二外英语一口语考试朗读材料

二外英语一口语考试朗读材料 1. When I was young, I thought that reading was like a drug which I was allowed to take only a teaspoon at a time, but which, nevertheless, had the effect of carrying me away to an enchanted world. As time went by and I took that drug again and again, I became addicted to it. Books became an intrinsic part of my life. They became my friends, my guides, my lovers. My most faithful lovers. I didn?t know I would fall in love with books when I was young and started to read. I don?t even recall when I started to read and how. I just remember that my mother didn?t like me to read. In spite of this, every time I had an opportunity I would sneak somewhere with a book and read one page, two pages, three, if I were lucky enough, always feeling my heart beating fast, always hoping that my mother wouldn?t find me. For her, books were nothing. For me, they were everything. 2. According to the Small Business Administration, the number of family-owned companies — many of which are run by mothers and daughters — is on the rise. In 1988, of the nearly 19 million companies in the United States, more than 13 million were sole proprietorships. Most of those were described as family-owned businesses with two or more related individuals who were working together. While there are no hard numbers of how many mother-daughter companies exist, experts agree that more mothers and daughters are going into business together. “About 90 percent of American businesses are family-owned or -controlled,” says a family business consultant. “People still prefer, whenever possible, to work with people they know.” 3. Walter Anderson joined the ranks of the HA Society the same year I did. I felt a special kinship to him as I heard his story — for reasons that will be obvious as I relate it here. Walter grew up in a four-room railroad flat on the wrong side of the tracks in New York, in an atmosphere made volatile and violent by an illiterate, abusive, alcoholic father. “I lived with fear every day, nearly every minute of my childhood,” Walter remembers. “Often my father would beat me for things I might do, not for things I had done. I felt safer on the street corner than in my own home.” Like me, my friend Walter credits his mother and reading as key influences in his life. His mom always tried to shield him from his father?s abuse. “I never doubted my mother?s love,” Walter says. “She encouraged me to read despite the fact that my father would beat me if he found me reading. Years later, after my father?s death, I asked her why she would do so when she knew my father would beat me, and she said, „I believed that if you could learn to read, somehow you would find your way out. And you did.?” 4. They?re known as “the boys”. They are Ben and Jerry, definitely America?s most famous providers of ice cream and certainly two of America?s most colorful entrepreneurs. They?ve been friends since seventh grade and business partners since 1978, when they opened their first scoop shop, using techniques gathered from a $5 correspondence course on how to make ice cream. Their firm, Ben & Jerry?s Homemade, sold more than $76 million worth of super premium ice cream in 1990 and employs around 300 people, give or take a few, depending on the season. Ben and Jerry have strong personalities and strong opinions. They believe that work should be fun, or else it isn?t worth doing. They also believe in helping the unfortunate, protecting the environment, and treating people fairly. They want their company to be a happy, humanitarian place where everybody feels good about coming to work and producing the best product. 5. The United States is often described as a “melting pot” that absorbs immigrants from diverse lands and blends them into something we call Americans. They may be Latin, or Russian, or Italian when they arrive, but given enough time they, or at least their children, become just like the rest of us. That may have been true in the past, but it is less so today, according to a growing body of research. Modern technology ranging from jet aircraft to the Internet has made it possible for new immigrants to hang on to their past, and what we see is not necessarily what we get. They are called “transnationals”, a new buzzword that has embroiled many experts in controversy. The experts can?t even seem to agree on its definition, much less whether it is a good thing. 6. There is a warm and cheery feeling in the room for this, the first meeting of the year for the new kindergarten parents. Sharing stories about the little angels brings laughter, and when Ms. Jeffers reflects what a great step it is to send the little ones off to school for the first time, there is a bittersweet tear here and there. After a while, Ms. Jeffers takes a deep breath and says: “And now I?d like to talk about a policy here at our School that all of you heard about during your entrance interview but which is controversial for some — the school policy about television and media.” Suddenly the room is quiet and tense. It is as if an arctic wind had suddenly cut through the pleasant atmosphere that had moments ago filled the space. The sudden change in the room is apparent to Ms. Jeffers as well — though not unexpected. Nevertheless, she forges ahead with conviction, relating her own experience of the difference between children exposed to the media and those who are not. She also cites research findings critical of television watching and computer use by children and hands out articles and study results by respected authorities. 7. After reading so many books that touch me deeply, each one in its special way, I understand now that my mother had a point when she tried to keep me away from books in my childhood. She wanted me to stay in my little town, to marry a rich and tiresome man, to keep up with the traditions. But the books carried me away; they gave me wings to fly, to discover new places. They made me dare to live another kind of life. They made me wish for more, and when I couldn?t have all I wished for, they were still there to comfort me, and to show me new options. Yes, my mother was right. Books are dangerous; books are subversive. Because of them I left a predictable future for an unforeseeable one. However, if I had to choose again, I would always choose the books instead of the lackluster life I could have had. After all, what joy would I find in my heart without my books, my most faithful lovers? 8. Mothers and daughters should work together in some informal setting before forming a business partnership. And that?s just what Kelly did before she joined her mother?s 16-year-old antique store. “As a child, I always worked with my mother on projects,” says Kelly, the company?s 36-year-old marketing and public relations manager. “We?ve always had a good working relationship.” That old saying, “Mothers will always be mothers,” certainly applies here. Many daughters say that one of the major drawbacks to successfully running a mother-daughter company can be the inability of the mother to respect the daughter?s professional skills. Some mothers still treat their daughters as “Mommy?s little girl” — despite the fact that they?re adult business owners. That thinking can cripple a mother-daughter operation. “Did I have reservations about working with my mother? Sure I did,” “Mom still likes to exert a certain amount of control over me. That?s the biggest issue. My most difficult challenge is weaning myself from my mother. Her challenge is to look at her children more as trained professionals.” 9. While working as a reporter, Walter enrolled in a local community college and graduated two years later — first in his class of six hundred students. Mercy College awarded him a full scholarship to continue his education. He graduated from there, once again class valedictorian. After serving as editor and general manager of two daily newspapers, he moved to Parade magazine. He served as managing editor there before being promoted to editor of the largest-circulation Sunday magazine in the world at the age of thirty-five. In the course of his journalistic success, Walter met and interviewed a lot of famous people from whom he learned some valuable lessons. “I thought for the longest time that I was the only human being who worried that others would find out that I was inferior, that I was vulnerable, that I deserved to be rejected. I now know that all sane human beings worry that others will find out that they are not quite good enough, that they can be hurt, that maybe they don?t belong.” 10. Whether you work for a free-spirited company like Ben & Jerry?s or a more conventional organization, you will discover that when all is said and done, what?s done is more important than what?s said. Action is the ultimate form of communication. It speaks with an unmistakable voice. The diaper changing tables in both the men?s and women?s rooms at Ben & Jerry?s say more about the company?s commitment to family values than any statement in a policy manual possibly could. At the same time, when Ben tears his remaining hair and laments that the company is growing too fast, the employees give each other knowing looks and hustle to meet production targets. They?ve noticed that for a man who hates growth, Ben sure sells a lot of ice cream. Perhaps a certain amount of inconsistency between words and actions is unavoidable. Life is full of ambiguities, and most of us have mixed feelings about things from time to time. We don?t say what we really mean; in fact, we don?t always know what we really mean. Under the circumstances, no wonder we sometimes have trouble figuring out all the surface and underlying messages that we send and receive.