自考英语综合一下册课文 lesson 9

　　[00:00.00]Text

[00:02.69]The English Character

[00:06.14]To other Europeans,the best known quality of the British,

[00:11.57]and in particular of the English,is"reserved."

[00:17.21]A reserved person is one who does not talk very much to strangers,

[00:23.46]does not show much emotion,and seldom gets excited.

[00:29.94]It is difficult to get to know a reserved person:

[00:35.21]he never tells you anything about himself,

[00:39.76]and you may work with him for years without ever knowing where he lives,

[00:46.00]how many children he has,and what his interests are.

[00:51.25]English people tend to be like that.

[00:55.61]If they are making a journey by bus they will do their best to find an empty seat

[01:02.67]if by train,an empty compartment 1.

[01:07.42]If they have to share the compartment with a stranger,

[01:12.46]they may travel many miles without starting a conversation.

[01:18.42]If a conversation does start,personal questions like"How old are you?"

[01:25.50]or even"What is your name?"are not easily asked.

[01:31.38]This reluctance 2 to communicate with others is an unfortunate quality in some ways

[01:38.43]since it tends to give the impression of coldness,

[01:43.29]and it is true that the English(except perhaps in the North)

[01:49.45]are not noted 3 for their generosity 4 and hospitality.

[01:55.51]On the other hand,they are perfectly 5 human behind their barrier of reserve,

[02:02.67]and may be quite pleased when a friendly stranger

[02:07.63]or foreigner succeeds for a time in breaking the barrier down.

[02:14.19]We may also mention at this point that the people of the North and West,

[02:20.72]especially the Welsh,are much less reserved than those of the South and East.

[02:28.17]Closely related to English reserve is English modesty 6.

[02:34.33]Within their hearts,

[02:37.81]the English are perhaps no less conceited 8 than anybody else,

[02:43.87]but in their relations with others they value at least a show of modesty.

[02:51.42]Self-praise is felt to be impolite.

[02:55.99]If a person is,let us say,

[02:59.93]very good a tennis and someone asks him if he is a good player,

[03:06.57]he will seldom reply"Yes,"because people will think him conceited.

[03:13.41]He will probably give an answer like,

[03:17.56]"I'm not bad,"or"I think I'm very good,"or"Well,I'm very keen on tennis."

[03:27.23](i.e.I'm very fond of it.)

[03:31.49]Even if he had managed to reach the finals in last year's local championships,

[03:38.64]he would say it in such a way as to suggest that it was only due

[03:44.71]to a piece of good luck.

[03:48.05]The famous English sense of humor is similar.

[03:53.40]Its starting point is self-dispraise,and its great enemy is conceit 7.

[04:00.56]Its object is the ability to laugh at oneself at one's own faults,

[04:05.92]one's own failure,even at one's own ideals.

[04:13.57]The criticism,"He has no sense of humor"is very commonly heard in Britain,

[04:21.51]where humor is highly prized.

[04:25.67]A sense of humor is an attitude to life rather than the mere 9 ability to laugh at jokes

[04:33.03]This attitude is never cruel or disrespectful or malicious 10.

[04:39.51]The English do not laugh at a cripple or a madman,

[04:44.55]or a tragedy or an honorable failure.

[04:49.91]Since reserve,a show of modesty and a sense of humor are part of his own nature,

[04:57.27]the typical Englishman tends to expect them in others.

[05:02.84]He secretly looks down on more excitable nations,

[05:08.01]and likes to think of himself as more reliable than they.

[05:13.57]He doesn't trust big promises and open shows of feelings,

[05:20.65]especially if they are expressed in flowery language.

[05:25.90]He doesn't trust self-praise of any kind.

[05:30.55]This applies not only to what other people may tell him about themselves orally,

[05:37.71]but to the letters they may write to him.

[05:42.39]To those who are fond of flowery expressions,

[05:47.53]the Englishman may appear uncomfortably cold.

[05:52.50]Finally,sportsmanship.

[05:56.55]Like a sense of humor this is an English ideal

[06:02.19]which not all Englishmen live up to.

　　[06:06.84]It must be realized

[06:10.39]that sport in its modern form is almost entirely 11 a British invention.

[06:17.23]Boxing,rugby,football,hockey,

[06:22.56]tennis and cricket were all first organized and given rules in Britain.

[06:29.93]Rules are the essence of sport,

[06:34.29]and sportsmanship is the ability to practice a sport according to its rules,

[06:41.45]while also showing generosity to one's opponent and good temper in defeat.

[06:49.31]The high pressure of modern international sport

[06:54.28]makes these ideals difficult to keep,

[06:58.64]but they are at least highly valued in Britain

[07:03.68]and are certainly achieved there more commonly than among more excitable peoples.

[07:10.92]Moreover,sportsmanship as an ideal is applied 12 to life in general.

[07:18.15]This is proved by the number of sporting terms used in ordinary speech.

[07:24.81]Everybody talks of"fair play"and"playing the game"or"playing fair."

[07:31.94]Borrowed from boxing,

[07:35.47]"straight from the shoulder"is used to describe a well aimed,strong criticism

[07:42.55]and "below the belt"is used to describe an unfair one.

[07:47.91]One of the most elementary rules of life is"never hit a man when he's down"

[07:54.98]in other words,never take advantage of a person's misfortune.

[08:01.15]English schoolboys often show this sense of sportsmanship

[08:06.50]to a surprisingly high degree in their relations with each other.