Ice, Ice, Baby

　　冰，冰啊，宝贝

　　Think about any beverage, adult or otherwise, that you’ve ordered in your life. What’s the primaryingredient, regardless of what beverage you’ve ordered? If you said sugar, you’re close, but that’s not it. It’s ice, of course! Lots and lots of ice! Europeans think that our ice-intensive drinks are totallybizarre. As it so happens, they like things lukewarm over there.

　　无论你年纪如何，想想任何你所点过的饮品。无论你点了何种饮料，里面的主要成分是什么呢?如果你回答说是糖，那么你已经离正确答案不远了。当然应该是冰啦!许多许多冰!欧洲人觉得我们(美国人)饮料中含冰巨多这点非常奇葩。如果它就这么发生的话，欧洲人倒喜欢喝温点的东西。

　　Air Conditioning

　　空调

　　Well, have you ever noticed how uncompromisingly cold your working environment is? As it so happens, not all of the world’s buildings keep the AC turned up so high. When Europeans step into America buildings, they feel like they’re stepping into the Antarctic.

　　你可曾注意到你的工作环境是有多彻骨寒冷?说起来，并非世界上所有的建筑物里都会把空调风开得这么大。当欧洲人走进美国人的大楼里，他们会觉得自己进入了南极。

　　The Working Week

　　工作周

　　Have you ever felt like 40-hours per week is just too damn much? You’d be surprised about how much it’s taken to get the working week down to that level here in the United States. At any rate, things just simply aren’t that way over in old Europe. The standard is much more relaxed, and there’s a cultural belief that having vacation time, and taking time away to raise a family, is valuable!

　　你有没有觉得每周工作40个小时真是太他妈多了?那你在看到美国这边的工作周降到了什么程度之后，会吃上一惊。至少，美国的情形和旧欧洲世界完全不同。美国的上班(时间)标准更为宽松。而且我们的文化相信，享受假期和把时间花在养家糊口上是非常可贵的!

　　Sales Tax

　　销售税

　　Europeans think it’s totally bizarre that the price of an item in a store isn’t what they’ll be charged at checkout. Of course, Europeans pay homage to the tax man in ways that Americans would feel isbizarre, too.

　　欧洲人在看到美国商店中物品的价格和他们在收银台为其支付的价格不一致时，觉得这太奇怪了。当然，欧洲人敬重纳税人这点也让美国人无法理解。

　　How Are You Doing?

　　你好呀!

　　You probably noticed that Europeans have completely awesome words for saying ‘Hello!’ But, whens the last time you said ‘hello’ to anyone? You say things like: ‘What’s up?’, ‘How are you?’, ‘What’s the haps?’ At any rate, we don’t mean those as actual questions; Europeans think that we do.

　　你也许注意到欧洲人说“你好!”真的有许多不错的词，然而(作为美国人的)你上次用“Hello”和人打招呼是何时?你会用“What’s up?”，“How are you?”，“What’s the haps?”问好。不管怎样，我们说的这些都不是真的在提问。可欧洲人却会这么认为。

　　Tipping

　　给小费

　　There, you only leave a tip after a meal if you’re exceptionally pleased with the service, otherwise a tip is not expected. In Europe, service industry employees are paid a decent wage, and this is reflected in more expensive prices. In the United States, service industry employees are paid less than the minimum wage, which is a big reason why those Olive Garden entrees are so cheap.

　　在美国，只有服务让你格外满意，你才会在用餐后给服务员留下小费，否则你是不会给的。在欧洲服务行业的员工们享受的薪水不错，而这也反映在欧洲餐馆的菜价比美国更贵。而在美国，服务行业的员工得到的薪水比欧洲服务员的最低薪水还低。这很大程度上解释了美国的橄榄园(意大利餐厅连锁店)为啥那么便宜了。

　　A Foot? An Inch?

　　一英尺，还是一英寸?

　　How many inches are in a foot? How many feet are in a yard? What’s an inch? What’s a foot? What’s a yard? Do you have any reasonable answers to any of these questions? The whole world uses the metric system for measurement, yet here in the United States we still stick to Imperial measurements. How many stone are you?

　　一英尺等于多少英寸?一码等于多少英尺?一英寸是多少?一英尺是多少?而一码有是多少?你能在这些问题中理清头绪，然后作答吗?全世界都在用公制计量法，而在美国这我们仍坚持用英制计量法。你重多少英石呢?