Charm is the ultimate weapon, the supreme seduction, against
which there are few defenses. If you’ve got it, you need almost nothing else,
neither money, looks, nor pedigree. 41. It is a gift, only given to give
away, and the more used the more there is. It is also a climate of behavior set
for perpetual summer and controlled by taste and tact. Real
charm is dynamic, an enveloping spell which mysteriously enslaves the senses. It
is an inner light, fed on reservoirs of benevolence which well up like a thermal
spring. It is unconscious, often nothing but the wish to please, and cannot be
turned on and off at will. 42. You recognize charm by the
feeling you get in its presence. You know who has it. But can you get it, too
Probably, you can’t, because it’s a quickness of spirit, an originality of touch
you have to be born with. Or it’s something that grows naturally out of
another quality, like the simple desire to make people happy. Certainly, charm
is not a question of learning tricks, like wrinkling your nose, or having a
laugh in your voice, or gaily tossing your hair out of your dancing eyes. 43.
Such signs, to the nervous, are ominous warnings which may well send him
streaking for cover. On the other hand, there is an antenna, a built-in
awareness of others, which most people have, and which care can
nourish. But in a study of charm, what else does one look
for Apart from the ability to listen-rarest of all human virtues and most
difficult to sustain without vagueness--apart from warmth, sensitivity, and the
power to please, what else is there visible 44. A generosity, I suppose,
which makes no demands, a transaction which strikes no bargains which doesn’t
hold itself back till youv’e filled up a test-card making it clear that you’re
worth the trouble. Charm can’t withhold, but spends itself willingly on
young and old alike, on the poor, the ugly, the dim, the boring, on the last fat
man in the corner. 45. It reveals also in a sense of ease, in casual but
perfect manners, and often in a physical grace which springs less from an
accident of youth than from a confident serenity of mind. Any person with this
is more than just a popular fellow, he is also a social healer.
【参考答案】
Tricks like wrinkling nose or tossing hair are not charming.......