高级英语 the future of the english中英笔记.docVIP

第二册 lesson 11 The Future of The English 英国人的未来 J . B. Priestley JB普里斯特利 　1 【To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble. The English are different. The English are even more different than they think they are, though not more different than they feel they are. And what they feel — Englishness again - is more important than what they think. It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England. 背诵】 若想用世界上流行的标准政治术语，即左、中、右三派这种毫无意义的陈腔老调来描述英国人的话，那多半是白费时间，徒耗精力。英国人可是与众不同。他们甚至比自己想象中的英国人还要不同，倒是同他们自己感觉中的英国人差不多。而他们所感觉到的…这一点再次反映出英国人的特性——比他们想象到的更为重要。在英国，决定一切事物形式和色彩的不是人的理性思维，而是人的本能感觉。 cosmopolitan (adj.) : common to or representative of all or many parts of the world；not national or local世界性的；不限于国家或地区范围的 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 　　2 For example, although the English seem to be so sharply divided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abuse, there are nothing like so many Communists or neo- or potential Fascists in England as there are in most other countries. Again, although the English seem to have more than their share of rallies, protest marches, confrontations with authority, what could begin to look like a murderous encounter in France or America, or might be a bloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst in a few scuffles and arrests. This is because there are fewer fanatical believers among the English, and at the same time, below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not be filling up. Not everybody can draw on that reservoir. No doubt there are in England some snarling shop stewards who demand freedom for the workers when what they really want is to bring the whole system crashing down, together with every guarantee of liberty. No doubt there