Listen To This2第33課

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Lesson 33

Angela: Would you like ... to tell me about it?

Denise: Yes, I think ... it's rather a unique experience, actually. I was in New York, er, er, a few years ago and I wanted to read a particular poem, so I went along to the public library. (I see) Now, the public library is different from any, er, library that I'd ever seen, because you never see a book on a shelf, and, er, I went into the building and I was directed to Room 101, where I had to fill in a form with the author and the title of the book that I wanted. I was handed a disc and directed to another room which looked like a cinema. I sat down in this room and waited for the number on my disc to flash on the screen. I waited and waited and waited and noticed that people who came in after me, er, were leaving (Mhm) and so I went back to the original room to find out what had happened and I was told that, erm, they couldn't read the writing on my form, (oh dear) so I filled in another form and was on my way to, er, th, the cinema-like room when, erm, I saw, er, a woman standing in the ... in the corridor. Now she was obviously trying to attract somebody's attention. She was dressed very poorly and she had what looked like, er, a sor..., some kind of fur hat, a rather mangy fur hat, and on this hat was fixed a ra, a crook-like feather, a very, very long crook-like feather. And, er, this, this attracted, er, my attention I think more than anything, so I stopped and asked her if I could help her and she told me what I thought then was a rather a, an appalling story. She'd come in from the outskirts of New York, erm, to see a sick friend, and just as, as she had been coming out of the underground train, the doors had closed and her handbag had been snatched and her umbrella, er, was caught in the closing door. She managed to wrench the umbrella out and a little bit was chipped off. She showed me where it had been chipped off. (M) She said that she had no money to return home and also she'd had nothing to eat all day. So I forgot about the poetry and we went over the road to a little tea-shop. And I must say it was when we got to the tea-shop and I was getting the tea and had left my bag on the chair that I began just to be a tiny little bit suspicious and I looked back at her but she was sitting quite innocently at the table. (M) Anyway, we had a little conversation—she was quite an interesting woman—and then I sa..., I realized that it was about time I was making my way home. So I said to her, 'Well, erm, I've got two dollars and ten dollars. Er, how much will you need?' And she said, 'Well, the ten dollars will do me fine'. I thought that was little bit much at the time so I said, 'No, I'll give you the two dollars', which I did. And then we, we, we bade each other good-bye and I was just ... going off when she called me back and said, 'May I, er, take your address, so that I can return the two dollars?' which, er, I gave her and then I went off. I had sundry other things to do. I think I went to a book-shop, and I went to buy a scarf or pair of gloves and, er, er, all these things on my way home and when I got home I was still thinking about the two dollars and I opened my purse to, to count my money and I found that I had about fourteen or fifteen dollars when I'd, when I had only had the twelve when I set off originally. (Mm) (Nasty) So somebody along the way had given me the wrong change. I did think about retracing my steps, but it seemed too much trouble, so I didn't. I waited about a week, half expecting my two dollars back but, of course, it didn't come back, so I realized that, er, I'd been conned, I think the word is. (Yes) Well, a month later, I was walking around—it was the end of January—I was walking around, er, in New York and it really was freezing. I couldn't feel my hands or my feet. So I went into the Barbazon Plaza Hotel to warm myself, because all the buildings in New York are centrally heated, and as soon as I'd got into the hotel, I noticed that the foyer was covered with mirrors and, in one corner of the foyer, I saw this old woman. Now the reason why I recognized her was that she was dressed in a Persian lamb coat this time—very, very expensive Persian lamb coat—and she had a Persian lamb hat on her head. But affixed to this Persian lamb hat was the same long crook-like feather!

Angela: How funny!

Denise: So I thought to myself, 'Well, it's amazing. I, I, I wonder if I will get the same story if I go over there.' So I went over to the mirror and took out my comb and compact and pretended to set about, er, righting my face, when the lady came up to me and without any ado at all poured out the same story. So I turned to her and looked her straight in the face and I said, 'You and I met a month ago in the public library'. And then I walked off.
In this country, today was a day of waiting by voters to learn if their candidate won or lost. That provides more suspense than is typical in elections in Mexico. In that country, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party has not lost a single state or national election since its founding in 1929. Critics of the system in Mexico say it is not truly democratic because the opposition parties had virtually no chance of taking power. But those parties have grown stronger in recent years and there is increasing pressure to change the procedures for elections. Today the Mexican Congress began work on a package of reforms that eventually could give opposition parties a greater voice in politics in Mexico. NPR's Tom Julton reports in Mexico City.
A week ago Sunday, voters in the Mexican state of Sinaloa elected a new governor. But in a few days, spokesmen for the National Action Party, the opposition, were claiming victory. But yesterday the government announced a different result. The winner, the government said, was the candidate of the ruling party, the PRI, by its initials in Spanish, and by a three-to-one margin. The National Action Party immediately charged that the PRI with the government's help has stolen the election. The accusation has become routine. Opposition parties in Mexico from the left to the right claimed the government here manipulates elections to guarantee that the PRI always wins. Government funds, the opposition says, pay for PRI campaigns, and government employees are forced to support PRI candidates as the price of keeping their jobs. When that is not enough to ensure a PRI victory, opposition leaders say, the government will stuff the ballot boxes, falsify voter registrations or even change the final tally.
Government officials say the charges are unfair, but they admit to having a credibility problem both at home and abroad. So Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid announced last summer that he would propose sweeping changes in election system. This morning his suggestions were presented to the Mexican Congress. Some of the proposals satisfy long standing demands of the opposition. The most important may be the introduction of the translucent ballot boxes so that official poll watchers can verify that no one has stuffed the boxes beforehand. A new federal elections commission will be established with the power to judge the fairness of the elections and a permanent list of voters would be prepared with the assistance of all political parties.
The reforms would also give opposition parties more representation in the national Congress. Two hundred out of five hundred congressional seats will be awarded to opposition parties in proportion to the number of votes they receive. It's the most ambitious political reform in recent Mexican history but opposition leaders here are still not satisfied. Sisirial Romaro, a Congress woman from the National Action Party, says no real reform is possible in Mexico until the bond between the government and its official party the PRI is broken.
Opposition leaders today responded to the President's reform package by offering one of their own. They propose that all the seats in the national Congress be distributed in proportion to party votes. And they want the elections to be overseen by a separate tribunal completely independent of the government. But the opposition's proposals have no chance of being approved since the PRI totally controls the national Congress and enacts virtually everything the government proposes. In Mexico City, I'm Tom Julton.
What Your Sense of Time Tells about You (II)
Time line people see time as flowing, too. For them, however, no one situation is important. Rather, life is a carpet, rolling from the past into the present and onward to the future. Any instance is but a footfall on the carpet.
For the time line people, for whom yesterday, today and tomorrow are an integrated whole, the past is not a past of personal feeling. It is the detached, historical past. Any given event must fit into a larger picture, even if pushed and tugged into place. The desire to put events in historical order enables the time line type to frame hypotheses, to draw conclusions and to make predictions; in short, to be scientific. Naturally, only a few are likely to have true scientific insights but all share the mental process, initial research indicates.
Before starting any project the time line person examines the whole situation and tries to see it in ideal terms. He wants to make up his mind and arrive at a logical conclusion before he acts. School Principal 2—a time line type—is probably prepared to deal with a fight before it even occurs, since fights among students are a potential hazard in most schools.
The desire to envision the whole picture is often seen as a lack of enthusiasm in the time line people. They are often reputed to be cold, detached and uncaring. They are really none of these things. However, they are happiest when they can project their view far forward and far backward in time.
You say to your time line father, "Let's buy a boat. Joe saw one that's going to be auctioned this afternoon. It looks great."
An inquisition will follow: "Whose boat was it? Has it ever been in a wreck? Is it fiberglass or wood? How do you know it is seaworthy? Where would you use it? How do you know it won't be bid up to a huge price? Does it have a trailer? Have you shopped enough for boats to know if it is a good one? Where would you store it in the winter?" When the questions are through, you probably wish you had never mentioned the boat in the first place, but you know from past experience that a time line person will always ask lots of questions.
On the other hand, if you do buy the boat, a time line person is a comfort at the helm. He will have checked all of the safety factors, will know the weather forecast, will have a good liferaft stowed, will have purchased charts of the area, will have seen that extra supplies are available and will know where the best fishing is reported. He will be a competent captain and will know not only his own duties, but the jobs of the crew.
The third type of person is the present type. He is totally concerned with the immediate and the present, reports the Mann research team. He has the greatest ability to understand the present moment with all of its shadings and ramifications. This total reliance on the present creates most of his strongest traits. For him, life is a happening. Where it is going, where it comes from, is of little interest. He does not integrate past experiences into present activities.
School Principal 3, the one who knew he could take charge, was a present type person. Dr. Mann and her colleagues theorize that this time type responds without hesitation to the stimulus presented by the object or person before him. No prearranged plan or commitment gets in this type's way, according to Mann's research.
A present type is superbly equipped to deal with crises and emergencies. He responds to slight cues and acts immediately. He doesn't have to decide between various courses of action. The event itself tells him what to do.
Your brother, for example, might be a present type. He is happy as a policeman, making quick decisions and acting promptly. Or he is a volunteer Red Cross organizer, quick with answers in a flood disaster area.
Because he does not feel any future, even a slight delay will annoy a present type. Waiting is the same as denial. He will not wait. He may try to manoeuvre others into his wishes and, if unable to get his own way, is quite likely to dissolve the relationship.
The fourth type is the person who places faith in the future. He first perceives the future and then works backwards from that vision into, for him, the lesser reality of the present.
Future types are more concerned with trying to ascertain what is possible rather than what exists now. "For one of this type, the present is a pale shadow, the past a mist, warmth and sunshine, bright lights and excitement are to be found beyond the next bend in the road, on the other side of the mountain. But rounding a bend only leads temporarily to a straight path; there is always another curve," explain the psychologists. All of the life of a future type is spent dashing around the next bend.
Principal 4 is a future type, happier with his plans for breaking up future fights than the one that has materialized.
If you are a future type, you might have looked at a course catalogue in college and found you lacked a listed prerequisite for just the course you wanted to take. Chances are you were always a little lost because you didn't have the prescribed background. "Why does it have to be typed letter-perfect?" You've always exclaimed when you handed in a paper.
You also inspire others with your ideas. If you are active in the local Citizens for Environment, you were the one that dreamed up the biggest fund-raising scheme in years. However, most likely someone else worked out the details because you are terribly impatient with them.
If the three psychologists are correct, we have a new tool for understanding one another. It will make it easier to get along with those who basically differ from us. Dr. Osmond envisions a time when we could use the theory to aid in selecting the kind of politician best suited for the current problems. "If we are right," he explains, "there is no such thing as a philosopher-king. You either get a philosopher with an interest in ruling or a king who enjoys philosophy, but you will never get a philosopher-king; it doesn't happen."