职称英语综合类概括大意练习题十五

Ceasing to Wear Ties

　　1 It's useless.It's dirty.It spreads disease.That's why the British Medical Association in the UK recently called for hospital doctors to stop wearing ties.

　　2 That leads to another question.Why does anyone wear a tie?Ties serve no purpose.They do not cover any part of your body and keep you warm.They always seem to get covered in food stains.Perhaps that is the purpose of the tie.It lets everyone know what you just ate.

　　3 Ties have an odd history.Soldiers from Croatia,in Eastern Europe,served as mercenaries（雇佣军）in various conflicts in the 17th century.They were identified by brightly colored pieces of silk worn around the neck.Known as cravats（围巾）,these became a popular fashion item in France and evertually evolved into the tie.

　　4 It's an interesting story,but it doesn't tell us why men want to put useless pieces of cloth or silk around their necks.The answer seems to be about identification（身份证明）.In the 19th-century Britain,ties were used by universities,military regiments（团）,sports clubs,schools and gentleman's clubs.Each tie was in a particular set of colors which identified the wearer as a member of that organization.Wearing ties was also the mark of Britain's most powerful classes.That made the tie itself a symbol of power and respect.And that led it to be adopted by a much larger class-the business class.

　　5 You cannot wear a tie if you work with machinery.So wearing a tie became a sign that you were a man who used his brain to make a living,rather than his hands.It showed you were serious.It showed you were a professional.It meant that everyone who wanted a job in business had to wear one.It was just impossible to take seriously a man who did not wear a piece of colored silk around his neck.This is how millions of people came to wear ties across the world.

　　6 Is there a future for ties?The signs are not promising.Many political leaders,including British Prime Minister Tony Blair,now go without ties.