know, because they have been seriously studying the meaning of colour preference, as well as the effect that colours have on human beings. They tell us, among other facts, that we do not choose our favourite colour as we grow up—we are born with our preference. If you happen to love brown, you did so, as soon as you opened your eyes, or at least as soon as you could see clearly.
Colours do influence our moods—there is no doubt about it. A yellow room makes most people feel more cheerful and more relaxed than a dark green one; and a red dress brings warmth and cheer to the saddest winter day. On the other hand, black is depressing. A (black bridge over the Thames River, near London, used to be the scene of more suicides than any other bridge in the area—until it was repainted green. The number of suicide attempts immediately fell sharply; perhaps it would have fallen even more if the bridge had been done in pink or baby blue.
Light and bright colours make people not only happier but more active. It is an established fact that factory workers work better, harder, and have fewer accidents when their machines are painted orange rather than black or grey.
Words: 283
32 The Personal Qualities of a Teacher
What personal qualities are desirable in a teacher? Probably no two people would write exactly similar lists, but I think the following would be generally accepted.
First, a teacher should be pleasantly live and attractive. This does not rule out people who are not good-looking or even ugly, because many such have great personal charm. But it does rule out such types as the over-excitable, dull, sad, cold-mannered, or any with other undesirable qualities.
Secondly, it is not only desirable but essential for a teacher to have real capacity for sympathy—a capacity to understand the minds and feelings of other people. Closely related with this is the capacity to be tolerant—not indeed of what is wrong, but of weakness of human nature which induce people, and especially children, to make mistakes.
I find it essential for a teacher to be a bit of an actor. That is part of the technique of teaching, which demands that every now and then a teacher should put on an act to make his lesson interesting and vivid. Children, especially young children live in a world that is rather larger than life.
A teacher must be capable of great patience. This, I may
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我们并不是在成长过程中挑选自己偏爱的色彩——我们的这种偏爱与生俱来。假设你碰巧喜欢褐色，当初你一睁看到这个世界，或至少当你看清这个世界的时候，你就喜欢上褐色了。
色彩的确影响我们的情绪——这一点毫无疑问。大多数人在一个黄色的房间比在一个深色的房间更感到愉悦松弛；一件红衣服在最凄凉的冬日也能给人带来温暖和振奋。而黑色却使人压抑。伦敦附近泰晤士河上曾有一座黑色的桥，在这座桥上自杀的人数比这一地区任何一座桥都多。后来人们把它漆成绿色，企图自杀的人数立刻骤减；倘若将这座桥漆成粉红色或浅蓝色，下降幅度或许会更大。
浅色或艳丽的色彩不仅使人更加愉快也更积极向上。事实证明，如果把工厂里的机器油漆成橘黄色而不是黑色或灰色，工人就会干得更勤奋、更出色，事故也会更少。
32 教师的个性品质
一位教师应具有什么样理想的个性品质呢?或许没有哪两个人能列出完全相同的条款，但我以为以下这些会被普遍认可。
首先，一位教师应该生性活泼，有吸引力，让人感到愉快。这么说并不是要将那些其貌不扬的人排除在外，因为许多人其貌不扬却具有很大的个人魅力。但我们确实要把那些容易激动、头脑迟钝、愁眉苦脸、态度冷漠以及其他诸如此类不良特征的人排除在外。
其次，真正富有同情心——亦即理解他人的内心活动和情感的能力。这一点对于一位教师来说不仅是理想的，而且是必备的。与这种能力密切相关的是容忍的能力——不是对错误的东西加以宽容，而是对引诱人们，尤其是孩子犯错误的人性弱点予以宽容。
我发现，对一名教师来说，有一点儿演员的气质是非常必要的。这是教学技巧的组成部分，它要求教师时而使他的课程生动有趣。孩子们，尤其是青少年，总是生活在比实际生活更为广泛的天地里。
一名教师必须具有极大的耐心。可以这么说，在很大程度上这是个个人修养问
say, is largely a matter of self-training. We are none of us born like that. Teaching makes great demands on nervous energy and one should be able to take in his stride countless small irritations any adult dealing with children has to endure.
Finally, I think a teacher should have the kind of mind which always wants to go on learning. Teaching is a job at which one will never be perfect; there is always something more to learn about it. There are three main subjects of study: the subject or subjects which the teacher is teaching; the methods by which they can best be taught to the pupils in the 题。而我们没有一个人与生俱来就拥有这一点。教学对人精神承受力提出了很高的要求，一名教师需要从容处理成人与孩子打交道时必须忍受的数不清的烦心事儿。
最后，我认为一名教师应该具有不断好学上进的精神。教学工作是一项永远不会完美无缺的工作，总是有更多的东西需要学习。有三个主要课题值得研究：教师所任教的一门或几门课程；最有效地把课程内容传授给学生的教学方法；教学的对classes he is teaching ; —by far the most important—the children, young people or adults to whom they are to be taught. The two main principles of British education today are that education is education of the whole person, and that is best acquired through full and active cooperation between two persons, the teacher and the learner.
Words: 376
33 Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan
The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when 1 consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.
On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet Southern spring. I did not know what the fu-ture held of marvel or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded passionate struggle.
Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the
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象：儿童、青年或成年人，这也是最重要的。当今英国教育有两个主要原则，其一是教育是对受教育者的全面素质教育；其二是教育通过教师和学生二者之间充分而积极的合作才能得以完满实现。
33 海伦〃凯勒和安妮〃沙利文 我终生铭记最重要的日子是我的老师安妮〃曼斯菲尔德〃沙利文来到我身边的那一天。它把两个有着天壤之别的人生联结在了一起；每当我想到这一点，我总是惊叹不已。那是1887年3月3日，还有3个月我满7岁。
那个重大的日子的下午，我站在门廊里，默默无语又似有所期待。从母亲的手势和家中来来回回匆忙的走动中，我隐约地猜想怕是有什么不同寻常的事就要发生，于是我走到门口，在台阶上等待着。午后的阳光穿透了覆盖在门廊上的大簇大簇的忍冬，照在我扬起的脸上。我的手指几乎无意识地久久地抚摸着熟悉的叶片和花朵，它们刚刚长出欢迎南方的美好春光。我不知道未来有什么奇迹或惊奇正等着我。过去几周以来，气愤苦恼一直纠缠着我；在内心的躁动不安之后，继之而来的是深切的倦怠。
你曾在浓雾中困守海上吗?那时候，似乎触手可及的白色的黑暗把你裹袭着；焦躁而紧张的大船靠着测深锤和测深索摸索着向岸边驶去。你的心是不是在怦怦直跳，唯恐意外会发生?在我接受教育之前，我就像那样一艘船，只是我连指南针和测深绳都没有，也无法知道离港口还有多远。?光明!请给我光明!?是我灵魂无声的呼唤。正是在那一刻，爱心的光辉照耀在我的身上。
34 拥挤的地球—数以十计的人蜂拥harbor was. \give me light!\was the wordless cry of
my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour. 而至
这个世界上将生活着60多亿人，而这Words: 281
34 Crowded Earth—Billions More Coming
More than 6 billion people in a world that already as
having trouble supporting 4 billion—
That is the prospect now being held out by population experts, and it frightens them.
A new projection by the United Nations shows that, if the 个世界供养40亿人已经勉为其难——
这是人口专家们预测的前景，这让他们不寒而栗。
联合国的一项最新预测显示：如果以目前2％的增长速度持续下去，到2000年，今天39亿的世界人口将达到64亿。
此外，增长的绝大部分，即地球人口present growth rate of 2 per cent continues, today's world population of 3. 9 billion will hit 6. 4 by the year 2,000.
What's more, the great bulk of the growth—9 of every 10 people added to the earth population—will be in the poorer, undeveloped countries. These are the nations where feeding billions of people already is proving a near-insurmountable challenge.
By the year 2,000, today's \combined population of 5 billion people, comprising nearly four fifths of the world's population.
Food isn't the only problem that such a population explosion presents. According to U. N. projections, half of the earth's people will be living in urban areas by the year 2,000, up from 37 per cent today'. The more people there are and the more crowded their living conditions, authorities warn, the greater grows the likelihood of violence and upheaval.
Actually, the world's birth rate is on a decline. But so are the death rate, as medical advances have increased life spans and reduced infant mortality. Average world life expectancy has increased by 20 years over the past three decades.
It's mainly in advanced nations that population growth is being curbed.
The outlook beyond 2,000 is even more threatening. Unless population growth is curtailed, a world population of 12 billion is foreseen in a century. One question raised by demographers:
Is the earth capable of providing a decent life for, 12 billion people? Words: 288
35 Grandma's Childhood
I am beginning to wonder whether my grandmother isn't right when she complains, as she frequently does, that children nowadays aren't as well-behaved as they used to be. Whenever she gets the opportunity, she recounts in detail how
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中每增长10人中有9人，将生活在较贫穷、不发达的国家。对这些国家来说，养活数以十亿计的人在今天已经是几乎无法战胜的挑战。
到公元2000年，今天的贫穷国家人口总计将达到50亿，占世界总人口的几乎五分之四。
这样的人口爆炸带来的不仅仅是食物问题。按照联合国的预测，到2000年，地球上有一半人将居住在都市，超出今天的37％。人口越多，住房条件就越拥挤，暴力和动荡的可能性就越大。权威们如是警告。
事实上，世界的人口出生率在下降。然而随着医学进步，人们的平均寿命在增加，婴儿的死亡在减少，因而死亡率也在下降。
在过去的30年中，世界人均预期寿命已经增加了20年。
主要在发达国家，人口的增长在得到遏制。
2000年以后的前景更具威胁。除非人口增长速度减缓，一个世纪后世界人口将达到120亿。人口学家们提出了这样一个问题：
地球能为120亿人提供体面的生活吗?
35 祖母的童年
祖母常常抱怨今天的孩子不像过去的孩子那样举止得体，每当此时我开始疑心她是否说错了。她一有机会就会详细叙述大人们如何教她尊重比她年长和更高尚的人；别人对她说话的时候她才可以说话；她独自一人出去大人们也会对她说?要说
she used to be told to respect her elders and betters. She was taught to speak only when she was spoken to, and when she went out on her own, she was reminded to say \\you\Children in her day, she continues, were expected to be seen and not heard, but these days you are lucky if you ever hear parents telling their children to mind their p's and q's .
If you give her the chance she then takes out of per bureau the old photograph album which she keeps there, and which she never tires of displaying. Of course when you look 请，谢谢?等。她继续说她那个时代的孩子们应当被看到而不是被听到，而今天如果你听到有父母教育小孩要谨言慎行你就是很幸运的了。
你要是给她一个机会，她就会从书桌里拿出一个她保存在那里的一本旧相册，她总是不厌其烦地拿出来给人看。当你看到她父母的旧照片时，你可以肯定，有一个那样满脸严肃的父亲，你也会?被看到而不是被听到?。在他身边坐着他的妻子，at the pictures of her parents you feel sure that, with a father as stem-looking as that, you, too, would have been \not heard\Beside him sits his wife, with their children around her: Granny and her elder brothers. It always occurs to me that perhaps those long, stiff, black clothes were so burdensome to a little girl, that she hadn't enough breath left to be talkative, let alone mischievous. It must have been a dull and solitary life too, for she stayed mainly at home during her childhood, while her brothers were sent away to school from an early age.
Nevertheless, my childhood was much freer than Granny's. I went to school with my brother, and I played football with him and his friends. We all spoke a common language and we got up to the same mischief. I would have died if I had had to stay indoors, wear a tight frock, and sew. Words: 305
36 Something Better than Money
It is physically impossible for a well-educated, in-tellectual, or brave man to make money the chief object of his thoughts; as physically impossible as it is for him to make his dinner the principal object of them. All healthy people like their dinner, but their dinner is not the main object of their lives. So all healthy-minded people like making money—ought to like it and to enjoy the sensation of winning; but the main object of their lives is not money; it is something better than money.
A good soldier, for instance, mainly wishes to do his fighting well. He is glad of his pay—very properly so — and justly grumbles when you keep him ten months without it; still, his main notion of life is to win battles, not to be paid for winning them.
So of doctors. They like fees no doubt—ought to like them; yet the entire object of their lives is not fees. They, on
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他们的孩子们——祖母和她的哥哥们簇拥在她的身边。我总是想，也许那些长长的僵硬的黑衣服对于一个小女孩来说太沉重了，压得她没有气息去多说话，更不要谈去淘气了。她的一生活得一定是单调寂寞的。她的哥哥们很早就被送去上学，而她整个童年时代主要呆在家里。
然而我的童年比祖母的童年则要自由得多，我和我的哥哥一起上学，我跟他和他的朋友们一起踢足球，我们说的话一模一样，我们的淘气也没什么不同，要是我不得不呆在家里，穿着紧绷绷的礼服还要做针线活，我还不如死了好。
36比金钱更珍贵的
一个受过良好教育、有头脑的、有胆识的人完全不可能将金钱当作他考虑的主要对象，正如他完全不可能将美餐当作他主要考虑对象一样。所有健康的人都喜欢享用美餐，但美餐并不是他们生活的主要目标。同样道理，所有思想健全的人都喜欢挣钱——喜欢并体验挣到钞票的兴奋感是正当的；然而，他们生活的主要目标并不是金钱，而是比金钱更珍贵的东西。
例如，一位优秀的士兵主要想打好仗。他为自己的薪饷感到高兴——完全合乎情理；假如，你扣发他十个月军饷，他发牢骚理所应当。不过，他的人生主要目标仍然是打胜仗，并非为了薪饷而打胜仗。
医生也是如此。毫无疑问，他们都喜欢收诊费——本应如此；然而他们人生的全部目标并不是诊费。总的说来，他们都想把病人治好，而且宁愿把病人治好而得不到诊金，也不愿为了诊金而把病人治死。所有其他有胆识的、受过正当培训
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