Greetings in the age of coronavirus新型冠状病毒催生新社交肢体语言

河南固始县高级中学 汤 润

新冠肺炎疫情改变着人们的社交礼仪，人们正在避免握手、亲吻等通过皮肤进行的亲密性接触。

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难词探意

verbally /΄vзːbəli/ adv. 口头上地

The World Health Organization recently declared the new coronavirus（冠状病毒）a “pandemic”. Health officials have warned people to avoid large crowds and to practice social distancing to control the spread of the disease,which has led to new ways of greetings around the world.

In one video, a man offers his hand to another man for a handshake. Instead of shaking hands, the two men greet each other by kicking feet. The video then shows more men greeting each other in this way.Other videos are appearing on social media showing people in other parts of the world using the foot tap as a greeting.

Zheng Yuwen is a television host for Voice of America's China service. Her job involves contact with many on-air guests. So, she has changed her guest greeting policy. She told all her guests who appear in the studio not to shake hands any more. They do elbow touch; they do foot tapping or foot kissing as they say.

Mir Abdul Moshref works at Voice of America in the Afghan service. He says that while hugging between men and women is not common, same-sex hugging is. However, those who used to hug have started using new ways of greeting people. Usually people do not shake hands. But, they are greeting verbally. They are not hugging, which used to be common among Afghans in his service. They are just elbowtouching and sometimes they are kicking feet with each other.

In Iran, people have used a similar greeting called “butt bump”. Besides the foot kick, butt bump and elbow touch, there are other ways to greet people without touching.

In Europe, kissing is a common way to greet people. People in France and other parts of Europe often use two kisses—one on each cheek—or in the air as a greeting. People in Switzerland give three kisses. But kissing seldom sells now.

Reading Check

1. What does Para. 1 mainly talk about?

A. The background of the change of greetings.

B. The influence of the pandemic on people's life.

C. The changing ways of greeting around the world.

D. The suggestions of the World Health Organization.

2. What makes the greetings in the video and of Zheng Yuwen so different?

A. Greeting by kicking feet.

B. Greeting by touching elbows.

C. Greeting by not shaking hands.

D. Greeting by avoiding skin contact.

3. What can be inferred from paragraph 4?

A. Afghans used to greet by kicking feet.

B. Mir Abdul Moshref works in Afghanistan.

C. Most Afghans remain conservative currently.

D. Many people are unwilling to change their greeting way.

4. Which of the following can best describe the main idea of the text?

A. It's never too late to learn.

B. Adversity is a good discipline.

C. Different countries, different customs.

D. Social etiquette changes with circumstances.

Language Study

Difficult sentence

Health officials have warned people to avoid large crowds and to practice social distancing to control the spread of the disease, which has led to new ways of greetings around the world.

【翻译】___________________________________________________________________________

【点石成金】本句的主句部分使用的是warn sb to do sth结构，意为“警告某人做某事”，to practice social distancing和to control the spread of the disease均为动词不定式表目的，which引导的是一个非限制性定语从句。