Unit 13 Irish Culture How the__ Irish Live Now

Unit 13 Irish Culture: How the Irish Live Now爱尔兰的文化：爱尔兰人的生活现状一、本单元重点内容1. Rapid social change (快速的社会变迁)2. Attitudes to the English （对英国人的态度）3. Irish identity (爱尔兰特色)4. The Roman Catholic values(罗马天主教价值观)5. The conflict between Catholics and Protestants （天主教徒与新教徒之间的冲突）6. Extended family(大家庭)7. The woman’s movement(妇女运动)8. Pub culture (酒吧文化)9. Flexibility in work places (工作场所的弹性制度)10. Trade union (工会)11. First-level, second-level, and third-level education (初等、中等和高等教育)二、本单元重、难点辅导1. Rapid social change (快速的社会变迁)1) The average young person in Ireland today would have grown up with rapid social change. For example, the change of the law of primogeniture(长子继承权) and girls in the 1950s and 1960s were not urged to get a university education, but now the majority of Irish people can aspire to attend university, find a good job.2) The law of primogeniture is the traditional law in Ireland that favors the first born (son), that is only the first son in the family has the right to inherit the properties, be it land or house, of the family when the father dies.3) The child whose life differs least for that of his parents is one born into Ireland’s underclass, those of the chronically unemployed. 与父母生活方式差异最小的儿童来自下层，即长期失业的人们。

2. Some of the cultural differences between Ireland and England (爱尔兰和英格兰之间的文化差异)1) While the English are largely Protestant, the Irish of the Republic largely belong to the Roman Catholic faith. 2) While the English speak English, the first official language of the Irish Republic is the Irish language. 3) While England is an industrialized country, Ireland is only now leaving behind its traditional rural economy（爱尔兰才刚刚摆脱其传统的农业经济）. 4) While the English are still very self-absorbed in being English, the Irish have consciously become more European.3. Attitudes to the English （对英国人的态度）Ireland has a love/hate attitude toward the English, where admiration and condemnation of the English go hand-in-hand. 爱尔兰对英国人是又爱又恨的态度，对英国人的钦佩与批评并行。

4. The British stereotypes about the Irish （英国人对爱尔兰人的偏见）For centuries, the British caricatured the Irish as, at best, dreamy and impractical; at worst, lazy and given to drinking in excess. These stereotypes are still in force about the Irish. However, it is clear, from Ireland's recent dazzling economic success, that the Irish are neither lazy nor incompetent. Quite the opposite: the Irish workforce is now young, highly educated, entrepreneurial, and disciplined.数百年来，英国人对爱尔兰人讽刺不断，给他们的最好评价是：爱幻想，不切实际；最坏的评价是懒惰、酗酒。

对爱尔兰人的这些偏见现在还很盛行。

然而，从爱尔兰近几年的经济腾飞可以很明显地看到，爱尔兰人既不懒惰，能力也不差。

恰恰相反：爱尔兰的劳动力是又年轻，受教育程度又高，又有创业精神，纪律性也很强。

5. The Roman Catholic values(罗马天主教价值观)Irish Catholicism concentrated on what it saw as matters of sexual purity. These attitudes greatly shaped the attitude of the new republic. The Catholic Church also exercised a firm hold over educational structures, over hospitals, over the media, and over the way people thought about themselves and their lives. This began to change only after the late 1970s. 爱尔兰的天主教注重性纯洁。

这也是爱尔兰共和国信奉的观念。

天主教教会主宰着教育结构，医院，媒体以及人们的思维方式。

这种状况一直到了20世纪70年代后期才开始发生变化。

Birth control was effectively forbidden even to married couples until 1979; neither divorce nor abortion was legally available. The final blow to the Catholic Church came in a referendum in 1995, when the Irish people voted for the legal provision of divorce, against which the Roman Church had fought a long and hard battle. 对天主教会最后的打击是1995年的公民投票，赞成从法律上允许离婚，而这是罗马天主教会长期以来强烈反对的。

6. The conflict between Catholics and Protestants (天主教徒与新教徒之间的冲突)Catholics believe that the Pope speaks with the authority of Christ himself, as his own representative on earth. This claim of supreme authority for the Pope is the distinguishing characteristic of Roman Catholicism.天主教徒认为，罗马教皇是耶稣在人间的代表，所以他讲话跟耶稣一样有威信。

宣扬教皇的至高无上的权威是罗马天主教的明显特征。

Protest ants are those who “protest” against this claim. Protestants challenge the right of the Pope to tell them what to believe or to act as God’s representative on earth. Protestants believe that they themselves have direct access to God through prayer and stud y of God’s word in the Christian sacred book, the Bible. They feel they should be free to work out what they believe themselves.新教徒反对上述观点。

新教徒对教皇的权利发起挑战，对于他能否告诉人们该信仰什么或是能否充当上帝在人间的代表提出质疑。

新教徒认为人人都可以用祈祷和读圣经的方式与上帝直接沟通。

他们认为自己应该有选择宗教信仰的自由。

7. Extended family(大家庭)Traditionally, Irish families were large, with up to 16 or more children, families of 8 or 9 children common in the last generation. What has changed dramatically in the last 30 years has been thestructure of Irish family life. Now about 1/3 of all children are born into to single mothers. The primary agent in effecting change in traditional family life has been the movement f or women’s liberation(改变传统家庭生活模式的一个主要原因来自妇女解放运动).8. The woman’s movement(妇女运动)Inaugurated (始于) in the early 1970s, the women's movement concentrated first on gaining control of their own fertility(生育控制权), demanding birth control, divorce, and the right to have an abortion if necessary. The first two goals have been achieved over a span of about twenty years, but abortion is still legally forbidden in the Republic of Ireland and is still regarded as a highly emotional topic. The second objective was to secure the right of women, and that of particularly married women, to work. Today, about half of the women of Ireland of working age hold down full-time jobs.妇女运动始于20世纪70年代，主要是为女性争取生育控制权, 要求有节育、离婚和进行人工流产的权利。