近来，各种报纸上都有读者来信，一部分是反映社会情况，更多的是生活上有疑难问题，写信给报社，要求解答。我很喜欢看这些通信，从这里可以了解各色市民的生活和思想情况。

外国报纸也有这种通信，有些报纸还特辟专栏，由专人负责答复。美国有疑问署名安澜德（Ann Landers）的女记者，为八百多种报刊答复读者来信，就称为“安澜德专栏”。这个专栏极受读者欢迎，每天至少有三千万人拿到报纸就看这个专栏。

安澜德通信已出了好几个单行本，都畅销一时。前几天，老友钱歌川从美国寄给我两本《人间信箱》，这是他选择的安澜德通信，供中国人学习英语用的。因为这些通信所用的英语，都是流行的成语俗字，有许多字还没有编入字典，可以说是最新最活的英语。

两本《人间信箱》，选择了二百来封信和答复。几乎有百分之八十是青年男女写给安澜德的信，要求她解答各种婚姻问题、恋爱问题或处事问题。他们的问题，跟中国青年的问题完全不同，有许多是我们想象不到的。现在举两件突出的事例给读者，以广见闻，以资谈助，或者还可以资警惕。

一个三十岁的女人，在二十岁的时候，看见女朋友都结婚了，她怕做老小姐，急急忙忙嫁了一个认识才两个月的男人。十一个月之后，他们有了孩子，于是开始了吵架。丈夫建议和另外一对夫妇交换行乐，她同意了。于是两夫妻加入了一个俱乐部，和别的几对夫妇叫唤睡觉。最后，丈夫建议要她和另一个男人的妻子对调，可是她不喜欢那个男子，于是写信给安澜德，问她该怎么办。

一个女人，和一个没有钱的男子结婚，她做工赚钱来供给丈夫读大学。现在，结婚已十八年，有了三个孩子。丈夫有钱了，她为了主持家务，不出去工作了。于是她出去理发一次，丈夫就三天不和她说话，理由是：她没有工作，所有没有任何权利。她写信给安澜德，问：“作为一个没有工作的妻子和母亲，我有什么权利呢？”

以上是摘录了两件关于男女关系的读者来信，安澜德都作了答复，指导他们应如何处理。不过有时安澜德无法从正面回答，只好说几句俏皮话、幽默话，却又引起读者更多的来信。

美国青年对于恋爱和结婚的态度，极不严肃。有一封读者来信报道的一个信息：有一个五年级的小学生，作语文练习，老师命题的要求是解释什么叫“单调”。小学生写道：“在美国，一个男人只能有一个妻子，这就叫单调。”

American Men and Women

Shi Zhecun

Various newspapers of late carry letters from readers reflecting social conditions or more often requesting solutions to knotty problems in life. I am fond of reading them because they mirror the life and thought of people of all descriptions.

The same is true of foreign newspapers. Some of them have set up special columns with special columnists in charge of answering questions. An American woman journalist named Ann Landers was once put in charge of such correspondence for over 800 newspapers respectively. Known as “Ann Landers’ Column”, it became extremely popular with readers. Every day, the first thing that attracted the attention of readers, totaling at least 30 million, would be this special column.

Landers’ letters, later appearing in several collections, have been selling like hot cakes. Several years ago, my old friend Qian Gechuan sent me from the US two collections of Landers’ letters that he had selected and translated for the benefit of Chinese learners of English. The letters were originally written in present-day English with up-to-date idioms and colloquialisms, many of which have not yet been compiled into dictionaries.

There were in the two collections altogether 200 letters to and from Landers, of which about 80% were sent by American young men and women asking for her advice on problems of marriage, love, ways of society, etc. The problems confronting them were entirely different from those of Chinese young people. Many were quite unimaginable to us. Now let me cite two striking examples for the information and chit-chat of my readers. Meanwhile, they may also serve to put our youth on the alert.

Here is the story of a 30-year-old American woman. At the age of 20, seeing all her girl friends already married, she worried about herself some day becoming an old maid and therefore quickly married a man whom she had known for barely two months. Eleven months later, they had a baby and began to lead a cat-and-dog life. And when the husband suggested swapping wives with another man for pleasure, she agreed. And they joined a club where male members could have sex with each other’s wife. Then it happened that she refused to go to bed with a man chosen by her husband because he was not to her liking. She then wrote to Landers for advice.

An American girl married a poor man and managed to see him through college with money she earned my manual work. After 18 years of married life, they had three kids. Now the husband has become better off and she, instead of going out to work, stays home to keep house. Every time, however, when she goes out to have her hair done at a hairdresser’s, the man will be glum and silent for three days. The reason is, she is jobless and therefore has no right for a hairdo at his expense. So she wrote to Landers with this question, “What right have I as a jobless wife and mother?”

Landers wrote back to each of the two women, telling them how to best deal with the situations. But sometimes, unable to give a direct answer in her reply, she would instead resort to some witty or humorous remarks, thus generating even more letters from readers.

American young people often show a devil-may-care attitude towards problems of love and marriage. A reader wrote to tell the following little story. A fifth-grade pupil wrote in a composition on “monotony”, a subject assigned by the teacher, “In America every man is supposed to have only one wife. That’s what we mean by monotony.”（张培基 译）