2011年高考英语全国卷2 - 阅读理解D

The way we do things round here
我们在这里做事的方式

Some years ago, I was hired by an American bank. I received a letter from the head of the Personnel Department that started, "Dear John, I am quite pleased that you have decided to join us. " That "quite" saddened me．I thought he was saying "we're kind of pleased you decided to join us although I wish we had hired someone else. " Then I discovered that in American English "quite" sometimes means "very", while in British English it means "fairly"．
几年前，我被一家美国银行聘用。我收到一封来自人事部门负责人的信，信的开头是：“亲爱的约翰，我很高兴你决定加入我们。”句子中的“很（quite）”让我很难过，我想他是在说“我们很高兴你决定加入我们，尽管我希望我们已经雇用了其他人。”然后我发现在美式英语中“很（quite）”有时意味着“非常（very）”，而在英式英语中它意味着“公平（fairly）”。

So the first lesson about working in other countries is to learn the language and by that I don't just mean the words people speak．It is body language, dress, manners, ideas and so on．The way people do things highlights many of the differences we see between cultures. Some of these differences may be only on the surface-dress, food and hours of work-while others may be deeper and take longer to deal with. Mostly, it is just a question of getting used to the differences and accepting them, like the climate, while getting on with business．
因此，在其他国家工作的第一课是学习语言，我指的不仅仅是人们所说的语言，还包括肢体语言、衣着、礼仪、思想等等。人们做事的方式突出表现出不同文化之间我们存在的众多差异。其中一些差异可能只是表面上的——衣着、食物和工作时间上的差异——而另一些差异可能更深，需要更长的时间来处理。大多数情况下，这只是一个习惯差异并接受它们的问题，比如谈生意的时候聊聊气候。

Some of the differences may be an improvement. People are more polite; the service is better; you ask for something to be done and it happens without having to ask again. However, other differences can be troubling, like punctuality. If you invite people to a party at 7 o'clock your guests will consider it polite to turn up exactly on time in Germany, five minutes early in the American Midwest, an hour early in Japan, 15 minutes afterwards in the UK, up to an hour afterwards in Italy and some time in the evening in Greece. I prefer not to use the word "late" because there is nothing wrong with the times people arrive. It is simply the accepted thing to do in their own country．
有些差异可能是一种进步。人们更礼貌；服务更好；你要求做某件事，不用再问就可以做好。然而，另一些差异可能会令人不安，比如守时。如果你邀请人们在七点聚会，在德国你的客人会认为准时到是礼貌的，而在美国中西部需要提前5分钟，在日本提前一小时，在英国延后15分钟，在意大利最多延后一小时，在希腊是在晚上的某个时候。我不喜欢用“迟（late）”这个词，因为人们到达的时间没有问题。在他们自己的国家，完全可接受。