Chapter 12 The Puzzler

The Celt in all his variants¹ from Builth to Ballyhoo,
His mental processes are plain — one knows what he will do,
And can logically predicate his finish by his start:
But the English — ah, the English!— they are quite a race apart.

Their psychology² is bovine³, their outlook crude and rare;
They abandon vital matters to be tickled⁴ with a straw;
But the straw that they were tickled with — the chaff⁵ that they were fed with —
They convert into a weaver’s beam to break their foeman’s head with.

For undemocratic reasons and for motives⁶ not of State,
They arrive at their conclusions — largely inarticulate.
Being void of self-expression they confide⁷ their views to none;
But sometimes, in a smoking-room, one learns why things were done.

In telegraphic sentences, half swallowed at the ends,
They hint a matter’s inwardness — and there the matter ends.
And while the Celt is talking from Valencia to Kirkwall,
The English — ah, the English!— don’t say anything at all!

1 variants   

n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体

参考例句：

• Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
• Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样，病毒也有变种，一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句

2 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

3 bovine   

adj.牛的；n.牛

参考例句：

• He threw off his pack and went into the rush-grass andand munching,like some bovine creature.他丢开包袱，爬到灯心草丛里，像牛似的大咬大嚼起来。
• He was a gentle,rather bovine man.他是一位文雅而反应迟钝的人。

4 tickled   

（使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐

参考例句：

• We were tickled pink to see our friends on television. 在电视中看到我们的一些朋友，我们高兴极了。
• I tickled the baby's feet and made her laugh. 我胳肢孩子的脚，使她发笑。

5 chaff   

v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳

参考例句：

• I didn't mind their chaff.我不在乎他们的玩笑。
• Old birds are not caught with chaff.谷糠难诱老雀。

6 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

7 confide   

v.向某人吐露秘密

参考例句：

• I would never readily confide in anybody.我从不轻易向人吐露秘密。
• He is going to confide the secrets of his heart to us.他将向我们吐露他心里的秘密。