每天一课英语口语 UNIT 073-085

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[00:00.00]73 Color and Life

[00:04.52]Color can not only reflect one's personality but also influence one's mood.

[00:12.43]What color do you like? Do you like yellow, orange or red?

[00:18.94]If you do, you must be an optimist 1, a leader, an active person who enjoys life, people and excitement.

[00:29.81]Do you prefer grays or blues 2?

[00:33.75]Then you are probably quiet, shy, and you would rather follow than lead.

[00:40.78]You end to be a pessimist 3.

[00:43.42]At least, this is what psychologists tell us.

[00:49.11]They have been seriously studying the meaning of color preference,

[00:54.07]as well as the effect that colors have on human beings.

[00:58.36]They tell us that we don't choose our favorite color as we grow up.

[01:04.34]We are born with our preference.

[01:08.31]If you happen to love brown, you did so as soon as you opened your eyes, or at least as soon as you could see clearly.

[01:19.88]Colors do influence our moods, and there is no doubt.

[01:26.02]A yellow room makes most people feel more cheerful and more relaxed than a dark green one;

[01:34.04]and a red dress brings warmth and cheer to the saddest winter day.

[01:39.92]On the other hand, black is de-pressing.

[01:44.78]A black bridge over the Thames River near London

[01:50.08]used to be the scene of more suicides than any other bridges in the area until it was repainted green.

[01:59.17]The number of suicide at-tempts immediately fell sharply:

[02:05.23]perhaps they would have fallen even more if the bridge had been done in pink or baby blue.

[02:15.08]74 What Is First Aid

[02:20.70]First aid may be defined as the immediate 4 and temporary care given to a victim of an accident or serious illness

[02:31.14]until the help of a physician can be obtained.

[02:35.92]First aid commences with the steadying effect upon the stricken person

[02:41.52]when he realizes that competent hands will help him.

[02:46.37]The emergency situation of-ten causes confusion in the mind of the victim.

[02:53.87]Things seem un-real and remote, and he often cannot think clearly and rationally for some time.

[03:02.86]The emotional reaction which results from a serious accident takes time to subside 5.

[03:11.09]Therefore, first aid is more than the physical attention dressing 6 his injuries or making him comfortable.

[03:20.44]It is the general mental effect that the well-selected word of encouragement,

[03:27.26]the expression of willingness to help, the uplifting effect of the first aider's evident capability 7 can be given.

[03:37.73]The thoughtful suggestions made to solve immediate problems,

[03:43.53]the information given concerning nearby physicians and hospitals,

[03:49.56]the telephone call to summon medical help or an am-bulance or to notify a relative, these too are first aid.

[04:01.24]The good first aider deals with the whole situation, the person and the in-jury.

[04:08.63]He knows what not to do as well as what to do.

[04:14.17]Thus, he avoids the error so commonly made through well meant but misguided efforts.

[04:22.53]He confines his procedures to what is necessary, keeping the handling of injured part to a minimum.

[04:32.72]75 Asking the Way to the City Museum

[04:39.72]John: Excuse me, Lin Lin. Could you tell me how to get to the City Museum from here?

[04:48.31]Lin Lin: Of course.

[04:49.70]It's on Youhao Street, just across Guo Tai Department Store.

[04:56.05]You know where that is?

[04:58.21]John: I'm afraid I don't. I've never been in town.

[05:03.07]Lin Lin: Well, do you know where Youhao Square is?

[05:07.62]John: No, I don't. But I do know where Zhongshan Square is.

[05:13.65]Lin Lin: I'm not sure that's going to help you. Let me see...( Looking at the map of the city)

[05:23.45]Why don't you follow this road, MinSheng Road, until you get to the stoplight.

[05:31.91]Take a left turning there, that's Tianjin Street, and go up about two blocks until you get to Youhao Street.

[05:43.12]Then turn right. The museum is on your right about two blocks down.

[05:50.85]Follow Minsheng Road. Take a left turning at the stoplight.

[05:58.17]John: Let me get this straight.., a left turning at the stoplight.

[06:04.67]Go up along Tianjin Street for two blocks.

[06:09.74]Lin Lin: That's right, two blocks.

[06:12.51]John: ... Turn right on Youhao Street, and the museum is on the right hand side two blocks down.

[06:21.49]Lin Lin: That's right.

[06:23.16]John: Thank you, Lin Lin.

[06:24.52]Lin Lin: That's all right.

[06:25.96]76 On Advertisements

[06:32.23]China is now thick with commercials and advertisements, which do many important things for society.

[06:42.36]First of all, they convey business information.

[06:47.46]Another use of advertisements is to make the public interested in what manufacturers want to sell.

[06:56.81]It is because they have powerful influence

[07:02.11]that the profiteer often tricks the public into buying his goods by using advertise-ments.

[07:10.68]His bread, in truth, is made with soy flour, while he ad-vertises it as white bread.

[07:19.93]Moreover, surplus advertisements have interfered 8 in people's normal life.

[07:27.48]Every ten minutes a television program will be interrupted by commercials for a couple of minutes,

[07:37.06]which ruin good movies and exciting television shows.

[07:41.90]Worse still, some profiteers advertise their goods by means of dirty pictures to poison people's mind.

[07:52.79]These problems cannot be ignored.

[07:57.62]The best way to solve such problems is to enact 9 laws in the consumer's interests,

[08:04.73]which should make sure that advertisements must be completely

truthful 10 and healthy.

[08:12.28]Let good advertisements facilitate communi-cation between business people and the public,

[08:19.33]and help the business world moving.

[08:24.66]77 Telephone Books

[08:28.81]Telephone books in the United States have white, blue and yellow pages.

[08:36.70]The white pages list people with phones by last name.

[08:42.53]The blue pages contain numbers of city services, govern-ment agencies and public schools.

[08:52.25]Business and professional ser-vices are listed in a special section-the yellow pages.

[09:00.68]To make a long distance call, you need an extra code.

[09:06.48]Each area in the U.S. has an area code.

[09:11.08]The area covered by one area code may be small or large.

[09:18.11]For example, New York City has one area code, but so does the whole state of Oregon.

[09:27.90]If you want to know the area code of a place,

[09:32.94]you can look it up in the area code map which is printed in the front of the white pages.

[09:40.89]There are a lot of public telephones in the U.S..

[09:46.21]They have their own numbers.

[09:48.93]If you make a long distance call on the public telephone and run out of money,

[09:55.91]give the number of your phone to the person you are talking to, then hang up the receiver and he can call back.

[10:06.25]If you make a long distance call and get a wrong number, call the operator and explain what has happened.

[10:16.78]This means that you can make the call again to the, right number with-out having to pay more money.

[10:28.45]78 Climate and Intelligence

[10:34.51]If you are like most people, your intelligence varies from season to season.

[10:41.80]You are probably a lot sharper in the spring than you are at any time of year.

[10:48.96]A noted 11 scientist, Ellsworth Huntington (1876- 1947),

[10:58.83]concluded from other men's work and his research among peoples in different climates that climate

[11:08.29]and temperature have a definite effect on our mental abilities.

[11:13.75]He found that cool weather is much more favorable for cre-ative thinking than is summer heat.

[11:23.18]This does not mean that all people are less intelligent in the summer than they are during the rest of the time.

[11:33.42]It does mean, however, that the mental abilities of large numbers of people tend to be lowest in the summer.

[11:44.08]Spring appears to be the best period of the year for thinking.

[11:50.53]One reason may be that in the spring man's mental abilities are affected 12 by the same factors

[12:00.17]that bring about great changes in all nature.

[12:04.48]Fall is the next-best season, then winter.

[12:10.44]As for summer, it seems to be a good time to take a long vacation from thinking.

[12:20.02]79 The Second Language Of Human Being

[12:27.49]Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined 13 by situa-tions and relationships.

[12:37.21]For instance, in American culture the smile is typically an expression of pleasure.

[12:44.89]Yet it also has other functions.

[12:49.12]A smile may show affection, convey politeness, or disguise true feelings.

[12:57.06]It is also a source of confusion across cul-tures.

[13:02.29]For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even suspicious behavior.

[13:14.36]Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places.

[13:21.20]Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong place;

[13:27.21]some Americans believe that Russians don't smile enough.

[13:33.01]In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover e-motional pain or embarrassment 14.

[13:43.98]Our faces reveal emotions and attitudes,

[13:49.28]but we should not attempt to "read" people from another culture as we would "read" someone from our own culture.

[13:59.13]The degree of facial ex-pressiveness one exhibits varies among individuals and cultures.

[14:08.30]The fact that members of one culture do not express their emo-tions as openly as do members of another

[14:17.84]does not mean that they do not experience emotions.

[14:23.01]Rather,there are cultural re-straints on the amount of nonverbal expressiveness 15 permitted.

[14:31.34]If we judge people whose ways of showing emotions are different according to our own cultural norms,

[14:40.90]we may make the mistake of "reading" the other person incorrectly.

[14:47.75]80 Human Brain

[14:51.53]Man has a big brain. He can think, learn and speak.

[15:00.44]Sci-entists used to think that men are different from animals because

they can think and learn.

[15:08.33]They know now that animals can learn-dogs, rats, birds and worms--can learn.

[15:18.47]So scientists are beginning to understand that men are different from animals be-cause they can speak.

[15:27.03]Animals cannot speak.

[15:30.09]They make noises when they are afraid, or angry, or unhappy.

[15:36.67]Apes are our near-est cousins.

[15:40.54]They can understand some things more quickly than human beings, and one or two have learned a few words.

[15:49.66]But they are still different from us.

[15:54.04]They cannot join words and make sentences.

[15:57.73]They cannot think like us because they have no lan-guage.

[16:03.14]They can never think about the past or the future.

[16:08.70]Lan-guage is a wonderful thing.

[16:11.47]Man has been able to develop civi-lization because he has language.

[16:18.31]Every child can speak his own language very well when he is four or five--but no animal learns to speak.

[16:29.62]How do children learn? Scientists do not know.

[16:35.08]They only know that man can speak because he has a big brain.

[16:42.68]81 The Mystery of Color

[16:49.35]In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors.

[16:58.28]Researchers think that there are also two groups of people:

[17:03.58]people who prefer warm colors, and people who prefer cool colors.

[17:10.03]The warm colors are red, orange and yellow.

[17:15.36]Where there are warm colors and a lot of light, people usually want to be ac-tive.

[17:23.20]Sociable people, those who like to be with others, like red.

[17:29.81]The cool colors are green, blue and violet.

[17:35.71]These colors, unlike warm colors, are relaxing.

[17:40.62]Where there are cool colors, people are usually quiet.

[17:46.82]People who like to spend time alone often prefer blue.

[17:52.93]Researchers do not know why people think some colors are warm and other colors are cool.

[18:02.41]Perhaps warm colors remind people of warm days and the cool colors remind them of cool days.

[18:12.94]Because in the north, the sun is low during winter, the sunlight appears quite blue.

[18:21.95]Because the sun is higher during summer, the hot summer sunlight appears yellow.

[18:31.38]82 Are You Feeling Good?

[18:37.96]Weather has a powerful effect on people.

[18:41.99]It influences health, intelligence, and feelings.

[18:47.68]In August, it is very hot and wet in the southern part of the United States.

[18:54.39]Southerners have many heart attacks or other kinds of health problems during this month.

[19:02.86]In the Northeast and the Middle West, it is very hot at some times and very cold at other times.

[19:12.68]Many people in these states have heart attacks after the weather changes in February or March.

[19:21.77]The weather can influence intelligence. For example, in a 1938 study by scientists,

[19:32.38]the IQ scores (measure of intelligence) of undergraduate college students were very high during a hurri-cane,

[19:42.30]but after the storm, their scores were 10 percent below av-erage.

[19:48.68]Hurricanes can increase intelligence.

[19:52.62]Very hot weather, on the other hand, can lower it.

[19:57.58]Students in the United States of-ten do badly in exams in the hot months of the year.

[20:05.32]Weather also had a strong influence on people's feelings.

[20:11.64]Winter may be a bad time for thin people; they usually feel cold during these months.

[20:20.21]They might feel depressed 16 during cold weather.

[20:24.23]In hot summer weather, on the other hand, fat people may feel unhappy.

[20:31.54]At about 65'F, people become stronger.

[20:38.23]Low air pressure relaxes people.

[20:43.17]It increases forgetfulness;people leave more packages and umbrellas on buses and in stores on low-pressure days.

[20:54.48]There is a "perfect weather" for work and health.

[20:58.97]People feel best at a temperature of about 64F with 65 percent humidity.

[21:09.21]Are you feeling sick, sad, tired, forgetful, or very intelli-gent today?

[21:18.15]The weather may be the cause.

[21:23.24]83 Did You Have a Sound Sleep?

[21:28.28]Sleep is part of a person's daily activity cycle.

[21:33.27]There are several different stages of sleep, and they too occur in cycles.

[21:40.48]If you are an average sleeper 17, your sleep cycle is as follows.

[21:46.99]When you first drift into slumber 18, your eyes will roll about a bit, your temperature will drop,

[21:56.05]your muscles will relax, and your breathing will slow and become quite regular.

[22:03.23]Your brain waves slow down a bit too, with the alpha of rather fast waves predominating for the first few minutes.

[22:13.58]This is called stage! sleep.

[22:17.31]For the next half hour or so, as you relax more and more, you will drift down through stage I and stage 3 sleep.

[22:28.94]The lower your stage of sleep, the slower your brain waves will be.

[22:35.47]Then, about 40 to 60 minutes after you lose consciousness, you will have reached the deepest sleep of all.

[22:45.06]Your brain waves will show the large slow waves that are known as the delta 19 rhythm.

[22:52.94]This is stage 4 sleep.

[22:55.61]You do not remain at this deep fourth stage all night long,

[23:01.54]but instead about 80 minutes after you fall into slumber, your brain activity level will increase again slightly.

[23:12.69]The delta rhythm will disappear, to be replaced by the activity pattern of brain waves.

[23:21.44]Your eyes will begin to dart 20 around under your closed eyelids 21 as

[23:27.79]if you were looking at something occurring in front of you.

[23:32.73]This period of rapid eye movement lasts for some 8 to 1.5 minutes and is called REM sleep.

[23:41.48]It is during REM sleep that most dreams seem to occur.

[23:46.34]Provided that you do not wake up during the first REM sleep period,

[23:51.62]your body will soon relax again, your breathing will grow slow and regular once more,

[23:59.53]and you will slip gently back from stage 1 to stage 4 sleep--

[24:05.70]only to rise once again to the surface of near consciousness some 80 minutes later.

[24:15.65]84 Dreams

[24:20.14]A dream is made up of a series of mind-pictures that form during sleep.

[24:27.19]The people and actions in these pictures seem real to the person who is dreaming.

[24:34.74]When a person is asleep, he has little or no control over his mind.

[24:43.05]Then ideas and feelings come out to form the mind picture known as dreams.

[24:51.72]Dream may be influenced by different things that are present during sleep.

[24:58.65]If a person is cold, he may dream that he is out in a snowstorm.

[25:05.54]Worries or anger may also influence the content of a dream.

[25:11.60]Some people think that they seldom dream, and other people are quite sure that they do not dream at all.

[25:22.23]Studies of human sleep have shown, though, that everyone dreams every night.

[25:29.89]If a person thinks he does not dream, it is because he does not re-member dreaming when he wakes up.

[25:39.21]Usually, a person may dream three to seven times for a total of one to two hours of dreaming every night.

[25:49.74]Not only does everyone dream, but it seems that we all need to dream.

[25:57.40]One theory is that dreaming gives us a chance to escape from the rules of our real world.

[26:05.49]In dreams we can see our wishes come true. We can be rich, powerful, and successful.

[26:16.73]85 A Tidal Wave

[26:20.93]A tidal wave is a very large and very destructive wall of water that rushes in from the ocean toward the shore.

[26:31.98]Many scientists call these huge waves tsunami 22.

[26:37.57]In Japanese tsunami means "storm wave".

[26:42.90]But do you know that tidal waves are not caused by storms and that they are not true tides at all?

[26:51.81]A true tide is the regular rise and fall of ocean waters, at definite times each day,

[27:01.34]but a tidal wave comes rushing in suddenly and unexpectedly.

[27:08.53]A tidal wave is caused by an underwater earthquake.

[27:13.83]Scientists call the underwater earthquake a seaquake.

[27:19.00]The word "seaquake" is made up of two words, the word "sea" which means "ocean"

[27:27.62]and the word "quake" which means "to shake" or "to tremble".

[27:33.97]When a seaquake takes place at the bottom of the ocean,

[27:39.35]the ocean floor shakes and trembles, and sometimes the ocean floor shifts.

[27:47.48]It is this shifting that produces the tidal wave.

[27:52.44]The tidal wave begins to move across the sea at great speed.

[27:58.68]Tidal waves have taken many human lives in the past.

[28:04.27]To-day scientists can predict when a tidal wave will hit land.

[28:11.25]They use a seismograph to do this.

[28:15.09]A seismograph is an instrument that records the strength, the direction,

[28:22.01]and the length of time of an earthquake or seaquake.

[28:27.10]It is not possible to hold back a tidal wave, but it is possible to warn people that a tidal wave is       coming.

[28:37.66]This warning can save many lives.