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大学英语自学教程（上）电子版
大学英语自学教程(上)
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
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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 from side to side when we want to say
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,

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
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words. For example, we may say sh‖ when we mean 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‖ 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 ,‖
but he cannot say first 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
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
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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.
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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
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


30, 246 feet - almost six miles (9.6 km).
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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 in the of these 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 13 days.
It is our nearest neighbour in space, and like ourselves it is kept tied to the earth by the earth's
gravitational pull.
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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 12 days, at the time we call
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
moon's arms.
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 armsis 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

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
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.

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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
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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.

mmunication 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 andor 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
United States. In 1975, many people in India saw television for the first time as they watched
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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.

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
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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
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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
them and
The difference between popular and learned words may be easily seen in a few examples.
We may describe a girl as ―lively‖ or as 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
two persons have the same stock of words, and the same word may be in one man's
vocabulary and in another's. There are also different grades of
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classification into and 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 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
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 ou
answer, But does it mean that in such contexts as or
friend
depends. On the dictionary? No, on context - on how the word is actually used. After all there
are twenty different meanings for 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 a preference for
reading travel books.
root that you know? Well, there's the familiar prefix pre-, meaning Look back at the
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context and cry inserting
of reading. Yes, a preference is something put
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.
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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
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
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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.
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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
‖ 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
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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.
ou wouldn't believe the stuff people will buy,‖ says Mrs. Jerry McNeely of Houston,
Texas, who has held two garage sales with friends. 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,
away somewhere or something else of great value for a bargain price.
Diana McLellan, a reporter for the Washington Star-News, wrote,
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.‖
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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 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
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

to very small shops that specialize in just one kind of product. There are 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
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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
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
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
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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 meaningsof 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

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.

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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
makes wastepeople 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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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, 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
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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 to someone who
should be
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
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 around like a
chicken with its head cut off.
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
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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 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
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.
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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.
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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 es,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, 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 12 months old. The test is a
simple one. The baby, while seated on its mother's lap, watches a 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
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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:

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 brainsin
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,
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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.
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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,
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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
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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
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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, 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.
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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,
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, people have such great inhibitions against
murder or violence that they would awaken if someone didn't wake them 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,

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
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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
Asia and Africa - separated by the 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.
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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
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!
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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
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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.

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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 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
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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
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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 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.
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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
attending the wedding stands up to object, they are declared
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
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
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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? 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
any mean to him.
Or a child is invited to take
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 weets to another child.
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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
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
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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
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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
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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,
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.
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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
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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.
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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 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: and facial gestures;
contact; contact or ng and physical appearance; and
quality of speech. I expect you understood all those, except perhaps This simply
means
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
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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
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
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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 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
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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
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.
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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.
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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
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 and

crying is excusable. But in men, crying is a mark of weakness. So goes the American belief with
regard to crying.
little man,
do.
that American males are unable to cry because of some biological time clock within them which
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causes them to run down in that capacity as they grow older, but that they are trained not to cry.
And so the
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

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.
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By worrying about someone else, you can label yourself as a caring person. Worry proves
that you are a good parent or spouse (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,
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,
Try to remember how many of the things you once worried about never become real at all. Also
ask yourself; 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.
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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.


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