金融時報:天下之至柔

天下之至柔

很多西方國家的員工來到莫斯科工作，因為這里有高薪拿，但是他們都愿意把孩子留在英美，這跟俄國的富人一樣。FT專欄作家Simon Kuper認為，這現(xiàn)象的背后，是源于西方的價值觀、文化、制度和生活方式的強大吸引力，一種推倒了柏林墻的力量。中國和俄國也許在經(jīng)濟上正“征服世界”，但它們沒有多少價值觀和文化上的影響力，沒有多少人愿意偷渡過來（除了朝鮮）。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

Club Med 世界著名的地中海俱樂部旅游公司

expatriate [?ks'pætr??t; -'pe?tr??t; eks-] 外派人員，流亡者

Muscovite ['m?sk?va?t] 莫斯科人

Oxbridge ['?ksbrid?] 牛津和劍橋（的）

whammy ['wæm?] 打擊

al-Qaeda 基地組織

implicitly [?m'pl?s?tl?] 含蓄地

encapsulate [?n'kæpsj?le?t; en-] 壓縮，封入膠囊。capsule就是膠囊的意思。

How the west has won（827words）

By Simon Kuper

You'd almost think the west was in decline. In Syria, Qatar funds the rebelswhile Russia keeps the regime afloat. Eastern purchases of western brands roll on: Chinese bidders are now swallowing the French holiday company Club Med, and probably Smithfield, the world's biggest pork producer. By 2016, China should be the world's biggest economy. No wonder the British government frets about losing “the global race”.

Yet looked at in another way, the west only gets more dominant. We are winning the battle of ideas. Our universities, media, books, celebrities, brands, our principal language, even our dreams dominate the global conversation. “Western culture” isn't superior, but its stuff fills the average human being's head. In the long run, that probably matters as much as economic might.

I noticed it visiting Moscow last month. Most western expatriates I met there had come for money (the Muscovite “salary bonus” and “tax bonus”) and had parked their wives and children back home. Meanwhile, rich Russians were sending their children to British boarding schools and American colleges. Neither group seemed to see their future in the country that paid them.

You still don't get many westerners grooming their kids for Russian or Chinese universities. Indeed, in the Shanghai rankings of the world's best universities, American colleges and Oxbridge fill the top 19 positions. The best institute from an emerging economy, Moscow State University, ranks 80th.

In all sorts of fields, China, Russia and other rising economies still lack cultural influence. Their opening to the world has simply given western culture more lands to swallow. That partly reflects the dominance of English. The language continues to benefit from the triple whammy of its simplicity (except for spelling), the British empire and the American century. When you need to learn 3,500 characters just to read a Chinese newspaper, few people will bother. That's why the world's 35 most popular news websites in web information company Alexa's rankings are in English. No wonder al-Qaeda staged its biggest recruiting event in an English-speaking media capital, New York, though even then its non-western ideas made few converts.

It's the same story in books. Translations from English fill shelves worldwide. Brazil's three bestselling books in 2012, for instance, were the three volumes of E.L. James's Fifty Shades trilogy. Fourth was the American novel Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Meanwhile, few Chinese books get translated at all. Even the most exportable bit of Chinese culture – its supposed devotion to education – had to be popularised in English by an American author of Chinese descent, “Tiger Mother” Amy Chua. Western brands rule too: no Chinese, Russian, Indian or Arab names make Forbes' top 100 of the world's strongest brands.

.…

Western cultural products promote western celebrities. A British friend of mine reports a bearded student approaching him on the street in Isfahan, Iran, years ago and asking: “You are from England? After Israel and America, you are our biggest enemy. Do you think David Beckham should play on the right for Manchester United, or in the centre?''

Our universities, media, books, brands and celebrities combine to sell the western way of life – which implicitly includes democracy. The American dream remains a potent idea despite being no longer accessible to most Americans. The European dream – a lower-income version of the American dream but with more free time – is encapsulated in the Club Med brand. The Chinese purchase of it is the ultimate tribute.

Meanwhile the new Beijing-pushed “Chinese dream” (a phrase the Chinese government apparently borrowed from the American columnist Thomas Friedman) has less appeal. You don't get many people sneaking illegally into China, except from North Korea. If the aspiration offered by China and Russia is simply good incomes for ordinary people, then western countries remain decades ahead.

Western cultural dominance doesn't depend merely on wealth, English and first-mover advantage. It's also built on freedom. Unfree countries rarely develop lifestyles that are envied abroad. Moreover, Russia and China actively discourage their people from producing ideas for the global conversation. That's why the emerging countries with exportable cultural products are mostly democracies. South Korean, Mexican and Brazilian soap operas sell abroad, as do Korean pop and Indian movies. Admittedly, non-democratic tiny Qatar has created a more influential global TV station than either China or Russia, but it chiefly influences other Arabic-speaking countries.

China and Russia won't easily gain more global cultural influence, unless they become English-speaking democracies. For now the west rules the global conversation. That matters. Although many dictators admire the Chinese political model, their subjects mostly prefer democracy. You don't see anyone in Cairo, or for that matter New York, taking to the streets to demand that his country be led by an unelected communist party…

China and Russia must worry that when their economies stall, this era will end much as the cold war did: the appeal of western life brought down the Berlin Wall.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1.What is the writer's definition of “West”?

A.The West Hemisphere.

B.Europe and North America.

C.Developed countries.

D.English speaking world.

E.None of above.

答案(1)

2.What is not correct about English?

A.You need to learn just 3500 words to read English newspaper.

B.The dominance of English is both a cause and a result of western influence.

C.English is relatively simple compared with other western languages.

D.English novels and movies are popular around the globe.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following gives us the impression that “the west is in decline ”?

A.A Chinese bidder acquired French holiday company Club Med.

B.An Iranian student who liked David Beckham.

C.“Tiger Mother” who triggered hot debates in America.

D.Korean pop and Indian movies are sweeping across the globe.

答案(3)

4.What should China and Russia worry most?

A.Being unable to export lifestyles

B.Cultural emergence of other emerging economies.

C.Slowing down of the economy.

D.Another cold war with the West.

答案(4)

* * *

(1)答案：ABCD四項都不是答案。

解釋：這個概念不是地理意義上的，也不全是經(jīng)濟意義上的，而是文化和價值觀意義上的。

比如比中國還靠東的澳大利亞和新西蘭顯然屬于“西方”，而文中提到的韓國、印度則是東方國家。

常用的“西方文化”定義是伯特蘭·羅素給出的，基于古希臘文化、猶太-基督教文化，以及現(xiàn)代工業(yè)文明這三個源頭。

(2)答案：A。

解釋：這說的是中文，每個character都讓西方人頭大，別說3500個了。而英語的統(tǒng)治地位，是得益于三個有利因素：簡單（德語區(qū)和北歐人認為英語是沒有語法的語言），大英帝國在全球的擴張，以及美國世紀。

(3)答案：A

解釋：文章一開頭就說，在經(jīng)濟領(lǐng)域，西方人三天兩頭看到這種消息，很容易產(chǎn)生一種西方衰落的感覺。作者全文的意思就是，在文化和制度上，絕不存在這種衰退。

B實際上是說西方文化的強勢，在官方的反西方宣傳下伊朗年輕人也喜歡貝克漢姆。C則是說，中國文化中最能出口的部分——重視教育，是以“虎媽”這種引發(fā)美國人一片嘩然的形式輸出的。D是為了證明作者的這一論點：在文化上有輸出能力的后發(fā)國家，是韓國、印度、墨西哥這些民主國家。

(4)答案：C

解釋：這是原文最后一句。

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