英语口语教程(高级) UNIT 2

[00:01.00]Lesson 2 Are Pets Good for Mankind?;

[00:00.60]II Read;

[00:01.21]2.Mother Pays More   Attention to Pet   Dog Than to Her   Young Boy;

[00:08.73]Dear Ann Landers: I  hope you will publ-  ish your answer to  this letter;

[00:15.69]because there is a family out there that needs help-- fast!;

[00:20.57]My friend (I'll call her Krista) married a nice guy in 1978.;

[00:28.34]He's a sales rep on the road most of the time.;

[00:32.56]Krista and Cal had a son five years ago. A nice family unit.;

[00:40.43]About a month after Junior was born, Cal gave Krista a purebred beagle.;

[00:47.69]She went crazy about the dog and treated him better than the baby.;

[00:54.09]When Junior was old enough to crawl,;

[00:57.70]he began to pull the dog's tail and hit him when he thought nobody was looking.;

[01:04.30]Two months ago,Juni- or began urinating in unexpected and inappropriate places;

[01:12.64]First,into his mother's shoe,then in her purse, next her jewel box.;

[01:20.41]After he was punished for ruining the jewel box,;

[01:24.47]he found some scissors and cut his mother's string of pearls.;

[01:29.91]At first Krista att- ributed the urinat- ing to Junior's laziness.;

[01:36.31]I told her if it were laziness,;

[01:39.56]he would just wet his pants and not seek special places.;

[01:44.43]Last Christmas Day, it snowed heavily. I called Krista to chat.;

[01:51.90]She sounded breathless. I asked her what she had been doing.;

[01:58.10]"I've been playing outside in the snow with the dog," was her reply.;

[02:03.74]I asked where Junior was. She replied, "Upstairs, watching television, I guess";

[02:12.83]What do you see here Ann? Sign me--A Worried Friend.;

[02:19.89]3.Dogs Have a Sense   of Humour;

[02:26.19]The question of whe- ther dogs have a se- nse of humour is of- ten fiercely argued.;

[02:33.86]My own opinion is that some have and some haven't.;

[02:39.24]Dachshunds have,but not St Bernards or Great Danes.;

[02:45.39]Apparently a dog has to be small to be fond of joke.;

[02:50.98]You never find a Great Dane trying to be a comedian.;

[02:56.72]But it is fatal to let any dog know that he is funny,;

[03:01.75]for he immediately loses his head and starts overdoing it.;

[03:07.13]As an example of this I would point to Rudolph,;

[03:11.81]a dachshund I once owned, whose slogan was "Anything for a Laugh".;

[03:18.76]Dachshunds are always the worst offenders in this respect;

[03:23.95]because of their peculiar shape.;

[03:26.69]It is only natural that when a dog finds that his mere appearance;

[03:32.07]makes the viewing public laugh,;

[03:34.46]he should imagine that Nature intended him to be a comedian;

[03:39.69]I had a cottage at the time outside an English village,;

[03:45.38]not far from a farm where they kept ducks,;

[03:48.84]and one day the farmer called on me to say his ducks were disappearing;

[03:54.32]and suspicion had fallen on my Rudolph;

[03:58.08]Why? I asked,and he said;

[04:01.27]because mine was the only dog in the neighbourhood except his own Towser,;

[04:06.71]and Towser had been so carefully trained that he would not touch a duck;

[04:12.24]if you brought it to him with orange sauce over it. I was very annoyed.;

[04:19.51]I said he only had to gaze into Rudolph's truthful brown eyes;

[04:24.84]to see how baseless were his suspicions.;

[04:28.04]Had he not,I asked, heard of foxes?;

[04:32.41]How much more likely that a fox was the Bad Guy in the story;

[04:38.05]He was beginning to look doubtful and seemed about to make an apology,;

[04:43.74]when Rudolph,who had been listening with the greatest interest;

[04:48.21]and at a certain point had left the room,;

[04:51.41]came trotting in with a duck in his mouth.;

[04:54.61]Yes, dachshunds overplay their sense of humour,;

[04:59.18]and I suppose other dogs have their faults,;

[05:02.43]but they seem unimp- ortant compared with their virtues.;

[05:07.81]4.Man and Animal;

[05:13.10]In ancient Egypt, people believed that the cat was a god.;

[05:20.01]When a cat died its owners showed their sadness;

[05:24.27]by the strange habit of shaving their eyebrows off!;

[05:28.29]More recently, in the last century in fact;

[05:33.36]the famous English writer Charles Dickens;

[05:36.82]had a cat who was very fond of him.;

[05:40.22]The cat didn't like to see Dickens working too hard.;

[05:44.69]At night,when the cat wanted to say "Stop writing!" to his master,;

[05:51.45]he often put out Dickens' candle with his paw!;

[05:55.21]When animals become pets,the result, after a number of generations,;

[06:02.12]is a smaller animal with a smaller brain;

[06:05.82]Rabbits,for example, which live as pets in a garden,;

[06:11.26]are much less intel- ligent than their wild cousins.;

[06:15.93]Of course,man doesn't always keep animals for pleasure;

[06:20.91]Many animals have to work for their masters.;

[06:25.23]There was once a farm in Namibia, Africa,which had 80 goats.;

[06:31.68]Instead of a goatherd, there was a female baboon.;

[06:36.91]She took her goats to the hills every day and brought them back at night.;

[06:42.96]She always knew exactly which goats were hers--;

[06:47.12]which is more than many humans could do!;

[06:50.98]5.Do Animals   Communicate?;

[06:57.69]When we think of communication,;

[07:01.09]we normally think of using words-talking face-to-face,;

[07:06.27]writing messages and so on.;

[07:09.37]But in fact we communicate far more in other ways.;

[07:14.70]Our eyes and facial expressions usually tell the truth;

[07:19.99]even when our words do not.;

[07:23.09]Then there are gestures,often unconscious: raising the eyebrows,;

[07:29.84]rubbing the nose, shrugging the shoulders,;

[07:33.50]tapping the fingers, nodding and shaking the head.;

[07:38.83]There is also the even more subtle "bodylanguage" of posture:;

[07:45.74]are you sitting--or standing--with arms or legs crossed?;

[07:52.40]Is that person standing with hands in pockets,;

[07:56.41]held in front of the body or hidden behind?;

[08:00.52]Even the way we dress and the colou- rs we wear communic- ate things to others;

[08:07.58]So, do animals communicate?;

[08:11.75]Not in words, although a parrot might be trained;

[08:16.27]to repeat words and phrases which it doesn't understand.;

[08:21.10]But,as we have learnt,there is more to communication than words.;

[08:28.05]Take dogs for example.They bare their teeth to warn,;

[08:33.74]wag their tails to welcome and stand firm, with hair erect,to challenge.;

[08:41.52]These signals are surely the canine equivalent of the human body-language;

[08:48.02]of facial expression gesture and posture.;

[08:52.84]Colour can be an important means of communication for animals.;

[08:59.29]Many birds and fish change colour,for example,;

[09:04.38]to attract partners during the mating season.;

[09:08.23]And mating itself is commonly preceded by a special dance;

[09:14.13]in which both partners participate;

[09:18.09]6.She's All for the   Birds!;

[09:23.83]Twice a week,58-year -old Mrs.Winifred Cass shops in the market;

[09:30.74]for her main supplies, "topping up" daily;

[09:34.55]by calling at local shops on her way home from work.;

[09:38.76]But she's not buying family groceries!;

[09:42.83]She returns home laden with heavy bags of mixed hen corn, pigeon corn,;

[09:49.74]peanuts and large packets of bird food to feed her larger "family",;

[09:55.43]the wild birds of Leeds. And she's been doing this for 16 years.;

[10:02.23]Daily, she feeds the birds which frequent her garden,;

[10:06.96]the area around the shop where she works part-time,;

[10:10.72]and several patches of waste-ground near her home.;

[10:14.52]Then, twice every week,;

[10:17.17]she loads the carry- ing basket with bags of grain on to her tricycle;

[10:22.91]and sets out to pedal the 20-minute ride up to the city centre.;

[10:28.04]"In the morning, birds on my own roof at home hang almost upside down;

[10:34.69]trying to see me through the windows. She laughed.;

[10:37.84]In severe conditions last winter,;

[10:40.99]I had as many as four robins in my garden at the same time,;

[10:45.61]though they're well known to be territorial birds.;

[10:49.22]"It's amazing how many different kinds of birds I see in the city itself.;

[10:54.86]In Park Square,as well as the usual starlings,pigeons and sparrows,;

[11:01.31]there are blue tits, great tits, thrushes doves, and Sometimes even seagulls.";

[11:09.39]It all started when Winifred was working at a cafe.;

[11:14.62]She used to throw out stale bread and buns,;

[11:18.28]and developed such an interest in the wild birds;

[11:21.46]which accepted her offerings;

[11:23.61]that she started taking food along to those in City Square as well.;

[11:29.55]On one occasion,an old lady sitting in the square;

[11:35.14]remarked that the birds could do with a more nutritious diet.;

[11:39.97]So Winifred began buying corn for them.;

[11:43.72]"In the end,I was carrying so much weight;

[11:48.33]and tramping so far that my feet and arms really ached," she said.;

[11:53.99]"I tried using wheeled shoppers,;

[11:57.18]but with the weight of all that corn they were breaking within weeks!;

[12:02.16]So I splashed out and bought this tricycle.;

[12:06.58]"Winifred has come across other wild- life on her travels, too. ";

[12:11.71]I stop to feed families of hedgehogs;

[12:14.71]which I found at the side of the railway near the park, " she said.;

[12:19.23]Despite her love of birds, she'd never want to keep one;

[12:24.21]because she can't bear seeing them caged.;

[12:27.26]Disaster struck recently when a car reversed into her parked trike,;

[12:33.40]damaging its wheels.;

[12:35.74]But two local business men, hearing of her activities,;

[12:40.57]decided kindly to help by replacing the wheels for her,;

[12:45.34]So now the "Bird Woman of Leeds" is back in action again;

[12:50.57]doing the job she loves best--caring for the host of feathered friends;

[12:55.96]who have come to rely on her.;

[12:59.11]7.Too Many Pets   in France;

[13:05.81]In France a campaign has been launched to warn against the danger;

[13:12.97]of a threatening over-population ... of pets!;

[13:17.70]The country is the second most densely populated country in the world;

[13:23.79]as far as domestic animals are concerned.;

[13:27.25]At the moment it is inhabited by more than 8 1/2 million dogs;

[13:33.36]and almost as many cats.;

[13:36.36]Every second family in Paris owns one or more pets,;

[13:41.74]which cause problems of hygiene that cannot be solved.;

[13:46.52]In the year 2000 France will have more than 15 million dogs;

[13:52.77]if no drastic measures are taken to stop this increase.;

[13:57.79]The French organization for the protection of animals;

[14:02.42]has appealed to the owners to have their dogs and cats of bo- th sexes sterilized,;

[14:09.02]because the animals themselves are in danger of becoming the first victims.;

[14:15.27]Every summer,when the holiday-exodus begins,;

[14:20.30]thousands of dogs and cats are abandoned,;

[14:23.80]because their owners unable to take them along,;

[14:28.02]do not want to or cannot find homes;

[14:31.71]where their pets will be looked after during their absence;

[14:36.16]Only one of three of these stray animals can be adopted,;

[14:41.26]the other two must be killed.;

[14:44.51]A great number of pet-owners,however,;

[14:48.22]object to steriliza- tion on grounds of "inadmissable cruelty".;

[14:54.52]8.Pets Eat Better   Than People!;

[15:00.31]"My mouth watered as I imagined the lovely soup;

[15:04.37]I could make from some bones in the butcher's window.;

[15:07.67]There was a lot of meat on them,too. So I went in and bought some.;

[15:13.06]'Certainly,one pound of bones for your dog, madam,'said the butcher brightly.;

[15:20.02]My next stop was at the fish shop,where I asked for some cheap fish.;

[15:26.72]'For your cat?' asked the assistant.;

[15:30.63]As you may have guessed,;

[15:33.12]neither bones nor fish were for pets--they were for me, a pensioner.;

[15:39.83]But it made me think that many animals eat better meals than people! ";

[15:45.82]9.A Birthday Present   for a Dog!;

[15:51.66]"We have a friend who works in a Dog Parlour where they sell coats for dogs.;

[15:59.08]A customer,choosing a coat,tried to describe her dog;

[16:05.94]and the saleswoman suggested she bring the dog in so that they could fit him.;

[16:12.39]Horrified,the customer replied;

[16:15.79]that she couldn't do that as it was for the dog birthday present;

[16:20.26]and she didn't want him to see it!";

[16:23.67]Lesson 3 Should the Brain Drain Be Stopped by Restrictions?;

[16:32.25]Text Brain Drain;

[16:37.08]It is said that Shanghai's musicians abroad;

[16:41.60]could form a world class symphony orchestra.;

[16:45.31]But the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra;

[16:48.17]Once failed to find a qualified conductor for a whole year!;

[16:53.43]A similar situation exists in science, medicine and sports circles.;

[17:01.31]Stopping the outflow of  talent depends on creating a sound domestic environment;

[17:08.42]rather than simply setting up barriers for those who wish to go abroad.;

[17:13.90]A handful of people go abroad to seek a comfortable life.;

[17:19.13]But most Chinese intellectuals emigrate;

[17:23.32]because they cannot bring their talent into full play, in their motherland.;

[17:28.33]Many conductors trained by the Shanghai Conserva- tory of Music;

[17:33.56]have gone abroad either because they cannot find jobs in symphony orchestras;

[17:39.45]due to the competition for places,;

[17:42.25]or because they cannot develop themselves in orchestras;

[17:46.48]where promotion comes only by way of seniority.;

[17:50.63]We face a keen shortage of talent,;

[17:54.24]but one batch of gifted People after another have gone abroad.;

[17:59.06]The situation is grim.;

[18:02.26]It is impossible to improve the conditions;

[18:05.90]for all intellectuals by a wide margin.;

[18:09.47]But it is possible for governments at all levels;

[18:13.64]to create a better environment for their development.;

[18:17.55]The outflow of talent is a loss to our nation;

[18:21.46]as well as a pressu- re forcing US to op- timize the environm- ent for the talented;

[18:27.46]II. Read;

[18:31.22]Read the following passages. Underline the important view- points while reading;

[18:39.29]1.Give Students More   Leeway;

[18:44.78]Ten years ago,;

[18:46.91]the Shanghai Public Security Bureau issued four passports each day.;

[18:53.36]Now the staff must work long hours to process more than 1,000 a day.;

[19:01.34]People's Daily reports that more than 70,000 Chinese students;

[19:07.03]and scholars are now studying abroad with still more ready to go.;

[19:12.92]While many people are worried about the brain drain problem,;

[19:17.59]the article said that whatever the motives of students who leave,;

[19:22.52]there is no doubt that they cherish a deep feeling towards the motherland.;

[19:28.67]It has been suggested;

[19:31.26]that people who fail to return on time should be granted;

[19:36.08]"temporary leave from their posts" to encourage them to return at any time.;

[19:43.30]Among those who joined the recent rush abroad,;

[19:47.61]more than half went to further their studies;

[19:51.17]and keep up with the latest academic achievements.;

[19:54.88]According to a survey conducted;

[19:57.64]among some 7,000 scientific researchers in Shanghai,;

[20:02.40]82 percent believed that their experiences abroad were "fruitful".;

[20:08.64]Half said they had made headway in their work.;

[20:13.27]Meanwhile,they said they continued to follow;

[20:17.53]with great concern the development of their country's economic reforms.;

[20:22.87]A scholar with a doctorate from New York University;

[20:27.59]had written over 100 000 words of sugges- tions to the Chinese central government,;

[20:34.40]the article reported;

[20:36.68]Loneliness was found to be the worst enemy of the students;

[20:41.34]living away from their families and homeland.;

[20:45.42]The brain drain from developing to developed countries;

[20:49.84]is an international phenomenon.;

[20:52.74]In China,backward management and unreasonable distribution systems;

[20:59.34]together with poor living and working conditions,;

[21:03.10]have led to the departure of many intellectuals.;

[21:07.47]"After my graduation from university, I have spent four years in my office;

[21:14.22]reading a newspaper with a cup of tea every day.;

[21:18.59]I want to go abroad to start a new life" said a 25-year-old technical worker;

[21:26.06]who was waiting for a visa from the Japanese Consulate.;

[21:30.43]Some students and scholars had stayed in foreign countries;

[21:35.91]beyond their time limit for one reason or another.;

[21:40.28]For this they had been labelled unpatriotic.;

[21:45.06]But People's Daily called for more tru- st and understanding of those students.;

[21:52.27]A scholar studying and working at an American university;

[21:57.60]said he would return to China;

[21:59.99]as soon as his daughter finished secondary school in the US.;

[22:05.17]A young scholar at a Shanghai research institute;

[22:09.54]said he could not manage to conduct research;

[22:12.49]with a meagre State allocation of 2,000 yuan a year.;

[22:17.82]In America,he can get $24,000 a year for use in research,;

[22:25.03]so he decided to stay on after getting his degree.;

[22:29.91]In such cases,most work units back in China dismiss those;

[22:36.33]who fail to return on time.;

[22:38.95]This hurts the feel- ings of many who are willing to return later,;

[22:44.35]the article said.;

[22:46.35]At the same time, those who do return face a job problem.;

[22:52.50]China's irrational employment and personnel system;

[22:56.66]prevents some from fully using the skills and knowledge;

[23:00.57]they have acquired abroad.;

[23:03.17]Ai Xiaobai,with a PhD in Physics,;

[23:07.48]wrote to 11 institutions of high learning in China;

[23:12.00]Two of them refused him and the others did not even answer him.;

[23:17.79]Just before deciding to go back to America,;

[23:21.71]he was hired by a Chinese research institute which knew of him.;

[23:27.55]2.Personal Progress   and Job-hopping                                                                                                                                                                                            ];

[23:33.85]In many parts of the world,;

[23:36.84]personal influence is almost essential in getting ahead.;

[23:41.92]One needs a "godfather", a "sponsor". Here that is not true.;

[23:49.49]Naturally all people use influence sometimes,;

[23:53.71]but one rarely advances far on that basis alone in the United States.;

[24:00.06]Here traits which lead to success;

[24:03.00]are generally consi- dered to be the wil- lingness to work hard (at any kind of job);

[24:09.15]scholarship or skill initiative,an agreeable and out- going personality.;

[24:16.92]In other words even in the realm of personal progress,;

[24:21.95]this is a "do-it- yourself" society.;

[24:25.41]By and large,success is neither inherited nor bestowed.;

[24:32.31]This means,therefore that our employment practices;

[24:37.19]are different from those in many other countries.;

[24:40.75]In some nations it is considered disloyal to quit a job;;

[24:46.99]deep reciprocal loyalties exist between employee and employer;

[24:52.53](recipient and "patron" in many cases);;

[24:56.90]lifelong job security and family honor are frequently involved.;

[25:03.20]This is not true in the United States.;

[25:06.91]"Job-hopping" is part of our constant mobility.;

[25:11.58]We consider it a "right" to be able to better ourselves,;

[25:16.15]to move upward, to jump from company to company;

[25:20.57]if we cart keep qua- lifying for more re- sponsible (and ther- efore better) jobs.;

[25:26.97]This interchangeability of personnel;

[25:30.83]seems unreasonable to some members of foreign nations.;

[25:34.84]Where are our roots? How can we be so cold and inhuman?;

[25:40.79]"We act," some say, "as if we were dealing with machines,not humans";

[25:48.20]They do not under- stand that a great many Americans like to move about.;

[25:54.91]New jobs present new challenges, new opportunities,new friends,;

[26:01.57]new experiences-- often a new part of the country.;

[26:07.00]The employer may be quite content too.;

[26:10.81]Perhaps he has had the best of that man's thinking;;

[26:14.67]a new person may bring in fresh ideas improved skills, or new abilities.;

[26:22.24]Then, too,a newcomer will probably start at a lower salary;

[26:27.88]for he will have no seniority.;

[26:30.77]Hopping is so readily accepted here, in fact,;

[26:34.89]that a good man may bounce back and forth among two or three corporations,;

[26:40.78]being welcomed back to his original com- pany more than once through his career,;

[26:46.67]each time at a different level.;

[26:50.28]3.Residents Go   Overseas to Seek   Their Fortunes;

[26:58.20]Shanghai has become a favourite invest- ment spot with foreigners;

[27:04.30]eager to get a financial foothold in China.;

[27:08.47]And with the develo- pment of its export- oriented economy,;

[27:13.95]the city looks set to become an intern- ational trade and financial centre;

[27:20.35]on the west bank of the Pacific Ocean.;

[27:24.67]But many Shanghai people are not content simply to sit and wait;

[27:31.43]for the foreigners to come to them--;

[27:33.76]they want to go abroad themselves to try their luck.;

[27:38.94]The Shanghainese ha- ve a reputation for being able to find work the world over.;

[27:46.66]Before the founding of New China in 1949;

[27:51.79]hundreds of thousands of them were trading throug- hout the world.;

[27:56.88]In the 1950s and 1960s when the coun- try was pursuing its closed-door policy,;

[28:05.21]hundreds of factories, research institutes and universities--;

[28:10.34]involving more than 1 million people--;

[28:13.38]were moved from Shanghai into the inland areas;

[28:17.89]to support the nation's socialist construction.;

[28:21.86]Now,people with Shanghai accents can be found all over the country.;