英语口语教程(高级) UNIT 18

[00:01.00]Lesson 18;

[00:00.71]Read 2.Women's Education   Should Be Urged;

[00:05.62]Recently,a woman in a factory in Beijing;

[00:10.20]was notified that she was being laid off;

[00:13.41]as part of the "optimization" work force reductions in State enterprises.;

[00:20.54]To escape humiliation at the hands of her husband and mother-in-law,;

[00:26.27]she tried to kill herself by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills.;

[00:31.86]After she was rescued,;

[00:34.44]her mother took her to the factory director demanding;

[00:38.84]that her daughter be re-employed.;

[00:41.64]Otherwise,she said, the director would be responsible for any accident;

[00:47.30]that happened to her daughter.;

[00:49.26]In the end,;

[00:50.65]the director agreed to grant the woman a leave absence at full pay plus bonus.;

[00:58.06]This is only one example of the problem;

[01:01.94]for which traditional theorists of women's studies;

[01:05.26]and supporters of women's liberation in China;

[01:08.96]apparently have no ready solution.;

[01:12.59]But some feminist researchers recently urged;

[01:17.13]that a new approach be adopted to help women gain a fresh foothold;

[01:22.52]in the struggle to improve their lives.;

[01:26.50]Traditionally,;

[01:28.31]paid employment has been seen as the only passage towards women's liberation.;

[01:34.88]And the rate of women's employment has been used as the major criterion;

[01:41.31]in determining the level of women's liberation.;

[01:45.64]However,after more than three decades,;

[01:50.25]few Chinese women feel liberated from the old burdens of family and children.;

[01:57.17]They feel they have simply been given more work.;

[02:02.41]"We now have to admit;

[02:05.35]that women's employment doesn't necessarily lead to their liberation,;

[02:10.38]or more exactly,to the full development of their personalities,";

[02:15.34]said Ma Lizhen,an editor at Chinese Women magazine.;

[02:20.58]"In China," she said, "this road has reached a dead end.";

[02:26.38]For nearly 40 years, China has pursued policies;

[02:31.13]that encourage women to join the labour force.;

[02:34.84]But they have resulted in serious problems,;

[02:38.68]such as low efficiency in factories,;

[02:41.89]strains on the State budget;

[02:44.27]and a heavy load of housework and child care in a family, Ma said.;

[02:50.70]This employment- oriented system;

[02:54.05]has hurt the women's fundamental interests as well, Ma said.;

[02:59.29]Women were often put into jobs in heavy manual labour;

[03:04.46]with men more as a demonstration of equality;

[03:08.37]than because they were suited for the work.;

[03:11.66]This left them more dependent on favourable government policies;

[03:17.04]and less competitive.;

[03:19.42]A survey conducted by Ma's magazine;

[03:23.89]indicates that about 70 percent of the workers;

[03:27.66]who will be squeezed out of the labour force;

[03:30.45]in the current optimization will be women.;

[03:34.30]The survey also reveals;

[03:37.09]that more Women than men prefer State employment,;

[03:41.29]which is more secure and less competitive;

[03:45.83]To protect women's interests,some women organizations;

[03:51.28]have urged the top leadership for more favourable policies for women.;

[03:56.66]But some feminists now disagree.;

[04:00.71]"We know that special government treatment alone;

[04:04.48]will not produce competent women,";

[04:07.49]Dai Qing, a noted writer and journalist,said at a discussion.;

[04:13.57]"On the contrary,it has made them weaker and more dependent.;

[04:19.51]What we should do now is to help women become more able and self-confident.;

[04:26.49]And the only way is through education.";

[04:31.31]The long-standing neglect of women's education,;

[04:35.44]especially in the countryside,;

[04:37.88]has resulted in a large proportion of female illiteracy;

[04:42.77]whose negative effect on the nation's development;

[04:46.48]is most strikingly seen;

[04:48.78]in the country's barely controllable birth rate.;

[04:52.84]State statistics indicate;

[04:56.33]that women make up about 70 percent of China's 200 million illiterates.;

[05:03.18]This situation cannot be expected to prove soon;

[05:08.35]as hundreds of thousands of girls in the countryside;

[05:12.33]are being forced by their parents to drop out of school at early grades;

[05:18.20]to help work at home or in the fields.;

[05:22.74]Girls make up an estimated 70 percent of the dropouts in the countryside,;

[05:29.45]according to Chinese Women magazine.;

[05:33.29]"The women's movement should shift its focus;

[05:37.63]from employment, to education," Dai urged.;

[05:41.33]"If women are taught self-supporting skills,they will support themselves;

[05:47.13]as opportunities arise even without special care.";

[05:52.02]A good education will benefit a woman throughout her life;

[05:57.19]whether she is a career woman or a housewife,";

[06:00.40]said Dai,who is working on a plan to set up;

[06:04.95]what would be the only non- governmental;

[06:07.32]girls' school in the capital.;

[06:09.98]Another way to help women stand up to the current challenge;

[06:15.50]is for the media to give more positive coverage to housework;

[06:20.04]and good housewives or househusbands,Ma suggested.;

[06:25.63]China at present cannot afford to provide publicly;

[06:31.01]all the services traditionally performed within the family,;

[06:35.41]such as cooking, washing and care for children and the elderly.;

[06:41.35]But many people dislike doing house work;

[06:45.61]because it is unpaid and unappreciated.;

[06:49.88]Ma proposed that society compensate in some way;

[06:55.33]the people who work at home.;

[06:57.70]"Thus fewer women workers would feel ashamed about returning home;

[07:03.78]to do the housework, " she added.;

[07:06.85]These feminist researchers;

[07:09.65]have also begun reflecting on the sources of;

[07:13.42]and philosophy behind the current setback;

[07:16.43]in the China's women's liberation movement.;

[07:19.85]They noted that the movement in China is still operating;

[07:25.37]within the framework of male culture;

[07:28.45]because from the very beginning it was formulated and directed by men.;

[07:35.15]"They set the male sex as a model for women to follow.;

[07:40.25]So women remain the second sex," Ma said.;

[07:45.00]She argued that the time has come for Chinese women;

[07:49.97]to define their own roles in society.;

[07:53.74]They should strive for a society;

[07:56.88]in which they can choose to work outside,or stay at home,;

[08:02.05]in which they can have more time to develop their own interests;

[08:06.81]and improve community conditions.;

[08:11.28]3.Two Top Career   Women Say Family   Also Matters;

[08:19.03]It was quite a- surprise for Wang Yunfeng,;

[08:22.60]58-year-old general manager of the Shenyang Department Store,;

[08:27.56]to find herself at the head  of a list of Shenyang's top 10 modern  women.;

[08:34.55]The list was the result of a competition organized;

[08:39.23]by the women federation of shenyang,;

[08:41.95]capital of north eastern Liaoning Province;

[08:46.00]Zheng Baohua director of the federation,;

[08:50.76]said that Wang won the most votes;

[08:53.62]not just because she is the general manager of one of the largest;

[08:58.16]and most progressive department stores in the country,;

[09:01.73]but also because of her compassion;

[09:05.29]Wang was first in the city to promote lateral ties;

[09:09.90]between commercial establishments,;

[09:12.35]and the total volume of profits her department store;

[09:16.33]turned over to the State over six years;

[09:19.68]was 11 times more than the total investment.;

[09:24.30]Wang's 83-year-old mother said that her husband died very early;

[09:31.00]"It was Yunfeng who raised her three younger brothers," she said,adding,;

[09:37.01]"She never fails to bring me some tasty pastry every time she comes home,;

[09:42.88]no matter how busy she has been at work.";

[09:47.00]A middle-school teacher who voted for Wang said,"in my opinion;

[09:53.08]in addition to career success, modern women should also be independent;

[09:59.23]and charming,and have a sense of freedom.;

[10:02.94]This,of course,has nothing to do with a person's age.";

[10:09.15]A soldier named Xiang Mingjun wrote to the federation,;

[10:14.33]expressing his approval of the selection of the top 10 modern women,;

[10:19.36]who are attended to their husbands, tender to their children,;

[10:24.04]filial to their aged parents and friendly to their neighbours.;

[10:29.42]In the house;of another of the top 10 modern women,Zhang Guiqing,;

[10:35.64]general manager of Shenyang's Mulan Industrial Corporation,;

[10:40.46]colourful flowers can be found everywhere.;

[10:44.30]Zhang was cleaning the house when the reporter visited her.;

[10:49.54]"Despite her fame as a boss of 27 enterprises,;

[10:54.57]she is a good housekeeper and an attentive housewife.;

[10:58.97]She is also a capable and kind mother," Zhang's husband said proudly.;

[11:05.96]Zhang,48,has six children,four of whom are now university students.;

[11:14.98]"The whole family is happy at my being chosen," she said.;

[11:20.22]According to the director of the women's federation,;

[11:25.04]two of the most important criteria for the top 10 modern women;

[11:29.86]out of the city's 2.63 million women;

[11:33.63]are having been praised by authorities;

[11:36.43]above the city government level;

[11:38.87]and having a harmonious and happy family.;

[11:42.86]This is quite a departure from past attitudes,;

[11:47.33]in the days when a strong sense of family;

[11:50.26]was often regarded as selfish and bourgeois, Zhang said.;

[11:55.29]Only two years ago, the story of a model woman teacher;

[12:00.53]who persevered in her work and ignored the pleas of her sick son;

[12:05.63]was widely cited with approval.;

[12:09.62]Lesson 19 Is it good to live in a large modern city?;

[12:19.33]Text I hate to live in a large modern city.;

[12:25.90]"Avoid the rush-hour must be the slogan of large cities the world over.;

[12:33.43]If it is,it's a slogan no one takes the least notice of.;

[12:39.51]Twice a day,with predictable regularity,the pot boils over.;

[12:46.74]Wherever you look it's people,people, people.;

[12:51.77]The trains which leave or arrive every few minutes are packed:;

[12:57.43]an endless procession of human sardine tins.;

[13:01.67]The streets are so crowded,there is hardly room to move on the pavements.;

[13:08.12]The queues for buses reach staggering proportions.;

[13:13.62]It takes ages for a bus to get to you;

[13:17.55]because the traffic on the roads has virtually come to a standstill.;

[13:23.06]Even when a bus does at last arrive,it's so full,;

[13:28.56]it can't take any more passengers .;

[13:31.55]This whole crazy system of commuting;

[13:35.32]stretches man's resources to the utmost.;

[13:39.72]The smallest unforeseen event can bring about conditi -on of utter chaos.;

[13:46.64]A powercut,for instance,;

[13:49.47]an exceptionally heavy snowfall or a minor derailment;

[13:54.50]must always make city-dwellers;

[13:56.70]realize how precarious the balance is.;

[14:00.63]The extraordinary thing is not that people put up with these conditions,;

[14:07.08]but that they actually choose them in preference to anything else.;

[14:13.05]Large modern cities are too big to control.;

[14:17.92]They impose their own living conditions;

[14:21.28]on the people who inhabit them.;

[14:24.06]City-dwellers are obliged by their environment;

[14:28.93]to adopt a wholly unnatural way of life.;

[14:32.55]They lose touch with the land and rhythm of nature.;

[14:37.58]It is possible to live such an airconditioned existence;

[14:41.98]in a large city that you are barely conscious of the seasons.;

[14:47.17]A few flowers in a public park (if you have the time to visit it);

[14:53.14]may remind you that it is spring or summer.;

[14:57.07]A few leaves clinging to the pavement;

[15:00.37]may remind you that it is autumn.;

[15:03.36]Beyond that,what is going on in nature seems totally irrelevant.;

[15:10.12]All the simple,;

[15:12.32]good things of life like sunshine and fresh air are at a premium.;

[15:18.29]Tall buildings blot out the sun.;

[15:21.91]Traffic fumes pollute the atmosphere.;

[15:25.69]Even the distinction between day and night is lost.;

[15:30.09]The flow of traffic goes on unceasingly and the noise never stops.;

[15:37.63]The sunny thing about it all;

[15:40.78]is that you pay dearly for the "privilege" of livig in a city.;

[15:46.12]The demand for accommodation is so great;

[15:50.21]that it is often impossible for ordinary people;

[15:53.98]to buy a house of their own.;

[15:56.50]Exorbitant rents must be paid for tiny flats;

[16:00.74]which even country hens would disdain to live in.;

[16:05.46]Accommodation apart, the cost of living is very high.;

[16:11.59]Just about everything you buy is likely to be more expensive;

[16:17.09]than it would be in the country.;

[16:20.40]In addition to all this,city-dwellers live under constant threat.;

[16:27.31]The crime rate in most cities is very high.;

[16:31.71]Houses are burgled with alarming frequency.;

[16:36.12]Cities breed crime and violence;

[16:39.42]and are full of places you would be afraid to visit at night.;

[16:44.29]If you think about it,they are not really fit to live in at all.;

[16:49.95]Can anyone really doubt;

[16:52.15]that the country is what man was born for and where he truly belongs?;

[17:00.17]2.Read. Read the following passage,;

[17:08.35]underline the important viewpoints while reading.;

[17:12.75]1.Tokyo;

[17:17.31]I don't live in Tokyo.;

[17:19.82]I don't even know whether I would like to live there.;

[17:24.38]I love it and hate it-it is one of those places;

[17:29.57]that you can love and hate at the same time.;

[17:34.13]The first "fact" about Tokyo,for me, is that there are too many people.;

[17:40.89]I don't mean the fact that more than twelve million people live there.;

[17:45.61]A number like 12,000,000 doesn't mean anything to me.;

[17:50.95]In Tokyo there are always too many people in the places where I want to be.;

[17:57.71]That is the important fact for me.Of course there are too many cars.;

[18:04.47]The Japanese drive very fast when they can,;

[18:08.25]but in Tokyo they often spend a long time in traffic jams.;

[18:13.91]Tokyo is not different from London,Paris and New York in that.;

[18:20.04]It is different when one wants to walk.;

[18:25.07]At certain times of the day;

[18:27.90]there are a lot of people on foot in London's Oxford Street;

[18:32.77]or near the big shops and stores in other great cities.;

[18:37.96]But the streets near the Ginza in Tokyo always have a lot of people on foot,;

[18:44.25]and sometimes it is really difficult to walk.;

[18:48.65]People are very polite:there are just too many of them.;

[18:54.31]The worst time to be in the street is at 11.30 at night.;

[19:00.13]That is when the night-clubs are closing;

[19:02.96]and everybody wants to go home.;

[19:05.79]There are 35,000 night-clubs in Tokyo;

[19:10.19]and you do not often see one that is empty.;

[19:13.65]Between 11 and 12 everybody is looking for a taxi.;

[19:19.31]Usually the taxis are shared by four or five people;

[19:24.18]who live in the same part of the city.;

[19:27.80]During the day, people use the trains.;

[19:32.51]Perhaps the first thing you notice in Tokyo is the number of trains.;

[19:38.80]Most people travel to and from work by train,;

[19:43.36]and there is a station at almost every street corner.;

[19:48.39]Tokyo peole buy six million train tickets every day.;

[19:54.21]One station-Shinjuku -has 2 million passagers each day,;

[20:01.28]At most station, trains arrive every two or three minutes,;

[20:07.57]but at certain hours there do not seem to be enough trains.;

[20:13.55]At 8 o'clock in the morning;

[20:16.38]you can see students pushing passengers into the trains.;

[20:21.25]Usually the trains are nearly full when they arrive at the station,;

[20:26.75]so the students have to push very hard.;

[20:30.37]Sometimes the pushers are also pushed in by mistake,;

[20:35.40]and they have to get out at the next station.;

[20:39.33]Some people who are pushed into the train lose their shoes.;

[20:44.36]They,too,get out at the next station,and go back to look for them.;

[20:50.97]Although they are usually crowded, Japanese trains are very good.;

[20:57.72]They always leave and arrive on time.;

[21:01.65]On a London train you would see everybody reading a newspaper.;

[21:07.16]In Tokyo trains everybody in a seat seems to be asleep.;

[21:14.39]Some Japanese make a train journey of two hours to go to work,;

[21:19.73]so they do their sleeping on the train.;

[21:23.67]But if a train journey lasts only five minutes,and if they have a seat,;

[21:30.27]they will also go to sleep.;

[21:32.78]They always wake when they arrive at their station.;

[21:37.66]The last time I went to Tokyo.I went there from Osaka in great comfort.;

[21:45.99]The blue-and-white trains;

[21:47.72]which run every half-hour between the two cities;

[21:51.34]are not only very fast but very comfortbable.;

[21:55.90]There are no pushers only those who have reserved seats can travel on the train.;

[22:03.60]It was not possible to run more trains on the old lines,;

[22:08.16]so the Japanese built a special line for the new fast trains.;

[22:13.97]It is a very good line indeed.;

[22:17.28]You can eat and drink without difficulty at 220 kilometres an hour;

[22:24.67]-you know the speed because there is a speedometer inside the carriage.;

[22:30.95]In Tokyo,I stood outside the station for five minutes.;

[22:37.40]Three fire-engines -the very latest kind;

[22:41.49]with every modern fitting-raced past;

[22:45.10]on the way to one of the many fires that Tokyo have every day.;

[22:50.45]The people who passed on foot;

[22:53.75]included some of the loveliest girls in the world;

[22:57.21]in the latest European dresses or the finest Japanese kimonos.;

[23:03.81]Businessmen passed in big new cars,and among them,in a small Honda,;

[23:11.20]there was a geisha in the clothes and hair arrangement;

[23:15.60]of hundreds of years ago.;

[23:18.59]Tokyo has so many surprises that none of them can really surprise me now.;

[23:25.51]Instead,I am surprised at myself: I must go there next week on business,;

[23:33.06]and I know that I shall hate the city and its twelve million people.;

[23:38.09]But I feel like a man who is returning to his long-lost love.;

[23:44.06]2.What kind of City   Should Beijing Be?;

[23:51.92]The C.P.C Central Committee Secretariat;

[23:56.79]has proposed that Beijing should become:;

[24:00.73](1)a model in public    security,;

[24:04.97]social order and moral standars for the whole country;

[24:09.37]and one of the best in the world;;

[24:12.67](2)a first-rate    modern city with  a fine environment,;

[24:19.12]high standars of clenliness and good sanitation;;

[24:24.15](3)the nation's most    developed city in    culture,science    and technology,;

[24:31.54]with the highest educational standard in the country;and;

[24:36.88](4)a city with a    thriving economy,;

[24:41.13]providing its residents with stability in life;

[24:45.22]and all kinds of conveniences.;

[24:48.83]3.Duo Duo Bar,   Where Many Meet;

[24:56.06]A small coffee shop on Xidan Street, barely wider than a hallway,;

[25:02.67]has become a haunt for many young people in downtown Beijing.;

[25:08.17]The Duo Duo Coffee Bar has a charm of its own.;

[25:13.04]Its red walls adorned with reed and bamboo hats;

[25:17.76]and a spider web haning from its dark ceiling remind one of the sunsets,;

[25:24.05]perhaps at lakeside in a light drizzle.;

[25:28.29]This is the atmosphere in which people sip a cup of coffee,;

[25:32.85]tea or wine while chatting with their friends.;

[25:37.25]Duo Duo(Chinese for many)is owned by two young men,Zhang Keyu,a technician,;

[25:46.85]and Lu Wek, an artist.;

[25:50.30]"We started this coffee bar not only for making money.";

[25:55.81]said Zhang,27, in a soft voice.;

[26:00.52]"We want to offer our young friends a place for social contact.;

[26:05.87]If what we earn is enough for paying the tax,we are satisfied.;

[26:12.00]"Before opening this bar,;

[26:14.83]we often held weekend parties at home in which we chatted,;

[26:20.02]sang and danced.;

[26:22.53]Then an idea occurred to us to open a coffee shop;

[26:27.41]so that we could know more people and more about the society.;

[26:32.91]"Without wasting any time,;

[26:36.06]Lu Wei and I took out all our savings to refurnish this room.;

[26:41.72]Our friends did what they could to help us.;

[26:45.49]Lu Wei did the decoration himself, using a lot of reed,;

[26:51.31]which is what his name means.;

[26:53.98]Within a month,this mini-coffee room opened its door to the public.";

[27:00.58]The atmosphere appealed mostly to young people.;

[27:05.30]A university graduate,for instance,;

[27:08.76]needed a place to hold a farewell party.;

[27:12.37]The young owners offered the bar to him free of charge;

[27:16.93]and suspended their business for the night.;

[27:20.55]The young man invited 20 friends. And the party was a great success.;

[27:27.78]"Making friends is more important than making money," Zhang observed.;

[27:34.23]Being a full-time technician,;

[27:37.37]Zhang has to work in his company by day and work in his coffee bar by night.;

[27:43.34]He hires no employees.His friends volunteer to serve in this shop.;

[27:50.89]A fashion designer whose nichname is also Duo Duo came in one day.;

[27:58.12]"I'm glad my name is the same as this lovely bar's.;

[28:02.37]I wish I had as many friends as it has," she said.;

[28:06.93]Pierre was a French student on a study tour in Beijing.;

[28:12.43]He enjoyed himself in the bar so much;

[28:15.73]that he could not help dancing like Charlies Chaplain;

[28:19.19]and blowing on the suona,a Chinese wind instrument.;

[28:24.06]"Business has been good since the bar opened last year,;

[28:29.41]but there were minor troubles when two or three rascals;

[28:33.81]said they could not pay for their drinks.;

[28:36.95]All we could do was ask them to write down their names on our credit list.;

[28:43.09]Sometimes a rude fellow would drop in and talk too loudly.;

[28:49.22]But the quite atmosphere here would soom make him feel out of place;

[28:54.88]and he would leave.;

[28:56.54]I wish I could write a novel about society;

[29:00.07]based on what I've seen and heard in this bar," Zhang said.;

[29:04.98]It was already midnight,Xidan Street was asleep and empty.;

[29:11.58]But the lights in Duo Duo still beckoned lonely walkers.;

[29:16.80]Inside the room, customers were still chatting or humming.;