MR. JONES

During the winter of 1945,1 lived for several months in a rooming house
in Brooklyn. It was not a shabby place, but a pleasantly furnished, elderly
brownstone and always kept tidy by its owners, two sisters who never got married.
Mr. Jones lived in the room next to mine. My room was the smallest in the
house, his the largest, a nice big sunshiny room, which was just as well,
because Mr. Jones never left it: all his needs, meals, shopping, laundry, were
dealt with by the two middle-aged landladies. Also, he was not without
visitors; on the average, a half-dozen various persons, men and women,
young, old, in-between, visited his room each day, from early morning until
late in the evening. He was not a drug dealer or a fortune-teller; no, they just
came to talk to him and apparently they gave him small gifts of money for his
conversation and advice. If not, he had no obvious means of support.
I never had a conversation with Mr. Jones myself, a circumstance I've
often since regretted. He was a handsome man, about forty. Thin,
black-haired, and with a distinctive face which you can always remember, a
long face, high cheekbones, and with a birthmark on his left cheek, a small
red mark shaped like a star. He wore gold-rimmed glasses with pitch-black
lenses; he was blind, and crippled, too - according to the sisters, he had been
unable to use his legs since a childhood accident, and he could not move
without crutches. He was always dressed in a neatly pressed dark grey or
blue suit and a dark-coloured tie - as though about to set off for a Wall Street
office.
However, as I've said, he never left the house. I had no idea why they
came to see him, these rather ordinary-looking people, or what they talked
about, and I was too busy with my own affairs to think about it. When I did,
I imagined that his friends had found in him an intelligent, kindly man, a
good listener they could confide in and talk with over their troubles: someone
between a priest and a therapist.
Mr. Jones had a telephone. He was the only tenant with a private line.
I moved to Manhattan. While the landladies offered me tea and cakes in
their lace-curtained sitting room, I asked them about Mr. Jones.
The women lowered their eyes. Clearing her throat, one said: "It's in the
hands of the police."
The other offered: "We've reported him as a missing person." The first
added:
"Last month, twenty-six days ago, my sister carried up Mr. Jones's
breakfast, as usual. He wasn't there. All his belongings were there."
"It's strange—"
"— how a man totally blind, a helpless cripple..."
Ten years pass.
Now it is a zero-cold December afternoon, and I am in Moscow. I am
riding in a subway car. There are only a few other passengers. One of them is
a man sitting opposite me, a man wearing boots, a thick long coat and a
Russian-style fur cap. He has bright eyes, blue as a peacock's.
After a doubtful moment, I simply stared, for even without the black
glasses, there was no mistaking that long distinctive face, those high
cheekbones with the single red star-shaped birthmark.
I was just about to cross the aisle and speak to him when the train pulled
into a station, and Mr. Jones, on a pair of fine strong legs, stood up and
hurried out of the car. Rapidly the train door closed behind him.

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This book is a collection of the reading sections of the exam papers prepared in the Department of Basic English in the last ten years. It is intended to provide students with supplementary material for EFL reading practice and exam preparation as it is believed that the reading material in the main textbooks is not always sufficient for this purpose. In their English-medium academic mainstream, reading will be of utmost importance for our students; therefore, we believe that they should be encouraged to read as much as possible outside class and we hope that this book will equip both the students and the teachers with enough means to emphasize reading comprehension and vocabulary development.

The material in this book has been graded according to text difficulty and the level of the exercises so that it will serve the needs of our students - from the beginner level to intermediate - in the first semester. There are 204 passages in the book, which will enable each student to read extensively at his own level and to move on to the more advanced texts for challenge. In selecting the passages, an attempt has been made to include a variety of topics and text types so as to promote reading for pleasure as well. Finally, the material has been edited to maintain a reasonable level of consistency in the exercise types throughout the book. Although it is prepared with the students of the Department of Basic English in mind, we believe that this book will help any enthusiastic student of English as a foreign language. If the book proves to be beneficial, we will consider ourselves useful.

ASH FROM A VOLCANO: IT MAY REMAIN ALOFT

The 1982 eruption of Mexico's El Chichon volcano sent vast
quantities of ash high into the stratosphere. If a University of New
Mexico scientist is correct, the ash which went up hasn't all come down
yet.
Most scientists assume that volcanic ash falls to earth within a year
or two after an eruption. But Frans J.M. Rietmeijer says that he can
show that tiny particles collected in 1985 by a balloon above Texas had
come out from El Chichon. What's more, he believes that because
volcanic particles are flat and fall more slowly than spherical particles,
 thev may remain aloft for a hundred years or more. The balloon was
originally designed to collect particles of meteoric origin. It took
samples of the air at an altitude of 35 kilometres - near the top of El
Chichon's plume of ash. Rietmeijer says the particles that he analysed
chemically match the ash from the volcano.

ADVERTISING

Advertising is about creating images, and this is especially true when
advertising food and drink. What the food looks like is more important
than what it tastes like.
To sell food successfully, it must look appetizing. Milk must look
cold, bread must look freshly-baked, fruit must look juicy. Television
advertising of food often uses movement. Obviously, food looks
especially tasty when it moves. Chocolate sauce looks more delicious
when you see it being poured over ice cream than if it is in a bowl.
Sound effects - but not background music - also help to sell food:
sausages frying in a pan are mouth-watering. A TV advertisement for a
brand of coffee had the sound of coffee being poured in the
background. The advertisement was so successful that it lasted five
years.
The colour of food and the colour of packaging are also very
important. If the colour of the food looks wrong, people won't eat it
because they associate food with certain colours. Nobody would eat
blue bread or drink blue beer. Therefore, in advertising food, purple
gray and, in some cases, white are unpopular colours.
How people expect something to taste often influences how it
actually does taste. Researchers gave some mineral water to two groups
of people. They told one group that the water was mineral water and
asked: "What does it taste like?" The answer was: "It tastes nice." Then
the researchers told the other group that the mineral water was tap
water. The second group said the water tasted a bit strange and not very
nice. The word 'tap' created an unpleasant image of chlorine.
It is the same for packaging. A food manufacturer was trying to
decide whether to sell his product in a glass jar or a can. He gave a
group of people the same product in both a glass jar and a can and
asked them to taste it. They all claimed that the product in the glass jar
tasted better.
So it seems to be true, image is everything.

ARE YOU REALLY A NON-SMOKER?

The results of a study done in Japan showed that wives who did not
smoke but were exposed to their husbands' cigarette smoke developed
lung cancer at a much higher rate than those whose husbands did not
smoke. For them, the risk of developing lung cancer was directly
related to the amount their husbands smoked. This was about one-third
of the risk of developing lung cancer taken by smokers.
This study strengthens the thesis that the effect of tobacco smoke on
the non-smoker, which has been called passive, secondhand or
involuntary smoking, may be a cause of lung cancer in the general
population.
The study also strengthens the evidence which implies that passive
smoking is a health hazard. A study published last year suggested that
passive smoking might cause damage to the small airways in the lungs
of non-smokers. Other studies have suggested that passive smoking
may worsen non-smokers' pre-existing chronic heart and lung
conditions.
Lung cancer is a major health problem throughout the world. It is
estimated that in 1997, 122,000 Americans will be told that they have
lung cancer. Moreover, only about 10 per cent of these will live another
five or more years because of the ineffectiveness of available
treatments.
The lungs are the leading sites of cancer in the U.S. among men who
are 35 and over. In women, lung cancer deaths are rising so fast that
experts expect them to exceed breast cancer deaths by the middle of this
decade, becoming the No.l cancer killer of women.
As evidence linking the rise of lung cancer with cigarette smoking
has increased, many experts have theorized that passive smokers have a
greater risk of developing lung cancer than those who are not exposed
to smoke. Such theories are based on the knowledge that second-hand
smoke of cigarettes contains large amounts of toxic substances.

HOLIDAYS,

More than 300 million people go abroad for their holidays each year,
and most of them prefer spending less on food and clothes than on
holidays. Choosing the ideal holiday is not always easy, but today there
is a wide range of choice, and it is easy to find something to suit your
taste and pocket.
Some people like planning their holiday independently. Others find
making arrangements on their own difficult, so they prefer to book a
package tour. It depends on where you are going, how much money
you have and whether you are travelling alone or with friends and
family.
The obvious advantage of a package holiday is that it is simple to
organise. You book the holiday through a travel agent, and transport
and accommodation are all arranged for you. You don't have to worry
about how you will get there or where you will stay. All you have to do
is pay the bill. If you take an independent holiday, on the other hand,
you can spend a lot of time and money checking complicated timetables,
chasing - looking for - cheap flights and trying to make hotel
reservations in a language you can't even speak. In addition, package
holidays are often incredibly cheap. For the price of a good dress, you
can have a fifteen-day holiday in a holiday resort abroad, including
accommodation, meals and air travel. A similar independent holiday can
cost you much more.
However, planning your own holiday has several advantages. You
are free to choose where and when you want to go, how you want to
travel, and how long you want to stay. You can avoid the large holiday
resorts which are often crowded with holidaymakers on package tours.
You can eat the food of the region at reasonable prices at local
restaurants instead of the international dishes that they serve in holiday
resorts. Moreover, although package holidays are usually cheap, they
are not always cheaper. If you are willing to take a little trouble, you
may be able to save money by organising a foreign holiday yourself.

FOOD ADDITIVES

Our bodies depend on the food we eat to function normally. But how
many of us know what we are eating? We might think, for example,
that a packet of vegetable soup only contains dried vegetables.
However, this is not the case. It also contains additives. These are put
into food for a number of reasons, and are grouped according to what
they do.
There are four main groups: preservatives, which prevent the growth
of micro-organisms which would spoil the taste or make the food
dangerous to eat; anti-oxidants, which stop the food from becoming
spoiled as a result of contact with air; stabilisers and emulsifiers, both
of which make sure that the ingredients mix and do not separate out
again; and colouring agents which colour the food in order to make it
look more attractive.
A typical packet or tin of vegetable soup will contain additives from
all these groups. And it's not just packaged convenience foods that
contain additives. Cheese, carbonated or fizzy drinks, margarine,
biscuits, jam, tinned fish also contain them. In fact, any factory-made
food does so.
In several countries, the use of food additives is controlled by
government regulations. The UK list of permitted additives is based on
a list produced by the European Community (EC). Additives on the EC
list are generally assumed to be safe to use. However, some people
have expressed doubts about the safety of some of them, and some are
not allowed in the United States. This is sufficient cause for concern,
particularly when we consider that small amounts of additives soon add
up. (It is estimated that each member of the British population eats
between three and seven kilograms of additives per year.) Is it right that
potentially harmful substances are put into our food without our
knowledge?
 From the point of view of the health of the consumer, the answer
appears obvious, but ending the use of additives would have
far-reaching effects. It would mean only eating fresh, locally produced
food. People would have to spend much more *ime in the kitchen as
there would no longer be such a thing as supermarket convenience
food. This would not be acceptable to many consumers iuid certainly
not to the convenience food manufacturers. So it seems that additives
are here to stay

THE HAUNTED HOUSE

Although the house needed decoration and repair, the Longs decided
to buy it. It was rather big, the price was very low and it was in the
centre of London. Both Mr. and Mrs. Long had jobs in the city, so this
was important. There was also a good school nearby for their
 six-year-old daughter, Jane, to go to. Some time later, they learnt about
the owner of the house and the terrible things that happened there.
The first sign of trouble came just before they moved in. The
workmen who did the redecoration refused to work in the house after
dark. "I'm frightened", one of them said. Then, when the Longs started
living in the house, they noticed that the rooms were cold, even though
it was the middle of a warm summer. Their daughter began waking up
in the middle of the night, screaming. She said she could hear strange
voices and that they belonged to dead people. The voices told her that
somebody had killed them in the house and buried their bodies in the
 garden. "At first we thought she was just having nightmares, but then
my husband and I heard strange noises, as well, "Mrs. Long says.
Sometimes, they both heard more than just strange noises. "One night,
just before George and I went to bed, we heard a woman's voice that
seemed to come from nowhere. It said only a few words, 'No, no!
 Stop!' But we both heard it very clearly", Mrs. Long says. Shortly
after this, Mrs. Long learnt from a neighbour more about the history of
the house. It once belonged to Gordon Taplow, who hanged himself in
prison. They say that he murdered three women in the kitchen of the
house and dismembered their bodies. Then he buried the various pieces
of the bodies in different parts of the garden. After his arrest and death
in 1959, many people bought and sold the house several times, but
nobody ever lived in it for very long. Months, and even years, passed
without anybody living in it at all. Mr. and Mrs. Long think that they
know the reason for this. "Although nobody has found the bodies of
the three women in the garden, he must have buried them somewhere.
Therefore the house is haunted by their ghosts. My husband and i are
not superstitious but what other possible explanation is there?"

PROPRIETARY SCHOOLS

Proprietary schools are privately owned vocational schools. That is,
they offer practical training which will help students get a well-paying
job. They are interested most in satisfying their customers - the
students. To remain in business they must give students what they want
to learn - at a fair price. The students themselves normally pay for the
cost of the training. Generally, the training lasts from six months to one
year.
In the United States, proprietary schools number about 10,000 and
that number is growing to meet increasing needs. Courses in
proprietary schools include training not only in business and technical
skills but also in self-improvement such as painting, crafts, speech and
physical development. At present, the field with the most students is
cosmetology, with nearly 3,000 schools in operation.
Teachers in proprietary schools generally wofk longer hours for less
pay than in public schools. However, the quality of instruction is high
because teachers work closely with students. Some schools ask
students to evaluate the teachers. Proprietary schools emphasize applied
rather than theoretical knowledge. They often are willing to experiment
with new ideas in their teaching. The teachers themselves come from
the real world of work. Most of them are professionals and they know
what the students will need on the job.
Courses are given in short segments. This helps to give the students
a sense of accomplishment. In other words, they achieve what they
want in a short time. Automated education is used with success and
 team teaching is common.
The student, of course, is interested in the result. Will he get a good
job? Generally, most of them do and this can be counted as success in
education!

FLYING GRANDMOTHER An Interview with Theda Beningfield

In Raytown, Missouri, there lives a woman named Theda
Beningfield. She has a husband, two children, seven grandchildren and
a busy life.
What makes this grandmother so unusual?

When I first started flying, many members of the family thought I
had completely lost my mind. I didn't start to fly until I was 48 years
old. In the ten years I have been flying, I got a private licence, a
commercial licence and an instructor's classification. After that first
30-minute lesson, I didn't know whether I would ever get a licence, but
still I wondered whether I could solo that airplane; whether I would
really have enough courage, enough knowledge and ability. When the
big day came and the instructor said, "All right, you can solo," would I
really be able to go off myself or would I just grab him around the neck
and say, "Don't leave me!" ?
Mrs. Beningfield has part-time employment in a doctor's office. Her
job gives her the opportunity to work with people. She also likes to
keep busy by doing work for charity organisations.
Well, yes, I am the president of the Union City Mission Auxiliary.
The Union City Mission has been gathering clothes and food for needy
people in the Kansas City area for 50 years.
Well, back to flying....
I feel that aviation is a real challenging thing; il is a real fun thing. I
tell people that if they want to learn to fly they can learn to fly, if they
really want to doit.
The goal that we all have as flight instructors, of course, is making a
flight safe. And the thing that will be uppermost will be the decisions
that the trainees will have to make: decisions about weather, distances,
deciding that they are familiar with their aircraft. Every time I go into
the air, there is something that I learn, and I do not believe that when
you are flying, you can sit back and let some of these things pass by.
You just have to keep learning. And then I just think, well, how
wonderful it is that someone came up with this airplane that would put

me up here in the air, because it is a beautiful thing to fly, really.

A 90-DAY STRETCH

"Now I've heard it all," sniggered the girl at the travel agency.
"Someone who wants to ride a bike all the way across America!"
She shouldn't have been surprised because since 1976, some 12,000
people have done i i , riding Bikecentennial's 4,450-mile Trans-America
Trail from Oregon to Virginia.
Bikecentennial was dreamed up by four Americans who had cycled
from Alaska to Cape Horn. They thought a cross-America route would
encourage cycling; and their idea coincided with the 1976
Bikecentennial celebrations, when the US government was handing out
money for such worthy projects. The Trans-America Trail was bom.
Because the trail follows small roads and only goes through small
towns, "you see places and people you'd never see otherwise," said
Carol Coutts, an American teacher (and novice cyclist) who tackled the
trail. An English cyclist, Norman Hall, found that in Missouri their
group "ended up in someone's living room every evening."
The route was worked out with great care, and Bikecentennial's five
sectional booklets not only have incredibly detailed maps but also a
guide to camp sites and flora and fauna, for those who admire plants
and animals. There are 90-day 'package tours' for cyclists who want to
travel in a group. (They'll cost about $1200 next year.)
Bikecentennial's address is Claire Creswell, P0 Box 8308,
Missoula, MT 59807, USA (tel. 406 721 1776). A free information
leaflet is available to anyone who writes; their quite excellent booklets
contain advice on preparation for a long tour, as well as route details
(for the Trans-America Trail or the five shorter routes).
UK cyclists should be able to take their bikes free of charge on any
regular transatlantic flight, if it comes within their 20 kg. baggage
allowance (and if it doesn't, you probably have too much luggage for a
cycle tour); but always check with the airline first.

A GREENER WORLD

When Herbert Girardet and John Seymour decided to write
Blueprint for a Green Planet, they directed their advice at people,
not at governments. This is what they wrote:
It is our belief that the planet will only be saved by people acting as
 responsible individuals. We believe that people are good. If they are
shown that their actions are damaging the environment, they will try to
be careful.
Unfortunately, many people believe that saving the planet should be
left to governments. Yet, governments are only in power for five years
 and then must put themselves up for re-election.
What, then, can we all do? Here are five rules by which we might all
live, part of Blueprint for a Green Planet:
1. Be aware and responsible. Don't just believe what is 'on the
label' - that was written by somebody trying to sell the stuff! Demand to
 know how we get things that we use and what effect this has on Nature
or our planet.
2. Be moderate. Moderate your demands on the planet. Walk
instead of driving. Walking will do you good. It will save fossil fuels,
and avoid pollution.
3. Keep things local. Avoid buying products which have been
brought from far away. Transport is one of the great polluters.
4. Keep things simple. We do not need the vast complexity of
most modern devices. Consider what you really need and be content
with that. 5. Try to live less violently. The most savage violence is
chemical violence. The soil, our crops and our animals are all being
subjected to constant contact with poisonous chemicals. We can do
without many of them .
Pressure groups, such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, are
splendid, but they can only exist as a result of the action taken by you
and me. We are all there is and we must stop the assault on the life of
our planet somehow. We are not apart from Nature, we are part of
Nature.

BUSINESS GOES GREEN

Many cities around the world today are heavily polluted. Careless
manufacturing processes employed in some industries and lack of
consumer demand for environmentally safe products have contributed
to the pollution problem. One result is that millions of tons of glass,
paper, plastic, and metal containers are produced, and these are difficult
to dispose of.
However, today, more and more consumers are choosing 'green'.
They think the products they buy should be safe for the environment.
Before they buy a product they ask questions like "Will this hairspray
damage the ozone layer?", "Can this metal container be recycled or can
it be used once?".
A recent survey showed that three out of five adults now consider
the environmental safety of a product before they buy it. This means
that companies must now change the way they make and sell their
products to make sure that they are 'green', that is, friendly to the
environment.
Only a few years ago, it was impossible to find green products in
supermarkets, but now there are hundreds. Some supermarket products
carry labels to show that the product is green.
The concern for a safer and cleaner environment is making
companies rethink how they do business. No longer will the public
accept the old attitude of "Buy it, use it, throw it away, and forget it".
The public pressure is on, and gradually business is cleaning up its act.

A NATION OF PET-LOVERS

Julia Elliot discusses the English love of pets.

A recent survey in the United States showed that the average
family there spent more money on its pets than on its children. This y
is a rather shocking statistic. It is possible that Americans are unique
in caring for their pets, but the information we have would suggest
 that the English too do their best to take good care of their pets.
This can clearly be seen when we look at pet foods, which often
contain more vitamins than human food. They certainly cost as
much. Last year the British public spent two hundred million pounds
on pet food alone. It is difficult not to feel sad about this when one
 thinks what the same amount of money could do for poor or old
people, especially when I read about another old person who has left
all his/her money to a dog or cat home.
There are a variety of reasons why I, personally, find the
popularity of British pets alarming. First of all, they cause physical
 problems. An example of this is London, where there is great 3
difficulty in getting rid of the mess that dogs leave on the streets.
Many people find this funny, but in a number of large cities it is a
major problem.
Animals can cause disease, too. It is the threat of rabies - a
 disease with no known cure - that has made the English government
take some measures by restricting animals coming into the United
Kingdom.
Another problem is the carelessness of some pet owners. Most
little children want a dog or cat. It is only when the 'sweet little
thing' has been brought home that parents realize how much time
and money must be spent on 'Bonzo' or 'Bulky'. Therefore, many
of these owners abandon their pets. Pets which are allowed to run
free are not sweet at all. English farmers lose hundreds of sheep a
year, killed by someone's pet.
You may think that I dislike all pets, but this is not true at all. We
are a nation of pet-lovers. Wouldn't it be betiü to be lovers of

human beings?

THE ELEPHANTS' GRAVEYARD

I'm going to have a very unusual holiday this year. I'm going to
photograph elephants in Africa. If you would like to do the same, you'd
better book your ticket soon. There won't be any wild elephants in
twenty years' time. They'll all be dead, except maybe for a few in
nature reserves.
An elephant is a walking bank as far as hunters are concerned. The
reason is the price of ivory, which was $5 a kilogram in the 1960's but
is $50 a kilogram now. As the price went up, the killings started.
Elephant populations in eastern Africa started falling and now the total
African population is declining fast.
The largest estimate says that there are about 800,000 African
elephants. In ten years' time, this figure will be halved if hunting
continues as it is now. Another ten years, and the wild elephant will
hardly exist.
 Sixteen of the thirty-five African countries which have elephants are
going to restrict trade in elephant products and some of these are going
to start special nature reserves, where elephants are protected. But it
may be too late. If the hunting continues on its present scale, the
elephant will soon be a thing of the past.

OUTWARD BOUND

Outward Bound' is an educational concept, i.e. idea, that has
developed over the last 60
years. Thousands of people in many 1
countries around the world know about it. Outward Bound consists of
many educational organisations in different parts of the world. These
organisations use nature as classrooms.
Outward Bound courses consist of a series of carefully planned but
difficult physical activities. The purpose of the activities is to create
confident students who are prepared to deal with danger, uncomfortable 2
situations, stress, frustration, and challenge. Increasing a student's
 confidence helps him to obtain the feeling of independence and gain the
ability to deal with complex everyday life situations more easily.
The standard Outward Bound course lasts three to four weeks.
During that time, the students live in the wilderness— an area of wild,
rough land where no people live - and perform physical activities whose
difficulty increases every day. The first few days are spent on physical
exercises. In addition, the students are taught basic skills such as first
aid (how to help people when an accident occurs), map reading (how to
find the right way), compass reading (how to find the correct direction)
and other similar activities. During the second part of the course, 3
 students learn how to climb rocks and mountains, how to use boats and
canoes in rough rivers, and in some schools how to sail, ski and hike
long-distances. The first two parts of the course are done in groups.
Members work together and help each other. In the third part of the
course, students are sent out alone for three days to test their ability to
live in the wilderness with only a few necessities like a box of matches,
some pots and pans, a knife, a sleeping bag, a little water and very little
to eat.
Who are the students of Outward Bound? They are both young
people and adults, both men and women. The minimum age is 16
 years. There is no maximum age. About 2000 of the 6000 people who 4
complete the course each year are women. Housewives, university
students, professors, doctors, and lawyers are also among those who
have taken part in the course.
In recent years, special courses for the busy businessmen have
 become increasingly popular. These courses last from five to ten days 5
rather than the usual three to four weeks of the normal course.
Not all students complete the Outward Bound course. Sometimes the
physical challenges cause a lot of stress. Organisers of an Outward 6
Bound course tell their students before they start that they shouldn't
make a mistake because Outward Bound is not for everybody, and that 6
the courses aren't easy at all.
Most students who finish the course share a common experience.
They are surprised that they have finished the course and experience a 7
great feeling of success because they have been able to do the
impossible! The Outward Bound experience makes them feel that they
are better than they thought!

RURAL MIGRATION

For most of its history, the United States has measured its
progress according to the growth of its cities. In the last 200 years,
cities have expanded very fast and many have become centres of
commercial and industrial activity, and of political, artistic and social

life. There has also been an increasing number of foreign
immigrants, people from different countries, moving to America to
settle down and internal migrants, people within the country, moving
from farms and rural areas to cities. In recent years, however,
something unexpected has happened and this pattern has changed.
For the first time in two centuries, the countryside is growing faster
than the cities.
The change from a pattern of migration into the urban areas to one
of migration to rural areas happened quite suddenly. For example,
from March 1970 to March 1974, almost six million people moved
 out of the cities, while only a bit more than four million moved in.
The changing migration pattern can best be seen in the largest
cities of America. Five of the eight largest cities - New York,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Detroit - have actually lost
population since 1970. The change seems to show that Americans
do not enjoy living in urban areas anymore. Small rural towns have
suddenly become more attractive.
Many reasons are offered in explanation of the decrease in
movement to the cities. Some of the most recent explanations are
those that mention the disadvantages of living in the cities because of
 food, energy and job shortages. Other urban problems often
mentioned are crime, drugs, pollution and transportation.
Another reason why people choose to live in rural areas is
probably the growth of colleges and universities in areas outside the
cities. Other reasons are the environmental movement, which has
 been started by people who are in search of cleaner air and water,
and the improvement in the living standards of rural communities.
Many people today have bought farmland which belonged to
people who migrated to the city, and most have started to provide the
major part of their needs by growing crops and raising farm animals.
The setting up of small and medium-sized manufacturing plants
(factories) in rural areas has also attracted people from cities.
Although such factories pay lower wages than those in large cities,
they provide employment for both men and women and help to
increase rural income. With the increasing possibility of finding
jobs, rural areas have become more attractive places to live in.
Recent improvements in highway systems and transportation
facilities help to keep people in the countryside. Many of the people
living in rural areas still work in the city but can easily drive to and
from work using the interstate highway system.
The return to rural areas, however, does not mean that the United
States is going to become a rural society. About 75% of the U.S.
population still lives in cities and hundreds of thousands will
continue to move to cities each year.

FOOD

One of the saddest features of the modern world is that millions of
people do not have enough to eat and many more do not have the right
kinds of food required for good health.
In order to be healthy, man needs a balanced diet, i.e. a diet that
contains the right amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and
minerals. The carbohydrate in bread, rice, potatoes and sugary foods
provides energy for the body. Too much carbohydrate, however, can
make people obese and obesity can endanger health. These people
usually have serious health problems since they are extremely fat. The
oils and fats in milk, cream, butter, cheese and meat provide the body's
main stored food and contain much more energy than carbohydrates.
The protein in cheese, eggs, meat, fish and milk quickens growth and
repair damage to the body's tissues. The body also needs small
variety of foods, the required amounts of vitamins and minerals are
taken in.
Historically, the diets of different societies depend on such factors as
climate, soil and the ease or difficulty of transporting foods from one
place to another. The simple diet of the Bedouin Arabs consists of
dates, grains and sometimes meat and vegetables. This is because the
land is very dry and, as a result, very few foods can be grown there.
On the other hand, a country such as France, with a good climate and
rich soil, has always had plentiful and a great variety of foods.
When people move to another country and culture, they usually take
 their eating habits with them. They feel psychologically comfortable
when they eat the foods they have known all their lives.
When discussing food and diet, it is possible to divide the world's
population into two sections: those who have lots of food and those
who suffer shortages of even the most basic foods. Developed
 countries have the financial means and the technology to provide all
kinds of foods for their people. Refrigeration, food preservation and
modern transport systems allow these people to enjoy foods from all
parts of the world. For instance, the British are not able to grow
sufficient food for their needs, but they import a wide variety of foods,
from potatoes to exotic tropical fruits. Food processing has meant that
the seasons are no longer important: vegetables such as peas and beans
are canned or frozen and are available the whole year round; soft fruits
such as strawberries, which are only produced locally for a short
season, can be imported from other parts of the world.
Although some developed nations have been experiencing financial
difficulties recently, the result has not been damaging. The effects of
economic problems on developing countries, however, have been very
serious. One disastrous result is famine. Millions of people in Africa,
particularly babies and small children, have lost their lives because there
is no food. Droughts, or long periods of dry weather, are a major cause
of this famine. There is also the economic pressure to produce industrial
crops, such as cotton, for export. Thus, these countries are unable to
produce sufficient amounts of food crops for their own people. Many
developing countries do not have the money to buy the food they need
from abroad. Fortunately, the developed countries have reacted to the
famine crisis and are providing food from their high food surpluses.
Meanwhile, over large parts of the world, hungry people are worried
about not what to eat, but if they will eat.

AROUND THE WORLD IN A PAPER PLANE

Deep in the Mojave Desert, Jeana Yeager, a schoolteacher's
daughter from Texas, is ready to make her dream come true - to fly
around the world in a paper plane without stopping.
It has taken £4 million and five years of effort to realise this dream,
 and some time in the next nine months she and co-pilot Richard Rutan
will climb aboard a paper plane called The Voyager and in 13 days and
nights they will go around the world without touching Earth.
Can it really be done? "We believe so. All the results from the test
flights indicate it is possible," said 33-year-old Jeana, who holds four
world flying records and is a skilled engineer.
The Voyager will follow the most suitable winds of the upper
atmosphere and the flight will be mostly over water. If anything goes
wrong, they will be able to make an emergency landing on the sea.
Jeana and Rutan hope to do 25,000 miles in the remarkable Voyager
 so they used a kind of paper much stronger than ordinary paper in the
construction of their plane. It is made with reinforced paper. The
Voyager is quite big - its wings are longer than a Boeing 727's.
Although it weighs less than the average car, it can carry a large amount
of fuel (approximately 1489 gallons).
 In a test run, or test flight, over the Rocky Mountains, Jeana was air
sick for the first time in her life. "The Voyager is very light - it easily
moves with the wind. It was like being on board a small yacht in a
rough sea. We seemed to be going up and down like in waves," she
said. During the flight the turbulence, i.e. strong wild movement of air,
forced them to fly very high - almost on the edge of the atmosphere.
Flying that high was not included in their flight plan and Jeana and
Richard had some difficult moments until they managed to get out of the
turbulence.
Jeana and Richard are very excited about their project. It was nearly
a quarter of a century ago that a B-52H jet bomber flew from Japan to
Spain, a distance of 12,532 miles, without stopping. That was the
world record for an unrefuelled flight.
The project was born as a result of a conversation between Richard
and his aircraft designer brother Burt. Richard asked him if it was
possible to fly round the world without refuelling. After some careful
thinking, Burt said "I think so". But Jeana and Richard are the ones
who will find out.

A LOAD OF RUBBISH

Rubbish is what you and I throw away- anything from unwanted old
cars to cigarette packets. Worldwide, the amount of rubbish is growing
rapidly. The time has come to think about rubbish - very seriously.
As a subject, rubbish is not particularly romantic or attractive. We
only think about it when there are shortages, such as those during a
war. In Britain in the Second World War, for example, old metal and
paper were recycled, that is re-used, because it was difficult to get new
supplies. Afterwards, people went back to throwing things away.
The rubbish you and I are likely to throw away is things like beer
 cans or bottles, or packaging around things we buy. The packaging is
often there to sell the product and nothing more. You throw it away,
and it ends up in the dustbin, along with your old bottles, plastic and
cans. What still often happens then is that everything is taken away to a
rubbish dump and buried, but not always.
In the early seventies, attitudes towards rubbish began to change. In
Britain in 1971, there was an outcry when Schweppes, the soft drink
manufacturers, introduced disposable, or throwaway bottles.
Previously, you took bottles back to the shop and were paid for them.
The conservation group, Friends of the Earth, organised a protest: they
simply left thousands of the new bottles outside Schweppes' offices. In
fact, Schweppes did not change their minds, but the protest did begin to
make people think seriously about rubbish.
If you look at what a typical British dustbin contains, you will see
that most of it need not be rubbish at all. Most of the textiles, glass,
metal, paper and cardboard can be recycled and you can burn plastic,
paper and cardboard as fuel for heating, which saves energy. You can
use the vegetable waste to make compost to improve gardens. The
problem is to get authorities and governments to make it easy to re-use
what we throw away. This is because individiuals cannot recycle paper
or metal for themselves. It is a big operation.
In more and more countries, it is now quite normal to take all your
old bottles to a bottle bank, where they are collected and re-used. More
and more paper is being recycled. In Switzerland, for example, the
amount of paper being recycled is over 70%. This figure varies around
the world, but it is increasing.
Another welcome trend is that containers and packaging are now
being designed so that they are easy to recycle. Now designers don't
use plastic-covered paper wrapping or drink cans made of two different
metals. Both of these are difficult to recycle. Plain paper and single
 metals are not.

WHAT A GOOD IDEA

Some of the most useful inventions in modern times have resulted
from moments of inspiration and have been developed by amateur
scientists (or even non-scientists) using simple materials and low
technology*. These 'accidental* inventions are all around us and are
5 often so well-known that we don't think of them as inventions at all.
For example, have you ever thought about cat's-eyes - the little pieces
of rubber and glass set in the middle of roads? They shine in car
headlights and help drivers to keep in the right lane, especially in heavy
rain or fog. As every motorist knows, they are a great help after dark,
10 even on a clear night. Driving on minor roads that have no cat's-eyes is
far more tiring than driving on main roads or motorways where you can
follow the cat's-eyes without even thinking.
This simple but imaginative invention was thought up by an
Englishman named Percy Shaw in 1934. His inspiration came from
15 seeing some reflectors on a poster by the side of the road when he was
driving home one night. Looking at the eyes of a cat in the dark helped i
him to develop the idea. The cat's-eye consists of a glass 'eye' to
reflect light back in the direction from which it is coming. Built into an
aluminium pad to act as a mirror, this glass 'eye' is fixed in a flexible
20 rubber pad which protects both the glass and car tyres as they pass over
it. The cleverest part of all, perhaps, is that each time a car tyre passes
over the cat's-eye, the glass is pushed down into the rubber, which is
designed in such a way that it removes the dirt off the glass. Thus,
cat's-eyes are always kept clean.

RENEWABLE AND NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES

Ecology is the study of man and his environment. The natural
environment contains all natural resources that are necessary for life: the
air, the oceans, the sun and the land. Because these resources are vital
for life, ecologists study their importance and how to use them carefully.
Ecologists often divide resources into two groups: renewable and
non-renewable. When we use a resource, it takes some time to replace
it. If we can replace the resource quickly, it is called renewable. It is
non-renewable if we cannot replace it quickly and easily. For example,
 grass for animals is a renewable resource. When animals eat the grass,
usually more grass will grow. Coal, however, is non-renewable
because it takes millions of years to make coal. All fossil fuels are
non-renewable resources. The decomposition, or decay, of organic
materials forms fossil fuels and they include coal, oil and gas. We
started using these fossil fuels in large quantities less than 200 years
ago and we haven't stopped since. Some scientists now predict that we
will exhaust our supplies of fossil fuels in 50 years. In other words, in
50 years there won't be any fossil fuels left.
Many resources are non-renewable. As a result, we must conserve
them. That is, we must use them carefully. There are several ways to do
this. First, we must find and use new resources. Second, we should
find new uses for old resources. Third, we shouldn't waste any
resources. Last, we must try to recycle the already available resources.
In this way, we can use the same material over and over again

DESALINATION METHODS

Without water there could be no life on Earth. Water is more
important than food to us. Over three-quarters of our bodies is water
and without it we cannot grow crops, run factories or keep clean.
Nearly three-quarters of the earth's surface is water. This, however, is
the undrinkable water in the oceans and seas. We cannot use this water
because of the amount of minerals it contains.
The world is living through a population explosion. In other words,
there is a rapid growth in the number of people living on Earth.
Therefore, we have a problem: How can we get more water for man's
 use?
One way of doing this is to make sea water drinkable. Many
scientists today are trying to find methods to change sea water into fresh
water.
There are three ways to take the salt from sea water. Scientists prefer
electrodialysis to desalt water with a small quantity of salt. In this
process , an electric charge passes through the salty water and separates
the salt from the water.
Another method of desalting is freezing. Ice is pure, or fresh, water.
When sea water freezes, the salt separates from the water and then you
 can wash it off. Finally, you have to melt the ice to use it as fresh
water.
A very common way to convert sea water into fresh water is
distillation. In common distillation, the sun provides the necessary heat.
A piece of plastic covers a few centimetres of salt water in a basin, or
 open container. The water evaporates with the heat of the sun and the
vapour rises until h hits the top. Then it condenses into fresh water.
That is, it changes from the vapour state into the liquid state. Distilling
water by this method is very slow. For this reason, industry is now
using an expensive variation of the distillation process. In this process,
 boiling and condensation are combined.
There is a disadvantage of all desalting methods: their high cost. The
cost is high because all use a lot of expensive energy coming from
sources such as coal, oil and gas.

MOTHERHOOD IN A CHANGING WORLD: WOMEN IN GHANA

Most women in Ghana - the educated and illiterate, the urban and rural, the
young and old - work to earn an income in addition to maintaining their roles
as housewives and mothers. Their reputation for economic independence,
self-reliance, and hard work is well-known and well-deserved.
Most of Ghana's working women are farmers and traders. Only one
woman in five, or even fewer, can be classified as simply housewives. Even
these women often bake and cook things to sell. Indeed, Ghanaians do not
respect women who depend entirely upon their husbands for their support.
Nine out of ten women fifteen years of age ana over are married. Women
say they would like to have six or more children, and in fact an average of
seven children are born to every woman. In short, the normal life pattern for
most Ghanaian women is to combine an active role in the economy with an
active role as wife and mother of a large family.
How do these working mothers cope with their multiple responsibilities in
the home and on.the job? Traditionally the tasks of motherhood were shared.
Mothers and sisters, grandmothers and nieces all helped to raise the children
and to carry out daily tasks, including housework, trading, and fanning
activities. As the family grew, older brothers and sisters also helped to care
for the younger ones and helped in the home.
Today with more children going to school, with more people moving away
from their traditional homes where support from their family would be
provided, how can the mother cope with her many responsibilities?
Some new ideas are being tried. One of these is family planning to help
reduce family size. Another helpful solution is the day care centre, but this is
available mainly in urban areas. Besides, the fees are usually too high for the
poor, so they can't send their children to such centres. Ghanaians realise that
more day care centres are needed. Ghana today is looking for new ways to
meet the needs of women and their families so that women can continue to
play their multiple roles in the home and in the economy.

OUR FIRST WORDS

Is language, like food, a basic human need without which a child can
be starved and damaged at a critical period of life? In the thirteenth
century, Frederic II made a frightening experiment to find an answer to
this question. He was hoping to discover what language a child would
5 speak if he heard no language at all so he. told the mothers in the
experiment to keep silent. The results of the experiment show that
hearing no language at all can be very harmful for a child.
All the babies in the experiment died before the first year. Was the
deprivation of language the only reason for their death? Obviously,
10 there was more than language deprivation here. What was missing was
good mothering. Without good mothering, in the first year of life
especially, the capacity to survive is seriously affected.
Today no such extreme language deprivation exists as that in
Frederic II's experiment. However, some children are still backward in
15 speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother can't
understand or doesn't notice the cues and signals of the baby, whose
brain is programmed to absorb language rapidly. There are critical
times, it seems, when children learn more easily. If the mother can't
deal with these important periods properly, the ideal time for learning
20 skills passes and they might never be learned so easily agajn. A bird
learns to sing and to fly rapidly at the right time, but the process is slow
and hard if the critical stage has passed.
Linguists suggest that certain stages in language development are
reached in a fixed sequence and at a constant age, but there are children
25 who start speaking late and who, eventually, become very intelligent.
At twelve weeks, a baby smiles and produces some sounds; at twelve
months, he can speak simple words and understand simple commands;
at eighteen months he has a vocabulary of three to fifty words. At three
he knows about 1000 words which he can put into sentences, and at
30 four his language differs from that of his parents in style rather than
grammar.
Recent evidence suggests .that a baby is born with the capacity to
speak. What is special about man's brain is the complex system which
enables a child to connect the sight and feel of things with their sound
35 pattern. The child's brain is also able to pick out an order in language
from the sounds around him, to analyse, to combine and recombine the
parts of a language in new ways.
However, the child's language development depends on his
communication with his mother. The mother should always understand
and respond to the cues and signals in the child's crying, smiling and
his attempts to speak. If she fails to do that, the child will stop trying to
speak. In other words, paying attention to the child's non-verbal cues is
verj' important for the growth and development of language.

ARTS OR SCIENCE

Intelligent young people want to go to university, and it is logical for
a country to provide university places for them to ensure that there will
be well-trained men and women to run the government and industry in
the future. So in the 1960's the government set up a number of new
universities in Britain in order to give everyone with sufficient ability
the opportunity to study. But now something has gone wrong. A lot of
young people want to go to university to study arts subjects but many
places for scientists are not taken up.
The new universities concentrated on science because it seemed
practical. They developed new courses because they didn't want to
imitate traditional universities. In other words, they didn't want to be
like traditional universities. Why have their calculations proved wrong?
One reason is that a lot of young people can get enough qualifications to
work in industry by going to a Polytechnic. They think university
courses are too long and too theoretical. But this does not explain why
the majority of students still prefer arts subjects to science subjects.
A few months ago a magazine sent a team of interviewers to schools
to find out why children didn't want to study science. Their answers
provided this surprising picture of a typical scientist: He is rather dull.
He spends all day in a laboratory wearing a white coat. He doesn't talk
about anything but science. He doesn't play games well, and he isn't
attractive to girls! In contrast, the arts graduate is seen as a much more
lively person. He has a good sense of humour and he is interested in
sports and pop music. He has a lot of girlfriends and always has a good
time! Logically, the children wanted to study arts to avoid becoming
dull, unattractive scientists.
Of course, the children were not describing all scientists; they were
really giving us their opinion of their science teachers and comparing
them with their arts teachers, such as the English teacher and the history
teacher. But why do science teachers seem less attractive to them than
arts teachers? The answer to this question probably explains why so
many science places at the new universities are empty.
Our conclusion is that society offers good scientists well-paid jobs
and the opportunity to use their studies in research laboratories or in
 industry and so they can lead rewarding and interesting lives. In
general, only the less adventurous ones return to school to teach. But a
bright graduate in literature or history must either teach his subject to
earn a living, or work in a completely different field. So arts teachers
are likely to be more interesting, attractive people than science teachers
and to care more about their subject, and their students try to be like
them and follow in their footsteps.

U.S. CITIES: PAST AND PRESENT

The problems of the American cities - pollution, crime, a lack of
planning, accidents - are bad, but they were worse in the so-called
'good old days'. Pollution from cars is one example. It is bad now but
there was a lot of pollution from horses and other animals in American
cities in the 19th century.
Most cities had their own slaughterhouses. Butchers were careless
about the cows and pigs which they killed and they left the remains of
the animals here and there. And the sewer system for waste water from
the kitchens and bathrooms did almost not exist.
Pollution was a very important problem for city governments in the
last century, especially the problem of water supplies. They knew that
they polluted water, but they didn't know how it was polluted. Trying
to get pure water was a big problem.
People like to talk about the good old days but, actually, the cities of
 the 19th century were dirtier than today. Because of the dirt,
communicable diseases were a great problem. When one of these
diseases was seen, the situation was dangerous for all of the people in
that area. Examples of such diseases were smallpox, yellow fever,
malaria, cholera and typhoid. The number of children who died was
 high.
Some of the problems that disturbed people who lived in the cities
during that period are still with us - poor planning, crime and accidents.
The planning of cities and their neighbourhoods was controlled by
real estate developers who were only interested in earning more money.
Actually, their real job was to build well-planned cities and provide the
population with both durable housing and a good-looking
neighbourhood.
Crime was a great concern then, too. The police had to work hard to
stop it. Pickpockets, who were very skilled, were able to quickly steal
 the purses and wallets of the people and run away with them.
It is true that people were not being killed by cars. However, they
were killed or seriously injured (hurt) by runaway horses, which were
running around out of control. It was quite a common scene.
The situations and problems of American cities have not changed so
 much. We must look back at the past and try to learn from it so that
developments can be made.

THE KON-TIKI VOYAGE, 1947

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from the
nearest mainland, lie the islands of Polynesia. On some of the islands,
there are ancient roads and buildings. These show that there have been
ancient civilizations on the island. The most mysterious of the
Polynesian Islands is Easter Island, where there are giant heads made of
stone. Some of them are as tall as a four-storey building. These are very
old. Obviously men have been living on these islands for a long, long
time. But how did the islanders first get to the islands so long ago, and
how did they do it when there weren't any big ships? These are some of
 the questions which are difficult to answer.
Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer, thought he had the answer
to the mystery. He believed the people from Ancient Peru sailed more
than 6000 kilometres across the Pacific Ocean on their small rafts to
start a new life on the islands of Polynesia.
 Nobody believed Heyerdahl because they knew that the people of
ancient Peru only had wooden rafts to sail on. How did the people sail
from Peru to the islands? Heyerdahl wanted to show everybody that his
theory was right. Together with four friends, he started to build a raft
like those of the ancient Peruvians. When it was finished they called it
 Kon-Tiki, the name of an ancient god. They spent a long time planning
their journey and deciding what to take with them.
The natural movement of the water (a current called the Peru
Current), carried them west. Although they had lots of problems during
their journey with the weather and sharks, the boat was fine - it didn't
sink. After 102 hard days at sea, the explorers arrived on one of the
Polynesian Islands. Heyerdahl proved it was possible.

JAMES DEAN

James Dean, the famous American actor, was not very tall - less
than medium height - and had thick fair hair, and intense blue eyes. He
was short-sighted - he couldn't really see anything without his glasses.
James came to Hollywood when he was eighteen, hoping to get into
 films. At first he was not at all successful and for a time he had to live
on very little money. There were days when he only ate cereals, which
he sometimes mixed with marmalade. Then he went to New York, the
centre of live theatre in the United States. He got a part in a play and
was seen by the great director, Elia Kazan. Kazan was planning the film
East of Eden and realised Dean would be perfect for one of the main
parts.
Dean was difficult to work with. He was also an eccentric person.
He always wore the same overcoat and jeans, rarely shaved and had
only one or two friends. He sometimes didn't talk to anybody for days.
When he went to parties, he often brought his bongo drums with him.
Then he sat in a corner, took off his glasses because he didn't want to
see anybody, and played the drums all night without saying a word.
He went back to Hollywood to make East of Eden and then made
two more films, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. His co-star in the
last film, Rock Hudson, later said "I didn't like Dean particularly. I
didn't, like working with him, either. He was hard to be with. He was always
angry and he never smiled."
Although he had poor eyesight, he loved riding on fast motorbikes and
driving even faster sports cars. A few days after he finished Giant, on 25
September 1955, Dean went for a drive in his new Porsche. The sun was
going down so the light was poor. And unfortunately, Dean was not wearing
his glasses. Suddenly, he saw a car in front of him. It was slowing down to
turn into a side road. Dean tried to slow down, too, but it was too late. He hit
the car at high speed and was killed immediately.
Two German girls killed themselves when they heard the news because
they believed it was impossible to live without him. A few years later, a New
York shopgirl wrote a book called Jimmy Dean Returns, in which she wrote
that she was communicating with Dean from the other world. Half a million
copies of the book were sold. It was only the beginning of a strange legend
that goes on, even today

INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE AND SAFETY

People who work together often get the same diseases (illnesses).
For example, lung cancer is common among asbestos workers and
miners. Many people who work with X-rays get skin cancer. Most coal
miners develop black lung disease after years of work in coal mines.
These people probably get these diseases because of their work. In
addition, accidents on the job may injure or kill workers. For instance,
farm machines sometimes injure farm workers. Construction workers
sometimes fall from buildings. These injuries can be fatal. People who
work with electricity may get electric shocks. Fires sometimes kill fire
fighters.
Many large companies employ both industrial doctors and safety
engineers to protect workers from accidents and illness on the job. Thev
do this in three ways. First, doctors study the workers and their
diseases. They know that certain groups of workers often have the
same diseases. At the same time, safety engineers study accidents and
their causes. Second, doctors and safety engineers work together to
change the machines or the job because they want to prevent accidents
or illnesses. Third, they educate workers about the dangers of their
jobs. They teach the workers about safety on the job. Education is
necessary for prevention.
There are many causes of accidents and illness at work. Chemicals,
noise, and radiation are a few. For example, gases in mines cause
accidents and poison miners. Toxic chemicals, such as lead (Pb),
mercury (Hg), and silica (SİO2), made people sick in the past, and they
make people sick today. In additon, there are new chemicals, and some
of them are toxic. Thev harm the skin, the lungs, and other internal
organs such as the heart, liver, or kidnev. Industrial noise sometimes
causes deafness. Many things in the workplace can cause illness or
injury.
 Industrial physicians and safety engineers often prevent these
problems. After they find the causes, they plan and design new
machines to prevent accidents in the future. They design different ways
to store and transport toxic chemicals. They measure and control gases
in the air. They set standards for work in dangerous situations. For
example, airport workers must cover their ears near the airplanes
outside. Some workers must wear protective clothing, like eye goggles,
hard hats,and safety shoes.
After careful study, both doctors and safety engineers do many
things to decrease the danger of injury and illness on the job. They
make the work area a safe place.

VEGETARIANISM

Good food is a celebration of life, but it seems strange to me that in
order to live we have to kill. That is why I do not eat meat. I see no
need for killing.
There are increasing numbers of people who, like myself, no longer
want to eat meat, fish and poultry and are turning to a vegetarian diet.
Certainly we do not have to kill to feed ourselves. All the proteins,
vitamins and minerals that we need in order to live and to be healthy are
easily available in the endless variety of plant life, and in those gifts
animals give us painlessly, such as milk and eggs.
 Many of us are turning to vegetarianism in our own interests, which
are the interests of all human beings, because millions of people on this
planet are dying of hunger, but food which could keep them alive is
used for animals which grow fat only to be killed and eaten by the
richer nations of the world.
In recent years, dramatic new reasons have made people think again
about what they eat. More and more foods have now become the
products of factories rather than farms. Chemicals "improve" the
appearance of foods and make them keep longer. Animals and poultry
are treated with sex hormones to make them grow faster - and, of
20 course, to increase profits. The results are unknown dangers to human
consumers, including the possibility of various types of cancer.
Industrial societies have pumped poisonous chemicals into rivers and
seas. Eat fish and you eat these poisons, too... But this is a book about
pleasure, not pollution. I hope that even if you are still in the habit of
eating meat and fish, you will try some of the different ways and means
of cooking here. You might even find yourself happily becoming a
vegetarian, too.
People often ask me, puzzled, how vegetarians eat. Their puzzlement
is real. They think of their own meals without the meat and think "how
 awful". But in fact their meals are pretty awful anyway: dull,
unimaginative, boring. Even in 'good' cooking, variety is usually
found only in the main course, usually meat or fish. Things like salads,
vegetables and bread are of little importance and are the same every
time. This standard meal is served with little change from day to day
and week to week.
Soup, 'main course', salad, dessert: this is the unchanging order of
the standard meal. The first thing to do when thinking of vegetarian
cooking is to forget these stereotyped ideas. Vegetarian cookery is rich
and varied, full of many marvellous dishes with a character all theirown.
 A vegetarian meal does not have to have a 'main course': it can be
made up of several equally important courses, or of several dishes
served at the same time.

ONE WOMAN'S RACE ACROSS ALASKA

Although Susan Butcher was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her love
of the outdoors and dogs took her to Alaska in 1975. After three years of
training a team of dogs, she entered the Iditarod - a 1,000-mile dog-sled race
from Anchorage to Nome. She finished nineteenth, then ninth in 1979, and
fifth in 1980 and 1981. In 1982, she was determined to win. This is what she
wrote in her diary during the race:

Tekla, my most experienced dog, is limping, too tired to go on. I know he
has reached his limit. Tears roll down my cheeks. This dog, who led my team
all the way in my first three Iditarods, who has saved my life more than once,
now has to be left behind.
A wrong turn in a heavy snowstorm the first day of the race has taken me
20 miles out of my way. The four hours lost in getting back on the trail
(route) have put me far behind the front-runners:
With only 11 of my original 15 dogs left, I start out again for Nome, still
938 miles away. In these first two days on the trail, I have had only four
hours of sleep.
After a 24-hour rest at Rohn and four hot meals, my determination to stay
in the race is stronger than ever. The falling snow grows heavier, completely
covering the trail, but I keep going. I catch up with the leaders, who have lost
their way and are waiting for daylight. For four and a half days and 353
miles, we take turns in finding the way through the deep snow.
At the village of Ruby, the weather improves, but only temporarily. The
sky is clear, but the temperature drops to 45 degrees below zero as I start out

alone down the frozen Yukon River. If I stay too long on the sled, I riskserious frostbite. Jogging too long behind it can damage my lungs. So I
alternate between running and riding the sled.
A raging storm moves in, burying the trail. Those of us in the lead must
work together again to break the trail. After 50 miles, we find shelter for the
night.
Another day's travel brings us to Unalakleet. The weather worsens. Winds
rise to 60 miles an hour. Visibility drops to near zero. My eyelashes freeze
shut and so do the eyelashes of my dogs. I stop often to clear their eyes and
check their feet.
I reach Shaktoolik late that night with a frostbitten face. When I wake up
the next morning, the winds are gusting up to 80 miles an hour, and the
snowdrifts are 30 feet high. I wait for four days in the village before the
storm ends.
Only 231 miles to go, but all of them difficult. We push through the
continuing storm. Seven lead teams are travelling close together. Another
dog on my team must drop out, and I have just nine dogs left.
Thirty miles to go. I am in fifth place behind Rick Swenson, Jerry Austin,
Emmitt Peters, and Ernie Baumgartner. The final push is on.
I pass Ernie and pull away. I pass Emmitt, but he stays right behind me.
Only 22 miles now. "Go! Go! Go!" I shout to my dogs. I soon outdistance
Emmitt and pass Jerry. My hopes brighten. But there's still Rick, barely
visible in the distance. He beats us into Nome by 3 minutes and 43 seconds.
The race has lasted 16 days.
Now I have only one dream to go: to be Number One.

PHOBIAS

Three people talk about their experiences of 'phobias'.
The phone rang at midnight. There was a frantic voice on the other
end. "I know it's late. But it's urgent. Please come round." My friend
was standing miserably in the hallway of her flat, pointing towards a
closed door. "It's in there, please do something, but be careful, it's
really large." I opened the bathroom door carefully not knowing what to
expect, and there was a peaceful little spider in her bath.
"Going up in the lift doesn't worry me, but some of our offices have
large windows and I feel as if the ground is coming up towards me,
making me want to jump. I tried explaining my fear of height to another
girl in the office, but she laughed at me and told me not to be so silly. I
know it's silly but I can't help it. I'll do anything to avoid going into
those offices -1 even stayed at home once because I didn't want to go to
a meeting in there."
"I wasn't at all afraid of flying at that age, but I remember that it was
a very bad flight. There was lots of turbulence; even the cabin crew
15 were falling about. I was frightened for the whole-journey.
If I look up and see a plane and think about flying, my heart starts
beating faster. When I'm actually on a plane, I feel sick and physically
stop myself from standing up and screaming. The only way I can cope
with it is to pretend it's not happening to me. I sit rigid, next to the
aisle, staring at the seat in front. I can't look out of the window. I count
the number of seats - anything to avoid acknowledging the fact that I'm
flying. It's so unnatural to be thousands of metres up with all that open

space around you"

WHITE LIES

Do you ever give excuses that are not really true? Everybody tells lies - not
big lies, but what we call 'white lies'. The only real questions are about when
we lie and who we tell lies to. A recent study showed that people often tell
'white lies'. Here are some ways they do it.
Lying to hide something: People usually lie because they want to hide
something from someone. For example, a son doesn't tell his parents that he
is dating a girl because he doesn't think they will like her. Instead, he says he
is going out with his friends.
Giving false excuses: Sometimes people lie because they don't want to do
something. For instance, someone invites you to a party to which you don't
want to go because you think it will be boring. Therefore, you say that you
are busy and can't come.
Lying to make someone feel good: You often don't tell the truth to make
someone feel good. To illustrate, your friend cooks dinner for you, but it
tastes terrible. Do you say so? No! You probably say, "Mmm, this is
delicious!"
Lying to hide bad news: There are times we don't want to tell someone bad
news. For example, you have just had a very bad day at work, but you don't
want to talk about it. Hence, if someone asks you about your day, you just
say everything was fine.
Telling white lies isn't really all bad. Most of the time people do it because
they want to protect a friendship.

THE DIRTY OLD MAN OF EUROPE

Acid rain is one of the most serious problems for the environment. Itis caused mainly by power plants that bum coal to produce electricity.The smoke from these power stations contain high levels of sulphurdioxide and nitrogen oxide, which mix with the moisture in the air and fall to the soil in the form of rain or snow.Acid rain causes damage to buildings, farms and fisheries, forestsand lakes and to human health. The British government has done littleto reduce the damage caused by acid rain in the last few years. Thisdamage costs the European Community more than $12 billion everyyear. Environmentalists have discovered that Britain is responsible forthe greatest amount of European air pollution, but the government hasonly recently decided to take any action.When acid rain falls onto soil, it absorbs the aluminium from the soiland carries il into rivers and lakes. In June 1988, a report in TheObserver suggested a connection between senile dementia, weakness ofmind, and aluminium in drinking water in many parts of England and Wales.When it falls onto plants (including trees), acid rain causes chemicalEarth discovered that more than two thirds of the trees examined hadsuffered from the effects of acid rain.Britain, and especially the Central Electricity Generating Board(CEGB), is the largest single polluter of European air. The powerstations around Selby give off more sulphur than Portugal, Norway,Ireland and Switzerland together. According to the Friends of the Earth,more than 70 percent of British sulphur emissions fall outside Britainbecause of the air movements from the British Isles to continentalEurope. This is one of the reasons for the acid rain in Europe.Other European nations have seen the damage and have started toact. They have formed a club which is trying to reduce the sulphuremissions by 30 per cent by the year 1997. Britain, however, hasconstantly refused to join this club although the ost of the reductionwould only be about £2 billion over ten years. If ne government doesnot take action very soon, there will be a crisis in the European ecologyin the near future.