The hit movie Notting Hill begins with a famous scene. Hugh Grant bumps (撞) into Julia Roberts and spills (洒) orange juice all over her. After the collision, Grant repeatedly says: “ I am so sorry. I am so sorry.”
His actions in this scene are very British. If Roberts’ character were from Britain then she would probably apologize repeatedly as well—even if the crash were not her fault. But this doesn’t happen in the film, as Roberts is from the US.
A report in The Telegraph last week said that three-quarters of British people apologize when they bump into someone in the street — regardless of whether they are responsible or not. In fact, we Britons use “sorry” in many situations. For example, if we mishear someone, we say “Sorry?” The person we are talking to will also apologize by replying: “No, I am sorry!” This can go on for up to five minutes as we compete over who is the most sorry.
Life is never as simple as “duibuqi” and “meiguanxi”.
How we use “sorry” has changed. Traditionally, “sorry” was used to express deep regret, but a survey in 2007 showed that we use it to mean anything from “what” to “whatever”.
Why are Britons so sorry? Mark Tyrell, a psychology writer in the UK, thinks about our apologetic tendencies are rooted in the British class system. We say sorry because historically the new middle classes in Britain had to apologize for not being working class, but also for not really being upper class. Another theory is that we apologize to avoid confrontation(冲突). For example, if you bump into someone they might get angry. To avoid this we instantly say “Sorry!”.
True manners are about being considerate and the modern day obsession with apologizing show that we are perhaps not as thoughtful as we once were. The word has lost some of its meaning. Do you see my point? Sorry, it might just be a British thing…
小题1:What can we infer from paragraph 2?
A．In fact Roberts are responsible for the collision.
B．People from the US say “sorry” more than British people.
C．There is no crash happening in the film.
D．British people say sorry even if it is not their fault.小题2:Which of the following might Mark Tyrell agree to?
A．British people are sincere while saying sorry.
B．Now more British people say sorry because of the British class system.
C．British people say sorry to avoid quarrels.
D．British people apologize for not working hard.小题3:What does the author want to tell us with the passage?
A．British people overuse “sorry” in daily life.
B．British people now say “sorry” in different situations.
C．Middle classes in British are to blame for not being working class.
D．Britons say “sorry” to avoid confrontation.小题4:What does the underlined word “collision” in the first paragraph mean?
A．quarrel
B．disagreement
C．crash
D．fight
