首页
登录
职称英语
The decline of civility and good manners may be worrying people more than cri
The decline of civility and good manners may be worrying people more than cri
游客
2023-12-15
71
管理
问题
The decline of civility and good manners may be worrying people more than crime, according to Gentility Recalled, edited by Digby Anderson, which laments the breakdown of traditional codes that once regulated social conduct. It criticizes the fact that "manners" are scorned as repressive and outdated.
The result, according to Mr. Anderson director of the Social Affairs Unit, an independent thing-tank -is a society characterized by rudeness: loutish behaviour on the streets, jostling in crowds, impolite shop assistants and bad-tempered drivers.
Mr. Anderson says the cumulative effect of these-apparently trivial, but often offensive-is to make everyday life uneasy, unpredictable and unpleasant. As they are encountered far more often than crime, they can cause more anxiety than crime.
When people lament the disintegration of law and order, he argues, what they generally mean is order, as manifested by courteous forms of social contact. Meanwhile, attempts to re-establish restraint and self-control through "politically correct" rules are artificial.
The book has contributions from 12 academics in disciplines ranging from medicine to sociology and charts what it calls the "coarsening" of Britain. Old-fashioned terms such as "gentleman" and "lady" have lost all meaningful resonance and need to be re-evaluated, it says. Rachel Trickett, honorary fellow and former principal of St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, says that the notion of a "lady" protects women rather than demeaning them.
Feminism and demands for equality have blurred the distinctions between the sexes, creating situations where men are able to dominate women because of their more aggressive and forceful natures, she says. "Women, without some code of deference or respect, become increasingly victims."
Caroline Moore, the first woman fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, points out that "gentleman" is now used only with irony or derision.
"The popular view of a gentleman is poised somewhere between the imbecile parasite and the villainous one: between Woosteresque chinless wonders, and those heartless capitalist toffs who are ~.. the stock-in-trade of television."
She argues that the concept is neither class-bound nor rigid; conventions of gentlemanly behaviour enable a man to act naturally as an individual within shared assumptions while taking his place in society.
"Politeness is no constraint, precisely because the manners...are no ’code’ but a language, rich, flexible, restrained and infinitely subtle."
For Anthony O’hear, professor of philosophy at the University of Bradford, manners are closely associated with the different forms of behaviour appropriate to age and status. They curb both the impetuosity of youth and the bitterness of old age.
Egalitarianism, he says, has led to people failing to act their age. "We have vice-chancellors with earrings, aristocrats as hippies...the trendy vicar on his motorbike."
Dr Athena Leoussi, sociology lecturer at Reading University, bemoans the deliberate neglect by people of their sartorial appearance.
Dress, she says, is the outward expression of attitudes and aspirations. The ubiquitousness of jeans "displays a utilitarian attitude" that has "led to the cultural impoverishment of everyday life".
Dr Leoussi says that while cloths used to be seen as a means of concealing taboo forces of sexuality and violence, certain fashions-such as leather jackets have the opposite effect.
Dr Bruce Charlton, a lecturer in public health medicine in Newcastle upon Tyne, takes issue with the excessive informality of relations between professionals such as doctors and bank managers, and their clients. He says this has eroded the distance and respect necessary in such relationships. For Tristam Engelhardt, professor of medicine in Houston, Texas, says manners are bound to morals.
"Manners express a particular set of values," he says. "Good manners interpret and transform social reality. They provide social orientation." [br] According to Caroline Moore, the media has projected a ______ image of the gentleman.
选项
A、humorous
B、favourable
C、negative
D、traditional
答案
C
解析
本题属于推断题。作者在第七段中指出:“Caroline Moore…points out that gentleman is now used only with irony or derision”。在下一段中,Caroline Moore指出,人们对gentleman的概念的理解:“The popular view of a gentleman is poised somewhere between the imbecile parasite and the villainous one”,可见媒体对“绅士”的态度是“否定的”。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3275821.html
相关试题推荐
[originaltext]OfficialsinThailandsayatleast93peoplehavebeenkilled
[originaltext]OfficialsinThailandsayatleast93peoplehavebeenkilled
Changesinthewaypeoplelivebringaboutchangesinthejobsthattheydo.
Changesinthewaypeoplelivebringaboutchangesinthejobsthattheydo.
Changesinthewaypeoplelivebringaboutchangesinthejobsthattheydo.
Changesinthewaypeoplelivebringaboutchangesinthejobsthattheydo.
Changesinthewaypeoplelivebringaboutchangesinthejobsthattheydo.
Aspeopleage,theircellsbecomelessefficientandlessabletoreplacedam
Aspeopleage,theircellsbecomelessefficientandlessabletoreplacedam
Themusicindustry,hurtbyadeclineinCDsalesandthecontinuedfreeswap
随机试题
IntheUnitedStates,itisnotcustomarytotelephonesomeoneveryearlyin
Theauthorthinksthatthetrendtowardsarapidriseinconsumptionwas"undesi
【教学过程】 (一)图片导入 老师在课前展示四幅图片(分别为小巷里,驶来的汽车鸣起喇叭,行人迅速躲避;电话铃声响了,小丽赶快跑去接电话;同学们分组讨论,
可使用粉煤灰填筑的路堤的是()。A.一级公路下路床 B.二级公路上路床
外科急腹症导致休克发生的原因为A.大量毒素的吸收 B.大量液体丧失于腹腔 C
冷沉淀物可以用于治疗下列哪组疾病A.血友病A、纤维蛋白原缺乏、XIII因子缺乏
下列关于清·王清任《医林改错》的论述不正确的是A.改正了古医籍中在人体解剖方面的
牙龈脓肿与牙周脓肿最不同的是A、是否有咬合创伤 B、炎症程度 C、患者的年龄
弱电工程师小李在一家高科技企业上班。一天小李收到公司人力资源部的邮件,说他上月考
在机场实际管理和维修时,飞行区包括()A.跑道、滑行道和进场地面交通区域 B.
最新回复
(
0
)