-
Character of Englishmen
Quality
of the British, and in particular of the English,
is
“reserved.”
A reserved
perso
n is one who does not talk very
much to strangers, does not show much emotion, and
seldom gets excited. It is difficult to
get to know a reserved person: he never tells you
anything about himself, and you may
work with him for years without ever knowing
where he lives, how many children he
has, and what his interests are. English people
t
end to be like that.
在其他的欧洲
人看来，英国人，尤其是英格兰人的最明显的特
点是
“
沉默寡言
”
。一个沉默寡言的人不大同陌生人说
话，情感不大外露，也很少
激动。
要想了解一个沉默寡言的人很
困难：
他从不谈及他的身世，
即使你与他工
作数年，也许你不知道他家住在哪里，有几个子女，有些什么兴趣爱好。英国人
往往
就是这样。
If they are making a
journey by bus they will do their best to find an
empty seat; if by
train, an empty
compartment. If they have to share the compartment
with a stranger, t
hey may travel many
miles without starting a conversation. If a
conversation does star
t, personal
questions like
“How
old are
you?”
or even
“What
is your
name?”
are not
e
asily asked.
乘公共汽车旅行时，他们会尽量
找到一个空座位；乘火车旅行时，他
们会尽量找到一个空隔间。
如果他们不得不与他人共坐一个隔间，
火车开了数英
里也许还不
见他们开口说话。即使打开了话匣子，他们也不轻易问起
“
你多
大
了？
”
或者
“
你贵姓？
”
之类的个人问题。
This reluctance to
communicate with others is an unfortunate quality
in some ways si
nce it tends to give the
impression of coldness, and it is true that the
English (except p
erhaps in the North)
are not noted for their generosity and
hospitality. On the other ha
nds, they
are perfectly human behind their barrier of
reserve, and may be quite please
d when
a friendly strange or foreigner succeeds for a
time in breaking the barrier dow
n. We
may also mention at this point that the people of
the North and West, especially
the
Welsh, are much less reserved than those of the
South and East.
从某些方面来说，
这种不
愿与人交往的特点是件令人遗憾的事情，
因为这往往给
人以冷漠
的印象。
除了北方人以外，
英国人从不以他们的慷慨大方和热情
好客而
著称。另一方面，虽然他们表面上沉默寡言，但内心还是很有人情味。当友善的<
/p>
1
陌生人或外国人打破沉默时，
他们也许会感到很高兴。
说到这里，
也许我
们应该
提一句，
英国的北部和西部的人，
特别是威尔士人，
远不象南部和东部的人那样
缄默。
Closely related to English
reserve is English modesty. Within their hearts,
the English
are perhaps no less
conceited than anybody else, but in their
relations with others they
value at
least a show of modesty. Self-praise is felt to be
impolite. If a person is, let u
s say,
very good at tennis and someone asks him if he is
a good player, he will seldom
reply
“Yes,”
because people will
think him conceited. He will probably give an
answe
r like,
“I’m
not
bad,”
or
“I
think
I’m
very
good,”
or
“Well,
I’m
very keen on
tennis.”
(
i.e.
I’m
very fond of it.) even
if he had managed to reach the finals in last
year’s
local
championships, he would say it in such
a way as to suggest that it was only due to a
pi
ece of good luck.
与英国人的缄默
密切相关的是英国人的谦虚。
在英国人的内心，
他们的自负不亚
于任何其他的民族。
但在与别人交往时，
他们注重谦虚，
起码要表现出一种谦虚
的姿态。自夸被认为是
不礼貌的。比如说，一个人网球打得很好，当有人问他是
不是一个网球好手时，他很少会
回答说
“
是
”
，因为如果他回答
“
是
”
，人们会认为
他很自负。他很可能会这样回答：
“<
/p>
还不错。
”
或者
“
我觉得我还行。
”
或者
“
嗯，
我挺喜欢打网球。
”
即使他在去年当地的网球锦标赛上打入了决赛，他也许会说<
/p>
只是碰上了好运气。
The
famous English sense of humor is similar. Its
starting-point is self-dispraise, and
i
ts great enemy is conceit. Its object
is the ability to laugh at oneself---at
one’s
own fau
lts,
one’s
own failure, even at
one’s
own ideals. The
criticism,
“He
has no sense
of hu
mor”
is very commonly
heard in Britain, where humor is highly prized. A
sense of hu
mor is an attitude to life
rather than the mere ability to laugh at jokes.
This attitude is
never cruel or
disrespectful or malicious. The English do not
laugh at a cripple of a m
adman, or a
tragedy or an honorable failure.
著名的英
国式幽默感也与此相似。
其出发点是自贬，
其大敌是自负。
其目的是能
够自嘲
——
嘲笑自己的错误，自己的失败，甚至自己的理想。在英国，幽默感受
到高度重视，<
/p>
经常听到
“
他没有幽默感
”
这样的评论。
幽默感是对生活的一种态度，
2
而不仅仅是一听到笑话就能够开怀大笑。
这种态度决不是冷酷，
决不是无礼，
决
不是恶毒。
英国人从不嘲笑残疾人或精神病人，
也从不会对一件悲惨的或虽败犹
荣的事情幸灾乐祸。
Since reserve, a show of modesty and a
sense of humor are part of his own nature, the
typical Englishman tends to expect them
in others. He secretly looks down on more
e
xcitable nations, and likes to think
of himself as more reliable than they. He
doesn’t
tr
ust big
promises and open shows of feelings, especially if
they are expressed in flower
y language.
He
doesn’t
trust self-praise
of any kind. This applies not only to what
othe
r people may tell him about
themselves orally, but to the letters they may
write to him.
To those who are fond of
flowery expressions, the Englishman may appear
uncomfort
ably cold.
因为沉默寡言、
谦虚的表现和幽默感是英国人天生性格的组成部分，
典型的英国
人总是期望别人也具有这种品质。
他从心里看不起那些容易激动
的民族，
总是认
为他们没有自己可靠。
他不相信信誓旦旦的诺言，
也不相信感情的直接外露，
尤
其不相信用华丽的语言做出的承诺和表达的感情。他对任何的自夸之词都不相
< br>信，
不管是人们口头告诉的，
还是写信书面表达的。
在那些喜欢用华丽辞藻的人
看来，英国人可能显得冷漠，让人感到很
不舒服。
Finally,
sportsmanship. Like a sense of humor, this is an
English ideal which not all E
nglishmen
live up to. It must be realized that sport in this
modern form is almost entir
ely a
British invention. Boxing, rugby, football,
hockey, tennis and cricket were all
fir
st organized and given rules in
Britain. Rules are the essence of sport, and
sportsmans
hip is the ability to
practice a sport according to its rules, while
also showing generosit
y to
one’s
opponent and good
temper in defeat. The high pressure of modern
internati
onal sport makes these ideals
difficult to keep, but they are at least highly
valued in Br
itain and are certainly
achieved there more commonly than among more
excitable peo
ples. Moreover,
sportsmanship as an ideal is applied to life in
general this is proved by
the number of
sporting terms used in ordinary speech. Everybody
talks of
“fair
play”
and
“playing
the
game”
or
“playing
fair.”
Borrowed from boxing,
“straight
from the
s
houlder”
is used to
describe a well-aimed, strong criticism
and
“below
the
belt”
is used to describe an
unf
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