出自:河南农业大学大学英语
No country in the world has more daily newspapers than the U.S.A. There are almost 2,000 of them, as compared with 180 in Japan, 144 in Argentina and 111 in Britain. The quality of some American papers is extremely high and their views are quoted all over the world. Distinguished dailies like the Washington Post or the New York Times have a powerful influence all over the country. However the Post and the Times are not national newspapers in the sense that The times is in Britain or Le Monde is in France, since each American city has its own daily newspaper. The best of these present detailed accounts of national and international news, but many tend to limit themselves to state or city news. Like the press in most other countries, American newspapers range from the “sensational”, which feature crime, sex and rumor, to the serious, which focus on factual news and the analysis of world events. But with few exceptions American newspapers try to entertain as well as give information, for they have to compete with television. Just as American newspapers give way to all tastes, so do they also try and apply to readers for all political persuasions. A few newspapers support extremist (过激分子) groups on the far right and on the far left, but most daily newspapers attempt to attract middle-of-the-road Americans who are essentially moderate. Many of these papers print columns by well-known journalists of different political and social views in order to present a balanced picture. As in other democratic countries American newspapers can be either responsible or irresponsible, but it is generally accepted that the American press serves its country well and that it has more than once bravely uncovered political scandals (丑闻) or crimes, for instance, the Watergate Affair. The newspapers drew the attention of the public to the fears of the Vietnam War.
As little children, most of us were taught the virtue (美德) of honesty from fairy tales and other stories. The story of Pinocchio, who begins life as a puppet (木偶), teaches us the importance of telling the truth. In the story of young George Washington, who lies about cutting down the cherry tree, we learn that he earns his father’s praise only when he admits what he has done. Even though we know that “honesty is the best policy,” why do we often lie in our everyday life? The fact is that we lie for many reasons. We sometimes lie to minimize (将……最小化) our errors and mistakes. For example, some students might lie to their teachers about unfinished homework. They might say that they left the work at home when, in fact, they didn’t even do the work. These students don’t want to be irresponsible (无责任感的), so they make up a lie to save face. Another reason we lie is to get out of situations we don’t want to be in. If we just don’t want to attend the dorm meeting early on Saturday morning, we might give the excuse: “I’ve been fighting off a cold all week, and I need to sleep on Saturday morning.” We lie because we believe that telling the truth will cause problems. When we don’t know how to say no, we often use lies to avoid difficulties. However, lies are not always negative (消极的); in fact two kinds of lies can yield positive (积极的) results. The first is commonly referred to as a “white lie.” We tell white lies when we don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings. For example, if a good friend shows up with an unflattering (难看的) haircut, we could be truthful and say, “That haircut is awful. It doesn’t suit you at all!” Instead, we are more likely to lie and say, “I like your haircut. It looks good on you,” and spare our friend’s feelings. The second kind of positive lie is the “protective lie.” This one can help us get out of or avoid dangerous situations. Parents often teach their children to use this kind of lie. For example, parents tell their children not to say that they are home alone if they receive phone calls from strangers. In this situation, lying can prevent harm or disaster. People lie for many reasons, both good and bad. However, before we resort to (采用) lying to cover up mistakes or to avoid unpleasant situations, perhaps we should rethink our motives (动机) for lying.
Psychological research has focused on a number of basic principles that help memory: meaningfulness, organization, association, and visualization. It is useful to know how there principles work. Meaningfulness affects memory at all levels. Information that does not make any sense to you is difficult to remember. There are several ways in which we can make material more meaningful. Many people, for instance, learn a rhyme to help them remember. Do you know the rhyme "Thirty days has September, April, June, and November..."? It helps many people remember which months of the year have 30 days. Organization also makes a difference in our ability to remember. How useful would a library be if the books were kept in random order? Material that is organized is better remembered than jumbled information. One example of organization is chunking. Chunking consists of grouping separate bits of information. For example, the number 4671363 is more easily remembered if it is chunked as 467, 13, 63. Categorizing is another means of organization. Suppose you are asked to remember the following list of words: man, bench, dog, desk, woman, horse, child, cat, chair. Many people will group the words into similar categories and remember them as follows: man, woman, child; cat, dog, horse; bench, chair, desk. Needless to say, the second list can be remembered more easily than the first one. Association refers to taking the material we want to remember and relating it to something we remember accurately. In memorizing a number, you might try to associate it with familiar numbers or events. For example, the height of Mount Fuji in Japan -12,389 feet -might be remembered using the following associations: 12 is the number of months in the year, and 389 is the number of days in a year (365) added to the number of months twice (24). The last principle is visualization. Research has shown striking improvements in many types of memory tasks when people are asked to visualize the items to be remembered. In one study, subjects in one group were asked to learn some words using imagery, while the second group used repetition to learn the words. Those using imagery remembered 80 to 90 percent of the words, compared with 30 to 40 percent of the words for those who memorized by repetition. Thus forming an integrated image with all the information placed in a single mental picture can help us to preserve a memory.