What are the basic ingredients(要素)of good manners？A strong sense of fairness is one of them.
A friend once told me an experience that he had. When he was driving along a one—lane(单行小路), unpaved(未铺路的)mountain road, the car ahead of his produced clouds of choking dust(呛人的尘土), and it was a long way to the nearest paved main road. Suddenly, the car ahead stopped at a wider place on the road. My friend thought there must be something wrong with the car ahead. He stopped and asked if anything was wrong. "No," said the other driver. "But you've endured my dust so far. I'll endure yours the rest of the way."
Another ingredient is empathy(同情心). It makes a person see into the mind or heart of someone else. Recently I happened to read such a story in a book.
A man was having dinner alone, and he was trying to open a bottle. But he failed. Then he asked a waiter for help. The waiter took the bottle, turned his back and opened it without difficulty. Then the waiter closed it again and turned back. He pretended(假装)to make a great effort to open the bottle without success. Finally he took it into the kitchen and returned very soon. He told the man that he managed to open it, but only with a tool.
Yet another ingredient is the ability to treat people alike(一视同仁). No matter who he is and what he does, everyone is worth respecting.
