Archive for April, 2010
In China, worship towards the snake traces back to ancient society. Pan Gu, creator of the universe mythology, has the body of the snake and the head of the dragon. There is also the God with a snake in hand in ancient Chinese religion.
People used to regard the snake as a relative of the dragon, so they sometime call the snake a "small dragon". During the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties, the ceremonial robes for the emperors were embroidered with dragons while the robes for the princes and court ministers were embroidered with boa designs to show their royal position.
In some places of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, people give the snake many respectable names, instead of calling it "snake". People in Yixing, East China's Jiangsu Province, call it "savage creature" or "black dragon" . People in East China's Zhejiang Province call it "celestial being" or "dragon in heaven." At Dangtu in East China's Anhui Province, the snake is called "dragon at home." At Qingjiang, in East China's Jiangxi Province, it is called "snake ancestor".
There are many superstitions related to the snake. People in Qingjiang resent the snake shedding its skin or moving out from its lair. In Yixing, people consider it luck to see the snake in the granary or the bed but unlucky to see the snake on the beams or eaves of the house. People in Dangtu believe seeing the snake at home is a bad omen that the head of the household will die or some unexpected disaster will befall on the family. If the children see it, they know not to tell the head of the household.
But people also have ways of turning bad luck into good. Some people burn joss sticks to ward off baneful influence. Some present special food such as tofu, fish, wine or tea as offerings. If the snake is still alive, it will be sent into the wild. If it is dead, people will bury it respectfully. At Qingjiang, burying a dead snake is equal to prostrating before a Buddha.
The snake also symbolizes wealth in some places. Many people believe that if they see a snake winding around a rabbit, they will make a fortune soon.
Snake in the Literature
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC), the snake appeared in "The Book of Songs", China's first ancient poetry collection. In one of the poems, the snake is portrayed as the omen of giving birth to a girl. One of Chinese earliest poets, Qu Yuan (340 - 277BC), wrote a poem about the snake in his signature works "The Poetry of Chu". During the Tang (AD618 - 907) and Song (AD960 - 1297) dynasties, when ancient poetry flourished, more poets composed poems about the snake.
In ancient stories or folk lores , two entirely different images of the snake are often seen. One is as fearful, evil spirits and the other is as charming ladies. In the first chapter of "Kingdoms" by Luo Guanzhong (1330 - 1400) of the darly Ming Dynasty, Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han (AD25 - 220) was frightened by a huge green snake. It reflects a kind of superstitious idea in the feudal society that the evil spirit would appear when a reign was about to be overthrown.
The most popular "snake" in Chinese folklore is the "White Snake Lady "in "The Romance of White Snake Lady and Xu Xian". A female snake spirit falls in love with an ordinary man named Xu Xian, which violates the rule that a spirit could not marry a common person. So Monk Fahai creates obstacles between them and finally separates them by locking the White Snake Lady in Leifeng Tower. The love story has moved Chinese people for generations. Audiences sympathize with the lovers.
Pu Songling (1640 - 1775) in the Qing Dynasty also portrays many images of the snake in his "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio", a collection of about 500 stories of ghosts and spirits.
China's "snake" places
Snake Hill lies in Wuchang of Wuhan, capital of Central Chin's Hubei Province. The name came from its winding shape, which looks like a snake: Snake Hill stands across the Yangtze River from Tortoise Hill. The late Chairman Mao Zedong (1893 -1976) once wrote the famous lines "The Snake and Tortoise Hills guard the strategic pass on the Yangtze River".
Snake Island, which has become a national nature preservation zone, lies in the Bohai Sea. At about 1 square kilometre, the island is well-known for about the 20,000 Pallas pit vipers that live there.
China boasts many other place names related to the snake, including Snake Ground in Xingyi, Southwest's Guizhou Province, Snake Tail County in Xixia, Central China's Henan Province, and Snake Bone Tower in Dali, Southwest China's Yunnan Province.
China's long persistent poverty-relief policy has helped a large number of people escape poverty and move toward prosperity. But, in 1998, there were still about 50 million rural poor, 'about 80 percent of them struggling in adverse circumstances in the western mountainous areas, which is the focus of the future poverty-relief work.
In the transformation to a market economy, new poor inevitably will emerge in cities. The urban poor are significantly different from rural ones because they need new job opportunities. To some degree, therefore, it is much more difficult to lift the urban poor from poverty, especially when there are so many redundant workers. Taking into account urban jobless people, the laid-off and their family member, there are estimated to be 15-20 million urban poor.
Educational Background
The proportion of illiterate and semi-illiterate aged 15 and above decreases yearly.
In Asia, the number of tourists coming and going between the Asian countries has dropped by a large margin since summer 1997. The growth speed of world tourism decreased from 5. 5 percent in 1996 to 3.8 percent in 1997.
From January to August 1998, the number of tourists entering China totaled 41 .3284 million people/times, or an increase of 12. 22 percent over the figure for the corresponding period of last year. Foreign exchange earnings generated by tourism reached 8. 198 billion US dollars, or an increase of 5. 55 percent over those of the corresponding period of last year. The number of overseas tourists coming to China has kept growing, except from the other Asian countries, the number of whose tourists has shown a slight reduction.
The secretary general pointed out that China's tourism industry has shown a rising trend during the Asian financial crisis, and the Chinese people should be proud of this, he said. In 1990, the number of foreign tourists entering China ranked 12th in the world, and in 1997, the sixth; and its foreign exchange earnings generated from tourism ranked 25th in the world in 1990 and the eighth in 1997. The constant deepening of China's reform and opening to the outside world has greatly promoted the development of China's tourism. It is predicted that by 2020, the number of tourists worldwide will be about 1.6 billion, of whom 137 million will come to China.
The secretary general said that he likes China very much, because China is a "very lovely country". It has beaches, plains and mountains, as well as one of the most ancient civilizations in the world, he pointed out. He is right: China's 5,000-year history of civilization is an invaluable tourism resource which is attracting more and more tourists from all over the world.
CHINA'S policy of family planning is in line with the common interest of all nations. This is not a question of principle, but a need of the healthy development of the human being as a whole.
Since the early 1970s, China has adopted family-planning policy to control its huge population, making its growth within a range that resources can best support, and hence promoting the living standard of the Chinese people.
To understand the policy, I would like to point out a fact that nowadays China has to feed over 1.2 billion mouths. That figure is one-fourth of the world's total population.
According to the policy, young couples are encouraged to have only one child. That, I personally think will have two social consequences.
One is the education of the "only child" and the other is concerned with the continuity of both family and society.
A child in a small family usually has a smaller mentality than those who live in big family. They can't get a real experience of living within a community, nor can they develop a sense of cooperation when dealing with other people.
In addition, the only child in the family is prone to being pampered. They get everything they want, and are saved from
any housework that is commensurate with their age. The consequent problem is this type of children is quite likely to feel frustrated with reality since they are brought up in an unreal environment.
The one child policy, as I mentioned above, is a social necessity of China in the last decade of the 20th century, and it also will be in the early decades of the 21st century.
However, this family model might well do harm to the psycho-logical growth of Chinese children if there is no change introduced in the educational of children from these families.
When I said that the children are easily spoiled in an affluent environment, I didn’t' t mean that children should be brought up with hardships. Instead, I think a financially stable family could come up with more opportunities for the healthy growth of their children.
My point is that parents in these well-off families should attach more importance to the moral education of their children.
Last year, I spent a week in a peasant-merchant family in a small Chinese village, where I saw with my own eyes the results of the one child policy.
To my surprise, I found rural people there were so fond of their one child that they got them everything they can afford1. At the same time, the shortage of hands in the fields was weighing heavily on their minds. However, the vast majority of them agreed with the family planning policy because it has more advantages than disadvantages.
In closing, I would like to make a remark about the new family style on the basis of my personal experience and my investigations: The one child policy can only guarantee China' s healthy development on the basis of a controlled population in a provisional period, not in the long term. As the social-economic circumstances develop and become ripe, China should consider a larger family model.
One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget.
As he stood in front of the group of overachievers he said, "OK, time for a quiz." He pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?"
Everyone in the class yelled, "Yes." The time management expert replied, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, "Is this jar full?"
By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?"
"No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" One eager student raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!"
"No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is if you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all.
One morning last summer Mrs Andrews made some sausage sandwiches' for her husband's lunch. There was one sausage left over. Mrs Andrews didn't care for sausages herself and so she gave the last one to Henry, their little dog. Henry ate it up quickly.
During the morning the dog got ill. He wouldn't stop shaking his head4 and he couldn't stand up properly. Mrs Andrews thought, "He has eaten something that didn't agree with him. Maybe that sausage was bad " She suddenly remembered her husband's lunch. She ran to the telephone and called Jim at the office.
"Jim, I hope you haven't eaten any of those sandwiches yet."
"Yes, I have... "
"You have? Well, listen don't eat any more. I gave Henry the last sausage and now he's ill. Go to the doctor, Jim. Tell the doctor about the dog.Get some medicine at once. "
Jim came home at lunchtime and went to bed. "I had a very unpleasant hour with the doctor, he told his wife. "The medicine made me very sick."
The next morning Jim was fine. Henry seemed quite well again too. At eleven o'clock the milkman came with the milk.
"Good morning, Mrs Andrews," The milkman said. "How's your dog this morning? I have been thinking about him... "
"Have you? Well, he seems alright now, but... "
"Yesterday morning he and I had a little accident16. He jumped up at me and I dropped a bottle of milk on his head. "
If you were searching for the mood of America during the Re publican national convention, you first had to ask: "Which America?
The delegates to this convention were one America. Predominant ninthly white, male, protestant, of western European stock, the; represented business and professional interests. Four out of fly earned more than dollars 25 , 000 a year , two out of five earned more than dollars 50,000 a year, 3 per cent were Jews, 3 per cent black 22 per cent catholic , and one fifth of 1 per cent ( four out of the 1 ,994 delegates) were union officials.
The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of 'dos' and 'don'ts'. The same old favorites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, find more time 5 to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, be nice to people we don't like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every day. Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we often experienced the frustration that results from failure. Most of us fail in our efforts at selfimpnv
because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also ma fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish slip back into our bad old ways. Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolute myself. I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercises every morning and to read of an evening. An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carry
15 either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduous the task.
The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning 1 anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag myself out of bed eleven minutes earlier than was considerable. Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living room for two days before found me out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable tons, I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me. The morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance. That was really unsettling, but I fend the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody got used to the idea. However enthusiasm waned. The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished. Little by little the eleven minutes
to zero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. I argued that if I spent less time exhaust myself at exercises in the morning, I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from • Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glue book. One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the twelve pretending to read. That proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing'
30 front of the screen. I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading. In fact, I have just book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just ha had time to read it!
Chronic obstructive pulmonary1 disease, or C.O.P.D., affects more than two hundred million people around the world. The World Health Organization says at least five million people died from it in 2005. Ninety percent were in 1
In the United States, C.O.P.D. is the 2 leading cause of death. But even with these numbers, many people have never heard of it.
The Canadian Lung Association website explains that C.O.P.D. is the new name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis2. These are the two most common forms of it, and many people with C.O.P.D. have both of them.
The result is progressive and incurable 3_ damage. The tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs become partly blocked. This makes it difficult to breathe and often produces a 4 that will not go away.
People with C.O.P.D. often have swelling that causes the airways to narrow. And they often produce more mucus' than normal. This oily substance protects the airways, but too much of it blocks them.
5 is the most common cause of C.O.P.D. Nonsmokers can get the disease from breathing other people' s tobacco smoke.
Air pollution can also cause the disease. Miners and others who work around some kinds of dust and chemicals are ____6 . And children who repeatedly suffer lung infections have a greater chance of developing the disease as adults. Genetics may also play a part.
Doctors can perform a quick breathing test with a machine called a pyrometer that can help diagnose C.O.P.D. But experts say people are often not tested or treated 7 for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Patients may not consider a continuous cough serious enough to seek 8.Or doctors may misdiagnose it as asthma or another infection.
Some of the early warning signs are a cough that will not go away and an increase in mucus production. Another sign is difficulty breathing after 9_ activity like walking up stairs.
There are ways to slow the progress of the disease. Doctors say the most important thing is to stop smoking. There are medicines that can reduce inflammation and open air passages. Also, 10 is often advised. If the disease is severe, a doctor may order oxygen treatment or even operations to remove damaged lung tissue.
The user of a goods vehicle in connection with a trade or business must hold a goods vehicle operator's license (Clods Vehicle (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995). There are a number of exemptions, the most important being vehicles with a maximum gross weight not over 3. 5 tone. If a trailer is towed, as with the EU rules outlined above, the maximum gross weights of vehicle and trailer should be added together. The operator licensing rules do, however, exempt trailers that cannot carry goods (e. g. mobile compressor) and trailers with an unlading weights should be added together and if the total exceeds 1525 kg, the combination will be subject to O~ licensing unless otherwise exempt.
The user is generally the person in charge of the operation of the vehicle. If the vehicle is owned by an owner - driver, he or she will be the user. If the vehicle is owned by a company and driven by its employee — drivers, the operating it will need the user. If the vehicle is hired, the person or company operating it will need the O - licenser and not the hire company. If the vehicle is driven by an agency driver, the company hiring the agency driver will need the license and not the employment agency. The system of operator licensing exists to ensure that operators' hours and maintenance, and base their vehicles in locations that are environmentally suitable for the purpose. Therefore, the license must be held by the person or organization in a position of operational control over the driver.
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