[00:01.00]Lesson 6 Is Euthanasia Humane?;
[00:00.85]II.Read;
[00:01.22]5.Legal System Should Be Established to Deal with Euthanasia;
[00:08.72]Many countries have legalized mercy killing.;
[00:13.51]In Uruguay the law states that,;
[00:17.50]"The judges are authorized to forgo punishment of a person;
[00:22.66]whose life has been honorable where he commits a homicide;
[00:27.29]motivated by compassion induced by repeated requests by the victim;
[00:33.83]Switzerland, Norway, and Germany have adopted similar approaches!;
[00:40.86]American law appears in need of revision.;
[00:45.86]However,some feel that legalized euthanasia would invite abuse.;
[00:52.99]Any form of murder might be conveniently dubbed mercy killing;
[00:58.47]by unscrupulous persons.;
[01:01.56]In response,some euthanasia proponents;
[01:05.98]have suggested that our legal system establish an evaluation body;
[01:11.67]to judge which requests for a mercy killing;
[01:15.50]are valid before the act is committed.;
[01:19.65]6.Is There a Way to Compromise?;
[01:24.97]Medical science is doing all it can to extend human life;
[01:30.77]and is succeeding brilliantly.;
[01:33.54]Living conditions are so much better,;
[01:37.00]so many diseases can either be prevented or cured;
[01:41.63]that life expectation has increased enormously.;
[01:45.94]No one would deny that this is a good thing;
[01:49.82]provided one enjoys perfect health.;
[01:53.39]But is it a good thing to extend human suffering, to prolong life,;
[01:59.51]not in order to give joy and happiness, but to give pain and sorrow?;
[02:06.16]Take an extreme example.;
[02:09.09]Take the case of a man who is so senile he has lost all his faculties.;
[02:16.22]He is in hospital in an unconscious state with little chance of coming round,;
[02:22.50]but he is kept alive by artificial means for an indefinite period.;
[02:28.03]Everyone,his friends relatives and even the doctors;
[02:33.93]agree that death will bring release.;
[02:37.02]Indeed,the patient himself would agree--;
[02:40.85]if he were in a position to give choice to his feelings.;
[02:45.11]Yet everything is done to perpetuate;
[02:48.25]what has become a meaningless existence.;
[02:51.92]The question of euthanasia raises serious moral issues;
[02:57.61]since it implies that active measures will be taken to terminate human life;
[03:03.25]And this is an exceedingly dangerous principle to allow.;
[03:08.26]But might it not be possible to compromise?;
[03:12.62]With regard to senility,;
[03:15.44]it might be preferable to let nature take its course;
[03:19.01]when death will relieve suffering.;
[03:21.61]After all,this would be doing no more than was done in the past,;
[03:27.20]before medical science made it possible;
[03:29.95]to interfere with the course of nature.;
[03:32.52]There are people in Afghanistan and Russia;
[03:36.05]who are reputed to live to a ripe old age.;
[03:39.88]These exceptionally robust individuals are just getting into their stride at 70;
[03:46.96]Cases have been reported of men over 120 getting married and having children.;
[03:54.94]Some of these people are said to be over 150 years old.;
[04:00.95]Under such exceptional conditions,;
[04:04.30]who wouldn't want to go on living forever?;
[04:07.76]But in our societies to be 70 usually means that you are old;;
[04:14.95]to be 90 often means that you are decrepit.;
[04:19.52]The instinct for selfpreservation is the strongest we possess.;
[04:25.22]We cling dearly to life while we have it and enjoy it.;
[04:30.38]But there always comes at time when we'd be better off dead.;
[04:36.23]Lesson 7 Do Examinations Do More Harm,Than Good?;
[04:44.75]Text On Eggs and Exams;
[04:50.60]I've been acting like an egg striking a rock. What is this egg?;
[04:58.00]It's the campaign against the old- fashioned way of teaching;
[05:02.41]Intensive Reading. And what's the rock?;
[05:06.88]It's the old- fashioned way of setting exams.;
[05:11.19]So long as the old type of I.R. examination remains in force,;
[05:17.58]the campaign against the old method of teaching I.R. can't win.;
[05:23.38]It's like an egg striking a rock.;
[05:27.47]Many people agree: Yes,this old- fashioned I.R.(OFIR);
[05:33.86]is certainly intensive;;
[05:36.52]it calls for most intensive work by the students.;
[05:41.09]But it doesn't teach them how to read.;
[05:44.45]The more intensively the students study, the fewer books they read.;
[05:50.89]And OFIR doesn't teach them language well either.;
[05:57.32]Learning a language means learning to use it. OFIR doesn't do that.;
[06:05.89]It teaches mainly about the language.;
[06:09.99]Well,if so many teachers and students agree;
[06:14.56]that OFIR doesn't teach people how to read,;
[06:18.87]why aren't they willing to give it up?;
[06:22.01]Because of that rock -- the rock of the old examination system.;
[06:27.87]If that rock is not smashed,the egg is smashed.;
[06:33.19]The campaign against OFIR can't be won.;
[06:38.67]Many I.R. exams, until now,;
[06:42.77]have actually included reading material studied during the term.;
[06:49.04]Does that examine how well the students have learnt to read?;
[06:53.73]No.It examines how well they have learnt by heart;
[06:58.78]the reading texts and explanations the teacher has given them.;
[07:04.37]A student might get high marks on such a test;
[07:08.84]without having learnt to read much better than before she took the course.;
[07:14.53]A true test would consist of unseen passages.;
[07:19.69]That would show how well a student could read and how much she had learnt.;
[07:26.08]Is that so important?;
[07:28.74]Yes.A college student should know how to read;
[07:33.10]and should learn to read much and fast.;
[07:37.15]He should on graduation have read hundreds and hundreds of pages,;
[07:44.01]dozens and dozens of books.;
[07:47.20]How else can our students inherit the knowledge;
[07:51.41]that mankind has gained through the ages?;
[07:55.18]For that is what China must do in order to modernize.;
[08:00.83]Of course,reading in itself is not enough.;
[08:05.56]We must think-- think about what we read and analyze its content,;
[08:11.57]ideas and approach "Cultivate the habit of analysis.";
[08:18.07]That is the aim of education.;
[08:21.47]But we must have something solid to analyze.;
[08:25.84]We must have some knowledge of the world,;
[08:29.29]of nature,of society past and present, Chinese and foreign.;
[08:36.42]So we must read much Therefore we must learn to read fast.;
[08:43.87]Naturally,we do need to know something about the language.;
[08:49.87]We do need to know some grammar.;
[08:52.80]But grammar is only a means to an end, not an end in itself;
[08:59.35]For grammar after all,is theory.;
[09:03.18]And "what is theory for and where does it come from?;
[09:08.13]It comes from practice and serves practice.";
[09:12.49]The same applies to grammar.;
[09:15.68]So we need to do some intensive reading for the sake of extensive reading;
[09:21.75]for the sake of reading whole articles,whole books.;
[09:26.75]A little theory goes a long way. The final test is practice.;
[09:33.51]True, reading is far from the only source of knowledge.;
[09:40.05]Reading without observing life and taking part in life,;
[09:45.69]without experimenting,will produce bookworms, not modernizers.;
[09:52.45]This does not show that all kinds of I.R.;
[09:57.35]are absolutely useless and should be scrapped.;
[10:01.50]Some I.R. should be kept --but it should be kept within limits.;
[10:07.88]It should not be "the super-power course",;
[10:12.14]riding roughshod over the language curriculum;
[10:15.92]and taking over most of the timetable.;
[10:19.48]And what I.R.we keep and teach should not be so long;
[10:24.43]and so hard that the teacher is forced to use the duck-stuffing,;
[10:29.86]lecturing method.;
[10:32.09]And it should not just focus on "words,words,words".;
[10:37.15]It should focus on meaning,on ideas,on understanding,;
[10:43.32]on communication -- on forests as well as on trees.;
[10:49.65]But as long as students are forced to get good marks;
[10:54.87]in order to get good jobs and as long as teachers want their students;
[11:01.04]to get good marks so that they themselves can gain fame as good teachers,;
[11:07.48]then everything depends on examinations.;
[11:11.42]It depends on what sort of exams we teachers set;
[11:16.10]and the educational authorities demand.;
[11:20.04]Until we reform our exams we can hardly reform our teaching methods.;
[11:27.59]So let's launch a new campaign,to discuss and reform the exam system;
[11:35.73]and at the same time continue the campaign against OFIR,the super power;
[11:43.88]We need to fight on two fronts at once. Otherwise we'll be eggs striking rocks.;
[11:52.71]II.Read;
[11:57.29]Read the following passages.Underline the important view- points while reading;
[12:05.43]1.Different Views about Examinations;
[12:12.34]John:Examinations do more harm than good!;
[12:17.56]Michael:I agree.We spend so much time revising for examinations;
[12:23.09]that we haven't enough time for new work!;
[12:26.29]Joan:I don't agree. Without exams,no one would do any revision.;
[12:32.88]We would soon forget everything.;
[12:36.02]Linda:That's right.;
[12:38.10]The only time I do any work is when there's going to be an exam!;
[12:43.84]That's true of everyone,isn't it?;
[12:47.14]John:No,I don't think so.;
[12:50.44]Many people work steadily all the time,and they remem- ber what they learn.;
[12:56.30]That's better than doing no work for weeks;
[12:59.49]and then working all night before the examination.;
[13:03.27]If there were no exams,more people would work like that don't you agree?;
[13:09.33]Joan:No,I don't think so.;
[13:12.37]I think many people wouldn't do any work at all. I know I wouldn't.;
[13:18.17]Linda:Of course not. Besides,without exams,;
[13:24.23]how could an employ- er decide whether to give us jobs?;
[13:28.60]John:The teachers could write reports about us.;
[13:32.43]Examinations can be unreliable,don't you think so?;
[13:37.32]Our teachers know as well,don't they?;
[13:41.21]Linda:Yes,they do. That's why I would rather have an examination!;
[13:47.75]2.The General Certificate of Education at O Level;
[13:56.74]When people discuss education;
[14:00.57]they insist that preparation for examinations is not the main purpose.;
[14:07.71]They are right in theory, but in practice,;
[14:13.08]we all realize how important examinations are.;
[14:17.82]What do you know ab- out the examinations taken at English secondary schools?;
[14:24.68]Here are a few facts about some of them.;
[14:28.67]Pupils who remain at school until they are sixteen normally take what is called;
[14:36.23]the General Certificate of Education at Ordinary level.;
[14:41.39]The examination is a subject examination.;
[14:46.39]This means you can take a number of subjects.;
[14:50.86]Some pupils take as many as ten.;
[14:55.22]The more subjects the better chance a pupil has;
[15:00.33]of getting a job on leaving school.;
[15:03.90]3.Homework Row Led to the Death of a Girl;
[15:11.40]A nine-year old girl was beaten to death;
[15:15.55]by her mother for failing to finish the day's homework in time.;
[15:21.35]Liu Lin was a third- year pupil in a primary school;
[15:26.46]in a Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Northwest Qinghai Province.;
[15:32.36]She was one of the best students in her school,;
[15:36.20]according to yesterday's Workers' Daily.;
[15:39.60]But on July 10,she did not do her arithmetic homework when Sun Fengxia,;
[15:47.00]her mother,got home from work at 16:00 p.m.;
[15:53.28]Sun severely beat her daughter with a rolling pin, the newspaper said.;
[16:00.73]By 19:30 p.m. that evening,;
[16:04.29]she found that her daughter had done only part of the homework;
[16:09.24]and she became even more angry.;
[16:12.43]Sun slapped her daughter in the face and kicked her, according to the paper;
[16:19.56]Lin became unconscious and later died despite efforts of doctors to save her.;
[16:27.97]Such cases are not rare in China.;
[16:32.17]In December last year in the province;
[16:36.64]Wu Yuxia beat her nine-year old son Xia Fei to death.;
[16:42.55]She later committed suicide in a prison.;
[16:46.91]In Dalian of Northeast Liaoning Province,;
[16:51.81]Li Liansheng beat his 14 years old son Li Guobin to death in March last year;
[17:00.16]because the boy was playing truant.;
[17:03.14]In Nanjing,capital of coastal Jiangsu Province,;
[17:08.41]19-year old Wang Lin killed his parents at home;
[17:13.15]because they forced him to try to get good marks in examinations.;
[17:18.84]4.Examinations Are Primitive Methods of Testing Knowle- dge and Ability;
[17:27.62]We might marvel at the progress made in every field of study;
[17:33.63]but the methods of testing a person's knowledge and ability;
[17:38.32]remain as primitive as they ever were.;
[17:42.04]It really is extraordinary that after all these years,;
[17:47.63]educationists have still failed;
[17:50.80]to devise anything more efficient and reliable than examinations.;
[17:56.73]For all the pious claim that examinations test what you know,;
[18:03.01]it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite.;
[18:09.60]They may be a good means of testing memory,;
[18:13.38]or the knack of working "rapidly under extreme pressure,;
[18:18.33]but they can tell you nothing about a person's true ability and aptitude;
[18:25.14]5.Examinations Are Anxiety-makers;
[18:32.38]As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none.;
[18:38.76]That is because so much depends on them.;
[18:43.45]They are the mark of success or failure in our society.;
[18:49.14]Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day.;
[18:55.05]It doesn't matter that you weren't feeling very well,;
[18:59.20]or that your mother died.;
[19:01.59]Little things like that don't count: the exam goes on.;
[19:08.35]No one can give of his best when he is in mortal terror,;
[19:13.72]or after a sleepless night,;
[19:16.44]yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do.;
[19:22.98]The moment a child begins school,he enters a world of vicious competition;
[19:29.85]where success and failure are clearly defined and measured;
[19:35.11]Can we wonder at the increasing number of "drop-outs":;
[19:40.06]young people who are written off as utter failures;
[19:44.53]before they have even embarked on a career?;
[19:48.36]Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?;
[19:54.38]6.The Examination System Never Trains You to Think for Yourself;
[20:04.11]A good education should among other things,;
[20:09.49]train you to think for yourself.;
[20:12.68]The examination system does anything but that.;
[20:17.63]What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus,;
[20:23.48]so the student is encouraged to memorise.;
[20:27.37]Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely,;
[20:33.17]but to restrict his reading;
[20:35.77]they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge,;
[20:40.51]but induce cramming.;
[20:43.01]They lower the standards of teaching,;
[20:46.36]for they deprive the teacher of all freedom.;
[20:50.25]Teachers themselves are often judged;
[20:53.92]by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects,;
[20:59.66]they are reduced to training their students;
[21:03.39]in exam techniques which they despise.;
[21:07.17]The most successful. Candidates are not always the best educated;;
[21:13.77]they are the best trained in the technique of working under duress.;
[21:19.88]7.Exam Is a Subjective Assessment by Some Anonymous Examiner;
[21:29.57]The results on which so much depends are often nothing more;
[21:36.06]than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner.;
[21:41.27]Examiners only human They get tired and hungry,they make mistakes.;
[21:49.68]Yet they have to mark stacks of hastily scrawled scripts;
[21:54.90]in a limited amount of time.;
[21:58.09]They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates.;
[22:03.62]And their word carries weight.;
[22:06.60]After a judge's decision you have the right of appeal,;
[22:11.50]but not after an examiner's.;
[22:14.48]There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways;
[22:19.37]of assessing a person's true abilities.;
[22:23.63]Is it cynical to suggest;
[22:26.77]that examinations are merely a profitable business;
[22:30.71]for the institutions that run them?;
[22:33.69]This is what it boils down to in the last analysis.;
[22:39.22]The best comment on the system is this illiterate message;
[22:44.24]recently scrawled on a wall:;
[22:47.10]"I were a teenage drop-out and now I are a teenage millionaire.";
[22:54.33]Lesson 8 Should We Diet in Order to Keep Fit?;
[23:02.16]Text How Does It Feel to Lose Weight?;
[23:08.49]Here is a conversation between a heart specialist and a heart patient.;
[23:15.78]Vic:I've been feeling very lonely.;
[23:19.61]I can't explain it, I'm in a crowd but I feel lonely.;
[23:25.51]And,so today,I tried to get in touch with it.;
[23:30.89]The loneliness and sadness are there because several things are going on.;
[23:37.27]One,I don't like my body.;
[23:41.11]Two,I am very angry with my body for having heart disease.;
[23:47.49]Dean:Do you want to do an imagery exercise? Vie: Yes.;
[23:52.33]Dean: Okay,Please close your eyes;
[23:55.52]and put yourself in a meditative state.;
[23:58.88]If at any time you feel like this is not something you want to do,;
[24:04.04]I'll rely on you to tell me that. Begin by visualizing your body.;
[24:10.48]What kind of image do you get?;
[24:13.24]Vic: Just mounds of flesh.A wall of fat.;
[24:18.56]Dean: Imagine that your body has a voice of its own.;
[24:22.77]Tell it hello. Ask it to just say hello to you,;
[24:28.25]just to identify itself. Does it?;
[24:32.77]Vie:[pause] it says "hello" back. I'm amazed!;
[24:38.04]Its voice is different from mine.;
[24:41.23]Dean: Ask it if it has a name. Vie:It says,"Fat.";
[24:47.03]Dean:Ask "Fat" what is its purpose in your life.;
[24:51.88]Vie: [pause]It says, "To give me support.To shield me.To protect me.";
[25:00.44]Dean: Ask it what it is shielding you from.;
[25:04.75]Vie:It says,"From everyone. I'm your best friend.";
[25:10.44]Dean:In what way is it your friend?;
[25:13.69]Vic:It says,"I've been protecting you.";
[25:18.27]Dean:Ask it what it has been protecting you from.;
[25:22.47]Vie:It says,"You don't have to do a lot of things because you're fat.";
[25:29.60]Dean:Ask it if it's protecting you from anything else?;
[25:35.19]Vic:[pause]Yes,it says it's been protecting me from my feelings.;
[25:41.20]Dean:Okay--ask it if it's protecting you from any feelings in particular.;
[25:47.85]Vie:[pause]It says, "From loneliness.";
[25:52.38]Dean:When it says that,;
[25:55.09]do any other images or feelings come to your awareness?;
[26:00.04]Vie:Somehow I remember getting fat when I was seven.;
[26:05.20]I see myself going into a room feeling like I was all right,;
[26:10.84]and finding out I was not all right. So my life has been about justification.;
[26:18.34]Justification about being all right. Being accepted.;
[26:25.05]So I used food as a friend.My fat says it protects me from feeling bad.;
[26:33.56]I have a lot of resistance to change.;
[26:37.44]I have a lot invested in this fat.;
[26:41.43]And to give it up is like giving up a friend.;
[26:46.17]It's been a barrier but it's also a friend.;
[26:50.91]It's a friend that gets in the way sometimes,;
[26:55.00]but it also serves me really well.;
[26:58.41]But my size limits me in what I want to do now.;
[27:03.46]Dean: Stay with those feelings now. Ask "Fat" what it needs from you now.;
[27:10.54]Vic:[pause]It says that it needs to be told it's all right the way it is.;
[27:16.34]Dean:Maybe you could start by thanking it for shielding,;
[27:20.38]protecting you from loneliness all these years.;
[27:24.06]Vie:[pause]All right Dean:Does the wall say anything in reply?;
[27:29.91]Vie:It agrees.It says, "It's about time.";
[27:34.38]Dean:Good.Now ask if it would be willing to open up.;
[27:39.70]to stop shielding you all the time.;
[27:42.79]If you could find a different way to shield yourself when you need it--;
[27:47.58]one that is easier to open and close.;
[27:51.25]Vic: A replacement-- is that what you are saying?;
[27:55.50]Dean:Yes.Something that you could use to shield yourself when you need it,;
[28:00.88]but isn't there all the time when you want to open up. See what it says.;
[28:07.74]Vic:[pause]It says, "Yes.";
[28:10.77]Dean:Ask it what you need to do for it to begin opening up;
[28:16.26]Vic:[pause]To get massaged.;
[28:19.13]To be,perhaps,more vulnerable.To allow myself to be touched;
[28:26.15]Dean:What images or feelings come to mind of your body in that way?;
[28:31.90]Vic:I'd feel freer.;
[28:34.72]Dean:How would you look?;
[28:37.22]Ask "Fat",the one that protects you and shields you,;
[28:41.48]if it would give you a different image of your body.;
[28:45.04]How your body would look if you were more open and less shielded all the time.;
[28:50.95]Vie:Okay. Dean: What does it say?;
[28:54.20]Vic:[pause]If I'm willing,it's willing.;
[28:57.12]Dean:Good.What image do you see?;
[29:00.37]You can always go back to the fat image if you need it.;
[29:04.36]Vic:I see a thinner body. Dean: What does it look like?;
[29:09.09]Vic:It looks thinner But it looks disfigured.The fat is very disfigured;
[29:16.17]Dean:How so? Vic:It's full of stretch marks, Saggy skin.;
[29:22.45]Dean:Okay.What does that body have to say?;
[29:26.55]Vic:[pause]To try and attain it anyway.To try to achieve it.;
[29:32.29]That it's okay to have a thinner body that's not perfect.;
[29:37.29]Dean:Do any other images or feelings come to your awareness?;
[29:42.78]Vic:I feel uncomfortable and sad...;
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