Two questions on English etc

[skylee]

Q1. I was at this temp exhibition of "Pastels of Musee d'Orsay" yesterday (very nice exhibition btw, much better than the "Picasso and Manet" in the next room IMHO) and I diligently read every caption there. And I came across this sentence, "So, for the Symbolists, landscape was above all a pretext for expressing a feeling (whereas the Impressionists translated a sensation)". See image below. And I thought, "Oh this is how they were different ... but wait, what is the difference between "expressing a feeling" and "translating a sensation"? " And do you, native speakers perhaps, see a difference between the two in reading this sentence? I like to appreciate art but am untrained and I don't see there is a difference between the two expressions.

Q2. Last time I dined out in London (last year) a discretionary service charge was added to my bill and I did not know how to react besides paying it. Should it be my "discretion"? If it was automatically added to the bill, how was it "discretionary"? I wandered in Heathrow T5 yesterday and saw the same thing in the menu of a restaurant. See image below. How does this work?

　

[Guest realmayo]

A1:

"sensation" is more usually a physical thing (the sensation of water on the skin), "feeling" more usually an emotional one (a sad feeling). I can see a clear difference between the two senses (!) in the quoted sentence.

A2:

Discretionary charge in the UK -- you could choose not to pay it, though most people would only choose not to pay if the service was truly rubbish.

[renzhe]

Not necessarily. "Sensation" often refers to non-physical things, state of excitedness, elatedness, dizzyness, etc. In this context, "feeling" probably refers to emotion, like love, hate, sadness, etc.

I think that to really understand the difference between expressionists and impressionists, you really need to study that stuff. I myself have never really got it, even when I could tell the two styles apart visually.

[Guest realmayo]

I suppose one could suggest sensation is usually a response to something, a feeling can be longer-held and deeper-seated.