英语畅谈中国文化 50 主题 第 37 章 The Reputation ofDogs 狗的名声A: Many Westerners don’t understand why Chinese people eat dogs. After some of them have studied Chinese, they realized that the word “dog” is used in many derogatory expressions. Some of those expressions are “a running dog”, “stinky dog droppings,” or “like a dog who bites on the strength of its master’s power.” This last one describes a person who takes advantage of someone else’s strength to bully others．Why do dogs have such a bad reputation in China?A：许多西方人对中国人吃狗肉很不理解。学了中文以后，发现“狗”这个字被用于许多贬义词汇：“走狗”、“臭狗屎”、“狗仗人势”等等，为什么狗的名声在中国这么坏?B: My guess is that for hundreds of years in rural China, dogs have been used to guard houses. The more they bark at the sight of strangers, the more generous their owners are in rewarding them. That in turn makes the dogs even more aggressive. In the old days, a scholar visiting a village would knock on the door of a farmer’s house, hoping to be greeted with hospitality. Often, to his dismay, he would be greeted by a barking dog that would sometimes bite him. The scholar would be scared and run back home and, out of anger and frustration, coin phrased to curse dogs.B：我猜大概是因为在数百年前的乡土中国，狗是用来看家护院的，见到陌生人越是狂吠主人就越给予褒奖，狗们就更具攻击性。读书人想到农家看一看，就敲响了农户的门，期待农人以礼相待，令他沮丧的是，迎接他的是一条狂叫的狗，然后又扑过来撕咬。读书人惊恐地回到家中，愤怒之下，就造出了那些贬损狗的词汇。A: That’s a very imaginative story! However, it seems that people have begun to like dogs in recent years.A：一个很有想像力的故事。但是这些年，中国人好像开始喜欢狗了。B: You’re right. As people are becoming more and more afflu...
