Good evening. I’ve come here to talk to you about the buildings I design and build, using what some people view as a somewhat unlikely material: straw. Now as you know, straw is the dried stalks of grain plants, like wheat and barley, long used for making things like baskets and hats, and in many parts of the world as a traditional roofing material. And it makes good walls too. Although what you see is a solid wall, it’s actually constructed out of blocks made of compressed straw which are then plastered and painted. I’ve only been building in the material for five years, but interest is certainly on the increase. I’ve completed sixteen projects in that time. everything from retirement houses on the coast of Scotland to stable blocks in central London, and my latest project is an extension which I’m building onto a barn at a Scottish farm. The owner is converting it into a bed and breakfast hostel, for walkers in particular, because this area attracts a lot of visitors. It’s a fairly exposed spot, so I’ve gone for a round construction, which will be more stable in the heavy winds that are common here than, say, a rectangular one would be. I used bales of straw which are largish compact blocks, manufactured in regular sizes, which you place one on top of another in a set pattern. It’s not unlike laying bricks. A wide range of skills is needed because although the construction is wholly straw-based, other materials are used to hold the .blocks in place. The first row of straw bales I secure into the foundations using metal pins, but after that all the pinning is done with wooden pins. I prefer them because it’s a much more sustainable material and it works just as well. Then, when the wall is in place, it’s covered with plaster on both the outside and inside, so what you see is a normal wall, there’s no straw showing anywhere. We’ve put all the water pipes and the electrical wiring in behind the plaster as we build, so it’s very nearly ready for use. Now the thing that surprises most people about his project is the fact that this extension is actually going to be used as a shower room, and you’re all probably thinking the same thing, “But won’t it affect the straw?“ Well, surprisingly, this is not a problem. Indeed with these walls it’s not necessary for us to waterproof, because straw breathes naturally, unlike concrete, and wetness is not usually a problem. Of course, bearing in mind the eventual use of the structure, we are also fitting extractor fans. That’s called for under government regulations whatever material you build in. Questions: 23.What is most probably the speaker’s job? 24.Which of the following statements is NOT true? 25.Which of the following is the man’s latest project? 26.Which of the following things surprises most people about the man’s project? A farmer. Owner of a hostel. An architect. A handicraftsman.

The automobile, along with a house and a garden, is【C1】______of the American Dream. The【C2】______had 1.8 vehicles; each vehicle is driven an average of 10,000 miles per year at an average highway speed of【C3】______. Most cars are used for【C4】______; less than 6% of the American workforce uses【C5】______to get to work. Some of the country’s wonderful high-speed highways now carry three or more times the【C6】______and twice a day mm into parking lots. San Francisco and Washington D.C win the prize for the two cities with【C7】______. Even if【C8】______could walk to anything other than the house next door, they wouldn’t. Walking is un-American. Whenever possible, Americans drive and, if necessary, wait to get a parking place【C9】______. Congestion occurs as drivers【C10】______, looking for a parking place that’s closer to where they want to go. American cars are all【C11】______. A stick shift(manual)is harder to drive and therefore considered sportier,【C12】______. And continually pressing on the clutch can get tiresome if one drives 30 miles each day to work in heavy traffic, as many Americans do. An American man might【C13】______so his wife won’t be able to drive it—and vice versa. A car is not just an American’s【C14】______, it’s a suit of clothes, a haircut,【C15】______to the world. Car owners not only select vehicles that reflect this, they also customize them in different ways. They paint the cars【C16】______or woodland scenes; they add mirrors and chrome and【C17】______; they put shingle all over old school buses and mm them into【C18】______. More conventional drivers .satisfy themselves with bumper stickers that reveal their【C19】______, political opinions, or【C20】______, form “Yale School of Law“ to “If you are rich, I am single“.The automobile, along with a house and a garden, is an essential element of the American Dream. The average American household had 1.8 vehicles; each vehicle is driven an average of 10,000 miles per year at an average highway speed of 59 miles per hour. Most cars are used for daily commuting; less than 6% of the American workforce uses public transportation to get to work. Some of the country’s wonderful high-speed highways now carry three or more times the intended amount of traffic and twice a day mm into parking lots. San Francisco and Washington D.C win the prize for the two cities with the worst congestion. Even if suburban residents could walk to anything other than the house next door, they wouldn’t. Walking is un-American. Whenever possible, Americans drive and, if necessary, wait to get a parking place close to their destination. Congestion occurs as drivers circle the shops, looking for a parking place that’s closer to where they want to go. American cars are all air-conditioned and automatic. A stick shift (manual) is harder to drive and therefore considered sportier, more masculine. And continually pressing on the clutch can get tiresome if one drives 30 miles each day to work in heavy traffic, as many Americans do. An American man might buy a non-antomatic so his wife won’t be able to drive it—and Vice versa. A car is not just an American’s castle; it’s a suit of clothes, a haircut, a display of one’s personality to the world. Car owners not only select vehicles that reflect this, they also customize them in different ways. They paint the cars with flames, stripes or woodland scenes; they add mirrors and chrome and special headlights; they put shingle all over old school buses and turn them into holiday motor homes. More conventional drivers satisfy themselves with bumper stickers that reveal their educational background, political opinions, or marital status, form “Yale School of Law“ to “If you are rich, I am single“.

Woman: Hello, is that the Tourist Office? Man: That’s right. Can I help you? Woman: Yes, this is Jenny Maltravers from Maltravers Tours and study seminars, an we’re planning a visit to Bath with a group of people. Man: OK, yes. Woman: What I need is the name of a good restaurant for us to have dinner at, around seven thirty before we head on to Bristol. Man: Right. What size group are we talking about? Woman: Well, fifty are booked at the moment, but it might grow to sixty. Man: So about sixty people. Well, there are a couple I can recommend, there’s the Walnut Tree but that’s about five kilometers from the centre, and the Europa Hotel, which is very central but has less charm, you know it’s one of those big hotels. Woman: Does the Walnut Tree have a separate room for large groups? Man: No, but the Europa Hotel does. Woman: And what would be the price for a three-course evening meal? Man: Well, at the Walnut tree, it’ll be fifteen pounds per person. The Europa is cheaper at ten pounds per head, but wine isn’t included. Woman: And what’s the cooking like? Man: Well, the Walnut Tree is known for its innovative cooking, the chef is David Little, the brother of Alistair... Woman: Never heard of him... Man: And the Europa is very nice too, very refined. Woman: Is there a vegetarian menu? Man: Oh, yes there is. There’s always a vegetarian menu these days. Woman: Anything else you can tell me about them? Man: Well, the Walnut Tree is a three star restaurant now, and the Europa is a two star. Woman: OK, well thanks for your help. I’ll get hack in touch if I need... Oh, can you give me their phone number? Man: Yes, just hold on. Questions: 19.Where is the caller most probably from, according to the conversation? 20.How many people will have dinner together? 21.Which of the following statements about the two hotels is right? 22.Which of the two hotels did the woman finally choose? Travel agency. Fair-trading office. The Association of Travel Agents. Certain government department.

WOMAN: How long have you been a tree-climber, Mr Saw? MAN: I have been a tree surgeon and qualified tree-climber for the last 30 years. WOMAN: How did you start? MAN: I was encouraged to climb trees for the Parks Department when I left school at 14, because I was then quite small—only five feet, in fact-and not afraid of heights. It was really a natural profession for me and my mates to do out of school. WOMAN: Did you have any formal training? MAN: Oh yes. I went to Merristwood College in Surrey. I followed a course on tress-care and tree-climbing and I learnt the basics of tree-climbing there-techniques like how to throw a rope over the branches of a tree, climb up it and get into a harness, that sort of thing. WOMAN: What sort of things are you asked to do? MAN: Well, the work is extremely varied-anything from rescuing cats to conducting surgery on the tree. WOMAN: What is the most exciting job you have done? MAN: Well, last year I was contacted by Jersey Zoo. They were conducting a bat conservation program and this involved research work in the Comoros Islands. Apparently they had been forced to abandon the project once because they couldn’t actually catch any of the fruit bats, which live at the top of fig trees. So they called me in for advice on tree-climbing and I ended up going on the trip. Catching a fruit bat up a tree isn’t easy, but it was a great experience. Unfortunately, it’s not the sort of thing you do everyday. WOMAN: Have you ever fallen out of a tree? MAN: Never. Although I’ve tackled trees over 100 feet high. Mind you, I wouldn’t be around to talk to you if I had made a habit of falling! WOMAN: Do you still climb trees? MAN: Very rarely, I’m a bit too old for climbing about in trees now. I have a job lecturing on tree-climbing at a college. Of course, if I was asked to return to Comoros, I’d go like a shot. That’s the sort of opportunity I couldn’t miss. Questions: 27.When did the man begin to climb trees? 28.What’s the conversation mainly about? 29.Which of the following is NOT .included in the training of Merristwood College? 30.What’s the most exciting job the man has ever done? 30 years ago. 14 years ago. When he was 30 years old. When he was 14 years old.

The World Health Organization estimates that more than forty-million people have the disease. More than ninety-five percent of these people live in poor and developing countries.

It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional Small wonder. Americans’ life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death, and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours. Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it’s useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians—frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient—too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified. In 1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1,540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age—say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm “have a duty to die and get out of the way“, so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential. I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have. Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. As a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people’s lives.

Recruiters say that candidates who can give examples of work they have done as members of a successful team are in as strong a position as those who can point to significant individual achievement. Indeed, too much of the latter may suggest that the person concerned is not a “team player“—one of the more serious failings in the book of management. The importance of being a team player is a side effect of the increasing interaction across departments and functional divides. Instead of pushing reports, paperwork and decisions around the organisation, “teams provide a dynamic meeting place where ideas can be shared and expertise more carefully targeted at important business issues“, says Steve Gardner, in his book Key Management Concepts. He adds, “Globalization has added a further dimension to teamwork. Multinational teams now study policy decisions in the light of their impact on the local market.“ But is teamworking being overdone? “Some managers are on as many as seven or eight different teams“, says Dr. Cathy Bandy, a psychologist who recently ran a conference on the subject, “They take up so much time that managers can’t get on with core tasks“. Forming teams and having meetings have, she says, become an end in itself, almost regardless of purpose. There is also the danger of an unhealthy desire to keep the team going after the work has been done. “People feel the need to belong, and team membership can provide a kind of psychological support.“ The idea behind teamworking is that, when the right group of people is brought together, a “force“ develops which is greater than the sum of their individual talents. This is often true in sport, where good players can reach unexpected heights as members of an international team. However, few business situations have as clear a set of objectives, or as clear criteria of success or failure, as winning a match. “In business, everyone needs to be clear about what the challenge is and whether a team is the right way of approaching it’, says Steve Gardner.“ Unfortunately, people focus instead on who the members of the team should be and what roles they are to play“ Dr. Bandy agrees. “There is always a danger that teams can turn into committees,“ she says. “In a lot of situations, one or two individuals would be much more effective.“ So what makes a successful team? There are some general qualities that have been identified. Steve Gardner recommends that in every team there should be someone who is good at researching ideas and another who is good at shooting down impractical ones. There should be those who can resolve the tensions that naturally occur in a team and others who are focused on getting the job done. Also, providing a clear and achievable target at the outset is the best way of ensuring that the team will move on to greater things.

上海合作组织成员国能够超越彼此在地缘，文化等方面的巨大差异，紧密团结在一起，共同应对国际和地区风云变幻的考验，最根本的一点就是，上海合作组织的宗旨和原则符合各成员国的切身利益。它们是：第一，致力于发展成员国之间的睦邻友好关系；第二，致力于发展成员国在经济、文化、教育各个具体领域的合作，照顾各成员国的利益；第三，致力于打击恐怖主义、分裂主义和极端主义，维护地区的和平与稳定；第四，致力于促进建立公正和平文明的政治经济新秩序。这4个方面完全符合成员国的现实和长远利益。因此，尽管在过去5年国际上和本地区发生不少事情，但都没能动摇上海合作组织的基础。上海合作组织显示出强大的生命力，正蓬勃向前发展。

Sarah has been knocking herself out to deliver the work on time, since she expected to live up to her boss who promises to give her a promotion if nothing goes amiss. Sarah gets her head knocked on the door in a rush to deliver the work on time. Though Sarah tried her best on the job, she failed the expectation of her boss. Sarah worked very hard in the hope of getting promoted. Sarah’s boss gave her an empty promise, even though Sarah has worn herself out on the job.

You should have listened to me! If we hadn’t made the wrong turn, we’d have been on time. They must have waiting too long to be patient. If we want to be on time and don’t let them, we must make a right turn. Though we went the wrong way and were late, they must have been waiting patiently for us. Since we’re not late, we must have come the right way. We’re late because we went the wrong way.

WOMAN: John, sorry to disturb you, but I was wondering if you know of a good restaurant around here. I’ve got some old friends staying with me at the moment, and they want to take me out to dinner. I’ve no idea where to go. MAN: Well. let me think. WOMAN: You know, somewhere with good food, nice environment, pleasant, relaxed atmosphere that sort of thing. MAN: The trouble is there isn’t a great deal of choice in town. I mean if you want to take the car, then you’ve got some great restaurants not far away in the country. WOMAN: Well, we’d prefer to stay in town. MAN: Well, one of the nicest restaurants I’ve been to is Gilbey’s which is in the town centre. WOMAN: Oh yes, I’ve driven past it. It’s near the Town Hall, isn’t it? MAN: That’s right. It’s expensive but it’s very refined and classy, you know, quite sophisticated food, and a great atmosphere but I don’t know if it’s open every evening. WOMAN: Well, maybe we’ll try that. I’d better give them a ring to find out if they’re open. MAN: But what about Indian food? WOMAN: Oh yea, I love Indian. MAN: Well, how about the Golden Bengal? WOMAN: Oh, that’s a great place, I spent an evening there with Jan and Phil-you know them, don’t you? MAN: Yes. I do. WOMAN: I thought the food was OK, and the staff are very friendly. It was a bit noisy though, I supposed it was because it was a Saturday night. MAN: What about Gino’s? I went there to celebrate my promotion last year. The wine was really excellent. WOMAN: Yeah, I’ve been there, but I didn’t rate the food very much. It was a bit disappointing. I mean, the helpings were enormous, but my lasagne was cold and the service was a bit slow. It’s one of those cliche Italian restaurants where the waiter comes round with an enormous pepper mill and grins at you. Questions: 11.What is the conversation mainly about? 12.In which restaurant did the woman spend an evening with Jan and Phil? 13.Which of the following statements is NOT the woman’s requirement for a nice restaurant? 14.What does the woman think of the Gino’s? What kind of food is the most delicious. Which hotel is the best hotel. Where to have dinner. Where to celebrate John’s promotion.

On 15 Feb., 1989, an instant survey was carried out among 18 overseas postgraduate students: 11 students were male and 7 were female. The purpose of the survey was to discover the views of the students on the number of matters of personal concern. The survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire given to the students to complete. There were five questions. The first question concerned favorite color, and the second, favorite number. The next three questions were all concerned with aspects of marriage. Number three looked at the ideal age to get married. Number four examined the qualities looked for in a partner. And number five asked about the ideal number of children. The main findings were as follows. Blue was the most popular color. This was followed by green and purple. There was no real significance in the choice of lucky number. About one third of the students said that they had none. 61% of the students selected the age group 26-30 years as ideal for marriage followed by 21-25 years. In looking at the most important qualities in an ideal partner, someone meant the person to be intelligent, others chose natural, still others indicated attractive and honest. The ideal number of children was two followed by three. It is not easy to reach any definite conclusion based upon such a small sample of students from such widely different backgrounds. However. it is clear that a majority favor 26-30 as the ideal age m get married with an intelligent partner and producing two children. Questions: 15.Who were involved in this instant survey? 16.Which of the following aspect is NOT focused on by the five questions? 17.What color was chosen as the most popular in the survey? 18.Why is it difficult to reach any definite conclusion from the survey? 11 male students and 7 female students. 7 male students and 11 female students. 18 male students and 7 female students. 7 male students and 18 female students.

For many years, scientists have known that people need Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps the body use calcium to develop and strengthen bones and teeth. Studies show that lack of the vitamin is linked to an increased risk of broken bones. Extra Vitamin D may help prevent such breaks. Health experts have traditionally believed that short periods of sunlight each day could provide enough Vitamin D. This is because human skin changes sunlight into Vitamin D. The body then can store this substance.

Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education—not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find. “Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual,“ says education writer Diane Ravitch. “Schools could be a counterbalance.“ Ravitch’s latest book, Left Back. A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits. But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, “We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society.“ “Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege,“ writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book. Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: “We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.“ Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized—going to school and learning to read—so he can preserve his innate goodness. Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines. School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country’s educational system is in the grips of people who “joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise“.

In the art of the Middle Ages, we never encounter the personality of the artist as an individual; rather it is diffused through the artistic genius of centuries embodied in the rules of religious art. Art of the Middle Ages is first a sacred script, the symbols and meanings of which were well settled. The circular halo placed vertically behind the head signifies sainthood, while the halo impressed with a cross signifies divinity. By bare feet, we recognize God, the angels, Jesus Christ and the apostles, but for an artist to have depicted the Virgin Mary with bare feet would have been tantamount to heresy. Several concentric, wavy lines represent the sky, while parallel lines water or the sea. A tree, which is to say a single stalk with two or three stylized leaves, informs us that the scene is laid on earth. A tower with a window indicates a village, and, should an angel be watching from depicted with curly hair, a short beard, and a tonsure, while Saint Paul has always a bald head and a long beard. A second characteristic of this iconography is obedience to a sacred mathematics. “The Divine Wisdom,“ wrote Saint Augustine, “reveals itself everywhere in numbers“, a doctrine attributable to the neo—Platonists who revived the genius of Pythagoras. Twelve is the master number of the Church and is the product of three, the number of the Trinity, and four, the number of material elements. The number seven, the most mysterious of all numbers, is the sum of four and three. There are the seven ages of man, seven virtues, seven planets. In the final analysis, the seven-tone scale of Gregorian music is the sensible embodiment of the order of the universe. Numbers require also symmetry. At Charters, a stained glass window shows the four prophets, Isaac, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Jeremiah, carrying on their shoulders the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. A third characteristic of art is to be a symbolic language, showing us one thing and inviting us to see another. In this respect, the artist was called upon to imitate God, who had hidden a profound meaning behind the literal and wished nature itself to be a moral lesson to man. Thus, every painting is an allegory. In a scene of the final judgment, we can see the foolish virgins at the left hand of Jesus and the wise at his right, and we understand that this symbolizes those who are lost and those who are saved. Even seemingly insignificant details carry hidden meaning. The lion in a stained glass window is the figure of the Resurrection. These, then, are the defining characteristics of art of the Middle Ages, a system within which even the most mediocre talent was elevated by the genius of the centuries. The artists of the early Renaissance broke with traditional at their own peril. When they are not outstanding, they are scarcely able to avoid insignificance and banality in their religious works, and, even when they are great, they are no more than the equals of the old masters who passively followed the sacred rules.

Thirty years ago this week, an American President arrived in China on a trip designed to end decades of estrangement and confront centuries of suspicion. President Richard Nixon showed the world that two vastly different governments could meet on the grounds of common interest, and in a spirit of mutual respect. During the 30 years since, America and China have exchanged many handshakes of friendship and commerce. And as we have had more contact with each other, the citizens of our two countries have gradually learned more about each other. Once, America knew China only by its history as a great and enduring civilization. Today, we see a China that is still defined by noble traditions of family, scholarship, and honor. And we see a China that is becoming one of the most dynamic and creative societies in the world as demonstrated by all the knowledge and potential right here in this room. China is on a rising path, and America welcomes the emergence of a strong, peaceful, and prosperous China.

Stratford-on-Avon, as we all know, has only one industry-William Shakespeare-but there are two distinctly separate and increasingly hostile branches. There is the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), which presents superb productions of the plays at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre on the Avon. And there are the townsfolk who largely live off the tourists who come, not to see the plays, but to look at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shakespeare’s birthplace and the other sights. The worthy residents of Stratford doubt that the theatre adds a penny to their revenue. They frankly dislike the RSC’s actors, them with their long hair and beards and sandals and noisiness. It’s all deliciously ironic when you consider that Shakespeare, who earns their living, was himself an actor (with a beard) and did his share of noise-making. The tourist streams are not entirely separate. The sightseers who come by bus-and often take in Warwick Castle and Blenheim Palace on the side—don’t usually see the plays, and some of them are even surprised to find a theatre in Stratford. However, the playgoers do manage a little sight-seeing along with their playgoing. It is the playgoers, the RSC contends, who bring in much of the town’s revenue because they spend the night (some of them four or five nights) pouring cash into the hotels and restaurants. The sightseers can take in everything and get out of town by nightfall. The townsfolk don’t see it this way and local council does not contribute directly to the subsidy of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Stratford cries poor traditionally. Nevertheless every hotel in town seems to be adding a new wing or cocktail lounge. Hilton is building its own hotel there, which you may be sure will be decorated with Hamlet Hamburger Bars, the Lear Lounge, the Banquo Banqueting Room, and so forth, and will be very expensive. Anyway, the townsfolk can’t understand why the Royal Shakespeare Company needs a subsidy. (The theatre has broken attendance records for three years in a row. Last year its 1, 431 seats were 94 percent occupied all year long and this year they’ll do better. ) The reason, of course, is that costs have rocketed and ticket prices have stayed low. It would be a shame to raise prices too much because it would drive away the young people who are Stratford’s most attractive clientele. They come entirely for the plays, not the sights. They all seem to look alike (though they come from all over)—lean, pointed, dedicated faces, wearing jeans and sandals, eating their buns and bedding down for the night on the flagstones outside the theatre to buy the 20 seats and 80 standing-room tickets held for the sleepers and sold to them when the box office opens at 10.30 a.m.

Joy and sadness are experienced by people in all cultures around the world, but how can we tell when other people are happy or despondent? It turns out that the expression of many emotions may be universal. Smiling is apparently a universal sign of friendliness and approval. Baring the teeth in a hostile way, as noted by Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century, may be a universal sign of anger. As the originator of the theory of evolution, Darwin believed that the universal recognition of facial expressions would have survival value. For example, facial expressions could signal the approach of enemies (or friends) in the absence of language. Most investigators concur that certain facial expressions suggest the same emotions in a people. Moreover, people in diverse cultures recognize the emotions manifested by the facial expressions. In classic research Paul Ekman took photographs of people exhibiting the emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness. He then asked people around the world to indicate what emotions were being depicted in them. Those queried ranged from European college students to members of the Fore, a tribe that dwells in the New Guinea highlands. All groups including the Fore, who had almost no contact with Western culture, agreed on the portrayed emotions. The Fore also displayed familiar facial expressions when asked how they would respond if they were the characters in stories that called for basic emotional responses. Ekman and his colleagues more recently obtained similar results in a study of ten cultures in which participants were permitted to report that multiple emotions were shown by facial expressions. The participants generally agreed on which two emotions were being shown and which emotion was more intense. Psychological researchers generally recognize that facial expressions reflect emotional states. In fact, various emotional states give rise to certain patterns of electrical activity in the facial muscles and in the brain. The facial-feedback hypothesis argues, however, that the causal relationship between emotions and facial expressions can also work in the opposite direction. According to this hypothesis, signals from the facial muscles (“feedback“) are sent back to emotion centers of the brain, and so a person’s facial expression can influence that person’s emotional state. Consider Darwin’s words: “The free expression by outward signs of an emotion intensifies it. On the other hand, the repression, as far as possible, of all outward signs softens our emotions.’ Can smiling give rise to feelings of good will, for example, and frowning to anger? Psychological research has given rise to some interesting findings concerning the facial- feedback hypothesis. Causing participants in experiments to smile, for example, leads them to report more positive feelings and to rate cartoons (humorous drawings of people or situations) as being more humorous. When they are caused to frown, they rate cartoons as being more aggressive. What are the possible links between facial expressions and emotion? One link is arousal, which is the level of activity or preparedness for activity in an organism. Intense contraction of facial muscles, such as those used in signifying fear, heightens arousal. Self-perception of heightened arousal then leads to heightened emotional activity. Other links may involve changes in brain temperature and the release of neurotransmitters (substances that transmit nerve impulses). The contraction of facial muscles both influences the internal emotional state and reflects it. Ekman has found that the so-called Duchenne smile, which is characterized by “crow’s feet“ wrinkles around the eyes and a subtle drop in the eye cover fold so that the skin above the eye moves down slightly toward the eyeball, can lead to pleasant feelings. Ekman’s observation may be relevant to the British expression “keep a stiff upper lip“ as a recommendation for handling stress. It might be that a “stiff“ lip suppresses emotional response—as long as the lip is not quivering with fear or tension. But when the emotion that leads to stiffening the lip is more intense, and involves strong muscle tension, facial feedback may heighten emotional response.