最新-年英语专业四级阅读理解passage-4(翻译)

2010年专业四级英语真题（翻译）
Passage 4（翻译）
Cultural rules determine every aspect of food consumption. Who eats together defines social units. For example, in some societies, the nuclear family is the unit that regularly eats together. The anthropologist Mary Douglas has pointed out that, for the English, the kind of meal and the kind of food that is served relate to the kinds of social links between people who are eating together. She distinguishes between regular meals, Sunday meals when relatives may come, and cocktail parties for relatives and friends. The food served symbolizes the occasion and reflects who is present. For example, only snacks are served at a cocktail party. It would be inappropriate to serve a steak or hamburgers. The distinctions among cocktails, regular meals, and special dinners mark the social boundaries between those guests who are invited for drinks, those who are invited to dinner, and those who come to a family meal. In this example, the type of food symbolizes the category of guest and with whom it is eaten.
In some New Guinea societies, the nuclear family is not the unit that eats together. The men take their meals in a men’s house, separately from their wives and children. W omen prepare and eat their food in their own houses and take the husband’s portion to the
men’s house. The women eat with their children in their own houses. This pattern is also widespread among Near Eastern societies.
Eating is a metaphor that is sometimes used to signify marriage. In many New Guinea societies, like that of the Lese on the island of New Ireland in the Pacific and that of the Trobriand Islanders, marriage is symbolized by the couple’s eating together for the first time. Eating symbolizes their new status as a married couple. In U.S. society, it is just the reverse. A couple may go out to dinner on a first date.
Other cultural rules have to do with taboos against eating certain things. In some societies, members of a family group, arc not allowed to eat the animal or bird that is their ancestor. Since they believe themselves to be children of that ancestor, it would be like eating that ancestor or eating themselves.
There is also an association between food prohibitions and rank, which is found in its most extreme form in the caste (social class) system of India. A caste system consists of ranked groups, each with a different economic specialization. In India, there is an association between caste and the idea of pollution. Members of highly ranked groups can be polluted by coming into contact with the bodily secretions, particularly saliva, of individuals of lower-ranked castes. Because of the fear of pollution, Brahmans and other high-ranked individuals will not share food with, not eat from the same plate as, not even accept food from an individual or from a low-ranking caste.
文化规则决定了食品消费的方方面面。

一起吃饭的人精确地解释为社会单位。

例如，在一些社会中，核心家庭是经常一起吃饭的单位。

人类学家玛丽·道格拉斯曾指出，对于英国人来说，吃饭的种类和食物的种类与一起吃饭的人之间的社会联系的种类有关。

她在正餐、亲戚来的周日餐和熟人的鸡尾酒会之间做出了区分。

所供应的食物象征着这一时刻，反映了在场的人。

例如，鸡尾酒会上只提供小吃。

上牛排或汉堡包是不合适的。

鸡尾酒、正餐和特别晚餐之间的区别标志着被邀请喝酒的客人、被邀请吃饭的客人和来家庭聚餐的客人之间的社会界限。

在这个例子中，食物的类型象征着客人的类别以及和谁一起吃。

在一些新几内亚社会中，核心家庭并不是一起吃饭的单位。

男人在男人的家里吃饭，和他们的妻子和孩子分开。

妇人在自己家里预备食物和吃食物，又把丈夫的分带到丈夫家里。

妇女们和孩子们在自己的家里吃饭。

这种模式在近东社会中也很普遍。

吃饭这个比喻有时被用来表示婚姻。

在许多新几内亚社会，比如太平洋新爱尔兰岛上的莱苏和特罗布里恩群岛的岛民，婚姻的象征是夫妻第一次一起吃饭。

吃象征着他们作为夫妻的新地位。

在美国社会，情况正好相反。

一对夫妇第一次约会可能会出去吃饭。

其他的文化规则与禁忌饮食有关。

在一些社会中，一个宗派的成员们，一种类型的家族群体不允许吃他们的图腾祖先，动物或鸟。

因为他们相信自己是那个祖先的后裔，吃它们就像吃那个祖先或者吃自己一样。

食物禁忌和等级之间也有联系，这在印度的种姓制度中以其最极端的形式出现。

种姓制度由有等级的群体组成，每个群体的经济专业化程度不同。

在印度，种姓制度和污染观念之间存在着联系。

排名靠前的群体的成员会因为接触到排名靠后的群体的身体分泌物，尤其是唾液而受到污染。

因为害怕污染，婆罗门和其他高种姓的人不会和别人分享食物，也不会和别人一起吃，甚至不会接受低种姓的人的食物。