Passage G1a

 1

Once Lu Xun spoke to the youth about the study of foreign languages. He said:

"You must not give up studying foreign languages for even a day. To master a language, words and grammatical rules are not enough. You must do a lot of reading. Take a book and force yourself to read it. At the same time, consult dictionaries and memorize grammatical rules. After reading a book, it is only natural that you won't understand it all. Never mind. Put it aside and start another one. In a few months or half a year, go over the first book once again; you are sure to understand much more than before ... Young people have good memories. If you memorize a few words every day and keep on reading all the time, in four or five years, you will certainly be able to read works in the foreign language."

2

A VISIT TO THE LIBRARY IN THE FUTURE

The shopping is finished. Charlie's parents tell him they have to go out for a little while. "Why don't you visit the library while we're out?" says Charlie's dad. "I know they have some new books on basket-ball, your favourite game."

Charlie goes to one of the visionphones. He places a call to the library. He asks to see one of the new books on basket-ball.

*Basket-ball Giant,* the name of the book, is flashed on the screen. "Turn," says Charlie. The first page of the book is shown on the screen. Then the second, and the third. Charlie has read about thirty pages of it. Then he hears his mother's voice coming through a speaker on the wall. Charlie turns off the visionphone. He says hello to his mother.

"Where are you?" he adds.

"We' re driving on the freeway, "Mrs Green says. "This is taking a little more time than we thought. We won't be back until two o' clock. Better get some lunch for yourself."

"What are you doing? "Charlie asks.

"We'll explain later, "she says.

"O. K." says Charlie.

3

THE CAT'S PAW

Long, long ago there lived two animals — a cat and a monkey. One day the monkey found some chestnuts in a fire. He wanted very much to eat them, but was afraid of burning his hand. So he took the cat to the fire and said: "Ah! How good those chestnuts smell! Cat, my dear friend, your paws are made just like man's hands. You are the only one who can pull the nuts from the fire. Why don't you try it?"

The cat was flattered by the monkey's praise. She was willing to do anything for him. So she put out her paw and began to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. She burned her paw each time she pulled a nut out.

"How fine it is to have hands like a man!" said the monkey. "Try to get some more. We' ll share them."

So the cat went on pulling more and more chestnuts out of the fire. But when at last she turned for her share of the nuts, she found that the monkey had eaten them all.

This is how the term "cat's paw" has come into use.

4

PENICILLIN

If you leave a piece of bread in a warm damp place, mould will soon grow on it. When this happens, we say the bread "has gone mouldy". Mould can grow on all kinds of things besides food. It grows from spores which are in the air. If the conditions are right, a spore can quickly get around and form a mould. This happens quite commonly. We have all probably seen it.

In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming found that mould had killed some germs he was trying to grow in his lab. If he had not noticed this, the world would have lost one of the greatest discoveries of the century. Fleming called the substance "penicillin".

Because penicillin can kill germs, doctors use it to treat diseases. It has saved millions of lives. Scientists grow large quantities of common mould so that they can get penicillin from it in order to make antibiotics, that is, substances that kill germs.

Next time you see some mould on a piece of bread, remember that it is one of man's greatest friends!

5

THE VAIN STAG

One hot day a big stag that had a pair of very large antlers stood on the bank of a river. He was thirsty and went down to the water to drink. Suddenly he saw his reflection in the water. He was very pleased with what he saw. "Oh," he said. "What a beautiful pair of antlers I've got How fine my head is! How proud I look! Nobody has such beautiful antlers as I have. Perhaps some people will say that my antlers are too big, but I don't think so. I like them very much. "And the vain stag looked again at his reflection in the water.

Suddenly he heard the barking of dogs. Three hunters and their dogs came out of the forest. The stag ran across the field into the forest. He was already far from the dogs, but he caught his antlers in the branches of some low trees and could not get away.

The dogs ran up to him and pulled him to the ground. Then the hunters came up and killed him.