英语口语教程(高级) UNIT 26-27

[00:01.00]Lesson 26 Does Divorce Represent Social Progress?;

[00:00.72]II.Read;

[00:01.39]Fifteen months later Joanna reappears.;

[00:05.83]Having gone through a therapy she has overcome her sense of failure.;

[00:11.77]She has now a good job and wants to live a fuller life.;

[00:17.17]She wants the custody of Billy.;

[00:20.31]Ted angrily refuses her request;

[00:24.31]and engages a lawyer to fight the case in court.;

[00:28.80]To add to his trouble,he loses his job just at this time;

[00:34.78]because of his neglect of work on account of his parental duties.;

[00:40.72]He is told by his lawyer that without a job;

[00:45.64]he has no chance of keeping the custody of his son.;

[00:50.42]To keep Billy at any cost,he takes up a much lower-paid job,;

[00:56.69]though his new boss tells him that with his qualifications and talents,;

[01:02.38]he could get a much better job if he waited a little longer.;

[01:07.16]But he cannot afford to wait.;

[01:10.78]In court ugly charges are brought up by the two lawyers;

[01:16.43]to prove the unfitness of the opposite party as an unfit parent.;

[01:22.55]Ted is described as a man who cannot keep his job;

[01:27.52]and as a very negligent father.;

[01:30.61]Joanna is described as a very irresponsible and unstable woman;

[01:36.74]who needed therapy treatment.;

[01:39.59]But in the end Joanna is awarded the custody of the boy.;

[01:45.71]Feeling lost, bewildered and miserable,;

[01:50.63]Ted makes preparations to hand over his son.;

[01:55.03]Billy too has come to love his father;

[01:58.84]and feels just as sad and bewildered at the prospect of leaving his father.;

[02:05.30]Finally,at the fatal hour,Joanna turns up, not to take Billy away,;

[02:13.56]but to announce her decision to give up her claim to the custody of her son.;

[02:19.39]She has come to realize how much father and son now mean to each other;

[02:25.33]and she has no heart to upset their lives again.;

[02:29.86]In sorrow and in tears all she asks for is a last meet- ing with her son;

[02:37.15]before she goes out of their lives forever.;

[02:42.17]3.Problems Arising   from Living Apart;

[02:50.52]The Chinese house- hold registration system forbids permanent dwelling;

[02:57.22]without legal registration with the local public security units.;

[03:03.01]Yet many people leave their hometowns --;

[03:07.21]bringing with them their residence cards --;

[03:10.35]to get further education or to join the army,;

[03:14.55]or because they are transferred to jobs in other places.;

[03:19.95]The separation of married couples thereby occurs,;

[03:25.55]and it has become a growing concern in China;

[03:29.36]for the various problems it causes.;

[03:32.98]Separation can lead to family crisis or divorce.;

[03:39.20]Just as a society as a whole requires solidity,;

[03:44.61]a family demands unity and stability.;

[03:49.04]But this is exactly what separated couples tack --;

[03:53.72]as well as the happiness that comes from living together;

[03:58.94]As a result,some couples end up permanently separat- ed and divorced,;

[04:05.45]as emotional ties between husband and wife erode.;

[04:10.42]The damage is not confined to the couples alone.;

[04:15.78]The absence of normal family life can leave the child- ren ill-educated;

[04:22.10]and the aged uncared for,;

[04:24.85]which can contribute to the instability of the whole society;

[04:30.45]For those living apart (an estimation of 6 million),;

[04:36.14]the government gran- ts one month paid home leave every year to one spouse.;

[04:42.89]This equals more than 10 million lost work days,;

[04:47.43]the equivalent of 300,000 people not working at all each year.;

[04:54.43]In addition to the travel expenses,;

[04:57.85]this costs the government a total of 2.2 billion yuan a year.;

[05:04.22]Moreover,these "travellers" add to congestion;

[05:09.36]in the already over- loaded public transportation system.;

[05:14.35]To end the misery of living apart,;

[05:17.73]some couples seek solutions by "back-door" means,;

[05:22.36]by inviting officials to parties or presenting them with gifts.;

[05:28.25]While some succeed, most couples meet with frustration.;

[05:34.96]Of the ones who succeed,;

[05:37.66]some fail to find new jobs that match their skills and specialties.;

[05:44.08]Unremitting efforts have been made by the government;

[05:48.90]to ease the problems arising from living apart.;

[05:52.95]Yet,they cannot be solved completely. There are several reasons for this.;

[06:00.92]One obstacle involves job transfers.;

[06:05.64]Most work units are unwilling to accept administrative personnel,;

[06:11.63]and they do not wish to hand over the valuable members of their staff;

[06:16.74]to other units.;

[06:18.77]In addition,most separated spouses;

[06:22.92]who live in large cities;

[06:24.99]dislike moving to small cities or to the countryside,;

[06:29.87]and southerners do not want to go to the north.;

[06:34.45]For another thing, some enterprises have become highly money oriented,;

[06:41.45]demanding steep compensation for training fees;

[06:45.78]from those who want to quit their jobs.;

[06:48.73]In 1988,300 to 700 yuan was demanded,;

[06:55.20]but this fee has risen to 1,000 to 7,000 yuan this year.;

[07:01.95]Similarly,the fee for those who apply for a new post;

[07:07.16]grew from between 1,000 and 5,000 yuan last year;

[07:12.09]to between 7,000 and 13,000 yuan early this year,;

[07:17.59]and in some large cities,the fee runs as high as 40,000 yuan.;

[07:24.92]Job mobility should be encouraged and special consulta- tions;

[07:31.30]should be held for the purpose of exchanging employees;

[07:35.68]in different parts of the country.;

[07:38.53]Meanwhile,granting job transfers;

[07:42.53]should not be treated as a good profit-making deal,;

[07:46.63]and people who offer or accept bribes should be penalized.;

[07:54.21]Lesson 27 Is the Prospect of Growing Old a Bleak One?;

[08:04.29]Text The Prospect of Growing Old Is Horrifying;

[08:11.53]My father has an organic brain disease.;

[08:16.36]It's Parkinson's disease,;

[08:19.30]and in his case it has led to the addi- tional trauma of Pa- rkinsonian dementia.;

[08:26.54]He is in and out of reality.;

[08:29.82]At times,he is as clever as can be-;

[08:34.45]until he sees snakes or space stations or trucks in his room.;

[08:40.58]My mother and I together could no longer handle him at home.;

[08:46.32]He required physical assistance for every move;

[08:50.47]and his behavior became too unpredictable.;

[08:54.67]At home,he never slept and neither did we.;

[09:00.12]He also suffers from a narrowing of his spinal column,;

[09:05.23]which pinches the nerves in his back;

[09:08.18]and leaves him unable to find a painless position in bed.;

[09:13.10]We brought him to the hospital,where he stayed for seven weeks,;

[09:19.03]until its utilizat- ion review board decided he no longer needed hospital care;

[09:25.79]They kicked him out.;

[09:28.35]We put him in a nursing home, recommended as top of the line,;

[09:34.38]with one nursing aide for every 15 patients;

[09:38.77](if every-one shows up for work;

[09:41.61]My father cannot feed himself nor get to and from the bathroom.;

[09:48.42]One nurse's aide with 15 patients cannot attend to his needs.;

[09:55.41]So my mother spends seven to eight hours each day at the nursing home.;

[10:01.93]My father cries, yells and does all he knows to keep her there.;

[10:08.68]He thinks he is home and can't understand why she leaves him each evening.;

[10:15.29]He thinks she has other men.;

[10:18.29]He tells her she is boring a hole in his heart. She cries.;

[10:25.52]The nursing home costs $ 45,000 per year.;

[10:31.79]My father is lueky: Unlike most Amerieans,he has a decent union pension;

[10:40.00]But his pension, added to his Social Security payment,;

[10:45.79]puts him over the income eligibility level for Medieaid in Florida.;

[10:51.82]Not only is he disqualified from receiving Medicaid itself,;

[10:57.42]his insurance only pays for claims certified by Medicaid.;

[11:03.59]None of the diseases afflicting my father are fatal.;

[11:08.80]He is 69 years old, and both his parents lived to be 90.;

[11:15.41]My family could be spending $45,000 a year for the next 20 years.;

[11:22.94]It's money we don't have.My mother is heartsick.;

[11:29.21]They worked and saved and bought insurance all their lives;

[11:34.71]so that they could grow old in peace.;

[11:37.95]Now she doesn't know how she will live, let alone how to take care of him.;

[11:44.85]A lawyer suggested to my mother that she divorce my father.;

[11:50.59]Yet she is the one who feeds him,cleans him and loves him.;

[11:56.62]Now,after 48 years of marriage,;

[12:01.25]she is being counseled to divorce him;

[12:04.48]so she can keep some funds back from the nursing home.;

[12:08.78]We think about canceling his pension,;

[12:12.35]but then neither of them would have any income.;

[12:18.14]II. Read;

[12:24.36]Read the following passages.Underline the important view- points while reading;

[12:33.00]1.About Old Age;

[12:38.16]Day:Professor McKay,;

[12:40.96]can you tell me what you think your report on old people will achieve?;

[12:46.41]Mckay:We hope that it will help to cha- nge people's feelin- gs about old age.;

[12:52.54]The problem is that far too many of us believe that most old people are poor,;

[13:00.09]sick, lonely and unhappy.;

[13:03.30]As a result, we intend to find old people,as a group, unattractive.;

[13:10.78]And this is very dangerous for our society.;

[13:15.36]Day:But surely we  cannot escape the  fact;

[13:19.08]that many old people are lonely and many are sick.;

[13:23.62]Mckay:No,we can't.;

[13:25.79]But we must also remember that the proportion of such people;

[13:30.80]is no greater among the 60 to 70 age group than among the 50 to 60 age group.;

[13:38.91]Day:In other words,  there is no more  mental illness,  for example,;

[13:43.88]among the 60's to 70's than among the 50's to 60's?;

[13:49.62]Mckay:Right.And why  should there be?;

[13:53.19]Why should we expect people to suddenly change;

[13:56.95]when they reach their 60th or 65th birthday;

[14:01.01]any more than they did when they reached their 21st?;

[14:05.64]Now that the computer age has arrived in industry,;

[14:10.03]the normal age for retirement may be lowered to 60 or even 55.;

[14:16.55]Shall we then say that old age begins at 55?;

[14:21.42]Day:But one would  expect there to be  more physical  illness;

[14:25.46]among old people, surely?;

[14:28.18]Mekay:Why should one  expect this?;

[14:31.36]After all,those people who reach the age of 65 or 70 are the strong among us.;

[14:39.66]The weak die mainly in childhood,then in their 40's and 50's.;

[14:46.17]Furthermore,by the time people reach 60 or 65,;

[14:51.77]they have learnt how to look after themselves:;

[14:55.05]they keep warm, sleep regular hours, and eat sensibly.;

[15:01.18]Of course,some old people do suffer from physical illnesses,;

[15:06.82]but these do not suddenly develop on their 65th birthday.;

[15:11.89]People who are healthy in middle age tend to be healthy in old age,;

[15:17.73]just as one would expect.;

[15:20.48]Day:Are people's  mental abilities  affected by old  age?;

[15:26.12]Mckay:Certain  changes do take  place as we grow  older,;

[15:30.61]but this happens throughout life.;

[15:33.84]These changes are very gradual,;

[15:36.84]and happen at different times with different people.;

[15:41.08]But,in general,if you know a person well in his middle age;

[15:47.31]and have seen how he deals with events and problems,;

[15:51.36]you will easily recognize him in old age.;

[15:55.41]Day:So that someone  who enjoys new  experiences--  travel,education,;

[16:01.59]and so on -- in his middle years will usually continue to do so into old age?;

[16:09.07]Mckay:Exactly.;

[16:10.71]We have carried out some very interest- ing experiments;

[16:15.39]in which a group of people aged 60 to 70;

[16:19.39]and a group aged 30 to 40 had to learn the same things.;

[16:24.94]For example,in one experiment they began learning a new language.;

[16:31.84]In another,they learnt how to use three machines;

[16:36.33]in order to make a piece of furniture.;

[16:39.37]The first thing we discovered;

[16:42.41]was that the young group tended to be quicker at learning than the old group.;

[16:47.86]However,although the old group took longer to learn,;

[16:53.07]eventually they performed as well as the young group.;

[16:57.46]And when we tested the two groups several weeks later,;

[17:02.19]there was again no difference between the two groups.;

[17:06.53]Day:That's very  interesting indeed.  What else did your  experiments show?;

[17:13.00]Mckay:Well,one group  of old people;

[17:16.43]agreed to attend evening classes for a year to study Eng- lish and Mathematics;

[17:23.02]In fact,most of this group became so interested in their studies;

[17:29.62]that they continued them for another year.;

[17:32.85]Anyway,we discovered that they did best in the English classes,;

[17:38.59]and that most of them steadily improved their abi- lity to communicate;

[17:43.80]in both the written and the spoken language.;

[17:47.56]This didn't really surprise us because other studies have had similar results.;

[17:54.71]And,of course,you can think of a dozen writers;

[17:59.55]who eontinued working almost to the day they died.;

[18:03.87]Day:What about the  group who studied  Mathematics?;

[18:07.83]Mekay:Well,that's a  different story.;

[18:10.87]There seems to be no doubt;

[18:12.84]that people find maths more diffieult as they grow older.;

[18:17.09]Though why this is so,I cannot say.;

[18:20.86]Day:Perhaps cheap  pocket computers  will solve this  problem.;

[18:25.25]Mekay:I think you're  right.In fact,I'm  sure that you are.;

[18:31.47]2.The Oldest People   in the World;

[18:37.70]Thousands of people in the world are a hundred years old -- or more.;

[18:44.69]There are about two thousand centenari- ans in Britain alone,;

[18:49.90]and certain parts of the world are famous for the long lives of their inhabitants;

[18:55.84]Georgia in the Soviet Union, the Vilaeamba Valley in Ecuador,;

[19:01.49]and the home of the Hunzas in the Himalayas.;

[19:05.68]But the oldest person in the world is Japanese.;

[19:10.22]In 1983 Mr.Shigechiyo Izumi, aged 118,;

[19:17.02]held first place in The Guinness Book of Records.;

[19:20.64]He was born on June 29th,1865;

[19:25.46]and beat the previous record on his 114th birthday.;

[19:30.87]Before Mr.Izumi broke the record,;

[19:34.34]the longest life was that of an American woman,Mrs.Eveline Filkins.;

[19:40.76]She lived for 113 years, 214 days, from 1815 to 1928.;

[19:50.99]During her lifetime she saw the invention of the first camera,;

[19:56.59]the first telephone, the first car, the first aeroplane and the first television;

[20:04.50]There are official papers to prove the date of birth;

[20:08.70]of Mr.Izumi and Mrs. Filkins,;

[20:11.79]but many other people claim to be as old or older.;

[20:17.53]3.The Secret of a   Long Life;

[20:24.04]Why do so many people live to a healthy old age;

[20:28.78]in certain parts of the world? What is the secret of their long lives?;

[20:35.53]Three things seem to be very important:;

[20:40.01]fresh air,fresh food and a simple way of life.;

[20:46.14]People work near their homes in the clean mountain air;

[20:51.06]instead of travelling long distances to work by bus,car or train.;

[20:57.48]They do not sit all day in busy offices or factories,;

[21:02.93]but work hard outdoors in the fields.;

[21:06.89]They take more exercise and eat less food;

[21:11.29]than people in the cities of the West.;

[21:14.42]For years the Hunzas of the Himalayas did not need policemen, lawyers or doctors.;

[21:23.10]There was no crime, no divorce and not much illness in thier soeiety.;

[21:30.63]They were a happy, peaceful people,;

[21:34.10]famous all over India for their long, healthy lives.;

[21:39.75]4.How Long Will You   Live?;

[21:45.83]Do you want to live to be a hundred? Here are some rules for suceess.;

[21:53.35]First,choose your parents and grand- parents carefully.;

[21:58.76]If they lived to a good old age,so will you.;

[22:03.68]Secondly,live in the right plaee.;

[22:08.17]If you were not born in Georgia or Ecuador,;

[22:12.41]there are other healthy places in the world, like East Anglia in Britain.;

[22:18.69]Thirdly,choose the right kind of job.;

[22:22.74]Doctors,dentists and bus-drivers die young.;

[22:27.37]Farmers,priests and orchestral conductors live much longer.;

[22:33.88]If you are in the wrong kind of job, you can still impro- ve your way of life.;

[22:40.64]An old man in the Caueasus was talking about his past life.;

[22:47.59]"I was young then," he said, as he described his 87th year.;

[22:53.81]His secret and his adviee was:"Think young and stay young.";

[23:00.13]An old woman from Missouri,USA,gives this advice.;

[23:05.78]"Drink a little. whisky and some warm beer every day";

[23:10.94]An English lady centenarian just said, "Take a cold bath every morning.";

[23:18.61]On her 102nd birthday Miss Julia Thompson;

[23:23.63]explained the secret of her long and happy life.;

[23:27.59]"Never have anything to do with men," she said.;

[23:32.12]The shortest,simpl- est piece of advice came from Mr.Jim Chapman,aged 103".;

[23:40.52]Just keep breathing" he told reporters.;

[23:44.81]What about Mr.Izumi" I watch TV," he said "and I never worry.";

[23:53.35]But do you really want to be a hundred?;

[23:56.97]What's wrong with the old saying,"Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die?;

[24:05.42]5.Colleges for Old   People Blooming;

[24:12.51]China has set up 916 colleges for senior citizens,;

[24:19.17]educating about 200,000 people in the past five years.;

[24:25.78]The colleges offer more than 60 courses ranging from calligraphy,;

[24:32.29]painting and gardening to qigong, massage and foreign languages.;

[24:39.24]The students are mainly retired government functionaries but,;

[24:45.61]according to an official from the Association of Coll- eges for the Elderly;

[24:50.77]the colleges are trying to serve sen- ior citizens from the whole of society;

[24:56.75]Some institutions are already giving courses in gardening;

[25:01.87]crop planting and animal husbandry to old people from the countryside.;

[25:08.67]According to a poll conducted by the Harbin senior citizens college;

[25:14.80]in China's north- eastern province of Heilongjiang,;

[25:18.95]of its first 200 graduates,;

[25:22.38]71 percent had recovered from chro- nic diseases since their registration,;

[25:28.50]and 85 percent were "very confident" that they will live longer.;

[25:35.07]Many of the students are again working for the society;

[25:39.94]instead of being just consumers.;

[25:43.17]During each semester about 60 percent of the students of the college;

[25:49.35]serve society while studying.;

[25:53.50]6.The Fulfilment of   One's Dreams;

[26:00.30]It's only natural to look forward to something better. We do it all our lives.;

[26:08.41]Things may never really improve,but at least we always hope they will.;

[26:16.22]It is one of life's great ironies that the longer we live,;

[26:21.87]the less there is to look forward to.;

[26:25.01]Retirement may bring with it the fulfilment of a lifetime's dreams.;

[26:31.57]At last there will be time to do all the things we never had time for.;

[26:37.70]From then on,the dream fades.;

[26:42.13]Unless circumstances are exceptional,;

[26:45.95]the prospect of growing really old is horrifying.;

[26:50.43]Who wants to live long enough to become a doddering wreck?;

[26:55.36]Who wants to revert to that most dreaded of all human conditions,;

[27:00.77]a second childhood?;