After I posted my original message, I read some of the other posts and I agree that comparing to what the other people have encountered, this woman wasn't the rudest. By the way, she was NOT in the midst of any service. The cart was parked at the end of the corridor and she was standing there doing nothing. Like I said, there hadn't been any service for approximately 4 hours, and it turned out there wouldn't be any service for approximately another 2.5 hours. Furthermore, I never asked her to pass me a bottle of water. I merely asked her to clarify her instruction as to whether I should go to the back of the plane for water.
However, not being the rudest, i.e., not being the worst, does not mean it is OK for someone to behave in such a manner. Has the standard for airline service dropped so low that I should be grateful as long as I’m not treated the worst? How much rudeness is acceptable rudeness and how bad does the rudeness has to become before I can start complain?
Maybe I’m too naïve, but I always thought there was a code of conduct for civilized human beings when in public. One tries to be polite and courteous to the others as much as possible. One certainly does not deliberately be rude and annoying for no apparent reason. If a similar incident happened in another place, such as in a store, I wonder if people might find it more shocking. And yet, because it happened on a plane involving a fly attendant, it was OK because this fly attendant wasn’t the rudest yet. Have bad airline service become so prevalent and so outrageous that the passengers should readily forgive those who are just "a little rude" and be glad we "got off fairly easily?" If so, then no wonder the state of airline service has gotten to this point.