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1、Unit OneParty PoliticsPre-reading Activityball, prom, masque, cocktail partyball: a formal gathering for social dancing.prom: (shortening for “promenade”), a formal dance held for a high-school or college class typically at or near the end of the academic year.masque: (or masquerade) a costume party
2、 at which masks are worn; a masked ball.cocktail party: a party at which different kinds of drinks or beverages are served. This type of party can range from extremely formal very casual. For instance there are Cocktails and Cocktail Party - Guests are mostly standing and dress attire(服装) can range
3、from business to casual. Cocktail Buffet - Small tables and chairs are set up for guests after they fill up their plates at the buffet station. The attire is usually formal or business attire. This event can last 2-3 hours. Cocktail Reception - The most formal event. Attire is very dressy for women
4、and usually black tie for men. The reception can be held for a distinguished guest of honor or event, such as an opening of a new performing arts center or film premier. There is so much food that the reception can count as dinner and Champagne is always served.Background informationJudith Martin(19
5、38- )： a columnist. She was born in Washington DC of the United States and graduated from Wellesley College. She lived in various foreign capitals as a child, as her father, a United Nations economist, was frequently transferred. She worked at the Washington Post for 25 years, covering social events
6、 at the White House and the embassies, before becoming a theater and drama critic. As she spent her time as a reporter, she became aware of the fact that manners and proper etiquette was slowly diminishing in the United States. In 1978, she created the Miss Manners column answering questions on etiq
7、uette. The column is now syndicated. She has written ten books and two novels. As her work as Miss Manners grew, situations began to arise that had never been broached before. She was called upon to provide answers to difficult situation. These answers have become the basis for polite society today.
8、 Her columns, as well as her books, have become the guidelines for handling everything from rude clerks to the proper way of handling second and third marriages. Her sly wit made reading about etiquette downright fun. She once explained that etiquette “ is about all of human social behavior” and is
9、“a little social contract we make that we will restrain some of our more provocative impulses in return for living more or less harmoniously.” ( from an interview with Judith Martin by the Psychology magazine in 1998). Miss Manners: The fictional figure created by columnist Judith Martin. It appears
10、 in columns of varied newspapers and magazines in the United States.(Portrait of Judith Martin )(The book cover of one of the books by J.Martin) receiving line: A line of people formed to greet arriving guests individually, as at a formal gathering. This custom still survives to this day. It is a qu
11、aint and deadly dull tradition which is often practiced at wedding receptions, funerals, and almost anyplace where the food is really good.Party PoliticsJudith Martin (1. Translation) Etiqutete at an office party? Why, these people have been socializing happily every working day of their lives, give
12、 or take a few melees, rumors, and complaint petitions. All it takes to turn this into holiday merriment is a bit of greenery looped around the officethe staff will soon be looped, too. Surely it is enough that the annual Christmas party has the magic ingredients: time off from work, free food and d
13、rink, and a spirit of fun replacing such ugly work realities as sexual harassment.(2. Translation) Furthermore, partygoers figure, it offers relief from such pesky obligations as thanking anyone or being kind to wallflowers because there really arent any hosts. Nobody has to pay (that same Nobody wh
14、o generously provides the telephone line for long-distance personal calls), and so nobodys feelings need be considered.(3. Translation) This is all pure hospitalitythere for the taking, like the office-supplied felt-tipped pens everyone has been pocketing all year. Out of the natural goodness of its
15、 corporate heart and the spirit of the holiday season, the company wishes only to give its employees a roaring good time, and the employees, out of loyalty and the thrill of getting to know their bosses off-duty as equals, delight in the opportunity.(4. Translation) For those still dimly aware of th
16、e once-standard give-and-take of real social life, this no-fault approach to business entertaining seems a godsend. In the now-rare domain of genuine society, hosts are supposed to plan and pay for the entertainment of their guests, on their own time and in their own houses. Guests have strict dutie
17、s, as wellfrom answering invitations to cooperating with all arrangements, even to the extent of pronouncing them perfectly lovely.(5. Translation) Business entertaining appears to remove the burdens of time, effort, money, individual responsibilityand the etiquette connected with them. The people w
18、ho do the planning are paid for their trouble, so those who benefit need not consider they have incurred a debt. Why, the annual Christmas party ought to be an inspiration to lower-level employees to work their way into realms where company-sponsored partying can be enjoyed all year long.(6. Transla
19、tion) Not so fast. Flinty Miss Manners does not recognize any holidays from etiquette. (Employees, if not employers, should consider themselves lucky that she is only on the Party Committee, not the one that might take up ethical questions about those pens and calls.) Office parties differ from priv
20、ate ones but are no freer from rules.(7. Translation) If it were indeed true that everyone has a better time without etiquette, Miss Manners could easily be persuaded to take the day off. But having long served on the Office Party Etiquette Cleanup subcommittee, she is aware that things generally do
21、 not go well when there is no recognized etiquette and everyone is forced to improvise.(8. Translation) Let us look at all this spontaneous, carefree fun: There being no proper place for the boss, he or she hangs around the door, concerned about mixing with everyone. It might discourage hospitable b
22、osses to see guests staring at them in horror and then slithering in by a side door. But etiquettes solution of having everyone greeted in a receiving line was rejected as too stiff. So one can hardly blame employees for recalling a long-ingrained principle of the workplace: Seeing the boss and havi
23、ng a good time are best not scheduled at the same time.(9. Translation) Desperate to make the time count, the boss grabs the nearest available person and starts delivering practiced words about the contribution he makes to their great enterprise. The reaction is not quite what was hoped for. Discree
24、t questioning establishes that this is an employees guest. He doesnt work for the company, recognize the boss, or appreciate the attentionand, as a matter of fact, has only a passing acquaintance with the employee who issued the invitation. What this guest wants is not professional fellowship but a
25、fresh drink, if the boss would kindly step out of the way.(10. Translation) Now, the reason the invitation said “and guest” was to avoid the ticklish issue of who is still married to whom and what the spouse calls itself. Last year, unmarried employees were furious when their partners were not inclu
26、ded, and married employees complained that the forms by which their spouses were addressed were offensive: “Mrs.” offended women who preferred “Ms.,” and wives who had the same surnames outraged everybody who didnt. This year, the complaints will be from spouses who were not told that there was a pa
27、rty or who were told that spouses werent invitedbut found out otherwise. There wont be many complaints. They will, however, be memorable, darkly charging the company with promoting immorality.(11. Translation) Meanwhile, what about those who are interested in promoting a bit of immorality, or just p
28、lain romance, of their own? They, too, are creating problems that will reach far into the new year. True office romances are the least of them, with their charges of favoritism and melding professional and personal time. More serious is the fact that, in spite of the liquor and high spirits, it stil
29、l counts as sexual harassment when anyone with supervisory powers makes unreciprocated overtures to a lower-ranking employee. And foolhardy when a lower-ranking employee annoys a higher-ranking one.(12. Translation) Some employees have their minds only on business and will be spending party time act
30、ively promoting workaday concerns. Remembering the company rhetoric about open communications and all being in this together, they will actually seek out the boss, who by this time is grateful to be addressed by anyone at all.(13. Translation) But they dont want to engage in platitudes. They accept
31、compliments with: “Well, then how about a raise?” They plead for promotions, explain confidentially who ought to be fired, and advance previously submitted ideas about revolutionizing the business that have been unaccountably unappreciated for years. In one evening, they manage to cut through the en
32、tire hierarchy and procedures the boss has painstakingly established for the purpose of being spared this kind of importuning.(14. Translation) Eventuallyusually somewhat late in the partyit occurs to someone that this informal setting is just the time to offer the boss some constructive personal cr
33、iticism. What else does talking frankly and informally mean but an invitation to unload opinions without any career consequence?(15. Translation) Here is where the company has pulled a fast one on its employees. “Go ahead,” it has said, “relax, have a good time, forget about the job.” And the naive
34、have taken this at face value. This event is called a partya place where one lets loose without worrying about being judged by the cold standard of professional usefulness.(16. Translation) Even employees who adhere strictly to standard business dress in the office may not know what the bosses might
35、 consider vulgar in evening wear. Here is a chance to show off their racy and imaginative off-duty clothes. But over there are supervisors murmuring that people who look like that cant really be sent out to represent the company.(17. Translation) Worse are the comments on anyone whose idea of fun is
36、 a little boisterous. It may be just the behavior that makes one a delightor a trialto ones friends. But here, it is not being offered for the delight or tolerance of friends. It is being judged on criteria other than whether the person is a riot.(18. Translation) It is not that Miss Manners wants t
37、o spoil the office party by these warnings. She just wants to prevent it from spoiling careers. And the solution is what was banished from the party for being too inhibiting: etiquette.(19. Translation) The first formality that must come back is inviting everyone by name. The practice of merely coun
38、ting every invitation as two is as dangerous as it is unflattering. But people who have been clearly identified and told that they must respondthe suggestion must be made neutrally, to show that the party is a treat, not a requirementalready have some sense that they are both individually sought aft
39、er and expected to be responsible.(20. Translation) What constitutes a couple is a murkier question than Miss Manners and any sensible employer ought to investigate, but employees simply can be asked to supply the name of a spouse or friend they want to invite. (An office party can be limited by con
40、fining it to employees, in which case it should be held during office hours. But inviting spouses and such is better. Having to work is enough distraction from ones more intimate relationships, and the staff was not compiled like a guest list, according to personal compatibility.)(21. Translation) S
41、ince we have established, Miss Manners hopes, that the point of an office party is not whooping it up or telling people off, what is it? It is showing appreciation of the staff.(22. Translation) This starts with a well-run receiving line. However much popular opinion may regard receiving lines as na
42、sty ordeals, they were invented to be, and remain, the easiest way to get everyone recognized by the key people. The oldest receiving-line trick in the world still works: Someone whose business it is to know everyoneor someone unimportant enough to be able to ask each guest his nameannounces the gue
43、sts to the host as they go through the line. The host can then scornfully declare: “Of course I know Annette. We couldnt run this place without her.” For extra charm, the employees guest is also told how wonderful that employee is. This always seems more sincere than straight-out flattery, and from
44、then on, whenever the employee complains that everyone at the office is an idiot, the spouse will counter by repeating that appreciation.(23. Translation) It is often erroneously assumed that the style of the party ought to be what employees are used to: their own kind of music, food, and other thin
45、gs the executive level believes itself to have outgrown. Nonsense. What employees want is a taste of high-level entertaining. This may vary greatly according to the nature of the business. If, however, the party is too formal for the employees taste, theyll get a good laugh and enjoy the contrast al
46、l the more when they continue partying on their own afterward.(24. Translation) The clever employee will dress as the executives do, keeping in mind that there are few fields in which people are condemned for looking insufficiently provocative. Refusing or limiting drinks is not the handicap at busi
47、ness parties that it may be under the overly hospitable eye of a private host. And the real opportunity for career advancement is not petitioning a boss but rescuing one who has been cornered or stranded, thus demonstrating that one knows how to talk charmingly about nonbusiness matters. (25. Transl
48、ation) At the end, there is another receiving line. That is, the bosses plant themselves conspicuously by the exit, grabbing the hand of anyone trying to get away and thanking him for coming. Even the dimmest guest will then realize it is appropriate to thank backthat is, to realize that something h
49、as been offered and deserves gratitude.(26. Translation) After all, isnt that why the office Christmas party is given?(27. Translation) If the only goal were for the company to show the staff its appreciation, this could be effectively done with a day off and a bonus to go with it.Paraphrases and Language Points 1.
