Does Travel Broaden The Mind? One often hears it said that travel broadens themind: if you stay in your own country the whole time, your ideas remain narrow; whereas if you travelabroad you see new customs, eat new foods, do newthings, and come back home with a broader mind. But does this always — or even usually — happen? An acquaintance2 of mine who lives in England andhad never been outside it until last summer, decided to go over3 to France for a trip. When hereturned, I asked him how he liked it."Terrible, "was his answer." I couldn't get a nice cup of teaanywhere . 4 Thank goodness I'm back. "I asked him whether he hadn't had any good foodwhile he was there ."Oh, the dinners were all right, "he said."I found a little place where theymade quite good fish and chips. Not as good as ours, mind you5, but they were passable. Butthe breakfasts were terrible: no bacon or kippers. I had fried eggs and chips, but it was quite a6 business getting them to make them. They expected me to eat rolls. And when I asked formarmalade , they brought strawberry jam. And do you know, they insisted that it wasmarmalade? The trouble is they don't know English. " I thought it useless to explain that we borrowed the word‘marmalade 'from French, and that itmeans, in that language, any kind of jam. So I said,"But didn't you eat any of the famousFrench food?""What? Me?"he said."Of course not! Give me good old English food every time!None of these fancy bits for me! "Obviously travel had not broadened his mind. This does not, of course, happen only to Englishmen in France: all nationalities, in all foreigncountries, can be found judging what they see, hear, taste and smell according to their ownhabits and customs. People who are better educated and who have read a lot about foreigncountries tend to be more adaptable7 and tolerant8, but this is because their minds havealready been broadened before they start travelling. In fact, it is easier to be broad-mindedabout foreign habits and customs, if one's acquaintance with these things is limited to booksand films. The American smiles tolerantly over the absence of central heating in most Englishhomes when he is himself comfortably seated in his armchair in his centrally heated house inChicago; the English man reads about the sanitary arrangements in a certain tropical country,and the inhabitants of the latter read about London fogs, and each side manages to bedetached and broad-minded. 9 But actual physical contact with things one is unaccustomed tois much more difficult to bear philosophically. Perhaps the ideal would be if travel could succeed in making people tolerant of the habits andcustoms of others without abandoning their own. The criterion for judging a foreigner couldbe: Does he try to be polite and considerate to others? Instead of: Is he like me? 閱讀自測(cè) ?、? True o r False : 1. It is often said that if you travel abroad to see many new things, your mind will bebroadened. 2. The Englishman had a happy life when he travelled to France . 3. The word‘marmalade'is originally a French word, which means any kind of jam. 4. In the view of the author, people often judge things according to their own habits andcustoms. 5. The author thinks that people who are better educated and read a lot are easily to betolerant. 6. Tea , bacon, kippers, chips are all typical English food. 參考答案 Ⅰ. 1. T 2. F 3 . T 4 . T 5 . T 6 . T 參考譯文 旅游新解 經(jīng)常聽(tīng)人說(shuō)旅游使人心胸開(kāi)闊：如果人們一直呆在本國(guó)，思維就會(huì)很狹隘;可要是人們 到國(guó)外旅游一番，見(jiàn)識(shí)新的風(fēng)俗，品嘗新的食物，有過(guò)新的經(jīng)歷，回來(lái)后心胸就開(kāi)闊多了。 可是事情總是……或者說(shuō)通常是這樣的嗎?我認(rèn)識(shí)一個(gè)住在英格蘭的朋友。在去年 夏天之前他從沒(méi)出過(guò)國(guó)，就決定去法國(guó)旅游一番。回來(lái)后，我問(wèn)他感覺(jué)如何。"糟糕透 了，"他說(shuō)，"哪兒都弄不到一杯好茶喝。謝天謝地，我回來(lái)了。"我問(wèn)他在法國(guó)有沒(méi)有品嘗 什么美味佳肴。"噢，食物還不錯(cuò)，"他說(shuō)，"我發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)小地方，那里的魚和薯?xiàng)l做得非 常好。說(shuō)真的，雖不如我們的那么美味，可還算說(shuō)得過(guò)去。但是早餐太糟糕了。既沒(méi)有熏 咸肉也沒(méi)有腌干魚。我吃煎蛋和薯?xiàng)l，可要他們?nèi)プ鲞@些食物實(shí)在是件大難事。他們希望 我能吃點(diǎn)面包卷?？晌覇?wèn)他們要橘子醬(marmalade)時(shí)，他們卻給我拿來(lái)草莓醬。你知道嗎?他們竟還堅(jiān)持說(shuō)那就是橘子醬。問(wèn)題在于他們不懂英語(yǔ)。" 其實(shí)marmalade 一詞來(lái)自法語(yǔ)，它在法語(yǔ)中的意思是任何口味的果醬，但我覺(jué)得給他解釋這些無(wú)濟(jì)于事，所以我說(shuō)："可是，你沒(méi)有嘗嘗法國(guó)名菜嗎?""什么?我?"他問(wèn)，"當(dāng)然沒(méi)有!每次我都點(diǎn)美味的英式食物!可那些食物沒(méi)一樣能讓我滿意!"很顯然，旅游并沒(méi)有讓他心胸開(kāi)闊。 當(dāng)然，這種事并不只是發(fā)生在身處法國(guó)的英國(guó)人身上：所有到國(guó)外去的人都是以他們 自己的習(xí)慣和風(fēng)俗去評(píng)價(jià)所見(jiàn)所聞及所品嘗的異國(guó)風(fēng)味。那些受過(guò)良好教育并熟知外國(guó)國(guó)情的人更易于適應(yīng)新環(huán)境并比較寬容，不過(guò)這是因?yàn)樗麄冊(cè)诼糜沃靶男鼐鸵呀?jīng)開(kāi)闊 了。事實(shí)上，對(duì)異國(guó)的習(xí)慣和風(fēng)俗的了解如果僅限于書本和電影的話，人們的心胸更易開(kāi)闊。當(dāng)一個(gè)美國(guó)人舒舒服服地坐在他在芝加哥的裝有中央取暖設(shè)施的房間中的扶手椅里的時(shí)候，他會(huì)對(duì)英國(guó)大部分住房沒(méi)有中央取暖設(shè)施報(bào)以寬容的一笑。英國(guó)人通過(guò)閱讀了解 到某一熱帶國(guó)家的衛(wèi)生設(shè)施，而這一熱帶國(guó)家的人也從書面上了解了倫敦的霧。雙方都力圖保持公正和寬容。而人們?cè)谟H身接觸自己不習(xí)慣的事物時(shí)，要做到達(dá)觀容忍就難多了。 也許，理想的情況應(yīng)該是這樣的：旅游既讓人們?nèi)萑坍愑虻牧?xí)慣和風(fēng)俗而又不放棄自己的傳統(tǒng)，要是這樣就好了。評(píng)價(jià)外國(guó)人的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)就可能是：看他是否禮貌待人，是否體諒別人，而不是看他是否和自己一樣?