2013高中英语阅读素材：Aspects of English LifeQueuing.docVIP

Aspects of English Life:Queuing Aspects of English Life:QueuingThe English expect each other to observe the rules of queuing,feel highly offended when these rules are violaed,but lack the confidence or social skills to express their annoyance in a strightforward manner.In other countries,this is not a problem:in America,where a queue-jumper has committed a misdemeanour rather than a cardinal sin,the response is loud and prescriptive:the offender is simply toldHey,you,get back in line! or words to that effect.On the continent,the reaction tends to be loud and argumentative; in some other parts of the world,queue-jumpers may simply be unceremoniouly pushed and shoved back into line--but the end result is much the same.Parodoxically,it is only in England,where queue-jumping is regarded as deeply immoral,that the queue-jumper is likely to get away with the offence.The English huff and puff and scowl and mutter and seethe with rightous indignation, but only rarely do they actually speak up and tell the jumper to go to the back of the queue.Queuing is almost a national pastime for the English,who automatically arrange themselves into orderly lines at bus stops,shop counters,ice-cream vans,entrances,exits,and lifes.In 1946,the Hungarian humorist George Mikes desccribed queuing as English national passion.On the continent,he said,if people waiting at a bus stop they loiter around in a seemingly vague fashion.When the bus arrives they make a dash for it...An English man,even if he is alone,forms orderly queue of one.In a update over thirty years later in 1977 he comfirmed that this was still the case.After nearly another thirty years nothing much seems to have changed.The authoress of the book said,I do it myself.When waiting alone for a bus or at a taxi stop,I do not just lounge about anywhere roughly within striking distance of the stop,as people do in other countries--I stand directly under the sign facing in the correct direction,exactly as though I were at the h