Добавил:
Upload Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз: Предмет: Файл:
Part 1 (правки) «Recognizing Cultural Differenc....doc
Скачиваний:
29
Добавлен:
17.12.2018
Размер:
581.63 Кб
Скачать

For reading, discussing and reporting

TEXT 1

THE MAN WHO DISCOVERED BRITAIN

He described frozen seas – but no one believed him

ON HIS return from a sea journey north to the Atlantic, the Greek explorer said of Britain: 'The island is thickly populated ... has an extremely chilly climate ...' Of its people, he wrote: "They are unusually hospitable and gentle in manner ... Their diet is inexpensive and quite different from the luxury that is born of wealth... It (Britain) has many kings and potentates who live for the most part in a state of mutual peace ...'

Yet no one believed him. It was the year 304 BC, and the explorer was Pytheas of Marseilles.

For 2000 years historians labelled him a charlatan, although they enjoyed his accounts of his travels as masterpieces of fabrication. Yet Pytheas was the first Greek to visit and describe Britain and its people and, possibly, to sail within sight of the Norwegian coast. He wrote: 'The people of Britannia are simple in their habits and far removed from the cunning and knavishness of modern man ... they do not drink wine, but a fermented liquor made from barley, which they call curmi.'

At the time of his epic journey, the northern waters of the Atlantic were unknown to Pytheas's contemporaries. How could they - familiar only with the warm waters of the Mediterranean - believe that he had seen chunks of floating ice larger than his ship? Or that further north the sea was entirely frozen and the sun never set?

Pytheas was discredited, and although later Greek historians included references to his travels in their books, their attitude was typified by Strabo (born about 63 BC). He wrote: 'Pytheas tells us that Thule [believed then to be an undiscovered northernmost land] is one day's sail from the congealed sea... and this Pytheas saw with his own eves - or so he would have us believe.'

(The Reader's Digest Book of Strange Stories Amazing Facts)

Text 2 the japanese sense of beauty

the japanese have a strong aesthetic sense: they beautify, embellish, adorn and decorate everything they touch. A sandwich in Japan is not just a sandwich, it is a work of art. It is cut into an artistic shape - it can be circular, octagonal or star-shaped - and given a colour scheme with carefully placed bits of tomato, coleslaw and pickles. There is, as a rule, a flag or some other decoration hoisted on top. Every dish is aimed at the eye as well as the palate.

Every tiny parcel, from the humblest little shop, radiates some original charm or at least tries to, and reflects pride: look how well done it is! Every taxi-driver has a small vase in front of him, with a beautiful, fresh, dark-red or snow-white flower in it. Once I watched a man at the counter in a fish-restaurant. Sushi and sashimi - the famous raw fish of Japan - comes in many forms and cuts, and it takes about ten years for a man to reach the counters of a first-class establishment. The man I watched was not bored with his somewhat monotonous job: he enjoyed every minute of it to the full, took immense pride in it. Michelangelo could not have set a freshly carved Madonna before you with more pride and satisfaction than this cook felt when he put a freshly carved piece of raw fish on your plate.

The Japanese are unable to touch anything without beautifying it, shaping it into something pretty and pleasing to the eye. One evening I was walking in one of the slummy suburbs of Tokyo and saw a heap of rubbish outside the backyard of a factory. It was an immense mountainside of rubbish, but it was not just thrown out as it came: all the boxes were piled into a graceful if somewhat whimsical pyramid, while the loose rubbish was placed on top as artistic and picturesque decoration. Someone must have spent considerable time in converting that heap of rubbish into a thing of beauty.

(The Land of the Rising Yen by George Mikes)