Just Call Me Mister
1 On cold days people in Manhattan like to take their children to PlaySpace, an indoor playground full of wonderful climbing and sliding contraptions. Theres just one irritating detail: when you pay your money, the cashier pulls out a felt-trip marker and an adhesive lapel tag and asks you your name.
Frum, I say.
No, your first name.
What do you need my first name for?
To write on the tag, so all the children and the staff will know what to call you.
In that case, write Mr. Frum.
2 At which I am shot a look as if I had asked to be called to Duke of Plaza Toro.
3 In encouraging five-year-olds to address grownups by their first names, PlaySpace is only slightly ahead of the times. As a journalist, I faithfully report that the custom of addressing strangers formally is as dead as the practice of leaving a visiting card.
4 Theres hardly a secretary left who does not reply, when I give a message fro her boss, Ill tell him you called, David. Or a public relations agent, whether in Bangor or Bangkok, who does not begin his telephonic spiel with a cheerful Hello, David!
5 You dont have to be a journalist to collect amazing first-name stories. Place a collect call, and the operator first-names you. The teenager behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant asks a 70-year-old customer for his first name before taking his order.
6 Habitual first-names claim they are motivated by nothing worse than uncontrollably high-spirited friendliness. I dont believe it. I f I asked the fast-food order-takers to lend me $50, their friendliness would vanish in a whoosh. The PR man drops all his cheerfulness the moment he hears I wont go along with his story idea. No, its not friendliness that drives first-namers; its aggression. The PR agents who call me David uninvited would never, if they could somehow get him on the phone, address press baron Rupert Murdoch that way. The woman at the bank who called me David would never first-name the banks chairman. Like the mock-cheery staff at PlaySpace, they are engaged in a smiley-faced act of belittlement, an assertion of power disguised as good cheer.
Notes
1 contraptions:(informal)mechanical devices;gadgets
2 felt-tip marker:软笔尖的颜色笔
3 adhesive lapel tag:不干胶标牌
4 Duke of Plaza Toro: Duke is a nobleman with the highest hereditary rank, especially in Britain. Plaza Tora is Spanish, something like Bull Fighting Ring in English
5 Bangor:City of South central Maine
6 Bangkok:Captical of Thailand,曼谷
7 spiel(slang) a lengthy, usually extravagant, speech or argument intended to be persuasive
8 collect call:a telephone call with payment to be made by the receiver
9 press baron:Baron is the lowest male rank of nobility, but here it stands for a man with great power in press
10 mock: simulated
11 cheery:cheerful
上一篇: 六级考试阅读考前的练习(3)
下一篇: 六级考试阅读考前的练习(1)
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业十三:Unit1 Getting along with others(牛津译林版必修5) Word版含解析
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:必修5Module2
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:必修1Module1
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:必修2Module4
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业二十七:Unit4 Films and film events(牛津译林版选修8) Word版含答案
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:选修8Modules3-4
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:必修3Module6
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:必修4Module1
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:选修7Modules3-4
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业三十:Units1、2(牛津译林版选修10) Word版含答案
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:必修2Module3
【收尾精炼】2016届高三英语一轮复习训练:Unit 3 A healthy life(新人教版选修6)
【收尾精炼】2016届高三英语一轮复习训练:Unit 5 Theme parks(新人教版必修4)
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业二十五:Unit2 The universal language(牛津译林版选修8) Word版含解析
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:必修2Module5
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业十四:Unit2 The environment(牛津译林版必修5) Word版含解析
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:必修4Module2
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业二十八:Units1-2(牛津译林版选修9) Word版含答案
2016届高考英语(外研版 全国)一轮复习教学案:必修5Module3
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业七:Unit1 The world of our senses(牛津译林版必修3) Word版含解析
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业二十二:Unit3 The world online(牛津译林版选修7) Word版含解析
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业十八:Unit3 Understanding each other(牛津译林版选修6) Word版含解析
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业十六:Unit1 Laughter is good for you(牛津译林版选修6) Word版含解析
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业二十四:Unit1 The written word(牛津译林版选修8) Word版含解析
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业十一:Unit2 Sports events(牛津译林版必修4) Word版含解析
国办印发《生产者责任延伸制度推行方案》
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业十:Unit1 Advertising(牛津译林版必修4) Word版含解析
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业三十一:Units3-4(牛津译林版选修10) Word版含解析
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业二十:Unit1 Living with technology(牛津译林版选修7) Word版含解析
2016高考英语(江苏专用)全程复习方略 课时提升 作业三十二:Units1-4(牛津译林版选修11) Word版含答案