(完整版)(课堂用)The_Future_of_the__English(分析解读

高级英语thefutureoftheenglish中英笔记

第二册lesson 11 The Future of The English英国人的未来J . B. Priestley JB普里斯特利1 【To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble. The English are different. The English are even more different than they think they are, though not more different than they feel they are. And what they feel — Englishness again - is more important than what they think. It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England. 背诵】若想用世界上流行的标准政治术语，即左、中、右三派这种毫无意义的陈腔老调来描述英国人的话，那多半是白费时间，徒耗精力。

英国人可是与众不同。

他们甚至比自己想象中的英国人还要不同，倒是同他们自己感觉中的英国人差不多。

而他们所感觉到的…这一点再次反映出英国人的特性——比他们想象到的更为重要。

在英国，决定一切事物形式和色彩的不是人的理性思维，而是人的本能感觉。

cosmopolitan (adj.) : common to or representative of all or many parts of the world；not national or local世界性的；不限于国家或地区范围的----------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 For example, although the English seem to be so sharply divided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abuse, there are nothing like so many Communists or neo- or potential Fascists in England as there are in most other countries. Again, although the English seem to have more than their share of rallies, protest marches, confrontations with authority, what could begin to look like a murderous encounter in France or America, or might be a bloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst in a few scuffle s and arrests. This is because there are fewer fanatical believers among the English, and at the same time, below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not befilling up. Not everybody can draw on that reservoir. No doubt there are in England some snarl ing shop steward s who demand freedom for the workers when what they really want is to bring the whole system crashing down, together with every guarantee of liberty. No doubt there are wealthy employers who smile at the TV cameras and declare that all they desire is the friendliest relation with their work force, when at heart they would like to take a whip to the whole idle troublesome mob of them. But there are not many of these men, either on the board or the shop floor, and they are certainly not typical English. Some cancer in their character has eaten away their Englishness.举例来说，尽管英国人表面上似乎存在着严重的意见分歧，彼此之间进行政治上的攻击谩骂也是常有的事，但英国却不像许多其他国家一样有那么多的共产主义者以及新的或潜在的法西斯主义分子。

完整word版,lesson11TheFutureoftheEnglish

完整word版,lesson11TheFutureoftheEnglish习题全解Ⅰ.Priestley: John Boynton Priestley, English novelist, dramatist and critic, was born on 13. Sept. 1894, in Bradford, Yourkshire. He was the son of a schoolmaster and served in the British army during World War 1 . After the end of the war he attended Cambridge, where he studied English literature, modern history, and political science. Already publishing, he was able to finance a good deal of his schooling by selling articles to London and provincial newspapers. In 1922 he went to London," where he soon established himself as a critic, essayist and novelist. During World War Ⅱ, Priestley won a huge listening audience with his trenchant, down-to-earth radio broadcasts. In 1929, The Good Companions, a novel about the joys and sorrows of the members of a repertory company in thenorth of England appeared and was enormously popular in both Great Britain and America. In 1930 Priestley published the almost equally successful Angel Pavement, whose characters worked in a small business firm in London. These were followed by other novels: They Walk in the City (1936), The Doomsday men (1938), Let the People Sing (1939), and Festival at Farbridge (1951). These novels -long, often sentimental, packed with living characters testify to Priestley' s astounding power of observation, to his narrative gifts, and to his craftsmanship. He has maintained the great tradition of the English pi- caresque novel with distinction. Priestley also won recognition with his works that combine autobiographical matter with astute left-of-center social criticism, such as English Journey (1934), Rain upon Gad- shill(1939), Thoughts in the Wilderness (1957), and The English (1973). Priestley began his career as a playwright in 1932 with Dangerous Corner which has subsequently been performed all over the world. Its success encouraged Priestley to organize a company for which he wrote plays of a consistently high dramatic standard. Among them were the comedies Laburnum Grove (1933) and When We Are Married (1938). Priestley also wrote serious "metaphysical" dramas Time and the Conways (1937), I Have Been Here Before (1938), Johnson over Jordan (1939), and An Inspector Calls (1945). Priestley has perhaps identified himself more successfully than any other novelist in the first half of the 20th century with the thoughts and feelings of the ordinary Englishman, a being whose character he outlines with vigor and good humor.Ⅱ.1. Everything that happens in England is directed and influenced by instinctive feeling and not rational thought.2. There are fewer Communists or neo- or potential fascists in England than there are in most other countries. Murderous encounters with the police or bloody street battles do not occur in England. From these facts Priestley concludes there are fewer fanatical believers among the English.3. He is referring to some shop stewards and wealthy employers who have lost their Englishness.4. Priestley puts forward five or six points to show that the English are different:1)It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England.2)The English do not feel at home in the con-temporary world, representing theaccelerated development of our whole age. They are suspicious of largeness, severe efficiency and Admass.3) The English are also deeply suspicious of change for changes’ sake.4)The English can soon feel bored and. that' s why they gamble and booze so much and enjoy any dramatic change in public life.5)The English have a sense of community, decent fellow feeling, fairness.6)The English are at heart and at root an imaginative people immediately responsive to any suggestion of drama in their lives.5. Admass stands for ruthless competitiveness, treating men simply as a producer and consumer and playing upon dissatisfaction, greed and envy, while Englishness stands for the invisible inner world, offering states of mind. The out- come of this battle between Admass andEnglishness will decide the future of the English.6. The future of the English may be shaped by the decision of the now vacillating huge trade unions. It will be shaped by the role they decide to play. They must come down decisively either on the side of Admass or that of Englishness.7. The following people have rejected Admass:1)workers in smallish, well-managed and honest enterprises,2)crusty High Tories who avoid the City and directors' fees,3)men and women in the professional classes. The last group of people are the most important for they are articulate and people are ready to listen to them. If the battle with A& mass can be won, it will probably be these men and women who will help Englishness to win it.8. Priestley divides the English younginto two groups. He is dubious about the noisy types, they lack individuality to stand up to Admass. He has more faith in the quieter young, who may have come under the influence of some mature professional men and women. They- too, might help to swing the battle.9. The sloppy people are easy to get along with, rarely unkind, but they are not dependable; they are inept, shiftless, slovenly, and messy. They lack self-discipline, accepting no responsibility, skimping the work they are supposed to be doing, cheating not only "the bosses", the capitalists, but even their neighbors.10. There is widespread boredom in all heavily industrialized societies not simply because so much of the work they offer is boring. It is also because, after having shattered the slow rhythms, the traditional skills, the closely knit communities of rum societies, they crowdpeople together; excite them by large promises that cannot be kept, so drive them into boredom. When the English are bored they gamble and booze a lot. They enjoy any dramatic change in public life, any news that encourages excited talk. Bored teenagers, who have not been able to use up enough energy during the day turn at night to idiot vandalism. Later, if boredom hardens into frustration, some of them take to crime.11. Other elements apart from boredom have brought about dishonesty and vicious criminality in England, There is trying to get rich by any means; there is the false notion that the world owes you something while you owe it nothing; there is no fear of punishment in life or after death as long as you are not found out; and there is the feeling that life is meaningless and purposeless.12. Priestley considers politics veryimportant. If honest people ignore politics, then some unscrupulous dictator may seize power and exercise his tyranny over the people.Ⅲ.1. Yes, there are. Such as: stuff, shop , cozy, nudge, the City, safe to say, take a whip to, shrug off, along the way ,'etc.2. 1 ) The dominant intention or the controversial topic (thesis) of his argument is stated early in paragraph 1 in one succinct sentence: "The English are different”.2) No. Priestley does not provide sufficient evidence to support his position, nor is his reasoning on some points logically sound. Hence not all his issues or conflicts are resolved. This is a rather informal piece of argument, 'so the writer doesn’t marshal enough evidence to prove his points. In fact he appeals more to theemotions of his English readers than to their reason to drive home his point of view.4. See the answer to 3.5.1)See the answer to 3.2)Yes, there' re some fallacies. For example, in his first issue he states that it is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colors actual events in England. To support this point of view, Priestley states there are fewer fascists in England than in many other countries. From this the reader concludes more fascists are to be found in countries where rational thought and not instinctive feeling shapes and colors actual events. But one fails to find the logical connection between rational thought and fascism. Furthermore, one has to accept Priestiey’s statement that there are fewer fascists and fanatical believers in England without any supporting evidence or proof.6. See the answer to 3.The reader is moved by the sincerity and intensity of the feelings of the writer and feels that the writer, perhaps, has the right instinctive feeling of what the English are like. Priestley’s smooth and polished style makes the essay a pleasure to read.7. Students’ choice.Ⅳ.1. The English people may hotly argue and abuse and quarrel with each other but there still exists a lot of natural sympathetic feeling for each other.2. What the wealthy employers would really like to do is to whip all the workers whom they consider to be lazy and troublesome people.3. There are not many snarling shop stewards in the work-shop, nor are there many cruel wealthy employers on the board of managers (or governing board ofa factory).4. The contemporary world demands that everything be done on a big scale and the English do not like or trust bigness.5.At least on the surface, when Englishness is put against the power and success of Admass, Englishness seems to put up a rather poor weak performance.6.Englishness is not against change, but it believes that changing just for changing and for no other useful purpose to be very wrong and harmful.7. T o regard cars and motorways as more important than houses seems to Englishness a public stupidity~8. I must further say that while Englishness can go on fighting, there is a great possibility of Admass winning.9. Englishness draws its strength froma reservoir of strong moral and ethical principles, and soon it may be asking for strength which this reservoir of principles cannot supply.10. These people probably believe, as I do, that the 'Good Life' promised by Admass is false and dishonest in all respects.11.They can be found too though there are not many of them now because these kind of people are dying out---among the curt, bad-tempered, extremely conservative politicians who refuse to accept high posts in big commercial enterprises.12. They are incompetent, lazy and inefficient, careless and untidy.13. He will not even find much satisfaction in his untidy and disordered life where he manages to live as a parasite by sponging on people. This kind of life does not help a person to build up any self-respect.14. These people think of the House of Commons as a place rather far awaywhere some people are always quarreling and arguing over some small matter.15. If a dictator comes to power, these people then will soon learn in the worst way that they were very wrong to ignore politics for they can now suddenly and for no reason be arrested and thrown into prison.Ⅵ.1. reservoir: a supply; especially an extra or reserve supply2. draw on: obtain something from a reserve, store, etc.3. shop steward, a person chosen by his fellow trade unionists in an industrial establishment to speak for them to the management and to watch over their interests4. board of managers; governing board of a factory5. proportion ; relative dimensions6. keep clear of: avoid, refrain from7. overdraft:a)a withdrawal of money from a bank in excess of the amount credited to the drawer;b)the amount with-drawn in excess8. catch: a deception ; surprise ; a hidden qualification ; tricky condition 9．Walk-out: a strike(generally spontaneous and of a short duration) 10．van：the foremost position in a line，movement，field of endeavor，etc．11．count：(1egal term) any of the charges in an indictment，each of which gives a reason and is sufficient for prosecution12．junk：(colloquial) useless—or worthless stuff；trash；rubbish，etc．13．articulate：expressing oneself easily and clearly14．conforming to Madison Avenue：adapting to Admassian life styles asadvocated by Madison Avenue15．ungovernable：unruly；(hair)that is difficult to comb downⅦ．1．instinctive feeling指人生来就具有的感觉。

高级英语-the-future-of-the-english中英笔记

第二册lesson 11 The Future of The English英国人的未来J . B. Priestley JB普里斯特利1 【To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble. The English are different. The English are even more different than they think they are, though not more different than they feel they are. And what they feel — Englishness again - is more important than what they think. It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England. 背诵】若想用世界上流行的标准政治术语，即左、中、右三派这种毫无意义的陈腔老调来描述英国人的话，那多半是白费时间，徒耗精力。

英国人可是与众不同。

他们甚至比自己想象中的英国人还要不同，倒是同他们自己感觉中的英国人差不多。

而他们所感觉到的…这一点再次反映出英国人的特性——比他们想象到的更为重要。

在英国，决定一切事物形式和色彩的不是人的理性思维，而是人的本能感觉。

cosmopolitan (adj.) : common to or representative of all or many parts of the world；not national or local世界性的；不限于国家或地区范围的----------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 For example, although the English seem to be so sharply divided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abuse, there are nothing like so many Communists or neo- or potential Fascists in England as there are in most other countries. Again, although the English seem to have more than their share of rallies, protest marches, confrontations with authority, what could begin to look like a murderous encounter in France or America, or might be a bloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst in a few scuffle s and arrests. This is because there are fewer fanatical believers among the English, and at the same time, below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not befilling up. Not everybody can draw on that reservoir. No doubt there are in England some snarl ing shop steward s who demand freedom for the workers when what they really want is to bring the whole system crashing down, together with every guarantee of liberty. No doubt there are wealthy employers who smile at the TV cameras and declare that all they desire is the friendliest relation with their work force, when at heart they would like to take a whip to the whole idle troublesome mob of them. But there are not many of these men, either on the board or the shop floor, and they are certainly not typical English. Some cancer in their character has eaten away their Englishness.举例来说，尽管英国人表面上似乎存在着严重的意见分歧，彼此之间进行政治上的攻击谩骂也是常有的事，但英国却不像许多其他国家一样有那么多的共产主义者以及新的或潜在的法西斯主义分子。

课堂用The_Future_of_the__English ppt课件

• 1) It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colors actual events in England.
• 2) The English do not feel at home in the contemporary world, representing the accelerated development of our whole age. They are suspicious of largeness, severe efficiency and admass
• 1) Type of literature: part exposition and part persuasion or argument
Background Knowledge
1) About the Author and His Works
• 2) Admass
• The whole system of an increasing productivity, plus inflation, plus a rising standard of material living, plus highpressure advertising and salesmanship, plus mass communications, plus cultural democracy and the creation of the mass mind, the mass man the part of society that can be influenced by advertising or publicity
draw on their imaginations. • 他所写的故事素材来源于他童年时代的记忆。 • He draws on his childhood memories for the materials

(课堂用)The_Future_of_the__English(

• Detailed Study of the Essay
Pre-class work:
• What do you think the author is going to focus on: the future of the English as an international language, the future of the English as a nation or the future of the English people?
• 可以有把握的说，今天所出售的每一个硬盘都比老一代的硬盘高级得多。
• It is safe to say that each and every hard drive selling today is far superior to older-generation drives.
• out of scale: out of proportion不成比例，不相称
2.receive vast subsidies of dollars, francs, Deutschmarks and the rest for public relations and advertising campaigns
• Englishness
1.ailing and impoverished
• 我想你一定累了吧，我给你煮杯咖啡。 • You’re tired, no doubt. I’ll make you a cup
of coffee.
• Wrong: *It is no doubt that he’ll come.
• Right: There is no doubt that he’ll come.
• 5. a poor shadowy show, a faint pencil sketch

2023年高级英语thefutureoftheenglish中英笔记

第二册 lesson 11 The Future of TheEnglish英国人旳未来J .B.Priestley JB普里斯特利1 【To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble.The English are different.The English are even more different than they think they are, though not more different than they feel they are.And what they feel — Englishness again - is more important than what they think.It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England. 背诵】若想用世界上流行旳原则政治术语, 即左、中、右三派这种毫无意义旳陈腔老调来描述英国人旳话, 那多半是白费时间, 徒耗精力。

英国人可是与众不一样。

他们甚至比自己想象中旳英国人还要不一样, 倒是同他们自己感觉中旳英国人差不多。

而他们所感觉到旳…这一点再次反应出英国人旳特性——比他们想象到旳更为重要。

在英国, 决定一切事物形式和色彩旳不是人旳理性思维, 而是人旳本能感觉。

cosmopolitan (adj.) : common to or representative of all or many parts of the world；not national or local世界性旳；不限于国家或地区范围旳----------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 For example, although the English seem to be so sharply divided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abuse, there are nothing like so many Communists or neo- or potential Fascists in England as there are in most other countries.Again, although the English seem to have more than their share of rallies, protest marches, confrontations with authority, what could begin to look like a murderous encounter in France or America, or might be a bloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst in a few scuffles and arrests.This is because there are fewer fanatical believers among the English, and at the same time, below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not be filling up.Not everybody can draw on that reservoir.No doubt there are in England some snarling shop stewards who demand freedom for the workers when what they really want is to bring the whole system crashing down, together with every guarantee of liberty.No doubt there are wealthy employers who smile at the TV cameras and declare that all they desire is the friendliest relation with their work force, when at heart they would like to take a whip to the whole idle troublesome mob of them.Butthere are not many of these men, either on the board or the shop floor, and they are certainly not typical English.Some cancer in their character has eaten away their Englishness.举例来说, 尽管英国人表面上似乎存在着严重旳意见分歧, 彼此之间进行政治上旳袭击谩骂也是常有旳事, 但英国却不像许多其他国家同样有那么多旳共产主义者以及新旳或潜在旳法西斯主义分子。

THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH

.THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH[J . B. Priestley1 To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble. The English are different. The English are even more different than they think they are, though not more different than they feel they are. And what they feel — Englishness again - is more important than what they think. It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England.2 For example, although the English seem to be so sharply divided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abuse, there are nothing like so many Communists or neo- or potential Fascists in England as there are in most other countries. Again, although the English seem to have more than their share of rallies, protest marches, confrontations with authority, what could begin to look like a murderous encounter in France or America, or might be a bloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst in a few scuffles and arrests. This is because there are fewer fanatical believers among the English, and at the same time, below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not be filling up. Not everybody can draw on that reservoir. No doubt there are in England some snarling shop stewards who demand freedom for the workers when what they really want is to bring the whole system crashing down, together with every guarantee of liberty. No doubt there are wealthy employers who smile at the TV cameras and declare that all they desire is the friendliest relation with their work force, when at heart they would like to take a whip to the whole idle troublesome mob of them. But there are not many of these men, either on the board or the shop floor, and they are certainly not typical English. Some cancer in their character has eaten away their Englishness.3 The real English, who are “different”, who have inherited Englishness and have not yet thrown away their inheritance, cannot feel at home in the contemporary world, representing the accelerated development of our whole age. It demands bigness, and they are suspicious of bigness. (And there is now not only Industrial bigness; there is also Scientific bigness, needing more and more to discover less and less.) Clearly everything cannot be done by smallish and reasonably human enterprises. No cosy shipyard can undertake to build a 150,000-ton ship, though we may not be in our right minds if we want such a ship. But it is safe to say that while Englishness may reluctantly accept bigness, its monsters are never heartily welcomed. They look all right in America, itself so large, but seem altogether out of scale in England. Along with the demand for bigness goes a demand for severe efficiency, often quite rational but not reasonable, therefore alien to Englishness. A further necessary demand, to feed the monster with higher and higher figures and larger and larger profits, is for enormous advertising campaigns and brigades of razor-keen salesmen. Finally, fromthe monster and all its spokesmen comes a message, endlessly repeated. It runs more or less as follows: ‗You ought to be happy. But you are not happy. You can be happy, though, if you buy what we are making for you.‘ And a postscript might be added from Iago: ‗Put money in thy purse.‘4 I like to call this ―Admass‖, and will do so from now on. I will also announce what the future of the English hangs upon, while at the same time, unlike almost everybody else, keeping well clear of economics. It hangs upon the final result of a battle that has been going on for some years now and that explains why the English seem so odd, eccentric, unsatisfactory, not only abroad but to many persons at home. It is a battle that is being fought in the minds of the English. It is between 'Admass', which has already conquered most of the Western world, and 'Englishness', ailing and impoverished, in no position to receive vast subsidies of dollars, francs, deutschmarks and the rest, for public relations and advertising campaigns. The triumphs of 'Admass' can be plainly seen. It operates in the outer visible world, where it offers more and more things - for more and more money of course - and creates the so-called ‗Good Life‘. Against this, at least superficially, 'Englishness' seems a poor shadowy show - a faint pencil sketch beside a poster in full colour - belonging as it really does to the invisible inner world, merely offering states of mind in place of that rich variety of things. But then while things are important, states of mind are even more important.5 It is easy to understand why there should be this conflict between 'Admass' and 'Englishness'. What is central to 'Admass' is the production and consumption of goods. If there is enough of this —though of course there never is, because dissatisfaction is built into 'Admass' - there will be sufficient money to pay for its‗Good Life‘. But it is worth noting along the way that whi le America has been for many years the chief advocate of 'Admass', America has shown us too many desperately worried executives dropping into early graves, too many exhausted salesmen taking refuge in bars and breaking up their homes, too many workmen suffering from monotony or time-and-motion studies and wondering how the hell they got into these traps. And America, to its credit, can also show us a lot of sensible men and women who have denounced all this and have walked out of it. But this book is about the English, not the Americans. Now 'Englishness', with its relation to the unconscious, its dependence upon instinct and intuition, cannot break its links with the past: it has deep long roots. Being itself a state of mind, it cannot ignore other states of mind and cannot help feeling that 'Admass', with its ruthless competitiveness, its idea of man simply as a producer and consumer, its dependence upon dissatisfaction, greed and envy, must be responsible for bad and not good states of mind. Furthermore, while 'Englishness' is not hostile to change, it is deeply suspicious of change for change‘s sake, rejecting the idea that we are now committed to some inevitable mechanical progress. Here we might take a concrete example. 'Englishness' would support an immediate demand, at the expense of many other things, for more and better housing. Without adequate shelter and a decent place to call their own, people feel wretched. But people in England, not a big country, do not have to have more and more and larger and larger cars, with longer and wider motorways,wrecking the countryside, to take the cars. If they think they do, this is 'Admass' at work. People have wanted houses for centuries, and cars of their own only for a very short time. To put cars and motorways before houses seems to 'Englishness' a communal imbecility .6 The battle that will decide the future of the English is going on all round us. At this time of writing, we in England are in the middle of it. I must add that while'Englishness' can still fight on, 'Admass' could be winning. There are various reasons why this may be happening. To begin with, not all the English hold fast to'Englishness'. Some important and influential men carefully train themselves out of it - politicians, academics, bureaucrats, ambitious financiers and industrialists, can be found among these men - and a horde of others, shallow and foolish, wander away from it, shrugging off their inheritance. 'Englishness' is not as strong as it was even thirty years ago. It needs to be nourished by a sense of the dignity and possible destiny of mankind. It must have some moral capital to draw upon, and soon it may be asking for an overdraft . The Zeitgeist seems to be working for 'Admass'. So does most of what we read and what we hear. Even our inflation, which keeps everybody nudging everybody for more money, is often seen not as a warning, not as an enemy of the genuine good life, but as a proof that we need more and not less 'Admass'.7 Some battles have been won or lost because the commander of a large force, arriving late, decided almost at the last moment to change sides. I feel that a powerful section of English workers, together with their union bosses, is in the same situation as that commander just before he could make up his mind. These men believe that if there is a ‗Good Life‘ going, then it‘s high time they had their share of it. But some remaining 'Englishness' in them whispers that there may be a catch in it. Where‘s this ‘Good Life‘ in sweating your guts out, just because t he managers are on the productivity-per-man-hour caper? It‘s all a racket anyhow. If we don‘t work like the old man used to do, we‘re not turning out the honest stuff the old man was expected to turn out. It‘s the profit now, not the product. Half the ti me, we cheat the foremen, the foremen cheat the management, the management cheats the customers. Okay, we want shorter hours, more holidays, bigger pay packets - then the ‗Good Life‘ of the adverts for us. Or are we kidding ourselves?8 Now I am not pretending that something like this is being said in every branch of English industry, and certainly not where there is a genuine - if rather old-fashioned - pride in the work on hand. But something like it is being said, thought or felt, in the very places where there is the most money, the most boredom, the most trouble and ‗industrial action‘, and indeed the most 'Admass'. Behind the constant bickering , the sudden walk-outs and strikes, the ‗bloody-mindedness‘, which bewilder so many foreign commentators, is the conflict between 'Admass', offering so much, and the'Englishness' that instinctively recoils from 'Admassian' values and life-style. There are, of course, people on the management side who may be aware of this conflict in themselves, but it is probably nothing like so sharp, the 'Admass' spoils being greater for them and their instinctive feeling not being so strong. The common people have clung harder to tradition than any other class. In addition to this conflict, all the more worrying because it is hardly ever openly discussed, there is something else that mustdisturb many officials and members of the more powerful trade unions. This is the anomalous position of these huge organizations. What exactly are they? One day they describe themselves as existing simply to negotiate rates of pay, hours and conditions of work. Another day they talk and behave as if the country was moving towards syndicalism and they were in the van. A week later they will be back in their purely negotiating role. They make the rest of us feel that either they should be more important and if possible creative, or less important, just minding their own business. As it is they are like a hippopotamus blundering in and out of a pets‘ tea party. Moreover, sooner or later they will have to put an end to this conflict between'Admass' and what remains of their 'Englishness', coming down decisively on one side or the other, for they cannot enjoy both together. The future of the English may be shaped by this decision.9 There are, of course, people belonging to all classes who do not want to be fascinated and then enslaved by 'Admass', and who if necessary are ready to make a few sacrifices, largely material, to achieve a satisfying state of mind. They probably believe, as I do, that th e 'Admass Good Life‘ is a fraud on all counts. Even the stuff it produces is mostly junk, meant to be replaced as soon as you can afford to keep on buying. Such people can be found among workers in smallish, well-managed and honest enterprises, in which everybody still cares about the product and does not assume the customers are idiots. They can be found, too - though not in large numbers because the breed is dying out - among crusty High Tories who avoid the City and directors‘ fees. But they are stron gest and, I fancy, on the increase in the professional classes, men and women who may or may not believe in my 'Englishness' but have rejected 'Admass'. They are usually articulate; they have many acquaintances, inside or outside their professions, ready to listen to them; and not a few of them have a chance to talk on TV and radio. If the battle can be won, it will probably be these men and women who will swing it.10 But what about the young? Here we might remember that as soon as we consider even the fairly immediate future then our young will not be the young any more; some other young will have arrived. It is one difficulty the Americancounter-culture enthusiasts have to face - that while they are still praising the rebellious young, half those lads and girls may have already lost their youth and may be as busy conforming to Madison Avenue as they conformed earlier to Hippy California or the road to Katmandu. So far as the English young are concerned, I am dubious about the noisy types, whether they are shouting in the streets or joining the vast herds at pop festivals. Too many of them lack the individuality to stand up to'Admass', which can provide them with another and even larger herd to join. I have far more faith in the quieter young, who never swaggered around in the youth racket , who may have come under the influence of one or two of those professional men and women, who have probably given some thought to what life may be like at forty or forty-five. They, too, might help to swing the battle.11 What follows does not apply to old-age pensioners, to people still overworked and underpaid, to all the English who have some integrity, some individual judgment and real values. Far too many of the other English - though 1 don’t say a majority -are sloppy people. They are easy to get along with, rarely unkind, but they are not dependable; they are inept , shiftless, slovenly , messy . This is not entirely their own fault. Unlike their fathers or grandfathers, they have not been disciplined by grim circumstances. They are no longer facing starvation if they don‘t work properly or go on strike, no longer told to clear out if they aren‘t properly respectful and start answering back, no longer find themselves the victims of too many hard facts. And this, in my opinion, is how things should be in a civilized society. But people who have been liberated from the harsh discipline of circumstance should then move on to acquire some measure of self-discipline. Without self- discipline a man cannot play an adequate part in a civilized society: he will be just slopping around, accepting no responsibility, skimping the work he is supposed to be doing, cheating not only ‗the bosses‘, the capitalists, but even his neighbours. And unless he is an unusual type, he will not even find much satisfaction in this scrounging messy existence, which does nothing for a man‘s self-respect. (I am keeping this on the male side, if only because a woman‘s problems are generally more personal, immediate, emotionally urgent, so that unless she is a hopeless case she has to face and deal with some of them.) And this is the situation that many of the English, decent at heart, find themselves in today. Bewildered, they grope and mess around because they have fallen between two stools, the old harsh discipline having vanished and the essential new self-discipline either not understood or thought to be out of reach.12 Boredom is a menace, now and in the future. All heavily industrialized societies are in the boredom business. This is not simply because so much of the work they offer is boring. It is also because, after having shattered the slow rhythms, the traditional skills, the closely knit communities of rural societies, they crowd people together, excite them by large promises that cannot be kept, so drive them into boredom. Now the English - at least the contemporary English of my experience - can soon feel bored, which largely explains why they gamble and booze so much and enjoy any dramatic change in public life, any news that encourages excited talk: the urban English have always seemed to me a dramatic people. When boredom can‘t be banished, there is always danger ahead. Teenagers, ‗who have not been able to use up enough energy during the day (they should be worked harder), turn at night to idiot vandalism . Later, if boredom hardens into frustration, some of them, too many of them, take to crime, all kinds, from petty shop-lifting to ferocious robbery with violence.13 Life in fact was much rougher, harder, more superficially insecure, when I was young, but there seemed to be more honesty about, less constant cheating and pilfering and certainly far less vicious criminality. Other elements apart from boredom of cour se have been at work here. There is Iago‘s ‗Put money in thy purse‘; there is the false notion that the world owes you something while you owe it nothing; the other idea that so long as you are not found out, then all will be well - no final damnation threatening you any longer, and no understanding yet that there can be plenty of Hells on a do-it-yourself basis. Behind it all, whether people are sunk into almost mindless apathy or scream out of their frustration for violence, there is a feeling that everything is different now, that life has been ‗found out‘ to be with outmeaning, without purpose, equally negative for all mankind or for your own nation. Naturally I am not saying all the English are down on this level. We still have some 'Englishness' left, keeping our minds open to the past and retaining some faith in our future, rejecting the logic-chopping rational for the widely if hazily reasonable, refusing to be cut off from instinct and intuition.14 Yes, 'Englishness' is still with us. But it needs reinforcement, extra nourishment, especially now when our public life seems ready to starve it. There are English people of all ages, though far more under thirty than over sixty, who seem to regard politics as a game but not one of their games – polo , let us say. To them the'House of Commons' is a remote squabbling-shop. Recognized political parties are repertory companies staging ghostly campaigns, and all that is real between them is the arrangement by which one set of chaps take their turn at ministerial jobs while the other set pretend to be astounded and shocked and bring in talk of ruin. The whole thing, in the eyes of these people, is an expensive and tedious farce. In my view they are mistaken, indeed quite dangerously wrong, and I can only hope that no young demagogue of genius and his friends are listening to them. Otherwise they could soon learn, in the worst way, that heavy hands can fall on the shoulders that have been shrugging away politics. You can ignore politics, taking what has been gained for granted, only to discover your cousins have vanished and you are being knocked up at three in the morning. Dictatorships have thrived on majorities that are apathetic and then frightened, and on minorities that are fanatically divided, brutally quarrelsome and stupid.15 At this time of writing (1973) both the cynical or frivolous majority, which imagines itself to be outside politics, and the stubbornly divided minority, only agreeing in being myopic and entirely self-interested, exist in England. But I believe there must also still exist, if only on a hidden level, what remains of a characteristically English sense of community, decent fellow-feeling, fairness. (‗It isn‘t fair‘, children still cry.) In spite of the 'Admass' atmosphere, inflation, theall-round grab, all this must yet exist even now, for there are deep roots here. But those roots must be needing nourishment. 'Englishness' cannot be fed with the east wind of a narrow rationality, the latest figures of profit and loss, a constant appeal to self-interest. Politicians are always making such appeals, whereas statesmen, when they can be found, prefer to take themselves and their hearers out of the stock exchanges, shareholders‘ meetings, counting-houses. They offer men the chance of behaving better and not as usual. They create an atmosphere in which the familiar greed and envy and resentment begin to seem small and contemptible. They restore to people their idea of themselves as a family. It has been done in England over and over again. But not lately. There has been little or no appeal from deep feeling to deep feeling, from imagination to imagination. Recent years have ‗robbed us of immortal things‘. But we do not have to go on like that, to enter a 'Common Market of national character'. It is now many years since I first declared in public my belief that the English, despite so many appearances to the contrary, are at heart and at root an imaginative people immediately responsive to any suggestion of drama in their lives. Deprived of it, they drift towards boredom, sulks and foolish short-sighted quarrels.And this is true, whether they are wearing bowler hats or ungovernable mops of hair.To face the future properly they need both a direction and a great lift of the heart.A rather poorer and harder way of life will not defeat them so long as it is not harder and poorer in spirit, so long as it still refuses to reject 'Englishness' - for so many centuries the secret of the islanders‘ oddity and irrationality, their many weaknesses, their creative strength.（The Final Chapter from ‘The English’ published by William Heinemann in 1973）。

（完整word版）ThefutureofEnglish

（完整word版）ThefutureofEnglishThe future of English未来的英语语言变化You're learning English, right? You might think you can work outthe grammar and have built a vast vocabulary, but then you come across an expression like 'plos'. According to online urban slang dictionaries, it means 'parents looking over shoulder'. Teenagers are to blame. They have their own code, including 'text speak' when they are on the internet or using their phones.Text speak has a lot to do with inventing cool new terms–and these change quickly. Maybe you shouldn't be surprised if an English friend says you sound a bit old-fashioned. The modal verb 'shall' is on the way out because 'will' sounds more natural these days. Bas Aarts, Professor of English linguistics at University College London says, "If you have two words which more or less express the same meaning, one of the two words will get pushed out of the language."People have been shying away from using the modal 'must' because it sounds authoritarian and people are choosing to express obligation in different ways. It sounds nicer to soften obligation by saying 'might'. For example, "You might like to read this article." Progressive tenses - formed from the verb 'be' and the suffix 'ing' - are used for ongoing situations, for example, 'I'm writing this article for you to read'. But its use has been increasing rapidly. Bas Aarts says that this might have to do with advertising.A fast-food chain uses the expression 'I'm loving it' in English-speaking countries. But the verb'love' expresses a state of being – as opposed to doing – andis usually used in the simple form, for example, 'I love it'. These days, people are using stative verbs in the progressive more and more. Before you despair and throw your English book in the bin, be assured that some words take a very long time to change. According to Professor Mark Pagel at Reading University in the UK, pronouns like 'I', 'you' and 'we' evolve slowly – a thousand years ago we would be using similar or sometimes identicalsounds. Nouns and adjectives, on the other hand, get replaced rapidly – and in 500 years or so we'll probably be using different words to the ones we have now. But let's leave the problem for the future generations.词汇表grammar 语法vocabulary 词汇urban slang 现代俚语code 代码，语言，代号cool 酷的，时尚的term 表达，术语old-fashioned 过时的，老派的modal verb 情态动词on the way out 即将过时，即将被淘汰linguistics 语言学shy away from 回避，躲避authoritarian 专制的obligation 义务，职责progressive tenses 进行时态suffix 后缀，词尾advertising 广告业stative verb 静态动词pronoun 代词noun 名词adjective 形容词测验与练习1. 阅读课文并回答问题。

高级英语 the future of English 课件

• Para. 2 Material evidence to support his first point of view • Although the English seem to have serious disagreement among themselves and seem always to be abusing politically each other loudly, there are fewer Communists or fascists in England than in most other countries. The English people may hotly argue and quarrel with each other but there still exists a lot of natural sympathetic feeling (fellow feeling ) for each other.
• Not everybody can draw on that reservoir. • Not everybody may be able to display this distinctive fellow-feeling. • For example: • snarling shop steward(工会代表): • wealthy employers: • Some cancer in their character has eaten away their Englishness. • These people no longer behave like typical Englishmen because some disease has warped their character.

(完整word版)高级英语 the future of the english中英笔记

第二册lesson 11 The Future of The English英国人的未来J . B. Priestley JB普里斯特利1 【To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble. The English are different. The English are even more different than they think they are, though not more different than they feel they are. And what they feel — Englishness again - is more important than what they think. It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England. 背诵】若想用世界上流行的标准政治术语，即左、中、右三派这种毫无意义的陈腔老调来描述英国人的话，那多半是白费时间，徒耗精力。

英国人可是与众不同。

他们甚至比自己想象中的英国人还要不同，倒是同他们自己感觉中的英国人差不多。

而他们所感觉到的…这一点再次反映出英国人的特性——比他们想象到的更为重要。

在英国，决定一切事物形式和色彩的不是人的理性思维，而是人的本能感觉。

cosmopolitan (adj.) : common to or representative of all or many parts of the world；not national or local世界性的；不限于国家或地区范围的----------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 For example, although the English seem to be so sharply divided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abuse, there are nothing like so many Communists or neo- or potential Fascists in England as there are in most other countries. Again, although the English seem to have more than their share of rallies, protest marches, confrontations with authority, what could begin to look like a murderous encounter in France or America, or might be a bloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst in a few scuffle s and arrests. This is because there are fewer fanatical believers among the English, and at the same time, below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not befilling up. Not everybody can draw on that reservoir. No doubt there are in England some snarl ing shop steward s who demand freedom for the workers when what they really want is to bring the whole system crashing down, together with every guarantee of liberty. No doubt there are wealthy employers who smile at the TV cameras and declare that all they desire is the friendliest relation with their work force, when at heart they would like to take a whip to the whole idle troublesome mob of them. But there are not many of these men, either on the board or the shop floor, and they are certainly not typical English. Some cancer in their character has eaten away their Englishness.举例来说，尽管英国人表面上似乎存在着严重的意见分歧，彼此之间进行政治上的攻击谩骂也是常有的事，但英国却不像许多其他国家一样有那么多的共产主义者以及新的或潜在的法西斯主义分子。

完整word版,lesson 11 The Future of the English

习题全解Ⅰ.Priestley: John Boynton Priestley, English novelist, dramatist and critic, was born on 13. Sept. 1894, in Bradford, Yourkshire. He was the son of a schoolmaster and served in the British army during World War 1 . After the end of the war he attended Cambridge, where he studied English literature, modern history, and political science. Already publishing, he was able to finance a good deal of his schooling by selling articles to London and provincial newspapers. In 1922 he went to London," where he soon established himself as a critic, essayist and novelist. During World War Ⅱ, Priestley won a huge listening audience with his trenchant, down-to-earth radio broadcasts. In 1929, The Good Companions, a novel about the joys and sorrows of the members of a repertory company in thenorth of England appeared and was enormously popular in both Great Britain and America. In 1930 Priestley published the almost equally successful Angel Pavement, whose characters worked in a small business firm in London. These were followed by other novels: They Walk in the City (1936), The Doomsday men (1938), Let the People Sing (1939), and Festival at Farbridge (1951). These novels -long, often sentimental, packed with living characters testify to Priestley' s astounding power of observation, to his narrative gifts, and to his craftsmanship. He has maintained the great tradition of the English pi- caresque novel with distinction. Priestley also won recognition with his works that combine autobiographical matter with astute left-of-center social criticism, such as English Journey (1934), Rain upon Gad- shill (1939), Thoughts in the Wilderness (1957), and The English(1973). Priestley began his career as a playwright in 1932 with Dangerous Corner which has subsequently been performed all over the world. Its success encouraged Priestley to organize a company for which he wrote plays of a consistently high dramatic standard. Among them were the comedies Laburnum Grove (1933) and When We Are Married (1938). Priestley also wrote serious "metaphysical" dramas Time and the Conways (1937), I Have Been Here Before (1938), Johnson over Jordan (1939), and An Inspector Calls (1945). Priestley has perhaps identified himself more successfully than any other novelist in the first half of the 20th century with the thoughts and feelings of the ordinary Englishman, a being whose character he outlines with vigor and good humor.Ⅱ.1. Everything that happens in England is directed and influenced by instinctive feeling and not rational thought.2. There are fewer Communists or neo- or potential fascists in England than there are in most other countries. Murderous encounters with the police or bloody street battles do not occur in England. From these facts Priestley concludes there are fewer fanatical believers among the English.3. He is referring to some shop stewards and wealthy employers who have lost their Englishness.4. Priestley puts forward five or six points to show that the English are different:1)It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England.2)The English do not feel at home in the con-temporary world, representing theaccelerated development of our whole age. They are suspicious of largeness, severe efficiency and Admass.3) The English are also deeply suspicious of change for changes’ sake.4)The English can soon feel bored and. that' s why they gamble and booze so much and enjoy any dramatic change in public life.5)The English have a sense of community, decent fellow feeling, fairness.6)The English are at heart and at root an imaginative people immediately responsive to any suggestion of drama in their lives.5. Admass stands for ruthless competitiveness, treating men simply as a producer and consumer and playing upon dissatisfaction, greed and envy, while Englishness stands for the invisible inner world, offering states of mind. The out- come of this battle between Admass andEnglishness will decide the future of the English.6. The future of the English may be shaped by the decision of the now vacillating huge trade unions. It will be shaped by the role they decide to play. They must come down decisively either on the side of Admass or that of Englishness.7. The following people have rejected Admass:1)workers in smallish, well-managed and honest enterprises,2)crusty High Tories who avoid the City and directors' fees,3)men and women in the professional classes. The last group of people are the most important for they are articulate and people are ready to listen to them. If the battle with A& mass can be won, it will probably be these men and women who will help Englishness to win it.8. Priestley divides the English younginto two groups. He is dubious about the noisy types, they lack individuality to stand up to Admass. He has more faith in the quieter young, who may have come under the influence of some mature professional men and women. They- too, might help to swing the battle.9. The sloppy people are easy to get along with, rarely unkind, but they are not dependable; they are inept, shiftless, slovenly, and messy. They lack self-discipline, accepting no responsibility, skimping the work they are supposed to be doing, cheating not only "the bosses", the capitalists, but even their neighbors.10. There is widespread boredom in all heavily industrialized societies not simply because so much of the work they offer is boring. It is also because, after having shattered the slow rhythms, the traditional skills, the closely knit communities of rum societies, they crowdpeople together; excite them by large promises that cannot be kept, so drive them into boredom. When the English are bored they gamble and booze a lot. They enjoy any dramatic change in public life, any news that encourages excited talk. Bored teenagers, who have not been able to use up enough energy during the day turn at night to idiot vandalism. Later, if boredom hardens into frustration, some of them take to crime.11. Other elements apart from boredom have brought about dishonesty and vicious criminality in England, There is trying to get rich by any means; there is the false notion that the world owes you something while you owe it nothing; there is no fear of punishment in life or after death as long as you are not found out; and there is the feeling that life is meaningless and purposeless.12. Priestley considers politics veryimportant. If honest people ignore politics, then some unscrupulous dictator may seize power and exercise his tyranny over the people.Ⅲ.1. Yes, there are. Such as: stuff, shop , cozy, nudge, the City, safe to say, take a whip to, shrug off, along the way ,'etc.2. 1 ) The dominant intention or the controversial topic (thesis) of his argument is stated early in paragraph 1 in one succinct sentence: "The English are different”.2) No. Priestley does not provide sufficient evidence to support his position, nor is his reasoning on some points logically sound. Hence not all his issues or conflicts are resolved. This is a rather informal piece of argument, 'so the writer doesn’t marshal enough evidence to prove his points. In fact he appeals more to theemotions of his English readers than to their reason to drive home his point of view.4. See the answer to 3.5.1)See the answer to 3.2)Yes, there' re some fallacies. For example, in his first issue he states that it is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colors actual events in England. To support this point of view, Priestley states there are fewer fascists in England than in many other countries. From this the reader concludes more fascists are to be found in countries where rational thought and not instinctive feeling shapes and colors actual events. But one fails to find the logical connection between rational thought and fascism. Furthermore, one has to accept Priestiey’s statement that there are fewer fascists and fanatical believers in England without any supporting evidence or proof.6. See the answer to 3.The reader is moved by the sincerity and intensity of the feelings of the writer and feels that the writer, perhaps, has the right instinctive feeling of what the English are like. Priestley’s smooth and polished style makes the essay a pleasure to read.7. Students’ choice.Ⅳ.1. The English people may hotly argue and abuse and quarrel with each other but there still exists a lot of natural sympathetic feeling for each other.2. What the wealthy employers would really like to do is to whip all the workers whom they consider to be lazy and troublesome people.3. There are not many snarling shop stewards in the work-shop, nor are there many cruel wealthy employers on the board of managers (or governing board ofa factory).4. The contemporary world demands that everything be done on a big scale and the English do not like or trust bigness.5.At least on the surface, when Englishness is put against the power and success of Admass, Englishness seems to put up a rather poor weak performance.6.Englishness is not against change, but it believes that changing just for changing and for no other useful purpose to be very wrong and harmful.7. T o regard cars and motorways as more important than houses seems to Englishness a public stupidity~8. I must further say that while Englishness can go on fighting, there is a great possibility of Admass winning.9. Englishness draws its strength froma reservoir of strong moral and ethical principles, and soon it may be asking for strength which this reservoir of principlescannot supply.10. These people probably believe, as I do, that the 'Good Life' promised by Admass is false and dishonest in all respects.11.They can be found too though there are not many of them now because these kind of people are dying out---among the curt, bad-tempered, extremely conservative politicians who refuse to accept high posts in big commercial enterprises.12. They are incompetent, lazy and inefficient, careless and untidy.13. He will not even find much satisfaction in his untidy and disordered life where he manages to live as a parasite by sponging on people. This kind of life does not help a person to build up any self-respect.14. These people think of the House of Commons as a place rather far awaywhere some people are always quarreling and arguing over some small matter.15. If a dictator comes to power, these people then will soon learn in the worst way that they were very wrong to ignore politics for they can now suddenly and for no reason be arrested and thrown into prison.Ⅵ.1. reservoir: a supply; especially an extra or reserve supply2. draw on: obtain something from a reserve, store, etc.3. shop steward, a person chosen by his fellow trade unionists in an industrial establishment to speak for them to the management and to watch over their interests4. board of managers; governing board of a factory5. proportion ; relative dimensions6. keep clear of: avoid, refrain from7. overdraft:a)a withdrawal of money from a bank in excess of the amount credited to the drawer;b)the amount with-drawn in excess8. catch: a deception ; surprise ; a hidden qualification ; tricky condition 9．Walk-out: a strike(generally spontaneous and of a short duration) 10．van：the foremost position in a line，movement，field of endeavor，etc．11．count：(1egal term) any of the charges in an indictment，each of which gives a reason and is sufficient for prosecution12．junk：(colloquial) useless—or worthless stuff；trash；rubbish，etc．13．articulate：expressing oneself easily and clearly14．conforming to Madison Avenue：adapting to Admassian life styles asadvocated by Madison Avenue15．ungovernable：unruly；(hair)that is difficult to comb downⅦ．1．instinctive feeling指人生来就具有的感觉。

高级英语第二册第三版paraphrase和translation答案

The Future of the EnglishParaphrase1.The English people may hotly argue and abuse and quarrel with each other but there still exists a lot of natural sympathetic feeling for each other.2. What the wealthy employers would really like to do is to whip all the workers whom they consider to be lazy and troublesome people.3. There are not many snarling shop stewards in the work-shop, nor are there many cruel wealthy employers on the board of managers (or governing board of a factory).4. The contemporary world demands that everything be done on a big scale and the English do not like or trust bigness.5. At least on the surface, when Englishness is put against the power and success of Admass, English ness seems to put up a rather poor weak performance.6. Englishness is not against change, but it believes that changing just for changing and for no other useful purpose to be very wrong and harmful.7. To regard cars and motorways as more important than houses seems to Englishness a public stupidity~8. I must further say that while Englishness can go on fighting, there is a great possibility of Admass winning.9. Englishness draws its strength from a reservoir of strong moral and ethical principles, and soon it may be asking for strength which this reservoir of principles cannot supply.10. These people probably believe, as I do, that the 'Good Life' promised by Admass is false and dishonest in all respects.11. He will not even find much satisfaction in his untidy and disordered life where he manages to live as a parasite by sponging on people. This kind of life does not help a person to build up any self-respect.12. These people think of the House of Commons as a place rather far away where some people are always quarreling and arguing over some small matter.13. If a dictator comes to power, these people then will soon learn in the worst way that they were very wrong to ignore politics for they can now suddenly and for no reason be arrested and thrown into prison.TranslationA1.他们甚至比自己想象中的英国人还要不同，倒是同他们自己感觉中的英国人差不多。

The Future of the English背诵翻译部分

Some battles have been won or lost because the commander of a large force, arriving late, decided almost at the last moment to change sides. I feel that a powerful section of English workers, together with their union bosses, is in the same situation as that commander just before he could make up his mind. These men believe that if there is a “Good Life”going, then it’s high time they had their s hare of it. But some remaining Englishness in them whispers that there may be a catch in it. Where’s this “Good Life”in sweating your guts out, just because the managers are on the productivity-per-man-hour caper? It’s all a racket anyhow. If we don’t work like the old man used to do, we’re not turning out the honest stuff the old man was expected to turn out. It’s the profit now, not the product. Half the time, we cheat the foremen, the foremen cheat the management, the management cheats the customers. Okay, we want shorter hours, more holidays, bigger pay packets—then the “Good Life” of the adverts for us. Or are we kidding ourselves?一支迟到战场的大部队的指挥官在差不多最后一刻决定倒戈，从而决定了某些战役的胜败。

Lesson 11 The Future of the English.

2019/6/1
urban: connected with a town or city 城市的；都市的；城镇的
e.g: urban areas 城市生活/urban life 城市生活
Paraphrase：
Now the contemporary English ,who have the same experience as me , can get bored easily .This explains why the English gamble and drink so much and enjoy dramatic changes in public life , any news that cause warm discussion. I think the urban English always get excited over a little thing.
why they gamble and booze so much and enjoy any dramatic
change in public life , any news that encourages excited talk: the urban English have always seemed to me a dramatic people.
Paraphrase：
The danger will always in front of us if we don’t get rid of boredom.
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6.Teenagers,who have not been able to use up enough energy during the day, turn at night to idiot vandalism.

Lesson 11 The Future of the English.

2019/6/1
urban: connected with a town or city 城市的；都市的；城镇的
e.g: urban areas 城市生活/urban life 城市生活
Paraphrase：
Now the contemporary English ,who have the same experience as me , can get bored easily .This explains why the English gamble and drink so much and enjoy dramatic changes in public life , any news that cause warm discussion. I think the urban English always get excited over a little thing.
2019/6/1
5.When boredom can’t be banished, there is always danger ahead.
banish: ~sb/sth(from sth) to make sb/sth go away; to get rid of sb/sth 赶走；驱除
The sight of food banished all other thoughts from my mind . 看到吃的，我别的什么都忘记了。
of rural societies, they crowd people together, excite them by large promises that cannot be kept, so drive them into boredom. shattered:to break suddenly into very small pieces, or to make something break in this way.