高级英语阅读课文1-4

Unit1 sports Beyond Beckham
By Malcolm Beith
Nursing a broken foot, Wayne Rooney limped off the football field just 27 minutes into England's Euro 2004 quarter-final against Portugal. His tournament was over, but what a hard game it had been: Rooney had shot four goals and given his team the hope David Beckham had failed to provide. Surely the 18-year-old Rooney was the One, thought the football experts from Birmingham to Bangkok, the golden boy who would replace Beckham as the new face of football. But the hype died down as soon as the question of dollars translated into sense. Sure, Rooney is a very good player, declared one commentator, but what could he possibly sell---"potatoes?"
In the Age of Beckham, it takes more than football skills to become a global football icon. A player's ability to sell team shirts, shaving cream and everything has become ever more crucial to a football club's ability to establish itself as a global brand. At the top of the food chain stands Beckham--the sarong-wearing star whose good looks, family-man image and celebrity status have helped sell everything from Gillette razors in the United States to Meiji Seika chocolates in Japan.
But all good things must come to an end, and the Age of Beckham is no exception. At 29, Beckham is entering the twilight of his career; the football industry is beginning to contemplate how to fill the void that his
decline as a player and eventual retirement will create. Indeed, that question was on the minds of many of the world's club bosses and marketing executives who attended the annual football trade fair in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in early December 2004. Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd declared frankly that Manchester United had lost some of its "stardust" since letting Beckham transfer to Real Madrid in 2003. Now the whole industry is worried about losing its brightness.
There is no obvious candidate to fill Beckham's Gucci shoes. Rooney, 19, is too uninspiring off the field; the pug-faced Liverpudlian has only local appeal and lacks a celebrity reputation. The same goes for Real Madrid's Michael Owen, although he's cute enough to female fans. Other stars, like Manchester United's Portuguese passionate Cristiano Ronaldo, Italian Francesco Totti of AS Roma, Argentine wonder boy Javier Saviola of Monaco and Arsenal's No. 1 Frenchman Thierry Henry have potential. But their global range is limited by one important factor: "They don't have the English-language feature," says Dominic Malcolm, a sports-economics lecturer at the University of Leicester and author of The Future of Football. Speaking English has come to be regarded as a vital asset for any footballer hoping to win over fans from Buenos Aires to Bangkok. It is generally believed that the next Beckham may well have to be English or American, just as most global pop icons are.
The lack of such a figure is leading European club executives and
sponsors to concentrate on filling region-specific marketing needs, particularly in Asia, which is now seen as the merchandising gold mine that could help bring Europe's ailing teams out of the red. When Crystal Palace signed Chinese stars Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai in 1998, the club's products flew off shelves across China, and created instant brand-name recognition. Tottenham enjoyed a similar effect with Japanese striker Kazuyuki Toda last year, as did Parma with Japanese star Hidetoshi Nakata, who is now at Fiorentina. "We're seeing players signed in Europe because of the commercial opportunity they open up," says Malcolm. "It enables a football club as a brand to expand into a market." Consider this: When Chinese star Li Tie's Everton plays against Manchester City, where Sun Jihai now plays, an estimated 300 million Chinese watch the match (less than 1 million Brits tune in--and that's if Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB chooses to broadcast it).
Some critics argue that teams are sacrificing quality in this quest to build international brands. Many of the Asian players transferred to Europe have failed dismally on the field--Toda, for instance, played just four games before being sent back to a Japanese club. This prompted Mohammed bin Hammam, the head of the Asian Football Confederation, to accuse European clubs of exploiting Asian players as "slaves" for commercial purposes earlier this year, demanding instead that they hire Asians on playing ability alone. Nevertheless, some teams are going out
of their way to help raise player quality along with their reputations; Stockport County FC in Britain's Division One plays annual exhibitions in China and offers training scholarships to local players. "Recruiting players has to be purely about talent," says a former executive of one big-name English club. "If the player has marketing value, it's a bonus--but not the reason. If you do that you start to endanger the integrity of sporting principles."
Perhaps, but these principles have largely died in recent years, as satellite television dragged football from its local, small roots and transformed it into a multibillion-dollar industry that favored branding over ball skills. As the footballing world moves into a new era, desperately seeking its new cash cow--or cows--few clubs or sponsors are listening to the old timers. Some still dream of finding the One, perhaps in an American like Washington DC United's 15-year-old Ghanaian born Freddy Adu, who has endorsement deals with everyone from Nike to Campbell's soup, and has helped raise attendance at his games this past season to 50 percent above average. "It may be that the person who rivals Beckham is going to be the person most closely linked to the American team when it eventually wins the World Cup," speculates Malcolm.
Others think that's not likely ever to happen. So, when Beckham finally fades into the history books, as Bill Gerard, a professor of sports management and finance at Leeds University Business School, puts it, "it
will be a case of 'The king is dead. Long live the king.'" The new ruler may face an altogether different kind of kingdom.
Unit2 Movies
A Critic Review of The Terminal
(Adapted)
By A. O. Scott
Steven Spielberg's new film, The Terminal, opens nationwide today. An airline terminal is, by definition, a place a traveler passes through on the way from one place to another. It is a place where one wants to spend only as much time as is absolutely necessary. However, the word "terminal" also has some darker connotations that challenge its modest, everyday meaning.
The Latin origin of the word, termini, refers to the local gods, whose shrines served as boundary markers in ancient Rome. It suggests a frontier between worlds. The modern medical usage of "terminal" is associated with death. Therefore, to be trapped indefinitely in a terminal, without any opportunity to escape, brings to mind a kind of living death, a frustrating state of perpetual imprisonment.
With this scenario in mind, it makes Steven Spielberg's transformation of this typical modem nightmare of interrupted air travel into a vision of earthly paradise much more remarkable. The director (Steven Spielberg) has repeatedly shown in his other movies how romantic flying can be. Steven Spielberg's interest in flying could be seen in the flashing spaceship lights at the end of Close Encounters (1977), in
the soaring bicycle of E. T. (1982), and Empire of the Sun (1987). The Terminal still shows Steven Spielberg's fascination with air travel, but it is also a direct contrast to his previous depictions of flight at the same time. This movie is about the romance of being stuck on the ground.
The plot of the film begins with Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), who flies to New York from the imaginary eastern European republic of Krakozia. Viktor arrives at J.F.K. International Airport just as a military coup abolishes his country's government and renders him without a home.
A large amount of complicated (and somewhat unrealistic) bureaucracy and regulations strand him at the airport, where he remains for nearly a year. He is unable to board a flight home or even take a cab into Manhattan. However, he is innocent of anything that would warrant his detention by the airport authorities. He is utterly trapped and completely free at the same time. (This movie is loosely based on the real experience of an Iranian traveler who was abandoned for a much longer period in a Paris airport after the fall of the Shah).
Steven Spielberg and the screenwriters, Sacha Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson, emphasize freedom rather than constraint. They focus on the humor of Viktor's situation rather than on its seriousness. What sounds like a scenario out of a horror story turns into an innocent fairy tale of friendliness and pleasure. The troubles that afflict Viktor's home- land are safely confined to cable news broadcasts on airport television monitors.
Real-life shocks of loneliness and displacement melt away into the atmosphere of the terminal.
Even the cheeriest fairy tale must have a villain. In The Terminal, the villain is an ambitious, humorless Homeland Security official named Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), who is about to get a big promotion. With pursed lips and narrowed eyes, he regards Viktor not as a person in distress, but as a procedural inconvenience. When he fails to scare Viktor into leaving the airport, Dixon becomes obsessed.
In the comical world of The Terminal, Dixon's vindictiveness is an anomaly. Before long, Viktor finds himself welcomed into an easygoing, multi-cultural tribe of nongovernmental airport employees. Among them are a dustman from India named Gupta (Kumar Pallana), a baggage handler named Joe (Chi McBride) and a sweet-faced restaurant worker named Enrique (Diego Luna).
At first the lightheartedness of The Terminal may seem false. At time the story offers nothing special, and the filmmakers seem uncomfortable with characters that are anything more than simple and kind.
Catherine Zeta-Jones is as spirited and lovely as ever, but the movie is content to use her for her beauty rather than for the humor that is her greatest attribute as a comic actress. In her other movies, this quality has been used in Rob Marshall's Chicago and Joe Roth's America's
Sweethearts. Other directors, Steven Spielberg included, seem uncomfortable by the idea that a woman of such regal beauty could actually be funny. As for Stanley Tucci, he is an obvious choice to play an authoritative bureaucrat, but his performance is not inspired. If he were a less technical actor, Dixon's coldness and malice might be psychologically interesting.
Dixon and Amelia (Zeta-Jones) are there to serve the plot. The story is sweet and humorous, but Steven Spielberg has made it tolerable. Rarely have I been so acutely aware of a movie's softness and sentimentality, and rarely have I minded less. Some of the credit goes to Tom Hanks. He is a man with nothing left to prove. His performance is so friendly that its nuances emerge only in retrospect.
At first Viktor seems like a holy fool with a funny accent, but the pouches under his eyes and the determination of his attitude tell another story. In time we learn that Viktor is a skilled carpenter and a devoted son. However, before we learn this and before he learns enough English to tell us, we understand that he is resourceful and stubborn as well as generous.
There are some similarities between Viktor and the character, Chuck Noland, which Tom Hanks played in Cast Away. However, there are many differences. Viktor's character is already stoic when the film begins, where Chuck takes four years of living on a desert island to become as stoic. In some ways Viktor's journey is the reverse of Chuck's.
Chuck was cast out of modem consumer society and learned to make do with very little. Viktor is coming from circumstances of relatively little material wealth and must adapt to a scene of surrealistic and enormous abundance.
I'm guessing that Viktor's homeland was originally an eastern European underdeveloped country. Someone from that region might point out that The Terminal presents a charming fantasy of global capitalism, which is not always so benevolent. Fair enough, but another way to say this is to notice that the film changes an alienating commercial environment into a place of utopian possibility, in the same way E. Z transformed a monotonous, sprawling suburb into a realm of enchantment. The appeal of both of these movies is due to the desire and ingenuity of the characters, who reflect the mind of Steven Spielberg.
The magic of The Terminal is a bit forced, perhaps because it is more urgently needed. Air travel, once a symbol of freedom and mobility, is now often associated with frustration, anxiety and terror. Steven Spielberg, assisted by the music of John Williams, the cinematography of Janusz and the set designs of Alex McDowell, makes the audience forget their ideas of a real airline terminal with effortless grace and optimism. The Terminal changes the scary modem world into a friendly, artificial garden of escalators and restaurants and expands toward the farthest horizon of the human imagination. ( 1,157 words )
unit 3 Chinese Culture
Chinese Religions and Culture
Early Chinese religion belongs to the mythical and prehistoric period. Tradition speaks of the origins of Chinese culture lying in the 3rd millennium B.C. with the Xia Dynasty. As of yet no historical evidence has been found for such a dynasty, and all references to it are mythical. It is only with the Shang Dynasty, which is traditionally dated from 1766 B.C. to 1122 B.C., that we find evidence of a developing culture and religious practices. The religion of the Shang was principally characterized by the use of oracle bones for divination and the development of the cult of ancestors. It was believed that the cracks that resulted from burning ox bones or tortoise shells represented messages sent from the gods about a variety of matters such as illness, weather or hunting.
Belief in deities and the practice of the worship of ancestors have persisted in Chinese life, and have come to form the basis of what has broadly been termed popular religion. Popular religion in fact represents a mixture of early religion and elements of the three great religions: Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. At the heart of popular religion is the worship of deities and veneration of ancestors at shrines in the home or temples. There are many deities associated with this form of religion, but the best known are Yu Di, the supreme ruler of heaven, and Guan Yin,
the goddess of mercy and protector of women and children.
In the Zhou Dynasty a more structured form of religion developed. This is associated with the teaching of Kung Fuzi (551 B.C.-479 B.C.), whose Latinized name is Confucius. Confucius sought to establish a socio-political ethical system, with theological beliefs concerned with human destiny and the conduct of human relationships in society, based on a belief in the goodness of human nature. He believed in a providential Heaven (tian) and in prayer which encouraged him in his mission. He emphasized the five relationships--namely, father-son; ruler-subject; husband-wife; eldest son-brothers; friend-friend--to be expressed by li (correct ceremony) to bring he (harmony). Such relationships were rooted in family piety which came to give a prominent place to ancestor worship and to respect for deified men, which came to find expression in the Sacrifices of the State religion. The Confucian canon can be divided into two parts: the Four Books and the Five Classics. The Four Books consist of The Analects (Conversations of Confucius); The Book of Mencius; The Great Learning,' and The Doctrine of the Mean. The Five Classics were handed down from earlier times and emphasized by Confucius. These are The Book of Change; The Book of History; The Book of Odes; The Book of Rites; and The Spring and Autumn Annals.
Out of the teachings of Confucius emerged various schools each associated with a master. Notable was the work of Mengzi (or Mencius)
(371 B.C.-289 B.C.) and Xunzi (c. 313 B.C.-238 B.C.). Mengzi and Xunzi formed rival schools whose doctrinal differences were based in
a fundamentally different conception of human nature o. Mengzi thought that people were fundamentally good and that what made them bad was their environment. Consequently, Mengzi emphasized the importance of education as a means for bringing out the innate goodness of people. By way of contrast, Xunzi had a more pessimistic view of human nature. Xunzi thought that people were inherently evil, and that they could only be taught to be good through training.
The brief rule of the Qin had a devastating impact on Confucianism, whose scholars it persecuted and whose books it destroyed. Fortunately for the tradition, Confucianism received official acceptance of the Han Dynasty and flourished during the Han period. Under the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), and the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) Confucian teaching was used for public examinations. In 631 A.D. the Confucian canon was made the sole subject for the examination of aspirants to official positions, so Confucianism came to be known as "the doctrine of the learned".
During the Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism emerged as a distinct movement in response to Taoism and Buddhism. Two traditions of Neo-Confucian thought emerged: the School of Principle, represented by Zhu Xi (1130-1200 A.D.), and the School of Mind, represented by Lu
Jiuyuan (1139-1193 A.D.) and, later, Wang Yangming (1472-1529 A.D.). Zhu Xi sought to provide a metaphysical explanation of the nature of reality as well as an ethic for human conduct. For Zhu Xi the basis of all reality was the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji). In order for people to live properly they had to purify their qi (vital energy) through taming their desires so that they could be united with the Supreme Ultimate. In reaction to Zhu Xi's dualistic perception of reality, Lu Jiuyuan presented a monistic picture of the universe. He claimed that the universe and the mind are one. Therefore, through understanding one's own mind one could understand the nature of the cosmos. This was developed by Wang Yangming. Wang Yangming believed that individuals could perfect themselves through moral self-cultivation. This involved returning to an original mind whose principal quality was love (ten).
Also of ancient origin is Taoism--whose classic text, the Daodejing, is attributed to a supposed contemporary of Confucius, Laozi. This text has had many interpreters whose works have developed in various sects, some of which have been very influential. There are two streams of Taoism: Religious Taoism, which is represented by the many sects concerned with the quest for immortality; and Philosophical Taoism, which was concerned to explain the human condition.
The major imported religion is Mahayana Buddhism which is believed to have entered China in the 1st century B.C. An important early
Buddhist teacher was An Shih Kao who founded what came to be known as the Dhyana School, characterized by its emphasis on meditation. Another major early school was the Prajna School whose doctrines were based on the interpretation of the Perfection of Wisdom. It was, however, between the 5th and 8th centuries that Buddhist schools flourished and developed in China. The great persecution of Buddhism in the middle of the 9th century led to its rapid decline, and by the time of the Song dynasty only the Chan and Chingtu schools remained significant.
Recent changes have been profound, strengthening agnostic tendencies for many in the population. Traditional practices are still continued in many homes in China and among overseas Chinese. In recent times relaxation of restriction has given fresh opportunity for religious activity. Many Taoist and Buddhist temples, as well as mosques and churches, are reopened. Greater openness to the West has been accompanied by renewed conversion to Christianity; the government has encouraged the rediscovery of traditional religious values.
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Unit4 Cultural Differences
The Cultural Differences Between the European Union and
North America and Their Impact on Transatlantic Business
By Lionel Laroche , Ph.D.
Progress in telecommunications and transportation technologies has resulted in unprecedented growth in international trade in general and transatlantic trade (between the European Union and North America) in particular. As a result, Europeans and North Americans interact routinely to negotiate and implement business agreements. For North Americans and Europeans, doing business with one another is considered easier than doing business with the third major trading block, namely the Far East. Indeed, European Union and North American countries share common historical and religious roots; as a result, most North American people traveling through the European Union and most European people traveling through North America experience culture shock to a much lesser extent than North American or European people traveling through the Far East. Unfortunately, the apparent similarities between countries of the European Union and North America mask significant cultural differences. Business people from either side may be lured into a false sense of familiarity when they cross the Atlantic Ocean. Taking these cultural differences into consideration increases significantly the probability of success of one's professional endeavors.
The weight and importance of history are very different depending on which side of the Atlantic Ocean you are. On the North American side, history is much shorter: the U.S.A. started its existence as a country in 1776, Canada in 1867. By contrast, the history of most European nations goes back much further in time. This difference translates in the business world in the amount of background information needed to introduce a company or project~. For most North Americans, events that took place more than three to five years ago are considered irrelevant to the current situation, and background information on a project is usually limited to the latest developments. By contrast, many Europeans go back much further in time and often start the description of their company or project at the conception stage, no matter how long ago that event took place. This often results in miscommunication during joint meetings where people from both sides make presentations: North American audiences often find European presentations uninteresting, because they contain much superfluous background information (by North American standards), while European audiences often find that North American presentations lack key background information, making these presentations difficult to follow.
In North America, English is the language for business. The only significant exception is Quebec where, while many Quebecers speak both English and French, the exclusive use of English may create some
difficulties. In the European Union, while English is generally accepted as the international language of business, the ability to speak English is not ubiquitous. Furthermore, the ability to speak English is not uniform across generations. Indeed, the acceptance of English as the international language of business is relatively recent. As a result, you may find that, outside the British Isles, young Europeans speak and understand English much better than their older counterparts. This difference can create tension, particularly when these people come from countries where hierarchy is important (such as France, Italy, and Spain). In some cases, good cases may be rejected because senior decision-makers do not understand them and may not want to acknowledge their lack of understanding in front of their younger colleagues.
Both the U.S.A and Canada were built on the assumption that land, energy and resources (such as water, minerals, wood, etc.) are always available. If there is not enough available where you are, go somewhere else (west, in most cases) and you will find it. In North America, energy, land and resources are considered available in virtually unlimited supply; the only commodity that is continuously in short supply is time. By contrast, space, energy and resources are all in visibly limited supply in Europe. The need to conserve them is always present in European minds, particularly those who have experienced the damages of World War II. This results in very significant business practice differences between the
European Union and North America: the size of cars and equipment (from refrigerators to office equipment), the use of lighting, the use and whiteness of paper (North American documents are often single-sided and contain much blank space, for example) are daily examples of this difference in approach. Similarly, North American businesses tend to prefer building new, flat buildings on large pieces of land rather than revamp existing buildings.
One common oversimplification made by people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean consists in viewing the other side as relatively homogeneous from a cultural standpoint. For example, with the notable exception of Quebec, many Europeans tend to view North America as a continuum, with little difference from one location to another. Similarly, many North Americans tend to think of Europe as the British Isles and the rest of the continent. Europe itself is very diverse, and the UK is culturally closer in many respects to the U.S.A. and to English Canada than to Italy or France. Similarly, there are major regional differences within North America: English Canadians and Americans hold very different values on many social issues (including guns, health care, and education). Within the U.S.A., there are significant differences between the Northeastern States, the South, the Midwest, and the Southwest.
Cultural differences between North America and the European Union can be quite significant and need to be taken into consideration
when doing business with people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It is also important to keep in mind that neither North America nor the European Union is culturally uniform entities: there are significant variations within each trading bloc, and very few generalities can be stated about one trading bloc versus the other. Furthermore, the differences between European and North American countries depend on the countries considered on each side of the Atlantic Ocean: for example, Swedes can tolerate significantly more risks and uncertainty than Americans, but French people need far more structure and rules than Americans.
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