教你正确用（二十五）.docVIP

教你正确用（二十五） 　　Usually people will tell you that you cannot argue both directions. But, sometimes, it’s fun to argue both directions, especially when both arguments make sense. I was talking to a friend the other day, and before long I realized that I was covering both sides of the argument. 　　 　　Being a Big Ugly American 　　我是丑陋的老美 　　 　　We are sometimes called big ugly Americans. People don’t like us. Not only people don’t like us in other countries, but people don’t like us in this country, in the US. I mean, Americans don’t like Americans. The other day, I took a cab to go somewhere in New York City. Of course, the driver was Pakistani. He has three children all living here in New York City; he has a house in Queens. But, he said, Chinese are OK, but he does not trust Americans. I think he meant Americans of European decent, since both he and I are Americans. He was most likely sincere about what he said; he shook my hand for a long time before I got out of the cab, not really because I tipped him for a few extra dollars ― he didn’t need that; but, I think, he thought we had a real good conversation. Why people don’t like us? Why we don’t like ourselves? Probably we ARE Big Ugly Americans. We go to places, and we try to be nice because we think we are rich and smart―the result, we jack up the price and make living hard for the local people. My friends in China always tell me: you guys just come here to ruin the local economy; don’t pay for anything, let us do it. Sure, it’s a lot cheaper when the locals do it. People don’t like us, probably, because we don’t behave ourselves. Last year, like all petty bourgeois families in the Northeast, we went to Aruba for vacation. At the card table in one of the casinos, we met an embarrassing fellow country man, who screamed, smoked, and threw chips to the other players to encourage them to bet on his hand. Come on! What’s on your mind? Perhaps, if we behave a little, people, in and out of America, will like us a bit bett