英语口语教程(高级) UNIT 22

[00:01.00]Lesson 22 II. Read 5. Police Are Pals to Convicts;

[00:05.35]It doesn't look like a jail at first sight.;

[00:10.37]Situated in Jixi County in remote northeastern Jilin Province,;

[00:16.62]this prison has neither high walls;

[00:19.89]nor electrified barbed wire to prevent prisoners from escaping.;

[00:25.39]A small wooden fence around the compound;

[00:29.60]looks like those around farmers' fields.;

[00:33.30]Only the word "Cordon" printed on the planks;

[00:37.47]suggest something unusual about the place,;

[00:41.73]Since 1986 none of the several hundred male prisoners jailed here;

[00:49.07]has tried to escape.;

[00:51.63]And those who have finished their sentences seldom return to crime.;

[00:58.08]The recidivism rate in only 0.5 per cent,;

[01:03.38]much lower than the 3 per cent common in other Chinese prisons.;

[01:09.54]Perhaps even more amazing is 80 per cent of the released inmates;

[01:16.08]have become friends of their guards.;

[01:19.72]Some ex-convicts have travelled many miles back to the prison;

[01:25.60]to see Wang Hongwu, the head of the security police.;

[01:30.62]One sent a bull of fine breed;

[01:34.17]when he heard that a bull was badly needed in the prison.;

[01:39.01]It was quite a different story when the prison was first set up years ago.;

[01:45.59]The prisoners told the line during the day but were hellions at night,;

[01:51.80]stealing chickens from the farmers' cottages;

[01:55.02]and causing all sorts of mischief.;

[01:58.48]These acts;

[02:00.37]precipitated many letters of complaint to the authorities;

[02:04.78]from residents who had become vicitms.;

[02:08.57]Then Wang stepped in.That was in 1984.;

[02:14.73]To the prisoners' surprise,the 40-year-old security veteran;

[02:21.17]used talk rather than punishment to restore discipline.;

[02:26.76]Wang finally got to know most of the prisoners and their concerns.;

[02:32.82]Many were afraid that their spouses would divorce them;

[02:37.18]and their children would be left homeless.;

[02:40.69]Many worried about their work and life after being released.;

[02:47.08]Wang set out policies to reform his prisoners.;

[02:52.67]He developed education programmes;

[02:55.99]tailor-made to each prisoner's specific case and family background.;

[03:01.77]The prisoners were moved by his sincerity.;

[03:06.22]A larcener was frightened;

[03:08.97]when his wife asked for a divorce the first time she came to see him.;

[03:14.51]"This is the last time we see each other," the wife said.;

[03:19.49]"I sent the divorce papers to the court yesterday.;

[03:24.18]I will return with our son to my hometown in Shandong Province tomorrow.";

[03:30.81]Angry and disappointed,;

[03:34.17]the larcener pretended to be indifferent;

[03:37.35]and said he agreed and that it didn't matter to him what she did.;

[03:43.08]"I will find a better girl if I'm released,"he told his sobbing wife.;

[03:50.14]When she left he burst into tears.;

[03:54.92]Wang came to his cell and asked why he cried;

[03:59.23]since he had agreed to the divorce.;

[04:02.45]The larcener confessed he could not live without his wife;;

[04:07.19]he simply did not want to lose face before the other prisoners.;

[04:12.83]Later on,Wang got to know that the couple loved each other deeply.;

[04:19.32]The wife wanted a divorce;

[04:22.16]because she felt embarrassed when she met his friends;

[04:25.67]and was looked down upon by her mother- in-law since he was put in jail.;

[04:31.40]Wang believed the man's reform would be harder to achieve;

[04:36.33]if solution to this dilemma wasn't found.;

[04:40.83]He wrote to the larcener's brother-in-law, his wife's brother;

[04:45.99]who was a middle-school teacher in Shandong Province,;

[04:49.92]urging him to persuade his sister to change her mind.;

[04:55.47]Ten days later, Wang received a letter from Wang's brother-in-law,;

[05:01.29]saying that he would try to persuade his sister;

[05:04.61]into taking back the divorce papers and waiting for her husband.;

[05:10.44]Half a month later, the wife came with her son to the prison;

[05:15.74]to see her busband and express her gratitude to Wang Hongwu.;

[05:21.57]The larcener pledged to reform;

[05:24.51]and Wang said he would try to get him as early a release as possible.;

[05:30.76]6. Second Chance: a Love Story;

[05:37.72]Chen Surong and Zeng Xiangjie are factory workers;

[05:43.12]in Shuicheng City, Guizhou Province.;

[05:46.96]They seem like any other young Chinese couple:;

[05:51.22]they have a two-year-old daughter,;

[05:54.07]live in a two,room apartment and lead a quiet and uneventful life.;

[06:00.32]It wasn't always this way.;

[06:03.59]Chen Surong was a worker at a plastics factory in Yunnan Province;

[06:09.09]when she met Zeng Xiangjie,;

[06:11.69]who worked at a Guizhou cement factory,on a train in 1975.;

[06:18.13]They fell in love at first sight.;

[06:21.73]After two years of correspondence and occasional visits,;

[06:26.38]the two decided to get married.;

[06:29.74]All the arrangements were made and just before Spring Festival in 1977,;

[06:36.89]Chen waited for her fiance to come to Yunnan for the wedding.;

[06:42.20]He never showed up, nor was there a letter of explanation.;

[06:47.60]Ten days later Chen decided she must go to Guizhou;

[06:52.91]and find out what had happened.;

[06:55.51]It was snowing heavily;

[06:57.49]when she arrived at the Guizhou train station;

[07:00.91]and the roads were slushy as she trudged off to the cement factory.;

[07:06.93]She found Zeng's dormitory and rapped on the door of his room.;

[07:12.28]"Xiangjie, Xiangjie...". she called out,but there was no answer.;

[07:17.49]Finally,she found a key and unlocked the door:;

[07:22.09]the room was empty, messy and there was no quilt on his bed.;

[07:28.01]Confused,Chen stopped some passersby and asked them about Zeng.;

[07:34.78]They had never heard of him,they told her.;

[07:38.20]At last,she found an old worker, who said:;

[07:42.36]"You'd better go to the factory security department.";

[07:46.06]The young woman ran to the security department of the factory,;

[07:50.89]and was told that Zeng had been detained;

[07:54.59]because "he had been stealing factory property.";

[07:58.61]Chen couldn't believe her ears. But then she saw for herself.;

[08:04.53]In the small detention room,;

[08:07.00]Zeng Xiaugjie squatted behind a locked door,and she knew it was true.;

[08:13.54]"Xiangjie,what's the matter with you?" she asked him.;

[08:17.85]He did not raise his eyes.He covered his face with his hands and wept.;

[08:23.91]"Come on,what did you do?"Chen insisted.;

[08:27.75]"l'm sorry... I deceived you... I am a guilty man, I'm ruined...";

[08:33.34]Zeng mumbled as tears rolled down his cheeks.;

[08:37.51]Before she realized it,Chen was already out on the street,;

[08:42.53]running madly for the railway station.;

[08:45.89]For quite a while afterwards,she could not sleep or eat.;

[08:51.34]When she saw a letter from Zeng,;

[08:54.14]she threw it away, and then she burst into tears.;

[08:58.78]It seemed to be an endless ordeal.;

[09:02.28]But as she calmed down,Chen found she could not forget Zeng,;

[09:06.93]or at least the man she knew.;

[09:09.77]Hadn't he been so kind and helpful at Guiyang train station?;

[09:15.55]When he came to visit her,didn't he always bring whatever she needed?;

[09:21.61]Hadn't he seemed so smart and so considerate?;

[09:26.45]Finally,Chen felt she must not lose Zeng;

[09:31.13]but help him make a new beginning;

[09:33.69]instead of severing the tie between them completely.;

[09:37.81]She retrieved the letter she had thrown away.It was a short letter:;

[09:44.54]"Surong,I'm sorry, for I have deceived you. Can you forgive me?;

[09:50.56]I will start anew and be an honest man.You take my word for it...";

[09:56.43]The next day,Chen was back at the cement factory.;

[10:01.26]She met Xiangjie and told him,;

[10:04.58]"A young man should follow the right road,;

[10:07.71]otherwise,he will never find true love.";

[10:11.50]Zeng was released, but he was obsessed;

[10:15.43]and worried that Chen might leave him at any time,;

[10:19.41]or that he might be sent back to the public security bureau again.;

[10:24.48]He could not concentrate on his work;

[10:27.65]and as a result, broke three of his ribs in an accident.;

[10:32.86]His factory leaders were very concerned about Zeng's injury,;

[10:38.03]and often went to the hospital to see him.;

[10:41.68]They also sent four young workers to attend to him in turn.;

[10:46.74]During the time he was in the hospital,;

[10:49.82]Chen was at his bedside holding his hand.;

[10:53.80]Zeng was moved to tears."I thought I was ruined," he said,;

[10:59.25]"but now with your help and concern,;

[11:01.95]I am confident that I can be an honest and good man again.;

[11:06.26]When I recover,I'll work very hard to repay your kindness.";

[11:11.76]Soon afterwards, Zeng recovered fully and as he had promised,;

[11:17.39]came out of the hospital a different man.;

[11:20.85]He was always the first to start work in his workshop and the last to leave.;

[11:27.48]For two years,he never asked for leave;

[11:31.18]and was awarded the title of an "advanced worker.";

[11:35.82]In 1981,Zeng and Chen were finally married.;

[11:41.22]Zeng's factory gave the newlyweds a two-room apartment,;

[11:45.96]and Chen managed to transfer to her husband's factory.;

[11:51.27]Lesson 23 Is It Necessary to Keep the "Iron Rice Bowl"?;

[12:00.17]Text Living Without the "Iron Rice Bowl";

[12:06.28]Since 1987,reform of the Chinese labour system;

[12:12.73]has stepped out of the laboratory and into the real world of employment.;

[12:18.89]For many,the "iron rice bowl" no longer exists.;

[12:24.62]The "iron rice bowls" --;

[12:27.18]a Chinese euphemism for government- assigned secure jobs;

[12:31.72]that had been cherished for more than 30 years -- were shattered.;

[12:37.41]No accurate figure was available on how many workers have been laid off so far;

[12:44.94]But scattered reports offer a glimpse of the scope of unemployment.;

[12:51.62]In 1987,State-owned enterprises in Hubei Province laid off 14,000 workers.;

[13:01.85]Last summer, 30,000 people in Shanghai;

[13:06.59]were receiving unemployment pensions.;

[13:10.43]The inauguration of a labour market at the Shenyang Steel Pipes Factory;

[13:16.82]in Liaoning Province went unheralde ---;

[13:20.23]no firecrackers, no marching  band, no bursts df applause.;

[13:26.92]Instead of gaiety, weeping was heard at the perimeter of a small crowd;

[13:32.84]of about 50 people witnessing the event.;

[13:36.91]Except for a few officials sitting at tables on the platform,;

[13:42.22]everyone at the meeting had been laid off;

[13:45.34]at the end of a work-optimization programme.;

[13:48.94]They included labourers,cadres, technicians,;

[13:54.15]Communist Party members,and even university graduates.;

[13:59.89]The saddest were the eight ex-cadres who lost their executive jobs.;

[14:06.42]Zhao Yusheng,46,;

[14:10.12]was Party secretary of the No 2 workshops of the factory;

[14:14.76]before he was laid off.;

[14:17.04]He found another job on the labour market,loading and unloading trucks.;

[14:24.14]He once served in the army and participated in battles.;

[14:29.21]But this turn of events made him cry.;

[14:33.47]"For more than 20 years;

[14:36.03]I had been doing what the Party asked me to do," he said,;

[14:40.58]"Now on the labour market I find I do not have any skills.;

[14:45.84]I can only become a truck loader.";

[14:49.68]For more than 30 years,unemployment in China has been regarded as an evil;

[14:57.02]which labour planners have tried to avoid at all costs.;

[15:02.56]The planners were once quite complacent about the solution;

[15:07.68]-- the "iron rice bowl".;

[15:09.81]They were confident that a policy of "low salaries and broad employment";

[15:16.30]would end unemployment in China forever.;

[15:20.28]But the "iron rice bowl" system was a dead-end.;

[15:24.88]Reluctantly,the planners looked for another way.;

[15:29.90]And even though it would cause pain and difficulties,;

[15:34.40]they recommended a system that would permit laying off incompetent staff.;

[15:40.75]That,they felt, would increase efficiency;

[15:45.25]and give ailing enterprises a new lease on life.;

[15:50.41]For workers affected lay-off is a bitter pill;

[15:55.67]which some simply cannot swallow.;

[15:59.08]For more than 30 years,Chinese people have felt totally secure in their jobs;

[16:06.57]Now they are facing the possibility of losing their jobs,;

[16:11.54]and many have reacted with panic and horror.;

[16:15.94]Fu Gangzhan,director of the Economic Development Research Institute;

[16:22.29]of the East China University of Chemistry;

[16:25.66]has studied China's labour Problems for many years.;

[16:30.77]Two summers ago Fu and his colleagues;

[16:34.75]conducted a survey of several thousand workers;

[16:38.26]and entrepreneurs in Shanghai.;

[16:41.34]Their purpose was to unveil the reality of unemployment in China.;

[16:48.11]During the same period,economics professor Tao Zhaipu;

[16:53.75]of the Zhongshan University in Guangzhou;

[16:56.97]was also studying the employment actualities in China.;

[17:02.28]They came to the same conclusion almost at the same time:;

[17:07.39]unemployment exists and has always existed in China.;

[17:13.74]They found that there was a core of unemployed;

[17:18.05]numbering between 15 million to 25 million people in the country.;

[17:23.64]This range is almost the same as the entire populations;

[17:29.14]of Australia and Canada.;

[17:32.31]Unlike unemployment in developed countries,;

[17:36.72]unemployment in China is generally hidden from view.;

[17:41.55]The State spends 50 to 60 billion yuan ($16.5 to $18.9 billion);

[17:46.29]each year in the form of salaries, bonuses;

[17:51.17]and other benefits supporting "iron rice bowl" workers;

[17:55.81]who never actually earn a penny for their employers.;

[18:00.31]This expenditure accounts for about 50 per cent of the profits;

[18:05.52]handed over to the State by all the enterprises in the country.;

[18:11.96]II. Read Read the following passages.;

[18:19.69]Underline the important viewpoints while reading.;

[18:24.56]1.Breaking the "Iron Rice Bowl";

[18:30.39]In his effort to repair the damage of 30 lost years,;

[18:35.65]Deng Xiaoping is abolishing what is called the "iron rice bowl";

[18:41.05]or "big-pot system", which guaranteed;

[18:45.36]that workers and peasants shared equal;

[18:49.39]rewards regardless of their contribution.;

[18:52.75]In its place,he has introduced "production responsibility",;

[18:58.63]which links remuneration to individual effort.;

[19:03.70]The dramatic impact of these reforms is most evident in rural China,;

[19:10.23]home to more than 80 percent of the country's 1.1 billion people.;

[19:16.96]A visit to a township outside Wuxi tells the story.;

[19:23.45]The commune there, like most throughout China,has been dismantled.;

[19:29.89]InStead of being assigned to jobs by a team leader;

[19:34.20]and drawing equal shares from a common revenue pool as in the past,;

[19:39.46]the peasants contract to work a piece of land;

[19:43.63]and to deliver a quota of products to the state at a fixed price.;

[19:49.74]What they produce above the quota;

[19:52.87]they may keep for their own consumption or sell in a free market.;

[19:58.32]They also are encouraged to cultivate bigger private plots;

[20:03.48]and to engage in what are known as "sideline activities";

[20:08.31]to augment their incomes.;

[20:11.16]The result is that the average household income;

[20:15.42]has increased from about $225 a year to $350--400.;

[20:24.56]The most enterprising can earn many times that sum.;

[20:30.01]Lauded in the Chinese press as a model for all to follow;

[20:35.36]is the chicken farmer who went into the egg business;

[20:39.11]and amassed a fortune sufficient;

[20:42.19]to enable her to buy China's first privately owned car,;

[20:46.92]as well as two trucks for her enterprise.;

[20:51.19]Everywhere the evidence of rising affluence;

[20:55.31]-- in Chinese terms --is visible.;

[20:58.39]In one town I visited,;

[21:00.95]where hardly a new house had been built for 30 years,;

[21:05.26]nearly 90 percent of the families have now moved into new accommodations.;

[21:11.84]Most homes have radio-cassette players,;

[21:15.96]and a majority have television sets acquired in the past year or so.;

[21:22.50]Less than five years ago,such luxuries were unavailable.;

[21:28.56]In Nanjing,once the capital of the Kuomintang government,;

[21:33.87]a visitor sees another aspect of the personal incentive system.;

[21:39.60]Business booms in a free market;

[21:42.78]of hundreds of individually operated stalls;

[21:46.14]lining several narrow streets.;

[21:48.94]On sale are vegetables, fruits,;

[21:52.73]chickens and live fish and eels.Buyers are many.;

[21:59.03]Peasant merchants charge what the market will bear;

[22:03.29]and keep what money they get.;

[22:06.37]Are Communist leaders worried;

[22:09.59]that all of this will lead to the emergence;

[22:12.34]of a new class of rich peasants?;

[22:15.28]They insist they are not.;

[22:18.02]"Some peasants prosper early, others will prosper later,";

[22:23.19]says one official.;

[22:25.32]Deng puts it as a trickle-down theory:;

[22:29.44]"Make some people rich first so as to lead all people to wealth.";

[22:35.69]2.How It Feels to Be Out of Job;

[22:41.33]Xu Peihua,26,was fired from her job;

[22:46.40]at the Shanghai No 5 Silk Knitting Factory;

[22:50.19]in January 1987 after she became ill.;

[22:55.40]The community committee where Xu lived;

[22:58.95]was supposed to compensate her;

[23:01.51]for 70 per cent of her medical expenses;

[23:05.11]for one year after she left the factory.;

[23:08.57]But after a year, her illness got worse.;

[23:13.36]A Shanghai hospital refused to take her in;

[23:18.24]unless she paid a deposit of 10,000 yuan.;

[23:22.74]After much negotiation with the hospital,;

[23:26.34]she was taken in, after paying 5,000 yuan deposit.;

[23:32.02]Her problems were not over.;

[23:35.20]Her unemployment insurance expired;

[23:38.65]and so she no longer received her 40-yuan monthly pension.;

[23:43.91]She had nowhere to go to get compensation for her hospital fees.;

[23:49.69]Xu needed money urgently,but no institutions would help.;

[23:55.80]Xu's former employer the Shanghai No 5 Silk Knitting Factory,;

[24:02.48]said that their responsibility for her ended once she was fired.;

[24:07.79]So they refused to give a penny.;

[24:11.44]The Shanghai Labour Service Company,;

[24:14.99]which has an unemployment pension fund;

[24:17.60]of 20 million yuan at its disposal,;

[24:21.01]could not help with the medical bills;

[24:23.85]because Xu was no longer eligible for a pension.;

[24:28.26]Neither could she receive assistance;

[24:31.86]from the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs.;

[24:36.21]Their welfare coverage extends to divorced people,;

[24:40.95]single seniors, homeless youngsters,;

[24:44.79]relativesof martyrs and soldiers in service,and disabled people.;

[24:50.81]Xu did not fall into any of these categories,so she did not qualify.;

[24:58.20]But not all jobless people share Xu's fate.;

[25:02.51]A window may shut, but a door may open.;

[25:07.53]A number of unemployed people;

[25:10.51]have made a successful transition from "iron rice bowl";

[25:14.78]to working on their own or for private business.;

[25:19.47]Li Chunying of the Shenyang Steel Pipes Factory;

[25:23.73]was one of the few university graduates who lost her job.;

[25:28.56]She had only worked there a year after she had graduated.;

[25:34.01]Before the reality of unemployment happened to her,;

[25:38.56]she had only heard about such situations;

[25:42.06]in countries like the United States or Japan;

[25:46.28]where some university graduates,;

[25:49.12]even a few with master's or doctor's degrees, could not find a job;

[25:55.42]In China,university graduates were highly sought by enterprises.;

[26:02.77]For four months,Li rode around Shenyang on her bike job-hunting.;

[26:09.59]She wrote three examinations given by potential employers;

[26:14.61]and at last got a job at a research institute;

[26:18.49]that urgently needed translators.;

[26:21.48]It was a job she had long wanted and now was very happy to get.;

[26:27.59]As Li's case shows, losing a job doesn't necessarily mean bad luck.;

[26:34.93]It may even bring a better,more satisfying job.;

[26:40.66]3.Job Changing Becomes a Fashion;

[26:47.25]It used to be quite an embarrassing thing in China;

[26:52.08]for a person to be dismissed by his or her employer.;

[26:57.20]But things are different now.;

[27:00.18]Take Beijing as an example.;

[27:03.31]Many people now seek the opportunity to be sacked.;

[27:07.90]Last year,some 14,000 people succeeded in leaving their work places;

[27:15.06]by resigning or having their employers dismiss them.;

[27:19.98]Many of them were the backbone of their enterprises,;

[27:24.58]including skilled workers;

[27:27.09]and college graduates just assigned to their work places.;

[27:32.35]Enterprise leaders hold;

[27:35.52]that many things account for the changing of jobs.;

[27:39.50]Some people are not content with the situation in their work units;;

[27:45.19]some are attracted by the higher income of self-employed workers;

[27:50.97]and those who work for foreign interest-involved businesses;

[27:56.56]A woman used to work for a commerce college as a teacher in Beijing,;

[28:02.95]but she found it more interesting;

[28:05.89]to work for a corporation as an office worker.;

[28:09.87]She said: "Satisfaction in my career is what I want.";

[28:15.70]Not all of those who left their work units find new jobs instantly.;

[28:22.23]They become frequent visitors to the labour market in the capital.;

[28:27.59]Some are lucky and are well received, but some are not,;

[28:32.99]especially those who do not have special professional skills.;