英语阅读练习18

1. According to a recent survey, employees in many companies today work longer hours than employees did in 1997. They also take shorter vacations than employees in 1997 took. It seems that Americans are working harder today than ever before. Or are they? A management consultant, Bill Meyer, decided to find out. For three days, he observed an investment banker hard at work. Meyer wrote down everything that banker did during his long workday----the banker worked 80 hours a week. At the end of the three-day period, Meyer reviewed the banker’s activities with him. They discovered that the man spent 80 percent of his time doing busy work. For example, he attended unnecessary meetings, made repeated telephone calls, and spent time packing and unpacking his two big briefcases.

Apparently, many people believe that the more time a person spends at work, the more she or he accomplished. However, the connection between time and productivity is not always positive. In fact, many studies indicate that after a certain point, anyone’s productivity and creativity begin to decrease. Furthermore, it is not always easy for individuals to realize that their performance is falling off.

Part of the problem is understandable. When employers evaluate employees, they often consider the amount of time on the job in addition to job performance. Employees know this. Consequently, they work longer hours and take less vacation time than they did nine years ago. Although many working people can do their job effectively during a regular 40-hour work week, they feel they have to spend more time on the job after normal working hours so that the people who can promote them see them.

A group of headhunters (people who search out executive personnel for companies) were asked their opinion about a situation. They had a choice of two candidates for an executive position with an important company. The candidates had comparable qualifications for the job. For example, they were both reliable. One could do the job well in a 40-hour work week. The other could do the same job in an 80-hour week just as well. According to a headhunting expert, the 80-hour-week candidate would get the job. The time this candidate spends on the job may encourage their employees to spend more time at work, too. Employers believe that if the employees stay at work later, they may actually do more work.

2. Helen Keller

All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. sometimes it was as long as a year; sometimes as short as twenty-four hours, but always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.

Such stories set up thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What associations should we crowd into those last hours? As mortal beings, what happiness should we find in reviewing the past? What regrets?

Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of

life. We should live each day with a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the epicurean motto of “eat, drink, and be merry,” most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.

3. We are not born with courage, but neither are we born with fear. Maybe some of our fears are brought on by your own experiences, by what someone has told you, by what you’ve read in the papers. Some fears are valid, like walking alone in a bad part of town at two o’clock in the morning. But once you learn to avoid that situation, you won’t need to live in fear of it.

Fears, even the most basic ones, can totally destroy our ambitions. Fear can destroy fortunes. Fear can destroy relationships. Fear, if left unchecked, can destroy our lives. Fear is one of the many enemies lurking inside us.

Let me tell you about five of the other enemies we face from within. The first enemy that you’ve got to destroy before it destroys you is indifference. What a tragic disease this is! “Ho-hum, let it slide. I’ll just drift along.” Here’s one problem with drifting: you can’t drift your way to the top of the mountain.

The second enemy we face is indecision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity and enterprise. It will steal your chances for a better future. Take a sword to this enemy.

The third enemy inside is doubt. Sure, there’s room for healthy skepticism. You can’t believe everything. But you also can’t let doubt take over. Many people doubt the past, doubt the future, doubt each other, doubt the government, doubt the possibilities and doubt the opportunities. Worse of all, they doubt themselves. I’m telling you, doubt will destroy your life and your chances of success. It will empty both your bank account and your heart. Doubt is an enemy. Go after it. Get rid of it.

The fourth enemy within is worry. We’ve all got to worry some. Just don’t let it conquer you. Instead, let it alarm you. Worry can be useful. If you step off the curb in New York City and a taxi is coming, you’ve got to worry. But you can’t let worry loose like a mad dog that drives you into a small corner. Here’s what you’ve got to do with your worries: drive them into a small corner. Whatever is out to get you, you’ve got to get it. Whatever is pushing on you, you’ve got to push back.

The fifth interior enemy is overcaution. It is the timid approach to life. Timidity is not a virtue; it’s an illness. If you let it go, it’ll conquer you. Timid people don’t get promoted. They don’t advance and grow and become powerful in the marketplace. You’ve got to avoid over caution.

Do battle with the enemy. Do battle with your fears. Build your courage to fight what’s holding you back, what’s keeping you from your goals and dreams. Be courageous in your life and in your pursuit of the things you want and the person you want to become.

4. The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like ‘ Palaeolithic Man’, ‘Neolithic Man’, etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label ‘Legless Man’. Histories of the time will go something like this: ‘in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn’t use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks. ’

The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird’s-eye view of the world – or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: ‘I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.’ The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says ‘I’ve been there. ’ You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say ‘I’ve been there’ – meaning, ‘I

drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. ’

When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers.

5. Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing appetite for what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart, there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young.

When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 80.

6. The Causes of European Separation in 16th Century

For a thousand years and more, the people of Europe had fought about many things, but they had been united in believing one thing: that there existed a single “Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” of which the Bishop of Rome, under the title of the Pope, was the visible and recognizable head in succession to St. Peter. But in 1517 a German monk, Martin Luther, challenged certain Catholic teachings and renounced his obedience to the papacy. Others had followed him, including Henry VIII.

Thus Europe was divided in every which way, the southern and eastern two-thirds still Catholic, the northern and western one-third what was coming to be called Protestant, though English-ruled Ireland solidly Catholic and the Spanish-ruled Netherlands, particularly the northern part approximating to modern Holland, grew increasingly Protestant; while in virtually every country,

whether officially Catholic or Protestant, those of the contrary faith fiercely attempted to convert their neighbors and equally fiercely resisted their neighbor’s attempts to convert them. For this there was no simple, friendly solution to be reached on the principle of live-and-let-live. Each party believed that it had hold of the truth, the only truth that mattered, the one that led to eternal salvation, and its adversaries clung to falsehood which must necessarily head to eternal damnation: not only for themselves but for all who should permit them to survive and infect others with their errors. Toleration, even reasonable discussion, was impossible. God and the devil could not mix. Just as Elizabeth was to ardent Catholics that Jezebel, so to earnest Protestants the Pope was “that wolfish bloodsucker,” and their Catholic fellow-creatures mad dogs, toads and other such vermin to be cleansed off the face of the earth.

These feelings, dangerous enough in themselves, were made more so by questions of geography and money. The Catholic countries bordering on the Mediterranean were by far the richest. From the beginning of the Middle Ages the Republic of Venice had controlled the trade routes to the East, bringing the wares carried out of Persia, China and the Indies by camel to her depots in Syria and reloading them in her high, gorgeously painted vessels for transshipment to Italy and beyond. Since the end of the fifteen century, first Portugal by sailing round Africa to India, then Spain by the discovery of America, had likewise been in a position to bring for sale to Europe all the rare and wonderful things for which Europe longed—silks and precious woods, sugar and spices, gold and silver, works of exquisite art and strange animals from peacock to tigers. In 1494, two years after Columbus’s first voyage to America, Pope Alexander VI had divided the

unexplored world beyond the seas between Spain and Portugal as reward for their enterprise and to keep them from fighting. The other countries had respected this division so long as they remained Catholic.

7. I was six years old, my sister, Sally Kay, was a submissive three-year-old girl. For some reasons, I thought we needed to earn some money. I decided we should \"hire out\" as maids. We visited the neighbors, offering to clean houses for them for a quarter cents. Reasonable as our offer was, there were no takers. But one neighbor telephoned my mother to let her know what Mary Alice and Sally Kay were doing.

Mother had just hung up the phone when we came first into the back door into the kitchen of our apartment. \"Girls,\" mother asked, \"why were you two going around the neighborhood telling people you would clean their houses?\" Mother wasn't angry with us. In fact, we learned afterwards she was amused that we had come up with such an idea.

But, for some reason, we both denied having done any such thing. Shocked and terribly hurt that her dear little girls could be such \"boldfaced (厚颜无耻的) liars\" . Mother then told us that Mrs. Jones had just called and told her we had been to her house and said we would clean it for a quarter cents.

Faced with the truth, we admitted what we had done. Mother said we have fibbed, we have not told the truth. She was sure that we knew better. She tried to explain why a fib (小谎) hurt, but she didn't feel that we really understood.

Years later, she told us that the lesson she came up with for trying to teach us to be truthful would probably have been found upon by child psychologists. The idea came to her in a flash, and a tender-hearted mother told us it was the most difficult lesson she ever taught us. It was a lesson we never forgot. After admonishing(警告，劝告) us, mother cheerfully began preparing for lunch. As we munching on sandwiches, she asked:\" Would you two like to go to see the movies this afternoon?\"

\"Wow, would we ever?\" We wondered what movie would be playing. Mother said: \"The Matinee\".

\"Oh, fantastic！ We would be going to see The Matinee, would we lucky?\" We got bathed and all dressed up. It was like getting ready for a birthday party. We hurried outside the apartment, not wanting to miss the bus that would take us downtown. On the landing, Mom stunned (使震惊) us by saying, \"Girls, we are not going to the movies today. ”We didn't hear her right.

\"What?\" we objected. \"What do you mean? Aren't we going to The Matinee? Mommy, you said that we are going to the Matinee.” Mother stooped and gathered us in her arms. I couldn't understand why there were tears in her eyes. We still had the time to get the bus, but hugging us, she gently explained this is a fib. \"It is important that what we say is true,\" Mom said. \"I fibbed to you just now and it felt awful to me. I don't ever want to fib again and I'm sure you don't want to fib again either. People must be able to believe each other. Do you understand? \"

We assured her that we understood. We would never forget. And since we had learned a lesson, why not go to the movie to see The Matinee. There were still time. Not today. Mother told us. We would go another time. That is how over fifty years ago, my sister and I learned to be truthful. We have never forgotten how much a fib can be hurt.

8. The greatest recent changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there was an unusual shortening of the time of a woman’s life spent in caring for children. A woman marrying at the end of the 19th century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which custom, chance and health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman’s youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has the care of children ,her work is lightened by household appliances（家用电器）and convenience foods.

This important change in women’s way of life has only recently begun to have its full effect on women’s economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left school at the first opportunity and most of them took a full-time job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school-leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women tend to marry younger ,more married women stay at work at

least until shortly before their first child is born. Many more afterwards, return to full or part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with both husband and wife accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfaction of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money and running the home, according to the abilities and interest of each of them.

9. The Smart Rabbit

One day a rabbit was in the garden eating carrots. When he was about to go home he saw the farmer. So he needed to hide. But where could he hide? The carrots are under the ground only the leaves were out. He could not hide there but the farmer was coming closer to him, then he had an idea to dig a hole and cover the top of the hole with leaves and twigs and wait until the farmer leaves.

But the farmer did not leave because he needed some carrots to make soup. Then the rabbit had another idea, he would dig under the lettuce patch and go home, he will get muddy if he did that but if that was the only way to go home he will do it. And that was the only way to go home. So he did it but by the time he got home he was very muddy and tired. So he went to bed. When he got up he took a bath, when he got out he had a nice meal with his family.

10. Women are also underrepresented in the administration and this is because there are so few women full professors. In 1985, Regent Beryl Milburn produced a report blasting the University of Texas System administration for not

encouraging women. The University was rated among the lowest for the system. In a 1987 update ,Milburn commended the progress that was made and called for even more improvement. One of the positive results from her study was a System-wide program to inform women of available administrative jobs. College of Communication Associate Dean Patrica Witherspoon, said it is important that woman be flexible when it comes to relocating if they want to rise in the ranks. Although a woman may face a chilly climate on campus, many times in order for her to succeed, she must rise above the problems around her and concentrate on her work. Until women make up a greater percentage of the senior positions in the University and all academia, inequities will exist. \"Women need to spend their energies and time doing scholarly activities that are important here at the University.\" Spirduso said.

\"If they do they will be successful in this system. If they spend their time in little groups mourning the sexual discrimination that they think exists here, they are wasting valuable study time.\"