Lesson 18

          Should Women Be Treated the Same as Men?

                          Text

            For Women, There Is a Long Way to Go

  One-third of the people at work in Britain are women. By 1975 they will, by law, be on a footing of equal pay with men. Their prospects of reaching the top, however, are still far from equal.
  A recently-published study called Women in Top Jobs examines why this should be so. For the purposes of this study four researchers, two men and two women, chose women in top management in two business organizations and women in senior jobs in the BBC and the Civil Service. In their findings they found that although there are conventional and entrenched attitudes on both sides, there is a widespread awareness that no society can afford not to utilise ability.

  The studies confirm that there is no basic difference be tween the standards and quality of work performance of women who have reached top jobs and those of men in similar positions. Nevertheless, there emerged some distinctive factors in the performance of women in top jobs. Women were less interested in empire-building, in office politics, in status symbols. They are likely to be less forceful and competitive than men.


  In the past, women tended to assume they would be overtaken y men in the race to the top. However, today's young women are far less philosophical about their status and are more aggressive in their resentment at being treated as in some way inferior to men. On the other hand, since lack of drive is one of the criticisms levelled against women, perhaps this aggression is a positive advantage. Some young women, though, find it very difficult to come to terms with the feeling hat characteristics of authority which are acceptable in men are often not acceptable in women.


  A reason often advanced for women failing to reach the top is their desire for balance between work and a life outside work. Employers know this and tend, when a woman with young children applies for promotion, to treat the fact that she has young children as an important factor and, given the choice, are more likely to give promotion to a man than to her.
  What about women whose children are almost grown up? Well, the writers of the study recommend a much more positive approach by employers to women who want to return to their careers after their children are off their hands.


II.Read
  Read t6e following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

                1. What Women's Lib Is about

  Women's Lib is short for the Women's Liberation Movement which got its name in America some years ago. Its supporters demand their freedom and equality with men.
  In this dialogue Sheila believes in Women's Lib while Harry has his doubts.
　
Harry:   I've never understood what this Women's Lib business is all about.I can  
  understand women in some countries struggling for their rights. But it
  strikes me that here in Britain women havc already?got as much freedom
  as they could possibly want. They've got the vote, they can go to
  university, they can compete with men in the professions on equal
  terms...
Sheila:   Rubbishl You're fooling yourself. How many women members of Parliament  
  are there? About 30 out of 635. How many women company directors? How
  many trade union leaders? How many judges?
　

Harry:   Not many, I agree. But why is that? Maybe their talents don't lie in
  those directions. Perhaps they prefer to be housewives.
Sheila:   Prefer to be housewives? You can't have any idea what it's like,
  when you've been married fifteen years and you've cleaned a house every
  day; then your husband and kids come along and mess it all up again.
  Can you imagine the monotony, the boredom, the frustration?
Harry:   Oh yes, I can imagine it easily enough. But don't forget that a lot of ,  
  men have equally boring jobs and less freedom to do them their own
  way.But that's beside the point; the real point is that most housewives
  in my experience, are" content to be housewives. Take my wife Jane, for
  example. She's not bored or frustrated; she finds her life quite
  satisfying; she cleans, cooks, gardens...
　

Sheila:   Oh I'm aware of that.That's because over the centuries men have trained
  and educated women to consider themselves inferior and to accept
  their position. It isn't just the men who are piejudiced against the
  women. The women have become prejudiced against themselves.They
  believe they really are inferior.
Harry:   You mean they've been conditioned to accept. an inferior position.
Sheila:   Exactly; they've been brainwashed. It's the job of the Women's I.ib
  movement to open their eyes to the way they have been fooled and
  dominated and exploited all these years.
　

Harry:   So you want to take all these nice contented women and make them
  discontent and rebellious?
Sheila:   Right.
Harry:   I see. Well, I don't accept that the present system is the result of    
  conditioning or brain washing at all. It's the natural biological
  function of a woman first to bring children into the world and then to
  bring them up. That is how the animals do it. In the Stone Age, when we
  were cavemen, the women stayed at home in the cave and the men, being
  stronger and braver, went out to hunt.Now the men go out.and earn money
  instead.The Women's Lib movement denies woman her natural function.I'm
  not saying that wotnan's function is necessarily inferior; but I am
  saying that it's.not the same.
　

Sheila:   So if something happened in the Stone Age it was "natural" and so it  
  would be perfectly right and proper and "natural" to go and do it now.
  I suppose if a man thinks he wants a woman all he has to do is go out
  and knock one on the head with his club and drag her home by the hair.
  Or maybe swop her with his pal for a couple of tiger-skins?
Harry:   Don't be silly. We've grown out of that sort of barbarity .
Sheila:   I should jolly well hope so too. Anyway all this Stone Age stuff is a
  myth made up by men. For all we know, Stone Age women were the top
  dogs.
Harry:   All right, let's drop the Stone Age. Let's come down to the modern
  British family. I suppose you want to abolish it?
　

Sheila:   No, but I want to reorganize it; I believe that the housework and the
  bringing up of the children should be shared equally.
Harry:   How? The husband should wash up, presumably.
Sheila:   Of course.
Harry:   Well, I do that at my house; and I fill up the stove and mow the lawn and
  dig the garden.
Sheila:   Naturally. Those are men's jobs, anyway.
Harry:   Oh! I didn't think you.believed in men's jobs' and women's jobs' Anyway I
  do quite a lot of the shopping.
Sheila:   Fancy that!
Harry:   And in my time I've bathed a few babies.
Sheila:   And changed nappies?
Harry:   Both changed them and washed them.
Sheila:   Well, all I can say is you must be pretty unusual. My husband's
  never touched a nappy in his life.
　



Harry:   I wouldn't say it was all that unusual. There are plenty of men in England  
  who do the same as I do. Maybe that's why our wives are so satisfied. Now
  suppose we all did the same and there were enough nursery schools and so
  on and all the women who wanted to work could do so, what would you
  say to that?
Sheila:   Well...
Harry:   Now suppose I was to stay at home and do all the housework and look after
  the children while my wife went out to work. What would you think about
  that?
　

Sheila:   I'd approve of it.
Harry:   And you'd be willing for her to do any job at all?
Sheila:   Anything she was strong enough to do.
Harry:   Good. Now some time last century a law was passed making it illegal
  for women to work down the coalmines. You would like that law abolished?
Sheila:   Certainly.
Harry:   I hope you won't want men to open doors for you and give up their seats in
  the bus for you.
Sheila:   Of course not, as long as I'm fit.
Harry:   In fact, in return for equality you would give up all these special
  allowances formerly made for the so-called weaker sex?
Sheila:   If I'm going to be logical, yes.
Harry:   Well, if women are going to be logical, that will be progress.
　


            2. Women's Education Should Be Urged

  Recently, a woman in a factory in Beijing was notified that she was being laid off as part of the "optimization" work force reductions in State enterprises. To escape humiliation at the hands of her husband and mother-in-law, she tried to kill herself by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills.
  After she was rescued, her mother took her to the factory director, demanding that her daughter be re-employed. Otherwise, she said, the director would be responsible for any accident tbat happened to her daughter. In the end, the director agreed to grant the woman a leave of absence at full pay plus bonus.


  This is only one example of the problem for which traditional theorists of women's studies and supporters of women's liberation in China apparently have no ready solution. But some feminist researchers recently urged that a new approach be adopted to help women gain a fresh foothold in the struggle to improve their lives.
  Traditionally, paid employment has been seen as the only passage towards women's liberation. And the rate of women's employment has been used as the major criterion in determining the level of women's liberation .


  However, after more than three decades, few Chinese women feel liberated from the old burdens of family and children. They feel they have simply been given more work.
  "We now have to admit that women's employment doesn't necessarily lead to their liberation, or more exactly, to the full development of their personalities," said Ma Lizhen, an editor at Chinese Women magazine.
  "In China, " she said, "this road has reached a dead end. "


  For nearly 40 years, China has pursued policies that encourage women to join the labour force.
  But they have resulted in serious problems, such as low efficiency in factories, strains on the State budget and a heavy load of housework and child care in a family, Ma said.


  This employment-oriented system has hurt the women's fundamental interests as well, Ma said. Women were often put into jobs in heavy manual labour with men more as a demonstration of equality than because they were suited for the work. This left them more dependent on favourable government policies and less competitive.
  A survey conducted by Ma's magazine indicates that about 70 per cent of the workers who will be squeezed out of the labour force in the current optimization will be wornen. The survey also reveals that more women than men prefer. Stzte employment, whieh is..more secure and less competitive.


  To protect women's interesta, some women organizations l;ave urged the top leadership for more favourable policies for women. But some feminists now disagree.
  "We know that special government treatment alone will not produce cornpo.tent women," Dai Qing, a noted writer and journalist, said at a discussion. "On the contrary, it has made them weaker and more dependent. What we should do now is to help women become more able and self-confident. And the only way is through education."


  The long-standing neglect of women's education, especially in the countryside, has resulted in a large proportion of female illiteracy, whose negative effect on the nation's devel.opment is most strikingly seen in ihe country's barely controllable birth rate.
  State statistics indicate that women make up about 70 per cent of China's 200 million illiterates. This situation cannot be expected to improve soon as hundreds of thousands of girls in the countryside are being forced by their parents to drop out of school at early grades to help work at home or in the fields. Girls make up an estimated 70 per cent of the dropouts in the countryside, according to Chinese Women magazine.


  "The women's movement should shift its focus from employment to education," Dai urged.
  "If women are taught self-supporting skills, they will support themselves as opportunities arise even without special care.
  "A good education will benefit a woman throughout her life whether she is a career woman or a housewife," said Da.i, who is working on a plan to set up what would be the only non-governmental girls' school in the capital.


  Another way to help women stand up to the current challenge is for the media to give more positive coverage to housework and good housewives or househusbands, Ma suggested.
  China at present cannot afford to provide publicly all the services traditionally performed within the family, such as cooking, washing and care for children and the elderly. But many people dislike doing housework because it is unpaid and unappreciated.

　

  Ma proposed that society compensate in some way the people who work at home.
  "Thus fewer women workers would feel ashamed about returuing home to do the housework, " she added.
  These feminist researchers have also begun reflecting on the sources of and philosophy behind the current setback in the China's women's liberation movement.   They noted that the movement in China is still operating ithin the framework of male culture because from the very beginning it was formulated and directed by men.
  "They set the male sex as a model for women to follow. So women remain the second sex," Ma said.


  She argued that the time has come for Chinese women to define their own roles in society. They should strive for a society in which they can choose to work outside, or stay at home, in which they can have more time to develop their own interests and improve community conditions.



        3. Two Top Career Women Say Family Also Matters

  It was quite a surprise for Wang Yunfeng, 58-year-old general manager of the Shenyang Department Store, to find herself at the head of a list of Shenyang's top 10 modern women.
  The list was the result of a competition organized by the women's federation of Shenyang, capital of northeastern Liaoning Province.
  Zheng Baohua, director of the federation, said that Wang won the most votes not just because she is the general manager of one of the largest and most-progressive department stores in the country, but also because of her compassion.


  Wang was first in the city to promote lateral ties between commercial establishments, and the total volume of profits her department store turned over to the State over six years was 11 times more than the total investment.
  Wang's 83-year-old mother said that her husband died very early. "It was Yunfeng who raised her three younger brothers," she said, adding, "She never fails to bring me some tasty pastry every time she comes home, no matter how busy she has been at work."


  A middle-school teacher who voted for Wang said, "In my opinion, in addition to career success, modern women should also be independent and charming, and have a sense of freedom. This, of course, has nothing to do with a person's age."
  A soldier named Xiang Mingjun wrote to the federation, expressing his approval of the selection of the top 10 modern women, who are attentive to their husbands, tender to their children, filial to their aged parents and friendly to their neighbours.


  In the house of another of the top 10 modern women, Zhang Guiqing, general manager of Shenyang's Mulan Industrial Corporation, colourful flowers can be found everywhere. Zhang was cleaning the house when the reporter visited her.
  "Despite her fame as a boss of 27 enterprises, she is a good housekeeper and an attentive housewife. She is also a capable and kind mother," Zhang's husband said proudly.
  Zhang, 48, has six children, four of whom are now university students. "The whole family is happy at my being chosen," she said.


  According to the director of the women' s federation, two of the most important criteria for the top 10 modern women out of the city's 2.63 million women are having been praised by authorities above the city goverument level and having a harmonious and happy family.
  This is quite a departure from past attitudes, in the days when a strong sense of family was often regarded as selfish and bourgeois, Zhang said.
  Only two years ago, the story of a mo:lel woman teacher who persevered in her work and ignored the pleas of her sick son was widely cited with approval.

Lesson19

            Is it Good to Live in a Large Modern City?

                          Text

            I Hate to Live in a Large Modern City

  "Avoid the rush-hour" must be the slogan of large cities the world over. If it is, it's a slogan no one takes the least notice of. Twice a day, with predictable regularity, the pot boils over. Wherever you look it's people, people, people. The trains which leave or 'arrive every few minutes are packed: an endless procession of human sardine tins. The streets are so crowded, there is hardly room to move on the pavements. The queues for buses reach staggering proportions. It takes a bus to get to you because the traffic on the roads has virtually come to a standstill.
Even when a bus does at last arrive, it's so f ull, it can ' t take any more passengers. This whole crazy system of commuting stretches man's resources to the utmost. The smallest unforeseen event can bring about conditions of utter chaos. A powercut, for instance, an exceptionally heavy snowfall or a minor derailment must always make city-dwellers realize how precarious the balance is. The extraordinary thing is not that people put up with these conditions, but that they actually choose them in preference to anything else.


  Large modern cities are xoo big to control.They impose their own living conditions on the people who inhabit them CIty-dwellers are obliged by their environment to adopt a wholly unnatural way of life. They Iose touch witla the land and rhythm of nature. It is possible to live such an airconditioned existence in a large city that you are barely conscious of the seasons. A few flowers in a public park (if you have the time to visit it) may remind you that it is spring or summer. A few leaves clinging to the pavement may remind you that it is autumn. Beyond that, what is going on in nature seems totally irrelevant. All the simple, good things of life like sunshine and fresh air are at a premium. Tall buildings hlot out the sun. Traffic fumes pollute the atmosphere. Even the distinction between day and night is lost. The flow of traffic goes on unceasingly and the noise never stops.


  The funny thing about it all is that you pay dearly for the "privilege" of living in a city. The demand for accommodation is so great that it is often impossible for ordinary people to buy a house of their own. Exorbitant rents must be paid for tiny flats which even country hens would disdain to live in. Accommodation apart, the cost of living is very high. Just about everything you buy is likely to be more expensive than it would be in the country.


  In addition. to all this, city-dwellers live under constant threat. The crime rate in most cities is very high. Houses are burgled with alarming frequency. Cities breed crime and violence and are full of places you would be afraid to visit at night. If you think about it, they are not really fit to live in at all. Can anyone really doubt that the country is what man was born for and where he truly belongs?


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

                      1. Tokyo

  I don't live in Tokyo. I don't even know whether I would like to live there. I love it and hate it-it is one of those places that you can love and hate at the same time.
  The first "fact" about Tokyo, for me, is that there are too many people. I don't mean the fact that more than twelve million people live there. A number like 12,000,000 doesn't mean anything to me.


  In Tokyo there are always too many people in the places where I want to be. That is the important fact for me. Of course there are too many cars. The Japanese drive very fast when they can, but in Tokyo they often spend a long time in traffic jams. Tokyo is not different from London, Paris and New York in.that. It is different .when-one wants to. walk.
  At certain times of the day there are a lot of people on foot in London's Oxford Street or near the big shops and stores in other great cities. But the streets near the Ginza in Tokyo always have a lot of people on foot, and sometimes it is really difficult to walk. People are very polite; there are just too many of them.


  The worst time to be in the street is at 11.30 at night. That is when the night-clubs are closing and everybody wants to go home. There are 35, 000 night-clubs in Tokyo, and you do not often see one that is empty. Between ll and 12 everybcdy is looking for a taxi. Usually the taxis are shared by four or five people who live in the same part of the city.


  During the day, people use the trains. Perhaps the first thing you notice in Tokyo is the number of trains. Most people travel to and from work by train, and there is a station at almost every street corner. Tokyo people buy six mi1lion train tickets every day. One station--Shinjuku-has two million passengers each day. At most stations, trains arrive every two or three minutes, but at certain hours there do not seem eo he enough trains. At 8 o,clock in the morning you can see students pushing passeng.ers into the trains. Usually the trains are nearly full when they arrive at the station, so the students have to push very hard. Sometimes the pushers are also pushed in by mistake, and they have to get out at the next station. Some people who are pushed into the train lose their shoes. They, too, get out at the next station, and go back to look for them.


  Although they are usually crowded, Japanese trains are very good. They always leave and arrive on time. On a I.ondon train you would see everybody reading a newspaper. In Tokyo trains everybody in a seat seems to be asleep. Some Japanese make a irain journey of two hours to go to work, so they do their sleeping on the train. But if a train journey lasis only five minutes, and if they have a seat, thcy will also go to sleep. They always wake when they arrive at their station.


  The last time I went to Tokyo, I went there from Osaka in great comfort. The blue-and-white trains which run evcrv?half-hour between the two cities are not only very fast but very comfortable. There are no pushers; only those who have reserved seats can travel on the train. It was not possible to run more trains on the old lines, so the Japanese built a special linc for the new fast trains. It is a very good line indeed. You can eat and drink without difficulty at 220 kilometres an hour-you know the speed because there is a speedometer inside the carriage.


  In Tokyo, I stood outside the station for five minutes. Three fireengines-the
very latest kind with every moclern fitting -raced past on the way to one of the many fires that Tokyo has every day. The peopie who passed on foot included some of the loveliest girls in the world in the latest European dresses or the finest Japanese kimonos. Businessmen passed in big new cars, and. among them, in a small Honda, there was a geisha in the clothes and hair arrangement of hundreds of years ago. Tokyo has so many surprises that none of them can really surprise me now. Instead, I am surprised at myself: I must go there next week on business, and I know that I shall hate the city and its twelve million people. But I feel like a man who is returning to his long-lost love.



            2. What Kind of City Should Beijing Be?

  The C. P. C. Central Committee Secretariat has proposed that Beijing
should become:
  (1) a model in public security, social order and moral standards for the whole country and one of the best in the world;
  (2) a first-rate modern city with a fine environment, high standards of cleanliness and good sanitation;
  (3) the nation's most developed city in culture, science and technology, with the highest educational standard in the country; and
  (4) a city with a thriving economy, providing its residents wit.h stability
in life and all kinds of conveniences.



                3. Duo Duo Bar, Where Many Meet

  A small coffee shop on Xidan Street, barely wider than a hallway, has become a haunt for many young people in downtown Beijing.
  The Duo Duo Coffee Bar has a charm of its own. Its red walls adorned with reed and bamboo hats and a spider web hanging from its dark ceiling remind one of the sunsets, perhaps at lakeside in a light drizzle. This is the atmosphere in which people sip a cup of coffee, tea or wine while chatting with their friends.
  Duo Duo (Chinese for many) is owned by two yotrng men, Zhang Keyu, a technician, and Lu Wei, an artist.


  "We started this coffee bar not only for making money," said Zhang, 27, in a soft voice. "We want to offer our young friends a place for social contact. If what we earn is enough for paying the tax, we are satisfied.
  "Before opening this bar, we often heId weekend parties at home in which we chatted, sang and danced. Then an idea occurred ta us to open a coffee shop so that we could know more people and more about the society.
  "Without wasting any time, Lu Wei and I took out all our savings to refurnish this room. Our friends did what they could to help us. Lu Wei did the decoration himseif, using a lot of reed, which is what his name means. Within a month, this mini-coffee room opened its door to the public."


  The atmosphere appealed mostly to young people. A university graduate, for instance, needed a place to hold a farewll party. The young owners offered the bar to him free of charge and suspended their business for the night. The young man invited 20 friends. And the party was a great success.
  "Making friends is more important than making money," Zhang observed. Being a full-time technician, Zhang has to work in his company by day and work in his coffee bar by night. He hires no employees. His friends volunteer to serve in this shop.
  A fashion designer whose nickname is also Duo Duo came in one day. "I'm glad my name is the same as this lovely bar's. I wish I had as many friends as it has,?she said.


  Pierre was a French student on a study tour in Beijing. He enjoyed himself in the bar so much that he could not heip dancing like Charlie Chaplain and blowing on the suona, a Chinese wind instrument.
  "Business has been good since the bar opened last year, but there were minor troubles when two or three rascals said they could not pay for their drinks. All we could do was ask them to write down their names on our credit list. Sometimes a rude fellow would drop in and talk too loudly. But the quiet atmosphere here would soon make him feel out of place and he would leave. I wish I could write a novel about society based on what I've seen and heard in this bar," Zhang said.
  It was already midnight. Xidan Street was asleep and empty. But the lights in Duo Duo still beckoned lonely walkers. Inside the room,customers were still chatting or humming.

　

                  4. Night Life Thrives

  in northern China people are asieep by midnight, but in Guangzhou most of the city's residents are still awake at that hour, living it up.
  Television and radio blast and blare away until two in the morning. Cinemas are multi-purpose. Besides showing films, they present video shows, dances and they have a bar.
  "I love the rich and coloarful night life in this southern city," a young Beijinger said when he came to Guangzhou for a business trip. "Sometimes when I come to the city, ,I visit the night bazaars.there."


  "I usually go shopping in the evening because I work during tbe day," a middle-aged woman said. "Furthermore, after supper,I like visiting the night bazaars. It's a.knid of entertainment."
  As most people in Guangzhou don't go to bed until far into the night, they usually eat a midnight snack. After shopping or leaving a concert, people often get a snack on the way home.
  "I would like to spend 5 yuan (  $1.35) to sit down and relax and eat something in the evening," Xiao Zheng, a taxi driver said. "Meanwhile, I might .spend another five yuan to have my car washed, ?he added.


  In Guangzhou, there are car washing services near some of the big bazaars which are popular with the drivers.
  A lot of Guangzhou residenis take a second job at night to earn extra money.
  College teachers have part-time jobs lecturing at night schools. Engineers
sometimes work on a project for another corporation. College students act as tutors.
  Problems also exist in the South China city.
  Prostitution is a bigger problem in Guangzhou than elsewhere in the country. And smuggling has increased recently.



                5. Problem for Beijingers

  Improving public toilets has long been a .erious problem in Beijing, as well as the rest of China.
  There is a wry saying among Chinese people, "Follow the smell if vou want to find a toilet."
  "About 80 per cent of Beijing's public toilets fit the saying," admitted Xue Baoyi, an official from Beiiing Sanita tion Bureau in 1989.
  But at the we:tern gate of the chinese History Museum near Tian'anmen. Square, there is an unusual "luxury" toilet of ahout 300 square metrea, in wltich there are rockeries, fountains, fresh flowers, a sofa and piped music. The standard of cleanliness is extremely high.


  But visitors have to pay 0.3 yuan. Some say the clean toilet is worth the price, but others complain that they can not afford it.
  In Beijing there are now 40 such toilets at tourist sites.
  On the opposite side of the museum, by the southern gate of Zhongshan Park, is situated another fairly clean pay toilet. Since last March, Liu Zhaomin, a retired sanitation worker from the West City District Cleaning Team, and his wife have contracted to keep the facility clean, and the once dirty and foul-smelling toilet has become one of the cleanest in Beijing.


  The old couple charge 0.03 yuan per person, but disabled people and students are admitted free. Outside the toilet they also provide water and help people take care of their belongings-all for free.
  Their service not only earns the old couple about 800 yuan monthly, but it also saves the government money. The toilet fees pay for maintenance
  There are no public toitets in some areas of the city. About 200 WCs in downtown area have to have soil carried away manually, mostly by old workers who are near retirement, and it is now very difficult to recruit young people to do this job. Because of a shortage of manpower, tools and disinfectant, it's very hard to keep those public toilets clean.


  "WC service in Beijing has four key problems," said Xue. "There are no places and money for building public toilets. And most of them are in a very poor condition, and are badly managed."
  Xue also said that the users should take care of public toilets. Many newly-
painted walls in WCs are already dirty.

　

                6. The Countryside in Spring

  We need never feel dull in the country. No matter how often we walk down the same road, over the same fields, or through the same woodland paths, there is always something new, somthing fresh to see.It may be a little plant that has come up since last we visited the place: a hedge that was just a lot of brown sticks may now be covered with flowers. We may find a bird's nest deep in a bush, and, if we are careful not to frighten the birds, as the days pass, see first the little eggs, and then the baby birds.


  We never know what we may see, or find, when we start out for a country walk. But we must learn to use our eyes, keep them wide open, or we shall pass by many a pretty or interesting plant, or miss the sight of some little wild animal, who sees us well enough, and will keep perfectly still and quiet so that we should not notice him, until we are quite out of sight. The wild children of the woods and fields are easily frightened, and if we want to get to know them, we must do as they do, and learn to be quiet and keep very still when watching them at work or play. All the year round, from the first warm breath of Spring till the last icy wind of Winter, we shall always find something to please and interest
us in the country.

Lesson 20

                Is Housing Reform Necessary?

                          Text
             
              Housing Reform Faces Obstacles

  Housing reform, acknowledged by economists and politicians at home and abroad as central to China's economic reform, has reached a critical stage.
  A recent article in the overseas edition of the magazine Outlook remarked that China's housing reform is facing five obstacles. Major breakthroughs will surely come if these knotty problems are carefully and properly handled.
  Firstly, the old attitudes of the bulk of urban employees that it is the State's duty to provide shelter as a kind of social welfare has adversely affected their enthusiasm for participating in housing reform.

  Most people don't include housing on their shopping list. They think that they deserve State housing no matter how little they may have contributed towards it.
  Some of them consider commercialization or privatization of housing as being synonymous with taking money out of people's pockets and so running counter to the ideals of socialism.
  Secondly, the little money that workers, enterprises and governments at all levels have has affected the accomplishment of housing expectations.


  The per-capita monthly earnings of not more than 80 yuan in China's urban areas plus the continuous price hike of recent years has greatly lowered the citizens' ability to pay extra to buy a house and has reduced their incentive.
  It is difficult for enterprises to earmark large sums to support housing reform since many of them are not profitably run. The State, already in deficit, finds itself unable to subsidize the reform.


  Thirdly, the current housing reform will encounter social risks since those vested interest holders, most of them senior cadres, stand in the way of the restructure.
  Fourthly, the rocketing price of housing has tremendously dampened the enthusiasm of potential house buyer. In some large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the price has surged to record heights of around 2,000 yuan a square metre.


  Finally, the overall social reform environment has slowed the pace of housing reform. The present relationship of cost, wages, finance and social welfare system reforms has stemmed the housing reform since they are closely integrated.
  Based on the preceding problems, the article puts forward several suggestions on how to resolve them.


  First of all, there should be more publicity to encourage urban dwellers to give up their stereotype thinking that housing is social welfare right guaranteed by the State.
  Commercialization of housing may be achieved through several different phases.
  The idea of carrying out the housing reform at one stroke should be abandoned.
  Housing reform should be implemented in conformity with the country's wage, price and other related reforms. The State Council should pressure local governments--especially those that are dragging their feet - to speed up their housing reform when necessary, but meantime it should promise to share sorne of the risks local authorities will face.


  So quite a few obstacles have emerged and the decision makers should do some hard thinking to determine the correct course of action.
  These were the opinions aired by dozens of experts and economists on construction and housing reform who have been summoned recently to a meeting in Beijing by the Ministry of Construction, to coincide with the World Habitat Day on October 2.



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

          1. Encouraging Atmosphere for Housing Reform

  The current atmosphere in respect of reform in housing is still encouraging, the experts and economists said. Despite some areas and departments having resorted. to the attitude of "wait-and-see" and even called a halt to housing reform, attributable to the April-June social unrest, 2G out of the country's 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions are still maintaining their endeavours adhering to the scheduled restructure.


  Out in the main metropolises, Beijing and Tianjin are experimenting with a reform scenario of "multiple directions", such as raising rents for public residential housing, encouraging urban residents to buy more State-built housing, arranging funds to build commercial high-rises, setting up housing deposit banks and the like.
  Shanghai, the largest city in China, is also drafting its blueprint to quicken the pace of its housing reform in keeping up with their housing requirements.


  In Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, an overall housing reform plan is beginning this month. The municipal government plan stipulates that all residents living in non-privately-owned houses, including those owned by the city's real estate administration departments and by State and collective units, will have to purchase their dwellings or rent them at a rate set by the government.
  The housing reform characterized by selling of housing and raising rents will be enormously conducive to the healthy development of China's economy in all sectors, some economists maintain.

　

            2. Why Is Housing Reform Necessary?

  During the past few years, the State has spent 30 billion yuan a year on building and maintaining houses and subsidizing rents. But as the investment produces little financial return and funds are tight, housing shortages still persist.
  According to calculations by the Leading Group of Housing Reform under the State Council, if only one half of the State-built houses nationwide are sold to urban residents, up to 200 billion yuan will be recouped, which can be further used as investments.to construct more residential dwellings or help the development of other industries.


  In this way, the abnormal circle of more house construction and heavier burdens for the State to shoulder will be resolved.
  Successful housing reform will have other beneficial effects on the society.
People buying their own houses will restrain the swelling of consuming funds and tighten the State,s grip on any panic buying.


  And last but not least, commercialization of housing would stop the practice adopted by some officials of abusing their position to obtain extra or larger houses.
However, the nationwide situation of housing reform is still rather critical. Last year, the government forecast of 80 cities mapping out their scenarios of housing reform was not reached.



          3. Tianjin Folks Can Buy Their Own Houses

  A double blessing descended upon Wang Jianpo, a worker at the Tianjin Machine Tool Plant, last month.
  He married a beautiful young girl and bought a two-room flat--a thing considered by many Chinese young men even harder than finding a wife.
  At the wedding ceremony, which took place in the new flat recently, Wang and his wife presented some wedding candies to the city leaders to express their gratitude for the government's efforts to build more housing for sale for local residents.
  The young couple is one of the 20, 000 households who moved into new houses built at their own expense last month.


  The State covered the expenses for infrastructures such as roads linking all the apartment blocks, waterworks and sewers. Nearby industrial enterprises financed construction of grain shops, groceries and parks.
  Construction costs were shared by the local government, would-be buyers and most local enterprises.
  "The method is a good way to speed up urban housing construction and tallies with the current consumption level of Chinese urbanites,"said a local government official.
There is no doubt that money collected from house sales will greatly relieve the shortage of funds for new construction, the official added.

　

                4. Housing Reform in Tianjin

  For a long time, China practised. a housing system under which work units were held responsible for housing their employees, who paid a nominal rent. Therefore, houses were regarded as State-funded welfare facilities rather than commodities.
  Tianjin is one of the 1? pilot cities chosen by the State Council to try out the practice of selling government-built apartments to individuals as part of the country's housing reform. The aim is to recover part of the construction cost for reinvestment in housing construction.


  The city I;as built houses for sale with a total floor space of 20 million
square metres over the past decade. This has helped raise the per capita living space of urban residents in the city to 6.4 square metres, double that of a decade ago.
  This year the city has built dwellings for sale totalling 500,000 square metres. Local residents raised 100 million yuan, the government invested 25 million yuan and local enterprises provided 75 million yuan to cover the cost of construction.
  The cost of every square metre averaged 300 yuan. The buyers pay 200 yuan for each square metre and the State covers the rest.


  Many Tianjin resi.dents are saving money and waiting for their turn to purchase new houses instead of spending more money on consumer durables, such as colour TV sets, refrigerators and video-recorders, as in the past.
  Many experts, officials and local residents have called for an extension of the "tripartite cooperation" in housing construction- financing by means of individual- raised funds with the help of the government and enterprises. This is because wholesale commercialization of housing won't work yet, as only a few people can afford to buy houses.
  The housing cooperatives have turned out to be a feasible way to get over the impasse. People are more keen to.invest in their own houses and the State has less of a financial burden.

Lesson 21

          Should People Be Promoted according to Ability?

                          Text

            Flattering the Boss Gets You Everywhere

  In the world of work, flattery will get you everywhere.
  Employees who flatter their bosses tend to receive better
evaluations and move more easily up the corporate ladder-whether they deserve to or not--said Gerald Ferris, management professor at Texas A and M University.
  "Based on what we have found, it looks to be the case that political skills are highly reinforced out there in the work place. It is the politically astute that are more often promoted," Ferris said in an interview.

  His conclusions are based on surveys of employees and supervisors takeri as part of his research into political behaviour in the office.
  "People tend to believe that flattery is just too transparent to be effective, but we have found that is not necessarily true. We have found a strong correlation between this type of behaviour and good evaluations," Ferris said.
  The reasons that flattery works are many, Ferris said, but most apparently have to do either with the boss's ego, or insecurity, or both.


  Some supervisors enjoy having their egos boosted by complimentary employees, while others simply need the reinforcement of consent, he said.
  "What we have found is that often bosses are new or unsure of themselves and need a lot of social reinforcement for their decisions. They might look at flattery as a sign that they are right, " Ferris said.
  The reasons employees flatter bosses vary, too, Ferris said. Ambition - the desire to move up the corporate ladder --is often behind the compiiments, he said.


  Also, many workers use flattery to obscure their laziness or incompetence.
  "We did find a big gap between some of the people doing this manipulation and those that did not. Many of these people (fla.ttering the boss) were not the high performers. They were doing it to cover up their shortcomings," he said.
  But if flatterers are not always top workers, they frequently are what social scientists call "high self-monitors", Ferris said.
  "Those are people who are highly attuned to and aware of their surroundings and know what to do to get a favourable response," he said.


  Fellow employees are not blind to what their colleagues are doing, Ferr'ss said. But, while they may disapprove, they usually do not tell the boss for fear of appearing jealous, he said.
  Flattery works best when the employee is saying something he or she really means, Ferris said. But sincere or not, it should be done in moderation.
  "If you overdo it or if you are not sincere and the boss catches on, it can mean trouble, " he said. "You have to be subtle and not take it too far. "
  One way employees can avoid appearing too flattering is to occasionally disagree with the boss on minor points, he said. In that way, the employee avoids being viewed as a "yes-man".


II. Read
  Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.
             
        1. People Should Be Rewarded according to Ability,
              Not according to Age and Experienc

  Young men and women today are finding it more and more necessary to protest against what is known as the "Establishment": that is, the people who wield power in our society. Clashes with the authorities are reported almost daily in the press. The tension that exists between old and young could certainly be lessened if some of the most obvious causes were removed. In particular, the Establishment should adopt different attitudes to work and the rewards it brings. Today's young people are ambitious.

Many are equipped with a good education and are understandably impatient to succeed as quickly as possible. They want to be able to have their share of the good things in life while they are still young enough to enjoy them. The Establishment, however, has traditionaly believed that people should be rewarded according to iheir age and experience. Ability counts for less. As the Establishment controls the purse-strings, its views are inevitably imposed on society. Employers pay the smallest sum consistent with keeping you in a job. You join the hierarchy and take your place in the queue. If you are young, you go to the very end of the queue and stay there no matter how brilliant you are.

What you know is much less important than whom you know and how old you are. If you are able, youf abilities will be acknowledged and rewarded in due course, that is, after twentj?or thirty years have passed. By that time you will be considered old enough to join the Establishment and you will be expected to adopt its ideals. God help you if you don't.


  There seems to be a gigantic conspiracy against young people. While on the one hand society provides them with better educational facilities, on the other it does its best to exclude them from the jobs that really matter. There are exceptions, of course. Some young people do manage to break through the barrier despite the restrictions, but the great majority have to wait patiently for years before they can really give full rein to their abilities. This means that, in most fields, the views of young people are never heard because there is no one to represent them. All important decisions about how society is to be run are made by people who are too old to remember what it was like to be young.


  Resentment is the cause of a great deal of bitterness. The young resent the old because they feel deprived of the good things life has to offer. The old resent the young because they are afraid of losing what they have. A man of fifty or so might say, "Why should a young rascal straight out of school earn more than I do?" But if the young rascal is more able, more determined, harder-working than his middle-aged critic, why shoutdn't he? Employers should recognize ability and reward it justly. This would remove one of the biggest causes of friction between old and young and ultimatley it would lead to a better society.

　

                    2. Officialdom

  Ancient Chinese reformers advocated selecting aiI talented people to be officiais regardiess of their #amily backgrounds. This practice is stiil significant, for it opposed appointing people by favouritism.
  But it is improper for us to think that the talented can only become officials, otherwise they are stifled.
  In the course of the current reform, China needs talented personnel in all trades. It is justifiable that talented personnei bring their ability into full play by becoming leaders.


  But the point is who can be considered talented? Some see the holders of senior professional titles are talented: some think of those who have college diplomas as taltented; some say that they are those who have made inventions or outstanding contributions to society.
  There would not be enough vacancies if all of these people were to become officials.
  It is unnecessary for all the talented to elbow their way into officialdom. They can strive to become experts in philosophy, science, literatore, art, history and education. There is never a limit to the number of experts in these fields.


  Albert Einstein was once invited by Israei to become its president. It was eonsidered a matter of course for Einstein to accept the invitation. But Einstein refused it bluntly and continued his physics study.
  I do not mean that talented people should not become officials at aII. But what I want to specify is that different people have different strengths, and that not everyone is capable of becoming an official. If people without leadership capacity are chosen as officials, they can only bungle things.


  Before Hou Yuzhu and Zheng Meizhu, two aces af the Chinese National Women's Volleyball Team, retired, they were asked by reporters if the government would assign them jobs in a leading body, just as it had done for some of their former teammates.
  Hou and Zheng, who shared the credit for the team becoming world champions, responded that they did not want to become officials, and that they wanted to study the knowledge and skills needed in society to keep abreast of its development.
  Their decision may be of some help to us.



          3. You Can Get Promoted Half a Grade if You Are
                Willing to Say:"Yes Sir, No Sir!"

  An unhappy victim of the consumer society is Mr.Batia, a fifty-two-year-old Indian journalist working in broadcasting. For him, however, the misery. is caused less by the nature of his work than by the competitive atmosphere which surrounds it.

  Mr. Batia: " I' m not interested in my job. I'm not being treated properly and there are many injustices. I just do honest work, but I do as little as I can. The atmosphere is very polluted. You can get promoted half a grade if you're willing to say: 'Yes sir, no sir!' I've been there twenty-three years, and I hate the whole mentality of the place. They treat me like a colonial. Tbey think I live in the colonies, but I've done things in jurnalism that have never been done before. I have a colleague who is half a grade up and when the boss is away he's supposed to officiate. I've had rows with him: I have a hot temper. I said to him: 'Lood, don't you try to boss me or one of us will end up on the floor. I've met good Englishmen and bad Englishmen, and you' re the worst Englishman I've ever met.'
  "I'm honest and outspoken and people don't like me. Nobody likes me. If.you are a crook you can get on well."

Lesson 22

      Should Capital Punishment Be a Major Deterrent to Crime?

                          Text

        Capital Punishment Is the Only Way to Deter Criminals

  Perhaps all criminals should be required to carry cards which read: Fragile: Handle with Care. It will never do, these days, to go around referring to criminals as violent thugs. You must refer to them politely as "social misfits". The professional killer who wouldn't think'twice about using his cosh or crowbar to batter some harmless old lady to death in order to rob her of her meagre life-savings must never be given a dose of his own medicine.He is in need of "hospital treatment". According to his misguided defenders, society is to blame.
A wicked s,pciety breeds evil - or so the argument goes. When you listen to this kind of talk, it makes you wonder why we aren't all criminals. We have done away with the absurdly harsh laws of the nineteenth century and this is only right. But surely enough is enough. The most senseless piece of criminal legislation in Britain and a number of other countries has been the suspension of capital puni'shment.


  The violent criminal has become a kind of hero-figures in our time. He is glorified on the screen; he is pursued by the press and paid vast sums of money for his "memoirs". Newspapers which specialise in crime-reporting enjoy enormous circulations and the publishers of trashy cops and robbers stories or "murder mysteries" have never had it so good. When you read about the achievement of the great train robbers, it makes you wonder whether you are reading about some glorious resistance movementg. The hardened criminal is cuddled and cosseted by the sociologists on the one hand and adored as a hero by the masses on the other, It' s no wonder he is a privileged person who expects and receives VIP treatment wherever he goes.


  Capital punishment used to be a major deterrent. It made the violent robber think twice before pulling the trigger. It gave the cold-blooded poisoner something to ponder about while he was shaking up or serving his arsenic cocktail. It prevented unarmed policemen from being mowed down while pursuing their duty by killers armed with automatic weapons. Above all, it protected the most , vulnerable members of society, young children, from brutal sex-maniacs. It is horrifying to think that the criminal can literally get away with murder. We all know that "life sentence" does not mean what it says.

After ten years or so of "good conduct" the most desperate villain is free to return to society where he will live very comfortably, thank you, on the proceeds of his crime, or he will go on committing offences until he is caught again. People are always will'sng to hold liberal views at the expense of others. It' s aiways fashionable to pose as the defender of the under-dog, so iong as you, personally, remain unaffected. Did the defenders of crime, one wonders, in their desire for fair-play, consult the victims before they suspended capital punishment? Hardly. You see, they couldn't, because all the victims were dead.




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

              1. Can You Turn Him into a Good Guy?

  "Why don't I give you a lift home if you live on the new estate?" "I'd appreciate that very much," he replied. I fetched my car from the parking lot and he got in with "Many thanks. " He said no more till we were well across the heath. Then, all of a sudderi, he turned to me and said, "Okay. Pull up here." "Here?" I queried. There was not a house in sight, and the weather was shocking. Anyway, I pulled up. The only thing I could remember after that was something thumping down hard on my head. I passed out. When I came to, I was sprawled in the ditch, soaked to the skin, my head pounding, my car gone and my pockets empty.


  I staggered off and eventually tumbled into the police-station to make a report. There was a light shining on the station wall and there, lit up, was a picture of my assailant. I had walked past it for the last seven days. I knew I had seen the face before. He was wanted by the police for armed robbery. I thanked my lucky stars it was not for murder. I looked at the name underneath the face, the face I will never forget. It was-er-it was-oh, bother! I can never remember names.

　

                2. Murderers Must Be Hanged

  Murderers are cruel sadistic monsters. They must be hanged. What they do puts them beyond the pale of humanity. They are not humans and therefore they cannot expect to be treated as humans. They must be made to see the error of their ways, and the only way of doing that is by hanging them.
  British justice is the finest in the world,but by.not imposing the death sentence people will think we are failing to punish crime justly. It is the principle of justice itself that is at stake. How can we claim to be a just nation if people who murder are not themselves executed? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is the very basis of justice.


  Some people claim that hanging is cruel, but it is more humane than the other penalties at present imposed. It is quick, and thanks to modern methods, painless. It is only th'e agitators who campaign against the death penalty who say it is cruel. The reality is that it is a kindness to the murderer. Far better to be hanged than to suffer the slow torture of life imprisonment vhich is in any case a burden on the long-suffering taxpayer.
  There are other objections to life imprisonment. There is the chance that the murderer may escape. He or she would then be free to murder again. Nor is life imprisonment what it says. It is. only a nominal sentence. In no time at all the murderer will be released. How can the ordinary person feel safe knowing that there are murderers on the prowl seeking their next victim?


  The crux of the matter is that only hanging acts as a deterrent to murderers. In the past, many a would-be murderer must have refrained from committing this heinous crime knowing that such an act would result in certain execution. Put yourself in his or her shoes. You would not commit murder knowing .that the penalty for so doing was death. It is the same with murderers.
  So-called liberals point to the experience of other European countries where the death penalty has ceased to exist. But what happens in those countries is no guide to what may happen here. It is our safety that is at risk, not theirs. Only the return of the death penalty can ensure that we can sleep safely in our beds.


 
              3. Mediation System Helps Deter Crimes

  Ye Chengmei of Guojiahe Town, Xinzheng County in central China's Henan Province, was beaten by her husband Pan Chenggong over a trifling matter.
  Ye's brother mobilized 14 young men with wooden sticks and spades to teach his brother-in-law a lesson. Hearing the news, Pan Chenggong organized more than 20 young men to fight back.
  At this critical moment, 59-year-old Ye Bingyan, a mediator, appeared and persuaded the men to stop the fight and sit down to talk. Under he mediator's persuasion and his discussion of the law, Pan admitted his wrongdoings and went to the home of his wife's parents to make an apology.


  This is one example of China's people's mediation system which has become a major method of settling civil disputes concerning marriage, family relations, housing, money and property issues.
  China now has more than 1 million mediation committees with over 6 million mediators. From 1982 to 1988, they settled 50 million civil issues, up to 10 times the number of cases went to court.
  In Henan Province alone, more than 287, 000 mediators from 53,642 people's mediation committees have dealt with 5,723,657 cases, preventing losses for 51,343 people.


  The mediators enjoy popular support and respect as they report fhe views, complaints and wishes of the populace to grassroots governments and pass alpng the goveinment principles, poIicies, laws and regulations to the masses.
  The villagers speak highly of Ye Bingyan's work. They say wherever and whenever disputes happen, Ye will be there. He has prevented 15 gang fights, saved the lives of 14 people threatened with homicide or suicide and also helped five couples reunite.
  Ye said the key to his work is concern and love for others.

　

　

                  4. Why Was She Set Free?

  An armed robber walked free from the Old Bailey after a kind-hearted judge heard how a nightmare attack she endured in London had turned her to crime.
  Rachet Farrington, of Maypole Road, Sheepbridge, Huddersfield, was only 16 when she left Yorkshire and went to London with her boyfriend.
  A year later she was threatening to shoot a gang of drug dealers while her accomplice, a hardened criminal, tied them up.
  The 19-year-old pleaded guilty to robbery, having an imitation firearm and aggravated burglary on July 5, 1986, but thejudge deferred sentencing for six months and told her to go home.


  "I had intended to impose a sentenee of two years in prison," said Recorder James Crespi, QC. "Your co-defendant was lucky to get only six years.
  "But I am reluctant to send you to prison. You were extremely young. You came to London and got involved with drug dealers. Go back to Yorkshire. Try to get a job and lead a sensible life."
  The judge was told that Rachel found herself involved in London's drugs underworld soon after she arrived.
  She met "a man involved with drugs " who became her new boyfriend, said her defence counsel, Mr.Stephen Leslie.

　


  Within a month the relationship had turned ugly and she finally left after a horrifying attack.
  "She bore a grudge, but because of things that had happened earlier she did not report it to police," said Mr. Leslie.
  Rachel found a new friend, Garnet Gibson, who proved equally dangerous. He was ten years older than her and had been in prison many times.
  When she told him what she had endured in the attack by her exboyfriend and his associates, Gibson told she could get her revenge and Rachel agreed.
  "Except for the grudge this was completely out of character and she was completely out of her depth," said Mr.Leslie.


  The coupie burst into a flat in North London, where Gibson, armed with an air-pistol, ordered Rachel to tie up the three men found inside.
  But the inexperienced girl did such a poor job of it that Gibson handed her the gun while he tied up the men.
  The victims soon realized Rachel was helpless despite her threats to shoot them and they fought back.
  She was biushed aside by one man and finally she just walked out of the flat and threw the gun away.
  Gibson was soon overpowered by the men and police were called in.

　


  Rachel admitted everything to police and was bailed, but she fled to Portugal and did not return until a month after Gibson's trial. He was jailed for six years in July last year.
  Rachel was rearrested as she entered Britain. Her mother had sent her the fare home so that she could return for medical treatmeot for a cyst.
  The court heard that Rachel was one of nine children and was from an "excellent" family.
  Her mother, Mrs. Mary Farrington, told the judge that her daughter had got out of hand after her father died of cancer and Rachel lost her job through illness.
  She said: "I have a home for her and the family is willing to help her in any way we can."

　

              5. Police Are Pals to Convicts

  It doesn't look like a jail at first sight. Situated in Jixi County in remote
northeastern Jilin Province, this prison has neither high walls nor electrified barbed wire to prevent prisoners from escaping.
  A small wooden fence around the compound looks like those around farmers' fields. Only the wofd "Cordon" printed on the planks suggest something unusual about the place.
  Since 1986 none of the several hundred male prisoners jailed here has tried to escape. And those who have finished their sentences seldom return to crime. The recidivism rate in only 0.5 per cent, much lower than the 3 per cent common in other Chinese prisons.


  Perhaps even more amazing is 80 per cent of the released inmates have become friends of their guards.
  Some ex-convicts have travelled many miles back to the prison to see Wang Hongwu, the head of the security police.
  One sent a bull of fine breed when he heard that a bull was badly needed in the prison.
  It was quite a different story when the prison was first set up years ago. The prisoners toed the line during the day but were hellions at night, stealing chickens from the farmers' cottages and causing all sorts of mischief .These acts precipitated many letters of complaint to the authorities from residents who had become vicitms.
  Then Wang stepped in. That was in 1984.


  To the prisoners' surprise, the 40-year-old security veteran used talk rather than punishment to restore discipline.
  Wang finaliy got to know most of the prisoners and their concerns. Many were afraid that their spouses would divorce them and their children would be left homeless. Many worried about their work and life after being released.
  Wang set out policies to reform his prisoners. He developed educa tion programmes tailor-made to each prisoner's specific case and family background. The prisoners were moved by his sincerity.
  A larcener was frightened when his wife asked for a divorce the first time she came to see him.


  "This is the last time we see each other, ?the wife said. "I sent the divorce papers to the court yesterday. I will return with our son to my hometown in Shandong Province tomorrow."
  Angry and disappointed, the larcener pretended to be indiffeient and said he agreed and that it didn't matter to him what she did.
  "I will find a better girl if I'm released," he told his sobbing wife.
  When she left he burst into tears. Wang came to his cell and asked why he cried since he had agreed to the divorce. The larcener confessed he could not live without his wife; he simply did not want to lose face before the other prisoners.


  Later on, Wang got to know that the couple loved each other deeply. The wife wanted a divorce because she felt embarrassed when she met his friends and was looked down upon by her mother-in-law since he was put in jail.
  Wang believed the man's reform would he harder to achieve if some solution to this dilemma wasn't found. He wrote to the larcener's brother-in-law, his wife's brother who was a middle-school teacher in Shandong Province, urging him to persuade his sister to change her mind.


  Ten days later, Wang received a letter from Wang's brother-in-law, saying that he would try to persuade his sister into taking back the divorce papers and waiting for her husband.
  Half a month later, the wife came with her son to the prison to see her busband and express her gratitude to Wang Hongwu.
  The larcenef pledged to reform and Wang said he would try to get him as early a release as possible.



              6. Second Chance : a Love Story

  Chen Surong and Zeng Xiangjie are factory workers in Shuicheng City, Guizhou Province. They seem like any other young Chinese couple: they have a two-year-old daughter, live in a two-room apartment and lead a quiet and uneventful life.
  It wasn't always this way.
  Chen Surong was a worker at a plastics factory in Yunnan Province when she met Zeng Xiangjie, who worked at a Guizhou cement factory, on a train in 1975. They fell in love at first sight.
  After two years of correspondence and occasional visits, the two decided
to get married.


  All the arrangements were made and just before Spring Festival in 1977, Chen waited for her fiance to come to Yunnan for the wedding. He never showed up, nor was there a letter of explanation.
  Ten days latcr, Chen decided she must go to Guizhou and find out what had happened.
  It was snowing heavily when she arrived at the Guizhou train station and the roads were slushy as she trudged off to the cement #actory.


  She found Zeng's dormitory and rapped on the door of his room. "Xiangjie, Xiangjie..." she called out, but there was no answer. Finally, she found a key and uniocked the door: the room was empty, messy and there was no quilt on his bed.
Confused, Chen stopped some passersby and asked them abont Zeng. They had never heard of him, they told her. At last, she found an old worker, who said: "You'd better go to the factory security department."


  The young woman ran to the security department of the factory, and was told that Zeng had been detained because "he had been stealing factory property."
  Chen couldn't believe her ears. But then she saw for herself. in the small detention room, Zeng Xiangjie squatted behind a locked door, and she knew it was true.
  "Xiangjie, what's the matter with you?" she asked him.
  He did not raise his eyes. He covered his face with his hands and wept.
  "Come on, what did you do?" Chen insisted.
  "I'm sorry... I deceived you. .. I am a guilty man, I'm ruined..." Zeng numbled as tears roiled down lais cheeks.
  Before she realized it, Chen was aiready out on the street, running madly for the railway station.


  For quite a while afterwards, she could not steep or eat. When she saw a letter from Zeng, she thcew it away, and then she burst into tears.
  It seemed to be an endless ordeal. But as she calmed down, Chen found she could not forget Zeng, or at deast the man she knew. Hadn't he been so kind and helpful at Guiyang train station? When he came to visit her, didn' t he always bring whatever she needed? Hadn't he seemed so smart and so considerate?
  Finally, Chen felt she must not lose Zeng but help him make a new beginning instead of severing the tie between them completely.

　


  She retrieved the letter she had thrown away. It was a short letter: "Surong, I'm sorry,for I have deceived you. Can you forgive me? I will start anew and be an honest man. You take my word for it..."
  The next day, Chen was back at the cement factory. She met Xiangjie and told him, "A young man should follow the right road, otherwise, he will never find true love."
  Zeng was released, but he was obsessed and worried that Chen might leave him at any time, or that he might be sent back to the public security bureau again. He could not concentrate on his work and as a result, broke three of his ribs in an accident.
  His factory leaders were very concerned about Zeng's injury, and often went to the hospital to see him. They also sent four young workers to attend to him in turn. During the time he was in the hospital, Chen was at his bedside holding his hand.

　


  Zeng was moved to teais. "I thought I was ruined," he said, "but now with your help and concern, I am confident that I can be an honest and good man again. When I recover, I'll work very hard to repay your kindness."
  Soon afterwards, Zeng recovered fully and as he had promised, came out of the hospital a different man. He was always the first to start work in his workshop and the last to leave. For two years, he never asked for leave and was awarded the title of an "advanced worker."
  In 1981, Zeng and Chen were finally married. Zeng's factory gave the newlyweds a two-room apartment, and Chen managed to transfer to her husband's factory.

Lesson 23

            Is It Necessary to Keep the "Iron Rice Bowl"?

                          Text

              Living Without the "Iron Rice Bowl"

  Since 1987, reform of the Chinese labour system has stepped out of the laboratory and into the real world of employment. For many, the " iron rice bowl " no longer exlsts. The " iron rice bowls " - a Chinese euphemism for government-assigned secure jobs that had been cherished for more than 30 years - were shattered.
  No accurate figure was available on how many workers have been laid off so far. But scattered reports offer a glimpse of the scope of unemployment.

  In 1987, State-owned enterprises in Hubei Province laid off 14, 000 workers. Last summer, 30, 000 people in Shanghai were receiving unemployment pensions.
  The inauguration of a labour market at the Shenyang Steel Pipes Factory in Liaoning Province went unheraldedno firecrackers, no marching band, no bursts of applause. Instead of gaiety, weeping was heard at the perimeter of a small crowd of about 50 people witnessing the event.


  Except for a few officials sitting at tables on the platform, everyone at the meeting had been laid off at the end of a work.optimization programme. They included labourers, cadres, technicians, Communist Party members, and even university graduates. The saddest were the eight ex-cadres who lost their executive jobs.
  Zhao yusheng, 46, was Party secretary of the No 2 workshop of the factory before he was laid off. He found another job on the labour market, loading and unloading trucks. He once served in the army and participated in battles. But this turn of events made him cry.


  "For more than 20 years I had been doing what the Party asked me to do, " he said. "Now on the labour market I find I do not have any skills. I can only become a truck loader."
  For more than 30 years, unemployment in China has been regarded as an evil which labour planners have tried to avoid at all costs,
  The planners were once quite complacent about the solution--the "iron rice bowl". They were confident that a policy of "low salaries and broad employment" would end unemployment in China forever.


  But the " iron rice bowl " system was a dead-end. Reluctantly,the planners.looked for another way.And even though it would cause pain and difficulties,they recommended
a system that would permit laying off incompetent staff. That, they felt, would increase efficiency and give ailing enterprises a new lease on life.
  For workers affected, lay-off is a bitter pill which some simply cannot swallow.
For more than 30 years, Chinese people have felt totally secure in their jobs. Now they are facing the possibility of losing their jobs, and many have reacted with panic and horror.


  Fu Gangzhan, director of the Economic Development Research Institute of the East China University of Chemistry, has studied China's labour problems for many years.
Two summers ago Fu and his colleagues conducted a survey of several thousand workers and entrepreneurs in Shanghai. Their purpose was to unveil the reality of unemployment in China.
  During the same period, economics professor Tao Zhaipu of the Zhongshan University in Guangzhou was also studying the employment actualities in China.


  They came to the same conclusion almost at the same time: unemployment exists and has always existed in China. They found that there was a core of unemployed numbering
between 15 million to 25 million people in the country. This range is almost the same as the entire populations of Australia and Canada.
  Ulike unemployment in developed countries, unemployment in China is generally hidden from view.


  The State spends 50 to 60 billion yuan (  $16.5 to  $ 18.9 billion ) each year in the form of salaries, bonuses and other benefits supporting "iron rice bowl" workers who never actually earn a penny for their employers. This expenditure accounts
for about 50 per cent of the profits handed over to the State by all the enterprises in the country.


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

              1. Breaking the "Iron Rice Bowl"

  In his effort to repair the damage of 30 lost years,Deng Xiaoping is abolishing what is called the "iron rice bowl" or "big-pot system", which guaranteed that workers and peasants shared equal rewards regardless of their contribution. In its place, he has introduced "production responsibility", which links remuneration to individual effort.


  The dramatic impact of these reforms is most evident in rural China, home to more than 80 percent of the country's 1.1 billion people. A visit to a township outside Wuxi tells the story. The commune there, like most throughout China, has been dismantled. Instead of being assigned to jobs by a team leader and drawing equal shares from a common revenue pool as in the gast, the peasants contract to work a piece of land and to deLiver a quota of products to the state at a fixed price.
What they produce above the quota they may keep for their own consumption or sel.l in a free market. They also are encouraged to caltivate bigger private plots and to engage in what are known as "sideline activities" to augment their incomes. The result is that the average household income has increased from about  $ 225 a year to  $ 350-- $400. The most enterprising can earn many times that sum.


  Lauded in the Chinese press as a model for all to follow is the chicken farmer who went into the egg business and amassed a fortune sufficient to enable her to buy China's first privately owned car, as well as two trucks for her enterprise.
  Everywhere the evidence of rising affluence - in Chinese terms-- is visible. In one town I visited, where hardly a new house had been built for 30 years, nearly 90 percent of the families have now moved into new accommodations. Most homes have radio-cassette players, and a majority have television sets acquired in the past year or so. Less than five years ago, such luxuries were unavailable.


  In Nanjing, once the capital of the kouomintang government, a visitor sees another.aspect of the personal incentive system. Business booms in a free market of hundreds of .individually operated stalls lining several narrow streets. On sale are vegetables, fruits, chickens and live fish and eels. Buyers are many. Peasant merchants charge what the market will bear and keep what money they get.
  Are Communist leaders worried that all of this will lead to the emergence
of a new class of rich peasants'? They insist they are not. "Some peasants prosper early, others will prosper later," says one official. I7eng puts it as a trickle-down theory: "Make some people rich first s0 as to lead all people to wealth."

　

              2. How It Feels to Be Out of Job

  Xu Peihua, 26, was fired from her job at the Shanghai No 5 Silk Knitting Factory in january 1987 after she became ill.
  The community committce where Xu lived was supposed to compensate her for 70 per cent of her medical expenses for one year after she left the factory. But after a year, her illness got worse.
  A Shanghai hospital refused Co take her in unless she paid a deposit of 10,000 yuan. After much negotiation with the hospital, she was taken in, after paying 5,000 yuan deposit.


  Her problems were not over. Her unemployment insurance expired and so she no longer received her 40-yuan monthly pension.She had nowhere to go to get compensation for her hospital fees. Xu needed money urgently, but no institutions would help.
  Xu's former employer, the Shanghai No 5 Silk Knitting Factory, said that their responsibility for her ended once she was fired. So they refused to give a penny.
  The Shanghai Labour Service Company, which has an unemployment pension fund of 20 million yuan at its disposal, could not help with the medical bills because Xu was no longer eligible for a pension.


  Neither could she receive assistance from the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs. Their welfare coverage extends to divorced people, single seniors, homeless youngsters, relatives of martyrs and soldiers in service, and disabled people. Xu did not fall into any of these categories, so she did not qualify.
  But not all jobless people share Xu's fate. A window may shut, but a door may open. A number of unemployed people have made a successful transition from "iron rice bowl" to working on their own or for private business.


  Li Chunying of t.he Shenyang Steel Pipes Factory was one of the few university graduates who lost her job. She had only worked there a year after she had graduated.
Before the reality of unemployment happened to her, she had only heard ahout such situations in countries like the United States or Japan where some university graduates, even a few with master's or doctor's degrees, could not find a job. ln China, university graduates were highly sought by enterprises.


  For four months, Li rode around Shenyang on her bike job-hunting. She wrote three examinations given by potential etnployers and at last got a jub at a research institute that urgently needed translators. It was a job she had long wanted and now was very happy to get.
  As Li's case shows, losing a job doesn't necessarily mean bad luck. It may even bring a better, more satisfying job.



              3. Job Changing Becomes a Fashion

  It used to be quite an embarrassing thing in China for a person to be dismissed by his or her employer. But things are different now.
  Take Beijing as an example. Many people now seek the opportunity to be sacked.
Last year, some 14, 000 people succeeded in leaving their work places by resigning or having their employers dismiss them. Many of them were the backbone of their enterprises, including skilled workers and college graduates just assigned to their work places.


  Enterprise leaders hold that many things account for the changing of jobs. Some people are not content with the situation in their work units; some are attracted by the higher income of self-employed workers and those who work for foreign interest- involved businesses.
  A woman used to work for a commerce college as a teacher in Beijing, but she found it more interesting to work for a corporation as an office worker.
  She said: "Satisfaction in my career is what I want."


  Not all of those who left their work units find new jobs instantly. They become frequent visitors to the labour market in the capital. Some are lucky and are well received, but some are not, especially those who do not have special professional skills.
  It is not unusual for some people to try to return to their original work units because they fail to find suitable new jobs.
  Some who quit enjoy a new success in their career. A street pedlar said, "I just regret I left the factory too late..." The pedlar wore a suit of Western-style clothes and apparently is well-off now.


  But another pedlar said that they earn money only through hardship. "We suffer coldness in winter and heat in summer, spending all day in open air." And he told a reporter that a pedlar who worked near him had returned to his original work unit because he found it too hard to be a self-employed worker.
  The frequent change of jobs among employees represents a challenge to the years-old job allocation system in China, revealing the fact that people have begun to pay attention to their personal values and have a sense of competition. The flow of personnel in the form of quitting old jobs to find new ones cannot be stopped by mere administrative means. Such a flow is inevitable in the development of a commodity economy.
  The problem can only be solved by further reform.



            4. A Traveling Man's Labour of Love

  Born in the Year of the Monkey according to the Chinese calender, Wang Haihe, 22, is considered by some people as having some of the characteristics of monkeys, such as being lively, nimble and good at climbing.
  Wang himself doesn't deny this, since he really can't stand a tranquil and unchanging life. He has been busy moving about since his childhood.
  Now, only a few years later, he has parlayed his energy and interests into a thriving travel business.


  As early as when he was in primary school, he and his family spent most of their holidays travelling to nearby mountain areas or to scenic spots in Jiangxian County, Shanxi Province.
  "Travelling has sometimes meant risk to me, and several times I was on the verge of death when I climbed onto overhanging cliffs," said Wang. "But this never stops me; in fact, it excites me."
  By the time when Wang graduated from high school, he had set foot on such famous mountains around the country as Taishan in Shandong Province, Huashan in Shaanxi, Hengshan in Hebei and Songshan in Henan. Of all the places he has been, he likes Mt. Huashan best. It is considered one of the most precipitous and dramatic mountains in the country.

　


  "I was there nine times," he said. "Each time I reached the summit, I shouted with excitement."
  But things went contrary to Wang's interests. He got a job in the local Finance Bureau and worked as a clerk after he graduated from high school.
  "From some people's point of view it is a good job, since it is easy, comfortable and safe, but for me it is intolerable," said Wang.
  After a few months, Wang quit his job, giving up the"iron rice bowl" of security, and on October 1 last year he opened a privatelyowned travel service, the first one in the province. It aims at arousing people' s interest in travel and helps them arrange tours, lodging, transportation, photo-taking, entrance tickets and so on.


  From information he had collected from newspapers and magazines, he learned that about 100, 000 people in the country every year come to visit the Guandi Temple, the most convenient scenic spot from Jiangxian County.
  "But very few people from the county came to the place, not because they had been there, but because most people ltere had no idea about travelling," said Wang. "Most of the youngsters here would think it is a waste of money to travel and thcy spend most of their money on food and clothes."?


  Wang put advertisements along streets to draw the iuterest of young pcuple.
  "From the time I was very young, I dreamed of touring the country's beautiful rivers and mountains," he said. "When I am out in nature, I always feel relaxed and become open-minded. Now that I have benefited a lot from travelling, I want more people to sha re my feeling, and do my best to help them and make their travel easier and more interesting."
  After being in business only a week, Wang organized his first group of youths --17 of tbem.


  "The trip is exciting and really economical, ?said one of the youngsters in the group. "We traveled to Mt. Huashan and Xi'an in Shaanxi Province for three days, an.d each of us only spent 65 yuan altogether."
  With good knowledge about the legends and historical information about various sites, and having rich experience in arranging trips, Wang soon won the trust of the local people. To his great satisfaction, more and more people in the county have begun to show an interest in travelling, and Wang's travel service has become very popular among young people there.
  "I am very happy with my work now. To me, the 'iron rice bowl' is actually an iron lock. I would rather live according to my own de.ires and reaiize my full potential," he said.

Lesson 24

          Does Fashion Contribute Anything to Society?

                          Text

            Make np, Dress up, Warm up, Brighten'up

  When 43-year-old Wang I.ongzhu stepped out of a beauty parlour in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province in East China, she felt all the people around were staring at her with admiration.
  She said, "Years ago, it would be unusual for a middleaged woman like me to make up because Chinese women who have married and raised children usually do not care much about their appearance.
  "When I came home and looked in the mirror, I found myself younger and I felt relaxed and confident," she added.

  Wang, an official of a pharmaceutical factory in Nanjing, believes a good appearance may leave people with a better impression in social contacts. She goes to the Nanjing Dongfang beauty parlour centre to have face massotherapy once a week.
  Founded three months ago, the centre has helped more than 100 middie-aged and older people to improve their appearance.
  Zhang Yahui, director of the centre, said, "Everyone gets old. But we can keep our youthful appearance longer through daily care."
  Middle-aged and older people in China are now breaking with the conventional idea and paying more attention to keeping fit and caring about their appearance.


  According to a shop assistant of the Taiping Department Store, who looks after a counter selling clothes specially for rniddle-aged and older people, more and more of her senior customers like to buy fashionable and bright-coloured clothes. The dark and grey uniforms which used to be popular among old people are now unsellable.
  He Minsheng, director of a city committee looking after affairs concerning the aged, said that when people are getting old, they often begin to feel useless and lose interest in life. The purpose of the committee is to help them overcome these iroubles.


  He said the city has set up more than 400 recreational and sports organizations to promote various activities for older people.
  Early in the morning, old people can be found performing disco, qigong(a system of deep breathing exercises) and other exercises in gardens and parks.
  However, not all middle-aged and older people in China openly express their views about their wish to remain in good physical condition.
  A reporter from a local weekly aimed at senior citizens complained that about 1, 000 people signed for a recent healthcare exercise training course, but few of them are willing to be interviewed. The reporter said, "Maybe these people are still afraid of being laughed at.



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

      1. "New Fashions in Clothing Are Created Solely for the
              Commercial Exploitation of Women

  Whenever you see an old film, even one made as little as ten years ago, you cannot help being struck by the appearance of the women taking part. Their hair- styles and make-up look dated: their skirts look either too long or too short: their general appearance is, in fact, slightly ludicrous. The men taking part in the film, on the other hand, are clearly recognizable. There is nothing about their appearance to suggest that they belong to an entirely different age.


  This illusion is created by changing fashions. Over the years, the great majority of men have successfully resisted all attempts to make them change their style of dress. The same cannot be said for women. Each year a few so-ca lled "top designers" in Paris or London lay down the law and women the whole world over rush to obey. The decrees of the designers are unpredictable and dictatorial. This year, they decide in their arbitrary fashion, skirts will be short and waists will be high; zips are in and buttons are out . Next year the law is reversed and far from taking exception, no one is even mildly surprised.


  If women are mercilessly exploited year after year, they have only themselves to blame. Because they shudder at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion, they are annually blackmailed by the designers and the big stores. Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be discarded because of the dictates of fashion. When you come to think of it, only a woman is capable of standing in front of a wardrobe packed full of clothes and announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear.


  Changing fashions are nothing more than the deliberate creation of waste. Many women squander vast sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn. Women who cannot afford to discard clothing in this way, waste hours of their time altering the dresses they have. Hem-lines are taken up or let down; waist-lines are taken in or let out; neck-lines are lowered or raised, and so on.


  No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society. Fashion designers are rarely concerned with vital things like warmth, comfort and durability. They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort, providing they look right. There can hardIy be a man who hasn,t at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shivering in a flimsy dress on a wintry day, or delicately picking her way through deep snow in dainty shoes.


  When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion, the conclusions to be drawn are obvious. Do the constantly changing fashions of women's clothes, one wonders, reflect basic qualities of fickleness and instability? Men are too sensible to let themselves be bullied by fashion clesigners. Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability? That is for you to decide.

　

          2. For Fashion-mad Youth Money Is No Object

  Young women in Beijing are showing a new look in fashions this year. They are wearing elegant long trouser-like skirts and loose pantalets with a connected top, both made of colourful satin, silk and polyester
  As a popular saying among young people in the capital nowadays goes - "Fashion for women and labels for men."
  Fashion had been lang neglected in Beijing. During the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), the city was filled with people clad in blue, grey, black and green. Army uniforms were the norm. Green caps, suits and coats were in vogue.
  But no longer. The drab look is no more.


  Wherever there are shops, there are some that sell the latest fashions in garments a,nd shoes. Street pedlars and private clothing store owners have been trying to collect new designs from all over the country and to put them on display in ihe markets as soon as possible.
  Prominent Beijing garment companies such as Blue Sky, Leimeng and Zaocun have been replaced in popularity by Smart Garments Lrd, Wacoal Co. I.td. and De-Carty, all of which are joint ventures. Although their clothes are much more expensive than those in ordinary shops, they are selling very well.


  In the bus:tling night market of Xidan, one of the busiest shopping centres in Beijing, a young woman was heard commenting on a dress marked at 319 yuan.
  "It would cost three months of my salary, but it's really beautiful," she said. "It's very difficult for people like me who are living on fixed salaries to find som.ething satisfactory. What we like is extremely expensive, and what we can afford we dislike."
  A young woman shop assistant said she was attracted to a beautiful skirt one day, but gave up buying it because one of her colleagues had one just like it.
  "I want to be different," she said.


  Nike, Adidas and other world-famous sportswear and shoes have become fashionable among young men who are eager to be with the incrowd. A pair of shoes can set them back 160 yuan, more than a month's salary.
  "Young peop(e nowadays spend money like they had a hole in their pocket," said an elderly shop assistant. "They buy whatever they like regardless of the price.
  "I'm not against dressing well, but you have to survive."


  On the fourth floor of the Wangfujing Department Store, a young man chose a 398-yuan dress for his girlfriend.
  "Since I run a beauty salon, I have no problem affording a coat like this," the man said casually. "Nowadays people like to start new things to distinguish themselves," a sociologist commented. "It is a psychological breakthrough. People try to preserve their own value and their personality."

              3. Hong Devoted to Fashion Career

    Fashion designer Hong Xia is a woman. with a mission in life:she hopes to turn Guangzhou into a fashion centre rivalling Paris, Milan, Tokyo, New York and Hong Kong.
    Hong, now a designer at Guangzhou University, staged a solo fashion show in 1986, held fashion lectures and night-schools and published articles on fashion. She then went on to teach at Guangzhou University in 1988 and is now writing a book describing the Guangzhou fashion world.


    Her career in fashion started when she was enrolled in the Central Academy of Arts and Designs in Beijing in 1981. Before that, she had been a mechanical worker for eight years after graduating from middle school in 1973 in Guangzhou.
    "Fashion design had just started its rise in popularity at the time I was studying in Beijing," she said. "It was fascinating because it was new."
    She was attracted to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone two years later when she graduated and went to an area where large-scale construction was underway and the pace of everyday life was quickening.


    One year later, after gaining experience in all aspects of clothes eduction, she received her first designing assignment: for a batch of summer clothes.
    "I don't know how to describe my feelings for my first independent designs," she said. "t1 lot of questions came to mind which I never thought of at school: What should I design? What materials should I use? What colours should I choose? What styles will be popular? All this forced me to begin a market survey."
    It came as a bit of a surprise when she saw her summer fashions welumed by customers. For the first time, she blended the needs of the narket with her own designs.


    In Shenzhen, Hong benefited from watching Hong Kong TV and reading the latest fashion magazines from all over the world to keep pace uith international trends. Her big chance came when she joined the nahonal "Adult Spring-Autumn Fashion Designs Competition" sponsored by China Fashions Magazine and Central Television in 1985.
    Hong was one of the five major winners thanks to her unconventional women's fashion designs.


    But the private fashion market in Guangzhou is to date only a duplication and sales centre of new overseas fashions, according to Hong Xia. "It is active in buying and selling the latest styles form Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan but weak in designing its own styles, ?she said.
    The potential for the sale of fashion goods throughout China has stimulated the development of the city's fashion market. Hundreds of stores selling world-brand clothes have sprung up.


    Customers to these stores, she said, are mainly people from art circles,management personnel and young women working in hotels and offices. Prices range from 100 to 4, 000 yuan. People involved in the fashion business in Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian and Qingdao are also frequent customers.
  "Although at present you seldom see styles designed by the city, s own designers, Guangzhou is gradually becoming a Hong Kong-style fashion market with Ihe appearance of these fashion stores," she said.
    An obvious disadvantage for Guangzhou to develop into a fashion centre is the lack of its own fashion designers, and people in the city do not have the dress sense to appreciate fashion designs.


    Realizing this, Hong decided to teach.
    "I thought I should do my best to let more people know something about fashion designing by holding fashion shows, lectures and nightschools," Hong said.
  "That was a turning point in my career," she said. "It paved my way towards success."
    Hong Xia now has 25 students in her class in Guangzhou University for a two-year course. She teaches them not only the fashion theories but tells them about her own experiences as a designer and as a privare businessperson.
  Hong has already seen the achievements of her teaching. In a national Youth Fashion Designs Competition nine of her students were chosen as excellent winners and one of her students received the first award.


    As a fashion designer and a business woman,'Hong Xia has sold her works to fashion businesses in the United States, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong.
  "Now I am looking forward to setting up a private fashion company to design fashions for foreign people staying in Guangzhou," she said."I'm working hard on it."



            4.Jewellery Shining Once Again in China

    Strolling through nearly every city, you can find jewellery shops and women wearing necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets.
    "Things have changed dramatically," said a middle-aged woman who had just bought a diamond ring at a jewellery exhibition held by a small arts and crafts store in Beijing's Chaoyang District.


    "I'm the kind of woman who loves dressing up more than anything else, " she said. "But to my great regret, during the 'cultural revolution,' when I was a young woman,     I couldn't make myself beautiful. by wearing fashionable clothes and beautiful jewellery. Now I am happy to have a chance to wear jewellery again now that it is becoming popular in China."
    People, both young and old, women and men, have begun showing new interest in jewellery, especially since 1982, when the government reopened its domesitc gold market after it was shut down for 21 years. But different people think of jewellery in different ways.



                                                              Recompense

    Fu Cong, 60, a retired man in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, spent 700 yuan he had saved up for a couple of years to buy his wife a gold wedding ring for her 58th birthday.
    "I consider it a recompense," he said. "When we were married 30 years ago, I had neither the money nor the idea to buy her a wedding ring since in the 1950s, a gift like this would have been considered wasteful and bourgeois."
    Overjoyed at wearing the precious gift her husband gave her, his wife said that she has taken the ring as a good sustenance and hopes that their marriage will last forever.


  "Wearing rings, earrings, necklaces and other ornamental jewels was very popular when I was a child," she said. "My ears were pierced a few days after I was born as were most little girls' at that time, and I began wearing a pair of earrings when I was a child."
    She said that she never had a necklace or a ring because wearing jewellery was no longer done when she grew up, and people were criticized for wearing jewels.
Wang Weilan, another woman in Hohhot, has another view toward jewellery.
    A few months ago, she spent several thousand yuan on a gold ring and a pair of earrings.


    "I would rather rely on gold and jewels than on paper currency for protection against price increases," she said. "Although I've put some of my money in a bank, I'm still afraid of devaluation."
 
                                                      Wealth

  For many elderly people, jewellery is no longer an ornament to enhance beauty but a symbol of wealth or a memento. So they pay less attention to the external design and care much more about intrinsic value.


  But most who wear jewellery thess days do so for beauty's sake.
  "Even a few years ago, I considered jewellery a luxury. Ipreferred durable consumer goods, like colour televisions, refrigerators and highgrade furniture. Now that I have these things I think of jewellery as a necessity, " said He Ming, a 24-year-old Beijing woman.


  Cheap, imitation gold and ivory rings and necklaces were very popular a couple of years ago and had a special appeal to young women with low incomes. They liked gilt necklaces and earrings, because they look like the real thing but were much cheaper.
  But with expanding jewellery markets, the introduction of foreign products and rising living standards, many people, especially young women, have become more selective and are no longer satisfied with traditional designs of rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets. And they're paying great attention to value as well.

Lesson 25

            Do Advertisements Play a Positive or
                Negative Role in Our Society?

                          Text

          People Change Their Attitudes towards Ads

  One night, when television began broadcasting a boring TV show, I said to my wife, "The programme is even less interesting than the advertisements, or commercials. Let us have a change.
  My wife, who happened to have a remote control in her hand, consented immediately, switched to another channel and enjoyed an advertisement of riee flour with me. Just at the moment, I found that we were no longer as disgusted with the commercials as we had been before.

  The next day when I told my experience to my colleagues, they, to my surprise, all had the same feeling. A few even sang several of the commercials songs.
A few years ago, when advertisements began to appear in the Chinese media, most people, including myself, were against the practice. Some sighed: "The socialist TV, newspapers have started imitating the Western bourgeois media too!"
  What has changed the audience's mentality in only several years' time?


  First, Chinese advertisements have improved their advertising techniques. At the beginning, the language of advertisements was simple, the music insipid and the images coarse and crude. Later, some better foreign advertisements came to Chinese TV and newspapers.
  "Where there is a mountain, there is a road; where there is a road, there is a Toyota." The words of the Japanese advertisement publicizing the Toyota car are very absurd but impressive and easy to memorize. " Nestle coffee is tasty indeed." The American advertisement promoting the sale of the Nestle brand coffee has become a new household phrase in China.


  Gradually, Chinese advertisements also have learned how to dress themselves up. They have strange and humorous associations, charming, deep male voices, colourful images and songs that are pleasing to the ear and easy to learn.s For these reasons, the commercials for Santana cars, Fud colour film and Orient beverages have successfully attracted a TV audience.


  Second, life needs advertisements. Everything in modern society is linked to information, while the main function of advertisements is to disseminate information on commodities, service, culture, employment, student enrollment and even marriage.
  Of course, one can obtain such information by listening to hearsay and making on- the-spot investigation, but the information provided by advertisements in doubtless the most direct, comprehensive and detailed.


  As society advances, people's demands have become more and mone diversified, and the commodities and service provided by society have also become more and more diversified.
  On the other hand, as living tempo quickens, people have less leisure time. If they want to spend time finding suitable commodities, service and employment opportunities, they have to rely on advertisements. So, unconsciously, people
have changed their hatred for advertisements to an acceptance and utilization of them.


  But, due to certain conditions in China, the Chinese do not have a great need for advertisements for the time being. That is because Chinese economy is not highly developed,and the supply of many commodities falls short of consumers' demands. So the more consumers see the advertisements, the angrier they become.
  Second, people's living pace has not quickened to the extent that they have no time to go shopping leisurely. Many can even find time to walk the streets during their work hours. There is no need for them to read "the shopping directory".
There are even fewer people depending on advertisements to seek employment, for there is not much flow of the labour force.


  Earlier this year, I discovered that the annual business volume of a US advertising corporation was as high as  $ 6 billion, more than 12 per cent of that of China's exports last year. I was really taken aback to find that an advertisement corporation-had developed to such an extent.


  It is said that advertising is indispensable to the lives of people in developed countries. Without exception, people read advertisements before going shopping or looking for jobs. It is against this social background that advertising has developed
so much in these countries.
  An idea comes to me: As the economy develops, advertisements may finally penetrate every corner of our life. The day will come when all Chinese will realize that advertising is essential to all of us.




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

              1. The Function of Advertisement

Robert:   We're having a debate on advertising tomorrow and I have to take part.
Mr.Lee:   That's interesting. I should like to hear what young people think about
  advertising.
Robert:   Well, we wouldn't know what there was to buy if we didn't have
  advertisements.
Mr.Lee:   Yes, that's true-up to a point. Advertisements provide information
  that we need. If someone has produced a new article, naturally the
  seller wants to tell us about it.
Robert:   Yes, and advertisements tell us which product is the best.
Mr.Lee:   Do they? I don't think so. Every manufacturer says that his product
  is the best, or at least tries to give that impression. Only one can be
  the best,so the others are misleading us, aren't they?
　

Robert:   Well, in a way, I suppose, but we don't have to believe them, do we?
Mr.Lee:   Are you saying that advertisements aren't effective? I don't think that
  intelligent businessmen would spend millions of dollars on advertising if
  nobody believed the advertisements, do you?
Robert:   Perhaps not, but after all, it' s their money that they're spending.
Mr.Lee:   Is it? I think not. The cost of advertising is added to the price of the
  article. You and I and all the other people who buy the article pay for
  the advertising!
Robert:   Well, I suppose we get something for our money -- some information.
Mr.Lee:   Yes, but don't forget it's often misleading information, and sometimes
  harmful.
　


              2. Advertisers Perform a Useful
                  Service to the Community

  Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they' re always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much money to throw around. "It's iniquitous," they say, "that this entirely unproductive industry ( if we can call it that ) should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don't they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods? After all, it's the consumer who pays...


  The poor old consumerl He'd have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn't create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get the wrong idea if.we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform . A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing-machine, it is more than likely you would obtain details regarding performance, price, etc. from an advertisement.


  Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too! Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway bye-laws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely- printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities.


  We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution
to our pockets. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without this source of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full pricel

　

  Another thing we mustn,t forget is the "small ads" which are in virtually
every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service hey perform for the communityl Just about anything can be accomplished hrough these columns. For instance, you can find a job, or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the "hatch, match and dispatch" columns; but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or "agony" column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human ature. It,s the best advertisement for advertising there is!

　

            3. Some Ads May Be Too Good to Be True

  Advertisements for vocational training courses are seen all over China owadays. But not all of them are reliable.
  A spare-time training school affiliated with the Tiexi District library in Shenyang offered a hairdressing course nine times from October 1987 to April 1988, attracting a total of 1,628 students. The eighth term was attended by 348 students. But afterwards, 100 of them sued the school, charging that they had been cheated with false advertising.


  The ad had stated that two well-known hairdressers from Hong Kong, one of them a woman, would teach the class and that a third from Shenzhen and a fourth from Guangzhou would also teach. But as turned out, one of the "Hong Kong hairdressers" was a man from Henan Province who had been living in Shenyang since his marriage, and the woman hairdresser was from Guangzhou. The one from Shenzhen never materialized.
The ad also stated that a Hong Kong beauty salon would provide textbooks for the students. But the texts turned out to be only pamphlets rinted by a jobless young man.


  The ad promised to provide an official ertificate from the city' s education bureau at the end of the course, but the seal on the certificate was that of the school.
  The ad said that a spacious and well-furnished classroom would be provided, but a small and dilapidated room which could hold no more than 100 people was used instead.
A conference room was added, but half of the students still had to stand during the lectures.


  The school took a group photo of all 348 students on the first day of the course and started to hand out certificates the following day. A total of 160 certificates were sent out in 20 days, loag before the students completed the course.
  As a result of the suit, the library was fined 15, 000 yuan and the jobless young man had to pay 2,000 yuan.
  The proliferation of vocational training courses in China has given rise to a proliferation of related advertisements - in newspapers and on radio and television. A study of a locai newspaper by Shenyang's Industrial nd Commercial Bureau found that from January to March 1988 the paper ran 220 advertisements and that 99 of them, or 45 per cent, were for vocatoinal training courses.


  With flowery phrases and possibly empty promises, these advertisements re often tempting to those who want to get rich quick.
  In most cases, the shorter the vocational training courses, the easier they appear and the sooner the enrollees hope they can start earning money with what- they learned in class. So, naturally, the ads for short courses are all the more tempting.
Who could resist an ad like this:


  "Want to learn the most updated technique of making detergent? You need no equipment except four tubs. Attend our course, and within a week you will learn how to produce 150 kilograms and earn more than 150 yuan a day."
  The eagerness with which many people rush to attend vocational training courses in the belief an easier life awaits them afterwards leaves them vulnerabIe to cheating.
  In 1987, a man from a rural area in Shenyang who was anxious to make money met the manager of a soap factory. By various illicit means, he got hold of the business license and the seal of the factory. He decided to open a training course on soap and detergent production under the factory's name and to charge a tuition fee of 200 yuan from each applicant.


  He advertised in newspapers read by farmers in Liaoning, lilin and Heilongjiang provinces. He immediately received applications from 100 people from 60 counties. The man pocketed 20,000 yuan in tuition fees, but never gave the course. He endcd up in jail for fraud, and the factory's business license was revoked.

              4. Fake Advertising Seeks the Gullible

  Want to make gasoline and diesel fuel in your own home?
  Want to have the capacity to drink a thousand shots of booze without being tipsy?
  Want to add three centimetres a month to your height?
  Sounds ridiculous? These impossible dreams have been offered to people in this country. And they are just a few examples of the false advertising that has become one of the major problems hounding a modernizing Chinese society.


  Last year, the Chinese Consumers ' Association alone received 55,871 complaints about the deceptive advertising, more than doubling the figure for 1987.
  In spite of repeated crackdowns their numbers are still increasing each year, according to officials with the State, Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC).
  Fake advertising, which appears mostly in print media, cheats consumers, and in some serious cases, threatens gullible people's lives.


  As part of the latest campaign against phoney hucksters this year,the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce has just forbidden all publications to carry the column called "Tips on how to get rich. " Though many people have learned about a product or a technology through the column, much of the information in the column is provided by swindlers.
  For instance, after a private school advertised that it was offering a course on how to make fluorescent lamp tubes at home, a farmer from Jilin Province came to Beijing to learn the skills.


  However, after spending 30, 000 yuan of family savings, the farmer didn't produce a single tube. Realizing the whole tbing was a hoax, the bankrupt farmer repeatedly attempted suicide.
  According to SAIC officials, there are several reasons for the rampant
fake advertising.
  First, some enterprises, especially township and private ones, use fake advertising to push sales of their substandard or fake products.


  Sheng Xincheng, a private businessman in Xinjiang, advertised for his "fine cow-hide shoes." Customers outside Xinjiang sent him 180,000 yuan(  $48,000) only to get back inferior plastic shoes.
  Second, many newspapers, magazines and other media take the advertising because they need the money and don't care about the ethics of the ad's contents.
  Third, China does not have effective laws and regulations to prevent such advertising.
       


          Gifts from heaven -- Jahn's Slimming Cream

            5. The Language of Advertising

              1

  Some products are advertised as having a remarkable and immediate
effect. We are shown the situation before using the product and this is contrasted with the situation that follows its use. Taking a tablet for a headache in such advertisements can have truly remarkable results. For not only has the headache gone, but the person concerned has often had a new hair-do, acquired a new set of clothes and sometimes even moved into a more modern, betterfurnished house.

              2

  One thing reminds us of another - especially if we often see them together. These reminders are sometimes more imaginary than real: for some people snow may suggest Christmas, for others silver candlesticks may suggest wealth. Theadvertiserencourages us to associate his productwith those things he thinks we really want -- a good job, nice clothes, a sports car, a beautiful girlfriend -- and, perhaps most of all, a feeling of importance. The "image" of a product is based on these associations and the advertiser often creates a "good image" by showing us someone who uses his product and who leads the kind of life we should like to lead.

              3

Advertisements often encourage us to believe that because someone has been successful in one field, he should be regarded as an authority in other fields.
The advertiser knows that there are certain people we admire because they are famous sportsmen, actors or singers, and he believes that if we discover that a certain well-known personality uses his product, we will want to use it too. This is why so many advertisements feature famous people.

              4

  Maybe we can' t always 6elieve what we' re told , but surely we must accept what we're actually shown The trouble is that when we look at the photograph we don't know how the photoraph was taken, or even what was actually photographed. Is that delicious-looking whipped cream really cream, or plastic froth? Are the colours in fact so glowing or has a special filter been used?
  It is often difficult to tell, but you can sometimes spot the photographic
tricks if you look carefully enough.

              5

  If you keep talking about something for long enough, eventually people will pay attention to you. Many advertisements are based on this principle.
  If we hear the name of a product many times a day, we are much more likely to find that. this is the name that comes into our head when the shopkeeper asks "What brand?" We usually like to choose things for ourselves, but if the,advertiser plants a name in our heads in this way he has helped to make the choice for us.6 In this age of moon flights, heart transplants and wonder drugs, we are all impressed by science. If an advertiser links his claim with a scientific fact, there's even a chance we can be blinded by science. The question is simply whether the impressive air of the new discovery or the "man-made miracle" is being used io help or just to hoodwink us.

              7

  Advertisers may try to make us want a product by suggesting that most people, or the "best"people, already use it and that we will no doubt want to follow them. No one Iikes to be inferior to others and these advertisements suggest that you will be unless you buy the product.

              8

  The manufacturer needs a name for his product, and of course helooks for a name that will do more than just identify or label: he wants a name that brings suitable associations as well -- the ideas that the word brings to mind will help sell the product.

              9

  Most advertisements contain certain words ( sometimes, but not always, in bold or large letters, or beginning with a capital letter) that are intended to be persuasive, while at the same time appearing to be informative. In describing a product, copy-writers insert words that will conjure up certain feelings,associations and attitudes. Some words--"golden", for example - seem to have been so successful in selling that advertisers use them almost as if they were magic keys to increase sales.

              10

  Advertisers may invoke feelings that imply you are not doing the best for those you love most. For example, an advertisement may suggest that any mother who really loves her children uses a certain product. If she does not, she might start to think of herself as a bad mother who does not love her family. So she might go and buy that particular product, rather than go on feeling bad about it.

Lesson 26

        Does Divorce Represent Social Progress?

                        Text

            Divorces-a New Social Phenomenon in China

  Divorce used to be very rare in our country. In old times it was not necessary for a man to divorce his wife as he could easily marry another or many others. But women were expected to suffer in silence, and for those who could not, suicide
was the only way out. Despite the new marriage laws after Liberation, women still found the feudal conventions too strong for them to break away from. The film The Well drove home this point only too well.

  It's only in the past decade, ever since our opening up to the outside world, that things are really beginning to change. The following story, dramatic as it sounds, is a true and far from unique story of our times.
  Thirty-year old Xia Yafang used to work in a research institute in Shanghai. Like most young people of her age her ambition was to go abroad and somehow she managed to land herself in Japan. She started to work as a casual labourer in a tourist company in Tokyo. Because of her industry and exceptional ability, and also partly due to chance, she worked herself up to the position of assistant-manager. A brilliant career lay ahead of her and her future looked ever so bright.


  When all seemed to be plain sailing Xiao Xia suddenly lost her peace of mind when she found the admiring eyes of the manager constantly fixed on her. The message the eyes sent out was too obvious to be mistaken. She read in them admiration, love and desire. She could not remain unmoved, but she was caught in a dilemma. She had a husband at home and also a little son. So when the manager formally proposed to her she naturally told him that the whole thing was impossible as she already had a happy little family. But nothing could put the manager off. So deep was his love for her. He pressed his suit and wanted her to divorce her husband and marry him instead. If she had been a single woman she would have accepted him without any hesitation. Now she did not know what to do.


  The manager gave her a fortnight's leave to go home and talk things over with her husband. If he agreed to let his wife go, the manager would pay him a substantial sum as compensation, and also make arrangement for their son to be brought up and settle in Japan.
  When she stepped down from her plane at the airport in Shanghai, she immediately spotted her husband with their child in his arm waiting in the crowd. When she saw him pushing his way through the crowd towards her, tears welled up in her eyes and she started to sob uncontrollably.


  In the days that followed, she was overwhelmed by her husband's loving care and tenderness. She just could not bring herself to talk about a divorce. In the end she left Shanghai without mentioning a word about her manager and his offer.
  But that was not the end of the affair. The manager just would not give her up. He decided to come to Shanghai in person and talk to her husband direct. For the first three days he behaved as if there was nothing between him and Xiao Xia. He let the couple take him around in Shanghai, having a nice time like any other tourist. In the process he managed to win the husband's friendship and trust. Then on the third night he invited the husband to his room in his hotel alone. There he put the whole thing to him openly and frankly, disguising nothing. The shock for the husband can well be imagined.


  He went home to his wife in a dazed state of mind. He didn't mention a word to his wife about his conversation with her manager. There was no need to. She didn't say anything either. She just gave him time to sort things.out for himself.
  When the initial shock was over, he started to do some clear thinking and cool calculation. His wife no longer loved him, at least not undividedly as before. Even if he should forcibly keep her, the shadow of the manager would always stand between them. She would have a much better future with the manager who could offer her much more than he could ever hope to offer. And their son, too, would have a much better future in that fabulously rich land.

Yes, he must admit it, he was thinking for himself too. The "compensation" the manager offered him was an astronomical figure. With it he could say good-bye to poverty for ever. He could even buy a luxury apartment, a car, and find a beautiful young wife... And so his feeling of loss, his wounded pride gave way to a new found equilibrium.
  After the necessary procedure of a divorce and her arrangements and application for another marriage, he saw his former wife and her future husband to the airport. What went through his mind as he watched their retreating figures walking
towards the plane?


  Xiao Xia's story was carried in Shanghaz Legal World. While refraining from moralizing himself, the writer asks the readers to draw their own moral and ethical conclusions. I know many similar cases involving people close to me. In fact I had to act as the legal representative for one. The woman in the office that handled the case told me that such divorce cases ( involving one party that has gone abroad ) are very common. So long as no questions of property or care of children are involved, divorces are granted without any questions asked.




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

                  1. On Splitting

  One affternoon recently, two unrelated friends called to tell me that, well, their marriages hadn't made it. One was leaving his wife for another woman. The other was leaving her husband because " we thought it best."
  As always after such increasingly common calls, I felt helpless and angry. What had happened to those solemn vows that one of the couples had stammered on a steamy August afternoon three years earlier? And what had happened to the joy my wife and I had sensed when we visited the other couple and their two children last year, the feeling they gave us that here, in this increasingly fractionated world, was a constructive union?


  I did not feel anger at my friends personally: Given the era and their feelings, their decisions probably made sense. What angered me was the loss of years and energy. It was an anger similar to that I feel when I see abandoned faundations of building projects - piled bricks and girders and a gash in the ground left to depress the passerby.
  When our grandparents married, nobody except scandalous eccentrics
divorced. "As long as we both shall live?was no joke. Neither was the trepidation brides felt on the eves of their wedding days. After their vows, couples learned to live with each other-- not necessarily because they loved each other, but because they were stuck, and it was better to be stuck comfortably than otherwise.


  Most of the external pressures that helped to enforce our grandparents' vows have dissolved. Women can earn money and may enjoy sex, even, bear children, without marrying. As divorce becomes more common, the shame attendant on it dissipates. Some divorcees even argue that divorce is beneficial, educational, that the second' on third or fifth marriage is "the best". The only reasons left to marry are love, tax advantages, and, for those old-fashioned enough to care abour such things, to silence parental kvetching.


  In some respects, this freedom can be seen as social progress. Modern couples can flee the corrosive bitterness that made Strindberg's marriages
night-mares. Dreiser's Clyde Griffiths might have abandbned his Roberta instead of drowning her.
  In other respects, our rapidly-rising divorce rate and the declining. marriage rate (as more and more couples opt to forgo legalities and simply Iive together) represent a loss. One advantage of spending a lifetime with a person is seeing each other grow and change. For most of us, it is possible to see history in the bathroom mirro--gray Hairs, crow's feet, yes, but not a change of mind or temperament. Yet, living with another person, it is impossible not to notice how patterns and attitudes
change and not to learn - about yourself and about time --from those perceptions.


  Perhaps the most poignant victim of the twentieth centatry is our sense of continuity. People used to grow up with trees, watch them evolve from saplings to fruit bearers to gnarled' and unproductive grandfathers. Now unless one is a farmer or a forester there is almost no point to planting trees because one is not likely to be there to enjoy their maturity. We change addresses and occupations and hobbies and lifestyles and spouses rapidly and readily, much as we change TV channels.


  In our grandparents' day one committed oneself to certain skills and disciplines and developed them. Caipenters spent lifetimes learning their craft; critics spent lifetimes learning literature. Today, the question often is not "What do you do?" but "What are you into?" Macrame one week, astrology the next, health food, philosophy, history, jogging, movies, EST - we fly from "commitment" to "commitment" like bees among flowers because it is easier to test something than to master it, easier to buy a new toy than to repair an old one.


  I feel sorry for what my divorced friends have lost. No matter how earnestly the former spouses try to "keep in touch," no matter how generous the visiting privileges for the parent who does not win custody of the children, the continuity of their lives has been broken. The years they spent together have been cut off from the rest of their lives; they are an isolated memory, no more integral to their past than a snapshot. Intelligent people, they will compare their next marriages -- if they have them - to their first. They may even, despite not having a long shared past, notice growth. What I pray, though, is that they do not delude themselves into believing, like so many Americans today, that happiness is only measurable moment to moment and, in the pursuit of momentary contentment, forsake the perspectives and consolation of history.


  There is great joy in watching a tree grow.

                    2. Kramer vs Kramer

  Ted Kramer is a rising young executive in an advertising firm. He has just been promoted to a new responsible post and a brilliant career is before him. When he comes home with the happy news, his wife Joanna announces her decision to leave him. At first he doesn't take her seriously, thinking it was just a passing mood. He just can' t imagine why she should want to abandon a comfortable life (he brings in good money) and a happy family (they have a lovely boy). In all fairness he has never ill-treated her.


  But to Joanna her married life has been an utter failure -- meaningless fatal hour, Joanna turns up, not to take Billy away, but to announce her decision to give up her claim to the custody of her son. She has come to realize how much father and son now mean to each other and she has no heart to upset their lives again. In sorrow and in tears all she asks for is a last meeting with her son before she goes out of their lives forever.

　

            3. Problems Arising from Living Apart

  The Chinese household registration system forbids permanent dwelling without legal registration with the local public security units. Yet many people leave their hometowns - bringing with them their residence cards -- to get further education or to join the army, or because they are transferred to jobs in other places.


  The separation of married couples thereby occurs, and it has become a growing concern in China for the various problems it causes. Separation can lead to family crisis or divorce. Just as a society as a Whole requires solidity, a family.demands unity and stability. But this is exactly what separated couples lack -- as well as the happiness that comes from living together. As a result, some couples end up permanently separated and divorced, as emotional ties between husband and wife erode.
  The damage is not confined to the couples alone. The absence of normal family life can leave the children ill-educated and the aged uncared for, which can contribute to the instability of the whole society.


  For those living apart (an estimation of 6 million), the government grants one month paid home leave every year to one spouse. This equals more than 10 million lost work days, the equivalent of 300, 000 people not working at all each year. In addition to the travel expenses, this costs the government a total of 2.2 billion yuan a year.
  Moreover, these "travellers" add to congestion in the already overloaded public transportation system.


  To end the misery of living apart, some couples seek.solutions by "back-door" means, by inviting officials to parties or presenting them with gifts. While some succeed, most couples meet with frustration. Of the ones who succeed, some fail to find new jobs that match their skills and specialties.
  Unremitting efforts have been made by the government to ease the problems arising from living apart. Yet, they cannot be solved cornpletely.. There are several reasons for this.


  One obstacle involves job transfers. Most work units are unwilling to accept administrative personnel, and they do not wish to hand over the valuable mernbers of their staff to other units. In addition, most separated spouses who live in large cities dislike moving to small cities or to the countryside, and southerners do not want to go to the north.
  For another thing, some enterprises hxve become highly money oriented, demanding steep compensation for training fees from those who want to quit their jobs. In 1988, 300 to 700 yuan was demanded, but this fee has risen to 1,000 to 7,000 yuan this year. Similarly, the fee for those who apply for a new post grew from between 1,000 and 5,000 yuan last year to between 7,000 and 13,000 yuan early this year, and in some large cities, the fee runs.as high as 40,000 yuan.


  Job mobility should be encouraged and special consultations should be held for the purpose of exchanging employees in different parts of the country. Meanwhile, granting job transfers should not be treated as a good profit-making deal, and people who offer or accept bribes should be penalized.