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Unit 6
DIALOGUE I
Work Ethics
A: Do you think a telephone operator should be concerned about the worries of callers?
B: Well, it's not her job. At least I wouldn't interfere in other people's business.
A: What if it's something very urgent?
B: I don't see how a telephone operator can relieve anybody's worries "in the air".
A: Well, I wouldn't, either, if I hadn't read about a Xi'an operator who did much to save the life of a writer.
B: Really? That's unusual. What did she do?
A: One evening the operator put through a call from a small town in Qinghai, to the office of the Xi'an branch of the Chinese Writers' Association, but there was no answer. It was such a late hour that apparently nobody was around at the other end of the line.
B: The office was closed then?
A: Yes, it was too late. The operator asked the caller to try the next day, but the caller sounded very worried, and there was a pleading tone in his voice. "Please help me," he moaned. "This is an emergency."
B: But there was nothing the operator could do.
A: The operator didn't think so. She asked about the problem.
B: What was the problem?
A: What happened was that a travelling writer of children's stories was down with a serious stroke when he arrived at this small town in Qinghai. He had to be sent to Guangzhou for a surgical operation. Since Xi'an was the nearest location with an airport, the writer would have to be sent there by railway first, and hopefully he would get some preliminary treatment in Xi'an.
B: So that was why the caller tried to contact the Xi'an office of the Writers' Association. He wanted their help.
A: Exactly.
B: All this was very complicated. How could the operator have the patience to listen to the caller?
A: But it was against her work ethics if she didn't do anything to help, as she commented on the incident later at an interview.
B: What did she do then?
A: She not only listened but took immediate action. She took down all the information, then called the CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) to book airline tickets from Xi'an to Guangzhou.
B: Did she contact a hospital in Xi'an?
A: Yes, she did. She called up a hospital requesting an emergency treatment on call. She also arranged accommodations with a nearby hotel for the people arriving with the patient.
B: She did all that she could do.
A: Actually she did more than she could do as an operator. As soon as she was off duty the next morning, the operator went to the three different places to confirm everything. She did all this so that the trip to Guangzhou would be made in time. And when the patient and his companions arrived, the operator went to the Xi'an railway station to meet them. No matter how inconvenient everything was to her, she didn't mind.
B: My goodness, she did all that? But was everything all right?
A: Everything went smoothly. The writer was treated in Xi'an and from there flown to Guangzhou without delay.
B: That was certainly a rare case of excellent service.
A: The point is, she is a woman of admirable integrity, an employee with high work ethics.
DIALOGUE II
Dialogue:
Two friends talk about the film one of them went to see last week.
A: Well, hello! I haven't seen you for ages, not since last Friday in fact. How was the film? Did you enjoy it?
B: Oh, don't talk to me about last Friday evening! It was the most awful evening I've ever had!
A: Why? What happened?
B: Well, when I first arrived, the cinema was so cold that I had to keep my coat on. It was bitterly cold in there.
A: What about the film?
B: I'll come to the film later; I had some problems even before the film started. I was surrounded by smokers and, you know, I can't stand smoke. There were so many people smoking that I couldn't breathe.
A: Oh, no!
B: Apart from that, there was so little space between the rows that my legs began to ache even during the commercials.
A: I thought The Globe Cinema was a new one.
B: Well, it is, but they've tried to save money in its construction, I can tell you.
A: So, what about the film?
B: I missed most of it because I could hardly see the screen. The chairs were so low that I could hardly see over the woman's big hat in front. And the audience! There were children eating sweets to the left of me, young lovers talking constantly behind me, and babies crying to the right of me. It was terrible! The crowd was so noisy that I missed most of the dialogues.
A: So how long did you stay?
B: I left at the interval. I couldn't wait to get out of the place; it was absolute misery! Oh, and just to add insult to injury, I couldn't get on the bus because of a football crowd. And as I was walking home, it started to rain. What a night!
READING
Vitamins
Vitamins are chemical substances that our bodies must have. Only small amounts of vitamins are needed, but growth, good health, and even life itself are impossible without them. Our bodies manufacture some vitamins, but most vitamins are obtained from the foods we eat.
The discovery of vitamins is an exciting chapter in the history of science. The beginning of the story goes back hundreds of years to the men who sailed the seas. Their voyages of discovery and the discovery of vitamins are linked.
The vast, uncharted oceans were not the only dangers that the seafarers faced. There were graver dangers. As a rule, the longer their journeys lasted, the more sailors got sick and ultimately they died of a disease called scurvy. In 1593, Richard Hawkins, a British seaman, fed his men the juice of citrus fruits, such as oranges, lemons, or limes. This was such an effective cure of scurvy that many lives were saved. Sadly, after Hawkins died his remarkable remedy was forgotten. It was not until nearly two hundred years later that Dr. James Lind (1716 - 1794), a British physician, suggested to the authorities to include lime juice in every sailor's diet so that their lives might be protected. This simple step was taken and it wiped out scurvy in the British Navy. It also led to the nickname "limeys", which is still used for British sailors.
In Java a Dutch doctor, Christiaan Eijkman (1858 - 1930), found that a disease called beriberi was somehow connected with a diet largely limited to refined or polished rice. This is the familiar white rice whose outer coating has been removed. Eijkman found that beriberi could be prevented if the diet included rice that still had some or all of its coating.
What was in lime juice and rice-coatings that could prevent and cure deadly diseases? After many years of research it became clear that scientists had discovered an entirely new group of substances in foods.
One of the scientists who worked with the newly discovered substances was Casimir Funk (1884 -1967), a Polish-born biochemist. He studied the anti-beriberi substance in rice coatings. He found that the substance was a type of chemical called an amine and mistakenly thought that all the other newly discovered substances in food were also amines. Because they were essential to life, he gave them the name "vitamines" meaning "life amines". Later, when it was found that some of the substances were not amines, the e was dropped, leaving the word "vitamins", which we use today.
In 1912 two groups of American scientists, working separately, made the first laboratory discovery and identification of a vitamin. It was called Vitamin A.
A second substance essential to life was discovered, and was given the name Vitamin B. Continued research showed that this vitamin was actually a group of vitamins. The group was named the vitamin B complex, and the members of the group were given the designations B1, B2, and so on. As scientists uncovered more information about the chemical nature of each vitamin, it was given a name. For example, vitamin B1 is thiamine, and vitamin B2 is riboflavin.
No one type of food contains all the vitamins that we need. This is why the diet of a normal, healthy person should regularly include dairy products, meats, fruits and vegetables, and cereal products. These four groups are called the "Basic Four". A variety of foods should be chosen within each group rather than restricting the choice to one or two items in a group. In this way there is an adequate supply of minerals and other nutrients in addition to vitamins. |