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全新版大学英语综合教程3课文原文及翻译《全新版大学英语综合教程 3 课文原文及翻译》大学英语学习对于许多学生来说是提升语言能力和拓展国际视野的重要途径。
全新版大学英语综合教程 3 更是其中的重要组成部分。
以下将为您呈现部分课文的原文及对应的翻译，希望能对您的学习有所帮助。
课文一：The Human Touch原文：John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station翻译：约翰·布兰查德从长凳上站起身来，整了整军装，审视着穿过中央车站的人群。
原文：He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn't, the girl with the rose翻译：他在寻找那个他明知其心却不知其貌的女孩，那个带着玫瑰的女孩。
原文：His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library翻译：他对她的兴趣始于十三个月前在佛罗里达州的一家图书馆里。
原文：Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin 翻译：他从书架上取下一本书，发现自己感兴趣的不是书中的文字，而是写在页边空白处的铅笔字批注。
原文：The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind翻译：那柔和的笔迹反映出一个深思熟虑、富有洞察力的灵魂。
unit 5 Writing Three Thank-You LettersAlex Haley served in the Coast Guard during World War ll. On an especially lonely day to be at sea -- Thanksgiving Day -- he began to give serious thought to a holiday that has become, for many Americans, a day of overeating and watching endless games of football. Haley decided to celebrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving by writing three very special letters.亚历克斯·黑利二战时在海岸警卫队服役。
出海在外，时逢一个倍感孤寂的日子――感恩节，他开始认真思考起这一节日的意义。
对许多美国人而言，这个节日已成为大吃大喝、没完没了地看橄榄球比赛的日子。
黑利决定写三封不同寻常的信，以此来纪念感恩节的真正意义。
Writing Three Thank-You LettersAlex Haley 1 It was 1943, during World War II, and I was a young U. S. coastguardsman. My ship, the USS Murzim, had been under way for several days. Most of her holds contained thousands of cartons of canned or dried foods. The other holds were loaded with five-hundred-pound bombs packed delicately in padded racks. Our destination was a big base on the island of Tulagi in the South Pacific.写三封感谢信亚利克斯·黑利那是在二战期间的1943年，我是个年轻的美国海岸警卫队队员。
全新版大学英语综合教程3课文原文及翻译完整版Many Americans have a romanticized view of life in the countryside。
They dream of starting their own farms and living off the land。
However。
few actually follow through with these dreams。
This may be for the best。
as XXX。
XXX difficulties。
XXX to change his way of life.When XXX owning a farm。
XXX't be easy。
He had to learn how to manage all aspects of the farm。
XXX。
he had to balance his farm work with his writing career。
However。
he was determined to make it work and was willing to put in the hard work and long hours required.Despite the challenges。
XXX in his new way of life。
He enjoys being able to work outside and connect with nature。
He also appreciates the sense of independence and self-sufficiency that comes with running a farm。
While it can be difficult at times。
XXX.In n。
while farming may not be the XXX。
全新版大学英语综合教程3课文原文及翻译unit 1 Mr. Dohert?y Builds? His Dream Life In Americ?a many people? have a romant?ic idea of life in the countr?yside. Many living? in towns dream of starti?ng up their own farm, of living? off the land. Few get round to puttin?g their dreams? into practi?ce. This is perhap?s just as well, as the life of a farmer? is far from easy, as Jim Dohert?y discov?ered when he set out to combin?e being a writer? with runnin?g a farm. Nevert?heless?, as he explai?ns, he has no regret?s and remain?s enthus?iastic? about his decisi?on to change? his way of life. 在美国，不少人对乡村?生活怀有浪漫?的情感。
许多居住在城?镇的人梦想着?自己办个农场?，梦想着靠土地?为生。
很少有人真去?把梦想变为现?实。
或许这也没有?什么不好，因为，正如吉姆?多尔蒂当初开?始其写作和农?场经营双重生?涯时所体验到?的那样，农耕生活远非?轻松自在。
但他写道，自己并不后悔?，对自己作出的?改变生活方式?的决定仍热情?不减。
Mr. Dohert?y Builds? His Dream Life Jim Dohert?y 1 There are two things? I have always? wanted? to do -- write and live on a farm. Today I'm doing both. I am not in E.B. White's class as a writer? or in my neighb?ors'league? as a farmer?, but I'm by. And after years of frustr?ation with city and suburb?an living?, my wife Sandy and I have gettin?gfinall?y found conten?tment here in the countr?y. 多尔蒂先生创?建自己的理想?生活吉姆?多尔蒂有两件事是我?一直想做的――写作与务农。
全新版大学英语综合教程3课文原文及翻译6-8(共14页)--本页仅作为文档封面，使用时请直接删除即可----内页可以根据需求调整合适字体及大小--unit 6 The Last LeafWhen Johnsy fell seriously ill, she seemed to lose the will to hang on to life. The doctor held out little hope for her. Her friends seemed helpless. Was there nothing to be done约翰西病情严重，她似乎失去了活下去的意志。
医生对她不抱什么希望。
朋友们看来也爱莫能助。
难道真的就无可奈何了吗1 At the top of a three-story brick building, Sue and Johnsy had their studio. "Johnsy" was familiar for Joanna. One was from Maine; the other from California. They had met at a cafe on Eighth Street and found their tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so much in tune that the joint studio resulted.在一幢三层砖楼的顶层，苏和约翰西辟了个画室。
“约翰西”是乔安娜的昵称。
她们一位来自缅因州，一位来自加利福尼亚。
两人相遇在第八大街的一个咖啡馆，发现各自在艺术品味、菊苣色拉，以及灯笼袖等方面趣味相投，于是就有了这个两人画室。
2 That was in May. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the district, touching one here and there with his icy fingers. Johnsy was among his victims. She lay, scarcely moving on her bed, looking through the small window at the blank side of the next brick house.那是5月里的事。
新标准大学英语3U N I T1-W e a r e a l l d y i n g原文+译文(总7页)本页仅作为文档封面，使用时可以删除This document is for reference only-rar21year.MarchWe are all dying我们都在走向死亡have some good news and some bad news for you (as the joke goes). The bad news – and I'm very sorry to be the bearer – is that we are all dying. It's true. I've checked it out. In fact, I've double – and triple-checked it. I've had it substantiated and, well, there's no easy way to say it. we are dying. It's something that I always kind of knew, but never really chose to think about too much. But the fact is, within the next 70 or 80 years – depending on how old you are and how long you last – we are all going to be either coffin dwellers or trampled ash in the rose garden of some local cemetery. We may not even last that long. After all, we never quite know when the hooded, scythe-carrying, bringer-of-the-last-breath might come-a-calling. It could be sooner than we'd like. I have watched death from the sidelines, quite recently in fact, and nothing underlines the uncertainty and absolute frailty of humanity like the untimely exit of a friend.我给你带来一条好消息，还有一条坏消息（正如笑话所说的）。
unit 1 Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeIn America many people have a romantic idea of life in the countryside. Many living in towns dream of starting up their own farm, of living off the land. Few get round to putting their dreams into practice. This is perhaps just as well, as the life of a farmer is far from easy, as Jim Doherty discovered when he set out to combine being a writer with running a farm. Nevertheless, as he explains, he has no regrets and remains enthusiastic about his decision to change his way of life.在美国，不少人对乡村生活怀有浪漫的情感。
许多居住在城镇的人梦想着自己办个农场，梦想着靠土地为生。
很少有人真去把梦想变为现实。
或许这也没有什么不好，因为，正如吉姆·多尔蒂当初开始其写作和农场经营双重生涯时所体验到的那样，农耕生活远非轻松自在。
但他写道，自己并不后悔，对自己作出的改变生活方式的决定仍热情不减。
Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeJim Doherty1 There are two things I have always wanted to do -- write and live on a farm. Today I'm doing both. I am not in E. B. White's class as a writer or in my neighbors' league as a farmer, but I'm getting by. And after years of frustration with city and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in the country.有两件事是我一直想做的――写作与务农。
unit 1 Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeIn America many people have a romantic idea of life in the countryside. Many living in towns dream of starting up their own farm, of living off the land. Few get round to putting their dreams into practice. This is perhaps just as well, as the life of a farmer is far from easy, as Jim Doherty discovered when he set out to combine being a writer with running a farm. Nevertheless, as he explains, he has no regrets and remains enthusiastic about his decision to change his way of life.在美国，不少人对乡村生活怀有浪漫的情感。
许多居住在城镇的人梦想着自己办个农场，梦想着靠土地为生。
很少有人真去把梦想变为现实。
或许这也没有什么不好，因为，正如吉姆·多尔蒂当初开始其写作和农场经营双重生涯时所体验到的那样，农耕生活远非轻松自在。
但他写道，自己并不后悔，对自己作出的改变生活方式的决定仍热情不减。
Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeJim Doherty1 There are two things I have always wanted to do -- write and live on a farm. Today I'm doing both. I am not in E. B. White's class as a writer or in my neighbors' league as a farmer, but I'm getting by. And after years of frustration with city and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in the country.有两件事是我一直想做的――写作与务农。
unit 1 Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeIn America many people have a romantic idea of life in the countryside. Many living in towns dream of starting up their own farm, of living off the land. Few get round to putting their dreams into practice. This is perhaps just as well, as the life of a farmer is far from easy, as Jim Doherty discovered when he set out to combine being a writer with running a farm. Nevertheless, as he explains, he has no regrets and remains enthusiastic about his decision to change his way of life.在美国，不少人对乡村生活怀有浪漫的情感。
许多居住在城镇的人梦想着自己办个农场，梦想着靠土地为生。
很少有人真去把梦想变为现实。
或许这也没有什么不好，因为，正如吉姆·多尔蒂当初开始其写作和农场经营双重生涯时所体验到的那样，农耕生活远非轻松自在。
但他写道，自己并不后悔，对自己作出的改变生活方式的决定仍热情不减。
Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeJim Doherty1 There are two things I have always wanted to do -- write and live on a farm. Today I'm doing both. I am not in E. B. White's class as a writer or in my neighbors' league as a farmer, but I'm getting by. And after years of frustration with city and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in the country.有两件事是我一直想做的――写作与务农。
unit 1 Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeIn America many people have a romantic idea of life in the countryside. Many living in towns dream of starting up their own farm, of living off the land. Few get round to putting their dreams into practice. This is perhaps just as well, as the life of a farmer is far from easy, as Jim Doherty discovered when he set out to combine being a writer with running a farm. Nevertheless, as he explains, he has no regrets and remains enthusiastic about his decision to change his way of life.Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeJim Doherty1 There are two things I have always wanted to do -- write and live on a farm. Today I'm doing both. I am not in E. B. White's class as a writer or in my neighbors' league as a farmer, but I'm getting by. And after years of frustration with city and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in the country.2 It's a self-reliant sort of life. We grow nearly all of our fruits and vegetables. Our hens keep us in eggs, with several dozen left over to sell each week. Our bees provide us with honey, and we cut enough wood to just about make it through the heating season.3 It's a satisfying life too. In the summer we canoe on the river, go picnicking in the woods and take long bicycle rides. In the winter we ski and skate. We get excited about sunsets. We love the smell of the earth warming and the sound of cattle lowing. We watch for hawks in the sky and deer in the cornfields.4 But the good life can get pretty tough. Three months ago when it was 30 below, we spent two miserable days hauling firewood up the river on a sled. Three months from now, it will be 95 above and we will be cultivating corn, weeding strawberries and killing chickens. Recently, Sandy and I had to retile the back roof. Soon Jim, 16 and Emily, 13, the youngest of our four children, will help me make some long-overdue improvements on the outdoor toilet that supplements our indoor plumbing when we are working outside. Later this month, we'll spray the orchard, paint the barn, plant the garden and clean the hen house before the new chicks arrive.5 In between such chores, I manage to spend 50 to 60 hours a week at the typewriter or doing reporting for the freelance articles I sell to magazines and newspapers. Sandy, meanwhile, pursues her own demanding schedule. Besides the usual household routine, she oversees the garden and beehives, bakes bread, cans and freezes, drives the kids to their music lessons, practices with them, takes organ lessons on her own, does research and typing for me, writes an article herself now and then, tends the flower beds, stacks a little wood and delivers the eggs. There is, as the old saying goes, no rest for the wicked on a place like this -- and not much for the virtuous either. 在6 None of us will ever forget our first winter. We were buried under five feet of snow from December through March. While one storm after another blasted huge drifts up against the house and barn, we kept warm inside burning our own wood, eating our own apples and loving every minute of it.7 When spring came, it brought two floods. First the river overflowed, covering much of our land for weeks. Then the growing season began, swamping us under wave after wave of produce.Our freezer filled up with cherries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, peas, beans and corn. Then our canned-goods shelves and cupboards began to grow with preserves, tomato juice, grape juice, plums, jams and jellies. Eventually, the basement floor disappeared under piles of potatoes, squash and pumpkins, and the barn began to fill with apples and pears. It was amazing.8 The next year we grew even more food and managed to get through the winter on firewood that was mostly from our own trees and only 100 gallons of heating oil. At that point I began thinking seriously about quitting my job and starting to freelance. The timing was terrible. By then, Shawn and Amy, our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League schools and we had only a few thousand dollars in the bank. Yet we kept coming back to the same question: Will there ever be a better time? The answer, decidedly, was no, and so -- with my employer's blessings and half a year's pay in accumulated benefits in my pocket -- off I went.9 There have been a few anxious moments since then, but on balance things have gone much better than we had any right to expect. For various stories of mine, I've crawled into black-bear dens for Sports Illustrated, hitched up dogsled racing teams for Smithsonian magazine, checked out the Lake Champlain "monster" for Science Digest, and canoed through the Boundary Waters wilderness area of Minnesota for Destinations.10 I'm not making anywhere near as much money as I did when I was employed full time, but now we don't need as much either. I generate enough income to handle our $600-a-month mortgage payments plus the usual expenses for a family like ours. That includes everything from music lessons and dental bills to car repairs and college costs. When it comes to insurance, we have a poor man's major-medical policy. We have to pay the first $500 of any medical fees for each member of the family. It picks up 80% of the costs beyond that. Although we are stuck with paying minor expenses, our premium is low -- only $560 a year -- and we are covered against catastrophe. Aside from that and the policy on our two cars at $400 a year, we have no other insurance. But we are setting aside $2,000 a year in an IRA.11 We've been able to make up the difference in income by cutting back without appreciably lowering our standard of living. We continue to dine out once or twice a month, but now we patronize local restaurants instead of more expensive places in the city. We still attend the opera and ballet in Milwaukee but only a few times a year. We eat less meat, drink cheaper wine and see fewer movies. Extravagant Christmases are a memory, and we combine vacations with story assignments...12 I suspect not everyone who loves the country would be happy living the way we do. It takes a couple of special qualities. One is a tolerance for solitude. Because we are so busy and on such a tight budget, we don't entertain much. During the growing season there is no time for socializing anyway. Jim and Emily are involved in school activities, but they too spend most of their time at home.13 The other requirement is energy -- a lot of it. The way to make self-sufficiency work on a small scale is to resist the temptation to buy a tractor and other expensive laborsaving devices. Instead, you do the work yourself. The only machinery we own (not counting the lawn mower) is a little three-horsepower rotary cultivator and a 16-inch chain saw.14 How much longer we'll have enough energy to stay on here is anybody's guess -- perhaps for quite a while, perhaps not. When the time comes, we'll leave with a feeling of sorrow but also with a sense of pride at what we've been able to accomplish. We should make a fair profit on the sale of the place, too. We've invested about $35,000 of our own money in it, and we could just about double that if we sold today. But this is not a good time to sell. Once economic conditions improve, however, demand for farms like ours should be strong again.15 We didn't move here primarily to earn money though. We came because we wanted to improve the quality of our lives. When I watch Emily collecting eggs in the evening, fishing with Jim on the river or enjoying an old-fashioned picnic in the orchard with the entire family, I know we've found just what we were looking for.Donna Barron describes how American family life has changed in recent years. She identifies three forces at work. What are they? Read on to find out. Then ask yourself whether similar forces are at work within China. Will family life here end up going in the same direction?American Family Life: The Changing PictureDonna Barron1 It's another evening in an American household.2 The door swings open at 5:30 sharp. "Hi, honey! I'm home!" In walks dear old Dad, hungry and tired after a long day at the office. He is greeted by Mom in her apron, three happy children, and the aroma of a delicious pot roast.3 After a leisurely meal together, Mom does the dishes. That, after all, is part of her job. The whole family then moves to the living room. There everyone spends the evening playing Scrabble or watching TV.4 Then everyone is off to bed. And the next morning Dad and the kids wake up to the sounds and smells of Mom preparing pancakes and sausages for breakfast.5 (1) What? You say that doesn't sound like life in your house? Well, you're not alone. In fact, you're probably in the majority.6 At one time in America, the above household might have been typical. You can still visit such a home -- on television. Just watch reruns of old situation comedies. (2) Leave it to Beaver, for example, shows Mom doing housework in pearls and high heels. Dad keeps his suit and tie on all weekend. But the families that operate like Beaver Cleaver's are fewer and fewer. They're disappearing because three parts of our lives have changed: the way we work, the way we eat, and the way we entertain ourselves. Becoming aware of the effects of those changes may help us improve family life.7 Let's look first at the changes in the way we work. Today the words "Hi, honey! I'm home!" might not be spoken by dear old Dad. Dear old Mom is just as likely to be saying them. A generation ago, most households could get along on one paycheck -- Dad's. Mom stayed home, at least until the children started school. But today, over half the mothers with young children go to work. An even greater percentage of mothers of older children are in the workforce. And thenumber of single-parent homes has mushroomed in the last thirty years.8 These changes in work have affected children as well as parents. When only Dad went out to work, children came home from school to Mom. (In TV situation comedies, they came home to Mom and home-baked cookies) Today, we'll find them at an after-school program or a neighbor's house. Or they may come home to no one at all. In every community, children are caring for themselves until their parents return from work. Are these children missing out on an important part of childhood? Or are they developing a healthy sense of self-reliance? These are questions that Mrs. Cleaver never had to deal with.9 In addition, Dad and now Mom are often gone from home longer than ever. Not too long ago, most men worked close to home. The office or factory was just downtown. Dad often walked to work or hitched a ride with a friendly neighbor. But no more.10 Today's working men and women are commuters. They travel distances to work that would have made their parents gasp. Commutes of forty-five minutes or an hour are common. Workers travel on buses, subways, and crowded highways. Many leave their suburban homes at dawn and don't return until dark. No running home for lunch for today's commuter.11 And speaking of lunch, there's been a second big change in American family life. If both parents are away from home for long hours, who's whipping up those delicious meals in the kitchen? The answer, more and more, is nobody.12 These days, few people have time to shop for and prepare "home-style" meals. The Cleavers were used to dinners of pot roast or chicken. Potatoes, salad, and vegetables went with the main course, with pie or cake for dessert. But this kind of meal takes several hours to fix. People can't spend hours in the kitchen if they get home at 5:30.13 So what do working families eat? They choose meals that are easy to prepare or are already prepared. Fast food, takeout, and heat-and-serve dishes make up much of the modern American diet. Dad may arrive home with a bag of Big Macs and shakes. Mom may phone out for Chinese food or ask the local pizza parlor to deliver. And more and more people rely on microwaves to thaw frozen food in minutes.14 One consequence of these quickly prepared meals is that families spend less time dining together. And classic fast foods, like hamburgers and fries, are meant to be eaten on the run, not slowly enjoyed at the dinner table. The modern family no longer shares the evening meal. As a result, it no longer shares the day's news... or the feeling of togetherness.15 Finally, what about after dinner? Is the family evening at least something the Cleavers could relate to?16 Not a chance.17 We don't have to look outside the home to see the changes. The modern American family entertains itself in ways the Cleavers would never have dreamed of.18 Thirty years ago, families gathered around a radio each evening. Later, television took over. Most families had just one set, which they watched together. Today, television and computers bring a dizzying array of entertainment into the home. Cable television provides everything from aerobics classes to Shakespeare. VCRs expand the choices even more. (3) If there's nothing good on network TV or cable, the video store offers the best and worst of Hollywood: recent movies, cartoons, "adult" films, exercise programs, travel, sports, how-to tapes. Computer games, which make viewers part of the action, also provide excitement. Players can compete in the Olympics, search out aliens, or wipe out entire civilizations on their little screens.19 With all these choices, it makes sense to own more than one television set. The two-or-more-TV family used to be rare. (4) Nowadays, Dad might want to rent an action movie when Mom's cable shopping service is on. Or Junior is playing a let's-blow-up-Saturn video game while Sis wants to see The Simpsons. Why not invest in several sets? Then each family member can enjoy himself or herself in peace.20 What's wrong with this picture of today's family?21 Only this. Today's Cleavers spend their evenings in front of their separate TV screens. Then they go to bed. The next morning, they rush off to their separate jobs (work and school). They come home at separate times. They eat separately. Finally, they return to their separate TV screens for another evening's entertainment. During all these times, when do they talk to each other or even see each other? When are they a family?22 Certain realities of modern life cannot change. One is the need, in most families, for both parents to bring home a paycheck. Another is the distance many of us must travel to work or to school. But must everything change? And must we lose the family structure in the process?23 No one is suggesting that we go back to the 1950s. The Cleaver household was a fantasy even then, not reality. But we might borrow one important lesson from the Cleavers. It is that family life is just as important as work or play. If we agree, we'll find ways of spending more time together. We'll find things to share. And then there will be something right with the picture.unit 2 The Freedom GiversIn 2004 a center in honor of the "underground railroad" opens in Cincinnati. The railroad was unusual. It sold no tickets and had no trains. Yet it carried thousands of passengers to the destination of their dreams.The Freedom GiversFergus M. Bordewich1 A gentle breeze swept the Canadian plains as I stepped outside the small two-story house. Alongside me was a slender woman in a black dress, my guide back to a time when the surrounding settlement in Dresden, Ontario, was home to a hero in American history. As we walked toward a plain gray church, Barbara Carter spoke proudly of her great-great-grandfather, Josiah Henson. "He was confident that the Creator intended all men to be created equal. And he never gave up struggling for that freedom."2 Carter's devotion to her ancestor is about more than personal pride: it is about family honor. For Josiah Henson has lived on through the character in American fiction that he helped inspire: Uncle Tom, the long-suffering slave in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Ironically, that character has come to symbolize everything Henson was not. A racial sellout unwilling to stand up for himself? Carter gets angry at the thought. "Josiah Henson was a man of principle," she said firmly.3 I had traveled here to Henson's last home -- now a historic site that Carter formerly directed -- to learn more about a man who was, in many ways, an African-American Moses. After winning his own freedom from slavery, Henson secretly helped hundreds of other slaves to escape north to Canada -- and liberty. Many settled here in Dresden with him.4 Yet this stop was only part of a much larger mission for me. Josiah Henson is but one nameon a long list of courageous men and women who together forged the Underground Railroad, a secret web of escape routes and safe houses that they used to liberate slaves from the American South. Between 1820 and 1860, as many as 100,000 slaves traveled the Railroad to freedom.5 In October 2000, President Clinton authorized $16 million for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center to honor this first great civil-rights struggle in the U. S. The center is scheduled to open in 2004 in Cincinnati. And it's about time. For the heroes of the Underground Railroad remain too little remembered, their exploits still largely unsung. I was intent on telling their stories.6 John Parker tensed when he heard the soft knock. Peering out his door into the night, he recognized the face of a trusted neighbor. "There's a party of escaped slaves hiding in the woods in Kentucky, twenty miles from the river," the man whispered urgently. Parker didn't hesitate. "I'll go," he said, pushing a pair of pistols into his pockets.7 Born a slave two decades before, in the 1820s, Parker had been taken from his mother at age eight and forced to walk in chains from Virginia to Alabama, where he was sold on the slave market. Determined to live free someday, he managed to get trained in iron molding. Eventually he saved enough money working at this trade on the side to buy his freedom. Now, by day, Parker worked in an iron foundry in the Ohio port of Ripley. By night he was a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, helping people slip by the slave hunters. In Kentucky, where he was now headed, there was a $1000 reward for his capture, dead or alive.8 Crossing the Ohio River on that chilly night, Parker found ten fugitives frozen with fear. "Get your bundles and follow me, " he told them, leading the eight men and two women toward the river. They had almost reached shore when a watchman spotted them and raced off to spread the news.9 Parker saw a small boat and, with a shout, pushed the escaping slaves into it. There was room for all but two. As the boat slid across the river, Parker watched helplessly as the pursuers closed in around the men he was forced to leave behind.10 The others made it to the Ohio shore, where Parker hurriedly arranged for a wagon to take them to the next "station" on the Underground Railroad -- the first leg of their journey to safety in Canada. Over the course of his life, John Parker guided more than 400 slaves to safety.11 While black conductors were often motivated by their own painful experiences, whites were commonly driven by religious convictions. Levi Coffin, a Quaker raised in North Carolina, explained, "The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color."12 In the 1820s Coffin moved west to Newport (now Fountain City), Indiana, where he opened a store. Word spread that fleeing slaves could always find refuge at the Coffin home. At times he sheltered as many as 17 fugitives at once, and he kept a team and wagon ready to convey them on the next leg of their journey. Eventually three principal routes converged at the Coffin house, which came to be the Grand Central Terminal of the Underground Railroad.13 For his efforts, Coffin received frequent death threats and warnings that his store and home would be burned. Nearly every conductor faced similar risks -- or worse. In the North, a magistrate might have imposed a fine or a brief jail sentence for aiding those escaping. In the Southern states, whites were sentenced to months or even years in jail. One courageous Methodist minister, Calvin Fairbank, was imprisoned for more than 17 years in Kentucky, where he kept a log of his beatings: 35,105 stripes with the whip.14 As for the slaves, escape meant a journey of hundreds of miles through unknown country, where they were usually easy to recognize. With no road signs and few maps, they had to put their trust in directions passed by word of mouth and in secret signs -- nails driven into trees, for example -- that conductors used to mark the route north.15 Many slaves traveled under cover of night, their faces sometimes caked with white powder. Quakers often dressed their "passengers," both male and female, in gray dresses, deep bonnets and full veils. On one occasion, Levi Coffin was transporting so many runaway slaves that he disguised them as a funeral procession.16 Canada was the primary destination for many fugitives. Slavery had been abolished there in 1833, and Canadian authorities encouraged the runaways to settle their vast virgin land. Among them was Josiah Henson.17 As a boy in Maryland, Henson watched as his entire family was sold to different buyers, and he saw his mother harshly beaten when she tried to keep him with her. Making the best of his lot, Henson worked diligently and rose far in his owner's regard.18 Money problems eventually compelled his master to send Henson, his wife and children toa brother in Kentucky. After laboring there for several years, Henson heard alarming news: the new master was planning to sell him for plantation work far away in the Deep South. The slave would be separated forever from his family.19 There was only one answer: flight. "I knew the North Star," Henson wrote years later. "Like the star of Bethlehem, it announced where my salvation lay. "20 At huge risk, Henson and his wife set off with their four children. Two weeks later, starving and exhausted, the family reached Cincinnati, where they made contact with members of the Underground Railroad. "Carefully they provided for our welfare, and then they set us thirty miles on our way by wagon."21 The Hensons continued north, arriving at last in Buffalo, N. Y. There a friendly captain pointed across the Niagara River. "'Do you see those trees?' he said. 'They grow on free soil.'" He gave Henson a dollar and arranged for a boat, which carried the slave and his family across the river to Canada.22 "I threw myself on the ground, rolled in the sand and danced around, till, in the eyes of several who were present, I passed for a madman. 'He's some crazy fellow,' said a Colonel Warren."23 "'Oh, no! Don't you know? I'm free!'"Jesse Jackson, a well-known leader of black Americans, reviews the progress they have made in recent years. Despite this, he argues, there is still much left to be done before they enjoy full equality.The Dream, the Stars and Dr. KingJesse Jackson1 Last week in Memphis, we commemorated the death of Dr. Martin Luther King. He was struck down 27 years ago -- not a dreamer, but a man of action. We have come a long way since then, in part as a fruit of his labors.2 In less than 30 years, as schools opened and ceilings lifted, a large African American middle class has been created. High school graduation rates, even intelligence test results, grow closer between whites and blacks with each passing year.3 The civil-rights movement that Dr. King led also helped women gain greater opportunity. The same laws that guarantee equal opportunity for African Americans apply to women, to other minorities, to the disabled. (1) Our society benefits as fewer of its people have their genius suppressed or their talents wasted.4 We have come a long way -- but we have far to go. Commission after commission, report after report, show that systematic discrimination still stains our country.5 African Americans have more difficulty obtaining business loans, buying homes, getting hired. Schools and housing patterns are still largely separate and unequal. Women still face glass ceilings in corporate offices. Ninety-seven percent of the corporate CEOs of the Fortune 500 are white men. That does not result from talent being concentrated among males with pale skin.6 (2)Today, Dr. King's legacy -- the commitment to take affirmative actions to open doors and opportunity -- is under political assault. Dr. King worked against terrible odds in a hopeful time. America was experiencing two decades of remarkable economic growth and prosperity. It was assumed, as the Kerner Commission made clear, that the "growth dividend" would enable us to reduce poverty and open opportunity relatively painlessly. But the war on poverty was never fought; instead, the dividend and the growth were squandered in the jungles of Vietnam.7 Three decades later, the country is more prosperous but the times are less hopeful. Real wages for working people have been declining for 20 years. People are scared for good reason, as layoffs rise to record levels even in the midst of a recovery.8 In this context, prejudice flourishes, feeding on old hates, keeping alive old fears. What else could explain the remarkably dishonest assault on affirmative-action programs that seek to remedy stubborn patterns of discrimination?9 House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a history professor, sets the tone by simply erasing history. The Washington Post reported: "Gingrich dismissed the argument that those who benefit from affirmative action, commonly African Americans, have been subjected to discrimination over a period of centuries. That is true of virtually every American, Gingrich said, noting that the Irish were discriminated against by the English, for example."10 As Roger Wilkins writes in a thoughtful essay in the Nation magazine, this is breathtakingly dishonest for a history professor. Blacks have been on the North American continent for nearly 375 years. For 245 of those, the country practiced slavery. For another 100 or so, segregation was enforced throughout the South and much of the North, often policed by home-grown terrorists. We've had only 30 years of something else, largely the legacy of the struggle led by Dr. King.11 The media plays up the "guilt" African Americans supposedly suffer about affirmative action. I can tell you this. Dr. King felt no guilt when special laws gave us the right to vote. He felt no guilt about laws requiring that African Americans have the opportunity to go to schools, to enter universities, to compete for jobs and contracts. This supposed guilt is at best a luxurious anxiety of those who now have the opportunity to succeed or fail.12 If Dr. King were alive today, he would be 66, younger than Senator Bob Dole who suggests that discrimination ended "before we were born." Unlike Dole, Dr. King would be working to bring people together, not drive them apart.13 (3) Modern-day conservatives haven't a clue about what to do with an economy that is generating greater inequality and reducing the security and living standards of more and more Americans. So they seek to distract and divide.。
Unit1: Passage A:Care for Our Mother Earth(Dr. McKinley of A wareness Magazine interviews a group of experts on environmental issues.) Dr. McKinley: What do you think is the biggest threat to the environment today?Aman Motwane: The biggest threat to our environment today is the way we, as human beings, see our environment. How we see our environment shapes our whole world.Most of us see everything as independent from one another. But the reality is that everything is part of one interconnected, interrelated whole. For example, a tree may appear isolated, but in fact it affects and is affected by everything in its environment - sunshine, rain, wind, birds, minerals, other plants and trees, you, me. The tree shapes the wind that blows around it; it is also shaped by that wind. Look at the relationship between the tree and its environment and you will see the future of the tree.Most of us are blind to this interconnectedness of everything. This is why we don't see the consequences of our actions. It is time for each of us to open our eyes and see the world as it really is - one complete whole where every cause has an effect.Dr. McKinley: Hello Dr. Semkiw. In your research, what environmental issues do you find most pressing?Walter Semkiw: Two environmental issues that we find most pressing are deforesting and global warming. Mankind has now cut down half of the trees that existed 10,000 years ago. The loss of trees upsets the ecosystem as trees are necessary to build topsoil, maintain rainfall in dry climates, purify underground water and to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. Trees bring water up from the ground, allowing water to evaporate into the atmosphere. The evaporated water then returns as rain, which is vital to areas that are naturally dry. Areas downwind of deforested lands lose this source of rainfall and transform into deserts. Global warming results from the burning of fossil fuels , such as petroleum products, resulting in the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses then resulting in the trap heat , resulting in warming of our atmosphere.Dr. McKinley: Mr. Nacson, thanks for participating all the way from Australia! What do you suggest the readers of A wareness Magazine can do to help the environmental problem?Leon Nacson: The simplest way to help the environment is not to impact on it. Tread as lightly as you can, taking as little as possible, and putting back as much as you can.Dr. McKinley: What is your specific area of concern regarding the current and future state of the environment?Leon Nacson: Air and water pollution are our Number One priorities. It is hard to understand that we are polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink. These are two elements that are not inexhaustible, and we must realize that once we reach the point of no return, there will be nothing left for future generations. Dr. McKinley: Mr. Desai, what an honor it is to have this opportunity to interview you. Can you please share your wisdom with our readers and tell us where you see the environmental crisis heading? Amrit Desai: We are not separate from the problem. We are the problem. We live divided lives. On one hand, we ask industries to support our greed for more and more conveniences, comfort and possessions. We have become addicted consumers, which causes industrial waste. At the same time, we ignore our connection between our demands and the exploitation of Mother Earth. When we are greedy for more than what we need for our well being, we always abuse the resources of our body and the earth. We are nurtured by the healthy condition of Mother Earth. In humans, if the mother is ailing, the child suffers. We are the cause of the ailingplanet and we are the victims. Dr. McKinley: In closing, I thank all of the participants. I have learned a great deal about what I can do as an individual to help the environment. I hope these interviews encourage the readers of A wareness Magazine to take action and develop your own strategy. Too many of us just sit back and say "I'll let the experts deal with it." Meanwhile, we are killing the planet. My aim of this interview is to show how one person can make a difference. Thanks to all for offering your wisdom.Unit2:Passage A : Einstein's CompassY oung Albert was a quiet boy. "Perhaps too quiet", thought Hermann and Pauline Einstein. He spoke hardly at all until age 3. They might have thought him slow, but there was something else evident. When he did speak, he'd say the most unusual things. At age 2, Pauline promised him a surprise. Albert was excited, thinking she was bringing him some new fascinating toy. But when his mother presented him with his new baby sister Maja, all Albert could do is stare with questioning eyes. Finally he responded, "where are the wheels?"When Albert was 5 years old and sick in bed, Hermann Einstein brought Albert a device that did stir his intellect. It was the first time he had seen a compass. He lay there shaking and twisting the odd thing, certain he could fool it into pointing off in a new direction. But try as he might, the compass needle would always find its way back to pointing in the direction of north. "A wonder," he thought. The invisible force that guided the compass needle was evidence to Albert that there was more to our world that meets the eye. There was "something behind things, something deeply hidden."So began Albert Einstein's journey down a road of exploration that he would follow the rest of his life. "I have no special gift," he would say, "I am only passionately curious."Albert Einstein was more than just curious though. He had the patience and determination that kept him at things longer than most others. Other children would build houses of card up to 4 stories tall before the cards would lose balance and the whole structure would come falling down. Maja watched in wonder as her brother Albert methodically built his card buildings to 14 stories. Later he would say, "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."One advantage Albert Einstein's developing mind enjoyed was the opportunity to communicate with adults in an intellectual way. His uncle, an engineer, would come to the house, and Albert would join in the discussions. His thinking was also stimulated by a medical student who came over once a week for dinner and lively chats.At age 12, Albert Einstein came upon a set of ideas that impressed him as "holy." It was a little book on Euclidean plane geometry. The concept that one could prove theorems of angles and lines that were in no way obvious made an "indescribable impression" on the young student. He adopted mathematics as the tool he would use to pursue his curiosity and prove what he would discover about the behavior of the universe.He was convinced that beauty lies in the simplistic. Perhaps this insight was the real power of his genius. Albert Einstein looked for the beauty of simplicity in the apparently complex nature and saw truths that escaped others. While the expression of his mathematics might be accessible to only a few sharp minds in the science, Albert could condense the essence of his thoughts so anyone could understand. For instance, his theories of relativity revolutionized science and unseated the laws of Newton that were believed to be a complete description of nature for hundreds of years. Y et when pressed for an example that people could relate to, he came up with this: "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl foran hour and it seems like a minute. THA T's relativity."Albert Einstein's wealth of new ideas peaked while he was still a young man of 26. In 1905 he wrote 3 fundamental papers on the nature of light, a proof of atoms, the special theory of relativity and the famous equation of atomic power: E=mc2. For the next 20 years, the curiosity that was sparked by wanting to know what controlled the compass needle and his persistence to keep pushing for the simple answers led him to connect space and time and find a new state of matter. What was his ultimate quest?"I want to know how God created this world.... I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details." Unit3:Passage?A:Bathtub?Battleships?from?IvorydaleAmerican mothers have long believed that when it comes to washing out the mouths of naughty children, nothing beats Ivory Soap (a registered trademark of the Proctor & Gamble Company). This is because its reputation for being safe, mild, and pure is as solid and spotless as the marble of the Lincoln Memorial. It doesn't even taste all that bad. And should you drop it into a tubful of cloudy, child-colored water, not to worry - it floats.Ivory Soap is an American institution, about as widely recognized as the Washington Monument and far more well respected than Congress. It had already attained this noble status when Theodore Roosevelt was still a rough-riding cowboy in North Dakota. Introduced in 1879 as an inexpensive white soap intended to rival the quality of imported soaps, it was mass marketed by means of one of the first nationwide advertising campaigns. People were told that Ivory was "so pure that it floats," and the notion took hold. As a result, at least half a dozen generations of Americans have gotten themselves clean with Ivory.So many hands, faces, and baby bottoms have been washed with Ivory that their numbers beat the imagination. Not even Proctor & Gamble knows how many billions of bars of Ivory have been sold. The company keeps a precise count, however, of the billions of dollars it earns. Annual sales of Ivory Soap, Ivory Snow, Crest toothpaste, Folger's coffee, and the hundreds of other products now marketed under the Proctor & Gamble umbrella exceed thirty billion dollars.The company has grown a bit since it was founded in 1837 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by a pair of immigrants named William Proctor and James Gamble, each of whom pledged $3,596.47 to the enterprise. For decades Proctor & Gamble manufactured candles and soap in relatively modest quantities. It took more than twenty years for sales to top one million dollars, which they did shortly before the Civil War . The company's big break came with the introduction of its floating soap and the realization that an elaborate advertising campaign could turn a simple, though high-quality, product into a phenomenon. The soap's brand name was lifted from "out of ivory palaces," a phrase found in the Bible. So successful was this new product and the marketing effort that placed it in the hands of nearly every American that the company soon built an enormous new factory in a place called Ivorydale.Proctor & Gamble never forgot the advertising lessons it learned with Ivory. For instance, it was among the first manufacturers to use radio to reach consumers nationwide. In 1933 Proctor & Gamble's Oxydol soap powder sponsored a radio serial called Ma Perkins, and daytime dramas were forever after known as "soap operas." Over the years the company added dozens of new product lines such as Prell shampoo, Duncan Hines cake mixes, and the ever-present Tide, "new and improved" many a time. To this day, however, Ivory Soap remains a Proctor & Gamble backbone product.Ivory remains a favorite among consumers, too, and no wonder. With a bar of Ivory Soap in yourhand, you are holding a chunk of American history. If you like, you can even wash your hands and face with it and be assured that it is "ninety-nine and forty-four-one-hundredths percent pure." And it floats.The latter quality of Ivory Soap is especially attractive to children. Generations of little boys armed with toothpicks, miniature flags, or leftover parts from model ships - there are always a few - have converted bars of Ivory Soap into bathtub battleships. A note of warning for any small boys who may be reading this: Mothers tend to frown on the practice.Unit4:Passage?A:Not?Now,?Dr.?MiracleSeverino Antinori is a rich Italian doctor with a string of private fertility clinics to his name. He likes watching football and claims the Catholic faith. Y et the V atican is no fan of his science.In his clinics, Antinori already offers every IVF treatment under the sun, but still there are couples he cannot help. So now the man Italians call Dr Miracle is offering to clone his patients to create the babies they so desperately want.And of course it's created quite a stir, with other scientists rounding on Antinori as religious leaders line up to attack his cloning plan as an insult to human dignity. Y et it's an ambition Antinori has expressed many times before. What's new is that finally it seems to be building a head of steam. Like-minded scientists from the US have joined Antinori in his cloning adventure. At a conference in Rome last week they claimed hundreds of couples have already volunteered for the experiments.Antinori shot to fame seven years ago helping grandmothers give birth using donor eggs. Later he pioneered the use of mice to nurture the sperm of men with poor fertility. He is clearly no ordinary scientist but a showman who thrives on controversy and pushing reproductive biology to the limits. And that of course is one reason why he's seen as being so dangerous.However, his idea of using cloning to combat infertility is not as mad as it sounds. Many people have a hard job seeing the point of reproductive cloning. But for some couples, cloning represents the only hope of having a child carrying their genes, and scientists like Antinori are probably right to say that much of our opposition to cloning as a fertility treatment is irrational. In future we may want to change our minds and allow it in special circumstances.But only when the science is ready. And that's the real problem. Five years on from Dolly, the science of cloning is still stuck in the dark ages. The failure rate is a shocking 97 per cent and deformed babies all too common. Even when cloning works, nobody understands why. So forget the complex moral arguments. To begin cloning people now, before even the most basic questions have been answered, is simply a waste of time and energy.This is not to say that Antinori will fail, only that if he succeeds it is likely to be at an unacceptably high price. Hundreds of eggs and embryos will be wasted and lots of women will go through difficult pregnancies resulting in miscarriages or abortions. A few years from now techniques will have improved and the wasteful loss won't be as excessive. But right now there seems to be little anyone can do to keep the cloners at bay. And it's not just Antinori and his team who are eager to go. A religious group called the Raelians believes cloning is the key to achieving immortality, and it, too, claims to have the necessary egg donors and volunteers willing to be implanted with cloned embryos. So what about tougher laws? Implanting cloned human embryos is already illegal in many countries but it will never be prohibited everywhere. In any case, the prohibition of cloning is more likely to drive it underground than stamp it out. Secrecy is already a problem. Antinori and his team are refusing to name the country they'll be using as their base. Likeit or not, the research is going ahead. Sooner or later we are going to have to decide whether regulation is safer than prohibition. Antinori would go for regulation, of course. He believes it is only a matter of time before we lose our hang-ups about reproductive cloning and accept it as just another IVF technique. Once the first baby is born and it cries, he said last week, the world will embrace it. But the world will never embrace the first cloned baby if it is unhealthy or deformed or the sole survivor of hundreds of pregnancies. In jumping the gun, Dr Miracle and his colleagues are taking one hell of a risk. If their instincts are wrong, the backlash against cloning - and indeed science as a whole - could be catastrophic.Unit5:Passage B: Returning to CollegeIf I thought I'd live to be a hundred, I'd go back to college next fall. I was drafted into the Army at the end of my junior year and, after four years in the service, had no inclination to return to finish. By then, it seemed, I knew everything. Well, as it turns out, I don't know everything, and I'm ready to spend some time learning. I wouldn't want to pick up where I left off. I'd like to start all over again as a freshman. Y ou see, it isn't just the education that appeals to me. I've visited a dozen colleges in the last two years, and college life looks extraordinarily pleasant.The young people on campus are all gung ho to get out and get at life. They don't seem to understand they're having one of its best parts. Here they are with no responsibility to anyone but themselves, a hundred or a thousand ready-made friends, teachers trying to help them, families at home waiting for them to return for Christmas to tell all about their triumphs, three meals a day - so it isn't gourmet food - but you can't have everything.Too many students don't really have much patience with the process of being educated. They think half the teachers are idiots, and I wouldn't deny this. They think the system stinks sometimes.I wouldn't deny that. They think there aren't any nice girls/boys around. I'd deny that. They just won't know what an idyllic time of life college can be until it's over.The students are anxious to acquire the knowledge they think they need to make a buck, but they aren't really interested in education for education's sake. That's where they're wrong, and that's why I'd like to go back to college. I know now what a joy knowledge can be, independent of anything you do with it.I'd take several courses in philosophy. I like the thinking process that goes with it. Philosophers are fairer than is absolutely necessary, but I like them, even the ones that I think are wrong. Too much of what I know of the great philosophers comes secondhand or from condensations. I'd like to take a course in which I actually had to read Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Spinoza, Locke, John Dewey and the other great thinkers.I'd like to take some calculus, too. I have absolutely no ability in that direction and not much interest, either, but there's something going on in mathematics that I don't understand, and I'd like to find out what it is. My report cards won't be mailed to my father and mother, so I won't have to worry about marks. I bet I'l1 do better than when they were mailed.There are some literary classics I ought to read and I never will, unless I'm forced to by a good professor, so I'll take a few courses in English literature. I took a course that featured George Gordon Byron, usually referred to now as "Lord Byron," and I'd like to take that over again. I did very well in it the first time. I actually read all of Don Juan and have never gotten over how great it was. I know I could get an A in that if I took it over. I'd like to have a few easy courses. My history is very weak, and I'd want several history courses. I'm not going to break my back over them, but I'd like to be refreshed about the broad outline of history. When someone says sixteenthcentury to me, I'd like to be able to it with some names and events. This is just a little conversational conceit, but that's life. If I can find a good teacher, I'd certainly want to go back over English grammar and usage. He'd have to be good, because you might not think so sometimes, but I know a lot about using the language. Still, there are times when I'm stumped. I was wondering the other day what part of speech the word "please" is in the sentence, "Please don't take me seriously."I've been asked to speak at several college graduation ceremonies. Maybe if I graduate, they'll ask me to speak at my own.Unit6: Passage A:The?W oman?Taxi?Driver?In?CairoHer name is Nagat. I first saw her outside Cairo's airport terminal. A woman taxi driver - the only woman, for that matter , among a large crowd of her male counterparts.Do you know what it is like to arrive in a strange city in the middle of the night? Nobody, not even a ray of sunshine is here to greet you. When I walk out of the terminal, I am facing the crowd of taxi drivers milling about in front of every airport the world over. Here in Cairo, it is large and noisy. "Taxi!" "Y ou want taxi?" I hear all round me.I feel a firm hand holding my left arm. "Y ou want taxi, follow me," the woman says. She doesn't ask, she simply pulls me through the crowd. I follow her willingly. There is this moment when a tourist, particularly a woman, simply has to trust someone. We stop at a worn car. It has seen a better day, there are quite a few scrapes on its body, the tires are bald and there is a crack in the windshield. But it is a car for hire, and the woman will personally drive me. I breathe a sigh of relief when she puts my bag into the trunk, locks it and gets behind the wheel. "I will drive you, don't worry," she says. Nagat, as she now explains to me, works as a taxi driver several days and nights a week. She has another job, working in an office, but details of it remain vague. The little old car is not hers; it belongs to a boss from whom she in turn rents it whenever she can. She has been a driver ever since her husband died some ten years earlier and left her with two teenage kids and her parents to support. She knows every nook and cranny in and around Cairo - no easy feat. Cairo with its complex system of streets and lanes, its quarters and markets is like a labyrinth invented by ancient storytellers. Hundreds of mosques - many of which are masterpieces of Islamic architecture, old neighborhoods with houses boxed together, huge apartment buildings on the outskirts and the Nile calmly running through it; all are part of this overcrowded city. With a mild sense of humor around a deep core of understanding of human nature, Nagat takes control of my sightseeing schedule. Every morning punctually at nine o'clock, I can depend on seeing her short, solid frame outside the hotel lobby, her round face turning into a big smile as soon as she sees me coming down the stairs. Most every day, she wears an earth tone-colored Jellaba. Her movements are energetic and she doesn't waste any time. Her determined approach seems to have grown on a bed of economy, on the necessity to get as much done as she possibly can. What becomes clear to me soon as she drives me from museum to pyramid, from one part of town to the opposite, is this: she is a true exception here. Wherever we stop, be it for a cup of tea during a break or upon arriving at a historical site where her male colleagues gather in the parking area - everywhere, she is being noticed. Men walk up to her in the car with questioning faces. As she tells me, they all have one question first of all: "Are you a taxi driver?" She then explains in a few short sentences, and I see the men's faces soften, smile and respectfully and kindly chat with her. This scene repeats itself over and over again. I get the sense that she invites goodwill from the people she meets. Nagat is proud and independent. One day, as I find herwaiting outside a museum, she is just taking a spare tire out of the trunk of the taxi. One of the bald tires had finally gone flat, and she was going to change it herself. Several curious people gather around her and she receives offers of help - but no, she wants no part of that. In her efficient, deliberate manner, she changes the tire, and having done so, washes her hands with bottled water, gets in the taxi and asks "Where to now?" Should you find yourself at Cairo's airport, look for Nagat outside the international arrival hall. If you are lucky, you will have a chance to see Cairo through the eyes of a woman taxi driver.Unit7:Passage A: Agony from EcstasyI hear a lot of people talking about Ecstasy, calling it a fun, harmless drug. All I can think is, "if they only knew."I grew up in a small, rural town in Pennsylvania. It's one of those places where everyone knows your name, what you did, what you ate and so on. I was a straight-A student and one of the popular kids, liked by all the different crowds. Drugs never played a part in my life. They were never a question - I was too involved and focused on other things. I always dreamed of moving to New Y ork City to study acting and pursue a career in theater. My dream came true when my mom brought me to the city to attend acting school. As you can imagine, it was quite a change from home. I was exposed to new people, new ideas and a completely new way of life - a way of life that exposed me to drugs. Most of the people that I met in the acting school had already been doing drugs for years. I felt that by using drugs, I would become a part of their world and it would deepen my friendships with them to new levels. I tried pot, even a little cocaine, but it was Ecstasy that changed my life forever. I remember the feeling I had the first time I did Ecstasy: complete and utter bliss. I could feel the pulse of the universe. It was as if I had unlocked some sort of secret world; it was as if I'd found heaven. And I wondered how anything that made you feel so good could possibly be bad.As time went by, things changed. I graduated, and began to use drugs, especially Ecstasy, more frequently. As I did, I actually started to look down on those who did not. I surrounded myself only with those who did. I had gone from a girl who never used drugs to a woman who couldn't imagine life without them. In five months, I went from a person living somewhat responsibly while pursuing my dream to a person who didn't care about a thing - and the higher I got, the deeper I sank into a dark, lonely place. When I did sleep, I had nightmares and the shakes. I had pasty skin, a throbbing head and the beginnings of paranoia, but I ignored it all, thinking it was normal until the night I thought I was dying. On this night, I was sitting on the couch with my friends, watching a movie and feeling normal when suddenly, I felt as if I needed to jump out of my skin. Racing thoughts, horrible images and illusions crept through my mind. I thought I was seeing the devil, and I repeatedly asked my friends if I was dead. On top of all this, I felt as if I was having a heart attack. Somehow, I managed to pick up the telephone and call my mom in the middle of the night, telling her to come get me. She did, pulling me out of my apartment the next morning. I didn't know who I was or where I was as my mom drove me back to my family's hospital in Pennsylvania. I spent most of the drive curled up in the back seat while my younger sister tried to keep me calm. I spent the next 14 days in the hospital in a state of extreme confusion. This is what Ecstasy gave me - but it didn't stop there. My doctors performed a scan of my brain. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the results. The scan showed several dark marks on the image of my brain, and my doctors told me those were areas - areas that carry out memory functions - where the activity of my brain had been changed in some way. Since I saw that scan,。
