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Unit 8
DIALOGUE I
At the Sunday Fair in Kashi
A: I hear you've just returned from Xinjiang.
B: Yes, it was a wonderful trip.
A: Did you go to Urumqi, the capital city?
B: Of course, it was my first stop. Urumqi is just like any other large city in China, really. It's rather modern and big, except that you see more Uygurs there than Hans. You wouldn't think it was a city in the remote, legendary northwest.
A: Where else did you go?
B: I visited Kashi, also called Kashgar.
A: Kashi? Where is it? How far is it from Urumqi?
B: It's to the southwest of Urumqi. The flight from Urumqi to Kashi takes about three and a half hours. It's where you can get the real flavour of Uygur traditional life and craft.
A: That's quite a long way from Urumqi. So, what kind of Uygur flavour did you get?
B: I went to a fair there and from what was traded at the fair, I sensed something really Uygur, something you don't experience elsewhere, not even in Urumqi.
A: I see. What's so special about Uygur?
B: Uygurs are known for their fine craftsmanship in making musical instruments, clothing, knives, silverware, bronzeware, pottery and embroidery - all made with a distinct Xinjiang design. Do you know what struck me most while I was there?
A: What? The Uygur hat.
B: Yes, the typical Uygur hats. They're all beautifully designed and everyone wears one - old and young, men and women. It was some time before I figured out why they all wore hats.
A: It must be cold there, I suppose.
B: It is rather cold there, but the Uygurs wear hats because of their belief, not because of the weather. It's disrespectful to Allah if they go bareheaded.
A: I see. But do they choose a particular day to go to the Kashi fair?
B: Sunday is usually the time when lots of people go to Kashi for the fair. One Sunday I went to the fair and stopped at a musical instrument shop. I was amused by the way the shopkeeper did business.
A: What did he do?
B: In order to attract customers, he played his instruments one after another until a passing musician would stop and pick up another instrument and start playing. The shopkeeper didn't mind him playing the instrument because he regarded it as a way of advertising his shop.
A: That was clever. A free promotion for the shop. By the way, I've seen pictures of Xinjiang knives. They look fantastic with beautiful handles. You didn't resist the temptation to buy one, did you?
B: No. Why should I? I collect knives, all kinds of knives, from different countries and regions in the world. I bought a dozen of those Uygur knives.
A: I hope I'll get a chance to go to Xinjiang one of these days to experience what you did.
DIALOGUE II
Dialogue:
A small plane has been having trouble keeping its height. It has been hovering over the small town, and people have been watching nervously. Ten-year-old Jim is delighted, what a sight! His mother, however, is worried. What if it crashes onto their house? What if it drops onto the supermarket?
J: Oh, how wonderful! You don't see that very often.
M: Now, what are you talking about? What if it dropped onto our house?
J: Yeah, that'd be great!
M: What a thing to say! You naughty little boy!
J: It's OK, Mum, the pilot's got it under control. The plane only seems to be dropping onto the houses. See how the pilot pulls it up when it's about to crash onto a roof? Terrific! (The plane finally lands on the square.)
M: Heavens! I feel so weak I could cry!
J: See? I told you it'd be all right.
M: Thank goodness, I hate to think what might have happened.
J: I bet that pilot's Uncle Ron. He'd bring the plane down safely.
M: Phew! I'm certainly glad that nobody's hurt.
J: Hurrah! My Uncle Ron is a hero!
M: Thank God that no damage is done either. Imagine how many people would have been hurt if the plane had crashed on top of the hospital!
J: Oh yes, but nothing of that sort happened. And my friends will never guess that the hero is my Uncle Ron!
READING I
Daydreaming
You are sitting in a classroom on a warm spring day, listening to a history lecture. But the windows are open, and outdoors the birds are singing and the trees are budding. The urge to gaze out the window is irresistible, and you think about what it would be like to be out there, sitting on the grass, relaxing, chatting with a friend in the sunlight .... Then the professor interrupts her discussion of the Holy Roman Empire to say, "Mr. Smith, just what is so interesting out the window?" Suddenly you are startled back to reality. Only what is it, exactly, that you have come back from?
It was not exactly that there was a specific thing out the window that interested you. Rather, the mood of the spring day set you off into daydreaming. Daydreaming and fantasy are not quite the same. Fantasy is more self-directed (the "If I were..." or "If I could..." kind of thinking). In a daydream, your thoughts wander unconsciously in unexpected directions.
...
Some psychologists believe that daydreams are a kind of wishful thinking that occurs when inner needs cannot be expressed in actual behaviour. We daydream, they claim, when the world outside does not meet our needs, or when we are motivated to do something but cannot realize our goals....
By contrast, other psychologists have stressed the positive value of daydreaming and fantasy. One of them suggests that daydreaming can build cognitive and creative skills and can help people get through difficult situations. They note that daydreaming helped prisoners of war to survive torture and deprivation. Her view suggests that daydreaming and fantasy can be a constructive way of providing relief from everyday (and often unpleasant) reality, as well as a means of reducing internal tension and external aggression.
Even though psychologists do not agree on the value daydreams have for the individual, there is little disagreement about their frequency. Most people have daydreams every day, especially at bedtime. Interestingly, people who daydream a great deal report that the content varies widely from one daydream to the next.
Although the specific content of a daydream is as unique as the individual, three daydream patterns have been identified. These patterns are closely linked to personality type. The first pattern of daydreams is characterized by considerable mind wandering and short-lived rather than extensive daydreams. The daydreams are often unpleasant and fearful. People whose daydreams fit into this pattern spend a great deal of time each day in idle thought, but, even so, they do not have a clear idea of what their daydreams are about. They have a great deal of trouble concentrating on any one particular thing. The second pattern of daydreams also involves unpleasant emotions such as self-doubt, guilt, fear of failure, or angry or aggressive tendencies toward others. People who continually experience daydreams of this kind tend to brood and be riddled with self-doubt. The third pattern of daydreams identified involves a range of positive and accepting feelings. The daydreamers in this group focus on plans for the future and on the details of their interpersonal relationships. They appear to have no serious emotional problems and use their daydreams in a constructive way. For most people, the majority of their daydreams fit this last category.
READING II
Mysteries of Memory
One day more than fifty years ago, a young man had an accident on his motor bike in which he suffered a few apparently minor injuries. There was a bruise on the left side of his forehead and some slight bleeding from his left ear. He was taken to hospital for examination but X-rays did not reveal any other injuries. Nevertheless, the doctor who was treating him decided to keep him in hospital for further observations because the young man was having difficulty in speaking and seemed very confused.
At the time of the accident, the young man was 22 years old, and the date was August, 1933. A week later, he was able to carry on what seemed a perfectly normal conversation. However, he told the doctor that he was only 11 years old and that the date was February, 1922. What is more, he could not remember anything that had happened since 1922. For example, he could not recall having spent five years in Australia, or coming back to England and working for two years on a golf course.
As time went by, part of his memory of the eleven missing years came back. A few weeks later, he even remembered his years in Australia. But the two years of his life just before the accident were still a complete blank. Three weeks after his injury, he went back to the village where he had been living for those two years. Everything looked unfamiliar and he did not recall ever having been there before.
Despite this, he was able to take up his old job again in the village and to do it satisfactorily. But he often got lost when walking around the village and found it difficult to remember what he had done during the day. Slowly, however, his memory continued to return so that, about ten weeks after the accident, he could even remember most of the previous two years. There remained only one complete gap in his memory: he could remember absolutely nothing about what he had done a few minutes immediately before the accident or the accident itself. This part of his memory never came back.
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
---Christina Rossetti
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