Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
Once upon a time, innovation at Procter & Gamble
flowed one way: from the United States outward. While the large Cincinnati-based
corporation was no stranger to foreign markets, it usually sold them products
that were already familiar to most Americans. Many Japanese families, for
instance, swaddle their babies in Pampers diapers, and lots of Venezuelans brush
their teeth with Crest. And of course (company executive assumed) American at
home wanted these same familiar, red-white and blue brands. We might buy
foreign-made cars, or chocolates, or cameras but household cleaners and
detergents?
Recently, however, P&G broke with this
long-standing tradition. Ariel, a P&G laundry detergent, was born overseas,
and is a familiar sight on store shelves in Europe and Latin America. Now
bilingual packages of Ariel Ultra, a super-concentrated cleaner, are appearing
on supermarket shelves in Los Angeles.
Ariel's appearance in
the United States reflects demographic changes making Hispanics the nation's
fastest-growing ethnic group. Ariel is a hit with this population. In fact, many
Mexican immigrants living in Southern California have been "importing" Ariel
from Tijuana, Mexico. "Hispanics knew this product and wanted it," says P&G
spokeswoman Marie Salvado. "We realized that we couldn't convince them to buy
(our) other laundry detergents." P&G hopes that non-Hispanic consumers will
give Ariel a try too.
Ariel's already strong presence in Europe
may provide a springboard for the company to expand into other markets as well.
Recently P&G bought Rakona, Czechoslovakia's top detergent maker. Ariel,
currently a top seller in Germany, is likely to be one of the first new brands
to appear in Czech supermarkets. And Ariel is not the only foreign idea that the
company hopes to transplant back to its home territory. Chinch, an all-purpose
spray cleaner similar to popular European products, is currently being
test-marketed in California and Arizona. Traditionally Americans have used
separate cleaners for different types of surfaces, but market research shows
that American preferences are becoming more like those in other
countries.
Insiders note that this new reverse flow of
innovation reflects more sweeping changes at Procter & Gamble. The firm has
hired many new Japanese, German, and Mexican managers who view P&G's
business not as a one-way flow of American ideas, but a two-way exchange with
other markets. Says Bonita Austin of the investment firm Wertheim-Schroeder,
"When you met with P&G's top managers years ago, you wouldn't have seen a
single foreign face." Today "they could even be in the majority."
As Procter & Gamble has found, the United States is no longer an
isolated market. Americans are more open than ever before to buying foreign-made
products and to selling U. S.-made products overseas.
Coincident with concerns about the accelerating loss
of species and habitats has been a growing appreciation of the importance of
biological diversity, the number of species in a particular ecosystem, to the
health of the Earth and human beings. Much has been written about the diversity
of terrestrial organisms, particularly the exceptionally rich life associated
with tropical rain-forest habitats. Relatively little has been said, however,
about diversity of life in the sea even though coral reef systems are comparable
to rain forests in terms of richness of life.
An alien
exploring the Earth would probably give priority to the planet's dominant, most
distinctive feature—the ocean. Humans have a bias toward land that sometimes
gets in the way of truly examining global issues. Seen from far away, it is easy
to realize that landmasses occupy one-third of the Earth's surface. Given that
two-thirds of the Earth's surface is water and that marine life lives at all
levels of the ocean, the total three- dimensional living space of the ocean is
perhaps 100 times greater than that of land and contains more than 90 percent of
all life on Earth even though the ocean has fewer distinct species.
The fact that half of the known species are thought to inhabit the
world's rain forests does not seem surprising, considering the huge numbers of
insects that comprise the bulk of species. One scientist found many different
species of ants in just one tree from a rain forest. While every species is
different from every other species, their genetic makeup constrains them to be
insects and to share similar characteristics with 750 000 species of insects. If
basic, broad categories such as phyla and classes are given more emphasis than
differentiating between species, then the greatest diversity of life is
unquestionably the sea. Nearly every major type of plant and animal has some
representation there.
To appreciate fully the diversity of
abundance of life in the sea, it helps to think small. Every spoonful of ocean
water contains life on the order of 100 to 100 000 bacterial cells plus assorted
microscopic plants and animals, including larva's or organisms ranging from
sponges and corals to starfish and clams and much more.
Education is one of the key words of our time. A
man, without an education, many of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of
adverse circumstances deprived of one of the greatest twentieth-century
opportunities. Convinced of the importance of education, modern states "invest"
in institutions of learning to get back "interest" in the form of a large group
of enlightened young men and women who are potential leaders. Education, with
its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, is punctuated by
textbooks--those purchasable wells of wisdom--what would civilization be like
without its benefits?
So much is certain: that we would have
doctors and preachers, lawyers and defendants, marriages and births; but our
spiritual outlook would be different. We would lay less stress on "facts and
figures" and more on a good memory, on applied psychology, and on the capacity
of a man to get along with his fellow citizens. If our educational system were
fashioned after its bookless past we would have the most democratic form of
"college" imaginable. Among the people whom we like to call savages all
knowledge inherited by tradition is shared by all; it is taught to every member
of the tribe so that in this respect everybody is equally equipped for
life.
It is the ideal condition of the "equal start" which only
our most progressive forms of modem education try to regain. In primitive
cultures the obligation to seek and to receive the traditional instruction is
binding to all. There are no "illiterates"--if the term can be applied to people
without a script--while our own compulsory school attendance became law in
Germany in 1642, in France in 1806, and in England 1876, and is still
non-existent in a number of "civilized" nations. This shows how long it was
before we deemed it necessary to make sure that 'all our children could share in
the knowledge accumulated by the "happy few" during the past
centuries.
Education in the wilderness is not a matter of
monetary means. All are entitled to an equal start. There is none of the hurry
which, in our society, often hampers the full development of a growing
personality. There, a child grows up under the ever-present attention of his
parents, therefore the jungles and the grasslands know of no "juvenile
delinquency". No necessity of making a living away from home results in neglect
of children and no father is confronted with his inability to "buy" an education
for his child.
However important we may regard school life to be,
there is no gainsaying the fact that children spend more time at home than in
the classroom. Therefore, the great influence of parents cannot be ignored or
discounted by the teacher. They can become strong allies of the school personnel
or they can consciously hinder and thwart curricular objectives.
Administrators have been aware of the need to keep parents informed of
the newer methods used in schools. Many principals have conducted workshops
explaining such matters as the reading readiness program, manuscript writing,
and developmental mathematics.
Moreover, the classroom teacher,
with the permission of the supervisors, can also play an important role in
enlightening parents. The many interviews carried on during the years as well as
new ways of reporting pupils progress, can significantly aid in achieving a
harmonious interplay between school and home.
To illustrate,
suppose that a father has been drilling Junior in arithmetic processes night
after night. In a friendly interview, the teacher can help the parent sublimate
his natural paternal interest into productive channels. He might be persuaded to
let Junior participate in discussing the family budget, buying the food, using a
yardstick or measuring cup at home, setting the clock, calculating mileage on a
trip, and engaging in scores of other activities that have a mathematical
basis.
If the father follows the advice, it is reasonable to
assume that he will soon realize his son is making satisfactory progress in
mathematics and, at the same time, enjoying the work.
Too
often, however, teachers' conferences with parents are devoted to petty accounts
of children's misdemeanors, complaints about laziness and poor work habits, and
suggestions for penalties and rewards at home.
What is needed
is more creative approach in which the teacher, as a professional adviser,
plants ideas in parents' minds for the best utilization of the many hours that
the child spends out of the classroom.
In this way, the school
and the home join forces in fostering the fullest development of youngsters'
capacities.
Part Ⅲ Cloze
In most countries a PhD is a basic requirement for a
career in academia. It is a(n) 1 to the
world of independent research—a kind of intellectual 2
, created by an apprentice in close collaboration with a (n)
3 . The requirements to complete one
4 enormously between countries,
universities and even 5 . Some students
will first have to spend two years working on a 6
degree or diploma. Some will receive a stipend; others will
7 their own way. Some PhDs
8 only research, some require
9 and examinations and some require the student to teach
undergraduates. A(n) 10 can be dozens
of pages in mathematics, or many hundreds in history. As a result, newly minted
PhDs can be as young as their 11 20s or
world-weary forty- 12 .
One thing many PhD students have in 13
is dissatisfaction. Some describe their work 14
"slave labor". Seven-day weeks, ten-hour days, low pay and
uncertain 15 are widespread. You know
you are a graduate student, 16 a
comment, when your office is better decorated than your home and you have a
favorite flavor of 17 noodles. "It
isn't graduate school itself that is discouraging, " says one student, who
confesses to rather enjoying the hunt for free pizza. "What's discouraging is
realizing the end point has been pulled out of reach. "
Whining
PhD students are nothing new, but there seem to be genuine problems
18 the system that produces research doctorates
(the practical "professional doctorates" in fields such as law, business and
medicine have a more obvious value). There is an oversupply of PhDs. Although a
doctorate is 19 as training for a job
in academia, the number of PhD positions is 20
to the number of job openings.