第9单元课文翻译

第9单元课文翻译：

方氏小姐打电话

1 假设早餐时邮差来了，并坚持要你马上离开餐桌读邮件。或假设你碰巧在招待客人，或工作，或洗浴，或听交响乐，或同时做这些活动，而你被迫停下来，把注意力集中在这个给你写信的人身上。

2 这就是大多数人让电话所做的事。电话已成为一个可怕的仪器，总是用刺耳的铃声吵闹来引起你注意。像软弱的家长应对惯坏了的孩子，大多数人的办法是给它想要的东西，只是希望使它闭嘴。

3 另一方面，人们有理由地抱怨说，他们往往被某些接电话的人粗暴对待，特别是有事的时候。打电话的人不应无限期地拿着电话等着，听录制的音乐，或不止一次拼他们的名字。 4 一个避免受这种侮辱的方法，是少打电话。事实上，打电话不是唯一的---甚至也不是最快的做事的途径。两个办公时间不同的人，或是因为他们的工作或是因为时差，他们可能会相互放张留言条，却很容易就花费几天时间，甚至比寄信的天数还多。

5 社会事务，也许用信件处理会更好，或现在，用电子邮件处理。 一个长途电话的耳语，“我爱你”是甜美的，但写出来的话能永远保存。

6 在我的邮袋里，有一些最常见的电话问题---如何处理电话。

7 打电话的人挂断电话之前，应等多少次振铃数是适当的？我不喜欢“鬼响三声”。

8 六声，也许是八声。如果你仍然觉得那个人可能在那里，就挂断后再拨一次。这给你两次机会拨对号码，并且给别人时间出浴缸。

9 一个朋友在家给我打电话，整个交谈中都在吃生胡萝卜。虽然我试图忽视这声音，但发现它非常令人不愉快。我客气地说，“吃完了再给我打电话好吗？”

10 除了直接指责人们的交际缺点外， 方氏小姐与你的观点完全一致。她更喜欢拐弯抹角的指责，例如，“你会介意再拨一次吗？我的线连接有问题。好像线上有胡萝卜”。

11 您怎么看这样接电话的人？在告诉你要找的人是否在那里之前，先问“你是谁？” 12 也许他正在说你要找的那个人的名字，可那被提到名字的人却疯狂地摇头摇手。

13 接听电话录音应该怎样做？通常，我会挂断，因为我讨厌跟机器讲话。我知道这是不对的。那它是什么？

14 挂断一台机器，这是完全正确的。事实上，在人与机器之间，无所谓有适当或不适当的行为。我们有够多的麻烦来做到相互礼貌，而无需担心我们对待机器是否体贴。

15 我用一个令人愉快的“你好！”来接电话，却常常面对粗鲁的回应，“你是谁？”：如果我交出我的名字，那我不就是鼓励粗鲁的当事人再使用冒犯语了吗？

16 对“你是谁？” 的正确回答是：“你找谁？”

17 这个问题已困扰我多年。怎样才能恰当回应“对不起，我拨错电话号码了”？

18 尽管总有些人说，“得了，反正我已起身接电话了。”，其实说“好的，好的。”就足够了。

2008年7月8日

Unit 9

Telephone Calls

Text

Miss Manners Wrings the bell

1. Suppose the postman arrived during breakfast and insisted that you leave the table and read your mail immediately. Or suppose you happened to be entertaining guests, doing business, taking a bath, listening to a symphony or any combination of those activities and were forced to stop everything and devote you full attention to anybody who chose to address you.

2. This is what most people allow the telephone to do. It has become a horrid instrument, always clamoring for attention with its whiny bell. Like weak parents with a spoiled child, most people give it what it wants just to shut it up.

3. On the other hand, people justifiably complain that they are often treated rudely by persons—especially in business—whom they telephone. Telephoners should not be put on hold indefinitely, subjected to canned music, or made to spell their names more than once.

4. One way to avoid such indignities is to make fewer telephone calls. Indeed, telephoning is not the only ---nor even the quickest ---way of doing business.

Two people who keep different office hours, either because of their jobs or their time zones, may easily spend days leaving messages for each other—even more days than it takes to send a letter.

5. Social matters, too, may be better handled by mail, or nowadays, by e-mail. A whispered long-distance ―I love you ‖ is sweet, but a written one keeps forever.

6. Here, from my mailbag, are some of the most common telephone problems—and how to handle them.

7. What is the proper number of rings a caller should wait before hanging up? I dislike the ―three-ring phantoms.‖

8. Six rings, perhaps eight, if you still suspect the person of lurking there, hang up and dial again. This gives you two chances to get the number right –and the person time to get out of the bathtub.

9. A friend called me at home and ate a raw carrot during the entire conversation. Although I tried to ignore the sound, I found it extremely unpleasant. Would it have been polite to say, ―Call me back when you’re finished eating?‖

10. Miss Manners is in complete agreement with you except in the matter of taxing people directly with their social errors. She prefers oblique line of accusation, such as, ―Would you mind calling back—we have a bad connection. There seems to be a carrot on this line.‖

11. What do you think about people who ask you, on the telephone, ―Who is calling?‖ before telling you if the person you asked for is there?

12. They are probably mouthing your name at a person who is wildly shaking his head and hands at the very mention of it.

13. What should one do upon reaching a telephone-answering machine? Usually I hang up, as I hate talking to a machine. I know this is not proper, but what is?

14. It is perfectly proper to hang up on a machine. In fact, proper and improper behavior do not apply between people and machines. We have enough trouble being polite to one another without worrying about whether we treat machines with consideration.

15. Upon answering the telephone with a pleasant ―Hello‖, I am often confronted with the rude response, ―Who is this?‖ If I surrender my name, am I just encouraging the unmannerly party to repeat his or her offense?

16. The proper answer to ―Who is this?‖ is ―Whom are you calling?‖

17. This question has bothered me for years. What is the proper response to ―I’m sorry, I have the wrong number‖?

18. ―That’s quite all right‖ is sufficient, although there will always be those who say, ―That’s all right---I had to get up to answer the phone anyway.‖