The Wealth of Nations 

BOOK I.

OF THE CAUSES OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE PRODUCTIVE POWERS OF LABOUR, AND OF THE ORDER ACCORDING TO WHICH ITS PRODUCE IS NATURALLY DISTRlBUTED AMONG THE DIFFERENT RANKS OF THE PEOPLE.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE DIVISlON OF LABOUR.

The greatest improvements in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment, with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour. The effects of the division of labour, in the general business of society, will be more easily understood, by considering in what manner it operates in some particular manufactures. It is commonly supposed to be carried furthest in some very trifling ones ; not perhaps that it really is carried further in them than in others of more importance: but in those trifling manufactures which are destined to supply the small wants of but a small number of people, the whole number of workmen must necessarily be small ; and those employed in every different branch of the work can often be collected into the same workhouse, and placed at once under the view of the spectator.

In those great manufactures, on the contrary. which are destined to supply the great wants of the great body of the people, every different branch of the work employs so great a number of workmen, that it is impossible to collect them all into the same workhouse. We can seldom see more, at one time, than those employed in one single branch. Though in such manufactures, therefore, the work may really be divided into a much greater number of parts, than in those of a more trifling nature, the division is not near so obvious, and has accordingly been much less observed.

To take an example, therefore, from a very trifling manufacture, but one in which the division of labour has been very often taken notice of, the trade of a pin-maker: a workman not educated to this business (which the division of labour has rendered a distinct trade, nor acquainted with the use of the machinery employed in it (to the invention of which the same division of labour has probably given occasion), could scarce, perhaps, with his utmost industry, make one pin in a day, and certainly could not make twenty. But in the way in which this business is now carried on, not only the whole work is a peculiar trade, but it is divided into a number of branches, of which the greater part are likewise peculiar trades. One man draws out the wire; another straights it; a third cuts it; a fourth points it; a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations ; to put it on is a peculiar business; to whiten the pins is another ; it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper ; and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, which, in some manufactories, are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform two or three of them. I have seen a small manufactory of this kind, where ten men only were employed, and where some of them consequently performed two or three distinct operations. But though they were very poor, and therefore but indifferently accommodated with the necessary machinery, they could, when they exerted themselves, make among them about twelve pounds of pins in a day. There are in a pound upwards of four thousand pins of a middling size. Those ten persons, therefore, could make among them upwards of forty-eight thousand pins in a day. Each person, therefore, making a tenth part of forty-eight thousand pins, might be considered as making four thousand eight hundred pins in a day. But if they had all wrought separately and independently, and without any of them having been educated to this peculiar business, they certainly could not each of them have made twenty, perhaps not one pin in a day; that is, certainly, not the two hundred and fortieth, perhaps not the four thousand eight hundredth, part of what they are at present capable of performing, in consequence of a proper division and combination of their different operations.

In every other art and manufacture, the effects of the division of labour are similar to what they are in this very trifling one, though, in many of them, the labour can neither be so much subdivided, nor reduced to so great a simplicity of operation. The division of labour, however, so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportionable increase of the productive powers of labour. The separation of different trades and employments from one another, seems to have taken place in consequence of this advantage. This separation, too, is generally carried furthest in those countries which enjoy the highest degree of industry and improvement; what is the work of one man, in a rude state of society, being generally that of several in an improved one. In every improved society, the farmer is generally nothing but a farmer ; the manufacturer, nothing but a manufacturer. The labour, too, which is necessary to produce any one complete manufacture, is almost always divided among a great number of hands. How many different trades are employed in each branch of the linen and woollen manufactures, from the growers of the flax and the wool, to the bleachers and smoothers of the linen, or to the dyers and dressers of the cloth ! The nature of agriculture, indeed, does not admit of so many subdivisions of labour, nor of so complete a separation of one business from another, as manufactures. It is impossible to separate so entirely the business of the grazier from that of the corn-farmer, as the trade of the carpenter is commonly separated from that of the smith. The spinner is almost always a distinct person from the, weaver; but the ploughman, the harrower, the sower of the seed, and the reaper of the corn, are often the same. The occasions for those different sorts of labour returning with the different seasons of the year, it is impossible that one man should be constantly employed in any one of them. This impossibility of making so complete and entire a separation of all the different branches of labour employed in agriculture, is perhaps the reason why the improvement of the productive powers of labour, in this art, does not always keep pace with their improvement in manufactures. The most opulent nations, indeed, generally excel all their neighbours in agriculture as well as in manufactures ; but they are commonly more distinguished by their superiority in the latter than in the former. Their lands are in general better cultivated, and having more labour and expense bestowed upon them, produce more in proportion to the extent and natural fertility of the ground. But this superiority of produce is seldom much more than in proportion to the superiority of labour and expense. In agriculture, the labour of the rich country is not always much more productive than that of the poor ; or, at least, it is never so much more productive, as it commonly is in manufactures. The corn of the rich country, therefore, will not always, in the same degree of goodness, come cheaper to market than that of the poor. The corn of Poland, in the same degree of goodness, is as cheap as that of France, notwithstanding the superior opulence and improvement of the latter country. The corn of France is, in the corn-provinces, fully as good, and in most years nearly about the same price with the corn of England, though, in opulence and improvement, France is perhaps inferior to England. The corn-lands of England, however, are better cultivated than those of France, and the corn-lands of France are said to be much better cultivated than those of Poland. But though the poor country, notwithstanding the inferiority of its cultivation, can, in some measure. rival the rich in the cheapness and goodness of its corn, it can pretend to no such competition in its manufactures, at least if those manufactures suit the soil, climate, and situation, of the rich country. The silks of France are better and cheaper than those of England, because the silk manufacture, at least under the present high duties upon the importation of raw silk, does not so well suit the climate of England as that of France. But the hardware and the coarse woollens of England are beyond all comparison superior to those of France, and much cheaper, too, in the same degree of goodness. In Poland there are said to be scarce any manufactures of any kind, a few of those coarser household manufactures excepted, without which no country can well subsist.

This great increase in the quantity of work, which, in consequence of the division of labour, the same number of people are capable of performing, is owing to three different circumstances ; first, to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman ; secondly, to the saving of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another ; and, lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.

First, the improvement of the dexterity of the workmen, necessarily increases the quantity of the work he can perform; and the division of labour, by reducing every man's business to some one simple operation, and by making this operation the sole employment of his life, necessarily increases very much the dexterity of the workman. A common smith, who, though accustomed to handle the hammer, has never been used to make nails, if, upon some particular occasion, he is obliged to attempt it, will scarce, I am assured, be able to make above two or three hundred nails in a day, and those, too, very bad ones. A smith who has been accustomed to make nails, but whose sole or principal business has not been that of a nailer, can seldom, with his utmost diligence, make more than eight hundred or a thousand nails in a day. I have seen several boys, under twenty years of age, who had never exercised any other trade but that of making nails, and who, when they exerted themselves, could make, each of them, upwards of two thousand three hundred nails in a day. The making of a nail, however, is by no means one of the simplest operations. The same person blows the bellows, stirs or mends the fire as there is occasion, heats the iron, and forges every part of the nail: in forging the head, too, he is obliged to change his tools. The different operations into which the making of a pin, or of a metal button, is subdivided, are all of them much more simple, and the dexterity of the person, of whose life it has been the sole business to perform them, is usually much greater. The rapidity with which some of the operations of those manufactures are performed, exceeds what the human hand could, by those who had never seen them, he supposed capable of acquiring.

Secondly, The advantage which is gained by saving the time commonly lost in passing from one sort of work to another, is much greater than we should at first view be apt to imagine it. It is impossible to pass very quickly from one kind of work to another, that is carried on in a different place, and with quite different tools. A country weaver, who cultivates a small farm, must loose a good deal of time in passing from his loom to the field, and from the field to his loom. When the two trades can be carried on in the same workhouse, the loss of time is, no doubt, much less. It is, even in this case, however, very considerable. A man commonly saunters a little in turning his hand from one sort of employment to another. When he first begins the new work, he is seldom very keen and hearty; his mind, as they say, does not go to it, and for some time he rather trifles than applies to good purpose. The habit of sauntering, and of indolent careless application, which is naturally, or rather necessarily, acquired by every country workman who is obliged to change his work and his tools every half hour, and to apply his hand in twenty different ways almost every day of his life, renders him almost always slothful and lazy, and incapable of any vigorous application, even on the most pressing occasions. Independent, therefore, of his deficiency in point of dexterity, this cause alone must always reduce considerably the quantity of work which he is capable of performing.

Thirdly, and lastly, everybody must be sensible how much labour is facilitated and abridged by the application of proper machinery. It is unnecessary to give any example. I shall only observe, therefore, that the invention of all those machines by which labour is to much facilitated and abridged, seems to have been originally owing to the division of labour. Men are much more likely to discover easier and readier methods of attaining any object. when the whole attention of their minds is directed towards that single object, than when it is dissipated among a great variety of things. But, in consequence of the division of labour, the whole of every man's attention comes naturally to be directed towards some one very simple object. It is naturally to be expected, therefore, that some one or other of those who are employed in each particular branch of labour should soon find out easier and readier methods of performing their own particular work, whenever the nature of it admits of such improvement. A great part of the machines made use of in those manufactures in which labour is most subdivided, were originally the invention of common workmen, who, being each of them employed in some very simple operation, naturally turned their thoughts towards finding out easier and readier methods of performing it. Whoever has been much accustomed to visit such manufactures, must frequently have been shewn very pretty machines, which were the inventions of such workmen, in order to facilitate and quicken their own particular part of the work. In the first fire engines {this was the current designation for steam engines}, a boy was constantly employed to open and shut alternately the communication between the boiler and the cylinder, according as the piston either ascended or descended. One of those boys, who loved to play with his companions, observed that, by tying a string from the handle of the valve which opened this communication to another part of the machine, the valve would open and shut without his assistance, and leave him at liberty to divert himself with his play-fellows. One of the greatest improvements that has been made upon this machine, since it was first invented, was in this manner the discovery of a boy who wanted to save his own labour.

All the improvements in machinery, however, have by no means been the inventions of those who had occasion to use the machines. Many improvements have been made by the ingenuity of the makers of the machines, when to make them became the business of a peculiar trade; and some by that of those who are called philosophers, or men of speculation, whose trade it is not to do any thing, but to observe every thing, and who, upon that account, are often capable of combining together the powers of the most distant and dissimilar objects. in the progress of society, philosophy or speculation becomes, like every other employment, the principal or sole trade and occupation of a particular class of citizens. Like every other employment, too, it is subdivided into a great number of different branches, each of which affords occupation to a peculiar tribe or class of philosophers ; and this subdivision of employment in philosophy, as well as in every other business, improve dexterity, and saves time. Each individual becomes more expert in his own peculiar branch, more work is done upon the whole, and the quantity of science is considerably increased by it.

It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people. Every workman has a great quantity of his own work to dispose of beyond what he himself has occasion for; and every other workman being exactly in the same situation, he is enabled to exchange a great quantity of his own goods for a great quantity or, what comes to the same thing, for the price of a great quantity of theirs. He supplies them abundantly with what they have occasion for, and they accommodate him as amply with what he has occasion for, and a general plenty diffuses itself through all the different ranks of the society.

Observe the accommodation of the most common artificer or daylabourer in a civilized and thriving country, and you will perceive that the number of people, of whose industry a part, though but a small part, has been employed in procuring him this accommodation, exceeds all computation. The woollen coat, for example, which covers the day-labourer, as coarse and rough as it may appear, is the produce of the joint labour of a great multitude of workmen. The shepherd, the sorter of the wool, the wool-comber or carder, the dyer, the scribbler, the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, the dresser, with many others, must all join their different arts in order to complete even this homely production. How many merchants and carriers, besides, must have been employed in transporting the materials from some of those workmen to others who often live in a very distant part of the country ? How much commerce and navigation in particular, how many ship-builders, sailors, sail-makers, rope-makers, must have been employed in order to bring together the different drugs made use of by the dyer, which often come from the remotest corners of the world ? What a variety of labour, too, is necessary in order to produce the tools of the meanest of those workmen ! To say nothing of such complicated machines as the ship of the sailor, the mill of the fuller, or even the loom of the weaver, let us consider only what a variety of labour is requisite in order to form that very simple machine, the shears with which the shepherd clips the wool. The miner, the builder of the furnace for smelting the ore the feller of the timber, the burner of the charcoal to be made use of in the smelting-house, the brickmaker, the bricklayer, the workmen who attend the furnace, the millwright, the forger, the smith, must all of them join their different arts in order to produce them. Were we to examine, in the same manner, all the different parts of his dress and household furniture, the coarse linen shirt which he wears next his skin, the shoes which cover his feet, the bed which he lies on, and all the different parts which compose it, the kitchen-grate at which he prepares his victuals, the coals which he makes use of for that purpose, dug from the bowels of the earth, and brought to him, perhaps, by a long sea and a long land-carriage, all the other utensils of his kitchen, all the furniture of his table, the knives and forks, the earthen or pewter plates upon which he serves up and divides his victuals, the different hands employed in preparing his bread and his beer, the glass window which lets in the heat and the light, and keeps out the wind and the rain, with all the knowledge and art requisite for preparing that beautiful and happy invention, without which these northern parts of the world could scarce have afforded a very comfortable habitation, together with the tools of all the different workmen employed in producing those different conveniencies ; if we examine, I say, all these things, and consider what a variety of labour is employed about each of them, we shall be sensible that, without the assistance and co-operation of many thousands, the very meanest person in a civilized country could not be provided, even according to, what we very falsely imagine, the easy and simple manner in which he is commonly accommodated. Compared, indeed, with the more extravagant luxury of the great, his accommodation must no doubt appear extremely simple and easy ; and yet it may be true, perhaps, that the accommodation of an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king, the absolute masters of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages.

经过了几个月来的节目主持,对大家参加节目的风向有了一定的了解

为了针对不同的人群,特意设定了不同难度的翻译文章,一个星期一期,

内容分为易（★★★）,中（★★★★）,难（★★★★★）三个难度层次,翻译红色的部分
（可以选择一个题目，也可以选择多个题目，但是请分贴发表你的答案，方便我送分）

Stamp collecting is a popular hobby that also can pay off financially. Stamps and related postal objects can be beautiful and exotic, plus they often have historical value. And as VOA's Mil Arcega reports, the stamp trade is beginning to attract serious investors.……

★★★ 点击参加

■隐藏■

The West Indian Manatee is an endangered species. Although it does not have any natural predators, human expansion has reduced its natural habitat in the coastal marsh areas and many manatees are injured……

★★★★点击参加

■隐藏■

The most obvious risk is of rising energy costs. Indeed, the recent high price of oil and natural gas, allied to fears over the security of energy supplies from the Middle East and  ……

★★★★★ 点击参加

■隐藏■

The World Cup is sponsored by an international oversight organization for soccer called FIFA, which, en Francais, stands for the Federation Internationale de Football Association . Founded in 1904, FIFA is the governing body for all things soccer, from rule changes to the process by which national soccer teams make their way into World Cup competition. And what a process it is. In comparison, it makes the Major League Baseball play-offs look like a sandlot game.

The World Cup competition is held once every four years in a different host country. Even though the month long competition is held only once every four years, preliminary rounds, between a starting field of 150 national teams, begin two years before the big event. That means there's plenty of World Cup quality soccer to watch right now!

Competitions are held regionally under the auspices of regional soccer organizations including the AFC, UEFA, OFC, CONMEBOL, CAF and CONCACAF. Okay, you don't have to remember this alphabet soup. Just remember that regional competitions - and a region can be the size of Africa - lead the way to a winning team's participation in World Cup competition - the big show. And that's where the excitement, the glory and great moments in sports history are found.

Teams from large countries, like Brazil and the US, and from smaller countries, like East Timor and Nigeria, compete in numerous tournaments until the final field of national teams is winnowed down to 32. The host country's team ( Germany next) and the home country of the previous champions ( Brazil) are given a free pass - no qualifying victories required.

Once the actual World Cup tourney gets underway, loyal fans from every corner of the globe flock to the different venues to cheer on their own national teams. Flags are waved, the air is electric and the knowledgeable crowd cheers, boos and hoots as the fortunes of their teams rise and fall. The occasional soccer riot can also be expected as the fanatics from both sides take the fight into the bleachers. Security, as you might expect, is always tight.

Scalpers hawk their wares outside of each stadium and tickets always go for a premium, even in the early rounds of competition. In fact, if you're planning to attend the '06 World Cup in Germany, now's the time to pick up your tix. (Don't forget to pack the Stars and Stripes.)

So, what teams should you watch now? Well, since the competition for the World Cup began in 1930, several nations have established themselves as perennial powerhouses. Brazil always brings game, having won the Cup five times, including the last final held in 2002. Other teams to watch include the squads from Germany, Italy, England, Argentina and, of course, the up-and-comers from the US.

The World Cup is more than a game, more than a world competition, it's a world event - everywhere but in America. But that's changing quickly as more 'Yanks' discover that soccer's elegance and grace, strategy and strength make for compelling sports action and irresistible TV viewing.

So settle back in the recliner and, as you channel surf, stop to watch a few preliminary games. It won't be long before you recognize the team's star names and the background stories behind each team. Like any sport, the more you know about it, the more you'll enjoy it. Go East Timor!

from :  http://www.soccerboards.com/

	Young women in traditional Bavarian clothes toast with one-litre beer mugs during the opening day of the Oktoberfest in Munich in this September 17, 2005 file photo. The FIFA soccer World Cup 2006 final will be held in Germany from June 9 - July 9
	An unidentified woman shouts out as she drinks beer during the opening day of Munich's famous Oktoberfest, September 17, 2005
	Waitress Marion Neumeyer carries one-litre beer mugs during the opening day of the Oktoberfest in Munich September 17, 2005
	Traders arrange cheese and meat in Stuttgart's famous market hall May 15, 2006. The FIFA soccer World Cup 2006 will be held in Germany from June 9 - July 9.
	An overview shows sidewalk cafes at the 'Alter Markt' in the city of Dortmund May 22, 2006.
	Sculptures of rhinoceros painted in different colours of participating countries of the World Cup 2006 are seen in the city of Dortmund May 22, 2006
	Farmers' wives dressed in traditional Bavarian costumes ride in wooden carriages on the way to the church of Bad Toelz during the Leonhard procession November 6, 2004. The procession is an annual event that started in the 17th century to pray to St. Leonhard, the patron saint of animals
	Bavarian men in traditional clothes play their Alphorn instruments during a meeting on top of the mountain Fellhorn near the southern Bavarian town of Oberstdorf July 24, 2005
	A Bavarian tries to pull his opponent over the table during traditional Bavarian finger pulling championships, called 'Fingerhakln', in the southern Bavarian resort town of Mittenwald on July 20, 2003
	Two dogs, Zoroline (L) and Spitzerich, wearing traditional Bavarian dirndl and leather trousers, sit at a garden in Hailing near the Bavarian town of Straubing, September 11, 2005.The FIFA soccer World Cup 2006 final will be held in Germany from June 9 - July 9.
	Oktoberfest visitors ride in a roller coaster in front of Munich's landmark Frauenkirche September 20, 2004

from language tip

1,000 places to go before you die

Memorial Day traditionally marks the start of the summer vacation season in the United States. A lot of American travelers may be setting off with a renewed sense of purpose this year, thanks to a best-selling book with a lofty goal. Patricia Schultz is the author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, which profiles a lifetime's worth of travel destinations around the world: everything from the Great Wall of China to a hot air balloon safari in Kenya to a drive-in hot dog restaurant in Chicago. The book has been a U.S. best seller since it was first released by Workman Publishing Company in 2003, and with publication rights sold in some 20 other countries, it is also climbing best seller lists elsewhere in the world.

Patricia Schultz says her book grew out of her life-long passion for travel. She created a few hours of panic as a four year old, when she wandered away from a family beach vacation, and she has been roaming the world ever since. But if 1,000 Places to See Before You Die began as a labor of love, even the author was not prepared for the publishing sensation it would become. "In honesty, in the beginning if I sold a couple hundred copies I would have been elated," the author says. "That we would have two million buying this book to anxiously see where they should go next, that has amazed me."

 "The very concept of travel I think is timeless, ageless. One of the most beautiful quotes I use now and then is from St. Augustine, and it was over a thousand years ago, and he said, 'Life is like a book, and he or she who does not travel reads just one page.'"

"How did you get the idea for your book?"

"I've been writing travel guides since the 80s,so in my own head, I had been growing more seamless towards these places I've been to. As a travel writer, people are always coming to me and saying, 'I'm going here, what should I see?' Or 'We're thinking of going to Southeast Asia, but what country, or in that country, what city, and in that city, what sites?' So I was always bombarded, and I always had all these answers, and now they're in this book. I did all the homework."

It took Schultz seven years to research and write her book. She estimates she has visited about 80 percent of the sites she describes, but she also read other travel books, talked with tourism boards, and interviewed as many fellow travelers as she could find. She made her selections based on whether they evoke some sense of what she calls "the world's magic, integrity, wonder and legacy." India's Taj Mahal made the list; so, too, did the covered bazaars of Aleppo, Syria; the Moscow subway system; and whale watching on Mexico's Baja Peninsula.

"I think that the book shows it does not mean to be extravagant and over the top. There are a lot of places around the world, places you've never heard of, but there are just as many that are here in our back yards or that are doable. You don't need to break the bank, and you don't need a month to do it."

Susan Bolotin, Editor-in-chief of Workman Publishing, suggests a range of other reasons for the book's ongoing popularity. "I think it's the scope, and the really daring title, which is to acknowledge that we do all die someday, but there is a lot of stuff you want to get in before that happens. And if you are already a traveler, and if you are someone who likes to keep track of things, there is this pleasure in this feel of interactivity."

"I would also want to say that people are also responding to the fact that the book is so well written. Rather than being just a travel guide, this is really a travel book, so you can take it in your own armchair and enjoy reading about places you know you may never get to."

While Patricia Schultz and her editors worked together to make sure the entries reflected a balanced view of the world's great travel destinations, Susan Bolitan acknowledges there has been inevitable reader disagreement about the choices. Harder to argue with, however, are the author's assertions that visitors should never forget they are guests in another place--and that travel is not just what they see, but how they see it.

"I think you need to go with a real sense of curiosity and with certain expectations, or you wouldn't be making the trip happen in the first place, but leaving your mind and yourself open to serendipity, because it's the best tour guide in the end of it all." Schultz says. "You don't want to be too rigid and restricted in these packaged tours where every moment is accounted for. You want to get out there and wander and not just physically, but to leave yourself open to different experiences, which often times are the ones that stay with you for life."

As for her own most memorable experiences while researching the book, Patricia Schultz says she had a thousand of them. "I can remember in Italy the fellow who took a day off from work just so I could see Tuscany as he knew it to be. I remember we got lost once outside of Malaga in the countryside of southern Spain, and--were we crazy to get in some stranger's car? Maybe, but he showed us tapas bars and flamenco singing and 1,000-year-old caves that we never would have known had we not relied upon the kindness of strangers. I got ill once with typhoid in Africa, and it was one of the most positive experiences of my life, once I understood I wasn't going to die."

 "It's all just one magnificent travel experience waiting to happen, and it's the individual traveler I think who will determine how."

1,000 Places to See Before You Die continues to generate new lists. Next year, Workman is planning to publish a guide to a thousand places in the United States and Canada, also by Patricia Schultz. And the original book is inspiring a reality TV program, in which travelers set out to experience first-hand a sampling of those 1,000 landmarks, adventures and scenic wonders.
 

Unit 19: Who Is Liable for Customers’ Misfortunes?

It’s a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up the stove and you could burn down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. ①Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began holding more companies liable for their customers’ misfortunes.

②Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever-longer warning  labels, trying to anticipate every possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might ---- surprise! – fall off. The label on a child’s Batman cape cautions that the toy “does not enable user to fly.”

While warnings are often  appropriate and necessary – the dangers of drug interactions, for example ---- and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn’t clear that they actually protect the manufactures and sellers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court.

③Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn’t have changed anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. “We’re really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren’t designed to prevent those kinds of injuries,” says Nimmons. The jury agreed unanimously that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete’s injury. ④At the same time, the American Law institute – a group of judge, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight – issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. “Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities”, says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines.⑤ If the moderate end of the legal community has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability.

UNIT 18:Leadership is more important than image

In his National Day Rally Speech, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong gave a candid assessment of his successor.

The public persona of Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, he said, is that of a no-nonsense, uncompromising and tough minister. He hopes DPM Lee would let his softer side show, he said.

Mr Goh's intention was to highlight the importance for a leader to be approachable.

①Very often, whether a leader is seen as such is a result of the perception by the masses of how he relates to and mingles with the people.

A two-way communication exists between government leaders and the people.

②A leader who has an image of being close to the people can get them to better understand and accept a new policy. On the other hand, the people will be encouraged to speak their minds when the leader is open to constructive suggestions. The public will be a lot more forthcoming with their views.

Feedback on a wide range of issues will in turn help the government keep its fingers on the pulse of the people.

While the public image of a leader is important, whether or not he is popular, in the long-term interests of the nation, is much less crucial than whether or not he is capable and competent.

For instance, a painting with an inferior frame often has a direct and negative impact on the viewers' opinion of the artwork. But such an impression is not permanent and can be changed with a better frame. The true worth of the painting will depend ultimately on whether it is indeed a masterpiece.

The qualities of a leader, including moral character and self-cultivation, is shown in his sense of mission and political commitment to the nation. He must be farsighted, must persevere in what he believes in and not be sidetracked by temporary setbacks.

Knowledge is the basis of a leader's ability and experience is the sum of precious lessons learnt over time. But to keep up with the fast-changing world, a leader also needs to have the foresight to predict what may go wrong as well as the courage to correct it.

③The expertise and experience of a leader cannot be gained overnight. They are acquired over a period of time and are genuine qualities that cannot be faked.

A spin doctor can help a leader create an image that will appeal to the people, but cannot turn the leader into one who has the required ability and competence to lead.

I am no expert on politics and I have not drawn my observations from books on politics or theories by academics.

④With advances in information technology, we are now able to see clearly for ourselves political developments in the region via the Internet and television coverage, as if they are happening right before our eyes.

While there are many positive lessons to be gained, it is also not uncommon to see political leaders, for personal or party interests, wasting precious resources, time and energy squabbling or behaving in an absurd manner.

Singaporeans who witness all these often exclaim: “Luckily our leaders are different! Luckily this did not happen in Singapore!”

Political events in different places have served as a point of reference for us to understand what qualities we should look for in a leader. They have also prompted me to express my views.

It is inevitable that a new leader needs to make adjustments in a political succession. The people will also need time to get used to a new leader.⑤With a consensus on the way forward and a tolerant and understanding attitude, this should not be a problem.

How to lose the culture wars

BACK in 1992 Pat Buchanan worked the Republican convention into a frenzy by declaring that America was engaged in a “cultural war” for the “soul of America”. Mr Buchanan was right that America is particularly prone to battles over culture. ①But he was wrong to imply that these are all-out wars in which victory goes to the most uncompromising.

Take one of the thorniest subjects of all, gay marriage. Next week Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, plans to bring to the Senate floor the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), a measure that will amend the constitution to forbid gay couples from marrying. Mr Frist can count on plenty of support. ②A huge coalition of religious traditionalists, from Roman Catholics to Southern Baptists, has been assembled to help push the amendment through; Republican activists across the country are up in arms; George Bush promises to hold a pep rally in the White House Rose Garden. And yet Mr Frist will almost certainly do harm to the cause of protecting traditional marriage.

③This is because culture warriors ignore one important point: for the most part the culture wars take place inside individuals rather than between committed ideologies. They are as much struggles between the left and right side of the brain as they are struggles between the left and right side of politics. Consider that great American everyman, Tony Soprano. He has been horribly vexed in the current series because one of his best captains, Vito Spatafore, has been spotted in a gay night club dressed in full regalia. His mob colleagues soon beat him to death, but Tony is caught between sympathy for his friend and his macho instincts, and inevitably winds up talking to his therapist. He starts off by saying that he does not give a damn about what people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms. He then changes tune entirely; he is a “strict Catholic”, he says, and he agrees with “Senator Sanitorum” that “if you let this stuff go too far” everybody will soon be doing unmentionable things with dogs.

There is no sure way to win the marriage wars. But there is one sure way to lose them: ignore the fact that most people are ambivalent about gay rights, and come across as ideological bully-boys. This is exactly what the right of the Republican Party is doing at the moment. Mr Frist et al are not only trying to amend a document that most Americans believe should be amended only in the most dire circumstances; they are trying to inject the federal government into an issue that has traditionally been decided by state governments.

This overreach is doubly foolish. Opponents of gay marriage have already chalked up a string of victories where it counts, at state level. Thirty-seven states have now passed laws to ban gay marriage, either by referendums (19), or by statute. Supporters of the FMA argue that you need a federal ban on gay marriage to prevent marriages contracted in one state from “leaking” into another. But the 1996 Defence of Marriage Act has already solved this problem by providing that no state has an obligation to recognise gay marriages contracted in another state.

④Overreach is also foolish because it exposes conservatives as fair-weather federalists. The strongest conservative argument against abortion is that the Supreme Court overstepped the mark by imposing a single solution on a diverse country; but since then the Republicans have used their temporary dominance in Washington to trample on states' rights.

Such overbearing behaviour is not a monopoly of the right. The American left has long imposed its values on a divided country through the courts—from the abolition of school prayer to civil rights for blacks to the legalisation of abortion. And many gay activists regard themselves as exactly like blacks—oppressed citizens who are being denied their full constitutional rights because of social prejudice. One Californian same-sex couple has a marriage-rights case pending before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In May 2005 a federal court in Nebraska overturned the state's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, an amendment that passed with more than 70% of the vote.

Leave judges out of it

The strategy of using federal courts is a disaster in the making—a guarantee that America will be divided over gay marriage just as deeply as it is over abortion. Some gay activists argue that the best way to get around this problem is to focus on state courts, introducing gay marriage in liberal states like Massachusetts and avoiding conservative ones. But an even better way is to focus on legislatures. The best model for gay-rights activists should be California, where both houses approved a gay-rights bill without pressure from the courts, rather than Massachusetts, where marriage rights were conjured up by a handful of judges. Activists may complain that the legislative road is strewn with landmines: Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the California law. But surely these mines are less lethal than those on the judicial road, as supporters of abortion rights have discovered. Activists may also complain that majorities of people are against marriage rights. But opinion is moving in their direction: the proportion of people who support gay marriage has risen by 12 points to 39% since 1996, according to Gallup.

⑤A country as big and diverse as the United States is wise to leave as many intimate moral questions as possible, from the regulation of marijuana to the regulation of marriage, to the states and to their legislatures. Relying on judges rather than democratic debate risks creating a permanent culture war. The good news for America is that it has the constitutional machinery to keep the marriage wars under control—and enough people on both sides who realise that the best way to lose the argument is to overplay their hands. The FMA will certainly not get the two-thirds majority in the Senate that it needs to have a chance of passing.

点击查看

■隐藏■

UNIT 16: Never too old to live a dream

By the time they reach midlife, people expect to have accomplished most of their career goals and to be considering activities to pursue in their retirement. But a growing number of Americans, especially women, are defying these expectations. ①These late bloomers dare to dispel doubts, change tracks and launch themselves into careers they had long dreamed of.

A few years ago, Prill Boyle was reading a newspaper when a story of a woman fulfilling her dream late in life caught her eye. "Wini Younker, a Kentucky woman was 65 years old," she says. "She had for 39 years kept this dream alive inside of her of joining the Peace Corp. The day I read about her, she was leaving for Ukraine."

Inspired by Younker's courage and persistence, Boyle decided to write about late bloomers. She was one of them, herself. She graduated from college at age 39 - about 15 years older than her classmates, and had a teaching career for nearly a decade. Then at age 49, she left the classroom to become a fulltime writer. She says, she met many other women who had similar transformations late in life. "One woman became a molecular biologist (at age 40) that had never studied biology before," she says. "And she had some patents to her name. There is a woman named Rainelle Burton from Detroit, Michigan. She had been -- in her 20s -- homeless, living in a car with a baby, and she's dyslexic. ②At age 50, this dyslexic woman that doesn't have a lot of resources at her disposal ends up writing a critically acclaimed novel, called The Root Worker."

The dozen women Boyle profiles in her book, Defying Gravity: A Celebration of Late Blooming Women, include a homemaker who was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives at age 48, a 47-year-old breast cancer survivor who discovered an eye for photography, and a medical technician who became an anthropology professor. "Her name is Patricia Symonds, she became an anthropologist in her 50s," she says. "She had not even graduated from high school in her 40s. She was hired by Brown University, an Ivy League school, at age 60. She's 71 now and she's been promoted recently by Brown."

Boyle says late bloomers are hard workers, creative and persistent. She points to Evelyn Gregory, who worked as a bank vice president until her retirement. Then, she became what she had always dreamed of, a flight attendant. Boyle explains it wasn't easy for Gregory to get herself hired because of her age-she was 71. "It wasn't overt because airlines are not allowed, legally, to say 'I'm not going to hire you because you're such and such an age," she says. "She would make it all the way through the interview process up to the last step and there would also be some reason why she was not the candidate. So rather than just saying, 'I'm too old' or 'Nobody is going to hire me,' and giving up, she got fired up by that! What she ended up deciding to do was to become a gate agent and let the corporate brass get to know her, and after 6 months of that they saw that she had all of the strength and stamina that one would need, and she made it clear that she wanted to be a flight attendant. She was hired by USA Air Express and flew for them until she was 78."

Though Jeanne Ray is not among the women profiled in Prill Boyle's book, she can relate to their experiences. At age 65, she was happy with her life as a wife, mother and nurse until one day at the grocery store. "As I walked beside the magazine section, I saw two magazines that really changed my life," she says. "One cover said, 'Beauty at age 20, 30 and 40.' And one said, 'Sex at 30, 40 and 50.' And by not saying the words '60 and beyond,' I suddenly just felt this black cloud descend on me. [I thought] Maybe it's all over and I'm just too stupid to know it."

③At that moment, Ray felt the urge to write about what life is like at age 60 and beyond, and how people at that age can still be vibrant, intellectual and attractive. Then she saw a video of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. And that was the inspiration behind her first novel, Julie and Romeo. "I decided that was the perfect venue for my book, but that I would make the characters, instead of very, very young, I'd make them in their 60s,and they would be from warring families," she says. "I put it together over a nine-month period of time during the night, while I was working as a nurse during the day. It was published. It went to the New York Times best-seller list. It was optioned for a movie. It was printed into 26 languages."

Jeanne Ray and Prill Boyle have teamed up on a tour to promote their books and get their message across to a larger audience: old age can be the most fulfilling period of life.

④"It's almost like adolescence when you have a new time to make up your mind about where you're going," Ray says. "I think a lot of people make the mistake of not seeing aging that way. I think it should be celebrated I think everyone should say, 'Thank God, I'm going to be 70 next year! I can't wait to get old.'" Boyle adds, "Let people, young people, have something to look forward to, rather than have everyone keep looking back."

⑤And with people now living longer than in previous generations, the two authors hope society will start to reconsider aging, encouraging people to explore their talents and pursue their dreams in midlife and beyond.

点击查看

■隐藏■

Is God ambidextrous?