第二册lesson11TheFutureofTheEnglish英国人的未来JB普里斯特利J.B.Priestley1【TowriteabouttheEnglishinstandardandcosmopolitanpoliticalterms,theusualLeft-Centre-Rightstuff,isalmostalwayswastingtimeandtrouble.TheEnglisharedifferent.TheEnglishareevenmoredifferentthantheythinktheyare,thoughnotmoredifferentthantheyfeeltheyare.Andwhatthey—feelEnglishnessagain-ismoreimportantthanwhattheythink.ItisinstinctivefeelingandnotrationalthoughtthatshapesandcoloursactualeventsinEngland.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.):commontoorrepresentativeofallormanypartsof；thenotworldnationalorlocal世界性的；不限于国家或地区范围的----------------------------------------------------------------------------------2Forexample,althoughtheEnglishseemtobesosharplydivided,alwaysindulginginplentyofloudpoliticalabuse,therearenothinglikesomanyCommunistsorneo-orpotentialFascistsinEnglandasthereareinmostothercountries.Again,althoughtheEnglishseemtohavemorethantheirshareofrallies,protestmarches,confrontationswithauthority,whatcouldbegintolooklikeamurderousencounterinFranceorAmerica,ormightbeabloodystreetbattleinJapan,wouldinEnglandendattheworstinafewscufflesandarrests.ThisisbecausetherearefanaticalfewerbelieversamongtheEnglish,andatthesametime,belowthenoisyarguments,theabuseandthequarrels,thereisareservoirofinstinctivefellow-feeling,notyetexhaustedthoughitmaynotbefillingup.Noteverybodycandrawonthatreservoir.NodoubtthereareinEnglandsomesnarlingshopstewardswhodemandfreedomfortheworkerswhenwhattheyreallywantistobringthewholesystemcrashingdown,togetherwitheveryguaranteeofliberty.NodoubttherearewealthyemployerswhosmileattheTVcamerasanddeclarethatalltheydesireisthefriendliestrelationwiththeirworkforce,whenathearttheywouldliketotakeawhiptothewholeidletroublesomemobofthem.Buttherearenotmanyofthesemen,eitherontheboardortheshopfloor,andtheyarec