Put the following passage into Chinese in your answer sheet.
It is worth trying for a moment to put oneself in the position of a foreign observer, new to England, but unprejudiced and able, because of his work, to keep in touch with ordinary, useful, unspectacular people. Some of his generalizations would be wrong, because he would not make enough allowance for the temporary dislocations resulting from war. Never having seen England in normal times, he might underrate the power of class distinctions, or think English agriculture healthier than it is, or be too much impressed by the dinginess of the London streets or the prevalence of drunkenness. But with his fresh eyes he would see a great deal that a native observer misses, and his probable impressions are worth tabulating. Almost certainly he would find the salient characteristics of the English common people to be artistic insensibility, gentleness, respect for legality, suspicion of foreigners, sentimentality about animals, hypocrisy exaggerated class distinctions, and an obsession with sport. As for our artistic insensibility, ever-growing stretches of beautiful countryside are ruined by planless building, the heavy industries are allowed to convert whole countries into blackened deserts, ancient monuments are wantonly pulled down or swamped by seas of yellow brick, attractive vistas are blocked by hideous statues to nonentity—and all this without any popular protest whatever. When England’s housing problem is discussed. Its aesthetic aspect simply does not enter the mind of the average man. Nor is there any widespread interest in any of the arts, except perhaps music. Poetry, the art in which above all others England has excelled, has for more than century had no appeal whatever for the common people. It is only acceptable when—as in some popular songs and mnemonic rhymes—it is masquerading something else. Indeed the very word “poetry” arouses either derision or embarrassment in ninety-eight people out of a hundred.
Our imaginary foreign observer would certainly be struck by our gentleness: by the orderly behavior of English crowds, the lack of pushing and quarrelling, the willingness to form queues, the good temper of harassed, overworked people like bus conductors. The manners of the English working class are not always very graceful, but they are extremely considerate.
