Suppose someone asked,"Who are you ?" It would be simple enough to respond with your name. But if the person wanted to know the entire story about who you are, the question would be more difficult to answer. You'd obviously have to give the details of your height, age, and weight. You'd also have to include all your sentiments and preferences, even the secret ones you've never shared with anyone --- your affection for your loved ones; your desire to please the people you associate with; your dislike of your old sister's husband; your allegiance to your favorite beverage, brand of clothing,and music.
假设有人问你：你是谁？只回答姓名是足够简单的方式。但是如果这个人想要了解关于你的全部故事，这个问题就变得很难回答了。很明显，你不得不将自己的身高、年龄、体重等细节全部如数告知；你也不得不说出你的情感和喜好，甚至是一些从未向别人分享的秘密---你对情人的爱恋，你想要的取悦于所交往的人的想法，你不喜欢你姐夫；你对你所喜欢的饮料、衣服的品牌和音乐的忠心。
生词本：
sentiments：n 情绪
allegiance： n. 效忠，忠诚；忠贞
beverage：n. 饮料
Your attitudes couldn't be overlooked either--- your impatience when an issue gets complex, your aversion to certain courses, your fear of high place and dogs and speaking in public. The list would go on. To be complete, it would have to include all your characteristics---not only the physical but also the emotional and intellectual.
你的态度也不能忽视---你因为一个问题变得复杂而失去耐心；你对某一个学科的厌恶；你的恐高；怕狗以及害怕当中演讲……清单还可以继续列下去。为了更加完善，将不得不包含你的所有特征---不仅是身体方面的，还包括情感和智力方面。
生词本：
aversion： n. 厌恶；讨厌的人
To provide all that information would be quite a chore. But suppose the questioner was still curious and asked," How did you get the way you are?" If your patience were not yet exhausted, chances are you'd answer something like this:" I'm this way because I choose to be, because I've considered other sentiments and preferences and attitudes and have made my selections. The ones I have chosen fit my style and personality best." That answer is natural enough, and in part it's true. But in a larger sense, it's not true. The impact of the world on all of us is much greater than most of us realize.
提供以上所有的信息是一件很让人讨厌的工作。但是假使提问者仍然好奇并且继续问“你是如何成为现在的你的？”如果你的耐心还没有消耗殆尽的话，或许你会像这样回答：“我选择了自己的道路，因为我考虑了其他的情感、喜好及态度，然后作出了我的决定。我的选择与我的特质最匹配，这对我来说是最好的选择。”这个回答很自然，一定程度上也是对的。但是在更高的层面上来看并不正确。这个世界对我们的影响远比我们能感觉到的要大得多。
生词本：
choren. 家庭杂务；日常的零星事务；讨厌的或累人的工作
The Influence Of Time and Place
Not only are you a member of a particular species, Homo sapiens, but you also exist at a particular time in the history of that species and in a particular place on the planet. That time and place are defined by specific circumstances, understandings, beliefs, and customs, all of which limit your experience and influence your thought pattterns. if you had lived in America in colonial times, you likely would have had no objection to the prectice of barring women from serving on a jury , entering into a legal contract, owning property, or voting. If you had lived in the nineteeth century, you would have had no objection to young children being denied an education and being hired out by their parents to work sixteen hours a day, nor would you have given any thought to the special needs of adolescence .(The concept of adolescence was not invented until 1904.)
对于你来说，你不仅属于人类种族的一员，还存在于这一时间、这一地点的人类种族。时间和地点的定义受到特殊环境、理念、信仰、风俗影响，所有这一切都将限制你的经验，影响你的思维模式。假如你生活在殖民地时期的美国，你可能对于禁止女性加入陪审团、合法签订合同、拥有财产亦或者是参与投票等观念毫无异议；假如你生活在十九世纪，你可能对让父母雇佣儿童做每天16小时的工作而不让受教育的行为没有异议；你可能同样不认为青春期的孩子需要有特殊需求（青春期的概念知道1904年才被提出）。
生词本
Homo sapiens： 智人（现代人的学名）；人类
colonial： adj. 殖民的 ，殖民地的
barring： v. 阻拦
jury： n. [法] 陪审团 ；评判委员会
adolescence n. 青春期
If you had been rised in the Middle East, you would stand much closer to people you converse with than you do in America. If you had been raied in India, you might be perfectly comfortable having your parents choose your spouse for you. If your native language were Spanish and your knowledge of English modest, you probably would be confused by some English colloquialisms . James Henslin offers two amusing examples of such confusion: Chevrolet Novas initially sold very poorly in Mexico because no va in Spanish means "it doesn't work"; and Perdue chickens were regarded with certain suspicion (or worse) because the company's slogan---"It takes an though man to make a tender chiken"---became in Spanish "It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."
如果你从中东地区长大，相比于在美国长大的人，你将站的离与你交谈的人更近；如果你在印度长大，你将对由父母帮你选择配偶一事感到非常自然；如果你的母语是西班牙语，而英语知识有限，或许你会对很多英语口语感到困惑。关于这种困惑，詹姆斯汉林思提供了两个有趣的案例：起初Chevrolet Novas在墨西哥销售业绩惨淡，因为在西班牙语中“no va”的意思是“不好用”；因为将公司的标语“硬汉才能做出鲜嫩的鸡”翻译为西班牙语“情欲旺盛的男人才能做出来深情款款的鸡”，柏杜养鸡场感到非常困惑。
生词本：
converse v. 交谈，谈话；认识 adj. 相反的，逆向的；颠倒的
spouse： n. 配偶
modest： adj. 有限的, 谦虚的，谦逊的；适度的 ；端庄的；羞怯的
colloquialisms： n. 口语
amusing: adj. 有趣的，好玩的；引人发笑的
affectionate： adj. 深情的 ；
People who grow up in Eurpe, Asia, or South America have very different ideas of punctuality . As Daniel Goleman explains, "Five minutes is late but permissible for bussiness appointment in the U.S., but thirty minutes in normal in Arab countries. In England five to fifteen minutes is the 'correct" lateness for one invited to dinner; an Italian might come two hours late, an Eehiopian still later, a Javanese not at all, having acceptd only to prevent his host's losing face." A different ethnic origin would also mean different tastes in food. Instead of craving a New York Strip steak and frence fries, you might crave "raw monkey brains" or " camel's blood". Sociologist Ian Robertson summed up the range of global dietary differences succinctly : "Americans eat oysters but not snails. The Franch eat snails but not locusts. The Zulus eat locusts but not fish. The Jews eat fish but not pork.The Hindus eat pork but not beef. The Russians eat beef but not snakes. The Chinese eat snakes but not people. The Jalé of New Guinea find people delicious."[Note: The reference to Hindus is mistaken.]
在欧洲、亚洲、南美洲长大的人有着不同的时间观念，正如Daniel Goleman说道，在美国商界，迟到5分钟以内是可以接受的，但在阿拉伯国家迟到30分钟属于正常现象；在英国邀请别人吃晚饭，迟到15分钟之内是可以的，但对意大利人来说迟到两小时很正常，而爱斯基摩人更甚，爪哇国人甚至毫不在意，接受邀请只为给主人点面子。不同的种族往往意味着不同的食物偏好，或许你会偏好生猴脑或者骆驼血，而不是纽约街牛排或法式炸薯条。正如伊朗社会学家 Robertson所总结的世界膳食区别边界简谱所说：美国人吃牡蛎，但不吃蜗牛；法国人吃蜗牛但不吃蝗虫；祖鲁人吃蝗虫但不会鱼；犹太人吃鱼但不吃猪肉；印度教人吃猪肉但不吃牛肉；俄国人吃牛肉但不吃蛇；中国人吃蛇但不吃人；而新几内亚人发现人肉其实挺好吃的。[印度人不吃猪肉也不吃牛肉，文中所述是错误的]
生词本：
punctuality： n. 严守时间；正确；规矩
succinctly： adv. 简洁地；简便地
To sum up, living in a different age or culture would make you a different person. Even if you rebelled against the values of your time and place, they still would represent the context of your life---in other words, they still would influence your responses.
总结一下，生活在不同的时代或者文化中会让你成为不同的自己，即使你持有与所处的时代或地区的价值观相反的态度，它们依然能体现在你的生活中----换句话说，它们依然会对你产生影响。
生词本：
rebelled： 反叛（rebel的过去式和过去分词）；造反
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