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=====精彩回顧===
美國人對英國人的誤解有多深
Aside from the bumpy start, Britain and America have long enjoyed a “special relationship”.The two allied countries share close political,economic and diplomatic bonds. And of course we also share a common language and strong cultural ties. But despite friendly relations,Brits are still shocked by how misunderstood they are by Americans -- and it’s not just because of the accent!
除了崎嶇不平的開始之外，英國和美國一直保持著“特別的關系”。這兩個盟國有著親密的政治，經(jīng)濟和外交關系。當然我們也有著共同的語言和強大的文化聯(lián)系。但是盡管雙方關系友好，英國人知道了美國人對他們的誤解有多深之后仍然大吃一驚——不僅僅是因為口音。
Let’s start with the geography. To be fair it is a little confusing-- for such a small nation we have a lot of names. Terms like The British Isles, the UK and Great Britain actually mean different things. So let’s break it down: The geographic term for the entire collection of islands is The British Isles while the UK or to be specific, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland -- refers to the political union between the countries of England, Wales,Scotland and Northern Ireland. Finally, Great Britain is the collective name of England,Scotland and Wales but does not include Northern Ireland. Which is why the term UK and Great Britain are not interchangeable. I know that these small distinctions won’t matter to a lot of you but it does matter to people living in the UK.
讓我們先從地理開始。坦白地說，確實很容易讓人迷惑——這么小的一個國家，卻有許多個名字。不列顛群島，UK和大不列顛實際上代表的是不同的含義。讓我們來逐一講解一下：不列顛群島是代表整個群島的地理術語。UK，或者具體地說，大不列顛和北愛爾蘭聯(lián)合王國指的是英格蘭，威爾士，蘇格蘭和北愛爾蘭之間的政治聯(lián)盟。最后，大不列顛指的是英格蘭，蘇格蘭和威爾士的集體名字，而不包括北愛爾蘭在內。這就是UK和大不列顛是不可替換的原因。我知道這些細小的差別對你們中的許多人來說無所謂，但是對于居住在UK的人來說卻并非如此。
Now Britain gets a lot of stick about food. Traditional fare like spotted dick, haggis, toad-in-the-hole and blood pudding. Don’t really do the nation any favours. Add warm beer to the mix and it’s easy to see why we have such a bad reputation. But British cuisine has come a long way. Cities like London and Edinburgh, are home to some of the world’s best restaurants. And immigrant populations have also influenced British cuisine -- Chicken Tikka Masala has even overtaken fish and chips as the nation's favourite dish.
現(xiàn)在，在飲食方面英國面臨諸多指責。傳統(tǒng)的飲食包括葡萄干布丁，羊雜，面拖烤香腸和豬血布丁。不要為這個國家辯解。英國卻喜歡向這些混合物中加入啤酒，由此顯而易見為什么英國的名聲這么差了。但是英國菜肴有著悠久的歷史。倫敦和愛丁堡等城市有著世界上最好的餐館。移民也影響著英國烹飪，烤雞咖喱已經(jīng)代替魚和炸土豆條成為英國人最喜愛的美食。
Which brings me to my next misconception. While it’s true that the British population is still predominantly white owing to the nations Anglo-saxon roots, Britain today is incredibly diverse. Its multicultural society has a lot to do with it’s position in Europe as well as its colonial past. At one point Britain had an extensive empire, which included countries like India, Jamaica, Kenya, and today the UK have large populations of each of those groups. Because when those nations later gained their independence, most were also able to hold onto their British Citizenship-- which is exactly what my parents did and how I ended up growing up in London.
這讓我想起了另一個誤解。盡管英國人口仍然主要是白色人種，然而由于其盎格魯-撒克遜人根源，英國的人種現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)非常多樣化。其多元文化社會與其在歐洲的位置及其殖民主義歷史有關。曾經(jīng)一度英國是一個非常龐大的帝國，包括印度，牙買加，肯尼亞在內，今天的英國也仍然有著這些國家中的許多人口。因為這些國家獨立之后，許多人得以保持英國公民身份——我的父母就是如此，所以我后來也是在倫敦長大。
On the whole Brits have a reputation for being very prim and proper, with a ‘stiff upper lip’ which is probably partly true. And no family personifies that more than the Royal family,who have faced their fair share of adversity and scandal. And throughout all the ups and downs, the queen remains a stoic figure.
總的來說，英國非常循規(guī)蹈矩，非常繁榮富強，而“堅定沉著”或許只是部分正確?；适壹易遄钅荏w現(xiàn)這一點，他們也有自己的不幸和丑聞。在所有順境逆境中，女王一直是恬淡寡欲的人。
Speaking of the queen, Brits definitely don’t all speak the ‘queen's English’ nor do we all talk in cockney rhyming slang like Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins, shouting “cor blimey guv’nor” at every opportunity.
說到女王，英國人并不是都講女王式的英語，也不是每個人都說押韻式的俚語，就像《歡樂滿人間》里的迪克·范·戴克那樣，隨時隨地高呼“cor blimey guv’nor”。
There are actually a countless number of dialects in Britain which is pretty surprising for such a small country.
英國實際上有數(shù)不清的方言，對于這么小的國家來說簡直不可思議。
