新概念雙語(yǔ)：高端黑：歐洲人覺(jué)得美國(guó)人奇葩的7點(diǎn)

Ice, Ice, Baby

冰，冰啊，寶貝

Think about any beverage, adult or otherwise, that you’ve ordered in your life. What’s the primary ingredient, regardless of what beverage you’ve ordered? If you said sugar, you’re close, but that’s not it. It’s ice, of course! Lots and lots of ice! Europeans think that our ice-intensive drinks are totally bizarre. As it so happens, they like things lukewarm over there.

無(wú)論你年紀(jì)如何，想想任何你所點(diǎn)過(guò)的飲品。無(wú)論你點(diǎn)了何種飲料，里面的主要成分是什么呢?如果你回答說(shuō)是糖，那么你已經(jīng)離正確答案不遠(yuǎn)了。當(dāng)然應(yīng)該是冰啦!許多許多冰!歐洲人覺(jué)得我們(美國(guó)人)飲料中含冰巨多這點(diǎn)非常奇葩。如果它就這么發(fā)生的話(huà)，歐洲人倒喜歡喝溫點(diǎn)的東西。

Air Conditioning

空調(diào)

Well, have you ever noticed how uncompromisingly cold your working environment is? As it so happens, not all of the world’s buildings keep the AC turned up so high. When Europeans step into America buildings, they feel like they’re stepping into the Antarctic.

你可曾注意到你的工作環(huán)境是有多徹骨寒冷?說(shuō)起來(lái)，并非世界上所有的建筑物里都會(huì)把空調(diào)風(fēng)開(kāi)得這么大。當(dāng)歐洲人走進(jìn)美國(guó)人的大樓里，他們會(huì)覺(jué)得自己進(jìn)入了南極。

The Working Week

工作周

Have you ever felt like 40-hours per week is just too damn much? You’d be surprised about how much it’s taken to get the working week down to that level here in the United States. At any rate, things just simply aren’t that way over in old Europe. The standard is much more relaxed, and there’s a cultural belief that having vacation time, and taking time away to raise a family, is valuable!

你有沒(méi)有覺(jué)得每周工作40個(gè)小時(shí)真是太他媽多了?那你在看到美國(guó)這邊的工作周降到了什么程度之后，會(huì)吃上一驚。至少，美國(guó)的情形和舊歐洲世界完全不同。美國(guó)的上班(時(shí)間)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)更為寬松。而且我們的文化相信，享受假期和把時(shí)間花在養(yǎng)家糊口上是非?？少F的!

Sales Tax

銷(xiāo)售稅

Europeans think it’s totally bizarre that the price of an item in a store isn’t what they’ll be charged at checkout. Of course, Europeans pay homage to the tax man in ways that Americans would feel is bizarre, too.

歐洲人在看到美國(guó)商店中物品的價(jià)格和他們?cè)谑浙y臺(tái)為其支付的價(jià)格不一致時(shí)，覺(jué)得這太奇怪了。當(dāng)然，歐洲人敬重納稅人這點(diǎn)也讓美國(guó)人無(wú)法理解。

How Are You Doing?

你好呀!

You probably noticed that Europeans have completely awesome words for saying ‘Hello!’ But, whens the last time you said ‘hello’ to anyone? You say things like: ‘What’s up?’, ‘How are you?’, ‘What’s the haps?’ At any rate, we don’t mean those as actual questions; Europeans think that we do.

你也許注意到歐洲人說(shuō)“你好!”真的有許多不錯(cuò)的詞，然而(作為美國(guó)人的)你上次用“Hello”和人打招呼是何時(shí)?你會(huì)用“What’s up?”，“How are you?”，“What’s the haps?”問(wèn)好。不管怎樣，我們說(shuō)的這些都不是真的在提問(wèn)?？蓺W洲人卻會(huì)這么認(rèn)為。

Tipping

給小費(fèi)

There, you only leave a tip after a meal if you’re exceptionally pleased with the service, otherwise a tip is not expected. In Europe, service industry employees are paid a decent wage, and this is reflected in more expensive prices. In the United States, service industry employees are paid less than the minimum wage, which is a big reason why those Olive Garden entrees are so cheap.

在美國(guó)，只有服務(wù)讓你格外滿(mǎn)意，你才會(huì)在用餐后給服務(wù)員留下小費(fèi)，否則你是不會(huì)給的。在歐洲服務(wù)行業(yè)的員工們享受的薪水不錯(cuò)，而這也反映在歐洲餐館的菜價(jià)比美國(guó)更貴。而在美國(guó)，服務(wù)行業(yè)的員工得到的薪水比歐洲服務(wù)員的最低薪水還低。這很大程度上解釋了美國(guó)的橄欖園(意大利餐廳連鎖店)為啥那么便宜了。

A Foot? An Inch?

一英尺，還是一英寸?

How many inches are in a foot? How many feet are in a yard? What’s an inch? What’s a foot? What’s a yard? Do you have any reasonable answers to any of these questions? The whole world uses the metric system for measurement, yet here in the United States we still stick to Imperial measurements. How many stone are you?

一英尺等于多少英寸?一碼等于多少英尺?一英寸是多少?一英尺是多少?而一碼有是多少?你能在這些問(wèn)題中理清頭緒，然后作答嗎?全世界都在用公制計(jì)量法，而在美國(guó)這我們?nèi)詧?jiān)持用英制計(jì)量法。你重多少英石呢?