by Patt Morrison

Learning to Be Friendly with Difficult Neighbors

by Patt Morrison

鄰里之間當(dāng)然是充滿愛的，不過有時(shí)候，一些小摩擦似乎也不可避免。有摩擦不怕，但大家要心平氣和地去解決它，試著站在對(duì)方的角度想問題。其實(shí)仔細(xì)想想，那些還真不是什么特別嚴(yán)重的事兒。

The poet Robert Frost1：羅伯特·弗羅斯特（1874—1963年）是20世紀(jì)最受歡迎的美國詩人之一，被稱為“美國文學(xué)中的桂冠詩人”。wrote that good 1)fences make good neighbors, but sometimes there isn’t a fence high enough to prevent2：表達(dá)了人們?cè)诩依锘蚧丶液笙矏偂⒎潘傻男那椤?conflict between you and your next-door neighbor. Los Angeles is one of the most3)densely populated4)urban areas in the United States, so neighborly conflict is a daily thing for many people who live here.

“You’re going to have the issue of noise, you’re going to have the issue of a tree in the way,”says Chris Welch, director of the Center for Conflict5)Resolution.

6)Annoying neighbors can turn the 7)solace of “home sweet home2：表達(dá)了人們?cè)诩依锘蚧丶液笙矏?、放松的心情?！?into long wars over things like loud parties, borrowed8)lawn tools,9)property argument,10)unruly behavior, unruly children and poorly-11)trained pets. The list can be endless.

Advice12)Columnist and author Amy Alkon says the most important thing you can do is to set up a good relationship with your neighbors the moment they move in.

“When somebody moves in, you can set things up, bring your neighbor a plate of cookies, a bottle of wine, this is a small cost13)on your part,” she said. “It’s very, very important because...this is14)unregulated public space that we’re talking about.”

Unless a neighbor is15)violating city16)ordinances or laws, calling in17)authorities won’t help solve the problem. In fact, it can make it worse. Alkon suggests writing a letter to the neighbor to inform them like a friend of the issue instead of a face-to-face conflict. She says that people18)tend to react19)defensively in these kinds of situations.

1) fence [fens] n. 柵欄，圍墻

2） conflict ['k?nfl?kt] n. 沖突，爭(zhēng)執(zhí)

3) densely [densl?] adv. 密集地

4) urban ['з?b?n] adj. 城市的

5) resolution [?rez?'lu???n] n. 解決

6) annoying [?'n????] adj. 令人煩惱的，令人討厭的7) solace ['s?l?s] n. 安慰，慰藉

8) lawn [l??n] n. 草坪

9) property ['pr?p?t?] n. 所有物

10) unruly [?n'ru?l?] adj. 不守規(guī)矩的

11) trained [tre?nd] adj. 受過培訓(xùn)的

12) columnist ['k?l?mn?st] n. 專欄作家

13) on one’s part 就某人而言

14) unregulated [?n'regj?le?t?d] adj. 未受到管理的

15) violate ['va??le?t] v. 違反

16) ordinance ['??d?n?ns] n. 法令，條例

17) authority [??'θ?r?t?] n. 當(dāng)局，負(fù)責(zé)人

18) tend to 易于，傾向于

19) defensively [d?'fens?vl?] adv. 防衛(wèi)地，防御地

詩人羅伯特·弗羅斯特曾寫過“好墻睦鄰”?？墒怯袝r(shí)候，高墻并不足以避免你與鄰居之間的矛盾。洛杉磯是美國人口最為密集的城市之一，所以鄰里糾紛對(duì)于許多住在那里的居民來說是家常便飯。

“你會(huì)碰到鄰居制造噪音的案子，也會(huì)遇到鄰居種的樹木擋路的案子，”糾紛調(diào)解中心的主任克里斯·韋爾奇說道。

讓人惱火的鄰居們會(huì)將常人回家的喜悅活活變成長時(shí)間的爭(zhēng)吵。爭(zhēng)吵往往是圍繞諸如派對(duì)噪音擾人、除草工具借了不還、物品所有權(quán)的糾紛、行為不檢點(diǎn)、小孩頑劣以及寵物缺乏管教等問題。類似的問題數(shù)不勝數(shù)。

咨詢欄目的專欄作家艾米·阿爾康說過，你能做的最重要的事情，就是在新鄰居剛搬進(jìn)來時(shí)就和他們建立起友好的關(guān)系。

“當(dāng)有新鄰居搬來時(shí)，你可以為他們安排好一些事情，給你的鄰居帶去一盤餅干、一瓶酒，這對(duì)你而言花銷不大，”她說道?！斑@一點(diǎn)十分、十分重要，因?yàn)椤覀冇懻摰氖沁€未制定規(guī)則的公共區(qū)域?！?/p>

除非你的鄰居有違反城市管理?xiàng)l例或是違反法律的行為，否則尋求當(dāng)局的援助無助于問題的解決。實(shí)際上，這只會(huì)讓情況惡化。阿爾康建議我們給鄰居寫一封信，友好地提醒他們注意一下這個(gè)問題，而不是一味地去面對(duì)面地爭(zhēng)吵。她還說人們?cè)谟龅竭@類情況時(shí)往往會(huì)比較抵觸。

本期“最·專題”圍繞neighbor與neighborhood展開，而這兩個(gè)詞看起來十分相近，你是否知道它們的區(qū)別呢？

Neighbor可作名詞、動(dòng)詞以及形容詞。作名詞時(shí)，它表示“鄰居”；作動(dòng)詞時(shí)，它表示“鄰接、毗鄰而居”；而作形容詞時(shí)，它又表示“鄰近的”。

Neighborhood只作名詞，表示“附近，鄰近，街坊”。例如：He lives somewhere in the neighborhood.（他住在附近的某個(gè)地方。）

與鄰居相處的藝術(shù)

翻譯：常青