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1、Unit One English and American Concepts of Space Edward T. Hall1 It has been said that the English and the Americans are two great people separated by one language. The differences for which language gets blamed may not be due so much to words as to communications on other levels including ways of ha
2、ndling time, space, and materials. If there ever were two cultures in which differences of the proxemic details are marked it is in the educated (public school) English and the middle-class Americans. One of the basic reasons for this wide difference is that in the United States we use space as a wa
3、y of classifying people and activities, whereas in England it is the social system that determines who you are. In the United States, your address is an important cue to status (this applies not only to ones home but to the business address as well). The Englishman, however, is born and brought up i
4、n a social system. He is still Lord - no matter where you find him, even if it is behind the counter in a fishmongers stall. In addition to class distinctions, there are differences between the English and ourselves in how space is assigned.2 The middle-class American growing up in the United States
5、 feels that he has a right to have his own room, or at least part of a room. American women who want to be alone can go to the bedroom and close the door. The closed door is the sign meaning “Do not disturb” or “Im angry.” An American is available if his door is open at home or at his office. He is
6、expected not to shut himself off but to maintain himself in a state of constant readiness to answer the demands of others. Closed doors are for conferences, private conversations, and business, work that requires concentration, study, and resting.3 The middle- and upper-class Englishman, on the othe
7、r hand, is brought up in a nursery shared with brothers and sisters. The difference between a room on ones own and early conditioning to shared space has an important effect on the Englishman s attitude toward his own space. He may never have a permanent “room of his own” and seldom expects one or f
8、eels he is entitled to one. As a consequence, the English are puzzled by the American need for a secure place in which to work, an office. Americans working in England may become annoyed if they are not provided with what they consider appropriate enclosed work space. In regard to the need for walls
9、 as screen for the ego, this places the Americans somewhere between the Germans and the English. 4 The contrasting English and American patterns have some remarkable implications, particularly if we assume that man has a built-in need to shut himself off from others from time to time. An English stu
10、dent in one of my seminars typified what happens when hidden patterns clash. As he stated it, “Im walking around the apartment and it seems that whenever I want to be alone my roommate starts talking tome. Pretty soon hes asking Whats the matter? and wants to know if Im angry. By then I am angry and
11、 sat something.”5 It took some time but finally we were able to identify most of the contrasting features if the American and British problems that were in conflict in this case. When the American wants to be alone he goes into a room and shuts the door - he depends on architectural features for scr
12、eening. For an American to refuse to talk to someone else present in the same room, to give them the “silent treatment,” is the ultimate form of rejection and a sure sign of great displeasure. The English, on the other hand, lacking rooms of their own since childhood, never developed the practice of
13、 using space as a refuge from others. They have in effect internalized a set of barriers, which they erect and which others are supposed to recognize. Therefore, the more the Englishman shuts himself off when he is with an American the more likely the American is to break in to assure himself that a
14、ll is well. Tension lasts until the two get to know each other. The important point is that the spatial and architectural needs of each are not the same at all.From: George Miller, pp. 224-227.Unit Two Tourists Nancy Mitford1 The most intensive study I ever made of tourists was at Torcello, where it
15、 is impossible to avoid them. Torcello is a minute island in the Venetian lagoon: here, among vineyards and wild flowers, some thirty cottages surround a great cathedral which was being built when William the Conqueror came to England. A canal and a path lead from the lagoon to the village; the vine
16、yards are intersected by canals; red and yellow sails glide slowly through the vines. Bells from the campanile ring out reproaches three times a day (cloches, cloches, divins reproches) joined by a chorus from the surrounding islands. There is an inn where I lived one summer, writing my book and obs
17、erving the tourists. Torcello which used to be lonely as a cloud has recently become an outing from Venice. Many more visitors than it can comfortably hold pour into it, off the regular steamers, off chartered motor-boats, and off yachts; all day they amble up the towpath, looking for what? The cath
18、edral is decorated with eraly mosaicsscenes from hell, much restored, and a great sad, austere Madonna; Byzantine art is an acquired taste and probably not one in ten of the visitors has acquired it. They wander into the church and look round aimlessly. They come out on to the village green and phot
19、ograph each other in a stone arm chair, said to be the throne of Attila. They relentlessly tear at the wild roses which one has seen in bud and longed to see in bloom and which, for a day have scented the whole island. As soon as they are picked the roses fade and are thrown into the canal. The Amer
20、icans visit the inn to eat or drink something. The English declare that they cant afford to do this. They take food which they have brought with them into the vineyard and I am sorry to say leave the devil of a mess behind them. Every Thursday Germans come up the tow-path, marching as to war, with a
21、 Leader. There is a standing order for fifty luncheons at the inn; while they eat the Leader lectures them through a megaphone. After luncheon they march into the cathedral and undergo another lecture. They, at least, know what they are seeing. Then they march back to their boat. They are tidy; they
22、 leave no litter.2 More interesting, however, than the behaviour of the tourists is that of the islanders. As they are obliged, whether they like it or not, to live in public during the whole summer, they very naturally try to extract some financial benefit from this state of affairs. The Italian is
23、 a born actor; between the first boat from Venice, at 11 a.m. and the last on which the ordinary tourist leaves at 6 p.m., the island is turned into a stage with all the natives playing a part. Young men from Burano, the next island, dress up as gondoliers and ferry tourists from the steamer to the
24、village in sandolos. One of them brings a dreadful little brother called Eric who pesters everybody to buy the dead bodies of sea-horses, painted gold. Buona fortuna, he chants. I got very frond of Eric. Sweet-faced old women sit at the cottage doors selling postcards and trinkets and apparently mak
25、ing point de Venise lace. They have really got it, on sale or return, from relations in Burano, where it is made by young girls. Old women, with toil-worn hands, cannot do such fine work. It is supposed that the tourists are more likely to buy if they think they see the lace being made, but hardly a
26、ny of them seem to appreciate its marvellous quality. Babies toddle about offering four-leafed clovers and hoping for a tip. More cries of Buona fortuna.The priest organizes holy processions to coincide with the arrival of the steamer. And so the play goes on. The tourists are almost incredibly mean
27、, they hardly leave anything on the island except empty cigarette boxes and flapping Daily Mails. The lace is expensive, but they might buy a few postcards or shell necklaces ,and give the children some pennies; they seem to have hearts of stone. 3 As soon as the last boat has gone, down comes the c
28、urtain. The gondoliers shed their white linen jackets and silly straw hats and go back to Burano, taking Eric, highly dissatisfied with his earnings and saying if this goes on he will die of hunger. The sweet old women let the smiles fade from their faces, put away their lace-making pillows, and tur
29、n to ordinary activities of village life such as drowning kittens. The father of the clover babies creeps about on his knees finding four-leafed clovers for the next day. The evening reproaches ring out, the moon comes up, the flapping Daily Mails blow into the lagoon. Torceno is itself again. From:
30、 T. S. Kane and L. J. Peters, pp. 299-301.Unit Three Text I The Subway Tom Wolfe1. In a way ,of course,the subway is the living symbol of all that adds up to lack of stauts in New York.There is a sense of madness and disorientation at almost every express stop.The ceilings are low ,the vistas are lo
31、ng,there are no landmarks,the lighting is an eerie blend of fluorescent tubing,electric light bulbs and neon advertising. The whole place is a gross assault on the senses.The noise of the trains stopping or rounding curves has a high-pitchinged harshness that is difficult to describe.People feel no
32、qualms about pushing whenever it becomes crowded.Your tactile sense takes a crucifying you never dreamed possible.The odors become unbearable when the weather is warm. Between platforms,record shops broadcast 45r.p.m.records with metallic tones and lunch counters serve the kind of hot dogs in which
33、you bite through a tensile,rubbery surface and then hit a soft,oleaginous center like cottonseed meal,and the customers sit there with pastry and bread falkes caked around their mouths ,belching to themselves so that their cheeks pop out flatulently now and then.2. The underground spaces seem to att
34、ract every eccentric passion.A small and ancient man with a Bible ,an American flag and a megaphone haunts the subways of Manhattan.He opens the Bible and quotes from it in a strong but old and monotonous voice.He uses the megaphone at express stops,where the noise is too great for his voice to be h
35、eard ordinarily,and calls for redemption.3. Also beggars.And among the beggars New Yorks status competition is renewed ,there in the much-despised subway.On the Seventh Avenue IRT line the competition is maniacal .Some evenings the beggars ricochet off one another between stops,calling one another-s
36、 and -s and telling each other to go find their own -car. A mere blind man with a cane and a cup is mediocre business.What is demanded is entertainment.Two boys,one of them with a bongo drum,get on and the big boy,with the drum,starts beating on it as soon as the train starts up,and the little boy g
37、oes into what passes for a native dance. Then ,if there is room,he goes into a tumbling act.He runs from one end of the car ,first in the direction the train is going,and does a complete somersault in the air,landing on his feet.Then ,he runs back the other way and dose a somersault in the air ,only
38、 this time against the motion of the train.He does this several times both ways ,doing some native dancing in between.This act takes so long that it can be done properly only over a long stretch,such as the run between 42nd Street and 72nd Street.After the act is over,the boys pass along the car wit
39、h Dixie cups,asking for contributions.4. The Dixie cup is the conventional container.There is one young Negro on the Seventh Avenue line who used to get on at 42nd Street and start singing a song ,I wish that i were married.He was young and looked perfectly healthy. But he would get on and sing this
40、 songI wish that i were married.at the top of his lung and then pull a Dixie cup out from under the windbreaker he always wore and walk up and down the car waiting for contributions. I never saw him get a cent .Lately ,however,life has improved for him because he has begun to understand status opens
41、 up his windbreaker,he not only takes out a Dixie cup but reveals a cardboard sign,on which is written:My mother has multiple schlerrossis and i am bland in one eye . His best touch is sclerosis,which he has added every conceivable consonant to creating a good ,intimidating German physiiology-textbo
42、ok solidity.So today he does much better. He seems to make a living.He is no idler,lollygagger or bum.He can look with condescentsion upon the states to which men fall.5. On the East Side IRT subway line ,for example ,at 86th Street ,the train stops and everyone comes squeezing out of the cars in cl
43、ots and there on a bench in the gray-green gloom,under the girders and 1905 tiles,is an old man slouched back fast asleep,wearing a cotton windbreaker with the sleeves pulled off. That is all he is wearing .His skin is the color of congealed Wheatena laced with pocket lint .His legs are crossed in a
44、 gentlemanly fashioin and his kindly juice-head face is slopped over on the back of the bench. Apparenly ,other winos,who are notorious thieves among one another,had stripped him of all his clothes except his windbreaker,which they had tried to pull off him,but only managed to rip the sleeves off ,a
45、nd left him there passed out on the bench and naked,but in a gentlemanly posture. Everyone stares at him briefly ,at his congealed Wheatena-and -lint carcass,but no one breaks stride,and who knows how long it will be before finally two policemen have to come in and hold their breath and scrape him u
46、p out of the gloom and into the bosom of the law ,from which he will emerge with a set of green fatigues,at least,and an honorable seat at night on the subway bench.From: T. S. Kane and L. J. Peters, pp. 318-320.Unit Four Style and Purpose Randolph Quirk1 Part of the intricacy of co-ordination in us
47、ing language lies, as we saw ,in the different constraints operating in speech and writing. But, as we know well, the constraints do not fall neatly into a twofold division, speaking versus writing. The stylistic range of English is wide and ultimately the gradations are infinite. When we are puttin
48、g words together, we have to see that they are congruous with the expectations at some point on the scale and that they are arranged according to the conventions of collocation and grammar-with reference to the same point on the scale.2 It may seem paradoxical to lay such stress on being conventiona
49、l in the use of English when we may well feel that the big prizes go to people who are original and unconventional in their English. It is by no means certain that the big prizes are so awarded, but whatever our pinion of this, there seems to be a general agreement that cries of look, mother: no hands!” are especially unimpressive when we have still not properly mastered the art of cycling in the conventional manner. Before trying to write like Gertrude Stein, we h
