2014年職稱(chēng)英語(yǔ)(綜合類(lèi))教材閱讀理解文章及譯文44

　　Americans Get Touchy

　　The New York Times recently reported that American teens are hugging practically everyone they see. Say goodbye to the greetings of the past, from the hands-off "What's up!" to the handshake or high-five2. For young people across the country, hugging is the new "Hello".

　　Girls are hugging girls. Boys are hugging boys. Girls and boys are hugging each other. And, like every major trend, there are lots of variations on the form. There's the classic, full-body, arms-around-the-person bear hug, the casual one-armed side hug, the group hug and the hug from behind. There's the handshake that turns into a hug and the hug that turns into a pat on the back.

　　As trends go, this one seems pretty innocent. But some parents, teachers and school administrators are worried nonetheless. Will young people who aren't as comfortable with physical contact feel peer pressured into hugging? Willkids who don't receive hugs feel left Out3? Could an extra-long hug slide into the more ominous territory of sexual harassment?

　　In response to some of these concerns, some schools have set up new rules to limit or eliminate hugging. One school head has created a three-second limitation4 for hugs at her school. A few schools have taken even more drastic measures, placing a ban on all forms of touching between students.

　　A few important points are being left out of the discussion. While the US has traditionally been reserved about touching - saving hugs and kisses for relatives, romantic partners and very close friends - people in many other parts of the world have been greeting each other this way for ages.

　　In Latin America or Western Europe, in countries like Spain, France, and Italy, a kiss on the cheek is common among women, as well as among women and men who are not romantically involved. The cheek-kiss varies by region.

　　Sometimes it is just an air kiss blown past the face. In other places, the proper way of greeting is to deliver a kiss upon both cheeks, or sometimes even a triplet of kisses performed by kissing one cheek, then the other, then back to the first.

　　Latin American men are more likely to shake hands when greeting other men,but in some countries like Turkey, it's not unusual for men who know each other well to exchange kisses on the cheek. Meanwhile, for the Maori people of New Zealand, a traditional greeting called the "hongi" involves pressing nosestogether.

　　So, from a global perspective, the new trend of teen hugging in America is not so "new" after all. People all around the world move in close to say hello,and Americans are just now joining in.

　　詞匯：

　　touchy 易怒的;敏感的

　　harassment 騷擾

　　triplet 三個(gè)一組;三件一套

　　注釋?zhuān)?/P>

　　1. touchy 的本意為“易怒的”、“敏感的”，這里用來(lái)指“喜歡肢體接觸的”，標(biāo)題意味美國(guó)人越來(lái)越喜歡肢體接觸了。

　　2. High-five：是美國(guó)文化手勢(shì)的一種，并沒(méi)有正式的中文名稱(chēng)，一般代表了“慶祝成功的擊掌”，有時(shí)也寫(xiě)成“Give me five”。

　　3. feel left out：感到被排斥

　　4. three-second limitation：指學(xué)校制定的將擁抱限制在三秒鐘之內(nèi)的規(guī)定。

　　5. Maori people：毛利人(新西蘭的土著)。

　　練習(xí)：

　　1. The word "practically" in the first paragraph could be best replaced by

　　A) certainly

　　B) nearly

　　C) actively

　　D) voluntarily

　　2. Which of the following is NOT among the typical ways of greetings in the past?

　　A) hands off "What's up"

　　B) handshake

　　C) high-five

　　D) embrace

　　3. Some parents, teachers and school administrators concern the new trend of hugging for the following reasons EXCEPT:

　　A) Some young people get involved into the trend due to peer pressure.

　　B) Those who don't receive hugs feel left out.

　　C) There's the danger that hugging slide into the more ominous territory of sexual harassment.

　　D) Diseases could be transmitted more easily through the extra-long body contact.

　　4. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

　　A) Teenagers across the US hug everyone they see in nearly the same way.

　　B) Although some adults worry about the trend, few measures have been taken to ban on it.

　　C) Traditionally, the US people have been reserved about hugging between anybody.

　　D) In some countries, it's usual for men to kiss each other on the cheek.

　　5. We can infer that the author holds a attitude toward the new trend of hugging.

　　A) positive

　　B) negative

　　C) indifferent

　　D) conservative

　　答案與題解：

　　1.B 文章開(kāi)篇第一句話(huà)意為“《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》最近報(bào)道美國(guó)的青少年現(xiàn)在幾乎見(jiàn)到每一個(gè)人都會(huì)擁抱”?！皃ractically”常來(lái)表達(dá)“nearly”、“almost”的意思。

　　2.D 第一段中列舉了過(guò)去美國(guó)人見(jiàn)面打招呼的常見(jiàn)方式，不包括“擁抱”。

　　3.D 第三段談及成年人對(duì)青少年越來(lái)越多地以擁抱的方式打招呼這一趨勢(shì)所表達(dá)的關(guān)切，包括擔(dān)心有一些人純粹因?yàn)閬?lái)自同伴的壓力而不得不接受這樣一種方式，擔(dān)心那些不接受擁抱這種打招呼方式的人有被邊緣化的感覺(jué)，甚至擔(dān)心見(jiàn)面擁抱會(huì)成為性騷擾的保護(hù)外衣。但沒(méi)有提及對(duì)擁抱可能更容易傳播疾病有所擔(dān)心。

　　4.D 倒數(shù)第二段中，作者談到在一些國(guó)家，比如土耳其，男人見(jiàn)面時(shí)互相親吻臉頰很正常。

　　5.A 從整篇文章的內(nèi)容來(lái)看，作者對(duì)擁抱成為美國(guó)年輕人間打招呼的方式這一趨勢(shì)持一個(gè)比較積極的態(tài)度。他認(rèn)為其他文化中這樣一種方式已經(jīng)存在了很長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間，從全球范圍來(lái)看，美國(guó)不過(guò)是加入了其他國(guó)家的行列而已。

　　譯文：越來(lái)越愛(ài)肢體接觸的美國(guó)人

　　《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》最近報(bào)道，美國(guó)的青少年現(xiàn)在幾乎見(jiàn)到每一個(gè)人都會(huì)擁抱。與過(guò)去見(jiàn)面時(shí)的握手問(wèn)候到分別時(shí)的擊掌再見(jiàn)不同的是，如今的青少年選擇擁抱為他們最新的問(wèn)候方式。

　　女孩子和男孩子之間都互相相擁抱。并且，最新的潮流是，擁抱的形式有了多種多樣的變化。有古典式的、全身式的、手臂的擁抱或是隨意的搭肩，群體擁抱和后身?yè)肀?。握手逐漸轉(zhuǎn)變成擁抱，而擁抱又將簡(jiǎn)化為背后的輕輕一拍。

　　表面看起來(lái)這股流行思潮很簡(jiǎn)單。然而，一些父母，老師和學(xué)校管理人員對(duì)青少年越來(lái)舉多地以擁抱的方式打招呼這一趨勢(shì)表示關(guān)切。包括擔(dān)心有一些人純粹因?yàn)閬?lái)自同伴的壓力而不得不接受這樣一種方式，擔(dān)心那些不接受擁抱這種打招呼方式的人有被邊緣化的感覺(jué)，甚至擔(dān)心見(jiàn)面擁抱會(huì)成為性騷擾的保護(hù)外衣。

　　為了回應(yīng)社會(huì)的這些質(zhì)疑，一些學(xué)校已經(jīng)建立了一些新的規(guī)章來(lái)限制和減少擁抱。一位學(xué)校的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)提出了將擁抱限制在三秒鐘之內(nèi)的倡議。一些學(xué)校甚至在此方面實(shí)施了更為嚴(yán)格的規(guī)定，甚至嚴(yán)禁任何形式的學(xué)生之間的擁抱。

　　這場(chǎng)社會(huì)大討論忽視掉了一些重要的方面。比如，美國(guó)從傳統(tǒng)來(lái)講在擁抱和親戚間、戀人間、朋友間、互相擁吻方面就很保守，然而，在世界的一些其他國(guó)家，人們世世代代都這樣互相問(wèn)候。

　　在拉丁美洲或西歐，如西班牙、法國(guó)、意大利，男女之間甚至不很熟悉的人們互相親吻面面頰都是很常見(jiàn)的。面頰親吻有著地域的不同。有時(shí)僅僅是擦過(guò)臉頰的一吻。在其他地方，最正確的問(wèn)候是在臉頰兩側(cè)各吻一下，甚至有時(shí)會(huì)再重復(fù)親吻第一次吻過(guò)的面頰。

　　拉丁美洲的人們更傾向于問(wèn)候時(shí)候互相握手。但是在一些其他國(guó)家，如土耳其，熟人之間互相親吻面頰是非常正常的。而新西蘭的毛利人一種名為”洪基”的問(wèn)候方式是互相碰觸鼻子。

　　所以，從全球角度來(lái)講，美國(guó)青少年的互相擁抱畢竟不算是什么新鮮事。全世界的人們都拉近了問(wèn)候的距離，美國(guó)人僅僅是才加入而已。