【正文】 新編英語教程 7 (Unit 1 6Text I) ants05 1 Unit One English and American Concepts of Space Edward T. Hall 1 It has been said that the English and the Americans are two great people separated by one language. The differences for which language gets blamed may not be due so much to words as to munications on other levels including ways of handling time, space, and materials. If there ever were two cultures in which differences of the proxemic details are marked it is in the educated (public school) English and the middleclass Americans. One of the basic reasons for this wide difference is that in the United States we use space as a way of classifying people and activities, whereas in England it is the social system that determines who you are. In the United States, your address is an important cue to status (this applies not only to one‘s home but to the business address as well). The Englishman, however, is born and brought up in a social system. He is still Lord no matter where you find him, even if it is behind the counter in a fishmonger‘s stall. In addition to class distinctions, there are differences between the English and ourselves in how space is assigned. 2 The middleclass American growing up in the United States feels that he has a right to have his own room, or at least part of a room. American women who want to be alone can go to the bedroom and close the door. The closed door is the sign meaning ―Do not disturb‖ or ―I‘m angry.‖ An American is available if his door is open at home or at his office. He is expected not to shut himself off but to maintain himself in a state of constant readiness to answer the demands of others. Closed doors are for conferences, private conversations, and business, work that requires concentration, study, and resting. 3 The middle and upperclass Englishman, on the other hand, is brought up in a nursery shared with brothers and sisters. The difference between a room on one‘s own and early conditioning to shared space has an important effect on the Englishman‘ s attitude toward his own space. He may never have a permanent ―room of his own‖ and seldom expects one or feels he is entitled to one. As a consequence, the English are puzzled by the American need for a secure place in which to work, an office. Americans working in England may bee annoyed if they are not provided with what they consider appropriate enclosed work space. In regard to the need for walls as screen for the ego, this places the Americans somewhere between the Germans and the English. 4 The contrasting English and American patterns have some remarkable implications, particularly if we assume that man has a builtin need to shut himself off from others from time to time. An English student in one of my seminars typified what happens when hidden patterns clash. As he stated it, ―I‘m walking around the apartment and it seems that whenever I want to be alone my roommate starts talking tome. Pretty soon he‘s asking ?What‘s the matter?‘ and wants to know if I‘m angry. By then I am angry and sat something.‖ 5 It took some time but finally we were able to identify most of the contrasting features if the American and British problems that were in conflict in this case. When the American wants to be alone he goes into a room and shuts the door he depends on architectural features for screening. For an American to refuse to talk to someone else present in the same room, to give them the ―silent treatment,‖ is the ultimate form of rejection and a sure sign of great displeasure. The English, on the other hand, lacking rooms of their own since childhood, never developed the practice of using space as a refuge from others. They have in effect internalized a set of barriers, which they erect and which others are supposed to recognize. Therefore, the more the Englishman shuts himself off when he is with an American the more likely the American is to break in to 新編英語教程 7 (Unit 1 6Text I) ants05 2 assure himself that all is well. Tension lasts until the two get to know each other. The important point is that the spatial and architectural needs of each are not the same at all. From: Gee Miller, pp. 224227. 新編英語教程 7 (Unit 1 6Text I) ants05 3 Unit Two Tourists Nancy Mitford 1 The most intensive study I ever made of tourists was at Torcello, where it is impossible to avoid them. Torcello is a minute island in the Veian lagoon: here, among vineyards and wild flowers, some thirty cottages surround a great cathedral which was being built when William the Conqueror came to England. A canal and a path lead from the lagoon to the village。 the vineyards are intersected by canals。 red and yellow sails glide slowly through the vines. Bells from the campanile ring out reproaches three times a day (cloches, cloches, divins reproches) joined by a chorus from the surrounding islands. There is an inn where I lived one summer, writing my book and observing the tourists. Torcello which used to be lonely as a cloud has recently bee an outing from Venice. Many more visitors than it can fortably hold pour into it, off the regular steamers, off chartered motorboats, and off yachts。 all day they amble up the towpath, looking for what? The cathedral is decorated with eraly mosaics—scenes from hell, much restored, and a great sad, austere Madonna。 Byzantine art is an acquired taste and probably not one in ten of the visitors has acquired it. They wander into the church and look round aimlessly. They e out on to the village green and photograph each other in a stone arm chair, said to be the throne of Attila. They relentlessly tear at the wild roses which one has seen in bud and longed to see in bloom and which, for a day have scented the whole island. As soon as they are picked the roses fade and are thrown into the canal. The Americans visit the inn t