[originaltext] (S)=Simon Fanshawe (I)=Interviewer (I): Hello and welco

(S)=Simon Fanshawe
   (I)=Interviewer
   (I): Hello and welcome to our talk show. In the next few minutes we’re going to be talking about modern manners. It’s an argument that, on the face of it, has been going on between the generations, for hundreds of generations. Older people can often be heard saying the youth of today lack the basics in good behavior and with newspapers and the media focusing on the anti-social activities of a minority of young people. It’s easy for them to be branded with a negative stereotype. So are British manners really getting worse? With me today here is Simon Fanshawe, the author of the book called "The Done Thing" all about modern British manners. Simon, do you think that the British manners are really getting worse?
   (S): Well, let’s first see what people think about it. I’ve come to a typical UK high street on a weekday to talk to the young mums and dads, business people, elderly people and students and I then get an interesting mix of views. Some think that our manners are getting better and some think they are getting really worse because the moral standards are declining generally. However, more think generally in buses and trains people’s manners have improved in many ways. And they also think that there are cultural differences, so one might meet someone from a different culture with a rather different set of manners. So, you see it is however a question of individual taste. Different people have different opinions on this issue.
   (I): OK, but is there some common ground? Or what are the basic dos and don’ts?
   (S): I think one of the things confusing for people is when they come here there appears to be hundreds and hundreds of rules, hundreds of things you should and shouldn’t do. And the truth of it is that most of them are about class. And lots of them are trip-wires actually for people who don’t know them. So what I tried to do in my book was take it back to the first principle and say look — there are anthropological reasons why we have certain kinds of manners. So I’ll give you a very good example. In Britain there are sort of two ways of holding a knife, very broadly. And broadly speaking the middle-classes hold it with the index finger on the top, gripped in the hand. And working-class people hold it like a pen. Entirely a class distinction and people mercilessly exploit it if they want to. The truth of it is, the one way not to hold a knife at the table, is clasped in your fist, raised as if to kill your guest. This is the end of Part One of the interview. Questions 1 to 5 are based on what you have just heard
   Question One What do newspapers and the media focus on?
   Question Two Who was not interviewed by Simon Fanshawe?
   Question Three Some British people think the manners are getting worse. What’s the reason?
   Question Four What is the truth concerning numerous rules of dos and don’ts?
   Question Five How do the middle-classes hold the knife?