Good Manners

In Great Britain today good manners at table include eating with the mouth closed; not letting any of the food fall off the plate; using the knife only for cutting; and not trying to take food across the table. In other parts of the world there are also rules which people should follow when they are eating, but they are not the same as those of Britain .

    Indeed, the things that are considered good tsable manners in some other countries are the things that Britain people try hardest to avoid. In Arabia, for example, the people at a feast （宴会） take pieces of food with their fingers and belch loudly, which shows that they have appreciated it.

    In the Western countries there are differences between table manners, which are not so marked. In North America it is polite to eat up meat and then put the knife down, take the fork in the right hand and eat with it. Most European people, like the British, keep the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right all the time when they are eating food that has to be cut. In the British Isles and Scandinavia( Norway , Sweden , Denmark and Iceland )special knives and forks are used for eating fish. In France , Belgium and Italy , however, it is correct to keep the same knife for every course, which people wipe on a piece of bread.

    Table manners of course have changed with time. The earliest meals were also the simplest, which were eaten on the ground round a line, and everyone took his food from the animal or bird that had been cooked. The women waited on the warriors （武士） and afterwards ate the food that they left. Table manners did not always include quiet behavior. Quarrels often took place at table, an in the 17th century King Louis XIV of France ordered that only the knives that had rounded ends should be used to prevent people from stabbing each other while they were eating.