英语原文

Gratuitous1 Gratuities2

　　 Everybody loathes3 it, but everybody does it. A recent poll showed that 40％ of Americans hate the practice. It seems so arbitrary4, after all. Why does a barman5 get a tip, but not a doctor who saves lives?
　　In America alone, tipping is now a＄16 billion-a-year industry. Consumers acting rationally ought not to pay more than they have to for a given service. Tips should not exist. So why do they? The conventional wisdom is that tips both reward the efforts of good service and reduce uncomfortable feelings of inequality. The better the service, the bigger the tip.
　　Such explanations no doubt explain the purported6 origin of tipping-in the 16th century, boxes in English taverns7 carried the phrase " To Insure Promptitude8" (later just " TIP" ).But according to new research from Cornell University,tipping no longer serves any useful function.
The paper analyses data from 2,547 groups dining at 20 different restaurants. The correlation9 between larger tips and better service was very weak: only a tiny part of the variability in the size of the tip had anything to do with the quality of service. Customers who rated10 a meal as " excellent" still tipped anywhere between 8％ and 37％ of the meal price.
　　Tipping is better explained by culture than by economics. In America, the custom has become institutionalized11: it is regarded as part of the accepted cost of a service. In a New York restaurant, failing to tip at least 15％ could well mean abuse from the waiter. Hairdressers can expect to get 15～ 20％ , the man who delivers your groceries ＄ 2. In Europe, tipping is less common; in many restaurants, discretionary12 tipping is being replaced by a standard service charge. In many Asian countries, tipping has never really caught on13 at all.
　　How to account for14 these national differences? Look no further than psychology. According to Michael Lynn, the Cornell paper's co-author, countries in which people are more extrovert15, sociable or neurotic16 tend to tip more.Tipping relieves17 anxiety about being served by strangers. And, says Mr Lynn, "in America, where people are outgoing and expressive, tipping is about social approval. If you tip badly, people think less of you. Tipping well is a chance to show off18." Icelanders, by contrast, do not usually tip--a measure of their introversion19, no doubt.
　　While such explanations may be crude, the hard truth seems to be that tipping does not work. It does not benefit the customer. Nor, in the case of restaurants, does it actually incentivise20 the waiter, or help the restaurant manager to monitor and assess his staff. Service people should " just be paid a decent wage" may actually make economic sense.

注释：

1.gratuitous adj.无理由的，不必要的
2.gratuity n.小费，赏钱
3.loathe vt.厌恶，憎恨
4.arbitrary adj.任意性的
5.barman n.酒吧间男招待
6.purported adj.传说的，谣传的
7.tavern n.小酒店，小旅馆，客栈
8.promptitude n.敏捷，迅速
9.correlation n.联系
10.rate vt.认为，评估
11.institutionalized adj.制度化的
12.discretionary adj.自由决定的
13.catch on流行起来，被人接受
14.account vi.(与for连用)作出解释
15.extrovert adj.外倾性的
16.neurotic adj.易激动的
17.relieve vt.减轻
18.show off炫耀，表现自己
19.introversion n.内倾性
20.incentivise vt.刺激，鼓励