful, but never less than liberating from the real world we come from.
2 The English poet William Cowper (1731–1800) said "Variety's the very spice of life, / That gives it all its flavour" although he neglected to say where or how we could find it. But we know he was right. We know we live in a world of variety and difference. We know that people live
various different lives, spend their time in various different ways, have different jobs, believe in different things, have different opinions, different customs, and speak different languages. Normally, we don't know the extent of these differences, yet sometimes when something unusual happens to make us notice, variety and difference appear more as
a threat than an opportunity.
3 Reading books allows us to enjoy and celebrate this variety and difference in safety, and provides us with an opportunity to grow. To interact with other people's lives in the peace and quiet of our homes is a privilege which only reading fiction can afford us. We even understand, however fleetingly, that we have more in common with other readers of books in other cultures than we might do with the first person we meet when we step out of our front doors. We learn to look beyond our immediate surroundings to the horizon and a landscape far away from home.
4 If we ever question the truth of the power of reading books, we should take the trouble to go to our local library or bookshop, or even, if we're fortunate enough, to the books on our shelves at home. We should wonder at the striking vistas created by the titles of novels ranging from the classics to the most recent: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Fourth Hand by John Irving, Cancer Ward by Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger or Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. Then we should reflect on the other lives we'll meet once we begin to read.
5 Every book will have its own language and dialect, its own vocabulary and grammar. We may not always understand every word or sentence, but whether we're enchanted or whether we feel excluded, our emotions are nevertheless stimulated. Other people and other cultures are not always distant because of geography. In a book we may confront people who live in a different climate, have different religious beliefs, or come from a different ethnic group. Even our neighbours down the road may be strangers who we can only meet through books.
6 As soon as we are able to listen, books are supremely influential in the way we live. From the bedtime story read by a parent to their child all the way through to the sitting room lined with books in our adult homes, books define our lives. The English writer E. M. Forster (1879–1970) even hinted at a more mystical power which books possess over us. He wrote, "I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have gone ourselves." It's as if the right book comes to seek
us out at the right moment, and offers itself to us—it's not us who seek out the book.
7 Thomas Merton (1915–1968), the American monk, priest and writer, was once asked a series of seven questions by a journalist: Name the last three books you have read, the three books you are reading now, the books you intend to read, the books that have influenced you, and why, a book that everyone should read, and why. For the books which had influenced him, he cited poetic works of William Blake, various plays by ancient Greek thinkers and writers, and a number of religious writings. When asked why they had influenced him, he replied, "These books and others like them have helped me to discover the real meaning of my life, and have made it possible for me to get out of the confusion and meaninglessness of an existence completely immersed in the needs and passivities fostered by a culture in which sales are everything."
8 So how would you answer the questions?
9 In 1947, Clifton Fadiman coined the term home-run book. When a baseball player hits a home run, he hits the ball so hard and so far he's able to run round the four bases of the diamond, and score points not only for himself but for the other runners already on a base. It's the most enjoyable and satisfying event in a baseball game. Likewise, a home-run book describes not the child's first reading experience, but the first time
they read a book which induces such pleasure and satisfaction that they can't put it down. For hundreds of millions of children around the world, the best known example of a home-run book will be the Harry Potter stories.
10 As adults, we're always looking for our own home-run books, not just for the first time, but time after time again. Whoever has read a novel in one sitting will always remember the pleasure and satisfaction which await us, and eagerly, insistently, sometimes even desperately seeks to reproduce the marvellous sensation again. We cannot withstand the hunger to visit another world, to meet different people, to live other lives and to reflect on ourselves.
11 Danger! Books may change your life. Such is the power of reading.
unit 2危险！书可能会改变你的人生
1 刘易斯·卡罗尔书中的爱丽丝不小心掉进了兔子洞里，但她在那里发现了一个神奇的仙境。

当我们打开一本书时，我们也会像爱丽丝那样走进一个全新的世界。

我们能从一个年长者的角度，或通过一个孩子的眼睛来观察生活；我们可以周游世界，遍访现实生活中从没想
过要访问的国家和文化；我们可以体验未曾经历过的事情，这些事情也许令人困惑，也许引人入胜；可能是不愉快的，也可能是令人痛苦的，但无论如何都至少能把我们从现实世界中解放出来。

2 英国诗人威廉·柯珀（1731-1800）说：“变化是生活的调味品，它让生活变得有滋有味。

”虽然他没有说在什么地方以及怎样才能找到变化，但我们知道他说得对。

我们知道我们生活在一个充满变化与差异的世界里。

我们知道人们的生活各不相同，过日子的方式也不尽不同，人们做不同的工作，有不同的信仰，持不同的观点，有不同的风俗习惯，说不同的语言。

通常，我们不知道这些差异的大小，但一旦发生了不平常的事情并引起了我们的注意，这种变化或差异与其说是机会，毋宁说是威胁。

3 读书让我们能够安全地享受和庆贺这种变化与差异，并为我们提供成长的机会。

在家里安详平和的环境中与他人的生活互动，这是阅读小说才享有的特权。

我们甚至感觉到——哪怕只是在一瞬间——我们和异文化读者的共同点或许要多于我们和家门口随便碰到的一个人的共同点。

我们学会把目光移出我们周围的环境，投向天边，去领略一下异域风光。

4 如果我们怀疑读书是否能给我们力量的话，我们就应该自己去一趟当地的图书馆或书店，或者，如果我们足够幸运的话，可以读一读家里书架上的书。

我们会惊奇于古今小说的标题所创造出来的壮观景象：约翰·斯坦贝克的《愤怒的葡萄》、约翰·欧文的《第四只手》、亚历山大·索尔
仁尼琴的《癌病房》、欧内斯特·海明威的《丧钟为谁而鸣》、格雷厄姆·格林的《哈瓦那特派员》、奥黛丽·尼芬格的《时间旅行者的妻子》、保罗·托迪的《到也门钓鲑鱼》。

一旦开始阅读，我们就应该思考一下我们在书中读到的别样人生。

5 每一本书都有自己的语言、方言、词汇和语法。

我们不见得总能理解其中的每一个字、每一句话，但不管我们是痴迷其中，还是觉得被排斥在外，我们的情感被调动起来了。

尽管在地理上有一定的距离，但其他民族、其他文化未必就离我们那么遥远。

在书里我们可能遇见生活在不同气候、有不同信仰、来自不同民族的人。

即便是住在同一条街上的邻居，我们也可能对其一无所知，而只能通过阅读结识。

6 小时候，在我们刚刚能听懂别人说话的时候，书就对我们的生活方式产生了很大的影响。

从父母给孩子读的睡前故事一直到成年后家中摆满书柜的客厅，书界定了我们的人生。

英国作家E.M.福斯特（1879–1970）暗示书对我们具有另一种更加神秘的支配力。

他写道：“我认为能影响我们的书籍是那些我们已经准备要读的书，而且这些书在我们已经选定的道路上走得比我们更远一些。

”合适的书好像自己就会在恰当的时候找到我们，出现在我们面前，而不是我们去寻找那本书。

7 美国修士、牧师及作家托马斯·默顿（1915–1968）曾经被记者一连串地问了7个问题：说出你最近读完的3本书；你正在读的3本书；你打算要读的书；对你有影响的书，并解释一下理由；一本你觉
得每人都要读的书，并解释一下理由。

关于对他有影响的书，他列出了威廉·布莱克的诗集、古希腊思想家和作家写的各种戏剧以及一些宗教作品。

当被问及这些书为何会影响他时，他回答说：“这些书——还有其他类似的书籍——帮助我找到了人生的真谛。

销售就是一切的文化培育了人们无止境的需求和消极被动，生活充满了困惑和空虚，而书籍则把我从这种困惑和空虚中解脱了出来。

”
8 那么，你又会如何回答这些问题呢？
9 1947年，克利夫顿·法迪曼发明了“全垒打书籍”这个词。

当一个棒球手打出一个全垒打时，因为击球有力、打得远，他有时间跑完整个棒球场内的四个垒，不仅自己得分，而且还能帮其他各个垒的跑垒者得分，这是棒球赛里最有趣和最开心的事情。

同样，一本“全垒打书籍”指的不是儿童第一次读书的经历，而是指他第一次读到一本给他带来极大愉悦和满足感的书以至于让他爱不释手的经历。

对世界上数以亿计的儿童来说，“全垒打书籍”的最典型的例子就是《哈利波特》系列故事。

10 作为成年人，我们总在寻找自己的“全垒打书籍”，不仅是第一次，而是一次又一次地寻找。

所有一口气读完一本小说的人都会记得那种令人期待的愉悦和满足感，并会焦急、固执、有时甚至疯狂地寻求重复体验这种感觉。

我们想周游另一个世界、想与不同的人见面、想经历别样的人生并自我反省，我们无法遏制这样的渴求。

11 危险！书可能会改变你的人生。

这就是读书的力量。

Unit 3 Fifty years of fashion
1 No history of fashion in the years 1960 to 2010 can overlook or underestimate two constant factors: the ubiquitous jeans and the rise and fall of hemlines for women's skirts and dresses.
2 Denim, the material which jeans are made of, was known in France in the late 16th century, but it was Levi Strauss who saw that miners in the Californian gold rush in the mid-19th century needed strong trousers, which he reinforced with metal rivets. Blue denim jeans remained popular in the US as work clothes until the 1950s, but then became associated with youth, new ideas, rebellion and individuality. When Levi Strauss & Co began to export blue jeans to Europe and Asia in the late 1950s, they were bought and worn with huge enthusiasm by young people and recognized as a symbol of the young, informal American way of life.
3 Hemlines have a more peculiar significance during this period. It has often been noted that there is a precise correlation, with only a few exceptions, between the length of women's skirts and the economy. As the stock market rises, so do hemlines, and when it falls, so do they. Exactly why women should want to expose more or less of their legs during periods of economic boom and bust remains a mystery. But the
general trend is inescapable. Whenever the economic outlook is unsettled, both men and women tend to wear more conservative clothes.
4 Perhaps the most important development in fashion in the 1960s was the miniskirt, invented by the British designer Mary Quant. Because Quant worked in the heart of Swinging London, the miniskirt developed into a major international fashion. It was given greater respectability when the great French designer, Courrèges, developed it into an item of high fashion. But it would not have achieved such international currency without the development of tights, instead of stockings, because the rise in hemlines meant the stocking tops would be visible.
5 The hippie movement of the mid-1960s and early 1970s influenced the design of jeans, with the trouser leg developing a flared "bell-bottom" style. By the mid-1970s, as the economy deteriorated, hemlines dropped to midi (mid-calf length) and maxi (ankle length), while jeans were no longer exclusively blue.
6 Jeans remained fashionable during the period of punk, usually worn ripped, often with chains and studded belts. The look lasted for several years, although became more and more restricted to small groups of inner-city young people, and had little influence on other age groups.
7 As a backlash to the anarchy of punk, the New Romantics was a fashion movement which occurred mainly in British nightclubs. It was glamorous and courageous, and featured lavish frilled shirts. Jeans were definitely not acceptable.
8 The mid-1980s saw the rise of a number of different styles. Power dressing was characterized by smart suits and, for the newly-empowered women, shoulder pads and knee-length skirts. Not surprisingly, the economy was unstable, and people took less risks in what they wore. For men, the Miami Vice style, named after the television series, made use of smart T-shirts under designer jackets, and designer stubble—three or four days of beard growth. But as always, denim remained popular with the young. In particular, heavy metal music fans wore bleached and ripped jeans and denim jackets.
9 Gradually hemlines started to rise again ... until the world stock market crash in 1987. So the late 1980s in the US saw the rise of the more conservative style called Preppy style, with classic clothes by Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers for men, button-down shirts, chinos and loafers, with a sweater tied loosely around the neck. They also wore jeans, but either brand-new or clean and smartly pressed—not at all what Levi Strauss originally intended.
10 As the world economies improved again in the 1990s, fashion for young people became more daring. Boots and Converse or Nike trainers remained popular, but the predominant colours became olive green and oatmeal. Hair was worn long, or cut spiky short and dyed blue, green or red. Hoodies, baseball caps and baggy jeans, which were often worn low below the buttocks, were common on the streets.
11 Then in January 2000 the New York technology stock market collapsed. As usual, so did hemlines, which were described by one commentator as "the prim and proper look is in. Skirts should be below the knee." But merely one year later, the stock market began to recover, and the micro miniskirt returned. Hemlines were higher than they had been for many years.
12 During this period, it was unusual to wear formal clothes unless you were at work. Designer jeans gained huge popularity. These were made of the traditional denim, perhaps with some lycra added, but cut and marketed under well-known brands such as Armani, Hugo Boss and Moschino, who until recently had only concerned themselves with the smartest fashion lines. Skinny jeans also became popular in Britain and most of Europe. Skirt length is uncertain, ranging from micro to "sensible"—knee-length or just below.
13 Sometimes the hemline indicator, as it's called, can even precede and predict a change in the mood of the stock market long before it actually happens. In September 2007, at the New York fashion shows, which were displaying their styles for spring 2008, the trend was for much longer dresses and skirts, many to mid-calf or even down to the ankles. Some people felt this showed that the hemline indicator was no longer reliable, and that designers no longer dictated what people would wear. During the London and New York fashion shows in September 2008, hemlines continued to drop. But sure enough, in the fall of 2008, the stock market indexes fell dramatically when the banking crisis hit the US, Europe and then the rest of the world. Hemlines were no longer following the stock market—they were showing the way and indicating future economic trends.
14 During the whole period, fashion styles have ranged widely, and have usually been sparked off by a desire to identify people as belonging to a particular sub-culture. But the constant factors over this period are denim and hemlines and the greatest influences have been a 19th-century Californian clothes manufacturer and a young designer in the Swinging London of the 1960s.
时装潮流50年
1960至2010年间的时装史存在两个不可忽略或不可低估的不变因素：一是无处不在的牛仔裤，二是女装裙摆长度的变化。

牛仔裤是用粗斜纹布做的，早在16 世纪末法国就有了这种布料。

19 世纪中叶，李维•施特劳斯发现在加州淘金的矿工很需要用这种耐用布料做成的牛仔裤，他还用铆钉来加固裤子。

此后一直到20世纪50年代，蓝色粗斜纹布做的牛仔裤一直只是流行的工装，但是后来牛仔裤变成了青春、新思想、反叛及个性的标志。

50年代末，利惠公司开始向欧亚出口蓝色牛仔裤。

年轻人趋之若鹜，视其为美国年轻人随意生活方式的象征。

裙摆在这一时期有着特殊的意义。

人们时常会注意到，女人的裙摆和经济之间存在一种颇为精确的关联性，且鲜有例外。

股市升时裙摆也跟着提高；股市跌时裙摆就跟着降低。

在经济繁荣和萧条时期女性到底为什么要多暴露或少暴露双腿至今仍然是个谜。

但总的趋势必定是这样的：每当经济前景不明朗时，男人和女人都倾向于比较保守的服装。

20世纪60年代时装史上一个最重要的发展或许就是英国时装设计师玛丽•匡特发明的超短裙。

由于匡特在“摇摆伦敦”的中心地带工作，超短裙很快就风行全球。

当法国杰出的时装设计师库雷热把超短裙变成一件高级时装时，超短裙得到了人们更多的认可。

但是，如果只有长筒袜而没有发明裤袜的话，超短裙是不可能在全球流行的，因为裙摆的提高会让人看见长筒袜的袜口。