自考英语电子版教材(第一部分)

大学英语自学教程(上)

此为第一部分

01-A. How to be a successful language learner?

“Learning a language is easy, even a child can do it!”

Most adults who are learning a second language would disagree with this statement. For them, learning a language is a very difficult task. They need hundreds of hours of study and practice, and even this will not guarantee success for every adult language learner.

Language learning is different from other kinds of learning. Some people who are very intelligent and successful in their fields find it difficult to succeed in language learning. Conversely, some people who are successful language learners find it difficult to succeed in other fields.

Language teachers often offer advice to language learners: “Read as much as you can in the new language.”“ Practice speaking the language every day. ”“Live with people who speak the language.”“Don’t translate-try to think in the new language.”“ Learn as a child would learn; play with the language.”

But what does a successful language learner do? Language learning research shows that successful language learners are similar in many ways.

First of all, successful language learners are independent learners. They do not depend on the book or the teacher; they discover their own way to learn the language. Instead of waiting for the teacher to explain, they try to find the patterns and the rules for themselves. They are good guessers who look for clues and form their own conclusions. When they guess wrong, they guess again. They try to learn from their mistakes.

Successful language learning is active learning. Therefore, successful learners do not wait for a chance to use the language; they look for such a chance. They find people who speak the language and they ask these people to correct them when they make a mistake. They will try anything to communicate. They are not afraid to repeat what they hear or to say strange things; they are willing to make mistakes and try again. When communication is difficult, they can accept information that is inexact or incomplete. It is more important for them to learn to think in the language than to know the meaning of every word.

Finally, successful language learners are learners with a purpose. They want to learn the language because they are interested in the language and the people who speak it. It is necessary for them to learn the language in order to communicate with these people and to learn from them. They find it easy to practice using the language regularly because they want to learn with it.

What kind of language learner are you? If you are a successful language learner, you have probably been learning independently, actively, and purposefully. On the other hand, if your language learning has been less than successful, you might do well to try some of the techniques outlined above.

01-B. Language

When we want to tell other people what we think, we can do it not only with the help of words, but also in many other ways. For instance, we sometimes move our heads up and down when we want to say \"yes” and we move our heads from side to side when we want to say \"no.\" People who can neither hear nor speak (that is, deaf and dumb people) talk to each other with the help of their fingers. People who do not understand each other's language have to do the same. The following story shows how they sometimes do it.

An Englishman who could not speak Italian was once traveling in Italy. One day he entered a restaurant and sat down at a table. When the waiter came, the Englishman opened his mouth, put his fingers in it, took them out again and moved his lips. In this way he meant to say, \"Bring me something to eat.\" The waiter soon brought him a cup of tea. The Englishman shook his head and the waiter understood that he didn't want tea, so he took it away and brought him some coffee. The Englishman, who was very hungry by this time and not at all thirsty, looked very sad. He shook his head each time the waiter brought him something to drink. The waiter brought him wine, then beer, then soda-water, but that

wasn’t food, of course. He was just going to leave the restaurant when another traveler came in. When this man saw the waiter, he put his hands on his stomach. That was enough: in a few minutes there was a large plate of macaroni and meat on the table before him.

As you see, the primitive language of signs is not always very clear. The language of words is much more exact.

Words consist of sounds, but there are many sounds which have a meaning and yet are not words. For example, we may say \"Sh-sh-sh” when we mean \"keep silent.” When babies laugh, we know they are happy, and when they cry, we know they are ill or simply want something.

It is the same with animals. When a dog says “G-r-r” or a cat says \"F-f-f” we know they are angry.

But these sounds are not language. Language consists of words which we put together into sentences. But animals can not do this: a dog can say “G-r-r” when he means \"I am angry,” but he cannot say first \"I” and then \"am” and then \"angry.” A parrot can talk like a man; it can repeat whole sentences and knows what they mean. We may say that a parrot talks, but cannot say that it really speaks, because it cannot form new sentences out of the words it knows. Only man has the power to do this.

02-A. Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes

Americans often say that there are only two things a person can be sure of in life: death and taxes, Americans do not have a corner on the \"death\" market, but many people feel that the United States leads the world with the worst taxes.

Taxes consist of the money which people pay to support their government. There are generally three levels of government in the United States: federal, state, and city; therefore, there are three types of taxes.

Salaried people who earn more than a few thousand dollars must pay a certain percentage of their salaries to the federal government. The percentage varies from person to person. It depends on their salaries. The federal government has a graduated income tax, that is, the percentage of the tax (14 to 70 percent) increases as a person's income increases. With the high cost of taxes, people are not very happy on April 15, when the federal taxes are due.

The second tax is for the state government: New York, California, North Dakota, or any of the other forty-seven states. Some states have an income tax similar to that of the federal government. Of course, the percentage for the state tax is lower. Other states have a sales tax, which is a percentage charged to any item which you buy in that state. For example, a person might want to buy a packet of cigarettes for twenty-five cents. If there is a sales tax of eight

percent in that state, then the cost of the cigarettes is twenty-seven cents. This figure includes the sales tax. Some states use income tax in addition to sales tax to raise their revenues. The state tax laws are diverse and confusing.

The third tax is for the city. This tax comes in two forms: property tax (people who own a home have to pay taxes on it) and excise tax, which is charged on cars in a city. The cities use these funds for education, police and fire departments, public works and municipal buildings.

Since Americans pay such high taxes, they often feel that they are working one day each week just to pay their taxes. People always complain about taxes. They often protest that the government uses their tax dollars in the wrong way. They say that it spends too much on useless and impractical programs. Although Americans have different views on many issues, they tend to agree on one subject: taxes are too high.

02-B. Advertising

Advertising is only part of the total sales effort, but it is the part that attracts the most attention. This is natural enough because advertising is designed for just that purpose. In newspapers, in magazines, in the mail, on radio and television, we constantly see and hear the messages for hundreds of different products and services. For the most part, they are the kinds of things that we can be persuaded to buy – food and drinks, cars and television sets,

furniture and clothing, travel and leisure time activities.

The simplest kind of advertising is the classified ad. Every day the newspapers carry a few pages of these ads; in the large Sunday editions there may be several sections of them. A classified ad is usually only a few lines long. It is really a notice or announcement that something is available.

Newspapers also carry a large amount of display advertising. Most of it is for stores or for various forms of entertainment. Newspapers generally reach an audience only in a limited area. To bring their message to a larger audience, many who want to put out their ads use national magazines. Many of the techniques of modern advertising were developed in magazine ads. The use of bright colors, attractive pictures, and short messages is all characteristic of magazine ads. The most important purpose is to catch the eye. The message itself is usually short, often no more than a slogan which the public identifies with the product.

The same techniques have been carried over into television advertising. Voices and music have been added to color and pictures to catch the ear as well as the eye. Television ads are short –usually only 15,30, or 60 seconds, but they are repeated over and over again so that the audience sees and hears them many times. Commercial television has mixed entertainment and advertising. If you want the entertainment, you have to put up with the advertising-and millions of people want the entertainment.

The men and women in the sales department are responsible for the company’s advertising, They must decide on the audience they want to reach. They must also decide on the best way to get their message to their particular audience. They also make an estimate of the costs before management approves the plan. In most large companies management is directly involved in planning the advertising.

03-A. The Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the Americas from being discovered by the people of Europe.

Many wrong ideas about the Atlantic made early sailors unwilling to sail far out into it. One idea was that it reached out to \"the edge of the world.\" Sailors were afraid that they might sail right off the earth. Another idea was that at the equator the ocean would be boiling hot.

The Atlantic Ocean is only half as big as the Pacific, but it is still very large. It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000 km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at its narrowest it is about 2, 000 miles (3,200 km) wide. This narrowest place is between the bulge of south America and the bulge of Africa.

Two things make the Atlantic Ocean rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has very few

islands. Also, it is the world's saltiest ocean.

There is so much water in the Atlantic that it is hard to imagine how much there is. But suppose no more rain fell into it and no more water was brought to it by rivers. It would take the ocean about 4,000 years to dry up. On the average the water is a little more than two miles (3.2 km) deep, but in places it is much deeper. The deepest spot is near Puerto Rico. This \"deep\" 30, 246 feet - almost six miles (9.6 km).

One of the longest mountain ranges of the world rises the floor of the Atlantic. This mountain range runs north and south down the middle of the ocean. The tops of a few of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands. The Azores are the tops of peaks in the mid-Atlantic mountain range.

Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet, for there is little wind. In the days of sailing vessels the crew were afraid they would be becalmed here. Sometimes they were.

Ocean currents are sometime called \"rivers in the sea.\" One of these \"river\" in the Atlantic is called the Gulf Stream. It is a current of warm water. Another is the Labrador Current - cold water coming down from the Arctic. Ocean currents affect the climates of the lands near which they flow.

The Atlantic furnishes much food for the people on its shores. One of its most famous fishing regions, the Grand Banks, is near Newfoundland.

Today the Atlantic is a great highway. It is not, however, always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs float down from the Far North across the paths of ships.

We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for more than two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make the trip in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from South America to Africa in four!

03-B. The Moon

We find that the moon is about 239,000 miles (384,551km) away from the earth, and, to within a few thousand miles, its distance always remains the same. Yet a very little observation shows that the moon is not standing still. Its distance from the earth remains the same, but its direction continually changes. We find that it is traveling in a circle - or very nearly a circle - round the earth, going completely round once a month, or, more exactly, once every 27 1/3 days. It is our nearest neighbour in space, and like ourselves it is kept tied to the earth by the earth's gravitational pull.

Except for the sun, the moon looks the biggest object in the sky. Actually it is one of the smallest, and only looks big because it is so near to us. Its diameter is only 2, 160 miles (3,389 km), or a little more than a quarter of the diameter of the earth.

Once a month, or, more exactly, once every 29 1/2 days, at the time we call \"full moon,\" its whole disc looks bright. At other times only part of it appears bright, and we always find that this is the part which faces towards the sun, while the part facing away from the sun appears dark. Artists could make their pictures better if they kept in mind -- only those parts of the moon which are lighted up by the sun are bright. This shows that the moon gives no light of its own. It merely reflects the light of the sun, like a huge mirror hung in the sky.

Yet the dark part of the moon’s surface is not absolutely black; generally it is just light enough for us to be able to see its outline, so that we speak of seeing \"the old moon in the new moon's arms.\" The light by which we see the old moon does not come from the sun, but from the earth. we knows well how the surface of the sea or of snow, or even of a wet road, may reflect uncomfortably much of the sun's light on to our faces. In the same way the surface of the whole earth reflects enough of the sun's light on to the face of the moon for us to be able to see the parts of it which would otherwise be dark.

If there were any inhabitants of the moon, they would see our earth reflecting the light of the sun, again like a huge mirror hung in the sky. They would speak of earthlight just as we speak of moonlight. \"The old moon in the new moon's arms\" is nothing but that part of the

moon's surface on which it is night, lighted up by earth light. In the same way, the lunar inhabitants would occasionally see part of our earth in full sunlight, and the rest lighted only by moonlight; they might call this \"the old earth in the new earth's arms.”

04-A. Improving Your Memory

Psychological research has focused on a number of basic principles that help memory: meaningfulness, organization, association, and visualization. It is useful to know how these principles work.

Meaningfulness affects memory at all levels. Information that does not make any sense to you is difficult to remember. There are several ways in which we can make material more meaningful. Many people, for instance, learn a rhyme to help them remember. Do you know the rhyme “Thirty days has September, April, June, and November…? ” It helps many people remember which months of the year have 30 days.

Organization also makes a difference in our ability to remember. How useful would a library be if the books were kept in random order? Material that is organized is better remembered than jumbled information. One example of organization is chunking. Chunking consists of grouping separate bits of information. For example, the number 4671363 is more easily remembered if it is chunked as 467,13,63. Categorizing is another means of organization. Suppose you are asked to remember the following list of words: man, bench,

dog, desk, woman, horse, child, cat, chair. Many people will group the words into similar categories and remember them as follows: man, woman, child; cat, dog, horse; bench, chair, desk. Needless to say, the second list can be remembered more easily than the first one.

Association refers to taking the material we want to remember and relating it to something we remember accurately. In memorizing a number, you might try to associate it with familiar numbers or events. For example, the height of Mount Fuji in Japan - 12, 389 feet - might be remembered using the following associations: 12 is the number of months in the year, and 389 is the number of days in a year(365) added to the number of months twice (24).

The last principle is visualization. Research has shown striking improvements in many types of memory tasks when people are asked to visualize the items to be remembered. In one study, subjects in one group were asked to learn some words using imagery, while the second group used repetition to learn the words. Those using imagery remembered 80 to 90 percent of the words, compared with 30 to 40 percent of the words for those who memorized by repetition. Thus forming an integrated image with all the information placed in a single mental picture can help us to preserve a memory.

04-B. Short-term Memory

There are two kinds of memory: shore-term and long-term. Information in long-term memory can be recalled at a later time when it is needed. The information may be kept for

days or weeks. Sometimes information in the long-term memory is hard to remember. Students taking exam often have this experience. In contrast, information in shore-term memory is kept for only a few seconds, usually by repeating the information over and over. For example, you look up a number in the telephone book, and before you dial, you repeat the number over and over. If someone interrupts you, you will probably forget the number. In laboratory studies, subjects are unable to remember three letters after eighteen seconds if they are not allowed to repeat the letters to themselves.

Psychologists study memory and learning with both animal and human subjects. The two experiments here show how short-term memory has been studied.

Dr. Hunter studied short-term memory in rats. He used a special apparatus which had a cage for the rat and three doors, There was a light in each door. First the rat was placed in the closed cage. Next, one of the lights was turned on and then off. There was food for the rat only at this door. After the light was turned off, the rat had to wait a short time before it was released from its cage. Then, if it went to the correct door, it was rewarded with the food that was there. Hunter did this experiment many times. He always turned on the lights in a random order. The rat had to wait different intervals before it was released from the cage. Hunter found that if the rat had to wait more than ten seconds, it could not remember the correct door. Hunter's results show that rats have a short-term memory of about ten seconds.

Later, Dr. Henning studied how students who are learning English as a second language

remember vocabulary. The subjects in his experiment were 75 students at the University of California in Los Angeles. They represented all levels of ability in English; beginning, intermediate, advanced, and native-speaking students.

To begin, the subjects listened to a recording of a native speaker reading a paragraph in English. Following the recording, the subjects took a 15-question test to see which words they remembered. Each question had four choices. The subjects had to circle the word they had heard in the recording. Some of the questions had four choices that sound alike. For example, weather, whether, wither, and wetter are four words that sound alike. Some of the questions had four choices that have the same meaning. Method, way, manner, and system would be four words with the same meaning. Some of them had four unrelated choices. For instance, weather, method, love, and result could be used as four unrelated words. Finally the subjects took a language proficiency test.

Henning found that students with a lower proficiency in English made more of their mistakes on words that sound alike; students with a higher proficiency made more of their mistakes on words that have the same meaning. Henning’s results suggest that beginning students hold the sound of words in their short-term memory, while advanced students hold the meaning of words in their short-term memory.

05-A. Fallacies about Food

Many primitive peoples believed that by eating an animal they could get some of the good qualities of that animal for themselves. They thought, for example, that eating deer would make them run as fast as the deer. Some savage tribes believed that eating enemies that had shown bravery in battle would make them brave. Man-eating may have started because people were eager to become as strong and brave as their enemies.

Among civilized people it was once thought that ginger root by some magical power could improve the memory. Eggs were thought to make the voice pretty. Tomatoes also were believed to have magical powers. They were called love apples and were supposed to make people who ate them fall in love.

Later another wrong idea about tomatoes grew up - the idea that they were poisonous. How surprised the people who thought tomatoes poisonous would be if they could know that millions of pounds of tomatoes were supplied to soldiers overseas during World War II.

Even today there are a great many wrong ideas about food. Some of them are very widespread.

One such idea is that fish is the best brain food. Fish is good brain food just as it is good muscle food and skin food and bone food. But no one has been able to prove that fish is any better for the brain than many other kinds of food.

Another such idea is that you should not drink water with meals. Washing food down with water as a substitute for chewing is not a good idea, but some water with meals has been found to be helpful. It makes the digestive juices flow more freely and helps to digest the food.

Many of the ideas which scientists tell us have no foundation have to do with mixtures of foods. A few years ago the belief became general that orange juice and milk should never be drunk at the same meal. The reason given was that the acid in the orange juice would make the milk curdle and become indigestible. As a matter of fact, milk always meets in the stomach a digestive juice which curdles it; the curdling of the milk is the first step in its digestion. A similar wrong idea is that fish and ice cream when eaten at the same meal form a poisonous combination.

Still another wrong idea about mixing foods is that proteins and carbohydrates should never be eaten at the same meal. Many people think of bread, for example, as a carbohydrate food. It is chiefly a carbohydrate food, but it also contains proteins. In the same way, milk, probably the best single food, contains both proteins and carbohydrates. It is just as foolish to say that one should never eat meat and potatoes together as it is to say that one should never eat bread or drink milk.

05-B. Do Animals Think?

The question has often been asked, Do animals think? I believe that some of them think a great deal. Many of them are like children in their sports. We notice this to be true very often with dogs and cats; but it is true with other animals as well.

Some birds are very lively in their sports; and the same is true with some insects. The ants, hardworking as they are, have their times for play. They run races; they wrestle; and sometimes they have mock fights together. Very busy must be their thoughts while engaged in these sports.

There are many animals, however, that never play; their thoughts seem to be of the more sober kind. We never see frogs engaged in sport. They all the time appear to be very grave. The same is true of the owl, who always looks as if he were considering some important question.

Animals think much while building their houses. The bird searches for what it can use in building its nest, and in doing this it thinks. The beavers think as they build their dams and their houses. They think in getting their materials, and also in arranging them, and in plastering them together with mud. Some spiders build houses which could scarcely have been made except by some thinking creature.

As animals think, they learn. Some learn more than others. The parrot learns to talk, though in some other respects it is quite stupid. The mocking bird learns to imitate a great

many different sounds. The horse is not long in learning many things connected with the work which he has to do. The shepherd dog does not know as much about most things as some other dogs , and yet he understands very well how to take care of sheep.

Though animals think and learn, they do not make any real improvement in their ways of doing things, as men do. Each kind of bird has its own way of building a nest, and it is always the same way. And so of other animals. They have no new fashions, and learn none from each other. But men, as you know, are always finding new ways of building houses, and improved methods of doing almost all kinds of labor.

Many of the things that animals know how to do they seem to know either without learning, or in some way which we cannot understand. They are said to do such things by instinct; but no one can tell what instinct is. It is by this instinct that birds build their nests and beavers their dam and huts. If these things were all planned and thought out just as men plan new houses. there would be some changes in the fashions of them, and some improvements.

I have spoken of the building instinct of beavers. An English gentleman caught a young one and put him at first in a cage. After a while he let him out in a room where there was a great variety of things. As soon as he was let out he began to exercise his building instinct. He gathered together whatever he could find, brushes, baskets, boots, clothes, sticks, bits of coal, etc., and arranged them as if to build a dam. Now, if he had had his wits about him, he would have known that there was no use in building a dam where there was no water.

It is plain that, while animals learn about things by their senses as we do, they do not think nearly as much about what they learn, and this is the reason why they do not improve more rapidly. Even the wisest of them, as the elephant and the dog, do not think very much about what they see and hear. Nor is this all. There are some thing that we understand, but about which animals know nothing. They have no knowledge of anything that happens outside of their own observation. Their minds are so much unlike ours that they do not know the difference between right and wrong.

06-A. Diamonds

Diamonds are rare, beautiful, and also quite useful. They are the hardest substance found in nature. That means a diamond can cut any other surface. And only another diamond can make a slight cut in a diamond.

Diamonds are made from carbon. Carbon is found in all living things, both plant and animal. Much of the carbon in the earth comes from things that once lived.

Scientists know that the combination of extreme heat and pressure changes carbon into diamonds. Such heat and pressure exist only in the hot, liquid mass of molten rock deep inside the earth. It is thought that millions of years ago this liquid mass pushed upward through cracks in the earth’s crust. As the liquid cooled, the carbon changed into diamond crystals.

There are only four areas where very many diamonds have been found.

The first known area was in India, where diamonds were found thousands of years ago. In the 1600’s, travelers from Europe brought back these beautiful stones from India. Diamonds became very popular with the kings and queens of Europe.

In the 1720’s, diamonds were discovered in Brazil. This discovery came at a good time, too. India’s supply of diamonds was finally running out after 2,500 years of mining the stones.

In the 1800’s, two other important areas were found in Russia and South Africa. Today, most diamonds used in industry come from Russia. Most diamonds used as gems come from South Africa. Only 25 percent of all diamonds mined are good enough for cutting into gems.

Most of the diamonds in India were found in stream beds. People would pick up handfuls of gravel from the bottom of the streams and sort out the diamonds. These diamonds were probably carried from where they were formed to India by great sheets of moving ice that covered parts of the earth 20,000 years ago.

Most diamonds today are not found in stream beds, however. They are mined from rock formations deep inside the earth called pipes. Scientists believe that these are parts of volcanoes that were formed when molten rock pushed upward through the earth’s crust.

The hard rock in which diamonds are found is called blue ground, because it is somewhat blue. The blue ground is blasted into large pieces of rock which are carried to the surface by elevator. Then the rocks are carefully crushed so that the diamonds are not destroyed. Next, the crushed material is taken over to washing tables. Here, it flows over boards thickly coated with grease. Since diamonds stick to grease, they are left behind by the rocks and mud which flow down the tables.

Diamonds, as they are found, do not look very impressive. They are gray, greasy-looking pebbles. Experienced diamond miners can tell a diamond immediately. But some people have carried around an unusual pebble for weeks before finding out that they had got a diamond.

06-B. The difference between plants and animals

if you were asked, “what is the difference between plants and animals?” what answer do you think you would give? Your first thought might be that a plant has leaves and roots and flowers, which an animal has not. Yet that would not be correct; for there are many plants which have neither roots nor leaves nor flowers, while there are some animals which seem to have all three.

Look up into the sky, and then down at the earth beneath your feet, It is easy enough, you think, to tell which is earth and which is sky; but if you live in the wide, open country, or

near the sea, you will often find when you look far away to the place where sky and earth seem to meet, that this is a matter of some difficulty. You see only the thin blue haze, like smoke, which is the dividing line between the heavens and the earth. But just where the one ends and the other begins, you cannot tell.

Just so it is throughout al the world of Nature. You may look at a group of cows standing under the trees or catch a bee at his early drink in a morning-glory bell, and you would laugh if any one should ask you whether you can tell an animal from a plant.

But suppose you turn aside from these familiar, everyday things, and study objects which you have to look at through a magnifying glass, and you will find many things that will puzzle you. You will find plants without roots, leaves, flowers, or seeds; and you will find animals without heads, legs, eyes, mouths, or stomachs.

Students of Nature are not satisfied with guessing, but they observe, day after day, the changes which take place in an object; and they see many things which most people would fail to see. And thus they have found that the real difference between plants and animals lies in what they do, and not in what they seem to be.

We now know that about one fourth of all the kinds of seaweed are animals. A few years age all of them were classed as plants. It was long supposed that the main difference between animals and plants was that the former could move about while the latter could not.

But this difference will not hold good.

How then are we to know whether a living object is a plant or an animal? Plants can live on inorganic matter; they have the power of changing earth and air and water into substances which enter into and become a part of themselves. Animals can live only on what plants have already turned from inorganic to vegetable matter. Animals, although they need some inorganic food, cannot live on it alone.

All the food that keeps our bodies strong, or makes them grow, was once in the vegetable form. No bird nor fish nor other animal could ever have lived on this earth, if the plants had not come first and fitted it for the dwelling place of a higher order of beings.

Plants are the true fairies that are forever working wonders around us. Their roots dig down into the earth and gather its treasures. Their leaves spread their broad surfaces to the air and take m its riches; and out of what they have thus gathered they produce the beautiful flowers, the delicious fruits, and the golden grain.

Let us study more closely the way in which a plant grows. The root pushes itself down into the earth. If it finds no water, it soon dies. If it finds water, it begins to suck it up and change it into sap Besides the water, it takes up such parts of the soil as are dissolved in the water.

Here, then, you see in what ways the food of the plant is different from that of animals.

07-A. Families

“Family”—the word has different meanings for different people, and even the dictionary gives us several definitions :“a group of people related by blood or marriage,” “two adults and their children,” “all those people descended from a common ancestor,” “a household,” and so on Some people think of a family as a mother, a father, and their children; others include grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. For some of us, family means the group of relatives living far away from home. For others, having a family simply means having children. Some families have long histories, while others know very little about their ancestors. No matter if it is young or old, large or small, traditional or modern, every family has a sense of what a family is. It is that feeling of belonging, of love and security that comes from living together, helping and sharing.

There are basically two types of families: nuclear families and extended families. The nuclear family usually consists of two parents (mother and father) and their children. The mother and father form the nucleus, or center, of the nuclear family. The children stay in the nuclear family until they grow up and marry. Then form new nuclear families.

The extended family is very large. There are often many nuclear families in one extended family. An extended family includes children parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and

cousins. The members of an extended family are related by blood (grandparent, parents, children, brothers, sisters, etc.) or by marriage (husbands, wives, mothers-in-law, etc). They are all related, so the members of an extended family are called relatives.

Traditionally, all the members of an extended family lived in the same area. However, with the change from an agricultural to an industrial society, many nuclear families moved away from the family home in order to find work. In industrial societies today, the members of most nuclear families live together, but most extended families do not live together. Therefore we can say that the nuclear family becomes more important than the extended family as the society industrializes.

In post-industrial societies like the United States, even the nuclear family is changing. The nuclear family is becoming smaller as parents want fewer children, and the number of childless families is increasing. Traditionally, the father of a nuclear family earned money for the family while the mother cared for the house and the children. Today more than 50% of the nuclear families in the United States are two-earner families – both the father and the mother earn money for the family – and in a few families the mother earns the money while the father takes care of the house and the children. Many nuclear families are also “splitting up” – more and more parents are getting divorced.

What will be the result of this “splitting” of the nuclear family? Social scientists now talk of two new family forms: the single parent family and the remarried family. Almost 20%

of all American families are single parent families, and in 85% of these families the single parent is the mother. Most single parents find it very difficult to take care of a family alone, so they soon marry again and form remarried families. As social scientists study these two new family form, they will be able to tell us more about the future of the nuclear family in the post-industrial age.

07-B. The Changing American Family

The family is important to people all over the world although the structure of the family is quite different from one country to another. In the United States, as in many countries in the world, the family is changing. A generation or two ago, the traditional family, in which the father was boss, was customary. Now, the modern family, in which both the father and the mother are equal partners, is more common. Although there are several similarities between the traditional and the modern family, there are also some very important differences.

The traditional family of yesterday and the modern family of today have several similarities. The traditional family was a nuclear family, and the modern family is, too. The role of the father in the traditional family was to provide for his family. Similarly, the father in the modern family is expected to do so, also. The mother in the traditional family took care of the children’s physical and emotional needs just as the modern mother does.

On the other hand, there are some great differences between the traditional family and the modern family. The first important difference is in the man’s role. the traditional husband was the head of the household, because he was the only one who worked outside the home. If the wife worked for pay, then the husband was not considered to be a good provider. In many families today, both husband and wife work for pay. Therefore, they share the role of head of household. In addition, the traditional husband usually made the big decisions about spending money. However, the modern husband shares these decisions with his working wife. Also, the traditional husband did not help his wife with the housework or meal preparation. Dinner was ready when he came home. In contrast, the modern husband helps his working wife at home. He may do some of the household jobs, and it is not unusual for him to cook.

The second difference is in the woman’s role. In the traditional family, the woman may have worked for pay during her first years of marriage. However, after she became pregnant, she would usually give up her job. Her primary role was to take care of her family and home. In contrast, in many families today, the modern woman works outside the home even after she has children . She's doing two jobs instead of one, so she is busier than the traditional mother was. The traditional wife learned to live within her husband's income. On the other hand, the modern wife does not have to because the family has two incomes.

The final difference is in the role of the children. In the traditional family, the children

were taken care of by the mother because she did not work outside the home. However, today preschool children may go to a child care center or to a baby-sitter regularly because the mother works. The school-age children of a traditions family were more dependent. their mother was there to help them to get ready for school and to make their breakfast. In contrast, modern children are more independent. They have to get up early in the morning and get ready for school. Their mother is busy getting ready for work, so they may even have to make their own breakfast.

In conclusion, the American family of today is different from the family of fifty years ago. In the modern family, the roles of the father, mother, and children have changed as more and more women work outside the home. The next century may bring more important changes to the American family structure. It should be interesting to see.

08-A.Telecommunication via Satellite

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were four powerful means of transmitting and receiving information over long distances: print, photography, telegraph and telephone. By the middle of the century, both radio and television had become established means of transmitting sound and/or pictures. In 1964, the Olympic Games in Tokyo became the first program to be transmitted via satellite.

In order to transmit an event such as the Olympics via satellite, television signals are first

changed into radio waves, which are then sent from a station on earth to an orbiting satellite. The satellite receives the radio waves and sends them back to earth, where another station picks them up and changes them back into television signals. Because any form of sound or visual information can be changed into radio waves, satellites are capable of transmitting not only television broadcasts, but telephone calls and printed materials such as books and magazines.

The combination of satellites, which transmit information, computers, which store information, and television, which displays information, will change every home into an education and entertainment center. In theory, every person will have access to an unlimited amount of information.

Another important use of telecommunication satellites was demonstrated in 1974 when the \"Teacher in Sky\" satellite transmitted educational programs to classes in remote areas of the United States. In 1975, many people in India saw television for the first time as they watched programs about agriculture and health.

The satellite also demonstrated how it could provide help to people living in isolated areas where transportation is difficult. For example, a health worker in an isolated area was able to transmit pictures of a patient s wound to a doctor far away. He was then able to follow the doctor's instructions on how to care for the patient.

The most common use of telecommunication satellites, however, has been for transmitting telephone calls. Most of them trave1 40, 000 miles to a satellite and then back to earth. Ten years ago, a satellite was capable of receiving and transmitting more than 3?000 telephone conversations simultaneously. Now a single satellite is able to transmit over 100,000 conversations as well as several hundred television channels - all at the same time.

Telecommunication can make information from around the world available to use quickly and easily, but some people worry that this may be a risk to our privacy. If personal information is stored in computers, then it may be easily transmitted via satellite to anyone who can pay for the service.

Another worry is that telecommunication systems may isolate people from each other. When people are able to shop from their homes, do their banking without leaving the house, watch any movie they want on their television, as well as get any information they need, then there will not be as much contact between people.

It is important to realize that the same technology that helps us may also harm us. We can prevent this from happening by carefully controlling the new technology. As one telecommunication expert says, “We must remember that technology alone is not the answer…It is the intelligent application of technology that will lead us to success.

08-B.What people Don’t know about Air

The air around us is important to everyone. Without air, we could not exist. Everyone understands that. But air is necessary in many other ways - ways that are not always so obvious or widely known.

For example, if we did not have air, there would be no sound. Sound travels through air. Where there is no air, there is no sound. Without air, there would be no fire. There would be no cars or trucks, since motors need air in order to work.

Without air, there would be no wind or clouds. There would be no weather, as we know it. The night time would be very cold and the days very hot. We would be forced to seek shelter from the sun, as there would be no atmosphere to protect us from the sun's deadly rays.

The atmosphere is all the air surrounding the earth. Atmospheric pressure is the weight of all that air against the surface of the earth. If we did not have atmospheric pressure, we could not have automobile tires. The tires would burst if they did not have the pressure of the atmosphere against their surfaces.

Large and powerful, the atmosphere consists of an ocean of gases hundreds of miles high. It presses down on out bodies with a force of more than fourteen pounds per square inch. The narrow column of air which rests upon our shoulders weighs almost 2,000 pounds. But our bodies are built in such a way that this weight does not crush us.

In this huge ocean of air there is more energy than in all the coal, oil, and gas we have on earth. Electrical energy is collected in the atmosphere as water is collected and stored in a dam. The existence of electricity in the air has been known for centuries. Men have gazed in wonder at the bright patterns of lightning in storm clouds. But a thorough study of electricity in the atmosphere was not possible until the development of radio and radar.

One scientist, Dr. Sydney Chapman, has tried to explain the electric field which surrounds the earth. He believes that the great storms on the sun create large amounts of electric energy. This energy is contained in a very light gas called hydrogen. The earth pulls the gas toward it, and a ring is formed around the earth several thousand feet above its surface. the great space ring is a powerful current of electrical energy. Sometimes the ring comes down and curves into the lower atmosphere, causing strange electrical effects.

Dr. Chapman's ideas explain many things. It has long been known that there is an electric field inside the earth. It moves in much the same manner as the electric energy contained in the atmosphere. Scientists now believe that the electric energy in the atmosphere causes the electric energy inside the earth to flow.

If we can learn to control the energy in the atmosphere, we will have an unending supply of energy. Many scientists are trying to learn how to control it. In the meantime, even those of us who are not scientists have begun to pay attention to air. We realize that air does not contain the same elements that it contained years ago. Automobiles, airplanes, factories, and

atomic explosions have added dust and waste gases to the atmosphere. It is time to learn how to protect our atmosphere, the roof over the world of man.

09-A. Learned words and popular words

In every cultivated language there are two great classes of words which, taken together, make up the whole vocabulary. First, there are those words with which we become familiar in ordinary conversation, which we learn, that is to say, from the members of our own family and from our friends, and which we should know and use even if we could not read or write. They concern the common things of life, and are the stock in trade of all who speak the language. Such words may be called “popular,” since they belong to the people at large and are not the possession of limited class only.

On the other hand, our language includes a large number of words which are relatively seldom used in ordinary conversation. Their meanings are known to every educated person, but there is little occasion to use them at home. Our first acquaintance with them comes not from our mother's lips or from the talk of our classmates, but from books that we read, lectures that we hear, or the more formal conversation of highly educated speakers who are discussing some particular topic in an elevated style. Such words are called \"learned\difference between them and \"popular\" words is of great importance to a right understanding of language.

The difference between popular and learned words may be easily seen in a few examples. We may describe a girl as “lively” or as \"vivacious.\" In the first case, we are using a native English word formed from the familiar noun life. In the latter, we are using a Latin derivative which has exactly the same meaning. Yet the atmosphere of the two words is quite different. No one ever got the adjective lively out of a book. It is a part of everybody's vocabulary. We cannot remember a time when we did not know it, and we feel sure that we learned it long before we were able to read. On the other hand, we must have passed several years of our lives before learning the word vivacious. We may even remember the first time that we saw it in print or heard it from some grown-up friend. Both lively and vivacious are good English words, but Lively is popular and vivacious is learned.

The terms \"popular\" and \"learned,” as applied to words, are not absolute definitions. No two persons have the same stock of words, and the same word may be \"popular\" in one man's vocabulary and \"learned in another's. There are also different grades of \"popularity.\" Still, the classification into \"learned\" and \"popular\" is convenient and sound. Different opinions may come up as to the classification of any particular word, but there can be no difference of opinion about the general principle. We must be careful, however, to avoid misconception. When we call a word \"popular,\" we do not mean that it is a favorite word, but simply that it belongs to the people as a whole that is, it is everybody's word, not the possession of a limited number. When we call a word \"learned” we do not mean that it is used by learned persons alone, but simply that its presence in the English vocabulary is due

to books and the cultivation of literature rather than to the actual needs of ordinary conversation.

09-B. How Should You Build Up Your Vocabulary

Through context

When students in a college class were asked what should be done when they come across a new word in their reading, 84 percent said, “Look it up in the dictionary.” if you do, however, you interrupt the very mental processes needed to make your efforts most productive.

But there’s another reason. Suppose someone asks you what the word \"fast\" means. You answer, \"swift.\" But does it mean that in such contexts as \"fast color,\" \"fast woman,\" or \"fast friend\"? And if a horse is fast, is it securely tied or running at top speed? It could be either. It all depends. On the dictionary? No, on context - on how the word is actually used. After all there are twenty different meanings for \"fast\" in the dictionary. But the dictionary doesn’t tell you which meaning is intended. That's why it makes such good sense to begin with context.

Through Word Parts

Now for the next step. Often new words contain one or more parts, which, if recognized, provide specific help with meaning. Suppose you read that someone \"had a preference for reading travel books.\" The context certainly isn’t too helpful. But do you see a prefix, suffix, or root that you know? Well, there's the familiar prefix pre-, meaning \"before. Look back at the context and cry inserting \"before.\" Reading travel books apparently comes \"before” other kinds of reading. Yes, a preference is something put \"before\" something else.

Your second step, then, is to look for familiar word parts. If they do not give you exact meanings, they should at least bring you much closer.

Now you can see why you should consult the dictionary last, not first. You looked carefully at context. You've looked for familiar word parts. Now you play Sherlock Holmes - an exciting role. You guess. What exactly does that strange word mean? Only when you go through the mental exercises to come up with a tentative definition should you open the dictionary to see if you're right.

After all, those first two steps or approaches spark a stronger than usual interest in that dictionary definition. You're now personally involved. Did you find out the word meaning? Your heightened interest will lead to better memory of both word and meaning. It also encourages your development of the habits needed to speed your progress. And when you see in black and white the definition you had expected, what a feeling of success is yours. In that way, the CPD Formula provides you with maximum effectiveness.

Well, there it is, your new formula - Context, Parts, Dictionary. Use it! The exercises which follow will give you specific, step-by-step help in sharpening your awareness of contextual clues, learning the most useful word parts, and using the dictionary with increased accuracy and ease. The results will be like money in the bank.

10-A. Scientific Attitudes

Science had its beginning when man started asking questions about his environment. He wondered where the sun went at night and why the sky was blue. He questioned why the wind blew and the leaves fell. He sought answers to these and other questions. Not all his answers were correct, but at least he did want to know.

Curiosity and Imagination

Science began to develop rapidly when man laid aside his wrong beliefs and begs to seek true explanations. Young children are curious about how things work. The child wants to take apart a watch to see what makes it work.

Benjamin Franklin wondered about lightning He combined his curiosity with imagination and carried out his well-known experiment to show that lightning and an electric spark are the same thing. Curiosity and imagination are important qualities which help stimulate the discovery of new facts and advance science.

Belief in Cause and Effect

Scientifically minded people believe in a \"cause-and-effect\" relationship. They feel there is a perfectly natural explanation for everything. For example, there is a good reason why some leaves turn red and others yellow in the fall. Changes such as these, which are easily observed, are called phenomena. Some common phenomena, however, are not completely understood. Still others cannot be explained at all at this time. In cases where the explanation is unknown the scientific point of view is that there is a reason if it can only be discovered.

Being Open - Minded

Open-mindedness is also extremely important to a scientific attitude. This means the ability to face the facts as they are regardless of what one has previously thought. It includes an ability to accept new and sometimes even disagreeable ideas. The worker in science must face facts whether they are pleasant or unpleasant. He must expect many failures and be willing to try again. Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before he succeeded in producing the first electric lamp.

The solutions to real problems cannot be seen in advance. Scientists must be able to change their thinking and to adapt their theories to new facts as they are discovered. The mind cannot be made up once and for all. New knowledge may make a change in thinking necessary. This is another way of saying that man's understanding is always less than perfect.

What is accepted as true often is relatively, and not absolutely, true. A scientific truth offers an explanation that is acceptable only in the light of what is known at a particular time.

Respect for the Views of Others

Another part of a scientific attitude is respect for the views of others. This is easy when these views are like one's own. The difficulty comes up when their ideas are different. Views which are entirely new or foreign may also be hard to accept.

New ideas are frequently very slow to be accepted. Scientists such as Galileo, Louis Pasteur, and Edward Jenner were laughed at because they held theories that were not accepted. Respect for new ideas is important for continued progress in all fields of knowledge

Opinions on Evidence

Sometimes evidence is not complete. It may take time for new facts to become available. When they are available, a person may have to change his mind. New findings may also require a “wait-and-see” attitude. For example, there is an experiment on the sprouting of seeds which has been running for more than 50 years. The purpose is to determine how long a time can be buried in the ground and still grow when proper conditions for growth exist.

10-B. Solving Problems Scientifically

There are scientific ways in which man solves problems. Once his curiosity has been aroused, he uses certain methods and procedures to obtain new knowledge and greater understanding. Although the methods are not always the same, there are usually certain elements in the procedures that are similar.

Recognizing the Problem

Problems must first of all be recognized. The right answers can be obtained only if the right questions are asked. A thoroughly understood problem is well started toward solution. Problems arise in a variety of ways. Sometimes they grow out of a chance observation. They may result from reading, from laboratory experiments, or simply from thinking. They also may result from new developments or from new or different human needs. Today, for example, problems are arising from new discoveries in the fields of nuclear physics, biological engineering and microelectronics. The development of industry has also brought about large numbers of problems which have to be solved.

Collecting Information

Next, the scientist tries to learn as much as possible about it. Often this means going to the library and studying books which contain accounts of man’s experience and knowledge

of the problem. This is called searching the literature.

The scientist may find that others have already solved all or a part of the problem. Occasionally he finds answers to closely related questions, which give clues for solving the new one. In his search the scientist accumulates much background information. With these new ideas and facts he builds a firm foundation for solving the problem.

Organizing the Information

After the scientist has finished this part of his work he will probably take the many facts which he has collected and organize them into some kind of system. This may be a logical classification or it may be a mathematical analysis. Usually the analysis will show unanswered questions. Sometimes it will suggest areas that are in need of further study. Perhaps one of the most important results of such an analysis is that it indicates certain truths, which generally are called inferences.

Making a Hypothesis

In making an inference the scientist has built up a hypothesis. A hypothesis is only a \"best” guess. It must next be tested.

If it is correct, then certain things should follow. This means if a particular experiment is

carried out, certain observations ought to be possible or it should be possible to make certain predictions.

Should the observations or predictions turn out to be as expected, the scientist has added confidence in the probable truth of his hypothesis. If, however, observations cannot be made or the predictions are unreliable, then the hypothesis will probably be given up or at least modified.

The Experiment

The hypothesis must check with the facts. Scientific facts are usually established by work in the laboratory. Experiments have to be made under carefully controlled conditions. Thorough and accurate records must be kept.

In making certain kinds of experiments in science variables are used. A variable is something which has different values under different conditions. In one type of laboratory test all the variables but one are controlled. This method of testing is called controlled experimentation.

11-A. The Great American Garage Sale

Not long ago, Charles Erickson and his family decided to do some spring housecleaning.

Sorting through their possessions, they came up with some 1,500 old, unwanted items - all sorts of things they wanted to get rid of. The Ericksons decided to do what a lot of other Americans are doing these days -- have a “garage sale.” They posted homemade signs throughout the neighborhood, ran an advertisement in the local newspaper, then set out the unwanted objects on the front yard of their home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and waited to see if any one would come. The Ericksons needn’t have worried. Eager buyers bought all but 50 of the items in one weekend, leaving the family $442 richer.

Garage sale, yard sale, basement sale - whatever they're called and wherever they're held, Americans are having them in ever-increasing numbers.

The variety of things put up for sale is really wonderful - dishes, books, used clothing, tools, tires, empty bottles, bicycles, furniture. A man in Atlanta, Georgia, even sold a full-size replica of a 1931 Ford.

\"You wouldn't believe the stuff people will buy,” says Mrs. Jerry McNeely of Houston, Texas, who has held two garage sales with friends. \"On the other hand, you wouldn’t believe some of the things people will put out to sell.”

Why would Americans want to shop by searching among someone else’s castoffs?

Rising living costs are considered by almost everyone as a reason both for holding sales

and for attending them. The seller makes a little extra money and the buyer saves quite a lot, since garage-sale items usually are priced at a very small part of their original cost.

But beyond that, they’re fun. Garage sales have become suburban social events, drawing people of all ages. Neighbors enjoy meeting new people, and some families even serve drinks and cakes. One psychologist suggests that people are fed up with the computerization of their lives - they may be searching for their roots. Many of the younger buyers say they are turned off by the poor quality of modern goods and are looking for remnants of a stronger and firmer era, when things were built to last.

Some people have made garage-sale shopping into a hobby; they spend their weekends going from sale to sale, hoping to run across a real treasure. Says one long-time weekend bargain hunter, \"In the back of your mind you have the hope of finding some fabulous painting stored away somewhere or something else of great value for a bargain price.

Diana McLellan, a reporter for the Washington Star-News, wrote, \"The garage sale is like the quality of mercy - it blesseth him that gives and him that takes. It separates clothes, toys, pots, cups, forks and knives from their reluctant owners and places them in loving new homes.”

How long will all this enthusiasm continue? Says one recent seller, “Some day the people who are buying are bound to be faced with the same problem we had – getting rid of

this stuff.”

11-B. American Stores

In the United States you will find yourself being urged from every page of every newspaper and on practically every television station to buy all kinds of goods that you are actually quite happy without.

Not only is there a wide range of prices for goods in America, there is also a wide range in the quality of goods offered for sale. Unlike some countries, Americans generally pay the price of a product without question, instead of trying to get a lower price by bargaining. However, there are many \"sales” in the United States, during which time stores will lower their normal prices. This may all be very confusing to the visitor. Which is the best product to buy out of hundreds to choose from? How are you going to know how to \"get your money's worth” when you shop? Perhaps the best advice is: Don't hurry. Visit various stories and determine the quality of goods. Examine them carefully. Read the advertisements so that you can compare prices. Explore and examine before you buy.

There is a great variety of shops in the United States, ranging from very large stores called \"department stores,” offering clothing, furniture, household goods as well as many other goods, to very small shops that specialize in just one kind of product. There are \"discount houses” offering goods at low prices, and “dime stores” specializing in a wide

range of inexpensive items.

Most department stores in large cities carry average to better quality products at average to higher prices. However, they offer the shopper great convenience since they contain such a wide variety of products.

If convenience isn't as important to you as price, you may want to shop in some of the discount houses. These stores have nearly as great a variety of goods as department stores, but offer lower prices. They can do so for several reasons. They don't offer the same services to buyers that department stores do; there may be fewer sales people; and the store probably doesn't deliver purchases.

There are many small shops in America, as there are everywhere, that offer a more limited quantity of products. Usually run by a small number of salespeople, these shops offer products that range from inexpensive to very expensive, depending on the shop. You are likely to receive more attention from the sales-people in small shops than in department stores.

Another popular shop is the \"dime store,” sometimes referred to as the \"five and ten.” No longer selling many things for five or ten cents, these stores got their name in the last century when it was decided that a small profit on a great quantity of goods would be better than a large profit on fewer sales. Dime stores specialize in a wide variety of inexpensive

items and today, prices range from a quarter or 50 cents up to several dollars. If you need a small item and don’t want to spend very much, the dime store is likely to have just what you are looking for.

The United States is also known for its \"supermarkets,” where huge quantities of all kinds of food and household articles are sold. These stores offer good quality food at lower prices than smaller food stores.

The vast majority of Americans do all their food shopping in supermarkets. One of the most interesting sections to visit is the frozen food section. With discoveries in methods to preserve food, almost every kind of food can be frozen and yet keep its original flavor. Since frozen foods require so little time to cook, they have naturally become very popular everywhere in the country.

12-A. How Dictionaries Are Made

It is widely believed that every word has a correct meaning, that we learn these meanings mainly from teachers and grammarians, and that dictionaries and grammars are the supreme authority in matters of meaning and usage. Few people ask by what authority the writers of dictionaries and grammars say what they say. I once got into a dispute with an English woman over the pronunciation of a word and offered to look it up in the dictionary. The English woman said firmly, “What for? I am English. I was born and brought up in England,

The way I speak is English.” Such self-assurance about one’s own language is fairly common among the English. In the United States, however, anyone who is willing to quarrel with the dictionary is regarded as either eccentric or mad.

Let us see how dictionaries are made and how the editors arrive at definitions. What follows applies only to those dictionary offices where first-hand, original research goes on - not those in which editors simply copy existing dictionaries. The task of writing a dictionary begins with the reading of vast amounts of the literature of the period or subject that the dictionary is to cover. As the editors read, they copy on cards every interesting or rare word, every unusual or peculiar occurrence of a common word, a large number of common words in their ordinary uses, and also the sentences in which each of these words appears.

That is to say, the context of each word is collected, along with the word itself. For a really big job of dictionary writing, such as the Oxford English Dictionary, millions of such cards are collected, and the task of editing occupies decades. As the cards are collected, they are alphabetized and sorted. When the sorting is completed, there will be for each word anywhere from two or three to several hundred quotations, each on its card.

To define a word, then, the dictionary editor places before him the stack of cards illustrating that word; each of the cards represents an actual use of the word by a writer of some literary or historical importance. He reads the cards carefully, discards some, re-reads the rest, and divides up the stack according to what he thinks are the several senses of the

word. Finally, he writes his definitions, following the hard-and-fast rule that each definition must be based on what the quotations in front of him reveal about the meaning of the word. The editor cannot be influenced by what he thinks a given word ought to mean. He must work according to the cards, or not at all.

The writing of a dictionary, therefore, is not a task of setting up authoritative statements about the \"true meanings\" of words, but a task of recording, to the best of one's ability, what various words have meant to authors in the distant or immediate past, If, for example, we had been writing a dictionary in 1890, or even as late as l919, we could have said that the word \"broadcast\" means \"to scatter\" (seed, for example), but we could not have stated that from 1921 on, the common meaning of the word should become “to send out programs by radio or television.” In choosing our words when we Speak or write, we can be guided by the historical record provided us by the dictionary, but we cannot be bound by it, because new situations, new experiences, new inventions, new feelings, are always forcing us to give new uses to old words. Looking under a “hood,” we should ordinarily have found, five hundred years ago, a monk; today, we find a car engine.

12-B. Reading Provides Necessary Survival Skills

With the coming of the television age and the increasing emphasis on pictures and sound in all quarters of our society, many people would have us believe that we are moving rapidly away from reading as a necessary life skill. But this is not the case at all.

Good reading is a more important life skill than ever before and the printed word continues to be the cornerstone of both higher education and better positions in the job market.

For students, almost all studying involves reading. For adults, reading is day to day, either a stumbling block or a smooth path to pleasure and opportunity. This is why good reading habits are not only an important study skill for the student, but also an important life skill for anyone.

SCANNING -- You can get a good idea about the material by taking a few moments right off to read the title, chapter headings, section titles and headlines. The purpose of scanning is to get a quick understanding of what to expect from the reading, so that you will know what you are reading as you go along.

Maps, charts, graphs and pictures are clues that will help the reader to cue in on the content and organization of the material. This simple technique of scanning can help you read for ideas because you will know where you are going when you begin to read.

READING SPEED -- Another good reading habit is reading fast. The expression \"haste makes waste\" does not apply to reading. In fact, most people read much too slowly. Right now you are probably reading this slower than you need for good comprehension. Studies show that fast readers are the best readers, and that slow readers often lose their

concentration and comprehension abilities because their minds will wander out of boredom.

Remember, nothing hurts concentration more than reading too slowly. Your mind will keep up with your reading speed if you ask it to. By always reading at your top speed, you challenge your understanding and make it easier for your mind to concentrate on the material.

VOCABULARY BUILDING -- For a person with good reading habits, a printed page contains not only words but ideas, actions, thoughts and feelings. But all these things are built on words. The more words you are familiar with, the less you are aware of reading words and the more you are aware of content and meaning. Expanding your vocabulary will help you to read more effectively and rapidly.

Many people simply skip over words they do not understand. This, naturally, hurts their overall comprehension. Other people stop at each new word and look it up in the dictionary, but this method can slow down your reading, affecting concentration and comprehension.

But you can build your vocabulary without using a dictionary each time. Here are two rules:

1. Pause for a moment on each new word and let it register in your mind.

2. Try to guess what the word means from context clues, from the words around it.

What happens with this method is that you will see the word again and again. Each time you will have a stronger impression of the meaning. Soon, the new word will be familiar and its meaning clear.

The key to the method is to be alert to new words. Don’t skip over them. You'll find you are adding to your vocabulary each day and a good strong vocabulary is a great help to reading quickly and with strong comprehension.

Good reading habits like these can help students and working adults alike to be more successful. The special world of school and the real world of school and of everyday life can be more comfortable, productive and rewarding with the addition of simple yet important life skills such as good reading habits.

13-A. Insurance

An insurance agent called me this morning. This particular agent wanted to discuss my automobile coverage, but the next agent to call might be interested in my life insurance program, my health insurance, or fire protection for my home and furniture. The American consumer often feels constantly disturbed by insurance agents. Many agents selling many different policies call us by phone and sometimes even come to our doors. These insurance

agents are always friendly, well dressed, and eager to be of help.

Yet few Americans really enjoy visiting with these eager, helpful men and women. We are not happy when they call us; we are on guard when they visit our homes. They are never really our friends; at best, they are a necessary evil.

Three reasons why we are unwilling to discuss insurance can be suggested. First of all, insurance is expensive. A young father who purchases a fairly small life insurance policy agrees to pay a sum of $200 every year for 40 years - a total of $8,000. Many college students pay $800 to $1,000 per year for car insurance. In effect, they pay as much for the insurance as they do for the car itself. Health insurance that pays for modern medical miracles often costs Americans as much as $2,000 every year. Adequate insurance is expensive; it is a major item for most families.

Insurance also reminds us that we live in an unsafe world. We are human and we must face the possibilities of illness, injury, death, and financial loss. Our rational minds recognize the many unfortunate events that can occur, but in our hearts we hope that we might be spared. Serious injury or death is not a pleasant subject to discuss or even consider. We are afraid; we would rather talk about football or the weather or what we had for lunch.

Finally, insurance is a difficult, complex subject. No one understands it completely and only a few insurance professionals really feel comfortable in a discussion of automobile, life,

and major medical coverages. We feel inadequate and try to hide our ignorance by avoiding discussions of insurance.

Yet these three reasons for not discussing insurance provide three excellent reasons why we should learn more about it. Insurance is expensive. In a lifetime, many of us spend as much on insurance as we do on the purchase of a home. If we are to spend our money intelligently, we need information about the products and services available. We don’t depend entirely on salespeople when we buy a car, a house, or a suit of clothes. Neither should we depend entirely on the agent when we buy insurance. We need a basic knowledge of insurance coverages if we are to be intelligent consumers.

The intelligent consumer looks problems in the face. Although accident, illness, and death are not pleasant subjects, each of us knows we face these possibilities. It is better that we plan for these situations by finding means to deal with them than to just hope that they will somehow go away.

Although insurance can be complex, its basic concepts are neither difficult nor impossible to learn. Quite the opposite. Insurance fundamentals can be understood by those willing to study them. Serious study provides knowledge. The study of insurance is an effective, proven method of dealing with the insurance ignorance faced by many American families.

13-B. What Is Money and What Are Its Functions?

Money is something you've been familiar with throughout your life. In fact, you may already consider yourself an expert on the subject. You regularly use money to measure the value of things you own. You also have some of it in your pocket and in bank accounts. It might surprise you to learn that there's a great deal of disagreement among economists about what money is and how to measure it. Money serves a number of functions, and any definition of money must consider all of its functions.

The four major functions of money are as a medium of exchange, a standard of value, a standard of deferred payment, and a store of value.

A Medium of Exchange. As a generally accepted medium of exchange, money rules out

the need for barter, the direct exchange of one item for another. Barter is a very inconvenient means of trading because it requires the double coincidence of wants. A seller with a good or service to offer must search for a buyer who has exactly what the seller desires. For example, if a baker wants meat, he must search for a person who sells meat and wants bread under a barter system. Because money is generally accepted as payment for any purchase, a baker who sells bread for money can use the money to buy meat or anything else he wants.

A Standard of Value. Money provides a unit of account that serves as a standard to

measure value. The value of an item is a measure of what a person will sacrifice to obtain it.

How much is a two week vacation in Hawaii worth to you? If you're like most people, you'll probably respond to such a question by valuing the vacation in dollars - say $2,000 - rather than in terms of other things (like your car). Whether or not you're conscious of it, you're constantly valuing items in dollars. As a standard of value, money allows the addition of values of many different items as automobiles, repairs, and all other goods and services. The concept of GNP is useless without a standard of value such as the dollar.

A Standard of Deferred Payment. Many contracts involve promises to pay sums of money

in the future. The unit of account for deferred payment of debts is also money. If you borrow money to buy a car, the loan contract specifies how much you must pay back every month and the number of months required to satisfy your obligation. However, money serves its function as a standard of deferred payment only if its purchasing power remains fairly constant over time. If the price level rises, the future purchasing power of money over time will go down. Similarly, a decrease in the price level will increase the future purchasing power of money.

A Store of Value. Money can also serve as a store of value that can be quickly converted

to goods and services. Money as the actual medium of exchange is completely liquid, meaning it can immediately be converted to goods and services without any inconvenience or cost. Other assets that serve as stores of value must first be sold to be converted into a generally accepted medium of exchange. There are often costs and inconvenience associated

with liquidating other assets. Holding money as a store of value thus can reduce the transaction costs involved in everyday business.

14-A. The Importance of Being Kind and Polite

\"Frankly, I think you’re boring.” Why do we seldom hear people speak so honestly?

Unless you want to end a relationship, you don't tell another person what you think of her or him like this. Failing to be impressed by a friend's collection of stamps, yawning when a golfer tells you about that great shut he made on the 14th hole, or falling asleep when friends show pictures from their last trip to Sault Ste. Marie are all things that educated people try not to do. This is what manners are about: acting in a civilized way to avoid misunderstanding, friction, and conflict.

There are no laws enforcing respect. Yet we cannot interact with others without some rules of behavior, rules that are set by some form of social consensus. These guidelines represent what a majority of people consider acceptable and what they consider unacceptable. Rude people are those whose behavior shows little respect for the rules that the majority follow. For instance, because they talk at home while the television is on, many people think they can talk at movies as well. They are not even aware that this habit will bother the other members of the audience.

Restaurants have smoking and non-smoking sections, and most smokers are polite

enough to ask, \"Do you mind if I smoke?\" before lighting up. Restaurants should also have cellular-phone and no-cellular-phone sections. A new class of rude people has been born: the

look-at-me phone users whose boring conversations are just as dangerous to our mental

health as smoke is to our lungs. Sometimes, it is better to remain unknown than to make pimple hate you.

There are many children and adolescents whose behavior is generally unacceptable. They swear no matter who is around them, they listen to their Walkmans while the teacher is talking to them. Indifferent parents who refuse to discipline their children are not helping them. Kids who have no idea what being polite means will pay the price sooner or later. When they join the work force, their employers and associates alike will soon realize that the behavior of these rude young people is closer to that of animals than civilized individuals. When they lose a few contracts because they talk with their mouth full, or when they say \"Bob\" to someone who should be \"Mr. Johnson,\" these grown-up kids, because of their ignorance, will never understand why others are getting ahead and they are not.

Every little bit of kindness helps. With manners, the best rule is the one that works. It is easier to look and sound attractive when we are nice to other people. Being polite and showing respect can give us an edge. Why do we need an edge? Success in life often starts with a job we like, and since getting a job is usually based on making the right impression, it is always a good idea to be kind and polite.

14-B. Why We Walk in Circles

\"Pin the Tail on the Donkey\" is always fun when you're watching rather than pinning. It is

somewhat surprising to see how the blindfolded performers act. Instead of going straight, they always wander off to one side or the other. The greater the distance to the donkey, the farther they go astray. Have you ever wondered why they are unable to walk straight ahead?

It is a well-known fact that a person will move in a circle when he cannot use his eyes to control his direction. Dark nights, dense fogs, blinding snowstorms, thick forests - all these can keep a traveler from seeing where he is going. Then he is unable to move in any fixed direction, but walks in circles.

Animals act the same way. You have probably heard the saying \"running around like a chicken with its head cut off.\" Well, a chicken with its head cut off actually does run around in circles. Blind birds fly in circles. And a blindfolded dog will swim in circles.

A Norwegian biologist, F. O. Guldberg, decided that this problem of circular movement was worth investigating. He collected many true stories on the subject.

One of his stories is about people rowing on a lake during a fog on a dark night. One group of rowers who tried to cross three miles of water in foggy weather never succeeded in reaching their goal. Without knowing it, they rowed in two large circles. When they finally got

to the shore, they discovered that they were at the spot they had started from.

After studying many stories such as this, Professor Guldberg wrote an article in which he discussed \"Circular Motion as the Basic Motion of Animals.\" A simple example will help you to understand his explanation of why we walk in circles.

Have you ever wound up a toy automobile and started it off across the floor? Then you know that it will rarely travel in a straight path. It will travel, instead, in some kind of arc, or curve. If it is to travel in a straight line, the wheels on both sides have to be of exactly equal size. If they are not, the little automobile turns toward the side with the smaller wheels.

Circular movement in walking is caused in much the same way. Usually a man walking will \"watch his step” and \"look where he is going.\" He needs his senses, especially his eyes, to get to the point he intends to reach. When he cannot use his eyes to guide his steps, he will walk straight only if he takes a step of the same length with each foot.

In most people, however, muscle development is not the same in both legs, so that it is probable that the steps will be uneven. The difference may be so small that no one is aware of it. But small as it is, it can cause circular movement.

Let us suppose that a man's left foot takes a step 20 inches long and that his right foot takes a step 30 inches long. Now suppose he takes ten step -- five with his left foot and five

with his right. His left foot will travel 100 inches. His right foot will travel 150 inches. This sounds impossible. One foot cannot remain 50 inches behind the other. What really happens? At each step the man turns a little bit to the left. Sooner or later he makes a complete circle. The tracks of his feet, however, make two circles, one inside the other. His left foot makes the smaller circle because it is taking smaller steps. His right foot makes the larger circle because it is taking larger steps. This is why a person may walk in an arc when he sets out in a straight line.

The muscles of a man's arms are no more identical than the muscles of his legs. This explains why the rowers who set out to cross the lake at night rowed in a circle. By the same rule, a bird’s wings do not develop evenly, and so it will fly in circles when blinded. Thus, dear readers, our circular mystery has a very straight answer.

15-A. How TV Violence Affects Kids

For more than a quarter of a century, evidence has been increasing that children's exposure to violence on television has long-lasting, effects on their behavior. Between 1982 and 1986, the amount of television time allocated each week to violent programs increased significantly. And the number of violent acts on television in the past years has increased from about 19 to 27 per hour. Given the amount of time that children watch television, it has become one of the most powerful models they want to follow.

The Position Statement on Media Violence in Children's Lives, recently adopted by the

National Association for the Education of Young Children, points out that preschool children are particularly easily affected by the media because they are not yet fully able to distinguish fantasy from reality and their understanding of the underlying motives for behavior and the subtleties of moral conflicts is not yet well developed. For example, the rapid recoveries of people on TV from violent attacks give children an unrealistic picture of the injuries that have been suffered.

Effects on Play

Children naturally often want the toys shown on and advertised during these programs. And with these toys, their play tends to be more imitative than imaginative. Children simply imitate the behavior observed during the program, thus undermining both the imaginative and the expressive functions of play. The narrow range of most violence-related toys advertised on television jeopardizes the role of play in helping children make better sense of their own feelings and interpret their world. Some research even suggests that children apply the behaviors observed on TV programs to their real-life situations.

Parents Can Help

It is a good idea for parents to monitor the amount as well as the kind of television their preschool child watches. If your child appears to be crazy about war play and weapons, it

would be a good idea to control his viewing. Controlling viewing is easier to do during the preschool years than during the school years, so you should initiate a pattern of restricted television watching now.

Help your child to interpret what she sees - to think of explanations for the events depicted and to imagine how the show is put together. Make simple critique of a show without implying that her fascination with the drama and the weapons makes her guilty by association.

Ask the teachers of your child's preschool about their policy on war play and toy weapons. Many preschool teachers do not like to have commercially made toy weapons brought into the classroom and welcome hearing your concerns about this matter. Look for other parents who share your views. Work together to control the amount of violent programs watched and the number of violent toys found in the home. Try to arrange play dates for the children as an alternative to TV viewing. Or look for videos of healthy, nonviolent programs for children, and encourage their use as an attractive alternative to violent television programs.

15-B. Why Don’t Girls Think Like Boys?

Do you believe that only boys do well in science? Does it seem to you that girls have better vocabularies than boys? In your opinion, are boys better at building things? If your

answer to each of those questions is \"Yes,\" you are right, according to an article in Current Science. There are exceptions, but here are the facts.

On the average, males score higher on tests that measure mathematical reasoning, mechanical ability, and problem-solving skills. Females show superior ability in tests measuring vocabulary, spelling, and memory. But these differences will probably not always exist. In the future, a person’s abilities may not be determined by sex. As one scientist says, \"Nothing is impossible for a person to be or do.

In several recent studies, young babies have been observed and tested to discover how different abilities are developed. A scientific team headed by Jerome Kagan, a psychologist at Harvard University, is studying the thinking ability of children 11 1/2 months old. The test is a simple one. The baby, while seated on its mother's lap, watches a \"show” on a small theater stage.

In act 1 of the show, an orange-colored block is lifted from a blue box and moved slowly across the stage. Then it is returned to the box. This is repeated six times. Act 2 is similar, except that the orange block is smaller. Baby boys do not seem to notice the difference in the size of the block, but girls immediately become excited and begin to make noises that sound like language. They seem to be trying to talk.

It is known that bones, muscles, and nerves develop faster in baby girls. Usually, too,

baby girls talk at an earlier age than boys do. Scientists think there is a physical reason for this. They believe that nerves in the left side of the brain develop faster in girls than in boys. And it is this side of the brain that strongly influences an individual's ability to use words, to spell, and to remember things.

By the time they start to school, therefore, little girls have an advantage that boys do not have. Girls are physically more ready to remember facts, to spell, and to read. These, of course, are skills that are important in elementary school.

But what have the boys been doing in the years before starting school? They have been developing something called aggression. An aggressive person has courage and energy. He feels strong and independent. He is often the first one to start a fight.

What produces aggression in little boys? It has long been assumed that aggression is caused by male hormones. Scientists today believe that male hormones are only part of the explanation, however. They say aggressiveness in boys is also caused by mothers.

A team of psychologists discovered this by placing mothers and their one-year-old babies in a room filled with toys. The room had a wall through which the scientists could observe what happened without being seen. They took notes on everything the mothers and babies did.

Here is a sample of those notes, taken during the observation of a baby boy and his mother:

\"Baby leans against mother. Looks up at her. She speaks to him. She turns him around. He walks away, picks up toy cat. Goes to mother, drops cat, and leans against her. Looks up at her. She turns him around.\"

From such observations and from conversations with mothers, the scientists learned something about the treatment of baby boys and baby girls. While the mother keeps her daughter close to her, she trains her son to move away from her, to develop independence.

Consequently, it is easy to understand why little girls often per-form school tasks better than boys, especially if the task require sitting still, obeying commands, and accepting the teacher’s ideas. A girl may pass easily through the first few grades. While boys of her age bring home low marks, the girl may easily get good grades. Girls seem to have \"better brains\" in school. Why, then, do so few girls become great scientists? Why is the most important thinking in adult society done by men?

According to scientists, the answer is aggression. Because boys are aggressive, they refuse to accept other people's solutions; they insist upon solving problems for themselves. Thus, while little girls are getting high marks in school for remembering what the teacher has told them, little boys are learning to think in more independent ways.

In the adult world, the aggressive person is usually the one who gets the big salary, the great responsibility, the powerful job. And since males are trained at an early age to be aggressive, males are more often chosen for key positions.

Many people believe this situation is wrong. They think women could be successful in science and industry if they were trained to be independent and problem solving, as boys are.

16-A. Heart Disease: Treat or Prevent?

One of the greatest killers in the Western world is heart disease. The death rate from the disease has been increasing at an alarming speed for the past thirty years. Today in Britain, for example, about four hundred people a day die of heart disease. Western healthcare systems are spending huge sums of money on the surgical treatment of the disease.

This emphasis on treatment is clearly associated with the technological advances that have taken place in the past ten to fifteen years. In this time, modern technology has enabled doctors to develop new surgical techniques and procedures. Many opeations that were considered impossible a few years ago are now performed every day in U.S. hospitals. The result has been a rapid increase in heart surgery.

Although there is no doubt that a large number of people benefit from heart surgery,

critics of our health-care systems point out that the emphasis on the surgical treatment of the disease has three clear disadvantages. First, it attracts interest and financial resources away from the question of prevention. Second, it causes the costs of general hospital care to rise. After hospitals buy the expensive equipment that is necessary for modern heart surgery, they must try to recover the money they have spent. To do this, they raise costs for all their patients, not just those patients whose treatment requires the equipment. The third disadvantage is that doctors are encouraged to perform surgery -- even on patients for whom an operation is not at all necessary -- because the equipment and surgical expertise is available. A federal government office recently said that major heart surgery was often per-formed even though its chances of success were low. In one type of heart surgery, for example, only 15 percent of patients benefited from the surgery.

In the recent past, medical researchers have begun to emphasize the fact that heart disease is associated with stress, smoking and a lack of exercise, and we can often reduce the risk of heart disease by paying more attention to these factors.

More and more people are realizing that there is a connection between heart disease and the way they live. As a result of this new awareness, attitudes toward health are changing. In the past, people tended to think that it was sufficient for good health to have a good doctor who could be relied on to know exactly what to do when they became ill. Now they are realizing that merely receiving the best treatment for illness or injury is not enough. They

are learning that they must take more responsibility for their own health. Today many people are changing their dietary habits and eating food with less fat and cholesterol. Many are paying more attention to reducing stress in their lives. The number of smokers in the United States is now far below the level of twenty years ago as many people succeed in breaking the habit and as fewer people take it up. More and more people are aware of the benefits of regular exercise like walking, running, or swimming; some have begun to walk or ride bicycles to work instead of driving. Millions have become members of health clubs and have made health clubs one of the fastest growing businesses in the United States today. And now the beneficial effects of these changing attitudes and behaviors are beginning to appear: an encouraging decrease in deaths from heart disease.

16-B. Dieting Four Way to Health

Almost everyone considers going on a diet sometime in his or her life. All, regardless of sex and age, have something in common -- losing weight and losing it fast.

Though their common aim may seem basically good, they probably do not realize that misguided dieting can do more harm than good to their health. Going on too strict a diet can destroy the balance of chemicals in the human body. This happens because when the body is suddenly given much less food than usual, it feels as though it is being attacked and tries hard to protect itself by saving energy. It does this by slowing down metabolism, the process by which the food we eat is converted into energy. As energy is supplied to the body at a

slower and slower rate, dieters gradually become so weak that they can do nothing. They soon lose interest in everything going on about them, and their resistance to illness becomes so low that they are easily attacked by one illness after another.

Most of those who diet know that foods like rice, bread, potatoes, cakes, sweets, fruits and some vegetables contain carbohydrates, and so can make one fat. What they do not realize, however, is that carbohydrates are our bodies’ main source of energy, and that these foods also contain components essential for the composition of substances that are needed to keep the body healthy. As a result, they try to avoid eating these foods, and consequently, they become weaker and less healthy. They begin to have difficulty sleeping properly and start to suffer from radical mood changes. In more serious cases, they even begin to show signs of mental illness.

1t is strange enough that most strict diets recommend artificial sweeteners to take the place of sugar and other natural sweeteners. In fact, such artificial sweeteners actually increase one’s appetite and lead to one’s eating even more than usual.

Of course, the fact that misguided forms of dieting result in so many problems does not mean that no dieting is safe or all dieting is harmful to the health. Proper dieting can not only help a person lose ugly excess fat, but can also help him or her to keep it off and to lead a more active, happier and healthier life.

You might ask just what a proper diet is. Well, simply expressed, a proper healthy diet is one that is well-balanced, or, in other words, one that includes enough but not too many of the kinds of foods that provide the body with the nutrients that it needs to function properly. The most important of these nutrients are the macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates and fats. The body needs fairly large amounts of proteins and carbohydrates for building material and energy. Meat, fish, eggs, milk, cream, and nuts all contain proteins and foods like rice, bread, potatoes, etc. contain carbohydrates. The body needs fat to keep it from the cold and to provide a protective layer for the organs, but only in small quantities.

Vitamins and minerals such as iron, calcium, are another group of essential nutrients, though the body does not need as great a quantity of these as it does the macronutrients - proteins, carbohydrates and fats.

There are two types of vitamins, water-soluble vitamins and fat-soluble vitamins. Water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and the B-group vitamins do not stay in the body long and so foods containing these vitamins need to be taken rather often. On the other hand, the fat-soluble vitamins, vitamins A, D, E and K stay in the body for long periods of time and so there is no need to take foods containing them so often.

One way of getting enough nutrients while keeping one’s weight down is to take substitutes for foods which contain too much fat. For example, instead of regular milk, one can take skimmed milk, which contains as many proteins and minerals as regular milk but has

had the fat removed. In the same way, vegetable oil can be used for cooking instead of animal oil.

17-A. Panic and Its Effects

One afternoon while she was preparing dinner in her kitchen, Anne Peters, a 32-year-old American housewife, suddenly had severe pains in her chest accompanied by shortness of breath. Frightened by the thought that she was having a heart attack, Anne screamed for help. Her husband immediately rushed Anne to a nearby hospital where her pains were diagnosed as having been caused by panic, and not a heart attack.

More and more Americans nowadays are having panic attacks like the one experienced by Anne Peters. Benjamin Crocker, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, reveal that as many as ten million adult Americans have already experienced or will experience at least one panic attack in their lifetime. Moreover, studies conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States disclose that approximately 1.2 million adult individuals are currently suffering from severe and recurrent panic attacks.

These attacks may last for only a few minutes; some, however, continue for several hours. The symptoms of panic attacks bear such remarkable similarity to those of heart attacks that many victims believe that they are indeed having a heart attack.

Panic attack victims show the following symptoms: they often become easily frightened or feel uneasy in situations where people normally would not be afraid; they suffer shortness of breath, experience chest pains, a quick heartbeat, sudden fits of trembling, a feeling that persons and things around them are not real; and most of all, a fear of dying or going crazy, A person seized by a panic attack may show all or as few as four of these symptoms.

There has been a lot of explanations as to the causes of panic attacks. Many claim that psychological stress could be a logical cause, but as yet, no evidence has been found to support this theory. However, studies show that more women than men experience panic attacks and people who drink a lot as well as those who use drugs are more likely to suffer attacks.

It is reported that there are at least three signs that indicate a per-son is suffering from a panic attack rather than a heart attack. The first is age. People between the ages of 20 and 30 are more often victims of panic attacks. The second is sex. More women suffer from recurrent panic attacks than men. The third is the multiplicity of symptoms. A panic attack victim usually suffers at least four of the previously mentioned symptoms, while a heart attack victim often experiences only pain and shortness of breath.

It is generally agreed that a panic attack does not directly endanger a person's life. All the same, it can unnecessarily disrupt a person's life by making him or her so afraid of having a panic attack in a public place that he or she may refuse to leave home and may eventually

become isolated from the rest of society. Dr. Crocker’s advice to any person who thinks he is suffering from a panic attack is to consult a doctor for a medical examination to rule out the possibilities of physical illness first. Once it has been confirmed that he or she is, in fact, suffering from a panic attack, the victim should seek psychological and medical help.

17-B. Sleepwalking ?Fact or Fancy?

There is an endless supply of stories about sleepwalkers. Persons have been said to climb on roofs, solve mathematical problems, compose music, walk through windows, and commit murder in their sleep.

In Revere, Massachusetts, a hundred policemen searched for a lost boy who left his home in his sleep and woke up five hours later on a strange sofa in a strange living room, with no idea how he had got there.

At the University of Iowa, a student was reported to have the habit of getting up in the middle of the night and walking three-quarters of a mile to the Iowa River. He would take a swim and then go back to his room to bed.

An expert on sleep in America claims that he has never seen a sleepwalker. He is said to know more about sleep than any other living man, and during the last thirty-five years has lost a lot of sleep watching people sleep. Says he, \"of course, I know that there are

sleepwalkers because I have read about them in the newspapers. But none of my sleepers ever walked, and if I were to advertise for sleepwalkers for an experiment, I doubt that I’d get many takers. \"

Sleepwalking, nevertheless, is a scientific reality. It is one of those strange phenomena that sometimes border on the fantastic. What is certain about sleepwalking is that it is a symptom of emotional disturbance, and that the only way to cure it is to remove the worries and anxieties that cause it. Doctors say that sleepwalking is much more common than is generally supposed. Many sleepwalkers do not seek help and so are never put on record, which means that an accurate count can never be made.

The question is: Is the sleepwalker actually awake or asleep? Scientists have decided that he is about half-and-half. Dr. Zelda Teplitz, who made a ten-year study of the subject, says, \"The sleepwalker is awake in the muscular area, partially asleep in the sensory area.” In other words, a person can walk in his sleep, move around, and do other things, but he does not think about what he is doing.

What are the chances of a sleepwalker committing a murder or doing something else extraordinary in his sleep? Dr. Teplitz says, \"Most people have such great inhibitions against murder or violence that they would awaken if someone didn't wake them up.\" In general, authorities on sleepwalking agree with her. They think that people will not do anything in their sleep that is against their own moral standard. As for the publicized cases, Dr. Teplitz

points out, \"Sleepwalking itself is dramatic... sleepwalkers can always find an audience. I think that some of their tall tales get exaggerated in the telling.” In her own records of case histories, there is not one sleepwalker who ever got beyond his own front door.

To protect themselves, some sleepwalkers have been known to tie themselves in bed, lock their doors, hide the keys, bolt the window, and take all sorts of measures to wake themselves if they should get out of bed. Curiously enough, they have an unusual way of avoiding their own traps when they sleepwalk, so none of their tricks seem to work very well. Some sleepwalkers talk in their sleep loudly enough to wake someone else in the family who can then shake them back to their senses.

Children who walk in their sleep usually outgrow the habit. In many adults, too, the condition is more or less temporary. If it happens often, however, the sleepwalker should seek help. Although sleepwalking itself is nothing to become alarmed about, the problems that cause the sleepwalking may be very serious.

18-A. Why Are Maps Drawn with North at the Top?

Now it is hard to visualize a map that does not feature north at the top, but this was not always so.

The oldest known map in the accepted sense of the word was drawn about 3, 800 BC,

and represents the river Euphrates flowing through northern Mesopotamia, Iraq. This, and others that followed it, were little more than rough sketches of localized features; it was not until many centuries later that the ancient Greeks placed the science of map-making on a sound footing.

At the forefront of the pioneers in the field was the Greek mathematician and philosopher Claudius Ptolemaeus (c. AD 90 ?168), more popularly known to history as Ptolemy. The last great scientist of the classical period, he was the first to draw a map that was based on all available knowledge, rather than guess or imagination. Earlier, the Bahylonians had attempted to map the world, but they presented it in the form of a flattened disc rather than a sphere, which was the form adopted by Ptolemy.

Given the state of knowledge of those times, he got things wrong; for example, his estimate of China and the Atlantic Ocean was far from being accurate. Nevertheless, it was a useful effort, and the map remained a work of reference for over a thousand years. In fact, Christopher Columbus used a version of it when he set sail in search of the New World - which caused him some navigational problems, since Ptolemy had calculated wrongly the size of the Atlantic and was unaware that the Pacific Ocean existed.

The really important thing about Ptolemy's map was that north was at the top. The reason for this was that he decided to orientate the map in the direction of the Vole Star since Polaris was the immovable guiding light in which the voyagers of that era placed their trust.

North at the top remained the accepted arrangement until the early Middle Ages, when the Church began to interfere seriously with the advance of science. In accordance with the orders of the Church, maps were still produced in accordance with Ptolemy's principles ?but now Jerusalem was the central feature, as it was held to be the center of the Christian faith, and east was moved to the top.

These maps are often called \"T\" Maps because they show only three continents - Europe, Asia and Africa - separated by the \"T\" formed by the Mediterranean Sea and the River Nile. From a navigational point of view, they were almost useless.

More accurate maps began to appear in the 14th century, with the spread of trade and increasing reliance on the compass. Once again, north assumed its rightful place at the top of maps.

18-B. You Have a Choice

Two trains are traveling side by side and at the same speed along parallel tracks. We are seated in one of the trains, and with us we have a special speedometer that measures their relative speech. Since the trains are traveling at the same speed, their relative speed is zero; the speedometer therefore reads \"0.\"

Suddenly the other train seems to start pulling ahead of ours. The speedometer shows a

reading of 10 miles per hour. The other train has apparently increased its speed. Hut can we he absolutely certain of this increase?

If your answer is yes, you are wrong. You are wrong because all that we know is that the relative speed between the two trains changed from 0 mph to 10 mph. Nothing more. This change could have been brought about in one of two ways:

1. The other train increased its speed.

2. Our train decreased its speed.

There are thus two possible explanations to account for the change in speed, but we don't know which one is right. Furthermore, regardless of which explanation we choose, the end result will he the same: the other train will arrive at the station first. So it makes no difference whether we say that the other train increased its speed or that our train decreased its speed.

Since both explanations lead to the same result, you can choose either one. Whenever two things are relative, you can choose either one of them. The converse is also true: whenever you have a choice between two things that are equally possible, then the things are relative.

There is no reason, except convenience, for choosing one explanation over the other. The relative speed between the trains remains the same, 10 mph; and the end result will be the same.

Now let抯 suppose that both trains are at the railroad station loading and unloading passengers and baggage. A half-hour passes. As we look at the other train through our window, we see that our train seems to start moving, smoothly and slowly. For a minute or so, our train seems to travel at a uniform speed. Our special speedometer shows that the relative speed between the two trains is 20 mph. But as we look out our window, we suddenly see the last coach of the other train disappear from sight and notice the motionless station behind it. So we are not moving after all. The other train has been moving!

This peculiar and often frustrating experience is an effect of relative motion. At the train station we cannot tell whether it was our train that changed its speed from 0 mph to 20 mph or whether it was the other train that changed its speed from 0 mph to 20 mph. Only after the other train pulled out of the station could we see that it, and not our train, was moving.

Now let us again raise the question that was raised at the beginning of this article: can we be absolutely certain that the other train did indeed increase its speed, and in this case pull out of the station?

If your answer is yes, then you are wrong again. All we can be certain of is that the

relative speed between the two trains changed.

These examples illustrate an important principle in the special theory of relativity. If A appears to be moving at a steady speed relative to B, we cannot know for sure if it is A that is really moving. Perhaps A is standing still, and B is moving. Or perhaps both are moving. According to relativity, there is no experiment that can be devised to solve the problem. As there is no way of deciding which of the two objects is moving, we can choose either one as the moving object. The reason is that their motion is relative, and relativity, as we have seen, means that we have a choice.

This principle - that if two objects are in uniform motion relative to each other, it is impossible to decide which one is moving and which one is at rest - applies to all objects moving uniformly in a straight line through the universe.

In relativity you’ll find that whenever you have a choice among things that are equally possible, you are dealing with relative things. For example, time, which is measured with clocks and watches, is relative because it can be shown that there is more than one system of time. All systems of time are equally possible and you can choose any system you wish.

19-A. Animals at Risk: Who Cares?

An animal species becomes extinct when it fails to produce enough young in each

generation to keep pace with the death-rate. We can tell from fossil evidence in rocks that many living species have become extinct over the millions of years since life began. It is a natural process and extinction is the fate of any animal that has specialized too far to change when its environment changes, or has to compete with a better-adapted and more powerful animal. Because of remarkable technical developments during the past few centuries, man has destroyed or nearly destroyed some species by killing them at such a rate that they couldn't produce enough offspring, or by completely changing their natural environment at surprising speed.

A number of examples can be given of the way in which natural environments are being rapidly changed - Amazonia, for instance. There is every likelihood that many species of animals will be made extinct because of these and similar clearances of natural vegetation. Large numbers of animals have been hunted and killed for food. The North American buffalo is a case of the near-extinction of a species through hunting. Often the numbers are so great the hunters may not realize the danger. But even when the danger is widely publicized, the financial rewards for the hunters may be so great that they choose to ignore the threat to the species. Attitudes like this have led to hunters killing animals for furs, for ivory or merely for ornaments. A slight variation on this is when tourists hunt animals for trophies. Magnificent creatures such as lions and tigers have been hunted out of existence in some parts of the world. It is important to realise, though, that animals are sometimes killed out of fear. Big cats are killed in this way. And animals are sometimes killed out of a wish to reduce numbers to

help the species to survive. The killing of the Canadian seals is claimed to be for this purpose, and the use of their skins for furs is only a by-product.

Many people are concerned about animals and wildlife conservation. One way to preserve species under threat of extinction - whatever the cause - is to remove them to zoos and parks and breed them there. There is always the chance that enough offspring will be born to return them one day to their natural environment - provided it still exists, and that hunters don't kill them again! Another method is to protect the animals in their natural environment by creating wildlife reserves and parks and using game wardens to look after them. But the parks are large, the wardens few and the determination of hunters very great. Early in 1980 wardens and hunters clashed in East Africa. The hunters were armed with modern weapons and several people were killed.

There is great pleasure in watching wildlife in natural or near-natural environments, and tourism can add to the income of countries. The animals are still resources - but in a very different form.

19-B. The Killer Smogs

On the night of December 1, 1930, a dense fog moved over the Meuse Valley, in Belgium. Many factories in the valley poured smoke and fumes into the foggy air. This created a dark smog of smoke and fog combined. People in the valley began to cough and strain for breath.

The smog remained for four days. During that time, thou-sands of people became ill. The hospitals were filled with patients. Sixty people died. Most of them were older persons with heart and lung problems. Finally, a heavy rain washed away the smog. Scientists studied the causes of the disaster. They concluded that the illnesses and deaths were caused by chemicals in the smog.

The first reported event of this kind in the United States happened in Donora, a factory town in a valley near Pittsburgh. In 1948, a killer smog made half of the population sick, there were 17 deaths. Again, older people with lung or heart diseases were hit hardest.

London, England, has always been known for its \"black fags.\" In the winter of 1952, a milky white fog rolled into the city. It soon turned into black smog as the smoke of the city poured into the air. It was so hard to see that people had to walk in front of the buses to guide them. In this way, the most serious air pollution disaster in history began. When it was over, more than 4,000 people had been killed by the thick black smog.

New York City has had several London-type smogs since 1950. Each time, there were from 100 to 400 deaths caused by the smog. Although these smogs were not as deadly as London’s, New York City has the worst: air pollution problem in the United States.

In all the killer smogs, factories and homes poured smoke and fumes into the air from the furnaces. The chemical fumes combined witty the water droplets in the fog to form

harmful substances. These substances caused the illness of those who breathed the polluted air.

Usually, such harmful fumes rise into the upper air and are blown away by the wind. Hut sometimes there is an unusual weather condition called a temperature inversion. A layer of cold air remains near the ground as smoke and fumes pour into it. This is covered by an upper layer of warm air that acts like a lid. It prevents the polluted cooler air from rising. The harmful fumes pile up and make people ill. The smog may bc so thick that airports are closed and chains of collisions occur on the highways.

Another type of smog occurs in Los Angeles. Here the weather may he clear and sunny. But stinging eyes and dry coughs show that harmful chemicals fill the air. The smog is due to invisible gases, mostly from automobile exhaust. Because these chemicals are changed by the sun high up in the air, Los Angeles smog is called photochemical smog. It contains automobile exhaust fumes and nitrogen oxides changed by the sun's rays. Added to these are sulfur dioxide and other fumes from factories and oil refineries. Photochemical smog is found in many large cities all over the world.

Killer smogs don't happen very often, fortunately. Hut in many large cities, a combination of automobile exhaust fumes, home furnace smoke, and factory waste gases pours into the air. This may also happen in the suburbs, or out in the country, where large factories have been built. A number of harmful substances have been found in the air there. When these

substances are breathed in day after day, the health of the population is affected.

20-A. You Can’t Do It Because It Hurts Nobody

Who do you think breaks the law in our society? If you believe that only tough guys commit crimes, you may have to think again. Answer the following questions honestly, Has anyone you know ever driven drunk? Can you think of a friend who has used drugs? Are you aware that your parents may not always tell the truth when they go through customs? Won't some of your friends admit that they have stolen an item from a store? Have any of your friends ever copied a CD onto a tape for someone else?

In case you did not know, all of these acts are against the law. Now, among the people you know, how many have never broken the law? Does that mean that most members of our society should go to jail? Unlike in the movies, we can’t divide the world into bad guys and model citizens. Real life is much more complex. In the same way that diseases range from the common cold to fatal forms of cancer, crimes vary in degree. For example, smoking in an elevator will inconvenience people, but much less than threatening them with a gun.

In addition to breaking the law themselves, people tolerate various levels of crime. Why are we tolerant of some crimes? It may be that, by seeing others do something, we accept it more easily. We may even start committing that crime ourselves. For instance, most people will find it easier to speed on a highway when everybody else is driving over the speed limit.

When people celebrate a sports championship, if they see someone breaking store windows, they might start breaking windows themselves or even steal from the store. So the people around us influence how much law-breaking we can tolerate.

We must also wonder whether seeing violence on television or reading about it in the newspapers every day makes us tolerate crime more than we should. We become used to seeing blood on the news on television, or in full color in newspapers and magazines. Because we see thousands of dead people on TV, maybe we just try to ignore the situation behind the violence.

If so many citizens tolerate violence and crime, or even commit crimes themselves, it may simply be because of the human mind. Our minds may not care about specific laws. Instead, our minds may have a system of values that usually prevents us from hurting other people to improve our own lives. Yet, when it comes to respecting the rights of a mass of anonymous individuals, we might not be so responsible. While most people would not steal a wallet containing $50, they may not mind cheating on taxes, because cheating on taxes does not hurt any one person. It hurts society, but \"society\" remains an abstract idea that is not as real as a neighbor or a friend's friend. Perhaps this is why someone who robs a few dollars by force from a corner store will often end up with a longer jail term than a fraud artist who swindles thousands of dollars: threatening the life of an individual is not acceptable in our society.

When we look at the questions in the first paragraph and realize that many people have misconceptions about law-breaking, we could think it is surprising that only about 10% of Canadians have a criminal record. How could we improve the level of honesty in our society? Would a larger police force keep everyone honest? Would severe laws help make our society better? Probably not. The police would never be able to keep an eye on everyone, and people would still find ways to bend new laws. Honesty will have to come from social pressure: in the family, at school, on the job, each and every one of us can encourage honesty by showing which behaviors are unacceptable. Teaching respect should become everyone’s responsibility.

20-B. Marriage in Iran and America: A Study in Contrasts

Though marriage is practiced in almost all countries of the world, the customs are quite different from one culture to another. It is interesting for me to compare the customs of marriage in the United States with those in my country.

I've lived in the U.S. for four years now, but I'm still not comfortable with the customs here. In fact, what seems strange to me is that courting or dating is not always for the purpose of finding a husband or wife. Some people seem to do it as a hobby.

Here in the United States, I have noticed that courting is begun by the young couple themselves, and they seem to have a lot of freedom to decide and do what they want. Both

young men and women date a number of different people. They do it without the knowledge or help of their parents. In fact, I have known several friends who got married without even telling their parents or other family members.

At the actual wedding ceremony, the father of the bride symbolically gives his daughter to the groom. It's only a custom, I think, because the bride and groom already know each other quite well. The bride and groom stand together in front of the religious leader or government official to be married. The official reads from a short prepared speech and then asks both the man and woman if they are willing to he married to the other. If they both say \"yes,\" and nobody attending the wedding stands up to object, they are declared \"man and wife.” It is interesting that the two families are asked if there are any objections right during the ceremony. Perhaps it is because the family members are not as involved in the wedding preparations as they are in Iran.

Marriage is different in a number of ways in my country. In Iran, courting is more serious, and is performed strictly for the purpose of marriage It is definitely not a part of the fun-filled years of growing up like it is here in America. It is the mother of the young man who initiates the process by visiting the home of a potential bride. She goes to inspect the girl, and discover the position and wealth of the girl’s family. If she is pleased, then she will return another day with her son. If her son is also pleased, then the two families get together to talk about the dowry, the wedding ceremony, who they will hire to perform the marriage and

other matters.

The actual marriage ceremony is quite different, however, from the American wedding ceremonies I have sewn. The bride, dressy in white, with a veil over her face, sits in a room alone. She sits on a special piece of silk which is surrounded on two sides by very long pieces of flat bread. Two mullahs stand outside the door to this room reading from the Koran. Twice the bride must remain silent to the questions of the mullahs. The groom's mother then presents a gift of gold to show that her side of the family is serious. The bride then responds to the mullahs in much the same manner as do Americans when they say \"I do.\" The groom is allowed to go into the bride's room while the mullahs take care of the official marriage papers.

One more difference between the marriage customs of the United States and my country is that the bride does not immediately go to the home of her new husband. For several months, she continues to stay at her own home preparing her dowry and receiving instructions from her mother on how to be a good wife and mother. After a few months, the groom and his relatives come for the bride and take her to his home along with the dowry.

Though I can certainly see the advantages of the freedom that is given to American youths to choose whom they will marry and when, I think I still prefer the customs of my home country. I suppose that’s because there is not so much guessing and uncertainty.

21-A. The Language of Uncertainty

Uncertainty spreads through our lives so thoroughly that it dominates our language. Our everyday speech is made up in large part of word like probably, many, soon, great, little. What do these words mean? \"Atomic war,\" declared a recent editorial in the London Times, \"is likely to destroy forever the nation that wages it. How exactly are we to understand the

word likely? Lacking any standard for estimating the probability, we are left with the judgment of the editorial writer.

Such verbal imprecision is not necessarily to be criticised. Indeed, it has a value just because it allows us to express judgments when a precise quantitative statement is out of the question.

The language of uncertainty has three main categories: (1)words such as probably, possibly, surely, which denote a single subjective probability and are potentially quantifiable;

(2)words like many, of-ten, goon, which are also quantifiable but denote not so much a condition of uncertainty as a quantity imprecisely known; (3)words like fat, rich, drunk, which can not be reduced to any accepted number because they are given different values by different people.

We have been trying to pin down by experiments what people mean by these expressions in specific contexts, and how the meanings change with age. For instance, a

subject is told \"There are many trees in the park” and is asked to say what number the word many mean to him. Or a child is invited to take \"some\" sweets from a bowl and we then count how many he has taken. We compare the number he takes when he is alone with the number when one or more other children are present and are to take some sweets after him, or with the number he takes when told to give \"some” sweets to another child.

First, we find that the number depends, of course, on the items involved. To most people

some friends means about five, while .some trees means about twenty. However, unrelated

areas sometimes show parallel values. For instance, the language of probability seems to mean about the same thing in predictions about the weather and about politics: the expression is certain to (rain, or be elected) signifies to the average person about a 70 per cent chance; is likely to, about a 60 per cent chance; probably will, about 55 per cent.

Secondly, the size of the population of items influences the value assigned to an expression. Thus, if we. tell a subject to take \"a few\" or \"a lot of\" glass bald from a box, he will take more if the box contains a large number of glass balls than if it has a small number. Hut not prolix>rtionately more: if we increase the number of glass balls eight times, the subject takes only half as large a percentage of the total.

Thirdly, there is a marked change with age. Among children between six and fourteen years old, the older the child, the fewer glass balls he will take. But the difference between a lot and a few widens with age. This age effect is so consistent that it might be used as a test

of intelligence. In place of a long test we could merely ask the subject to give numerical values to expressions such as nearly always and very rarely in a given context, and then measure his intelligence by the ratio of the number for nearly always to the one for very rarely. We have found that this ration increases systematically from about 2 to 1 for a child of

seven to about 20 to 1 for a person twenty-five years old,

21-B. It Never Rains but It Pours!

An hour before midnight is worth two after or so my mother used to tell me as I sat down to breakfast after a particularly late night. Hut is it really true that sleep before 12 p. m. is twice as good for you as sleep after that hour? At the time, like most young people, I regarded this proverb as an old wive’s tale with no relevance to my own life. I mean, an hour is an hour... it's 60 minutes, a. m. or p. m. However, now older and wiser, I remember my mother's words as t scramble into bed at 11 o'clock. I am now a firm believer in the value of getting at least one hour's sleep before midnight!

Advice about how to live a healthy life is one example of the type of received wisdom which is condensed and passed on to the next generation in the form of proverbs. Proverbs also serve to express general truths in a short and colourful way, for example, There's no smoke without fire, meaning that there is generally some truth in even the wildest rumours.

Another type of proverb acts as a reminder of the correct way to behave, for example,

Don ' t wash your dirty linen in public. This means don't discuss personal or family problems in front of strangers or in public. Other proverbs are offered to people as means of comfort in times of trouble, for example, It's no use crying over spilt milk. This proverb advises that it really is a waste of time to weep over mistakes that have already been made. instead, it is much better to Make the best of a bad job - to do your best whatever the situation.

Some English proverbs are native to Britain, for example, It never rains but it pours, a reference to the joys of the British weather! This proverb means that when one thing goes wrong, many other things go wrong as well. Another home-grown proverb is Every dog is allowed one bite. This proverb is based on an old English law dating back to the 17th century. The law said that the first time a dog bit somebody, its owner did not have to pay compensation o the victim because one bite did not prove that the dog was vicious. Hence the idea carried in the proverb, that everyone should be allowed to make a mistake without being punished for it.

Other proverbs have come into the language from Latin or Greek. Lucretius, a classical Roman author, created the proverb One man's meat is another man's poison, meaning that what is good for one person can be harmful to another. And the proverb Let sleeping dogs lie meaning don't cause trouble when it can be avoided, came into English from the French in the 14th century.

As Britain came into contact with other countries and cultures, English became enriched

with the words and wisdom of different languages. From the Chinese, we borrowed the colourful proverb He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount, meaning that if you start on a dangerous enterprise, it is often easier to carry it through to the end than to stop halfway.

Some proverbs have been in the language for 1, 000 years, for example, A friend in need is a friend indeed. The message here is that someone who stays with you and helps you in times of trouble, rather than turning their back, is a true friend. Other proverb, however, are much more recent, and reflect changes in the way that we live.

From the United States come the following two pieces of new wisdom, Garbage in - garbage out, from the computer world, reminds people that computers are only as good as their programs. From big business we have There's no such thing as a free lunch, meaning nothing is free. If someone buys you lunch, they will expect a favour in return.

Some English people are reluctant to use proverbs in their everyday conversation because they see them as vehicles of too much used wisdom. Nevertheless, proverbs are still quite common in both written and spoken English and continue to provide a homely commentary on life and a reminder that the wisdom of our ancestors may still be useful to us today.

22-A. Current Attitudes toward Physical Fitness

Recently we were told by a student that setting aside time for improving his physical fitness would be a total misuse of his working hours. He assured us that he would be no better served by a fitness program than by learning to play bridge. College and his preparation for a career were his only priorities.

This student has seen being physically fit as an end rather than the means we know it to be. His opinion is one of the many feelings, pro or con, that people hold about their personal involvement in a physical fitness program.

Many people, including college students of all ages, spend little time in pursuit of physical fitness. Certainly some of these individuals may have physical limitations that make activity extremely difficult, and others are engaged in time-consuming activities that until finished do not permit opportunities for recreation. However, what about the majority who could do much more but do so little? Does one of the following statements sound like you?

“I know it's important, but I just don't have time right now.

“I'm already fit, and with my schedule, I'll have no difficulty staying that way.

“I should do more than I do, but I just don’t have facilities and I don't get much support from others.

“Exercise makes me feel terrible. Even when I shower, I get to my next class wet, and probably smelling like a locker room.

Unlike these people who have made no commitment to fitness, you may have made a commitment to a physical fitness program that might be rather narrow in scope. If one of the following comments fits you, perhaps you are failing to see the broader values of maintaining a high level of physical fitness.

“Everyone in the dorm runs at night. That's why I run.”

“For every 3,500 calories I can ‘burn’ during exercise, I' 11 lose a pound of fat. I have only 10 pounds more to drop before Christmas. ”

“This weekend will be cool and nice. Saturday looks like a good day for a personal record.

“Some would say I have a fear of death. Heck, I just want to live a long time.

If you see your own attitude represented by one of these comments, might you be shortsighted in your reason for valuing fitness? We would suggest that you reexamine your approach to fitness and its ability to positively influence other aspects of your life. Ask yourself, \"What could I achieve if I were really in top physical condition?” Because fitness

levels are easily observed and can be measured, you can quickly start to see the emerging person you are capable of becoming. Almost daily you can see progress and accomplishment. Keep in mind, however, that all people are different and some may progress faster than others. In the final analysis, we think that although fitness will not guarantee that you will live longer, it can help you enjoy the years you do live.

22-B. People and Colors

One person chooses a bright red car, but another prefers a dark green. One family paints the living room a sunny yellow, but another family uses pure white. One child wants a bright orange ball, but another wants a light blue one. Psychologists and businessmen think these differences are important.

In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. Researchers think that there are also two groups of people: people who prefer warm colors and people who prefer cool colors.

The warm colors are red, orange, and yellow. Where there are warm colors and a lot of light, people usually want to be active. People think that red, for example, is exciting. Sociable people, those who like to be with others, like red. The cool colors are green, blue, and violet. These colors, unlike warm colors, are relaxing. Where there are cool colors, people are usually quiet. People who like to spend time alone often prefer blue.

Red may be exciting, but one researcher says that time seems to pass more slowly in a room with warm colors than in a room with cool colors. He suggests that a warm color, such as red or orange, is a good color for a living room or restaurant. People who are relaxing or eating, do not want time to pass quickly. Cool colors are better for offices or factories if the people who are working there want time to pass quickly.

Researchers do not know why people think some colors are warm and other colors are cool. However, almost everyone agrees that red, orange, and yellow are warm and that green, blue, and violet are cool. Perhaps warm colors remind people of warm days and the cool colors remind them of cool days. Because in the north the sun is low during winter, the sunlight appears quite blue. Because the sun is higher during summer, the hot summer sunlight appears yellow.

People associate colors with different objects, feelings, and holidays. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood, and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They associate red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of danger, such as STOP signs and fire engines. The holiday which is associated with red is Valentine’s Day. On February 14, Americans send red hearts to people they love.

Orange is the bright, warm color of leaves in autumn. People say orange is a lively, energetic color. They associate orange with happiness. The holidays which are associated with orange are Halloween in October and Thanksgiving Day in November. On October 31

many Americans put large orange pumpkins in their windows for Halloween.

Yellow is the color of sunlight. People say it is a cheerful and lively color. They associate yellow, too, with happiness. Because it is bright, it is used for signs of caution.

Green is the cool color of grass in spring. People say it is a refreshing and relaxing color. Machines in factories are usually painted light green.

Blue is the color of the sky, water, and ice. Police and Navy uniforms are blue. When people are sad, they say “I feel blue.” They associate blue with feelings like unhappiness and fear.

Violet, or purple, is the deep, soft color of darkness or shadows. People consider violet a dignified color. They associate it with loneliness. On Easter Sunday people decorate baskets with purple ribbons.

White is the color of snow. People describe white as a pure, clean color. They associate white with a bright clean feeling. Doctors and nurses normally wear white uniforms. On the other hand, black is the color of night. People wear black clothes at serious or formal ceremonies.

Businessmen know that people choose products by color. Businessmen want to

manufacture products which are the colors people will buy. For example, an automobile manufacturer needs to know how many cars to paint red, how many green, and how many black. Good businessmen know that young people prefer different colors than old people do and men prefer different colors than women do.

Young children react to the color of an object before they react to its shape. They prefer the warm colors - red, yellow, and orange. When people grow older, they begin to react more to the shape of an object than to its color. The favorite color of adults of all countries is blue. Their second favorite color is red, and their third is green.

On the whole, women prefer brighter colors than men do. Almost everyone likes red, but women like yellow and green more than men do. Pink is usually considered a feminine color. Blue is usually considered a masculine color. As a result, people dress baby girls in pink and baby boys in blue. However, it is dangerous to generalize because taste changes. For example, years ago businessmen wore only white shirts; today they wear many different colors, including pink.

If two objects are the same except for color, they will look different. Color can make an object look nearer or farther, larger or smaller. A red object always looks nearer than a blue object. For example, red letters on a blue sign look as though they are in front of the sign. Bright objects look larger than dark objects. However, they are actually the same size. Large or fat people who want to look smaller or slimmer wear dark clothes. When they wear dark

clothes, they look smaller and slimmer than they are.

In conclusion, color is very important to people. Warm and cool colors affect how people feel. People choose products by color. Moreover, color affects how an object looks. It is even possible that your favorite color tells a lot about you.

23-A. Non-verbal Communication

If anyone asked you what were the main means of communication between people, what would you say? That isn’t a catch question. The answer is simple and obvious. It would almost certainly refer to means of communication that involve the use of words. Speakers and listeners-oral communication, and writers and readers-written communication. And you’d be quite right. There is, however, another form of communication which we all use most of the time, usually without knowing it. This is sometimes called body language. Its more technical name is non-verbal communication. Non-verbal, because it does not involve the use of words. NVC for short.

When someone is saying something with which he agrees, the average European will smile and nod approval. On the other hand, if you disagree with what they are saying, you may frown and shake your head. In this way you signal your reactions, and communicate them to the speaker without saying a word. I referred a moment ago to \"the average European”, because body language is very much tied to culture, and in order not to

misunderstand, or not to be misunderstood, you must realize this. A smiling Chinese, for instance, may not be approving but somewhat embarrassed.

Quite a lot of work is now being done on the subject of NVC, which is obviously important, for instance, to managers, who have to deal every day with their staff, and have to understand what other people are feeling if they are to create good working conditions. Body language, or NVC signals, are sometimes categorised into five kinds: 1.body and facial gestures; 2.eye contact; 3.body contact or \"proximity\"; 4.clothing and physical appearance; and 5.the quality of speech. I expect you understood all those, except perhaps \"proximity.\" This simply means \"closeness\". In some cultures-and I am sure this is a cultural feature and not an individual one-it is quite normal for people to stand close together, or to more or less thrust their face into yours when they are talking to you. In other cultures, this is disliked; Americans, for instance, talk about invasion of their space.

Some signals are probably common to all of us. If a public speaker (like a professor, for example) is all the time fiddling with a pencil, or with his glasses, while he is talking to you, he is telling you quite clearly that he is nervous. A person who holds a hand over his mouth when he is talking is signalling that he is lacking in confidence. If you start wriggling in your chairs, looking secretly at your watches or yawning behind your hands, I shall soon get the message that I’m boring you. And so on. I'm sure you could make a whole list of such signals-and it might be fun if you did.

All the signals I have mentioned so far can be controlled. If you are aware that you are doing these things, you can stop. You can even learn to give false signals. Most public speakers are in fact nervous, but a good speaker learns to hide this by giving off signals of confidence. Other kinds of NVC are not so easy to control. Eye contact, for instance. Unless you are confessing intense love, you hardly ever look into someone else’s eyes for very long. If you try it, you’ll find they will soon away, probably in embarrassment.

I’ve already mentioned proximity, so just a brief word now about our last two categories, which concern the way people dress and the way they speak. These are both pretty obvious signals. People may dress casually and speak casually, which signals that they are relaxed. Or they can dress formally and speak formally, showing their tenseness. In fact, non-verbal communication can, as the saying goes, speak volumes.

23-B. Body Talk

Have you ever wondered why you sometimes take an almost immediate liking to a person you have just met? Or worried about why someone you were talking to suddenly became cool and distant? The chances are that it wasn’t anything that was said but something that happened: a gesture, a movement, a smile. Social scientists are now devoting considerable attention to \"non-verbal communication,” what happens when people get together, apart from their actual conversation.

Professor Erving Goffman of the University of Pennsylvania is involved in a continuing study of the way people behave in social interaction. He feels that gestures, movements and physical closeness have meaning which the words that the people are using do not carry.

The closeness of two people when talking, movement towards and away from each other, and the amount of eye contact all reveal some-thing about the nature of the relationship between the two individuals. We tend to be only subconsciously aware, if at all, of the various pat-terns and rituals of social behavior. We expect other people to act according to the same “rules” that we do, so much so that the manners and behavior of persons from another culture can be extremely confus1Ilg.

For example, North Americans tend to expect more physical distance between two speakers than do Latin Americans. Consequently, when the Latin American seems to be leaning too close, the North American complains of \"invasion of his space. \" The Latin American,

24-A. Savingthe Rainforests for Future Generations

Rainforests are being cut and burned from Brazil to Indonesia at such a rate that they could well disappear from the earth's surface before the year 2050. They are being cleared for valuable timber and other resources to speed up the economic growth of the nations in which they are located. The most recent figures show that the area of rainforest destroyed

last year alone was bigger than the size of Great Britain and Ireland.

If the present rate of deforestation is allowed to continue, the consequences for the earth will be great. We shall see a massive upsetting of ecosystems, very large increases in soil erosion, increases in flooding and in drought, changes in rainfall patterns and regional, quite possibly global, changes in climate. We shall also probably lose many rare plant and animal species.

According to many scientists, the burning of rainforests is also directly contributing to the so-called greenhouse effect. This effect, they say, is raising average temperatures and sea levels as the polar ice caps recede.

The rainforest is essential in other areas also. It is a medicine chest of unlimited potential. The US National Cancer Institute has identified 2,000 rainforest plants which could be beneficial in fighting cancer. In today's pharmaceutical market, 15 of the 125 drugs derived from plants were discovered in the rainforest.

Plant species are not the only forms of life threatened with extinction in the rainforest. Rare birds and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the world have been disappearing at the rate of one a year since the turn of the century.

In the face of all these facts, it seems senseless for countries to continue destroying their

rainforests. However, the problem is not so simple. The countries in which the rainforests are located are all quite poor and overpopulated. One of them, Brazil, has a population of 140 million, about half of whom are living in absolute poverty. The governments in these countries are usually also too weak to stop large companies and powerful individuals from destroying the rainforests. They have no money, so when the poor whom they cannot feed find work cutting down trees or burning forestland, the governments often have no choice but to turn a blind eye. Moreover, for many of these countries, the valuable timber and other resources found in the rainforests are also a very important source of foreign exchange, which they badly need to pay off their foreign debts and purchase foreign equipment and other goods.

The only solution to the problem, then, seems to be for the richer countries of the world to help the countries where the rainforests are located. One way they could help would be by cancelling the international debts that countries like Brazil owe, while also working together with these countries to solve their other economic problems. At the same time, they could support programmes to teach the local people to regard the rainforests as gardens to be harvested, and not merely as places where the only way for them to make a living is by senselessly cutting down trees and burning.

Such prpgrammes could teach the local people how to select trees worth exporting and to cut only those trees down while leaving the rest, so that the basic make-up of the forest

would not be disturbed. This would also mean that the environment needed for the survival of the many rare species of animals and plants, as well as of the Indian tribes that live in the rainforest, could be preserved. The local people could also be taught to earn more money by cutting the selected trees and making them into furniture on the spot. In addition, they could learn how to harvest other valuable natural materials that are now being wasted, and sell them overseas to earn foreign exchange for their countries.

Last but not least, people in the richer countries of the world could also help save the rainforests by using wood-derived products such as paper more carefully and by recycling used paper products to help reduce the demand for newly cut wood.

24-B. Life on the Tundra

Tundra is the name given to the low, marshy plains of Europe, Siberia, and North America that border on the Arctic Ocean. In Alaska, the vast, cold region known as the \"Northern Slope\" is part of the tundra. Nature sets harsh terms for survival in this land. Only those plants and animals that are adapted to the hostile environment can survive in it.

Long periods of darkness and bitter cold are the major threats to life on the tundra. At the Arctic Circle, the sun cannot be seen above the horizon in December. North of the Circle, the darkness lasts even longer. Over the northern reaches of the tundra, no sunlight can be seen at all for several months of the year.

The darkness is balanced, to some degree, by continuous daylight during the summer months. But even in the warmest month, the temperature only averages about 50 degrees F (10 degrees C). During the dark winter months the average temperature falls to - 16 degrees F ( -27 degrees C), and sometimes to ?40 degrees (C and F) and below.

Because of the intense cold, the subsoil of the tundra remains permanently frozen to a great depth. During the brief summer, a few feet (about a meter) of soil thaw at the surface. It is this thin layer of active soil that supports all living things on the tundra.

For nine months of the year, the tundra is a dark, seemingly lifeless wild land. Then in June, as if by magic, a never-setting summer sun gives birth to hundreds of species of arctic plants to cover the ground.

A plant that grows more than three feet (about a meter) is unusual on the tundra. There are no tall trees. The frozen subsoil prevents roots from growing deep enough to support them. By the end of August the breath of winter returns, and by mid-September the tundra is White again.

The animal life on the tundra is unusually rich for an environment that seems so harsh. Herds of arctic deer move from place to place in search of food. Bands of wolves follow them and hunt for the weak or sick ones.

Few birds actually live on the tundra. However, a variety of birds migrate to nest and feed during the summer. The wet, marshy lance produces a large number of insects that provide food for the smaller birds that, in turn, provide food for the arctic fox and the wolf.

The balance of nature is so delicate on the tundra that even minor disturbances may produce major changes in the environment. Any in-crease or decrease in the population of one species may affect all other species on the tundra. For example, if the number of wolves and foxes decreases, the food chain is upset. Without wolves, the number of grazing animals - like the deer - would increase. This increase would result in a food shortage, which would cause death to many smaller animals. A decrease in the number of these srnaller animals would in turn decrease the food supply for the arctic fox and the wolf. In this way, the entire food chain might be affected by a change in the number of a single species.

Until recently, the changing seasons on the tundra were seen only by a few Eskimo hunters and explorers. What would draw men and women to live in such a hostile land? The answer is oil.

In 1968, oil was discovered beneath the frozen soil on Alaska's Northern Slope. Now an 800-mile (about 1300 kilometers) pipeline has been built from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean to Valdes, a port on the south coast of Alaska. The pipeline carries the oil from the Northern Slope, across the tundra, to the port. From there, it is shipped to the rest of the United States.

Thousands of men and women were needed to build and maintain the pipeline. For the first time, large numbers of people were brought into contact with the tundra. Their presence and the presence of the pipeline they built represented a major change in the environment. How will the life cycles of the tundra be affected?

The survival of the United States depends on the ability to find new sources of energy. Oil from beneath the tundra is very important to the nations’ development. But the survival of the tundra depends on how carefully people maintain the delicate balance of nature in this environment.

25-A. American Men Don't Cry

American men don't cry because it is considered not characteristic of men to do so. Only women cry. Cry is a \"weakness\" characteristic of the female, and no American male wants to be identified with any-thing in the least weak or feminine. Crying, in our culture, is identified with childishness, with weakness and dependence. No one likes a crybaby, and we disapprove of crying even in children, discouraging it in them as early as possible. In a land so devoted to the pursuit of happiness as ours, crying really is rather un-American. Adults must learn not to cry in situations in which it is permissible for a child to cry. Women being the \"weaker\" and \"dependent” sex, it is only natural that they should cry in certain emotional situations. In women, crying is excusable. But in men, crying is a mark of weakness. So goes the American belief with regard to crying.

\"A little man,\" we impress on our male children, \"never cries. Only girls and crybabies do.\" And so we condition males in America not to cry whenever they feel like doing so. It is not that American males are unable to cry because of some biological time clock within them which causes them to run down in that capacity as they grow older, but that they are trained not to cry. And so the \"little man\" controls his desire to cry and goes on doing so until he is unable to cry even when he wants to. Thus do we produce a trained incapacity in the American male to cry. And this is bad. Why is it bad? Because crying is a natural function of the human organism which is designed to restore the emotionally disequilibrated person to a state of equilibrium. The return of the disequilibrated organ systems of the body to steady states or dynamic stability is known as homeostasis. Crying serves a homeostatic function for the organism as a whole. Any interference with homeostasis is likely to be damaging to the organism. And there is good reason to believe that the American male抯 trained incapacity to cry is seriously damaging to him.

It is unnecessary to cry whenever one wants to cry, but one should he able to cry when one ought to cry - when one needs to cry. For to cry under certain emotionally disequilibrating conditions is necessary for the maintenance of health.

To be human is to weep. The human species is the only one in the whole of animated nature that sheds tears. The trained inability of any human being to weep is a lessening of his capacity to be human - a defect which usually goes deeper than the mere inability to cry. And

this, among other things, is what American parents - with the best intentions in the world - have achieved for the American male. It is very sad. If we feel like it, let us all have a good cry - and clear our minds of those cobwebs of confusion which have for so long prevented us from understanding the natural necessity of crying.

25-B. Stop Worrying Now !

Worry is one of the most common forms of emotional distress in our culture. Almost everyone spends a considerable amount of present moments worrying about the future. And virtually all of it is for nothing. Obsessive worry will never make things any better. In fact, such worry will very likely help you to be less effective in dealing with the present.

In order to reduce worry, it is necessary to understand the subconscious psychological \"payoffs\" for choosing to worry in the first place. \"I can't do a thing. I'm too worried about...” This is a common lament, and one with a payoff that keeps you standing still and avoiding the risk of action. Clearly, it is easier, if less rewarding, to worry than to be an active, involved person.

By worrying about someone else, you can label yourself as a caring person. Worry proves that you are a good parent or spouse (\"I can’t help worrying - its because I love you.”). A handsome dividend, although lacking in logical, healthy thinking.

If you weigh too much, you may eat more when you worry; hence, you have a good reason for hanging on to the worry behavior. Similarly, you may find yourself smoking more in troublesome situations, and can use the worry to avoid giving up smoking. The same neurotic reward system also applies to health. It may be easier for you to worry about chest pains than to risk finding out the truth, and then having to deal directly with yourself.

Worry can bring a lot of diseases such as tension headaches and backaches. While these may not seem to be payoffs, they do result in considerable attention from others and justify much self-pity as well. And some people would rather be pitied than fulfilled.

Now that you understand the psychological support system for neurotic worry, you can begin to devise some measures for reducing the number of troublesome worry bugs that breed in this erroneous zone.

Begin to view your present moments as times to live, rather than times to worry about the future. When you catch yourself worrying, ask yourself, \"What am I avoiding now by using up this moment with worry?” Then begin to attack whatever it is you're avoiding.

A friend of mine spent a week on an island off the Connecticut coast. She enjoys taking long walks, but soon discovered that there were a number of dogs on the island which were allowed to run free. She decided to fight her worry that they might attack her. She carried a rock in her hand and resolved to show no fear as the dogs came running toward her. Seeing

someone who refused to back down, they turned and ran away. While I am not encouraging dangerous behavior, I do believe that a sensibly effective challenge to worry is the most productive way to minimize its role in your life.

Ask yourself over and over, \"Will the future change as a result of my worrying about it?” Try to remember how many of the things you once worried about never become real at all. Also ask yourself; \"What’s the worst thing that could happen to me (or them), and what is the likelihood of it occurring?” You'll discover the absurdity of most worries in this way.

Act in direct conflict with your usual areas of worry. If you compulsively save for the future, use some money for your own enjoyment today. Enjoy life; don't waste the present with immobilizing thoughts about the future.

These are some techniques for minimizing worry in your life. But the most effective weapon you have is your own determination to drive this neurotic behavior away from your life.

当我被上帝造出来时，上帝问我想在人间当一个怎样的人，我不假思索的说，我要做一个伟大的世人皆知的人。于是，我降临在了人间。

我出生在一个官僚知识分子之家，父亲在朝中做官，精读诗书，母亲知书答礼，温柔体贴，父母给我去了一个好听的名字：李清照。

小时侯，受父母影响的我饱读诗书，聪明伶俐，在朝中享有“神童”的称号。小时候的我天真活泼，才思敏捷，小河畔，花丛边撒满了我的诗我的笑，无可置疑，小时侯的我快乐无虑。

“兴尽晚回舟，误入藕花深处。争渡，争渡，惊起一滩鸥鹭。”青春的我如同一只小鸟，自由自在，没有约束，少女纯净的心灵常在朝阳小，流水也被自然洗礼，纤细的手指拈一束花，轻抛入水，随波荡漾，发髻上沾着晶莹的露水，双脚任水流轻抚。身影轻飘而过，留下一阵清风。

可是晚年的我却生活在一片黑暗之中，家庭的衰败，社会的改变，消磨着我那柔弱的心。我几乎对生活绝望，每天在痛苦中消磨时光，一切都好象是灰暗的。“寻寻觅觅冷冷清清凄凄惨惨戚戚”这千古叠词句就是我当时心情的写照。

最后，香消玉殒，我在痛苦和哀怨中凄凉的死去。

在天堂里，我又见到了上帝。上帝问我过的怎么样，我摇摇头又点点头，我的一生有欢乐也有坎坷，有笑声也有泪水，有鼎盛也有衰落。我始终无法客观的评价我的一生。我原以为做一个着名的人，一生应该是被欢乐荣誉所包围，可我发现我错了。于是在下一轮回中，我选择做一个平凡的人。

我来到人间，我是一个平凡的人，我既不着名也不出众，但我拥有一切的幸福：我有温馨的家，我有可亲可爱的同学和老师，我每天平凡而快乐的活着，这就够了。

天儿蓝蓝风儿轻轻，暖和的春风带着春的气息吹进明亮的教室，我坐在教室的窗前，望着我拥有的一切，我甜甜的笑了。我拿起手中的笔，不禁想起曾经作诗的李清照，我虽然没有横溢的才华，但

我还是拿起手中的笔，用最朴实的语言，写下了一时的感受：

人生并不总是完美的，每个人都会有不如意的地方。这就需要我们静下心来阅读自己的人生，体会其中无尽的快乐和与众不同。

“富不读书富不久，穷不读书终究穷。”为什么从古到今都那么看重有学识之人？那是因为有学识之人可以为社会做出更大的贡献。那时因为读书能给人带来快乐。

自从看了《丑小鸭》这篇童话之后，我变了，变得开朗起来，变得乐意同别人交往，变得自信了……因为我知道：即使现在我是只“丑小鸭”，但只要有自信，总有一天我会变成“白天鹅”的，而且会是一只世界上最美丽的“白天鹅”……

我读完了这篇美丽的童话故事，深深被丑小鸭的自信和乐观所折服，并把故事讲给了外婆听，外婆也对童话带给我们的深刻道理而惊讶不已。还吵着闹着多看几本名着。于是我给外婆又买了几本名着故事，她起先自己读，读到不认识的字我就告诉她，如果这一面生字较多，我就读给她听整个一面。渐渐的，自己的语文阅读能力也提高了不少，与此同时我也发现一个人读书的乐趣远不及两个人读的乐趣大，而两个人读书的乐趣远不及全家一起读的乐趣大。于是，我便发展“业务”带动全家一起读书……现在，每每遇到好书大家也不分男女老少都一拥而上，争先恐后“抢书”，当我说起我最小应该让我的时候，却没有人搭理我。最后还把书给撕坏了，我生气地哭了，妈妈一边安慰我一边对外婆说：“孩子小，应该让着点。”外婆却不服气的说：“我这一把年纪的了，怎么没人让我呀？”大家人你一言我一语，谁也不肯相让……读书让我明白了善恶美丑、悲欢离合，读一本好书，犹如同智者谈心、谈理想，教你辨别善恶，教你弘扬正义。读一本好书，如品一杯香茶，余香缭绕。读一本好书，

能使人心灵得到净化。书是我的老师，把知识传递给了我；书是我的伙伴，跟我诉说心里话；书是一把钥匙，给我敞开了知识的大门；书更是一艘不会沉的船，引领我航行在人生的长河中。其实读书的真真乐趣也就在于此处，不是一个人闷头苦读书；也不是读到好处不与他人分享，独自品位；更不是一个人如痴如醉地沉浸在书的海洋中不能自拔。而是懂得与朋友，家人一起分享其中的乐趣。这才是读书真正之乐趣呢！这所有的一切，不正是我从书中受到的教益吗？

我阅读，故我美丽；我思考，故我存在。我从内心深处真切地感到：我从读书中受到了教益。当看见有些同学宁可买玩具亦不肯买书时，我便想到培根所说的话：“世界上最庸俗的人是不读书的人，最吝啬的人是不买书的人，最可怜的人是与书无缘的人。”许许多多的作家、伟人都十分喜欢看书，例如毛泽东主席，他半边床上都是书，一读起书来便进入忘我的境界。

书是我生活中的好朋友，是我人生道路上的航标，读书，读好书，是我无怨无悔的追求。

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