《英语高级口语》（文本+MP3）

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Lesson 1

            Does Television Play a Positive or
            Negative Role in the Modern Society?
 
                          Text

      Do the Advantages of Television Outweigh the Disadvantages?
  Television is now playing a very important part in our life. But television, like other things, has both advantages and disadvantages. Do the former outweigh the latter?


  In the first place, television is not only a convenient source of entertainment, but also a comparatively cheap one. For a family of four, for example, it is more convenient as well as cheaper to sit comfortably at home, with almost unlimited entertainment available, than to go out in search of amusement elsewhere. They do not have to pay for expensive seats at the theatre, the cinema, or the opera, only to discover, perhaps, that the show is disappointing.

All they have to do is press a button, and they can see plays, films, operas, and shows of every kind, not to mention political discussions and the latest exciting. football match. Some people, however, maintain that this is precisely where the danger lies. The television viewer takes no initiative. He makes no choice and exercises no judgment. He is completely passive and has everything presented to him without any effort on his part.


  Television, it is often said, keeps one informed about current events, allows one to follow the latest developments in science and politics, and offers an endless series of programmes which are hoth instructive and entertaining. The most distant countries and the strangest customs are brought right into one's stitting-room. It could be argued that the radio performs this service just as well; but on television everything is much more living, much more real. Yet here again there is a danger. We get so used to looking at it, so dependent on its flickering pictures, that it begins to dominate our lives.


  There are many other arguments for and against television. The poor quality of its programmes i.s often criticized. But it is undoubtedly a great comfort to many lonely elderly people. And does it corrupt or instruct our children? I think we must realize that television in itself is neither good nor bad. It is the uses to which it is put that determine its value to society.



II . Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoir while reading.

1. Why Watch Television? Matthew: Television is undoubtedly a great invention, but one of the main
you've criticisms of it is that people just aren't selective
enough. I.esley,got a television; how do you pick out the sorts of
programmes you want to watch?
　

Lesley: I t.ry and look at the prograxnmes that are on to decide which  
particular ones interest me, rather than you turning it on a seven
o'clock and you leaving it on until half-past eleven when the
programmes finish.
　

Matthew: Do you think of television though as a great time-waster?
Lesley: Un ...I think it can be a time-waster and it depends on how particular  
people are about what they want to see...Mm, it can just be a sort of
total amusement for someone and totallve consuming without really
considering what it is they're watching.
　

Matthew: Aha, but how do you prevent it coming into your life and taking over
your evenings and at the same time perhaps get . . . get out of the
television some of the sort of best things...best programmes that...
that undoubtedly are on television?
　

Lesley: Well,I suppose one of the problems is ...will depend on what a person's
life style is, and that if he has other outside interests
which are equally important to him as television, he will then, you
know, mm . . . be more careful about which programmes
he wants to watch because he has time which he wants to use for
other things.
　

Matthew: Do you think though that... that in . . . in a sense television has
killed people's own er...sort of , creativity or their ability
to entertain themselves because if they're bored all they do is just
turn on the television?
　

Lesley: Yes, I think that is a danger, and I think that. .in fact is what is  
happening to a lot of people who use it as their ... their main...um
field of amusement and ... because they don't have other outside
interests and even when people come round they'll leave the television
on and not be, you know, particularly interested in talking to them,
you Know the television will be the main thing in the room.
　

Matthew: Peter, have you got a television?
Peter: I have, in fact I've got two televisions.
Matthew: Do you watch them a lot?
Peter: Er ... no I...I watch very seldom er ... In fact, I find that I watch
television most when I'm most busy, when I'm working hardest and I
need some sort of passive way of relaxing, something which requires
nothing of me, then I watch television a lot. When I've got more energy
left...um ...in my own private time, in my free time, then I find I do
moredifferent things. I do things like um reading, or going out, or
working on anything . . . my hobbies.
　

Matthew: Do you think though that people can live a perfectly happy life if
they haven't got a television?
Peter: Oh yes, I think people who don't have a television or people who    
entertainment.don' t watch television can be expected to be more
happy. You canassume I think if they never watch television they are
happier people than the people who watch a lot of television,
because I think that television goes with the kind of life which
leaves you with nothing tospare, nothing left, you have to be given
potted, passive entertainment.
　

Matthew: Bot in that case you ...you seem as though you're completely
against television, is that true?
Peter: No,it's not. I...I have a television in fact,I have two as I said, but
er I ... I ...I think there's a dilemma, a difficult situation.
Television in itself is very good; a . . . a lot of the information
and a lot of the programmes are very instructive, they introduce you
to things you may never have thought of before or never have heard
about before. But in watching, it makes you very passive; you sit for
hour after hour and you get very receptive and very unquestioning aud
it seems to me the important thing in life is to be active, to . . . to
do things, to think things and to be as creative as possible, and
television prevents this.

              2. Children and Television
  Housewife: What do I think of television? Um, um, well, um, it keeps the family at home, the kids don't go oot at night so much now, they come straight in from school most of them, they run in and straight, well the television's on when they come in, I watch it myself during the afternoon. Er, well it's company really and, er, well, then the kids come home, they eat their tea, I have no trouble with them eating their tea because they just ...

　

well, they don't even look at what they eat, they just sit down and, erm, they eat it and they like the programmes and, and it keeps them quiet while I' m cooking the tea for their dad when he comes home an hour later and tea is ready when the news is on when he comes in, and, er and the news is on or perhaps the football match or something, er, they have to be quiet then,they're not very interested in that themselves, they like the cartoons and things but, em, yeah, well, I think television's great, er, we get on

much better in the house now, um, well, we've got things to talk about, erm, you know, if I miss a programme, er, if I' m cooking or something in the kitchen, I miss a bit of what's going on, I mean I have the door open so I can hear, but if I miss a bit then they will tell me, and then perhaps later or perhaps the next day we' ll have a chat about it, you know. It gives us something to talk about really. Um, I don't think it hurts the kids, I don't think it's a problem, you know, like, er, it stops them, makes their eyes go funny or something, I don't think it,s a problem like rhat. I don't think it's a problem at all. They've... they've learned a lot from television, I think, they're always piping up with questions and learning a lot from the television.

            3. Television Is Doing IrreparabIe Harm
  "Yes, but what did we use to do before there was television?" How often we hear statements like thisl Television hasn't been with us all that long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was like without it. Before we admitted the one-eyed monster into our homes, we never found it difficult to occi.spy our spare time.

We used to enjoy civilised pleasures. For instance, we used to have hobbies, we used to entertain our friends and be entertained by them, we used to go outside for our amusements to theatres, cinemas, restaurants and sporting events. We even used to read books and listen to music and broadcast talks occasionally. All that belongs to the past. Now all our free time is regulated by the `goggle box' . We rush hom.e or gulp down our meals to be in time for this or that programme.

We have even given up sitting at table and hading a leisurely evening meal, exchanging the news of the day. A sandwich and a glass of beer will do-anything, providing it doesn't interfere with the programme. The monster demands and obtains absolute silence and attention. If any member of the family dares to open his mouth during a programme, he is quickly silenced.


  Whole generations are growing up addicted to the telly. Food is left uneaten, homework undone and sleep is lost. The telly is a universal pacifier. It is now standard practice for mother to keep the children quiet by putting them in the living-room and turning on the set. It doesn,t matter that the children will watch rubbishy commercials or spectacles of sadism and violence-so long as they are quiet.


There is a limit to the amount of creative talent available in the world. Every day, television consumes vast quantities of creative work. That is why most of the programmes are so bad: it is impossible to keep pace with the demand and maintain high standards as well. When millions watch the same programmes, the whole world becomes a village, and society is reduced to the conditions which obtain in pre -literate communities. We become utterly dependent on the two most primitive media of communication: pictures and the spoken word.


  Television encourages passive enjoyment. We become content with second-hand experiences. It is so easy to sit in our armchairs watching others working. Little by little, television cuts us off from the real world. We get so lazy, we choose to spend a fine day in semi-darkness, glued to our sets, rather than go out into the world itself . Television may be a splendid medium of communication, but it prevents us from communicating with each other. We only become aware how totally irrelevant television is to real living when we spend a holiday by the sea or in the mountains, far away from civilization. In quiet, natural surroundings, we quickly discover how little we miss the hypnotic tyranny of King Telly.



                4. Television Is Good for People
  TV may be a vital factor in holding a family together where there are, for example, economic problems and husband and wife seem at breaking point. The dangerous influence is surely no more than what all of us are exposed to every day. . . in advertising, in the press.


  Primary and secondary education have improved out of all recognition
since the arrival of TV in the home and this is not only because of programmes designed for schools. Through TV a child can extend his knowledge and it provides vital food for his imagination.



                5. Television Is to Blame
  TV passes on to children the corrupting values of a corrupt society.
It's only a matter of time before we can give statistical evidence'of how many criminals society has given birth to in front of the TV on Saturday night.
You can blame TV for the fact that children take longer to learn to read these days and barely see the point any more of acquiring the skill. In my opinion watching TV should be strictly confined to "treats".
[此贴被竹影无风在2004-04-27 20:37重新编辑]

Lesson 2

                Are Pets Good for Mankind?

                          Text

                    Pets Are Good for You

  The basic meaning of "pet" is an animal we keep for emotional rather than economic reasons. A pet animal is kept as a companion, and we all need companions to keep us feeling happy. But pets offer us more than mere companionship; they invite us to love and be loved. Many owners feel their pets understand them, for animals are quick to sense anger and sorrow. Often a cat or dog can comfort us at times when human words don't help. We feel loved, too, by the way pets depend on us for a home, for food and drink. Dogs especially, look up to their owners, which makes them feel important and needed.


  A pet can be something different to each member of the family, another baby to the mother, a sister or brother to an only child, a grandchild to the elderly, but for all of us pets provide pleasure and companionship. It has even been suggested
that tiny pets should be sent as companions to astronauts on space ships, to help reduce the stress and loneliness of space flights.


  In this Plastic Age, when most of us live in large cities, pets are particularly important for children. A pet in the family keeps people in touch with the more natural, animal world. Seeing an animal give birth brings understanding of the naturalness of childbirth, and seeing a pet die helps a child to cope with sorrow. Learning to care for a pet helps a child to grow up into a loving adult who feels responsible towards those dependent on him. Rightly we teach children to be good to their pets. They should learn, too, that pets are good for us human beings.



II . Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.
               
                    1. An Unmatchable Cat
  I was sick that winter. It was inconvenient because my big room was due to be whitewashed. I was put in the little room at the end of the house. The house, nearly but not quite on the top of the hill, always seemed as if it might slide off into the corn fields below. This tiny room had a door, always open, and windows, always open, in spite of the windy cold of a July whose skies were an unending light clear blue. The sky, full of sunshine; the fields, sunlit.

But cold, very cold. The cat, a bluish grey Persian, arrived purring on my bed, and settled down to share my sickness, my food, my pillow, my sleep. When I woke in the mornings my face turned to half-frozen sheets; the outside of the fur blanket on the bed was cold; the smell of fresh whitewash from next door was cold and clean; the wind lifting and laying the dust outside the door was cold-but in the curve of my arm, a light purring warmth, the cat, my friend.


  At the back of the house a wooden tub was set into the earth, outside the bathroom, to catch the bathwater. No pipes carrying water to taps on that farm; water was fetched by ox-drawn cart when it was needed, from the well about two miles away. Through the months of the dry season the only water for the garden was the dirty bathwater. The cat fell into this tub when it was full of hot water.

She screamed, was pulled out into a cold wind, washed in permanganate, for the tub was filthy, and held leaves and dust as well as soapy water, was dried and put into my bed to warm. But she grew burning hot with fever. She had pneumonia. We gave her what medicine we had in the house, but that was before antibiotics, and so she died. For a week she lay in my arm purring, purring,in a rough, trembling little voice that became weaker, then was silent;

licked my hand, opened huge green eyes when I called her name and begged her to live; closed them, died, and was thrown into the deep old well-over a hundred feet deep it was-which had gone dry, because the underground water streams had changed their course one year.
  That was it. Never again. And for years I matched cats in friends' houses, cats in shops, cats on farms, cats in the street, cats on walls, cats in memory, with that gentle, blue-grey purring creature which for me was the cat, the Cat, never to be replaced.


  And besides, for some years my life did not include extras, unnecessaries, ornaments. Cats had no place in an existence spent always moving from place to place, room to room. A cat needs a place as much as it needs a person to make its own.
  And so it was not until twenty-five years later my life had room for a cat.



              2. Mother Pays More Attention to
                Pet Dog Than to Her Young Boy
  Dear Ann I.anders: I hope you will publish your answer to this letter because there is a family out there that needs help-fast!
  My friend (I'll call her Krista) married a nice guy in 1978. He's a sales rep on the read most of the time. Krista and Cal had a son five years ago. A nice family unit. About a month after Junior was born, Cal gave Krista a purebred beagle. She   went crazy about the dog and treated him better than the baby.


  When Junior was old enough to crawl, he began to pull the dog's tail and hit him when he thought nobody was looking.
  Two months ago, Junior began urinating in unexpected and inappropriate places. First, into his mother's shoe, then in her purse, next her jewel box. After he was punished for ruining the jewel box, he found some scissors and cut his mother's string of pearls.


  At first Krista attributed the urinating to Junior's laziness. I told her if it were laziness, he would just wet his pants and not seek special places.
  Last Christmas Day, it snowed heavily. I called Krista to chat. She sounded breathless. I asked her what she had been doing. "I've been playing outside in the snow with the dog," was her reply. I asked where Junior was. She replied, "Upstairs, watching television, I guess." What do you see here, Ann'? Sign me-A Worried Friend.



                  3. Dogs Have a Sense of Humour
  The question of whether dogs have a sense of humour is often fiercely argued. My own opinion is that some have and some haven't. Dachshunds have, but not'St Bernards or Great Danes. Apparently a dog has to be small to be fond of joke. You never find a Great Dane trying to be a comedian.


  But it is fatal to let any dog know that he is funny, for he immediately loses his head and starts overdoing it. As an` example of this I would point to Rudolph, a dachshund I once owned, whose slogan was "Anything for a I.augh". Dachshunds are always the worst offenders in this respect because of their peculiar shape. It is only natural that when a dog finds that his mere appearance makes the viewing public laugh, he should imagine that Nature intended him to be a comedian.


  I had a cottage at t.he time outside an English village,not far from a farm.where they kept ducks, and one day the farmer called on me to say his ducks were disappearing and suspicion had fallen on my Rudolph. Why? I asked, and he said because mine was the only dog in the neighbourhood except his own Towser, and Towser had been so carefully trained that he would not touch a duck if you brought it to him with orange sauce over it.


  I was very annoyed. I said he only had to gaze intp Rudolph's truthful brown eyes to see how baseless were his suspicions. Had he not, I asked, heard of foxes? How much more likely that a fox was the Bad Guy in the story. He was beginning to look doubtful and seemed about to make an apology, when Rudolph, who had been listening with the greatest interest and at a certain point had left the room, came trotting in with a duck in his mouth.
  Yes, dachshunds overplay their sense of humour, and I suppose other dogs have their faults, but they seem unimportant compared with their virtues.

　

                  4. Man and Animal
  In ancient Egypt, people believed that the cat was a god. When a cat died its owners showed their sadness by the strange habit of shaving their eyebrows off( More recently, in the last century in fact, the famous English writer Charles Dickens had a cat who was very fond of him. The cat didn't like to see Dickens working too hard. At night, when the cat wanted to say "Stop writingl" to his master, he often put out Dickens' candle with his paw!


  When animals become pets, the result, after a number of generations, is a smaller animal with a smaller brain. Rabbits, for example, which live as pets in a garden, are much less intelligent than their wild cousins. Of course, man doesn't always keep animals for pleasure. Many animals have to work for their masters.
  There was once a farm in Namibia, Africa, which had 80 goats. Instead of a goatherd, there was a female baboon. She took her goats to the hills every day and brought them back at night. She always knew exactly which goats were hers-which is more than many humans could do!



                  5. Do Animals Communicate?
  When we think of communication, we normally think of using words-talking face-to-face, writing messages and so on. But in fact we communicate far more in other ways. Our eyes and facial expressions usually tell the truth even when our words do not.
  Then there are gestures, often unconscious: raising the eyebrows, rubbing the nose, shrugging the shoulders, tapping the fingers, noddin and shaking the head.

　

　

There is also the even more subtle "bodylanguage" language"of posture: are you sitting-or standing-with arms or legs crossed? Is that person standing with hands in pockets, held in front of the body or hidden behind ? Even the way we dress and the colours we wear communicate things to others.
  So, do animals communicate? Not in words, although a parrot might be trained to repeat words and phrases which it doesn,t understand. But, as we have learnt, there is more to communication than words.


  Take dogs for example. They bare their teeth to warn, wag their tails to welcome and stand firm, with hair erect, to challenge. These signals are surely the cani ne equivalent of the human body-language of facial expression, gesture and posture.
  Colour can be an important means of communication for animals. Many birds and fish change colour, for example, to attract partners during the mating season. And mating itself is commonly preceded by a special dance in which both partners participate.



                  6. She's All for the Birdsl
  Twice a week, 58-year-old Mrs. Winifred Cass shops in the market for her main supplies, "topping up" daily by calling at local shops on her way home from work. But   she,s not buying family groceries!
  She returns home laden with heavy bags of mixed hen corn, pigeon corn, peanuts and large p ackets of bird food to feed her larger "family", the wild birds of I,eeds. And she's been doing this for 16 years.


  Daily, she feeds the birds which frequent her garden, the area around the shop where she works part-time, and several pa tches of waste-ground near her home. Then, twice every week, she ioads the carrying basket with bags of grain on to her tricycle and sets out to pedal the 20-min!ate ride up to rthe city centre.
  "In the morning, birds on my own roof at home hang almost upsidedown trying to see me through the windows." She laughed. "In severe conditions last winter, I had as many as four robins in my garden at the same time, though they're well known to be territorial birds.


  "It's amazing how many different kinds of birds I see in the city itself . In Park Square, as well as the usual starlings, pigeons and sparrows, there are blue tits, great tits, thrushes, doves, and sometimes even seagulls."
  It all started when Winifred was working at a cafe. She used to throw out stale bread and buns, and developed such an interest in the wild birds which accepted her offerings that she started taking food along to those in City Square as well.


  On one occasion, an old lady sitting in the square remarked that the birds could do with a more nutritious diet. So Winifred began buying corn for them.
  "In the end, I was carrying so much weight and tramping so far that my feet and arms really ached, ?she said. "I tried using wheeled shoppers, but with the weight of all that corn they were breaking within weeksl So I splashed out and bought this tricycle."


  Winifred has come across other wild-life on her travels, too. "I stop to feed families of hedgehogs which I found at the side of the railway near the park," she said.
  Despite her love of birds, she'd never want to keep one because she can't bear seeing them caged.
  Disaster struck recently when a car reversed into her parked trike, damaging its wheels. But two local business men, hearing of her activities, decided kindly to help by replacing the wheels for her.
  So now the "Bird Woman of Leeds" is back in action again, doing the job she loves best-caring for the host of feathered friends who have come to rely on her.



                7. Too Many Pets in France
  In France a campaign has been launched to warn against the danger of a threatening over-population . . . of petsl The country is the second most densely populated country in the world as far as domestic animals are concerned. At the moment it is inhabited by more than 8% million dogs and almost as many cats. Every second family in Paris owns one or more pets, which cause problems of hygiene that cannot be solved. In the year 2000 France will have more than 15 million dogs if no drastic measures are taken to stop this increase.


  The French organization for the protection of animals has appealed to the owners to have their dogs and cats of both sexes sterilized, because the animals themselves are in danger of becoming the first victims. Every summer, when the holiday-exodus begins, thousands of dogs and cats are abandoned, because their owners, unable to take them along, do not want to or cannot find homes where their pets will be looked after during their absence. Only one of three of these stray animals can be adopted, the other two must be killed.


  A great number of pet-owners, however, object to sterilization on grounds of "inadmissable cruelty".



                8. Pets Eat Better Than Peoplel
  "My mouth watered as I imagined the lovely soup I could make from some bones in the butcher's window. There was a lot of meat on them, too. So I went in and bought some. `Certainly, one pound of bones for your dog, madam,' said the butcher brightly. My next stop was at the fish shop, where I asked for some cheap fish. 'For your cat?, asked the assistant. As you may have guessed, neither bones nor fish were for pets-they were for me, a pensioner. But it made me think that many animals eat better meals than peoplel"



                9. A Birthday Present for a Dog!
  "We have a friend who works in a Dog Parlour where they sell coats for dogs. A customer, choosing a coat, tried to describe her dog and the saleswoman suggested she bring the dog in so that they could fit him. Horrified, the customer replied that she couldn't do that as it was for the dog's birthday present and she didn't want him to see it! "

Lesson 3

          Should the Brain Drain Be Stopped by Restrictions?
                   
                          Text
                     
                      Brain Drain

  It is said that Shanghai's musicians abroad could form a worldclass symphony orchestra.
  But the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra once failed to find a qualified conductor for a whole year!
  A similar situation exists in science, medicine and sports circles.
  Stopping the outflow of talent depends on creating a sound domestic environment rather than simply setting up barriers for those who wish to go abroad.

  A handful of people go abroad to seek a comfortable life. But most Chinese intellectuals emigrate because they cannot bring their talent into full play in their motherland.
  Many conductors trairied by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music have gone abroad either because they cannot find jobs in symphony orchestras due to the competition for places, or because they cannot develop themselves in orchestras where promotion comes only by way of seniority.


  We face a keen shortage of talent, but one batch of gifted people after another have gone abroad". The situation is grim.
  It is impossible to improve the conditions for all intellectuals by a wide margin. But it is possible for governments. at all levels to create a better environment for their development.
  The outflow of talent is a loss to our nation as well as a pressuse forcing us to optimize the environment for the taleated.




II. Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

                l. Give Students More I.eeway
  Ten years ago, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau issued four passports each day. Now the staff must work long hours to process more than 1, 000 a day.
  People's Daily reports that more than 70,000 Chinese students and scholars are now studying abroad with still more ready to go.


  While many people are worried about the brain drain problem, the article said that whatever the motives of students who leave, there is no doubt that they cherish a deep feeling towards the motherland.
  It has been suggested that people who fail to returnon time should be granted "temporary leave from their posts" to encourage them to return at any time.


  Among those who joined the recent rush abroad, more than half went to further their studies and keep up with the latest academic achievements. According to a survey conducted among some 7, 000 scientific researchers in Shanghai, 82 per cent believed that their experiences abroad were "fruitful". Half said they had made headwayin their work.


  Meanwhile, they said they continued to follow with great concern the development of their country's economic reforms. Ascholar with a doctorate from 1 Iew York University had written over 100, 000 words of suggestions to the Chinese central government, the article reported.
  Loneliness was found to be the worst enemy of thestudents living away from their families and homeland.


  The brain drain from developing to developed countries is an international
phenomenon. In China, backward management and unreasonable distribution systems, together with poor living and working conditions, have led to the departure of many intellectuals.


  "After my graduation from university, I have spent four years in my office reading a newspaper with a cup of tea every day I want to go abroad to start a new life, " said a 25-year-old technical worker who was waiting for a visa from the Japanese Consulate.
  Some students and scholars had stayed in foreign countries beyond their time limit for one reason or another. For this thoy had been labelled unpatriotic.
  But People's Daily called for more trust and understanding of those students.


  A scholar studying and working at an American university said he would return to China as soon as his daughter finished secondary school in the US.
  A young scholar at a Shanghai research institute said he could not manage to conduct research with a meagre State allocation of 2, 000 yuan a year. In America, he can get  $ 24, 000 a yeat' for use in research, so he decided to stay on after getting his degree.


  In such cases, most work units back in China dismiss those who fail to return on time. This hurts the feelings of many who are willing to return later, the article said.
  At the same time, those who do return face a job problem.
  China,s irrational employment and personnel system prevents some from fully using the skills and knowledge they have acquired abroad.


  Ai Xiaobai, with a PhD in Physics, wrote to il institutions of higher learning in China. Two of them refused him and the others did not even answer him. Just before deciding to go back to America, he was hired by a Chinese research institute which knew of him.

　

              2. Personal Progress and Job-hopping
  In many parts of the world, personal influence is almost essential in getting ahead. One needs a "godfather? a "sponsor". Here that is not true. Naturally all people use influence sometimes, but one rarely advances far on that basis alone in the United States. Here traits which lead to success are generally considered to be the willingness to work hard (at any kind of job), scholarship or skill, initiative, an agreeable and outgoing personality. In other words even in the realm of personal progress, this is a "do-it-yourself" society. By and large, success is neither
inherited nor bestowed. This means, therefore, that our employment practices are different from those in many other countries.


  In some nations it is considered disloyal to quit a job; deep reciprocal loyalties exist between employee and employer (recipient and "patron?in many cases); lifelong job security and family honor are frequently involved.
  This is not.true in the United States. "Job-hopping" is part of our constant mobility. We consider it a " right " to be able to better ourselves, to move upward, to jump from company to company if we can keep qualifying for more responsible (and therefore better) jobs.


  This interchangeability of personnel seems unreasonable to some members of foreign nations. Where are our roots? How can we be so cold and inhuman? "We act,?some say, as if we were dealing with machines, not humans. ?They do not understand that a great many Americans like to move about. New jobs present new challenges, new opportunities, new friends, new experiences-often a new part of the country.


  The employer may be quite content too. Perhaps he has had the best of that man's thinking; a new person may bring in fresh ideas, improved skills, or new abilities. Then, too, a newcomer will probably start at a lower salary for he will have no seniority. Hopping is so readily accepted here, in fact, that a good man may bounce back and forth among two or three corporations, being welcomed back to his original company more than once through his career, each time at a different level.



          3. Residents Go Overseas to Seek Their Fortunes
  Shanghai has become a favourite investment spot with foreigners eager
to get a financial foothold in China.
  And with the development of its export-oriented economy, the city looks set to become an international trade and financial centre on the west bank of the Pacific Ocean.


  But many Shanghai people are not content simply to sit and wait for the foreigners to come to them-they want to go abroad themselves to try their luck.
  The Shanghainese have a reputation for being able to find work the world over. Before the founding of New China in 1949, hundreds of thousands of them were trading throughout the world.


  In the 1950s and 1960s when the country was pursuing its closeddoor policy, hundreds of factories, research institutes and universities--involving more than 1 million people-were moved from Shanghai into the inland areas to support the nation's socialist construction. Now,people with Shanghai accents can be found all over the country.
  The current policy of developing the export-oriented economy in the coastal areas has stimulated the Shanghai people's desire to head off for foreign parts.
  And, according to the Shanghai-based Jiefang Daily, the best way for them to do this is to engage in business or provide labour and technical services to other countries.


  Shanghai has too many people chasing too few jobs, so this surplus labour force could solve the labour shortages which exist in some other parts of the world.
  Workers' monthly wages abroad can be 100 times what they are in China-although the cost of Iiving is likely to be much higher in some countrtes.
  Furthermore, while working overseas, the Chinese workers would get the chance to learn advanced technology and to become entrepreneurs and specialists, thus promoting trade and economic co-operation between China and other countries.
  Jiefang Daily suggests locai authorities should take the following measures to promote exports of labour:


  Set up labour service groups to undertake contractual projects abroad. Shanghai workers have taken part in many overseas projects in the past, such as construction of railways, factories and other buildings. With their high reputation, they would be a force to be reckoned with on the world labour market.


  Estahlish employer-employee introduction offices.   Drivers, repairmen, nurses, housemaids, hairdressers, cooks and workers involved in gardening and construction are in great demand in many countries and these offices could provide training and act as a bridge between employers and employees.


  Encourage peopie to look for jobs themselves. As many Shanghai residents have relatives overseas, they could easily get help in finding work abroad.
  Promote co-operation between the State and individuals. If local people are encouraged to work abroad, workers with special skills would flow out of the country, thus creating a brain drain. To solve the problem, consideration must be given to both State and private interests. When workers go abroad at their own expense, the enterprises they work for should give them favourable treatment when they return. While working overseas, the workers should help their enterprises open up to the world market.


  Shanghai residents have strong aspirations to expand their living space and they are good at trading. But first priority should be given to entrepreneurs who are brave enough to journey out into the world and build success.
  Before the founding of new China, a number of world-renowned figures such as shipping magnate Pao Yue Kang and the computer king Wang An were raised in Shanghai. It is expected that a group of new magnates will emerge when Shanghai entrepreneurs enter the world economy.


  Now that Shanghai is capable of building 100, 000-ton-class vessels and manufacturing sophisticated precision building machines, powerful generators, colour televisions and bicycles, there is no reason why the city could not create a group of world-class shipping kings, building machine kings and bicycle kings.
  With a solid industrial foundation and technical force, Shanghai could also set up factories and shops overseas to compete with foreign counterparts. Shanghai-made brands, very popular at home now, will surely capture a slice of the world market if sales promotion is emphasized.


  Shanghai produces quality cloth shoes of good workmanship. But its exports are  $ 1. 1 billion annually, only half of Taiwan's total, due to the neglect of sales promotion overseas.
  Shanghai boasts numerous specialists in the fields of science, technology,culture and education. These experts could earn a good deal of foreign exchange for the State if technical services were offered to countries that badly need skilled workers in high-tech industries.
  The city can also directly export technology and software and contract scientific research projects abroad, as it possesses advantages in the fields of laser, optical fibre, microelectronics and biological engineering technology.

Lesson 4

          Does Criticism Do More Harm Than Good to People?

                          Text

              A Yoang Woman Who Fears Compliments

  Marya, a brilliant graduate student in her early twenties who came for consultation, insisted that she could improve only with criticism. Her reasoning was that she knew the good qualities but that she did not know the bad ones. To have more knowledge of her negative qualities, she believed,would add to her self-understanding and thus enable her to see herself more completely. Marya, in effect, refused to acknowledge and to understand her strengths. She had assembled detailed lists of her negative qualities which she used daily to support an extremely negative view of herself . But they were either exaggerated or unreal.

  Despite her attractiveness to others, she convinced herself that she was ugly. When her family bought her new and well-designed articles of clothing (she seldom. bought any herself ), she left them hanging in the closet for weeks before wearing them once. When someone complimented her on what she wore and asked whether it was new, she could honestly answer no. She did not "deserve" to wear new clothes. She could not bear the pain of hearing compliments, of seeing herself as intelIigent, pretty, or worthwhile.


  As a child, Marya had received little or no criticism from her parents. She was prized by them. Their major disappointment in her apparently was that she often rejected their overtures of kindness and appreciation, not in anger but in embarrassment, as though she were undeserving. This seemingly mild-mannered young woman, exceptionally courteous and considerate to others, held onto her own negative selfjudgment with tenacity. Finally, friends and interested faculty members quit acceding to her persuasive requests for criticism that they could not honestly give. Instead, they gently but firmly confronted her with her own blindness to what she truly was like.


II . Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

                  l. Unfair Criticism
  Stuart is a typical sixteen-year-old boy who experienced and suffered from the criticism of an alcoholic parent. It seemed to 5tuart the only thing his father ever had to say to him was, "You haven't got a brain in your head. ?Stuart was a sophomore in high school. It was true he was a poor student, or what his dean called an "underachiever".

Even though Stuart knew he was an underachiever, he would have liked to hear his father say, just once, something else when he brought home his report card other than his usual, "You haven't got a brain in your head."
Stuart was determined to prove to his father he did have a brain in his head. Stuart studied very hard. Some nights it was difficult for him to concentrate on his homework because he could hear his parents bickering in the next room.


  "You forgot to pay the mortgage again. The bank is fed up."
  "How many times can a person smash up a car? I , m sucprised they haven't taken your license away! "
  "If you wouldn't drink so much . . . "
  Stuart didn't like the bickering, and wondered if his parents might separate. He wondered, too, because his father was so forgetful about paying the bills, if they might lose their home.
  He kept telling himself that if he studied hard, maybe, by some miracle, things would get better at home.


  Stuart's determination to concentrate on his school work, in spite of the bickering and worries at home, paid off. His next report card showed a marked improvement. There was even a   personal note of praise from his dean written on the report card.
  Proudly Stuart put the report card on his father's desk. Stuart felt happier than he had felt in a long time. He knew that his father could only be pleased with such a report, but more important, maybe now his father would realize that he was intelligent and would start paying some attention to him.

Stuart could remember when his father used to go to ballgames and movies with him. Who knew? Maybe things would go back to the way they used to be. Stuart would offer to get a part-time job to help pay off some of the bills. He thought that might lessen some of the arguing at home and keep the family from breaking up. He would lat his father know that he was old enough to understand things weren't always easy at the office.


  When Stuart's father came home and saw the report, he said without any hesitation, "Well, well, who did the work for you? I know you don't have the brains to do it! "
  Stuart was stunned. All that work for nothing! He wouldn't be surprised if his father not only thought he was stupid but hated him, too.
  Stuart would not have been as hurt if he had only known his father was tied up in his own miserable feelings. This kept him from recognizing what Stuart had accomplished in school.



                  2. Uses of Criticism
  While some of us have a tendency to disbelieve or to minimize the good things people say about us, others among us have a tendency to hold a protective web around ourselves in defense against criticism. One workshop participant said, "I confuse the issue by getting logical in the face of threatening reactions. Sometimes I act helpless so others will stop the criticism. ?Early in the workshop experience he had received more negative than positive reactions. While he was fearful of criticism, he found that he had courted it, hoping that he could learn how to handle it and overcome his fear.


  We may court negative reactions for other reasons. A therapy group member regarded criticism as more useful than compliments, and criticism is what he often got-not because he asked for it directly, but because of his detached manner, as though he were sitting in judgment of others. Moreover, his tendency to qualify and hedge his opinions and feelings until they had no meaning often brought down the ire of others upon him. He gave the impression of accepting their displeasure stoically, as though it strengthened him. He never openly criticized other members, however.


  Still another member, who claimed that"criticism is the stuff that we grow on? gave others criticism galore so they could improve and, in his words, "not appear in a negative light in the future." This member came across as using his ostensible concern for the growth of others as an excuse to criticize and attack them.



        3. Is It Right to Withhold One's Reactions to Others?
  It is not uncommon for us to withhold our reactions to others. We may hold back compliments for fear of embarrassment to them and to ourselves. We may hold back criticism for fear of being disliked or considered unfair, or for fear of hurting another person. Reactions given inconsiderately may indeed hurt others. On the other hand, some of us are inclined to withhold our reactions from others while at the same time we honestly prefer that they not hold back theirs from us.

We may have two different rules. The first one may be: If we ask others for candid reactions to our behavior, to something we have done or plan to do, we want them to tell us straight, including the negative with the positive. The second rule may be: If someone else asks us for similar reactions, we are inclined to hold back or gloss over the negative and embroider the positive.



        4. Criticism Is a Kind of Demand on Those Criticized
  As children, many of us got a great deal of criticism and, as a result, learned a variety of patterns for coping with it. Marya had apparently received little criticism, but, knowing that she was not perfect and deserved what other children got, developed her own patterns of selfjudgment and censure. Being judged, whether we are underestimated or overestimated, usually implies a demand, subtle or direct, that we change. If others do not demand change, we may feel the need to demand it of ourselves.


  Reactions that are relatively free from attempts to change or discredit us, given by someone who cares for us, and with the intention of letting us know what impressions we are making, may be easier to take. If, however, our usual reaction is to defend ourselves, even mild criticism or impressions given gently without demands that we change may play havoc with our defensive structure and beccnne difficult to handle.



                  5. How to Handle Criticism
  The surgeon reached over and jerked the syringe out of the nurse,s hand. "Jane, that's the sloppiest injection I've ever seen!" he snapped. Quickly, his fingers found the vein she had been searching for. Cheeks burning, Jane turned away. ~Ten years later, Jane's voice still trembles when she relates the experience.
  Some of our male co-workers have it easier. They grew up encouraged
to play team sports, and they had to handle a coach's yells when they droppped the ball. Now they can see that a goof on the job is like dropping the ball in football; the fumble is embarrassing, but you take it in stride and go on.


  But for most women, the path to success was different. As girls, we grew up wanting to be popular; we were praised for what we were, not for what we did. So our reaction to criticism is often, "Someone doesn't like me. I failed to please. I'm a failure."
  "I get defensive," says Rhonda, a teacher, "When someone criticizes me, suddenly I'm a little girl again, being scolded, and I want to make excuses. I want to explain that it's not my fault-it's someone else's, or I want to hide and cry."



                  6. Take a Tactful Approach
  How about giving criticism? The old "I-want-to-be-liked" syndrome can make it as hard to give criticism as to take it. Karen thinks she's found the answer.
  "Two weeks after I was promoted to first-line supervisor," she remembers, "I had to tell a friend that she was in trouble for not turning in her weekly reports on time. My boss suggested that I tell Judy I didn't want to fix the blame-I just wanted to fix the problem. That was wonderful advice. It allowed me to state the problem objectively to Judy and she olfered the solution."


  Criticism in the workplace, whether you're giving it or getting it, is always more effective when you focus on the task rather than on the person. Fixing the problem, not thc?blame, means that nobody has to feel chewed out or chewed up. We can still feel whole and learn something in the process.

Lesson 5

        Is It Good for Students to Have Part-time Jobs?

                          Text

                    School Part-timers

  More and more high school students in Beijing are turning their minds to ways of making money.
  They are capitalizing on opportunities such as one group of students who went to the front gate of the Children's Centre in the East District of Beijing when a film studio was there conducting auditions.
  The group sold the young hopefuls application forms at five fen a piece after getting the forms from the centre for free.

  Young entrepreneurs are also capitalizing on high demand eommodities not always available away from the big shopping centres. Birthday or greeting cards are an example. One department store estimated that 80 per cent of its sales of cards are to students for resale.
  Xiao Li, a junior high school student at Fengtai District in the southwest region of the capital, spent 40 yuan buying cards from downtown shops just before the last Spring Festival.


  She sold them at her school and schools nearby at prices 15 to 20 per cent higher than what she had paid. In a month, she earned 100 yuan, representing a 250 per cent return on her initial investment.
  A senior high school student who had been selling cards has now become an amateur wholesale dealer. His wholesale price is 8 per cent higher than his purchasing price and 10 per cent lower than the retail price. Within two months, he had earned several hundred yuan in profits.


  Many students have merged their activities to avoid price wars. For example, in an area with few State-owned shops and far from the city centre, student union heads from the schools there have reached an agreement on card prices. The agreement says prices may be higher than at the downtown shops but lower than at the peddlers' stalls.
  Card-selling is just a beginning. Some students turn their eyes to other more profitable ventures.


  Take one senior high school sophomore who has developed a flourishing business selling photos of famous people. He even has his own name card that reads: The High School Student Corporation Ltd of Exploitation of New Technology.
  The student carries a portfolio of the photos around with him in. an atbum to show his young customers. He offers a wide variety of photos, from American movie star Sylvester Stallone in Rambo pose to Taiwan's famous singer Qi Qin.


  "These all depend on my high quality camera, " he boasts and explains how he clipped the pictures from magazines, photographed them and then developed the prints into various sizes. He has sold hundreds.
  Another student is now an amateur salesman for a company and earns a three per cent commission on each sale.
  When he had earned 300 yuan through his own efforts, he said, "I feel that I have really become an adult."


  Most of the money the students earn is spent on theraselves. They can buy high-priced items like a pair of running shoes which can cost as much as 100 yuan-a month' s salary for an average worker. Few parents can afford such luxuries.
  Some students find work to help them realize their dreams of a career.
  Qian Qian wants to become an actress. In her spare time she attends a class outside school that costs 80 yuan a month in tuition, an amount which her parents cannot afford to pay. So she found a job as a waitress in a coffee house to earn her tuition fee.


  Some students get into business for other reasons besides the money.
  Zou Yue, a female student, from a fairly wealthy family, took a job because, she said, "Business can cultivate a sense of competition, which is very important for us in the future.
  A student who once sold cards said young people are encouraged to be independent.
  "But how?" he asked. "You can never be independent unless you can support yourself financially.


  He felt after-school work enhanced a young person's social development, too.
  Practical experience in the workforce has been stipulated by the State Commission of Education as a compulsory programme. This is now closely related with economic benefits fits among high school students.
  One student, sent by her school to work as a shop assistant at a temple fair, earned five yuan a day for a.seven-hour shift behind the counter.


  "I had a sore throat after working for a few days, but I had to hold on, " she said.
  "I wanted to earn the-money and also prove that I was an able girl. "
These temporary job stints give high school students an insight into what work and incomes are all about.
  A job at a State-owned cinema may only earn a worker 40 or 50 yuan a month. But a job with a self-employed trader, may earn the assistant 8 or 10 yuan a day. A writer may get about 20 yuan for an article in a newspaper or a magazine, but a clothes keeper in a swimming pool may earn at least 200 yuan a month.



II. Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

                1. Jobs Attracting Drop-outs

  At quitting time, a throng of very young workers walked tiredly out of the gate of the Lihua Printworks, a township enterprise in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Guangdong Province. Fifty per cent were only 13 years old on the average, while the oldest were no more than 17.


  The teen-agers had to work 14 or 15 hours a day. They started at 7 a. m. every day and had to work until noon. After a one-hour lunch break they worked to 6 p.m. and then had another one-hour rest. Then they went to supper and went back to work again for three or four hours.
  Although life was very hard, none of them left. They earned 100 yuan a month. "I have much more money than my father, who is a middle school teacher, ?a girl said proudly.


  In Linxia, the capital of Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province, dozens of mosques were erected, attracting both tourists and pedlars. At the stands that sold beef, vegetables, fruits and books, children were doing business. The oldest were no more than 16 and the youngest about six. One child weighed a kilogram of apples on his balance scale. When he lifted it, the pan of the balance touched his feet. He staggered among the bustling crowds of tourists crying out for business.


  Since the Spring Festival of 1988, more than 1, 000 primary and middle school students at Yulin prefecture in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have left home to work in factories in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Dongwan County in Guangdong Province.


  Twelve students from the Xingchang Middle School in I.anzhou, Gansu Province, quit school. They left a letter that said:"Dear teacher: We are grown up. Since you taught us to be independent and selfsupporting, we are beginning now." These children, whose parents are all well educated, were good   students in their class.


  Not far away from Xi' an, an ancient capital in Shaanxi Province, there was a cave dwelling in which more than 30 youths were living. They were all boys between the ages of 11 and 18. "we came out to find a new life," said one boy. But life was not as beautiful as they had dreamed. They had no job and no money. Eventually, they gathered there.
  In Guangzhou 77 per cent of the juvenile delinquents under 18 were found to be truants.


  China News Service reported that it,s very difficult for well-known professors in the universities in Guangzhou to enroll their students.When a medical college planned to enroll 33 students, only 26 people applied .
  In March, 1988, a post-graduate majoring in mechanical engineering in Shanghai Jiaotong University, who came from a remote rural area, asked for permission to quit school. He said that for the sake of changing his backward hometown, he decided to return and do something for it. But he did not go back home; he became a businessman in Shanghai.


  "After three years of study, we will finally get our master's degree and 86.50 yuan as a monthly salary. That can not buy two sweaters. Knowledge is too cheap, "said a graduate student who had quit school.
  In 1988, when the State Commission of Education decided to try a new method of job assignment in some universities, letting the graduates choose their own jobs, and vice-versa, it unexpectedly disrupted the education process itself. Every college student and graduate was busy looking for jobs. They had no time to study.


  "We have no iron rice bowls. The earlier we find a job the better," said a student. A wave of quitting school and going into business has swept the campuses of many universities and colleges in China.
  After the chaotic 10-year-long "cultural revolution'? China had a shortage of 60 million engineers. Now it seems there is a second crisis. Only 11. 8 out of every 10, 000 people are receiving a higher education, 429. 1 studying in high school and 1, 324. 7 in primary school. More and more illiterates are living in the society.

　

          2. Those Who Do Not Want to Go to College

  According to the August lOth issue of The Youth , out of 30, 000 school graduates in Shanghai who could take the college entrance examination this year only 23,000 sat for it. What happened to all the others? Allowing for 2, 000 who were exempted from the examination and went straight to college for their brilliance or for whatever reasons, we still have 5, 000 unaccounted for. In other words, more than 16% of school graduates who got good marks and were qualified to take the entrance examination gave up the chance of going to college. This is certainly a new phenomenon ever since 1977 when competitive entrance examination was restored, but the question is, "Is this going to be a growing tendency?"


  To answer this question we have to look into the reasons why the students gave up the examination. Did they give up out of their own free will or were they under some sort of coercion? A simpie clear-cut answer, I am afraid, is impossible to find. Different groups of students give up the examinations for different reasons.


  Those from the key schools (and they are mestly brilliant students), give up for the simple reason that they want to go abroad. Once they become college students, they are bound by certain regulatiens which make it very difficult,if not impossible, for them to leave the country. Then there are those who think there is not much point in going to college anyway because you can hardly ever get an ideal job after you graduate. The pay is low and more often than not the job is outside your field so you get the frustrated feeling of having wasted four precious years of your life in college. Besides, there is always the danger of your being assigned to a post in another part of the country, so why not be practical and look for a well-paid job straight after middle school?


  Graduates from ordinary middle schools gave up their chances because they lacked self-confidence. "Why try when I stand very little chance?" Not only the poorer students themselves thought this wxy, some teachers even did their best to dissuade them from taking the entrance examination. If they could not increase the number of successful candidates from their school, they could at least decrease the number of unsuccessful candidates by not allowing the poorer students to sit for it. In other words if they could not increase the absolute number they would raise the ratio of successful candidates.


  What do teachers generally think of this new phenomenon? Some are frankly worried. "Such students lack drive and want to take things easy. This is a reflection of looking down on knowledge, and should be
taken seriously." Other teachers think there is'nothing to be alarmed about. "Don't we often tell the students that going to college is not the only road they can take? Society is made up of different strata of useful people. Now that the students have made their own choice in finding their place in society, why make such a fuss about it?"

Lesson 6

                  Is Euthanasia Humane?

                          Text

      A Doctor of Good Repntation Hastened His Patient's Death

  The most famous mercy killing case in America's history involves Dr. Herman N. Sanders, a country doctor from New Hampshire. In the early 1950s Dr. Sanders had been treating a sixty-year-old woman in Hillsboro County Hospital who was dying of cancer. The woman had wasted away from 140 pounds to 80 pounds. There was no chance for recovery and she suffered extreme pain. Often she screamed out in anguish from her bed. She begged everyone who'came near her to help her die.

  Toward the end there was little Dr. Sanders could do medically to ease his patient's suffering. He knew that her last,days would be torturously painful. So he decided to put an end to her misery.
  Dr. Sanders gave his patient four lethal injections of air, which caused her to die painlessly in under ten minutes. He recorded his action on the hospital's record and said no more of the matter.


  However, hospital administrators came across Dr. Sanders' entry when reviewing the records at a staff meeting and reported it to the state. A warrant for the doctor's arrest was issued and served by the sheriff. The warrant charged that Dr. Sanders "feloniously and willfully and of his own malice and aforethought did inject...air into the veins of Abbie Borroto and with said injection, feloniously and willfully and of his said malice aforethought killed and murdered his patient". The doctor pleaded not guilty and was released on  $ 25, 000 bail .


  Dr. Sanders had been a known and respected member of his community for many years. He was born in New Hampshire, where his father had been an official of the Public Service Corporation of New Haxripshire. In college, Dr. Sanders had been captain of the Dartmouth ski team as well as a member of the college symphony orchestra. He had recently returned from Europe where he had continued his study of medicine. Until the time of the mercy killing, his reputation was excellent. Dr. Sanders had been considered a trusted and honored physician.


  In response to the charges hurled against him, Dr.. Sanders claimed that he had done no wrong. The woman had been within hours of her death. Moved by pity, he had merely hastened an extremely brutal end.
  The Sunday after his arrest; Dr. Sanders and his family attended services at their church as usual. His minister and other clergymembers across the state openly expressed their support.


  One minister in a nearby town preached a stirring sermon in Dr. Sanders' defense. He said that if the doctor was guilty, he was guilty too. For he had often prayed that some suffering parishioner might be "eased into the experience of death" . I.ater that day 605 of the 650 registered voters in his town presented Dr. Sanders with a written testimonial to his integrity and goodwill. They told him to use it wherever it might help him to prove his innocence.


  However, their efforts did little good. The attorney-general
of New Hampshire firmly stated that "the case will be presented forcefully and in complete detail, regardless of the personalities involved, to the end that justice may be met". In response, hundreds of Dr. Sanders' fellow townspeople offered
to testify on his behalf. They signed petitions urging the courts to dismiss the case. Nevertheless, a grand jury indicted him for first-degree murder. "All I can say," stated Sanders, "is that I am not guilty of any legal or moral wrong and ultimately my position will be vindicated.


  Not long afterward, Dr. Sanders was acquitted. But even after he was declared innocent, some were intent on punishing the doctor. His license to practise medicine was suspended. And while some clergymembers had supported Dr. Sanders, others loudly condemned him from their pulpits. Among them was the Reverend Billy Graham, who stated in Boston that "Dr. Sanders should be punished as an example" and that "anyone who voluntarily, knowingly or premeditatedly takes the life of another, even one minute prior to death, is a killer.


  While Dr. Sanders was not permitted to practise medicine, he supported himself and his family by working as a farm hand. Finally the Medical Board of the State of New Hampshire reinstated his license. And Dr. Sanders has continued as a doctor in his hometown ever since.




II . Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

              l. Euthanasia: Life or Death Matter

  Euthanasia, or mercy killing, is quietly being practised in some urban areas of China despite a lack of legal protection for the death option.
  Helping to hasten the death of terminally ill patients is humane, said Cai Wenmei, an associate professor at the Institute of Population at Beijing
University.


  Death should not be viewed.as a failure, but as a normal and natural stage of life, according to Cai. People have the right to die.
  Death, Cai said, is as natural as birth and, like birth, is sometimes a hard process requiring assistance. It is unnecessary to artificially maintain
life beyond the point when people can never regain consciousness.
  Statistics indicate that medical treatment for a comatose patient costs 26, 000 yuan a year, a heavy burden for the hospital and the patient,s family.


  "Extending an incurably ill patient's life means the same as aggravating
his pain," Cai said.
  Birth and death are both natural events, but the emotional impact and the personal meanings of these events are vastly different. Birth is usually anticipated with excitement and joy, while the reality of death is often avoided as best one can.
Views on death are changing in China, where a traditional saying is that debt is better than death, and doctors and nurses do everything they can to save dying patients, including the use of medication and life-support systems.


  A survey of 200 old people shows that 92 per cent do not fear death. They do not want a long waiting period. They want to die with dignity and peace, instead of agony and degradation. Euthanasia is a progressive way to die, said a report in Beijing Daily.
  Mercy killing can hasten the death of hopelessly ill individuals by withholding life-sustaining procedures so that death will occur naturally and quickly.


  According to Cai, euthanasia can end the pain of terminally ill patients and can also be a great relief to their family members, both mentally and physically.
However, the general adoption of the practice of euthanasia would require changes in ethics and this should happen only after the issue is carefully considered by society.


  Cai suggests working out laws on euthanasia to protect the practice. Mercy killing, generally induced by an injection of sedatives, should be performed only at the patient's request, with the consent of his relatives and the signature of a lawyer.
  Hospitals and family members should respect the dying person's iights in regard to choices about lifestyle, including death.


  However, it would not be right for medical personnel or family members to casually assume that a patient is beyond hope until a thorough
examination is made of his physical condition and of the effect of further medical treatment.
  Hospitals avoid legal problems by requiring the patient' s family members to request the induced death in writing and by having joint approval of all medical personnei attending the case, including nurses and anesthesiologists.
  Deng Yingchao, widow of former Premier Zhou Enlai, said that she is very much in favour of mercy killing as a practical concept.


  Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go for euthanasia to be widely accepted because many people still consider it inhumane to perform mercy killing for a patient, no matter how painlessly.
  According to the report in Beijing Daily, time is not yet ripe for drawing up laws for euthanasia because the concept will require complicated changes. Instead, the report advocates,education on death.

　

                  2. Mercy or Murder?

  On June 20, 1973, 23 year old Lester M . Zygnamiak walked into his older brother George,s hospital room at Jersey Shore Medical Centre in Neptune, New Jersey, and shot his brother dead.
  George had been paralyzed from the neck down in an automobile accident several days earlier. The doctor had told his family that the 26 old boy would probably be paralyzed for life and would never walk again.


  The Zygnamiaks were an extremely close family. Lester idolized his older brother and would have done anything for him, but now he felt torn. After three intensely emotional days, he decided to obey his brother's wishes. When Lester visited his brother's hospital room, he said, "Iam here today to end your pain. Is that all right with you?" His brother nodded and said yes. Then a shot rang out. Hospital staff rushed to the room, and Lester was soon hauled off to jail.


  Lester stood trial for his brother' s murder, but was acquitted on November 5, 1973, on the grounds of temporary insanity. The court had determined that he was no longer insane, and Lester was released.

        3. Mrs. Ross Killed Her Daughier Because She Loved Her

  Mercy killing, or euthanasia (from the Greek, eu-meaning good and thanos-meaning death: thus, "a good death") is against the law. It isb considered a criminal offense. Yet. individuals brought to trial for actual mercy killings are rarely convicted. I.ike I.ester Zygnamiak, they are usually released.


  Such was the case with Anna Marie Ross. At twenty-five Mrs. Ross gave birth to her first child, a baby girl she and her husband named paula. The Rosses had wanted a child for several years, but during her pregnancy Mrs. Ross had unknowingly taken a damaging drug called Thalidomide, which caused Paula to be born severely disfigured. The infant had no arms or legs and her face was badly deformed. Although Paula was of normal intelligence, she was totally deaf and had very poor vision.


  Paula was expected to live a normal life span. But to survive, she would have to undergo numerous operations. It was expected that she would spend much of her life in hospitals. Anna Ross often stated that she firmly believed her child's normal intelligence would only make her more cruelly aware of her fate. She felt certain the Paula's life would be filled with anguish.


  So one night she put Paula to bed and gave her a bottle containing a strong sedative. The baby died painlessly during the night.
  Anna Ross readily admitted to the killing. She said. "I killed little Paula because I loved her. I brought her into the world, and she was unable to end her constant pain and misery. I felt I had to send her to God. "
  A survey of more than 10,000 people taken by a local newspaper indicated that over 98 percent agreed with Anna Ross's action. Whcn she stood trial, a jury found Mrs. Ross not guilty in under three hours.



                  4. Innocent or Guilty?

  The fact that the majority of persons brought to trial for mercy killing are usually found innocent suggests that the law against it exists only on the books or in theory. But this isn't quite true. Case records indicate that the wheels of justice do not always grind evenly.


  While Lester M. Zygnamiak was acquitted, Harold Mohar oi Pennsylvania, involved in a similar case, was not. Mohar was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing his blind,cancer-stricken brother who had pleaded with him to do so. He was sentenced to from three to six years in prison and fined  $ 500.


  As a result of such uncertain consequences, many healthy people have become concerned over their right to die. If stricken with a severe mental or physical disability , they want to be assured that their lives will not be prolonged artificially by medical technology.



            5. Legal System Should Be Established
                  to Deal with Euthanasia

  Many countries have legalized mercy killing. In Uruguay the law states that, "The judges are authorized to forgo punishmen,t of a person whose life has been honorable where he commits a homicide motivated by compassion induced by repeated requests by the victim." Switzerland, Norway, and Germany have adopted similar approaches.


  American law appears in need of revision. However, some feel that legalized euthanasia would invite abuse. Any form of murder might be conveniently dubbed" mercy killing " by unscrupulous persons. In response, some euthanasia proponents have suggested that our legal system establish an evaluation body to judge which requests for a mercy killing are valid before the act is committed.



                6.Is There a Way to Compromise?

  Medical science is doing all it can to extend human life and is succeeding brilliantly. Living conditions are so much better, so many diseases can either be prevented or cured that life expectation has increased enormously. No one would deny that this is a good thing-provided one enjoys perfect health. But is it a good thing to extend human suffering, to prolong life, not in order to give joy and happiness, but to give pain and sorrow?

Take an extreme example. Take the case of a man who is so senile he has lost all his faculties. He is in hospital in an unconscious state with little chance of coming round, but he is kept alive by artificial means for an indefinite period. Everyone, his friends, relatives and even the doctors agree that death will bring release. Indeed, the patient himself would agree-if he were in a position to give choice to his feelings. Yet everything is done to perpetuate what has become a meaningless existence.


  The question of euthanasia raises serious moral issues, since it implies that active measures will be taken to terminate human life. And this is an exceedingly dangerous principle to allow. But might it not be possible to compromise? With regard to senility, it might be preferable to let nature take its course when death will relieve suffering. After all, this would be doing no more than was done in the past, before medical science made it possible to interfere with the course of nature.


  There are people in Afghanistan and Russia who are reputed to live to a ripe old age. These exceptiona'Ily robust individuals.are just getting into their stride at 70. Cases have been reported of men over 120 getting married and having children. Some of these people are said to be over 150 years old. Under such exceptional conditions, who wouldn't want to go on living dorever? But in our societies, to be ?0 usually means that you are old; to be 90 often means'that you are decrepit. The instinct for selfpreservation is the strongest we possess. We cling dearly to life while we have it and enjoy it. But there always comes a time when we'd be better off dead.

Lesson 7

            Do Examinations Do More Harm Than Good?

                          Text

                    On Eggs and Exams

  I've been acting like an egg striking a rock. What is this egg? It's the campaign against the old-fashioned way of teaching Intensive Reading . And what' s the rock?. It' s the old-fashioned way of setting exams. So long as the old type of I.R. examination remains in force, the campaign against the old method of teaching I.R. can't win. It's like an egg striking a rock.

  Many people agree: Yes, this old-fashioned I.R. (OFIR) is certainly intensive; it calls for most intensive work by the students. But it doesn't teach them how to read. The more intensively the students study, the fewer books they read.
  And OFIR doesn't teach them language well either. Learning a language means learning to use it. OFIR doesn't do that. It teaches mainly about the language.


  Well, if so many teachers and students agree that OFIR doesn't teach people how to read, why aren't they willing to give it up? Because of that rock - the rock of the old examination system. If that rock is not smashed, the egg is smashed. The campaign against OFIR can't be won.


  Many I. R. exams, until now, have actually includec reading material studied during the term. Does that examim how well the students have learnt to read? No. It examine how well they have learnt by heart the reading texts and the explanations the teacher has given them. A student might ge high marks on such .a test without having learnt to read much better than before she took the course. A true test would consist
of unseen passages. That would show how well a studew could read and how much she had learnt.


  Is that so important? Yes. A college student should know how to read and should learn to read much and fast. She should, on graduation, have read hundreds and hundreds of pages, dozens and dozens of books. .
  How else can our students inherit the knowledge that mankind has gained through the ages? For that is what China must do in order to modernize.


  Of course, reading in itself is not enough. We must think - think about what we read and analyze its content, idea: and ap.proach. "Cultivate the habit of analysis." That is the aim of education. But we must have something solid to analyze. We must have some knowledge of the world, of nature, of society, past and present, Chinese and foreign. So we must read much. Therefore we must learn to read fast.


  Naturally, we do need to know something about the language. We do need to know some grammar. But grammar is only a means to an end, not an end in itself. For grammar, after all, is theory. And "what is theory for and where does it come from ? It comes from practice and serves practice." The same applies to grammar. So we need to do some intensive reading for the sake of extensive reading, for the sake of reading whole articles, whole books. A little theory goes a long way. The final test is practice.


  True, reading is far from the only source of knowledge. Reading without observing life and taking part in life, without experimenting, will produce bookworms, not modernizers.
  This does not show that all kinds of I. R. are absolutely useless and should be scrappeds. Some I . R . should be kept but it should be kept within limit. It should not be "the super-power course", riding roughshod over the language curriculum
and taking over most of the timetable. And what I . R . we keep and teach should not be so long and so hard that the teacher is forced to use the duck-stuffing, lecturing method. And it should not just focus on "words, words, words ". It should focus on meaning, on ideas, on understanding, on communication - on forests as well as on
trees.


  But as long as students are forced to get good marks in order to get good jobs; and as long as teachers want their students to get good marks so that they themselves can gain fame as good teachers, then everything depends on examinations. It depends on what sort of exams w e teachers set and the educational
authorities demand. Until we reform our exams we can hardly reform our teaching methods.
  So let's launch a new campaign, to discuss and reform the exam system; and at the same time continue the campaign against OFIR, the super-power. We need to fight on two fronts at once. Otherwise we'll be eggs striking rocks.



II. Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

            l. Different Views about Examinations  

John:   Examinations do more harm than good!
Michae:   I agree. We spend so much time revising for examinations that we
  haven't enough time for new work!
Joan:   I don't agree. Without exams, no one would do any revision. We would soon
  forget everything.
Linda:   That's right. The only time I do any work is when there's going to be an
  exam! That's true of everyone, isn't it?
John:   No, I don't think so. Many people work steadily all the time, and they
  remember what they learn. That's better than doing no work for weeks
  and then working all night before the examination. If there were
  no exams, more people would work like that, don't you agree?
Joan:   No, I don't think so. I think many people wouldn't do any work at all.
  I know I wouldn't.
Linda:   Of course not. Besides, without exams, how could an employer
  decide whether to give us jobs?
John:   The teachers could write reports about us. Examinations can be
  unreliable, don't you think so? Our teachers know as well, don't they?
Linda:   Yes, they do. That's why I would rather have an examination!

       

        2. The General Certificate of Education at O Level

  When people discuss education they insist that preparation for examiriations
is not the main purpose. They are right in theory, but in practice, we all realize how importarit examinations are. What do you know about the examinations taken at English secondary schools? Here are a few facts about some of them. .
  Pupils who remain at school until they are sixteen normally take what is called the Geneial Certificate of Education at Ordinary level. The examination is a subject examination. This means you can take a number of subjects. Some pupils take as many as ten. The more subjects the better chance a pupil has of getting a job on leaving school.



          3. Homework Row Led to the Death of a Girl

  A nine-year old girl was beaten to death by her mother for failing to finish the day's homework in time.
  Liu Lin- was a third-year pupil in a primary school in a Tibetan autonomous
prefecture in Northwest Qinghai Province: She was one of the best students in her school, according to yesterday's Workers' Daily.
  But on July 10, she did not do her arithmetic homework when Sun Fengxia, her mother, got home from work at 16:00 p.m.


  Sun severely beat her daughter with a rolling pin, the newspaper said.
  By 19:30 p.m. that evening, she found that her daughter had done only part of the homework, and she became even more angry.
Sun slapped her daughter in the face and kicked her, according to the paper.
  Lin became unconscious and later died despite efforts of doctors to save her.
  Such cases are not rare in China.


  In December last year in the province, Wu Yuxia beat her nine-year old son Xia Fei to death . She later committed suicide in a prison.
  In Dalian of Northeast Liaoning Province, Li Liansheng beat his 14- year old son Li Guobin to death in March last year because the boy was playing truant.
  In Nanjing, capital of coastal Jiangsu Province, 19-year old Wang Lin killed his parents at home because they forced him to try to get good marks in examinations.



              4. Examinations Are Primitive Methods
                of Testing Knowledge and Ability

  We might marvel at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a Person's knowledge and ability remain as primitive as they ever were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to devise anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. For all the pious claim that examinations test what you know, it is cotnmon knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person's true ability and aptitude.



                5. Examinations Are Anxiety-makers

  As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the mark of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn't matter that you weren't feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don't count: the exam goes on. No one can give of his best when he is in mortal terror,or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of vicious competition where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of "drop-outs": young people who are written off as utter failures before they have even embarked on a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?

　

              6. The Examination System Never Trains
                  You to Think for Yourself

  A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the student is encouraged to memorise. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive the teacher of all freedom. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam technipues which they despise. The most successful, candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under duress.



            7. Exam Is a Subjective Assessment by Some
                      Anonymous Examiner

  The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry: they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark stacks of hastily scrawled scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight.

After a judge,s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner's. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person's true abilities. Is it cynical to suggest that examinations are merely a profitable business for the institutions that run them? This is what it boils down to in the last analysis. The best comment on the system is this illiterate message recently scrawled on a wall: "I were a teenage drop-out and now I are a teenage millionaire. "

Lesson 8

            Should We Diet in Order to Keep Fit?

                          Text

                How Does It Feel to Lose Weight?
Here is a conversation between a heart specialist and a heart patient.

Vic:   I've been feeling very lonely. I can't explain it, I'm in a crowd but I  
  feel lonely. And so today, .I tried to get in touch with it . The
  loneliness and sadness are there because several things are going on.
  One, I don't like my body. Two, I am very angry with my body for having
  heart disease.
　

Dean:   Do you want to do an imagery exercisel?
Vic:   Yes.
Dean:   Okay, Please close your eyes and put yourself in a meditative
  state. If at any time you feel like this is not something you want to
  do, Iཇ rely on you to tell me that. Begin by visualizing your
  body. What kind of image do you get?
Vic:   Just mounds of flesh. A wall of fat.
Dean:   Imagine that your body has a voice of its own. Tell it hello.
  Ask it to just say hello to you, just to identify itself. Does it?
Vic:   [pause] it says "hello" back. I'm amazedl Its voice is different from
  mine.
　

Dean:   Ask it if it has a name.
Vic:   It says, "Fat ."
Dean:   Ask "Fat" what is its purpose in your life.
Vic:   [pause] It says, "To give me support. To shield me. To protect me."
Dean:   Ask it what it is shielding you from.
Vic:   It says, "From everyone. I'm your best friend."
Dean:   In what way is it your friend?
Vic:   It says, "I've been protecting you."
Dean:   Ask it what it has been protecting you from.
Vic:   It says, "You don't have to do a lot of things because you're fat. "
Dean:   Ask it if it's protecting you from anything else?
Vic:   [pause] Yes, it says it's been protecting me from my feelings.
Dean:   Okay-ask it if it's protecting you from any feelings in particular.
Vic:   [pause] It says, "From loneliness."
Dean:   When it says that, do any other images or feelings come to your
  awareness?
　

Vic:   Somehow I remember getting fat when I was seven. I see myself going    
  into a room feeling like I was all right, and finding out I was not
  all right . So my life has been about justification. Justification
  about being all right. Being accepted. So I used food as a friend.
  My fat says it protects me from feeling bad. I have a lot of
  resistance to change. I have a lot invested in this fat. And to give
  it up is like giving up a friend. It's been a barrier but it's also
  a friend. It's a friend that gets in the way sometimes, but it
  also serves me really well. But my size limits me in what I want to
  do now.
　

Dean:   Stay with those feelings now. Ask "Fat" what it needs from you now.
Vic:   [pause] It says that it needs to be told it's all right the way it is.
Dean:   Maybe you could start by thanking it for shielding, protecting you from
  loneliness all these years.
Vic:   [pause] All right.
Dean:   Does the wall say anything in reply?
Vic:   It agrees. It says, "It's about time."
Dean:   Good. Now ask if it would be willing to open up, to stop shielding you
  all the time. If you could find a different way to shield yourself
  when you need it-one that is easier to open and close.
　

Vic:   A replacement-is that what you are saying?
Dean   Yes. Something that you could use to shield yourself when you need it,
  but isn' t there all the time when you want to open up. See what it says.
Vic:   [pause] It says, "Yes."
Dean:   Ask it what you need to do f or it to begin opening up.
Vic:   [pause] To get massaged. To be, perhaps, more vulnerable. To allow myself
  to be touched.
Dean:   What images or feelings come to mind of your body in that way?
Vic:   I'd feel freer.
Dean:   How would you look? Ask "Fat", the one that protects you and shields you,
  if it would give you a different image of your body. How your body
  would look if you were more open and less shielded all the time.
　

Vic:   Okay.
Dean:   What does it say?
Vic:   [pause] If I'm willing, it's willing.
Dean:   Good . W hat image do you see? You can always go back to the fat image if
  you need it.
Vic:   I see a thinner body.
Dean:   What does it look like?
Vic:   It looks thinner. But it looks disfigured The fat is very disfigured.
Dean:   How so?
Vic:   It's full of stretch marks. Saggy skin.
Dean:   Okay. What does that body have to say?
Vic:   [pause] To try and attain it anyway. To try to achieve it. That it's okay
  to have a thinner body that' s not perfect.
Dean:   Do any other images or feelings come to your awareness?
Vic:   I feel uncomfortable and sad...


II. Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

              1. We Should All Grow Fat and Be Happy

  Here's a familiar version of the boy-meets-girl situation. A young man has at last plucked up courage to invite a dazzling young lady out to dinner. She has accepted his invitation and he is overjoyed. He is determined to take her to the best restaurant in town, even if it means that he will have to live on memories and hopes during the month to come. When they get to the restaurant, he discovers that this etherial creature is on a diet. She mustn't eat this and she mustn't drink that. Oh, but of course, she doesn' t want to spoil his enjoyment. Lct him by all means eat as much fattening food as he wants: it's the surest way to an early grave. They spend a truly memorable even:ng together and never see each other again.


  What a miserable lot dieters arel You can always recognize them from the sour expression on their faces. They spend most of their tixne turning their noses up at food. 'They are forever consulting calorie charts; gazing at themselves in mirrors; and leaping on to weighing-machines in the bathroom. They spend a lifetime fighting a losing battle against spreading hips, protruding tummies and double chins Some wage all-out war on fat . Mere dieting is not enough.

They exhaust themselves doing exercises, sweating in sauna baths, being pummelled and massaged by weird machines. The really wealthy diet-mongers pay vast sums for "health cures? For two weeks they can enter a "nature clinic" and be starved to death for a hundred guineas a week. Don't think it's only the middle-aged who go in for these fads either. Many of these bright young things you see are suffering from chronic malnutrition: they are living on. nothing but air, water and the goodwill of God.


  Dieters undertake to starve themselves of their own free will so why are they so miserable? Well, for one thing, they're always bungry. You can't be hungry and happy at the same time. All the horrible concoctions they eat instead of food leave, them permanenily dissatisfied. "Wonderfood is a complete food,'~ the advertisement says. "Just dissolve a teaspoonful in water..."

A complete food it may.be, but not quite as complete as a juicy steak. And, of course, they're always miserable because they feel so guilty. Hunger just proves too much for them and in the end they lash out and devour five huge guilt-inducing cream cakes at a sitting. And who can blame them? At least three times a day they are exposed to temptation. What utter torture it is always watching others tucking into piles of mouth-watering food while you munch a water biscuit and sip unsweetened lemon juice!


  What's all this self-inflicted torture for? Saintly people deprive themselves of food to attain a state of grace. Unsaintly people do so to attain a state of misery. It will be a great day when all the dieters in the world abandon their slimming courses; when they hold out their plates and demand second helpings!



              2. I Feel Better with Vegetarian Food

  I grew up in Texas on double cheeseburgers with hickory sauce, chili, fried. chicken, T-bone steaks, and eggs. Many people report that they lose the taste for animal foods after eating a vegetarian diet for a while, but it hasn't fully happened to me. I still enjoy the way animal foods taste and smell, but I usually don't eat them.
  Why not? Because I like the way I feel when I don't eat these foods so much more than the pleasure I used to get from eating them. I have much more energy, I need less sleep, I feel calmer, I can maintain an ideal body weight without worrying about how much I eat, and I can think more clearly (although some might debate the last point).


  I began making some dietary and lifestyle changes during my second year of college and have been eating this way ever since. I wasn't worried about coronary heart disease at age nineteen-my cholesterol levelthen was only 125 (and it still is). I began feeling better after I started eating this way, so I continue to do so. Eating this diet probably will help me to live longer, but it,s not my primary motivation. Feeling better is.


  In my clinical experience, I often find that fear may be enough motivation
for some people to begin a diet, but it's usually not enough to sustain it. As I've said earlier, who wants to live longer if you're not enjoying life?
  Since I began making these dietary changes in 1972, eating this way has become increasingly accepted. Beans and grains are becoming, believe it or not, high-status foods.



              3. High-fat Diet, Little Strength

  You bring one of our football players in and put them on a stationary exercise bicycle and tell them to work as hard as they can for as long as they can, and you'll time them. Say the guy lasts for eight minutes, and then he's just exhausted. Then for three days you put him on a high-fat diet. He comes back in, goes on the bike and he'll last probably only six minutes. He's lost that much strength.
  Then put him on a high carbohydrate, low-fat diet for only three days, and he' 11 probably go up to 12 minutes. It makes that much difference.



        4. I Feel Great Because I've Lost All That Extra Weight!

  During my first year of college, I gained forty pounds when I began throwing the javelin. For the next twenty years, I carried all of this extra weight and kidded myself that I was in good shape since that's what I weighed in college. Now that I've lost all that extra weight, I feel great!
  People say all the time, "Well, how do you live without eating cheeseburgers or this or that?" and I say, "You just don't. It's not even an option." It's not that hard once you get on it.


  The most difficult parts for me are the social aspects of eating. For example, hamburgers were hard to do without at first because I identified eating them with fun times-sitting on the floor with the kids watching television, or in a fun place with people sitting around laughing, drinking beer and eating burgers.
  It's the same at a tailgate picnic at a football game. It was hard--not because of the foods there, but because of the social factors. But once you understand that, then you can say, "I can enjoy the social part without having to eat that food." It's more what you're doing than the food itself.



                  5. Weight Watchers

  Jean Nidetch was a professional dieter, a housewife who tried every conceivable .slimming fad, lost weight with each one, then regained it thanks to her habitually "promiscuous?eating habits. In 1961, when she sought help from the obesity clinic run by New York City's Dept. of Health, she was 38 years old and weighed 214 lb. The clinic put her on a diet by Dr. Norman Jolliffe, best known.for his "prudent diet". Convinced that she couldn't stick to it alone, Mrs.

Nidetch invited some fat friends to form a group and meet weekly to made horror stories (secret midnight binging in the bathroom) and helpful hints(put that doughnut in the freezer to cool temptation). Established in 1963, Weight Watchers expanded into an international network of clubs, with a product line of diet drinks, sugar substitutes,and publications-the McDonald's of the reducing industry. "My little private club has become an industry," wrote Mrs. Nidetch, amateur nutritionist, in The Story of Weight Watchers (1975). In 1978 the oiganization, with about  $ 50 million in annual revenues and a cumulative membership of close to 2 million, was bought by Heinz Foods.

Lesson 9

            Is It a Good Idea to Control Population
                  Growth in the World?

                          Text

                What Overpopulation Feels Like

  We moved slowly through the city in a taxi and entered a crowded slum district. The temperature was well over 100°and the air was thick with dust and smoke. The streets seemed alive with people. People eating, people washing, people sleeping. People visiting each other, arguing and screaming. People pushing their hands through the taxi windows, begging. People relieving themselves.
People holding on to the sides of buses. People leading animals. People, people, people, people. As we drove slowly through the crowd, sounding the taxi' s horn, the dust, heat, noise and cooking fires made it like a scene from Hell. Would we ever get to our hotel? All three of us were, I admit, frightened. Since that night, I've known what overpopulation feels like.


  Statistics show that rapid population growth creates problems for developing countries. So why don't people have fewer children? Statistics from the developed countries suggest that it is only when people' s living standards begin to rise that birth rates begin to fa11. There are good reasons for this. Poor countries cannot afford social services and old age pensions, and people's incomes are so low they have nothing tospare for savings.

As a result, people look to their children to provide them with security in their old age. Having a large family can be a form of insurance. And even while they are still quite young, children can do a lot of useful jobs on a small farm . So poor people in a developing country will need to see clear signs of much better conditions ahead before they will think of having smaller families. But their conditions cannot be improved unless there is a reduction in the rate at which population is increasing. This will depend on a very much wider acceptance of family planning and this, in turn,will mean basic changes in attitudes.



II. Read
  Read the following passages. Underlirie the important viewpoints while reading.

              1. Childless - and Happy That Way

  In a country where most people believe that a family is not a family without children, some young couples, especially those with a higher education, have chosen to keep their families to two members -husband and wife.
  "I can't afford to have a child," said Wang, a promising research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.


  Wang has been busy travelling abroad and has received scholarship offers from a number of American universities that would enable him to complete his PhD.
  "He is a free bird who may leave the nest any day and I've never cared much about a child," said Xiao Wei, Wang's wife, business representative of a French company in Beijing.
  Unlike the Wangs, Zhang and his wife have argued over whether they should have a baby.


  "When we were married six years ago, we decided to adopt a waitand-see attitude on the issue. And after a couple of years, my wife said she wanted to have a baby while I insisted we were just fine without one. We have been arguing about the matter ever since, and now that we are over 30, I think we' re likely to end up in accordance with my wishes," said Zhang.


  "There are many marriages that should have long been broken. People just hold on because a divorce would hurt the children most and the parents hate to face that prospect. So the couple sticks together and winds up torturing each other.
  "A real happy family is a family that, without children, is still a happy family, ?said Zhang.
  Ma Jiang, who has opened a trading company and was instantly nicknamed Money Bags by his friends, said he would hate to be bothered with a child.


  "To me, being without a child, I am less bound by household chores and can concentrate on my business. My lovely wife is all I need, no third person," he said.
  Ma' s wife, Xiao Lu, working for a government unit, could have quit her job and become dependent on her "rich" husband. But she decided against it.
  "I can' t imagine what I would be like if I stayed at home, doing household chores and breast-feeding a child. I' d rather keep my independence at all costs," she said.


  "Whatever people say, I believe that to have a child means a lot of sacrifice. We're just not ready for that, fun or misery," Ma's wife said. Hou Mingkun and his wife Luo Qian said theyi weren't against having a child, boy or girl, if only the baby was physically well developed. "One takes a risk when having a baby. I've heard too many stories about children born with physical defects. Since-t-here's no guarantee that the same won't happen to my baby, I think I'd better not get myself
involved. People say `no pain, no gain,' but for me it's no gain, no pain," Luo said.


  The couple were classmates in high school and went to the same university in Shanghai. Now, they are working for a computer company in Beijing.
  Those who choose not to have children have to overcome some unexpected   difficulties in defending their stance.
  Influenced by the traditional view that one's worst sin is having no descendants, most people still accept that a wife is not a good wife if she doesn't have a child.
  Though few Chinese believe in an after-life, they do care a lot about growing old. For centuries, one of the purposes of having children, sons especially, was to have someone take care of the parents when they were old.


  "Now, since both husband and wife are working, they will have a pension when they retire. What happens now is that the retired parents are supporting their adult children," Wang said.
  "We're normal people, just like everyone else, We,ve just chosen to live our own way which harms no one. I hope people understand us," Wang said.



            2. Three Babies Are Born Every Second

  There are over 3, 800 million people in the world today, and the total is increasing at the rate of .more than 76 million a year. United Nations experts have calculated that it could be more than 7, 000 million by thc end of this century.
  The population is growing more quickly in some parts of the world than others. The continents with the fastest growth rates are Latin America (2.9 per cent) and Africa (2.6 per cent). Asia comes third (2.1 per cent) but because its present population is so large it is there that by far the greatest number of people will be added before the end of the century.



          3. Population Increase Has Wiped out the Material
                Benefits People Have Achieved

Matthew:   Sarah, is there a need to control population only in countries
  like India, Africa, Brazil. . . those countries   that we.call the
  underdeveloped countries, or is there a case for limiting population
  in Europe, for instance?
Sarah:   The reason one would have to limit population is because        
  you're running out of food and you're running out of
  resources. The people in Europe and America consume a far
  greater proportion of the world's resources and the world's food than
  they do in India. So... um... population is directly related to...
  um... consumption and your general impact on the environment.
  If as an individual your impact is far greater than anybody
  else's, um... then that is the factor that's important, rather
　

  than how many people there are, or how many people can the
  world support. Now it's...obviously in that sense, it's possible
  to increase population if everybody's willing to um...use less
  material or eat less food, but it isn't if everybody's continually
  wanting more and more and more, and this is... seems to he the
  trend at the moment. . . higher and higher consumption. . . with
  at the same time a greatly expanding population.And the problem
  in ... um... areas which are poor and which have expanding
  populations is that they try and develop and try and...er...
  get...er...more material
  benefits, but as soon as they do this, the population increase
  has.wiped out any benefits that they may have um... achieved.
　

Matthew:   But do you feel that this battle with a...a rapidly expandint
  population can be won?
Sarah:   The most sensible thing is to realize that you   can't go on expanding
  human populations for ever and countries and individuals must decide
  to have a policy which would limit population.

　


      4. An African Woman Says: "...the Men Never Talk about It."

  "To us, children are the most important thing in life. When we marry, it is not above all to get a husband or wife, but to have children. I had my thirteenth birth only a few months ago, and most of my adult life I have had to care for a baby as well as do all my other work in the house and in the fields. For a long time I have wanted no more children, but I keep having them as long as I am with my husband.

A nurse comes to visit our village regularly. She holds meetings for all the men and women together, to explain about family planning. Now these are wellknown facts to us, but still nobody in our village practises birth control. When. we sit together with the nurse, everybody seems to agree that this is the right thing to do when a family had grown big enough to give the parents security in their old age, and there are enough hands to attend to all the daily work. But when we go home, the men never talk about it My husband and I attend every meeting, but in our home we have never talked about birth control. I desperately want to stop having more children, but this can only be done if my husband suggests it."



            5. Free Birth Control Techniques Should
                  Be Available Everywhere

Matthew:   Peter, what sections of the population do you think free birth control
  techniques should be available to?
Peter:   They should be... available to all sections of the community er...
  things are getting to such a pitch that I personally think
  that...er...not only should birth control methods be available to all
  sections of the community, but indeed should be compulsory. There
  should be some kind of law which says that a family should not have
  more than three children,.a complete maximum of three children, if
  they have three children then they must be obliged by law, almost, to
  use birth control, if not have er... various kinds of operation
  which... um... make conception impossible.
　

Matthew:   But surely this is very er... explosive in social terms?
Peter:   It's very...it's a very totalitarian notion, but. the
  alternative...if we look around us in the world outside is millions
  of people starving to death in places like India, and people
  suffering from malnutrition in. . . in other parts of the
  underdeveloped wor... world and indeed even in parts of the dev...so
  called developed world.

               

                      6. It's a World Probl'em

  The rapid rise in world population is not creating problems only for the developing countries. The whole world faces the problem that raw materials are being used up at an increasing rate and food production cannot keep up with the population increase. People in the rich countries rnake the heaviest demands on the world's resources, its food, fuel and land, and cause the most pollution. A baby born in the United States will use in his lifetime 30 times more of the world's resources than a baby born in India. Unless all the countries of the world take united action to deal with the population explosion there will be more and more people fighting for a share of less and less land, food and fuel, and the future will bring poverty, misery and war to us all.



          7. What Has Caused the Population Explosion?

  The main reason is not so much a rise in birth rates as a fall in death rates as a result of improvements in public health services and medical care. Many more babies now survive infancy, grow up and become parents, and many more adults are living into old age so that populations are being added to at both ends. In Europe and America the death rate began to fall during the Industrial Revolution. In the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America the fall in death rate did not begin till much later and the birth rate has only recently begun to fall.

　

        8. "The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Babies..."

  This sudden increase in tl~e population of the developing countries has come at a difficult time. Even if their population had not grown so fast they would have been facing a desperate struggle to bring the standard of living of their people up to the point at which there was enough food, housing, education, medical care and employment for everyone to have a reasonable life. The poor countries are having to run faster and faster in their economic activity in order to stay in the same place, and the gap in wealth between rich and poor countries grows wider every year


  The most pressing problem created by the rapid increase in population is a shortage of food. More mouths have to be fed every year, and yet a high proportion of the existing population are not getting enough of the right kind of food. Over the past two years the total amount of food has decreased, and of course the total amount of food per person has decreased even more sharply.


  More and more of the babies born in developing countries have been surviving infancy and now nearly half the people living in those countries are under the age of 15.The adults have to work harder than ever to provide for the needs of the children, who cannot contribute to the economy until they are older. There is a shortage of schools and teachers, and there are not enough hospitals, doctors and nurses. Farming land is becoming scarce, so country people are moving to the towns and cities in the hope of finding a better standard of living. But the cities have not been able to provide housing, and the newcomers live in crowded slums. Finally, there are too few jobs and unemployment leads to further poverty.

Lesson 10

              Should Students Only Learn from Books?

                          Text

                Try to Find out about Real Life

  During my recent tour to Kunming in Yunnan Province, I encountered a young Australian at Liuzhou railway station . I helped him get on board the train with his luggage, and we got to chatting in English. I learned that he was 21 years old, studying Asian literature and history at Sydney University.

  What surprised me was that, young as he was, he had travelled a lot, not only in China but also in many other parts of Asia, and he seemed to know so much about the Asian culture and history, and was even familiar with ancient and modern Chinese literature and philosophy masters such as Confucius, Lu Xun, Mao Dun and Guo Moruo. He could speak four languages.


  He is a college student, but he did not confine himself to classroom reading only. He said if one really wants to know the society and the world, he or she should go to the grassroots to see, hear and find out about real life. Besides, many students like him in Australia woi-k at part-time jobs after class so as to earn a living and save enough for travelling.


  I am a bit older than he is. Yet I found myself less knowledgeable
than he is about many things in the world. Like some of my classmates at college, I often feel conceited for merely being a college student and sometimes I even looked down upon those who failed to enter college. We didn't have to work to earn a living, and took many things for granted.We should not just admire other people's living standard and opportunities. What we should do is to learn their spirit of self-reliance as well as a sense of responsibility for the society they live in.


II . Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

                  1. It Is Not Profitable to Study

  This sounds like alarmist talk, but the whole nation faces the danger of believing that it is not profitable to study.
  The following figures will serve as evidence:
  Between 1980 and 1988, more than 4 million primary and middle school students quit school. In 1988 alone, more than 6, 000 college students and 2, 000 post-graduate students left school.


  At the same time, a large number of teachers resigned to find better-paying jobs. In some areas, schools had to close because there were no teachers available.
  Although the country lacks educated people, more than 5, 000 college graduates were turned down by the work units to which they were assigned last year.
  A study shows that 35 per cent of the country's population above the age of 15 is illiterate or half-literate. The situation could affect social standards and threaten the survival of the nation.


  An article from the Beijing-based Economics Weekly attributed the dangerous situation in education to insufficient funding. China only allocates 3.7 per cent of its gross national product to education, lower than some 100 other countries of the world. China's per capita spending on education equals one-fourth that of other developing countries.


  Teachers are poorly paid. According to 1988 statistics, teachers generally earn less than factory workers, bank employees and technological personnel.
  Teachers' housing problems are more serious than those of other employees. Last year, 38 per cent of the teachers at Qinghua University lived in extremely crowded quarters and 4.5 per cent had no apartments, while 600 single teachers lived in rooms shared by three or four.


  The tradition over thousands of years that scholars should not pursue material goals has changed. Manp teachers have quit their school jobs to do business. Others say they hope that their children will not become teachers like them.
  To make things worse, the limited funds for education have not always been used in the right way.
  Between 1985 and 1986, government auditing departments discovered that as much as 500 million yuan was spent on official buildings, cars and business activities, while many students attended classes in rundown classrooms or even outdoors.



          2. Education Is about Something More Important

  Yes, but what is education about? Is it really about facts and figures, learning things by heart-you know, the three "r' s"reading, writing and arithmetic (and that shows somebody can't spell, doesn't it?) No, it gets me really cross.People criticize modern education because some kids don't know their seven times table. Hell, what does that matter in the age of computers and calculators? No, education is about something much more imgortant. It's about teaching people how to live, how to get on with one another, how to form relationships. It's about understanding things, not just knowing them. O.K. seven sevens are forty-nine. But what does that mean? It's not just a formula, you know. I want my kids to understand.



              3. People Don't Learn Anything Today

  I think it's a great shame the way educational standards are declining today. I mean, good heavens, when you think of all the millions of pounds the Government have spent on education-new schools, more teachers, new equipment. And yet still you find people who can't read properly, can't even write their names and don't know what two and two are without a calculator. I think it's downright disgraceful. I remember


when I was young you went to school to learn. You did as you were told and respected your teachers.
  Nowadays. Huh, nowadays you get long-haireil kids who aren't interested in anything. No wonder they don't learn anything. A bit of discipline, that's what they need. A bit of discipline.
     


            4. Traditional Schools Face Challenge

  Every Tuesday and Friday, 6-year-old Huang Kan goes to an evening class to learn how to play the piano. He shows little interest in this extra class, but his mother is willing to pay 18 yuan a month for his tuition. He is one of the many only children who in recent years have started attending classes to learn to play musical instruments, or to paint or sing, either on holidays or in the evenings during week-days.


  Such classes are usually run by individuals. Between ABCs and music, the government can only afford the former. Music and painting are seen as luxury items for Chinese children.
  But parents are eager to have the talents of their only children developed. They want their children to learn far more than the Chinese and arithmetic offered by the public schools.
  The people in education and artistic circles are filling this gap between the parents, wishes and public schools, supply.


  In the past,after-school activity centres were encouraged to provide free classes in dancing, playing the violin and Chinese boxing. But as more and more people become interested and seek to take part, teachers are more difficult to find.
  So up grew the practice for parents to show their gratitude to the volunteer teachers by offering them gifts, such as cigarettes, meat and fish, clothing and coupons for commodities in short supply.


  But the gifts never quite matched up to the work involved and so teachers began to charge for their services.
  A very quick expansion of the charged service followed with classes being started for adults. These classes included hairdressing and cooking for women, calligraphy and qigong for the elderly and child care for parents. Many young people also went to English classes to prepare for tests to qualify them to go abroad.


  There are now classes of various kinds in the big cities. In Guangzhou, for example, the third traffic peak hour is from 9 to 10 in the evening when people are leaving night schools.
  The charge for service was started by individuals, but now many cultural institutes have also entered the market.
  Over the past two years, they have set up correspondence courses, invited scholars to give lectures and even compiled text-books.


  It all means that what was once a purely social service has turned into a business. Competition has grown with organizers offering such attractions as the showing of new films and the issuing of diplomas approved by the State's Education Commission.
  For the institutes, these activities are collective moonlighting. They offer the usually low-paid teachers and science and technology workers the chance of a second pay packet.


  Students on this market benefit more. Women from Anhui Province applying for baby-sitting jobs can ask for 5 yuan more if they can speak putonghua because parents are concerned that their children would otherwise be affected by local dialects. The skill of typing too can bring extra income.
  The benefits that both teachers and students gain from this market show just how highly knowledge is evaluated. At a time when the State cannot invest more in education, such a spontaneous market is no doubt a necessary supplement.



        5. Education Standards Are Higher Than in the Past

  Well, there are a lot of different views on this, but I must say I don't think there's very much hard evidence that educational standards are any worse today than in the past. It all depends, of course, on what you measure and how you measure it, but I think it is probably wrong to imagine that there was some golden age in the past when everything was perfect. Of course it may surprise some people that there has not been an obvious and dramatic increase in the standard of education, given the vast amounts of money spent in this area by successive governments in recent years. But unfortunately, most improvements in education are intangible.



              6. Give Students Time to Grow

  With examinations drawing near, the burden on middle school students is becoming heavier and heavier. They have more homework than ever before, and less time for leisure, rest and sleep.
  Because of the over-load,most students' health suffers and many become nearsighted. An investigation made in a Honghu middle school shows that: compared with 1985, the number of nearsighted students has increased by 25-30 per cent and a larger proportion of students complain of poor health.
  It is not necessary to keep the students in class all the time. They need to go outside for sports, singing, dancing and other activities. We should create a good environment to let young students grow healthily.



            7. Children Must Learn How to Live

  The realization of China' s modernization relies on the children of today.
  Childhood is a time of physical and mental development, so efforts must be made to provide an ideal environment for their development. encouraging intellectual, physical and moral training.
  How should our children be trained to cope wisely in the future? We should provide them with a good material life, but more importantly, a good spiritual life. Patriotism and communism must be spread among children to stimulate lofty ideals and hard work to enliven the Chinese narion.


  China needs talent that has developed morally, intellectually and physically. The practice of only enabling people who receive an education to develop intellectually could result in a deficiency on the part of a generation of children.
  We have to put right the tendency of stressing only intelligence and ignoring moral and physical education and necessary physical work.
  Instead of children only receiving a classroom book-learning education, we should encourage them to mingle with society and nature so that they can be more adaptable in society.


     
        8. People Should Be Made to Love Knowledge and Reading

  Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about education in the Chinese press. From these reports, and letters from my friends, I know that many students in schools and universities think studying is useless. Some graduate students and even teachers quit study or teaching to become clerks in big hotels, for a clerk in such hotels can get higher pay than a university professor.


  Government leaders and many scholars have already noticed this and are making great efforts to solve the problem. In the People's Daily I see numerous articles on how to improve education and many reports about government leaders at all levels making various plans.
  These plans all centre on raising the salaries of teachers and professors. Of course, this is very important to education. However, education has two sides, not just those who teach, but also those who learn. Increasing the salary of teachers is just one way to improve education. It will not work without the co-operation of the other determinants, such as students' love of knowledge and reading. Even if the teachers are devoted, it will make no sense if the students are not willing to learn.


  How can we make more people love knowledge and reading? First, we all have to realize that knowledge is useful everywhere in society, not just in the classroom. Sec'ond, people will love knowledge and reading when they have free access to books and information. Building more libraries and developing fine library services are important to improving education.
  I worked for six years in a big public library in China. I saw many people reading book after book. They dreamed of entering universities,not just because higher salaries attract them, but because of their need and love of knowledge.
As a dedicated librarian, I wish policy makers of our government could spend more on libraries when they plan to improve education.



            9. The Modern Methods Have Gone Wrong

  Well, if you asked me, it's all these modern methods that's the problem. In the old days you sat in rows at desks and you did as you were told. You knew what you had to do and you did it-and you kept quiet. Nowadays, my god, the noise in most scbools is deafening especially primary schools. The children wander around-do more or less what they want to as far as I can see. The teacher just sits there or wanders around with them, talking to them. Informal teaching they call it.

Discovery methods. Sounds more like a recipe for discovering disaster to me. When do'they have time to learn anything? Too busy wandering about to do any work. And when you look at the youngsters coming to work for me, you soon find out they haven't learnt very much at all.