泛读教程

Unit one

Reading strategies

Why Read Faster

The most obvious and practical answer to the question \"Why read faster?\" is to save yourself time. How much is your time worth to you? Suppose you could do your required reading in one-half or one-third of the time it takes you now. Could you find something to do with the time saved? Most of us could.

Think of the time and money that could be saved by shcools, businesses, and the government if people read more efficiently. A reading expert once figured out how much money would be saved if every American over fifteen years of age were given reading training for a month. Computed at fifty cents an hour, the savings in time required for all the reading in the nation would be worth about five billion dollars.

It is amazing how many readers will plod along at one-third their possible speed all their lives. They think they are going to miss a word and forget it is ideas they are reading for. They miss the view of the forest because they look at the trees so hard. They make reading such slow, hard work that they hate to read. They feel themselves getting eyestrain, losing their train of thought, dozing off, and finally giving up.

These readers cling to some old wives' tales about reading fast. Beverly Harte Gray, a former Evelyn Wood instructor, lists some of these false ideas and answers them in this way.

1) Fast readers understand and remember less than slow readers.

FALSE. Fast readers are alert, active, and efficient readers. Vast research as well as records kept by speed-reading teachers prove this notion to be untrue. On the other hand, slow reader tend to be passive and unskilled. Their comprehension or understanding is often low because they work too far below their potential to remain alert and interested. As a result, their minds wander.

2) Only very bright people can read fast

FALSE. Research and the records of hundreds of teachers show that anyone with average intelligence (and good eyesight) can read and understand simple material at 800 - 1200 words per minute (wpm). the brain can absorb more rapidly than one can send material to it. A habit of lazy, passive reading has produced slow readers. Eye muscles will respond to training. One needs a mental \"set\" to absorb material quickly.

3) Rapid reading is satisfactory for only easy or unimportant material.

FALSE. It is true that efficient readers do not read everything at the same rate. They vary speed and techniques according to the difficulty of the material and

their purpose for reading it. They will find, however, that as their basic rate improves, their rates for other materials will also improve. Their rapid, medium, and slow rates will all increase. Thus, a well-trained reader may be reading difficult material twice as fast as a nontrained reader reads easy material. Remember: rapid readers can read as slowly as they choose and as fast as they choose.

4) Rapid readers cannot relax and enjoy their reading. They cannot savor the words and the style.

FALSE. Once rapid reading has become a habit, readers enjoy and savor style just as much as they did before at slower speeds. It takes time to make rapid reading a habit. But, once the habit has been formed, readers feel now more strain than they did at their old slower rates.

5) Perhaps rapid reading is valuable, but it will take years to retrain a slow reader.

FALSE. It has been proved many times in school and reading clinics that readers can double or triple their rates in thirty to sixty days. The increase depends upon the amount of daily practice time.

In increasing your speed, you must not lose sight of the fact that you read different material for different purposes at different rates. The objective should be to get your fastest speed up. Then your slower speed will come up too. As a result, you will have a wider range of rates from which to choose. Fast readers never have

to worry about being unable to slow down. They can slow down at will. It is slow readers who are stuck at one speed - slow - for everything they read.

You will read much more effectively and save much more time if you get your fastest speed up to 800 words per minute and seldom drop below 250 wpm. Then you have a range of 250 to 800 wpm from which to choose. Isn't that better than a range of 250 to 300 wpm, which is average for most adults?

If you can read the newspaper or a popular magazine article at 800 wpm, it doesn't mean you should or could read Crime and Punishment at 800 wpm. (You may, however, read some portion of it at 800 wpm.) You might read it at your study rate -- perhaps 250 to 350 wpm. On the other hand, you have a problem if you then read \"101 Ways to Kiss\" in Cosmopolitan at 250 wpm also.

Think of the mail, newspapers, magazines, popular novels, homework assignments that you go through (or should go through) in a week. Then think how much time you could save if you could speed at will to twice or three times your present speed. It can be done!

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING READING SPEED

Improvement of Reading Rate

It is safe to say that almost anyone can double his speed of reading while maintaining equal or even higher comprehension. In other words, anyone can

improve the speed with which he gets what he wants from his reading.

The average college student reads between 250 and 350 words per minute on fiction and non-technical materials. A \"good\" reading speed is around 500 to 700 words per minute, but some people can read a thousand words per minute or even faster on these materials. What makes the difference? There are three main factors involved in improving reading speed: (1) the desire to improve, (2) the willingness to try new techniques and (3) the motivation to practice.

Learning to read rapidly and well presupposes that you have the necessary vocabulary and comprehension skills. When you have advanced on the reading comprehension materials to a level at which you can understand college-level materials, you will be ready to speed reading practice in earnest.

The Role of Speed in the Reading Process

Understanding the role of speed in the reading process is essential. Research has shown a close relation between speed and understanding. For example, in checking progress charts of thousands of individuals taking reading training, it has been found in most cases that an increase in rate has been paralleled by an increase in comprehension, and that where rate has gone down, comprehension has also decreased. Although there is at present little statistical evidence, it seems that plodding word-by-word analysis (or word reading) inhibits understanding. There is some reason to believe that the factors producing slow reading are also involved in lowered comprehension. Most adults are able to increase their rate of

reading considerably and rather quickly without lowering comprehension. These same individuals seldom show an increase in comprehension when they reduce their rate. In other cases, comprehension is actually better at higher rates of speed. Such results, of course, are heavily dependent upon the method used to gain the increased rate. Simply reading more rapidly without actual improvement in basic reading habits usually results in lowered comprehension.

Factors that Reduce Reading Rate

Some of the facts which reduce reading rate: (a) limited perceptual span i.e., word-by-word reading; (b) slow perceptual reaction time, i.e., slowness of recognition and response to the material; (c) vocalization, including the need to vocalize in order to achieve comprehension; (d) faulty eye movements, including inaccuracy in placement of the page, in return sweep, in rhythm and regularity of movement, etc.; (e) regression, both habitual and as associated with habits of concentration; (f) faulty habits of attention and concentration, beginning with simple inattention during the reading act and faulty processes of retention; (g) lack of practice in reading, due simply to the fact that the person has read very little and has limited reading interests so that very little reading is practiced in the daily or weekly schedule; (h) fear of losing comprehension, causing the person to suppress his rate deliberately in the firm belief that comprehension is improved if he spends more time on the individual words; (i) habitual slow reading, in which the person cannot read faster because he has always read slowly, (j) poor evaluation of which aspects are important and which are unimportant; and (k) the effort to remember everything rather than to remember selectively.

Since these conditions act also to reduce comprehension increasing the reading rate through eliminating them is likely to result in increased comprehension as well. This is an entirely different matter from simply speeding up the rate of reading without reference to the conditions responsible for the slow rate. In fact, simply speeding the rate especially through forced acceleration, may actually result, and often does, in making the real reading problem more severe. In addition, forced acceleration may even destroy confidence in ability to read. The obvious solution, then is to increase rate as a part of a total improvement of the whole reading process. This is a function of special training programs in reading.

Basic Conditions for Increased Reading Rate

A well planned program prepares for maximum increase in rate by establishing the necessary conditions. Four basic conditions include:

Have your eyes checked. Before embarking on a speed reading program, make sure that any correctable eye defects you may have are taken care of by checking with your eye doctor. Often, very slow reading is related to uncorrected eye defects.

Eliminate the habit of pronouncing words as you read. If you sound out words in your throat or whisper them, you can read slightly only as fast as you can read aloud. You should be able to read most materials at least two or three times faster silently than orally. If you are aware of sounding or \"hearing\" words as you read, try to concentrate on key words and meaningful ideas as you force yourself to read

faster.

Avoid regressing (rereading). The average student reading at 250 words per minute regresses or rereads about 20 times per page. Rereading words and phrases is a habit which will slow your reading speed down to a snail's pace. Usually, it is unnecessary to reread words, for the ideas you want are explained and elaborated more fully in later contexts. Furthermore, the slowest reader usually regresses most frequently. Because he reads slowly, his mind has time to wander and his rereading reflects both his inability to concentrate and his lack of confidence in his comprehension skills.

Develop a wider eye-span. This will help you read more than one word at a glance. Since written material is less meaningful if read word by word, this will help you learn to read by phrases or thought units.

Rate Adjustment

Poor results are inevitable if the reader attempts to use the same rate indiscriminately for a-1 types of material and for all reading purposes. He must learn to adjust his rate to his purpose in reading and to the difficulty of the material he is reading. This ranges from a maximum rate on easy, familiar, interesting material or in reading to gather information on a particular point, to minimal rate on material which is unfamiliar in content and language structure or which must be thoroughly digested. The effective reader adjusts his rate; the ineffective reader uses the same rate for all types of material.

Rate adjustment may be overall adjustment to the article as a whole, or internal adjustment within the article. Overall adjustment establishes the basic rate at which the total article is read; internal adjustment involves the necessary variations in rate for each varied part of the material. As an analogy, you plan to take a 100-mile mountain trip. Since this will be a relatively hard drive with hills, curves, and a mountain pass, you decide to take three hours for the total trip, averaging about 35 miles an hour. This is your overall rate adjustment. However, in actual driving you may slow down to no more than 15 miles per hour on some curves and hills, while speeding up to 50 miles per hour or more on relatively straight and level sections. This is your internal rate adjustment. There is no set rate, therefore, which the good reader follows inflexibly in reading a particular selection, even though he has set himself an overall rate for the total job.

Overall rate adjustment should be based on your reading plan, your reading purpose, and the nature and difficulty of the material. The reading plan itself should specify the general rate to be used. This is based on the total \"size up\". It may be helpful to consider examples of how purpose can act to help determine the rate to be used. To understand information, skim or scan at a rapid rate. To determine value of material or to read for enjoyment, read rapidly or slowly according to you feeling. To read analytically, read at a moderate pace to permit interrelating ideas. The nature and difficulty of the material requires an adjustment in rate in conformity with your ability to handle that type of material. Obviously, level of difficulty is highly relative to the particular reader. While Einstein's theories may be extremely difficult to most laymen, they may be very simple and clear to a professor of physics. Hence, the layman and the physics professor must make a

different rate adjustment in reading the same material. Generally, difficult material will entail a slower rate; simpler material will permit a faster rate.

Internal rate adjustment involves selecting differing rates for parts of a given article. In general, decrease speed when you find the following (1) unfamiliar terminology not clear in context. Try to understand it in context at that point; otherwise, read on and return to it later; (2) difficult sentence and paragraph structure; slow down enough to enable you to untangle them and get accurate context for the passage; (3) unfamiliar or abstract concepts. Look for applications or examples of you own as well as studying those of the writer. Take enough time to get them clearly in mind; (4) detailed, technical material. This includes complicated directions, statements of difficult principles, materials on which you have scant background; (5) material on which you want detailed retention. In general, increase speed when you meet the following: (a) simple material with few ideas which are new to you; move rapidly over the familiar ones; spend most of your time on the unfamiliar ideas; (b) unnecessary examples and illustrations. Since these are included to clarify ideas, move over them rapidly when they are not needed; (c) detailed explanation and idea elaboration which you do not need, (d) broad, generalized ideas and ideas which are restatements of previous ones. These can be readily grasped, even with scan techniques.

In keeping your reading attack flexible, adjust your rate sensitivity from article to article. It is equally important to adjust you rate within a given article. Practice these techniques until a flexible reading rate becomes second nature to you.

Summary

In summary, evidence has been cited which seems to indicate a need for and value of a rapid rate of reading, while at the same time indicating the dangers of speed in reading, as such. We have attempted to point out the relationship between rate of reading and extent of comprehension, as well as the necessity for adjustment of reading rate, along with whole reading attack, to the type of material and the purposes of the reader. Finally, the factors which reduce rate were surveyed as a basis for pointing out that increase in rate should come in conjunction with the elimination of these retarding aspects of the reading process and as a part of an overall reading training program where increase in rate is carefully prepared for in the training sequence.

Unit two

Education

你和你的父母可以别在担忧了-巴斯德，爱迪生，达尔文还要许多其他人在他们年少时远非天才。

You and your parents can stop worrying ─ Pasture, Edison, Darwin and lots of more were far from being geniuses in their teens.

历史书籍很少提到这些，但事实是：我们的许多伟人在他们的青少年时代是“垮掉的一代\".他们被认为爱空想，优柔寡断，迟钝（十足的愚蠢），而且他们没有显现出当医生，

律师，印第安酋长的前途。

History books seldom mention it, but the truth is that many of our greatest figures were practically “beatniks” when they were teenagers. They were given to daydreaming, indecision, and they showed no promise of being doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief.

所以年前的男女们，如果你们出现了同样的状况，不用绝望。世界是由男人和女人创建的。尽管他们的双亲担心他们永远一钱不值，你们没有太多的听过这些伟人早年失败的经历，一位父母亲往往喜欢例举更鼓舞人心的事例。

So, young men and women, if you suffer from the same symptoms, don’t despair. The world was built by men and women whose parents worried that they would “never amount to a hill of beans”. You don’t hear too much about their early failure because parents prefer to cite more inspiring examples.

A Man They Don’t Tell You About他们不愿向你谈起的一个人

If you take piano lessons and your attitude towards practicing is marked by laziness, your parents might justly complain and flaunt before you the famous picture of little Mozart in his ruffled nightshirt, playing the piano at midnight in the attic. But the point is, your parents would not show you a picture of a certain party who never showed a bit of interest in music during his formative years. In fact he never showed talent in any direction whatever. Finally put to studying law, he barely passed his final exams. It was not until he was 22 that he suddenly became

fired with a great passion for music, and his name was Peter Iluitch Tschaikowsky.

In the science, there have been hundreds of geniuses who aimed straight at the goal from earliest years, and hundreds who showed no aptitude at all. There were the teen-age Mayo brothers, who actually assisted their father in his crude country operating room. On the other hand, Harvey Cushing, one of the world’s greatest brain surgeons, might have become a professional ballplayer if his father hadn’t pleaded that he gives medicine a try.

The great Pasteur’s parents were in despair because teen-age Louis did nothing but draw pictures and go fishing. Pasture was 20 years old before he became even faintly interested in science.

Edison Was “Addled”爱迪生是”愚笨的“

So it goes. You have the Wright brothers, who were brilliant at engineering in their early teens, and you have Thomas Alva Edison, whose teacher tried to get him out of the class because his brain was “addled.” You have the Nobel Prize physicist Enrico Fermi, who at 17 had read enough mathematics to qualify for a doctor’s degree. And you have the great. Albert Schweitzer, who hesitated between music and the church until he was 30. Ten he started his medical studies.

Darwin Hated School达尔文憎恨学校

Charles Darwin’s early life was a mess. He hated school, and his father once

shouted: “You care for nothing but shooting dogs and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family!” He was sent to Glasgow to study medicine, but he couldn't stand the sight of blood. He was sent to divinity school and barely managed to graduate. Whereupon he gave up the whole business and shipped to the South Seas on the famous exploring ship Beagle. On that voyage, one of history’s greatest scientists was born. It was here that he collected the material for the book that would revolutionize biological science The Origin of the Species.

Faulkner Failed in English福克纳英语不及格

Politics offers a familiar example of contrast. Herbert Hoover must have learned administration in the cradle. When he was at school he was chosen as football manager, though he didn’t know the game, and the glee club manager, though he couldn’t sing a note. Whatever he touched went smoothly, glee club or food for a starving Europe.

But one of his successors in the White House had about as checkered a youth as can be imagined. Turned down by West Point because of poor vision, Harry Truman tried a dozen jobs, including stretches in a drugstore, a bank, a bottling works, and a railroad yard. But he got there just the same.

Great writers are supposed to be born, not made, but here again there are many fascinating exceptions. William Faulkner quit school in the fifth grade and wandered around the country as a house painter and a dishwasher.12:04

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Once he tried attending college, but failed in freshman English and quit. He got a postmaster’s job in a small Mississippi town, and infuriated the populace by getting the mail all mixed up and closing the office whenever he felt like it.

And just to show that girls can be as confusing as boys, take Pearl Buck, who from early youth made it a point to write at least a few lines every day of her life. Then take Edna Ferber, whose sole ambition was to be an actress; she never even thought of writing anything until she was in her 20’s and had to take a $3-a-week job on a newspaper to help her family.

How about Those Prodigies?如何解释那些神童呢？

And added to all the aforementioned paradoxes you have a small army of child prodigies who were graduated from college when they were 15, and are now obscure clerks in accounting departments. And you have a small army of men who were too stupid or lazy to get into or finish college and who are today presidents of the firms that hire the prodigies.

So who’s to say what about youth? Any young boy or girl who knows what he wants to do in life is probably the better off for it. But no teen-ager need despair of the future. He has that one special advantage over the greatest man alive ─ time! If you don’t think time counts, look at Grandma Moses. She never sold a painting till she was 80.

The Education of Benjamin Franklin

History has given Benjamin Franklin a place of enduring fame. He was a writer, an inventor, a scientist, and a statesman. His life history has enjoyed popular success for more than 200 years.

Franklin's education at school stopped when he was ten years old. But he never stopped learning. For him, books held the key to living happily and successfully. They were precious gifts.

In his early youth, he had a friend who worked for a bookseller. Sometimes his friend would lend him books, which he was careful to return quickly. Often he sat up in his room reading most of the night in order to return a book before his friend's employer noticed its absence.

But Franklin was not a lonely scholar. For him, learning was a social experience. In his Autobiography, he tells about organizing a club called the \"Junto\which met every Friday night to improve its members' minds:

\"The rules I made required every member, in turn, to produce one or more questions on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy. The question would then be discussed by the whole group. Also, once in three months, each member was required to read an article he had written on any subject he pleased.

\"Our discussions were directed by a president and conducted as an honest

search for truth. We were to avoid unpleasant arguments or a desire for victory. Any member who did not obey these rules had to pay a fine.\"

The Junto which Franklin organized continued for many years. It was the best group for the discussion then. The questions were given to the members during the week before they were to be discussed. This encouraged the members to read carefully about each subject so that they might speak with more understanding.

When the Junto was organized, before the middle of the 18th century, there were no public libraries. There was not even a good bookstore south of Boston. Franklin decided to improve this situation.

Each member of the Junto owned a few books. A room had been rented in which the members held the meetings. Franklin suggested that all the members should bring their books to the room. In this way the book would be a help to all during the weekly discussion. Also, each member would be allowed to take and read at home any book be chose.

Throughout his life, Benjamin Franklin continued his education, learning from human contacts as well as from books.

Unit three

Body language

Signals Without Words

“I liked him the minute I saw him!” you sometimes hear. You’ve probably heard something like this a few times too: “Before she even said a word, I knew there was something funny about her.” Such statements are examples of what are sometimes called “snap judgments”, opinions which are formed suddenly, seemingly on no sound basis at all. Most people would say that snap judgments are unsound or even dangerous. They would also admit, however, that they themselves often make snap judgments and may find them to be fairly reliable.

Snap judgments, “love at first sight”, “instant antipathy” and other sudden emotional responses, if taken seriously, have usually been considered signs of immaturity or lack of sense. When someone “has a feeling” about someone else, people more often laugh than pay attention. Most people assume that you find out about a person by listening to what he says over a period of time. Someone may occasionally remind you that “actions speak louder than words”, but this is usually a reference to such things as keeping promises or paying bills or sending money home to Mother.

Because people assume that “you are what you say you are”, they do a lot of talking in order to become acquainted with each other. There are predictable topics which businessmen, housewives, singles and others will touch upon when they first meet. Later, once two people have gotten acquainted, they more or less assume that it was all that conversation that give them their information about each other.

As behavioral sciences develop, however, researchers find that the importance of speech has been overestimated. Though speech is the most obvious form of communication, we do use other means of which we may be only partially aware or, in some cases, completely unaware. It is possible that we are unconsciously sending out messages with our every action, messages which are also unconsciously picked up by observers and used in forming opinions. These unconscious actions and reactions to them on the part of others may in part account for the “feelings” and “snap judgments” mentioned above.

We communicate a great deal, the researchers have found, with our bodies  the way we move, sit, stand and what we do with our hands and heads, for example. Imagine a few people sitting in a waiting room: one is drumming his fingers on his briefcase, another keeps rubbing his hands together, another is biting his fingernails, still another grasps the arms of his chair tightly and a final one keeps running his fingers over his hair. These people aren’t talking, but they’re “saying” a lot if you happen to know the “language” they’re using.

Two of the most “telling” forms of behavior are driving a car and playing games. It is interesting to note a person’s reaction to stress in these situations and to aggressive behavior in others. If he easily becomes angry, excited, passive or resentful when driving or playing, you may have a clue to his personality.

Like many other forms of behavior, how you dress tells a lot about you. While clothing serves a purely practical function, it also communicates many things about your social status, personality, state of mind and even your aspirations and

dreams. The eleven-year-old girl who dresses like a college student and the forty-year-old woman who dresses like a teenager are saying something by means of what they wear. According to studies, what you communicate through your mode of dress definitely influences others to accept the image of you that you are projecting: in the business worlds, the person who dresses like a successful manager is most likely to be promoted into a managerial position sooner or later.

Also significant are the ornaments a person wears: buttons, medals, jewelry, etc. Such ornaments are often the means by which a person advertises a variety of things about himself: his convictions (campaign buttons), his beliefs (religious tokens), his membership in certain groups (club pins or badges), his past achievements (college ring or Phi Beta Kappa key) and his economic status (diamond jewelry).

Some studies have shown that there is a correlation between a person’s color preferences and his personality. Yellow, for example, is favored by intellectuals, while purple is especially preferred by romantics. What colors do you like to wear and decorate your home with? You’re probably communicating a lot about yourself through your choices. Do some colors attract you or annoy you or remind you of someone? These reactions could tell you something about yourself or about that other person. Colors that attract or annoy you may represent personality traits that have the same effect on you. A color which reminds you of someone may represent certain of his personality traits, as perceived by you.

Another indicator of a person’s character is said to be found in his

preferences in architecture and furniture. A person who really would like to live in a castle would probably be more at home in the Middle Ages. Lovers of Victorian family houses and furniture might secretly welcome a return to more rigid social norms. People who are content with contemporary design are probably well-adapted to modern life-styles.

You see a person for the first time. Even though he doesn’t speak to you, you begin observing him: his actions, his stance, his clothing and many other things. There’s a wealth of information there if you know how to “read” it. Perhaps snap judgments aren’t so unsound after all.

The Secret Language of Barrier Signals

People feel safer behind some kind of physical barrier. If a social situation is in any way threatening, then there is an immediate urge to set up such a barricade. For a tiny child faced with a stranger, the problem is usually solved by hiding behind its mother’s body and peeping out at the intruder to see what he or she will do next. If the mother’s body is not available, then a chair or some other piece of solid furniture will do. If the stranger insists on coming closer, then the peeping face must be hidden too. If the insensitive intruder continues to approach despite these obvious signals of fear, then there is nothing for it but to scream or flee.

This pattern is gradually reduced as the child matures. In teenage girls it may still be detected in the giggling cover-up of the face, with hands or papers, when

embarrassed. But by the time we are adult, the childhood hiding, which decreased to adolescent shyness, is expected to disappear altogether, as we bravely stride out to meet our guests, hosts, companions, relatives, colleagues, customers, clients, or friends. Each social occasion involves us, once again, in encounters similar to the ones which made us hide as scared infants and, as then each en-counter is slightly threatening. In other words, the fears are still there, but their expression is blocked. Our adult roles demand control and suppression of any primitive urge to withdraw and hide ourselves away. The more formal the occasion and the more dominant or unfamiliar our social companions, the more worrying the moment of encounter becomes. Watching people under these conditions, it is possible to observe the many small ways in which they continue to “hide” behind their mother’s skirts. The actions are still there, but they are transformed into less obvious movements and postures. It is these that are the Barrier Signals of adult life.

The most popular form of Barrier Signal is the Body-cross. In this, the hands or arms are brought into contact with one another in front of the body, forming a temporary “bar” across the trunk. This is not done as a physical act offending off the other person. It is done, usually at quite a distance, as a nervous guest approaches a dominant host. The action is performed unconsciously and, if asked about it immediately afterwards, the guest will not be able to remember having made the gesture. It is always disguised in some way, because if it were performed as a primitive fending-off or covering-up action it would obviously be too transparent. The disguise it wears varies from person to person. Here are some examples:

The special guest on a ceremonial occasion is getting off his official limousine. Before he can meet and shake hands with the reception committee, he has to walk alone across the open space in front of the main entrance to the building where the function is being held. A large crowd has come to watch his arrival and the press cameras are flashing. Even for the most experienced of celebrities this is a slightly nervous moment, and the mild fear that is felt expresses itself just as he is halfway across the “greeting-space”. As he walks forward, his right hand reaches across his body and makes a last-minute adjustment to his left cuff-link. It pauses there momentarily as he takes a few more steps, and then, at last, he is close enough to reach out his hand for the first of the many hand-shakes.

()n a similar occasion, the special guest is a female. At just the point where a male would have fiddled with his cuff, she reaches across her body with her right hand and slightly shifts the position of her handbag, which is hanging from her left forearm.

There are other variations on this theme. A male may finger a button or the strap of a wristwatch instead of his cuff. A female may smooth out an imaginary crease in a sleeve, or reposition a scarf or coat held over her left arm. But in all cases there is one essential feature: at the peak moment of nervousness there is a Body-cross, in which one arm makes contact with the other across the front of the body, constructing a barrier between the guest and the reception committee.

Sometimes the barrier is incomplete. One arm swings across but does not actually make contact with the other. Instead it deals with some trivial

clothing-adjustment task on the opposite side of the body. With even heavier disguise, the hand comes up and across, but goes no further than the far side of the head or face, with a mild stroking or touching action.

Such are the Barrier Signals of the greeting situation, where one person is advancing on another. Interestingly, field observations reveal that it is most unlikely that both the greeter and the greeted will perform such actions. Regardless of status, it is nearly always the new arrival who makes the body-cross movement, because it is he who is invading the home territory of the greeters. They are on their own ground or, even if they are not, they were there first and have at least temporary territorial “rights” over the place. This gives them an indisputable dominance at the moment of the greeting. Only if they are extremely subordinate to the new arrival, and perhaps in serious trouble with him, will there be a likelihood of them taking the “body-cross role”.

These observations tell us something about the secret language of Barrier Signals, and indicate that, although the sending and receiving of the signals are both unconsciously done the message gets across, none the less. The message says: “I am nervous but I will not retreat”, and this makes it into an act of subordination which automatically makes the other person feel slightly more dominant and more comfortable.

The situation is different after greetings are over and people are standing about talking to one another. Now, if one man edges too close to another, perhaps to hear better in all the noise of chattering voices, the boxed—in companion may

feel the same sort of threatening sensation that the arriving celebrity felt as he walked towards the reception committee. What is needed now, however, is something more long-lasting than a mere cuff-fumble. The favorite Body-cross employed in this situation is the arm-fold, in which the left and right arms interweave themselves across the front of the chest. This posture, a perfect, frontal Barrier Signal, can be held for a very long time without appearing strange. Unconsciously it transmits a “come-no-farther” message and is used a great deal at crowded gatherings. It is rather formally employed by bodyguards when standing outside a protected doorway.

The same device of arm-folding can be used in a sitting relationship where the companion is approaching too close, and it can be amplified by a crossing of the legs away from the companion. But perhaps the major Barrier Signal for the seated person is that universal device, the desk. Many a businessman would feel naked without one and hides behind it gratefully every day. Sitting beyond it he feels fully protected from the visitor exposed on the far side. It is supreme barrier, both physical and psychological, giving him an immediate and lasting comfort while he remains in its solid embrace.

Unit five History

Models for Understanding History

Underlying every textbook and every historical work are a set of often un-acknowledged assumptions about how history works. Everyone who writes,

reads, or thinks about history has a “model” in their mind which helps them to interpret and assemble the facts of history. These “models” can be sorted into three broad categories:

Model A is the dominant model for historians in the 20th century. There is a widespread and almost unshakable belief that the history of mankind is a record of progress and that future prospects are bright. There are a number of comforting implications that come with adopting this view. It’s very flattering to oneself and one’s contemporaries, since by implication everyone currently alive has made progress over all those folks who are dead. It also allows one to face the future with optimism, since as more time passes, more progress will be made. One can see this model clearly in the 19th century German historians such as Hegel, who saw all of history leading up to its fulfillment in the unified German state of Bismarck with Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhelm.

Marxist historians use this model as well, seeing the past as the unfolding struggle between the classes in which first the bourgeoisie and then the proletariat triumph over the nobility. But of course, there is a great deal of American history written to fit this mold, too. Those who believe in an “evolving” Constitution see all change as positive and therefore, the more time, the more changes, the better our Constitution will be.

But there are other models. And the question is not which model is most comforting and reassuring, but which best fits the facts.

Many of the Greek and Roman historians subscribed to Model B. They looked back in the past and saw a “golden age” with fewer problems than their own. It seemed to them that things were getting worse over time and that the prospects for the future were grim. There is a certain sense in which this model fits the outlines of Scripture. We certainly haven’t risen above the level of our first parents, Adam and Eve, so the broad line from Paradise can only trend downward. On the other hand, one can definitely trace progress and improvement through God’s covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and their fulfillment in Jesus. But against this, one must weigh the prophecies of Revelation which predict widespread war and tribulation prior to Jesus’ return.

In truth, history is complicated. It is more complicated than the simple lines in Model A and Model B. It more closely resembles Model C. Periods of accomplishment are followed by periods of decay. In fact, “progress” is mostly a myth. There is nothing inevitable about it. The idea that the simple passage of time will allow things to improve flies in the face of experience. If you let time pass, will the dishes get washed, will rooms get cleaned, or will your car run better? The truth is that things deteriorate and decay with age.

The periods of progress and achievement are the exceptions and not the rule. There are remarkable periods scattered through history in which a group of men or a generation seem (perhaps supernaturally?) empowered to reverse the trends and to make remarkable achievements. Sometimes it is in literature, sometimes it is in science, sometimes it is in politics, sometimes it is in art or music. But inevitably, after a period of achievement, a long, slow period of decay sets in.

With this in mind, an analysis of the history of political institutions can be a little unsettling. The Greek city-states, in a burst of creativity around eight or nine hundred years before Christ, created a variety of city constitutions that served them admirably for generations. But over time, the cities seemed to become more and more unworkable and their leaders became corrupt. Eventually, most of the Greek cities were ruled by tyrants. They ended by being conquered first by the Macedonian armies of Alexander, and then by the Romans. The Romans likewise created an admirable republic about 500 B.C. But over time it developed more and more problems, and eventually succumbed to the military dictators who called themselves Emperors and gods.

The really interesting question, by the way, is not, “Why did the Roman Empire fall?” It is, “Why did the Roman Republic fall?” The fall from Republic through Empire to Dark Ages is sharply downward and continued for centuries. The Renaissance was a conscious rejection of the myth of progress. The writers, painters, and leaders of the Renaissance looked backward in time to men who were more accomplished than themselves. They wanted to reverse the trends of history and return to a better age. They strove to revive the Roman republic, Roman and Greek art, and in a surprisingly parallel movement, the Reformers wanted to revive and return to the New Testament church. The revival of the ancient world in the Renaissance continued for quite some time, and there is some truth in the assertion that the political thinkers of the 17th and 18th century (including the American founding fathers) were continuing the Renaissance and consciously trying to recreate the Roman republic. The famous statue of George Washington in the US capitol garbed in the toga of a Roman senator is no accident.

The artist is making a deep and reflective comment on Washington’s goals, aims, and understanding of history.

One of the questions worth pondering in our own day is, has there been progress or decay in our own civilization since the founders? Have we improved the republic or has it deteriorated and decayed? The answer to this question has far-reaching implications. If it has deteriorated, then we need to reverse directions and try to return to ideals of the founders, shedding the mistakes of later, lesser men. If we have progressed, why then, of course we need to continue correcting and eliminating the mistakes and omissions of the founders. Is our generation really more noble, admirable, and politically sophisticated than Washington, Madison, and Jefferson? That is a question we should reflect on and answer.

The trick is to move beyond the simple models and to think critically about whatever time period they are studying. Was this a period of achievement or decay? If we learn to step back and ask this question about the facts (and also about the views of the historians who are supplying the facts), we will have achieved a much more sophisticated understanding of our age. We will also have the ability to begin discerning what God may be doing in our day and how we should be praying, preparing, and participating in the great debates and movements of our time.

Unit six language

Vocabulary Change

Borrowing

Borrowing is a way of adding new vocabulary items to a language. Speakers of a language often have contact with speakers of other language. If a speaker of one of these languages does not have a readily available word for something in the world and a speaker of the other language does, the first speaker often borrows the word from the second speaker. The first settlers in North America had contact with the Indians who had already developed names for places and things peculiar to the North American continent. Consequently, the settlers borrowed such words as Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Chicago, and Mississippi, to mention a few place-names only.

Another large group of words came into English as a result of contact through invasion, in this case the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Various kinds of words were borrowed into English: for matters of government like crown, country, duke, court, and prince; for matters of law like judge, jury, crime, accuse, marry,

and prove; for matters of war like battle, arms, soldier, siege, danger, and march; and for matters of religion like angel, saint, pray, save, blame, virtue, and vice. Then, too, today we find interesting pairs of words such as cow and beef, sheep and

mutton, calf and veal, and pig and pork in which the first item, the name of the

animal, is Germanic in origin and the second item, the meat of the animal, is a borrowing from French. Perhaps the occurrence of such pairs reflects a society in which the conquered Englishman raised the animals for the table of the conquering Norman.

Several points can be made about the Norman Conquest. First, the borrowings from French do not show much, if any, cultural superiority in the invaders. Secondly, although the Normans were conquerors, they eventually gave up their French to become speakers of English, just as their ancestors had eventually given up their Germanic language when they invaded France. Thirdly, the borrowings do not show the same intimate relationships between conquered and conqueror as the borrowings that resulted from the earlier Danish invasions of the ninth and tenth centuries, when “everyday” words such as egg, sky, gate, skin, skirt, skill, skull, scatter, sister, law, weak, give, take, call, and hit, and particularly the pronouns they, them, and their, and the verb are were borrowed from the Danish invaders.

The kinds of contact speakers have with each other may often be judged from the particular items that are borrowed. For example, English has borrowed numerous words from French having to do with clothing, cosmetics, and luxury goods, like ensemble, lingerie, suede, perfume, rouge, champagne, and deluxe. From German have come words associated with food like hamburger and

delicatessen. From Italian have come musical words like piano, opera, solo, sonata, soprano, trombone, and serenade. From various Indian languages have come

words for once exotic dress items like bandanna, sari, bangle, and pajamas. And from Arabic have come some interesting words beginning with al- (the Arabic determiner): alcohol, alchemy, almanac, and algebra.

Of course, Latin and Greek have provided English with the richest resource for borrowing more formal learned items. Large numbers of words have been borrowed into English from both languages, particularly learned polysyllabic

words. Numerous doublets also exist in English, that is, words that have been borrowed twice, once directly from Latin, and the second time through another language, most often French:

Latin English French English

magister magistrate maitre master

securus secure sur sure

North American English shows a wide contact with other languages in its borrowings: French (levee, prairie); Spanish (mesa, patio); German (fatcakes,

smearcase); Dutch (coleslaw, cooky, stoop); American Indian (squash, moccasin, squaw, wigwam); and various African languages (banjo, gumbo, voodoo).

At different times speakers of certain languages have shown noticeable resistance to borrowing words, and they have preferred either to exploit native resources or to resort to loan translations instead. Such an English word as

superman is a loan translation of the Ubermensch just as marriage of convenience

is a loan translation of the French mariage de convenance and it goes without saying of the French ca va sans dire. Borrowings are also assimilated to different degrees. Sometimes a borrowing is pronounced in a decidedly foreign way for a while, but it is usually soon treated according to native sound patterns if it occurs frequently. In English, words such as

garage, salon, masseur, ghoul, and hickory, borrowed from a variety of foreign

languages, are pronounced according to the sound system of English and not according to the phonological rules of the source language.

Narrowing and widening

One process involves narrowing the meaning of a word so that the word achieves a more restricted meaning over the course of time. Meat now means a particular kind of food, not food in general, as it does in the following quotation from the King James version of “Genesis”: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Likewise, deer now refers to a particular kind of animal, not animal in general, as it did in Shakespeare’s words “But mice and rats and such small deer have been Tom’s food for seven long year.” Worm now refers to a particular kind of crawling creature, not any crawling creature, although some of the original more general meaning is contained still in slowworm, blindworm, and glowworm. Fowl and

hound refer to particular kinds of bird and dog and wife, to a particular kind of

woman. However, in the case of the last word we can note a more general meaning in midwife, wife of Bath, and perhaps housewife. Finally, North Americans use the word corn in a narrow meaning to refer to maize, whereas the British use it to refer to grain in general. Keat’s Ruth standing “amid the alien corn” is not standing in a field of maize.

The opposite process is widening of meaning. In this process a word achieves

a more general meaning. The words bird and dog once referred to specific types of birds and dogs, not to the species in general. The word virtue described a characteristic associated with men, but not with women, just as only women could be said to be hysterical, since men were not possessed of wombs (hysteria being the Greek word for “uterus”). The word sensible once meant “sensitive,” as it still does in French, and alibi referred to the fact that a person was elsewhere when something happened, not that he had some kind of excuse for something.

some notes on gender-neutral language

The practice of assigning masculine gender to neutral terms comes from the fact that every language reflects the prejudices of the society in which it evolved, and English evolved through most of its history in a male-centered, patriarchal society. Like any other language, however, English is always changing. One only has to read aloud sentences from the 19th century hooks assigned for this class to sense the shifts that have occurred in the last 150 years. When readers pick up something to read, they expect different conventions depending on the time in which the material was written. As writers in 1995, we need to be not only aware of the conventions that our readers may expect, but also conscious of the responses our words may elicit. In addition, we need to know how the shifting nature of language can make certain words awkward or misleading.

\"Man\"

Man once was a truly generic word referring to all humans, but has gradually

narrowed in meaning to become a word that refers to adult male human beings. Anglo-Saxons used the word to refer to all people. One example of this occurs when an Anglo-Saxon writer refers to a seventh-century English princess as \"a wonderful man\". Man paralleled the Latin word homo, \"a member of the human species.\" not vir, \"an adult male of the species.\" The Old English word for adult male was waepman and the old English word for adult woman was wifman. In the course of time, wifman evolved into the word \"woman.\" \"Man\" eventually ceased to be used to refer to individual women and replaced waepman as a specific term distinguishing an adult male from an adult female. But man continued to be used in generalizations about both sexes.

By the 18th century, the modern, narrow sense of man was firmly established as the predominant one. When Edmund Burke, writing of the French Revolution, used men in the old, inclusive way, he took pains to spell out his meaning: \"Such a deplorable havoc is made in the minds of men (both sexes) in France...\" Thomas Jefferson did not make the same distinction in declaring that \"all men are created equal\" and \"governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.\" In a time when women, having no vote, could neither give nor withhold consent, Jefferson had to be using the word men in its principal sense of \"males,\" and it probably never occurred to him that anyone would think otherwise. Looking at modern dictionaries indicate that the definition that links \"man\\' with males is the predominant one. Studies of college students and school children indicate that even when the broad definitions of \"msn\" and \"men\" are taught, they tend to conjure up images of male people only. We would never use the sentence \"A girl grows up to be a man,\" because we assume the

narrower definition of the word man.

The Pronoun Problem

The first grammars of modern English were written in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were mainly intended to help boys from upper class families prepare for the study of Latin, a language most scholars considered superior to English. The male authors of these earliest English grammars wrote for male readers in an age when few women were literate. The masculine-gender pronouns(代词) did not reflect a belief that masculine pronouns could refer to both sexes. The grammars of this period contain no indication that masculine pronouns were sex-inclusive when used in general references. Instead these pronouns reflected the reality of male cultural dominance and the male-centered world view that resulted.

\"He\" started to be used as a generic pronoun by grammarians who were trying to change a long-established tradition of using \"they\" as a singular pronoun. In 1850 an Act of Parliament gave official sanction(批准)to the recently invented concept of the \"generic\" he. In the language used in acts of Parliament, the new law said, \"words importing the masculine gender shall be deemed and taken to include females.\" Although similar language in contracts and other legal documents subsequently helped reinforce this grammatical edict in all English-speaking countries, it was often conveniently ignored. In 1879, for example, a move to admit female physicians to the all-male Massachusetts Medical Society was effectively blocked on the grounds \\'that the society\\'s

by-laws describing membership used the pronoun he.

Just as \"man\" is not truly generic in the 1990s, \"he\" is not a true generic pronoun. Studies have confirmed that most people understand \"he\" to refer to men only. Sentences like \"A doctor is a busy person; he must be able to balance a million obligations at once\" imply that all doctors are men. As a result of the fact that \"he\" is read by many as a masculine pronoun, many people, especially women, have come to feel that the generic pronouns excludes women. This means that more and more people find the use of such a pronoun problematic.

Unit eight women

Women in Education, Sports and Media

Education

While the rights of women in the worlds of politics and work and the position of women in the family are the focus of the American women’s movement today, feminists have many other concerns which indicate the widespread effects that the movement has had on contemporary life. One special area of concern is education. Many educators and parents believe that the elimination of sex bias in schools is absolutely necessary in order for women to achieve equality in American life. Until the middle of the 1970’s courses open to only boys or only girls, auto mechanics or cooking, for example, were commonplace in schools. Physical education classes were usually segregated by sex, and more money was spent on sports for boys

than for girls. Career advice often encouraged girls to train for such “acceptable” occupations as nurse or secretary or teacher, while boys were programmed for high-level mathematics and science courses and industrial arts classes.

Some of this segregation has been eliminated as a result of Congress’ passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments in 1972. Title IX prohibited sex discrimination in educational programs receiving federal assistance. Enforcement of this measure has encouraged progress in moving toward equality in education. Most schools have made some changes in their admission and course politics, thus encouraging more women to pursue nontraditional careers. Sports participation by females has increased dramatically. Women’s studies programs have been instituted in schools and colleges.

Yet, much inequality in the education of women still remains. Feminists point out that many textbooks in use still portray women in stereotyped ways and often texts fail to include any discussion of women’s history at all. They agree that realistic advice about career and educational goals is often unavailable to women. Too few women are in decision-making positionsadministrator, principal, superintendent of schools. Groups have been organized to check on the enforcement of Title IX and to encourage the elimination of sexism in education. One such group, the Project on Equal Rights (PEER) has reported that few complaints filed about sex discrimination are actually investigated. “Hundreds of people have written to [the government] for help under Title IX,” says Holly Knox, director of PEER. “They couldn’t go into classes or couldn’t get jobs; they were denied equal pay or the chance to play sports solely because of their sex. [The

government] turned its back on most of them. Citizens who had every right to expect government help were either ignored or offered relief when it no longer mattered.” Enforcement of Title IX is still a continuing problem.

Sports

The American devotion to sports of all kinds had, until recently, been a devotion to activities which involved men and boys almost exclusively. Today, however, in part as a result of Title IX, but largely due to the efforts of such women as tennis champion Billie Jean King, women’s participation in sports is growing rapidly. This past decade has seen women’s tennis increased enormously in media attention and in prize money offered, which had always been considerably less than that offered men. College and high schools have increased their support for women’s teams, and the number of spectators at women’s games has expanded greatly. Mothers and fathers now coach daughters as well as sons on Little League teams. Educators and industry leaders point out that in addition to building physical endurance and coordination skills, participation in sports activities teaches perseverance, teamwork, and leadership skills, all of which are important to young people in their future lives. One high school coach said, “Girls can get just as much benefit out of sports as boys can. The days when people thought it wasn’t feminine are gone.”

Media

Feminists have also been active in attempting to eliminate sexism in all forms

of media. Pointing out that magazines, books, television, radio, and movies have a tremendous influence on Americans, they have accused the media of portraying men and women in stereotyped ways. In 1900, Susan B. Anthony wrote:

as long as newspapers and magazines are controlled by men, every women must write article which are reflections of men’s ideas. As long as that continues, women's ideas and deepest convictions will never get before the ublic.

Her Statement is still significant today when only about 5% of all policy-making positions in the media are held by females and even fewer by minority females. Although women have gained visibility on TV news programs in the past decade, experts point out that little attention is paid to news of women, who appear in less than 10% of the stories defined as “news.” They say that often news about women is segregated into special sections of newspapers or in special features on news programs. Feminists believe that “the reality of the lives most women lead does not come through on the screen or in the press.”

Women’s groups have been particularly active in protesting the image of women presented by most advertisers. Women still are used as decorations or “sex-objects” to sell a product; observers call this kind of advertising “sexploitation.” They say that many advertisements still reinforce stereotypes which say “women’s place is in the home,” “women are dependent,” and “women rarely make important decisions” (they are infrequently heard or seen selling such major products as automobiles). A vice-president of a large advertising firm stated:

Many ads today have a superficial contemporary look. They feature a woman in jeans rather than with bouffant hair. But the implied attitude is still the samethey are presented as housewives or sex objects rather than serious workers.

Men are also portrayed in stereotyped waysaggressive, unemotional, strong.

There have been changes, however, as feminists work to overcome this stereotyping. Advertisers are beginning to recognize the existence of millions of women who work outside the home and are gearing ads toward them. A recognition of the buying power of working women is evident in the emergence of several magazines for themMs., Working Women, Women Who Work, and

Working Mother. Feminists are increasingly encouraged by such changes because

they recognize the power of the media to shape roles and attitudes.

Unit 10 cross-cultural communication