Notes All in One

page – 18 & 19

What struck me particularly was the ease with which
he got through his work. If bad manners are infectious,
so also are good manners. If we encounter incivility most
of us are apt to become uncivil, but it is an unusually
uncouth person who can be disagreeable with sunny
people. It is with manners as with the weather. ‘‘Nothing
clears up my spirits like a fine day,” said Keats, and a
cheerful person descends on even the gloomiest of us with
something of the benediction of a fine day. And so it was
always fine weather on the polite conductor’s bus, and his
own civility, his conciliatory address and good-humoured
bearing, infected his passengers. In lightening their spirits
he lightened his own task. His gaiety was not a wasteful
luxury, but a sound investment.
I have missed him from my bus route of late; but I
hope that only means that he has carried his sunshine
on to another road. It cannot be too widely diffused in a
rather drab world. And I make no apologies for writing a
panegyric on an unknown bus conductor. If Wordsworth
could gather lessons of wisdom from the poor leech-
gatherer ‘on the lonely moor’, I see no reason why lesser
people should not take lessons in conduct from one who
shows how a very modest calling may be dignified by
good-temper and kindly feeling.
It is a matter of general agreement that the war has
had a chilling effect upon those little everyday civilities of
behaviour that sweeten the general air. We must get those
civilities back if we are to make life kindly and tolerable
for each other. We cannot get them back by invoking the
law. The policeman is a necessary symbol and the law
is a necessary institution for a society that is still some-
what lower than the angels. But the law can only protect
us against material attack. Nor will the lift-man’s way of
meeting moral affront by physical violence help us to
restore the civilities. I suggest to him, that he would have
had a more subtle and effective revenge if he had treated
the gentleman who would not say “Please” with elaborate politeness. He would have had the victory, not only over
the boor, but over himself, and that is the victory that
counts. The polite man may lose the material advantage,
but he always has the spiritual victory. I commend to the
lift-man a story of Chesterfield. In his time the London
streets were without the pavements of today, and the man
who “took the wall” had the driest footing. “I never give
the wall to a scoundrel,” said a man who met Chesterfield
one day in the street. “I always do,” said Chesterfield,
stepping with a bow into the road. I hope the lift-man will
agree that his revenge was much more sweet than if he
had flung the fellow into the mud.

A1: Write true or False
1) The conductor was rude and unhelpful.
2) The author believes that cheerful people can lift others’ moods.
3) Good manners are a sound investment according to the author.
4) Chesterfield willingly gave way to the rude man.

A2. Complete the sentence 
1) The author compares good manners to ____________.
2) Wordsworth learned lessons from ____________.
3) The author calls the conductor’s cheerfulness a ____________ investment.
4) The war had a ____________ effect on everyday civilities.

A3. complete the flowchart about the effect of war

A4. What lesson does the Chesterfield story teach, according to the author?
A5. Have you ever encountered someone like the polite conductor? Describe the experience.
A6. Do as directed (Grammar)
a) His gaiety was not a wasteful luxury, but a sound investment. (Make Complex)
b) The polite man may lose the material advantage. (Use another modal auxiliary to make the sentence of more certain)
A7. Match the Following