Т.В. Артеменко, Е.В. Кривощекова, Е.В. Кравченко, Н.Е. Николаева - Reader in Language and Culture - Part II (1110506), страница 8
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Such laws can vary widelyby state, leading, for example, to the flow of couples who got to the state(Nevada) where it is easiest to get divorced.States are subdivided into counties, which are further divided into citiesand townships. The bottom line is taxation: some U.S. citizens must pay39taxes to their city, county, state, and federal governments, and then be grateful to live on anything left over.Inviting business associates to social functions held outside businesshours. The worst offences of this sort take place in Washington, D.C.,where the average congressman receives three or four invitations a day tococktail receptions, lectures, charitable events, benefit dinners, and so forth,and where hostesses are measured not by how well their guests areentertained but by who shows up for the party.The warm personal relationships Americans feel at work do not translateinto strong corporate loyalty.
Almost no-one stays with a job for his or herentire career. American workers will drop the present employment forsomething better without a moment's worry about what the change maymean for their employer. This is because they have seen how loyal theiremployer is to them - to put it bluntly, not very. The profit motive drives allAmerican commerce, and if staff cutbacks are required to maintain thebalance sheet, a corporation will rarely show any mercy in sending half thesales department out for a long walk.Americans on the east and west coasts have strikingly different businessstyles.
On the east coast, the goal is to appear to work as much as possible.Thus, in New York and Washington, employees, especially at law andpublishing firms, stay on late into the evening and come into the offices onweekends. In Los Angeles the goal is to appear not to work at all, so dealsworth hundreds of millions are discussed at the poolside. Neither coast doesany more actual work than the other. Los Angeles continues to producefilms and television, and New York keeps the stock market and corporateheadquarters going, but both have the smug satisfaction of pointing to theother and saying, "See? We don't work ourselves to death/lie around thepool wasting time like they do out on the East/West coast."Language and Ideas40American speech is remarkably straightforward.
They tell it as it is, evenwhen it's not a particularly good idea to do so. Linguistic subtlety,innuendo, and irony that other nations find delightful puzzle the Americans,who take most statements at face value, weigh them for accuracy, and rejectanything they don't understand. They call spades spades, or possibly 'earthreorientation equipment' if they work for the government, and have troublewith complex metaphors.The Americans' love of tinkering, of making things better, of includingthose who might be left out, and of avoiding negatives means that they viewspeaking English as just one more assimilation project. Thousands of wordshave been added from immigrants' languages (such as `schmuck', a stupidor contemptible person), or conflated out of two words (such as `brunch', acombination of breakfast and lunch), or abbreviated into and used forsomething only marginally related (such as `nuke' for `heat in a microwaveoven', `ace a test' for `getting a top grade', or 'repo' for `repossession of anitem that is behind on its payments').
Americans love new words and adoptthem with alacrity. They also use them to death, as anyone who has had tolisten to a business meeting about `empowerment' can attest.SlangAmerican idioms are colourful, varied and erratic, the sports-based onesparticularly so.Much of American slang derives from sport, such as avoiding the linesof authority by `doing an end run', failing in an attempt by `striking out', ortaking on an easy task because it's a`slam dunk'.
Carrying on an ordinarysports conversation requires only a minimum of knowledge. A questionsuch as, "Who do you favour for the big one?" works well, especially inearly January, as does the comment, "How about them Dodgers/Steelers/Bullets/Broncos/Yankees/Falcons/Bears/Eagles/Red Sox?" Suitable postgame comments include "If you ask me, there were some pretty funny calls41in that game", or "A good team makes its own breaks". These work foralmost any sport except possibly chess or bridge.Learning American slang, or indeed any slang, is shooting at a movingtarget.
Teenagers and technology constantly create new words and new usesfor old words. For example, `burn' can now mean `copy', as in "burn me aDVD of that new movie, willya?" Local slang spreads rapidly throughtelevision, movies, and the Internet, so formerly arcane terms like the NewYork `skanky' (unsavoury, disgusting) become commonplace country-wide.Fortunately slang becomes obsolete rapidly, so there's very little point intrying to keep up.Political CorrectnessDiscrimination on the basis of race, religion, or sex is not permitted.
Allmale and all-white clubs have toppled like dominoes under threats of legalaction. Besides, minorities and women have money, and every organisationappreciates members who can afford the dues.Political correctness now debates the worthiness of many words. Theworst word of all, one that should never be used under any circumstances, isthe racial epithet beginning with `n', even though you will certainly hear theword used in conversation or lyrics. Words referring to body functions arepolite by comparison.Hundreds of euphemisms have sprung up to cope with problematicissues and vocabulary. The handicapped are now 'mobility-challenged', theblind `seeing impaired' and the not so bright `special needs students' or'knowledgebase non-possessors'.
People don't have pets, they have`companion animals'. Nor are they short or fat, but `vertically challenged' or`persons of size'. No-one has a failure, he or she has a`deficiency rating'.The American language embraces the bias towards good feelings.Someone doesn't have a near brush with death; he or she has a`lifeaffirming experience'. Stocks that plummet to half their value are not losers,42they are ,non-performers'. Applicants who do not receive a job offer are`selected out'. An upbeat business vernacular calls every problema`challenge' and every massive layoff` 'rightsizing'. Mindless cheerfulnessparticularly pervades the real estate profession, in which `cosy' is code for`smaller than a refrigerator carton' and `country charm' means 'no retailestablishments within walking distance'.
Disney theme parks are specialhotbeds of such optimism, with perky, well-groomed employees who donothing but smile, smile, smile.All this boundless good nature can grate on visitors from more reservednations. It's enough to give them a de-enhanced attitude.I. Questions.Section 1.1.Why shouldn’t Americans be taken at face value?2.What is meant by the American “melting pot”?3.Why do so few Americans have own passports?4.How can Americans’ special relationship with Canadians and theEnglish be accounted for?5.Why is it so important for any American to be Number One?6.How do Americans try to feel good?7.What are the Americans afraid of and why?8.Why is ‘family’ rather a vague notion in America?9.Why is American pop culture so popular all over the world?10.What is a standard TV menu in the USA? Does it shock viewersof other nationalities?11.Why areAmericansso choicyabout what they eat? Whoencourages a dietary obsession?12.What do Americans eat for breakfast? Does it sound tempting?13.What makes McDonalds an international brand?14.How is tea served?4315.Is he US a heavily drinking country? Is American beer appreciatedin other countries?16.What is the US political structure? Do Americanshave strongcorporate loyalty?17.How do Americans adapt the English language to their own use?18.Is the American slang worth learning? Why or why not?19.Give some examples of political correctness in the Americanlanguage.Section 2.1.How do Americansand the British behave in desperatesituations?2.How do these two nations go about complaining?3.How do the handle unwanted invitations, untimely visitors an thelike?4.Americans and Britishers behave rather differently when givingor receiving gifts, don’t they? Why?5.What is an “understatement ” ? Is it an antonym to “honesty”?6.What is “the American dream”? Is it a myth or reality?7.Why is the British currency still a pound not a euro? Is it due totradition or economic reason?8.Which jokes, American or British, do you find funnier and why?Tasks for discussion.1.Do you find Americans, as described by the author, a likeablepeople? Give your reasons.2.Do Americans have good ground to feel privileged or superior tothe rest of the world?3.Why is September, 11, 2001 considered a landmark in the UShistory?444.Do Americans impress you as aparticularlycultured andeducated nation? Give examples of their most striking successes andfailures in these fields.5.What do you think about the Americans’ obsession with dietingand healthy way of living? Is it spreading to the rest of the world? Whateconomic effect does it have?6.BritishWhich variant of the English language would you rather master,or American?Why? Whichspeaking habits are closer toRussians?1.The Royal FamilyFor more than a thousand years Britain has always had kings orqueens except for the ten years between 1649 and 1659.
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