The Americans 美国人

布拉德福·史密斯(Bradford Smith)

Americans are a peculiar people. They work like mad, then give away much of what they earn. They play until they are exhausted, and call this a vacation. They love to think of themselves as tough-minded businessmen, yet they are pushovers for any hard luck story. They have the biggest of nearly everything including government, motor cars and debts, yet they are afraid of bigness. They are always trying to chip away at big government, big business, big unions, big influence. They like to think of themselves as little people, average men, and they would like to cut everything down to their own size. Yet they boast of their tall buildings, high mountains, long rivers, big states, the best country, the best world, the best heaven. They also have the most traffic deaths, the most waste, the most racketeering .

When they meet, they are always telling each other, “Take it easy,” then they rush off like crazy in opposite directions. They play games as if they were fighting a war, and fight wars as if playing a game. They marry more, go broke more often and make more money than any other people. They love children, animals, gadgets, mother, work, excitement, noise, nature, television shows, comedy, installment buying, fast motion, spectator sports, the underdog, the flag, Christmas, jazz, shapely women and muscular men, classical recordings, crowds, comics, cigarettes, warm houses in winter and cool ones in summer, thick beefsteaks, coffee, ice cream, informal dress , plenty of running water, do-it-yourself, and a working week trimmed to forty hours or less.

They crowd their highways with cars while complaining about the traffic, flock to movies and television while grumbling about the quality and the commercials, go to church but don't care much for sermons, and drink too much in the hope of relaxing — only to find themselves stimulated to even bigger dreams.

There is, of course, no typical American. But if you added them all together and then divided by 226,000,000 they would look something like what this chapter has tried to portray.

- tough-minded [ˌtʌfˈmaɪndɪd] a. 铁石心肠的

- pushover [ˈpʊʃəʊvə] n. 容易为之打动的人，有恻隐心的人

chip away 削减，减少

- racketeering [ˌrækɪˈtɪərɪŋ] n. 敲诈勒索

informal dress 休闲服，便装

grumble about 抱怨，不满意

美国人是一个奇特的民族。他们疯狂地工作，又轻而易举舍弃所得；他们玩得疲惫不堪，却称之为度假；他们自认为是铁石心肠的生意人，却易被悲惨的故事打动；他们从政府到汽车到债务都求得最大的，却又害怕大。他们一直在努力削减大的政府、大的企业、大的工会，化解大的影响。他们喜欢把自己看作是小人物、普通人，并且很愿意把一切都按照实际情况缩减。然而他们又夸耀自己的高楼大厦，崇山峻岭，大江长河，州界广大，最美的田园乡野，最好的世界，最幸福的天堂。他们还有最高的车祸死亡率，最大量的垃圾废物，最多的敲诈勒索犯罪。

美国人相见时，总提醒别人做事“慢慢来”，掉过头来自己又匆忙行事，如痴若狂。他们玩游戏和打仗差不多，打起仗来却又像儿戏。他们结婚次数比别人多，破产比别人频繁，挣钱也比别人多。他们喜爱小孩，宠爱动物，喜欢新鲜精致的小玩意儿，热爱母亲，酷爱工作，喜欢刺激，爱好喧闹，钟爱大自然，爱看电视节目，爱好喜剧，喜欢分期付款购物，爱快节奏，爱观赏体育比赛，爱护弱势群体，敬爱国旗，爱圣诞节，爱爵士乐，爱体态优美的女士和肌肉发达的男子，爱古典乐曲唱片，爱聚集的人群，爱漫画，爱抽香烟，爱住冬暖夏凉的房子，爱吃厚实的牛排，爱喝咖啡，爱吃冰激凌，爱穿休闲服装，爱使用足量的自来水，爱亲自动手干杂活，喜欢把一周的工作削减到在四十小时以内。

他们开车把公路挤得水泄不通，却在埋怨交通不畅；他们大批涌向影院看电影，却对电影质量和广告片牢骚满腹；他们上教堂，却不要听宣讲教义；他们希望放松放松，却喝得酩酊大醉。

当然，没有那么典型的美国人，但是把他们的特点加在一起除以全国2.26亿人口数，这里的描写就与其相符了！

布拉德福·史密斯(1909—1964)，著作很多，包括《纯血统》(1937—1938，副标题：一部东西方通婚的小说)，《美国客人》(1938)，《耶稣的故事》(1948)，《美籍日本人》(美洲民族丛书之一)(1948)，《普利茅斯的布鲁得佛》(1951)，《约翰·史密斯大卫生平与传说》(1953)，《丹韦伯斯特里·北方军士兵》(1954)，《罗加及法国与印第安人的战争》(1956)，《美国佬在天堂：新英格兰对夏威夷的影响》(1956)，《我们美国人行为表现的根由》(1957)与《斯蒂芬·德凯脱：勇敢的男孩》(美国伟人的童年丛书，1962)等。