Oral Workshop: Discussion Lesson28-30 ;
Lesson 28 ;
Text B ;
Mum's first attempt at match-making ended in dismal failure. ;
People say as a woman approaches middle age, ;
she interests herself in young people's love affairs and likes match-making. ;
If this is true, ;
I hope this first failure would discourage Mum from acquiring ;
such an interest. ;
I really don't know why she should have gone to such lengths ;
to try to bring those two young people together. ;
It was a fruitless and thankless job, ;
doomed from the start ;
because both parties put impossible demands on the opposite side. ;
The man,Xiao Liu, is about thirty and works in Mum's office, ;
apparently a very promising young man with an M.A.degree. ;
Because he is very choosy he has never been able to find a wife ;
and is beginning to get worried as he will soon be over thirty. ;
The girl works in Dad's office and is twenty-eight. ;
She is also a college graduate and very good at her work. ;
She is quite pretty and has a very strong character. ;
She too has not been able to find a husband because she is too choosy. ;
Mum had thought innocently that however choosy they might have been, ;
they would surely be satisfied this time. ;
So she invited them over to meet in our house. ;
She even went to the trouble of cooking them a delicious dinner. ;
But Mum's pains were not rewarded. ;
I don't know how they appreciated Mum's dinner, ;
but they certainly didn't appreciate each other. ;
Xiao Wu could only meet two of Xiao Liu's numerous demands. ;
she is pretty and she has a college degree. ;
But besides that he also wants the girl to be under twenty-five, ;
to be gentle and docile, a perfect housewife. ;
He thought Xiao Wu had too strong a character ;
and that he wouldn't be able to"control her". ;
On the other hand he fared even worse in Xiao Wu's eyes, ;
having met only one of her demands. ;
He is a post-graduate student which is one of her prerequisites for a future husband, ;
and this seems to be the only thing in his favour. ;
She wants her future husband to be an overseas Chinese, ;
or at least to have relatives overseas, so that she could go abroad someday. ;
Also she wants the man to be around 1.75m in height ;
and Xiao Liu is only 1.68m.I've heard people say that nowadays, ;
girls consider any young man under1.7m as a semi-handicapped! ;
Thank God,I'm already 1.73m and with any luck I can grow another 5cm- ;
a most respectable height.But I don't have any relatives abroad though! ;
Mum was most annoyed,and put all the blame on the girl. ;
"What more does she want? ;
She should realize that she's already 28 ;
and she'll never find such an eligible young an again." ;
Mum never mentioned a word about Xiao Liu's own objections ;
"Who told you to help such an arrogant young man? ;
Xiao Wu is hundred times better than he is. ;
Any sensible young man would have jumped at the chance." ;
"Jump at the chance! I bet you wish you could jump at the chance yourself!" ;
Dad didn't know whether to laugh or to be angry. ;
Additional Information ;
A 50-year-old woman could not help crying when she heard a story ;
written by her husband ver the radio, ;
recalling the early days of their marriage ;
The story by Shen Lijun, ;
a senior lecturer at the Commercial School in this capital of Hunan Province, ;
depicted how he,then a college graduate, met and married his wife,Long Huilan, ;
when he was labelled a right-winger ;
and forced to work in a neingbourhood factory in the 1960s. ;
Shen said, "In those days,I dared not fall in love with any girls ;
because of my inferior olitical status, ;
and married the first girl who was willing. ;
"The couple confessed they did have differences of interests. ;
After Shen became a lecturer, ;
most of his visitors were intellectusla, Long said. ;
"After serving them a cup of tea, I had nothing to say and sat aside. ;
Because of their cultural background, ;
I could not get a word in edgeways during the chats. ;
By and by,I came to see a gap between us."According to Shen, ;
he and his wife also had different ways to teach their children. ;
"I did not like the way she treated our children: ;
spoiling them and then eating them if they did not study well or listen to her. ;
"But whenever I come across contradictions with my wife in daily life," ;
Shen explained,"I like to recall those days of hardship we shared together, ;
and this has become a spiritual support to us. ;
"Shen is a typical example among the middle-aged people in China, ;
an official of the Changsha City Rodis said. ;
The radio has opened a special programme to help middle-aged couples ;
deepen their love by reviewing the past and exchanging experiences. ;
The programme has become popular with listeners ;
and has received hundreds of letters from people from all walks of life. ;
He Yingcai,a judge of the Human Provincial Higher People's Court, ;
said middle-aged couples account for ;
one third of those marride in the province. ;
Traditionally, the marriage of young people was arranged by their parents ;
and couples paid more attention ot each other's family background ;
and political frriliation than their own feelings. ;
As a result, many couples have no feelings for each other, ;
though they have been married for years. ;
According to statistics, ;
about one quarter of the 27,000 coupoes divorced last year were middle-aged. ;
Rong Xiuqin, an official of the Hunan Provincial Woen's Federation, ;
said although the divorce rate among middle-aged people ;
is lower than among people of other ages, ;
this does not mean that their faily lives are harmonious. ;
For the sake of their choldren,many people try to make the best of it. ;
"It is our duty to help them from harmonius familes ;
because social stability depends on the stability of families,"she said. ;
Tang Xiying, a sociologist specializing in marriage and women, ;
noted that Chinese families may not be formed on the basis of feelings, ;
but feelings for each other are the key to stabilizing a family. ;
Lesson 29 ;
The Voices of Time Text A ;
Time talks.It speaks more plainly than words. ;
Time communicates in many ways. ;
Consider the different parts of the day,for example. ;
The time of the day when something is done ;
can give a special meaning to the event. ;
Factory managers in the United States fully realize the importance ;
of an announcement made during the middle of the morning or afternoon ;
that takes everyone away from his work. ;
Whenever they want to make an important announcement, they ask: ;
"When shall we let them know?" In the United States, ;
it is not customary to telephone someone very early in the morning. ;
If you telephone him early in the day, while he is shaving or having breakfast, ;
the time of the call shows that the matter is very important ;
and requires immediate attention. ;
The same meaning is attached to telephone call after 11.00P.M. ;
If someone receives a call during sleeping hours, ;
he assumes it is a matter of life or death. ;
The time chosen for the call communicates its importance. ;
In social life,time plays a very important part. ;
In the United States,guests tend to feel they are not highly regarded ;
if the invitation to a dinner party is extended only three or four days ;
before the party date. ;
But this is not true in all countries. ;
In other areas of the world,it may be considered ;
foolish to make an appointment too far in advance ;
because plans which are made for a date ;
more than a week away tend to be forgotten. ;
The meanings of time differ in different parts of the world. ;
Thus, misunderstanding arise between people from cultures ;
that treat time differently. ;
Promptness is valued highly in American life,for example. ;
If people are not prompt, ;
they may be regarded as impolite or not fully responsible. In the U.S., ;
no one would think of keeping a business associate waiting for an hour, ;
it would be too impolite.When equals meet, ;
a person who is five minutes late will say a few words of explanation, ;
though perhaps he may not complete the sentence. ;
Americans look ahead and are concerned almost entirely with the future. ;
The American idea of the future is limited,however. ;
It is the foreseeable future and not the future of the South Asian, ;
which may involve centuries. ;
Someone has said of the South Asian idea of time: ;
"Time is like a museum with endless halls and rooms. You,the viewer, ;
are walking through the museum in the dark, ;
holding a light to each scene as you pass it. ;
God is in charge of the museum and only he knows all that is in it. ;
One lifetime represents one room." ;
Since time has such different meanings in different cultures, ;
communication is often difficult. ;
We will understand each other a little better ;
if we can keep this fact in mind. ;
Text B ;
I am a member of a small,nearly extinct minority group who insist, ;
even though it seems to be out of date, on the sanctity of being on time. ;
Which is to say that we On-timers are compulsively, ;
unfashionably prompt,that there are only handfuls of us left,and, ;
unfortunately,we never seem to have appointments with each other. ;
The fact is that being on time has become a social mistake. ;
The fact is that generally speaking, ;
the time that the Late-people set as the oment of Rendezvous is a code. ;
It is a code meaning at least one half- hour later. ;
The fact is that we On-timers can't get that into our heads. ;
We arrive invariably at the appointed hour at people's houses, ;
which means that we have occasionally eaten all the sandwiches ;
before the other guests arrive.Which means that we are rude.Let me explain. ;
We are,for example, invited for dinner at eight o'clock at ;
the home of friends who live exactly twenty minutes away. ;
We leave our house at ten to eight ;
so that for once we will be a comfortable ten minutes late. ;
Then even the traffic defeats us. ;
We meet only green lights and arrive at four minutes to eight. ;
We drive about for a while and then enter at one minute past, ;
to the astonishment of the host and hostess. ;
She is at an important stage of preparation with the saucepans. ;
He is thinking about taking a shower. ;
We end up helping with the first course and putting the baby to bed ;
and mixing the drinks and are still left with enough time to analyse ;
what kind of people our hosts are from the magazines on the coffee table. ;
As for meeting in restaurants, ;
you can immediately recognise us On-timers. ;
We are the only non- alcoholics standing in restaurant doorways in December ;
If not,we can always be found killing time in the cloakroom ;
or trying to look as if we are not alone at the bar. ;
Now,we all know that these very same Late-people ;
do not routinely miss planes or the beginnings of films. ;
But,as I told a Late-person recently, "If I were a train, I'd be gone..." ;
With regard to meetings there are two kinds of people. ;
Those who hate to wait and those who hate to make others wait. ;
The sadists and the masochists?I hope not. ;
There was a New York magazine piece once about ;
the power struggle involved in business lunches. ;
It intimated that you could always tell the powerless and the powerful. ;
The Indians were waiting, ;
while the Chiefs arrived half an hour or an hour later. ;
If you are an On- timer,you cannot make an entrance. ;
The Late-people, of course,are always terribly sorry, ;
"but something important came up" (in contrast to us, for instance). ;
Besides,as they say, their minds are always so full of big questions ;
(like The Bomb)that they never know what time it is. ;
In comparison with the On-timers,they suggest, ;
who have their little brains filled with stupid details like ;
the big hand and the little hand on the clock.The problem is getting worse. ;
If you adjust to the Late-people ;
and accept the fact that they're half an hour behind the time you arranged to meet ;
they arrive an hour late.Fewer and fewer of us On-timers remain. ;
We are now surprised when anyone else is on time. ;
We have begun to make certain adjustments like setting our clocks ;
and watches back or bringing the novel we're working on to dinner parties. ;
How late we are to recognise that being on time is out of date, ;
that in fact,our time has passed. ;
Additional Information How Aericans See Time ;
Americans recognise that there is a past on which the present rests. ;
But they have not developed their sense of the depth of time ;
to the extent that this has been done in the Middle East and South Asia. ;
The Arab looks back two to six thousand years for his own origins. ;
History is used as the basis for almost any modern action. ;
The chances are that an Arb won't start a talk or a speech or analyse a problem ;
without first developing the historical aspects of his subject. ;
The American assumes that time has depth, but he takes this for granted. ;
The American never questions the fact ;
that time should be planned and furure events fitted into a schedule. ;
He thinks that people should look forward to the future ;
and not dwell too much on the past. ;
His future is not vrey far ahead of him. ;
Results must be obtained in the foreseeable future ;
one or two years or, at the most,five or ten. ;
Promises to meet deadlines and appointments are taken ery seriously. ;
There are real penalties for being late ;
and for not keeping commitments in time. ;
The American thinks it is natural to quantify time. ;
To fail to do so is unthinkable. ;
The American specifies how much time is equired to do everything. ;
"I'll be there in ten minutes." "It will take six months to finish that job." ;
"I was in the Army for four and a half years. ;
"The Americans, like so many other people, ;
also use time as a link that chains events together, ;
If one event occurs on the heels of another, ;
we inevitably try to find a causal relationship between them. ;
If A is seen in the vicinity of B's murder ;
shortly after the crime has been committed ;
we automatically from a connection between A and B. ;
Conversely, events which are separated by too much time ;
are difficult for us to connect in our minds. ;
This makes it almost impossible ;
for us as a nation to engage in long-range planning. ;
Lesson 30 ;
Who Did It? Text A ;
Inspector Chester of Scotland Yard soon arrived on the scene of the crime. ;
When the newspapermen saw him getting out of the car ;
they immediately realised that matters were serious. ;
Inspector Chester had a fine reputation. ;
He had solved many difficult and compl- icated crimes during the last few years. ;
Most of them were robberies. ;
This one concerned the theft of jewels belonging to a famous film actress. ;
She was reputed to be a millionairess. So it was not surprising that ;
the missing jewels were valued at a quarter of a million pounds. ;
The newspapermen were eager to question the detective. ;
He stood on the pavement outside the house and smiled at the photographers. ;
"Have you a statement to make" somebody asked. ;
The detective-tall, thick-set.Middle- aged, ;
clean-shaven-pushed his way through the crowd, ;
climbed a few steps to the front door, turned round and said in a cool,clear voice: ;
"I have no statement to make. ;
As soon as there is anything fresh to tell you,I'll let you know." ;
He beckoned to a policeman,whispered a few words in his ear ;
and went into the house.After a "Move along,please" from the policeman, ;
the crowd gradually dispersed. ;
Upstairs,Inspector Chester walked over to the French windows. ;
It was probably through these that the thieves had come. ;
They had left no clues,no finger- prints. ;
It had apparently not been difficult for them to break into the safe. ;
Just as the detective was about to examine this once again, ;
the telephone rang. "Hullo,Inspector", a soft,monotonous voice said. ;
"If you want a clue, why don't you talk to the servant? ;
The one with a small scar on the right cheek."Was this a trick? ;
Would it put the Inspector on the right track? ;
Text B ;
Inspector Robinson was swearing aloud when he arrived at the fine, ;
old house at the top of the hill.The past few weeks had been rough for him, ;
and it looked as if there was more trouble ahead. ;
It was raining hard, and Carruthers,his assistant, ;
who was waiting for him at the gate,was wet to the skin. ;
As they walked up the path together, Carruthers explained what had happened. ;
The woman,Sylvia Fortagne,a daughter of Lord Arthrington, ;
had been found dead in the sitting-room by one of the servants hat evening. ;
The police doctor, who had examined the body, ;
was sure that it was a clear case of poisoning.They had not moved the body; ;
it still lay face upwards,where it had fallen. ;
Underneath her body they had found the photograph of an unknown young man. ;
There had been no signs of a struggle. ;
The woman's husband had not been seen since lunchtime. ;
According to the cook he had left the house"in anger", ;
as she put it,after a quarrel with his wife, ;
and had gone for a ride on one of his favourite horses. ;
Carruthers pushed open the front door, and the two men entered the hall. ;
Inspector Robinson took off his hat and went into the sitting-room. ;
-We'll have to wait, said Carruthers wiping his glasses. ;
-It's no use waiting,said the Inspector. ;
I don't think he'll dare to come back. It's pretty obvious he did it. ;
Saying this,he put on his hat. ;
They were about to leave the house when they saw a dark ;
figure approaching them from out of the shadows. ;
It was Nigel Fortagne.Nigel Fortagne's story ;
-Yes,it's true that I knew that my wife was in love with another man, ;
but I trusted her and ;
believed that she would forget about him sooner or later. ;
But when she returned from a weekend in Paris this morning, ;
she told me that she wanted a divorce and threatened to do something terrible ;
if I didn't agree to it.I refused,of course. ;
She drank heavily at lunchtime and even opened the bottle ;
which she had brought as a present for me. ;
She insisted that I should join her for a drink,but I didn't, ;
because I had taken my medicine.I'm not supposed to take it with alcohol. ;
I suffer from a weak heart,you see.She was in a terrible state, ;
so I put some of my pills into my glass when she wasn't looking. ;
Then I exchanged the glasses.It was not really much,but, ;
of course, I should have known how dangerous these pills can be. ;
But at that moment I was so angry that I didn't care. ;
I was sick and tired of the argument and left the house. ;
She was so drunk she wouldn't have noticed any difference in the taste of the sherry. ;
I came back to see how she was.And, besides, ;
there's no point in running away ;
because life doesn't mean anything to me without her. ;
James Highsmith's story Afterwards, James Highsmith, ;
the young man in the photograph,was questioned by Inspector Robinson. ;
When he was told what had happened he broke down. ;
-Yes, I'm not ashamed to admit that we were in love. ;
We had a wonderful time in Paris, but I was afraid of losing her. ;
Sylvia often talked about killing him because he would never gree to a divorce. ;
I begged her not to do it,but she said that one of us had to. ;
Then I found one of his prescriptions in her hand-bag. ;
I bought the medicine,put some of it into a bottle of sherry ;
and told Sylvia to give it to him as a present.It was him to me. ;
I was anxious about her drinking from the bottle because I was fairly sure ;
that it wasn't really enough to kill a normal, healthy grown-up. ;
I must have killed her,though,and the only comfort I can find in her death is ;
that I don't have to share her with him any longer. ;
Sylvia Fortagne's story James Highsmith ;
did not know that the police had found a message on a slip of ;
paper in Sylvia Fortagne's hand-bag. ;
Dear James,Please forgive me for the terrible thing I am going to do, ;
but it's the only way out way out. ;
I have considered everything carefully, ;
and I know it's very selfish,but W.has destroyed my life ;
and made me thoroughly unhappy. ;
When you receive this letter he will have been found dead after a heart attack ;
with a glass of sherry in his hand. ;
I tried to phone you earlier this morning,but couldn't reach you. ;
In case they examine the body ;
they will think that he took an overdose of his medicine by mistake. ;
His family will come over to comfort me and will probably stay or a few weeks so, ;
please,don't try to get in touch.It will all be worth it in the end. ;
All my love,Yours ever,S. ;
Additional Information Crime and Punishment ;
From the court notes of a local reporter In court at 9 o'clock. ;
Apart from me there are a few old ladies who have come to sit in the warm ;
and a class of 14-15-year-old with their teacher. ;
9:05 Court starts, First case:Henry P., 47,divorced, charged with being drunk. ;
He refused to leave a pub at closing time ;
and caused a bit of damage when the police tried to arrest him. ;
P.said had had an argument with his boss ;
and could not face going home to an empty flat. ;
9:20 Mrs f.,72, shoplifting. Apparently Mrs F. ;
had stolen a frozen chicken, which she had hidden under her hat ;
(At this the school children burst out laughing and even ;
the magistrates have difficulty keeping a straight face). ;
The chicken was so cold that she fell unconscious, ;
otherwise she would probaly not have been caught. ;
Mrs F, in tears, says she had not eaten meat for three weeks. ;
It turns out that, although she has the old-age pension, ;
she does not know about other forms of support.9:40 James S.,42, a teacher, ;
charged with beating his wife and two young children. ;
Mrs S.is in hipital in bad shape; ;
the mother-in-law is taking care of the children. ;
The neighbours sent for the police-one case, ;
thank heavents,where neighbours did not "mind their own business". ;
Mrs S.had already run away twice, ;
but S.had promised to change and she had gone home again. ;
S.said that he was ashamed of what he had done, ;
but that he often lost his temper with his wife, ;
who was quarrelsome and had no sense of duty. ;
The school children looked thoughtful; ;
they probably thought that teachers do not do that sort of thing. ;
10:30 Peter D.,19.D. stole,or ratehr "borrowed" a motorcycle, ;
intending, he said, to give it back to the owner after trying it out. ;
D.'s father is at sea and the mother is left to bring up four children, ;
of whom peter is the eldest,by herself. 11:00 Mrs A.,45, a doctor's wife, ;
president of a local ladies' club, ;
was caught leaving a fashion shop wearing two dresses, ;
only one of which belonged to her. ;
Admitting that she had wanted to steal the dress, she could not explain why. ;