Table of Contents
Unit 1: Philosophy
Reading One: Socrates: Philosophical Life
Reading Two: Rationalism
Unit 2: Linguistics
Reading One: Linguistic change
Reading Two: Language and Thought
Unit 3: Cross-Cultural Communication
Reading One: The Myth of the Latin Woman
Reading Two: Body Ritual among the Nacirema
Unit 4: Natural Wonder
Reading One: Vatican City
Reading Two: The Acropolis of Athens
Unit 5: Human Resources
Reading One: Are They worthy
Reading Two: Motivating Employees
Unit 6: World Politics
Reading One: New Media A Weapon in New World of Politics
Reading Two: Women at Work
Unit 7: Economics
Reading One: What will replace the tech economy?
Reading Two: China’s Economic Policies in the New Era
Unit 8: Literature and Art
Reading One: Hills Like White Elephants
Reading Two: Modern Art Movements
Unit 9: Social Values and Norms
Reading One: Do We become Smarter Now
Reading Two: China's Population and Family Planning Policy
Unit 10: Unity and Diversity
Reading One: Dream on America
Reading Two: Diversity in the Ivory Tower
Unit 11: Mystery
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Reading One: The Definitive Sea Serpent
Reading Two: Studying the Mysterious Lives of Sperm Whales
Unit 12: Legal System
Reading One: Anti-Monopoly Law in China
Reading Two: Introduction to Laws
Unit 13: Biodiversity
Reading One: Biodiversity & Humans
Reading Two: The Nature Reserves in China
Unit 14: Celebrity
Reading One: Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Reading Two: Richard Branson
Unit 15: Human Rights
Reading One: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Reading Two: History of Human Rights
Unit 16: Globalization
Reading One: An Age of Globalization
Reading Two: Across Latin America, Mandarin Is in the Air
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Unit One Philosophy
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. How much do you know about philosophy?
2. What are the main philosophy schools in eastern and western world?
3. Socrates’ influence on western philosophy
Socrates: Philosophical Life
The most interesting and influential thinker in the fifth century B.C. was Socrates,
whose dedication to careful reasoning transformed the entire enterprise. Since he
sought genuine knowledge rather than mere victory over an opponent, Socrates
employed the same logical tricks developed by the Sophists to a new purpose, the
pursuit of truth. Thus, his willingness to call everything into question and his
determination to accept nothing less than an adequate account of the nature of things
make him the first clear exponent of critical philosophy.
Although he was well known during his own time for his conversational skills and
public teaching, Socrates wrote nothing, so we are dependent upon his students
(especially Xenophon1 and Plato) for any detailed knowledge of his methods and
results. The trouble is that Plato was himself a philosopher who often injected his own
theories into the dialogues he presented to the world as discussions between Socrates
and other famous figures of the day. Nevertheless, it is usually assumed that at least
the early dialogues of Plato provide a (fairly) accurate representation of Socrates
himself
Apology: The Examined Life
Because of his political associations with an earlier regime, the Athenian
democracy put Socrates on trial, charging him with undermining state religion and
corrupting young people. The speech he offered in his own defense, as reported in
Plato's Apologhma (Apology)2, provides us with many reminders of the central
features of Socrates' approach to philosophy and its relation to practical life.
Ironic Modesty:
Explaining his mission as a philosopher, Socrates reports an oracular message
telling him that "No one is wiser than you." (Apology 21a) He then proceeds through
a series of ironic descriptions of his efforts to disprove the oracle by conversing with
notable Athenians who must surely be wiser. In each case, however, Socrates
concludes that he has a kind of wisdom that each of them lacks: namely, an open
awareness of his own ignorance.
Questioning Habit:
The goal of Socratic interrogation, then, is to help individuals to achieve
genuine self-knowledge, even if it often turns out to be negative in character. As his
cross-examination of Meletus3 shows, Socrates means to turn the methods of the
Sophists inside-out, using logical nit-picking to expose (rather than to create) illusions
about reality. If the method rarely succeeds with interlocutors, it can nevertheless be
effectively internalized as a dialectical mode of reasoning in an effort to understand
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everything.
Devotion to Truth:
Even after he has been convicted by the jury, Socrates declines to abandon his
pursuit of the truth in all matters. Refusing to accept exile from Athens or a
commitment to silence as his penalty, he maintains that public discussion of the great
issues of life and virtue is a necessary part of any valuable human life. "The
unexamined life is not worth living." (Apology 38a) Socrates would rather die than
give up philosophy, and the jury seems happy to grant him that wish.
Dispassionate Reason:
Even when the jury has sentenced him to death, Socrates calmly delivers his
final public words, a speculation about what the future holds. Disclaiming any
certainty about the fate of a human being after death, he nevertheless expresses a
continued confidence in the power of reason, which he has exhibited (while the jury
has not). Who really wins will remain unclear.
Plato's dramatic picture of a man willing to face death rather than abandoning his
commitment to philosophical inquiry offers up Socrates as a model for all future
philosophers. Perhaps few of us are presented with the same stark choice between
philosophy and death, but all of us are daily faced with opportunities to decide
between convenient conventionality and our devotion to truth and reason. How we
choose determines whether we, like Socrates, deserve to call our lives philosophical.
Crito: The Individual and the State
Plato's description of Socrates's final days continued in the Kritwn (Crito)4. Now in
prison awaiting execution, Socrates displays the same spirit of calm reflection about
serious matters that had characterized his life in freedom. Even the patent injustice of
his fate at the hands of the Athenian jury produces in Socrates no bitterness or anger.
Friends arrive at the jail with a foolproof plan for his escape from Athens to a life of
voluntary exile, but Socrates calmly engages them in a rational debate about the moral
value of such an action.
Of course Crito and the others know their teacher well, and they come prepared to
argue the merits of their plan. Escaping now would permit Socrates to fulfill his
personal obligations in life. Moreover, if he does not follow the plan, many people
will suppose that his friends did not care enough for him to arrange his escape.
Therefore, in order to honor his commitments and preserve the reputation of his
friends, Socrates ought to escape from jail.
But Socrates dismisses these considerations as irrelevant to a decision about what
action is truly right. What other people will say clearly doesn't matter. As he had
argued in the Apology, the only opinion that counts is not that of the majority of
people generally, but rather that of the one individual who truly knows. The truth
alone deserves to be the basis for decisions about human action, so the only proper
approach is to engage in the sort of careful moral reasoning by means of which one
may hope to reveal it.
Socrates’ argument proceeds from the statement of a perfectly general moral
principle to its application in his particular case:
·One ought never to do wrong (even in response to the evil committed by another).
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·But it is always wrong to disobey the state.
·Hence, one ought never to disobey the state.
And since avoiding the sentence of death handed down by the Athenian jury would
be an action in disobedience the state, it follows Socrates ought not to escape.
The argument is a valid one, so we are committed to accepting its conclusion if we
believe that its premises are true. The general commitment to act rightly is
fundamental to a moral life, and it does seem clear that Socrates’ escape would be a
case of disobedience. But what about the second premise, the claim that it is always
wrong for an individual to disobey the state? Surely that deserves further examination.
In fact, Socrates pictures the laws of Athens proposing two independent lines of
argument in favor of this claim:
First, the state is to us as a parent is to a child, and since it is always wrong for a
child to disobey a parent, it follows that it is always wrong to disobey the state. (Crito
50e) Here we might raise serious doubts about the legitimacy of the analogy between
our parents and the state. Obedience to our parents, after all, is a temporary obligation
that we eventually outgrow by learning to make decisions for ourselves, while
Socrates means to argue that obeying the state is a requirement right up until we die.
Here it might be useful to apply the same healthy disrespect for moral authority that
Socrates himself expressed in the Euthyphro5.
The second argument is that it is always wrong to break an agreement, and since
continuing to live voluntarily in a state constitutes an agreement to obey it, it is wrong
to disobey that state. (Crito 52e) This may be a better argument; only the second
premise seems open to question. Explicit agreements to obey some authority are
common enough—in a matriculation pledge or a contract of employment, for
example—but most of us have not entered into any such agreement with our
government. Even if we suppose, as the laws suggest, that the agreement is an implicit
one to which we are committed by our decision to remain within their borders, it is
not always obvious that our choice of where to live is entirely subject to our
individual voluntary control.
Nevertheless, these considerations are serious ones. Socrates himself was entirely
convinced that the arguments hold, so he concluded that it would be wrong for him to
escape from prison. As always, of course, his actions conformed to the outcome of his
reasoning. Socrates chose to honor his commitment to truth and morality even though
it cost him his life.
（TIME ALLOWED: 13 Minutes）
From: http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2d.htm
Notes:
1. Xenophon: 色诺芬(from 434B.C. to 355B.C., a Greeke general and historian)
2. Apologhma(Apology): 《辩护词》 The Apologhma (Apology) offers a description
of the philosophical life as Socrates presented it in his own defense before the
Athenian jury.
3. Meletus: one of the prosecutors of Socrates’ case
4. Kritwn (Crito): 《克力托》The Kritwn (Crito) uses the circumstances of Socrates's
imprisonment to ask whether an individual citizen is ever justified in refusing to
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obey the state.
5. Euthyphro: 《尤息弗罗》The Euqufrwn (Euthyphro) raises a significant doubt
about whether morally right action can be defined in terms of divine approval by
pointing out a significant dilemma about any appeal to authority in defense of
moral judgments.
Exercises:
Ⅰ. Comprehension of the text: choose the best answer for each of the questions
or unfinished statements.
1. Why is Socrates regarded as the first clear exponent of critical philosophy?
A. His willingness to call everything into questions.
B. His determination to accept nothing less than an adequate account of the
nature of things
C. His pursuit of mere victory over an opponent
D. Both A and B
2. The trouble of Plato’s written documents about Socrates is ____
a) Plato had a bad memory so he couldn’t remember all exactly.
b) As a philosopher, Plato added his own comments into Socrates’ dialogues.
c) Socrates wrote nothing, so Plato had no references.
d) What Plato wrote is opposite to what Xenophon wrote.
3. Socrates was charged with____
a) undermining state religion and betraying Athens
b) corrupting young people and betraying Athens
c) undermining state religion and corrupting young people
d) none of the above
4. The goal of Socratic interrogation is _____
a) positive to guide young people
b) to help young people to achieve genuine self-knowledge
c) to make others know his wisdom
d) to challenge the Athens’ authorities
5. Socrates’ refusal of accepting exile from Athens or a commitment to silence as his
penalty shows all the following except that ____
a) .Socrates didn’t want to embroil others.
b) Socrates pursued the truth in all matters.
c) Socrates would rather die than give up philosophy.
d) Socrates would never abandon his commitment philosophical inquiry.
6. Socrates would never abandon his commitment philosophical inquirWhen
awaiting execution, Socrates _____
a) was very angry and sad.
b) was in fear and trembling
c) couldn’t keep calm
d) was as calm as he was in freedom
7. All the following excuses are adopted except ____ to persuade Socrates to accept
the exile plan.
a) Escape helps Socrates to fulfill his personal obligation in life.
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b) His friends will be criticized for having not cared enough for his life..
c) Life is more important than philosophical minds.
d) Socrates should preserve his friends’ reputation of caring friends.
8. Reasons why Socrates refused to escape from the prison are the following
except____
a) He shouldn’t disobey the common agreement constituted by all citizens with
the government
b) He holds that it is wrong to disobey the state.
c) He shouldn’t betray his philosophy.
d) It is impossible and dangerous for him to escape from the prison.
9. Socrates believes that ____ is the fundamental of life.
A. the commitment to act rightly
B. obedience to the state
C. good conversational skills
D moral teaching to the youth
10. What are the author’s feelings when saying “his actions conformed to the outcome
of his reasoning”?
A. happy
B. sad but admirable
C. indifferent
D. callous
10. Based on the text, which one is RIGHT?
A. Socrates produces quite a lot of works.
B. Crito shows some central features of Socrates’ approach to philosophy.
C. Socrates believes that the only opinion that counts is that of the majority of
people generally.
D. Socrates does mind other people’s ideas and words.
Ⅱ. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below.
Change the form where necessary.
less than; exponent; inject; refute; disprove; inside-out; disclaim; hand down;
legitimacy; outgrow
1. The most famous____ of this approach to art was probably Charles Rennie
Mackintosh.
2. She had her jumper on _____.
3. These figures _____ Smith’s argument.
4. I think he was being _____ honest.
5. Traditional handbag makers are____ more fun into their designs
6. The government expressed serious doubts about the____ of military action.
7. She _____ any allegations of malpractices.
8. Nartin ____ any responsibilities for his son’s actions.
9. Most children eventually a tendency toward travel sickness
10. My grandmother _____ this necklace to my mother.
Ⅲ. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and
debate upon the following topics
1. Your opinion of Socrates: Saint vs. Fool
A. the founder of western philosophy/ firm pursuit on truth/ rather die than give up
philosophy/ a true and great patriot
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B. pervicacious/ ivory-towered/ maybe over-idealized/ don’t make changes to suit different
circumstances
2. Power Vs Justice
A. bringing glory, happiness and pleasure/ catering to certain psychological need/ symbol of
personal success/ do something good by it
B. eternal principle/ basis of social harmony/ goal pursued by human beings/ motivating social
development
3. Which is more important: Life vs. Belief?
A. only once/ offers opportunities to practice belief/ Life means hope/ Belief must be
beyond the real world/
B. moral guideline/ motivating force of personal development/ compass in life/ No
belief, no meaning to live on/
IV. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and
targeting the specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. What’s your opinion of “Who really wins will remain unclear.”?
2. Socrates in my eyes
3. My life philosophy
Reading Two
Rationalism
Rationalism is the philosophical view that regards reason as the chief source and
test of knowledge. Holding that reality itself has an inherently logical structure, the
Rationalist asserts that a class of truths exists that the intellect can grasp directly.
There are, according to the Rationalists, certain rational principles—especially in
logic and mathematics, and even in ethics and metaphysics—that are so fundamental
that to deny them is to fall into contradiction. The Rationalist’s confidence in reason
and proof tends, therefore, to detract from his respect for other ways of knowing.
Rationalism has long been the rival of Empiricism, the doctrine that all knowledge
comes from, and must be tested by, sense experience. As against this doctrine,
Rationalism holds reason to be a faculty that can lay hold of truths beyond the reach
of sense perception, both in certainty and generality. In stressing the existence of a
“natural light,” Rationalism has also been the rival of systems claiming esoteric
knowledge, whether from mystical experience, revelation, or intuition, and has been
opposed to various irrationalisms that tend to stress the biological, the emotional or
volitional, the unconscious, or the existential at the expense of the rational.
Rationalism has somewhat different meanings in different fields, depending on the
kind of theory to which it is opposed.
In the psychology of perception, for example, Rationalism is in a sense opposed to
the genetic psychology of the Swiss scholar Jean Piaget, who, exploring the
development of thought and behavior in the infant, argued that the categories of the
mind develop only through the infant’s experience in concourse with the world.
Similarly, Rationalism is opposed to Transactionalism, a point of view in psychology
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according to which man’s perceptual skills are achievements, accomplished through
actions performed in response to an active environment. On this view, the
experimental claim is made that perception is conditioned by probability judgments
formed on the basis of earlier actions performed in similar situations. As a corrective
to these sweeping claims, the Rationalism defends a nativism, which holds that certain
perceptual and conceptual capacities are innate—as suggested in the case of depth
perception by experiments with “the visual cliff,” which, though platformed over with
firm glass, the infant perceives as hazardous—though these native capacities may, at
times, lie dormant until the appropriate conditions for their emergence arise.
In the comparative study of languages, a similar nativism was developed in the
1950s by the innovating syntactician Noam Chomsky, who, acknowledging a debt to
Descartes, explicitly accepted the rationalistic doctrine of innate ideas.” Though the
4,000 language spoken in the world differ greatly in sounds and symbols, they
sufficiently resemble each other in syntax to suggest that there is “a schema of
universal grammar” determined by “deep structures” or “innate presettings” in the
human mind itself. These presettings, which have their basis in the brain, set the
pattern for all experience, fix the rules for the formation of meaningful sentences, and
explain why languages are readily translatable into one another. It should be added
that what Rationalists have held about innate ideas is not that what Rationalists have
held about innate ideas is not that some ideas are full-fledged at birth but only that the
grasp of certain connections and self-evident principles, when it comes, is due to
inborn powers of insight rather than to learning by experience.
Common to all forms of speculative Rationalism is the belief that the world is a
rationally ordered whole, the parts of which are linked by logical necessity and the
structure of which is therefore intelligible. Thus in metaphysics it is opposed to the
view that reality is a disjointed aggregate of incoherent bits and is thus opaque to
reason. In particular, it is opposed to the logical atomisms of such thinkers as David
Hume and Ludwig Wittgenstein, who held that facts are so disconnected that any fact
might well have been different from what it is without entailing a change in any other
fact. Rationalists have differed, however, with regard to the closeness and
completeness with which the facts are bound together. At the lowest level, they have
all believed that the law of contradiction “A and not-A cannot coexist” hold for the
real world, which means that every truth is consistent with every other; at the highest
level, they have held that all facts go beyond consistency to a positive coherence; i.e.,
the are so bound up with each other that none could be different without all being
different.
In the field where its claims are clearest—in epistemology, or theory of knowledge
—Rationalism holds that some, at least, of man’s knowledge is gained through a
priori (prior to experience), or rational, insight as distinct from sense experience,
which too often provides a confused and merely tentative approach. In the debate
between Empiricism and Rationalism, Empiricists hold the simpler and more
sweeping position, the Humean claim that all knowledge of fact stems from
perception. Rationalists, on the contrary, urge that some, though not all, knowledge
arises through direct apprehension by the intellect. What the intellectual faculty
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apprehends is objects that transcend sense experience— universals and their relations.
A universal is an abstraction, a characteristic that may reappear in various instances:
the number three, for example, or the triangularity that all triangles have in common.
Though these cannot be seen, heard, or felt, rationalists point out that man can plainly
think about them and about their relations. This kind of knowledge, which includes
the whole of logic and mathematics as well as fragmentary insights in many other
fields, is, in the Rationalist view, the most important and certain knowledge that the
mind can achieve. Such a priori knowledge is both necessary (i.e., it cannot be
conceived as otherwise) and universal, in the sense that it admits of no c\exceptions.
In critical philosophy, epistemological Rationalism finds expression in the claim that
the mind imposes its own inherent categories or forms upon incipient experience.
In ethics Rationalism holds the position that reason, rather than feeling, custom, or
authority, is the ultimate court of appeal in judging good and bad, right and wrong.
Among major thinks, the most notable representative of rational ethics is Immanuel
Kant, who held that the way to judge an act is to check its self-consistency as
apprehended by intellect: to note, first, what it is essentially, or in principle— a lie,
for example, or a theft— and then to ask if one can consistently will that the principle
be made universal. Is theft, then, right? The answer must be “No”, because, if theft
were generally approved, no one’s property would be his own as opposed to anyone
else’s and theft would then become meaningless; the notion, if universalized, would
thus destroy itself, as reason, by itself, is sufficient to show.
In religion Rationalism commonly means that all of man’s knowledge comes
through the use of his natural faculties, without the aid of supernatural revelation.
“Reason” is here used in a broader sense, referring to man’s cognitive powers
generally, as opposed to many supernatural grace of faith—though it is also in sharp
contrast to so-called existential approaches to truth. Reason, for the Rationalist, thus
stands opposed to many of the religious of the world, including Christianity, which
have held that the divine has revealed itself through inspired persons or writings and
which have required, at times, that its claims be accepted as infallible, even when they
do not accord with natural knowledge. Religious Rationalists hold, on the other hand,
that if the clear insights of man’s reason must be set aside in favor of alleged
revelation, then human thought is everywhere rendered suspect — even in the
reasonings of the theologians themselves. There cannot be two ultimately different
ways of warranting truth, they assert; hence Rationalism urges that reason, with its
standard of consistency, must be the final court of appeal. Religious Rationalism can
reflect either a traditional piety, when endeavoring to display the alleged sweet
reasonableness of religion, or an anti-authoritarian temper, when aiming to supplant
religion with the “goddess of reason.”
（TIME ALLOWED: 13 Minutes）
From: The New Encyclopedia Britannica
Exercises
Ⅰ. Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. Rationalism regards ____ as the chief source and test of knowledge.
A. experience
B. reason
C. sense
D. the God
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2. Nativism believes that_____
A. perception is conditioned by probability judgments
B. man’s perceptual skills are achievements
C. the infant’s mind develops through experience with the world
D. certain perceptual and conceptual capacities are innate
3. In paragraph 4, “Noam Chomsky, who, acknowledging a debt to Descartes” means
____
A. Descartes influenced Noam Chomsky a lot.
B. Noam Chomsky was the loaner..
C. Noam Chomsky paid off the debt to Descartes.
D. Descartes was the loaner.
4. ____ is NOT the common ground of all forms of speculative Rationalism.
A. The belief that the world is a rationally ordered whole
B. The belief that the parts of the world are linked by logical necessity
C. The belief that the structure of the world is intelligible
D. The belief that the world is a disjointed aggregate
5. The Humean claim that all knowledge of fact stems from____
A. apprehension by the intellect
B. perception
C. the God
D. not mentioned
6. In ethics Rationalism holds the position that ___ is the ultimate court of appeal in
judging good and bad, right and wrong.
A. custom
B. feeling
C. reason
D. authority
7. In religion Rationalism commonly means that all of man’s knowledge comes
through ____.
A. the use of his natural faculties
B. the God
C. the experience
D. the ancestors
8. In religion Rationalism, “Reason” refers to ____.
A. supernatural grace of faith
B. the revelation from the God
C. man’s cognitive powers
D. cause
9. From the text, ____ is the follower of Rationalism.
A. Jean Piaget
B. Descartes
C. David Hume D. Ludwig Wittgenstein
10. According to the text, which one is WRONG?
A. Empiricism believes that all knowledge comes from and must be tested by
sense experience.
B. The 4,000 languages spoken in the world differ greatly in sounds and symbols,
but sufficiently resemble each other in syntax.
C. Rationalists believe that some, though not all, knowledge arises through direct
apprehension by the intellect.
D. Religious Rationalism can reflect a traditional piety, but not an
anti-authoritarian temper.
Ⅱ. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and your
knowledge of Rationalism, discuss the following topics fully
1. What’s your understanding of “A and not-A cannot coexist”
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2. Differences on Empiricism and Rationalism
3. The influence of Rationalism in western world.
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 5′
Time You Used: ________
Nine Norms When Studying Dao
The study and cultivation of Dao does not merely aim at understanding the general
idea of Dao. What is more important is to practice what Dao advocates. This requires
people to observe some basic norms. The Seven Slips of a Cloudy Satchel puts
forward nine principles that must be observed.
Firstly, keep to harmony: Everything under heaven connotes Yin and Yang. The
vital breaths of Yin and Yang keep acting upon each other, and thus things keep
unifying themselves. Sages follow the laws of Heaven and Earth. They are not
confined to common customs or common people. "It is most important to keep to
harmony".
Secondly, keep to the spirit: This means to guard one's spirit and prevent it from
chasing external things and getting exhausted.
Thirdly, keep to the Vital Breath: Blood and the Vital Breath are the essence of
human beings. Filled with the Vital Breath, human beings won't be invaded by
calamities or harmful breath. When one is tied down by desires, his spirit will be
exhausted and his inner Vital Breath will consequently be insufficient. He who
cultivates Dao must purify his heart, reduce his desires and protect and nourish his
Original Vital Breath.
Fourthly, keep to benevolence: Fearless of the threat of death, righteous people
can be moved by benevolence, but cannot be compelled by force. Those who cultivate
Dao regard the human world as unimportant, so they are not tied up; regarding all
things as trivial, they will not be perplexed; regarding life and death equally, they are
fearless; indifferent to changes, they are wise and won't be dazzled. They are more
able to keep to benevolence than common righteous people are.
Fifthly, keep to simplicity: One should get rid of filth and worries, and understand
the way of balance and harmony in Nourishing one's Life. As for food, it's sufficient
to allay one's hunger, and as for clothing, it's adequate to cover the body and keep out
the cold. One should never be greedy. Simplicity can certainly be achieved if one
doesn't exercise his wits too much.
Sixthly, keep to constancy: It is inevitable that people become powerful, lowly,
poor or rich, but those who have secured Dao will not change their original intention
no matter how their conditions change.
Seventhly, keep to pureness: One should have his mind as pure as water, and have
no greedy or filthy ideas, and shouldn't indulge in his desires.
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Eighthly, keep to fullness: The sun and moon will begin to wane when they reach
the full. One shouldn't attempt to be perfect, but should never be self-satisfied. He
must increase his virtues every day, and not dare to be violent.
Ninthly, keep to gentleness: Only being gentle can conform to the way of
simplicity. To be specific, one should have no happiness, anger, joy or bitterness,
regard all things as mysteriously identical, and make no distinction between right and
wrong, harmonize and soften his Vital Breath, and balance his body so as to drift
along with Dao.
(Words: 506)
From:http://www.eng.taoism.org.hk/daoist-beliefs/philosophy-of-life/pg2-7-1.asp
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. Dao believes that the most important is _____
A. to keep harmony
B. to keep to the spirit
C. to keep to the spirit
D. to keep to benevolence
2. _____ is/are the essence of human beings.
A. Yin and Yang
B. Heaven and Earth
C. Blood and the Vital Breath D. Life and death
3. According to Dao, righteous people can be moved by _____, but cannot be
compelled by ______.
A. benevolence, blood
B. benevolence, simplicity
C. simplicity, force
D. simplicity, force
4. No matter how the conditions change, people who have secured Dao will____
A. purify their heart
B. adhere to their original intention
C. get rid of filth and worries
D. increase their virtue everyday
5. According to the text, which one is AGAINST Dao?
A. One should not chase external things.
B. One should never be greedy.
C. People should have no greedy or filthy ideas
D. One should try one’s best to attempt to be perfect
Passage 2
Supposed Time: 6′
Time You Used:
___
Zhu XI
Zhu Xi or Chu Hsi (1130–1200) was a Song Dynasty (960-1279) Confucian scholar
who became one of the most significant Neo-Confucians in China. He rebuilt and
taught at the famous White Deer Grotto Academy for some time. Zhu Xi was also
influential in Japan, where his followers were called the Shushigaku (朱子学) school.
During the Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi's teachings were considered to be unorthodox.
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Zhu Xi and his fellow scholars codified what is now considered the Confucian canon
of classics: the Four Books, consisting of the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the
Mean, the Analects of Confucius, and the Mencius; and the Five Classics -- the
Classic of Poetry, the Classic of History, the Book of Changes (I Ching), the Classic
of Rites and the Spring and Autumn Annals. Zhu Xi also wrote extensive
commentaries for all of these classics. The writings were not widely recognized in
Zhu Xi's time; however, they later became accepted as standard commentaries on the
Confucian classics.
Zhu Xi considered the earlier philosopher Xun Zi to be a heretic for departing from
Confucius's beliefs about innate human goodness. Zhu Xi contributed to Confucian
philosophy by articulating what was to become the orthodox Confucian interpretation
of a number of beliefs in Daoism and Buddhism. He adapted some ideas from these
competing religions into his form of Confucianism.
He argued that all things are brought into being by two universal elements: vital (or
physical) force (qi), and law or rational principle (li). The source and sum of li is the
TaiJi (Wade-Giles: Tai Chi), which means Great Ultimate. According to Zhu Xi, the
Tai Ji causes qi to move and change in the physical world, resulting in the division of
the world into the two energy modes (yin and yang) and the five elements (fire, water,
wood, metal, and earth).
In terms of li and qi, Zhu Xi's system strongly resembles Buddhist ideas of li (again,
principle) and shi (affairs, matters), though Zhu Xi and his followers strongly argued
that they were not copying Buddhist ideas. Instead, they held, they were using
concepts present in the Book of Changes.
According to Zhu Xi's theory, every physical object and every person contains li and
therefore has contact with the Tai Ji. What is referred to as the human soul, mind, or
spirit is defined as the Great Ultimate (Tai Ji), or the supreme regulative principle at
work in a person.
Zhu Xi argued that the fundamental nature of humans was morally good; even if
people displayed immoral behavior, the supreme regulative principle was good. It is
unclear whence exactly immorality arises; Zhu Xi argued that it comes about through
the muddying effect of li being shrouded in qi, but this does not fully answer the
question, as qi itself shares part of the Tai Ji.
According to Zhu Xi, vital force (qi) and rational principle (li) operate together in
mutual dependence. These are not entirely non-physical forces: one result of their
interaction is the creation of matter. When their activity is rapid the yang energy mode
is generated, and when their activity is slow, the yin energy mode is generated. The
yang and yin constantly interact, gaining and losing dominance over the other. This
results in the structures of nature known as the five elements.
……
In 1241 his tablet was placed in the Confucian Temple.
The teachings of Zhu Xi were to dominate Confucianism, though dissenters would
later emerge, such as Wang Yangming two and a half centuries later.
Life magazine ranked Zhu Xi as the forty-fifth most important person in the last
millennium.
14
(Words: 605)
From: http://www.answers.com/topic/zhu-xi
Exercises: choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. During the Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi's teachings were considered to be ______
A. heretical
B. orthodox
C. right
D. Confucius’ followers
2. Which one doesn’t belong to the Four Books?
A. the Great Learning
B. the Classic of Poetry
C. the Mencius
D. the Analects of Confucius
3. According to Zhu Xi, which means great ultimate?
A. li
B. qi
C. Tai Ji
D. not mentioned
4. Zhu Xi regarded ______ as energy modes.
A. qi and li
B. yin and yang
C. fire and water
D. Tai Ji
5. From the text, which one is RIGHT?
A. The interaction between qi and li results in the structures of nature.
B. Zhu Xi thought that the fundamental nature of humans was bad
C. It’s an honor that Zhu Xi’s tablet was placed in the Confucian Temple
D. Wang Yangming was a faithful member of Zhu Xi’s school
15
UNIT 2 Linguistics
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. Do you agree that all languages keep on changing?
2. What kind of differences are there between your language and that of your grandparents?
3. How does linguistic change generally impress you?
Linguistic change
Every language has a history; and, as in the rest of human culture, changes are constantly taking
place in the course of the learned transmission of a language from one generation to another. This
is just part of the differences between human culture and animal behavior. Languages change in all
their aspects, in their pronunciation, word forms, syntax, and word meanings (semantic change).
These changes are mostly very gradual in their operation, becoming noticeable only cumulatively
over the course of several generations. But, in some areas of vocabulary, particular words closely
related to rapid cultural change are subject to equally rapid and therefore noticeable changes
within a generation or even within a decade. In the 20th century the vocabulary of science and
technology is an outstanding example. The same is also true of those parts of vocabulary that are
involved in fashionable slangs and jargons. Old slangs date, as any reading of a novel or visit to a
film more than 10 years old is apt to show. The rapid obsolescence of young people's slangs is
equally to be seen in the unsuccessful efforts of some well-intentioned older persons who vainly
attempt to cultivate the speech styles of present-day youth groups in a misdirected attempt to
bridge “the generation gap”.
Changes through time
In the structural aspects of language, their pronunciation and grammar, and in vocabulary less
closely involved in rapid cultural movement, the processes of linguistic change are best observed
by comparing written records of a language over extended periods. This is most readily seen by
English speakers through setting side by side present-day English texts with 18th-century English,
the English of the Authorized Version of the Bible, Shakespearean English, Chaucer's English, and
the varieties of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) that survive in written form. Noticeably, as one goes
back in time, the effort required in understanding increases, and, while people do not hesitate to
speak of “Shakespearean English,” they are more doubtful about Chaucer, and for the most part
Old English texts are as unintelligible to a modern English speaker as, for example, texts in
German. It is clear that the differences involved include word meanings, grammar, and, so far as
this can be reconstructed, pronunciation.
Similar evidence, together with what is known of the cultural history of the peoples concerned,
makes clear the continuous historical connections linking French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian,
and Romanian with the spoken (“vulgar”) Latin of the western Roman Empire. This group
constitutes the Romance subfamily of languages and is an example of how, as the result of
linguistic change over a wide area, a group of distinct, though historically related, languages
comes into being.
16
In the transmission of a language from parent to child, slight deviations in all aspects of
language use occur all the time, and as the child's speech contacts widen he confronts a growing
range of slight differences in personal speech forms, some of them correlating with social or
regional differences within a community, these speech differences themselves being the results of
the transmission process. As a consequence, the child's speech comes to differ slightly from that of
his parents' generation. In urbanized communities an additional factor is involved: children have
been shown to be effectively influenced by the speech habits of their peer groups once they have
made contacts with them in and out of school.
Such changes, though slight at the time, are progressively cumulative. Since ready
intercommunication is a primary purpose of language, as long as a community remains unitary,
with strong central direction and a central cultural focus, such changes will not go beyond the
limits of inter-comprehensibility. But in more scattered communities and in larger language areas,
especially when cultural and administrative ties are weakened and broken, these cumulative
deviations in the course of generations give rise to wider regional differences. Such differences
take the form of dialectal differentiation as long as there is some degree of mutual comprehension
but eventually result in the emergence of distinct languages. This is what happened in the history
of the colloquial Latin of the western Roman Empire, and it can be assumed that a similar course
of events gave rise to the separate Germanic languages (English, German, Dutch, Danish,
Norwegian, Swedish, and some others), though in this family the original unitary language is not
known historically but inferred as “Common Germanic” or “Proto-Germanic” and tentatively
assigned to early in the 1st millennium BC as the period before separation began.
Changes through geographical movement
The fundamental cause of linguistic change and hence of linguistic diversification is the minute
deviations occurring in the transmission of speech from one generation to another. But other
factors contribute to the historical development of languages and determine the spread of a
language family over the world's surface. Population movements naturally play a large part, and
movements of peoples in prehistoric times carried the Indo-European languages from a relatively
restricted area into most of Europe and into northern India, Persia, and Armenia. But language and
race are by no means the same thing, and the spread of the Indo-European languages resulted, in
the main, from the imposition of one of them on the earlier population of the territories occupied.
In the historical period, within Indo-European, the same process can be seen at work in the
western Roman Empire. Latin superseded the earlier, largely Celtic languages of the Iberian
Peninsula and of Gaul (France) not through population replacement (the number of Roman
soldiers and settlers in the empire was never large) but through the abandonment of these
languages by the inhabitants over the generations as they found in Latin the language of
commerce, civilization, law, literature, and social prestige.
Conquest does not always lead to the supersession of a language. Greek survived centuries of
Turkish rule and indeed remained a focus of national feeling, as has happened elsewhere in history.
Much depends on the various circumstances and on the mutual attitudes of those involved; what
must be kept quite clear is the difference between movements of peoples and the spread of
languages. When linguistically homogeneous people enter and occupy a virtually empty area, as
with most of Australia, the two movements coincide.
Languages do not just spread and compete with each other for territorial use. They are in
constant contact, and every language bears evidence of this throughout its history. Modern Greek
17
is full of words of Turkish origin, despite efforts made at various times since independence to
purify the language by official action. The Norman Conquest and a period in which French was
the language of the ruling class in England effected great changes on English and contributed a
very substantial number of French words to English vocabulary; hence the quantity of near
synonymous pairs available today: “begin, commence”; “end, finish”; “kingly, royal”; “fight,
combat”; and so on.
Tendencies against change
These historical processes take place without any direct volition on the part of speakers as
regards the language itself. Latin was learned as part of personal advancement, not for its own
sake. Loans were incorporated almost without their being noticed, along with the concomitant
cultural changes and innovations. Deliberate action directly related to a language does occur. The
creation of pidgins involves some degree of linguistic consciousness on the part of their first users.
More deliberate, however, have been various attempts at preserving the purity of a language, at
least for some uses, or at arresting the processes of change. The care bestowed on the preservation
of the Sanskrit used in religious ritual in ancient India and recent attempts to free Modern Greek
from much of its Turkish vocabulary have already been noticed. For a period, under Nazi rule,
efforts were made to replace some foreign words in the German language by words of native
origin, and there have been movements to replace later accretions in English by words derived
from Old English forms. In the long run, such attempts never succeed in preventing or reversing
change; at best they preserve collaterally supposedly purer forms and styles for certain purposes
and in certain contexts.
With the picture painted above of the tendency for languages to fragment first into dialects and
then into separate languages, it might be thought that dialects are relatively late in appearance in
the history of a language family. This impression is reinforced by the fact that most nonstandard
dialects are unrepresented as such in writing, and so comparatively little is known about dialectal
differences within most languages as one goes back in time. In this respect the very detailed
knowledge of the Ancient Greek dialect situation is quite untypical.
Present-day conditions tend toward the amalgamation of dialects and the disappearance of those
spoken by relatively few people. Urbanization, mass travel, universal education, broadcasting,
ease of communication, and social mobility all foster rather large regional and social dialects, with
special occupational types of language within them, in place of the small, strictly localized dialects
of earlier times. This is one reason for the urgency with which dialect studies are being pursued in
many Western industrialized countries, such as England and parts of the United States. If work is
not done soon, many dialects may perish unrecorded. For the same reasons, dialect divisions that
earlier would have widened into distinct languages are now unlikely to do so. One may compare
the emergence of the separate Romance languages from once unitary Latin with the splitting of
South American Spanish and Portuguese into different dialects of these two languages. These
dialectal divisions are not now expected to widen beyond the range of inter-comprehensibility.
These same conditions, together with the spread of literacy, are leading to the extinction of
languages spoken by relatively small communities.
(1609 words)
http://www.google.cn
(TIME ALLOWING: 16 MINUTES)
18
Notes
Shakespearean: (=Shakespearian) in the style of Shakespeare. William Shakespeare, the famous
British poet and dramatist (1564-1616).
2
Chaucer: the famous British poet (1343-1400).（乔叟）
3
Anglo-Saxon: one of the group of people who settled in England from Northwest of Europe
before the Norman Conquest (the Normans conquered England in the 11th BC); the language of
those people (also called Old English). (盎格鲁撒克逊语，亦称古英语)
4
Romance subfamily of languages: the group of languages includes French, Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese and others developed from Latin. (罗曼语系，拉丁语系)
5
“Common Germanic” or “Proto-Germanic”: The Germanic group of languages began as a
common language in the Elbe River（易北河）region about 3,000 years ago. Around the second
century BC, this Common Germanic (or Proto-Germanic) language split into three distinct
sub-groups: East Germanic (which is spoken by nobody today), North Germanic (which evolved
into the modern Scandinavian languages of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic) and
West Germanic (which is the ancestor of modern German, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian
and English).
6
Celtic languages: The languages of the Celt, which refers to the last group of immigrants to
settle in Britain before the coming of the Anglo-Saxons. (克尔特语)
7 Iberian Peninsula: It is famous for the large scale of prehistoric Rock-Art of the Mediterranean
Basin, which is located in the east of Iberian Peninsula. (伊比利亚半岛)
8 Nazi: Of the German National Socialist Party founded by Hitler. (纳粹党的)
Exercises:
I. Study the following sentences carefully. Try to make out the meaning of the italicized
words with the help of a dictionary.
1. The obsolescence of certain kinds of organic functions during the process of human evolution
is being studied by scientists.
2. What she said was hardly intelligible to an outsider.
3. I wonder if there do exist several major deviations from fact in his statement.
4. The skill of colloquial expression is sometimes quite a decisive factor in job hunting.
5. I decided to follow my own volition this time.
6. The old road has already been superseded by a new highway.
7. For the purpose of better communication, dealers of both countries used to create a bridging
language called pidgin English.
8. She has bestowed a tremendous attention to the coming competition.
9. The accretion of wealth marks a country’s rise in power.
10. These three colleges have been amalgamated into a national university.
II. Comprehension of the text: Choose the best answer for each of the questions or
unfinished statements.
1. The endeavor of some grown-ups to imitate the speech styles of the young
.
A. aims at eliminating the psychological gulf
B. is a wise decision for better understanding
C. proves to be a valid and effective approach
D. is of vicious will and luckily doesn’t work
2. By comparing different versions of a certain language at different historical development
stages, you may find out that
.
A. the huge divergence makes them totally new languages
B. you’re able to go through them without any difficulties
C. the discrepancy is so marked that you become illiterate
D. as long as you’ve made a great effort you can still get it
3. Some languages are replaced by others mainly because
.
A. the former are abandoned by their own users
19
B. the former are not as developed as the former
C. the latter represent advanced culture and economy
D. the latter are spoken by a major sum of population
4. What’s the link between the migration of people and the spread of language?
A. The former is a sufficient and necessary condition for the latter.
B. The latter is a sufficient and necessary condition for the former.
C. The two coincide well with each other as it showed in Australia.
D. The two are closely related but affected by factors of their own.
5. Which of the following statement can be inferred from the passage?
A. Linguistic changes in history take place without any direct intension of the speakers.
B. The amalgamation of dialects is a trend consistent with the overall global integration.
C. Great efforts have been made to purify certain languages yet no outcome was gained.
D. It is time to study and protect many dialects right now before they perish unrecorded.
III. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
transmit / cumulate / subject to / date / vain / so far as / peer / give rise to / coincide / in the
long run
1. Efforts mush be made right now to get the -------- pollution under control.
2. Some literal works hardly -------- at all.
3. The deficits will damage the structure of the economy --------.
4. The first task of education would be the -------- of ideas of value.
5. It’s great that your suggestion just -------- with our usual practice.
6. -------- possible nothing should be left to chance, but all planned carefully.
7. Starvation and crowded condition has -------- the spread of epidemics.
8. Everyone, however important, is -------- the law.
9. He is confident about completing any task more successfully than all his -------- .
10. They were in a -------- attempt to discover the mysterious treasure.
IV. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics
1. Languages VS. Dialects.
A: languages are dominant / languages are superior to dialects / languages give birth to different
dialects / languages belong to certain language families
B: dialects are dominant / dialects make earlier appearance / dialects develop into different
languages / languages can be traced back to certain dialects
2. Natural development VS. Executive control
A: natural discipline / stages such as birth, growth and death are inevitable / the contact and
influence between languages / man-made interference in vain
B: language policies / political unity / executive means / cultural and economic exchanges /
population movement
3. Language protection VS. Linguistic fusion
A: pure origin / symbol of culture / recognition of identity / a sense of belonging to a community
or a nation
B: an irreversible historical trend / on the basis of exchanges in various aspects / enhance
friendship between nations / social development
V. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. How do you understand that the changes occurring in the process of linguistic transmission is
part of the differences between human culture and animal behavior?
2. What’s the relationship between linguistic change and social development? Give examples to
support your point of view.
3. Why do many dialects or languages spoken by small populations tend to extinct more rapidly
20
rather than remain comparatively constant as before?
Reading Two
Language and Thought
by Dan Slobin
No one would disagree with the claim that language and thought interact in many significant
ways. There is great disagreement, however, about the proposition that each specific language has
its own influence on the thought and action of its speakers. On one hand, anyone who has learned
more than one language is struck by the many ways in which languages differ from one another.
But on the other hand, we expect human beings everywhere to have similar ways of experiencing
the world.
Language is the expression of human communication through which knowledge, belief, and
behavior can be experienced, explained, and shared. This sharing is based on systematic,
conventionally used signs, sounds, gestures, or marks that convey understood meanings within a
group or community. Recent research identifies "windows of opportunity" for acquiring language
---- written, spoken, or signed ---- that exist within the first few years of life.
Between 6 and 8 million individuals in the United States have some form of language
impairment. Disorders of language affect children and adults differently. For children who do not
use language normally from birth, or who acquire an impairment during childhood, language may
not be fully developed or acquired. Many children who are deaf in the United States use a natural
sign language known as American Sign Language (ASL). ASL shares an underlying organization
with spoken language and has its own syntax and grammar. Many adults acquire disorders of
language because of stroke, head injury, dementia, or brain tumors. Language disorders also are
found in adults who have failed to develop normal language skills because of mental retardation,
autism, hearing impairment, or other congenital or acquired disorders of brain development.
Comparisons of different languages can lead one to pay attention to 'universals'--the ways in
which all languages are similar, and to 'particulars' ---- the ways in which each individual
language, or type of language, is special, even unique. Linguists and other social scientists
interested in universals have formulated theories to describe and explain human language and
human language behavior in general terms as species-specific capacities of human beings.
However, the idea that different languages may influence thinking in different ways has been
present in many cultures and has given rise to many philosophical treatises. Because it is so
difficult to pin down effects of a particular language on a particular thought pattern, this issue
remains unresolved. It comes in and out of fashion and often evokes considerable energy in efforts
to support or refute it.
Relativity and Determinism
There are two problems to confront in this arena: linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism.
Relativity is easy to demonstrate. In order to speak any language, you have to pay attention to the
meanings that are grammatically marked in that language. For example, in English it is necessary
to mark the verb to indicate the time of occurrence of an event you are speaking about: It's raining;
It rained; and so forth. In Turkish, however, it is impossible to simply say, 'It rained last night'.
This language, like many American Indian languages, has more than one past tense, depending on
21
one's source of knowledge of the event. In Turkish, there are two past tenses--one to report direct
experience and the other to report events that you know about only by inference or hearsay. Thus,
if you were out in the rain last night, you will say, 'It rained last night' using the past-tense form
that indicates that you were a witness to the rain; but if you wake up in the morning and see the
wet street and garden, you are obliged to use the other past-tense form ---- the one that indicates
that you were not a witness to the rain itself.
Differences of this sort have fascinated linguists and anthropologists for centuries. They have
reported hundreds of facts about 'exotic' languages, such as verbs that are marked or chosen
according to the shape of an object that is being handled (Navajo) or for the relative ages of
speaker and hearer (Korean). Such facts are grist for the mill of linguistic relativity. And, indeed,
they can be found quite readily in 'nonexotic' languages as well. To cite a fact about English that is
well known to linguists: It is not appropriate to say Richard Nixon has worked in Washington, but
it is perfectly OK to say Gerald Ford has worked in Washington. Why? English restricts the
present perfect tense ('has worked') to assertions about people who are alive. Exotic!
Proponents of linguistic determinism argue that such differences between languages influence
the ways people think ---- perhaps the ways in which whole cultures are organized. Among the
strongest statements of this position are those by Benjamin Lee Whorf and his teacher, Edward
Sapir, in the first half of this century ---- hence the label, 'The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis', for the
theory of linguistic relativity and determinism. Whorf proposed: 'We cut nature up, organize it into
concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to
organize it in this way ---- an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is
codified in the patterns of our language'. And, in the words of Sapir: 'Human beings...are very
much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for
their society. ...The fact of the matter is that the "real world" is to a large extent unconsciously
built up on the language habits of the group'.
Investigating Language and Thought
How can such bold claims be substantiated beyond examination of individual languages
themselves? If one takes the hypothesis seriously, it should be possible to show that Turks are
more sensitive to evidence than are Americans, but that Americans are more aware of death than
Turks. Clearly, the hypothesis cannot be supported on so grand a level. Rather, experimental
psychologists and cognitive anthropologists have sought to find small differences, on controlled
tasks, between speakers of various languages. Maybe Navajos are somewhat more sensitive to
shapes of objects, for example.
The results have been mixed. In most cases, human thought and action are overdetermined by
an array of causes, so the structure of language may not play a central causal role. Linguistic
determinism can best be demonstrated in situations in which language is the principal means of
drawing people's attention to a particular aspect of experience. For example, if you regularly speak
a language in which you must pick a form of second-person address (you) that marks your social
relationship to your interlocutor ---- such as Spanish tu ('you' for friends and family and for those
socially subordinate) vs. usted ('you' for those socially above in status or for those with whom you
have no close connection) or French tu versus vous ---- you must categorize every person you talk
to in terms of the relevant social dimensions. (As a thought experiment of linguistic determinism,
think of the categorizations of social relationships that would have to be made if Spanish became
22
the common language of the United States.)
Going beyond thought experiments, some of the most convincing research demonstrating some
degree of linguistic determinism is being conducted under the direction of Stephen C. Levinson at
the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Levinson and his
collaborators distinguish between languages that describe spatial relations in terms of the body
(like English 'right/left', 'front/back') and those that orient to fixed points in the environment (like
'north/south/east/west' in some aboriginal Australian languages). In a language of the second type
one would refer, for example, to 'your north shoulder' or 'the bottle at the west end of the table'; in
narrating a past event, one would have to remember how the actions related to the compass points.
Thus, in order to speak this type of language, you always have to know where you are with respect
to the compass points, whether you are speaking or not. And Levinson's group have shown, in
extensive cross-linguistic and cross-cultural studies, that this is, in fact, the case.
Much more research needs to be done, but it is not likely that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis will
be supported in the strong form quoted above. For one, language is only one factor that influences
cognition and behavior. For another, if the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis were really true, second
language learning and translation would be far harder than they are. However, because language is
so pervasive ---- and because we must always make cognitive decisions while speaking ---weaker versions of the hypothesis will continue to attract scientific attention. (For a lively debate
on many of these issues, with much new evidence from several fields, read Gumperz and
Levinson 1996.)
(1444 words)
http://www.lwu.cn
(TIME ALLOWING: 15 MINUTES)
Notes
1. Navajo: (also Navajos / Navajoes) American Indians living in such states as New Mexico,
Arizona etc. (纳瓦霍人), or the language of those people (纳瓦霍语).
2. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: The hypothesis as we know it today can be broken down into
two basic principles: linguistic determinism (语言决定论) and linguistic relativity (语言相对
论), which states the relationship between the reality and the language.
Exercises
II. Comprehension of the text: Choose the best answer for each of the questions or
unfinished statements.
1. Which of the following has led to much debate concerning the links between a certain
language and thought?
A. Their close relationship and interaction between them.
B. The directly and solely decisive impact between them.
C. The former is to a great extent influenced by the latter.
D. The latter is to a great extent influenced by the former.
2. The description of language impairment in this passage aims at
.
A. analyzing the main causes of losing linguistic competency
B. certificating the correlation between language and thought
C. comparing the difference in cause between kids and adults
D. searching for effective approaches for curing those people
3. The essence of “The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” is that
.
A. the human spirit determines the physical world
23
B. an agreement determines what and how we act
C. the world is built up on the basis of language
D. the way of expression determines everything
4. Chinese is much more akin to French than to English because users of Chinese and
French
.
A. consider the relationship between them during a conversation
B. pick a proper address based on the status of their interlocutors
C. take into account the degree of intimacy between the speakers
D. view the language as the principal means of drawing attention
5. What’s the author’s academic position as far as this issue is concerned?
A. Welcoming a particular school of thought.
B. In favor of a relatively weaker hypothesis.
C. Calling for further study based on analysis.
D. With no definitely clear academic position.
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. Why and how, do you think, does language interact with thought?
2. What are the dominantly different ways of thinking between the Chinese and the Americans
subjecting to their particular languages?
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 6′00″
Time You Used: ________
Languages and the Internship Rush
By Jean C. Wen
My father once told me, “I think you will need to know at least five languages. All the top
lawyers I know can speak at least five languages.” I was about seventeen when my father gave me
this advice, and in true teenager fashion, I thought my father was exaggerating and didn’t pay
much heed to his advice at the time. I would like to tell my father here and now: You were right. I
was wrong.
I am currently in my second semester of law school and as a first-year law student, I am
frantically applying to summer internships along with my peers. I want to work in the field of
international law and have been applying to organizations like the United Nations and the
International Criminal Court. Whether they state it explicitly on their applications or not, fluency
in a second language other than English is a standard requirement. The United Nations prefers
fluency in another of its official languages, of which Mandarin Chinese is one. Essentially, if you
do not speak another language other than English, you can forget about a U.N. internship.
I was recently offered a job with a Boston organization that works with nationals of developing
countries in drafting legislation. While the woman who interviewed me told me she was impressed
with my resume generally, she was particularly impressed that I was fluent in Chinese. She offered
me the job immediately after finishing our telephone interview. Another job that I applied for was
for a German government organization in Beijing. While I missed the deadline for this year, I
received an e-mail offering me an internship position for the following summer. I do not believe
that anything on my resume represented me as being particularly qualified for the position ----24
anything other than the fact that I had studied German in Munich and had studied Chinese at
Tshinghua University, that is.
Even for regular law firm jobs, employers are increasingly looking for individuals that speak
several different languages. As business becomes increasingly global, any lawyer or
businessperson that is fluent in several languages is considered an asset. Growing up in the United
States, I never realized that languages were so important. I used to think that my parents were
unique in the fact that they stressed learning languages while I was growing up. Of course in high
school we are all required to learn a foreign language, but most of my friends took American Sign
Language or Spanish to fulfill the minimum requirement and none of them can today speak
another language. I think, in general, as Americans, we are raised to believe that English is good
enough. For most Americans, that may still hold true, but fluency in at least one other language is
imperative for the best jobs in law and business.
As it is, I speak English, German, and Chinese. My French, which I took in high school, is
mediocre. I know enough French to get by when traveling in France, but am nowhere near fluent. I
want to continue improving my German language skills and additionally learn another language
next year. Even though I know the best time to learn languages is as a child, I still want to try to
learn up to five or six languages like my father suggested when I was seventeen. Because, as I
have learned with my internship applications this year, oftentimes, it will be a candidate’s
language skills that will set himself / herself apart from the pack, and language will oftentimes be
the thing that gets your foot in the door.
(Words: 599)
http://www.ell.com.cn
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. What is an implied but indispensable requirement for going on a field trip to large
international organizations?
A. Good command of English and French.
B. Fluency in any of its official languages.
C. Good command of Mandarin Chinese.
D. Fluency in a language besides English.
2. Which factor actually distinguished the author from all his rivals?
A. His remarkable working experience.
B. His special knowledge of languages.
C. His impressive and outstanding qualities.
D. His learning record in German and China.
3. The underlined word “unique” (Paragraph 4) can best be replaced by
.
A. special
B. terrific
C. strange
D. peculiar
4. Most Americans
learning a foreign language.
A. suppose it unnecessary at all
B. emphasize the importance of
25
5.
C. never make a single effort in
D. take up a prototyped view on
It is a competitor’ linguistic advantages that
A. make him or her ready
B. make him or her lucky
C. brings him or her chances
D. brings him or her success
.
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6. ______ The author disliked and neglected what his father told him when he was young until
he experienced the internship.
7. ______ English, French, German and Chinese are among the five official languages of the
United Nations.
8. ______ Special skills in languages are no longer merely an expectation for senior working
forces.
9. ______ The author decided to learn another language because he realize the significance of
his parents’ view point.
10. ______ This passage may have been chosen from the Entertainment Volume of a magazine.
Passage 2
Supposed Time: 5′49″
Time You Used:
Body Language
The very best instrument there is for finding out what is going on with a person is her body. The
state of the body will be a reflection of her overall state. That information is very useful, both to
the person herself and to a process facilitator. By observing somebody's posture, eye movements,
breathing and skin color, you can gain information about what she is doing in her mind. You can
get the same information by listening to the qualities of her tone of voice. And this is without
being psychic, just by looking and listening.
Body language is a big subject and to master the reading of it to perfection requires a good deal
of training and experience. Here we will just present some of the most practical things you can
notice.
In the absence of knowing what different body movements mean, you can simply notice when
there is a change in the client's body. For example, if you have asked the client to close her eyes
and move back to a past incident. At first she is just sitting still. But suddenly you can see her eyes
moving behind her eyelids and her head is jerking a little bit, and maybe her breathing gets faster.
Well, that most likely means that she found an incident. Interestingly, she might not herself have
noticed that. So, if she doesn't start speaking by herself you can say "What's that?", or "What do
26
you see?"
If the client is leaning forward, she is probably into the incident, involved directly in the action.
If she is leaning back, she is probably seeing it from a distance. You can not be sure, just from a
specific body motion, what is going on. But it gives you a very good idea. Particularly when you
notice the changes in response to your directions. If you ask "Is there another viewpoint in the
incident?" and she suddenly leans back, that probably means that it is an external viewpoint,
seeing things from a distance.
There are a whole set of signals that tell you what kind of perceptions the person is accessing.
To make things simple, we can divide body perceptions into Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. I.e.
pictures, sounds, and feelings. A person will breathe shallowly and high in the chest when
accessing visual information. She will breathe deeply and slowly when accessing kinesthetic
information. And somewhere in between when accessing auditory information. When accessing
visual information, the person will tend to look up, straighten up her body, and make gestures into
space. When accessing auditory, she will tend to look to the side, maybe slant her head and cross
her arms. When accessing kinesthetic, she will tend to look down and slump over. The person will
speak faster and more high-pitch when accessing visual information than when accessing auditory
information. When accessing kinesthetic she will speak with a lower, slower tone of voice.
You can be more or less of a specialist in interpreting all these body reactions. You don't really
need to know them all that well to do basic processing. As long as you notice that there are
changes and reactions, and you notice when the client is looking happy and content, and when she
isn't, then you can do just fine in your sessions. But if you know body language really well you
can do magic with it. People will swear that you are reading their minds, when really you are just
looking at them.
(Words:581)
http://chinaetr.com
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. According to the passage, generally, how many elements can be targeted on as a way of
reading one’s mind?
A. Six elements.
B. Five elements.
C. Four elements.
D. Three elements.
2. Those
can manage quite well to use body movement as reference in
psychological analysis.
A. who have possessed magical power
B. who have obtained keen sensibility
C. who have looked and listened carefully
D. who have had a lot of special practices
3. The sudden occurrence of changes in one’s body indicates
.
A. the result of information process
B. the exact content of one’s thought
C. the process of reasoning and reviewing
27
4.
5.
D. the one being observed is thinking hard
If your friend leans forward when you initiate a topic, it shows that he/she
.
A. has already known it
B. is quite fed up with it
C. is greatly fond of it
D. has no interest in it
When a person accesses
information, he/ she will breath most deeply and speak
most slowly.
A. taste
B. visual
C. auditory
D. kinesthetic
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6. ______ Such body movement observation may reveal something which is even beyond the
actors’ consciousness.
7. ______The passage has presented several practical approaches, which may enable you to
become expert in this regard.
8. ______ If you pay attention to gain the practical skills mentioned above, people will be
amazed as well as adore you.
9. ______ The increase of distance between two speakers resulting from leaning back indicates
that the conversation is going to break down.
10. ______ When a person accesses an item in her mind, her body will reflect what kind of
information it is, if it predominantly has pictures, sounds, or feelings.
Unit 3: Cross-Cultural Communication
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. Are there foreign students in your school? What’s your impression of them?
2. Supposed you are living abroad, do you like being paid continually attention to just because of
your distinctive face?
3. Have you ever encountered cultural conflict in your daily life? Talk about your feeling.
THE MYTH OF THE LATIN WOMAN
I Just Met a Girl Named Maria
JUDITH ORTIZ COFER
28
On a bus trip to London from Oxford University, where I was earning some graduate credits
one summer, a young man, obviously fresh from a pub, spotted me and as if struck by inspiration
went down on his knees in the aisle. With both hands over his heart he broke into an Irish tenor’s
rendition of “María” from West Side Story. My politely amused fellow passengers gave his lovely
voice the round of gentle applause it deserved. Though I was not quite as amused, I managed my
version of an English smile: no show of teeth, no extreme contortions of the facial muscles—I was
at this time of my life practicing reserve and cool. Oh, that British control, how I coveted it. But
María had followed me to London, reminding me of a prime fact of my life: you can leave the
Island, master the English language, and travel as far as you can, but if you are a Latina, especially
one like me who so obviously belongs to Rita Moreno’s gene pool, the Island travels with you.
This is sometimes a very good thing—it may win you that extra minute of someone’s
attention. But with some people, the same things can make you an island—not so much a tropical
paradise as an Alcatraz, a place nobody wants to visit, As a Puerto Rican girl growing up in the
United States and wanting like most children to “belong,” I resented the stereotype that my
Hispanic appearance called forth from many people I met.
Our family lived in a large urban center in New Jersey during the sixties, where life was
designed as a microcosm of my parents’ casas on the island. We spoke in Spanish, we ate Puerto
Rican food bought at the bodega, and we practiced strict Catholicism complete with Saturday
confession and Sunday mass at a church where our parents were accommodated into a one-hour
Spanish mass slot, performed by a Chinese priest trained as a missionary for Latin America.
As a girl I was kept under strict surveillance, since virtue and modesty were, by cultural
equation, the same as family honor. As a teenager I was instructed on how to behave as a proper
señorita. But it was a conflicting message girls got, since the Puerto Rican mothers also
encouraged their daughters to look and act like women and to dress in clothes our Anglo friends
and their mothers found too “mature” for our age. It was, and is, cultural, yet I often felt
humiliated when I appeared at an American friend’s party wearing a dress more suitable to a
semiformal than to a playroom birthday celebration. At Puerto Rican festivities, neither the music
nor the colors we wore could be too loud. I still experience a vague sense of letdown when I’m
invited to a “party” and it turns out to be a marathon conversation in hushed tones rather than a
fiesta with salsa, laughter, and dancing—the kind of celebration I remember from my childhood.
I remember Career Day in our high school, when teachers told us to come dressed as if for a
job interview. It quickly became obvious that to the barrio girls, “dressing up” sometimes meant
wearing ornate jewelry and clothing that would be more appropriate (by mainstream standards) for
the company Christmas party than as daily office attire. That morning I had agonized in front of
my closet, trying to figure out what a “career girl” would wear because, essentially, except for
Marlo Thomas on TV, I had no models on which to base my decision. I knew how to dress for
school: at the Catholic school I attended we all wore uniforms; I knew how to dress for Sunday
mass, and I knew what dresses to wear for parties at my relatives’ homes. Though I do not recall
the precise details of my Career Day outfit, it must have been a composite of the above choices.
But I remember a comment my friend (an Italian-American) made in later years that coalesced my
impressions of that day. She said that at the business school she was attending the Puerto Rican
girls always stood out for wearing “everything at once.” She meant, of course, too much jewelry,
too many accessories. On that day at school, we were simply made the negative models by the
nuns who were themselves not credible fashion experts to any of us. But it was painfully obvious
29
to me that to the others, in their tailored skirts and silk blouses, we must have seemed “hopeless”
and “vulgar.” Though I now know that most adolescents feel out of step much of the time, I also
know that for the Puerto Rican girls of my generation that sense was intensified. The way our
teachers and classmates looked at us that day in school was just a taste of the culture clash that
awaited us in the real world, where prospective employers and men on the street would often
misinterpret our tight skirts and jingling bracelets as a come-on.
Mixed cultural signals have perpetuated certain stereotypes—for example, that of the
Hispanic woman as the “Hot Tamale” or sexual firebrand. It is a one-dimensional view that the
media have found easy to promote. In their special vocabulary, advertisers have designed
“sizzling” and “smoldering” as the adjectives of choice for describing not only the foods but also
the women of Latin America. From conversations in my house I recall hearing about the
harassment that Puerto Rican women endured in factories where the “boss men” talked to them as
if sexual innuendo was all they understood and, worse, often gave them the choice of submitting
to advances or being fired.
It is custom, however, not chromosomes, that leads us to choose scarlet over pale pink. As
young girls, we were influenced in our decisions about clothes and colors by the women—older
sisters and mothers who had grown up on a tropical island where the natural environment was a
riot of primary colors, where showing your skin was one way to keep cool as well as to look sexy.
Most important of all, on the island, women perhaps felt freer to dress and move more
provocatively, since, in most cases, they were protected by the traditions, mores, and laws of a
Spanish/Catholic system of morality and machismo whose main rule was: You may look at my
sister, but if you touch her I will kill you. The extended family and church structure could provide
a young woman with a circle of safety in her small pueblo on the Island; if a man “wronged” a girl,
everyone would close in to save her family honor.
Because of my education and my proficiency with the English language, I have acquired
many mechanisms for the anger I experience. This was not true for my parents, nor is it true for
the many Latin women working at menial jobs who must put up with stereotypes about out ethnic
group such as: “They make good domestics.” This is another facet of the myth of the Latin women
in the United States. Its origin is simple to deduce. Work as domestics, waitressing, and factory
jobs are all that’s available to women with little English and few skills. The myth of the Hispanic
menial has been sustained by the same media phenomenon that made “Mammy” from Gone with
the Wind America’s idea of the black woman for generations; María, the housemaid or counter girl,
is now indelibly etched into the national psyche. The big and the little screens have presented us
with the picture of the funny Hispanic maid, mispronouncing words and cooking up a spicy storm
in a shiny California kitchen.
This media-engendered image of the Latin in the United States has been documented by
feminist Hispanic scholars, who claim that such portrayals are partially responsible for the denial
of opportunities for upward mobility among Latinas in the professions. I have a Chicana friend
working on a Ph.D. in philosophy at a major university. She says her doctor still shakes his head in
puzzled amazement at all the “big words” she uses. Since I do not wear my diplomas around my
neck for all to see, I too have on occasion been sent to that “kitchen,” where some think I
obviously belong.
One such incident that has stayed with me, though I recognize it as a minor offense,
happened on the day of my first public poetry reading. It took place in Miami in a boat-restaurant
30
where we were having lunch before the event. I was nervous and excited as I walked in with my
notebook in hand. An older woman motioned me to her table. Thinking (foolish me) that she
wanted me to autograph a copy of my brand new slender volume of verse, I went over. She
ordered a cup of coffee from me, assuming that I was the waitress. Easy enough to mistake my
poems for menus, I suppose. I know that it wasn’t an intentional act of cruelty, yet with all the
good things that happened that day, I remember that scene most clearly, because it reminded me of
what I had to overcome before anyone would take me seriously. In retrospect I understand that my
anger gave my reading fire, that I have almost always taken doubts in my abilities as a
challenge—and that the result is, most times, a feeling of satisfaction at having won a convert
when I see the cold, appraising eyes warm to my words, the body language change, the smile that
indicates that I have opened some avenue for communication. That day I read to that woman and
her lowered eyes told me that she was embarrassed at her little faux pas, and when I willed her to
look up to me, it was my victory, and she graciously allowed me to punish her with my full
attention. We shook hands at the end of the reading, and I never saw her again. She has probably
forgotten the whole thing but maybe not.
Yet I am one of the lucky ones. My parents made it possible for me to acquire a stronger
footing in the mainstream culture by giving me the chance at an education. And books and art
have saved me from the harsher forms of ethnic and racial prejudice that many of my Hispanic
compañeras have had to endure. I travel a lot around the United States, reading from my books of
poetry and my novel, and the reception I most often receive is one of positive interest by people
who want to know more about my culture. There are, however, thousands of Latinas without the
privilege of an education or the entrée into society that I have. For them life is a struggle against
the misconceptions perpetuated by the myth of the Latina as whore, domestic, or criminal. We
cannot change this by legislating the way people look at us. The transformation, as I see it, has to
occur at a much more individual level. My personal goal in my public life is to try to replace the
old pervasive stereotypes and myths about Latinas with a much more interesting set of realities.
Every time I give a reading, I hope the stories I tell, the dreams and fears I examine in my work,
can achieve some universal truth which will get my audience past the particulars of my skin color,
my accent, or my clothes.
I once wrote a poem in which I called us Latinas “God’s brown daughters.” This poem is really
a prayer of sorts, offered upward, but also, through the human-to-human channel of art, outward.
It is a prayer for communication, and for respect. In it, Latin women pray “in Spanish to an Anglo
God/ with a Jewish heritage,” and they are “fervently hoping/ that if not omnipotent,/ at least He
be bilingual.”
（TIME ALLOWED: 20 Minutes）
Reconstructing Gender
— A Multicultural Anthology
copyright©2000, 1997 by Mayfield Publishing Company
Note:
1.Puerto Rican:波多黎各的
2.Catholicism: the beliefs and practices of a Catholic Church
3.confession: (Roman Catholic Church) the act of a penitent disclosing his sinfulness before a
priest in the sacrament of penance in the hope of absolution
4.mass: (Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches) the celebration of the Eucharist
Exercises:
31
I. Comprehension of the text: give brief answers to the following questions, using your own
words as much as possible.
1. Why did the young man fresh from a pub broke into an Irish tenor’s rendition of “Maria”
when he spotted the writer?
2. Why did the writer feel humiliated when she appeared at an American friend’s party?
3. What do people mean by saying “they make good domestics”?
4. Why does the writer say that she is the lucky one?
5. What does the writer mean by giving her poem the name “God’s brown daughters”?
II. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
Contortion/ reserve/ not so much … as …/ proficiency/ submit/ covet/ perpetuate/ sustain/ of
sorts/ omnipotent
1. After reading this book, you will be -------- in writing.
2. For once, she lost her customary -------- and became quite lively.
3. They tried to starve him into --------.
4. Objection --------!
5. He is a(n) -------- bureaucrat.
6. It’s hard to imitate the -------- of a yoga expert.
7. All --------, all lose.
8. The site of the memorial is granted in -------- to Canada.
9. She is -------- poor -------- careless with money.
10. It was a meal --------, but nobody enjoyed it.
III. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics
1. Ethnocentrism VS. Egalitarian
A. more standard accent/ know the history better/ reliable to the culture/ have more chance
in society
B. equally contribute to the country/ unlimited potential/ equal dignity/ ethnic achievement/
equally important to the country
2. Friendship VS. Race
A. sincere/ equal/ share happiness and sorrow/ tacit understanding/ mutually treasure
B. different belief/ philosophy/ difficult to communicate/ misunderstanding/
3. Mainstream culture VS. Non-mainstream culture
A. in the highest flight/more accepters/ easy to be accepted/ more attention/ development
B. exist difficultly/ very important/ enrichment/ developing space/ triffidian
IV. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. My foreign friends
2. Culture and life
3. Living abroad
Reading two
Body Ritual among the Nacirema
Excerpt
32
By Horace Miner
Professor Linton first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists
twenty years ago (1936:326), but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. They
are a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and
Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin,
although tradition states that they came from the east. According to Nacirema mythology, their
nation was originated by a culture hero, Notgnihsaw, who is otherwise known for two great feats
of strength—the throwing of a piece of wampum across the river Pa-To-Mac and the chopping
down of a cherry tree in which the Spirit of Truth resided.
Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved
in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people’s time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large
part of the fruits of these labors and a considerable portion of the day are spent in ritual activity.
The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a
dominant concern in the ethos of the people. While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its
ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique.
The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is
ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease. Incarcerated in such a body, man’s
only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of the powerful influences of ritual and
ceremony. Every household has one or more shrines devoted to this purpose. The more powerful
individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses and, in fact, the opulence of a house
is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses. Most houses are of
wattle and daub construction, but the shrine rooms of the more wealthy are walled with stone.
Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls.
While each family has at least one such shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family
ceremonies but are private and secret. The rites are normally only discussed with children, and
then only during the period when they are being initiated into these mysteries. I was able, however,
to establish sufficient rapport with the natives to examine these shrines and to have the rituals
described to me.
The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest are
kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live. These
preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful of these
are the medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts. However, the
medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients
should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language. This writing is understood
only by the medicine men and by the herbalists who, for another gift, provide the required charm.
The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose, but is placed in the charm-box of
the household shrine. As these magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or
imagined maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to over-flowing. The
magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them
again. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining
all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals
are conducted, will in some way protect the worshipper.
Beneath the charm-box is a small font. Each day every member of the family, in succession,
33
enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water
in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution. The holy waters ate secured from the Water
Temple of the community, where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to make the liquid
ritually pure.
In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in prestige, are
specialists whose designation is best translated “holy-mouth-men.” The Nacirema have an almost
pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a
supernatural influence on all social relationships. Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they
believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their haws shrink, their friends desert
them, and their lovers reject them. They also believe that a strong relationship exists between oral
and moral characteristics. For example, there is a ritual ablution of the mouth for children which is
supposed to improve their moral fiber.
The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that
these people are so punctilious about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes
the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a
small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving
the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.
In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a
year. These practitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of augers,
awls, probes, and prods. The use of these objects in the exorcism of the evils of the mouth
involves almost unbelievable ritual torture of the client. The holy-mouth-man opens the client’s
mouth, and using the above mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may have created in
the teeth. Magical materials are put into these holes. If there are no naturally occurring holes in the
teeth, large sections of one or more teeth are gouged out so that the supernatural substance can be
applied. In the client’s view, the purpose of these ministrations is to arrest decay and to draw
friends. The extremely sacred and traditional character of the rite is evident in the fact that the
natives return to the holy-mouth-men year after year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to
decay.
It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is made, there will be careful
inquiry into the personality structure of these people. One has to but watch the gleam in the eye of
a holy-mouth-man as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of
sadism is involved. If this can be established, a very interesting pattern emerges, for most of the
population shows definite masochistic tendencies. It was to these that Professor Linton referred in
discussing a distinctive part of the daily body ritual which is performed only by men. This part of
the rite involves scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument. Special
women’s rites are performed only four times during each lunar month, but what they lack in
frequency is made up in barbarity. As part of this ceremony, women bake their heads in small
ovens for about an hour. The theoretically interesting point is that what seems to be a
preponderantly masochistic people have developed sadistic specialists.
The medicine men have an imposing temple, or latipso, in every community of any size. The
more elaborate ceremonies required to treat very sick patients can only be performed at this
temple. These ceremonies involve not only the thaumaturge but a permanent group of vestal
maidens who move sedately about the temple chambers in distinctive costume and headdress.
The latipso ceremonies are so harsh that it is phenomenal that a fair proportion of the really
34
sick natives who enter the temple ever recover. Small children whose indoctrination is still
incomplete have been known to resist attempts to take them to the temple because “that is where
you go to die.” Despite this fact, sick adults are not only willing but eager to undergo the
protracted ritual purification, if they can afford to do so. No matter how ill the supplicant or how
grave the emergency, the guardians of many temples will not admit a client if he cannot give a rich
gift to the custodian. Even after one has gained admission and survived the ceremonies, the
guardians will not permit the neophyte to leave until he makes still another gift.
The supplicant entering the temple is first stripped of all his or her clothes. In everyday life
the Nacirema avoids exposure of his body and its natural functions. Bathing and excretory acts are
performed only in the secrecy of the household shrine, where they are ritualized as part of the
body-rites. Psychological shock results from the fact that body secrecy is suddenly lost upon entry
into the latipso. A man, whose own wife has never seen him in an excretory act, suddenly finds
himself naked and assisted by a vestal maiden while he performs his natural functions into a
sacred vessel. This sort of ceremonial treatment is necessitated by the fact that the excreta are used
by a diviner to ascertain the course and nature of the client’s sickness.
Few supplicants in the temple are well enough to do anything but lie on their hard beds. The
daily ceremonies, like the rites of the holy-mouth-men, involve discomfort and torture. With ritual
precision, the vestals awaken their miserable charges each dawn and roll them about on their beds
of pain while performing ablutions, in the formal movements of which the maidens are highly
trained. At other times they insert magic wands in the supplicant’s mouth or force him to eat
substances which are supposed to be healing. From time to time the medicine men come to their
clients and jab magically treated needles into their flesh. The fact that these temple ceremonies
may not cure, and may even kill the neophyte, in no way decreases the people’s faith in the
medicine men.
There remains one other kind of practitioner, known as a “listener”. This witch-doctor has the
power to exorcise the devils that lodge in the heads of people who have been bewitched. The
Nacirema believe that parents bewitch their own children. Mothers are particularly suspected of
putting a curse on children while teaching them the secret body rituals. The counter-magic of the
witch-doctor is unusual in its lack of ritual. The patient simply tells the “listener” all his troubles
and fears, beginning with the earliest difficulties he can remember. The memory displayed by the
Nacirema in these exorcism sessions is truly remarkable. It is not uncommon for the patient to
bemoan the rejection he felt upon being weaned as a babe, and a few individuals even see their
troubles going back to the traumatic effects of their own birth.
Our review of the ritual life of the Nacirema has certainly shown them to be a magic-ridden
people. It is hard to understand how they have managed to exist so long under the burdens which
they have imposed upon themselves. But even such exotic customs as these take on real meaning
when they are viewed with the insight provided by Malinowski when he wrote (1948:70)
Looking from far and above, from our high places of safety in the developed civilization, it
is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and guidance early
man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have
advanced to the higher stages of civilization.
（TIME ALLOWED: 20Minutes）
35
Applying Cultural Anthropology, Copyright ©2001, 1999 by Mayfield Publishing Company
Notes
1. Cree: 克里人
2. Yaqui: 雅基族[人,语] (一印第安族)
3. Carib: 加勒比人(南美洲东北部印第安人)
4. Arawak: 阿拉瓦人
5. the Antilles: a group of islands in the West Indies (安地列斯群岛)
Exercises
I. Comprehension of the text: Answer the following questions in your own words
1. How do the Nacirema feel about the human body?
2. Do you think that the charms and magical potions used by the Nacirema really work?
3. Can you list those aspects of social life in which magic plays an important role?
4. What is your opinion of the importance of body ritual, and if you went to live among the
Nacirma, would you tell them of your opinion?
5. Living among the Nacirema, you might find that their behaviors sometimes appear bizarre.
Do you think the Nacirema themselves feel this way?
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. Magic and science
2. Do you think people with different ritual can get along well with each other?
3. What kinds of rituals do you identify in your community?
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 6′30″
Time You Used: ________
Ritual as Part of Everyday Life
By Bradford J. Hall
When we discuss the idea of communication across various cultures we assume that there will
be at least some differences in dress, manners, values gestures, and so on. However, this focus on
differences can at times distract us from seeing that there are also many similarities across cultures.
It is these similarities that make understanding differences possible, both in terms of scholarly
study and daily practice, This essay attempts to describe one form of similarity, ritual.
One question often comes up in a discussion of ritual is, why don’t people just be open and
get to the point? Rituals may seem very inefficient, a sort of cultural fluff that would be better put
behind us. I will try to illustrate the importance of rituals by reviewing one I learned and
36
participated in while still a youth. When I was very young, we moved across the country to within
walking distance of my mother’s parents’ home. Around the age of 7 or 8, I started helping out
around my grandparents’ place by doing yard work.. After the initial efforts, my grandmother gave
me some money for my help. Quite excited about this turn of events, I told my mother about the
money, but she was not so excited as I. She tried to explain to me about fixed income and helping
out just because we were family, and that I should not be taking my grandparents’ money for
helping.
So, after the next time I helped out and was offered money, I told my grandmother, “No
thanks, I was just happy to help out.” My grandmother insisted on paying me. Finally, after going
back and forth a bit, she stuffed the money into my pocket and told me to get an ice cream or
something. Worried that my mother would find out (she always seemed to), I told her what had
happened. Instead of being upset, she noted that at least I had tried. I quickly learned that if I
communicated in the right way, said no first and indicated that I just wanted to help out, it was
okay to get the money, but that if I didn’t communicate appropriately, the same activity—taking
the money—was not acceptable.
Some might argue that what I was learning was how to manipulate people and that it would
have been better if I had just taken the money without the ritual. I would disagree with this
because as time went on I found myself wanting to help out without being paid, and at certain
times I could accomplish this by doing the act secretly or leaving before the ritual was started, a
violation never created the same good feelings. This development of the right “feelings” was an
important part of my cultural education, I was being taught about important values within my
community, such as respect and gratitude. Rituals may seem to be very ineffective ways to
accomplish certain immediate tasks, but what is sometimes forgotten is that the primary tasks
being accomplished are to affirm and reaffirm certain types of relationship and teach values that
are important in a particular cultural community.
Rituals are a vital part of any community not only because they teach people what is good,
providing , as noted before, a way to create and maintain important social relationships, but rituals
also serve a cohesive function for the larger community in general. People who are engaged in
rituals do not consciously think, “I’m engaging in a ritual.” Yet they still routinely follow
structured series of acts, the correct performance of which pays homage to some cultural good or
ideal. So, even though certain aspects of the content may vary and there is a sense of spontaneity,
if someone violates the proper form, it is immediately noted and has negative implications for the
social standing of the violator. In this way rituals work to bind communities of people together,
even in very individualistic cultures.
(Words: 666)
Reading in Cultural Contexts
Copyright©1998 by Mayfield Publishing Company
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. According to the writer, similarities across various cultures __________.
A. could make understanding differences easy.
B. have nothing to do with communication.
37
C. distract us from seeing that there are many differences across cultures
D. do not exist at all.
2. From the passage, we know that rituals are something __________.
A. inefficient
B. just as cultural fluff
C. important in life
D. trivial
3. The underlined word “fluff”(Paragraph 2) can best be replaced by __________.
A. nuisance
B. garniture
C. bagatelle
D. preventer
4. By saying “right feeling”, the writer means __________.
A. helping out without being paid.
B. helping out secretly
C. important values within the community.
D. helping out and getting paid.
5. Some people don’t like ritual because __________.
A. it prevents one getting paid.
B. it makes communication inefficient.
C. it just teaches how to manipulate people.
D. people always violate it.
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6. ______ Rituals are truly a universal form of communication.
7. ______ Children shouldn’t take the money paid by their grandparents for helping
out.
8. ______ Rituals are something we must obey in daily life.
9. ______ Rituals teach and reaffirm important cultural values.
10. ______ Rituals help to keep good interpersonal relationship in social life.
Passage 2
Supposed Time:6′
Time You Used:
___
Intercultural communication principles
People from different cultures encode and decode messages differently, increasing the
chances of misunderstanding, so the safety-first consequence of recognising cultural differences
should be to assume that everyone’s thoughts and actions are not just like ours.
38
Rights, values, and needs
Some cultural characteristics will be easy to identify, e.g. whether people are conscious of
status or make displays of material wealth. But many rights are assumed, values are implied, and
needs are unspoken, (e.g. for safety, security, love, a sense of belonging to a group, self-esteem,
and the ability to attain one's goals).
In such situations, identity is fundamental when disputing the proper role or "place" of the other,
about who is in control of their lives, and how they present themselves to the outside world. But
the reality is more deeply rooted in power relationships: about who is on top of the social,
economic, and/or political hierarchy. Family members or long term rivals may be obsessed with
their mutual competition. The relationships between racial or ethnic groups may be affected by
economic jealousy. Nations may assert that their political systems are superior. Such conflicts are
difficult to resolve because no-one wants to be the loser, and few are willing to share the winnings.
Stereotyping can aggravate these problems and prevent people from realising that there is another
way to interpret a situation, or that other groups may define their rights in a different way. Hence,
what may appear just or fair to one group can often seem unjust to an opposing group.
Assumptions
People may misinterpret each other's motives. For example, one group may assume that they
are simply exchanging information about what they believe, but the other believes that they are
negotiating a change in behavior. This is most likely to arise when the parties are not completely
honest with each other from the outset. Individuals may wish to protect their privacy, corporations
may be concerned about industrial espionage, and politicians may be bound by requirements of
secrecy in the national interest. Nevertheless, clarifying the purpose of the interaction is essential
to eliminating confusion, particularly if vested interests are involved.
The situation
If time is not a factor and those interacting approach their meetings with good will and
patience, effective communication is more likely. But, if the parties are under pressure (whether
generated by external circumstances or internal needs), emotions may colour the exchange.
Prejudice is a short-cut decision-making tool. In a crisis, fear and anger may trigger more
aggressive tactics, particularly if the meeting is being staged under the gaze of the news media.
Improving Intercultural Communication
It is essential that people research the cultures and communication conventions of those whom
they propose to meet. This will minimise the risk of making the elementary mistakes. It is also
prudent to set a clear agenda so that everyone understands the nature and purpose of the
interaction. When language skills are unequal, clarifying one’s meaning in four ways will improve
communication:
39
1.
avoid using slang and idioms, choosing words that will convey only the most specific
denotative meaning;
2.
listen carefully and, if in doubt, ask for confirmation of understanding (particularly
important if local accents and pronunciation are a problem);
3.
respect the local communication formalities and styles, and watch for any changes in body
language.
4. Investigate their culture's perception of your culture by reading literature about your culture
through their eyes before entering into communication with them. This will allow you to
prepare yourself for projected views of your culture you will be bearing as a visitor in their
culture.
(Words: 596)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercultural_communication_principles
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. According to the writer, intercultural misunderstanding is usually caused by __________.
A. differences between cultural characteristics
B. people’s interpreting messages differently
C. unequal language skills
D. slang and idioms in people’s languages
2. People may misinterpret each other’s motives because __________.
A. stereotyping in people’s concept
B. vested interests are involved in communication
C. they want to protect their privacy
D. they are not completely honest with each other
3. The underlined word “colour” (Paragraph 4) can best be replaced by __________.
A. stain
B. change
C. distort
D. affect
4. According to the writer, effective communication is more likely when __________.
A. people interact with good will and patience
B. stereotyping is removed from people’s mind
C. people meet under the gaze of the news media
D. there is no pressure over the communication
5. According to the writer, prejudice __________.
A. may influence one’s emotion
B. may misinterpret the exchange
C. may generate pressure over communication
D. is a kind of aggressive tactic
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
40
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6.
7.
8.
9.
______ It’s difficult to recognize whether people are aware of status.
______ Family members may be preoccupied with mutual competition.
______ An explicit agenda is helpful in intercultural communication.
______ Corporations are concerned about industrial espionage, so they are always dishonest
with each other in communication.
10. ______ The more specific a word’s meaning is, the less people misinterpret the situation.
Unit 4 Natural Wonder
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. What does the cardinal mean to you?
2. Do you know any other countries that have no regular army?
3. How do you understanding the meaning of a city-state?
Vatican City
Vatican City, formally the State of the Vatican City is a landlocked sovereign city-state
whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome. At approximately 44 hectares
(108.7 acres), it is the smallest independent nation in the world.It was created in 1929 by the
Lateran Treaty as a vestige of the much larger former Papal States (756 AD to 1870). Although
governed by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), the Vatican City is officially a monarchy. The highest
state functionaries are all clergymen of the Catholic Church. It is the sovereign territory of the
Holy See and the location of the Apostolic Palace – the Pope's official residence – and the Roman
Curia. Thus, although the principal ecclesiastical seat of the Holy See (the Basilica of St. John
Lateran) is located outside of its walls, in Rome, the Vatican City can be said to be the
governmental capital of the Catholic Church.
The territory
The name Vatican is ancient and predates Christianity, coming from the Latin Mons
Vaticanus, Vatican Hill. It is part of the Mons Vaticanus, and of the adjacent former Vatican Fields
where St. Peter's Basilica, the Apostolic Palace, the Sistine Chapel, and museums were built, along
with various other buildings. Being separated from the city and on the west bank of the Tiber river,
it was an outcrop of the city that was protected by being included within the walls of Leo IV.
When Lateran Pacts of 1929 that gave the state its present form were being prepared, the fact that
a good part of the proposed territory was all but enclosed by this loop led to the present territorial
definition being adopted. For some tracts of the frontier there was no wall, but the line of certain
buildings supplied part of the boundary, and for a small part of the frontier a modern wall was
constructed. The territory included St. Peter's Square, which was not possible to isolate from the
rest of Rome, and therefore a largely imaginary border with Italy runs along the outer limit of the
41
square where it touches on Piazza Pio XII and Via Paolo VI. St. Peter's Square is reached through
the Via della Conciliazione connecting it with Rome via the Ponte Sant Angelo. This grand
approach was constructed by Mussolini after the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty.
According to the Lateran Treaty, certain properties of the Holy See which are located in
Italian territory, most notably Castel Gandolfo and the Patriarchal Basilicas, enjoy extraterritorial
status similar to that of foreign embassies. These properties, scattered all over Rome and Italy,
house essential offices and institutions necessary to the character and mission of the Holy See. The
Vatican City State has the distinction of having the smallest and oldest posse in the wold, the
Swiss Guards. It was founded by Pope JuliusⅡon January 22,1506 originally made up of Swiss
mercenaries from the Swiss Confederation. They currently number a little over 100 men and are
also the personal bodyguards of the Pope. Recruiment is restricted to Catholic male Swiss citizens.
The Head of state
The Pope is ex officio head of state and head of government of Vatican City, and is
simultaneously and primordially the bishop of the Diocese of Rome, the Holy See, and the leader
of the Catholic religion His official title with regard to Vatican City is Sovereign of the State of the
Vatican City.
The pope is a non-hereditary monarch who exercises absolute authority, that is to say
supreme legislative, executive and judicial power over the Vatican City. He is the only absolute
monarch in Europe, being elected for a life term in conclave by cardinals under the age of 80. His
principal subordinate government officials for Vatican City are the Secretary of State, the
President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, and the Governor of Vatican City.
History
Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of
Rome had long been considered sacred, or at least not available for habitation. The area was also
the site of worship to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis during Roman times.
Agrippina the Elder (14 BC – 18 October AD 33) drained the hill and environs and built her
gardens there in the early 1st century AD, and her son, Emperor Caligula (b. Aug. 31, AD 12 - d.
Jan. 24, AD 41, emperor AD 37 to AD 41) started construction of a circus in AD 40 that was later
completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis. The Vatican obelisk was originally taken by
Caligula from Heliopolis to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant.
This area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the great fire of Rome in AD 64.
Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that St. Peter (Simon Peter Bar-Jona) was
crucified upside down. Opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Funeral
monuments and mausoleums and small tombs as well as altars to pagan gods of all kinds of
polytheistic religions were constructed lasting until before the construction of the Constantinian
Basilica of St. Peter's in the first half of the 4th century AD. Remains of this ancient necropolis
were brought to light sporadically during renovations by various popes throughout the centuries
increasing in frequency during the Renaissance until it was systematically excavated by orders of
Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1941.
Popes in their secular role gradually came to govern neighbouring regions and, through the
Papal States, ruled a large portion of the Italian peninsula for more than a thousand years until the
mid 19th century, when most of the territory of the Papal States was seized by the newly created
Kingdom of Italy. For much of this time the Vatican was not the habitual residence of the Popes,
but rather the Lateran Palace, and in recent centuries, the Quirinal Palace, while the residence
42
from 1309–1377 was at Avignon in France.
In 1870, the Pope's holdings were left in an uncertain situation when Rome itself was
annexed by the Piedmontese after a nominal resistance by the papal forces. Between 1861 and
1929 the status of the pope was referred to as the "Roman Question". They were undisturbed in
their palace, and given certain recognitions by the Law of Guarantees, including the right to send
and receive ambassadors. But they did not recognize the Italian king's right to rule in Rome, and
they refused to leave the Vatican compound until the dispute was resolved in 1929. Other states
continued to maintain international recognition of the Holy See as a sovereign entity. In practice
Italy made no attempt to interfere with the Holy See within the Vatican walls. However, they
confiscated church property in many other places, including, perhaps most notably, the Quirinal
Palace, formerly the pope's official residence. Pope Pius IX (b. May 13, 1792-d. Feb. 7, 1878,
pope 1846-1878), the last ruler of the Papal States, said that after Rome was annexed he was a
"Prisoner in the Vatican". This situation was resolved on February 11, 1929 between the Holy See
and the Kingdom of Italy. The treaty was signed by Benito Mussolini and Pietro Cardinal Gasparri
in behalf of King Victor Emanuel III and Pope Pius XI (b. May 31, 1857-d. Feb. 10, 1939, pope
1922-1939), respectively. The Lateran Treaty and the Concordat established the independent State
of the Vatican City and granted Catholicism special status in Italy. In 1984, a new concordat
between the Holy See and Italy modified certain provisions of the earlier treaty, including the
position of Catholicism as the Italian state religion.
Government
For historical reasons, the government of Vatican City has a unique structure. As noted, the
principal figures are the Secretary of State, the President of the Pontifical Commission for the
Vatican City State, and the Governor of Vatican City. These, like all other officials, are appointed
by the Pope and can be dismissed by him at any time. During a sede vacante (papal vacancy), the
Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, former Secretary of State, and former President of the
Pontifical Commission form a commission that performs some of the functions of the head of state;
while another made up of the Chamberlain and three cardinals performs other functions of the
head of state. All decisions of these commissions must be approved by the College of Cardinals.
The Vatican City State is not the Holy See. The Vatican City can thus be deemed a trivial
subset of the Holy See, very significant but not essential. The Holy See has existed continuously
as a juridical entity since Roman Imperial times and had been recognized by other sovereigns,
nations and foreign powers as a powerful and independent sovereign (even suzerain) entity since
late antiquity to the present, even during periods when it held no territory (e.g. 1870 to 1929). The
Holy See has the oldest active continuous diplomatic representation or service in the world.
Indeed, other nations have their diplomatic relations with the Holy See, never the Vatican City
State. Thus, as far as the nation-state of the Vatican is concerned, its Head of State, the Sovereign
of the State of the Vatican City, is the pope. As far as it is concerned, the pope is its absolute
monarch — who just happens to be a priest.
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church as governed by the Holy See is the proper ecclesiastical
government. This is not necessarily the case for the Vatican City State. In fact, prior to the reforms
made by Pope Paul VI (b. Sep. 26, 1897-d. Aug. 6, 1978, pope Jun. 21, 1963-Aug. 6, 1978), a
large number of nobles existed within the government of the Vatican. A noble class still exists
today that continues to form part of the papal court drawn from the ranks of Roman and European
nobility. The size of the papal court, however, had been reduced to a great extent after the reforms
43
made by Pope Paul VI in the 1970s. All cardinals, however, continue to have the royal rank of
prince of the blood. Its royal character is a vestige of the temporal power of the popes who have
ruled the Papal States for more than a thousand years and, prior to the Papal States, as the highest
civil authority of the Roman and Byzantine empires in Rome since late antiquity. Therefore,
within this context, the State of the Vatican City is a true monarchy in every sense of the word.
Communications
Vatican City has its own post office, fire brigade, police service, commissary (supermarket),
bank (the automatic teller machines are the only ones in the world to offer customers service in
Latin, among other languages), railway station, electricity generating plant, and publishing house.
The Vatican also controls its own Internet domain.
Vatican Radio, which was organized by Guglielmo Marconi himself, today offers not only
short-wave service around the world, but also television services through Vatican Television and is
available on the Internet. L'Osservatore Romano is the semi-official newspaper, published daily in
Italian, and weekly in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French (plus a monthly edition
in Polish). It is published by a private corporation under the direction of Catholic laymen but
carries official information. Acta Apostolicae Sedis is the official publication of the Holy See,
carrying the official texts of Church documents, but is little read other than by scholars and
Church professionals.
（TIME ALLOWED: 19 Minutes）
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
Notes
1. Cybele: great nature goddess of ancient phrygia in Asia Minor; counterpart of Greek Rhea and
Roman Ops.
2. Agrippina the Elder: grand-daughter of Augustus and mother of Caligula and Aggrippina the
Younger (who poisoned Claudius after her son Nero was declared heir and who was then put
to death by Nero).
3. Caligula: Roman Emperor who succeeded Tiberius and whose uncontrolled passion resulted
in manifest insanity; noted for his cruelty and tyranny; was assassinated.
4. Nero: Roman Emperor notorious for his monstrous vice and fantastic luxury (was said to have
started fire that destroyed much of Rome in 64), but the Empire remained prosperous during
his rule.
Exercises
I. Comprehension of the text: Answer the following questions with your own words
1. How did the city-state come into being?
2. What’s the relation between the Vatican City and the Holy See?
3. What do you know about the Pope?
4. Why did the last ruler of the Papal State describe himself as a “Prisoner in the Vatican”?
5. Why does the writer say the State of Vatican City is a true monarchy?
II. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
vestige/ excavate/ subordinate/ consort/ remnant/ renovation/ annex/ confiscate/ layman/ draw
from
1. The headmaster-------- -------- his water-shooter.
44
This beautiful curtain is made of -------- materials.
3. He was always friendly to his -------- officers.
4. Her inspiration was -------- the story she read last night.
5. There is not a -------- of truth in the report.
6. This book is written for professionals and -------- alike.
7. Don’t -------- with that man with glasses.
8. The mayor visited the --------.
9. A new wing has been -------- to the hospital.
10. The supermarket is closed for --------.
III. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics
1. Syncretism of politics and religion VS. discrete of politics and religion
A. the king has more power/ paramount leadership/ effectively control/ enhance charisma
B. avoid inter-influence/ more freedom/ objective/ open-minded
2. Life tenure VS. Fixed-term appointment system
A. continuity in policy/ centralization/ more responsibility/ more earnest
B. avoid cult of personality/ decrease bureaucracy/ reduce corruption/ more devoted
3. Tourist resources in a small country VS. Tourist resources in a large country
A. individuation/ concentrated investment/ benefit quickly/ easy conservation
B. rich resources/ attract more people/ benefit more/ exploitability
IV. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. Do you know any other things about the Vatican City-State?
2. My experience of traveling
3. Catholic around me
2.
Reading Two
The Acropolis of Athens
What would a visit to Athens, Greece be without going to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon?
The Acropolis is the one historical site you can't miss. You can take a tour or wander up there
yourself but during the summer, whatever you do, unless it is overcast, go early or late in the day.
It can get very hot up there and gasping for breath can take way from your ability to marvel at the
greatest of all archaeological sites. Getting to the Acropolis is easy and more pleasant than ever
because the large avenues which border the south and west of the site (Apostolou Pavlou in
Thission and Dionissiou Areopagitou in Makrianni) have been turned into giant pedestrian streets
with cafes and restaurants and the walk is quite pleasant. From the Plaka and Monastiraki side it
has always been a car-less, enjoyable walk and all you have to do is walk uphill from wherever
you are and when you get to the top and there are woods instead of buildings, and steps, take a
right.
After climbing the steps you are at the entrance, or the Propylaea, which was completed in
432 just before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian wars. The main architect was Mnesicles, a
colleague of Phidias. To your left is the Pinacotheca and a Hellenistic pedestal and on the right the
tiny temple to Nike Athena or the Athena of Victory which commemorates the Athenians victory
over the Persians. This small temple stands on a platform that overlooks the islands of Saronic
45
Gulf and used to house a statue of Athena. It was dismantled by the Turks in 1686 so they could
use the platform for a large cannon. It was rebuilt between 1836 and 1842 and again taken apart
and rebuilt in 1936 when it was discovered that the platform was crumbing. If you looking from
the Propylaea towards Pireaus on a clear day you can see ships waiting outside the port of Pireaus,
the islands and the mountains of the Peloponessos beyond.
The Parthenon and other main buildings on the Acropolis were built by Pericles in the fifth
century BC as a monument to the cultural and political achievements of the inhabitants of Athens.
The term acropolis means upper city and many of the city states of ancient Greece are built around
an acropolis where the inhabitants can go as a place of refuge in times of invasion. It's for this
reason that the most sacred buildings are usually on the acropolis. It's the safest most secure place
in town. As little as 150 years ago there were still dwellings on the Acropolis of Athens. Those of
you who have read Aristophanes will recall that in Lysistrata the women have Athens barricaded
themselves in the fortress in protest, being tired of their men going to war against Sparta.
Depriving them of sex, cooking and care, it was a terrific strategy that might even work today.
Regardless, the play opened the door to the subject of sexual frustration in comedy and without it
we might not have Woody Allen. Nowadays there are still protests which occasionally take place
by site employees closing the Acropolis to tourists, some of whom have waited a lifetime to come
to Greece. Thankfully these are rare and of short duration.
The best time to go up there is the late winter or spring when even this stone mountain is not
immune to the proliferation of grass and wildflowers which seem to burst from every crack. Even
in December, January and February the Acropolis can be surprisingly green. Even having seen a
thousand photographs one is still not prepared for the immensity of the Parthenon. The building
was designed by the architects Kallikrates and Iktinos as the home of the giant statue of Athena. It
took 15 years to build and was completed in 438 BC and is probably the most recognizable
structure in the world next to the golden arches of McDonalds. From a temple it became a church,
a mosque and finally as a storage facility for Turkish gunpowder. In 1687 the Venetians
bombarded it from below. A cannon ball hit the gun powder and blew it up.
The Erecthion sits on the most sacred site of the Acropolis where Poseidon and Athena had
their contest over who would be the Patron of the city. Poseidon thrust his trident into the rock and
a spring burst forth, while Athena touched the ground with a spear and an olive tree grew. Athena
was declared the victor and the great city of Athens was named for her while Poseidon was given a
small village in Syros after it was discovered he had merely ruptured a water main. (not
really).The building itself contains the porch of the maidens or Caryatids which are now copies,
four of which have been placed in the Acropolis museum, hopefully to be reunited with a fifth
taken from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin and put in the British Museum more than a century ago.
A question in my mind is why not rebuild the Parthenon to its former glory? It is not as if the
destruction of it is sacred history that must be preserved, in fact the 300 years since the explosion
is a relatively short time-span in the history of the building. Much of the Parthenon has been taken
apart and put back together with pieces being replaced or clamped to remedy the wear and tear of
centuries, in particular the last 20 or so years of air pollution. As it stands now, though it is a
tribute to the glorious past and the achievement of the Ancient Athenians it is also at the same time
a reminder that whatever is good in man is eventually overcome by ignorance, war and a hunger
for domination. I say rebuild the entire Acropolis as an inspiration that whatever is wrong with the
world can be righted. (Until some idiot blows it up again).
46
My favorite spot is at the flag where Athens stretches out endlessly below. You can see the
Plaka beneath you, the ruins of the giant Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Olympic stadium
nestled in a pine covered hill, an island of green in a sea of concrete. To the left of the stadium is
the Zappion building and the National Gardens. To the right of the stadium you can see another
large patch of green which is the First Cemetery. The Acropolis is a great place to get your
bearings and get an understanding of the layout of the city. In fact the more you know Athens the
more interesting it is to come up here and see familiar landmarks.
The plaque by the flag commemorates Manolis Glezos and Apostolis Santas, the two
eighteen-year-old heroes who tore down the Nazi flag flying from the Acropolis on the night of
May 30th, 1941. It is of particular interest because these names are known not only by Greeks, but
by many Europeans, because this act of courage and resistance to Nazi oppression was an
inspiration to all subjected people. Later through reading the book Athens: The City by John
Tomkinson I found out that Glezos, who became a member of the Greek resistance, was
condemned to death for treason in 1948 and imprisoned for being a communist. He was later
elected a member of the Panhellenic Socialist Party .
Below the Acropolis is the theater of Herod Atticus built by the Romans in 161 AD and still
used today for classical concerts, ballet, performances of high cultural value and Yanni. Further on
is the Theater of Dionysious, the first stone theater and home to Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides
and Aristophanes. It was rebuilt around 342 BC by Lykourgos and then enlarged by the Romans to
be used for gladiator fights. In July of 2003 I saw Jethro Tull here. It was the first rock concert
held in the ancient theater and though perhaps some people hope it was the last I would be happy
to see more.
Below the Acropolis is the rock of Areopagos or what we called in high school 'Blow Hill'.
The steps are very slippery so be careful as you climb them, but once you do you won't want to
come down (unless it is 100 degrees). You have a great view of the Agora, the Plaka, Monastiraki,
Omonia and much of Athens. Great place to watch the sunset. Or come up at night with a bottle of
wine and your true love, and watch the lights of the city. This is where Saint Paul spoke to the
people of Athens in AD 51 and the tablet imbedded in the stone contains his words. There is a cleft
in the rock at the bottom of the hill which is a shrine to the Furies. Afterwards, continue back
around the Acropolis and down the hill into the Ancient Agora below. Part of it is free and you
can go through it to get back to Adrianou Street, or you can pay the entrance fee and walk the
streets of ancient Athens. If you decide to hang out awhile in the ancient agora, take a look at the
rebuilt Stoa of Attalos, now a museum which features many of the every day items found in the
area.
The ancient agora which to the untrained eye looks like a jumble of rocks and broken
pavement (to the trained eye as well) was once a vibrant neighborhood and part of the Plaka and
Monastiraki. The American School of Classical studies came in the fifties and kicked everyone out
of their houses and businesses and demolished the buildings that had stood there for centuries to
dig here. So next time you are walking through the Plaka and thinking that you wish there was
more of Athens like this, remember that there used to be and be thankful that they did not destroy
it all. But to be fair it is archaeological excavations like the agora which give Athens much of its
47
precious green space.
The small temple known as the Thission was built in 449 BC and is virtually intact.
Supposedly named for Theseus because his exploits were shown on the frieze, it is now believed
that it was actually a temple to Hephaestos and Athena. Unfortunately they realized their mistake
too late and the entire neighborhood is called Thission. The temple was used as a Church,
dedicated to Saint George, known as Saint George the Lazy because it was only open one day of
the year. The neighborhood of Thission is full of cafes, bars and restaurants and like other areas
around the Acropolis has been made pedestrian friendly, it's streets turned into walkways and
landscaped with trees and flowers.
You may notice at the entrance to the Acropolis and the paths leading up to it the licensed
guides who for around 50 Euros or so, will give you a tour so that you may leave the area more
informed. One of the most well-known was Teresa Mitsopoulou, an Archaeologist and writer of
some renown. Several of her books are considered controversial by her fellow archaeologists
because they seem to prove a link between Chinese and Ancient Greek culture that if correct could
change much of what we believe about the past. Teresa gets older now and cannot climb the
ancient hill as quickly and easily as she once used to. But she has been described by one travel
agent as "... to the Parthenon, what an old monk is to a monastery. If one has the time and patience
to sit with her much can be gained. She has been a licensed Acropolis Guide since 1954, in my
view a contemporary priestess".
(TIME ALLOWING: 20 MINUTES)
http://athensguide.com/acropolis.html
Notes
1. Phidias: ancient Greek sculptor (circa 500-432 BC)
2. Saronic Gulf: a gulf of the Aegean on the southeastern coast of Greece (萨罗尼克湾)
3. Aristophanes: an ancient Greek dramatist remembered for his comedies (448-380 BC)
4. Woody Allen: filmmaker and comic actor of the United States
5. Sophocles: one of the great tragedians of ancient Greece (496-406 BC)
6. Aeschylus: Greek tragedian; the father of Greek tragic drama (525-456 BC)
7. Euripides: one of the greatest tragic dramatists of ancient Greece (480-406 BC)
Exercises
I. Comprehension of the text: Answer the following questions with your own words
1. Why are most sacred buildings usually on the acropolis?
2. Why was the great city of Athens named for Athena?
3. For what does the writer like the flag most?
4. When people climb up the rock of Acropagos they don’t want to come down, why?
5. What do you think that Teresa was described as “… to the Parthenon, what an old monk is to
a monastery”?
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
48
1. Do you like travel? Why?
2. Conservation of tourist sites
3. What’s your opinion about a good tour guide?
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 5′50″
Time You Used: ________
Angkor Wat, Cambodia
There are two great complexes of ancient temples in Southeast Asia, one at Bagan in Burma,
the other at Angkor in Cambodia. The temples of Angkor, built by the Khmer civilization between
802 and 1220 AD, represent one of humankind's most astonishing and enduring architectural
achievements. From Angkor the Khmer kings ruled over a vast domain that reached from Vietnam
to China to the Bay of Bengal. The structures one sees at Angkor today, more than 100 stone
temples in all, are the surviving remains of a grand religious, social and administrative metropolis
whose other buildings - palaces, public buildings, and houses - were built of wood and are long
since decayed and gone.
Conventional theories presume the lands where Angkor stands were chosen as a settlement
site because of their strategic military position and agricultural potential. Alternative scholars,
however, believe the geographical location of the Angkor complex and the arrangement of its
temples was based on a planet-spanning sacred geography from archaic times. Using computer
simulations it has been shown that the ground plan of the Angkor complex – the terrestrial
placement of its principal temples - mirrors the stars in the constellation of Draco at the time of
spring equinox in 10,500 BC. While the date of this astronomical alignment is far earlier than any
known construction at Angkor, it appears that its purpose was to architecturally mirror the heavens
in order to assist in the harmonization of the earth and the stars. Both the layout of the Angkor
temples and iconographic nature of much its sculpture, particularly the asuras (‘demons’) and
devas (‘deities’) are also intended to indicate the celestial phenomenon of the precession of the
equinoxes and the slow transition from one astrological age to another.
At the temple of Phnom Bakheng there are 108 surrounding towers. The number 108,
considered sacred in both Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies, is the sum of 72 plus 36 (36 being ½
of 72). The number 72 is a primary number in the sequence of numbers linked to the earth’s axial
precession, which causes the apparent alteration in the position of the constellations over the
period of 25,920 years, or one degree every 72 years. Another mysterious fact about the Angkor
complex is its location 72 degrees of longitude east of the Pyramids of Giza. The temples of
Bakong, Prah Ko and Prei Monli at Roluos, south of the main Angkor complex, are situated in
relation to each other in such a way that they mirror the three stars in the Corona Borealis as they
appeared at dawn on the spring equinox in 10,500 BC. It is interesting to note that the Corona
Borealis would not have been visible from these temples during the 10th and 11th centuries when
they were constructed.
Angkor Wat, built during the early years of the 12th century by Suryavaram II, honors the
Hindu god Vishnu and is a symbolic representation of Hindu cosmology. Consisting of an
49
enormous temple symbolizing the mythic Mt. Meru, its five inter-nested rectangular walls and
moats represent chains of mountains and the cosmic ocean. The short dimensions of the vast
compound are precisely aligned along a north-south axis, while the east-west axis has been
deliberately diverted 0.75 degrees south of east and north of west, seemingly in order to give
observers a three day anticipation of the spring equinox.
(Words: 561)
http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/cambodia/angkor_wat.html
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. According to the passage Angkor Wat are __________.
A. all built of wood originally
B. made up of 100 stone temples
C. remains of a grand metropolis
D. covering a vast domain reaching from Vietnam to the Bay of Bengal
2. Using computer simulations we can see lands where Angkor stands __________.
A. are important with regard to military positon
B. are potentially important in agriculture
C. architecturally mirror the heavens
D. show the celestial phenomenon of the precession of equinoxes
3. The number of the towers surrounding the temple of Phnom Bakheng is 108 in that
__________.
A. it is the sum of 72 plus 36
B. it is a sacred number in Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies
C. 72 is a sequential number linked to the earth’s axial precession
D. it causes the apparent alteration in the position of the constellation
4. The temples of Bakheng, Prah Ko and Prei Monli are __________.
A. situated mirroring the three stars in the Corona Borealis
B. surrounding the main Angkor complex
C. situated 72 degrees of longitude to each other
D. situated from where we can see the Corona Borealis
5. The rectangular walls of Angkor Wat __________.
A. are a symbol of the mythic Mt. Meru
B. represent chains of mountains
C. the long dimensions of which are along an east-west axis
D. the short dimensions have been diverted 0.75 degrees to the east-west axis
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6. ______ Angkor Wat was built in honor of god Vishnu.
7. ______ Angkor temples are intended to indicate the celestial phenomenon.
8. ______ The main Angkor complex are surrounded by 108 towers.
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9. ______ The temple Phnom Bakheng is situated 72 degrees of longitude east of the Pyramids
of Giza.
10. ______ SuryavaramⅡwas a disciple of Hindu.
Passage 2
Supposed Time: 6′20″
Time You Used:
___
Palace of Versailles
The Château de Versailles —or simply Versailles— is a royal château, in Versailles, France.
In English it is often referred to as the Palace of Versailles. When the château was built Versailles
was a country village, but it is now a suburb of Paris with city status in its own right. From 1682,
when King Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital
in 1789, the Court of Versailles was the center of power in Ancien Régime France.
The earliest mention of the village of Versailles is found in a document dated 1038. During
this period, the village of Versailles centered on a small castle and church and the area was
controlled by a local lord. The village's location on the road from Paris to Dreux and Normandy
brought some prosperity to the village but following the Black Plague and the Hundred Years War,
the village was largely destroyed and its population severely diminished.
In 1575, Albert de Gondi, a Florentine, purchased the seigneury of Versailles. Gondi had
arrived in France with Catherine de Medici and his family became influential in the French
Parliament. In the early decades of the 17th century, Gondi invited Louis XIII on several hunting
trips in the forests of Versailles. Following this initial introduction to the area, Louis XIII ordered
the construction of a hunting chateau in 1624. Designed by Philibert Le Roy, the structure was
constructed of stone and red brick with a slate roof. Eight years later, in 1632, Louis obtained the
seigneury of Versailles from the Gondi family and began to make enlargements to the chateaux.
Louis' successor, Louis XIV, took a great interest in Versailles. Beginning in 1661, the
architect, Louis Le Vau, and the landscape architect, André Le Nôtre, began a major upgrade of
the chateaux. It was Louis XIV's hope to create a center for the royal court. Following the Treaty
of Nijmegen in 1678, the court and French government began to be moved to Versailles. The court
was officially established there May 6, 1682.
Louis's reasoning for moving the court and seat of the French government to Versailles was
that he could effectively control everything single-handedly if it was in one place. All the power of
France emanated from this center: there were government offices here; as well as the homes of
thousands of courtiers, their retinues and all the attendant functionaries of court. By requiring that
nobles of a certain rank and position spend time each year at Versailles, Louis prevented them
from developing their own regional power at the expense of his own and kept them from
countering his efforts to centralize the French government in an absolute monarchy.
One of the notable features of Louis XIV's upgrade is the Galerie des Glaces or "Hall of
Mirrors". Designed by the architect Jules Hardouin Mansart, work on the gallery began in 1678.
The gallery is located on the first floor of the palace and takes its name from the 357 mirrors it
contains. The mirrors are placed in seventeen arcades that match seventeen windows on the
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opposite wall. These mirrors, of an unprecedented size for the time, were produced by
Saint-Gobain, a Parisian manufacture created by Colbert to compete with the products of Venice.
Throughout the history of the palace, this room has been the location for numerous important
events. Every court diary, from Saint-Simon to Mme de Campan refers to the Galeries des Glaces
and the rituals that occurred there. It was also in the gallery that the German Empire was
proclaimed on 18 January 1871, following the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War. It was
also here that Germany signed the 1919 Treaty of Versailles officially ending World War I.
(Words: 627)
http://www.answers.com/topic/palace-of-versailles
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. Versailles once was a village which __________.
A. focused on a small castle
B. was controlled by a native lord
C. was remote from Paris
D. had a sparse population
2. From the passage, we know that __________.
A. Albert de Gondi had bought the seigneury of Versailles
B. the Gondi family had been powerful in French Parliament
C. Albert de Gondi was born to the purple
D. Gondi had sold the seigneury of Versailles to Louis Ⅷ
3. Louis XIV moved French government to Versailles because __________.
A. he was rather interested in the place
B. he hoped to create a center for the royal court
C. he thought it convenient for the government’s priorities
D. he wanted to centralize the government in an absolute monarchy
4. According to the passage, the Hall of Mirrors __________.
A. was one of the projects ordered by Louis Ⅷ
B. contained 357 unprecedentedly humongous mirrors
C. was located on the first floor of the palace
D. was designed by a Parisian architect
5. Galerie des Glaces was famous because __________.
A. it was one of Louis’s upgrade
B. it has been the place for many important events
C. it appeared in almost every court diary
D. it was the product competing with that of Venice
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6. ______ The palace originally was a modest hunting lodge.
52
7.
8.
9.
10.
______ Some nobles had to spend at least six months each year at Versailles.
______ Versailles is a key example of baroque palace architecture.
______ Louis’s efforts of establishing absolute rule underwent counting from the nobles.
______ Versailles is a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy.
Unit 5 Human Resources
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. How much do you know about human resource（HR）?
2. Do you have any HR experience? What about that?
3. The roles CEOs play in the company.
Are They worthy?
By Rana Foroohar
Despite the shocking extremes, new studies claim CEO pay matches performance,
and increasingly so.
Aug.14, 2006 issue - Ogling executive pay is the spectator sport of business. The
catcalls from the stands have gotten louder as new studies throw out eye-popping
statistics about how rich CEOs are getting, while the rest of us worry about keeping
our jobs out of China. One such: the U.S.-based Institute for Policy Studies notes that
CEOs made 142 times more than the average worker in 1994—and 431 times more in
2004.
No wonder executives like Home Depot's Bob Nardelli, UnitedHealth's William
McGuire, Pfizer's outgoing Hank McKinnell and others who have total compensation
packages stretching into the tens and even hundreds of millions are taking heat. Of
course, they can always point the finger at ExxonMobil's recently retired CEO Lee
Raymond, who'll cruise into his truly golden years some $405 million richer.
53
All the bad press has put activists, politicians and regulators into overdrive. British
and European companies have had to beef up their disclosure of executives' long-term
pay packages, and some shareholder groups are calling for even better reporting
standards. The SEC1 is pushing new pay-disclosure laws, a subject that has drawn
more attention than any other in the agency's 72-year history (more than 20,000
formal comments have been registered so far). Democratic Congressman Barney
Frank is proposing a Protection Against Executive Compensation Abuse Act, which
would limit tax deductions for companies that pay executives more than 25 times the
lowest paid worker. But even as the drumbeat for reform grows louder, some new
research is questioning just how out of proportion these megapackages really
are—and whether more regulation is the best way to scale them down.
First, there's the issue of metrics. In recent testimony before Congress,
compensation consultant Frederic Cook (who advises some of the multinationals
under fire) argued that surveys using average pay are not only skewed by the extreme
highs like Raymond, but are in fact designed "to produce high CEO pay ratios for
maximum propaganda value." Perhaps. But even using his suggested median salaries,
the ratio of CEO to worker pay in 2004 would be 187 to one.
A more effectively contrarian argument comes from a pair of, surprise, French
academics in America. Xavier Gabaix of MIT and Augustin Landier of NYU say that
since 1980 the pay of CEOs has risen in lock step with the market capitalization of
their companies: both are up 500 percent. Using this logic, CEOs like Chevron's
David O'Reilly (who collected some $25 million in 2005) aren't overpaid, because
they are running ever bigger, riskier firms, making decisions that touch more and
more people. "The supply of CEOs for large companies is capped, because they need
to have experience at other large companies," says Landier. "Meanwhile, the supply of
skilled workers around the world has increased." No amount of regulation or
disclosure, say the pair, will change the fundamental trend of bigger paychecks at
bigger companies. "It's very much like pay for top actors or sports stars," says Gabaix.
"If you have the talent to be among the best 500 in your field, you'll be rewarded
accordingly.
"The findings hold internationally—according to the researchers, market
capitalization is responsible for most of the variance of CEO pay by geography (since
foreign firms tend to be smaller than U.S. ones, executive pay is lower, too). Still, the
study has a few exceptions. Good governance still plays some part in determining
pay—the researchers say that CEOs can garner 10 to 20 percent more by going to a
firm with a weak board. And cultural mores play some role, too; many of the Japanese
firms studied were as big as American firms, but executives were paid less and
changed jobs less often. Or compare the pay of Raymond and his British counterpart,
BP's John Browne. Since 2001, BP has posted stronger growth, and better stock
performance than ExxonMobil. But Raymond's pay in 2005, not even including his
retirement package, was about $49 million, versus Browne's $9 million. That 443
percent difference dwarfs the gap between the two companies' market caps—about 62
percent.
At least in Europe, spectacular examples of pay outpacing performance appear to
54
defy the norm. Last week, consultants Deloitte & Touche issued an analysis of
compensation at the FTSE 3502, an index of top European companies, which found
that the proportion of executive pay linked directly to performance has been
increasing over the last three years. Incentives now account for about half of total pay,
up from about a third in 2003 (and up to 80 percent in many cases). What's more, only
38 percent of companies are now using simplistic metrics like share price growth to
measure performance. (The measure doesn't factor in external reasons for growth like,
for example, the effect of geopolitics on oil-company shares.) Not surprisingly, banks,
which have short performance horizons and plenty of fiscal savvy, have the highest
percentages of performance-linked pay. At the other end of the scale are utilities,
transportation, commodities, and retail firms that, to be fair, face long business cycles
that can make it difficult to judge how well a CEO is doing.
Still, nearly all firms are moving toward heavier reliance on bonuses. The average
dollar amount of bonuses has doubled in the last three years, as they make up a
growing proportion of pay packages, and that's a good thing, says Deloitte's Andrew
Page, because it's a more flexible and transparent way to pay someone than handing
out more options or restricted shares. (Interestingly, options are falling as a percentage
of pay, a trend that has to have begun before the massive U.S. investigation into the
backdating of options packages began.) "The bottom line is that to be more effective,
pay structures are going to have to become more industry- and even
company-specific," says Page. "You can't just look at share price and make a smart
judgment." Nor can you assume one ridiculously excessive CEO payout tars them all,
no matter how much we love to resent them for it.
（TIME ALLOWED: 10 Minutes）
From: Newsweek
Notes:
1. SEC: the U.S. Exchange and Security Commission that is responsible for administering federal
securities laws in the US.
2. FTSE 350: The FTSE 350 Index is an index of the biggest 350 companies on the London stock
market. The FTSE 350 Index is the combination of the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250 index.
Exercises:
Ⅰ. Comprehension of the text: choose the best answer for each of the questions
or unfinished statements.
1. “The catcalls from the stands have gotten louder” in paragraph one means_____
A. The audiences are not satisfied with the performance.
B. The audiences are bad mannered.
C. People are not satisfied with the fact that CEOS are highly paid.
D. People are worrying about heir jobs out of China
2. According to Barney Frank, companies that pay executives more than 25 times the
lowest paid worker should be ____
A. limited tax deduction
B. raised tax deduction
C. encouraged to do so
D. not mentioned
3. According to Frederic Cook’s words, average pay _____
55
A. cannot show the incredible income gap between CEOs and workers.
B. suggests that the income gap is not as great as expected.
C. is reliable to show the reasonable pay of CEOs.
D. is used to exaggerate the CEO pay ratios
4. Why Gabix and Landier thought that O’Reilly was not overpaid?
A. Because Chevron is able to do that.
B. Other CEOs get more than O’Reilly.
C. O’Reilly is worthy of the price.
D. O’Reilly bribes Gabix and Landier
5. Which one is NOT the factor that links with the CEOs’ pay.
A. geography
B. moral factor
C. cultural factor
D. good governance
6 The income gap between Browne and Raymond shows that____
A. BP is much smaller than Exxon Mobile
B. Other factors play an important role in CEOs’ pay.
C. BP’s stock performance is bad.
D. Browne is not a competent CEO.
7 ____ have the highly percentages of performance-linked pay.
A. Banks
B. Retail firms
C. Automobile industry
D. petrochemical industries
8 From Deloitte & Tonche’s issue, ______ is NOT mentioned.
A. the proportion of executive pay linked directly to performance has been
increasing over the last three years.
B. currently, incentives account for about half of total pay.
C. 38 percent of companies are now using simplistic metrics to measure
performance.
D. measures should be adopted to raise CEOs’ pay.
9. According to Andrew Page, which one is WRONG?
A. Bonus is a better way to pay someone.
B. Bonus is a much flexible and transparent way to pay someone.
C. It’s bad that bonus makes up a bigger proportion of pay package.
D. Pay structure will be more industry- and even company- specific.
10. Based on the text, which one is RIGHT?
A．In 2004, CEOs made 142 times more than the average worker.
B. According to Cook’s median salary, the ratio of CEO to worker pay in 2004
would be 187 to one.
C. Skilled workers should be paid as much as CEOs, since they are both important
to companies.
D. Japanese CEOs are paid less than American ones. So they often change jobs.
Ⅱ. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below.
Change the form where necessary.
eye-popping; cruise; stretch into; beef up; scale down; lock step with; garner; dwarf;
outpace; tar;
1. Our little dinghy was ______ by the big yacht.
56
2. Taxis _____ about, hoping to pick up late fares.
3. We are going to ______ the number of tees being felled.
4. The squirrels are ____ the food for the winter.
5. The new evidence _____ their case.
6. Liu Xiang is looking to break an ______ record in 2008 Olympic Games.
7. To a remarkable degree, Fox marches _____ the Republican Party.
8. The two of them have been ____ each other as a thief.
9. Piles of circuit boards from hazardous computer waste____ the distance near an
e-waste scrap yard.
10 CEOs of charities ______ biggest for-profits in salaries, perks.
Ⅲ. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and
debate upon the following topics
1. The highly paid CEOs: fair vs. unfair
A. worthy of the price/ make great contribution than anyone else/ difficult to
cultivate/ aspire others’ motivation as a symbol/ get more, while do more
B. expand the income gap/ symbol of social unjustness/ one origin of social
disturbance/ neglect their social responsibility/ others’ unbalance in psychology
2. Which is more important to a company: CEOs vs. skilled workers
A. leading company’s development/ their decisions touching more people/ more
responsible/ face heavy burden/
B. basis of the company/ main force of company’s development /one origin of
company’s development/great roles
Ⅳ. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and
targeting the specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. Is it necessary to limit the income gap between the rich and the poor in China
now?
2. The current distribution system in China.
3. My dream: a CEO
Reading Two
Motivating Employees
By Samantha Oller
In a scene from the 1990 movie, “Office Space,” jaded employees gather together
for a company meeting called by their office manager. After introducing the
employees to a consultant hired to “streamline” the company (and instilling them with
the fear of losing their jobs), the office manager wraps up the meeting with, “Oh, and
57
remember, next Friday is Hawaiian shirt day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead
and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.”
Although the movie is intended to be a satire, this scene demonstrates a scenario
common in many of today’s printing companies. Employees are constantly
bombarded with news of printers and clients downsizing or filing Chapter 111, salaries
and budgets are slashed, and yet their rewards for a job well done are often woefully
inadequate.
Motivation suffers. As the movie’s hero, Peter, observes, “My only real motivation
is not to be hassled—that, and the dear of losing my job. But you know, that will only
make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.”
Reap the Rewards of Perfection
So how do you motivate someone to excel? AMERICAN PRINTER spoke with
some printers who responded to a call for motivational ideas ion our free biweekly
e-newsletter. “In Register.” Their tips—from simple recognition for good work to a
DVD player for surviving a probationary period—have stoked employees’ desires to
succeed, and resulted in happier customers and smoother-running operations.
A manager at a $50 million, 400-employee document-design and printing business
shared his department’s incentive program, which has reportedly helped cut spoilage
significantly. The exec, who exec, oversees 17 employees in the estimating, order
entry and planning departments, explains that if the entire department goes
spoilage-free for the whole month, he takes them all out to lunch. In fact, last year
alone the department was rewarded with lunch eight out of the 12 months.
“Getting out of the office and having a department lunch at a nice restaurant has
done wonders for pulling the team together,” the manager notes, “I can honestly say
that our morale and image have changed 180 degrees since this plan was implemented.
We all pull for each other and are always looking to help a teammate out. Because of
this, the real beneficiaries are our customers, both internal and external.”
Individuals are rewarded as well. This, the exec explains, allows an employee who
excels to not be helped back by co-workers who are not at their level of performance.
If an employee goes three months without spoilage, he or she gets a $50 gift
certificate to a restaurant; six months with no spoilage earns a $75 certificate. As the
months with no spoilage increase, so does the reward’s value—a $100 gift certificate
to the mall at nine months, and $200 for a year of no spoilage.
“I would say we have at least cut spoilage in half over the year prior to
implementing the incentive plans.” The manager notes, “That is the key, as virtually
every job that our company does passes through our department.”
Tokens of Appreciation
In addition, the department manager and his supervisor bestow an employee of the
Month Award for those who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. The
supervisors also consider an employee’s individual accomplishments that further the
image of the company, as well as feedback from co-workers. The winning employee
receives a $50 gift certificate to a restaurant and a framed certificate. His or her name
58
is also engraved on a plaque displayed in the department. A yearly award brings
with it a $200 gift certificate.
Mentzer Printing Ink, a two-year-old print distributor with an in-house graphic
artist, customer service and a digital press for proffing and short-run color, and has an
Employee of the Month program. Although the company only has seven employees,
owner Jamie Mentzer notes that many times, the same employee is given the award
multiple months in a row, simply because he or she has helped more than one person.
He notes that the program helps employees focus on how they’re helping each other,
and fosters teamwork. prizes range from a 20-minute massage to a $100gift certificate
to a local restaurant.
According to director of operations Allen K. Jenkins, new employees of manual
and booklet printer ePAC Technology Inc. who have reached their six-month
anniversary are rewarded with their choice of a DVD player or $700 gift certificate
toward the purchase of an IMac. For long-term employees, stock options are offered.
In Rogers, owner of an Allegra Print & Imaging in Scottsdale, AZ, keeps a supply
of $2 bills. Whenever a client expresses satisfaction with an employee’s service or
attitude. Rogers gives that prize worker a $2 bill is, no one spends it. So the idea is,
every time someone looks at it, they think about why they got it,” she explains. The
money is handed out in front of other employees, so they can share in the compliment.
Rogers notes that employees obviously like the $2 tokens of appreciation since many
post the bills by their desks—and one star employee is close to wallpapering her work
area with them.
Another printer recommends end-of-the-year cash bonuses, which are especially
appreciated in this tough economy. “It helps relieve holiday money pressures,” he
notes, adding, “if there are too many raises, it could lead to layoffs in slow times.”
Educate the Masses
Gifts and money are sure-fire ways to brighten employees’ days. Investing in their
education, however, not only increases workers’ value to the company, but also sparks
their own drive to learn and achieve more.
Allegra’s Rogers has created her own educational program to enrich her 13
employees. The “Education Bucks” program allots a certain amount of “dollars” to
each employee that he or she can spend on personal and professional development.
Employees have used their “dollars” on anything from church retreats to videos,
books and software, to conflict-management seminars.
The only person you have to convince in order to use your bucks is me,” Rogers
says, “Just tell me why it’s a benefit for you.” Even after employees have exhausted
their education bucks, they still receive paid time off to attend educational events.
At the company’s annual retreats, Rogers tried to incorporate an educational
element — whether it be a motivational speaker or an update on the printing industry
and graphic arts technology. The exec, who is actively involved in Allegra
performance groups, also tries to put the Arizona location’s success in perspective. “A
lot of times, our staff doesn’t have a sense of who we are nationally, so it’s a nice
opportunity to highlight our success and the respect we have gained among other
59
franchisees, and also let them know the bigger picture of what’s happening in our
industry,” she explains.
This update has the added benefit of acclimating employees with the level of
adaptability the company needs to keep pace with industry developments. One
example the exec cities is her company’s efforts to become a one-source solution. As
such, the Allegra location has been focusing on strengthening its design services, an
effort that hasn’t gone unnoticed by press operators. “It’s implied that I expect you to
say on top of the industry, that I consider you a professional, and we’ll continue to
educate ourselves so we are here in 10 years,” Rogers said.
Mentzer at Mentzer Printing Ink often sends his employees — as well as himself
— to training opportunities at manufacturers and sales consultants. The company
recently sent its graphic artist to GATF2 for certification training. “He had been in the
business for 20 years, but had never attended any courses of that nature,” notes
Mentzer. This investment in the individual reinforces the idea that both the company’s
and employee’s successes are dependent upon each other.
（TIME ALLOWED: 13 Minutes）
From: Human Resources, the Fourteenth Edition
Notes:
1. Chapter 11: Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code,
typically used for business bankruptcies and restructuring. All debtors filing
Chapter 11 cases are required to propose a plan of reorganization.
2. GATF: Based in the USA, The Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF)
instituted the InterTech Technology Awards in 1978 as an industry service to
promote an understanding of advanced technology in the graphic arts. Graphic
Arts Technical Foundation
Exercises:
ⅠComprehension of the text: choose the best answer for each of the questions or
unfinished statements.
1. What’s the meaning of “streamline” in paragraph one according to the context?
A. to make it more efficient or effective
B. to be a stream
C. to supervise
D. streams
2. What Peter, the hero of “Office Space”, said means_____
A. He doesn’t want to be in trouble
B. The fear of losing job makes people work harder.
C. He doesn’t want to quarrel with others.
D. He doesn’t want to be annoyed by others
3. Ways applied by HR managers result in all the following except______.
A. stoking the employees’ desires to succeed
B. pulling the team together
C. happier customers
D. smoother-running operations
4. The department was rewarded with ____ lunches because the department went
spoilage-free for the whole month.
A. 4
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
60
5. The individuals will get _____ if he goes nine months with no spoilage.
A. a $50 gift certificate to a restaurant
B. a $70 gift certificate to a restaurant
C. a $100 gift certificate to the mall
D. a $200 gift certificate to the mall
6. DVD player is the prize of ____
A. American Printer
B. Mentzer Pringting Ink
C. ePAC Technology Inc
D. Allegra Print & Imaging
7. Why the employees post the $2 bills by their desks?
A. many a little makes a mickle
B. regarding it as an honor
C. reminding the boss for a higher prize
D. for decoration
8. Based on the passage, “Education Bucks” helps employees____
A. to attend conflict-management seminars
B. to get stock of the company
C. to enjoy massage
D. to have a nice meal
9. At the annual retreats, Rogers tries to incorporate an educational element in order
to _____
A. to help employees know more about the industry
B. to highlight the success and the respect they have gained
C. to promote workers’ skills
D. both A and B
10. According to the text, which one is WRONG?
A. For long-term employees, stock operations are offered in ePAC Technology
Inc.
B. End-of-the-year cash bonuses are not appreciated by employees.
C. According to Rogers, if the employee wants to use the “Education Bucks”, he
should convince her.
D. Education helps employees to fit the development and requirements of the
company.
Ⅱ. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and your
knowledge of Rationalism, discuss the following topics fully
1. As an employee, which kind of rewards do you prefer, and why?
2. Which one is more important to you, high salary, training opportunities, or happy
working atmosphere? Why?
3. If you are the human resource manger, how do you motivate your employees?
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 6′30′′
61
Time You Used: ________
The Employment Interview Guidelines
Use Appropriate Questioning Strategy
Research indicates the form and sequence of questions profoundly influence the
outcome of the interview. Most interviews open positively with the manager
attempting to put the interviewee at ease. The resume can be a useful guide for
selecting some strong point from the candidate’s background to help make the
interviewee comfortable in the beginning. It is generally best to use a semistructured
interview that assures a definite direction is taken but also allows the opportunity to
prepare additional questions as the interview proceeds.
When designing the questions for interview, remember the difference between open
and closed, primary and secondary, and neutral and directed questions. Know the
benefits and shortcomings of each of these types of questions so you can implement
an effective questioning strategy. And employment interview generally uses
open-ended questions, but it can also use closed and directed questions as probes.
A special type of question that is successfully used in employment interviews is the
behavioral question. Based on the premise that past behavior predicts future behavior,
those questions ask about specific instances of a particular action. Managers can use
behavioral questions to probe for more information behind generalizations such as
“I’m a people person” and “I’m a team player.” Typically, behavioral questions begin
with, “Tell me about a time when you …”and follow with situations or qualities
relevant to the position, thus requiring evidence to “prove” the applicant’s claims.
Behaviors’ demonstrating leadership, conflict management, handling difficult
customers, goal setting, team work, and the like can be effectively explored using
behavioral questions.
Another special type of question that is becoming popular in certain employment
interviews is the problem-solving questions. Its purposes is to seek out creative talent,
a necessity for companies where competitive advantage is gained through its people.
Microsoft, Boeing, IBM, Southwest Airlines, and Weyerhauser are among the 20-30
percent of companies using situational or problem-solving questions, according to
Professor Vandra Huber of the University of Washington. Here are some sample
problem-solving questions used during Microsoft interviews:
·Estimate the number of gas stations in the United States.
·If you could remove any of the 50states, which would it be and why?
·Design a bathroom for me.
·If you have a fishbowl with 200 fish and 99 percent are guppies, how many
guppies do you need to remove to get to the point where 98 percent of the remaining
fish are guppies?
Clearly, the answers to such questions are not as important as the process the
candidate uses to (a) determine the problem and (b) develop solutions.
Don’t Do Most of the Talking
In employment interviews, the manager is generally more talkative when reacting
favorably to an applicant than when reacting unfavorably. In other words, when an
62
interviewer is impressed by the applicant, the interviewer is inclined to do less
listening.
For whatever reason, extensive talking is efficient only when attempting to sell a
candidate on a position; information relevant to hiring decisions is obtained through
listening, not talking. Thus, be careful not to talk too much. A good rule of thumb is
that the manager should talk only 30 percent of the time during an employment
interview.
Keep Records
Given all the information revealed during an interview, it is unrealistic to expect
that it can be remembered accurately for many length of time. One study showed that
half the interviewers could not accurately recall the most critical information
produced in a 20-minute interview. Thus, record notes or a summary of the interview
immediately after its completion. One option is to use a rating system. This minimizes
the possibility of erroneously making an early decision or letting one or two negative
characteristics predominate. Another option is to have a routine form that reports on
the same areas for each candidate interviewed or records answers to the same
questions.
(Words: 636)
From: Human Resource Management
Exercises: choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished
statements.
1.Based on the passage, which profoundly influences the outcome of the interview?
A. the interviewees’ performance
B. the form and sequence of questions
C. the interviewer’s performance
D. the interview rules
2.Which is successfully used in employment interviews?
A. open-ended question
B. closed question
C. behavioral question
D. directed question
3.What kind of question is used to seek out creative talent?
A. open-ended question
B. secondary question
C. behavioral question
D. problem-solving question
4.When the interviewer is impressed by the applicant, he will____?
A. speak more
B. listen more
C. speak nothing
D. not mentioned
5.Two ways suggested by the author to keep records are _____
A. a rating system and notes recording
B. A rating system and a summary
C. a rating system and a routine form
D. a routine form and a summary
Passage 2
Supposed Time: 4′40″
Time You Used:
___
Goals of Human Resource Management
While serving the very success of the business can certainly be regarded as an
63
important goal of human resource management. It is a rather broad conception.
Several specific goals help lead to this overall achievement of success and importance.
The three general goals or purposes traditionally associated with human resource
management are attracting applicants, retaining desirable employees and motivating
employees. Increasingly, another goal is being added: retraining employees.
The heightened attention paid to how a firm manages its human resources is
attributed to the recognition that effective management of human resources has a
positive impact on the firm’s overall success and ultimately, its bottom line. This term
refers to the organization’s survival, growth, profitability, competitiveness and
flexibility in adapting to changing conditions. Human resource departments positively
affect the bottom line through: (1) improving productivity; (2) improving quality of
work life; (3) increasing the firm’s legal compliance; (4) gaining competitive
advantage; and (5) assuring workforce flexibility — the more specific goals of
managing human resources. These specific goals and their relationship with human
resource activities and the environment are shown in Figure 1.
Internal environment
· Top management
goals and values
·Organizational
strategy
·Organizational
culture
·Technology
·Structure
·Size
External environment
·Economy/market
·Demographics
·Values
·Laws
·Competitors
Who’s responsible?
·Top management
·Line managers
·Human resource
Scanning, analyzing and planning
management department
General goals
·Employees
·Internal environment
·Attract
·External environment
·Retain
·Human resource planning
·Motivate
·Job analysis
·Retrain
Staffing
·Recruiting
·Selecting
Appraising
·Gathering data
·using data
Compensating
·Total compensation
·Performance-based
·Indirect
Improving
·Training and development
·Organizational improvement
Specific goals
·Productivity
·Quality of work life
·Legal compliance
·Gaining competitive
advantages
·Workforce
flexibility
64
Bottom line
·Survival
·Competitiveness
·Growth
·Profitability
·Adaptability
HRM roles
·Link to business
·Enabler
·Monitor
·Innovator
·Adaptor
(From: International Encyclopedia of Business and Management)
Exercises: choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished
statements.
1. Which one is NOT the traditional general goal of human resource management?
A. attracting applicants
B. retraining employees
C. motivating employees
D. retaining desirable employees
2. Which one is the content of Staffing?
A. recruiting and selecting
B. recruiting and gathering data
C. selecting and using data
D. selecting and gathering data
3. Which one is the content of Appraising?
A. gathering data and recruiting staffs
B. recruiting and selecting staffs
C. safety and health
D. gathering data and using data
4. The specific goals of human resource management are____
A. productivity and work force flexibility
B. quality of work life and legal compliance
C. gaining competitive advantage
D. all the above
5. Which one is NOT HRM roles?
A. Link to business
B. Enabler and Monitor
C. Compensator
D. Innovator and Adaptor
Unit 6 World Politics
Reading One
65
Ⅰ. Warming-up Discussion
1. Do you always see politicians appear in the mass media?
2. Do you judge them by their words and their public appearances?
3. Do you always scan news on newspapers or websites and watch TV news?
New Media A Weapon in New World of Politics
By John F. Harris
At first glance, three uproars that buffeted American politics in recent weeks have little in
common.
Former congressman Mark Foley ended his political career over sexually charged e-mails to
former House pages. Sen. George Allen stumbled over his puzzling use of the word “macaca” and
his clumsy response to revelations about his Jewish ancestry. Former president Bill Clinton had a
televised temper fit when an interviewer challenged his terrorism record.
All three episodes, however, were in their own ways signs of the unruly new age in American
politics. Each featured an arresting personal angle. Each originally percolated in the world of new
media -- Web sites and news outlets that did not exist a generation ago -- before charging into the
traditional world of newspapers and television networks. In each case, the accusations quickly
pivoted into a debate about the motivations and alleged biases of the accusers.
Cumulatively, the stories highlight a new brand of politics in which nearly any revelation in
the news becomes a weapon or shield in the daily partisan wars, and the aim of candidates and
their operatives is not so much to win an argument as to brand opponents as fundamentally unfit.
In interviews, figures as diverse as Clinton, Vice President Cheney and White House
strategist Karl Rove spoke about their experiences navigating the highly polarized and often
downright toxic political and media environment that blossomed in the 1990s and reached full
flower in recent years. Their comments, and those of their associates, underscore just how
dramatically changes in media culture have influenced the strategies and daily routines of leading
political figures.
Cheney said he often starts his day by listening to radio host Don Imus, whose trash-talking
style has given him legions of fans and made his show a frequent stop of politicians. Cheney’s
wife, Lynne, people close to her say, is an avid consumer of Matt Drudge’s online Drudge Report,
which often either breaks or promotes stories with a salacious angle and in recent days has
bannered every new disclosure in the Foley case.
Rove said he has benefited on occasion from the new-media echo chamber. When he gave a
speech last year saying liberals want to give terrorists understanding and therapy, he delighted
when Democrats howled in protest. This guaranteed that the story would stay alive for days. “I
was sort of amused by it because it struck me, well, they’re just simply repeating my argument,
which was good,” he said.
Clinton -- who regards Rove with a mixture of admiration and disdain as the most effective
modern practitioner of polarizing politics -- said in an interview that he has become fixated on the
problem of how Democrats can learn to fight more effectively against the kind of attack President
Bush’s top political aide leveled. Associates of the former president said he thinks that Democrats
Al Gore in 2000 and Sen. John F. Kerry in 2004 lost the presidency because they could not
66
effectively respond to a modern media culture that places new emphasis on politicians’
personalities and provides new incentives for personal attack.
While the Foley and Allen episodes burned Republicans, Clinton said in an interview earlier
this year that he thinks the proliferation of media outlets, as well as the breakdown of old restraints
in both media and politics, on balance has favored Republicans. Without mentioning Gore or
Kerry by name, he complained that many Democrats have allowed themselves to become
unnerved and even paralyzed in response.
“All of this is a head game, you know. . . . All great contests are head games,” Clinton said.
“Our candidates have to get to a point where they don’t allow other people to define them as either
people or as political leaders. Our people have got to be more psychologically prepared for it, and
there has to be more distance between them and these withering attacks.”
Associates said he regards this as his most important advice to his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton, if she runs for president in 2008.
In any generation, the disclosure of Foley’s sexual overtures to teenage boys would have
been a big story and ended his public career. But it was the confluence of new media trends and a
trench-warfare mentality pervading national politics that turned the story into a round-the-clock
furor.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, fighting for his career amid allegations that he did not
respond properly when told of Foley’s e-mails, has gone to conservative media outlets to make his
case. On Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, Hastert agreed when the host said the Foley story was
driven by Democrats “in some sort of cooperation with some in the media” to suppress turnout of
conservative voters before the Nov. 7 elections.
Those comments are a reminder that a changed media culture that creates new perils for
politicians also provides new forms of refuge. For a full generation on the conservative side, and
more recently among liberals, ideologues have created a menu of new media alternatives,
including talk radio and Web sites. New media have also elevated flamboyant political
entrepreneurs such as Ann Coulter on the right and Michael Moore on the left to prominent places
in the political dialogue. New media platforms make criticism of traditional “mainstream media”
part of their stock in trade.
This development usually ensures that any politician in trouble can count on some
sympathetic forums to make his or her case. It often ensures that any controversy is marked by
intense disagreement over the basic facts or relevance of the story, and obscured by clouds of
accusation over the opposition’s motives.
Clinton benefited from this phenomenon during his recent showdown with Fox News.
Appearing on a network that many liberals regard as enemy terrain, he said interviewer Chris
Wallace and his bosses were distorting his terrorism record to carry water for conservatives.
Kerry advisers think the most important factor in his loss was the group Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth, which attacked his war record. The group initially received scant attention in old media
outlets, but its accusations were fanned by the Drudge Report, Fox News and other new media
platforms. By the end, the accusations dominated coverage in both old and new media.
Each time a similar episode occurs, it is often covered as an isolated and even eccentric event.
But Clinton, in an earlier interview, said his party should understand that the ideological and
financial incentives among politicians and media organizations mean that every election cycle will
feature such episodes -- and it should plan accordingly.
67
But he said Democrats of his generation tend to be naive about new media realities. There is
an expectation among Democrats that establishment old media organizations are de facto allies -and will rebut political accusations and serve as referees on new-media excesses.
“We’re all that way, and I think a part of it is we grew up in the 1960s and the press led us
against the war and the press led us on civil rights and the press led us on Watergate,” Clinton said.
“Those of us of a certain age grew up with this almost unrealistic set of expectations.”
Few conservatives would make a similar miscalculation. Many of the first generation of new
media platforms, including Limbaugh’s show and Drudge’s Web site, first flourished because of a
conviction among conservatives that old media were unfair.
All this has given Republicans a comfort and skill at using new media to political advantage
that most Democrats have not matched. At the Republican National Committee, leaking items to
the Drudge Report is an official part of communications strategy.
During the 2004 campaign, current and former RNC staff members said, opposition research
nuggets on Kerry were almost always leaked first to the Web site. Sometimes they were trivial -such as the fact that Kerry got expensive haircuts at the Christophe salon -- other times they were
controversial quotes from his days as a Vietnam War protester. All together, these and other items
contributed to Kerry losing control of his public image.
Ken Mehlman, the RNC chairman and head of Bush’s reelection campaign, said his
operatives leaked to Drudge because it inevitably drove wider coverage, including to old media
organizations: “He puts something up and they have to follow it.”
Last year, a delegation of RNC officials flew to Miami Beach, where Drudge lives, for a
dinner at the Forge steakhouse to introduce the Internet maven to Matt Rhodes, the party’s new
opposition research director.
One of those who salutes the changing landscape -- with as much passion as Clinton deplores
it -- is Cheney, who said he considers the breakdown of what he called an old media “monopoly”
as among the most favorable trends of his years in politics. He said the change requires politicians
to grow a thicker skin. Once while shaving, he heard Imus referring to someone as “Pork Chop.”
Only after a few minutes did he realize the host “was talking about me. I’m Pork Chop. And I
laughed like hell.”
“Sometimes it’s pretty trashy,” he said of new media’s rise. “But I guess I’d put the
proposition that there’s more time and opportunity for policy discussions and debate than there
used to be.”
The next several weeks -- in which Republicans will bear the heat of an intense media-driven
scandal in the Foley case -- may test Cheney’s faith in that proposition.
(From Washington Post Friday, October 6, 2006 )
（TIME ALLOWED: 25 Minutes）
Exercises:
I. Study the following sentences carefully. Try to make out the meaning of the
italicized words with the help of a dictionary.
1. Sen. George Allen stumbled over his puzzling use of the word “macaca” and his clumsy
response to revelations about his Jewish ancestry.
2. Former president Bill Clinton had a televised temper fit when an interviewer challenged his
terrorism record.
68
3. All three episodes, however, were in their own ways signs of the unruly new age in American
politics.
4. Each featured an arresting personal angle.
5. Cumulatively, the stories highlight a new brand of politics.
6. Cheney said he often starts his day by listening to radio host Don Imus.
7. Clinton has become fixated on the problem of how Democrats can learn to fight more
effectively against the kind of attack President Bush’s top political aide leveled.
8. The disclosure of Foley’s sexual overtures to teenage boys would have been a big story and
ended his public career.
9. Democrats have allowed themselves to become unnerved and even paralyzed in response.
10. This development usually ensures that any politician in trouble can count on some sympathetic
forums to make his or her case.
II. Comprehension of the text: decide whether the following sentences are true or
false. Put a T for true and F for false.
1. Former congressman Mark Foley ended his political career over his puzzling use of the word
“macaca” and his clumsy response to revelations about his Jewish ancestry.
2. Sen. George Allen stumbled over sexually charged e-mails to former House pages.
3. Former president Bill Clinton had a televised temper fit when an interviewer challenged his
terrorism record.
4. The political and media environment blossomed in the 1990s and reached full flower in recent
years.
5. Clinton regards Rove with a mixture of admiration and disdain as the most effective modern
practitioner of polarizing politics.
6. Associates of Clinton said that Democrats Al Gore in 2000 and Sen. John F. Kerry in 2004 lost
the presidency because they could not effectively respond to a modern media culture.
7. Clinton believed that all great contests are head games.
8. Limbaugh’s show and Drudge’s Web site are among the first generation of new media
platforms.
III. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and
debate upon the following topics
1. media is faithful to the public VS. media is faithful to the powerful
A: a channel of information distribution, a bridge of communication, reflecting the demands of the
public
B. controlled by the government, only the mirror of the powerful, a tool of political competition
2. competition VS. democracy
A: Democracy must be got by competition. There will be more choices for the public.
B. Competition won’t lead to democracy. It will be either overtook or undertook.
IV. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and
targeting the specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. What roles do media play in social life?
2. Talk about media in China.
Reading Two
Ⅰ. Warming-up Discussion
69
1. Do you think that women are equal to men?
2. Talk about women’s social status in western countries.
3. Can women succeed in politics? Why or why not?
Women at Work
by Elizabeth Pantazelos
Much has lately been made of the alleged battle between women who work and those who
opt to stay home with children. Mothers who decide to return to the workplace are often portrayed
as power-hungry climbers who shun the simple home life in favor of glamour, prestige, and
expensive accessories. Despite such popular stereotypes, however, the path of the career woman
has never been a smooth or easy one. Even now, though significant strides have been made toward
leveling the playing field, women still face obstacles—some covert, others blatant—to their
professional acceptance and advancement.
In the years since the women’s movement awakened many Americans to the idea that women
as well as men might harbor ambition, a number of Atlantic articles have commented on the
professional status of women—assessing their progress and considering just how far they ought to
go in their quest for equal treatment and compensation.
In March 1970, as the women’s movement gathered steam, The Atlantic published an issue
almost entirely devoted to the question of “Women’s Place.” In a forty-one-page collection of
articles, the magazine addressed the question of why, as the introduction put it, “American women,
while enjoying more material, political, and social advantages than any other women in history,
are nonetheless so discontent with their lot.” One reason for women’s dissatisfaction, the
collection made clear, was the ongoing problem of inequity in the workplace. In her article, “Job
Discrimination and What Women Can Do About It,” sociologist and women’s rights activist Alice
Rossi shared galling anecdotes she had heard from women held back from advancement in their
careers. “I never wanted to teach grade school children,” one woman had told Rossi. “But I found
so much prejudice and resentment against me in my first job in an architectural firm... that I
couldn’t take it. I left and switched to teaching art. At least I feel welcome in a school.” Another
explained,
I had the experience last year of seeing a job I had filled for two years upgraded when it was
filled by a man, at double the salary I was paid for the same work. College trained women are
lumped with the secretarial and clerical staff, while college trained men are seen as potential
executives. A few years of this and everybody is behaving according to what is expected of them,
not what they are capable of.
Rossi attributed part of the problem to a kind of “damned if you do and damned if you don’t”
confusion over appropriate feminine comportment:
If [women] are vital and assertive, they are rejected as “aggressive bitches out to castrate
men.” If they are quiet and unassuming, they are rejected as “unlikely to amount to much.”
Women who try to ease their acceptance by male colleagues in a masculine profession with
sweetness-and-light talk may be kept on in the particular low-status niche they occupy, but then
find that they are rejected for promotion because they lack drive and ambition.
70
She urged women to lobby for more expansive anti-discrimination laws and to exercise
vigilance in ensuring that those already on the books were being respected.
Also in the March 1970 issue was a short piece by Diane Schulder, a New York Attorney,
who offered a dismaying look at various laws from the not-so-distant past. Schulder pointed to one
nineteenth-century law that barred women from working as attorneys. She quoted the 1872 ruling
in which the Supreme Court upheld the decision:
Man is, or should be, woman’s protector and defender. The natural and proper timidity and
delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil
life.
Another Supreme Court ruling, issued as recently as 1948, upheld a law prohibiting any
woman except “the wife or daughter of the male owner” from working as a bartender. The court
explained its thinking as follows:
The fact that women may now have achieved the virtues that men have long claimed as their
prerogatives, and now indulge in vices that men have long practiced, does not preclude the States
from drawing a sharp line between the sexes, certainly in such matters as the regulation of liquor
traffic.
Today, most of the explicit barriers to female participation in the workforce have fallen. But
in many fields, women continue to be significantly underrepresented. One such field is politics. In
her 1992 article titled “Crashing the Locker Room,” lawyer and essayist Wendy Kaminer took a
considered look at the shortage of women in Congress.
Female politicians from both parties who discus the exclusion of women from Congress is
not exactly news; it’s history. Only fourteen women have ever served in the U.S. Senate, and the
majority of them inherited their husbands’ seats or were appointed for limited terms by governors
with whom they had political or personal connections…. Out of 11,230 people who have served in
Congress, only one percent have been women. Today there are two women in the Senate and
twenty-eight women in the House (out of 435 members). In other words, women constitute 5.6
percent of Congress, an increase of only about three percentage points since 1971.
Kaminer spoke with a number of odes what they saw as some of the barriers to female
political success. They cited a variety of factors—from voters’ perceptions of women as less tough
and competent than men, to the fact that most women lack powerful political connections. Many
also lamented the inordinate amount of attention paid by the media to female politicians’ physical
appearance and marital status. As Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland put it, “If you’re married,
you’re neglecting the guy; if you’re divorced, you couldn’t keep him; if you’re a widow, you
killed him; if you’re single, you couldn’t get a man.”
Kaminer noted that many of those women who do make it in politics have done so by
deliberately capitalizing on feminine stereotypes. A number of women, she noted, have won
campaigns by playing up their femininity and making the case that they are somehow congenitally
best suited to look after the needy, safeguard the welfare of children, govern by agreeable
compromise instead of confrontation, and generally keep government running smoothly, as though
they were keeping house. But while such tactics can be successful in the short term, Kaminer
warned, the longer-term results may be damaging:
The dangers of using stereotypes like these should be clear to generations of women who
have had to prove their unfeminine ability and had to fight for the right to exercise power overtly
outside the home, as well as covertly within it. By claiming “feminine” virtues, women may
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effectively deprive themselves of “masculine” strengths. Whether women candidates can exploit
feminine stereotypes without ultimately being defeated by them is an unasked question at the heart
of many women’s campaigns.
Other Atlantic writers, however, have taken issue with the idea that women ought to assert
their “masculine” strengths in every arena. In a June 1980 article titled "Annie, Don’t Get Your
Gun," Mary Jo Salter reacted negatively to a proposal by President Jimmy Carter that women
should be subjected to the draft. Carter professed to have put forth the proposal on feminist
grounds, on the theory that men and women should be treated equally across the board. But Salter
objected, pointing out that women are physically less robust than men and temperamentally less
bellicose. Laying claim to equal rights, she argued, should not have to mean pretending to be the
same:
To be man’s equal, must we share his wardrobe of three-piece suits and military uniforms? It
may be understandable, but is certainly regrettable, that “equality” in so many cases means
conformity to the male habit. To earn the right to speak our minds, must we agree that we’ve
always been “highly combative,” or that we ought to let them teach us how to be? Too often
we’ve been told that to be dedicated professionals, we must eagerly sacrifice all for our jobs and
neglect our children (if our offices allow us time to give birth at all). Now, to be dedicated
citizens—and feminists—we must accept the male notion of citizenship as including compulsory
military service. We are not nearly assertive enough, I think. If we were, we would balk at the
all-encompassing view that equality means identicality—and that identicality, to return to the
clothing metaphor, means that both sexes wear pants, not skirts.
A decade later, military sociologist Charles Moskos likewise took up the question of equal
opportunity in the military. For his article “Army Women” (August 1990), he spoke with a
number of female soldiers and learned that from carving out privacy within mixed-gender tents
during field maneuvers, to coming to terms with the generally much lower cleanliness standards of
their male compatriots, women in the Army face an unusual set of challenges. Many, he
discovered, find themselves in the lonely position of avoiding closeness both with their male peers
(for fear of being accused of improper conduct) and with their female peers (for fear of being
suspected of homosexuality). Perhaps most frustrating of all, he learned, was that, according to
Army rules, a woman often has “to be removed from an assignment she has been trained for
simply because there is danger.” He quoted one female helicopter pilot who was not allowed to fly
with her peers during the invasion of Panama: “I was insane with anger,” she told him. “After
nine years of training they left me out. It was the ultimate slam.”
But there will always be those who doubt women’s claims that they are being discriminated
against in a systematic way. In a September 1986 article “Women in the Work Force,” George
Guilder suggested that women have in fact have come farther in their quest for equal opportunity
and control over their careers than the statistics superficially seem to show. True, he conceded,
there are far fewer women in the workforce than men, and overall they make less money. But a
more nuanced analysis of the data, he argued, reveals that highly educated women who are
unmarried and work full time do earn about the same amount as their male counterparts. It is the
highly educated, affluent women who are married, he suggested, that scale back on their work,
skewing the statistics to show a lower level of female participation at lower pay.
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So are women as a group being discriminated against? Guilder, for one, thought not. “Let us
at least consider the possibility,” he wrote, “that many women, deliberately rejecting the values of
male careerists, are discriminating against the job ‘rat race’ and in favor of their families.”
(From http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200605u/women-work/2)
Exercises:
I. Comprehension of the text: decide whether the following sentences are true or
false. Put a T for true and F for false.
1. The path of the career woman has never become smoother because there are more women
power-hungry climbers.
2. Women won’t face obstacles to their professional acceptance and advancement in modern
society.
3. In the collection published in The Atlantic, one reason for women’s dissatisfaction was the
ongoing problem of inequity in the workplace.
4. It is a social discrimination that women gain less than men for the same work.
5. Today in many fields, women continue to be significantly underrepresented.
6. Out of 11,230 people who have served in Congress half of them have been women.
7. Women ought to assert their “masculine” strengths in every arena because women are not
physically less robust than men or temperamentally less bellicose.
8. Charles Moskos discovered that women in the Army face an unusual set of challenges.
9. Many women in the Army are homosexuals.
10. George Guilder suggested that women have in fact have come farther in their quest for equal
opportunity.
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and
targeting the specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. Why do you think that women are unequal to men in work?
2. Do you agree with the thoughts of feminism?
3. In what conditions are Chinese women living?
Reading Three
Passage Ⅰ
Supposed Time: 5:00
Time You Used:
___
U.N. Council Urges N. Korea Not to Conduct Nuclear Test
By Colum Lynch
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 6 -- The U.N. Security Council issued a statement Friday
expressing “deep concern” about North Korea’s threat to conduct its first test of a nuclear
explosive, saying it would “jeopardize peace, stability and security in the region and beyond.”
The action came as U.S. officials look toward Sunday as a possible date for North Korea to
carry out the test. Oct. 8 is the ninth anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s appointment as head of the
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Korean Workers’ Party, and is only a day before South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon
will face a vote on his bid to become the next secretary general of the United Nations.
The 15-nation council urged North Korea to resume multiparty talks over its nuclear program,
warning that a nuclear test “would bring universal condemnation.” The council also issued a
veiled threat to weigh tougher action, including the possibility of sanctions, against Pyongyang it
if proceeds with the test.
The nonbinding statement capped three days of intensive negotiation after North Korea’s
announcement Tuesday that it plans to test a nuclear device to strengthen its defenses against the
United States.
The Bush administration expressed frustration that the council was not prepared to adopt an
even tougher response spelling out the punitive actions to be imposed on North Korea if it
conducts a test. “At this point, no, I don’t think there’s a strategy of preventive diplomacy in
place,” said John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Still, Bolton and Kenzo Oshima, Japan’s ambassador, said the statement will be helpful to
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is expected to advocate a tougher response to North
Korea’s nuclear program in visits to Beijing on Sunday and Seoul on Monday.
China and Russia have urged the United States and other members of the council to pursue
only diplomatic means to end the nuclear standoff with North Korea. Russia’s ambassador, Vitaly
Churkin, said he spoke with Bolton on Friday about the need for the United States to engage in
direct talks with North Korea.
But Churkin said Bolton insisted that the United States would sit down with North Korean
officials only if they resumed multiparty talks on the nuclear program. “We think that bilateral
contacts between the United States and North Korea could be useful in resolving the situation,”
Churkin said.
In an effort to persuade Pyongyang to back down, Bush administration officials have issued a
number of stern warnings that the United States will not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said on Friday that the United States has also
encouraged China and others “that have influence on North Korea to use it to convince them to
turn away from this.”
“I’d leave it up to the Chinese as to what the best way for them to exert their influence on the
North Korean government is -- but, certainly, we want to see them and everyone else do whatever
they can to prevent this from happening,” he added.
U.S. officials suspect North Korea has acquired enough plutonium to produce as many as 11
nuclear bombs. In February, Pyongyang announced that it had succeeded in building a nuclear
device, but analysts estimate that it could be years before North Korea is able to launch it.
(From Washington Post Saturday, October 7, 2006; Page A17 )
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Multiple choice (Get the best choice from the given options)
1. The statement issued by the U.N. Security Council Friday said that North Korea’s threat to
conduct its first test of a nuclear explosive _____.
A. was a threat
B. “jeopardize peace, stability and security in the region and beyond.”
C. Urged N. Korea Not to Conduct Nuclear Test
74
D. above all
2. Oct. 8 is____.
A. an impossible date for North Korea to carry out the test
B. the ninth anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s appointment as head of the Korean Workers’ Party
C. the day before South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon will face a vote on his bid to
become the next secretary general of the United States.
D. the National Day of North Korea
3. What was The Bush administration’s attitude towards this issue?
A. they welcomed the conduction of South Korea
B. the council was not prepared to adopt an even tougher response spelling out the punitive
actions to be imposed on North Korea if it conducts a test.
C. they think there’s a strategy of preventive diplomacy in place
D. none of the above is correct
4. What was Japan’s attitude towards this issue?
A. They think that the statement will be helpful to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
B. They want to advocate a tougher response to North Korea’s nuclear program.
C. They hope that South Korea will succeed in this conduction.
D. both A and B
5. What was China and Russia’s attitude towards this issue?
A. China and Russia have urged the United States and other members of the council to pursue
only diplomatic means to end the nuclear standoff with North Korea.
B. Russia’s ambassador said he spoke with Bolton on Friday about the need for the United States
to punish North Korea.
C. China didn’t say anyting about it.
D. Russia supported South Korea for its nuclear explosive
Passage Ⅱ
Supposed Time: 5:00
Time You Used:
___
Computer System Under Attack
By Alan Sipress
Hackers operating through Chinese Internet servers have launched a debilitating attack on the
computer system of a sensitive Commerce Department bureau, forcing it to replace hundreds of
workstations and block employees from regular use of the Internet for more than a month,
Commerce officials said yesterday.
The attack targeted the computers of the Bureau of Industry and Security, which is
responsible for controlling U.S. exports of commodities, software and technology having both
commercial and military uses. The bureau has stepped up its activity in regulating trade with
China in recent years as the United States increased its exports of such dual-use items to the
growing Chinese market.
75
This marked the second time in recent months that U.S. officials confirmed that a major
attack traced to China had succeeded in penetrating government computers.
The significance of the attacks was underscored in a series of e-mails sent to BIS employees
by acting Undersecretary of Commerce Mark Foulon since July, informing them of "a number of
serious threats to the integrity of our systems and data." In an August e-mail, Foulon reported that
the bureau had "identified several successful attempts to attack unattended BIS workstations
during the overnight hours." Then, early last month, he wrote: "It has become clear that Internet
access in itself is a vulnerability that we cannot mitigate. We have tried incremental steps and they
have proven insufficient."
A source familiar with the security breach said the hackers had penetrated the computers with
a "rootkit" program, a stealthy form of software that allows attackers to mask their presence and
then gain privileged access to the computer system. The attacks were traced to Web sites
registered on Chinese Internet service providers, Commerce officials said. "We determined they
were owned by the Chinese," a senior Commerce official said. He did not say who in China was
responsible or whether officials had even been able to identify the culprits. Although bureau
employees were informed of the problem in July, commerce officials declined to say when the
attacks were discovered and how long they had been going on. Only over time did bureau officials
realize the extent of the damage from the breach.
"The more we learned, the more we did," the senior official said.
Since Sept. 1, the bureau has blocked employees from accessing the Internet from their own
computers. Instead, several separate computers unconnected to the BIS computer network have
been set up so employees can try to continue carrying out their duties.
Commerce officials have also decided they cannot salvage the workstations that employees
had been using and instead will build an entirely new system for the bureau in the coming months
with "clean hardware and clean software," the senior official said. Foulon told employees in late
August that they hoped to replace all the bureau's workstations within three months.
The official acknowledged that some of the emergency measures have made it more difficult
for the bureau to communicate with other government agencies and the public, including
companies that turn to BIS for export licenses.
In July, the State Department confirmed that hackers in China had broken into its computers
in Washington and overseas. Last year, U.S. officials reported that the Defense Department and
other U.S. agencies were under relentless attack from unidentified computers in China.
(From Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 6, 2006; Page A21)
Comprehension of the text: decide whether the following sentences are true or
false. Put a T for true and F for false.
1. _____ The attack targeted the computers of the Bureau of Industry and Security of China.
2. ______ The Bureau of Industry and Security is responsible for controlling U.S. exports of
commodities, software and technology having both commercial and military uses
3. ______ It is the first time in recent months that U.S. officials confirmed that a major attack
traced to China had succeeded in penetrating government computers.
4. ______ The hackers had penetrated the computers with a "wooden horse" program.
5.______ The attacks were traced to Web sites registered on Chine
se Internet service providers.
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Unit 7 Economics
Reading One
Ⅰ. Warming-up Discussion
1. Do you think that hi-tech plays an important role in modern global economy?
2. What do you think of “ecotourism” and “durable development” advocated by our countries?
3. How much do you know about genetic engineering?
What will replace the tech economy?
By Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer
We didn’t realize we were no longer living in an industrial economy for about 20 years, from
the early 1950s to the early 1970s. When we finally figured out the old economy had exited, we
didn’t know what to call the new one. Postindustrial? Service? Shopping and gathering?
Information won the title.
ⅰ
Get ready for déjà vu all over again. Like everything else, all economies have beginnings
and endings, and we can already see the end of this one a few decades hence. Economies end not
because they peter out but because a challenger supplants them. That’s what will happen around a
quarter-century from now.
Hunting-and-gathering economies ruled for hundreds of thousands of years before they were
overshadowed by agrarian economies, which ruled for about 10,000 years. Next came the
industrial ones. The first began in Britain in the 1760s, and the first to finish started unwinding in
the U.S. in the early 1950s. We’re halfway through the information economy, and from start to
finish, it will last 75 to 80 years, ending in the late 2020s. Then get ready for the next one: the
bioeconomy.
Life cycles for people and plants, for businesses, industries, economies and entire
civilizations have four distinct quarters: gestation, growth, maturity and decline. The Internet is
the main event of the information economy’s mature quarter, the last phase of it being marked by
the widespread use of cheap chips and wireless technology that will let everything connect to
everything else. Life cycles overlap. So the information economy will mature in the years ahead as
the bioeconomy completes its gestation and finally takes off into its growth quarter during the
2020s.
The bioeconomy opened for business in 1953, when Francis Crick and James Watson
ⅱ
identified the double-helix structure of DNA . The bioeconomy has been in its first quarter ever
since, and completion and publication of the decoded human genome marks the end of this
gestation period.
We’re heading into the second, or growth, quarter, when hot new industries appear, much as
semiconductors and software did in the second quarter of the info economy. Thus biotech will
pave the way for the bioec era. During the next two decades, organic biotech will overlap with
inorganic silicon infotech and inorganic composite materials and nanotechnologies.
During the overlap of infotech and biotech, we will be digitizing many biological processes.
Up until now, four kinds of information dominate: numbers, words, sounds and images. But
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information comes in many other forms, such as smell, taste, touch, imagination and intuition. The
problem is that our technologies for smell, taste and other new information forms aren’t yet
developed enough to make them commercially viable. By the 2020s, they will be.
Smell, for example, perhaps the most primal of senses, is being digitized the way sight and
sound have been. The basics of what makes a smell can be captured molecularly and expressed
digitally on a chip at a reasonable price. Companies like DigiScents of Oakland, Calif., and
Ambryx of La Jolla, Calif., have already developed digital odors. Cyrano Sciences of Pasadena,
Calif., is developing medical-diagnostics technology that can "smell" diseases.
Imagine sending a greeting card that incorporates the smell of flowers with a written and
graphic message. By the 2020s, digital movies will have their own distinctive smell prints. (You
can watch Haley Joel Osment in a remake of The Beach and smell the coconut oil!) Why stop
there? How does a bank smell, and how does Chase smell different from Citigroup? How about
retailers? This is only a tiny example of what will come.
More fundamentally, the first four industries to be infused by the bioec era will be
pharmaceuticals, health care, agriculture and food. Best known are the dozens of bioengineered
drugs already on the market. Most of these save lives by treating existing problems. One of the
biggest shifts for biotech in the decades to come, then, will be the way it transforms the
health-care paradigm from treatment to prediction and prevention. Health care today is really sick
care. The sick-care business model made money by filling hospital beds. Currently, we’re in the
managed-care model. It is transitional, lasting one to two decades. Here, you make money by
emptying beds. In the bioeconomy, health care will work on a preventive model, making money
by helping people avoid having to enter a hospital in the first place.
Basic needs are met in every economy by using the latest technologies available. In the bioec
of the 2020s, the farm will be a super-bioengineered place with multimillion-dollar manufacturing
plants instead of fields.
Today bioengineered milk, meat and produce are already on our supermarket shelves.
Numerous varieties of corn are biogenetically altered—albeit not without challenge. One study
showed that pollen from some strains of altered corn killed the larva of the monarch butterfly.
ⅲ
Fears of Frankenfoods have caused enough of a furor to disrupt Monsanto’s life-sciences
strategy and help topple its CEO. Such incidents will certainly multiply.
Beyond 2025, when we move into the mature bioec, the effects and applications of biotech
will spread into sectors seemingly unrelated to biology. In the 1950s and 1960s it was difficult to
comprehend that computers would change every industry—from manufacturing to hotels to
insurance—just as it is now tough to see how biotech will alter nonbiological businesses. By the
third quarter of the next economy, somewhere in the mid-century, bio applications will seep into
many of the nooks and crannies of our nonbiological lives.
Problems will spread as much as benefits do. Each era produces its own dark side. The
industrial era was accompanied by pollution and environmental degradation. The major problem
of the information age is privacy. In the bioeconomy, the issue will be ethics. Cloning,
bioengineered foods, eugenics, genetic patenting and certainty about inherited diseases are just a
few of the many developments that are already creating a storm. And the storm will intensify in
the U.S.
ⅳ
All this will make baby boomers a unique generation. They will be the first in history to
span three distinct economies. Born at the end of the industrial period, they will spend their entire
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careers in the information age and will end their days watching their grandchildren negotiate the
bioeconomy.
Generation Xers, born after 1964, will be different. During their working years, they will
experience two major economic shifts: first, from the crunching to the connecting halves of this
information economy and, second, from a microwave-based connected universe to the cell-based
world of biologic and bionomics. Those of you in Gen Y may have to go through three!
However long you will spend in it, the bioeconomy is the next one to be born, and, of all
economies past, present and future, it will exert an impact that will make the infoeconomy look
like the runt of the litter.
(time allowed: 15 minutes)
(from Time, July 2000)
Notes：
1. déjà vu: already seen
2. the double-helix structure of DNA : 脱氧核糖核酸的双螺旋结构
3. Frankenfoods：由 Frankenstein 与 foods 组合而成。Frankenstein 是英国女作家玛丽·雪
莱所著小说主人公，是一个生物学家创造的一个怪物，但结果自己被怪物所毁。这里用
Frankenfoods 来说明生物工程培养的食品可能有害于人类。
4. baby boomers：美国二战后从 1947-1961 年出生率突然增高，在这个时期出生的人叫做
baby boomers。
Exercises:
I. Multiple Choice (Choose the right one from the following options)
1. From 1860 to 1950 we were in what kind of economy?
A. information economy
B. bioeconomy
C. agrarian economy
D. industrial economy
2. What is the first kind in economy of human history?
A. hunting-and-gathering economy
B. bioeconomy
C. agrarian economy
D. industrial economy
3. What will replace the information economy?
A. hunting-and-gathering economy
B. bioeconomy
C. agrarian economy
D. industrial economy
4. When will information economy come into an end?
A. 1950’s
B. 1970’s
C. 2020’s
D. 2050’s
5. We are now on the half way of ________.
A. information economy
B. bioeconomy
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C. agrarian economy
D. industrial economy
ⅡShort Answer
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What are the four distinct quarters of life cycles?
What is the landmark of the maturity of information economy?
What can we do during the overlap of infotech and biotech?
What are the first four industries to be infused by the bioec era?
Will there be any problems in bioeconomy? What are they?
III. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below.
Change the form where necessary.
rule, replace , infuse, figure out, preventive, span, topple, from start to finish, mark, head
1. Can anything _____ a mother's love and care?
2. Let the tea stand a few minutes to ____.
3. Quinine is an effectual _____ for malaria.
4. The pile of books ____ onto the floor
5. In the year 1955 started a career that _____ 40 years.
6. You can get the length of the desk by using a measuring _____.
7. I can’t understand this word. Can you ____ it ____ for me?
8. The papers of the final exam haven’t been ____.
9. I read this novel ____.
10. He has a hot ___ and always forgets to do sth.
IV. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and
debate upon the following topics
1. nature VS civilization
A. Nature is the friend of human being. It is the mother of human being and the foundation of
civilization.
B. Nature has nothing to do with civilization. Human being fight against and win. Human being
change the world and reonstructure the earth.
2. high technology VS safety
A. High technology has been applied in daily life. It helps to keep social security.
B. High technology can also be used for crimes. It can reveal one’s privacy.
3. genetic engineering :a progress of civilization VS a fallback of civilization
A. the symbol of advanced science and technology\ a great change for the world and human life
B. diseases, neglection of lives, no sense of security, loss of traditional values
V. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and
targeting the specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. Give some examples to explain that we can’t live without information.
2. What will happen in bioeconomy?
Reading Two
Text
We need to keep the overall situation in mind and firmly adhere to the following principles to
ensure success in the work of the government this year. First is to maintain consistency in
government policy and carry out fine-tuning as needed. We need to continue to properly exercise
macroeconomic regulation, ensure continuity and stability in macroeconomic policies, maintain
the correct orientation and strength of macroeconomic regulation, handle each case on its own
80
merits, provide guidance tailored to the situation, and take specific measures to solve major
problems in economic development. Second is to always keep the big picture in mind and pay
close attention to key areas. We need to correctly balance reform, development and stability, use
reform and opening up to drive all aspects of our work, and strive to solve the major problems
affecting the overall situation in order to promote all aspects of economic and social development.
Third is to take all factors into consideration in making overall plans and pay close attention to the
well-being of the people. We need to continue to put people first, maintain the "five balances"
balancing urban and rural development, development among regions, economic and social
development, development of man and nature, and domestic development and opening wider to
the outside world, pay closer attention to balancing development between urban and rural areas
and among regions, developing social programs, and promoting fairness and stability in society,
and enable all our people to share in the fruits of reform and development. Fourth is to stay firmly
rooted in the present while looking ahead to the future. We need to do a good job of this year's
work, gear our work to meeting the targets set in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, strive to make
progress, refrain from taking on more than we can handle, and achieve concrete results.
We need to focus on the following aspects of our work this year.
1. Maintaining fast yet steady economic development
Looking at the current international environment and domestic conditions, we can see that
there are many conditions conducive to economic development this year. But there are also a
number of problems that could hold back development, as well as some uncertainties. We need to
adopt sound policies to deal with these problems and uncertainties to prevent large fluctuations in
the economy.
We will keep macroeconomic policies stable, mainly by continuing to follow prudent fiscal
and monetary policies. Since the economy is now performing well and there is a lot of activity in
non-state investment, this year we will again appropriately reduce the deficit and the amount of
long-term treasury bonds for development. We plan to issue 60 billion yuan worth of long-term
treasury bonds, 20 billion yuan less than last year, while increasing regular construction
investment from the central government budget by 10 billion yuan. The deficit in the central
government budget is projected to be 295 billion yuan, 5 billion yuan less than last year. Funds
from the sale of long-term treasury bonds and budgetary investment will be mainly used to
maintain adequate funding for key projects already underway and to fund an appropriate number
of major new projects that impact on overall development in agriculture, forestry, water
conservancy, science, education, culture, health, ecological improvement, environmental
protection and development of the western region. Starting this year, China will follow standard
international practices by adopting the method of outstanding balance management for its national
debt. We need to administer taxes in accordance with the law, improve tax collection and
management, and standardize management of non-tax revenue. We need to take all factors into
consideration in making overall plans for budgetary expenditures, limit expenditures to what we
can afford, ensure adequate funding for key items and economize wherever possible. We will
strengthen budgetary oversight and control the rise in administrative expenses. We need to
maintain appropriate growth of money supply and credit, improve the mix in loan portfolios and
create new financial products. We need to increase credit support for agriculture, rural areas and
farmers and for small and medium-sized businesses, employment, and students having difficulty
paying educational expenses. Long- and medium-term credit should be kept at an appropriate level.
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We will improve the mechanisms for setting and transmitting interest rates. We will improve the
system of managed floating foreign currency exchange rates and keep the Renminbi exchange rate
basically stable at an appropriate and balanced level.
We will adhere to the strategy of expanding domestic consumption and focus on increasing
consumption demand and strengthening the role of consumption in fueling economic development.
First, we will strive to raise urban and rural incomes. We need to adjust the distribution of
incomes, standardize the way income is distributed, and increase the income of people in the
lower and middle income brackets. To increase rural incomes, we will continue to pursue the
policy of giving more, taking less and loosening control. In particular, we need to adopt more
measures to give more benefits to farmers. All local governments should make necessary
adjustments to the minimum salary system and implement it strictly, and introduce a minimum
hourly wage system. We need to gradually solve the problem of low wages for rural migrant
workers in cities. We must establish laws and mechanisms for ensuring that wages are paid on
time. We will conscientiously implement the revised Individual Income Tax Law and lower the
tax burden on low- and middle-income people. This year, the government will appropriately raise
basic pension benefits for retired enterprise employees, subsidies for entitled groups and
subsistence allowances for urban residents. We will reform the civil servant pay system. We will
establish a unified national salary system based on position and rank and a mechanism for regular
pay increases and improve the system of allowances for difficult and remote border regions, all
based on review and standardization of existing allowances and subsidies. In addition, we will
promote reform of the income distribution system in public service institutions. Second, we will
keep expected individual spending stable and encourage immediate consumption. We will address
people's concerns that increasing consumption will make them unable later to meet basic living
needs by accelerating efforts to improve the social security system and solve major problems in
education, public health and medical care, and housing. Third, we will work hard to encourage
consumption in rural areas. We will increase efforts to develop rural markets and promote the flow
of goods, make full use of existing rural retail distribution networks, and support urban wholesale
and retail businesses in setting up outlets in the countryside to stimulate rural consumption. Fourth,
we will improve the consumption environment and consumption-related policies. We will improve
housing and public transportation conditions and take active steps to further develop tourism,
cultural activities, fitness centers and other services. We will effectively safeguard consumers'
lawful rights and interests. We will make appropriate adjustments to the current consumption tax,
standardize and develop consumer credit, promptly eliminate or revise unsuitable regulations and
policies that discourage consumption, and promote more high-end consumption.
We will maintain fixed asset investment at an appropriate scale, continue to encourage the
growth of some sectors while discouraging the expansion of others, improve the investment
structure and prevent breakneck growth in investment. We will continue to properly control the
availability of land and credit, practice the strictest possible land management system, and grant
loans on the basis of proper qualifications and market access requirements. We will strictly control
the number of new projects undertaken. We will strengthen weak links and key areas in economic
and social development. We will continue efforts to restrict excessive real estate investment and
lower overheated real estate prices in some cities. We need to adjust the types of real estate
properties on the market by strictly controlling new high-end real estate projects and concentrating
on building general commercial housing and low-cost housing. We will establish a sound system
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for renting affordable housing and a system for leasing housing. We will establish and standardize
order in the real estate and construction markets, basically clear up all overdue payments related to
construction projects, and promote the sound development of the real estate and construction
industries.
(time allowed: 20 minutes)
(From Government Work Report (2006) by Xinhua)
Exercises
ⅠMultiple choice (Choose the best answer from the given options)
1. Which of the following is not the principle that we should firmly adhere to?
A. to maintain consistency in government policy and carry out fine-tuning as needed
B. to always keep the big picture in mind and pay close attention to key areas
C. to take all factors into consideration in economic development
D. to stay firmly rooted in the present while looking ahead to the future.
2. In what way should we keep macroeconomic policies stable?
A. by continuing to follow prudent fiscal and monetary policies
B. by appropriately reduinge the deficit and the amount of long-term treasury bonds for
development
C. increasing regular construction investment from the central government budget
D. adopting the method of outstanding balance management for its national debt
3. Which of the following is what we should not do by adhering to the strategy of expanding
domestic consumption and focus on increasing consumption demand and strengthening the role of
consumption in fueling economic development?
A. First, we will strive to raise urban and rural incomes
B. Second, we will keep expected individual spending stable and encourage long-term
consumption.
C. Third, we will work hard to encourage consumption in rural areas.
D. Fourth, we will improve the consumption environment and consumption-related policies.
4. We will____.
A. maintain fixed asset investment at an appropriate scale,
B. continue to encourage the growth of some sectors while discouraging the expansion of others,
C. improve the investment structure and prevent breakneck growth in investment.
D. all the above
5. We should _______.
A. strictly control the number of new projects undertaken.
B. strengthen weak links and key areas in economic and social development.
C. continue efforts to restrict excessive real estate investment and lower overheated real estate
prices in some cities.
D. all the above
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and
targeting the specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. Do you think we have a stable market? Why or why not?
2. Do you often go shopping? Can you always find what you want?
3. Do you think it’s too hard for ordinary families to buy a house in large cities?
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Reading Three
Passage Ⅰ
Supposed Time: 5:00
Time You Used:
___
How big can it grow?
At a recent retail-industry convention, Wal-Mart's boss, Lee Scott, was asked whether his
firm was trying to take over the world. “I don't think so,” Mr Scott replied with a smile on his face.
“All we want to do is grow.”
How big can Wal-Mart grow? With $256 billion in sales in the year to January 31st, the firm
is already the world's biggest company by that measure. Its nearest retailing rival, a French
supermarket chain called Carrefour, is less than half Wal-Mart's size. In America, Wal-Mart
manages nearly 3,000 giant discount stores and hypermarket “supercentres”. Abroad, it has
ventured into Mexico, Britain, Japan, Canada, Germany and China, as well as making smaller
investments elsewhere. Eight out of ten American households shop at Wal-Mart at least once a
year. Worldwide, more than 100m customers visit Wal-Mart stores every week.
The mathematics of big numbers suggests that Wal-Mart's growth must slow. Amazingly, the
opposite appears to be happening. In America this year, Wal-Mart intends to open some 50 new
discount stores and more than 220 new supercentres, some of which will be existing stores moving
to new locations. Overseas, it plans another 140 or so new stores, including relocations. This adds
up to some 50m square feet of new space—even more than many of its rivals operate in total.
As Mr Scott likes to points out, Wal-Mart still represents “only” 8% of total retail sales in
America. It is not unusual for dominant firms in mature industries to command market shares of
30% or more. So, in theory at least, Wal-Mart could still get an awfully lot bigger.
Although the firm possesses undeniable momentum at the moment, its sustained smooth
expansion is by no means inevitable. Wal-Mart's success is sharpening the acts of other retailers,
some of whom are learning how to compete more effectively against the “Beast of Bentonville”
(Wal-Mart's headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas). Legal and labour problems threaten the
firm's decentralised, entrepreneurial culture—a culture which, until now, Wal-Mart has zealously
protected against creeping corporate bureaucracy. Abroad, the firm's success remains in doubt, as
does its ability to make money out of new retail formats at home. Most important of all is the
likely future growth of its core domestic discount-store business, which makes up 65% of the
firm's sales and 87% of its profits. When will that begin to slow?
One of the guiding principles of Sam Walton, the company's late founder, is to pass on
savings won from suppliers to consumers, which encourages more of them to shop at the
company's stores and to buy more things. Wal-Mart then profits from higher sales, instead of
simply putting the savings directly into its coffers. The company is skilled at obtaining products
cheaply, and the emergence of China as a centre of low-cost production is playing to its strengths.
Wal-Mart already buys $7.5 billion-worth of goods directly from China each year and another
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$7.5 billion via its suppliers, with scope for more in future. Shoppers make such big savings that
economists credit Wal-Mart with driving down America's inflation rate.
This strategy of “Always Low Prices. Always” continues to surprise even Wal-Mart with its
success. When Tom Schoewe joined the firm as its chief financial officer four years ago,
Wal-Mart thought that its core discount-store business was about to slow, he says. The company
began looking for other sources of growth by investing more heavily in different formats: smaller
groceries, called neighbourhood markets, that were meant to fill in the spaces between the larger
discount stores and supercentres, and a warehouse-style format, which Wal-Mart calls Sam's Club.
But, says Mr Schoewe, Wal-Mart then changed tack. It began to realise that America's suburbs
can absorb many more supercentres than the company had previously supposed.
(Excerpted from The Economist print edition Apr 15th 2004)
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Multiple choice (Get the best choice from the given options)
1. What will Wal-Mart do according to Lee Scott?
A. to try to take over the world
B. to grow
C. to go ahead of Carrefour
D. to get more money
2. How big has Wal-Mart already been?
A. In America, Wal-Mart manages nearly 3,000 giant discount stores and hypermarket
“supercentres”.
B. Abroad, it has ventured into Mexico, Britain, Japan, Canada, Germany and China, as well as
making smaller investments elsewhere.
C. Wal-Mart still represents “only” 8% of total retail sales in America.
D. all the above
3. What does Wal-Mart intends to this year?
A. to open some 50 new discount stores in America
B. to open more than 220 new supercentres in America
B. to open another 140 or so new stores, including relocations abroad
C. all the above
4. Which of the following is not right about the guiding principles of Wal-Mart?
A. to pass on savings won from suppliers to consumers, which encourages more of them to shop at
the company's stores and to buy more things
B. to put the savings directly into its coffers, instead of simply profiting from higher sales
C. to obtain products cheaply
D. to buys goods directly from China each year
5. According to the text , Wal-Mart is a _____.
A. school
B. hospital
C. theatre
D. a detailing company
Reading Comprehension II :decide whether the following sentences are true or
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false. Put a T for true and F for false.
6. _____Wal-Mart is the second largest retailer in the world.
7. ______ Wal-Mart wants to control American economy.
8. ______ It is surprising that Wal-Mart is growing bigger..
9. ______Wal-Mart is the most popular shop in America.
10.______The company began looking for other sources of growth by investing more heavily in
different formats: smaller groceries, called neighbourhood markets.
Passage Ⅱ
Supposed Time: 5:00
Time You Used:
___
Reflections on the cosmetics crisis in China
On September 14, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection
and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) announced that nine products released by SK-II, a
Japanese cosmetics company, contained the banned heavy metals chromium and
neodymium. In Shanghai and Guangdong province, related departments got the same
results from their investigations. Four other well-known brands including Clinique,
Estee Lauder, Dior and Lancome were also found to have banned substances in their
products. According to the Hong Kong Standards and Appraisal Center, six types of
powder in these four brands contained chromium and neodymium. A number of
products have been withdrawn from China's cosmetics market. This is the biggest
crisis to befall these international brands since they entered the Chinese market
approximately a decade ago.
Both foreign enterprises and the government should reflect on this crisis. Foreign
enterprises should consider their position in the Chinese market and the quality of
their products. Some companies treat the Chinese market as a secondary market and
the products they sell here are of lesser quality than those they sell in other, developed
countries. With an increase in per capita GDP, demand has increased and consumers'
capacity to distinguish good products from ordinary products has improved. People
can now quickly get information about overseas markets, brands and products.
Foreign brands once worshipped by Chinese are now affordable. The discriminatory
policies of some foreign companies cannot continue. During the crisis, SK-II has
admitted that the products they sell in China have some 'delicate differences' to those
sold in Japan. These 'delicate differences' are all rather vague. If the important
components of the product are different, then Chinese consumers will naturally feel
discriminated against and will react accordingly.
When the crisis occurred, the stores that sold the products failed to offer an
adequate solution, and consequently found themselves accused of discriminating
against and distrusting Chinese consumers. They required that consumers sign a
statement saying the product has no quality problems. However, these same stores
now accept that these products do have a problem. Retailers understandably wish to
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avoid having to compensate their customers, but this reluctance has diminished their
reliability in the eyes of the consumer.
The Chinese quality supervision department also needs to reflect on its role. The
creation of a better investment environment does not require GAQSIQ to abandon its
obligation to supervise foreign enterprises or to overlook Chinese laws. The
government should abandon preferential policies for foreign enterprises and recognize
the rights of the consumer, worker and investor equally. It should end super-national
treatment and implement and follow laws that regulate foreign companies.
As China has devoted so much energy to wooing foreign enterprises, this crisis
has become big news. As SK-II is a Japanese brand, some people have linked the
cosmetics crisis with the sensitive Sino-Japanese relations and Japan's restrictive laws
on Chinese agricultural products. They wonder if this is the Chinese government's
way of taking revenge. This is sheer speculation. China has always argued that trade
issues should not be politicized. Even when relations were at their most terse, China
distinguished between Japanese fascists and the ordinary Japanese people. China
would not and will not damage its own commercial environment under the pretext of
trade protectionism. This would add unnecessary uncertainty to commercial
operations. It is the duty of GAQSIQ to properly supervise the quality of foreign
products on the Chinese market. Enterprises and other relevant sectors should not
speculate about the issue too much as this does nothing to correct the problem.
(The article is written by a research fellow at the Ministry of Commerce and
translated by People's Daily Online.)
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Multiple choice (Get the best choice from the given options)
1. How many brands of domestics were found to have banned substances in their
products?
A. 1
B. 2
C. 4
D. 5
2. How many products released by SK-II contained the banned heavy metals
chromium and neodymium?
A. 1
B. 4
C. 5
D. 9
3. When did these international brands enter the Chinese market?
A. two or three years ago
B. since the establishment of new China
C. approximately a decade ago.
D. about one hundred years
4. Who should reflect on this crisis?
A. foreign enterprises
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B. the gonernment
C. the customers
D. both A and B
5. Which of the following is not right about China’s attitude towards this crisis?
A. This is the Chinese government's way of taking revenge because SK-II is a
Japanese brand.
B. China has argued that trade issues should not be politicized.
C. China would not and will not damage its own commercial environment under the
pretext of trade protectionism.
D. It is the duty of GAQSIQ to properly supervise the quality of foreign products on
the Chinese market.
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning) decide whether the
following sentences are true or false. Put a T for true and F for false.
6. _____In Shanghai and Guangdong Province five bands were found under standard.
7. ______ These international bands in China have different components from their
products in developed countries.
8. ______ Chinese customers can’t get information about overseas markets, brands
and products.
9. ______When the crisis occurred, the stores that sold the products failed to offer an
adequate solution.
10.______The Chinese government should abandon preferential policies for foreign
enterprises and recognize the rights of the consumer, worker and investor equally.
Unit 8 Literature and Art
Reading One
Warming-up Discussion
1. How much do you know about Ernest Hemingway?
2. What impact did World WarⅠhave on American young men and women?
3. What values do you hold in the relationship between men and women?
Text
Hills Like White Elephants
By Ernest Hemingway
ⅰ
The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there
was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun.
Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a
curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to
keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside
the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty
minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid.
“What should we drink?” the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on
the table.
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“It’s pretty hot,” the man said.
“Let’s drink beer.”
“Dos cervezasⅱ,” the man said into the curtain.
“Big ones?” a woman asked from the doorway.
“Yes. Two big ones.”
The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads
and the beer glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was
looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown
and dry.
“They look like white elephants,” she said.
“I’ve never seen one,” the man drank his beer.
“No, you wouldn’t have.”
“I might have,” the man said. “Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t
prove anything.”
The girl looked at the bead curtain. “They’ve painted something on it,” she said.
“What does it say?”
“Anis del Toro. It’s a drink.”
“Could we try it?”
The man called “Listen” through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar.
“Four reales.” “We want two Anis del Toro.”
“With water?”
“Do you want it with water?”
“I don’t know,” the girl said. “Is it good with water?”
“It’s all right.”
“You want them with water?” asked the woman.
“Yes, with water.”
“It tastes like liquorice,” the girl said and put the glass down.
“That’s the way with everything.”
“Yes,” said the girl. “Everything tastes of liquorice. Especially all the things
you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe.”
“Oh, cut it out.”
“You started it,” the girl said. “I was being amused. I was having a fine time.”
“Well, let’s try and have a fine time.”
“All right. I was trying. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn’t
that bright?”
“That was bright.”
“I wanted to try this new drink. That’s all we do, isn’t it - look at things and try
new drinks?”
“I guess so.”
The girl looked across at the hills.
“They’re lovely hills,’ she said. “They don’t really look like white elephants. I
just meant the colouring of their skin through the trees.”
“Should we have another drink?”
“All right.”
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The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table.
“The beer’s nice and cool,” the man said.
“It’s lovely,” the girl said.
“It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” the man said. “It’s not really an
operation at all.”
The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.
“I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air
in.”
The girl did not say anything.
“I’ll go with you and I’ll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and
then it’s all perfectly natural.”
“Then what will we do afterwards?”
“We’ll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.”
“What makes you think so?”
“That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us
unhappy.”
The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the
strings of beads.
“And you think then we’ll be all right and be happy.”
“I know we will. Yon don’t have to be afraid. I’ve known lots of people that
have done it.”
“So have I,” said the girl. “And afterwards they were all so happy.”
“Well,” the man said, “if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have
you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple.”
“And you really want to?”
“I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you don’t really
want to.”
“And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love
me?”
“I love you now. You know I love you.”
“I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white
elephants, and you’ll like it?”
“I’ll love it. I love it now but I just can’t think about it. You know how I get
when I worry.”
“If I do it you won’t ever worry?”
“I won’t worry about that because it’s perfectly simple.”
“Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t care about me.”
“Well, I care about you.”
“Oh, yes. But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be
fine.”
“I don’t want you to do it if you feel that way.”
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The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side,
were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river,
were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw
the river through the trees.
“And we could have all this,” she said. “And we could have everything and
every day we make it more impossible.”
“What did you say?”
“I said we could have everything.”
“No, we can’t.”
“We can have the whole world.”
“No, we can’t.”
“We can go everywhere.”
“No, we can’t. It isn’t ours any more.”
“It’s ours.”
“No, it isn’t. And once they take it away, you never get it back.”
“But they haven’t taken it away.”
“We’ll wait and see.”
“Come on back in the shade,” he said. “You mustn’t feel that way.”
“I don’t feel any way,” the girl said. “I just know things.”
“I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do -”
“Nor that isn’t good for me,” she said. “I know. Could we have another beer?”
“All right. But you’ve got to realize”
“I realize,” the girl said. “Can’t we maybe stop talking?”
They sat down at the table and the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side
of the valley and the man looked at her and at the table.
“You’ve got to realize,” he said, “ that I don’t want you to do it if you don’t want
to. I’m perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.”
“Doesn’t it mean anything to you? We could get along.”
“Of course it does. But I don’t want anybody but you. I don’t want anyone else.
And I know it’s perfectly simple.”
“Yes, you know it’s perfectly simple.”
“It’s all right for you to say that, but I do know it.”
“Would you do something for me now?”
“I’d do anything for you.”
“Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?”
He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station.
There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.
“But I don’t want you to,” he said, “I don’t care anything about it.”
“I’ll scream,” the girl said.
The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them
down on the damp felt pads. “The train comes in five minutes,” she said.
“What did she say?” asked the girl.
“That the train is coming in five minutes.”
The girl smiled brightly at the woman, to thank her.
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“I’d better take the bags over to the other side of the station,” the man said. She
smiled at him.
“All right. Then come back and we’ll finish the beer.”
He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other
tracks. He looked up the tracks but could not see the train. Coming back, he walked
through the bar-room, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an
Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the
train. He went out through the bead curtain. She was sitting at the table and smiled at
him.
“Do you feel better?” he asked.
“I feel fine,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.”
(TIME ALLOWING: 20 MINUTES)
Notes:
1. Ebrol: a region in Spain
2. Dos cervezas: Spanish, two bears.
Exercises
ⅠMultiple choice (Choose the best answer from the given options)
1. The story happened in ______.
A. America
B. Africa
C. Spain
D. Asia
2. The talk was between _______.
A. two Americans.
B. an American man and a Spanish girl
C. a Spanish man and an American girl
D. two Spanish
3. What were they waiting for?
A. A Spanish woman
B. two drinks
C. a job
D. a train
4. What were they mainly talking about?
A. the natural scene of Spanish
B. the drinks of Spanish
C. where to travel
D. whether to abort
5. What does “white elephant” mean?
A. sth. pure
B. the symbol of America
C. sth. powerful
D. sth. useless
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II. Comprehension of the text: decide whether the following sentences are true or
false. Put a T for true and F for false.
1. ___The man and the girl liked traveling.
2. ___Both of them could speak Spanish.
3. ___They drank outside a bar near a station.
4. ___The girl loved the man at any cost.
5. ___The man respected the girl and would marry soon.
6. ___The man wanted the girl to abort.
7. ___The girl also wanted to abort.
8. ___The girl felt happy with the man.
9. ___The man was not quite responsible for the girl and their next generation.
10.____The man was selfish.
Ⅲ. Short Answer
1. What do “white elephants” symbol in this story?
2. How many questions were asked referring to drinking by the girl? What do these
questions suggest? Why do so many questions refer to drinking by the girl?
3. The girl does a lot of "hill-watching" in this story. What do they suggest
thematically and psychologically?
4. What does the shifting imagery of the curtain mean? It reflect what kind of state
of mind?
5. What’s the relationship between them?
IV. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and
debate upon the following topics
1. love VS. marriage
A: People in love must have a family and children. Marriage will solid their love.
B: Marriage is the tomb of love. It is a burden of people. It needs responsibility.
2. enjoyment VS. hard work
A. Young people should work hard and build career.
B. Life is so short and people should enjoy happiness when they are young.
3. material life VS. mental life
A. People should live simple material and run after mental fulfillment and sense of
high spirits.
B. People should get material enjoyment. Life is only a process that is full of various
naterials.
V. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and
targeting the specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. Talk about your objects of life.
2. Do you think that marriage is a burden for people?
Reading Two
Text
Modern Art Movements
With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 19th
century, new art styles and movements appeared and disappeared at an increasingly
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fast pace - thus reflecting the growing rate of changes in our society. Here is a short
overview on important modern art movements from Impressionism to Op Art.
Impressionism
The history of modern art started with Impressionism. It all began in Paris as a
reaction to a very formal and rigid style of painting - done inside studios and set by
traditional institutions like the Academie des Beaux-Artsⅰ in Paris. The exhibition of
Edouard Manet’s famous painting, Dejeuner sur l’herbeⅱ, in 1863 in the Salon des
Refuses ⅲ (organized by those painter who were rejected by the Academie des
Beaux-Arts), caused a scandal. It can be considered as the beginning of
Impressionism.
The Impressionist painters preferred to paint outside and studied the effect of
light on objects. Their preferred subjects were landscapes and scenes from daily life.
The best known names in Impressionist painting are Edouard Manet, Claude Monet,
Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro and Pierre Auguste Renoir in France and Alfred Sisley
in England.
Fauvism
The word Fauvism comes from the French word fauve, which means “wild
animals”. And indeeed - this new modern art style was a bit wild - with strong and
vivid colors. Paul Gauguin and the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh had carried
Impressionism to its limits by using expressive colors. Fauvism went one step further
in using simplified designs in combination with an “orgy of pure colors” as it was
characterized by their critics. The first exhibition by Fauvist artists took place in 1905.
The best-known fauve artists are Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminch,
Kees van Dongen and Raoul Dufy.
Expressionism
Expressionism, in simplified terms, was some kind of a German modern art
version of Fauvism. It is an artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not
objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and
events arouse in him. The artist accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration,
primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic
application of formal elements. In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main
currents of art in the later 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly
subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of
modern artists and art movements.
The expressionist movement was organized in two groups of German painters.
One was called Die Bruecke, literally meaning The Bridge. The group was located in
Dresden with the artists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Emil Nolde, Max
Pechstein, Otto Mueller and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. After World War I, this group
was followed by another group of artists, calling themselves Dresdner Sezession.
The second Expressionist gathering of artists was centered in Munich. The group
is known by the name Der Blaue Reiter, meaning The Blue Rider. The famous names
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are Franz Marc, August Macke, Gabriele Münter, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and
Alexei Yavlensky.
Art Nouveau Movement
Art Nouveau is French and means New Art. It is characterized by its highly
decorative style and by the dedication to natural forms. Art Nouveau was popular
from about 1880 to 1910 and was an International art movement. The Germans called
it Jugendstil, the Italians Liberty, the Austrians Sezessionsstil and the Spanish Arte
joven. Art Nouveau was not restricted to painting or printmaking. It covered all forms
of art - architecture, furniture, jewelry, glass and illustration.
Fine examples of Art Nouveau are the subway entrances in Paris, the glass works
of Emille Galle and Louis Comfort Tiffany in the US or the posters by Alphonse
Mucha. A famous painter is Gustav Klimt. Art Nouveau did not survive World War I,
maybe because of the high prices for Art Nouveau objects. With the philosophical
roots in high quality handicraft, Art Nouveau was nothing for mass production.
Art Deco Movement
Art Deco was primarily a design style, popular in the 1920s and 1930s. In
simplified terms, the Art Deco movement can be considered as the follow-up style on
Art Nouveau - more simplified and closer to mass production. The Art Deco
movement was dominant in fashion, furniture, jewelry, textiles, architecture,
commercial printmaking and interior decoration. The best known name is Rene
Lalique, a jeweler and glassmaker. The Chrysler building in New York (1930) is an
example of Art Deco style in architecture.
Cubism
Cubism, another modern art movement, was primarily restricted to painting and
sculpture. Nevertheless it had a major influence on the development of modern art.
Cubism was initiated by the Spaniard Pablo Picasso and the Frenchman Georges
Braques in Paris before World War I. Paul Cezanne, usually categorized as a
Post-Impressionist, can be considered as their predecessor.
Cubism had strong roots in African tribal art. In cubism, geometrical forms and
fragmentations are favored. Everything is reduced to cubes and other geometrical
forms. Often several aspects of one subject are shown simultaneously. As famous
artists besides Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques, Robert Delaunay, Marcel
Duchamp, Juan Gris and Lyonel Feininger are to be mentioned. Cubism paved the
way for abstract art.
Surrealism
Surrealism is another of the many modern art movements in the 20th century. Its
philosophical “father” was Andre Breton, a French poet and writer who published the
Surrealist guidelines, called Manifesto in 1924 in Paris. Surrealism emphasizes the
unconscious, the importance of dreams, the psychological aspect in arts. Surrealism
became an important movement in the fine arts, literature and in films (by the
Spaniard Bunuel for instance).
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For the fine arts, the best-known names are Salvador Dali, the Italian Giorgio de
Chirico with his strange and eerie town views, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Joan
Miro, Yves Tanguy, Rene Margritte and the Russian Marc Chagall.
Abstract Art
Russian-born painter Wassily Kandinsky is said to be the father of abstract art. If
you should ever come to Munich, you should not miss a visit of the Lenbachhaus
Museum. It has many Wassily Kandinsky paintings on display and you can recognize
very well how his style developed by and by to semi-abstract and then to abstract
painting. Piet Mondrian, a Dutch painter, is another dominant character in establishing
abstract painting. Mondrian had experienced cubism in Paris. During World War II
many leading artists emigrated to the US, for instance Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp
and Marc Chagall. Thus New York became the new center for modern art and abstract
painting.
Pop Art Movement
The word Pop Art is an abbreviation for Popular Art. The name says it all. The
Pop Art movement wanted to bring art back into the daily life of people. It was a
reaction against abstract painting, which pop artists considered as too sophisticated
and elite. Pop artists’ favorite images were objects from everyday’s life like soup cans
for Andy Warhol or comics for Roy Lichtenstein.
Typical for the attitude of the Pop Art movement was Andy Warhol’s use of
serigraphy, a photo-realistic, mass-production technique of printmaking. Pop Art
intruded into the media and advertising. The differences between The fine arts and
commercial arts were voluntarily torn down. An excellent example are the designs of
music album covers in the sixties. The undoubted cult figure of Pop Art was Andy
Warhol (1928-1987). Other great names are Jaspar Johns, Robert Rauschenberg,
David Hockney, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Georg Segal, Wayne or James
Rosenquist. The Pop Art movement was mainly an American and British art
movement.
Op Art Movement
After Pop Art it was Op Art, a short form for Optical Art. Op Art expressed itself
with reduced geometrical forms - sometimes in black and white contrasts and
sometimes with very brilliant colors. The most prominent artist is Hungarian-born
Vasarely. In the seventies Op Art even made its way into fashion design. But Op Art
never succeeded in becoming a really popular mass-movement of modern art like Pop
Art.
(TIME ALLOWING: 15 MINUTES)
(from http://www.artelino.com/articles/modern_art_periods.asp)
Notes:
1. Dejeuner sur l’herbe ：To lunch on grass《草地上的午餐》
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2. Academie des Beaux-Arts： Academy of the Art schools
3. Salon des Refuses ：《落选者沙龙》
Exercises
I. Comprehension of the text: match the representatives in Column 1 with the
arts movementls in Column 2
Column 1
column 2
(A) Erich Heckel
1. Expressionism
(B) Rene Lalique
2. Pop Art Movement
(C) Andre Derain
3. Surrealism
(D) Edouard Manet
4. Cubism
(E) Juan Gris
5. Art Deco Movement
(F) Marcel Duchamp
6. Art Nouveau Movement
(G) Piet Mondrian
7. Impressionism
(H) Georg Segal
8. Fauvism
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and
targeting the specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. Can you see the impact of arts movements on our daily life such as
architecture, house fitment and fashion etc.?
2. What’s the relationship between art and literature?
Reading Three
Passage Ⅰ
Supposed Time: 5:00
Time You Used:
___
Art and Truth
By Harold Pinter
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“There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor
between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it
can be both true and false.”
I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the
exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I
cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?
Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is
compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task.
More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just
glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without
realizing that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing
as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each
other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other,
are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your
hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.
I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever
sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said.
That is what they did.
Most of the plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image. The given word
is often shortly followed by the image. I shall give two examples of two lines which
came right out of the blue into my head, followed by an image, followed by me.
The plays are The Homecoming and Old Times. The first line of The
Homecoming is “What have you done with the scissors?” The first line of Old Times
is “Dark.”
In each case I had no further information.
In the first case someone was obviously looking for a pair of scissors and was
demanding their whereabouts of someone else he suspected had probably stolen them.
But I somehow knew that the person addressed didn’t give a damn about the scissors
or about the questioner either, for that matter.
“Dark” I took to be a description of someone's hair, the hair of a woman, and
was the answer to a question. In each case I found myself compelled to pursue the
matter. This happened visually, a very slow fade, through shadow into light.
“Dark.” A large window. Evening sky. A man, A (later to become Deeley), and a
woman, B (later to become Kate), sitting with drinks. “Fat or thin?” the man asks.
Who are they talking about? But I then see, standing at the window, a woman, C (later
to become Anna), in another condition of light, her back to them, her hair dark.
So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a
trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you, the author, at any time.
(537 words)
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Multiple choice (Get the best choice from the given options)
1. Which of the following is right about the true and the false?
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A. There is no distinction between the true and the false. True is false and false is
true.
B. The true is forever the opposite of the false.
C. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.
D. A writer should make the readers clear what is truth and reality.
2. Truth in drama _____.
A. is easy for readers to get
B. is impossible in real life
C. is hidden between the lines and needs readers to search
D. is only one event, one word or even one glance of a person.
3. “What have you done with the scissors?” ________ .
A. is the first line of The Homecoming
B. is the first line of Old Times
C. tells the audience that the scissors were stole by someone
D. shows that this drama is about the scissors
4. The first line of Old Times “Dark.”______ .
A. tells us that the story happened at night
B. shows that the main character in this drama was in bad mood
C. is about a woman’s hair
D. is about a briefcase
5. The two examples given by the author are used to _____.
A. to explain that most of the plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image.
B. to show a new writing technique
C. to attach great importance of concision
D. to draw the readers attention
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
decide whether the following sentences are true or false. Put a T for true and F
for false.
6. _____ A citizen must know what is true and what is false.
7. ______ There is only one truth in one drama.
8. ______ It is a good drama if it’s first sentence is elusive.
9. ______ Many truths can be searched in a drama. They can’t be got immediately by
readers.
10.______A good author must be good at using simple language to stir reader’s
imagination.
Passage Ⅱ
Supposed Time: 5:00
Time You Used:
___
William Faulkner on accepting the Nobel Prize
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I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work -- life's work
in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but
to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before.
So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the
money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I
would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle
from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to
the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day
stand where I am standing.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by
now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only
the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman
writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself
which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth
the agony and the sweat.
He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is
to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his
workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths
lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed -- love and honor and pity and
pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He
writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of
victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve
on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.
Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched
the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is
immortal simply because he will endure that when the last ding-dong of doom has
clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tireless in the last red and
dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound; that of his puny
inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not
merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures
has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion
and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these
things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of
the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice
which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record
of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
(558 words)
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Multiple choice (Get the best choice from the given options)
1. According to William Faulkner he was awarded for___.
A. his life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit
B. his hard work of writing
C. his important role in modern literature
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D. his creative writing methods
2. How will Faulkner deal with the money?
A. cherish it because it is a great honor
B. put into the bank
C. devote to those who need it
D. didn’t mention
3. What’s the problem of the young man or woman writing today?
A. They are too young to write deep.
B. They pay little attention to formal writing.
C. They have forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself.
D. They hate creation and revolution
4. We can see that William Faulkner believes that____.
A. the basest of all things is to be lazy
B. love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice are the universal
truths
C. there is an end of everything including men
D. a writer should work hard to write more books
5. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about______.
A. society
B. the nature
C. the relationship between men and women
D. a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning) decide whether the
following sentences are true or false. Put a T for true and F for false.
6. _____ William Faulkner was proud to get the Nobel Prize.
7. ______ Faulkner talked about how he worked out his famous novels.
8. ______ Faulkner is a humanist because he researches human nature.
9. ______ Faulkner believes that human is immortal.
10.______A writer should show his workshop for the old verities and truths.
UNIT 9 Social Values and Norms
Reading One
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. Do you know something about I.Q.?
2. Do you want to know how to become smarter?
3. Do you think television or video games can make you smarter?
Twenty years ago, a political philosopher named James Flynn uncovered a curious fact.
Americans—at least, as measured by I.Q. tests—were getting smarter. This fact had been
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obscured for years, because the people who give I.Q. tests continually recalibrate the scoring
system to keep the average at 100. But if you took out the recalibration, Flynn found, I.Q. scores
showed a steady upward trajectory, rising by about three points per decade, which means that a
person whose I.Q. placed him in the top ten per cent of the American population in 1920 would
today fall in the bottom third. Some of that effect, no doubt, is a simple by-product of economic
progress: in the surge of prosperity during the middle part of the last century, people in the West
became better fed, better educated, and more familiar with things like I.Q. tests. But, even as that
wave of change has subsided, test scores have continued to rise—not just in America but all over
the developed world. What’s more, the increases have not been confined to children who go to
enriched day-care centers and private schools. The middle part of the curve—the people who have
supposedly been suffering from a deteriorating public-school system and a steady diet of
lowest-common-denominator television and mindless pop music—has increased just as much.
What on earth is happening? In the wonderfully entertaining “Everything Bad Is Good for You”
(Riverhead; $23.95), Steven Johnson proposes that what is making us smarter is precisely what we
thought was making us dumber: popular culture.
Johnson is the former editor of the online magazine Feed and the author of a number of books
on science and technology. There is a pleasing eclecticism to his thinking. He is as happy
analyzing “Finding Nemo” as he is dissecting the intricacies of a piece of software, and he’s
perfectly capable of using Nietzsche’s notion of eternal recurrence to discuss the new creative
rules of television shows. Johnson wants to understand popular culture—not in the postmodern,
academic sense of wondering what “The Dukes of Hazzard” tells us about Southern male
alienation but in the very practical sense of wondering what watching something like “The Dukes
of Hazzard” does to the way our minds work.
As Johnson points out, television is very different now from what it was thirty years ago. It’s
harder. A typical episode of “Starsky and Hutch,” in the nineteen-seventies, followed an
essentially linear path: two characters, engaged in a single story line, moving toward a decisive
conclusion. To watch an episode of “Dallas” today is to be stunned by its glacial pace—by the
arduous attempts to establish social relationships, by the excruciating simplicity of the plotline, by
how obvious it was. A single episode of “The Sopranos,” by contrast, might follow five narrative
threads, involving a dozen characters who weave in and out of the plot. Modern television also
requires the viewer to do a lot of what Johnson calls “filling in,” as in a “Seinfeld” episode that
subtly parodies the Kennedy assassination conspiracists, or a typical “Simpsons” episode, which
may contain numerous allusions to politics or cinema or pop culture. The extraordinary amount of
money now being made in the television aftermarket—DVD sales and syndication—means that
the creators of television shows now have an incentive to make programming that can sustain two
or three or four viewings. Even reality shows like “Survivor,” Johnson argues, engage the viewer
in a way that television rarely has in the past:
When we watch these shows, the part of our brain that monitors the emotional lives of the
people around us—the part that tracks subtle shifts in intonation and gesture and facial
expression—scrutinizes the action on the screen, looking for clues. . . . The phrase
“Monday-morning quarterbacking” was coined to describe the engaged feeling spectators have in
relation to games as opposed to stories. We absorb stories, but we second-guess games. Reality
programming has brought that second-guessing to prime time, only the game in question revolves
around social dexterity rather than the physical kind.
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How can the greater cognitive demands that television makes on us now, he wonders, not
matter?
Johnson develops the same argument about video games. Most of the people who denounce
video games, he says, haven’t actually played them—at least, not recently. Twenty years ago,
games like Tetris or Pac-Man were simple exercises in motor coordination and pattern recognition.
Today’s games belong to another realm. Johnson points out that one of the “walk-throughs” for
“Grand Theft Auto III”—that is, the informal guides that break down the games and help players
navigate their complexities—is fifty-three thousand words long, about the length of his book. The
contemporary video game involves a fully realized imaginary world, dense with detail and levels
of complexity.
Indeed, video games are not games in the sense of those pastimes—like Monopoly or gin
rummy or chess—which most of us grew up with. They don’t have a set of unambiguous rules that
have to be learned and then followed during the course of play. This is why many of us find
modern video games baffling: we’re not used to being in a situation where we have to figure out
what to do. We think we only have to learn how to press the buttons faster. But these games
withhold critical information from the player. Players have to explore and sort through
hypotheses in order to make sense of the game’s environment, which is why a modern video game
can take forty hours to complete. Far from being engines of instant gratification, as they are often
described, video games are actually, Johnson writes, “all about delayed gratification—sometimes
so long delayed that you wonder if the gratification is ever going to show.”
At the same time, players are required to manage a dizzying array of information and options.
The game presents the player with a series of puzzles, and you can’t succeed at the game simply
by solving the puzzles one at a time. You have to craft a longer-term strategy, in order to juggle
and coordinate competing interests. In denigrating the video game, Johnson argues, we have
confused it with other phenomena in teen-age life, like multitasking—simultaneously e-mailing
and listening to music and talking on the telephone and surfing the Internet. Playing a video game
is, in fact, an exercise in “constructing the proper hierarchy of tasks and moving through the tasks
in the correct sequence,” he writes. “It’s about finding order and meaning in the world, and
making decisions that help create that order.”
It doesn’t seem right, of course, that watching “24” or playing a video game could be as
important cognitively as reading a book. Isn’t the extraordinary success of the “Harry Potter”
novels better news for the culture than the equivalent success of “Grand Theft Auto III”?
Johnson’s response is to imagine what cultural critics might have said had video games been
invented hundreds of years ago, and only recently had something called the book been marketed
aggressively to children:
Reading books chronically understimulates the senses. Unlike the longstanding tradition of
gameplaying—which engages the child in a vivid, three-dimensional world filled with moving
images and musical sound-scapes, navigated and controlled with complex muscular
movements—books are simply a barren string of words on the page. . . .
Books are also tragically isolating. While games have for many years engaged the young in
complex social relationships with their peers, building and exploring worlds together, books force
the child to sequester him or her in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children. . . .
But perhaps the most dangerous property of these books is the fact that they follow a fixed linear
path. You can’t control their narratives in any fashion—you simply sit back and have the story
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dictated to you. . . . This risk instilling a general passivity in our children, making them feel as
though they’re powerless to change their circumstances. Reading is not an active, participatory
process; it’s a submissive one.
He’s joking, of course, but only in part. The point is that books and video games represent two
very different kinds of learning. When you read a biology textbook, the content of what you read
is what matters. Reading is a form of explicit learning. When you play a video game, the value is
in how it makes you think. Video games are an example of collateral learning, which is no less
important.
Being “smart” involves facility in both kinds of thinking—the kind of fluid problem solving
that matters in things like video games and I.Q. tests, but also the kind of crystallized knowledge
that comes from explicit learning. If Johnson’s book has a flaw, it is that he sometimes speaks of
our culture being “smarter” when he’s really referring just to that fluid problem-solving facility.
When it comes to the other kind of intelligence, it is not clear at all what kind of progress we are
making, as anyone who has read, say, the Gettysburg Address alongside any Presidential speech
from the past twenty years can attest. The real question is what the right balance of these two
forms of intelligence might look like. “Everything Bad Is Good for You” doesn’t answer that
question. But Johnson does something nearly as important, which is to remind us that we
shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that explicit learning is the only kind of learning that
matters.
（from www.newyorker.com）
Notes:
1. IQ: intelligence quotient: a measure of human intelligence, with 100 representing the average.
Exercises:
I. Choose the best answer to each question. Answer all the questions following each passage
on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.
1. Which of the following cannot be concluded from the passage according to the passage?
A. Playing a video game and reading a book is equally important to enable people to become
smarter.
B. Popular culture is making us smarter.
C. Both television and video games are very different now from what they were before.
D. Reading is not an active, participatory process; while video gaming engages the child in a
vivid, three-dimensional world filled with moving images and musical sound-scapes.
2. The expression “baffling” in the sentence “This is why many of us find modern video games
baffling” can be paraphrased as
.
A. interesting
B. complex
C. confusing
D. useful
3. What does the author mean by saying “Modern television also requires the viewer to do a lot
of what Johnson calls “filling in.”？
A. Modern television calls for more participation from the viewer.
B. Modern television needs more attention of the viewer.
C. Modern television is more expensive than before.
D. Modern television requires more knowledge store.
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“We absorb stories, but we second-guess games. Reality programming has brought that
second-guessing to prime time” means
.
A. Reality programming is more interesting than stories.
B. Reality programming has more suspense than stories so it is more fascinating.
C. People just accept the story passively while they can “participate” actively
when viewing the reality programme.
D. Stories are another kind of games which are different than reality programming.
5. What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. People are smarter than before.
B. Popular culture contributes to the improvement of humankind’s intelligence.
C. Television and video games are better than what we thought.
D. Both video games and reading are two ways to practice men’s thinking to become smarter,
We should achieve the balance between them.
4.
II. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
obscure
subside sort through
incentive flaw
parody
denigrate fluid
confuse unambiguous
1. The report
the fact that taxes have actually risen.
2. The high demand for housing in the area is expected to
.
3. The trial was a
of justice.
4. I’m always
John with Paul-which one is John?
5. The promise of a bonus acted as an
to greater effort.
6. From his letter we can conclude his attitude is
.
7. I’ve been
these old papers to see what can be thrown away.
8. What he said
our achievements.
9. We’ve only just begun to plan the work, and our ideas on the subject are still
10. The
in this stamp makes it less valuable.
.
III. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics
1. Popular culture is making us smarter VS Popular culture is making us dumper
A: pleasure / the window on the world/ exercise thinking
B: be harmful to the young/violence/indulging in
2. Intelligence VS Industry
A: endowed/ high efficiency/ strength
B: decisive factor/ make up “inborn weakness”
3. IQ VS EQ
A: more important/ success/ academic performance
B.: a skill not to be ignored any more/ all-round ability/key to success as a member of society
IV. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. The popular culture
2. IQ and EQ
3. Does IQ play an important role in one’s success?
Reading Two
105
China's population and family planning minister on Friday said China will work to limit its
mainland population below 1.37 billion by 2010.Zhang Weiqing, minister in charge of the
National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), said that China has been
working to build a new mechanism featuring management according to law, self-governance of
villagers or residents, quality services, policy impetus and comprehensive management as an
overall approach towards the population issue during the past few years. On a workshop held in
Qingdao of the eastern China's Shandong province, Zhang stressed that China will keep its family
planning policy in place to maintain a low birth level.
To some extent, China's population growth has been brought under control in the past 30 years,
with a steady growth of 100 million people every seven years, postponing China's 1.3-billion
Population Day by four years to fall on early this year. According to data released by NPFPC,
given China failed to implement the family planning policy, China's population would be nearly
400 million more than the present figure.
Zhang said China should continue to improve its population legal system in an effort to work
out laws and regulations on managing unbalanced sex ratio at birth, reducing birth defect rate,
strengthening management of population control medicines and family planning services to
eliminate practices that hurt people's legal rights and interests. He also stressed that work should
be done to study population policies focusing on all-round development of humans and implement
interest-oriented policies to award and assist families practicing family planning.
Starting from 2004, China began to implement a pilot project of "rewarding some rural
households practicing family planning." Last year, more than 310,000 farmers in 10 cities of five
provinces where the pilot project was implemented received around 200 million yuan (24 million
dollars) in cash reward for having only one child or two daughters in their families.
The Sept. 16-18 meeting will study progresses and experience during the Tenth Five-Year Plan
period from 2001 to 2005 on family planning reform and new mechanism construction and put
forward the goal that most regions in the country should set up such a mechanism by 2010 as a
way to properly handle the population issue in a comprehensive way.
The United States urged the U.N. population agency Wednesday to end its family planning
program in China until Beijing stops its one-child policy. President Bush's administration has
barred all U.S. funding for the U.N. Population Fund for the last three years, charging that its
support for China's population planning programs allows Beijing to implement single child
policies. The fund, known as UNFPA, has repeatedly called the allegations baseless, and uses
money from other sources for its program in China. It has cited a U.S. government report that
found no evidence that it "knowingly supported or participated in ... coercive abortion or
involuntary sterilization" in China.
But Kelly Ryan, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and
Migration, told UNFPA's executive board Wednesday that China's population and family planning
law adopted in 2001 and its one-child policies "demonstrate that the birth limitation program
106
clearly has coercive elements in law and in practice." "If UNFPA would stop giving the `seal of
approval,' I think we could move the ball along quite a bit more," Ryan said in an interview.
The Bush administration wants China's provinces to abolish regulations that, among other
things, punish unplanned births, require couples to use contraception and require pregnancies be
terminated if prenatal exams show the fetus to be severely deformed, Ryan said. She also argued
that China's policies violate the platform adopted at the 1994 U.N. population conference in Cairo
which says parents have the right to decide the size and spacing of their families.
China's deputy U.N. ambassador Zhang Yishan countered that China's 1.3 billion people
account for one-fifth of the world's population, and its per capita income is only 2.8 percent of the
United States' so family planning is essential for development. Without its policy, he said, China's
population over the last 30 years would have grown by more than 300 million additional people,
"which equals the entire U.S. population," he said.
Zhang said China was adhering to the 1994 U.N. platform which gives countries the right to set
their own population policy. He stressed that the China's population and family planning law
stipulates that family planning workers "shall adopt no coercive measures in whatever form." As
a result of China's 26-year cooperation with UNFPA, he said, China has learned "advanced
international concepts on population and development and management methods" which have
raised the level of reproductive health and family planning services.
In 32 counties where pilot programs were conducted, for example, maternal mortality dropped
significantly and AIDS awareness increased, he said. "A grievance mechanism has been
established to protect people's legitimate rights and interests, including hot lines at the national,
provincial and pilot county levels," Zhang said. The UNFPA board meeting was closed but China
and the United States provided their speeches. UNFPA has proposed spending $27 million in
China from 2006-2010 — less than 3 percent of what the Chinese put into population programs,
said Sultan Aziz, head of UNFPA's Asia-Pacific bureau. He said UNFPA programs in China have
helped give people "increased choices, more information and they can determine the spacing of
the births."
SHANGHAI: China's long-standing family planning policy has helped economic growth over
the last three decades but tough hurdles remain in its long term development. China's family
planning helped cut down the growth of China's population by about 300 million, almost
one-fourth of the current 1.3 billion, said Zhang Weiqing, the minister of the National Population
and Family Planning Commission. The policy has also help reduce the pressure on various fronts
such as social and economic development, resources and the environment. "Since the 1990s,
China's population has been maintaining a low birth rate, low mortality and low growth rate," said
Zhang. That marks a change "from its previous high birth rate, low mortality and high growth
rate." "The effective family planning programme has brought China stable economic growth of
about 9 per cent in recent years."
107
Still, China has a huge population base, which means the country's population will grow by
about 10 million every year over the next two decades to reach a peak of 1.46 billion by the mid
2030s. That peak will bring with it great employment and social welfare challenges.
China's working age population (people aged between 15 and 64) will max out at about 940
million in 2020, estimates suggest, making up about 65 per cent of the population. By the middle
of the century, nearly one-fourth of China's total population will be 65 years of age or older. The
unsound population structure will put serious pressure on the economy, society, resources and
environment.
"Compared with other countries, our overall population quality is still low," said Zhang. Only
4.63 per cent of the population aged between 25 to 64 hold a college degree or above, less than
one-fourth the number in Europe. According to a 2000 census there were still 85.07 million
illiterate and half-literate people, aged above 15, in the country. About 120 million people, are
either disabled or suffer from an endemic disease, creating a significant pool of unemployable
people.
Since it first started its opening-up policy in the 1970s, China has reduced its poor population
from 250 million to 30 million, says Minister Zhang. However, the figure has risen again in recent
years due to the poor living conditions and environment, diseases and natural disasters. And more
urban poverty has been observed.
In 2003, there were about 23 million city dwellers living on subsistence allowances,
constituting 4.5 of all urban population. In the 2002 census, 144 million floating people were
counted. Nearly 80 per cent of them had migrated from the countryside to the cities. These
migrants contributed to cities economic and social development but brought with them some
burdens as well. Take Shanghai, for example. The city has 1.27 per cent of the country's
population but takes up only 0.06 per cent of China's land mass. According to a recent study,
Shanghai can support a maximum population of 28 million. By 2020, the metropolis is expected to
house 24 million. "To solve those problems, we must insist on our current population policy," said
Zhang.
Notes:
1. UNFPA: United Nation’s Population Found 联合国人口基金
2. NPFPC：National Population and Family Planning Commission 国家人口和计划生育委员
会
(From www.bjreview.com)
Exercises:
I. Answer the following questions briefly according to the passage.
1. What is the “family planning” in China?
2. Why does China adopt the policy of “family planning”?
3. Why did the United States urge the U.N. population agency to end its family planning program
in China until Beijing stops its one-child policy?
4. How about the China’s population structure?
5. What does the sentence “If UNFPA would stop giving the `seal of approval,' I think we could
move the ball along quite a bit more," mean said by Ryan in an interview.
108
II. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
coercive
abolish
counter
implement
hurdle
illiterate to some extent bar stipulate work out
1. After the bombing, the whole area was
to the public.
2. They implement this policy by using
measures.
3. Slavery was
in the US in the 19th century.
4. These new measures are aimed at
the rise in violent crime.
5. I
green, so why have you painted it red?
6. He overcame many
to become a lawyer.
7. You must be
if you’ve never heard of Marx.
8. I’ve drawn up the main outlines, and we’ll
the details later.
9. The committee’s suggestions will be
immediately.
10. I agree with you
.
III. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. Social development and Population growth
2. Sustainable Development
3. Environment Protection and population growth
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time:
Time You Used:
___
From the Chrysler Corporation1 to the Central Intelligence Agency, cultural diversity programs
are flourishing in American organizations today. Firms can no longer safely assume that every
employee walking in the door has similar beliefs or expectations. Whereas North American white
males may believe in challenging authority, Asians tend to respect and defer to it. In Hispanic
cultures, people often bring music, food, and family members to work, a custom that U.S.
businesses have traditionally not allowed. A job applicant who won't make eye contact during an
interview may be rejected for being unapproachable, when according to her culture, she was just
being polite.
As a larger number of women, minorities, and immigrants enter the U.S. work force, the
workplace is growing more diverse. It is estimated that by 2005 women will make up about 48
percent of the U.S. work force, and African Americans and Hispanics will each account for about
11 percent; by the year 2050, minorities will make up over 50 percent of the American population.
Cultural diversity refers to the differences among people in a work force due to race, ethnicity,
and gender. Increasing cultural diversity is forcing managers to learn to supervise and motivate
people with a broader range of values systems. According to a recent survey by the American
Management Association, half of all U. S. employers have established some kind of formal
initiative to promote and manage cultural diversity. Although demographics2 isn't the only reason
for the growth of these programs, it is a compelling one. An increasing number of organizations
have come to believe that diversity, like quality and customer service, is a competitive edge. A
more diverse work force provides a wider range of ideas and perspectives and fosters creativity
and innovation.
Avenues for encouraging diversity include recruiting at historically black colleges and
109
universities, training and development, mentoring, 3 and revamped promotion review policies. To
get out the message about their commitment to diversity, many organizations establish diversity
councils made up of employees, managers, and executives. Although many Fortune 500
companies are making diversity part of their strategic planning process, some programs stand out
from the crowd.
At Texas Instruments, strategies for enhancing diversity include an aggressive recruiting plan,
diversity training, mentoring, and an incentive compensation program that rewards managers for
fostering diversity. Each business unit has a diversity manager who implements these strategies
and works closely with the company's Diversity Network. The network provides a forum of
employees to share ideas, solicit support, and build coalitions. Convinced that strengthening
diversity is a business imperative, Du Pont has established several programs to achieve that goal.
In addition to training workshops and mentoring, Du Pont has established over 100 multicultural
networks through which employees share work and life experiences and strive to help women and
minorities reach higher levels of leadership and responsibility within the organization. Over half
of Du Pont's new hires for professional and managerial positions are minorities and women.
Disney World's director of diversity wants theme park guests to see themselves reflected in the
diversity of Disney's employees. Working to attract diverse employees, Disney hopes to convince
them that the organization understands, respects, and values who they are. By holding a variety of
diversity celebrations every year—including Dr. Martin Luther King's4 Birthday, Asian-Pacific
Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Disability Awareness Month, and Native American
Heritage Month—Disney opens the door to this kind of understanding.
What do we learn from strong, successful diversity program such as these, as well as similar
programs at Microsoft, Xerox, Procter & Gamble and Digital Equipment Corporation? First, they
can go a long way toward eliminating prejudice in the workplace and removing barriers to
advancement. Second, to be more than just the latest corporate buzzword, diversity programs
require commitment from the top and a culture that supports an inclusive environment.
(Words: 636)
(From《英语学习》2002.2 )
Notes:
1. Chrysler Corporation: 美国三大汽车制造公司之一，1999 年与德国 Daimler-Benz 进行
强强联合成为汽车制造业的巨无霸 Daimler-Chrysler
2. demographics: 人口统计信息。
3. Martin Luther King:(1929-1968)，美国浸礼会黑人牧师、非暴力民权运动领袖，促使国会
通过民权法案[1964]，获 1964 年诺贝尔和平奖，后遇刺身死。其生前那段激昂的演说“I have
a dream" 至今仍广为传诵。
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. Why have so many companies established the formal initiative to promote and manage
cultural diversity?
A. to protect different culture
B. to encourage the employee to work more hardly
C. to follow the suit
D. to fosters creativity and innovation of a company
110
2. Which of the following is not the avenues for encouraging diversity according to the passage?
A. Regulating the system to assess and promote
B. Enlisting more people from colleges and universities
C. Training and development
D. Arrange the experienced adviser to train the unexperienced.
3. Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?
A. Microsoft,
B. Du Pont
C. Xerox
D. General
4. The word “recruit”: in the sentence “Avenues for encouraging diversity include recruiting at
historically black colleges and universities” most probably means
A. receive
B. enlist
C. readjust
D. arrange
Passage 2
Supposed Time:
Time You Used:
___
Premier Zhu Rongji on Human Rights
Of the foreign guests the Chinese leaders meet with, very few fail to mention the question of
human rights. It seems that if they didn't bring up the issue, they would find it difficult to convince
people at home that their trip was a success. After answering this question so many times, I am
really very reluctant to talk about it any more today. I would just like to mention one thing. At my
meeting with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during her recent visit to China, I said to
her, "I took part in the movement for the protection of human rights much earlier than you did."
"Did you?" she said, indicating that she did not quite agree with me. "Of course!" I said. "I'm ten
years older than you are. When I was risking my life to oppose the Kuomintang regime and take
part in the movement for democracy, freedom and human rights, you were still in middle school."
I also said that our viewpoints on human rights were actually quite similar. I had read Rousseau' s
The Social Contract, Emile, and Confessions while I was in middle school. So the concept that all
men are created equal and that human rights are endowed by heaven is not something new to me.
We were influenced by the May 4th Movement in China, which was a movement for democracy
and science. Later, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, we fought persistently
against dictatorship and against human rights violations by the reactionary regime. So how could
we now turn around and suppress human rights? In fact, only we know how to best protect human
rights in China.
Of course we are not, and could not be, perfect with regard to human rights, because China has
a history of several thousand years of feudalism. China also experienced a semi-feudal and
semi-colonial rule. It is only 50 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. How
could we possibly solve all the past problems within just 50 years? But we are willing to listen to
complaints and criticism from all sides, especially from the ordinary Chinese people. We are
111
reading letters from them every day and we are doing our best to satisfy their wishes and meet
their needs. We are also willing to listen to the advice and comments of our friends abroad. Thus
we have many channels for dialogue. For instance, we have dialogue with the United States, the
European Union, Australia and so on. We are making progress every day in terms of human
rights.
The just concluded Second Plenary Session of the Ninth National People's Congress adopted
amendments to the Constitution, including amendments concerning rule of law and building a
socialist legal system. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is doing
legislative work every day. The State Council is drawing up administrative rules and regulations
every day. So we are striving to perfect the Chinese legal system and protect the human rights of
the Chinese people every day. And we will continue to do so.
Foreign friends are welcome to criticize us in our job, but don't be over-anxious. I am actually
more anxious than you are.
(Words: 548)
(From《英语学习》2002.6.)
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. Which of the following does not indicate that “we are striving to perfect the Chinese legal
system and protect the human rights of the Chinese people every day” according to the
speaker?
A. The State Council is formulating administrative rules and regulations
B. Amendments concerning rule of law and building a socialist legal system has been
adopted.
C. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is doing legislative work
every day.
D. The State Council is drawing up laws every day.
2. What does the sentence “convince people at home that their trip was a success” mean?
A. Tell their family members that they have a very fruitful trip.
B. Their family members will believe that they are very successful.
C. Make people of their country completely certain about their fruitful trip.
D. People of their country will firmly believe that they have a fruitful trip.
3. Which of the following is not mentioned in the article?
A. The Social Contract
B. Emancipation Proclamation
C. Emile
D. Confessions
Unit 10 Unity and Diversity
Reading One
Warming-up discussion:
1. What do you think about a diversified world?
112
2. The relation between UN and the U.S.
3. The gap between the Atlantic
Dream on America
The U.S. Model: For years, much of the world did aspire to the American way of
life. But today countries are finding more appealing systems in their own backyards.
Jan. 31 issue - Not long ago, the American dream was a global fantasy. Not only
Americans saw themselves as a beacon unto nations. So did much of the rest of the
world. East Europeans tuned into Radio Free Europe1. Chinese students erected a
replica of the Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen Square.
You had only to listen to George W. Bush's Inaugural Address last week (invoking
"freedom" and "liberty" 49 times) to appreciate just how deeply Americans still
believe in this founding myth. For many in the world, the president's rhetoric
confirmed their worst fears of an imperial America relentlessly pursuing its narrow
national interests. But the greater danger may be a delusional America—one that
believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the American Dream lives on, that
America remains a model for the world, one whose mission is to spread the word.
The gulf between how Americans view themselves and how the world views them
was summed up in a poll last week by the BBC. Fully 71 percent of Americans see the
United States as a source of good in the world. More than half view Bush's election as
positive for global security. Other studies report that 70 percent have faith in their
domestic institutions and nearly 80 percent believe "American ideas and customs"
should spread globally.
Foreigners take an entirely different view: 58 percent in the BBC poll see Bush's
re-election as a threat to world peace. Among America's traditional allies, the figure is
strikingly higher: 77 percent in Germany, 64 percent in Britain and 82 percent in
Turkey. Among the 1.3 billion members of the Islamic world, public support for the
United States is measured in single digits. Only Poland, the Philippines and India
viewed Bush's second Inaugural positively.
Tellingly, the anti-Bushism of the president's first term is giving way to a more
general anti-Americanism. A plurality of voters (the average is 70 percent) in each of
the 21 countries surveyed by the BBC oppose sending any troops to Iraq, including
those in most of the countries that have done so. Only one third, disproportionately in
the poorest and most dictatorial countries, would like to see American values spread
in their country. Says Doug Miller of GlobeScan, which conducted the BBC report:
"President Bush has further isolated America from the world. Unless the
administration changes its approach, it will continue to erode America's good name,
and hence its ability to effectively influence world affairs." Former Brazilian president
Jose Sarney expressed the sentiments of the 78 percent of his countrymen who see
America as a threat: "Now that Bush has been re-elected, all I can say is, God bless
the rest of the world."
The truth is that Americans are living in a dream world. Not only do others not
113
share America's self-regard, they no longer aspire to emulate the country's social and
economic achievements. The loss of faith in the American Dream goes beyond this
swaggering administration and its war in Iraq. A President Kerry would have had to
confront a similar disaffection, for it grows from the success of something America
holds dear: the spread of democracy, free markets and international
institutions—globalization, in a word.
Countries today have dozens of political, economic and social models to choose
from. Anti-Americanism is especially virulent in Europe and Latin America, where
countries have established their own distinctive ways—none made in America.
Futurologist Jeremy Rifkin, in his recent book "The European Dream," hails an
emerging European Union based on generous social welfare, cultural diversity and
respect for international law—a model that's caught on quickly across the former
nations of Eastern Europe and the Baltics. In Asia, the rise of autocratic capitalism in
China or Singapore is as much a "model" for development as America's
scandal-ridden corporate culture. "First we emulate," one Chinese businessman
recently told the board of one U.S. multinational, "then we overtake."
Many are tempted to write off the new anti-Americanism as a temporary
perturbation, or mere resentment. Blinded by its own myth, America has grown
incapable of recognizing its flaws. For there is much about the American Dream to
fault. If the rest of the world has lost faith in the American model—political,
economic, diplomatic—it's partly for the very good reason that it doesn't work as well
anymore.
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY:
Once upon a time, the U.S. Constitution was a revolutionary document, full of
epochal innovations—free elections, judicial review, checks and balances, federalism
and, perhaps most important, a Bill of Rights. In the 19th and 20th centuries, countries
around the world copied the document, not least in Latin America. So did Germany
and Japan after World War II. Today? When nations write a new constitution, as
dozens have in the past two decades, they seldom look to the American model.
When the soviets withdrew from Central Europe, U.S. constitutional experts rushed
in. They got a polite hearing, and were sent home. Jiri Pehe, adviser to former
president Vaclav Havel, recalls the Czechs' firm decision to adopt a European-style
parliamentary system with strict limits on campaigning. "For Europeans, money talks
too much in American democracy. It's very prone to certain kinds of corruption, or at
least influence from powerful lobbies," he says. "Europeans would not want to follow
that route." They also sought to limit the dominance of television, unlike in American
campaigns where, Pehe says, "TV debates and photogenic looks govern election
victories."
So it is elsewhere. After American planes and bombs freed the country, Kosovo
opted for a European constitution. Drafting a post-apartheid constitution, South Africa
rejected American-style federalism in favor of a German model, which leaders
deemed appropriate for the social-welfare state they hoped to construct. Now
fledgling African democracies look to South Africa as their inspiration, says John
Stremlau, a former U.S. State Department official who currently heads the
114
international relations department at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg:
"We can't rely on the Americans." The new democracies are looking for a constitution
written in modern times and reflecting their progressive concerns about racial and
social equality, he explains. "To borrow Lincoln's phrase, South Africa is now Africa's
'last great hope'."
Much in American law and society troubles the world these days. Nearly all
countries reject the United States' right to bear arms as a quirky and dangerous
anachronism. They abhor the death penalty and demand broader privacy protections.
Above all, once most foreign systems reach a reasonable level of affluence, they
follow the Europeans in treating the provision of adequate social welfare is a basic
right. All this, says Bruce Ackerman at Yale University Law School, contributes to the
growing sense that American law, once the world standard, has become "provincial."
The United States' refusal to apply the Geneva Conventions to certain terrorist
suspects, to ratify global human-rights treaties such as the innocuous Convention on
the Rights of the Child or to endorse the International Criminal Court (coupled with
the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo) only reinforces the conviction that
America's Constitution and legal system are out of step with the rest of the world.
……
The United States can take some satisfaction in this. After all, it is in large part the
success of the mid-century American Dream—spreading democracy, free markets,
social mobility and multilateral cooperation—that has made possible the diversity of
models we see today. This was enlightened statecraft of unparalleled generosity. But
where does it leave us? Americans still invoke democratic idealism. We heard it in
Bush's address, with his apocalyptic proclamation that "the survival of liberty in our
land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." But fewer and
fewer people have the patience to listen.
（TIME ALLOWED: 13 Minutes）
(From: Newsweek)
Notes:
1. Radio Free Europe or Radio Liberty is an international news and broadcast
organization serving Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia,
Russia, and the South Slavic countries.
Exercises:
Ⅰ. Comprehension of the text: choose the best answer for each of the questions
or unfinished statements.
1. What is the America’s founding myth according to the text?
A. freedom and liberty
B. success
C. globalization
D. democracy
2. According to the poll by the BBC, the Americans attitude toward the United States and Bush’s
re-election mainly is
A. positive
B. negative
C. neutral
D. indifferent
3. According to the poll by BBC, which country’s attitude towards the U.S. and Bush’s
re-election is most negative?
A. Germany
B. Britain
C. Turkey
D. China
115
4. Which is not Bush and Kerry’s common belief?
A. cultural diversity
B. the spread of democracy
C. free markets
D. international institutions—globalization
5. “Now that Bush has been re-elected, all I can say is, God bless the rest of the world”
means_____
A. God bless both America and other countries around the world.
B. Jose Sarney showed his worries on Bush’s re-election.
C. Jose Sarney was glad to see Bush’s re-election
D. Jose Sarney is a Christian.
6. Anti-Americanism is especially virulent in _____
A. Asia
B. Australia
C. Europe and Latin America
D. Africa
7. A very good reason for the world’s losing faith in the U.S. model is (that) _____
A. it doesn’t work as well anymore.
B. there are dozens of other models to choose
C. the Europe’s objection.
D. the process of globalization
8. Which country copied the American Constitution in the 19th and 20th centuries?
A. Germany
B. Czech
C. South Africa
D. Rosov
9. Which country is not the reason for the growing sense that American law, once the world
standard, has become “provincial”?
A. viewpoint on death penalty
B. measures of privacy protection
C. European perspective of adequate social welfare
D. Refusing to apply the Geneva Conventions
10. What is this passage mainly concerned about?
A. The success of the U.S. model
B. The formation of American dream
C. The declining influence of American dream.
D. The spread of American dream.
Ⅱ. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below.
Change the form where necessary.
dictatorial; erode; sentiment; emulate; endorse; virulent; hail; perturbation; affluence; ratify
1. After the earthquake, the whole city was in _____
2. What are your ____ on this issue?
3. They are the products of post-war _______
4. Rising price may _____ purchasing power
5. A well known actor _______ a hair cream in a TV commercial.
6. The plane was _____ leaflets on the city.
7. ______ stresses the inclination to exercise authority in the highhanded, peremptory manner 8.
China’s development depends on innovating, instead of ______.
9. The agreements between the two governments has been _____
10. He made a _____ attack on the press.
116
Ⅲ. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics
1. The America’s influence: declining vs. increasing
A. influence of multi-polarization / UN’s increasing influence/ America’s decline in politics,
economy, culture, etc./ the influence of globalization
B. America’s overall precedence/ mastering world economic artery/ powerful military guarantee/
other countries are not fully reinforced as the U.S.
2. Your opinion on America’s role as World Policeman: Support vs. oppose
A. remedy the deficiency of UN/ maintain world peace/ The would shouldn’t be in anarchy./
America’s position and power
B. symbol of hegemonism/ the unreliable double standard/ serve for her own interests/ threaten
world peace/
3. Will the U.S. change her belief on the founding myth: yes vs. no
A. world developing trend/ the world’s opposite to U.S.’ belief/ pressure from other countries/
America’s decline
B. American people’s founding myth/ for their own interests/ regarding the myth as their calling/
liberate the world
IV. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. Your comments on the U.S. Model
2. America’s founding myth in my eyes.
3. The historical contribution of the U.S. Constitution
Reading Two
Diversity in the Ivory Tower
BY ANNA ARKIN-GALLAGHER
The Yale Class of 1941 was an amazingly homogeneous group. Nearly all the
students were white and male—women were not admitted, and Yale neither attracted
nor admitted many minorities. Thirty percent were legacies—the sons of Yale alumni.
Ten percent came from one boarding school—Phillips Academy Andover. And the top
six boarding schools sent more students to Yale than all of America's public schools
combined.
The Class of 2001, which graduated in May, better reflected the diversity of
America. Half the students were women. Thirty percent of the class identified
themselves as minorities. Ten percent were legacies. And over half the students came
from public high schools.
The past 60 years have been a time of incredible change for Yale. By increasing the
diversity of its student body, Yale has transformed itself from an elite finishing school
for boarding school graduates to an international research university. And while some
of Yale's conservative alumni fiercely opposed these radical changes—William F.
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Buckley , complained to The New York Times in 1966 that "The son of an alumnus,
who goes to a private preparatory school, now has less chance of getting in than some
boy from somewhere"—the vast majority welcomed these changes.
Of course, the student body at Yale today is still far from a perfect representation of
the larger American population. For example, only 54 percent of the Yale class of
2001 attended public school, while nearly 92 percent of American high school
students did. Likewise, while African-American students comprised under eight
percent of the Class of 2001, and Hispanic students only slightly less than five percent,
the 2000 United States Census placed these groups at 12.3 and 12.5 percent of the
overall population, respectively.
Ethnic and Cultural Diversity
Walk into the Yale Admissions Office and almost the first thing you see is a table
full of pamphlets describing the ethnic diversity of the Yale campus. Students of
different races smile out at the viewer from the pamphlets' glossy pages. The
admissions office's commitment to attracting minority students and improving the
diversity of the Yale campus is clear. Indeed, in an age when the United States is more
ethnically diverse than ever, one would expect to see this diversity reflected at one of
the top universities in the country.
According to Dean of Admissions Richard Shaw, the admissions office has long
recruited minorities through their director of minority recruitment, who travels around
the country encouraging minority students to apply. While Shaw feels that the
University has been fairly successful in this regard, he expressed some regret about
the low number of minority students and added that the increased importance of early
admissions has not helped; since many minority applicants require financial aid, they
are hesitant to lock themselves to a school which may not provide them with enough
aid by applying early.
Once minority students get to Yale, there are many organizations that attempt to
make the transition as easy as possible. Yale's three cultural houses, the
Afro-American Cultural Center, La Casa Cultural (the Latino Cultural House at Yale),
and the Asian-American Cultural House, serve as places where students of different
ethnicities and cultures can congregate. All three have libraries, kitchens, and
computer rooms and often host parties, lectures, and film festivals. These sites foster a
sense of community within ethnic groups. According to Valerie Idehen, SY '04, library
coordinator for the Afro-American house, "the Center serves as a support network for
Black students at Yale... [By] housing various residential groups...it provides an outlet
for black students to unite and encourage each other in a way that Yale's structure may
not."
A number of different organizations also exist to appeal to almost any ethnic or
cultural group on campus [a complete list can be found on page 43]. These
organizations allow students to explore their own cultures, and also raise greater
campus awareness about many cultures and ethnicities.
Socio-economic Diversity
The diversity of the student body is clearly related to Yale's financial aid policies.
The Yale tuition is expensive, and without financial support from the school the vast
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majority of parents in the country would never be able to afford to send their children
to college here without some help.
The University does make an effort to accommodate those students who cannot pay
for Yale. Thirty-five percent of the Yale class of 2004 receives financial aid, and,
according to Shaw, Yale constantly tries to make it easier for all students to attend. For
example, the University formerly used any outside scholarships that a student
received to replace Yale grants. Now the admissions office has changed this policy so
that outside scholarships are subtracted from a student's self-help but do not detract
from Yale grants. "We don't want to penalize students for getting scholarships," Shaw
said. Shaw also explained that other schools might appear to have much better
financial aid programs than Yale because they consider any student who receives an
outside scholarship or loan as receiving aid. "If we calculated financial aid in the same
way that many other schools do, almost 60 percent of Yale students would be getting
some form of aid," he said.
Financial aid has been in the news quite a bit recently with Princeton's much-touted
decision to convert all of its financial aid from loans to grants. Although Shaw
maintains that adopting this system would take aid money away from many students
who require it, the financial aid committee will meet this summer to discuss how they
will respond to Princeton's decision. "We'll certainly make some recommendations,"
Shaw said.
Of course, Yale's financial aid system is far from perfect. Almost half of those
students who apply for financial aid are denied, and even Shaw concedes that
"sometimes parents haven't saved up enough and just aren't able to meet the
contribution that Yale expects from them."
Geographic Diversity
In your first days at Yale, you will likely meet a staggering number of students from
the Northeast—especially from metropolitan centers like New York, Boston, and
Philadelphia. This is only fitting, since students from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic
comprise nearly half of every incoming class. Part of this is due to Yale's location
halfway between New York and Boston. Of course, this also creates a more
homogenous student body.
Yale has long tried to increase the geographic diversity of its student body.
According to Shaw, recruiters travel around the country trying to encourage students
from other parts of the country to apply to Yale. These efforts have been largely
successful—there are 162 students from California, 60 from Texas and 43 from
Illinois in the class of 2004.
The Administration has also been trying to increase the number of international
students who attend Yale. The admissions office recently created a new position,
director of recruitment, whose job consists primarily of reaching out to potential
applicants from different parts of the country and the world. "Our admissions officers
do some outreach, but they also have thousands of applications to read," Shaw
admitted, "so our hope is that the director of recruitment can really help to spread
Yale's name."
Shaw praises the increase in international students in recent years, a situation he
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attributes largely to the recruitment visits Yale representatives make to locations
around the world, such as East Asia, Latin America, and Europe. "Just in the last three
years, we've really increased the number of students who are coming to Yale from
Central and South America," Shaw said. "We've been dong a lot of recruitment visits
down there where previously we were doing nothing."
But even as Yale becomes more internationally diverse, Shaw admits that there is
still room for growth. "Africa is completely open. We haven't really traveled there,
and although we have some great students from Africa, they usually find us—we don't
find them."
（TIME ALLOWED: 13 Minutes）
(From: http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/frosh/2001/unity/p37.html)
Exercises
Ⅰ. Comprehension of the text: choose the best answer for each of the questions
or unfinished statements.
1. Which Yale class below had women students?
A. 1938
B. 1940
C. 1941
D. 2001
2. In 2001, ____percent of the Yale class are from public school.
A. 10
B. 30
C. 54
D. 92
3. How has the admission office long recruited minorities?
A. through advertisements
B. through financial aid
C. through examination
D. through their directory of minority recruitment
4. One reason for the low number of minority students in Yale is that___
A. the university is not attractive for them
B. the examination is too difficult
C. they may not acquire enough aid by applying early
D. they are discriminated in Yale
5. _____ is NOT Yale’s cultural house?
A. Afro-American Culture Center
B. The American Cultural House
C. La Casa Cultural House
D. Asian-American Cultural House
6. _____percent of Yale students would be getting some form of aid if Yale
calculated financial aid in the same way that many other universities do.
A. 60
B. 43
C. 35 D. 10
7. The increase in Yale’s international students in recent years is largely attributed to
_____ by Shaw.
A. Yale’s name or reputation in the world
B. it’s financial aid
C. it’s geographic location
D. the Yale recruitment representatives visit locations around the world
8. _____ NOT the manifestation of the diversity of Yale’s student body?
A. Ethnic and cultural diversity
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B. Socio-economic diversity
C. Geographic diversity
D. Entertainment diversity
9. ____ is this passage concerned about?
A. The homogeneity of Yale
B. The diversity of Yale’s student body
C. The diversity American education
D. The financial aid of Yale
10. Where could you most probably see this passage?
A. in the newspaper
B. from TV program
C. from radio program
D. in the pamphlet introducing Yale
Ⅱ. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and
targeting the specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. What do you think about the change of diversity in Yale’s student body?
2. What about the structure of student body in your university? Do you like it?
3. What’s your comment on a diversified campus?
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 5′30″
Time You Used: ________
An Excerpt from
UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity
ARTICLE 1 Cultural diversity: the common heritage of humanity
Culture takes diverse forms across time and space. This diversity is embodied in the
uniqueness and plurality of the identities of the groups and societies making of the
identities of the groups and societies mankind up mankind. As a source of exchange,
innovation and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as
biodiversity is for nature. In this sense, it is the common heritage of humanity and
should be recognized and affirmed for the benefit of present and future generations.
ARTICLE 2 From cultural diversity to cultural pluralism
In our increasingly diverse societies, it is essential to ensure harmonious interaction
among people and groups with plural, varied and dynamic cultural identities as well
as their willingness to live together. Policies for the inclusion and participation of all
citizens are guarantees of social cohesion, the vitality of civil society and peace. Thus
defined, cultural pluralism gives policy expression to the reality of cultural diversity.
Indissociable from a democratic framework, cultural pluralism is conductive to
cultural exchange and to the flourishing of creative capacities that sustain public life.
ARTICLE 3 Cultural diversity as a factor in development
Cultural diversity widens the range of options open to everyone; it is one of the
roots of development, understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as
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a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual
existence.
ARTICLE 4 Human rights as guarantees of cultural diversity
The defence of cultural diversity is an ethical imperative, inseparable from respect
for human dignity. It implies a commitment to human rights and fundamental
freedoms, in particular the rights of persons belonging to minorities and those of
indigenous peoples. No one may invoke cultural diversity to infringe upon human
rights guaranteed by international law, nor to limit their scope.
ARTICLE 5 Cultural rights as an enabling environment for cultural diversity
Cultural rights are an integral part of human rights, which are universal, indivisible
and interdependent. The flouring of creative diversity requires the full implementation
of cultural rights as defined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and in Articles 13 and 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights. All persons have therefore the right to express themselves and to
create and disseminate their work in the language of their choice, and particularly in
their education and training that fully respect their cultural identity; and all persons
have the right to participate in the cultural practices, subject to respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms.
ARTICLE 6 Towards access for all to cultural diversity
While ensuring the free flow of ideas by word and image care should be exercised
that all cultures can express themselves and make themselves known. Freedom of
expression, media pluralism, multilingualism, equal access to art and to scientific and
technological knowledge, including in digital form, and the possibility and
dissemination are the guarantees of cultural diversity.
Article 7 Cultural heritage as the wellspring of creativity
Creation draws on the roots of cultural tradition, but flourishes in contact with other
cultures. For this reason, heritage in all its forms must be preserved, enhanced and
handed on to future generations as a record of human experience and aspiration, so as
to foster creativity in all its diversity and to inspire genuine dialogue among cultures.
(Words: 567)
(From: UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity)
Exercises: choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished
statements.
1. _____ is the source of exchange, innovation and creativity.
A. Culture
B. Cultural diversity
C. Biology
D. Biodiversity
2. Policies for the inclusion and participation of all citizens are guarantees of
A. social cohesion
B. the vitality of civil society
C. peace
D. all the above
3. Cultural rights includes all the following except ____
A. to express themselves and to create and disseminate their work in the language
of their choice
B. to accept education and training that fully respect their cultural identity
C. to respect the rights of persons belonging to minorities and those of indigenous
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peoples in spite of the international laws
D. to participate in the cultural practices, subject to respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms
4. Cultural tradition is the root of _____
A. cultural biodiversity
B. cultural heritage
C. creation
D. not mentioned
5. According to the text, which one is NOT right?
A. Human rights can be neglected to protect cultural diversity.
B. Cultural diversity widens the range of options open to everyone.
C. Freedom of expression is a part of guarantees of cultural diversity.
D. Cultural rights are an integral part of human rights.
Passage 2
Supposed Time: 5′
Time You Used: ________
A Diversity Snapshot: The Australian Population
In 2001, the Australian population numbers more than 19.3 million. As a
percentage, Australia has the second largest immigrant population in the OECD
(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), and one of the largest in
the world. The rich diversity of Australia’s people is demonstrated in Figure 1.
Australia’s population is clearly ethnically and culturally diverse. This diversity is
further enhanced by the changing origin of migrants. The share of the population that
is ethnically Anglo-Celtic has fallen by 20% over the last 50 years, while the share of
the population of Asian origin has grown from 0.3% to 6.4%.
The picture of Australian households and families is becoming increasingly diverse,
as is the age profile of the nation. lower birth rates, the ageing population, the rising
levels of marital separation and changing societal norms have led to these changes.
The proportion of people 65-plus has tripled over the last one hundred years and the
proportion aged 14 or less has fallen from 35% to 29%. The median age of the
Australian population over this time has shifted from 22.5 years to 34.9 years.
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Figure 1 - A Snapshot of the Australian Population
·25% of the population born overseas
·27% of Australian-born have at least one parent born overseas
·The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is approaching 400,000 and
grows at a rate higher than the non-indigenous population
·Over 200 languages are spoken in Australia
·2.5 million people speak a language other than English at home
·The largest growth in religious affiliation have been in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam
and Judaism
·15% of working age people and 19% of the population live with some form of
disability
·33% of people living with a severe or profound form of disability participate in the
labour market
·Female labour market participation rates are increasing at the same time as male
rates decline
·Partnering and family patterns have changed enormously over the past 30 years
with increasing numbers of same sex partnerships and lone parent households
·54% of wage and salary earners hold a postschool qualification. The proportion of
the population aged 65-plus has tripled in the last 100 years
·2.3 million people act as carers providing assistance to people who need help
because of disabilities and ageing; 38% of carers are aged 35-54; 19% are identified
as primary carers
·There are now more women than men in the Australian population
Australia’s population and workforce have changed significantly over the last fifty
years. This changing profile presents both challenges and opportunities for firms. The
different experiences, skills, ideas, beliefs, and knowledge that this diversity brings
can, if harnessed effectively, provide firms with a competitive edge.
The changing nature of the population has not only transformed the labour market,
but has created increasingly diverse product markets and a far more diverse business
environment. These changes too offer up opportunities and challenges to firms. The
key for senior managers and CEOs is to develop and put in place strategies to allow
benefits to accrue.
(Words: 513)
(From:http://ww.diversityaustralia.gov.au/_inc/doc_pdf/diversity_management.pdf)
Exercises: choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished
statements.
1. The population of _____ grows slower than others in Australia now.
A. Hinduism
B. Christian
C. Islam
D. Buddhism
2. The median age of the Australian population over the past one hundred years has
shifted from____ years to____ years.
A. 22.5, 34.9
B. 34.9, 22.5
C. 22.9, 34.5
D. 34.5, 22.9
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3. _____ of people living with a severe or profound form of disability participate in
the labour market
A. 27%
B. 2.5%
C. 15%
D. 33%
4. Based on Figure 1, Female labour market participation rates are____ at the same
time as male rates ____
A. decline, increasing
B. increasing, increase
C. increasing, decline
D. declining, decline
5. The influence of the changing nature of the population includes all the following
EXCEPT_____
A. more men than women in Australia
B. transforming the labour market
C. creating diverse product markets
D. creating diverse business environment
UNIT 11 Mystery
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. Have you heard of or read about mysterious things?
2. Are you interested in the mysterious stories?
3. Apart from the UFO, Bermuda Triangle, do you know other mysterious things?
The Definitive Sea Serpent
Are there still large unknown animals roamingthe oceans of the world? The average zoologist
would say "probably not." But two particular zoologists, were they still with us, would
emphatically disagree. In 1905, Michael J. Nicoll and E. G. B. Meade-Waldo observed a "sea
monster" which has never been caught, classified, or explained.
The Sighting On December 7, 1905, at 10:15 AM, two British naturalists, Nicoll and
Meade-Waldo, were on a research cruise aboard the yacht Valhalla. Fifteen miles east of the mouth
of Brazil's Parahiba River, Nicoll spotted a large dorsal fin which "resembled that of no fish I had
previously seen."
Nicoll turned to his companion and asked, "Is that the fin of a great fish?" Meade-Waldo looked.
The fin was cruising past them about a hundred yards from the yacht. Meade-Waldo described it
as "dark seaweed-brown, somewhat crinkled at the edge."
Meade-Waldo turned his binoculars on the object, and immediately a head on a long neck rose
from the water. He estimated the neck was "about the thickness of a slight[3] man's body, and
from 7 to 8 feet was out of the water; head and neck were all about the same thickness."
"The head had a very turtle-like appearance, as also the eye," Meade-Waldo wrote of the
incident. "It moved its head and neck from side to side in a peculiar manner: the color of the head
and neck was dark brown above, and whitish below-almost white, I think."
The original sighting lasted for several minutes. It then disappeared. The Valhalla could not
come about to pursue. At 2:00 AM on December 8th, however, three crewmembers saw what
125
appeared to be the same animal, almost entirely submerged, and passing the Valhalla at a speed of
about nine knots.
So what did the witnesses see?
If we accept that an unknown animal was involved, what are we to make of it?
The first question to consider is what class of animal the thing could belong to. No one has
suggested an amphibian, a bird, or any type of invertebrate. That leaves mammals, reptiles, and
fish to choose from.
Meade-Waldo thought the beast's head was "turtle-like" but offered no specific theory as to
what type animal it was. While Nicoll also thought the head reminiscent of a turtle's, he believed
the creature was a mammal. "It is of course, impossible to be certain of this," he admitted, "but the
general appearance of the creature, especially the soft, almost rubber-like fin, gave one this
impression."
However, there is no known mammal, living or extinct, which resembles this long-necked
creature, although our knowledge of the fossil record is necessarily incomplete. One could
hypothesize that the serpentine prehistoric whales known as zeuglodons might have developed a
long-necked form. The objection to this is that zeuglodons were in fact evolving in the other
direction, resulting in the almost total disappearance of the neck in modern whales. How does this
creature compare to other authoritative sea-serpent reports? Meade-Waldo was aware of the
famous 1848 sighting by the crew of the frigate HMS Daedalus. He commented that his own
creature "might easily be the same. "On August 6th, 1848, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Daedalus
was cruising near the Cape of Good Hope when the Officer of Watch spotted an object in the sea.
He drew the attention of the Captain and several crew members on deck to it. It was a large sea
snake, or sea serpent, that they estimated to be sixty feet long, 15 inches in diameter, and moved
through the sea with it's head some four feet out of the water. Strangely enough it seemed to be
able to move quickly through the water with neither vertical or horizontal undulation. The creature
was dark brown, shading to yellow-white under the throat. On the back there seemed to be a
seaweed-like mane. The Daedalus observed it for about twenty minutes.
A German vessel, the Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, observed such a creature in its entirety off
England in 1912. The Kaiserin's Captain Ruser described it as twenty feet long and about eighteen
inches thick. In 1947, the Grace liner Santa Clara ran over a brown eel-like creature estimated at
60 feet long. Finally, leading cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans add an account of some
tourists who went spearfishing in the Mediterranean in 1958. They allegedly had a very close
encounter with a creature like a giant moray eel, which literally scared them out of the water. Any
discussion of the giant eel theory must mention the six-foot long leptocephalus, or eel larvae,
collected by the research vessel Dana in 1930. A normal leptocephalus is only three inches long.
Some forty years after the Dana specimen was netted, however, it was reclassified as the larva of
an eel-like deep-sea fish belonging to a group called noticanthiforms. Known noticanthiforms
don't change much in size during the metamorphosis from larva to adult.
In 1937 Alfred Peterson, a nurse aboard a British troopship in the China Sea, spotted what at
first he thought was a big tree floating in the sea. A few minutes later he noticed it was still there,
keeping pace with the ship. This peaked his interest and he took a closer look. What he saw was a
25 foot long, grey-black, body with a head shaped like a giraffe.
Tales about sea serpents have been told and retold by sailors down through the ages. Skeptics
have pointed out that many of these incidents could be the result of misidentifications. A floating
126
log, or in the case of the Daedalus, an abandoned native canoe painted like a snake. Some
encounters are so close, though, that it is hard to believe someone could be mistaken:
Heuvelmans' compilation of 358 "significant" reports includes at least a dozen which may
concern the same creature as in the Valhalla case, •although no other report matches this one in
every detail. Every case is different, and the witnesses in these hundreds of cases could not
possibly all have been describing the same species. To skeptics, this is evidence of hoax or error.
To Heuvelmans, it indicates there are several types of animals involved: as many as nine,
according to his book.
The idea of an entire seaquarium of monsters cruising the seven seas is understandably difficult
to swallow. Still, there is nothing outrageous about the idea of one or two unknown remaining at
large. There had never been a sighting of a megamouth shark (Megachasma pelagios) before the
first specimen was caught, quite by accident, in 1976. The Peruvian beaked whale (Mesoplodon
peruvians) was unknown to science until 1976 and not formally described until 1990. No one can
state with certainty that the oceans hold no more surprises.
If this still sounds like inconclusive speculation, it is. Until we have a body, or, at the least,
closeup photographic evidence, what Willy Ley called "the great unknown of the seas" will
continue to frustrate all attempts at definitive classification.
We are left with this simple fact: on December 7th, 1905, two well-qualified witnesses observed
a large unknown marine animal. Their report stands as irrefutable if incomplete evidence that the
oceans hold at least one spectacular creature still evading the probes of science.
（TIME ALLOWED: 9 Minutes）
http://www.hongen.com/eng/fun/space/index1.htm
Notes:
1． Valhalla: 瓦尔哈拉，这里是巴西一个小岛的名字。Valhalla 这个名称来自一个神话故事，
指的是古斯堪的纳维亚神话中的主神奥丁的殿堂，亦为阵亡将士的殿堂。被瓦尔基里选
中的阵亡将士，在奥丁神的领导下，白天格斗习武，夜晚饮宴取乐，直到世界末日。那
时，他们将在奥丁神的率领下与巨人们作战。
2． Mediterranean: 地中海
Exercises:
I. Choose the best answer according to the passage
1. How long is a normal noticanthiform?
A .ten-foot
B. seven-foot
C. six-foot
D. eleven-foot
2. Which is the first specimen caught by human beings?
A. peruvian
B. a large unknown marine animal
C. zeuglodons
D. noticanthiform
3. What’s zeuglodons?
A. a kind of spectacular creature
B. serpentine prehistoric whales
C. a leptolephalus
127
D. noticanthiform
4. Which of the following is implied in the sentence “To skeptics, this is evidence of hoax or
error.”?
A. According to Heuvelman’s book there are spectacular creatures.
B. Heuvelman can’t prove that there are spectacular creatures.
C. Heuvelman is wrong that there are nine of types of spectacular creature.
D. Heuvelman’s book offers the evidence to the objectors that there are no spectacular
creatures.
5. The author introduces Nicoll and Meade-Waldo at the beginning of the passage
.
A. to serve as the background of the article.
B. to provide readers with evidence that there are spectacular creatures.
C. to serve as a starting point for the discussion of the topic.
D. to introduce an illustration of the topic.
II. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
cruise knot reminiscent entirety hoax
swallow evade at large roam make of
1. What do you
the new manager
2. The lovers
around /over the fields in complete forgetfulness of the time.
3. If published it should be published in its
.
4. They went on a
to Tenerife.
5. She can do 35
.
6. They can’t treat me like that; I am not going to
it.
7. They said there was a bomb in the hotel, but it later turned out to be a
.
8. If your try to
paying your taxes you risk going to prison.
9. His dog is chained in the day time, but is
at night.
10. This hotel is
.
III. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics
1. Mystery VS Truth
A: mysterious things do exist/ people can never find /bare/disclose some of them
B: with the development of science/ people will solve all of them/ no insoluble mystery/ every
mystery will be cleared
2. Explore VS Discovery
A: as long as we explore/ we can discover everything/ a study/ a research/ a way to improve
B: a result/ may resulted from the accident/ limitation of knowledge, science, technology
3. Humankind VS Nature
A: the most smart creature/ the master of the whole universe/ solve all the problems/ deal with a
all situation/ conquer the nature
B: observe, study, make full use of the nature/ humankind should get along with the nature
IV. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. The most interesting mysterious story I have heard
2. Explore the mystery and discover the truth
3. Humankind and Nature
128
Reading Two
Studying the Mysterious Lives of Sperm Whales
In Herman Melville's classic novel, a Sperm whale called Moby Dick is portrayed as an evil
monster which sinks ships and kills sailors. This is the reputation these whales have gotten
throughout the years, perhaps because of their large size and huge teeth.
The Sperm whale gets its name from the spermaceti organ which fills most of its huge head. In
the 18th and 19th centuries, New England whalers sought out the Sperm whale for the valuable
spermaceti oil, which makes an exceptionally fine lubricant. Nobody is absolutely sure what the
spermaceti organ actually does for the whale, but there are two prevalent theories. One suggests
that the organ is a buoyancy control device. The waxy oil within the organ has a melting point of
between 25-35 degrees C (77-95 degrees Fahrenheit). By controlling blood flow to the organ (and
therefore its temperature), the whale might be able to control whether the wax is liquid or solid. If
the wax is solid, it contracts and becomes more dense, making the whale sink better. When melted
again, the wax expands, making the whale less dense. This technique could be a way of assisting
the whale with diving and ascending. The other theory suggests that the organ is used to focus and
control the beam of sound that the whale uses for echolocation. For all we know, both theories
could be right.
What we see of the sperm whale at the surface only gives us a brief glimpse of a life that is
spent mainly in the dark depths of the ocean. Early studies of sperm whales were mostly limited to
studying their carcasses. More recently, through careful observation and with help from modern
technology, we're beginning to learn more about their lives through benign research techniques
that do not disturb them. Nevertheless, there are still many things we do not know. For example,
we still don’t really know how they find and catch their food, or whether their numbers are
increasing or decreasing.
By recognizing whales as individuals we can learn a huge amount about their lives. Sperm
whales have distinctive nicks and scars on the trailing edge of their tails (flukes) that persist
throughout their lives and they can be recognized from photographs. This is known as
photo-identification. By sharing photographs of the flukes of all the sperm whales they encounter
in a central catalogue researchers can build up a picture of a whale's movements and its
association with other whales. There are now over 3000 images of individual sperm whales in the
North Atlantic and Mediterranean sperm whale catalogue and work is underway to develop
computerized matching systems to help match each new photograph to the catalogue.
Another way to study sperm whales is by listening to the sounds that they make using
hydrophones - underwater microphone. Sperm whales make loud, regular clicking sounds while
they are submerged. These sounds are a form of sonar that allows the whales to navigate around
the oceans and find their food. Listening to the sounds from the whales gives us the best idea of
what they are doing when they are underwater. We can use this information to estimate whale
numbers. Sometimes they make distinctive patterns of clicks called codas. These codas seem
unique to groups of whales, sometimes referred to as clans, which reveals new information about
the whales' social behaviour and relationships between different groups across the oceans. Another
way of understanding relationships between individuals can be genetic (DNA analysis of collected
skin samples). Fortunately sperm whales naturally shed pieces of skin as they swim along and
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these can be collected using small nets.
Sperm whale behaviour includes socialising, foraging and resting. Group members spend much
of the time dispersed but sometimes congregate to socialise, either lying quietly together at the
surface, or actively touching and rubbing against each other while vocalising. Although mature
males and females spend much of their lives apart, large males join nursery schools of females and
calves for brief breeding periods between early winter and early summer; at these times they
socialise with all members of the pod.
The Sperm whale has a mouth full of conical teeth located only in the lower jaw. They fit into
sockets in the roof of the mouth. They look pretty mean, but probably aren't all that important in
feeding. Most of the items recovered from Sperm whale stomachs are not even chewed, but
swallowed whole. An intact 40 foot-long giant squid weighing 440 pounds was recovered from a
Sperm whale. Sperm whales with severely mangled jaws have been seen in perfect health,
apparently catching food just fine without the complete use of their teeth. This doesn't mean that
the squid doesn't fight back. Many Sperm whales have scars from encounters with squid,
including big sucker marks on their head and snout. The sucker disks on giant squid contain sharp
hooks to dig into prey. They also dig into Sperm whales, leaving life-long scars.
Giant squid, like all squid, have sharp beaks, not unlike those of a parrot. They use them for
biting into the fish and invertebrates that they eat. In the stomach of a Sperm whale, those beaks
can accumulate. In fact, Sperm whales are often found to have thousands of the beaks in their
stomachs! But the sharp beaks irritate the stomach lining. As a reaction to the irritation of all the
squid beaks, the whale produces in its intestines a cholesterol derivative which has come to be
called ambergris. First discovered in ancient times as a substance of unknown origin which would
wash ashore, it wasn't until the whaling era that the true source of the material was found.
When it is first removed from a whale, ambergris is a thick, black, foul-smelling liquid. Later,
it hardens into a waxy aromatic substance. When heated, it produces a pleasant earthy aroma. It
was used as a fixative in perfumes because it causes the scent of perfume to last much longer. The
Greeks, Chinese, Japanese and Arabs have all held ambergris in high regard. Today we have
synthetic substances which accomplish the same thing, so there is no need to hunt whales for it,
and trade in ambergris is now banned worldwide by treaty. Yet, once in a while a rare piece will
still wash ashore somewhere.
When you see a sperm whale 'fluke-up' (lift it's tail flukes clear of the water) it's usually about
to start a deep foraging dive. These can last as long as 50 minutes and take the whale as deep as
800m in it its search for its favourite food - squid. When resting on the surface between dives, they
take very deep breaths and then exhale four to six strong 'blows' each minute, creating plumes a
few metres high.
Occasionally a sperm whale will propel itself out of the water, often clearing the surface with as
much as two thirds of its body or more, and splashing down onto the water surface on it's back or
side. We're still trying to understand the purpose of this 'breaching' behaviour.
During the 1970's, the Save The Whale movement brought the plight of whales to international
recognition. Many people now believe that whales are "saved." This couldn't be further from the
truth. All around the world, whaling still exists. Many countries continue to hunt whales, in spite
of international treaties to protect them. In New England, Hawaii, Alaska and many other places
where whales are common, the whale watching industry has proven to make far better financial
sense than whale hunting. Once a whale is killed, it is gone. But watching whales preserves not
130
only the whales themselves, but the industry and the income.
The Sperm whale probably has one of the most stable populations of any whale on Earth,
possibly more than a million. This means that the Sperm whale is the only great whale species
which is not endangered. I would encourage anyone even remotely interested in whales to go on a
whale watch and see a whale up close. There is nothing like the experience of seeing a whale--any
whale--in the flesh. The more people who see whales up close, the better chance we will have to
protect the precious few whales we have left.
(TIME ALLOWING: 12 MINUTES)
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/oceandefenders/archive/2006/04/studying_the_mysterious_l.html
Notes:
1. Herman Melville: 赫尔曼·梅尔维尔, 美国作家，主要作品：
《泰皮》(Typee, 1846)，
《欧穆》
(Omoo)，
《玛地》 (Mardi, 1849)，
《雷得本》(Redburn, 1849)，
《白外衣》(White-Jacket, 1850)，
《白鲸记》(Moby Dick, 1851)，
《皮埃尔》(Pierre, 1852) 等。
2. Sperm whale: 抹香鲸
3. Alaska: 美国阿拉斯加州
4. fixative: 固定剂;定色剂
Exercises
I. Comprehension of the text: choose the best answer according to the passage
1. According to the passage All of the following are about the ambergris EXCEPT?
A. a substance of unknown origin which would wash ashore originally
B. a cholesterol derivative produced by sperm whales in the intestines
C. an exceptionally fine lubricant
D. used as a fixative in perfumes
2. Which of the following is not true about the sperm whale?
A. The echolocation usually chew its bags with its huge teeth.
B. The Sperm whale probably has one of the most stable populations of any whale on Earth.
C. Its favourite food is the squid.
D. The Sperm whale has a mouth full of conical teeth.
3. Which of the following is not the function of the spermaceti organ for according to the
passage?
A. the organ is a buoyancy control device.
B. the wax in it may make the whale sink better.
C. it is helpful to its echolocation.
D. it helps the Sperm whale to produce more ambergris.
4. The word “mean” in the sentence “They look pretty mean” can be paraphrased as
.
A. ungenerous
B. nasty
C. poor-looking
D. horrifying
5. What does the author want to imply by ending the passage with the sentence “The more
people who see whales up close, the better chance we will have to protect the precious few
whales we have left”?
A. Going on a whale watch is a good way for people to protect it.
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B. People will be more interested in the whale if they go to see a whale watch.
C. People’s awareness of the need to protect the whale will be enhanced once they see so
lively ones with their eyes.
D. The whale in the whale watch is more needed to be protected by people.
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. Do you know something about the Sperm whales?
2. What is your opinion about the protection of the rare animals?
3. Social development and the protection of the animals.
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time:
Time You Used: ________
Mars is characterized by its red, dusty landscape. The terrain on Mars is complex and varied,
with deep canyons, mountains, volcanoes, and craters. Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the
Solar System, stands on Mars, with an altitude of 24 km (78,000 feet) with a base that is 600 km
across. Valles Marineris is a system of canyons that stretch out over the surface of Mars for nearly
2,500 miles (4000 km). The canyons can get up to 200 km wide and 6 km deep in some areas.
Erosion and river channels on the surface of Mars revealed that there was once large amounts of
water on the planet. There were river systems and possibly lakes and oceans on the planet over 4
billion years ago. This evidence has lead scientists to believe that Mars at one time may have
supported life, billions of years ago.
Dr. Jack Farmer, of NASA's Arms Research Center, commented to a January 1996 international
meeting in London about possible problems connected with the fossil evidences of previous life
that are to be searched for on Mars during upcoming Mars missions.
It is possible that life could have been transferred either way as well. Nevertheless, the NASA
missions will have to be concerned with any gathered samples which might have viable spores,
microbes or bacteria--and could contaminate the Earth. Dr. Farmer spoke at the meeting of such
"important ethical concerns."
Life may well have manifested on a warmer and moister Mars some three to four billion years
ago. However, if Martian life still exists, it may be microbes which consume rocks and water and
which live deep beneath north Alaska. Richland's Pacific Northwest Laboratory, which found them,
has been studying these lifeforms, which can survive in Marslike conditions between 85 degrees
Centigrade and 113 degrees Centigrade.
NASA scientists will continue the hunt for their missing spacecraft, Mars Polar Lander (MPL).
They will use a powerful camera on board another Mars probe, which is orbiting the red planet, to
try and locate the lost lander.
Contact with the $165m MPL was severed two weeks ago, just as it entered the Martian
atmosphere. So far there have been no clues as to why it suddenly disappeared.
"We believe it is on the surface of Mars," said project scientist Richard Zurek, speaking at the
American Geophysical Union at which the first MPL results should have been announced.
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"We're really putting some hope into seeing something on the surface itself."
MPL should have landed at the Martian south pole on 3 December to look for signs of water,
and even life. But there has been total silence ever since the final approach.
A number of things could have happened to the probe; it might have burnt up as it entered the
Martian atmosphere; it may have landed on a large rock and fallen over; or its antennae may have
been damaged preventing it from making radio contact.
MPL is too small to be seen from the orbiting probe so the search will focus on finding the
lander's 20-metre-long (65-feet) parachute in a specific area a few square kilometres.
Mars Missions
1960. USSR. First Mars missions fail.
1964. US. First image from Mariner 4 fly by.
1971. USSR. First touch down on the planet but no images.
1976. US. Viking spacecraft touch down, take pictures and sift soil.
1986. USSR. Probe to a Martian moon fails.
1993. US. Mars Observer spacecraft is lost.
1997. US. Very successful Mars Pathfinder mission.
1998. US. Mars Global Surveyor begins amassing pictures.
1998. Japan launches a tiny Mars probe.
1999. US. Mars Climate Observer and, probably, Mars Polar Lander lost.
( words: 607)
http://www.hongen.com/eng/fun/space/index1.htm
Notes:
1. NASA：是 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (美国)国家航空和宇宙航行局的简
称，我们一般也把它叫作美国航空航天局。
2. Mars Polar Lander (MPL)：
火星极地登陆者。此前，美国曾于 98 年成功发射过"火星探测者"。它传回来的照片为科学
家研究火星带来了极大的突破。
3. the American Geophysical Unio：美国地球物理联合会
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. Which of the following is not about Martian life the according to the passage?
A. it may be microbes which consume rocks and water.
B. live deep beneath north Alaska
C. survive between 85 degrees Centigrade and 113 degrees Centigrade
D. could have appeared on a warmer and moister Mars some three to four billion years ago.
2. What does the red planet refer to according to the passage?
A. the lost lander
B. the powerful camera
C. the Mars
D. 20-metre-long (65-feet) parachute
3. What does the word “contaminate” mean in the passage?
A. damage
B. pollute
C. benefit
133
D. change
Passage 2
Supposed Time:
Time You Used:
___
People have always been afraid of large areas of water, sometimes with good reason.
Crocodiles and alligators have attacked people in rivers and lakes. That still happens in several
areas of the world. But many people in many different countries tell of other huge creatures that
live in deep lakes. In the United States, some people say a creature called Champ is living in Lake
Champlain, in New York State. These beliefs are not new. More than two hundred years ago
reports began about a creature named Selma seen in a lake in Norway. Other reports are very
recent. In nineteen ninety-seven, someone took video pictures of some kind of creature in Lake
Van in eastern Turkey.
But the most famous creature that reportedly lives in a very deep lake is the Loch Ness Monster,
called Nessie. Many people believe Nessie lives in Loch Ness in the highlands of Scotland. Loch
Ness is the largest freshwater lake in Britain. It is about thirty-seven kilometers long and about
two kilometers wide. Special equipment shows it is as much as two hundred fifty meters deep.
The first written record of Nessie appeared in the year five hundred sixty-five. A Catholic
religious leader named Saint Columba reportedly made the creature disappear after it threatened
few people visited the Loch Ness area until the nineteen thirties. In nineteen thirty-three a man and
woman claimed to have seen a huge animal in the water. It looked like nothing they had ever seen
before.
In nineteen thirty-four Robert Wilson took a photograph of an unusual looking animal he said
he saw in Loch Ness. The photograph and a story were printed in the London Daily Mail
newspaper. That photograph provided the best evidence of the creature for the next sixty years.
It showed an animal with a long neck sticking out of the water. It looked like some kind of ancient
dinosaur. Doctor Wilson’s photograph can be seen in books, magazine stories and on many
Internet Web sites about the famous Loch Ness Monster.
For a long time the mysterious monster was considered just a joke. But things changed in
1966.Then, some photo experts of the Royal Air Force reported on their study of a film of the
"monster". They said that there really is some huge objects in Loch Ness--and it's probably alive!
Most scientists agree that Nessie is neither a whale nor a shark. They think that it could be a
huge, unknown kind of sea slug. The small garden slug can stretch its body to enter worm holes.
So a sea slug could shape its body into the one, two, three or more humps that different people say
they have seen.
How did Nessie get into Loch Nessie? From the sea, all say. Until the end of the last Ice Age the
lake was an arm of the sea. Then the ice on the rugged rocks melted. The earth's crust rose, leaving
the lake separated from the sea. The lake's gloomy bottom is well-stocked with fish. What a
perfect place for a settlement of monsters! Gradually, they could get used to fresh water.
(words: 521)
http://www.hongen.com/eng/fun/space/index1.htm
Notes
1. Loch Nessie：尼斯湖。Loch 是苏格兰语，意思和英语中的 lake （湖）相同。
134
2. the Royal Air Force：英国皇家空军。成立于 1918 年 4 月 1 日的英国皇家空军已经走过了
风风雨雨的八十余年，她的全盛时期是在一战结束后，当时共有 30 万余人（其中有 25，000
女兵）
，规模相当庞大。二战期间，英国皇家空军为维护和平、打击纳粹立下了不朽的战功，
当然损失也相当惨重。近年，她依然活跃于联合国的维持和平任务中。
4. the last Ice Age： 最后一次冰期，时间大约是在两万年以前
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. According to scientists Nessie is
in the passage.
A. a whale
B. a shark.
C. a kind of sea slug
D. dinosaur
2. Which of the following monster is not mentioned in the passage?
A. Champ
B. Nessie
C. Selma
D. Alligators
3. Why is the Loch Nessie well-stocked with fish according to the author in the passage?
A. Because Loch Ness is the largest freshwater lake in Britain.
B. Because it is as much as two hundred fifty meters deep.
C. Because it had been connected with the sea.
D. Because many people believe Nessie lives in.
Unit 12
Legal system
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. What does the LAW mean to you?
2. What’s your comment on “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your
right to say it ”? (Voltaire, French writer)
3. Do you know the monopoly?
Kang Xiaoming, a paralegal with the Beijing office of a Hong Kong-based law firm, is doing
her secondment at the Hong Kong headquarters. She talks to her husband every day, for it costs
her only HK$0.25 a minute to make a call from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland on her
cellphone. On the contrary, her husband has to spend at least 1.5 yuan (HK$1=1.03 yuan) a minute
to call her from Beijing on his cellphone served by China Mobile.
Hong Kong, covering an area of 1,103.72 square km and having a population of 6.9 million, has
six competing mobile phone service providers, but on the vast mainland, with 9.6 million square
km territory and 1.3 billion people, there are only two--China Mobile and China Unicom, both of
135
which are state owned. In 2005, China Mobile’s earnings stood at 243.04 billion yuan, a
year-on-year increase of 26.3 percent. Net profits were 53.55 billion yuan, expanding 28.3 percent.
By contrast, China Unicom’s earnings in 2005 were 87.05 billion yuan, up 10.1 percent year on
year.
This situation may soon change with the Anti-Monopoly Law that was deliberated by the
Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature.
Although China has passed the Law Against Competition by Inappropriate Means, the Price
Law, the Foreign Trade Law and some other statutes on trade malpractices, such as commercial
bribery, abuse of market power by monopolies, anti-competition agreements and price-fixing, the
effectiveness of the existing anti-monopoly legal framework is limited. An anti-monopoly law is
needed to coordinate the scattered practices of different government agencies.
The draft law, comprising eight chapters of 56 articles, reportedly contains provisions on
banning monopolistic agreements, abuse of dominance in the market and administrative
monopolies as well as on investigation into and prosecution for monopolistic conducts. According
to the current draft, an anti-monopoly commission will be established under the State Council,
China’s cabinet, to coordinate the work of different departments.
A legacy of the planned economy is that Chinese Government agencies have intervened in the
economy with their administrative power, leading to administrative monopolies in some fields and
industries, such as electricity, petroleum, natural gas, railways, telecommunications and civil
aviation.
“The Chinese market economy and market competition are not yet mature and so the regulation
of non-competition conducts is not mature. Like natural monopolies, administrative monopolies
too pose the same damages to fair competition. For a long time, there have been few regulations to
restrict administrative monopolies,’’ Meng Yanbei, a lecturer at the Law School of the Renmin
University of China, told Beijing Review. Moreover, China has few international examples to
learn from on restricting administrative monopolies, he added.
Breakup of administrative monopolies has emerged as the most contentious issue in the drafting
of the anti-monopoly law. In the draft made by the Ministry of Commerce and the State
Administration for Industry and Commerce in 2004, a whole chapter with five articles was
devoted to the banning of administrative monopolies. In a September 2005 draft, the scope for
dealing with administrative monopolies was reduced and in the draft submitted to the State
Council in April 2006, the entire chapter was taken out. However, in the final draft deliberated by
the NPC Standing Committee, the chapter on administrative monopolies was added in again.
An expert who participated in the drafting of the anti-monopoly law and wishes to remain
anonymous attributes these changes to the complicated reasons behind the emergence of
administrative monopolies in China and the strong opposition from some industry regulatory
departments.
Although it is widely expected that the anti-monopoly law will help curb monopolies in
industries such as telecommunications, railways, civil aviation and electricity, Cao Kangtai,
Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council, is not so optimistic.
“Administrative monopolies are closely related to economic reform and administrative system
reform. A law cannot solve all the problems,” he said.
According to the draft law, a special commission will be established under the State Council to
organize and coordinate anti-monopoly work. “Establishment of the commission at least shows
136
that the government attaches importance to the issue. After all, not every law is enforced by a
special organ under the cabinet,” Meng explained.
However, the issue is still dogged by controversy. The draft only says that the anti-monopoly
commission will comprise responsible officials from related government departments as well as
some experts but does not detail its functions. Moreover, the draft stipulates that anti-monopoly
work will be enforced by another institution under the State Council but says nothing about the
legal relationship between the anti-monopoly commission and this executive body.
At present, more than 10 departments are involved in anti-monopoly work, according to Shi
Jianzhong, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law. For example, the
State Administration for Industry and Commerce set up the Anti-monopoly Division under its
Bureau of Fair Trade 10 years ago. From 1999 to 2006, the administration was entrusted with
anti-monopoly work. In 2003, the National Development and Reform Commission, the top
economic planner, passed the Provisional Regulations on Banning Monopolistic Pricing Practices
and gave itself the power to deal with such issues. Since its establishment, the Ministry of
Commerce is now playing a very important role in the drafting of the anti-monopoly law.
The draft fails to clarify some important issues, such as the relationship between these
departments. “It may lead to both overlapping jurisdiction and blank space in the implementation
of the law,” Professor Shi said.
Since 1992, China has absorbed more than $320 billion in foreign direct investment and at the
same time, more and more foreign investors are buying Chinese companies, especially
brand-name ones. Some Chinese enterprises are even sold to their foreign competitors after
international buyout funds have earned their money. Former Director of the National Bureau of
Statistics Li Deshui warned in March that the increasing foreign takeovers in some pillar
industries have threatened the security of the Chinese economy.
In order to restrict corporate mergers that are likely to reduce the competitive vigor of particular
markets, the draft anti-monopoly law stipulates that all mergers beyond a designated value, by
both foreign and domestic-funded companies, shall report first to a responsible anti-monopoly
department for approval.
In the latest draft, if the total sales volume of all parties of a merger in the global market
surpasses 12 billion yuan and that in the Chinese market surpasses 800 million yuan in the
previous year, the merger shall be reported to the responsible anti-monopoly department for
approval. In a 2005 draft, the two standards were set at 5 billion yuan and 200 million yuan.
An official from the Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council said the standards were
fixed based on studies by a research panel from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the
experiences of the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan, statistics provided by the National
Bureau of Statistics, as well as the results of the First National Economic Census. With such
standards, most corporate mergers do not need to be reported so that the companies can improve
their competitiveness. At the same time, the standards ensure that mergers that may lead to market
dominance are subject to approval.
The anti-monopoly law, said Meng, will benefit consumers by bringing in more fair market
competition. On the law’s impacts on businesses, he argued that all of them would be faced with
the same opportunities and challenges, irrespective of the type of ownership. What the business
community should do now is to participate more in the discussion of the so-called “constitution in
the economic field.”
137
At a seminar sponsored by the Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council in August 2005,
representatives of 11 foreign-funded companies such as General Electric, Panasonic and
GlaxoSmithKline, as well as the EU Chamber of Commerce in China and the American Chamber
of Commerce in China, expressed concern that the standards for reporting mergers were too low.
Meng expressed optimism over the prospects of the anti-monopoly law. “China’s economic
development needs such a law and I think it can be released soon after further revision. At least it
will not be totally abandoned and a new one drafted,” he told Beijing Review.
Since the NPC Standing Committee is soliciting public feedback on the draft law, Meng and her
colleagues are planning to put forward some suggestions to improve the details. For example,
when determining whether or not a company is in a dominant position in the market, it should be
given opportunities to present counter evidences.
According to China’s Legislation Law, in general, a draft law must be deliberated three times by
the NPC Standing Committee before being voted on. Since the committee holds meetings every
two months, it will take at least six months for a law to be passed, if a draft fails to be passed in
two years. （TIME ALLOWED: 9 Minutes）
www.bjreview.com.cn
Notes
NPC: the National People’s Congress
2 China Mobile: 中国移动通信
3 China Unicom: 中国联通
Exercises
I. Answer the following questions according to the passage:
1. Why does the author introduce Kang Xiaoming at the beginning of the passage?
2. What’s the administrative monopoly? Why has it emerged as the most contentious issue in the
drafting of the anti-monopoly law?
3. Comment briefly the draft of anti-monopoly law in China.
4. Why is Cao Kangtai, Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council, not so
optimistic about the draft law?
5. What’s the merger? Why does the government restrict corporate mergers?
II. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below.
Change the form where necessary.
secondment deliberate legacy contentious anonymous
jurisdiction solicit terminate overlap
dog
1. The committee
whether to approve our proposal.
2. Disease and famine are often
of war.
3.It may be a
clause in a treaty.
4. The writer of the article wishes to remain
.
5. May I
your advice on a matter of some importance?
6. Your contract has been
.
7. Economics and politics are best studied together as the two subjects
.
8. We are
by bad luck throughout the journey.
9. The prisoner refused to accept the
of the court.
10. He will do his
in this famous lawyer’s office.
138
III. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics
1. Monopoly VS Competition
A: administrative monopoly/ protect some national industries/ preserve the national
characteristics/ resist “invasion” in economics from other counties
B: the main principle of market economy/beneficial to the smooth development of economy as
well as the society/market can play a fundamental role in the allocation of resources
2. Administration VS Laws
A: the regulation of state and public affairs/ should not be restrained by laws/ laws will prevent
government from operating freely and effectively/ will increase many unnecessary
procedures in their work
B:
rule regulating the behavior of members of a community, country/ promote the
administration/ helping redefine the responsibilities of various departments of the
government and improve its administrative operating mechanism
3. Laws VS Human progress
A: the symbol of human progress/ perfected laws promote the human progress/ human society
can not develop without laws/ maintain the stability/ guarantee the sound environment
B: laws block the human progress/hamper people’s freedom of action/be responsible for the
creation of social unrest
IV. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. The Necessity of Reform in Legal System
2. Laws and Daily Life
3. Laws and Social Progress
Reading Two
Justifiable defence is the act being exempted from crimes, namely, this act appears to cause
damage to lawful rights and interests, but in essential it protects lawful rights and interests.
Therefore, Chinese Criminal Law definitely prescribes that this act doesn't constitute crimes.
According to Criminal Law, an act that a person commits to stop an unlawful infringement in
order to prevent the interests of the state and the public, or his own or other people's individual
rights, rights of property or other rights from being infringed upon by the on-going infringement,
thus harming the perpetrator, is justifiable defence, and he shall not bear criminal responsibility.
Justifiable defence must include the following conditions: Firstly, the purpose of this act is to
prevent the interests of the state and the public，or a person's own or other people's individual
rights, rights of property or other rights from being infringed upon by the on-going infringement.
Secondly, there must exist an unlawful infringement, including criminal acts as well as other
illegal acts. Thirdly, the unlawful infringement must be on going, which means an unlawful
infringement has begun and has not finished yet. Fourthly, an actor can only defend against the
person who himself commits unlawful infringement. Finally, the act of justifiable defence can not
obvious exceed the limit of necessity and cause serious damage. If a person's act of justifiable
defence obvious exceeds the limits of necessity and causes serious damage, which is considered as
undue defence, he shall bear criminal responsibility. However, he shall be given a mitigated
punishment or be exempted from punishment.
Moreover, in order to effectively protect lawful rights and interests and encourage citizens to
carry out actively justifiable defence, our Criminal Law prescribes that if a person acts in defence
against an on-going assault, murder, robbery, rape, kidnap and other crime of violence that
139
seriously endangers his personal safety, thus causing injury or death to the perpetrator, it is
justifiable defence instead of undue defence, and he shall not bear criminal responsibility.
According to this provision, it is not undue defence to the acts in defence against crime of violence
that seriously endangers one's personal safety.
Justifiable defence is an important problem in criminal jurisprudence. It is an effective way to
protect the rights and interests of the state and people. However, in practice, it is also difficult to
judge the limits of justifiable defence sometimes. It need further research by experts of criminal
jurisprudence gradually.
Administration refers to those activities such as organization and regulation. The concept of
administration in administrative legal system refers to the regulation of state and public affairs,
namely, decision-making, organization and management of state and public affairs by
administrative subject according to law, which is often referred to as public administration.
Administrative law is the general term of all legal norms and principles that regulates the
different kinds of social relations occurring in the course of implementation of administrative
power by administrative subject.
Then I would like to introduce the basic principles of administrative law. This problem is one
of the elementary theoretical issues in administrative jurisprudence, which denotes the
fundamental rules guiding the enactment and application of administrative law. The basic
principles mainly consist of legality and reasonableness.
1, Legality is the foremost principle of administrative law, which means that administrative
subject must implement administrative activities according to lawful authorization, form and
procedure, and undertake corresponding legal responsibility for its illegal administrative activities.
The basic content of the principle of legality is as follows. Firstly, the administrative authority of
administrative subject shall be set or conferred by law. Secondly, administrative activities carried
out by administrative subject must comply with administrative legal specifications. Thirdly,
administrative subject's activities against law are invalid. Fourthly, administrative subject must
undertake corresponding legal responsibility for its illegal administrative activities.
2, The principle of reasonableness is a supplement to the principle of legality. It requires
administrative activities of administrative subject be not only legal, but also reasonable. The
specific requirements of this principle are: Firstly, administrative activities should comply with
objective rules. Secondly, administrative activities should comply with the aim of the enactment of
relevant laws. Thirdly, administrative activities should comply with the benefit of state and people.
Fourthly, administrative activities should have sufficient objective basis. Fifthly, administrative
activities should comply with justice and fairness. Sixthly, unreasonable administrative activities
should undertake corresponding legal responsibility. The principle of administrative
reasonableness is the principle of administrative law instead of administrative procedural law; so,
it is applicable to administrative activities of administrative subject rather than the judicial action
of judicial departments.
The basic principles of administrative law are controlling and binding the various
administrative legal systems of our country more and more. Along with the development of
socialist market economy and the construction of the socialist country ruled by law, the content of
those principles will be increasingly improved.
Generally, intellectual property is intangible and is created by intellectual effort as opposed to
physical effort. In the United States, patents, copyrights and trademarks are governed by federal
140
law. Trade secrets are governed by state law.
A patent is a governmental grant of an exclusive monopoly as an incentive and a reward for a
new invention. To be patentable, an idea must be novel, useful and nonobvious. In the U. S. A , the
owner of a patent controls the right to make, sell and use a product for a period of seventeen years
and a design for fourteen years. If one manufactures, sells, or uses a patented invention without
authorization of the patent owner, he has probably committed patent infringement. The
infringement exists even if the infringer did not know about the patent. Infringers can be liable for
damages and may be enjoined from future infringement.
However, the party challenged with patent infringement can escape liability in a variety of ways.
One way is by proving that the challenged product or process is outside the scope of the patent.
Another way is by proving that the patent is invalid because it fails to meet the criteria for
patentability. A third way is to establish that the patent holder has misused the patent. Misuse of a
patent occurs when a patent holder uses the patent to achieve something illegally. The most
common type of misuse occurs when the patent holder uses the patent to violate the antitrust laws.
A copyright protects the physical expression of intellectual or artistic effort, not the idea. A
copyright is effective for the life of the creator plus fifty years. Anyone who creates an original
work is protected by an automatic common law copyright. Published materials without statutory
copyright protection are said to be in the public domain and may be used by anyone, without the
consent of the creator. To obtain statutory copyright protection, materials must be published with
the copyright notice, which takes the form of the word "copyright" or the abbreviation copr, or the
symbol (c)followed by the name of the copyright owner. Copyrights may be registered with the
Register of Copyright and copies of the copyrighted material are provided by the Library of
Congress. If one violates the copyright created by the copyright notice, he may only be enjoined
from future violations. If he violates a copyright created by registration, he may be liable for
damages, fines or imprisonment. Owners of copyrights may assign their ownership to others.
A trademark is a mark on goods that distinguishes the marked goods from competing goods.
The mark may be a word, picture or design. In order to qualify as a trademark, the mark must not
be overly descriptive or generic. Trademarks are protected through registration. Unauthorized use
of the registered trademarks of others is illegal. Public perception plays a significant role in
trademark law. If the public comes to perceive that a trademark is generic, it will lose its legal
status as a trademark. Public perception can also create a legal right for an attribute of a product. If
a product's shape or style or features are arbitrary and nonfunctional, and the general public comes
to view these features as associated with a particular product, they are said to have acquired a
secondary meaning, which may be registered and protected.
A trade secret may consist of any formula, device or compilation of information which is used
in one's business, and which gives him an opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors
who do not know or use it. Trade secrets must be kept secret. To qualify for protection, the secret
must give the firm a competitive advantage. Unlike patents and copyrights, there is no time limit
on the life of a trade secret. It is effective as long as the secrecy is maintained. The law protects
trade secrets from wrongful appropriation. This does not mean that a competitor cannot use the
same manufacturing process. It only means that the competitor must arrive at the idea
independently.
(TIME ALLOWING: 12 MINUTES)
www.guofa.info/xueshu/flyy/main_2_1
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Notes
1. undue defence: 防卫过当, 正当防卫明显超过必要限度造成重大损害的，属于防卫过当.
2. Intellectual Property: 知识产权.
3. patent: 专利权
Exercises
I. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in
the passage choose the best answer:
1. What’s the difference between a patent secret and a trade secret?
A. The former is protected while the later is not protected by law.
B. The former is a governmental grant while it is not true to the latter.
C. The former is a monopoly while the latter is not.
D. The former has a time span while the latter has not.
2. Which of followings is not the conditions of Justifiable defence?
A. an unlawful infringement
B. not exceeding the limit of necessity and cause serious damage.
C. defending against the perpetrator
D. to prevent the interests of the state and the public，or rights of a person's own or other people
from being infringed u
3. Which of followings is not true about the principle of reasonableness?
A. It is the basic principles of administrative law.
B. It is suitable for the judicial action of judicial departments.
C. It requires administrative activities of administrative subject be reasonable.
D. It is a supplement to the principle of legality.
4. What does the sentence “A copyright is effective for the life of the creator plus fifty years.”
mean?
A. A copyright is effective will not effective after the creator’s death.
B. A copyright is effective when the creator is alive.
C. A copyright is still effective for fifty years after the creator’s death.
D. A copyright is effective for 50 years.
5. What does the word “infringement” mean occurred many times in the passage?
A. violating
B. attacking
C. disturbing
D. harassing
II. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
exempt prescribe foremost confer invalid
liable bind comply undertake justifiable
1. He is
from military service because of his bad health.
2. People who walk on the grass are
to a fine of ＄5.
3. He was
the conductor of his day.
4. A honorary degree was
on him by the university.
5. Your ticket has passed its expiry date, so it is now
.
142
6. What punishment does the law
for this crime.
7. I am
by my promise.
8. She
responsibility four the changes.
9. The factory was closed four failing to
with government safety regulation.
10. He refused to give me a
explanation.
III. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. Laws and Advertisement
2. Laws and Economic Development
3. Laws and Education
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 5′30″
Time You Used: ________
Ireland’s legal system is somewhat unique. While it is derived from the English common law
tradition, the past seventy years have seen the Irish legal system undergo a process of dynamic
development at the initiative of both the judiciary and the legislature. The achievement of
independence in 1921 marked a break from the British system and was followed by the enactment
of the Irish Constitution by the People in 1937. This laid out the fundamental principles upon
which the State was to be governed and also incorporated extensive fundamental rights provisions.
Changes to the legal system have been introduced as a consequence of Ireland’s membership of
the European Union, the most significant of which has been the subordination of national law to
European law within its sphere of competence.
The Irish Constitution was adopted by popular referendum in July 1937 and is the superior law
of the State. Its Irish language title is ‘Bunreacht na hEireann’ which means ‘basic law of Ireland’
and any common law or legislative rule which is found to be in conflict with it is invalid and
consequently without legal effect. It can be divided into two parts, the first of which establishes
the legislative, executive and judicial organs of the State. The Constitution insists upon a strict
separation of powers between these three organs of State. The second part articulates certain
fundamental rights of the citizen which the State guarantees in and by its laws, to respect, defend
and vindicate. The task of interpreting and upholding the Constitution has been entrusted to the
Courts which have therefore had a significant role in shaping the social policy of the State.
Similarly, the Courts have been instrumental in developing the doctrine of unenumerated rights
which has its basis in the Constitution. It may also be of interest to note the recent incorporation
of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
which has introduced a new set of legal obligations for the State within the area of human rights.
In the exercise of their judicial function the Courts are absolutely independent and subject only to
the Constitution and the law.
As a member of the common law family, Ireland’s legal system is characterized by its reliance
on judicial decisions, which by virtue of the doctrine of precedent enjoy binding force of law. The
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common law, as a source of law, refers to a discernible body of law which has emerged from
centuries of judicial decisions. While many areas of Irish law are still governed by common law
rules, the current trend is towards putting most law on a statutory footing. In 1975 a Law Reform
Commission was established with the task of reforming and modernizing outdated aspects of Irish
law. Many of its recommendations have been implemented in legislation.
The legislative organ of the State is the Oireachtas (the National Parliament) which consists of
two Houses, Dáil Eireann (the House of Representatives) and Seanad Eireann (the Senate). As the
popularly elected House, Dáil Eireann enjoys supremacy over the Seanad. A Bill must be passed
by both Houses before being signed into law by the President. Irish legislation falls into two
categories. The first, primary legislation consists of Acts of the Oireachtas, also known as statutes.
The second category is called delegated or secondary legislation which consists of measures
enacted by a person or body to whom the Oireachtas has delegated legislative authority.
On 1 July 1973 Ireland became a member of what was then the European Communities. In
doing so Ireland was required to accept the supremacy of Community law over Irish law in areas
of Community competence. It was therefore necessary to amend the Irish Constitution to reflect
this arrangement. There is now a provision which ensures that nothing in the Constitution can
prevent Community law from having the force of law in the State. Nor can the Constitution be
used to invalidate any national law adopted which was necessitated by membership of the
European Union or the Communities.
Community law takes the form of treaty law, judgments of the European Court of Justice and
legislation enacted by the Community institutions. The most significant forms of Community
legislation are Regulations and Directives. Regulations are automatically applicable within the
Member States and in that sense they bypass the normal legislative procedures of the State.
Directives are different from Regulations in that they will set out a number of legal requirements
that are to be met. However, it is left to each State to decide how it will implement those
requirements in its domestic law. In Ireland, Directives are generally implemented by way of
secondary legislation. The task of ensuring the implementation of Community law has been
entrusted to the European Court of Justice and the Irish Courts are bound by its decisions.
As can be seen, Irish law is derived from a variety of sources which operate on different levels.
The task of the Irish lawyer therefore is to integrate these sources in a coherent manner in the
practice of law.
http://www.civillaw.com.cn
Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. What is the most remarkable change of Ireland’s legal system since it became the member of
the European Union?
A. Irish legal system has developed dynamically under the concerted efforts of both the
judiciary and the legislature.
B. The Courts are absolutely independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law.
C. Community law has become the Constitution in Ireland.
D. Irish national law should submit to the Community law.
2. Which of the following is not the role played by the Court in Irish legal system?
144
A. to reform and modernize outdated aspects of Irish law.
B. to interpret and uphold the Constitution
C. to shape the social policy of the State.
D. to develop the doctrine of unenumerated rights which has its basis in the Constitution.
3. Which of the following is not true about the common law according to the author?
A. It is a source of law in Ireland
B. Its reliance on judicial decisions
C. Now it is a tendency to change most the common laws into the legal laws.
D. It is equally important with the Community law.
Passage 2
Supposed Time: 4′40″
Time You Used:
___
One of the major tasks for Beijing as host of the 2008 Olympic Games is to establish
regulations and laws to govern the preparations for and conduct of the Games. Thus, on April 10
the Olympic Legislation Coordinating Team (OLCT) came into existence and assigned the first
group of tasks involving such areas as communications, public security, health and environmental
protection.
The main responsibilities of the OLCT are to present clear guidelines for rules and regulations
to all relevant agencies, to collect and analyze suggestions for such rules, to coordinate
departmental activities so that rules are promulgated in a timely manner, and to direct agencies to
develop measures to deal with all possible problems that might occur during the Games.
According to the OLCT, when large-scale events were held in the past, the government issued
executive orders to manage all social aspects. However, during the 2008 Games, city management
and law-enforcement officials must follow relevant laws, letting athletes, officials and the public
know what behavior is and is not permissible. In addition, law-enforcement officials must
understand the limits of their powers and have the ability to take timely and efficient action to
cope with different types of problems.
In addition, said Ji Lin, Vice Mayor of Beijing, the Olympic legislation must establish a system
of accountability. If a department does not make suggestions relating to legislation prior to the
Olympic Games and encounters a problem during the Games, the responsible officials in the
department must be punished.
At present, the first group of Olympic legislation requirements, including a “holiday” for
Beijing residents, visa requirements and the operation of motor vehicles, is attracting notice.
Officials said that the idea of the holiday came from the experience of Athens during the 2004
Olympic Games and is aimed at reducing traffic pressure in the city by allowing residents to leave
the city to travel during the Games.
During the 2004 Olympics, nearly half of the 4 million residents of Athens departed,
significantly reducing traffic problems.
With regard to visas, Clive Granger, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics, pointed out
that there still are some practical difficulties for foreigners to get visas. He suggested that allowing
foreigners to obtain visas through the mail, by phone or over the Internet would make the process
more efficient and economical for both the Chinese Government and visitors.
145
He said China can learn from the experiences of Sydney and Los Angeles to resolve the issue so
that more foreigners can come to China to see the Games.
According to the Office of the Beijing 2008 Environmental Development Head-quarters, the
study of these legislation requirements will be completed within six months.
www.bjreview.com.cn
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. Which of the following is not the responsibility of OLCT?
A. to collect and analyze suggestions for such rules
B. to coordinate departmental activities
C. to direct agencies to develop measures
D. to publish the responsible officials
2. Which of the following is not mentioned in the article?
A. Athens Olympic Games
B. Sydney Olympic Games
C. Los Angeles Olympic Games
D. Atlanta Olympic Games
3. Which of the following Olympic legislation requirements attracting the public attention is not
mentioned in the article?
A. a “holiday” for Beijing residents
B. environmental issues
C. the operation of motor vehicles
D. visa requirements
4. In the sentence “the Olympic legislation must establish a system of accountability” (para 4), the
word “accountability” can be interpreted as
A. Legislation
B. punishment
C. entertainment
D. responsibility
Unit 13 Biodiversity
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. What does BIODIVERSITY mean to you?
2. How many species do you guess are there on our planet? Are they friends or rivals of us human
beings?
3. What attitude as well as measures are supposed to be taken concerning biodiversity?
Biodiversity & Humans
Background information
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, refers to the sum total of the different species of animals,
146
plants, and organisms living on Earth and the variety of habitats in which they live. This very
broad term is essentially a synonym of “Life on Earth”.
For a long time past about two thirds of the land on the globe, totaling 7. 6 billion hectares used
to be covered by forests, but now most of the trees have gone and the remaining 2. 8 billion
hectares of forests are quickly diminished. The present rate of world forest loss is 18 million
hectares a year. Owing to man’s interference in the environment and changes in the natural order,
many species of animals and plants extinct. Between 1700 and 1900, more than 20 thousand
species of plants, 593 species of birds, over 400 species of mammals, 209 species of amphibians
and reptiles became extinct. In the present age an average of one species is wiped out daily. Most
biologists agree that we are facing the most serious extinction of species since the disappearance
of dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
A century ago F. Engels has pointed out that, men have been carried away by triumphs over the
nature, but the nature took revenge on men for every victory they enjoyed. The death knell for the
lands of the Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor and Italia was actually sounded by destroying
forests, when men began to harness the nature in the name of control. Slowly it began to emerge
that in our battle to gain control of our planet we had failed to see the dire consequences of the
damage we had done to our environment. As the great nature has meted out such severe
punishment to human beings, people become painfully aware that absolutely undesirable to
deprive the good earth ruthlessly of its resources which nurse mankind.
The shape of the era to come depends on how we manage — or mismanage — our wildlife
heritage. If we are to preserve a world of humans and animals, each adjusting to the others needs,
each necessary for the continued well-being and wholeness of the other, we must learn the best
ways to reconstruct nature's vital system, refuge by refuge.
How Many Species Are There?
Isn't it surprising that scientists have a better understanding of how many stars there are in the
galaxy than how many species there are on Earth? Their estimates of global species diversity vary
from 2 to 100 million species. Most people agree on an estimate of somewhere near 10 million
and yet only 1.75 million have actually been discovered and named. And only a very small
number of those have been examined for their value in medicine, agriculture, or industry. In the
meantime, we are losing much of Earth’s biodiversity. Current knowledge of species diversity is
limited. This problem becomes more serious because there is a lack of a central database or list of
the world’s species.
New species are still being discovered ---- even new birds and mammals. On average, about
three new species of birds are found each year, and since 1990, 10 new species of monkeys have
been discovered. Other groups are still far from being completely described: an estimated 40
percent of freshwater fishes in South America have not yet been classified.
Scientists were startled in 1980 by the discovery of a huge diversity of insects in tropical forests.
In one study of just 19 trees in Panama, 960 new species of beetles were discovered.
As scientists begin investigating other little-known ecosystems, like the soil and the deep sea,
“surprising” discoveries of species become commonplace. There is nothing strange about this,
though, since as many as a million undescribed species are believed to live in the deep sea. And
one gram of a small-sized piece of land might hold 90 million bacteria and other microbes. How
many species these communities contain is still anyone's guess.
147
Loss of biodiversity
The loss of biological diversity may take many forms but at its most fundamental and
irreversible it involves the extinction of species. At present species are disappearing at an alarming
rate. According to the estimate of the American biologist Edward 0. Wilson, we are losing 27,000
species every year. His estimate is accepted by most biologists. Human activities are largely
blamed for this. However, as more and more people realize the importance of biodiversity,
positive steps have been taken to protect endangered species and to preserve biodiversity. In 1992,
at the Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Rio de Janeiro, an agreement was reached by
160 countries, which called on governments to take action to protect plant and animal species.
1) Biodiversity refers to all the living things on Earth and the environment in which they live.
2) Biodiversity is everywhere around us.
3) We can enjoy the beauty of biodiversity when we are close to nature.
4) Different species of flowers, trees, birds, animals show us the wonderful world of
biodiversity / the rich diversity of the living world.
5) All species that share the same natural environment depend on each other / interact with each
other.
6) All species require a small / minimal amount of habitat for survival.
7) Biodiversity is important because all the species that share the same environment, or habitat,
rely on one another for survival.
8) Many species are endangered / threatened. Among these are the panda, the tiger, the sea turtle,
the blue whale, the gray wolf, the bald eagle.
9) Human activities and pollution are important causes of the extinction of species.
10) Governments / International organizations / Industries / Individuals should make great
efforts to save endangered species / preserve biodiversity.
11) The protection of endangered species and habitats should be a top priority.
12) We must find solutions that benefit both humans and non-human species.
What should we do to?
A famous conservationist once said, “Animal conservation is a war to save the human race from
committing suicide.” Do you agree? Yes, I do. As members of the earth's ecosystem, animals play
a major part in maintaining the balance and harmony of the earth's environment. To a great extent,
the human race and other animals rely on one another for survival. The extinction of one species
would eventually lead to the extinction of another. If human beings did not protect animals, their
own survival would soon be endangered. Therefore, a wise policy for the human race is live and
let live.
First, we should protect the environment and control the pollution. Second, we should try to
ensure that each species has a suitable habitat so that all living things on earth will have the
necessary conditions for their survival. When all animals and plants live in a well-balanced
environment on the earth, we will be able to enjoy a beautiful world of biodiversity.
Biodiversity and Foodstuff
An environment that is biologically diverse has lots of different plants and animals. The Food
and Agriculture Organization says this is needed for people to have enough high-quality food to
148
lead active and healthy lives. For World Food Day this year, the United Nations agency chose the
message: “Biodiversity for Food Security”.
The idea of biodiversity recognizes that natural systems are complex and depend on one another.
In agriculture, depending on only a few crops can be dangerous. One example is the Great Potato
Famine in the eighteen forties. Ireland depended on potatoes as a food resource. But a disease
ruined the crop for several years. More than one million people died from hunger.
Yet experts say the world depends on only four crops to provide half its food energy from plants.
These are wheat, maize, rice and potato. The experts say it is important to support a large number
of different food crops and farm animals that can survive different conditions. Such diversity helps
to reduce the risk from losing one main crop.
Farmers also have a responsibility to protect wild species. The Food and Agriculture
Organization says more than forty percent of all land is used for agriculture. Farm fields are an
important place for wild animals to live and reproduce. Also, farmers must consider the effects
that agriculture has on the environment. Farm pollution or poor agricultural methods can harm
wetlands, rivers and other environments needed to support life.
The World Bank says invasive species are a severe threat to biodiversity. Plants and animals
often spread without natural controls when they enter areas they are not native to. They can
destroy crops, native species and property. Invasive species cost the world economy thousands of
millions of dollars each year.
The World Bank says it is the world's largest supporter of biodiversity projects. It says its
support had reached almost five thousand million dollars by the end of the two thousand four
financial year.
(TIME ALLOWING: 15 MINUTES)
(1475 words)
http://blog.5d.cn
Notes
1 Mesopotamia: An area within the Republic of Iraq today, where Babylon used to be located.
Mesopotamia Civilization, which originated from the Sumer Areas between the Tigris and the
Euphrates, remained the earliest cradle of human civilization.
2 Asia Minor: The part of Turkey in Asia (小亚细亚), also called Anatolia (安纳托利亚). The
peninsula forms the western extremity of Asia, between the Black Sea (黑海) and the
Mediterranean Sea (地中海); it also borders on the Aegean Sea (爱琴海). Because of its location
at the point where Asia and Europe meet, it has long been the scene of numerous migrations and
conquests.
3 The Food and Agriculture Organization: An establishment subordinate to the United Nations,
which leads international efforts and works on the principles of defeating world hunger (联合国粮
食及农业组织).
4 World Food Day: This day is on October 16th and was created in 1945, which is also the
anniversary of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
5 the Great Potato Famine: Lack of potatoes ---- the single food energy source ---- in Ireland in
the 1840’s led to the death of over one million people and thus caused an unprecedented
population of immigration from Ireland to the United States.
Exercises:
I. Study the following sentences carefully. Try to make out the meaning of the italicized
words with the help of a dictionary.
1. A new technique to harness solar energy has been popularized.
2. Any refusal to meet their demands will result in dire consequences.
149
3. Those who break laws is bound to be meted out punishment.
4. The trees deprived the house of light.
5. The existence of galaxies beyond the Milky Way has already been proved.
6. It is an irreversible historical trend for each nation to fight for its independence.
7. We three cooperate as equal partners, namely none has priorities over the others.
8. Germany launched an invasive attack to France in 1940.
II. Comprehension of the text: Choose the best answer for each of the questions or
unfinished statements.
1. The rapidly decreasing of biodiversity
.
A. is irresistible along with human progress
B. leaves a tragedy for all other than human
C. has up to now aroused a universal concern
D. means the extinction of animals and plants
2. As far as the number of species are concerned,
.
A. there is still a large area remaining mysterious to scientist
B. there is a balance between those emerge and those extinct
C. there is an upward trend due to the newly-discovered species
D. there is a downward trend due to some biological extinctions
3. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. It is widely acknowledged that we now face an unprecedented biodiversity loss.
B. The existing forest will extinct in roughly 155 years if no improvement is made.
C. Modern people are ignorant and innocent to the degradation of our environment.
D. Only about 17.5% of the estimated species have been named and deeply studied.
4. The ultimate purpose of protecting various species from dying away is to
A. maintain the balance and harmony
B. follow “live and let live” principle
C. enjoy a more beautiful world
D. ensure our own development
5. The mentioning of four crops such as wheat, maize, rice and potato is to illustrate
A. these crops play a great part in food supply
B. these crops are more nutritious than others
C. there is a demand for larger variety of food
D. there is likely another Great Potato Famine
.
.
III. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
wipe out / carry away / revenge on / on average / at a(n) … rate / call on / require … for / rely
on / have a(n) … effect on / native to
1. Flattery cannot hurt unless we get -------- by it.
2. Thanks to the favorable trading policies and economic environment, our company progressed
-------- surprising --------.
3. He is such a person who can -------- to keep the secret.
4. Tobacco is a plant -------- America.
5. We still -------- some background information -------- reference.
6. The fire was out of control for weeks and -------- the whole forest.
7. The transfer of the governmental functions will -------- positive -------- the business reform on
the whole.
8. He decided to -------- his step-mother who spoiled his childhood.
9. I am quite satisfied with my present job, through which I can earn, -------- , $500 a week.
10. The president -------- the whole country to make a great effort for the national union.
IV. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics.
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1. Governments’ responsibility for biodiversity VS. Individuals’ duty for biodiversity.
A: with great financial capacities / on a national and worldwide scale / cooperation between
governments / resort to legal and executive approaches / authoritative / powerful
B: an issue everywhere around us / the power of the great masses / put the macro policies into
action / unite all the people throughout the world
2. Rapid development VS. Environmental protection
A: at a too heavy cost / sacrifice the interests of other species / regardless of the future of our
offspring / deprive humans of his own survival circumstances
B: the importance of environmental protection / the pursuit of sustainable development / give
priority to the environment / strike a balance
3. The merits of science VS. The demerits of science
A: higher living standard / application of automatic appliances / free us from heavy, boring and
dangerous jobs / provide more time and energy for self-development
B: cause much pollution to air, water and soil / lead to the deterioration of environment / lack of
face-to-face communication / spoil historical reserves
V. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
4. My favorite plants and animals.
5. The preservation of biodiversity.
6. Relationship between humans and other species.
Reading Two
The Nature Reserves in China
Ⅰ
As a country with a vast territory, China has a complex topography with great variations. From
north to south the difference in latitudes is 49° and the southernmost point of the Nansha Isles lies
only 400 km north of equator. Coastline of mainland stretches 18000km, dotted with more than
5000 islands. Mountainous regions amount to 33 percent of the total area, among which the other
26 percent are plateaus, 19 percent are basins, 10 percent are hilly lands. China in reality is a
mountain area.
In China, forests, grasslands, deserts, seabeaches, marshes and islands can all be found. Eastern
China has a clearly defined zonality of plant life, from north to south running as: coniferous forest,
mixed coniferous-broadleaf forest, deciduous broadleaf forest, mixed broadleaf forest, evergreen
broadleaf forest, tropical monsoon forest, rain forest and bamboo forest. Other vegetations such as
grassland, shrub growth, meadow, bog vegetation, frozen plain, desert vegetation and alpine plants
also can be observed. The vast majority of the western China is composed of forest-grassland,
meadow, bog vegetation, desert vegetation, with exception of the frigid temperate coniferous
forest in the Altay Mountains.
China boasts 30000 species of higher plants, placing third after Brazil and Malaysia. China
houses approximately 200 unique single genera and a distribution of world-famous relic plants
such as Cathay silver fir, ginkgo, dawn red wood, white aril yew, golden larch, dove tree, Chinese
brestschneidera and eumommia, all of these are peculiar to China. There are 12 families and 800
species of gymosperms in world, of which over 10 families and 230 species are recorded in China.
A variety of pines, larches, dragon spruces and firs prevails from frigid temperate zone to tropical.
China possesses 25 thousand species of angiosperms. Other tropical and subtropical trees that
figure prominently in China are hsienmu, Ford erythrophleum, fewn-erve garcinia, sago,
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champhor tree, nanmu, gurjun, hopea, parashorea. China possesses a splendid array of
economically valuable plants, including perfume plants, oil-bearing plants, edible plants and other
industrial plants. Eumommia, plumyew, devilpepper, mayten and dra-caena are valuable
medicinal plants. Proper conservation and utilization of these wild plants are of major importance
for scientific research and practical use.
China has over 2200 species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, being one of the rich
in wildlife country in world. The giant panda, golden monkey, white-lipped deer, takin,Taiwan
monkey, Chinese river dolphin, giant salamander, brown-eared pheasant, blacknecked crane,
Fujian tragopan, Chinese alligator and other 100 species are rarest animals.
Ⅱ
China is an ancient civilized country. According to historical records, its vast territory used to
be covered by thick vegetation. Some 3000 years ago, forest once covered over 50 percent of the
Loess Plateau. More than 1000 years ago many places in and outside the Great Wall were fertile
farmland and pastures with rich water resources and thick vegetation. And then China's vast
terrain boasts an incredibly rich fauna. During the Spring and Autumn Period (770 to 476B. C. ), a
great quantity of David's deers are recorded along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In the
Ming and Qing Dynasties giant pandas still occurred in western Hubei, western Hunan and eastern
Sichuan.
But frequent wars over the years, the rapid growth of population and the excessive exploitation
have destroyed large tracts of forests and grasslands and upset the ecology. By 1949 was found,
only 3 percent of the Loess Plateau was afforested. Extensive regions have been reduced to areas
crisscrossed by gullies and ravines, the hills are bare and winds and sand storms wreaked havoc.
Wildlife population too were dwindled.
After the founding of new China, in 1956 Bing Zhi, Qian Chong-shu and other renowned
scientists raised the following proposal at the Third Session of the National People's Congress: "It
is hoped that the government will designate specific areas in all provinces (regions) where the
felling of trees is prohibited in the interest of conservation of natural plant life and scientific
research. "In October of the same year the Ministry of Forestry authorized dispatch of the "Draft
Plan for the Designation of Areas for National Forestry Reserve". Since 1956 China officially
opened more than 20 nature reserves, including Dinghu Mountain (Guangdong), Chang-bai
Mountains (Jilin ), Fengling (Heilongjiang), Huaping (Guangxi ) and three reserves in
Xishuangbanna (Yunnan)such as Xiaomengyang, Menlun and Mengla.
Through years of exploratory efforts, a plan for the development of wildlife reserves was put
forward in 1962. From 1966 to 1976 China was rocked by the political and social upheaval
unleashed by the “cultural revolution”. During this decade of chaos a number of China's nature
reserves was damaged beyond belief. Burning and clearing of forests for agriculture, reclamation
of waste-land, felling of trees for timber and hunting for rare birds and animals all raged
unchecked throughout these years.
Since 1976 the number of nature reserves has shot up, and standards of management and
organization of the reserves have steadily improved. In September 1980 a meeting for the
designation of natural protected areas was convened, deciding that designation would be
conducted by governments of provinces (municipalities and regions) and the following regions
should be declared natural protected areas:
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a. The varied typical ecosystems and representative landscapes.
b. Important habitats for the rare flora and fauna at the first level of national protection or other
valuable wild animals and plants.
c. Important natural ecosystems and biota which have been destroyed but must be restored.
d. Special geological sections and geomorphological features such as glacial relics, volcanic
remains, hot springs, repositories of fossils, unique lime stone terrace fields.
2500 specialists were sent to conduct feasibility study and survey. On the basis of their survey,
in August 1983 Ministry of Forestry has draw up lists of the types of nature reserves it plans to set
up. By 1993, there were a total of 501 forest and wildlife nature reserves in China, covering a total
area of 50. 59 million hectares, accounting for 5. 3 percent of the country total. China's reserves
now have 13000 administrative personnel.
Ⅲ
How does a reserve best fulfill its role? Preservation can involve far more than simply setting
animals and plants aside some places and guarding them. Our purpose is make reserve a kind of
place, working hard to ensure the proper abundance and maximum diversity of the animal and
plant kingdom, and suggesting important paths toward the future.
In some key reserves such as habitats for pandas, tigers and elephants, farmers have been
moved away. In other reserves tourism is carefully controlled and farmers are restricted to certain
areas, to ensure that a minimum of harm is done to the environment.
Farmers are not only organized to protect the area, but also encouraged to plant trees, and to
develop livestock breeding and sideline products. These measures will not only bring about
ecological and economic benefits, but also exert a tremendous social impact, for at present, the
State still has difficulty allocating a lot of money for conservation.
Nature reserves were not only established specifically for conservation of natural ecosystem and
scientific research, but also fulfill the educational and tourist roles. Tourist routes and hotels have
been set up in many reserves, most of them are equipped with the exhibition halls, opening to the
public. Many of China's nature reserves have become tourist attractions. Numbers of students and
pupils are flocked to reserves in search of knowledge.
With their integrated ecosystems, rich vegetation and wildlife, many nature reserves provide a
natural laboratory for scientific experiment and offer a sound base for all types of ecological
research. Systematic surveys and general research have been conducted in more than 200 reserves.
They assessed resources and published resultant treatises and reports. Their surveys and
investigations provide a foundation to subsequent research.
In Changbai Mountains, Wuyi Mountains and Dinghu Mountain have been set up forest
ecosystem research stations for monitoring changes in the number distribution and rate of activity
of biota. Quite a number of reserves also have their own mass organizations for conservation
scientific research. After much experimentation great success has reached: artificial incubation
and rearing of the Chinese alligators and cranes. Such characteristic plants as Cathay silver fir,
dove tree, golden flower camelia and white aril yew have been cultivated artificially. These have
won the attention and applause of various circles at home and abroad.
Chinese Government is also very interested in international cooperation with other countries.
Since the 1970s the upsurge of international interest in nature reserves has had a major influence
on China. China's Changbai Mountains, Dinghu Mountain, Shennongjia, Wuyi Mountains, Xilin
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Gol Prairie, Fanjing Mountain and Wolong nature reserves have all been declared international
biosphere reserves by UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere program.
To save the giant panda. Ministry of Forestry of China joined forces with the World Wildlife
Fund to conduct an on-the-spot investigation in Wolong panda reserve. The life, habits and
characteristics of giant pandas in their natural environment were all observed.
(1477 words)
http://www.cbcf.org.cn
(TIME ALLOWING: 15MINUTES)
Notes
3. Altay Mountains: They are a well-known region of Asia with fine natural environment and
are also called “the Jinwai Mountains” or “the Gold Mountains” during ancient times, because
this region is rich in gold and mineral resources (阿尔泰山脉, 古时称金山). Its highest peak,
namely the Friendship Peak (友谊峰), is 4,374 meters above sea-level, from which originates the Ertix River.
4. the Loess Plateau: Plateau featuring deposit of fine yellowish grey soil (found especially in
northern China, central USA and central Europe) (黄土高原).
5. Yangtze River: Yangtze River (扬子江) originally refers to the lower reaches of Changjiang
(长江), which was actually known to foreigners much earlier than Changjiang was. That’s
why it usually refers to Changjiang as a whole.
6. National People's Congress: National People's Congress (NPC) (人民代表大会) of the
People’s Republic of China is the highest organ of state power. The Standing committee of the
NPC (人代会常务委员会) is the permanent organ of the NPC.
7. UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (联合国教科文
组织).
Exercises
I. Comprehension of the text: According to the information from the text concerning the
bio-environment and natural reserves of China, try to find out corresponding figures and fill
the following table.
information
1.
total number of plant zones in China
2.
the ranking of China in higher plants
3.
the proportion of hilly lands in China
4.
the number of wildlife species in China
5.
the percentage of mountainous regions in China
6.
the number of species found nowhere but China
7.
the shortest distance between China and the tropics
8.
the sum of million hectares of the Chinese territory
9.
the decrease of afforestation rate in the Loess Plateau
10.
the number of those engaged in the reserves of China
corresponding figures
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
154
1.
2.
Your view on the instructive significance of natural reserves.
It is said that any artificial means is some kind of interference. Which is better, leaving
everything untouched or trying to protect endangered species via whatever efforts?
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 5′30″
Time You Used: ________
Conservation of land as the time-honored basic natural resources has been deliberately
emphasized in many countries. However, in view of the future of civilization, all of the natural
resources must be remembered: air, water, mineral, grasslands, forests, recreational areas,
wilderness areas, and wildlife. Each of these resources has its unique characteristics and biological
components. The natural resources, wildlife, is singled out for special attention since obliteration
of a species is forever whereas natural feedback signals tell us where other natural resources are in
danger of severe damage.
Just as the problems are diverse, the solutions to these problems are diverse. In general, the
structures of all organisms at all levels of the biological hierarchy are designed for function for
meeting the problems that organisms face. Nature and human nature are interwined in the web of
life. Every reasonable person understands that environment problems exist. The problems of the
environment will not be solved with straightline thinking but with multiple approaches.
Biodiversity has become a hot topic for the 1990s. The term diversity addresses the differences,
among kinds of life, and every species has distinctive, presumably unique features.
It is especially tempting to muse about what awaits the attention of those who turn to flora and
fauna unexplored. Until recently, access to all realms has been extremely limited, and even now
only a small portion of the mantle that embraces the planet can be effectively reached by scientific
observes. Even today no one is quite sure of the exact number of natural species in the world, the
current estimate is some 5 to 10 million, with only 1. 43 million has been named and millions of
species are thought to remain unnamed.
Resistance to the loss of diversity has led to protective measures, usually focusing on individual
species. Clearly, protective for individual species, whether tigers or dolphins, pandas or dugongs,
involves the protection of systems. To maintain a species, it is necessary to maintain a system, and
by maintaining a system many species are saved——not just the ones in the spotlight.
Increasingly, the importance of entire systems is becoming recognized, not just to maintain
biological diversity but as a way to help ensure stability and planetary health.
Each year as the natural history of animals is encroached upon, at an accelerating rate, by the
machinations of man, the role of reserves in protecting wild species and all they represent grows
more essential. These life forms are not only sources of splendor and inspiration but also raw
material for medicine, improved livestock production, genetic engineering, and purposes as yet
scarcely guessed at. For example, which of our fellow plants such as mayten, plumyew do you
suppose will prove most valuable in anticancer drugs.
If we are wise, in 2100 there will still be pandas and tigers mating in the moonlight and our
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people feeling smug for having the good sense to have done what was required to let them be.
(Words: 489)
http://www.cbcf.org.cn
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. Every single creature is born with __________.
A. unique natural feedback signals
B. distinctive capacities of survival
C. all levels of biological hierarchy
D. diverse solutions to all problems
2. The underlined word “turn to” (Paragraph 4) can best be replaced by __________.
A. support
B. advocate
C. be devoted to
D. get busy with
3. There is such a vague estimation about the number of species in the world because
__________.
A. such an issue has hardly enjoyed popularity or concern
B. new species emerge while some others are dying away
C. scholars can only do research within a restricted range
D. the majority of all species world over remain unnamed
4. The author emphasizes that the best or the most effective way is to __________.
A. rescue endangered species
B. seek systemic approaches
C. maintain ecological balance
D. resort to protective measure
5. Which of the following has correctly described the present situation?
A. Humans go on invading into the nature and raping its resource.
B. Humans have realized the role of reserves along with progress.
C. The various life forms may be vital beyond wildest imagination.
D. The various life forms may bring splendor, inspiration and help.
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6. ______ The extinction of a certain kind of life form is comparatively more perceivable.
7. ______ Wildlife deserves special attention because it enjoys the greatest significance.
8. ______ Among the two major dimensions of the tie between humans and nature, one is our
negative impact on it, the other is our concern for it.
9. ______ The underlined phrase “in the spotlight” (Paragraph 5) refers to “arousing universal
concern”.
10. ______ The last paragraph mainly aims at expressing the common desire of us mankind for
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the coexistence of pandas and tigers in 2100.
Passage 2
Supposed Time: 7′00″
Time You Used:
We Have Only One Earth
NEWS
Birds
Butterflies
Mammals
Marine Mammals
Corals
Global Changes
Plants
Fish
Ticket: free
Shells
Shrimps
Visiting time:8:30-17:30
Reptiles
Ecosystem in Hainan
Tel.:0898-65890520
Amphibians
Specimen Storage
Caricature
Hainan Trad. Culture
Hainan Biodiversity Museum
was opened on Sep 28th, 2002
Address:
No.99,
South
Longkun Road, Hainan Normal
University, Haikou city, P.R. China
Construction of Ecological Province
Marine Mammals
The marine mammals hall lies on the second floor in the museum. There are northern fur seal
and largha seal and a large TV set in the front of the hall, the skeleton of the whale in the middle.
Around the wall, the inner organs of the whale are exhibited (such as heart, stomach, lung etc.).
And at the back of the hall, there is another small hall in which a Minke Whale is exhibited.
The whale leaved in the air on November, 17th, 2001 in Lingao county of Hainan Province. An
old woman first found it and reported to the local government. But the local villagers cut the oil
and meet of the whale by ax and knife and at last the whale body was wretched. The government
of Li Gao and Ocean Bureau decided to deliver the whale to the Hainan normal college to
organize specialists to deal with the whale. Then the long-drawn specimen making process began.
Weight (Kg)
Tongue
length (meters)
Width (meters)
1.70
0.9
Heart
29
0.51
0.68
Lung
67
1.35 (left); 1.30 (right)
0.67 (left);0.52 (right)
Intestine
Liver
55m
48
Genital organ
Stomach
1.15
0.82
2.98
67
3.12
0.82
Global Changes
1. Air pollution
Air pollution is the transfer of harmful amounts of natural and synthetic materials into the
atmosphere as a consequence of human activity. Pollutants can be added to the air directly
(primary pollutants), or they can be created in the air (secondary pollutants) under the influence of
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solar radiation. Air pollution can also alter climates and the chemistry of soil, lakes and rivers.
2. Acid rain
Acid rain is a result of fossil fuel burning, which produces sulfur oxides (SO2) and nitric oxide
(NO), which may combine with atmospheric water to form sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid
(HNO3), respectively. Acid rain reduces the PH of soil and lakes, while acidification can also
cause the death of trees and allow toxic metals to be leached from soils and sediments.
3. Water pollution
Water pollution can be divided into four categories: biological agents, dissolved chemicals,
non-dissolved chemicals and heat. Organic matter in the water is broken down by microorganisms
that deplete the oxygen levels, which may be quantified by the 'biochemical oxygen demand'
(BOD). A particularly important class of organic water pollutants is the family of polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), a group of stable chlorinated compounds which are highly toxic to vertebrates.
4. Soil pollution
A range of chemicals cause soil pollution problems, of which halogens (primarily solvents and
pesticides) constitute the largest group. These chemicals are manufactured. The most complex
group of compounds which are found polluting soils include polymers such as nylon, plastics and
rubber. Bioremediation is a technique of utilizing microorganisms for the decontamination of
polluted soils.
5. The Greenhouse effect
The 'greenhouse effect' is a theory which proposes that pollution by common anthropogenic
pollutants such as CO2 and methane may lead to an increased global temperature. The atmosphere
formed around the Earth insulates the planet from the full effects of heat loss by trapping heat in
the atmosphere using greenhouse gases, which include water vapor as well as CO2 and other
anthropogenic pollutants. Doubling of the atmospheric CO2 concentration from its present level is
predicted to lead to a further warming of around 3.5oC.
6. Ozone
Prior to the development of the stratospheric ozone layer which forms the 'ozone shield', the
evolution of terrestrial life was inhibited. DNA efficiently absorbs UV light, which seriously
disrupts DNA replication, causing reproductive failure and death. Relatively small increases in
UV radiation can cause mutations during the replication process that may result in the production
of cancerous cells. If the trend of ozone loss continues it is predicted that the ozone shield will be
depleted by a further 107o by 2050, this may lead to an additional 300 million cases of skin
cancer.
(701 words)
http://blog.bioon.cn
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. Totally __________ catalogues of creatures are on display in the Hainan Biodiversity
Museum.
A. 13
B. 15
C. 17
D. 19
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2.
3.
4.
5.
According to the information above, acid rain __________.
A. is caused by acid chemicals released.
B. is a consequence of the natural force.
C. will threaten the lives on our planet.
D. will produce toxin to soil and water.
It can be inferred from the passage that __________.
A. microorganism helps to decompose the organic materials.
B. microorganism produces highly toxic pollutants in water.
C. bioremediation can be used as a prevention of pollutants.
D. bioremediation works in solving the problem of polymer.
Which of the following statements is correct based on the passage?
A. The changes of CO2 or ozone levels in the atmosphere will cause air pollution.
B. Each doubling of CO2 level will raise the global temperature of roughly 3.5oC.
C. Without ozone shield, UV light will touch our skin easily, causing skin cancer.
D. UV light can influence the duplication of DNA and cause pathological change.
This passage is most probably taken from __________.
A. an professional thesis
B.
C.
D.
an informative brochure
a report from newspaper
an entertaining magazine
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6. ______ Everyone is welcomed to the museum with no extra charge.
7. ______ There exhibits the specimen of one whale and two seals on the second floor of the
museum.
8. ______ The lung and the stomach of the specimen is almost of the same weight and size.
9. ______ The seriousness of air pollutants brought forth by us humanities has far exceeded
that of the pollutants which are formed by the solar radiation.
10. ______ The damage caused by UV light to plants, which could reduce primary productivity,
would finally affect the whole ecosystems.
Unit 14 Celebrity
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. Have you ever read reports about ElizabethⅡthrough various media? What do you think
about her?
2. What does a Queen mean to you?
3. What are the differences between the systems of governments of China and Britain?
159
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth was born at in London, on 21 April 1926. Her father was Prince Albert, Duke of
York (the future George VI), the second eldest son of George V and Queen Mary. Her mother was
The Duchess of York (née Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth, and, after her
daughter's accession to the throne, the Queen Mother), the daughter of Claude George
Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and his wife, Nina Cecilia
Cavendish-Bentinck, the Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
She was baptised in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace by Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop
of York. Her godparents were King George and Queen Mary, the Princess Royal, the Duke of
Connaught, the Earl of Strathmore and Lady Elphinstone.
Elizabeth was named after her mother, while her two middle names are those of her paternal
great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra, and grandmother, Queen Mary, respectively. As a child her
close family knew her as "Lilibet". Her grandmother Queen Mary doted on her and George V
found her very entertaining. At 10 years old, the young Princess was introduced to a preacher at
Glamis Castle. As he left, he promised to send her a book. Elizabeth replied, "Not about God. I
already know all about Him".
As a granddaughter of the British sovereign in the male line, she held the title of a British
princess with the style Her Royal Highness. Her full style was Her Royal Highness Princess
Elizabeth of York. At the time of her birth, she was third in the line of succession to the crown,
behind her father and her uncle, the Prince of Wales. Although her birth generated public interest,
no-one could have predicted that she would become Queen. It was widely assumed that her uncle,
the Prince of Wales, would marry and have children in due course. Had Edward stayed on the
throne and produced no heirs (which would have been likely due to his wife Wallis Simpson's
reproductive issues), Elizabeth would still have not become Queen had her parents ever produced
a son; even though younger than Elizabeth, such a son would have had precedence over her, and
assumed the throne as King.
The young Princess Elizabeth was educated at home, as was her younger sister, Princess
Margaret, under the supervision of her mother, then the Duchess of York. Her governess was
Marion Crawford, better known as "Crawfie". She studied history with C. H. K. Marten, Provost
of Eton, and also learned modern languages; she speaks fluent French. She was instructed in
religion by the Archbishop of Canterbury and has remained a devout member of the Church of
England.
When her father became King, in 1936 upon the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII,
she became Heiress Presumptive and was thenceforth known as Her Royal Highness The Princess
Elizabeth. There was some demand in Wales for her to be created The Princess of Wales, but the
King was advised that this was the title of the wife of the Prince of Wales, not a title in its own
right. Some feel the King missed the opportunity to make an innovation in Royal practice, by
re-adopting King Henry VIII's idea of proclaiming his eldest daughter, Lady Mary, Princess of
Wales in her own right.
Elizabeth was thirteen years old when World War II broke out, and she and her younger sister,
Princess Margaret, were evacuated to Windsor Castle, Berkshire. There was some suggestion that
the princesses be sent to Canada, but their mother refused to consider this, famously saying, "The
160
children could not possibly go without me, I will never leave the King, and the King will never
leave his country." In 1940, Princess Elizabeth made her first broadcast, addressing other children
who had been evacuated.
In 1945, Princess Elizabeth convinced her father that she should be allowed to contribute
directly to the war effort. She joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service, where she was
known as No 230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, and was trained as a driver. This
training was the first time she had been taught together with other students. It is said that she
greatly enjoyed this and that this experience led her to send her own children to school rather than
have them educated at home. She was the first, and so far only, female member of the royal family
to actually serve in the armed forces, though other royal women have been given honorary ranks.
During the VE Day celebrations in London, she and her sister dressed in ordinary clothing and
slipped into the crowd secretly to celebrate with everyone
Elizabeth made her first official overseas visit in 1947, when she accompanied her parents to
South Africa. During her visit to Cape Town she and her father were accompanied by Jan Smuts
when they went to the top of Table Mountain by cable car. On her 21st birthday, she made a
broadcast to the British Commonwealth and Empire, pledging to devote her life to the service of
the people of the Commonwealth and Empire.
Elizabeth married The Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark) on 20
November 1947. The Duke is Queen Elizabeth's second cousin once removed; they are both
descended from Christian IX of Denmark (she being a great-great-granddaughter through
Alexandra of Denmark, and the Duke a great-grandson through George I of Greece). The couple
are also third cousins; they share Queen Victoria as a great-great-grandmother. Prince Philip had
renounced his claim to the Greek throne and was simply referred to as Lieutenant Philip
Mountbatten before being created Duke of Edinburgh prior to their marriage. The marriage was
controversial. Greece's royal family was considered minor and in any event had received bad press
in preceding decades. Furthermore, Philip was Greek Orthodox, with no financial resources
behind him, and had sisters who had married Nazi supporters. Elizabeth's mother was reported in
later biographies to have strongly opposed the marriage, even referring to Philip as "the Hun".
After their wedding, Philip and Elizabeth took up residence at Clarence House, London. At
various times between 1946 and 1953, the Duke of Edinburgh was stationed in Malta as a serving
Royal Navy officer. Lord Mountbatten of Burma had purchased the Villa Gwardamangia (also
referred to as the Villa G'Mangia), in the hamlet of Gwardamangia in Malta, in about 1929.
Princess Elizabeth stayed there when visiting Philip in Malta. Philip and Elizabeth lived in Malta
for a period between 1949 and 1951 (Malta being the only other country in which the Queen has
lived, although at that time Malta was a British Protectorate).
On 14 November 1948, Elizabeth gave birth to her first child Prince Charles of Edinburgh.
Several weeks earlier, letters patent had been issued so that her children would enjoy a royal and
princely status they would not otherwise have been entitled to. Otherwise they would have been
styled merely as children of a duke. The couple had four children in all. Though the Royal House
is named Windsor, it was decreed, via a 1960 Order-in-Council, that those descendants of Queen
Elizabeth II and Prince Philip who were not Princes or Princesses of the United Kingdom should
have the personal surname Mountbatten-Windsor. In practice all of their children, in honour of
their father, have used Mountbatten-Windsor as their surname (or in Anne's case, her maiden
name). Both Charles and Anne used Mountbatten-Windsor as their surname in the published banns
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for their first marriages.
As her father's health declined during 1951, Elizabeth was soon frequently standing in for
him at public events. She visited Greece, Italy and Malta (where Philip was then stationed) during
that year. In October, she toured Canada and visited President Harry S. Truman in Washington,
D.C. In January 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand. They
had reached Kenya when word arrived of the death of her father, on 6 February 1952, of lung
cancer.
Elizabeth was staying in a treetops hotel when told of her own succession to the throne — a
unique circumstance for any such event. She was the first British monarch since the accession of
George I to be outside the country at the moment of succession, and also the first in modern times
not to know the exact time of her accession (because her father had died in his sleep at an
unknown time). On the night her father died, the Chief Justice of Kenya Sir Horace Hearne, who
would later accompany the Royal Party back to the UK, escorted the Princess Elizabeth, as she
then was, to a dinner at the Treetops Hotel, which is now a very popular tourist retreat in Kenya. It
was there that she "went up a princess and came down a Queen".
After Prince Philip broke to Elizabeth the news of her father's death, Martin Charteris, then
Assistant Private Secretary to the new Queen, asked her what she intended to be called. "Elizabeth,
of course," she replied. The royal party returned immediately to England. Elizabeth II's
Proclamation of Accession was read at St James's Palace, on Thursday, 7 February, 1952. In
Canada, a separate proclamation was issued by the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on the same
day. The following year, the Queen's grandmother, Queen Mary, died of lung cancer on 24 March
1953. Reportedly, the Dowager Queen's dying wish was that the coronation not be postponed.
Elizabeth's coronation took place in Westminster Abbey, on 2 June 1953.
（TIME ALLOWED: 16 Minutes）
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II_of_the_United_Kingdom
Notes
1. VE Day: 欧洲胜利日（1945 年 5 月 8 日）
2. Greek Orthodox: of or relating to or characteristic of the Eastern Orthodox Church(希腊正
教)
3. privy council: an advisory council to a ruler (especially to the British crown) (枢密院)
Exercises:
I. Comprehension of the text: decide whether the following sentences are true or false. Put a
T for true and F for false.
1. Elizabeth was named after her paternal great-grandmother.
2. Elizabeth was created the Princess of Wales in her own right.
3. Elizabeth sent her own children to public school to be educated.
4. It’s Elizabeth’s sisters who married Nazi supporters.
5. Both Elizabeth’s father and grandmother died of lung cancer.
6. When her father died, Elizabeth and Philip were on a tour in Kenya.
7. Elizabeth is a member of the Church of England while Philip was Greek Orthodox.
8. Princess Elizabeth was forced to serve in the army during World WarⅡ.
9. It was in Westminster Abbey where Elizabeth’s proclamation of Accession was read.
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10. Elizabeth is also the Queen of Canada and Australia.
II. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
Baptize/ dote on/ style/ devout/ bad press/ stand in for/ due/ abdication/ in one’s own right/ break
1. Gotten --------, cholesterol is essential for children.
2. She is a peeress --------.
3. It’s my -------- hope that he will not come back.
4. My voice -------- to a whisper.
5. He just -------- hot buttered scones.
6. His success is entirely -------- to hard work.
7. She was -------- Mary.
8. He’s -------- all responsibilities in the affair.
9. He said he would -------- me any time.
10. He has the right to use the -------- of Captain.
III. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics
1. Man is superior to woman VS. equality of man and woman
A. deep-rooted/ more responsibilities/ support the family/ sense of security
B. the same responsibility/ job and housework/ her own surname/ the same potential
2. (of marriage) be well-matched in social and economic status VS. romantics complex
A. common language/ habit of life/ consumptive power/ status of friends/ interest
B. the base of marriage/ happy/ bring forth responsibility/ make people younger
3. royalty stand aloof from the masses VS. stick together through thick and thin with the masses
A. of high station/ eminent/ know little about the life of the masses/ prejudice/ self-righteous
B. prosperous and powerful/ loyalty/ support/ work with tremendous vigor
IV. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. My military training at university
2. World peace
3. Celebrity and economy
Reading Two
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July, 1950, Shamley Green, Surrey),
sometimes abbreviated as SRB for "Sir Richard Branson", is an English entrepreneur, best known
for his Virgin brand, a banner that encompasses a variety of business organizations. It is estimated
that Branson is worth over £3 billion (equivalent to more than US$5 billion) according to the
Sunday Times Rich List 2006. On the 12th of October, 2006, he emphasized his stated plan is to
invest $3 billion over 10 years to fight global warming.
Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School (now Bishopsgate School) until the age of 13. He
then attended Stowe School until he was 15. Branson suffered from dyslexia and had a generally
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curious spirit, resulting in his not being a good student. He was the captain of football and cricket
teams, and started two ventures by the age of 15 that eventually failed: one growing Christmas
trees and another raising budgerigars. At 16, Branson decided to quit school and move to London,
where he began his first successful entrepreneurial activity setting up Student magazine. When he
was 17, he opened his first charity, the "Student Valley Centre". Branson started his first record
business after he traveled across the English Channel and purchased crates of "cut-out" records
from a record discounter. He sold the records out of the trunk of his car to retail outlets in London.
He continued selling cut-outs through a record mail order business in 1970.
Branson eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street in London and, shortly after,
launched the record label Virgin Records with Nik Powell. Branson had gained enough profits
from his record store to purchase a country estate, in which he installed a recording studio. He
leased out studio time to fledgling artists, including multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield. Virgin
Records' first release was Oldfield's Tubular Bells, which was a best-seller and British LP chart
topper. The album was released by Virgin after no other company dared to release the
unconventional record . The company signed controversial bands such as the Sex Pistols, which
other companies were reluctant to sign. It also won praise for exposing the public to obscure
avant-garde music such as the krautrock bands Faust and Can. Virgin Records also introduced
Culture Club to the music world. In the early 1980s, Virgin purchased the gay nightclub Heaven.
To keep his airline company afloat, Branson sold the Virgin label to EMI in 1992, a more
conservatively-minded company which previously had rescinded a contract with the Sex Pistols.
Branson is said to have wept when the sale was completed since the record business had been the
genesis of the Virgin Empire. He later formed V2 Records to re-enter the music business.
Branson formed Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984, and in 1997,he took what many saw as
being one of his riskier business exploits by entering into the railway business. Virgin Trains won
the franchises for the former Intercity West Coast and Cross-Country sectors of British Rail.
Launched with the usual Branson fanfare, with promises of new high-tech tilting trains and
enhanced levels of service, Virgin Trains soon ran into problems with the aging rolling stock and
crumbling infrastructure it had inherited from BR. The company's reputation was almost
irreversibly damaged in the late 1990s as it struggled to make trains reliably run on time while it
awaited the modernization of the West Coast Main Line, and the arrival of new rolling stock.
Branson also launched Virgin Mobile in 1999, Virgin Blue in Australia in 2000, and later failed in
a 2000 bid to handle the National Lottery.
Virgin has acquired European short-haul airline Euro Belgian Airline, renaming it Virgin
Express. It also started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria. Another airline,
Virgin America, is set to launch out of San Francisco International Airport in 2007. Branson has
also developed a Virgin Cola brand, but is now retreating only to the UK market, and even a
Virgin Vodka brand, which has not been an overly successful enterprise. As a consequence of
these lackluster performers and perceived obscure accounting practices, the satirical British
fortnightly magazine, Private Eye has been critical of Branson and his companies.
After the so-called campaign of "dirty tricks", Branson sued rival airline British Airways for
libel in 1992. John King, then-chairman of British Airways, countersued Branson, and the case
went to trial in 1993. British Airways, faced with likely defeat, settled the case, giving £500,000 to
Branson and a further £110,000 to his airline and had to pay legal fees of up to £3 million.
Branson divided his compensation (the so-called "BA bonus") among his staff.
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On September 25, 2004, he announced the signing of a deal under which a new space tourism
company, Virgin Galactic, will license the technology behind Spaceship One to take paying
passengers into suborbital space. The group plans to make flights available to the public by late
2007 with tickets priced at $200,000. The deal was mostly financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul
Allen, and the modern American space engineer & visionary, Burt Rutan. At the same time,
Branson's next venture with the Virgin group is Virgin Fuel, which is set to exploit the recent spike
in fuel costs by offering a revolutionary, cheaper fuel for automobiles and also aircraft (in the near
future).
Branson has been tagged as a 'transformational leader' by management lexicon, with his
maverick strategies and his stress on the Virgin Group as an organization driven on informality
and information, one that's bottom heavy rather than strangled by top-level management. He is the
No 1 Admired Businessman in Britain, and 2nd choice amongst youth for Prime Minister (after
Tony Blair). On September 21st 2006 Branson pledged to donate the profits of Virgin Atlantic and
Virgin Trains to research environmentally friendly fuels. The donation is estimated to be worth $3
billion.
Branson has guest starred, playing himself, on several television shows, including Friends,
Baywatch, Birds of a Feather, The Daily Show, Only Fools and Horses, The Day Today and a
special episode of the comedy Goodness Gracious Me. He also was the star of a reality television
show on Fox called The Rebel Billionaire, in which sixteen contestants were tested for their
entrepreneurship and sense of adventure. It did not succeed as a rival show to Donald Trump's The
Apprentice and only lasted one season.
His high public profile often leaves him open as a figure of satire — the 2000 AD series
Zenith featured a parody of Branson as a super villain, as the comic's publisher and favored
distributor and the Virgin group were in competition at the time. He is also caricatured in The
Simpson’s episode "Monty Can’y Buy Me Love" as the tycoon Arthur Fortune, and as the
ballooning megalomaniac Richard Chutney (a pun on Branson) in Believe Nothing. He has a
cameo appearance in two films, Around the World in 80 Days where he played a hot air ballon
operator and Superman Returns, where he was credited as a "Shuttle Engineer", alongside his son
Sam, with Virgin Galactic-esque commercial suborbital shuttle at the center of his storyline. He
will have a cameo in the upcoming James Bond film Casino Royale as well. He makes a number
of brief and disjointed apperances in the cult classic documentary Derek and Clive Get the Horn
which follows the exploits of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore recording their last comedy album.
And in early 2006 on Rove Live, Rove and Sir Richard pushed each other into a swimming pool
fully clothed live on TV during a "Live at your house" episode.
Branson was honored by the Conservative government in the 1980s, and was briefly given
the post of "litter tsar" by Margaret Thatcher– charged with "keeping Britain tidy." He was again
seen as close to the government when the Labour Party came to power in 1997. In 2005 he
declared that there were only negligible differences between the two main parties on economic
matters. He reputedly considered running for Mayor of London in 2004, but decided not to,
describing himself as a libertarian.
In 1993, Branson received the honorary degree of Doctor of Technology from Loughborough
University, and became Sir Richard Branson when he was knighted by the Queen in 1999 for
"services to entrepreneurship". He is the Patron of the International Rescue Corps, which is one of
the few truly independent front-line search and rescue organizations in the world – a
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UK-registered charity, financed solely by donations and their own fund raising, and manned
totally by volunteers.
Sir Richard appears at No. 85 on the 2002 list of "100 Greatest Britons" (sponsored by the
BBC and voted for by the public). Ironically, he also ranks No. 86 on 2003 BBC list of "100 Worst
Britons".
(TIME ALLOWING: 14 MINUTES)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson
Notes
1. Surrey: a country in southeastern England on the Thames.
2. LP: a long-playing phonograph record; designed to be played at 33. rpm
Exercises
I. Comprehension of the text: Answer the following questions in your own words
1. Why did Branson quit school?
2. It is said that Branson have wept when he sold the record business, why?
3. What made the company’s reputation irreversibly damaged in the late 1990s?
4. Why has Branson been called a “transformational leader”?
5. What do you think about Branson?
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
1. Entrepreneur VS philanthropist
2. What’s your opinion about the performance of a student at school?
3. What’s a sound competition like in your opinion?
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 5′30″
Time You Used: ________
BHARATI MUKHERJEE
“I’m a voluntary immigrant. I became a citizen by choice, not by a simple accident of birth.”
So Bharati Mukherjee declares in “American Dreamer,” a 1997 Mother Jones essay, illustrated by
a picture of her wrapped in a flag and standing in a cornfield, in which she makes the point that
immigrants in the late twentieth century are subject to demonization, and that Americans need to
be reminded that immigrants are a source of cultural enrichment for the nation: “As a writer, my
literary agenda begins by acknowledging that America has transformed me. It does not end until I
show that I (along with the hundreds of thousands of immigrants like me) am minute by minute
transforming America.”
Born to a prosperous Bengali Brahmin family in Calcutta, India, and schooled in Indian
university (B.A., University of Calcutta; M.A., University of Baroda), she came to the United
166
States to complete her education with a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop.
Though her family expected that she would get her doctorate and return to the marriage that had
already been arranged for her, she surprised both herself and them by marrying Clark Blaise, a
fellow writing student, an act which she says, “hurled me into a New World life.” With her
husband she relocated to Canada, where she taught for fourteen years before insisting that her
husband and two sons accompany her to the United States because she regarded Canadian racial
attitudes as resistant to “Cultural fusion.” In the United States she has lived and taught on both
coasts, currently teaching at the University of California, Berkeley.
Mukherjee’s first novel, The Tiger’s Daughter (1973), treats the isolation of an educated
Indian woman who has decided to marry an American and live in North America. Returning to
India, she finds herself unable to connect with family and friends. Wife (1975) concerns an
expatriate Indian woman who has difficulties adjusting to life the United States, the novel’s violent
ending shows Mukherjee’s concern with the potential for violence among people caught in the
middle of two cultures. With her husband, Mukherjee wrote a joint memoir of their visit to
Calcutta, Days and Night in Calcutta (1977).
During the 1980s Mukherjee produced two collections of short stories: Darkness (1985) and
The Middleman and Other Stories (1989). The second collection was awarded the National Book
Critics Circle Award. The stories chart Mukherjee’s transformation from an expatriate Indian
writer to a North America one who is interested in seeing how various groups of
immigrants—Italian, Latin American, Sri Lankan, Vietnamese, Jamaican, and Indian—deal with
the experience of settling in a chosen country. “The management of Grief,” the final story of the
later collection, deals with the terrorist bombing of an Air Indian plane in 1985. She and her
husband also wrote a nonfiction treatment of that disaster, The Sorrow and the Terror: The
Haunting Legacy of the Air Indian Tragedy (1987). Mukherjee saw Canada’s treatment of the
plane crash as symptomatic of its attitude toward the “others” in the population, symbolized by the
sympathy call the Canadian prime minister made to Indian governmental officials despite the fact
that most of the victims were Canadian citizens of Indian descent.
(Words: 535)
The American Tradition in Literature Volume II
Copyright © 1999, by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. From which university did Bharati Mukherjee get her Master degree?
A. University of California
B. University of Calcutta
C. University of Baroda
D. University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop
2. “The Management of Grief” is a story from __________.
A. The Tiger’s Daughter
B. Days and Nights in Calcutta
C. Darkness
D. The Middleman and Other Stories
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3. In 1985, there was a terrorist bombing of an Air India Plane. Mukherjee wrote a non-fiction
treatment __________.
A. Darkness
B. The Sorrow and The Terror
C. The Management of Grief
D. The Middleman and Other Stories
4. Mukherjee is now a citizen of __________.
A. India
B. Canada
C. America
D. Italy
5. In Mukherjee’s view, Americans should keep in mind that __________.
A. immigrants are subject to demonization
B. immigrants are helpful to enrich the nation’s culture
C. America transforms immigrants
D. Immigrants transform America
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6. ______ Mukherjee’s husband is a native America.
7. ______ After 14 years teaching in Canada, Mukherjee and her family moved to America
because she became tired of the life in Canada.
8. ______ Days and Nights in Calcutta deals with the things about Mukherjee’s campus life in
Calcutta.
9. ______The Middleman and Other Stories received the National Book Critics Circle Award for
Mukherjee.
10. ______ Mukherjee, with her career achievements, proved that immigrants are a source of a
cultural enrichment for the nation.
Passage 2
Supposed Time: 6′50″
Time You Used:
___
A Date With a Dangerous Mind
Excerpts
By Scott MacLeod/Havana
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD isn’t one for ceremony. We are waiting in a villa outside Havana
when Ahmadinejad strides in without notice, taking even his aides by surprise. He is wearing
blue-gray trousers, black loafers and the trademark tan jacket that even he calls his “Ahmadinejad
jacket ”. He mutters something to himself as he settles into an aging leather chair with bad springs.
For a moment, he seems irked by the chair, perhaps because it makes him seem even smaller than
his 1.63m, but soon he’s smiling, prodding, leaning forward to make his points. “We are living our
own lives,” he says, when asked about his differences with the Bush Administration. He jabs the
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back of my hand for emphasis. “The U.S. government should not interfere in our affairs. They
should live their own lives.”
When he made his first trip to the U.S. last year for a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly,
Ahmadinejad was still a curiosity—a diminutive, plainly dressed man who had come out of
nowhere to win Iran’s presidential election. But in New York City this week, he won’t have
trouble being recognized. His incendiary statements—he has declared the Holocaust a “myth,” has
said Israel should be “wiped away” and has called the Jewish state “a stain of disgrace”—have
made him the most polarizing head of state in the Muslim world. Under Ahmadinejad, Iraq has
built up its influence in Lebanon and Iraq and made clear its intention to become the dominant
power in the oil-rich Persian Gulf. He has also accelerated work on Iran’s civilian nuclear program,
which the U.S. believes is geared toward producing a nuclear bomb. Though pictures of the
Iranian President often show him flashing a peace sign, his actions could well be leading the world
closer to war.
For all his bluster, Ahmadinejad remains an enigma. His powers are limited by Iran’s political
structure, in which ultimate authority over matters of state rests with the country’s Supreme
Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei. The regime has threatened to retaliate against American interests
“in every part of the world” if the U.S. were ever to launch a military strike against Iran. But
Ahmadinejad has also made rhetorical gestures of conciliation, sending an open letter to George W.
Bush and inviting the U.S. President to a televised discussion about “the ways of solving the
problems of the international community.” (Bush ruled it out last week. ”I’m not going to meet
with him,” he said at a White House news conference.)
Over the course of the 45-minute interview, he was serious, smiling and cocky-evidence of a
self-assurance that border’s on arrogance. His brown eyes locked onto mine when he made a point
about Iran’s nuclear program. His rhetoric was measured, but he was adamant on the issues that
have made him so controversial. He dismissed U.N. demands that Iran suspend its
uranium-enrichment program but said, “We are opposed to the development of nuclear weapons.
We think it is of no use and that it is against the interest of nations. ” He waved a hand
dismissively when I couldn’t grasp his logic in questioning the Holocaust. Asked to defend his
claim that the Holocaust was a myth, he went on a rambling rant, claiming that those who try to do
“independent research” on the Holocaust have been imprisoned. “About historical events,” he says,
“there are different views.”
Ahmadinejad’s handlers said our interview would last only 30 minutes, but he let it go on
despite their protests. At last we were passed a note: “The time is over and Mr. President has an
important meeting with the Cuban President. Goodbye.” Ahmadinejad bolted from the room,
swapped his jacket for a suit coat and climbed into a Mercedes. As the car pulled away, he sat in
the back with an aide, smiled one more time and threw us a final wave.
(Words: 655)
(From TIME, Middle East, September 25. 2006)
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. According to the passage, Ahmadinejad’s aim is to __________.
A. make Iran the dominant player in the Middle East
B. retaliate against American interests
C. develop nuclear weapons
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2.
3.
4.
5.
D. wipe out Israel
According to the passage, we know that __________.
A. America and Iran are in conflict
B. Ahmadinejad won Iran’s presidential election a week ago
C. Ahmadinejad is smaller than 1.63m
D. The interview last 30 minutes
On the nuclear program issues, Iran __________.
A. suspended its uranium-enrichment program according to U.N. demands
B. is opposed to developing nuclear weapons
C. will cooperate with American scientists
D. will move on to develop its own nuclear weapons
We learn from the passage that Ahmadinejad is a person that __________.
A. is easy to approach
B. respect the choice made by other countries
C. play big-power politics
D. is skilled in debating
The writer’s attitude to Ahmadinejad is __________.
A. respect
B. objective
C. dislike
D. inference
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
6. ______ All Iranians hate Bush interfering in their affairs.
7. ______ Ahmadinejad is an arrant racist.
8. ______ Ahmadinejad wanted to please Bush.
9. ______ There is no closeness between Iran and Israel.
10. ______ In Iran, the ultimate authority over matters of the state rests with Ahmadinejad.
Unit 15 Human Rights
Reading One
Warming-up discussion
1. What occurs to you as far as such a term as “human rights” is concerned?
2. What do you think constitutes the most fundamental and most important items of human rights?
3. Can you mention several elements which exert influences on human rights?
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and
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proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the
following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries
to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read
and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction
based on the political status of countries or territories."
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have
outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy
freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest
aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to
rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in
fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of
men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in
larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United
Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental
freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for
the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples
and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this
Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these
rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their
universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States
themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason
and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made
on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to
which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other
limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
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Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all
their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of
the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this
Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts
violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial
tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved
guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his
defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which
did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was
committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the
penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the
protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each
state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from
non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his
nationality.
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Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have
the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during
marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection
by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others
and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and
observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to
hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through
any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through
freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be
expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and
shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization,
through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and
resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity
and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable
conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself
and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other
means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and
173
periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of
himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social
services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood,
old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether
born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and
fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional
education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all
on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the
strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote
understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall
further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their
children.
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the
arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from
any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set
forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his
personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations
as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the
rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and
the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and
principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any
right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights
and freedoms set forth herein.
(1850 words)
(TIME ALLOWING: 18 MINUTES)
Notes
1. the General Assembly of the United Nations: An organization of the United Nations (联合国
174
大会), which is composed of all the member states of the UN, each with no more than 5
representatives.
2. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: An declaration issued by the United Nations on
the basic rights of humanities (《世界人权宣言》).
Exercises:
I. Study the following sentences carefully. Try to make out the meaning of the italicized
words with the help of a dictionary.
1. The authorities has oppressed and arrested those brazenly proclaimed rebellion.
2. News is disseminated by means of television and radio.
3. The great scientist tried to expound his latest theory to his students.
4. Hearing the news, he wrinkled his nose in contempt.
5. The little girl hoped to solve this problem without recourse to her teacher’s help.
6. First of all, we have to ensure the freedom against tyranny through legislative enactment.
7. This is the remedy for breach of contract.
8. A paradise serves as an asylum of political refugees.
9. Mr Black was chosen to be the new chairman by universal suffrage.
10. Every employee is well remunerated for their hard work in this company.
II. Comprehension of the text: Choose the best answer for each of the questions or
unfinished statements.
1.Which of the following statements conforms to the passage?
A. Humans announced their faith and aspiration in this respect for the first time.
B. Rebellion is the most powerful and effective approach of protecting freedom.
C. The universal awareness is the first step towards the building of a new world.
D. A wide range of people have already kept this Declaration constantly in mind.
2.
mainly deal with people’s equality before law.
A. Article 1 and Article 2
B. Article 6 and Article 7
C. Article 11 and Article 12
D. Article 15 and Article 16
3.
mainly deals with people’s relationship with governments.
A. Article 18
B. Article 19
C. Article 21
D. Article 22
4.
mainly deal with the restriction of human rights.
A. Article 8 and Article 10
B. Article 8 and Article 19
C. Article 25 and Article 26
D. Article 29 and Article 30
5.The purpose of the debut of Universal Declaration of Human Rights lies in
.
A. the preamble
B. Article 2
C. Article 14
D. Article 29
III. Language work: fill in the blanks with the words and phrases listed below. Change the
form where necessary.
endow / in a spirit of / be entitled to / incite / on account of / deprive of / access to / in
accordance with / indispensable for / in no case
1. Everyone devoted to scientific research should forge ahead -------- pioneers.
2. The doctors didn’t resort to surgical operation -------- the tender age of the patient.
3. China will -------- be the first to use nuclear weapons.
4. An outstanding artist or athlete must be richly -------- by nature.
5. Children are -------- the affection and association of two parents, not one.
175
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
It is the membership that provides the -------- to the club.
Plenty of fresh air during sleep is -------- good health.
The order will executed -------- the terms agreed.
My old granny -------- sound sleep due to severe backache.
His speech has, to a large extend, intensified the -------- of racial hatred.
IV. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and debate upon the
following topics
1. Faith and Religion VS. Laws and Regulations.
A: faith is noble / religion is holy / purify people’s hearts / nurture people’s good will / bring forth
harmony / live in friendliness / develop mutually caring interrelationship
B: laws are authoritative and powerful / regulations are compulsory and effective / cover every
aspect of our society / punish the illegal protect the due rights / bring forth order and
discipline
2. Absolute freedom VS. Relative freedom
A: involves several most basic forms of freedom / rights of survival / rights of development /
rights of security / rights of education / rights of working
B: view society as a whole / be considerate for one another / limits of one’s freedom ensures that
of another / more beneficial on the whole / ensure an equal and democratic community
3. Rights VS. Obligations
A: two separate and opposite terms / enjoy rights with leisure and delight / take up obligations
with endeavor and hardiness / one can only give up rights rather than obligations
B: two interacted terms / complement each other / rights are granted along with the fulfillment of
obligations / obligations are accompanied with the of enjoyment of rights
V. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully.
1. The forms of human rights you have enjoyed during your daily life.
2. The universal nature of human rights shared by all the peoples across the world.
3. The distinctive traits of human rights based on the practices of different nations.
Reading Two
History of Human Rights
Ur-Nammu, the king of Ur created what was arguably the first legal codex in ca. 2050 BC.
Several other sets of laws were created in Mesopotamia including the Code of Hammurabi, (ca.
1780 BC) which is one of the best preserved examples of this type of document. It shows rules
and punishments if those rules are broken on a variety of matters including women's rights,
children's rights and slave rights.
The Persian Empire (Iran) established unprecedented principles of human rights in the 6th
century BC under the reign of Cyrus the Great. After his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, the king
issued the Cyrus Cylinder (see Graph 1), discovered in 1879 and recognized by many today as the
first human rights document. The cylinder declared that citizens of the empire would be allowed to
practice their religious beliefs freely. The cylinder also abolished slavery, so all the palaces of the
kings of Persia were built by paid workers in an era where slaves typically did such work. These
two reforms were reflected in the biblical books of Chronicles and Ezra, which state that Cyrus
released the followers of Judaism from slavery and allowed them to migrate back to their land.
The cylinder now lies in the British Museum, and a replica is kept at the United Nations
176
headquarters.[citation needed]
Three centuries later, the Mauryan Empire of ancient India established unprecedented principles
of civil rights in the 3rd century BC under the reign of Ashoka the Great. After his brutal conquest
of Kalinga in ca. 265 BC, he felt remorse for what he had done, and as a result, he adopted
Buddhism. From that point, Ashoka, who had been described as "the cruel Ashoka" eventually
came to be known as "the pious Ashoka". During his reign, he pursued an official policy of
nonviolence (ahimsa). The unnecessary slaughter or mutilation of animals was immediately
abolished, such as sport hunting and branding. Ashoka also showed mercy to those imprisoned,
allowing them outside one day each year, and offered the common citizen free education at
universities. He treated his subjects as equals regardless of their religion, politics or caste, and
constructed free hospitals for both humans and animals. Ashoka defined the main principles of
nonviolence, tolerance of all sects and opinions, obedience to parents, respect for teachers and
priests, being liberal towards friends, humane treatment of servants (slavery was non-existent in
India at the time), and generosity towards all. These reforms are described in the Edicts of Ashoka.
Elsewhere societies have located the beginnings of human rights in religious documents. The
Vedas, the Bible, the Qur'an and the Analects of Confucius are some of the oldest written sources
which address questions of people’s duties, rights, and responsibilities.
In 1215 King John of England issued the Magna Carta, a document forced upon him by the
Pope and English barons, which required him to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal
procedures and accept that the will of the king could be bound by law. Although the document did
not itself limit the power of the king in the Middle Ages, its later reinterpretation in the
Elizabethean and Stuart periods established it as a powerful document on which constitutional law
was founded in Britain and elsewhere.
Several 17th and 18th century European philosophers, most notably John Locke, developed the
concept of natural rights, the notion that people possess certain rights by virtue of being human.
Though Locke believed natural rights were derived from divinity since humans were creations of
God, his ideas were important in the development of the modern notion of rights. Lockean natural
rights did not rely on citizenship nor any law of the state, nor were they necessarily limited to one
particular ethnic, cultural or religious group.
177
Graph 1
Graph 2
Graph 3
Graph 1: Cyrus Cylinder
Graph 2: U.S. Declaration of Independence ratified by the Continental Congress on July
4, 1776
Graph 3: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by the National
Assembly of France, August 26, 1789
Two major revolutions occurred that century in the United States (1776) and in France (1789).
The United States Declaration of Independence (see Graph 2) includes concepts of natural rights
and famously states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Similarly, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (see Graph 3) defines a set of
individual and collective rights of the people. These are held to be universal ---- it sets forth
fundamental rights not only of French citizens but acknowledges these rights to all men without
exception.
Philosophers such as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill and Hegel expanded on the theme of
universality during the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison wrote in a
newspaper called The Liberator that he was trying to enlist his readers in "the great cause of
human rights" so the term human rights probably came into use sometime between Paine's The
Rights of Man and Garrison's publication. In 1849 a contemporary, Henry David Thoreau, wrote
about human rights in his treatise On the Duty of Civil Disobedience which was later influential
on human rights and civil rights thinkers.
Many groups and movements have managed to achieve profound social changes over the course
of the 20th century in the name of human rights. In Western Europe and North America, labour
unions brought about laws granting workers the right to strike, establishing minimum work
conditions and forbidding or regulating child labour. The women's rights movement succeeded in
gaining for many women the right to vote. National liberation movements in many countries
succeeded in driving out colonial powers. One of the most influential was Mahatma Gandhi's
movement to free his native India from British rule. Movements by long-oppressed racial and
religious minorities succeeded in many parts of the world, among them the civil rights movement
in the United States.
(“Human Rights Watch World Report” Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 18:27:18 - 0400 (EDT)) This
year marks an important milestone for the human rights movement, an opportunity to assess
progress in the fifty years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also
178
is a significant year for Human Rights Watch, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary. As
described in this introduction, it is a moment to note the growing strength of the human rights
cause, the enhanced scope of people claiming their rights, and the many new governments from all
parts of the world willing to subscribe to the human rights ideal. But it is also a moment to
consider the sizable challenges ahead, as the human rights movement strives to overcome hostility
and indifference on the part of many governments, not only by those that shun the human rights
ideal, but also by many that claim to uphold it. Some of the greatest disappointments of the past
year were the actions of declared friends of human rights.
This World Report is Human Rights Watch on the ninth annual review of human rights practices
around the globe. Covering developments in sixty-eight countries, it is released in advance of
Human Rights Day, December 10, 1998, which marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. The report covers events from December 1997 through early
November 1998. Most chapters examine significant human rights developments in a particular
country; the response of global actors, such as the European Union, Japan, the United Nations, the
United States, and various regional organizations; and the freedom of local human rights
defenders. Other chapters address important thematic concerns. As in past years, the report does
not include a chapter on every country where we work, nor does it discuss every issue of
importance. The failure to include a country or issue often reflects no more than staffing and
funding limitations, and should not be taken as commentary on the significance of the related
human rights concerns. Other factors affecting the focus of our work in 1998 and hence the
content of this volume include the severity of abuses, our access to information about them, our
ability to influence abusive practices, and our desire to balance our work across various political
and regional divides and to address important thematic concerns.
(1392 words)
www.fifid.com/subject/1412403/editions
http://www.hrw.org/worldreport99
(TIME ALLOWING: 14 MINUTES)
Notes
8. EDT: East Daylight Time (美国东部时间、东部白昼时间).
9. Ur-Nammu: The king of the Third Ur Dynasty (乌尔第三王朝的国王乌尔那模).
10. the Code of Hammurabi: It is the oldest as well as the best preserved code drawn and issued
by Ur-Nammu (汉默拉比法典，由乌尔那模国王制订的、人类历史上最早的成文诠典).
11. Persian Empire: The ancient Iraq established an empire with Persians as its center (550BC –
330BC). Being ruled by the Family of Achaemenian, it is also called the Achaemenian Empire
or the Achaemenian Dynasty (波斯帝国，又称阿契美尼斯帝国).
12. Cyrus Cylinder: This clay cylinder (赛勒斯圆柱), which is inscribed with a foundation
inscription of Cyrus II (559-530BC) in Babylonian cuneiform, is one of the most famous
objects from ancient Persia. It was placed in the foundations of the city wall of Babylon soon
after Cyrus’ conquest of the city in 539 BC.
13. the Mauryan Empire / Dynasty: It was a period when politics, art, trade and commerce
raised India to a glorious height (孔雀王朝), marking a new era in the history of India. It was
the first empire to declare control over nearly the entire Indian subcontinent and it was during
this period that India established its contact with the outside world.
179
14. Rock Edicts and Pillar Edicts of (King) Ashoka: (阿育王石刻和石柱) Ashoka was
the most famous of the Maurya emperors (阿育王).
15. the Vedas: (佛陀, 古印度经典).
16. the Qur'an: (古兰经).
17. the Analects of Confucius : (论语).
Exercises
II. Comprehension of the text: Choose the best answer for each of the questions or
unfinished statements.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Code of Hammurabi
.
A. was enacted by Hammurabi
B. was enacted by Ur-Nammu
C. covered little range of contents
D. remained the oldest legal codex
was the first attempt in securing equal membership of people.
A. The Code of Ur-Nammu
B. The Code of Hammurabi
C. The Cyrus Cylinder
D. The Edicts of Ashoka
The document of the Magna Carta
.
A. was publicized through the willpower of the King
B. secured human rights in the interest of the people
C. had exerted a profound and far-reaching influence
D. still worked in the Elizabethean and Stuart periods
In which year was Human Rights Watch initiated?
A. In the year1999.
B. In the year1979.
C. In the year1959.
D. In the year1949.
The ninth yearly review of human rights practices on an international scale
A. had ignored some events and works
B. dealt with nothing but human rights
C. covered factors in other broad fields
D. was released on December 10, 1998
.
II. In-depth discussion: based on the information contained in the text and targeting the
specific conditions in real life, discuss the following topics fully
3. Do you agree that ideology is a type of special power, which serves as a sharp weapon and
helps to set people on the road towards their dreams?
4. What role did those philosophers such as Locke, Paine, Hegel, Garrison, Mill and Thoreau
play in the human history? How did they awake people’s ignorance and raise their
awareness?
5. What are the opportunities and obstacles concerning the present development of human
rights?
Reading Three
Passage 1
Supposed Time: 5′30″
180
Time You Used: ________
Racial Violence
By Jon Lu
2005 was a year marred by repeated racial violence and riots in several major developed
countries around the globe. Except in the US, much of the racial violence was directed towards
Arabs living in the western countries, whether they had become citizens of or were new
immigrants to these countries.
The major contributing factor to the rising racial tension against Muslims in developed
countries was the suicide attack on Sept. 11 in America. Subsequent terrorist attacks in Bali, Spain
and London also bred anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment in the West. In response to these
attacks, authorities in developed countries almost universally increased surveillance on terror
suspects, sometimes on the Muslim communities, tightened immigration policies and heightened
their alertness against potential trouble spots and trouble makers. Galvanized by this new wave of
anti-Muslim sentiment, Muslim minorities in these countries find it much harder to assimilate and
integrate into their adopted home countries.
Today, in the United States and the European Union countries, immigration, assimilation and
identity are the hottest of political topics. If these debates and discussion illustrate a profound
trans-Atlantic divide, they also reveal sharp differences within the European countries in their
experiences of immigration and their responses to it. While racial riots and clashes did happen in
American history quite a few times, European experience of absorbing immigrants into the
community in the past 60 years often, in many ways, compare unfavorably with the American
experiences.
The history of the past 60 years shows that in their response to immigrants, western European
countries have been wavering between two distinctive models in an effort to achieve social
cohesion and harmony: the Swedish model versus the American model. Sweden is a universal
welfare state based on a homogeneous society with intensely shared values. On the other hand, the
United States is a much less homogeneous and more individualistic society which believes in
self-worth and does not have the same sense of obligation between citizens.
These trans-Atlantic divides stem from starkly different historical experiences. America, since
the arrival of the Mayflower boat off the coast of Massachusetts in the early 1600s, has always
been a land of opportunities for newcomers. The success of the industrial revolution in the US in
the 19th century was fueled by British capital and by the cheap labor of millions of immigrants. To
a remarkable degree, from generation to generation, these newcomers, in spite of some initial
discrimination against them, largely accepted the American gospel of equality through hard work
and dignity through reward.
There was more than a kernel of truth when in 1988 President Reagan stated in a White House
speech: “Every immigrant makes America more American. You can’t become an Englishman by
going to live in England or a Frenchman by going to live in France. But anyone can become an
American.” This proclamation was echoed by a Venetian who spent much of his adult life in
England. He once said: “I have become British, but I know I can never become English.”
In contrast, modern Europe has no experience of dealing with large-scale immigration form
181
outside the continent until after 1945. Furthermore, European history is filled with examples of
violence against racial and religious minorities and racial discrimination. For example, German
immigration law, dating back more than a hundred years, was very much racially discriminatory in
spirit. Anyone who can prove German descent can claim German nationality, but it was very
difficult for anyone else to “become a German”. Clearly, Hitler’s murder of millions of Jews and
other minorities during the 1940s was grounded upon this kind of historical legal precedent.
(Words: 550)
http:// www.ell.com.cn
(598)
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
6. The underlined word “marred by” (Paragraph 1) can best be replaced by
A. faced with
B. filled with
C. damaged by
D. pervaded by
7. A sequence of terrorist attacks does not resulted in
.
A. collaboration between governments against terrorism
B. much harder endeavor of assimilation and integration
C. corresponding adjustment in administrative measures
D. growing awareness and rising alertness about security
8. Compared with the American history, European countries are
.
A. more conservative and exclusive
B. more open, fair, hostile and equal
C. more homogeneous and harmonious
D. more individualistic and self-striving
9. How do you understand the last but one paragraph?
A. There is no much strict standard for being Americans.
B. An outsider cannot get French or English nationality.
C. Reagan’s statement coincides with that of a Venetian.
D. America is melting pot consists of various migrants.
10. The main purpose of this passage is to
.
A. reflect the differences between Americans and Europeans
B. reveal the characteristic and deep roots of racial violence
C. describe the fact of racial riots and clashes in developed countries
D. analyze the attitudes toward migration between European nations
.
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
1. ______ There was no racial violence in USA in the year 2005.
2. ______ Most of the discrimination and violence were imposed on the basis of one’s
182
3.
4.
5.
environmental and cultural background while growing up.
______ Alertness against terrorism should not be oriented towards common people.
______ Both Sweden and USA have become successful examples for maintaining social
stability in terms of racial problems.
______ Nazi’s deeds had just succeed their historical tradition and legal precedent, which is
therefore understandable and reasonable.
Passage 2
Supposed Time: 6′04″
Time You Used: ________
Beauty
By Susan Sontag
For the Greeks, beauty was a virtue: a kind of excellence. But now not only do we split off the
“inside” form the “outside”, but we are actually surprised when someone who is beautiful is also
intelligent, talented, good. By limiting excellence to moral virtue only, Christianity set beauty
adrift ----- as an alienated, arbitrary, superficial enchantment. For close to two centuries it has
become a convention to attribute beauty to only one of the two sexes: the sex which, however Fair,
is always Second.
To be called beautiful is thought to be named something essential to women’s character and
concerns. (In contrast to men whose essence is to be strong, or effective, or competent.) It does not
take someone in the throes of advanced feminist awareness to perceive that the way women are
taught to be involved with beauty encourages narcissism, reinforces dependence and immaturity.
Everybody knows that. For it is a whole society that has identified being feminine with caring
about how one looks. Given these stereotypes, it is no wonder that beauty enjoys, at best, a rather
mixed reputation.
It is not, of course, the desire to be beautiful that is wrong but the obligation to be ----- or to try.
What is accepted by most women as a flattering idealization of their sex is a way of making
women feel inferior to what they actually are. Women are taught to see their bodies in parts, and to
evaluate each part separately. Breasts, feet, hips, waistlines, neck, eyes, nose, complexion, hair,
and so on ----- each in turn is submitted to an anxious, fretful, often despairing scrutiny. Even if
some pass muster, some will always be found wanting. Nothing less than perfection will do. In
men, good looks is a whole, something taken in at a glance. As for perfection, that is considered
trivial ----- almost unmanly. Think of the depreciation of women ----- as well as of beauty ----- that
is implied in that judgment.
The privileges of beauty are immense. What is lamentable is that it is the only form of power
that most women are encouraged to seek. This power is always conceived in relation to men; it is
not the power to do but the power to attract. To preen, for a woman, can never be just a pleasure. It
is also a duty. It is her work. If a woman does real work ----- and even if she has clambered up to a
leading position in politics, law, medicine, business, or whatever ----- she is always under pressure
to confess that she still works at being attractive. But in so far as she is keeping up as one of the
Fair Sex, she brings under suspicion her very capacity to be objective, professional, authoritative,
183
thoughtful. Damned if they do ----- women are. And damned if they don’t.
One could hardly ask for more important evidence of the dangers of considering persons as split
between what is “inside” and what is “outside” than that interminable half-comic half-tragic tale,
the oppression of women. How easy it is to start off by defining women as care-takers of their
surfaces, and then to disparage them (or find them adorable) for being “superficial.” It is a crude
trap, and it has worked for too long. But to get out of the trap requires that women get some
critical distance from that excellence and privilege which is beauty, enough distance to see how
much beauty itself has been abridged in order to prop up the mythology of the “feminine.” These
should be a way of saving beauty from women ----- and for them.
(607 words)
http:// www.ell.com.cn
Reading Comprehension I (Reading in Depth)
Choose the best answer for each of the questions or unfinished statements.
1. What is the common prejudice against beauty?
A. Beauty is but a blossom.
B. Beauty is only skin deep.
C. Beauty has been linked to women.
D. Beauty has been largely degraded.
2. Women are conditioned to
.
A. pursue the image of being fair but second
B. keep beautiful while smart and competent
C. be inferior to what they actually should be
D. view the appearance as their only attribute
3. The double norms judging males and females respectively reveal that
.
A. women are the fairer and more appealing sex
B. men are the stronger and more competent sex
C. women’s desire for beauty has gone to extremes
D. men don’t lay emphasis on being beautiful at all
4. A successful career woman
.
A. is still stressed by the obligation to be appealing
B. values the power to do rather than that to attract
C. is freed from the pressure of searching for beauty
D. is expected to be self-confident in her own ability
5. How do you interpret the underlined phrase “a crude trap” in the last paragraph?
A. It has put close ties between the essence of the female sex and the nature of beauty.
B. It designs the way of life for females and constrains them within an inferior status.
C. It set duty for females while deprives them of equal rights for conducting that duty.
D. It has deteriorated beauty from an all-round manner to something solely superficial.
Reading Comprehension II (Skimming and Scanning)
Mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if
the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the
information is not given in the passage.
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6.
______ Beauty is commonly accompanied by lack of virtue or intelligence, which in turn
brings it both positive and negative names.
7. ______ All too often, a woman regards her face as a mask and her body as an object, which is
separated from and more important than her real-self.
8. ______ Women, in particular, should not appreciate beauty or feel compulsory to pursue
beauty since it will make them inferior, unknowledgeable and superficial.
9. ______ In an ideally “beautiful” man, a small blemish will be considered positively
desirable.
10. ______ The dilemma from which women has suffered for years is supposed to and can only
be addressed by the joint effort of both males and females.
Unit 16 Globalization
Reading One
Warming-up Discussion
1. What has made possible the process of globalization?
2. Opportunity or threat? Whose blessing and whose curse?
3. How to handle properly the process of economic globalization and trade liberation?
What are the right approaches developing countries should take in the world
economic globalization?
An Age of Globalization
Hopes and Fears in an Integrating World
The past century has seen more advances in global prosperity, and more people
lifted out of poverty, than in all of human history. There are many reasons for this
achievement, but globalization has played an important catalytic role. Yet,
paradoxically, there is a widespread perception that globalization is having a
detrimental impact on the poor.
In spite of the wide usage and the intensive debate that is now underway, there is
no precise or widely-accepted definition of globalization. Globalization can be
summarized as the global circulation of goods, services and capital, but also of
information, ideas and people. It has shaped all of the 20th century, albeit with large
cyclical variations, and has become an increasingly visible force in recent decades.
Although there are many factors that have spurred and in turn have been reinforced by
globalization, two have played a particularly important role in contributing to its
accelerating pace in the 1980s and 1990s. The first is technical progress especially in
information technology, international communication and global transportation. Not
only goods but also services and knowledge can flow much more easily because of
innovations such as the Internet. The second major development is the shift in policy
orientation as governments everywhere have reduced barriers that had curbed the
development of domestic markets and their links to the international economy.
These forces of integration have contributed to global prosperity and development
transformation. Despite a population increase from 1.8 billion to 6.0 billion, and
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despite giant political upheavals and wars, real average income per person has at least
quintupled over the past century. Average global per capita income today exceeds that
of the richest country at the turn of the century. And today’s average life expectancy
exceeds that of the lead country 100 years ago.
The pace of progress has also accelerated. It took the United Kingdom some 60
years to double income per capita in the 19th century. Today we have seen that
countries with populations ranging from millions to a billion can double income per
head in a decade (China, Japan, Korea) and quickly reach life expectancy of more
than 70 years. By enabling and indeed “pressuring” countries to adopt best practice
pioneered elsewhere in the world, globalization has been an important agent for
change and transformation.
Yet there are sharply divided views on the benefits that it has brought developing
countries and the poor. One view is that globalization has “left out” most developing
countries because they have been unable to reap its benefits. Another, contrasting
view (often advanced together with the former observation) is that there has been “too
much” globalization and that this has been detrimental to the poor.
Facets of Globalization
The evidence suggests that developing countries are becoming more integrated
with the global economy and that the pace has accelerated over the past decade. But
except for the successful East Asian economies, the level and pace of their integration
has until recently lagged that of the developed countries. Moreover, progress on
integration has been uneven between developing countries, in trade and international
finance and more recently in terms of information technology.
Trade. There has been a growing divergence over the last three decades in shares
of trade, between those countries actively participating in the global economy and
those that do not. For many of the poorest, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) the
problem is not that they are being impoverished by globalization, but that they are in
danger of being largely excluded from it. The minuscule 0.4 percent share of these
countries in world trade in 1997 was down by half from 1980.
Financial flows. Similarly, although financial flows to developing countries have
also grown dramatically, they remain concentrated: fifteen emerging market countries,
mainly in East Asia, Latin America and Europe, accounted for 83 percent of all net
long-term private capital flows to developing countries in 1997. Sub-Saharan Africa
as a whole received only 2 percent of the total.
Information Technology. Rapid technological change and global connectivity has
generated an information and knowledge gap between countries, the so-called “digital
divide.” About half of the world’s population has never made a phone call, while
Africa has only 2 percent of the world’s telephone mainlines. Only 2.4 percent of the
world population are users of the internet, almost all of whom are concentrated in the
OECDⅰ countries. Roughly 90 percent of Internet host computers are located in
high-income countries that account for only 16 percent of world population.
Overcoming this digital divide is going to be a key challenge for developing countries
in the coming years.
Globalization and Poverty
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Poverty Trends. It is important to distinguish between the incidence of poverty as
a percentage of a total population and the absolute number of the poor. The share of
the population in poverty has declined for developing countries as a whole (from
28.3% in 1987 to 24% in 1998 based on $1/day and from 61% in 1987 to 56% in
1998 based on $2/day) and in all developing regions except Sub-Saharan Africa and
Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Declines have been pronounced and sustained over
a longer time period for the most populous developing countries. For example, the
incidence of poverty in India measured by the official poverty line fell from 57% in
1973 to around 35% in 1998, whereas the incidence of poverty fell from 60% to 20%
between 1985 and 1998 for Indonesia. Standards of living have also improved. Infant
mortality rates globally have been cut in half during 1970-1997, from 107 to 56 per
thousand; and life expectancy has risen from 55 years to 67 years. However, in spite
of this broad based progress, more than 40 developing countries with 400 million
people have had negative or close to zero per capita income growth over the past
thirty years. And the absolute number of poor have continued to increase in all
regions except East Asia and the Middle East. Overall, despite impressive growth
performance in many large developing countries, absolute poverty worldwide is still
increasing.
Globalization, Growth and Poverty. Globalization has played an important
catalytic role in reducing poverty in developing countries through its impact on
growth. More open economies, and those who have been more successful in
accelerating their pace of integration, have recorded the best growth performance,
whereas developing countries with inward oriented policies have suffered from poor
growth rates. A recent study estimates that an increase in the ratio of trade to GDPⅱ
by one percent raises the level of income by one-half to two percent (Frankel and
Romer, 1999). By stimulating higher growth, integration can have a strong positive
impact on poverty reduction. There is now robust cross-country empirical evidence
that growth is on average associated one-for-one with higher incomes of the poor.
There are, however, significant variations in this relation between countries. In the
aggregate, no more than 50% of the variation in the poverty measure is explained by
differences in growth. Another way to state this is to say that poverty is affected by
many factors other than growth. For example, initial levels of income inequality and
changes in inequality may also impact poverty. There seems to be, therefore, large
scope for designing more pro-poor growth policies although more research is needed
to deepen our understanding of the poverty impact of specific policies. Also, average
changes in poverty mask a great deal of churning associated with growth and
structural change, in which some lose and others gain.
Direct Impact of Trade Integration on the Poor. Trade integration can also affect
the poor beyond and above its impact through higher growth, but these effects are not
clear cut. In general, for the poorest countries, opening up trade will expand the
production of goods intensive in the use of low-skilled labor, but the demand for the
least-skilled labor may not be boosted by trade and may be adversely affected by
technological change spread by globalization. For middle-income countries, the
impact on the poor is likely to be even less clear cut based on the prevalence of the
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poor in previously sheltered sectors relative to potentially expanding sectors, and the
competition coming from large low-income countries. The impact of trade
liberalization will also vary depending on the post-liberalization pattern of inequality,
which in turn will depend on the way trade reform is managed and on other
accompanying reforms. There is evidence, however, from a large developing country
sample of medium-to-long term growth episodes that, on average, in
economies/periods of fast trade integration, income growth of the poor has kept pace
with mean income growth (Global Economic Prospects 2001, forthcoming). By
contrast, in economies/periods of slow or declining outward orientation, on average
the poor have tended to fall behind.
(Time Allowed: 20 minutes)
(excerpted from Poverty in An Age of Globalization, The World Bank October 2000)
Notes
1.OECD :Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
The OECD groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic
government and the market economy. With active relationships with some 70 other
countries, NGOs (Non-Government Organization) and civil society, it has a global
reach. Best known for its publications and its statistics, its work covers economic and
social issues from macroeconomics, to trade, education, development and science and
innovation.
2.GDP: Gross Domestic Product
GDP is one of the several measures of the size of economy. The GDP of a country is
defined as the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country
in a given period of a nation in a year.
Exercises
Ⅰ Multiple Choice (Choose the right one from the following options)
1. According to the passage which of the following is not right about globalization?
A. Globalization played a critical role in poverty relief and global advances in the 20th
century.
B. Globalization involves the global circulation of goods, services and capital, but
also of information, ideas and people.
C. Globalization has shaped all of the 20th century and has become an increasingly
visible force in recent decades.
D. Globalization is having a blessing for the poor.
2. Which of the following is not the factors which have accelerated the process of
globalization?
A. technical progress
B. the shift in policy orientation
C. a population increase from 1.8 billion to 6.0 billion
D. the innovation of the Internet
3. In the past century developing countries _______.
A. become less integrated with the global economy in the recent decades
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B. have until recently catched up with the developed countries in the level and pace of
integration
C. have got uneven progress in trade and international finance and in terms of
information technology in different regions
D. have benefited much from the so-called “digital divide.”
4. In which terms has the progress of integration been uneven between developing
countries?
A. trade
B. international finance
C. information technology
D. above alll
5. What’s the author’s attitude globalization?
A. optimistic
B. pessimistic
C. opposed
D. neutral
ⅡShort Answer
1. Explain what is globalization.
2. What factors have accelerated the pace of globalization?
3. What are the fears of integrating world?
4. Has globalization led to wider gap between developing countries and developed
countries?
5. What’s the impact trade integration on the poor?
Ⅲ. Multiple Choice (Choose the one which has the same meaning with the underlined
parts from the given options)
1. The past century has seen more advances in global prosperity, and more people
lifted out of poverty, than in all of human history.
A. fell into
B. got rid of
C. struggled against
D. suffered from
2. The pace of progress has also accelerated.
A. delayed
B. speeded up
C. changed
D. slowed
3. There is now robust cross-country empirical evidence that growth is on average
associated one-for-one with higher incomes of the poor.
A. little
B. persuasive
C. special
D. hardly
4. Yet, paradoxically, there is a widespread perception that globalization is having a
detrimental impact on the poor.
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A. great
B. favorite
C. harmful
D. long-term
5. There is no precise or widely-accepted definition of globalization.
A. definite
B. standard
C. given
D. authorized
IV. Pros and cons: study the recommended key words/phrases, pair up, and
debate upon the following topics
1. Globalization has become the economic buzz-word of this decade. Is it for good or
ill?
A: blessing, potential, boost productivity, living standard, better division of labor
between countries, capital, shift, investment opportunities,
B: increased competition, destroy jobs, push down wages, reduce taxes, currency
crisis
2. Developing countries should welcome globalization and seize the opportunity of
economic development.
A: knowledge and expertise, profit from the exchange, choice, tariffs ,
B: protectionism, risk, impoverished, detrimental, economic and cultural control
3. One of the consequences of globalization will be the end of the cultural diversity.
A: culture dominated by monetary relationships and commercial values, replace
the traditional values, the Internet, cultural imperialism
B: different nations and races, geography, climate, religions, ways of living,
history, traditions and customs, long-rooted thoughts,
V. In-Depth Discussion
1. What is the role of the Internet and communication technology in globalization?
Give some examples in our daily life.
2. Do you think that with the investment of increasing transnational co operations in
China, some day western culture will replace of Chinese traditional culture?
Reading Two
Across Latin America, Mandarin Is in the Air
Elizabeth Zamora is a busy mother and executive. Still, for three hours every
Saturday, she slides into a battered wooden desk at Bogota’s National University and
follows along as Yuan Juhua, a language instructor sent here by China’s government,
teaches the intricacies of Mandarin.
Zamora already speaks German and English, but she struggles to learn written
Chinese characters and mimic tones unknown in Spanish. She persists for a simple
reason: China is voraciously scouring Latin America for everything from oil to
lumber, and there is money to be made. That prospect has not only Zamora but
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business people in much of Latin America flocking to learn the Chinese language,
increasingly heard in boardrooms and on executive junkets.
“It’s fundamental to communicate in their language when you go there or they
come here,” said Zamora, 40, a sales executive for the German drugmaker Bayer,
which is growing dramatically in China. “If you don’t know their language, you’re
lost.”
Latin America, with its vast farmlands and ample oil reserves and mineral
deposits, has become a prime destination for investors and others from China, whose
economy has been growing at 9 percent annually. The total value of trade between
China and Latin America rose from just over $10 billion in 2000 to $50 billion last
year, according to Chinese trade data.
“Latin American countries want to diversify their markets, and they see a huge
opportunity, not just in the present but in the potential for growth,” said Chris Sabatini,
a senior director of policy for the New York-based Council of the Americas, a
business association that encourages trade in the Americas. “Latin Americans, as
people in any country, should be opportunistic, and they see opportunity with China.”
Chinese companies are investing in farmland and energy installations in Brazil.
Beijing has signed a free-trade agreement with Chile, its first with a Latin American
country, while announcing investments in the Chilean copper industry and gas and oil
fields in Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia. Beijing has also cemented a $5 billion oil
deal with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, which is seeking to diversify exports
to other countries beyond the United States.
The arrival of China in a largely Spanish-speaking region half a world away
might seem unusual. But Beijing is in a relentless quest for oil, coal, iron ore and
copper for its factories, soybean and poultry to feed its 1.3 billion people, lumber for
housing, and fish meal for its livestock. President Hu Jintao’s government, which two
years ago pledged $100 billion in investments for several South American countries,
said it also wants to bankroll road, port and railroad developments that would help
bring exports more quickly to China.
Veering toward China, though, is far from easy for entrepreneurs and students
from a region that has long been intertwined with the giant to the north. The United
States remains the biggest investor in Latin America, its trade with the region eight
times that of China’s. English prevails as a second language.
Mandarin, on the other hand, is considered far harder to learn, with dialects and a
tenor significantly different from the phonetic cadences of Spanish and Portuguese.
Yet the Chinese language is making gains, as is the revolutionary idea of looking west
across the Pacific for business opportunities.
“The world is divided into east and west, and the culture is completely different,”
said Miguel Angel Poveda, president of the Colombo-China Chamber of Commerce
in Bogota. “The only way to get around it is to understand the culture and learn to do
business with them, but in their language.”
Many of those taking up the challenge are young, like Leidy Catalina Ortega, 17,
who recently dropped an English-language class in favor of Mandarin. Her parents
want to import clothing from China to sell in Bogota. If she learns the language, she
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will help manage the business. “If you’re interested and work hard, you can learn and
talk almost like they do,” she said. “You are afraid at first. Later you get it and move
on.”
Universities across Latin America, from Mexico to Buenos Aires, are founding
Asian studies programs and teaching Chinese. Institutions of all kinds —— some are
expensive one-on-one tutorials and others are fly-by-night language academies staffed
by illegal Chinese immigrants —— are being inundated with new students.
The University of Buenos Aires started its Chinese-language department in 2004
after Hu led a high-level delegation to Argentina, Brazil and other countries. “It
generated so much interest, and people started to say, ‘Where is there a place to learn
Chinese?’” Maria Chao, the coordinator of the department, said by phone from
Buenos Aires. “They see the language as a way to communicate and cut some
distance between the two countries.”
But in her wildest dreams, Chao said, she could not have foreseen how intense
the interest would be. Instead of twenty students, as she expected, more than 600
signed up for classes. Now there are more than 1,000 students studying Chinese at the
university, she said, in nearly 70 classes. Chao, who was born in China and
immigrated to Argentina at age 5, said she has been astounded by the interest people
have in China. She recently asked a policeman for directions and, without missing a
beat, he responded: “ Ni hao ma ,” Mandarin for “How are you?”
In Peru, which has a dynamic Chinese immigrant community and an economy
that is growing at 5 percent annually, business people are looking for classes that can
quickly give them an advantage as the country’s trade with China grows. Joseph Cruz,
46, who has been teaching Chinese for 23 years, will soon launch a course for
executives costing $2,200 a year, a hefty sum in Peru.
The course, to be taught at Lima’s Catholic University, will not just deal with
grammar and vocabulary, but with the trappings of Chinese culture and history, from
Confucian philosophy to the importance of tea. “The idea is to use these courses to
teach people how Chinese thinking is reflected in modern China,” Cruz said. “We’re
not going to waste their money.”
China, too, sees great opportunity in Latin America, said Zhao Xingtian, cultural
counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Bogota. He spoke on a recent night as a
Colombian-Chinese salsa band -- singing in both Mandarin and Spanish -- prepared to
play at a cocktail party given by the Colombo-Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
“Many Chinese would like to come to this country, know its people, drink its
coffee,” said Zhao, speaking a fluid Spanish. “It makes us very happy that many
Colombians want to learn Chinese. It’s a good beginning. It’s a good cultural
exchange between Latin America and China.”
China is dispatching teachers abroad, sending people like Yuan Juhua to
countries that just a few years ago gave short shrift to the idea of strengthening ties
with Beijing. Yuan arrived here just two years ago to help launch the National
University’s Mandarin program. Now, her 12-year-old daughter speaks fluent Spanish,
and Yuan divides her time between teaching university students during the day and
business people on weekends.
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The university “didn’t have any resources for the Chinese program, so after I
came here, everything was a challenge for me,” Yuan said. She also found teaching
Spanish speakers a challenge. “These two languages are very different, and because of
that, it’s difficult for Chinese people to study Spanish and people here to study
Chinese,” Yuan said. Many drop out after level one, the first of four offered. “If they
don’t have patience and enthusiasm, it’s hard to get to level two,” she said.
In a break from Yuan’s class, Miguel Aroca, a petroleum engineer for France’s
Total oil company, recounted the difficulties of reaching level two. Aroca, 33 and
fluent in English and French, said he wanted to study Mandarin as a hobby. Now he
realizes it is a career tool. Mastering it will not be easy. “It went from being a hobby
to being real work,” he said. “The last exam, I was really stressed out.”
(Time Allowed: 15 minutes)
(From Washington Post September 22, 2006)
Exercises:
ⅠMultiple Choice (Choose the right one from the following options)
1.Which of the following is not the reason why Latin Americans are learning
Chinese?
A. They love Chinese as an old country.
B. Latin Americans, as people in any country, should be opportunistic, and they see
opportunity with China.
C. China is voraciously scouring Latin America for everything from oil to lumber,
and there is money to be made.
D. They see the language as a way to communicate and cut some distance between the
two countries.
2. Why Latin America has become a prime destination for investors and others from
China?
A. It has vast farmlands
B. It has ample oil reserves
C. It has mineral deposits
D. all the above
3. Which is the first Latin American country Beijing has signed a free-trade
agreement with?
A. Brazil
B. Chile
C. Ecuador
D. Argentina
4. What is China’s attitude to the exchange between China and Latin America?
A. China doesn’t see great opportunity in Latin America because they are all small
countries.
B. We are disappointed that only a small amount of Colombians want to learn
Chinese.
C. China is dispatching teachers abroad to help language teaching.
D. China pays little attention to language..
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5. Which of the following is right according to this passage?
A. Although the United States is the biggest investor in Latin America, Chinese has
become a second language there.
B. Joseph Cruz gave Chinese lessons at Lima’s Catholic University to earn money.
C. It’s an easy task to teach Latin Americans Chinese because they are very interested
in it.
D. It’s difficult for Latin Americans to learn Chinese.
Ⅱ Short Answer
1. Zamora already speaks German and English, why does she struggle to learn written
Chinese characters and mimic tones unknown in Spanish?
2. With which countries on which items have Chinese companies invested in Latin
America?
3. Why is it far from easy for entrepreneurs and students in Latin America to veering
toward China?
4. Why did Yuan Juhua find Chinese teaching a great challenge?
5. Do you think that culture plays an important role in international business and
communication?
Ⅲ Topics for Discussion
1. In your opinion what can we do to help cultural exchange between China and
Latin America?
2. What roles does culture play in business and communication? What should
Chinese entrepreneurs do in intercultural communication?
Reading Three
PassageⅠ
Supposed Time: 5′30″
Time You Used: ________
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am delighted to join you again at the World Economic Forum. This is my third
visit in just over two years as Secretary-General of the United Nations.
On my previous visits, I told you of my hopes for a creative partnership between
the United Nations and the private sector. This year, I want to challenge you to join
me in taking our relationship to a still higher level. I propose that you, the business
leaders gathered in Davos, and we, the United Nations, initiate a global compact of
shared values and principles, which will give a human face to the global market.
I call on you----individually through your firms, and collectively through your
business associations----to embrace, support and enact a set of core values in the areas
of human rights, labor standards, and environmental practices.
Essentially there are two easy ways we can do it. One is through the international
policy arena. You can encourage state to give us the multilateral institution of which
they are all members, the resources and the authority we need to do our job
The second way you can promote these values is by taking them directly, by
194
taking action in your own corporate sphere. You can uphold human rights and decent
labor and environmental standards directly, by your own conduct of your own
business. You can also support a precautionary-approach to environmental challenges.
You can undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility. And
you can encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly
technologies.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I am asking of you. But what, you may be
asking yourselves, am I offering in exchange? The United Nations agencies----the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Labor Organization (ILO),
the UN Environmental Program (UNEP)----all stand ready to assist you, if you need
help, in incorporating these agreed values and principles into your mission statements
and cooperate practices. And we are ready to facilitate a dialogue between you and
other social groups, to help find viable solutions to the genuine concerns that they
have raised.
We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of
short-term profit, and one which have a human face. Between a world which
condemns a quarter of the human race to starvation and squalor, and one which offers
everyone at least a chance of prosperity, in a healthy environment. Between a selfish
free-for-all in which ignore the fate of the losers, and a future in which the strong and
successful accept their responsibilities, showing global vision and leadership.
I am sure you will make the right choice. Thank you.
(Excerpted from the speech delivered by Kofi A. Annan, the Secretary General of
the United Nations, in the World Economic Forum in Davos)
Reading Comprehension Ⅰ: Multiple Choice (Choose the right one from the
following options)
1. This is Annan’s _____ visit in just over two years as Secretary-General of the
United Nations.
A. first
B. second
C. third
D. only
2. Which of the following is not called on by Annan to do?
A. to embrace, support and enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights,
labor standards, and environmental practices.
B. encourage state to give us the multilateral institution of which they are all members,
the resources and the authority we need to do our job
C. to uphold human rights and decent labor and environmental standards directly
D. to fight against globalization in order to protect the economy and culture of your
own country
3. Which organization is not mentioned in the passage to stand ready to assist all the
firms to get globalization?
A. the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
B. the International Labor Organization (ILO)
195
C. the UN Environmental Program (UNEP)
D. the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
4. Who are the participants of this conference?
A. excellent professors
B. medical talents
C. writers
D. business leaders
5. What is the main purpose of Annan’s speech?
A. to borrow money from the big cooperations and loan to the poorest countries
B. to call on attention to global security
C. to show the human care on women all over the world
D. to initiate a global compact of shared values and principles
Passage Ⅱ
Supposed Time: 5′30″
Time You Used: ________
A Mickey Mouse Approach to Globalization
From Buenos Aires to Berlin, people around the world are looking more and
more American. They're wearing Levis, watching CNN, buying coffee at
interchangeable Starbucks outlets, and generally experiencing life in “very American”
ways. Looking only at the surface of this phenomenon, one might erroneously
conclude that US cultural products are creating a homogenized global community of
consumers. But the cultural aspects of the globalization story are far more complex
than might be assumed from looking at just consumer behavior. Even when the same
shirt, song, soda, or store is found on all five continents, it tends to mean different
things depending on who is doing the wearing, singing, drinking, or shopping. The
“strange” fate of global products in China illustrates these points.
Consider, first of all, the Chinese meaning of Big Macs. In The Lexus and the
Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman says he has eaten McDonald’s burgers in more
countries than he can count and is well qualified to state that they “really do all taste
the same.” What he actually means, though, is they all taste the same to him. Nearly
identical Big Macs may be sold in Boston and Beijing, but as anthropologist Yan
Yunxiang has convincingly argued, the experiences of eating them and even the
meaning of going to McDonalds in these two locales was very different in the 1990s.
In Beijing, but not in Boston, a Big Mac was classified as a snack, not a meal, and
university students thought of McDonald's as a good place to go for a romantic night
out. To bite into a Big Mac thinking that you are about to do something pleasantly
familiar or shamefully plebeian - two common American experiences - is one thing.
To bite into one imagining you are on the brink of discovering what modernity tastes
like - a common Chinese experience - is another thing altogether.
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Or take the curious arrival of Mickey Mouse in China, which I witnessed
firsthand. While living in Shanghai in the mid-1980s, two things I remember seeing
are sweatshirts for sale on the streets emblazoned with the face of Disney's most
famous creation, and a wall poster showing a stake being driven through Mickey’s
heart. Were these signs that a big American corporation was extracting profits from a
new market and that local people were angered by cultural imperialism? Hardly. Yes,
Disney was trying to make money, offering Chinese state television free cartoons to
show in the hope that viewers would rush out and buy authorized products. But the
plan went astray: the sweatshirts I saw were all knock-offs. The only people making
money from them were Chinese entrepreneurs. And the wall poster was, of all things,
part of a Communist Party health campaign. A call had just gone out for all citizens to
work hard to rid their cities of rats, which are called “laoshu,” the same term used for
mice. It wasn't long before enterprising local residents put up posters showing various
forms of violence being directed at “Mi Laoshu,” as Mickey is known in Chinese, not
because they hated America but simply because he was the most famous rodent in
China.
(Excerpted from YaleGlobal, 16 June 2003 By Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom)
Reading Comprehension Ⅰ: Multiple Choice (Choose the right one from the
following options)
1. Which of the following is not so-called “very American” way?
A. wearing Levis
B. watching CNN
C. buying coffee at interchangeable Starbucks outlets
D. drinking
2. McDonalds was regarded as ______ in the 1990s.
A. just a kind of fast food in Beijing
B. a snack in Boston
C. a romantic place for young people in Beijing
D. a romantic place for young people in Boston
3. The arrival of Mickey Mouse in China _______.
A. was a very success because Mickey was popular with Chinese young
B. made Disney earned a lot from Chinese
C. was strongly rejected by Chinese people because they hated America
D. got an unexpected end
4. Which of the following can explain the cultural aspects of the globalization story
are far more complex than might be assumed from looking at just consumer behavior?
A. People around the world are looking more and more American.
B. People are wearing Levis, watching CNN, buying coffee at interchangeable
Starbucks outlets
C. the curious arrival of Mickey Mouse in China
D. none of the above
5. What was the situation of Shanghai when Mickey came into China?
A. Shanghai citizens hated America.
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B. A call had just gone out for all citizens to work hard to rid their cities of rats.
C. Mickey had the same meaning with rats in Chinese.
D. both B and C
Key For Reference
Book Four
Unit 1
Reading One
Ⅰ. 1.C 2. A 3. D 4. C 5. B
6. B
7. A 8. D 9. C 10. B
Ⅱ. 1. dwarfed 2. cruised 3. scale down 4. garnering
5. beefed up
6. eye-popping 7. lock step with 8. tarring
9. stretch into 10. outpace
Reading Two
Ⅰ 1. A
2. B
3. B
4. D 5. C
6. C
7. B
8. A
9. D
10. B
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Reading Three
Passage 1 1. B
Passage 2 1. B
2. C 3. D
2. A 3. D
4.A
4. D
5.C
5. C
Unit 2
Reading One
1. A
2. C
1. cumulative
6. So far as
Reading Two
1. B
2. B
Reading Three
Passage 1
1. D
2. B
Passage 2
1. B
2. D
3. C
4. D
2. date
7. given rise to
5. B
3. in the long run
8. subject to
3. D
4. A
5. C
3. C
4. A
5. C
6. N
7. NG
8. Y
9. Y
10. N
3. A
4. C
5. D
6. Y
7. N
8. Y
9. NG
10. Y
4. transmission
9. peers
5. coincide
10. vain
Unit 3
Reading One
I.
1. He realized that the writer was not native and made fun of her.
2. Her dress was incompatible with the atmosphere of the party.
3. Latin women can only work at menial jobs requiring little English and few skills.
4. She had the chance to get education and acquired a stronger footing in the mainstream
culture.
5. She hoped that people could treat them equally and fairly, without regarding to their
skin color, accent or clothes
II. 1.proficient
2. reserve
3. submission
4. sustained
5. omnipotent
6. contortions 7. covet
8. perpetuity
9. not so much … as …
10. of sorts
IV. 1. Tang suit/ Chinese food, such as dumpling/ Peking opera/ Wushu/ cross-talk
2. mixed together/ tea culture/ wine culture/ wedding custom/ catering culture
3. live on one’s own/ different style of learning/ people from different countries/ western-style
food/ relationship between teachers and students
Reading Two
I.
1. They think it ugly and tend to be weak and sick
2. No, that’s just something of psychological resource
3. Some turn to the geomancer when they are about to buy a house; some pray to Guanyin
to give them a child; some pray for their examination; still some pray that they would get
rich.
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II.
4. The body ritual was just a kind of superstition, the magical practitioners are common
people but not god, and they are cheating in their performance.
I won’t tell them what I think about it, because it is their deep-rooted belief and they
have the right to go on with the belief.
5. They don’t think their behaviors bizarre since they are devout with that belief.
1. mysterious/ tempting/ supernatural/ demonstrable/ convincing/ reliable
2. get to know about/ try to understand/ respect/ open-minded/ patient/ with good-will
3. collectivism/ loyalty/ filial duty/ justice/ humane
Reading Three
Passage 1
1. A
2. C
6. Y
7. Y
Passage 2
1. B
2. D
6. N
7. Y
3. C
8. N
4. D
9. Y
5. B
10. NG
3. C
8. Y
4. A
9. NG
5. B
10. Y
Unit 4
Reading One
I. 1. It was created by the Lateran Treaty in 1929 as a vestige of the former Papal States
2. the Vatican City is the sovereign territory of the Holy See
3. He’s the head of the state, and is elected by the cardinal
4. Because at that time the city of Vatican had not been established independent, and the
ruler had no practical power
5. a noble class still exists to form the papal court; the cardinals continue to have the royal
rank of prince of the blood
II. 1. confiscated
2. remnant
3. subordinate
4. drawn from
5. vestige
6. laymen
7. consort
8. excavation
9. annexed
10. renovation
IV. 1. neutralized state/ independent diplomacy/ foursquare ensign/ many artistic masterpieces
2. traveling plan/ traveling brochures/ good travel agency/ experienced tour guide/ right time
3. attend liturgical regularly/ celebrate Mass/ universal fraternity/ believe human will go to
heaven after death
Reading two
I.
1. Acropolis means “upper city”, its geographic character made it a good place for refuge
in times of invasion.
2. In the contest over who would be the Patron of the city, Athena showed peace to the
city which made her accepted.
3. The two eighteen-year-old heroes’ act of bravery and opposition to Nazi oppression
was an stirring to all subjected people
4. Because it’s a great place to overlook the whole city and to watch the sunset.
5. That is to say Teresa is quite familiar with the Parthenon and knows everything about
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II.
it.
1. a way of relaxing/ meet different people/ open the mind/ for fun/ for the good of health
2. regular remedy/ air pollution/ excess tourists/ littering at random/ raise funds
3. be knowledgeable/ be patient/ be experienced/ be agile/ professional dedication
Reading Three
Passage 1
1.C
2. C
3. B
4. A
5. B
6. Y
7. Y
8. N
9. N 10.NG
Passage 2
1.B 2. A
3. D
4. C
5. B
6. Y
7. N
8. NG
9. N
10. Y
Unit 5
Reading One
Ⅰ1.D 2. B 3. C 4. B 5. A 6. C 7. D 8. A 9. B 10. B
Ⅱ1. exponent
2. inside-out
3. disproved
4.less than 5. injecting
6. legitimacy 7. refuted
8. disclaimed
9. outgrow 10. handed down
Reading Two
Ⅰ. 1. B
2. D
3. A
4. D
5. B
6. C
7. A
8. C
9. B
10. D
Reading Three
Passage 1: 1. A
Passage 2: 1.A
2. C
3.D
4. B
5. D
2. B 3. C 4. B 5. C
Unit 6
Reading One
II. 1.F
2. F
3. T
4. T
5. T 6. T 7. T 8. T
Reading Two
I.1. F
2. F
3. T
4. T 5. T
6. F
7. F
8. T
9. F
10. T
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Reading Three
Passage Ⅰ 1.D
Passage Ⅱ 1. F
2.B
2.T
3.B
3.F
4.D
4.F
5.A
5.T
Unit 7
Reading One
Ⅰ 1. D 2. A 3. B 4. C 5. A
III.1. replace 2. infuse 3. preventive 4. toppled 5. spanned 6. rule7．figure…out 8. marked 9.
from start to finish 10. head
Reading Two
Ⅱ 1. C 2. A 3. B 4. D 5. D
Reading Three
Passage Ⅰ 1. B 2. D 3. D 4. B 5. D
6. F 7. F 8. T 9. T 10. T
Passage Ⅱ 1. D 2. D 3. C 4. D 5. A 6. T 7. T 8. F 9. T 10. T
Unit 8
Reading One
Ⅰ1. C 2. A 3. D 4. D 5. D
III.
T 2. F 3. T 4. T 5. F 6. T 7. F 8. F 9. T 10.T
Reading Two
I.(A)--- 1 (B)--- 5 (C)--- 8 (D)--- 7 (E)--- 4 (F)--- (G)---3
(H)---6 (I)--- 2
Reading Three
Passage Ⅰ 1.C 2.C 3. A 4. C 5.A 6. T 7. F 8. F 9. T 10. T
Passage Ⅱ 1. A 2. C 3. C 4. B 5. D
6. F 7. F 8. T 9. T 10. T
Unit 9
Reading One
I. 1. D
2. C
II. obscures
3. D
4. C
5. D
subside parody confusing incentive
unambiguous sorting through denigrated
fluid flaw
Reading Two
I.
1. It is a policy adopted by Chinese government to control population growth, to improve
population quality, reduce the pressure on various fronts such as social and economic development,
resources and the environment.
2. The policy of “family planning” is essential to its development both in its economy and in
society. Such a huge population has been a heavy burden in its road of development. Without this
policy, China's population would have grown unmanageably which would bring the disastrous
consequences in its long term development. Facts have proved that the long-standing “family
planning” policy “has helped economic growth over the last three decades”.
3. Because they thought that “the birth limitation program clearly has coercive elements in law
and in practice” and “China's policies violate the platform adopted at the 1994 U.N. population
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conference in Cairo which says parents have the right to decide the size and spacing of their
families.”
4. The population base is huge and the population structure is not sound. The maximum number of
working population is about 940 million in 2020, accounting for about 65 per cent of the
population. 65 years of age or older will make up 25 percent of the total population by the middle
of the century.
5. If UNFPA would cease giving its support for China's population planning programs and single
child policies we could cooperate with it more freely and in a larger scope.
II. 1. barred
2. coercive
3. abolished
7. illiterate
8. work out
Reading Three
Passage 1 1.D
2.B
3. D
Passage 2 1.D
2.C
3.B
4. counter 5. stipulate 6. hurdles
9. implemented
10. to some extent
4. B
Unit 10
Reading One
I. 1. A 2. A 3. C
4. A 5. B
6. C
7. A
8. A 9. D
10.C
Ⅱ. 1. perturbation 2. sentiments 3. affluence 4. erode 5. endorsed
6. hailing
7. Dictatorial
8. Emulating
9. ratified
10. virulent
Reading Two
I. 1. D 2. C 3. D 4. C 5. B 6. A 7.D 8.D 9.B 10. D
Reading Three
Passage 1: 1.B 2.D 3. C 4. C 5. A
Passage 2: 1. B 2. A 3. C 4. D 5. A
Unit 11
Reading One
I. 1. C 2.A 3.B 4.B 5.C
II. make of roamed entirety
reminiscent
Reading Two
I. 1. C 2.A. 3.D 4. D 5.C
Reading Three
Passage 1. 1.B 2.C 3. B
Passage 2 . 1.C 2.D 3. C
cruise
knots
swallow
hoax
evade
at large
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Unit 12
Reading One
I.
1. It is an example of administrative monopoly in telecommunications in China. Through it, the
author also wants to tell the urgent need of the anti-monopoly law to ban the long-standing
administrative monopoly in China which has many serious consequences such as damages to
fair competition.
2. It is a phenomenon which is the result of Chinese Government agencies’ intervention in the
economy with their administrative power. Like natural monopolies, administrative
monopolies too pose the same damages to fair competition. So according to the author, it is
imperative to draft a new law to break out administrative monopoly.
3. During the period of planned economy, there were few regulations to restrict the
administrative monopoly. Now a draft of the anti-monopoly law has been made which will be
beneficial to the smooth development of economy as well as the society. However we should
see that the draft is not a perfect one. Firstly, “Administrative monopolies are closely related
to economic reform and administrative system reform. A law cannot solve all the problems.”.
Secondly, the draft does not stipulate the function of its chief organ anti-monopoly
commission. It also does not make it clear the legal relationship between the anti-monopoly
commission and its executive institution. Thirdly, at present, the anti-monopoly work is done
by many state departments, while the draft does not clarify the relationship between these
departments, which may lead to “overlapping jurisdiction and blank space” in the
implementation of the law.
4. Firstly, administrative monopoly is the evil legacy of planned economy, has “rooted” in our
society which is not very easy to curb. Moreover, it has been closely related to economic
reform and administrative system reform. So according to Cao Kangtai, we can not hope that
only a law will solve all the problems.
5. “Merge” generally refers to the act of joining together the two companies. However,
according to the author in this article it mainly refers to the foreign investors’ purchase of
Chinese companies. The government restrict corporate mergers because: firstly, the increasing
foreign takeovers in some pillar industries have threatened the security of the Chinese
economy; secondly, corporate mergers tend to reduce the competitive vigor of particular
markets.
II.
deliberated legacies contentious anonymous solicit
terminated overlap
dogged jurisdiction secondment
Reading Two.
I. D. A. B. C. A.
II. exempted liable foremost conferred invalid
prescribe bound undertook comply justifiable
Reading Three
Passage 1. D A D
Passage 2. D B D
Unit 13
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Reading One
II.1. C
2. A
3. B
4. D
5. C
III. 1. carried away 2. at a … rate
3. be relied on
4. native to
5. require … for
6. wiped out
7. have a … effect on 8. revenge on 9. on average 10. calls on
Reading Two
I. 1. eight
2. the 3rd
3. 10%
4. above 2000
5. 33%
6. about 200
7. 400 km
8. about 955
9. above 47%
10. 13000
Reading Three
Passage 1
1. B
2. D
3. C
4. C
5. A
6. N
7. NG
8. Y
9. Y
10. N
Passage 2
1. B
2. C
3. A
4. D
5. B
6. Y
7. N
8. N
9. N
10. NG
Unit 14
Reading One
I. 1. F 2. F 3. T 4. F 5. T
6. T 7. T
8. F 9. F
10. T
II. 1. bad press 2. in her own right 3. devout
4. broke
5. dotes on
6. due
7. baptized
8. abdicated
9. stand in for
10. style
IV.
1. battle fatigues/ wrestling/ shooting/ warsong/ visit barrack
2. theme of the time/ international understanding/ mutually respect/ mutual
non-interference/ value peace
3. celebrity charm/ attraction/ fans/ tourist industry/ economic gain
Reading Two
I.
1. Because he was not a good student but already had experiences of two ventures.
2. Because it had been the genesis of the Virgin label, and to which he devoted most of his
affection.
3. That it couldn’t keep its word to upgrade the levels of technique and service of Virgin
Trains.
4. Because he’s sort of rebel and conducted a series of revolutionary movements in his
business.
5. He is a great entrepreneur with courage, insight and benevolence.
II.
1. make great success/ good management/ charitable donations/ human well-being/ high
repute
2. important to try one’s best/ not mean everything/ one’s interest/ one’s potential/ be
insightful/ be courageous
3. develop one’s potential/ fling oneself into/ be creditworthy/ be friendly/ respect the
ritual
Reading Three
Passage 1
1.C
2. D
3. B
4. C
5. B
6. NG 7. N
8. N
9. Y
10. Y
Passage 2
1. A 2. A 3. B 4. D 5. B
6. NG 7. Y
8. NG 9. Y 10. N
Unit 15
Reading One
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1. C
2. B
3. B
4. D
5. A
1. in a spirit of
2. on account of
3. in no case
6. access to 7. indispensable for 8. in accordance with
Reading Two
1. A
2. D
3. C
4. B
5. B
Reading Three
Passage 1
1. C
2. B
3. A
4. D
5. B
6. N
Passage 2
1. D
2. D
3. C
4. A
5. C
6. Y
Unit 16
Reading One
Ⅰ1.D 2.C 3.C 4.D 5.D
Ⅲ 1. B 2. B 3.B 4. C
4. endowed
9. is deprived of
5. are entitled to
10. incitement
7. N
8. NG
9. Y
10. N
7. Y
8. N
9. Y
10. NG
5.A
Reading Two
1. A 2. D
3. B 4. C 5. D
Reading Three
PassageⅠ
1.C 2. D 3.D 4.D 5 D
Passage Ⅱ
1.D 2. C 3.D 4.C 5.D
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