UNIT 1 PASSAGES OF HUMAN GROWTH (I)
1 A person’s life at any given time incorporates both external and internal aspects. The external system is composed of our memberships in the culture: our job, social class, family and social roles, how we present ourselves to and participate in the world. The interior realm concerns the meanings this participation has for each of us. In what ways are our values, goals, and aspirations being invigorated or violated by our present life system? How many parts of our personality can we live out, and what parts are we suppressing? How do we feel about our way of living in the world at any given time?
2 The inner realm is where the crucial shifts in bedrock begin to throw a person off balance, signaling the necessity to change and move on to a new footing in the next stage of development. These crucial shifts occur throughout life, yet people consistently refuse to recognize that they possess an internal life system. Ask anyone who seems down, “Why are you feeling low?” Most will displace the inner message onto a marker event: “I’ve been down since we moved, since I changed jobs, since my wife went back to graduate school and turned into a damn social worker in sackcloth,” and so on. Probably less than ten percent would say: “There is some unknown disturbance within me, and even though it’s painful, I feel I have to stay with it and ride it out.” Even fewer people would be able to explain that the turbulence they feel may have no external cause. And yet it may not resolve itself for several years.
3 During each of these passages, how we feel about our way of living will undergo subtle changes in four areas of perception. One is the interior sense of self in relation to others. A second is the proportion of safeness to danger we feel in our lives. A third is our perception of time—do we have plenty of it, or are we beginning to feel that time is running out? Last, there will be some shift at the gut level in our sense of aliveness or stagnation. These are the hazy sensations that compose the background tone of living and shape the decisions on which we take action.
4 The work of adult life is not easy. As in childhood, each step presents not only new tasks of development but requires a letting go of the techniques that worked before. With each passage some magic must be given up, some cherished illusion of safety and comfortably familiar sense of self must be cast off, to allow for the greater expansion of our own distinctiveness.
Pulling Up Roots
5 Before 18, the motto is loud and clear: “I have to get away from my parents.” But the words are seldom connected to action. Generally still safely
part of our families, even if away at school, we feel our autonomy to be subject to erosion from moment to moment.
6 After 18, we begin Pulling Up Roots in earnest. College, military service, and short-term travels are all customary vehicles our society provides for the first round trips between family and a base of one’s own. In the attempt to separate our view of the world from our family’s view, despite vigorous protestations to the contrary—“I know exactly what I want!”— we cast about for any beliefs we can call our own. And in the process of testing those beliefs we are often drawn to fads, preferably those most mysterious and inaccessible to our parents.
7 Whatever tentative memberships we try out in the world, the fear haunts us that we are really kids who cannot take care of ourselves. We cover that fear with acts of defiance and mimicked confidence. For allies to replace our parents, we turn to our contemporaries. They become conspirators. So long as their perspective meshes with our own, they are able to substitute fo r the sanctuary of the family. But that doesn’t last very long. And the instan t they diverge from the shaky ideals of “our group”, they are seen as betrayers. Rebounds to the family are common between the ages of 18 and 22.
8 The tasks of this passage are to locate ourselves in a peer group role, a sex role, an anticipated occupation, an ideology or world view. As a result, we gather the impetus to leave home physically and the identity to begin leaving home emotionally.
9 Even as one part of us seeks to be an individual, another part longs to restore the safety and comfort of merging with another. Thus one of the most popular myths of this passage is: We can piggyback our development by attaching to a Stronger One. But people who marry during this time often prolong financial and emotional ties to the family and relatives that impede them from becoming self-sufficient.
10 A stormy passage through the Pulling Up Roots years will probably facilitate the normal progression of the adult life cycle. If one doesn’t have an identity crisis at this point, it will erupt during a later transition, when the penalties may be harder to bear.
The Trying Twenties
11 The Trying Twenties confront us with the question of how to take hold in the adult world. Our focus shifts from the interior turmoils of late adolescence—“Who am I?”“What is truth?”—and we become almost totally preoccupied with working out the externals. “How do I put my aspirations into effect?” “What is the best way to start?” “Where do I go?” “Who can help
me?” “How did you do it?”
12 In this period, which is longer and more stable compared with the passage that leads to it, the tasks are as enormous as they are exhilarating: To shape a Dream, that vision of ourselves which will generate energy, aliveness, and hope. To prepare for a lifework. To find a mentor if possible. And to form the capacity for intimacy, without losing in the process whatever consistency of self we have thus far mustered. The first test structure must be erected around the life we choose to try.
13 Doing what we “should” is the most pervasive theme of the twenties. The “shoulds” are largely defined by family models, the press of the culture, or the prejudices of our peers. If the prevailing cultural instructions are that one should get married and settle down behind one’s own door, a nuclear family is born.
14 One of the terrifying aspects of the twenties is the inner conviction that the choices we make are irrevocable. It is largely a false fear. Change is quite possible, and some alteration of our original choices is probably inevitable.
15 Two impulses, as always, are at work. One is to build a firm, safe structure for the future by making strong commitments, to “be set”. Yet people who slip into a ready-made form without much self-examination are likely to find themselves locked in.
16 The other urge is to explore and experiment, keeping any structure tentative and therefore easily reversible. Taken to the extreme, these are people who skip from one trial job and one limited personal encounter to another, spending their twenties in the transient state.
17 Although the choices of our twenties are not irrevocable, they do set in motion a Life Pattern. Some of us follow the locked-in pattern, others the transient pattern, the wunderkind pattern, the caregiver pattern, and there are a number of others. Such patterns strongly influence the particular questions raised for each person during each passage through the life.
18 Buoyed by powerful illusions and belief in the power of the will, we commonly insist in our twenties that what we have chosen to do is the one true course in life. Our backs go up at the merest hint that we are like our parents, that two decades of parental training might be reflected in our current actions and attitudes.
19 “Not me,” is the motto, “I’m different.”
UNIT 2 AIDS IN THE THIRD WORLD A GLOBAL DISASTER
1 In rich countries AIDS is no longer a death sentence. Expensive drugs keep
HIV-positive patients alive and healthy, perhaps indefinitely. Loud
public-awareness campaigns keep the number of infected Americans, Japanese and West Europeans to relatively low levels. The sense of crisis is past.
2 In developing countries, by contrast, the disease is spreading like nerve gas in a gentle breeze. The poor cannot afford to spend $10,000 a year on wonder pills. Millions of Africans are dying. In the longer term, even greater numbers of Asians are at risk. For many poor countries, there is no greater or more immediate threat to public health and economic growth. Yet few political leaders treat it as a priority.
3 Since HIV was first identified in the 1970s, over 47 million people have been infected, of whom 1
4 million have died. Last year saw the biggest annual death toll yet: 2.
5 million. The disease now ranks fourth among the wor ld’s big killers, after respiratory infections, diarrhea disorders and tuberculosis. It now claims many more lives each year than malaria, a growing menace, and is still nowhere near its peak. If India and other Asian countries do not take it seriously, the number of infections could reach “a new order of magnitude”, says Peter Piot, head of the UN’s AIDS programme.
4 The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), is thought to have crossed from chimpanzees to humans in the late 1940s or early 1950s in Congo. It took several years for the virus to break out of Congo’s dense and sparsely populated jungles but, once it did, it marched with rebel armies through the continent’s numerous war zones, rode with truckers from one rest-stop brothel to the next, and eventually flew, perhaps with an air steward, to America, where it was discovered in the early 1980s. As American homosexuals and drug infectors started to wake up to the dangers of bath-houses and needle-sharing, AIDS was already devastating Africa.
5 So far, the worst-hit areas are east and southern Africa. In Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, between a fifth and a quarter of people aged 15-49 are afflicted with HIV or AIDS. In Botswana, children born early in the next decade will have a life expectancy of 40; without AIDS it would have been near 70. Of the 25 monitoring sites in Zimbabwe where pregnant women are tested for HIV, only two in 1997 showed prevalence below 10%. At the remaining 23 sites,
20-50% of women were infected. About a third of these women will pass the virus on to their babies.
6 The region’s giant, South Africa, was largely protected by its isolation from the rest of the world during the apartheid years. Now it is host to one in ten of the world’s new infections—more than any other country. In the country’s most
populous province, KwaZulu-Natal, perhaps a third of sexually active adults are HIV-positive.
7 Asia is the next disaster-in-waiting. Already, 7 million Asians are infected. India’s 930 million people look increasingly vulnerable. The Indian countryside, which most people imagined relatively AIDS-free, turns out not to be. A recent study in Tamil Nadu found over 2% of rural people to be HIV-positive: 500,000 peopl e in one of India’s smallest states. Since 10% had other sexually transmitted diseases (STDS), the avenue for further infections is clearly open. A survey of female STD patients in Poona, in Maharashtra, found that over 90% had never had sex with anyone but their husband; and yet 13.6% had HIV.
8 No one knows what AIDS will do to poor countries’ economies, for nowhere has the epidemic run its course. An optimistic assessment, by Alan Whiteside of the University of Natal, suggests that the effect of AIDS on measurable GDP will be slight. Even at high prevalence, Mr. Whiteside thinks it will slow growth by no more than 0.6% a year. This is because so many people in poor countries do not contribute much to the formal economy. To put it even more crudely, where there is a huge oversupply of unskilled labour, the dead can easily be replaced.
9 Other researchers are more pessimistic. AIDS takes longer to kill than did the plague, so the cost of caring for the sick will be more crippling. Modern governments, unlike medieval ones, tax the healthy to help look after the ailing, so the burden will fall on everyone. And AIDS, because it is sexually transmitted, tends to hit the most energetic and productive members of society. A recent study in Namibia estimated that AIDS cost the country almost 8% of GNP in 1996. Another analysis predicts that Kenya’s GDP will be 14.5% smaller in 2005 than it would have been without AIDS, and that income per person will be 10% lower.
The cost of the disease
10 In general, the more advanced the economy, the worse it will be affected by a large number of AIDS deaths. South Africa, with its advanced industries, already suffers a shortage of skilled manpower, and cannot afford to lose more. In better-off developing countries, people have more savings to fall back on when they need to pay medical bills. Where people have health and life insurance, those industries will be hit by bigger claims. Insurers protect themselves by charging more or refusing policies to HIV-positive customers. In Zimbabwe, life-insurance premiums quadrupled in two years because of AIDS. Higher premiums force more people to seek treatment in public hospitals: in South Africa, HIV and AIDS could account for between 35% and 84% of public-health expenditure by 2005, according to one projection.
11 At a macro level, the impact of AIDS is felt gradually. But at a household level, the blow is sudden and catastrophic. When a breadwinner develops AIDS, his (or her) family is impoverished twice over: his income vanishes, and his relations must devote time and money to nursing him. Daughters are often forced to drop out of school to help. Worse, HIV tends not to strike just one member of a family. Husbands give it to wives, mothers to babies.
12 The best hope for halting the epidemic is a cheap vaccine. Efforts are under way, but a vaccine for a virus that mutates as rapidly as HIV will be hugely difficult and expensive to invent. For poor countries, the only practical course is to concentrate on prevention. But this, too, will be hard, for a plethora of reasons. Sex is fun... Many feel that condoms make it less so. Zimbabweans ask: “Would you eat a sweet with its wrapper on?”
... and discussion of it is often taboo. In Kenya, Christian and Islamic groups have publicly burned anti-AIDS leaflets and condoms, as a protest against what they see as the encouragement of promiscuity.
Poverty. Those who cannot afford television find other ways of passing the evening. People cannot afford antibiotics, so the untreated sores from STDS provide easy openings for HIV.
Migrant labour. Since wages are much higher in South Africa than in the surrounding region, outsiders flock in to find work. Migrant miners (including South Africans forced to live far from their homes) spend most of the year in single-sex dormitories surrounded by prostitutes. Living with a one-in-40 chance of being killed by a rockfall, they are inured to risk. When they go home, they often infect their wives.
War. Refugees, whether from genocide in Rwanda or state persecution in Myanmar, spread HIV as they flee. Soldiers, with their regular pay and disdain for risk, are more likely than civilians to contract HIV from prostitutes. When they go to war, they infect others. In Africa the problem is dire. In Congo, where no fewer than seven armies are embroiled, the government has accused Ugandan troops (which are helping the Congolese rebels) of deliberately spreading AIDS. Unlikely, but with estimated HIV prevalence in the seven armies ranging from 50% for the Angolans to an incredible 80% for the Zimbabweans, the effect is much the same. Sexism. In most poor countries, it is hard for a woman to ask her partner to use a condom. Wives who insist risk being beaten up. Rape is common, especially where wars rage. Forced sex is a particularly effective means of HIV transmission, because of the extra blood. Drinking. Asia and Africa make many excellent beers. They are also home to a lot of people for whom alcohol is the quickest escape from
the stresses of acute poverty. Drunken lovers are less likely to remember to use condoms.
How to fight the virus
13 Pessimists look at that situation and despair. But three success stories show that the hurdles to prevention are not impossibly high.
14 First, Thailand. One secret of T hailand’s success has been timely, accurate information-gathering. HIV was first detected in Thailand in the mid-1980s, among male homosexuals. The health ministry immediately began to monitor other high-risk groups, particularly the country’s many heroin addicts and prostitutes. In the first half of 1988, HIV prevalence among drug injectors tested at one Bangkok hospital leapt from 1% to 30%. Shortly afterwards, infections soared among prostitutes.
15 The response was swift. A survey of Thai sexual behaviour was conducted. The results, which showed men indulging in a phenomenal amount of unprotected commercial sex, were publicized. Thais were warned that a major epidemic would strike if their habits did not change. A “100% condom use” campaign persuaded prostitutes to insist on protection 90% of the time with non-regular customers.
16 Most striking was the government’s success in persuading people that they were at risk long before they started to see acquaintances die from AIDS. There was no attempt to play down the spread of HIV to avoid scaring off tourists, as happened in Kenya. Thais were repeatedly warned of the dangers, told how to avoid them, and left to make their own choices. Most decided that a long life was preferable to a fast one.
17 Second, Uganda. Thailand shows what is possible in a well-educated, fairly prosperous country. Uganda shows that there is hope even for countries that are poor and barely literate. President Yoweri Museveni recognized the threat shortly after becoming president in 1986, and deluged the country with anti-AIDS warnings.
18 The key to Uganda’s success is twofold. First, Mr. Museveni made every government department take the problem seriously, and implement its own plan to fight the virus. Accurate surveys of sexual behaviour were done for only $20,000-30,000 each. Second, he recognized that his government could do only a limited amount, so he gave free rein to scores of non-governmental organizations (NGOS), usually foreign-financed, to do whatever it took to educate people about risky sex.
19 Third, Senegal. If Uganda shows how a poor country can reverse the track of
an epidemic, Senegal shows how to stop it from taking off in the first place. This West African country was fortunate to be several thousand mil es from HIV’s origin. In the mid-1980s, when other parts of Africa were already blighted, Senegal was still relatively AIDS-free. In concert with non-governmental organizations and the press and broadcasters, the government set up a national AIDS-control programme to keep it that way.
20 Contrast these three with South Africa. On December 1st, World AIDS Day, President Nelson Mandela told the people of KwaZulu-Natal that HIV would devastate their communities if not checked. The speech was remarkable not for its quality—Mr. Mandela is always able to move audiences—but for its rarity. Unlike Mr. Museveni, South Africa’s leader seldom uses his authority to encourage safer sex. It is a tragic omission. Whereas the potholed streets of Kampala are lined with signs promoting fidelity and condoms, this correspondent has, in eight months in South Africa, seen only two anti-AIDS posters, both in the UN’s AIDS office in Pretoria.
UNIT 3 NEW FINDINGS OF HIV
1 For almost four years, research into HIV has been dominated by a single theory about how the virus causes the catastrophic collapse of the immune defences that leads to AIDS. But the consensus on this theory is now crumbling, thanks in part to the work of a Dutch team led by immunologist Frank Miedema. If the Dutch team is right, the consequences will be profound. People with HIV may hope for new types of treatment. And some of the most cherished dogmas of a multibillion-dollar research industry may be overturned.
2 The prevailing view about how HIV causes AIDS is that every day the virus makes billions of copies of itself and, in doing so, kills billions of the key defence cells that it infects, a class of T cell known as CD4 cells. These vital cells orchestrate the body’s immune response. Every day the infected person’s immune system attempts to replace these cells. After years of waging this immunological war, the body eventually fails to keep pace with the virus and the numbers of CD4 cells become dangerously low, leaving the body unable to defend itself against microorganisms and cancerous cells.
3 But Miedema and his colleagues at the University of Amsterdam see things differently. They agree that the number of CD
4 cells ultimately dwindles, but not because the virus is killing them off. In t heir view, the virus impairs the body’s ability to produce new CD4 cells, and—critically—it traps existing cells in lymph nodes and other tissues, preventing their movement in and out of the bloodstream. As large numbers of CD4 cells become trapped in this way, and the body fails to
produce a sufficient number of new ones, the dwindling population of circulating cells becomes increasingly restricted in its range and ability to respond to different invading microbes.
4 Naturally, the champions of the prevailing theory dispute the Dutch ideas. David Ho, chief architect and proponent of the accepted view, at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York, has told colleagues that “the whole field would have to be turned upside down if they were right”. But elsewhere, the controversial Dutch theory is gaining ground. Indeed, it builds on ideas that have been circulating since about 1990, among researchers such as Yvonne Rosenberg at TherImmune, a company in Maryland, and John Sprent, at the University of California, San Diego. Earlier this month, Miedema’s latest findings were aired at a major international meeting in Glasgow on new therapies for HIV—a sign that the ideas are attracting interest from those at the sharp end of AIDS treatment.
5 The widely accepted view, that HIV is a mass murderer of cells, first took hold in 1995, when Ho and his colleagues in New York, and another group led by George Shaw of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, published two seminal papers in the journal Nature. These papers reported that there was a large and rapid turnover of CD4 cells in people with HIV infection, and that therapy with a powerful cocktail of antiviral drugs brought about huge and immediate increases in the numbers of these cells. The fact that the cells bounced back so quickly was due, Ho and Shaw reasoned, to the effects of the antiviral drugs. By stopping HIV from building new copies of itself, the drugs stopped the virus from killing (or “lysing”)cells, while new cells continued to be produced a t a rapid rate. This compelling idea offered a simple explanation for how HIV could wreak such havoc. Overnight, the theory became dogma.
6 Then, in November 1996, Miedema proposed an alternative view. His work at that time centred on telomeres. These are the small sections of DNA at each end of a chromosome that are shortened with each cycle of cell division. Miedema and his colleagues reasoned that if CD4 cells were being constantly destroyed, then the unremitting cell division needed to supply the new cells would wear away their telomeres.
7 Yet the length of the telomeres turned out to be stable. “This means that cells are not being turned over in massive numbers,” Miedema said at the time. “Our data cannot be interpreted any other way.” He sugges ted that if the cells are disappearing but not being destroyed, then HIV must be hitting their production instead.
8 Ho disagreed. He said that an enzyme called telomerase, which rebuilds
telomeres in cells that need to carry on dividing indefinitely, such as reproductive cells, is overactive in people with HIV. The enzyme is active in their immune cells, where normally it is absent. He argued that this overactivity could explain why the telomeres do not shorten. But Miedema’s group has tested T cells fr om people with HIV and has found no evidence of increased telomerase activity. Ho retorts that their tests are not sufficiently sensitive, and that special assays are needed.
9 Ho’s views find support from Tomas Lindahl, a telomere specialist at Britain’s Imperial Cancer Research Fund. “I don’t think the telomere argument... is very strong,” he says. “Telomerase activity is notoriously difficult to measure.”
10 Indeed, other researchers now suggest that Miedema may have misinterpreted his original results. They believe that he found the average length of telomeres to be stable because he missed those cells that were disappearing most rapidly—the very cells that would have the shortest telomeres if they were turning over at the rate Ho suggests.
11 Whether the telomere research is significant or not, a growing number of researchers now believe that HIV does prevent the production of new T cells. Mike McCune at the University of California, San Francisco, suggests that the site of this inhibition could be the thymus, the organ where CD4 cells develop. But the Dutch group and others were increasingly convinced that there was another possibility. If T cells were disappearing from the blood, perhaps it was not just because new cells were failing to appear. It could also be that existing cells were being hidden away in other tissues. Miedema and his colleagues were puzzled by the flood of CD4 cells rushing into the blood that Ho and others had observed when infected people start to take antiviral drugs. They knew that the rise was rapid and then reached a plateau, and so they argued that it could not be due to the production of new cells because this would lead to a slow, more sustained increase. Instead, it must be due to the release of existing CD4 cells trapped in lymph nodes and elsewhere.
12 Their own experiments supported their hunch. When they analysed T cells in the blood of people with HIV as they started antiviral treatment, they found the same steep rise of CD4 cells, reaching a plateau within three weeks. The findings also appear to explain a phenomenon that has puzzled doctors, namely that the more advanced a person’s HIV infection, the greater the initial rise in their CD4 cell count when they start antiviral therapy. This, says Miedema, is because more and more cells become trapped as infection persists. If Ho and Shaw were right, the increase in CD4 cells should be modest in such people, because the virus
would have killed so many of their cells.
13 But the nature of the newly appeared cells gave the Dutch team further support. They were virtually all so-called CD4 memory cells——that is, cells that had already come into contact with antigens from specific invading microbes. What is more, so-called naive CD4 cells——those that have not yet met an antigen—did not immediately appear. These findings strengthen the argument that antiviral drugs were not preventing HIV from killing cells, but simply releasing into the blood mature CD4 cells that had been trapped elsewhere.
14 An obvious response to the suggestion that CD4 cells are disappearing from blood into lymph tissue might be: “ Why not count them?” Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Removinglymph tissue is awkward and unpleasant—and may be unhelpful to patients whose immune systems are already disrupted. Equally important, researchers would not know exactly how many CD4 cells a patient had in the first place, and therefore would have no baseline figure with which to compare their estimate. Finally, even in healthy individuals, the number of CD4 cells in the bloodstream is a tiny proportion—between 1 and 2 per cent—of the total. So even if the researchers measured their decline in the bloodstream and estimated their numbers in the lymph nodes over a period of time, the margin of error would probably be too wide for the counts to be meaningful.
15 The Dutch group now has the backing of a growing number of immunologists. Brigitte Autran at the Pitié-Salpetrière Hospital in Paris has found that, in people with HIV who take powerful drug cocktails, the immune system appears to be able to take a break from the damaging effects of the virus and boost its numbers of naive CD4 cells. This implies that the unchecked virus does indeed prevent the production of new CD4 cells. And, in the latest move, also reported at the Glasgow meeting, Miedema found that the immature “progenitor” cells that eventually mature into T cells are also disrupted. When his team took progenitor cells from people with HIV and from uninfected people, and put them into mice to mature in the thymus, they found that cells from HIV-infected people matured more quickly——suggesting that the virus is cranking up the immune system into excessive activity from the earliest stage.
16 Taken together, says Mario Roederer of Stanford University, who studies T-cell dynamics, these findings are “the final nails in the coffin” for the theory put forward by Ho and Shaw. Roederer believes the virus completely “rearranges” the immune system, rendering it ineffective and drastically reducing the repertoire of CD4 cells available to fight off infections.
UNIT 4 WHO’S IN CHARGE OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY?
1 Driven by the telecommunications revolution, the global economy is like a speeding train that keeps getting faster, says Thomas Friedman1, the New York Times foreign policy columnist. “What’s worse,” Friedman writes, “no one can slow the train down, because the world economy today is just like the Internet: everybody is connected but nobody is in charge.”
2 The idea that the global economy is out of control has a certain appeal to those who feel left in the dust by corporate mega-mergers, down-sizing, monolithic chain stores, ever-morphing financial markets, and an emerging culture that seems alien to human values.
3 But unlike Fried man, I have a pretty good idea who’s in charge. They are trade and finance ministers of the wealthy nations, leaders of multi-national manufacturing and finance firms, and high-level staff of institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization (WTO). A good number of them will be meeting in Seattle at the end of November, when the WTO holds its third ministerial meeting. High on the agenda will be the decision whether to launch a new “millennium” round of comprehensive trade negotiations. Many people who are concerned about the impact of globalization will have their eyes on Seattle.
4 There are lots of reasons to be concerned. When leading policy-makers and economists speak about the booming global economy and the benefits of free trade, they too often ignore the people who are losing out. The CEOs of Microsoft and Boeing, co-chairs of the Seattle Host Committee for the WTO meeting, are among the winners. But the form globalization has taken has increased the gap between rich and poor nations. According to the United Nations Development Program, “the income gap between the richest fifth of the world’s people and the poorest fifth, measured by average national income per head, increased from 30 to one in 1960 to 74 to one in 1997.” Nearly 90% of all economic activity takes place in the rich nations where only 20% of the world’s population lives. The result of globalization, says the UNDP in its latest Human Development Report, is “a grotesque and dangerous polarization between people and countries benefiting from the system and those that are merely passive recipients of its effects.”
5 Inequality is also growing within nations, and globalization is a key factor. Since 1977, according to a new study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the income of the wealthiest one percent of Americans has risen 120%, while the income of the poorest sixty percent has actually declined over the same period. Forbes reports that the richest 400 Americans now control more than $1
trillion in personal wealth. The Economic Policy Institute concludes that globalization and related shifts from industrial to service employment account for about one-third of the growth in U.S. wage inequality over the past generation.When employers are free to site their activities anywhere in the world, it is no surprise that jobs shift to locations with lower wages, less respect for human rights, and weaker environmental and public health protections. “Ideally, you’d have every plant you own on a barge,”was the way General Electric’s CEO put it, describing how his company moved a factory from Mexico to Korea in only 45 days.
6 And when large corporations are as big as medium-sized governments (GE’s annual sales are about the same as Australia’s and Brazil’s federal budgets), it is no surprise that global commerce is organized to meet corporate requirements.
7 Without rules in place that create enforceable procedures to protect workers’ interests, the environment, and human interests that do not appear on corporate balance sheets, the global economy runs like a race to the bottom for the vast majority of people in the United States and throughout the world. That is why the World Trade Organization, where the rules of the global economy are set, is such a crucial institution.
8 Established in 1995 as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the WTO is an international organization that is “writing the constitution of a single global economy”, according to former WTO Director G eneral Renato Ruggiero. The WTO aims to increase global trade by reducing restrictions on cross-border commerce, such as tariffs (taxes on imports). According to classical theory, an international economy works most efficiently if each nation produces those goods it is most suited to produce, and trades them for goods in which other nations have a “comparative advantage”.
9 But in the new global economy, international trade is not just cross-border sales of cars, bananas, sneakers, and other products. It includes dealings as diverse as:
international currency transactions, which amount to more than $1.5 trillion a day;
stock and bond markets in major cities that attract global speculators;
the sale of images and ideas, also known as “intellectual property”;
sales of services like insurance and banking; and
transfer of goods from a corporate subdivision in one country to its subdivision in another, which accounts for some 40% of all trade in goods.
10 And in the new “free trade” philosophy, laws th at regulate any business activity in order to protect public health, the environment, human rights, or local community interests may be considered “non-tariff barriers to trade”, and be prohibited.
11 It is at the WTO where the people in charge of the global economy set the rules for what can be protected, what can be regulated, and what punishments can be imposed on whoever breaks the rules. When the WTO met in Singapore three years ago, it rejected a proposal to incorporate labor standards, such as the right to organize unions and prohibit child labor, into the “free trade” rules. It did, however, agree to allow nations to protect intellectual property, such as patents and trademarks. Following that summit, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions noted that “Mickey Mouse has more rights than the workers who make toys, because the WTO covers trademarks but not labor standards.”
12 In general, the WTO has adopted rules which are in the interest of trans-national business and rejected rules opposed by business. WTO policies have been protested by representatives of “civil society”, such as unions, consumer activists, environmentalists, indigenous people, and women’s groups. In Mexico, where a currency crisis threw the nation into depression shortly after implementation of NAFTA, small business owners were in the streets, too, opposing “free trade”. Poor countries of the global south, which disagree with northern unions over labor protections, agree the WTO is not working in the interests of most people.
13 Since the 1996 Singapore summit, which concluded the “Uruguay Round” of negotiations, the WTO has ruled against provisions of the U.S. Clean Air Act, which would have blocked the use of dirty, imported gasoline. The WTO ruled against European laws which banned the sale of beef raised (in the U.S.) with artificial growth hormones. Laws that ban the import of products made by child labor could be ruled illegal as well.
Unit 5 ANYTHING BUT BEEFS
1 Distraught callers jammed Germany’s consumer hot lines with “mad cow” questions all week. Is milk safe to drink? (Yes.) Can you catch the disease from sitting in leather chairs? (No.) In London, where the panic began, an insurance company introduced customized coverage for humans who are worried about contracting the illness. For a ￡40 annual premium, Millennium Insurance Management promises a ￡40,000 payout to any policyholder upon diagnosis. Shoppers in Britain and across the Continent developed a sudden appetite for
spring lamb and veggie burgers—anything but steak. Sales of beef tumbled by a third in France, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. In Germany, they plunged 40 percent and slaughterhouses sent their workers home on forced vacations. The World Health Organization announced an emergency meeting to be held in Geneva this week.
2 At the center of the storm, Prime Minister John Major flung blame in all directions. “What has happened is collective hysteria—partly media, partly opposition and partly European,” the British prime minist er declared. Yet even in the ranks of his own Conservative Party, some members are openly critical of the way Major’s government has handled the crisis．“It has been at best clumsy, at worst catastrophic,” says Edwina Currie, a Tory member of Parliament and former health minister. Two weeks ago press leaks forced the health minister, Stephen Dorrell, to make a hasty disclosure.
3 Scientists had found 10 individuals dead or dying from a new strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease(CJD)，a rare but lethal degenerative brain condition. Worse yet, they suspected that the infection might have come from cattle infected with mad-cow disease. That was frightening news in a country where roughly 160,000 cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) have been reported since 1985. It scared other Europeans, too. They consume roughly more than half of Britain’s exported beef—considerably more than 250,000 metric tons in 1995 alone.
4 Early last week the European Union imposed a worldwide ban on exports of British beef and byproducts, from gelatin to cosmetics. Major howled that the prohibition was illegal, but it scarcely mattered. International demand for British beef had already dropped to just about zero. The ban remained. Farmers and butchers unions in Germany and France applauded. They had complained for years about being undersold by British farm products, and they hailed the Health Ministry’s disclosure as a backhanded vindication.
5 By midweek that attitude began to change. The ban was supposed to protect the European market against fears of tainted beef. Instead, the public regarded the move as an official confirmation of the mad-cow threat. Europe’s homemakers quit buying beef of any sort, whether British or domestic. The unions began complaining of a “crisis of consumer confidence”. France’s President, Jacques Chirac, and Germany’s chancellor, Helmut Kohl, phoned Major and offered their support. Kohl recalled that the European Union had come up with about $300 million to help Germany and Belgium halt an epidemic of swine fever a decade ago. Last year the European Agricultural Fund produced
人教版八年级英语下课文原文 Unit 1 What’s the matter? 1. Bus Driver and Passengers Save an Old Man At 9:00 a.m. yesterday, bus NO.26 was going along Zhonghua Road when the driver saw an old man lying on the side of the road. A woman next to him was shouting for help. The bus driver, 24-year-old Wang Ping, stopped the bus without thinking twice. He got off and asked the woman what happened. She said that the man had a heart problem and should go to the hospital. Mr. Wang knew he had to act quickly. He told the passengers that he must take the man to the hospital. He expected most or all of the passengers to get off and wait for the next bus. But to his surprise, they all agreed to go with him. Some passengers helped Mr. Wang to move the man into the bus. Thanks to Mr. Wang and the passengers, the doctors saved the man in time. “It’s sad that many people don’t want to help others because they don’t want any trouble, ”says one passenger. “But the driver didn’t think about himself. He only thought about saving a life.” 2. He Lost His Arm But Is Still Climbing Aron Ralston is an American man who is interested in mountain climbing. As a mountain climber, Aron is used to taking risks. This is one of the exciting things about doing dangerous sports. There were many times when Aron almost lost his life because of accidents. On April 26, 2003, he found himself in a very dangerous situation when climbing in Utah. On that day, Aron’s arm was caught under a 360-kilo rock that fell on him when he was climbing by himself in the mountains. Because he could not free his arm, he stayed there for five days and hoped that someone would find him. But when his water ran out, he knew that he would have to do something to save his own life. He
Unit 1 Can you play the guitar? Jane: Hi, Bob. What club do you want to join? Bob: I want to join a sports club. Jane: Great! What sports can you play? Bob: Soccer. Jane: So you can join the soccer club. Bob: What about you? You’re very good at telling stories. You can join the story telling club. Jane: Sounds good. But I like to draw, too. Bob: Then join two clubs, the story telling club and the art club! Jane: OK, let’s join now. Hello, I’m Peter. I like to play basketball. I can speak English and I can also play soccer. Hi, I’m Ma Huan. I can play ping-pong and chess. I like to talk and play games with people. My name’s Alan. I’m in the school music club. I can play the guitar and the piano. I can sing and dance, too. Help for old people We need help at the old people’s home. Are you free in July? Are you good with old people? Can you talk to them and play games with them? They can tell you stories, and you can make friends. It is interesting and fun! Please call us at 689-7729 today! Music teacher wanted Can you play the piano or the violin? Do you have time on the weekend? The school needs help to teach music. It is not difficult! Please call Mrs. Miller at 555-3721. Help with sports in English Are you busy after school? No? can you speak English? Yes? Then we need you to help with sports for English-speaking students. It is relaxing and easy! Please came to the Students’ Sport Center. Call Mr. Brown at 293-7742. Unit 2 What time do you go to school? Interviewer: Scott has an interesting job. He works at a radio station. Scott, what time is your radio show? Scott: From twelve o’clock at night to six o’clock in the morning. Interviewer: What time do you usually get up? Scott: At eight thirty at night. Then I eat breakfast at nine. Interviewer: That’s a funny time for breakfast! Scott: Yeah. After that, I usually exercise at about ten twenty.
Unit 1:Where did you go on vacation? Section A 2d:Role-play the conversation. Rick: Hi, Helen. Long time no see. Helen:Hi, Rick. Yes, I was on vacation last month. Rick: Oh, did you go anywhere interesting? Helen: Yes, I went to Guizhou with my family. Rick: Wow! Did you see Huangguoshu Waterfall? Helen: Yes, I did. It was wonderful! We took quite a few photos there. What about you? Did you do anything special last month? Rick: Not really. I just stayed at home most of the time to read and relax. Grammar Focus: 1. Where did you go on vacation? I went to New York City. 2. Did you go out with anyone? No, No one was here. Everyone was on vacation. 3. Did you buy anything special? Yes,Ibought something for my father./ No, I bought nothing. 4. How was the food? Everything tasted really good! 5.Did everyone have a good time? Oh, yes. Everything was excellent. Section B 2b阅读理解 Monday, July 15th I arrived in Penang in Malaysia this morning with my family. It was sunny and hot, so we decided to go to the beach near our hotel. My sister and I
Unit 3 Could you please clean your room? Section A 2d Role play the conversation. Sister：They, could you please help out with a few things? Brother：Could I at least finish watching this show? Sister：No. I think two hours of TV is enough for you! Brother：Fine. What do you want me to do? Sister：Could you take out the rubbish, fold the clothes and do the dishes? Brother：So much? sister：Yes, because Mom will be back from shopping any minute now. And she won’t be happy if she sees this mess. Brother：But the house is already pretty clean and tidy! Sister：Yes, well, it’s clean, but it’s not “mother clean”! 3a Read the story and answer the question. 1. Why was Nancy’s mom angry with Nancy? 2. Did they solve the problem? How? Last month, our dog welcomed me when I came home from school. He wanted a walk, but I was too tired. I threw down my bag and went to the living room. The minute I sat down in front of the TV, my mom came over. “Could you please take the dog for a walk?” she asked. “Could I watch one show first?” I asked. “NO!” she replied angrily. “You watch TV all the time and never help out around the house! I can’t work all day and do housework all evening.” “Well, I work all day at school, too! I’m just as tired as you are!” I shou ted back. My mom did not say anything and walked away. For one week, she did not do any housework and neither did I. Finally, I could not find a clean dish or a clean shirt. The next day, my mom came home from work to find the house clean and tidy. “What happened?” she asked in surprise. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I finally understand that we need to share the housework to have a clean and comfortable home,” I replied.
部编本人教版七年级语文下册古诗文背诵篇目 4、孙权劝学 作者：司马光 原文 初，权谓吕蒙曰：“卿今当涂掌事，不可不学！”蒙辞以军中多务。权曰：“孤岂欲卿治经为博士邪!但当涉猎，见往事耳。卿言多务，孰若孤？孤常读书，自以为大有所益。”蒙乃始就学。及鲁(lù）肃过寻阳，与蒙论议，大惊曰：“卿今者才略，非复吴下阿蒙！”蒙曰：“士别三日，即更刮目相待，大兄何见事之晚乎！”肃遂(suì多音字）拜蒙母，结友而别。 8、木兰诗 唧唧复唧唧，木兰当户织。不闻机杼声，唯闻女叹息。 问女何所思，问女何所忆。女亦无所思，女亦无所忆。昨夜见军帖，可汗大点兵，军书十二卷，卷卷有爷名。阿爷无大儿，木兰无长兄，愿为市鞍马，从此替爷征。 东市买骏马，西市买鞍鞯，南市买辔头，北市买长鞭。旦辞爷娘去，暮宿黄河边，不闻爷娘唤女声，但闻黄河流水鸣溅溅。旦辞黄河去，暮至黑山头，不闻爷娘唤女声，但闻燕山胡骑鸣啾啾。 万里赴戎机，关山度若飞。朔气传金柝，寒光照铁衣。将军百战死，壮士十年归。 归来见天子，天子坐明堂。策勋十二转，赏赐百千强。可汗问所欲，木兰不用尚书郎，愿驰千里足，送儿还故乡。 爷娘闻女来，出郭相扶将；阿姊闻妹来，当户理红妆；小弟闻姊来，磨刀霍霍向猪羊。开我东阁门，坐我西阁床，脱我战时袍，著我旧时裳。当窗理云鬓，对镜帖花黄。出门看火伴，火伴皆惊忙：同行十二年，不知木兰是女郎。 雄兔脚扑朔，雌兔眼迷离；双兔傍地走，安能辨我是雄雌？ 12、卖油翁 原文 陈康肃公尧咨善射，当世无双，公亦以此自矜。尝射于家圃，有卖油翁释担而立，睨之，久而不去。见其发矢十中八九，但微颔之。康肃问曰：“汝亦知射乎？吾射不亦精乎？”翁曰：“无他，但手熟尔。”康肃忿然曰：“尔安敢轻吾射?”翁曰：“以我酌油知之。”乃取一葫芦置于地，以钱覆其口，徐以杓酌油沥之，自钱孔入，而钱不湿。因曰：“我亦无他，惟手熟尔。”康肃
U n i t 1 : W h e r e d i d y o u g o o n v a c a t i o n ? Section A 2d: Role-play the conversation. Rick: Hi, Helen. Long time no see. Helen:Hi, Rick. Yes, I was on vacation last month. Rick: Oh, did you go anywhere interesting? Helen: Yes, I went to Guizhou with my family. Rick: Wow! Did you see Huangguoshu Waterfall? Helen: Yes, I did. It was wonderful! We took quite a few photos there. What about you? Did you do anything special last month? Rick: Not really. I just stayed at home most of the time to read and relax. Grammar Focus: 1.Where did you go on vacation?I went to New York City. 2.Did you go out with anyone?No, No one was here. Everyone was on vacation. 3.Did you buy anything special?Yes,I bought something for my father./ No, I bought nothing. 4.How was the food?Everything tasted really good! everyone have a good time?Oh, yes. Everything was excellent. Section B 2b 阅读理解 Monday, July 15th
7A UNIT 1 Making friends Ⅰ重点单词: World n、世界 country n、国家 Japan n、日本Germany n、德国 German adj、德国得 n、德国人grammar n、语法blog n、博客 sound n、声音 Everyone n、人人(谓语动词要用单数) Hobby n、爱好 (复数hobbies) age n、年龄 elder adj、年长得dream n、梦想 plete v、完成 Us pron、我们 yourself pron、您自己 friendly adj、友爱得 engineer n、工程师flat n、公寓 mountain n、山 Ⅱ重点短语: 1、colse to 接近= near 反义词:far (away)from 远离 2、Go to school 去上学 3、Be good at 擅长=do well in 反义词:be bad /poor at=do badly in不擅长 4、Make friends with 与……交朋友make friends 交朋友 5、All over 遍及 6、I’d like to=would like to 愿意 Ⅲ重点句型:1、what does···mean？ 2.wele to 3.I like···because··· 4.My dream is to be··？ 5.How old is/are ····？ 6.What does ····do？ 详细讲解: 1.Read a German girl’s blog。(Page1) (1)German : ① adj、德国得(德国人得,德语得) This is a German car。 ② n、德国人 ,就是可数名词。复数形式要在后面加“s”。意为“德语”时,就是不可数
玲玲：你好，萨莉！进来坐坐。对不起房间有点不整洁。我收拾一下桌椅。 萨莉：嗨！瞧这些扇子！它们很漂亮！你有一个相当好的收藏品。 玲玲：是的，我有五六十把扇子。你收藏什么东西吗？ 萨莉：有，我收藏娃娃。我弟弟收集邮票。 大明：我收藏票——你知道的，汽车标和火车票。 玲玲：真的吗？但是我真正的爱好是音乐。我一直拉小提琴和听音乐。 玲玲：什么使你对音乐如此感兴趣？ 萨莉：我爸爸是一位音乐家。我经常听他拉小提琴。八年前他就给了我第一把小提琴。 玲玲：而现在音乐把你带到中国来。你下次什么时候演奏？ 萨莉：在这学期末。在北京电视台有一个音乐会。 大明：因此你现在能轻松一点，对吗？ 萨莉：哦，不。我要和你一起上学。 玲玲：太棒了。 萨莉：但下星期五不行…… 大明：下星期五有什么要发生？ 萨莉：我要去北京电视台。我将在明星大搜索节目中做一个采访。 大明：我听说过那个节目。人们唱歌或演奏音乐，而听众选择最佳歌手或作曲者。 玲玲：哇！你将会真的很出名。 特别的爱好 很多学生都有爱好，比如阅读、绘画、在花园里种菜和照顾动物等。有些爱好是休闲型的，其他是创意型的。爱好可以使我们成长，培养我们的兴趣，帮助我们学习新的技能。 大卫史密斯是个学生，他的爱好是写作。在2000夏天，他在夏令营度过四周。除了常见的活动如驾驶帆船、登山和山地自行车运动之外，还有一个有专业作家参加的讨论会。她叫我们想象我们在一个故事中。然后我们写写我们在夏令营中的经历。在高中时，他写了一个关于青少年的故事，于2003年出版成书。很多十几岁的青少年都喜欢读他的书，而大卫也因此成为一名成功的年轻作家。 大卫是幸运的，他的爱好不仅给他带来了快乐，同时还带来了成功。不过，他还对很多其他事情感兴趣。“我也喜欢排球。”大卫说：“我花一些空闲时间为校排球队打排球。也许将来我会写更多的书，但我也不肯定。” 有时候，我们很难记住“不要把所有的时间都花在最大的爱好上”这个建议。生活中有很多其他有趣的事情可做，我们应该尝试新的或不同的事情。
Unit 3.How do you get to school Section A 【音频材料】 ***************************************** 1a Match the words with the picture.
1.take the train ____ 2.take the bus _____ 3.take the subway _____ 4.ride a bike _____ 5.walk _____ ****************************************************************** 1b Listen and write the numbers next to the correct students in the picture above. 【音频材料】 ******************************************************************
Look the picture in 1a. How do the students get to school? Make conversations with your partner. A: How does Mary get to school? B: She takes the subway. ****************************************************************** 2a Listen and repeat. Then write the correct number next to the word. 【音频材料】 ******************************************************************
八年级英语下册课文 UNIT 1 What's the matter? Bus Driver and Passengers Save an Old Man At 9:00 a.m. yesterday, bus No. 26 was going along Zhon ghua Road when the driver saw an old man lying on the side of the road. A woman was next to him, shouting for help. The bus driver, 24-year- old Wang Ping, stopped the bus without thinking twice. He got off and asked the woman what happened. She sai d that the man had a heart problem and should go to th
e hospital. Mr. Wang knew he had to act quickly. He told the passengers that he must take the man to the hospita l. He expected most or all o f the passengers to get off an d wait for the next bus. But to his surprise, they all agreed to go with him. Some passengers helped Mr. Wang to move the man ona the b us. Thanks to Mr. Wang and the passengers, the doctors sav ed the man in time. "It's sad that many people don't wan t to help others because they don?t want any trouble," sa ys one passenger. "But the driver didn't think about hims
2015-2016学年牛津沪教版初中英语七年级下册 Unit 1 People around us Grammar : learn how to use the definite article the Writing: an article about a person you love My grandma My grandma was a short woman with grey hair. She was always cheerful. She was a very good cook. Her dishes were probably the best in the world. I will never forget the taste, and the smell as well. Grandma took care of my family. She was really kind and patient. She died two years ago and I miss her very much. ----Ben Alice Alice is my best friend. She is a tall girl with glasses. She often tells me jokes to make me laugh, but she never makes fun of others. Alice is a smart girl. She is good at Maths. We often study and play tennis together. I hope we will always remain friends. -----Joyce
Unit3 Section A 2d A: Tony, could you please help out with a few things? B: Could I at least finish watching this show? A: No, I think two hours of TV is enough for you! B: Fine. What do you want me to do? A: Could you take out the rubbish fold the clothes and do the dishes? B: So much? A: Yes, because mom will be back from shopping any minute now. And she won't be happy if she sees this mess. B: But the house is already pretty clean and tidy! A: Yes, well, it is clean, but it is not "mother clean"! 3a Last month our dog welcomed me when I came home from school.He wanted a walk, but I was too tired.I threw down my bag and went to the living room.The minute I sat down in front of the TV, my mom came over."Could you please take the dog for a walk? "she asked. "Could I watch 1 show first?"I asked."No!"She replied angrily."You watch TV all the time and never help out around the house! I can't work all day and do housework all evening."Well, I work all day at school, too!I'm just as tired as you are!"I shouted back.
Unit 1 Section A 2d A：Lisa , are you OK? B:I have a headache and I can't move my neck. What should I do? Should I take my temperature? A:No, it doesn't sound like you have a fever. What did you do on the weekend? B:I played computer games all weekend. A:That's probably why. You need to take breaks away from the computer. B:Yeah, I think I sat in the same way for too long without moving. A: I think you should lie down and rest. If your head and neck still hurt tomorrow, then go to a doctor. B: OK. Thanks, Mandy. 3a Bus Driver and Passengers Save an Old Man At 9:00 a.m. yesterday, bus NO. 26 was going along Zhong Hua Road when the driver saw an old man lying on the side of the road. A woman next to him was shouting for help. The bus driver ,24- year -old Wang Ping, stopped the bus without thinking twice. He got off and asked the woman what happened. She said
最新八年级外研版英语下册课文与翻译 Module1 unit1 Tony: Mnn…What a delicious smell! Your pizza looks so nice. Betty: Thanks! Would you like to try some? Tony: Yes, please. It looks lovely, it smells delicious and mm, it tastes good. Daming: What’s that on top? Betty: Oh, that’s cheese. Do you want to try a piece? Daming: Ugh! No, thanks.I’m afraid I don’t like cheese. It doesn’t smell fresh. It smells too strong and it tastes a bit sour. Betty: Well, my chocolate cookies are done now. Have a try! Daming: Thanks! They taste really sweet and they feel soft in the middle. Tony: Are you cooking lots of different things? You look very busy! Betty: Yes, I am! There’s some pizza and some cookies, and now I’m making an apple pie and a cake. Daming: Apple pie sounds nice. I have a sweet tooth, you know.Shall I get the sugar? Betty: Yes, please. Oh, are you sure that’s sugar? Taste it first. It might be salt! Daming: No, it’s OK.It tastes sweet. It’s sugar. Tony: What’s this? It tastes sweet too. Betty: That’s strawberry jam, for the cake. Daming: Good, everything tastes so sweet! It’s my lucky day! Tony: 恩......多香的味道啊！你的比萨饼看起来如此的好。 Betty: 谢谢！你想尝一些吗？ Tony: 好的，谢谢。它看起来很好看，闻起来很香，嗯，尝起来很好吃。Daming: 上面是什么 Betty: 哦，那是奶酪。你想尝一块吗？ Daming: 咳！不，谢谢。恐怕我不喜欢奶酪。它闻起来不新鲜。味道太重而且尝起来有点酸。 Betty: 嗯，我的巧克力饼干现在做好了。尝尝吧！ Daming: 谢谢！它们尝起来真的很甜并且中间感觉很软。 Tony: 你在做不同的东西吗？你看起来很忙！ Betty: 是的，我是！有一些比萨饼和一些小甜饼，现在我在做苹果派和一个蛋糕。Daming: 苹果派听上去不错。你知道，我喜欢甜食。我可以拿糖吗？ Betty: 是的，谢谢。哦，你确定那是糖吗？先尝尝。可能是盐！ Daming: 不，没事。尝起来是甜的。它是糖。 Tony: 这是什么？尝起来也是甜的。 Betty: 那是做蛋糕用的草莓酱。
Mike Robinson is a 15 - year old American boy his sister Claire fourteen years old. 迈克鲁滨孙是一一五–岁的美国男孩和他的妹妹克莱尔十四。 At the moment, mike and Clare in Cairo in Egypt, one in Africa's largest and 目前，迈克和克莱尔在埃及的开罗，一个在非洲最繁忙 busiest cities. 最大的城市。 They moved here two years ago, with their parents. Their father, Peter, a very 他们两年前搬到这里与他们的父母。他们的父亲，彼得，一个非常大的公司工作。large company. Company has offices in many countries, has sent Peter to work in 公司在许多国家有分支机构，已打发彼得工作在 Germany, France and China. Peter usually stays in one country for about two 德国，法国和中国之前。彼得通常呆在一个国家大约两年了。 years. The company then move him. His family always. 然后公司再移动他。他的家人总是。 The Robinsons likes to see the world. They went to a lot of interesting places. In 鲁宾逊一家人喜欢看世界。他们去了许多有趣的地方。例如，在 Egypt, for example, they have seen the pyramids, a boat on the Nile, and visited 埃及，他们已经看到了金字塔，在尼罗河上的一艘前往，并参观了 the palace, the king and queen of the ancient tower. 宫殿，古代的国王和王后塔。 Mike and Claire are beginning to learn the language of the country in Arabic. The 迈克和克莱尔也开始学习这个国家的语言，阿拉伯语。 language is different from the UK, they find it difficult to spelling and 这一语言是不同于英国，他们发现很难拼写和 pronunciation of words. However, they still like to learn English. So far, they 发音的单词。然而，他们仍然喜欢学英语。到目前为止他们 learned to speak German, French, Chinese and Arabic. Sometimes they put 学会了讲德语，法语，中文和阿拉伯语。有时他们把语言。language."This is really interesting," said Claire. 这真的很有趣，”克莱尔说“。 The greens are once again. Company has asked Peter when we back to work. 格林一家正在再次。公司已请彼得在我们回去工作。 Mike and Claire are happy. They have friends all over the world, but they also 迈克和克莱尔是高兴。他们在世界各地都有朋友，但他们也 miss their friends in the United States. They are reciprocal 想念他们在美国的朋友。他们正在倒数 M3u2 Scientists believe that life on earth has hundreds of millions of years. However, 科学家认为地球上的生命已经有数亿年。然而， we haven't found any life on other planets? 我们没有发现任何其他星球上生命呢。 The earth is a planet and it goes around the sun. There are other seven planets 地球是一颗行星，它绕着太阳转。还有其他七颗行星围绕太阳的。
七年级语文下册古诗 1、山中杂诗 (南朝) 吴均 山际见来烟，竹中窥落日。 鸟向檐上飞，云从窗里出。 [注释] ①山际：山与天相接的地方。 ②窥：从缝隙中看。 ③檐：房檐。 [解说]这首诗描写了诗人住在山中的有趣生活。山峰环绕，竹木茂盛，鸟在人家的房檐上飞，最有趣的是云彩竟然从窗里飘出来。 2、竹里馆 王维（唐） 独坐幽篁里，弹琴复长啸。 深林人不知，明月来相照。 【注释】①选自《王右丞集笺注》（中华书局1985年版）卷十三。这是《辋川集》20首中的第17首。竹里馆，辋川别墅的胜景之一，房屋周围有竹林，故名。 ⑴幽篁（huáng）：幽是深的意思，篁是竹林。幽深的竹林。 ⑵啸（xiào）：长声呼啸。魏晋名士称吹口哨为啸。 ⑶深林：指“幽篁”。 ⑷相照：与“独坐”对应。 【译文】 月夜，独坐在幽深的竹林里；时而弹弹琴，时而吹吹口哨。 竹林里僻静幽深，无人知晓，独坐幽篁，无人陪伴；唯有明月似解人意，偏来相照。 作品赏析 此诗写诗人在竹林里独自弹琴、长啸、与明月相伴的情景。前二句写诗人“独坐”“弹琴”“长啸”等动作，后二句写夜静人寂，明月相伴。构成了全诗优美、高雅的意境，传达出诗人宁静、淡泊的心情。 诗中既无描写，又无抒情，全篇平平淡淡。但其妙处却是在于四句诗结合起来，共同构成一种境界：一个清幽绝俗的境界！月夜幽林之中空明澄静，坐于其间弹琴长啸，怡然自得，尘念皆空。 心灵澄静的诗人与清幽澄静的竹林明月幽然相会。在此物与心会、情与景和之际，「着手成春」。除此之外，全诗静中有动、寂中有声、明暗映衬，独得其妙！ 3、峨眉山月歌 李白（唐） 峨眉山月半轮秋，影入平羌江水流。 夜发清溪向三峡，思君不见下渝州。 词语注释