英语口语教程(高级) UNIT 25

[00:01.00]Lesson 25 II.Read According to SAIC officials,;
[00:03.55]there are several reasons for the rampant fake advertising.;
[00:08.46]First,some enterprises, especially township and private ones,;
[00:15.74]use fake advertising to push sales of their Substandard or fake products.;
[00:22.54]Sheng Xincheng,a private businessman in Xinjiang,;
[00:27.45]advertised for his "fine cow-hide shoes.";
[00:31.75]Customers outside Xinjiang sent him 180,000 yuan ( $ 48,000);
[00:41.04]only to get back inferior plastic shoes.;
[00:45.69]Second,many newspapers,magazines and other media;
[00:52.31]take the advertising because they need the money;
[00:56.13]and don't care about the ethics of the ad's contents.;
[01:01.17]Third,China does not have effective laws and regulations;
[01:06.70]to prevent such advertising.;
[01:11.17]5. The Language of Advertising;
[01:16.83]Some products are advertised as having a remarkable and immediate effect.;
[01:26.56]We are shown the situation before using the product;
[01:31.61]and this is contrasted with the situation that follows its use.;
[01:37.66]Taking a tablet for a headache in such advertisements;
[01:42.79]can have truly remarkable results.;
[01:46.34]For not only has the headache gone,;
[01:49.37]but the person concerned has often had a new hair-do,;
[01:54.24]acquired a new set of clothes;
[01:56.74]and sometimes even moved into a more modern,better furnished house.;
[02:03.31]2. One thing reminds us of another --;
[02:09.94]especially if we often see them together.;
[02:14.23]These reminders are sometimes more imaginary than real:;
[02:19.67]for some people snow may suggest Christmas,;
[02:24.54]for others silver candlesticks may suggest wealth.;
[02:29.36]The advertiser encourages us to associate his product;
[02:34.80]with those things he thinks we really want -- a good job,;
[02:39.89]nice clothes, a sports car, a beautiful girlfriend;
[02:45.15]-- and,perhaps most of all,a feeling of importance.;
[02:50.81]The "image" of a product is based on these associations;
[02:56.07]and the advertiser often creates a "good image";
[03:00.41]by showing us someone who uses his product;
[03:04.05]and who leads the kind of life we should like to lead.;
[03:09.23]3. Advertisements often encourage us to believe;
[03:17.21]that because someone has been successful in one field,;
[03:21.24]he should be regarded as an authority in other fields.;
[03:25.85]The advertiser knows that there are certain people we admire;
[03:31.07]because they are famous sportsmen, actors or singers,;
[03:35.36]and he believes that if we discover;
[03:38.13]that a certain well-known personality uses his product,;
[03:42.69]we will want to use it too.;
[03:45.76]This is why so many advertisements feature famous people.;
[03:52.16]4. Maybe we can't always believe what we're told,;
[03:59.44]but surely we must accept what we're actually shown.;
[04:04.31]The trouble is that when we look at the photograph;
[04:08.08]we don't know how the photoraph was taken,;
[04:11.59]or even what was actually photographed.;
[04:15.10]Is that delicious- looking whipped cream really cream, or plastic froth?;
[04:21.68]Are the colours in fact so glowing or has a special filter been used?;
[04:27.99]It is often difficult to tell,;
[04:31.19]but you can sometimes spot the photographic tricks;
[04:34.83]if you look carefully enough.;
[04:38.16]5. If you keep talking about something for long enough,;
[04:45.58]eventually people will pay attention to you.;
[04:49.22]Many advertisements are based on this principle.;
[04:53.86]If we hear the name of a product many times a day,;
[04:58.51]we are much more likely to find;
[05:01.01]that this is the name that comes into our head;
[05:03.91]when the shopkeeper asks "What brand?";
[05:07.81]We usually like to choose things for ourselves,;
[05:11.45]but if the advertiser plants a name in our heads in this way;
[05:16.19]he has helped to make the choice for us.;
[05:20.09]6. In this age of moon flights,;
[05:26.14]heart transplants and wonder drugs,;
[05:29.12]we are all impressed by science.;
[05:32.37]If an advertiser links his claim with a scientific fact,;
[05:37.81]there's even a chance we can be blinded by science.;
[05:42.68]The question is simply whether the impressive air of the new discovery;
[05:48.99]or the "man-made miracle";
[05:51.18]is being used to help or just to hoodwink us.;
[05:57.28]7. Advertisers may try to make us want a product;
[06:05.00]by suggesting that most people, or the "best" people,;
[06:09.73]already use it and that we will no doubt want to follow them.;
[06:14.82]No one likes to be inferior to others;
[06:18.29]and these advertisements suggest;
[06:21.57]that you will be unless you buy the product.;
[06:26.57]8. The manufacturer needs a name for his product,;
[06:32.58]and of course he looks for a name;
[06:35.34]that will do more than just identify or label:;
[06:39.47]he wants a name that brings suitable associations as well;
[06:44.64]-- the ideas that the word brings to mind will help sell the product.;
[06:52.01]9. Most advertisements contain certain words;
[06:59.03](sometimes,but not always,in bold or large letters,;
[07:04.29]or beginning with a capital letter);
[07:07.10]that are intended to be persuasive,;
[07:10.21]while at the same time appearing to be informative.;
[07:15.12]In describing a product, copy-writers insert words;
[07:20.17]that will conjure up certain feelings, associations and attitudes.;
[07:26.22]Some words -- "golden", for example--;
[07:30.08]seem to have been so successful in selling;
[07:33.54]that advertisers use them almost;
[07:36.30]as if they were magic keys to increase sales.;
[07:41.79]Advertisers may invoke feelings;
[07:47.49]that imply you are not doing the best for those you love most.;
[07:52.35]For example,an advertisement may suggest;
[07:56.70]that any mother who really loves her children;
[08:00.12]uses a certain product.;
[08:02.79]If she does not,;
[08:04.55]she might start to think of herself as a bad mother;
[08:08.23]who does not love her family.;
[08:11.08]So she might go and buy that particular product,;
[08:15.47]rather than go on feeling bad about it.;
[08:20.95]Lesson 26 Does Divorce Represent Social Progress?;
[08:30.29]Text Divorces--a New Social Phenomenon in China;
[08:39.10]Divorce used to be very rare in our country.;
[08:44.28]In old times it was not necessary for a man to divorce his wife;
[08:50.46]as he could easily marry another or many others.;
[08:55.42]But women were expected to suffer in silence,;
[09:00.07]and for those who could not,suicide was the only way out.;
[09:06.91]Despite the new marriage laws after Liberation,;
[09:11.47]women still found the feudal conventions;
[09:14.93]too strong for them to break away from.;
[09:18.48]The film The Well drove home this point only too well.;
[09:25.59]It's only in the past decade,;
[09:29.01]ever since our opening up to the outside world,;
[09:33.18]that things are really beginning to change.;
[09:37.17]The following story,dramatic as it sounds,;
[09:42.34]is a true and far from unique story of our times.;
[09:48.61]Thirty-year old Xia Yafang;
[09:51.77]used to work in a research institute in Shanghai.;
[09:56.29]Like most young people of her age her ambition was to go abroad;
[10:02.78]and somehow she managed to land herself in Japan.;
[10:07.91]She started to work as a casual labourer in a tourist company in Tokyo.;
[10:14.75]Because of her industry and exceptional ability,;
[10:19.44]and also partly due to chance,;
[10:22.82]she worked herself up to the position of assistant-manager.;
[10:28.00]A brilliant career lay ahead of her;
[10:31.20]and her future looked ever so bright.;
[10:35.23]When all seemed to be plain sailing;
[10:38.83]Xiao Xia suddenly lost her peace of mind;
[10:42.86]when she found the admiring eyes of the manager;
[10:46.15]constantly fixed on her.;
[10:48.65]The message the eyes sent out was too obvious to be mistaken.;
[10:54.92]She read in them admiration,love and desire.;
[11:00.80]She could not remain unmoved,;
[11:03.87]but she was caught in a dilemma,;
[11:06.81]She had a husband at home and also a little son.;
[11:11.94]So when the manager formally proposed to her;
[11:16.32]she naturally told him that the whole thing was impossible;
[11:20.58]as she already had a happy little family.;
[11:24.35]But nothing could put the manager off.;
[11:27.99]So deep was his love for her.;
[11:31.19]He pressed his suit;
[11:33.47]and wanted her to divorce her husband and marry him instead.;
[11:39.26]If she had been a single woman;
[11:42.20]she would have accepted him without any hesitation.;
[11:46.45]Now she did not know what to do.;
[11:50.66]The manager gave her a fortnight's leave to go home;
[11:55.09]and talk things over with her husband.;
[11:58.34]If he agreed to let his wife go,;
[12:01.71]the manager would pay him a substantial sum as compensations,;
[12:06.80]and also make arrangement for their son to be brought up;
[12:10.66]and settle in Japan.;
[12:13.86]When she stepped down from her plane at the airport in Shanghai,;
[12:18.99]she immediately spotted her husband with their child in his arm;
[12:23.55]waiting in the crowd.;
[12:26.05]When she saw him pushing his way through the crowd towards her,;
[12:30.96]tears welled up in her eyes and she started to sob uncontrollably.;
[12:37.72]In the days that followed,;
[12:40.61]she was overwhelmed by her husband's loving care and tenderness.;
[12:46.01]She just could not bring herself to talk about a divorce.;
[12:51.27]In the end she left Shanghai without mentioning a word;
[12:56.44]about her manager and his offer.;
[12:59.73]But that was not the end of the affair.;
[13:03.37]The manager just would not give her up.;
[13:06.92]He decided to come to Shanghai in person;
[13:10.65]and talk to her husband direct.;
[13:14.20]For the first three days;
[13:16.75]he behaved as if there was nothing between him and Xiao Xia.;
[13:21.40]He let the couple take him around in Shanghai,;
[13:24.86]having a nice time like any other tourist.;
[13:29.25]In the process he managed to win the husband's friendship and trust.;
[13:36.09]Then on the third night;
[13:38.72]he invited the husband to his room in his hotel alone.;
[13:43.89]There he put the whole thing to him openly and frankly,;
[13:49.20]disguising nothing.;
[13:51.61]The shock for the husband can well be imagined.;
[13:57.36]He went home to his wife in a dazed state of mind.;
[14:02.66]He didn't mention a word to his wife;
[14:05.51]about his conversation with her manager.;
[14:08.72]There was no need to.;
[14:11.22]She didn't say anything either.;
[14:14.51]She just gave him time to sort things out for himself.;
[14:20.56]When the initial shock was over,;
[14:24.15]he started to do some clear thinking and cool calculation.;
[14:29.63]His wife no longer loved him,at least not undividedly as before.;
[14:36.87]Even if he should forcibly keep her,;
[14:40.60]the shadow of the manager would always stand between them.;
[14:45.73]She would have a much better future with the manager;
[14:49.54]who could offer her much more than he could ever hope to offer.;
[14:54.24]And their son,too, would have a much better future;
[14:58.84]in that fabulously rich land.;
[15:02.04]Yes,he must admit it,he was thinking for himself too.;
[15:08.58]The "compensation" the manager offered him was an astronomical figure.;
[15:14.89]With it he could say good-bye to poverty for ever.;
[15:19.98]He could even buy a luxury apartment, a car,;
[15:24.94]and find a beautiful young wife...;
[15:28.27]And so his feeling of loss,;
[15:31.43]his wounded pride gave way to a new found equilibrium.;
[15:37.43]After the necessary procedure of a divorce;
[15:41.64]and her arrangements and application for another marriage,;
[15:46.20]he saw his former wife and her future husband to the airport.;
[15:52.08]What went through his mind;
[15:54.54]as he watched their retreating figures walking towards the plane?;
[15:59.84]Xiao Xia's story was carried in Shanghai Legal World.;
[16:05.76]While refraining from moralizing himself,;
[16:09.58]the writer asks the readers;
[16:12.02]to draw their own moral and ethical conclusions.;
[16:16.58]I know many similar cases involving people close to me.;
[16:22.41]In fact I had to act as the legal representative for one.;
[16:29.04]The woman in the office that handled the case;
[16:32.76]told me that such divorce cases;
[16:35.75](involving one party that has gone abroad) are very common.;
[16:41.54]So long as no questions of property;
[16:44.91]or care of children are involved,;
[16:47.98]divorces are granted without any questions asked.;
[16:55.96]II. Read Read the following passages.;
[17:04.78]Underline the important viewpoints while reading.;
[17:09.73]1.On Splitting;
[17:15.04]One affternoon recently,;
[17:18.68]two unrelated friends called to tell me that,;
[17:23.07]well,their marriages hadn't made it.;
[17:26.93]One was leaving his wife for another woman.;
[17:31.35]The other was leaving her husband because "we thought it best.";
[17:38.06]As always after such increasingly common calls,I felt helpless and angry.;
[17:46.22]What had happened to those solemn vows;
[17:49.64]that one of the couples;
[17:51.28]had stammered on a steamy August afternoon;
[17:54.63]three years earlier?;
[17:56.91]And what had happened to the joy my wife and I;
[18:01.03]had sensed when we visited the other couple;
[18:04.27]and their two children last year,;
[18:07.08]the feeling they gave us that here,;
[18:10.37]in this increasingly fractionated world,;
[18:13.22]was a constructive union?;
[18:16.25]I did not feel anger at my friends personally:;
[18:21.07]Given the era and their feelings,;
[18:24.40]their decisions probably made sense.;
[18:28.26]What angered me was the loss of years and energy.;
[18:33.75]It was an anger;
[18:35.89]similar to that I feel;
[18:37.91]when I see abandoned foundations of building projects--;
[18:42.34]piled bricks and girders;
[18:45.10]and a gash in the ground left to depress the passerby.;
[18:49.88]When our grandparents married,;
[18:52.78]nobody except scandalous eccentrics divorced.;
[18:57.51]"As long as we both shall live" was no joke.;
[19:01.90]Neither was the trepidation brides felt;
[19:05.50]on the eves of their wedding days.;
[19:08.48]After their vows, couples learned to live with each other;
[19:13.87]-- not necessarily because they loved each other,;
[19:17.51]but because they were stuck,;
[19:19.70]and it was better to be stuck comfortably than otherwise.;
[19:24.70]Most of the external pressures;
[19:28.12]that helped to enforce our grandparents' vows have dissolved.;
[19:33.52]Women can earn money and may enjoy sex,;
[19:37.55]even,bear children, without marrying.;
[19:41.59]As divorce becomes more common,;
[19:45.23]the shame attendant on it dissipates.;
[19:49.44]Some divorcees even argue that divorce is beneficial, educational,;
[19:56.94]that the second or third or fifth marriage is "the best".;
[20:02.95]The only reasons left to marry are love,tax advantages,;
[20:08.91]and,for those old-fashioned enough to care about such things,;
[20:13.78]to silence parental kvetching.;
[20:18.03]In some respects, this freedom can be seen as social progress.;
[20:24.74]Modern couples can flee the corrosive bitterness;
[20:28.86]that made Strindberg's marriages night-mares.;
[20:33.56]Dreiser's Clyde Griffiths;
[20:36.36]might have abandoned his Roberta;
[20:39.08]instead of drowning her.;
[20:41.80]In other respects, our rapidly-rising divorce rate;
[20:46.89]and the declining marriage rate;
[20:49.30](as more and more couples;
[20:51.49]opt to forgo legalities and simply live together) represent a loss.;
[20:58.07]One advantage of spending a lifetime with a person;
[21:02.68]is seeing each other grow and change.;
[21:06.75]For most of us, it is possible to see history in the bathroom mirror;
[21:12.85]-- gray hairs, crow's feet,yes,but not a change of mind or temperament.;
[21:20.39]Yet,living with another person,;
[21:23.95]it is impossible not to notice;
[21:26.27]how patterns and attitudes change;
[21:29.29]and not to learn-- about yourself and about time;
[21:33.90]- from those perceptions.;
[21:36.93]Perhaps the most poignant victim of the twentieth century;
[21:41.84]is our sense of continuity.;
[21:45.22]People used to grow up with trees,;
[21:48.59]watch them evolve from saplings to fruit bearers;
[21:52.63]to gnarled and unproductive grandfathers.;
[21:56.57]Now unless one is a farmer or a forester;
[22:01.35]there is almost no point to planting trees;
[22:04.91]because one is not likely to be there to enjoy their maturity.;
[22:10.87]We change addresses and occupations;
[22:14.90]and hobbies and lifestyles and spouses rapidly and readily,;
[22:20.43]much as we change TV channels.;
[22:24.46]In our grandparents' day;
[22:27.23]one committed oneself to certain skills and disciplines;
[22:31.75]and developed them.;
[22:33.94]Carpenters spent lifetimes learning their craft;;
[22:39.59]critics spent lifetimes learning literature.;
[22:43.94]Today,the question often is not "What do you do?" but "What are you into?";
[22:52.36]Macrame one week,astrology the next,health food,philosophy,;
[22:59.29]history,jogging, movies,EST --;
[23:04.55]we fly from "commitment" to "commitment" like bees among flowers;
[23:10.16]because it is easier to test something than to master it,;
[23:14.68]easier to buy a new toy than to repair an old one.;
[23:20.86]I feel sorry for what my divorced friends have lost.;
[23:25.95]No matter how earnestly the former spouses try to "keep in touch,";
[23:32.44]no matter how generous the visiting privileges for the parent;
[23:37.00]who does not win custody of the children,;
[23:40.38]the continuity of their lives has been broken.;
[23:44.98]The years they spent together have been cut off from the rest of their lives;;
[23:51.43]they are an isolated memory,;
[23:54.19]no more integral to their past than a snapshot.;
[23:59.19]Intelligent people, they will compare their next marriages;
[24:04.28]-- if they have them -- to their first.;
[24:07.70]They may even, despite not having a long shared past, notice growth.;
[24:14.80]What I pray, though,;
[24:17.26]is that they do not delude themselves into believing,;
[24:21.21]like so many Americans today,;
[24:24.19]that happiness is only measurable moment to moment;
[24:28.66]and,in the pursuit of momentary contentment,;
[24:33.35]forsake the perspectives and consolation of history.;
[24:39.23]There is great joy in watching a tree grow.;
[24:45.46]2.Kramer vs Kramer;
[24:50.68]Ted Kramer is a rising young executive in an advertising firm.;
[24:57.25]He has just been promoted to a new responsible post;
[25:02.56]and a brilliant career is before him.;
[25:06.42]When he comes home with the happy news,;
[25:10.15]his wife Joanna announces her decision to leave him.;
[25:15.76]At first he doesn't take her seriously,;
[25:20.06]thinking it was just a passing mood.;
[25:23.61]He just can't imagine;
[25:25.76]why she should want to abandon a comfortable life;
[25:29.31](he brings in good money) and a happy family (they have a lovely boy).;
[25:35.80]In all fairness he has never ill-treated her.;
[25:40.85]But to Joanna her married life has been an utter failure;
[25:46.50]--meaningless and empty.;
[25:49.75]With a college degree,;
[25:52.25]she can make something more of her life;
[25:55.06]than just to be someone's wife.;
[25:57.64]She wants to live a worthwhile life of her own.;
[26:01.76]It's not until the elevator's doors close in his face;
[26:06.55]that Ted realizes that Joanna has gone out of his life.;
[26:11.98]Despite long years of married life,;
[26:15.93]he has never bothered to get to know,;
[26:18.87]understand and sympathize with his wife until it is too late.;
[26:26.02]Ted is left with their seven-year-old son Billy whom he hardly knows.;
[26:33.25]Now he has to be both father and mother to his son,;
[26:38.30]as well as to cope with his demanding work.;
[26:42.42]At first nothing goes well.;
[26:46.15]Father and son fight each other.;
[26:49.30]Ted's work suffers visibly, much to the worry of his superior.;
[26:56.06]But as father and son are together more and more,;
[27:00.88]their relation improves and their mutual dependence grows.;
[27:06.80]Ted is discovering a human relationship;
[27:10.97]which brings him new-formed love and happiness.;