Olá amigos, como sabem sou ciclista, corredor, nadador, gosto de esportes (não os que arriscam minha vida) em geral e esta lição em especial me fez entender porque algumas pessoas detestam exercício físico, e isso é péssimo. Mesmo que lhe pareça tortura, por causa da dor, do suor, do tempo empregado na atividade pelo menos, você pode fazer pelo tempo que quiser pois, não é obrigado. Diferentemente dos prisioneiros Londrinos do século XVII que ou caminhavam na esteira, ou eram mortos, deportados ou trancafiados para ou morrer na solidão, ou através de doenças adquiridas pela falta de higiene das celas em que eram confinados.
Entenda mais sobre esta engenhoca fantástica, a esteira para corrida, neste texto para o DDM 424 – Beloved torture machine.
Agradeça por não estar sendo obrigado a fazer exercícios físicos como os presidiários de Londres no início do século 17. Na verdade essa punição servia para evitar que fossem mortos, deportados ou lançados em uma cela e lá permanecessem por um longo período até provavelmente à morte. Esse era o jeito o qual lidavam as autoridades Londrinas com os prisioneiros. E por assim dizer a esteira não era lá a pior de todas, não fosse pela má alimentação a que os prisioneiros eram submetidos o que os fazia desmaiar de fome e de cansaço. Mas se a ideia estivesse por aí até hoje não seria mau empregada, ainda há milhares nas prisões a fazer nada, senão ficar sentado olhando para o teto, sendo alimentados, cuidados e não contribuindo nada de volta e os que aqui ficam na “liberdade” precisam contribuir para a “não morte” desses “bons” cidadãos trancafiados por ou estarem fazendo o errado ou por quererem impedir um “certo” de fazer o errado mas sem saber o que faziam acabaram presos pelo errado ao estarem absolutamente fazendo o certo. Triste, lamentável, absurdo, mas é a realidade.
Falta dizer que essas passadas na esteira da tortura por horas à fio (6 horas ou mais), fazia gerar energia elétrica, moer grãos e mover motores e bombas d’água. Nada melhor que isso para pagar pelo quarto, alimentação e pelo serviço não?
Entenda melhor a história ao ler o nosso script desta lição.
Eis o texto da lição:
424: Beloved Torture Machine…
The constant thud underneath your feet, the constrained space and the monotony of going nowhere fast. It feels like hours have gone by, but it’s only been eleven minutes. And you wonder, “Why am I torturing myself? This thing has got to be considered a cruel and unusual punishment.”
Actually, that’s exactly what it is…or was. You see, in the 1800s, treadmills were created to punish English prisoners. At the time, the English prison system was abysmally bad. Execution and deportation were often the punishments of choice, and those who were locked away faced hours of solitude in filthy cells. So, social movements led by religious groups, philanthropies and celebrities—like Charles Dickens—sought to change these dire conditions and help reform the prisoners.
When their movement succeeded, entire prisons were remodeled and new forms of rehabilitation, such as the treadmill, were introduced. Here’s how the original version, invented in 1818 by English engineer Sir William Cubitt, worked. Prisoners stepped on 24 spokes of a large paddle wheel. As the wheel turned, the prisoner was forced to keep stepping up or risk falling off, similar to modern stepper machines.
Meanwhile, the rotation made gears pump out water, crush grain, or power mills, which is where the name “treadmill” originated. These devices were seen as a fantastic way of whipping prisoners into shape, and that added benefit of powering mills helped to rebuild a British economy decimated by the Napoleonic Wars.
It was a win for all concerned—except the prisoners. It’s estimated that, on average, prisoners spent six or so hours a day on treadmills—the equivalent of climbing 5,000 to 14,000 feet. 14,000 feet is roughly Mount Everest’s halfway point. Imagine doing that five days a week with little food.
Cubitt’s idea quickly spread across the British Empire and America. Within a decade of its creation, over 50 English prisons boasted a treadmill, and America, a similar amount. Unsurprisingly, the exertion combined with poor nutrition saw many prisoners suffer breakdowns and injuries, not that prison guards seemed to care. In 1824, New York prison guard James Hardie credited the device with taming his more boisterous inmates, writing that the “monotonous steadiness, and not its severity…constitutes its terror,” a quote many still agree with.
And treadmills lasted in England until the late 19th Century, when they were banned for being excessively cruel under the Prison’s Act of 1898. But, of course, the torture device returned with a vengeance, this time targeting the unsuspecting public. In 1911, a treadmill patent was registered in the US, and by 1952, the forerunner for today’s modern treadmill had been created.
When the jogging craze hit the US in the 1970s, the treadmill was thrust back into the limelight as an easy and convenient way to improve aerobic fitness and lose unwanted pounds, which, to be fair, it’s pretty good at doing. And the machine has maintained its popularity since.
So, the next time you voluntarily subject yourself to what was once a cruel and unusual punishment, just be glad you can control when you’ll hop off.
O glossário da lição.
Thud: the sound your feet make when they land heavily
Constrained: small, tiny
Monotony: boredom
A cruel and unusual punishment: types of punishment LEGALLY defined and ILLEGAL!
Abysmally: horribly, terribly
The ~ of choice: the preferred ~, the most popular ~
Locked away: put in prisons
Faced: dealt with, met with, encountered
Solitude: being alone
Filthy cells: dirty “jail rooms”
Social movements: when groups of people get together to demand a change to public policy
Philanthropies: organizations funded by rich people and created to change society to the way they want society to be
Sought to: tried to, hoped to
Dire: terrible, horrible
Reform: correct—make better (get rid of the “criminal mind” in the bad guys)
Rehabilitation: a method of “fixing” a person
Spokes: the wires (usually) that extend from the center (of a wheel) to the outer part. Not only wheels, but umbrellas have spokes, too. So do windmills. The spokes “hold” something important—a tire, the umbrella cloth, the sails
Paddle wheel: a wheel which moves water in order to do something (make a ship move, crush grain, create electricity)
Modern stepping machines: like this!
Whipping … into shape: getting … physically fit
Added benefit: bonus
Decimated: destroyed (literally: destroyed by 10%)
For all concerned: for everyone
Boasted: proudly had/owned
Exertion: amount of energy used
Taming: making calm—taking the WILD/ANGER out of something
Boisterous: wild behavior
Inmates: prisoners
Severity: difficulty
Constitutes: embodies
With a vengeance: with great energy/attention/power
Forerunner: predecessor…something that comes before a huge development. The League of Nations was the forerunner to the United Nations.
Craze: sensation, popularity
Thrust back…: put back forcefully/quickly
Into the limelight: into the spotlight
To be fair: we must agree
Subject yourself to…: make yourself do…
A gravação.
Texto grande não? Veja, essa é apenas uma amostra do DDM, acredito que poucos estudantes de Inglês leem tamanha quantidade de palavras em uma semana de estudos. Esse é o DDM, não é fácil, é para quem realmente quer aprender Inglês.