单选题 Michelle Dockery, the actress who plays Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey, says manners have disappeared in modern Britain.
"Those old manners," she says, "such as men standing when women arrive at the dinner table or opening doors for you—are lovely, and it's lovely when you see a man doing that. But young men wouldn't think about that for a second because it's not the culture anymore."
She puts it down to the rise of sexual equality, which I suppose might play a small part in the collapse of manners. But the loss of noble qualities is a minor element in a much bigger story. Over the last 50 years, the British have changed from one of the politest nations to one of the rudest.
Luckily for us, the old-fashioned image persists abroad of us as a bowler-hat-wearing race, obsessed with tea and cricket. Those misconceptions are swiftly cured by a visit to one of the pedestrianised fighting areas in any provincial town centre on a Saturday evening at the closing time of a pub.
Of course, the image was always a slight myth. The British have always drunk heavily, and sworn even more. But they used to have a double persona—the heavy drinking, swearing one, which would be replaced by the polite persona immediately when good manners were required.
That idea of public shame has disappeared, and is now even condemned as pretentious. Self-righteousness has taken its place—it's OK to play a DVD at top volume in a train carriage/wear a luminous green vest at a funeral, because the offender thinks it's OK. The only driving factor in these decisions is desire for your own pleasure rather than the desire to minimize the pain of others.
This selfish behavior is much more natural than the selflessness implied in manners. If we were brought up in the wild, we'd all behave like this. Manners are taught. And that's the big reason why they've collapsed over here—and—survived much better in other countries. They're not taught much here anymore by parents, on television or by public figures.
In his latest book on litter, Theodore Dalrymple explains why the British litter these days—because they haven't been socialized properly. Dr. Dalrymple and most of his generation—don't litter, he writes, because their mothers told them not to. It's the same with the modern collapse of manners.

单选题 Unlike Michelle Dockery, the author believes that the collapse of manners in Britain ______.

A. is due to the improved social status of women
B. has nothing to do with noble qualities
C. has more significant causes than Dockery suggests
D. has never happened in daily life and work

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】在第三段，Michelle Dockery认为传统的礼貌举止丧失的原因是两性平等了，但作者使用了play a small part in the collapse of manners和is a minor element in a much bigger story等语言，说明两性平等只是个微不足道的原因。

单选题 The fourth paragraph implies that ______.

A. foreigners still regard the British as impolite and rude
B. the British often start fighting after heavy drinking
C. British women have been traditionally well-dressed
D. the British enjoy drinking tea while playing cricket

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】第四段披露了英国人的一个阴暗面。在传统的印象中，英国人戴着圆顶礼帽，酷爱板球，喜欢喝茶，给人留下了美好的形象，但如果你在周六晚上酒馆歇业时到小镇子的中心看一看，你就会发现英国人的真实面目，那真是“不看不知道，一看吓一跳”。言外之意，很多人喝醉了，大打出手。

单选题 The double persona that the British used to have is mentioned as evidence that ______.

A. they used to care about their manners when necessary
B. they have behaved consistently on each occasion
C. they knew nothing about their image in other countries
D. they never paid any attention to their own manners

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】第五段中a double persona，可翻译为“两面性”或“双重人格”：一方面喝大酒、说脏话，另一方面在必要时假装彬彬有礼。但要注意原文中使用了used to，说明今非昔比，现在连假装正经的人都没了。这说明以前人们的行为还收敛些。

单选题 Paragraph six is focused on ______.

A. higher moral standards in contemporary Britain
B. the extreme tolerance of bad manners in Britain
C. the exclusive pursuit of perfection in Britain
D. the loss of the sense of public shame in Britain

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】第六段的大意是：人们在公共场合随心所欲、自以为是，把自己的快乐建立在他人的痛苦之上。他们根本不顾及周围人的感受，已经没有羞耻感。

单选题 The collapse of manners in Britain can be ascribed to ______.

A. natural evolution of human beings
B. the dominance of single-parent families
C. the absence of education on social manners
D. lack of harsh penalties on offenders

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】在最后两段，作者使用了Manners are taught, They're not taught much here anymore和because their mothers told them not to的句子，说明“礼貌来自于言传身教”。

单选题 The central idea of this passage is that ______.

A. manners change with the passage of time
B. the British have no manners now
C. manners remain unchanged in Britain
D. the British have come to be illiterate

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】文章并没有描写英国的manners(举止礼貌)发生了哪些变化，而是着重说明英国人已不再是讲究礼仪的民族。一些传统的礼貌做法已经逐步消失，同时年轻人变得更加粗鲁野蛮。